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Forgotten Encounters: Underground [PFRPG]
Publisher: Purple Duck Games
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/15/2025 14:15:40

On the better side of OK. If you are looking for some small encounters to flesh out a random encounter table it's absolutely fine. If you are looking for more depth, this isn't it.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Forgotten Encounters: Underground [PFRPG]
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FlexTale Infinite Adventures Volume 1: Western Realm of Aquilae
Publisher: Infinium Game Studios
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/15/2025 14:02:10

I just don't get it. The locations seem to be incredibly generic with lots of words but little of it gameable. Unless someone doesn't know what an abbey or a castle is I don't really understand what they are supposed to do with this book.

Edit, in response to publisher's reply:

With hindsight I think 1 star is a too harsh and have amended to 2 stars. This is just my personal take and others like this sandbox. I get no joy from criticising something that is clearly a work of love because I think the idea is fantastic, in principle. I'll try to give a little more clarity on why it doesn't work for me.

  1. I think some art would go a long way to communicate tone and flavour. I find the format very dry. I appreciate that commisioned art is unaffordable but stock art, public domain and AI are options.

  2. Maps of significant locations would really help.

  3. I didn't find the mechanical detail and icons helpful. It just feels overwhelming. I would personally do away with all the system specific stat adjustment suggestions in favour of either actual stats for one system, or nothing.

  4. I don't find the world has any character. A high res map and a description of each broad region at the start would help with that. I think listing the PoIs by map square/region, rather than alphabetical would help. I don't think generic, repeatable PoIs like an abbey or a keep add anything useful. For example, I have no idea why the armoury is located where it is. I can't see any reason all the nations of the world would buy from that one place or how that impacts the nearby locations.

  5. Some listings need more info an some need much less. You could fit flavourful 2-3 sentence descriptions of 10 different abbeys in less space than is used for one. OTOH, there is an army of (sort of) undead wandering around in one particular square with some vague suggestions of how to use it. This should have quests linked to multiple other locations and huge potential impact on the region but it's not mentioned elsewhere and gets the same treatment as the Abbey.

  6. You give multiple options for adventure hooks and scenarios for each PoI but they are generic and vague. I'd rather have specific details.

  7. I just find all the descriptions quite bland. For example there is a mutations table near the back but it's got to be the least interesting mutation table I've ever seen. Instead of 5/6 generic options I'd love 20 really impactful mutations.

  8. The small dense text is hard to parse.

TL;DR. I think quite a lot of the things I don't see are probably either in the text but unclear to me or in your head but not communicated in the way your think. I think that by trying to make the sandbox universal and usable in any campaign it's ended up hollowed out. I think you could give the specific information that you think you don't have room for in the same amount of space if you cut repetition and focus on unique, specific, immediately useable content.

As an example, this is the listing for the Windler House in Nightmare over Ragged Hollow:

"The mossy gray house sits alone, surrounded by overgrown gardens and untended paths. From inside you hear glass tinkling and metallic ticking. A tasselled rope hangs by the front door.

• Rope. Door bell. Rings a complex series of bells and chimes for 1 solid minute, all dented and out of tune now. Summons the ghost butler Andrew (see Enter anywhere). • Windows. Look in at dusty furniture, spiderwebs. • Exterior doors. Front (locked), back (unlocked). • Enter anywhere. The ghost butler Andrew appears, a polite floating skeleton in a tidy gray suit. Bad memory, can’t answer any questions, but follows the party around, desperate to help and please. The Windler family treated him poorly, never thanked or paid for his service.

  • Freeing: Ofer him thanks, praise, or a single gold coin to let him and eternal rest.
  • Danger: When criticized or insulted too much, Andrew screams (d3 damage from psychic energy) and vanishes for 1 hour."

Then there is a map of the interior, random encounters and detailed room descriptions. The entire listing is 4 pages. It's immediately gameable. I can run it with alomost no prep. The flavour and tone really come through.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
FlexTale Infinite Adventures Volume 1: Western Realm of Aquilae
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Creator Reply:
Hi Matt--I'm genuinely confused about this comment and your experience. This is a massive, 200+ page resource describing 25 unique and interesting points of interest in 2+ pages of detail apiece. It's designed to be immediately usable in any campaign setting with zero prep and for each POI to have enough content to be, as you say, "gameable". I'll agree that the Abbey is far from the most compelling example of these, but as I said, I'm genuinely baffled as to your experience here?
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Deep Carbon Observatory
Publisher: False Machine Publishing
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/05/2025 16:05:40

If someone thought this is the greatest RPG adventure ever written, I'd not think them unreasonable. Everything about it is inventive and evocotive. Even if you don't want to run it, it's a must read for it's ideas.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Deep Carbon Observatory
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The Manor Out of Space and Time
Publisher: D'Arcangel Productions
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/05/2025 16:03:32

Pretty boring. The kind of stuff you'd normally skip or summarise is most of the module. There isn't really much for characters to do except wander round an empty manor, finding occaisional bits of dull loot, until they find a portal in one upstairs room. The portal will take them somewhere on a random roll. It might be somewhere else in the manor, or to fight some generic enemies for no reason or somewhere daft like hell or another RPG system. No guidance on what to do with these options or how to progress the adventure.

The most interesting thing about it is the childish 'disclaimer' at the start, which is an instruction for mean people not to use the product.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
The Manor Out of Space and Time
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Escape to Blackboot Bog: A Moonlit Pathcrawl for Cairn
Publisher: Xeno & Kraft
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/05/2025 15:39:22

A really interesting and well written point crawl with a strong time mechanic. Only issue is that the ending doesn't quite seem to make sense but this doesn't make a big difference to the players.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Escape to Blackboot Bog: A Moonlit Pathcrawl for Cairn
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Beneath the Iron Abbey
Publisher: Lost Heretic Press
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/05/2025 15:26:57

A solid, well laid out dungeon crawl. Nothing mega inventive but compact, simple and easy to run.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Beneath the Iron Abbey
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The Ghost and the Peddler (5e)
Publisher: Goblin Stone
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/05/2025 15:23:38

A perfectly functional little 5e adventure. Clearly laid out, a little wordy but better quality than many of the free adventures on here (and quite a few paid ones).



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Ghost and the Peddler (5e)
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Ruinous Palace of the Metegorgos
Publisher: Chris Mennell
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/03/2025 07:15:28

Gross, interesting, memorable. There isn't a lot to this little adventure but what there is is distinctive and well made.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Ruinous Palace of the Metegorgos
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Better Than Any Man
Publisher: Lamentations of the Flame Princess
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/03/2025 07:07:28

I'm not generally a fan of the wordiness of LotFP adventures but, with that caveat aside, this is a strong adventure from a consistently good publisher.

It's essentially a sandbox with an evil cult to be uncovered and potentially defeated and the looming threat of invasion to create a ticking clock. If you enjoy grusome gore, properly evil evil-doers, high player agency and hideous eldrich horror then this is for you. If you don't like nasty, edgy horror then all of LotFP's output is probably best avoided.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Better Than Any Man
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The Nightmare at Castle Goldgloom - compatible with Shadowdark RPG
Publisher: Taylor Seely-Wright
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/03/2025 07:01:01

Superb quality for a PWYW (or any) adventure. Clear layout, well mapped and lots of interesting and novel ideas to make an classic scenario more interesting.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Nightmare at Castle Goldgloom - compatible with Shadowdark RPG
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The Great Dwarf Road
Publisher: Simon Carryer Games
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/02/2025 11:29:43

A connected series of maps making a journey through the underdark. Very well designed, clear and interesting.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Great Dwarf Road
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The Galley of Death
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/02/2025 06:01:04

A high 3/5. Not much to it but it's an interesting scenario. Solid little freebie suited to a GM who can improvise the details.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
The Galley of Death
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Accessible Adventure of the Week: Save the Queen!
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/01/2025 15:50:10

Obviously means well but I didn't rate the quality at all. Very thin adventure, basically just two fights. No player agency. Uses far, far too many words to describe simple scenarios- which ironically makes it pretty inaccessable to many people.

If you want to include disabled people write good adventures and include disabled characters naturally.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Accessible Adventure of the Week: Save the Queen!
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Downsized Dungeons - Issue 1
Publisher: Downsized Press
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/01/2025 15:40:22

Smaill, simple, clear, free. Easy to drop into any game.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Downsized Dungeons - Issue 1
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To Hit Armor Class 0
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Matt T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/29/2025 15:17:46

A supplement to make DnD 5e combat more complicated, slower and maths heavy. You would need to be insane to use this.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
To Hit Armor Class 0
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