Curse of Crosskey is a Labyrinth Lord (with the AEC) adventure for character levels 3-4. As with most of the adventures that fall under the general banner of the OSR, you should be able to use this with S&W, C&C, OSRIC or any of the other D&D / OGL based rulesets. Good, that's out of the way.

Take off the cover, OGL and title / contents page and it comes in at 11 pages for $1.99. Not a bad return on your investment, but if you want to get a real return on your cash you will need to invest time and effort. This is a sandbox style adventure that starts with the ::SPOILER ALERT!!!:: players getting shipwrecked on a mysterious and magically infused island. So yes, the plot hook is very specific: your party is forced into survivor / explorer mode. As you need to put them in that situation, how you set things up is very important, thus your investment of time and effort.

There is a lot that is hinted at in this adventure that can be fleshed out by the GM... heck, it probably needs to be fleshed out. Especially the ideas to conclude / continue the adventure. In many ways, I feel this is less a sandbox adventure as it is a sandbox micro-setting.

Three new magic items and two new monsters round things out.

CC1 - Curse of Crosskey is a short scenario/adventure for the Labyrinth Lord old-school game system. The adventure takes place on an island, after the characters are marooned there by a freak storm, and the PCs are able to investigate the bizarre nature of their shipwreck and other unsavory happenings on the small island. The product is presented neatly and professionally, with some good art and good additional material such as new monsters and magical items. Maps and other drawings are clear and neatly done, providing clarity on the surroundings and the locations the player characters find themselves in.

One of the things I enjoy most about adventures is the adventure summary. Here you get all the information you need to hook the LL into playing the game, and indeed presenting it to the players. As such, I find that to be an important part of the adventure. Curse of Crosskey has such a good adventure summary - the plot is interesting, has lots of hooks and opportunities going for it, and there are lots of avenues available to explore within the plot scope provided. Having said that, the good summary doesn't feed through very well to the players and indeed throughout the adventure. The exposition is weak in places, the direction doesn't always clearly clarify the options - essentially most of the direction, motivation and objectives of the adventure are largely left to the LL. This in itself is fine, but one would expect the adventure to provide a little more detail and direction than is currently there.

Having said all that, the play options and exploration options while stranded on an island are numerous, and the adventure provides good encounters, roleplaying opportunities with the other survivors and areas to explore in an attempt to get off the island again. The encounters shouldn't be too challenging for the 3rd and 4th level PCs that are specified, but they're variable in the nature of the monsters and the locations. I think this is a good romp of an adventure, but DMs must be prepared to mould a lot of the background story to fit something a little more streamlined. As is, the scenario is really not an adventure, just a side-trek that can be used while the PCs are on their way elsewhere. Overall, though, a fair standard adventure with good backstory, but largely a side-trek where direction before and after the adventure (and even during in places) are largely left to the DM.