Delightful Dungeons

 The winner is... The Chamber of Frost & Flame by J. Blasso-Gieseke This dungeon is stupid  and delightful . It hits the judgement criteria the hardest of all the entries. The whimsical puzzle-like setup isn't my usual taste in adventures, but I couldn't help being charmed by it. It is a distillation of fantasy adventure; explore, act, suffer the consequences. A $20 gift card has been sent to Mr. Blasso's e-mail.  This was not an easy choice given the overall high quality of the entries. I shifted the responsbility of further judgement onto the competitors themselves, this time asking them to choose only their favorite adventure. The responses I got showed many struggled with picking a single favorite, and the final tally was close.  The most popular dungeon as voted by the competitors is... Cloud-Giant's Cairn by Giant Goose A narrow but well deserved win! It was the only entry to get 2 votes, proof of the even field. This is a delightful and mature  dun...

I have picked the winner of the twenty bucks from among the qualified entries. The qualified competitors have now been asked to vote for their favorite (other than their own) for the winner of the ten bucks. My choice of winner gets the tie breaking vote for the popularity contest. Once the qualified competitors have cast their votes (or abstained, or not answered in a timely manner) the winners will be announced here and the entries made available as a compilation.  I am astounded by the quality of the entries. I had hoped this competition would generate a couple of useful adventures but the result has been 8 or 9! I am proud that my choice of format (and the short deadline) spurred creativity or drew forth worthy old efforts.  There is one final entry to be reviewed, it was disqualified for font size/page number and so might not fit the final compilation. It looks delightful though so expect it reviewed soon.

This is an open ended module that can be many things over the same campaign; a place of refuge, the taget of a heist, or the doom of the player characters! The theming is Hammer Horror; vampire, werewolves, ghouls, and the eponymous big titty(?) goth widow. The keep itself is a 24 room affair, it comes with a 7 hex region to slot into your sandbox. Place it in the way of the player characters and see how it goes, or pester them with rumors of the wealthy and beautiful widow and see if their greed or lust incite action! The author recommends it to 3rd to 5th level characters. Download it here! Does it qualify? Yes.  The PDF is 2 pages, easy to read and parse, there are sentinels, hidden treasure, and traitors, the heavy lifting is done by the author (though some treasure is generic "jewelry", made up for most of the monstrous servants of the lady being named and characterized). There is a threadbare treasure map offering 12,000gp(!) 2d6 days away. Why did I disqualify Study of...

Following the steps of disappeared hunter Markus Wegener leads you to an ancient tomb infested by termites and ancient evil! This small tomb reminds me a lot of the first part of Tomb of the Serpent Kings, and I will throughout this review contrast the two adventures to highlight the strenghts and weaknesses of this one (and the weaknesses of TotSK!). Like TotSK this bills itself as a low level adventure. Is it a good starting adventure or even a good introduction to the game as a whole? Download it here! Does it qualify? Yes.  The PDF is 2 pages, the text and map are well readable (though the termite holes in the wall could use a label for what they are) on a printed page, no heavy lifting is demanded by the dungeon master, there is hidden treasure, it is written for ACKS but is runnable in another system with small effort. What is my judgement? Since I'll be contrasting it with Tomb of the Serpent Kings  I'll give a short explanation of that module. It was written as an OSR ...

This is a small monster lair with an artifact level staff hidden behind a puzzle. The author notes that this should be hidden 30 hexes into the wilderness, finding it is the reward for following a treasure map. The author submitted this as it was a ready made lair which fit the judgement criteria (almost!), though stating it shouldn't be competing for the win. I'll be the judge of that! As far as the use, either you follow the author's intent, or change the artifact for a lesser treasure more closely matching the challenge (closer to 10,000gp rather than 150,000gp). It seems to me the Storm Sage should live near the coast, but placing this far from the sea would make it more mysterious and memorable. Download it here! Does it qualify? No! The main treasure contains 3 treasure maps to nautical encounters and instructs the DM to roll them up. Other than that, it fits the competition format. It's a 2-page PDF, easy to read map and text, there is a hidden treasure, is it wr...

Each of the five rooms in this tomb requires the players to be on their toes. The cloud giant Kaelos interred within had a sorcerous bent and a skill with light, lightning, fog, and illusion. Recommended level to enter is 5+ and it is indended as a hex lair in the wilderness. I can see this slotting in almost anywhere - as part of another dungeon, as a feared landmark in civilization, as a surprise find in the howling wilderness. I would not be afraid to tempt even lower level heroes with this, something to show them the casual brutality of mid level adventuring, where they can return some time after their first set of characters perish or are trapped inside. Download it here! Does it qualify? Yes. The PDF is 2 pages, the text and map are legible on the printed page, there is hidden treasure and arguably sentinels, the author does not put the burden of creativity on the reader, it says "1e" on the page which I take to mean AD&D but it uses Morale scores from "Men ...