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A jam submission

Gristle & Vine: The Tomb of ...View project page

​A pulp, jungle, fantasy adventure featuring a Lost One & the Arcane Library inspired by the Weird Tales magazines.
Submitted by Cri (@TroweTrove) — 6 days, 12 hours before the deadline
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Gristle & Vine: The Tomb of ...'s itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
Vibes: Overall atmosphere and feel of the supplement.#14.6844.684
Overall#44.1934.193
Inspiration: Effective use of assigned "Weird Tales" cover elements.#144.0534.053
Usability: Practicality and playability at the game table.#173.8423.842

Ranked from 19 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

A very cool adventure, beautiful to look at and a good read.

I'm always wanting constructive critique, so I also give it, so here are the few things that bugged me in an excellent adventure:

  • Because it's images, I can't search for text, which is mostly an issue because the layout is very complex. I got halfway through and saw "So they ran into the seekers" and had to skim back to find that because I didn't immediately remember who they were. Not that it's easy to change that (I probably wouldn't), but that did give me trouble.
  • The maps aren't on the same pages as the rooms they reference, and I think there's space for them to be, or at least for smaller replicas to be. The need for page-flipping to go between the most-complex level (Even Further Down) and its rooms bugged me.
  • Also on the maps, very small thing, but the "S" for secret doors being in the same font+color as the numbers of the rooms made it so I had trouble picking out room-numbers at a glance.
  • On the calligrapher, very flavorful class, just some minor notes:
    • It's not entirely clear to me if you can do both a flourish and a brushstroke on the same inkshot
    • I don't feel like the class is going to scale past the early levels very well, although that's true of almost every class not in the core-4.
    • You have a harmless entry for the last option for flourish and brushstroke. Because the players only get to select a few of these ever, I would make the harmless ones free for anyone, as they otherwise will just not get used.
  • Regarding the origami master, a very cool idea again:
    • I'd love a note on how much space paper takes up, as you had for ink
    • I know sentient fold can go up with a talent roll, but I feel like anyone that doesn't get that is going to be very weak after the first few levels

Honestly, really loved it. I wouldn't spend the time writing all that out if I didn't think this was a good adventure that could be made better.

Anyways, maybe you find some of that helpful if you decide to revise this, maybe not. Either way, what you've got already is excellent.

Developer

Weird you couldn't search the text, because it's not an image. It's all text. The only images are actual images or the Gristle & Vine logo.  I'll have to look into it, because it works for me on mine. Hrmm...

Flourish & Brushstrokes can be use on the same inkshot unless a GM chooses otherwise.  

Thank you for the kind words. 

Submitted

I just re-downloaded and checked again, opening it in affinity, chrome, and acrobat, and in all three each spread is embedded as an images, on mine. I suspect there's some export setting flagged incorrectly.

Developer(+1)

I uploaded the print ready version instead of the digital one... so that's why. Go me. I probably should label them better. 

Submitted(+1)

Ah I see you went with the landscape layout, to quote a movie "clever girrrrrl". I really appricate the text scrawlled on the side. Reminded me the A Feild Guide To Hot Springs Island. Great art work tooo, I love the skull bird.

Developer(+1)

Thank you for the kind words and placing it in the same category as that great book. 

Submitted

It really is a great book!

Submitted(+1)

Hot damn! This is dripping with style and playability. I learned something from your submission, too: You used 8 pages to create 16 pages by publishing it landscape for A5 booklet size. Brilliant! The cover art is stellar, and I love the punky feel to it. Also, the edible plants are a really nice touch. I'd like to play this one. 👏👏👏⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Developer

Thank you for the kind words. If you get the chance, let me know how the play through goes. 

Submitted(+1)

gotta say this is my favorite of the jam. The way this is written is enagaging and the comments all over the pages is a fun touch!

Developer

Thank you so much. That's high praise and I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thought having the Arcane Library archivist commenting would make it a bit easier for the GM to digest so it sounds like that was achieved. 

Submitted(+1)

Your layout and design are gorgeous!

Developer(+1)

Thank you. Feel free to steal it. 

Submitted(+1)

This is oozing with flavour! Amazing art, great ux - truly a work of art! The new classes look super fun, look forward to giving this a try.

Developer (1 edit)

Thank you for the kind words. Please let me know how it goes. Especially with the classes. I was trying for something a little less conventional.

Submitted(+1)

Beautiful presentation, very Borg. Nice work!

Developer

Thank you. I appreciate the kind words. I definitely have been looking at Johan's work recently. Guess it bled through.

Submitted (1 edit) (+1)

Cool MBorg vibe, really like the d4 and d6 table.  Making those rolls increases the replay value.  Super clean work.

Developer

Thank you for the kind words. I'm always looking for ways to allow a GM to run it and not feel it's monotonous. Saw MB did something similar and thought I'd run it out as well. I think it works, but we'll see what others report. 

Submitted(+1)

Jaw dropping beautiful work!

Developer

Much appreciated. I hope you get to run it. 

Submitted(+1)

The blend of punk, fantasy, and and horror in the design vibe is everything.  Has a Zine vibe too.  Tons of content, insightful and useful tools to assist.  Look forward to giving it a go!

Developer(+1)

Thank you. Let me know how your experience is. My rough playtest group found it difficult to destroy the face of the largest statue. So would be intrigued on how your group addresses it.

Submitted(+1)

Definitely will.  Sometimes it's the party make-up, sometimes it choices or out of the box thinking.  Ran one of my friend's recently and their 1st playtest took forever and everyone died.  Ran it with myself and 1 other and we made it through successfully in 2 hours.

Submitted(+1)

Thanks for the landscape design. love it. Very cool design style, too.

Developer

Thank you. I figured my template was already set, might as well yes it.