These are incredible - full of personality and just detailed enough to represent something while leaving enough room for the imagination to fill in the blanks.
I really love all of the art you've published, I use it as tokens on a VTT.
I was wondering if you could possibly provide transparent backgrounds with your .png images instead of white or black? It would make them much more immediately usable.
I'm pretty excited that I just randomly found this, I love a short and sweet adventure that can easily be dropped into a campaign. The descriptions are all super usable, straight to the point, and the artwork is just the right amount creepy and charming.
Have you considered making a version for a more typical retro-clone/D&D adjacent system like Old-School Essentials?
Unfortunately, I'm totally ignorant to His Majesty the Worm, so it'll take some guess work on my part to come up with stats based on those symbols in the monster sections.
I don't think I'll have any time to check out other entries before the deadline hits, and wow what a scenario to finish on!
The map in particular is beautiful and legible. Pages 4 and 5 did a great job of setting the stage and I enjoyed that it leaned into puzzles and clever thinking as solutions instead of combat.
Animated toys/dolls are innately terrifying, and you did a great job channeling that.
I adore the use of color and the graphic design here. Little details like the tilted boxes add so much charm.
The first Adventure Hook provided is absolutely genius. I was thinking it reminded me of Psychonauts, then I saw the direct reference in the Death Within the Mind section - you channeled that inspiration perfectly here.
Because, it's so different than other adventures its a lot of content for a GM to digest (sometimes literally), but the way it's written and presented makes it fun to do so. I struggle to decide if I'd run it as is or harvest it for ideas - in either case, it's super useful!
The D66 Valuable Treasures on the last page would be interesting to drop in any adventure, I like the madness of it.
This is dripping with personality! All of the artwork, especially the map and portraits, is exceptional. I love the font choices and layout.
The map tear down is great and so is having the descriptions on the same page as the floor layouts. A nice addition might be stat blocks for the NPCs and some of the critters players might have a dangerous encounter with, like hounds.
You might consider moving the text on the cover to a separate handout and instead providing a brief overview on the cover, giving a GM an idea of what they would be running/find in the booklet.
I like the included resolutions/"Did you help" sections on the back cover.
I love both the random items provided on page 6 and how they are presented. Actually, every random chart in this entire booklet is useful and well thought out.
I did struggle to read the random encounters on page 2 (thankfully its easy to copy and paste) and some of the font was a bit small on my monitor (but that's no issue with the power of zooming and I did not print so it could be perfectly legible on paper).
All of the artwork is really excellent! Limiting the booklet to black and white was a great decision.
You did a good job setting expectations in the Who's This Adventure For section. In The Hook section, I think the last paragraph is the most important info as a hook, you might want to move the section heading there and add a new heading "Backstory" or "Overview" up top.
The tide clock is a brilliant mechanic to add some variability to the adventure. The "Note to GM:" stands out in F. Bandit Fort, because there's no other GM notes in the rest of the area descriptions.
I liked that you presented the "Outcomes" right up front, so GMs would have lens with which to view the adventure.
I liked the overall theme/vibe and you did a good job of breaking up and presenting the information, without over complicating it.
I like that the flower grows throughout the adventure, it gives it a sense of urgency and makes the world more alive, especially as it starts growing over doors and poking through stones.
It was a great idea including both the "Minor" and "Major" resolution options. Is the "DTF" in the Necromantis intended to indicate that it's horny? Speaking of Necromantis, the artwork is great, it's perfectly disturbing - it would look awesome on the cover too.
I liked the map you drew, it was helpful to keep track of the room layout.
I haven't printed it out, but I think the scissor section at the bottom is intended to keep the Overgrowth bar visible no matter what page you're on after it? Great idea!
Fabulous choice of colors and font. The cover image is beautiful and unsettling, I love it.
The Adventure Overview section really sold me on the idea, I thought it was very well done. I thought the Hooks were all interesting but could be a bit more fleshed out. I liked the Dryads description and adding a stat block would be helpful to save GMs having a few steps.
The Strange Happenings table is great and so is the building sense of dread from Day 1 thru 3 (as noted in other comments the last part is missing). A few extra locations or possibly a dungeon to delve would be nice additions.
Wonderful idea and execution. The illustrations help make sense of each area and I liked that you provided a "Lore" and "Guidance" section for each area.
I quite liked the Conductor and the variety of their special abilities, it's a very cool image. I liked that all of the Loot was unique and interesting. I also like the ability to sprinkle in the Musical Puzzles, I think that would be fun to play out at a table - I'm definitely going to use the idea of knocking out a rhythm in some future session.
You really provided a lot of useful content. In some sections there's almost too much. The cover illustration depicting the Conductor is exquisite.
I love the color choices on the cover and the maps were all well drawn and clear. I love the name "Whimsywick", it makes me immediately picture a wizard's hat with a burning candle.
I appreciate you breaking up the content, especially on page 2, into concise sections. Its not really a knock against the adventure, and the background information you provided helped, but I felt a bit lost jumping in without having read part 1.
It would be a nice addition to include some descriptions of the NPCs, like Richt and Livian on page 4, though I imagine that's in part 1.
I think you accomplished the goals lined out in your Recommended Play section of "Lighthearted Horror".
I'm not sure if all the text was intended to be italicized and there's a few sections that stand out as un-italicized VS the rest of the page (excluding stat blocks), like pages 3, 10, and 15. I liked the illustrations you included and the layout really captures the feeling of hand-written notes or an ancient document.
Salt water draining negative energy from Undead was an interesting idea, especially given the monsters and the setting of a boat. I loved the Passenger Motivations table and the Ship's Manifest and the Passenger Quarters and Travel Trunks tables - these are useful even outside the context of this adventure, great stuff.
Nice choices of art, am I right in thinking you drew the map? Because, that's great too.
I like the idea of how long players take impacting The Captain's condition when they find them, that really raises the stakes if you sell that to them from the beginning. The size references you used were perfect.
I love the tables on page 15, those are useful in and out of this adventure. The areas were well described, I especially liked 9. Feast Room - the anglerfish (Boglin) lurking beneath the surface would be quite ominous for players.
I liked all the Rival Adventurers and Hirelings personalities and a nice addition would be stat blocks for them, to save the GM a few steps.
I love the idea of setting a battle map for the town and having the players and the GM facing off with the overgrowth, its a wonderful mechanic and should keep the adventure tense - it also really helps differentiate it.
I think a nice addition would be an optional hook for how to get players involved if they don't live in the town, maybe something like the 7 Samurai.
I like how you presented the monsters and their loot, which was a useful addition.
I appreciated the pronunciation guide and clickable Table of Contents. I like the replay-ability with a random set-up for the adventure.
It's all very cleanly laid out and easy to use. Nice job distilling the adventure to just the most important information. I love the dialogue bubbles, that was a great idea to give characters personality without wasting space. You did a great job presenting a culture and making the world feel alive through images as well as text.
It would be awesome to see players in combat with devourer demons.
I like that it's designed to be dropped into any existing campaign.
It might increase legibility to add a bit more spacing between the text columns, as well as making the headings bold or in a different font.
I liked the map illustration, it was very usable. The stair man drawing was great too, the Incandescents and the Crystalline Vulture are begging for a similar treatment.
The Assumptions section up front is useful, so readers can get a grip of the most important ideas right away. The Hooks section was also great.
Great choice to have an off-white background, it gives it a personality from the moment you open the booklet. I like your choices of artwork and the logo for Headless Press is brilliant.
I like the background or "Note" you provided on Succubi/Incubi, that's useful inside and outside of this adventure.
A different font in the table headings might help them stand out, since they share a color with some of the rows. There might be ellipsis missing in the second "In the Dungeon..." box on page 2.
I think you did a good job keeping the rooms on each floor interesting, none of them feel like 'filler'.
I love the last 2 sentences of the Introduction paragraph. The artwork throughout is absolutely killer. Well laid out and I like the choice of no color.
You built several interesting scenarios and did a good job making the Orcs feel threatening. I liked the Foreword but I don't think it's crucial information, it might be better placed at the end of the booklet as an extra rather than before the adventure.
I like the varied puzzles, traps and hazards in the two sets of dungeon rooms. Great job with the variety offered in the Exploration and Orc Incursion tables on page 6.
You might consider removing the label "story hooks" from the "lore" or rumor table on page 6 - they're all interesting but they're mostly more informative than adventure starting.
I also liked the commentary on the final page, it might be a good fit closer to the front if you find room for it.
Excellent use of textures and colors with the images, especially the cover depicting the magical iron mask.
The "Long time ago" section could possibly be shortened to just the most important details. All 3 of the hooks you provided were interesting. The giant golden trout and the inherited farm stood out as very intriguing.
I think you succeeded in emphasizing social interactions and puzzles, and it's easy enough to add combat to any adventure for a group of players that is looking for that.
Labelling the NPCs "Cast" and the monsters "Supporting Cast" perfectly fit the theme. I also liked that their descriptions were straight to the point.
A way to visually differentiate People and Places and Objects in the hexcrawl description sections would be helpful to grab information at a glance during play, such as a different color for their headings.
I wasn't sure if the Scenario of Play on the last page was the suggested way it should play out, how it played out for your group, or both, but either way its helpful to see that brief rundown.
Being a historian really shows, you were able to put it to great use here! You're absolutely right about a GM being able to chop it up, and all the historical details you did include were interesting.
Beautiful illustrations, they all have a lot of personality. I like your decision to keep it monochrome except for the front and back. I also like that you included useful information on the front and back.
It was helpful having separate sections for the NPCs and items rather than just in the descriptions of where they're found - I'm impressed you were able to accomplish that within the page limit with nothing feeling crowded!
The NPCs were all well described and I like their varied WANTS. I also really liked the Alchemy potions and the relic instruments , especially the Drum of Wind Control - if I gave the drums to players I think I would cut the ability to create a wind wall, the jumping ability is already powerful and interesting.
I liked the setting presented and the culture presented has a wonderful depth. I thought it was awesome you took inspiration from a more under-represented people with a rich history. I definitely appreciated your intended message, but it was a bit jarring to read "Sensitivity is important when portraying cultures other than your own—fictitious or not. Consider: What does this character want, why are they doing what they’re doing, and what makes them unique?" followed immediately by the next section "Colonialists range from misguided fools with white savior complexes (Dexter Treadwell) to aggressors without respect for local customs (Hailey Corbett)."
All in all, I think it would be an interesting scenario for players to explore. Thank you for taking the time to add links to important topics so they were clickable to jump through the document too!
It's quite an undertaking that you were able to read through all the entries! I've been trying my best for the better part of 3 days and so far I've only gotten through 60.
The amount of quality here is staggering, there's a lot of great content and I feel guilty knowing I won't be able to see or rate all of it.
