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A wonderful achievement! My favorite thing is the long list of ingredients and the premise. It especially fits Knave, the idea that you need to delve deep to collect rare ingredients, but you only have so many inventory slots, so you can't just hoard everything. I love the idea of having an alchemy driven campaign, and this dungeon nearby! So much fun!

The art is just perfect *Chef's Kiss* And your map is perfect for this! I'm amazed that you fit so much detail in without it feeling too busy. The cutouts on each page are really nice.

My only, and this is a very minor "nit to pick",  wish is that there was a bit more space between bullets. My eyes fatigue quickly trying to separate each point of information. But that's not really possible with the 16 page limit hah. It's such a minor thing in a 10/10 adventure! Great job!

Feels very psychonauts! One of my favorite games btw, I almost went with a psychonauts idea but had a hard time figuring out how to introduce it. You figured it out with such a great premise!

The DM screen is a nice touch too!

Thanks so much! That's high praise coming from you!

Thanks for your comment! I tried really hard to incorporate what I thought was unique about Knave 😄 I’m really stoked you could tell! I was only able to playtest once, and my players avoided becoming Recast haha! I didn’t wanna force it on anyone, so I tried to leave wiggle room even though it’s still a threat.

That being said, I definitely need to test it again with Recasts and make sure it’s tuned up right. I tried to give them a few boons (less fall damage, same speed in combat) so that they didn’t slow the party down and had their own unique way they could interact.

But honestly I ran out of pages and time haha. If originally had a bigger role for Margot and was going to try for a d100 table of botched toy surgeries that would play with some toy body horror hah. (Like Sid’s toys from the end of Toy Story 1). I also wanted the players trapped in a dollhouse with an easy ‘escape the room’ situation that ultimately taught them the solution to a more complicated escape of the house… all too ambitious for 16 pages haha

Hopefully I’ll get some time to make adjustments after the jam 😄

I agree with you! This is a great premise that I think honors OSR values while challenging them at the same time! A good puzzle is an interesting situation the PC's must solve, not a riddle with one right answer. You left the interesting part up to the PC's, the HOW? Great job!

"Thugs meet for a pint, or worse, a plot." Man there is some really great writing in here! And I'm obsessed with your art! Especially the way you sliced up the Farrance Bunkhouse!

Like you've said in some comments below, it feels like we need some more meat. It feels like the prologue to adventure, I'm confused at when the players enter the scene. Are the events things the players must witness? Or are they events that have passed before they arrive? I'm sure a talented GM can stitch these pieces together, but I was a bit confused. I'm admittedly newer to the OSR though, only been playing a few months now :)

The tone and the vibe really sing, it feels so cohesive! You've definitely earned my follow XD can't wait to read more!

So impressed with this one! Great premise, great map. The information layout is really top notch. I appreciate that you included your design prompt, a simple timeline that gives all the context needed, and delve shifts to use with Knave 2e specifically! I liked the separate section for all the magical items that could be found also. Easy to read room descriptions, just straight up a solid horror crawl!

Dwarves with split skulls skittering around on all fours?? Can't wait to freak players out with that one XD

Great point! That’s an oversight on my part ☺️ I’ll have to fix it after the jam.

I can't believe I've never heard of the Buckriders! I love that you made them out to be a sort of dark version of Robin Hood and his Merry Men.

I rate this one a 5 in the writing department! For me where I struggle is wondering how I would give players more agency when going through the Scenes. I haven't played it, but it actually reminded me of Blades in the Dark, especially the planning phase, which seems really cool! I really like the idea of taking players through a setup scene or two before unleashing them fully to see how they fair. I think you mostly did that, I'm just not sure how I'd tie it all together if they go super off rails.

That being said, I'm pretty new to the OSR and not a super experienced DM yet hah, so what do I know lol.

In the keying, I really liked that you added the hidden rooms to their own section, I've never seen that before. Really fun read!

P.S. "Destroy your character sheets!" is absolutely what I'm saying at my next TPK XD

Wow! You're adventure is so gorgeous. I want a physical release! Put it up as a POD and I'll buy it! Really enjoyed how clean this was and your masterful use of layout, especially the NPC descriptions and special traits. So stylish!

Do it! You clearly have enough fun ideas to fill up more pages :)

Thank you so much! Haha you're right, the color palette is pretty bright XD I actually sourced it from an old circus poster I found on Pinterest. The paper doll was my wife's idea! She helped me nail down the vibe alot!

Amazing art and premise! You pack a lot of personality into your characters with just a short line or two!

If I have one critique (attempting constructive criticism haha) I found it hard to follow who was who. There's a lot of characters here, which is awesome! All that drama and texture is baked in, but if we didn't have such a tight page constraint, I would have loved a full section to explain who all the NPC's are before we meet them. It was hard to remember where we learn about each person, and then they get referenced pretty freely after the first reference. Maybe that's just a me problem, been reading jams all day haha. It also might be easier to scan the page for NPCs if their descriptors would listed after their name, instead of the other way around. (i.e. Silverear, Narcissist flesh thing. Instead of Narcissist flesh thing, Silverear. I thought his name was Narcissist Flesh Thing for a while haha, again maybe just a me problem).

Overall I can't believe how much content you managed in such a small package! Your art really sings, and I can't wait to see more! Followed!

Wow, can’t believe I missed that about the light levels! What a brilliant idea! Totally stealing that 😄

Thanks for your reply. It’s interesting seeing how everyone prioritized content for the page limit, those are totally just my wishes 👍 doesn’t hurt the adventure in any way. Just thinking from the Knave perspective. Im trying to figure out if there’s any constructive criticism I can offer with these comments. Hope that didn’t come off negative 😅

I knew you'd deliver!

Haha, the perfect railroad! Really great concept that can slot into any campaign! I really enjoyed it.

What vintage do you recommend to pair with the Flesh Nest? Haha, what a wonderful concept! I loved the whole adventure and all the tables and tools you created.

My only wish is that there was a little twist, I wanna know what's really going on? Just one level deeper ya know. What exactly caused the explosion? What secret was Finch hiding? What valuable macguffin are the alchemists REALLY after. The explosion is a good excuse to rummage the house. I guess it's a compliment really, it's so interesting that I just need MORE haha. I could see a keyed mansion and college, with professors that know about Finch's wacky academic career in Alchemy, and tales of how Finch flew too close the sun, all making for a great addition to any city campaign!

It's also a simple thing, but I really enjoyed the way you handled rumors. A crowd of townsfolk gathered around a recent disaster, everyone in the crowd handing out rumors haha, it's a perfect setup. I love all the random tables, feels very Knave in spirit.

I can't overstate how beautiful this adventure is to look at!

My only wish is that more of Knave's special mechanics had been expressed. I know it's written to be system agnostic, but it would have been cool to get some random encounters, delve shifts, direct damage opportunities and some random rolls since it's a Knave Jam. I did appreciate that the Cloud has a chance of helping you learn a random spell (Knave Spell List opportunity!) And that the Coat of rats adds inventory slots (Game changer for a system like Knave!) Also, just curious what the sun and moon symbols next to the room titles denote?

Overall super fun, I love the wacky characters that are ultimately a long dead wizards crazed experiments, so many great ideas. A flute that speaks when played? A magically bottomless liquid? So good!

I secretly preferred your bumper. The "Sp-sp-sp-spoiler spoiler" always got me XD

We need a soundtrack to go with it now! Haha, you did a bumper for Between Two Cairns right?

Massive respect 🫡

I’m gonna do my own art as best I can, but this is great to see!

Thank you! My wife drew the Wolf Dragon! I was so thrilled that she wanted to do it, especially since she has NO interest in RPGs haha

Wow! What an amazing system for creating a whodunnit. I love the whole setup, the boon and bane are both interesting. I really like the mottos for each family too. And I love the thought of someone roleplaying the devil as someone who’s maliciously compliant haha.

Thank you so much! Yours was brilliant! I watched Erik Frankhouse’s stream reviewing it last night 👏👏👏

Thank you! It’s deceptively simple! You should try with some isometric grid paper, it’s a lot of fun when you’re just tracing over blue lines 😅

Hey! I was Malachi Starkey in the comments, I watched as much of the stream as I could, great stuff! Thanks for keeping the hype train going! I'm subbed :)

Also, I won't be mad if you skip my rating on account of the A5 page thing haha, it's all in good fun XD

Do it! And then send me the link!

Bad Star Games was my Father, call me Bad Star

It was a little tricky 😅 I had a character based off of that cover, but his role dwindled as space ran out. I put in a description based on the color of his clothes, but then I went and made the Weird Tales covers greyscale… so that was smart haha

What a great way to build out a full tower in such a compact space! The purple tones are VERY nice.

Wow, what an incredible setup! I'm planning on running a campaign with some ley-line / plane shifting nonsense, and this is gonna fit right at home!

Wow, the vibes are off the charts here. Werewolfs + Tapeworms is a combo I didn't know I needed haha.

This is my favorite type of art to see in OSR materials! It feels so raw, but has so much personality. Love it!

Wow... is it too early to say congratulations on top 5 XD

"WHY SEND THESE FIRST LEVEL CHUMPS?" Is such a good table haha. Great job!

Jaw dropping beautiful work!

This guys Shadowdarks! Beautiful work.

S-Tier work. I LOOOVE the art!

Woah, those maps are next level. I could use those diagrams to safely exit the building in the case of an emergency XD  Very nice!