This is the first issue of an ongoing zine series, each focused on short, atmospheric material you can drop into your campaign.
Doomed to Die Issue 1 features Beneath Stillroot, a low-level adventure for Shadowdark RPG.
At the edge of forgotten cross roads lies the hamlet of Stillroot, a quiet place, all cracked stone and soft-spoken villagers. Travelers find it by accident, welcomed by warm fires and the promise of rest.
There’s a blog post I see referenced a lot, Six Cultures of Play by the Retired Adventurer, that taxonomizes TTRPGs into traditions of play. It’s a useful broad look at the history of D&D and related RPGs and makes some interesting points about differences between Classic (early challenge-driven pre Holmes edition in 1977) and how later OSR retroclone games appear similar but often contrast in terms of challenge (balanced escalation vs. PC driven decision making where balance is not a main focus of challenge). I think it is a well written and thoughtful piece providing some definitions for what previously had kind of been nebulous or lumped together under a general OSR-as-not-Wizards-of-the-Coast-D&D umbrella. As the post states, “most individual gamers and groups are a blend of cultures, with that blend realised as an individual style”—these are large-scale trends, not rigid categories.
It’s the early 2000s. Someone brought their home laptop to work, but there’s only one ethernet port in their office. No problem, they also brought their brand new white plastic Netgear router. Just unplug the desktop, plug it into the router, and… bam, bring down half the network.
Computers plugged into the work network get assigned an IP address from the network’s DHCP server. But that little Netgear router? It’s running its own DHCP server. Now when a computer starts up and says:
An Investigative Adventure in the Tradition of Classic Modules for Shadowdark Levels 1-2
In the shadow of Edric von Braech’s ruined keep, Brannam rots. Once filled with life and vibrance, not remains but silence and decay. Its peoples diminished, its streets overgrown, the legacy of its dark history casts long shadows over the dead city. It is said that the people rose up against their oppressor generations ago and put his keep to the torch, Yet generations have passed and the city does not grow. It does not heal. Brannam lies like a corpse in a coffin buried under the weight of its history.
Made a quick Shrine Generator for use with The Lost Tomb of Queen Rhawen, it can generate most of the shrines in the module but is expanded with some more options for the shrine itself and its history and potential controversies it has caused.
Here is a sample:
A knee-high altar made of bronze, depicting a skeletal warrior. It is completely shattered, with only fragments remaining, with a tattered piece of red cloth tied around it left nearby. A local gang claims it protects them from the city guard. The shrine next to it is dedicated to a rival god, and tensions simmer daily.
Dungeons are great, they are a non arbitrary limitation on what players in a TTRPG can do. It’s a confined space that by limiting freedom facilitates meaningful actions. Players in a dungeon are experiencing play at the most immediate scale with the least amount of abstraction. A dungeon is a defined understandable space at a level that a 6 or 12 mile wilderness hex cannot be.
Often what can be is more exciting than knowing the truth and the transition between the known and unknown state is exploration. As players work their way through a dungeon they are narrowing down limitless possibilities to a single understood reality. When you open the door and the area that could contain a manticore becomes the area that either does or does not. But the player’s understanding of the space, partially as a disconnect of trying to visualize a 3d space from descriptions, is not perfect. The manticore could always be invisible.
Canticle to the Goddess is an 8-page adventure made for the recent Knave 2e Adventure Game Jam by Jim Laskey and really stood out for its unique and creative ideas.
The adventure involves dealing with multiple factions in a temple divided into five sections, each featuring its own challenges and hazards. It includes a table for events that change the dungeon’s dynamics and optional musical puzzles that can be used on doors between the sections.
A common online complaint about TTRPG systems I have seen is that combat can stagnate and turn the game into a slog. I think there are a couple of main contributors to this, and while I think you can have fun combat in any system, some mechanics do contribute to this. Other factors can include novelty wearing off, a lack of stakes or relevance, and a lack of dynamic elements in encounters. These all lead to the real issue: a shift from narrative immersion to pure mechanics. While there is intrinsic enjoyment in rolling dice, most people aren’t captivated by doing basic repetitive math.
I’ve set up this site—doomed.zone—to be the central place for all my OSR modules going forward. This is where you’ll be able to find everything I’ve made, all in one spot. While I’m using platforms Itch.io to distribute my work, I wanted a place that’s totally under my control, so you can always count on it being there, no matter what.
If Itch or other platforms change, go down, or become hard to access, you can always come to doomed.zone and find the latest versions of my modules, updates, or anything new I’m working on.
A Knave Adventure for levels 4-6
“Adrift upon the boundless Etheric Sea, the Celestial Bodies move in accord with the Cosmic Currents, which are borne forth by the breath of divine agents, stirring mighty winds. Each Celestial Orb is, in truth, a vessel containing a slumbering godling, much akin to an egg. The steady course of their ethereal drifting doth preserve the peace of these unborn divinities, holding them in gentle repose. Yet, should these sacred beings awaken and emerge in their full divinity, a Great Reckoning shall befall, and with it, our world wouldst be brought to ruination.” excerpt from De Natura Caelestium: A Treatise on the Etheric Movements of the Heavenly Orbs by Anselm de Velstrum