A miserable island? How about three?
SoulMuppet's The Darkling Seas of Islemere
This article contains affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you make purchases using these links, at no cost to you.Three wretched islands surrounded by raging seas, packed to the brim with grimdark goodness. The Darkling Seas of Islesmere delivers this in spades. ~make sure to read to the end to get a look at the printed zine~
This is a read review. SoulMuppet provided me a copy of this zine for review. This is not a commissioned review, all opinions are honest and my own.
Overview
The Darkling Seas of Islesmere is a hexcrawl for Best Left Buried with 12 keyed locations, contained in a chunky 60-page A5 zine. It’s easy to convert this to NSR/OSR games - I would happily run this with Mork Borg.
Themes
I love this setting. A trio of dilapidated islands where everyones’ lives are awful, and yet (somehow) things are almost certain to get a lot worse under the influence of a host of vengeful Fey or the literal Void itself.
Design
The hexcrawl is in 1-mile hexes and focuses on the details of a small space. This kind of ‘zoom-in’ is something I want to see more of, it feels intimiate and immersive.
The history of the setting is conveyed in a tight single page of evocative prose. These are the kind of choices that get GMs running a module.
The level of connectivity is high, with connected items and people being scattered across the crawl. Player actions can advance two ‘Doom Tracks’, which propel the influence of two factions (The Fey and The Void). My only wish here is that they were flagged more frequently, since keeping track of this sort of thing can be challenging.
Dynamics (changing situations) are a huge part of this adventure. It’s packed with ‘event’ tables that make the game world evolve. It makes the setting feel alive.
Some of the dungeons here are linear, like levels of towers. I like there being some linear dungeons, they are excellent for conjuring dread. The feeling of go forward or go back is very effective for horror. There’s traditional dungeons too which, along with the linear ones, have lots of interactive mechanisms and sinister NPCs to engage with.
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Look
The art in this zine is incredible. Ben Brown’s work is evocative and communicates not only how this setting looks, but how it feels. 10/10.
Normally I struggle with consistent 2 column layout. Islesmere hits me a bit differently because there’s more breathing space and excellent type work. In fact, it reminds me (in a weird way) of Death in Space (which is 2 column but I love it).
There’s lots of breathing room and good visual language throughout. Call out boxes are well structured and every effort has been made to keep relevant information on one spread or close by.
The layout also reinforces the vibe. There’s something about this design that gets me ready to torture player characters (in the best way) and immerses me in the atmosphere, like this awesome page toward the back of the zine:
Usability
The text is clear but detailed, the prose is evocative but tight and the layout is easy for me to use.
I think referencing could be improved, specifically regarding the connectivity I mentioned before. I’d like all Doom Track triggers to be flagged in the text, myself.
There are some errors (to my eyes), like a keyed dungeon location missing from a map. But they are minimal, few, and easily worked around.
Construction
This zine is very well built. The cover is thick with a nice matte finish, the interior stock is weighty too ~which I like in a zine~ The print work itself is spot on. This is a) going to last and b) feels and looks great in print. A physical copy is highly recommended.
Conclusion
I love this adventure, I can see myself running it as soon as the opportunity arises. Bravo SoulMuppet. You can grab it here and Best Left Buried here.
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Look at this! It is really an inspiring adventure!
Fantastic! Will be checking it out.
Also, good luck with the Bloggies! I myself managed, though some miracle of luck, to get a nomination, but i gotta say your blog truly deserves the victory.