Recommendations
These are affiliate links. They cost you nothing but support MurkMail.I don’t do reviews, but I’m getting questions about my recommendations for modules and systems and I like shouting out work I love.
I could include a lot more on this list, but for the sake of space I’ve tried to pick my top recommendations. That’s why there are d10 modules and d8 systems. They’re alphabetised, not ranked, and in a rollable table because why not?
These are things I’ve played and loved or have yet to play but keep repeatedly reading them because of how well designed they are. I’ve got a little note at the bottom that explains my preferences a bit in case you want more context.
d10 Modules
1: Ave Nox. Horrible megadungeon that painted with prose beautifully.
2: The Bloom. Masterful mystery sandbox filled with the uncanny and disturbing.
3: The Bureau. Office complex turned into a majestic maze of modern horror.
4: Gradient Descent. Terse megadungeon masterclass.
5: The House Under the Moon Dial. Expertly executed mystery. Amazing GM tooling.
6: A Pound of Flesh. Best space station cyberpunk sandbox ever?
7: Rainmaker. A brutal environment for mechs to pour over for fallen satellites.
8: Tephrotic Nightmares. Sailing on seas of literal ash between even worse islands.
9: Witches of Frostwyck. An interconnected web of folk horror deliciousness.
10: Xenophilia. A radiation soaked star system that will mess you up.
d8 Systems
1: Cairn. Elegant, comprehensive, and clean. A stalwart NSR game. And free.
2: Cy_Borg. The only cyberpunk game to grab me. Unforgiving, hopeless, ultra-violent.
3: Death in Space. Dark firefly + cosmic horror + NASA punk. Great design, unique vibe.
4: Into the Odd. The first of its kind and still one of the best. Exceptional game design.
5: Liminal Horror. Takes the fluff out of horror games and cuts to the bones of terror.
6: Mörk Borg. Long live metal as fuck rules-lite dark fantasy.
7: Mythic Bastionland. Sad knights exploring a strange and dying world. Perfection.
8: Salvage Union. I had no interest in mech games. Then I read this. It slaps.
My preferences
Modules:
I tend to like modules that are medium to large in size, since I prefer to run longer games and get really stuck into ‘chewy’ adventure scenarios.
I also like adventures that spend time describing things in a prose-y kind of way, not exclusively but I do have a vice for it. Some of these are on the more verbose (though in my opinion not word wasting) side of presentation.
Dark fantasy, dark sci-fi, and horror are my typical genres, so you’ll see a lot of that in here (both modules and systems). There are some things that were so good they got on here despite not being in those genres.
I like modules that have a fair bit of mechanisation to make them evolve or that have more structured encounter systems. I enjoy modules that have GM tools and systems to keep things evolving and that play into cause and effect.
Systems:
For the most part, I tend to play ‘NSR’ type games. That’s what you’ll see the majority of in my system recommendations, though there are exceptions.
Some of these products have similar rulesets. I find great value in the small differences between them and their focus on particular settings and execution of minimalist game design.
A lot of a system is about the vibe for me. I like games that are quite focused and intentional about the atmosphere and experience they are aiming for, vs. games that aim to be more agnostic in their thematic goals and presentation.