REVIEW??: Ill Met in the City by Simon Carryer Games [4/5]
Seven city-based vignettes with effective use of the one-page dungeon format.
The REVIEW?? series is for free or pay what you want (PWYW) materials.
“Ill Met in the City” is a series of seven linked vignettes for an urban environment by Simon Carryer Games. It is available on DTRPG on a PWYW basis.
Each of the vignettes is laid out in a 1-page dungeon style format.
Very often, I absolutely fucking despise the 1-page dungeon format. People do it as a bizarre creative exercise without any understanding how to bring out the benefits.
So it is rare that I find one I like.
“Ill Met in the City” is a good example of how it is possible to get value out of this design. Looking at the first example from the collection:
Back in ye olden days of 3.5 D&D, this would have been three separate maps for three separate floors spread across three pages, and you the GM would have had to join them up manually. The value to paper would have meant that it just acted as filler.
Here, thanks to the format, you can easily visualise it. It’s a compact environment. Someone in #5 is above #6, a person in #2 can probably hide from a person in #3. The layout of the map allows a GM to understand how the layout of the rooms interact.
This is good design. This is how you use this format alongside an isometric map.
Another brilliant example:
You can imagine, as a gamemaster, a player desperately trying to leverage a barrel from #7 to roll down the stairs on #6. Or trying to use the giant hamster wheel to propel themselves up to the next floor.
The cut-out map is supportive of gameplay, and this is so god damn crucial to using this style of design.
After some of the shit I’ve been reading, it’s beautiful.
These vignettes are designed for a low-fantasy urban environment, so they are likely to be rapidly outstripped by a lot of characters in a lot of games. For the first few sessions though, I think they can be used to breathe a lot of life into the play.
I would recommend using them for that.
You can get “Ill Met in the City” here:
Simon Carryer Games “Ill Met in the City”: 4/5 STARS
Lovely little vignettes that can be used to breathe life into an early urban adventure.
Oh nice! I'm glad to find out about these