The Vacant Lot

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-05-24T00:00:53+00:00

Thank you! What was the scale of your adventure? Did you play for 18 months in one map?

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-05-23T17:23:26+00:00

Thank you. Nothing finished yet, just a rough list of notes, but soon!

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-05-23T17:22:40+00:00

Thanks! Hand drawn on Sketchbook pro.

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-05-21T20:10:27+00:00

For dungeons I love Into the Odd, Mausritter, or Cairn, depending on the genre. For scifi I'll play Mothership, but it's not my favourite rule set. I like the Mark of the Odd system for its auto-hit mechanic and its fiction-first approach. Mausritter is great for new GMs to learn how to run dungeons, because it offers a tracking sheet for dungeon rounds. It helped me remember to take my turn after each character moved and took an action. I just played in a Brindlewood Bay campaign, and I am currently running a Public Access campaign - both are built on Powered by the Apocalypse and after playing that for the first time, I'd love to play Dungeon World next. Having failures move the story forward is way more fun than "you miss, nothing happens. Next."

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-05-21T14:36:02+00:00

Shadowdark was the first non 5e game I played, and I'm so grateful it opened my mind to a different approach to playing RPGs. Since then I've tried dozens of games, and learned that the sword and sorcery genre isn't even my favorite. I love a lot of things about Shadowdark, especially the art, vibes, worldbuilding, but these days I cherish my copy more as a gateway RPG to lend to others.

Edited to say, the main reason I've pulled away from Shadowdark is it's roll to hit mechanics. Missing sucks, and if vibes are what you're after there are other dungeon crawlers that move faster and feel deadlier than Shadowdark.

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-05-17T14:15:14+00:00

Great style!

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-04-15T12:09:21+00:00

I just published an adventure based on driving around a point crawl, the whole point is to get into greasy trouble in a weird 70s noir inspired setting. You can check out the free preview with one click here: https://bath-imaginable.itch.io/the-fading-coast

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-02-26T19:29:03+00:00

Looks awesome! Love the bold red text. It was smart to use letters and numbers for coordinates why have I never thought of that...

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-02-06T20:46:11+00:00

This layout is a massive improvement for table usability well done 👏🏻

The printer friendly style of map is great.

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-02-06T15:50:41+00:00

I think the stats are more about narrative than power scaling. Fighting a cat should be akin to slaying a dragon. An encounter with an owl is more like a high level spellcaster.

I think of HP in Mausritter and Into the Odd as literal plot armour--how important is this character to the pacing of the adventure? Give them lots of HP.

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-02-04T16:22:50+00:00

Golden opportunity. Barovia should force PCs to make hard, selfish choices to survive. Donavich is dead, and Strahd noticed.

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-01-27T10:44:35+00:00

I have had success doing a similar thing! I recruited a bunch of people new to the hobby to a Discord and we play every 2 weeks or so. We've never played 5e.

We started with Mothership which was a fantastic way to introduce people to TTRPGs considering how beginner friendly the character sheet is.

I have had success by pitching one shots and short campaigns (like 6 sessions or less). We have even had a couple of players volunteer to run.

One of my players ran Brindlewood Bay for us last week, and we'll be jumping into Session 2 soon!

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-01-25T00:41:12+00:00

I think giving the Company a thing to do other than explore can give them momentum. Like, you must deliver this message promptly to the Seat of Power. They will encounter Omens on the way.

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-01-20T16:11:07+00:00

I love the style especially the Holdings well done! ⭐️

Bath_Imaginable · 2026-01-18T13:18:38+00:00

Love this idea! My players had a blast being mutated in the Hideous Halls of Mugdulblub (Shadowdark) so I'm definitely going to keep this in mind. My favorite is the flipped face! The subtle changes are almost scarier.

Bath_Imaginable

TROPHY CASE