Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique well-regarded modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited harsh critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath.

Reivdene-Upon-The-Moss (hereafter Reivdene) is a 91-page module by Chris Bisette. It came about as an episodically released Christmas module, and has minimal art and layout. The text identifies that it’s a first draft, but to my knowledge it hasn’t been updated at this time. It is statted for B/X, Mork Borg, Troika! and Fifth Edition, although what version of Troika! this would make sense in is beyond me, to be honest. It’s a horror investigation module in a creepy town.

Briefly, a summary: We have sections on history, hooks, weird omens, weather, and details about the ritual which places the module on a timer. Six locations within the parish, a three hex hexcrawl, Four places in the village, a few NPCs, and details about the final dungeon and the Looming Evil.

This module, due to its lack of art and layout, relies heavily on punchy and evocative writing, and it brings it in spades. The opening monologue gives the voice of this town’s occupants as well as a summary of the creepy goings on, and I’d read it aloud (“A weird place, Reivdene. Insular. You can spot a moss-eater in a second when they come to town.”). The rest of the writing in the module reflects the opening in a number of ways: It’s evocative, it reflects the small British town on the moors (at least as I imagine it from television), and it’s just a little too wordy. The opening monologue is a half page. The “brief” history is two pages. The content here is good, but it needs a good edit.

There are some sections which I feel just aren’t necessary, as well. Being trapped in Reivdene is essential for the plot and the pressure, but it’s just not important enough to justify a page of rules about the weather, which essentially indicates it’s cold and snowy and you’ll get snowed in. The three hex hexcrawl isn’t big enough to justify the use of hexes; technically there are seven hexes but only three locations, and they’re connected by paths, but there’s no detail about the other four so why are they there? And, as I alluded earlier, I can see it’s statted for the most popular forms of D&D, but nobody’s playing this in Troika, it suggests you ignore a bunch of B/X rules in the text, and honestly sending a bunch of optimised 5e PCs would make short work of this cult, so it kind of betrays the spirit of the piece to do so, although I recognise the smart marketing decision.

I would love for this to have been a briefer, better edited module, because it’s absolutely stellar. Writing is uniformly excellent, it just needs a decent chop. It’s a fairly contained and small story, with a lot of neat lines drawn and interesting relationships built in, lots of levers for the PCs to pull, and I imagine it would be a really memorable series of sessions. It’s hard to communicate in a review how much fun these are: There’s a secret sibling-god being held prisoner by a random NPC, who also may make an ally against the big bad, but is likely just as bad. Old shrines hidden beneath giant rocks. Secret dungeons. Spaceships. All interconnected and drawing the PCs together for something bound to be explosive.

But it’s written to be a similar size to a much bigger scale module, and the contrast here makes me reluctant to run it. This is 91 A4 pages, to be clear. Witchburner covered a similar location in two thirds the pages with more rules necessary for its investigation elements. Fever Dreaming Marlinko is 71 pages with art and layout and it’s an entire city and provides a basis for years of play.

Honestly, this is a strong enough module that if it were released in book format, edited down to 60 pages, actual layout and more effective art to make it more useable and streamlined unnecessary sections (with consideration given for their intended purposes), this would be a no brainer purchase for me, as a big fan of horror-leaning elfgames. I certainly think choosing a system or remaining entirely agnostic would be a smart choice as well.

Idle Cartulary

Playful Void is a production of Idle Cartulary. If you liked this article, please consider liking, sharing, and subscribing to the Idle Digest Newsletter. If you want to support Idle Cartulary continuing to provide Bathtub Reviews, I Read Reviews, and Dungeon Regular, please consider a one-off donation or becoming a regular supporter of Idle Cartulary on Ko-fi.