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.

The Micery Keep is a 4 page zine adaptation of Misery Keep (a Mork Borg pamphlet module) for Mausritter by Hugh Lashbrooke. It’s a short one, so this is a short one.

Layout on this is clear and simple. Honestly it wastes space in the cover and gets away with it. The art is a public domain cut out of a vintage car, and a lich-rat. They’re both great, and match in their styles well. Headings and highlights are clear and legible.

The stat blocks are flavourful (“The Count’s rusted crown casts an aura; any steel nearby will crumble to dust”), the treasure is my favourite style: evocative and unexplained. The location descriptions are terse, often two or three sentences. The longer locations describe set pieces, such as the evil ritual you are sent to dispel.

The writing is workmanlike, but very effective. My only criticism of the writing as a whole is that one of my favourite parts of a Mausritter module is the connection between the human location and what the mice use or perceive it as; here the connections are a little unclear, both in terms of the big black hexes indicating the rooms obscuring the map, and the lack of clarity in the descriptions. Clarifying them would ruin the perfect terseness, but would be worth it for me as the GM, because it gives me more leverage to describe the locations.

Honestly, this is the best possible module for Mausritter. It should be a model for other short modules, and is better than some of the modules in the Estate, which I think very highly of. And it’s free. Throw it into your Mausritter campaign. Every campaign needs a lich.

23rd October, 2023

Idle Cartulary