This holiday season, I’m going to review a different module, game or supplement every day. I haven’t sought any of them out, they’ve been sent to me, so it’s all surprises, all the way. I haven’t planned or allocated time for this, so while I’m endeavouring to bring the same attention to these reviews, it might provide a challenge, but at least, I’ll be bringing attention to some cool stuff!

Crown of Saint Ormus is a 17 page module for Mork Börg by Markus M. In it, you raid the tomb of a dead saint, at the behest of a rich but cruel merchant. Said tomb is a small dungeon, only 6 rooms.

First up, I love the hard frame right there in the blurb for a small module like this. Cut right to the chase! This module is effectively a room to a page, my favourite choice for information design in modules. Prose paragraphs for description, with a pleasantly floral voice, which packs a few descriptions I quite like, “On a chair by a desk in the middle of the room sits a robed figure, The Forgotten Philosopher, his desiccated skin stretched taut across his bones.” or “The remains of a regal carpet lies before the archway, its colours faded and its fabric tattered, eaten by mice and cockroaches in centuries past.”. It has a lingering horror vibe, not as extreme as most Mork Börg stuff, but one that’s meditative and slow-paced.

One issue I have here is the lack of clues I’m finding for the easter eggs hidden throughout the module. Things like the fact that the “Philosopher will trade this for a vial of blood” or “Saint Ormus cannot be harmed as long as any skeletal worshipers remain” are good, actionable pieces of information, if it’s likely the player characters will find out. In that specific case, we can potentially assume the Philosopher will tell them if he doesn’t attack — but, what does the Philosopher want with the blood? What dire thing will happen if it’s given to him, either in his action or form, or in direct impact to the player character who gives the blood? For an easter egg like this to become valuable, it needs both a way to find out, and a consequence for applying the discovery; otherwise it’s just a forsaken easter egg, and we don’t need these in our modules.

Crown of Saint Ormus uses the Explorer template, not unchanged, but minimally so, and you know what? It works. With the Isle being a low- art module and one inspiration for the template, Crown of Saint Ormus is basically the best use case for that. There’s a humility to this layout, and while that humility precludes flashiness, the changes are excellent. A minimap sits in a banner at the top of most pages, giving you visual indications of where you are. The sidebar is scarcely touched, which lends it a spacious feeling. By deferring most of the design work to a master who gives it out for free, this manages to be largely immune to criticism. I’ll find some though: The random tables are misaligned, making it harder to see what number aligns with which item. There is minimal text highlighting (just for proper nouns), which means it’s hard to scan the paragraph text for important information It’s a 6 page module, though, you could argue it’s a smart choice rather than a flaw.

Small dungeons like this raise the question to me of whether you can make a small space that is meaningfully explorable: Certainly, this is a lovely little dungeon, and a fun few hours of play no doubt, if a little grim. But what we have is merely a weird place sitting in a weird wilderness. The questions it raises about Saint Ormus and the dead within the tomb aren’t answered (and intentionally so, I think). There are no spatial puzzles occurring, no meaningful loops or symmetrical spaces implying secrets. You can’t learn about the dungeon, from the dungeon. Is that a flaw in a small dungeon? I’m not sure. I’d love to see a small dungeon that successfully makes its space meaningful through time and geography rather than just through description.

But that is a complaint for a hypothetical module. It’s not one of Crown of Saint Ormus, which is a good small dungeon, that will make a very atmospheric night with your team, and will be plenty of fun. I’d recommend picking it up, so long as lingering horror is your table’s vibe, and you’re not here looking for complexity or puzzles.

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