In 2025 I’m reviewing zungeon zines. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques, just like Bathtub Reviews, but they’ll be a little briefer. The goal here is a little different: I want to spotlight what a craft-based, just-do-it approach to module writing can do.

The Desecration by Jonathan Loy is a 6 page, 6 room zungeon for Old School Essentials, inspired by Greek mythology. In it, a naiad Ismene provides the local village with clean water. The guardian of her shrine is dies, and you can choose to aid in saving the village — or pilfer for your own gain!

The layout is inspired by 80s modules, with positives and negatives that entails, but it’s not terrible, and the dungeon scrawl map is pretty good. Serviceable, and as good as plenty on the market you’re ponying up cash for a layout for.

The hooks here need a little tweaking — as is, they largely relate the premise, and I think it’s better if they twist the premise or impact the how the characters interact with the shrine. Suggesting that the sapphire has special powers that might tempt them or cause them to fear it, or placing them in more direct opposition with the village, the rival adventurers or the nymph would bring a lot to the module.

The random encounters here are flavourful, but don’t add much in the way of tension. I think, in a 6 room dungeon, that’s a sensible approach — particularly if you’re putting a lot into the rooms, you don’t have to lay it on too thick with random encounters. I’m not sure the rooms are interactive enough, here, though. Here’s what I’d tweak: There are two puzzles, and I’d keep them. I’d remove the adventuring party from the 4th room, and put something there: An encounter with the ghost of the guardian, seeking its’ severed head and heckling, perhaps? And put the praying villagers into the remaining empty rooms, with a little more spice, by naming them and giving them a little personality, as Loy has the adventurer. But I’d increase the risk of random encounters, so that the adventuring party is more likely to show up and interfere in more other rooms as their primary mode of involvement. This gives the random encounters focus and a clear role in the proceedings — but also, if you do this, you need to think about how often they’re occurring to make sure they actually occur.

The rooms are keyed out in a style reminiscent of the OSE house style, which for me is a little too wordy, but it gives you a lot to work with if you’re a reluctant improviser. I really like the meaty encounters that are here — the nymph, the adventuring party, and the flood trap are all fun encounters, and the empty rooms have flavourful descriptions. I think those empty rooms could be more meaningfully empty, though, perhaps revealing a way the magical waters could rejuvenate the slain guardian, if a puzzle was solved, or revealing lore in a cumulative way with the other rooms.

There is a prayer effects table (which I like for its thematic randomness, everything from drenching to cursing to a magi wand), and a list of potential results for obvious approaches to the adventure. I like these, a lot, to be honest, as they really lean into the central ethical conflict at the core of the module, and ethical conundrums make for fun play in my experience.

The changes I’ve suggested would make this an absolute banger, I think, but as it stands I’d totally still check The Desecration out. It’s hard to fill a sandbox with small but fun dungeons that take a session or two to play through, and this is still a strong candidate for adding to your campaign map; certainly better than most of what you’d throw together yourself the night before.

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.