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

More of Me is an 11 page one-shot module for Mothership by Jett Beswick-Wright. In it, you and your companions wake up with memories wiped in an undersea research facility. Will you escape? I received a complementary copy from the author.

More of Me, it should be said straight up, is a mind bend. Spoilers: You’ve been implanted with the memories of the facilities founder; a major aspect of the module is memory recall, and hence there’s a decent page count devoted to who the players used to be and the circumstances under which they came to be in the facility. The mechanic here is neat: Under certain circumstances, you are capable of remembering something about your past; if you try to remember something and your past self has no knowledge of the location, you will instead gain memories of the founder.

This is a 12ish room dungeon, with a major enemy, and 5 compelling NPCs. The fun twist for the major enemy — an ogre like creature who hunts you — is that he can’t fit through doors, so the module will have a very predictable rhythm in play as a result of this. The recall system is a clever way of figuring out what happened here in a way that feels organic, and it comes with a bunch of handouts that are documents that players may find in their explorations. Basically every room is of interest, which works for a high paced one-shot. The foes here all have clear agendas and will act in predictable ways which make it super easy to run and also will make the players feel clever when they figure out how to manipulate them.

Layout is clear and easy to understand. Descriptions require you intuit some of the spaces, but they feel like spaces you should be able to improvise easily for the most part. I’d prefer if the NPC information was in the locations you find them, rather than in the back, but in such a small book it’s fine.

My biggest criticism though is what I feel like is a significant overlook — precisely what the memories that you recall are left a little too unclear for me. I was expecting a memory list to be part of the handouts or additional material, given it’s not clear at all what the founders memories are supposed to be, and the characters memories are given one line. For such an important part of the module, I want a little extra support — as is, I’m forced to flick back through the introductory material and improvise.

Overall, though, this is a pretty great one-shot module. The gimmick is really fun, and would work both as a one-shot and to kick off a new campaign. It’s easy to run, and the NPCs and enemies are fun to step into the shoes of. If you’re happy to do a little bit of prep for memories in advance, or you’re a confident improviser, and the gimmick here is something that appeals to you and to your table, I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up More of Me.

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