Review: The Secret of Cykranosh by Wayne Rossi

I first encountered Wayne Rossi on Google+ and immediately began following him based on a mutual adoration for the Judges Guild Ready Ref Sheets. I eventually got to game with him once (a fun OD&D dungeon crawl with Tekumel beasties), and I have enjoyed his Dungeon Crawl zines. When I noticed he had recently released an adventure in pay-what-you want format, I immediately downloaded it to check it out.

This is a short (6 pages) location-based adventure, ostensibly set in Hyperborea, although with minor tweaking it could be set in pretty much any fantasy setting. It is compatible with classic D&D editions and OSR games.

I am always in need of short, easy-to-prep adventures that I can drop into hexcrawls and sandbox environments, and this fits the bill perfectly. The referee can read and absorb this in less than an hour, and it should provide a good session's worth of gaming.

The first thing to catch your eye will likely be a great map by Dyson Logos, who never ceases to amaze. The adventure itself is interesting. There are a lot of cool encounters packed into this thing. There are idiosyncratic flourishes that I found pleasing. For example, found among a bandit treasure is the coffin of an orangutan corpse stolen from a carnie caravan.

Perhaps the module's greatest strength is that Rossi managed to develop two rival factions in such a short adventure. This raises the value, as different groups can have wildly different experiences with it. A group could simply hack-and-slash their way through, work to pit the groups against each other, or perhaps find themselves the ones unknowingly manipulated. That sort of depth of possible experience is not typical for most short adventures I read.

It is tough to find anything to be too critical about. My only suggestion would be to have had the map take up its own page, as when I run PDF adventures I typically print the map or make it its own file in order to read the key simultaneously. A minor quibble.

Though I am sure things could change, Rossi has mentioned perhaps doing a number of these short adventures, then later combining them into a larger print product. If they are all in this vein I will definitely be purchasing it. In the meantime I would encourage referees to check it out for themselves.

You can find The Secret of Cykranosh HERE. Check out Rossi's blog HERE.