Friday, June 30, 2023

Undertree Revised!

While recording a play through of Undertree Temple of the Elf Gods, I found looking up details in the text took too long, and while annotating the video with referee commentary I realize that text of the adventure did not include some details that I always mention when I run it. Also, I discovered an exceptional game store in Minneapolis called All Systems Go - not only did they have a bunch of prior-to-3e D&D modules, they had OSR publications AND a rack of indy adventure game zines! I told the owner I'd published an adventure lately and they said they would stock Undertree at the shop.



With all this in mind, I remastered Undertree. I changed the printout from its prior one-page, three-column layout with small font; now it's a proper, more legible two-columns booklet zine in the style of Adventure Hour!, Cairn, and Maze Rats. I rejiggered the spacing, bolding, and placement of the words so that each room feature has some space around it and begins with the main bit in bold, followed by unbolded details. And I added some details - the one intact statue in the temple is a statue of the elvish Queen of Tears and Vengeance, and it is streaming tears and audibly sobbing; the gemstone leaves of the tree clink in the breeze; the god riding a star in the bas-relief has stirrups and a saddle; etcetera.

Click this image to download the adventure


I've also got a few different layouts - full page, the two-page spreads, and two ready-to-print versions that you can print out and staple and it'll be in the right order (one of these is a little more printer friendly than the other).

While laying it out, I ran into the issue that I needed one more two page spread to make the booklet print setup work. I was planning to redo the All-Dice Character Generator as a booklet to make it easier for new players to groc (this was a stumbling block in the YouTube play through). I decided to format it as the last two-page spread in the booklet (essentially one landscape page). It was tricky to make it more condensed and also more clear and user-friendly, but my buddy jOn recommended color coding it and I think it works a lot better now! AND it's included with the adventure :)

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