The Broken One – from the Tarokka Deck accessory by Gale Force Nine

By the time I’ve gotten around to writing this post DDEX4-8 The Broken One has made it to Electrum best seller on the DMs guild. Neat!

I had a lot of fun writing for the Ravenloft setting. I particularly liked exploring the Dark Powers as a kind of meta-narrative device delivering judgments of good and evil directly into the mechanics of the game. I was also able work more closely with the AL writing team to help one adventure flow into the next and keep the setting consistent. Some folks on the team were kind enough to share their original drafts so I could see how they approached the work.

The adventure also works as a one-off horror & mystery story that can be set in any village so if you are interested in checking it out the module is available here. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/182771/DDAL48-The-Broken-One-5e?

As always if anyone has run the module and wants to offer criticism I’m happy to hear it here in the comments.

More thoughts, advice & spoilers:

In particular I’m proud of the villain I created, a cursed human with his own set of abilities and tactics not yet seen in any monster’s manual, and I’m proud of the mystery I wove into the story from the beginning.  I also made the magic item bestowed in the chapter necessary for defeating the villain.

Reception seems to have been mixed. Some criticism I’ve received is that there is little motivation to assist or oppose the actions of some of the characters. I had assumed that since the characters have been interacting with the people in the village through the first 7 chapters there would be established relationships with the village. Perhaps some players need more tangible motivations to guide their decisions beyond roleplaying, something I’ll keep in mind going forward.

Anyway, i’m working on my own content for DMs guild and will try to blog here to self-promote it with more regularity.

Josh