5th Edition Adventure: The Hanged Man by Davis Chenault is a role playing game supplement published by Troll Lord Games for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is an adventure for 4-6 mid-level characters and the supplement is also available in a version for Castles & Crusades.
The supplement is available as a 21-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $7 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one the front matter and one the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs explain that the adventure takes place in a village filled with evil, headless aberrations that intend to kill the characters (though the more accurate description would be bodiless). It explains that stat blocks are usually done in-text, but in this case the aberrations vary so much that there is a full stat block at the back that needs reviewing. The opening description has the characters arriving outside a village where a man dangles from a tree.
Grallow Shave explains the village is cursed. The man hanging from the tree is an innocent and the gods took so much offence they cursed every inhabitant in the village (innocent and guilty alike; not very just) by removing their bodies and sending the entire place to the abyss. Over time, the gods “relented” and the village returns for 2 days a year, and the villagers briefly regain their bodies. Though their heads can be knocked off and float around, at which point they gain abilities. It is possible – but very difficult and nasty to do – to remove the curse. A map of the village is followed by descriptions of the surrounding area, the behaviour of the inhabitants and options for running it; comical, comical with elements of horror and dread or any other way. This also goes into the broad motivations of the villagers and the appearance of the area.
The inhabitants are then described with their behaviour, their appearance as a floating head and their involvement, if any, in the lynching. Two other areas, a well that leads to the abyss and the hangman’s tree are also described, and Treasure at the end explains that there is none, bar a possible single survivor judged worthy of rebirth who will be loyal to the characters.
Appendix: New Monster covers the Cursed of Shallow Grave, giving their stats and a list of different abilities they might have.
5th Edition Adventure: The Hanged Man in Review
The PDF is supposedly bookmarked, but the bookmarks are garbled. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and some errors were noticed, including an instance where a conversion from C&C to D&D 5E had been missed, and the way the heads are described varies in tense, with some in one and others in a different one which is odd to read. Bar the map, there are three black and white images, two of which look like they have been reused. Presentation could be better.
This may be an adventure about the brutal murder of a man and the gods’ disproportionate retribution, leading to a village mostly inhabited by bloodthirsty floating heads, but it should quickly become apparent that this isn’t a horror adventure. It is possible to play it as such – the overall feel is potentially quite dark – but every name will need changing. Not only is the village’s name a mixed-up version of Shallow Grave, but every NPC has a pun-based name, such as Merry Weather and Ardleeat Ome and their children Raynee, Cloudee and Mugee Weather. The adventure itself is sandbox; the characters wander around the village, probably getting messed with and attacked a lot, finding out what happened if they can and, should they wish to end the curse, slaughtering every single person. There is a very mixed feeling about the adventure; it’s got too much horror to be comedic, too much comedy to be horrific and doesn’t work as comedy horror. 5th Edition Adventure: The Hanged Man is a strange adventure and it can be found by clicking here.
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