Down the Rat Hole is a role playing game supplement published by Adventure Bundles 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 four level 3 characters.
The supplement is available as a Pay What You Want 16-page PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one the front matter and one the Open Game License. There are also two zip files.
The Introduction explains that the characters are at a tavern when they are hired to recover a ring that was stolen by a rat. To get it back, they will need to be shrunk in size. DM Advice states that adjustments will need to be made if there are more characters, though no scaling details are given. It also covers describing the places and descriptive text boxes. There are two people who can be used as adventure hooks to recover the ring; to do so will require the characters drink a potion that shrinks them. There are some brief details on the tavern, a price list and an explanation that this works best in the countryside, given the warren is supposed to be dug in soil.
The main part of the adventure is The Burrow, the underground warren of the rats. Once the ring is found, it will need hauling back – the characters are now small and the ring is therefore rather larger – and then the characters will need to get back to their employer. This may have hazards in and of itself.
Appendix A: Monsters has the monster stats; with the characters being shrunk, the creatures are proportionately larger.
Appendix B: Magic Items has two new items described.
The map zip contains five pngs, three colour and two black and white. Two of the colour and two of the black and white images are player maps with and without grids; the final one is a GM’s map. This also contains a six-page PDF with five pages being the same images.
The item cards zip contains four images for the two new items. Each item has a single-sided version and a double-sided. There is also a two-page PDF with one page having a key and the second front and back images of each item card.
Down the Rat Hole in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and has enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column colour format and appeared to be free of errors. The only illustrations are the maps and items, but these come in a variety of versions, which is nice.
With much of the adventure being played with the characters shrunk, there isn’t much opportunity for treasure; a single coin is a vast treasure when small; rather less so than restored to full size. One of the magic items can still be used, however. This is a short, but decent, little adventure, though players more accustomed to decent monetary incentives will be disappointed. For level 3 characters, the rewards are not great. This is designed as a one-shot and should be run as such; a side quest during a bigger adventure, for which it works nicely. Down the Rat Hole can be found by clicking here.
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