A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Sandbox Adventures #1: Within the Cursed Mine

Sandbox Adventures #1: Within the Cursed Mine by Shane Collins is a role playing game supplement published by Headless Hydra Press 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.

The supplement is available as an 11 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the front matter, one an ad and one the Open Game License. There are also images included; seven colour hexes and five colour maps of the cavern, one with a grid, the other four being for summer and winter, with day and night for each.

The first page of content is a colour hex map of the local region, using the included tiles.

The Background explains that the location is a former, now abandoned, mine, though that doesn’t mean it’s unoccupied.

Plug-and-Play explains that this is an adventure for 3rd level characters to complete in 1-2 sessions. There are some brief hooks as to how the characters might find it.

Travel gives some details for travel in the area, with a d20 table of encounters. Features details the mine’s features.

The adventure part itself is set up as boxes Each box has a description of the relevant area, followed, as appropriate, by details on GM Note, Monster and Treasure, each with an icon. There is a GM’s version of the map as well.

After the adventure, stats are given for the monsters, NPC and a new wondrous item.

Sandbox Adventures #1: Within the Cursed Mine in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, though the content is short, there are enough sections that these would have been appreciated. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. As well as the maps and tiles, there are some colour stock illustrations. Presentation is good.

This is a short side adventure that should be easy enough to drop into any setting; the hex map can be discarded if desired, and the mine placed into a suitable location. The hooks could perhaps have been gone into in more detail, but are reasonably functional. Sandbox Adventures #1: Within the Cursed Mine is a decent little side quest and it can be found by clicking here.