Time Runs Out at Clock Tower – 5E Puzzle Dungeon Zine is a role playing game supplement written and published by Wally DM for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. As such, it is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The supplement is available as a 39 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one and a half the front matter, half the Table of Contents and two are ads. There is also a png map of the tower and a zip file containing 8 tiffs for use with a puzzle.
The first page of content has a map of the clock tower.
About the Adventure explains that this is a 1-2 hour puzzle dungeon adventure for characters of levels 4-5, with puzzles, traps and monsters. It gives some background on how the demon lord Grizzix has unleashed temporal shadows and wraiths on the city of Ambervain to take control over the city of time and adventures. Time in the city is managed by the clock tower which needs to reset every day, and with the keeper killed and the clock wound down, time in the city froze. The characters must reset the tower. General features of the clock tower are given.
Begin the Adventure has the characters arrive in Ambervain and discover the city is frozen. Although the characters are no frozen like the others in the city, time slows down for them through the adventure and the effects of this are given.
The rest of the adventure involves the characters entering the clock tower and making their way up it combatting the monsters inside and figuring out a puzzle to reset the clock.
Ending has this being done successfully.
The Adventure Continues… suggests following this with Mystery at the Golden Stirge Inn and has tips on integrating the two adventures.
Lore & Citizens of Ambervain has some details on the demon lord Grizzix, Ambervain and some NPCs of the city.
Magic Items has some new magic items.
Time Runs Out at Clock Tower – 5E Puzzle Dungeon Zine in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with the various sections linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth and is hyperlinked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of colour illustrations. Presentation is good.
This is very definitely a puzzle adventure and players who don’t enjoy puzzles are probably not going to enjoy this. As it stands, it’s also not the easiest adventure to drop into a setting; perhaps the best bet would be to move the tower to an existing city and change the lore somewhat; otherwise, it works best as a one-shot. Time Runs Out at Clock Tower – 5E Puzzle Dungeon Zine can be found by clicking here.
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