Tower of the Mothman is a role playing game supplement written and published by Matthew Pfister for use with Shadowdark. This is an adventure for characters of levels 2-4.
The supplement is available as a 33 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the front matter and one the Table of Contents. There is also a second, 17-page PDF that is the same material, just as two-page spreads.
The opening paragraphs explain how the local wealthy hired a witch to get rid of pirates from the coast, but something worse has taken their place, and the population is angry. This is followed by a map of the area.
Factions has details on these, being the Pims, the villagers, the pirates and the Mothman, with their objective, interactions and background. Following this are details on the witch, the time pressure which can cause a crisis, and a table to determine which faction acts each day and what they do.
The various areas then have details on them and various things that can be done or interacted with. Estates has details on the Pim Estates. Alcoves has details on what are called sea alcoves – this is coves, not alcoves. Pimsburg has details on the village.
Lighthouse, and the Den beneath it, are the main areas of the adventure, with the various locations in it described and sidebars covering game details for each.
Special Items has some new magic items.
Monster Stats has new monsters.
Tower of the Mothman in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. The Table of Contents covers the major and minor sections. Navigation is okay. The text various between single column, single column with sidebar and two column format and appeared to be nearly free of errors. There are a variety of stock black and white illustrations, up to full page in size. Presentation is okay.
A word about the layout; this appears to have taken some inspiration from MÖRK BORG, which means it’s not as easy to read as it could be. The adventure itself has quite a few moving parts, thanks to the different factions, which means things are going to happen even if the characters do nothing, because of what these factions are up to in order to benefit themselves, making the adventure more of a living thing. Though there are some details for a setting, the area covered is small enough that it should be easy enough to drop it into different settings. The adventure itself is potentially hazardous. Tower of the Mothman can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply