The Hatch

 

By James Rosario & 20 Eyes Gaming

One page dungeon contest 2022

No system or level given.

Premise: An upstart settlement is in need of adventurers to explore the caverns beneath a mysterious stone hatch in the forest floor.

What do we get here?

 A single page gives  keyed locations in a dungeon.

 Usability/formatting

 In my opinion there is a lot to like here. By no means is this perfect but it is on the road to being something really decent.

 The writing could do with a re-write, it is most of the way there it just needs some padding removed and information re-ordered occasionally. It is a much better effort than the vast majority of entries in the one page dungeon contest when it comes to trying to be both evocative and provide the information the referee needs to run the adventure. 

 I like the art of the map even if the dungeon is pretty linear. There some things to interact with and some decent rooms. May be a few more hints of what is to come would have been useful as well as a few more combat encounters on the way down.

 The ending is a nice little horror switch up, it just needs more foreshadowing to really go off with a bang.

Portability

   This adventure is nudging towards dark fantasy or horror so keep that in mind before you plop it down to run.

Recommendation

 You could probably run as is, I'd want to flesh it out a bit more particularly the villager NPCs given their later role in the adventure. Has the potential to be pretty nice little adventure or hex filler.

PWYW for the whole collection on gumroad or stump up cash on drivethru.

https://spielknights.gumroad.com/l/2022opdc

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/410915/One-Page-Dungeon-Compendium-2022-Edition