The Curse of Dread Pirate Zarr
A downloadable Adventure
The Curse of Dread Pirate Zarr
About This Adventure
The Curse of Dread Pirate Zarr is a short adventure made for table top role playing games (think DnD, Pathfinder, & Troika).
The Elevator Pitch
This adventure concerns the strange events happening in Brinewater, a cool water port on one of the more popular merchant routes through the region. For the past couple of months, merchant ships sailing into the area have been harassed and tricked by a mysterious force. The city itself has experienced strange bouts of heavy fog seeping into sections of the city, and frightened denizens speak of seeing ominous forms and shadows playing across the mist. The party has just arrived in the city of Brinewater, but are they willing to uncover the truth behind the Curse of Dread Pirate Zarr?
System Agnostic
The adventure is flexible to any ttrpg system and to any level adventuring party. Why is that? Because the battles are less about enemy stats and more about how they act. This gives you the flexibility to change the difficulty as needed.
This adventure PDF is created with phones in mind. That means it's created in 1080x1920 vertical format, and it supports interactive elements/bookmarking. Tired of having to flip through a PDF that's not made for your phone? Problem solved. If there's enough support I will also offer a traditional PDF in the future.
So What Do I Get?
If you just want the phone PDF, it's 31 full color pages of adventure (think like 10-15 normal pages). It is illustrated and formatted and I think it looks pretty damn good.
If you buy the deluxe version (pay $8 or more), you get the phone PDF as well as the full size battle maps at 300dpi and 140dpi (for virtual table tops). The maps come in gridded and ungridded options.
-Town of Brinewater Map
-Docks Battlemap
-Admiral's Quarters
-Hangman's Point Battlemap
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Thank you and I hope you enjoy it!
Purchase
In order to download this Adventure you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Comments
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it's a really cool adventure and I'm looking forward to run it in WWN. also I'm a BIG fan of the phone layout!
(not sure if this is the correct channel for feedback but) i noticed a little error on page 21 : it says "Admiral Zarr" and "Zarr's private office" where I think it means Admiral Sougga :)
Thanks for that catch! I'll see if I can update the PDF at some point soon. Glad you like the phone format, I was experimenting a bit with format when I made it.
I love it!
This is a really versatile and fun adventure.
I converted it for 5e, and had a great time livestreaming it.
I look forward to playing it with more groups in the future!!
The Curse Of Dread Pirate Zar is a system-agnostic 31 page fantasy adventure. It has a super well-designed, phone-friendly layout, and it's got solid full-color illustrations throughout---including important maps.
In terms of sheer polish, Curse is quite strong, and its overall GM-friendliness is worth noting as well. Everything is linked, easy to find, and either covered with a minimum of words or given an overview that you can skim. The system-agnosticism of Curse does require some conversions on the fly, and those conversions will be more onerous with something like 5e than it would be with Labyrinth Lord or the like, so if your favorite engine is a bit complex, expect to have to do a little bit more work to convert Curse to it.
Still, I think that's work worth doing.
Curse treads some pretty familiar territory plotwise, but it's very well constructed. There are multiple routes through it, there's a solid and nuanced reward at the end, and the title villain's behavior and backstory makes it suitable for scaling to fit audiences of almost any age. Moreover, you can get a lot of mileage out of Curse if you give it some atmosphere. Run with minimal description, it's going to be bland---but emphasize the smell of salt water, the roll of fog, the creaking of timbers in the dark, and suddenly it's a shockingly different experience. At its most intense, it's still only spooky rather than scary, but as long as your group's not exclusively looking for something that feels like Berserk, you'll have a good time.
Overall, I would recommend Curse to anyone who plays fantasy adventure games, and especially if they've got younger players or players who are just getting into the pastime. If you've played a lot of adventures and you're looking for something novel, this isn't that and you may want to steer clear. But if you want to see a classic concept done solidly, this is absolutely one of those and you should pick up a copy.
Minor Issues:
-Page 14, 3rd para, "squeels" squeals