Bathtub Reviews are an excuse for me to read modules a little more closely. I’m doing them to critique a wide range of modules from the perspective of my own table and to learn for my own module design. They’re stream of consciousness and unedited critiques. I’m writing them on my phone in the bath.

Feast for a Sphinx is a 30 page module for Mörk Borg by Sofia Ramos and Evlyn Moreau, with layout by Luna P, the same team behind Goblin Mail which I thought was one of the best releases of last year. In it, you brave an ancient temple filled with the spawn of the Golden One, in order to win the favour of the wish-granting Sphinx. I backed this for its’ crowdfunding campaign.

We open with a page of in-world verse, likely the kind of information you’d hand to the adventurers. Then, we have a page of purple prose, describing the past and present of Kalldalen and the temple that stands above it. These are a little much for me, as a referee, but Ramos does some good writing here (where that almost makes up for it), and throughout this module (where it absolutely slaps). The village of Kalldalen is breezed over, consisting simply 4 reasons you might visit, and a page describing the inn and the 6 people frequenting it. I don’t love these hooks and rumours — I constantly harp on about my post on the matter and feel like a broken record — but 1 of them at least gives you an alternate reason to delve into the dungeon. If I were to run this, I’d just stick to that one rumour, offer a reward as honey, and give the players a dream to enter the dungeon as a stick. There’s a nice decription of the entrance, as well as a few things that might encounter you on the way. I’d love a little more there — perhaps just a little more from the characters of Syrus or Old Grin, or whose hair you find. These are nice hyperdiegetic additions, but this module is already feeling sparse enough that I want to know what the authors are thinking. Once we’re in the key proper, mini-maps accompany the descriptions (although not on every page), and most relevant information is contained on the page or rarely the spread. The key is perhaps too wordy for my liking, but comparing it to Goblin Mail I think that’s a stylistic choice, and one that plenty of people will appreciate. For me, I feel like I’ll be reading a page of text to the players in many instances, which isn’t my preference. The contents, though, are solid and interesting. I think the text could have been reduced easily, by adopting a process for particularly the exits, which are just tagged onto the end of the paragraphs, making things harder to read, but which contain important information about what lies through them. I like exit information, this just isn’t the ideal information design for it. The dungeon itself is filled with good rooms, and interesting hazards and monsters. It’s horrifying, as a Mork Borg module should be. It contains a bait and switch where you reach the goal and realise there’s another, deeper goal if you wish, that made me grin when I discovered it. There’s a secret history to learn. The only thing I struggle with is that it’s a dungeon with few interesting connections, and is fairly linear, and doesn’t take advantage of the geography of a dungeon to facilitate interesting play.

I really love Luna P’s layout here — the damaged, discoloured, textures, pages, the use of font in unexpected ways to highlight, mixing serif, sans serif and blackletter, the use of decorations, the creative use of colour both in the art and by contrast with the layouts, the gold and crimson palette. This is a step above the layout in Goblin Mail and it’s usable to boot. It’s a layout with humour, which is rare. It takes Moreau’s exceptional art and unique style, and manages to bring Nohr’s aesthetic together with it in a way that compromises neither. Some of the best work I’ve seen lately, hands down. I have no complaints. It was a mistake not to buy a print copy of this.

A Feast for a Sphinx is in many ways, stronger than Goblin Mail — the graphic design is top tier, much of the writing is florid and beautiful and feels mired in centuries of history, and the themes and concepts are much easier to understand and to engage players in. But the flaws, for me, mean that despite these strengths Goblin Mail is still the much stronger and more interesting module by this exceptional team. I’d need to work on the introduction village to draw my players into the dungeon, and I’d prefer a few more secret entrances and loops, rather than the linear dungeon we’ve got. That all said, the rooms are fun, and it’s a small dungeon — only 12 rooms — that will last only a session or two. If you’re looking for something to drop into a frozen hinterland, or your players are looking for someone to grant them a wish, this is for you.

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