Mini-review: "The Gar’Haden Family Crypt" by Steve Gilman

I noticed that Steve Gilman put out a one-page dungeon as an add-on to The Shrine of Sruukor.  As a follow-up to my review of the Shrine, here's a mini-review of The Gar'Haden Family Crypt, a free one-page adventure for OSR (Swords and Wizardry native).

Gilman's premise for the Crypt is that grave-robbers have busted into somewhere they shouldn't, releasing something horrible.  It's simple, but it works.  He has a suggested use for the Crypt in the context of The Shrine of Sruukor, but it would be very easy to use the module in most campaigns.

The map is seemingly straightforward but on a second, more careful reading of the module I was able to appreciate the design a bit more.  Placement of the various threats is naturalistic and while the direct threats for the PCs are a bit samey the dungeon itself rewards a careful approach - or at least, it should.  My main complaint is that there's no treasure placed in this dungeon, so it's up to the DM to place the "score".  Gilman is not asking too much with the treasure placement, but a casual approach of sprinkling the rewards everywhere would make The Gar'Haden Family Crypt a much less interesting place.   (For me, location 4 is the obvious place for the best treasure, followed by location 10.)

Rather than a numerical rating, this is a work that I recommend for DMs who are prepared to spend a little bit of extra prep time to add treasure.  It's a small module, likely to be played in one sitting, and it's not spectacular.  But as with The Shrine of Sruukor, Gilman has produced something solid with a few surprises for the party.