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.

I mentioned in my 2023 Nova Awards that one of the coolest things I’ve read this year hasn’t been released yet: It’s the first level of the upcoming release Nightwick Abbey by Miranda Elkins and Chris Huth. I don’t usually review unreleased titles, but I got enough interest in the awards post last week that I thought I’d talk about it. Consider this, then, my first Bathtub Preview.

Nightwick Abbey is an iconic megadungeon that has been run by Miranda for over ten years; you can see ongoing progress on the project at the Nightwick Abbey patreon, and you can join the games here. Miranda and Chris Huth have been developing it as a finished, releasable product for Old School Essentials as part of their patreon. It takes place in the ruins of an Abbey that had been built over the prison of a Great King of Hell. Think of the theme being medieval Doom. What I’m reading is the first of three finished levels of the megadungeon, consisting 89 rooms. Two other levels are finished and not available yet; if I recall from Miranda’s episode of Into the Megadungeon, no one has ever reached the third level of Nightwick Abbey, but people are still trying ten years later.

The major unique gimmick of Nightwick Abbey are that it comprises a set of moving geomorphs. A geomorph is a 100 by 100 foot section of dungeon map. Whenever someone does something that would upset the Abbey — things like turning undead or praying — there’s a chance the sections will shift in relation to each other, changing the layout of the dungeon in macro, while retaining the micro structure of the geomorph itself, rendering some exits unusable but opening up others. This is genius for long-term replayability and as a practical use for geomorphs, which are a tech that is considered out of vogue, but which I hope will be revisited by the DIY elfgame scene when they see what Nightwick Abbey has in store for them.

Layout wise, it’s not flashy but it’s very useable; lovely use of a consistent colour palette; consistent allocation of a spread to a geomorph; clear headings. I’m not a fan of dot point descriptions, but this innovates on it by using custom bullet points to differentiate content in a very clean way. The only criticism I have is that it’s not intuitive in a single book to have the factions and the bestiary at the back of the book; I either need stat blocks in the main text (there’s often room), or I need referencing to make encounters easy to run. The factions at the end made my experience of a first read bizarre: At first I was underwhelmed, then I got to the end and I realised all these people I’d met have goals and unique tactics. These might be fronted for a more intuitive read, or again could be incorporated into body text for ease of use.

“The Butcher is busy chopping up a rotten corpse and feeding it into his great grinder. The corpse squirms as though still alive.” Nightwick Abbey’s writing is horribly evocative. “Opening the door allows their piteous moans to echo through the dungeon.” The walls of the Abbey bleed when damaged, closed off exits are scabrous. Inhabitants are terrifying, twisted things that were attracted by the evil of the Abbey and battle now to control its power. The style is a modernisation of the classic style, akin that of Gavin Norman and Gus L, which in my opinion stifles the poetry of what’s there, but renders the project very useable as a result.

Is Nightwick Abbey perfect? No, but it’s also not complete yet. This is a preview. Does it have the potential to be the best megadungeon of all time? It might have that honour in play already, to be frank. What’s really remarkable here is the ability to transmute a home megadungeon into something that’s fully playable by any referee; in combination with Miranda’s stocking rules (which are an essential puzzle piece which I think should be included in the final book), I could run this level indefinitely for a long time; with the additional two levels, it could be your game indefinitely. It reminds me of rogue-lite videogames like Dead Cells and Hades in the sense that it’s replayable not despite of its repeated areas but because of it; the deadliness of the encounters here is a blessing for the way it is played, rather than a curse.

There’s one major caveat, though: This is a megadungeon, and a classic one. It’s deadly, it’s puzzling, it rewards long term play and mapping to understand its spaces and rules. The story it tells will be your own. But as an example of this style, it is, in my opinion, without peer. And if you’re not sure if it’s your jam, and you’re curious, you can play with Miranda this week, or support her patreon to stay up to date with the new stuff as she writes it.

When a publisher gets a hold of this (honestly publishers should be begging to have this on their slate), and the layout and art is finalised, you’re in for something very very special.

Idle Cartulary