I thank Red Eyed Rabbit for having sent a copy of A Nightmare in Porcelain to write this review. It’s a D&D5e adventure, written by Erlend Van der Haegen, for 3-5 first level characters. It was created mainly as introductive prequel to Unfamiliar, a sandbox campaign founded on Kickstarter in 2020 that will be released as a 350 pages manual in 2021. We are talking about a campaign set in a peculiar alien world, far from the classic fantasy. The book will be composed by 14 chapters. Each chapter will be a complete adventure module.
A Nightmare in Porcelain can be easily used as a stand alone adventure. It is available from DriveThruRPG for $3,64 (about 3€) in digital format or for $8,49 (about 7€) in the physical version.
How Can A Nightmare in Porcelain Be Set
The adventure is set within a vast woodland area, in a peaceful lumber community. The more peaceful location in the beginning the more chances of apocalypse, it is said. Therefore, any area that reflects these simple characteristics can be valid for starting this adventure.
The story ends [attention! Spoiler Alert in this paragraph!] with the characters swallowed by a portal to another location. In the mind of the author the location would be the strange and alien land of Valdir; for every other dungeon master it can be the best option suitable for the campagin. That said, you can also decide that the adventurers had a particularly abundant breakfast and that they interacted with the portal without being sucked away.
Therefore it is not only simple to link A Nightmare in Porcelain in almost every story; this adventure can be useful to facilitate specific narrative needs.
Not the Usual First Level Adventure
A Nightmare in Porcelain does not represent the classic introductory adventure, although it revolves around another recurring narrative theme: the haunted house.
Strange surroundings of the house, mysterious elements that arouse suspicions, dark corridors that lead to rooms that perhaps it would be better not to open. A raw and cruel background story that leads to an adrenaline-fueled climax. And also nightmares, visions, experiments, secrets! It is not possible for me to go into further detail but I can guarantee you that there is a lot of content to run an engaging and anxious adventure.
The D&D system doesn’t help much with this kind of adventure where investigating, finding clues and dealing with threats would require fewer rolls and more storytelling, but there are tips to help make things easier.
Learning Horror Elements
The author has the great merit of going further the simple creation of the adventure. He offers numerous ideas and tools to obtain the most from what he wrote. Methods of storytelling, interaction with players, use of external tools to generate immersion. He also cleverly proposes to use fatigue levels as the equivalent of horror effects on naive characters. He demonstrate experience and competence; that gives me hope that the Unfamiliar campaign that will follow will therefore be a narratively high-level product.
A Nightmare in Porcelain: the Product
A catchy cover introduces this 44-page product. The layout is classic, the images a bit sparse and of variable quality. As this is a small introductory adventure, they are fine. On the other hand, I look at the beautiful art on the Unfamiliar project page on Kickstarter and I wonder why that quality is not already present in its introduction, also to make us understand the graphic value of the future manual.
The product begins with character hooks, someof them very interesting, and a brief introduction to the work. After that the space is all for the adventure, without final appendix, as the stat blocks are inserted in the corresponding paragraphs.
The maps are precise and made in a simple but detailed way. Using the digital version it is always a bit long to jump from the map to the corresponding paragraph. In this case, exporting the map pages or printing them easily solves the problem.
Final Considerations about A Nightmare in Porcelain
A Nightmare in Porcelain is a good introductory adventure; it allows masters to entertain players with suspense and horror elements. The visual component does not even with the very interesting content.
While intended as a prequel to an interesting and impressive campaign like the one that promises to be Unfamiliar, it is suitable for everyone. The hints and tips help less experienced masters but are also interesting for the more seasoned ones. The ease of use and insertion are further points in favor. It can also work as a themed long one-shot.