An introduction to pocket-sized adventures: what they are, how to design them, and how one works in practice.

A year ago, Mythic Bastionland crossed my path: a TTRPG based on Arthurian legends where knights seek myths, honor seers, and protect the realm. This myth-seeking is what primarily grabbed me. The stories unfold dynamically through timeline-based encounter tables, called omens, as players explore the wilderness.

Those omens drive the narrative. Mythic Bastionland focuses primarily on the knight’s overland journeys, leaving dungeons and other adventure sites more on the wayside. However, what if I wanted both? What if, instead, I take that dynamic encounter style and anchor it to a physical dungeon.

Enter the Pocket Dungeon.

The Booklet

Pocket dungeons are A7 booklets (although I’ve made one letter-sized as well) based on the pocketfold design, which folds into a small zine without any cutting required. Because of how it unfolds, each page flip reveals a larger spread. This naturally layers the adventure into 3 expanding phases. Step by step, the adventure expands as players venture deeper into the module.

This specific booklet was made for the Mystic Woods Jam, which came with a few rules:

• Be set in or at least include a wood or forest.
• Include some element of randomization or change.

Rainfall followed directly from these requirements. Droughts and downpours have alternatingly terrorized the Netherlands recently, so it felt as an appropriate theme. I wanted to explore how such weather alters creatures and locations alike, and integrate these aspects into an evocative forest-crawl and -location.

Phase 1: Truth & Rumours

Superficial information, the edges of an adventure. This spread gives a GM the tools required to introduce information into their campaign. The Truth a useful summary of events leading up to the central conflict. The Rumors these events through bystander eyes, to help integrate the situation into a grander campaign and steer players in the right direction.

In Rainfall, the truth spans back quite some time, while its rumors all manifest in the now. Rumors that reflect ancient history take the shape of myths and legends. In this case, the storm priests’ plea recalls the dewglobe as a source of their god’s wrath, but misattributes current events to that wrath. Yet, following up on their plea still tumbles the players into the adventure, albeit with skewed assumptions.

Phase 2: Seeding Overland Encounters

Mythic Bastionland uses a strict timeline, resolved in order. Most OSR encounter tables are less linear, and let the story develop through dice rolls and their consequences. I’m a fan of the latter, but recognize that some story beats need predecessors; a volcano should start smoking before it erupts. Encounters could depend on other encounters or change on repeated rolls, as long as it reinforces the narrative.

Take Rainfall for example, where the presence of rain influences what players encounter on the road. Dice rolls of 2 and 3 influence the weather, which has both immediate consequences (per the Cairn rules) and impact on future rolls. Adversaries often benefit from rain, making the wet situation an escalating problem for the player, even if they initially had no incentive to stop the downpour.

Phase 3: The Dungeon

The last spread contains your standard one-page dungeon. This is where the real crawl begins, and this portion takes a substantial amount of the time needed to “solve” the adventure. It’s where the setup provided by the encounter table culminates to a climax.

Rainfall’s dungeon is designed around the theme of floods. Rain introduced by the overland encounters also affects the dungeon in several ways: flooding rooms, opening doors, revealing treasure. Players should be sick of water at the end of their endeavors. The verticality of the dungeon plays into this theme as well; water will always find its way down, as the waterfall demonstrates.

Pocket Adventuring

I’m very happy with how this project turned out. The 3 unfolded phases easily zoom between world lore, overland travel, and the dungeon crawl. I’ve yet to fully test out the scenario due to time constraints, but players are already complaining about the rain. I’d call that a win.

I’d love to hear from you, dear reader, if this project of pocket adventuring has legs. I hope to expand it further and experience how integrating multiple pocket dungeons would play out. Follow along if you’d like to see where it goes next!

Groetjes, Willem-Jan

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