The Shadows of Silverton – A D&D One Shot (unfinished)
This is an excellent example of one of the many things I tried out to see how it felt. I was experimenting with a lot of different avenues of storytelling and art at the time, and while I am happy with a lot of ways this turned out overall I don’t think this turned out to be a good fit. I have come back to DMming time and time again. I’ve run a few short games for family and friends, an even launched a campaign or two. I think I’m pretty good at it, and I certainly enjoy the work. It is a lot of work though. I am already pretty limited in what I can do day to day. Time and energy are precious resources for me, and as much as I love planning fun adventures for my loved ones, I can’t really keep up with the demanding work load. Hug your DMs!!! Tell them you love them. They’re all working really hard lol.
As tough as it was, I have always loved this form of storytelling, and it’s always really fun to try and design a campaign. I definitely had a blast with this one. I went all out. I designed all the art, maps, and story myself. You’ll probably notice the encounters aren’t really balanced all that well, and I didn’t have a super great grasp on how to make those things flow together as nicely. I have always been better at the story, art, and atmosphere than the really intelligent work of balancing a satisfying encounter.
I also tried my hand at designing some character sheets that were more intuitive. Overall, I ended up giving up on many aspects of this project. Not all projects are meant to be! I definitely had a lot of fun working on it though, and there’s a lot of great stuff here if anyone was ever interested in using some of my ideas. Be my guest! They are all free. 😀 Maybe you could perfect what I could not!
the Setting
The town is home to a small but well-respected wizard’s college, which has brought in money and resources for the townsfolk. Throughout most of the year, the town is full of students. During the winter season, however, the college closes and most of the students return to their homes. During those months, the town is quiet, the streets nearly empty. Only the Winking Mist, the town’s only tavern, retains its lively atmosphere.
This is a short paragraph with some behind the scenes information on what inspired this setting, what vibe I was going for, and what I found interesting about it.
(left) town map
Strange forgetfulness
If the players pass a passive perception or perception check of 15 or higher, or if they ask a local about the lighthouse, they will notice that no one in the town seems to be able to see the lighthouse. Only the adventurers can see it.
The Winking Mist
The Winking Mist is the town’s only tavern and therefore is the hub of life in Silverton. It is rather big for the small town, and you can see where recent additions have been made to the building as rooms have been added on. It has a handful of rooms the players can rent out. The tavern has a handful of patrons, most of whom will be polite, but uninviting to newcomers.
The Lighthouse
At the far end of town on an outcropping of rock, an old, dilapidated lighthouse looks out over the sea. A low, crumbling wall surrounds it and an overgrown garden.
Ordinary Enough
If the players approach the lighthouse without an attuned talisman, it will appear like any other abandoned old lighthouse.
The Old Church and House
A small graveyard is at the north end of the town. There is an old, dilapidated church and a small house right next door. A history check of 10, or asking a local will reveal that the church was once a church of Hecate. The church looks as if it is under construction. Scaffolding, construction supplies, paint, etc. can be found around the property. The church is roped off…
Monsters, PCs, and NPCs
Peabody is the Winking Mist proprietor. He is a large, friendly man who knows nearly
everything that happens in his small town. He is popular and clearly has been one of the biggest benefactors of the wizard’s college. He looks out for the townsfolk and is the person people go to for advice and help. He is an NPC who will have the most useful information for the adventurers.
My strengths and weaknesses with designing campaigns really becomes pretty obvious in this section I think. I have always had a knack for coming up with memorable characters, however (especially at the time-) I never really felt confident that I had figured out how to properly balance the PC, the monsters, or the encounters. I tried using things like Kobold Fight Club and re-flavoring existing monster stat blocks, but I was never fully happy with how it all came together. 🙂 I also wanted to come up with some pre-made PC and thought it would be fun to pull some characters from classic literature. Now, I know what you’re thinking, this campaign feels pretty spooky so I’m definitely going to come up with some spooktacular characters, right? Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, Carmilla, that sort of thing. Well… I didn’t do that. It did not occur to me until now, as I’m touching up this blog post in 2026 (four years later) how much of a bad tone fit the characters I ended up picking are with this campaign. It would have made WAY more sense to design a classic knightly sort of campaign for the guys I ended up picking. Oh well. hindsight and all that. XD
The buttons that the shadow puppets drop are copper, with an insignia of a salamander on it that matches the Wizard school’s logo. On the back are the initials T. W. This button counts as a talisman that will allow them to enter the
lighthouse. They will also be able to see a network of gossamer-fine threads spreading out from the top of the lighthouse all over the city, as well as a handful of magical strings connecting the button to the lighthouse
Player Characters
Hamlet
Lancelot
Medusa
Puck
Robin Hood
Monsters
Of all the things I came up with for tis campaign I had the most fun with, and I think am the most proud of the monsters. At least, concepts wise I think they’re pretty cool. They are, in truth, just re-flavored monsters from D&D beyond. I was young and foolish and so, so corny when I made this. (now I am only two of those three things on any given day lol.) While I certainly can’t claim credit for the main chunk of the stuff, I did have some cool ideas that I just didn’t really have the skills to flesh out. Plus, the art on the Loom Master is awesome as hell IMO.
loom master
shadow puppet
re-flavored crawling claw 😀
Unfinished Additions
It was about this point when I started to realize my project, even if I finished all the art I wanted to do for it, wasn’t really going to ever be complete. Part of that is because I realized this sort of thing probably wasn’t ever going to be my favorite – and that’s totally cool! I had made a good amount of progress on all of the finishing touches for this project and I really liked how it turned out. I think I could have done a lot more, but I got to a point where I realized I had put all the effort into this that I wanted to. Maybe this is an idea I will revisit. More likely I will keep working on my webcomic, and maybe make another zine set :D.
These are my tarot-sized character cards. I always find using a character sheet to be a bit fiddly and overwhelming. It takes a bit for me to scan the whole document to find what I’m looking for. (pretty sure I have dyslexia lol.) Great idea – definitely got lost in the execution. There’s more pictures of my process too.
aaand that’s all folks! Thanks so much for reading! 🙂
oh look it’s the bottom
