⚠️ SPOILER WARNING ⚠️
This article discusses the specific design, clues, and mechanics of Limithron’s The Gold Bug adventure for Pirate Borg. If you intend to play this module, read no further!
For whatever reason, perhaps too many late night sessions browsing pirate art; I was watching The Goonies. I was fully in the mood for a chaotic, trap-filled pirate dungeon when Luke, over on the Limithron Patreon, dropped a new adventure zine just in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day: The Gold Bug.
This adventure, written for Pirate Borg, is an absolute masterclass in focused, single-session chaos. Inspired by everything from Edgar Allan Poe’s classic story to Uncharted 4, it perfectly illustrates one of the central dilemmas I face when prepping a short game: Is there time for a red herring?
The Lure of the Red Herring
A red herring, a false lead, a deceptive clue, or a tempting but ultimately useless side path is a vital tool in any good mystery or long form campaign. It makes the world feel real, rewards players who go the extra mile, and ensures the true solution doesn’t feel too obvious.
However, in a tight, three-hour session, a true red herring becomes a massive risk. We have a limited currency: player time.
If a red herring consumes 30 minutes of your precious 180-minute session, that time is gone. It wasn’t spent progressing the plot, and it wasn’t spent fighting the boss. It was spent chasing something that was never there. For a short adventure that needs to deliver a decisive ending, that time is often unforgivable.
The Gold Bug’s Solution: The Consequential Side Path
What I loved about playing The Gold Bug is how it addresses this challenge, replacing the “dead end” red herring with the consequential side path.
A true red herring leads nowhere and burns the players’ time and morale. A consequential side path leads to loot, henchmen, or a necessary debuff—something that materially affects the final outcome.
The design of the Buzzard’s Nest is a perfect study in this:
- The Main Clues are Direct: The Gold Bug’s Prism gives the precise geographical location, and the Cryptogram Scroll gives the exact step by step entry method (SEVENTH BRANCH HIGH -> DEATH’S RIGHT EYE). There is no ambiguity about the first step.
- Diversions are Rewarding: Digging under the sand in the Bucket Chamber is an optional action, but it’s immediately rewarded with jewels and gold. The underwater tunnel yields a locked chest containing silver and a journal detailing all the traps. These are rewards that justify the time spent.
- The “Herring” is a Key: The adventure even includes an item called the Red Wooden Fish, which is explicitly a “herring.” But it’s not a dead end! It contains the message YE BEST NOT FEAR THE DARK!, which cues the player to charge the Cryptogram Scroll with light, revealing the hidden second message that opens the way forward. It’s a red herring that’s actually a vital key.
The module proves that every major player investment should yield a tangible result for a one-shot to feel satisfying. There are of course some actual red herrings thrown in using the D10 table for good measure, in the way of false clues for The Compass Room, but they are easily ignored or added for flavour when you need something else.
The One-Shot Rule: No Dead Ends (Unless You Have Time)
When designing for a sharp, short adventure, I now enforce a simple rule based on my experience with this type of zine: Do not create any clue, path, or NPC that consumes more than 15 minutes of session time without yielding a tangible, immediate benefit.
If a player insists on following a deceptive rumour, the Referee must be prepared to quickly give them the payoff, or redirect them back to the main objective with minimal fuss.
How to Incorporate Side Paths in a One-Shot:
- Make Them Cheap: The diversion should be resolved with a single skill roll or one quick room description. If the player dedicates more than 10 minutes to it, narrate a quick success or failure and move on.
- Make Them Necessary: As with The Gold Bug, ensure the “false” path is where the party finds the literal key to the final encounter, a map piece, a specific ritual ingredient, or the enemy’s specific weak spot.
If you are running a two-hour dungeon crawl, every minute must count towards an encounter or an objective. Save the sprawling, deliberately misleading wild goose chases for a full-length campaign. For the quick hit, follow The Gold Bug model: make every diversion profitable, or make it necessary.
A Note on Limithron’s Patreon
If you are running any kind of pirate game, I must give a massive shout out to Luke and the Limithron team. Their Patreon is an astonishingly useful resource that goes far beyond a single module like The Gold Bug.
From top-tier battle maps and digital assets to new zines and adventures the content they produce is immediately usable and bursting with flavour.
It’s also worth noting that the modularity of these zines means that while I use The Gold Bug for a sharp one-shot, there is plenty more to explore. The extensive list of rival crews, various entry points, and optional locations mean the adventure could easily be scaled up and spread over several sessions or incorporated into an existing campaign if that’s more your thing, using the side paths as springboards for future sessions. Their Patreon is one of the best investments I’ve made in keeping my own gaming table alive.
