A Rotten Harvest: A Spooky D&D 5E One-Shot

The lanterns are lit, the cider is warm, and Amberfield's Harvest Festival is about to crown its winner.

A Rotten Harvest is a Halloween one-shot for D&D 5E. Your party investigates the disappearance of Amberfield's contest winning farmer, and discovers the horrifying truth about his cursed harvest. Now they are the only hope to save the entire village, before it's too late.

Finish in one session. Walk away with a story.

One night. Any table. Run it as a standalone Halloween special, a side quest for your ongoing campaign, or the first adventure you ever DM. The story is a thrilling mystery including some exciting (combat) encounters. Plenty of room for roleplay, plus the grit your barbarian came for.

A Rotten Harvest is a complete adventure for 
3–4 D&D 5E characters, levels 1–4.

About the Book

Something has fallen over Wendell's farm, a dark magic that doesn't stay contained to one field. Whatever's growing out there now is spreading toward Amberfield itself, and the village has no idea what's coming for its Harvest Festival.

Built to Run, Not Just Read

Every page is written for the table, not just the reading chair. Inside, you'll find:

• Read-aloud text for every key scene, so the narrative is always ready when you need it
• NPC sections with real personalities and motivations, not just names and stat blocks
• Location descriptions so you always know exactly what's in front of the party and where it leads next
• Random tables to help you decide what's coming for the players
• Story-driven ability checks and saving throws, always with a DC ready, so the moment calls for a roll and you're never stuck doing the math mid-scene
• Full monster stat blocks, ready to run without cross-referencing anything
• Magic items woven into the story itself, not bolted on as loot

Every page is built to pull you into Amberfield before you've rolled a single die. Every location, encounter, monster, and NPC gets its own original artwork, nothing generic, nothing recycled from a stock library.

What's in the box

Everything you need to run this Halloween one-shot

• A Spooky Halloween Adventure
• Hand-crafted NPCs & Monsters
• Multiple battlemaps (VTT & Print-ready)
• Atmospheric playlist
• Theater of the Mind plates
• Printed softcover (Amberfield tier and up)
• 3D-printable Great Pumpkin miniature (Prize Winner tier)

Cast of Characters

Terrifying monsters

Reward Tiers

Just want the story? The Farmhand tier gets you the complete PDF, nothing else, no commitment.

Most backers land here: the Harvester tier adds every battlemap, NPC, monster, and handout, everything you need to run the whole thing. Back before the first 35 are gone and you get it as the Harvester’s Early Bird, €12 instead of €15.

Want it on your shelf? Amberfield ships you a printed softcover anywhere in the world, with your name credited as a supporter.

And if Wendell’s pumpkin left an impression, the Prize Winner tier gets you a 3D-printable Great Pumpkin miniature to go with it.

Shipping isn't included in the price shown. Costs vary too much by destination to set one fair rate, so we'll calculate it based on your location and collect it through a short survey after the campaign closes.

Note: physical copies may arrive after Halloween, digital delivers immediately at campaign close.

Stretch Goals

About us

We're Jane and Fabian, the two people behind Crits & Crafts. Jane handles the writing, the storyline, and everything you see on social media and in our photography. Fabian writes alongside her, builds the visuals, handles formatting, and runs the business side.

We've been playing D&D for years, Fabian behind the DM screen, Jane at the table, and we're both still deep in a long-running Curse of Strahd campaign that hasn't let go of us yet. That love for a good gothic, slow-dread story is exactly what pulled us toward making one-shots like this ourselves. Halloween just happens to be the perfect excuse: it's the one time of year where the whole table already wants the lights down and the cider warm.

We come from a design background, and between the two of us we've got years of both playing and running games. A Rotten Harvest is our third Kickstarter. The first two, Murder on the Aurora Dawn and The Carnival of Forgotten Smiles, both funded and shipped exactly as promised, and a good chunk of the people who backed those are the same people cheering us on for this one.

We make these because we love running them ourselves, and we hope your table enjoys Amberfield's harvest as much as we enjoyed building it.