To Drown a Fish is a one-shot comedic adventure by Simon Rosner – to be more accurate, according to the tagline, it’s “a silly mystery in a silly place”.

Disclaimer: We were provided with a free digital copy of To Drown a Fish

The adventure takes place in a village called Tuckchester – a boring, depressed little fishing village where nothing ever happens and people end up to rather than go to. It’s a truly miserable place, where the only entertainment is a tavern called “Don’t Go Inn”. Some of the descriptions for the townspeople include “mildly depressed and extremely divorced”, “perpetually annoyed and frustrated with his lot in life”, “equal parts talented and creatively bankrupt”, and finally “the meanest, most vile old man alive” – thankfully, these are all different people. 

As for the story itself, well – on the wall of the Inn, there is a magical singing fish. Last night, someone stole that fish. The complication is that noone remembers anything at all from last night – including the party, if they were in town. So, by virtue of being the most sane, sober, and competent people in town (and considering the types of characters some players make, that says a lot about Tuckchester) they are promptly deputized and tasked with solving this heinous crime. They will have to talk to several people and do serious police work, investigating clues and interviewing suspects and witnesses (yeah, right – they’ll have to listen to insane ramblings and annoying complaints) before they finally uncover the perpetrators and return the mythical artifact to its rightful place.

The adventure should be a short one (4 hours, according to the author), depending on how much the players want to mess around. There shouldn’t really be much in terms of combat – in fact, you can probably go through the whole thing without ever drawing a weapon. In the first page, there is the reminder that – “The players are trying to find out who stole a singing fish; they do not have justification for lethal force.” There is quite a bit of detail given for the main NPCs, including tables with possible checks and their DCs that will help a lot with guiding the players, but not much for the random townspeople they might interact with – on the other hand, they wouldn’t really have anything to add to the investigation regardless, but it’s a good opportunity for the GM to make up their own silly characters.

Overall, To Drown A Fish delivers exactly what it promises – a silly mystery. It might not exactly fit in a larger campaign, but it’s great for a lighthearted one-shot that doesn’t require dungeon crawling.