Well, first off, I've to admit that I'm a bit biased when it comes down to backdrops like this. I loved the town

descriptions Paizo did back then in the old Dungeon days (and their newer ones in their Pathfinder product line), and

that's the standard I compare similar products with. Which naturally is a bar raised too high for Chubby Monster Games'

first product (and a bar they probably didn't even try to reach).

This said, the Village of Cowfold still seems like a highly useful product to me. You can put it in nearly any campaign

setting (even non-fantasy ones), it contains several interesting locations and NPCs. And it's full of little details

you normally miss in such a description (really, anyone putting a price tag for a Mug of Cow's milk in his book gets a

big bonus point from me).

But let's start with the beginning. The product consists of three parts: an entry from Lexx's journal, in which said

Lexx describes his impressions from his visit; it is well written if probably a bit long drawn out. But I could nearly

smell the aromas coming out of Penny's bakery (and I like to see through the eyes of a world's inhabitant).

Second, there was the description of several locations, including the NPCs living and working in them. The description

of the NPCs seemed a bit too repetitive (and sometimes sounded as if rolled on a random table) but apart from that were

full of details (and sometimes hinted at/described secrets which could translate into adventure possibilities)

And thirdly, three direct adventure hooks, some of them referring to those secrets.

So, as said before, even with those little "flaws", the product seems highly usable, if only for mining it for some

ideas/NPCs/locations. It's well layouted, easily readable, and as it's free, I'd recommend it for anyone looking for a

village he can insert in his own campaign world. Could well be the starting point for my next campaign.

The purpose of the product is provide GMs with a small village to plant in their campaign. It starts with an overview map of Cowfold. In typical Matt Jackson style it is simply drawn with an old school feel that I personally will never tire of. From there it is broken into three sections. A short journal entry from a traveler named Lexx who enters the village as a stranger and encounters some of what Cowfold has to offer.

The section section is the meat of the product and these are descriptions of Locations in Cowfold. Each of these descriptions is accompanied by a small inset of its location on the village map. Descriptions of the people within the village and how they interact with the others. Then the best part is the Secrets section. Gives a peek at what's going on behind those innocent faces.

And lastly there is a small section dedicated to three adventure hooks for a GM to tempt the players passing through. There are many more hooks available in the secrets sections of the descriptions that a GM could plunder for adventure hooks.

This is a well done product. It looks good, easy to read and easy to use. There is no reason not to get it since it's free. It's not like we all can't use a premade village in our games. Overall, this is a great start for Chubby Monster Games. I think they have good talent in their small group and look forward to the other products they develop.

While it's been some time since I worked with Matt (I remember the old FUM days!), I've been trying my best to follow what he's been up to the last while.

And lo and behold I come across this new product of his. I've always been a huge fan of Matt's map's and art work. Now that he's joined forces with Bryan Meadows to put some text to his fantastic artwork.

This first release from Chubby Monster Games is a fairly generic fantasy village, with plenty of hooks and detail on a large number of residents and resources. The biggest plus with this product is that it is completely system neutral as it stands now. They do have some plans for releasing stat/rules blocks later - but I hope this will be a separate download or product.

Overall, the layout is extremely clean, and distraction free. The text choice is very legible, and easy on the eyes. It looks just as good on my 13" laptop, as on my 27" desktop. I've yet to try on my phone, but I would suspect it'll be fine there as well.

It's a fantastic first product from a team that I look forward to seeing more from in the future!

Excellent starting point for a new series of campaign locations.

I was able to download Cowfold and pluck an NPC out to use in my campaign within minutes. The maps are nicely formatted for ease of use and the village is a nice compact size without seeming to be bound by the square edges of the sides of paper.

I like how each NPC is given a quick description and simple motivations. The secrets section can help if this turns into more than a quick side trek encounter also.

Overall I am very happy to have this in my bag of tricks for when my players travel cross country and I need a quick waypoint.