Again, Realmwarp Media nails it. This book is a fantastic resource. As someone who isn't all that creative on the spot, this book creates a rich, developed setting for me to use with my players. For my Rifts campaign, I'm particularly interested in "The City Out of Time," and plan to use this as an integral part of my campaign. Just don't tell my players, sssh! The Simulacrum is of interest as well. Definitely worth the $14.99!

And, no, I'm not affiliated with Realmwarp Media in any way.

For a drop in story it is a great role play opportunity that makes the ambiguity and morality central to the story. Dealing with deep secrets it could be a crux for future sub-plots. Well worth including in your campaign as it fits almost anywhere and has a fantastic long-tail opportunity for the party.

A fun mysery with a good twist at the end. A great BBEG and some moral conflict for the players to decide on.

Having played this adventure, the story was so much fun. My particular playthrough was a total comedy of errors and the party loved every minute of it. Plus, this is a great cause and I'm happy to support it! I can't wait to run this for my friends!

file is missing! I have only the liscense text, etc but no art file!

This is a brilliant publication. It provides detailed descriptions of various cities, each centered around a school of magic. Each city has its own personality, places, NPCs, laws, quirks, etc. It's clear that a lot of time and heart went into this, including the artwork. My personal favorite is Nosticar, the city of Divination. It's truly system agnostic, so I was able to plug into my Rifts (don't laugh) game, and will use one or more of these cities in my D&D world. These cities can be used as last minute additions to your game session, or can be an integral part of your campaign. The price ($14.99) is higher than many other publications on here, but you get what you pay for I highly recommend this.

Perks and Pains offers a fantastic way to customize charaters to your heart's content. If you liked the expanded feat system offered in 3.5e or Pathfinder, Perks and Pains is excellent way to recreate those choices in 5e. The vast majoirty of the persk and pains feel unique and offer fantastic roleplay opprotunities inside and outside of combat. The supplement gives you a massive amount of content, but I wish the authors had spent a few more paragraphs talking about how to impliment perks and pains into your game. While the supplement compares major and minor perks/pains to feats and ASIs, many of the perks and pains, especially the racial and hertiage options, feel like something you need to commit to in character creation and not take at a level up.

Mechancially, I think the perks/pains, especially the combat options, are very well designed. My only complaint is that the perk dice system, a fantastic, unquie mechanic, is not utilized in many of the options that it should be. If a player is taking multiple perks and pains, there is no reason for there to be multiple resource pools to keep track of while perk dice are such an elegant system.

Overall, Perks and Pains is excellent way to offer an expanded feat system as well as help mechanize backstory traits for characters. The supplement is easy to read and organized well.

This book is a must purchase for any dungeon master who wants to expand character customization at the table!

Disclaimer: I recieved a reviewer's copy of this product.

The Isle of Endless Fog is a creepy dive into a secluded island shorouded in mystery, darkness, and... well, fog. It's great adventure for any group that pritoritizes player agency. There is anything but a clear path to the goal from start to finish, with players establishing their own route from start to finish.

A full review of the Isle of Endless Fog can be found on Roll4 Network.

The setting for this was quite intriguing, enough to draw me in from the start. Arthurian D&D has been around since the early days, but this is the first attempt I've ever seen at creating a high-magic non-humans-only take on the idea. The writing is very solid and the layout well done, with the book as a whole managing to be informative yet concise. The distinct detachment from obvious Christian or Pagan basis to instead tie it more strongly to the wider Cities of Myth multiverse may seem strange at first, but it quickly grows on you. The Leylinder is an interesting mixture of the Warlock's Invocation system and the Sorcerer's Mana system that manages to feel like a caster without introducing entirely new spells or just copy-pasting spells from one or more existing classes - it's definitely a unique idea, even if I'm not entirely sold on it. In comparison, I was particularly impressed by the subclasses; each of them feels very much a part of the Fallen Camelot world, and yet the archetypes are all solid enough that they could be easily plundered for other settings, which is something I look for in my 3rd party material, whilst simultaneously feeling unique instead of just retreading material from canon. My only real complaint, and the reason I can't give this 5 stars, is the races. Their lore is all decent enough, although Celestial-Blessed really feel kind of superfluous when Aasimar are a thing, but with the exception of the Dragon-Claimed and Celestial-Blessed, the mechanics all felt like they could have been better. The Faeborn getting Radiant Resistance but only at a specific time of day just feels like superfluous book-keeping, I see no reason why the Fiend-Scourged needed to reinvent the wheel instead of just stealing the Half-Orc's Relentless Endurance, and likewise I don't see why the Half-Giant has "Naturally Powerful" instead of just using the standard Powerful Build - it exists for a reason, there's really no need for authors to keep reinventing it, especially when it's such a ribbon trait to begin with. Even the Dragon-Claimed feel a little clunky in terms of mechanics, which is a shame when the subclasses are so well-written. All in all, a good book, but could have been better with the racial mechanics.

I'm not one for leaving long-winded reviews, so I'll do my best to keep this short but sweet.

This is an excellent product, one I am glad to have backed on Kickstarter, and will be glad to get a physical version of once the time comes. This book has excellent, high quality attention to detail, and has tons of content for a variety of different campaign styles, all set in a very detailed mythical Albion setting. The world building involved is deep enough to easily imagine but nothing comes across as needlessly detailed for the sake of detail, leaving lots of room's for people to run their own styles of game.

One of my favourite, and what I think will be the more overlooked feature is definitely the exploration system, which is something I feel is missing from D&D5e, as exploration is not given any tools normally to be worth getting into. The mechanics on offer here make sense, are balanced and it's easy to adjust on the fly.

This is absolutely worth checking out. The only areas where this can be improved are firstly what I believe to be an error in the contents page, where both Rogue and Monk seem to each be missing a subclass listing. Secondly, I think in the future, some sort of expansion on what is contained in each region of the map, something more detailed would be something of a lot of value.

All in all, a great product, and I'll look forward to more in the future.

The Island of Endless Fog by Christian Zeuch (@czeuch1) & Weighill (@diceaveragejack)

TRIGGER WARNING: Mental Health Issues, Depression, Disassociation, Self-Harm, Suicidal Ideation, Human Experimentation, Drugging and Abduction, Cannibalism, Murder of Civilians and children, Abusive Priest

I think it's important to say up top that there are some seriously dark and disturbing elements to this adventure. I want to be very clear that I mention this for folx to be appropriately informed, rather than in judgement, as a great deal of it fits this oppressive and corrupting setting and situation, as well as the stories being told. I think it's doubly important to mention this first as, unfortunately there isn't this kind of warning at the opening of this awesome adventure and bleak setting. I look forward to Trigger/ Content Warnings becoming more of a standard practice.

With that said, the right group, going in open and honest with trust and safety tools, this will be a real journey into, and hopefully out of the heart of darkness of this island besieged by insidiously warping ancient evil spirits. Let's get into it!

This is a beautifully bleak hexcrawl around an island smothered in oppressive darkness and fermenting wickedness. The Sluagh and their foul fog and maddening miasma are inscrutable and unknowable, but you must investigate the Island; discover the secrets buried within and without. Collect the scraps of information and open your heart and help these people tearing each other apart and worse, or become dark and hard as flint; indulge the mercurial machinations of men lost to madness of the mists and consent to cruelty. Worser still, lose yourself completely in the blanketing fog of yore; stumble blankly into the eternal night of truly annihilating nihilism...

There is still faint hope that your investigation can illuminate the mist's mysteries, lifting Man to the light, but it's not for the fainthearted.

This adventure "is an expansion from the Fallen Camelot setting focusing specifically on the Isle of Man." As someone from the Isle of Wight, an island with a name perfect for undead hijinks, ruined castles and attitudes concurrent with Arthurian time, I thoroughly look forward to getting my hands our adventure. Not that I'm pouting or showing off, but did you know we have these supernatural wonders to inspire your stories: "Lake" where there is no water. The "Needles" you cannot thread. "Ryde" where you walk. "Cowes" you cannot milk. "Freshwater" you cannot drink. "Newport" you cannot bottle. "Winkle street" where there are no Winkles (They were really scraping the barrel with this one!) "Newtown" which is very old/ "Newchurch" 900 years old. Not to mention the prettiest of coloured sand at Alum Bay!

Say bitter much, much?! Lol

Introduction

The introduction does all the introduction stuff we know oh so well with the overview, a great note on removing the survival elements, assuming PCs always have enough food and drink, if this tension-adding element doesn't suite your group. This is one of those truly divisive things from group to group, and I can see the merits of both, but I don't really track ammo or supplies unless survival is essential to the story being told (not to mention a Druid or Ranger with Goodberry makes that aspect of survival rather redundant anyways).

Cornish giants, exploring in their colossal longships, were the first to come to the Isle of Man, which they found covered in insidious fog produced by the foul spirits of the Sluagh. Being mighty warriors, the giants managed to contain the Sluagh at the top of a tower, sealed with the blood of their shaman. However, as is so often with these ancient tales, this was forgotten and man found a beautiful island to call home. Man's hubris and greed have unleashed the corrupting mists and choking fog.

This is a sandbox adventure designed to take characters from level 1-4 with a variety of levelling options and criteria, from XP to a milestone system compromising of various combinations of Story Objectives and Settlement Conflicts. The chapters of the adventure cover Exploration, Settlements and the Tower, with the latter being the Tower of Eternity, the source of supernatural goings on and the endgame of adventure.

Two detailed hooks are provided with NPCs, background and boxtext that set the party on a collision course with the adventure, whether they are aiding a merchant for moneys or investigating a town beset by bandits the local guard captain is dismissing as a false flag.

Chapter 1: Exploration

"The group wakes up on the shores of the Isle of Man, having travelled through a planar rift caused by the hungry Sluagh." The oppressive, creepy tone is soon set as they beset by Sluagh Spawn Husks, the beefy, biting, smothering Sluagh-kin to the common house or garden zombie.

This chapter covers the exploration and movement around the island between the settlements outline in the second chapter.

Exploration Objectives

The different types of these and how they relate to this section are layed out at the at the beginning with a variety of optional rewards depending on the levelling system you use and how generous you are feeling; Prominent: Passing through the Rocky Path Plain Sight: Reaching a Settlement and Hidden: Find Galehaut’s Tomb. This makes prepping and referencing in game nice and easy.

The optional rewards have some really interesting variety, going beyond the usual with some great short-term buffs, those that need certain parameters have to be met to unlock and familiar items given more flavour. For example, "Each explorer gains +1 AC until they finish a long rest", what is not to love about a relatively short boost to AC or any attribute or skill for that matter? Rewards with requirements are worked in with such flavour, "If the group transmits confidence and evokes goodness by telling the old King’s spirit that they want to help this land, he tells them that he was buried with some special bracers that made him a great hunter. These are bracers of the bow master" and, instead of just finding a potion there are unique and intriguing details, "The group finds a healing potion after they cross the path. The vial contains a small fissure, but the red liquid inside hasn’t leaked."

The Mist

"The whole island is covered by a dense blanket of fog. The mist originates from the Sluagh, falling from their backs onto the land, spreading and corrupting." The mist covers the island...endlessly, released by the foul Sluagh.

The Sluagh

"Also known as Corruptors or Mistbringers, Sluaghs are angry spirits made from the materialized souls torn from the bodies of the dying." These foul undead corrupt the land, with actual mechanical effects we'll get to shortly, as well as using their insidious will on the living, tainting their very souls to create their various Sluagh Spawn minions.

Sluagh originate from Celtic folklore as the spirits of the restless dead with their name, translated from Gaelic meaning "horde crowd".

You're probably wondering how to pronounce Sluagh, I know I am. I couldn't seem to find a lot of concrete help, though the best I managed and could listen to with the top votes appeared to either be: 'Slewer' as in skewer with an L instead of a K, or 'Sloola/ Slewla' as in the combination of Slew and La.

The number of Sluagh and where they are is set at the beginning of the adventure, but as the PCs explore and the land is corrupted by other Sluagh more and their direction of travel can be randomly generated. However, advice is given on not unleashing these unclean undead right away as they are likely to stomp low level parties.

Denizens

All folk have been effected by the Sluagh in various different ways, which is broken down from the Humans and Half-Giants are starving and thirsty, the corruption killing their crops and tainting their water, though a lone Druid is round their best keeping folx fed and watered, while the Giants a few having fallen bravely battling the Sluagh, and the Fae are equally weakened by battle losses, those that remain wandering the island doing what they can.

A note is provided about Non-Albion races, those not found in the Fallen Camelot setting, and the locals might react to them.

A simply gorgeous map depicts the island in three-mile hexes.

Navigating the Island

This section breaks down the hexmap, the levels of Sluagh corruption and random encounters.

The Sluagh-corrupted land are measured in a three-tier system from minor to overwhelming corruption. With each level the amount of sustenance, the way in which and what kind of creatures are affected by the corruption. For example, the sustenance provided for a minor-corrupted area is halved and Beasts, Monstrosities and Plants gain the Aberration type as well, along with bonuses to Constitution and negatives towards Intelligence, whereas consuming food or water from overwhelmingly-corrupted areas has serious poisoning and potentially exhausting effects. Additionally, at overwhelmingly-corrupted all creature types take on the Aberration type, as well as a list of increasingly potent buffs, resistances, immunities and additional poison damage.

Random Encounters

These are rolled on for each new hex without a present Sluagh with increased chance depending on travel speeds. Separate D8 tables for Plains, Forests and Hills/ Mountains, including appropriate existing creatures, the various new Sluagh Spawns I'll get to in the Appendixes (and one creature from the Fallen Camelot setting, which could easily be substituted if you lack access to it), and various geographical features. Each result has its own entry with Boxtext, description and bullet point information where appropriate, ranging from Brown Bears and Cornish Giants through Sluagh Spawn to Trampled Corpses and Wolves, with a variety of likely combat, social and utility or danger encounters.

There are 20 named locations on the map, each provided with a brief description.

Four Special Events are given further details, including joining up with a group of Satyrs to attempt to take down a horde of Sluagh Spawn, encountering the leader of some of the last surviving Pixies on the Island who can share information and become an ally to call upon, a foul-cursed giant berserker, and a colossal horde of Sluagh Spawn to deal with in a skull challenge with various information and suggestions.

Chapter 2: Settlements

This chapter contains the Exploration Objectives, as well as the details of the settlements on the island, including all relevant information and special events.

Exploration Objectives

Once again, the Prominent, Plain and Hidden Objectives are provided, along with the bullet pointed information and details. These consist of finding shelter, locating Galetess, the Uncrowned Queen, the stoic ruler of the island, and Discover the Source of the Sluagh by deducing the timeline of events, acquired through roleplay and/ or Intelligence checks as they visit the various settlements.

An overview of the government, culture & society, economy and the four settlements are provided, before the settlements are broken down individually.

Throughout the adventure small advice, explanations and information are provided in helpful, pretty purple boxes, such as the information that PCs can attempt to avoid Sluagh Spawn encounters by ducking into settlements with group Stealth, or discussing the spell Create Food and Water and whether or not you would wish the NPC Priests to have access to it, before the PCs reach level three. This centres around the level of survival you wish to go for in the game, as discussed in the Introduction. These purple boxes do a great job of already answering questions that may arise.

TRIGGER WARNING: Mental Health Issues, Depression, Disassociation, Self-Harm, Suicidal Ideation

One little purple box I actually found rather shocking, and think it really should come with a content/ trigger warning due to the sensitive and extreme nature of the elements discussed. This is regarding "Cotard's Delusion" a rare mental disorder affects people who then hold the delusional belief that they are dead, do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs". This being the result of malnutrition, corruption and /or being constantly surrounded by death and despair. The note included states, "feel free to add these features to any NPCs you choose. Some deny their existence, whilst others will perceive themselves as some kind of immortal shell of humanity." It then goes on to list a number of extremely confronting and distressing symptoms that, despite the general gloominess and pervasive darkness, frankly comes out of nowhere. While I understand this could an understandable element in this setting, the lack of appropriate warning, coupled with the sensationalizing of the condition's manifestations, raise the issue of this being problematic. Including extreme health, particularly mental health, in a supplement is something we should be turning to appropriately experienced sensitivity readers as a standard.

The Four Settlements

The settlements are presented with background information and history, current situation, detailed Information of prominent NPCs and encounters, map and locations with so many rich and varied NPCs of the supporting cast, scenarios, plot and flow, broken down into bullet points, where appropriate, allowing for ease of referencing, as well as the staggering ability to account for and work with so much without filling pages with endless options is seriously impressive.

Douglas

The largest settlement with stone walls, having benefited from being the home of the Uncrowned King and an active City Hall, all described in full with statblocks, spells, personality, etc. Resources are being affected, but as yet not too corrupted, though Sluagh Spawn still mid be rolled for during travel through the streets. However, things are balanced on a knife edge at City Hall, with the PCs willingness to help carry water, and if they insert themselves into a dark situation or see how quickly a captain can coup an Uncrowned King if that's a thing? I'm making light of a dark situation, which is so impressively and effortlessly laid out in bullet points with such impressive robustness to cover so many possibilities.

The dark deeds are not confined to City Hall, Eye of the Sage, the only public library on the island and a cerebral cathedral is a place of enlightenment, but one person's enlightenment is another fellow’s aberrant experimentation, abduction and cannibalism. Can the party solve the pre-murder mystery, uncover blasphemous truths and save a soul? Dare they face the Sluagh Spawn to get better equipped and precious water? Can cool heads prevail over paranoia?

Trigger Warning: Abusive Priest, Suicidal Ideation, Self-Harm

Ramsey

The second biggest berg finds itself thoroughly corrupted and needing saving. Two Sluagh roam the outskirts looking for prey, while inside the church the High Priest preys on his flock. A family cower in a basement bellow a swarm of Sluagh Spawn, but the melancholy malady has already got its claws into one who's family are imploring you to give him a hand.

Gansey

A small fishing village infested with Sluagh Spawn and penned in by two of the foul spirits, while inside a congregation are restraining and praying for Sluagh Husks, unwilling to face their souls having gone off been as warped as makes. No difference by the Sluagh. A group of consument cannibals in the deliciously apropos named Rotten Tooth Inn.

Derbyhaven

The smallest and most corrupted settlement, all but abandoned, save for the mayor and the last of the villagers hoped up her husband, as well as a to a trio of Sluagh and their Spawn.

Chapter 3: The Tower of Eternity

The Tower is ancient (over a millennia) and ominous, reaching 80-foot into the grey sky at the top of a 1000-foot Cliff. The tower has only been visited by the giants that trapped the Sluagh and the greedy fool who unwittingly unleashed them.

Exploration Objectives

The final three consist of Reaching the Tower (Prominent), Finding the Portal (Plain Sight) and Access/Destroy the Portal (Hidden) with up to a maximum of a tantalizingly brief +3 AC bonus being available among the rewards.

The soupy fog is thicker here and the PCs must face a Sluagh and its Spawn, emerging screaming from the nearby pond, before they can ascend the stygian steps.

The general features are clear laid out, we as the chilling information that the PCs may rest, though the Sluagh know they are here and are all converging on this point and will surely attack if given the chance to catch up, before the classic dungeon-style room to room descriptions.

The tower is filled with archaic statues, jump scare combats, hidden secrets and creepy accoutrements, including cryptic letters about human test subjects and failed experiments. The nature of the tower and its history slowly unfold becoming more unsettling and disturbing with each successive floor and discovery. Shadows converge as the Library, Labs and prion, figuratively and literally, and with them whispers of profane secrets and perfidious darkness.

Piles of inert bones become a horde of swarming skeletons when the hidden dark heart of the Tower of Eternity, the Portal Room is uncovered. In that heart the canker waits:

Thin wisps of reddish smoke spool from his back, tethered to the magic of the four swirling portals. As his eyes open, glowing white orbs stare into your very soul. As his mouth opens, a thousand voices speak: “The prey sees itself a predator. It shall know pain in its failings, suffering in its death, and eternity in our mist. We are Beaynid, Myriad Quintessence. This hold shall be its grave.

The Lord of the Sluagh is a horrifying, legendary CR 5 embodiment of chaos and a true test of the PCs' resolve, as well as being a testament to the wickedness of the corruption on the Isle of Man, the Sluagh and the deliciously evil writers.

Victorious, anything but leaves them as nothing more than wisps of night handing from the tails of Beaynid's coat for all eternity, the bounty of the poor fool who wrought such blight on this land are theirs for the taking, as well as the chance to return home. The altruistic may wish to destroy the portals, saving the Island for further incursions of the Sluagh, but also trapping themselves here permanently and in desperate need to get as far away from the towers as possible, before the remaining Sluagh finish the job - a sure thing in their weekend state after the bids battle. The Arcane-minded may even be able to race against the clock and the converging Sluagh to reverse the portals, potentially vacuuming up the Sluagh and mist and putting that thing back where it came from or so help me, destroying the tower in the process!

Whether trapped on the island with the remaining Sluagh and people permanently altered by their experiences and actions, returning home or taking the leap of faith into the reversed portals to wherever your devious mind wishes to take them, the character and depth of this adventure certainly inspires the telling of further tales.

Appendix

Appendix A contains the 16 unique full statblocks, ranging from the specific NPCs, like Beaynid, Myriad Quintessence and Galetess, the Uncrowned Queen, NPC archetypes, such as Card Shark and Chorister to new creatures in the Poisoned Water Elemental, as well as the Sluagh and their myriad Spawn.

Appendix B contains treasure, the masterwork, but not magical, bow and arrows, and nine magic items, including the Pixie ally calling Bell of Hope, Heroic Elixir Potion, an uncommon cousin to the Potion of Heroism, and the Stone of Heightened Senses, granting greater Insight.

The Mike Zairos Pifano (@zairosartworks) cover, "A Sluagh, an evil spirit composed of materialized cloud with many faces and arms, among some trees, with a dark tower looming behind under a night, full moon sky, with three adventurers sneaking behind a rock, watching the Sluagh" sets the tone for the whole adventure, which is gorgeously depressing; professionally laid out to the highest quality with seriously sumptuous maps and aesthetics that are anything, but awfulness...while depicting it so well.

This is a beautifully bleak hexcrawl around an island smothered in oppressive darkness and fermenting wickedness. The Sluagh and their foul fog and maddening miasma are inscrutable and unknowable, but you must investigate the Island; discover the secrets buried within and without. Collect the scraps of information and open your heart and help these people tearing each other apart and worse, or become dark and hard as flint; indulge the mercurial machinations of men lost to madness of the mists and consent to cruelty. Worser still, lose yourself completely in the blanketing fog of yore; stumble blankly into the eternal night of truly annihilating nihilism...

There is still faint hope that your investigation can illuminate the mist's mysteries, lifting Man to the light, but it's not for the fainthearted.

The true strength of this adventure is the depth of the setting, the quality of the writing and the stories, as well as the care given to each area and NPC, but above all else it is the divine balancing act, which allows every moment to play out as small Rube Goldberg machines that are all cogs in a much larger contraption, which doesn’t even exist until the game is played. Despite my personal bias, the Isle of Man is a perfect sized sandbox for this adventure to play out, with the variety of exploration, random encounters, settlements, story encounters and the NPCs. There is the rare thing of mindful restraint; rather than there being a never-ending cavalcade of places, encounters and people there is always three or four significant elements. These elements are all approached with such care as to make them perfect for the job. This balance of elements coupled with the golden ratio of plot points and options truly give the impression that anything could happen, providing the equipment needed to respond and roll with improvisation. Besides absolute chaos, and frankly many of us have been at that table, the gods help any material or DM attempting to conduct it, the writers have considered the various ways players and their characters might react to the various situations carefully, thereby giving the DM almost all they need to have the confidence to feel covered and be ready for any situation. This zoomed-in, honed craft has not gone unnoticed and it truly elevates this above a grim, gory sandbox of doom.

Credits

Author Christian Zeuch (@czeuch1) Co-Author Jack Weighill (@diceaveragejack) Editor Jack Weighill Publisher Realmwarp Media Cover Illustrator Mike Zairos Pifano Interior Illustrator Mike Zairos Pifano (@zairosartworks), Bruno (b.wolf art), and art under CC0 license; Playtesters Bas van Diepen, Basil Arnold, Leandro Alves Duarte, Marcos Sillas, Matheus Pires da Silva, Thiago Longatti, Yuri Paludo, Sergey Special Thanks Adam Hancock (@AdamDMsGuild) for his inspiration on NPCs used in this module GMBinder Ryan Langr (@RealmwarpM)

As a regular spellcaster in my groups I can't tell you the amount of times I describe an action as "I cast X", breaking the immersion and level of detail we had otherwise built in our session. For only $1 you have a huge variety of suggestions now to keep both the cool spell casting and your immersive roleplay, can explicitly recommend!

It has minor fixes to be done and I have made suggestions for improvement after careful review, but the author is happy and cooperative so I am sure this will be quickly resolved!

Thanks for the product, I look forward to the rest of the alphabet!

A number of creative tavern games in a multitude of forms from dice to cards and gambling to add a spice to your roleplay with each rest your party makes.

Not too fond of dice or cards? Are you the party barbarian that loves to smash things and drink beer?! Well this material accomodates to you too. With a supplement table on random drinking effects and new games of strength and brawn in the forms of arm wrestling or good ol' fisty cuffs (boxing).

With its only discredit being formatting tweaks which I am sure can easily remedied you should absolutely check it out today if you find yourselves frequently in the tavern, for only $1 can you afford NOT to?

I just started playing this but already I have found a ton to love. One of the first things that caught my attention as I was reading through the rulebook was a clever rock-paper-scissors-ish conflict mechanic in which characters choose an action and reveal their choices simultaneously and either one character gets a slight advantage over the other or no character gets an advantage. This allows for weaker characters to remain competitive by playing smart, and stronger characters still need to stay on their toes- but it doesn't just shred the balance. It's well calibrated so that it's not a free for all, it rewards smart play just enough to incentivize it.

This applies to combat but crucially also to verbal confrontations. Building a mechanic into the game to resolve debates or arguments between characters is brilliant. It allows for roleplaying but it makes a middle way between characters (or players or GMs) who just roll over and give in to argument and those who will argue ad infinitum out of some misplaced sense of needing to win or get the last word.

Finally, characters 'chambers' are something that I am still wrapping my head around buch which I really enjoy. It's a unique way of doing character stats, and I'm still working out the details of it in my head, but one of the best things about it is the way that skills are distributed in such a way that many different characters can get access to the same bonuses but only in specific situations. For instance, every character in your party might have a bonus to their martial acumen (skill), but each one has it in a different context. One might have it if they are standing next to an ally, another might have it if they are fighting a rearguard action, another if they are facing overwhelming odds, another if they are convinced their cause is righteous or something. It makes the player actively seek good roleplay opportunities because so many bonuses are contextual.

In short, it's a great system and I look forward to learning more of it.

With this primer, you immediatly get a taste for what the Cities of Myth line is going to be like - and immediatly it is different than almost anything out in the market for 5e. Right from the get-go, you see that what the Realmwarp team and contributing creators are going is aiming to give you an experience like no other: players become explorers, the DM becomes a World Runner, the different settings are connected by ley lines that crisscross the world, and the differentiation of denizens from travellers and explorers. What I love most about this book is that it is based almost entirely on a sandbox model - you are explorers discovering the lost cities of ancient tales (which they have got a metric brick-ton of other books coming along), and this primer gives you all you need to wet your whistle before wanting more. I highly recommend snagging this primer and subscribing to the newsletter to keep in the loop for more info on Cities of Myth. Without a doubt I can already give this a Comics, Clerics, & Controllers Golden d20 Badge.