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The Mug and Bottle
by Jim C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/18/2009 18:43:23

Presents various forms of depravity as advertised. I don't know that they combine into a particularly sensible experience. "Heroin" is not the only crashing anachronism.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
The Mug and Bottle
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The Black Ape
by Robert M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/22/2009 16:16:59

You approach a tavern sign, with the painting of the head of a black ape on it. Your probably thinking, "Well, here is another tavern like the hundreds of others." Then you enter. Its not a tavern like the hundreds of others. In fact, you may feel like you have been transported to another part of the world, or maybe another world entirely. You could stay, and keep coming back, to enjoy the truly exotic foods and drinks available here, and other possible pleasures. Or you could get nosy and find out things you may regret finding out, or maybe lead to an exotic adventure of a lifetime! As usual for the products of this line, you get another "unique" location with unusual NPC's leading to several unexpected possibilities, friendships, and enemies. The only thing I would wish for is a developed menu of exotic foods to fit this place. Many are suggested, but a formal menu that I could print out with a "Todays Prices" column for me to fill in after printing it out would be a nice bonus. Plus a section in which I can add "Todays Specials" so I can add other exotic elements unique to my campaign, like my Halfling Stew or Kobold Pie. Definitely a Tavern with a surprise flavor to it.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Black Ape
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The Lord's Kennel
by Robert M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/22/2009 16:05:14

This is far more interesting than I initially thought it would be. I thought, "A dog kennel? How can that be interesting?" Well you find out! For one, it is a "Lords" kennel, so can be used as a vehicle to get PC's involved with the local nobility. They also have several other interesting hooks that can lead into fighting bandits and the like, as well as several other things I do not want to give spoilers for. So bottom line, this was not the boring dog kennel I feared it was going to be, it gave me at least 5 adventure hooks I think we would have a lot of fun playing out, with the potential of generating many more through play. So this product continues to be as enjoyable as the rest of the line, despite having such a boring face to it. Not to mention be a source of some interesting dogs for Rangers, Druids, and any other PC interested in having trained hunting/war dogs.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Lord's Kennel
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Siarl's Herbs and Elixirs
by Robert M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/22/2009 15:56:23

Out of all of these I think this is my favorite. Siarl is the classic enigmatic NPC with some big secrets that players may or may not ever find out. At the very least Siarl is a good person to go to for basic herbal supplies and elxirs that can help keep your PC's alive. Siarl is so much more though, so you may want to drop heavy hints to get your PC's to get to know Siarl even better.

Siarl could be the party sponsor and even mentor, He is definitely a good person to make a friend and ally of, and the GM can definitely use him to create many adventure hooks and even use Siarl to save the party if its ever needed. The best part is he will be part of the "story", the PC's world, so if you ever do need someone who can save the parties butt, Siarl can be it, and it will make sense for a friend to come and save them.

Several of the "hooks" provided will also make for some unique gaming experiences as well. So I really like this one because I see it becoming a central location and NPC to many of my future games, as well as a great way to introduce a wide range of hooks for my players.

Siarl could also become an enemy of the PC's, but it definitely will not be a good day for them if he does.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Siarl's Herbs and Elixirs
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Kagen's Books and Knowledge
by Robert M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/22/2009 15:44:12

I am really enjoying the whole series, and this product is a prime example of why. You get a mapped layout of this establishment, and rather unique character background for Kagen, and several potential plot hooks. From simple to city shaking. One thing I would like to see is a library creation system. Maybe as a separate product? I have also suggested to the publisher/writer to eliminate the first 6 pages of his system info and just have that as a separate and free DL. Or just tell them to get it from Giors Glassworks, which is also free. As it is I think it gives an impression of padding the page count. If you end up liking these products like I do, and buying all of them, it just becomes a waste of repeated space, and a little bit of an extra pain when I print them out because I have to go into my printer settings and tell it to print page 7 to 12.

So if your looking for a nice little bookstore, where PC's can go to do some research, or have research done for them, even the scrying kind, I think buyers will be as pleased with this product as I am.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Kagen's Books and Knowledge
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Tavern Denizens-Book I: The Dives
by Nathan C. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 04/27/2009 20:31:42

Raise your hand if your players are more likely to remember the NPC with a an overzealous personality and a lisp more so than the NPC with the two epic feat progressions of two weapon fighting you designed him with.

If you are wiggling your fingers in the air, then your players are not of the hack and slash variety and would enjoy meeting the colorful characters in Generic Universe Publishing’s Tavern Denizens: Book I The Dives.

Tavern Denizens uses an original system called Sparks to allow that allow their products to be used in any system. Sparks uses a series of simple, generic terms for Physical, physical, combat and magic traits so that dungeon masters can easily determine a Sparks character’s abilities compared to a statted one in their game. It alleviates the writers from concentrating on skills and making perfect builds and instead allows them to focus on unique personalities where their skills obviously shine.

There are 29 unique NPCs to filter your campaign world. Many of them are quirky and add a neat new friend or interesting new foe for pcs. These NPCs are all random people to be found in any inn or tavern the PCs come across.

For the DM This book is great for those random occurrences where players encounter people whom are important to the situation but were not important enough to the campaign to remember them ahead of time. My favorite NPC was Jack the Braggart. A person with an habitual lying problem with important information is a fun way to antagonize your players.

The Iron Word The Sparks system allows for easy insertion into any campaign book, though some of the NPCs would have benefited from additional skills. Still, Tavern Denizens: Book I The Dives gives the busy DM over two dozen NPCs with enough uniqueness to make them distinguishable enough in an eventful campaign world.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Tavern Denizens-Book I: The Dives
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Kagen's Books and Knowledge
by Peter I. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 01/16/2009 08:34:17

Typical fantasy RPGs offer a large number of varying locations for characters to adventure in, but the city adventure probably offers the most scope and versatility in adventure design and potential. City adventures offer intrigue, politics, mystery, plenty of roleplaying and can even host small or even very large dungeons. Some of the best products and most known products for fantasy RPGs on the market have been about cities. With a well designed and carefully crafted city, the DM should never be at a loss for things to throw at his PCs, or ways to challenge them to the enjoyment of the players.

City Streets: Kagen's Books and Knowledge is the second in the City Streets series of products from Generic Universe Publishing, and is a product designed to assist in creating lively, versatility city locations filled with roleplaying opportunities and plot hooks. The product is system independent, and uses an innovative system called Sparks System Independent to help you convert the product to your fantasy system of choice. The City Streets products each present a well-crafted location filled with NPCs, plots, interesting events and the potential to make a city adventure even more fun. This entry in the series features a wisened mage and sage, and his research library, ready for the PCs to visit and more.

The presentation of City Streets: Kagen's Books and Knowledge is good, albeit fairly generic, with a well-presented cover, and liberal use of stock art to liven up the product interior. The entire product, including writing, layout and cartography, has been done by Patrick Lawinger, who some might recognise as a prolific writer for Necromancer Games, Dark Quest Games and others. The writing is good and clear with only a couple of noticeable errors, the layout easy to follow, and the cartography is fair, being hand drawn rather than computer assisted. Overall, a fair presentation that slots nicely into the series with a similar style to other products.

As mentioned, the product is system independent, but uses the Sparks system to create a way in which to guide you in converting the product and its monsters and NPCs to your favorite fantasy RPG. The system is based on grading a monster or NPCs on things like combat ability, magical talent, traps, and several others which act as a guide to the NPC's abilities. So a creature with mediocre combat ability is very different from one with heroic combat ability, while one with minor magical talent is different from one with awesome magical talent. Each grading consists of about 5 levels, which should be sufficient to convert. The system isn't perfect as it won't allow for the best conversion, but it's very useful as a handy guide to conversion. It's well thought out, and versatile covering most of the important aspects required to convert to most mechanical systems.

Kagen's Book and Knowledge presents both a highly detailed book store and description of Kagen himself. The product describes the shop, it's location, it's interior with all pertinent features, and also any aspects of Kagen and his shop that are of note to adventurers and plot hooks. Kagen's business operations and clientele are also described, giving you a very good and detailed look at all aspects of Kagen, his shop, his motives and his life. Naturally the product also includes several plot hooks, featuring amongst other things murder and blackmail. The descriptions are vivid and realistic, and leave one with enough room to manuever to expand on the material should you wish to. Kagen is presented as an interesting researcher and sage, and has many uses to a group of adventurers beyond the plot hooks presented in this product.

In general I enjoyed this product. It provided a generic and detailed description of a useful city location, and adds several spicy plot hooks and enough detail to expand and create your own. The city location is useful as a location, and one that most major or metropolitan cities are likely to have. I hope that future products in the series will focus on both small and large cities, but also on more common locations, offering good variety in the series between location types. The location isn't particularly fantastical being more medieval than highly magical, and you can easily imagine a similar place in a modern RPG, but it does contain fantastical and magical elements. Overall, a good product that can provide a useful location for your city, but a little dose of the extraordinary and the unusual would not go amiss.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Kagen's Books and Knowledge
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Gior's Glassworks
by Robert M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/08/2009 19:49:10

I agree with the previous reviewer. I also like the "system" the author came up with to help me easily determine skill levels within the context of my own games. I think an experienced GM will have no problems assigning attributes and levels based on the descriptions given and the needs of their particular scenarios in which they may use this resource.

I snatched up this PDF due to recognizing the writer as the writer of work done for Necromancer Games, my favorite being Morrick Mansion. The authors attention to detail gives this PDF the same flavor and inspiration I found in his old module and look forward to checking out the other products his new company is offering.

I do hope he gets some better art work, though. The half elven woman in particular is pretty poorly done with the shading making her look more like a diseased individual than anything else.

I do like the map, including the "rough" look of it. I like things like this to look hand drawn, and its a style I hope he stays with in his other products.

I would have liked for this to have gone into more detail about the glassblowing, because I think such details offer GM's more ideas for "jobs" for PC's to go on. However the details that are mentioned are accurate enough and can give thoughtful GM's a few adventure hooks.

Nicely done, and I will be checking out the other products.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Gior's Glassworks
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Gior's Glassworks
by Kevin R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/06/2009 21:33:55

I found this tight little free PDF on the DriveThru RPG site and was immediately impressed with it. The artwork, though good, is not great by any means, but it greatly adds to the presentation of the material. The introduction shows great care and great ideas about introducing NPCs into your campaign, and the second part of the booklet discusses the history and people of Gior’s Glassworks, as well as some adventure hooks. All in all, I found it to be a great little location and it is detailed well enough to fit in any fantasy setting and can be placed in any other kind of setting with little extra work on the part of the GM.

Art and Layout The layout is simple and clean, and the interior art is all pencil sketches. I felt that some of the drawings were nicely detailed given the medium, but others were lacking. However, it’s a free product, and I was happy to see as much art work in it as there was. In the ten interior pages, there are nine pieces of art, plus some margin art. Some of them appear to be from stock art sources, but they are all appropriate for the genre of the presented material.

The layout is simple, and easy to read. I felt there was some blank space in odd places, but by and large, the pages are filled nicely and the text is more or less evenly distributed. When considering it against its competition of free downloads, I would place it slightly ahead of the curve for the average free PDF. Layout Rating: 4 out of 5

System This download is system-less. System specific details are left up to the purchaser to place, which is probably the best way to handle a subject like this, and it does it well. Between the information in the Introduction concerning NPC abilities and the descriptions given in the description of the glassworks, there is ample opportunity to plan the adventure as intended in your system of choice. Overall, I found it to be well thought out and extremely well executed.

System Rating: 5 out of 5

Concepts The concept is simple. A detailed place is given for insertion into your adventure or campaign. Short, sweet, and to the point, this little PDF delivers on all fronts. It is generic without being watered down to the point of uselessness, especially with the NPC ability definitions given in the Introduction. Concept Rating: 5 out of 5

Playability Gior’s Glassworks is a quick read and very easy to put into a current adventure. The adventure hooks at the end of the work makes it even easier to actually incorporate it into a setting instead of having it be backdrop or a piece of scenery. However, if that’s all you need for your adventure, plus a few named NPCs for your party to interact with, then it fully fills that niche as well.

Playability Rating: 5 out of 5

Overall I think that overall, it nailed exactly what it set out to do. Patrick Lawinger who oversaw every aspect of producing Gior’s Glassworks did a very good job and set forth a very concise product. The only ding I am giving is on the artwork, which is above average, but I don’t think deserves a five. In my opinion, I would gladly shell out a few coins for little supplements such as these, and definitely for a larger compendium of them. Even with the artwork, I feel that this product deserves a solid five out of five points.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Thanks for putting this out here for all of us.

Kevin Rohan Content Director Silver Gryphon Games



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Gior's Glassworks
by Kevin R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/06/2009 21:33:02

I found this tight little free PDF on the DriveThru RPG site and was immediately impressed with it. The artwork, though good, is not great by any means, but it greatly adds to the presentation of the material. The introduction shows great care and great ideas about introducing NPCs into your campaign, and the second part of the booklet discusses the history and people of Gior’s Glassworks, as well as some adventure hooks. All in all, I found it to be a great little location and it is detailed well enough to fit in any fantasy setting and can be placed in any other kind of setting with little extra work on the part of the GM.

Art and Layout The layout is simple and clean, and the interior art is all pencil sketches. I felt that some of the drawings were nicely detailed given the medium, but others were lacking. However, it’s a free product, and I was happy to see as much art work in it as there was. In the ten interior pages, there are nine pieces of art, plus some margin art. Some of them appear to be from stock art sources, but they are all appropriate for the genre of the presented material.

The layout is simple, and easy to read. I felt there was some blank space in odd places, but by and large, the pages are filled nicely and the text is more or less evenly distributed. When considering it against its competition of free downloads, I would place it slightly ahead of the curve for the average free PDF. Layout Rating: 4 out of 5

System This download is system-less. System specific details are left up to the purchaser to place, which is probably the best way to handle a subject like this, and it does it well. Between the information in the Introduction concerning NPC abilities and the descriptions given in the description of the glassworks, there is ample opportunity to plan the adventure as intended in your system of choice. Overall, I found it to be well thought out and extremely well executed.

System Rating: 5 out of 5

Concepts The concept is simple. A detailed place is given for insertion into your adventure or campaign. Short, sweet, and to the point, this little PDF delivers on all fronts. It is generic without being watered down to the point of uselessness, especially with the NPC ability definitions given in the Introduction. Concept Rating: 5 out of 5

Playability Gior’s Glassworks is a quick read and very easy to put into a current adventure. The adventure hooks at the end of the work makes it even easier to actually incorporate it into a setting instead of having it be backdrop or a piece of scenery. However, if that’s all you need for your adventure, plus a few named NPCs for your party to interact with, then it fully fills that niche as well.

Playability Rating: 5 out of 5

Overall I think that overall, it nailed exactly what it set out to do. Patrick Lawinger who oversaw every aspect of producing Gior’s Glassworks did a very good job and set forth a very concise product. The only ding I am giving is on the artwork, which is above average, but I don’t think deserves a five. In my opinion, I would gladly shell out a few coins for little supplements such as these, and definitely for a larger compendium of them. Even with the artwork, I feel that this product deserves a solid five out of five points.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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