The first Bits of Darkness: Dungeon was very very good. This installment is far better. Excellent Job!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

A great buy. Very usefull to those of us with little time and demanding players always wanting more, More, MORE.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Well written and general enough to placed in just about any setting.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Bits of the Wilderness: Into the Open is a 74 page pdf product that is aimed at providing busy and harried GMs with plentiful descriptions and ideas related to open grasslands, plains and the like. Into the Open forms part of Tabletop Adventures' 'Harried Game Master' line, each product in the line related to another terrain or theme. This particular product features 100 bits (descriptions that can be randomly selected to describe open terrain) and 84 shards (more lengthy descriptions that are meant to be selected rather than randomly picked) of very flavorful and well-written descriptions.

The cover art for the product is identical to that of other products in the Bits of the Wilderness line, providing a 'series' feel to the whole line. It's by no means spectacular, but it captures the theme. Interior art is good, including a number of photographs used in an article about the plains and open terrain. The layout and writing cannot be faulted in this product, with excellent descriptions all round and solid presentation. Note that this product is not system-specific, in other words it hasn't been designed for d20 or GURPS or any other system, but provides generic descriptions for any fantasy system and setting.

After providing a useful introduction to the product and guidelines for its use, the pdf jumps into the 100 bits of the wilderness. While each bit is described in the main body of the pdf, each bit is also provided in a handy card format at the end of the pdf, so that it can be printed and randomly selected from a pack of 'cards'. The cards themselves provide descriptions only, so should be no more difficult to print than any black and white text. This is a useful feature for those wanting to make full use of the product. I think one of the best things about this product is the index - a list with page references that makes it really easy to select a particular bit or shard from the product. Want something about a tent, select bit 28. Want something related to flash flooding, then perhaps shard 65 will do. An extremely useful addition to the pdf.

The bits themselves are great. Very descriptive, evocative, inspiring and full of ideas to use and expand upon. Some of them were perhaps a bit leading, in the sense that instead of offering a simple description, it's almost certain that the descriptions contain something the characters may want to take a look at. While nothing wrong with that, some GMs may not wish to waste time waiting for characters to examine things when the intent was merely to provide a flavorful description. The bits are divided into a number of different sections related to different topics - general, signs of inhabitants, animals, weather, waterways and miscellaneous sights. It's very pleasant to read through these refreshing descriptions.

The pdf next deals with shards, longer bits that require DM considered selection before use. These include the same topics as the bits, although several other categories have been included such as times and seasons, campsite and prairie fire. These, like the bits, are wonderfully detailed and well-written, and each shard is provided with its own title to make the shard more unique. Shards provide some nice ideas to work with and the descriptions are useful to mine for other ideas and thoughts.

Lastly the pdf provides a very useful article entitled 'The Many Faces of the Plains'. A color version of the article is included in the product in addition to the normal copy in the main pdf text. The article examines a variety of aspects of plains, detailing them and explaining them with the aim to help GMs create their own plains environments and write their own descriptions. Very useful, informative, detailed and with lots of advice to DMs on using the plains in campaigns and adventures. Truly a strong pdf with lovely descriptions and ideas.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This is a very good pdf with evocative and inspirational descriptive bits and enjoyable shards that can be used in any campaign. It's a valuable resource to any GM looking to add a good description to a game or setting, and there's more than enough information in here to keep any DM going for a long time. It's thoroughly enjoyable to read, the index is a great addition, there's plenty of variety, the article on plains was very informative and the cards for the bits make this even more useful.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not much can be said on the negative side, except that perhaps a few of the bits were too leading instead of being purely descriptive and probably more suited as perhaps shards, and one or two may blend in with others in a similar vein.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

As with Bits of the Swamp, this product not only has descriptions for encounters (mostly of the non-monsterous type), it also has essays on the various types of land dominated by grass.

I have found the series so far as useful not only for off the cuff descriptions, but also as hooks and seeds. I hope there are many more to come.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

In a nutshell, Into the Open is a book about adventuring through the plains. It doesn?t contain any game rules (and doesn?t seem to be written for any specific system at all). What it does contain are a lot of well-written terrain descriptions, encounter ideas, and tips for improving the realism of plains in your game setting.

The book starts off with short descriptions, which the author calls ?bits.? Each bit is fairly brief but full of flavor. The way they?re written, they could easily be rolled at random whenever the PCs wander in a direction that the gamemaster didn?t expect. There are enough out of the ordinary descriptions here that a random roll could easily turn an unexpected divergence from the main plot into a plot or subplot of its own. When I read through the various ?bits,? I was almost always left wanting to find out more. The book doesn?t tell you, of course, which leaves the GM creative freedom to continue in whatever direction works best for his campaign.

After the ?bits? come the ?shards? which, as the name implies, are larger and slightly more detailed descriptions. Shards tend to describe larger regions, and aren?t meant for random generation. Instead, each shard could be used as a building block for creating an adventure in or around a plains region. Like the bits, the descriptions in this section are also great inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, I can?t tell you how many cool ideas sprang to mind just reading through the descriptions. What?s up with the green bees? Who or what killed all these humanoids and left them here to rot? I guarantee at least some of these descriptions will find their way into my D&D game as fleshed out plots. An ambitious GM could take this book and, with a nice sheet of hex-paper, easily create an interesting plains region ready for a campaign?s worth of encounters and adventures.

After the encounters (and there are close to 200 of them), the remainer of Into the Open is devoted to advice on the actually structure and ecology of plains and plains-like environments in the real world. This section doesn?t get too bogged down with scientific detail. It gives you just enough information on the what, why, and how of plains to give them an air of realism (and thus increase verisimilitude) in your games.

Into the Open concludes with a handy index and a section with the various encounters formatted so that they can be printed on cardstock for ease of use. The download includes a print-friendly version and a color version of the ecology section.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I love this book. The descriptions are creative, yet generic enough to fit in nearly any fantasy campaign. Into the Open is good both as inspiration for the homebrewing gamemaster and as a source of clever random ideas for the group that takes an unexpected direction during a planned adventure.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Negatives are hard to find. The cover art leaves something to be desired, and some of the interior art (what little there is) doesn?t inspire. There are some photographs in the ecology section, which lose quite a bit in black and white. There is a color version of this article included in the download, however, which makes up for things. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

I used the twins characters from here, as the basis for my 1 on 1 Valentine's session for my hubby. They were fun NPCs to play. Others (romantic interest or not) could easily be added in later.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The varied characters! <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

An excellent product. I buy everything this company produces. Most pdfs are plagued by marginal writing, non-existent editing, and boring, unusable content. This product is readable, interesting and USABLE!

This product is a great example of this company's consistent work. The characters and flavor prose are great. Some of them I use as incidental NPCs, other are fully integrated into the plot.

It's nice to see characters with real motivations and feelings from a commercial product.

I highly advise any fantasy storyteller to purchase one of these products. I promise you will be back for the others...especially if you buy a lot of pdfs.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Professionally made product - readable and useable.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I want MORE products from you folks! <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Great atmospheric passages and quick and easy encounter inserts. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The atmosphere was something I was struggling with, so thats good, also the inserts are nice brief 'wandering monster' type encounters that encounter traps, odd bits of equipment etc as well as creatures.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Can't think of any problems<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Each one of these bits books has made its way into my campaign. This was the latest one and it came right on time as my party was venturing through a swampy section of the world. The thing that gets me about these products is that the writing is always unique. I've yet to come across a description that soundedl ike something from the previous books. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: the uniqueness, who'd have thoguht there would be 150 things to say about swamps <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: ??? <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Excellent product. I am very lazy when it comes to detailed descriptions of areas in the dungeon, etc. so this was just perfect. Used the day it was purchased, what more can I say<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Basically everything.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Shards of the Heart: A Bit of Character is a collection of characters for D&D role-playing encounters. The book opens with a piece about the purpose of the product which is to provide DM with ready-made characters with depth (background, goals) for the DM to add to their game. These characters are designed to be able to be played for long term interaction in a campaign, to be ?real people? with their own paths. They are also designed to be able to enter into lasting relationships with PCs, including romantic ones (thus the ?Shards of the Heart?).

Twenty-three characters are included, thirteen females and ten males, as well as a war horse and a wolf. Most of the characters are lower levels, 2nd - 5th, (the highest is 11th level) but must are given three stat blocks at various levels. To give each character the ability to make a strong impression, each has an illustration, a narrative piece to frame the character and one or more quotes to give good hooks for roleplaying the character. A page or more of background and personality, make each of the presented a fully realized one. While to make each of the characters presented easier to integrate into an ongoing game, each has a set of small scenarios and plot-hooks to draw player character in with. Each character is given a two-page character sheet (in a separate file from the main product) for easy game reference.

All of the characters are human, elven or half-elven (a large proportion are half-elves in fact), it would have been nice to see at least one or two of the less pretty races represented. Surely even a dwarf or a halfling deserves a chance at romance?

If a DM is interesting in setting up some more complex roleplaying situations in their campaign, this can be a useful reference, especially if building relationship with between characters (not necessarily romantic one) is something that interests the playgroup.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Interesting and detailed characters.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Would have liked to have seen a slightly wider range of races represented.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This is a great collection of interesting NPCs, most with a romantic bent to them. All the characters have B&W artwork to show your players, so they'll know who they're talking to.

The ebook's description is accurate that the NPCs don't depend on stats to be interesting. Altering them by several levels in either direction is easy, because their personalities is what makes them stand out - not their stats or their equipment. I find that most characters are well written in thier backgrounds, and sometimes in their motivations. Still, on a few I feel their motivations could have been better fleshed out. Instead of telling me that Jean-Claude will flirt shamelessly with female adventurers at every oppurtunity, tell me WHY he's doing that, WHAT he hopes to gain from it, and WHERE he eventually wants to go in life. Any DM can create a hottie stablehand who's a flirt and give him a name, but since I'm paying for premade detailed NPCs I'd like to know MORE about why he's acting like that. When I have to answer such basic questions as character motivation and goals, I also have to ask myself why I am paying cash for this product. Another downside is that the book's very poorly organized -- the NPC's are only listed by name, so if a DM is looking for a half-elf or a druid NPC to add to the game quickly, they'll have to waste time flipping through 93 pages or trying to remember their name. With a bit of forethought the "bookmarks" could have been better arranged to include the characters alignment, race and class instead of just their name - now THAT would have been a real timesaver!

While I am rating the book "acceptable", overall I don't feel this book was worth the money I paid, and I got it on sale. To be a good value for the money, the product would need to either lower the everyday price or add more detail about character motivations and goals.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The NPCs come with premade character sheets in seperate pdfs for easy printing - that's a helpful timesaver for a rushed DM who has other things to do besides copy stats. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: THE FILLER!!!!! :GRRRRRR: There's nothing noted in the ebook description that indicates that almost 20 pages of the 93 page book is taken up by someone's "short story". And I don't mean a "detailed character history", I mean a story - painfully described in space wasting detail are a few points that could have been summed up in a paragraph of character background, leaving more room for useful relevant content. Ugh. And it's right in the middle of the book too. What an annoyance. I was very annoyed and dissappointed by the inclusion of the "story". I feel the space it wasted would have been better used to add more NPC characters, or to better detail the motivations and goals of the NPCs already in the book. This would have been rated a 4 without the needless, unwanted 'story' filler.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

My players often stop in small towns and villages, and I have several ebooks on small town that players can "drop into". Most of these aren't very detailed though, and that's where BITS comes in. With almost no prep time, a DM can use "Bits" to transform a lifeless listing of businesses and buildings into a living, breating city vibrant and alive with detail. IMO it's a great way to make most any city more "alive". Very good ebook, well worth the money.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The ease of use, with no prep time required<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is a fantastic product for GM's and players. Where the typical city-book provides a body, this material provides a heart and soul. Reading a few of the excellent descriptives quickly stimulates the imagination and encourages roleplaying.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Excellent, varied descriptions of a living, breathing city populated by vibrant characters.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

An excellent gaming aid, empty caverns and dungeon rooms will never be the same (and any room or location that seems a bit bland). The only thing I dislike about it is the d20 element in some of the Bits but it is still usable with any fantasy RPG with very little alteration, but I would have preferred a totally generic product. Still it is a very useful DM tool and well presented will good layout and graphics. I like the random use where you can roll d100 for a bit to fit into the adventure when things are getting dull. As a bundle this product is a great saving.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Well presented and useful DM tool<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The D20 element, I would have preferred a totally generic gaming aid<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>