Disclosure: I received a review copy.

Simon's Dinner Theater is an excellent product, but you might have known that already from either the excellent Pathfinder or system neutral versions. I have already reviewed the Pathfinder version, so I won't focus on how good this book is. It's a 5 out of 5 and presents an amazing tavern while also blending elements of theater in an excellent way.

But as for this product being suitable for 5th edition fantasy, it does a great job. What 5th edition players need more of these days are NPC stats, and this book delivers. You have dynamic characters that, while insinuated thoroughly into the dinner theater setting, could be placed nearly anywhere. The statistics written here are great, and demonstrate a well founded understanding and close familiarity with the 5th edition system. If you play 5th edition, do yourself a favor and get this book. Slap this dinner theater into any hamlet, large town, mucked up city, and you will have a fantastic set piece that your players will enjoy, or at the very least appreciate for its uniqueness.

5 out of 5.

Disclosure: I received a review copy.

Dire Rugrat has been an impressive producer of fantastic if not humble locales. Simon's Dinner Theater upholds the standard of quality that I am used to seeing, delivering another wonderful location that would fit perfectly in a campaign, especially one that is urban based.

Short and to the point, Simon's Dinner Theater has a bevy of wonderful NPC's that populate the establishment and bring it to life. While you won't (likely) be killing monsters and hunting for treasure here, the theater is still an excellent arena for social encounters, information gathering, as a fantastic set piece for a chase scene, or even just a place for your players to retreat to and relax.

Most impressive to me so far is the art, which has only improved with each product released. I am only sad to have not seen an illustration of the half-orc stage hand, as she seemed to have a lot of personality packed into her 1 paragraph description.

There is a lot to play with here if you are willing to indulge a campaign that is more social and less combative, even if for just a session. There are lots of interesting hooks and characters with which to interact if you want to make this place the center of some campaign specific intrigue or scheme. Just know that you won't find much in the way of magic items, monsters or typical adventuer fare. But worry not, this is an excellent product through and through.

So don't delay; Book a seat at Simon's Dinner Theater, and partake of the excellence therein. 5 out of 5.

I am going to be including Simon's Dinner Theatre in my next campaign. The rich variety of characters and interesting list of rumours make this a location I want my PC's to spend the night at. Several of my campaigns have had boring "out of combat" evenings in town where nothing really happens. This will give my PC's a chance to use those non-combat skills in an entertaining social setting.

I downloaded this title early in Nov. 2015. These are really great Taverns and offer Players a good place to start or at least rest between campaigns. My personal favorite is Blackberry Bill's Tavern. I've already started 'translating' this one into a Neverwinter Nights area for inclusion into a Persistent World (Argentum Regio - Google it!)

Part of the Tavern Description is missing, though - specifically the end of the description for Braybin Mockingson—Tavern Server. Page 9, Column 1 is complete, ending with "While they have all stayed for various lengths of time, sometimes years, before moving on," Notice the ending comma that indicates there is more to this sentence. Column 2 is entirely an ad for "Tangible Taverns: Tuffy’s Good Time Palace". Page 10 starts the description of "The Pattering Platypus". 'Something' has defiantly been left out, and I would surely like to know what. Maybe someone at Dire Rugrat could correct this edition of 'Trio of Taverns' so I can get the missing info.

If this gets done, I'll change my rating to the '5' you so richly deserve.

A Good Addition to the Wrong Side of Town

Let's see, we have 23 pages, 2 for covers, 1 for a Table of Contents, 1 for the OGL, and 1 for an in-house ad, leaving 18 pages of taverny goodness.

We begin with a description of the tavern itself (rundown), the food (bad - as a bonus eating one of the house specials may actually make you sick), and a couple of tables of rumors and events surrounding the tavern itself. You also get a criminal organization connected to the spot, for the characters to take on as either allies or foes.

The section of this book that really makes having it worthwhile is the descriptions of our proprietor, Tuffy, and the various characters who spend a majority of their time in and around the tavern. These folks are not just a collection of names and stat blocks with individual, unassociated goals; they are each a piece of a whole that is organically woven together to make this place feel like your PCs can have an effect on and be affected by what happens here, if they choose.

Next, there is a write up of a mercenary group, the Stunning Blades, that hangs around the tavern at various times. Again, you can introduce them as either allies or foes, but they have a very different flavor from the criminal group that houses at the tavern.

The book closes with an appendix that had an additional write-up of some of the major characters around the tavern at higher levels, which goes a long way toward making this place usable with a group that is beyond just starting out, or if you want the characters in the book to keep pace with the PCs.

One thing that I really liked: There are sketches of the different characters associated with the tavern. I am not very good at pulling descriptions out of thin air, so I am very appreciative of having a visual to use when trying to describe these folks, or simply to give to the players and say "This is what he/she looks like."

One thing that could have been better: I noticed a handful of typos as I was reading, including a couple that made me go "wait, what?" and read the sentence over again. They are not pervasive, and not bad enough to change my opinion of the book. It just seems that it might have benefited from one final, polishing, editorial pass.

Tuffy's Good Time Palace is very much what I expected of a "Last Chance Saloon" that this place puts itself out to be. A place where the drunkards, the undesirables, and those who want to disappear come together in a space seething with adventure possibilities. I can easily picture dropping this onto a wharf where you go when you have no where else to go. I'll be using this in my campaign, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming books in this series.

For disclosure, I received this product for free for purposes of review.

This product is amazing, and it wouldn't do to review it without addressing it's component parts, to here we go.

Angelic Imp- I am glad to see the Angelic Imp as being a fancier bar than the other two I have reviewed. It rounds out the other taverns so far, and provides a nice wide range of taverns from which to select for your campaign's needs. The random events are excellently thought out and interesting, serving as great adventure seeds or even small role playing encounters that could make a session memorable. I am especially impressed by the social nature of these events, as most are not solvable through combat (or so one would hope). The short and sweet nature of the tavern presentation is especially nice, given the succinct nature of the tavern itself.

Blackberry Bill's- This tavern seems to be the quintessential "former adventurer" tavern, and a welcome addition to the bevy of taverns we have seen so far. It is likewise excellently described, and does a great job at conveying the nature of the inn, it's inhabitants, and the very mood of the establishment. The events are more adventurous, naturally, and are excellent threads to get the players involved in the town politic, if you so wish, or at least just fun diversions to improve the immersion into the story. The rumors table here is a lot of fun, and one of the rumors could even lead to a tavern feud, and invoking two of the taverns would be a lot of fun, as one might start to see interaction between the dramatis personae of the respective taverns.

Blackberry Bill in particular is an interesting character, and one that could be the centerpiece to a whole slew of campaigns. His penchant for pie making and shady adventuring past make him incredibly useful for any number of adventure seeds and role playing opportunities, especially in a campaign set primarily in the confines of a city (these taverns are a must for such campaigns).

I have to take a moment to say that the author's show a great knowledge and enthusiasm for the Pathfinder system, crafting excellent NPCs that use a wide range of Pathfinder material, keeping their product relevant and useful.

The Pattering Platypus- This is probably the most humorously amusing tavern of the three, and very food-centric. I like the twist quite a bit, and has even inspired me to inject some food-war adventures into my campaign, where the players either quest for rare ingredients or embroil themselves into food preparation (our group loves cooking shows). This and Blackberry Bill's seem to be a perfect pair for each other in that respect, and a town of food obsessed chefs might be a great set piece.

Of all the taverns, the dramatis personae here is the most vibrant (which is no mean feat). And that is to say, it is varied, and less focused, but that seems to really suit the Platypus, and make it more of appealing to wider ranges of groups as a place to go and visit with frequency, even if it is to vie for information, fence goods, recruit companions, or even mentor burgeoning adventuring groups. This tavern underscores the manner in which all the taverns feel very vibrant and alive.

Overall- Excellently written, good prose, a good eye for evocative description. I like the description of the food especially; though not especially descriptive, it serves as a good guideline that foody gamers might latch on to, as I have.

The NPC's are exceptionally crafted, both in bare statistics and as colorful personalities. The potential interplay here is enormous, and really is the kind of "casting" of NPC's that many Gm's should aspire to (depending on your play style, of course). I was pleased with the art as well, as it complemented my expectations of what each NPC looked like.

I give this product a 5 out of 5, and the king's approval.

Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this product in order to evaluate the designer as a prospective future freelancer. I didn't pay for the product, and the publisher didn't expect me to publish a review when she gave it to me.

I rarely do reviews. First, I have precious little time marketing my own writing group and completing the assignments we have. Second, I believe the best way to increase the quality of third-party publisher products is to be honest about what I see and work with clever designers to benefit multiple publishers, and of course roleplayers at large. So when I say nice things about a product and give it three stars, I generally feel I've done my part by being honest. Sometimes publishers don't like honesty though, they want to sell products. I can't blame them or judge them, so I just generally don't do reviews unless something is fantastic or seems to get a lot of undeserved hype.

So here we are, reviewing. I asked for a designer's sample work in the even I might hire her for a freelance project I'm developing. We had no conversation about reviewing it, but I have to recommend this product. Check it out:

Trio of Taverns from Dire RUgrat Publishing is an interesting piece of supplemental design. It maps and describes three establishments (the Angelic Imp is my favorite) where player characters can eat, rest, or meet for business. We get maps of each location, which already helps prepare the GM and distinguish the locations from one another. We get the establishment employees and notable figures, some of them are even statted out should things get rough. That kind of preparation saves the GM work and also helps fuel spontaneous games—if you ever need a meeting or other tavern scene, having them fleshed out for you means they're handy with no preparation.

What are taverns without rumors? Designer Kelly Pawlik provides mixed truths with upcoming events so your players can further immerse themselves in roleplay, or so you can throw short adventure elements at the them further tie them to the locals. I want to be clear: this $2 product offers you three very different taverns so you can rest and meet. But it also offers maps, stat blocks, rumors and encounters that fit into the staff's stories. I recommend products primarily on content and value, and Trio of Taverns is about the most impressive thing I've seen at this sort of price point. Even better, the company stays caught up with the rules, providing a small product with a Pathfinder class as recent as a mesmerist included. Finally, if I knew about this product but dind't have it, I'd buy it as a player and make one of these taversn my party's home base. Maybe I buy Blackberry Bill's to get a measure of contorl of the environment, but let Bill stay on as managing partner to steer riff-raf away from the adventurers.

If there's a knock on Trio of Taverns, it isn't the smooth prose or the value and convenience the product offers. It's the art and layout. There's no question Dire Rugrat is a brand new operation, looking to sell a few copies of a few products until they can upgrade at artist and layout and start offering us color. That featureless field on the front cover needs attention and the layout should be higher quality over time. But it's clear that with a few sales and a little experience, Kelly Pawlik and Dire Rugrat Publishing will earn the chance to do more for Pathfinder players (and roleplayers in general).

Up to date design, great value, and a handy product to have for both planned and spontaneous campaigns demonstrates a lot of value for all of your Pathfinder games to come. That combined with the tiny price of $2.25 for a 21-page product makes this an easy 5-star purchase with tons of repeat utility. I would say, your next $2.25 should be spent picking up this .pdf so the games you run forever after have complete, detailed establishments for your parties to do business in.

Okay, sorry to put my final opinions at the top but I already love this series. I already know that I'm going to use it and what I'm using it for.

What this is, is a profile of three taverns for your PCs to interact with. Each tavern gets a description of the tavern itself to set the mood and a description of the food. There's also a simple map to give the place a bit of shape. There are two tables for each tavern, a rumor and an event table. The rumors and events have a lot of openings for whatever campaign you throw this in and actually interesting enough to partially write for a campaign as you will definitely feel compelled to work with the rumors and events as they feel organic for the tavern. But for the most part they are mundane and related to the tavern more than any other kind of flavor. There are also descriptions on the owners or workers or even patrons of the tavern. Vivid ones that PCs are bound to interact with and they all interact with the rumor or event table in some way.

About my only criticism is that two of the stat blocks were saved for the end of the book making things a bit awkward. And for the characters that don't have stat blocks it would be nice to get a page reference number to a Gamemastery Guide or NPC Codex stat block. The formatting isn't terribly fancy but its all clear and neatly divided.

Aside from the last entry I am impressed that food gets such an interesting writeup. I cant remember how many times that question was asked and I awkwardly made something up.

But above anything else is just having a nice tavern that players can actually interact with. Usually PCs just stop at an inn, lose some money and get their spells back. Plenty of times I've awkwardly tried to make things more interesting by improvising but there can be a lot of inns and taverns in a campaign so its taxing to make one that your players are willing to blow time on. This makes my job as a GM easier, it gives me NPCs I don't have to make up and can hook up to any kind of campaign. All of those are those are huge boons for me so I'm giving this five stars out of five. Its a lot of work saved for a subject that I don't see anyone really tackling frequently enough.

You can find this review and more over on my blog

http://malwing.blogspot.com/

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product for the purpose of this review. I have not been paid or otherwise compensated for writing this, and have no financial stake in the success of this product.

OVERVIEW

Tangible Taverns: Trio of Taverns is a 24-page PDF (counting the front and back covers), and to my knowledge only available in this format. At the time of this review, it was priced at $2.25 (not bad for a decent-length PDF), and as the name suggests, this product focuses on three different taverns.

Now, obviously, this is a GM-focused product, so you might be asking "why do I need a tavern in the first place?". That's a fair question - and going by the description of the product, this is a product designed to make stops at taverns interesting for the players. Rather than just saying "you stop for a drink and move on", you can actually use the taverns as a chance to legitimately relax, have people roleplay... maybe even distract the players while you work on what's coming up next.

Basically, this product isn't an absolute must for every GM - but it's not hard to imagine it being useful, and that makes it worth taking a look at. Let's see how good it is at accomplishing this goal.

THE ANGELIC IMP

This is the first tavern. The visual aspects of the tavern are introduced on the left-side column, while further details - food, rumors, and events - are on the right. This is an area where I think future products could be improved a bit - the introduction of the tavern is clearly meant to be read aloud, but some of the other material isn't. If you're in a hurry, you might read something aloud you weren't intending to. A little bit of a formatting change to improve the separation between "read to players" and "just you, GM" would be good here.

The description itself is quite nice, though, going into enough detail to help players get a good sense of what the tavern is like. Basically, this tavern is an upscale location, the kind people go for romantic dinners or respectable business meetings, and everything inside was designed accordingly.

The next page contains two tables - rumors and events, both involving dice rolls for randomness. Both are mainly used for jump-starting sidequests - the rumors explain what's going on, while the events leave it up to you and require either decent improvisation skills or writing out the adventures yourself.

Finally, there are two pages of NPCs - mostly description, though statblocks are provided for several of them.

The other two taverns follow in this fashion - introduction, rumors and events, and finally the people inside. Blackberry Bill's - the second tavern - is a simple stone building that works quite well for anywhere your characters might visit on the road (assuming you're not, y'know, in the middle of the desert or something), while the Pattering Platypus seems like it would work best as an inner-city location (or at least be on a trade route with lots of supplies).

FORMATTING

As mentioned above, I think the main thing to fix with formatting is the separation between GM material and what players should be told. Another proofreading run wouldn't hurt, either - the Rumors section for the Pattering Platypus tells us "Taverns are both an excellent source of rumors.", and I'd like to know what else they're a good source of. Besides drunk NPCs, that is.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Despite my concerns with the formatting, Trio of Taverns is a fairly solid product for the price, and I think it does do what it set out to - provide you with some pre-generated buildings, complete with maps, that you can let your players have some fun with. The rumors and events are the true focus of the product - ways of livening up an otherwise forgettable evening the characters would be having - and with more than 30 of those spread across the taverns, you'll have enough sidequest ideas for quite some time. If you enjoy running your games this way, Trio of Taverns is worth considering.

Overall, I rate it about 4/5 - it's a good product with room for improvement.

As a preface, 1 of my 2 Pathfinder groups has a preferential "thing" for adventuring & roleplaying in tavern, pub & inn backdrops. As a result, we've played in a lot of these environments - both in homebrew and purchased thematic modules. As 1 of the 2 GM's of this group, we've both converted a lot of 2E and 3.5 taven/pub/inn adventures into Pathfinder versions. And we also use lots and lots of 3PP goodies to boot. So we all have a lot of experience in evaluating the merits of a given taven/pub/inn adventure.

As for our final review of Tuffy's Good Time Palace ... we really enjoyed our gaming experience with this tavern! To break from tradition, I'm going to give my rating for it up top of this review - and explain why at the bottom. Our final rating (that was unanimously agreed upon by the entire group) is 4 Stars! **** From a price context perspective, I thought the 17 or so pages of actual gaming content is a good value for the price of the PDF. Especially considering the decent quality of the writing - both flavor prose and crunch mechanics.

The product is written in a setting-neutral environment. So it was very easy for me to port it over into my Forgotten Realms campaign setting (using PF rules). In fact, the tavern's setup and content descriptions don't really go outside the walls the walls (with the possible minor exception of mentioning Alistair's "home"). Which was a big plus for me in regards to plug-&-play. The PDF formatting & design contentis well done and printer-friendly (except for the cover & end page). The 20 or so stat-blocks are easy to read and accurate (I randomly checked 7 of them). All in all, it's a well "put together" gaming supplement. Although I realize that's a subjective evaluation that will vary from eyeball to eyeball.

As for the flavor and vibe of the tavern ... this is really where it shined. The interconnectivity of the tavern's owner (Tuffy), her various employees (dancers & bouncer), the sizable street gang contingent (the Crimson Cloaks) and the powerfully manipulative "healer/herbalist" (the most detailed NPC in the PDF) are clearly networked and defined. Although I would've loved to have seen even more detail on how each NPC felt about each of the others. Besides those 4 primary entities listed above, there's also an all-woman merc group provided - the Stunning Blades. The write-ups and stat blocks are all awesome - I especially love how diverse they are and everybody has a different primary class. Unfortunately, there's very little describing how they interact with the 4 other primary entities of this tavern. That's the biggest reason why I had to knock 1 star off the final rating of Tuffy's.

My player's and I got to run a full 5 hour gaming session using just this PDF ... with considerable interaction of all the main NPCs. The fact that my player's didn't get bored or move onto other non-related encounters indicated that we certainly got great return for investing time in this product. We had a lot of fun! Especially with Tuffy herself and the healer/herbalist (who I knocked down in levels a bit - his initially-assigned level assignment was a bit high in the event he had to enter combat).

Props to Dire Rugrat for writing some creative characters with intriguing and easily-playable personalities (for the GM, that is). The setting description for Tuffy's environment and menu fare were quite evocative. Player's love hearing that kind of stuff to help them differentiate one tavern from the next (seeing as how most PCs get bored of them pretty quick). I would suggest that Dire Rugrat add custom menus as handouts for the players. Besides the typical fare, add some provincial and local-yokel food & drink oddities with fun, colloquial names assigned to them.

In summation, Tuffy's Good Time Palace is now permanently ensconced in Dagger Falls, Daggerdale ... within my homebrew Forgotten Realms campaign. My players have made some interesting contacts - and enemies - in a venue that will continue to feature prominently in their future adventuring endeavours.

(Please note: I received a copy of this PDF from Dire Rugrat in return for an honest written review)

This is a neat product to have and to use. It is easy to place in any town in your campaign. The NPCs have plenty to offer the players characters as leads to adventure. Things can only get better for this product line.

For full disclosure, I received a courtesy copy of this product.

This product has excellent prose, as expected, and sets the scene for players walking into the bar. Perhaps a printable notecard of "flavor text" included in future versions would be good, but the book is short so the point gets conveyed. I think that players are well served by the level of detail of the bar's description.

The organization and descriptions are top notch, as well as consideration for adventure seeds. I especially like the continued quality of interpersonal NPC's all connected and interacting with each other. Each successive tavern feels very lived in.

Tuffy's Feel Good Palace in particular does lend a very seedy feel that could be well incorporated into a campaign; particularly ones that sees the players fleeing from the law, down on their luck, low on funds, or in search of someone unsavory. It is a perfect fit for what it sets out to do.

I also applaud the publisher for their having listened to feedback, including higher level NPC's, as we all know how much trouble player's like to cause in taverns, as well as the need to have more options in general for higher level play.

Overall, I am very impressed and want to see more.

When I first heard of this product, I was expecting a compilation of various taverns that a GM might use in a campaign. I was surprised to see that The Bull & Bear Tavern is in fact a single tavern, though I am also happy that Dire Rugrat is now working on similar publications featuring other taverns. I am hopeful that once they have written on enough different taverns, they will release them all in a compilation PDF.

In the meantime, Dire Rugrat has put in a great deal of work making the place come alive and supplying GMs with everything they need to build the Bull & Bear into just about any campaign. A fairly full cast of characters populates the tavern, with side references to several more whose details a GM might fill in later if the party shows interest. The little details go a long way in making players feel like this is a real world that exists independently of them, rather than a crude puppet show the GM has put on for their amusement.

My only complaint is that there isn't much explained in the way of what players might actually do in the tavern. The cover features a handsome etching of a bull and bear playing cards and dice, yet there is nothing in the text about gambling being played here. The upstairs brothel rooms are lovingly described, but the practice itself is not elaborated on-- perhaps out of a sense of propriety, but this leaves the GM with little to go on when his or her players (inevitably) want to hire the "tavern lads and lasses" for themselves. A little something to help the GM through what could easily be a very awkward exchange would be nice, even if just a sidebar acknowledging the sensitivity of the material.

For many play groups, the tavern isn't just a place to eat and sleep, it eventually becomes a "base of operations" from which the group plans their next adventures. Many players I've seen even consider buying their home tavern from the publican once they are able. The Bull & The Bear definitely has the potential to become such a "home base", and the various diagrams of the building itself will serve such a group well.

All told, The Bull & The Bear has definitely whetted my appetite for future installments in the Tangible Taverns series. It makes the perfect "classic D&D tavern", and could easily sit in any city in just about any setting. I suspect that future Tangible Taverns will be more "niche" locations better suited for certain types of campaigns.

This time Dire Rugrats present a tavern that will not be comfortable for the Pcs but that is filled with adventuring opportunities.

Tuffy's Good Time Palace is a rather bad taver, the kind of place that most adventures with some self respect will avoid.

Inside this product you will find the description of the tavern, the NPCs that frequents it and some rumors and events to use.

The description of the tavern is well done, the Pcs surely will quickly get the point of what kind of place is Tuffy's.

The NPcs vary from very interesting to interesting enough. The description of the NPCs is well done, they have motivation and personality. This have been a strong point in tangible taverns line.

Now, this product is an improvement over the last one (the bull and the bear) in the sense that it provides clearer adventuring opportunities, reasons for the PC to spent some time in the tavern, and reasons for they to care and learn about the NPCs.

The weak side of the book is an all-female mercenary group, the stunning blades. By themselves they are good written NPCs, that the GM can use at any campaign in case he is in a hurry to improvise or something. But they are basically unrelated to the rest of the book, you could take them away from the product and nothing else will be compromised. IMHO, this space should have been used to give even more rumors, events and adventuring opportunities.

For full disclosure, this product was provided to me for free.

This short location description seems to do a good job of evoking a unique but solid description of an average tavern. There is a lot of good and evocative description, and the maps are a nice touch, if a bit unrefined. The tables in sidebar are great, and offer a lot of flavor and background information that make the tavern feel unique and lived in. NPCs are an interesting departure from most cliches.

If I had to Something about the location feels too dense (too much of it hangs off of 4-5 of the regulars or staff). I actually wish that there was more description of a wider variety of patrons/staff. There are plenty of hooks for an urban based campaign, and I'd be curious about whatever setting the author had in mind when he wrote this. The recurring theme of having Asmodeus worshippers as people of authority seems interesting, and perhaps aimed closely at the Golarion setting. This is not intrusive enough to detract, however.

That having been said, I do like the interplay and social web that exists within the bar, as it has a lot of possibility for being a kind of hub for said urban campaigns. I could even see a group of enterprising PC's buying the bar outright and keeping it as a sort of base as well.

Unfortunately, the low level of all of the NPC's would make this location difficult to incorporate into an adventure with even 2nd level adventurers, as they would cause untold trouble for the patrons if they were to step out of line, but that is probably a minor point, though I would like suggestions on how to beef up the two bouncers at the very least, as they are the ones that are given statistics.

Overall, this product is well formatted, and has no errors that I have yet caught. I am happy with it for both the reduction in prep time (if I drop it into my game) and for inspiration in the case that I take from it ala carte. I hope that anyone who purchases this will enjoy it as much as I did.