We had so much fun with this! Each pub had some fun challenges and great RP moments, and the pub itself is a very fun reward.

The premise of this was spot on fantastic. Ran it for a group of 3 and it was definitely memorable. As a new DM, I did also learn a lot by running this, so I thought I'd share my lessons from my attempt! Will do that in the Discussion board. One thing I think a DM should think of in running this is how to reward the players at the end, particularly for parties motivated by good (who want to save people).

I found this homebrew pretty cool, something I might use in future games.

Ah, the bane of spells labeled as 'bad and not worth your time'. Aside from the wonderful NPCs and evocations in this book once again, taking on true strike is courageous. But man I love what can be done with it when considering the evocations in this book, such as 'see the opening' and 'gang up'. Well worth the spice to flow your game with more variety.

First off, great that we also get some character drawings for the different NPCs this time, and some of them are really wicked! Furthermore, great selection of cantrips again with different evocations. Like volume 1, it's a great way to spice up your game and give that warlock some variety. Some of these might still require some balancing, but what beter way to do that than to play your game and play with these evocations and ideas! p.s. I especially like the wild 'undeniable death' evocation.

Finally something to spice up your warlock without going for the "you must use eldritch blast at all times" mannequin! There are some many great things in here, from new evocations specifically focussed on cantrips such as fire bolt, to an NPC story who you might want to use in your campaign (including a statblock). Great for that spice of variety that people need, even cultists and their great eye ball friend.

Oh how to describe the tea house, charming, feel-good, feels(!) and easy to place anywhere in your DnD game. As always, a few NPCs ready to read-upon and play with (Lizzy's story is my favourite). A menu, map, encounter, and a tea shop which sells more than just tea. Because being good to others, brings good to you.

You cannot help but chuckle when you hear the shops name 'Nutty Tavern'. Which ofcourse is filled to the bring with nuts (peanuts, pecan, pistache, and some nutty ales!). Wonderful NPCs again with some interesting 'enemies' (they so cute). If you have a weakness for nuts and squirrels, this is for you.

Once again, a very refreshing shop in the sometimes boring staple of DnD. This will certainly light up any town. And Aron the owner is such a fascinating creature, an outside the box NPC race. And Balthazar is way to fluffy for its own good. Great shop once again, an encounter, menu, some characters, a shop map (wich all the other shops have as well btw).

It is very refreshing to have something in the category of 'not necesarrly the common way to describe fantasy'. We all know bread and butter of regular DnD stories, or even fantasy as described in Lord of the Rings. Here however, a cookie shop to place anywhere in your own DnD world, with an encouter, enemies, characters and a little background is delightful. It's light hearted, which more DnD games can use. I can certainly recommend everyone some cookies from this shop, Eliza will be pleased.

This title is free, so by all means I apologize for even rating it low. I hope to make this as constructive and useful as possible for your future documents! (and thank you for giving this away for free)

My first criticism is reduce the redundancy of some of your points; meaning that several of the core concepts are repeated multiple times within one paragraph, then again in the next. I think you could make this whole document feel like a much lighter and smoother read if each section was cut down.

For example, in the very first paragraph it reads "This simple and direct seven-step approach will [...]" and in the section immediately following it says "We developed this simple approach to [...]" --- This is just the first example of a theme that happens several times throughout the guide with different things, and really slowed down the flow of the writing and made it feel more like I was reading a pitch rather than an educational type guide.

In the same fashion I do not think you need 7 whole steps to capture what you're guiding players through! A few of the steps could be combined, such as "Build connections among characters" and "Tie backstories into campaign plots", or "Tie backstories into campaign plots" and "Plant the seeds for future adventures". Essentially, some trimming and review would really lift your writing!

My second criticism is that this advertised a guided approach, and there was not a lot of guidance included in any of the steps. There were many examples, but nothing that assisted me with new techniques or skills I could use for session zero. (ie, introducing the web-technique for tying NPCs together in backstories, or questions to ask your players or yourself and other party members) Even simply asking more questions rather than explaining examples would assist in making this a good guide as opposed to a collection of examples and advice.

My third criticism is that towards the end this guide introduces "characters’ goals and motivations" which is explicitly noted as being separate from flaws ideals and bonds... But does not go into any full explanation of what makes a goal or motivation vs an ideal, and even lists a table of ideals in the same section. I'd recommend having a table of goals or a table of motivations so people can either roll (my players love their dice!) or get tangible examples of a variety of goals before seeing them in action in the full character examples.

I also do LOVE the way the table splits up Individual ideals, vs Relational ideals, so on so forth. I just wish there was some explanation of what those categories mean, because I feel like there's so much untapped potential in the way it's broken down. Eventually my players and I took it as "how do you see the perfect relationship" but I would have loved to read more about what you were thinking in the way you split these up, and why they were split.

And finally, in the character sheets at the end there is a section of "beliefs" for each character. I expected to see "goals" or "motivations" there, but found it seemed to be more about their political ideologies. Most of them are "Republican" (with one "Monarchist") and it seems pretty evenly split on "Loyalist" vs "Revolutionary". I was sad there wasn't anything in the document about what those identities would mean for characters in DnD, and how you went about picking your character's beliefs in these fashions.

Also, there are some grammatical errors/typos I'll tack those on here: "Believes" should be "beliefs" and "sparkles" should be "sparks". (ie, "This sparks an idea" not "this sparkles and idea") --- Those are minor, honestly, but they're repeated several times in the book so I thought you'd want to be made aware!

My last review note is that, as is, this is very much for new roleplayers and not much for older or experienced roleplayers. That being said, it does cover some great aspects of fundamentals and has good advice for any new DM or player on important aspects of making a game immersive and impactful. It's worth having. and reading, just know it is a bit of a commitment to read all the way through in one sitting so I recommend if you do get it, it might be better read in parts.

Again, this long ass review is in hopes that this is helpful and constructive feedback for all your future endeavors! Don't feel like you are any way obligated to come back and edit a completely free guide when lots of folks obviously find it very useful!

All the best~

After reading "Paragon Paths", and absolutely loving it, I picked up this document because it was by the same author. It has been nearly a week now since I read this doc cover to back in a single sitting, and I have been thinking and talking about the contents just about every day. (When we watch TV my partner and I keep pointing out arcs or themes we're seeing, thinking about the ways we want to portray our character's internal struggles, and so on so forth.)

If you're not interested in roleplay or backstory, this isn't your book! There's no mechanics or perks to it, merely a guided discussion about your character's potential arcs and how to identify them. That said, it's great for new role-players and old ones, which is truly a challenge to find.

If you're new, it's easy to follow and extraordinarily clear. If you're an older RPer, I've been roleplaying and writing for 20 years and trust me I know how challenging it can be to find NEW inspiration or questions... this is not another "well, yeah, I know that" book. It covers old writing themes and new ones, and explicitly talks about DnD verse -- such as how things like classes and alignments can impact your arc.

Finally, The book ends with examples of various arcs and the things that make up their themes, symbols, etc. Each of these example arcs come with a short and sweet example character. These are so. well. written! Each of these little blurbs was so interesting and captivating that I would hands down read a full piece of fiction about any one of them.

I'm very excited to think about my character's backstory and arc for my own game, and for the group I DM my players were very excited to think about their arcs and start answering the questions within-- and so excited to fill out the arc checklist in the back.

TL;DR, I am a huge fan of this author's writing and I think this was an incredibly worthwhile investment for my roleplay heavy groups.

It's a great product about one of the (seemingly of late) forgotten parts of the Forgotten Realms. It's well made, gives more details that WOTC tends to ignore in their adventures and suppliments (ToD and SCG details on Thay were, quite frankly, really lackluster) and really makes delving into a lot of the other areas and brings me back to the olden days of these sort of books. Lots of good ideas for adventures in this area, and honestly, I'm always up for additional content from 5E Faerun that isn't in the Sword Coast. Adventure within does a good job showcasing the setting itself and hopefully you can find it useful in setting up your own adventures here.

Also, I tried to make the Cardrauth and it ended up tasting pretty good.

Great starter adventure for people learning to play with a little bit of everything. Manageable combat, a puzzle, and some good skill checks. There's some NPC interaction, but nothing too complicated, which makes it easy for new DMs as well. The low player count is perfect for the newbie who might be intimidated by a larger group. I highly recommend this one.

This book is so simple to use, yet it can change the whole feel of an encounter. It can make an average encounter super entertaining. I purchased the PDF for quick reference and the hard copy to read when I'm preparing sessions. This book deserves a space on your bookshelf.