An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Urban Dressing-series is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 8 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

We kick off this installment of Urban Dressing with a massive 100-entry-table of characteristics and appearances of docks - from gibbets with rotten remains to different offices and buildings, we get quite some variety here. Unfortunately, though, several of the entries in this table are generic to a fault - "A large dock dominated by imposing naval ships.", "This dock is a frenzied hive of activity." - while there are a bunch of cool entries here, it's extremely generic entries like the examples that slightly detract from this table's appeal.

After one b/w-page vista of a harbor, we get a table with 100 entries to generate randomly docked ships - and the ship's names are cool and varied and avoid the standard clichés of names - so two thumbs up here! The same can be said about the 20 hooks and complications provided - they universally make for interesting diversions/sidetreks a DM can develop and expand.

The best table of the book, though, would be the 50-entry-strong d%-table of sights and sounds to lend details to docks - with fresh lobster, performing bards and playing children, we get a massive, interesting table here that will provide ample opportunities for DMs to use. Finally, we get 10 fluff-only write-ups of NPCs to populate spontaneously your docks.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's 2-column b/w-standard and the pdf comes with nice artwork and in two versions, one optimized for screen-use and one to be printed out. The pdfs come fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Brian Liberge delivers a good installment of the Urban Dressing here, with some neat, detailed tables. The first table is the only one of the tables in this product that falls a bit short of what I would have expected and honestly, I wished the NPCs had been cut in favor of another thing absent from the pdf - a dock-generator for the whole harbor: Essentially a table to roll the amount of places where large ships can anchor etc. - a meta-generator for the layout of the overall docks. That being said, the absence of that one does not hurt the pdf too much and hence I still feel comfortable of rating this pdf at a good 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

A short but sweet collection of descriptions, curiosities and people to fill your docks and ports in your fantasy/pirate settings. There is plenty to use here for those that need that bit of help to paint an evocative scene. For the price just a good collection for those stumped when a player asks 'So what is the name of the ship here?' Of course the art is a mix of good and bad, but for the price, who can really complain.

Perfect if you need a dock in a hurry (perhaps the characters have suddenly decided to wander down there and caught you on the hop) or as an aid when creating the docks area of a town, the first table dives straight in providing an hundred entries for Characteristics and Appearance. Perhaps it's a moderately sized dock, entirely manned by dwarves, or berths on this dock are marked by large, faded whitewashed numbers painted on boards... these snippets start conjuring up images in your mind and could easily spawn a whole dockland scene replete with opportunites for adventure.

The next table presents a list of ships that might be moored at your docks. It's merely a list of names, but there's always someone who wants to know what the name of that ship over there happens to be... with an hundred to choose from (or roll for), you ought to be able to give them an answer.

Finally there is a table of Hooks, Complications and Opportunities. This provides a full twenty events that may lead to full-blown adventures, or just offer an interlude. Perhaps a strike by the town’s prostitutes are making the sailors surlier than usual.... or maybe pirates have been spotted by the town watch and are sailing this way!

Make any passing visit to the docks an integral part of your adventures, rather than Um. There are a few ships there.