An Endzeitgeist.com review

This small pdf clocks in at 11 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let's take a look!

So what are these kingdom seeds? Basically, you can consider them to be mini village-backdrops - each of the villages comes with a full village statblock as well as information on unique places associated with the village as well as three rumors that can be considered to be micro adventure seeds. The villages are intended to be inserted into a given kingdom (or any other campaign) - thus the name of the pdf.

What makes the villages unique? Well, they exhibit Rite Publishing's interesting, trademark high-concept ideas: The village of Butteroak, for example, is protected by a double palisade between which assassin vines are planted to keep out the dread predators outside - oh, and if you're caught breaking the law, you get a dagger, are stripped down and have to run around the village...if you're not eaten by the vines, you get to leave...chilling combination of might makes right and pragmatism here.

More common, Calddell is defined by its bowyers, while Eristan is known for their syrupy birch beer and Fayebridge, set in a caldera, utilizes its ample bees to defend the town and keep the massive copses of fruit trees fertilized. Garrant is a nasty place, but one defined by unique copper jewelry made with the help of odd leaves, while Maplelea is defined by the less sinister eponymous maple produce. Mournesse may be snowed in half the year, but is a village of survivors that live via lumber and skins. Nulukkhir, a primarily dwarven and gnomish hamlet, is defined by its half-over-grown houses and pig-farms. Soulmerrow, an elven hamlet defined by the massive cinnamon trees, is similarly an interesting place and finally, Whitespell, is a place where charcoral is made by a kind and welcoming populace.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to Rite Publishing's two-column full-color standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked in spite of its brevity - nice! The pdf also sports nice full-color art.

Liz Smith delivers a per se cool array of brief village-write-ups, with the respective industries and raisons d'être providing enough variation to make this a compelling buy for the low price-point. At the same time, I found myself wishing that there was a little bit more detail and more material that reaches the level of uniqueness of Butteroak's assassin vine palisade - compared to that one, the other hamlets featured fall a bit short. Hence, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.

Endzeitgeist out.

Why did I buy this? What did I actually get? I really enjoy the Village Backdrop series by Raging Swan Press, and I trust Rite Publishing's product quality. So purchasing this, despite knowing the focus and level of detail would be different, was still a no-brainer for me.

Have I used this, or will I use this? I'm hoping that one of the next campaigns I run can incorporate Ultimate Campaign's kingdom building rules. This would be, as of this writing, the first place I turn for a starting settlement.

How is the fluff? This is the lynchpin of a product like this right? Well, it delivers, each settlement sporting a paragraph or two summary, two or three buildings, and three rumors. Every settlement here has something cool to offer, whether it's Butteroak's double palisade with assassin vine's planted between to keep out the wildlife, or Garrant's copper jewelry trade, based on leaf molds taken from red-leaved trees. Moreover, this fluff is dense. The longest of these barely spills into the next page. Very good.

How are the mechanics? I didn't take the time to match qualities to the corruption and etc scores, but the stat blocks are all present, including stuff like Notable NPCs, Marketplace, and even Terrain Type.

How’s readability? Layout, font, and page backgrounds are all good.

How's the look? Art is sparse, but well done and appropriate. The covers certainly my favorite.

Was the price fair? At $1.49, this PDF is a steal.

Favorite part? Butteroak deals with troublemakers by making them run circuits of the aforementioned assassin vine palisade. A deliciously evil punishment.

Least favorite part? The rumors are kind of weak. They may have been better presented as a d% table at the end, as they all come off a bit generic as is, and I don't see that any but one or two of them couldn't be used for other settlements with a slight wording tweak.

5/5 - not perfect, but amazing bang for your buck

True to its title, this very inexpensive product gives you ten settlements to throw into any fantasy campaign. This is a product for Pathfinder, and follows its stat arrangements for settlements.

It is clear, quickly imparts information for a DM to use and Liz Smith has ensured that each village, thorp or hamlet has its personal character. There is well-written information on how each differs to other small settlements, along with noteworthy sites and buildings and the latest rumours that could lead to adventure. I particularly liked that the statue in the town square of Garrant is actually a petrified adventurer. I wonder from what century?

Very useful for those dms that get stuck adding character to villages or the like. With good attention to detail and plenty of leads to follow I found myself wanting more than 10 villages, 50 would have made this absolutely marvellous. However, having said that, a dm would be unlikely to get through and use all 10 settlements in one campaign.

4.5/5, rounds up to 5.