Let me start with the disclaimer, I received a free copy of this module for the purposes of reviewing it. I have no connection to the author.

tl;dr - this is awesome, buy it!

To be honest, when I read over the cover of this adventure I thought it sounded a little typical for a fantasy module. Stones fall from the sky...land is cursed...PCs have to fix everything. Well, the expression "Don't judge a book by its cover" applies perfectly here.

I am not going to talk about the specifics of the adventure plot, but rather the whole feel and composition of it. First off, the design, layout, graphics, and maps are fantastic. But, hey, it's Monkey Blood Design, so I would expect nothing less.

As I read through the background of the story I was happy to see it was not endless pages of exposition detailing every little facet. It was concise and covered the major points. If you are like me, when you run a published module you only use 50%-75% of what is there, particularly story-wise, since you generally have to adapt it to a long-term campaign you are running. However, for a newer GM or someone running this as a stand-alone, the background and adventure synopsis are presented nicely to give a overview and structure of how it can/should be run.

The adventure is set in a valley with the main town and multiple encounter locations. The town has just the right amount detail on it and the inhabitants to present a good structure for a newer GM, but nice seeds for a lot of expansion if a more veteran GM wants to create more gaming with this area and its people. Town locations have good descriptions and NPCs each have specific knowledge regarding major plot points of the adventure. So encounters with the various NPCs will yield certain knowledge regarding what is going on. These are NPCs built for role-playing, so if that is what your group of players enjoy, this will be a delight for them.

Encounter areas in the valley are interconnected but do not need to be run linear, which I love! There are even notes for the GM on what information can be gained when PCs visit various locations before or after meeting certain NPCs. Some of the encounter areas are not related to the adventure plot, but are great seeds for additional adventuring if you want to keep your players in the area. With how well fleshed out the NPCs are and the locations, I personally could see using the valley & town as a base of multiple adventures. The end of the module even provides a small list of future adventure hooks.

The Demon Stones of course has its BBEG who has his maniacal plan. It culminates in a nice dungeon crawl with a big final battle. Depending on how the dice roll and what a GM wants to do, the plot line could easily be expanded to create multiple adventures fighting the BBEG or even a whole campaign.

There is a great balance between combat, investigation, and role-playing opportunities in The Demon Stones. Information players need to obtain is scattered about, letting it be played with a sandbox feel to it. As I was reading through it my mind was whirling on where to incorporate it into my current campaign.

Buy this! You will enjoy running it, and your players will love too.

I stumbled upon this adventure module quite by accident. Having grown a little lazy and shorter on time to prep gaming material...I often will turn to pre-made modules for a basis or inspiration for running an adventure for my gaming group.

I was looking for some interesting material based on a city adventure. The old trope of explore caves and ruins and underground complexes has gotten a little old for my tastes. I wanted something different...and this was it.

A Pound of Flesh offers an interesting, complex, engaging foray into a city adventure. It is set in 0one's Great City, but that can quite simply be overlooked and any city can stand in for it.

The basic plot is fairly linear: missing person, PCs have to investigate and persuade (or threaten) to get the info they need, follow the clues and discover what is behind the disappearance. There are several sections to the plot-line and depending on how clever your players are, some of them may be bypassed all-together. Taverns, gambling halls, rundown apartments, dilapidated old docks, abandoned warehouses, prostitutes, zombies, thugs, aristocrats, and cultists.

How can you go wrong with that mix?

The story is really well developed, as are all the NPCs. Backgrounds, motivations, and knowledge of all the characters is laid out quite nicely. The scenes of the adventure flow beautifully together. My group even skipped a couple and threw a curve-ball at me on another that let me do a little improvising to keep things on track.

The detail of the locations and buildings is full fleshed out, even providing some non-plot-relevant NPCs to interact with. My players loved when they mistakenly stumbled in the the dominatrix's abode, and the hilarity that ensued.

The module is 50 pages of full stated foes for the 3.5 rule set which can easily be used for Pathfinder. I ran the adventure using Savage Worlds, so it was pretty easy to convert on the fly, and worked out quite well.

Whether you are looking for an immersive, role-playing opportunity, or a combat-focused, roll-playing one, A Pound of Flesh can provide either quite nicely, or a blend, all depending on how you run it and how your gaming group approaches the challenges.

This is awesome. Buy it. That's all that needs to be said.

Picked up the Expanded Profession: The Druid yesterday and was blown away at how cool it was and well thought out. That made me want to buy The Thief. I was, however, much less impressed with the content of this expansion.

Most of the edges seem to focus on climbing and actions while climbing. It left me wanting more particularly after how well The Druid was done. But then again....it's on $1.55 :)