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.
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