Brings an old school feeling to a whole catalog of monsters. They're tougher than what you'll find in the Monster Manual, but that's not bad. If you're looking for a way to challenge your players, this is it!

It says dragons, but really these are titanic forces of nature. These are more in line with the Tarrasque, and that's fantastic.

If you need a large, high CR, monsterous monster, this is the supplement you'll want.

Running a game in the Forgotten Realms? You'll want this to help you keep track of time. It's that simple.

If you're the sort of DM that prefers humanoids, urban campaigns, or that sort of game, the monster manual appendix was surprisingly 'unbalanced'. CR's for creatures existed all across the gamut, with many holes.

This product fills those holes. It preforms that role, perfectly.

Balanced as far as I can tell, and it fits perfectly into most arabian/asian themed games.

A low level one shot that can be slotted into most campaigns. It's pretty great, if your players enjoy role playing .

Works just fine, if you want a shark-race. Three subtypes give plenty of variety. I have yet to run them, as I haven't had an aquatic game yet.

A small location, great for dropping into just about any campaign.

From a balance point of view, the content here ranges. From a production level, it's up there with many of the best the guild has. But overall, the edge-lord theme just doesn't jive for me.

If your games tend away from hopeful heroes, it might be a better product choice for you.

Excellent formatting, balanced rules, and overall a good product. The only complaint I have is that the refinement and poison process doesn't really hold the simple and elegant design that has made 5e such a great game.

If you are or have a player that wants to use poison, and you don't mind a higher level of complexity (and that doesn't equate to depth), this is a solid choice.

When I first got these, I used them every game I ran. While my use for them has declined (running fewer games, more published adventures), these pages are still top notch.

If you plan on creating your own adventures and you don't have a laptop/tablet/phone nearby to look up stats of monsters, these are essential.

The book is well edited and laid out. For the quality of content, the price is worth it (although a smidge on the higher end when compared to most DMs Guild products). Inside you'll find the rules for

• Running a tavern: and the expenses you'll deal with to earn income, along with some new downtime activities.
• Visiting a tavern: the tables for generating taverns on the fly, including brawls, games, patrons, and events. Basically if your heroes have no interest in running a tavern, this chapter will still give you countless hooks to preoccupy your players with.
• Ambience: how to run real world tavern games with your players and real recipes you can make for them.
• Player options: bards and clerics get new archetype options, two new backgrounds for all characters, and six new monsters provide a derth of options outside of the tavern.

So my opinion here is that there's enough content that almost every table should find use with this book. The numerous pack ins (things like maps, and game aids for the tavern games) are super helpful and just help get everyone into feeling the game.

If I have any criticism (and it's a small one), it's that the format of the Downtime Activities don't match those previously published in either the Dungeon Master's Guide or Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and that the near 9 dollar price point for 45 pages is a little high for being such a focused product. While I can use the monsters, games, and food are all usable outside the tavern, it's unlikely you will. But if your players are building or running a tavern, the price point is a steal!

The value is really dependant upon how tied to taverns your game will be.

Edit: I want to state, if I could rate this 4.5, I would. It's not perfect, the cost, backgrounds, and focus all make me hesitate to give it a 5 (which would, imo, be a universally useful product to all tables).

The alterations here fit well with the existing 5e designs, the layout of the supplement makes everything easy to read and understand, and so far everything seems balanced. I really dig this kind of supplement, especially since it's pay what you want! Also, it has pretty nice artwork which is neither here nor there, but it's easy on the eyes.

Disclaimer:

What do you get? This collection of 66 NPC stat blocks (although in reality, it's more than 120 since most of these come with background for two npc's) fill the "CR Void" found in the npc stat blocks that already exist. Wizards of the Coast has done a wonderful job providing many a dungeon master with monsters, but when it comes to NPC stat blocks there are many levels entirely lacking an NPC. While that's not exactly a problem, with the NPCs found here to fill the gaps, your job as a DM has become much easier.

What really works in this book? In terms of presentation (artwork and layout), NPC variety, and the obvious number of passes to ensure this product is worth the asking price. The NPCs as presented all work perfectly well, and the variety of options that come with them will help inspire DMs find interesting ways to fit these characters into their game. For example, Delver has a variant "Deep Miner" which comes with suite of abilities to swap into Delver to provide more variety.

What doesn't work in this book? Personally I would have made two changes: every NPC comes with two samples. They all have "Sample TYPE NPC" (for example "Sample Diplomat NPC" or "Sample Warchief NPC". Since this is the same for every block, I would have just replaced this with their names. "Dreevil" and "Varfu-Lok of the Iron Fur Tribe" for warchief, as an example. Additionally each NPC has one stat block but a few of these have different races. For example, Alchemist has a generic NPC and a Kobold NPC. The stat block doesn't account for kobold stats (which is fine since the WOTC ones don't) but I would have included the appropriate adjustments at the end of the kobold fluff. Page 282 of the DMs Guide details these stats, and linking just the relevant information here would've helped customize the NPCs more.

Overall I love this book. I want it printed so I could have it at my table. While there are the two changes I would have made to the individual enteries, the book as a whole is entirely cohesive. It makes me wish I could cut the NPC sections from my Monster Manual and Volo's Guide and insert them along side these NPCs at the table.

Edit: I do want to point out there IS a sidebar on altering the stats based on race, I only wanted to point out that I would have moved the relevant lines near the apporpriate blocks, so if you are hoping that table is in there, it is! Also, the author pointed out that 35 was his old one, and I went back and counted. There are more than 60 stat blocks with samples for each. That's around 120 characters!

So if you're looking for some erotic fiction or pictures of naked bodies, you won't find it here.

If you are looking for something that explains how these businesses function, how they differ from race to race, how the quality and finances will affect what players might find in a brothel, how other factions like temples and guilds will react to nearby brothels, and how a few Farûnian gods react to brothels, then this IS the book for you.

You'll find a new background (Prostitute) which has a really neat narrative mechanic, being a rumor monger.

Thankfully, more than a few pages for DMs on how to include brothels, from plot hooks to downtime activities.

New diseases, items, and spells provide lots of flavor without breaking the game. All of them are in line with the existing ones found in the DMG/Players Handbook.

Most importantly, the work is respectful to those sex workers who play. There's nothing derogatory, with a glossary for those terms someone might not be familiar with, and an overall sex positive message.