Githyanki and Gitbzerai: Lore is a second Gith publication available on DMs Guild.

I have been fascinated with The Gith since I was given a copy of Fiend Folio back in 1984 and thoroughly enjoyed this publication.

The Handbook covers some basic history of the race and information to play the race in 5e.

It has great colour images to pull it all together.

The Gith Handbook

A ten page guide to this fascinating creature.

I have been fascinated with The Gith since I was given a copy of Fiend Folio back in 1984.

The Handbook covers some basic history of the race, including their enslavement by The Illithid. Next we see a list of suggested names plus details about Gith, Githyanki, and Githzerai, characteristics.

The remaining half contains advanced play details for the Gith such as Background Traits, Sacred Oaths and Martial Archetype.

There is also some great information about The Lich-Queen.

To top it off the Handbook has done great colour images to pull it all together.

I picked up this new Race as it sounded like a really cool concept. A Human type being born fron the seeping of celestial positive energy into existence.

Having a character who is continually positive in the face of all adversity would be challenging to play. The basis for a well developed Race is here, it just needs some extra fleshing out to give the Race more abilities and skills. As it is, there's just not enough to make this a playable character.

Power Guides are the Cliff Notes for D&D 5e Hardcover Adventures. The Guide To Curse of Strahd.

65 pages full of preparation notes it gives the timestrapped DM an outline of how they can put this adventure together.

I have picked up all of these Power Guides now and found them invaluable in getting ready to run the official WoC Adventures.

While most of the information can be garhered by reading the actual Hard Cover Adventure, the amount of time you can save by not having to compile these notes is worth it. My only complaint would be there is too much data and not enough "white space" in the guide. It can be a tad overwhelming in some sections.

Here is an example of the sort of detail the guide goes into:

1. Adventure Hooks: Pick a hook from the pile on pages 18-22 and run it. Here's the three that I think are kind of the "main" ones:  Plea For Help (page 18): A gypsy gives the group an invite to Ravenloft. These people are scum (check out the whipping scene on page 121).  Creeping Fog (page 22): The heroes are camping, the mists take them to Ravenloft.  Mysterious Visitors (page 19): The group investigates gypsies, are escorted through Barovia.

Areas of Barovia Gates of Barovia: (page 33) When I read about the gates, I had a picture in my head. When you look at the art of this place on page 34, it's quite more grand than the flavor text suggests. Definitely check that picture out, it will help make the beginning of this adventure bigger. Remember, the gates open and close on their own.

I look forward to December and the Christmas themed adventures that appear magically on DMs Guild.

This is an introductory adventure made for two to five level one characters. The difficulty level was about right for four first level characters.

Overall the formatting could do with a revision, as could the handdrawn maps. It was a short enough adventure to play with a group of younger players to keep them entertained.

100 Jungle Encounters is a 5 page set of tables to randomly generate an encounter in a jungle setting.

The tables are quite good and each encounter is at least a paragraph long. If you've got a d100 and a Monster Manual, this will get you out of a bind for a quick encounter idea.

I have been a huge fan of Eberron since it burst onto the D&D scene back in 3.5 edition. The steampunk setting was new, a breath of fresh air into an exciting RPG system that had been around for 30 years.

Blessed of The Traveler, is a very brief publication that tries to introduce a current social issue of non-binary/transgender into the existing setting. The guide does not go into much depth in how this improves on existing material or gameplay in general.

Painting the world with a very wide brush, the guide states that Transgender people exist among all the races of Eberron, and are just that—people—with no exceptional circumstances or traditions relating to their identity. All races should have some distinct background that makes them what they are. Traditions and circumstance shapes the identity of cultures and races.

Of the races, Changelings and Shapeshifters are already ambiguous in regards to their sexuality and gender. Having the ability to be either sex it already exists in Eberron as part of the race. This was never a major selling point of Eberron. There was nothing new that really added to the existing race descriptions.

Warforged being Queer is the biggest misfit and anomaly. Warforged have no physical distinction of gender; all of them have a basically muscular, sexless body shape. In personality, some Warforged seem more masculine or feminine, but different people might judge the same Warforged in different ways. The Warforged themselves seem unconcerned with matters of gender. Trying to change the sexuality of this race severely changes an important aspect of these beings. The beings have no sexual organs and would not need to identify as bI sexual, queer or straight. It would have been better to completely leave this race out of the booklet rather than force it.

A short section on religion tries to introduce this new doctrine without any conflict whatsoever. This is totally unrealistic and would not occur in any fantasy world or setting. Conflict arrises in every culture, religion, race or belief system and it is naïve to believe this system would have no conflicts in Eberron. Unless everyone in Eberron drank the cordial, there would at least be some members to society who would have adverse feelings towards those with Queer Gender Identity. Conflict already exists within the religions in Eberron over beliefs. Saying that adding transgender elements is universally accepted just doesn’t make sense.

Page 7 states “The major faiths of Khorvaire have no strong beliefs about transgender individuals, in the same way that their doctrines don’t specifically refer to dwarves or those with green eyes; one’s gender matters less than their piety and deeds. Transgender people can be found in places of worship across the continent as members of the flock or clergy like any other.”

Eberron works with both pulp and noir themes. This publication doesn’t really add or suit either of these settings and as such, feels forced. Like trying to add an additional layer over an already finished masterpiece.

Overall I felt this guide was too forced and didn’t suit the existing world of Eberron. No doubt it will appeal to the transgender population but overall it was not well integrated into the existing Eberron setting. Perhaps it would have been better to create a new world and not attempt to introduce these elements into an existing setting.

Great little pack of art for the budding DMs Guild creator.

The Big Book Of Zombies

If you love zombies then this Tome of creatures is for you. 39 pages chock full of all types of zombie humanoid or monstrous creatures you could want for your apocalypse.

This book was beautifully presented with plenty of full colour pictures on every page to compliment the well designed creature stats.

I’ll definitely be using this in many campaigns in the future. 5 stars all the way to the grave with this one.

It is available on the DMs Guild here at a Pay What You Want price

http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/239263

Breaking the Peace

A 2 hour (it took our group 3 & 1/2 hours) adventure for 3-7 characters of x 1st to 4th level, set in The Tarnished Lands created by P. A. Wikoff and based on events of Wikoff’s story, The Harrowed Half-Breed.

The module is broken into two parts, Part 1: Dangerous Cargo and Part 2: Paths of Darkness. It is a typical protection and delivery style adventure with enough detail to keep players interested in playing.

The adventure has pregenerated characters ready made for you or you can create your own. The author states that the only Race option must be Human and the Class is limited to Fighter, Ranger, Barbarian or Rogue. This may limit the audience if your players enjoy spell casting classes or other races.

Apart from this restriction the adventure was enjoyable and well balanced and written. There was some formatting issues that need to be corrected in a revised edition to tidy it up as well.

It is available on the DMs Guild here at a Pay What You Want price

http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/239345

Another fun Character Class created by Matt Mercer. I haven't seen this classed played on Critical Role yet but it sounds like a cracker.

I'll definetely be adding this class to our Tal'Dorei campaign this week.

Goblin Warbands

If you haven’t seen any of Christopher Dornan’s publications on the DMs Guild yet do yourself a favour and check them out. They are always high quality, professionally presented and a real treat.

A great expansion of Goblin types to add to your monster manual arsenal. I really like the expansion Dornan creates for specific creatures. If you want to set your adventure in a Goblin infested area of your world this book gives you thirteen new Goblin builds from Goblin Pyro to Goblin Warpriest.

This book was beautifully presented with plenty of full colour pictures on every page to compliment the well designed creature stats.

I’ll definitely be using this in many campaigns in the future.

It is available on the DMs Guild here at a Pay What You Want price

http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/237852

Tides of Fate - Adventure

Tides of Fate is an adventure for 3-5 x 1st level characters set in an aquatic environment. It is part one of a five part series.

The concept of the adventure was enticing as it reminded me of a classic AD&D module from the 80’s. After reading through the module I had some concerns that it would end in TPK for a party of 3 x 1st level characters (and even 5 characters). I ran this adventure with a small group of experienced players and it was very challenging and is better suited to the 5 characters plus a few NPCs. It also had a couple of plot holes if this adventure is played as a one off adventure and not part of the series.

There are some editing issues that need attention ASAP as they are at the start of the publication: the cover on DM’s Guild is not included in the PDF, page 2 is blank, and there are typos starting from the first paragraph.

Overall it was an okay adventure that needs revision to make it better balanced and a stand alone adventure.

Tides of Fate is available on DM’s Guild as a Pay What You Want price

http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/237107

City and Wild

City and Wild version 2 is an excellent, quality and professional publication. The supplement is chock full of high quality images to complement text.

This revised edition has included the individual publication, Wilderness Survival Guide,by the same author, making this a 64 page tome of coolness. It is broken down into 4 sections. Additional human variants such as Seaborn, Desertborn etc are included to add flavour to your run of the mill human character, based on their geographic origin. I liked the section on Guilds, which adds an additional layer to characters during their time in larger popular towns or cities.

The author likes Alchemy and there is a section on this topic similar to in the Wilderness Survival Guide. The last part has a few new creatures to spice up your campaigns.

Part 1: Character Options Part 2: The City. Alchemy Part 3: The Wild. Surviving in the Wild Part 4: Monsters and NPCs

Overall this is a really well written and handy guide with some useful ideas and tables to enhance your game.

City & Wild is available on the DM’s Guild for Pay What You Want http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/226033#reviews_sec

Wilderness Survival Guide

I was expecting something similar to the 1986 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Wilderness Survival Guide supplement. Unfortunately it wasn’t really designed to be a converted or updated publication and rather just a new 5e product using the same title. Given the vast differences in publications I would suggest that the next revision also changes the title to save from misleading potential purchasers with the same expectations.

Right, with that out of the way let’s look at what’s actually in this booklet. This booklet is very well produced little guide with plenty of excellent artwork. I was very impressed by the professional presentation of this publication. The tables are handy for DMs wanting to save time in impromptu outdoor encounters. There are 7 sections to this booklet.

1. Harvesting creatures
2. Extracting minerals and other resources
3. Plant gathering and alchemy systems
4. Crafting and special materials
5. Armor, weapons and equipment
6. Feats 
7. Dangers of the Wild

This revised edition has cut out 4 pages reducing the content from 26 pages to only 22 pages. At only 22 pages it has the potential of being an excellent resource if expanded significantly. There is soo much more relevant information that could be added to this guide to make it more useful to DMs and a more comprehensive book.

It is available from the DM’s Guild here for Pay What You Want price http://www.dmsguild.com/m/product/219855