Fabulous! Fills a real gap -- the kinds of magic spells and items that everyday magic users would have. A real boon for fleshing out NPCs (especially in my city-based campaign), but a lot of spells would be useful for adventurers too. For example, a range of spells that change minor aspects of a person's appearance, but for a longer time period than alter self, which would be useful for the serving-mage of a vain noblewoman, but also for going undercover longer term; spells that your bard PC would have for performances or playing tricks on people that would also be useful for distracting guards or hiding stolen items, etc.

When they say "dozens" of spells and items, I was expected less than what I got -- my quick estimate is more like 80+ spells and 100+ magic items. There's a nice range of types/purposes, all low-level (0- to 3rd-level). Although some of the spells and items are a bit silly, or under- or over-powered, there is a LOT more useful material here than in most products like this that I buy. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The layout is organized, clean, easy to read. The spells are listed in alphebetical order, and then there's an index at the end grouping them by class and level -- thank you!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I think that a few of the spells are a little bit under- or over-powered and I'm going to tweak them, but even these are very minor issues, and probably just a matter of personal taste. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Saying it's "comprehensive" is a bit of a stretch, but you definitely get your $2 worth! The spells and feats are especially good, and I'm a tough sell. I've been able to use a lot of this in my homebrew, both for my not-so-evil witches down the lane, and to help flesh out an evil god of pain, who now specializes in curses too. Between the new spells and the ideas for how to use existing spells as curses, you can create your own Curse domain, beef it up by giving the clerics the special nasty curse feats, and still have plenty of crunch left over.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Favorite spell: Toady. Yes, Esmeralda, you can turn little Tommy into a toad. (He'll return to being a little brat after 1 minute/level, but maybe that will teach him a lesson, eh?)<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I would have liked a little more on the background material section, about how curses have been viewed in real-life cultures.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This offers a lot of text, especially for the reduced price of less than $2. Whether you can use it as is depends on how fastidious you and your players are about realism. If they don't know much or care much about how real villages are/were laid out, this is a dandy product straight out. If they're the kind of people to notice things like, "Hey, where's all the farmland?" or "Why is the guard tower and all the guards on the other side of the river from the town?" or "If this is a big trading town, why isn't there a big dock?" etc., then you might want to make some adjustments.

There's no "adventure" going on in this town, just people living their everyday lives. But there are enough names and good bits of juicy gossip that you can stick a plot in easily and have a good idea about what the PCs will hear about it if they go to building #51.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The descriptions of the buildings, their contents, and the people are really great, and make up the bulk of the 40 pages of text. The inventories for the stores and the menu at the inn are ridiculously detailed and overblown, but give you a great list to CHOOSE from, in figuring out which of those things are really available. I particularly like that all the food items on the menu are given a cost, not in cp or gp, but in % normal meal cost. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The map isn't realistic. In a real village by a river that relied on trade, most of the development would be along the river itself, and there would be docks and warehouses and inns next to the river. Farms would be spread out far and wide. Instead, the river comes into the corner of the map, and all the buildings are squeezed into a neat rectangle with most buildings far from the river, and tiny little patches of ground not much larger than the house lots are labeled as pastures, vinyards, and fields. But again, if your players don't care, why not? It sure beats coming up with every single detail yourself.

Also a downside: I can't search the PDF for key words, and there's no organization within the PDF that helps locate a certain type of business. So you just have to hunt.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Interesting, if very short. Still, at such a low price, you might as well try. First page is the cover -- that's the closest you get to a map, but it sizes up nicely on the PDF. Second page is a brief synopsis of population and location, and a nice, creative history of why there's a city on the side of a volcano, including the main characters in the town. Third page is a list of ten places and people as supporting characters. There's a tension set up in the history, but no adventure: supplying your own wouldn't be that hard.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I would have liked a map, and more description of the town and residents.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Exactly what it says it is, and well done too. A great resource for alternate items, whether you have an alchemist in the PC group or are looking to buy some more interesting alchemical items. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The descriptions and examples were clear and detailed, and are then followed by a table that summarizes the effects of each item: perfect.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The way the gray columns merged together and looked like side-boxes was a bit confusing, but that's just a minor formatting issue.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Offers some interesting ideas. Even if you have a lot of magic in your campaign, here are items that your players can actually afford to buy off the shelf. Alternately, it's a good way to make mundane treasure special and still useful -- so the dagger isn't magical, but it glows when undead are nearby, that's interesting, and can spice up the role-playing too.

For the length of it, there are only a few items that I see as immediately useful to PC adventurers, or that I could see using as a plot device in an NPC's hands. The others might take some more twisting, but show promise.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Descriptions were nice, and so were the photos of the real gems and minerals. There's a very useful table summarizing the minerals/gems, items, and effects at the end.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the alchemical items duplicate magic spells, which may be stronger that you want alchemy to be in your game. Also, many of the gems (and thus the items made from them) are greatly underpriced compared to the D&D DMG, so if you're using those rules, you'll want to make adjustments. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Comprehensive, extensive, detailed, creative -- nothing else like it out there. Some sections will be more useful in RPGs than others, but all of it is fun to read.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The level of detail in the descriptions, and the broad variety. Some fungi types that I can see using easily in the game: poisonous, ritual, medicinal, magical, maybe infectious.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I'm finding it hard to figure out how I would incorporate the other types of fungi into my game. Maybe if I had more herbalists or witches? Some hints would have been useful.

But if you have any excuse to include mushrooms in your game, this is DEFINITELY the book for you!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>