This product details Felric's Redoubt, a city in The Echoes of Heaven campaign setting from Final Redoubt Press. The download also includes the adventure The Festering Earth, part two of a ten-part series taking the characters from 1st to 20th level while they face the dangers of a world-threatening plot. You can read my review of the setting here on RPGNow.

The Last Free City continues the innovations started in the original product. One of the best is the way the book denotes adventure hooks. The designers are very clear regarding which of the various plot threads will be developed in future supplements and which are free and clear for the DM to explore without fear of contradicting later published sources. I also really like the included maps, which were all created using Campaign Cartographer. The raw CC files are in the download, giving a little added utility to those DMs who own that program.

The Last Free City opens with a detailed history of the city itself. Felric's Redoubt was founded in the wake of a long a bloody conflict between agents of the Empire Vurtus and those few souls who dared resist the imperial power. It was interesting that the city of Felric's Redoubt was built in a sub-optimal location. According to the book, the initial survey for the fortress that later grew into the city was poorly handled and city leaders had to compensate by building a number of improvements. I found this an interesting and realistic change from the usual well-planned and modern-looking cities that often show up in gaming products.

Besides the history, the book gives descriptions of the language, names, and culture of the city. Notes on swearing, insult contests, and vows give the DM the tools to really help make the setting come alive for the players. There is a great deal of space devoted to the various guilds that control the city's commerce, as well as the people that run them. Art, government, entertainment, and the law are all touched upon as well. The level of information is good, and certainly detailed enough to be useful at the gaming table.

The PDF itself is nice-looking. The layout is good and there is decent art throughout. I appreciate the inclusion of an index, which supplement's the PDF's bookmarking and helps those who want to print the book and use a physical copy at the table. I really appreciate the designer's skill with Campaign Cartographer, a program that is often considered to have a steep learning curve. This is a small-press product, though, and it does show a bit from time to time. The art is black and white, and some pieces aren't all that impressive. Its a small complaint, however, and the PDF looks good overall.

The other part of this download is the adventure. The Festering Earth continues where the previous module (included in the campaign setting download) left off. It is a fairly complex adventure with an involved plot. Essentially, the party must work with and against the church to stop a demonic serial killer. There is also a section called a teaser, which is a kind of mini story-within-a-story. In it, the players run 1st level versions of themselves some ten thousand years in the past. These teasers are meant to provide a slowly unfolding backstory while simultaneously giving the players a direct hand in the history of the world. They probably won't work for every group, but the concept is certainly an innovative one.

Players will appreciate the author's efforts to avoid railroading and allow them to explore as they see fit. DMs will appreciate the extra tools the book gives to help keep things on track. These take the form of Dramatic Purpose sidebars, which explain the designer's intent for each scene. In addition, notes are scattered here and there on potentially unexpected results and how to deal with them. The adventure is a good one, and one of its principle strengths is how well it is tied to the campaign setting.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: These products are like a glimpse into a very detailed and interesting home-brew campaign setting. The level of background and setting information is impressive and the layout and presentation is professional and appealing. The author does a great job detailing the city, and the included adventure is nicely meshed with the setting. Felric's Redoubt is excellent, regardless of which game system you're using to run it.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: As heavy as it is on setting detail, Felric's Redoubt is very light on rules. Part of this, I believe, has to do with the way the book was written. There are four versions, each for a different game system. To this end, the designers have kept the actual rules content fairly sparse. There is enough to run things, but not much more. When done properly, rules can really support setting detail. A few prestige classes and feats would have helped support the fluffy bits with a firm layer of crunch.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

The Echoes of Heaven is one of the best deals you will find in PDF gaming. Each product comes with a campaign sourcebook, a module, and detailed supporting Campaign Cartographer maps. Also, each product can be purchased in one of four versions (HARP, Rolemaster, HERO, and D20) so you can play in your favorite game system. (I am writing one review for the product but posting it under all 4 versions)

This is the second installment in the series which is supposed to run 10 products with each one continuing the story to create a campaign that takes your characters from 1st to 20th level (30th level for HARP and RM; 300 points for HERO) . If you haven't bought Product 1 (The Throne of God) I highly recommend that you purchase that first. If the campaign milieu appeals to you then you will be back for Product 2.

The campaign sourcebook in this product details the greatest city-state in the campaign world, Felric?s Redoubt. It begins with a history of the city and then continues with descriptions of the people and the culture within the city. Like most sourcebooks, there are descriptions of important organizations and people, the government, the military and the economy. These sections are well-written and provide a general description of the city-state.

The following section details the different areas. The author has given population statistics to include not only a listing of the major NPCs, but also a count of every generic figure in the area (e.g. bankers, merchants, priests). Also included are maps that have color-coded buildings to tell what type of business takes place there. The author is obviously proficient with Campaign Cartographer and loves to detail every inch of his city (though I not sure how he did so without going blind).

The last section of the sourcebook gives an overview of how the city relates to the surrounding area and to the religions of the world. It ends with an index.

The strong points of this product are the same things that made the first product great. It is well-written and the author obviously has a detailed vision of his setting. The text is interspersed with what the author calls world threads and adventure seeds. The world threads give you an idea of what is a major theme within the world that may be detailed later. The adventure seeds give ideas on possible scenarios for those GMs with the time and imagination to take the setting and develop their own modules. There are several of these within the sourcebook.

The Festering Earth is the module included with this product. It is a murder mystery in the city of Felric?s Redoubt that is documented in the sourcebook. Like many modules The Festering Earth has encounter summaries with the stats for the encounters and parts in boxes that are to be read aloud to the players. Since it is a murder mystery the encounters are more loosely connected that your average dungeon crawl. I think there are 2 things that make the Echoes of Heaven modules standout:

First is the inclusion of paragraphs entitled ?Dramatic Purpose?. The author gives a description of why the encounter is even included and what the players should learn from it. I think in this way the module doesn?t just feel like a series of encounters strung together just to get the players some XP. It also gives the GM an idea of what the author was thinking when he wrote so the GM can determine what value it has for his/her specific players. Having that knowledge allows the GM to tailor the encounter to his/her players, if necessary, to make sure that the players get what they should out of the encounter.

Second is that the author gives advice on how to keep the adventure on track without removing the free will of the players. He has an understanding that the players don?t want to be led around by the nose but that there is a story arc to the module. Thus, he often covers a few scenarios of how the encounter can go bad and how the GM can put it back on track without making the story feel contrived.

As I noted in the opening paragraph, I think that this product is a fantastic purchase. If you are looking for a good vs. evil fantasy campaign the Echoes of Heaven series is the way to go.

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: I enjoy the depth that the author gives to the setting. There is certainly alot that is going on in his world. Also, I like the layout of the material.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the filler art repeats, the art overall is done well.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>