I've been finding these really useful for my Realms westmarches campaign. I can throw in little things that aren't from the PHB that make the campaign new to the players.

I am currently running the Mere of Dead Men section in Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and I was looking for material to flesh out the experience for my players. Not so much encounters as good fluff: how the place felt, looked, smelled, what the environment was like, things I could use to make the experience more in-depth and evocative.

I'd been aware of the Amarune's Almanac series on the Dungeon Masters' Guild for some time, and thought this might be a good opportunity to try a volume. I knew of the character from the novels of Ed Greewood and was aware of his involvement in the series, which to me spoke promisingly to its quality.

I was immensely glad to find I did not regret the purchase in the slightest. The work is of very fine quality, attractively laid out and professional in appearance. Reading it I was immediately struck by how happy and calm I felt reading material that felt so true to the Realms, marking the product as clearly head and shoulders above much DMs Guild content.

The player options are certainly interesting, although I may never use them or the new spells (although never say never!). What really interested me was the lore on each wetland region, which is written in the form of short stories starring Amarune and her lover Arclath. These were delightful, a great mix of informative and evocative. Entertaining in their own right but also very inspiring as to the flavour of each place and what kind of stories belong there. A huge plus for me was the section on flora, elaborating on what unique species can be found in each area and what they can be used for. This was exactly the kind of content I'd been wanting! The assortment of new monsters was an added bonus!

All in all, I'm very happy to have made the purchase, and I'm now looking forward to getting other entries in the series.