I just don't get it. The locations seem to be incredibly generic with lots of words but little of it gameable. Unless someone doesn't know what an abbey or a castle is I don't really understand what they are supposed to do with this book.
Edit, in response to publisher's reply:
With hindsight I think 1 star is a too harsh and have amended to 2 stars. This is just my personal take and others like this sandbox. I get no joy from criticising something that is clearly a work of love because I think the idea is fantastic, in principle. I'll try to give a little more clarity on why it doesn't work for me.
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I think some art would go a long way to communicate tone and flavour. I find the format very dry. I appreciate that commisioned art is unaffordable but stock art, public domain and AI are options.
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Maps of significant locations would really help.
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I didn't find the mechanical detail and icons helpful. It just feels overwhelming. I would personally do away with all the system specific stat adjustment suggestions in favour of either actual stats for one system, or nothing.
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I don't find the world has any character. A high res map and a description of each broad region at the start would help with that. I think listing the PoIs by map square/region, rather than alphabetical would help. I don't think generic, repeatable PoIs like an abbey or a keep add anything useful. For example, I have no idea why the armoury is located where it is. I can't see any reason all the nations of the world would buy from that one place or how that impacts the nearby locations.
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Some listings need more info an some need much less. You could fit flavourful 2-3 sentence descriptions of 10 different abbeys in less space than is used for one. OTOH, there is an army of (sort of) undead wandering around in one particular square with some vague suggestions of how to use it. This should have quests linked to multiple other locations and huge potential impact on the region but it's not mentioned elsewhere and gets the same treatment as the Abbey.
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You give multiple options for adventure hooks and scenarios for each PoI but they are generic and vague. I'd rather have specific details.
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I just find all the descriptions quite bland. For example there is a mutations table near the back but it's got to be the least interesting mutation table I've ever seen. Instead of 5/6 generic options I'd love 20 really impactful mutations.
- The small dense text is hard to parse.
TL;DR. I think quite a lot of the things I don't see are probably either in the text but unclear to me or in your head but not communicated in the way your think. I think that by trying to make the sandbox universal and usable in any campaign it's ended up hollowed out. I think you could give the specific information that you think you don't have room for in the same amount of space if you cut repetition and focus on unique, specific, immediately useable content.
As an example, this is the listing for the Windler House in Nightmare over Ragged Hollow:
"The mossy gray house sits alone, surrounded by overgrown gardens and untended paths. From inside you hear glass tinkling and metallic ticking. A tasselled rope hangs by the front door.
• Rope. Door bell. Rings a complex series of bells and chimes for 1 solid minute, all dented and out of tune now. Summons the ghost butler Andrew (see Enter anywhere).
• Windows. Look in at dusty furniture, spiderwebs.
• Exterior doors. Front (locked), back (unlocked).
• Enter anywhere. The ghost butler Andrew appears, a polite floating skeleton in a tidy gray suit. Bad memory, can’t answer any questions, but follows the party around, desperate to help and please. The Windler family treated him poorly, never thanked or paid for his service.
- Freeing: Ofer him thanks, praise, or a single gold coin to let him and eternal rest.
- Danger: When criticized or insulted too much, Andrew screams (d3 damage from psychic energy) and vanishes for 1 hour."
Then there is a map of the interior, random encounters and detailed room descriptions. The entire listing is 4 pages. It's immediately gameable. I can run it with alomost no prep. The flavour and tone really come through.
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