NOTE: This review tackles both the Judge and the Player map products.

The Southern Reaches map is part 18 of the Wilderlands of High Adventure series. There are actually two maps, sold separately - one for the Judge and one for the Player.

The Judge map is decent. It is detailed enough that a campaign could be set wholly within the Southern Reaches. The abundance of natural boundaries makes dividing up the region into geo-political units an easy task. However, for $3.00 I wish they'd included the Player map, instead of forcing one to purchase it for an additional $1.00.

There are a fair number of large towns on the map, leading me to believe that it is a densely populated area. Furthermore, the proliferation of citadels tells me that it's not a very peaceful region. I could be wrong, of course, since I have not read the optional campaign material available for use with the maps. Regardless, for $3.00 there is enough here to be worth the price.

The Player map is... lacking. It would work well for outsiders, visiting the Southern Reaches. However, it's useless if a character grew up there. Newcomers can wait to get a map until they've been in the area long enough to learn about the basic geography - at which time a more detailed map would be appropriate. I'd suggest adding more detail to the current one. I'd also suggest shading the bodies of water (Silver Sea and Sea Lion Bay), so that they are apparent in the grey scale format.

This product is billed as a "compilation of character templates that you can use for your character portraits."

Basically, AV has taken a 3D model of a character, and placed it (her in this case) in twelve different poses. Your task is to place hair, clothing and equipment on the template before coloring it in. I'd be curious to know whether people find this kind of product useful. Personally, I don't get it... But I'm open to being shown the error of my ways.

Any takers?

Now, the templates aren't really that bad. I printed out a couple to see them on paper. If you use this product, I'd suggest printing in a light greyscale so that the darker areas don't overpower the open spaces - the noses, in particular, have deep shading which looks... odd when printed out. After printing, I used a pencil to sketch clothing and then inked all the lines using a fine-point art marker (you can use a sharpie, I guess).

Not too bad, but I still don't get the point. And I'm not convinced that 12 poses for a single N/PC is worth $2.80.