Since I don’t play Pathfinder and don’t know anything about the “ransomed” adventure to which this product is linked, I approached the “Ruined Gate” solely with an interest in the miniatures-scale battlemap. On that score, Jonathan Roberts does not disappoint. The map depicts a long U-shaped cavern corridor that bends around a small three-room gatehouse. It’s a nice standalone map, and the area descriptions are useful and suggestive even if you’re not running the larger linked adventure. Presumably, it just gets better if you link it with the other related maps (like the “Ruined Guardhouse”).

Ruined Gates by Rite Publishing

This product is 27 pages long. It starts with a cover, and credits. (2 pages)

The Surface Ruins: The Gates (3 pages) This is about a path that climbs up, that winds back and forth. In one spot is a guard tower, that connects a lower and higher part of the path. In the tower is 3 encounter locations. The layout is simple and effective. It comes with very high quality maps and complete stat blocks for the monsters.

The Ruins of the Perilous (2 pages) This section goes into a IC introduction into the ruins that this series will map out. It both gives you a bit of a history of the place, but also a IC hook to get the PC's involved. Along with a bit of IC advice.

Next is a OGL (1 page)

It ends with a map pack. It has the map again, then blown up sections of the map to use with mini's in both color and black and white. (19 pages)

Closing thoughts. This gives exactly what it promises, the start to a dungeon. The artwork is decent and the writing, layout is good. This section of the adventure is well done with a interesting setup and the tower after cleared makes a good base camp for exploring further into the ruins. It even makes mention of others having used it as such, it would have been nice if they had gone into more detail about that to add a little more flavor though. So whats my rating? Well I find things like this hard to rate, they are so short and simple but part of a much greater project. I am going to settle for a 4 star. It is a nice intro to the adventure but I think it could have been a little better.

The encounter of this installment, complete with a little map, takes up 3 pages and once again features a new creature, a magical beast cat-creature that is quite simply one of the coolest CR 1 critters I've read in quite some time. The encounter also comes with an artwork of one specific feature of the dungeon that will have PCs wonder or at least pause for a second.

After the encounter, we get a 2 page-replica of the introduction to the Ruins Perilous some may already know from the first installment.

The map-part starts with the cover and a quick how-to. (2 pages) It features a one-page map of the encounter as well as a over-blown version of the map for use with miniatures that takes up 8 pages. There is also a printer-friendly b/w version of the miniature-friendly map that takes up the last 8 pages of the pdf.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any mistakes. Layout of this full-color pdf is once again beautiful and the maps are up to the high RiP-standard we know from the ECS-line. Only that around here, they are in color. The encounter presented here is more complex and intelligent than the one in this files predecessor and thus also more rewarding. While the encounter didn't absolutely blast me away, I have to consider the low price and the intention of this product - It succeeds at its intention and is very cheap and thus my verdict will be 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform. If you don't plan on using the maps, detract a star.

The encounter of this installment, complete with a little map, takes up 3 pages and once again features a new creature, a magical beast cat-creature that is quite simply one of the coolest CR 1 critters I've read in quite some time. The encounter also comes with an artwork of one specific feature of the dungeon that will have PCs wonder or at least pause for a second.

After the encounter, we get a 2 page-replica of the introduction to the Ruins Perilous some may already know from the first installment.

The map-part starts with the cover and a quick how-to. (2 pages) It features a one-page map of the encounter as well as a over-blown version of the map for use with miniatures that takes up 8 pages. There is also a printer-friendly b/w version of the miniature-friendly map that takes up the last 8 pages of the pdf.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any mistakes. Layout of this full-color pdf is once again beautiful and the maps are up to the high RiP-standard we know from the ECS-line. Only that around here, they are in color. The encounter presented here is more complex and intelligent than the one in this files predecessor and thus also more rewarding. While the encounter didn't absolutely blast me away, I have to consider the low price and the intention of this product - It succeeds at its intention and is very cheap and thus my verdict will be 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform. If you don't plan on using the maps, detract a star.