GM's Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing (PFRPG)
Raging Swan Press Review for GM’S MISCELLANY: WILDERNESS DRESSING
Firstly I asked to review this did get a free PDF copy, and I will give an unbiased review, having said that this is my first review so bear with me! I’ve played RPG’s for over 34 years, mainly D&D in all its many incarnations and am currently running a Pathfinder campaign consisting of 56 adventures. I do have a few other Ranging Swans Press products, including the free Lonely Coast and the Wererats of Roach Run Sewer.
Ok so firstly I like the look of the PDF, it is a large 159 page document consisting of the Front Cover 2pgs, GM’s Miscellany: Wilderness Dressing intro and that 1pg, Contents Page 1pg, Section Heading page 4pgs, so on page 6 you get your tables and guts of the book is 140ish pages, Events and Features pg, Folk pgs, By Land pgs, By Sea pgs, then Reading Stat Blocks 1pg, About the Designers an Stat Blocks by CR 2pgs, Big Pictures 5pg, the legal bit 1pg, Advert for The Lonely Coast 1pg, Back Cover 1 pg. So you do get a lot of PDF for your, it is a dear PDF, and I do have a few moans, would of been nicer if they did that about the book, but that said I do think it’s worth the price.
The PDF it’s self is well set out and looks good, I can’t see any spelling mistakes, but the again my spelling sucks. I like the feel of it and as it’s been said before with many of Raging Swan Press material has that 1st ED feel, without turning it into a Role Master Rule Book. It’s in keeping with Creighton Broadhurst KISS philosophy, so the headings are clear, sections and tables you want are easy to find and therefor it’s easy to use, theirs not of lot of phaff that take pages of the document away so there’s and lot of information in each section. From what I’ve seen the book can be easily used on the fly while running a game session or as tool to roll up whole regions of wilderness, castles, caves etc. and with the descriptions and events in it could give you sights for many adventures and mayhem.
Events and Features Section
Campfire Minor Events & Campfire Features
The first section of this is Campfire Minor Events, this has a d100 table of great little events, they cover things that aren’t combat, but a few could lead to fights and could kick off small encounters or sidetrek adventure so be warn, could end up making more work, but most are simple little things that happen overnight, animal noises, fire going out etc. Overall they add colour and a sense of the place actually being more real and alive.
Then there is Campfire Features, this table consists of brief 3 or 4 line descriptions and features that the campsite has, might be stones plied in a wind break, fresh water source or even graves or tunnel nearby. This section is detailed just enough, simple to use, and very helpful, but may end up kicking off more work for as PC’s go haring off after a rustle in the bushes or down a small dungeon, really liked this chapter.
Castles
This section is made up of Small Castle, Large Castle, Castle Dressings, Castle Names, Castle Complications and Opportunities and Lord of the Castle.
Small and Large Castle
The Small and Large Castle section gives small brief descriptions of a number of different strongholds and castles ranging from fortified chapel, underground maze to fiery towers. This section is good, I like the descriptions, only found a few silly one, but does require work to fit it in the game, better off using it as a planned encounter or prerolled overnight stay encounter.
Castle Dressing are again the standard format of 3 line plus features of said castle, they are nice and quirky can help bring life to the GM’s descriptions of the place, but can be conflicting with what you already rolled for the castle, but with work, and note taking can be useful and enhance your game, but would just pick and choose the features I wanted, if I used this part.
Then their Castle Names, this is a simple section of castle names, does what it says on the tin, could be useful if naming ruins, castles or forts that are not detailed on your maps.
Next there is Castle Complications and Opportunities is a d12 table of events that are happening near or at the castle when you arrive, these could too small to mid-sized adventures, i.e. taking out bandits, monsters or humanoid tribe or theirs building work or you’re invited to dinner. These events are interesting but not sure how useful they would be, and need to be handled with care or they could end up derailing your game, but then again it could be just what you need.
Then there is Lord of the Castle this d20 table Lords and Ladies names, race and class, again could be useful but not sure it was needed.
Overall I do like this section, but needs more work by GM’s to get maximum potentially out of it, and is more useful as mapping, region detailer, then while you’re running game, as you might have to make more stuff up on the fly and could be a lot of hassle.
Small Ruins, Large Ruins and Ruin Dressings
This chapter is the same as the castle chapter, but describes ruins of all shapes and sizes, both the small and large ruin tables are d100 tables of three to five line discriptions of different types of ruins, these include ruined farm houses, sunken barns, broken stone killers, broken aquaducct for small ruins, then broken bronze lion that roars either the wind, three pyramids, cathedrals. The ruins dressing table is another d100 table, that is helpful and interesting, really liked this chapter more than the castle one before it, and I think it's more useful for a GM.
Haunts
This chapter is only a 3/4 of a page that describes six haunts, ranging from CR2 to CR8, liked this page just a shame it's so short.
Small Caves, Small Caves Dressings and Small Cave Features
Again this chapter covers small caves and caverns, and therefore can be extended to dungeons, it covers d100 descriptions of small caves and rocky shelters, again the descriptions are good, colourful and will be helpful again liked this section.
Cave dressings are another d100 table of dressings and features that help describe the cave and what's in it, again a very good table really useful.
Small Cave Features covers a things like floors, obstructions, like pits, stalactites, pillars, rubble, each have descriptions with DC's for climbing, fighting and other relevant information, again this is a good chapter, it's nice to have all the relevant information in one place without having to trawl through lots of different sections of the main rule book and is very useful.
Campfire Minor Events & Campfire Features
Then again which I carn't understand this chapter is repeated, to me this a waste of 4 pages, which could of been used for something else, such as bigger encounter tables or even a River Events chapter, this section is my major gripe with this product.
Extreme Weather
Next is the Extreme Weather, I like this section, it covers Rain, Wind and Snow Storms, the first part of it is made up of three tables for each type of weather, firstly Weather Discriptions this a d20table that's describes what sort of storm, rain etc, including any modifiers and DC's, they are interesting and helpful, then their is the table for weather events again this is d20 table that describes minor events that could happen while suffering in what ever weather your in, this could being blinded wind or a lightning strike hitting a near by tree, found these sections of the weather chapter very helpful and useful, really liked this section a lot. Then their is Hooks and Complications this another collection of d20 tables for each type of weather, these again are interesting and well written, and better for the fact they are on a d20 table and not a d12 one like in the castles hooks. I think they are helpful and could be a lot of fun, but may need some work on the part of the GM. Then finally in this chapter is a section on how to run Rain, Snow and Wind Storms, this is rules snow, dust storms, wind, tornados, hurricanes, it very useful section has some good insights and all the effects and rules needed to handle them.
Folk
This chapter covers Bandits, Merchants and Peddlers, Bards and Minstrels, Mercenaries and Sellswords.
Bandits
The bandit chapter lists Rank and File bandits it's gives a d10 table of random human bandits, but the descriptions feel like they belong to leader types and not rank and file bandits, then gives stats for basic human bandit CR 1/2 and a then a veteran bandit who is also CR 1/2 which doesn't make any sense and should of been at least CR 1-2. Then it list Half-Elf and Half-Orc bandits, these are a little under whellming the elf table describing the half elves is small only four enteries long and then gives stats for CR1adept/expert could be used for any of the NPC descriptions but just didn't seem to fit them either, then theirs the half orcs, says it's a d10 table but it's not, as one NPC is 1-2, then another 3-4 etc so their is only five NPC's listed and only one set of stats for a CR1 warroir/expert (soldier), this again is an interesting class combo, but I always thought warrior covered the soldier profession, not expert.
Next is Bandit Leaders this section has a d8 of leader descriptions, and stats for a human bandit leader CR3, half elf leader CR4, half orc leader CR3 and finally a tielfling bandit leader CR1, which is to low a CR I think. Then are bandit hooks and complications, this is a d12 table of adventure hooks and pesky events that could lead to some nice role play. Then it list some examples bandit parties and who they would made up of I liked this section, but thought they should of given just the stat blocks Fortran and file bandits, left the descriptions for the leaders, orc and elf bandits listing were to small, with half elves hardly evening worth at only 4 descriptions and veteran bandit needed to be tougher.
Travellers: Peddlers, Merchants & Traders
This chapter gives a d100 table of various merchants and traders, each discerption is 6-9 lines long and describes the merchant, gives the standard stat block of alignment, sex, race, class and level, their motivation and what they are offering, looking for or up to. They are well written and informative, I like this section are useful and can be easily popped into an on running game, with little or no effort.
Travellers: Bards, Minstrels & Troubadours
Again it is the same as Peddlers and merchants, but details bards, spies, rogues and performers; again this chapter is easy to use and well written.
Travellers: Mercenaries and Sellswords
This section again is as with merchants and bards, the descriptions look about 8-10 lines long look well written and easy to use.
By Land
This chapter is split into Minor Events, Dressings, Encounters and Terrain Features, all of which are d100 tables, apart from the Encounter tables which are d12. The terrain it covers is Borderlands, Deserts, Farmland, Forest and Woodland, Frozenlands, Primal Forest, Hills, Mountains, Marsh and Swamps.
Minor Events
The minor events are again a collection ofd100 tables, which are interesting, creative and is well written and fun. Many could lead to sidetrek adventures so be warned, especially if your group is anything like the one I run for and have a habit of finding to do stuff when their isn’t.
Dressings
Again a fun and informative selection of d100 tables, which describe small elements that bring fun and a sense of life to the areas you, are in.
Terrain Features
The Terrain Features section is great and very informative, detailing rules for travelling in these regions including modifiers to stealth, perception, saves, cover bonuses, how much movement it takes up when in that terrain etc.
Encounters
The encounters are an only d12 table which is a shame; I would have liked them to be a bit bigger say a d20 table instead. This is a brilliant section of the book and very helpful and easy to use, the only niggles I have with it are I think encounter tables are a bit on the small side, which is a shame and the fact I would have liked to have seen a River/Lake section and a Jungle section, which I think this book is missing, apart from that that, this section is good and I liked it a lot; there’s a lot of information in it and it’s well written and fun.
By Sea
This is one of my favourite chapters, as I’ve always struggled to make sea journeys interesting, partially due to their not being any good encounter tables and events for sea voyages. I found this chapter a great help and very useful, but was a bit disappointed by only two things. Anyway, this chapter is like By Land and split into Coastal Minor Events, Coastal Dressings, and Coastal Encounters, Sea Voyages; Ship Board Events, Omens, Minor Encounters, Random Encounters, Ship board Features, Shipwrecks, Shipwreck Dressings, Shipwreck Encounters, Pirate Ship Design, Pirate Ship Crew, Pirate Ships Names, Ships Captain Example, Ships Knowledge, and finally Pirate Ship Figureheads and Flags.
Coastal Minor Events
It follows the standard format of a d100 table describing events that can happen along a coastline, as with all of these tables they are 2 to 6 line descriptions, which are informative, interesting and easy to use.
Coastal Dressings
Again this follows the standard format of a d100 table describing terrain features and oddities, which are 2 to 7 lines in length and are again interesting and fun.
Coastal Encounters
This table is another d12 table of encounters, with a brief description of the monster/monsters and their motivations. Again it’s a shame that the encounter tables aren’t a little larger.
Sea Voyages; Ship Board Events
This is another d100 table of events, personalities, crew and passengers that lend a little bit of life aboard ship, they are 1 to 4 line descriptions and again are well written and interesting, and will definitely help bring any voyage to life.
Omens
This is a d100 table of good and bad omens, that happen either on board ship or while at sea, loved this section, thought it was very good, the only niggle I have with it is that even though they have told you whether the it’s a good or ill luck, they haven’t given any consequences of what that is, would of liked to seen either a moral modifier to go either saves or skill checks.
Minor Encounters
These are a d100 table of encounters and events that can happen at sea, include freak waves, ships, whale/monster sightings etc., again all are 2 to four lines long, well written and interesting, although like with some of the d100 tables each description is a two number roll so there are only 50 encounters really.
Random Encounters
This is a d12 table of monster encounters at sea, they include a brief description of the monster its motivations and a bit about what’s it doing, as I’ve stated before is a shame it’s not longer.
Shipboard Features
This is a section describing the effects of being on ship and how they effect, combat, skill checks etc., its split into Deck, Hatches, Hull, Mast, Sails & Rigging and Steep Steps, this is a great and very helpful section, with most of the rules you need, there are three omissions however that I can see, these are modifiers for fighting on ship (-2 to hit), below decks (-2 to hit for medium weapons, 2-handed weapons cannot be used) and fighting in rigging!!! (Climb check DC15 to hang on, can only use standard action, -2 Dex I think), disappointed that they weren’t included.
Shipwrecks and Shipwreck Dressings
This section is a d100 table with each description being 3 to 5 lines long, describing a number of different ship wrecks, really good section, some very interesting and cool descriptions of the wrecks. Got a bit confused as to whether the wrecks were sunken or not or beached. The shipwreck dressings is again a d100 table 1 to 4 lines big, describing odd things about the wrecks again very good table.
Shipwreck Encounters
This again like all the other encounter tables is a d12 table, describing a number of aquatic monsters, motivation and what their up to, with minimum stat block.
Pirate Ship Design, section consists of Pirate Ship Crew, Pirate Ships Names, Ship’s Captain Example, Ships Knowledge and Pirate Ship Figureheads and Flags. It tells how