Beginnings: Westbrook

Westbrook is the first book in the Beginnings series and the first release from 3am Games. It includes the fully developed town of Westbrook, a small, stopover town between two major trade centers. The town is well known for its hospitality and the comfort of the renowned Grey Griffon Inn.
Lately though, rats - lots of very large ones - have infested the town's granary. The call for heroes sounds, and the player characters answer. Clearing the rats from the granary shouldn't be much of a problem, but who was that shadowy figure letting the vermin in, and what's he up to?

Beginnings: Westbrook contains the fully developed town of Westbrook, four different campaign hooks to get the player characters involved with the granary, four low-level adventures that take the party through, outside, and under Westbrook to get the campaign going, and everything else that you should expect from a Beginnings book.

Beginnings: Westbrook
By Don Bessinger
3am Games product number 3AM11100
126 pages, $19.95

Beginnings: Westbrook is the first in the "Beginnings" line of books, each providing the DM with "enough material to start a fantasy campaign quickly and with as little effort as possible." (That's a quote from their website, www.3amg.com.) After having read through Beginnings: Westbrook, I have to say they did a fine job of accomplishing their stated goal.

The cover art, by Charlie Schultz, depicts a band of five adventurers trekking along a forest path. There are some nice details in the painting: I like the "sun symbol" on the lead adventurer's shield (which he's wearing on his back, which is really the most comfortable place to carry it while you're slogging through the countryside and not expecting trouble), I was impressed that they're all actually carrying backpacks and bedrolls (it certainly adds to the realism), and I think Charlie does an excellent job on the trees and foliage in the background. There are ruins ahead, which makes this a specific scene from one of the four short, linked adventures found in the book. I'll also point out the intricate and well-done border along the painting (including hinges along the left side, making the cover a compromise between the "let's make the book look like an ancient tome" and the "let's just have a painting depicting something from inside the book" thoughts on cover design. The word "Westbrook" in the title is made as if carved from wood, another nice touch. All in all, I was pretty impressed with the cover. As I believe this is 3am Games' first product, I hope they can maintain this excellent standard.

The interior art is just as well done, even if there isn't a whole lot of it: in the 126-page book, there are only 7 black-and-white illustrations. Still, 6 of the 7 are full-page pieces, which I found somewhat surprising, as that's been pretty uncommon from my experience. I can't complain about the effect, though, as these are really nice works, by both Charlie Shultz and Alex McVey. Of the two, Alex's are a bit more detailed (and he really does a fantastic job at shading!), but Charlie's black-and-white work compares favorably with his nice cover. The 7th piece, by the way, is several different views of a magic item that is involved in one of the adventures. The artwork that is present in Beginnings: Westbrook is very nicely done, but I was surprised there wasn't more of it - especially considering the number of pages that end up being half (or more) blank; that would have been a good place to put in some additional artwork.

In addition to the illustrations, there are 12 pages of maps. These are equally well done: good detail, a gridwork and scale is given for each, and they are logically laid out. Kudos to author Don Bessinger for a great additional job as cartographer. (Of course, perhaps the fact that he wrote the book had a positive impact on his maps turning out so well - they weren't "interpreted" by a different individual.)

Both inside covers are put to good use, the inner front cover used on charts for common names among the various races in the area (humans, dwarves, elves, and two types of halflings), while the inner back cover shows the format used in the book for the stats on creatures, diseases, magic items, poisons, and traps. (Although the font they use makes that last one look quite a bit like "craps" instead of "traps.")

Beginnings: Westbrook is laid out as follows:

• Introduction: How the book is laid out, Chapter by Chapter, and pointing out the features like descriptive text (to be read aloud) being in gray, tips on how to run the adventures being in white boxed text, and important stuff being highlighted in bold print
• The Town of Westbrook: Details on Westbrook's history, geography, people, religion, government and law enforcement, economy, and descriptions of major NPCs
• Starting the Campaign: Four adventure hooks for getting a new PC party adventuring in Westbrook
• Rats - Big Rats: The two initial, short adventures, getting the PCs involved in a situation in town
• Abor Adan: The third adventure, in which the PCs travel to a ruined wizard's tower in search of a magic item
• The Warrens: The final adventure, in which the PCs enter the lair of the enemies to destroy them once and for all
• Appendix A - Maps: Maps of the town, local area, buildings, and underground lair used in these adventures
• Appendix B - NPC Statistics: Game stats for the NPCs described earlier in the book
• Appendix C - Game Rule Information: Details on new diseases, magic (the Craft domain, 3 new spells), NPC classes (Blacksmith, Innkeeper, Merchant, and Watchman, each a variant of the Expert NPC class with different class Skills), and religions
• Appendix D - Player Handouts: Two player maps, an invitation from an important NPC, and details about a historical figure, a magic item, and a legend about a haunted well
• Index: A 2-page index, helpful for finding bits and pieces scattered throughout the book

The introduction of Beginnings: Westbrook states that this book is for new and experienced DMs alike. While this is certainly true, I'd say it's definitely focused much more on the neophyte DM. The book is filled with all sorts of "take you by the hand" advice on how to run an adventure, and while this is certainly well done (I can't think of a better adventure, or set of linked short adventures in this case, for somebody DMing for the very first time), I think many experienced DMs will blanche a bit at the "wasted space" spent making things easy for the newbies. For example, at the beginning of the adventure section, there are four possible campaign hooks presented, explaining why the PCs are in Westbrook in the first place. (They are: they were born and raised in Westbrook, they are the sons and daughters of a retired adventuring party that settled down in Westbrook, they opened up an "exterminator shop" in Westbrook, and/or they were in town for one of its two annual festivals and got arrested after a bar fight broke out.) In setting up the first adventure, there are four separate beginnings, one for each of the four campaign hooks. However, the first three are remarkably similar (in one instance there is only a handful of words different), yet they're repeated over and over. While this definitely makes it easy on a neophyte DM (all he has to do is find the appropriate campaign hook and go from there; it even tells him where to go next after he's done with that section), a more experienced DM is probably going to look at that as a bunch of wasted pages. (Plus, even though the book points out that it might make things more interesting to have different party members have different campaign hooks - maybe the fighter was born in Westbrook, the cleric is the daughter of a bard who retired in Westbrook, the ranger opened up an exterminator shop and the rogue got thrown in prison after a bar fight - there is no assistance for a brand-new DM on how to juggle the different adventure beginnings to accommodate everyone's different origins.)

To carry on the theme of "helpful for new DMs/wasted space for more experienced DMs," much of the material in Beginnings: Westbrook is repeated in different places. The NPC stats for the three main bad guys in the adventures are found both in the adventures themselves and in the NPC statistics section. The new diseases show up in a sidebar in the part of the one adventure where they'll most likely come into play, and also in an appendix at the back. Two of the player handouts are just reprints of verbiage located elsewhere in the book. Again, this makes it easier for a new DM, but if you weeded out all the repetition (and with an index in the back, it's arguable that much of it isn't really needed), I think you could probably drop the page count - and thus the cost - by a noticeable amount.

Still, if you look at Beginnings: Westbrook as primarily a book for new DMs, then it does an admirable job. The town itself is laid out intelligently, with a reasonable history, interesting NPCs, some built-in sources of ongoing conflict (there are two "chains of command" in the town, neither of which has much use for the other one), and places for some easy-to-build adventures in the vicinity (there are dangerous creatures known to lair in the forest to the south, for instance). Plus, I assume that the entire area that Westbrook's located in what will be the default "campaign world" for future products in the "Beginnings" line of books; that's a great idea, since all of the locales should plug in together to form a large chunk of game world to explore.

However, having focused on its ease of use for beginning DMs, I wouldn't want to leave anyone with the impression that Beginnings: Westbrook is only of use to new DMs. Quite the contrary, this product would be of great use to any DM that could use a fully-detailed small town of about 2,000 inhabitants. (And really, who can't use something like that in their campaign? Plus, the entire city and surrounding area is generic enough that it can easily be dropped into nearly any fantasy campaign.) Admittedly, the adventures are for a party of 1st-level PCs and might be a bit difficult to scale up too far (the opponents in the first adventure, after all, are rat swarms and dire rats; there's only so much you can do with them), but higher-level adventurers could easily skip the first part and pick up the series later on; the last two adventures would be much easier to scale higher.

The writing style is very clear and easy to understand; again, with a focus on the new DM, this is to be expected. The proofreading isn't too bad, but there are quite a few instances where there's a word missing in a sentence, or an apostrophe is used incorrectly, or a word is misspelled ("intact" becomes "in tact" at least twice; they use "wretch" twice as a verb meaning "to vomit" when they really mean "retch" and they even left the "s" out of "Westbrook" once - it's kind of bad to get the name of your own product wrong!), or there's just some silly typo (a "close bracket" - "]" - shows up six times in the game stats, in the "Armor Class" section each time). Nothing too serious in any case (you can always tell what was meant), just a bit annoying. Jesse Campbell is listed as the proofreader; I'd say he has a higher bar to shoot for in future products.

There were a few problems with some of the creature/NPC stats, however. Those of you who have read any of my other reviews know that correct game stats are something I place very high up on the importance list. With that in mind, I'd recommend making the following changes to the following stats:

• p. 75, Tixit: Grapple should be -6, not -2. (Tixit is a Small kobold; they forgot to factor in the -4 size penalty to Grapple checks.) His sickle attacks should be made at -1 melee, not -2. (+1 BAB, +1 size, -3 Str)
• p. 75, Kobold Bodyguards: Grapple should be at -2, not +3. (+2 BAB, -4 size, +0 Str)
• p. 75, Kobold 1st-Level Warriors: Grapple should be -4, not +2. (+1 BAB, -4 size, -1 Str) Spear attacks should be +1 melee, not +0. (+1 BAB, +1 size, -1 Str)
• p. 79, Flesh Golem: Grapple should be at +10, not +6 (Looks like they forgot to take the +4 size bonus for being a Large creature into consideration.)
• p. 89, Piercer: Grapple should be at -8, not +0. (Again, there's a -8 size penalty for being a Tiny creature.) I also would like to point out that I think it's really cool that they used piercers (from the Tome of Horrors book, properly credited in their Section 15) in this adventure. I wish more game companies would build upon the works of others -- there's a lot of cool OGC stuff out there!
• p. 90, Bat Swarm: Touch AC should be 16, not 14. (+4 size, + 2 Dex) Flat-footed AC should be 14, not 12. (+4 size)
• p. 105, Borsifthain: Flat-footed AC should be 17, not 18. (-1 size, +8 natural)
• p. 107, Afreliwir: Touch AC should be 9, not 10. (-1 size) Base Attack should be +6, not +3. (As an 8-HD animal; even though as a paladin's warhorse it's considered a magical beast, its base attack bonus follows the cleric's - and animal's - progression.) Grapple should be +15, not +12. (+6 BAB, +4 size, +5 Str) Hoof attacks should be at +10 melee, not +7. (+6 BAB, -1 size, +5 Str) Bite should be at +5 melee, not +2. (+6 BAB, -1 size, +5 Str, -5 for being a secondary attack)
• p. 108, Ben Larun: Club attack should be at +7 melee, not +7/+2. (You only get one attack in the "Attack" line; the +7/+2 is appropriate only under "Full Attack.")
• p. 108, Eriahs Lerend: Unarmed strikes should be at +4 melee, not +2. (+2 BAB, +2 Str)
• p. 110, Burmo Ulunumr: Warhammer attack should be +6 melee, not +6/+1. (Again, you only get one attack in the "Attack" line.)
• p. 112, Aldrick Wisham (Dire Rat Form): Forgot the "Climb 20 ft." in his Speed line.
• p. 112, Aldrick Wisham (Hybrid Form): Bite attack should be at +0 melee, not -1. (+1 BAB, +4 Dex via Weapon Finesse, -5 for a secondary attack)
• p. 112, Ian Wisham (Human Form): Under "Full Attack," his light crossbow attack should be at +2 ranged, not +1. (This must just be a typo, since they got it right in the "Attack" line.)
• p. 112, Ian Wisham (Dire Rat Form): As a dire rat, he should be Small, not Medium. Bite attack should be at +5, not +4. (+0 BAB, +1 size, +4 Dex via Weapon Finesse)

Again, nothing too messed up, but I really believe that game stats are the absolute worst place to have anything incorrect, especially in a book of this type that is specifically targeted toward beginning DMs, who would understandably be the least likely to note and correct these mistakes themselves.

I also noted a few minor problems with some of the adventures. Nowhere in the first adventure, where the PCs are cleaning out a granary of its rat/dire rat problem, does it state how many dire rats and rat swarms there are in total! This could be a problem for a new DM, who wouldn't find the answer listed anywhere for him. Also, it may not have been a great idea to renumber starting with "1" for every floor of a multifloor building, or every level of a multilevel dungeon. I would think this could also be confusing for a new DM, especially since it's pretty much an industry standard to keep all rooms in a single building/area consecutive, no matter how many levels there are.

All in all, though, I think Beginnings: Westbrook is a fine start to what should be an interesting line of game books. Part campaign book, part adventure, part step-by-step instruction book on how to run a campaign, Beginnings: Westbrook does a good job on all counts. I liked the fact that the four linked adventures managed to incorporate some NPC interaction/roleplaying, two combats in the middle of town, a classic "seek the magic item" quest in some abandoned ruins, a wilderness trek, and a final fight in an underground dungeon network. In other words, it covered all of the adventuring basics! While a bit of repetition and a couple of pages with a whole ton of "white space" margins that could have been put to better use (artwork, if nothing else) make the "good page usage" rating go down a bit, overall I think this book falls easily in the "4 (Good)" mark. I'm interested in seeing more of what 3am Games has to offer in the future.

Beginnings: Westbrook is something the D&D Community at large has been requesting for some time. Read any of EN World’s myriad threads on subjects such as “How to get new blood into RPG’s” and “What products would you like to see” and you will read, time and again, requests for a product like this.

Westbrook is a simple, introductory setting with a few basic adventures, liberally peppered with helpful advice for the novice DM.

“Sounds simple” you say? It is. At it’s heart Westbrook is not a complex piece of work. There is no “High Concept” here, and little to differentiate it from the “quasi-medieval” baseline that gamers have come to regard as D&D default setting.

And thanks largely to the excellent execution, Westbrook is a great deal more than a journeyman collection of setting material and linked adventures; it is, at it’s heart, a fantastic “DM’ing for Beginners” handbook.

The Town of Westbrook itself is detailed to a much greater degree than I was expecting (given the examples of its predecessors Hommlet (The Village of Hommlet), and Restenford (The Secret of Bone Hill)) and includes clearly written, easily understood descriptions of the town’s History, Inhabitants, Religious Practices, Government, City Guard and detailed write-ups important locations and character descriptions of all major NPC’s.

The three adventures included detail a battle against wererats intent on surreptitiously taking over the town. The three adventures cover quite a bit of standard “Adventuring” fare (abandoned wizard’s towers, catacombs beneath the city etc), as well as some roleplay and are well written and very playable (though I was a little put off by restarting the numbering of rooms on each level of the previously mentioned structures. A minor quibble, but it makes looking stuff up quickly more difficult than it needs to be).

Westbrook mentions throughout it’s text that it is for Beginning and experienced DM’s, but it really hews quite a bit closer to being a product for new DM’s rather than the experienced. There are all manner of hints and tips for the neophyte DM (it is taking all of my willpower not to use the term “newb”…I need to get off the internet for awhile ), and little aside from the fully-realized town for the veteran (though the town is a real jewel).

I think that, though this is billed as a product for everyone, it would really, truly shine as a tool with which new, non-mentored DM’s can find their feet.