Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Behind the Gates
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2010570" data-attributes="member: 172"><p><strong>Foul Locales: Behind the Gates</strong></p><p></p><p>Similar to prior titles in Mystic Eye Games' <em>Foul Locales</em> series, <em>Foul Locales: Behind the Gates</em> is a "location book" that provides interesting locations complete with background descriptions, maps, personalities, statistic blocks, and adventure seeds. The focus of <em>Behind the Gates</em> is small communities like villages and hamlets.</p><p></p><p><em>Foul Locales: Behind the Gates</em> is written by Bret Boyd, Becky Glen, and Charles Plemmons III.</p><p></p><p><strong>A First Look</strong></p><p></p><p><em>Foul Locales: Behind the Gates</em> is a 136-page perfect bound softcover book priced at $21.99. This is a competitive price for a <em>d20 System</em> product of this size.</p><p></p><p>The cover of the book is illustrated by Matt Bober, and depicts a pair of adventurer types (one male, one female) standing next to a fountain with a stature at its center.</p><p></p><p>The interior is black and white, and is illustrated by Jeremy McHugh, Scott Purdy, Patricio Soler, with a few illustrations by Eric Lofgren and Marcio Fiorito. Overall, the quality of the art is pretty good, with Purdy and Soler's work being some of the more defining and moodsetting work in the book.</p><p></p><p>Also of note, the interior cartography, by veteran RPG cartographer Ed Bourelle, is of top-quality and is both attractive and functional.</p><p></p><p>The interior body text uses a resonably sized serif body text font, and the lines and paragraphs are single spaced, providing a good text density. This is the first non-Bluffside generic supplement by Mystic Eye to use a serif font instead of a san serif font, making it much more pleasant to read.</p><p></p><p><strong>A Deeper Look</strong></p><p><em>(Warning: This section contains some spoilers to the content of the encounters at these locations.)</em></p><p></p><p><em>Foul Locales: Behind the Gates</em> describes several locations for use in your campaign as potential locales of adventure. Each of these locations have a similar format. Each is classified by potential ELs of associated encounters and climate and terrain codes describing where the location would most easily fit. The description of the location starts with a brief summary description, and then goes into more exhaustive location details, a section on NPCs and creatures, a section on adventures and plot hooks, special notes, and notes on how/where to fit the location into your game. Locations also have maps, and some have covering a variety of topics such as how open game content was used to make the characters.</p><p></p><p>The book relies heavily on open game content, and refers to a variety of products for the NPCs, creatures, and other details. In some cases, entire classes from other products are included, such as the witch from Mystic Eye Games' <em>Hunt: Rise of Evil</em> setting. In other cases, only minimal excerpts from other products are included, sufficient to use the material without owning these other products. In addition to their own published works (such as the <em>Bluffside</em> and <em>Hunt: Rise of Evil</em> setting material and Ambient's <em>Librum Equitis Vol. I</em>, the book refers to works by Bastion Press, Wizards of the Coast, Necromancer Games, and Green Ronin.</p><p></p><p>There are 16 locales in all. They run the gamut from the slightly unusual to the rather bizarre. Locations include the dwelling of an amorous young male witch being watched over by his undead mother, a self-appointed court whose harsh ways are tolerated in exchange for their protection, the insectarium of a druid who protects insects, and a church of evil clerics masquerading as good clerics in order to capitalize on the location of their church.</p><p></p><p>Overall, the locales seem well written and interesting. The statistics seem well done, the choice of OGC is pretty good, and the locales provide some interesting adventure opportunities.</p><p></p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p><p></p><p>Overall, I liked <em>Foul Locales: Behind the Gates</em>. The quality of material is high, with good ideas and good rules implementation. Much more so than the prior <em>Foul Locales</em> books, it seems that the locations in this book I would be much more eager to use as they seem to be more fertile adventure fodder and seem easier to fit into an ongoing campaign.</p><p></p><p><em>Overall Grade: B</em></p><p></p><p><em>-Alan D. Kohler</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Psion, post: 2010570, member: 172"] [b]Foul Locales: Behind the Gates[/b] Similar to prior titles in Mystic Eye Games' [i]Foul Locales[/i] series, [i]Foul Locales: Behind the Gates[/i] is a "location book" that provides interesting locations complete with background descriptions, maps, personalities, statistic blocks, and adventure seeds. The focus of [i]Behind the Gates[/i] is small communities like villages and hamlets. [i]Foul Locales: Behind the Gates[/i] is written by Bret Boyd, Becky Glen, and Charles Plemmons III. [b]A First Look[/b] [i]Foul Locales: Behind the Gates[/i] is a 136-page perfect bound softcover book priced at $21.99. This is a competitive price for a [i]d20 System[/i] product of this size. The cover of the book is illustrated by Matt Bober, and depicts a pair of adventurer types (one male, one female) standing next to a fountain with a stature at its center. The interior is black and white, and is illustrated by Jeremy McHugh, Scott Purdy, Patricio Soler, with a few illustrations by Eric Lofgren and Marcio Fiorito. Overall, the quality of the art is pretty good, with Purdy and Soler's work being some of the more defining and moodsetting work in the book. Also of note, the interior cartography, by veteran RPG cartographer Ed Bourelle, is of top-quality and is both attractive and functional. The interior body text uses a resonably sized serif body text font, and the lines and paragraphs are single spaced, providing a good text density. This is the first non-Bluffside generic supplement by Mystic Eye to use a serif font instead of a san serif font, making it much more pleasant to read. [b]A Deeper Look[/b] [i](Warning: This section contains some spoilers to the content of the encounters at these locations.)[/i] [i]Foul Locales: Behind the Gates[/i] describes several locations for use in your campaign as potential locales of adventure. Each of these locations have a similar format. Each is classified by potential ELs of associated encounters and climate and terrain codes describing where the location would most easily fit. The description of the location starts with a brief summary description, and then goes into more exhaustive location details, a section on NPCs and creatures, a section on adventures and plot hooks, special notes, and notes on how/where to fit the location into your game. Locations also have maps, and some have covering a variety of topics such as how open game content was used to make the characters. The book relies heavily on open game content, and refers to a variety of products for the NPCs, creatures, and other details. In some cases, entire classes from other products are included, such as the witch from Mystic Eye Games' [i]Hunt: Rise of Evil[/i] setting. In other cases, only minimal excerpts from other products are included, sufficient to use the material without owning these other products. In addition to their own published works (such as the [i]Bluffside[/i] and [i]Hunt: Rise of Evil[/i] setting material and Ambient's [i]Librum Equitis Vol. I[/i], the book refers to works by Bastion Press, Wizards of the Coast, Necromancer Games, and Green Ronin. There are 16 locales in all. They run the gamut from the slightly unusual to the rather bizarre. Locations include the dwelling of an amorous young male witch being watched over by his undead mother, a self-appointed court whose harsh ways are tolerated in exchange for their protection, the insectarium of a druid who protects insects, and a church of evil clerics masquerading as good clerics in order to capitalize on the location of their church. Overall, the locales seem well written and interesting. The statistics seem well done, the choice of OGC is pretty good, and the locales provide some interesting adventure opportunities. [b]Conclusion[/b] Overall, I liked [i]Foul Locales: Behind the Gates[/i]. The quality of material is high, with good ideas and good rules implementation. Much more so than the prior [i]Foul Locales[/i] books, it seems that the locations in this book I would be much more eager to use as they seem to be more fertile adventure fodder and seem easier to fit into an ongoing campaign. [i]Overall Grade: B[/i] [i]-Alan D. Kohler[/i] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Behind the Gates
Top