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
The Lost City of Barakus
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="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011070" data-attributes="member: 18387"><p>Review for Lost City of Barakus</p><p>Hardbound, stitched, $34.95 By Necromancer Games, Published by Troll Lords, 208 pages, large font (12 or 14)</p><p></p><p>First impressions; It is expensive, it has a large font, it is black and white, and it has a pull out map in the back.</p><p></p><p>After reading through it twice, I think:</p><p></p><p>It is worth it to me.</p><p></p><p>Why? It is a Campaign starter for first level characters up to 6th levels, and beyond if you build upon what is in here. It gives you a city to start from called Endhome.</p><p>This city is a major trading city that sits on/near a river with easy access to the ocean, or you can just put it on the mouth of a river that dumps into an ocean, like New Orleans in the US.</p><p>Major NPC's are identified and fleshed out. Including town leaders as well as encounter NPC's. The city itself is well detailed, but they intentionally leave plenty for the individual DM to tailor.</p><p></p><p>It then goes on to detail a nice nearby dungeon crawl with plenty of background and depth to the history and going ons of the Lost City of Barakus. It even has a reasonably original creation history which cannot be resolved until the characters are about 20th level, or the DM gives them a LOT of help. There is a lot of depth to this module, lots of little pieces of info given to spark your imagination and give you an affinity for the adventures contained. This isn't just one adventure. There are numerous adventures, fleshed out for you, that are base in or around Endhome, BArakus, and even both. Plus numerous notes on how to continue using this beyond what is written.</p><p></p><p>Other Pro's: </p><p></p><p>I like the fact it is hardback, unlike my favorite softback modules this one will last, which is a necessity if you decide to use it as a core piece for a new campaign.</p><p>I even like the fact that the font is larger than normal, my eyes never felt strained. I would have thought the larger font was an attempt at fluff, but I read on some thread that because of publishing issues the page count would have been the same irregardless of the font size. If that was true, then I am glad they went with the larger font instead of more ads.</p><p>I also like the level of detail. It is just right to get you going, with plenty left for the DM to add their own material. I see this as becoming a major fixture in my future games.</p><p></p><p>Some con's:</p><p>No table of contents. A book this big really should have one.</p><p>Maps are not easy to follow with location marks. The numbers are even hard to pick out on the map because of the coloration, plus the numbers do not go in a sytematic order, ie left to right, top to bottom. There may be a pattern to it, but I haven't discerned what it is yet.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Final thoughts:</p><p></p><p>It is a good module/campaign starter with multiple adventures aimed at making the setting come alive and giving a variety of challenges. This is not a "typical" dungeon crawl. It is a nice merger of a city and a dungeon, showing how by merging them together, they become far better. So much going on in this book you definitely want to read it a couple of times before you use it.</p><p></p><p>I did not take a "hard" look at how balanced the encounters are, but nothing stood out as being unbalanced for a party of four. The treasure is not extravagant and there are three key pieces of magic with solid creation histories that are integral to "solving" the great mystery of Barakus, at or around 20th level. However, they are not so powerful that you wouldn't let them find them at 5th level.</p><p></p><p>I strongly recommend you read the introduction and follow the authors advice to maximize your use of this "resource". I should also note there are 38 pages of monster and NPC write-ups at the back of the book. The new monsters are: Fear Guard, Ghoul Lord, Gribbon, Imposters, Mist Demon, and Statue Guardian. These only take up 4 or 5 pages. The rest are the monster and NPC write-ups for the adventure encounters and townsfolk. Very useable in any adventure/game.</p><p></p><p>For errata go to the messageboards, not the home page, of necromancergames, and look for the forum on Lost City. It is the first thread in it. Downloads have been promised by the author and they sound very good, but they haven't appeared yet. In the forums you may see some campaign journals and you will definitely see many useful discussions about the product and how to use it.</p><p></p><p>My scores:</p><p></p><p>Adventure quality/content: 5, because I couldn't think of better ways to do what they have done.</p><p>Editing: 3.5, numerous spelling errors, but not so many as to become irritating or distracting. Ie not nearly as bad as the 1st print run of 3.0. No table of contents.</p><p>Presentation: 4.0, The binding definitely seems to be a strong and stitched type. The maps are nicely done, but overly grey. Plus the numbers are somewhat difficult to find/use. I know some people will be put off by the fact that there aren't any grids, but I am not one of them.</p><p></p><p>Overall: 4.33 I am glad I bought it, and I highly recommend it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Messageboard Golem, post: 2011070, member: 18387"] Review for Lost City of Barakus Hardbound, stitched, $34.95 By Necromancer Games, Published by Troll Lords, 208 pages, large font (12 or 14) First impressions; It is expensive, it has a large font, it is black and white, and it has a pull out map in the back. After reading through it twice, I think: It is worth it to me. Why? It is a Campaign starter for first level characters up to 6th levels, and beyond if you build upon what is in here. It gives you a city to start from called Endhome. This city is a major trading city that sits on/near a river with easy access to the ocean, or you can just put it on the mouth of a river that dumps into an ocean, like New Orleans in the US. Major NPC's are identified and fleshed out. Including town leaders as well as encounter NPC's. The city itself is well detailed, but they intentionally leave plenty for the individual DM to tailor. It then goes on to detail a nice nearby dungeon crawl with plenty of background and depth to the history and going ons of the Lost City of Barakus. It even has a reasonably original creation history which cannot be resolved until the characters are about 20th level, or the DM gives them a LOT of help. There is a lot of depth to this module, lots of little pieces of info given to spark your imagination and give you an affinity for the adventures contained. This isn't just one adventure. There are numerous adventures, fleshed out for you, that are base in or around Endhome, BArakus, and even both. Plus numerous notes on how to continue using this beyond what is written. Other Pro's: I like the fact it is hardback, unlike my favorite softback modules this one will last, which is a necessity if you decide to use it as a core piece for a new campaign. I even like the fact that the font is larger than normal, my eyes never felt strained. I would have thought the larger font was an attempt at fluff, but I read on some thread that because of publishing issues the page count would have been the same irregardless of the font size. If that was true, then I am glad they went with the larger font instead of more ads. I also like the level of detail. It is just right to get you going, with plenty left for the DM to add their own material. I see this as becoming a major fixture in my future games. Some con's: No table of contents. A book this big really should have one. Maps are not easy to follow with location marks. The numbers are even hard to pick out on the map because of the coloration, plus the numbers do not go in a sytematic order, ie left to right, top to bottom. There may be a pattern to it, but I haven't discerned what it is yet. Final thoughts: It is a good module/campaign starter with multiple adventures aimed at making the setting come alive and giving a variety of challenges. This is not a "typical" dungeon crawl. It is a nice merger of a city and a dungeon, showing how by merging them together, they become far better. So much going on in this book you definitely want to read it a couple of times before you use it. I did not take a "hard" look at how balanced the encounters are, but nothing stood out as being unbalanced for a party of four. The treasure is not extravagant and there are three key pieces of magic with solid creation histories that are integral to "solving" the great mystery of Barakus, at or around 20th level. However, they are not so powerful that you wouldn't let them find them at 5th level. I strongly recommend you read the introduction and follow the authors advice to maximize your use of this "resource". I should also note there are 38 pages of monster and NPC write-ups at the back of the book. The new monsters are: Fear Guard, Ghoul Lord, Gribbon, Imposters, Mist Demon, and Statue Guardian. These only take up 4 or 5 pages. The rest are the monster and NPC write-ups for the adventure encounters and townsfolk. Very useable in any adventure/game. For errata go to the messageboards, not the home page, of necromancergames, and look for the forum on Lost City. It is the first thread in it. Downloads have been promised by the author and they sound very good, but they haven't appeared yet. In the forums you may see some campaign journals and you will definitely see many useful discussions about the product and how to use it. My scores: Adventure quality/content: 5, because I couldn't think of better ways to do what they have done. Editing: 3.5, numerous spelling errors, but not so many as to become irritating or distracting. Ie not nearly as bad as the 1st print run of 3.0. No table of contents. Presentation: 4.0, The binding definitely seems to be a strong and stitched type. The maps are nicely done, but overly grey. Plus the numbers are somewhat difficult to find/use. I know some people will be put off by the fact that there aren't any grids, but I am not one of them. Overall: 4.33 I am glad I bought it, and I highly recommend it. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
The Lost City of Barakus
Top