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<blockquote data-quote="Tuerny" data-source="post: 2009038" data-attributes="member: 674"><p>Just as a note, I was formerly one of the house reviewers for ENWorld, publisher of Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns</p><p></p><p> Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns, a seventy-four page .pdf, is the second product to be released under ENWorld’s Natural 20 Press imprint. Written by Peter M. Ball, Ryan Z. Nock, and Russell Morrissey, it is designed to introduce twenty-nine games to be used in a fantasy setting as well as advice and guidelines for running adventures using these games. It currently retails at $5, but will be $6.95 within a month.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Document</strong></p><p></p><p> Natural 20 Press has come a long way since their previous release. Wild Spellcraft, while not an eyesore, was not exceptional in the layout department. Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns has increased leaps and bounds beyond it, having an eye-pleasing cover, appropriate borders, and professional-looking layout. Unfortunately, Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns will probably be much harder on an individual’s ink cartridge due to the intensive color throughout. </p><p> Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns also makes a full and thorough use of Acrobat’s bookmark function, possessing a bookmarks to not only the chapters, but also most of the subsections.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Contents</strong></p><p></p><p> Chapter One of Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns (called TFT for the rest of this review) provides the basis of some of the concepts used in the rest of the book. The first of these is Degree of Success (DS), an indicator used to determine how close one is to attaining victory in a particular contest. A full explanation of it is given in TFT, but it is largely based on the total amount that a person has succeeded in the contest in comparison to other contestants. In cases where two contests are trying to achieve the same goal independently the DS is kept track of independently for each contestant. In cases where they are competing directly, one person’s increase in DS results in the others decrease. </p><p></p><p> The second concept introduced is a mechanical way of handling drinking contests. The material provided is in greater detail than that found in other books dealing with alcohol, with the basis of an individual’s drunkenness being based on a new mechanic called the Alcohol Threshold. The drink’s size and quantity are compared to an individual’s Alcohol Threshold to determine a person’s level of drunkenness. This information is used to determine the alcohol’s mechanical effects. Rules are also included for recovery from hangovers. A new feat is also presented that presents a way to increase an individual’s drinking threshold. </p><p> </p><p> The third concept introduced is the basis for handling professional gambling. The difficulty of gambling, the skill of the gamblers, and the maximum amount of gold that may be won, is based on the size of the house (the number of gamblers in the house’s population). To supplement this material usage of existing skills, including the new Knowledge (gaming and gambling) within the context of gambling is also covered and a pair of new feats (Game Mastery and Game Grandmastery) is included. </p><p></p><p> The final concept to be introduced is that of the tournament. The types of tournaments are explained and a method of determining the skill of the competitors is given based on the region of the tournament. </p><p></p><p> The next five chapters introduce the games that make up the majority of this book and the mechanics for these games. They are organized by the typical setting in which they are played. </p><p> </p><p> Chapter Two provides information on running classic games. Mechanics are provided for arm wrestling, card games, drinking, long throw, races and chases, and strategy.</p><p></p><p> Chapter Three provides information on running martial tournaments such as archery, bear wrestling, drinksmash (an orcish game involving drinking alcohol and then smashing things), dueling, field lists (grand melees), jousting, and the tree game (shooting items, such as bags of coins) from trees. </p><p></p><p> Chapter Four provides information on the tavern games drunken daggers (opponents stand across from each other and take turns drowning a bottle of whiskey and throwing a dagger, trying to hit the target behind the opponent), the everyman’s fireball (individuals spit alcohol through a torch, attempting to hit a tiny target), gin and rabbits (a card game where you attempt to acquire two shots of gin and three rabbits), stageless play (which appears, amusingly enough, to be the medieval fantasy equivalent of an RPG), stage contests (contests based on public performances such as singing), trollbridge (in which a team of “dwarves” attempts to cross a makeshift bridge while avoiding getting knocked off by a “troll”), and young wits (a contest of wits). </p><p></p><p> Chapter Five introduces three magical games. The first, Baal’meral’ruun is a team sport based on gaining points through shooting a ball through the opposing team’s hoops. Five members, each of whom has a different position and limitations on magic use, make up each team. A sample Baal’meral’ruun team is also provided. The second magical game is conjuration combat, where two spellcasters summon creatures to battle each other for victory. The last magical game is the Game of Forms, where the casters use shape-shifting magic to assume ever-changing forms attempting to avoid the danger opposed by the opponent's form. If one of the contestants fails to come up with an appropriate form, runs out of magic, or hesitates for too long, the other is determined to be the winner. </p><p></p><p> Chapter Six, the last chapter detailing games, has six festival games. The first is A Dragon’s Gold, where a “dragon” made up of several people in a costume circles protectively around a “horde” of fake treasures with a few real ones thrown in. Contestants attempt to get past the dragon, evading its attack and grabbing something from the treasure pile. The second is the board tumbling game, where contestants attempt to knock down a board with thrown stones in an attempt to get the money stacked on the board. The third is a dwarven team sport called Squashgoblin, where two teams of dwarves attempt to crush the largest number of goblin effigies using boulders. The fourth game is temperature climbing, created by the elves, where contests attempt to climb ladders that are magically enchanted to produced anywhere from freezing cold to scalding hot temperatures. The fifth is Tower of Casilto in which a group of twenty individuals attempt to knock down a single individual standing on a small keg using balls and small beanbags. The individual on the keg can throw the beanbags back at the individuals throwing them at him, and if he is successful, that individual is considered out. The last of the festival games is Tripstep’s ladder in which a magical ladder with certain, random rungs enchanted to cause all of the ladder’s rungs to disappear. Adjacent to the ladder is a greased poll with prizes at certain intervals. The object is to go far enough up the pole to get as many prizes as possible without falling down. </p><p></p><p> The rules presented for these games are well written, clear, and largely easy to implement. Most importantly they look like they would be fun to use in the appropriate setting. Their variety also allows for their use in settings that differ from D&D’s standard cultural or magical assumptions. </p><p></p><p> Chapter Seven, the final and longest chapter contains a plethora of tips on making and running taverns, festivals, and tournaments and an example of each. The advice is largely relevant and useful, serving as a nice ending to the book. The sample tavern, festival, and tournament are detailed enough to be useful without being stifling. </p><p></p><p> The book finishes off with an appendix with a grab bag of useful stuff like random stall contents and merchant’s wares, a selection of quick entertainers, twenty potential menu meals, and a selection of interesting alcohols. The first, and only, thing that I had a balance issue with in TFT is introduced here: Hospitaler’s Mead. This item heals 1 hp for every 2 AU drunk, and 8 sp provides 8 AU. So you can heal 4 hp for 8 sp, which is much cheaper than a potion of cure light wounds. It also gets you drunk though, but this is remedied using the 2 gp folk remedy option presented earlier in TFT. </p><p></p><p><strong>Closing Thoughts</strong></p><p></p><p> Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns is an excellent second product in the Natural 20 Press line. It exceeds the previous product, Wild Spellcraft, in both quality and general usefulness. Unless you are running a dungeon-crawl only campaign Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns serves as an excellent addition to your fantasy d20 game.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tuerny, post: 2009038, member: 674"] Just as a note, I was formerly one of the house reviewers for ENWorld, publisher of Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns, a seventy-four page .pdf, is the second product to be released under ENWorld’s Natural 20 Press imprint. Written by Peter M. Ball, Ryan Z. Nock, and Russell Morrissey, it is designed to introduce twenty-nine games to be used in a fantasy setting as well as advice and guidelines for running adventures using these games. It currently retails at $5, but will be $6.95 within a month. [b]The Document[/b] Natural 20 Press has come a long way since their previous release. Wild Spellcraft, while not an eyesore, was not exceptional in the layout department. Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns has increased leaps and bounds beyond it, having an eye-pleasing cover, appropriate borders, and professional-looking layout. Unfortunately, Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns will probably be much harder on an individual’s ink cartridge due to the intensive color throughout. Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns also makes a full and thorough use of Acrobat’s bookmark function, possessing a bookmarks to not only the chapters, but also most of the subsections. [b]The Contents[/b] Chapter One of Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns (called TFT for the rest of this review) provides the basis of some of the concepts used in the rest of the book. The first of these is Degree of Success (DS), an indicator used to determine how close one is to attaining victory in a particular contest. A full explanation of it is given in TFT, but it is largely based on the total amount that a person has succeeded in the contest in comparison to other contestants. In cases where two contests are trying to achieve the same goal independently the DS is kept track of independently for each contestant. In cases where they are competing directly, one person’s increase in DS results in the others decrease. The second concept introduced is a mechanical way of handling drinking contests. The material provided is in greater detail than that found in other books dealing with alcohol, with the basis of an individual’s drunkenness being based on a new mechanic called the Alcohol Threshold. The drink’s size and quantity are compared to an individual’s Alcohol Threshold to determine a person’s level of drunkenness. This information is used to determine the alcohol’s mechanical effects. Rules are also included for recovery from hangovers. A new feat is also presented that presents a way to increase an individual’s drinking threshold. The third concept introduced is the basis for handling professional gambling. The difficulty of gambling, the skill of the gamblers, and the maximum amount of gold that may be won, is based on the size of the house (the number of gamblers in the house’s population). To supplement this material usage of existing skills, including the new Knowledge (gaming and gambling) within the context of gambling is also covered and a pair of new feats (Game Mastery and Game Grandmastery) is included. The final concept to be introduced is that of the tournament. The types of tournaments are explained and a method of determining the skill of the competitors is given based on the region of the tournament. The next five chapters introduce the games that make up the majority of this book and the mechanics for these games. They are organized by the typical setting in which they are played. Chapter Two provides information on running classic games. Mechanics are provided for arm wrestling, card games, drinking, long throw, races and chases, and strategy. Chapter Three provides information on running martial tournaments such as archery, bear wrestling, drinksmash (an orcish game involving drinking alcohol and then smashing things), dueling, field lists (grand melees), jousting, and the tree game (shooting items, such as bags of coins) from trees. Chapter Four provides information on the tavern games drunken daggers (opponents stand across from each other and take turns drowning a bottle of whiskey and throwing a dagger, trying to hit the target behind the opponent), the everyman’s fireball (individuals spit alcohol through a torch, attempting to hit a tiny target), gin and rabbits (a card game where you attempt to acquire two shots of gin and three rabbits), stageless play (which appears, amusingly enough, to be the medieval fantasy equivalent of an RPG), stage contests (contests based on public performances such as singing), trollbridge (in which a team of “dwarves” attempts to cross a makeshift bridge while avoiding getting knocked off by a “troll”), and young wits (a contest of wits). Chapter Five introduces three magical games. The first, Baal’meral’ruun is a team sport based on gaining points through shooting a ball through the opposing team’s hoops. Five members, each of whom has a different position and limitations on magic use, make up each team. A sample Baal’meral’ruun team is also provided. The second magical game is conjuration combat, where two spellcasters summon creatures to battle each other for victory. The last magical game is the Game of Forms, where the casters use shape-shifting magic to assume ever-changing forms attempting to avoid the danger opposed by the opponent's form. If one of the contestants fails to come up with an appropriate form, runs out of magic, or hesitates for too long, the other is determined to be the winner. Chapter Six, the last chapter detailing games, has six festival games. The first is A Dragon’s Gold, where a “dragon” made up of several people in a costume circles protectively around a “horde” of fake treasures with a few real ones thrown in. Contestants attempt to get past the dragon, evading its attack and grabbing something from the treasure pile. The second is the board tumbling game, where contestants attempt to knock down a board with thrown stones in an attempt to get the money stacked on the board. The third is a dwarven team sport called Squashgoblin, where two teams of dwarves attempt to crush the largest number of goblin effigies using boulders. The fourth game is temperature climbing, created by the elves, where contests attempt to climb ladders that are magically enchanted to produced anywhere from freezing cold to scalding hot temperatures. The fifth is Tower of Casilto in which a group of twenty individuals attempt to knock down a single individual standing on a small keg using balls and small beanbags. The individual on the keg can throw the beanbags back at the individuals throwing them at him, and if he is successful, that individual is considered out. The last of the festival games is Tripstep’s ladder in which a magical ladder with certain, random rungs enchanted to cause all of the ladder’s rungs to disappear. Adjacent to the ladder is a greased poll with prizes at certain intervals. The object is to go far enough up the pole to get as many prizes as possible without falling down. The rules presented for these games are well written, clear, and largely easy to implement. Most importantly they look like they would be fun to use in the appropriate setting. Their variety also allows for their use in settings that differ from D&D’s standard cultural or magical assumptions. Chapter Seven, the final and longest chapter contains a plethora of tips on making and running taverns, festivals, and tournaments and an example of each. The advice is largely relevant and useful, serving as a nice ending to the book. The sample tavern, festival, and tournament are detailed enough to be useful without being stifling. The book finishes off with an appendix with a grab bag of useful stuff like random stall contents and merchant’s wares, a selection of quick entertainers, twenty potential menu meals, and a selection of interesting alcohols. The first, and only, thing that I had a balance issue with in TFT is introduced here: Hospitaler’s Mead. This item heals 1 hp for every 2 AU drunk, and 8 sp provides 8 AU. So you can heal 4 hp for 8 sp, which is much cheaper than a potion of cure light wounds. It also gets you drunk though, but this is remedied using the 2 gp folk remedy option presented earlier in TFT. [b]Closing Thoughts[/b] Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns is an excellent second product in the Natural 20 Press line. It exceeds the previous product, Wild Spellcraft, in both quality and general usefulness. Unless you are running a dungeon-crawl only campaign Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns serves as an excellent addition to your fantasy d20 game. [/QUOTE]
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