Digging through the ruins of an ancient keep is dangerous and thirsty work. As all the fall ales start to come into fashion, we sat down to look at a few of the tomes retrieved from our latest adventure! Read on to see some of the gems we uncovered. And drink up, those ales aren’t cheap.
Unseen Waterdeep
Designer: James Introcaso
Guild Adept
One of the latest Guild Adept creations, Unseen Waterdeep is a supplement for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adding a new faction along with its associated encounter chain. The Unseen are spies, shapechangers, and assassins; really anyone who specializes in stealth and deception. Originally a band of doppelgangers lead by Illithids, the Unseen eventually became free agents in Waterdeep. They are lead by the half-illithid, half-doppelganger Hlaavin, who has navigated the fortunes of the Unseen since their break with the Mind Flayers.
Unseen Waterdeep is broken into three distinct chapters and is not a lengthy read. Chapter One talks about the history of the group and of Hlaavin. This information paints a good picture of how the DM can use the Unseen as the main villains in the Dragon Heist adventure. Chapter Two discusses the encounter chain and how using the Unseen alters the basic adventure. These unique encounters seem solid and should challenge the characters, though not be overwhelming. Warning / Spoilers: the Unseen are not messing around looks over shoulder and should be taken seriously. Chapter Three offers some possible ways for the characters to mess with the Unseen as well as information on their base of operations. Two appendices provide a nice looking map in isometric view and stats for monsters.
Unseen Waterdeep adds replayability and more variety to the basic Waterdeep: Dragon Heist book. Definitely check this out.
Le Pas D’Armes
Freshrad Games
Since the early days of role playing games, players and games masters have dabbled in adding some historical realism to their fantasy games. Freshrad Games has added to this legacy with Le Pas D’Armes, an accessory on jousting and some of the customs surrounding that activity. The booklet offers some historical information on the Pad D’Armes and its significance as well as a nice set of rules on how to run such a joust, at least the formal kinds of jousts one might read about in historical fantasies. In addition, the booklet gives rules for solo play and a small table of example opponents, which I thought was a nice touch.
At the end is a small encounter where three knights are holding a bridge and daring those who want to cross to try a joust against all three. In addition there are two cut out knights, which the authors encourage you to play with while making horse sounds. If you are running a historical fantasy or maybe hedge knights in Westeros, then Le Pas D’Armes would make an excellent supplement.
100 Monster Hunts
By: Vall Syrene
At first glance it might be easy to dismiss 100 Monster Hunts as just a book of lists. Doing so would be a grave injustice to what is a well put together supplement for the Dungeon Master. There are tables in here, pages and pages of them, but the tables have substance and are useful as random adventure generators. For instance, 100 Monster Hunts takes creatures and items found in various D&D 5E books and puts them in the random tables. It also gives an abbreviation for the book and the page number where to find it. That is thorough and much appreciated by the DM.
The second part of the supplement gives a description of the bounties themselves, offering enough flavor for the DM to slot the monster hunt into their own campaign. In doing so, 100 Monster Hunts manages to be efficient with the words and the encounters are small and manageable chunks. The author clearly put a great deal of detail into this work, making it a useful tool for the DM.
This article was contributed by Sean Hillman (SMHWorlds) as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. We are always on the lookout for freelance columnists! If you have a pitch, please contact us!
Unseen Waterdeep
Designer: James Introcaso
Guild Adept
One of the latest Guild Adept creations, Unseen Waterdeep is a supplement for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adding a new faction along with its associated encounter chain. The Unseen are spies, shapechangers, and assassins; really anyone who specializes in stealth and deception. Originally a band of doppelgangers lead by Illithids, the Unseen eventually became free agents in Waterdeep. They are lead by the half-illithid, half-doppelganger Hlaavin, who has navigated the fortunes of the Unseen since their break with the Mind Flayers.
Unseen Waterdeep is broken into three distinct chapters and is not a lengthy read. Chapter One talks about the history of the group and of Hlaavin. This information paints a good picture of how the DM can use the Unseen as the main villains in the Dragon Heist adventure. Chapter Two discusses the encounter chain and how using the Unseen alters the basic adventure. These unique encounters seem solid and should challenge the characters, though not be overwhelming. Warning / Spoilers: the Unseen are not messing around looks over shoulder and should be taken seriously. Chapter Three offers some possible ways for the characters to mess with the Unseen as well as information on their base of operations. Two appendices provide a nice looking map in isometric view and stats for monsters.
Unseen Waterdeep adds replayability and more variety to the basic Waterdeep: Dragon Heist book. Definitely check this out.
Le Pas D’Armes
Freshrad Games
Since the early days of role playing games, players and games masters have dabbled in adding some historical realism to their fantasy games. Freshrad Games has added to this legacy with Le Pas D’Armes, an accessory on jousting and some of the customs surrounding that activity. The booklet offers some historical information on the Pad D’Armes and its significance as well as a nice set of rules on how to run such a joust, at least the formal kinds of jousts one might read about in historical fantasies. In addition, the booklet gives rules for solo play and a small table of example opponents, which I thought was a nice touch.
At the end is a small encounter where three knights are holding a bridge and daring those who want to cross to try a joust against all three. In addition there are two cut out knights, which the authors encourage you to play with while making horse sounds. If you are running a historical fantasy or maybe hedge knights in Westeros, then Le Pas D’Armes would make an excellent supplement.
100 Monster Hunts
By: Vall Syrene
At first glance it might be easy to dismiss 100 Monster Hunts as just a book of lists. Doing so would be a grave injustice to what is a well put together supplement for the Dungeon Master. There are tables in here, pages and pages of them, but the tables have substance and are useful as random adventure generators. For instance, 100 Monster Hunts takes creatures and items found in various D&D 5E books and puts them in the random tables. It also gives an abbreviation for the book and the page number where to find it. That is thorough and much appreciated by the DM.
The second part of the supplement gives a description of the bounties themselves, offering enough flavor for the DM to slot the monster hunt into their own campaign. In doing so, 100 Monster Hunts manages to be efficient with the words and the encounters are small and manageable chunks. The author clearly put a great deal of detail into this work, making it a useful tool for the DM.
This article was contributed by Sean Hillman (SMHWorlds) as part of EN World's Columnist (ENWC) program. We are always on the lookout for freelance columnists! If you have a pitch, please contact us!
