Endzeitgeist
First Post
The 18 page pdf comes with 2 jpgs of the maps for the inn, one of the interior and one of the exterior.
It features 1 page for the front cover and 1 page credits, including 5 adventure hooks.
The first real page consists of a beautiful 1 page map of "The Nexus Inn" (also called "The Next Inn"), featuring a clear key and no annoying letters or numbers, which is a definite plus for me.
After that, we get 3 pages of IC prose introducing the Inn and two characters, Sister Socorro and Knight-Captain Lansil, including secrets. There is also a nice, albeit a bit scifi-like picture of the main hall of the bottom floor and a nice and unique picture of the keys they use at the inn.
Sister Socorro is a Cassandra-like figure that can be utilized to give the players indirect hints and the Knight-Captain may make an interesting NPC to help out the players.
The inn specifically and exclusively caters to adventurers and tries to help them fulfill their destinies, which is a nice touch and a good reason for adventurers to be pointed towards the inn.
The rest of the 12 pages of the product consists of an inflated map, complete with battlegrid, of the inn, for everyone interested in using miniatures.
That's it. In contrast to the other pdfs of the "Evocative City Sites"-series, this one is systemless, something one might not notice at first (although it's clearly written in the product description!). Also, there is no extra DM-map with secret-doors, compartments and the like, although a secret passage is mentioned in the description of Lansil.
This has some unfortunate drawbacks, i.e. the fact that you get no awesome, complex and imaginative statblocks as in the other ECS-pdfs, nor will you find new feats, magic items or the like within these pages. None are advertised, but I just wanted to make this difference clear.
Conclusion:
The prose of "The Next Inn" is a nice read and the characters are also neat.
The letter- and number-less, player friendly map is another pro.
However, the lack of a DM-map with the secret passage is something that galls me a bit.
Also, due to the systemless nature of this pdf, you won't get any crunch. If you want stats for the two NPCs, you'll have to come up with them yourself.
While I like the prose, I couldn't keep myself from thinking how such an inn would be abused: You don't have to pay the order that operates the inn (you can donate, though) and you get healed of all of your afflictions, energy drain, diseases and so on. My players (and just about any group that qualifies as adventurers in the vicinity) would exploit the hell out of this inn and I can't see the concept really working.
Thus, while the prose is good and gripping as always in the ECS-series, this particular one is, at least for me, marred by this logical error. Ok, you could easily change all that, have adventurers pay and eliminate the extreme healing properties, but as it is written, I could see the churches trying to get the inn out of business very fast, if only to keep the donations coming.
If you're not playing PFRPG or 3.5. and don't need the crunch and if you can see the inn as a kind of haven working for you, add 1 star to the score.
If you don't care about the lack of a map with the secret passage, add another.
If you look for a semi-mysterious safe haven for adventurers as a home base, go ahead and check it out, it's only 2 bucks and has a high production value.
For me personally, it didn't really work. Go ahead and check the other ECS-titles out, though. They tend to be awesome!
That said, "The Next Inn" is close to 3 stars for me, but not quite.
It features 1 page for the front cover and 1 page credits, including 5 adventure hooks.
The first real page consists of a beautiful 1 page map of "The Nexus Inn" (also called "The Next Inn"), featuring a clear key and no annoying letters or numbers, which is a definite plus for me.
After that, we get 3 pages of IC prose introducing the Inn and two characters, Sister Socorro and Knight-Captain Lansil, including secrets. There is also a nice, albeit a bit scifi-like picture of the main hall of the bottom floor and a nice and unique picture of the keys they use at the inn.
Sister Socorro is a Cassandra-like figure that can be utilized to give the players indirect hints and the Knight-Captain may make an interesting NPC to help out the players.
The inn specifically and exclusively caters to adventurers and tries to help them fulfill their destinies, which is a nice touch and a good reason for adventurers to be pointed towards the inn.
The rest of the 12 pages of the product consists of an inflated map, complete with battlegrid, of the inn, for everyone interested in using miniatures.
That's it. In contrast to the other pdfs of the "Evocative City Sites"-series, this one is systemless, something one might not notice at first (although it's clearly written in the product description!). Also, there is no extra DM-map with secret-doors, compartments and the like, although a secret passage is mentioned in the description of Lansil.
This has some unfortunate drawbacks, i.e. the fact that you get no awesome, complex and imaginative statblocks as in the other ECS-pdfs, nor will you find new feats, magic items or the like within these pages. None are advertised, but I just wanted to make this difference clear.
Conclusion:
The prose of "The Next Inn" is a nice read and the characters are also neat.
The letter- and number-less, player friendly map is another pro.
However, the lack of a DM-map with the secret passage is something that galls me a bit.
Also, due to the systemless nature of this pdf, you won't get any crunch. If you want stats for the two NPCs, you'll have to come up with them yourself.
While I like the prose, I couldn't keep myself from thinking how such an inn would be abused: You don't have to pay the order that operates the inn (you can donate, though) and you get healed of all of your afflictions, energy drain, diseases and so on. My players (and just about any group that qualifies as adventurers in the vicinity) would exploit the hell out of this inn and I can't see the concept really working.
Thus, while the prose is good and gripping as always in the ECS-series, this particular one is, at least for me, marred by this logical error. Ok, you could easily change all that, have adventurers pay and eliminate the extreme healing properties, but as it is written, I could see the churches trying to get the inn out of business very fast, if only to keep the donations coming.
If you're not playing PFRPG or 3.5. and don't need the crunch and if you can see the inn as a kind of haven working for you, add 1 star to the score.
If you don't care about the lack of a map with the secret passage, add another.
If you look for a semi-mysterious safe haven for adventurers as a home base, go ahead and check it out, it's only 2 bucks and has a high production value.
For me personally, it didn't really work. Go ahead and check the other ECS-titles out, though. They tend to be awesome!
That said, "The Next Inn" is close to 3 stars for me, but not quite.
