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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="enrious" data-source="post: 2009140" data-attributes="member: 2126">DISCLAIMER:  I do not work for Thunderhead Games although I am part of the volunteer team that is working on the Bluffside Netbook.  I have not received any form of compensation from Thunderhead Games or it's employees.Overview: Bluffside: City on the Edge is a 144 page softcover book from Thunderhead Games that seeks to give you a modular city-state for inclusion in virtually every campaign world.  This is THG's second product, following an adventure, Interludes: Brief Expeditions.The book's cover is a color depiction of the city, as if someone were flying over the water and approaching the city. The interior is black and white, with the illustrations varied and covering every level of quality. Small, quarter page maps of the various districts are included at the beginning of each city district. These are well done and complement the enclosed poster map of the city.The poster map is a fold out map that shows an overhead view of the city of Bluffside, except for the floating district of Sordadon and the Undercity. There are no markings on the map, not even labels of the various city districts. I found that the lack of labeling can make it difficult to place the various districts in relation to one another when reading the district descriptions. The only method I have found to identify the various districts on the map is to look for the maps in the book and compare the shape to the one on the map.  The only reason I can think for not including any labels is to limit spoilers for the players, but this increases the workload for the DM and would have been easily corrected with a small legend map included in the book or available online. The book itself devotes one page to the Title page, one to the Table of Contents, two and a half pages to an Index, one page to the OGL, and one page for an advertisement for their next release.Every page of game content is set in three columns, with the font used being somewhat condensed but not too small to make reading difficult.. There is a border running along the edges of page, but coupled with the layout and font used, doesn't give me the impression of wasted space.In Detail: Bluffside: City on the Edge is divided into 12 Chapters and 10 Appendices. Many of the chapters are half a page or less in length, making chapter count somewhat misleading. The chapters deal with issues such as the history, politics, religion, and influential organizations of Bluffside. Naturally they also detail the city's eight districts and Places of Interest (POI) within each district.. The Appendices cover most of the rules related information, such as the NPCs of the city, new monsters, prestige classes, races, spells and so on. A typical POI details the name of the location, it's corresponding number on the district map, what type of location it is (for example Inn/Tavern), a general description of the POI (this would likely be information PCs could gather), the name of the owner or prominent resident along with a small box that details this person's vital stats, and a description of the owner or prominent resident that is information that the players will likely not know right away. Every POI contains one or two story hooks that utilize information presented in the description to give the DM a few adventure ideas based on the location or owner of the location. Overall these hooks are very well done and can be the sources of entire adventures themselves, with a given POI being able to provide a mini-series campaign on it's own.. Another nice feature of the POIs is that most of them contain a list of regulars, NPCs detailed elsewhere in the book that can often be found in the POI. An example of this is detailing a tavern and listing a few of the prominent NPCs that can be found in the tavern conducting various activities. This was a nice touch and helped make the city feel interconnected while also providing the DM with even more ideas to create adventures..The chapters on politics and organizations in Bluffside introduce the movers and shakers within Bluffside, from the ruling council to rival thieves guilds. The politics introduced seemed very plausible to me and I think could be the focus of adventure arcs or even campaigns just by themselves.There is a small (five page) chapter on the area surrounding Bluffside which covers enough of the surrounding area and details the external challenges facing Bluffside. This could be used as is or removed for your campaign without any real effect on Bluffside.There is a chapter on the various religions in Bluffside that detail a fairly generic pantheon of deities in Bluffside; again these can be used as is or removed without having any major impact on Bluffside in your campaign.The appendices contain information and stats for the major NPCs, prestige classes, spells, monsters, races, city guards, equipment, magical items, feats, and priest domains.  While I think most of the appendices are useful, I don't think you'd have any problems throwing them out if you felt they were unbalanced or didn't fit in with your campaign.  The only exception would be the NPC list, but this should be useable in almost any campaign without modification.What I liked about Bluffside:I really like the modular nature of Bluffside. You can use individual POIs for your own city, develop any of the eight districts into their own independent cities, or just use Bluffside in it's entirety. All of this can be done with little effort.The POIs are almost all very well done and give an enormous amount of ideas for your campaign. The level of detail is high and gives you prices for shops or restaurants, things that are going on behind the scenes, and how that affects others in the city.The very nature of Bluffside makes it easy to run all sorts of campaigns, or use elements of different styles in the same campaign. It would be very easy to run themed campaigns based on nautical adventures, dungeon delving, merchant trading, political intrigue, wilderness exploring, or a combination of all of the above. If you want to do it, then Bluffside probably has it already waiting for you.There is a lot of information available in the book. With the text density being very high, I don't have the same sort of feeling when looking at some other publishers that have a lot of white space, large fonts, and spaced out sections. Not only is there a lot of content, almost all of it is good quality and easy to use.The index was very detailed and should make other publishers take note. With a book that covers such a vast amount of information, this was very much appreciated.What I didn't like about Bluffside:The layout was extremely confusing and disorganized. Chapters tended to have wildly variant sizes - from a couple of paragraphs to several pages which made paragraph divisions somewhat weaker than normal.  The secret societies and guilds, the movers and shakers if you will, were divided and placed at opposite ends of the book instead of in the Power Structure chapter, where I feel they belong. I also feel that putting many of the organizations after the city description makes many of the POI's confusing without needless page flipping.The map was unlabeled, with not even names by the districts. Aside from the lack of names, it was also a odd shade of brown.  Everything.  Not a stitch of black ink to be found.  Very odd, to say the least.Every owner or prominent resident of a POI has a small box detailing a few abilities.  I don't see the logic in this, as they are utterly useless in combat and don't help to aid role-playing the NPC.  I'd much prefer that the text be replaced with a few personality traits or characteristics that could be used to quickly role-play the NPC.The Dragori race seem important enough to warrant an embassy in Bluffside and an entry in the appendix at the back, but are apparently not important enough to justify even a passing mention in the history of Bluffside or anywhere else for that matter.  It would be like writing the history of Washington D.C. and giving info on the English Embassy, but without ever explaining the impact that England had on the U.S.  It could logically (though erroneously) concluded that England had a small impact on the U.S.' history.Summary:I had mixed feelings reading Bluffside.  It was a difficult read for me the first time, because the organization of information was very confusing.  It was hard for me to get a feel where city districts were located, what the impact each had on each other, and so on.  After the second read, things made more sense and started to flow together much better, enabling the good things about Bluffside to come through.   I think that if you can overcome the organization and layout of Bluffside (and the map, have to take a final shot at the map) then you will likely find a very useable city that can fit in almost anywhere.  Overall, I would say that Bluffside is worth the money spent on it if you are looking for a generic city that is adaptable to any locale.  In fact, I would have paid a little more for it to have been produced as a hardback product. Open Content Used:None, aside from the SRD and from THG's earlier adventure, Interludes.Reviewer's Notes:You've no doubt noticed almost nothing regarding game mechanics.  This is because I feel Bluffside's strength lies not with the mechanics but rather with the role-playing elements.  Thus I chose to focus on the parts of Bluffside that I feel matter most to the consumer.I mentioned in the Disclaimer the Bluffside Netbook.  This is in line with Thunderhead Games' interest in making available enhancements to their products via their website.  I think this is a great initiative and wish more companies were willing to do this.</blockquote>

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