First off, this is a playtest review, but not an unbiased one - I was one of the people who sent in suggestions to Phillip J. Reed, and I was able to see where he took my suggestions. Plus I got a free copy and got to see my name on the credits page, which always gives me a warm tingly feeling inside.
That said, I have already found it a very useful product, and have pressed several of the sheets into service in my campaign. There are thirty-nine pages of sheets in this supplement, some designed for World building, some for designing the campaign, and some for planning individual adventures. Other sheets are used in recording events in the campaign as they happen, or planning them ahead of time, and yet others help running the game and keeping track of what portions of the scenario they have completed.
While this is a stand alone product several sheets build upon the contents of the original Campaign Planner, having both is not required, but they do work very well together.
I find products like this useful because the make it easier for me to record my thoughts and ideas in a coherent form, not a problem if the ideas are for this weeks game, but if I am working on something for a few weeks or months down the road it can be a campaign saver. The recently released forms version makes it even handier - a fact you would understand if you had ever seen what passes for my handwriting. (I have two styles, slow and extremely legible, and fast but even I sometimes struggle to read it...) They also act as an aid to memory, making it less likely that I will need to struggle with remembering if the door to the Forgotten Crypt has been unlocked yet.
On a quick look the pages are simple and uncluttered, fairly self explaining in their use. Many have tick boxes, to be marked off for such things as whether a rumor is true or false, or if an event/trigger has occurred. These make keeping track of things much easier. They do not appear to be in any particular order, so I will cover them by the categories that I would use them under. Several of these sheets are modified from similar sheets in Campaign Planner 1, replacing a square grid with a hex grid. Several sheets have places that refer you to another sheet, for example the Trade Route sheet has a tick box and a line for whether the route has been mapped by the DM, and which map to refer to.
World Building
Starting with creating the campaign world and its cosmology - The Polyhedral Map sheet has twenty regions that fold together like the sides of a D20, a system familiar to people who have played Traveller or remember the old TSR World Builder’s Guide for 2nd ed. AD&D. Like the TSR sheet there is a complimenting sheet for mapping out each of the 20 triangular regions of the map. I have not used either of these sheets, I had already used the old TSR sheet for exactly the same purpose. These would have worked every bit as well. The climate bands are shown on the maps, making it relatively easy to create weather and monster lists by region. The only complaint I have in regards to this sheet is the lack of larger hexes that correspond to the ones on the Polyhedral Map sheet, I realize that getting the hexes to line up would have been a monumental pain in the neck, but it would have been nice.
Sheets are provided for mapping out trade routes, or at least write down their particulars, mapping kingdoms and cities, and recording their stats as generated by the table in the DMG. Between the mapping sheet and the information and details sheets a major city receives three pages. Religions, Deities, Planar Gates, and Planes & Demiplanes receive sheets that can help the DM to customize the cosmology of his campaign world, These include a sheet to record custom domains for clerics, and a double sided sheet for describing deities. Finally for this category is a sheet for recording any new templates to be applied to creatures in the campaign world.
The sheets for notes regarding what classes and races are available can be given to the players at character generation, so if you are running a game without gnomes or bards you won’t have to worry about someone generating Throatwarble Kneebiter the Gnomish Troubadour. While these are likely handy when a campaign begins they are less so in an established campaign.
Campaign Planning
Next up, at least in the order I would use them in is an Campaign Outline sheet, where the DM can record what NPCs are concerned, locations, and a list of the likely events for the adventure, what level they are intended for, and what triggers them. A listing of planned adventures helps plan those into the campaign as well. I have found this to be one of the most useful sheets, and really helps keeping ahead of the PCs when time is short.
Key Campaign Events also help chart the expected course of the campaign. Tick boxes record whether they have been triggered yet. Secret Societies receive a double sided sheet, listing details for the society, what their goals and attitudes are, membership requirements, rumors regarding the society, and a place to record PC interactions with the organization. For DMs who want to fiddle with random treasure tables there is a sheet that will hold two such tables,
And for people who like a campaign that covers an arc there is a Campaign Climax form, to record what the climax is likely to be, who will be involved, and what events foreshadow this climax. The campaign design sheets all fit together very well, I am filling out the forms version for my current campaign this week, just to have it nailed down.
Adventure Design
This is where the book really becomes useful, starting with the Adventure Outline which, like the Campaign Outline, helps arrange your thoughts into a coherent form. It has spaces for which NPCs are likely to be encountered, planned encounters and a quick summary of the adventure.
Site Based and Event Based encounter sheets may be easily keyed to the Outline sheet, and they allow you to easily create ‘floating’ encounters, scenes waiting for the appropriate time to drop them into your campaign. They allow you to create ‘dynamic’ triggers, and what actions can lead to which reaction. Another couple of sheets that I have used multiples of, even in the few days that I have had the product. These are likely to be the most used sheets in the book, I have already filed out a small stack of them, some for immediate use, and others for contingencies.
Several sheets are provided for designing areas of a dungeon, describe its rooms and entrance, and what hazards are present. There is also a small form - two to a page - for any ideas for dungeons that the DM wants to flesh out at a later time. A page for recording riddles and their answers is handy for those of us who have an idea for a riddle in the game, but a tendency to forget before the game actually occurs, leaving the DM asking ‘Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?’ for the fourth session in a row... Now you can record them for later use, and not need to scout your way through a pile of handwritten notes..
Background Chatter and Events can be recorded for what the general buzz will be in the local tavern, whether there will be any non-world shattering events, and if the PCs will be involved. I have used this to describe a cart accident in the bad part of town, and to set up a tavern brawl when the cart of beer did not arrive.
Running and Tracking the Campaign
Several pages are dedicated for keeping track of a play session, what events are intended for that night’s game, whether they occurred, what treasures the PCs have, and what experience has been earned this session. The play session Event Tracker is particularly handy, and helps to keep track of events that were intended to happen, but have not yet occurred. It is likely tat some of these sheets will see use every session. Some are useful for the players as well as the DM, in particular the Session History & Experiece page, I gave out one per player in my last session and then compared - it was ammusing to see how each player emphasized different aspects of the game.
Summary
This is a very solid product, and is if anything even more useful for my campaign than the original Campaign Planner.
The Auld Grump
