This is not a playtest review.
Common Ground 1: Churches, Inns and Merchants, is Bard's Productions first in a series of quick generation toolkits for various locations.
At $11.95 for a 32-page booklet, this is possibly the most expensive d20 release so far in terms of content volume - possibly a result of the good quality paper this is printed on (though the cover still does not feel as durable as standard card cover - its more like a magazine). One plus is that the inside covers are used for OGL and credits, but two more pages are taken up with contents and advertising. The four section headings take up further space (along with computer-generated graphics), up to a full page in one case. The font size and margins are good. The art seems computer-generated and is fairly good for this medium, though I'm not a great fan of computer-generated art. The 3-page central map section is in full colour. The maps are clearly labelled and nicely detailed, but are without scale. Writing is concise and workmanlike, whilst editing is average with occasional but regular mistakes.
This toolkit module is designed to allow a GM to create, mid-game, a church, inn or merchant building when the PCs go off the beaten track into an area the GM was not expecting. This seems like a fairly useful tool - how does it look in practice?
As an example, the Churches section uses a 7-part generation system:
1. Choose the size of the church - advice is given on how to match the church size up with the size of the community where it will be located. There are maps in the central map section to match each church size.
2. Choose the church's alignment - mainly this is related to the wielding of positive or negative energy.
3. Choose priests - stock NPC stat blocks are provided for different church sizes
4. Choose acolytes - as for priests
5. Choose race, gender and name for each NPC - stat modifiers and names for various NPCs are given
6. Choose domains - reproduces granted powers and spells through to 3rd level for each of the domains from the Player's Handbook.
7. Choose spells - short pre-generated spell lists are given for good/positive and evil/negative priests for ease of choice.
A 1-page worksheet is given, which can be photocopied for in-game use to note the choices made using the system above, including a reproduction of the racial stat modifiers and good/evil spell lists. There is also a sidebar giving some stats for various locks, doors and traps that could be found in the church.
The same theory is then applied to inns and merchants with appropriate changes (e.g. affluence and security for the merchants, patrons and affluence for the inns). There are also sidebars giving example inn prices and the economic effects of affluence and size on merchant prices. One thing to note about the system is that it is not a random generation procedure - it is designed for the GM to make choices.
The last three pages reproduce the worksheets from the three chapters.
Conclusion:
My first and major gripe with this product is the price versus content volume. Take out the advertising, contents, and reproduced information and you are left with 26 pages. At $11.95, even for 32 pages, its nearly twice the cost of most other d20 releases.
My second gripe, and this is a more personal opinion, is a question of how useful this really is. There is very little new information here (apart from the NPC names and maps). Its mainly about organisation of information - something a GM with some planning and administrative skills could put together in less than an hour. If you don't have an hour (or the motivation/interest) to organise this kind of information and you don't mind the cost, this accessory may be of interest to you, as it does bring together stats to allow quick creation of a church, inn or merchant building.
The booklet boasts that you can create a church, inn, or merchant building in five minutes. Its main intended use is for mid-game creation. I just can't believe players are going to be happy whilst the GM takes five minutes mid-game to create a building which they may only spend a few moments in - a quick description on the fly and a couple of stat blocks created pre-game from the DMG would do it. Its secondary purpose (to quickly create these locations pre-game) is a far more viable use of this accessory to my mind. Still, its something I feel I could do myself fairly easily without the help of this aid.
On the positive side, it is a generic aid, which can be used in a campaign-specific manner. There are no random generation charts in here, and the maps could be quite useful (though would have benefited from a larger size and photocopying enlargement ratios as previously seen in Atlas Games' "Backdrops"). There is little else in Churches, Inns and Merchants for me to enthuse about - its not my cup of tea, but it may prove useful to others. My scoring is indicative of my personal opinion regarding its cost and usefulness to me, but it may be of more use to others.
