Psion
Adventurer
Counter Collection I: The Usual Suspects
Fiery Dragon Productions' mainstay is d20 adventures. This field is currently crowded by a number of companies, but Fiery Dragon has managed to distinguish itself from the pack. It does so in part by adding extras to its adventures such as color handouts and color cardstock counters. This last feature is now parleyed into their first non-adventure release.
Counter Collection I: The Usual Suspects is an attempt to fill a certain need in the d20 system. Combat in the d20 system takes into account spacing and movement considerations that are best handled using miniatures on a 1-inch square grid. Miniatures, however, can be expensive and bulky to transport; in addition, painting miniatures is desirable to make them look their best, but this is an activity for which many gamers do not have the time or the inclination.
Fiery Dragon hopes that this will make their flat cardboard counters an attractive alternative.
The Counters
The heart of this product is, of course, the counters. Counter Collection I has eight cardstock counter sheets. Each sheet is die cut so (with a few exceptions) you do not need to do a lot of cutting to make use of the counters. Each sheet is cut to provided 54 1" x 1" counters and two 2" x 4" counters. Five of the eight sheets use the large counters for huge dragons. The large counters on the other three are used for horses and carts. These are smaller than the 2" x 4" counters, so you will have to do a little cutting.
The artwork is by Claudio Pozas, who also did the counters in Fiery Dragon's Nature's Fury. Claudio has an interesting style reminiscent of classic D&D artist Jeff Dee -- a certain comic book look with a lot of character to it. For a sampling of some of the art that appears in Counter Collection I, check out Claudio's Fiery Dragon gallery at:
http://www.d20reviews.com/pozas/fdp.html
The selection of creatures includes primarily the common humanoids of the D&D game. In addition to humans of various classes, there are members of both sexes of all of the other standard PC races. As well, there are a number of other common monstrous foes such as ogres, trolls, minotaurs, mind flayers, beholders, dopplegangers, gargoyles, and a variety of undead. There are two each of five dragon types (black, red, brass, gold, and white).
My only objection to the selection of creatures is that just huge dragons are included. This is probably not the most practical approach. Dragons of this size are more appropriate for high level campaigns. Lower level campaigns are more common and a number of smaller "large" dragons might have been preferable.
The counters are not numbered, but provided with a blank space in which you can write a number. The reason given for this is so you can buy a second set of counters and still have them remain useful. That does show some forethought, but for the most part I think that the number of counters you are given in one pack should provide you with enough opponents of a given race for most purposes as it is.
The Adventure: In the Company of Snule
(Warning: This section contains spoilers)
In addition to the counters, an 8-page adventure is included, written by Todd Secord. It is not the focus of the product, but it is worth saying a few words about. Simply stated, the adventure is a small, site-based adventure with a large amount of backstory and build-up.
The basic adventure entails the characters investigating rumors of a group of river raiders and their boathouse. At that point, it is basically a dungeon crawl. The adventure implies that this is the chance for the players to get involved with the activities of the troll master thief Snule, whom the adventure spends more time developing than the encounter areas. Stats are given for this master thief the party never meets on the off chance the GM wants to develop this adventure.
In short, this is not the best adventure that I have seen from Fiery Dragon. It felt like it tried to stuff a much larger concept into the book than the space would accommodate. You could take the maps and stats and flesh it out, but, as it stands, it feels very incomplete.
Summary and Conclusion
I think this is a very good alternative to miniatures. I will use it. I have some old miniatures I keep around to play with, but for portability and ease of use, the Counter Collection concept is very good. I think the art is great and that the counters will prove both attractive and functional.
The adventure is, well, just there. But that is not what you are buying this for, right?
-Alan D. Kohler
Fiery Dragon Productions' mainstay is d20 adventures. This field is currently crowded by a number of companies, but Fiery Dragon has managed to distinguish itself from the pack. It does so in part by adding extras to its adventures such as color handouts and color cardstock counters. This last feature is now parleyed into their first non-adventure release.
Counter Collection I: The Usual Suspects is an attempt to fill a certain need in the d20 system. Combat in the d20 system takes into account spacing and movement considerations that are best handled using miniatures on a 1-inch square grid. Miniatures, however, can be expensive and bulky to transport; in addition, painting miniatures is desirable to make them look their best, but this is an activity for which many gamers do not have the time or the inclination.
Fiery Dragon hopes that this will make their flat cardboard counters an attractive alternative.
The Counters
The heart of this product is, of course, the counters. Counter Collection I has eight cardstock counter sheets. Each sheet is die cut so (with a few exceptions) you do not need to do a lot of cutting to make use of the counters. Each sheet is cut to provided 54 1" x 1" counters and two 2" x 4" counters. Five of the eight sheets use the large counters for huge dragons. The large counters on the other three are used for horses and carts. These are smaller than the 2" x 4" counters, so you will have to do a little cutting.
The artwork is by Claudio Pozas, who also did the counters in Fiery Dragon's Nature's Fury. Claudio has an interesting style reminiscent of classic D&D artist Jeff Dee -- a certain comic book look with a lot of character to it. For a sampling of some of the art that appears in Counter Collection I, check out Claudio's Fiery Dragon gallery at:
http://www.d20reviews.com/pozas/fdp.html
The selection of creatures includes primarily the common humanoids of the D&D game. In addition to humans of various classes, there are members of both sexes of all of the other standard PC races. As well, there are a number of other common monstrous foes such as ogres, trolls, minotaurs, mind flayers, beholders, dopplegangers, gargoyles, and a variety of undead. There are two each of five dragon types (black, red, brass, gold, and white).
My only objection to the selection of creatures is that just huge dragons are included. This is probably not the most practical approach. Dragons of this size are more appropriate for high level campaigns. Lower level campaigns are more common and a number of smaller "large" dragons might have been preferable.
The counters are not numbered, but provided with a blank space in which you can write a number. The reason given for this is so you can buy a second set of counters and still have them remain useful. That does show some forethought, but for the most part I think that the number of counters you are given in one pack should provide you with enough opponents of a given race for most purposes as it is.
The Adventure: In the Company of Snule
(Warning: This section contains spoilers)
In addition to the counters, an 8-page adventure is included, written by Todd Secord. It is not the focus of the product, but it is worth saying a few words about. Simply stated, the adventure is a small, site-based adventure with a large amount of backstory and build-up.
The basic adventure entails the characters investigating rumors of a group of river raiders and their boathouse. At that point, it is basically a dungeon crawl. The adventure implies that this is the chance for the players to get involved with the activities of the troll master thief Snule, whom the adventure spends more time developing than the encounter areas. Stats are given for this master thief the party never meets on the off chance the GM wants to develop this adventure.
In short, this is not the best adventure that I have seen from Fiery Dragon. It felt like it tried to stuff a much larger concept into the book than the space would accommodate. You could take the maps and stats and flesh it out, but, as it stands, it feels very incomplete.
Summary and Conclusion
I think this is a very good alternative to miniatures. I will use it. I have some old miniatures I keep around to play with, but for portability and ease of use, the Counter Collection concept is very good. I think the art is great and that the counters will prove both attractive and functional.
The adventure is, well, just there. But that is not what you are buying this for, right?
-Alan D. Kohler
