CRITICAL LOCATIONS
By Eric Cagle, Owen K.C. Stephens, and Christopher West
Wizards of the Coast product number 953707400
64-page softcover, $19.95
Critical Locations is an accessory for the
d20 Modern game, consisting of very detailed maps of common locations that might be of importance during an adventure. While some of these have been reprinted from the pages of
Dungeon magazine (where they appeared as the "Global Positioning" feature), many of them appear here for the first time.
The cover, by Kalman Androsofszky, features a trio of what appear to be SWAT team members on the front, and three action scenes on the back showing each of the three doing what they do best. Like the rest of the
d20 Modern products that I've seen, this has a "comic book art" look about it, totally appropriate to the genre. Also, quite appropriately for a product containing maps of potential adventure sites, I notice that the background of the front cover consists of a city map (and the same map appears, very lightly, as a background on the inside pages as well).
The interior artwork consists of only 8 illustrations by artists Ramon Perez and Chris Trevas, and these are nicely done; I notice Ramon is keeping up with his trademark "negative space outlines" of peripheral characters in the background, which makes for a very distinctive look. However, as nice as the artwork is, Christopher West blows it all away with his 29 highly-detailed, full-color maps. These are the real meat of the book, and are what makes this a must-have for any GM running a
d20 Modern game. (For that matter, it doesn't really matter what game rules you're using; if your campaign takes place in modern times and you'd find 5-foot squares a useful feature, then
Critical Locations will benefit your game greatly.)
Since there's really not an opportunity to give a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, I'll go ahead and list the maps in the book. They are:
- Arctic Research Station
- Bomb Shelter
- Bowling Alley
- Cemetery
- Cineplex
- City Hall
- City Morgue
- Convention Center
- Corporate High-Rise Office Building
- Fast Food Restaurant
- Firehouse and Occult Shop (two separate buildings, but they fit on the same page so Christopher made one map out of them)
- Gothic Church
- Grocery Store
- Hotel Lobby with Fancy Restaurant
- Lakeside Cottage
- Large Family Residence
- Large Metropolitan Bank
- Luxury Yacht
- Mansion
- Municipal Library
- Nightclub
- Pawnshop and Sleazy Bar (again, these are two separate buildings that fit on the same map)
- Police Station
- Public High School
- Roadside Motel
- Small Apartment Building
- TV and Radio News Broadcasting Studio
Scattered alongside many of the maps are special rules for the areas involved. For example, some new equipment is provided (the firehouse includes rules for fire axes as weapons and a fireman's coat as a type of light armor, and the broadcasting studio has vehicle stats for a news van), as well as rules for new creature types (the mob is a large crowd that uses rules similar to swarms), and area-specific rules (the cemetery and gothic church have rules for unhallowed and hallowed ground, as well as rules for creating holy water, and if you were ever bothered because the
d20 Modern game didn't include rules to determine who wins a bowling match,
Critical Locations has got you covered). Many locations have one or more adventure seeds prompting the GM how to add the location into his campaign. And finally, many of the locations have stat blocks for typical inhabitants.
Oof. What can I say about the stat blocks?
Critical Locations is a 64-page book, with the first 5 pages devoted to credits, a table of contents, and an introduction. Page 64 is an advertisement for other Wizards of the Coast game products. That leaves 58 pages of locations, of which exactly half are devoted to the maps. With only 29 pages of text, how can this book get away with so many proofreading and editing gaffes, let alone crappy stat blocks? It simply staggers the imagination, and really makes me wonder about Christopher Perkins, listed in the credits as the editor and the design manager (and thus "big cheese in charge of stat blocks"). I
know he can do much better than this. In any case, here's the "unofficial errata" I compiled while reading through
Critical Locations one time:
- p. 6, High-Level Mad Scientist (Smart Ordinary 7/Dedicated Ordinary 2): His Dedicated HD should be 7d6+7, not 7d6+14 (he only has a +1 Con bonus). Ref should be +3, not +2 (+2 as Smt7, +0 as Ded2, +1 Dex). Will should be +10, not +7 (+4 as Smt7, +2 as Ded2, +2 Wis, +2 Iron Will). Rep should be +4, not +3 (+3 as Smt7, +1 as Ded2). He has too many feats as a 9th-level ordinary (who doesn't get class-level bonus feats); he has 8, but should only have 4.
- p. 16, Low-Level Security Guard (Tough Ordinary 1/Dedicated Ordinary 1): No Allegiance is given; I presume it's "any." (The stat block literally reads "AL;" - it looks like it was completely overlooked. If he has no allegiance to anything at all, you'd expect maybe "AL -" or "AL none" or something.) [Edit: However, Owen KC Stephens says, in the comment section below, that "AL;" is fine as written, so take that for what it's worth. He was right about the number of feats, after all.]
- p. 21, Typical Mob of Humans (Smart Ordinary 1/Dedicated Ordinary 1): Initiative should be +1, not +0 (+1 Dex). The "Atk" and "Full Atk" entries shouldn't have "+33 melee" - like a swarm, a mob does automatic damage to anyone within its space during its turn. (And even if that wasn't the case, "+33 melee" would be wrong, as it uses the +12 grapple modifier instead of the -4 attack penalty for being of Gargantuan size.) Has 4 feats (3 normal, 1 bonus), but should have 3 (2 normal, 1 bonus).
- p. 28, Low-Level Firefighter (Strong Ordinary 1/Dedicated Ordinary 1): Grapple should be +4, not +3 (+1 BAB, +3 Str). Unarmed strike damage should be 1d6+3 nonlethal, not 1d6+2 nonlethal (+3 Str). Has 3 feats, but should only have 2.
- p. 28, Occult Shop Owner (Smart Ordinary 4/Dedicated Ordinary 4): HD for his Dedicated levels should be 4d6+4, not 4d8+4 (dedicated characters use d6s for their HD). Has 5 feats, but should only have 4.
- p. 42, Sailor (Tough Ordinary 1/Smart Ordinary 1): No "Full Atk" entry is provided; it should be the same as the "Atk" entry. With Adventurer as his occupation, one of the 3 feats he has should be replaced with either Archaic Weapons Proficiency, Brawl, or Personal Firearms Proficiency.
- p. 42, Captain (Tough Ordinary 3/Smart Ordinary 3): Defense should be 14, not 15 (+2 as Tgh3, +1 as Smt3, +1 Dex). Ditto with touch defense. Flat-footed defense should be 13, not 14. Fort should be +5, not +3 (+2 as Tgh3, +1 as Smt3, +2 Con). Ref should be +3, not +1 (+1 as Tgh3, +1 as Smt3, +1 Dex). Will should be +3, not +1 (+1 as Tgh3, +2 as Smt3, +0 Wis). Rep should be +2, not +1 (+1 as Tgh3, +1 as Smt3). He has 5 feats (4 normal, 1 bonus), but he should only have 4 (3 normal, 1 bonus).
- p. 44, Millionaire (Smart Ordinary 3/Charismatic Ordinary 3): Rep should be +7, not +9 (+1 as Smt3, +2 as Cha3, +3 from Renown feat, +1 for having an occupation of Dilettante). He should have 4 feats, not 6.
- p. 46, Low-Level Librarian (Smart Ordinary 1/Dedicated Ordinary 1): Should have 2 feats, not 3.
- p. 48, Bouncer (Strong Ordinary 5/Dedicated Ordinary 1/Charismatic Ordinary 2): CR should be 7, not 6 (class levels - 1 for an ordinary). HD for his Dedicated level should be 1d6+2, not 1d8+1 (+2 Con, and Dedicated have d6s for HD). Massive damage threshold should be 14 (the same as his Con), not 15. Initiative should be +4, not +1 (+0 Dex, +4 Improved Initiative). BAB should be +6, not +5 (+5 as Str5, +0 as Ded1, +1 as Cha2). Unarmed strikes should be at +11 melee, not +10 (+6 BAB, +3 Str, +2 from Improved Brawl feat). Metal baton attacks should be at +9 melee, not +8 (+6 BAB, +3 Str). Rep should be +4, not +2 (+1 as Str5, +1 as Ded1, +2 as Cha2). Fort should be +8, not +6 (+3 as Str5, +1 as Ded1, +2 as Cha2, +2 Con). Ref should be +3, not +2 (+1 as Str5, +0 as Ded1, +2 as Cha2, +0 Dex). Will should be +4, not +3 (+1 as Str5, +1 as Ded1, +0 as Cha2, +2 Wis). He should have 4 feats (3 normal, 1 bonus), not 6.
- p. 50, Pawnshop Broker (Tough Ordinary 1/Dedicated Ordinary 5/Charismatic 1): First of all, I think that should be "Charismatic Ordinary 1 - I don't see how you can only be an "ordinary" for some of your class levels. HD for his Tough level should be 1d10+1, not 1d6+1 (Tough characters get d10s for HD). Flat-footed defense should be 16, not 14 (+1 as Tgh1, +3 as Ded5, +0 as Cha1, +2 equipment). BAB should be +3, not +4 (+0 as Tgh1, +3 as Ded5, +0 as Cha1). Grapple should be +2, not +3 (+3 BAB, -1 Str). Unarmed strikes should be at +2 melee, not +3 (+3 BAB, -1 Str). Glock 17 attacks should be at +4 ranged, not +5 (+3 BAB, +0 Dex, +1 mastercraft). Derringer attacks should be at +3 ranged, not +4 (+3 BAB, +0 Dex). Rep should be +4, not +1 (+0 as Tgh1, +2 as Ded5, +2 as Cha2). Fort should be +6, not +5 (+1 as Tgh1, +3 as Ded5, +1 as Cha1, +1 Con). Should have 4 feats (3 normal, 1 bonus), not 6.
- p. 50, Bartender (Strong Ordinary 2/Dedicated Ordinary 2): Should have 2 feats, not 4.
- p. 58, Clerk (Dedicated Ordinary 1): CR should be 1/2, not 1 (he's an ordinary). Defense and touch defense should both be 12, not 16 (+1 class, +1 Dex). Flat-footed defense should be 11, not 15. Rep should be +1, not +0 (+1 as Ded1). Fort should be +3, not +1 (+1 as Ded1, +2 Con). Ref should be +1, not +0 (+0 as Ded1, +1 Dex). Will should be +3, not +1 (+1 as Ded1, +2 Wis). Should have 2 feats, not 3.
- p. 60, Disgruntled Urban Terrorist (Smart Ordinary 4/Dedicated Ordinary 3): Rep should be +3, not +0 (+2 as Smt4, +1 as Ded3). Should have 4 feats (3 normal, 1 bonus), not 5.
Out of 14 stat blocks, I found errors in...14 of them. Let me see, that would be - let me pull out my calculator for this one - 100% of them. I agree that providing sample NPCs for people that you'd expect to be in the given location would be a boon for the GM, but how about providing some, you know,
accurate stat blocks once in a while? Just to break up the pattern a bit, you know?
Besides the stat blocks, there were also a disproportionate number of proofreading/editing errors for so short a book. I caught instances of improper word usage and/or typos ("an" instead of "and," "boats" instead of "boasts," "pqwnshop" instead of "pawnshop"), awkwardly-phrased passages ("a warren of back stages and hidden warrens"), incorrect punctuation usage ("GMs discretion" should be "GM's discretion" and "hero's" is
not the plural of "hero," a comma shows up out of nowhere in the middle of a phrase), and a slew of spell names were not italicized.
To be fair, there were a couple of problems I noted with Christopher's maps as well. The numbered location key on page 9 matches up for the Luxury Holocaust Shelter, and while it was above-and-beyond of him to include a Paramilitary Bunker and Storm Shelter on the same map, neither of these have any room numbers assigned. It seems like it should have been easy to add them in, especially since they could be "piggybacked" on the existing key. It kind of sucks that the pawnshop owner's bedroom is smaller than the one-toilet bathroom. Also, the Small Apartment Building consists of apartments that each have 5 bedrooms and their own private laundry room; pretty swanky, huh? Personally, I'd remove the stairs and laundry rooms from each apartment on the lower level and assume the whole upper level basically mirrors the lower level (of course, you'll have to add a common set of stairs and a common laundry area for each floor). Still, that was my only real problem with any of the maps, and I loved the little touches that Christopher put in his work. (For instance, even though the Fast Food Restaurant is "generic," you can tell - even from a top view - that the sign outside has "golden arches," making it quite obviously a McDonald's.
Critical Locations really should have been a 5-star product, but sadly, the poor stat blocks drop it down to a very low "4 (Good)." (I was tempted to drop it into a high "3 (Average)," but I decided that it probably rates the "4" overall.) Also, maybe it's me, but $19.95 for a 64-page paperback seems awfully expensive; we're talking about 31 cents a page - isn't that kind of high? Still, I can still highly recommend this product, as the bulk of the utility is from the maps, and those are very high in quality.
(While I'm thinking about it, you know what would be a cool product? Blowing up these maps to double-sided posters, complete with 1-inch grids, so you could use them as battlemats with your figures. I'd bet that would be a pretty hot seller.)
