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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010006" data-attributes="member: 1129">NPC books are often a hit or miss factor based on a number of elements.  For me, one of the most important is art.  A poorly illustrated NPC doesn’t provide me with a lot of inspiration but one that look impressive, even if I don’t use it, may lead to the illustration being used for another NPC.  Denizens of Freeport isn’t quite in the same class as Allies and Adversaries, a full color book, but it is top notch.Now when I say top notch, I mean that there are many well-known illustrators who’ve done the honors here.  One of my personal favorites is David Griffith, whose work I first spotted in a Mongoose Slayer’s book.  Other fan favorites include Toren Atkinson, Marcio Fiorito, and Chris Martinez among others.Another factor is uniqueness.  Is there something that this NPC brings to the table that I couldn’t have assembled myself?  With an ever growing range of sourcebooks, more often than not, the answer is no.  Fortunately, some NPC books like Denizers of Freeport and Bonds of Magic go out of the way to make new items, spells, and other goodies to add to your campaign, even if you’re not using the book.  In this case, not every character has something unique about them, but there are several new items like the Robe of Mundanity, where it provides the user with a +15 bonus to Hide checks and a Change Self at will, granting a +10 bonus to Disguise Checks.A third element is creation rules.  What game mechanics were involved with the creation of the NPC.  By knowing this, I can advance or decrease the abilities and equipment of the characters.  Unfortunately, Denizens of Freeport doesn’t provide any rules on how the characters were created.  Most have stats in the 12-20 range with few having any stats below 10, indicating that even a high fantasy point buy value of 32, was probably not used.  This means that you’ll have to eye the stats and make adjustments accordingly.Another point of reference is organization.  Here, everything is laid out in alphabetical terms.  For me at least, not the best way to do things.  I prefer some type of organization that puts people into some type of classes like warriors, wizards, and rogues, or by type or something.  In addition, a table that summarizes name, class, level, hit points, page number and CR is a useful tool for when I’m looking for something to throw in the player’s way.  That’s not in here.  Fortunately, the book is self-referencing so there are characters within the book that know of each other.  This helps the GM provide a consistent internal background.  Those who own the Freeport hardcover also have advantages over those who do not as several things mentioned in the Freeport book are utilized here ranging from feats to the Freeport Pirate Prestige Class.  In some ways, this is good as it provides further benefit to an earlier book but in other ways, well, those without the book will be able to make do as most of the material here is self contained but there may be some brow scratching. How about an example?  Take Husani, the Sage, an apparent human who is actually a Yuan-Ti, exploring the ruins of Valossa and if used properly against the civilized Serpent People who hope to reclaim their ancient home one-day.  If you don’t’ own the Freeport book or any of the other modules, the use of this character is a bit minimum.  Why you’d buy a Freeport book of NPC though without owning Freeport or any of the modules… well that’s another story.The book provides some odd seventy-six NPCs.  Each character starts off with name, type, stats, background, personality, physical description and hooks.  The type by the name is a quick reference as to what the character is.  Take Rat, a Halfling whose listed as an Urban Druid or Nevtalathien, a retired mercenary.  Background provides quick information, usually a paragraph of two, that highlights important events in the character’s origins and why they’re in Freeport.  Personality shows some quirks that the individuals have.  For example, Mother Mirren “is often crotchety and difficult”.  One of the strengths here are the hooks.  While not enough information to outline a whole campaign, the hooks provide enough raw ideas to run several campaigns in Freeport without ever running into one another.  Good stuff there.As an NPC book, it has a few flaws.  No listing of characters by CR.  No table of contents, no index, no real organization.  As a general NPC reference, it fails a little too due to its close association with Freeport.  This isn’t saying the book needs Freeport.  No, you can use many of the characters with little to no difficult in any setting but will have a gestalt effect where owning both is better than only owning one.  For those who own Freeport and weren’t satisfied with the way their trilogy originally went, try to rework it now with some extra NPCs to add flavor and background.</blockquote>

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