DM's Guild Extra: Community Reviews

Thanks to a great response from the community, we can bring you some more reviews from the DM’s Guild. Today we have three smaller offerings. One of these is an enhancement for your campaign, while the other two are adventures that can be set in your campaign. The creators provided EN World with copies of their creations for us to review. If you have a current or upcoming DM’s Guild product, please feel free to contact us here. We would be happy to take a look and give it a review.

The Vermin: The Ratfolk of the Undercity

• R.G.Woods & Grisly Eye Games

Grisly Eye Games sent a draft version of their The Vermin supplement over for us to look at. The Vermin establishes a firm footing for the ratfolk, a group of humanoids that live in the sewers of urban areas, hoarding secrets like treasure. Ratfolk are designed to challenge 1st and 2nd level parties, but are versatile enough to be upscaled as needed. Like their rat kin, a ratfolk can attack in tight quarters alongside their companions. A tight fit is no issue for these folk who are used to living in close conditions among the nests.

Stats for four kinds of ratfolk are provided, including Rat Kings. In addition to a world of information that a DM can use to add ratfolk to their campaign, The Vermin offers up campaign ideas where ratfolk become excellent antagonists for the party. A number of such possibilities are suggested, each about a paragraph in size. This is just enough information for the DM to include this into a quest or entire campaign. A sample ratfolk nest is provided for DMs as well. Like The Enchanted supplement, The Vermin is short, but provides useful information in a tight and well designed package. Art and layout are excellent. The Vermin is not out yet but once it is, we will update this entry with a link.

The Ruined Tower of Zenopus

• Original Adventure by: J. Eric Holmes
• Conversion by Zach Howard
• Link: The Ruined Tower of Zenopus

I enjoy all the products I review, but this adventure was of particular interest to me. The Ruined Tower of Zenopus appears in the original Basic D&D by John Eric Holmes as the Sample Dungeon. Many adventurers began their role-playing careers in this dungeon or other dungeons inspired by it. Zach Howard has brought this dungeon into the modern day with a 5E conversion. You will need a map of the original dungeon, but the author offers a few (legal) means of obtaining that map if you do not already have it.

The adventure includes some details gleaned from the original sample dungeon about Portown, providing some backdrop for the adventure. Portown can be dropped into your setting with ease and epitomizes the very basic (ha!) ideas of minimal setting. You have enough to adventure with. After a brief introduction, the dungeon locations are provided. Note that they use letters instead of numbers for locations. After the dungeon, the author provides extensive appendices with rumors and further reading.

This is a well done conversion and a great introductory module.

A Blight at Blue Foot Farms

• BreakwallExpeditions
• Link: A Blight at Blue Foot Farms

Do you like mushrooms on your pizza or perhaps in your D&D adventure? If so then A Blight at Blue Foot Farms will be your slice. It is an adventure for 4-6 characters of levels 3-5, though I think you can easily make it work for higher levels if you want. The layout of A Blight at Blue Foot Farms is superb and the artwork is well placed and sourced. Aesthetically, I am impressed with how the adventure was put together; Breakwall Expeditions did a fantastic job.

The adventure itself is only a few pages and is broken down into two parts. Hooks are provided for getting characters interested in the adventure and the NPCs are all well detailed. The latter is a nice touch that any DM will appreciate. There are many unique creatures in the adventure and they are wonderfully named. I think the Garlic Guardian is my favorite. There appears to be a bit of whimsy in the adventure, but it is serious business and is a solid adventure. Characters get to make choices and those choices have consequences. I enjoyed reading this adventure and recommend it for play.

 

[Fenris-77]

Those all look cool. The Ratfolk one looks especially useful for urban campaigns. I may have to add it to my bespoke Waterdeep.

 

[grislyeye]

Those all look cool. The Ratfolk one looks especially useful for urban campaigns. I may have to add it to my bespoke Waterdeep.

I actually released The Vermin today:

The Vermin - The Grisly Eye

Ric Wood is an indie game designer and forever DM.

grislyeye.com

 

[SMHWorlds]

I actually released The Vermin today:

The Vermin - The Grisly Eye

Ric Wood is an indie game designer and forever DM.

grislyeye.com

Fantastic!

 

[Fenris-77]

I actually released The Vermin today:

The Vermin - The Grisly Eye

Ric Wood is an indie game designer and forever DM.

grislyeye.com

Did you do the maps yourself? The style looks very familiar (and awesome). I may use this as a base to do something in a GW Skaven-style Empire in the Shadows Beneath, under Waterdeep. Who needs beholders and mad mages? I can have ratman ninjas! Boo-ya.

 

[Rellott]

Did you do the maps yourself? The style looks very familiar (and awesome).

They look like Dyson Logos maps.

 

[Fenris-77]

They look like Dyson Logos maps.

It was the crosshatching next to the wall lines that caught my eye. The Dyson maps I've seen have a shadow around the edges of the wall lines in that spot. I've never used one though, so maybe they can do the crosshatch thing to, IDK.

 

[grislyeye]

Did you do the maps yourself? The style looks very familiar (and awesome). I may use this as a base to do something in a GW Skaven-style Empire in the Shadows Beneath, under Waterdeep. Who needs beholders and mad mages? I can have ratman ninjas! Boo-ya.

The maps are from Dyson Logos, which is why you're probably familiar with them. They have a number of maps that are licensed for free commercial use.

 

[zenopus]

SMHWorlds: Thank you very much for the review of the Ruined Tower of Zenopus & I'm glad you liked it (I shared it on my blog).

The community response over the last few months has been great & it just hit Gold Best Seller at DMs Guild last week!

BTW, I have made a map suitable for Roll20 which I will be adding to the file shortly and everyone who has already purchased the adventure should be able to download it. There is a preview of this map at the second link I shared above (about going Gold).

If anyone wants to read further reviews of the RTOZ there are a number available on my blog.

 

[zenopus]

BTW, I have made a map suitable for Roll20 which I will be adding to the file shortly and everyone who has already purchased the adventure should be able to download it. There is a preview of this map at the second link I shared above (about going Gold).

Just a quick update that a dungeon map is now included with the Ruined Tower of Zenopus adventure on DMs Guild! It should be available to everyone that has already purchased the adventure (just go to your purchased titles and it should be available). The map has been optimized for use with Roll20.

Read more here:

Zenopus Archives announcement of the new map