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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crothian" data-source="post: 2515585" data-attributes="member: 232">En Route II: by Land or by Sea[imager]http://www.rpgnow.com/products/product_4907.jpg[/imager]    As a reviewer one of the things I like to do is every now and then review an older product I bought that I have gotten a lot of use out of over the years.  When I first started doing this I was thinking that I would cover a wide variety of different publishers and just cover a wide spectrum of products.  And then I started really noticing the books that I kept using and who published them.  Atlas was the clear winner in most books that I use.  That is really something to take notice of for me as I rarely look at publisher or writer when using a book.  I know what I like and I find that by reading the book.  So here we have another Atlas book that is really good and useful for review.  I just do not understand why they are more popular among the d20 community.    En Route II: By Land or by Seas is a collection of mini adventures and encounters.  It is a book of ideas and simple things to place into an on going campaign.  Many of these can be used in between the important campaign encounters as little side things that happen on the way to another place.  The book is one hundred and ten pages long and soft bound.  It has a familiar lay out like most of the books Atlas has done in Penumbra d20 line.  There are a lot of really nice illustrations all done black and white that really help bring the writing to life.  As an older product it is always nice to look at the authors to see some names that have risen in the industry.  This book was written by Chris Aylott, Justin Bacon, Keith Baker, Michael Burns, Chris Doyle, Brannon Hollingworth, Jesse Mohn, Lee Moyer, F Wesley Schneider, and Matt Sprenger.      The idea of this book is simply encounters that can have while the players are traveling.  There are fourteen encounters in this book all of them clever and quite different.  Many of them can really be the start of some very interesting plot ideas or lead the party to other adventures if the DM wants to go forward in that direction.  That is one of the things I really like about the book.  The encounters are complete but at the same time can be the first glimpse into something more complicated.      From here I shall go into the realm of spoilers.  I am nbot going into all the encounters just a few of the ones that I believe serve as good examples of the work as a whole.  Blood Vessel:  This is the first encounter in the book and it grabbed me right from the beginning.  The party is out on the high seas when they see another ship coming their direction.  The ship and crew are actually identical to the ship and crew the party are one including copies of the party.  The other ship is actually a collection of young doppelgangers out learning their trade.  The ship is a large version of the doppelganger.  I really like the idea of expanding the doppelganger race and showing them training the kids in this way.  The adventure ends with a nice loose ends section.  The adventure does not assume a fight happens or any one outcome happens.  The adventure does have some suggestions as to ways to build off this adventure into the campaign.  These type of sections in a book are priceless for the creative DM.The Door: The party is going down a road or trail and come across a sign.  It warns of danger and a bit later there is a door in the bed rock.  The door is locked and trapped and it is up to a skilled rogue to be able to get in the door and see what treasures or secrets lie behind this very secure door.  Inside is a simple note that says congratulations urges the person to go to a locksmith in the next town with the note.  There are suggestions for what else note wise can be in the small vault the door protects.  It is just something different that most people would not expect.  Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow: This is a nice simple idea of a poor halfling that had his wagon break and his cargo escape.  His cargo is a bunch of rabbits and he wants the party to help him recapture them.  However, these are no ordinary rabbits.  Unlike the Python Rabbit they are not that deadly, but they do have the ability to blink.  This will of course make them difficult to capture.  One of the nice ideas is if the rabbits are not all captured they can wreck the local eco system.  It is always nice to allow the players to see long term effects from what they do or fail to do.That is a quick write up of there of the fourteen encounters in there.  The encounters can handle characters of first to twentieth level with a few of them being variable in the levels they can handle.  The book is a great collection of ideas and fun encounters.  It is by no means a perfect book but it is creative.  And that is really why I keep coming back to it.</blockquote>

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