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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2009676" data-attributes="member: 1129">Enchanted LocationsWritten by James M. Ward and William W. ConnorsPublished by Fast Forward Entertainment160 b & w pages$29.99In some ways, I’m the wrong person to look over a book like this with an objective eye.  I’m a big fan of maps and I fondly remember Wyrmworks and other companies that printed out and sold maps and maps and maps.  Often these were laser printed dungeon maps but as the product line grew, they sold more things like fortresses, city blocks that were interchangeable and other goodies.  The good thing about those maps is that they had no encounters mapped out, making them perfect for any level.  The bad news is that they had no encounters, forcing you to come up with several encounters to bid your time.  Enchanted Locations tries to give you the best of both worlds with a map and some encounters and treasures without filling every nook and cranny.To a certain point, it succeeds.  The book actually starts with some essays by James Ward on the placement of treasure.  Most people who’ve read through any Fast Forward product will have noticed a large amount of treasure and he explains his reasoning.  Suffice it to say I disagree with him on some basic ideas but that’s the great thing about the D20 system.  He can GM his way and I cam GM my way.  But I hear some of you say, he’s not accommodating ‘normal’ play.  Well this time around, Fast Forward Entertainment does just that.  Each map, and there are 75, is organized by challenge rating from the lowest to the highest.  Take the Lost Soul’s Cemetery Map, EC 16.  There are twenty locations, named but not detailed with two creatures lurking about the cemetary, a allip and a nightwalker.  There is a section for treasure for an EL 16 and then an alternate, ancient treasure, that provides a lot more gold and sometimes named magic items.  Each major creature is also named and it looks like most of the stat blocks here are fairly on target.  The good news is that this makes this a fairly useful product in terms of utility and adaptability.  The bad news takes place in the form of the execution.  Each location is an encounter on one side with details about the map, the monsters and the treasure.  This is done with huge fonts taking up a lot of space and still leaving lots of white space.  This doesn’t’ count the one inch margins at the top and bottom, two pages for the OGL, page for Campaign and Games Unplugged, credits page, preface page or table of contents page.  Now I’m all for white space as it helps save the eyes but some more details about the various locations on the map or a few more encounters would’ve been nice. The maps are done up in a similar style to previous modules so they’re computer generated and sometimes hard to read.  Instead of something like the crisp, detailed drawing on the cover, you get computer graphics.  The places are usually huge too.  The north east corner of the map has the direction, the north west the scale.  Not all the maps are on a grid so its difficult to tell how far something goes.  At the bottom of the page is the legend, providing a quick guide to everything on the page.  Some of the maps are in my opinion just bad.  Take the Pirate Island Map or the Vampire River Map.  Both are good ideas but because of the computer graphics, there is no white space on the maps and the encounter areas tend to look clustered.  Lastly, is this truly a book that needs to be in hardcover?  I have nothing against them and prefer them for most books but a collection of maps?  Maybe my past map buying history has put me in a frame of mind where you pull the maps apart or something but I don’t’ see the need for this book to be hardcover.Fast Forward has some good ideas here but the execution will leave you hoping that someone else comes out with a collection of quality maps and encounters in a softcover format.  If you’re in need of a book of maps, encounters and treasures, then Enchanted Locations might be for you.</blockquote>

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