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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Scott" data-source="post: 2011524" data-attributes="member: 3565">Frontier Towns: Fort Griffin, Volume 1 presents locations for gaming in an old west campaign.  Although intended for use with Dog House Rules' ENnie-winning Sidewinder: Recoiled game, it can be easily adapted to any western game.  The five buildings detailed here are placed in Fort Griffin, Texas, in the late 1870s, but they could be easily moved, individually or together, to wherever a Judge needs them.Frontier Towns, once downloaded, consists of five files: both color and B & W versions of the text, and three versions of the building plans--one full-page size for the Judge's reference, and two scaled for use with 15mm or 25mm miniatures.  Some Windows XP users may have difficulty extracting the text files, once downloaded.  This seems to be a glitch with XP, not with the download.  I was able to extract the files using FreeZip.  The Dog House Rules gang have posted pointers to a patch for this problem in their forums, <a href="http://www.doghouserules.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=180" target="_blank">here</a>.There are seven floor plans in all; two of the five buildings are two storeys.  The maps are in color, making them easy to read and attractive on the table top.  I found most of the features easy to identify without the map key (which is located in the text).  Small touches, like showing the locations of support columns for porch roofs and the opening arcs of doors, add a lot.  The maps match the descriptive text, which should be a given, but too often in RPG products isn't the case.  A couple of minor quibbles: the scale grid is somewhat hard to see on some of the maps, and they weren't labeled with the building names.  The floor plans also appear in the text for easy reference.The layout of Frontier Towns follows the same format as previous DHR products; since of of Recoiled's ENnie nominations is for layout, I'm clearly not the only one who thinks this is a good thing.  Sidebars and character stat blocks are boxed and shaded for easy identification.  Illustrations are scattered throughout.  The drawings are nicely done and are appropriate to the text.  Some are reprinted from earlier products.  All the drawings appear to be the work of the same artist, who is not credited.  As mentioned above, the building floor plans are included with the proper descriptive text for easy reference.The color version of Frontier Towns isn't full color on every page.  Sidebar text boxes (but not sidebar stat blocks) are shaded wood brown, as are the chapter headings.  Building floor plans, and their key, are in color.  And the page headings are a brown sign board hanging against a sky blue background.  You can print the color version, as I did, without spending more for ink than you did for the download.  Even if you choose to print B & W, or not at all, the color version gives you an attractive option for onscreen reading.  I hope future DHR products will be offered in both versions.The introduction has the usual "what's inside" material, explaining how each building description is laid out.  Stat blocks list game mechanic properties for doors, walls, locks, safes, furniture, and windows, so a Judge can be prepared for whatever the player characters decide to break.  The floor plan key is in this section as well.  A short section on the historical Fort Griffin--the town was called "The Flat" to distinguish it from the fort itself--rounds out the introduction.Each of the businesses here--two saloons, an outfitters, a livery, and the jail--gets its own section.  For each, there's a short introduction covering the structure and appearance of the building as a whole.  The building key offers a complete, detailed look at the interior of each business.  Much more than just a "what you see" description, the key tells you what's on the shelves, what's hidden under the bar, who has keys to the door, and even a bit about how the business is run.  There's more than enough detail to make the business come to life.Each of the businesses also has three or more personalities associated with it.  Some of the people detailed here are historical figures; others are fictional.  Historical figures are marked with a special icon.  As with the buildings themselves, the authors use sidebars to say where they've drawn from history, and where they've tweaked it a bit.  Each personality gets a brief biography and a full stat black.  (All the stats given in Frontier Towns are for Sidewinder: Recoiled, which is based on d20 Modern).Rounding out each of the establishments is a section of adventure hooks,  They present ideas a Judge can use to involve PCS with the establishment and the people therein.  Some of the hooks could lead to full-fledged adventures; others would make great sub-plots, or just entertaining scenes.  Some of the hooks come with "Frks in the Road," where the authors show different directions a story could go from the same basic starting point.Frontier Towns concludes with a section on how to link the various buildings and personalities together.  A few more people, not connected to any one location, are detailed here--including Doc Holliday, a few years before his Tombstone days.  Also here are a lot more adventure hooks, bringing Fort Griffin to life.  Some of these would make great adventures, while others would be good for background activities going on while the characters visit the town.  This section allows Judges to use Fort Griffin as a setting "right off the shelf."  There's enough material here to keep a group of PCs busy for quite awhile.A list of sources used closes out the text, allowing those who wish it a starting point for further research.For Judges wishing to use Fort Griffin as a setting, Dog House Rules plans two more volumes of Frontier Towns set there.  DHR also has free downloadable maps of both the town and its north central Texas area available in the Snakebites section of their site, <a href="http://www.doghouserules.net/snakebites/index.html" target="_blank">here</a>.Frontier Towns delivers what it promises: a product flexible enough to be used in bits and pieces, yet complete enough to be used as is.  Any gamer will find a lot to like here.</blockquote>

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