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<blockquote data-quote="thg jim" data-source="post: 149633" data-attributes="member: 1888">Since I was the main writer in charge of Bluffside, I may as well jump in on this thread.&nbsp; First of all, I find it hard to lend much credence to any review of a product that has not been read by the reviewer.&nbsp; As I read all of the reviews through EN World and many other sites, I have found out that I can quickly throw out any that are written about a product from how it looks only.&nbsp; I am sorry, but I wish that you would&nbsp; read the book and try to use it.&nbsp; Then, your comments would be valuable, to both the gaming community and our company.As for Bluffside, I can let you in on how the layout how we placed the information came about.&nbsp; I started playing D&amp;D in about 1978 in high school.&nbsp; Quickly, I became the group DM and worked my butt off every week to come up with some sort of adventure or place to &quot;be&quot; for my players.&nbsp; I used many of the available modules and supplements, many from 3rd party publishers.&nbsp; If you wanted to see how a small village could look and be valuable to a DM, you had to look no farther than Homlett (sp?).&nbsp; Well detailed, interesting NPCs, and actual stuff going on so that you could use it for a long time.&nbsp; But, what was always lacking was a real good city.Oh, I used published cities over the years.&nbsp; Its just that, IMO, they all were just shells.&nbsp; You got a lot of fiction, plenty of background on the city, a few NPCs, a map (some of which were very cool), and a little dab of an adventure, maybe.&nbsp; But there were no details.&nbsp; You can take any of your favorite cities that came out in the past twenty years of so that were considered to be good (I am not judging any that have been produced in the current d20 market) and take a real good look at them.&nbsp; Put your NPCs there and you can give them the flavor and such and then you have to start creating the real details of the city.&nbsp; Of course, such cities as Waterdeep put out additional supplements to give them more detail, but your original $30 or $40 didnt' get you a real living city.But then, it was much easier to make NPCs.&nbsp; If you tell me that you have a 10th level 1st edition Fighter, I can pretty much have you roll combat without tables.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Because a 10th level fighter was, more or less, like every other 10th level fighter.&nbsp; Not so with 3rd Edition.&nbsp; Just spend some time actually making something as &quot;simple&quot; as a 10th level NPC fighter now.&nbsp; You have hundreds of combinations that will make them all unique and very hard to create easily.I wanted to make Bluffside ready to run in the world of 3rd Editon and d20.&nbsp; To do this takes a lot of detail.&nbsp; We have it in Bluffside.&nbsp; Take it, look it over real well, like a good GM should, and put your PCs in it.&nbsp; I bet that you will find that the information contained in the book is easier than you think to put your fingers on.&nbsp; Give it a try.&nbsp; Then come back and we will all be the better for your review.Jim GovreauCOO Thunderhead GamesHead Writer - Bluffside</blockquote>

[QUOTE="thg jim, post: 149633, member: 1888"] Since I was the main writer in charge of Bluffside, I may as well jump in on this thread. First of all, I find it hard to lend much credence to any review of a product that has not been read by the reviewer. As I read all of the reviews through EN World and many other sites, I have found out that I can quickly throw out any that are written about a product from how it looks only. I am sorry, but I wish that you would read the book and try to use it. Then, your comments would be valuable, to both the gaming community and our company. As for Bluffside, I can let you in on how the layout how we placed the information came about. I started playing D&D in about 1978 in high school. Quickly, I became the group DM and worked my butt off every week to come up with some sort of adventure or place to "be" for my players. I used many of the available modules and supplements, many from 3rd party publishers. If you wanted to see how a small village could look and be valuable to a DM, you had to look no farther than Homlett (sp?). Well detailed, interesting NPCs, and actual stuff going on so that you could use it for a long time. But, what was always lacking was a real good city. Oh, I used published cities over the years. Its just that, IMO, they all were just shells. You got a lot of fiction, plenty of background on the city, a few NPCs, a map (some of which were very cool), and a little dab of an adventure, maybe. But there were no details. You can take any of your favorite cities that came out in the past twenty years of so that were considered to be good (I am not judging any that have been produced in the current d20 market) and take a real good look at them. Put your NPCs there and you can give them the flavor and such and then you have to start creating the real details of the city. Of course, such cities as Waterdeep put out additional supplements to give them more detail, but your original $30 or $40 didnt' get you a real living city. But then, it was much easier to make NPCs. If you tell me that you have a 10th level 1st edition Fighter, I can pretty much have you roll combat without tables. Why? Because a 10th level fighter was, more or less, like every other 10th level fighter. Not so with 3rd Edition. Just spend some time actually making something as "simple" as a 10th level NPC fighter now. You have hundreds of combinations that will make them all unique and very hard to create easily. I wanted to make Bluffside ready to run in the world of 3rd Editon and d20. To do this takes a lot of detail. We have it in Bluffside. Take it, look it over real well, like a good GM should, and put your PCs in it. I bet that you will find that the information contained in the book is easier than you think to put your fingers on. Give it a try. Then come back and we will all be the better for your review. Jim Govreau COO Thunderhead Games Head Writer - Bluffside [/QUOTE]

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