A Dozen Musical Instruments is another in the "Dozen" line of PDFs from Ronin Arts. It is a 7-page PDF laid out in landscape format, written by Michael Hammes. It is available for download from RPGNow for $1.35.
A Dozen Musical Instruments is exactly what it sounds like: a collection of musical instruments, some masterwork, some magical, some mundane, that DMs can use for story hooks, treasure ideas, or dungeon dressing. Each instrument has some sort of background or history, with cost or value listed, along with an Appraise check DC. The list includes varieties of "standard" instruments such as the lute, as well as more interesting and unusual types such as the alphorn, bagpipes, and the hurdy-gurdy. There is also a short section on utilizing the Perform skill for characters other than bards.
Like the rest of the "Dozen" series, A Dozen Musical Instruments has no artwork, which is fine, since it allows a greater text density in such a small PDF.
***
Overall, this is a solid, very well-written product. Many of the instruments have really interesting qualities or backgrounds, especially the sort-of-cursed Finglain's Fiddle and the Orc March Leader's Bagpipe. I hadn't thought of bagpipes as being particularly orcish, but this instrument changed my mind. Even the mundane instruments are well-described, for the most part. DMs should find a lot of inspiration here, and players might be able to draw on the material as well to personalize their characters.
The editing is good; I noticed a misspelling or two, but nothing egregious. The layout is very amenable to printing.
The only disappointment is that one of the instruments is really unremarkable in every way: the wanderer's flute, which is simply a garden-variety instrument, with no background or interesting qualities. So for your $1.35, what you're really getting is Eleven Musical Instruments. It's still well worth the price.
