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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010105" data-attributes="member: 1129">As I get older, I have less preparation time for my games.  When Eden announced Waysides some time ago, I though, “Ah, here’s something that’ll help me save time while adding value to my campaign.”  Well, while I’m waiting for that book, from left field, Necromancer Games decides that it is indeed a good idea and WHAM!  Here’s the Book of Taverns, ten complete taverns, fleshed out and ready to be dropped into almost any type of campaign.The ten taverns here allow the GM to use them as standard places for meetings of adventurers, but also pushes the envelope in many areas, allowing the GM to use each tavern as its own little adventuring hole.   The formula is simple, a brief paragraph of the bar, the background, Dramatis Personae (that’s NPCs to you out there), Establishment, Goods & Services, and Adventure Seeds. Take for example the cover.  This shows a party of adventurers in battle with some strange type of demon.  What type of bar could this be you ask?  How about The Witch’s Teat, a place with a cursed pit that acts as a summoning spell, drawing crowds and warriors from miles around to test their battle prowess and earn some gold?  Different right off the bat eh?For those who have those real high fantasy places and want something similar to Monte Cook’s The Nexus or the old World Inn from 1st edition, then you’ll enjoy the Four Winds, a bar owned by the Whiskey Man, a god of the drink.  His tavern opens to all places and is an excellent way to add characters from other settings into the local campaign.  Of course not everything is as it seems there and characters will have to be watching the surroundings to make sure that they don’t wind up getting off at the wrong location themselves.Other strangeness abounds.  Take the Lion Rampant, a haven for thieves that houses a king from the future, disposed of by being sent back through time.  His story has created a gathering of knights who wish to take him back to his time and liberate his people.  Knights and thieves getting along?  Not for long…As you can tell, there’s a bit of high magic running around in this book.  Malachai’s Public House for example, is not only run by a powerful Halfling bard, but has some guardians over its treasure that few would want to tamper with unless they just leave the Four Winds tavern and were feeling really bold.The good thing though, is that not all of the intriguing factors depend on high magic or lots of power to work.  In some cases, its simply a matter of misdirection.  In both Vain Robert’s Gibbet and The Dagger & Rose, elements are underfoot that are not what they first seem and players may spend some time visiting these locals until they find out what’s really going on, if they ever do.One nice touch is that each inn has a menu with a gray background and symbol with the price list.  Bad news is that there’s no download off the Necromancer site yet to print out and hand to the players.The maps within have a very familiar look to them.  Grabbing my Foul Locales books, Beyond the Walls and Urban Blight, I checked the Cartography and yup, Ed Bourelle of Skeleton Key Games handles the honors here.  This means that the art is crisp and clean for the maps, easy to read and use.  Interior art chores are handled by long time Necromancer artists Brian LeBlanc.There were some problems with the book.  In some instances, the game stats were wrong.  Simple enough matter.  Other instances, the editing was off.  Others, spelling was off.  These are minor things but after seeing the third and fourth and fifth error, it gets on your nerves.  Another minor issue is that there is no master map legend that you can refer to.  I know, most of the things are obvious, but…  Lastly the book’s overpriced at $19.95 for 112 pages when most books are 128 pages for that price.  By themselves, these are minor issues but added together, that’s the loss of one star.The one thing that those extra 16 pages could’ve done to make this a five star product would be lists of commonly sold goods, broken up by the grade of the bar ranging from drinks, foods, and services with ideas on sizing a bar to handle crowds of various sizes.  A brief paragraph at the opening of each bar, of someone walking in for the first time, to give it some ambience would’ve been icing on the cake too.If you enjoyed the old City Books by Flying Buffalo then you’ll love Taverns.</blockquote>

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