The Master's Decree
By Don Bessinger
3am Games product number 3AM11300
112 pages, $19.95
Warning: This product is a series of short adventures, and this review is certain to contain spoilers about its contents. If you're a player and there's a good chance that your DM will be using The Master's Decree, it's best that you stop reading right now, lest you ruin the adventures for yourself.
The Master's Decree is the second book in a series that began with
Beginnings: Westbrook, about the goings-on in and around the town of Westbrook. The first book gave an introduction of the town (enough for you to make it your PC party's base of operations) and had a series of short adventures for low-level PCs.
The Master's Decree picks up where
Beginnings: Westbrook left off, but is self-contained enough that you could use this book without having to reference the first. Its short adventures, each easily playable in a night's D&D session, are intended for 4-6 PCs of levels 3-5.
The cover art is...striking. It depicts a scene that actually happened in the book (albeit in the past; the tale is recounted when the PCs investigate into the rumors of recent kobold sightings closer and closer to Westbrook), so give cover artist Alex McVey credit for that, at least. However, the scene depicted is a kobold stealing a meat pie from a farmhouse. The kobold is in the foreground, running through the tall grass (wheat?) from an angry, hefty farmer's wife wielding a broom. I have several problems with this piece. First of all, the kobold's features are pretty unconvincing; with the kobold's eye placement and skull shape, it really looks like nothing so much as a human wearing a kobold mask (and a poor mask at that; what it really reminds me of is a "Howard the Duck" bill filled with sharp teeth). Actually, upon first seeing the cover, I had no idea that it was supposed to be a kobold - I had assumed it was a poorly-drawn lizardfolk. In any case, the posture seems a bit off as well, as the tail seems to connect much higher than it should, and the way his hands are holding the meat pie seem kind of awkward. Plus, there's the fact that there are no scales on the creature's hands or chest. On the plus side, the scales on the side of the creature's head were nicely rendered. However, my biggest gripe with the picture has nothing to do with the quality of the illustration at all, but rather the content: in a book about the PCs protecting their town from incursions from the forest, surely they could have found something a bit more threatening than
a pie-stealing kobold!
That gripe aside, I really enjoyed the book's logo, which has the words in the book's title done up in a texture reminiscent of tree bark, yet colored to make it look like metal, superimposed upon a scrap of parchment covered in arcane writing. The frieze pattern along the edge of the picture is nicely-done as well, and blends into the fake metal hinges that make the book look like an actual ancient tome of some sort.
As for the interior art, this time we are treated to 22 black-and-white illustrations (13 of them full-page!) and 14 black-and-white maps by three different artists: Kirk Kugel, Alex McVey, and Charlie Schultz. The artwork is very nicely done, although I have to pick Alex as my favorite of the trio: he demonstrates some excellent ink shading with his drawing of Theron Hawksfar the town master on page 8, the ogre on page 21 (and I love the look of this ogre
so much better than the "new look" they gave the poor creature in the 3.0/3.5
Monster Manual, where it reminds me more of an oversized Muppet than a serious threat), and demonstrates some excellent "white on black" drawings (I'm sure there's a name for this) like the attacking spider on page 25 and the excellent crypt thing on page 75. Whoever did the picture of the ruins of Githil Adlan (an abandoned temple) on page 56 did an equally outstanding job; it comes across as very foreboding. All in all, I have to rate the artwork well above average, and the full-page pieces are especially useful as you can show them to your players to let them know what their PCs see without exposing paragraphs of information on the same page (a problem I've come across while running adventures from
Dungeon).
Once again, the front and back inside covers are being put to excellent use, as additional pages. The inside front cover includes easy-to-reference information about Westbrook's leadership, people and races, temples, and currency, while the inside back cover shows the stat block formats used within the book on such things as magical items, poisons, creatures, diseases, and other so on.
The Master's Decree is laid out as follows:
- Introduction: A page dedicated to explaining the focus of the book and the meanings of differently-shaded boxed text
- Chapter 1 - The Setting: A brief description of the town of Westbrook and the South Forest, plus descriptions of the prominent NPCs that the PCs will be dealing with
- Chapter 2 - The Situation: The backstory for the DM and a table of rumors
- Chapter 3 - In the Forest: A Random Encounters Table, a mini-adventure in an ogre's cave, another in a pixie glade, and a third in a spider grove
- Chapter 4 - The Lair of the Itlik Igix: A detailed short adventure in the lair of one of the two bands of kobolds living in the South Forest
- Chapter 5 - The Lair of the Axt Tekti: An even more detailed (because it's much bigger) adventure in the lair of the other, tougher band of kobolds
- Chapter 6 - Githil Adlan: An adventure in the ruins of a temple of a monastic order, now inhabited by undead and other foul creatures
- Appendix A - Maps: Well-crafted, easy-to-read maps for each of the adventures listed above
- Appendix B - NPC Statistics: NPC stats for the four rangers of the South Forest, plus 6 townsfolk from Westbrook
- Appendix C - Game Rule Information: A new creature template (Fell Creature), a new type of treasure (Illuminating Manuscript), a new monster (the stonethrasher, a tentacled gastropod), and a plant (redrut, which can be made into a poison especially deadly to orcs)
- Appendix D - Player Handouts: A written summons asking the PCs for aid, three verbal accounts from various townsfolk, details on three new magic weapons the PCs might unearth during the course of these adventures, and two maps of the same location (one in ancient text, one translated)
- Index: A one-page index making it easier to find information on different subjects found in the book
I should point out here that the book is tabbed throughout along the outer edge of the page, so it's extremely easy to flip to the section of the book you're looking for. In fact, with all of the maps in one area, I actually found it easier to get to the relevant map than I usually do when they try to place the map in the same section of the book as the room descriptions. As far as the layout goes,
The Master's Decree gets top ratings from me.
I was also very impressed with the proofreading and editing jobs. 3am Games doesn't look to be a very big company (as of yet, anyway), but they do as good a job in these departments as many other, much bigger d20 companies do. Of course, this doesn't mean that there are no such errors in the book; I counted some minor errors along the lines of missing spaces between words, improper verb tenses, incorrect punctuation, several instances of breaking up the word "intact" into "in" and "tact," words missing from sentences, and the most frequent error, often failing to capitalize size categories (there were quite a few instances of this last one). In addition, it appears as if the Pyrianthine Lands Campaign Setting (the default setting of both books in this series so far, but not one required to be able to use the books) has taken to renaming some languages, as a troll in one of the adventures speaks "Redruk" instead of "Giant," and an earth elemental speaks "Lithic" instead of "Terran." While the details of these languages are never explained, the DM should be able to ignore them if he desires and go with the standard languages as per the core rules.
The adventures themselves are pretty good, although those in Chapter 3, which are admittedly side quests and not strictly necessary to the ongoing plot with the kobold intrusion into Westbrook, are a bit on the bland side. While there's nothing really wrong with them, there's also nothing all that exciting about them; the ogre's cave adventure, for example, is pretty much what you'd expect to find in an ogre's cave adventure. It is worth pointing out that one of the treasure items that can be found is a sword valued at 124,315 gp, perhaps a
little bit more than you'd expect to find in an adventure for 4-6 4th-level PCs! (Fortunately, the sword's powers scale up as its PC wielder gains levels, so you don't have to worry about your party's 4th-level fighter walking around with a
+5 vorpal longsword just yet!)
The two kobold lairs and the ruins of Githil Adlan are very well done, however. I especially like the way Don made the two different kobold tribes very different indeed, not only in outlook but in how they defend their lairs. PCs going through both lairs one after the other will have very different experiences between the two, so there's no "typical" kobold lair for them to base their assumptions on. I did note a couple minor problems with the maps for these adventures, though: there's writing in the top right corner of the map of the Living Areas in the Lair of the Axt Tekti pointing out details of room 26, but the writing is too faint and too small to be read; the lower level of Githil Adlan shows a vertical shaft to the surface which is not present on the map of the ground level of the temple; one of the arrows on a stairway in the lower level of the temple is pointing the wrong way (they're supposed to always point "up," this one's pointing "down" the stairs); and while the text says that there are three burial mounds to the north of the temple's entrance, only two are shown on the map.
Finally, while I was initially very happy with the creature stats during the first third or so of the book, as the adventures got longer and the creature stats became more numerous, so did the errors in them. I recommend making the following changes:
- p. 18, Ankheg: No creature type/size given; should be "Large Magical Beast"
- p. 37, Ik, 6th-level Warrior: Base Attack Bonus should be +6, not +6/+1. This was a pretty common error throughout the book; apparently Don wanted to remind the DM that creatures of high enough HD/level get iterative attacks, but since this only applies to manufactured weapons (not natural weapons), the iterative attacks are not usually given as part of a creature's Base Attack Bonus. (It could easily lead a new DM - one of the best targets for The Master's Decree and its predecessor - into believing that a monster gets iterative attacks with, say, its bite attacks.)
- pp. 45-46, Riding Dogs: Grapple attacks should be at +2, not +3 (+1 BAB, +1 Str). (Note that this is a result of deviating from the Monster Manual entry, where riding dogs have a Strength of 15 (these have Str 13) and Alertness instead of Weapon Focus (bite). Apparently Don wanted these guys to be a bit different from the standard riding dog, but didn't capture all of the by-products of his few simple changes to the standard stats.) Bite damage should be 1d6+1, not 1d6+3 (these dogs only have a +1 Str bonus, and one and a half times 1 is still just 1 when you round down).
- p. 47, Riding Dogs: Same as above.
- pp. 48-49, Mimic: Flat-footed AC should be 14, not 15 (-1 size, +5 natural). Sadly, Don was suckered into this one, as the Monster Manual and SRD have the same error listed in their "Mimic" entry.
- p. 49, Riding Dogs: Same as above.
- p. 54, Rikt, Kobold Sorcerer 2: BAB should be +1, not +2 (as a sorcerer, he uses the sorcerer's BAB, and a Sor2 has a +1 BAB). Grapple attacks should be at -5, not -4 (+1 BAB, -4 size, -2 Str). Quarterstaff attacks should be at +0 melee, not +1 (+1 BAB, +1 size, -2 Str).
- p. 55, Axt Tekti Lieutenant, Kobold Warrior 4: Grapple attacks should be at -1, not +0 (+4 BAB, -4 size, -1 Str). Battleaxe damage should be 1d6-1/x3, not 1d6/x3 (-1 Str modifier).
- p. 59, Arafel Wynowyn, ghost 3rd-level human cleric: Fort should be +3, not "-" (he keeps his +3 Fort bonus as a Clr3, even though he doesn't get to modify it with his Constitution, since he no longer has a Con score as an undead). Attack and Full Attack listings should include "or incorporeal touch +2 melee touch" as an option.
- p. 60, Memory Moss: Reference is made to "memorized spells," which of course is no longer the correct terminology in 3.0/3.5 - spells are now either "prepared" ahead of time or cast spontaneously.
- p. 61, Hunter Bush: BAB should be +2, not +3 (as a 3-HD plant with a cleric's BAB). Grapple attacks should be at +6, not +5 (+2 BAB, +4 size). Ref should be +1, not +5 (as a 3-HD plant with a +0 Dex bonus).
- p. 62, Owymer Verthraegh, ghost 4th-level human cleric: No Initiative value is listed; it should be +0. Fort should be +4, not "-" (he keeps his +4 Fort bonus as a cleric).
- p. 66, Stonethrasher: Slam attacks should be at +7 melee, not +9 (+5 BAB, -1 size, +3 Str). Bite attacks should be at +5 melee, not +7 (+5 BAB, -1 size, +3 Str, -2 for secondary attack with Multiattack). Bite damage should be 1d6+1 plus 1d4 acid, not 1d6+3 plus 1d4 acid (only gets half of its +3 Str bonus (rounded down) for a secondary attack).
- p. 67, Salamander: With 9 HD, it should have 4 feats, not just 3. (This is another instance where Don was led astray by the Monster Manual/SRD.)
- p. 70, Lurker Above: BAB should be +7, not +7/+2. Full Attack should be Buffet +15 melee, not +15/+10 melee (you don't get iterative attacks with natural weapons). With 10 HD, it should have 4 feats, not just 2. (Here, Don was led astray by the Tome of Horrors, which admittedly was written under the 3.0 rules where not all creature types necessarily got the same number of feats.)
- p. 74, Crypt Thing: With 6 HD, it should have 3 feats, not just 2. (This one is also from the Tome of Horrors).
- p. 91, Brand Morthis, human male Ranger 1: Wild empathy should be at +0, not -1 (+1 ranger level, -1 Cha).
- p. 91, Erin Willowinn, female half-elf Ranger 2: Grapple attacks should be at +2, not +3 (+2 BAB, +0 Str).
- pp. 91-92, Mathren Winlath, male half-elf Ranger 2: Longsword damage should be 1d8+1/19-20x2, not 1d8/19-20x2 (+1 Str bonus). Wild empathy should be at +2, not +0 (+2 ranger levels, +0 Cha).
- p. 92, Rory Fenrut, male human Hunter 3: Since a Hunter is a form of Commoner (this was a very cool way of doing this, by the way!), and since commoners are only proficient in one weapon, wouldn't it make more sense for Rory to be proficient with his shortbow rather than with his dagger? You'd think he'd do better hunting game with a ranged weapon than a dagger. In that case, his shortbow attacks should be at +0 ranged (not great, but better than the -4 ranged he's dealing with as written!) and his dagger attacks should be at -2 melee (down from his current +2 melee).
- p. 92, Ellana Moree, female human Aristocrat 8: BAB should be +6, not +6/+1.
- p. 92, Wils Morsen, male human Farmer 8: No Initiative value is given; it should be +0.
- p. 92, Aldan Wir, male human Hunter 5: HD should be 5d4+5, not 5d4 (he has a +1 Con bonus). No hp given; assuming average rolls, he should have 19 hp (including maximum hp for his first HD). No Initiative value is given; it should be +2. Fort should be +2, not +1 (+1 as a 5th-level Commoner, +1 Con). Ref should be +3, not +1 (+1 as a 5th-level Commoner, +2 Dex).
- p. 96, Stonethrasher: Slam attacks should be at +7 melee, not +9 (+5 BAB, -1 size, +3 Str). Bite attacks should be at +5 melee, not +7 (+5 BAB, -1 size, +3 Str, -2 for secondary attack with Multiattack). Bite damage should be 1d6+1 plus 1d4 acid, not 1d6+3 plus 1d4 acid (only gets half of its +3 Str bonus (rounded down) for a secondary attack).
It would also have been helpful if the kobold stats actually stated the creatures' class and level; this information was in the text of the encounter, but not in the stat blocks themselves. (For instance, the first kobold lair has kobolds, hunters, lizard handlers, and mighty hunters, which are kobold 1st-level commoners, 1st-level warriors, 1st-level experts, and 3rd-level warriors, respectively.)
I have to admit, though, it was very nice seeing so many non-SRD creatures showing up in
The Master's Decree, many of them from Necromancer Games'
Tome of Horrors (the lurker above, crypt thing, memory moss) and
Tome of Horrors II (gutslug), as well as the hunter bush from
Penumbra Fantasy Bestiary. That's the spirit of the Open Game License in action, and I commend Don for their use. (However, I also hope he's learned a lesson about updating OGC monsters that were written in the 3.0 days to 3.5.)
I think about the only other thing I wanted to point out about
The Master's Decree was that this book once again does a really nice job giving the DM everything he needs to know about running the adventures, which should be very welcome to a newer, less experienced DM. Like
Beginnings: Westbrook before it,
The Master's Decree is very easy to use and shouldn't give even first-time DMs much problems to run. I give the book a rating of "4 (Good)," and look forward to the next book in the series.
(Oh, I did have one final thing I wanted to mention: I'm not quite sure about the name of this book. Is "The Master's Decree" referring to Theron Hawksfar, the town master of Westbrook, decreeing that the PCs should destroy the threat to his town, or does it refer to the leader of one of the kobold tribes decreeing that the traitor must be found and slain? Or that the kobolds should continue to steal tasty treats from the humans of Westbrook? It's never explained, and I'm somewhat puzzled.)
