Top Twenty PDF Products

[Crothian]

Well, it should be no suprise that I have almost all of these. I agree with Joe that Malhavok not really bering a pdf publisher.

T,T, & F is a great book and shows the versatilty of the d20 system. It is a little uneven but that happens with all bokks that have many writers.

I'm unclear hjow Whispering Woodwinds is a flawed adventure. When I raqn it at the first Ohio Gameday, everyone had such a great time they demanded a sequal, and they are still demanding that sequal. Personally, I had a fun time with the adventure and think it is a great starter adventure with lots of promise. If I were running a campaign with it as my first adventure I'd have a good amount oif ideas to build off of.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

There's a lot of good stuff on that list -- TF&T is great, as are Monte's BoEM, and Banewarrens is a great adventure. Crimson Contracts is pretty decent (though I admit I'm surprised it's in the top 20).

Whispering Woodwind's one of the best low-level adventures out there, IMO. It's got all the ingredients of a classic entry-level adventure -- a multi-purpose starting location, some interesting NPCs, some good combat encounters, a bit of wilderness for wandering about in, plus hints to help the novice DM. It's best feature, though, is that it's NOT a combat-heavy dungeon-crawl. There are lots of those products out there, but there are relatively few that are designed for a much more roleplaying-intense adventure. If you want to introduce a group to a more RP-intensive style of game, WW is a good way to go.

Edit: Which reminds me: Mark, where is Focus: Jalston? I've been looking forward to seeing that for a while (particularly the handsome guardsman in one of the illustrations )

 

[ejja_1]

I have to chime in on this one, Whispering Woodwind is a great adventure. Whether you use it as a one off, or as part of a continuing adventure. The pace can be adjusted for newer or more experienced players, with it either being a slow investigation or a madcap chase to catch the wiley criminal. And the prose system is a nice feature that helps flesh out the various characters in the game, making it easy to run for the newer DM's. The trundlefolk are very flexable for use beyond the module itself, and generates a ton of plot hooks right in the description.
Maybe thats why I like CMG's stuff, it's always laid out so you can easily understand it. And for those nights when you get a couple of buddies over and you dont want to flesh out your own story, you can pick up anyone of the modules available from CMG and jump right into it with little to no prep time.
Thats my 2 cents on the subject,
Ejja_1

 

[William Ronald]

I will chime in on this as well, as I think Whispering Woodwind has a lot to recommend to it as an adventure. It is designed to be readily flexible for different DMs and different levels of power and player skill for a fledgling band of adventure. The system used to describe characters is useful, and the adventure is highly portable between different campaign settings.

Unlike many low-level adventures, it is not set in an isolated dungeon. The characters have a chance to help shape the life of a small community, and can even help it recover after they deal with the main threats in the adventure.

The adventure can be run in very different ways. The gypsy-like Trundlefolk can be left in or out of the adventure, and can help serve as recurring characters. Similarly, the urban part of the Whispering Woodwind -- urban settings being a rarity for low level adventures -- can be reused and alterred to fit a DMs specific needs.

I think the Whispering Woodland's great strength is that it does not assume one size fits all as many adventures do. The adventure features advice on how DMs can run the adventure, alter the pace of the adventure, and features several good opportunities for role-playing. Thus, a DM can really make this adventure fit into his type of campaign -- whether his players are problem solvers, role players, warriors, or a mixture of the preceding.

 

[MrFilthyIke]

It's not on the list, but I bought the Trusty Taverners Tome (sp?) on sale for $2.50...what a deal. A fun PDF, at a great price. A shame it didn't get on the list.

 

[diaglo]

Diaglo, if I were to send you a copy of an E.N. Publishing pdf product, would you read it? Tell me about the game you run, and I'll find a book we've published that I think you'd find useful.

of course, i'd read it. but i'm on dialup at home. no cable. no satellite.

was using a 486/66 up until a year and a half ago.

and work won't let me download...well they will...but i don't think i should.

i do have 2 EN Publishing products...Player's Journals 1 and 2. bought them at Gen Con this year.

 

[JoeBlank]

Another thumbs-up to Whispering Woodwind. I ran a revised version, whereby the party ran across the Trundlefolk first. In my campaign, the party is searching for a lost prince. I had a couple of Trundlefolk tell the party they had heard a bard sing a song about the prince. But they wouldn't tell the party any details until they beat them at several games from Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns.

So I used two pdfs together, and was very pleased with the results.

Oh yeah, there is one error in WW: all of the Trundlefolk should be halflings. I'm sure Mark will correct this in any sequels or revisions.

 

[diaglo]

Another thumbs-up to Whispering Woodwind.

is this one pdf only?

 

[jaerdaph]

I only own one of the top 20 PDF products.

Two if you count the d20 Modern version of one.

Four if you count print versions.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I am going to stand by what I wrote about Whispering Woodwind in my review. It's a nice little adventure with all the positive features that others have already remarked upon. However, it also has some negatives. I think the two biggest ones, to me, have to do with

Spoiler

how Contel gets killed off stage with the PCs unable to do anything about it

and

Spoiler

the final combat against the rogues, which is about EL 9

.