Top Twenty PDF Products

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

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.

I'd like to echo mr. ronald's points here. I ran this adventure a few gameday's back at the EN Chicago Gameday, and had a real blast doing so. In running for the gameday environment, I elected to skip the Trundlefolk encounter, and the adventure still worked fine. There's definately a good balance of city and woodland encounters. The comment I think I got from a lot of the players afterwards, was that it would make a much better adventure if actually placed IN a campaign. That, I think, would help make this adventure the best it can be, since Mark Clover throws in some great sidebars about how to scale the adventure and fit it to your home campaign. Additionally, each encounter is individually scalable, so you can sort of make things easier or harder on-the-fly--perfect for those DMs who really want to throw "grudge monsters" i suppose...

Great PDF, go buy it!

 

[Mark]

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

.

I don't usually respond publicly to reviews (or privately for that matter) but I think it is worth noting that you have a couple of things that you missed in the text of the adventure that might be giving some folks the wrong impression.

Spoiler

Contel is only "killed off stage" if the party has moved too slowly to catch him in Parvue, and if they don't trail him to the lumber camp right away. Naturally, the villains at the lumber camp could keep him alive and captive, but that doesn't change the adventure since the recovery of the flute is the important thing if they have agreed to take on the task. From the adventure (Pact with Parvue section) - "It is possible that the adventurers will confront the bard in Parvue. If this is the case..."

Spoiler

Also, the final encounter area is set up to be very modular. It isn't meant to be all out battle where all of the villains descend simultaneously on the adventurers. It's set up so that they will be fought in small groups (but adjustable so that the individual forays can be made more difficult, depending on the strength of the group and the challenge the DM wishes to throw at them). From the adventure - "Ambush is the worse case scenario and will only come about by a series of bad decisions on the part of the adventurers. Take no prisoners."

I won't debate your opinion, it's yours and fairly so. But I did want to note where you clearly have missed something in the adventure. The parts I quote are only a sentence of larger sections written to help deal with a multitude of contingencies a DM might have to handle. There are other parts of the adventure where these same things are stated in other ways, and options are given, but those quotes I gave above best illustrate what seems to be confusing. I hope that clears things up for some folks who may have missed those points.

My apologies for stepping in and discussing reviews as I really prefer not to do so.

 

[jmucchiello]

Joe's Book of Enchantment has a firmer grasp of rules mechanics, but its low production values and seeming disorganization make me groan every time I try to find something in it. I think it would've been better if Joe had focused on just one thing (more enchantment spells OR enchanter PrC's OR ...) instead of trying to do everything.

I'm curious what you mean by disorganization since that the first time someone's said that about that book that I know of. The latest version on RPGNow has bookmarks and the chapters are ordered basically like the PHB.

Thanks.

 

[johnsemlak]

IIRC, the Heroes and Magic Sourcebook is a free product and is not eligible to be reviewed at EN World.

What is this, and why can't people review it?

There was a fuss about this early last year. It was discussed in the Newshounds forum as I remember, and decided that free products would be made ineligible for review.

 

[Crothian]

I think that policy has changed as I've reviewed a few free products.

 

[Kirowan]

I have T,F, & T and like it a lot.

I'm a big fan of Cryptosnark's products. Deeds Not Words is my modern gaming system of choice. It's loaded with information, written in an entertaining style, and is a fantastic value.

I also love the Book of Distinctions & Drawbacks by the same author. I was disappointed that D&D 3E didn't support a disadvantage system. I know a lot of GMs dislike them, but I never had a problem with my players abusing them. Additionally, the disadvantages in TBoD&D are harsh enough that min-maxing is very difficult.

Nick

 

[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.

I now own two more PDFs on this list thanks to the $1 sale at EN Publishing!

I picked up a few titles that I had been remotely interested in and had heard good things about but couldn't justify buying because I run modern games. Now I can pick through them for ideas and rules that I can port over to d20 Modern.

That sale was a great idea, BTW - it was like going to the virtual Dollar Store!

 

[jaerdaph]

I'm a big fan of Cryptosnark's products. Deeds Not Words is my modern gaming system of choice. It's loaded with information, written in an entertaining style, and is a fantastic value.

I also love the Book of Distinctions & Drawbacks by the same author. I was disappointed that D&D 3E didn't support a disadvantage system. I know a lot of GMs dislike them, but I never had a problem with my players abusing them. Additionally, the disadvantages in TBoD&D are harsh enough that min-maxing is very difficult.

I really like what Cryptosnark is doing too. Book of Distinctions & Drawbacks Modern (Revised) is excellent too for the very same reasons you mention.

 

[johnsemlak]

I think that policy has changed as I've reviewed a few free products.

Perhaps.

I do think it would be better if Free products were excluded from the PDF Top 20 list. Doesn't really seem right to me.

Not that some free products aren't excellent.