Okay, I actually have two reviews of this. The first was the original review, done from a preview copy. The second is done from a final, finished, physical copy and about 8 months after the fact, and is something of a playtest review.
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When I first heard this product announced, I was intrigued. It's the exact sort of product I like - an adventure set in or around a very detailed village or town. The more I heard about it, the more I was interested. So I was happy to get a chance to review a preview copy (which is identical to the released version, which recently came out at GenCon).
The Hamlet of Thumble is the first product from Open World Games. It's a combination adventure and sourcebook. It's 72 pages, softcover, and priced at $14.95 (it was originally going to be only 64 pages, but they had to increase the page count to fit everything in it). The cover art is by one of my favorite artists, Storn Cook (he used to illustrate a lot of the Star Wars RPG books from West End Games), though it's framed to look like the old classic TSR modules.
Thumble is a hamlet comprised totally of halflings. While the 3rd edition of D&D made halflings into kender (in personality if not name), these halflings are like the ones you'd find in original D&D. Only perhaps a bit more rustic. The feeling I get is similar to that of Mayberry from the Andy Griffith show. (In fact, one of the halflings is named "Opee"). Actually, after first hearing about this product, getting excited, then hearing it was a village full of Halfings, I thought "Oh no!", as I don't like the hyperactive sort of halfling that was introduced in 3e (ie, Kender) - they're like small Jerry Lewises, and I'm not French. But these sort of halflings I like...
The halflings of Thumble are extensively detailed. You get d20 stat blocks for more halflings than you probably ever imagined possible, and those that don't have stat blocks, have names. But beyond that, you also get info about their personality, their interests, their physical stats, including of all things, their eye color. (What, no blood type?). Many even have quotes, or things they might say. The attention to detail is impressive. The end result makes Thumble a living, breathing place. It feels real.
Thumble is set in it's own campaign setting, "World of Whitethorn", but is fairly setting independant (more so than many supposedly generic villages or cities), and so can be dropped into most settings very easily. You might lose a extra layer of plot in the adventure, but nothing major.
As to the actual adventure itself, it's very non-linear. There are two basic options, one for good PCs, one for evil PCs. The one for good PCs is much more fleshed out, as they are presumably visiting Thumble to solve their problems. But first they need to visit various inhabitants and find out just what the trouble is. If they're evil, well, they will mostly be the ones causing the troubles (The scenario where the PCs are evil is also a lot less straight-forward to run), so the GM will have to figure out how the inhabitants of Thumble will respond (though some guidelines are given).
As a result of the detailed info about Thumble, and the non-linearity, and the amount of extra info, the adventure itself is pretty short. Though the length really depends on how much role-playing you want to do with inhabitants of the village. I personally hate rail-roaded adventures, so I prefer short, wide open adventures, to a long, rail-roaded one.
Actually solving Thumble's problem is something of a moral dilemna for good PCs. The threat bothering Thumble doesn't seem all that bad (I'm not sure if they've even killed any of the villagers, yet), and is perhaps the classic D&D dilemna caused by alignment (often argued about on usenet and role playing message boards everywhere).
There are also a couple side encounters that could be very perilous to the PCs, at least low level ones (which this module is aimed at). And one of these also poses a moral dilemna. So the whole thing is very thinking (but not puzzle) heavy and roleplaying heavy, with a moderate amount of combat (though for Evil PCs, it's like more combat heavy, though even then they'll have to use their wits to scare away the inhabitants of Thumble, as opposed to killing them all).
The maps are hand drawn, and are very nice looking (I was afraid they would be computer generated, which I hate). The art is also pretty good, though most the pictures are either of somewhat folksy looking halflings or the critters menacing them. So if you're looking for pinups of Lidda look-alikes, look elsewhere.
Thumble, and the adventure involving it, is really only about half the product. There's a lot of additional rules material, including new core classes, lots of new spells, new feats, info in integrating dreams, a reputation system, and a advantage/disadvantage system. And some general GMing advice.
Three new d20 core classes are introduced, the Cavalier, the Shaman, and the Witch. I'm a big fan of new core classes, in particular, the Witch. There are several other takes on the Witch class, and I own many of them. I've always thought Witches should be mysterious - by having so many different ones available, your players never know what to expect, exactly, when they encounter one.
One of the problems I sometimes have with new core classes, is they are often poorly designed, or break various d20 conventions, like having non-standard base attack bonus or save progressions, or are completely out of balance with other core classes. I was a bit worried when I learned Mystic Eye Games was affiliated with this product (I like their stuff, but their core classes always have problems), but thankfully, the classes are all well designed, well balanced, and all use standard d20 progressions.
The Witch is very close to the sorcerer, only with a more limited spell list, and several special powers (most shape shifting). Seems pretty good, except their knowledge of spells is a bit limited, about one less than a sorcerer of a similar level. This makes them even more specialized or narrow than a sorcerer.
The Shaman is something of a nature-worshipping class, but it deals with spirits. It's fairly similar to the Druid, but the special abilities are related to animal spirits.
The Cavalier is really a knight, that is, someone who is an expert at fighting heavyily armored on horseback with a lance, but the name is presumably an homage to the old Cavalier class from 1st Edition AD&D (and originally in Dragon). Unlike that old class, this one is actually balanced. While it's better than the normal core classes at fighting on horseback, it's inferior to the fighter as a general all around combatant, most notably because they are forbidden to use ranged weapons (against their code of honor).
The advantage/disadvantage system is pretty simple. Basically, each PC gets one advantage or special ability, and one weakness to balance it. I've never been crazy about advantage/disadvantage systems, because I've always thought weaknesses, should be role-playing based, not game-mechanic based. The advantages, or special abilities, are more powerful than feats. So, really, depends on how powerful you want PCs to be. I wouldn't use it myself, though.
The other new rules are also generally fairly simple, but fairly well thought out.
Lastly, there are some GMing tips, most of which I readily agree with. Also both some "Good" and "Evil" pregenerated characters, complete with basic personality. This could be very useful for those new to role-playing, though the non-linear nature of the adventure could be a bit daunting to a first time GM.
All in all, this is a great product - the amount of stuff packed into it is amazing (I'm sure there's a lot I've missed mentioning). While some might find Thumble a bit too quaint (if you're angst ridden, wear a lot of black, and listen to the Cure, this likely isn't for you), I enjoyed it a lot. But as mentioned, products like these are just about my favorites. And this really isn't so much just an adventure, as a sourcebook, so it has long term value, as both a village you can drop into your game (which should also work in non-d20 games that have short people), and as a rules supplement. It's also occasionally very funny. A.
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End First Review
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This is actually the second review of Thumble I've written. The first was actually sort of a preview review, and was a capsule review (not playtest) from a manuscript. As it's a completely new review, not just a revision, I'll cover the same basic ground, just differently (and hopefully better, this time).
I've actually been meaning to write a follow-up playtest review from the finished product for quite some time (6 months, I think), but I've always found it somewhat tricky writing adventure reviews. To a certain extent, reviewing sourcebooks (or capsule reviewing adventures) just describes the contents, and the gist of how they work, and how the rules in the book worked (or didn't work). Adventure reviewing often require narrative writing, which I'm not great at (Otherwise I would be writing short stories and novels, not writing reviews), so I usually try to describe my experiences in a paragraph or two.
Anyway, it came out in the summer of last year, and was one of the first 3.5 D&D modules available. It's written by Ed Cha, and is the first product from Open World Press. I call it a module, but it's really more of an "Adventure Setting", which is basically the author's phrase for a setting built up by several adventures that also double as location sourcebooks. Basically how the old D&D Known World setting came about (only not as haphazardly in this case).
This adventure is set around Thumble, a small hamlet of halflings. Really, they're not halflings in the 3e sense, they're really hobbits. Besides being short, they're somewhat round and chubby, somewhat rustic, quaint.
But all is not well in Thumble. They've been troubled by some mysterious creatures, which they call "Yappies" (who are actually kobolds). The PCs can either solve the problem with the Yappies or aggravate the problem, depending on whether or not they are evil or good.
But that really isn't the main attraction of Thumble. What's neat is the attention to detail of the individual halflings.
One of the perils of running a store-bought adventure, is it's often only a sketch of an area. If the players wander off the main stage, or go someplace they're not supposed to, you're forced to adlib. This can be tricky, at least for GMs like me, who largely base my own NPCs on people I know or women I've dated (or who have maced me).
But in this, the players can harass or talk to every halfling in the place, and you'll have just about everything about them, from names, names of their children, hair color, eye color, what they do, and of course, their stats. Sometimes there are some sample quotes.
For instance, there's Borendill, a pig and chicken farmer. He's got brown hair and brown eyes and is a somewhat chunky (for a halfling) 113 lbs. His wife is is named Tessee. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. Their children are Wilby, Romelia, Delgrin, Megran, and Luco. One of them has a funny birthmark.
Something like 50+ halflings are detailed like this, including stats. It's a mix of odd characters and the traditional small town archetypes, like the town drunk and spinster. I imagine the recipe for "Halfling Stew" in the Yappie section, was included because the author was so sick of coming up with halflings and details about them.
This detail extends to just about all of the NPCs. Even some of the minor encounters. For instance, one of the encounters on the way to town involves a brush with a pair of con artists. Like the halflings, we get a brief sketch of their past history, as well as their descriptions.
Thumble is also fairly well developed, with quirks of it's own. For instance, the inhabitants speak with a slight accent. Their "O" sounds are sort of drawn out, "ooo-ooo". So instead of D'oh, they say "D'oo-ooh" (It doesn't mention if their cows say "Moooo-oooo"). The sample quotes for the halflings all take this into effect, and are sometimes kinda funny.
While the attention to detail is the best part, it still is a pretty good adventure, largely because of it's non-linearity, and various side quests/encounters.
As mentioned, basically, the PCs have to solve the Yappie problem. If they're good PCs. If they're evil, they can help the Yappies. But there are various ways to solve it, from either end. On the downside, beside it's non-linear, it's shorter than the sort of adventure where the PCs follows a preordained course, room to room. If you skip the role-playing, and the side stuff, it can be really quick. (Of course, the obvious solution is not skip that stuff, though there is something of a time clock on the PCs part, at least as written, because of a missing child.).
Also, one could argue there is a logical problem, that many of the inhabitants of Thumble are actually tougher than the PCs probably are (if the PCs are 1st level). But that's really a problem/quirk/feature of the d20 System and D&D (or level systems in general), and actually requires metathinking on the part of those complaining about it. The PCs should probably think they are tougher than halfling farmers.
The first time I ran the module, was as part of my normal d20 game, which is something of a SF/Fantasy cross-over, with some Call of Cthulhu thrown in. My campaign is set about 500 years in the future, on Carcosa, which is a planet revolving around Aldeberan (and so in the setting, was named for the HPL stories, it's not simply a coincidence). Anyway, as part of a Star Ocean 2-ish accident, an entire research colony was transported into a fantasy analog or parallel universe (also greatly inspired by Timothy Zahn's novel "Triplet", which ironically shared a cover with some Gurps book). I mostly use a combination of Blood & Space (tweaked a bit) and Traveller 20 (tweaked a lot) classes, gear & feats from Dragonstar, and some other misc stuff (like the Quintessential Witch).
So anyway, what I'm getting at, is the initial party I used was a somewhat higher level than the module was meant for, 5th level or so. And they had guns. And grenades. About half of them. The other half was a Quintessential Witch/Ranger, and two Fighter/Sorcerer types. (Sadly, no ninjas.)
Also in my game world, I don't really use alignment per se. I do use it, but races and such tend to not have any inherent ones. Thus, Halflings are not necessarily good, and Kobolds are not necessarily bad. Both tend towards neutral.
So, this changed things considerably. Although I did up the power level of the yappies in this, it's really really hard to compete with grenades. So the Yappies surrendered, and a fairly equitable peace was made between the two, with the help of Quiggles the magic frog. That might not be so easy in the more traditional sort of D&D world or the one that module envisions. But is still possible (especially with the reward for saving Quiggles).
There actually was some combat at first, and I used part of this as an example for my review of Torn Asunder, which is a critical hit system for d20. This actually sparked off a controversy over whether or not kobolds have tails, because I always thought they didn't, largely based on an illustration in Dragon magazine, and some of the pictures in this. (See the comments on my Torn Asunder review for more on this, if you care
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The second time I ran it, was when I first play-tested Stargate SG-1. In it, I changed the Halflings to humans, I forget which type, something weird, and the yappies to rogue Jaffa. As I wanted to test the combat system, it was pretty bloody for a while, but eventually the leader of SG-13 was able to defeat the leader of the rogue Jaffa in single combat, and peace was made. The Halflings convert to humans easily enough, if you just double the height and weight.
The third time I ran it, which was recently, actually, I used in a more normal setting, the levels it was intended for (1st-2nd) and it was played from the point of view from the kobolds. I still didn't want any halfling bloodshed, so I ran it from an angle that the kobolds wanted to frighten the halflings into paying tribute. In part, I used some of the spells from the Gnome: Masters of Illusion book I reviewed last month. This actually ended up with most of the kobold PCs getting clobbered.
So, while the adventure itself is perhaps a bit short, it can be reused over and over, as can the hamlet itself.
The second half of the book is really more a sourcebook. 3 new core classes (The Witch, the Shaman, and the Cavalier), a bunch of spells, an advantage/disadvantage system, new magic items, new weapons (just mundane items like household wares). And beyond that, all sorts of advice and tips aimed at beginning DMs.
On paper, the classes all looked to be well done rules wise and balanced. And while I still haven't tested them extensively, I have used them as NPCs of varying levels, and they do seem to be pretty solid. Considering Mongoose sells a single class for $3.50 in an 8 page minibook, these 3 classes by themselves just about make Thumble worth buying (or a bargain if you buy it for the adventure.).
There are a lot of witches for the d20 system (at least 6 others, by my count), and this is a decent one. Besides the spells the witch can cast (which are a mixture of enchantment and charm and summoning with some minor healing), she can also shapechange. Not quite the traditional witch, but not bad.
The Cavalier is great at fighting on horseback (or some sort of mount). Elsewhere he's a bit weak (though pretty much like a fighter without any bonus feats or abilities).
The Shaman is perhaps the most original of the three. It's similar to a cleric, but worships animal spirits, and gets powers based on the totems it worships.
There's also a reputation system, a disadvantage/advantage system, lots of spells and probably some other things I'm missing. If just the rules were released as a book, it would be pretty hefty. In a way, it's almost a shame that they were included, because they will probably be overlooked (and perhaps the space could ahve been better used for more adventure seeds/plots).
The GM advice is sometimes often somewhat obvious to long time GMs, but is nonetheless worth mentioning, and should be great for starting GMs.
Since I was working from a manuscript the first time, I just gave "Style" a 3. However, the actual book is a lot better than I had expected. Not to put down Mystic Eye Games (who this is published under, it's one of those affiliated publishing deals), but while their adventures were enthusiastically done, they were somewhat ugly in terms of layout and art and such. I was expecting the worst.
But it's actually a really snazzy looking book. The layout is a bit crowded, because it's packed to the brim, but it's very easy to read and to find things. There are a couple of slight glitches in the text, the most notable is when the wife of a halfling changes names from Lyneth to Eleree. In a really neat touch, instead of the standard grey background you normally find used for tables, it uses greyed out illustrations from the book. It's hard to describe, but it's really classy looking.
As I did mention in the first review (since the art was up on a web page for me to see), the art by Lee Smith and Diego Paredes is quite good, and the cartography by Clayton Bunce is simply stunning. Best cartography style ever, sort of isometric, and hand drawn. Definitely an antidote to the ugly, dark, hard to read computer-ish blobs that is the norm for maps these days. Though ironically, the maps are a bit pixelated (I guess it must have been a jpg or something at one time, or suffered a bit from the scanning in process). But you really have to look close to notice. And last but not least, the cover art is by Storn Cook, and so is quite good.
