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When I decided to start up my Kingmaker campaign, I knew I had to have this book from the reviews I've read and it hasn't let me down. My group is still slogging away through book 2 but they have already gone through 4 and half years of kingdom builing. The players have enjoyed the extra buildings and, as the GM, I've really enjoyed the expanded random encounter section. Additionally, being available in print makes it more convenient to flip through at the table. What also impressed me was the community support of this product by creating an excel spreadsheet that incorporated the extra material in this book. This has made the kingdom building aspect a breeze to keep track of.

I admit, I probably would never have picked this book up otherwise, but it came bundled with my Legacy of Fire Black Friday deal. I honestly wasn't familiar with the region and the little I did know didn't grab me like some of the other regions in Golarion (Numeria, Iobaria, Kaer Maga being the ones I gravitate towards). However, after quickly flipping through this book, I saw enough to hook me and get me to read more. I have to say, like "City of Strangers", this book has enough information in it to give you ideas for countless adventures and campaigns. The region and city of Katapesh are so richly described that you want to play there. It's perfect for the classic loot the tombs/ruins dungeon crawl campaign or an entirely urban one. I loved the inventiveness of the adventure hooks seeded througout the descriptions, my favorite being

The book ends with some additional longer adventure hooks as well as a new prestige class, rules for Pesh magic, and some monsters. Some of the monsters, like the Aluum and Ghuul, off the top of my head, have already been updated. The prestige class is interesting and looks like it would work pretty well without needing any real tweaking.

So even though this is an older OGL book, it is definitely worth picking up. The authors did an excellent job of exciting me about a region that I previously was apathetic towards. I really want to use this setting now when I eventually run Frog God Games's "Death in a Painted Canyon."

So I had just finished reading FGG's excellent "Death in the Painted Canyon" module when I picked this module up. Expectations were high after reading DitPC. Inside this module, we get a real old school style dungeon crawl- the ruins of an ancient city set in a jungle. I'm going to divide this module into four parts-Intro, and Parts 1, 2 and 3. Note- my Parts 1-3 are the order in which they are presented in the module. Due to the open nature of the module, they are not necessarily the order in which the PCs have to go through the encounters. I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum.
Intro:
The intro is pretty brief, but that's ok. The PCs learn that dark clouds emanating from the jungle are threatening the city. After possibly hiring some guides, if they're smart, the PCs are on their way. It's a pretty short journey to the temple, but the author gives a nice table of some ideas to liven up the journey. Short, sweet, but sets the mood nicely.
Part 1-Gate and Well:
Most likely, the PCs will encounter a rather well guarded gate first. Already, the kid gloves are off. PCs will probably have to think their way around/through the gate. Once in the city, the PCs will come across a well. The author did an outstanding job of creating a puzzle-filled mini-dungeon within the well. The PCs can avoid it, but if they take the time to solve its mysteries they'll be rewarded later on.
Part 2- The Palace:
The PCs have the chance to explore a two story palace. What I like about the palace is it has a nice mix of encounters/traps, but not overwhelming, just enough to make the PCs a little cocky and maybe a little foolhardy when they reach the more deadly dungeon beneath it. My one criticism is due to the nature of my players. If there is ever a multiple storied building with a dungeon beneath it, my PCs NEVER go up. They know that the main villain is always in the dungeon and no prospect of treasure sways them otherwise.
Part 3- The Dungeon:
This part really brings it and is my favorite part of the module, second being the cleverly designed well. This dungeon is brutal with monsters and traps. What I really like is that the traps make sense for the dungeon (basically guarding the dead royalty) and they add a lot of flavor and atmosphere. By the end, your players will be afraid to look at anything sideways for fear of it blasting, frying, or cursing them to death.
Conclusion:
This differs from DitPC in that this is more of a straightforward dungeon crawl than the investigation/search/combat style of DitPC. However, the combats with very unique monsters and atmospheric traps makes it just as fun to read (and I'm assuming play). Stupid PCs beware, though, this isn't a "safe" module. If you are charge in recklessly, you will die.

I bought this module (print version) on the recommendation from Mr. Greg Vaughan and I was not disappointed. I normally don't like reviewing a module without having played it, but after reading through it, I want to generate some buzz about it. I'm going to keep this review as spoiler free as possible.
The adventure itself can be broken into three parts-
Part 1: The City
The author does an excellent job of setting up a small caravan city. There is a small investigation that the PCs do not even necessarily have to complete. The author excels at establishing enough plot hooks and detail to let the PCs tackle this first part in whatever way they want, including what happens if they land themselves in jail! What could be a very rail road set of encounters is done in a more sandbox style approach.
Part 2: The Search
Part 2 can be played as long or quick as the PCs/DM wants. Depending on how the PCs explore the Painted Canyons and what random encounters they stumble into will take them eventually to Part 3. Again, this is done in a very sandbox style, allowing the PCs to navigate the story.
Part 3: The Bandit Camp
I'm spoilering this part as I go into a little more detail with the only real criticism I had for the module.

I haven't painted a mini in probably 7-8 years but since my group just started Kingmaker and this mini looked so cool, I just had to get him and pick up a brush. First thing you should know about this mini is that some assembly is required. The following come as separate pieces- his cape, his bow, the top half of his head (with the helm) and the two antlers on his helm (each separate). I normally don't like having to fiddle with a bunch of little pieces but gluing him together wasn't that bad. The antlers were the trickiest part but with a little patience they aren't too bad to glue. The mini itself is very well detailed and very close to the his picture on the front of Stolen Lands. The main difference is that his helm on the mini covers more of his face than it does in the picture on Stolen Lands. But everything from the pouch on his belt, to the leaves in his arm and leg bracers is accurate to the pic. I always use a black undercoat when I paint, so his color scheme of gray, green, brown and flesh tone worked very well. I painted the bow more of bluish-black than the red on the cover. All in all, for my first mini in years, he wasn't that difficult to paint and I'm pretty pleased with my results. All that's left for me to do is base him. I highly recommend this mini. Even if you aren't running Kingmaker, he looks really cool and you'll find some use for him whenever you need a ranger/barbarian type.

Just finished watching this (now available from Netflix). Definitely 4.5 stars. Surprisingly well acted and creature affects are very good (the main villain's shirt made me laugh). The animated credits and another animated scene were also top notch. There's a bunch of great one-liners throughout. Definitely rated R- lots of f-bombs and some blood, but very humorously done. Get together your gaming group and watch it!

I'm still learning about Golarion but so far, this is my favorite location/city/geographic area. Think high fantasy meets Mos Eisley. You have a very eclectic interesting city perfect for urban adventures with enough unique locales to provide numerous campaigns. Plus, underneath the city is a huge, wild and crazy megadungeon. It's a setting that lets you be wildly creative without your ideas feeling out of place. I hope Paizo continues to support Kaer Maga with a continuous line of modules and/or additional supplements.

This is the 4th DG model I put together and definitely the coolest looking one but also the most time consuming. Where as the other models I put together took on average an hour and a half, I probably sunk about 4 hours into this one. There are a lot of pieces! There are a lot of extra pieces too (a lot of barrels and what I think are smaller platforms). If I were to go back and put on the shutters and such, I'd probably spend another hour. So, if you're looking for a building to mass produce, try one of the simpler models like the Grey Hare Inn or Jumble House. But, like most of the DG models, it's great that you can really customize the textures. I went for stone and both balconies, one on either side. The balconies did do a good job of holding minis and it made for a dynamic encounter. The PCs could really see where the archers were shooting at them from and how to get in the building. I whole heartedly recommend this model, but if you've never put one of these models together before, start with a simpler one and work your way up to this one.

I rate this one 4.5 stars. I only dinged it half a store, because unlike many of the other DF models, this one isn't a multilayered PDF so you can't customize the textures (unless you're really artistic). But, at price under 2 bucks, you can't go wrong. This is the 3rd DF model I built and it went pretty smooth. You have to be careful with the taller models in aligning the walls, but patience pays off. This will look cool at the end of block of DF models, kind of overlooking a row of houses. This one is pretty simple to put together but it still took me about an hour and a half. But a fun hour and a half!

This is the first DG model I put together. I'm pretty novice and not very patient and it still came out looking really cool. What I love is that you can change the textures on these. I can see row upon row of these models, all with different textures, forming a city block in the main city of my homebrew campaign. Now, if I just had more time to build more!

Where were these when I was a teenager and had tons of free time (but then again, I didn't have internet and I don't think PDF existed)? This was the second DG model I put together and as a novice, it was pretty easy. The coolest thing is that in the PDF file, you can really customize your building with different layers. My Grey Hare Inn is all stone with no windows to fit into my early medieval city in my homebrew campaign. Even with my meager modeling skills, this came out looking pretty cool. Combine it with the blank side of a Paizo flipmat and you got a great city for a city encounter.

I first saw this DVD at a music store and quickly put it on my Netflix list. The opening scene, where the characters are introduced, shows them in their element, being a DM (or GM, now). This set-up implied to me that this was going to truly be a movie about Dungeon Masters. But...well, it focuses on three very different people and not necessary on anything to do with the game. One of the characters almost wholly focuses on him trying to get a book published and his public access TV show. With the one woman they follow, it mostly focuses on her relationship problems. The last guy probably has the most scenes playing D&D, but the only drama for him is going back to Florida to see the children of his ex-girlfriend. So it kind of ended up being the not interesting stories of three people who just happen to be dungeonmasters...sometimes. If I'm going to watch a doc about Dungeonmasters, that's what I want it to be about. A good example is "Monster Camp" about LARPing. It follows different people but it's focused on LARPing. This movie isn't that focused on DMing.