This expansion inexpensively adds a new element to the game without ruining it. The fish allow you to buy various things such as resources, development cards, roads, etc. They also make the locations by the sea that don't a harbor near them useful. Fish tiles come in one, two, or three per tile randomly drawn. There's also an "old boot" that can be gained amongst the fish tiles. This causes the recipient to need an extra victory point to win, but can be passed on to others. This expansion was later released under Barbarians and Traders as a fully developed variant (with Lake tile). For the price however, you can't beat it if you're playing 'vanilla' Catan.
Although I liked the base classes and some of the content, there is a lot in need of fixing. I can stand typos and such, but I really feel too much of this is still stuck in 3.5 edition. I was most excited about the million item list (3 d100 lists) as the Diablo II: Awakening book from 2nd ed had this, and I liked it there, but there really isn't 1 million items. It felt a little ripped out of the diablo list without much change (which I kinda liked), but in the prefixes alone are missing entries 18 and 42, and the +1 to attributes are repeated, making the list feel a little underdone. I don't care that this list is unbalanced, but I got annoyed having to reroll this. I'm giving it 2.5 stars because I happened to get it on sale really cheap, which made the price an okay trade-off. This book came out around the time the final rules did and was one of the first third party to give something substantial. I just caan't understand with all these errors and reviews pointing it out why there iesn't an updated file.
I use these to make sure players in real time response situation know I'm not playing favorites.
Last year I ran a game where the trap in effect radiated poison gas damaging STR reset every round and triggered until they solved the puzzle. The puzzle was out of a puzzle book (rated easy), one of those puzzles that was so easy and obvious, but players over thought. Each round the skeletons killed would be replaced by a seperate summon trap (pushovers for the party level). The players turns for looking at the puzzle was limited for one minute for traps.
Three of these babies were perfect for making that puzzle ROCK. Seeing time running out adds an element of suspense! If you get this, it's inexpensive! Buy three or four, as one really doesn't cut it when the turn ends before the sand runs out.
After buying the Book of Experimental Might and Arcana Unearthed, I fell in love with tweaking the rules to vastly improve my games. It became difficult to go over all the little (and big) tweaks I wanted in my games with new players.
Then this came out. The book was beautiful and well thought out. It brought more fun to players and a better balanced game. I can't wait for the other 2 books to come out.
Needless to say, I switched to Pathfinder and have not had a single regret yet. My players are really into it too. When they say "THRIVES" they really mean it. I don't have to tweak many rules either (beyond a house rule or two)... I am very happy with the system.
Also, the adventure modules are fantastic! Since getting into PFRPG I began a meetup.com group and everyone there that has tried it, loved it.
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