"Abbey of the Golden Sparrow" is the first in our line of “locale” supplements featuring information for players and Game Masters alike. Locales are places of interest that can be dropped into any fantasy campaign that help bring the setting to life for the already harried GM. "Abbey of the Golden Sparrow" is designed especially with an eye toward monk characters but there is no reason that another character class might not be living at or visiting the abbey (or make use of many of the new rules presented). No matter the class, players using this text will be able to give their characters that much more background which only enhances the roleplaying experience. Likewise, GMs will find plenty of plot hooks and adventure ideas that can occur either inside the abbey or outside, using the locale as a springboard for adventures nearby.
The supplement begins with a short narrative describing the typical life of an initiate at the abbey. This is followed by the locale’s physical description, history, two local myths, and sample doctrines. Then we get to the rules sections. New feats as well as new character traits are featured. Following these are a new special material (obsidian), three new magic items, and two signature NPCs of the abbey. In short, you get a grab bag of material that can be used together or separately without hindrance.
Compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!
Product Availability
Fulfilled immediately.
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at
store@paizo.com.
This pdf is 17 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1/2 a page editorial, leaving 14 1/2 pages of content for Tricky Owlbear's monastery, the Abbey of the Golden Sparrow, so let's pay them a visit, shall we?
The first of Tricky Owlbear's location sourcebooks kicks off with an aptly-written IC-introduction that serves to introduce us to the daily life in the monastery via two sympathetic characters.
The main text of the location write-up begins with a no-frills map of the monastery, which essentially consists of some caves hewn into a mountain, comes with a detailed write-up of the respective rooms and the particulars. Local myths containing adventure seeds as well as a genesis are included as well, amounting to a commendable array of background information to use and detail the monastery. Even cooler, we get a detailed doctrine with zen-like doctrines that are explained as well - very cool and flavorful.
After this nice, awesome fluff, we are introduced to 8 new regional traits for characters raised in the abbey, most of which are best-suited for monks or the new ninja/samurai-classes. 10 new feats for martial styles focusing on air and cold are presented and offer a nice, unique fighting style for the monks to adopt.
Of course, we also get new items, from the Obsidian-material to enchanted shuriken, the order's medallions and a unique, intelligent, rather debauchery-inducing headband.
The pdf closes by providing 2 sample characters, a lvl 1 initiate and a lvl 12 monk, one of the leaders of the abbey.
Conclusion:
Editing could have been better, I encountered some punctuation errors as well as missing blank spaces between three words. Formatting is top-notch, though. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly 2-column standard and the b/w-artworks are ok. The pdf comes with extensive bookmarks. The abbey of the golden sparrow is an interesting location and the martial arts presented herein, while powerful, make for an interesting, concise, local style. The traits also are neat and the doctrine, extensive fluff etc. are neat, as is the rather dangerous intelligent magic item the monks guard. However, not all is well with this pdf, there are some unnecessary glitches and while the doctrine, feats etc. are cool, I maintain that something is missing - perhaps stats for the order's holy book, more doctrines, something along those lines. The distinct feeling that the pdf could have included this final piece that would have made it awesome never really left me. Thus, my final verdict will be 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.
Overall I did like this product but the cost to what you got didn't impress me at all.
I bought this as we just restarted our pathfinder game and a new player decided to be a monk and I thought this would work out well putting it near Sandpoint.
But the product is only 17 pages, 4 are short story which was ok but nothing great. Then 3 more taken up with cover, intro and license page. So basically 10 pages PDF for $5.00.
Now I did like the ideas with Obsidian and I'll certainly be using this product as I did like it but just expensive for a PDF. The new feats and traits I also liked. The NPC's were nothing special.
It also lacked the feel of the Pathfinder world. Goblins are mentioned but nothing about just how wacky crazy and really adorable they are in a GM loving evil little mad beasts kind of way. Part of what I really enjoy about the pathfinder world is the remaking of the classic into something new but still classic.
I had mixed feelings about the art work. The sparrow icon really just suited me and I could really see it as a tattoo or insignia, and the picture of the hurled shurikens was also kewl.
Lastly I hated the map and the description method of it. It was not done in the in a traditional manner so maybe that was it but I just didn't impress me as how they described and how the map appeared.
I wasn't going to comment on the "worthiness" in terms of the money because, really, every person's view is different. I will say that, sure, I could have cut the cost by not having a map or artwork but Pathfinder products deserve those extra trimmings. All comments are welcome, though, so thanks for those offered so far!
I think that cost vs value is a big concern with 3pp.
Now, without having read this myself, I would be disappointed if I got this for $5 and almost 1/4 of it was short story, I'd be a little frustrated too.
But only if the rest of the content was not stellar.
Short stories in gaming material can be a nice touch. But it can also take up a lot of space that could have been spent on more flavor.
From what I've seen as a review so far, I think this would have been better suited as a $3 product.
But I think that including the short story as part of the "value" of the product is questionable at best.
