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I've actually had this adventure for a little while now but finally sat down to read through it- so this review is based on a read-through, not an actual playtest.

Endzeitgeist gives an excellent synopsis in his review, so I won't repeat it and instead focus on what I liked and didn't like.

What I liked about the adventure is that while the main plot points are railroaded in, for the most part there is a sandbox nature to the locations and its up to the players how to proceed. For example, the sanitarium is detailed enough that the GM can easily react to a PC who decides to go off exploring. Another situation is that the PCs have a lot of latitude in approaching the fort in the swamp. These locations are detailed enough without any real constraints placed on the PCs actions.

The dungeon at the end is very atmospheric and cool, making excellent use of enemies and adding in some unique twists here and there to keep players on their toes. I was a bit reminded of the 1999 remake of The House on Haunted Hill reading this section (and I like that movie by the way, so it's a good thing!).

What could have been maybe better would have been to play up the sanitarium some more- maybe an investigation to discover the plot point that leads to the next part instead of the way it was done. The only downside to the final dungeon is it is very linear, one room to the next, without given the players options of where they want to go. Additionally, there is a lot of really cool and creepy back-story in regards to the denizens of the final dungeon but nothing that the PCs will ever learn which is disappointing because it's really good stuff.

Overall, this looked like it would be a fun module to play and I'm strongly considering incorporating it into a future Carrion Crown campaign. If I run it, I definitely want to give players a chance to learn more of the final dungeon's back-story.

The Kobold Press calendar features excellent artwork culled from the covers of their various products (I'm looking at the Kieran Yanner picture for January right now). Each month contains the birthdays of various industry professionals, plus other important figures in the fantasy,sci-fi, and horror genres (from George Lucas to Edgar Rice Burroughs). In fact, today, 01/09, is apparently James Jacob's (creative director at Paizo) birthday! As some reviewers have said it is slightly smaller than the typical calendar but not by much and when I bought it, it was ten bucks, so a fair price (and now it's only 8). It's smaller size actually makes it easier to fit into my cramped office at work. However, it is of an overall exceptional and professional quality so I definitely recommend it.

Introduction

I was not a Kickstarter backer on this book but instead ordered it through my local FLGS (Jetpack Comics). Over the last couple of years, I have been very impressed with Kobold Press’s Midgard campaign setting books and own the setting book plus some of the supplemental books. If I had to describe the Midgard setting, it would be like if Howard, Lovecraft, and Smith met the Brothers Grimm and conceived a world that echoed our real world myths. It is a dark, gritty world that at once feels familiar yet its sword and sorcery influence makes everything fresh and new.

Midgard Tales collects 13 adventures set in the Midgard campaign world, ranging from levels 1-11. The adventures are not interconnected, covering a wide expanse of Midgard’s geography, however, each comes with enough hooks so that a GM can easily create a reason why the PCs are in that locale. Some of the adventures utilize creatures from the Midgard Bestiary- so if you don’t own that book, you may have to substitute some of the monsters out. I do not consider this a negative- in fact it makes sense (and sales!) as this book is designed to be used with Kobold Press’s Midgard products.

So What Got Me Excited?

1. Diversity of Adventures- Out of 13 adventures, no two felt like they were alike. Each adventure had its own unique voice that set it apart from the others, and not just because of its location, but the way the adventure unfolded.

2. Excellent mix of roleplay and combat opportunities- Not only where each adventures unique from each other, but within each adventure there was a great mix of diversity between opportunities for roleplaying and combat. My group and I prefer about a 50/50 split so these are definitely adventures that fit our play style. Obviously some fall more on one side than the other, but nothing is a “grind.”

3. Excellent writing- I felt the quality of writing was excellent and consistent amongst the adventures. Each was able to tell its own story in a tight, concise manner that was a pleasure to read. As an aspiring adventure writing, I like to not only read adventures to learn, but also for enjoyment. Additionally, I want to add that many of the adventures have a darker, more mature tone than many other Pathfinder adventures I have read. Even if the good guys win, sometimes the results are still not pretty. I like this.

4. Portability- While these adventures are set in Midgard and ooze Midgard flavor, a GM would be able to drop the adventure in any typical fantasy type campaign world. For example, I ran the adventure “Sorrow” as part of my Kingmaker campaign and set the adventure in Mivon, across the border from my PCs’ kingdom (and I didn’t even have to change the eel references). The two adventures set in the Wasted West might be the trickiest, as that is such a unique feature of Midgard. If using Golarion, however, those adventures could be set in the Mana Waste- instead of Old Ones, maybe the colossal creatures are giant Mana mutants nearly frozen by the wild magic in the area.

5. Layout and art design- This book is beautiful! The page background is the same parchment type background from the Midgard Campaign Book which creates a nice cohesive feel to the product line. The black and white style artwork feels more at home in this product than color would have and is excellently drawn. For me, this creates an atmosphere to the product that ties into the sometimes dark nature of the Midgard campaign world. It also invokes to me the look and feel of some of my favorite 2e Forgotten Realms products that utilized black and white art with a parchment type of background. The maps are well drawn and detailed and the layout is superb. I have to say, I really like the matte finish of the cover and pages versus a glossy look.

So what were some of my actual favorite adventures and why? While I enjoyed reading each of the adventures and think their respective authors did a fantastic job on them- I want to quickly highlight a few that really piqued my interest. In order that they appear-

1. Atop the Warring Blasphemies- is such a high energy adventure- running across two giant creatures with a battle going on around you! The PCs are on the constant move in this, a trick rarely used in adventure design.
2. The Dawnsong Tragedy- a sandbox type of hex crawl all inside a magical yurt! I would have liked to have seen a random encounter table for this adventure to spice up some of the empty hexes. Excellent story that integrates a hex crawl well with plenty of roleplaying opportunities.
3. To Resurrect the Steigenadler- a very unique adventure revolving around repairing your downed airship. In such a short adventure, it contains a cool subsystem involving making the repairs and protecting your camp of survivors at the same time.
4. Sorrow- I ran this one for my players and they had a blast! The feast at the beginning of the adventure is the best part, involving a lot of roleplaying if your players get into it. Then, the 2nd half, they can get their combat on.
5. Among the Red Monoliths- I picked this adventure because I really like how there were numerous ways to accomplish the different scenarios. It made me think of Assassin Creed in that way- either go all in with combat (and probably die) or using the environment to get the job done.
6. The Stacks Between- a mysterious library that suddenly appears? Reminds me fondly a bit of the Castlevania games. I like that this on a timer and the number of encounters means that players will have to manage their resources wisely and realize that not every fight needs to end in violence.

Ok, So What Didn’t I Like

My dislikes don’t have to do with the actual adventures themselves, as I have no complaints in those regards. I’m only bringing these up, because I’m reviewing the book as a whole and not just the adventures. So with that said-

1. Format/editing errors- Actual misspellings of words and similar editing errors are not that frequent but some do exist. What is more noticeable are some of the format errors- for example some of the shorthand monster statblocks might miss the CR listed or the XP. There is another weird format error where sometimes if a word contains an ability score abbreviation in it, that part of the word gets bolded. For example- Intmidate. Finally, halfway through Five Trials of Pharos, the adventure name which appears on the lefthand page abruptly changes over to To Resurrect the Steigenadler. Now, none of these errors impedes running any of the adventures. I mention them only because the adventures are so good and the book is so beautiful that I hate see to them. I know a lot of work has gone into creating this, so I want to encourage Kobold Press to be even more vigilant when it comes to proofreading to squash these mistakes so the book can be the best it can be.

2. Map errors- grammar/format aside, the one type of error that can impede play is map errors and there are some, unfortunately. With careful reading, you can deduce what is correct, but some of the errors did require me to go back and forth a few times and will take extra careful reading.
-On the Fourth Day, We Kill Them All- the first ice tower has rooms listed 1-5 in the adventure text, but the map is labeled “a,b,c.” 1-3 correspond to a,b,c but that still leaves 4,5 missing.
-Sorrow- in the adventure, it talks about patches of violent fungus being found at areas labeled “P” on the hex crawl map. There are no such areas, that I see, on the map.
-Between the Stacks- Areas 11 and 2 are swapped on the map and there are two rooms labeled 24.

Conclusion

All in all, this is a great buy. Not only do I recommend the adventures to those running Midgard campaigns, but I also heartily recommend these adventures to any GM as I think each one has something unique to offer and is highly portable. The books itself looks amazing from the art to the layout and the design of the maps, marred only by some format and editing issues. This, I wouldn’t even waste much time mentioning except additionally there are some map errors, which did require some work for me to decipher. Finally, books like this demonstrates the extensive support that Kobold Press is doing for Midgard in player and GM friendly material. I dislike buying a campaign setting that gets little to no follow up material. Not so in the case of Midgard with its wide range of adventures, campaign setting material, and player guides. All in all, I think the stellar quality of the adventures more than makes up for some editing errors, making it 5 stars in my book.

I used to love comics as a kid in the early 90s but eventually stopped reading them. I'll pick one up now and then but I'm usually disappointed. For example, the fantasy CrossGen comics from the early 2000s were nice, but for the price, you didn't get much story. So, I wasn't really expecting much when I picked this up today at the local game store (and it was the Dave Dorman cover I grabbed). However, I was wrong and found myself actually enjoying reading it. It had a very cinematic feel to the way the story was set up and the way the characters were introduced. Plus you got a write-up of Sandpoint, a small encounter map (with details of the encounter in the issue), and some info on NPCs (which you can use if you're running Rise of the Runelords or early in Jade Regent). All that for only $4 bucks is a really great value. The art style, I admit, isn't my favorite, but the story and the other extras more than made up for it.

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.

This product is discontinued at the Paizo store, but FUNimation released a 4 disc volume of the series not too long ago. I'm not the biggest connoisseur of anime and am very picky about series I like (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Samurai 7, to name a few). This is very different from all of those. In fact it's very different than most anime I've seen. It's...normal. No giant robots, ghosts, aliens, demons, portals to other dimensions. The closest thing to a fantasy element it has is the characters share the same dream. The story revolves around a 14 kid, Koyuki, who meets 16yr old guitar prodigy, Raysuke. Koyuki yearns for something more than the humdrum life he's been living and he finds that in Raysuke's new band, Beck (named after his dog). It's a coming of age story about finding your place in the world by following your dreams. The English dubbing is phenomenal and the music is pretty good too (the English is better in my opinion due to the Engrish in the Japanese version). Beck is available on Netflix so check it out. If you've read the Beck manga, this covers about the first 1/3 of the manga but ends at a pretty good stopping point.

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.