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Fantasy worlds often overlook the little people. Elves, humans, and the bigger races always seem to get the spotlight. Dwarves occasionally get attention, but often gnomes and halflings are left on the outskirts panhandling for loose change.

Clockwork Wonders of Brandlehill - Mike MylerIn The Clockwork Wonders of Brandlehill, designer Mike Myler takes care of that by giving you a quaint little world complete with a Steampunk/It’s-A-Small-World feel that has a political twist. Oh, and there’s a bit of interplay between intelligent species. Gnomes made a deal with a local tribe for a key ingredient to their mechanized magic and when supplies dwindle and the suppliers get a bit stabby, they need some help to solve their problem. That’s where the PCs come in. But any group of 4 or 5 4th level Pathfinder characters has their work cut out for them.

Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. From the quaint painting of town on the cover to the narrative-heavy layout, I was intrigued but a bit lost at first. As I got my footing a bit, I figured out Myler’s writing lends itself nicely to telling an intriguing story that involves combat, roleplaying, and diplomatic challenges to the players across a few landscapes.

The opening caught my attention right away, turning the traditional “you meet in a bar” adventure intro into more of a sales pitch for a traveling bard. The bard plies the PCs with beer, wine, and a story of why the town of Brandlehill really needs their help. It’s a matter of supply and demand really… The demand is high for the gnomish clockwork creations, but the supply of a strange substance from the bogs nearby needed by their creators has stopped coming. And the grippli, a tribe living in the Zeranoth swamps, aren’t being very kind to the gnomes seeking more of the stuff. They seem to be afflicted by some strange condition rendering them unable to rationally discuss anything and wishing bodily harm on their gnomish neighbors.

As the adventure progresses, the PCs get to tour Brandlehill, talk to the mayor, and try to figure out why all this is happening to the small folk. They’ll be reimbursed handsomely of course…

Really it’s a fun adventure that I think would be cool to play either as the GM or the players. But I have a few issues with the way it’s executed.

First, the narrative approach muddled things quite a bit for me. Though the adventure is broken into several sections of 2-4 pages (in the 37 page PDF), those sections just run on and on with only italicized text and the occasional column line or illustration to break it up. I think the addition of a few more headings would clear it up for me, but I had a hard time delineating between the encounters in each section.

Second, though there are maps and NPC descriptions with stats at the back of the book, I became very lost trying to find them. The TOC labels each of the maps, but they’re not labeled on any of the map pages themselves, so it was unclear flipping through the book what encounters they belonged to. I would have liked to have seen a small version of the map at the beginning of each section it was used for in the text itself, along with a link to the full page map later on. The same holds true for the NPCs described. I didn’t even know they were at the back of the book until I flipped back there.

Beyond that, the mix of single and double-column layouts worked well throughout, offering a pleasant border pattern and enough white space to make it fairly simple to read. I have to admit I found the print-friendly version a bit easier on the eyes than the colored version, but that’s probably just my own failing eyesight. It’s nice to have the options however.

And I love many of the breakout boxes throughout the text. Each offers great advice for a GM running the adventure, from using exaggerated facial expressions for the many froggish characters in the story to finding a looping background track of chirping crickets as the party explores the swamp. Little flavored ideas like those go a long way to making a more memorable session at the game table for everyone.

Overall a fun adventure and I look forward to seeing where things go in the next installment – The Mysterious Peaks of Baranthar!

(This review was originally posted at Game Knight Reviews here: http://www.gameknightreviews.com/2013/10/adventure-review-the-clockwork-won ders-of-brandlehill-by-mike-myler/)

Just about every fantasy campaign I've ever played in has involved a cave system or cavern at one time or another. And though I'm a fan of dungeons, I really like it when there's more of a natural element to them. The "Five Room Dungeon" technique I first learned about in Johnn Four's Roleplaying Tips newsletter offers a great way to structure a quick dungeon (whether naturally formed or hand-made). But sometimes it's tough to come up with natural formations or challenges to even fit in the 5-room format.

That's where Caves & Caverns comes in from Creighton Broadhurst and David Posener. This resource for Pathfinder campaigns would most likely work in just about any D&D/OSR-inspired system, but offers a ton of options to consider when building cave/cavern systems for your adventures. Though it's designed for the "Ebon Realm," it's really synonymous with areas like "The Underdark" in D&D-speak, but can really be applied to any world with accessible areas underground.

So what do you get in this 88 page tome? A wide variety of bits and pieces you can use in multiple contexts. Descriptions and details about different features and hazards of the underground world, along with a sample cavern that includes many of the features included. 60+ stat blocks for creatures that are CR 1 to 13. Nearly 30 ready-made encounters EL 4 to 12. Whether you use the different features described here, the NPC stats and the various encounters are great to have in your bag of tricks for the occasional improvised adventure scenario.

And Raging Swan does a great job of making things easy to find. Even though there's no index, there are multiple tables designed to get you to the page you want to go to... Random encounters? Check. Roll a d100 on an appropriate table (or pick randomly) and run with the encounter given. Designing a quick cavern for your next session? Roll d100 to see which features might add a bit of spice to the night. Of all the random tables however, it's the "Cave & Cavern Dressing" table that's my favorite. Little things that will drive players insane or give them hope that things will turn out all right... "A faded chalk arrow on the wall points in the opposite direction to the PCs' travel" or "Faintly carved into the cavern wall is the Undercommon word for danger. The last letter of the word is missing and a smudge of dried blood on the ground hints at the carver's fate..."

As with all Raging Swan products, there's a lot of detail here. The book starts with a brief lesson on the difference between Primary (big, with few obstacles), Secondary (smaller tunnels off the big ones that may lead to communities of underworld denizens), and Tertiary tunnels (only the skinny or suicidal explore these tunnels with many dead-ends, rivers, and worse lying in wait). Each has slightly different difficulties and things to watch for. And then you get into the various things to watch for like areas with bad air, water hazards, deep darkness, and worse. Plus you never know what may be living in the tunnels waiting to snack on unsuspecting explorers.

That's where the encounters come in, covering everything from the good old Drow and Purple Worms to Duergar, Trogolodytes, giant insects, and worse. Each encounter offers stat blocks for any monsters or attacking NPCs, plus descriptions of the area, any tactics that may be used, additional obstacles, plus how to scale and adapt the encounter for more or less advanced groups. I like the Drow and driders, but was more impressed with some of the other folks living in the dark like the Blind Jann Monks in the "Cavern of Echoes," the Darkmantles waiting to pounce from the ceiling in "Death from Above," and the Morlocks (love the Time Machine reference) in "Degenerates." There's a little bit of everything.

My one issue with this book, as I have with some of the other big supplements like this from Raging Swan, is the lack of a fully fleshed out cave system to explore. Yes, Caves & Caverns includes a sample cavern called "The Roaring Caverns" with a map and a few pre-selected features, but the map that's provided doesn't really show where any of those features are, nor does the sample provide any hints on placement of particular features or encounters for the best effect. If you're going to provide a sample, go all the way with a mini-adventure in the book itself or refer to another product that has a more detailed example.

But that's one nit and you get a lot of bang for your buck here folks. If you're planning on doing any underground adventuring with your group, Caves & Caverns is a no-brainer to pick up to add more inspiration to your preparation.

(This review first appeared at my site Game Knight Reviews here on January 30, 2012: http://www.gameknightreviews.com/2012/01/supplement-review-caves-caverns-pf rpg-by-creighton-broadhurst-and-david-posener-from-raging-swan-press/)

Goblins. In all my roleplaying experience, they’ve been a type of vermin for the most part. Small, powerful enough to be annoying, and underfoot in the dark, dank, unexplored places heroes sometimes go…

So when I saw a 16-page module about goblins on the Free RPG Day table at Petrie’s Family Games, I was shocked and not sure quite what to expect. On the cover, you see a band of goblins with their beady red eyes fighting what appears to be a giant spider. Unfortunately for the goblins, it appears they’re not the first to try and kill this vicious spider – as the skeletal remains of previous heroes attempting the feat are on the ground beneath it all. At the top, you see “Pathfinder Module” and in big scratched out letters, you see the words “We Be Goblins!”

Could it be…? Really? A whole adventure where you play goblins? How unique!

Pathfinder Module: We Be Goblins! turns out to be exactly that – a first level adventure for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game with a twist. Instead of playing the regular type of adventurers – humans, elves, gnomes, dwarves… – a small squad of four goblins is on a mission. Can they follow the map of a goblin already exiled from the Licktoad tribe and locate a cache of fireworks deep in the Brinestump Marsh?

First and foremost, this is a complete end to end adventure with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s refreshing to see Paizo‘s talented folks apply their skills to a much smaller product. This isn’t one of their huge, beautiful books like the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary or their Pathfinder Adventure Path books like Second Darkness. This adventure is tiny, as would befit a small troupe of brave (or crazy) goblins.

Read the rest of this review here: http://www.gameknightreviews.com/2011/06/book-review-pathfinder-module-we-b e-goblins-pfrpg-by-richard-pett-and-paizo-publishing/