Tales of the Old Margreve (PFRPG)

Personally, I'm not a fan of buying published adventures and I'm also a very new player to any d20, but this product alone was magnificent to me. I bought it initially to get a diversion and buy time while I wrote my own adventure. I had no idea my friends would find this work so chilling. Of the 10 adventures, I only used three and the minute I set them back on course, everyone was visibly and audibly relieved to get out of "...the creepiest (expletive deleted)place ever." This supplement is great to get a dark and chilling setting as well as add a few new monsters to keep things fresh. The best part was, I didn't have to find ways to hook the PCs into staying because the forest is meant bend and twist paths to confuse travelers so as a GM you can keep the PCs distracted or shorten trips to fit your needs for time and convenience.

I don't want to get into detail on the items, spells, and creatures, and the game mechanics, I see other reviewers have those covered. I just wanted to add my testimonial to how awesomely disturbing and original the Margreve adventures are. If you pony up the cash for this, do not overlook the "Gall of the Spider Queen" adventure.

So summing up, the setting is perfectly disturbing and greatly useful for helping someone like me that has less a year of experience under their belt playing and writing adventures to develop ideas thanks to the originality of the work.

Opening with an atmospheric tale in the traditional style, this product is all about making deep untamed forests a scary place for adventurers to go... much as, in time past, the average mediaeval peasant did not venture beyond the bits he knew well, just in case a hideous monster or hungry wild animal ate him up, or worse. The dark canopy of the Old Margreve Forest is home to many a strange tale and creature, inspired by Eastern European traditions and other folk tales... and those who do not heed the Old Ways are never seen again.

First up is a gazetteer section. An ancient brooding forest, seemingly left behind by the passage of time, its interior is little known and just plain feels wrong to the visitor. Some druids talk as if the forest itself were alive, others claim that there's a Presence dwelling therein. Be that as it may, best behave and don't light fires carelessly! For even if it is not alive, the Margreve acts as if it were, noticing and remembering and responding to those who set foot there. There are reports of strange noises, shifting paths and the like, and metal tends to rust abnormally fast. Some even claim the forest diverts streams and game animals away from those it dislikes! Naturally, it's up to the GM just how much of this is rumour and how much actually takes place, but the Margreve is statted up to be able to do all this and more should you so choose!

The Gazetteer then moves on to discuss the history and geography of the forest, along with some plot hooks. Whilst it's located within Open Design's Land of Zobeck setting, it would not be too difficult to transplant it to a suitable location in your own campaign world if preferred. There's a major road right through the middle, few are brave (or foolhardy) to stray off it... and the even smaller number who return to civilisation have many a tale to tell. A scant handful of villages are found deep within the 30,000 square miles of the forest and the inhabitants are decidedly strange, and with unusual practises they call the Old Ways which allow them to live in harmony with the forest.

The discussion moves on to magic within the Margreve. A little of the energy of every spell cast within the forest is siphoned off, being the main way that the 'presence' powers itself. This causes some interesting visual effects, as well as a margin reduction in the spell's effectiveness. Some delightful confusion may result, as for example, if two people cast divination spells at the same time, they may get each other's results! Naturally, forest lore tells of methods to circumvent these effects, or even bend things to your favour. A selection of new forest-related spells follows.

Next comes the Margreve Bestiary. An interesting habit is not to name - or at least, not to speak the name - of monsters found there, and it is suggested that the GM adopt this habit when describing encounters... mind you, I have long been a proponent of giving a description or holding up a picture rather than telling players that they see a gnoll or whatever, at least until I know their characters have reason to know what one is at sight. One inventive creature is the deer-centaur, which has the upper body of an elf and the rest is a deer rather than the human/horse conjunction of the traditional centaur, and is considered better adapted to forest life than centaurs who are suited to wide-open grassland. These can be played as characters or encountered in woodland glades. There are many other strange creatures here, often blurring the lines between plant and animal and promising to bewilder any naturalist seeking to record the forest wildlife!

The rest of the book is a collection of adventures set in and around the Margrave. First up is Hollow by Richard Pett, aimed at 1st-level characters, which concerns the troubles that plague a small village on the forest's edge. An atmospheric episode with plenty going on, pitched at the right level for characters beginning their adventuring careers. Next is The Honey Queen by Jonathan McAnulty. Apparently some bees make magical honey that confers long life on those who eat it, and the characters (of levels 2-3) are asked to obtain some. This is followed by a grim (or is that Grimm?) fairytale for 4th-level characters, Challenge of the Fang by Dan Voyce. Characters must earn the Margreve's favour by participating in a blood-soaked ritual. Creative and stealthy 5th-level characters can then try The Griffon Hatchling Heist by Michael Furlanetto, where they are asked to retrieve a distraught griffon's eggs from a bunch of brigands!

The adventures continue with Gall of the Spider Crone by Tim Connors, in which 6th-level characters attempt to save a forest wise woman from a dreadful demise, braving strange creatures and an unusual form of transportation in the process. Next, revolution beckons 7th-level characters in Dan Voyce's Blood and Thorns. As they pick their way through alliances of forest dwellers, several individuals from earlier adventures may help or hinder them, of particular note if you are running several as a loose campaign set in the Margreve. This is followed by an 8th-level adventure, Grandmother's Fire by Ben McFarland, in which the characters must lift a terrible curse before the entire forest community freezes! Finally, The Lustful Dragon by Steven Robert pits the characters against a dragon who is, indeed, wildly in lust...

The theme of an ancient brooding forest runs strongly throughout the entire book, and all the adventures meld to produce what could be a powerful campaign of coming to understand at least a little of its ways. There's plenty going on, and a good sense of life proceeding whether or not the characters are there, although the adventures tend to the linear if each is to be resolved successfully. And not a dungeon in sight, an enticing setting for those who like a complete world that does not revolve around raiding underground. Now, where can I find some players...?

Lead by the Design team of Tim and Eileen Connors this literally has everything you need to keep a Pathfinder group busy for six months.
Eight adventures inspired by Midlevel Eastern European folklore are supported by 12 new Pathfinder monsters, spells and a truly spooky 32,000 sq. mile living forest.
Quite simply the Open Design Settings are as good as any the Big Dogs put out. Best of all at 113 pages you get all meat with no fluff for half the price. If you’re GM’ing Pathfinder and you’d like to inject some of that old Transylvania creepiness to your campaign this is the book for you.

Tales of the Old Margreve by Open Design

This product is 113 pages long. It starts with a cover, ToC, and credits. (4 pages)

Next it moves into a IC tale about the forest. Which was very nice. (2 pages)

Old Margreve Gazetteer (14 pages)
It starts with a intro on why the authors made the book and the intent of the book. I found it a interesting read and found myself agreeing. After that it gets into talking about the forest, it is broken up into three section the East, West and Central area's. After talking about each section of the forest it talks about each heart in the area. Heart you ask? Why yes the forest is alive in it's own way.

Magic in the Margreve (4 pages)
This section talks about how magic works different in the old forest and how magic can effect the forest. It talks about each school of magic on their own, metamagic, and special magical locations in the forest. Then it gets into new spells, 6 new spells.
Feed the Forest – A druid spell that feeds magical energy to the forest.
Porevit's Mantle – Makes you look a bit like the forest to give stealth bonuses.
Snap the Leash – Undomesticates animals. Making them never remember being anything but a wild animal. Horses refuse to be ridden etc.
Spy My Shadow – Can see what your shadow see's. It stays attached to you, but you can stretch it out to 10 times your own height and direct it where you want.
Steps like Me – You tracks look like another creatures close to your size. This one I believe means you have to target the creature you want to copy but with how it is written I am not 100% positive.
Yarila's Bounty – Gain regeneration in direct sunlight, after a long time become fully rested.
Druids get access to 5 of these spells, Wizard/Sorc and Witch gain 3 spells, and Rangers 2.

This section ends with 3 new Incantations.
Oldwood Rite – Make the forest accept you at least for awhile.
Stories that Wolves Tell – For awhile gain the ability to speak to and understand wolves.
Wisdom of the Old Ways – This is actually 5 minor ones rolled into one, Each is done the same way. Each of them either had a +1 boon for a short while to something or a -1 to someone for a while.

Margreve Bestiary (12 pages)
There is 12 new monsters in this section. I won't get into details on each other than to say they fit the Grimm Tales feel the product was inspired by. Below is a list of the monsters.
Ala
Child of Briar
Alsied (deer centaur)- rules to use them as a PC.
Green Hussar
Leshy
Myling
Rusalka
Sap Demon
Suturefly
Vila
Zmey
Zmey Headling

Next it has the mini adventures of the book. The book is have source book and half adventure book. There is no way for me to go into detail on the adventures, as that would make this review several pages long.

Hollows (9 pages)
The PC's arrive in a small village and find it has problems. There is really three problems the PC's can help the village with. It was well done and a nice intro adventure for the Margreve. 1st level adventure.

The Honey Queen (9 pages)
The PC's are offered a job to travel deep into the forest to trade the honey queen for some of her honey. This one starts out simple but can become very interesting for the PC's. 2-3rd level adventure.

Challenge of the Fang (9 pages)
This is a twist on a old Grimm's Tale. The PC's are chosen by the Margreve to take part in a challenge between two opposing factions. I won't say more and spoil it but I really liked this one. :) 2-3rd level adventure.

The Griffon Hatchling Heist (9 pages)
This one is cute and funny. The PC's are asked by a talking cat, yes I said cat. To go and rescue some Griffon egg's from some bandits that took over a tower the griffons use to use as a hatchery. 5th level adventure.

Gall of the Spider Crone (11 pages)
The PC's are tasked with saving a life by retrieving a magical jug. I can't really say more with out spoiling this one. 6th level adventure.

Blood and Thorns (11 pages)
Coming to a village during a wedding which gets interrupted the PC's learn bad things are happening in the forest around the village. Setting off to fix the problem, they discover a new power in the forest growing raising a new army they must stop. 7th level adventure.

Grandmothers Fire (8 pages)
Something was stolen from Baba Yaga and she has cursed the whole forest that no fire shall burn until the item is returned. The PC's go off to find and return her object to her so that she will left her curse. This one has a nice twist that I just loved. 8-9th level adventure.

The Lustful Dragon (9 pages)
The PC's return to the village in the first adventure. Only to find a Zmey threatens to destroy the village if a girl is not turned over to him. Can't the PC's save the girl and the village from the Zmey before it is to late? 10th level adventure.

It ends with a OGL and back cover. (2 pages)

Closing thoughts. I really liked this book. I love the old Grimm's Tales this book is inspired by. The forest is interesting and with the adventures given you could take PC's from level 1-11 with only needed one or two filler adventures of your own. I wish I could talk about the adventures more but I don't want to spoil them. The art work ranges from good to very good, layout, editing, presentation is all very good. I honestly only found two flaws with the whole book, one is minor and the other … well I will get to it.

The first one is for the spell Step Like Me, is not 100% clear. The second problem? I want more a lot more. More information about the forest, the things in it, spells, and adventures. I really hope they eventually come back to this book and do a follow up. If they do I will sign up as a patron for the first time ever and will likely sign up the next time RL allows that they do a project that perks my interest. So whats my rating? Well lacking the ability to find something wrong I have to give it a 5 star. I should note I am a bit biased, I love Slavic folklore and Grimm's Tales which are the things that inspired this book.

The book is 30 centimeters off to my right. The passion contained within its pages burns my fingers as I type these words... still, let the numbers come first:

111 pages total.
2 pages dedicated to introductory tale, 14.5 to the setting, 3.5 to magic, 12 to bestiary, 75 pages to adventures, 1 to license plus 3 at the very beginning of the book (detailed table of contents included).

(I should have mentioned that I still haven't digested the book fully)

This is not d20 book. This is not a book about a cool place full of ruins to explore, monsters to vanquish and quests to do.
It's more like a book of Grimm fairy tales (adult version) with stats and some combat conveniently stapled to add a little action.

(want to get a good feel of atmosphere? get web compilation of familiar creatures wearing Margreve masks)

The premise is that there is a self-contained ecosystem of fairy tale creatures (and nightmares). The elements of the system interact with each other according to lovely canon of fey beings straight from Grimm's Frog Prince. In other words, while it is pathfinderized d20, it does not look like it.

Here is a little bit (spoiler factor - almost nil):
The Spider Crone donned her ivy crown of prophecy, and her face paled. The crown never lied. Today, she would die.

The endearing part is that while protagonists of tales featured in adventures are quite likely to be antiheroic at best, PCs are quite likely to enjoy social interaction (instead of resorting to violence), and thus become a part of Margreve unique community.

(non-combat, or rather, interaction with the unknown instead of simple squish-this-deliver-that-loot, is one of key selling points for me)

There are certain things I would really like to be included in a sequel. Things like content for characters beyond 10th level. Or Margreve-like treatment of a kingdom. Here is a toast to the next book.

(note to Tim Connors: I don't really know where did you get her name, but "jedza" does not sound too well in Polish, as it literally means "old hag with a wicked tongue", or "offensive and quarrelsome woman", definitely not a name one would like to have)

The bottom line is that it is worth getting the book. It's a product full of refreshing inspiration, and while not immediately usable due to highly specific concepts [1], it can bring a lot of wonder into your campaign.

Regards,
Ruemere

[1] Just like Ravenloft and Dark Sun are not your typical fantasy worlds, Margreve presents a different genre. Mechanics are the same, but paradigm of the system is quite different. Oh, and it's very, very good.