The desolate Ruined Guardhouse stands defiant against the ravages of time. This outpost was once the first line of defense for what lies beyond. The original residents are gone but new guests are holding down the fort and they don't like company.
More than just an evocative encounter, the Ruined Guardhouse contains a map-pack, a color creature token, and a side-view illustration of the area along with full creature (the green shivs CR 1/2) and encounter write-up.
The Ruined Guardhouse is the first room of the first level of the modular mega-dungeon known as the Ruins Perilous, designed one room at a time as part of Rite Publishing's ransom project. It is intended as an encounter for 4 1st-level characters compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Author: Jonathan McAnulty
Cartography: Jonathan Roberts
Interior Art: Jonathan Roberts
Token Art: James "Devin Night" Hazelett
Pages: 3
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This pdf is 24 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page advertisement, leaving 20 pages of content.
To adequately review a file from the "Ruins Perilous"-line, I first have to explain the interesting and ambitious business model the series utilizes: You donate a certain amount of money to the project. If you donate at least $3.00, you get the following in addition to the pdf:
- The exterior image or side view of the room
-A monster token
-The high resolution JPEG of the map (with and without grids)
- The PDF of the Map Pack so you can print out your maps at home to scale (in full color or grey scale)
Once a level is completed (about 18 rooms), a version of the level for maptool will be provided for free to the supporters. If the goal for a room is not met within 60 days, the money will be refunded.
That being said, in the Questhaven Campaign Setting, the Ruins Perilous also work as a testing ground for the Questor's Society as well as the big, bad dungeon.
Now that this is out of the way, let's get to it!
The pdf is full-color and kicks off with a one-page map of the first room, followed by the encounter of this installment, containing a new little creature as well as two pieces of artwork.
After that, we get the map-section cover and a how-to for using the maps contained herein. (2 pages)
The map-pack contains a one-page map of the room, complete with grid, 6 pages of full-color blown-up maps of the room for use with miniatures as well as 6 pages of the same map in a printer-friendly, blown-up b/w version.
The pdf closes with 2 in-character written pages of introduction and advice to survive in the ruins.
Conclusion:
Formatting and layout are top-notch and as far as maps go, this is the full-color equivalent of the excellent maps we've come to appreciate from e.g. the ECS-series. I found one glaring editorial glitch - in the editorial, the file says "Level 1, Room 4", which should be "Level 1, Room 1" - in the beginning I thought I accidentally opened the wrong file. Prose is nice, as in most RiP-products. The encounter per se is ok, although it didn't make me gasp in excitement. For what it is trying to be, though, this file does a good job - it's a nice first encounter for the dungeon. Due to the low price if bought separately and the beautiful maps, I'll round my verdict of 3.5 stars up to 4. If you don't plan on using the maps, detract a star.
This product is 24 pages long. It starts with a cover, credits and area map. (3 pages)
This is a old guard tower that the PC's must go threw the lower level to get to the rest of the ruins. There is a single encounter in the this book. After the encounter location and tower is described, there is a full stat block for the monsters in this book. (2 pages)
A OGL and maps to be printed out and used with mini's follows. (16 pages)
It ends with a 2 page IC introduction to the adventure that was a nice touch with even a little advice for new adventurers. Finally there is a single page ad at the end. (3 pages)
Closing thoughts. This is a very simple and straight forward setup. This product will be a series of rooms or locations of a much larger dungeon/ruins. This one is the very first in the series. The art work is good all and all and the maps are very good. I liked the IC introduction to the dungeon. I didn't notice any obvious errors in the book. I found this one a bit hard to rate. On one hand this is just a single room of a much larger and totally unknown adventure, but on the other hand if you buy them all you will have a full mini map of very nice maps of the whole dungeon. So if this sort of thing appeals to you, I think you will be happy with it. I am giving it a 4 star, it delivers what it promises.
For those who have been following this product, the end goal remains the same but our method of getting there has changed somewhat. The Ruin's Perilous is going to be released as a "free" mega-dungeon. The free part includes the text and a map image.
Before it can be released however, a minimum goal has to be met to "ransom" it free. The package above is more than what will be released in the free bundle, including a printable map-pack for the room and a color creature token. All the proceeds from the sales of this package goes towards the "ransom" goal.
The '3 pages' doesn't really represent what this PDF contains. That's just the encounter write-up. The to-scale map is much larger and absolutely gorgeous.
YW, my goal is to get the second part, 30 haunts and a SGG product done tomorrow. All of them are "done" in that I read them and made my notes. Just need to turn the notes into reviews.
