101 NPC Grudges (PFRPG) PDF

This supplement clocks in at 17 pages, including 12 pages of content. An NPC Grudge is the opposite of a boon: it is something an NPC can do to make things more difficult for the PCs other than just attacking them. After a brief introduction, we dive straight into a list of Grudges, sorted by the kind of NPC that gives them. They are organized first into regions (Urban grudges from NPCs in a generic city, followed by Rural, Frontier, Nautical, and Wilderness). Within each region, the grudges are sorted by the social standing or occupation of the NPC who grants them. For example, the urban grudges are sorted into lower, middle, and upper class NPCs, along with guard NPCs and other generic occupations.
The effects of the grudges are quite varied. The simplest grudges involve the NPC using their influence to give the PCs circumstance penalties on some kinds of skill checks while they are in the area. Others involve providing information to enemies of the PCs, or providing false information to others to create new enemies for the NPCs. Many grudges work via deception, such as giving the PCs an item which supposedly indicates favor with one faction (that the PCs will deal with shortly), but which actually indicates favor with an opposing faction. Wilderness NPCs can destroy or conceal bridges or shortcuts, or guide predators to the PC.
Many NPCs can influence others to apply their grudges as well. For example, one NPC can blackmail others into causing trouble for the PCs, but if the PCs end up helping the one being blackmailed, that NPC can switch from a grudge to a boon.
A few NPCs have stat-blocks, though most don’t. It might actually have been better without the statblocks, as they aren’t particularly remarkable and won’t be as helpful to the user as more grudges with the same word count would have been.
Small color illustrations of generic NPCs are sprinkled throughout this PDF.
Short Term Use: Since the NPCs are all fairly generic, it is relatively easy to work several grudge into your campaign, either by introducing an insignificant/generic character, or, more likely, by attaching grudges to appropriate existing NPCs in your campaign. Also, if the PCs earn the ire of an NPC, you can look for a generic NPC in this supplement which matches and use that grudge. However, they do take more planning to utilize fully than a typical combat encounter. Hence, this supplement earns a short term rating of 4/5.
Long Term Use: If you have time to plan grudges, you can cause far more trouble for the PCs than with a simple combat. Due to the way grudges can trigger each other, and the fact that the PCs may earn new grudges in their attempts to bypass or undo existing grudges, you can spin entire adventures out of a relatively simple objective blocked by a barrage of grudges. They work best at low and lower-mid levels, though, as higher level PCs are more likely to be able to negate the effects of most of the grudges. There is a fair amount of repetition in the later sections of the supplement. Even ignoring the repetitive grudges removed, though, you can get a lot of use out of this supplement without too much difficulty. Hence, it earns a long term rating of 4.5/5, rounded up to 5 due to the low price.

101 NPC Grudges by Rite Publishing

This product is 17 pages long. It starts with a cover and credits. (2 pages)

101 NPC Grudges (12 pages)
It starts by explaining the idea behind the product. Sometimes PC's do things that will make NPC's dislike them or even do something that makes someone that hears about their deeds to hold a grudge. This gives you a 101 sample such NPC's and what they do to make things harder on the PC's. It is broken up by Urban, Rural, Frontier, Nautical, and Wilderness. Most of them are Urban or rural there is a handful for the other three. There is also a handful of full stat blocks for some of the NPC's. Most of them are left for the GM as a stat block shouldn't be needed anyways.

It ends with a OGL and ads. (3 pages)

Closing thoughts. The art work is a mix of color and black and white, it ranges from meh to pretty good. Editing and layout is very good. I didn't notice any mistakes. I like the idea of the product and it can add real spice to the game by having new NPC reaction that are problems for the PC's but more social or RP focused problems. Something the PC's just can't or shouldn't just hack down but have to deal with in other ways. Now the product is not perfect. The only real short coming is that outside of rural and especially urban there is just not many options. I get why, urban is far easier for these type of things. I would have liked to have seen some more for the other three though. If you are looking for some non combat idea's to use against the PC's in a urban environment then pick this up for sure. So what's my rating? I am going to give this one a 4 star review. It is great for a urban environment, good for rural, but only tosses a bone to other situations.

Trust me, I'm a Succubus.

This pdf is 17 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 2 pages of advertisement, leaving 12 pages of content for a whopping 101 reasons the life of your PCs has just become more complicated, so let's delve in, shall we?

Being a follow-up to RiP's excellent 101 NPC boons, which featured non-monetary rewards for PCs, 101 NPC Grudges does just the opposite and provides us with a wide array of potential complications the PCs may encounter due to true or perceived conflicts with NPCs.
"Do you have enemies? Yes? That's good, it means that some time in your life you have stood up for something." And PCs tend to stand up to a lot of ideals and people...

The grudges are organized by general location (e.g. urban, rural, etc.) and cover every strata of social life, from beggars to magistrates to city watches. From being mislead to overpriced services to excommunication, expulsion from guilds to fey tricksters harassing them, this pdf provides an interesting. mostly fluffy approach to the grudges. While 3 sample statblocks are provided (all more complex than your run-of-the-mill NPC, featuring a Gargoyle-watchman, a Wyrd-paragon and a Fey), most entries come with sample names and short personalities that exemplify what can be done to harass the PCs, making this file potentially quite useful for other systems as well.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RiP's two-column full-color standard and the (mostly) stock-artworks are fitting. The pdf unfortunately has no bookmarks.
Essentially, what impressed me the most about this file is the potential for chain-reactions of the respective grudges. Especially in an urban environment, you could chain a LOT of the respective grudges together to make the PC's life a TRUE pain without rolling a single damage dice. After a string of bureaucratic hindrances, the PCs will start to truly hate the mastermind behind their misfortunes and should definitely be out for some payback. Which might spiral the grudges further. It's an awesome array of complications that thankfully do not devolve into "X tries to kill them". On the other hand, though, the NPC-grudges provided for the nautical and frontier environments fell behind a bit in originality and details behind the urban and rural environments, featuring less sample NPC-names and being generally a bit more common and less imaginative. This is not enough, however, to truly tarnish the overall appeal of this neat, fluff-centric book. In the end, due to these minor gripes and the lack of bookmarks, I'll settle for a final verdict of 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.