This installment of the Monstrous Lairs-pdfs clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
Sometimes, you just need a bit of dressing for a wayside encounter – or something specific to a monster type. Finding appropriate entries can be rough, and so, this series attempts to remedy this shortcoming on 2 pages, with a total of 7 d10-tables.
In this installment, we take a look at the raiding camps of the chaotic goblinkind, with 10 approaches to the camp containing e.g. rudimentary tripwires, goblins slain in pools of blood or fireworks illuminating the nearby area. Within the camp, there are 10 activities to choose from, which include fights about to break out, goblins playing weirdo games, watching combats between dire grubs and maggots and, of course, adding to a rickety bonfire that sees like it’s about to collapse, covering the pyromania angle. Really cool array here!
Notable features for the camp include blood-stained fighting pits, poorly erected tents covering their spoils, wooden cages holding mangy bears (druids/rangers – your new friend!) and the like. On the more cosmetic side of things, 10 features are included, which include grossly mutilated goblin corpses, piles of skulls, scarecrows made from former wizard attire and unwashed bowls – these all have a strong chaos/mischief angle befitting goblins. 10 entries for goblin appearance include massive amounts of crude earrings, missing a lower jaw, bells tied to the nose (LOL!) and similar odd customs – these are full-blown successes as far as I’m concerned! The pdf also sports 10 sample treasures to be found, which include buried gold, poorly hidden dagger-stashes, and rings used as piercings, which, alas, has plummeted their value. 10 less valuable trinkets, including charcoal drawings and goblin teeth in pristine condition, walk the tightrope between funny and disturbing – just like a goblin-centric supplement should!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no serious hiccups. Layout adheres to Raging Swan Press’ elegant two-column b/w-standard, and we get a nice piece of b/w-artwork. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, in spite of its brevity (kudos!) and is included in two versions – one optimized for screen-use, and one for the printer.
Jeff Gomez really knocks it out of the park here – we get a great assortment of dressing tidbits that walk the line between the hilarious and odd and the somewhat disturbing. The childlike maliciousness of goblins is perfectly captured in these tables. 5 stars + seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.