No, I'm totally serious. It may be the best town I've seen in 250+ reviews. ASE stands out, but otherwise I can't think of another one right now that is as good.

Here's an example:

A hog farmer is gruff. Becoming his friend leads to the party learning that his only daughter has run away from home and 'fallen in with a bad lot.' She returned a few weeks with a couple of them and he turned her away ... later hearing they were seen on their way to the mill. Holy Shit! You know what I could do with in play?!?!

The miller? He's friendly enough but is now suspicious of everyone. He was going to run for mayor but suddenly dropped out of the race, even though he was favored to win. It seems his son Augin has joined some bandits and is the one responsible for leading the girl astray. Jackpot! Wait wait! His other two daughters hang out at the two inns in town and are at that young impressionable age where they get infatuated with everyone!!

There's also all of these larger subplots. The two friends who rule the town are having an argument: one having disappeared and one shut in to his tower. A new temple moved in a few years back and there's a simmering situation between the Lawgivers temple and the Old Faith. There's a mayoral election about to happen. The religion thing, in particular, is quite good. For example, everyone in the brewers family follows the Old Faith and always has. Until a nephew arrives and eventually converts to the Lawbringer.

This is CRAZY good stuff. Most of the 25 or so dwellings have something like this going on. Some family secret, relations with another entry, hooks to adventure, and some great Jerry Springer shit! This is ABSOLUTELY what a the description of a village should contain. The village has to seem alive and not static.  The people need to interact with each other, hate each other, love each other, be petty, be kind, all of it. And this thing does that in SPADES.


You ready for this? It's a fucking 4E Encounters module: Against the Cult of Chaos! I know! It's like someone at WOTC got their head out of the ass and realized they had 35+ years of company experience in adventures! Don't get me wrong: the module sucks (but a lot less than the few other 4e encounters stuff I've seen) and the town is a little wordy and needs to be tightened up. Still, it puts everything else I've seen to shame. Wanna infiltrate the bandits? The miller and hog farmer just gave you fodder for about six ideas other than "front door." Guilt either kid. Reform either kid. Use kids as bait. Use kids as infiltration/disguise. Torture info from kids. And then have to deal with the fallout from the families! GREAT!

The town is a mashup of B2, T1, and N1, and is mostly "N1 expanded" with elements from the other 2. I'm sure that's one reason it's so good; the N1 village was one of the best to start with.

Really, really great village. I may bust my review schedule and slip in a review of the entire module next week.



My kids are old enough now to join meetups, etc on their own and they saw Encounters on the meetup schedule. They like 4e anyway so we went up and one of the DM's didn't show. Rather than wait 90 minutes for a second session I ran a second table ... AND that encounters group was using the 5e rules instead of 4e.

I found picures of the village map here:
http://dungeonsmaster.com/2013/01/dd-encounters-against-the-cult-of-chaos-preview/

Too bad it's not a for-sale product. It could have been my first WotC product in years.

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;628449I found picures of the village map here:
http://dungeonsmaster.com/2013/01/dd-encounters-against-the-cult-of-chaos-preview/

Too bad it's not a for-sale product. It could have been my first WotC product in years.

Wait....they made something actually useful and are not selling it?

Hunh?

Quote from: Bill;628452Wait....they made something actually useful and are not selling it?

Hunh?

It part of their organized play program. People are getting it but they are using a different channel to do it.

Quote from: estar;628457It part of their organized play program. People are getting it but they are using a different channel to do it.

Too bad for me I guess. I don't have the time in my schedule to go to the local game store and play dnd encounters.



Assuming that is where you get that stuff.

Quote from: bryce0lynch;628442This is CRAZY good stuff. Most of the 25 or so dwellings have something like this going on. Some family secret, relations with another entry, hooks to adventure, and some great Jerry Springer shit! This is ABSOLUTELY what a the description of a village should contain. The village has to seem alive and not static.  The people need to interact with each other, hate each other, love each other, be petty, be kind, all of it. And this thing does that in SPADES.

Well this bode wells for the Village of Kensla supplement half of Scourge of the Demon Wolf if you ever review it. Because this the kind of stuff I was aiming to put in there.

Quote from: Bill;628459Too bad for me I guess. I don't have the time in my schedule to go to the local game store and play dnd encounters.

Assuming that is where you get that stuff.

Yup and the store usually only hands them out to folks refereeing the adventures. So it is not sufficient to just show up and play to get a copy.

Quote from: estar;628461Yup and the store usually only hands them out to folks refereeing the adventures. So it is not sufficient to just show up and play to get a copy.

Tempting to do that but I don't think I can squeeze it into my schedule.

Quote from: Bill;628462Tempting to do that but I don't think I can squeeze it into my schedule.

Unless you are good buddies with a store owner and get him to give you one of the copies. I know at my local store I am able to do this if the number of game masters come they expect comes up short. In fact he may have a whole pile of past modules for organized play in the back.

There is actual good content from WotC, and they are hiding it?

It is logical, in a way...

OP, what is your avatar?

Quote from: 1989;628566OP, what is your avatar?

It isn't obvious?

Quote from: 1989;628566OP, what is your avatar?

I did a reverse Google image search on it, and it's porn.

And it tells me your avatar is likely Tarja Turunen.

Quote from: Melan;628542It is logical, in a way...

Logical in its illogicality?

Its ironic, and yet somehow fitting to what 4e was...

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