I purchased Bedlam Asylum as part of the Evocative City Stites product bundle. Although they are all good, Bedlam Asylum is my favorite of the lot. For two bucks you get a reasonable quantity of adventure hooks and ideas along with stats for the asylum staff. One nice thing about this product is that there is not an either/or choice when it comes to maps. There are small maps for all levels of the asylum, including the grim basement area. There is ALSO a set of miniatures-sized maps for DM's who want to print them out and assemble them on the tabletop. Way too many PDF products make you choose between these options. Bedlam Asylum has both. The only (only, only) reason I might not give this product five stars is because the asylum is described in the first person by a narrator who has infiltrated and investigated it. This is cute, but it is not the way to fully describe an adventure locale. When the writer assumes the personna of a narrator, it is assumed that the narrator's information is incomplete. A game master needs to be a complete insider. This is a small quibble, because stats are provided and part of the point of this type of publication is to allow a game master to customize...to decide which dark rumors are true, and why. I strongly recommend this product...and I admit that maybe it does deserve that fifth star because it really is a good gaming value. So, there you go...five stars.

How a gem of a series like Evocative City Sites by Rite Publishing went completely unnoticed by me for a year is completely mindboggling. For the Dungeon Master who does not want too much, but wants just enough for inspiration, Evocative City Sites delivers. Each entry is a location with an impressive write-up packed with a lot of detail. A black and white battlemap is included along with several NPCs . A few adventure hooks are sprinkled in to give the Dungeon Master several ways to include the product into their campaign.

Bedlam Asylum, the latest entry, presents a nut house set that fits comfortably in a fantasy world. The 26 page, though short, is well bookmarked allowing you to easily take what you want and what you do not want. Bedlam Asylum does not go too over the top with the craziness of its inmates. More fearful are the individuals who run the asylum.

The adventure hooks as well stray from the traditional D&D fare. It was relieving to see that the publisher did not just toss a bunch of elements together and settle for “that” product, but put a lot of creativity into every element. It makes for a cohesive finished book.

For the Dungeon Master The NPCs in the Evocative series are impressively statted. There is no exception in Bedlam City. There is a medusa bloodline added to one of the NPCs that could be spun into a product of its own. This is a product for the dungeon master who knows how to wield a tool, just as a hammer, its up to you to figure out how you want to use it in your campaign.

The Iron Word I could kick myself for not finding this series sooner. Bedlam is the latest, but all of the books in the series share the same level of cohesion and writing. The first person narrative can be cut, pasted and trimmed to form handouts that can increase the experience for the player. You can put the whole thing in, or just take bits and pieces like the adventure hooks or NPCs. Got to love it when the publisher puts the choice in the hands of the Dungeon Master.

Evocative City Sites: Bedlam Asylum by Rite Publishing.

This product is 26 pages long. First two pages is cover and credits.

Chapter 1 - Bedlam Asylum (4 pages) This section starts with a map of the Asylum and introduction. This is done IC from the point of view of someone looking into the Asylum. There is a short bit of IC information about Mother Sharlene Murrell and Brother Broomore, including a secret about each. It finishes with 4 short adventure hooks.

Chapter 2 – NPC's (6 pages) "Mother Sharlene Murrell" and Tansy (her black “cat”(2 pages including 2 nice, social feats for aristocrats) "Brother Broomore" (2 pages) "Railee McGee" (half a page) "Doyenne Murrell" (1 page) It also mentions 4 notable inmates. (half a page)

It finishes with 1 page of OGL, final page is a ad for 101 1st level spells, and the rest of the pages are blown up maps for mini's for the rest of the product.

Closing thoughts. The art work is fair and all public domain. The writing is good, as is the editing and layout. Much as we have come to expect from Rite Publishing. It is a interesting location, but I felt this book has similar issues to the Warehouse. In that there is not enough advice given to GM's to use it. A page on the types of experiments being done would have went a long way. You can guess the goals of Mother Murrell but not how she is going about it. Which leaves the work up to the GM and if you have curious players something you will likely need to figure out first.

My final and biggest issue with this book is Tansy the cat. No stats are given for him. Only a name of what kind of creature it is, with no book or page number reference I could find. My guess is the Tome of Horrors as it is referenced in the OGL. Which would make it a Beast of Chaos template. But honestly that's only a guess. So I am giving this a 3.75, mostly because of Tansy and I felt it needed a bit more information before you could just drop it into a existing campaign.