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Originally Posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/08/11/tabletop-review-devious-
-npcs-and-curious-creatures/
At a deceptive 21 pages long, Devious NPCs and Curious Creatures is a neat way to spice up a low-level campaign. While intended for Pathfinder, it is close enough to D&D that conversions are worth the effort. Monster-wise, there are some real doozies. The Rat King could easily be a staple of a pulp style urbancrawl, especially if you want to invoke Lankhmar or the Warhammer RPG setting. Vrook, the overly affectionate ogre, and Squishy, Vrookâs special friend, could make for a strange game session.
The NPCs are where this book shines, though. Dingle, King of Bears, could fuel a couple of adventures with his strange tale. An ursine who rules a kingdom of goblins is simply too much fun not to use. That being said, the real star is Gregory Devolint. Depending on the players involved, Gregory could be a useful ally, an annoying pest, a McGuffin, or even an eventual enemy. A precocious 11 year old thief who dreams of being an adventurer is rife with possibility, and Benjamin Gerber does a good job spelling out his potential. That he is more interesting to me than a talking bear says a lot about his usefulness.
The final section of the book is comprised of three Adventure Seeds. The adventure seeds comprise half a page each and are pretty usable. My preference is more in line with the short hooks for each NPC than with these longer outlines, but there is definitely stuff worth stealing here.
At $1.99, Devious NPCs and Curious Creatures is a pretty solid product. There is much to recommend here, particularly the NPCs. If you GM a Pathfinder game, this is definitely worth two bucks. For other flavors of D&D, be aware there is some work needed to really make use of the content here, but the ideas presented are pretty cool.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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![Devious NPCs and Curious Creatures [PFRPG]](images/3250/89516-thumb100.jpg)
