Tuesday, June 20, 2017

River System [RPG]


The River System Pathfinder Map Pack delivers exactly what it promises: 18 full-colour tiles that you can connect to form a meandering river.  I have to give credit to whomever writes the description of the product on the back of the pack, as they make it sound much more exciting than it actually is.  Most of the tiles have a three-square-wide river down the center with a square of mostly featureless riverbank on either side.  A width of 10-15' for a river is fine for the sort of encounter where PCs are in the forest and attacked from the far side and have to figure out how to get across, but I think it's too narrow for a serious river-based adventure.  The pack would have been better if the river were wider, even if not as long (rowboats, barges, and keelboats would barely fit on the regular river tiles, and certainly wouldn't have room to pass).  Apart from the standard tiles, there are a few special ones:  a couple of tiles that have 90' turns, three tiles that are oriented the other way (with the river 7 squares wide but not as long), a tile with a few small rocks in the middle, and a tile with a log bridge spanning it.  The artwork is adequate but not the sort of thing that is going to draw "oohs" and "aahs" from your players.  Like with the Road System Map Pack, despite my terrible artistic skills
I'm not convinced that this one is a major improvement over simply drawing two parallel lines on a blank grid-mat.  It's okay, but for $ 14 there's probably a better gaming product to spend the money on.

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