Urban Dressing: Dwarven Town

Urban Dressing: Dwarven Town

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This installment of what I’d tentatively call the “new” Urban Dressing-series clocks in at 12 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

 

We begin this supplement with vistas both unique and wondrous – in the towns of the dwaves, one may witness a plethora of sights and sounds mundane and wondrous – from chimney stacks that bear witness to the industrious nature of the stout folk to dwarves strumming the lyres (there is in fact a correlation between music and productivity), the life of a busy settlement breathes from the massive 100-entry strong table – and yes, of course miners, cave-ins, smiths and the like can be met as well. Few things will endear the PCs more to the populace than quenching a dwarf’s beard, recently set ablaze or participating in competitions of boulder-throwing – a thoroughly alive place indeed.

 

The 50 businesses also reflect the industrious nature of the dwarven people – from the obligatory smithies and architects, one can surely learn wondrous feats of engineering, while here, even second-hand equipment adheres to the high quality-standards set by the dwarven folk. Boneminders and etchers offer their services to the discerning clientele and for those PCs looking for something more out of the ordinary – what about ships to travel on lava? This single entry had me come up with essentially a whole culture, a vast set of adventure ideas – “inspired” is indeed the word to use.

 

Whereas the primary inhabitants of such a town obviously belong to the stout race, from jailed half-orcs (rightfully or due to racial prejudice?) to halfling couriers to half-elven lawyers and pyromaniac elven exiles, the list of 50 notable folk can be described as adhering to the same level of liveliness and diversity one would expect from such a supplement – and yes, fret not -the majority of the entries does cover dwarves!

 

Finally, 20 hooks provide for ample adventuring material – from dwarven miners lost in the tunnels to dangerous, tunneling worms that destabilize areas to gas explosions and goblin spies, quite an array of diverse options await.

 

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no glitches. Layout adheres to Raging Swan Press’ 2-column b/w-standard and the artwork is thematically fitting b/w-stock. The pdf comes fully bookmarked and in two versions – one optimized for the printer and one optimized for screen-use.

 

Josh Vogt’s Urban Dressing pdf have become a continuous source of joy for my table – the amount of life oozing from them, their unfettered creativity and their quite frankly astounding diversity has taken the weakest of the Dressing-series and brought it to a level that can only be considered inspired in all the right ways. Now racial settlements tend to be a difficult topic, mainly because you have to cater to a race’s iconic stereotypes, while still providing a distinct sense of identity. This manages to do just that – in a glorious fashion indeed. My final verdict will hence clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

 

You can get this great Urban Dressing here on OBS and here on d20pfsrd.com’s shop!

 

If you’re a huge fan of Raging Swan Press, you can also join their patreon here!

 

Endzeitgeist out.

 

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