Urban Dressing: Plague Town
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!
Josh Voght kicks off this installment of the new and improved urban dressing-series with a massive list of 100 sights and sounds – and, as ppropriate for a town struck by plague, what one can see is NOT pretty – abandoned children at the wayside, black-clad people on plague carts, pudgy pseudo-healer charlatans, clouds hanging ominously in eldritch patterns in the sky – even for Josh Vogts’s admittedly pronounced talent for creating diverse lists like that, this one stands out. Take e.g. the observation that people who have caught a disease have their shadow point in the wrong direction – not that is class A creepy!
The second table covers 50 businesses, with macabre names like “Drink before you Die”-tavern and traumatised people like the taxidermist that wears a full-blown bearsuit, complete with claws and teeth. Once again, the table provides top-notch bleak and creep fodder for your adventures.
The third table, covering 50 folk, stand in no way behind these glorious tables – from aristocrats ousted from their homes, to mad-dog like psychos to head-stone carvers and tong-using, sadistic tax-collectors, the table is inspiring in all the right ways – not one entry left me cold. Not ONE.
The final table contains 20 hooks and complications, essentially providing great hooks – from a demographic strangely immune to the plague and thus potentially subject to persecution to PCs finding diseased meat in their food, civilians panicking about the dead rising to living people thrown into plague pits – the potential is vast!
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.
OMG. I have a penchant for the macabre and for dark fantasy/horror and this urban dressing delivers in ALL the right ways. The tables are inspiring and whether you play “Seven Days to the Grave”, “The Reaping Stone”, the classic “Shades of Grey” or any other scenario featuring plagues (or a subdued endtimes vibe – not a band, but a whimper) – this pdf just blows it out of the park. Like Babe Ruth at the top of his game, this pdf hits every ball and knocks it out of the stadium. This is the best Urban Dressing Josh Vogt has delivered so far, the best in the whole series. Full blown must-have recommendation and final verdict of 5 stars + seal of approval!
Superb job!
You can get this great pdf here on OBS and here on d20pfsrd.com’s shop!
Endzeitgeist out.
