The Inside Scoop on Gaming

En Route is subtitled "a d20 encounter sourcebook". At its most basic, it's 'simply' a collection of random encounters for characters to enjoy while traveling from point A to point B. Hence the title.

However, in practice, it is also the ultimate idea book. For every game that is trapped in a linear "everything relates to the uberplot" sort of predictability, this book will free you. What it contains is 21 different encounters-- and I mean different. This isn't "you encounter a hobgoblin", "you encounter an ogre". No, many of these are mini-adventures that will keep a party entertained, confused, and challenged.

If you strung enough of them together, you wouldn't need a 'main plot', you could simply have the ultimate 'road trip' movie/game. For the fantasy genre, d20 or no d20, this book is very useful.

In case you can't tell whether I liked this book or not, I loved it. But enough about me. What do you get, and why do I love it?

Each adventure... err, encounter, starts with an Encounter Level (so the PCs aren't overmatched), the quick Setting (e.g. "A sea voyage by ship"), and a 1-sentence Summary (e.g. "The servants of a sleeping demigod are loose aboard a small ship.") If you don't like 1, just use another-- you have 21 to burn, after all. Choose the strange encounter with an old man and a cow. Try the glass house. There's lots to choose from.

Each is typically 3-5 pages in length, with flavor text plus GM's boxed text notes. Occassionally they start with some short gaming fiction to set the mood, which is good because a) it's short and b) it doesn't suck and c) it's short. NPCs or monsters are stat-ed in boxes for each reference.

And, these encounters are truly different. The thought behind them is more than the usual good/bad/ugly NPC collection or set of Adventure Seeds. Each is a kernel of a full story, something that is isolated in time and space yet builds a feeling for the world. The PCs will be changed by their experience, even though it's something that, in the end, they will just walk away from and leave behind. Grading the adventures, there are perhaps only 3 I'd give a 'C' to, most are B/B+ range, and over a half dozen get an A or A-.

As someone who likes to steal from the greats, I also find this book handy for incorporating its clever ideas and neat twists into my own game, so that my players will think "wow, so clever, this was fun, our GM is a god." Okay, so I'm ego-driven...

Authors are Chilli, Baker, Crow, Drew, Forbeck, Hindmarch, Jones, Knapik, Neal, M. Nephew, Reeves, Seavey, Sprengler, Tam, and Tynes. The cover art is nice, though it lacks naked chicks (joke! joke!), it's bound well on decent stock, the layout has reasonably sized borders and good use of text blocking and spot illustration, though note it's not an art book by any means, it's for fans of text and ideas. It has a good index and a list of encounters by location or by level.

The one flaw in execution is that the author's names are not listed in the table of contents, so you have to flip through to find (for example) which one is the Will Hindmarch adventure. Maybe that's a quibble, but it annoyed me, as there are some authors whose work I know I enjoy, it would be nice to be able to quickly find them. I'd drop the review a half point on Style for that, but since I raised them a half point for a) having only short fictional excerpts and b) having only a handful of such fictional excerpts, that put them back up at 5. If you read books, this is great-- easy to use and reference, and quick to pick up.

Plus, there's new stuff, new magic items or neat items or odd creatures, which you can lift from the encounter to use in your own campaign. Not only is this neat extra source material, it also adds a feeling of the unexplored to your game-- these aren't things the players will be familiar with from their Player's Handbook or DM's Guide.

If I had to choose a single word to describe these, it would be "inspirational". Just reading this book gives you ways to flesh out your world, to add depth beyond the basic uber-quest you have mapped out. Games live in the details, and this book lets you add richness without having to work at it. (Yes, I'm lazy-- I have a poor memory and like variety, and with this book, I felt well served.)

Calibration time: why should you trust this review? Well, if you have a friendly local game shop, pick this book up and flip through. Pick one encounter at random, see if you like it. I'll bet you'll end up buying it. If you don't have a local shop, you'll have to trust this review, which I fear is too glowing to be plausible but hey, I really liked it _and_ I think it's quality material that people can use. As opposed to the structuralism stuff that I love but am willing to say "isn't for everyone". So this is the rare book that I _don't_ just say "buy it if you like this sort of stuff". It has a broader appeal than that.

Instead, I say buy it because you will enjoy reading it, you'll enjoy using it in your world, your players will have fun when you pull these on them, and you'll end up with a better game.

En Route
En Route Playtest Review by Sandy Antunes on 19/01/02 Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) "Buy En Route, then die", you'll never need another d20 book after this. Product: En Route Author: (various) Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Atlas Games Line: Penumbra/d20 Cost: $20.95 Page count: 128 Year published: 2001 ISBN: 9-781589-780040 SKU: Ag3207 Comp copy?: yes Playtest Review by Sandy Antunes on 19/01/02 Genre tags: Fantasy Generic	En Route is subtitled "a d20 encounter sourcebook". At its most basic, it's 'simply' a collection of random encounters for characters to enjoy while traveling from point A to point B. Hence the title. However, in practice, it is also the ultimate idea book. For every game that is trapped in a linear "everything relates to the uberplot" sort of predictability, this book will free you. What it contains is 21 different encounters-- and I mean different. This isn't "you encounter a hobgoblin", "you encounter an ogre". No, many of these are mini-adventures that will keep a party entertained, confused, and challenged. If you strung enough of them together, you wouldn't need a 'main plot', you could simply have the ultimate 'road trip' movie/game. For the fantasy genre, d20 or no d20, this book is very useful. In case you can't tell whether I liked this book or not, I loved it. But enough about me. What do you get, and why do I love it? Each adventure... err, encounter, starts with an Encounter Level (so the PCs aren't overmatched), the quick Setting (e.g. "A sea voyage by ship"), and a 1-sentence Summary (e.g. "The servants of a sleeping demigod are loose aboard a small ship.") If you don't like 1, just use another-- you have 21 to burn, after all. Choose the strange encounter with an old man and a cow. Try the glass house. There's lots to choose from. Each is typically 3-5 pages in length, with flavor text plus GM's boxed text notes. Occassionally they start with some short gaming fiction to set the mood, which is good because a) it's short and b) it doesn't suck and c) it's short. NPCs or monsters are stat-ed in boxes for each reference. And, these encounters are truly different. The thought behind them is more than the usual good/bad/ugly NPC collection or set of Adventure Seeds. Each is a kernel of a full story, something that is isolated in time and space yet builds a feeling for the world. The PCs will be changed by their experience, even though it's something that, in the end, they will just walk away from and leave behind. Grading the adventures, there are perhaps only 3 I'd give a 'C' to, most are B/B+ range, and over a half dozen get an A or A-. As someone who likes to steal from the greats, I also find this book handy for incorporating its clever ideas and neat twists into my own game, so that my players will think "wow, so clever, this was fun, our GM is a god." Okay, so I'm ego-driven... Authors are Chilli, Baker, Crow, Drew, Forbeck, Hindmarch, Jones, Knapik, Neal, M. Nephew, Reeves, Seavey, Sprengler, Tam, and Tynes. The cover art is nice, though it lacks naked chicks (joke! joke!), it's bound well on decent stock, the layout has reasonably sized borders and good use of text blocking and spot illustration, though note it's not an art book by any means, it's for fans of text and ideas. It has a good index and a list of encounters by location or by level. The one flaw in execution is that the author's names are not listed in the table of contents, so you have to flip through to find (for example) which one is the Will Hindmarch adventure. Maybe that's a quibble, but it annoyed me, as there are some authors whose work I know I enjoy, it would be nice to be able to quickly find them. I'd drop the review a half point on Style for that, but since I raised them a half point for a) having only short fictional excerpts and b) having only a handful of such fictional excerpts, that put them back up at 5. If you read books, this is great-- easy to use and reference, and quick to pick up. Plus, there's new stuff, new magic items or neat items or odd creatures, which you can lift from the encounter to use in your own campaign. Not only is this neat extra source material, it also adds a feeling of the unexplored to your game-- these aren't things the players will be familiar with from their Player's Handbook or DM's Guide. If I had to choose a single word to describe these, it would be "inspirational". Just reading this book gives you ways to flesh out your world, to add depth beyond the basic uber-quest you have mapped out. Games live in the details, and this book lets you add richness without having to work at it. (Yes, I'm lazy-- I have a poor memory and like variety, and with this book, I felt well served.) Calibration time: why should you trust this review? Well, if you have a friendly local game shop, pick this book up and flip through. Pick one encounter at random, see if you like it. I'll bet you'll end up buying it. If you don't have a local shop, you'll have to trust this review, which I fear is too glowing to be plausible but hey, I really liked it _and_ I think it's quality material that people can use. As opposed to the structuralism stuff that I love but am willing to say "isn't for everyone". So this is the rare book that I _don't_ just say "buy it if you like this sort of stuff". It has a broader appeal than that. Instead, I say buy it because you will enjoy reading it, you'll enjoy using it in your world, your players will have fun when you pull these on them, and you'll end up with a better game.