Review of Terra Ferax Wilderness Encounters

I know nothing of Terra Ferax. I was browsing the RPGNOW site and looking at all the PDFs available when I noticed the claims this PDF made of being "wilderness encounter" based. I had wanted more details for running a wilderness campaign, and decided to take a chance and check this out. Overall, I got my $5.00 worth.

What I wanted: a book of wilderness encounter tables and charts, and mini-scenarios in which I could paste the encounter into a campaign. For instance, meeting a giant scorpion in a desert setting is OK, but to have a giant scorpion wander up to an oasys as the party is resting is better. I guess I'm looking for flavor text as much as the meat presented in the charts.

What I got: a 91 page PDF full of charts, with a handful of new creatures thrown in. This is a d20 product with some OGC content also provided. If you remember the charts from 1E or Hackmaster, this book will really seem familiar. It has charts for everything (What is the current temperature? Let me roll % a few times, throw in a d20, and it's 34 degrees. What does the water in the stream taste like? Let me see...). In other words, I got exactly what was advertised. The full color cover has a photograph instead of a drawing. Nice touch. I did not get the flavor text I wanted, though. To be fair, no such flavor text was promised.

Overall impression: Boy, howdy, if you want charts for what type of encounter a party has in a given wilderness, this is your product. Charts are presented for seven different wilderness types from aquatic to plains, with a given percentage chance of encountering whatever creature is listed. Each of the climate types is also broken out into climate based tables, with cold, temperate and warm climates detailed.

You also get charts for weather, wind speed (really), random gemstone encounters and chance of precipitation.

A very nice and appreciated touch is each of the creatures encountered is listed by d20 "type." For instance, aberrations are listed first in each chart, then animals, beasts, etc... This is a very nice way of keeping creature types in mind for dealing with rangers, druids and other situations in which such data may be needed. I had not thought about this before I saw it done this way, but it makes perfect sense now.

On the flip side, the charts are organized alphabetically, rather than by challenge rating. Obviously, this has ramifications if the given party is level 1 or 15. I would have preferred another method of division along these lines.

Accuracy is very good, although I have not cross checked every table against every result. When the tables do have typos, they are generally very easy to resolve on your own.

There are a few new Open Gaming Content monsters included. Standard fare, with below average artwork, but well balanced in game terms.

Overall, if you want a complete set of tables for randomly generating wilderness encounters, Terra Ferax Wilderness Encounters will fit the bill nicely. I consider it a slightly above average buy for my money.