Classic Review by Crothian
Sometimes there are products that almost have everything to make them very good. But the one aspect that seems to be missing is actually the ability to use the book. Sometimes it is not all that bad but at times I read a book and I think that it is a good book and I have no idea really what to do with it. Or I know what I can do with it but it will take quite a bit of work to get it to be useful. That applies to this book. There are a lot of pluses about this work and a lot of really good things to be said about it. But in the end I am just not sure it will be that easy to use in a campaign.
Highmoon Production has been putting out a very nice series of Celtic themed products. So far the books have been well done and improving as the line of products goes on. With luck at some point they will greatly expand these products and really give us something of great substance. Up to now it feels like I have been getting nice little snippets and I long for the whole thing. Bardic Lore Villa of Mysteries is a PDF that really captures the place. The PDF is only twenty two pages long but it has a nice layout and it is well book marked. The book does have green page borders that can make it consume a bit of ink when printed. The art is nice and the maps of the place are really well done. The maps eat even more ink though.
The book is a nice ground work of a place and the people that live and work there., However, it just needs to go father and have some plots and day in the life stuff to bring the place alive., What is here is great. The book just needs more for me. I guess one could think of it like a blank canvas. For some they will like that the basics have been provided but the important campaign details they will be able to come up with and create specifically for what they want and what they need. Others though will feel that book just does not provide enough and not want to take the extra time and effort to find a way to use the book. It can be a tough situation for a writer as too much info some people love and some people complain about. Of course that is the same with too little like we have here.
The details in the book are really well done. There is a very nice history of the place and a good eye for detail on some interesting events and family issues in the past. The place is as much about the people as it is about the villa. The NPCs are well written up and given a lot of very good detail. They are going to be easy to use and to portray. The characters have good histories and motives clearly defined. The book really leaves me with wanting more, lots more.
The book is well written and has creativity in it. It just comes down to how much does a person need for a book to be useful. I would have liked to have seen more detail and I eagerly wait to see what the next book in this product line is. All in all it is a very positive book that has a lot of good things going for it. So whi8le the star rating is not as high as one might guess from the positives listed here, it is a good book that those who like this type of thing will really enjoy.
