Billed as a ?detailed d20 location of interest?, the Rogue?s Rest Inn and Tavern is, for all intents and purposes, that tavern where all adventurers meet and decide to go questing for adventure (i.e., there?s nothing particularly unique about the establishment in and of itself). Having said that, the level of detail that the Rogue?s Rest is rendered in makes this product extremely useful for the GM who is looking to turn that familiar tavern where everybody meets into the lynchpin of a series of adventures, or even an entire campaign.

The physical description of the establishment itself is unremarkable, but the product really shines when it comes to describing the NPCs that staff the tavern and frequent in between their own adventures. Each NPC described within the pages of Rogue?s Rest Inn and Tavern, from the owner (a duplicitous, but kind-hearted, Halfling named Verwin) to the tavern regulars (such as Kinkar Kinlay, the cat burglar) is effectively a living, breathing, plot hook waiting to be discovered by the players. It is here, that Rogue?s Rest Inn and Tavern shines the brightest.

Where mechanics are concerned, Rogue?s Rest Inn and Tavern doesn?t pack a lot of punch, the only truly noteworthy addition to the ever-growing collection of OGC rules being the Cat Burglar Prestige Class. To be fair, though, providing new mechanics isn?t the main goal of the product, thus failing to do so shouldn?t count as a strike against it. Rogue?s Rest Inn and Tavern is, obviously, designed to serve primarily as a setting supplement, not a rule supplement. If you?re looking for a lot of new crunchy bits for your game, you won?t find them here.

The one area in which Rogue?s Rest Inn and Tavern truly suffers is presentation - as it stands, the presentation of the product is more befitting of a free download than a commercially published roleplaying supplement. Lacking a proper title page, sporting a cramped two-column layout, and making heavy use of clip art borders that have little to do with the subject matter, Rogue?s Rest Inn and Tavern is hard on the eyes. The maps of the establishment that comprise pages twenty-one through twenty-seven of the product are a bit more polished, but being rendered completely in greyscale saps them of much needed detail.

Overall, Rogue?s Rest Inn and Tavern is a mixed bag. The product contains a small number of truly great qualities, but those are balanced out by a large dose of mediocrity. One point worth mentioning is that Rogue?s Rest Inn and Tavern does not contain anything truly horrible, either conceptually or mechanically - that alone may make it worth a look for some. My own recommendation is that only the GM who is specifically looking for a self-contained adventure environment should purchase this product.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The detailed NPC backgrounds, each of which could potentially serve as a plot hook. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The presentation and layout. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

This little inn is perfect. It has everything I need to plunk it down into an adventure and make it a memorable location. I use a lot of Inns as a DM but I never take this kind of time to generate an inn. With 32 NPC characters, all stated out, the place is perfect for any group ?whether they take the time to explore the inn and discover the hidden sewer entrance and appreciate the personalities of the NPCs, they decide to start a friendly brawl or even if they decide to try cut down the mid-level residents and owners and burn the place to the ground.

While not all DM?s would appreciate such a potential location being destroyed, the option exists because they?ve taken the care to write up all the NPC?s stats. Having written many NPCs I can appreciate the time it takes to calculate and write out all these stats and a good chunk of this product is devoted to them. The stats exist though and they can be made good use of by including the NPCs in combat situations along side the players or even opposing the players.

I like the menu of what is sold at the inn. This is a handy little thing that most DM?s simply cruise over with the words mutton, beer and a silver piece. This gives players a chance to order something they want and the pricing is already done.

I really like the fact that a barn has been included beside the tavern. This makes a good amount of sense and helps draw players, who so often just go on foot, into picking up a horse or just gives them a more detailed place to store that expensive animal that gets them around.

They even found room to tuck in a prestige class at the end ? the Cat Burglar. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I like the large number of NPCs and little details about the Inn and stables.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Just about all the NPC?s are Chaotic Good. I would have liked to have seen at least one evil person, usable as a villain tucked away somewhere in the tavern. Some pictures of the rooms of the inn would have been neat but the maps are high quality.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The Rogue's Rest Inn and Tavern from The Explorer's Guild is a detailed Inn that could be easily dropped into most d20 fantasy campaigns. The 30-page PDF includes seven pages of maps, including small and large versions of the inn maps. Expanded stat blocks are included for more than thirty NPCs. You also get everything else you might expect, including food and drink prices and descriptions of each of the inn's rooms. I didn't do a detailed examination of the NPC stat blocks, but they look reasonable and each one includes at least a paragraph of entertaining background detail. The writing itself is polished and I did not notice many grammatical errors or editing gaffs. The background paragraphs give useful details like a description of the NPC and other information like motivations and relationships with other NPCs. The layout, while not the most professional that I have ever seen in a PDF, is workmanlike and readable. The Inn is ostensibly set in the Bluffside campaign setting, but I did not find many details that tied it too closely to that setting.

I was a little dissapointed by lack of adventure hooks. Three adventure hooks are included, but I wanted more. Each NPC also has plenty of background information that could be used by the GM, but I wish that the author had included at least one explicit hook in each NPC's writeup. No actual adventures are included. The other thing that I noted was that the black and white maps looked a little dark on my screen and this made the background detail a little bit difficult to pick out. I did not print the maps out, however, and they may look better when printed. It was a nice bonus that the Guild included the Campaign Cartographer map files as well, for owners of that program.

I was pleased overall with The Rogue's Rest Inn and Tavern. It offers a detailed adventuring site that is generic enough to fit in most campaigns and the price point is very reasonable. The writing is solid and the NPC background writeups are very good. I would have liked a few more adventure hooks or an actual short adventure, but I am a lazy DM and I'm always looking for ideas to borrow or steal. Check out the 8-page demo for a small map of the Inn's first floor and an example of the kind of stat blocks that are included.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The writing is good and each NPCs background paragraph has plenty of entertaining details. The price point is good for what you get.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The maps looked a little dark on my screen. I would have appreciated more adventure hooks and/or a short adventure.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>