DriveThruRPG.com
Browse Categories
$ to $















Back
pixel_trans.gif
Tangible Taverns: Tuffy's Good Time Palace (PFRPG) $2.25
Average Rating:4.2 / 5
Ratings Reviews Total
0 1
0 4
0 0
0 0
0 0
Tangible Taverns: Tuffy\'s Good Time Palace (PFRPG)
Click to view
You must be logged in to rate this
pixel_trans.gif
Tangible Taverns: Tuffy's Good Time Palace (PFRPG)
Publisher: Dire Rugrat Publishing
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 07/21/2016 09:09:07

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Tangible Taverns-series clocks in at 22 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 18 pages of content, so let's take a look!

There are taverns you enter and know immediately that you just have gone to the wrong side of town: Tuffy's is such a place. Paint peels from various surfaces, glass and food and other debris litter the floor, as scantily-clad women dance on some tables, while a female dwarf with cold blue eyes gazes directly at the PCs. Strangely, some people seem to come and go through a door behind the bar, while the various pickled foods you can purchase are anything but easily digestible. In fact, PCs eating here run a very real risk of contracting food poison, with all required rules provided by the pdf.

Following, to an extent, the formula of Raging Swan Press, the book also provides a whole page of rumors, but takes a more detailed approach befitting the tighter focus- a total of 12 such rumors are provided for your convenience and as ready to go read-aloud texts. Should the banter thus generated not suffice to draw your PCs into direct interaction with the locals, you won't be out of luck - a total of 10 events further can be utilized to jumpstart social interactions and the like, with the table once again spanning a whole page and going into very detailed territory.

The tavern itself is full mapped with a functional, solid map, though the pdf does not provide a key-less version or one blown up to page-size to act as a handout. Additionally, the map does not sport a scale for reference.

Beyond the tavern itself, the patrons obviously are important - and generally, two different groups, both with their own agendas, are provided in addition to Tuffy herself and her none-too-smart piano-player. The first such group would fall in the criminal territory, while the second consists of mercenaries - these combat relevant NPCs come with full-blown statblocks, which makes use of the ACG-material while also using archetypes.

The non-combatants like the dancers may have no statblocks, but they do come with ample of information regarding their goals and the like. The pdf also features several mugshots for the NPCs featured herein. Additionally, the pdf's appendix features several statblocks for rank and file members of the criminal organization as well as two statblock variants of characters introduced herein at +4 levels each - with the intention of potentially changing the power-structure of the organization in question. CR-wise, the NPCs range from CR 3 - 14, making the offering suitable for low- and mid level adventurers with strong stomachs.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no grievous glitches. Layout adheres to a printer-friendly, no-frills two-column b/w-standard. It's minimalist and functional - no significant complaints here. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience and cartography is nice, particularly in such a low-cost little book. The b/w-artworks are flavorful and nice.

Kelly and Ken Pawlik's excursion to Tuffy's is a successful one - while the components used herein may not be mind-bogglingly innovative, they don't have to be: The set-up and number of statblocks herein and the great local color and prose are certainly nice to read and the pdf can certainly offer more than one session of roleplaying - it may even become the favorite dive of particularly hardy PCs, with Tuffy and her folks being truly intriguing characters. That being said, I wouldn't be ole' endy if I had no complaints, right? Well, amid all the intrigue and the two groups in the book, the tavern itself could have used a bit refinement regarding the formatting of its look: The pdf begins with this well-written 4-paragraph-long introduction that sets the stage really well...and then goes straight into the rules to notice strange comings and goings. A more pronounced separation of flavor/quasi-read-aloud text and rules would have improved the reading flow here.

Secondly, and this may sound nitpicky: The tavern lacks a menu. While food is mentioned, no prices are provided. Nor any named breweries, special drinks available or the like. For a book on a tavern, that's somewhat jarring, at least to me. Don't be fooled, though - I am complaining at a surprisingly high level here, with the characters and amount of stats contained herein definitely making this a fair offering, though one focused perhaps a bit too much on the clientèle and less on the place itself.

In the end, Tuffy's is a more than solid, nice buy - and in case you're wondering: I've consciously refrained from going into the details regarding the groups and their members to avoid spoilers - so if you have any questions in that regard, don't hesitate to contact me.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Tangible Taverns: Tuffy's Good Time Palace (PFRPG)
Publisher: Dire Rugrat Publishing
by Alan L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/14/2015 22:18:43

A Good Addition to the Wrong Side of Town

Let's see, we have 23 pages, 2 for covers, 1 for a Table of Contents, 1 for the OGL, and 1 for an in-house ad, leaving 18 pages of taverny goodness.

We begin with a description of the tavern itself (rundown), the food (bad - as a bonus eating one of the house specials may actually make you sick), and a couple of tables of rumors and events surrounding the tavern itself. You also get a criminal organization connected to the spot, for the characters to take on as either allies or foes.

The section of this book that really makes having it worthwhile is the descriptions of our proprietor, Tuffy, and the various characters who spend a majority of their time in and around the tavern. These folks are not just a collection of names and stat blocks with individual, unassociated goals; they are each a piece of a whole that is organically woven together to make this place feel like your PCs can have an effect on and be affected by what happens here, if they choose.

Next, there is a write up of a mercenary group, the Stunning Blades, that hangs around the tavern at various times. Again, you can introduce them as either allies or foes, but they have a very different flavor from the criminal group that houses at the tavern.

The book closes with an appendix that had an additional write-up of some of the major characters around the tavern at higher levels, which goes a long way toward making this place usable with a group that is beyond just starting out, or if you want the characters in the book to keep pace with the PCs.

One thing that I really liked: There are sketches of the different characters associated with the tavern. I am not very good at pulling descriptions out of thin air, so I am very appreciative of having a visual to use when trying to describe these folks, or simply to give to the players and say "This is what he/she looks like."

One thing that could have been better: I noticed a handful of typos as I was reading, including a couple that made me go "wait, what?" and read the sentence over again. They are not pervasive, and not bad enough to change my opinion of the book. It just seems that it might have benefited from one final, polishing, editorial pass.

Tuffy's Good Time Palace is very much what I expected of a "Last Chance Saloon" that this place puts itself out to be. A place where the drunkards, the undesirables, and those who want to disappear come together in a space seething with adventure possibilities. I can easily picture dropping this onto a wharf where you go when you have no where else to go. I'll be using this in my campaign, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming books in this series.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Tangible Taverns: Tuffy's Good Time Palace (PFRPG)
Publisher: Dire Rugrat Publishing
by Craig C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/30/2015 15:26:20

As a preface, 1 of my 2 Pathfinder groups has a preferential "thing" for adventuring & roleplaying in tavern, pub & inn backdrops. As a result, we've played in a lot of these environments - both in homebrew and purchased thematic modules. As 1 of the 2 GM's of this group, we've both converted a lot of 2E and 3.5 taven/pub/inn adventures into Pathfinder versions. And we also use lots and lots of 3PP goodies to boot. So we all have a lot of experience in evaluating the merits of a given taven/pub/inn adventure.

As for our final review of Tuffy's Good Time Palace ... we really enjoyed our gaming experience with this tavern! To break from tradition, I'm going to give my rating for it up top of this review - and explain why at the bottom. Our final rating (that was unanimously agreed upon by the entire group) is 4 Stars! **** From a price context perspective, I thought the 17 or so pages of actual gaming content is a good value for the price of the PDF. Especially considering the decent quality of the writing - both flavor prose and crunch mechanics.

The product is written in a setting-neutral environment. So it was very easy for me to port it over into my Forgotten Realms campaign setting (using PF rules). In fact, the tavern's setup and content descriptions don't really go outside the walls the walls (with the possible minor exception of mentioning Alistair's "home"). Which was a big plus for me in regards to plug-&-play. The PDF formatting & design contentis well done and printer-friendly (except for the cover & end page). The 20 or so stat-blocks are easy to read and accurate (I randomly checked 7 of them). All in all, it's a well "put together" gaming supplement. Although I realize that's a subjective evaluation that will vary from eyeball to eyeball.

As for the flavor and vibe of the tavern ... this is really where it shined. The interconnectivity of the tavern's owner (Tuffy), her various employees (dancers & bouncer), the sizable street gang contingent (the Crimson Cloaks) and the powerfully manipulative "healer/herbalist" (the most detailed NPC in the PDF) are clearly networked and defined. Although I would've loved to have seen even more detail on how each NPC felt about each of the others. Besides those 4 primary entities listed above, there's also an all-woman merc group provided - the Stunning Blades. The write-ups and stat blocks are all awesome - I especially love how diverse they are and everybody has a different primary class. Unfortunately, there's very little describing how they interact with the 4 other primary entities of this tavern. That's the biggest reason why I had to knock 1 star off the final rating of Tuffy's.

My player's and I got to run a full 5 hour gaming session using just this PDF ... with considerable interaction of all the main NPCs. The fact that my player's didn't get bored or move onto other non-related encounters indicated that we certainly got great return for investing time in this product. We had a lot of fun! Especially with Tuffy herself and the healer/herbalist (who I knocked down in levels a bit - his initially-assigned level assignment was a bit high in the event he had to enter combat).

Props to Dire Rugrat for writing some creative characters with intriguing and easily-playable personalities (for the GM, that is). The setting description for Tuffy's environment and menu fare were quite evocative. Player's love hearing that kind of stuff to help them differentiate one tavern from the next (seeing as how most PCs get bored of them pretty quick). I would suggest that Dire Rugrat add custom menus as handouts for the players. Besides the typical fare, add some provincial and local-yokel food & drink oddities with fun, colloquial names assigned to them.

In summation, Tuffy's Good Time Palace is now permanently ensconced in Dagger Falls, Daggerdale ... within my homebrew Forgotten Realms campaign. My players have made some interesting contacts - and enemies - in a venue that will continue to feature prominently in their future adventuring endeavours.

(Please note: I received a copy of this PDF from Dire Rugrat in return for an honest written review)



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Tangible Taverns: Tuffy's Good Time Palace (PFRPG)
Publisher: Dire Rugrat Publishing
by Ismael A. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/13/2015 20:49:59

For full disclosure, I received a courtesy copy of this product.

This product has excellent prose, as expected, and sets the scene for players walking into the bar. Perhaps a printable notecard of "flavor text" included in future versions would be good, but the book is short so the point gets conveyed. I think that players are well served by the level of detail of the bar's description.

The organization and descriptions are top notch, as well as consideration for adventure seeds. I especially like the continued quality of interpersonal NPC's all connected and interacting with each other. Each successive tavern feels very lived in.

Tuffy's Feel Good Palace in particular does lend a very seedy feel that could be well incorporated into a campaign; particularly ones that sees the players fleeing from the law, down on their luck, low on funds, or in search of someone unsavory. It is a perfect fit for what it sets out to do.

I also applaud the publisher for their having listened to feedback, including higher level NPC's, as we all know how much trouble player's like to cause in taverns, as well as the need to have more options in general for higher level play.

Overall, I am very impressed and want to see more.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Tangible Taverns: Tuffy's Good Time Palace (PFRPG)
Publisher: Dire Rugrat Publishing
by Andres B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/03/2015 14:25:40

This time Dire Rugrats present a tavern that will not be comfortable for the Pcs but that is filled with adventuring opportunities.

Tuffy's Good Time Palace is a rather bad taver, the kind of place that most adventures with some self respect will avoid.

Inside this product you will find the description of the tavern, the NPCs that frequents it and some rumors and events to use.

The description of the tavern is well done, the Pcs surely will quickly get the point of what kind of place is Tuffy's.

The NPcs vary from very interesting to interesting enough. The description of the NPCs is well done, they have motivation and personality. This have been a strong point in tangible taverns line.

Now, this product is an improvement over the last one (the bull and the bear) in the sense that it provides clearer adventuring opportunities, reasons for the PC to spent some time in the tavern, and reasons for they to care and learn about the NPCs.

The weak side of the book is an all-female mercenary group, the stunning blades. By themselves they are good written NPCs, that the GM can use at any campaign in case he is in a hurry to improvise or something. But they are basically unrelated to the rest of the book, you could take them away from the product and nothing else will be compromised. IMHO, this space should have been used to give even more rumors, events and adventuring opportunities.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Displaying 1 to 5 (of 5 reviews) Result Pages:  1 
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif Back pixel_trans.gif
0 items
 Gift Certificates