Evocative City Sites: Barker’s Circus and Sideshow by Rob Manning is a role playing game supplement published by Rite Publishing for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 10 page PDF plus attached map files from DriveThruRPG for $2.95 although it was purchased elsewhere at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle as a 47 page PDF with the maps included in the PDF. One page is the front cover, one the front matter, one the Open Game License and two pages are ads for other supplements.
The supplement starts with a black and white labelled map of the circus, which is actually inside a building, a religious structure that has since been repurposed. There is some in-character text about the circus, some of the NPCs, the events, the building and the Night Haunts. For the circus acts as home for a vigilante group that makes war on crime. In this are larger colour maps of the three areas of the circus, this time without labels.
There are brief overviews of former performers who have left the circus for one reason or another, more detailed write ups of three major NPCs and four adventure seeds. Extensive stat blocks for these NPCs wrap up the content.
Finally, there are 32 pages of maps that can be printed out and used with miniatures. Sadly, and oddly, these are not in colour – they could have been, as the smaller versions of the maps are.
Evocative City Sites: Barker’s Circus and Sideshow in Review
The PDF is decently bookmarked for its length; navigation is good. The text maintains a two column colour format and no errors were noticed. There are some stock colour illustrations related to circuses and custom portraits of the three described NPCs. Presentation is good.
Circuses are so often places of horror – this one is not. In fact, it’s a rather different take on them. A circus in a fantasy setting has access to the unusual, and this one shows it off. It is a place to relax, plus the circus actively seeks out people to help and is the home of the vigilante group mentioned. Players expecting a place of horror are probably going to be surprised. The major NPCs are different as well; two of them are effectively hiding secrets and the third is the weird offspring of a cloud giant.
As with other supplements in the Evocative City Sites range, this is theoretically located in the publisher’s Questhaven, but it can easily be dropped in pretty much anywhere suitable. Evocative City Sites: Barker’s Circus and Sideshow is a different circus to add to a fantasy setting and it can be found by clicking here.
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