A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Monstrous Lair #74: Druid’s Grove

Monstrous Lair #74: Druid’s Grove by Robert Mason is a role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press. The supplement is stated to be system neutral, but also compatible with any version of Dungeons & Dragons, and is therefore covered by the Open Game License with some parts considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as an 8-page PDF for $1.65 from DriveThruRPG but was purchased at a reduced price thanks to a special offer. The supplement comes in two versions, a plaintext file and a PDF. Two pages of the PDF are the front and rear covers, two pages are ads, about half a page the front matter and Contents and one page the Open Game License.

Using this Monstrous Lair is a standard piece of text for the series and explains what the tables are and that the supplement makes two assumptions; the GM has a map of the lair and stats for monsters and details of any treasure.

The opening paragraph has some details on druids, before moving on to the d10 tables.

1: Outside the Lair has some descriptions of the area around the grove, almost all of which are for forests.

2: What’s Going On? has various activities, most but not all of which involve the druid.

3: Major Lair Features has important pieces of area dressing.

4: Minor Lair Features is similar, but the items are smaller.

5: Druid’s Appearance has ways of customising the druid, most of which are related to attire.

6: Treasure has items of value or use, though no values are given.

7: Trinkets & Trash consists of mostly useful items, rather than trash.

Monstrous Lair #74: Druid’s Grove in Review

The PDF is bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Contents are to a similar level of depth and is hyperlinked. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be almost free of errors. There is a single piece of black and white stock art. Presentation is okay.

Druid seems to be a bit of an odd choice for a monster lair, if for no other reason than that they aren’t monsters. The descriptions are also very focused on forests; some of it might be appropriate elsewhere, but most of them aren’t, and druids are nature guardians, not forest guardians. This limits the utility of the supplement to, essentially, woods. Monstrous Lair #74: Druid’s Grove is okay but not one of the best in the series and it can be found by clicking here.