Rough Guide to the Pit by Andrew Wright is a role playing game supplement published by Arion Games for use with Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2nd Edition.
The supplement is available as a 64-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $8, as a softcover print on demand book for $11, as a hardcover print on demand book for $15, as softcover and PDF for $11 or as hardcover and PDF for $15. The PDF is the version reviewed, although it was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. Two pages are the front and rear covers, five pages are the front matter, one the Contents and one page at the back is blank.
The Introduction explains that the early guide to the Fighting Fantasy world of Titan covered a variety of dark gods and demons that were not later revisited, until more recently. Demons of Doom is said to be the technical work; this is the splatbook that creates the weird places.
Welcome to the Pit! is essentially an in-universe description of the origins of the contents of the supplement.
Chapter 1 – A Gazetteer of the Pit starts with some introductory paragraphs together with a map of how the areas of the Pit connect with each other and the elemental planes. The Planes Explained covers the standard format by which each is plane is described; connections to other regions, description, inhabitants and places of note. There are eight planes described in this fashion.
Chapter 2 – New Demons of the Pit starts by stating that Titan included a hierarchy of the Pit detailing the tiers of demons; however, there were some problems with it. This intends to cover demons that were omitted or not described properly and starts with some rules for demons. This is followed by a diagram showing the hierarchy of the Pit.
Chapter 3 – A Random Plane Generator has a method for coming up with a map for a region of one of the planes of the Pit, with random tables for adding some detail, depending on the plane, and instructions on how to draw the map, with an example plane and map and a sheet to fill out.
Chapter 4 – Encounter Tables has random encounter tables for the various planes of the Pit.
Chapter 5 – Further Gods of Evil adds a selection of new deities, with descriptions and details of the powers, both general and specific, that priests get.
Chapter 6 – Demonic Familiars has details on these, creatures that are companions to Demons, Heroes, Non-Monster Enemies and Hirelings with the Familiar Talent. The number encountered is generated and then there is a d6 table, rolled on twice, for creating the familiars.
Chapter 7 – An Expanded Hierarchy of the Pit has Demons, Undead and other relevant creatures from Out of the Pit, Beyond the Pit, Demons of Doom, Rough Guide to the Pit and Return to the Pit arranged by rank.
Appendix I – Tier and Type Conversion Chart is a way of converting Demons between the classification systems of Demons of Doom and Titan.
Appendix II – An Expanded Demonic Index lists all the Demons, and other relevant creatures, by page number and book, with each book divided into different types.
Rough Guide to the Pit in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. The Contents only covers the chapters and appendices. Navigation is poor. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be almost free of errors. There are a number of black and white illustrations and maps, some of which may be custom, including for many of the Demons and deities, which is nice. Presentation is good.
This book is not intended to be exactly coherent, and it isn’t. Instead, it intends to add more details and useful information for Demons and the Pit, and that it does well. From new Demons to encounter to new evil gods, to overviews of areas of the planes to tables that can be used to generate adventure areas on such. Some of the other material just fills in some blanks or adds useful tools for finding things or conversions, making this a pretty useful book for playing in the Pit. Rough Guide to the Pit is a nice supplement expanding the coverage of Demons and the Pit and it can be found by clicking here.
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