A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Side Quest I: The Mines of Tarifel

Side Quest I: The Mines of Tarifel is a role playing game supplement published by Art of War Games. The supplement is available as a PDF for $1.00 from RPGNow. It lacks bookmarks, but it’s short enough that they aren’t really needed. This is a five page PDF, of which one page is the colour cover and one page a black and white map of the mines themselves. The only illustration is that on the cover.

This is not just an adventure, the tiny settlement of Tarifel (population 60) is also covered. Around one and two thirds pages are about the primarily dwarven settlement, including a general description and the problems with the mines. There are a couple of local goings on, one of which covers the recent invasion of the mine by kobolds.

A tavern, with the innkeeper, several NPCs, including the tavern keeper, and a menu, as well as three rumours, a shop where some spell scrolls can be purchased and an weapons shop, with several listed weapons, are covered. Around a page covers the mines, with various locations and occupants described. The NPCs just have a general overview of alignment, race and a rough class.

The supplement is described as being for Pathfinder and D&D 3.x, but it is really more system agnostic, as it lacks detailed stats for anything, and it should work for most fantasy systems, whether Pathfinder, D&D or Old School Revival. With the lack of detailed stats, the adventure cannot really be run straight out of the box, but these should be easy enough to research. There are some references in item descriptions to “dmg” and a number; these are presumably pages in a Dungeon Master’s Guide, although which edition isn’t specified, which would have made them rather more useful.

The layout is a simple two columns without filler illustrations. There are a few spelling mistakes but it otherwise is largely free of errors. Annoyingly, the PDF is not searchable and copy & paste has been disabled as well.

The actual adventure is a short filler one that could be a useful side quest, which is what it is intended to be. The rumours could be used to add further adventures to the town, with a bit of development. Side Quest I: The Mines of Tarifel is not perfect, but it’s a nice little setting that could be dropped in various, probably mountainous, locations in many settings fairly easily. At only $1, it’s worth getting, so click here to buy it.