Swallowfeld by Creighton Broadhurst is a role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The supplement is set in The Lonely Coast mini-setting and is also the location for the adventure Dark Waters Rising. Swallowfeld is a coastal village that still borders the Tangled Wood. It is covered by the Open Game License and therefore some of it is considered to be Open Game Content.
This is a forty three page PDF which is available from RPGNow for $4.99, although it purchased at the greatly reduced price of $0.22. It is also available as a print on demand softcover book for $9.99 or both PDF and book for $14.98. The supplement underwent a revision in 2013, and it is the PDF version of the revised edition that is reviewed. The PDF version itself comes in two versions, one optimised for print and computers and the other for screen and portable devices. Two pages are Raging Swan’s standard, plain, front and rear covers, one page is an advert listing other products, three pages are front matter, Contents and an index of stat blocks by CR, one page is the Foreword, one page is Reading Stat Blocks, a standard section explaining how the stat blocks are worked out and three pages are the Open Game License and adverts for other products for the Lonely Coast.
The Adventure Begins is a brief, half page overview of the village itself.
In Your Campaign is another brief, half page on using the village, having players originate there and an overview of the Lonely Coast.
Adventure Seeds is a another half page that provides four different adventure seeds for the village.
Swallowfeld At a Glance is one page that has the village’s demographics and marketplace, in the standard Pathfinder format, as well as a list of the notable locations and notable NPCs, and more details on these can be found later. There is also a full page map of the village in this section.
Village Life is half a page and gives an overview of the social order and the activities of the villagers.
The Villagers is one page has details on the inhabitants’ appearance, diet and naming conventions, as well as stat blocks for a typical villager and a typical hunter.
Law and Order is around a third of a page and covers two types of legal meetings.
Trade and Industry is around two thirds of a page and covers the primary industries of the village, commerce and a brief sidebar on the settlement’s militia.
The Passing Seasons is around a third of a page in length and details what villagers will be doing at different times of year.
Festivals and Traditions is around two thirds of a page and lists four different traditions.
Local Events is a d100 table, although with only 18 different results, that lists various minor, major and dangerous events that could take place. This is advised to be rolled on once per week.
Whispers & Rumours is another d100 table, with 20 results, of different rumours that could be found throughout the village.
Locations of Interest covers the 10 locations listed earlier in more detail over four pages. There are also some stat blocks for minor generic NPCs and some sidebars on a couple of new gods, typical village dwellings and regular customers at the inn.
Features of Interest is one page and briefly covers the local area, such as the Tangled Wood, waterways and the Cliffway, the road the connects Swallowfeld to the rest of the Lonely Coast.
Village Folk opens with a full page chapter opener and then has eleven pages providing detailed descriptions of major NPCs, including appearances, stat blocks, motivations and adventure hooks.
Player’s Guides is the final section and has another full page chapter opener followed by four pages of player information. These are handouts that are intended for players, and duplicate content found elsewhere, but with some GM information stripped out. Swallowfeld At a Glance gives a player’s overview of the village and has a full page map of it. The Lonely Coast At a Glance similarly does for the region, again with a map.
The PDF is exceptionally well bookmarked, especially as it isn’t a huge one, with links to major and minor sections. There are a few sidebars that could have been added to the list, but frankly that’s just quibbling. The Contents is thorough, although not to the same extent, and is also hyperlinked. This is as a result one of the best supplements for navigation.
The text maintains a two column format with no errors spotted. Bar the maps of Swallowfeld and the Lonely Coast, there are a number of other black and white illustrations. Most of these would appear to be stock in nature, probably including the distinctively Elmore NPC portraits. If the latter are stock, the NPC descriptions have cleverly been worked to describe the portraits.
There are links to the other places of the Lonely Coast setting – Bossin, Hosford, Oakhurst and Wolverton – but these are all very minor in nature. With some comparatively minor changes, primarily to the names in some references, Swallowfeld can be dropped into another setting in a similar coastal region.
The village itself is quite thoroughly detailed, with enough information provided on locations and NPCs that players will be most interested in or are likely to interact with. The addition of rumours and events does, as intended, help create the impression that this is a living, changing village, not just a static location.
Regarding adventures, there is the main Dark Waters Rising adventure set in the town, although this is only referenced in passing in the Foreword, and four in the Adventure Seeds section, but there are also a lot more smaller hooks in the various NPC descriptions.
Swallowfeld is a nicely detailed location that can easily be used with the Lonely Coast or with other settings, and is a useful, fleshed out addition to a campaign region, and it can be found by clicking here.
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