A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Village Backdrop: Agravaine’s Rest

Village Backdrop: Agravaine’s Rest by Coleen Simpson is a role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press 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.

This is a ten-page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $2.45 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, two pages are the front matter, Contents and Stat Blocks by CR and one page is the Open Game License. The PDF comes in two versions, one optimised for mobile and low-end devices, the other for print and high-end.

Agravaine’s Rest At a Glance is two pages and provides an overview of the village’s history, its demographics, notable NPCs, notable locations, marketplace, lore and a d6 table of whispers and rumours. The village is founded around the burial cave of a paladin, Agravaine, that was built by his orc squire. Unusually, a high proportion of the villagers are half-orcs and orcs and those with prejudices are not welcome. This section also has a map of the village.

Notable Locations covers the locations mentioned in the first section, 12 in all, in more detail. There are also sidebars on the village’s leader, a half-orc who is also descended from the founder and leads the mercenary company based out of the place, and how Agravaine actually died.

The final page covers law & order, trade & industry and has a d6 table of random events.

Village Backdrop: Agravaine’s Rest in Review

the PDF is well bookmarked with all bar the sidebars linked. The Contents is less thorough, only covering the main sections, but is also hyperlinked. Navigation is very good for a short supplement. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. Bar the custom map of the village, there is only a stock filler illustration. Presentation is okay.

The combination of holy site and settlement dominated by orcs and half-orcs is interesting. There are a couple of adventure hooks dealing with how Agravaine really died and a coven in the area, but almost nothing is given on the coven. The details on the village’s NPCs are also fairly limited, and there isn’t much given about how they might interact with each other, giving the impression of a village where everybody gets along. A GM may need to flesh things out a bit more to make the village more interesting, but the unusual demographics is a nice start. Village Backdrop: Agravaine’s Rest is a decent, and unusual, little village and it can be found by clicking here.