A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Village Backdrop: Prayer’s Point

Village Backdrop: Prayer’s Point by Alexander Augunas 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. Prayer’s Point is a village founded around a stone where a paladin used to pray.

This is a ten page bookmarked PDF which is available from RPGNow at the regular price of $2.45 but was purchased at the greatly reduced price of $0.11 as part of a special bundle. Prayer’s Point is one of the villages included in the compilation supplement GM’s Miscellany: Village Backdrops II. The supplement comes in two versions, one optimised for screen and mobile devices and the other for print and high end devices.

Two pages are Raging Swan’s standard plain front and rear covers and there is a third, similar, page, one page is the front matter, Contents and Stat Blocks by CR and one page is the Open game License.

Prayer’s Point At a Glance covers two pages and gives an overview of the village. This includes the demographics – the town has an unusual proportion of aasimar – marketplace, notable NPCs (one of whom has a name that is suspiciously similar to that of Raging Swan’s Creighton Broadhurst) and locations, lore and whispers & rumours as well as a map of the settlement. Many women who give birth in Prayer’s Point have a child who is an aasimar, which has resulted in tourism being the village’s main source of income. This section can be found in the free supplement GM’s Monthly Miscellany: June 2014.

Notable Locations is another two pages and covers the ten locations from the list in the previous section. Not all of these are in the village; there is a wood known for celestial and half-celestial animals and a mountain associated with the paladin.

The final page is Life in Prayer’s Point. This has trade & industry, law & order and a d6 table of random events. There are also a couple of sidebars; one is the stat block for the town’s most noted paladin (although in the block his alignment is listed as Lawful Neutral, not Lawful Good as it should be) and the other is Hidden History. The latter gives details on the nearby mountain, and the potential horrors inside – the mountain is why there are so many aasimar in the village and why the bay glows at sunrise. These are not because the town is blessed but because of a demonic scourge that lurks within.

Village Backdrop: Prayer’s Point in Review

The PDF is well bookmarked with all bar the sidebars linked. The Contents only covers the major sections but is also hyperlinked. Navigation is, as a result, above average.

The text maintains a two column format and there was only one error noted, the previously mentioned alignment problem. The sole illustration is the black and white map of the village, which appears to be computer created rather than Raging Swan’s usual hand drawn map.

There are quite a few potential adventure hooks in the village. There is tension between the rich, who make money from the tourism, and everyone else; tension that has resulted in some villagers losing their home to increasing taxes, and is something that could potentially erupt. Two of the villagers are kitsune, and they might not be greeted with joy by the others, something the mother realises but the daughter does not.

Finally there is the mountain itself, Mount Hoarfrost. The source of the village’s blessing may prove to be what destroys it, when the demons lurking within finally erupt out of it. Village Backdrop: Prayer’s Point is another nice little village and it can be found by clicking here.