Village Backdrop: White Moon Cove by Marc Radle is a role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press. The supplement is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and, as such, is covered by the Open Game License with some parts of it considered to be Open Game Content. White Moon Cove is a small, pleasant fishing village and port which is visited during the adventure The Sunken Pyramid and is the location of several encounters for that adventure. Both the village and the adventure site have been added to the Duchy of Ashlar from the Gloamhold campaign setting, although both were published well prior to the release of the megadungeon.
This is a thirteen page bookmarked PDF which is available from RPGNow at the regular price of $2.45 but which was purchased as part of a special bundle at the reduced price of $0.11. White Moon Cove is one of the villages included in the compilation supplement GM’s Miscellany: Village Backdrops. Two pages are Raging Swan’s standard plain front and rear covers, one page is an ad for other products, three pages are the front matter, Contents and Foreword, one page is a standard Reading Stat Blocks page which explains how they are presented and one page is another ad and the Open Game License. The PDF comes in two formats, one optimised for print and the other for screen.
White Moon Cove At a Glance gives an overview of the village, which is quite a pleasant an peaceful settlement – quite a contrast to the majority of the settlements in the Village Backdrops range – although the events of The Sunken Pyramid, if used, will make it less pleasant, at least during them. The village’s demographics, marketplace, notable NPCs and locations are detailed, as well as village lore and a d4 table of whispers and rumours. This two page section concludes with a map.
Notable Locations is a two page section which covers in more detail the eight locations from the previous section. Each gives an overview of the various businesses, shops and other important places, with notes on some important NPCs. There are sidebars on another couple of important NPCs and on the Sunken Pyramid itself.
The final page on the village is Life in White Moon Cove, which is, as noted, rather more pleasant than the norm. Trade & industry and law & order are covered, with a d4 table of events, a sidebar on another NPC and stats for a typical fisherman, the only stat block in the supplement.
Village Backdrop: White Moon Cove in Review
The supplement is extensively bookmarked for its length, with major and minor sections included; only sidebars and stat block are omitted. The Contents, whilst not as thorough as the bookmarks, is hyperlinked. Navigation is therefore well above average for the PDF’s length. The text maintains a two column format with a couple of minor errors noticed. Apart from the map, the only illustration is a black and white stock image. Perhaps the numbers on the map could have been made easier to make out, as it needs zooming in a bit to see them.
As noted, White Moon Cove is a pretty pleasant location, although The Sunken Pyramid would disturb its peace a bit. It does not have to be used with that adventure of course. The village can easily be dropped into another suitable coastal setting – as long as it’s in a generally peaceful area – without too much difficulty, as this was done for it with the Gloamhold setting. It could just be a pleasant way station, unless, of course, the GM wants to run The Sunken Pyramid and throw everything into turmoil.
Village Backdrop: White Moon Cove is another decent village location that GM’s can use for their own purposes and it can be found by clicking here.
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