A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Villains

Villains by Creighton Broadhurst and Martin Tideswell 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.

The supplement is available as a 30-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $3.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter, one the Contents and stat blocks by CR, one a standard page on Reading Stat Blocks, one the Open Game License and one is an ad.

Minions is the first section and is divided into Assassins, Mercenary Warrior, Rakes, Spies and Thugs. Each section has a brief paragraph on the type, then stats and brief descriptions. Assassins and Spies both have descriptions of two specific NPCs; Mercenary Warrior has Mercenary Leader, Elite Mercenary Warrior and Mercenary Warrior, Rakes has Professional Duellist and Rake and Thugs has Thug and Brawler. These three also have encounter groups.

The next section is Villains, which covers seven villains, with their alignment, sex, species, class and level. Following this is a brief description of their aims and where they are. Next is background on the NPC – not all started as villains – their personality, mannerisms, distinguishing features, adventure seeds and lore. Some also have associated NPCs or other material.

Now, the seven villains in this section are all duplicated in the later supplement, Campaign Codex #3: Villains (P1). There seems to be little difference between the presentation.

Villains in Review

The PDF is bookmarked with everything except sidebars linked. The Contents only covers the main sections and is hyperlinked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are black and white stock illustrations for every NPC. Presentation is decent.

The main thing to note is that a substantial proportion of the supplement is duplicated in Campaign Codex #3: Villains (P1). This latter supplement is more expensive and the treatment of the villains looks very similar, without doing a word for word comparison; it appears some areas may have been expanded and the stats are separated out. What’s notable is that the later supplement lacks the section on minions. Both supplements have pluses but this one looks like it may be better value for money. Villains can be found by clicking here.