Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: FA1 – Fens of Malack

FA1 – Fens of Malack is a free role playing game supplement published by Adventures in Filbar. The supplement is aimed at the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and AD&D 2nd Edition games. This is the first in the FA series and is a series of unconnected encounters in an area of wilderness. It is stated as being aimed at initial or low level characters. These encounters can be used for adventurers passing through the location.

This is a thirteen page PDF which lacks bookmarks. One page is the cover, which features a grey cover signifying a free adventure and an area map which appears to have been done in Hexographer from Inkwell Ideas. This is not the original cover, as this type of cover did not start being used until some time after this supplement was released, and the PDF has undergone a revamp with some minor changes. Around two thirds of a page has a hex map of the Fens with the encounter areas marked, one page has three maps of various encounters and one page has three stock photos intended to illustrate various encounters.

FA1 - Fens of MalackOne page gives the Players and DM Background to the Fens, which are named after an insane fighter called Malack who decided to build an empire in the region then disappeared. The next page has 20 rumours that can be heard in the nearby village of Tomore, some of which are true, some not (although they aren’t marked as to which is which) and a d10 table of wandering monsters.

The rest of the supplement covers the five different encounter area. Each of these has a description for players and background for DMs, along with monster stats. These encounters range from a simple local encounter to a subterranean complex. Those area which have multiple different locations has each location detailed in the same way, with a description for players, DM’s notes, monster stats and any treasure.

The supplement lacks bookmarks but they are not really needed for one of this length. The text maintains a single column format and no errors were noted. The area map and three location maps all serve their intended function, but no more, and the photos are the same.

This may be intended for the AD&D system but it should be easily adaptable to Old School Revival systems and, with a bit more work, more complicated games such as Pathfinder.

The encounters themselves could also be dropped into another setting. The easiest way would be to get rid of the actual area map of the Fens and place the various encounters in another, suitable, location. Alternatively, yet a bit more difficult, would be to place the entire Fens into a setting.

FA1 – Fens of Malack is a decent collection of wilderness encounters and it can be downloaded for free by clicking here.

 

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