Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: FA9 – The Festival Experience

FA9 – The Festival Experience is a free role playing game supplement from Adventures in Filbar that is intended for use with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and AD&D 2nd Edition game systems. Where this supplement differs from the rest of the FA series is what it covers. The other supplements cover wilderness adventure areas; this one instead describes a festival or fair, something that would usually be encountered near an urban area.

This is a twelve page PDF supplement without bookmarks. The first page of the PDF is, as usual, the Adventures in Filbar logo. About two thirds of a page covers when and how players may come across a festival, and some potential adventure ideas. On one page is a map showing the festival layout, and on another are four photographs of scenes that would possibly be encountered there. Slightly over a page has potential random encounters and the remainder of the PDF covers the various locations and booths.

Each of the 18 festival locations has its appearance described and, where relevant, any potential adventure hooks or activities that can be participated in at that location. The encounters section has three different parts. The first two describe wandering merchants and roaming attractions that could be encountered around the festival, rather than at a fixed location. The final one is a list of 12 random crowd participants, whose appearance, and some actions, are described.

This may be aimed at the AD&D game, but it is almost completely system generic. There are a few references to skill checks that should be comparatively easy to translate into another game system, and no non-player character stats given at all; in fact, there are no non-player characters described in any great detail other than their jobs or occupations. The supplement is also not specific to any particular world; the festival could be dropped outside any suitable medieval fantasy settlement with no difficulty. There is the odd mistake in the text, and the photos are simply stock pictures. The map has been created by some computer software, but is perfectly adequate. This festival setting will work fine as something different to show the players, and could be used as a starting point for an adventure or two, even if a brief one. With a bit of work, it could be made into several different festivals, although it’s unlikely most characters will want to go to too many of them. FA9 – The Festival Experience is a decent, and different, supplement for any campaign. Click here to download it for free.