Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: FT – Hill Valley Community

FT – Hill Valley Community is a free role playing game supplement published by Adventures in Filbar. This is in the FT series of supplements, number 29, which primarily cover urban locations. Hill Valley Community is not quite an urban location, as it’s a castle, however, it’s a motte and bailey castle, and they consist of a fortified village as well as a tower.

FT - Hill Valley CommunityThis is a ten page PDF which lacks bookmarks. The front cover is in the now-standard grey denoting a free supplement with an illustration of a motte and bailey castle on it. One page has two stock illustrations, one being identical to the front cover and the other being a photo of what is intended to be the bailey part of the fortress, and another stock image takes up around a third of a page. Finally, there is a full page with a labelled map of the castle, which would appear to have been created in a computer graphics programme of some description.

Around two thirds of a page gives a general overview and description of the castle and some other relevant facts, with the remainder of the supplement describing the sixteen locations from the map. Each has what the place is and usually the name, and some other details, on an important non-player character who can be found there, as well as what goods and services are available.

One thing that is noticeable in the names of the NPCs is that a number are based on characters from Back to the Future. There’s a Biffton “Biff” Tannen, a Martis McFly, a Captain Strickland, an inventor called Brown Dock and a weapon smith called DeLorean.

The supplement has a single column layout, and a few errors were noted. The illustrations are the standard stock ones that are intended to depict various areas, and do the usual adequate job.

These supplement are usually aimed at variations of the Dungeons & Dragons game but, like many of them, actual stats are not provided, making the supplement system-agnostic. It also isn’t stated where in the Filbar setting the community is located, and the lack of distinct links to the setting – bar an brief aside about the Caravan Masters – make the location setting-neutral as well. As a result, FT – Hill Valley Community is a decently described fortification that can be dropped into most fantasy settings without trouble, and it’s free, so click here to get it.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.