Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: FT – Phoenix

FT – Phoenix by Frank Schmidt is a free role playing game supplement published by Adventures in Filbar. This is in the FT series which describe various locations in the Filbar setting; in this case, a city in Pangia.

This is a nineteen page PDF that is available for free from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover and two pages have four stock photos intended to illustrate parts of the city.

The supplement starts with two pages in the history of Phoenix. A formally landlocked city in Fartook, it is now a port city after a new strait opened up, drowning part of the city as well. Prior to the disaster, Phoenix was used as a base for land battles between Fartook and its rival of Falmore. With the opening of the strait, and a resulting armistice, Phoenix has now become a major trade port instead.

The next six pages divide the city into four quadrants and the docks. Each area of the city has a numbered list of locations, each of which gives the location’s name and that of a major NPC who can be found there. Some locations also have further details, such as the type of business, if it isn’t obvious in the name, and the quality of goods sold. Finally in this section is Phoenix’s coat of arms.

Citizen Characteristics has eight d12 tables of random characteristics that can be used to generate citizens.

Adventure Ideas has five different adventure hooks set in Phoenix.

List of Benign Encounters has 30 different encounters for the city.

Finally, there are maps of the city. First is a full page, unlabelled, player’s map of Phoenix that looks to have been created in Cityographer from Inkwell Ideas. This is followed by three pages that have five labelled maps of each section of the city.

FT – Phoenix in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although not that long, these would have been useful. Navigation is poor. The text maintains a single column format with borders and some minor errors were noticed. Apart from the city maps, the illustrations are simply stock photographs. Presentation is okay.

The supplement is aimed at Dungeons & Dragons, probably 5E, but there are only a handful of game stats in the Adventure Ideas section. The majority of the supplement is system neutral. It should also be possible to drop the city in to other settings, although the history will be invalidated if that is done.

Supplements in the FT range that cover smaller settlements describe the individual locations in more detail. This one simply has a list of locations; a GM will need to flesh these out in more detail, should they be visited. FT – Phoenix is a decent, although not outstanding, city that can be downloaded for free by clicking here.