Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: ‘The Cozy Hearth Inn’

‘The Cozy Hearth Inn’ by Scott Craven is a free role playing game supplement published by The Forge Studios. The supplement is covered by the d20 System Trademark License, although that license was revoked in 2008, so this should probably have been replaced with the Open Game License, and consequently the supplement is considered to be Open Game Content. It is designed to work with the d20 system and other compatible game systems, such as Pathfinder, and will probably work with most Old School Revival systems too.

The supplement is a seven page PDF that lacks bookmarks. Two pages are taken up by the front and back covers and one by the Open Game License. One page is taken up by credits, a black and white sketch of the inn, a basic description of the exterior and an overview of the service and products, in a standard d20 manner. Two and a third pages cover the inn itself, with the remaining two thirds of a page blank.

The supplement describes three floors of the inn, including the basement, complete with black and white maps of each floor. Four non-player characters (NPCs) who run and work in the inn are also described, as is a potential, low level, encounter.

This is a short description of an inn that can be easily dropped into most fantasy settings. Stats are provided for one of the NPCs, and the monsters that would be fought in the simple, low level encounter. It could be adapted to other game systems without too much work. The maps, although they are not labelled, are of a good quality, even if black and white – and whether or not colour maps are preferred is largely personal preference. ‘The Cozy Hearth Inn’, although not the most detailed or complete of inns, is decent enough for a free supplement and could provide a brief encounter to take up a short period of time as well as provide a potential base for players to use between adventures.

Download it for free from RPGNow.