The Plunderers of Ballogfar Part III aka All About Characters by John Josten is a role playing game supplement published by Board Enterprises. Much of the supplement is generic; however, more parts than normal would appear to refer to Legend Quest. This is part of the Small Bites series and is the “World Walker” version. The full version is only available to Patreon supporters and is about three times the length.
The supplement is available as a free 22-page PDF from DriveThruRPG, with one page being the front cover.
The Introduction explains that this is part three of a two part – it spiralled – look at the Lost City of Ballogfar (Part I and Part II have different names to this) and that this covers adventurers.
Fletnern Wiki duplicates material on the wiki tagged as Ballogfar and Townships. All the entries in this are townships.
The Sounding Board duplicates material from the blog. It starts with Secondary Skills and how in the early days there was a table to roll on to determine a random pre-adventurer career, and this idea got incorporated directly into Legend Quest. It then considers what secondary skills might be gained from primary ones, such as chemistry from alchemy, and how that might be handled in a class-based game.
Tunnels, Caves and Underground Cities considers underground realms in fantasy settings, which are nothing like real life underground realms, and how they might be formed, specifically in the case of the Lost City, where mining was the main cause.
Combat Experience and Experience is on experience, and why NPCs should gain it for doing normal NPC stuff, because in the real world a person gets better at things over time. Legend Quest assigns points to NPCs for this.
How to Play a… Boomtowner considers those adventurers who explore the Lost City, with Boomtown being the nearby settlement. It treats items such as supplies, such as ammo, water and shelter, with a bit on Boomtown itself.
Wet Behind the Ears considers the Jack of All Trades, the character who can do a bit of anything. This is done in Legend Quest terms, though this is not explicitly stated, and is a spell singer; a bard, in other words. Halflings are considered to be the most suitable for a character who has the right combination. It goes into a lot of detail, including equipment.
The Good Life considers Boomtown merchants, and how their price gouging ways will give them a terrible reputation when they try to return to Rhum.
Silver Sense considers Standard Packs, which has primarily two packs with Legend Quest equipment in suitable for adventurers, which references Grain into Gold and The Alchemist’s Lab.
By the Numbers is a rather long article on just how feasible it would be to wield two oversized weapons. Basically, it isn’t, especially in Legend Quest.
Pull Back the Curtain considers the casting of spells.
What’s Missing? covers what articles are in the full version.
In Conclusion wraps things up and provides various links.
The final two pages of content are what look like Fletnern Wiki entries on a series of cards. There are 18 cards in total, though three are blank.
The Plunderers of Ballogfar Part III aka All About Characters in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents is not to the same level of depth but is hyperlinked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of stock black and white illustrations, plus the cards at the end which are either in colour or a combination of colour and black and white and use stock images. Presentation is okay.
This edition has far more references to Legend Quest than is commonly seen in the series. In some cases, the theory will transfer other, but in others, not so much. Of the Lost City series, it has less details on the city itself than others, with the adventurer’s base of Boomtown being the primary area covered, which is outside the city proper. As usual, this is a batch of articles on a generally related subject, but in this case they are perhaps less use to those not using Legend Quest. The Plunderers of Ballogfar Part III aka All About Characters can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
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