soltakss
RQ Fogey
Registered: September 2007
Location: Birmingham, UK
Posts: 873
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Review Date: Sat February 23, 2008
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 8
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Positive aspects of the product (pros):
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Detailed Stats, Good NPC Descriptions, Useful
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Cons:
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No Blank Character Sheets, Ferrystop Could Have Been Better Described
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Duck Friends and Foes is a 54 page PDf from Sceaptune Games although it is also available in printed form. It is clear and well laid out with a few illustrations. It has a Table of Contents and Index that are very useful.
So, what's in it? Chapter by chapter as always …
Introduction covers how it is detailing stats and states what rules it is using. Short and sweet, it is only one page long and useful.
Ferrystop covers the village of Ferrystop in a very sketchy form. This is really a basic introduction to the village and goes into nothing in any detail.
Leaders has stats for the Governor, Elders, Servant, WiseDuck and Runelord. The stats are clear and very easy to read, not overly detailed but detailed enough to make the NPCs interesting.
TradesDuck has generic stats for Fishermen, Mariners, TownsDuck, Ferrymen, Boatmen, Farmers & Herdsmen and Ducklings, These are again clear and easy to read and are good little stats.
Snow Goose Ice Clan has stats and descriptions of a clan of Duck that travel to the north of Ferrystop. It has stats for the Warrior Hero, Shaman, Clan Chief and Clan Warriors. Again, these are clear, easy to read and detailed.
Wood Duck Family has stats for a small family of Duck and is OK but takes up a lot of space for something that perhaps could be invented by a GM on the spot.
Criminals has stats for pirates and thieves, street toughs and thugs, which are fine for sample NPCs.
Law and Order has stats for the watch and village guards/lookouts, which are fine for NPCs.
Adventurers has stats for individual adventurers, an adventurer band, an experienced adventuring group.
Duck Ready-Made Adventurers has a number of Duck PCs with very nice Character Sheets. But, there is no blank character sheet, which is clearly a mistake as this would be perfect for Duck PCs.
Rules Appendix contains those rules that are used in the supplement. These have been reprinted from Quester's Guide to Duck, but still have a place here.
So, is it any good? I don't normally like supplements such as Fangs or Foes, but this is definitely more than that. It sits halfway between something like fangs or Foes and something like Apple Lane. The village of Ferrystop is not very well detailed and could have done with a few more pages. The stats are generally good and easy to read. A GM could pick any of these and use them as an NPC with no problem.
Would I recommend it? Probably. As a companion to Quester's Guide to Duck it would be very useful. If you are not planning to use Duck in a campaign then it probably isn't worth having, but you could say that about any species-specific supplement.
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Simon Phipp - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982.
Many Systems, One Family
RQ Merrie England (Medieval RPG): http://www.alephtargames.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=39%3Ahistorical&id=53%3Amerrie-england&Itemid=57 and http://merrieengland.soltakss.com/
RQ/BRP: www.soltakss.com/index.html
RQ Alternate Earth: Group: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/alternateearthrq/ Website: http://alternateearthrq.soltakss.com/
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