Disclosure: I received a free review copy.

Let me begin by saying that this product impressed the hell out of me.

It clocks in at 16 pages with 12.5 pages of content (1 page for cover, 1/2 a page for credits, 1 page for OGL, and 1 page for an ad). Formatting and presentation are excellent, with every usable part of the page being well utilized for space.

Additionally, the content is excellent. The races provided are not only fitted with sound rules, but also with excellent exposition that makes the races stand out.

Provided within are Catfolk, Hagborn, Samsaran, and Tengu, and sub races for each. Also, the book provides number of new sub-races for dwarves, halflings, elves, and gnomes. Though the latter is a lot more brief, it is an excellent example of what a sub-race can be.

The highlight of this product is the showcasing of the racial write ups, giving the utmost attention to the society and background considerations for the new races. While the mere fact that this product provides new races at all is amazing (considering the hitherto infancy of 5th edition), this product blazes a trail and leaves an example of what new race books for 5th edition should be, and look like.

Bravo. 5 out of 5!

This product is a NPC supplement of Ratfolk. There is a basic write up of the Ratfolk race, but most of it is NPC write ups. If you want more material for Ratfolk, this is not the item for you. If want NPCs with interesting backstories, this IS the product for you. The Hero Labs files do not appear to work with Hero Labs, being .por files and not .hl files.

***This review contains spoilers****

This short adventure is intended challenge characters of 1st. A logging company is looking for a group of adventurers to investigate a series of mysterious happenstance at one of their logging camps and determine if the site can be reclaimed. The city in which the adventure begins does not have stats and the trip to the woods where the survivors of the incident are encamped is not covered, but a random encounter table is provided. I do not see this as a flaw because the adventure does not take place in the city and the trip can be as long as you want it to be. Deadly Delves are intended to be short and to the point, so there is no sense in adding that much details. You can create them as you see fit. It also allows a GM to place the adventure anywhere in his campaign as long as there some logging going on.

After meeting with the foreman of the camp to gather more information about what happened, a half-day journey takes the characters to the abandoned site of the former camp and with a little investigation, they can find tracks leading deeper in the woods. Since it is a logging camp, many tracks will lead to the forest and back to the camp. The odd thing here would be that these tracks originate from the camp's smithy. That could be seen as a minor flaw in the plot since this clue may be overlooked by players, but I do not think it would impact the adventure that much as any capable GM can get the players to follow these tracks with a few additional clues.

Following the tracks will lead the party straight into an ambush. If the characters do not kill outright the men assailing them, they will learn a lot of invaluable information about the who is behind these strange occurrences and where to find their lair. Even if the trappers get killed, the party can follow their tracks back to the caves where they lair and where lives the main antagonist. The cave system is the former lair of coven of troll witches, and as such, they left some traces of their occupation as well as a few unpleasant surprises. While exploring the caves, the characters can confront the huldra behind all the occurrences and figure out the fate of the missing loggers. Several scenarios are provided based on how the group meets the huldra and how they resolve the situation; some of these include peaceful solutions which I find very refreshing from most nodules I read.

Overall, I really liked this module as it is challenging, but all challenges require brute force and spells. The fact that it can be resolved peacefully and that the dangerous areas do not need to be explored makes it a great module for 1st level parties. I did njot get a chance to playtest it, but it seems well balanced. No suggestion were provided to expand the module or create other adventures based on this story, but I do not feel like it diminishes the quality of the module. I really, really liked that it can be resolved without much bloodshed if your players are so inclined.

I think this is a good adventure, with excellent ideas and encounters, albeit with a number of editing and presentation issues. Full review here: http://merricb.com/2015/10/21/5e-adventure-review-along-came-a-spider/

I really like this bestiary of high-level foes! The monsters are very inspiring and have lots of cool signature abilities and innovative mechanics. The layout is good and clean, and every monster comes with a beautiful full-color illustration. Top notch! I especially like this volume because I needed to have more monsters for level 15-20 campaign play. These Legendary Foes are up to the challenge! :) Recommended!

A cute little supplement that gives you a few dozen random names to plop onto spaceports. An amusing micro-supplement, and I approve of it more in concept than execution.

This is a short adventure that can easily be played in one session.

**Spoilers** After a caravan goes missing, the characters are hired to find the missing goods and missing villagers that were in the caravan. After interrogating the only surviving member of the caravan, the characters go looking for the culprits. A few random encounters are provided to bring a bit of excitement during the trip. The characters find the caves where the hobgoblin bandits hide and during their exploration, they find that the walls bear strange runes in many places. As soon as a necromancy spell is cast (which is bound to happen when fighting the hobgoblin cleric), Tyrkaven cultists, cursed by their dark god to become zombies, become aware of the presence of others in their cave, and they swarm forward to investigate, killing anyone they encounter. The characters will have to stop them before they reach outside and assault the village.

Although I did not play it yet with my group, this adventure looks tough for 2nd level characters. The introduction and conclusion are very short and to the point, but that is expected in such a short adventure. Depending on your style of play, if you like to have details and stats on everything, get ready to develop the village that serves as the backdrop to the adventure and some NPCs. However, the goal of this product is to provide you with a pre-made adventure, and that is where it delivers very well. I like that while fighting the hobgoblins, the adventure takes another turn and zombies start pouring out of the deepest part of the caves. The mysterious glyphs on the cave walls are also a nice touch even if their main purpose is to serve as a warning that not everything is right. The only thing I would have liked to see is a bit more detailed on the Tyrkaven-cursed zombies. We have a lot of information on how they became cursed and how they will react when they become aware of the presence of others in their cave complex, but when looking at the builds, you will notice that they kept a fairly high degree of intelligence and that they are very fast (their speed is 50 ft.). They have a scream special attack and their leader as the same abilities as a fighter of about level 5. However, we do not get a template for Tyrkaven-cursed zombies or a short sidebar to explain how they differ from regular zombies. While this does not prevent anyone from running the adventure and one can assume that the curse of Tyrkaven made them so, if you want to expand the adventure, it would have been nice to have at least a simple template.

That being said, I still think this is a good low-level adventure with enough details to be expanded in an even bigger adventure.

This book is a collection of 6 short adventures (around 4 pages each including map) that are intended to be inserted in an adventure path set in a land similar to Ancient Egypt or they can be played on their own.

Each adventure contain enough details to be played straigth from the book with the only exception of a few adversaries taken from different bestiaries. Overall, the adventures are interesting and well written. The maps supporting the adventures are nicely done and the I really liked the haunts as they were original in design.

Of the 6 adventures, 3 have a mummy (or mummies) as their main challenge. So, if mummies are not your thing, then I would not recommend this supplement. However, the adventures cover a fairly wide range of levels, so even if you play them as stand alone adventures, you should not bore your players with a variants of the same monsters.

This is a nice supplement, I recommend it for every GM running a desert/egyptian campaign.

It was ok but not something I could really use, since I play/run Classic Traveller. All told it's a good sheet, full of necessary information, but too many pages in my opinion.

Honestly comes in handy in a pinch. Silly and fun. Even things your players will read too much into. ;) Not necessary, but for $5, why not?

Was hoping for more...evocative backgrounds. This is just a list of boring medieval jobs. Not even worth your loonie.

Product is basically a bunch of mundane backgrounds, and merely the titles. I would expect a product like this to have plot hooks for various backgrounds or some added information beyond just a background title.

This is the second JBE supplement in the Foreven sector that I got my hands on. I have to say that it's definitely a step in the right direction as far as content and production values go. I also like the fact that the publisher was receptive to suggestions and comments from other purchasers. Always a good sign in my book! So let's review the specifics.

For a relatively small supplement (it clocks in at a total of 13 pages, and 4 of them are covers, index and license info) it contains a lot of background information. The subsector map is now a standard color one (yay!). There are a total of 23 planets for the sub-sector, seven of which get their own half-page write-up. Most of the remaining planets are mentioned in the three page overview for the sector. I think it's great that there's at least something on every system, which makes it much easier for a referee to develop scenarios. I personally like supplements like this because it reminds me of things like the old World of Greyhawk boxed set that had very high production qualities. Leafing through the supplement and reading some of the history and backstory helped (for me at least) make the game come more alive. Plus I'm the type of person that likes to read these things for pleasure too. Like the Fessor subsector, there are additional illustrations that help break up the pages. I have to admit when I saw the color illustration I thought "Vorlons!?!?!" :)

I would have given the supplement five full stars except for a couple of minor quibbles. It deserves 4.5 stars, but you have to rate in full, so I rounded down. For the price you get a lot of info - the maps, the subsector overview and the details on some of the worlds. I'm not sure what mapping software is used to create the maps, but when the pdf is created some of the images (like the depot one for example) seem like a fat-kid version of the naval base icon. I haven't tried printing it out yet, but when you zoom in on the screen overall the planets and color hold up well. There's also a few text errors that I figure will get cleaned up as they get reported. They are relatively minor and, to be honest here, I've seen far worse from much larger production houses.

I like the direction that JBE is taking with these. The cost is reasonable for what you are getting. Actually, with the cost being less than $4, in some ways it's a steal. Micro-releases like this are a nice break from buying the $29 or $39 supplements, that while much larger, don't always equate to better value for the money. On the plus side, if some of what you find here isn't quite to your liking, you aren't out that much. So it's a win-win in my book.

This was my first purchase of a JBE product. I had read the discussions on the MGT board and was interested in taking a look at what was being offered.

The supplement is 11 pages in total, of which only six having gaming information. The other five are the covers(2), a page covering the required OGL legalese and another information page with some more license/acknowledgements, and finally and introduction by the author talking about the sector and the direction he's taking with the supplement (it also includes some backstory for the sector as well). The additional backstory is a nice addition, the rest of the pages are to be expected.

Now, let's get on to the meat of the product. There is a sub-sector map page and accompanying table providing the breakdown of each system on the map. There are a total of 28 systems listed. Each of the major sub-polities (there are two) has their system clusters marked off on the map. There's also a single Zhodani planet along with a few empty hexes marked off as claimed by the Zho. No Imperial planets.

There's a page and a half detail for the subsector, providing some backstory on the region as well as an overview of the economics and political alliances. And there's some backstory on the pirates who flourish here as well. Fortunately for PC's, the pirates in this subsector are more concerned with smuggling than ship stealing or raiding.

There's a total of seven planets that have descriptions provided, with each one getting about half a page. I really enjoyed the detail provided for each one. Kudo's for the editing, since there's enough description provided for each of the detailed worlds to help a referee build a backstory around an adventure. Plus there are the always enjoyable snippets of information that helps provide character to each world. For example one world, known as the breadbasket of the People's Militia (one of the two multi-planet empires), has a problem with pollen that affects offworlders who have to wear filter masks. The author goes on to describe the social/economic layout of the planet in enough detail to provide adventure hooks. The rural nature of the planet offers opportunities for trade and adventure. Smaller towns offer potentially hostile or ill-tempered locals who need something done. And of course there's the built-in opportunity to do some profitable, if risky, smuggling.

The remaining six planets each get a similar descriptive breakdown - providing enough detail to set them apart from the rest while offering reasons and hooks for adventure.

I have two reasons for giving the product a three. The first is that the covers are in color, but the subsector map is black and white. It's easy enough to generate a color map, and the front and back covers (as well as some other pieces) are in color. In this day and age I expect color to used where it's most useful. And maps are (or at least should be) a primary focus of this.

The second, and main reason, I only gave this three stars was the lack of information on the remaining systems, and, to a lesser extent, more background on the two main political entities. There are 28 listed on the map and where system details are provided. But only seven get descriptions. The remaining systems only exist as far as system UPP's go (with a few exceptions to base listings, including pirate). There are two systems listed as Red zones and ten as Amber, so I would expect at least SOME description of why. A handful fall within the seven systems that are listed, but most aren't.

What I think should have happened was that the other 21 systems be given a paragraph description. And any system listed as Amber or Red definitely needed to have defined why they were listed as such. I find it annoying, to say the least, that planets get marked this way and no reason given. If there isn't a reason, then why bother? A referee can easy mark a planet as such if they so choose. If you are going to mark it you need to give a reason. I think it would have helped to provide more information on the two empires. There's mention of nearly 20 pirate bases in the region. I'm sure most are independent outfits, so it would have been nice to know which bases are known as the best places to fence stolen goods or ships, where you can go to repair damage or to get better weapons.

I think the supplement shows a lot of promise, but it's a bit light on details for my tastes. Hopefully the next ones will have more. I wouldn't mind spending double ($6 instead of $3) to get what I'm looking/asking for. It's still inexpensive enough that price isn't an issue.

New worlds to explore is what Traveller is all about - and here is an area with considerable scope, as much is not aligned with the big power blocs (Imperium, Zhodani, etc) and parts even unexplored... territory your party might put their own stamp on, maybe even establishing their own government.

Most of the worlds in Fessor Subsector either stand alone or as part of small multi-world states, with many regimes being noted for their tendency to be led by warlords or dictators rather than public servants in office for the good of their citizens. Other worlds began as colonies of like-minded folk seeking freedom (perhaps to practice a particular way of life) and some have even retained that spirit. Others were sponsored by corporations, content provided a regular supply of whatever resource sent them there in the first place is maintained.

As well as a formal UPP, each world gets a write-up of several paragraphs that gives a summary overview of what that planet is like. Whist short, these pen-pictures give a good feel of the overall picture at an appropriate level for a visitor to the planet - and should provide plenty of ideas for inventive referees should the party decide to go there.

A nice part of the universe to visit, scope for adventure without being the sort of place nobody in their right mind would visit. Oh, and they have pirates, too!