by Cain.rpgorg in Jun 12,2012

On this week Rite Publishing released a new supplement for Pathfinder, titled as 101 Not So Random Encounters: Urban. From now on the players have a chance to run into various monsters in the middle of the city, most of them disguised as something else.

   The book focuses on the members of on branch of the Fold, a criminal organization entirely made up of monsters who fear or hate humanoids. This of course means that if the players run into some of their operations they will be very surprised!

   The Fold is originally designed for Rite Publishing's campaign setting, Questhaven, a city with a population roughly numbering 700,000 people. This means that the organization is also large, featuring many very powerful members (CR 15 or above), what you may scale down if you need a smaller organization.

   The supplement contains not less than 101 unique NPC-s and some random tables, but sadly no entirely detailed encounters. Thankfully the most probable ways to meet the character/monster in question as well as suggestions to raise or lower the CR by 2 is also included.

   Speaking about the monsters, we receive a really extensive collection from CR 1/2 up to CR 23, featuring undead, outsiders, constructs a big number of classic monsters from India (rakshasa, naga etc.) and others. All of them has a place in the organization, a detailed personality with his/her own goals (often conflicting with other Fold members) and connections. Some of the creatures have unique and interesting statistics and abilities, turning them into a bigger challenge, while others are just "normal" members of their race.

   The book also contain some random encounter tables based on party level, so it's entirely possible that the players run into some criminal operation on the way. This could possibly lead into a whole campaign against the Fold, as the players reach higher and higher level members within the organization.

    I think the supplement could be used in two ways : you either include the Fold in your campaign setting, or you use some of the NPC monsters as a member of another organization. I guess that a cloaker or evil pseudodragon spy, a medusa poisoner or a rakshasa manipulator could be a surprising addition to an otherwise mundane criminal organization.

Final words

   101 Not So Random Encounters: Urban is an interesting addition to the game, but it's use may be narrow thanks to the unique content. It would be great if we could get at least a few really detailed encounters in addition to the creatures, but what we receive is really good. So in the end I give it 4/5 points.

For those, who would like to get 101 Not So Random Encounters: Urban (PFRPG) I recommend DriveTruRPG as usual. (link)

Zoltán "Cain" Mészáros

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