Great collection of handy prompts to bring your lair to life. High quality as usual.

Somehow Raging Swan Press manages to release just the thing I need in my campaign. There is no way I could have made this locale so realistic without the prompts contained in this book. Well done!

Great collection of handy prompts to bring your lair to life. High quality as usual.

20 Things #67 focuses on a very niche topic. I have not seen anything that could similarly give me such great ideas to generate some properly creepy scenarios

Great collection of handy prompts to bring your lair to life. High quality as usual.

Flavoursome collection of eventures to quickly fill in the gaps in your campaign. It adds depth with very little effort. Some of these prompts have turned into major side quests in my game

This was the opener for my current adventure. The party had a blast and the bones that are within these pages really set up the DM to give their party a good time. Keep up the great work Raging Swan Press

Includes different dice tables to get inspired as to what to include in this scenario. I came across the situation to run a prison break at my game (which i had not planned, as it happens) and this helped me think what to put in there quickly.

My party is on the way to Dulwich while on a quest. This is going to be a fun town to spend a little time and gear up. Keep of the great work RSP!

A crossroads village surrounded by a stockade with a watchtower at each of the 3 gates. A brief history of the village and details of 9 locations are provided..

There is also a whispers and rumours table and a 'village dressing' table.

Very useful.

A village on the fringes of a swamp, exactly what I was looking for. There are 9 locations within the village and a nearby isle of lizardmen (again something I was looking for).

Eight npc's are detailed and there are two event tables for the two locations.

Overall excellent value for money.

Would have liked more locations detailed, so still some work for me to do.

Disclaimer 1: I received this product for free in return for a review. Disclaimer 2: I have only read through the adventure; I haven't run it. I say this because reviewers often praise an adventure that reads good on paper but is totally DM-unfriendly to run.

There is a lot of great content here! It's not just the Keep of the title; there's also a detailed town and a surrounding wilderness. The town of Dulwich has so much happening that you might never bother to go to the dungeon at all. It feels like a real place. The wilderness is less thoroughly described but full of good ideas that could be fleshed out, and they tie in well to the Keep's backstory. Also, the Keep itself contains several different zones each with their own flavour, so different characters and different playing styles each get a turn to do their thing. The basic concept is generic enough to find a home in any typical fantasy campaign, but the backstory is sufficiently well worked out to make the place interesting to explore.

There's good interface between story and mechanics in things like the lists of specialty foods and drinks at different hostelries, the graded DCs for remembering lore about a location (the higher you roll, the more info you get), and especially the location descriptions. Things like walls, floors, lighting, even staircases do come into play mechanically and the succinct but creative descriptions give the DM plenty of fuel for bringing the world to life as a realistic place that can be interacted with. Another interesting mechanic is the timeline of potential events at the Keep. The author specifically says that you can use as much or as little of this as you like, but it helps to locate the Keep in time as well as space (the other actors don't wait passively for the PCs to act; they have their own agendas).

Above all, what I really liked was the presentation. The layout is aesthetically pleasing but also very fit-for-purpose: typography that actually fulfils its primary task of helping you navigate the material. Unlike what a lot of writers think, RPG adventures aren't a subgenre of fiction, they're an instructional genre. Raging Swan actually gets this. Rather than swathes of descriptive text that swamps the important game details and makes adaptation/improvisation very difficult, the information about each location is presented in more tabular or point form. It informs the DM but allows them creative space.

The maps and B&W illustrations, too, are helpful for explicating the content but also engage you with it emotionally. (There's some nice player handouts too.)

Child-friendliness: there are a few unimportant details you'd want to skip and a major encounter that would probably be too disturbing for anyone under 16. Otherwise, I think this would play pretty well with kids aged 10+.

The stand-alone Shadowed Keep is a classic and the Ashlar version feels polished and complete. It's unfortunate some of the original (and excellent) artwork didn't make the final cut, but the result is a glabrous old school aesthetic that puts corporate mannerists to shame. The new maps are gorgeous. Previously, each area of the keep was paired with relevant stat blocks and a compilation PDF was mercifully included. The new edition organizes everything into one bookmarked PDF (plus a version for mobile contraptions) with all encounter stats compiled at the very end. It likely comes down to preference, but this GM appreciates being able to quickly eye a nearby room's contents without changing pages. There are two minor issues worth noting, both of which are in the statistics appendix: Braal's domains are inconsistent with his Deities and Demons entry and Firean's abilities and equipment don't reflect her newfound faith. These are very minor and shouldn't impact gameplay, but attentive players familiar with the setting might bring it up (usually at the most impractical time). The town of Dulwich now feels alive and vibrant: new locations, new nutters, adventure hooks aplenty, and East Gate's owner has finally crawled out of bed. I did notice a rogue copy-paste sitting in the Golden Skull, but what else should you expect from a den of thieves? Dulwich has the potential to rival Languard in opportunities should a group prove sufficiently nosy. Additional distractions can also be found in the nearby wilderness including a small settlement easily adapted to deal with nonstandard PCs that are otherwise accustomed to torch-and-pitchfork welcomes.
All in all, this is a massive improvement over the original work.

Oh my, it has ALL THE THINGS! Whether you need a description for a magical mace you want your PCs to find or something in a creepy graveyard, this book has you covered. This system neutral resource gets used at my table all the time. I fully recommend getting this book and its sequel The Thingonomicon II.

Are you stuck for a description of a magical staff your PCs just found? Do you need a quick background of a random tavern patron the PCs have suddenly taken interest in? This system neutral resource has you covered. I fully recommend getting this book and its predesessor The Thingonomicon.