Disclaimer: In this book, two random tables and a cheat sheet created by me can be found, and I received for it a Flying Mice PDF of my choice. As I wasn't involved into the many remaining parts of the creation, I think of myself yet as neutral in my evaluation, but for reasons of transparency and honesty I consider it as important to point at that beforehand.

Finally, over one year after the publication of the main rule-book of South Americas introductory RPG, the first sourcebook is available – a book that by its title seems to be mostly aimed at GMs, but is in its core a compendium into which everything was packed and squeezed that could be added to the game, including but not limited to new classes, new races, new spells, a sample setting or rules for wilderness generation and travel.

As this book hasn't only turned out as a grab bag with everything and (literally) the kitchen sink, but also has a sprawling size of 312 pages, there won't be any other option but going through it chapter by chapter, to see how useful the individual bits are and how well they are made. In the end, I'll evaluate how much of the book is useful to the potential customer and user.


General stuff
As said above, this book is a veritable tome of 312 pages, and I have both the PDF and the book in front of me.
The book is the typical Lulu softcover as typical by Flying Mice, coloured on the cover and b/w on the inside.
The look is similar to that of the FtA! MRB (two columns, special font for table of contents, headings and table contents etc.) Only in regards of the illustrations there's a small change: In addition to the well-known, slightly impressionist e-paintings as in every Flying Mice book, there are small hand-drawn comics. They're simple and minimal, but personally I enjoy them more than the usual e-paintings, as the style sits better for me, as they show situations rather than still lives, and last but not least as they don't take themselves to seriously. (My personal favourite is the adventurer group on p.16 that comments the trap "detection" abilities of their Halfling – "Ouch! That looks painful!" With the usual pics, it's the half-naked hill elf chick on p.228, simply because half-naked chicks are always viable motifs for illustrations.)

There's also a table of contents and an index, although I've got to criticize something about it: The table of contents is simply too short to find any particular entry quickly (for instance, the setting chapter with its 109 pages only gets one reference to its very beginning), while the sidebar navigation in the PDF only leads to the various tables and is therefore totally useless for every other search task.


I. Races (5 pages)
This chapter introduces us to five new races:

• Centaurs are a damn strong fighter race. They not only gain the expectable boni on physical and penalties on mental attributes, but also 2d6HP extra and a massively powerful charge attack. The only balancing factor is the lack of armour proficiencies, a penalty on sneaking and by choice either crippling cultural taboos on entering closed quarters and getting ridden, or social penalties in dealing with other centaurs.
  I think of this race as the worst designed of them all, as at least after the expense of a couple of skill points to get proficient in armour, they only have very mild penalties remaining, and as they are undoubtedly the most effective PC race in the "in ya face" part of combat. To put them to use, you either have to totally don't care about balance, or you have to be ready to house-rule them a bit.
• Drakes are a fairy race that looks like small dragons of the size of a dog. There most outstanding abilities are the ability to fly and a 2d6 fire breath three times a day.
  Apart from this, Drakes don't shine in any area. As warriors, they suffer from physical penalties and a total inability to make use of weapons and armour (which is only partially compensated by their natural claws and scale hide). As wizards, they suffer from a Wisdom penalty and the official binding to the weal Illusion spell list. Finally, as rogues, they are probably the most useless, as their inability to use weapons indicates the lack of the ability to grasp with their handy. Moreover, their lack of any preferred class results in a very slow power progression in long-time play.
  All in all, they seem balanced to me – in the beginning, the ability to fly and a fire breath that munches through low-level monsters comes in very handy. However, later in the game regular access to spells and items with similar effect negates this advantage, and the slow progression and the lack of any outstanding area of ability forces them behind the rest of the group in regards of relative power-level. Therefore, they seem comparable to the Elf class of old D&D editions, where initial power is off-set by later relative powerlessness.
• Lizardmen form a special category. Their preferred classes are Warrior and Rogue, but they get an Intelligence bonus rather than one on any physical attribute, as well as smaller, highly situational boni (natural claws, swamp survival bonus, swimming bonus, and weakness against cold damage). What stands out is their natural armour: A whopping DR5, similar to heavy armour +2!
  Because of this, these critters seemed to me overpowered on my initial read, but after asking the creator about this, it seems to be intended that Lizardmen can't add any body armour, only helmets and shields. With this piece of information, the whole picture seems much more balanced and similar to the Drake situation, with a whopping advantage in the beginning, but relative weakness later when magical body armour equalizes and surpasses this.
• Finally, Goblins and Kobolds are simply poor man's halflings. Their modifiers are similar, but they have additionally either to deal with penalties on mental attributes (Kobolds), or with weaker boni (Goblins).
  Therefore, they are mostly something for folks who absolutely want to play a goblinoid out of choice, even if it results in a weaker character than a halfling, similar to relation between Orc and Human Barbarian race in the MRB.

All in all, you get two races that can be used by the book, two more races for players who are willing to sacrifice a bit for their character vision, and one for those who don't care at all about game balance or are ready to tinker.
What I would have expected, but couldn't find, were instructions for the creation of your own races to help you a bit by compiling and comparing the various boni which are already in use.

Therefore, I rate this chapter as average.


II. Classes (5 pages)
This chapter stars with "Notes on Classes", where the five existing classes are more closely examined, including an evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses, the question what their paths mean mechanically, and how these classes can get fleshed out and defined in regards of background, skills and inclusion into the setting.
Folks who already pondered a bit about retro RPGs and the implications of their few classes won't probably discover much new, but for everyone else it might be an eye-opener.

As brand-new class, the Monk is presented – a kind of a Warrior-Rogue, who's already imbedded into the sample setting. In general, it's a somewhat weaker Warrior destined for the Melee path, but with better skills and the popular and expectable modifications of a Shaolin monk (kick-ass unarmed combat, Acrobatics bonus etc.)
This class does certainly what it's intended for, but in a book that puts the DIY aspect into the foreground I'd have preferred a more generic Warrior-Rogue, with the Monk as one of several Paths, similar to the Rogue sub-classes in the MRB.


I consider this chapter as well done.


III. Gameplay (19 pages)
If this sourcebook is already a grab bag, then this one chapter must be its very essence. Here, everything was mixed in that didn't fit in anywhere else, so expect quite a diverse mish-mash.

It begins with various rules stuff.
What I consider as negative is the re-print of existing stuff, especially the optional Close Damage Rule (which can already be found on the HP since about a year) and the FAQ (which consists mostly of stuff from the publicly readable RPGsite thread). Why stuff that should be already known to most readers had to be put in into the book puzzles me, seriously said, especially as some things lack that I missed and could have used that space (toolkits for race creation, a more generic and diversified Warrior-Rogue, and especially a longer and more useful table of contents!)
What I enjoyed however has been the optional Role-playing Award Rule, where at the end of each session an election among all the participants results in an Adventure Point for the best player. This rule isn't only a good compromise between GM tyranny and player empowerment communism, it also creates an additional and non-intrusive channel for feedback and debriefings. Moreover, it gives the participants total freedom in regards of what they consider as "good role-playing", leaving this question where it belongs – on the play level of the actual group and its mood of the day, not in the hands of some authoritarian Holy Designer Dude™ who doesn't even know the players personally.


The remaining 15 pages take solely care of equipment.

I personally enjoyed the most the Random Pointy Hat Table by Settembrini, which has also been greatly lauded by the players in my test game. It offers a nice and diverse selection of mundane, unusual and highly strange results, and it doesn't take itself too seriously.
I also enjoyed the NetHack-esque rules for creating dragon scale armour, as well as the Non-Magical Scroll Table by Jong Wong Kim with its good selection of mundane, strange and funny results, as well as potential hooks for sub-plots and adventure.

The random table for gems is also nice, but does just what it says on the tin. Joe Wolz' Ancient Coins Table is also good in regards of conception, but in execution, a 2d6 table with its 11 entries and normal distribution leads to too less variety and too much repetition.

I'm neutral towards the more detailed descriptions of tools and musical instruments – I'm already happy with the depth in the MRB, but for those searching for more detail, it offers exactly what it says on the tin.
The rules for buying and using poison (and blowguns) do the same, although I'd had loved to see more about special poisons like sleep poisons, rather then the usual CON loss variety.

A more negative stance is what I have towards the article on pipes and tobacco, as it manages to waste 2 pages on a topic that's irrelevant in 9 of 10 campaigns, and the random table for Drink Names. (I've already abused a part of it for name generation, but nevertheless I'd have preferred something more versatile, like an actual random name table.)


All in all, this chapter really is the grab bag it seems to be, with some shiny stuff, some definitive page wasters, and everything between. As the good parts in their goodness easily surpass the weak parts in their weakness, I consider this chapter as good.


IV. Dungeon Elements (11 pages)
Not exactly the 4th of July, but the 4th of the chapters leads us to bread and butter of the game, the dungeon and the stuff that can be found in it.

I especially enjoyed two points which were strongly influenced by Nethack: Rules and random tables for kitchen-sinks (which could easily be replaced by water pumps if you aren't up for this level of gonzo), and the Dungeon Dining table, where we can find out which effect it has if we eat this or that monster. Some of it will be already known by the vivid Nethacker (like the properties of Kobolds and Wraiths), but those who rely on their knowledge of this classic rogue-like might also run into the one or another less pleasant surprise...

The article on dungeon lighting answers exactly what it pretends to answer (How long will our torches and lamp oil run? How far can we see with them? etc.), but these are vital answers for a game of classic dungeon delving. The question mustn't be why this article is included, but why it wasn't already covered in the MRB. Hopefully, the Spanish MRB will include this part.

Finally, we get to magical locks – locks and therefore also doors, which can only be cracked by spells or magical arms. Not that it's a bad part, but it's a bit thin stuff for an own article. A general article on unusual doors, locks and/or keys would have gone better down for me.

For purposes of completeness, I should also mention that there's an Eerie Room Phenomenon table by me, but I won't evaluate my own creations.


If we look at it all, we get a solidly chapter with few weak points.


V. Magic (11 pages)
No fantasy RPG compendium would be complete without covering magic, so here we go.
As new crunch, we get ahold of two new spell lists: "Summon/Bind" and "Necromancy", which offer just what the label lets expect. Both lists seem balanced, but as both tend to get nasty towards the upper end when Great Old Ones are summoned or necromancers are turned into Lichs, so probably not every GM is going to allow these for his players.

I also enjoyed the article on existing spell lists and their roles, as well as thoughts on imbedding into the setting, the typical users and what it means in each case for Warrior-Wizards, Rogue-Wizards and full-blown Wizards to select exactly this or that spell list.

More strangely seemed to me the errata on monsters and their PAS resistance versus spells, of which I doubt that it really chimes with the system. (This topic has meanwhile been covered in the FtA! FAQ, and seems like that it was rather thought as an optional rule than as an errata.)


Apart from the errata, this chapter is very well done and one of the best in the book.


VI. Non-Player Characters (16 pages)
The NPC chapter is one of the more lengthy ones, in which 13 pages of the length come from a massive list of generic NPCs, sorted by class and level (Warriors: Llvl1-20, Rogues: lvl1-20 etc.) These have been done on the detail level of a PC, together with equipment. All you have to do is to apply race modifiers, to allocate skill points (which amount is already pre-calculated), and you are good to go.
Of course, everyone could do that in some hours of work – but that's dull and tedious work, so that the prospective FTA! GM will certainly find this handy.

This chapter gets rounded out by monster stats for PC race stats on monster detail level (typical human peasant, run-of-the-mill dwarven miner etc.) and random tables for weird wizardly behaviour and NPC personality (the last one done by me and therefore unevaluated).


All in all a useful chapter, which while it not glitters will certainly take some workload from the GM during prep and improvisation.


VII. The Surface World (81 pages)
This part is the longest so far, and it deals with a very diverse array of topics, so one by one.

It starts with rules for wilderness travel, in which you get your run-of-the-mill rules for this kind of stuff (rules for gathering food and water, how to navigate and how to get lost, travel speed by terrain and streets etc.) While not the great new invention that will start a revolution in gaming, it's done well from the perspective of a craftsperson and broadens the possibilities of the game.
There's only one little thing I have to criticize: Travel by air and by water are by far the fastest. This isn't the problem, but rather that the fluff indicates that these risk to attract dangerous encounters, but then omit added wilderness encounter charts for these "areas".


After this one is all set and done, we get rules for random wilderness generation. Based on a hex map you can roll travel day for travel day into what kind of terrain you stumble. To do this, you roll up an initial terrain for your base map, and from thereon, you move hex by hex from it and roll whether the terrain deviates and if yes, by how much (from moving a line up or down in the table to a total re-roll).

This subsystem does exactly what it says on the tin, but that isn't to say that it doesn't have some quirks. For instance, there is no default process for choosing the direction of change, or deciding whether or not it would be the time for changing your base hex. This is all up to the whim of the GM, and if one decides to go in a spiral and change the base hex for each roll, while another one goes for a six-pointed star pattern and then fills out the gaps from the ends, you can statistically expect pretty different maps. Not everyone will have an issue with this, but those who looked specifically for a wilderness generator just for _don't_ making any decisions, but rather for following a painting-by-numbers approach now and sandpapering the result later. Especially this type of user would probably have been happy with a default approach – those who actually want to influence the map creation process can yet do so and toss it out, but those who don't want to have first to write something up (what is always harder then ditching instructions and just winging it).

Moreover, the terrain table is a 2d6 one. As these results in normal distributions, you can expect that the results of moderate climate in the middle of the table will show up more often then the more extreme results. The deviation roll also tends towards the middle, so that most maps will probably end up as a hodgepodge of moderate terrains, with some irregular exceptions here and there.
Especially ice deserts and island chains dominated by ocean should be tough to get, as these results sit on entry #2 and #12 and only get rolled up in 1 of 36 cases. So if you want to have one of these areas, expect the need to fudge a lot in the generation process.

In regards of possible fixes, you could ditch the mixed terrain of forested hills (that is anyway redundant as it just follows the rules for forests or hills), to change the numbering to #1-10 and then to replace 2d6 by 1d10, what should result in more mixed and diverse maps.


Next, we get to deal with the expanded terrain tables, sorted by types of terrain. These allow you to roll for specialities for each hex, be it something as adventurous as a dungeon or a lost city, or something more mundane as hot springs. This comes in especially handy in conjunction with the wilderness generator and helps with campaigns based on the hexploration concept and/or sandbox structure. It could certainly be used to play FtA! like Traveller with Basements&Blazing Ankylosaurs.
Only downer is the expanded encounter tables. While those offer more entries than their equivalents in the MRB, much of the entries are deadweight like encounters with sparrows (an example that I didn't make up, but actually took from the forest encounter table). Not that I'm opposed towards encounters that don't automatically lead to combat (heck, I even praise CP2020 for sporting such random encounters), but I'm opposed to encounters that don't offer any risk, opportunity or anything else that might be worth to sacrifice gaming time to it, and these tables are chock full of them. I'd rather stick to the tables in the MRB.

Of course, if you want to play Traveller with Basements&Blazing Ankylosaurs, forests full of druid groves and hummingbirds, err, sugasangues are a start, but you'd also expect random settlements. Somehow, FTA!GN! takes care of this urge. Here, the similarities to Marc Millers are actually the most obvious, as you determine step by step such aspects as the purpose of the settlement, population, local market or law level, with results influencing each other to increase the chance that, say, the shiny 20.000 citizen metropolis has better chances for a good weapon market than the humble 20 citizen hamlet. There's even a system to express the data in just one string of alphanumeric data, just like the UWP!
This part is rounded out by a random table for city specialities and a city random encounter table.

This part, which I'll just lump into the world-building and -usage basket, is overall well done, broadens the possibilities of the game and is a fitting addition to the rest of the system.


At the end of the chapter, we also get rules for black-powder weapons (including cannons) and sci-fi toys. These rules should work and broaden die possibilities of the game, at least for those who wish to sit on the dead man's chest or to blast purple-clad lichs into oblivion with laser guns.


In this chapter there's also some lesser stuff that just does what it claims and therefore doesn't need a deeper review: Random tables for caravans and their wares (which could also be used for determining flotsam or other mundane "treasure"); the "Where are we now?" random table; a random tavern detail table; taxes; currency exchange; selling items; rules for finding and buying/hiring spells and spellcasters in settlements; and finally guilds and organizations.


VIII. The Setting (109 pages)
As this chapter occupies 1/3 of the whole book, I won't go into too much detail, but rather give an extremely broad overview.

After a hex map of the setting, we get to a short digest on setting history: After some pre-human civilizations have done this and that, it was the human's turn to rule the world, and the Great Empire (similar to ancient Rome, although there isn't hinted if it has always been an empire or if it ever had been a republic before) stretched over all of the Setting. It finally fell due to internal issues and an external invasion from the south by the Hong (some kind of Mongols).

Thereafter, we get directly detailed dossiers on the various regions and nations, of which these should be the most important:

• The Hong Territories: As already mentioned, these nice folks are basically Mongols which have overrun large parts of The Setting. The former imperial territories occupied by them are the single biggest area on the map, and are today a patch rug of ruined ghost towns, native settlements which are tributary to the local Hong tribe, and the small fiefdoms of warlords. The Hong in this area are now mostly civilized and rather practice the Great Wheel religion than their bloodthirsty chaos cults from the good old days (although there are yet plenty of "old-schoolers" in the original Hong area).
  While their main religion is a Buddhism rip-off, there's also in parallel an animistic folk religion that deals with the demons and spirits of this world and how to appeal to them, while the Great Wheel is more concerned with the hereafter of reincarnation and enlightment. (This parallelism reminds me rather of Japanese religion, where the relationship between Shinto and Buddhism is the same. Then again, I'm not really an expert on or especially interested in Eastern religion, so it might be that similar structures have happened elsewhere.)
• Bowlands: This faux-Polish monarchy is one of the few native empires that have withstood the Hong invasion.
  While some names rather sound Russian, the existence of a senate called Sejm make clear that Poland has been the template for this one, and the religion is the same one as in the deceased Great Empire (Church of the Unconquered Sun, basically what would have happened if the Catholic church had rather been based on the imperial sun cult than on the messiah from an occupied backwater province).
• Landrest: This city state is the single biggest city in The Setting and was built on the ruins of Arcadia, the capital of the Great Empire. I can't decide on a clear cultural template – for instance, while the main religion is the Great Wheel, the city references to itself as "Polis". Most likely, this unclear cultural categorization happened on purpose to offer a generic megalopolis for city adventures.
• Diablo's Point: The second largest city in the Setting is known as "the most notorious hive of scum and piracy in The Setting", and basically what you would get if you would mix Port Blacksand and a Tortuga as from the swashbuckling flicks.

There are also some areas of lesser significance, like the Elven Hills, the Giants Land or the Gorilla Kingdoms.

In the end, we also get some dossiers on the religions of The Setting, as well as an alternative Setting map.


Let me start with the positive aspects: There clearly has been put thought on the fact that this should be the scenery for adventures, rather than a setting for the sake of having a setting. Therefore, there are plenty of adventure hooks and conflicts, and in the end of each region dossier, there's an own article on this topic to elaborate on the possible troubles and adventures.
Moreover, large parts of The Setting are built on clichés rather than "my SOOO unique snowflake of a people/settlement/area", and are therefore easy to grok.

Where it fails is however with the own goal to create a springboard for own setting development. For a clean-cut spring board, its dossiers are too detailed and demand too much reading, which is partially due to the fact that not enough fat has been drained. To take just one example, there are 14 pages on Bowland clans, telling about 130 different clans. I have no clue which GM needs that many clans or is even able to consider that many, especially as they are often quite similar and non-descript.

Finally, the organization of this part clearly needs work. I already mentioned that the table of contents doesn't help to navigate this chapter, requiring the index to find anything without memorizing – for which in turn you have already to know the exact name that you are looking for.
Moreover, there isn't a complete overview for the Setting. It would certainly lessen the workload of learning the setting if there would be a short digest on all regions in the beginning, limiting itself to 3-5 sentences per area of interest.


In regards of usage, you probably get the most mileage from The Setting if you either use it as given (and therefore struggle with the organization issue mentioned above, while using the detail level as an advantage rather than a detriment), or if you just steal the more unique elements like the Gorilla Kingdoms (which in turn turns large parts of this chapter into deadweight, as most of it is purposefully built on cliché, trading uniqueness for accessibility).

All in all, it's one of the weaker chapters, mostly due to organization issues and too high fat content getting into the way of its goal as a spring board.


IX. The Planes of Existence (25 pages)
As probably no one has guessed, this chapter actually deals with... planes!
In this game, planes are organized as an ikosaeder, with the plane of Law on the 1st face on the upside and that of Chaos on the 20th face on the opposite side of the d20. (There's also hinted that opposed faces might mean the antonym of each other each time.)
In addition to the Road of the Worlds (the zig-zag line following the border between the faces, running vertically from 1st to 20th face), other modes of transport are also described, especially the use of special sail ships for crossing the astral plane between the worlds, as known from a certain D&D campaign setting.

The astral plane is also the single plane that gets the most attention, including a description of its geography, its more or less native inhabitants and some encounter tables.
The four elemental planes also get some detail (including encounter tables), while the celestial planes get some fluff description, but no such tables.
What's remarkable is that in addition to the usual stuff mentioned above, a lot of attention has been put to alternate material planes – parallel worlds similar to The Setting, for which even a random table exists.

All in all it's an average chapter that does what it claims to do.


X. New Monsters (17 pages)
In the last actual chapter, new monsters are introduced. While the monster selection in the MRB has been rather generic and conservative, it turns here rather innovative and gonzo.
My personal favourites are the Astral Mole (think giant star-nosed mole living in the astral plane and having various powers), the Gazebo and its stronger cousin Dread Gazebo, and the Wereswine (a pig lycanthrope full of annotations to a certain internet crusade).

This chapter is well done, IMHO.


Various stuff (remaining pages)
In addition to the things mentioned in the intro and the chapter reviews, there are a foreword by RPGPundit and a cheat-sheet done by me (which, while I won't evaluate my own work, has already served me well in my games).


Conclusion
As all-purpose compendium with everything and the literal kitchen-sink, where everything that could be put in has been put in, FTA!GN! of course sports some weak content due to structural reasons.
On the other hand, some neat pearls can be found, enough to negate the weaker parts, especially as it's the nature of such compendiums that no one uses everything and neither expects to like everything enough to put it to use.

Those who wish to GM FTA! on the long-time, ~10$ for the PDF or ~20$ for the book are well invested money. Those who only want to try out FTA! won't need it, except maybe for the lighting rules, if they don't want to sweep similar guidelines elsewhere and be good to go.

The usability for other systems is somewhat restricted. Large parts are system-specific, and in the addition to the rather weak setting, mainly the random tables remain as game aids, although they alone might be worth the reasonably priced PDF.

Thank you very much for this review, Skyrock! I'm glad that on the whole you found the book useful.  On the whole, I found your review fair and balanced. I appreciate your points about the Setting material, in hindsight a briefer initial summary of the different regions would probably have been very useful.

I'll add just a few notes: First, the tobacco and pipes section was obviously a little tribute to my own bad self; and while obviously it won't be of extreme use to players, Pipes are obviously an important part of the Setting (people smoke pipes all over the setting); but yes, mainly, I included this section for my own gratification.  Its amusing to me that you disliked the pipes section, but liked the Wereswine, which is basically a joke monster and another self-serving tribute on my part.

Second, just one little note, which as far as I could see on this initial read was the only thing you got slightly wrong: Landrest was not built over the ruins of Arcadia, but is a city near to the ruins of that great city.  Its like if Rome had been completely destroyed, and Ostia had taken its place as a major city.
The cosmopolitan nature of Landrest is (in game terms) meant to be to allow a hodgepodge of a bit of everything from the Setting, yes, but the explanation for that is simple too: Landrest is an area that was once part of the Arcadian empire, then it became part of the medieval successor-kingdoms, then it was almost over-run by the Hong invaders, and finally it was saved when the Hong were swept by religious conversion to the Great Wheel philosophy, leading many in Landrest to embrace this faith that was new to the region.

Anyways, great review!

RPGPundit

Glad that you're yet enjoying it, although enough bits and ideas definitively got mangled and maimed in my search for weak points.
Blame Clash, he should have known better than tossing a comp copy to such a bastard reviewer from hell as me


Probably the Wereswine amused me more because this monster was actually funnily written, while the tobacco section limits its funniness to references to label names (Dunnhill => Dunn Hill etc.)
I see also more chance to use the Wereswine to enhance a game. It's actually an interesting monster even apart from the parodical value, as it combines supernatural resistance and a "strike the weaker ones from behind" attitude with a glass jaw in regards of combat morale. I've even already used it for exactly these traits - and for the fact that the fanzine issue the adventure was written for used "indie RPGs" as theme of the week, so what should be a better in-text comment on the issue than using this beast as the monster of the week?


Regarding Landrest:
Yes, you're rightabout the positioning, I checked it up and seemed to misremember the details.

Your explanation about the hodgepodge natuire of this place makes sense. Probably I was looking to hard from the "how should this be designed to work as good as possibly towards my goal of accessibility" meta level and to less from the "what would most probably evolve from this invasion situation" setting level.

Yes, well, anyone who's a real Pipe-fanatic would find all the names and contexts I used very amusing.  But I can see how it would all go right over the heads of non-pipe-smokers.  Likewise, though, I could see that anyone who doesn't read my blog regularly might be wondering what the fuck the Wereswine was all about...

RPGPundit

I've indeed never been into pipe smoking (unless dabbling into water pipes counts) , so maybe I missed the other insider jokes apart from the brand names I could recognize.
It isn't anyway a big deal for the whole picture, just something that annoyed me as I stumbled over it.

I thought it an excellent review, Skyrock! Honest, open, and thorough. Thank you very much!

-clash