NOTE: Foul Fox provided complimentary digital copies of some of their items for review, but no other monetary compensation was provided in exchange for this review.
Happy Pride Month!
Today we’re looking at some of the creations of Foul Fox LLC—a small, queer owned business creating monthly releases for players and game masters of Dungeons & Dragons 5e and Kobold Press’s Tales of the Valiant system. Their supplements are available through Drive Through RPG in PDF. They release monthly content, so they have a large collection of player options and supplements available at Drive-Thru RPG. Today we read through a few of their publications:
- Reign of Shadows, a 5e adventure for levels 1-5
- Treatise of the Nature Fey, a new shaman class and other players options
- Summoner’s Grimoire, a new spellcasting class and related player options
Reign of Shadows
This is a 112 page letter sized adventure with full color interior pages. It adds mechanics for a reputation track measuring the party’s level of respect by the people in general and by the people in power. The Dreaming Curse is introduced which can make any area difficult to navigate for a character. There’s some GM advice giving tips on running the adventure, those are always welcome.
The story is set in the city of Lyseria, the seaside Capitol of a great empire, which has become embroiled in a number of secretive conspiracies.
The city of Lyseria could be placed in any existing fantasy world, making the adventure valuable in any campaign. The adventure is divided into three acts. The first two chapters comprise the first act, the second act is explained in the third and fourth chapters and the final act is the fifth chapter.
The first chapter introduces a cult and gives the characters the opportunity to save captives.
The second chapter brings the characters to the city of Lyseria. It begins with a description of several locations and NPCs the characters can encounter. The later parts of Chapter Two there are two quests that the players can choose from; Bump in the Night and Noble Greetings. Bump in the Night is an investigation that leads to stopping a cult. Noble Greetings lets the party get involved in factions of the city.
I wish that these quests began with a simple sentence or two that described what each quest entailed. As written, the quests begin without describing what the characters’ goals would be. It’s stated a few times that it isn’t possible to complete both quests, but the text doesn’t explain why, as there’s no ticking clock that would preclude doing both. The third chapter outlines another section of the city.
After that there are four different chapters called Chapter Four. On first read having four different chapters each labelled Chapter Four will be confusing. Each chapter has a subtitle, e.g., Chapter Four – People, Chapter Four – Shadow, etc. The first Chapter Four gives three different story tracks that the characters can explore. The People track focuses on the average people of the city and has the characters explore more about the cult from the first chapters. The Power track focuses on intrigue around a faction in the city. The Shadows track focuses on a mysterious entity the characters only encounter through a letter at the end of chapter two. The chapter states that before continuing on with the larger story, each track must be introduced. This is because there are three following chapters each containing three quests which are run one after the other. Which set of three quests the characters play depends on which track they choose in the first Chapter Four. The separation of the story into three possible paths is a really cool trick, I just wish there was a bit more explanation at the beginning of the first Chapter Four explaining to the GM how these paths work. With more explanation the chapters could be numbered 4 through 7 without causing confusion.
Chapter Five contains the final quest in the adventure which involves confronting the cult bent on reviving the entity known as The Dreamer. There are separate quests depending on which track the players chose in Chapters Four. All of these quests lead to a single conclusion; The Ritual of Waking. The characters’ goal is ultimately to stop this ritual, which concludes the adventure. There are then three epilogues described depending on which track the players chose in Chapters Four.
In addition to the adventure the appendices contain new spells, magic items and a bestiary.
Treatise of the Nature Fey
This is a 9 page PDF outlining a new class for 5e based games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Tales of the Valiant. The Shaman is a new spellcasting class which details four subclasses. The Shaman gets their magic power from their connection to the primordial spirits of nature.
Summoner’s Grimoire
The Summoner’s Grimoire focuses on a new 5e class, the Summoner, a different sort of magic user. It’s a 56 page two color book. Like the Sorcerer, the Summoner regains spell slots with a short rest. The supplement details four subclasses. The Summoner is focused on bringing entities from other realms into the world and binding and controlling them. The book provides Bindings, spells usable by a Summoner. The supplement also includes no magic items, spell and a bestiary.
Conclusion
The idea of the Reign of Shadows adventure is that it begins at one event and then expands to three different story options, before the options converge again for a dramatic conclusion. This is an admirable goal as it lets the players determine what style of game they prefer. For instance if they’re interested in intrigue, heroic adventure or strange mysteries there are many quests available in those styles. It’s a really intriguing idea. Treatise of the Nature Fey has excellent layout and design and would fit easily into D&D 5.5 or 5.0, or any other 5e variant.
It’s good to see newer creators looking to expand the way adventures are presented, and I love when designers and writers push the boundaries of the standard of our hobby. Their current work uses the 5.1 SRD, and are available in PDF, but they said they’re looking at print on demand options in the future, and possible D&D 5.5 (2024) supplements.
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