Epic Encounters has been on the market for quite some time now. With these sets, you basically have an A and a B set, translating in an adventure with minis, ending with a boss encounter story hook. And who would’ve guessed, the Boss set is the B set of the two. This one does not have the miniatures in it, but a big boss model that the A set leads into. The big catch here, is that you don’t have to buy both to enjoy them, but it is advisable.
Epic Encounters are big!
What do we mean by that? Well, the party will have to defeat a lot of enemies and a lot of ground to cover to get to the second story hook. There is a double-sided map in both boxes and a book to steer the players through the Epic Encounters. It’s never small, but…
…Enter Epic Encounters: Local Legends
A whole new series with smaller fights! You don’t have story hooks into more fights (it’s DND5e after all, right?) and after that even more. This one starts at one of the 10 taverns of the Epic Encounters Local Legends Tavern kit. A toolkit for taverns so to speak and most interesting for the GM’s among us, that can be dropped in any active campaign!
Box Contents
Inside the Tavern Kit box, there are a couple of things that make tavern building much, much easier. First off, you have 3 books.
– The tavern book. This is the book in the toolkit that tells a GM how to run that tavern. Who comes there to drink, what is happening and how the tavern operates.
– You have an Inncounters book, that tells the GM how to drop the tavern into the existing campaign and how to run the tavern.
– Last, but not least is the NPC book. This book tells the GM about the different folk hanging in and around the tavern. 6 of them are explained in detail and have a personalized card in the set. There are a total of 60 NPC’s and thus also 60 cards.
This could be all, but it’s not. There are also 10 double-sided maps that show the exterior and interior of each of the 10 taverns. Is there more you ask? Yes, of course! Each tavern has its own (gambling) game, where the players make friends or freshly agitated new enemies. Of course money is won there, but also lost.
The cards in the set show the character art for each of the NPC’s that the party could encounter in one of the 10 taverns. 6 of each for every single tavern. On the cards you will find the most interesting thing to get their attention.
Nice extra: the quality of the box the kit comes in, is of the same thick quality board games come in.
Nice, these Epic Encounters Local Legends, but what’s the Legend…
Every tavern has its fair share of weirdo’s and folk with hidden interests and meaning. This also means that at least one of them has something that needs to be done and (once again, since it’s DND5e) needs something dead. Enter the new Epic Encounters Local Legends! These are monsters found in the area that are terrorizing the locals, and what better place to hear about them? The Tavern of course!
At the time of writing, there are 4 different boxes, being the Wraith, the Owlbear, The Ghost Pirate and the Diaemus (big bat thing). We have already sighted a Hag, Hill giant, Efreet and more, so this is no line that stops any time soon and there is more than enough to fight. Besides the locals in a good bar fight of course.
The encounter boxes contain a couple of miniatures, the titular monster, a map to fight the monster on and a little booklet on how to fight the monster. It depends on what monster you get, how many minis you get. The Owlbear is big and has 1 extra mini. 4 extra minis for the Diaemus, but the monster is smaller.
Using the Tavern Toolkit for other systems
While this kit has its focus on the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, there is only one book that is (partly) written for the Hasbro titan. The stat’s in the NPC book might not be fully usable in other settings, but the backstories and the cards are. Besides the little part in the NPC book, there is nothing holding you back from running to the store and getting this set, because it’s worth every cent of the price!
We needs it, precious!
The encounter boxes are perfect to drop in every system you might think of. If you still find something that does not compute, you are the GM for Pete’s sake! You make it compute!
In other words, you kind of need this when you GM a lot. It takes the focus of thinking about that odd wizard with the stink-eye in the corner of the same tavern, and aims at the true story that you want to tell.
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