Whether you think the 'flip book' concept is an amusing conceit or a bit fiddly in 'dead tree' product, in PDF it plain doesn't work. What is the point of half a book being upside down on my screen? Especially when the ability to edit has been disabled so it cannot be split into the 2 components and the pages resequenced to be viewed normally.... Grrr.

Rant over, let's have a look at the adventures. First up is The Tower of the Black Pearl a first-level adventure involving the exploration of a tower only revealed at extremely low tide - something that happens once a decade, so grab your chance while you may. Good background material is provided for the DM along with several hooks to get the characters involved. Once in, it's a neat adventure, challenging without being overwhelming, and nicely time-limited... after all, you go there at extreme low tide!

And now to t'other adventure (once the entire PDF is rotated and you start paging backwards!). The Golden Auroch is again a 1st-level adventure concerning the exploration of a tomb in a lost city in a desert. There's a relic to be retrieved... but a neat and compact underground complex to be negotiated if you want it. Another good low-level adventure with some interesting opposition to challenge the characters.

Overall, two excellent 1st-level adventures, either suitable as a campaign-starter, marred only by the construction of the PDF, you'd have to print it to render it usable.

Return to Flip Book (The Golden Auroch/Tower of the Black Pearl) page.

Reviewed: 1 August 2009