Alleys of Zobeck

By Thilo Graf

This web-enhancement for Streets of Zobeck from Open Design is 17 pages long, 1 page front cover/editorial, 1/2 a page SRD, leaving 15 1/2 pages of content to add to the adventure anthology, so what exactly do we get?

First of all, we get a great way to introduce the PCs to Zobeck’s corrupt side – coming to the city on board of a boat, Jaroslav Strauz, a corrupt city official who tries to have the PCs set up for alleged smuggling/similar crimes – even better, the set-up makes for a great introduction of the PCs to one of the adventures.

We get an alternate form of lust-domain for Marena and additional encounters for the respective adventures: The Fish and the Rose gets an added encounter with two barghests. The First Lab is expanded by full rules for the creation and modification of clockwork modifications and “Ripper” gets a new template.

Then, there are new characters (all with their original artworks!): We get Goldscale, a kobold paladin, a crazy gutter prophet and a river captain who struck a deal with the unseelie.

Players get even more tools with 5 new feats and 7 new traits as well as grafts – additional dirty fighting feats and rules for grafting clockwork hands etc. on your body. Even cooler, we get 4 new magic items (like a deceptive scarf) and a new incantation to steal memories. The true winners here, though, are the alchemical smoke bombs and the clockwork caltrops.

The pdf goes on to provide us 50 common items on a list and 50 valuable items – neat!

Seeing how important locations are in Streets of Zobeck, the addition of two fully mapped locations is great – the rampant roach and Ulmar’s rare book shop. Even better, several scenario ideas are provided not only for these new locations, but also for ones from Streets of Zobeck. The final cool NPC introduced is the loyal kobold, Blackeye, proprietor of Blackeye’s carriage.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to the 2-column standard and the artwork sets a new standard for any web-enhancement out there – all original and of the highest quality – very impressive. The pdf has no bookmarks, my only and very minor gripe. The bits and pieces contained herein add even more value to the anthology and the new characters/introduction encounters are top-notch. Seeing I have nothing to complain and that the quality is as stellar as possible for the low price, I’ll settle for a final verdict of 5 stars – if you own Streets of Zobeck, you need this.

Endzeitgeist out.

Alleys of Zobeck is available from: