Today we have Mercenaries of Greyhawk by Vitor Morelli, a familiar name to readers of the blog. It is a 70 page pdf without bookmarks (boo!), and with the occasional lapse into Spanish in some of the headers. It’s essentially a collection of ten NPC mercenaries, with wide margins, a b&w interior, and AI art. Each has the usual stats for class, race, etc., as well as sections on appearance, personality, background, abilities, skills and profiencies, abilities and features, equipment, combat tactics, estimated hire cost, melee attacks, ranged attacks, and rogue features, spells, etc. (where applicable).
The text says these are “generic mercenary NPCs” and that’s what they are. While there are some superficial attempts to put them in the Greyhawk setting, the lack of detail and actual connections to the setting are telling. For example, Inara Duskwind is said to come from “a border city near the Sea of Dust.” What city? There simply aren’t any, owing to the mountains that surround it. And reading through her description, it doesn’t matter anyway, because proximity to the Sea of Dust is irrelevant; it’s never mentioned again, and has no impact on anything else. The others are similar, where they even name-check the setting with a land here or there. Others, like Elandra Silverthorn, have outright mistakes; she comes from a “forest enclave in the Vast Swamp, bordering the Kingdom of Aerdy. There are neither forests in the Vast Swamp, nor does it border on Aerdy.
All in all, “generic” is the word to describe this book. Although I can see it being useful in a game when you need a fully developed NPC in a pinch, don’t expect any real connection to the setting. You could use these mercenaries just as easily in Faerun.
For $6 you get the pdf and a pdf of quick summaries of their stats and equipment. You can buy the book here.
