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This one is a bit tricky for me, honestly. I loved the first issue and eagerly awaited this ones arrival. Sadly the content isn't very useful or interesting to me. The quality is great; however, and I truly encourage anyone interested in the issues themes to pick it up. You won't be sad you did. I'm just not into the robots and sci-fi stuff in my fantasy, but if that is your thing I say go for it!
Again, great content and high quality for the issues theme. I will be continuing to pick this up every month for the foreseeable future to support all the effort it takes to put out a good magazine.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 10 pages long, 1 page front cover/editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This pdf kicks off with a general introduction to the role of serial killers and their psychology, before delving into the respective characters, so what exactly do we get?
Well, for example we get a maiden who cuts herself (which might be a little close to home for some) and seeks to fill the void inside her by slaying her lovers. Each of the entries comes with a history of the character, a description, a modus operandi and advice for the DM to handle the PCs investigating the respective serial killers.
There is also a man forced into incest with his sister by his ultra-conservative sect, first killing his family and after that, seeking solace in faith, slaying those he perceives as sinners according to the ultra-strict tenets ingrained into his traumatized psyche. We also get a true sociopath - one guy who kills for the sake of killing and nouveau frissants, seeking for ever new ways to slay, changing his modus operandi.
Less distinguished and smart would be a mad Bhriota necromancer who slays with magic - making, again, his modus operandi hard to analyze, though all in all being more straight and less sophisticated. We also get a watchman who turned to vigilant justice - seeking to properly punish criminals.
The final serial killer is GLORIOUS in his vileness- a serial rapist and killer once vanquished that could not have been stopped even by death and has since risen from the grave to revive his spree.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, but not perfect - I noticed some minor issues here and there. Layout adheres to Fat Goblin Games' 2-column b/w-standard and the artworks for the respective serial killers are nice, especially for the low price. The pdf has no bookmarks, which is a minor bummer.
The serial killers herein are twisted, deadly and hearken, for the first time in any Vathak-product I've read so far, back to Ravenloft's glory - characters with depth that are believable, disturbing and neat. I did not enjoy that two of the 2 killers don't have a distinct Modus Operandi - one fits, but the other is just a lame one that is the one blemish of the product. All in all, though, an excellent collection of truly twisted individuals to craft adventures around and intersperse through your campaign. Thus, I'd look forward to a sequel and remain with a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 due to the low price.
Endzeitgeist out.
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I purchased the magazine looking for inspiration in a campaign I was GMing for and I was not disappointed. There are random paragraphs of treasures scattered throughout the magazine which are low value but extremely helpful and inspirational. Rules for folding boats,new snow and winter spells like animate snowman and ice ball. The new monsters are good and usable. The Goggling is frightening but first on my list to use,frost hag and glacial gaunt also will be used and there's more. An article on three henchmen is worth the purchase price alone and there's more. Highly recommended.
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I am more than happy with the debut issue of OGM. The content is very useful and well laid out, and the art is nice overall ( I love the cover!). I will be picking up the next issue, and should the quality hold true many more after that!
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The inaugural March issue of Open Gaming Monthly, presented by D20 PFSRD, has been released by Fat Goblin Games. Editor in chief Rick Hershey explained:
Earlier this year, I discussed with John L. Reyst about launching a d20pfsrd.com magazine to help support Open Gaming and the many publishers that work hard bringing fans 3rd party content. After many conversations and random brainstorming emails, we both had a solid idea of the type of magazine we wanted to produce. From there, it was up to me (with the help of Fat Goblin Games co-owner, Jason Stoffa) to start figuring out how we were going to actually pull this off. This first issue has truly been a labour of love – of art, good writing and publishing – by the team at Fat Goblin Games and all the contributors from d20pfsrd.com, the many publishers that donated time and content, the artists and freelancers who sent us material, and the fans who supported the magazine’s announcement on the gaming scene. I cannot say “thank you” enough for everyone’s encouragement and enthusiasm.
Open Gaming Monthly builds on the publications that have gone before, dividing its content into Features (new locations, races, and an interview with an industry insider), Characters (new equipment, spells, and archetypes), Design & DMing (new monsters, locations, and adventures), and Columns (Open Gaming Spotlight; The Good, the Bad, the Henchmen; and BadWrongFun).
The cover by artist McLean Kendree is a gorgeous blue-tinted battle between a flaming-haired demonic wolf-like humanoid and a lot of warriors in an arctic landscape. It's clear the warriors are losing the fight. There's a full-page spread of the picture on pages 4 and 5, but unfortunately it's cut up by the PDF into two separate pages, meaning you can't really get a good look at it.
After a roundup of news and events in the RPG and gaming geek industry, Nicole Lindross provides a recipe for Spinach Lasagna Rolls titled "Adventures in Dinner." It's written like a monster encounter, which is pretty funny, and it looks yummy too. Of course, Lindross is a highly accomplished game designer and her bio is surprisingly modest about her accomplishments. I'm not sure I would have put the recipe as the first feature in the magazine, but it's a welcome and different addition to the usual gaming fare.
A minor oversight: There's mention of Wolfgang Baur concluding Kobold Quarterly on page 11, but no recognition that he will be continuing a column dedicated to Pathfinder open content in Gygax Magazine.
Page 12 features an in-depth interview by Christina Stiles with the mastermind behind D20PFSRD.com, John Reyst. Throughout the magazine are Random Treasures, little blue boxes of magic items to reward readers randomly browsing through the magazine. They're not necessarily magical, but colorful additions to a campaign's random treasure tables.
Worlcraft features the land of Grigoria, complete with maps, deities, cities, and unique races. The picture of the new monster, the Gogling, is frightening, even if the name makes it sound cute. Arctic Arsenal is all about mundane and magical equipment for surviving in cold weather climates – appropriate, given the amount of snow dumped outside as I write this. Spring returns with the Briarborn, a plant race perfect for outdoor classes. Then we're back to winter again with cold weather monsters: the Frost Hag, the undead Glacial Gaunt, and will-o'-wisp variant Ice Wisp.
The discussion of existing open game content picks up with a discussion of intelligent folding boats. Author Landon Bellavia gets a second chance to improve upon his creations by fleshing out the details. The arctic creeps back in again with Winter Wonderland, a list of cold spells by Alex Riggs. That winter theme continues in Drake's Hollow, a frost-themed setting set in a caldera.
Actress and artist Jennifer Page is interviewed, accompanied by several large full color photos. This is followed by the NPC section of Aertar Frostfel the dwarf, his evil sister Ultana, and hound archon Maerlon. There's a short article of Nordic deities and accompanying archetypes for clerics, followed by spells to defeat frozen foes (with fire of course!). The mini-adventure, Ke'Aril's Hunt, is a non-arctic themed scenario for four player characters of 5th to 6th level. Knowledge Check focuses on skill challenges, followed by Nick Esposito's house rules in BadWrongFun. The magazine concludes with Tyler Beck, who explains how to optimize the Winter Witch prestige class, and PJ Grant, who discusses optimizing the Advanced Race Guide.
Overall this is a very impressive magazine for $2.99, with enough content drawn from Open Game sources to make it feel fresh, a professional layout, and beautiful artwork. It's a great start for a publication that's just getting started; here's hoping they can keep up this level of quality for future issues.
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This campaign setting is 258 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 250 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Kicking off with a general introduction, we are introduced to the central topics of Vathak - the land of the native Bhriota-humans has been conquered by the monotheist forces of the Vindari, who have established a rather xenophobic colonialism that has been met with a response truly dreadful - from the bowels of the earth of Vathak, the Old Ones are awakening, their spawn having already eliminated slowly but surely most subterranean cultures and now they are pouring into the land, serving as a twisted infection of reality itself.
As with most campaign settings, we kick off this pdf by introducing the stats for the respective races:
Bhriota get + 2 Str and Con, -2 to Cha, +2 to intimidate, a bonus feat at 1st level, familiarity with axes and Bhriota-weapons, providing a set of racial traits for human ethnicities, something I usually tend to do in my home-game as well to make non-human races stand out more as weird and different beings, both in mindset and culture. If you are a fan of Ravenloft, you will be familiar with Calibans, the deformed beings that have been exposed to twisted magics in the mother's womb, deformed in various ways. Vathak has an analogue race in the cambions, who get +2 St and Wis, -2 Cha, +2 to intimidate, are slow, get darkvision, count as monstrous humanoids, stealth is always a class skill with a +2 bonus for them and they treat their cha as 2 points higher with regards to their sorceror abilities and spell, if applicable.
Dhampirs, the half-blood scions of the almost exterminated vampire lords of Vathak, get +2 to Dex and Cha, -2 to Con, +2 to Bluff and Perception, +2 to saves vs. diseases and mid-affecting effects, light sensitivity, are treated like undead when it comes to positive/negative energy, can detect undead 3/day (though the spell is not in italics) and take no penalties from energy drain, but can still be killed by it. The Romni take a cue from Ravenloft's Vistani in that the race gets skill-bonuses depending on the clan they belong to. They don't gain an additional skill point at first level or whenever they gain a level, but do receive one bonus feat at 1st level. They get +2 to Dex and Cha, but -2 to Int and are set apart by an interesting fluff that has them a race of beings with heterochromia - they all have one golden eye, which, aesthetically-speaking, I consider rather cool.
The quiet and sneaky svirfneblin are the survivors of the onslaught of the Old Ones' spawn and get +2 to Dex and Wis, -2 to Str, -4 to Cha, are small, get +2 to AC, darkvision 120 ft. AND low-light vision, +2 to stealth while underground, +2 to Craft (Alchemy) and Perception, stonecunning, SR of 11+class level, +1 to the DC of illusion spells they cast and are under constant nondetection and may 1/day cast blindness/deafness, blur, disguise self at their class level. If this list doesn't make it abundantly clear: These are essentially the sloppily-converted ECL+3 or 4, I can't remember, race from the 3.5 days of old - at this massive array of powers, the race can in NO WAY even be considered rudimentarily balanced and is completely and utterly BROKEN. My advice: Ignore them and substitute regular gnomes, who generally disguise themselves as street-urchins in Vathak. And yes. I'm aware that the ARG-svirfneblin share these traits. Which is my point here, btw.: Paizo sometimes gets it wrong - hardcore. And the ARG-svirfneblin are just such an example. I'd really be interested in knowing what the designers smoked to consider the race balanced in contrast to even the other ARG-classes... But back to Vathak.
The final race fully described would be the Vindari, essentially the colonialist dominant force in the lands of Vathak. It should be noted that all of these races come with extensive favored class options and age, height and weight tables and that other races like the rare and all but extinct dwarves and elves also are covered.
After that, we're off to the new classes included for the setting - 5 to be precise. For brevity's sake I'm not going into my usual details regarding the respective classes and only provide you with a short overview each. All right? Let's go! The Apostle is a servant of Vathak's One True God and as such must be Lawful good (though the domain write-up features a glitch that mentions lawful neutral... which would be the more interesting option, thinking about medieval Catholicism...). They only get a few skill points and access to spells of up to 6th level, but they gain access to a linear progression of hymns (which can be used a limited amount of times per day) and they also get access to an array of prayers that are organized in four categories (lesser, moderate, greater, true) that must be prepared like spells but work as spell-like abilities and are interesting, though for my tastes a bit too close to spells in format and presentation - opting for a more courageous alternative and all-out banning the cleric class would have perhaps been the more prudent thing to do.
Blade Slingers are imho a base-class no one needs - an agile throwing weapon specialist. Boring and better off as an archetype. The Eldritch Conjuror is Vathak's take on cultists, i.e. casters that dabble in the madness of the Old Ones and are blessed with madness and changes to their anatomy. He spontaneously casts from the summoner-list and gains bonus abilities depending on the Great old One-Idol s/he chooses. Okay class, but honestly not sure how appropriate this is - would have been better off as a summoner-archetype instead of a full-fledged alternate class. Rifleers are rifle specialists that gain bonus damage versus flat-footed and helpless opponents as well as access to a wide variety of trick shots. If you're thinking they'd use gunslinger mechanics, you'd be wrong - and honestly, their mechanics are not better, so a wasted chance and an unnecessary incompatibility there. The final new class is the Sword Dancer, a class that uses sword dance in a mechanic similar to a barbarian's rage, including an array of abilities that work like a momentum/movement-themed version of rage powers.
All the base-classes sans ninjas and samurai and the new classes also get new class options/archetypes in the chapter, ranging from patrons and hexes to aberration-hunting paladins etc. Beyond these class options, which mostly are solid, though nothing that blew me away, we also get a wide variety of feats that allow cambions to succeed at amazing feats of strength, spew acidic bile or use your cloak-fighting skills to get a 20% miss chance versus foes etc. Overall, the feats are solid, though none particularly stood out as brilliant to me. Perhaps I've simply seen too many feats by now.
The equipment-section provides an array of firearms as well as local weapons, most of which actually come with an artistic representation and feature some weird weapons like spigots that drain your blood - though probably not, as suggested, via a vacuum. Various interesting mundane tools are covered as well, as are numerous cool drugs that provide tangible bonuses for the risk of addiction. Two vehicles are part of the chapter as well as an array of sinister magical items. The obligatory spell section provides along-side thankfully comprehensive spell-lists that cover all casting classes a variety of magic that seeks to evoke themes of horror and dread. Unfortunately, many of the spells are simply not that iconic, falling into the been-there, done-that-category and if they manage to evoke cool imagery, are sometimes undermined by the writing: A spell that infects a target with hatching barbed worms s/he has to vomit up has a rather awesome imagery, but sentences like "The stomach of a touched victim begins to rapidly swell, and within their lower intestines, there begins to form thousands of worms.[sic!]" (SoV, pg 129), rip me right out of the setting.
by now, we have taken a look at 126 pages of crunch and delve into the setting itself. Vathak is essentially a small continent that could be plugged into other campaign worlds and the respective write-ups of the lands, complete with heraldry, city-statblocks, haunts and hooks galore are actually a joy to read and both interesting and inspiring. So much so, that I consider them to somewhat offset the relatively weak crunch so far. Indeed, for idea-mining purposes, this chapter is a joy to behold and paints an interesting panoply of lands with rather excessive issues and in dire need of any heroes they can get. Especially jarring then the fact that the writing, while generally rather good, sports faulty prepositions and conjunctions here and there as well as several other, minor glitches that detract from the otherwise interesting setting.
The section on religions is rather short - as it should be, for there is but One True God. Taking a cue from Christianity and the behavior of monotheist religions throughout time, Fat Goblin Games is doing the courageous thing and resist including a whole pantheon of gods, instead opting for this One as a counter-point to the Old Ones also featured in this chapter. While my heart cringes when I see alignments attached to these elder beings, overall I applaud Fat Goblin Games opting to go a route that is less thread. Kudos! Secret societies and factions are also introduced here before we delve into the Gamemastering chapter.
This was what I was looking forward to the most, to be honest: Beginning with an introduction that offers tips for inexperienced horror-DMs, we move on to an actually useful adventure-generator that delivers the idea-starved DM a base foundation to craft an adventure from. Okay, I guess, if you need one. The Fear and Sanity-system included in the book works thusly: Each character has character level+wis-score sanity points they can lose by encountering terrible events or delving into forbidden knowledge, resulting in insanities from the GM-guide. No new ones in here, though we at least get a sample list of appropriate san-losses for events and creatures and for studying tomes of forbidden knowledge. As a personal nitpick of mine: Sanity can be regained via high-level magic and at a RAPID rate, 1 point per level, sans magic, making insanities at best a laughable inconvenience. When compared to how hard it was in Ravenloft (or CoC/ToC) to get rid of insanity, that's almost insulting. On the cooler side, we get an array of weather hazards as well as a nice selection of diseases, some of which sport multiple phases as well as an ok trust-system.
We also get advice on creating settlements as well as 50 different hooks before delving into this book's bestiary-section, where a wide variety of creepy creatures await, some of which you might know from Creature Monthly #1 - unfortunately, a glitch in one of the creatures taken over has not been addressed, reeking of cut-copy-paste. On the plus-side, the artworks ranks among the finest most disturbing PFRPG-artworks I've ever seen and being b/w actually works in their favor. Gloriously twisted. The setting also provides a list of setting-appropriate critters by bestiary (nice) as well as multiple encounter tables, but no index, which is a mayor downer for a campaign setting of this size.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are of a varying quality - ranging from very good to problematic, the excellent writing is oftentimes interrupted by aforementioned wording issues that rip one slightly out of what could have easily been a thoroughly joyous read. Formatting issue like spells that are not in italics and lines that aren't bold but should be can also been found throughout this book. Layout on the other hand is a feast for sore eyes. I am not engaging in hyperbole when I say that this is the most beautiful b/w-layout I have seen since reading the Monsternomicon by Privateer Press. It's just fun to look at this book and thankfully, the team of Fat Goblin Games has opted for a two-column standard over the more cluttered 3-column one that some of their pdfs sport. The same holds true for the artwork - we all know by now that Rick Hershey is an immensely talented artist, but seeing his b/w-drawings makes me honestly wish he'd go more often for this route over color - the artworks herein rank, hands down, among the most gorgeous I've ever seen and the cartography is top-notch as well.
On a downside, while this pdf is bookmarked, it doesn't sport nested bookmarks, which in combination with the lack of hyperlinks or index, makes navigating this book harder than it ought to be.
Damn. this is yet another book where I curse being a reviewer - for I want to like this setting and its great ideas. But really, I can't. Because it sports some compromises that hurt it. For a setting all devoted to Lovecraft's mythos, this campaign setting sports a remarkable lack of understanding where the horror comes from. Let me elaborate: Lovecraft's appeal lies in the indifference and futility of the struggle versus the cosmic forces that at best are indifferent to our existence. Understanding actually unhinges. Adding wisdom as a BONUS to sanity points runs directly contraire to the central tenet of Lovecraftian horror, namely that ignorance is bliss and that the reality behind our perceptions is a horrific place. Both in sanity rules and in the tweaking of PFRPG-rulesets, Shadows over Vathak fails to capture this feeling. The mythos is not to be fought, it is to be survived - at best and only temporarily. In a setting where the creatures are actually well-known, they lose a huge chunk of what makes them scary. Furthermore, we have a problem of systems: While I get that Golarion wilders in the mythos as a pulpy sojourn to have players battle icky tentacle-things once in a while, this is not Golarion. To truly live up to the idea of Lovecraft as the setting purports to, it would have required some massive tweaking of the base mechanics.
Having some experience with a d20-based mythos-game (no, not the terrible d20 CoC...), I would have expected the following: Alternate Hp/health-rules. Barbarians with 200 Hp+ will not be frightened by rats with human heads. Player characters in PFRPG are much too powerful to remain afraid at higher levels in a horror-sense (as opposed to fear of powerful foes). If, however, your level 5 character has 23 health, the whole thing changes - after all, 3 attacks could be the end. Second, the issue of magic. In a world where the Old Ones rise, we'd need some magic that is tainted - Ravenloft and Darkness & Dread followed this concept and I've run numerous campaigns where the corrupting nature of magic, first a ground for complaints by my players, has greatly enhanced the roleplaying potential. It also explains why there's no local wizard academy to blast those aberrant horrors to kingdom-come with a barrage of fireballs. Speaking of wizards: Make arcane magic inherently alien and potentially maddening. I did in my home-game and it worked well - explaining also why not every damn town has its local mage and being much more in line with the Mythos-notion of spells eroding sanity and being WRONG.
Third, the Fear- and Sanity-system herein is almost an afterthought and insulting in its lack of complexity, especially when there are so many interesting and great systems out there that beg to be converted to PFRPG. Fourth: I love the inclusion of monotheism but would have considered a more radical solution a better way: No clerics, no druids, no divine casting. Oracles only (for the One True God and the Old Ones) - and that class should be stripped of just about all spellcasting, with healing being reserved to divine prayers that are not always granted. Using magic to offset disease, poison, parasites, madness etc. ruins many types of horror and in a setting devoted to the spirit of utter futility of the struggle versus the alien creatures - divine magic feels much too common, too alleviating. If it was as rare as accounts of medieval wonders, then this would work.
Fifth: Where are the Incantations? Much more in line with how spells work in the mythos, incantations and rituals, as well as research rules are yet more crucial things missing from the pages of this book.
All of these variant rules suggestions, all a staple of horror gaming, would have greatly complemented this book, offering true mythos-style horror-fantasy while at the same time allowing for more pulpy/mainstream-usages of the setting. Instead, we essentially get a standard fantasy setting - a dark one, yes, but one I maintain that is less horror-themed than Ravenloft because it fails to grasp what makes horror work - either the personal or them impersonal level. There is so much space devoted to classes, spells and feats, of which about 90% is in my opinion superfluous and not particularly interesting or fails to utilize e.g. gunslinger rules. If all of this space had instead been devoted to provide more fluff, more rules to set this setting apart and make it work as HORROR, then this could have been the best setting ever for me: The potential and ideas are there, but as written, the rules almost guarantee that a game set in Vathak will sooner or later devolve into a PFRPG-slugfest instead of a desperate struggle for crucial information to stop a dread ritual.
Mind you, in spite of great research rules (SGG's Anachronistic Adventurers: The Investigator) and Ritual-rules (Zombie Sky Press' Incantations) already existing for PFRPG. Hell, even a more appropriate holy character exists with Necromancers of the Northwest's Priest from the "Book of Faith". So much potential, so much wasted potential.
If you're looking for Lovecraftian horror, then this setting does simply not deliver. If you're looking for a dark fantasy setting with aberrant primary foes and can see beyond all the issues and don't expect all the rules that this setting would have required to make its premise work or just an idea-mine, the this still might be worth checking out. When all is said and done, though, this campaign setting imho still fails to do what it sets out to do. My final verdict will thus be 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
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This pdf is 12 pages long, 1/2 page front cover/editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 10 1/2 pages of content, so let's check this out!
First of all: What are hauntlings - well, the theories for their origin differ from speculations on ghosts replacing an unborn's soul to residual resurrection-magic-radiation gone awry, but the result is a peculiar breed of beings with a close tie to ghosts. As such, they can be born from any parent-race and the hauntlings can expect to be ostracized by most cultures. On the mechanical side, hauntlings get +2 to an ability-score of their choice, count as humanoids with the half-undead subtype, get darkvision 60 ft., +2 to saves versus mind-affecting effects (also to spells? The pdf does not specify...) and diseases, react to negative energy as if they were undead (i.e. are harmed by positive energy), don't incur penalties from energy drain (but can be killed), get +2 to two Knowledge-skills of their choice and treat them as class-skills and can create a silent image that only exists for a single living being.
The race also comes with 5 alternate racial traits that allow them to conjure up mists 1/day, become incorporeal (though the text contradicts itself - is it 1 minute per day or HD rounds per day?), get +1 to DC of their phantasm-subschool illusion and cast 1/day dancing lights, deathwatch, ghost sounds and prestigidation, 1 /day make one opponent shaken on a failed save or emit a howl 1/day that shakens all non-(Half)-undead .
The hauntlings also get 4 racial traits that represent their close connection to undead - nothing to complain here. Neither is there anything to complain about the favored class options available that span all the different Paizo-classes minus ninja and samurai. A total of 9 feats for the hauntlings are also included in the pdf, offering interesting options: From tapping 1/day into the knowledge of the dead to make an int-based skill-check as if you were trained in it and gain HD-ranks as well as the option to take 10 to making an invisible sensor to spy on others 3/day. However, the feat, on a formal level, does not provide the necessary information whether the sensor is magical, can e detected etc. and also features a minor formatting glitch with the "Special"-line being not bold. Other feats allow you to extend your phantasms to multiple creatures and even include sound, smell and thermal components and even modify memories.
The memory-implanting includes a weird line that has me puzzled, though: "You can only change the details of an event the subject actually experienced, or implant a memory of an event the subject never experienced." Come again? I don't get this restriction, even after reading through multiple times. Does it mean that not both can be done in one application of the ability? Also, regarding thermal components: Can these potentially damage those inflicted by phantasms? I wager no, but again, I'm not sure. On the cool side, you can also use your phantasm to make yourself invisible to a living creature and have your phantasm spread via touch of those inflicted with it. How this viral phantasms interact with mass hallucinations and modify memories: If I modify the memory of a creature and add the viral component, does the modification spread to others?
Aura Sight as a feat hits a pet-peeve of mine, it allowing you determine attitude, creature type, subtype class and level/HD of a creature by studying it for 5 rounds. While there's a save against the ability, I still don't like metagamey information like that and even with the study-caveat, the amount of information gleaned is too much for my tastes. Finally, you can take a feat to gain an animal companion-like bond that looks like a globe of light that get perfect fly-speed 60 ft. and uses TOUCH-ATTACK rays. Two of them. WHAT? Animal companions are already powerful boons, but adding a touch attack to their arsenal is downright broken - don't think so? Build a summoner or hauntling druid and get this as A FEAT and see balance take a nose-dive.
We also get 4 nice mundane items, with ghost salt coating making damaging incorporeal adversaries possible, a cloak that is harder to steal from, bone-enforced leather armor and a book on funeral practices of a particular region. Unfortunately, the ghost salt lacks a DC to create it as an alchemical item.
We also get a total of 7 different magical items that range from gloves that confer the ghost-touch property to an oil that makes regular armor to work against incorporeal attacks, a ghostbuster-style bronze coffin that can suck undead in, an undead-detecting torch, a vial that contains positive energy to damage haunts to 3 types of essentially ouji-boards. What slightly upset me here is that of the magic items are straight reprints from Super Genius Games' "4 Ghostbusting Items" - that wouldn't be that bad, were it not for the fact that they imho are the most iconic ones. Oh well. In a formatting peculiarity, the last two items (which share a page) deviate from the layout of the book, suddenly switching to a 2-column standard.
Two pages are devoted to variant hauntlings that can replace the traditional hauntling abilities/racial traits, allowing you to play descendants of banshees, ghouls, reapers and huldrefolk.
Finally, the pdf offers us a table with unsettling hauntling characteristics, providing 48 (not counting roll twice/thrice) entries that include heterochromia, drawing flies and gnats, strange birthmarks etc. Nice to add further flair to the hauntlings.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting, as much as I loathe to say it, are subpar - there are numerous instances of text that should be bold, but isn't, spells not italicized and even rules contradicting one another. Since the issues in my opinion impede the usability of the race, this will reflect heavily in the rating.
Layout adheres with one exception to a 3-column portrait-format, which feels slightly crammed - especially since the one page that adheres to a 2-column standard is much easier to read. Why this decision to mix two layouts has been made, I don't know, but I do know that imho, the latter is superior for everything but entries like the final table. Now it is no secret that artist Rick Hershey is a core member of Fat Goblin Games and it shows - especially for such a small pdf, the artworks are staggeringly beautiful and add A LOT to this pdf's appeal in their full-color glory. Especially at this price-point impressive indeed. On the downside, though, the pdf is not bookmarked, which would have enhanced its user-friendliness.
This is one of the pdf where I HATE being reviewer. Why? Because the Hauntlings are a GREAT race. their phantasm-hallucinations that only certain people can see and the idea of expanding upon them is GREAT, glorious even. The race hits a nerve with me and I really, really like the race's concept. That being said, unfortunately, the pdf also suffers from various glitches that make me cringe, prime of which would be the contradictory durations of turning incorporeal in an alternate racial trait. Unfortunately, these glitches that influence directly the usefulness of the whole race, are a theme for this pdf - there are numerous abilities that would require some additional clarification, from the nature of their spying sensors to how multiple of the phantasm-feats interact. Which is a DAMN PITY, for idea-wise, these are GLORIOUS. No, really - things only one person can see? And then suddenly multiple ones? Infectious hallucinations? AND the modification of memories? This is narrative GOLD, especially for horror-themed scenarios or DMs wanting to run an unsettling gas-lighting plot, making PCs doubt PCs, eroding belief into one's sanity. The potential is VAST. Concept-wise, I wouldn't hesitate rating this pdf 5 stars + seal of approval.
BUT: There are so many minor glitches that accumulate to the point where I have to rate it down. And then, there are the major ones - add missing craft DCs for an alchemical item, a completely broken feat (companion with 2 (!!!) ranged touch attacks? WHAT???) and we have the mess. Don't get me wrong - this pdf can easily salvaged by a competent DM and be the 5 star + seal of approval file of its potential. But I can't rate it that high. In fact, for the glitches and issues that hamper actually using the hauntlings, I'd usually bash this pdf down to 1 star. But I can't. Why? For even though this pdf requires work on the DM's side to balance and use, its concepts remain top-notch, awesome and cool, even if you already own the ghostbusting BP.
How to rate this, then? I fought long and hard with myself since I've rarely encountered such a vast, yet easily fixable discrepancy between a product's ideas and their execution. Author Rick Hershey has created a race I actually WANT to play, want to use in my campaign - and will. If you're picky and want a balanced go-play-race, ready to drop in, then steer clear of this pdf, at least until it has been fixed. If you don't mind the glitches and are willing to work to make the wonky bits work, then GET THIS. As a reviewer, though, it would be unfair towards other pdfs I reviewed to look over the obvious problems this pdf has and thus have to settle on a final verdict of 2.5 stars, rounded down to 2 for the purpose of this platform.
I sincerely hope this will get a revision that makes the abilities work sans ambiguity, for it is easily a high-concept, 5-star-potential racial ecology.
Endzeitgeist out.
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I think this set is awesome, like the effects on each token.
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Whilst presented as a new base class, it is likely that the eldritch conjuror is going to be more useful as an NPC. Not only is he required to be of 'not good' alignment, he progressively goes off his head as he is taken over by whatever elder creature from beyond the stars that he has embraced to gain his powers.
Eldritch conjurors have taken summoning to new heights (depths?), and study many dark rituals and forbidden tomes to acquire the knowledge they crave. Functioning in a similar manner to a wizard, one important difference is that when they summon a creature, they get an aberrant variant of that creature. Tentacles abound! Mechanically, this is handled by applying a pseudonatural template (which is provided later on in the book) to the creature in question.
They deal with Powers That Should Not Be from the earliest days of their career, so it is no suprise that they tread the fringes of madness. Along the way they acquire a 'profane idol' - a hideous otherworldy item sent by their patron - enter into blasphemous packs and acquire forbidden knowledge: in short, they're classic evil mages!
Once the class has been detailed completely, we're provided with a selection of profane idols - each one provides different effects, so pick one that suits - as well as a couple of archetypes, new spells and a few items. Finally, there is a selection of Powers That Should Not Be - new ones, should you have been wondering if these conjurors are chatting to Cthulhu and his ilk. Of course, if you want to substitute the Cthulhu mythos that would work fine - but they are well known in the gaming community, so you may prefer to go with the suggestions here to maintain the mystery and horror of finally finding out who the eldritch conjuror is aligned with!
One or two jumbled sentences, but otherwise excellent potential for building a potent Bad Guy especially if you like an element of classical evil mage horror in your game.
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Herein is a delightful wealth of information about Saurians, as a race and as individuals, very useful if you want to play one or have decided that they have their part to play in your campaign world.
It opens with a discourse about the heritage of the Saurian race and how this impacts on contemporary Saurians. Racial tendencies such as calmness and thoughfulness, coupled with quick and decisive action once the decision to act has been reached are linked back into factors like the extreme age of the race. Likewise the way in which other races view them is at least in part influenced by innate feelings about 'reptiles' in general, irrespective of whether they are typical of Saurians as a whole, let alone the particular individuals with which one is dealing. This all makes them become a 'real' part of your shared alternate reality, giving an understanding of how and why things are as they are.
This is followed by a full write-up of racial characteristics and options, complete with game mechanics, to inform the creation and playing of Saurian characters (and, of course, NPCs). Racial traits, favoured class options, special feats... they're all there. Specialist equipment too.
A nice feature is notes on what 'outsiders' are likely to know about Saurians, particularly if they have never encountered them, or at least not had much in the way of dealings with them before. Think of a foreign country that you have never visited, where religions and customs are different, and people from that culture are rare visitors to where you live: you'll have limited knowledge about them and unless you take the time to study the topic, it is only when you visit or meet a native who's travelled to your country that you'll learn more... and are likely to find out that some of your ideas are wrong! GMs can make use of these notes to provide a similar experience to characters of other heritages... a neat touch.
Now, where can I fit the Saurians into MY world....?
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If you like your catfolk stalking the plains in dangerous prides, Racial Ecology: Guide to Catfolk will provide a good set of tools to realize that.
Racial Ecology: Guide to Catfolk is just that giving a society background, ideas for appearance and names, and a cultural framework. These catfolk are a nomadic tribal people fiercely independent and proud. This is backed by new mechanics for two weapons, two magic items, alternate racial traits (four), traits (six) and feats (three) to round out the catfolk. Lastly a short adventure, complete with a new monster and an example catfolk ranger complete the package.
This version of the catfolk no longer fully aligns with the official Pathfinder version since the release of the Advanced Race Guide but it provides another viewpoint on the catfolk which may be useful for some campaigns.
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It's definately great! I wish it had come in JPEG also to make it a little easier to work with. It was a pain to convert over to make my stupid computer work, but it is not Fat Goblin's fault.
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Didn't care for this as it diverged too drastically from the Ratfolk description in Pathfinder. Granted it is still compatible with Pathfinder, but I was hoping for some more detail in line with what's in the game, not a rehashing of Skaven for Pathfinder. Sorry I spent the 2 bucks.
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This product was released prior to a lot of the current content released by Paizo on the ratfolk race. |
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Racial Ecologies Guide to Feyborn marks the latest addition to the line from Fat Goblin Games. Written and illustrated by Rick Hershey this PDF tackles those born with a touch of Fey to them. Be that because they are blood descended or merely blessed from birth, the feyborn are not quite the rest of us in regards to straight humanity, and it is these differences that make this such an interesting option for a PC race. The product does go on the default that human subtype is the only option presented, but I can't help but feel this subtype would be easily applied to several other races working off of the racial adjustment mechanics given for turning a human into a feyborn. Lots of racial trait options to make sure you will not feel pigeon-holed, which is always a plus in my opinion when presenting a new playable race, as more options always frees up players to explore and design. Along with the trait options comes a full set of favored class options as well, adding a further level of customization.
Rick does a great job here in remembering a lot of the little details that all add up to making a fleshed out race, a table for weight/heights and aging effects, a knowledge DC table for common knowledge regarding the race, the things like that. Eleven new feats offer up such gems as Fey Sense (Allowing for one to detect the presence and amount of fey within an area), Fey-Born Sorcery (giving a bonus to Enchantment spells) and Life's Blood (allowing for you to trade hps worth of damage for healing points for an ally).
New equipment introduces us to Dryad Pheromones, which do all those things those fake pheromone colognes always promised to do for us, lol. A very cool item, with a lot of useful potential. Follow this up with the Crescent Twilight, a fey weapon formed of two crescent blades laid side by side, and game mechanics to explain just what exactly what Fairy Duct is...hint, it's kind of gross in all reality, but makes perfect sense. An easy table gives all the pertinent data for including the weapon into your game easily.
Six magical items ranging from a Sprigganblood Cudgel (which can grow three times per day gaining a Reach ability) to Auberon's Blade ( a very nicely designed weapon, a flaming longsword that can be transformed into a whip, retaining damage from the sword while picking up attributes of a whip). Amongst these magical items I have to point towards the Gremlin Bell. In a world filled with conmen and snake oil salesmen peddling useless trinkets to the uneducated there are occasionally a few trinkets that actually do exactly what they claim to, and this happens to be one of those items. A simple bell on a string, nothing more, nothing less...but it reacts to and affects gremlins when they get within a certain proximity.
And, to close it all out, for those looking to get into the specifics of which fey their characters can trace back to as far as the racial details go we have a section detailing the heritage mechanics of being from a certain fey. Five options detailed, including the Bogeyborn, Dryadborn, Leprechaunborn, the unfortunate Miteborn, and the Nereidborn. Intended for those characters who are more attached to their fey heritage, each of the five racial packages replaces the default Feyborn racial kit, with a set of ability adjustments, traits and special abilities.
A random table with physical attributes (horns, skin tones, etc) close us out with an excellent way to quickly and easily generate a varied list of visuals for Feyborn characters.
Layout goes back and forth between a two and a three column format, with top notch editing. I found only one area of odd spacing, and to be honest I only mention it so that when others see it they won't be scratching their head wondering why I didn't. It certainly doesn't impede reading nor understanding, and is only odd in that it is a space between paragraphs on a page where no other paragraph breaks are spaced the same way.
Not mentioned as of yet, because quite frankly I am still trying to decide where I stand on it, is a sidebar regarding naming concepts. The sidebar as it stands is a useful tool, but within the text flavor of the Feyborn it is mentioned that their names are as varied as any human cultures, and that they are raised typically within these human lands. It seems to me that human parents would name their children according to their local racial customs and naming customs...that being said, in a fantasy setting, if a PC is looking for their Feyborn to have been born to parents who recognized them for what they were and want a name more fitting their heritage, the list is extremely handy. So...I guess, in the end I settle at the list is extremely useful for those looking to utilize it, which goes the route of providing options for those wanting them, which is something I tend to be a big fan of...hmmm, guess I figured out where I stand on the sidebar then, lol.
OK, so final tally. Artwork good, editing good, layout solid and design very appealing. An all around interesting racial option for a player race provided with a lot of options to make sure an entire table of players could choose this race to play and still manage some wildly different characters. A solid 5 star product, and well worth the price of admission! Well done!!
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The feyborn are quite fascinating, being not so much a race per se but the product of a brush with the fey over more mundane stock of any of the regular humanoid races, in particular humans.
In the real world, there's hardly a culture that does not have legends about the fey or their equivalent. Why should your game world be any different? Especially as, if you make full use of resources like the Pathfinder Bestiaries, fey have an actual existence within it. So take these legends, twist them and build upon them to create your own fey legends and use this work to help add to the mysteries and the myths.
Most feyborn are not like half-elves or half-orcs, the result of cross-breeding between two different races, although a few are, especially if you trace back the family tree a bit and discover that a great-grandparent maybe had a bit of a dalliance with one of the fey. It's a bit more insiduous... perhaps the feyborn's mother was blessed by a fey whilst pregnant, or maybe nobody quite knows why. Feyborn are just that little bit different. It's not just the physical differences, perhaps mismatched eyes or a tinge of green in the complexion; feyborn seem wise beyond their years, in tune with the natural world, and yet appear younger than they are with youthful looks remaining well into middle age if not beyond.
They are often regarded with suspicion within their community, and many seek the adventurer lifestyle. They get various 'Gifts' and racial traits over and above what their regular birth might make available; there are also favoured class options and special feats available to them. These are all offered up in standard form, with the game mechanical advantages as well as flavour text to enable you to incorporate them into the character that you are building. There are also a few items of equipment that feyborn tend to use, and even some magic items linked to their unusual heritage.
Overall, it's a neat little supplement, with assorted little quirks to apply to a feyborn character, nothing too excessive (although little mention is made of any adverse effects of being feyborn, either culturally or in terms of game mechanics); and provides a way in which to make legends and myths of the fey in your world come more real within your game.
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