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The Dragon Horde Zine Issue #1
by Joshua [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/18/2024 19:23:35

Great 'Zine! It's no Kobold Quarterly or Dragon, but an obvious labor of love by a true gamer. A couple of cool unique characters, some charts and maps, drawings, and adventure called "The Undertemple of Arkon, a few tales/short stories, weapons; dude, this is the kind of thing I've always wanted to do but have absolutely no time or technology to accomplish. One can never go wrong reading things like this. The author's own "Old School" style system (Old School Adventures or OSA) seems to be the basis for everything and looks like everything could be easily converted to whatever OS Game you might play. Very well done.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Dragon Horde Zine Issue #1
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d30 Sandbox Companion
by Richard A. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/29/2023 14:02:46

A lot of work was put into this accessory and I find it very useful and inspiring.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
d30 Sandbox Companion
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CC1 Creature Compendium
by Nickolas R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/04/2023 00:41:58

One of the best products I have ever gotten! This book breathes new life into the monsters of any campaign, and puts veteran players back on there toes.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CC1 Creature Compendium
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RS1 Fang, Faith, and Legerdemain
by Francis T. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/24/2023 05:33:08

This is a high quality supplement, obviously not spit out of some corporate machine. It's worth paying actual money for - for both the aesthetic and the substance. It is worthy of a connoisseur's dm binder. This is the real deal, not a clone. It seems the person is an insider to the original D&D world.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
RS1 Fang, Faith, and Legerdemain
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VA1a The Lost Caverns of Azgot
by Michael G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/28/2023 09:32:24

A great PWYW item! Easily inseretably into any old-school fantasy RPG game (PC levels 4 or so).

The premise of an old lost race, ruins in what could be an exotic locale, and - most importantly - lots of options for a DM to add creatures of their own - make this really useful.

I'm a fan!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
VA1a The Lost Caverns of Azgot
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d30 DM Companion
by Lesley N. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/22/2022 14:00:29

A nice 40 page companion to the other D30 product D30 Sandbox. I'm likely to print out both as a single print task.

Full of well organized content for the DM.

Well worth your few bucks.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
d30 DM Companion
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d30 Sandbox Companion
by Lesley N. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/22/2022 13:51:44

40 pages of above average content printed in what looks like Landscape format layout.

If you are a DM with a fondness for random generation products, this one is worrth considering.

You certainly get your 3 bucks worth of content. I'm likely going to add this to my printing tasks.

It might sit well on your tablet of choice.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
d30 Sandbox Companion
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TM1 The Ogress of Anubis
by James B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/07/2022 04:25:18

This module has a number of things going for it, including the Egyptian theming; the strong support for multiple classic editions (Original, all three versions of Basic, and AD&D 1st Edition); the material for expanding the adventure into a full campaign; and most importantly, its being a free product. On the other hand, the temple dungeon is merely OK, and they seem to over-emphasize the child-murder aspect. The main thing that lost me, however, was the inclusion of a trap that compels victims to have sex with any creature around them - including animals - which is just unpleasant. (Also posted on Goodreads)



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
TM1 The Ogress of Anubis
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PX1 Basic Psionics Handbook
by Justin P. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/27/2021 17:12:47

It's an excellent reenterpritation of the Psionic rules from Advanced DnD for the B/X environment. These rules had me drop the Mystic class as presented in BECMI for the clases presented in this suppliment for my home brew setting. I highly recommend picking it up.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
PX1 Basic Psionics Handbook
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d30 Sandbox Companion
by Robert G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/29/2021 13:23:58

Do you like rolling dice?

Have you ever been accused of being a dice goblin?

Do you want to explore and traverse a massive fantasy world?

Well then this product is for you! It's got tables on tables on tables! Hexs, terrain features, temples, castles, 6 different kinds of NPCs, coats of arms, pilgrims, merchants!

Yes the stats are more geared towards 3rd edition DnD. But be honest. You didn't come here for the stats anyway.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
d30 Sandbox Companion
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Wherein Evil Lies (Dragon Horde Zine, Volume 2, Issue 1)
by Nope J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/04/2020 06:09:00

Truly excellent old-school evil. The Black Chapel is a great dungeon



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Wherein Evil Lies (Dragon Horde Zine, Volume 2, Issue 1)
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d30 Sandbox Companion
by Karl L. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/20/2020 18:07:22

Definitely appeals to anti-Railroad adventure style people. Its a concise cute brilliant utility and method to keep the flow of sponteneity and creativity going for multiple choices. GM's shouldn't deny players to roam freely with unforseen unknown surprises. You don't really absolutely need to get the odd 30 sided dice for this book. Just roll 1d10 + 1d6(1-2 = 0, 3-4 = 10 & 5 -6 =20) for equal probability as a single d30 die.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
d30 Sandbox Companion
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d30 Sandbox Companion
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 11/25/2019 05:40:19

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This massive gaming toolkit clocks in at 56 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/SRD, 1 page inside of back cover, 1 page back cover, 1 page index, leaving us with 49 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Okay, the first thing you need to know, is that while this has been penned with an eye towards the 0e, 1e and B/X-rules in particular, the VAST MAJORITY of this book ultimately works for most games – whether they be 2e, another retro-clone, or even modern games; one could use the majority of this book just as well with e.g. 13th Age, PFRPG (1 or 2) or 5e.

To start off with an important thesis of mine: This is one of the most OCD, capital letters WORK supplements I have ever reviewed – and I mean that as a compliment. Making this book, if you’re even remotely familiar with how game design works, must have been a tremendous amount of WORK.

As before, in the D30 DM’s Companion, the supplement kicks off with an explanation of how to use the D30 in conjunction with the tables herein. To recap: There are essentially 3 rolling conventions: A single result can spring from a single d30 roll; two results can be sourced from a single roll, and thirdly, there is the convention where the d30 (almost) faithfully replicates a simultaneous rolling of a d3 and a d10. The tables sport 4-letter title codes for quick and precise referencing, the respective entries, if leading to other tables, reference the respective pages, and there are plenty of alternate tables – these are denoted by the same capital letter and number, plus a lower case letter.

After thus establishing how to use this toolkit in a concise and easy to grasp manner, we proceed to the sandboxing generators, which can roughly be categorized in three chapters: We have the means to generate material on a hexcrawl level; we have means to generate material on a settlement level, and we have the NPC-level. All three levels have their own helpful record sheets included, and the hexcrawl-level also sports glyphs for mines, mountains, mountain strongholds, different terrains and even floating strongholds (!!). Yep. There is a map glyph for floating strongholds. See what I meant by “OCD”? Who includes a separate map glyph for floating strongholds? Better yet – there are properly drawn glyphs, and there are abstract ones. And the abstract ones are so easy to draw that even ole’ me, with my hand-tremors, can use them without much hassle. Huge kudos for that. Anyhow, as in the D30 DM’s Companion, I would have loved to have the option to drag and drop the glyphs on hexmaps, but that may be me.

Of course, not all hexcrawls take place on an equal scale, and as such, the worksheet does include room for noting down the scale, entries for key locations and there is room for 4 d10 tables of wandering monsters – AND these sport lines to “check every…” While we’re on the subject of the worksheets included: The settlement worksheet establishes keys for vendors/shops: Magic supplies? MG; Fletcher? FL. Boatwright? BW. These are detailed, but focus on professions that, in some way, may be relevant to adventurers. In case you’re totally stumped regarding adventures, the next two pages provide a quick and dirty baseline: 10 tables, which include trigger, major goal, obstacle to goal, location, location feature, phenomena, villain goal/reason, artifact, theme and key NPC. Each of these has 30 entries, so you could for example get the following:

“The group is prompted by a trap (trigger) to root out spies (major goal); in order to do so, they need to race against the antagonists (obstacle) to an undercity (location), its access hidden by a well (location feature). Inside, strange vegetation (phenomena) exist, and the villains are actually motivated by honor (reason); a magical scarab may be found (artifact), and the general theme will be freedom. As for a key NPC involved, we have a pilgrim.” This is, obviously, not yet an adventure, but it most assuredly is a great little outline that nets a good skeleton you can flesh out.

After this, we receive something I very much adored: A massive weather generator organized by climate zone, season and month of the season, with two versions – the simple one has you just consult the table; the advanced method sports modifications for the median temperature of the day, and them are yet more mean temperature variations. It probably says a lot about me that I’ve smiled a lot while reading this one – it’s just so beautiful to me, and something I wouldn’t bother making myself, but certainly love having. One downside if you’re like me from a country using non-Imperial measurements and temperature scales: The book doesn’t designate them as such, but it’s in degrees Fahrenheit, which never made even the remotest bit of sense to me. I have a decent grasp of feet, inches and yards due to years of roleplaying. Degrees Fahrenheit, though? They make no sense (just look up how the system came to be…) to me. Even with all my immersion in American culture, I just can’t get wrap my head around it. I guess you have to be born into that. Anyhow, the point of my long digression: I’d really have appreciated a second value for degrees Celsius; as much as I adore the table, I won’t be using it due to the Fahrenheit measurement unit employed.

What does make sense, though, would be the next table, which has my unconditional appreciation. How can you get more OCD than the median daily temperature? What about a precipitation generator? No, I am NOT kidding you! The generator differentiates between non-severe and severe cells of storms, with the tables providing entries for rain, wind, hail and sleet and hook chances to determine tornadoes. The weather thus generated can be pretty extreme for European sensibilities, but if you’re from the American continent or some rougher climates/the tropics etc., this’ll feel right for you. Heck, even as a European, I can get behind the harsh clime generated here – it feels fantastic in both depth and severity. The book goes farther, though: We have a whole page determined to three degrees of getting off course, using the d30 to an absolute perfect extent – even if you’re using another game, the visual representations of being lost and randomly determining the direction, is absolutely awesome.

The book also presents a very simple foraging/hunting engine by season and terrain, with chances based on d30 rolls, including a non-specific game type generator and an optional hunting success table – this lets you determine number of missiles used and number of animals killed. While I personally prefer my own foraging/hunting engine (which you’ll see one day), I can get behind and genuinely appreciate the simplicity and elegance of the system provided here. After this, we have tables of natural phenomena by terrain type, including lava tubes, blowouts, cuestas, cypress domes, pseudocraters, etc. – it may sound weird, but these actually added to my dressing table array as easy modifiers/replacements for more commonly featured things such as groves, glades, etc.

Okay, so, what about settlements and the content of the individual hexes? Oh boy: The settlement generators differentiate between 5 different inhabitation levels by population density, with habitation types noted and some further instructions; you see, the generators include a subtable of special inhabitation types by terrain, as well as inhabitation types by population density. Unsettled land? You can find hermits and monasteries, for example. Are you beginning to see the attention to detail? This extends beyond the settlements themselves – types of ruin, degrees of decay and inhabitants + rough numbers…there is a lot here, though the suggested inhabitant table seems like an afterthought. It should also be noted that this supplement is not about detailed dressing; the book and its generators are there to present frameworks to work in, to provide a baseline to expand upon. So yeah, you still will want e.g. Raging Swan Press’s Wilderness and Dungeon Dressing files to fill out the details, but as a metastructuring element? Gold.

The book does not stop there: D30 tables to generate temples with brief types and descriptions included; add to that the cult generator, and you can have pretty easy means to provide baselines for cults out there – interestingly, the 5-tables cult generator can provide more interesting results than quite a few modules out there. “The partnership of the sun follows a rakshasa, wants to destroy libraries/books and its weird practice is zoösadism, i.e. animal cruelty.” – immediate framework to elaborate upon. There also is a magical place generator, with each entry sporting a boon that can be achieved at the location. These are obviously one of the components that are ruleset-specific; minor component here: Formatting of magic items/spells isn’t implemented in that table. The book also contains a massive pilgrim generator (!!).

The pdf then provides road encounter generators – not ones for individually distinct components, but ones that focus on the general structure: Marker, ambush, etc.; the respective NPCs are focusing on classic humanoid races, and a quick and brief treasure generator for these is included, alongside an attitude/reaction component. Once more – this is a structural baseline – add dressing, and you’re good to go.

The book then proceeds to provide a pretty massive castle/keep/stronghold generator – you can roll to determine owners, patrol sizes and makeups, castle types and sizes (yes, including halfling shires and tree strongholds) and optional construction tables. With 2d30s, you can generate a huge array of heraldic crests, with the division and charges all coming with their sample icons – I loved that! Once more, a drag and drop/color book style-version would have been awesome, but that is me complaining at a high level, particularly since there are 7 additional tables to further expand the heraldic crests.

Need a general background? You can determine the government, reaction to outsiders, economic background, settlement issues and nearby threats for a settlement. Need more adventuring fodder? Unprovoked attacks, annoying encounters, propositions to PCs to engage in illicit activities and celebrations/events allow for further modifications here. Need a detailed generator for city guard, city watch and border patrols and their armament? Included.

On the more grisly side of things: What about a d30-table of methods of execution and/or torture? Yes, I liked these, considering that punitive judiciary measures were very much the norm during medieval and early modern periods.

Don’t want to choose be hand which shops are present? Guess what? A massive settlement supplier generator by size is featured alongside shop stock, interior and keeper being covered. The availability and pricing modifications and bartering information? All part of the deal. The book also features a massive tavern name generator as well as a means to determine available accommodations, rooms and beddings, physical features, reputation and food available.

On the more rules-specific side, we have 0e/1e & B/X-relevant classed NPC generators that determine class, race, sex, and level as well as quick ability score generators. The book also features quick NPC character inventory generators (including class specific ones) and similarly, a magic item generator. The latter might be mighty, but it’s easily the weakest thing in the book – it’s frankly boring and pretty vanilla.

More interesting would be the massive NPC occupation generator that yields almost 2.5 million different combinations of freeman occupations. A similarly mighty generator is provided for nobles and their household personnel, and there also is a ginormous sage specialty generator. NPC physical traits and persona/behavior generators can also help providing a base line, with e.g. bad habits, burdens and quirky behaviors included…and you can quickly expand on that: You can determine NPC parents, additional family information, personal life, eccentricities and talents, and end up with surprisingly well-rounded base personalities that only need some dressing to become full-fledged characters. Oh, did I mention the massive table to determine NPC languages?

And of course, there is a massive henchman/hireling recruitment generator, which includes reactions to offers of employment, recruitment modifiers and a brief retainer loyalty modifier table.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch on a formal level; on a rules-language level, magic components often are not formatted as something that stands out, but otherwise, the book is precise. Layout adheres usually to a landscape standard to account for the plethora of tables; the book is b/w, easy to parse, and a massive amount of content is on every page. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, and I can’t yet comment on the merits of the print version, since I do not YET own it; I will buy it sooner, rather than later, though – the book is, frankly, too useful, and I love having this type of book in print.

Richard J. LeBlanc, Jr.’s second D30-companion manages to do the almost impossible: It outdoes its predecessor.

This is, once more, NOT a setting supplement; it is a TOOLKIT. This is not a book you’d usually READ. It’s a book you flip open when you stare at the blank page and have no ideas; it’s a book you open when you’re as obsessive as I am regarding the details, have your main adventure planned out, and want to simply fill in the blank bits. You know, all the tedious work that goes a long way making your world seem plausible and organic? The type of WORK that makes even the remotest off-the-rails region feel organic? Well, this book VASTLY speeds up the process, allowing you to focus on the stuff you actually WANT to focus on. Combine this with e.g. Raging Swan Press’ Dungeon Dressing and Wilderness Dressing books, and you can create vast stretches of lavishly-detailed lands in a few hours. I’d be willing to bet that I can use these books to craft an entire continent in lavish detail in a single afternoon – and have a bunch of details that can spawn adventures ready. all good to go to see which hooks the PCs will engage with.

In case you haven’t realized it: This is a TOOL. And I genuinely love it as much as my grandpa’s carving and carpentry knives; this is a genuine tool of the highest caliber, a book that not only is a HUGE time-saver, it also is fully cognizant of what it is. And it retains its relevance even beyond the old-school systems that it has been written for; just modify the respective system-specific entries with the equivalents for your system of choice, et viola!

This is a phenomenal resource, one that I can recommend unanimously to pretty much any GM out there who really likes their fantasy to be detailed and structured. 5 stars + seal of approval, and as an all-time favorite, this does get my EZG-Essentials tag, as a supplement that truly makes the GM’s job so much easier and rewarding.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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d30 DM Companion
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 11/19/2019 09:26:11

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This supplement clocks in at 40 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 1 page editorial,1 page ToC,.1 page index/SRD, 1 page inside of back cover, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 33 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was requested to be moved up in my reviewing queue at the behest of my patreon supporters.

Okay, so, this supplement begins with a page that explains the D30 (and how you can use it I conjunction with this supplement); this includes e.g. referencing d30’s digits separately to index two resulting outputs on the same table: There are essentially 3 rules conventions: A single result can spring from a single roll; two results can be sourced from a single roll, and thirdly, there is the convention where the d30 (almost) faithfully replicates a simultaneous rolling of a d and a d10. The tables sport 4-letter title codes for quick and precise referencing, the respective entries, if leading to other tables, reference the respective pages, and there are plenty of alternate tables – these are denoted by the same capital letter and number, plus a lower case letter. This may sound like a lot to wrap your head around, but you can essentially use this book without even taking a look at this admittedly helpful introduction.

This out of the way, we get a whole page DM mapping glyphs – which include slide traps, one-way-doors, etc., and a worksheet for the dungeon. I loved this inclusion, and there is but one thing I was slightly disappointed by: I’d have loved for the mapping features to work via drag and drop. Why? Because I am INCREDIBLY bad at drawing maps. I suck so bad that even the super handy glyphs suggested here are a bit of a stretch for me (and they ARE mega-simple), so having a drag and drop version would have been the icing on the cake here.

As far as rules are concerned, this attempts to be as system agnostic as possible, with B/X as a frame of reference – the more your game/system deviates from this classic baseline, the more minor modifications you’ll have to include…or not. It should be noted that a significant part of the tables presented herein remain valid for pretty much any D&D-adjacent fantasy game featuring 6 ability scores.

The next thing you’ll need to know, would be that this is NOT a supplement intended to inspire you; it is no grand dressing generator. Instead, this is essentially a DM’s/GM’s aid that needs to be thought of as a capital letters TOOL. If you’ve ever attempted to build something from Ikea with only the throwaway tools included, you’ll have developed a serious appreciation for a good tool; same goes for a screwdriver that really fits your hands. The more you work with something, the more you’ll appreciate having the right tools for the job.

In that way, this supplement can be considered to be an omni-tool that eases the GM’s burden – particularly if you enjoy making your settlements, worlds, etc. detailed and plausible. Take the classes character attribute generator: It’s super smooth: You check out a table that features all 6 ability scores, and assigns letters to them – for example an A in Strength, a C in Charisma; some have minor choices and list two letters – if you’re using the higher letter in one, you’ll use the lower letter in the other ability score. So, for example “B/A” in Dex and “A/B” in Con, you’ll choose A for one, and the other will be automatically B. Then, you roll a d30 and check it against a small table, looking at the respective letter’s row: A starts at 15, and ends at 18; B starts at 13 and ends at 15 – you get the idea. It should also be noted that non-combatants are covered as well; and we have a general d30 table of broad motivations. Quick character inventory (including ones for classes such as druid, monk, etc.) also help render the process as painless and quick as possible; weapons are determined by the 1s digit, armor by the 10s digit. Never again spend much time fretting over village cleric or bandit chief creation – with a scant few rolls, you’re done – and that includes the dreaded “list mundane equipment “stuff.

After this, we get to dungeon feature generation: The first roll determines the general construction and lighting used; additional features can be added, and further tables net door types and door obstacles/drawbacks; beyond these, we have miscellaneous dungeon embellishments like talking items, magical furnishing, religious items, general weirdness and geological phenomena. Did I mention the two tables of miscellaneous debris, or the remains generator? The latter lets you determine sex and race, then property and degree of decomposition/damage, and then we have physical evidence of altercations and even a separate table for olfactory evidence of combat.

Did I mention the mighty generator that lets you make 27K different molds, slimes and mushrooms? I mention that one, as it, in spite of being mostly system-neutral, actually notes miscellaneous effects that can range from tightness of breath to abdominal issues? As a language nerd, I also learned new words here – like “infundibuliform”, which means funnel-shaped. And yes, this is explained, so no need to take out your thesaurus! Cool! I wouldn’t be the asinine German I am without mentioning one nitpick here: There is a typo here – the word describing shrooms with central bumps/knobs should be “umbonate”, not “ubmonate[sic!]” unless I am sorely mistaken and ignorant of a variant spelling.

The room trap generator is also pretty impressive – while it doesn’t put spell-reference in italics, it does denote them (MOSTLY) consistently with “as spell”, with blinding light being an exception; type area of effect, trap difficulty and ceiling/floor/barrier traps are all covered. Containers and magic traps/treasure protection are provided for as well. A quick and dirty poison generator is also presented, with only the damage determination outsourced to the GM. This section does help with making such traps, but it does not help with foreshadowing them in a fair manner. I would have loved seeing that taken into account as well.

The next couple of pages are filled with MASSIVE tables for monster encounter generation; the “#AP”-column denotes the number of monsters appearing – you roll a d30 on the bell-curved results table, and there is a chance for second rolls here as well. The engine takes classed encounters into account as well, and features separate columns for common and uncommon encounters; the d30 denotes whether you roll on uncommon or common, and at higher levels, namely 6-9, there is a chance for differentiation between 3 subgroups as well. We get tables for all levels from first to 9th, and a table is provided for edition-specific monsters such as good ole’ copper colossus to lamia, ranging the gamut from 0e to 1st edition Fiend Folio. A human and demihuman encounter table is also included, with some standard magic items – these are not very interesting, and a generator to make more interesting ones? Would have totally been nice.

“But endy,” you say “I’d have to flip tons of books!” Nope, you don’t. The companion sports a MASSIVE monster list. This list notes HD, AC, attacks and damage, move, saving throws (using the class equivalent notion of e.g. B/X – saves as Fighter 2 is noted as F:2), treasure types and special attack: Rhinoceros beetle: Horn = 6’ long”; “teleporting “blink” attack (10’-40’ feet) for the blink dog, etc. Does this mean that you don’t have to know how these work? No. But an experienced DM/GM can use this as a great frame of reference. Particularly with e.g. B/X etc., this runs very smoothly.

After pages of pages of these lovingly compiled lists of data, we get a very detailed and smooth treasure hoard (mistyped as “horde” – a pun or hint at the ‘zine?) generator, which lets you roll the details of even electrum pieces found! B/X GMs get treasure type conversions for direct use with their system as well. Jewelry gets a generator as mighty as that for the molds, with distinct tables for dwarves and elves, and also some magical properties – these remain pretty vanilla, and represent one of the few instances where this book is not pitch-perfect; The magical item creation does come with dressing, basic types and additional powers, with scrolls e.g. including ivory tubes and the like, but I’d have loved to see some more interesting effects and/or drawbacks security measures here. The two pages of tables for miscellaneous items fare better here. There even is a whole page devoted to tables to make summon/control/etc. items. The potion table does that better: It features tables for taste, odor, color and look – so if your players ask how that weird potion smells? You’ll always have an answer.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level – particularly considering that this seems to have been the first book penned by the author! Layout reflects the demands of the tables – from massive tables to multiple small ones, there is the maximum amount of content jammed in per page. This is a super-dense supplement to process. The pdf comes with detailed, nested bookmarks, and the inclusion of worksheets is very much appreciated. I can’t comment on the merits of lack thereof of the print version, since I do not yet own it.

Richard J. LeBlanc, Jr.’s companion is a supremely mighty tool; if you’re as OCD as I am regarding the finer details of encounters, items and, in some instances, dressing, then this will help you mask the material that you lovingly handcrafted and the stuff that you handwaved and/or didn’t account for. The book is conceptualized in a way that allows you to use most materials contained herein in a fluid manner without interrupting the flow of the game. This is not a dressing file or typical GM aid – it is wholly focused on functionality, and it does this task exceedingly well.

Much like proper tools help you assemble Ikea furniture quickly, so does this greatly speed up one of the more tiring aspects of your GM duties. This may not take the big concepts off your plate, but it does help you deal swiftly and efficiently with all the boring, tedious busywork of GMing, and allows you to focus more on the fun. This may not be a book that many will immediately love – but it is a super-powerful, detail-oriented and helpful tool for your arsenal. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars….and due to the super low and fair price-point (just $3.00 for the pdf) this also gets my seal of approval for an exceptional bang-for-buck-ratio.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
d30 DM Companion
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FX1 Fifty Fiends
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/28/2019 06:30:53

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This massive supplement clocks in at 76 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover/editorial, 1 page ToC/introduction, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 71 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was requested to be moved up in my reviewing queue by one of my patreon supporters.

In many ways, this is a love letter to the Fiend Folio of old (not the 3.X version), and rules-wise, this employs the B/X rule-set, making this pretty much Old School Essentials-compatible, even if Gavin Norman’s new presentation of the classic rules is not explicitly pointed out, the description of the respective attacks and special abilities does look very much like the presentation of his work: On each page featuring one of the fiends, you’ll have the statblock in the upper left quarter of the page; to the right of it, you’ll have a b/w-artwork (all adhering to the same style, with quite a few looking genuinely creepy!). The lower half of the page then tends to feature the attacks and special abilities first, and if there is still room, we have more information on the respective fiend’s order, appearance, ecology, languages, etc. – I some instances, there obviously wasn’t sufficient room left for particularly exciting information here. Sometimes, reaction tables are included. If you’re like me, and consider the loss of all the delightful flavor to be one of the downsides of most contemporary roleplaying games, then you might feel the same and wish that the book provided a bit more flavor than what we get for these critters.

In case B/X means nothing to you: Descending AC, HD and HP values, saves reference class tables, morale values are provided, as well as treasure types. Super helpful, considering the nature of adversaries herein: Each statblock has a resistance/immunity section that notes e.g. when the creature only takes half damage from acid or gas or iron or untyped magical energy, also sporting required weapon enchantments to hit, if any. If you enjoyed the P/X: Basic Psionics Handbook, you’re also in luck, for quite a few creatures herein use the rules from that book. Even if you don’t have it, though, you’ll still get plenty of critters out of this bestiary.

Now, grognards might be shocked to hear that this pdf does assume a dual alignment axis angle, as its fiends are pretty differentiated, and the massive appendices not only explain it in detail, the book also contextualizes the (outer) planes of existences in this context as well as the inner ones. A pretty detailed schematic notes the means to progress between different planes via magic. Psionics, pools, items, etc., providing a more codified, and to me, interesting way to think about planar interactions. While the system may look a bit daunting at first, it is actually a rather simple model once you’ve understood it. The planes are described briefly, and it should be noted that neutral evil fiends herein are not daemons, but rather yamadutas. From true names to diabolical signatures, to recapping the properties of fiendish orders, the pdf does an admirable job presenting a book that’s useful even if you don’t have 20+ years of roleplaying experience and background knowledge about the planes.

All cool? Not exactly. The book also contains a pretty massive amount of spells, which, while mechanically precise, include e.g. lesser variants of banishment (that require the true name and are unreliable, granted) , aforementioned banishment, spells like blasphemy, etc. These are not bad, but we’ve seen them in various iterations by now, and a couple of them have always been rather clunky or frustrating…and e.g. the holy word counterpart for the often frustrating blasphemy is missing. Personally, I also tended to like that there was no dimensional anchor/lock spell here, but your mileage may vary. If you wanted B/X-versions of those, there you go. The magic item appendix follows the same paradigm, and isn’t exactly exciting, as far as I’m concerned. Then again, I’m looking for more wondrous material from my old school games; if you play old-school games like back in the day, then you probably won’t mind that a ring of the planes works like the amulet, but only affects the wearer. On the plus-side, a recap of languages, a treasure type table, and even a pronunciation guide for the fiend names? Heck yeah, I can get behind those!

Now, I already mentioned that the monsters have their own artworks, and the author (who also did the drawings!) may be proud – they adhere to the same style, yet are distinct; some are grotesque or even a bit funny, but many are just alien: Think, for example, of a satyr-like entity with a jundej’baht as a weapon (a root topped with a crystal), and a head defined by what I’d call a Klingon’s bone-ridges going out of control and taking over the face in a rather grotesque manner. There would be the one-eyed empress of enmity, who btw. may have exposed breasts, but seriously? Nobody will be aroused by this lady- From infectious dung fiends, and diminutive critters with a maddening chatter to a demogorgon-like fellow with two vulture-heads, from Xibalban bat-things to insects from Limbo with a hive mind and mental bonds, from thorn devils to armored creatures that reminded me slightly of the Giger Alien or 3.0’s steel predator, we have quite a selection – including strange, genderless…things, or Shezmu, the demon lord of executions, we have a rather interesting critter array, The latter is, btw., in aesthetics something you’d expect from goetic traditions – so no matter where your preferences regarding outsiders/fiends may lie, there’ll be something to enjoy.

Of course, I should also talk about “save or die”, a bit of a contentious topic. This book champions what I’d call “good” save or die – if a creature has a very powerful ability that can cause a save or die effect, it tends to either be a ruler (demon lords, archdevils, etc.), or have some limitations that make it fair. Aforementioned dung fiend? He can, once every 5 rounds, generate a squart – accidentally swallowing that causes a save or die. Good roleplaying (such as a covered mouth, saying that you clamp your mouth shut, etc.) can prevent that. Another creature taints water – drinking from the water causes save or die. Once more, clever players can avoid having to save in the first place. From cooldowns to simply good roleplaying, the book sports plenty of means to help make these creatures deadly, harsh…but also kinda fair.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level – I noticed no serious accumulation of glitches, and indeed, encountered only the rare and mostly cosmetic hiccup. Layout adheres to an elegant, no-frills two-column b/w-standard, and getting a single original artwork for every creature? That’s awesome. Less awesome would be the fact that the pdf version has no bookmarks, which makes navigation a colossal pain.

Richard J. LeBlanc, Jr., with assistance from David Welborn, has crafted an impressive book, considering that he seems to have made ALL of it. The bestiary is more refined in many ways than his first collection of creatures, but it also is, courtesy of its fiend focus, a bit less versatile. There is less of the magical realism angle here, less goofy oddness – and that’s on one hand good, on the other hand, I couldn’t help but bemoan their absence.

That being said, there’s one more thing: This book costs a grand total of $1.00 as a pdf. I am not even kidding you. This is insane, and yes, the book is worth that price at least half a dozen times over. Literally. In fact, I really love the monsters herein; while not all are brilliant, many made me want to use them. The same does not hold true for the supplemental material, and once I had finished the book, I couldn’t help but feel that more lore instead of spell/item conversions would have elevated this book. Then again, I’m complaining at a very high level.

Heck, even if you don’t play OSR-games at all – you get a ton of weirdo b/w-artwork and monster concepts for a buck. A buck. A single American Dollar. Even if you are not interested in B/X at all, I wager you’ll get your money’s worth from this book. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
FX1 Fifty Fiends
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