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An Endzeitgeist.com
This pdf is 40 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 36 pages of content, so let’s take a look!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.
The PCs are recruited by one Wilhelm Dobbenspeck to venture to the remote village of Domandro, thought lost in the icy Tundra to ages and unknown problems. After an exhausting trek through the icy regions, the PCs find the village – and there’s something seriously problematic going on there. The whole town seems to have been flash frozen, courtesy of the adventurers that once lived in the town – but why? Well, the PCs, provided they can withstand the supernatural cold, will have some nice, sandboxy explorations to do.
See, the town is anything but empty – two factions of giants have settled down here: A bunch of ignoble, vile ettins and some slightly more approachable and honorable frost giants – both factions would like to take a bite out of the PCs, though… Worse and complicating everything, a necromancer named Jimmie Quickfingers also has settled in the village. In order to properly navigate the village and piece together the clues, the PCs can use these factions against one another and finally deduce what has happened:
Creatures from the stars descended as deadly creatures upon the town and in order to contain the infection used an artifact aptly-named “Cold Snap” – unfortunately, proximity to its elemental cold also results in some mutations (which you can represent via a new table) and the artifact rests now in the clutches of the local white dragon. The combat against this dragon is unfortunately rather handwaved and represents the weakest part of the module.
Upon destroying the artifact, the PCs will have to deal with the dread invaders from the dark Tapestry to secure a future for this village out of time – as its population wakes from the cold slumber into a world that is no longer their own.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect – minor glitches here and there, like a wrong creature-type (though the crunch is correct) of a giant to minor typos can be found, though nothing that would truly impede your ability to run this module. Layout adheres to AaW’s 2-column full color standard and the 2 new maps are beautiful, though they come sans the usual player-friendly versions. The pdf doesn’t have any bookmarks, which slightly detracts from its usability, but it does come in two versions, with the second one being more printer-friendly.
Author Haakon Sullivan has created a great sandbox with some awesome pieces of fluff and an atmosphere of forlorn doom. The module offers quite a few excellent scenes and overall, the sojourn is a joy to behold – with some minor issues, though: The lack of bookmarks and player-friendly maps as well as the handwaved dragon encounter somewhat detract from the module’s appeal, at least for me. Especially the latter is simply not necessary and should have been cut in favor of more details on the superb location. All in all, what remains is a nice adventure-module that only closely misses the higher echelons of its craft. Due to the well-crafted mood and locations, I’ll settle on a final verdict of 4 stars.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This module is 28 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD and 3 pages of advertisements, leaving us with a total of 21 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.
Still here? All right! This module depicts a crawl into an uncommon locale - when the Zemeth ice-flow swallowed the tower of the notorious sorceress known as the Salka 60 years ago, her riches (and twisted experiments) were deemed lost - unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the perspective), a crack has been found that makes journeying into the tower from its top a possibility again - and exactly that is what the PCs are planning to do.
Now after the obligatory rumors, the very first room already pulls no punches - unless uttering an obscure passphrase, the PCs will be trapped by walls of force and peppered with fireballs - the Salka's defenses are still active and in order to pass, the PCs will have to dismantle some VERY tough pillars. This module pulls no punches and doors out of phase with reality that make the demons invading from them, especially with teleport-supplemented hit and run tactics - DMs can be VERY nasty here.
Speaking of nasty: I haven't yet mentioned the fact that the whole tower of the Salka is suffused by necromantic energy and hence, her former retainers and guests have been turned undead since the flow swallowed her tower: Undead scorpion familiars, undead green hags, retainers, ghostly butlers and maids, vampiric monks and even soulspinners . In order to prevent their allies from reviving as undead and purge the necromantic taint, the PCs will have to destroy the Salka's enchanted chandelier.
Beyond the 3 levels of her tower, the complex also hides a dungeon-level, guarded by a pi-headed non-standard iron golem and allowing the PCs to fight 3 unique creatures of elemental air and finally hiding a hint as to what truly happened to the Salka. The pdf also contains an rather awesome new spell of the Salka's device and two new magical items.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect: One particularly problematic one being part of the warshadow-creature - the statblock mentions 1d6 Str damage, the quality at the bottom 1d6 points of Dex-damage and the non-statblock text mentions damage and 1 point of Dex-drain - so which of the 3 is it supposed to be? Layout adheres to FGG's 2-column b/w-standard and the artworks in b/w are ok, though the military jacket of the golem looks rather ridiculous. The maps are nice, but we don't get player-friendly versions, which is an additional downside. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks.
Author James Carl Boney has created per se a deadly, cool locations/dungeon for the PCs to explore that should challenge even experienced groups. That being said, the lack of printer-friendly maps is a first strike against the module - and there's a second one: This is a tower inside a huge ice-flow - so why does the module do nothing with? No claustrophobia, no tons of ice grinding the tower, no potential collapses, parts of the ceiling falling - and even if the necromantic energy suffuses the complex - why not make it rejuvenate all undead inside the complex, requiring the PCs to barricade doors etc.? There's potential galore here that is left mostly untapped.
While the dungeon per se is great, I can't help but feel that this could have been so much more. As written, due to the lack of player-friendly maps and said discrepancy between potential and execution, I'll settle for a final verdict of 3 stars - a nice dungeon crawl that an experienced DM can easily expand and make it live up to its potential.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This module is 28 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD and 3 pages of advertisements, leaving us with a total of 21 pages of content, so let's take a look!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.
Still here? All right! This module depicts a crawl into an uncommon locale - when the Zemeth ice-flow swallowed the tower of the notorious sorceress known as the Salka 60 years ago, her riches (and twisted experiments) were deemed lost - unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the perspective), a crack has been found that makes journeying into the tower from its top a possibility again - and exactly that is what the PCs are planning to do.
Now after the obligatory rumors, the very first room already pulls no punches - unless uttering an obscure passphrase, the PCs will be trapped by walls of force and peppered with fireballs - the Salka's defenses are still active and in order to pass, the PCs will have to dismantle some VERY tough pillars. This module pulls no punches and doors out of phase with reality that make the demons invading from them, especially with teleport-supplemented hit and run tactics - DMs can be VERY nasty here.
Speaking of nasty: I haven't yet mentioned the fact that the whole tower of the Salka is suffused by necromantic energy and hence, her former retainers and guests have been turned undead since the flow swallowed her tower: Undead scorpion familiars, undead green hags, retainers, ghostly butlers and maids, vampiric monks and even soulspinners . In order to prevent their allies from reviving as undead and purge the necromantic taint, the PCs will have to destroy the Salka's enchanted chandelier.
Beyond the 3 levels of her tower, the complex also hides a dungeon-level, guarded by a pi-headed non-standard iron golem and allowing the PCs to fight 3 unique creatures of elemental air and finally hiding a hint as to what truly happened to the Salka. The pdf also contains an rather awesome new spell of the Salka's device and two new magical items.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect: One particularly problematic one being part of the warshadow-creature - the statblock mentions 1d6 Str damage, the quality at the bottom 1d6 points of Dex-damage and the non-statblock text mentions damage and 1 point of Dex-drain - so which of the 3 is it supposed to be? Layout adheres to FGG's 2-column b/w-standard and the artworks in b/w are ok, though the military jacket of the golem looks rather ridiculous. The maps are nice, but we don't get player-friendly versions, which is an additional downside. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks.
Author James Carl Boney has created per se a deadly, cool locations/dungeon for the PCs to explore that should challenge even experienced groups. That being said, the lack of printer-friendly maps is a first strike against the module - and there's a second one: This is a tower inside a huge ice-flow - so why does the module do nothing with? No claustrophobia, no tons of ice grinding the tower, no potential collapses, parts of the ceiling falling - and even if the necromantic energy suffuses the complex - why not make it rejuvenate all undead inside the complex, requiring the PCs to barricade doors etc.? There's potential galore here that is left mostly untapped.
While the dungeon per se is great, I can't help but feel that this could have been so much more. As written, due to the lack of player-friendly maps and said discrepancy between potential and execution, I'll settle for a final verdict of 3 stars - a nice dungeon crawl that an experienced DM can easily expand and make it live up to its potential.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
The first installment of Gygax magazine is 68 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page ToC, 1 page introduction, ~17 pages devoted to advertisements (two pages of my count represent accumulated smaller ads that don't take up a whole page), leaving us with a total of ~48 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?
James Carpio kicks off the issue with an appropriate overview of the roleplaying systems that have developed from our hobby's humble beginnings via a massive galaxy-style spread-graphic. The article per se is very meta-game and as a first introduction/primer - while a daunting task, the overall graphic is surprisingly beautiful, though not complete, as was to be expected. Generally, I applaud the idea of the article and it is well-written, but the article, even when taken on its meta-level, has an issue - In order to properly depict a genesis/overlook of the systems, one would either require insight into the respective design-philosophies or simply more space for a proper scientific and extensive look at the genesis. In the space allotted to it, the article serves to whet one's taste and sate basic curiosity, but not more.
The second article by Tim Kask, "Still Gaming after all these Years" is a look at the fascination of gaming and effort to determine what the true essence of the fascination of tabletop rpgs is all about - and it's not a bad article. Unfortunately, I am perhaps the single worst person to comment on it, since I've read a couple of dissertations in sociology that necessarily took a more complex and analytical approach to explaining the dynamics and components of gaming. Now, that being said, if you want an essay-style article to formulate some components of the fascination of gaming out for you or make an eloquent point, then this might be just what you’re looking for.
Lenard Lakofka's contribution is a direct continuation of the "Leomund's Tiny Hut"-articles, now under the name of "Leomund's Secure Shelter". Beyond an overview and reminiscence of days of old, old-school gamers (and guys like me who fondly remember COMPONENTS of old-games - all in all I'm VERY content with the direction gaming has taken...) get a table and calculations that seek to answer the old question "Is +1 damage or +1 to hit better" in the context of THACO. One of my players got a chuckle out of this table, since he actually did a spreadsheet for all ACs/THAC0-combinations to optimize his attacks. Yeah. In 2nd edition. My players were and still are insane sometimes. And yeah, I would have appreciated a concise THAC0/AC-rundown table here as well.
Ronald Corn offers us an article that depicts the ecology of the banshee, perhaps my most favorite incorporeal undead creature - and it is a great article, even if you don't directly use the old-school, rather rudimentary mechanics provided by the article. The optional abilities mentioned can easily be transcribed to a wide array of systems and apart from the slightly trite genesis that is provided for the banshee and a lack of ties to elven/faerie lore, this article, as the first with actual content, does its job well indeed and should provide some neat ideas for you to scavenge.
Luke Gygax shares an extensive anecdote on the acquisition of Dragon #8 and Nevin P. Jones tells us about the virtues of tabletop gaming and his good experiences with the Roll20-community and system in particular. The latter article is split in half, btw., requiring you to skip to later pages.
Dennis Sustare brings us an article focused on bringing the magic back to a game and making magic feel more magical - something I can get behind and often have commented on with regards to spell, curses, incantations and how the codification of enchantment and sense of entitlement has imho hurt this central aspect of the game. What I can't enjoy about the article is that it essentially boils down to pointers towards e.g. the Quicksilver or Mistborn-RPG/books. I don't need that and it doesn't help me - it's a pity, really: I fondly remember Denis Sustare's ideas and this article is surprisingly bereft of them and remains basic advice that did not bring anything to my table.
James M. Ward makes, especially in contemporary fantasy, a very good point in his article "Playing the Science-fiction Way" - the boundaries of genres have been blended in modern fantasy/sci-fi, with hybrids like steampunk, cyberpunk etc. influencing the parental genres and said influences often being seen as "wrong" by grognards - even though classic modules of our youth were trailblazers in this blending of genres, with often extremely remarkable results. Giving said influences a chance can enrich any given game in my opinion and the author makes a concise and poignant case in defense of sci-fi elements in fantasy. Something to think about when the knee-jerk impulse to condemn psionics, nations like Numeria in Golarion or the inclusion of space-travel (whether in Spelljammer ships or proper space-crafts...) kicks in next...Variety adds spice and contemporary fantasy literature is richer for the facets the blending and cross-pollination of genres has provided us with.
Cory Doctorow has an interesting article to bring new players into the fold - advice on DMing for toddlers! Beyond the basic math and similar skills learned while playing, the advice is, as far as I can tell, having no children, sound and makes for a good article that might not only make your children appreciate the hobby from an early age, but actually help them develop their skills as they play - while not in a scientific way, then at least in a fun way that will prove to be more efficient and fulfilling for both parent and child.
On the more crunchy side of things, Steve Kenson gives us 9 new powers complete with stunts (often multiple), limits and which cover e.g. evolution forwards and backwards through time, before Ethan Gilsdorf takes us on a meditation on the past, present and future of roleplaying games, how they changed the world and what the future may hold for them, while Ernest Gary Gygax Jr. shares with us some personal memories on how the art of storytelling to make children sleep in the house of Gygax evolved - a heartwarming article, to be sure, though again one that was split in the middle.
Players of the Godlike-RPG will enjoy 3 new Talents by Dennis Detwiller and we also have a massive article by Michael Tresca who talks to us about conversion and the subtle traps of converting modules and content from one edition of D&D to another - an intriguing one, that, and there's quite some potential here - in future issues, I'd love to see concrete conversion guidelines for respective systems, though, instead of just general pieces of advice.
Michael Curtis provides us with the lengthiest article in the magazine, the village of Gnatdamp - a fully depicted town, including a one-page b/w-map and extensive information on the village as well as 3 sample adventure hooks - a great article, though I would have enjoyed a keyless (i.e. no numbers etc.) version of the map to show to players without breaking immersion by denoting the village's "hotspots".
Kobold-in-chief Wolfgang Baur also has his corner in the Gygax magazine, providing us with more crunchy morsels, this time especially nice for fans of AGE: Randall Hurlburt has 16 new magical miscellaneous items for the AGE-system ready, while Rodrigo García Carmona brings inventions to the system with concise rules for the new engineering focus (subset of cunning), the invention talent as well as rules for blueprint-creation and gadgetry. Nice!
Marc Radle also has something up his sleeve that is especially relevant for players of Pathfinder (or other d20-iterations, though these require potentially more work!): We're talking feats. Not feat-bloat, but rather an alternate approach to a couple of them, namely feat-chains: We've all been there: All right, we have two weapon fighting, that means later we'll have to get the Improved and greater varieties. And let's face it, they're boring. Useful, yes, but oh so bland - Marc Radle's approach is the following: Kill these feat-chains. The feats herein are designed to replace whole feat-chain with organically-scaling benefits that have their powers unlocked gradually. The process by which more of these can be made or some excluded is laid bare and rather simple, making it possible for DMs to customize how many they'll use and create new ones. Mechanically a great contribution ad actually imho more streamlined than the basic Regular-Improved-Greater-progression.
There is one thing the article omits, though, and it is a crucial piece of information DMs NEED: Balancing. Replacing 3 feats with 1 is a net-power gain of 2 feats that can be allocated in a different way. If you take a fighter, he can get A LOT of complete feat-chain-feats via these rules. And "The
GM will need to decide how to handle these grey areas should they arise." is NOT a valid piece of balancing advice. Now don't get me wrong, design-wise I LOVE these and enjoy them quite a bit, but just thinking how much easier normally feat-intense tricks become available to classes like e.g. the bard or rogue makes my head spin and requires proper balancing advice.
We also get some comics, "Marvin the Mage", "What's new?", "Order of the Stick" and "Dungeon 101". Since humor is highly subjective, I'll refrain from commenting on these.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch; I didn't notice any glaring mistakes - though I don't particularly care for the articles split in the middle. They annoyed me back in the day and have thankfully died out mostly here in Germany - I hope future issues of the magazine will have them all in one place. Layout adheres apart from some pieces of advertisement to a relatively printer-friendly b/w-3-column standard that proves that the 3-column standard can work when done right, so nothing to complain on that front. The b/w-artworks are thematically fitting and hearken back to the days of old in flair and execution and are solid, though not mind-boggling. As a mayor comfort-detriment, especially with the presence of split articles, I'd rank the fact that this magazine has no bookmarks - in this day and age, where even some files with less than 10 pages feature them, this is a serious blunder. I'm also not sure whether any part of this magazine's rules is open content since there is no SRD included - not sure whether I like that.
Oh boy, how to review this? Gygax Magazine seeks to provide something for everybody while hearkening back to the days of the old Dragon-magazine - but does it succeed? Yes...and no. The presentation and overall flair of the magazine is dauntingly old-school and evokes that same feeling that puts it in a direct line of succession with the classic. The magazine "feels" right, it tugs at your heart's strings and provides that warm, fuzzy feeling of nostalgia so many of us crave. And nostalgia isn't bad or foreign to me - I do own ALL Frog God Games/Necromancer Games-products ever put out and have a complete collection of just about every obscure 2nd edition setting out there as well as a myriad of old Dragon and Dungeon issues.
And still, a nagging feeling of something missing just wouldn't go away. First, I attributed it to the magazine covering a variety of systems - but that wasn't it - I own all KQ-issues and never minded that they covered a multitude of systems. Nor was it the eclectic range of articles. No, it was something different. And then it hit me: Ideas.
Roleplaying is about ideas and they can be great, no matter what the system. And that is where the issue finds me unsatisfied. THACO-math is nice, but system-relevant and not about ideas, to give you an example. The general problem I have with this magazine is that there are not enough inspiring ideas, not enough content. The non-crunchy articles, the non-fluff articles are universally not bad reads - in fact, most of them are nice and even compelling at times - but too much space is devoted to establishing the old-school credibility of the authors and reminiscing. Somewhere along the line I didn't feel like I was reading a game magazine, but rather as if I was listening to some people tell me about their gaming stories and anecdotes. There's nothing wrong with such articles, they can prove to be insightful. But at this extent, we simply need more gaming content instead of moderately exciting talk about gaming and if we do get articles like this, I'd like them to have a proper punch-line, a point that is not readily apparent to 90% of DMs.
Even if you pull the card and say that this magazine is made to recruit, introduce new people to the fold, is not valid - a system-spanning magazine with this target demographic simply doesn't need to establish many of the things established in here - the audience is already listening and in the know.
Not due to any lack in quality (apart from the jarring lack of working bookmarks), but due to a lack in content, I can't rate this higher than 3 stars, in spite of it having some leeway due to being the first issue - even for those wearing the sepia-tinted glasses of nostalgia. If you're like me, you'll get something out of this issue, yes, but if you don't care for old-school gaming or simply lack a nostalgic vein, then this might not be for you. In spite of the criticism, though, I consider this a promising first issue of a magazine that could develop into something great. Future issues will show whether Gygax Magazine can manage to add some substance to its bones without losing its charming old-school appeal.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
Each installment of Abandoned Art’s „You name it“-series so far is 3 pages long, with one page devoted to front cover, 1 page to SRD and 1 page of content, which provides a massive name-generator list.
Generally, the series is system-agnostic and provides just what it promises, i.e. names – 100 male ones, 100 female ones and 100 titles/clan/family etc. names, depending on the race covered, so let’s go through the first 4 pdfs, shall we?
Halfling names in contrast to gnomish nomanclature, face a difficult obstacle – they need to sound down-to-earth, yet slightly uncommon or alien to our ears without being too far off to make them uncomfortable. The solution used in here is to use slightly uncommon names like “Hyrum”, “Wellsby” or “Harmon”- which I per se like. What I didn’t like as much was that there are quite a few names that feel more like monikers – “Latch” and “Bootsie” come to mind. The female list is imho better here, as the male list actually uses several rather common names like “Lee”, “Lenny”, “Hugo” etc. – some slightly more alien names would have been nice here. The surnames, as is by now tradition in the series, once again are made of composite words and mostly hit the nail on the head with entries like “Tweedsleeves”, “Willobold” etc. – only two particular entries in this table imho fall flat: “Hereagain” and “Worrywart” – seriously, these two are just lazy.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting in each installment are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a no-frills standard with 6 columns featuring the names in one massive table. Layout-wise, I consider this slightly sub-optimal – separating the one table into three distinct tables, one for male names, one for female names and one for the family/clan/surnames would have enhanced readability and made the page look less jumbled. The pdfs of this series have no bookmarks, but need none at this length.
So…how to rate this? Well, on its own each of the installments delivers names and solidly so, for a fair price. The thing is…Raging Swan Press has a little pdf called “So what’s the Demihuman called, anyway?” that delivers 50 male/female family name entries for elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes and haf-orcs – for 2 bucks, which, if you do the math, is simply the better deal, so the low-price factor won’t feature in my calculation of the verdict. Combined with the table-issue mentioned before, that’s a detrimental factor that costs these pdfs some ground. That being said, here is my verdict:
Halflings suffer in the male list and due to the 2 somewhat lazy entries in an otherwise nice table. Overall solid, but the female list shows that author Daron Woodson could have done better – hence my final verdict of 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
Each installment of Abandoned Art’s „You name it“-series so far is 3 pages long, with one page devoted to front cover, 1 page to SRD and 1 page of content, which provides a massive name-generator list.
Generally, the series is system-agnostic and provides just what it promises, i.e. names – 100 male ones, 100 female ones and 100 titles/clan/family etc. names, depending on the race covered, so let’s go through the first 4 pdfs, shall we?
Gnomes are a bit wonky and so should their names be – at least in my opinion. The usage of Xs and other rare consonants works well to enforce this, with “Quogretor”, “Trumpnap”, “Gillycairn” and similar ones looking (and sounding) sufficiently weird to drive home that this is not a human. Not all are hits, though, as “Qualmward” or “Waypest” stand as examples to testify. The nicknames are partially hilarious, though: Yes, we get an entry for “Razzmatazz” and one for “Poppyfluff” or “Catawampus” – I really liked that particular list!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting in each installment are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a no-frills standard with 6 columns featuring the names in one massive table. Layout-wise, I consider this slightly sub-optimal – separating the one table into three distinct tables, one for male names, one for female names and one for the family/clan/surnames would have enhanced readability and made the page look less jumbled. The pdfs of this series have no bookmarks, but need none at this length.
So…how to rate this? Well, on its own each of the installments delivers names and solidly so, for a fair price. The thing is…Raging Swan Press has a little pdf called “So what’s the Demihuman called, anyway?” that delivers 50 male/female family name entries for elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes and haf-orcs – for 2 bucks, which, if you do the math, is simply the better deal, so the low-price factor won’t feature in my calculation of the verdict. Combined with the table-issue mentioned before, that’s a detrimental factor that costs these pdfs some ground. That being said, here is my verdict:
Gnomes get perhaps the coolest nomenclature and while some entries are subpar, they are few and far between – 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
Each installment of Abandoned Art’s „You name it“-series so far is 3 pages long, with one page devoted to front cover, 1 page to SRD and 1 page of content, which provides a massive name-generator list.
Generally, the series is system-agnostic and provides just what it promises, i.e. names – 100 male ones, 100 female ones and 100 titles/clan/family etc. names, depending on the race covered, so let’s go through the first 4 pdfs, shall we?
Elven names need a tongue-twisty characteristic, something to underline their ephemeral nature and musical languages and the pdf delivers with slightly celtic-sounding names like “S’aelmyth”, “Tat’hanien”, “Gwennelyn” or “Venalthielle”. Not all names feel like they belng to the same culture, though, as almost Greco-roman-sounding names like “Apathaneon” or “Nephensian” get thrown into the mix. I would have preferred more coherence here. The family names this time around once again consist of two nouns for names like “Ravenclaw”, “Nymphsight” etc. – over all, these are superior to the dwarven clan names as they lack truly problematic entries – though “Thaneseeker” would probably have suited the dwarves better…
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting in each installment are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a no-frills standard with 6 columns featuring the names in one massive table. Layout-wise, I consider this slightly sub-optimal – separating the one table into three distinct tables, one for male names, one for female names and one for the family/clan/surnames would have enhanced readability and made the page look less jumbled. The pdfs of this series have no bookmarks, but need none at this length.
So…how to rate this? Well, on its own each of the installments delivers names and solidly so, for a fair price. The thing is…Raging Swan Press has a little pdf called “So what’s the Demihuman called, anyway?” that delivers 50 male/female family name entries for elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes and haf-orcs – for 2 bucks, which, if you do the math, is simply the better deal, so the low-price factor won’t feature in my calculation of the verdict. Combined with the table-issue mentioned before, that’s a detrimental factor that costs these pdfs some ground. That being said, here is my verdict for it:
Elves get perhaps the coolest names, but suffer from a linguistically ununified nomenclature that feels at times slightly jarring. Hence, my final verdict will be 4 stars.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
Each installment of Abandoned Art’s „You name it“-series so far is 3 pages long, with one page devoted to front cover, 1 page to SRD and 1 page of content, which provides a massive name-generator list.
Generally, the series is system-agnostic and provides just what it promises, i.e. names – 100 male ones, 100 female ones and 100 titles/clan/family etc. names, depending on the race covered, so let’s go through the first 4 pdfs, shall we?
The male names adhere here to mostly harsh consonants and darker vowels, interspersed with lighter vowels to take a bit of the edge off and , like the female ones, adhere mostly to a Germanic nomenclature with names like “Daldir and “Frogund”, but also the eponymous Albrecht and Klaus, which to this day are common names in Germany. The clan names follow the established composite word tradition and include entries like “Firebelly”, “Blackhammer” etc. Unfortunately, there are some entries in this table that are less than superb – “Skullcrusher” to me sounds more like an orc-tribe and “Stonemeier” sounds ridiculous to me. Worst offender would be “Traugott”, though – literally, that would mean “Daregod” or “trusts in god” (if an “In” was eliminated), but the connotation for “trauen” is also “to wed”, evoking unpleasant pictures of bearded dwarves in bridal gowns. These are the exception, though and generally, we get solid lists.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting in each installment are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a no-frills standard with 6 columns featuring the names in one massive table. Layout-wise, I consider this slightly sub-optimal – separating the one table into three distinct tables, one for male names, one for female names and one for the family/clan/surnames would have enhanced readability and made the page look less jumbled. The pdfs of this series have no bookmarks, but need none at this length.
So…how to rate this? Well, on its own each of the installments delivers names and solidly so, for a fair price. The thing is…Raging Swan Press has a little pdf called “So what’s the Demihuman called, anyway?” that delivers 50 male/female family name entries for elves, dwarves, halflings, gnomes and haf-orcs – for 2 bucks, which, if you do the math, is simply the better deal, so the low-price factor won’t feature in my calculation of the verdict. Combined with the table-issue mentioned before, that’s a detrimental factor that costs these pdfs some ground. That being said, here are my verdicts:
Dwarves suffers from the wonkiest names and overall, while not bad, could have used some finetuning. Hence, 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
The second part of AaW's unconventional take on the Snow-White myth is a whopping 123 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 119 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS, not only for this module, but also for part I - potential players should jump to the conclusion.
Still here? All right - the teleport has gone wrong as far as the PCs are concerned - and according to plan as far as the mastermind of Lumi's kidnapping thinks - the PCs unceremoniously are dumped by the magic in the forest. One very, very cold forest that comes with a whole page summing up environmental dangers before we get into a truly awesome first chapter - an alchemist's notebook, containing notes on 12 pieces of unique flora and fauna that potentially can be found in the haunted forest. Featuring not only interesting descriptions and usages, these pieces are AWESOME and will be added to the ecology of my gaming world - with harvesting DCs, interesting mechanics and even a nodding towards module A5: Winterflower and stats for this, the world's supposedly rarest plan, the chapter kicks off the module with one of the best pieces of supplemental material I've seen in a book for quite some time!
Now I've mentioned that the Haunted Forest is where the PCs are stranded -and hence we also get a rather extensive array of random encounters - which come with their own encounter index, btw., and feature several uncommon creatures seldom seen in modules alongside the more common animals. The exploration of the haunted forest is a welcome change of pace from Part I and manages to evoke a classic feeling of dread regarding the weird forest, making it possible to e.g. insert this module into Midgard's Margreve by maintaining a similar (yet more fairy-taleish) sense of unfamiliarity.
So what can the PCs find inside this haunted forest? Well, let's for example take a sentient, mobile bottomless pit that not only makes for a deadly adversary, but which should require some grey matter on the side of the PCs to best. In a feyglade, the PCs can play a new mini-game, fully detailed, called Kasta, with some fey and find a fey (not Lumi!) in a glass casket. The fey has played a trick on a young girl and his grief over the trick going too far prompted him to eat a fruit that sent him into an eternal coma.
In order to awake said fey and find out about the girl, the PCs will have to brave the maze that the girl's last remaining family has erected to protect her - for her last remaining family is Malthazar, an adopted minotaur pledged to guarding her eternal slumber, awaking her from aforementioned fruit's slumber also awakens the fey and points the PCs towards her former cabin - whether the minotaur still lives or not depending solely on the bloodthirst of your PCs - non-violence might be the more prudent option.
Whether by a secret entry-way hidden near haunted falls and caves, by accident or via the girl, the PCs will sooner or later find a cabin - a cabin which has been studded via creative traps, for the 7 dwarves in this module would make Andrzej Sapkowski's terrorist/guerrilla-fighters proud: Belonging to a cadre of humanoids set against human supremacist attitudes/taxation/colonial claims. Oh, and the 7 dwarves actually include halflings and gnomes here and come with full stats - have I mentioned that they have secured Lumi - who has become sympathetic to their plight- whether in truth or by Stockholm syndrome is up for the DM to decide, while player actions will determine whether a party or combat will ensue. In any way, the attendant queen makes her move with the iconic assault, translated properly into PFRPG-mechanics - using e.g. hallucinatory terrain and similar means to make her quick assault easy to be pulled off - though not foolproof.
And it may very well be one of the PCs that wakes up Lumi - from here on, it's time to decide with which side to ally and how to return to Morsain - there a total of 8 (!!!) varying conclusions depending on the actions of the PCs are possible - though all presume a unpleasant end for Lumi or a heart-broken PC, since potentially getting on the bad side of a prince of Klavek might have massive repercussions, it would be easy for the DM to develop more massive repercussions and thus get a PC into nobility. The queen, meanwhile, may have managed to maintain her charade - and even if she doesn't, she'll still have an excellent array of plan B/escape possibilities - we may have not seen the last of the fully statted witch queen.
The pdf also features a new level 9 spell that allows for cryostasis via Winterflower-components, an appendix that describes the short folk resistance and among the stats, we can also find the full stats of the witch's intelligent dagger.
The final 4 pages of the pdf are devoted to a translation (and a relatively faithful one at that, comparing it with my versions) of the fairy-tale as well as further research links and by now, player-friendly versions of the maps have also been included.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, though not perfect - I noticed a couple of very minor glitches here and there, though none that impeded my ability to understand the content. Layout adheres to AaW's 2-column standard with a printer-friendly background and color-coded boxes for the crunch-components. The pdf is fully bookmarked and comes with links to the respective statblocks. Artwork is mostly thematically fitting stock art and, as almost always, the cartography ranks among the most beautiful you'll find in any given module - this time done by Jonathan Nelson instead of map-guru Todd Gamble, though it's surprisingly up to the insane standard master Gamble has set.
Part I was unconventional and Part II is also an adventure unlike any you've probably run before, featuring a vast array of intriguing locales, things to do, choices to make - and then some, for its modularity and sandboxy freeform-style means that even if taken "only" as a sandbox to scavenge encounters from, this module delivers in spades - each and every encounter has at least one fun, uncommon thing going for it - there is no boring encounter to be found herein. The adversaries act smart, the fluff is stellar and the supplemental material provided is simply the cool icing on the awesome-cake. Yes, I'm going to hit myself for this pun - later. This module is not particularly cheap, but its quality and the sheer guts to do something rather different should imho be rewarded - quality trumps quantity and this module is nothing, if not quality.
For this module, more so than even its direct predecessor, is uncommon - it endeavors to deviate from both what one would expect from the source-material, but also from conventional adventure writing, making this work not only as a module, but also alternatively as a superb sandbox to scavenge fey-style/dark forest weirdness from by the encounter. If you're looking for a wilderness sandbox in a fey forest, then this is an absolute must-have - an actually GOOD wilderness module brimming with ideas, Snow White Part 2 even beats its rather excellent predecessor and hence my final verdict will clock in at easily given 5 stars + seal of approval - Adventureaweek.com's author-team has delivered a thoroughly compelling two-parter and one I wouldn't mind seeing sequels to - "Little Red-Riding Hood, Werewolf Hunter", perhaps?
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 16 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, 1 page introduction,1 page back cover, leaving us with 12 pages of content, so let's take a look!
The pdf kicks off with rules for chirurgery, which is portrayed as an unpleasant ability to modify bodies in ways they were not meant to be modified in a world where magical healing is the default. Basically, it requires the skill focus (heal)-feat or at least 5 ranks in Craft (alchemy). If you meet either prerequisites, you may learn chirurgical procedures in a way similar to spells - upon learning them, though, you can use them at will. Studying from a book or another practitioner is possible and learning from corpses is harder than from live subjects. The procedures also feature a chance that you learn an imperfect version of the respective procedure, imposing a permanent malus on your check to perform it until you manage a perfect success. These procedures do spend your kits, though. When using the madness-rules used by the Gothic Grimoire-series and first introduced in Tomes of Ancient Knowledge, these procedures might drive a recipient of the chirurgical procedures insane - a rule I suggest you drop when not using these in the context of a fantasy world where magical healing is readily available.
Now how are procedures handled rules-wise? Essentially, 3 skill-checks are required: Disable Device, Craft (Alchemy) and Heal. 3 successful checks mean a complete success, whereas two are a partial success and 1 means a failure - and there is the potential for catastrophic failures as well. Interactions with skill mastery and similar abilities as well as a lack of assistants is covered as well and beyond even that, the respective procedures have an associated synergy-skill that provides a +1 bonus to all skill-checks for every 3 ranks the practitioner has in the respective synergy skill.
A total of 11 such procedures are covered with DC, the amount of days it takes and the amount of healer-kit uses the procedure expends per ongoing day. It should also be noted that there are possibilities to reverse these respective procedures. At the very latest when reading the respective procedures, one realizes that Hippokrates would not smile upon these procedures since they indeed have a very sinister tint to them: Whereas changing the appearance might still be moderately common and neutral (though terrible things can be done with this), implanting phobias and multiple identities of your choice (including a list), enhance non-lethal damage healing, grafting vestigial or functional fins and wings, implanting suggestions, modify memories or erase memories of class abilities and similar tricks via Induce Amnesia, or get REALLY nasty. Want to implant drug reservoirs, lobotomize victims (though the repercussions of this one are not severe enough for my tastes) or even implant instant-kill-switches? Yeah, you can do that. You could of course also use these for healing purposes via the general surgery, but where's the fun in that? "White" surgery to get rid of blindness/deafness, attribute damage and drain etc. are btw. not covered in here - while they wouldn't fit with the theme, I maintain that more procedures in future supplements would help to make the complex subsystem more relevant.
After that, we are introduced to a beautiful full-color one-page artwork of a new grimoire, On the Clockwork of Caterpillars, a grisly tome that includes the procedures featured in this book as well as access to two new feats as well as the pieces of information to create a variety of constructs. The Anatomical Precision-feat allows the character to use his anatomical knowledge to study foes and help criting/sneaking them. Anesthetist allows the user to improve unconsciousness-poisons or use your antidote/healer's hits to ameliorate pain - either fast or slowly.
The final pages of the product are devoted to two new creatures - the first being the Cyberphrenic Tadpole (CR 1/3) that can invade others and telepathically manipulate those invaded by it and relay the creator's commands - like in the Construct Codex, we get a one-page glorious full-color artwork of the critter, easily producible as a hand-out to players. Beyond this, there is the CR 5 Cranial Dissectibot (CR 5) - essentially an operating table with saws etc. that can drill into the skulls of helpless creatures and restrain patients - a perfect companion for mad doctors who don't want the clichéd Igor and rather make their own friends when operating.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to Legendary Games' 2-column, drop-dead-gorgeous full-color standard and the pdf comes in two versions, one slightly more printer-friendly than the other. The pdfs come fully bookmarked and the original pieces of full color artwork are legendary indeed and rank among the finest pieces one can find in any roleplaying product out there.
The Mad Doctor's Formulary provides a complex, yet easy to grasp non-magical system for surgical procedures of the more sinister kind and offers some really nasty options. That being said, they are not perfect. Perhaps due to the brevity or for playability's sake, the potential for relatively simple reversal of the procedures means also that the procedures lack a bit of the gravitas they otherwise would have - catching characters alive is hard enough and being subject to such an operation should have characters steaming and the mad doctor cackling - since the procedures not even require a caster-level check versus the doc's surgical skill to be reversed, they at least in my opinion lose some of their threat-potential and "we're screwed/what have you monster done"-mentality.
There is a second thing you should be aware of when getting this - while the rules presented herein work as a rudimentary alternative to magical healing, this is not the liberating strike for non-magical healing it could have easily been, were this a longer book with benevolent surgery included. While I won't hold that against the pdf, I still feel that this book's potential transcends greatly its rather tight focus.
That being said, for what it is, for its tight focus on disturbing medicine, it works exceedingly well and rating it instead as a book that makes non-magical healing valid is simply not fair. Still, a sense of a missed opportunity, at least for now, suffuses my reception of this otherwise stellar offering and hence my final decision of settling on a verdict of 4.5 stars -still rounded up to 5, but short of the seal of approval. If evil medicine only moderately interests you as a concept, I still wholeheartedly encourage you to check this out.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 6 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 4 pages of content, so let's check this out!
So what does this pdf do? Well, first we get an item creation feat, which allows you to modify a corpse to optimize its performance when it is revived into an undead state. Furthermore, taking this feat allows you to craft three types of corpsehaper tools.
A total of 12 corpseshaper modifications are provided, each coming with 3 versions - lesser, standard and greater. The respective tools are essentially wondrous items that allow modifications to make your undead faster, file their natural attacks into being keen, act as if under haste for one round due to necromantically infused adrenal glands, enforce them with resistance to positive energy, create a mobile construct that shares its ongoing effects with its host undead, create especially perceptive undead or grant fortification to your undead slaves.
You may now also enhance your undead to deal cold damage, enhance the impact of your undead's bludgeoning attacks, grant basic intelligence to non-intelligent undead, give them a one-use negative energy breath weapon or create particularly disturbingly looking servitors.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to Interjection Games' 2-column, elegant b/w-standard and the artworks are fitting stock art. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
This pdf provides poor necromancers finally with some rather cool tools to enhance their servitors - with nasty tricks, nice ideas and overall solid crunch backing cool concepts and disturbing imagery in the writing, I have nothing at all to complain about this pdf apart from the fact that I would have loved to get even more of these tools to modify undead. Hoping for a sequel one day, I'll gladly rate this fairly-priced pdf at 5 stars + seal of approval and will now resume gibbering madly and apply my new tools...
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
The first player faction-offering for the Vathak-setting is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 10 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Player faction? Well, yes, for this is more than an organization - devoted to the Book of Black Earth, an ancient tome of cataclysmic prophecies unearthed from ruins led to genesis of a secret organization - on available for PCs, though personally, I'D rather suggest this ephemeral cabal more as antagonists. But more on that later:
Drawing in a cool professional way on how factions in Golarion are presented, we get the basic faction rules regarding prestige explained to us before we delve into the order's history and rather disturbing indoctrination rituals. A long and concise list of benefits depending on TPA and CPA (total and current prestige awards) are there and offer some intriguing options - amongst other to exchange character traits for the two new faction-specific traits provided in the pdf - both of which come with a nice fluff and mechanics I can't and won't complain about. Suggested classes and 4 new feats are also part of what the order has to offer - including one that allows the user to 3/day cast the message spell as a spell-like ability, but only t contact other order members - a powerful tool for shadowy conspiracies indeed. The feats are solid in presentation and while spells are not in italics, the fluff and ideas make up for this minor shortcoming by oozing flair.
2 new spells also complement this faction, one that deals damage and infects with a more powerful type of Borer Worm (a CR 1 acid-oozing parasite-worm introduced in these pages as well) and a spell that conjures up an area of writhing, shadowy, con-draining tentacles. Aforementioned Borer Worms are also provided equipment style stats and we get one damn cool poison: By extracting tainted earth from the dread pit of decay (a mobile, gory, maw-like appendage that shows itself annualy and is tied to the Old One of the cult), the order may create a potent toxin by mixing the soiled earth with blood. This location is not the only special one sacred to the order - there are also the Worm Ways, hidden and weird tunnels that serve as twisted smuggle-ways. A special celebration, a holiday if you will, the so-called Worm-Solstice is provided as well in a compelling, twisted write-up.
Among the creatures, apart from the Borer Worm, we also get the Crawling putrescence and a sample CR 8 mastermind of the cult.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good - apart from some minor aesthetic glitches like aforementioned italics-bungle I didn't notice any glitch that would have impeded my enjoyment of this pdf. The layout adheres to Vathak's beautiful 2-column standard and the artworks are nice indeed, especially for such an inexpensive publication. On the downside, we don't get any bookmarks, which is a minor bummer.
Wow! Kudos to the Fat Goblins! This pdf for the Vathak setting is not only a great cult for the setting, but for any setting really - DMs seeking to flesh out the Age of Worms or those using Morithal (from Clockwork Gnome Publishing's excellent pdf) should definitely get this as a means to further flesh out the cults. The prestige benefits and iconic locales and rites add further flair to a presentation of a thoroughly twisted cabal that should strike a chord with all DMs that like their fantasy dark and twisted. An enjoyable read for a fair price indeed and well worth 5 stars - me omitting my seal of approval only because of the minor glitches and lack of bookmarks.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This installment of the Village Backdrop-series is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC/foreword, 1 page advice on how to read statblocks for novice DMs, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Hosford is the second village located in the FREE Lonely Coast mini-campaign-setting by Raging Swan Press, which I'd wholeheartedly recommend you check out - I never regretted downloading that one.
Location-wise, Hosford lies between the village of Swallowfeld (also available) and the as-of-yet not covered town of Wolverton, the largest settlement of the lonely coast.
Hosford once sported a mine, but careless digging (or something less savory) saw the mine collapse and create a cove, which created a natural harbor for the now thriving fishing industry - not all is well in the little town, though, since recently a couple of villagers have gone missing without a trace. A sense of palpable fear has prompted the villagers to act and appoint a rogue (investigator) (with full stats) as reeve to get to the bottom of the weird disappearances - and while the pdf gives you the culprit (again, with full statblock), I won't spoil the reasons for the disappearances or the true culprit here - you'll have to get the book yourself in order to find that out.
Beyond these recent disappearances, we get a full settlement statblock, a list of notable folk and notable locations in the village, a selection of magic items for sale in town and, of course, village lore and 6 rumors. Beyond that, the pdf also provides multiple write-ups of the respective locales, 6 events to spring upon your PCs and information on local nomenclature, dressing-habits and the law.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's 2-clumn b/w-standard and the pdf comes in 2 versions, one optimized for print and one for screen-use. Both are extensively bookmarked. It should be noted that the beautiful b/w-map of the village can be downloaded as a web-enhancement sans the annoying map-key on Raging Swan Press' homepage, something I'd suggest you do.
This village backdrop has probably the most ingrained adventure cut out of any village backdrop I've seen so far - all the pieces are in place and it requires at best a moderately talented DM to craft a nice short investigation from the content provided herein - one that does not sport a traditional villain and where the distinction between what's right and wrong and the culprit's peculiar situation mean that the PCs will have, if you so choose, a moral dilemma at their hands. If you so choose, that is - the component can be downplayed easily or just dropped alltogether if you happen to have other plans.
All in all, Hosford is a great locale with a stunning, uncommon layout and map and some expert-writing to back it up - one of the best installments in the series so far and one well-deserving of a final verdict of 5 stars + seal of approval. Congratulations to author John Bennett!
Endzeitgeist out.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thank you very much for this review. I'm delighted you enjoyed this village so much! |
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This pdf is 4 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let's take a look at what new tools the Vishkanya get!
We kick this pdf off via 4 new racial feats:
-Blowgun Spittle: Add your natural poison to blowgun darts as part of shooting it. Great way of making the otherwise rather weak weapon shine more.
-Caustic Poison: When a foe takes ability damage from your poison, s/he also takes 1 point of acid damage. Too weak for the investment of a feat, imho and more in line with a trait/alternate racial trait.
-Serpernt's Slink: Count as one size smaller for purpose of determining stealth-bonuses. Somewhat of a lost opportunity there: The feat would be even cooler if the Vishkanya could actually hide in spaces only accommodating smaller species, but that might be just my idea and won't fracture into the final verdict.
-Venom Sense: Detect Poison 1/hour as a spell-like ability at HD caster level.
The 4 new traits make you more resilient versus fascination, 1/day net you Spell Focus (enchantment) or (illusion) (but only for spells with material and somatic components, respectively - which is a great design-choice to limit traits and keep them still relevant) and make it easier for you to antagonize others.
The two alternate racial traits allow you to be scintillating and thus more beautiful (bonus to social skills), but also makes disguising yourself harder, whereas the second allows for a very cool faster escape from bonds - this one really drives the race's flair home. Neat!
This installment's archetype is the Venomous Disciple for the Monk, who combines monkish discipline with sleeping venom and Adder Strike as potential bonus feats and may opt to create poison that can affect creatures immune to poison - but balances this with the DC requiring to surpass the target creature's SR - an uncommon and cool mechanic. At higher levels, these monks may purge poisons and absorb poisons from others and at high levels make their toxins lethal on a secondary save. Two thumbs up for this neat archetype - the so far best take on the serpentine monk I've seen so far!
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to Abandoned Arts' no-frills two-column standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
This installment of the Amazing Races-series is one of the better ones - from a compelling archetype, cool feats, an interesting trait-mechanic, this is definitely a pdf I'd also recommend to DMs who want to add some additional oomph to reptile/serpentine foes beyond the obvious target audience of Vishkanya-players. While not all individual pieces are awesome, I'll still gladly settle on a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.
Endzeitgeist out.
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An Endzeitgeist.com review
This installment of the Treasures of NeoExodus-series is 5 pages long, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving us with 4 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?
When a great warrior and his best druid friend were stranded on an island and the foolishness of said warrior cost the life of said friend, the legend of grasscutter was born - a blade of wood, by now infused with the intelligence of a guardian spirit that has since become a legend. Rules-wise, the blade is a +1 club - unless wielded by a fighter, in which case it turns into a +2 impervious keen longsword of speed that compels its wielder to never use another weapon again. Rather cool: If you happen to belong to the great swordsman's bloodline, you may call upon the blade's guardian spirit that functions like a summoner's eidolon.
Full stats for said guardian spirit are provided as well, though sans a CR. The pdf also features item-cards.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches this time around. Layout adheres to LPJr Design's drop-dead-gorgeous full-color two-column standard and the pdf comes with a second, more printer-friendly version. The artwork for the weapon is, as always in the series, beautiful. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.
Coming with a compelling, yet not brilliant story and solid rules, Grasscutter is a great blade that is further enhanced by the guardian spirit and his stats - the one thing I would have loved to see how this item and it's eidolon influence the CR of NPCs. Apart from this - nothing to complain about. Final verdict: 5 stars, just slightly short of the seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist out.
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![The Corpseshaper's Toolbox [PFRPG]](images/3827/112684-thumb100.jpg)
