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Do you want to have something really weird going on in your campaign world?
If so, you might just find the resources, the tools to arrange for some serious oddness here, especially if you like Lovecraftian-style weirdness. Apart from a few references to the world of Abbadon, on which it is assumed this infestation of alien beings has landed, it is not tied to a specific location so it could come to a campaign world near you.
The resources provided are rich and varied. The core aliens, the H'laqu, that are bringing about the weirdness are gone in to in quite a lot of detail. There are new feats, traits and spells galore; even a new cult based around misperception of their almost god-like abilities deluding people into thinking they deserve or even want to be worshipped. A real gem is the array of 'new monsters' each of which has not only the usual bits and bobs you expect with a monster listing, each one also has its own selection of plot seeds to help you incorporate them into your game.
There's also an illness that can be contracted, and the way - through 'breaching points' - that the aliens arrive on your campaign world in the first place. These too come with masses of ideas on how to weave them into your plots or create whole adventures around them as the characters - and no doubt just about everyone else - battle to save their world from the infestation.
There's a lot of magnificent stuff here... but it lacks any overall coherence (hence 4 rather than 5 stars... it's so almost a 5* product!), rather its a toolbox that you'll need to sift through and work with to attain your desired outcome.
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This is a delightful resource, a wander through some of the cities in the world of Camelot Cosmos.... but a wealth of detail that would provide flavour to any steam-fantasy setting even if you do not use this one which you ought to try if you like steampunk meets fantasy with a bit of chivalry thrown in.
There is a lot crammed in here. It's more flavour than hard fact with everything from likely names of street gangs to notes on the Gentlemen Assassins and Unseelie influences... Evocative descriptions of the Factols - distinctive bastions of industrial might - jostle with tables of Wyrd Effects and discussions of the war economy, Fyrd patrols and the role of Hags, grotesque crones with oversight duties within the Factols.
Some bits are very setting specific, although there is little rules 'crunch', but much could be transplanted elsewhere if your fantasy setting is subject to heavy industrialisation in steampunk style - I can think of a couple of games in my collection in such a style for which this might be raided.
This makes for an entertaining and flavourful read. While it is primarily aimed at the GM, there is little conflict in allowing players access if they want to get more of a feel for the world in which their characters live.
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Who ever said that your party of adventurers were the only folk out travelling the highways and byways of your campaign world?
Even worse, who thinks that everyone you meet is merely a 'wandering monster' for you to hammer seven bells out of and then take their stuff?
If you have a slightly more civilised approach to fellow travellers, this resource may be of use. Here, on three tables you may either roll percentage dice on or just select an entry that appeals, are a whole bunch of people who have reason to be treading the same paths as your party, and with whom they can interact if they so choose. Divided into peddlers, merchants and traders; bards, minstrels and troubadours; and finally mercenaries, sellswords and freebooters, each entry gives you a short paragraph about the individual or group in question - plenty and enough to fuel a conversation.
Depending on your needs and the style of the games you like to run, most could easily serve as recurring NPCs, be used to further one of your plots or even spawn a whole side-adventure (or more). Take as an example Elion Menel (roll 09-12 on the bards, minstrels & troubadors table) He (NG male elf aristocrat 1) is the fourth son of an elven noble who fancies himself a poet. Morose and dressed in black, he is looking to emotionally suffer in order to improve his art and he finds death incredibly romantic. Seeing adventurers as agents of death, he tries to follow them from a distance that he might draw inspiration from their brutal actions.
Now, you might like to portray poor Elion as a complete pest and really bug the party with his attentions. Or perhaps he can give them directions to a location where they can be assured of a good brawl (it being, of course, part of your adventure to lure them there). Or maybe some bandits, realising he's of noble stock, kidnap him and the party is asked to rescue him! Or... I'm sure you can come up with some other ideas.
Some of the entries give suggestions for how to use them - merchants who try to sell the party their wares, or have information that may be of use to them... even a couple of the mercenary encounters who actually are after each other over some dispute, both happy to air their grievances and ask for help in finding the other.
Heck, if you're not careful, the journey may end up being the adventure, instead of the way to get to it!
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Publisher Reply: |
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Blimey! You've certainly taken a stroll through this product, Megan! Thanks every much for taking us all on your journey! |
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Whilst described as a 'modern' library, this is really quite timeless, a haven for those of us who like 'dead tree' books whether we are in mediaeval times, somewhere in the far future or sometime in between. Especially when looking at the top-down battlemap version, where the style of the chairs and nature of lighting fitments is not so apparent - they are early 20th-century vintage and might jar a little if this is supposed to be the treasured library of a medieaval/fantasy lordling... or his wizard.
It's basically one long cavernous hall. The cover illustration and 360° view give a beautiful impression of a vaulted roof and the booklined walls. Pity there are no freestanding bookstacks - both a waste of space if you are thinking of how many books you can shelve and quite fun to dodge around if you are having a brawl in here. (Just remember to keep the noise down, this is a LIBRARY you know!)
Otherwise it is a good layout with comfortable chairs and a good table depending on whether you want to curl up with a good book or take notes as you study. I can think of lots of situations where this will come in handy. You get the choice of a square grid, a hex grid or no grid at all (with notes on which pages to print), plus an enormous single-sheet JPEG for virtual tabletops or if you have access to a commercial poster printer.
I'd recommend this even if it wasn't free... as it is, grab it!
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So, a game of World War I flying aces, with the key ingredient that's been lacking from other aerial combat games: intelligent apes... now, I cannot say that I've ever felt the lack of apes, intelligent or otherwise, in any aerial combat game I've played but... now I've read this, there's a certained warped corner of my mind that sees that they could be an asset!
The premise is simple. Back in the 17th and 18th century, human explorers from Europe found civilisations in distant jungles built not by primitive men but by apes. Urang utans swarming over the Indies. Chimpanzees in West Africa. The apes took advantage of the encounters every much as humans did, and by the beginning of the 20th century, they lived in the west enjoying all the benefits of civilisation in harmony with their hairless cousins, human beings. Five ape species have stepped up to take their place in society: Orangutans, Gorillas, Bili Apes, Chimpanzees and Bonobos.
After this swift yet comprehensive history we move on to Character Creation, which uses the QAGS ruleset (which you will need to make the most of this game). Characters may be humans or one of the ape species and details of the 'ape modifier' that you apply to any ape character are spelled out here. Given the original premise of the game, characters are intended to be pilots... but there is plenty of material if you intend a more general early 20th-century alternate history game where aerial action is not quite so important.
The next section discusses the Great War, weaving actual and alternate history into a seamless whole to set the scene for the game. Positing a date of 1916 when combat had settled into trench warfare with biplanes buzzing about overhead, the next section looks at the Flying Squadrons and how aerial combat was conducted. Aircraft, the nascent art of war in the air, even uniforms and squadron life are covered. The section ends with game details for several different aircraft.
And then... Flying Monkeys. It doesn't matter if you are human or ape, you need to be aware of certain details - and the rules that will model them. The effects of altitude, even frostbite, must be survived. A system for aerial combat itself is then presented, which a few die rolls and prangs later can be reported to be mostly workable, although a knack for abstracting and presenting the combat in narrative form improves things greatly. It's not about rolling dice, it's about adventure and derring-do, after all!
Finally some notes on the sort of adventure that ought to work well are followed by a fully-developed one, Masque of the Black Death. There's plenty there to get a good flavour of the game. A whole raft of appendices deal with the timeline of the alternate history, pre-1916 aircraft, the major nations, other theatres of war, speaking ape (common ape slang), a Great War glossary and (of course) some dumb tables to exercise your die-rolling skills upon. There's even a page of Inspirations, a GM cheat sheet and a character sheet - everything you need, really.
All jolly good fun, what? Gentlemen, gentleapes, start your engines!
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It is a while since I squelched through a good swamp... probably only a few times since I finished studying botany and was seduced to settle at a computer instead. So, if you want your characters to have that genuine swamp experience and don't have too many of your own to draw upon, this product could be a godsend.
The stated aim here is not to get too bogged down (sorry!) in detailing the swamp. Let the players' imaginations do that for them, and provide little snippets that make it all come to life. To that end, the first table is 'Minor Events' and details an hundred different things that the characters might notice, or which might notice the characters. It might be midges and gnats, or a backpack strap breaking, a flight of birds or a plume of smoke in the distance... or the characters discovering that a few leeches have decided to dine on them! (Note, this is how you spell 'leeches' - a rare spelling error for this publisher has snuck in!).
The next table is 'Swamp Dressing' and deals with the sights, sounds and smells of wherever it is your characters find themselves. Again, there's an hundred options from a great mass of mushrooms growing in the shadow of a steep bank to shallow pools of particularly fetid, muddy water beside the trail. It's all about creating the right atmosphere.
Next come 12 random marsh encounters you can run. They range from EL 2 to EL 16, so it is probably better to pick an appropriate one than to get your D12 out. Each is a little more than just a monster to have a brawl with, there are a few sentences describing what is going on to make it an actual event rather than a combat to enliven the tedium.
Finally, a section on Marsh Features talks about some of the trials and tribulations of swamp travel and discusses rule mechanics that it is well to be aware of when running a game that involves movement through a marsh. These include movement and detection ranges, and a nice sidebar about quicksand.
If you have many swampy areas in your campaign world and a reason for your characters to want to go there, this is worth a read.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks very much for taking the time to review this, Megan. I much appreciate it. Glad you didn't get bogged down in the text. |
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Here's a very nice selection of neat, crisp paper miniatures. Entitled 'Heroes and Goblinoides' the collection includes five adventurer types (at least one is an elf, I can just about make out pointy ear tips!), three of them in standard travelling clothing with weapons and one in robes with a staff. The last is very clearly a dwarf, with a fine set of whiskers and a big axe.
The rest presumably fall into the Goblinoides category. Green skins, pointy ears and a generally grumpy disposition in various shapes and sizes... along with a couple of large rats and a huge spider. And a few really big club-wielding and VERY grumpy fellows - giants, perhaps. Or trolls?
The drawings are clear and neat, without being cartoon-ey, and they are well-coloured. The miniatures make up into 2-sided flats with a circular base. No instructions are given but it's pretty obvious what you need to do to prepare them.
A nice, useful set to have to hand.
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I never thought you could find so much to say about a mere portcullis! Shows just how wrong I can be...
OK. We all know what a portcullis is: a barrier that can be dropped from above to block an accessway (gateway or corridor), and which has a relatively open construction so that you can see through it even when you cannot get through. They have a real-world origin in mediaeval castle design, they were popular additions to a gatehouse to deal with anyone who'd negotiated your drawbridge and moat; and were designed as a 'quick reaction' defence, they could be dropped in an instant when the need arose and - just to be on the safe side - were heavy and tended to have points on the bottom so if you timed it just right you might even squish some of those pesky invaders, not just keep them out. Sneaky castle designers often installed two so you could trap intruders between them, maybe dropping something down on them through 'murder holes' in the roof of your gatehouse passage, or just shooting arrows through the portcullis at them.
Anyway, this product begins with the common characterists of any portcullis. They provide partial cover, do not detract from line of sight (useful for spellcasters...) and wll not obstruct your detection spells. Oh, and due to the lattice-style framework, they are easy to climb. There are suggestions as to construction materials and condition, as well as the mechanism used to raise them... lowering them is easy, let gravity do its job!
Then comes the first table, which gives a selection of features you can add to your portcullis, anything from quirks in the construction like fancy decoration to large spikes protruding from it, linked systems involving more than one portcullis or an rather spooky one which never makes a sound as it is lowered or raised.
Next is a table of 'Dressings and Features' which in a way is more of the same. Maybe someone has left a wreath hanging on it, or a pair of metal gauntlets grip the bars... don't look inside them if you're squeamish, skeletal hands are within!
Finally, some traps and tricks. The trap may be what causes the portcullis to fall, or something else may be going on that makes it a lot worse... I still remember one nasty trap which involved a very strong wind and a portcullis in a passageway - the way round it was to have found a potion that turned you ethereal before the wind got up. My character didn't, and that was the end of him!
Another inventive little treat to have to hand when designing fortifications or indeed dungeons.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks, Megan. Jolly decent of you to take the time to take a look at Dungeon Dressing: Portcullises! |
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Loads of interesting stuff here, but in places it is quite hard work to extract what will be useful to you. The work opens with a rather rambling discourse (perhaps a editor could have tightened this up?) which appears to be trying to give advice on both how to be a good GM and how everyone around the table needs to work together to make the game fun for all.
Next come some snippets on creating different moods which don't get very much further than suggesting some moods and styles that you might incorporate into your game. This is followed by the first bit of real detail, a discussion on what to do with your prisoners. Apparently the author's experience is of groups - it's not clear if he's talking about PCs or NPCs here - who show no quarter and kill all captives out of hand. My experience is different, just about every GM I have ever played with enjoys taking PCs prisoner (usually MY character, dammit) and the players are not much different, delighting in what they can do with captured NPCs. Be that as it may, here's a table of suggestions for what you might do to keep prisoners alive but out of your hair.
More sections covering different things and offering suggestions, often using a D12 based table (ah, the poor neglected beastie gets some use!) as a vehicle for the suggestions proffered. Dark secrets, debt collectors (now, there's a reason to go adventuring in the first place!), extreme sports (some weird ideas here, although golem combat has some promise...), jailbreaks, local delicacies (not stuff that would make it onto the better cookery shows!), misfortunes (a fair few neat ideas for what can go wrong here), money pits (i.e. ways of relieving your PCs of their hard-earned loot) and more litter the pages.
Some are useful (omens, for example), others less so. They make for entertaining reading (ridiculous laws, anyone?) and may spawn an idea or two that you can throw into your game. Not too many, most will prove quite irritating to the characters even if the players see the funny side of it.
Then the real gem: a vast array of traps. These are more than the standard dungeon fare, these are full of twists and best of all, each has a way of figuring your way round them by the use of wits rather than rolling dice. MacGyver your way out of these...
Good stuff, but rather muddled in presentation in parts. Delve away, it may well be worth your while... but better editing would make it easier to use and eliminate errors and muddled bits.
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Designed as an introduction to the whole Adventureaweek campaign world, the putative setting of all their adventures (although most can be readily translocated into a suitable part of the campaign world of your choice) this short adventure is also intended to serve as a lead-in to A1: Crypt of the Sun Lord, if you're intending to use that.
The basic concept is simple, and yet an elegant way to get around the constant problem of your character knowing the world he lives in far better than you, his player, does by saying that the characters come from a nearby kingdom which is actively encouraging adventurers to move to an outlying fishing village called Rybalka. It's a wild and dangerous place, so much so that ordinary citizens are reluctant to move there even if offered payment. Clearly some braver souls, some adventurers, are needed!
The way to get there goes across the massive ice-cold Serpent Lake, pretty much an inland sea, and passes a ill-omened island, Crow's Rest Island. Sailors are full of tales about people who have been shipwrecked there, tales of horror and haunting far worse than merely being shipwrecked and having to survive.
There's a comprehensive backstory to inform you about what's really going on, and then we get into the adventure proper which starts with the characters aboard ship... and there's a storm blowing up! The ship is swiftly covered in snow to the extent that the captain decides that it is less risky to stop at Crow's Rest Island than it is to continue the voyage. And so it begins...
Although quite simple, the adventure is atmospheric and there's plenty of material to aid you in setting the scene, snow-covered and brooding with a mysterious crow that somehow only the party can see. Beautiful illustrations and lush maps provide visual cues to supplement the descriptions. There's plenty to do, with negotiations with spirits as well as a couple of brawls... and the adventurers should emerge back on shore as the storm dies down and their ship is ready to resume its voyage. But, boy, they will have some tales to tell of their exploits!
If looking to start a campaign with a bang, this ought to fit the bill, excitement a-plenty yet all perfectly do-able by first level characters.
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This is a rather beautiful and evocative drawing, in a 1920s style, of a young lady in a very strappy almost topless dress, hair up and with a flower...
It's a shame that she doesn't look as if she is enjoying the party much.
The drawing, however, is lovely and the story behind her glum expression may be what drives your next adventure.
That, or there's a Cthulhoid monster sitting behind me that she's just noticed... :)
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Fancy providing security at a royal wedding?
That's the crux of the task that faces your characters in this adventure, but it is so well done that it's a real treat. The whole thing is full of neat suggestions from the outset - like not telling your players the name of the adventure so that they don't figure out that it's based on fairytales and folk legend until it's far too late... not to mention a series of traps so well described and presented that it takes dealing with them to a whole new level: a real part of the game, not just something to be dealt with so you can go do whatever it was you were here for in the first place. It's all too easy for traps to be viewed as a nuisance for the party rogue to go do his thing, couple of die rolls and move on (healing the rogue if necessary): here they are an integral part of the adventure.
There are also numerous hints and suggestions to enable you to enjoy watching the party cope with high society. Consider that they are an ordinary bunch of adventurers, and are now being thrust headlong into a full-blown royal court with all the attitudes and customs and ceremonial that that entails. Will they conduct themselves in a fitting manner, or make fools of themselves?
There is, as you'd expect, quite a lot of interaction and scope for role-play here. But never fear, there are plenty opportunities for more robust activity, a good chase or two as well as several combats. It's challenging, but never boring... and certainly no easy duty.
Events pile up quick and fast, but you are provided with resources to cope with whatever the characters choose to do about them, the notes are full of options 'If the party chooses to...' which will help you present it seamlessly giving a real feeling of freedom of action. As ever, full game mechanical details for both Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 and the Pathfinder RPG are provided, clearly differentiated so that you can pick out the ones you need.
I'm already looking forwards to Part 2. In the meantime, where are some players....?
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I opened this with a sense of puzzlement: just what is a doom painting anyway?
All was soon revealed. A doom painting is a mediaeval depiction of the Last Judgement, as taught by Christianity, that was a popular adornment of churches in England... and the reason why so many old English churches have white-washed walls these days, a relic of Puritain distain of such art in the 17th century! Whilst a lot of the iconography of a traditional doom painting would be inappropriate in most fantasy worlds - as they don't tend to practise Christianity there - the base concept is ripe with possibilities, from depicting the tenets of whatever deities are revered there to enabling the GM to weave subtle forshadowings of his plots into artwork which the characters may or may not notice. You could even provide hints about an impending trap... or the painting itself could be a part of that trap!
The first table provides suggestions for the overall appearance of the painting. One interesting feature is the two-sided nature of each work: this is completely traditional and harks back to the Last Judgement theme of real-world doom paintings. One side would depict what happened to good folks (welcomed into heaven) and the other side showed the evil people being consigned to the fiery pits of hell! So here you might see something like "A king and queen are seated in this painting. All those who have approached the king have been decapitated, while those who have approached the queen are showered with fine gifts." (#84-86). You can be as cryptic or as blatent as you like: the images are best presented without commentary to let the characters make of them what they will.
The next table is entitled Dressings and Features, and offers various additional features that might add interest. Perhaps the doom painting is upside down, or has been defaced or partly covered over... or maybe it has an ornate frame. You will have to decide if the feature has any significance, or if it's just something done by a previous party of adventurers...
Finally comes a selection of traps and tricks that can be incorporated into your doom paintings. Now, there were some in the first table, but here five new paintings are described in detail along with the awful things that might befall anyone who stops to take a look.
Now, I'd suggest that you use doom paintings sparingly - unless there's a very good reason, like whoever constructed the dungeon being an art collector - but a well considered one could provide a potent and memorable dungeon feature. If you visit one of my dungeons in the future, watch the walls...
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It's called swords AND sorcery after all, so why should you have to choose between chucking spells and swinging a sword when creating your character? If a mix of both takes your fancy, this product holds some interesting suggestions.
First up is the Dimensional Knight base class, fully developed up to 20th level. His aim is to be omnipresent on the battlefield, using mastery of spatial manipulation to dart around, open portals and the like to mount attacks in the most unexpected places. Spell-casting is sorcerer-style, without need for preparing the day's spells in advance, but subject to the usual level-based limits as to the number and level of spells that can be cast. The range of spells available is quite specialised and limited, but caters to the particular needs of the class well.
Next a prestige class, the Spellslinger. This is appropriate for games in which firearms are permitted, and caters for both magic-using characters who want to carry a gun for protection or a gunman who wants to harness arcane power: for the spellslinger uses a handgun to launch his spells and can even develop the ability to spit arcane energies rather than bullets from its muzzle!
This is followed by another new base class, the Thunder Chief who is a front-line fighter capable of calling down weather, specifically storms, to aid him on the battlefield. He is gifted in manipulating the weather and in particular harnessing the power of lightning, and is also capable of limited divine casting using a special spell list, which is provided, and also creates and wields a special 'stormblade' weapon embued with mystical power.
You may find these all fairly niche classes, and it is probably wise to consider the campaign style carefully before choosing any of them. If, however, epic largescale battles feature, both the Dimensional Knight and the Thunder Chief could be quite potent on the battlefield, although it's hard to imagine a Thunder Chief being very happy with extended dungeon delving. Innovative players will soon develop ways of using their powers off the battlefield as well.
The product rounds off with a good range of new feats, spells and magic items. Most are aimed at the new classes, but at least some might find favour with other characters as well. An interesting and thought-provoking work.
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Worth it for the backstory alone, this product opens with a dire tale of how a greedy and intolerant emperor who confused dire poverty caused by crop failure with a mere unwillingness to pay taxes was eventually deposed... but not before he'd both devastated the township that was the centre of what he perceived as rebellion and had built a gaol there. That emperor's long gone, but the gaol remains...
There is a description and a rough sketch map of this dire establishment, a strange place indeed that's built on a towering column and hangs out high above the surrounding wasteland (a cell with a view, perhaps?). If you indend much running around therein, you may need to come up with more detailed maps, especially if you use miniatures for combat, but the sketch and description are enough to give a feel for the place.
Several people are then introduced: the warden, a guard,and a couple of prisoners; each with a whole backstory of their own. Then comes several plot outlines involving the gaol. Perhaps the party is hired to get someone out of there, whether wrongfully imprisoned or in need of incarceration but with friends wealthy enough to hire folks to break them out. Or the characters might even have fallen foul of someone and been imprisoned. Or... there is plenty of food for thought here with twists and turns aplenty to make a full-blown adventure.
A couple of interesting items, a few rumours and some encounters wind this up. Perhaps worth tucking aside for when your characters annoy you so much that they need banging up... but certainly an interesting location to place in some out-of-the-way part of your campaign world just ready for when you need it.
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![Hero Kids - Uber-Discount Bundle [BUNDLE]](images/4846/114668-thumb80.jpg)
