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I come to this game both as a veteran tabletop rpger and as a practicing Vaishnava, so Arrows of Indra is effectively the closest thing game-wise to Green Ronin's famed Testament for me. The previous two reviews do a great job of summarizing the book. I particularly like the author's approach to the caste system and to "magic" in the game [totally not Vancian]. The yogi class doesn't work for me as written because it's basically the AD&D monk. Yogis in the source texts aren't combatants. I do really like the inclusion of celestial weapons, but though there is a charioteering skill, there are not chariot fighting rules, nor are there rules for the Vimanas, a real missed opportunity. There's really a lot to like here, but I have one major beef: Krishna is never discussed as human in the source texts. He's either identified as the original personality of Godhead or as the completely realized avatar of Vishnu. Rama, on the other hand, is Krishna-Vishnu playing as the perfect human being. Also Hanuman was never king of the vanaras. He was assistant to Sugriva. Thanks to the RPG Pundit for putting this out there. Good Gaming, and Hare Krishna!
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I purchased this PDF because its release essentially proves True20 isn't dead, but I agree with the previous reviewer that most of what's here is lifted directly from the True20 core rules, about 60 pages. This is the first time I've seen the widely circulated Villian Roles incorporated into a for purchase PDF. I like pulp; I like ninjas, so I purchased this, but it's not worth $12. It may be worth half that to a dire hard True20 fan. To someone who doesn't collect or play True20 games, I'd say: don't spend more than $2 on this PDF. I was luered in by the cover. I should know better than to judge a PDF by it's cover.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Hi Curt, Corey Reid here, the creator of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND.
Like I said to Derek in response to his review, I'm happy to refund you for a purchase you're unhappy with. I mentioned in that response how there are actually a great deal of changes to the True20 ruleset in here, but I understand they're hard to see on a read-through of the rules.
Anyway, shoot me an email address (my name is corey and I'm at scratchfactory.com) and I'd be happy to send you a refund via PayPal. Having made these rules available online for free for years now, I'm not interested in making money by disappointing people. Sorry you didn't feel like the book was worth the money you paid. |
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This volume does what is sets out to do: explore ideas to expand AD&D based on hints from Gary Gygax prior to his ill-fated devorce settlement, when his huberous got the best of him and he gave up controlling interest in TSR in favor of the D&D series and film rights.
The best part of this book is the new class options, the first 24 pages. The most interesting of these is the mountebank, a Cudgle the Cleaver meets Han Solo type, and the Jester, basically turning any character into a Kender. These classes expand roleplaying possibilities with concepts like verbal patter, also key to the version of the bard presented here. There are strict spell casting classes too, most notably the mystic, a Taoist type. I'm not crazy about the secondary skills system because I don't like a lot of number crunching, but it is very Gygax. It's very much like the one he wrote for Castles & Crusades, using an experience point purchasing system. The combat system gives various options for adding complexity to combat. My favorite is the percentage chance of causing friendly fire in missile combat, which I don't remember from AD&D. There's also stuff here for dealing with various environments, at least as usefull, probably more so, than the post Gygax Dungeoneer's and Wilderness Survival Guides. I apprieciate the expanded waterborne combat, as a lot of OSR material tends to neglect it. The new monsters are Judeo-Christian extra planer-- choirs of angels and various demons. BRW Games strategically released this the same week as the Commemorative Edition AD&D books. I want the hard cover of A Curious Volume for the mountebank class alone. The best part of the book is that the options are modular. Take or leave what you want.
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I was involved in Amtgard in the early 90s in the Kingdom of the Emerald Hills [North Texas], and I was surprised to see the rules set here. The presentation has come a long way... a live-action fantasy roleplaying organization with over 20 years of lore. Build some swords out of kite spar or ball some old socks into colored cloth, put a tunic over your tee-shirt and jeans and head out to the local park.
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I'm giving Heroes Wear Masks 4 Stars. A real Pathfinder enthusiast might give it five. As supers RPGs go, it isn't as well done as ICONS or M&M3, but it does make innovative use of the Pathfinder system. I was actually impressed by how comparatively little of the book is taken up with powers. The power template system takes the mechanics a long way without adding an additional 50-100 pages. This PDF does present some original stuff, not rehashed from d20 modern. The art is stuff we've seen before for the most part, but nicely recolored. Heroes Wear Masks is definately a leap in the right direction for Avalon Gaming Company's Pathfinder products, but I would have liked to have seen more of what distinguishes Pathfinder from 3.5 used, namely archetypes. A martial artist could be an archetype of the Acrobat class, for example. Note: I would have given this 3 stars had I paid full price for it. I got it as part of a promotional offer for $8. That price is pushing the limits of reasonable. $10 would be a non purchase for me. Then again, Pathfinder is not my game of choice.
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Purchasing this series every week is like buying a powers book on lay-away. My hope, though, is that if Green Ronin releases a collected version at the end of the series, they give those of us who've been collecting the individual issues a discount.
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This PDF offers a lot of options for Asian inspired campaigns. The kitsune presented here is arguably better done than the official version. The most interesting aspect of this PDF is the alternate racial traits for the races presented herein, as well as for the standard races. The new "talents" could add some flavor as well. The Japanese cultural templates are a potentially useful concept. This material is less overtly sexual than the original Black Tokyo, though explicit material is definately here. The selection of alternate traits, in many cases can mute the sex, or relegate it to "off camera" or something from the ancient past.
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I am slightly disappointed with this PDF. Don't get me wrong. The writing is solid, but the mechanics are more lock-step than I expected. There are some great translations of the Powered Hero basic class talents into racial abilities as advertized, but with the tag line "create your own galaxy" implied to me that it would provide more generic options like a blend of Fursona and Powered Hero Evolution, rather than only the standard fare of Galaxy Command, Psi-Watch and Otherverse America options for using the races written up in the PDF.
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[Caveat: I was sent a review copy of this PDF by the publisher.] This version of Psi-Watch, for the most part, delivers what the author claims in the introduction: the art and layout are vastly improved, minus the teal tint is some of the columns on certain tables that make them hard to read; the power armor construction system is sleeker, and the omissions and typos in the original version are cleaned up. Everything right about the first version is still here: the psionic feat system and the gritty Iron Age comic analog setting. The setting fiction and background will be familiar to anyone collecting mainstream comics circa 1992: psionics, genetic engineering, clandestine ops, alien influence and hidden agendas-- this is an early Image Comics analog, and unapologetically so, warts and all.
There are two areas where this PDF is significantly disappointing: material for running the setting and the price point. The PDF has few, if any NPC stats of any kind, and I wouldn't spend the time statting up adversaries to play this as written, regardless of how much I like the setting. $24.95 is entirely too high for this PDF; not to begrudge Chris Field, but this is the price point of PDFs featuring RPG engines currently in development from major industry players, and Otherverse can't expect to sell too many units of a game written for D20 Modern at this price in 2012.
This is a good game, and whether or not I ever run the setting, it's a good read, and elements of it will likely appear in whatever Iron Age inspired games I may run, D20 Modern / Pathfinder or not.
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I am a sucker for fantasy races based on Asian folklore, and I'm fond of the Fursona race generation system, so this PDF is a good fit for me. I will caution the reader, though, that unless he or she plans to use this with Black Tokyo, there's about a page and a half of unusable sexually explicit feat references. While I appreciate Black Tokyo intellectually, I don't think it translates well to the typical mixed age, mixed gender, mixed political, spiritual and social sensibility gaming table.
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This series is the best 3rd party material for d20 / Pathfinder I've seen so far. With the bundle, which contains the first three installments, you can create just about any anthropomorphic or non-human character race you'd like. The series also contains templates and campaign models, allowing for stone age and other variants. Though it isn't strictly necessary, Psi-Watch Ultimate edition is beneficial because of the cross-compatibility of the psionic feat system in Psi-Watch, which is frankly better thought-out than the standard 3.5 psionics system. In short, Fursona has my actually wanting to try Pathfinder.
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Although this series is a bit pricy, roughly $0.20 a page rather than the average PDF price point of $0.10 a page, I'm willing to pay that here because this is Steven Kenson's work. He's the Monte Cooke of Super Hero RPGs. The Power Profile series packs a lot into each issue, with a discussion of specific powers created using M&M3 effects and descriptors around a theme. Each issue also includes stats for various powers. This series, along with the random-roll character generation tables accompanying the Game Masters kit, makes M&M3 / DC Adventures almost as playable on the fly as rules-lite games like ICONS, BASH! and G-Core. It's worth noting that everything in the Power Profiles is optional, but I wouldn't venture to run M&M3 without it. My only minor quibble with the series is that the core rules page numbers referenced are for the M&M3 Heroes Handbook with no mention of the DC Adventures version. The systems are the same. It would be nice to have references for both, as I didn't buy both versions.
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This series is consistently solid in terms of content, and Darrel Miller responds to the requests of his fans. I like that the recent issues are a mix of heroes and villains.
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This is a great expansion of the Spectrum Ranger class. I buy Chris Field's products because of his ability to synthesize so many of the tropes of my childhood in game terms. I downgraded the review a star, though, because I feel Chris's refusal to include "Voltron" style multipart mechs is a bit of a cop-out.
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I bought this because Chris Field has been on a roll lately with the Fursona and Synthetic Heroes lines. I had already purchased the previous version and fundamental forces, but I was intrigued by the editional pages and the 20 level class, making it compatible with Pathfinder. My problem here is that most of the editional material is keyed to Otherverse America, a setting I haven't been able to get behind. I mean, I'm pro-Choice and fear a Margaret Attwood heralded future, but playing an rpg based on it... Sorry Chris, I'm not feeling it. I would support Psi-Watch, but I have the original version, and the price point on the Ultimate Edition is way too high. I won't pay that much for a Steve Kenson PDF, and he's the master of supers RPGs.
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