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Book of the Faithful II - The Worshipping Swords is a 14 page pdf product detailing nine new and unusual swords all infused with the consciousness of a faithful follower to a god. This product is the second Book of the Faithful released by Jon Brazer Enterprises, the first one dealing with the power of prayer and offering new feats and magic for believers. The overarching theme of the series is that religion does not have to be class specific but that you can use the flavour of religion to offer non-clerics and non-paladins different religious options. This product details nine swords, one for each alignment, and each containing the consciousness of a godly saint, one prepared to serve their god beyond their own mortal lives. This product is compatible with the Pathfinder RPG (and hence 3e d20 OGL as well).
This product comes as a single, neatly presented pdf file. The product includes front and back covers, good bookmarks, a credits and OGL declaration page, and one page of advertisements. Of the 14 pages, 9 pages are devoted to content, one for each sword presented. Artwork for the swords is provided by a number of artists including Sade and Rick Hershey, while writing is done by author Dale C McCoy Jr. The format and presentation is neat and simple, with a good design layout and nothing that detracts from the product. A couple of writing and editing errors slipped through, with some clumsy and long-winded sentences in places, but overall a good effort. The general presentation is about par for the course for such a short product, although artwork count is high, with one good piece for every weapon presented and described.
The premise of this series of product is to give religious characters with non-religious classes access to material and concepts that will help them to expand their characters. In the case of these products, the conscious and intelligent swords provided offer a good way to introduce plot hooks and ideas into the campaign to give such religious characters a natural outlet for their faith. Whether it is to do the bidding of the saint in the weapon, or to destroy the weapon devoted to a specific deity, the product offers options to make faith a central or recurring theme in the campaign setting.
As mentioned earlier, there are nine swords, one for each of the nine primary alignments. Each sword comes with a decent back story or background, detailing the origins of the weapon and the consciousness that it holds. Examples of the swords include one created by a young brass dragon to serve the deities of fire, or another being the phylactery of a powerful lich that holds the lich's very soul. The backgrounds provided lend new ideas to the reader as well as providing some useful flavour to the weapon statistics. Each weapon comes with a detailed set of powers and abilities, and some of the weapons are on the high end of powerful abilities, so not to be given out lightly. I generally enjoyed the various write-ups and found them useful and intriguing enough to be able to include them in any suitable campaign setting. In general, though, these are more the weapons for the highly powerful and skilled characters (the lowest weapon cost starts at 50000 gp), rather than beginners and as such might not get to see so much use. Perhaps some sort of tiered ability structure would've made them more useful across more levels.
Overall, there's plenty of useful material in this product and some fascinating stories that the DM can not only use for these weapons but perhaps even integrate further into the campaign setting, thereby building a whole adventure or adventures around the weapon and its history. On the down side, not so useful for the lower level characters, and it would've been nice to see something that such characters could use as well. Good and useful product.
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Kill or Be Killed #1 is the first product in a new series of 4e GSL encounter products from Neuroglyph Games. This product is Neuroglyph Games' first pay product, their first product being the freely available 4e GSL adventure A Curse at the Old Inn. Each product in the series features an encounter module for the 4e GSL, with the aim to provide epic battles or encounters where the outcome is defined by the series title - Kill or Be Killed. This first product in the series pits the PCs against a powerful demon-like creature with powerful abilities that will shock and surprise them. This product is suitable to the Paragon Tier, and specifically for 12th level characters, and can be used in any campaign setting.
The product comes as a single well-presented pdf file, featuring both front and back covers, a credits page, and 13 out of 16 pages of content. While not critical for a product of this length, it's worth mentioning that bookmarks are not present. The general presentation is good, with some fresh art from artist Robert Kusiak, good and clever layout and design, and good writing from author Michael Evans. I like the way the product is presented, allowing you to easily know from the outset where the encounter is going, and having enough information at your fingertips should you be unsure about how to run the encounter. An encounter map is provided, along with some black and white monster counters should you need them, and the details and legend are clear enough to make sense of the encounter terrain. One objection I have is that the map is a little too dark, making it difficult to discern everything clearly. Perhaps a lighter shade for the background and border would've been better. Overall, solid presentation for a first product.
Kill or Be Killed #1 presents a paragon tier encounter for 12th level characters, pitting them against a solo creature of considerable might and ability. The aim of this product is to present an dynamic encounter suitable for the end of an adventure or campaign, and hence also being suitably dangerous and deadly. This encounter sees them facing a powerful elemental creature, born from the might of demons and the power of the elemental chaos. The product provides plenty of useful and intriguing advice on using this encounter, integrating it into one's campaign, and suitable plot hooks to catch the interest of the player characters.
This encounter is built around two new monsters, Kor-oggo-rok the Sporelord and the fungal fiends. The encounter setup is very well done, providing adequate lore and information on the two new creatures, and plenty of advice on battle tactics, running the encounter and the various phases of the encounter. I was hoping to see certain events in the encounter integrated more fully into the creature statistics, where the Sporelord uses an ability to spawn fungal fiends that is not described in its statistics block. Not generally a big deal, but for those wanting to use this creature beyond this product, more details would've been useful.
The encounter is cleverly crafted, and will certainly entertain the player characters and keep them on their feet. Tactics of the creature are continuously changing, creating a dynamic and fast-paced encounter that will both terrify and entertain the players. While the encounter is cleverly crafted, the Sporelord does have a burrowing ability that is quite powerful and one has to wonder why the creature doesn't just use this all the time to eliminate any threats. In essence, it has a near game-breaking ability that it doesn't use fully, simply for the sake of the encounter. I wish something a little more plausible had been used here, even though this particular phase of the battle is quite riveting. At least a proper description of this ability as mentioned earlier would've been more useful.
The product doesn't only provide an exciting encounter, but for more of a challenge several new terrain hazards are included to add spice and danger to the encounter. In addition several new relic magical items are presented as treasure for the encounter or just for general use. These additions, along with the main content of the product, make for a very complete encounter, with good options and versatility for expanding beyond the raw meat of the scenario.
Overall I was quite pleased with this encounter and this product. It's provides something dynamic and exciting, coupled with something novel and unique to provide a good play experience. Too often products that provide encounters don't actually bring anything new or unique to the table and I'm pleased to say that this does. The only negative is the slight mismatch between the playing of the encounter and the actual statistics of the creatures, and things are a little unclear/unbelievable in places. This shouldn't detract from an otherwise good and definitely challenging encounter, and I'm sure GMs can easily avoid these issues with some clever thought. Good encounter and good presentation. Looking forward to seeing more from Neuroglyph Games.
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The Shattered Skull is a 56 page OSRIC adventure from Usherwood Publishing, and is the 2nd adventure in the Bone-hilt Sword campaign, following on from the first adventure, Yrchyn, the Tyrant. This adventure can either be played as part of the campaign series, or as a stand-alone product, and details on how to adjust the module to both ends are provided in the product. This adventure sees the characters delve further into the mines of Yrchyn, the Tyrant, and uncover a blood-thirsty tribe of orcs responsible for all sorts of atrocities. The party must face these beasts in the dark caverns, and uncover their association with Yrchyn and the mystery they are searching for. The Shattered Skull is suitable for a party of 4 to 6 characters of levels 2 to 4.
The Shattered Skull is one of the best presented products I've seen. It ticks all the boxes - reat layout and design, great art, fantastic maps, great attention to detail, and finally useful additions to enhance the product. Usherwood Publishing have done a splendid job of presenting a smart product designed to mimic that old-school OSRIC feel, and to do that in spades. It includes several new monsters, a very useful and detailed character sheet, pre-generated PCs and NPCs - pretty much everything one could ask for in terms of utilities for an adventure. The maps are beautiful and clear, the art (mostly stock art, it should be said) is vibrant and colourful, and the writing and attention to detail craft an adventure that provides all the detail. Splendid presentation in The Shattered Skull. This is an OSRIC presentation at its best.
This adventure follows on from the exploits of the characters in the first book of the Bone-hilt Sword campaign. If your players have played that adventure, this adventure offers a natural continuation of the events in Yrchyn, the Tyrant. If this is played as a stand-alone adventure, the product offers some plot hooks to get your to the dark mines and caverns of the Shattered Skull orc tribe, and treats the first level of the mines as largely abandoned (having assumed that the kobolds of Yrchyn have been routed).
The real meat of the adventure, though, takes place as the characters delve deeper into the mines, and take on the might of the Shattered Skull tribe, unravelling their purpose in the mines, and the nature of that which they seek. One little nitpick about the plot hooks provided is that the caverns are said to be located roughly 75 miles from the small town where the party received their quest. One wouldn't be hard pressed to not question this distance, and whether any orc party would be raiding that far from a designated stronghold.
As mentioned before, the meat of this adventure sees the characters arrayed against the might of a brutal orc tribe. Inside this complex they must defeat the guards and associated of the orc chieftain, and in doing so uncover the truth of the orcs' presence. The campaign details of the adventure are largely kept in the appendix, meaning that it makes the adventure easier to run as a stand-alone. The campaign details themselves offer tantalising details on the adventure background, the future of the campaign and its subsequent adventures, and indeed the machinations of the orcs in the caverns. The adventure is largely a dungeon-crawl based adventure, with little opportunity for roleplaying (barring finding a few prisoners), and I wish the adventure had included more details for roleplaying certain encounters. On the other hand more details on handling multiple excursions and dynamic strategies of the orcs in the mines would've been very useful, particularly given some of the unique features of the cavern maps. As is, the adventure does provide strategies for guards in the mines, but only on a short-term basis.
The latter part of the product contains the many detailed appendices, including campaign notes; new monsters which include a new orc variant, deep dwarves, evil excretions and others, and lastly the many maps, village details, further campaign details, and the pre-generated characters, NPCs and character sheet. The combination of all these additions make for a very complete and detailed adventure with lots of additional utility, and one that can be readily played on short notice.
I'm quite pleased with the effort that's gone into this adventure, particularly the presentation and attention to detail, and indeed the adventure itself. On the other hand, more could've been done to make this more of a dynamic dungeon crawl, rather than a fairly static affair as it is at present. The versatility of the combat encounters is good, and PCs will face a variety of challenges, although roleplaying is largely limited. Overall, a very good adventure, and it looks like the Bone-hilt Sword campaign is shaping up to be something that is worthwhile taking a look at with the aim of playing.
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The Lost Prince is a 24 page adventure for the Fantasy Craft gaming system. This adventure is a SAGE (Society for Adventure Gaming Enthusiasts) adventure set in Revenant Games' Wyrmstone campaign setting. SAGE adventure are similar to RPGA adventures in that they offer 'worldwide organised play', although this is the first such type of organisation I've seen devoted to the recently released Fantasy Craft gaming system. This adventure WSG09-01 sees the PC approached to find the whereabouts and remains of a long-lost adventuring prince, and along the way make a few discoveries that will haunt them for a long time. This is a Menace III adventure.
The adventure comes as a single, well-presented pdf file. The Lost Prince, like most organised play adventures, is arranged in a style dissimilar to typical adventures, and instead adopts the more formalised and regimental approach often associated with organised play adventures. The adventure is divided into scenes, each with their objectives and .challenges, thereby allowing rewarding of the adventure to take place using the XP reward/penalty sheet provided. The adventure is well written and designed, and despite the formal approach (required, largely, for organised play), I quite liked the way each scene had been sculpted and created. Editing and design is good as well, and the product contains a fair mixture of some good art and layout design. Overall, a neatly presented adventure with a good standard of presentation.
The adventure starts with a very helpful introduction and synopsis, providing the GM with an overview of each scene, the expected outcome, and the progression of the adventure. This adventure takes place over quite an extensive area as well as extensive time, and will see the PCs travel widely across the land in search of the remains of a lost prince. On their way they will have to uncover clues as to the last adventure of the prince, deal with the bureaucracy of an important library, find hidden clues in ancient ruins and eventfully navigate the path to the prince's last known location. Naturally along the way the PCs are in for a few surprises, as are they when they reach the adventure's conclusion.
The adventure contains an excellent mix of combat and roleplaying encounters, all using Fantasy Craft's system of resolution. There's an opportunity for most character types to shine, and players will enjoy the assortment of challenges, events and encounters that come their way. I'm also quite pleased to see that the adventure requires players to think, as the outcome and resolution of each scene will require some ingenuity on the players' part, and some canny detective skills to decide on the appropriate course of action. While it's true that the adventure remains largely scripted, at least the PCs will feel that they had some part in the script of the adventure as the story unfolds.
Overall, despite this being an organised play adventure, I enjoyed the way it had been designed, how the events interacted with one another, and generally thought the action was challenging and would keep the players interested for the duration. Naturally due to some of the times involves, multi-day long journeys will need to be shortened as not much is catered for in between the various scenes. The outcome is left a little vague near the end, although perhaps that is best so as to give the GM further use for the characters and NPCs of this adventure in future scenarios. Good adventure, and good to see a Fantasy Craft being taken to organised play.
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Avalon Encounter Vol 1, Issue 1 is the first product in a new series of encounter products for the Pathfinder RPG. These short pdf products are aimed at providing a brief encounter and series of plot hooks for GMs that want something new and different to challenge their players. This first issue deals with a powerful sword and bane of demons, but naturally everything is not what it seems, and a few hidden surprises can make for an interesting encounter with difficult choices.
This product comes as a zip file containing printer-friendly and full-colour versions of the product. Of the 12 pages of the main product, only 3 are devoted to written content, while the majority of the product contains advertisements for Avalon Games Company's other products and systems. While I'm all for publishers providing information on their products, I'm sure if I appreciate this heavy-handed and almost over the top display of advertising in your product. Nevertheless, that's largely easily ignored, and the product itself is well presented with some pieces of clip art, fair writing and organisation. It's not a presentation to write home about, but it's pretty neatly done and not really to be smirked at.
The majority of this product details the background and history of a particular demon-bane sword. The history is detailed, containing enough information to make the most of the material provided and give one a feel for the purpose and aim of the product. Naturally this sword has a far more sinister motivation that an unsuspecting PC would expect, and the general plot hooks provide an interesting series of events for players and their characters to get involved. I have to admit that the outcome is rather lacklustre - I expected something a little more tangible than that which is provided. It's one thing to have a sword that's bent on destruction, but quite another to find that the object of its destruction is largely an empty and barren wasteland. Much more could've been done to the premise and execution of the plot hooks, that would get the PCs more involved, captivate their minds and give everything a little more purpose.
The product provides extensive details on the Pathfinder stats of the sword, which are useful for evaluating the encounter mechanically, although there are some inconsistencies in the write-up. For example, the sword is inclined to seek out good wielders, but at the same time bestows negative levels on such wielders. I find it hard to believe that something like that wouldn't be noticed by the wielder, but one could work around that. Overall, I think the product and the encounter has promise, but the execution leaves a number of holes and tired events that are unlikely to live up to the product's billing to keep your player's thrilled. For all the fairly impressive setup and background details, the execution unfortunately falls flat. Fairly decent product with a usable story, but will require some modification to make it work better and hook the players for the duration.
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There's little doubt that the release of the new Assassin Creed II video game has inspired quite a few character concepts amongst roleplayers over the world. d20 OGL classes like the Assassin, Shadowdancer and Rogue are likely getting increased attention from those keen to follow in the exploits of the video game's characters. For those playing the Pathfinder RPG, The Genius Guide to the Shadow Assassin offers a good option to explore if you want something along those lines or just want something that's a little different to the norm.
The Genius Guide to the Shadow Assassin is a short 9 page pdf product, and the second product (of three on the date of this review) in a series of character-aimed books presenting new and hopefully unique classes, templates, spells, and magic items. This particular product presents the Shadow Assassin, a new 20 level core class for the Pathfinder RPG. The product is written by the well known Owen K.C. Stephens.
This product is very neatly and professionally presented, with good use of new artwork and the occasional stock art piece. Writing and editing is good, and the layout is in the less common three-column format. This makes the text a little crowded on the page and more difficult to read, but that's largely a minor point. It still baffles me a little why publishers are unwilling to add a few extra pages to improve layout and readability. Overall, though, this is a very well presented product, with a high standard of execution and presentation.
The Shadow Assassin core class is built on stealth, deadly attacks against single opponents and fighting with light (easy to conceal) weapons. It blends parts and aspects of the Assassin and Shadowdancer prestige classes from the d20 OGL, while adding a touch of its own flavor essentially modifying the core abilities to suit the class. So the Hide in Plain Sight Shadowdancer features is present in an alternative form where it grants various bonuses to Stealth at low levels, while at higher levels the class can turn into living shadow or travel via shadows. The Deadly Focus ability is similar to the Assassin Death Attack, but much more streamlined, evolved, and easier to implement and use. In essence, the Shadow Assassin takes known abilities and makes them more playable as it combines them into the class. I really appreciated the level based development of all the class features, as you can see the difference between a higher level Shadow Assassin and a lower level one by their execution of signature abilities.
The class also incorporates some of the Rogue class abilities like Evasion and Uncanny Dodge, and includes useful weapon fighting styles to highlight the classes skill with specific weapons. Very useful advice is provided on how to use this class as both an NPC and PC class, paying particular attention to the fact that this class doesn't have to be evil like the Assassin. Overall, a solid mechanical base, making a workable and easy to understand/use class with none of the Hide in Plain Sight issues that the Shadowdancer had. In one sense I'd have preferred the Shadow Assassin's abilities to the Hide in Plain Sight class features as it's much simpler and in a way more elegant.
Overall, while the Shadow Assassin class is not the most unique implementation I've ever seen, it does have good mechanics and elegant use of mechanics to build an interesting and more importantly playable class. The product is well worth a look at for those fans of Pathfinder that are looking for a darker class to play that has some good potential for both roleplaying and combat. Good class and a good product.
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Class Options Volume II - Paladins Prevail is a short 11 page pdf of paladin options for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. This product is from Gun Metal Games, formerly Reality Deviant Publications, and is the second in a line of products offering new and expanded class options for the classes in the Pathfinder RPG. Class options, as the name suggests, are alternatives to existing class features, and allow one to alter or customize the flavor and mechanics of the class to better suit the players' concept of their characters. This product is written by Stefen Styrsky.
The product comes as a beautifully presented single pdf file. Cover and interior artwork is excellently provided by the talents of Jason Walton, while David Jarvis has done a good job of handling the design and layout of the product. It's pleasing to see such high production values in short pdfs - it indicates that the authors and publishers are committed to the industry and their customers/fans. Writing and editing is good as well, and I was generally pleased with all the new mechanics and the power levels the mechanics contained. Overall, a very pleasing pdf and neatly presented.
Paladins Prevail is about options, and in the pages of this product you'll find scores of new and useful options to enhance or customize your paladin character. Most of the options take the form of alternative class features, but the product also presents a large number of useful feats that build on these features or offer further customization. There's pretty much an alternative option for every paladin class feature, all presented in order of their level. I guess here is one of the few weaknesses of this product in that a table summarizing these alternative class features and the features they replace would've been really useful. All the alternative class features offer a different take on the paladin's mind and role, and the product very helpfully defines some of these roles with suggested class features. Roles such as Avenger, Champion, and Defender are explored within the scope of the alternative class features presented.
The class features themselves are generally just like-for-like alternatives to existing paladin features. So, for example, the Mercy class features can be replaced by several different options, including Justice, Sacrifices or Sword Rites, each offering to build a paladin with a different purpose and outlook. Aura of Resolve can be replaced by Aura of Radiance or Aura of Watchfulness and so on, offering a plethora of different options. Naturally certain options fit better together than others do, but that's nicely covered by the suggestions offered for paladin roles. It would've been nice to see more roles explored though, as the ones chosen are somewhat stereotypical. Something off the beaten track would've been good to see. The whole approach is very modular, which makes it easy to implement and easy to use.
I have to admit that I was pleased with this product. If you're interested in building an alternative paladin or simple don't believe the existing class features fit the concept you have in mind, this product might offer what you're looking for. I also don't believe I've seen similar class features to these before in other products under a different name, so in that sense it's an unique offering. As I said before, something off the beaten track would've been nice, but at least providing options and alternatives is an excellent way to offer customization to players and DMs alike. Good product with good production values and loads of useful advice. This product can easily become a much used product for paladin characters at the gaming table.
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The alchemist is a concept that's seen many incarnations in many different gaming systems. In most cases, it's always been a secondary, NPC or prestige class rather than a primary or base class. I suspect that the reason for this is tied to both a concept that lends itself rather well to the NPC execution, and because the concept doesn't quite fit the adventuring PC that can't lug around an enitre laboratory. As such, I have to admit that I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Vigilance Press' alchemist for the OSRIC system, but I was pleased that this alchemist is a playable one for both PCs and NPCs.
Supplement #1: The Alchemist is a short 5 page pdf product presenting an alchemist class for the OSRIC system. The product contains 3 pages of content, but includes a useful cover that contains the only bit of atwork on the product. I have to admit that the artwork on the cover looks more like a wizard than an alchemist but the similarities are not lost on me. Presentation, design and layout is good, as is the editing and writing, and overall this is a neatly done product along the same lines as other products from Vigilance Press.
As one would expect, the alchemist is a master of all things potions and mixing brews. As such, the class abilities over 20 levels are aimed at building up these specific features of the class. The most noteworthy is the ability to brew three main types of substances - acids, poisons and medicins. The product has done very well to include a good range of the options available as well as expanding the craft to advanced and later master levels as the character progresses in levels. One related ability is Mixology, which allows the alchemist to mix the abilities of two potions. While this is certainly a useful tool, I thought the implementation wasn't particularly elegant and probably could've used a separate ruling. Nevertheless, the alchemist at later levels becomes a true master of his craft, and I appreciated the fact that the 20th level ability, Philosopher's Stone, was left open for the DM and Player to decide what the alchemist's ultimate craft will be.
I thought this was a well designed and well built class, with the class showing a clear path towards an ultimate goal, and the progression being evident as the class advances in level. I liked the way the abilities were staged and built upon each other, and how the alchemist at later levels becomes free from the need to have a huge laboratory. I was perhaps hoping to see some more herbology or perhaps science in with the alchemist, but I guess that can be worked into the existing class structure and flavor. Speaking of flavor, there isn't a lot of it to be found in the product and it would've been nice to see the class expanded in these areas beyond just a very broad and general blurb.
Supplement #1: The Alchemist is a good pdf that present a useful class that can find application in almost all OSRIC games. It wouldn't take much to convert this concept and class construction to d20 either, should you want to use it there. I liked the mechanics of the product, which showed good execution and staging through the class' levels. Overall, a good class and a good product that would've been better with some added flavor and one or two minor mechanical fixes.
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Blackdirge's Bargain Bestiaries: The Created - Lesser Golems is the first product in the latest new series of monster products from the creative mind of Aeryn 'Blackdirge' Rudel. This 7 page product is the first in a series of bargain bestiaries - short pdfs containing a handful of monsters for good value for money. This first instalment features five new monsters, all of them lesser golems, created creatures moulded from cheaper and more common materials than the standard high power golems. This product is suitable for use with the 4e GSL.
Despite the low price tag, the product is very neatly and professionally presented, with all the frills and features one would expect from Blackdirge Publishing. As usual, regular artist Jesse Mohn is back to illustrate all five golems, while author Aeryn Rudel creates well written descriptive text and well crafted mechanics. The format, design and layout is very good, with 5 pages out of 7 devoted to content, one page to each of the monsters in the product. Overall, very professional presentation, apart, perhaps from one or two editing errors in the stat blocks where cut and paste went awry.
Lesser golems are created creatures much like iron or stone golems, except made by those spellcasters that do not have the skill or fortune to make a more powerful or expensive golem. Nevertheless, these lesser golems function much like their more powerful cousins, and can still serve as guardians or servants to their masters and creators. The golems included in this product are the dung golem, glass golem, straw golem, wax golem and wood golem. The power levels range from 1 all the way to 10, with a good mix of creature types and roles. Not much is said about the details of creating these creatures, but it's fairly easy to come up with something suitable to enable one to offer these lesser golems to your party spellcasters. A little guidance would've been useful though.
Each monster entry in the product provides a brief paragraph or two on tactics and background, as well as skill checks required to know or learn more about these creatures. That's pretty standard fare, really, being largely based on the type of material the golem is made of, and similarly the statistics are fairly standard as well for creatures of their level and role. The product does, in my mind, an admirable job of creating a bunch of new and interesting monster abilities that are specific to these creatures and will make them more unique than just a golem with big fists. Each creature's ability entries are quite novel and more importantly useful - they're not just abilities added for ability's sake, but rather carefully crafted to fit the concept and theme of the monster. The straw golem, for example, can create an itching cloud; the dung golem a stench, and the wax golem is particularly good at disarming people.
Overall, this is the kind of pdf that you would expect from Blackdirge Publishing - good monsters, good presentation, good art, good value. The monster abilities are creative and seem fun to use, and the monsters themselves are easy to insert into any campaign. There isn't really a down side to this pdf, although the flavor is a bit on the thin side but only just. Good pdf.
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Many gamers will fondly remember the classic 1e adventures that took the characters into the depths of the underdark, there to face dangers uncertain, new fantastic races like the drow, and a world beyond what they'd encountered so far. Many gamers also have a general fondness for underdark adventures, be it because of the dark nature of these adventures, the horrible dangers, the strange and terrific creatures or a multitude of other reasons. Subterra: The Underground City is a 56 page pdf product that makes the underdark far more accessible by presenting a fairly civilised city that can be used as a base of operations. This product details all aspects of Subterra, including politics, environs, races and city details. This product is setting neutral, meaning that it can be inserted into any campaign setting, although it does have a slight d20 OGL slant to it.
Subterra: The Underground City comes as a single pdf file that's adequately presented with no real effort having gone into the layout and design of the pdf. Artwork is present, but fairly rudimentary, and nothing that stands out amongst a small host of filler images. The maps are clear and fairly well done, though they too don't really capture the feel of the city. I guess that's one of the main issues with the product - while the design is lacklustre, the content is too in many ways, meaning that you never get a feel for the mood, character and atmosphere of the city. So much time is spent detailing various aspects of the city that the real character of the city is lost and the atmosphere dwindles away. Writing and editing is fair, but overall, a little touching up would make the product far more presentable and professional.
Subterra, the City of Shadows and Magic, is a large underground city stationed along a well known and well trodden underground traveller's route. It's a city that's guided mostly by its own rules, and controlled by the power of the various guilds that run the city. This product details all aspects of the city, from the politics and various factions, the guilds and their relationships to one another, the deities of Subterra, the various races present and their relationships with another, and a detailed city map with a legend entry on pretty much every building in the city. There's a lot to work with here in creating an exciting adventure or base, and the product even provides a bunch of useful adventure hooks and ideas to get you started in the city of Subterra.
By and large I enjoyed reading the material presented in this product, with some interesting ideas, concepts and thoughts to work with an craft into adventures. On the down side, though, it reads very much like a text book rather than creating an atmospheric city that oozes with life. I think that's a fault of both the content as well as the design, and would've like to see something with so much potential really come to life. While the major players and guilds in the city are described, they too lacked the personality that would make this product work better. Very little is said about the motivations of the major players in the city. Which also brings me to my second complaint about this product - there's nothing terribly unique about it. It just another city filled with semi-lawless orcs, humans, goblins and other sentient races all trying to get the most power or monetary gain out of the city and its inhabitants. While there are some glimmers of interesting aspects in the city such as mana quakes and other features, it's very much an above ground lawless city that's placed underground. I would've liked to see things that make this more a city that has to be underground, rather than above ground.
While I've said a number of negative things about this product, I think it's still got a lot of potential. It won't take too much to convert the text-book like format into a city that has a little more life, purpose and presence in the larger world. If you treat this product as a bare minimum base, then there's plenty to build on to create something truly unique. I liked some of the adventure ideas, and the interactions between the guilds have some good things going for them. And, with a legend for hundreds of buildings in the overall map, there's plenty to add on or expand with. Overall, the product offers an interesting look at an underground city with some glimpses of good material that can make the city unique and something worth remembering.
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One of the complaints I've read about that's used against the 4e GSL system, is that the wizard class got a serious reduction in power. Under the old 3.5e OGL system, a high level wizard was truly a force to be reckoned with, able to use an immense volume of powerful spells in displays of both destructive power and versatility. Under the 4e GSL, the number of wizard powers has reduced, and access to versatility is largely a function of rituals. Inside combat, though, you're limited to those handfuls of powers that are available to the class. Whether it is intentional or not, Alea Publishing's Player Options: Ancient Wizard Magic, offers a fairly neat way to enhance the character's versatility by using rituals to allow one to effectively gain an alternative power, thereby increasing the wizard's combat versatility.
Player Options: Ancient Wizard Magic is a short 18 page pdf product presenting new rules and mechanics for Ancient Magic Rituals and ancient magic in general. The product comes as a wonderfully presented pdf file, with some good, if perhaps a little suggestive, art, good writing, wonderful flavor and a bag full of new and interesting powers and mechanics. The writing and editing is top notch, as is the overall design and layout of the product. I suppose the only thing missing from the product is a summary table, something that's always a useful feature and allows one to quickly select those bits of information you're interested in. Bookmarks are also fairly limited. Overall, though, a professional effort from Alea Publishing Group.
This product introduces the concept of ancient wizard magic. Essentially magic has changed through the centuries of its use, and had become much less bonded to a particular wizard that it originally was. This bonding of magic to a wizard is the way ancient wizards used to cast their spells, and this product details how, through the use of rituals, more modern wizards can gain access to ancient magic. Ancient magic is by and large a means of using a ritual to replace an existing power with a slightly more powerful ancient wizard spell. The product provides plenty of flavor for each ritual and its associated power, along with useful and intriguing details of some powerful and respected ancient wizards.
Around forty new powers are introduced, and these cover pretty much all levels up to 30, different kinds of at-will, encounter and daily powers, as well as attack and utility powers. There's quite a lot to choose from, and while some powers fall into the rut of being very similar to other existing powers, there are some useful new rules and mechanics for these powers. One thing that can definitely be said about this product is that it brings something new to the gaming table, and something that's worthwhile looking at.
As mentioned earlier, while I'm not sure the concept was intended to be used this way, it does provide an avenue through which powers can be switched, even if only for a short while. I think that's a concept that can go a long way in the 4e GSL game, and can be played with and modified in a number of different ways to make it suit the game style of the group or the world the campaign setting is set in. This concept can go a long way beyond the use of ancient magic rituals, though the flavor there is fairly strong as well. I guess that's one of the things I liked about this product - these powers presented here don't only offer new mechanics, but also associated flavor. Having a wizard learn a new power is very different from having one learn the ancient power of a legendary wizard.
Overall, I think Ancient Wizard Magic is a splendid product. It introduces something new, creates plenty of scope for fiddling with the mechanics and expanding it, and does so with plenty of flavor and good presentation. This is one of the few products for the 4e GSL that really brings something new to the table that can be quite useful within the scope of the game. This could make rituals far more useful than they already are, and improve on the versatility of the wizard class (or other classes, should this concept be expanded). Player Options: Ancient Wizard Magic is well worth looking at for those wishing to expand the class or the influence of wizards and magic in their game. I'm really starting to like the Player Options series!
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Everybody loves a good monster, and everybody loves a challenging and exciting battle where fortunes sway back and forth until through sheer brilliance the PCs finally prevail. And one of the beauties of RPGs in general is that there is infinite choice in battle - you can use a variety of tactics, you have a variety of combat and magical options, you have terrain to exploit and you can even run away. Essentially, a good battle and a good monster will allow you to dabble in all these aspects of combat, where each round is different from the last. I mention this because The Hero's Bastard deals with a new monster that effectively takes one of those listed options away - the option to run. When dealing with the The Hero's Bastard, or Morekareth, it's not fight or flight, but just fight. And that changes the ball game quite a bit.
The Hero's Bastard is a short 8 page pdf product presenting a new monster for the Pathfinder RPG. The product comes as a single pdf file, and is professionally presented with good art, front and back covers, extensive credits and a useful set of short bookmarks. The only thing this product lacks presentation-wise is a little bit more of an introduction than that offered by the back page and the advertising blurb. The product dives in immediately with the statistic block for the creature, leaving the organisation a little back to front. Writing and editing is good, and the mechanics look sound, even those sets of new mechanics that are offered for this beast. There's even an extensive list of statistics to use for various variant d20 rules, though the Summon Monster options looks considerably off target. Overall, I was pleased with the presentation - Rite Publishing have done an excellent job.
The Morekareth, or Hero's Bastard, is a powerful creature born of the blood of a fallen hero. The details of this are left unclear in the product, but the pdf does provide extensive background information, including descriptive text, background details, combat tactics, and general information on the creature and its ecology. The morekareth has a number of unique abilities, the more pertinent ones the ability to suppress healing and the ability to summon a creature to be adjacent to it. The combination of the two makes the morekareth quite a unique challenge, as there's no healing and no escaping. Now, admittedly, that's not everybody's cup of tea, as the creature is designed in a way to ensure that the battle is not a fair fight, but it should certainly make for an unique and deadly experience. It was disappointing to find, though, that despite this creature being unique and having unique abilities, it has a paltry Will save that any 1st level Wizard can have a go at. For a CR 12 creature, that's not really acceptable.
The morekareth is an interesting creature, but one that should probably be used with care. I think that for all the good design that's gone into it, there are a few flaws that are just to easy to exploit for the CR. Overall, I liked the monster, its description and details and even the story of its origin. Perhaps a few more details on how the origin actually came about would've been useful. Like most Pathfinder RPG product, this product can most likely be used in standard 3.5e OGL games as well. Good pdf, interesting monster, unique abilities, and good presentation.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks so much to Peter Ingham for taking the time to review The Hero's Bastard, Must go now and work on a web enhancement that covers some of his suggested improvements. Steve Russell; Rite Publishing |
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It's not hard to argue that the d20 OGL revitalised much of the gaming market, and that plenty of quality systems derived from it saw the light of day and are still hugely popular, even after the release of the 4e GSL. One such game is Spycraft, from publisher Crafty Games, which contains a neat set of mechanics and innovations based on the OGL. Recently, however, Crafty Games has released Fantasy Craft, an OGL clone similar to other OGL based games like Pathfinder and Trailblazer. Fantasy Crafty utilizes much of the content that made Spycraft so successful, and creates a stunning OGL game that builds on the OGL in creating a neat and elegant d20 OGL game. This product, Call to Arms - Gallant, is one of several products in the Call to Arms series, each supporting the recently released Fantasy Crafty by providing new classes and associated game material.
This 6 page product comes with both a print and a screen version, and is very neatly and professionally presented. It includes an excellent cover, credits page and OGL page, leaving 3 pages of content to spice up your Fantasy Craft game with. The writing and mechanics are clear and well done, although there could've perhaps been a little more flavor and roleplaying advice associated with the class presentation. Overall, this is a splendid looking product that fits in nicely with other products released for Fantasy Craft.
The Gallant, much like the name suggests, is a social troubadour, a brave and noble warrior that lives the life of high society and knows how to play the system. In many ways, this class reminds me of the bard class, though more specific in that it requires some sort of noble and/or wealthy upbringing. The overall feel and flavor is one that should be quite familiar to most players - a dashing, thrill-seeking noble with society and finance on his or her side. As such, this concept offers not only good combat abilities, but also plenty of social abilities and skills for roleplaying. The class won't always fit into most campaigns, but will do exceeding well in others. I wonder if this isn't in a way an inherent flaw, as the class will either shine or it won't. There doesn't appear to be much of a middle ground here, something that is often associated with classes built on very specific concepts. The pdf does give several useful examples of where the class fits in, and these can guide players in deciding how best to approach this class.
Mechanically the class looks really good, with a well-balanced offering of abilities that will make the character fun to play in combat and social scenarios. It's the kind of extroverted class that always attempts to shine, with abilities like Victory Flourish and Famed Blade enhancing combat ability temporarily in any scene to give the Gallant the chance to show his mettle. While the class may seem quite specific, on paper it looks quite enticing if you like that dashing noble concept, and I have to admit I've not seen something in standard 3.5e OGL that can compare in flare and mechanical execution based on this concept. For that Crafty Games have done really well. To add support to the class, several new feats are presented, mainly focused on the Sword-Circle combat feat and upgrades.
I really liked this product. For all it's specificness and potential pitfalls of that, it does make for an appealing and fun class to play. There's plenty of opportunity to use the mechanics and shape the class to fit a broader style and concept, if you're up to the challenge. Players and DMs will find this class quite useful for both PCs and NPCs, and create exciting characters that should be very memorable. Good pdf.
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The Dungeon Under the Mountain is back! After nearly a year and a half of no products being released for this line from 0One Roleplaying Games, a Level 9 map for the mammoth dungeon has now been released. This level 9 map features a huge area of snake-like watery tunnels and waterworks, that is home to any aquatic creatures that your mind can imagine. This product is one of a large collection of maps and encounters for The Dungeon Under the Mountain, and is suitable for any roleplaying game.
The product comes as a single 13 page pdf file, of which 9 pages are devoted to the maps themselves. The product is very well organised, clear and neatly presented, with a good cover, clear and concise legend, and an extremely useful summary page with hyperlinks from there to the relevant map pages. You have the choice of either printing the massive 22"x34" map as a whole, or otherwise you can stitch it together using the 8 separate maps provided. The product contains very useful information on how to use the product or incorporate it into your game, either as a whole or in parts. Apart from the little section in the advertising blurb that reveals the nature of the level, the majority of the inhabitants and purpose of the level are left to your imagination.
One of the fantastic features of this map, and indeed most of 0One Roleplaying Games' products, is the Rule the Dungeon feature. This allows your to use pdf layers to customize the product as you see fit, removing various sections or features from the map. This makes it very easy to design for your own specific purposes, and is a powerful tool that's been added to this product map. The majority of the map is well described using the legend, and colour-coded to highlight main areas of the map such as watery areas, teleport areas, and main encounter areas. I do wish that some of the areas were a little more self-explanatory, as the map can be a little confusing in places. That said, creative minds shouldn't have trouble imagining purpose or traps to certain areas that may appear confusing.
The Dungeon Under the Mountain is an elaborate and intricate world of its own, and the map itself is quite high on the 'civilization' scale. By that I mean that the map isn't a rough cavern, but rather than carved and structured map indicative of intellect and engineering capability. While no real details on the nature of the map are provided, I found that the layout and design, as well as the useful colour-coding were extremely provocative in allowing the mind to wander and design areas or fill them with purpose and monsters. As with most massive dungeon crawls, it's quite difficult to create a sense of cohesion in a large map or even verisimilitude, but I think the map is designed in such a way that it helps to create such an environment.
Overall, I was pleased with this offering from 0One Roleplaying Games. The map is very well presented, clear, and does well to offer guidance in designing and filling the dungeon with your imagination. It can be a bit confusing in places, but that's largely to be expected for such a large map, almost like the designer wasn't sure what to put there either. An insight into the designer's mind would've been useful in places. Still, it's very good to see this product line back again, and this map will make for a fun dungeon crawl or just a series of encounters using parts of it. Good product.
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Classes of Kor'Onus - The Legionnaire is a short 6 page pdf file presenting a class from Stardust Publication's upcoming Eternal Legends RPG. These classes are all compatible with the OGL 3.5e game, and will likely also be compatible with fantasy games derived from the 3.5e OGL, such as the Pathfinder RPG. This product is one of several classes already released as a primer to their upcoming RPG, and features the Legionnaire, a strong and versatile warrior. Like the other classes released so far by Stardust Publications, the power levels are increased slightly, and hence this class should be suitable alongside standard OGL 3.5e characters 2 levels higher than the Legionnaire level.
This product comes as a single pdf file. The cover is nicely done and features a detailed overview of the product. Normally I would've preferred less text on my cover and more art, but given that this is intended as a sample class, it suffices as is. The art used in the product is mainly what appears to be stock art - one would hope that the finished RPG would contain some original pieces. Writing and editing is overall good, as is the general presentation. I would've liked a little more background information on the class, but again one has to assume that this will be in the finished RPG. On the whole, though, this product is presented as a sample, and feels much like a sample, giving enough information to get the juices flowing.
The Legionnaire is a well known and well-used concept derived from the formidable Roman legionnaires. I've seen many attempts to get the tight formation fighting and Roman spirit built into a class, trying to encapsulate those aspects that made the legionnaire what it was. Having read through this product, I think it does fairly well. For one, it captures the enhanced versatility of the legionnaire well, not only in the skill selection, but also in the class abilities that grant feats and other abilities. The number of skill points is probably still on the low side and probably could've been bumped up. Secondly, the class excels at both formation fighting and can be fairly lethal in combat. There's an ability to be gained at every level, heaps of bonus feats (and several new feats are presented to aid formation fighting and sheer determination), and a lot of focus on armor and weapon training to improve mobility and combat prowess. The legionnaire class, apart from the added hp and BAB at 1st level, will certainly beat a standard fighter quite handily on the power front.
For all the good things done, I still felt the class failed to capture entirely the flavor of the legionnaire. And by that I mean that the class is very mechanical - it's almost built like the class is a robot of sorts, or to put it slightly better, it's really only a stronger version of the rather bland fighter class. Nothing special has gone into the mechanics of the class, there is understandably not a huge amount of flavor, and most of the concepts in the class have been seen before. I missed that something special that made the legionnaire feel more like a versatile warrior of old - perhaps the addition of the flavor text and a more roleplaying orientated concept would've improved it. As a sample it does what it does well, but without pushing the boundaries of uniqueness.
Overall, the Legionnaire is certainly a very useful class, and can be used in any campaign setting. It's fairly easy to reduce the power levels of the class to be more in line with standard OGL 3.5e. It does well in representing the stereotypical legionnaire in the mechanics, though doesn't push to boundaries of mechanics to create something that captures the spirit of the class a little better. Hopefully the flavor text and class background will go a long way in alleviating that when the final RPG is released. Overall, a well-built class, if somewhat bland, but capturing good elements of the legionnaire to make it look a little less than a fighter with heaps of feats.
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