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Master Dungeons M1: Dragora's Dungeon is a 50 page pdf adventure for the new 4e GSL game. This adventure is the first in Goodman Games' Master Dungeons series, a series of adventures for more experienced players where the characters get to face epic challenges and become legends themselves. This first adventure is for 1st level characters, and sees the characters explore the realm of the long-lost sorcerer-kings of Parhok to save their kingdom from an ancient magic.
This adventure comes as a single pdf file. Like all of Goodman Games' products, the presentation is very professional and well done, with high quality art, layout, writing and general presentation and direction in the product. The front cover has an excellent Larry Elmore look to it (and is perhaps slightly suggestive for younger readers), and the product organisation and structure make it easy to navigate and obtain everything needed to run the adventure. Details on scaling the adventure and plot hooks are provided to get the DM started quickly and easily, while the background details provided allow the DM to always have the adventure story fresh in his mind. An excellent presentation all round.
The premise behind the Master Dungeons series is to create adventures that are grand and epic, the kind of adventures that if succeeded will create heroes and legends from the characters. This is an exciting prospect as the adventures will most likely be grand in scope and vision allowing a high fantasy series of adventures where characters achieve something epic and meaningful on a campaign scale. Whether this premise is suitable to 1st level characters is up for debate, though. If your opinion is that it isn't then this adventure will most likely fall flat at the first hurdle during the introduction, but if you're a fan of high fantasy and epic battles and adventures, then this is an adventure that will create heroes from 1st level PCs (or at least more hero-like than the 4e GSL rules envisage 1st level PCs to be like).
The adventure starts with an assassination attempt that the PCs manage to hopefully thwart, and at the same time uncover powerful magic at work in their kingdom. From there the PCs have to track the assassin, and so plunge themselves into the heart of the lost kingdom of the sorcerer-kings - Parhok. There they delve into the ruins of an ancient land, and uncover a forgotten race of ape-like beings, the zain-kin. Through careful and devious interaction with the zain-kin, and very clever thinking, the PCs can uncover the true masters of the plot to unleash an army into the kingdom, and hopefully they have the power to foil it.
Like most of Goodman Games previous offering for the d20 OGL edition of the game, large parts of this adventure are an elaborate and intricate dungeon crawl. What sets this adventure, and indeed this dungeon crawl, apart from its predecessors, though, is the cleverness of the encounters, and the way in which each encounter is designed to make sure the characters and players think. Players that are not on their toes will not survive, particularly when it comes to finding the city of the zain-kin and the interactions between the three factions of the zain-kin.
The zain-kin are probably the meat of the adventure, and allow PCs to get embroidered in a complex setup of three zain-kin factions, their gods, religion and their beliefs. Careless PCs will easily get themselves killed by simply being outnumbered by the zain-kin, and careful deliberation, subterfuge, deceit and diplomacy will be required. This will make for an interesting adventure for players and their characters. For the DM the adventure will most likely require a little more work. While the dungeon aspects are fairly straightforward, the interaction with the zain-kin will require a little more preparation and work. Each faction's beliefs and motives are spelt out, but to make those work within the overall scope of the adventure and without getting the PCs killed fairly easily will take some careful thought and planning.
This is a good adventure from Goodman Games. There's a little bit of everything in the product, and a good combination of roleplaying and combat. The encounters are more tactical in nature, and there's plenty of room for innovation and creative action. There is a lot of combat, though, in places, which can grow a little tedious, and the encounters with the zain-kin in their city need to be handled carefully while not giving the PCs the impression that an escape route is available should they need it. Make no mistake, this adventure can kill, and quickly, and only the clever PCs will survive. This fits in nicely with the premise behind the Master Adventures, though I wouldn't be averse to allowing 2nd level rather than 1st level PCs to pass through Dragora's dungeon. Another good offering from the masters of adventures.
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4th Edition has been around for several months now, and one could almost say that the new edition wouldn't be complete without some artwork and counters from artist Claudio Pozas and Fiery Dragon Productions. Counter Collection 4th Edition Heroic 1 presents hundreds of counters for the Heroic tier of the 4th edition GSL game from the talented mind of Claudio Pozas.
This 19 page pdf product presents one inch square counters for every 4e GSL creature from levels 1 to 10, and includes both new artwork, older artwork that's been updated, and several pieces of work from previous counter collections. The counter total in the product is a staggering 656 counters, of which there are 223 unique images. This product does not contain digital copies of the counters - digital images will be released later this year in the announced Counter Collection Digital v3.0.
This product comes as a single pdf file, in which 17 of the products 19 pages are devoted to the artwork and counters. Counters are organised by level, starting with level 1 creatures and ending with level 10 creatures. Each page contains a header indicating the level, and the names of the creatures on the page are provided in text at the bottom of the page.
This is probably not the best way to identify the counters, since you'd need to count the counters while scanning the text below to check the name of a creature counter contained in the middle of the sheet, which is somewhat time consuming and clumsy. However, I understand that this is likely required to ensure the maximum number of counters per page for easy printing. It would also be useful to have improved spacing between the counters to make then easier to cut out without blotching the line between the counters. The product contains no bookmarks. Overall, a well presented product, though I have very minor reservations about the organisation.
As far as the content and artwork is concerned, this product cannot be faulted, really. The artist presents some vivid and richly detailed images of the various GSL heroic creatures, and some that are truly stunning. Colours are vibrant and vivid, giving the counters impact when placed on the gaming table. There's such a huge selection of counters in this product, that most counters can double for all sorts of other creatures that your characters will face while adventuring. This product offers excellent utility, providing a way to create as many counters of any type of heroic creature you want to. The counters themselves are square - some might prefer to have round counters, but I think the square ones are fine.
There's a lot to like about this product - high quality artwork, excellent variety, good quantities of counters, attention to detail and great overall utility. The product also offers good value for money. My only minor reservation is about the organisation, with something like a table of contents and bookmarks would've improved. Even something as simple as a numbered grid would help to more easily identify creatures in the middle of a sheet. I think this is an extremely useful product, and almost a must-have for any gaming group that uses battlemaps. Excellent product, great artwork, and great utility.
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A lot has been said through the years about the fighter class of the revised OGL core rules. One of the complaints trumpeted by many is that the higher level fighter, and indeed to a certain extent the lower level fighter, spends most of his time locked in rather mundane and boring attack actions swinging his or her weapon. Many attempts have been made to correct for this, mostly focused on trying to spice up the fighter's options and tactical abilities in combat. In most cases, this has cantered around the use of the fighter class' bread and butter - feats. The Deft Fighter is Thomas W. Simpson's effort to create a more interesting combat and tactical fighter using a new feat, the Deft Fighter feat, and a large number of fighter tricks.
The Deft Fighter is a 24 page pdf and indeed the first product from new OGL publisher, Thomas W. Simpson. This product comes as a single pdf file, and is a well presented document with good single column layout, clear writing, attention to detail, and some good illustrations from artist William McAusland. There are no bookmarks in the product. The Deft Fighter is a presentable product from this new publisher.
The concept behind the product is the Deft Fighter feat which allows you to specialise in a number of fighter tricks and abilities that create a more interesting combat fighter. The concept has been attempted in numerous different ways by other publishers, so is generally nothing new, but this take provides a flexible option to expand the list of new fighter tricks, and even the associated additional feats for the deft fighter. Fighter tricks are special actions or manuevers that are performed in conjunction with a normal attack, and resolved using opposed skill checks. It's fairly easy to expand on the list of fighter tricks, making this a flexible system for the martial warrior.
There are 24 fighter tricks in this product, all of them non-magical tricks or abilities rather than supernatural or other magical abilities. Examples include Nowhere to Run, which allows the fighter to prevent an enemy escaping; Dastardly Dancer which allows the fighter to weave out of combat with skill, and Death from Below, a Gimli kind of manuever from The Two Towers. The naming of the various feats leaves something to be desired, but mostly these achieve what they set out to achieve - if you succeed at the skill check, you gain some additional advantage, whereas if you fail, you are unable to pull the manuever off, and suffer a penalty.
While this is an interesting idea and certainly opens up the possibilities for combat, the underlying mechanics are probably not as robust as ithey seem. Take the Heart Attack trick as an example. This trick is a Balance vs. Sense Motive skill check, success which paralyzes your opponent for 1d4 rounds. Firstly, not many fighters, let alone monsters, have any decent ranks in the Sense Motive skill, whereas a fair many characters use the Balance skill. It's fairly easy to envisage a character that specialises in Balance, thereby succeeding at this trick frequently, rendering pretty much any opponent helpless and hence open to easy coup de graces. The balance of the power is just not there in all instances, particularly where monsters are concerned. In addition, rogue/fighters are far more likely to excel at these tricks than pure fighters are due to improved skill points.
Overall, I think this idea has merit and there are several interesting ideas and concepts in the product. I think the implementation, though, in some cases requires a little more thought, particularly where the underlying mechanics are concerned. If you are planning to adopt material from this product, then most likely you'll need to bear it in mind when throwing enemies at your party, since you'll need to boost certain skills in most enemies. The Deft Fighter feat and its tricks is certainly useful though, placing more emphasis on skills for fighters, and adding some useful options for tactical combat to the table.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks for the review!
Remember with the "heart attack", it is anatomy dependent, and in many cases would likely suffer a DC increase in accordance to the opponents armor (with a discerning GM!).
While I won't claim the underlying mechanic is perfect (none are, IMO), I think with a little play some of your worries may vanish.
During play testing, one thing showed up all the time: unpredictability. Two EXTREME examples: a 4th level Fighter/2nd Level Rogue got his @ss handed to him by CR 1 kobolds because he failed a Trick THREE times when he was at a +12 and the kobolds were at a +0! Then at the OTHER end of the spectrum, a sixth level Fighter successfully staved off a Leonine Demon (Creature Collection II) until the party could catch up to him and help (without the Tricks, he'd have been toast). These are of course not the most common happenings, but I was pleased with the contrast. Sometimes its all about how the d20 rolls!
I hope you enjoy it in your games! Thanks for the review, I really appreciate Staff reviews because I know a lot of customers take them pretty seriously. I hope you give my future products the same consideration! |
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I suspect that I, like others who first saw this product, were drawn to it because of the use of the word 'Shadowfell'. And I suspect as well that this intentional or unintentional 'marketing' has done its job, even though the product in question has little to do with anything related to Shadowfell or the newly released GSL game. In fact, Wizards of Shadowfell is a 14 page base class for the revised OGL rules, and provides an alternative to the standard wizard built along the lines of the wizards of literature like Gandalf or Merlin.
This pdf is presented in the familiar style of Skorched Urf' Studios, and consists of a neat cover with good art, good layout and some excellent pieces of art scattered throughout the pdf. The writing and editing is good, and the product contains some solid mechanics that's well designed without being clumsy. I was generally impressed by the effort on the presentation side of things, and Skortched Urf Studios have done a grand job of producing a very presentable product.
Wizards of Shadowfell presents a new 20 level base class, the Wizard of Shadowfell. This wizard is modeled after the powerful wizards of literature, and as such is both strong in magic but also handy when wielding a blade or in battle. The pdf provides an excellent introduction to the class, with some useful information on the concept behind the class, how it fits into a campaign world, the roleplaying opportunities and a brief comparison to the standard wizard. The pdf readily admits that the Wizard of Shadowfell is more powerful than the standard wizard, which does raise a few eyebrows since the high level standard wizard is already the most powerful class in the game.
Nevertheless, this pdf does bring some interesting and refreshing new ideas to the game table, particularly the new mechanics of the class. Unlike the standard wizard, this Wizard of Shadowfell gains a new ability at each level, and these include a new spellcasting progression system, Lessons of the Arcane. This allows the wizard to cast lower level spells at will, while progressing largely the same at higher level. The at-will abilities are thankfully restricted by the wizard's rank in the Spellcraft skill. Other useful new mechanics include a wizard mount, various abilities that enhance the wizard's senses, improved BAB and hp, the ability to sense the use of magic, powerful summoning, various roleplaying restrictions, immortality, and the ultimate ability to cast spells with lightning speed.
As can be seen from the list of impressive abilities, this makes for a very powerful class, and while the new mechanics is the product's strength, it is also its weakness. But given the design considerations and the aim of the project, that's probably what the product set out to do. Wizards of literature were insanely powerful, and this product has demonstrated that in spades. How well that concept works in game play over a table is another matter, but one that could work if handled carefully.
Wizards of Shadowfell closes by providing a starting package and an epic level progression for the character class, rounding off a very complete, interesting, and generally well designed class barring the large power boost. I found this product interesting to read with a concept that would appeal to many. Handled carefully or modified to tone down the power, this would make a strong concept in a campaign world, both as PC and NPC. A solid product, with great presentation, good mechanics, and a strongly designed class.
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It's been a while since I've reviewed one of Arion Games' paper miniatures products, and I have to admit that through the years they've mostly kept their quality spot on. And this product, Monsters II Set is no disappointment. If the numbers on the product are anything to go by, this is their 75th paper miniature product, and it's quite an achievement to have released that many quality products onto the market. Their variety as well is impressive, although I'm personally glad to see them come back to the staple of most fantasy games with this set of monsters.
Monsters II Set is a 9 page pdf product that features 20 useful paper miniatures for your fantasy or other genre roleplaying games. The miniatures can be folded as flat, a-frame of a pseudo 3D triagonal with views from three sides. Instructions for folding can be found on Arion Games' website, although it's not difficult to figure out yourself and fairly easy to fold to create some good-looking miniatures. This set contains a series of 20 monsters, and some rather useful ones too in a variety of different sizes, something which is easy to appreciate. Most of these monsters are suitable to fantasy games, although other genres can be catered for quite easily with this set as well.
This set contains a good mix of creatures, all generated using computers to give them a professional look of quality. The miniatures in this set include: blood demon, dragon ogre, bugbirn, chaos snake, chimera, cocytus, demon tree, eyebat, flyman, frog demon, giant fire beetle, greater gargoyle, greater lamia, greater werewolf, harpy, jabberwock, lesser demon, mind eater, scorpion dog and scourge. Naturally many of these images could probably be used to portray quite a larger variety of creature than their name would suggest, increasing the versatility of the product. The artwork is very well done, with good attention to detail. It's often more difficult to do monsters than clothed creatures with computer generated graphics, and this product has done very well in that. Shading, coloration, and posture are all very well done, creating realistic looking creatures.
While the a-frame or flat miniatures are great, the triagonal miniatures really create life-like creatures that can compete with plastic or metal miniatures for look on the game table. Printed out these miniatures look good, and can easily be combined or used with many other similar products out there and 3D terrain or structure models from paper or cardstock. The resolution of the miniatures is excellent, meaning they'll look good no matter what size you want to print them at. Another quality product from Arion Games.
Monsters Set II is a great set of paper miniatures from Arion Games. It provides high quality computer generated images of a variety of interesting and useful creatures for your roleplaying game at good value for money. The graphics is excellent, particularly figures like the dragon ogre and the lesser demon. Come to think of it, there really isn't a weak figure in the set, which is always an added bonus. Great product!
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One of the good things about RPGs is that they're multi-faceted and offer a variety of different ways to stimulate the differing tastes of the gaming populations. Some gamers prefer more combat-orientated games, other immersive roleplaying, and yet others enjoy it for the creative aspects and world building. Two Bit Tables: Ancient Battlefield encounters is a short 3 page pdf product that caters mainly to the latter gamers - those that like creating interesting encounters or locations, and those that like to add spice to their game world. This product is part of a large and continually expanding series of Two Bit Tables products, each offering a small set of tables with which to create something more interesting for your game world.
The presentation of this short pdf is nicely done, with good use of pdf presentation skills to create something that looks good. The editing and writing is fair, and the tables usefully presented, although the shade of gray used in the tables looks too dark when the product is printed and could be done in a lighter shade. Overall, this pdf pretty much gets the ticks as far as short pdf presentation goes.
Two Bit Tables: Ancient Battlefield Encounters provides you with a series of useful tables for generating descriptive and interesting battlefield encounters. The focus here is on what one would expect to see in an ancient battlefield, although plenty of advice is provided on how to adjust the tables for more recent battlefields where the bodies haven't quite decomposed yet. In addition to providing one with useful random encounters on these sites, there are three other tables that form the meat of the product. These tables allow one to generate objects found or seen on a battlefield from a list of over 100, and certainly you can create far more combinations of these items. Battlefields can contain anything from a rusty sword to a fallen encampment to a cemetery or an arrow head stuck in a tree. It's a good product for generating a few ideas when trying to describe the scene of an important or pivotal battle in your campaign world.
For the most part this is a good little pdf with some useful information and good value for money. I found, however, that the information was lacking in being creative and seemed a bit repetitive in trying to generate the material from the tables. It's not particularly fantastical either, being more of a medieval flavor rather than one where magic would reign supreme and the elements of which would be found on the battlefield. The table and the details there-in just appear far too normal. There's nothing wrong with that, but even the normal could be a little more descriptive, and perhaps contain something more than just variations on broken weapons, skeletons, fortifications, and other battle miscellany.
I think this product, and indeed this series, can be a very useful addition to any world builder's arsenal, but I think it needs to think outside the box and be a little more creative to add a little spice to the material, particularly as far as fantastical elements are concerned. Most fantasy campaigns offer tremendous richness which is largely lacking here apart from the odd reference here and there. A good product, and useful, but could've done a little more on the creative side.
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Venture 4th: Ice River Battle is a 12 page pdf product and the first in a new series of products from Adamant Entertainment. The Venture 4th series of products provides both game tiles and adventures in support of the 4e ruleset, although it can be used for the revised d20 core rules as well. This first game tile product in the series presents a unique and exciting setting for fantasy combat - a battle on a icy river containing dangerous and slippery blocks of ice.
Ice River Battle presents a good mix between new rules for the scenario setup, and game tiles that allow you to make the setup or encounter come to life. The product is well presented and well written, with clear rules, good editing, and a useful variety of game tiles. There is some good art inside the product, and the front cover is professionally done. Overall, a well presented pdf as one would expect from Adamant Entertainment.
Many companies produce game tiles these days, and this product is Adamant Entertainment's first foray into such tiles. They've gone the extra mile by not only presenting game tiles, but by also tying them to both a specific location or terrain and providing specific mechanical game rules. This means that the game tiles themselves are more than just props that look pretty, but are also functional parts of the adventure or scenario itself. I quite like this take on presenting game tiles.
The pdf starts by giving the brief rules for using the various ice blocks on the river. These include moving across the ice, jumping from block to block, the effect of heat on the blocks, the result of falling into the water, and various rules for the scenario itself including static and flowing ice blocks in the river. The rules are fairly simple and straightforward, though I can imagine that running a flowing scenario can be quite tricky as the position of each block needs to be adjusted every game turn. The rules presented are fairly generic, but provide enough information that you can easily use it with the d20 or 4e game systems.
The game tiles provide a small selection of river and river bank tiles, and a larger selection of tiles for the ice blocks in various different sizes. Sizes vary from single square blocks to larger blocks that could easily host a small skirmish. The river and bank tiles are good, although I wasn't that pleased with the ice blocks, which appear rather jagged as if they'd been cut from paper with a scissors. Nevertheless, for the purposes of creating an exciting scenario, the props and rules are all you need to give your PCs an encounter they will never forget.
Venture 4th - Ice River Battle combines good rules with good game tiles to create an exciting scenario for an encounter setting. I was generally pleased with the product; the only negative being the look of the ice block tiles. Adamant Entertainment have made a good start to this Game Tile line in the Venture 4th series, and I'm looking forward to seeing some quality products in this line in the future.
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When the first sneak peaks of the new 4e ruleset started to appear shortly after the announcement of the new edition, people in various forums on the net started hammering the revised d20 rules as more information about 4e got released. In particular many were complaining that the 3.5e rules were too strict and cumbersome when creating monsters, and that the 4e system somehow liberated people into designing more creative monsters outside of the supposed constraints of the 3.5e system. It is true that the 4e system has shown good and exciting design in monsters, but I don't agree with the sentiment that 3.5e's system was too constrained to achieve was 4e has done. And this product seems to agree with me on that front.
Fantasy Fiends: Kobolds is a short 15 page pdf product that presents kobolds like you've not seen them before. This product is the first in the Fantasy Fiends series of products from Myth Merchant Press and is fully compatible with the revised d20 core rules (3.5e). The product presents 6 new and unique kobolds, using the standard 3.5e rules with some new variations to create exiting and interesting kobolds that can challenge even higher level parties.
Myth Merchant Press is a relatively new pdf publisher, having released their first product, a fantastic adventure called Trouble in Tallreed Waters, less than two months ago. And if they continue the way they are with the two products they've released so far, then I suspect they'll do rather well, providing top class presentation and material for the d20 market. This product looks great, contains fantastic art, reads easily, is well organised, and very well formatted. I was impressed by the effort of presentation that went into the product - it's a top notch effort.
Kobolds in the revised d20 game (3.5e) are fairly standard fare for most PCs. As are most humanoids in fact. And one of the things I constantly hear is that the various humanoid races don't do enough to distinguish between them. This product is a big step towards making the distinction clearer as it presents a set of kobolds (in a style similar to the new edition) using the 3.5e rules that truly feel like kobolds in their mechanics. There are 6 new kobold types presented here - the kobold footman, the kobold grunt, the kobold thrower, the kobold wyrmward, the kobold dragonmouth and the kobold matron. All of them are based on the standard d20 kobold with various PC and NPC classes added, but have added extraordinary abilities, bonus feats and supernatural abilities to make them stand out as more unique creatures and more unique humanoids. These aren't just smaller goblins or orcs - these are kobolds.
Examples of the abilities of these kobolds include a mob mentality that grants bonuses in large numbers of kobolds, the ability to dart around in combat, and the neat ability to gang up on a larger enemy and overpower them. I truly enjoyed what Myth Merchant Press have done with these kobolds and what they've presented in this product. Not only are the new kobolds and new abilities, but the product also briefly details kobold society and ecology, battle tactics, typical encounter groups, new kobold traps and even some very useful kobold counters. I will admit that some of the mechanical changes haven't been done in the smoothest way possible (using spell-like abilities for some things instead of supernatural abilities or feats), but the product does a good job of showing that the d20 ruleset is not in any way constraining on your ability to design good and useful monsters.
I thoroughly enjoyed this product. It's a well presented, well conceived product, and I'm really looking forward to the next releases in the Fantasy Fiends series. The kobolds in these pages will provide good challenges for parties over a wide range of levels, really surprise the players and provide more tactical options than your standard kobold would typically allow. This is a great product, good value for money, and well worth a look at.
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The Shady Forest Part 2 - Abandoned Tracks is a 44 page pdf product and the second part of the Shady Forest set of 2D terrain tiles. The Forge Studios are well known for their fantastic art work, and their work has recently continued into the area of 1" scale, 2D tiles with quite a prolific release rate for their products. The Shady Forest is one of 3 current sets of 2D terrain tiles, each so far consisting of 2 parts, and all released within about a month. If you're a fan of 2D terrain tiles, and love building great scenery for your RPG games, then this is a welcome and excellent addition to your arsenal.
This product includes 40 full-colour 1" scale tiles, each tile being 6 by 6 squares in size. The product includes useful covers, a brief list of credits, and then a very useful sample map illustrating the use of the tiles and how they can be assembled together. I find this feature extremely useful, and I wish other publishers of similar products would do the same. It gives one the opportunity to get a feel for all the tiles involved, how they can be assembled, etc. without needing to actually print all of them at once to experiment and play with. It also gives you a good impression of the capabilities of the set, which is really useful.
As the product tile suggests, the 2D terrain tiles in the product take you off the beaten path into the more abandoned routes and places. The set includes various worn cart tracks, various trees and forest bits, rivers with bridges (broken and in tact), various carts with horses, and numerous more generic tiles for grass, embankments, shrubs and the like. There's a very good variety to the product, and all the tiles look very useful. Two bonus tiles are includes that have no connection with this set, but are still useful in general.
The Forge Studios have done a great job of providing a variety on interesting, high quality and useful tiles, all done with good artwork and thought. Looking at the overview map, I wish there were a few more tiles that could be used to build larger forests or larger clumps of shrubs and trees. As is, it's easy to build a rather repetitive looking map, simply because most of the tiles are individual tiles and not meant to be used as part of a group. Allowing groups of tiles means you generally get more unique looking structures since you have more tile configurations at your disposal. Using individual tiles gets the same job done, but on the overall picture doesn't look as good and generally appears 'pixelated' rather than flowing terrain. That doesn't take away from what is a great set of mixed tiles that can be used in pretty much any RPG game without any trouble.
The Forge Studios have done a grand job with this product, and with their whole new line of 2D terrain tiles in general. With a new product in the series coming out almost every week, there's a lot to look forward to. Shady Forest: Abandoned Tracks is a very useful, high quality set of tiles, and while there are some minor issues with repetitiveness, I think at the price and the quantity of tiles, this is a set well worth looking at.
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Gamescapes: Story Maps - Fantasy Set 1 is a 80 page pdf product and the first set of fantasy story maps produced by Talisman Studios. This product features nearly 80 1" scale, full-colour dungeon tiles filled with all sorts of magical and supernatural terrain as the set's title 'Mystic Dungeon' suggests. The product comes as a large pdf file, and barring the covers with brief credits, contains only high quality mystical dungeon tiles to create a magical 2D dungeon layout.
There are quite a number of companies that do 2D terrain tiles these days, and more seem to be heading in that direction as time goes by. I've seen quite a few new publishers to this area, which is always a good thing as it provides the customer with a larger variety of tiles to choose from. Talisman Studios' offering of Fantasy Story Maps is one of the more unusual ones, in a good way. It offers a vast amount of different tiles, and probably a selection of tiles that you won't likely find anywhere else. This particular set, Mystic Dungeon, has tiles filled with various magical effects and other mystical features that I've rarely seen in other products. For that Talisman Studios are to be commended.
As such these tiles allow one's imagination to run wild. While some of the tiles are quite confusing and often appear somewhat psychedelic, the majority contain elements that spark the imagination and put a little bit of magic back in the dungeon. It's the supernatural tiles that really make this set, but it also includes several variations on standard wall tiles and various other standard room configurations. But if you wanted a dungeon filled with random and wild magic, the bizarre and the supernatural rather than another series of kobolds and orcs in four-walled rooms, this set of story maps has plenty to offer.
I wish, though, that there had been even a one line or one word description of each tile, as it would help clarify some of the more bizarre tiles and make what they're depicting a little clearer. The images are generally quite dark, so it's hard sometimes to see the detail, or see how the tile is meant to be implemented. For all its wonderful magical tiles and imagination running wild, there's an element of non-user-friendliness to this set. I'm sure that's not the case, but it looks like some of the tiles may have been thrown together to create a bizarre looking tile without thinking what the customer would make of it.
Overall, though, I found this a stimulating product with some good, unusual, interesting and inspiring tiles. This set puts the magic back into the dungeon, and creates an environment that will terrify players and spark the imagination. Here and there the tiles can be confusing as it's not always easy to be certain how a tiles should be used. The sheer volume of tiles, and the balance between standard tiles and mystical tiles, though, makes this a good product that can be used for a wide variety of 2D dungeon tile needs. A good set of tiles from Talisman Studios.
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Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 2 has finally arrived and it's learnt some lessons from the first series of 12 adventures that formed part of Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 1. This second series of SAW features the town of Merzel's fall, and sinister undead creatures that plague the town. I was generally impressed with the first series, but had a few reservations about the format and how things were strung together. This second series seems to tie things together a whole lot better, allowing more leeway in running the series as a complete adventure rather than as the individual scenarios. The presence of both a Player's Guide and a Gamemaster's Guide to this series goes a long way in accomplishing just that. The individual scenarios, judging by this first offering The Blood Rush, still feature high octane, fast-paced action.
Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 2: The Undead Chronicles #1 - The Blood Rush starts off the new SAW series with a action packed battle as the dead come to life in a gold panner's stream. The PCs are systematically drawn into the action, eventually culminating in them arriving in Merzel's Fall where even more sinister foes and events await. This 20 page scenario forms parts of the larger series, and can be played as a stand-alone scenario, or as part of the larger adventure. I think, having read this offering, that it's likely better played as part of the overall adventure, mainly due to the 'cliff-hanger' type ending to the adventure. Nevertheless, the product offers plenty of advice on using the scenario for both these situations.
The Blood Rush is for characters of 5th level, a fact you really only learn once you hit page 12. Why this information is not readily available on the product cover is beyond me. Most DMs pick up adventure by looking first at the adventure level to see if it's suitable. Why bury it at the back of the pdf? Admittedly, the very useful rating system on the front cover tells you a lot about what the adventure is suitable for, but a level of 'Medium' doesn't really equate to much. Presentations-wise this product is very well done. Good cover, good rating system to give information on the product, good writing and editing. In addition, the product provides a whole host of other additional useful things, such as monster initiative cards, monster counters, a character sheet and a useful 'Notes' bar at the side of each page to add DM comments or statistics.
The adventure itself is well structured and organised. There are one or two areas that are somewhat contrived, but for the most part the action is smooth and runs quickly and easily. One of my initial concerns on an undead focused campaign is that any cleric focused on undead would breeze through this adventure. Thankfully this so far doesn't seem to be the case. While there are undead about, there are more encounters featuring other creatures that don't make it feel like this is the cleric player's adventure and chance to shine. The foes the PCs encounter at Merzel's Fall are cleverly done with good additional flavor that ties in nicely with the theme of the overall adventure. Much of what's written in the Player's Guide and Gamemaster's Guide haven't come to the fore yet, but I'm assuming this information will be useful as the adventure progresses.
The Blood Rush is a good start to this 6 scenario adventure. It's an interesting start to the adventure, is good at drawing the PCs into the action, and maintains a steady pace with good combat and roleplaying opportunity throughout the scenario. In many ways this is a better start to the series than for the first SAW, and it looks like the adventure is going to improve over the next few scenarios. I'm looking forward to seeing them, and what SAW 2 can deliver. So far it's off to a fun, exciting, and interesting start.
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I'll freely admit that I'm a big fan of templates. And monsters in general too. But templates are great as they allow you to take something familiar and turn it into something that your players won't expect. Templates are by far one of the best things about the revised d20 core rules. In fact, many of the best books published for the d20 system are books about templates. Templates allow you to take something generic, and turn it into something specific. Blackdyrge's Templates is a great series of products from Blackdirge Publishing, featuring a brand new template and some sample creatures using the template from the mind of author Aeryn Rundel. This offering, the Deep Spawn template, features a horror of the depths of the oceans, an aquatic creature of nightmares.
The product comes as a single, high quality pdf file. The presentation is excellent, with some fantastic art from Hunter McFalls, and some very good descriptive writing from the author. Like other products from Blackdirge Publishing, this product includes the campaign construction system, which is a system that allows one to utilize the material in the pdf to create a campaign binder or folder. Information such as author, type of material, etc. is printed clearly on each page so that when placed in a binder it can be easily found and identified. Blackdyrge's Templates: Deep Spawn is a very professionally presented product that ticks all the boxes as far as presentation goes.
The Deep Spawn is an aquatic horror from the depths of the ocean. As such it's a template that can be applied to any creature with the aquatic subtype, although Deep Spawn are also amphibious and hence can go on land. The Deep Spawn's signature abilities include its great maw that can swallow creatures whole, and the bioluminescent patches on its skin that can duplicate various spell effects. As such it ties in with the concept of the 'lure of the deep' or the general concept of 'enchanted by the oceans'. The template is solid from a mechanical point of view, as are the sample creatures, a Deep Spawn hag and a Deep Spawn sea cat. The flavor and descriptive text is very good, both the introduction from Blackdirge on the Deep Spawn, and the descriptive text of the sample creatures and the template.
Despite resting on solid mechanical ground and having good descriptive flavor, I felt that the template was disappointing in that there was nothing unique or new about it. The mechanics was really just a bunch of stuff from other creatures mixed together to create the template and I'd hoped that something new would come out that would be more closely related to the flavor text. The mechanics just lacked imagination - there's the familiar improved grab, the familiar swallow whole, the familiar fast healing, etc. and even the new bioluminescence ability just used familiar spell effects. Where's the novelty in the mechanics? Has this version of the d20 game depleted everything that makes creatures unique? It's great to come up with good concepts, even if they are somewhat familiar, but then to not support it by great new and novel mechanics just makes the template provided uninteresting.
Like all of Blackdirge Publishing's products, this is very well presented, with solid mechanics and great descriptive text. But there's nothing that's really new. It feels like old mechanics jumbled together to make a new template, rather than designing new mechanics to create a novel and interesting template or new creature. I think the pdf lacked a little uniqueness in the mechanics and could've done something a little more interesting. That aside, it's still a useful and solid product, although not something that inspired me to use it immediatly.
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Figure Flats Set 1 - Male Fantasy is 40 page pdf product that presents 36 different male fantasy hero paper miniatures. This product is the first set of paper miniatures from Infinite Dreamers, with the second already on release and featuring female fantasy figures. The products in this series include both the paper miniatures, as well as full page images of the same figures.
This product comes as a single pdf file. The paper miniatures themselves take up 3 pages, while the full page artwork of each miniature takes up the remainder of the product. The product comes with a good cover showcasing the paper miniatures and their art. The images themselves are suitable to the A-frame format of folding miniatures, and are created from computer generated images. Image resolution is very good, meaning that these will print out nicely and with high quality on paper. Bookmarks are provided to each image, and only here is there a mention of what each paper miniature is supposed to represent. No indication is given in the actual pdf body, which is a good thing in a way as it means you can use the miniature for another purpose of character race or class.
This product presents 36 fantasy male paper miniatures, and covers a wide variety of typical fantasy types of class and race, for example, barbarians, clerics, dwarves, elves, monks, rangers, rogues, wizards, knights and several others. These provide a good variety of useful figures and many of the figures can be used for a multitude of other race/class combinations. The majority of the figures are human, with only a handful or so of elves and dwarves. Some of the figures are rather odd such as the monk looking more like something out of a rice paddy, while the one wizard appears to be a half-naked pharaoh. These are the only ones that won't necessarily fit the typical fantasy world, and most of the will readily fit into a high or low fantasy world where your typical heroes and races reside.
I was impressed by the quality of the computer generated images, and in the resolution of the artwork. Infinite Dreamers have done well to provide high quality figures, and good attention to details and good use of armor, clothing and equipment to enhance the look and feel of the character. Most images have something exciting going on in them, or something that grabs your attention, meaning that the figures aren't bland. It's a very traditional style of computer art that's used, but the figures look good despite not going outside the box to create a new fantasy style. In this was the figures can appeal to the majority of gamers and campaigns out there. Some of the figures, such as the dwarven warriors, all share the same facial features, with different armor and weapons. This is generally not a big deal, but can be if you want a higher degree of dissimilarity in your dwarven army.
Overall this is a very nice product. Not only does it provide a good variety of paper miniatures, but also provides full size artwork for each that can be used in a variety of ways over the game table. Most of the figures are good with good detail, although there are a few that are rather weird or bland, and others that could've used different facial features. With 36 figures you can generally cover all the bases, and have enough left over to provide for NPCs and other characters. The set only caters for traditional fantasy tropes in the traditional fantasy style as well, meaning that it will appeal to most gamers but doesn't really go outside the box. Generally a very nice product and good value for money.
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Freeport is one of the great settings for d20/OGL, and its swashbuckling, pirate nature appeals to many who like intrigue, fast-paced action, betrayal, high-seas, and all things pirate. Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean have done a lot to encourage the swashbuckling pirate RPG games and the Freeport setting, and Freeport as a setting has grown through the years to accommodate the appeal. In fact, I'd not really hesitate to call Freeport the quintessential pirate setting for d20/OGL, as it's been included in quite a number of other different worlds from other publishers. And Freeport is certainly not called the City of Adventure for nothing.
Blood of Freeport is the latest adventure from Adamant Entertainment in support of Green Ronin's Freeport setting. Written by Justin S. Bow, it's an event driven adventure for characters of 6th to 8th level and takes place entirely in Freeport. As such, the running of this adventure largely requires the Freeport setting material. The adventure sees the characters drawn into an adventure of love and betrayal where they get involved in the rivalry between two merchant families. This adventures is compatible with the revised d20 core rules.
Blood in Freeport is a 28 page event-based adventure. The product is well designed and laid out, with some good art and a lovely cover from A. Nemo. The writing is immersive, and the editing and mechanics generally good. There are no maps in the product at all, again highlighting the fact that the setting material for Freeport is required to run the adventure properly. It's possible to run this adventure in another setting or city similar to Freeport if the latter doesn't fit your campaign setting very well. All stat blocks are provided towards the end of the pdf, although I wish they'd detailed the personalities and backgrounds of important NPCs a little more to define them a little better than just providing a mechanical stat block. Overall, a well presented pdf.
This adventure sees the PCs get involved in the rivalry between two large and powerful merchant families in Freeport. The nature of their involvement is left largely to the PCs, which means that the course of the adventure is determined by how the PCs view the feud and what they believe they need to do about it, if anything. This implies that the actions of the PCs actually matter, and that the events of the adventure are not something beyond their control, but can be shaped or changed by their actions. This kind of dynamic approach in adventure writing makes for a fun and exciting adventuring. The PCs will have plenty of opportunity for both combat and roleplaying, and indeed over the course of the adventure and several in-game days, there will be amply opportunity to delve into the mysteries of the adventure. The combat encounters are challenging, largely because so many days lapse between events.
That said, spanning the adventure over so many days can make parts of it dull and boring, so it might be difficult to get the adventure flowing along at the right pace between events separated by days. The action events themselves are structured in that they eventually all lead up to a climatic ending, increasing the tension and the rivalry between the two families as time progresses. This creates a good amount of in-game tension, atmosphere, and indeed is likely to affect the entire city of Freeport. I quite like the idea that the entire city is watching events closely, and that the actions of the PCs will most likely be noted by other powerful families or Captains within Freeport. There is a sense that actions have consequence throughout the adventure, and that will keep the PCs on their toes.
The adventure is equally well suited to running as a one-off or as part of a larger campaign story. In fact if the build-up to the rivalry needs to be increased, it can be done through an entire campaign before this adventure is reached. This might make the families and people involved more meaningful to the PCs. As it is, I felt there wasn't enough information in the adventure to detail the NPCs, the merchant families, the histories of the families, etc. More depth in these areas would've gone a long way to making these NPCs come alive a little more and provide more richness to the adventure.
Those that wish to delve into the secret histories of powerful merchant families, get involve in spy activities in the pirate city, or merely enjoy the subterfuge and intrigue will find this adventure to their liking. I think DMs will need to do a little extra work to make this adventure flow together nicely so that it doesn't feel like the PCs are just hopping from one event to the other. It's a good adventure, though, and a refreshing break from dungeon crawling and combat intensive games that are quite frequent in the d20 market. It has something for every player and every character, a good background and story, and a few unexpected surprises. Good art, good writing, exciting scenes, lots of intrigue and politics, and overall a fun adventure.
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0One's Colorprints: Dwarven Excavation is the 7th product in the Colorprints series, and presents a set of detailed, fantasy, color maps of a dwarven excavation or underground mining complex. The Colorprints series aims to provide customizable, detailed, classic fantasy locations that you can use to build an adventure or as the basis for a brief sidetrek. Dwarven Excavation features an underground complex consisting of a variety of different mining locations, and the four detailed maps provided can be joined together in a number of different configurations to form a larger complex. This product requires the use of Acrobat Reader 6+ to fully take advantage of the pdf technology features incorporated into the product.
This 17 page product comes as a single pdf file, containing all the maps and associated pdf features. There is a brief introduction to the product, including useful details on the nature of various features of the maps, such as the mining camp and military outpost. The maps are provided with a full legend on a separate page, and a brief guide to using the various pdf features is also presented. The latter is one of the strong points of this series of maps, in that it allows you to customize the map exactly the way you want to. The utility of this is not to be underestimated, as it allows you to create player maps, GM maps, overview maps, and a number of other configurations. I wish publishers that write and sell adventures would incorporate these features into their adventure maps, as it would make these immensely more useful.
The product contains four maps, as well as black-and white (greyscale) copies of each of these maps. In addition, there are some handy reference sheets that you can use to add details to the various areas of the map, and create the underground complex that you desire. The maps and the detail are excellent, and when combined with the ability to customize the look and detail of the map, makes this a great product. The customization allows you to remove room numbers, furniture, background details and other useful features. As mentioned before, the maps can be assembled to form a larger map. The pdf itself doesn't illustrate this, but it's easy to figure out how to assemble them. There are a number of different configurations, particularly if you repeat certain tunnelled areas.
The maps themselves are very well designed, both in the artwork and the layout of the various areas of the map. Very often fantasy maps that you see don't make sense, but these maps capture a form of realism that works well. There's ample sleeping room, for example, with single communal areas, and a small number of utility locations. Of course, there are unexplored areas filled with monsters and other surprises, making this both and adventure location and a useful camp or resting place with lots of opportunity for roleplaying and adventure.
Generally I was very pleased with this product. It provides a great adventure location, very detailed and useful maps, fair background details to get your started, and excellent utility in customising the maps. And excellent value too! The maps have good resolution for printing, and look good when laminated as well. 0One has impressed me with the way in which they created these maps, and the way in which they use the features of pdf technology add a lot to the quality and value of their products. Great product and an excellent series! 0One know their maps!
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