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Remarkable Races Pathway to Adventure: The Boggle $2.50
Average Rating:4.0 / 5
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Remarkable Races Pathway to Adventure: The Boggle
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Remarkable Races Pathway to Adventure: The Boggle
Publisher: Alluria Publishing
by Peter I. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/30/2009 09:38:16

Remarkable Race (Pathway to Adventure Edition): The Boggle is a short 13 page pdf file presenting a new player character race for the Pathfinder RPG. This race first appeared as a race for the 4e GSL system, but has since been updated for the recently released OGL Pathfinder RPG. It's hardly surprising that publishers wish to take best advantages of both leading RPG systems, and several publishers have already jumped on the wagon of dual releases of the same product for different systems. I suspect in the future that we may end up seeing more neutral products with system specific elements added as an Appendix, much like Green Ronin Publishing did with their fantastic Freeport Campaign Setting.

This product comes as a beautifully presented pdf file. Alluria Publishing offer fantastic presentation, great art, and good writing all in one package. The presentation standard is very high, with professional layout and editing, and more importantly, they offer excellent customer service and customer relations. Alluria Publishing are continually improving their products and listening to their fans when making said improvements. Illustrators Randall D. Powell and Eugene Jaworski have crafted some vivid images to capture the look and feel of the boggle, while writer J. Matthew Kubisz has created a well-rounded effort with good balance between roleplaying and mechanical descriptions of the boggle race. Overall, another splendidly presented pdf product from Alluria Publishing.

The boggle is a small goblin-like creature that excels at mechanical devices and magic, and is not far removed from certain perceptions of the gnome player race, except that they are more goblin-like. These tinkerers are considered geniuses of all things mechanical, but along with that gift comes a curse - the boggle is prone to disease called boggle madness, that systematically drives the boggle insane. This product presents a very flavorful and detailed account of the boggle character race, including societal details, habits, physical appearance, beliefs and much more. The mechanics are sound, and offer good support for the underlying racial concept, and the addition of boggle madness offers good roleplaying opportunities. I think the stereotype for this race is fairly well understood and has been encountered many times, but this boggle class offers a sounder mechanical footing for that mad tinkerer concept within a proper racial framework.

The product doesn't stop with only presenting the race characteristics of the boggle, but also includes just over half a dozen useful new feats that expand or build upon the boggle's racial characteristics. The product even includes a prestige class, the Demolisher, which looks like it will be great fun to play. The Demolisher specialises in boggle bombs and other contraptions, and will make for an interesting character choice. Boggle inventions, equipment and weapons are described next - these are more boggle version of specific weapons that anything particularly unique, but I did appreciate the inclusion of at least one detailed mechanical contraption in a small boggle helicopter. Products often state that creatures are mechanical tinkerers but rarely do you see great inventions mechanically expanded. There is also a brief and not too detailed section on mechanical limbs, which is easy to use and more for completeness than anything else, I imagine. There are plenty of much more detailed products on this kind of thing on the market.

The product concludes with a monster write-up of the boggle race, as well as a monster in a heavily mechanically augmented boggle construct. Some very useful advice is given on how to run the boggle in your game, and incorporate their particular, though not so unique, culture into your campaign setting. In general I've enjoyed this pdf. I don't think the racial concept or the physical description are particularly unique, but what this product does well is to provide a complete and coherent framework for the race to exist in. It's done very well on the mechanical front, tying together all aspects of the boggle race in a complete package. Remarkable Races: The Boggle (for Pathfinder) is a strong product with a well-rounded race, which, while not unique (or particularly true to most European legends), offers a good framework for fun and exciting gaming.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Remarkable Races Pathway to Adventure: The Boggle
Publisher: Alluria Publishing
by Mark G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/21/2009 23:48:40
  • September 22nd, 2009 (by Mark) [From the DM Sketchpad] The following is a review of Remarkable Races: The Boggle (Pathway to Adventure Edition) by Alluria Publishing. This 13 page PDF (10 pages of useable content) retails for $2.50 at Rpgnow right now and details the magically transformed boggle race (formerly goblins).

All of the Remarkable Races line were developed for 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons and now appear to be being converted over to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The product provides you with background on the origin of the boggles, their description, their ecology, interaction with other races and religion as one would expect from any race supplement. Unlike other books, it also details how the boggles get along with other members of Alluria’s remarkable races line. At their heart the boggles are civilized tinker goblins with short exciting lives that end in madness. The class abilities do not look overpowering and they look like an easy race to slide into a campaign.

There are seven feats which are available to boggles. For the most part these seem okay. I’m concerned with the implications of the Arcane Craft feat which allows a boggle attempt to craft magic items without the prerequisite item creation feats. If I’m reading this write this feat allows you to bypass eight craft feats for a minor complication. There is a PRC in here called “The Demolisher” that seems atypical to the ecology that was established earlier in the book. It explains the reason why this evil, midnight bomber, what bombs at midnight is included but I would have preferred a boggle artificer or boggle technomage instead.

The product closes with a couple pages of mundane equipment like boggle wrenches, turbopters, and mechanical arms. There are also base monster stats for a boggle wizard and a mechnomancer (a boggle/construct hybrid). I expect boggles to appear soon in my campaigns and I’d like to include some boggle NPCs or boggle gear here on the DM Sketchpad but there does not appear to be an OGC declaration so I don’t know if I can call them boggles or what for certain Alluria considers open content.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for the great review! We have since updated our OGL text to include OGC declaration (and other missing elements). A small oversight on our part...thanks for catching it!
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