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The Hope Preparatory School Freshman Handbook is a lovely in-game artefact and a useful reference to the workings of the school. If playing a game in this setting, the Freshman handbook will add verisimilitude to the setting or if you need a super high school to visit, take a look.
Hope Preparatory School (HPS) Freshman Handbook is a 64-page PDF (61-pages if you remove the cover, OGL pages and ad) for the Mutants & Masterminds (3rd Edition) RPG written by John Dunn and published by Melior Via, LLC. This is part of the Melior Via’s Hope Preparatory School line.
HPS Freshman Handbook has mostly a traditional column layout and is digest size and easily readable. The text is annotated by three students which adds color commentary (in actual colored text). The art is full color but limited mostly to pictures of the teachers. It is very well book-marked and you can turn off layers (including the annotation) for easy printing.
HPS Freshman Handbook is exactly that, an in game artefact for students at the HPS school, a high school that caters to superhumans. This details the history of the school and its rules, information on academics (including class schedules and teachers -all of whom are superhumans-), sports, and extracurricular options (conspiracy club!). Overall, giving a solid view of the general workings of the school from the student side of things.
A short section on game rules talks about the appropriate power levels for students and rules for how school cliques impact on social skills. Lastly, the teachers are given short stat blocks.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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#1 With A Bullet Point: 5 Abilities for Dragonhide Armor by Supergenius Games is also just what is advertised, 5 new abilities (2 of which have multiple levels of power) that are thematically appropriate for dragonhide armor: tails, wings, breath weapons and more, all reflecting the powers of dragons the armor was created from. Quite a fun idea and well executed. So, if you need more things to do with that dragonhide.
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A Cast of Characters: Town Guards by Corvus Lunaris is exactly what is says on the tin, statblocks for five guard types ranging from village guards (CR 1/3) to Royal Guards (CR 8, though listed as CR 10), along with Captains for the two most competent sorts, Elite and Royal. Some combat tactics and roleplaying suggestion, maybe even suggested bribe levels, would have helped to flesh out the guards and moved them beyond generic opponents. On a design note, I would have liked to have seen more polearms among the guards and fewer (expensive) swords, some nonlethal weapon options would have been nice too. Still, handy to have when you need a bunch of guards to impede the player characters in some way.
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Death Sentence, a Coffee Break Adventure by War Games South. A short one-page adventure with a nice full color map and an all too brief encounter. It is good enough for a short encounter, but only just. A second page could have added so much more (and an OGL). Not bad for something to use on the spur of the moment of for inspiration but War Games South should aim higher.
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Mage Noir takes the mages of World of Darkness into the America of the postwar era in the US, a period of moral grays, the era of noir. Playing to mood and tone is one of the strengths of the World of Darkness and the noir era is full of such shadows and shades. If roleplaying in such a time interests you, this product is likely worth your time.
Mage Noir is an 82-page PDF (79-pages if you remove the covers and ad) for Mage: the Awakening (and the World of Darkness in general) RPG written by David Brookshaw, Matthew McFarland, John Snead and Filamena Young and published by White Wolf Publishing.
Mage Noir is mostly double column layout, except for the fiction, and is easily readable. The art is black and white as you would expect. It has basic bookmarks but lacks an index, still as this is a shortish work that is not a great hindrance to finding things.
Now, before I go any further, I should point out that I am not a Mage: the Awakening player or GM/storyteller so I am looking at it just as a 1940s/Noir reference. Mage Noir begins with fiction, moves into an introduction that defines the setting’s theme as price of awakening and its mood as cynicism, it is noir all the way. It gives a solid list of source materials from movie to music, books to games.
The other chapters are:
The Party’s Over looks at the status of American society immediately post-WW2. It gives an overview of a nation reshaped by war and trying to find its place in the post war era, a world of rapidly changing technology where the old societal certainties were breaking down.
The Power and the Glory looks at character creation. A surprising amount of this chapter is usable in any game set in the late 40s, giving things to think about when building a character of that period. A new Legacy, the Quiescent, is also introduced along with new attainments for that path.
Nice Guys Finish Last, is tied quite deeply into the Mage setting talking how about how the various magical groups have been disrupted by the postwar world and how they are trying to adapt. While tied heavily to the setting, there are many bits and hooks that could be used for other modern fantasy stories.
Stories in the Naked City, the storyteller’s part of the book, focusing on how to bring in the themes of noir into a game. Plot and setting ideas are spread out through this section waiting to be taken up.
The Weaver-West Papers, a five-part Storyteller Adventure System piece with five pre-generated characters. This serves as an introduction to the themes of noir in practice as well as providing example characters for the period. The adventure is structured with the idea that each of the five characters gets to be in the spotlight in one of the scenes.
Concluding is an appendix containing the Lamppost Cabal. Five mages complete with full character sheets, operating out of their own nightclub. They also get their own antagonist. Lastly, a blank Mage Noir character sheet is provided.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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The Sinking: Epicenter Rising is straight forward introductory adventure that ties a group into a major happening in the Great City, but with a little work could easily be adapted for other cities. While rather structured, the adventure has a good internal logic and should provide a satisfying play experience for most groups.
The Sinking: Epicenter Rising, an adventure for 1st level characters is a 16-page PDF (11-pages if you remove the covers, ads and OGL page) for any the Pathfinder RPG written by Tim Hitchcock and published by 0one Roleplaying Games. This is Season 1 - Pilot of the Great City Campaign Serial.
Epicenter Rising has a traditional two column layout and is easily readable. The limited art is solid black and white work and four maps are included within the work.
Epicenter Rising hinges on a simple plot, the characters are hired to investigate a smuggling ring, and many ways to get the characters involved are discussed (always nice). The investigation lead to the characters visiting the sewers just in time to be trapped by an earthquake! After which the adventurers must make their way through the winding tunnels to find a way back to the surface.
While the adventure is a bit linear, it is fair for an introductory adventure and the setting is engaging, almost a classic adventure movie setting that I think many players will find fun to play through.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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Attitude is all about style and the world of media and celebrity in the Shadowrun future. It is a superb reference but it is almost all background and information, very much a flavor sourcebook while there are some new equipment and rules, it is focused on adding depth to the sixth world not rules to the game.
Attitude: Sixth World Swagger for Shadowrun written by Lars Blumenstein, Rusty Childers, David A. Hill Jr., Jason M. Hardy, Adam Large, Je D. McLane, Cynthia Celeste Miller, William Murray, Elizabeth V. Nold, Malik Toms, Filamena Young, Russell Zimmerman and published by Catalyst Game Labs.
Attitude is a style guide and more for the world of Shadowrun, but style ties into a lot of things in the future of the Sixth World it is quite wide ranging. The majority of the book is descriptive and written “in world” that is from the point of view of the characters in the setting as if they were data files on a discussion forum.
After a short introduction there is almost forty pages of information on the Runners’ scene including topics such as managing your reputation, useful contacts and much more. This section is extremely useful for both players and GM, giving a good look at how runners fit into the larger world as well as many good tricks of the trade.
Then it moves into entertainment: the Music scene, the Trid scene, and the BTL scenes giving information on the scenes, the major players there, and provides adventure ideas tied to these industries. Even if you do not want to run entertainment-based runs, it helps to flesh out the world to know more about these media work in Shadowrun.
Next it is sports, which is a mix of old and new, with a discussion of leagues and teams and, of course, cheating. Pirate Media, for the shadow side of news and performance, but a media that could be used by (and may be sympathetic to) runners. One of my favorite pieces of the pirate media section are the cult recreationists who obsessively recreate old shows and movies for various purposes. A section on working with celebrities, which can lead to unwanted fame for a runner, is mostly fiction but paints an interesting cautionary tale.
Be Your Own Boss, on being a team leader, and Diving Off The Edge, which is advice on making your own luck rounds out the advice for runners. A selection of the characters that are referenced earlier in the work is given more detail for use as NPCs.
Lastly, there are new styles, clothing and toys for runners and normal people of the future alike (and the only mechanics in the entire book). New toys almost always make players happy and GM get some fun toys for the NPCs as well.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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If you like the harpy, or have never been exactly sure how to fit them into your campaign, this product will give you the ability to place harpies in a wide range of adversarial roles: combat, social, background threat even magical danger. If these winged dangers interest you, give this product a look.
Mythic Menagerie: Kith of the Harpy Queen is a 13-page PDF (11-pages if you remove the cover and credits/OGL page) for the Pathfinder RPG written by Owen K. C. Stephens and published by Super Genius Game. This is part of Super Genius Games’ Mythic Menagerie line.
The layout is traditional 2-columns design after the introduction, conforming to the standard bestiary format. The cover is full color with of the creatures and magic items having its own black and white illustration.
After a one page introduction, it moves directly to the six new harpy kin, ranging from the socially focused (the glory harpy), to magical empowered (storm harpy), disease bearing (pestilence harpy) and a variety of those combat skilled (cave harpy, Pazuzu’s chosen, and piasa), with CR from 2 to 14. A good variety of options for many types of encounters, each type of harpy has its own variant on the harpy’s song (except for the glory harpy).
Five harpy-associated magic items, including the nasty feathered dagger and the sweetest perfume, six feats usable by harpies or similar creatures, and five new spells playing on the nature of the harpy.
All in all, if you have thought of using harpies in your campaign this product will give you tools to make adventures dealing with them much more interesting.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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Vor-Laran is an interesting city, systemless and open to be adapted for any fantasy world, it does have its own character. If you have need for a city, or ideas for a city, this inexpensive product is a good resource.
Vor-Laran is an 18-page PDF systemless city resource for any fantasy RPG written by Bryan F Irving and published by Gethsemane Games.
After the introduction page Vor-Laran has a standard two column layout and is clearly readable. There is a full color map of the town at the beginning with a single piece of black and white art. There are a couple of typos in the book but nothing major.
Vor-Laran begins with a short introduction to the original setting used for the city and what some of the terminology used in the description means in that context (along with telling you to change what you need if that suits your campaign better).
It is a major city on the southern edge of a great empire, wealthy through trade and ancient status. Twenty-seven points of interest, including palace, markets, theater and college, in the city. Many of the locations come with an associated NPC. Additional information on the sewer and water system is provided (both of which are subjects that are often overlooked).
Six adventure ideas, each at least two paragraphs long, conclude the product.
It is an interesting setting, the empire is portrayed as fairly modern and progressive -at least in comparison to what proceeded it- while still having its dark sides and problems. But it can easily serve as a basis or inspiration for a city (or cities) in a campaign.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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Runner’s Toolkit contains a considerable number of useful tools for any Shadowrun GM. Especially for a new GM the toolkit is an excellent addition to their arsenal of tools and for any Shadowrun GM it has a considerable amount of useful information and things to make Gming easier. My only concern is the price, as it contains much less than the physical box set it is based on, it would be nice if its cost as a PDF reflected that as well.
The Runner’s Toolkit for Shadowrun written by a cast of thousands and published by Catalyst Game Labs.
The Runner’s Toolkit consists of several parts (each its own PDF):
Anatomy of a Shadowrun, a 30-page guide to a shadowrun told in fiction and then the same told in game terms, complete with the rolls used and page references for the skills used. This is a useful example for new players and GMs (and reminder for experienced ones) of how things can play out during a run.
12 Full Color Cheat Sheets for the major actions of the game (magic, combat, hacking and even character creation) including the stats and skills used, page references and a walkthrough of the sequence of the event. These are extremely helpful for those new to the system. Though a printer friendly version of these would have been appreciated.
47 pages of compiled tables from Arsenal, Augmentation, Street Magic and Unwired (plus the main book) everything gathered and organized in one place with page references for which book the full item listing is in for easy detail lookup.
Contacts - Adventures - Sprawl Sites, which contain what it says: A wide variety of contacts, from club owner to snitch, taxi driver to bodyguard, all useful and as they are statted out you can use them for instant NPCs. Adventures, which include a set of nice adventure frames and a random adventure generation. Sprawl Sites, four well detailed maps for potential runs. These should be excellent resources for any campaign.
Pre-generated Auxiliary Character Kit System (PACKS) is an alternate character creation system using modular packs to quickly assemble characters. This provides a useful set of tools for rapidly constructing both player characters and NPCs.
On the Run, a complete adventure aimed specifically for new players and GM. It is a solid introduction to the world of Shadowrun with ancient tech, rockers, magic, gangs, and betrayal all playing a role in the adventure. It is designed to be easy to run for a new GM with advice and page numbers for the rules/situations encountered.
Everything is well put together and useful for a GM and most will find them quite useful to have to hand when running a game. I know I have.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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Opponents Unlimited is a collection of supervillains, lone villains and groups, most of which are very offbeat or even outright zany. For colorful and unusual characters, it is worth a look.
Opponents Unlimited is a 33-page PDF (31-pages after you remove the covers) for the Villains & Vigilantes RPG written by Stephen Jones and published by Fantasy Games Unlimited. This is a scan of the original physical book, while a clean scan it makes the product a large file and unsearchable, both of which are inconvenient.
Opponents Unlimited has mostly a traditional two column layout. Each character has a black and white illustration (done by Jeff Dee one of the co-creators of V&V), there are several interior maps and two sheets of full color counters.
Opponents Unlimited is a collection of supervillains (and more) for V&V. It starts with a table of 24 encounters, paragraph long adventure seeds, and statistics for the Prankster (a trickster hero) and rouge robots and komodo dragons which show up in some of the other encounters.
Next are seven solo villains (well, one is neither hero nor villain) several of which, including an organ-legger and an alien cyborg who intend to kidnap children to use as raw material for future cyborg, could be quite dark but others which are rather light hearted.
The organizations continue the light-hearted theme with:
*B.A.D. (the Brotherhood of Amoral Dudes) lead by Auntie Phil and containing such members as Cosmic Zoom (a size-shifter with a sword) and Swarmmaster.
*The Amazing Floop Brothers, a family team of supervillains.
*V.I.L.E. (Villains In Larcenous Enterprise) who are a little more serious but only a little.
Each of these three include a mapped HQ.
There is also the Tarot Master, three Tarot Card-themed supervillains backed a group of suit-themed agents.
Each of the characters is given a fairly short description but enough to build from and often implies scenario ideas. But it is a product from the early days of RPGs and shows that to some extent. The characters are all a bit strange, as the random nature of character generation for V&V shows through, but it should be easy enough to convert them to another system.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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People’s Revolution is a resource for Golden Age / World War II superheroic roleplaying giving the GM access to the Soviet Superteam for use as troublesome allies during WW2 or as rivals and enemies for Silver Age games. It is a solid resource for two eras (or more) of superheroic campaigns.
Amazing Stories of World War II: People’s Revolution is a 18-page PDF (15-pages after you remove the cover and OGL pages) for the Mutants & Masterminds (3rd Edition) RPG written by Mike Lafferty and Leon Chang and published by RPGObjects. This is issue 5 of RPGObjects’ Amazing Stories of World War II line.
People’s Revolution has mostly a traditional two columns layout and is fairly easily readable. The art is full color cover and all of the character get their own illustration (Red Hammer, the team leader, gets two) but only the cover is exceptional.
People’s Revolution is Soviet Russia’s Superteam that operated during the Second World War (in an alternate Amazing Stories universe) but many would be suitable for games set during the Cold War. It is given a brief introduction and then moves onto the nine members of the group who range from PL 10 to 12 (though their PLs are not noted and are inferred).
The characters are an interesting mix, a few mutants, a werewolf, an alien, an ape-human hybrid and others. They are all given solid backgrounds and personalities, though there are a few typos in the character write up, which could be a little better organized for readability. What happened to most of them after the war is noted in their description which is useful for silver age (or later) campaigns.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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Verne is a useful resource for anyone planning a steampunk or Victorian inspired game, especially if you are using the EABA system, but much of the information is just information on the era. It provides a solid framework for Victorian adventuring and worth taking a look at if you are thinking of a campaign in that era.
Verne v 1.0 “not your grandfather’s steampunk . . .” is a 218-page PDF (215-pages if you remove the cover and EABA OGL pages) for the EABA RPG written by Greg Porter and published by BTRC (Blackburn Tactical Research Center). It is nicely book-marked for easy accessibility.
Verne has mostly a traditional two column layout and is easily readable, though it is a very contemporary layout and font which I found slightly distracting considering the subject. The art is mix of black and white and color including many period pieces.
Verne is primarily a sourcebook for a fantastic Victorian era, providing information and tools to run anything from glittering high adventure to darker stories. It is a toolkit providing information on the period, containing good introduction to the politics of 1869 (the default starting point of Verne), conflicts, law and order and much more -nearly 40 pages worth- neatly divided by nation and ending with a timeline that runs from 1800 to 1906. This is useful for anyone thinking of running a Victorian-era game giving a good basic overview of the period and its structure.
It has an extensive technology section (incorporating information from the EABA Stuff supplement) for mad steampunk, clockwork, vril and Martian technology and more. Including designs for cavorite flyer, coal powered battle suits Martian tripods and other such wonderful and weird technology. The statistics are for the EABA systems but adaption should be possible with a little work.
The character creation section is, naturally, for the EABA systems but has useful advice -such as national and religious stereotypes- for creating Victorian characters and includes an interesting discussion of status in the period. Seven example characters, all drawn from Victorian fantastic literature, are included. This is followed by a selection of organizations and non-player character for the Great Game of rivalries between various occult and weird science groups.
Lastly there is campaign advice using historical expeditions for inspiration. Six adventures are presented, ranging from Java to the frozen vastness of Siberia. A collection of brief character sketches, some fictional some historical and recommended sources: books, comics, movies and shows that are good inspiration for the genre.
Lastly, a selection of equipment, of the more normal sort, is provided including short description of things such as the difference between the various horse drawn conveyances (surprisingly useful for this era).
There is also a free character creator program available to aid in character design.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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Kingmaker is a useful and well-built adventure to start a group with as it is full of options and opportunities in play, not restricting a new group to any forced path. It should serve as solid building block for a new campaign and contains a great deal of play in a small package.
Kingmaker: for 2-8 1st level characters is an 18-page PDF (15-pages if you remove the covers and OGL page) for any Retroclone RPG (such as OSRIC or Labyrinth Lord) written by Eric Jones and published by Ludibrium Games. This is volume 1 of Ludibrium Games’ Sessions line.
Kingmaker has mostly a traditional two column layout and is easily readable. The art is black and white and nicely evocative. A page of tokens for all of the characters that appear in the module (along with blank one for the player characters) is included.
Kingmaker hinges on a simple plot but provides a wide field of options, the characters are hired as caravan guards and are drawn into the events. A roster of interesting NPCs to interact with along with a set of scheduled (to the GM’s pace) and triggered events allow for this module to play out in a wide variety of ways depending on the choices of the players and the luck of the dice.
Beyond the adventure itself, there is a brief discussion on how it resolves will affect the campaign world. Appendices contains eight pre-generated characters, a new monster, magic item and spell.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.
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The Enemies of the Empire are surprisingly numerous and the reference to them is nearly indispensable for any Legends of the Five Rings campaign that is not focused purely on courtly machinations (and there are even useful resources for that as well). It provides a wealth of information and along useful new game mechanics and character options.
Enemies of the Empire, a sourcebook for the Legends of the Five Rings RPG (3rd edition) is a 290-page PDF (288 pages if you remove the covers), written by Shawn Carman, Robert Hobart,
Brian Yoon; Kevin Blake, Mikael Brodu, Patrick Duke, Dave Laderoute, Maxime Lemaire,
Jacob Ross, Ray Rupp, Rich Wulf, and Ryan Reese and published by AEG.
The layout is a straightforward design taken directly from the print version of the book, with a 2-column layout (and occasional one column commentary). As is expected from AEG, Enemies of the Empire is lavishly illustrated with full color art throughout. The table of contents is complete and there is an index as well, so finding what you are looking for should be easy the PDF book-marking is useful as well if not always intuitive.
After an opening piece of fiction, it moves onto a page of advice on gauging the threat, which is always a challenge especially in a system as deadly as Legends of the Five Rings can be. The actual enemies list begins with animals, expanding the choices considerably for natural creatures. Some of the animals can be useful for the characters and not just obstacles.
There are human enemies: the vile Bloodspeakers, detailing their history, organization and provides additional tricks and magic for them as well as some of the most notable (and powerful) bloodspeakers. The sinister Kolat conspiracy, its machinations, plans, example agents of all tiers and new advantages, disadvantages and schools. The Lost, humans who have fallen to the taint of the Shadowlands and often gained great power but at a terrible price, they have new schools, new Shadowlands powers and examples of some of the more well known of the Lost. And the Ronin, who are given a plethora of new paths and the bands who teach them as well as three ronin shugenja schools (something lacking in the core rules). All of which provide new options for player characters as well as providing a wealth of villains for the GM. The new ronin bands, paths, and shugenja schools are especially welcome and make the option of playing a ronin much more feasible within the system.
Rokugan is also home to a variety of non-human cultures: The Naga, snake-people who are joined in a shared spiritual link. The Nezumi, ratfolk who know the secret magic of names. Both of which could, in the right campaign, be used as player characters. Spirits and shapechangers from the other realms and the other ancient races of Rokugan: the Kenku, Kitsu, Ningyo, Trolls, Zokujin and the Tsuno -corrupted Kitsu- are further detailed as well (though not available for players).
True evil is not neglected: The ninja and other servants of the Nothing, which seeks to unravel reality are detailed. The mighty Oni, direct manifestations of evil -complete with tools for making your own oni- and other creatures of the Shadowlands (along with advice on using the Shaodwlands in adventures). Completing the options for evil there are the Undead which is combined with advice for running horror in the Rokugan setting.
The work concludes with an appendix featuring a set of random encounter tables.
Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review. Also, I am friends with several of the authors, but I hope that has not shaded my opinion of the product.
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![[PFRPG] Mythic Menagerie: Kith of the Harpy Queen](images/97/89225-thumb100.jpg)
