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Conjuring up a typical mediaeval city layout, here's an entire township to explore. Whilst it is given a reasonable background should you wish to use it, the actual maps are left unlabelled - save for generic indications as to possible use for each building - so if preferred you can drop it somewhere suitable in an existing campaign world. It does need to be built around a river mouth, fairly flat with forests and fields beyond the city walls, otherwise it can go most anywhere.
The suggested name for the place is Gorglis and it is supposed to be quite a haven for thieves and other urban rogues. Cramped twisty streets, houses and businesses jumbled up together, and more open areas where the rich have their palaces, courtyards with wells or fountains and more set the scene for a teeming environment where both rogues and more honest entrepreneurs can thrive. Divided into 'quarters' - distinctive areas rather than actual geometric ones - there are shipyards and other nautical establishments near the sea and on the river banks as well as areas for rich and poor to dwell. Various temples are scattered throughout, as are a wide variety of businesses (although I'm a little concerned at the juxtaposition of an undertaker's shop and a butcher!). Livestock markets (complete with stockyards), even a menagerie and theatres... and a Doge's Palace for whoever's in charge.
If you are installing the entire city 'as is' there are several essays describing the governance, buildings, docks, trade and more so you can plonk the city down and run it with little effort. There are even lists of inhabitants (mostly described by trade rather than named) that you can use to detail who is around for your characters to meet on the streets or in their homes and places of work. As a bonus, there's a collection of street names which you can apply to the city streets, which have been left unnamed.
This is a comprehensive mediaeval-style city in copious detail that should prove a joy to visit or run urban adventures through the streets.
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Elves... a standard fantasy race, those pointy ears are found everywhere - I've played enough of them. But here's a new twist or two, a few ideas for elves as other than flower-bestrewn, nature loving, musical and magical folks.
Variant races, or at least distinctive communities who may or may not be an actual different sub-race (we'll let the geneticists decide!). There's the necroms, who have become obsessed with longevity to the exclusion of everything else - including good taste, never mind ethics, to many people's opinions... although they rarely care what other people think of them anyway. Given their tendency to play it safe and avoid taking risks (well, in person, anyway), they might make an interesting NPC colony, although full details are provided should anyone want to play one.
Then there's the twistborn: elven shapeshifters who have become specialist spies and infiltrators. In their 'natural' form they are nowhere near as good-looking as most elves. They cannot interbreed with other races, being fertile only with elves and other twistborn, and are generally found in their target community or back with the elves. They generally become adventurers either when sent on a mission or for purely selfish reasons; and are often found doing their best to fit in and make themselves useful to the party they've joined. Definitely some potential there!
Several feats suitable for elves (any sort, not just necrons and twistborn) are presented, interesting ones include craftsmanship, enhanced lowlight vision (called moon runner), and ones involving their close bonds with nature and utilising their longevity to give them increased knowledge of lore... some nice stuff here.
If you are using Flaws - as introduced in Player's Options: Flaws - there are some elf-specific ones making good use of the stereotypes of elves: arrogant, disdain, laziness and even a sweet tooth! Finally there are notes on elven armour, equipment and item qualities to help you bring a slight air of otherness to the things that they make.
An interesting little collection, particularly if you enjoy the little quirks that make each race (or even sub-race) distinctive and different from each other.
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"I don't eat people... eating people is wrong!"
You and I might echo that thought along with Flanders and Swann, but the focus of this issue - Gabrar Kin-Eater - has no such scruples, he actually likes sentient flesh. Human or elf for a feast, halflings and dwarves for afters, but orc (his own race) for day-to-day dining.
With evocative fiction and a comprehensive backstory, this obnoxious fellow comes to vivid life. Rooted in a primitive area of a standard fantasy setting, a neat twist links the whole thing into near-future or starfaring genres as well, with suitable plot-hooks based on whichever sort of game you are playing.
Thoroughly detailed and well-presented, this is a good resource with ideas that can be mined to bring a touch of horror to just about any game, even if you have to do some work to bring stats in line with your chosen ruleset.
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Should you ever have a shore-based adventure, you may find this beautiful lighthouse and dock of use... or if you're like me, you may start having plot ideas just looking at it!
It's quite simple: a short stretch of shore-line with a five-level lighthouse and a jetty beside it. It is however beautifully-drawn and comes in a selection of useful forms including multiple sheets to print and stick together, individual pages for each level of the lighthouse and a massive spread for those using virtual table tops. These are supplied in PDF and JPEG format, with greyscale and colour versions with and without a grid: pick what you want and have at it.
The lighthouse has plenty of scope for adventure. Each level is well-detailed, with living space shown from a ground floor bedroom to sitting areas and storage further up - and a cosy chair for the lighthouse-keeper high up where he can get a good view, not to mention the light itself at the top and what must be the mechanism to make it rotate running down the middle of the tower.
Unusual, perhaps, and you may not have much of a reason to visit (except the excellent one of having a nice map!) but there must be lighthouses dotted around the coasts of your campaign world - unless there are a lot of shipwrecks - so I'm sure it will come in useful.
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Here is a collection of fully-developed NPCs to populate your world. There are two druids, two monks and two fighters, each presented at 1st, 5th and 10th level so hopefully they can fit in with your adventurers - as allies, adversaries, competitors, patrons.... whatever it is you happen to need a full-blown NPC of one of these classes for, but don't have time to create them for yourself.
Each NPC is presented in the same way. First there's his backstory, which tells you a bit about him, what he is like and how he behaves. Then come the traits selected for him (if you use the traits system from the Advanced Players' Guide, if you do not they are split out here so that they are easy to leave out!) and a note 'On Porphyra' - this is a campaign world being developed by 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming and Purple Duck Games, and again can be left out if you are not using it, as it generally ties the NPC to specific locations or events there.
Next comes complete stat blocks for that character at each of 1st, 5th and 10th level. Finally there's a head and shoulders sketch. The sketches are surrounded by text and the character notes are split over several pages and not separated so if you want to show the sketch to your players or just carry the details you need rather than the whole product to your game, you will have to do some selective printing and editing.
They are interesting well-rounded characters with a variety of races and backgrounds and tending to good or at least neutral alignments - no out-and-out villains here, although their interests could easily run contrary to those of the player-characters... often a much more interesting conflict as it can end up based on matters of opinion rather than stark right or wrong.
Useful to have around, against the need of appropriate characters when you don't have the time or inclination to create your own.
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Poking around deserted ancient dwarf complexes is standard dungeon crawl fare... but this one has a fascinating twist to it that ought to make players sit up and take notice.
The backstory presents the familiar ancient dwarf community amassing fabulous wealth, coming to grief when attacked and leaving mysterious remains behind... but these dwarves had invented the magical equivalent of the subway or underground railway, the remains of which survive to baffle present-day (in the campaign world) adventurers who stumble across it.
The means of ingress are pyramidal stele that dot the landscape and are, unbeknownst to all, ventilation shafts leading to the depths below. A few reasons, from mere curiosity to small creatures falling down them, are given for the characters to explore in the first place but once they do there is a well-detailed and fantastical world, copiously supplied with monsters (just because the dwarves are long gone doesn't mean the place is deserted) and quite a few treasures to loot... and the dwarves' patron deity is taking an interest.
Perhaps a short excursion or the gateway to more extensive underground adventures, this is a thoroughly entertaining 'crawl.
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The Dragonblood are a new race - even if it's a long-standing concept - which exists in Purple Duck's campaign world of The Land of Porphyra... and should you wish to play one, you will find everything that you need here.
We begin with a short piece of fiction that sets the scene of an individual almost haunted by an otherness, something that marks him out from everyone else; and as we read further we learn just how unusual dragonborn are. It is a little unclear just how they arise, although they apparently display traces of a draconic ancestor - just how that happened is a matter for genealogists, geneticists or the gossip columns! Be that as it may, dragonborn are found amongst humans and elves, occasionally half-orcs and very rarely in dwarf or halfling communities.
On to specifics: they tend to be tougher and more striking than other sentient beings, but maybe a bit headstrong as shown by the ability modifiers. Otherwise they vary little from the norm except for an affinity for magic, a naturally tough hide (which may show signs of scales) and the ability to withstand poisons. It's not clear if the dragonblood modifiers are to be applied 'cold' or if you first apply those of the racial stock that your dragonblood comes from and then apply the dragonblood ones. They tend to be imposing individuals, taller than the norm for their race with sharp features, distinctive eyes and large canine teeth - the sort of person who turns heads when they pass by.
Socially, they are often outcast or at least regarded askance. For a start, they are pretty uncommon - many folk haven't even heard of them - and sometimes they are mistaken for other hostile reptilian species. Even those who know what they are can be wary of them, never quite sure where their allegiances lie or what their powers might be. Racial traits and characteristics, and a selection of feats, follow, while the notes on attitudes and how they cope as members of and in dealings with the various classes give plenty of food for thought as to how to make them different - indeed, several plot ideas spawn for things that might happen to a dragonblooded should he come into my game!
An interesting race, a potent and fascinating concept, worth considering if you want something that little bit different - but, as always, work with your GM to ensure that a dragonblooded has a place in his game.
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No plan ever survives contact with the enemy, nor do a GM's careful plots survive in original form for long once the player-characters arrive. So here's a neat thing to have tucked away in your files to provide some entertainment whilst you try to get your plot back on the rails.
The Painted Man is a bar. The small hole-in-the-wall sort that generally you either know about or you don't, despite the sign it doesn't really survive on passing trade. Whilst it has a sort of contemporary feel to it, little modification is needed to twist and reskin it for use anywhere from your favourite fantasy campaign world to some planet or orbital facility in the far future.
It comes as just 2 pages (or print double-sided to have but one sheet in your file). One side contains what the characters can see or find out about the place, and the other has further information and ideas for using it for the GM to muse over. Thumb-nail sketches of the main characters and typical events and rumours are all there ready for you to use. There's even a random table to cover the characters' likely relationship with the place, cunningly written around the margin to save space.
What is there to say? It's the sort of thing that you may think you don't need... until the night it saves your life, or at least your game, when characters refuse to follow all those neat clues and plot hooks and demand to go for a drink! A useful resource that will let you appear to fly by the seat of your pants without effort...
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks for the great review! |
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Since when were the undead anything other than gruesome?
That's as maybe, but when it comes to fantasy role-playing, they are pretty standard fare... so here's a handy little resource to spice up those undead, provide extra horrific twists and generally catch out those characters who think they've seen it all before - never mind their players!
The introduction contains a wealth of advice on how to utilise these templates to best effect, both in terms of plot and through game mechanics. The concept of 'shock value' is introduced, a mechanic to model the fact that undead so treated are going to be far more disturbing on a first encounter than run-of-the-mill undead, characters who fail a save are shaken by what they have just seen. The templates are designed to confer both extra abilities and weaknesses on the undead, with an aim to making them more memorable, and knowledge checks can be made to attempt to find out more about them.
The templates themselves are indeed suitably gruesome - such as the carrier (who still carries traces of the disease that carried them off, or who may even have a disease that actually affect undead) or the flayed (who have no skin - it doesn't bear contemplating how they ended up in that condition)... and there are others too, equally unpleasant to meet.
This is a resource that should provide hours of entertainment, for GMs at least, and is well worth adding to your collection.
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If you are a mother of a certain age (or for that matter, grew up in the past 16 years or so), you may have fond memories of a children's book called The Very Hungry Caterpillar...
... well, just imagine the same gentle yet vivid charm, and add a few tentacles!
Visually beautiful, a real treat to look at, this looks at old tentacle-face from a completely different angle. Whilst you may prefer not to introduce young children to the Mythos quite so early, imagine what children's books might be like were it real and commonplace within the world - and you'd probably have something like this.
It's just a delight, and something that looks good on my screen with the almost hidden sub-text of being Mythos-related to raise a secret smile!
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Idealism and government rarely mix - and this is just as true for teams of superheroes as in more mundane matters! The Second Chance Squad was formed for all the right reasons - people with exceptional capabilities brought together by a visionary leader to put those skills to good use - and naturally tensions arise between what they think they ought to be doing and government policy and directions.
The group is designed along the familiar lines of one formed of people with specific abilities and used to deal with specific problems. With talents as varied as fast driving and flying, archaeology, physics and a talking gorilla one challenge is going to be coming up with appropriate challenges for them. Still one use for the group as a whole is to use them as government troubleshooters, possibly sticking their noses in when your party really doesn't want the government looking over their shoulders!
Each member of the group is given a full write-up including stat block, background and 'adventure seeds' for use if you want to introduce them into your game as individuals rather than a team. Of course, that doesn't preclude the rest of the team turning up later once your characters have got embroiled with one individual member... in fact, that could prove most effective particularly given their government involvement.
Alternatively, if you enjoy the conflict between governmental and idealistic aims and the use of skilled yet diverse teams, you might wish to consider using them as player-characters and make them the focus of your adventures as they pick their way through ethical issues as well as the challenges you provide for them in terms of villains to combat and mysterious events to figure out. That could be fun too...
A neat group worth a look.
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The Watchful Gaze are an eclectic bunch, mostly Native American, with a mystical bent who enjoy solving mysteries - especially those involving the supernatural. Each individual within the group is detailed fully, as is the group itself, making it a nice coherent unit to incorporate into your game... perhaps as allies or chance encounters if your characters are investigating the sort of mystery that the Watchful Gaze takes an interest in; or you may even wish to play them... they could be quite entertaining as characters.
If you prefer, individual characters might turn up - and 'adventure seeds' are provided for each one separately to facilitate this. There aren't any seeds for the group as a whole although as they are the sort of folks who, whilst not well-provided with resources themselves, know lots of people and are known by them, so when appropriate you might choose to have one of your party's contacts mention them as folks worth talking to...
The group as a whole are well-developed and have a certain charm, an interesting variation on more commonplace superhero concepts. If you fancy a bit of the mystical entering your game, particularly shamanic traditions or shapeshifters, these are worth a look.
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This is a very neat resource, empowering fantasy GMs to let players see what their characters do.
It's very simple. For each location there is a page with a sketch map, an elevation view and space for the GMs notes. This is followed by full-page versions of the sketch map and side elevation, both of which are done in 'freehand pen and ink' style. The GM can chose to display either or both as appropriate to supplement a verbal description or just saying "This is what you see" and letting the players draw their own conclusions.
This volume contains various lairs likely to be used by monsters or other creatures probably encountered in the wilderness areas of your campaign world. It's up to you to decide who lives there now... not to mention who originally constructed the lair and any other details you wish to throw in.
The suggested uses are an ankheg’s tunnels, a barghest’s den, an ettercaps’ nest, a ghouls’ tomb, a gnolls’ pit, a goblins’ watchtower, a hag’s hut, an ogre’s lair, a kobolds’ camp, and a koa-toas’ ziggurat; but as there is no labelling whatsoever it's open to you to put them to different uses if that suits your purposes better.
A neat resource to have to hand should you have need of this type of location.
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Thought-provoking magical theory worthy of the halls of any university...
This work begs the very question gnawing at the underpinnings of magic: is there really any difference between the spell-casting of a arcanist and a divine caster? OK. They get their magic from different sources, study in different ways, access different spell lists... but do they have to? The spells described here mix and match ideas from the divine and the arcane, and many are accessible to practitioners of the Art from both sides.
They need careful consideration - by both GM and player, and the character too - both before deciding whether to have such spells at all, whether to learn them and when (and how) to use them to greatest effect, but if your character aspires to be more than a by-the-book caster of magic, it is worth taking a look and seeing if they will suit what you are trying to do. They're not for everyone, some are subtle and maybe lack the 'flash-bang' of more mainstream spells, others do things in a decidedly odd way or are longer and harder ways of accomplishing something you may be able to just about do with more conventional spells.
A word on presentation: the cover's wonderful, but the inside has text presented on a too-dark background compounded by ghosted images that are too powerful - not easy to read. It is worth the peering, however. The odd mistake has sneaked past the proof-reader: 'effect' used when 'affect' was what was intended and "cleric splashed wizard" which I think was supposed to be "cleric/wizard" referring to a multiclassed character but which summons up some truly bizarre images...
But it conjures up interesting ideas, the sort of thing that might be discussed in the faculty lounge at the local College of Magic or even better at a university that trains both mages and clerics....
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A charming collection of sketches and comments summing up a few - well, 52 - things that can make us feel happy. Print them out, pin them up, enjoy - try some of them out. I'd be surprised if none strike a chord, make you smile, maybe even inspire you to take a walk or a risk, enjoy birdsong or sunset, say 'Thank you' to whatever deity you revere or just to 'nature' in general...
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![Class Expansions: Achievement Unlocked! [PFRPG]](images/3827/115758-thumb80.jpg)
![[PFRPG] Player's Options: Elves](images/2680/113657-thumb100.jpg)
![[PFRPG] GM's Options: NPCs 2: Druids, Fighters, and Monks](images/2680/113127-thumb100.jpg)
![Fehr's Ethnology: Dragonblood [PFRPG]](images/3367/103255-thumb100.jpg)
![[M&M] Deus ex Historica: The Second Chance Squad](images/2680/115550-thumb100.jpg)
![[M&M] Deus ex Historica: The Watchful Gaze](images/2680/115551-thumb100.jpg)
