paizo.com Recent Reviews by Caracarnpaizo.com Recent Reviews by Caracarn2023-05-16T11:56:18Z2023-05-16T11:56:18ZThe Sinister Secrets of Silvermote Adventure (PFRPG) PDF: Delightul Fantasy Horror Crawl With Plenty of Extras (5 stars)Caracarnhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy9b1a?The-Sinister-Secrets-of-Silvermote-Adventure2011-12-18T00:38:32Z<p><b>The Sinister Secrets of Silvermote Adventure (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>I’ve been playing role-playing games for over twenty years. In that time, the height of my “boxed adventure” experience was in the golden age of TSR – before WOTC. Adventures were written to inspire, and the inspiration that created in the GM then got passed on to the players. While it was not often that I used the descriptive texts verbatim, there were areas where that writing (particularly with puzzles) was key to ratcheting up the tension, and giving my players a sense of achievement (or horror, in the case of failure). Time changed the quality and methodology of the publications, as well as the overall intent – the formatting even became less immersive, with a lot of indexes, appendices, and poorly organized clutter.</p>
<p>TPK has re-set the bar with Silvermote – this is golden-age level caliber content all over again. The quality of the work, both artistically, and mechanically, speaks volumes about the effort and thoughtfulness that TPK put into developing this adventure. Even the “filler” encounters are smart, and the balance between dark fantasy horror, and a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl/kill the monster module is expertly executed. There is some great artwork, along with the maps, which really help in providing inspiration for GM’s who may be struggling in finding the correct adjectives to set the mood.
<br />
The ”recommended” ECL of 8-12 is certainly well suited for the printed matter. You could easily beef up some encounters and enemies, and still have challenge for players a bit higher even. Bump down a few particularly challenging items, and you have a tough slug, but a doable one (maybe with a hefty NPC or a cache of disposable magic items) for those even below the low end of the recommended. There are some particularly nasty traps, and a wide variety of encounters throughout Temerlyth’s lair.</p>
<p>Regardless of the party you bring, Silvermote will hook your players – possibly in a vital place… There is a lot in this supplement – healthy plot, a good peppering of NPC’s, some fantastic mapwork, and a great means of scaling the adventure and encounters as needed. As with Temerlyth the Undying’s supplement, this is all provided in a fairly neutral setting, which can be dropped into your existing campaign, or, if you like, form the foundation of a new campaign setting. </p>
<p>There are some really interesting new magic items and magical arms/armor powers, as well as an entire mechanic for creating magical libraries! This mechanic alone is worth the price of purchase, and you get a whole well-crafted adventure for free!</p>
<p>My only issue with the product was the variation in link depth, through the breadth of the PDF. Despite this inconsistency, I think that the fact the adventure _is_ linked (with reference materials going to d20pfsrd) is brilliant, making for a quick double-check when planning, or a fast end to player questions while running. I’m sure as TPK continues to grow in their finesse, issues like this will even out with experience.</p><p><b>The Sinister Secrets of Silvermote Adventure (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>I’ve been playing role-playing games for over twenty years. In that time, the height of my “boxed adventure” experience was in the golden age of TSR – before WOTC. Adventures were written to inspire, and the inspiration that created in the GM then got passed on to the players. While it was not often that I used the descriptive texts verbatim, there were areas where that writing (particularly with puzzles) was key to ratcheting up the tension, and giving my players a sense of achievement (or horror, in the case of failure). Time changed the quality and methodology of the publications, as well as the overall intent – the formatting even became less immersive, with a lot of indexes, appendices, and poorly organized clutter.</p>
<p>TPK has re-set the bar with Silvermote – this is golden-age level caliber content all over again. The quality of the work, both artistically, and mechanically, speaks volumes about the effort and thoughtfulness that TPK put into developing this adventure. Even the “filler” encounters are smart, and the balance between dark fantasy horror, and a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl/kill the monster module is expertly executed. There is some great artwork, along with the maps, which really help in providing inspiration for GM’s who may be struggling in finding the correct adjectives to set the mood.
<br />
The ”recommended” ECL of 8-12 is certainly well suited for the printed matter. You could easily beef up some encounters and enemies, and still have challenge for players a bit higher even. Bump down a few particularly challenging items, and you have a tough slug, but a doable one (maybe with a hefty NPC or a cache of disposable magic items) for those even below the low end of the recommended. There are some particularly nasty traps, and a wide variety of encounters throughout Temerlyth’s lair.</p>
<p>Regardless of the party you bring, Silvermote will hook your players – possibly in a vital place… There is a lot in this supplement – healthy plot, a good peppering of NPC’s, some fantastic mapwork, and a great means of scaling the adventure and encounters as needed. As with Temerlyth the Undying’s supplement, this is all provided in a fairly neutral setting, which can be dropped into your existing campaign, or, if you like, form the foundation of a new campaign setting. </p>
<p>There are some really interesting new magic items and magical arms/armor powers, as well as an entire mechanic for creating magical libraries! This mechanic alone is worth the price of purchase, and you get a whole well-crafted adventure for free!</p>
<p>My only issue with the product was the variation in link depth, through the breadth of the PDF. Despite this inconsistency, I think that the fact the adventure _is_ linked (with reference materials going to d20pfsrd) is brilliant, making for a quick double-check when planning, or a fast end to player questions while running. I’m sure as TPK continues to grow in their finesse, issues like this will even out with experience.</p>Caracarn2011-12-18T00:38:32ZInfamous Adversaries: Temerlyth the Undying (PFRPG) PDF: Great Villain with Barbed with Many Hooks (4 stars)Caracarnhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8pf7?Infamous-Adversaries-Temerlyth-the-Undying2011-11-06T00:29:17Z<p><b>Infamous Adversaries: Temerlyth the Undying (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>As Enemies and Adversaries go, there are random generators, source-books aplenty, and stat blocks all over the internet. What all of these solutions lack, however, is what TPK Games has offered here with splendid thoroughness.</p>
<p>Everyone loves (to hate) a lich. Temerlyth, however, is no simple lich to be drag-dropped into some dusty crypt or abandoned library. TPK provides a through and thoughtful history, as well as a slew of other monstrous companions/contextual offerings, which leaves the GM looking for an arch-villain with many options as to how to blend him into an existing campaign, or build a campaign around him!</p>
<p>In addition to this interesting cadre of hooks and backgrounds, it turns out that this fifteen-page dossier on Temerlyth and his usual partners (and hated enemies - lycanthropes) is the prelude to a full-blown adventure module starring the cast and crew described within this supplement! Reading through this writeup (nicely illustrated, and well-written, without drawing you into too many specific lock-ins), I immediately thought of no less than a half-dozen uses for Temerlyth, in addition to his lightly-referenced lair, and a new spell he created!</p>
<p>My only regret (and why this is four stars instead of five) is that not much is said about Temerlyth’s phylactery - when it comes to liches, I feel this is a key element, and one which would have added yet another facet to an otherwise well-crafted and delightfully devious undead enemy!</p><p><b>Infamous Adversaries: Temerlyth the Undying (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>As Enemies and Adversaries go, there are random generators, source-books aplenty, and stat blocks all over the internet. What all of these solutions lack, however, is what TPK Games has offered here with splendid thoroughness.</p>
<p>Everyone loves (to hate) a lich. Temerlyth, however, is no simple lich to be drag-dropped into some dusty crypt or abandoned library. TPK provides a through and thoughtful history, as well as a slew of other monstrous companions/contextual offerings, which leaves the GM looking for an arch-villain with many options as to how to blend him into an existing campaign, or build a campaign around him!</p>
<p>In addition to this interesting cadre of hooks and backgrounds, it turns out that this fifteen-page dossier on Temerlyth and his usual partners (and hated enemies - lycanthropes) is the prelude to a full-blown adventure module starring the cast and crew described within this supplement! Reading through this writeup (nicely illustrated, and well-written, without drawing you into too many specific lock-ins), I immediately thought of no less than a half-dozen uses for Temerlyth, in addition to his lightly-referenced lair, and a new spell he created!</p>
<p>My only regret (and why this is four stars instead of five) is that not much is said about Temerlyth’s phylactery - when it comes to liches, I feel this is a key element, and one which would have added yet another facet to an otherwise well-crafted and delightfully devious undead enemy!</p>Caracarn2011-11-06T00:29:17ZGrave Undertakings: The Tomb of Caragthax the Reaver (PFRPG) PDF: The Tomb offers Bones and some Meat! (4 stars)Caracarnhttps://paizo.com/products/btpy8o6i?Grave-Undertakings-The-Tomb-of-Caragthax-the-Reaver2011-11-05T23:54:51Z<p><b>Grave Undertakings: The Tomb of Caragthax the Reaver (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>TPK Games has created a supply for an interesting need many GM’s have to face: drag and drop game supplements. Without getting into any spoilers, allow me to go a little more in-depth into what this adventure has to offer:
<br />
-Clean, well, edited, nicely laid-out adventure booklet of twenty pages, including illustrations, maps, and a new magic item property!
<br />
-A well-presented sliding-scale challenge system for the core mechanics around the encounters within the adventure
<br />
-A self-contained monstrous ecosphere which can easily be worked into any existing campaign setting or string of adventures.
<br />
-A couple of adventure hooks (which add a good deal of flavor in resolution)</p>
<p>The challenge level is appropriate, and there is even some unique monster ability finagling. I would highly recommend this module to GM’s looking to populate an area in their campaign world with a nifty encounter, and, possibly, build up on some of the baseline info in the module to create extra flavor in your campaign. Additionally, a GM looking to fill a gaming slot evening quickly with something that is not boring boilerplate, and not some random-generation encounter could do well with this module. I’d say twenty minutes prep to read and familiarize, and maybe ten minutes to put your “custom finish” on it.</p>
<p>I could very easily see this module used as a directional placekeeper in a campaign that has just broken thread - ancient crypts are great for that, and this one offers some characters/situations that could be built up on with very little work - one of the _benefits_ is that the framework is there for you to flesh out, without the need to rewrite everything to fit your world.</p>
<p>Good value for the price, and good game for the value. I would have loved to see some more plot hooks, and perhaps a couple more traps in the mix, but, overall, quite satisfying!</p><p><b>Grave Undertakings: The Tomb of Caragthax the Reaver (PFRPG) PDF</b></p><p>TPK Games has created a supply for an interesting need many GM’s have to face: drag and drop game supplements. Without getting into any spoilers, allow me to go a little more in-depth into what this adventure has to offer:
<br />
-Clean, well, edited, nicely laid-out adventure booklet of twenty pages, including illustrations, maps, and a new magic item property!
<br />
-A well-presented sliding-scale challenge system for the core mechanics around the encounters within the adventure
<br />
-A self-contained monstrous ecosphere which can easily be worked into any existing campaign setting or string of adventures.
<br />
-A couple of adventure hooks (which add a good deal of flavor in resolution)</p>
<p>The challenge level is appropriate, and there is even some unique monster ability finagling. I would highly recommend this module to GM’s looking to populate an area in their campaign world with a nifty encounter, and, possibly, build up on some of the baseline info in the module to create extra flavor in your campaign. Additionally, a GM looking to fill a gaming slot evening quickly with something that is not boring boilerplate, and not some random-generation encounter could do well with this module. I’d say twenty minutes prep to read and familiarize, and maybe ten minutes to put your “custom finish” on it.</p>
<p>I could very easily see this module used as a directional placekeeper in a campaign that has just broken thread - ancient crypts are great for that, and this one offers some characters/situations that could be built up on with very little work - one of the _benefits_ is that the framework is there for you to flesh out, without the need to rewrite everything to fit your world.</p>
<p>Good value for the price, and good game for the value. I would have loved to see some more plot hooks, and perhaps a couple more traps in the mix, but, overall, quite satisfying!</p>Caracarn2011-11-05T23:54:51Z