I don't have time to wax episodic over the usefulness of this book for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Even if you only use 10% of the material within, that is still a hundred uses!
All I can really do is ask the question, why hasn't every Pathfinder gamer purchased this book yet?
...Other than the fact it is sold out. I am sure that will change. :-)
Overall Comments: This is a great single-evening adventure with a horror-centered plot, suitable for Halloween, a winter-horror themed event or whenever you want to scare your players. Yes, there are zombies, frozen creepy ones and much, much worse. It can be inserted into any oriental themed campaign; and is in fact specially designed to fit into any Kaidan-based campaign, per the trilogy of adventures from Rite Publishing.
I am not going into the details of this adventure to avoid spoiling this one for players. There are three acts and a sufficient quantity of different encounters to occupy any gaming group once the general feel of the adventure is realized. The adventure is run through the use of event-based acts, but is otherwise fairly sandboxy, at least inside the confines of the monastery. The GM might want to place a restriction upon PC's leaving without first solving the mystery of this place to avoid that problem. The weather limitations may not deter some groups; though a harsh GM dealing out frostbite to recalcitrant PC’s might do the trick.
Spoilers for my players: My own sense of hilarity wants to add humor to horror. So any delay by PC’s after killing a zombie or two would cause ones they just killed to reanimate and attack again. If they wise up and start to dismember the bodies, the arms, hands or bodies with legs would animate and probably be more scary (and/or laughable) than dangerous. Any player genius enough to try to burn a corpse would succeed in ending the reanimation. Obviously other GMs might not want to do this as it would definitely delay the game.
Complaints: The existence of several typos, spelling errors and errors of usage indicate this product would have benefitted from another editing pass. But they don’t detract from the flow of the adventure and are barely even noticeable, unless you are like me. Plus this is free, a couple of typos can’t detract from the overall quality of this adventure, for free!
Cool Bonus stuff: For the players, there is a set of 6 pregenerated characters. For the GM there is a nicely illustrated appendix of adventure specific new monsters as well as several gamemaster aids; a temperature chart that helps the GM track the affects upon and times for saving throws, a countdown track to help the GM keep track of the time limit involved, and a score chart for those GMs who wish to reward the players.
Production values: As is typical of Rite Publishing and Kaidan materials, the appearance is standard and includes nicely drawn maps, original art, and some free domain art from old Japanese sources. Amazingly for a free product this is nearly all in color.
Did I mention this is free? Why haven’t you got it already? You will not be disappointed.
I give this 4.5 stars due to minor editing gaffs, rounded up to five because it’s free!
Badges of Faith are magical amulets worn from a necklace enhanced with divine magic geared towards increasing the number of devotees of the faith. They provide benefits to the wearer which are mild, at first, but can be increased depending on the type of the badge and the activities of the person in possession of it. In order to increase the abilities of the badge, the wearer must perform tasks which are deemed appropriate by the deity sponsoring the badge. In this way the deities gain more followers and the followers gain access to more of the deity’s power. The way this is accomplished involves both the desire to do so on the part of the wearer and access to a temple devoted to the deity in question. The person is never tricked into it, though if they accept the quest assigned, they are geased to complete it.
I really love this concept of using a magic item for more than mere reward or fulfilling a certain level -recommended quotient of magic items. These Badges of Faith are more than mere magical trinkets. They are whole campaigns awaiting an adventurer. These badges are not specifically worn only by the divine class characters, though they are restricted to only being able to be created by a divine class having a particular domain or subdomain, see the list that follows:
• Aligned – Alignment domain required: chaos, law, evil, or good
• Caprice – Luck domain; or the curse or fate subdomains
• Destruction – Destruction; catastrophe, or rage subdomains
• Claw, Fang, Feather, and Fur – Animal domain; or feather or fur subdomains
• Gibbering and Wailing – Madness domain; or insanity or nightmare subdomains
• Glory – Glory domain: or heroism or honor subdomains
• Hearth and Home – Community domain; or family or home subdomains
• Industriousness – Artifact domain; or construct or toil subdomains
• Insight – Knowledge domain; or memory or thought subdomains
• Midnight – Darkness domain; or loss or night subdomains
• Relief – Healing domain; or restoration or resurrection subdomains
• Swirling Winds – Air domain; or cloud or winds subdomains
• Blessed Dawn – Sun domain; or day or light subdomains
• Bull – Strength domain; or ferocity or resolve subdomains
• Conflagration – Fire domain; or ash or smoke subdomains
• Crossed Blades – War domain; or blood or tactics subdomains
• Enchantress – Charm domain; or love or lust subdomains
• Green – Plant domain; decay or growth subdomain
• Shackle Breaker – Liberation domain; or freedom or revolution subdomain
• Skull – Death domain; or the murder or undead subdomains
• Wave – Water domain; or the ice or oceans subdomains
• Imbued – Magic domain; or the arcane or divine subdomains
• Inscribed – Rune domain; or the language or wards subdomain
• Liar’s – Trickery domain; or the deception or thievery subdomains
• Passport – Travel domain; or the exploration or trade subdomains
• Restful – Repose domain; or the ancestors or souls subdomains
• Royal – Nobility domain; or the leadership or martyr subdomains
• Stalwart’s – Protection domain; or the defense or purity subdomains
• Stone – Earth domain; or the caves or metal subdomains
• Tempest’s – Weather domain; or seasons or storms subdomains
What I like the most about the Badges represented is that in order to activate the abilities of the badge, certain tasks must be performed by the PC. The successful accomplishment of holy quests needed to add to the powers of the badge offer up some really interesting possibilities for role play. I like it when I can tie a player of a priestly class into his character’s chosen god in this way. It becomes more than merely a power build option. For me, anything which pulls the game away from pure metagame and into roleplay is ideal.
I love the Badges of Faith. This is an amazing concept which can be expanded upon into a full-blown campaign. It gives me some ideas of how to add to the badge’s power. I can turn it into a customizable unique lesser artifact through the actions and faith of the possessor and into a deity-inspired high level campaign. Well done Michael Welham and the folks at Rite Publishing.
This is exactly the type of Cthulhu campaign that I remember and cherish from years gone by. From the detail in this entire book, serious research was done to maintain a high level of verisimilitude necessary to make a Cthullhu campaign come to life. Multiple time periods and locations are used as settings. Historically accurate details are fleshed out in each of the five settings. From art, to maps, to source material and literature, to depictions, and translations of the multiple languages the investigators would need to know, everything is either an excellent replication or an outright true place, item, or event taken straight from the annals of history.
An example of this is in the first part. This is set on an island just off the British coastline. The level of detail of the map of the island and the monastery are accurate enough to fool anyone. And in fact if you were to look up the Holy Island and Lindisfarne in Northumbria, you would note that it is a real place with a real temple to St. Cuthbert and the ruins of the ancient church can be seen via satellite. Granted the island is in fact much bigger than the one presented in the adventure. But still – wow – the level of factual detail is amazing. This is the kind of thing I used to love to do for my own Call of Cthulhu campaigns. It speaks to the ancient historian, storyteller, and the amateur archaeologist in me.
Now for a very minor quibble, the maps used in the later parts of this campaign, while clear and useful, do not have the same sort of authentic feel to them. Instead, they clearly have a computer generated look. Normally this would not be a problem, but with the utterly awesome authentic feel of the maps in the first parts of this campaign, they seem out of place. The challenge level represented by the encounters in this book and the adventure as written hearkens back to the true feel of a Call of Cthulhu campaign in which death was the least of an investigator’s worries.
In addition to the maps and content of the adventures, a multitude of player handouts for each of the parts as well as extremely useful and in fact necessary player character pregens are included. For the Keeper, full NPC information, motivations, and stats as well as useful note on how to run the different parts and finally timelines of events. In short, everything a Keeper needs to run this campaign is present, except for the rules.
This is an epic campaign and plays to the heart of what a truly amazing Call of Cthulhu campaign should be. However many stars or other award handed out to game materials and supplements, this one has earned as many as I could give it. If there was one higher category of awesome, I’d give Red Eye of Azathoth that as well. “That which is dead shall refuse to lie” is true of Call of Cthulhu too.
Skills are a very useful feature of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, one that is often overlooked for splashier spells and feats. While not all of these 101 new skill uses will be useful for my own campaign and some of them I have already conceived on my own, I find many that hadn’t occurred to me. Many are useful as suggestions on how to extend the core skills further. Players are always trying to do more with the skills anyway, at least mine are. This book gives the game master many really good ideas. I already found one in the free sample that I already copied and sent to one of my players. It was perfect for his PC. I am certain that more will appear equally useful for my other players. These new skills offer a great deal of potential for many styles of gaming.
As with most of these suggestions, I recommend adding minimum ranks a PC must have in a particular skill prior to being able to perform the specific actions listed. That is really the only thing I see missing in this otherwise excellent supplement. I am not going to judge balance issues with each new skill use, that is subjective for the most part and easily resolved by setting prerequisite minimum ranks in a particular skill prior to allowing the PC to attempt it. I had considered dinging my rating for this lack. But then I realized something, this is very personal for each game master and the style of their campaign differs greatly. How much or how little the GM in question wants to emphasis pre-requisites in skill level is a decision best left to them.
This supplement was an interesting read and gave me some ideas for skill usages I intend to use as certain NPC antics. It is also fully bookmarked per skill, which is extremely useful despite the smallish size of this pdf. There is a wealth of excellent ideas and added support for game masters when players attempt crazy maneuvers. I can’t recommend this supplement enough. For the price you will gain many useful ideas for your own campaign and players, even if you don’t use them all. This is worth four and a half five stars which I am rounding up to a full five for excellent layout typical of Rite Publishing’s products.
First off, I absolutely love the picture of Pandora opening the box on the cover. It is an excellent bit of art and sets the tone for the remainder of the product. Once again, this newest addition to the #30 series has all those little touches which delight the reader, whether the contents are ever used in a campaign or not. I do recommend, though, that you find a way to add these haunts in your game. Just as with the Haunts for Ships and Shores, I intend to find a way to include some of these in my game, though I will have to include a side-trek adventure to do so.
As has become tradition, this addition to the Haunts series includes an in character discussion which is entertaining for the game master. In this is a note, which could be provided to players whole or in pieces as a prop for an adventure. What follows is a brief set of notes on types of haunts in this booklet, the most interesting one being the Gaze-Triggered haunts, which add to the types of haunts listed in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: GameMastery Guide. This type of trigger makes it more difficult for cautious PCs to avoid and thus more interesting to me as a GM.
What follows are a series of 27 Haunts of varying difficulties from CR 1 to CR 9, some of which are associated with one another. I need to find a way to add “The Cruel Crop” and “The Determined Device” as well as a number of others which are not really very dangerous for my players, but will add some fun to otherwise ordinary encounters. “The Fascinating Flute” is another one that I want to include, if only because flutes have become somewhat of an in-joke amongst my players. Any chance I get to personalize adventures for my players I will take. Short of actually designing adventures around them (something I have limited time to do), using things like these haunts is the next best method.
There is a series of associated haunts which go specifically with the letter hand out at the beginning of this booklet. The Temple of the Worm God is in fact a mini-adventure and could be used to spice up an otherwise boring over-land trek through farming communities from one adventure site to another. This includes short background story and 4 haunts of CR 10 to CR 11. I love to surprise my players with something they were not expecting and the Temple of the Worm God does this well.
As in the rest of the #30 series by Rite Publishing, Trevor’s prose is fun to read. These haunts for objects do an excellent job of making an otherwise mundane scene more interesting for both GMs and players alike. I can see my players becoming wary of any object they might come across as a result of this book. Only a few such instances of a haunted object and months, perhaps years, of cautious behavior and entertainment for all could result. I can’t wait to spring these on my players.
Excellent layout, interesting art and wonderfully well-written and designed haunts receive 5 of 5 stars.
The Fold-and-Go series is an interesting concept and definitely somewhat cheaper than purchase of a metal or resin miniature item of similar type. Unfortunately, I am disappointed in the lack of content in the Altar, for the price. While you don’t need paint, you do need ink and cardstock paper, neither of which are cheap. The only additional thing of interest is the layers which allow you to alter the color of the optional cloth piece that can be placed atop the altar. Although advertised as not requiring glue, the candelabra optional piece absolutely requires it. This isn’t a huge problem, particularly if you don’t want the optional pieces. However, if you just want the bare altar you are paying a rather hefty price for just that tiny bit. A pair of black dice used as a prop would work as well. I am not overly impressed with this Fold-and-Go product. It works well enough for what it is, but isn’t really worth the price.
I assigned this 3 stars, though I wanted to assign it only 2 when I first reviewed the piece. I increased my rating due to the fact that the fold and go series is an interesting concept. The only thing I can suggest is more content for the price.
101 unique properties to apply to magical armor or shields comprise the entirety of this book with the exception of some very nice interior art. This book begins with a table listing each property with its price modifier, either in gp or in equivalent magical bonus (utilizing the costs for such in the Core Rules). I like the ability to pick from this chart some nice armor properties to make my home campaign rewards be unique. This book is pure gold for those wanting to add a unique property rather than the old, overused, and rather boring +1 (or higher) AC.
One huge negative for me was the complete lack of some explanation of how or why each property works the way it does. For example: the first property described is the Absorbent Resistance. This is a property added to a shield that allows the shield to completely block a single melee attack using the combat maneuver rules. If the CMB succeeds the attack is negated and the opponent’s turn is ended, (in addition to other features). What I want to know is what about this magic shield causes this to occur? Is there a magical force field that extends outward from the shield to engulf the opponent, at least temporarily? It is made of some special sovereign-like glue that impedes the opponent’s actions? Why does it work this way? I know for my own games I do not and cannot simply hand wave things. The “it works because it’s magic” explanation doesn’t work on them. I’ve tried that in the past and it was met with scorn and indignation on the part of my players who (bless their greedy souls) want reasons for things. Some call that fluff or something similar as if to downgrade its importance. I consider these to be more important than any mechanic or rule. Now, I can make up my own reasons, but I might not have the time to do that. I realize that this would add to the book and potentially make it impossible to do 101 of them, thus negating the reason for assigning it to the 101 series. So I suspect that I will have to be content. And add content as I pick and choose the properties to apply to the rewards I hand out to my players.
I do realize that not everyone plays with my types of players. Most are content with the cool factor of what the property does and won’t ask why. For the GMs of those kinds of players this supplement is worth every bit of 5 stars. The artwork inside is nice and makes me want to print, cut out, and post to 3x5 cards, write the armor descriptions, make up a few names for them, and hand them out to my players as they find them. I am really not a big fan of the cover art however. It looks a bit too World of Warcrafty in the impossibly huge armor pieces. So not a fan of that piece of art.
Given my reservations, but taking into account the nice array of properties nicely presented, I am giving this 4 stars.
Every burgeoning game designer believes he or she can create games better than many that are for sale at many a local toy and game store. But how does a new game designer hopeful create games that will become house-hold names? One answer: Ask those whose games developed a following of their own and set the standard for truly excellent games. Enter the Kobold’s Guide to Game Design. Essays within this book include reams of advice by names well known in the world of games, from Richard Garfield a designer of the trading card game, Magic: The Gathering to Steve Jackson, the creator of a few of my favorite games once upon a time, such as Car Wars and Iluminati (the original non-collectible version). The narrator and organizer of this array of talent is Mike Selinker, who recently created Loan Shark Games and previously worked as a creative director for Wizards of the Coast. These essays include every element of board game design, from concept to implementation. And before you ask why you should read their advice, answer yourself by remembering why these games are played world-wide. They draw the game player in and make them want to play again and again, purchasing upgrades, expansions, or additions to these games as well. Why are they successful? They know their audiences.
The essays in this book take a prospective board game designer from concept, through creation, development, and finally to the presentation of the final product. These elements are essential to any game design, from roleplaying games to board and card games. In fact you see a more complex but similar format in the scientific method. I suspect this is a tried and true method for any creative activity, from new technology to new consumer products. I don’t want to say which aspect of board game design is the most important, they all are. Without hitting the bullseye dead on in all aspects of design, from concept to publication and marketing, you will not achieve what every board game designer wishes, a game that sells as well as Settlers of Catan.
Yeah, my friends and I played lots of the games mentioned in these essays, as have all of you. I am sure like us you have modified or combined games to suit your play style, most gamers do. You may think the changes you made turn these games into something different and more fun than the original. Perhaps you have it in you to become a game designer. In seeking out pointers on how to break into the game business, you may have gone to conventions in the hopes of meeting the movers and shakers in the business. Now, of course, you can wait in long lines to attend seminars with the very people who wrote the advice held within these pages, or just purchase this book. This is by far the most comprehensive and cost effective resource for prospective game designers. And truthfully, wouldn’t you want a game publisher’s first exposure to your work be a game ready for publication? Ideas are cheap. Everyone has ideas. Part of selling your work is selling yourself. The advice in this book will help you do that.
This book is worth the purchase and read for the anecdotal notes by top game designers alone. If you are at all inclined to try to get into the board game or any closely related business, you owe it to yourself to get this book. I can’t help but rate this at 5 stars of 5.
Here again as with the supplement In the Company of Tengu by Rite Publishing, we have a fully-fleshed society of beings for the use of both players and game masters. Rather than being a single identifiable anthropomorphic creature, as with the Raven-like Tengu, the Henge are a collection of beings. They are spirits and legends from ancient Japan outfitted for use in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The Henge exist in clans divided by their association with and resemblance to certain animals. These clans (Batsu), the Dog (Inu), Badger (Mujina), Cat (Neko), Rat (Nezumi), Monkey (Saru), and Raccoon-Dog (Tanuki), all form the greater society of Hengeyokai. This book gives a full, in-character dissertation on the ways and beliefs of the Henge. The descriptive prose felt like the voice of one of the Henge actually speaking to me. It had a believable resonance. It reminded me of the Hopi elder I once heard speak on the Hopi Mesas of Arizona. This is the kind of material any good GM wants to have at his or her disposal, something that adds depth and verisimilitude to the campaign.
In addition to detailing each of the different clans, this supplement also details relationships with other races, alignment, religion, and languages. Next follows a description of the Hengeyokai who might become adventurers, the types who either become PCs or encounter them. Full notes on how to create Hengeyokai characters along with ability adjustments, racial traits, alternate traits, notes on age, height and weight, and a comprehensive set of notes on the different classes and whether or not they would be appropriate as Henge, and other important details.
It is important to note that Henge are a race of shape shifters. This is a curious aspect and it is absolutely not considered to be a curse, unlike the were-creatures of Western tradition. Henge can take three forms. Their true form is that of a humanoid with the face of an animal. A Henge may also appear as a human or in the natural shape of the animal of his or her clan.
Favored Class options are provided as well as class archetypes for the Barbarian, the Druid and the Ranger. As with the Tengu, the Henge have a Racial Paragon class, which I found most useful in the book on Tengu for creation of the NPC leader or other important individual. There is a full, class write-up for the Mushakemono, the Henge Warrior Racial Paragon. At the end a list of feats provides interesting possibilities for a Henge character.
Whether you are a GM who wants something unique to use in your campaign or you are a player in a campaign that allows or encourages different and interesting character options, you will want to take a look at the Henge. If you intend to run an oriental-based campaign, you will need this book. Even if you are just interested in different character books or like reading about different societies, there is something in here for you. Like the others of the Kaidan series, typical bamboo borders and neat two-column layout is sprinkled with appropriate art, some of which is obviously taken from ancient Japanese open domain sources, and some in color as well. I find this book to meet the high standards set in the other Kaidan supplements and well worth the price. I rate this at 5 of 5 stars.
There is something inherently intriguing about the femme fatale. She is a figure difficult to render as a believable character yet most satisfying when accomplished well. Poignant and free-willed, Belladonna is a character that will provide players much enjoyment and their PCs much frustration in the Tarnished Souk. Belladonna has a secret, more than one, and not all her own. She earned these secrets like the scars across her soul and heart over the many years she dwelled in this place. She began her stay in the Coliseum Morpheuon as a slave. Now, she is a power in the Tarnished Souk. As the hostess of the Souk’s most popular tavern, she knows everything about anyone that is worth knowing. It is a certainty she will immediately seek to find out all she can about anyone new, like the PC’s. Yet her greatest power is not her knowledge of the secrets of the Souk, it is the nightmare itself. For some, Belladonna is their worst nightmare.
As with all of the Faces of the Tarnished Souk, Belladonna has three builds at different levels. They include shapechanging and other abilities related to the Taskshaper class. Note: the Taskshaper class is found in a separate supplement by Rite Publishing, but it is not absolutely necessary to run Belladonna. All the needed information to run her is found in her stat blocks. Also included are special feats, such as the essential seduction feat that she uses to affect the reactions of those around her. She comes with her own set of magical items.
In addition, and this is worth the price of admission all on its own, a fascinating array of magical libations fulfill the exotic desires of the denizens of the Tarnished Souk; from Ambrosia, nectar of the gods, to Roggut Whisky, to the official beer of the Coliseum Morpheuon: The Wise and Eternal Khan’s Chimeric Beverage of Ten Thousand Enlightened Victories. In all, there are eleven magical beverages for your use or manipulation to fit within your own campaign.
As has also become typical of the Faces of the Tarnished Souk, there are new templates, the Nightmare Creature and the Nymph Child. What is not included is the NPC mentioned as having a close personal relationship to Belladona, Le Loup Solitaire. This NPC is found in his own edition of the Faces of the Tarnished Souk. He isn’t absolutely necessary, but his presence does fill out a bit of her background and story. I heartily recommend if you purchase this supplement, you get the other one as well. As a pair, their story is that much more meaningful and has an important part to play in the landscape of the Tarnished Souk.
I have come to expect the typical high standards for character concepts, builds, interesting new feats, spells, templates and the like, out of Matt Banach, Justin Sluder, and Rite Publishing in their Faces of the Tarnished Souk series. Though there are a couple of minor editing errors, none detract from Belladonna’s usefulness and fascinating story. With highly appropriate art sprinkled throughout, Belladonna does not disappoint. She earns a 4.5 of 5 stars from me, rounding up to the full five for a fascinating character concept full of roleplay potential.
A supreme gladiator and owner of his own gladiatorial school, Magnus Thrax can be used in a number of ways depending on the play style of any group and the needs of the Game Master. His role in the Coliseum or gladiatorial campaign is fluid. He reacts to PC actions. He does not directly oppose them unless they give him a reason. Woe to the PC who opposes him or the Khan. For good-aligned PC’s he provides an essential obstacle, because the members of his stable of gladiators are not free. They are slaves, some forced against their will to fight at the whim and profit of Magnus. Neutral characters may see him as a useful albeit cagey fight promoter and supplier of gladiators for a price. Magnus possesses marvelous special abilities he uses to crush his opponents on the arena and maintains a firm commitment to the Coliseum and the Khan. Magnus may be used to field opponents from his ludus (gladiatorial school) to fight against PCs and remain in the background as an enigmatic figure. If the players wish, he provides support as a trainer or a promoter. And if the PCs determine it necessary to eliminate the Khan of Nightmares or if they directly oppose his ruthless use of slaves in the Coliseum, he becomes an implacable enemy. To Magnus, there is no greater feat than winning at whatever cost, with no remorse or recrimination. Included in this supplement is a full character background for Magnus, complete with dreamburning notes, Lore notes and suggestions on how to use this highly flexible NPC in your campaign.
As with the other the Faces of the Tarnished Souk series, a full high level stat block lays in wait for any overconfident PC. Magnus’s stat block contains new feats, traits, magical equipment, and special abilities. For those who wish to add clockwork components, particularly prostheses, this supplement contains rules for such builds. Magnus’s own prostheses have magical properties and their own backstory to boot. In addition to the now typical complete stat block, this supplement contains lower level builds that may either be younger versions of Magnus or one or more of his underlings and gladiators. In addition, a boxed note on Magnus’s school, The Ludus Thraxus give GMs ideas how to use this as either (or both) an ally and tool or an opposing force. Finally, for both players and GMs there is a new Fighter Archetype, the Trick Fighter. For GM’s who like to step up the difficulty in their own game, this comes with two templates, the Dreadnaught and the Element-Infused creature.
I love flexible NPCs that allow for multiple roles depending on how the players react. For roleplayers this guy is a gold mine of possibilities. For action-oriented players he is an extremely tough opponent that may not necessarily be directly fatal, depending upon the circumstances of the encounter. Perhaps he is a behind-the-scenes manipulator for lower level parties attempting to make a name for themselves as gladiators in the arena, where he fields one after another of opposing fighters. Perhaps he is the slave master from which the PCs will seek to free themselves. He can be the tough-as-nails, remorseless trainer for wanna-be gladiators. Of course the GM may just make use of the builds present here. An extremely tough melee character is not always easy to build and the combination of special templates and abilities make Magnus a challenge in the arena or outside of it, should the PC’s give him cause.
Magnus is another NPC essential both inside and outside of the Coliseum Morpheuon and greatly contributes to making the Tarnished Souk a vibrant and exciting place to adventure. Magnus Thrax gets a full 5 of 5 stars from me. Good work Matt Banach, Justin Sluder and the folks at Rite Publishing!
First impressions: the layout and art is absolutely gorgeous. Little touches like frost on the top of every page give the impression that Jack Frost caressed it. The dragon head and wings, clearly intended to be the Oracle of Forstor Nagar, is a nice addition at the top of each page. The blood-red flags obviously intended to be banners of the Hungering Legion bracket the text at the bottom of each page. Absolutely gorgeous maps make it very clear and easy to run the important scenes of the adventure. Maptool users will love that it is fully supported in terms of map files for GM use, including player handouts, and map tokens as well as maps. There is even a pdf on how to use the Maptool elements, very handy for a GM who is new to that format.
Encounters are staged events with full map and Maptool support and as such not terribly flexible. However options offered for various PC actions give the GM additional support, such as suggestions for the GM when the players attempt certain “out of the box” thinking. One example of this is during the first encounter while the PCs are approaching the city and see the ship in the tunnel through the glacier. Unfortunately there is really no support given to a GM whose players my utterly refuse to approach the city via the main approach. It is assumed that they will all have chosen to go one route and the beginning descriptions at the start only support this choice. For some groups this works out quite well. Most love to hop right into the action.
I know my own players would be seeking an alternative way inside the city than the obvious approach. Personally I’d not presume they go the route provided in the first encounter but simply describe the horde on the surface of the glacier, perhaps bombarding the city using siege engines guarded by hundreds of legionnaires. Then if the players look around for alternatives, in passing mention the ship tunnel at water level and the fully loaded fire ship entering the tunnel and let them make the choice to go the route that leads to the first encounter. If you have players like I do, it is often best to let them “discover” the way you want them to go and act as if you are bummed that they thought of a clever solution.
I am not going to delve into analysis of each and every encounter. Suffice it to say that they are fully detailed and provide the essential information the GM needs to run each one. There are also notes on how to scale the adventure for a different level of difficulty. I personally like all the suggestions for the GM on what to do if the players choose B over A, move invisibly or aerially, or delay acting. Three different end game scenarios are offered depending on what choices the GM and PCs make in the course of the adventure. The appendix provides information on new magic items, the Hungering Creature template as well as pregenerated characters for player use.
Conclusion: Ben McFarland and Jonathan Roberts make a fantastic combination of skilled adventure designers, clear and descriptive prose writers and crafters of clear, colorful and excellently supported maps. Combined with the gorgeous layout and nice little graphic element touches, such as tokens for cardstock whether for Maptool or not, make this a must-buy adventure. This well-crafted adventure scores a full 5 of 5 stars.
Alert! Spoilers follow: unless you are a GM looking for cool ideas on a crossroad locale, skip to the conclusion to not ruin surprises.
Frequently mentioned in literature, the fact that certain crossroads have some mysterious power associated with them hasn’t been delved into much in RPGs. The question of where the power comes from and why a particular Crossroads has a vague power which keeps people from wanting to use it or even think about it is dealt with in this latest addition to the Evocative City. A knot or tangled confluence of ley lines is an interesting concept, though I wish there was more information on what ley lines are. I have a vague idea from the descriptions of the nexus detailed in this supplement.
Detailed within are a pair of interesting NPCs. Grandmother Lytokus is the divine guardian of the nexus. Clifort Ray, the creepy insane earthbound dwarven resident, is a murderer with a, “the voices made me do it” vibe. As well as complete stat blocks for both, there are extras such as Grandmother Lytokus’s candles. Interesting concept of a Divine Guardian, with a template that can be used to apply to any being a GM should need. Oo! A Divine Guardian dragon would be extremely useful.
Conclusion:
Visual elements such as layout are typical for the Evocative City series. The Crossroads has okay maps, not eye-poppingly gorgeous but clear, easy to read and serviceable. There is decent art, some of which is Public Domain. I like art and I don’t personally mind Public Domain sources. In addition to the NPCs mentioned above, the write-up includes a nice detail of an encounter at the Crossroads and possible missions to send the PC’s to this locale. Writing is effective though there are a few awkward sentences here and there. There are no real errors or glitches in layout until you come to the advertisements at the end of the document. One page looks like half of it, the half that includes who and what essentials, is missing. Edit and correction: The aforementioned half page is a screen shot of Forstor Nagar using MapTools, which is a free program, and pretty cool.
All in all, this is a useful tool for GM’s. It isn’t perfect but it sure does give me some good ideas to use for my own campaign. Good work Rob Manning and the folks at Rite Publishing. I rate this at 4 of 5 stars.
A gorgeous map of an infrequently detailed location, Watchfire Keep provides a useful tool for Game Masters. As is typical of the Fantastic Maps series, this pack contains full size color maps and black and white printer-saver versions of the same maps. Also there are files for maptool use as well as A4 files for folks with European printers. The only thing extra this pack comes with is an additional stack of wood to be placed where the GM likes. This map works directly and specifically for a 4th edition D&D adventure in Kobold Quarterly #18, “Who Watches the Watchfires?”
The map artistically shows the keep from a bird’s eye view. The only thing that I can complain about is the lack of detail showing the height of the surface. It would be nice to know how steep the hill is. Either a small cross section view or isolines showing 5 or 10 foot vertical contours would help a great deal in determining the height of the hill on which the keep rests. The adventure in Kobold Quarterly tells how high the walls and towers are. But if a person just purchased this map pack and not KQ #18, he or she would not have access to this information. I know for myself, I would probably print out the whole thing and tape the pages together. Then I would draw out the contours myself using the obvious artistically rendered cliffs and slopes as guides. Mapping and cartography is second nature to me. This isn’t the case with everyone. Most GMs have players who will ask them how high the hill, walls and towers are.
Gorgeous map with handy full size sheets to print for use with miniatures and tools for computer map sharing make this product a good one to have. I am assigning Watchfires a 4 of 5 due to some desired but lacking information of the vertical height of the hill, walls and towers.
Well, Mr. Jeff Tidball of Green Ronin, you do not know me at all but I am quite sure you got inside my brain to read my mind. Thank you for validating my opinion on the milieu of role playing games in your introduction to Open Design’s Midgard Bestiary. I have always believed that the “fluff” versus “crunch” debate was both poorly worded and misleading. To me fluff is why I play the game, why I run games, why I enjoy reading game materials. Fluff isn’t fluff, it is THE STORY. In the immersive act of pretending we are heroes or villains, not bystanders. We are improvisational actors in a play of our own devising. THAT is the fun of role playing games for me. The mechanics are just the means by which we all agree upon within our own cadre of friends and associates to implement the acts we wish our characters to perform.
Open Design’s Midgard AGE supplements, this Bestiary included, prove that point. Now I have played with the AGE system before, in fact even ran a part of a beginning campaign using the Dragon Age Roleplaying Game. So I know a little bit about this system. But I am not going to talk about the system. No. I am simply going to cheer on Josh Jarman and Open Design to have the courage to put out a supplement for their campaign world of Midgard that uses a system NOT created by one of the other big RPG companies. Not that Green Ronin is small. It has a rather expansive product line which includes several different game systems. The AGE system is only one of these.
The monsters in this book are designed to be used in Midgard, but I can see right off that anyone who uses the AGE system would want this book to supplement their game. With a little bit of time and number crunching it wouldn’t be too hard to convert the monsters to Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, D&D 4th edition, or even a retro-clone, such as Swords and Wizardry. The book is full of gorgeous art and interesting descriptions of monsters. In fact, I believe if you love monsters, regardless of game system you play, you need to consider this book. Oh and before I forget to mention this, there are 50 monsters detailed herein. Enjoy!
I am updating my review of Dark Path to show that the repeated text was removed from the pdf, the layout redone and the space replaced with art. While not new art, it was highly appropriate to the surrounding text and doesn't detract too much from the appearance of the whole.
-- My original review is below.--
First off, I have to state the bad before talking about the good. There is a troubling layout/editing gaff in this last part of the Kaidan series. It will downgrade my score because it is large and annoying enough to make me want to point it out to purchasers. Hopefully no vital text is missing, but a section of the second column of page 5 of the pdf is repeated on the second column of page 6 below the grey box text on Kaidan: A Land of Oriental Horror. The same text is repeated again on page 7 second column. Since quite a bit of text was duplicated twice I am now wondering if anything was accidentally left out. It doesn’t appear obvious that there should be more to the introductory sections than there is. So perhaps no content was lost. I am, however, disappointed in the lack of layout review done on this third part of an excellent campaign trilogy.
As with the first two parts of this series, Dark Path is well-written. Since it is rather plot driven, there is an element of railroading. However there are plenty of options if players refuse to take the expected route and some thought given to what the likely results are for a number of alternative actions. It is more necessary that the players have played through at least the second part of this series. What drives the PCs is a result of occurrences in the second part.
Part one of the Dark Path assumes the PCs either want to or must (due to circumstances in Dim Spirit) either sneak or fight their way into the daimyo’s treasury. If events at the end of Dim Spirit occurred per script then the PCs have access to allies who can help. Otherwise the PCs are on their own. Although I wouldn’t stop PCs from attempting a frontal assault, with sufficient preparation on the part of the GM, it should become obvious this tactic is too dangerous. Certainly any allies would refuse a frontal assault as they would see it as suicide. Negotiations and discussions with the potential allies on how to break into the treasury provide ample opportunity for role play.
The second portion of the Dark Path assumes the PCs are eager to get away with their prize, should they linger there are numerous encounters suggestions to convince them it is a bad idea. Again it is assumed that the PCs will choose to take the Dark Path. Once the PCs have their prize from the treasury it is just as difficult to get out of the place as it was to get into it. It could be even more harrowing if an alarm has been sounded. I appreciate the notes for the DM on how to proceed if the PC’s choose not to head straight for the route advised by their allies, the Dark Path for which this adventure was named. And suggested encounters the PCs will encounter should they choose any other method of returning back to Gaijinoshima and a ship to take them away from Kaidan (assuming this is where they wish to go). Again there is a grey box of text detailing weather conditions and a wandering encounter table, useful whether the GM is running the particular adventure detailed within or one of his or her own devising in Kaidan. This last part of the adventure seems fairly flexible. The GM could order the encounters in any way as long as the PCs meet suitable resistance and encounter those who are eager to take the prize from them. The Dark Path being essentially a series of lava tubes, the branches of the path could pop out anywhere along the PCs chosen path back (or wherever) if they do not choose to travel the direct route.
The final conclusion of this adventure occurs back at Gaijinoshima and the ship the PCs used to travel to Kaidan. It seems the PCs enemies are not interested in allowing them to leave Kaidan.
Several appendices include a note on PC reincarnation in Kaidan. There are two new monsters. Next are notes on the Danmatsumabatsu, a group of specialized assassins, who attack the PCs in the treasury and after as well as a grey box text on the necrotic warrior class abililties. Also there is a set of pregenerated characters should the players loose a PC due to the fact that raise dead and resurrection do not work in Kaidan. Alternatively they may be used if new players join or as NPCs for the GM’s use. Finally there is the glossary of words, names and a pronunciation guide.
As is typical throughout this series the art gives a good feel for the setting and the maps are fantastic. There is even a map of one encounter scaled at 1 inch = 5 feet for use with miniatures should the GM wish to print it out in color for such use.
Once the error mentioned above is removed, the pdf of this product is an excellent resource for anyone wishing to run adventures in this well and lovingly researched Japanese Horror story style campaign. And despite the errors, they don’t detract from the excellent story. When fixed I will happily upgrade my score accordingly. But for now, this gets a 4 out of 5 stars from me.
--My updated rating is 5 of 5 stars.--
Dark Path makes a thrilling conclusion to the Curse of the Golden Spear as well as providing new information for those who wish to run their own campaigns set in Kaidan.
If you are a Game Master who wants to include traps that are different from the typical ones in the Pathfinder Core Rules and are like me and simply don’t have the time to come up with clever ones, this is your book. Although this book clearly emphasizes tombs, treasure and the attempt to keep said treasure out of the hands of opportunistic thieves. There are enough ideas within to use for other settings. A GM can never have too many traps to throw at the players. Using the same old traps again and again gives the players too many chances to recognize the signs and use the appropriate skills to remove or circumvent them.
The element of tongue-in-cheek celebration of popular “geek” culture within Rite’s books always gets a chuckle out of me. The cover page has a quote from Renee Belloq of the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Next is a highly appropriate quote from the real Howard Carter when he first entered King Tut’s Tomb from The Tomb of Tutankhamen. Trevor’s artful in-character letter to Owain Northway, a fictional character well-known to those who read Rite Publishing’s products; and his use of clear descriptions sprinkled with advice for GMs on how to use the traps is fun to read. It is little extras like these which help to make the 30’s series of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game supplements worthwhile purchases.
The supplement gives a useful setting for those who don’t already have something in mind, Rafikabeer a necropolis encounter location. The story behind Rafikabeer is an interesting one and leaves questions to be answered by the individual GM in a manner that best fits his or her campaign. Tantalizing hints of something darker at work in the city prior to its existence as a necropolis are wonderful tools for the GM to fuel the imagination. This is not an adventure, yet with a few additions of encounters, characters and plot it could easily become one.
Whether you use the background material or not, the traps described herein can be used by any GM who needs to provide a not-to-pleasant surprise for players. Some traps are interconnected. These give players fits when they think they have discovered the trap and proceed only to get caught by the next trap. A whole range of magical and mechanical traps, hazards, haunts, and monsters (via summon monster spells) fill this supplement. As mentioned above the descriptions of traps, there are far more than 30 traps. Many work in conjunction with other and frequently different types of traps.
Combined with Trevor’s clear entertaining prose, this is a must have for any GM who wishes to include extra spice to his or her adventure. The only complaint I have is that some of the maps would be brutal on my ink supply in my printer to reproduce for game use. That is insufficient reason to downgrade my score. I could simply describe the location and allow my players to draw it as they choose and see what happens, sort of old school style. That could quickly teach them the value of asking the right questions and taking initiative to draw things properly themselves, hmm… Now there’s a thought. Anyway, I digress, five stars out of five from me. Thank you Rite Publishing for providing yet another excellent resource to beleaguered GMs.
This is a perfect location to have on hand if your PCs decide to take a sudden left turn in your adventure, explore a house or area that is not a part of your campaign or decide to surprise the Game Master by spending the night in an abandoned manor that you know you didn’t have detailed. I love the duality of this location. No matter where the players may decide to investigate or sleep through the night, there is something waiting for them. I love the haunts in particular. But anyone tough enough to take on the bandit gang would likely not find them very challenging. Conversely, anyone finding the haunts to be challenging would be hard pressed to survive an encounter with the full gang of thieves. Knowing this ahead of time is the key to deciding how difficult you wish this encounter location to be. You may decide your players need to encounter something just a little bit too difficult for them, inculcating in them the value of running away when the situation calls for it. Of course the flexibility of an encounter site that is not tied to any adventure plot means that what the PCs discover here is up to the GM.
Art is clearly taken from Public Domain sources and this is clearly stated in the cover page. The maps spaced in the text of the house descriptions and encounters were in full color. If I had to guess, I’d say they were hand drawn. But that doesn’t detract from the adventure at all. In fact I rather like this. The maps show the manor house and environs very simply and without fluff, yet are very easy to read. I like the black and white printable full size additional maps for use with miniatures or just for showing the players. The maps also come in the A4 sized pdfs as well.
I love flexible locations with encounters or NPCs I can yank to use for other things if I need them or to surprise players who thought to surprise me by taking an unplanned siesta or turn left when they were really supposed to turn right. Eiffelmacher Estates provides this for me. Icing on the cake is the nice bundle of printable maps set at an appropriate scale for miniature use. This is a nice supplement. The only quibble some might have about the encounters described herein is the slight imbalance of difficulty between the haunts in the house and the Spotty Bottle gang’s leader. I don’t mind this for my own players, though. A little challenge is a good thing, a lot can make for the most harrowing and best remembered gaming experiences. I do wish that there had been some description and encounter suggestions for the greenhouse, for completeness. The lack of details on the interesting-looking greenhouse keeps this from being a full five stars, four out of five.
Questions of morality versus ethics, good and evil, right and wrong, about when to sacrifice one for the others, about the end justifying the means to achieve a goal, about striving for personal power for oneself above even one’s own family, perhaps even about the true meaning of family and loyalty pervade this 5th installment of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path. Just how evil is evil enough to cause a person devoted to the cause of good to sacrifice the goals of the group he or she is bound to protect? These are difficult questions for any good-oriented party, whether they include a paladin or no, to deal with as they try to uncover the cause behind the murders of those who are seen to be deeply heinously evil by the standards of most good oriented gods. Some may think that this adventure would test the vow of a paladin too severely. Once the paladin chooses to help the unabashedly evil vampires is he or she on the slippery slope to damnation?
I love adventures which force players to play their characters making real choices and have real (within the game) consequences. Paladins have great rewards of power for the cause of good but also carry a heavy burden. Should the Game Master make light of this burden or should he force the player to really think about the meaning of running such a character? I would say this really depends on the GM and his or her players. My own players are all old grognards for the most part and have dealt with such questions on more than one occasion. I know they would love the role play opportunities this adventure provides.
But some groups are not able to handle such ethical and moral decisions. This is where a good GM has to know his players. Some groups are all for the mechanical aspects of the game and care little for role playing. Rather than tell them they are not playing the game right, which is at best subjective and at worst elitist and condescending, I would say to them, ignore the questions and let your players hack and slash or work with the vampires as they decide. Of course I am of the opinion that it is never the GM’s job to tell the players how to play their characters or play through an adventure. You defiantly have to gage the maturity level of your players. In the hands of a good GM, this adventure can become a pivotal and memorable one for the players whether or not you are running the Carrion Crown AP as a whole or just want to dip into the vampiric underbelly of Caliphas.
It would be relatively easy to alter this adventure to stand alone. Simply remove references to the Whispering Way and alter the ending such that it ends when the PC’s find out who is murdering the vampires and dealt with them and perhaps the vampires too, if they so choose. Though I would expect some retribution of the part of the leader of this clan, who may or may not be at home depending on the individual GM. Alternatively the GM can use this adventure to start the PC’s on the path of the Whispering Way at a later level than the path assumes, particularly if other adventures in the vicinity have been run which are located fairly nearby and not directly related. What this means is that this adventure is highly portable with some minor work and of even greater value to GMs who, like me, run their own campaigns rather than the strict Adventure Paths.
To Neil in particular, I think you did a masterful job of creating an adventure that delves into these questions spoken above without forcing any particular group or GM to HAVE to play a certain way.
As for the remainder of this AP, there is an always helpful article on a location in Golarion, in this case the city of Caliphas, which is directly relevant to the adventure and includes some interesting personalities the PCs may encounter in the city. Next is a continuation of the deity articles, this time the featured deity is Urgathoa. Then there are the standard AP articles, the fiction piece and the Bestiary with some useful and some strange monsters. Now the bestiary also includes an odd page, a short piece on PCs as vampires and a town stat block with a paragraph on travel TO Caliphas as well as an encounter table for the slums and sewers of Caliphas. This might have been better placed elsewhere, at the head of the AP perhaps, so it could be noticed by the GM easier while he or she is preparing for this adventure. Given the constraints of the placement of text in the introduction and Part One of the adventure I can see why this wasn’t placed there. I am very glad it wasn’t simply left out, though I do question its placement at the head of the Bestiary.
In short then, I believe this installment of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path does everything it set out to accomplish and more, thanks to the skill of the author in particular. I have trouble giving this a perfect score due to the strange additions to the Bestiary. But the main adventure was so masterfully done that I have to award this five stars as well.
When you put James Jacobs and Greg Vaughan together and toss in some Cthulhu Mythos for spice you come out with the most sanity-bending awesome tools any H. P. Lovecraft loving GM can use, nay, MUST have. Now Wake of the Watcher is the fourth installment of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path, but I can’t talk about the adventure's place in the path, how this fits in with the rest, or how it flows with them. I can say that the adventure within these pages is easily the most portable of the adventures in the paths I have observed in a while. All a GM needs to do is place Illmarsh in the path of players on the way to someplace else, take out any direct references to following Whispering Way operatives and, Whammo! Adventure.
Taken alone the adventure is useful for a GM seeking to fit in to his own campaign, whether you run the Adventure Path as a whole or not. Combined with the support articles, you have pure Cthulhu-esque gold. Now what I hoped for, and happy enough to recieve, was a conversion of ALL of my personal favorite Cthulhu monsters. (Color Out of Space!!) But Mr. James Jacobs went and converted all of my old favorite Outer Gods and Old Ones to Pathfinder godhood status. Not only can I use these to terrify my players, but they can’t even touch them because they are treated as gods. Pardon me while I giggle to myself a little bit.
I realize I haven’t spoken of F. Wesley Schneider’s contribution. This is because I haven’t read it (yet). When I have additional funds I will make every effort to purchase the first three contributions to this adventure path and catch up on what I missed.
Gold, Messrs. Jacobs and Vaughan, Wake of the Watcher is pure gold for Lovecraft lovers. This gem scores a full five elder signs from me.
Kobold Quarterly keeps getting better and better. It has something for everyone, whether you are a game master or player, or run adventures using the 4th Edition of D&D, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game or the AGE system. Even if you only run games in a single rules system, the others are chalk full of ideas the resourceful GM can snag. Add to this gorgeous art and maps and KQ’s standard articles and you have a magazine that fills the need for a multi-system periodical. From the Pathfinder compatible articles on new classes, class options and adventures to the 4th Edition compatible articles and AGE system compatible articles as well as system neutral articles this is a treasure trove of ideas.
An article written my Monte Cook, “Explaining the Inexplicable”, stands out as worthy advice with regards to creating verisimilitude within the context of the fantasy or other genre game a particular game master wishes to run. It is also worthy advice to some players who like to bicker with their game masters on such topics.
My hands-down favorite article is “10 Reasons Why Your Characters Should Be in Jail” by Russell Jones. This is a set of helpful suggestions for a Game Master that is entirely rules-free. You can apply the ideas within regardless of what system, time setting or other game specific genre you play. For the historically-minded, there is a paragraph on the divisions of Roman law, from which medieval law was based. It is interesting and encourages culture fanatics such as myself to research more on this topic. While traditional campaigns tend to mimic medieval settings, some might want more variation. I am hoping that future articles of KQ will delve into various systems of law throughout history and perhaps extrapolate beyond this for fantastical settings, Midgard particularly.
I also like how you can make use of a particular article whether or not you use the particular system it may be written to serve. For example, “The Heroic Flaw” by Philippe-Antoine Menard has relatively rules-light suggestions for character flaws and traits that could be used for players to refine their role playing ability more so than simply a Trait Point rules mechanic.
My favorite Pathfinder rules supplement specific article is “Synergistic Magic: combining Spells for Twice the Power” by Phillip Larwood. This article includes so-called Synergistic Feats, one of which is a teamwork feat and is also compatible with the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide as well as the Core rules. These feats utilize the fairly standard but easy to achieve prerequisites that are common for most of the Pathfinder Metamagic Feats. I may quibble with the level at which these may be gained for my own home campaign, but the ideas are solid and provide players and game masters ways to individualize spell caster abilities. In addition to the feats are a series of very useful examples of spells created with these feats.
Whether you want articles for use in your own campaigns or to simply read the latest article written by your favorite author, KQ is a nice supplement to have. The number of articles is stunning and the quality of such is always high. And every time I look, it grows in size. I have to admit I don’t have every copy, only a few select magazines that contained articles I really wanted to read. So I can say that this magazine started out good and continues to get better.
I can't rate this at less than 5 stars. This periodical does everything it sets out to accomplish with panache and artistry.
I really have high hopes for the Shining Valkyrie. I have a soft spot for strong female characters. They appeal most strongly to my innate desire to want to be a hero. This is the reason I role play, not just for good tales and good times with friends. Spoilers below, you have been warned.
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So, she’s a healer and doesn’t like cheaters, but won’t stand up to the Khan or help those in need until a fight is done, but only is interested in the Coliseum Morpheon and has little interest in the folk of the Tarnished Souk. Hmm, I already want to change her motivations and personality. The stat block is the most useful part of this for me. She is just a heal-bot, and not a very interesting one though evidently easy on the eyes. Still, she’s not my idea of a strong female character. Stating her up as an Oracle per Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide is useful to me. The added bit on the Aellar (winged elves) is also quite useful. Still she’s an NPC not a PC so she shouldn’t be the hero of the story, that is the players’ jobs. I can live with the weak character motivations. It also gives the party some role play possibilities.
Just like the other Tarnished Souk NPC supplements, this one includes a couple of different lower level stats for the same character. In fact, if I use her as she is written up, I prefer to keep her at a lower level. This way it makes more sense that she hasn’t tried to buck the system. This goes to show just how much the multiple stat blocks that appear in all the Tarnished Souk materials shine. The flexibility of being able to use the same character at multiple levels for many needs makes this a great product. Along with the various stat blocks there are also a couple of templates that have been applied to her including notes on how to become a Mithral-Clad creature.
This is where the format of the Tarnished Souk NPC creations demonstrates its usefulness. I can make use of this character even though I dislike the write up of the NPC as written, for the CR 20 version. The lower level stat blocks allow me to keep this same vision of the character’s personality and not have to modify to suit my own view of how a powerful healer like the Valkyrie behaves. I still can do that, but it gives me some flexibility to utilize her as a flawed individual at a lower level who has room for growth, and can be affected by the PCs in either a positive or negative manner.
I am still not going to give this one a full 5 stars, the female heal-bot beauty trope is an old and tired one in my opinion. So I am giving this supplement 4 out of 5 stars.
This is the second part of the Curse of the Golden Spear adventure trilogy set in the Kaidan campaign setting. First off, like the previous adventure, the art and layout are very good. I frankly love that some of the art is taken from public domain sources and is traditional Japanese. This does an excellent job at setting the scenery and mood of this adventure, just as in the first part. Of course the maps are all stunning. I love good maps.
The adventure continues at the Diamyo’s palace. Here we get to meet this creepy guy and the foreign adventurers should now have their hackles raised after meeting him. He is more than a little creepy, though perhaps the PCs won’t identify just exactly how or in what way, yet. At any rate, it seems half their job is done. All that remains is to escort their employer back to Gaijinoshima. This should be fairly easy, except there are a few obstacles along the way, a few detours, and the rest of the adventure.
There is a certain element of railroading that the GM must perform to get the PCs to the second encounter location. I do love the fact that the author has taken this into account that some parties will not be forced to remain with their employer as he deviates from the obvious path back. As an experienced GM I love the fact that some consideration is given for the recalcitrant party so I don’t have to come up with situations to steer the PCs back onto the path. Even so, you may have to allow a few PCs to die if they refuse. I love the fact that the method used to keep PCs from going off on their own and out of the adventure isn’t a contrivance but that it fits very nicely into the plot as a whole. This isn’t called the Curse of the Golden Spear for no reason.
The scene at the Garden Shrine and the encounters associated with are optional in the sense that the party may choose not to go this way with their employer. If they don’t there are serious consequences and a missed opportunity to earn a very nice magic item. But I would let this play out. There have to be consequences for not following through and at least making an effort to keep their employer safe.
Then there are a few encounters designed to help motivate the PCs onwards to the conclusion of this adventure. Some may balk at the herding, but it is entirely in keeping with the plot and the Diamyo’s decisions on what to do with this group of gaijin. There are a few encounters in the forest and some notes on the weather that are both useful for this adventure and useful for one’s own campaign set in Kaidan.
Part three of this adventure has some ties to the first adventure. There are consequences, good or bad, for how the PCs dealt with the situation in the village of Agoya. Consequences are key elements to help immerse PCs into a particular world and show them that their actions matter. Located in the rural forest village of Kitsumura, the PCs are introduced to the villagers and if they played their cards right in the first adventure should have no trouble locating where to go next to cure their curse. Of course it is never that simple and there is adventure to be found here as well.
What follows is an amazing set of appendices that the GM can use either for this adventure alone or for an extended campaign set in Kaidan. Appendix 1 is on PC reincarnation in Kaidan, important whether you are just going to run this adventure trilogy or an entire campaign in Kaidan. Appendix 2 includes the new monsters found in this adventure as well as a few monster templates. Appendix three details the new class of the samurai ranger called Yojimbo. Appendix four explains samurai honor for those who are not students of Japanese culture, very important if you intend to run a campaign set in Kaidan, or any other Japanese-like setting. Appendix five includes five pregenerated characters, useful for those who loose PCs or for other use, even use as NPCs by the GM. Lastly is a glossary of words and names which comes in handy for the GM.
Dim Spirit is perhaps even better than its predecessor at getting the characters to know the campaign world of Kaidan as they begin to discover just how different this place is. There is such depth in culture, setting details, characterization, plot, as well as the visual elements of maps and pictures that you really do feel the authors' familiarity and appreciation for this pseudo-Japanese style campaign. There is no fake American media drivel here, this is honest and so well researched that one can’t help but feel immersed in the culture. Granted this is a fantasy adventure and there are things here that really don’t exist, but we know this and expect it. The fantasy elements all belong here, none are incongruous. A Japanese Ghost story indeed, to the folks at Rite Publishing, Jonathan McAnulty and Michael Tumey, well done; this is well worth a five star rating.
As this is a compilation of work created by several persons, I will attempt a short review of each element in the Alleys of Zobeck. Please note that this material is really meant to be used specifically with Streets of Zobeck and while some elements can stand alone or be pulled out to fit in some other setting, others cannot.
• Nothing to Declare – an introductory adventure to introduce the players to Zobeck. This assumes the PCs have never been to Zobeck before. For those who grew up here obviously this little short bit isn’t needed. It provides an adventure hook to other adventures and NPCs within the city.
• Alternate Lust Domain – a domain specific to a deity in the Midgard Campaign setting. It works well with the adventure “Flesh Fails,” but is easily modified to similar deities in any campaign setting.
• Vralgor Szarn’s Territory – featuring an encounter with Barghest gang members of Vralgor Szarn, an NPC from Streets of Zobeck from the adventure “The Fish and The Rose”. There is no stat block provided here for this pair of Barghests and a GM must have access to the Pathfinder Bestiary that contains it.
• Clockwork Abomination – a CR5 new creature for use with the adventure “The First Lab”. This evil fiendish construct is an easily portable monster and can be inserted into any campaign the GM wishes.
• Template: Infernally Possessed Creature – This monster template is for the adventure “Ripper” in Streets of Zobeck. A partial stat block is also provided for something called an Ice Devil (Gelugon) Spirit. It isn’t clear if a gelugon-possessed creature is the same thing as an infernally-possessed creature.
• Goldscale – Male kobold paladin. This full stat block includes not only background, motivations & goals and schemes & plots notes, but also Goldscale’s bonded mount – a dire weasel and includes stats for adding dire weasel as an animal companion.
• The Gutter Prophet – the cleric benefactor of the streets of Zobeck. This includes his full stat block along with notes for background, motivations & goals and schemes & plots.
• Sam Nesclem – NPC stat block for use with Streets of Zobeck. A low level NPC with full stat block and an interesting connection to the river traffic around Zobeck.
• New Feats – 5 feats: Cheap Shot, Eye Gouge, Graft Clockwork, Low Blow, and Underhanded Strike. Except for the item creation feat, Graft Clockwork, the other feats listed all require the first, Cheap Shot as a prerequisite.
• New Traits – 4 regional traits and 3 religion traits that are specific to Open Design’s Midgard setting.
• New Magic Item – The Clockwork Hand is, if you’ll pardon the expression, a handy item. This and the magical and mundane items in the New Gear section fit well with the setting.
• Small Treasures – An extremely useful table of random treasures, just perfect for the enterprising sneak thief or pick-pocket.
Locations – What follows next are a few locations detailed for GM use in the city complete with descriptions and maps.
• The Rampant Roach – A seedy inn with local color in the form of personalities, locals and some scenarios to use.
• Ulmar’s Rare Books – A book store run by a dwarf who is also detailed with stat block and a few scenarios. What is missing is a nice randomized list of books available for purchase.
• Other Location Scenarios – a couple of scenarios for use in the locations described in the Streets of Zobeck supplement.
• Finally, not so much a location as a way to travel between them, Blackeye’s Carriage is a useful and occasionally informative way to see the streets of Zobeck. This section includes background material and a stat block for Blackeye the kobold coachman.
Like Streets of Zobeck, I am rating this at 4 of 5 stars as the material within is strongly tied to the City of Zobeck and works closely with the Streets of Zobeck supplement. If you are running a campaign set in Zobeck, or have purchased Streets of Zobeck to pull out some useful personalities, adventures or settings, then you should consider this one as well.
I am not certain about ancient, but the Streets of Zobeck is unappologetically wicked.
This book is intended for use with Open Design’s campaign Megalopolis Zobeck. It builds on the material presented in Kobold Quarterly magazine and the Zobeck Gazetteer. The introduction clearly states the purpose of this book, to give more flavor and material to flesh out the seedier side of Open Design’s grand Clockwork City. People who already have these products or intend to collect them don’t need me to tell them to get this book. It does what it promises. However, if you are like me and don’t have the other materials for the City, you may want to know if the contents are suitable to stick in your own campaign.
This is as advertised, an adventure anthology. There are eight separate mini adventures ranging in difficulty from levels from 1st - 3rd to 10th or 11th. Beyond just the mini adventures are a number of other sections, including People of Zobeck, eight detailed NPCs with full stat blocks ranging in CRs from 2 to 12. There is a section on Places of Zobeck which details six specific locations well-suited for adventure and the nefarious designs of the GM. Traces of Zobeck details new extra feats, traits, spells and items. Please note that the places and NPCs introduced in the first sections of the book are also utilized in the following adventures.
The Adventures:
• Everyone Lies by Ben McFarland is a low level adventure for 1-3 suitable for introducing players to Zobeck’s underbelly. Low level challenges full of back-stabbing intrigue make this a perfect introduction to a campaign set in the City of Zobeck. Should you have need of a gritty back-streets city-style adventure in your own campaign, this would also make an excellent choice, though it would need minor modifications to make the factions match your own.
• Rust by Richard Pett is a fairly low level adventure for 5th level set in a clockwork or steam-punk style setting. While it is well suited for an urban setting, it doesn’t have to be. With some minor tweaks this can work for anyplace a GM needs a clockwork controlled adventure setting to be.
• The Fish and the Rose by Christina Stiles is another low level adventure for those whose lively-hoods are made by taking things from others. This one is tougher than the previous two so make certain your players have characters able to handle the combat or be comfortable with potential character deaths.
• The First Lab by Mike Franke is a low to mid-level adventure for 7th level. The story behind this adventure is a great deal more setting specific than the previous two. This hearkens back to the history of the City of Zobeck. For those running a campaign in Open Design’s Zobeck it is a must. For others it would need more tinkering to make use of the adventure.
• Rebuilding a Good Man by Matthew Stinson is a mid-level adventure for 9th level. This is an interesting take on the reasons one would want to create a gearforged type golem and ties in tangentially to the previous adventure.
• Ripper by Mike Franke is a mid-level adventure for 10th level characters that is loosely based on the story of Jack the Ripper. Thematically it is perfect for a place like Zobeck. Many of the pressures and conflicts occurring in the streets of Whitechapel in London can be seen in Open Design’s Zobeck. Of course you have to also add the mix of overcrowding, foreign immigrants, poverty, high crime, and gangs to the complications of magic, mechanical constructs, and anything else the devious minds of Open Design can devise.
• Flesh Fails by Christina Stiles is a mid-level adventure for 9-11th level characters. This adventure could be suited for any arcane academy regardless of campaign setting and has an investigative element to it as well.
Filled with all sorts of interesting, sordid, gritty back-street style locations and NPCs, Streets of Zobeck is a treasure trove for anyone seeking bits they can use in an urban campaign or adventure of their own. For those who intend to use Open Design’s Zobeck, this is a must-have. The maps, encounters and NPCs are all very well done. The only complaint I have is about the art. It is so very highly detailed that I often had difficulty determining what I was seeing. Though I do feel a bit like the Emperor in the movie Amadeus when he criticized Mozart’s brilliant composition by telling him it had, “too many notes.”
I rate this at 4 of 5 stars. The reasons are due mainly to the fact that I am not running a campaign in Zobeck and the resources in this book are strongly tied to the campaign setting. Some are able to be tweaked a bit but others would take a moderate to significant effort to pry them from the Midgard and City of Zobeck. Were I running campaigns exclusively in this setting, this book would be a must-have.
My first impression of this book when I saw a copy at PaizoCon was admittedly very high. The production, layout and art are fantastic, gorgeous and professional. Artists Kieran Yanner and Hugo Solis are fairly well known names for good reasons. Everyone knows the folks at Open Design have a good thing going and lots of talent from which to draw. So my expectations were very high. Does the content within stack up to those high expectations?
The first part is a discussion about drakes, what they are, how they are classified, and how they differ from dragons and so forth. I expected this. I didn’t expect but hoped for some in-character stories to go along with what could perhaps be dry textbook-like material. I was not disappointed. It went a long way towards showing the intelligence of drakes, that they are not some simple minded lizards, even the more brutal varieties. The antics of the Ash Dragon as it cleverly found a way inside the abode where the characters were discussing drakes and their ways was a nice touch. Along with this was a very clever drawing that looked like a scientific study of a drake’s claw and a random table (if you happen to have a d30) of interesting treasures a drake might possess. Accompanying this is a short note on drakes in Open Design’s Midgard Campaign Setting. This section ends with a brief description of 10 unique drakes and their abodes within Midgard. It is important to note for those who don’t run campaigns in Midgard, that it would be fairly easy to transplant most of these drakes by finding a similar locale in the GM’s setting of choice.
Player’s Section:
What follows next is a very useful tool for players and GM’s who wish to create characters that have drake familiars and includes feats for drake companions.
Here’s the list of drake feats:
• Cling Attack – Combat Maneuver to attach to an enemy
• Companion Aid – Extra bonuses when companion creature aids the PC
• Drake Dart – Acrobatics check to set opponent’s DC for AoE
• Ease of Form – Remain in shape-changed Drake form longer
• Foe Climb – Retain Dex bonus when using Cling Attack
• Shared Companion – Gain benefits from an ally’s companion
• Tooth and Claw Form – Unarmed attacks can deal piercing or slashing damage
For drake companion feats, there were three.
• Companion Friend - +4 to convince companion to do what you want
• Exceptional Relationship – No longer have to make diplomacy checks for your drake companion
• Willful Companion Drake – Gain a companion drake.
My favorite is the Willful Companion Drake; a drake that is no mere brainless follower run by the player, but must be appeased with something of real monetary value or it will pout and act out.
Also in this chapter are some alternate class abilities for PCs that pertain to drakes. Of these the most interesting one was the Paladin archetype, the Dragon Challenger. Wizards had some love too, with the alternate class called the Drake Tamer. Drake lovers will appreciate this one. Each class has a little something for it in this section, including Advanced Player’s Guide classes and special class features. For lovers of the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Player’s Guide, this will find much use. For lovers of prestige classes, there is also a spellcaster prestige class called the Master of Drake Forms.
What if your players want to do something really different, such as role play drakes? Well, there is a nice section on creating and playing Pseudodragon and Candle Drake characters. That sounds like fun! It would take a bit to modify most standard adventures to suit a party of drakes. But even so, it would be uproariously funny to have tiny drakes zipping around the city of Zobeck investigating things that mundane land-bound bipedal people miss.
A small selection of spells for different PC classes having to do with drakes follows. Plus there is a section on drake specific magical items and a useful table on drake weaponry, mundane and adventuring gear specifically for drake characters.
Game Master’s Section:
The bulk of this section is the Drake Bestiary, a collection of very different, strange and wondrous drakes, including stat blocks and everything a busy GM needs to toss them at his players, from the brutal Ash Drake to the cute and helpful Candle Drake and many others. (Time for girly squealing – the Candle Drake, the Dream Drake and the Song Drake are sooo cuuute!) The only thing I found strange was the collection of “material” drakes that were not treated as constructs. There resemble clockworks more so than constructs, though only the gear drakes are composed of traditional clockwork-type gears. They are sentient, or as sentient as a drake can be. In addition to the Gear Drake, other “material” drakes included the Glass Drake - looking like a glass sculpture, the Paper Drake – looking like a bit of origami, and the Steam Drake – which can turn gaseous as in the spell gaseous form. Not all the drakes are little things. The Crag Drake, Deep Drake, Plumed Drake, River Drake and Tor Drake are all large-sized creatures. There were a few strange and interesting drakes, such as the Prismatic Drake, Moon Drake, and Pact Drake which could be used for adventure fodder in atypical ways, possibly as a source of magical components or as individuals to be sought for quests and the like. The other drakes included are as follows: Alehouse, Crimson, Mist, and Sewer.
Okay now, here’s the part I wanted to see most after the section on types of drakes: Building Drakes. This is so useful for GMs who wish to construct campaign-specific or unique drakes. Brought to us by one of the master monster creators, Adam Daigle, it is without a doubt one of the most thorough treatises on specific monster creation I have read. There is even a Feature point table with all of the features one might attribute to a drake to help a GM customize his or her drake masterpiece. And for flavor there is a nice list of cosmetic features. What follows is an example on how to use this section to build a drake with a sample drake known as the Vine Drake included. There is even a cute illustration by Hugo Solis of the Vine Drake.
So did this book meet my expectations? And how, in fact it exceeded them significantly. This is the way to do a supplement and make it useful for both players and game masters. I rate this at 5 of 5 stars.
First off, I have to admit my bias. I do not like the Magus class. I am an old school player and game master. Mage classes are supposed to have melee classes protecting them while they cast their spells. However I do recall the old elven fighter/magic user class from the “good old days” that allowed the elf to be a weak fighter and weak caster, but be able to do both. Many like these types of characters and want to build a character based on these extraordinary individuals who possessed great power like Elric of Melnibone’ and the jedi of the Star Wars universe. Given the audience in mind, I will try to look past my personal biases and see the material presented on its own merit.
I particularly appreciate the analysis of the Magus class at the beginning. This is useful for those who think they want to play a Magus but need some hints and guidelines on how to play this class well. For players who are already good at optimizing characters, this is perhaps not as useful. It still makes for interesting reading though. For players who are hopeless at optimization this is an extremely useful tool even for a campaign where optimization isn’t needed.
Following the analysis of the Magus class as a whole is a series of “Advanced Feats”. The summary table with summary and prerequisites is a handy tool. A few feats seemed particularly interesting but others seem too good. The Magus class is overpowered enough at it is, so those feats that allow the Magus to break rules, particularly if done in a metagame fashion, I dislike.
Advanced Feats: Might of the Magus - list
Adrenalin Surge – moral bonuses in combat when at half health
Arcana Thief – gain arcane points for disrupting and dispelling spells
Cleaving Spellstrike – spellstrike when using cleave feat
Clever Maneuvering – use Int instead of Str for calculating CMB
Dancing Strike – take a 5’ step between each attack
Evasive Spell – casting doesn’t provoke AOE
Grasping Strike – initiate grapple after successful unarmed attack
Greatweapon Spell combat – Use spell combat with a two handed weapon
Hobbyist – Gain full ranks in a single skill
Ki Arcana – Intermingle Ki and Arcane pool
Last-Ditch Effort – Perform a standard action before you fall in battle
One Handed Grappling – Not hindered when grappling with only one hand free
Parrying Defense – Sacrifice attacks to increase AC
Precise Attack – Sacrifice attacks for greater accuracy
Ranged Spell Combat – Spell combat with ranged weapons
Reckless Attack – Sacrifice defenses to gain bonus to hit adjacent foes
Savage Spellstrike – Use weapon’s critical multiplier for spell damage on a confirmed nat. 20
Spell Charge – Cast a touch spell as part of a charge
Spelldrinker – a black blade can learn spells from enemy spellcasters
Spellstrike Multishot – Deliver a spell affect with both arrows
Spellstrike Trip – Deliver touch spells while making a trip attack
Touch of Opportunity – Use touch spells as AOE
Unbalancing Parry – When you fight defensively, opponents that miss you suffer AC penalty
Unorthodox Training – Swap a good save for a poor one
Warding Touch Spell – Turn a touch spell into a personal ward
Weapon Reliability – Do not auto miss on a natural 1
Whip Mastery – Overcome whip’s limitations as a combat weapon
Wrap Strike – Swing around opponent’s shield in combat
Discussion of specific feats:
Black Blade Spellbook and Spelldrinker seem particularly well done for the Black Blade archetype.
The multiclass feat Ki Arcana is clearly a niche feat and only those who wish to play the Magus with a class that has a Ki power can even take it.
Spellstrike Multishot is clearly overpowered in my view as it allows a Magus to cast two spells in the same round. Its prerequisite Ranged Spellstrike seems very useful in that it allows touch spells to be delivered at range.
I particularly liked Dancing Strike and its utility is not restricted to the Magus only. I can see some finesse fighter or bard dancing back and forth between opponents like Syrio Forel from The Game of Thrones.
Of the ones I didn’t like, Weapon Reliability tops that list. Under no circumstance will I remove the auto miss feature in the game. There should always be a chance at failure no matter how powerful a character is. It also goes both ways, if the players can take this, why not the game master for his favorite NPC with which he wishes to thrash the PC’s. It is the recipe for potential game group disaster if the players think the GM is cheating.
Next is a discussion on character builds and three individual examples with flavor and story backgrounds. Now these examples don’t have full stat blocks for GM use, but the stats and suggestions for archetype, features, feats and ability increases for each level as well as the suggested spell lists are useful for both GM and player.
The feats provided included some really interesting and useful ones as well as a few that are not good. I really appreciated the analysis of the Magus at the beginning as well as the designer’s discussion of each feat are useful and appreciated. There were also a number of boxed items discussed that are useful for running or building a Magus. These included a discussion on mithral buckler use, a note on magic swords and real world mythology, a discussion on feat balance, notes on weapon crit ranges with regards to the Magus spellstrike ability, uses of armor spikes, and notes on role playing characters with low charisma.
Overall, the feats that I liked outweigh the ones that I didn’t. The additional discussion on building and running a Magus as well as the designer’s notes on the new feats were interesting and useful. However this extra discussion took up space that perhaps could have been filled with actual content. For those that only want additional content and don’t need the extra discussion, this book may not be as useful. Those that were hoping for full stat block treatment for the sample characters will be disappointed. However this is clearly intended to be a player resource not a game master specific one. For new players who want to know the ins and outs of playing a Magus, this is particularly useful. So my rating is a 4 of 5 because I see some use in the design comments and others. Even though I didn’t love all the feats, it was interesting to read the design comments.
First off, I can say this without equivocation; I don’t like the Magus Class. I am an old school player and game master. Mages need melee classes to keep the beasties off of them so that they can cast their spells. They are NOT up-front fighters. Now I do realize that there are many who really like this kind of character, an Elric of Melnibone’, a fantasy jedi, an elf in the tradition of the old basic DnD style fighter-magic user. I also acknowledge that not everyone has a full group to play with and needs a character that plays more than one role. I will attempt to look past my bias and see the material presented on its own merit.
The following is a listing of New Magus Arcana that struck a chord with me:
Animate Weapon – This ability is thematically appropriate and cool for the Magus character. Also I can see this as a fun and interesting link to Asian style martial arts genre.
Athame Knowledge – This is an interesting extension of the Magus’s special relationship to his or her weapon. It fits into an Asian style campaign very well. I particularly like the link to the character becoming an extension of the weapon’s history and is a very cool way to link potential lesser artifact creation.
Athame Surge – Again as in the previous ability, this can be used to turn a weapon into a lesser artifact given time and use should the game master wish to allow this.
Black Blade Repost – This fits in well with the Black Blade Archetype.
Eldritch Athame – Turning one’s weapon into pure energy seems highly appropriate for this class.
Energy Web – An interesting ability that I think is particularly well suited to drow and similar beings.
Necromantic Strike – This disrupts life and unlife and is a pretty cool ability. I put it on my “like” list but it needs a little work. Perhaps in order to harm living beings, this must first require the Magus’s weapon to absorb necromantic energy from undead. This limits the ability and gives it some logic for how it can affect both.
Song of Arcane Triumph (and the other abilities specific to elves and half elves) – A cool flavor ability for a Magus who is also an elf.
Ultimate Eldritch Athame – This is a continuation on the Eldritch Athame ability and taken together with Athame Knowledge and Athame Surge seems most appropriate for the Magus class. Though I would want to allow this only as a capstone ability, level 20, as opposed to the level 15 access given.
The New Magus Arcana that I didn’t like:
Augment Physical Prowess – This is too much like certain the features of the Alchemist class by Paizo. It doesn’t fit my view of a Magus class ability.
Bounding Step – I can see the desire for this one to mimic some of the things seen in certain genre films. But, I think a magus should have to cast the fly spell in order to fly; otherwise it is not interruptible and is overpowering in my view. At the very least raise the level requirement a bit so that the magus has to know and use the spell fly prior to gaining the ability to use a single arcane pool point. Alternatively, raising the pool points required might go a long way to balancing this ability a bit.
Doublefire Wand – No, this is too overpowering. Particularly at 15th level when a Magus would have all kinds of additional abilities and spells. Granted once those are all used up relying on a staff or wand as a last resort means the player (or if done in character, the character) overextended him or herself and must take the consequences.
Nigh Irresistible Strike – Being able to disrupt magical defenses seems to be a cool ability, but there simply isn’t a logical reason for it to work as described. It needs more flavor as to how and why this works. If it is acting as a dispel magic, how is it not canceled out by the Magus’s own natural spell powers. There needs to be a check on this. Perhaps once used, the Magus can’t use points from his Arcane Pool or Magus Arcana for the next round.
Wave of Mutilation – So, how does this work exactly? A single cut of the Magus’s weapon becomes a “scything wave of energy” that sweeps a 30-foot cone of magical force at her enemies. It seems too powerful, too cartoonish and doesn’t make sense to me. How does this work? Why not just use a cone spell instead? Now if the Magus could cause her weapon to be a spell storing type and cast a cone-type spell into it and then unleash it upon his enemies as she cuts a swath through them, then it makes sense. As is? No, it is too overpowering and too cartoony and ridiculous.
Singer of Blades:
The Singer of Blades is a flavorful Magus archetype for elves and half elves. This seems pretty balanced and fun. The abilities are appropriate and the capstone ability, Furious Dance, is interesting. I would like to know if these replica blades are considered to be pure energy, and if so, of which type of energy. Can the Magus determine which energy at the moment he uses this ability? The spell doesn’t specify this as clearly as I would like it to. But I assume this only lasts the round it is used. It can be activated a minimum number of times per day, based upon Intelligence.
New Feats for the Magus:
Maybe I am a mean GM, but I would severely curtail the number of feats a Magus class could take due to the sheer number of class abilities the Magus already receives. That being said, how do these new feats work with the Magus?
The Bladebound Defense feat fits with the Black Blade Archetype and would be appropriate if that archetype is allowed.
Clinging Touch, Crippling Touch … seem to add too much to the already extreme power of the Magus to the extent that they seem to overpower the class even further.
Dance of Ruin and Dance of Death have a large number of prerequisites and thus are balanced out by requiring the character to devote many levels worth of feats. They also add to the defense of the character rather than offense. Of course this allows the Magus to be even more self-reliant, but if the player and game master are already playing this type of campaign it doesn’t seem too overpowering.
Deny the Afflicted seems to be only for a dual Magus and Witch and very niche. But for the player who wants to combine these two highly complex classes and has a GM that allows it, the ability itself doesn’t seem too overpowered.
Improved Reflection improves the Magus’s reflection class ability to allow the Magus to direct where the reflected spell goes. The use is restricted only by the prerequisite of the Magus Arcana reflection ability and the character’s Intelligence bonus and seems a bit overpowered. I’d like to see some sort of level based prerequisite as well.
New Magic Items:
These go from cool and awesome, like Mournsky, the minor artifact/black blade, to the Crystal of Arcane Assimilation which seems to be either missing some text description or was not thought through enough. To be specific with the Crystal; I am not clear on what the gem actually does. If it can be used to transfer magical energies from one magical weapon to another during the lengthy ritual mentioned; then it can be used to take a weapon gained as treasure which no one in the particular party can use and make it useful. I don’t have a particular need for this. If I wish my players to have access to magical weapons their characters can use, then I add them in as treasure. For those who wish to play a character like Elric of Melnibone’ then Mournsky would be a very cool quest objective for that character. I can see that as the reward at culmination of many adventures and many heroic tales.
Conclusion:
On the whole the good, flavorful, and useful abilities, feats and magic items offered in this supplement make this worth picking up. For a campaign in which there are a limited number of players, one or two, the Magus becomes a very fun class to play. The Singer of Blades archetype is a good choice for elven characters. As for the look of this book, it is typical of Rite Publishing’s standards of production and all of the art within is in color. My rating on this is 4 of 5 stars, mainly due to those abilities that were overpowered or needed more tweaking to work well.
I first ran into the Tengu in an adventure product by Paizo, The Godsmouth Heresy. To avoid spoilers I will just say that they were encountered in a mini low level dungeon that seemed entirely out of place. No back story of significance was provided and it seemed that they were just included as a level appropriate potentially non-combat encounter. As I was modifying the thing for much higher level characters I chose to simply remove this out-of-place encounter. But as I did so, something scratched at the back of my brain. I was sure I had seen these beings before somewhere. I just chalked it up to the fact that I have read many game supplements over the years of playing and decided it was likely that my déjà vu came from this.
Then I heard of Rite Publishing’s In the Company of Tengu as a future supplement that fit in well with their Kaidan campaign world. This is when it struck me; I now know where I ran across references to these beings. Long ago I read about them in my studies of the cultures of Asia and the Pacific. Now I know why they didn’t fit in the dungeon where they had been placed. I could simply run the encounter as written, let my players deal with them and simply shrug when they ask questions. But I prefer to run adventures where things in them make sense. There has to be a reason why these creatures were in this dungeon, and prior to this product by Rite I was hard pressed to come up with a good one. Here is the value of Rite’s “In the Company of” series, for me. It fills in the background of these strange beings just as was done for the Kappa in a previous book. This isn’t merely for players who wish to play something quite alien from “typical” adventuring races. It provides a fully fleshed out society, an invaluable tool for the busy GM.
Included in this book are the player-centric tools for those who really want to play these bird folk in an Asian-style setting, from notes on Tengu adventurers and names, racial features, traits, and favored class options to class specific sections for running a Tengu PC. Not only does this supplement have the expected monk (Budoka) and paladin (Yamabushi) classes, but also there’s a Dire Boar mounted archetype for a Tengu Cavalier (Tenuhatamoto; Order of the Boar), an extensive section on a pure fighter class (Tengubushi), as well as a racial paragon class, the Hishoken, that interweaves a blade master with the Tengu’s affinity with flight and air. In addition is a section on the ultimate paragon of Tengu society, the Daitengu, which serves as an NPC for the GM or possibly the ideal goal of a PC. Lastly is a full page of Tengu-based feats.
The icing on the cake for me is the look of the book. Included in the pages is some art that clearly came from original Japanese sources showing their mythological view of the Tengu. In addition, there is some new color and black and white art that helps the players and GM visualize these beings. It isn’t all awesome, but it is good. I have to admit that I really like inclusion of the traditional Japanese art best of all, but that is probably the anthropologist in me.
From a personal note: I thank the folks at Rite for solving a plot hole for me in my own campaign, though you didn’t know I needed a solution. This provides me with a tapestry of culture that I can weave in front of my players and helps me prepare when they choose to get interested in these strange bird-like beings from a distant place. An encounter with an isolated group suddenly grows to become first contact with an entire society.
I rate this at five of five stars for this fantastic tool for both players and game masters who want to play in a Japanese-type setting. Admittedly this is a niche product, but that is what third party companies can do incredibly well. Rite Publishing proves this to be true yet again. More Kaidan setting tools please!
Yet another useful NPC to join the denizens of the Tarnished Souk, Arhanoht is a force for order and law. Beholden to no one but his own exacting standards, Arhanoht performs his self-imposed duty to keep order in the Souk. For the PC’s Arhanoht might be an ally, though he will not act against the Khan, at least not openly; and openly is the only way Arhanoht will act. He might serve as a resource for PCs due to his vast knowledge of the lore of various planes, not the least of which are the highest planes of order from which he fell. Though he will never be met in the Coliseum for reasons he does divulge to anyone, he may become an adversary of the PCs if they flaunt the law or cause disruption in the Souk. Uncovering Arhanoht’s story might become an adventure in its own right. Should the PCs give him what he desires the most, they would earn themselves a loyal friend for life and beyond.
As is typical of the Faces of the Tarnished Souk, this product comes with several stat blocks for the NPC at various levels as well as a number of character specific traits, feats, and magic items, including the Hammer of Justice, Arhanoht’s special meteor hammer. In addition, there is a variant monster: a Lesser Kolyarut (Inevitable), a lawful neutral being of low to mid levels for extended use anywhere in a GM’s campaign. Also there are new templates used for Arhanoht that may be applied to any monster the GM wishes.
All in all Arhanoht is a necessity for any Tarnished Souk campaign. He is also useful as a high level “Judge Dredd” style NPC for any campaign. His story is full of secrets to be discovered, a temptation many adventuring parties will find either irrisistibly intriguing or extremely useful. As Arhanoht is an Inquisitor with special abilities, the GM will want to have the Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide to understand all of the abilities of this class. Though the stat blocks in this product do tell enough about what the special abilities do to run Arhanoht. The cover art does a fantastic job displaying Arhanoht wielding his meteor hammer to its fullest effect as a very intimidating individual that would give even the most hardened criminal pause.
I rate this supplement at 5 out of 5 stars, excellent work as usual from the folks at Rite Publishing.
The bane of a Game Master with limited time on her hands is a player who memorizes the capabilities of monsters they have encountered, or read about. Even those who do try to roleplay the in game knowledge their character should possess still have a tendency to act upon what they know as a player or blurt their knowledge out loud to the rest of the group. Enter Rite Publishing’s 101 Monster Feats. This is a treasure of a tool box for those GMs who want to throw a twist into the standard abilities of monsters encountered. An added bonus is a GM’s ability to look through this book and put together abilities for entirely new monsters her own creation.
The feats in this book range from fairly mundane to eye-popping, “wow” in effect. With 101 feats there are some that are bound to be more interesting and/or useful. And what is interesting to some may not be so for others. None seemed to be overpowered. Those really interesting or powerful feats were limited by appropriate prerequisites. There were quite a few feats specifically designed for outsiders. Of all the monster categories, I think that outsiders are virtually limitless in their potential extent so having more extra things to alter them to a greater or lesser degree seems fitting. There were also some nice feats for those (like dragons) with a breath weapon ability.
Here are some of my favorites:
Alter Breath Weapon (Surprise! Not the breath weapon you were expecting from that color of dragon)
Aura of Suffering (a delicious twist to channel energy)
Continuous Breath Weapon (sweep your breath weapon in an arc equal in arc length [text says radius] to the standard length of the normal breath weapon)
Cursed Ability Damage (the ability damage cannot be healed except with a remove curse or more powerful magic) – Yeah, the potions of lesser restoration your players keep around in case of emergencies can’t touch this.
Death Grip (the undead to not tire and can more easily suffocate the living) - a really good reason to be wearing neck protection
Expel Creature (swallow whole and regurgitate back out projectile vomit fashion) - worth it just for the looks on my player’s faces
Greater Curse of Lycanthropy (the afflicted also possesses the ability to transmit the curse which cannot be cured until the originator of the curse is slain or destroyed) – this screams ADVENTURE IDEA to me.
Greater Pounce: (pounce +) Now this is a pounce! It seems particularly appropriate for a large animal that may otherwise be disappointingly mundane.
Improved Awesome Blow (Sends the smaller opponents flying when struck) – Oh yes, all giants of appropriate size and awesomeness are getting this one to use against my players’ characters. Those puny beings won’t know what hit them.
Living Phylactery (what it says) screams rescue mission adventure hook.
Pandemoniac Corruption (infecting a disease which kills as it births a new corruptor) is such a cruel thing to do to a PC. But whole town infected this way is an adventure waiting to be written.
Planar Instability (proximity to a being with this ability disrupts teleportation effects) “Exit stage left, I teleport away!” Um, no you don’t. *Evil GM grin*
In addition to these 101 monster feats there is also a spell, teleport attack which requires the Teleport Attack feat. This is a brutal spell which allows the caster to deliberately teleport an enemy into a solid surface.
If you are a GM who wishes to spice things up for your players this book is full of ideas. Certain of these feats are also perfect seeds for adventure. I saw none that were not useful, even for just a minor tweak to a creature’s abilities. On the whole I would say this selection of feats is well thought out, there is no filler. When I first skimmed the book I was going to grant it only 4 stars. Reading in depth caused me to realize just how many of these feats made wonderful adventure seeds. The beautiful layout and the flavor text at the head of each feat put this over the top. I give it five stars.
This is an adventure written for 4 to 5 - 5th to 6th level adventurers. I ran 9 - 4th level adventurers through this and it seemed fairly easy to adjust for this many players. There is a boxed note on how to scale the adventure for slightly higher or lower level characters, which is helpful. However it would have been nice if none of the boxed notes were white text on black background as that is hard on printers. The map and oblique view of the main school building were very well drawn. Art in this adventure was also very well done.
This adventure is in an investigative style set in a boarding school military-style academy. The investigative portion was well done and reminded me of some of the old Call of Cthulhu adventures I ran years ago. The story and character backgrounds are also very well done. There are many interesting NPCs and even a full but brief listing of every student in the school for those GMs who have players like mine who want to suspect EVERYBODY. Trust me, there were plenty of kids described that it even sated my players desire for detail.
When you have a large cast of non-player characters to run it becomes increasingly important to have the information that each NPC knows in a single location for the GM to reference. Numerous times I had to scroll through the entire pdf just trying to locate what information a particular NPC could divulge to a PC. The layout of the academy was also poorly done. Map key references on the maps had no corresponding notes in the descriptions. This made it very difficult to handle 9 players crawling all over the academy in different spots while I attempted to locate that bit in the paragraphs of text that told what the PCs would see in that particular room, what they had to search to find, and what would perhaps be discovered at a later time.
The lack of GM help in the layout made this a difficult adventure to run. Had I sufficient time to plan, I would have made a list for myself of each room and its contents (including the map key reference), each NPC with his or her knowledge and motivations, and each event with changes in the scene and other relevant information. However it sure does make it easier when the layout designer helps the GM by boxing in what the PCs will see when they enter a room or bolding bits of important text, and most importantly by adding bolded keys at the head of room descriptions that match the key on the map.
Minor Spoilers follow – You were warned.
Once the first portion is complete it is up to the GM to handle the players’ decisions. There is an outdoor “nature hike” portion that might be difficult to get all of the PCs on board with. The adventure as written assumes the PCs will all go. I have decided that my players are more like cats, of the large man-eating variety, than they are docile sheep. They won’t go where the adventure wants them to go if they see another way to investigate the goings on, or whatever their reasons might be. So be forewarned, players may try to jump the rails and the resourceful GM must have a plan or come up with one on the fly just in case. Now there is enough background and details on NPC motivations that I had no trouble deciding what to do with those PCs who didn’t want to attend the nature hike with the rest. This to me is a well written adventure, one that has enough information so that a GM doesn’t feel like they must have cattle prods in hand for when their PCs do try to jump, but can let the PCs do what they want.
Conclusions: The interesting story, investigative style and complex cast of NPCs made this a fun adventure to run. My players had a blast roleplaying and trying to figure out the mystery. The fun far outweighs the lack of support on the GM side. As long as a GM knows this in advance and has time to prepare and plan for solutions should his or her players hop the rails, the complaints expressed above become minor. I highly recommend this adventure for GMs who want something a little out of the ordinary. I am rating this at 4 of 5 stars.
This adventure is the first part of a three part series which introduces a new land, the land of Kaidan, a strange land in which access to other planes of existence is denied. Be wary travelers, you may enter and never leave again, not ever, not even in death. This first part includes an overview of the land, its people and creatures, politics and spiritualism, and the major portion which is the adventure. The later portion contains the numerous appendixes and glossary.
The premise of the adventure portion is that the players’ PCs are newcomers to this land and have to learn about this place and the strangeness they encounter along the way. There are a large variety of encounters to get the PCs introduced to the land and its people. Dealing with social aspects is just as important as killing monsters and taking their stuff. And there are plenty of role playing opportunities as well as some of the good old fashioned hack and slash.
The PCs are hired as the muscle for a merchant who wishes to impress a noble of the main island. He is bringing this noble a gift (hence the name of the adventure). It is assumed that the PCs are also foreigners as well as the merchant. For those who want to start characters in the land of Kaidan, it wouldn’t be too difficult to make them into locals who are hired in the initial port town. However if this is done, I would recommend purchasing the entire set, parts 1-3, before trying to start PCs from Kaidan. There is some information about the land but not a lot, and not everything the player or GM may need to know to have a Kaidan based game. Plus this adventure is designed for 5th level characters so they would have to gain some experience first as well has have a reason to be staying in the port town of the foreigners, Gaijinoshima. The information presented in this first part is definitely sufficient for a GM to run the adventure as is, premise intact, however.
At first the PCs and their employer will not be allowed off the small island where Gaijinoshima is located. The non-standard bureaucratic encounters are particularly meaningful for getting the players used to the social climate of Kaidan. It should become clear that the locals think more highly of their domesticated animals than they do of foreigners such as the PCs. This of course leads to all sorts of fun roleplay. IF successful in these first scenes at the port town, the PCs will be allowed with their employer to sail across the short bit of bay to the main island and proceed to the city where the noble resides. There are many more encounters on the way through the mountains that lie between. There are encounters with the natural denizens of the mountains as well as encounters with the local villagers and other, worse things before the final destination of this adventure.
There is not a lot of art, but the art that is present ranges from full color to clear black and white images which do an excellent job of giving an oriental, Japanese-style flavor. Every single page has a border that closely resembles bamboo, which is an interesting touch. What stands out for me, however, are the numerous maps, which could be used on a play mat by copying and placing on the game table for miniatures. I am not certain how easy this would be to convert to the files needed for Maptool and the like. The small scale full color map of the islands where this adventure takes place is gorgeous.
There are lots of little helpful tools for the GM in this adventure as well as the mini campaign guide herein. There are notes on how to engage the other players if there is a dramatic one-on-one combat going on, something the Kaidanese clearly seem to favor. There is a City stat block for the foreigner’s port town of Gaijinoshima as well as the farming village encountered along the way. There are also several appendixes. The first is on PC reincarnation, karma and on how the Wheel of Life in Kaidan works. The second contains new monsters, new templates, and a new subtype of monster that may be encountered in this adventure or in later ones. Appendix three contains pregenerated characters that are extremely helpful if the GM and players wish to start out at 5th level with characters ready to run. And lastly there is a glossary of words and names used in this adventure as well as a pronunciation guide. There are many terms and oriental-sounding names that may confuse Western eyes, so this is a useful tool for the GM.
As is becoming increasingly clear, Jonathan McAnulty and the gang at Rite Publishing go above and beyond the call of duty to provide awesome game materials. The Gift is an interesting, well-written adventure with a new campaign region, a compelling background, new monsters, story hooks and all with a twist to this land as intriguing any I have read before. If this is the trend, adventures accompanied by all the tools a GM needs to run a comprehensive campaign (short of thePathfinder Core Rulebook and the Bestiary), I like it. I rate this gem at five full stars and I can’t wait to see the rest, excellent work, guys and gals.
From Jonathan Roberts comes yet another gorgeous full color map scaled for miniature use with all the trimmings the others in the Fantastic Maps series possess, black and white low ink printer friendly maps, Maptool files, etcetera. There is also a note that refers to the adventure in the Kobold Quarterly #9 this lair was designed to accompany, for those in need of an adventure to run.
This map comes with an upper main lair layout and a lower area as well that overlap in the third dimension. As an added bonus, there is an oblique cut-away view of the layout of the lair and how the two sections are connected that is visually stunning. I love the artistic additions that make this look more like a natural, yet augmented limestone cavern with a flowing stream through the center of the complex. There are lots of little details in this lair, from a wench for heavy cargo to a fully dressed-out animal carcass cooking on a spit and more, that provide all sorts of in game high jinks for players and the game master. And, once cleared out of the current residents, wouldn’t this make a nice adventuring party lair?
I love a good map, a map that I don't have to try to redraw in full color, bonus. I rate this at 5 of 5 stars for this nice tool.
One look at the art on the cover and I knew that the word “mad” in her title might be an understatement. Before you even get to looking at the shrunken heads she is holding, her eyes say “craaaaazy!” What a deliciously evil foil for players to encounter. The addition of Maelgatryx provides a needed antagonist in the society of the Tarnished Souk. Although it would be a relatively simple matter to place the Mad Wench and her tavern anywhere. The tavern, known as the Rotgut Cauldron, is an establishment that makes seedy taverns look like temples of a lawful god.
Now for the good stuff, potential players shouldn’t read further.
Yes indeed she’s a witch. She looks, acts, and no doubt smells like one. Oh boy is this lady crazy. She talks to her shrunken heads and they don’t talk back, except perhaps only inside her own warped mind. She is rude and crude and mean drunk, which is most of the time; but she is even meaner when not drunk. This should make for some epic roleplay! I can’t wait to throw this one at my own players.
Of course with all the other Tarnished Souk character supplements this one comes with Dreamburning notes, rumors, adventure hooks and information for GMs on how to use this NPC. And of course there are several stat blocks of the Mad Wench at various CR ratings, the highest being CR 20, complete with gear and notes on special abilities. I absolutely adore her Waxen Image ability. It gives me giggles just thinking on how I can use this to mess with my players PCs. Maelgatryx also has a cacodaemon familiar and her pet shrunken heads, Hoscoe and Bogg, which are actually a minor artifact in her possession.
There are quite a few new feats and a new witch patron with associated abilities specific to the Mad Wench. There are also a few new spells which also appear in the 101 Spells series. In addition there is a section on the Rune-carved creature template. As if all this was not enough, there is also a section on variant tieflings with tables.
If you are a GM who intends to run a high level campaign whether in or out of the Plane of Dreams you need this “lady” to torment your players. Her Rotgut Cauldron tavern is a setting perfect for nefarious dealings and chaotic goings-on. If you are a GM who intends to take your players into the Coliseum Morpheuon, then I haven’t even mentioned the best part of the Mad Wench. She is a delightfully mischievous player of the Tarnished Souk and her connection to the Khan of Nightmares goes deeper than any know. Maelgatryx is a must-have high level NPC. Five stars for this supplement. Keep it up team Rite!
Well, no, the luckbringer isn't Irish. An irishman might wish he had the luckbringer's ability to alter chance.
This is written from the perspective of Rikva Cardsharp, a self titled luckbringer. I love this first person point of view. From her expository on her abilities we learn about this specialist class. There is no question that the luckbringer is a variant of a rogue core class, but it has abilities specific to altering fate rather than rogue talents. One noted traditional rogue ability the luckbringer does not get, and that is the sneak attack.
What does the luckbringer receive in place of the missing rogue abilities? The first called “Moment of Chance” is a pool-point ability, which increases as the luckbringer’s levels increase. With this the luckbringer can cause minor things to happen which alter fate just a touch. In game terms this can mean a reroll to have a chance at a different result, adding +1 or -1 to a roll resolving an action that takes place near the luckbringer, or even an added possibility of avoiding a deadly result from an attack or spell. As the luckbringer increases in experience she gains more chances per day and more and greater abilities to affect fate around her.
Starting at second level is the next set of abilities called “Improbable” from which the player can choose at every even level after. These relate to greater “weal or woe” affects on those the luckbringer targets. “Nothing is Written” is the name of the next set of abilities that arise at 3rd level with which the PC can use to escape negative results from a free reroll to added evasion or even extraordinary luck while chasing or being chased. And then at 5th level are the “Longshot” abilities which are expansions of the “Improbable” abilities received prior. At 10th level are even greater probability alterations termed “Highly Improbable.” Finally at level 20 there is an ability which sends a massive natural disaster upon the luckbringer’s target and can do a great deal of damage unless somehow avoided.
This class reminds me of one of my favorite characters in Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, Matrim Cauthon. I think it would be fun to play a perhaps less than talented rogue who keeps getting into and out of scrapes by sheer luck and not even knowing why. Cool! I love the luckbringer! This is a well-thought out fun character class and it doesn’t hurt that the art sprinkled throughout is eye catching as well. I rate Secrets of the Luckbringer at 5 of 5 stars.
This is a really clever take on an oriental style creature that has no direct analog in western culture. The Bakemono is a goblin that has shapechanging abilities as well as sexual dimorphism. Females are very different in appearance than males and have different ability adjustments if used as a non player race. The descriptions of the race are well written and thorough. There is even a paragon prestige class that can be used as a way to make NPCs leader types more interesting and can also be used by players if the GM allows this.
At first I didn’t like the picture of the male Bakemono, but I it actually does a very good job of demonstrating visually how different the males and females are in appearance. The only complaint I have is that I want more of these things for an oriental style campaign. But a little bird tells me that more is coming. Thumbs up on this supplement and I give this a rating of five stars.
As with the other maps of this series, the Dragon’s Lair comes with full color high res maps, 1” = 5’ scale maps for miniature use in both full color and printer friendly black and white, and Maptool files and objects for those who use virtual table top technologies.
The maps are clearly meant to house either a red dragon or other type who loves the heat of magma and does not mind the toxic fumes that normally arise from such. The map is gorgeous like all of Jonathan Robert’s other maps I have seen to date.
What I particularly like about this set is the cross-section view showing the relative height of the caverns. Sometimes this sort of thing gets forgotten in adventure game products. I am sure I am not the only one whose players ask the question, how high is the cavern, tunnel, room? If that information is not made available in the adventure or supplement the GM has to make that up on the fly sometimes. Here though what won’t happen, the cross-section is artfully done and even shows how the magma stream fills the lava lake in the main cavern, which is a very nice addition.
Also, the most essential pile of dragon’s gold is supplied. Is it a false patch to attract the unwary? I sure hope it is. But that is definitely up to the individual GM to decide.
I rate this 5 of 5 stars for yet another excellent and useful map by Jonathan Roberts and the folks at Rite Publishing.
Note: some spoilers exist in this review and should be read only by those GMs who intend to run a high level campaign.
Primus Gearheart is yet another denizen of the Tarnished Souk and a traveler in the Plane of Dreams. Role play opportunities abound with Primus and he has a number of tasks for PCs and enemies to defeat. Should the PCs impress him with their ingenuity, he also has some unique rewards for them as well. He provides ample opportunity for a Game Master to introduce his players to the complexities of the Plane of Dreams and find adventure in the Coliseum Morpheon beyond that which has been provided in the original supplement. This along with the multiple CR stat blocks and the section on creating a Clockwork Creature make Primus an essential addition to the Tarnished Souk.
Of course there is also the possibility that Primus can help the PCs in turn. Primus sells goods from the mundane to the magical and even clockwork constructs, if the PCs promise to treat them well. It is possible that Primus can craft Ironborn technologies onto the PCs themselves, though a separate supplement by Rite Publishing would need to be purchased for this “template” should a GM not wish to design his or her own.
What didn’t really interest me as much was some of Primus’s back story, particularly the often overdone trope of unrequited robot love. This is very minor though and can be ignored quite easily as there are plenty of other tasks. Some may find his more “human” side makes Primus even more interesting. I did like Primus’s other motivations particularly with regards to freeing other clockworks and constructs from slavery imposed upon them by the organic. Depending upon the make-up and possessions of your PCs, this could either place the PCs at odds with Primus or make them instant allies.
I rate Primus Gearheart at 4 of 5 stars due to some back story elements and for the fact that a separate supplement is needed to make full use of Primus’s benefits. Primus makes an essential part of the Tarnished Souk, so I would not want to exclude him when bring my PCs to this place. So far I have been very impressed with the denizens of the Tarnished Souk. Each one adds interest, complexity and excitement to a high level campaign. I hope to see many more clever ideas from the folks at Rite Publishing.
This Tavern bucks the standard trope of meeting in a bar. From an atypical circular structure, to secret escape hatches to special “quiet booths,” to removable partitions for accommodating larger than average patrons this place seems absolutely perfect for planning criminal activity or relaxing with a drink afterwards. For those seeking to bring said criminals to justice, however, this is a very dangerous place. The bartender is particularly good at his profession and the waitress is even better at hers. Fair warning, bringing a paladin into this tavern will demonstrate why being a paladin is such a challenge.
This Evocative City Site is definitely evocative. Numerous adventure ideas spring up unbidden, though there is a list of adventure hooks should a GM need them. The bartender and the waitress have full stat blocks with background, motivations, in fact everything a GM needs to run these two. There is also a full size 1” = five foot scale map to piece together so that the drafting impaired GM doesn’t have to try to redraw this circular tavern. There is a GMs map showing anything that is hidden to PCs as well.
The bartender has a few unique items and brewing techniques as well as a couple of feats that help him do his job. His brewing skills are unsurpassed. Crossing him is a dangerous enterprise within his domain. It is even more dangerous to break a deal with the waitress. Suffice it to say that she is fully capable of taking care of herself. The mysterious owners are never detailed. I happen to like this, because I know exactly where this tavern is going to be in my campaign and who the owners are. Adding something that may or may not fit in a particular GMs campaign would have been a waste of valuable space in this truly excellent supplement. It would have allotted less space to detail the bartender and waitress, a crime in itself.
No matter what campaign world is used any GM can likely find a suitable place for this tavern. Now I just need to locate a few villainous patrons for this tavern and perhaps some appropriate music from the cantina of Mos Eisley.
Pathways 3 is a free gaming resource by Rite Publishing.
First off is an article on how players can help their Game Masters by David Paul – Oh yes, I need to subtly introduce this article to my players.
Free Game Goodies!
Do I need another creature template? Yes please! This is the Wrathful Creature Template by Steven Russell and Matt Banach complete with a fully stat blocked CR 15 outsider of Righteous Fury: Roggziel of the Ire, with background information, tactics, motivations, lore and an interesting ability that will surely have your players howling. “You are right to fear me, and if you be mine enemy, you are right to despair.” Brr… Remind me not to misbehave. I wouldn’t want this thing after me. What is the difference between sinful wrath and righteous fury? Is this a little close to crossing the line for an angelic being? I say that every devil was an angel once. This is Tolkien’s viewpoint as expressed in his works, the concept that nothing ever begins as evil. This provides GMs an interesting tool with which to tinker in your own campaign. Also the illustration by Hugo Solis is really fantastic and makes you want to duck and hope he is not coming for you.
More cleric subdomain goodness - Laboring for the Gods: Clerics of Artifice, Constructs and Toil by Jonathan McAnulty contains the justification followers of these types of deities may have. Fully described are doctrines, new feats for followers who possess certain domains. There are also descriptions of sacred tomes and texts, some for flavor and others that give more than just information. In addition there are channeling effects for the Construct and Toil subdomains that utilize supplemental rules from The Secrets of Divine Channeling by Rite Publishing and Jonathan McAnulty.
Next on the list of goodies are more haunts to trouble your players. Malevolent Manifestation by T.H. Gulliver includes Kalil Tamar, an individual introduced to us in the +30 Intelligent Magic Items supplement, and his haunt minions which he uses to “soften up” individuals he intends to destroy. Fantastic stuff, Trevor! Keep it coming! My players and I will thank you.
Part 2 of Michael Welham’s article on the creatures known as synergixxik (your guess is as good as mine as to how to pronounce that tongue twister) looks a lot like the real world insect known as the Walking Stick, as evidenced by the picture provided. But this is far nastier than our real versions that eat only leaves and such and are harmless to people. Included are a number of stat blocks of different and increasing difficulties that will make your players check every twig and run screaming in terror from them. Lovely stuff, I can’t wait to use this on my own players.
Finally for gamey goodness comes an article by Creighton Broadhurst of a rather large female huntress and her pets. Teamwork is the key here and the more the merrier, for her, though perhaps not so for your players’ PCs.
Interview Goodness -
Twenty Questions with Brandon Hodge explains how he organized the creation of Open Design’s excellent Sunken Empires and other awesomeness he has created. The one question that Steve neglected to ask Brandon is does he realize how much his research and writing skills totally rock? I do mean that and not in a fan girl screaming sort of way… well… perhaps just a little. It is interesting reading on how Brandon came up with the concept of psychic mana, vril, and the source for his ideas on underwater fantastic technologies. It makes me want to track down a copy of Dweller on Two Planets by Frederick Oliver myself.
What follows next are a series of reviews of different Pathfinder compatible game materials by well-known reviewers.
Lastly is a 10 question interview with Malcolm McClinton, the artist who produced the absolutely gorgeous image on the cover of Sunken Empires by Open Design.
Did I mention this is free? I am sure I did. How can anyone pass this up? Surely everyone will find something here of use or to fan his or her own creative flames.
Okay, I know there is no actual mermaid in this map pack. But who's to say you can't have one here, or a sea hag, or something even creepier or dangerous? This is the kind of GM's tool I love, something that is a springboard for the imagination and a visual tool for players.
As with all map packs put out by Rite publishing and created by cartographer Jonathan Roberts, this has a lot of nice tools for any sort of game a GM can run. This is gorgeous in full color and also contains a printer friendly black and white version.
I love this map, so much that I am going to try to find a way to use it. Now all I have to do is sink a ship.
Oh yes, five stars for this one.
Edit: I meant to point this out, Kobold Quarterly #13 has an adventure that is specifically designed to go with this map (or vice versa).
Everyone has different opinions on certain game rules they allow in their games. I know for myself, I tend to keep a tight cap on what I allow. I allow traits only if they fit the character concept, not the other way around. With traits I see an avenue to forgo role play for roll play, and this is easily abusable by certain types of players. This personal bias of mine I feel I needed to note before giving my review of this book.
Every major race in the Pathfinder Role Playing Game Core Rules was included in this book. With 101 racial traits there are bound to be some that are more useful or more thematically appropriate than others. On the whole I liked more of the traits than I disliked, while the bulk of the traits remained in the so-so category. I found that I tended to like the traits that best fit the race thematically. I also found that I really disliked traits that added some other ancestry that seems in some cases mind bogglingly impossible (unless one uses the excuse that “magic did it,” which gets overused). The singular exception to this was the Trixie Ancestry trait for Gnomes. The groups that stand out with the best thematic racial traits in my opinion are the Dwarves, Elves and Gnomes. There were a few worthwhile traits for the remaining races, plus the set for Half-Elves with Drow ancestry if the GM allows Half-Drow in his/her game.
For GMs who like to give their players lots of options to express individuality through rules (rather than role play), I think this is an extremely useful book. Even if individual GMs don’t like all the traits, they should find some in this collection of traits they find useful and thematically intriguing. For this reason I am giving this a three of five star rating. *But I changed my mind, 4 of 5 stars, given the very nice layout work on this supplement.
I almost forgot. The pictures in this book are mostly all in full color, which is nice. I particularly liked the one of the Gnome with Trixie Ancestry. Maybe that is why I liked the trait?
The first things that stand out are the gorgeous maps and well-done art. The art of the interior is all black and white, not so for all of the maps. The regional map showing the starting town of Chologadi, the nearby jungle, a few interesting places that may be expanded upon by the Game Master, and the location of Madaro-Shanti. This map has a single color that is textured to look like some sort of yellowing ancient parchment, which I thought was pretty neat. The map of the ruins is done in a similar fashion of black lines on yellowed and textured background, but also has green for tree tops. The maps of the areas beneath the ruins are equally well done with a similar color and inking scheme. The vertical dungeon layout is different and intriguing. The interior art is all simple inked lines but very nicely done and representative of what players see at certain points in the adventure. The front cover art is in full color and creepy, but it doesn’t have anything directly to do with the adventure. Instead it is obviously the signature cover for the One Night Stands adventures of Frog God Games, and it does this in a delightfully creepy way. I am going to assume here that all the other later adventures published for this same theme will have the same art and only the title will change. I actually like this, a lot. The one thing that players, even the most hard core roleplayers, can’t help but do is get an idea of what is to come by getting a peek at the cover art of a module, which usually has something to do with the adventure. This is not the case here.
This adventure was originally written for what is known as a 0E (pre-first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) clone known as Swords and Wizardry. If you are inclined to run the game with those rules I highly recommend purchasing this same adventure for S & W, published by Mythmere Games, rather than this version. The version reviewed here was converted to be run using Pathfinder Role Playing Game rules including monsters found in a previously published Mythmere Games’ Monster Book. Any monsters not in Paizo’s Pathfinder Bestiary have stat blocks detailed in the random encounters section (and later in the body of the adventure) along with a description of other “special” encounters that connect to later scenes and put this adventure over-the-top for truly excellent dark and scary jungle appeal.
I appreciate the layout of this adventure in terms of making this easier to run for a GM. Visual descriptions to players are italicized, references to other locations are bolded as are notes to the GM, headings for treasure in different locations, and other items of importance that a GM will want to find quickly and not have to hunt through paragraphs of text to find. Certain particularly important notes of puzzles and the like are even in grey boxes to make them even easier to find. Just as in the random encounters section at the beginning, any monsters not detailed in Paizo’s Pathfinder Bestiary have stat blocks within the text where appropriate.
What are the cool things about this adventure for players? Well first off, the PCs get to lead a good old-fashioned jungle expedition to some ruins and have lots of lower level helpers and a few beasts of burden to protect as well and an entire port town to save. There is a real Allan Quartermain, King Solomon’s Mines feel to this whole adventure; or an Indiana Jones in the Jungle for those unfamiliar with the Victorian Age novel by H. Ryder Haggard, (that inspired several movies). There are all sorts of nasty things that the PCs can encounter, like ape-centaurs, bugs, flying piranha swarms, more bugs, puzzles, tricks, traps, spiders; and by all means not the last nor the least, a monkey god and its minion, a monkey-headed naga. Should the PCs survive they will have tales to tell of courage and cunning and the vile denizens of the deep jungle. Isn’t that what any good adventure is about, tales of heroism and challenges met and conqured?
To GMs who want to run a very different jungle ruin with an inhabited dungeon full of interesting and dangerous critters, puzzles and traps, this is defiantly a must-have adventure. Your players PCs will, if they survive at all, have more fun than a barrel of monkeys, dead monkeys. I can hear the howls of my players now, “I hate monkeys!”
The Jungle Ruins of Madaro-Shanti is part of the “One Night Stands” adventures of Frog God Games, which are ostensibly able to be completed in a single play session. Though I will say this, there is enough content in this “short” adventure to give my players many sessions of wonderfully scary fun. A full five stars for this excellent adventure.
Spoilers dwell herein. I suggest those who are not Game Masters and do not intend to run a campaign in the Plane of Dreams or Rite Publishing’s Coliseum Morpheon stop reading now, just in case.
I admit it. I am not a fan of most of the material in the Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide. I am not a fan of making a complicated game more complicated. Don’t get me wrong, some of the concepts show promise and are useful to me as a Game Master as NPC fodder, not for my players. Of the new character classes in the APG the one I liked the least was the Summoner. “What is an Eidolon?” I thought. To me it looks like something completely made up so that weak casters can be less weak, for a metagame reason, not a roleplay or story-centered one. In fact it makes the PC play second fiddle to his pet! So that was a definite “no” for my campaign.
Here comes along the clever people at Rite Publishing, who said let’s make an Eidolon into someone’s dream, and not just any someone, a sentient and ancient being of pure energy, Gozutozawa. This Will-o'-Wisp isn’t your typical one. It has been dwelling so long in the Plane of Dreams that it has gotten lonely. Yes, you read it right, lonely. Lucky, its Eidolon is formed out of its desire for interaction with others that does not involve merely eating their life essence.
Wow! What an amazing concept! Now I dig the Eidolon. I can insert this character as the avenue through which the Will-o'-Wisp perceives and interacts with the other individuals in the Plane of Dreams. In Gozutozawa’s desire to be a thinking and feeling being, it sends out his Eidolon, Lucky, to interact with those who are able to come to this Plane of their own accord.
What excellent roleplay fodder as well! Is Lucky a mere dream or is he a real sentient being of his own accord? Did he become aware after so long in the Plane of Dreams? And once the PCs discover that Lucky is the Eidolon of what they would normally consider to be a monster, what will they do? Who knows? If the PCs decide they want to free Lucky from his creator, can they? All these questions can and should be resolved by individual GMs and players. I can see my players’ interactions with Lucky and his creator turning into hours of fun.
Five big stars and two giant thumbs up for The Ghost-Light that Dreamed.
Seeing as others have thoroughly detailed the contents, I removed that tedious list to get to the heart of the matter quicker.
This 111 page document is just exactly what its title above claims, a book of monster templates. But there are templates, such as the types that appear at the back of the Pathfinder Bestiary which give some useful options for Game Masters to apply to monsters; and there are templates which don’t just stop at useful. This book contains the later kind. The Monster templates in this book are thoroughly detailed and contain complete information on how to create the different creatures out of the “normal” monsters in the Bestiary and other supplements. But this goes far beyond mere templates. First of all each and every one of these contains a fully fleshed out altered creature using the template. Included in the description for each is a full stat block, an in-character blurb, a lore section with information a PC may learn along with appropriate DCs, a full description of any new monstrous feats the creature uses, and to top it all off an “Ecology Encounter” and its EL. A few Templates contain new spells and one even has a new type of disease in place of a monstrous feat. Each Template also includes an illustration of a sample creature. The art ranges from very well done to sufficiently representative, but none that I would consider bad art.
This is a must-have for any GM who wants to create encounters for his game that are out of the ordinary. From some interesting variations on an old theme to some dramatically different creations (like the Aware Arcana) that stand out above the rest, the templates this book holds are brilliant tools for GMs who want to make an encounter far more than ordinary. The Sample Creatures for each one as well as the other superb additions make this worth a full 5 stars. If there were any errors, I didn’t spot them. But I must admit I was too busy marveling at the content and planning how to inflict some of these on my players.
Module length = 24 pages
Cover, Title, Table of Contents = 3 pages
Introduction “Vengeance of the Long Serpent” (4 pages): The setting, that being in the far north and for the later portions of this adventure being above the arctic circle, is an important part of the whole feel of the adventure, from the atmospheric and climactic hazards, including navigation of the seas, to the antagonists of the story and what hazards they represent as well as their reason for being.
First is an overview of the Northlands for those Game Masters who don’t already have a particular setting in mind. It does its job but has some confusing elements. The third paragraph of the Northlands introduction wasn’t edited thoroughly. It looks as if a place holder word was used for the name of the law maker group/entity instead of the name that was intended. Unless “The Thing” was really supposed to be its name, in which case it was a poor decision in my opinion. Obviously you can ignore this portion of you already have other material describing a similar setting.
Next is the Adventure Background. Within is an introduction of an ancient god, why he disappeared from history, how he was rediscovered and what his latest “worshipers” doing now. This is the part that is necessary for running this adventure. It also refers to other adventures that continue the story, but it is not necessary to have them to run this adventure. The adventure can easily be concluded here and not lead onwards, unless of course the GM wishes it.
What follows is the synopsis of the adventure, some possible adventure hook ideas and a table listing relevant information about the town where this adventure can begin. Then the main adventure hook event occurs. A ship known as the Long Serpent sails into port. Locals are excited the ship is returning, at least at first. Then it becomes clear that something bad happened to the sailors on their latest seal hunt. A sailor, by the name of Hallbjorn, has a tale to tell about the Long Serpent’s latest voyage at the Inn the PCs are relaxing. For my game I think I am going to have this occur in a Viking style mead hall rather than the ubiquitous dockside Inn as it fits better with the whole Viking theme.
There is quite a bit of “boxed text” which may be used as is or edited if the GM uses different gods or place names. For the purposes of this start it is assumed the PCs are relaxing at a sea side or dock side Inn in this northern town. If the GM wishes for an alternate beginning obviously more editing of the “boxed text” information must be done. Though I don’t often read “boxed text” aloud to my own players, I find it handy as a reference since it often details the exact information the party has available to them in a particular scene at the start. I don’t have to hunt through the paragraphs to find only that information. I would prefer that any skill checks the PCs must make be more clearly shown, perhaps with bold text if not a simple listing. This information is somewhat hidden and since I can’t edit the pdf, I can’t highlight it. I am sure I am not alone in using my notebook computer to run my games.
The last part of the Introduction is “Acquiring a Ship” where the party gets the job offer by Hallbjorn. Assuming the party says yes, he gives them some money to purchase provisions for the journey, telling them it should take the better part of two months. The main reason being that the ship must get back to friendlier waters before the dark cold months of winter set in. Obviously if the party says no then there is no adventure. For my own players, if they don’t bite on an adventure hook I don’t force them to go. But then I am a believer in always keeping some other hook and adventure around in the off chance they refuse. Now the really interesting thing about this adventure is the possibility that the PCs will end up with their very own Viking style ship. If the players have one or more characters with skill in Profession (sailor) this is a definite plus. While the ship isn’t offered up as a reward at the beginning of the adventure it is definitely a possibility if the PCs play their cards right.
“The Voyage North” (3 pages): This is a description of the journey with encounters and a random table. GMs can use the table as is or use the encounters listed in whatever order they choose, even removing some or adding more detail as they wish. No stat blocks are provided for the creatures to be encountered and the use of the PFRPG Bestiary is essential here. There are also several of the encounters require that one or more PCs have the skill Profession (sailor) so it is necessary for the GM to either handwave that portion or assign an NPC to the task if their players don’t have that skill available to them. Here is where the adventure starts to shine. The variety of encounters really emphasizes the dangers of sailing in northern waters. There is also a wide variety of difficulties which does a good job of keeping players on their toes. There is even potential for a whale hunt for those who wish to try something so dangerous. If the GM doesn’t wish to play out the hunt as an attack there are suggestions for the Profession (sailor) to be used. Though the random encounter of a pod of whales may simply be used for ambiance, this depends on the individual GM and what they do or do not want in their adventure.
Events at Sea: After the random encounter listings are a series of events. Whether these events are optional or necessary depends upon the GM and how he or she wishes to run this adventure. One important thing to note is that there is a scripted part that may cause players to balk. It isn’t too hard to work around this however and not really an issue as far as game design in my opinion. The storm event really demonstrates well the need for skilled sailors but also the enterprising GM should allow for ingenuity on the part of his/her players rather than simple skill check rolls. I really like how this also demonstrates how scary such a storm must have been for the Viking warriors who sailed in these sorts of ships, open to all elements and easily filled with water due to their lack of covered decks. I plan to milk this part for all its worth when I run this adventure for my own players. The final event is a necessary one, though the PCs may fail at this and thus make certain portions of the remainder of the adventure a bit harder. I would not remove the potential of PC failure in this instance.
“Exploring the Far North” (7 pages): This is the bulk of the adventure and is organized in such a way as to allow the PCs to explore any part if they do not choose to follow Hallbjorn’s instructions. If they do follow him, they will make shore at the Seal Coast where his crew will begin hunting seals and rendering them down for food and blubber. Whether or not this is crucial depends entirely upon the success of the PCs during the journey. It may be that they will be completely out of food by this time and need to spend this in resupplying. This is also the place where PCs with the survival skill can shine. Again this is up to the PCs and the GM. At this point it is more of a sandbox style adventure allowing the PCs to go where they will and discover in their own way and time. If the PCs succeeded in the third of the events at sea then there is some opportunity for role play outside of the sailors on their vessel.
Next follows a description of the different encounter areas beyond the Seal Coast. The majority of these are the villages, some of which include hostiles and some have potential allies. In short, there are plenty of role play opportunities here. These encounters may be explored in any order. Eventually the PCs should develop an understanding of what is going on here and what sort of danger it might represent immediately to themselves and others. Each encounter area has sufficient description to run. There is a listing of stat blocks of potential enemies at the end of this list.
What follows are specific details on crucial encounter areas.
The Cover, title, OGL, and 2 advertisements equal 5 pages.
Introduction (2 pages): The in-character introduction plus several stories of haunts are all very well written.
Understanding Haunts (one and 1/2 pages): This section mentions the source book (PFRPG GameMastery Guide) for the haunts rules but also gives explanations of the terms used in the haunt descriptions so Game Masters who don’t have that tome can still run these haunts. Next is Rite’s own personal stamp on haunt rules which includes notes on persistent haunts, common haunts, minor haunts, and associated haunts.
Mutinous Manifestations and others (6 and 1/2 pages): What follows is a detailed listing of different haunts all themed for ships and shores (as the title suggests). There is a large range of difficulties from CR1 to CR12 haunts. Some of these haunts are specifically related to the stories of haunts in the introduction. They are not organized in any particular fashion, however, which makes it slightly more difficult to locate a particular haunt. Also the pdf I have did not have bookmarks. That aside, the listings of haunts are varied, interesting and particularly useful. The haunts are listed in a format consistent with the haunt rules in PFRPG’s GameMastery Guide and includes not only detailed effects, but also notes on the destruction of each haunt. There are also associated haunts that can be used to create short adventure scenarios or brief segways into terror for the players.
Appendix (2 pages): Lastly is an interesting individual NPC who is a divine channeler, from the Secrets of Divine Channeling book by Rite Publishing. But you do not have to have purchased this book to use the NPC as his special abilities are detailed in full. His background lists Rite Publishing’s setting of Questhaven, but it should be a simple matter to alter that to suit any Game Master’s campaign setting. In keeping with the theme of this book, his abilities are particularly useful against haunts.
Conclusion: The quality of this book is excellent. I located only a single minor editing error, an added word in the last paragraph of the Greycliff’s Grief story in the introduction. The layout is a two column format as in all of Rite Publishing’s #30 series. The art consists of black and white theme appropriate images. There are not many but this work does not need a large number of pictures.
The haunts in this book could be used simply for spice on extended (and otherwise boring) sea voyages to whole adventures that could arise out of them. The writing is compelling and entertaining and an enjoyable read, whether I use all of the haunts in this book or not. This is the kind of product I love, that which makes my imagination soar and gives me tools to use to make the experience for my players a thrilling and compelling one.
I give this a rating of 4.5 stars but only due to the fact that the haunts were not organized in any particular fashion, (with the exception of associated haunts listed together). Nor was there a table of contents or bookmarks on the pdf. If later editions of the pdf do contain these features then I would up this rating to a full five stars.
Edit: It was pointed out to me that I could turn on the bookmarks that did exist. I have since done so. Bookmarks make this tool even more useful. As stated above: this deserves a full five stars.
This PFRPG compatible module was written for four 4 – 5 level player characters. It was originally written for 3rd edition and has since been converted. It has a two column layout and a number of grey/blue art pieces on a white background. In addition there are several three color maps and a couple map layout sheets for use with miniatures or simply detailed visual reference if you do not use miniatures. The art is all quite well done as are the maps and layouts of scenes. I particularly like that each NPC used has a bust of them as there are a number of them. This makes it much easier for the DM to show his/her players with which NPC they are dealing.
This module (pdf format)contains approximately 51 pages.
Cover, title page, blank page and back cover = 4 pages
Table of Contents = 1 page
Introduction, Background, Adventure Synopsis, plus useful notes on using the module, placing it in your own campaign, scaling the module, and adventure hooks = 3 and a half pages
Chapter 1 = 12 pages
This chapter serves as the introduction of the adventure for the player characters. It has a fully developed Inn with price list and notes on the particular variety of brew this Inn is famous for that make this useful for a GM who doesn’t want to make up such details. Also there are a number of NPCs for the party to meet, with their stat blocks listed at the back of the book. This is initially organized by events and includes information the PC’s may learn through diplomacy (asking the right questions of the right persons). After the event driven encounters are location descriptions and a map. There are also a random encounter table and stat blocks of monsters.
Chapter 2 = 11 pages
This chapter is organized in a similar manner as Chapter 1. First it has a brief background and then it is organized into events and locations with a fully detailed three color map. There are also references to new creatures that are detailed at the back of the book.
Chapter 3 = 5 pages
This chapter details the conclusion and aftermath of the adventure and is organized in a similar way the first two chapters were. However certain encounter creature stat blocks are included within this chapter rather than only referenced here and listed at the end of the module as the new creatures and NPCs were from the first two chapters.
NPC stat blocks with descriptions and other useful information (10 individuals detailed here) = 6 pages
New Magic Items = 1 page
(Three items: an artifact, a staff and a type of wondrous item that works with the staff.)
New monster details and stat blocks = 4 pages
Included in the new monsters are snow trolls, a new tiny animal swarm, and three types of cold undead
Player Handouts = 2 pages
Battle maps = 2 pages
Advertisement = 1 pages
OGL and other notes = 1 page
Conclusion: The layout and art are pretty well done. No serious complaints here, just a minor issue that some of the art looks mildly cartoony but tolerable so in my opinion. Though the lines are crisp and clean on these pieces and help the players differentiate NPCs. It was slightly disjointed to have some state blocks listed at the back of the module and some within the body of the text. But the ones placed at the back were either individual NPCs or opponents or new monsters. Regular monsters, albeit with class levels, were placed within the body of the module. Events and encounter locations do not have separated text in a box or similar feature for initial player information. As a GM I rarely simply read aloud “boxed text” to my players but I do prefer PC information to be separated as I don’t like to have to spend time searching through paragraphs of text.
The module looks interesting and definitely level appropriate for the type of party mentioned. The mystery portion of this adventure was particularly intriguing. There are not many modules that use this plot trope. Also there was a more traditional style dungeon crawl, certainly appropriate for groups who like those as well as level appropriate. I only have a real issue at the beginning of the adventure with the premise. The reason that the dwarf NPC who asks for the party’s assistance uses for not wanting to seek the help from other (NPC) dwarves presupposes that there are no dwarves in the party. It is also not explained in the context of the introductory event. I know that the first question my party would ask, if not the second, is why don’t you want dwarves to do this escort job? That reason is not given here, but it is mentioned elsewhere. A GM who does not plan ahead for this difficulty may stumble. He or she would definitely have to come up with a way for a dwarf, or in even an all dwarf party to participate. It is a minor issue though and does not detract from the core of the adventure if the GM just removes that part of the NPC’s speech.
My rating is a solid 4 stars. Minor issues mar this adventure but the player handouts and other goodies make up for them. This is pretty standard fare for an adventure with level appropriate action and encounters.
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