Endzeitgeist's page

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

I figured this would be the fastest way to let everyone know:

I'll be taking a break for a week. Yours truly is going to the world's largest Goth-festival, the WGT in Leipzig. Regular reviewing will resume next week. If anyone of you ladies and gentlemen happens to attend, drop me a line.

All the best,
EZG

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. I hope we'll see more of the exploration-scenarios. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Pity that this one fell so short.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

This 8-page pdf is essentially a free preview/advertisement for the Steampunk Musha campaign setting and its kickstarter, so I'm going to break my usual format to talk a bit about the setting: Essentially, Steampunk Musha is a blend of a multitude of Asian cultural concepts paired with an industrial revolution.

In order to introduce the reader to the setting, we start of with the tale of Yu, a kind of origin myth. But how does one introduce the setting? Essentially being geographically isolated, the lands of Rosuto-Shima can be rather easily dropped into a remote region of your setting of choice. In order to give the reader an idea of what to expect from the kickstarter, a gazetteer-like section on the cities of Shangti, Chengti, Kuang-Cho and other places of interest are provided.

The races the final setting will cover are also introduced: From Kappa, ape-like Kijo, the oni-tiefling-style hybrids Jinteki-Oni, the eastern dragon-like Sarpas, the goblin-like Keshou and the shapeshifting Tannuki that share their name with a common breed of dog. And then there are Clockwork Ronin - I look forward to seeing whether this living construct race will replace Rite Publishing's Ironborn as my favorite take on the trope.

The finished setting will also feature new classes: The Shangti Cowboy, the demon-hunting Nikobo, the consummate Kabukika thespian, the machinist, the geisha ki-seal using Ryoushi-Oni, the calligraphy master and the Maboroshi Guard.

The pdf also introduces the basics of spirituality and religion in Rosuto-Shima and gives some examples on how steam-tech will feature in the setting. A kind of damage to one's spiritual essence named Kyouran is also introduced and made me rather excited to see its rules-repercussions.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect, I did notice some minor glitches à la its/it's. The pdf provides no bookmarks, but honestly doesn't need any. Essentially, this is an extensive advertisement for joining the Steampunk Musha kickstarter and it achieves in what it sets out to do. Rick Hershey's excellent full color art underlines the fact that this setting has been in the making for a LONG TIME. The concepts are interesting, the idea unconventional and innovative and seeing the Kabukika, Geisha and Calligraphy Master classes in action will be neat. However, the pdf does not provide sample crunch, which would have been more than nice to see. That being said, it's a nice, little, free pdf and if you're interested, check out the kickstarter - the project's been funded and we're heading towards additional goals. My final verdict for this little ad will be 4 stars due to the lack of sample crunch to support the cool concepts herein.

Endzeitgeist out.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Nice review, cartmanbeck!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Now also reviewed here! Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Just skimmed through this one - quite promising!

I wanted to check this out and start writing my review, but the pdf seems to be broken - I get a lot of errors from Adobe Acrobat regarding pictures and some weird white blocks in some of the beautiful artworks. HAs anyone else experienced that?

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine - nice module. If only there were ways to deduce how the puzzles work apart from brute-forcing them (knowledge checks, side-quests, NPCs...), this would be even better...

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Good news: This is the worst of the adventures I've read by adventureaweek.com - the others are much better.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

This pdf is 17 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving 14 pages for the Tikbalang, so what exactly do we get?

Tikbalang are essentially temperamental fey and are humanoids with equine features. They are presented as a player race and get +2 Con and Cha, -2 Wis, normal speed, a bonus to acrobatics and spellcraft, constant feather step, +2 to initiative, low-light vision, are of the fey-base type and have a certain strand of hair in their mane - as long as this strand is not cut from the Tikbalang, they also have a +2 bonus against spells and spell-like abilities.

Thankfully, the race-write-up also provides starting age, age category and base height/weight tables for the Tikbalang. How the Tikbalang view the classes from the Core-rules, APG, UM and UC is covered as well and 7 alternate racial traits are part of the deal: If you e.g. want a nimble Tikbalang, you can trade in their Con-bonus for a Dex-bonus and if you rather enjoy an untraceable one, you might also trade feather step for pass without trace. Alternate skill bonuses, a bonus against humans and 8 favored class options as well as two race traits lead to advice on playing a Tikbalang.

Next up are 8 racial feats that expand upon the fey nature of the Tikbalang - they e.g. may make their mind-influencing spells more powerful, but become more susceptible to being deceived via similar magic. Gaining natural hoof-attacks and a longer charge distance are also possible, as is the ability for high-level Tikbalang to use ethereal jaunt for as long as they run and don't stop moving once per day.

Two racial Prestige Classes are provided, the first being the eldritch runner (5 levels, d6, 2+Int skills, bad fort, good ref-and will-saves, full spell progression, bad BAB), which grants the Tikbalang the ability to be faster in rounds they cast spells, a touch attack via deadly winds, the ability of a combined invisibility/mirror image when moving and an ability with which I have a major problem: Master of the Winds lets you move up to your speed AND cast a spell as a full round action. To add insult to injury, if you're casting a touch attack spell and move to deliver it, you don't even provide an AoO. And there's no limit to how often this can be used per day. Compared to that, the dominate person-capstone ability blanches.

For those more martially inclined, the Razormane Rampager should be enticing: The PrC gets d12, 4+Int skills, good BAB, good fort and ref-saves and bad will-saves. The class makes the mane of the Tikbalang a secondary weapon. Which may hurt foes who hit the fey. At higher levels, they get the power to enter a rage when severely injured even when they have used their rage-allotment for the day and also increase their size when raging. I don't know. Hitting foes with a mane? Seriously? At 1d4 the attack is not very effective and the additional abilities don't feel that exciting either.

After all this content for players, DMS also get their due with new Tikbalang-creatures: The Addlewalk Tikbalang (CR 7) can curse foes to become lost and suffer from an uncontrollable wanderlust. A dark Tikbalang, transformed by dabbling in dark magic, the CR 10 Nightmare Tikbalang is infused with hellish powers and may grant his foes demoralizing visions of hell. LArgest of the Tikbalang, the CR 13 Leaping Giant is an anything but subtle jumper with smashing stomps that may knock foes prone and rather powerful physical attacks.

An extensive section on Tikbalang-lore and advice for the GM on how to use them in your game and especially on how to handle the golden starnd and the potential vulnerability it provides.

The final page of the pdf offers something rather cool: Two new incantations, one to invoke the spirits to enhance your powers and one to bind a Tikbalang to your service via their golden strand of mane.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good, I didn't notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to a 2-column full-color standard. The artworks range from unique in style (monsters) to very comic-style b/w-renditions of a sample male and female Tikbalang. The pdf has no bookmarks, which is a minor downer. Though some sentences could use a slightly more refined prose, the writing generally feels adequate and make me interested in the world of Buan, which is based on Philippine mythology and seems to have a very distinct feeling from the sparse bits of information contained in this pdf. I wouldn't have much to complain about with regards to the base race of Tikbalang, were it not for the fey-subtype - the immunities granted by not being humanoid are unnecessary and while easily rectified, I consider the race to be more powerful than the core-races, even when taking the potential power/weakness regarding the golden strand into account. In fact, I would have loved to see more focus put on this unique part of the race. The feats were neat, but the PrCs felt a bit whacky to me: Perhaps I'm not the target audience, but fighting with a mane seems kind a silly to me and the rampager remains rather weak, while the eldritch runner gets an ability that lets it do something AND cast, which always leaves me with a bad feeling. All in all, though, a solid amount of content is provided and the Tikbalang does feel unique. The fey-subtype, while fitting, rubs me slightly the wrong way and balancing feels slightly off. The lack of bookmarks is also unfortunate and thus, I'll settle for a final verdict of 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 due to the low price and the fact that the pdf is rather brave. If you really always wanted to play an equine character, this may be a must-have for you.

Endzeitgeist out.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. I hope my review gives this file a bit of publicity - it definitely deserves it. I rarely enjoy reading a pdf as much as I did here anymore. This brought a sense of excitement back for me, so....check this out. Cheers!

Reviewed this a while ago on DTRPG, now also here.

Reviewed here and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

And reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Great finale to the series.

Next: Strange Bedfellows & Fane of the Fallen and more ST-reviews.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Has anyone bought this? Is it worth the asking price? Any free previews we could check out?

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

This pdf is 9 pages long, 1 page SRD, leaving 8 pages of content, so let's check this out!

This racial ecology presents us with the options we'd need to play ratlike humanoids and after a brief introduction, we are presented with 3 different kinds of ratfolk - small ratlings, small ratfolk and the Nezumi.

Ratlings:+2 Dex + 2 Wis, -2 Con; small and base speed 20ft, option to run on all fours for 30ft base speed, Darkvision, light sensitivity a bonus to climb, perception and stealth and affinity with rodents as well as the ability to swarmfight with other ratlings.

Ratfolk: +2 Dex and Int, -2 Str, small size, darkvision, +2 to Craft (Alchemy), Perception and use Magic Device as well as Rodent Empathy and again swarm fighting.

Nezumi: +2 Str and Dex, -2 Cha, medium size, a natural bite attack for d6 damage, +2 to Survival, Perception and Stealth as well as Rodent Empathy.

It should be noted that lore section, age, height & weight tables etc. are included. After these basic racial traits, we get 4 alternate racial traits, which include Prehensile Tails, Scent and a resistance against disease. 4 racial feats are also presented: A feat to capitalize on their enmity with dwarves, a feat that enables you to better use weapons and armor you're not proficient with, halving the penalty, one to grant you improved pack fighting and a feat called "Artful Dodge". I have a problem with this one. Not only is the name a misnomer, the feat enables you to make 2 five foot steps as part of a full-round action instead of one. Every feat that grants you additional actions is extremely prone to abuse. Not gonna happen in my campaign.

The pdf also features 3 new items, a sewer hood and cowl, the nauseating filth bomb and the eye-stinging bone dust. I really liked the items.

Finally, the pdf offers a new creature, the CR 3 Rat Ogre - disease-ridden, deadly and frenzied creatures.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are ok, but not great - I encountered a lot of glitches like Rat Empathy not being bold, capital letters in the middle of words etc. The layout adheres to a 3-column standard and is rather interesting in that the background is full-color and the artworks are awesome. The pdf has no bookmarks. I'm a huge fan of the idea of Ratfolk - Warhammer's Skaven, Scarred Land's excellent Vigil Watch: Warrens of the Ratmen - I LOVED them. Unfortunately, while the items and the ogre are cool, the overall pdf feels painfully short. Essentially, the pdf, when compared to similar books by Rite Publishing and other 3pps is just short and suffers from said shortness. The 3-column layout is a bit unfortunate and makes reading the pdf a bit harder to read than necessary. The options presented herein are mostly nice, but none truly stood out, not once did I really want to play a ratfolk as per these rules. I might be spoiled by aforementioned sources, but the igniting spark never came while reading this one. Add to that the rather above average quota of glitches, and I'll settle for a final verdict of 2.5 stars - due to the low price, I'll round up for the purpose of this platform.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine.

Endzeitgeist out.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

This pdf by John Wick Presents is 26 pages long, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/prelude, 1 page front cover, 1 page advertisement and 1 page SRD, leaving 21 pages of content, so what exactly do we get with these Orks (yeah, with "k", just like in German!)?

You have probably read the Wicked Fantasy-series of articles in KQ, but just to be sure: Wicked Fantasy centers on a new takes on classic fantasy races, a reimagining so to speak. An example would be the Uvandir, genderless (but male-looking), eternal dwarves who can toil all day and night, never starve etc. In this pdf, we get an expansive take on the Orks in the vein of a widely-expanded ecology-article.

The reimagining of the race essentially makes the Orks what you've come to know: An evil race, created by evil gods. Orkish doctrine, for ages, had them consume their foes to take in their strength and worship pain - until they evolved. For which foe might offer more strength than one's god? In a feat of unheard-of racial uprising, the orks stormed their god's sacred hall, vanquished their pantheon and ate them, thus gaining their strength. (Though some sages speculate that some orkish gods may have escaped...)

Thus, via the divinely-infused bloodlines, Orks changed and diversified and had to deal with the lifting of the red haze of rage, for now, they encountered a state of mind as of yet unknown - free will.

The nomadic tribes have made tentative peace with the other races, as they seek to understand the powers their newfound freedom and the darkness of their ancestors blood offer them. Depending on the bloodline of one's ancestors, special abilities and dispositions are available to the green-skins. 6 of these divine bloodlines are included.

The Orks can also create so-called Feth'Ork-creatures by feeding animals and beasts their blood in order to mutate the critters into allies and negate the loathing regular animals exhibit when encountered by Orks.

I mentioned the worship of pain as well and it defines Orkish culture to this date - their sacred scars, the Va, all come with their stories and knowing these has to be earned. More importantly, 5 masochistic feats enable Orks to harness the power of pain and actually get stronger via hurt, pain and punishment. I really loved these feats and while they seem to be kind of powerful, the steep price they demand is worth the benefit. 3 feats are focused on the divine bloodlines and we get a new mystery for the oracles, the so-called blood mystery, which essentially provides the tribal shamans and makes for a neat piece of writing. We also get a new archetype for barbarians and one for bards, the latter being rather interesting, as it focuses on insulting foes and bolstering allies via epic story-telling, thus hearkening back to our own world's intricate webs of poetic allusions displayed in saga-literature and Heian romances like the Tale of Genji, to quote only two.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, though not stellar: I did notice about 7 glitches on my first read-through and an additional pass at editing would have been nice, as some of the extensive bookmarks consist of only one letter. layout adheres to a 2-column standard and comes in full-color, with a parchment-like background and neat pieces of artwork. I really liked the writing, which makes this pdf rank among the most compelling ecology-articles I have ever read. On the other hand, though, I feel that some of the pieces of writing like the feats could be more concisely-written: I had to re-read some of the feats before I got how exactly how the crunch is supposed to work. Were I to rate only the quality of the writing, I'd settle for a higher rating, but as presented the glitches and minor hick-ups just accumulated and thus I'll settle for a final verdict of 4 stars.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine.

Endzeitgeist out.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here, on DTRPg and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Interesting - what you offer looks professional.

Who is the author?

Due to not having yet a reputation here, might I suggest a free preview, perhaps an excerpt from the pages to entice your audience into checking this out?

I'm just saying because 10 bucks is too much for most people to impulse-buy this.

All the best,
Endzeitgeist

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!

Reviewed here and sent to GMS magazine - excellent work!

Reviewed here and sent to GMS magazine. Cheers!