Lilith's page

Being vaguely familiar with d20-based systems, I decided to take a step off the familiar path and down the dark and tangled weave of subsystems, and I have to say, I am very impressed with Crafty Games' work.
Rather than being a slavish imitation of fantasy d20 with the serial numbers filed off, Spycraft 2.0 really looks at the structure from the ground up and makes a modern setting work without falling into "gun porn" mode, while leaving it refreshingly open to other genres - Cold War spyhunting in good Le Carre fashion, 70s dash for tech secrets, even the possibility of super science and "projects gone wrong." Sessions are structured like an episode of Mission Impossible - assemble your team, select your mission-specific gear and get down to business. As it should be, two people may select the same career (aka class), but end up with two totally different characters.

Color me very impressed - I'll be looking forward to the rest of Crafty Games' products.

More often than not, fantasy campaign settings are defined by the movers and shakers, the deities and demigods. Thankfully, the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting takes a step back from direct interference from deities and instead gives a more subtle hand, allowing the PCs to take center stage. This is not to say that the gods do not have an influence on the world - Sarenrae's battles with the Rough Beast, Rovagug, and how he was locked away with a key held by Asmodeus, is one of the central stories of the world of Golarion, along with the deification of Aroden. No matter the god, each has been painted with a rich palette of depth and intrigue that will be fuel for many an adventure. Representations of all the major deities are included, along with their holy symbols and heralds. The inside front cover includes a comprehensive list of deities, their alignments, portfolios and domains for quick reference by GM and player alike. My only dislike for this particular offering is the inclusion of racial-specific pantheons. While it is overall a minor quibble, I feel that this space could have been better devoted to the "magic" in Gods & Magic.

Still needs a little bit of work though. The good stuff first though.

The Good
Very inventive creatures. I have no familiarity at all with the Violet Dawn setting, so I enjoyed it strictly as a bestiary, and damn me if some of these things would be awesome to use in any number of campaign settings. Xoriat for Eberron, the Far Realms for Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk, the Maelstrom for Golarion. Intriguing creatures. I imagined a use for a good portion of the creatures included. There are some new spells, items, and magic items included - a nice bonus that supports the creatures it regards. Also, each page has a shield icon which lists the Challenge Rating of the creature - very handy when you're flipping through the book.

The Bad
Psionic creatures did not get left out (which is good), but they seem to have failed to update it to the 3.5 ruleset, making reference to attack and defensive modes. Some adjustment will be necessary. Some of the creatures look like they might have needed another editing pass.

The Ugly
The art varies from good to um, crappy. If you're looking for Wayne Reynolds or Todd Lockwood, it's not in this book. I'm disappointed in the presentation of some of the creatures, as they looked rushed instead of finished.

Overall, yes, worth buying, and at $10 it is a great bargain, though I don't know if I would have paid full price for it.

Bonus: The creatures are Open Game Content.

The same set of monsters have been used as the Game Master's "red shirts" for years, but Classic Monsters Revisited takes those tropes, puts them in a blender, adds some real-world mythological origins, some Secret Special Golarion Blend spices, and blends well.

Bugbears get their creepy back, minotaurs have a Golarion origin that fun-house-mirrors their Greek myth...and that's only a minor taste of what's in this book. Cannon fodder no longer, these tried-and-true denizens of the Game Master's bestiary have been imbued with a life of their own beyond their combat statistics, and I'll be darned if I'm not pleased as punch with the turn out.

"Please suh, may I have some more?"

It never ceases to amaze me how much good stuff you can pack into so little a page count. From the rooftop ramshackle Shingles to the festering poverty of Old Korvosa to the gilt depravity of House Arkona and the creeping menace of the Gray Ward, Korvosa swims in a sea of plot hooks and adventures that would entice even the most jaded of gamers. The city sections are broken down and described in further detail, historical characters given some life, but the part that shines is the organization of the book. A Game Master's information is kept entirely separate from the general knowledge that would be available for players, and I can't express how awesometastic that is. It makes life so much easier as a Game Master to say "Read only these chapters, and skip that last chapter."

My only quibble (and not even a major one) is that I wish there was a section that broke down all the locations on the map by type (Inns, Temples, etc). This is something that I'm dying to have in my Shackled City campaign, and for any settlement of size, something I'd like to see.

Wow. This is one sexy piece of Golarion goodness, and has me all hot n' bothered about the campaign setting (in a good way).

DO NOT MISS THIS. This should be an essential piece of your Pathfinder arsenal, whether you are a player or a game master.

As the blight elves could give 'em a run for their money, and then some. Despair, misery, pain and suffering are the rhyme and reason of a blight elf, and their poison touch can cause a person to think twice about going into fisticuffs with these elves. The pervasive nihilistic outlook of these nasty elves suffuses their entire culture, and Mr. Maclean's presentation gives you enough to answer the basic questions, while still leaving plenty of room in the sandbox for a Narrator to make their own stamp on the denizens of the Sarangak Forest.

While the book is designed for True20's Blood Throne setting, don't let that stop you from picking up this duo of PDFs. The power groups in "Architects" can easily be picked up and placed in any campaign setting, and the multitude of nasty critters in "Blighted Bestiary" are easily usable in other d20 systems.

A familiar yet exciting romp through an alternate Earth, Setne Inhetep is every bit as hard-boiled as his 20s detective counterparts. Twists and turns a-plenty in this book, but all leading to a savory ending that leads you hungering for more.

Much cooler than your regular fuzzy dice - goes nicely with my new wheels. So far, I haven't had any issues with discoloration, but it's winter time here - we'll see how it handles under the sun.

This won a stupid amount of Ennies. Stupid - but everyone of them is justified. The layout is clean, crisp, the story is fabulous, but most of all, all the damn goodies that come with! Maps! Player handouts (downloadable from this site as well), a DM's book of maps...goodies! This is the adventure series that has led us to Pathfinder, the concept that yes, you could create a series of linked adventures and create a complete campaign out of it, 1st through 20th.

I've often read on the boards that Age of Worms and Savage Tide "need to be compiled like the SCAP book," and I never really got it until I got this book. Until the heft of this book was in my hands, until the scope of the material contained within really hit me, I didn't get what people were saying.

While the STAP and AoWAP compilations may never see the light of day, this one has, and should not be missed.

Now if you'll 'scuse me, my party just triggered a trap in Jzadirune and they need to make some Reflex saves...

I demoed this game at GenCon, and just about every person, young and old, that sat down to play was thrilled and had a lot of fun killing a sad, sorry old man. Best score of the weekend? Eighteen, in the Lancaster Room with the Shoehorn.

Great for family get-togethers.

I got choked up seeing this one, knowing there's only this one and one more left. Onto the review!

Core Beliefs: St Cuthbert is awesome. This series of articles never fails to impress, and this one is no exception.
The Master's Forge: I really like this article - it's a perfect fit for those people that play in low-magic campaigns, or DMs that want to control the number of magic items in a campaign, but still want to give out swanky gear.
The Ecology of the Kaorti: Very very cool stuff. The article gives some suggestions on updating the kaorti to 3.5, which make total sense, as well as provide options and ideas for including the kaorti in your game.
Dragonmarks: Again, cool article. It details finding pieces of the prophecy in non-standard locales, and plot hooks for them.
Volo's Guide: The countries of Unther and Mulhorand always confused me, but this article does a great job of clearing up the confusion. Think of it as a supplement to the FRCS section.

WotC placed a full page ad thanking Paizo for all of their work on Dragon/Dungeon the last five years - thanks that I'm sure many of us feel the same way about.

However, my favorite thing about this issue was the Order of the Stick comic. Its "thinly veiled allegory" was as usual, per Burlew's max ranks in Craft Story, fitting and apt. I need to get it framed.

New editions fill me with a sense of apprehension. With a few notable exceptions, there generally isn't enough different to have a purpose to a new edition.

I'm happy to say I was wrong. GURPS 4th edition is polished, primped, buffed and trimmed to be slick, easy and expandable, moreso than all the previous editions. This book, the base "Player's Handbook" if you will, has all the basic stuff you need, breaking down Advantages, Disadvantages, and Traits into categories (noted by icons) so that a GM can easily select the abilities available to players in any campaign that a GM may wish to create. Urban Horror? Can Do. Space Opera? Can Do. Fantasy? Can Do. Cyberpunk? Can Do.

GURPS is known to have a whole metric buttload of sourcebooks, but they've managed to condense several notable sourcebooks (Magic, Powers) into bite-size chapters - enough material that you could run a decent game with what's there. In the book, they also provide several examples of campaign settings, something that was previously lacking in the Basic Sets of previous editions.

Another first in this Fourth Edition is color. All the pages are in bright, glossy full-color with illustrations. While the pages are a bit thinner, they should stand up to a lot of flipping between sections. The book is also well organized with a very comprehensive index (something that can't be said for some of the recent WotC books).

If you're looking for a flexible game system that can handle any campaign you want to play, or a mish-mash of genres, GURPS (Generic Universal Roleplaying System) just might fit the bill.

To give you an idea of how excited this new edition is, my husband, a long time gamer, was just flipping through it going, "Wow! They've really changed things up!"

Poseable wings, too! He sits right next to my beholder, which is very appropriate. :) He's got bright orange eyes as well.

Terribly, terribly, terribly cute! You can't quite see it in the photo, but he's got a red tongue.

I'm going to hug him and squeeze him and love him and call him Gojira. :P

With the Forgotten Realms dreck that's come out lately, I didn't have a lot of hope for this book, but, as the title says, I was unexpectedly impressed. Sarlona, always mysterious along with Argonnessen, is presented in such a fashion you could drop it in wholesale into your campaign, OR you could run an entire campaign set in Sarlona. The iconics of Eberron are there, but there's enough of a twist to make them interesting (I really like the Sarlonan shifters).

There is a nice balance of fluff n' crunch to satisfy all kinds of players and DMs. If Eberron is your thing, but Khorvaire and Xen'drik are looking a little tired, this may be enough to get your muse working overtime.

...it does. Burlew's writing is just as interesting as it is in the online comic. Lots of funny "gives" and fuel for thought on future plot lines. When Vaarsuvius is hired by Roy is probably my favorite scene.

No longer! Despite the very fuzzy outlines of religion as presented in the Campaign Setting book, this book manages to clear up a few things without taking away some of mysteries surrounding the various faiths in Eberron. Standard rituals and holy days are represented and explained, variations, all the things that you would expect. Speaking of things that are expected, the book doesn't feel particularly crunch-heavy, which I'm pleased with. What is included is very focused on the religions and I didn't really feel overwhelmed by the introduction of new mechanics (feats, prestige classes, etc).

Why a 4/5, then? Well...I wish they had included more variations from a racial perspective. A warforged character might have a very different perspective than a human might concerning the Sovereign Host or the Dark Six. More "possibilities" as far as more ancient religions from Sarlona, Xen'drik, or Argonessen would have been nice as well.

This was an all-around excellent issue. With Core Beliefs: Wee Jas, we delve into one of the more mysterious and not-quite-defined goddesses presented in the Player's Handbook and what her role is - good, evil, indifferent? The article is a great balance between flavor and crunch, and the planar ally is one that your players will talk about for a while.

Two of the other articles, Magical Pollution and Creatures of Corruption go hand-in-hand with the darker side of magic and provide a great variety of "yucks" to dish out.

The clockwork horrors make a return and the Ecology of article did a wonderful job of recreating that sense of creepy-crawlies that I first got when reading them in Spelljammer all those years ago.

While there are a great many playable races out there, the Legacies of the Ancients manages to keep them fresh and interesting.

All-in-all, a well written issue with top-notch writing and art.

"Spiral of Manzessine" was the subject of much freak-out by my players. "What the heck are we gonna run into in an ILLITHID prison?"

Mwah-hah-hah. :)

The other adventures in here are excellent as well, but for me, it was all about "Spiral." "Omega World" was very cool as well, a lot of good stuff for d20 Modern, if that's your cup o' tea.

Fantabulous. Despite the long-standing history of using the baatezu in my campaign, I may have to give the characters a switch-up and study this book most thoroughly to give them a change-up from what they're used to encountering. The oldies and baddies are in here - Baphomet, Grazzt, Juiblex - but there are also ones that I haven't played around with yet - Malcanthet, Pazuzu, Pale Night.

The signatures are a nice bonus as well - I get the opportunity to test my dice theory as well. (Will my dice rolls be better by rubbing my dice on their signatures? :D ) This book makes me crave the Fiendish Codex II all the more.

As a DM, I look forward to doing precisely what Erik Mona's signature said - "Stay Evil."

Despite the picture, I received a heather gray t-shirt with purple writing on it. Still a cool shirt, but the color shown probably ain't gonna be what you get.

(paizo.com notes: the product image previously showed blue writing on a black T-shirt. Thanks to Lilith for letting us know about the problem.)

Received this today, so it hasn't gone through rigorous game testing yet. Feels a bit lighter than the standard Crystal Caste dice that I'm used to, but I detect no difference in its rolling. Rolls, skitters and bounces nicely.

I got this years ago, and the quality of the prints are excellent. Just gotta get frames for them and put them up!

I read this book cover to cover - no flip-flip-flip read a page. It's chock full of ways to really add some POW to your campaign. Of particular interest to worldbuilders is some alternate theories on why the "stand-by" mythos in the D&D world are so (why the orcs & elves hate each other, why you rarely see female dwarves, where elves really come from, etc), what if the "gods" are fakes and just a slew of other neat stuff. True Names (already mentioned above), Ley Lines, Overcharging Magic (and the price of it), secret societies...just really really cool stuff.

The flavor text that accompanies each chapter is fascinating (and a really good read, to boot) and lends well to just about any published campaign setting. Art is great (this a black & white book, no color art) and fits each chapter nicely.

Everything that I read in this book made me go "Hmmmmm....interesting" and made me think about ways that I could use it in my campaign.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially DMs that are looking to add some flair to their campaigns.