The Nymian Beastlands by Krewe of Harpocrates
This product is 26 pages long. It starts with a cover, credits, and ToC. (2 1/2 pages)
Introduction (11 ½ pages)
The introduction talks about the setting and what to expect in the future. It should be noted this is a free players playtest guide for the future the setting. It has a few paragraphs about the people of Omarka, ecology, and mysteries of the setting. Next it gives a overview of the 7 planned books for the setting. A players guide, GM guide, 3 monster books, Races and Secrets book. With a rough timeline of when the books are planned to be released. It has a small section talking about what will or will not be OGL and why.
This is followed by talking about who the books are for, how you can use them. What good are they for people that play in homebrew campaigns and a section of how to use this with Golarion the Pathfinder world. They are asking for playtesters to help them out, there is a section on play testing and how to get involved in it and what they want from playtesters. There is 3 new feats, two are ok. One Lies within Lies was very clever and a very good feat.
Equipment (3 pages)
This section has a handful of new equipment to be found in the new setting. As well as a few new animal companions that fit the setting.
For some reason in the middle of the equipment chapter is one page of expected stats for monsters by CR, 3 pages of forms to fill out for playtesting. I honestly have no idea why they was put here instead of at the very end of the book. (3 pages)
Misc
The last section has a few new options in it. Two feats for lizardfolk, three feats for boggard/frogs, a Rakshasa Sorc Bloodline(I felt it was a bit strong), two new domains Juju(seemed inspired by Voodoo) and Ancestral Domain. Two new Subdomains Philosophy and Enlightenment.
It ends with a OGL.
Closing thoughts, There is 2 copies of this product, a color nice looking very pretty copy. The problem with it, is that it is laid out in 2 page format making it hard to print or read in PDF format. The artwork in the product is good. Then there is a black and white version that is in single page format. The final bit is the 3 forums for play testing separate in a fallible and saveable PDF format. I didn't notice any major errors and it was pretty well written. My on major problem with the product was layout. I just honestly is not laid out great. The part with the forms in the middle of the equipment chapter was the worse part but some of the rest could have been laid out better I think.
All the playtest forums and comments on what they want etc should have all been put at the back I feel. It would have made it much easier to read and would have made a more sense layout wise. This is a ambitious project and it sounds like it will be a interesting setting. Which seems to be a lost prehistoric world setting in a steamy jungle like environment. So I am curious to see what the company comes up with in the future. I think this is worth picking up. I mean it is free. If the idea of this appeals to you, you should jump on the playtesting and get some further material to help them playtest it out. I am giving it a 3.5 star review, it is free so I can forgive the layout a bit. For the finish product they need to work on that. I recommend checking it out though, you have nothing to lose.
