Weighing in at 18 pages, the latest installment in the 101 series tackles the traits of Pirates and Privateers with an absolute stroke of genius, not only in the design of the traits themselves, but in many of the names. How can one not love a product filled with traits by such names as Bloodthirsty Pirate, or Crack Jenny's Tea Cup, and of course Fight Like a Pirate.

Pushing the concept of what is a trait further than the same old same old, Steven D. Russell really delivers with this collection. Presenting a collection of traits that will rely upon GM's with a brain, this is not a collection of +1 to whatever traits you might be used to, but rather story based traits, that will bring a new level of depth to the characters they are applied to. Design of this nature is one of the reasons Rite Publishing stands on the frontlines when it comes to 3PP's.

A few choice examples would be Brethren of the Coast, loyalty to your own rings through. Face Death With Dignity, leaves a survivor of a crew of pirates with a new outlook on fear, as long as he kept his cool the first time around. Fight Like a Pirate, demands to be mentioned again, lol, whereas it is in fact a +1 type of trait, it still comes with a great concept, and one that fits the concept of a pirate so well.

Captain's Compact struck me as a great trait to really show off the vast difference in this collection of traits to the majority of what I've seen up to this point when it comes to traits in the Pathfinder system. With Captain's Compact your character has, at some point, cut a deal with a pirate captain. The details are to be worked out between you and your GM (and several options are given), but the benefits of this trait are sheer gold, you essentially get to swap skills x amount of times per week, when you're facing a skill check. Why? Because the pirate captain becomes a resource, that you can tap for information and such. And that folks, is brillaint. Steven could of easily wrote the name of the trait, and the words swap skill in skill check x times/week, and called it a day. But instead he gave us, oh so subtly, an entire hook for further adventures, disguised as a trait. By giving players and GM's traits that are this thought provoking , what he has done is pulled out a few gray crayons from the box, and slipped in a few more colorful ones. He's provided tools to tell a little bit better of a story, before you even get started playing.

I did find myself at a loss over one of the better traits in the book however as far as sheer comical genius goes, Parrot Voice. As it reads, brings to mind the classic wise cracking stereotypical pirate parrot, but how does one use it, when it says whatever it wants, when it wants? And am I just having a truly empty moment, as the wording regarding the monkey totally lost me as to what it meant.

Obviously, this collection of traits is geared toward a certain style of player, and character, now that's not saying that without a few tweaks here or there several of them could not be applied to other character concepts. But, to truly appreciate this collection, I can't help but think that going with using it as it was intended would be the way to go.

Formatting wise, the layout follows the dual column approach, with artwork embedded throughout. I found no grave errors with grammar. The art follows the theme for many of Rite's books, and brings with it very old world feel that works especially well in this PDF. Alas, no bookmarks once again.

And, for my fellow Hero Lab users out there, the files installed without a problem, and yes, it is kind of cool to finally see a massive amount of options when you click the trait tab. This product continues what I am hoping is a growing trend, as I love seeing 3PP's embrace the Hero Lab community, and show us some love. If I could find a negative to say, it would be that nowhere within the book could I find even a mention of what minimum data pack requirements Hero Lab users needed to worry about before trying to load the .HL file. I know the concept of remembering something of that nature is new, but it is an important thing, as not every Hero Lab user has purchased all of the data packs, and they need to know if they can load custom packs or not.

So, final tally... Am going to go with a 4.5, as the entire Hero Lab issue hits home for me, and Parrot Voice really is worded confusingly. So, rounding up, cause this product deserves it, we're going with a 5 star rating on this one.

This pdf is 18 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of advertisements and 1 page SRD, leaving 13 pages of content, so let's check out these new traits for pirates and privateers, especially useful for the Skull & Shackles-AP or Freeport-campaigns.

Before I get into this review, I have to make something clear: I really like the basic premise of traits - further individualizing characters according to their backgrounds. What I personally always considered balanced, but oh so boring, was the execution of most traits: Let's face it - a minor bonus of +1 or 2 to skills is nothing to write home about. This installment of the 101-series thankfully takes another approach to traits: Essentially, the design-goal of this pdf, according to a side-box, is pushing the boundaries and adding a bit excitement to traits. Essentially, traits in this book are often more powerful than usual for traits, but come with restrictions on their usability.

A neat example for this new approach would be the trait "Balance the Books" - a friend or allied NPC is indebted to you in such a way that they're willing to lay down their life for the PC. This might have them take the place of the character in prison, resurrect the character once or do a similar, significant task on behalf of the PC - but only once. Another rather interesting case would be "Accursed Corsair", which enables the PC to take an oracle's curse, including all penalties and benefits. If you haven't noticed by now, the traits not only go beyond what you'd usually expect, but also provide what I'd consider "background-hooks". In my home game, I tend to give story-awards for good background stories and in-built character hooks and exactly as such can many of these traits be considered. One of my favorite traits assumes that you have made a dark pact that lets you summon a desolate ship/ghost vessel, usable only by you and your first mate, rise from the waves - which might, at least once, save your skin. While not worth anything, the iconic act of raising a ship from Davey's locker is just too cool, even if you cannot sell it for gain.

Of course, more mundane traits are included as well: If you for example want a weaponized peg-leg there's a trait for it, as there's one for having depth-perception in spite of just having one eye and an eye-patch. "By Land or by Sea" is another smart trait, granting your merfolk character the amphibious subtype and the ability to change into biped-form. If you're inclined to play rather a noble and cool commander, "Face Death with Dignity" might be up your alley: Once per week, when being under the effects of fear, you ignore the frightened condition and gain a modified version of the confusion condition, sans "attack self" and "attack nearest creature", but with +2 to Str and Con and +1 to will-saves. The restriction to "usable once per week" is applied in more than one trait, making what would otherwise be too strong for a trait actually work well and more importantly: COUNT.

A trait that is integral part of your background story might actually make a DIFFERENCE. This is why I really like this book - it provides traits that deserve the name and re-imagine the rather bland basic concept of traits to a new level that makes them feel more distinct from feats, talents etc.

I also enjoyed a trait that lets you start play as a restless soul (from the excellent RiP-supplement or In the Company of Monsters) or start game with a curse that ensures you becoming one. My absolute favorite of the bunch, though, is the trait "Parrot Voice": You are mute, but gain a parrot-familiar that squawks the somatic components of your spells while sitting on your shoulders. This is genius!

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are slightly worse than I've come to expect from Rite Publishing: Aforementioned Parrot-Voice trait e.g. suffers from 2 minor glitches. While not impeding my ability to understand the content, I think that another pass at editing would have been a good idea. Layout adheres to a 2-column standard and the classic stock-art pictures are fitting. The pdf comes with no bookmarks, which is another minor downer. I'm in a bit of a pinch here: On the one hand I absolutely LOVE the new approach taken to traits herein. On the other hand, this installment of the 101-series is not as stunningly awesome as its predecessor. While still a good book oozing usability and cool options for any Freeport or Skull & Shackles-game, I feel that this book could have used a bit more polish on the side of formal criteria. In the end, though, all my points of criticism have to be taken as nagging on a very high level. My final verdict will thus be 4 stars - a good book that falls a bit short of absolute excellence.

Endzeitgeist out.