Kobold Quarterly's fall 2012 issue is not for the faint of heart! Starting with the fearsome art featuring the Master of Demon Mountain on the cover, you will enter an issue packed full of devils and demons to give PCs pause. With a new playable lamia race lurking within, even players might be tempted to join the dark side. (Also the dark side has chocolate, as we learn in the adventure “Devil’s Food.”)
The dark aristocratic glory of Dispater, First King of the Infernal City, by Wes Schneider
The Vile Black Book, a grimoire written by Asmodeus himself, with five new diabolical spells, by Ed Greenwood
“The Urge to Evolve”, a new Pathfinder Society Quest by Adam Daigle
Mechuiti, Midgard’s demon lord of apes and cannibals, with new spells, monsters and adventure hooks
“Devil’s Food”, an adventure among Midgard’s diabolical gnomes
GM tips from Steve Winter on creating an atmosphere of horror at the table
KQ #23 also features inks and poisons from Midgard’s Seven Cities, worldbuilding with Monte Cook, a lamia PC race, plus devil-smiting, soul-selling, and much more vileness as black as a derro's soul.
The full table of contents is:
Cover: Midgard’s Master of Demon Mountain by Emile Denis
Dispater by Wes Schneider - Pathfinder RPG
Slithering in Moonlight by Marc Radle - Pathfinder RPG
Pages From Asmodeus by Ed Greenwood - Pathfinder RPG
Mechuiti by Adam Roy - Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
Gauntlet Witch by Morgan Boehringer and Jim Wettstein - Pathfinder RPG
Selling your Soul by Rodrigo Garcia Carmona - AGE System
A Few Suggestions by James Thomas - Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, D&D 3.5, OSR
The Devil Smiter by Peter von Bleichert – D&D 3.5
Simplifying Sunder by R.C. Higgins - Pathfinder RPG
The Fruits of Friula by Christina Stiles - Pathfinder RPG
Monk of the Glorious Endeavor by Matt Blackie - Pathfinder RPG
Devil’s Food by Michael Lane - Pathfinder RPG
Crossroads Crowned by Terry Maranda & Eric Hindley - Pathfinder RPG
Pathfinder Society Quest: The Urge to Evolve by Adam Daigle - Pathfinder RPG
Living Gods for 13th Age by Ash Law – 13th Age
Different Kinds of World Building by Monte Cook
Real Scares by Steve Winter
Ask the Kobold by Skip Williams
Sign of the White Bat by Wolfgang Baur
d20 Monkey by Brian Patterson
Bolt & Quiver by Stan!
10'x 10' Toon by Stan!
Grab your copy today!
The adventure The Urge to Evolve is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Its Chronicle Sheet and additional rules for running this module are a free download (82 KB zip/PDF).
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This issue of Kobold Quarterly has a distinct slant toward demons and devils, which is quite fitting for a Halloween issue. However, if fiends from the lower planes aren’t your thing, don’t despair – this issue also has over a dozen articles covering a wide variety of non-infernal topics. Let’s look at a few of them first.
What does your older brother plus a water balloon have in common with spreading dread amongst your players? More than you might think. The connection is explained, very eloquently and entertainingly, by Steve Winter in his Howling Tower article, “Real Scares, 11 Techniques for Creating a Strong Horror Atmosphere at the Table.” And no, absolutely none of the techniques involve hiring your older brother to ambush your players with water balloons.
James Thomas brings us “A Few Suggestions, 8 Ways to Influence Weak Minds.” With humor, concise examples, and even a Star Wars reference, Mr. Thomas shows that the humble suggestion spell is unfairly neglected by GM and players alike. And of course, he also shows how to easily remedy that neglect.
“Slithering in Moonlight” by Marc Radle is a guide to using Lamia Commoners as player characters. In addition, he also explores lamias in a way that recalls the excellent “Ecology Of…” articles from back in the print-edition days of Dragon Magazine. Whether as prospective PC’s or just as better-developed foes, this article improves the usefulness of lamias. Also, I thought the story fragment used to introduce this article was particularly effective.
“The Gauntlet Witch” by Morgan Boehringer and Jim Wettstein is an archetype that lets characters mix martial and magical arts. This is the most well-developed archetype description I’ve ever seen. Most archetypes are described in a couple of short paragraphs which say “swap this power for that power.” That’s not the case here. Brace yourself for a detailed, in-depth discussion.
This issue includes two adventures: The first adventure, “Devil’s Food” by Michael Lane, is suitable for a 6th level group. It involves autumn festivals, chocolate, and some wonderfully nasty gnomes. This adventure is set in the world of Midgard, but as with all good adventure modules, some careful name changes will let you securely place it in your own world.
The second adventure, “The Urge to Evolve” by Adam Daigle is a Pathfinder Society Quest. It is nicely compact, should be playable in the course of a single game session, and even includes a sidebar suggesting how to scale it for your group.
I do have one nit to pick with both these adventures. Both use the “I have a job for you” setup, which is one of my least-favorite ways to start an adventure. However, this complaint reflects my personal prejudice rather than any flaw in the adventures themselves, both of which looks like they will be properly entertaining.
Now let’s look at a sampling of the Fiendish Articles:
“Dispater” by Wes Schneider provides everything you need to bring this Arch-Fiend to life in your campaign. Giving major foes a real personality and complex, understandable motives can be quite a challenge … for me, anyway, but apparently not for Mr. Schneider. He shows exactly how to do it for this iconic arch-devil. He has even included a sidebar on the real-world history of Dispater.
Ed Greenwood gives us “Pages from Asmodeus”, a book unlike any I have ever heard of before. This evil object is more imaginative and intriguing than any of the Artifacts from back in 1st Edition days, yet it is suitable for use with a group of almost any level.
“Selling Your Soul” by Rodrigo García Carmona presents a detailed and excellent set of rules to guide both GM’s and players in striking a Fiendish Bargain. I am not familiar with the Age system for which this article was written, but that doesn’t matter. The information in this article is so clearly and logically presented that I know I’ll have no trouble at all adjusting it for use in my 3E/PF game.
Please be assured, I enjoyed all the articles in this issue, even the ones I didn’t choose to mention here. Every article had something interesting, useful, or entertaining to say.
Yet another excellent issue of Kobold Quarterly with their Autumn 2012 Demons and Devils issue. I really enjoyed Pages from Asmodeus by Ed Greenwood, one of the feature articles this month. Also an article on Selling your Soul to the devil for the AGE system, but plenty of useful parts for any system. The art work is once again top notch.
My full review of this issue can be seen at The Iron Tavern.
I too must say I like the ads, I have found some really good products that I would never have seen otherwise. (my town has no hobby store so all my purchases are made online based on reviews and feedback or hunches made from the ads I read.)
Why was the Devil Smiter article not updated to PfRPG? I mean, OK, the conversion is easy enough to do, but still, really, a purely 3.5 article in late 2012?
Because the editors were feeling nostalgic for 3.5, and because the author submitted it as a 3.5 article.
Surprisingly, there are still gamers who poke at Pathfinder suspiciously with a stick. I know, I know, but trust me on this, LOTS of gamers are still playing 3.5 D&D.
Here's an early review of Kobold Quarterly 23 from Iron Tavern
"The Autumn issue of Kobold Quarterly is again a stellar offering from the folks over at Open Design/Kobold Press. With articles to inspire, add depth to your game, and more it is well worth picking up. "
I am running a purely 3.5 "Rise of the Runelords" campaign in late 2012, really... ;-)
The campaign started in late 2010...
Point is, people still run and enjoy 3.5...
Yes, but how much print support for it have we seen until this article? I mean, since the advent of PfRPG, I honestly can't recall any articles or 3rd party releases for 3.5 specifically until this one.
Is that a centaur or did I not read the lamia article close enough?
That is a lamia abomination (the non-serpentine kind of lamia imposter). Maybe we should have done two snake-women with the article, but I think the one we have is pretty terrific.
Yep, the article is exclusively about the snake-bodied lamia, so an opening illustration depicting the other kind of lamia (creatures the snake-bodied lamia refer to as gesh’ vek, or ‘false lamia’) is probably pretty confusing. As Wolfgang says, it is a cool illustration though :)
The snake-bodied lamia detailed rather extensively in the article actually despise the centaur-like false lamia. From the article:
"Perhaps the one race which drives all lamia, matriarchs and commoners alike, into an uncontrollable blood frenzy are those creatures they refer to as the gesh’ vek (‘false lamia’). These creatures typically have the upper torso of a comely woman with cat's eyes and the lower body of a lion, although ‘false lamia’ bearing serpentine, avian, and even more perverse forms are also said to exist. For reasons entirely unknown even to the most learned sages, this ‘pretender race’ also calls themselves lamia, a fact that infuriates ‘true’ lamia to the point of fury, madness and rage. A lamia will quite literally go to any length possible to destroy a member of this ‘false lamia’ race."
While we're on the subject, you can check out some additional info on lamia PC's over at Kobold Quarterly's web site
The first installment talks about lamia PC adventures :)
The EnWorld reviews of KQ are written by Neuroglyph, who is like the biggest 4E fan ever (to the point of starting online petitons for WotC to quit doing 5E). Lack of 4E content means an auto peg down for the issue, regardless of actual content or the fact that content is based on submissions.
I remember one his KQ review where he said that presence of PF "Sage Answers" FAQ column and lack of equivalent column for 4E is a sure proof that 4E is a better system quality-wise. The guy sure goes places in this regard.
I am no 4E hater (played it for a year and a half and own most of it) but better system quality wise is a bit rich. Although, admittedly, many of the errors are fixed in the <checks> currently 140 page errata PDF!
I just bought the 4th year bundle. Very nice. I'd just wish it was clearer which edition or system the articles were about. I'll be buying the 5th year bundle soon.
When will issue #24 come out and the 6th year bundle? (yeah, I am cheap).
I am not sure of the year it started but now the articles are labeled as to what system they are for. Such labels as: 4; 3.5; PF; AGE; M&M; etc.
I would guess that the Spring issue (#24) will be out around March 2013.
EDIT: I guess I should have been clearer, but I was speaking of when the tags on the articles started showing what system they were for.
My mistake on when the issue #24 was coming out. I figured wrong. See I am not as smart as I think I am. I just looked at my PDF of issue 23 and it is listed as the Fall issue.
Ouch! Just read the En world review. The Gauntlet Witch got hammered for being too derivative of Witchblade. Which, to be fair was always going to be a danger with such a concept. Still, there's a difference between a living morphing super powered Witchblade and the gauntlet witch's sentient overblown armor/gauntlet.
Did anybody like the gauntlet witch? I'm up for more "too derivative" if that's how folks feel... :)
Ouch! Just read the En world review. The Gauntlet Witch got hammered for being too derivative of Witchblade. Which, to be fair was always going to be a danger with such a concept. Still, there's a difference between a living morphing super powered Witchblade and the gauntlet witch's sentient overblown armor/gauntlet.
Did anybody like the gauntlet witch? I'm up for more "too derivative" if that's how folks feel... :)
Morgan, I did think of Witchblade on both versions of the gauntlet witch when we were considering publishing it; however, cool ideas are cool ideas, and you guys did a good job on making this an interesting witch archetype.
Don't take the comment to much to heart. I look forward to creating one of these for my own home campaign.
Since when is adapting a character of popular fiction into a class a bad thing? I was pretty baffled by the gauntlet witch, actually, until I read the witchblade comparison.
Since when is adapting a character of popular fiction into a class a bad thing? I was pretty baffled by the gauntlet witch, actually, until I read the witchblade comparison.
Adapting things is never wrong, unless it's supposed to be wrong. ;)
Well, sure, I was expecting a lot more angst about the loss of 4E content. When the review didn't go that road, I was quite surprised by the call for more flavor and fluff articles.
It may well be that the reviewer wanted to see more flavor and fluff articles instead of rules and crunch heavy articles specifically because flavor and fluff articles are much easier to use in a 4E game, whereas rules and crunch heavy articles (which are, by their very nature, Pathfinder RPG rules with a few AGE for good measure) are harder to port over.
All in all, though, given the source and bias of the review (and that was in no way an edition wars comment), I'd say it translates to an A+, 5/5 Gold Star review :)
Ouch! Just read the En world review. The Gauntlet Witch got hammered for being too derivative of Witchblade. Which, to be fair was always going to be a danger with such a concept. Still, there's a difference between a living morphing super powered Witchblade and the gauntlet witch's sentient overblown armor/gauntlet.
Did anybody like the gauntlet witch? I'm up for more "too derivative" if that's how folks feel... :)
I enjoyed the gauntlet witch archetype very much. Yes, it immediately brought to mind the Witchblade, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I look at it more as a witch-flavored bladebound archetype. The idea of the 'Coven-Militant' screams for use in the countries of Irrisen and Cheliax on Golarion. In fact, I've altered a Chelish NPC with this concept in mind for an upcoming campaign just so that I can test it out on my players. Really looking forward to that.
Here is something I find unusual. The first half of my copy (pages 1-40) are in color, but the latter half of my copy (pages 41-88) are printed in black & white. Is anyone else's copy like that? My PDF is color all the way through. It doesn't affect the readability of it just seems odd to me.
That is completely normal. The kobolds cannot afford to print the whole thing in color, alas, and so the print edition has always been entirely or partially in B&W.
I also noticed that Coming Next Issue is shown in the ToC as on page 83 when it is actually on page 87 and page 83's Earthdawn Pathfinder isn't listed at all.
Ouch! Just read the En world review. The Gauntlet Witch got hammered for being too derivative of Witchblade. Which, to be fair was always going to be a danger with such a concept. Still, there's a difference between a living morphing super powered Witchblade and the gauntlet witch's sentient overblown armor/gauntlet.
Did anybody like the gauntlet witch? I'm up for more "too derivative" if that's how folks feel... :)
I enjoyed the gauntlet witch archetype very much. Yes, it immediately brought to mind the Witchblade, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I look at it more as a witch-flavored bladebound archetype. The idea of the 'Coven-Militant' screams for use in the countries of Irrisen and Cheliax on Golarion. In fact, I've altered a Chelish NPC with this concept in mind for an upcoming campaign just so that I can test it out on my players. Really looking forward to that.
Thanx Blayde - yep I thought there were a few states suited to using gauntlet witches in Golarion - I had thought Cheliax (of course) but also darker Ustalav, Nidal. Perhaps Molthune. But really anywhere sufficiently in need of cadres of armored witches! ;)
I actually was pretty happy with that review, given their strong pro 4E bias! I think this is a very strong issue!
Ah, sorry Mark - my "Ouch" was for the low rating of my article only! I agree on both counts, apart from the bias, the review was extremely favourable; and I agree, it IS a very strong issue! After all, it's got gauntlet witches in it.