Obsidian Apocalypse (PFRPG)

4.30/5 (based on 3 ratings)
LPJ9413E

Print Edition Discontinued

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A dark star fell from the sky bringing with it the end of all things! The sanctity of the world known as Abaddon was shattered when a global apocalyptic event of a meteor impacting the planet causing a destructive ecological and eldritch change. Now there is no day or night, just never ending Apocalypse. An undead world ruled by fear and horror. Undead nightmares prowl the darkest forest with malevolent ghouls, grim demonic fiends and horrific vampires prey on a fearful populace. The world is dominated by the monstrously powerful immortal evils that reigns supreme over this world. And with all this the mysterious force known as Nightwall. Evil dominates the world to be challenged by noble heroes fighting to take back a world that should belong to them. Are you willing to take up the fight?

Inside this book you will find you’ll need to embark on adventures in the exciting setting of Obsidian Apocalypse:

  • Four toolkit setting templates
    • Infernus Risen: Angels and Demons have been brought to this world and engage in battles all over this world
    • World of the Elder Gods: The meteor is actually a prison from unusual monsters that breaks open and escapes to this world
    • Pandemic Contagion: A super powerful virus begins infecting, mutating and killing people of this world
    • and World of the Undead: Undead raise due to the necromantic energy in the meteor.
  • Highly detailed regions and history, new organizations to launch your campaign
  • 7 new races usable as player characters.
  • Over 90 new feats and over 100 new spells.
  • All new monsters and monster templates.
  • And much more.

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

LPJ9413


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Average product rating:

4.30/5 (based on 3 ratings)

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4/5

I didn't know what to expect here. I've felt the need to buy exactly one other product from LPJ Design, the Machinesmith, so I wasn't sure whether this book was mostly fluff or mostly crunch. For the most part its kind of both.

The first few chapters are the most coherent. We first get some detailed fluff that I skimmed because once I got the gist I didn't care. Not that the fluff throughout the book is bad but since it's kind of scattered and sometimes littered with pieces of crunch I kind of latch on to stuff in chunks. I don't think I'd use all the fluff in a game at once.

Then we get to some races. Some of the races feel like they retread some ground well traveled by paizo's products. There is an evil outsider race, a good/evil outsider race and a good outsider race plus some barely different core race traits. The remaining races range from obvious (Werewolf race/zombie race) to the bizarre (parasitic goo race)and overall all the races, even the retreaded ones feel useable for the purposes of a magical post apocalypse.

Then we get to the Feats and spells which are appropriate for the theme of the book. Nothing particularly useful, powerful or game changing but if you have goofy players that like to play up the tropes of the campaign these will be pretty useful.

After that the chapters fall into descriptions of sub apocalypses, each with it's own listing of hazards, feats, traits, fluff, subrules, templates and all kinds of stuff. The organization of having all these things all over the place is jarring feeling like several splat books bound together instead of one book covering these things. Expect for this book to be mostly for GMs because players are not going to navigate this thing, and why should they. These aren't options that you just throw at your players. These are options that players stumble upon and options you don't want to use all at once.

Chapter 10 brings up some boss monsters. Literally just final monsters to fight at the end of a campaign. Like CR 30+ kind of threats. They are followed by new monsters and a parade of everything that's not a monster that wants you dead in a magical post apocalypse.

Lastly there are tips on how to handle some Obsidian Apocalypse games.

This book was kind of hard to read. Throughout I had a hard time determining whether this was a hodgepodge of different ideas for different kinds of magical hell-holes or one single campaign setting. In the end I assumed it was the former because of how the crunch is organized. while I complain about the organization, once I decided on what was going on in this book the table of contents became the most helpful table of contents I've ever seen and it became easier to reference and digest. On a given campaign I probably use about 5% of this book. I have yet to play a post apocalyptic fantasy campaign but this is probably the first book I'd grab. Other than that it is kind of useful in bleaker horror and Victorian and steampunk campaigns. As I said above, no player has touched this book. This is the definition of a box of GM junk to throw at players and inspiration for homebrew games and for that its a pretty valuable book. I've certainly seen less dense books for a bigger price tag. I like combining it with Legendary Game's Gothic Compendium for my homebrew horror campaign. The only ground they both cover is Sanity rules so they feel like the compliment each other. This has more bang for your buck but ultimately more awkward to read so I'm giving this book 4 stars.


Awful - in all the good ways.

4/5

Endzeitgeist already did an extensive review so I will just comment in a couple of things

The bad:

Not everything is prefect but I did not see anything particularly wrong in the book.

The So-So:
- Endzeitgeist rightfully describe it as a "versatile toolbox" rather than a campaign setting. This have its merits but I would have preferred a more detailed world. The toolbox approach make some things to feel disconnected, IMHO.

- Likyans. It seems to me that they are there just so people can play werewolves. They seems to not have any good tie to the setting.

- Osirians. This is the another race that just feels like added on. The lack of detail just make me uninterested in them.

- THe image of zebadiah and the female infernal (pg 31) are too comic-like. A more grim portrait would have been better IMHO.

- There is a lack of art for the most standard races. Although they are standard and we all have an idea of how they should look like, in the Abbadon the races have changed so much (e.g myconian elves)that it would be nice to see an image of them.

- Some images show daylight that should not be there, but in general terms every single image in the book is of great quality (Asi Magnor is my favorite by far). The problem is that it does feel disconnected at times and do not help to flesh out the setting. There is no depiction of the fungi jungles, the shambling zombie horde or any city for the matter, that art is just not there.

The good:

The possibilities for adventures are boundless. Just the mere act of surviving is a big accomplishment and can be filled with physical and psychological trauma. And the information in the book is presented in such way that really make want to play in abbadon. Viallians or heroes, just reading the book I had a dozen of ideas for a Pc. That, IMHO, is the most important ting that a setting book have to have.

====

All in all, The book is great but it let me craving for more details about abbadon that were not there.


An Endzeitgeist.com review

5/5

Obsidian Apocalypse is a massive 200-page book, 1 page front cover, 1 page donor-list, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 2 pages of ToC,, leaving a massive 194 pages of content, so let's take a look!

What is Obsidian Apocalypse? Well, first of all, it's the heir of Obsidian Twilight - a campaign-setting that gloriously failed just about all my expectations. Still, LPJr Design improved so vastly that I joined, with a somewhat hopeful anticipation, the Kickstarter to make Obsidian Apocalypse, the sequel. Kind of. For, while there is a default setting kind of assumed, Obsidian Apocalypse now is less of a campaign setting, but rather an extremely versatile toolbox for to scavenge from. So after the first introduction to the cataclysmic world of Abaddon, we're introduced to the base-races - minus half-elves/half-orcs, for the world was not kind on these beings. Each of the core-races gets their own apocalyptic vista of what has happened to them - from the forlorn/mushroom-infected elves to the cannibalistic halflings, the takes on the races are disturbing and evocative at the same time. Beyond that, each of the races gets 3 alternate racial qualities - want to for example play shaven, mad dwarves, akin to Warhammer's Slayers? Yep. Damn cool.

Of course, we also get an array of new races. While I could go into the details regarding each race, I'll instead try to give you a short run-down. Another note before I start - the races herein you may remember from the previous installments, yes. They are nothing like their previous iterations - they actually by now are mostly rather well-balanced, on par with the stronger PC-races...without using their fluff. How is that accomplished? Well, where before, these races had a slew of special abilities, they retain these, but have to choose them as alternate racial traits. Take the Exalted, essentially the aasimar of the setting, the descendant of legendary half-burned angel Zebadiah, the last angel of Abaddon. Want a blade of deadly light? Angelic Wings? Well, you can now exchange these for the divine spell-like abilities of the race. Where before, they were stronger than even the aasimar, they now are a powerful, but balanced option. Another general improvement that hold true for all races, would be that they're less geared towards a specific class than before, often allowing for a more free assignment of ability score-modifiers. Where there are spawn of the upper planes, there also ought to be those of the lower, and yes, the Infernals are essentially the take on the Tieflings herein. Where in the previous iteration, they were a bit too strong for my tastes and while that kind of still is true by a margin (and this one's crunch sports a couple of minor typo-level/bolding glitches - more than in others), the new take on the infernal is vastly improved.

One of the more iconic races herein would be the Genesai - offspring of angels and demons, these unnatural beings once were somewhat of a Mary Sue-race; Now in this iteration, their powers have been more streamlined, their relative strength cut down to a level where they make for a more valid option. More importantly, their shattersoul blade, a blade made from the dichotomies of their very being, got a more varied mechanic that makes more sense - the scaling is also different from the one of the celestial. Now the Lykians, werewolf-like humanoids still are a tad bit too strong for my tastes: Claws, a diseased bite, +4 to Dex, increased miss chances in dim illumination etc. - even with a weakness to silver, this is a tad bit too much for my tastes. Another gripe - personally, I'm never a friend of +4 attribute modifiers like this one and the one of the harrowed, the spawn of the living and undead. Why am I not complaining about these semi-undead? Simple - they aren't healed by positive energy, but by negative energy, making them much more fragile in your avergae adventuring group. For a race geared towards melee with str+4, that's enough balancing for me - also due to not getting full-blown undead immunities.

It is here I'd like to mention that each of the races can expand their racial abilities via feats, in the case of harrowed allowing you to play any harrowed from the offspring of zombies to descendants of shadows and even liches. These feats often help drive home the uniqueness of these new races, by e.g. allowing you to expand the tricks of your genesai's shattersoul blades or truly be exalted: One feat allows you to sacrifice silver to temporarily stem the tide of the taint across the world and make an area fertile...for a time, as mentioned. Another interesting race would be the Osirions (not related to the Golarion-nation) - a black-skinned high-culture of beings with innate affinity towards necromantic arts - both beneficent and deadly. Not all feats are superb - there is for example one that hasn't been updated and might generate some confusion regarding the final race, the Khymer.

What are the Khymer? Essentially, they are people reduced to puddles of psionic, sentient, toxic blood that can take over corpses and remodel them to look like their lost forms. More importantly, they may burn out these husks (and their bodies) to fuel their psionic powers metapsionics-style. The rules for this race have been massively streamlined and the fact that the race now works better is great - especially since changing bodies can potentially be lethal and a lengthy procedure. The feat I mentioned before still assumes a more short-term duration for host-change than the new one, which takes several hours. Still, they are one of the most unique, iconic races out there and while the enhancements to their psionic abilities are imho too strong at low levels, the race per se is too cool for me to condemn - sometimes, even for me, coolness trumps all.

The feats I mentioned before deserve further mention -there for example are necromantic feats, which allow you to enact special necromantic treats - like forming the bones of a corpse or similar source into a superb armor for fragile spellcasters. Where in the predecessor, balancing was rather all over the place in these, the new takes on the feats even could have used a minor power boost here and there - none of the vast array of feats made me yell or get upset, many though made me grin and ponder why/how I'd use them - so all in all, a surprisingly well-crafted chapter - especially since I didn't really consider it necessary before. The same can be said in a much higher degree about the chapter on spells - with one exception (and that one's level 6 and requires foes to actually have blood circulation: Death by de-veining!), you'll no longer find any save-or-die spells. Indeed, instead, the magic chapter has been thoroughly cleaned up, the spells now often doing actually rather interesting things - what about e.g. a wall of spiders that becomes less efficient the more armor its victims wear? Spells that are hampered by wearing the right equipment? The option to create a duplicate, which if you or it dies, may well actually become you? Teleport-blocks? Anti-true-strikes? Yeah - if you're familiar with some - that's because the book updates quite a few spells from Monte Cook's by now legendary Book of Eldritch Might to PFRPG - and, just like the feats taken from the book, these are no lazy cut-copy-paste jobs, but rather true conversions and often, significant improvements.

But all of that crunch is not what this book is about - this book is about the end of the world. Or rather - the ends of the world - for each of the following chapters deals with one of the possible ends of the world.

And they mince no words. They don't turn tails. They are capital B bad news for all good. The first calamity to end the world depicted is engineered by no one other than the Morning Star, the Prince of Lies. No. Not Asmodeus, this knock-off. Lucifer. Yes. Lucifer. The Prince of Lies has destroyed his opposition, merged his former prison with the prime material and obtain the contract of creation - hence "Hell on Earth" really encapsulates well what has happened here. It should be noted that hence infernal taint comes with feat chains that net significant synergy benefits, allowing the characters to represent the taint and changed dichotomies. It should also be noted that each of the end-of-the-world-scenarios comes with multiple organizations (though no Prestige-mechanics) and fully depicted settlements as well as suggested campaign-outlines/DM-advice. Have I mentioned rules for apocalyptic, hellish weather like rains of frogs, tornados of flame and the like? What about the one ritual that keep the hellish hordes from crushing all resistance?

The next apocalypse would be the result of a meteorite, from which weird life spawned - an illness consuming organic and inorganic material, subjugating everything under its dread swarm-intelligence and potentially non-euclidian-seeming aesthetics. The shaper virus has changed the world by separating it into ever decreasing healthy lands with draconian anti-infection protocols, which proved to be the only way to stem the tide of infection, and the virus-controlled second half of the world, by now a nightmare of infected creatures. PC will have to struggle with the infection, draw strength from it and avoid succumbing to it - this apocalypse is by far the worst in my opinion: In a good way. I love the moral implications, the deadly abilities, the feats that let you draw upon the virus's strength at a price - this one is glorious indeed. Of course, we also get the contaminated-template here as well as an array of sample contaminated victims of the dread virus...

Want to go more conservative with your weird apocalypse - well, there's also a chapter detailing the apocalypse due to the return of the cthulhoid elder gods - and as such, the chapter of course requires sanity rules. What can I say - they're elegant, versatile without being CoC-level punishing, leave enough control for the DM and over all, are the best sanity rules for any d20-based game I've seen in quite a while - essentially characters get starting SAN, a can lose SAN, regain it via Heal and encountering the strange may result in gaining new insights into forbidden lore - yes, essentially, that's the d20-version of COC's SAN-system and it actually works rather well in play! And yes, it includes the Knowledge (Forbidden Lore)-skill (somewhat akin to cthulhu mythos in CoC), but also takes the options of restorative magic etc. into account. Beyond that, sheer proximity to these beasts changes planar properties in interesting ways - this chapter should also prove to be extremely interesting for Midgard-DMs looking to add some oomph to the wasted west. We also get two nice simple templates to modify creatures. Once again a great apocalypse with awesome supplemental material.

Of course, there also ought to be...yes! The zombie-apocalypse - with a new breed of zombie that decreases your movement automatically and by sheer proximity, easily pinning those immobilized and spreading undead destruction around the world - in this world, the war against the never-ending hordes of mindless dead, necromancer lords etc. all rule, making for a nice, traditional undead apocalypse supplemented by some neat ideas and crunch. On the supplemental side, traits, feats, spells and a table for vast hordes of undead and their CR are provided as well as a rather significant array of shambling sample zombies of various CRs

Now it should be noted that theoretically, you could combine all of these into a truly devastating super-apocalypse... but who would do that? *evil grin*

Now a setting like this can't work with petty CR 10+ villains - hence we also get the super-movers and shakers in all their glory -if you recall Calix Sabinus, the Vampire-Lich-God-king and his brethren, you'll know that this chapter provides some truly nasty adversaries - with legendary Mummy-king Asi Magnor getting a resplendent new artwork, just as the newcomer, Reikenjo, the first agent of the shaper virus. CR-wise, these legends range from CR 30 to CR 35 - and thankfully don't include Lucifer or Elder Gods, i.e. beings that should not be slain by mortal hands. One kind-of-gripe here - the equipment of these legends is rather puny compared to their level. DMs probably should add some items and yes, in my opinion also artifacts to make these unique threats a tad more challenging.

Of course, there also are less epic monsters herein, with each and every one of them coming with a downright glorious artwork - whether its old favorites like the boneshard golems or the necromantically-infused creature template or new critters like the slumber-inducing intelligent eye-consuming insects, the undead-hunting bird-like humanoids called Hargila, face-stealing fey, shadow-consuming undead or ooze-like outsiders that spread and sustain themselves on hatred - the creatures in this chapter are gloriously wicked and powerful -beasts to truly FRIGHTEN players, not just their characters, often with an array of interesting signature abilities. This chapter also includes a damn cool array of environmental hazards and weird diseases to spring upon your players.

The book concludes with campaign ideas and options to help a DM plan/organize such a campaign.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are generally very good - while some glitches have crept in (which happens in almost all big books), editor Joshua Yearsley generally has done a great job. Layout adheres to a drop-dead-gorgeous 2-column full-color standard and the artworks deserve special mentioning - this ranks among the most beautiful books I've seen in that department, with iconic piece upon iconic piece. While some you may know from older Obsidian Twilight-publications, the majority is actually new and drives home the superb art direction. The pdf comes fully bookmarked and in full color, but is *relatively* printer-friendly when printed out in b/w. If you somehow can get your hands on the color exclusive version from the KS, DO SO. Seriously, I got both the full color and b/w print version and the former is just...beautiful. Even for LPJr Design standards - and that means something.

So...this was another review that took forever, mainly due to having to check back to the old material, comparing it etc. First of all - the balance-concerns I had with the races previously have *mostly* been alleviated, in favor of a much more streamlined experience. And while I'm not 100% sold on the balance of some of them, there always is the "rule of cool"-factor - take the Khymer: While the meta-psionic tricks of the race are VERY powerful and something to take into account as a DM, they are a race of sentient, body-invading BLOOD. The main gripe I have here is that the DC to determine con-damage doesn't scale and that the enhancements, per se, would imho work better as a feat-chain. Now declaring them as such wouldn't be hard on a DM, so there you go. generally, the races can be now categorized as a medium till strong race-option, but not as overpowered as they once were - the core-races no longer feel like declassified second choices compared to them, with fungoid infections, slayer-dwarves etc. offering a neat array of racial fodder.

On the other hand of the spectrum, there are some feats (like aforementioned bone armor) that can only be used 1/day - some scaling for additional uses based on level etc. would have made some of these more viable - which they deserve to be, for they are exceedingly cool.

Part II of my review is post 23 in the product discussion. See you there!


Webstore Gninja Minion

Now available!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

An awesome toolkit for those of you wanting to know what the world looks like after you blow it up

Sczarni

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I picked it up I am really enjoying the whole pick your Apocolypse part of the book.

Dark Archive

This is looking sweet. I want to know more!

A competitive price point that makes the product easy and desire some to take a serious look at!

Dark Archive

Lucas, can you give me a hint about how much info is given on the campaign setting portion of the product? I am looking for more than 5-10 pages of setting. What us the total page count? Thanks.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

200 page count
Starts by giving a rough over view of the world and the changes to the races (Dying Dwarves, Fungus Elves, Cannibal Halflings) introduces new race (the Half-undead Harrowed, the Khymer who are living blood that posses freshly dead corpses to survive, plus others)

Then we get to the really cool stuff. 4 chapter each with a different approach to customizing the Apocalypse beyond the basics from the first chapter.
-Infernus Risen: Literally Hell on Earth as the war between Asmodeus and Lucifer claims the mortal plane.
-Pandemic Contagion: The world is consumed by an Alien Mutagenic Disease transforming everything into other worldly monstrosities
-Elder Gods Return: The God you know have lied and the Elder Gods have returned to claim what is theirs. The world is broken by sanity shattering non-Euclidean beings who's very presence warps reality and minds.
-World of the Undead: The Shambling Hordes are everywhere and every death fuels their numbers

Each of these chapters is about 20 pages or so and comes with setting specific details and rules.

Books rounds out with some Epic villains to use, some monsters, environmental hazards, diseases, campaign ideas, GM advice, etc...


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Raymond Lambert wrote:

This is looking sweet. I want to know more!

A competitive price point that makes the product easy and desire some to take a serious look at!

I am hoping someone will have a review of it soon. But until then you can grab a copy of Obsidian Apocalypse: World of Abaddon. This will give you an overview of the setting. Best of all it is FREE so no risk.


So.... No reviews yet?

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

In the process of digesting the information. I do like what you have put together here. I will not in all likelihood use the world specific stuff but can, and will certainly be able to find a use for a lot of the content in my wrath games - especially the setting templates. Absolutely love the art in the book especially the painted/ painted-look pieces.

Raymond Lambert wrote:
Lucas, can you give me a hint about how much info is given on the campaign setting portion of the product? I am looking for more than 5-10 pages of setting. What us the total page count? Thanks.

I'm still digesting and reading but my initial impression would be that the world specific stuff is weaved throughout the book so its hard to pin a number on it. Of the 200 pages 5 are credits, OGL etc. Of the rest I'd say around 30 are very world specific, the rest seem to me to be easily adapted to any campaign. The monsters do reference psionic rules though.

Dark Archive

I plan to buy this and use in conjecture with Iron Gods AP. I will probably use all 4 apocalypses to change the face of Golarion and create what is essentially a homebrewed setting that combines Numeria, Brevoy, Iobaria and Ustalav into one landmass.

Dark Archive

BTW, is there any difference between this one and Obsidian Twilight Campaign Setting?


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nightflier wrote:
BTW, is there any difference between this one and Obsidian Twilight Campaign Setting?

Yes, there are as different as night and day. Obsidian Twilight was our VERY, very rough draft of what Obsidian Apocalypse actually became. Personally I would say purchase the Obsidian Apocalypse Bundle. That is the best deal.


I got a copy of this through another poster's generosity, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it - just got to the "Infernus Rising" chapter, and I can't stop cackling with glee! I'm not much of a writer, but I'll try to give this a worthy review once I finish it. =)


El Ronza wrote:
I got a copy of this through another poster's generosity, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it - just got to the "Infernus Rising" chapter, and I can't stop cackling with glee! I'm not much of a writer, but I'll try to give this a worthy review once I finish it. =)

Thanks for the interest and support. We also are working on adding additional support to the setting with more campaign setting templates. The next one we are currently working on is Conspiracy of Shadows which is Obsidian Apocalypse meets X-Files. Hope to see it very soon.

Webstore Gninja Minion

Print and Print/PDF Bundle now available!


Now we are just waiting for a review. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?


What role do Clerics play, if any, in a world where deities cannot answer prayers? Is Zebediah the only spell granting power?
If summoned creatures can not leave the world, what happens to a summoners eidolon and what is the initial attitude of creature summoned once the spell ends?
Do Bags of Holding work or Rings of Blinking work?

Liberty's Edge

LMPjr007 wrote:
Now we are just waiting for a review. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

I have the Pdf and i am reading through it right now. You should have a review in the next few days or so hopefully before monday.


somewhattwisted wrote:

What role do Clerics play, if any, in a world where deities cannot answer prayers? Is Zebediah the only spell granting power?

If summoned creatures can not leave the world, what happens to a summoners eidolon and what is the initial attitude of creature summoned once the spell ends?
Do Bags of Holding work or Rings of Blinking work?

I think a lot of your question are answered in our FREE Obsidian Apocalypse: World of Abaddon (PFRPG). Hope this helps!


somewhattwisted wrote:

What role do Clerics play, if any, in a world where deities cannot answer prayers? Is Zebediah the only spell granting power?

If summoned creatures can not leave the world, what happens to a summoners eidolon and what is the initial attitude of creature summoned once the spell ends?
Do Bags of Holding work or Rings of Blinking work?

Just in case you missed here, here is a thread that you might find very informative. Hope this helps!

Dark Archive

Purchased. I've been waiting for the print to hit. Picked up the bundle since it was the same price. Looked at the PDF while waiting for print to arrive and it looks solid.

Not sure I'd run it as a whole, but there are part definitely I would use, even if nothing else a good way to blow up the world.


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Sweeeeet!


Part II of my review:

More than all of that weighs another point - whereas Obsidian Twilight felt a bit like "What's cool? All right, let's mush it together into a setting!", Obsidian Apocalypse does not pretend to be a setting - it's a toolbox, a kit of a plethora of options, ready for the picking. Want to combine the sanity-mechanics from the chapter on cthulhoid threats with the shaper virus or Lucifer's incursion? There you go! You could even reappropriate the mechanics for "humanity" and go for a walking dead-style zombie apocalypse, where the survivors slowly turn into sociopaths. Obsidian Apocalypse KNOWS what it is - it's not the subtle kind of horror (though especially the shaper virus lends itself to this approach), but rather the in-your-face blare of horror, of Midnight-level despair and valiant last stands.

The crunch in the beginning was good, much nicer and more streamlined than I expected - but in the apocalypses, in the scenarios, their settlements and organizations, in the monsters and threats - this is where the book started to grow its rather evil potential. let me give you a comparison: One of my favorite 3.X books EVER is Elder Evils. I loved the book's threats to death - but the signs, the repercussions of the impending apocalypse there just...FAILED. One paltry little change and that's it? All the page-count devoted to lame maps and lamer minion-stats, when all could have been devoted to actually helping a DM make the catastrophes his/her own? Yeah, Elder Evils failed there. Obsidian Apocalypse triumphs in that regard - I guarantee you, that upon reading this book, you WILL be inspired - whether it's a spell, a feat, a monster, a hazard, a legend (though, as mentioned, give those guys more equipment!), an organization - this book will get your creative juices flowing. Whether it's the drawback-laden infection-feats, the ideas, the compelling prose that depicts the respective cataclysms - there is so much to take, combine, change and use that the book simply screams to be used.

This campaign toolkit ranks as one of my favorite toolkits for any iteration of d20 - it may not be perfect in EVERY little component, but it manages to be INSPIRING, even for jaded "seen it all"-DMs like yours truly. There aren't many of these books around. Now don't expect a full-blown setting , but rather consider this an inspiration to follow, a means of making your very own end-of-the world scenario with all its repercussions and you'll find ample, copious inspiration herein. All in all, this is, in my opinion, the BEST BOOK LPJr Design has so far made. It oozes heart's blood, passion and makes for a fantastic book to own. I was honestly skeptical when I backed the Kickstarter back in the day - and am thoroughly glad I did. I'm not kidding when I say that this is a whole new beast that rectifies just about all of the issues of its predecessor and adds vast amounts of awesomeness on top. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval - and, since I didn't manage to get the review done in time in 2013, this one now is a candidate for my Top Ten of 2014. If you'll excuse me, I have an endtimes-scenario to plan...

Reviewed first on Endzeitgeist.com, then submitted to Nerdtrek and GMS magazine and posted here and on OBS!

Endzeitgeist out.


Thanks Endzeitgeist for taking time out for the review. Glad to see you enjoyed it.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I haven't been a fan of LPJ. I picked up the PDF based on End's review. This is one awesome book and I'll second End's review. Great job!


Coltaine wrote:
I haven't been a fan of LPJ. I picked up the PDF based on End's review. This is one awesome book and I'll second End's review. Great job!

Thanks for taking a chance with us. Glad to hear you enjoying it.


English is not my native language, I hope the review is understandable enough


@Coltaine: Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the trust! :D

@Alex: If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact me via my web-site and I'll try to be as easy to understand as possible. :)


Endzeitgeist wrote:
@Alex: If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact me via my web-site and I'll try to be as easy to understand as possible. :)

AH, I did not mean that, :)

I mean the review I just did yesterday, not sure if people will understand it.


Ah different nicks! Sorry for the confusion; Nice review!

President, Jon Brazer Enterprises

Anyone know if there is going to be print copies of this at PaizoCon? I wanted to take a look at this before picking it up.


Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
Anyone know if there is going to be print copies of this at PaizoCon? I wanted to take a look at this before picking it up.

I know Paizo has copies in house, so that should be yes.

Webstore Gninja Minion

*scribbles a note to add that to the packlist*


Regarding the print edition of Obsidian Apocalypse, is it hardback or paperback? And are the illustrations inside in colour?
Thank you.

kupoberry@hotmail.com


Kupoberry wrote:

Regarding the print edition of Obsidian Apocalypse, is it hardback or paperback? And are the illustrations inside in colour?

Thank you.

kupoberry@hotmail.com

Softcover and black and white interiors.


I'm not sure if anyone's still lurking around here, but I found a glitch in my PDF... Pertaining to the Khymer's blood form.

Spoiler:

Liquid Survival [Khymer]
Through force of will and manipulation of their personal
substance, the khymer is able to last longer without a body.
Prerequisites: Khymer, Con 13.
Benefit: The time a khymer can survive without a body
is measured in minutes instead of rounds. It can live
indefinitely in a sealed container such as an amphora or
barrel.

And yet, in the section on their blood form in their entry...

Spoiler:

Khymers and Body Switching
A khymer can sustain a body for up to one month before requiring
a new one. If a khymer is at 50% or less of its total HP or its
current body vessel is within 2 weeks of expiring, the khymer
can willingly separate from its current body. When it expires, the
khymer’s body vessel falls to dust and the khymer reverts into its
natural blood state. In their blood form, khymer can only survive
for a number of hours equal to 2D12 plus their Constitution
modifier before they congeal and die. A khymer in blood form
can fit through spaces three sizes smaller than itself, but takes a
–10 penalty on all Dexterity-based checks and melee attack rolls.
They also cannot wear armor or cast any spells requiring verbal
components. They retain any ability scores they had in their old
body with a reduced speed of 20 feet.
Integrating into a new body is a long and private process that
takes all of the khymer’s attention. The body must have flesh on
it, cannot have been dead for more than one month, and must be
from a Medium humanoid creature. The process takes eight hours
to complete. If this process is disrupted by an attack or destruction
of the body, the khymer must begin the process again with
a new body. Once integrated into the new body, the khymer is
healed of any physical ability damage it retained from its old body.

One of these things is not like the other!
Also, if the actual time is in rounds, or minutes, or even 2d12+con hours, and the process of integrating into a new body takes 8 hours... Wouldn't the Khymer die before they successfully integrate into a new body (on a low roll especially), or do the hours reset/get put on hold?

Also, I'm thinking of home brewing up a feat and would like the creator's opinion on if it's balanced or not.

Spoiler:

Temporary Vessel [Khymer]
You can use your blood to invade and move a corpse in a much more crude process than you're used to, though it'll only last as long as a lantern fueled by black powder.
Prerequisites: Khymer, Liquid Survival, Con 15, Level 5
Benefit: As a full round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, a Khymer can integrate into the corpse of a medium sized humanoid. This new body functions as if the Khymer had successfully integrated with it in the normal process, though it imparts a -2 penalty on attack rolls, melee and ranged damage, physical skill checks, and Fortitude and Reflex saves. The body disintegrates in a number of rounds equal to 1 + the Khymer's constitution modifier. The Khymer can exit this body as a standard action, turning the body to dust in the process. If the Khymer is not out of this body before the body turns to dust around it, it is staggered for one half the amount of rounds it inhabited the body (minimum 1).

Just like the idea of a Khymer's body getting "killed", and the blood ooze slipping into another one, animating it like a crude skin puppet.


@Artemis: The feat still pertains to the previous iteration of the race - the race's entry is correct. In my home game, I have errata'd the feat to add character level to the khymer's survival duration and also ruled that the feat allows a khymer to disperse its body between different containers for this duration. (Smuggle in via wine bottles? Check.)

As for the body inhabitation-process: The process of integrating into a new body is does not count towards the limit a khymer can exist sans the body.

Your Temporary Vessel feat is pretty cool (and I'll steal it for my home-game, with your permission!), though I'd expand it to include small humanoids, just for the hell of it. :)


Endzeitgeist wrote:

@Artemis: The feat still pertains to the previous iteration of the race - the race's entry is correct. In my home game, I have errata'd the feat to add character level to the khymer's survival duration and also ruled that the feat allows a khymer to disperse its body between different containers for this duration. (Smuggle in via wine bottles? Check.)

As for the body inhabitation-process: The process of integrating into a new body is does not count towards the limit a khymer can exist sans the body.

Your Temporary Vessel feat is pretty cool (and I'll steal it for my home-game, with your permission!), though I'd expand it to include small humanoids, just for the hell of it. :)

Good to know the integrating process stalls the Khymer's time limit. I figured that was the case, but always good to double check.

In the mean time, I'll trade ya feats. Your version of Liquid Survival, for my Temporary Vessel... Which, given the time limit, I'm expanding to Small creatures.

Could make for a very interesting case of a Khymer villain running amok in town, jumping into the bodies of those he's killed and sending the party on a merry chase!


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That's in fact exactly how I ran a module: My players stopped a serial killer who was supposed to get away in the first encounter; I had him "return" as a Khymer and truly wreck havoc. :)


Artemis Moonstar wrote:
Just like the idea of a Khymer's body getting "killed", and the blood ooze slipping into another one, animating it like a crude skin puppet.

Skin puppet. I like that. :-)


Endzeitgeist wrote:
That's in fact exactly how I ran a module: My players stopped a serial killer who was supposed to get away in the first encounter; I had him "return" as a Khymer and truly wreck havoc. :)

Just a little background, the idea of the Khymer came from DC Comic villain Ra's Al Ghul. In the 30th century he basically existed like the Khymer in a liquid blood like form and had cloned bodies that he used like "clothing".


I figured as much, considering R'as is one of my favorite villains of all time. Love the official confirmation here! :D

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