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Treasury of the Macabre (PFRPG) PDF

4.70/5 (based on 7 ratings)
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A collection of 30 magic items by our all-star Design Team for use in a gothic-themed Adventure Path campaign. Includes items with thematic links to ghosts and haunts, mad scientists and constructs, werewolves, eldritch horrors, vampires and witches, and liches and the ancient dead.

Designed by Jason Nelson with the Legendary Games Design Team of Neil Spicer, Clinton Boomer, Greg A. Vaughan and Clark Peterson. Who better to provide you with alternate magic items for your Adventure Path campaign than the very writers of those adventures themselves? Answer: no one. And in keeping with Legendary Games’ tradition of excellence and focus on story, these items are not mere cardboard cut-out items with gothic names, they are interesting and brilliantly designed items in their own right, each of which could be the focus of one of your own adventures.

Download includes TWO files: a full color version AND a stripped black and white version for easy printing.

So check out these gothic-themed items and Make Your Game Legendary!

Items Include:

  • Ghosts and Haunted Buildings: fearful knocker, gargoyle mask, ghostly shackles, séance candle, tomb tapper
  • Mad Scientists and Constructs: anatomist’s knife, clockthief’s candelabrum, clockthief’s key, override baton, electroshock glove, galvanic neck-bolts
  • Werewolves: bloodscent, guardian moppet, rod of the moon, shadow pack, wolf-hair shirt
  • Eldritch Alien Horrors: beyonder’s veil, elder talisman, helm of certain sanity, horn of the deep ones, tentacle vest
  • Vampires and Witches: bloodscent, cruciform icon, mesmeric mask, sanguinary torque, witchblood stylus
  • Liches and the Ancient Dead: crown of deadspeech, gauntlet of staveguarding, rod of the arcane cenotaph, skeleton cage, spinelash

Product Availability

Fulfilled immediately.

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

LGP001CC01PFE

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Gruesome Gothic Treasures

5/5 —

Meant to accompany the Carrion Crown adventure path, and Legendary Games' other publication "Gothic Heroes", this PDF is a collection of some very different in a good way magical items for a campaign focused on Gothic horror.

The items come in six 'themes' for ghosts, mad scientists, werewolves, alien horrors, vampires and witches, and liches. There's nowhere near enough room to cover them all, so a few high points will have to do:

Galvanic Neck-Bolts: the classic movie Frankenstein's Monster bit of getting powered up by electrical attacks. Weird yet clever.

Skeleton Cage: Pretty much what it sounds like, your very own cage of bones with arms that can snatch people and hold them inside.

Elder Talisman: The Elder Sign, anyone? A very, very powerful tool to be used against aberrations and other nameless horrors. Sadly, it uses some information from the unreleased "Tomes of Ancient Knowledge" PDF from Legendary Games. You can use it just fine, and everything you need is here, but it's a shame about the PDF.

Guardian Moppet: a dolly that defends children against monsters and witchcraft. Okay, it's unlikely to be used by your PCs proper, but if they have or know any kids this would be very useful.

Mesmeric Mask: Renders you immune to charm and dominate effects while making it easy for you to pretend that you are. A very nice and nasty surprise to spring on mind-control happy vampires.

Fearful Knocker: Attach it to any door and not only does it magically lock it, it wards it with a magical trap that will scare away unwanted guests. Great for those annoying salesmen.

The rest of the magical items within are equally enchanting. Really worth the price they ask and it would go very well with any gothic horror setting or campaign.

Practically REQUIRED for any gothic campaign

5/5 —

This pdf is 17 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page author bios and 1 page back cover, leaving 12 pages of content for the new magic items, so let's check them out, shall we?

This little treasure trove of items contains 30 different items ranging from 600 GP to 58000 GP and even an artifact specifically designed to complement the Carrion Crown Adventure Path or any similar gothic setting.

All the items come with information on their auras, construction requirements etc. and the imaginative potential is quite astounding - from anatomist's scalpells to veils that let you infuse other worldly terror into your illusions to items to manipulate constructs, a powder to throw lycanthropes off your trail to electroshock gauntlets, enchanted neck-bolts, shackles to chain ghosts, guardian dolls, séance candles to the Elder Talisman, an artifact to stand against the creatures of the mythos, these items are all killer, no filler. (And I want the supplement hinted at in the section!)

There is not one bad item among them. Not one. All of the items are appropriate for even low-magic gothic horror campaigns like Ravenloft and serve as disturbing, imaginative tools that thankfully go beyond "creepy armor" or "bloodsucking sword". Instead, we get an array of unique items that can be categorized best by the word "unconventional" - in the best of ways.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a BEAUTIFUL, Paizo-level quality parchment-like look with bloodstains and a horizontal, easy to read two column standard and the artworks of the items stand up to this quality, being on par with Paizo. Stunning!
The pdf is extensively bookmarked and comes with an extra printer-friendly b/w-version. I'm a sucker for gothic horror. I love the genre. It's what my home game is mostly about. But even if you don't like the genre, you have to admit that this is the apex of what one could hope to see from a 3pp, any rpg-publisher, really - both in quality, writing and presentation, this pdf is stellar. Yes, it's not cheap. But it's worth every cent and I'd argue that it's well worth the price. Try as I might, I can't bring myself to saying anything negative about this first offering of Legendary Games - my final verdict will be 5 stars with the Endzeitgeist seal of approval. Legendary indeed, Legendary Games! I'm looking forward to more supplements!

3PP At Its Finest

5/5 —

This is up there with the Book of Drakes as my favorite third party product. The quality of the writing, and the creativity of the content are both amazing. What seals the fifth star for me is the effort that went into presentation, art, lay out, background graphics, etc. All the treatments you would expect from a primary publisher lovingly applied to some macabre magic items.

As a GM getting ready to run Carrion Crown this accessory is a must have.

Really good but helms are not slotless

4/5 —

As has been mentioned below, there are 30 magic items with a gothic or horror inspired feel. All of the items are good, the vast majority are falvourful as hell and will fit well with the gothic adventure path this is designed to support.

However, as the title implies, there is one thing that lets it down from a 5 star review and that is that hardly any of the magic items seem to occupy slots. Masks, crowns, helmets, gloves, apparently all of these float aorund like ioun stones. Given the standard of design for the product, and the standard expected given the creative talent involved, this is severely disappointing on an otherwise excellent product.

The Gothic Horror Adventure Path Just Got Better

5/5 —

As the title of this review implies, Treasury of the Macabre is a wonderful plug-in to any gothic horror campaign, such as the Carrion Crown adventure path published by Paizo, allowing GMs to add even more depth to their story while gifting players with fun tools with which to fight their enemies.

The book is the first in what is hopefully a long series of plug-in products for the Paizo adventure paths. The idea is to expand on the adventure paths with various material, in this case magic items, that follows the theme of a particular adventure path. In the case of Treasury of the Macabre, that theme is gothic horror and the 30 items presented in the book will certainly add another layer to such a game. Each item is written with a specific theme in mind, be it cosmic horror a la H. P. Lovecraft, vampires, or ghosts as seen in classic ghost stories. This means that the magic items can be plugged into one of the six adventures in an adventure path with VERY little work on the part of the GM.

The book is very well laid out. The background, font, and general layout of the book reminds me of a good ol' Paizo book. One major difference between Treasury of the Macabre (and, I assume, the rest of the series) and Paizo's books is that Treasury of the Macabre is laid out in a landscape format. I think it works well for screen use but it may present some issues for those who prefer to print their PDFs. The book makes great use of links, making it very easy to get to a specific item. The artwork in the book is very good and all color (assuming you're viewing the color version of the PDF, of course). My personal favorite is the artwork for the elder talisman.

As mentioned earlier, the book contains 30 magic items divided into 4 groups: Rods (3), Weapons (2), Wondrous Items (24), and Artifacts (1). I would have liked a few more weapons and possibly a suit of armor or two. That tiny complaint aside, there's a good variety of items spread out over a large price range (600 gp - 58,000 gp). My personal favorites are the cruciform icon, the ghost shackles, the sanguinary torque, and the witchblood stylus, purely based on the flavor they bring to the game. Mechanially, all of the items I've read so far (which is nearly all of them) seem mechanically sound.

Treasury of the Macabre is a must-have for any GM running a gothic horror-themed campaign and it feels very much like it's a natural extension of the Carrion Crown adventure path with 30 items just screaming to be plugged into such a game. This product is a prime example of the level of community that surrounds Paizo and their work, with 3rd party publishers expanding on what is already top-quality material.

Rock on Legendary Games.

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Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Cool, now I just need to finish a review for it.

So it looks like the full colour version has a landscape orientation. How about the "printer friendly" version... portrait or landscape?
Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Andrew Eakett wrote:
So it looks like the full colour version has a landscape orientation. How about the "printer friendly" version... portrait or landscape?

Both are landscape. Our plan for adventures, though, is for the b/w to be portrait because those are more likely to be printed and in a binder which will need to be portrait. For a book of items, we didn't see the same need to re-orient the layout. But I'm happy to have comments from people on that point. We view feedback as crucial to our future development. Heck, comments on these boards helped us rethink issues with the cover and the dynamic links, so we take comments very seriously.

Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I don't think it is a big deal but i do think people would find portrait more user friendly on the print friendly ones, since the only point of those is to well print them. Which means it would make them easier to store in a binder where they could be quickly looked up, with out having to turn the book to read them.
Dark Archive

I would like to also see a stripped down portrait version but I have to say that so far what I am looking at - the colors and the overall layout, is a piece of art.

Nice tip to From Beyond and the Tillinghast Resonator with the Beyonder’s Veil. And a very cool take on the Elder Sign as a magic item.

Excellent work!
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

And reviewed.

Clark, thanks for the info. I suspect that I'm a bit more of a corner case than some. My preference would be for portrait and full colour since I intend to print and bind these. I'm willing to entertain the idea of binding them in landscape (maybe like the old Battletech Technical Readouts)... we'll see. At any rate, I'll hopefully pick these products up just because you have a history of publishing really cool stuff (I'm looking forward to Dark_Mistress' review).

EDIT: Ninja'd by Dark_Mistress

EDIT (...again): Also, since I'm looking to bind these, a proper back cover is also pretty important to me. But again, I suspect I'm a bit of a corner case.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Andrew Eakett wrote:

Clark, thanks for the info. I suspect that I'm a bit more of a corner case than some. My preference would be for portrait and full colour since I intend to print and bind these. I'm willing to entertain the idea of binding them in landscape (maybe like the old Battletech Technical Readouts)... we'll see. At any rate, I'll hopefully pick these products up just because you have a history of publishing really cool stuff (I'm looking forward to Dark_Mistress' review).

EDIT: Ninja'd by Dark_Mistress

EDIT (...again): Also, since I'm looking to bind these, a proper back cover is also pretty important to me. But again, I suspect I'm a bit of a corner case.

You was going to say you don't have to wait you can read the review now.

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Nice review, D_M! Great to see this, going on my to-buy-list asap! :)
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Endzeitgeist wrote:
Nice review, D_M! Great to see this, going on my to-buy-list asap! :)

Thanks and I think you will enjoy it.

Congratz for a Legendary product Clark! Is this the first one?
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut
Hugo Solis wrote:
Congratz for a Legendary product Clark! Is this the first one?

It is indeed.

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Hugo Solis wrote:
Congratz for a Legendary product Clark! Is this the first one?

It is. And the second one will be the one with YOUR art in it--the Gothic Pregens.

Clark
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Clark Peterson wrote:
Hugo Solis wrote:
Congratz for a Legendary product Clark! Is this the first one?

It is. And the second one will be the one with YOUR art in it--the Gothic Pregens.

Clark

So where is it? :)

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Dark_Mistress wrote:


So where is it? :)

In layout :) Coming soon.

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Dark_Mistress wrote:
And reviewed.

Thanks for the review, DM! :)

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Andrew Eakett wrote:
Also, since I'm looking to bind these, a proper back cover is also pretty important to me. But again, I suspect I'm a bit of a corner case.

I'll check with Tim about DM's issue about the back cover text. Mine appears fine. I'll check with him. We love feedback and comments. Its the only way we can develop and grow and continue to provide Legendary content.

Hope you enjoy it!
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Clark Peterson wrote:
Andrew Eakett wrote:
Also, since I'm looking to bind these, a proper back cover is also pretty important to me. But again, I suspect I'm a bit of a corner case.

I'll check with Tim about DM's issue about the back cover text. Mine appears fine. I'll check with him. We love feedback and comments. Its the only way we can develop and grow and continue to provide Legendary content.

Hope you enjoy it!

If I enlarge it to 125% normal size I can read it. But then on mine the text is more off white instead of white. I think that's part of the problem. The rest of the book i had no issues at all reading. The back cover with out enlarging it first was to much of a eye strain to read.

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Dark_Mistress wrote:


If I enlarge it to 125% normal size I can read it. But then on mine the text is more off white instead of white. I think that's part of the problem. The rest of the book i had no issues at all reading. The back cover with out enlarging it first was to much of a eye strain to read.

Thanks as always, DM, you are the best. I'll check with Tim and then see if we can update the pdf.

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I like the landscape orientation; I prepare most of my GM material in landscape, as it fits better into the space behind my GM screen.

Reviewed!
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Nice review Joseph.
Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Joseph Wilson wrote:
Reviewed!

I quoted you on our site, if you don't mind.

Scarab Sages

Purchased and skimmed this product earlier today. There are certainly a number of very flavorful items that I'll employ in my home game, and the product boasts superior layout and presentation.

For the price point, this is one of the better 3PPs I've purchased. Keep up this level of quality and you'll have a dedicated customer, Clark.
Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
Clark Peterson wrote:
Andrew Eakett wrote:
So it looks like the full colour version has a landscape orientation. How about the "printer friendly" version... portrait or landscape?
Both are landscape. Our plan for adventures, though, is for the b/w to be portrait because those are more likely to be printed and in a binder which will need to be portrait. For a book of items, we didn't see the same need to re-orient the layout. But I'm happy to have comments from people on that point. We view feedback as crucial to our future development. Heck, comments on these boards helped us rethink issues with the cover and the dynamic links, so we take comments very seriously.

Landscape is perfect for viewing on the PC and I must admit that I do like it that way.

I do Print my products and I do use the full colour original versions, not the Print Friendly ones, so I like Portrait for them as well. Plus Portrait are much easier to view on my iPad.

So while I like Landscape, Portrait wins for me on two fronts.
Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
flash_cxxi wrote:

Landscape is perfect for viewing on the PC and I must admit that I do like it that way.

I do Print my products and I do use the full colour original versions, not the Print Friendly ones, so I like Portrait for them as well. Plus Portrait are much easier to view on my iPad.

So while I like Landscape, Portrait wins for me on two fronts.

I will continue to monitor feedback on this. I don't have a large enough sample yet to see if there is a consensus. I appreciate the comments.

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Auxmaulous wrote:

I have to say that so far what I am looking at - the colors and the overall layout, is a piece of art.

Nice tip to From Beyond and the Tillinghast Resonator with the Beyonder’s Veil. And a very cool take on the Elder Sign as a magic item.

Excellent work!

Thanks! Tim's layout is just amazing, we are really proud of how this looks. And that makes a difference. But in the end its the content that drives the car. So I'm glad you liked Jason's beyonder's veil. He and I had fun with these, in particular the elder sign. I LOVE the rules he came up with for destroying it. Awesome!

The Paizo software just ate a review I wrote for Treasury of the Macabre. I was an idiot and forgot to make a backup before posting so now the review is lost.

So, just add a 5-star rating to the current rating. :D
Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Heine Stick wrote:

The Paizo software just ate a review I wrote for Treasury of the Macabre. I was an idiot and forgot to make a backup before posting so now the review is lost.

So, just add a 5-star rating to the current rating. :D

I learned my first year as a judge on RPG Superstar to save and preview posts. Goodness, I lost quite a few. So I feel your pain. But because we value comments and feeback so much, if you found the power (Fortitude save DC 10?) to redo it, it would be appreciated. Not trying to beg for reviews, but feedback is really important. :)

I made the saving throw and rewrote my review. :)
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Nice review Heine, I do agree with the last two reviews that the flavor text is top notch. Fix what ever is up with the back cover and add in a portrait print friendly version and I would raise my rating. i almost gave it a 4.5 but felt it was more of a 4.25 rating so rounded down to a 4. Likely should have said it in my review, but didn't. :)
Clark Peterson wrote:
Joseph Wilson wrote:
Reviewed!
I quoted you on our site, if you don't mind.

Not at all, my good sir. I stand by it 100%!

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Dark_Mistress wrote:
Fix what ever is up with the back cover ...

Tim is changing the back cover text in response to your comment and an updated version will be up soon.

Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Clark Peterson wrote:
Dark_Mistress wrote:
Fix what ever is up with the back cover ...
Tim is changing the back cover text in response to your comment and an updated version will be up soon.

Just uploaded revised files, cleaning up the back cover text per DM's comments. Also revised the lettering on the PFRPG logo.

After reading the reviews....I need this in my life. I know where my next $5 is going.
Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
acidrica wrote:
After reading the reviews....I need this in my life. I know where my next $5 is going.

I hope you enjoy it! Feel free to post a review.

Paizo Employee Director of Narrative

I've been strangely both busy and slacking. Too busy to stop and pick up a new product and slacking because I haven't stopped to pick up a new product. This stuff is slathered in awesome gravy, I'm sure, because I trust everyone involved to show me the awesome.
Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Adam Daigle wrote:
I've been strangely both busy and slacking. Too busy to stop and pick up a new product and slacking because I haven't stopped to pick up a new product. This stuff is slathered in awesome gravy, I'm sure, because I trust everyone involved to show me the awesome.

Thanks, Adam. That means a lot coming from you. We are really proud of this product. One reviewer said it was close to a work of art. Another said it might as well be an official Paizo product, it's that good. Its being well received and that warms any publisher's heart.

I hope everyone gets a chance to check it out.

Dial up some gothic-ness in your game with these 30 horror themed magic items that you can drop in any campaign, and that just happen to fit really nicely in the Carrion Crown AP.

Clark
Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

Clark I am going to add a vote for a portrait version. I am just not a landscape fan. I print up things and put them in a binder. I have a couple of landscape PDFs and I do not use them because when I am sitting at the table running a game they are difficult for me to work with.

Thanks for coming back to us and providing more awesome gaming stuff for Pathfinder.
Dataphiles

While I've not yet had time to digest this little gem enough for more comprehensive thoughts, I do want to quickly chime in on the topic of the layout.

I am a HUGE fan of the landscape view. I do the bulk of my non-gaming table reading (which, to be honest, is more than my gaming table reading) on a computer or ebook reader, and the landscape layout makes this such a better reading experience.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

After thinking about this I wanted to add a comment. I am a huge fan of Gothic Horror and as such I tend to be a harder graded on the topic, as I have high expectations for it. So keep that in mind when reading the review. I have very strong feelings on what is and is not gothic horror, plus that it takes to capture the feel.
Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Dark_Mistress wrote:
After thinking about this I wanted to add a comment. I am a huge fan of Gothic Horror and as such I tend to be a harder graded on the topic, as I have high expectations for it. So keep that in mind when reading the review. I have very strong feelings on what is and is not gothic horror, plus that it takes to capture the feel.

I liked your review! You are always honest and that matters big time.

Clark
Legendary Games, Necromancer Games

Woo Hoo!!!

Treasury of the Macabre just came in as the Number 1 download from other companies from Paizo.com!!!!

Here's the LINK!

That is so awesome to see!

Clark
Scarab Sages Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games

I'm glad to see people are excited about the product. I can't wait until the next couple releases come off the line, and hopefully you'll be equally impressed with what we've done with them. Game on!
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Reviewed. Sadly couldn't give it the full 5 stars. See review for details.
Paul Watson wrote:
Reviewed. Sadly couldn't give it the full 5 stars. See review for details.

I would probably be helpful to specify the items that don't have slots, so they can get errata:

- Crown of Deadspeech
- Gargoyle Mask
- Gauntlets of Guarding
- Helm of Certain Sanity

Now, what slots they take up are pretty obvious, but it is a minor editing oversight.
Legendary Games, Necromancer Games
Paul Watson wrote:
Reviewed. Sadly couldn't give it the full 5 stars. See review for details.

Paul, thanks for your feedback! We do have high standards and I appreciate you helping hold us to them!

Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Tobias wrote:
Paul Watson wrote:
Reviewed. Sadly couldn't give it the full 5 stars. See review for details.

I would probably be helpful to specify the items that don't have slots, so they can get errata:

- Crown of Deadspeech
- Gargoyle Mask
- Gauntlets of Guarding
- Helm of Certain Sanity

Now, what slots they take up are pretty obvious, but it is a minor editing oversight.

Also the Electrshock Guntlets, IIRC.

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut
Paul Watson wrote:
Also the Electrshock Guntlets, IIRC.

I just looked through my copy and I don't see an error of that magnitude. The Treasury of the Macabre includes an electroshock glove and a gauntlet of staveguarding, and I didn't spot any typos on a quick proofread of them. Also did a search for "Electrshock" and "Guntlets" for the entire document and turned up nothing. Can you cite a reference for that one? I'd be curious to know how that got past a spellchecker.

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