Curn_Bounder's page

I am not a huge fan of the Kung-fu genre nor is Tian Xia an area of Golarion I care much about. Therefore it has taken me a while to pick up this book (certain for a while that I never would). I'm glad I picked it up.

This book delivers what it promises, great Kung Fu feel. It takes two of Pathfinder Tales' most famous characters and transports them around the world. They and their loyal companion are soon split from each other and placed in very different circumstances. In doing this Mr. Gross explores much of Tian Xia (culturally if not geographically) from different perspectives. They mythology, the organizations, the history are all so well laid out and presented with fun and exciting events that the reader can't help but get caught up in them while learning about the world.

This is all accomplished while nodding repeatedly to the genre as a whole which brings a smile to the reader's face when seen through the very thin rice paper that veils it.

Pick it up. You won't be disappointed.

I am not a metal, custom painted type of mini collector. I like the minis painted and rugged. These are not rugged.

I love most of the sculpts and paints, but I've found these need to be handled far to carefully. I've had four of them break on me already, and that's just because I put them all in the same box (unpadded) to transport. These would be great minis if not for the brittle plastic.

One other thing of note, and this is to the entire line (including the forthcoming Runlords set) there are too many repeats. Too many goblins, too many duplicates of what can be found in that "other" line of pre-painted fantasy minis. What about some truly unique minis, like say a Froghemoth or perhaps a sahuagin or mite or something.

Got my hard copy in the mail today, and it is everything I could have hoped for. A quality print product, well laid out, easy to reference.

The content? Brilliant. I've read YWH since the first post on the KQ blog, so much of this was not new to me (though some of it is). Every entry is not only useful flavor, but has some great mechanics for putting into a game. It also has the stats for both the Master and the Homunculus.

Get it . . . now.

KQ is (as someone famous said) what a gaming magazine should be.
There is so much useable content, including some wonderfully wicked stuff such as truly horrific monsters and Derro alchemist options. Plus this issue has a great interview with Christina Stiles--her gaming history, her passion for the hobby and how she's turned her passion into game writing.
If you aren't a subscriber, you should be.

We finished book 1 last night. I know that our GM (who is excellent) made some tweaks, and I have not read the original. However, this was perhaps the best round of RP sessions I have ever had, and the content of Harrowstone are to be credited. Yes, yes, and yes again.

Heresy of Man Part III is grand, but for the end.
This is a very fun adventure—though a tad on the railroad. The party needs to be savvy and should try not to do anything rash, and that makes it fun. With that—this can be a very deadly mod. The group must roll well (as the group I ran through did—and still almost a TPK), and approach each encounter smartly.

The downside, as with Part II, is the background and metaplot. I feel as if I’d give too much away by talking about it. I will just say that other than the success of beating the Big Bad in what was a true nail-biter, the end proved to be a letdown in many ways.

It was fun for its 4.5 hours of play, and the parts are wonderful. It’s the whole that leaves you ho-huming and even scratching your head and wondering how on Golarion there isn’t a Part IV.

***Note that I do not offer a review of Heresy of Man Part I as I merely played in it and have neither read nor run it. As such I don’t feel qualified to review it. That being said, we had A LOT of fun playing it. ***

Heresy of Man Part II for the player is a rather straight-forward smash and grab dungeon crawl. It does have some great encounters, interesting descriptions, and fun puzzles. As part of the series, it is a fun, and integral episode, but it suffers from the curse of the “bridge” installment.
The major downside is that the Background to the adventure is a tad confusing with all of the names, historic events and the like. Further, if you are searching for more about the background in the Inner Sea Guide, don’t look in the Rahadoum entry (where the adventure is set) look into Thuvia—there you’ll find it, and it will make things a bit more clear.

Thus, the adventure suffers from something that other Society mods suffer from—the lack of player/character knowledge into the Background of the adventure. Without that, the adventure loses some of the intrigue and detail and would make this much less of a dungeon crawl. As a player, I would think this mod was simply a series of random encounters occurring during a rescue mission. The “goal” of the mod is the key to Part III; however, the characters don’t know this, and therefore might leave at the end with a sort of empty feeling.

I would recommend it, but only to the GM with the time and energy to add in some more background for the players to discover and a compelling reason for them to continue beyond room two.

We had a great time with this. There were some great opportunities for role play--especially for the faction mission I was given.

The last encounter was a lot of fun, especially given some player missteps.

Let it be known that the author's name reveals much about The Frozen Fingers of Midnight.
Well done.