 
Sign in to create or edit a product review. “Gods of the Shroud” is an excellent attempt for a third-party publishing company to realign religious pantheons. Recently, One Bad Egg (OBE) extended its rights of use to use its names deities in other material. I believe that OBE has the gamers’ interests at heart, and that most recent move exemplifies my opinion. The .pdf includes full color images of at least the deity and their associated holy symbol. Additional 4E abilities are reproduced following Wizards of the Coast’s coloring scheme. While this coloring makes printing more expensive, having the references available on the .pdf became very helpful. The file showcases more than a dozen unique deities, and each god offers at least one new power for their follower. Two personal favorites include The Silent Sister background and mission, and the double-crossing machinations of the Shadow Above and its worshippers. For the price, I was well pleased with the artwork, deity descriptions (without needing an organization hierarchy chart explaining who-is-who), and short adventure tips involving each deity and their believers. This work ties in well with other releases by OBE, including the Half-Dead player race. Although none of my players are at Paragon levels, I think I can envision rich story arc use of this product with the Unbroken, also by OBE. If you want some darker gods in your campaign, want to separate from over-used and underpowered 4E gods, or enjoy an interesting and well-written mythology, try this product! This product was one of the first 4E .pdfs I purchased. I liked the primal feel of the race from other reviews, and believe that One Bad Egg creatively infused this interesting, intelligent race with crunch to compliment the fluff. My gaming group added the apelord as a possible race during our first foray into 4E, and we weren't disappointed. In particular, the race offered our group some interesting options: * rich background and options of role-playing the beast-men; * great bonuses to two key combat traits; * interesting feats that encouraged one player to want to climb trees and ambush/attack; and a great resource for me as a GM to make some interesting challenges. Overall, the quality of this product was outstanding for the price an ease of use. Original artwork kept pace nicely with the character options and stories, too. I highly recommend this resource as a player option or a DM reference to change gears on players! This .pdf stands as the best - albeit shortest, too- pieces of publishing advice on the market. I have used this product to make successful pitches to gaming companies and prepare my own homebrew gaming. The guide shows how tackling the biggest giants in hobby gaming can be done respectfully and with business-savvy. Knowing what potential audiences want seems like a great first step to writing and publishing. Knowing today’s market trends- even during this economic flux – is invaluable. Again, a short read will help want-to-be publishers reconsider their best efforts, and helps ensure capitalism reigns supreme. Buyer AND Seller beware, but be likewise prepared. This product helped me take the plunge into 4E. The quality of this .pdf far exceeds its low price. I enjoyed the colorful art and liked clean tables laid-out through the article. My gaming group feared very constrictive guidelines and racial rules in 4E, but HARD BOILED CULTURES outlines creative solutions and avoids stereotypes. In fact, One Bad Egg Ideas shatters many racial preconceptions by focusing on cultures more than race. I particularly like the common-sense idea of how simple geography may change a race. Furthermore, some racial traits need not change at all- these rules as written by Wizards of the Coast become the cultural “Norm” under which some races may change. HARD BOILED CULTURES need not be restricted to 4E D&D, either! I easily used its suggestions to help make fresh, new encounters in other independent games I played before 4E. Considering the price, its utility in any game system, and easy-to-understand charts and guidelines, I highly recommend this .pdf to two different groups: hard working DMs facing stale NPC encounters, or a plucky group of players wanting to play a party consisting of all the same race…with subtle yet distinct differences within the group. Enjoy… Although we can remember playing Assassins, Cavaliers and Thief-Acrobats, our gaming group is new to the 4E movement. As such, you may understand our hesitancy on adding a new player class. However, we have used the HARD BOILED CULTURES by One Bad Eggs Ideas with success in other games (Although the product was designed for 4E, this cultural article had great utility in other gaming systems, too.), and felt that a FREE preview would be worthwhile. We have recently downloaded the .pdf and found it to be very inspiring! Witch Doctors (WD) fill the niche as 4E controllers, and it appears to be somewhat of an “anti-leader,” too. The WD has many interesting powers, many of which focus on ill effects of Saving Throws. When aimed at an enemy leader, our group believes WDs to be more powerful than wizards of (at least) lower levels. Wizards cannot deal significant damage to a powerful enemy leader, but WDs can provide unsettling curses and similar effects to distract or otherwise render the bad guy less powerful. Also, the “Resolute Witch Doctor” relies heavily on his Constitution score, making this class an attractive difference beyond being a healthy caster. In addition to the unique powers, our group liked the flavorful background of the WD, especially in light of the newest 4E Players Handbook II that includes more primitive classes and options. An Eladrin Wizard differs greatly from a Dwarf Witch Doctor while filling similar roles! We noticed some overlap with a WD and a Staff Wizard, but the powers are different, especially regarding the wall-powers of WDs. Our group's controller chose to build a Tiefling WD, because the dark and spooky race seemed like a natural fit as WDs, too, and their Charisma bonus helps. Finally, we will look to add the Apelord as a Witch Doctor to our next game, and see how successful One Bad Egg can be marrying two of its products. Our only regret was not learning about the play-testing sooner… This small suppliment continues to fuel my imagination daily since I bought it two weeks ago. This product serves as a stand-alone addition to an existing shore-line/water campaign. It also promises to add greater depth the SINISTER ADVENTURE'S new "Razor Coast" book coming this summer.
First, I think I found a nice and inexpensive land-mine to place in my PCs path. This free suppliment offers a lot of neat ideas, and provides good fluff with a teeny bit o' crunch. The Good: Low price! Future products also seem inexpensive, but that didn't mean low-quality material for this .pdf. The inclusion of the bear-owl was more interesting than the owlbear piece, because of its ivocative imagry and likley addition as a higher-level wizard familiar. The overall feeling of this product was to spin something new from something too old/too familiar/too static.
This small document helps set the stage for further adventures along the Razor Coast. Set at 7th level, the adventures promises overwhelming villainy. Check-out sinisteradventures.com and spend some time reading some generic posts, product spotlights, and design notes. For now, even as a DM, avoid the forums until after reading the adventure. Doing this footwork should help prepare the DM for his mental challenege: maintain the literal sinking feeling of (at least) two distinct as equally diabolical forces pulling strings beneath the waves. The adventures does a lot of things well. Greg A. Vaughan laces this adventure with deceit and the story flows from these machinations. The combat sequences, however, are slightly less intimidating than our group initially expected for 7th level. However, tricky elements resurface and suggest that a hack-n-slash approach may not be best suited for the best outcome. Even though I get no royalties, I admit how important the rest of the Indulgences were to help flesh out this adventure- especially for PCs and improving combat scenes. In conclusion, this adventure is half Cthulu, half political mystery, and half insanity when combined with other Razor Coast products. Greg adds two new spells and a creature template, both useful to this adventure. My player hoped for a water-based familiar suitable for 7th level wizardry, especially now that Stormwrack is seemingly out-of-print. Greg? This article provides a wealth of information for gamers (DM & player equally), as well and a short and enjoyable history read. It's a nice balance of applicable game material (ie: feats), as well as detailed knowledge of swordplay and historical sidenotes. IN PRACTICE, none of the feats a 7th level Rogue (Paizo Pathfinder RPG Alpha 1.1) took from this article seem overpowered. The new combat application was interesting and was (imagination) visually interesting, especially when used by a halfling! I would be interested to see this kind of work developed and/or absorbed by Pathfinder as a staple of quality gameplay, instead of a simple spatbook. The quality and detail are far better than that reference. In fact, I enjoyed more from this small .pdf than I have from other hardback suppliments. Faery's Tale Deluxe invites the entire family to the gaming table. The primary audience will remain children (as young as seven, but I contend that children old enough to count could add some value to a story while still having fun), but the sheer simplicity of character generation and open-ended storytelling seems fresh and inexhaustable. No rules lawyers stop game play. No messy combat or skill points or much of anything that detracts from playing a part in a story. Players have the ability to change some citical plot points, within judicious reason. The game is less durable than I'd have liked (paperback), which is why I gave it only 4 stars. There is very little errata, but a growing collection of fan-based additions (like gnomes as characters). If you have small wizards, diminuative knights, or curious rogues at home, check out this game for their enjoyment- and yours! Marx believed that specializing in one area made one an expert. Paizo/Gamemastery Item Cards- specifically the Elements of Power deck- shows how wonderful this idea comes to full bloom. The images are great, as are the descriptions. I just received my set today, and am anxiously awaiting the .pdf version of the TC module from Gamemastery from the Treasure Chest this November (I already had other parts of the Treasure Chest, so I am just ordering this deck and the .pdf. This adventure line is the introduction to the Wicked Fantasy Factory line, and it doesn't disappoint. Because of its influence and my PC's reaction to gameplay, I have subsequently purchased WFF#1 and #2. Based on cost ($2.00), the additional rules on playing an over-the-top, quick-kill game almost make it worthwhile. I liked the E-Z Statblock for ease of play. The story is average, but it does lead to a potential "sequel" in the next adventure module. Imagine running a game like "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns," or "The Scorpion King." Fantastic stuff, some yucky gore (but not sickeningly so, no matter how gruesome the line wants to paint itself), and at times, some campy and extreme actions. Good stuff, all. I also like the idea of "Phat Lewt" offered, which combines very well with the Paizo Gamermastery Item Cards line... The cards themselves are absolutely fantastic in regards to art and cloudy wonderment of what - if anything - these items might actually do for a PC or NPC BBEG. I have found added benefit for my players by a little extra planning using pre-made adventures. I look over the module for any specific equipment or treasure, and place those related cards in a binder for reference. I also gave my 1st level PCs a simple folder with a customized character sheet, graph paper, and a plastic card sheet for up to nine cards (and one class or race specific item card as a nifty bonus to introduce them to my treasure allotment scheme). It has been a very fruitful experience. |
