This map pack contains a complete set of printable map pages with instructions on how to assemble them for use directly on the tabletop. That seems straight forward enough.
There are two full size versions of this map, one in color and one that uses far less ink to print, a thoughtful help to poor GMs. Thumbnails and bookmarks make it easier to locate the exact page a GM wishes to review or print.
As listed above in the description this pdf includes map tool compatible items. There are magical glowing circles, statues and even an orb on the maps as well as in separate png files which you can print using a photo editor. This is what makes this a highly flexible product for clever Game Masters who want a lair to fill with magical traps.
I can see using the different colors of the magical circles provided to coincide with different stages of the progression of the traps a party may encounter. The flexibility of being able to print out and move around the color circles and statues also allows for interesting challenges Game Masters can present for their players. It is even possible to print these objects at different sizes if one wishes.
All that is left a GM to do is write up a set of vicious traps and encounters for this map and you are all set to ruin the day of any group of adventurers.
I love flexible products that help a Game Master's imagination soar. It doesn't hurt that the map is visually interesting and well drawn.
*One note for Paizo customers: the sample pictures provided here on this page do not match the product. The appear to go with another of the Fantastic Maps series.
The premise of this book, that every magical weapon should have a story behind it is one that I personally hold myself. Of course I also believe that there is no such thing as a “Magic Mart” where you can just go to pick up whatever you need. I have never liked this tendency in modern roleplaying games. My favorite part of gaming is the unique stories each player can tell about his or her characters. Heroic achievements and rewards gained are all equal parts of the fun of roleplaying games. Any warrior worth his salt should have a story behind a treasured weapon.
Enter Jonathan “Wicht” McAnulty and Rite Publishing’s Unique Magical Blades. For Game Masters who have limited time to create individualized weapons for their players to discover this book is a treasure trove. Obviously there are thirty items detailed in this work, as in all their #30 series. Each weapon has a background story that has some details that are fairly easy to alter to suit your individual campaign. For example, a particular sword mentions the warrior who once wielded it and the name of a battle in which he used it and then was killed in the conflict. It would be a simple matter to change the name, the battle, and the location to suit your own campaign.
In addition to a brief background for each weapon there is a brief but detailed description of it. This is the part I like the best. I like being able to tell my players what the item looks like rather than telling them, “Well, you find a sword. It looks well made. Detect magic indicates that it is magical.” Boring! Now I can try to make up details myself, and I really should be doing that anyway. But as we beleaguered GM’s know, there isn’t always time to do this.
The part I like the best is the fact that each and every one of these unique weapons has an interesting picture of it. I can make my own cards to hand out to players who get one of these weapons, with description and picture attached. Awesome! Kudos to Rite Publishing for finding just the right artist. The drawings are each appropriate according to the descriptive paragraphs and look neat and well drawn as if they were pictures of the real weapon, not cartoony at all.
To top it all off, there are several sidebars interspersed throughout that detail new magical weapon features with game rule information for creating this effect, assuming the core rules on magical item creation are used. I think this was particularly excellent as this makes a unique weapon all that much more so if there is no other weapon in the campaign that can do the same thing.
It is true that the background and description details are brief. Each is roughly a paragraph in length. Some might consider that a fault. I don’t. More details mean more things that I might have to adjust to suit my own campaign. And campaign world specific details would be a negative thing if too deeply imbedded in the item. I think that Jonathan got the balance just right between not enough information and too much. There is just enough in each background and description to use as is or modify as needed.
Even if you don’t use each and every one of the thirty weapons detailed in this work, I guarantee you’ll find at least one that fits a particular player’s character that they will cherish. Is that worth the cost of the pdf? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. Obviously I decided it was worth it sight unseen, based on previous work by Jonathan McAnulty and Rite Publishing. I was not disappointed. (Full five stars)
Thirty detailed and interesting sentient magical items to pick from to hand out to my players (when they’ve earned it)? Yes, please!
What I like even more about this work is that it is excellent idea fodder for me to create my own interesting items. From the more traditional talking blades with their own agendas and purposes to a flying carpet that decides for itself where it wants to go and may just go there with passengers in tow (at least in my campaign it may), to an interesting array of other items, this pdf contains all sorts of goodies.
In addition to the magic items themselves there is a short essay/explanation on why and how magic items become sentient, a useful tool for a Game Master who wishes to create his or her own items. Also there is a short in-character introduction that may be used by the GM. The theme of the book, from the introduction to the magic item descriptions has a very Arabian Nights feel to it.
For each item there is a listing of game rule information in PFRPG style template for easy referencing. The description of each item includes the appearance, history, personality, powers, including greater power if there is any, and the special purpose for the item. There is also game rule information on the creation of such an item at the bottom of each description. Though I won’t be using this part myself, I do understand that some may wish to allow their players access to creation of (potentially) intelligent magic items.
Though it is a bit of a stretch to say “bad,” I do have a couple if minor issues with this work. Mainly this is part and parcel with having to create more details for these items as sentient items should be above and beyond the normal treatment of magic items. Unfortunately there are a few items which have campaign specific details that I can’t use. One of these is the item whose special purpose is to protect Kappa. What are Kappa? I don’t know. It sounds like a campaign specific creature to me. Also this work references Rite Publishing’s game world place names. One that does stand out is Questhaven, which is mentioned in the in-character introduction. Another minor issue is that in one instance at least the item’s description does not match the alignment listed in the game rule template above. A certain headband has abilities and a special purpose that sounds a lot more like a chaotic good alignment than the chaotic neutral that is listed. And lastly, it is unfortunate that there were not illustrations of each magic item. Art is not something I can make look as good as a professional artist can. So if I wish to make use of any of the items that did not come with an illustration, I need to go on an internet search for something comparable. Again, this isn’t a huge issue for me.
While the minor problems are very minor. The good is very good. The write up of each item is very evocative and interesting. It also provides plenty of idea fodder for me to make use of in my own campaign. Whole adventure ideas spring up from these descriptions. I particularly like the notes on how a magic item can become intelligent and absolutely adore the Arabian Nights feel to the whole thing. Without too much trouble I can replace campaign specific references with something in my own campaign. This is my concept of a truly excellent piece of RPG work, the portability into my own campaign. Anything that does this well earns a positive rating for me, anything that is as well written as this work is wins applause.
I give this a 4.5 stars rather than a full 5 for very minor issues. The excellent writing overwhelmingly compensates for any minor campaign inconsistencies that accessing my own imagination can quite easily solve.
My review is directed specifically for Game Masters who need an epic conclusion for their own campaign.
As I look over the array of 5 star reviews I am struck by two things. The first is that I don’t feel I can add to the content of the reviews for specifics of what this product contains. There are several very in-depth reviews that state exactly what you are getting when you purchase this book. The second is that I fully agree with these reviews.
What I can add to the discussion is why I purchased this book and how much use it will be for me and any other GMs out there who need a high level campaign to end on a high note. I admit that I hesitated to buy Coliseum Morpheuon. I heard it was a high level duel style campaign. I thought to myself, “boring!” Boy was I ever wrong. When I read the reviews one thing stood out as being very useful to me, the material on the Plane of Dreams. I hesitated, hemmed and hawed and read the glowing reviews until I succumbed.
What I didn’t know before purchasing and scanning over the book from cover to cover was just exactly how brilliant this product is. I can link no less than three of my very ultimate all-time favorite RPG settings with this product, the City of Brass (Necromancer Games), Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium), and very obviously the Rise of the Runelords adventure path by Pathfinder Roleplaying Games. This fills the holes in my own campaign and makes these links not only possible, but easy. Now I don’t have to do much on my own to accomplish this because the geniuses who created this did it for me. I am not saying that only those GMs who use those three products can find this useful. Oh no. I can imagine a whole array of other possible links to other game worlds. Virtually every kind of GM who uses PFRPG or 3.5 and needs a high level epic campaign capper to the exploits of their game group’s heroes can link whatever they have created for their own campaigns with minimal effort.
Simply Brilliant.
If I could hand out a review of more than 5 stars I would do it. Coliseum Morpheuon met and surpassed all of my hopes and expectations. Not only does it allow me to provide a sufficiently epic conclusion to my own campaign but also has delightful potential to provide multiple denouements for each of my players’ characters. I hope to see many more brilliant works by you folks at Rite Publishing.
There are 164 pages of adventure in this massive adventure for character levels 13 through 18 with 24 chapters and including appendices for wandering monster tables, new items, spells, templates, new creatures and player handouts. There is a separate legal page and a page each for credits and a table of contents in addition to the previous. This version reviewed here is the Pathfinder Role Playing Game one and those rules as well as the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary are required for play. In addition a number of monsters from the 3.5 Tome of Horrors by Necromancer Games have been modified for play with the PFRPG rules set.
When I first read this book, it was with the intent to see if it matches a certain idea I have for my own campaign. It doesn’t and so I can’t use it as a complete adventure. However, I am greatly impressed with the total quality and fully intend to utilize bits that I can transplant into my campaign. This is for high level adventurers and the version I purchased is for the Pathfinder Role Playing Game. It takes into account the resources a party that level may have at their disposal and does not assume they attack each problem in a scripted manner. This is good for me as my players have a tendency to as a matter of course think outside the box. Now I am pretty good at thinking on my feet, but it is nice that the author of this adventure took into account alternate possibilities. There is a vast array of level appropriate challenges and those challenges get increasingly difficult as the players reach the home of the antagonists. It even includes at least one individual who is well above level 20. For those who seek some resolution on the epic level rules for PFRPG, which have not been written as yet, this shows an interesting take on an epic level NPC for your use. Fortunately for the party this individual need not be an antagonist, but the appropriate stat block is present just in case they decide to make an attempt at committing suicide.
In fact for each individual named creature and creatures that have class levels, and there are many, the appropriate stat block is present in the text descriptions of the particular area where they are encountered, except the antagonists that the party will likely encounter again and again. Those are in the back of the book in the appendices. For the DMs use also there is a description of the Goddess the antagonists worship. This is useful for those that do not want to try to replace a goddess of their own. If you choose to run the full adventure, I recommend keeping this one as is because it gives a reason not only for the actions of the antagonists but also for their abilities.
The layout of this adventure book is the typical high standard for Frog God Games. Clear descriptive text shaded differently to be spotted immediately. Special areas or objects within each area are bolded to make it easier for the DM to locate and not have to skim over the paragraphs to find. Most encounters also include initial strategies of the critters and NPCs and alternate ones just in case the party does something different than the most obvious.
This in fact is one of the better high level adventures that I have ever read. It is well thought through and organized. The maps are fantastic. And though the art is sparse in the interior as well as being all in black and white, I actually prefer it this way I am not a fan of a vast array of art taking up space that could be used for adventure notes, stats, alternate strategies, and descriptions. Even if you are like me and find that you cannot use this adventure in its entirety in your current existing campaign you will likely find many bits that can be taken out of the adventure and plugged in to your own with a minimum of reworking.
