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This installment of the Advanced Adventures-series clocks in at 25 pages, 1 page front/back cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 22 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review is part of a series of requests undertaken at the request of my patreon supporters, to be undertaken at my convenience.

Okay, so, as always, this module is penned with the OSRIC rules in mind, but conversion to other OSR rulesets is relatively painless. As always, we don’t get read-aloud text herein, and there are a couple of formal differences from the formatting conventions that OSRIC employs, but these, for the most part, apply in a mostly consistent manner. Nominally intended for 6-10 characters of level 3- 5, the adventure is challenging, but mostly in a way that is contingent on how the PCs interact with the environments found and encountered. Attempting to murder-hobo through everything can and will get you killed here. While in the previous module, murder-hoboing PCs could still potentially get away with quite a few things, this stops here – dumb decisions can get PCs killed. Quickly. But similarly, smart PCs may actually be able to best foes far beyond their ability to defeat by force of arms alone. (More on that in the SPOILER-section.) In short: If your PCs is Lawful Stupid, they will die.

There is one more aspect you may need to be aware of: This module represents a taking up of a dangling thread from the very first Advanced Adventures-module, “The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom” and may be run as a direct sequel to said adventure; knowledge of the previous module is not required, and it is pretty easy to integrate this module into the context of any prolonged underworld campaign or exploration, whether they are mega-dungeon-based or subterranean sagas like AAW Games’ excellent Rise of the Drow campaign. This module also represents the second of two modules that expand the material based on the eponymous Shadowvein, which means that, unless you really don’t want to play the prequel, it’s recommend that you first play “Down the Shadowvein”. The Shadowvein, fyi, is a subterranean river, a black ribbon of water illuminated by purple and green lichen, with tendrils of almost snot-like strands hanging from them – colloquially known as “faerie sputum” to those traveling its length.

From a genre-perspective, we have, much like in its predecessor, a pretty free-form sandbox here – a subterranean hexcrawl, which cleverly uses the subterranean river Shadowvein as a kind of red thread that the PCs may or may not follow. The module does a pretty neat job at depicting the differences regarding the environment and sandbox style play: For one, we not only get different random encounter tables, they differentiate between passage types: You see, the overland hexcrawl map knows primary, secondary and tertiary passages, with different encounters suggested for each.

As a small digression: There are generally two aesthetic design paradigms regarding the underworld, two “genres” if you will: One would be the “civilized” underworld – a realm of vast dwarven fortresses and drow cities, where civilizations both alien and familiar thrive, and then there would be the “weird” underworld, where anything remotely resembling the civilized world vanishes, where strange and chthonian phenomena and creatures roam, where, depending on the setting, one might find entrances to the literal underworld, or even hell. This module, in a smart decision, provides a transition – the Shadowvein, as noted in my review of the predecessor module, very much starts as a trip through “civilized” underworld, while this module represents the PCs leaving these subterranean shores behind in favor of a stranger environments where few upperworlder soles have tread before. However, it does so without a hard cut into the strange, instead using the course of the river to slowly emphasize a transition towards these regions – and VERY FEW modules manage to achieve that; this is the primary reason I copped out and went with two final verdicts regarding my review of its predecessor. In a way, this module represents the payoff and continuation for the exploration of the first Shadowvein adventure.

Considering this, I do have to complain about something: Much to my chagrin and disappointment, the random encounter tables are the exact same as in the previous Shadowvein module (and no, some typo-level glitches haven’t been purged). The encounter tables focus primarily on humanoids, with very few other critters thrown in. This, to me, was somewhat galling, as the module starts transitioning between what one would dub the “civilized” regions of the underworld, and the region that starts to become truly alien and wondrous. As such, a change of pace regarding the tables would have been appreciated. I strongly suggest investing the time and making the random encounter tables more interesting, or rather, different, for this one.

Noja, undal and wyrdwolf stats have been included in this module as well, alongside 3 other creatures – since the exploration of the subterranean realms and the surprise they can elicit is part of the module’s charm, I’ll relegate my discussion of these to the SPOILER-section below.

As before, the player-map of the Shadowvein has been included with its intentional idiosyncrasies still representing one design decision I really enjoyed, and we do get 5 “zoomed-in”, fully mapped encounter areas. I minded the lack of player-friendly maps for them slightly less in most cases than I did for the previous adventure, though one in particular was just BEGGING for a player-friendly map: You see, there is a pretty massive hexcrawl region, with the map spanning two-pages – that one should have been included in a keyless, untagged version at least.

The module contains a couple of new magic items, which include the utilitarian svirfneblin forge stone, a rod that brings the undead back to horrid unlife, an amulet that enhances undead control, a chest that can store a spell to unleash upon intruders, and one item that would represent a SPOILER of sorts – just let it be known that there is a touch of science-fantasy included in the weird herein, with one of the “zoomed-in” adventure locations adhering to that aesthetic.

All right, this is as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

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Okay, only GMs around? Great! The first complex featured herein is already more interesting than all in the previous module combined: The lair of Tyrhanidies the lich features his well-concealed subterranean abode, and the mighty spellcaster is using undead as a toll-collecting means. This would per se be unremarkable, were it not for a curious effect haunting the labyrinthine caverns hiding his belongings and lair: There are strange magical effects here, where gravity doesn’t work properly, and something about them makes those exploring these caves turn stark, raving mad: An innocuous slime causes these visions magically to affect all intelligent creatures (yep, RAW, including the undead!) and the lich has found a way to deal with this, employing the curious property to further shore up his seriously impressive defenses. Now, granted, the PCs may find themselves bypassing this region relatively painless, but we all know how undead spellcasters tend to enjoy press-ganging PCs into doing their bidding…and how PCs are bound to come into conflict with such entities. Cool: Smart and observant PCs either called and escorted to the lich’s abode may realize that there is one object with tremendous sentimental value for the mighty master of the living dead. This, obviously, represents an angle to really annoy the fellow – or to negotiate with a being far beyond the capabilities of the PCs at this level to actually destroy! This is a great area indeed, and its focus on atmosphere, global effects and various means in which you can run it made me really appreciate what was done here.

The second encounter area is pretty much…boring. A grimlock ambush. It exists, but it doesn’t contribute too much to the module’s appeal. After that, we have a svirfneblin outpost that can be construed to be the final waystation of civilization along the Shadowvein’s course, a last chance to rest in a safe environment before the massive, aforementioned hex-crawl sub-region: In a ginromous cavern, the overgrown ruins of a drow city lurk in basically the equivalent of a jungle-choked city of ruins. You see, at one time, the drow that used to reside here managed to capture and harness the godling known as the Pod-God with the help of a demonic patron. It is said entity that ultimately managed to destroy the city, including the artifact employed in imprisoning the entity – this actually did slay the pod-god, but fungi will find a way, and as such, the deity is gestating currently – there will be centuries before the potent deity can reform, but this creates a wondrous environment indeed, one suffused with magic, where stone giants from eastern realms (with an inconsistency in nomenclature), mongrelman and more loom; this region is clearly intended to be expanded, and much to my joy, there are 4 different random encounter tables for each sub-biome of the massive cavern. Oh, one more thing: The gestating pod-god actually wasn’t neutral or evil – it was actually a good entity, and thus, its puffball is guarded by a planetar! With a gate that emits screaming noise and similar, unique environments, this cavern oozes panache and flair galore. This is a great cavern, and would be one of the highlights of the adventure – even remotely capable GMs will have some seriously fun time running and expanding this inspiring environment.

The final encounter are would be unique as well: It depicts the “Green Death Isle” – setting foot upon this island used to see those that dared to do so evaporated, so the hunk of metal there remained unexplored. Well, guess what? That hunk of metal? It’s a actually a flying saucer, and since then, the reactor has run out of fuel, and the defensive disintegration ray? It no longer works. In the aftermath of the reactor’s radiation, a unique people has developed here, namely the terplip, a race of sentient, humanoid mantis-shrimp people! If you’re like me, you raised your hands in the old devil’s horn-gesture and went “Hell yeah!” I mean, come on – mantis-shrimp people? Awesome! We have two different random encounter tables for this region as well, and this becomes even cooler once you learn about the crustacean dragon and the remaining robots – smart PCs may actually be able to save the terplip from their servitude to the draconic creature. Did I mention the laser pistol?

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, bordering on very good, on a formal and rules-language level – apart from a few minor inconsistencies and the like, I noticed nothing glaring. Layout adheres to the series’ classic two-column b/w-standard, with a few decent b/w-artworks thrown in. The cartography does its job, and I really enjoyed the inclusion of a player-friendly map for the Shadowvein’s environments. It would have been nice to get player-friendly maps for the trade/social encounter areas at least, though. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Joseph Browning’s “The Mouth of the Shadowvein” delivers in spades – while two of the zoomed-in encounter areas provide pretty obvious functions and are here to facilitate play (the safe zone) or act as filler (the ambush), the other three regions are amazing. They require smart players and are more deadly than anything the PCs have found so far; there are implied quest-lines that may or may not be taken and used to motivate the players to interact with the factions, and the combination of unique vistas, as a whole, delivers on the promises slowly built up during the previous adventures, while taking up the leitmotif of the original adventure that spawned the notion of exploring the Shadowvein. In short: This is a great little adventure that does a nice job at depicting a region of the underworld that feels like it’s tip-toeing the line between the civilized and weird subterranean realms. It captures the best of early AD&D-aesthetics regarding these realms and molds them into a fun and rewarding expansion, one that ostensibly, like in the previous module, may be taken apart or expanded upon, should you choose to go that route. All in all, this is worth a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up since the lack of a player-friendly map for the sub-region hexcrawl does not warrant rounding down, and this also receives my seal of approval. Come on, the terplip are awesome!

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Legendary Classes-series clocks in at 34 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page introduction, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 27 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Okay, so this supplement kicks off with an array of new archetypes for the brawler-class, with the first being the cannon-striker, who gets proficiency with simple weapons and firearms as well as light armor, treating brawler class levels as gunslinger and monk levels for the purpose of feat prerequisites and for the purpose of items. 1st level nets Gunsmithing and a battered firearm, replacing martial training and unarmed strikes. They are locked into bonus combat feats and may only execute ranged attacks with firearms as part of a brawler’s flurry, with -4 to atk and no Strength modifier added to damage. Problem here: This does not help with the reloading issues at low levels or the misfires. Knockout is replaced with a grit-less pistol-whip, which may be used in conjunction with the flurry, though imho, this should be exempt from the increased penalty incurred from the flurry-modification. Instead of brawler’s strike and close weapon mastery, we have the option to reload two-handed firearms as though they were one-handed, as well as immunity to being knocked prone from firing one. 12th level nets deadeye 1/day, and 17th level increases that to 3/day. Awesome Blow is altered to work in conjunction with the firearm instead.

The combat Sybil is a changeling racial archetype that gains medium spellcasting at one fewer spell per day per level, governed by Charisma; 1st level nets mage hand as a knack, 13th level telekinesis as a 4th level spell. Martial telekinesis and telekinetic maneuver are added as 3rd level spells to the spell-list, but aren’t gained automatically. The archetype receives a witch patron, gaining spells at 3rd,8th,13th and 18th level, treating the spells as spell-levels 1st to 4th instead, replacing maneuver training. The combat Sybil treats brawler levels as fighter levels, and the combat Sybil doesn’t gain claws. Here is the unique thing about these guys: They replace the AC bonus with the means to give up the first attack of a flurry to use mage hand or sustained force telekinesis (if available!) to extend the range of the flurry attacks, codifying these attacks properly as ranged attacks, using Charisma instead of Strength or Dexterity as governing key ability modifier. The weapon returns to her hand, and the complex rules-operation is executed properly, and if the character has access to aforementioned optional spells, the feature gains additional, related options. Knockout may be used in conjunction with these, and the awesome blow sequence and brawler’s strike are replaced at 5th level with foe fling, with creature size category scaling, as she learns to enemy hammer foes with her telekinetic powers – this would be rather strong, but is held in check by a hex-caveat. Very complex, technical, and fun tweak.

Cursed pugilists replace martial training with an oracle curse, using ½ class level (minimum 1) as oracle level, and AC bonus replaced with a mystery, which does not grant spells. Instead of martial flexibility, the brawler may change out revelations from the respective oracle mystery chosen. The feat-array is thus also tweaked. Faith’s hand, in contrast, deals scaling bonus damage versus targets opposed to the alignment of the archetype’s deity chosen, akin to an alignment-based sneak attack. 2nd and 11th level’s bonus feats are replaced with two blessings, treating class level -1 as warpriest levels. Brawler’s Strike at 12th level can choose two alignment components.

The fleetfoot replaces the brawler’s bonus combat feats with dimensional darter at 2nd level, the option to, as a swift action, increase base speed by 50%, usable 1/day, +1/day for every three levels thereafter. 5th level nets storm step as a SP, treating this as dimension door for the purpose of feats, usable 1/day, +1/day for every 4 levels thereafter. The higher levels yield the Dimensional Agility feat-tree in conjunction with these tricks. 4th level and every 3 levels thereafter increase the base movement speed by +10 ft.

Knockers treat their monk level as ½ their knocker level (minimum 1) to determine close weapon damage, but get Awesome Blow at 4th level, and they can push the target further back, adding a scaling mechanism. Improved Awesome Blow is similarly modified and gained as soon as 8th level, providing more nuanced control about that component. Interesting engine tweak. Lethal Study gets UMD as a class skill and chooses bard, hunter, inquisitor, magus, mesmerist or spiritualist or warpriest, gaining the ability to use spell completion and trigger items as though they had the chosen class’s spells of up to 6th level, replacing martial training. Instead of martial flexibility, we have the ability to cast 0th-level spells as at-will SPs of the chosen class, and 2nd level nets Arcane Strike, 8th level Riving Strike as bonus feats, using class level as caster level, with 5th level providing Craft Wand, replacing the bonus feats usually gained at these levels. The unique thing: These guys may use wands as weapons, with 5th level allowing for the use unarmed strike damage with them (at the cost of a charge) and the use of charges to also deliver spells held in the wand with such attacks.

Prize fighters use essentially the performance combat engine, and may gain performance feats with martial flexibility; Dirty Trick specialization and interaction of knockout and awesome blow with the performance combat engine is provided. Sumpters replace brawler’s strike and maneuver training with the ability to carry massive amounts of stuff and reduced penalties for load. Cool: The massive bunch of stuff these guys are bound to carry is used as the “Big Bag of Pain”, replacing unarmed strikes with essentially an oversized sap. This made me genuinely laugh when I read it for the first time. Love the visuals! Using massive, debris-filled bags as super-saps? I can totally get behind that… XD

Trance brawlers are another take on a monk/barbarian-ish crossover, with a Wisdom-governed, scaling battle trance, with some abilities of the core class relegated to the trance. Instead of combat feats, we have some rage powers applying to the trance. The triage medic is neat: Swift action (and more efficient!) use of the Heal skill, as well as Heal affecting damage at higher levels – this may not be a strong option, but it’s one that I like. Weapon specialist chooses a fighter weapon group for weapon proficiency, and applies this as the governing group for the purposes of brawler class features, with unarmed strike relegated to 4th level (and at -3 levels); maneuver training is gained at 7th level, but atk and damage are enhanced with the chosen group. Okay, I guess. Wild scrappers gets Aspect of the Beast and thus would be the claw-tweak for the brawler, modifying flurry and gaining pounce at 12h level. Wyrmfang brawlers would be kobolds that begin play with Elemental Fist, which is assigned to a dragon-based elemental energy and yields corresponding bonus feats at 6th, 10th and 14th level, replacing martial flexibility. Unarmed strike is replaced with tail terror and 2nd level increases Strength by +4 for the purpose of unarmed strikes, natural attacks or close weapon group weaponry, replacing 2nd level’s combat feat. Close weapon mastery is replaced with class level -4 monk damage; kobold tail attachments are treated as close weapon group. The dragon heritage that determines styles also influences the enhancements that apply via the archetype’s brawler’s strike variant.

The pdf contains 13 new feats, which include a feat that allows you to unlock the follow-up feats of Awesome Blow (you know, the ones with the ridiculously high Strength-prerequisites), and one that makes your fighter and monk level for prerequisite-purposes as higher, with BAB +11 increasing that further. Limited Strength-based crafting may also be found, and the feats include three new styles: Close Combat Style allows you to expand the close weapon group, while Knocking Style is about moving targets around and potentially knocking them prone. The Rakshasa Style nets you scaling DR and in the end, enhances your effectiveness versus divine casters.

The pdf also provides 8 so-called brawler arts, which can be considered to be alternate choices to awesome blow and knockout. Awesome blow may be replaces with super-powered disarms (that also inflict sunder damage), potent drags or flinging of targets. Knockout may be replaced with nauseating gut blows, attacks that confuse the target, an attack that renders the target flat-footed, grapple with autopins or bonus damage based on Wisdom. It should be noted that variant multiclassing rules for the brawler are included as well.

The pdf includes the urban aggressor 10-level PrC, which gains full BAB-progression, ½ Fort-save progression, d10 HD and 2 + Int skills per level; the prerequisites can be met as soon as 5th level. The PrC gets a ki pool of ½ class level + Wisdom modifier, or stacks levels with ki-possessing classes. PrC class levels stack with brawler levels for the purpose if brawler’s flurry, martial flexibility and unarmed strikes. The PRC gets DR 2/- versus nonlethal damage, increasing by +2 at 4th level and every 3rd level thereafter. 2nd level nets aggression points: You choose either active or passive aggression each day anew. Active aggression nets you 1 aggression point when you confirm a critical hit or reduce a foe with an unarmed strike or close weapon group to 0 hit points or below. Thankfully, this can’t be cheesed due a kitten-caveat.

Passive aggression nets an aggression point when the character suffers a critical threat or if the fail a Fort-save, and once more, there is a caveat, though here, the HD-caveat was forgotten, making the caveat somewhat toothless. Aggression points cap at ½ Constitution modifier (minimum 1) and temporary increases do not alter this limit. At the end of each minute the aggressor doesn’t gain such a point, one is lost, but as long as the aggressor has them, their number is added to atk with unarmed strikes and close weapon group attacks. 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter nets a ki talent chosen from a list that allows for options that provide further uses for aggression points, use of ki to use martial flexibility, etc, These are interesting, but I couldn’t help but think that the engine per se could have used even more tricks – style strike uses and the like are intriguing, as are kinetic blasts. Aggression points may also be used at 5th level to ignore limited amounts of DR or hardness, and at 8th level, this may be applied to full attacks. 10th level is a nice culmination, allowing for the use of aggression points to get ki talents – including a non-stacking caveat. I really like the engine and its potential here – I think it could have carried a longer class.

The pdf also contains 5 different magic items, with wrestling oil making the target count as though grease’d for quite a while. Warlord’s tattoos (available in three iterations), are assigned a chosen feat, which is then temporarily granted access to; they have a cap that prevents abuse, and duration is contingent on tattoo type chosen. Furious biter is an interesting spring-loaded punching dagger that can add a further attack when used with flurries as the exclusive weapon. Drooling fangs are a tekko-kagi that can apply poisons, potion effects (un-)holy water and similar effects – oh, and it’s human-bane. Glowlash manacles enhance the attacks performed with them modifying size category and reach, but only a limited amount of times per day.

As far as sample NPCs are concerned, we are introduced to Edelhyde Slagg, a level 11 human weapon specialist using battle poi (awesome!), and Witt the Rimetailed, a level 12 wyrmfang brawler kobold has also been included – both NPCs come with very compelling background stories and pretty darn amazing full-color artworks as well as proper boons for PCs befriending them. Cool: The two are fierce foes, but particularly diplomatic PCs may actually manage to end the strife between them!

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting re up to Legendary Games’ usual, very high standard on both a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf employs a blend of previously used and new full-color artworks, with particularly the sample NPCs standing out. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Onyx Tanuki deliver an incredibly technical and challenging pdf here – the rules-operations executed here, time and again, are complex, precise and show a deep understanding of complex rules interactions. I was very happy to see the brawler arts as some customization options, and the archetypes, while primarily focused on engine tweaks, do feature quite an assortment of challenging and playstyle-altering tricks. Now, to be frank, while I don’t exactly love the brawler-class, it is one of the ACG-classes I can get behind. I see its appeal, and I actually use it. That being said, I couldn’t help but feel that a more pronounced focus on brawler arts that would provide unique abilities for the class would have been more rewarding than the crossover archetypes. Then again, you may chalk that up to a certain degree of fatigue I have with regards “It’s class x, save that it has tweaked class feature y of class z” style archetypes.

Before you get the wrong impression: There are plenty of options herein that do more than that, and even engine tweaks herein tend to fall on the interesting side of things. This is, after all, a well-executed expansion for the brawler-class, one that provides plenty of fixes for holes in the rules, and as such, this is a book I’d wholeheartedly recommend for fans of the class, particularly if one of the more far out concepts (the two racial archetypes are my highlights in that section!) struck a chord with you. It won’t make you love the class if you previously didn’t like it, but it will make you like it more – and what more can you ask of a class expansion like this? My final verdict will be 5 stars – as expected from Onyx Tanuki at this point.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

So, first of all: The sample artwork, as always reproduced as a 1-page handout within, rocks this time around. I have a soft spot for plant monsters, and it managed to creep me out, so that’s a good thing. The pdf contains not one, not two, but 4 different statblocks for different stages in the eponymous djinn plant’s life cycle: CR 1/3, CR 3, CR 12 and CR 19. It’s a plant, no surprises there, and the graft has been properly applied. The plants use the expert array as a basis.

So, the djinn plant, conceptually, comes quite a bit more explanation than other critters in the series, and there’s a reason for that – the budding, Tiny CR 1/3 version actually feels like a good decoration for most sentient species: It’s basically a venus flytrap-like plant that can’t move and subsist on annoying vermin, parasites, etc. Oh, and they smell nice. Really nice. As in calm emotions (Starfarer’s Companion)-levels of nice. Here’s the problem – while they can’t speak as a Tiny plant, they do learn to speak.

Once they’ve grown to adulthood, they get the signature ability that nets them their name “Aid Benefector” – sounds nice, right? Well, they reveal that they are sentient then, and communicate with their benefactors. You see, the plant can actually, once per week, grant you a wish. It just needs you to do this one teeny-tiny thing. Feed it a member of your species with a CR equal to or greater than the plant. DAYUM; that’s dark and would really screw up our entire planet, considering how humans can be!

What do I mean by that? It gets better! At CR 12, when they mature, they become ambulatory, have tendrils (with grab) and may swallow targets whole. Oh, and they start emitting those spores. Which will mutate plant-life into more djinn plants. WTF. That’s nightmare fuel. And all the while, everyone remains oh so calm, thanks to their aroma…OUCH. Once they reach their greater stage, they can trample targets and inflict, treant-style, double damage against objects. And yes, I genuinely consider them to be damn scary. Minor complaint: The swallow whole damage listed for the greater djinn plant is incorrect – it should be 6d10 + 25 A.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level; apart from the one minor snafu, I noticed nothing serious that would impede your enjoyment. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork is really nice this time around. The pdf has a single bookmark to the credits, but needs none at this length.

Jacob Blackmon’s djinn plants bring a little touch of a certain shop of horrors to space, and makes them a potentially civilizations-ending nightmare. I love them! How could I not! My one complaint here is that it’d have been nice to see a corruption, Occult Skill Guide style, or a disease-like representation for the “I mutate other plant-life”-angle, since chances aren’t that bad that sooner or later, there’ll be quite a few plant-based PC-races. Oh well, this still comes highly recommended at a final verdict of 5 stars!

Endzeitgeist out.

This module clocks in at 75 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 4 pages of advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 65 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue as a prioritized review at the request of my patreon supporters.

This adventure is intended as an introductory adventure for the Scarthey setting that depicts a Harry Potter-esque magic academy; I have covered the basic setting assumptions in my review of the “Welcome to Scarthey”-supplement. It should be noted, though, that, while useful to have, said supplement is not required in order to run this adventure. All the respective components required to run this in a meaningful manner have been included within. This includes, but is not limited to, a representation of the overview map of Scarthey’s campus, which still doesn’t feature a scale to denote the actual dimensions of the massive magic academy.

The basic assumption of the adventure is that the PCs are invited/admitted to Scarthey as part of Adventuring Studies, a program that seeks to generate an efficient adventuring party. This process is roughly grouped into not a few weeks, but is intended to cover no less than three in-game years, with the players taking control of their PCs for key scenes, so no, you won’t have to micromanage complex school-day/social life calendars. (Come to think of it: That’d have been awesome for nerds like yours truly…) Anyhow, this focus on a long-term adventure is something I only rarely get to see, so this is indeed something I am excited to see how it is performed!

The module features read-aloud text for key-scenes, but not every encounter, and also sports side-bars that help contextualize things, and indeed, it is interesting to note that the summary of the fields of operations the module classifies characters in includes the occult classes – kudos for catching and rectifying this oversight of the original Scarthey supplement. Another thing I really loved: At the end of each year, we get an “End of Term”-Report, a pretty fancy-looking document that makes for a great handout! This also extends to a certain outsider contract and a final diploma, all of which get their own handouts. Going above and beyond the required here, this aspect really rocks. A fully-gridded one-page Undervault map has been included (an unlabeled version would have been nice), and the supplement features a couple of rather nice full-color, unlabeled battle-mat-style maps for more complex encounters. Story awards for roleplaying are noted throughout the adventure, which I something I definitely consider great.

Structurally, the module can thus be seen as a primarily event-driven sequence of happenstances that allow for a significant freedom when it comes to the implementation of when and how to modify a given encounter; one could also argue that the structure of the adventure lends itself rather well to poaching components from its pages.

All right, that is pretty much as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players of this adventure should jump ahead to the conclusion.

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All right, only GMs around? Great! After the introduction ceremony and welcoming speech of the Arcchancellor, the PCs will have a chance to mingle and become acquainted with the university grounds. Their dormitories are housed in the Undervaults, a massive series of caverns, with the armor of a once famous, nameless paladin acting as an appropriately magical guardian. The PCs are housed in the Octavius dormitory, so named for one of the university’s largest benefectors, and 4 adventurers to be are grouped per room to represent the four fields of operations. A concise list of fellow students, focused primarily on fluff-centric write-ups, but noting alignment, templates and classes if applicable, is provided as well, allowing an ambitious GM to potentially flesh out the class and fellow students in a Persona-like manner without much hassle – kudos here! Indeed, the PCs will have a nice candidate for the snobbish foil with the scion of the mighty Octavius clan, Kellin, being one of their fellow students – and yes, he does come fully statted. Oh, and his cronies? A gorgeous female and a halfing-sized slime-thing called Splish-splosh. Yes, this does embrace the magic-angle more than the “Welcome”-file did.

The PCs then will be undergoing a test (in which the best of them will be beaten by a hair’s breadth by Kellin) and then, they’ll be assigned to each other in a narrative conceit the module freely acknowledges to the GM, which I considered to be pretty refreshing. This would also be an excellent point in time to note that academic success is tracked throughout the module, with “Merits” making for a kind of currency and abstract measure of success. Further scenes deal with e.g. a guardian scroll trap left in the library to test the resourcefulness and mettle of PCs, and notes on the location where detention is held, and on a creature if the PCs wander off-limits – these are basically the global and intrdocutory floating scenes.

After these, we dive into the nit and grit of year 1, which includes scenes that encompass being attacked by a freed, animated rotating tumbler (in a class on, bingo, bypassing locks), trying to pass a trapped door. Defense class studies, pranks for breaking curfew that may or may not see the PCs outsmarted…and what about PCs being tasked to find the lost laundry building? Nope, that was no typo. The laundry building vanishes, and it’ll be up to the PCs to deal with a mischievous, but not necessarily evil leprechaun! Of course, dealing with their rivals and finally passing the exam should also be noted as steps that the PCs will have to succeed at on their way to becoming full-fledged adventurers! (As noted before – cool inclusion that we get an end-of-year document/certificate as a handout!)
Year 2 includes soup animating as oozes that need to be dealt with (surprisingly dangerous!), a brief “micro-dungeon” quest in the Undervaults to get the fully statted magical inkwell of the discipline’s founder at Scarthey (the eponymous Anaximander), and more – for example, the PCs will have to find a miniature phoenix on behalf of one of the deans: The critter is lavishly-illustrated and properly statted, including notes for use as a familiar! PCs (and players, if they’re new!) will learn to deal with swarms, and another test deals with first being afflicted with a curse, and then finding a way to undo it. Additionally, the PCs (and players) will learn to mind AoE-effects when e.g. attempting to secure fragile blossoms. The final exam is rather cool: The PCs are led into the forest, poisoned, and have to secure the eggs of a forest drake from a nearby cave-complex to get rid of the exotic poison.

During year 3, we have frost wights stalking the complex via obscure tunnels in the middle of summer vacations – and the PCs learn dealing with outsiders. This includes a smudged summoning circle and a devilish contract – the contract is reproduced, and indeed, the pdf goes so far as to provide not one, but two different addendums for PCs not so easily fooled by the devil’s clever contract – this was a really clever, well-executed version of the old trope. Kudos! During the PC’s time off, they may fight merrow on a lavishly-mapped beach, and then get their first underwater adventuring experience, if they play their cards right. A race to assemble an armor (nice mini-game). The PCs will also get to be paired with their (by now) loathed rivals in an encounter that features a smart badger, teaching cooperation once more.

The final exam of the class focuses on a sphere of annihilation that has appeared in a side tunnel, requiring the unearthing of a talisman…and as the PCs are briefed, the rector vanishes when tracing a curious rune – and right after that, dark folk assault from a secret door. The PCs will have a chance to save or leave Kellin to his fate – and ultimately find a secret study, where Anaximander, founder of the program and now a broken lich-thing bereft of his phylactery. Defeating the lich constitutes the end of the supplement and final exam – failure to do so does not result in death, though: Just in the requirement to repeat a year, as in that case, it turns out to be staged. Smart way to avoid frustration for new players!

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the lavish and pretty impressive two-column full-color standard that made the first Scarthey-supplement such a joy to look at. The artworks are a great blending of perfectly fitting public domain and gorgeous full-color artworks. The cartography provides ranges from nice (encounter-maps) to okay (Undervault map), and the latter could have used a player-friendly version. It is my huge pleasure to announce that the Rising Phoenix crew learned from their mistakes – not only is the entire module studded with bookmarks that render navigation as comfortable as they should be, you can also highlight, copy and search the text, eliminating two serious gripes I had with the original Scarthey-supplement!

Jeffrey Swank delivers in spades in this module – not only is this long and could be deemed to be a sandbox of sorts that you can easily expand, it also does something I like: It teaches newbies the basics of adventuring…both PCs and players. The magical context ensures that veterans will have their fun as well, and indeed, personally, I consider this to be one of the best modules to introduce new players to Pathfinder – provided the GM knows what they are doing. The module does assume that the GM has some experience under their belt, and there may be modules that are easier to run. But as far as “teaching by doing” is concerned, this covers all the bases of the adventuring life. This, interestingly, generates a unity of themes between intent out-game and in-game, a notion I thoroughly enjoy. We also have the depth here that I was sorely missing from the “Welcome to Scarthey”-supplement – we learn about teaching methods, rivalries and the like, and the whole academy felt more vibrant and alive to me here. In short: This can be considered to be an impressive success, particularly since, unless I’m mistaken, this is the author’s first adventure.

It should, if the cool ideas and themes mentioned were not ample clue for you, also be noted that the module is appropriate for play with kids. While I probably would suggest it for ages 8+, there are serious differences between how sensitive kids are, so do take that with a grain of salt. This is a wholesome module that manages to capture the themes of rivalries and whimsy rather well. If there’s anything missing from this module, it’d have been nice to see scoring implemented a bit more thoroughly, and to have a player-friendly version of the Undervault. Bereft of any serious pieces of criticism beyond that, I will remain with a final verdict of 5 stars for this adventure, just short of my seal of approval. A grand step forward for Scarthey!

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Advanced Adventures-series clocks in at 25 pages, 1 page front/back cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 22 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review is part of a series of requests undertaken at the request of my patreon supporters, to be undertaken at my convenience.

Okay, so, as always, this module is penned with the OSRIC rules in mind, but conversion to other OSR rulesets is relatively painless. As always, we don’t get read-aloud text herein, and there are a couple of formal differences from the formatting conventions that OSRIC employs, but these, for the most part, apply in a mostly consistent manner. Nominally intended for 6-10 characters of level 3- 5, the adventure is challenging, but mostly in a way that is contingent on how the PCs interact with the environments found and encountered. Attempting to murder-hobo through everything can and will get you killed here.

There is one more aspect you may need to be aware of: This module represents a taking up of a dangling thread from the very first Advanced Adventures-module, “The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom” and may be run as a direct sequel to said adventure; knowledge of the previous module is not required, and it is pretty easy to integrate this module into the context of any prolonged underworld campaign or exploration, whether they are mega-dungeon-based or subterranean sagas like AAW Games’ excellent Rise of the Drow campaign. This module also represents the first of two modules that expand the material based on the eponymous Shadowvein, with “The Mouth of the Shadowvein” representing the second adventure and conclusion of the exploration. The Shadowvein, fyi, is a subterranean river, a black ribbon of water illuminated by purple and green lichen, with tendrils of almost snot-like strands hanging from them – colloquially known as “faerie sputum” to those traveling its length.

From a genre-perspective, we have a pretty free-form sandbox here – a subterranean hexcrawl, which, cleverly, uses the subterranean river Shadowvein as a kind of red thread that the PCs may or may not follow. The module does a pretty neat job at depicting the differences regarding the environment and sandbox style play: For one, we not only get different random encounter tables, they differentiate between passage types: You see, the overland hexcrawl map knows primary, secondary and tertiary passages, with different encounters suggested for each. As a whole, this module takes place in the “civilized” region of the underworld, with settlements and outposts providing a reflection of social dynamics and paradigms one could theoretically encounter in the sunlit world as well – it takes place in the realms of drow cities, dwarven holds, etc. The weirder aspects, where society and civilization tend to fall apart and be replaced with the truly strange may be found in the sequel, but I’m getting ahead of myself. The encounter tables thus focus primarily on humanoids, with very few other critters thrown in.

This is not to say that there is no strangeness here, mind you: There would, for example, be a need breed of monster, the furnace worm, that consumes rock and excretes valuable metals contained within; we are introduced to the subterranean trade-race dubbed “Noja”, 3- 4 ft. small humanoids with a penchant for mischief and trickery – almost like trader-fey/gnome-crossovers if you will. Interesting: The females and males of the race can cast different spells. The noja act as a kind of linchpin for the other two creatures introduced – the undal being pack animals with weird crowns of horns that allow them to execute nasty charges, and the wyrdwolves, which are basically canine critters with the ability to make their eyes glow in a blinding strobe that can temporarily blind prey. The latter may not sound like much, but personally, I enjoyed them. Their presentation makes them strange, yet plausible enough. It’s also nice to see the umber hulk concept regarding canines executed with a pretty different flavor here.

Much to my joy, the module remembered the hook of the PCs finding a map of the Shadowvein – a SPOILER-free player’s map of the Shadowvein has been provided, and yep, it does not feature issues and indeed, has some areas where it’s less reliable. I always like that kind of thing – big plus for going the extra mile here.

This module contains a total of 5 different “zoom-in” adventure locales that the PCs following the Shadowvein may find, and the map leaves enough space for GMs to add their own modules and encounters, should they choose to. These individual locales do come fully mapped, but in the case of a few of them, it’s pretty likely that the PCs could attain a map of the region, with no player-friendly version provided. This represents a comfort-detriment for folks like yours truly that suck at drawing maps. It should also be noted that this adventure contains two new magic items, though both, in some way, do influence the narrative, so if you’re curious about them, please consult the next section.

All right, this is as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

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..
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Okay, only GMs around? Great! The first lair to be found deals with a goblin tribe in the middle of internal strife – two months ago, chief and sub-chief killed each other, and indeed, there are currently two factions vying for control over the goblin tribe. As a nice change of pace, PCs who don’t want to murder-hobo through everything may find themselves recruited into a kind of mini-investigation that may see them uncover the truth about how the unique culture of this tribe, which includes ritual bathing [!!] of younglings, was weaponized for the coup-d’état that split the tribe into its current state. As is wont with such scenarios, outsiders like the PCs may well be recruited to end the semi-stalemate between factions.

The second encounter area has some nice horror/dark fantasy-tones: Once an outpost of loathsome bugbears, they have since then been slain by a magical disease that usually only affects those of giant stock, which is particularly likely for half-orcs and similar characters. Only two bugbears remain, both of whom have been transformed into strange horrors. Slaying them has the miasma turn into a kind of entity, which then proceeds to disperse. This scene, alongside the emptied caverns, actually managed to evoke an atmosphere we only rarely get to see executed so well, so kudos for that!

The third encounter area, a noja trading post, is a kind of neutral ground, enforced by a unique statue of a six-armed woman with serpentine lower bodies: The aura of peace makes hostilities here a superbly bad idea, and indeed, veterans may have gleaned that the statue is indeed a marilith – who is not happy about her cursed state. One of the encounter locations does include a magical item, the Tooth of Gorim Graal, which fortifies against fire, but also is the focus for the binding…which could result in a massacre if the PCs find it and proceed to ignore the warnings…and unleashed marilith will not be something the traders, noja, etc. can stop…

There is a similar connection between the penultimate encounter area and the last one – the second unique magic item included would be the Traveling Hammer of Dorin Graybeard, a mighty weapon sacred to dwarves, which, while providing powerful boons, does consume a percentage of the wearer’s treasure collected, and which doesn’t take kind to any bad treatment a dwarf may suffer from the wielder. Which is relevant, for, at one point, the PCs can happen upon a pretty massive dwarven hold that features a portcullis and toll bridge. Obviously, this region is also more focused on roleplaying than on killing everything, which is a nice change of pace.

The final encounter-location is easily by far the most deadly thing contained in the module – “The Snide Dungeon of the Mad Mage Hallach” is basically a gauntlet devised by a mad wizard, one studded with snarky and snide comments delivered via magical means. As such, the PCs and players are warned – this is not a complex to be trifled with, and any casualties are their own fault – well, they had to press onwards, didn’t they? As a gauntlet, it is exceedingly linear and intended as a challenge that requires genuine player skill to beat. It also is a wandering dungeon, that is, it will vanish if the PCs try to whittle it down via repeated sojourns, and could make for a pretty nice 4-hour convention slot game on its own. While challenging, and indeed, in some instances almost sadistic, it always remains fair…though the somewhat random white dragon boss at the end felt like a bit much to me. I just dislike dragons being used as random bosses, but this will not influence my final verdict, as it is part of my personal bias. Then again, the unique magic items noted can be found in its hoard, and the PCs that managed to get this far will have earned the loot.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, bordering on very good, on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ classic two-column b/w-standard, with a few decent b/w-artworks thrown in. The cartography does its job, and I really enjoyed the inclusion of a player-friendly map for the Shadowvein’s environments. It would have been nice to get player-friendly maps for the trade/social encounter areas at least, though. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Joseph Browning’s first part of the exploration of the Shadowvein is a nice subterranean sandbox; in contrast to previous hex-based explorations in the series like “Under Shattered Mountain”, it zooms in a bit more and provides some genuinely fun and diverse locations to visit. I would have enjoyed a few more quest-seeds regarding the respective areas – as written, the loot for the challenge-dungeon represents one of the few connecting components that tie the individual encounter locations together. If you’re looking for a trade route to include into your underworld, one that gets the aesthetics established in books like the ones dealing with a certain scimitar-wielding renegade right, then this delivers. I can see this work well in contexts beyond its system, and while it doesn’t reach the same level of mind-blowing awesomeness as some of the author’s other modules, it does represent a great little adventure. Now, personally, I’d have loved to see more encounters actually atop the Shadowvein, focusing more on the experience of the river itself, but that may be me. All in all, I consider this to be a nice adventure, and as such, my final verdict for this as a stand-alone module will be 4 stars. Please do note, that this also represents a set-up that transitions from more subdued aesthetics towards the ever stranger, its payoffs to a degree featuring in the sequel, so if you plan on going the whole way down the Shadowvein, then consider this to be 4.5 stars, rounded up instead.

Endzeitgeist out.

This setting supplement clocks in at 64 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page acknowledgements, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page SRD, 1 page inside of back cover, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 53 pages of content – at least in the single-page version. If you prefer e-readers and the like, there is a double-page version of the pdf included as well.

This review was added and moved up in my reviewing queue because I was tasked to review a module set in this setting, and it makes no sense and violates my OCD-tendencies to cover a module without first talking about its backdrop.

Okay, so Scarthey is a magical university, one that sports 4 different Houses that you’re assigned to; there is an orientation, and courses are assigned based on the things you wish to learn. Anyone wishing to study magic can enroll in Scarthey, and among the staff, there are rectors – basically the sanctioned adventurers of the university, which also contain non-casters. As such, this can create an interesting dynamic, as a adventuring group is assumed to consist of a mix of rectors and students.

Archchancellor Gwydion Ambrosius gets a full-page artwork, one that makes him, aptly, look like a cross between Gandalf and Dumbledore – it’s a pretty damn gorgeous piece, and indeed, this is something you realize once you open the pdf for the first time: This is one beautiful book. The pdf sports a parchment-like background with blue highlights and headers and a ton of baroque graphic elements that don’t detract from the text, but rather enhance it – the layout is absolutely stunning and deserves some serious applause.

Scarthey is properly mapped in a solid, if slightly less impressive two-page spread map (one page for the double-page version, obviously), which I’d usually applaud. However, it would have been nice to a) get a player-friendly, unlabeled map (though I can, for once, stomach its absence, considering that campus-maps will be present) and b), the map lacks a scale. As provided, it’s hard to glean how sprawling or cluttered those grounds are supposed to be. The map also, obviously, lacks a grid, so it remains pretty much abstract. Scarthey also seems to have only one means of getting there by land (as noted in the description of the gatehouse), but unfortunately the exact dimensions of where the university is can’t be gleaned from the map.

The description of the individual keyed locales that follows is written in a semi-IC-prose style, reminiscent of the pamphlets you’re handed when enrolling in a new university – “friendly librarian staff under the direction of Professor Raama Tuko” will gladly assist you, though some levels are obviously off-limits for new students – you get the idea. I enjoyed the implementation of this particular narrative conceit. From a prestigious healing house to a bardic school, there are quite a few different components here – at this point, it’s also worth mentioning that quite a few perfectly-chosen pieces of public domain drawings supplement the academy – there are a lot of those inside, and from alchemy tower to artificer’s hall, this section covered a lot of ground – with curious absences: None of the occult classes seem to receive instruction in Scarthey.

Speaking of which: While e.g. stabling is covered with costs for flying mounts and the like per semester, the book, as befitting of its tone, does make mention of e.g. the phantom chariot spell and similar components. This brings me to a crucial thing you need to know:

This supplement, while nominally declared PFRPG-compatible, makes many of Raging Swan Press’ offerings look positively crunchy. It is basically almost bereft of actual rules-relevant material in all but cursory references. No settlement statblock is provided for Scarthey, no feats, traits, spells – nothing in that regard. This also becomes pretty obvious with the staff: A total of 13 different NPCs are presented with a gorgeous artwork, a brief introduction, and a sample quote. The artworks deserve mention, as I did not expect to see so many gorgeous pieces herein. However, we don’t even get an inkling about their alignment and chosen classes – not even a brief “N male human transmuter 14” or the like. This is a bit puzzling to me, considering that the pdf for example does present the structure of the university in a handy two-page spread chart. Speaking of gorgeous two-page spreads – there is a rather impressive two-page artwork that depicts Scarthey, which made me think of Neuschwanstein – just with waterfalls and a gothic architecture hall (that seems weirdly out of place in contrast to the rest of the architecture) added – but that may just be me being a Bavarian.

Rules for conduct in Scarthey are presented alongside a variety of punishments for breaking said rules – these, fyi, remain pretty lenient and enlightened. A total of 4 pages is devoted to the chronology of Scarthey, with banner like headers denoting the respective year – I mention this, because the banners, while gorgeous, take up quite a bunch of space, and some people are irked by the like.

After this, we are guided through the process of choosing a house – and oddly, here we do get stats for the chancellor’s crown of casting, which only enhances your Intelligence by +2 and nets you a bonus equal to your HD to concentration checks. It comes with construction notes – and as you could glean, is just a reskin of the headband of vast intelligence +2, one that fails to note the skill-component correctly, and one that is mispriced rather severely, as its additional benefit should have increased its base price – it costs the same as a headband. It also kinda made me think that it’s weird that a school of magic can’t afford a better item for its most prestigious positions.

Anyway, we do get information on the 4 houses, which all feature their own absolutely stunning crests, with house master, motto, alignment, values, beliefs and mascot briefly noted – but we don’t get to know about total strength of the like. Each house comes with its own campaign trait; these are okay, but e.g. ignoring up to 3 rounds of staggered is probably preferable to +1 Diplomacy and getting it as a class skill. As an aside, in the latter case, the trait is missing its bonus type.

The pdf continues to talk about wizard supplies and takes another cue from the Harry Potter franchise, in that it presents a variant of wand-based casting – personalized wands can allow you to ignore up to 25 gp worth of material components, and casting without one makes you increase spell failure chance. This is per se a cool notion, but one that would have needed to be supplemented by rules that explain how metamagic, options that ignore somatic casting and the like are balanced within the context of the modified wand-engine. It is a nice notion, but one that will not survive contact with an experienced group of rules-savvy players.

After very brief write-ups of a tavern and some extracurricular activities (like dragon boat rowing!) that could have used more crunchy representations to make them engaging mini-games, the pdf closes. The rowing game does have a touch of crunch sprinkled in, but to me, remained somewhat opaque.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good on a formal level; on a rules-language level they are solid regarding the presentation, but less exciting regarding the underlying design. Layout, as noted, is GORGEOUS and provides a unique identity to the supplement. I really enjoyed this quasi-baroque aesthetic employed within, and a surprising amount of gorgeous full-color artworks and well-chosen public-domain art, initials and the like make this one beautiful book. Seriously. The cartography’s utility does not live up to the beauty of the artwork or layout, alas, and no unlabeled version is included. Unfortunately, there are two components here that must be mentioned. Neither of the two versions has any bookmarks, which makes navigation a colossal pain. Additionally, printing this, in the absence of a printer-friendly version, will be a massive drain on your ink and toner-resources.

More important, and jarring: This book takes the same grating approach as Wayward Rogues Publishing: You can’t highlight or search ANY TEXT in this file. Every page is basically an artwork. Combined with the lack of bookmarks, this renders the pdf a huge pain to navigate, and if you want to create a GM-cheat-sheet, you’ll be copying text by hand. URGHH. Particularly for a setting supplement that provides an overview of a region/organization/etc., this is utterly grating.

Bob Storrar and Rodney Sloan provide a very vanilla experience regarding a wizard school here – if you expected intricate notes on courses, an engine to acquire spells or feats or the like, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Then again, considering the gripes I had with the few pieces of crunch within, this may have been a wise decision. Depending on how you look at it, the fact that this book doesn’t really integrate the rich lore of PFRPG and casting traditions into its framework may be a bug or a feature – if you expected to see truly unique and potent faculty members with stats, well, then I’d probably recommend Drop Dead Studios’ “Wizard’s School” sandbox/mega-adventure/bestiary instead.

If you, however, wanted a Harry Potter-style wizard’s academy with very enlightened tenets and an overall wholesome appeal, then Scarthey may be more up your alley.

To make that abundantly clear: Scarthey’s main problem is not the fact that it’s so fluff-centric; my main gripe, apart from the atrociously grating experience of actually trying to use the pdf, is that it remains solely concerned with the surface level. So, necromancy’s heavily sanctioned. Okay, how? No idea. You can’t cast death magic. There is a great hospital, got ya- how do they research these afflictions that are not easily curable with magic? Quarantine measures? The book never dives beyond a surface level – “this is here.”

Okay, understood – how does it work? Well you won’t find the answers within.

While beautiful, the layout, at times, with its copious artworks, almost felt like it attempted to make up for the lack of depth regarding the information provided. Ultimately, the text probably could have been jammed into a book half the size of this one. This would be fine as well – but in the end, I couldn’t help but feel that I wasn’t comfortable running this as written. The supplement lacks so much information regarding depth that I can’t help but feel that I simply don’t know enough about Scarthey to run it for a prolonged time.

And this is a genuine pity, for this book, in spite of its shortcomings, does not feel phoned in. It is a book into which, when all is said and done, showcases energy, time and genuine passion. For me as a person, this represents a failure – while I admired the aesthetics (I really did!), I want more depth from my supplements. At the same time, I can understand and easily conceive of people for whom this would be amazing. There hence are two opposing points of view that can be contrasted with one another, and there’s no reconciliation between them. Do you want mechanical and narrative depth? Then this doesn’t have much to offer. Do you want a stylish pdf that executes its notion of being basically a “start of the semester pamphlet” rather well? Then this may well be fun for you and yours!

Usually, this’d mean that the book ends up somewhere in the middle of my rating system, probably on the upper end – however, this also is one of the most inconvenient, asinine pdfs to actually use I’ve seen in quite a while. The combination of the lack of any form of bookmarks AND the fact that you can’t even cut-copy-paste text together renders this pretty much unusable without an e-reader. And that is a huge no-go for me. Hence, my final verdict can’t exceed 2.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo and the impressive work that went into the overall presentation. If rated for its content alone, you should probably detract at least another star.

Endzeitgeist out.

This Star Log.EM-installment clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

On the introductory page, we get a pretty massive subtype graft that grants kami immunity to bleed, polymorph and mind-affecting effects, resistance 10 to three energy types, as well as CR-based telepathy. Additionally, they designate a ward, which may be a creature, location or object. The kami may merge with the ward and share senses as a standard action, and emerge just the same way. Nice: This takes mounting wards into account regarding size category implications. While within 120 feet of the ward, the kami gets its CR as fast healing. If merged with the ward and the ward dies, so does the kami (no save!); if the ward dies while the kami is not merged with it, the kami instead becomes permanently sickened until establishing a new ward, which takes a full year! They also get ward empathy, making its starting attitude to respectively qualifying beings or those that inhabit the ward very positive. Nice framework!

Beyond a pretty massive and well-written piece of fluff, this supplement contains three different kami statblocks: At CR 1, we have the kokugami, a diminutive kami based on the expert array, capable of firing beams of sonic energy. The ray has no range noted, which is a bit annoying. That being said, I do like that the kami has unique abilities that reward merging with the host, allowing the kami to accept Constitution damage to reduce damage incurred by the host to nonlethal. And no, it can’t be cheesed. They also enhance the host’s healing while resting. Nice, can I have one? Minor nitpick: The statblock is missing its fast healing 1 defensive ability line.

At CR 10, the torijigami uses the combatant array, and treats its weapons as though they had the holy fusion – erroneously referred to as “infusion” here and not italicized. This fellow has no unique ward-twists. KAC isn’t properly bolded.

Finally, the CR 25 hozonsugami kami would be a bit odd, in that its CR is incorrect – it is clearly a CR 15 creature regarding EAC and KAC, Hit Points, etc., not, as noted, a CR 25 critter. It can fire rays of cosmic radiation that also cause radiation (severity rating would have been nice…), and it has a couple of cool tweaks –like the ability to attract meteorites to bombard nearby targets. They can also use their SPs while merged with the ward. On a nitpicky side, the save-names of this one aren’t properly bolded.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting can still be considered to be good on a formal and rules-language level, but e.g. the CR glitch is nasty, and the formatting oversights for the statblocks are uncommon to see in Everyman Gaming/Everybody Games’ offerings. Layout adheres to a two-column full-color standard, and the artwork included is nice. If it made you expect a starship-sized kami, you’ll be disappointed, though. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Alexander Augunas’ kami are inspired in their concepts and ideas, but also, alas, slightly rushed regarding their formal criteria. While certainly not bad, a few of the formal glitches could confuse less experienced GMs. All in all, a cool, but also somewhat rushed-feeling supplement, resulting in a final verdict of 3.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Star Log.EM-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

After a brief, flavorful introduction to space goblins within the context of the Xa-Osoro system, we kick off this pdf with the Best-Gob paragon archetype, which requires, obviously, that the character in question is a space goblin. This archetype nets the best-gob Skill Focus with Engineering at 2nd level as an alternate class feature. At 11th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the insight bonus increases by 1. Additionally, at 4th, 6th, 12th and 19th level, you may take any feat with the goblinoid subtype as a prerequisite as a replacement class feature bonus feat.

The pdf also presents 12 new feats (which will probably bring a smile to plenty of PFRPG-veterans):

-Burn! Burn! Burn!: +1 insight bonus to attack with fire damage dealing attacks; additionally, when attacking with a non-fire damage dealing spell or attack, you can convert half damage into fire damage. Depending on your campaign’s power-level, this may warrant scrutiny, as this can render regular weaponry better than dual damage type equivalents. I’d ban this in my game.

-Everything is UBPS: This is cool: It lets you expend items when using Engineering to craft or repair as if they were UBPs worth 90% base price; broken items still yield 50% UBPs. Cool!

-Expanded Tinkering: Use a move action to affect an ally’s weapon in reach; the weapon may not eb broken, which nets +4d6 damage for single-target weapons, +2d6 for AoE weaponry (which, I assume, includes automatic weapons); this only applies to the next attack, and at the start of your next round, the weapon becomes broken. Not a big fan of this conversion.

-Explosive Resistance: +2 to AC and to saves vs. blast and explode weapons and AoE effect spells. This doubles against “attacks and spells that you use.” Not sure what that means – proficiency? Ability to cast them? Effects that originate from the character? This could be a bit smoother.

-Get Into Everything: +2 to Strength checks to break stuff; also adds a racial bonus to Improved Combat Maneuver (sunder), if you have it. The feat also allows you to make Engineering checks to pinpoint weak points in a construction, with DC scaling based on item level. Nice one!

-Goblin Song: Language-based swift action demoralize versus a target, potentially affecting allies of the target within 30 ft., though the Intimidate check is harder for these secondary targets. Nice: Has proper menacing gaze expertise talent synergy.

-Improved Tinker: When using the tinker racial trait, ignore broken condition for 1d4 rounds, after which an object ceases to work for 10 minutes. Nice one, and kudos for the anti-abuse caveat!

-Junkomancer Adept: Technomancer feat that increases CL for spells with “junk” or “bot” in the name by +2 for the purpose of duration, and fabricate scrap becomes more potent. The spell-reference is not italicized properly, though.

-Junkomancer Expert: This one builds on the previous one, and modifies the cache capacitor. The spells list can be cast at will, but their effects end after 24 hours. Interesting!

-Jury Rigging: Lets you create a fragile repaired version of an item. Fragile? Yep, this may make your weapons break rather easily – the property is noted here. That being said, this lacks e.g. the precision and differentiation of the excellent jury-rigging rules presented in this very series. I strongly suggest using Star Log.EM: Jury-Rigging Rules instead.

-Master Junker: Move 10 ft. through difficult terrain as if it were normal terrain, but only for non-natural difficult terrain. Also nets you a +1 untyped bonus to Engineering checks to identify creatures, recall knowledge and craft or repair technological items.

-Unexpected Critical (Combat): When you attack with a broken weapon you used tinker racial trait on, and your attack roll’s result is a 19, you may spend 1 Resolve Point to treat the attack as a critical hit, but only if you’d hit the target with the 19. On a hit, you deal double damage and trigger any critical effects of the weapon, but at the end of the turn, the weapon is destroyed.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good on a rules-language and formal level, and the pdf comes with a nice artwork. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Jacob McKiernan’s space goblin options are interesting, ranging from the very clever to the slightly less exciting – the material basically takes old PFRPG material and re-contextualizes it. All in all, I consider this to be a nice expansion for space goblin fans, but wasn’t too impressed with quite a few of the feats within. My final verdict will be 3.5 stars, rounded down for the purpose of this platform – recommended if you were a fan of PFRPG’s goblins, but otherwise, not the strongest offering in the product line.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The bounty hunter herein comes in three iterations, all of which are human soldiers – the rookie (CR 4), the regular one (CR 8) and the veteran (CR 12). The builds make use of the Spell Bane feat and the bounty hunter theme; the latter being a welcome, if unusual deviation from the straight application of class grafts here, as far as I’m concerned.

The builds seem to be missing the -2 adjustment to Reflex save mandated by the class graft, though. As far as fighting styles are concerned, we have the bombard here, and grenade expert noted separately. As an early offering, there are some deviations in the notation of statblocks here – damage, for example, is not abbreviated, but instead lists e.g. “piercing” fully, and the formatting of grenades does differ from the one used in e.g. the Alien Archives. Interesting, if not correctly formatted – the builds use entangling weapon fusions for grenades. Similarly, the fly speed the two more potent builds receive should note that it’s derived from a jetpack.

Conclusion:
Editing is very good on a formal, and good on a rules-language level; as far as formatting is concerned, we have quite a few deviations from the standard. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork provided is rather charmingly reminiscent of silver age comic book books. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Jacob Blackmon nets a couple of solid and usable, if not perfect soldier statblocks here. Very much an NPC Codex-style offering, they provide some rank-and-file fodder for your PCs to struggle against. All in all, a decent, if not mind-blowing offering. The installment covering Thugs was much better and offered more. My final verdict will clock in at 2.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo.

Endzeitgeist out.

The Wraith clocks in at 26 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 21 pages of content, so let’s check out this fellow!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreon supporters and readers.

The wraith-class is proficient with simple weapons, scythes and light armor, has 4 + Intelligence modifier skills per level, d8 HD, and is a Mid-Caster using Charisma as governing spellcasting ability modifier, with a spell pool of class level + Charisma modifier spell points per day. The class has a ¾ BAB-progression, as well as good Reflex- and Will-saves. On a cosmetic note: Rows 1-7 and all save columns of the class table lack the plusses before BAB and save values, respectively. This should really have been caught. It’s evident at one glance. Magic talents are gained whenever the wraith gains a caster level increase.

1st level provides a haunt path, which acts akin to bloodlines and similar abilities with a linear progression array: At 1st level, these paths grant the listed path sphere or talent from the sphere if you already have it, and for these class level is treated as CL. 2nd level nets the path possession ability of the path, with 8th and 14th level providing the improved and greater path possession abilities, respectively; at 4th level, we add ½ class level as insight bonus to a listed skill. Unless I have miscounted, there are a total of 9 paths provided (as an aside – the excellent Sanguinist’s Handbook does have a path as well!).

In all brevity: The Path of the ancestor is aligned with the Protection sphere, and allows the character to act as a buff/beneficial entity, including (aegis) talents at higher levels. Anima is associated with Nature or Weather, and allows the character to possess natural material, creating elemental-style and use talents associated with the elements; higher levels also unlock plants. Associated with Death, the Path of the Corruptor lets you possess dead bodies (as though reanimate-d) and later undead. The Path of the Despoiler, also for the Death sphere, lets you possess vermin and attract/generate swarms to possess – nice!

Path of the Cryptid is associated with animal possession and Alteration, providing shapeshift (not properly formatted) synergy; the path of the poltergeist lets you possess unattended objects, and as such, is obviously (for veteran sphere-users) associated with Telekinesis, though it s limitations are based on Enhancement’s Animate Objects. Higher levels allow for construct possession and possessing multiple objects at once, generating a construct swarm! OUCH! The Path of the Phantasm is associated with Illusion, and becomes more potent versus targets in illusions – with higher levels providing means to bypass immunities and safeguards. The Path of the Spook is basically a terror-inducing option, with the Mind-sphere as associated path sphere, and penalties to saves versus Mind sphere effects.

At 1st level, we have wraith form, which lets you, as a move action (ending it is free) for class level + casting ability modifier rounds, gain the incorporeal subtype with some modifications, including a slowly descending, but perfectly maneuverable gliding speed – and yep, if you’re going the high-fantasy route, there are optional rules for you here. In case you need a bullet point summary of the modified incorporeal state, a handy sidebar lists it all. The capstone btw. delimits wraith form and refunds previously spent class talents (so-called “wraith haunts”; more on those below) that modified the ability.

But we’ve been talking a lot about possession in the brief list of paths, so how does it work? At 2nd level, you may possess a creature in natural reach as a standard action as a mind-affecting possession effect. The challenge rating of the creature governs the possession duration, with guidelines for companions and the like provided. The target may resist this attempt with a Will save based on DC 10 + ½ class level + casting ability modifier. There are two types of possession: Passive and active. Passive possession grants no control over the target, and an attempt to passively possess a target costs a spell point. The wraith maintains his mental ability score modifiers, BAB, alignment, mental abilities, extraordinary abilities not derived from his physical form, combat talents, supernatural abilities and magical abilities including spells, sphere abilities and SPs. If the host is dazed, stunned or unconscious, the wraith can control the body as though via active possession. Passive possession MAY go unnoticed if the wraith is sneaky!

Active possession entails the full hijacking of the target, retaining the boy’s physical ability score, natural and automatic abilities. Extra limbs don’t allow the wraith to make more attacks, and 6th level needs to be attained to trigger extraordinary abilities, 12th for supernatural ones. Active possession also imposes stringent level caps on when the respective combat talents, sphere abilities etc. may be accessed. Any time the wraith would force the actively possessed target to do something against their nature, they may make a saving throw attempt to end the possession. Self-harm or suicidal actions are not possible via wraith possession. This type of possession also btw. costs a spell point. A target that ends or resists a possession increases the spell point cost for further such attempts by 1, stacking with itself, thus discouraging wraiths from trying to spam-possess the same target. Here’s the cool thing: As a move action, the wraith may change an active possession into a passive one and vice versa – unwilling targets get a save to resist this change. Beyond the different details, there is another reason to switch possession types – time. The duration of different types of possession differs between active and passive possession, even differentiating between willing and unwilling targets! (And yes, the rules-language gets this right.) And before you ask: Yes, the rules do cover the possession of unconscious targets. Wraiths may end possessions as a free or immediate action, appearing adjacent to the possessed target, and the wraith may expend a round of wraith form to manifest in his incorporeal (and less squishy) form. Careful: Mind-affecting effects targeting the possessed body don’t just end for the wraith jumping ship, and immunities, if any, are not shared!

At 6th, 12th, 16th and 18th level, progressively more knowledge of the host body’s capabilities are unearthed to the wraith – oh, and guess what? We have Dreamscarred Press-psionics synergy. If possession seems complex, the because it system-immanently is, but a handy table does help you keep track of active possession effects. 10th level provides Greater Possession, which allows the wraith to retain control over a possessed target while jumping to another, and the wraith may divide actions between possessed targets! This is kickass and really, really cool! The wraith can “only” possess up to casting ability modifier, minimum 2, creatures at one time.

At 3rd level and every odd level thereafter, we have wraith haunts – basically the talent array of the class, which, if requiring a save, employ 10 + ½ class level + casting ability modifier to calculate DCs. As mentioned before, there are talents that enhance wraith form, allowing for e.g. immediate action concealment, for rounds per day and the like. We have Technology Guide synergy (cool!) as well as a properly gated always on flight. There is an option for willing possessions to grant Silent and Still spellcasting for serious Stealth/infiltration synergy, and options to phase through objects and walls (awesome!). Possession is something folks remember, so if you’d rather have them forget that, well, there’s a haunt for that as well! Wraith form may be shared and even, with a follow-up haunt, be forcefully applied to adversaries AoE Intimidate (with Spheres of Might synergy) and enhancement-sharing – these talents surprised me in how creative they apply a wide variety of benefits!

Favored class options are provided alongside two feats – one nets you an additional wraith haunt, while the other enhances your possession for multiclass characters. There are three casting traditions and a martial tradition included.

The pdf also includes 4 archetypes: The Draugr loses wraith form and replaces it with basically being a blended training Spheres of Might-crossover archetype with rage and the Berserker sphere, with rage sharing and a properly-themed ability array replacing the usual haunt path. The Mistshade is interesting, in that it replaces wraith form with becoming mist – this form prohibits certain actions, but allows for the creation of mist beyond the wraith’s form, better flight, squeezing through holes, etc. – it’s an interesting change of the class paradigm. The Swarmheart, you guessed it, replaces wraith form with the means to discorporate into swarms in a variation of e.g. Swarm transformation, which is btw. also accounted for regarding prerequisites. The archetype gets a couple of solid, exclusive haunts. The Unbodied, finally, is a means to let a perished character contribute – they are locked in wraith form, taking damage while not possessing a target, and no, this damage can’t be healed! If slain, the character becomes a mindless haunt; as such, the archetype also accounts for limited possession at 1st level, with higher levels allowing for the limited assumption of corporeal form, and the capstone providing the means to reassume proper form.

Ninja, (unchained) rogue and slayer may elect to become ghost steppers, losing sneak attack and3 talents/tricks in favor of wraith form, with options to gain a spell pool via talents and the ability to take wraith haunts. The pdf also contains the spirit blade armorist archetype, which is massive: A blended training archetype that “has the Fortitude and Will saving throw progression of the Incanter” (read: Bad Fortitude saving throws, good Will saving throws) and the shapechanger subtype at 1st level. Instead of summon equipment, we have the ability to assume the form of a weapon, counting always as attended, becoming a weapon that may then possess the wielder, using their actions to direct the wielder’s body! This basically allows you to play one part of a kinda-gestalt-y character, which is a truly unique experience! Particularly since higher levels allow for BAB-sharing, directed AoOs, teamwork feat sharing and the like – while very powerful and not for every campaign or group, I adore this archetype. It’s complex, deadly and utterly unique in its premise. It also spans multiple pages, coming with its own massive array of haunts. Yes, this class hack could have carried a base class of its own. Really like it. And it seems like the author agreed, for we not only get a sample NPC for the wraith class, but also for this cool archetype! (Both at CR 5, fyi.)

The book closes with an appendix containing the rules for incorporeity and swarms for your convenience.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are not perfect, but can be considered to be good on a formal level. On a rules-language level, the class juggles impressive high-complexity tricks I genuinely enjoyed seeing. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. The full-color artwork provided is neat.

Andrew Stoeckle is a force to be reckoned with as a designer – slowly but steadily, he has garnered, at least with me, a reputation for never shying away from mechanically-creative and compelling, complex top-tier difficulty designs that few designers can pull off reliably. The wraith is another example where he flexes his design muscles in a way that, in spite of the system’s age, manages to be fresh and novel – there literally is no other class that does what the wraith does, let alone this precise. That being said, playtest has shown that the wraith *can* be pretty potent, depending on the skill of the players and overall party composition, but this is not an issue or fault of the class, and instead can be construed to be rooted in the system-immanent nature of the concepts presented. In short: Not the fault of the class. In an interesting change of pace, this power does not stem from an escalation of numbers, but from creativity – the wraith is a class that thrives in the hands of players thinking in terms of breadth and creativity, rather than just a min-maxing of numbers, and as such, presents a power level (and means to control it, if required) that I genuinely enjoy seeing. While the formal criteria of the file could be a bit tighter (CAB not bolded in one statblock and other minor snafus), this nonetheless is a genuinely cool and worthwhile addition to the roster of spheres-options, and as such, will receive a final verdict of 4.5 stars, rounded up, with my seal of approval added for good measure. Well done indeed!

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clocks in at 6 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 2 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Fans of Dark Sun (and/or its Ravenloft spinoff domain) will know what to expect here – an slimy, slick creature with no visible eyes or ears, but a lamprey-like mouth – and the hands of these horrors similarly contain such maws. Build-wise, the saline horror in SFRPG is a CR 6 creature using the expert array. The monstrous humanoid graft has been properly applied, attack and damage-values check out, SPs list their proper DCs, and the creature has a signature attack, which it can use to drain immobilized or grabbed targets of their saline, inflicting Constitution damage. Even its scent-based tracking and blindsense have been properly noted. And yes, we get a one-page handout-style version of the artwork.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no formal or rules-language-related glitches. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork provided is nice and icky. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Jacob Blackmon delivers a nice critter here – nothing to really complain about, save that it’d have been nice to get a second statblock or some other form of supplemental material. Still, all in all, a worthwhile addition to the SFRPG-roster, which, at $1.95, is certainly worth its fair asking price. My final verdict will hence clock in at 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the so far absolutely amazing Occult Skill Guide-series clocks in at 9 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreon supporters.

So, on the introductory page, we already have something I genuinely enjoyed seeing, namely a more diversified take on addiction. As you all know, Starfinder treats drug addiction as a disease that progresses each time a drug is taken. Which, come to think of it, doesn’t always make sense – addictions certainly develop when a drug is consumed, but withdrawal effects occur from abstinence, and not indulgence. As such, the pdf presents a variant for addiction as a disease (drug use). Save and track are specified by the respective drug, while the effect is as follows: Every 1d6 days, the victim must attempt a saving throw against the disease, with the DC equal to the drug the victim is addicted to, +2 for every time the victim consumed the drug within the last 7 days. On a failed save the victim progresses from the latent to to impaired, to a maximum of weakened. Each hour, the victim attempts a new save progressing to the next step on a failed save. This continues until the victim uses the specified drug or succeeds on 3 consecutive saving throws, after which the addiction reverts to the latent stage for 1d6 days.

Each addiction starts as a minor addiction, and on 3 failed consecutive saving throws, progresses to moderate,, and after that, we reach severe. These have new maximum steps to progress to. Cure is noted as well. This is pretty elegant, in that it presents a frame-work that is easy to tweak – the cooldown in days, the penalty to the DC – all components that can be tackled on their own. Plus, for gritty games, this allows you to portray the effects of addiction decoupled from individual drugs, or in conjunction with individual drugs. Speaking of which: This framework does work smoothly in conjunction with the awesome item-level scaling drug-rules presented in the phenomenal Pop Culture Catalog: Vice Dens.

Now, as before, this is a stand-alone book: All the rules required to introduce corruptions into your game have been provided in this pdf, and since I’ve explained them already, I will refrain from doing so again – suffice to say, they are damn cool, one could call them…addictive. See what I did there? ;)

The Cannibal corruption is associated with Will as save and Wisdom as the relevant ability score modifier, and the source is obvious here: The target has partaken in sapient flesh of their own race, either willingly or unwillingly due to wendigo psychosis or sadistic compulsions. As far as save DCs are concerned, they scale with the corruption’s victim’s level and start at DC 13 and progress to 19, with each stage tracking its save DC increases separately, making the progression per se less burst-like and more steady.

Wait. You don’t have rules for wendigo psychosis? Well, guess what! We have a unique simple template graft to create wendigo creatures, including howl, properly codified airwalking (based on a supernatural equivalent of force soles) and the psychosis codified as a proper curse! But let us get back to the corruption: You progress through it whenever you consume sapient (properly-codified, fyi!) meat – 1d6 corruption points; if the target consumed is of your own race, it’s 1d20 corruption points for you! The latent stage also nets an addiction to consuming the flesh of creatures of their own race, and latent stage nets Cannibalistic Euphoria – which provides a bonus to an ability score of your choice for 10 minutes, which doesn’t stack with augmentations whenever you consume flesh of your own species. Higher corruption stages increase this bonus. At this point, simply abstaining from meat-consumption for long enough (provided the addiction lets you!) suffices to cure this. At Stage 1, consuming flesh of your species also heals you with a scaling mystic cure, with higher levels and corruption stages also adding remove condition/affliction to the roster of benefits. Sure you want to get rid of this?

Stage 2 nets you proficiency with entangle, grapple., gravitational, mire, throttle and trip weapons, or +1 to atk or save DCs/skill check DCs related to them, if you already are proficient…gotta hunt your meat, Hills Have Eyes IN SPACE!!!-style. At stage 3, only death and a proper cleansing ritual before resurrection may revert the horrific corruption the character has underwent. This also provides some serious benefits – including skill ranks, bonus feats, and means to stay in the fight – basically, at this point, you’re almost Jason. And before you ask, yes, the rules of the corruption are presented in a way that lets you apply it to NPCs without much hassle.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch on a formal and rules-language level. I noticed no glitches. Layout adheres to the series elegant two-column full-color standard, and the artwork featured is neat, and an original full-color piece. Kudos: The pdf is fully bookmarked in spite of its brevity.

Alexander Augunas’ cannibal corruption kicks behind and takes names; the entire Occult Skill Guide series so far has been nothing but a joy to review, and this is is no different. Corruptions are an amazing concept, and how the author manages to portray the lure that their powers offer, while contrasting them with nasty detriments, is awesome. This is role-playing gold, and I seriously recommend getting all of them, particularly if you’re as excited as I am for e.g. Grimmerspace, for which these pdfs imho make a natural fit. All in all, a great offering, well worth 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

This expansion for the Spheres of Power-system clocks in at 34 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 29 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my readers and patreons.

All right, we begin this supplement, as always, with a nice piece of in-character prose, before diving into the nit and grit. As with the Blood sphere, we have a new sphere introduced in this book, though this one previously did have its debut in Skybourne. The sphere as presented within is no longer restricted regarding who can access it, and has been rewired, so let’s see how it holds up – as with the Blood sphere, it makes most sense to start off the discussion of the subject matter at hand by taking a look at the base sphere first before getting into the details of archetypes etc.

The Fallen Fey Sphere’s base ability would be the fey-link: As a swift action, this allows the caster to change creature type to fey for 1 minute per caster level; this transformation only applies to your base type, not your subtypes, so bane and similar effects possibly contingent on subtypes still apply. While in this fey-link form, you may spend 1 spell point as a free action to gain the benefits of a fey-blessing until the end of the fey-link. There is no maximum cap to the number of fey-blessings you may have active at a given time, but they all end with the fey-link. Renewing the fey-link does not renew the durations of currently active fey-blessings and, indeed, ends all currently active ones.

Upon gaining the Fallen Fey sphere, you gain the nature connection fey-blessing, which potentially could have the (fey-blessing)-tag, as certain magic talents also have this tag when they grant additional fey-blessings, though the various fey-blessings themselves don’t have this tag. Personally, I think making the individual fey-blessings provided by (fey-blessing) talents have a kind of descriptor would make sense from a rules-syntax perspective; it may be more feasible to call the talents “Fey Gift” or some such, since the rules are based on individual fey-blessings. Then again, this is purely aesthetic and will not influence the final verdict. The pdf does cover the interaction of activating fey-blessings when already of the fey type. It should be noted that both fey-link and fey-blessings are tracked individually regarding their caster levels.

Anyhow, the nature connection fey-blessing nets you an untyped +1 bonus to initiative, Knowledge (geography), Survival, Stealth, and Perception check in a terrain of your choice that you choose when the fey-blessing is cast. The bonus increases by +1 for every 5 caster levels you possess. Weird: Something has gone seriously wrong in verbiage here, as the blessing states that it may be gained multiple times, choosing a new terrain every time. Okay, how? As a magic talent? I assume so. But then, it still contradicts itself, implying once that you have to choose one terrain, while a few sentences before that, it allows for full flexibility whenever you cast it. Which is it?

On the plus-side, this book does account for the obvious thematic overlaps between the Fallen fey sphere and the Alteration sphere, specifying that fey-blessings maintained during shapeshift reduce the traits that may be assigned by 1 per fey-blessing applied. Additionally, Unthreatening Form functions as an analogue of the blank form. This would btw. be a talent that allows you to shapeshift into a Diminutive or Tiny animal, though attacking, using a supernatural or spell-like ability or sphere-effect immediately ends this. While in unthreatening form, you get movement modes of the form as well as abilities it may have, with a concise list presented. The talent includes modifications of the physical ability scores noted in a table, and powerful abilities are locked behind a minimum level that makes sense.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, so let’s go back to the base sphere: If you also have the Divination sphere, you may Detect Faetouched. The sphere comes with two general talents: Share Link allows you to designate a creature within close range as beneficiary of your fey-link, with a Will-save to resist for unwilling targets, and such targets cost you a spell point; such targets may also share in your fey-blessings while the target is in close range, and spell point-contingent talents use your spell points, not that of your ally. Minor nitpick: I assume those decisions to be free actions, but the talent doesn’t really specify an action economy for e.g. fey-blessing sharing. Second issue: RAW, the target only has to remain in your vicinity for the purpose of sharing the fey-blessing, nor for its maintenance, which makes this aspect of the ability very strong, particularly in conjunction with the second general talent.

The second talent, Greater Link, increases the duration of the fey-link to 10 minutes per caster level, with the option of spending 1 spell point to instead increase the duration to 1 hour per caster level. Overall, we have more the 40 (fey-blessing) talents included in this book. The latter imho should have been relegated, at least in its hour-duration version, to the realm of advanced talents. While fey-blessings do cost spell points as a hard limiting cap, the increased duration of a couple of these options can make them, well, very, very potent group buffs.

Take, for example, Aelfwine, which conjures forth a type of faerie drink, which you can drink as a move action, with allies capable of drinking it as a standard action on their turns. This has 4 applications, all but one of which last for 1 minute: The first nets you temporary hit points equal to CL; the second nets you the Barroom sphere or a (drunk) talent; the third lets you suppress [emotion] effects for 1 round per CL on a successful magic skill check, and the last one nets you a scaling bonus to fear saves. The balance of this talent is contingent on the fact that you can only consume 1 + 2 times the Constitution modifier alcohol (minimum 1 missing) before being sickened for 1 hour per number of drinks beyond this. Okay. Know how easy you can get rid of the detrimental effects of alcohol in PFRPG? While the talent thankfully notes how it can’t affect creatures immune to alcohol, it could still be easily deprived of its limitations by getting rid of the sickened condition time and again. This should have some further, hard capping implemented to prevent abuse-strategies. Also, since this blessing has a physical representation, I am also not 100% sure how it interacts with Share Link’s ability to share fey-blessings. While the talent notes that the flask can be called back to the caster’s hand, RAW, the Share Link talent’s baseline would suggest that allies receive their own flask? I am genuinely not sure.

The second talent presented, Animate Hair, makes your adjacent squares harder to move away from for enemies, requiring a Reflex save and a Strength/Escape Artist check to move away from you on a failed save. You may also use hair to execute properly codified (NICE!) slam attacks and hold items, load weaponry, etc. as a swift action. Neat execution there! Beastward has multiple applications, which allow you to benefit from better default dispositions of animals or vermin, or repel animals or vermin. Nice: This does take the Beastmastery sphere into account. Problem here: The repelling effect for vermin specifies that they are shaken if forced in ranged, which contradicts the fact that mindless creatures (like most vermin) are immune to mind-affecting effects, of which fear is one. This should note that the shaken condition here specifically overrides the immunity to fear they thus usually have. There is also a talent that lets you go Disney princess and beckon animals to you, fascinating them with your beckoning call. We also can find a talent that lets you temporarily don a crown of a court of the fey, making associated beings incapable of attacking you, which is per se nice. Once more, the talent here is tied to a physical manifestation, which makes the interaction with the fey-blessing sharing aspect of Share Link somewhat opaque – a problem that also extends to e.g. the music-related Enchanting Music talent and similar options within.

On the plus side, the music talent offers multiple, neat effects that, while offering e.g. the means to stagger targets on a failed save, does not allow for stagger-locking exploits. Gaining concealment via the signature fading tricks of fey and another talent nets you a variety of different fairy dusts (this one comes with 9 types of dust!!!) – which is per se awesome, but oddly lists its last dust type below the global rules that govern the application of fairy dust. (And yes, for reference, this is also one that has a physical manifestation, which means that interaction can be weird – and frankly, at this point, I think that such fey-blessings were probably intended to be cut out of the sharing, as this would generate a ton of pouches of dust, which becomes problematic considering that a couple of the more potent fey-blessings have a hex-like limiting caveat, which would necessitate specifying that a shared fey-blessing still is treated as one instance of the same fey-blessing. On the plus-side, we have a properly balanced flight, and an option to generate enchanting lights, which, while cool, could have used some synergy with the Light-sphere’s glow-engine, but that may be me. We also have the options to spoil or unspoil food or target enemies with a sickening spew of vomit (nauseated for spell point expenditure). Some numerical boons may also be found.

Fey Secrets once more becomes an issue: Once before the end of your fey-link, you may add a 1d4, +1 per 5 caster levels, insight bonus to an ability check, skill check, attack roll, CMB check or initiative. While you can’t use it for the same roll multiple times, you can take the talent multiple times, increasing the uses per link by 1 each time. RAW, this may be shared, but is there still only one roll when used with Share Link? Or does every target get one? On the nitpicky-side, the tag of this one lacks the hyphen. Grace of the Sidhe, on the other hand, is nice – it nets you either evasion, or a 20% miss chance when moving far enough each round – like it. Indeed, while the above may have come off as harsh, and while I do maintain that there are some kinks to be worked out in the core engine of the sphere here, the book does offer quite a few of really cool talents – there are, for example, talents associated with the seasonal courts, short-range teleport and the like. On the downside, Listen to the Wind lets you just find North, and makes you privy to the natural weather within 48 hours – some Weather synergy would have been neat here. Dominion over components of the natural world, being a friend to plants (including the option to have primarily wood-based weaponry be less efficient against you), sabotage of civilization (yep, Gremlin-themed talent included) and the iconic means to steal shadows all may be found here. The latter is particularly nice if you’re playing in conjunction with one of the numerous options of spells and class features that use a target’s shadow as a kind of resource. Entangling fungal bombs and anxiety causing spores, glances that may stun targets etc. can be found within as well. Did I mention the options to clothe yourself in cinders and see through smoke or sense objects with Zolavoi’s Mantle? Yeah, some cool stuff here!

A total of 8 advanced talents may be found within: These include the option to banish targets to the realms of Faerie, traveling faerie rings (and determine their locations – just fyi, there are rituals provided for both functions as well! Additionally, there’s a proper incantation to create them yourself – nice!!), and there is one that makes you a fey – and allows you to turn others into fey! Minor issue: Fey Invisibility, while based on Fade, lacks the (fey-blessing) tag that its prerequisite talent has, and with the lack of an activation action or cost noted explicitly, I’m pretty sure it should have the tag. There is also a means to reincarnate (spell-formatting incorrect), a version of a nymph’s blinding beauty, a nereid’s drowning kiss and the ability to steal skins constitute notable fey-blessings that are situated properly as advanced talents.

The pdf comes with 5 feats, with Enchanted Performance building upon aforementioned Enchanting Music/Disney princess-style talents, providing synergy with bardic performance or raging song. Fairy Dust and Alchemy sphere synergy is neat, and we also have Trap sphere synergy. Adding forbidden lore bonus to CL for the purpose of summoned fey limits and a water geomancing is another interesting one, though feat-descriptors could have been a bit more stringent – pretty sure that quite a few of them should have the (Champion) descriptor…

Anyhow, this out of the way, let us take a look at the class options, shall we? We have 3 archetypes: For the shifter, we have the fey incarnate, who loses Climb and replaces it with Bluff, and who has Charisma as casting ability modifier. Instead of shapeshifter, we have Alteration and Fallen fey as bonus sphere, with Beast Soul and Lycanthropic drawbacks granting Fey Transformation (from the Shapeshifter’s Handbook); Fallen Fey sphere effects applied on herself and Fey Transformation talent both use class level as CL. Instead of enhanced physicality, we have the means to combo Fey Transformation and fey-link, and the option to take (fey-blessing) talents instead of bestial traits, as well as 7th level enhancing Charisma by +2, which increases by a further +2 every 6 levels thereafter. The capstone nets a fey apotheosis, with fey-blessings applied to herself being now free of charge and extraordinary.

The second archetype would be the feylord for the commander class, who gets a BAB of an incanter – which is a needlessly convoluted way of stating that the archetype has ½ BAB-progression. We also have d6 HD, but the feylord is a Low-Caster using Charisma as governing ability score., with level + Charisma modifier spell points. Every level nets one combat or magic talent, and first level changes type to fey, including low-light vision (or increasing pre-existing low-light vision’s effectiveness). Instead of battlefield specialist, we have the option to treat class level as CL for fey-link and fey-blessings cast upon self. Where this becomes awesome is 7th level: Instead of call in a specialist and its options, we get fey subjects, which provides not only a cool array of abilities – these abilities also come with applications for use in conjunction with kingdom-building! Awesome!

The third archetype would be the Sidhe invoker fey adept, who gets fae points equal to ½ class level + Charisma modifier instead of shadow points et al., trading in shadowstuff and shadowmark. Interesting here: The archetype can basically generate a sort of illusion/transposition of fey logic/reality with a so-called ringfort: Basically an area where the laws of nature bow to the will of the fey adept, allowing for control over terrain, magic, time, etc. – this includes Wild Magic-synergy and features some genuinely cool tricks – I wished there was a bit more for this one, but considering its synergy with [surreal] feats, it does have ample options for creative players. Create reality is modified to account for the new engine, and we have , instead of HiPS (hide in plain sight) full reality for Illusions within the created reality…which can be awesome in the hands of a creative roleplayer!

Part II of my review can be found here!

This 2.0 installment of RSP's Village Backdrop is 13 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let's take a look at the settlement

So, 2.0. Why? Well, for one, even a cursory glance shows you that the layout has been modernized.

Like all village backdrop-files, the village of Aubade features a significant amount of local color- from rumors to market place info, and even information on general villager looks and sample names, the aptly-depicted village provides the level of detail we've come to expect from this series. Minor downer: The PFRPG-version does lack the settlement statblock information.

So, Aubade is a prime example of what happens, when a catastrophe triumphs over sound reasoning - when a particularly nasty disease started ravaging the community, a scapegoat was soon found - a local witch ended her life in the flames of the pyre and her dying curse ultimately are what made Aubade distinct - what do I mean by this? PCs will probably visit this place not to visit the place, but rather to purge it -after all, strange stories of vampires, cults and worse abound. And indeed, the town does look a bit like a ghost-town - no one's outside, no response to knocking inquiries- it just looks like the town has been swept clean of inhabitants. Well, the town of Aubade is peculiar in that, at night, people come out - pale people, yes, but people nonetheless. The 2.0-version of Aubade also comes with distinct notes on customs and traditions, as well as a 20-entry-strong dressing/event-table and information regarding the surrounding area.

No, the village dwellers aren't just goths like yours truly that prefer the night, nor are they night-owls - the witch's curse on the town makes everyone that identifies as a villager and touches the sun burst into flames. Yup, nasty and uncommon and further complemented by the witch's ghost and her familiar as well as the proper stats and terms of the disease and the curse - and every DM worth their salt can craft these into a superb cocktail of weirdness and odd investigations! 4 fully sample NPCs are included, with notes on mannerism, personality, etc. noted, and there is also one brief write-up for the local deity. We also receive a properly statted version of the choking disease that has struck the place, choking its reputation for song – said disease was btw. responsible for the curse. The curse has been properly represented in rules as well, just fyi. Nice: We do get adventure hooks provided for certain locations, and the PCs may well prove to be the saviors of Aubade – provided they can move the ghost of the wise woman’s ghosts, that is!

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RSP's smooth, printer-friendly two-column standard, with pretty impressive b/w-cartography and artworks provided. The pdf comes with full bookmarks as well as in two versions – one optimized for screen-use, and one intended to be printed out.

Jacob W. Michaels delivers one of the most impressive Village Backdrops in the whole series, and 2.0 actually enhances Aubade’s appeal even further - and in a series with SO MANY excellent installments, that indeed is a feat! Aubade's multiple trials and tribulations and the unique, resulting culture and potential for adventures is simply inspired - the curse, its repercussions and the strange happenstances definitely evoke the sense of living in a world where magic still abounds, a world in which humans still are humans and thus subject to the weaknesses and harmful decisions that desperation may entail. If you already have the original, this may not necessarily be a must-buy, but if you’ve so far missed Aubade, get this pdf ASAP! My final verdict will be 5 stars + seal of approval…provided you don’t have the original iteration. If you do, you may want to detract a star – it’s still an excellent locale, but I’m not sure the 2.0-version warrants getting it again.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Ship-supplements for the intriguing Galaxy Pirates-line clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let’s check this out!

The mining freighter clocks in as a tier 4 ship that uses the transport frame. It is powered by a pulse green core, has a basic drift engine, and a basic computer, as well as basic medium-range sensors; I like that, once more, the katar have spared no expense and actually provide good quarters for their crew. As a freighter, the expansion bays are used for cargo holds.

The shields clock in at 50 (Erroneously called “basic”, when 50 is the start of “light” shields), and defense-wise, we have both mk 4 armor and defenses. As far as offense is concerned, we have gyrolasers on port, starboard and aft, and on the front, a heavy laser canon and a laser net; the turrets feature fire-linked light torpedo launchers, which brings the ship very close to its build point maximum. Minor nitpick: The crew stats don’t list the ranks, but AC, TL, etc.-wise, the build checks outs.

As always, we get a fully filled-in ship-sheet for our convenience, and the pdf also features paper-mini-versions alongside a one-page full-color artwork of the ship that doubles as a great handout. The pdf comes with a full-color map of the ship, noting where what can be found – much like the light freighter, it does not have the katar garden, but much to my joy, the map does properly reference the main weaponry of the ship and makes sense in that regard.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork presented is awesome. I love the look of the freighter. The full-color map that notes access ladders, cargo, quarters, etc. is detailed and amazing as well. The addition of paper minis and ship-sheet add further convenience here. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Paul Fields and Jim Milligan deliver yet another really nice ship with cool maps and great supplemental material; very focused and nice, I enjoyed the very distinct visual design of the mining freighter, and how it’s set apart from the other freighter ships of the katar. This feels very much like the authors took that extra time and contemplation to make it stand out. My final verdict will clock in at 4 stars – well worth getting!

Endzeitgeist out.

This Star Log.EM clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

On the first page, we have a new size-category –Supercolossal. All creatures of this size are even larger than Colossal critters, and receive the Massive extraordinary ability. Creatures with this ability ignore difficult terrain and environment-based movement-impairing effects of up to 1/4th of a height or depth of the creature’s space. These creatures may not be flanked by critters that are Large or smaller, and receive +2 to AC against attacks from such targets. They also only take half damage from effects from such targets. These critters also get an untyped +2 bonus to all saving throws against effects with sources Large or smaller, and obviously, supercolossal creatures can’t be grappled by Large or smaller targets, and supercolossal creatures don’t gain the grappled condition when grappling or pinning Large or smaller targets.

This pdf contains two different statblocks – the first (and lower-powered one!) would be the Colossal Joey of Terragaru, a mighty CR 20 magical beast that has an extraordinary fly speed of 100 ft. via mighty leaps, a bulk that can hold literally more than a ton – 10, or 2K bulk, to be precise! Objects may be transferred to and fro as a swift action, and as a full action, the joey can attack all creatures in a 15-foot cone with the tail, using an ammo-less version of the automatic property to provide a properly contextualized AoE attacks with their tails…which btw. also can be used to grapple multiple targets, depending on target size-category. The joey doesn’t have space and reach noted, which *may* be a glitch or a conscious design decision, considering how it interacts with the adult terragaru. Odd: The joey has two subtypes noted that the adult Terragaru doesn’t have. This is probably a glitch. On the plus-side: I love that senses like blindsight (scent) have their ranges extended to a range that actually makes them sensible for creatures of this size.

The big terragaru is Supercolossal CR 25 monster that further improves upon the massive defensive qualities of the joey; the mighty leap has a whopping 500 ft.-range, and the big buddy’s kicks actually cause massive bleeding and even Constitution drain! Nice: While it also has mighty leap, it does not have the joey’s stipulation of needing to end on a solid surface, and thus has maneuverability noted. Easy to overlook – kudos for catching that!
Oh, and while speaking of small details I enjoyed: Being inside a joey’s pouch is a hassle, being inside the Terragaru’s pouch is deadly – if the joey is inside the pouch, that is! Kudos: Damage here is based on the joey’s presence, and as such uses the joey’s stats – it’s a small touch, easy to overlook, but I loved seeing it!

Their sweeping strikes can attack targets in a massive 250-foot cone, and these guys can even grapple multiple Gargantuan targets! The massive being can attempt rerolls on failed saves vs. paralysis, petrification, polymorph, mind-affecting effects, etc. sans action, and 1/year, when they’d be reduced to 0 Hit Points, the terragaru can enter a lethargic state as a reaction, becoming nauseated, but also regaining a massive array of Hit Points, retreating into a kind of hibernation…but any attacks will end this state’s effects and retreat, and make the terragaru hit back for round #2! As a creature of massive size, every step of the vast creature is accompanied by a massive earthquake, and as a full action, they can not only leave a localized quake in their wake, but cause a massive 1-mile radius quake!

How does that work in SFRPG? Well, fret not, for pdf does come with a new 6th-level mystic spell, earthquake, which btw. may not affect e.g. environments like starships that sport no seismic activity. The spell does miss one thing in the conversion to SFRPG – the damage it causes should probably be typed as bludgeoning.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good on a formal level, almost as good on a rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork is neat. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Alexander Augunas’ depiction of a massive kaiju kangaroo for SFRPG rocks – the massive monster is deadly, and I certainly can see it decimating whole invading fleets, as noted in the flavor text; similarly, I can see the besieged local populace of yroometji venerating the massive being as a destructive protector. The flavor puts a nice spin on this force of nature. While not perfect, this is a delightful and interesting critter-pdf, with some cool angles hard-coded into these creatures. My final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Star Log.EM-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Why do I have such a strange feeling of unease? As though something odd that I’ve forgotten has…
*THWUMP*
*tap* *tap*
Is this reviewer-dude on? Great! Hoomanz of Planet Earth, this is Doctor Malifaord Hudson Insano speaking once more to you from beyond the boundaries of your backwater galaxy, directly transmitting my brainwaves into this mortal vessel to tell you about my delightful disintegrators and how they can solve your problems!

What problems? I’m glad you asked! You see, if you consult the introduction-page of this pdf, you’ll notice my explanation! In your local parlance for tl;dr, here’s the gist of it: What couldn’t you solve with them? Trash? Disintegrated. Boss nagging? One zap and you’re rid of all those annoying deadlines! Redecorating? Steel won’t withstand our handy tools! Really dislike that one city block? Well, whip out your trusty atomizer bazooka!

But I’m getting ahead of myself! Let’s go through all those wonderful weapons, shall we? All of these items come in 4 different versions for different levels of expertise, with different prices. Are you handy? As in: Do you like your advanced melee weaponry? Well, then I have two options – the dissolvatron katar, if you prefer one-handed weapons, and the fission katana for two-handed slice and dice! Both are obviously powered weapons, with all but the most basic models of each kind offering corrode on critical hits. The katana slashes foes and deals acid damage as well, while the dissolvatron katar uses sonic and acid to pulverize foes. These two come for levels 2, 7, 12 and 17, but…oh. Damn. The dissolvatron katar…is kinda missing its damage values in the table. Damn. I need to contact my hooman guy to fix this.

Anyhow, the katana! You wanted to look at that one, right? Right! Well, it obviously has the deflect and operative special property, but it also comes with my patented single grip. This allows you to wield a two-handed weapon in one hand – though at the drawback of it becoming unwieldy.

Didn’t get any formal combat training with the big slice-and-dicers? Fret not, dear hooman! Your friend has you covered! Available in levels 1, 6, 11 and 16 versions, we have the atomizer chakram that may be thrown and is an operative weapon. Its high level versions have the wound and severe wound critical effects, respectively. It’s obviously acid-based, but you knew that already. For two-handed foe pulverizing, I do heartily recommend the ion smasher – with acidic effects, corroding crits and a blend of acid and bludgeoning damage, there are few things as satisfying as squishing targets with it.

For levels 4, 9, 14 and 19, I do recommend the discombobulation pistols – with neat acid, 20 charges, a light bulk and the blast special property, they are easily concealed and rather fun to use, though their range is only 15 ft. For those who value their privacy, I always recommend my bondbreaker sniper rifles, which are currently available for levels 3, 8, 13 and 18. Like the pistol, it has a usage of 5 and a capacity of 20 charges, but it also has a range of 40 ft., the sniper (250 ft.) and unwieldy property, but it does come with handy corrode critical effects for all models!

What’s that? I saw you eyeing that big one. Yep, that’s the atomizer bazooka I mentioned before! It’s available in 4 versions, for level 5, 10, 15 and 20, has a range of 30 ft. capacity of 20 charges, usage 4…and bulk 3. Okay, I know – it’s still two bulk less than the sniper rifle, okay? It does make up for that with corrode in all models, d20-based damage, and the explosive special property. While the lower two models have 10 ft. there, the higher-level iterations increase explode’s radius by +5 ft. each!

Oi…the signal’s got some issues…guess I’ll hand the rest over to the reviewer guy…

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good on a formal level. On a rules-language level, the absence of damage values for one of the weapons is slightly jarring and hampers and otherwise very precise book. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork presented is nice. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Alexander Augunas’ transcriptions of these weapons rock – I enjoy them all, and there are some seriously cool concepts here. Apart from aforementioned glitch, there is nothing to complain about here, making this a nice book of weaponry. My final verdict will clock in at 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clock in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

As always with these pdfs, we do get a neat one-page full-color rendition of the cover artwork, which makes for a nice handout. Beyond that, we also receive not one, not two, but 6 different statblocks in this pdf – CR 1, CR 2 and CR 4 are based on regular orcs, while CR 3, CR 6 and CR 9 are heavy thug statblocks, based on ogres.

Let’s start with the orc-builds, shall we? They use the soldier class graft and have the adjustments applied properly, and use the blitz fighting style – yes, rapid response has been properly implemented, and, as a courtesy to the GM, even been listed. Much to my pleasant surprise, the CR 1 version has a small and neat, but not overbearing ability that nets a bonus to attacks when attacking in conjunction with allies within 5 ft. Similarly, the CR 2 thug has a reduced base speed due to armor, but lists base speed as well – it’s a small thing and technically not required by SFRPG, but I enjoyed seeing that. Melee striker has been properly implemented for the CR 2 version. CR 4 is similarly built in a solid manner.

The ogre-based heavy thug builds don’t use a class graft, and instead elect to provide an ability that makes their slams count as non-archaic and armed, in line with tradition. The CR 6 and 9 builds add wyrmling glands to their arsenal. It should be noted that the DCs for these don’t use the standard ability DC here, and instead use the gland’s default calculation, which makes them come up, DC-wise, at +2 higher than when based on the default values. Checking the overall damage output versus Starfinder conventions, this still has them in line with everything. No complaints on my part, save that there are a few VERY minor formatting deviations, like a slash as a break before critical effects of weapons. These are cosmetic, though.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. The handout-style rendition of the cover artwork is appreciated.

Jacob Blackmon’s cadre of unpretentious thugs made me expect a rather boring cast of NPCs, but I’ve been pleasantly-surprised by this one. Within the limited frame available, this has delivered a rather nice array of adversaries for a more than fair price-point. My final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up for the purpose of this platform. Recommended if you need some rank-and-file goons and don’t want to waste your time statting those!

Endzeitgeist out.

This adventure/supplement clocks in at 13 pages, 1 page front/back cover, 1 page editorial, ½ a page SRD, leaving us with 10.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

This review was requested by a supporter of my patreon, to be undertaken at my convenience.

All right, so, as always, this supplement was designed with the OSRIC rules in mind, though formatting conventions do somewhat deviate from the system’s established standard. The module is intended for characters level 1 – 3, though at first level, the experience of running this can be rather deadly. A well-rounded group is certainly suggested, and it should be noted that there is actually plenty of roleplaying in this supplement.

Supplement? Didn’t I claim this was a module? Yeah, well, both are correct. You see, in a way, this one treats a specific settlement like a dungeon, with a more conventional dungeon-level below. The module does not sport read-aloud text.

All right, and this is pretty much as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

…
..
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All right, so Stonepick Crossing is testament to two dwarven virtues: Ingenuity, and the tendency to go overkill. When a clan of dwarves fought a particularly nasty, and well-entrenched goblin tribe, they refused to deplete their ranks by attacking the goblins’ excellent defensive positions, instead crafting a colossal dam – the eponymous Stone pick Crossing. The dwarves have moved on, the goblins have been drowned, and in the centuries since, the dam has persisted (for the most part!) the test of time. The dwarven craftsmanship has made the dam an excellent place for a waystation/trade-type of settlement, and as such, this settlement was born, with the locals living in the buildings left by the dwarves of old.

Stonepick Crossing as a settlement sports 3 levels – two levels on the dam, and one below the water surface; the latter, obviously, represents aforementioned more conventional dungeon level, though it’s not a place that PCs will immediately fin. Instead, they will interact with the surprisingly vivid cast of characters that may be found here. The short encounter-tables and detailed notes make it rather simple to generate a sense of an organic, lived-in location, and there is quite a lot of loot to be found. Due to the concept of a dwarven building repurposed as a village, there even are secret rooms that smart PCs can find – for this trade-hub has a dangerous black market that can be a very dangerous encounter if the PCs don’t behave. Beyond the knowledgeable beggar, we also have rather dangerous haunted locales here, and Stonepick Crossing has been suffering from mysterious disappearances, which are investigated by a none-too-subtle/smart investigator who might make for a good contact for good PCs.

At this point, I should also note that these disappearances actually are due to a rather dangerous individual capturing targets and selling them off into slavery. The dam-structure also means that not all rooms on e.g. the deep level are connected – one of the halves of the lowest level has seen the magics that keep out the water partially fail, flooding the place and providing egress to rather dangerous humanoids that can lead to further complications, including crabmen. And yes, ancient dwarven treasures may be found by curious and capable adventurers that don’t fall prey to the dangers of this place.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column b/w-standard, and the pdf has no interior artwork beyond cover and editorial page. The cartography is b/w and functional, but not spectacular. No player-friendly maps are included. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

This is the first offering by Matt Morrison I’ve reviewed, and it’s a surprisingly cool one – the combination of settlement and dungeon has been pulled off with surprising panache. In spite of the supplement’s brevity, Stonepick Crossing feels like an organic place, and I managed to picture the inhabitants rather well. With multiple sandboxy plotlines that may or may not converge, it’s a classic “insert PCs for adventure” type of module, one that manages to pull off its angle rather well indeed. The one issue of this one would be that the word-count gets slightly in the way of the module: Stonepick Crossing is a VERY cramped space, and unless you expand the settlement to encompass buildings beyond the dam, the settlement feels very cramped and claustrophobic, and lacks the infrastructure to support its populace and services. The trade-angle only can account for so much, and personally, I’d suggest GMs using this to add a few farmers beyond the dam, some additional places – you get the idea.

With a few more pages allowed, the author could have presented a rather great offering here – it certainly knocks the White River Run-adventures out of the water. Haha. Sorry, couldn’t resist. All in all, a fun supplement/module, and easily one of the more impressive installments in the series. My final verdict will be 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Ship-supplements for the intriguing Galaxy Pirates-line clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let’s check this out!

The light freighter of the katar would be a tier 1 ship, powered by a pulse brown power core, equipped with a basic drift engine, basic computer, and budget short-range sensors. This one has 3 cargo holds as expansion bays, but one thing that is not basic, that is actually better than what e.g. the heavy freighter offers: The little vessel has good crew quarters!
Defense-wise, it sports mk 3 armor and mk 2 defenses, as well as basic 10 shields (focused slightly on forward and aft). Regarding offense, we have light torpedo launchers on port and starboard, and two fire-linked light laser cannons as the main weaponry facing forward. The AC and TL ratings of the ship check out, as does the rest of the math here.

The light freighter, as always in the series, does come with its own, already filled-out ship-sheet, a paper-mini version of it, a full-page hand-out-style rendition of the great artwork, and the Computers (“S” missing) table that allows PCs to know about the ship in-game. As always, we also get a gorgeous full-color map that shows where what can be found within – to my slight chagrin, this one doesn’t seem to feature the katar garden that served as a subtle cultural unifier for these ships, and the weaponry isn’t reflected in the map either – though here, I’m admittedly nitpicking.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork presented is awesome. I love the look of the freighter. The full-color map that notes access ladders, cargo, quarters, etc. is detailed and amazing as well. The addition of paper minis and ship-sheet add further convenience here. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Paul Fields and Jim Milligan provide a nice little freighter here – it’s useful, feels a bit more familial than its big brother, and the production values are solid. That being said, it does feel a little less captivating than the heavy freighter to me; still, as a whole, a worthwhile addition to the series. My final verdict will clock in at 3.5 stars, rounded up.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Star Log.EM-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The first thing you’ll notice when checking this pdf out – we actually get roleplaying advice for the zephyrian race! Nice! The race may, at first glance, be mistaken for human, though their skin pigmentation does differ, and their increased hair growth means they have mighty manes – but this resemblance with humans that are into hair metal is only skin deep: The zephyrian physiology allows them to absorb radiation from sunlight to defy gravity, and a nine-chambered stomach allows them to digest A LOT. Adolescence sees hair hardens to facilitate a chrysallization process, as they dissolve and reform in this strange cocoon, with adult organs and all. Zephyrian tongues can also read the muscle memory of mouths they come in contact with, which can result in some interesting behavior patterns, to say the least – yep, they can learn languages by kissing. Their homeworld etc. is discussed, as is their strange society, which, while nominally sporting a king or queen, is an ochlocracy – ruled by the masses. Their “rulers” can quickly and unceremoniously be disposed of, and elections thus happen whenever enough people think it’s time for them, in what most folks would consider a chaotic mess. Proud and emotional, we get information on their changing nomenclature, and a proper subtype graft is included.

Racial stat-wise, zephyrians get +2 Strength and Charisma, -2 Wisdom, 6 Hit Points and are Medium humanoids with a base speed of 30 feet. Zephyrians have supernatural flight of 30 ft., with average maneuverability, but until 5th level, must end their movement on the ground or fall. Directly tied to their ability to feel unbridled joy, this also has cool roleplaying repercussions baked into the rules. Zephyrians can go 1 hour without breathing and exist in vacuum without suffering environmental effects, which can, depending on how you handle SFRPG-races, be a bit of a bummer – I wouldn’t allow them in Grimmerspace, for example, as this ability eliminates pretty much the threat of open space.

As a standard action, they can assimilate a language of a willing creature with a kiss, though only one language may be retained thus at a given time. New ones supersede old ones. They also are capable of absorbing ultraviolet light and transform it into photon bolts. As long as a zephyrian has at least 1 Resolve Point, they can unleash an energy blast that is treated as a small arms weapon attack with the bright and reload special properties. These bolts begin at 1d3 fire damage, and increase the damage output to 1d6 at 4th level. At 8th and 12th level, the base damage increases by +1d6 each, and at 15th and 20th level by +2d6 each. This ability, once more, is tied to an emotion – the ability to experience righteous anger. Emotion effects, just fyi, prevent zephyrians from using their two potent signature abilities. Problematic: Guess what’s missing. Yep, a range.

The race comes with two racial feats: Improved Star Flying requires 10th level and improves their fly speed to 60 feet and maneuverability to perfect. When not in immediate danger, zephyrians with this feat can accelerate to starship speed, at standard engine speed for quick interplanetary/stellar travel. It’d have been pretty cool to get rules for how they then interact with suddenly erupting star ship combat, but that’d probably have been its own supplement…still, this one may require some GM-calls. Stellar Zephyrian, a combat feat, requires the solar weapon class feature and makes the photon bolts use the higher between solar weapon or photon bolt damage.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf comes with a nice artwork. The file has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Alexander Augunas’ zephyrian race was a pleasant surprise to me: First of all, their strong emphasis on abilities that blend mechanics with roleplaying is awesome – though they do require mature gamers to handle properly. If unlimited, the race most assuredly will be much stronger than many comparable SFRPG-races, and imho overshoots the power-level somewhat. Perhaps that’s only me, but the second surprise here was that they feel like a love-letter to classic scifi and silver-age comic books. They reminded me of the New Gods or the Shi’ar – replace the shi’ar’s feathers with a mane…anyhow, for interplanetary romance, for games embracing these aesthetics, the zephyrians represent a great addition to the game. More low-key settings, particularly when space is supposed to be dangerous, will probably with to skip this one, though – such groups should round down instead. If, on the other hand, kissing folks to learn their language, if emotion-powered super-powers strike a chord with you and fit your game, then these come highly and warmly recommended. I really like the race, even if its appeal is less universal than usual for the new Star Log.EM-races. My final verdict will thus clock in at 3.5 stars, rounded down.

Endzeitgeist out.

This installment of the Starfarer Adversaries-series clock in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, ½ a page empty space, leaving us with 2.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

All right, so there are three glabrezu statblocks in this supplement – the lesser glabrezu clocks in at CR 9, the regular one at CR 13, and the glabrezu demon lord at CR 17. The lesser one may be called forth with a 4th-level summon monster, the regular one with the 5th-level version, just fyi. The neat artwork we can see on the cover is reproduced as a one-page spread within this pdf.

The builds employ the combatant array and present pretty deadly foes, with the glabrezu’s multiattack being capable of dishing out really nasty amounts of damage – which, considering the tradition of the creature being an upper-echelon damage-dealer, suits me just fine. Being a relatively early release for Starfinder, there are a few cosmetic hiccups to call out regarding the notation of spells that exist in various spell levels – Roman numerals have been employed instead of Starfinder’s usual notation. Similarly, damage types inflicted are written fully instead of using the one/two-letter abbreviation, but that is cosmetic at best. A +2 boost to Fort-saves from the outsider graft has been properly implemented, and the builds list spaces and reach correctly. Somewhat to my chagrin, the lesser and regular glabrezu lack ranged attack options – which, however, may well be an intentional design decision, considering their melee-shredder build.

Slightly more relevant and annoying would be that not all spells that should have it, do note their DCs – e.g. force blast is missing it. It should be noted that the builds makes use of spells from the Starfarer’s Companion, which is relevant information if you’re like me and have banned parts of that book. The lord-version of the glabrezu comes with a called dispelling unholy artillery laser that has its formatting somewhat odd – it lists “unholy” as part of the damage – and there still is no unholy damage in SFRPG. *sigh* On the plus-side, we have the cybernetic template graft added to the fellow, which here means that the fellow also has a zero-cannon! Cool! (I’ll punch myself for that one later…)

Conclusion:
Editing is generally precise on a rules-language and formal level, but there are a few minor snafus among the formatting conventions to be noted. Not to the extent where they impede functionality, but they’re here. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the artwork provided for the CR 17 critter is cool. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

Jacob Blackmon delivers some solid glabrezus to tear into your PCs here – the damage-output of the demons is pretty solid, and as a whole, I enjoy how he went the extra mile with the highest-CR-iteration. At the same time, the melee focus and minor hiccups in statblock formatting conventions might upset some, which is why I’ll settle on a final verdict of 3.5 stars, rounded down.

Endzeitgeist out.

This Everyman Mini clocks in at 9 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2.5 pages of SRD, leaving us with 4.5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Now, if the cover wasn’t ample clue, this does use the rules from Childhood Adventures, and it does recap the respective age alterations on half a page for your convenience. Furthermore, on the introductory page, we get 3 age-influencing hexes for witches: Lifespan Alteration makes a target within 30 ft. make a Fort-save or become the witch’s choice older or younger by a variable component equal to the target’s maximum age variation, to a maximum of one age category. The major variation can change multiple age categories, and there is a grand version as well, which doubles the rolled age modification and makes the effect instantaneous.

Okay, so the first archetype herein would be the agemorph shifter: These folks have proficiency with simple weapons and light armor and shields (excluding tower shields) and may use metal armor and shields. Wild empathy is lost, a thousand faces changed – the archetype gets change age at first level: The character gains the shapechanger subtype and may adjust her age category at will as a standard action, gaining all physical traits, including the physical aging modifiers (Childhood Adventures differentiates between physical and mental aging modifiers). 18th level allows this to work in conjunction with the a thousand faces ability, allowing for the assumption of any Small or Medium humanoid of any age category. Also at first level, we have agemorph aspect. The agemorph may assume her minor idealization for class level + Wisdom modifier hours per day, minimum 1, and the duration must be spent in 10-minute increments. 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter net an additional aspect, and at 6th level, when she gains the minor idealization of the aspect, she also gains the major idealization. Shifting into a new one ends all current major idealizations as well.

The 8 agemorph aspects from infancy to venerability have three components: As noted, the minor and major idealization, and the embodiment – the latter would be the feat or option you get when using martial flexibility in conjunction with this. Minor nitpick: The “Minor Idealization”-header isn’t correctly bolded in the rules-explanation. Infancy allows you to crawl at full speed as embodiment, and the major idealization prevents you from being directly targeted or harmed, and you are considered inoffensive…until caught. Toddlers get pretty massive, scaling initiative boosts and better aid another, etc. – others are a bit more straightforward and provide numerical boosts.

But back to the agemorph: Instead of shifter’s claws, we get Improved Unarmed Strike as a monk, with scaling DR-ignoring, and 7th level nets Two Weapon Fighting, 11th and 13th level provide the Improved and Greater version, and 17th level upgrades critical multiplier of unarmed strikes to x3. 3rd level unlocks the embodiment bonus of the idealization, and 4th level nets martial flexibility as a replacement for wild shape, with class levels as a brawler -4 levels…so…0? That probably should be -3. The chimeric aspect ability array and timeless body are replaced at 9th level with agemorph other: Standard action melee touch attacks, save or have the age category changed. 14th level makes the duration longer and 19th, permanent. Pretty sure the latter should be an option – there will be instances when an agemorph doesn’t want to permanently age targets, so an having the choice here would have been nice.

The second archetype herein is another massive one – the geronkineticist. The archetype is locked into water, wood or void as primary element and must choose either life blast (? Pretty sure that this should be “Positive Blast”) or negative energy blast (void) as first simple blast. They are also locked into water, void or wood as expanded element. All blasts of the archetype only affect living creatures and do not affect creatures immune to aging. That’s a serious drawback, so let’s see what the archetype has: 1st level and 9th level infusions are replaced with geronkinetic infusions: The geronkineticist gains either aging or regressing infusion at first level, the other at 9th level. Before we move on, let’s take a look at those two, shall we?

Both are level one substance infusions, with negative energy, positive energy and water as the associated blasts. As a nitpick: The rules-reference formatting of these is not correct – they should be referred to as positive blast, water blast, etc. Fortitude negates, and they have a Burn cost of 1 or more. These blasts duplicate the lifespan alteration hex (younger or older only, respectively), and 10th and 15th level upgrade that to the major and grand hex-equivalents, respectively – for 1 additional (major) or 2 additional (grand) points of burn.

But back to the archetype: Instead of elemental defense, 2nd level nets a +1 untyped bonus to saves vs. poison, disease and all effects that allow for subsequent saves to shake them off on following rounds. By accepting 1 point of burn, you can increase this bonus by +1 until burn is removed “to a maximum bonus equal to your kineticist.” Pretty sure that a “level” has gone missing. When accepting burn while using a void or wood [sic!], you get class level fast healing for Constitution modifier rounds. Okay. What? Void or wood what? And why doesn’t water gain anything? Also at 2nd level, we get change age, somewhat akin to the agemorpher, with minimum and maximum age scaling – this replaces the second level utility wild talent. The capstone nets aging immunity and immunity to aging effects she is an unwilling target of. The aforementioned, somewhat opaque fast healing upgrades to regeneration, which is lacking any suspension criteria – whether intentional or not, I’m not sure. Aging or regressing blast can, via 1 point of burn, be made instantaneous instead of permanent. When she dies, she reincarnates as the spell (which is not properly italicized) and rapidly ages to Youth in 3d6 days; during this time, a creature is geas’d to take care of her.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are okay on a formal and rules-language level, but not as tight as usual for the authors or Everyman Gaming; some of the hiccups did influence rules-integrity. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf has a nice artwork. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

This is a bit heartbreaking for me – Sasha Hall & Alexander Augunas have crafted two complex and intriguing, creative archetypes I really wanted to love, but that also stumble a bit in the details. Not to a game-breaking extent, but still significantly enough to affect direct functionality. That being said, if you’re okay with aforementioned snafus, then this offers two inspiring options, and, let this be stated clearly, they both are seal of approval candidates that only got downrated for the hiccups mentioned. As such, my final verdict can’t exceed 3.5 stars, rounded down.

Endzeitgeist out.

This supplement clocks in at 10 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 5 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

We begin this supplement with 3 pages of what amounts to a xenobiologis’s handbook, written in character, as the narrator explores the xenobiome of UX-5396 – canopies of laced leaves, microtrees, pink carpets of mucilage – I was positively surprised to be transported into a strange world here, and as soon as we learn about the rainbow lake, a vast plane of lichen atop a sulfur lake’s crust, I was fully engrossed. As a minor drawback, the boots noted for safe traversal don’t get proper stats.

Dormant and subsisting primarily on lionfrogs and arcobeasts, the pdf contains new hazards – anaphylactic spores (CR 6) and paralytic vines (CR 12), and the means to create botanical stalkers, via a CR +3 subtype graft that is added to the plant type graft, all of which are solid, if not too outré. While subtype grafts usually don’t increase CR, here, the template style nature certainly justifies doing so – though adhering to the template graft standards in presentation might have been prudent, for as written, this does generate some work.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are pretty good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf presents a couple of nice full-color artworks. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, in spite of its brevity. There are a few glitch bookmarks here, but they don’t impede functionality.

Jeff Collins’ humble little exploration of a strange planet caught me by surprise – I did not expect to like it this much. The flavor really sells what would otherwise just be a few mechanical hazard tidbits. Considering the low price, I’ll rate up from my final verdict of 3.5 stars, though it should be noted that, if you’re not interested in flavor, you may want to round down instead, as there isn’t that much going on rules-wise.

Endzeitgeist out.

This mythic plug-in clocks in at 22 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of introduction, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 13 pages of content – though, as always, it should be noted that there is quite a lot of content cramped inside of this pdf.

This review was requested to be moved up in my reviewing queue at the request of my patreons.

So, what is this? It is, in short, a book that provides the means for GMs to make mythic rules more than just a template to be added on top of characters and monsters; it is about mythic forces authoring the destiny of narratives; not being a tool of it. The idea is that the world is mutable and shaped by the deeds of mythic entities – resulting in the creation of marvels. If you remember, for example the difference of Witcher 3’s depiction of Toussaint in “Blood and Wine” and its radically different palette, or when thinking about Camelot, Eldorado, Xanadu (the inspiration of Xin-Shalast), etc., one can see how potent beings may alter the fabric of the world. The book supplements this concept with rules for incidental marvels, accompanying e.g. maximum damage rolls, crucial crits etc. – the hero falls, and blood rains; the crows all caw, etc. – the cosmetic concept of incidental marvels need not have rules repercussions.

Mythic trials, on the other hand, may create marvels beyond the capabilities of characters of the respective mythic tier.

Now, the pdf provides a smattering of concisely codified effects – like the alteration of terrain /difficult terrain that may knock you prone as earth quakes, withers or plan-like blooms, etc.) or areas of spellblight. At mid-to high-tiers, artifacts may be created, undead or haunts may be generated, curses unleashed (massive 2-page table with item categories by tier and suggested cursed items provided!), and if you’re playing with Ultimate Campaign’s fame-mechanics, there’s a tie-in-here as well. The awesome concept of fey impulses (see Forest Kingdom Compendium) may also be tied in this way, and occult adventures ley lines or locus spirits may be included. Structures may be ruined. Rumormongering may have the rumor take on a life of its own (extra kudos if you use this for an Adahn-situation…and kudos if you got this by now super-dated reference… ;P) and settlement qualities may be gained or lost.

The pdf also provides a bit of guidance about reversing marvels, and nets you a great tier-by-tier list of trial marvels and suggested effects, allowing you to judge their impact and presenting thus a great means to think about them in a streamlined manner, as opposed to just going by gut-feeling: A 10th tier character’s marvel may be a subcontinental-scale earthquake, while a 2nd tier’s marvel may awaken a dead creature as an undead, for example. Incidental marvels also get such a tier-by-tier breakdown that helps you think of them in a meaningful way. In case you need some inspiration for mythic trials, there are plenty of concepts provided there as well.

Beyond those, there also are quite a bunch of path abilities provided: We get 5 universal path abilities: Perhaps your presence unsettles the spirits, allowing you to cast mage hand, ghost sound, unseen servant (latter not italicized properly) at will; your healing can make plant-life bloom when you also spend mythic power; you can quickly sculpt as per expeditious excavation (at higher tiers stone shape, wall of stone), and what about sweeping strikes that clear difficult terrain or using your breath for mythic gust of wind or wind wall? I love these! They are not just numbers and boosts, they are the stuff of legends. 3 3rd tier universal path abilities allow for speed-increase, burrowing or ex nihilo creation, and the 3 6th tier abilities let you use earthquake or mythic move earth, with higher tiers allowing for nasty curses from Horror Adventures (one of those isn’t properly italicized). Move mountain allows you to move 30-foot cubes of earth in a single round, and wind rider lets you control the winds and ride whirlwinds!! Frickin’ awesome! This is what mythic gameplay should be about!

Conclusion:
Editing is exceedingly precise on a formal and rules-language level. Formatting missed a few italicizations, but otherwise remains precise. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf sports nice full-color artworks, though fans of Legendary Games will be familiar with them. The pdf comes with a single bookmark for the ToC; while this is a short book, more would have been nice.

David N. Ross’ mythic marvels are AWESOME. I love how they help the GM think of mythic might as more than just an escalation of numbers. They help you make the mythic powers feel more like the powers of legend, wielded by truly legendary heroes and villains. Its main draw is how it helps you think of mythic power as something more – and in my book, as something more, something that really helps mythic characters feel like more than just super-powered versions of regular heroes. As such, this is a radiant success, and I’d warmly recommend this to just about any GM and group using mythic adventures – I’d consider this to be an EZG-essential book for mythic adventures, in fact. However, the few hiccups in formatting prevent me from rating this the full 5 stars, making my final verdict 4.5 stars + seal of approval, rounded up.
(As an aside: This material is included in the massive Mythic Character Codex as well – so f you’re looking for the big collection of mythic material, get that tome instead!)

Endzeitgeist out.