Kevin Reynolds's page

WARNING: *** I have attempted to keep spoilers out of this text, but... ***
Up front, I need to state that I don't have a love or even a like affair with undead, gothic concepts, settings, or characters. I wanted to read a book from the pathfinder tales line, and I selected this book specifically because I felt that if they could please me with the story despite the setting and the gothic components (werewolves are gothic in my opinion, right or wrong), then it would be a great deed. Fortunately for me, this wasn't a traditional gothic story.

Prince of Wolves is a mystery story, although its pretty opaque to what the mystery is about. It appears to be Pathfinder investigation, but that is only a small part of it. Its told through the point of view of two separate and very different characters, is reasonably easy to follow, and keeps just enough detail out of reach to keep the tension and interest properly perked.

The characters are wildly varied, interesting, and deep enough to be believable without being overbearing. I actually looked forward to the stories switch of point of view to see what the other factor was up to. Even the tertiary characters were interesting and believable. This was possible simply because there weren't too many characters introduced.

The story was never boring, tiring, or running down rabbit holes now and again. Sure there were side treks for the characters, but the characters were experiencing them, not the reader. I never came back from the story to say to myself "What was that all about?" or "Is this a future story seed?" or "Not enough words, huh?"

To sum it up, the book was extremely pleasant to read. It fit in the Pathfinder universe as I expected, told the tales of characters I cared about, and left me wanting more. I was never confused or frustrated, nor did I feel belaboured or obligated to finish the story, I honestly wanted to. This is the kind of book I would want to take with me when its important that I enjoy myself and fill the time with pleasant relaxation.

When Rite Publishing announced that they were going to produce an adventure path for Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved Variant Players Handbook I was pretty stoked. To be honest, my days of creating my own campaign materials from whole cloth are long gone. I'm just too busy to fully commit the time to make my creations rewarding enough to pull it off. My players are pretty finicky, with a mix of very well versed and experienced to just fell off the turnip truck, and just getting through the sessions without distractions is a constant battle. It sounded awesome, but I was a little reluctant to invest. It wasn't because I hadn't seen the quality of product that Rite Publishing releases, I have been overjoyed with the stuff I have purchased so far, but because those releases were more of a point solution than something that required consistency, commitment and long term planning. I didn't really want to commit sight unseen, since the investment was more than a simple adventure.

Then this player's guide was released. This allowed me to review how much they had put into the Adventure Path for planning and who was involved, as well as seeing where they were going. What can I lose?

The guide is really well put together. The layout is intuitive, the fonts are of decent size (unusual in publication of this type these days), and they tried to cover all the bases to give the players the correct insight into the world and adventures that their characters would be participating in. The content is organized in an intuitive way that flows well. I didn't feel like I had to flip back and forth between pages to try to root out information that I was missing, or had not yet been exposed to. The text flowed well around the included art, and the style is consistent with all of the other products I have purchased from Rite Publishing so far. Initially I was a little concerned that not having a table of contents was a problem, but when I was shown there were bookmarks, it worked out ok. On the first read through, I really didn't notice it wasn't there, its when I wanted to look up a specific detail later on that I realized it didn't have one. The PDF search function solved the issue anyway. I wasn't upset about it.

The detail and content in the book is where it really shines. I can tell it was well thought through, and it didn't conflict with what I had already learned from the Arcana Evolved books I had read before. The guide really does have all the salient information a player would need to have to understand the world their characters are playing in, and it has additional background and ancillary information to make the world feel more real. I was really pleased with the background traits that were included to help tie their characters into the campaign as well. They were a much unexpected functional addition that no campaign should do without. There isn't alot of crunch in the book (except for the background trait detail), but I am glad to see it, to be honest. The books intent is to give the players a feeling of the setting, and not the checkboxes to plan out their ultra-optimal character build. This is the way player's guides should be written. Rite publishing really focuses on creative ideas, and often comes in at oblique angles with their products, and this guide doesn't disappoint.

The art is well placed through the guide. I didn't feel that I was being sold just an art book, but I didn't feel like I was reading a novel either. Although I felt that some of the art (with the symbols/flags for factions specifically) was a bit to bright and colorful, they were pretty consistent what I have seen in heraldry, and I think that is what they were aiming at. I had also seen some of the art in other Rite Publishing publications as well, but I wasn't too disappointed, they are decent art pieces, and this is a "companion" book, so I wasn't unhappy. I'm a tough customer when it comes to art, and my feelings here are pretty clear. I don't know why it is, but when I don't like an art piece I have trouble getting around it. This guide has

After reading through D0: Hollow's Last Hope I was enthralled with Paizo's new line of modules. There was alot of creativity and quality in the first module so I subscribed. D1: Crown of the Kobold King proved to me that this product line is worthy of a subscription.

There is something for everyone here. For DM's who just want to run something memorable without alot of effort to those DMs that like to create their own homebrew adventures, this one has something significant to take away with you.

I honestly could have used products of this quality decades ago, my gaming life would have been that much more rewarding.

This is the perfect introduction for a new line of modules. It mixes combat, role-playing, investigation, overland travel, site exploration, fantastic art, awesome production quality, a new monster, along with a few new magic items.

Your players get immersed in a new world with just enough details to keep them on track without bogging the whole system down. The DM can almost run the adventure without prep because its organized so well.

I bought the module from paizo after I downloaded the PDF for free. I haven't spent a better $5 for an adventure in a long, long time. You shouldn't pass this up, even if you missed it as a giveaway on Free RPG Day.