Navior's page

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

The Witch Queen’s Revenge by Greg A. Vaughan brings to a close Reign of Winter, which has been a very ambitious adventure path. It has involved a few aspects that some people may not fully like mixed with their fantasy (a little bit of science fiction and some modern-ish technology), but it has done so in often brilliant ways. This final adventure has the unenviable task that all final adventure path volumes have: that of bringing all the loose ends together and tying them off in a satisfying manner, while simultaneously providing a fun and exciting adventure in its own right. For the most part, The Witch Queen’s Revenge manages this wonderfully. It’s an excellent adventure, albeit a touch railroaded, and its final resolution could potentially frustrate some players. There are a couple other issues as well, and as such, it’s not the best of the entire adventure path (that honour definitely goes to Rasputin Must Die!), but it’s far from a weak adventure and it finishes off what has been a truly excellent adventure path overall.

Read my full review on my blog.

There’s no denying that the Dragonslayer’s Handbook is a bit of a niche product. It’s geared towards player characters who intend to make a career out of slaying dragons, and many of the abilities and archetypes won’t see much use unless the campaign features dragons quite regularly. As such, the book may not be of great value to many games. However, those games that do focus more heavily on dragons will find much to benefit from in the book. There are some very nifty new options in here, including a whole new category of equipment called dragoncraft items, along with the aforementioned feats, spells, etc. That’s also not to say campaigns that only feature dragons occasionally can’t gain any benefit from the book. Dragoncraft items can easily show up in any campaign, as can the other equipment and many of the spells. It will just have lower utility in such cases.

Read my full review on my blog.

Dragons Unleashed provides gamemasters with a ready-made selection of dragons that they can include in their games. The good dragons can be kindly advisers or provide aid in times of need, while the evil dragons make for great final villains in campaigns that lead inexorably to their destruction. Gamemasters will get a lot out of this book.

Read my full review on my blog.

Perhaps the best thing about Castles of the Inner Sea is the variety. These are six very different castles, providing opportunities for different kinds of characters at different levels. This means that, while it’s unlikely that any individual campaign would use all six castles, it’s easy to slot at least one of them into just about any campaign. Castle Everstand works well as a base of operations for low-level characters crusading for good, while Highhelm is practically a campaign setting all its own. Icerift Castle, Skyborne Keep, and Castle Kronquist make suitable adventuring locations for high level characters, and could even be the culminating goal of an entire campaign. Citadel Vraid, on the other hand, could be either the fortress of a major enemy organization or even a base of operations for PCs who belong to that organization.

Read my full review on my blog.

Quests & Campaigns is a very handy companion book to Ultimate Campaign. However, I should note that it will be of minimal use to people who don’t own or use Ultimate Campaign. While there is some material that doesn’t rely on the systems in Ultimate Campaign, many of the new feats, spells, and magic items in the book specifically affect things from the downtime, kingdom building, or mass combat rules. Those who use Ultimate Campaign, though, will find Quests & Campaigns an excellent companion.

Read my full review on my blog.

Kobolds of Golarion is a delight to read. It’s both informative and entertaining. It provides an illuminating insight into the kobold mindset and society, while also providing a wide range of new options for kobold characters, many of which can easily be used with non-kobolds as well. As a Player Companion, the book is unsurprisingly geared towards options for using kobolds as player characters, but the material is equally usable for NPCs, making this an extremely useful resource for GMs too, even GMs who aren’t fond of the idea of players running monster races as characters. These new options take the form of archetypes, traits, feats, spells, and so on. Most importantly, the book is loaded with new options for traps—the things kobolds are well known for being masters at creating.

Read my full review on my blog.

While I’ve generally considered all of the Revisited books to be excellent resources (particularly for games that heavily feature creatures from a particular Revisited book), the most recent one, Fey Revisited, is something of a disappointment. As the title suggests, this book focuses on ten kinds of fey. The book is designed and formatted in much the same style as previous Revisited books, but what’s lacking here is content. Sure, there are just as many creatures examined in the same number of pages, but whereas the previous books always provided new insight into their selected monsters, I came away from this book feeling like I hadn’t really learnt much new about the fey within. Most of them still seem somewhat nondescript, even characterless. On top of that, the book misses the opportunity to make clear distinctions between some of the very similar kinds of fey it examines.

Read my full review on my blog.

This book is not what I expected. To be honest, however, I’m not entirely sure what I expected. I figured there would be information on the first Doctor and all his companions, probably also the key aliens and villains from that era. There would probably also be advice about playing during the first Doctor’s time along with some adventure ideas. Most of these things are present in The First Doctor Sourcebook, but they take up only a very small portion (maybe 30 pages or so total) of the book. Beyond these things, I don’t really know what I expected, but I certainly didn’t expect what the book delivers. The vast majority of this 160-page book is devoted to presenting each of the first Doctor’s television stories as adventures that people can play out in their Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space games.

There are a lot of different ways you can play Adventures in Time and Space. You can play as one of the Doctors and any of his companions. You can create unique companions to travel with the Doctor. Or you can create your own original Time Lord characters to use instead of the Doctor. Alternatively, you can play the game without a Time Lord at all and have an all-human group, perhaps a UNIT or Torchwood group, or a group of time agents from the 51st century. There are limitless possibilities, but one possibility I never once considered was playing out a television story as a game adventure. And honestly, after reading the book, I would still never consider it.

Read my full review on my blog.

I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. In fact, a few months back, I even wrote a post about how much I was looking forward to it. I said then that it had the potential to be either a complete disaster or the most amazing thing ever. After all, mixing Pathfinder-style fantasy with historical Earth is not an easy task. There are all kinds of difficulties that have to be considered, not the least of which is the fact that the very attempt is bound to turn some people off in the first place. Mixing genres is just not some people’s cup of tea. But even for those who enjoy mixing genres, there’s still a lot that could go wrong. Well, of the two possibilities I suggested, it turns out not to have been a complete disaster. Indeed, Rasputin Must Die! by Brandon Hodge may well be one of the most amazing things ever! It is without a doubt one of the best adventures I’ve ever had the pleasure to read, and I dare say it’s likely to be long remembered as an all-time classic.

Read my full review on my blog.

With UNIT playing such a major role in the history of the television show, it only makes sense that any game based on Doctor Who should need to address and describe the organization so that it can be used in the game, too. This is where Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook, a supplement for Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, comes in. The book gives an in-depth look at UNIT and how to use it in Doctor Who roleplaying games that feature UNIT in any way, from games completely about UNIT where there is no Time Lord character and all the PCs are members of, or affiliated with, UNIT to games where UNIT only appears on rare occasions, to everything in between. The book contains material, too, that is applicable beyond just UNIT, such as some of the new traits and gadgets, as well as the expanded firearm rules. Defending the Earth continues the trend of high-quality, well-thought-out books for the Adventures in Time and Space game.

Read my full review on my blog.

Overall, Chronicle of the Righteous is an excellent book, particularly due to its extensive list of Empyreal Lords. It helps to balance out the playing field between the forces of evil and the forces of good. While gamemasters may have less call for information on celestials than they do information on fiends, the do have some call for that information, and this book fills that niche splendidly.

Read my full review on my blog.

We Be Goblins Too! follows pretty much the same format as We Be Goblins! It is divided into two main sections just like its precursor, with each section following the same pattern as the earlier adventure. In fact, it’s pretty much the exact same adventure, just with more difficult challenges and encounters. As such, while I think We Be Goblins Too! is a good adventure and will be fun to run, it’s not as good as We Be Goblins! I also wouldn’t recommend playing the two adventures back-to-back as the repetition will be all the more apparent. However, if it has been a while since people have played the first adventure, this one can be another great change from the usual adventures. Played as a one-off, it should work great.

Read my full review on my blog.

The Time Traveller’s Companion is a massive 240-page tome full of information about time travel, Time Lords, TARDISes, and more. Pretty much everything to do with time and its potential use in-game gets discussed in quite a lot of detail. Most of the book is descriptive detail, from a complete history of Gallifrey to temporal mechanics and space-time phenomena. Adventures in Time and Space is a rules-light game and this book maintains that, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any new rules elements here. These are mostly in the form of new traits (particularly Time Lord and gadget traits) and new gadgets, but there are also detailed rules for piloting TARDISes, regeneration, and more. I’m actually extremely impressed by just how much detail there is in the book. It has definitely made the long wait worth it.

Read my full review on my blog.

The Frozen Stars is an excellent product. As one of the middle adventures of the adventure path, it has the difficult task of keeping the overall story-building moving along without losing the PCs’ interest, a task it succeeds in with a compelling adventure in its own right. Indeed, with a bit of work, gamemasters could use this adventure as a stand-alone. All they need is a means to get the PCs to Triaxus and a reason for them to acquire a pair of objects (the two-headed eagle and bearskin, or whatever GMs decide to replace them with). While Reign of Winter as a whole took a small dip in Maiden, Mother, Crone, it has risen back up and I eagerly look forward to reading the next instalment.

Read my full review on my blog.

The latest hardcover rulebook from Paizo is Ultimate Campaign, a book dedicated to an aspect of roleplaying that most books completely gloss over, something some people even gloss over in actual play: non-adventuring time. The vast majority of the rules in Pathfinder (and indeed, most roleplaying games) cover adventuring—fighting monsters, disarming traps, casting spells, travelling through dungeons and wilderness, etc.—and pay very little attention, if any, to what players’ characters get up to between adventures. But for many people, downtime is as much part of the game as the adventuring side is. Where do these characters live? What do they do when they’re not adventuring? What happens if characters try to run a business? What about ruling a nation? How about their families and other relationships? The answers to these questions and more help to define fully fleshed-out and believable characters. They add an additional dimension to the game and provide character motivations beyond just loot. Ultimate Campaign helps players provide answers to these questions and more. Is it a necessary book? No, of course not—no book is really necessary other than the Core Rulebook and maybe the first Bestiary—but it is a very different and useful book. It’s also a very good book and has quickly catapulted itself to one of my favourite books in the hardcover line.

Read my full review at my blog.

Doom Comes to Dustpawn is an excellent adventure, and an excellent start to Mike Welham’s rpg-writing career. It blends pulp science fictions with Pathfinder-style fantasy to create an exciting premise and an exciting adventure. Apart from my quibble with the hook for the PCs, there is very little wrong with the adventure, and it shows just how successful the RPG Superstar contest can be at finding new talent.

Read my full review on my blog.

Of the three volumes of Reign of Winter so far, this one is unfortunately the weakest. That’s not to say it’s bad—I actually rather like it—but it’s not as good as the first two. Its major weakness is that it suffers from the static randomness that so many dungeon crawls suffer from. Despite a great backstory, its dungeon (or rather, dungeons) still feels like a place where the denizens just sort of sit there waiting for the PCs to arrive and kill them, and that spoils what is overall a great framework for an adventure.

Read my full review on my blog.

The border between Molthune and Nirmathas is a volatile area of Golarion. The two countries have been in a state of hostility, if not all-out war, for a long time, ever since Nirmathas broke off from its parent country, Molthune. It’s an area that is ripe for adventure and the setting of Fangwood Keep by Alex Greenshields. In the adventure, the PCs must retake a border fort (the titular Fangwood Keep) from a rogue Molthuni force that has taken it without orders to do so. It’s a very straight-forward and open-ended adventure. There’s a bit of a mystery to be solved (why did the Molthuni force go rogue and what are they after?), but overall, there’s not a lot of complexity here. However, the adventure’s basic simplicity is ultimately its strength. It sets a scene with fully detailed characters and motivations and then lets the PCs take care of the details. It makes very little in the way of assumptions about the PCs—not even which side they’re working for—allowing the adventure to progress in whatever way it happens to, in the end making for a fun and exciting adventure.

Read my full review on my blog.

Overall, Champions of Purity is a very good examination of good alignments. Although it doesn’t always go as in-depth as I’d like (particularly in the “Good Characters in Bad Situations” chapter), it does provide useful guidelines to players of good characters, particularly players new to the game who might still be confused by this odd thing called alignment. It also contains lots of new character options that are flavourful and generally useful. I’d go so far as to say that Champions of Purity is one of the best alignment-focused resources I’ve seen for the game, certainly much better than its 3rd Edition counterparts.

Read my full review on my blog.

In The Shackled Hut by Jim Groves, the second part of the Reign of Winter adventure path, the PCs set out to find Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut as the next step in their quest to rescue Baba Yaga herself. Much like The Snows of Summer, the first part of the AP, The Shackled Hut is a very linear adventure, but one that nonetheless feels natural in its progression and thus PCs won’t likely feel overly railroaded by it. The adventure contains a wonderful mix of dark fairytale elements and interesting characters. Although many of those characters are there and gone in only a short amount of time, they all have fully detailed backgrounds and motivations, making them feel a part of a living and exciting world. This is not a perfect adventure (indeed, I have a few issues with its resolution in particular), but it is still a very good adventure and a great continuation of the adventure path.

Read my full review on my blog.

Unfortunately, Broken Chains just didn’t grab my attention very well. It has one or two things I like in it, but overall it’s a mediocre generic adventure that just doesn’t use its setting to any good effect. Indeed, it’s an adventure that could happen just about anywhere with virtually no changes. True, it’s very useful to have adventures that can be placed anywhere gamemasters need them to be, but in that case, why make the default setting a place as colourful and identifiable as Katapesh? A place like Katapesh needs an adventure that really makes use of its unique characteristics. On top of that, Broken Chains is really just a little dull.

Read my full review on my blog.

The Dungeoneer’s Handbook is a useful resource for players with characters about to embark on a little bit of dungeon exploration. It’s not the most exciting book in the line, but it provides players (and gamemasters) with a lot of important tools that will enhance gameplay and help keep their characters alive.

Read my full review on my blog.

The opening adventure of Reign of Winter, The Snows of Summer by Neil Spicer is fairly tame compared to what is to come. Indeed, it’s kind of a run-of-the-mill adventure in many ways, one that starts with only a touch of the unusual, much like many adventures will start. But it gradually reveals more and more snippets of information to the PCs, slowly making them realize that what starts as a rescue mission is really much, much more. Overall, The Snows of Summer is a very good adventure—not the greatest ever, but one that should sufficiently whet the PCs’ appetites for what is to come and make them eager to save the world.

Read my full review on my blog.

The Shattered Star Player’s Guide is one of the better adventure path player’s guides. Shattered Star may not be my favourite adventure path, but this guide does its job of providing players with just enough information to make characters for the campaign. It lays things out in a straight-forward manner and doesn’t provide for any misconceptions. Players in a Shattered Star campaign will get good use out of it.

Read my full review on my blog.

One of the best things about this book is that it moves away from the tried and true. New feats, new archetypes, new spells—these are things that have been done to death for the character classes. However, while the game has had tons of cool stuff for your druid or wizard or ranger, your animal companion or familiar has often been neglected. There are very few feats or spells in the game that are for animals (either to use themselves or be used on). There aren’t even very many magic items designed for animals, and it’s often unclear how well items designed for humanoids work with animals. As such, Animal Archive fills a need. It uses the kinds of things we’ve seen before, but uses them in an area that very rarely sees use.