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Koboldnomicon
por Peter I. [Crítico destacado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 09/20/06 00:00:00

The Koboldnomicon is a 64 page pdf product that expands on the lore, knowledge and applicability of the lowly kobold in the fantasy d20 game. It claims to be the ultimate tome of kobold lore, and aims to provide players and DMs alike with a plethora of new ideas, concepts and mechanics to elevate the status of the kobold to something to be reckoned with. Inside the pages of this product from Bards and Sages are new feats, prestige classes, core classes, spells and even something dreadfully more sinister - kobold poetry!

The product comes as a single pdf file. There is no cover, no bookmarks, and very little in the way of anything that makes this product look great and feel very professional. The layout is simple, the editing good although a few things were missed, and the writing satisfactory. From a presentation point of view the only thing that really stands out are the numerous art pieces of kobolds scattered throughout the book. Certainly I felt a lot more could've been done to make the product presentable. If this is supposed to be the ultimate tome of kobold lore, at least let it look the part.

Despite the rather lacklustre presentation in parts, the product is filled with a lot of content. Included in the product as well are numerous fictions elements as well as something completely unheard of - kobold poetry. The product runs a fine line between being humorous in places, and the serious writing required to portray such a profound book on kobold lore. Somehow the mood and feel of the book get lost a little between the humour, occasional silliness (wolverine battering ram, for example) and the presentation, but that's not taking away from some interesting and very useful content. The fiction is all right, nothing special, and the poetry much the same. I don't think it adds or takes away anything from the book - it's just there, to a certain extent. Where the product really comes out is in the wide variety of new ideas for kobolds presented in its pages, and that's thankfully the majority of the product.

The first section of content takes a look at kobold players characters and introduces a number of useful and interesting kobold sub-races. Good advice on playing kobolds is given, and the three races are distinct enough in flavor to make them stand out from the typical kobold. The races are given plenty of support as well in terms of feats, for example, so they're not just standalone additions to the product. It's always good to see new ideas developed and explored in full.

Next are a handful of new prestige classes. These include the chosen of the dragon father (dedicated warriors of the Gnome Destroyer), kobold trapsmith, and the painted witch doctor (a kobold spellcaster who applies pigment to his face, granting him special abilities). Three different paragon kobolds are presented as well for additional variety, and a new core class, the vermin kin - a ranger variant with a vermin companion and suitable abilities. There are some good ideas here, and lots of potential to catch players off guard with new kobold madness. The mechanics is generally good, and only in one or two places did things look dubious or could've been given more flavor such as the vermin-kin.

The next few sections deal with feats, skills, spells and equipment. There's a very good selection here, although some of the material, in particular the spells, has some rather niche spells that might find limited utility (Speak with Weasels, for example). The feats and skills tie in nicely with the sub-races presented, and give them expanded options that enhance their racial abilities. The pdf introduces a new skill, called Acrobat, that allows the user to add a circumstance bonus to his AC as a move action, and the Kobold Engineering skill.

The equipment section starts by dealing with traps, complete with diagrams, and this was good to see. These should prove interesting for the next time that a DM uses kobolds in his game. The kobold 'bio-weapons' are rather silly, and resort to using live animals as part of weapons. Cats flung by their tails or wolverines tied to battering rams are not exactly concepts that many will find appealing. The last sections of the pdf deal with a kobold pantheon, and a variety of new monsters and kobold NPCs, most of them fairly high in CR, but highlighting the mechanics explored in the pdf.

The Koboldnomicon provides an expansive variety of new ideas and concepts for the kobold-minded player or DM. While there's plenty going for it in the ideas department (prestige classes, sub-races and feats, for example) there is also a lot of lacklustre implementation or less useful ideas (some of the spells and equipment). The presentation is quite poor, which doesn't really enhance the overall feel of the product. Is this the ultimate tome of kobold lore? Not really, but it is a tome, and should provide some fun and exciting options to enhance the kobold in your game.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The variety of new ideas is good and useful, and builds on the kobold's strength. The book expands on ideas nicely, illustrating the concepts clearly through, for example, NPCs and additional feats and spells to support concepts. Overall utility is good, as is mechanical balance, and most players and DMs should find some useful material in these pages.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Presentation is quite poor, and a lot could've been done to improve it. Bookmarks and a flavorful cover would've been a good start at getting that done nicely. From the product thumbnial it looks like there should've been a cover, though I'm not sure what happened to it. Some material is niche, or just not that useful, and one or two ideas could've been developed further (the vermin kin is too 'ranger-like', for example).<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



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World Building
por John D. [Comprador verificado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 08/23/06 00:00:00

I found this to be a valuable reference work and easy to follow. Highly recommended for those who want a lot of relaity in their world design<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



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Koboldnomicon
por Nathan C. [Crítico destacado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/31/06 00:00:00

I will never know the faciniation we gamers have with Kobolds. It seems that just about every gamer has a story regarding a Kobold. There?s the one about the Kobold assault, or the one about the Kobold thief or the one about the time that blind half-orc cuddled with a Kobold. Needless to say they are quite popular. Bards and Sages feeds that popularity with the Koboldnomicon. Though it does an adequate job of feeding the hunger for Kobold related material, it tends to overfeed in many places.

The Koboldnomicon is 64 pages and is organizaed about as chaotically as Kobold would organize a book. There is a ton of prose mixed in to the chapters. One minute, the book is displaying Kobold races, the next it?s a bad poem about a Kobold knight. There are also no bookmarks, which makes reading through it more difficult. Sad thing is, the book has some really great stuff for Kobold players and DMs.

For the Dungeon Master

The book contains quite a bit of flavor to begin a Kobold campaign, but you will want to refer to other sources such as the SRD for more detailed cultural Kobold information. The different races of Kobold is quite interesting, especially the Dragonmarked, a Kobold subrace which actually makes a Kobold fighter class viable without weapon finessing it out. There is also the Tamarin, a monkey crossed Kobold that has the flavor of the Jurassic Park Raptors. Also, there are several NPCs in the back of the book that have a ton of character in them. I can not see a DM in this world whom would not want to run Vextor, the Kobold ninja.

For the Player

Face it, this is a player?s book. The kind of book you can throw in your DM?s face and say ?see I can too play a Kobold?. The feats, classes, prestige classes and traps are all written very flavorful and provide the feeling of the quirky Kobold. My favorite feat is actually not a feat for Kobolds at all. Your DM will not let you run a Kobold? Put the Raised by Kobolds on your humanoid character. It allows you take on some of the traits of a Kobold while simultaneously sticking your tongue out at the Dungeon Master.

The spells listed do not quite equal up to the ingenuity of the feats and traps. Most of them you can find in other books and really do not speak to the user as Kobold. I found this most disappointing considering the Kobold?s favored class is Sorceror.

The Iron Word If you are a fan of Kobolds or want some viable options to use the little dragonoids as playable characters, there is enough material in here to help you out. Though if you are looking for in depth ecology this may not help you. You will also have to deal with the chaotic structuring of the book, but if you like Kobolds, you obviously love chaos. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: -The Feats are AWESOME for Kobolds

  • Makes trapmaking for any class viable
  • Great races, finally a Kobold fighter
  • The Vermin Kin is a cool ranger varient, wish there could have been varients of all the classes<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - bad organization
  • too much fiction
  • spells aren't creative <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>


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Challenges and Rewards
por Robert H. [Comprador verificado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/29/06 00:00:00

The CR for Skill use rules are poorly designed.

Without giving away the intellectual property content, the fact the CR is built specifically on character level/skill level based factors violates the d20 design principle that CR's are absolute (a given creature's CR is constant whether facing a 1st level character or 20th level).

This translates into the flaw that a target skill check that is 1 point over character's roll is the same CR regardless of whether it is 1 point over a 1st level or 10th level character's expected roll. Thus the 1st level character gets experience but because characters do not get experience for defeating obstances of CR 8+ below their own, the 10th level character gains no experience.

The sample in the text where a 10th level character "will earn XP for CR 1" encounter (zero) demonstrates this flaw.

You can find better "translate skill check DC into CR" rules in d20 modern rules (page 206 of Hardcover).

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Addresses area of non-combat rewards, which needs addressing.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Botches the crunch test in its value (fluff ideas nice, but crunch rules aspect poor). For a low page count product, tolerance on such is also low.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Poor<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



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Koboldnomicon
por Derek K. [Crítico destacado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/28/06 00:00:00

Kobolds can either be a lot of fun or a huge annoyance; Bards and Sages? ?Koboldnomicon? seems to try hard to land in the ?lot of fun? camp. This 64-page sourcebook presents variant kobold subraces, spells, feats, weapons and even a kobold-handful of deities.

The first couple of pages are devoted to an introduction from the publisher and then another introduction from someone named ?Simon.? Apparently, Simon is the poor soul who first stumbled across this strange collection of kobold lore, and his cautionary tale serves as a warning to all those who dare read this supplement.

What?s unfortunate is that for a supplement so designed for a ?Dungeons & Dragons? game, Simon?s introduction feels better suited to a game of ?d20 Modern.? The fantasy-trappings that make D&D what it is are missing from this introduction.

However, the opening chapter of the book does an excellent job of providing the gamer/reader with an idea as to what is to come. ?Love Slave of the Kobold Queen, Part 1,? by Johnathan M. Richards, is a first-person narrative of poor soul named Mallen who?s relating his kobold experiences to his fellow adventurers.

A page is devoted to adapting the kobold as a player character race. The mechanics are the same as the mechanics from the ?Monster Manual,? but a bit more information is given here to help players if they decide to choose kobold as their race. ?For player characters, playing a kobold means living with the fact that you are generally going to be looked down upon my [sic] members of other races . . . The kobold PC needs to make a choice.? The choices presented address how a kobold PC might approach any of the core classes from the ?Player?s Handbook.?

Three kobold subraces (the most interesting is perhaps the quahali kobold who embrace death gladly for they believe in reincarnation) and an ?Ode to a Kobold Sentry? (also by Richards) later, we?re given three prestige classes (the most interesting ? the painted witch doctor, who paints his or her face in such a way that he or she can paralyze, petrify or even kill his or her opponents ? isn?t even kobold-specific and can be played by any tribal race), three kobold paragon classes (one generic and two variants), and a new 20-level player class called the vermin kin (a variant ranger that is more vermin-based than animal-based). The vermin kin is the stand-out here; great care was taken to not just replace any reference to an animal companion with a vermin companion. Instead, the vermin kin gains class abilities like ?vermin scouts,? which allows him or her to, by observing and understanding how vermin behave, to gain a bonus to a Knowledge (nature) roll. (?For example, he may be able to discern how far ahead an adversary is by calculating how long it would take a spider to re-spin a web that had previously been disturbed.)

There are a handful of kobold feats and a new skill ? Acrobat ? presented here, and then we?re treated to four pages of new spells. The feats are mostly kobold-specific, and while the spells aren?t necessarily designed only for use by kobolds, most of them definitely have that ?kobold flavor.? There are three new ?Power Word? spells here (Backstab, Lie and Tire) that seemed a bit out of place (the spell descriptions don?t explicitly state these were kobold-specific or ?devised spells, but my human brain had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that ANY ?Power Word? spells warranted inclusion in a book of kobold-lore).

Two more short fiction pieces (?Dinner? and ?The Trap? both by Peter Schaefer) lead to the section on kobold equipment and traps, and then the book wraps with a few sample NPCS and five kobold deities. ?Love Slave of the Kobold Queen, Part II? brings this supplement to a close.

Overall, there IS some good material in ?Koboldnomicon,? but the supplement is inconsistent in its tone and presentation. Some material is clearly meant to be humorous (right down to the disclaimer at the end ? ?we only test on humans, who are willing to be experimented on in exchange for XP?), while some of it is presented as straight game material. While the idea of a kobold PC might illicit a few snickers, this is a supplement that can?t seem to make up its mind if it?s in on the joke or trying to rise above it.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: As a fan of new and well-designed player classes, I enjoyed the amount of thought that went into the paragon and prestige classes, but especially the vermin kin. It's a unique spin on the ranger that I'm eager to play myself!

When the "Koboldnomicon" is trying to be funny, it hits it mark, and wrapping the book with Parts I and II of "Love Slave of the Kobold Queen" was a wise choice.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There's no cover! Additionally, this product is spotted with typos and grammatical errors (there aren't any actual misspellings - just cases in which the wrong, correctly spelled word was used).

Also, as mentioned in the actual review, this supplement seems to waver back and forth between trying to poke fun at the kobolds and presenting them as a serious player option for the game.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>



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Adventure Havens: Tavern Tales
por David P. [Comprador verificado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/26/06 00:00:00

Adventure Havens: Tavern Tales does exactly what it promises to do. It gives DMs 12 ready-made, easy to use taverns already populated with cool NPCs and built in story hooks. I don?t think there?s a DM alive who hasn?t been stumped with trying to come up with a tavern on the fly when the players got to a town.

Each tavern has a stat block that covers everything from how many tables and chairs fit into the building to what?s on the menu to what kind of booze you can get. The patrons sections gives you information of important NPCs who frequent the establishment, complete with stats, and the general attitude of the typical patron. In fact, there are tons of ready made NPCs in this product, and there is even an index by CR so that you could use them on the fly if you needed quick antagonists. The majority of the NPCs are standard races, though there are a few notable exceptions (Feralas Nightsong the Drow, has somebody been playing too much WOW?). A couple of the generic NPCs (town guards, mercenaries, etc) are presented with multiple CR stats, but most only present one set of stats. Not a big deal, as since they for the most part use standard races and classes, they are easy to tweek up or down depending on the level of your party.

The mini-adventures included are a nice way to kill time between story arcs, or even if you are looking to run a one-shot game. And the multi-tavern quest that ends in a really cool boss fight involving?well?don?t wanna give it away, but it?s something the party won?t see coming.

The PDF also includes a handful of new items, most of which involve alchemy or cooking. OK, that sounds weird. But their cool items. And some of the quests even allow the party to learn how to make them.
<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Tons of new NPCs and 12 original taverns that can fit just about anywhere.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Would have liked the NPCs and adventures to have been scaled to different levels.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



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Trees of Fantasy
por David P. [Comprador verificado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/26/06 00:00:00

This product will have every elf player you know hugging you like you were a tree. There are 23 non-magical, non-treant trees designed for a fantasy world in this PDF. So what?s so exciting about trees? Plenty, when you examine this PDF. Each tree includes information on special properties, harvesting the wood, and effects the tree would potentially have on the world if use. The obvious benefits of some of these trees are in the making of weapons and armor. Armors, for example, that can offer fire resistance because they are made of Red Cypress, a tree that grows near lava. Or bracers that don?t really do anything for your armor class rating, but could save your life if your plate-mail warrior finds himself overboard.

But there are plenty of products that offer new weapons and armor. Where this PDF is different is in the practical uses of the trees. This product isn?t so much an alternative source of treasure or twinking, but something to help add a bit of character to your setting. So what happens when the party is in a town during the dry season, and the surrounding forest of everburn pine suddenly explodes? That feeling of gloom as they approach the evil vampire lord?s castle isn?t just dread, but evil coming off of the Death Yew trees surrounding them as well.

But people are gonna want new stuff, and this PDF delivers that as well. There are a lot of variant traps in this product, illustrating how the wood from the different trees can be employed to make even normal stuff more interesting (and dangerous). And some of the items are just too cool. Make hang gliders and wooden legs (there are even new skills for making and installing prosthetics and safely operating a hang glider!).

The product isn?t printer friendly, because the art is full color. On my monitor, though, it looks great and the illustrations do a great job of taking these fantasy tree ideas and making them seem real. Some bookmarks and some flesging out of the table of contents would have been helpful as well. But it's not that big of a deal. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: A great collection of trees to add a little variety to a campaign, and tons of new items to make tree huggers happy.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: no printer friendly version or bookmarks.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



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Koboldnomicon
por Andrew B. [Crítico destacado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/26/06 00:00:00

The Koboldnomicon is either a dread tome of unspeakable secrets, penned in blood by a yipping and yapping monk from an eastern land?or a somewhat tongue-in-cheek sourcebook of all things kobold. Based on the feats, spells, and prestige classes, I?m leaning toward the latter. Still, it never hurts to be too careful, so I?m checking over my shoulder from time to time as I write this.

Seriously, though, the Koboldnomicon is a book that I?m surprised didn?t come out years ago. It?s just such an obviously good idea to create a sourcebook based around D&D?s lowliest humanoid antagonist. The idea of the book as a kind of forbidden tome gives the Kobolnomicon a neat hook and, when it works, adds a little humor to the sourcebook.

This product was written by a number of different authors, and at times you can tell it?s a compilation effort. While the book as a whole is well-written, it lacks cohesion. The contents are divided into sections: sub-races, classes and prestige classes, feats & skills, etc. Scattered throughout are kobold themed fiction and poetry (yes, kobold poetry). While it?s all organized logically, everything comes out feeling sort of cobbled together. Maybe it?s the sparse design style of the PDF, which is positively drab and uniform.

Fortunately, the actual rules and contents of the Koboldnomicon are pretty good. The Kobold Trapsmith prestige class is a logical addition, and I thought a number of the spells were clever. Every section contained more than a few things that I liked, and everything seemed balanced and well-written. Even the things I didn?t care for (such as the kobold sub-races) would probably work fine for someone else?s group and campaign.

I also found a few things that, while I didn?t really like them at a casual glance, eventually won me over when I read them in more depth. The best example is probably the section on ?kobold bio-weapons.? These are traps and weapons incorporating living animals. At first glance, I found them a little too silly. After all, they include in their number something called the ?angry-wolvering-strapped-to-a-battering-ram?, which is exactly what it sounds like it is. After reading through the bioweapons, though, they kind of grew on me. An angry wolverine strapped to the front of an imposing battering-ram would make a fairly terrifying contraption, after all. My favorite bioweapon is the caltrop-toad, which really is quite clever.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The Koboldnomicon accomplishes what it sets out to do: help the DM make the lowly kobold a threat. Between the prestige classes, new spells, equipment, gods, and other new rules and ideas the Koboldnomicon should make the kobold more interesting, if not worthy of the respect of PC adventurers everywhere.

There are a lot of ideas crammed into the Koboldnomicon?s 60ish pages of rules, poetry, and other nonsense. Most of them are pretty darn good and, assuming you?re looking to spice up the kobolds in your campaign, you?ll find more than a few cool things here to help you. The writing is solid, the ideas are clever, and the rules seem pretty well balanced.

Overall, the Koboldnomicon a nice little PDF.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The Koboldnomicon is built around the idea of an evil, necronomicon-style book dealing with the forbidden lore of the kobolds. It?s a clever thought, but one that the book?s design fails to use to its advantage. The opening introduction (by the mysterious Simon) supposedly came in the form of letter written in shaky handwriting and stained with brownish-red spots. So why not present it on a cool background, in a hand-written font? Some clear divisions between sections, along with a better use of art (which is good, but seems randomly placed) would have gone a long way toward making this book look more professional.

As it was, I felt as though I was looking at some kind of printer friendly version, wondering what happened to the layout and color. Also, where the heck are the bookmarks?

Finally, while the d20 ruleset has the level adjustment rules for handling the benefits a player gains from choosing a monster race, it has no counterpart for boosting those players that want to play weaker races such as kobolds. I would have liked to have seen this addressed. Kobold-themed feats, spells, and abilities are fine and well, but some kind of ?reverse LA? or experience bonus would have gone along way toward making up for the basic Kobold?s statistical shortcomings.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



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Trees of Fantasy
por Peter I. [Crítico destacado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/25/06 00:00:00

Trees of Fantasy is a 26 page pdf product. This product is a stand-alone pdf from Bards and Sages that features 23 fantasy trees, and in particular details the properties, descriptions and special qualities of the woods that derive from these fantasy trees. The pdf aims to provide a greater amount of detail to a fantasy campaign setting, both in providing types of trees, but also in the number of new magical and mundane items that can be derived from them.

Trees of Fantasy weighs in at 21 MB, largely due to the full color art contain in the product. The pdf contains no bookmarks, nor a printer friendly version, and in the latter case with the full color art, some of it taking up an entire page, it'll be costly on one's ink. There is a table of contents, although not quite detailed enough in, for example, listing the pages the individual trees appear on. A table providing a summary of all the trees and their pertinent use or special qualities would also have been useful. Artwork is generally good, although perhaps too 'real' and not enough 'fantasy'. Editing and writing is good as well, although the presentation isn't spectacular, as highlighted by the number of things that are missing from the pdf.

The product starts by providing a brief introduction to the pdf. This pdf is about trees, and in particular the wood that comes from them. The wood of different trees can be used for different purposes, be it crafting weapons, armor or more mundane yet interesting items. A full overview is given on the details one can expect in each entry, with a complete description of each entry and the meaning of the key elements of the entry. Wood from these trees can be used for a variety of purposes, and the pdf has a section entitled 'effects on the world' under each entry which details some of the considerations one needs to use when using the material. I found those very helpful as a form of 'designer note'.

There are 23 unique fantasy trees presented in this pdf. Examples of the trees include the Bone Spruce (for creating wooden skeletons that can be animated as undead), Balsa Liftwood (a floating wood that can easily lift things), Ironwood (resistant to fire and most weapon damage), red cypress (protection from fire), Silver Fir (weapons crafted from it affect creatures with DR silver), and Yellow Sugi (a wood with certain calming effects and good auras). Overall there were some good and interesting trees, with a suitable variety for use in most campaign settings. I particularly like the Bone Spruce, which can be used by necromancers to create wooden skeletons.

In places the mechanical explanation of a tree's properties is weak or incomplete, by for example, mention things like 'DR fire' rather than 'fire resistance'. More details could certainly have been included on crafting aspects of using these woods. For example, the red cypress is invulnerable to fire, but it's not mentioned in the entry what happens when armor is crafted from the wood, nor what crafting such armor would cost. The incompleteness of some of the entries makes using the material problematic in places without sufficient mechanical backing.

The latter part of the pdf covers a whole host of mundane and magical items. There were some interesting and useful items here, but again the mechanics was disappointing. The hearing aid, for example, a device crafted from the quivering aspen, grants the user a +2 bonus to listen check when worn in the ear. This, however, only costs 5 gp, which is too cheap for the function it provides. The variety of items, though, showcases the utility and benefits of the different trees, and most DMs and players will find some useful material in this pdf. A number of new traps based on these woods are also included, and welcome addition to the pdf since not many pdfs have details on traps.

Trees of Fantasy is a product that presents a variety of different trees and the properties of the wood that can be harvested from them. There are some interesting trees with useful functionality, although the lack of detail and the often weak mechanical execution hamper one's appreciation for the trees themselves. Nevertheless, with 23 trees and a lot of new magical and mundane items, this is a useful product that can find use in any campaign setting.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The variety of trees and magical items increases the utility of the product, and there are some interesting ideas such as the bone spruce. The pdf covers a niche area that's worth exploring, and provides some good information to expand on your campaign world, and in particular the forests and trees of the world.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The pdf requires a printer friendly version given the heavy use of full-color art. Weak mechanical implementation and lack of detail in places makes it unclear how one should make the most of the material included.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



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Peter, thank you for your review of the product. As some of our customers have pointed out (and what we know from our own experiences) all printers have an option to "print in B&W" or "print to grayscale." For those not wanting to print in color, this is a quick and easy solution. In fact, as a hint, most printers also offer a "draft" option that prints quicker and uses less ink, ideal for when you just want the text and aren't concerned about reproducing the art. I use this all the time for my own print outs. I just wanted to point out that the Red Cypress does, in fact, mention what happens when you use it to craft armor. Masterwork items crafted of the material gain fire resistance of 20. We even included an example item (Red Cypress shield) to illustrate the point.
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World Building
por Keith T. [Comprador verificado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/15/06 00:00:00

It does a good job of promoting the idea that when creating a world (or a game) you should have a consistant vision for it instead of basing a whole setting or system around one or two 'kewl' things. It should have gone into more detail about the case study, though. Why did the group end up with the choices they made instead of something else? What other options did they consider?<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Raises some good points and doesn't cost that much.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Too short (about eight pages of content) and somewhat vague.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



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World Building
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Respuesta del creador:
Thanks for your comments. Unfortunately, because this was a seminar class, they didn't have time to engage in a lot of the research end. Decisions were made based on majority rule and existing knowledge. Sometimes discussions of one aspect needed to be cut short in order to move on. Hopefully, that explains the abbreviated nature of their choices.
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Adventure Havens: Tavern Tales
por Peter I. [Crítico destacado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/11/06 00:00:00

Adventure Havens: Tavern Tales is a 44 page pdf product, and the first in Bards and Sages' new line of Adventure Havens supplements. The series aims to provide DMs with a number of useful game tools such as locations, NPCs and story hooks, so that the DM is never unprepared during gameplay when the players do something unexpected or different. The first in the series, Tavern Tales, provides a number of fantasy taverns for DMs to use, including complete descriptions, NPCs, layout, mini-quests and more.

The product comes as a single pdf file (a sizable 26 MB download) that contains a table of contents with handy hyperlinks to the tavern descriptions and details in the text (though not necessarily directly to the right location for the start of the tavern description on the page). There are no bookmarks. Presentation is not the best, looking quite amateurish in places, and the pdf could certainly have done with some improved presentation. The taverns, for example, have no headings to indicate where they start - one moment a mini-quest on a tavern ends, and the next the new tavern starts after a small amount of white space. Artwork is good and plentiful, mostly pencil sketches but also a small number of full-color pieces. Writing and editing is generally good and easy to read, although there are one or two minor errors. Stat blocks are plentiful given the large number of NPCs detailed, and almost all of them contain errors, which is disappointing to see.

Tavern Tales details twelve fantasy taverns. The pdf starts by providing a very lacklustre overview of how to use the product and what one can expect under each entry. Each entry contains details such as name of tavern, owner, layout, food and drink available, prices, number of prices, sleeping accommodations, history and background, patrons, ideas for integrating a tavern into your game, and mini-quests that can be found in each tavern. Each tavern is also accompanied by an insignia or sign associated with it.

The tavern descriptions themselves are interesting and useful, containing a wide variety of useful ideas and plot-hooks for quests and mini-quests themselves. They made for an enjoyable read with some interesting NPCs that should make for fun roleplaying encounters. Gertrude, for example, is a high level wizard who bakes cookies that are capable of healing people. Each tavern description is overflowing with detail, and DMs should be able to find more than they want under each description. The taverns are also suitable to a wide variety of locations, be it a town, village or even city, and the nature of the establishments is varied enough so that no two of the taverns are really alike (e.g. dock-tavern or gambling hall). The pdf succeeds well at creating unique taverns with their own characteristics to make them stand out.

Examples of the dozen taverns include are Crying Wolf, where revenge haunts the staff of the tavern, the Saty'rs Love where a disturbance from below and a strange collar lead to sinister secrets, and The Wailing Banshee where ghost stories are not always what they seem. The mini-quests are interesting and varied, and cater for a wide variety of different encounter levels. With this is mind, each tavern and its associated mini-quests cater for a certain party level, meaning that while the taverns can be used for any level party, the mini-quests can't. This limits the usability of the quests somewhat, unless DMs wish to modify the associated stat blocks and just use the ideas.

The pdf concludes by including hyperlinked lists of items (Gertrude's cookies and training collar, for example), lists of monsters and NPCs, and NPCs by CR. These are useful and allow DMs to cater a particularly mini-quest to a particular level of party. Overall, this pdf provides a DM with some useful tools that require little work to integrate into a campaign.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Adventure Havens: Tavern Tales presents a dozen fully detailed taverns complete with history, NPCs and mini-quests. There is a good variety of interesting and useful material, and plenty of opportunity for roleplaying with NPCs that have a little more life than one would normally find in a tavern. Most DMs should find this easy to integrate into an existing campaign or story arc.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Presentation was disappointing and certainly could've used more attention. Stat blocks were also full of errors. While the mini-quests are a good idea, the implementation means that if you wish to use a quest you're forced to use a tavern that is suitable to the party level, limiting the usefulness of the material. Perhaps scaled mini-quests would've been a better implementation. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



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Trees of Fantasy
por Nathan C. [Crítico destacado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/11/06 00:00:00

Going out on a limb, the team at Bards and Sages has presented a decent product with their releast of Trees of Fantasy. Trees of Fantasy is a supplement that provides details on 23 different types of trees to import into your d20 game.

Trees of Fantasy is a small supplement sprouting 26 pages of information about our often ignored lifeforms. The lack of the d20 stamp of approval may throw you off a bit, but rest assured that the items and stats are all compatible. I have never been big on details such as flora in my campaign, but the short descriptions and interesting stats and varieties for each tree are interesting enough to want to put one or two of them as permanent fixtures in your campaign.

For the Dungeon Master

This book is primarily for DMs whom like to flesh out their world. If you have five or six regions in your campaign, this book is an excellent for adding a popular breed of tree in that region. Your PCs will really understand and get a feeling they are in a new ?location? if the type of flora in the area changes with the climate. Sure there are no treants in the book, but there are enough monster trees on the market. Each of the tree descriptions are well written and very different. I believe DMs will really enjoy the death yew. It?s a tree that grows when intense death has happened in the area. Without saying too much you could portray to your PCs the danger of the area by throwing in a Death Yew amist a bunch of Everwood Pine.

You will also get some good use out of the items in the back of the book. If you have strong forest cultures in your campaign world, there are plenty of items to decorate homes and NPCs with to pull off that ?foresty? look.

For the PC

This book is a must for druids, rangers, fey and other foresty type characters whom you wish to give some additional character too. If you wondered how to stock a character with items when he has never been in the city before, you can surely use the magical weapons and armor. I can also see foresty PCs using the tree descriptions in their background stories.

The Iron Word

Outside of adding a few PC eating trees, I never thought about the forests of an area. Trees of Fantasy will grow the detail in your campaign with some well placed flora. You will probably want to find your own artwork for the trees though. There was much to be desired from the washed water paint trees in the book. Some looked a bit too natural for a fantasy game, like the kind that guy on PBS used to draw.
<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Great way to plug a niche that has gone unexplored<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The artwork took the feel of the writing away from me<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



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Trees of Fantasy
por Sean H. [Crítico destacado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 07/08/06 00:00:00

Trees of Fantasy by Bards and Sages is a 24-page source-book of fantastic trees and types of wood. As the introduction of the book points out the trade in lumber and worked wood has a long and profitable history and it should be no different in a fantasy world. Indeed a fantasy world is likely to have special woods with unique properties which this product details.

Each of the 23 types of wood is detailed by appearance ? and accompanied by a full-color illustration ? with complete game statistics, value and ability and the possible effects of including such wood on a game world. Among the types of wood presented are: balsa liftwood that floats in the air under certain circumstance. Types of wood that are as hard as metal, including ?mystic? ironwood and elven redwood. With other woods possessing interesting special effects and abilities.

There are several items, quasi-mundane and magic, using the new materials. Though one of the items (Sugi Staff of Healing) is given the ability to cast both lesser restoration and cure serious wound without a cost in charges, making it an eternal and very powerful (artefact level) healing item. Along with ways to use these woods in traps. Lastly, there are new uses of skills.

While the full color illustrations are much appreciated and provide a useful set of visual references, a printer friendly version with the illustrations broken out separately (so the DM would only need to print the ones needed at the time) would have been helpful.

This product is a wonderful way to expand a game world by adding colorful (often literally) background elements with as much system impact as the DM wishes to allow. While the rules used in this product are D20, most of the ideas would be easily adaptable to any fantasy settings.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Fantastic items that are interesting without being powerful.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: No printer friendly version.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



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The Encyclopedia of Skill Lore
por Candice J. [Comprador verificado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 06/15/06 00:00:00

The Encyclopedia of Skill Lore turned out to be very useful, and was integrated easily into our campaign. It's given us all sorts of ideas for books ourselves... I highly recomend it.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



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Challenges and Rewards
por Phil N. [Comprador verificado] Fecha en que fue añadido: 06/04/06 00:00:00

This expansion to awarding Experience Points is an ideal way to reward Players for their non-combat actions. While many GMs may do this already, the possession of a formula to make such awards is very useful.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The formulae for determining non-combat Xp<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The added book-keeping that would be required, although most of the maths can be performed between sessions. Only short, but concise.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



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Challenges and Rewards
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