Players are maimed, poisoned, plagued and disintegrated. Those that survive see a lot of crazy things that , even in a fantasy world of elves and dwarves, would make for some truly disturbing dreams.

LJPDesigns Two Dozen Dangers: Insanity, provides 24 mental diseases to trouble the most strong-willed PCs. Insanity takes a different attempt on “mental anguish” than other PDFs have. The pathway is refreshing and makes insanity far easier to implement into a game. Most systems use some sort of extra hit point system to represent mentality. Two Dozen Dangers: Insanity slightly revises the disease rules already implemented in Pathfinder. The result is an easy integration that makes the entire game a bit more meaty, particularly any power that heals or prevents diseases.

The short 7-page PDF is made up of 24 of the insanities. Each insanity requires a will save to temporarily prevent the ill effects, and, borrowing from 4th edition, requires multiple occurrences and checks to completely cure.

For the DM Each insanity is broken down into types: traumas, horrors and spell sickness. In my current horror campaign, I find myself using creature exposure insanities such as Aberrant Sensorium, (which provides a serious mental illnesses for encountering those Cthullian inspired creatures), and Dust Nihilism, which drives those who encounter powerful undead a bit over the edge.

The Iron Word I love when people use what is already there and make it better. More than just a simple grouping of new things to inflict in PCs, adding mental diseases to physical diseases beefs up the entire disease system. The creativity of the 24 diseases range from nagging to borderline mean.

Iron Nugget

Dungeon Masters can always use supplements that can help them out in a quick fix. Super Genius Game’s Genius Guide to Simple Monster Templates allows DMs to swiftly boost a creature’s CR by 1 or 2. At one point or another, every DM has underestimated the strength of their party and needed to up the next encounter to provide a sense of challenge. The 5 templates are less involved than templates from other sources. Most simply add a few abilities to the creature.

The Iron Word Super Genius does not try to overdo it with this product, which is very relieved. It is just the right size and each template is effectively creative, providing a different experience each time. Everyone will love the eternal template, which grants near immortality. I can really see a creative Dungeon Master pairing a haunt when using this one. Simple Monster Templates will leave you wanting for more and awaiting the next volume.

Joining the Super Genius Games archetype PDF family is the Genius Guide to Divine Archetypes. Divine Archetypes is another superb product that allows players to easily swap out one character class for another. An archetype is a condensed form of a character abilities that make up the essence of the class. With this system, you can take one archetype and replace it easily with another archetype. Divine Archetypes presents 7 divine magic archetypes. All of the archetypes are diverse and useful. For Dungeon Masters who want to shy away from the church, the Wise is an excellent choice. Without confining it with a name like shaman or oracle, it allows the player to receive divine powers from a different source.

Iron Word I can not express enough about how useful archetypes can be to a campaign. The divine archetypes listed here are wildly developed origins of divine magic. For those looking for something other than the cleric, Divine Archetypes is a great find.

I long for the day when Haunts will be right up there with creatures, traps and drow loners as staples of D&D. So long as publishers like Rite Publishing keep pushing out strong Haunt filled products like 30 Haunts for Ships and Shores, it should happen pretty soon.

30 Haunts for Ships and Shores takes the haunts out of their dungeon and home elements and places them in and around water. Better than any product, this reinforces how useful Haunts can be in any campaign.

The Iron Word All 30 Haunts provide something a little different but never diverge from their subject. Readers will be surprised by the variety of ways Rite Publishing finds to creep out PCs on the open seas

If you know Dreads, you know dreads loves Zombies; slow zombies, fast zombies, hell, I even kind of like the mutants from Another 28 days that are not zombies but everyone tends to think they are. I watch zombie movies, read zombie books and subscribe to every zombie comic book. When I was contacted by game designer Christopher De La Rosa to preview Outbreak: Undead I was very stoke. My discovery was a system that bled zombie lore and creativity and geared towards players who want a crunchy zombified evening of role-playing.

Outbreak is a hefty 459 pages of flesh-eating zombie love. De La Rosa develops a system that brings together elements of various zombie media into a super-sized package. It is a very stat heavy system.. Those familiar with Palladium Rift’s system, will recognize the percentage system that rewards players. Players have four stats, Strength, Perception, Empathy and will. They pick skills that fit into these stats that coincide with the job they chose. The occupation option is the most unique feature of the game and helps establish the role-playing element of the game.

Combat utilizes a collectible card type system of phases. Players take actions, the board is checked and then damage is resolved. This can make combat very tedious with the wrong group or DM. During the playtest, the one combat lasted 2 hours and it had been condensed.

The layout style is supercreative and really draws you into the book. It feels like you are flipping through a government dosier. However, an additional plain text version is very much needed for those who just want the information without the pretty. At 80mb, you could not bring this up on a phone, and the lack of distinguishable bookmarks makes it clunky to maneuver around through.

For RPGers Outbreak: Undead is the table-top version of action RPGs like Resident Evil or Dawn of the Dead (remake). With the right DM, it can be utilized to play slower, more suspenseful zombie scenarios, however, it feels additional rules will either need to be created or houseruled. Still, the depth of the system allowed for some awesome random scenarios where the characters feel like they are firmly in the zombie-infested world.

For the Zombie Fan Outbreak: Undead does not want you to run from zombies for too long. They have very detailed sections on equipment and weaponry that can save your life in the zombie apocalypse. The statistics and open ended occupation system is built for the type of role-player who likes to look at his character sheet and then figure out a roll.

The Iron Word When played up to its strengths, Outbreak: Undead is a fun system that embeds the action zombie flick into the pages of a Role-Playing Game. I had a chance to run through a midnight preview of this game at Gencon 2009, and even with 8 players, the action was fast and intense. There wasn't a lot of tension breaking role-playing, but there was a lot of split second decisions and free form actions that really showed off the system's depth. At one point my character was allowed to take major electronics in the house and begin to hurl them outside at the herding zombies. To my surprise, there was actually a ready made system of roles for impromptu things like this. The Occupation system was one of the best features, as characters were allowed to automatically have abilities that were suited for the occupation they were before the flesh-eaters came.

If you are looking for a crunchy horror themed game, Outbreak: Undead will provide your group with the kind of zombie fix you can not get on Fearnet.

Silver Crescent Publishing has created an engrossing dark fantasy world with their Pathfinder Campaign Setting, Realms of Twilight.

The 256 page book is a polished gem, allowing readers to easily navigate the dark fantasy world the writers have brought forth. My first fear was that it sounded too similar to LPJ Design’s Obsidian Twilight. However, I was quite glad that this was not the case. Realms of Twilight takes place in a world is perpetual twilight.

This world is settled in its predicament. Races have moved on and understand that True Sun may never returned. This since of normalcy makes Realms feel like a traditional fantasy setting with enough previous baggage to provide a new experience. The entire world is covered, not just a continent. Each of the 5 continents of the world are detailed with history, geography and gods. Player Options, New Equipment and Spells, creatures and a chapter on the legends of the world are then introduced.

For the Player I could have done with a few more player options. There are a handful of feats and a single new base class. However, the combat alchemist almost makes me forget about the lack of options. Players will take the combat alchemist, match it up against Paizo’s alchemist and witness a knockout as the Combat Alchemist in Realms knocks out its official predecessor. Its one of my favorite Pathfinder alternative spellcasters and really gets into the flavor of alchemy.

For the Dungeon Master The little details are what makes the world stand out. Knowing the elves relationship with the monks in Ezalyth is the kind of things that help DMs build epic campaigns.

The Iron World Realms of Twilight is a non-traditional fantasy setting given the traditional fantasy setting treatment. It has the classics like elves and evil empires, but the darkness that plagues the land gives it the separation twist it needs. The layout of the book is magnificent, and screams of good editors. DMs will have a field day with the things they can develop from the content. PCs on the other hand are a little short changed in the options department. Readers will probably have been more than welcome to have a little less prose and a few more classes, feats and spells. However, its hard to fault a book too much when it provides beautiful world maps, a creative visual take on character sheets and so much rich lore and history.

The first Genius Guide to the Godling allowed PCs to build potent PCs that encompassed gods who used their wits or brute. Super Genius Games has now followed up this book with the Genius Guide to the Mystic Godling, which introduced magical godlings to your players.

Mystic Godling allows players to eventually become magical Gods. Like the Genius Guide to the Godling, the Mystic Godling is really two classes. The Adept Godling allows players to build utilitarian spellcasters with specialties in both skills and magic. The Eldritch spell caster allows players to build powerful casters. When the players choose Mystic Godling, they may choose the character to be either Arcane or Divine.

Unlike the Godling class, the Mystic Godling really amps up the power of the class. Both the Adept and Mystic classes have special additional spell abilities. They are more resistant to dispel, may pick any attribute as their spell attribute and do not need to make concentration checks to cast spells. These abilities balance the small amount of spells both casters have. The Mystic Godling has magical traits that give them abilities that hint at the type of god they may become. They also receive a clerical domain, but at a later level than the previous book. Scions are nixed for the Mystic Godling, though you can take a special feat to obtain them. Instead, both classes receive Ascendancies.

However, the same gripes with the Godling Class can be relayed onto the Mystic Godlinig. The limited amount of Ascendancy abilities are almost comical. There are only three major ascendancies to choose from, which really limit player choice. The talents are much better than the Godling, but still need 2 or 3 more to provide a good amount of variety. Another major problem with the Mystic Godling is the spell attribute selection. It screams min/maxer. If you do not pick one of physical attributes, preferably Dex or Con, you are depowering the class. Also, the Adept class at lower levels does not feel too different from the Eldritch Class.

For the Player I love this class for newbie spell casting players. It feels good to have to mention defensive spellcasting and go over all of the tricks of Spellcraft. The cool thing is, is that

For the Dungeon Master I liked this class at high levels for DMs. It takes a few tricks out of the PCs arsenal when they try to fight a powerful spellcaster.

The Iron Word The Genius Guide to Mystic Godling will fit a unique campaign that allows the class to be apart of the major plotline. It provides a different feel for the spellcaster. The casters can become quite powerful, but not enough so where it would ruin a campaign.

When looking at D&D through a telescope, the overall goal is for the PC to become a god by the end of a level 1 to 20 campaign. Super Genius Games, Genius Guide to the Godling Class, strays from that logic, instead giving the PC’s the power to become god’s from the get go.

Godling Class, from a flavor point of view, will allow your character to be a demigod by the end of the progression. But mechanically, it is a class that allows players to build a sandbox class with a handful of restrictions. The Battle Godling class allows players to combine abilities seen with combat style classes like the monk, fighter, barbarian and paladin. The Clever Godling class allows players to combine abilities commonly associated with bards, rogues and other support classes. The abilities of classes are mimicked by Scion Talents, which the PCs receive every few levels. Outside of the two base classes, there is an included prestige class that allows players to tack on Godling abilities to an existing character.

Each of the classes instills a bit of divine prowess to the character by providing them a clerical domain, of which they can use both powers from the beginning. They also receive divine traits that give them a specialty ability that hints at what god they may become.

The PDF is short, at about 12 pages, and feels as if it needed about 5 more pages to flesh out the classes. Both the scions and talents need about 3 or 4 more choices to really make the PCs feel like they have a choice

For the Player The Godling lets players escape the limits of a traditional class. I am running a Godling only campaign, and my players overwhelming leaned towards the more meaty Battle Godling as opposed to the Mystic Godling.

For the Dungeon Master This is a great option for NPCs whom mentor PCs. It allows for a lot of leeway as a DM to create a useful NPC that does not lean too close to one class.

The Iron Word I love the concept of the Godling class, and it works in a campaign geared around the class. The drawbacks are what kills the widespread use of the class. That is, that there is not enough material in the book to mimic every class. At the very least, there should be a book in the works by Super Genius that has more options for the class.

2010 Halloween Review

Layout gaffs aside, the inside cover has the splash page to their other book, Haunts and More is a far more focused and interesting read. Presented by AGES games, it delves out 12 pages of deadly haunts to build adventures from. Haunts are traplike areas that can not be cured by a +2 axe and a fully rested sorcerer. Instead, you have to perform a mission that solves the problem. It is a bit disappointing that almost half of the 12 pages are “bonus material” with a less than par ranger build at level 2. The Iron Nugget is in the expansive creativity put into the Haunts themselves. If you liked this concept, you are going to want to pick this up

Iron Nugget Hollow Earth Expedition: The Frozen City of Terror takes a group of investigators from a simple rescue into the bowels of a creepy experience. The straight forward adventure is perfect for a one shot. In the adventure, the PCs are investigating a missing research team in the frigid unknown of Antarctica.

One of the most important things that a writer can do when trying to write an adventure in a modern setting with supernatural elements embedded in is to perform enough research so that the setting feels authentic. If the PCs do not feel that the setting is real, you can ruin the creepy, terror atmosphere you are trying to create. The writers succeed admirably at this task, reinventing a better setting and plot than the flop of a movie Whiteout.

This adventure may not fit in an ongoing campaign, as it restricts archetypes and stays fairly straight forward. However, as a one shot, the isolation of the setting brings a feeling of anything can happen, which is what you want when running a one shot.

In the end, players will enjoy the several twists in the story and the strong prose writing.

Iron Nugget: I love when new things enter the D&D world. With haunts, Paizo added an element that is part trap, part creature, thick with mechanics but steeped in roleplaying. With 30 Haunts for Houses, Rite Publishing lends their visually descriptive writing to create 30 haunts that PCs can encounter when traveling into a residence.

Haunts do not have hit points, they are ended when specific conditions are met. This makes them a great addition to increase the challenge of an encounter without having to deal with the record keeping of another batch of creatures. I enjoyed the Lich’s Lover the most. It’s quite simple, but I can imagine how it would rack the brains of players as they search for something to hit.

Rite Publishing quality all throughout and a lot of creativity to add fun to traditional encounters.

I am an old school Final Fantasy inspired RPGer, which means I have never run a campaign that did not include an epic airship to airship battle. Thus, there’s always a bit of excitement when someone attempts to toss their head into the rules of 3D combat with massive flying vessels involved.

LPJ Designs attempts the feat this time around with Skyships of Nova Avalon, the first solid supplement for their upcoming Pirates of the Bronze Sky Campaign setting. Skyships comes as close to making a good rule supplement as products have come, but still falls a tad bit off of one of the underlying problems with this type of vessel to vessel combat.

Skyships reads like a thought out set of instructions for everything you want to know about air combat. The 20-page supplement goes into great detail about ship creation and how a crew functions on a ship. The first few pages explains the mechanics of a ship. Ships have stats much like a PC, though slimmed down to strict combat and maneuvers info. The combat system for ships feels fluid. LPJ Design is smart enough to know that great RPG ship battles take place off a grid. Though they include some grid info, the bulk of the combat rules movement is explained for abstract. Skyship succeeds in understanding that there is indeed a crew on the ship and that these crews need meaningful things to do in combat. The writers have obviously watched their share of Star Trek. If there is one thing that must happen in a vessel to vessel combat, it is relaying the ships functions to crew members.

Skyships does this nicely by having certain weapons and ship equipment require a particular number of crew members. It even allows for multiple attacks per rounds by players who are manning multiple weapons. However, it does not go far enough. I have 2 “fighter” types in my current group. That leaves 4 people with nothing to do during ship combats. It would have been great to have the different equipment require certain skill checks and figure out a way to utilize arcane and divine magic users more. For the Dungeon Master The rules in Skyships are skillfully light. There is a lot of information packed in the PDF. But most of it is add-ons to the additional rules. There is one example Skyship, and you can easily take this ship and build the various enhancements on top of it. A nice aspect of the PDF is that the ruleset is broad enough to incorporate in any setting that uses Airships. Various material and weapon accessories are provided that can help you utilize these rules in a traditional fantasy setting or a strong steampunk environment.

The Iron Word Skyships of Nova Avalon is the most complete airship supplement for a d20 game in almost 10 years. Though I still lone for a system that incorporates an entire party, Skyships sets enough of a foundation with the inclusion of crew needed ship functions, that an additional supplement could easily physically utilize that crew. Small gripe aside, the usual amazing artwork and careful editing you expect form LPJ makes this a worthy product to add to the collection.

Gaming groups are like primate species that evolve into functional intelligent being over time. As gaming groups evolve, so do the processes and rules they utilize outside of the system they are playing on. A lot of the time, these rules are as strange as having glue covered skin or being able to launch a protective spike out of your tongue.

When I read the first few pages of Action Games Hardcore Rules: Volume 1, I cringed a bit. With relief, my hesitation was for naught. Hardcore Rules is a creative, yet accessible, collection of rules that can be implemented into any d20 system. Though some are a little nichey, they never venture too far into the far realm of gaming group weirdness.

The 16-page PDF contains 5 (though the authors say 3) additional rules. Most of these have been tried and true, but the thorough descriptions make them seem a little fresher than previous incarnations. I also appreciate the brevity. Too often, independent DMs relish in the “brilliance” of their house rules and tend to speak over the audience instead of presenting to the audience.

Hardcore Rules begins by presenting possibly the most niche of the supplements, a redesign of the armor system that adds depth and realism to wearing armor. It is a different departure to simply “armor as Damage Reduction” and makes people squishy again without overcomplicating things. The next chapter is taken as one rule, but feels more like three. There is a critical hit chart which wades into the brutal field of a critical hit. Breaking limbs and tearing off fingers is certainly not something I have seen frequently on these types of charts. There is also a Critical Failure chart, which greatly punishes failures. The third rule in this chapter is a simple skill critical and failure result chart. Bravely, and wisely, the author did not try to detail every skill. Longtime DMs know that players and situations are too diverse to single out instances. The final part was a called shot list. Though creative in the penalties for making the called shot, the defense bonus to the opponent feels too low. A simple +5 for a head shot that renders the opponent unconscious can end many a battle very quickly. It feels like this part probably works with the previous armor part, in that certain armor would add or subtract from the defensive bonus.

For the Dungeon Master I found the skill chart a fun addition to put into the game. Simple, yet effective. With some modification the called shot can get some nice use as well.

The Iron Word Hardcore Rules: Volume I is smart enough to know that not every group wants to become the group that originated this material. The presentation is short and sweet, and the layout work is visually effective. The additional rules have enough differences from similar rules in other materials to make them worth the purchase.

Some people are just naturally inclined to do some things. The creative minions at Dreamscarred Press have proved time and time again that there is no other group of writers on this content that can do Psionics as good as them.

A little history on Dreamscarred Press. Throughout the 3.5 days, they consistently made the psionics writers at WOTC look like amateurs with their own system. Dreamscarred pretty much rewrote the core book and added races and classes that made psionics feel like the alien techno-magic that it is.

It should be no surprise to anyone that Psionics Unleashed, the official psionics book for the Pathfinder system, is a delightfully comprehensive addon to any campaign. It takes all the good psionics rules that were in the previous 3.5 edition, and enhances them with the type of power trip that makes Pathfinder so much fun.

The 231 page book is bloated with every detail you will need to run a psionics campaign, add psionics to your current campaign or create a psionics character. Dreamscarred even gives you a little peek inside the minds of the creators and explains why certain changes were made.

Unleashed does a great job of making sure that everyone knows there is a distinct difference between magic and psionics without making the distinction mechanically cumbersome as in the previous decision. Flavorfully, psionics feels like an alien magic. It opens up a new world of casting where players use mental abilities to enhance themselves and hamper foes. Mechanically, Unleashed nixes pointless skills and rules to make psionic characters compatible and usuable in a normal magic world.

The PDF starts off by presenting psionic races and all the usual suspects are here except the Gith. However, the new lizard like Ophiduans will do nicely in their spot. The book then moves on to classes and you are shown more of the psionics system.

The power point system is intact. However, psionic classes now have abilities they can cast frequently just like other pathfinder races. There are four classes presented in the book. All of which are adaptations of classes from the 3.5 Psionic system. Knowing the extraordinary psionic classes from Dreamscarred products, I was surprised to not find one or two thrown in here. However, the complete reworking of the supermonk Soulknife class suffices enough. Certain to be the most used class, it combines the decent fighting abilities of a monk with a limited amount of psionic powers that can tip the field of battle.

After reworking the way magic skills interact with psionic skills, by making them work the same, Unleashed then introduces the powers themselves. As with its predecessor, the spells feel strange and foreign. The descriptions are written to make the reader feel the supernatural essence that differentiates psionics from magic.

To insure that it is a complete supplement, items, monsters and additional campaign options round out the PDF.

For the Player Psionics is great for players who enjoy being different without being obnoxious. The spell point system feels far more natural than the Vatican spell system that haunts D&D.

For the Dungeon Master This book brings back some emotional memories for me, as my first campaign was a psionics campaign. The efforts to minimize the once overpowering aspect of psionics works well and adds a new dimension to a campaign world.

The Iron Word Psionics Unleashed is the kind of supplement you need to have in your arsenal. You can plan an entire game around around the new mysteries of psionics, or add it to your world when the PCs go to some unknown land.

We tend to all too often throw magic weapons at our PCs like darts on a dartboard. Only a few magic items the PC’s receive have a backstory behind them, and even then they the stories are concentrated on the campaign plot or an NPCs history.

Unlike most item books, each item has an image next to it. This is a remarkable addition and really shows how much the writers at Rite Publishing understand roleplaying. An image goes a lot further than a picture. Another unique standout of the book are the mechanics of each weapon. Each has a unique mechanic that creates a good deal of depth to each weapon.

For the Dungeon Master Yes every blade in here is unique, but some are more unique than others. slicer and dicer really stood out. A set of oddly shaped hand weapons, the design screams monk without even needing the description.

The Iron Word