I wanted to like this one, I really did. I enjoy the Animal Adventures miniatures, and while the last book had a few balance issues, I thought this one would have enough people working on it to make sure it's more properly balanced. However, there are some major flaws I can't overlook.

First, the positives! The Faraway Sea expands on the world-building of the Animal Adventures setting, introducing several new species, a few new classes and subclasses, and a whole new area of the world to explore with its own history. It's clear that a lot of thought went into the setting, which can easily be slotted into most homebrew campaigns.

The book even provides guidance for factoring in reputation and rivals, a list of friendly or unfriendly NPCs, and a bestiary. It also has a few adventures that can be run as one-offs, which I haven't had the chance to run but could certainly grab if I ever need a quick adventure for my players.

The artwork is also lively and full of personality. Several different artists worked on this book, but they all did a fine job bringing the setting and animal characters to life.

Now on to the negatives. I mostly wanted to check this out to see what character options it provided, and while it does have plenty, they are in serious need of work and balancing.

I think the biggest issue comes down to scaling, or lack thereof. Some features scale well, like natural weapons growing more powerful as the animals grow. Others either start off way too strong and keep growing from there (like the bear having two attacks that deal 2d6+str damage per round at level 1 or the Tinkermage getting two 2nd level spell slots also at level 1) or just use a flat number don't scale at all (like the goat's "Troll Terror" ability and the fox's "Rodent Rations" being a flat DC 12 at all times).

Sure, I can make these work with a bit of tweaking, but it's unfortunate that these blatant issues got through in the first place.

As for the classes, there's the Tinkermage and the Watcher. The Tinkermage, sadly, feels incredibly redundant with the Artificer, as they pretty much do the same thing; what is an item augmentation if not an infusion by any other name? The specializations are also pretty much direct parallels with artificer subclasses, like the Armoursmith Tinkermage vs the Armorer artificer.

Also, as previously mentioned, it has two 2nd level spell slots at level one. That's kind of ridiculous; there's a reason characters don't unlock higher level spells until they level up.

However, there are some ways that make it different from an Artificer which I do appreciate. It has specific rules for crafting magic items, and the Expanded Lore adds more flexibility to its spellcasting. The Inverse Augmentation is also a neat way to debuff the opponent too. I just think it needs more ways to differentiate itself from the Artificer, or it could even just become an Artificer subclass with its unique augmentations turned into new infusions.

Then there's the Watcher. Obviously this is supposed to be a reference to the Witcher, and I'm cool with that. I have far less issues with it than I do with the Tinkermage, but once again, scaling and redundancies are a problem here.

For instance, you start off with a silvered weapon - just given the value of silvering a weapon, that's pretty crazy for starting gear. Then at level two it immediately counts as magic for overcoming resistances (a feat monks don't get for their unarmed attacks until 6th level, for comparison).

Watchers also get extra attacks at the same rate as a Fighter, up to four attacks per round. While they may not get Action Surge, this still feels like it's stepping on the Fighter's toes. And while there are some unique fighting styles available to the Watcher, I'm concerned about the scaling and balancing for some of them.

I haven't exactly gone over this with a fine-toothed comb, and I've already let this review go on for far too long. So tl;dr - It's a great concept and world, but the species and classes need a major overhaul to be balanced and scale properly. I wish I could give it a higher rating, but I hope my review is taken in the spirit of constructive criticism it's meant in.

interesting mechanics to shake up your combat encounter. wad disappointed by the lack of artwork. I've never played a Dark Souls video game so lacking background info to really appreciate these monsters. You could google images but for the price tag it be nice to have a visual for all the monsters.

The way that this system intertwines D&D 5e while still making it it's own thing is so refreshing, and the gameplay fully reminded me of when I did my playthroughs of Dark Souls 2 and 3.

When I saw that Privateer Press was releasing an adventure centered around the Legion of Everblight, I was very excited. I had been wanting to bring this faction to my campaign world. However, upon reading through, I found the adventure lists several monsters for which there are no stat blocks. Harriers, Raeks, Nyss Striders, and others are listed, but there are no details on what these are nor how to run these. I even checked online to see if there were stats in another book. Out of all currently available books, the monsters needed to run this module are nowhere to be found. While the adventure itself sound interesting, it currently lacks key components to play. I have attempted to reach out to Privateer Press regarding these issues, and as of posting have not received a response.

If you like the Iron Kingdoms setting this is a good read. I would say on a teen fiction level as far as complexity.

Let's start with the new Class, the Tinkermage. It feels like a direct rip-off of the Artificer with one MAJOR exception, you get two 2nd level spell slots at 1st level. After speaking with the creators, they insist that this was done to make up for the lack of spells in later levels, which isn't how the game supposed to work; this reasoning only really makes sense if you insist all players start at 5th level or higher, otherwise, you get a 1st level PC that can cast Shatter in the first two rounds of combat. No power gamer worth their salt isn't going to dip into artificer before moving on to other classes. Also, at 1st level you get "Augment Item" which is way more powerful than the Artificer's "Magical Tinkering."

Now, let’s get into the Species. Now, an interesting feature of some of the species is that they have natural attacks and the damage for these attacks increase as the PC levels, similar to how cantrips damages increase, not a huge deal, I even like it; though I question whether a fox should start out with 1d6+dex damage, more damage than a fighter with a dagger, but it's not too broken. What we should really look at is the BEAR! A bear starts with a natural attack that does 2d6 + your Strength at 1st level and progresses as follows: 5th lvl: 2d8 10th lvl: 2d10 15th lvl: 2d12 This is insane for a single claw attack, but at 1st level the bear gets TWO attack per round!

I have a few other complaints that pale in comparison to the bear because they're not mechanically broken. Like I think the Raccoon and the Fox should get a climb speed. THE BEAR has a climb speed, but the raccoon apparently can't climb for shit. I also think several species, like the raccoon and Red Panda should be considered tiny, and not small. I also wish there were some physical restrictions on the smaller creatures’ strength scores; it's not a huge deal, but I think it's going too far when you can create a Koala with a 15 strength scores.

The biggest argument to my critiques would be that this is just a game, and players can make any changes they feel work. The basis of D&D is using the rules however you want and playing however you want, but a Dungeon Master shouldn't have to make huge adjustments to their campaign because you chose to go with a class and race from a 3rd party publisher. As a DM, I like that I can start a campagin with four players and the only imbalance I'll encounter is maybe one of them choosing to be a Gloom Stalker Ranger.

The rest of the book is good, but it doesn't compensate for its other flaws.

When I first got the PDF for this book, I was convinced it was a typo, that someone had overlooked a formatting error. In fact, I still wonder if their insistence that all these issues were done on purpose it's just a cover because they can't openly admit they messed up without offering refunds. This whole book feels like a rough draft that no one bothered to update. Maybe there were not enough hands and everyone thought someone else was dealing with these problems, and by the time they realized the issues weren’t being resolved it was too late. This theory is also backed by another claim that they were supposed to include art of certain backers’ pets as NPCs in the book, but it didn't make the final draft. I'm open any further discussion they would like to broach, but I don't think I'll purchase from Steamforged Games again. The only word I can use to describe this book is, "Irresponsible."

*Edit the modules have been updated and now come with the required maps to run the adventure making them much more useful. This adventure is a nice little one shot its quite modular and can easily be inserted into an existing campaign.

So: this is a streamlined version of D&D 5e with a Dark Souls coating. The corebook includes origins (which replace races- you can only be human), classes, all the rules you need to play, and a some specific world info (spells, equipment, NPCs, locations and a decent bestiary.) Everything is illustrated with beautiful artwork from the games (if you already have the Dark Souls Design Works books, there's nothing new here.) There's a heavy bias towards the setting of Dark Souls 3 in the core book, to the almost exclusion of the other two games.

I won't pretend it's anywhere near perfect: there's very little wiggle room within the classes, it doesn't include any trace of what I consider a core Dark Souls mechanic (the world reset, which forces you to explore tactically, look for shortcuts, and all the other aspects of what makes wandering into the dark of Dark Souls so unique) and it doesn't even attempt to explain what Dark Souls 'is' to someone who hasn't played the games. I'm also not convinced with the enemy stats blocks either, as a lot of monsters are way too powerful for their CR and can easily one-shot characters- especially at low levels.

However, I've been running it for the last few months and it's been a blast. The main reason for that is the Position mechanic. Position replaces hit points and allows players (and some monsters) to spend their 'life' to enhance rolls - saving throws, to hit and damage rolls... it adds a lot to the game in the way of options and risk/reward decisions and fixes some fundamental problems I have with the 5e rules (namely, that it's not uncommon for players to miss and spend their combat rounds feeling useless). There's a few other positives; while character builds are lacking in options, it makes character creation a breeze (you can 'roll' most characters in twenty minutes), and there's a hefty equipment roster that allows for further personalization (each individual weapon, shield or armour, even mundane ones, comes with its own ability). Bloodied rules come back from 4e, giving another layer of strategy to the proceeds - different origins grant characters a distinct set of bonuses when they're under half hit poi- ehr, position. This also applies to some monsters, which allows you to have fights with multiple stages.

These rules changes have made for some really enjoyable sessions. While I've had to add a layer of homebrew on top of it (and create my own bosses) to make it actually feel like Dark Souls, the base is so good; I'll seriously miss these mechanics whenever I go back to vanilla D&D. And if that's not worth five stars, I don't know what is.

Great game. Loved it, and my players loved it. It'll do for me.

DS3 is my fave of the series, so loved this. Got the feel of a game like Black Hack or Old School Essentials but I can get my 5e players to actually play it, which makes a nice change! Would have liked more GM advice on stuff like constructing the right kind of encounters, but still think this is a pretty great job all round!

To say that the release of this book has been a disaster would be a hell of an understatement. I originally rated this book 1 star because it was still rife with game breaking errors and spelling mistakes.

I'm happy to say that these have been dealt with as of the most recent update of the pdf. The classes are fun and once you get the position system combat is seamless, fun and challenging. I recommend it.

This game has a lot of potential, and strives to capture some of the game play of the video games using the D&D 5e rules. However, even after the round of revisions from the first release, there are still some inconsistencies in the rules, and on the whole, it feels like the game needed some more playtesting just to tweak the mechanics to get them 'right'. Certainly the style of the book, and the artwork evokes the video games and some elements of the game system attempt to replicate game play, but overall it feels a little unpolished as a game.

The game seems great, but has quite a few major flaws, and one of them is what seems like blatant plagiarism.

I'm going to point out the first one, and this is the one that peeves me the most - there are many bosses in this book that are ripped directly from the 5E Monster Manual. Is this legal, considering the fact that you charged money for this? Do the license holders of both intellectual properties know that you did this?

Artorias the Abysswalker, which is probably the most iconic boss fight in the entire Souls series to anybody that played the games, is a nearly identical rip of the 5E Erinyes.

• They both have 18 AC
• They have the same Attributes of 18 STR, 16 DEX, 18 CON, 14 INT, 14 WIS, and 18 CHA.
• They have the same Saving throws of Dex +7, Con +8, Wis +6, Cha +8
• They both have a truesight of 120 and a passive perception of 12
• The have the same Multiattack property of 3 Attacks.
• Their long sword attack is the same, with Artorias dealing the same
• The Abyss Sludge attack is the Erinyes Longbow attack but with shorter range. It has the same DC 14 CON save against being poison and the poison can still be removed by the "lesser restoration spell." This isn't a spell in the Dark Souls TTRPG! You actually copy-pasted the description of the attack and didn't even take the effort to change the spells name to Remedy?
• The Parry reaction is word for word the same, with only pronouns changed to reflect the fact that Artorias is a guy.
• Artorias has a Bloodied Wrath of the Abyss action which is the Erinyes' Hellish Weapon feature.
• They have the same Challenge Rating of 12.

There is more! Kalameet is just an Ancient Black Dragon. The Gaping Dragon is just an Ancient Bronze Dragon. The Hydra is an exact 1-to-1 rip of the Hydra from the Monster Manual. There are more examples, such as the Taurus Demon being a Balor Demon or the Mimic being a 1-to-1 rip. I'm astonished that this was allowed to be published like this.

The rest of the review to follow now.

This is mostly just D&D5E scaled up to drastic amounts of stats. Most classes get up to 4 or 5 attacks. Races are now Origins. The coolest concept is the Dark Souls resurrection feature. It's handled quite well in this game and I appreciate the thought that went into it. The system of Background, Memories, and Drives are concise and allow for some great role playing opportunities!

The Position system is... cool, but has some weird problems. Position is your HP. You can only spend Position on special effects once during your turn. Every piece of armor, weapon, and shield have a special ability that cost Position. You can increase the damage of your attacks with Position as well. Spells cost Position to cast, which means that you are unable to do the other special effects that use Position during your turn, even if those special effects are considered reactions, which means casting spells is a very dangerous proposition...

The magic system is cool but I believe it needs a quick home brew to make it competitive and effective in comparison to just using melee or ranged attacks.

• Remove the base Position cost from all Spell-Casting
• Give Spell-Casting the ability to increase damage dice for Position Cost; maybe add a dice per each 3 Position you spend to a maximum of 9 Position?
• Give all Spells their number of casts from Dark Souls 1, or if you're lazy, add +3 casts to all Miracles and Pyro-mancy spells.

Dark Souls has a weapon upgrade system, but there doesn't seem to be one in this game. Maybe a mechanic where you can spend souls to give a weapon an extra dice of damage?

There's more but it has been said better by other people. Please, Steamforged Games - give some TLC to this game because you had an opportunity to make a wonderful TTRPG based on a beloved series of games and it just feels like you took some good mechanics that you half-implemented and didn't playtest it at all... put aside the fact that you guys ripped a bunch of stuff from the Monster Manual. Please come back and give us another update or a content drop.

Always a delight, and a nice addition to open up for more kinds of animals. My group was sold when they found out they could make otters, seems we are going to play a pirate crew of all otters.

An innovative and fun take on 5e. Not a huge Dark Souls fan, but wanted some new monsters, and this has them, and I'll probably lift a few of the mechanics and equipment ideas out too. I really enjoyed it!