|
|
|
Other comments left for this publisher: |
|
|
|
|
Fun little base class for d20 that celebrated fathers the same way the Mom Player Class celebrated mothers. Clearly made with a lot of heart and soul and can even function alongside certain default player classes in a pinch.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/08/100-days-of-halloween-witchology-101.html
PDF. 60 pages, $2.99. 1 page cover, 1 title page, 1 page introduction, 3 pages table of contents. 3 pages Creative Common license, 1 page OGL. Rest content.
This book is punching way above its weight class, to be honest. The organization is a bit odd, but nothing I can't navigate.
We get a Glossary at the start, which I guess works to help people unfamiliar with some of these terms. An introduction to a Who's Who of magical people and places. This includes the various school of magic as if they were actual schools. Each school gets its Latin motto, its center of studies, and titles. It is a pretty cool idea really. Spells by school are listed with their appropriate colleges.
There is a whole implicit setting here that can be used in conjunction with any Modern d20 game that also has magic, say like Urban Arcana. It can also be used with other modern games that are built on a d20 system. I am not 100% sure, but I bet it would work with Mutants and Masterminds for example.
This is a d20-based rule book so there are some features of that. What am I saying? There are Feats! Quite a few in fact. There are spells, some new, some we have seen before (this is fine). Also to my pleasure, there are new creatures or some reskinned ones. This is a must I think.
It has a Creative Commons License and the OGL. I am not really sure if you can mix the two. But that does not detract from my enjoyment of it.
So for just under $3 you get 50 pages of solid content. There is no art to speak of, but that is fine really.
Solid work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Despite the mediocre reviews, I picked up this pdf mostly because it was free and it seemed like a nice short adventure. As I read through it, though, I realized that it is an excellent starting-off point for a new campaign.
With a decent amount of roleplaying and backstory, this mini-adventure can take up a full gaming session and can lead to further adventures.
I particularly like how the author scales it for three different party levels, as well as includes NPC information at three levels (common knowledge, personal, and secret info).
|
|
|
|
|
|
I have been downloading several (Free and Paid) PDF files for ideas to be included in the Building program I am involved with for a Neverwinter Nights Persistent World (Argentum Regio - Google it!). This title will be one of the most valuable for me - Lots of interesting taverns - 12 in all (High-Brow to really sleazy - quite a variety); Many well-defined NPCs, even a Bonus Quest that could be a lengthy Adventure all by itself.
Tavern Descriptions are really well done, and include a History of the Tavern, Typical Patrons, Stats of Notable NPCs, and Story Hooks/Seeds for side adventures. There are no floor plans for the various Taverns, but that is what imagination is for - fairly easy to build any of the Taverns with the descriptions given.
Which Rule System the title uses isn't given, and some things in the NPC descriptions are unknown to me. Here is one of the Descriptions:
Troy Abermore; Human male Exp5:
|
|
|
|
|
|
This product details story telling information for a slew of temples, but not a single map/floor plan of a single temple. Normally, that would deserve a rating of 1, however, the beginning of the document goes into some of the things which make clerics and priests unique and colorful, things which are an asset to any GM's campaign if his clerics have become nothing more than the healing adjunct of an adventuring party.
Maps are fundamental to a product which claims to be about locations, as this one does. There are no maps.
|
|
|
|
|
Creator Reply: |
I regret that you did not enjoy the product. I would like to point out the the Adventure Havens series has never been about maps, nor has it ever been marketed as such. We have always marketed the series based on the NPCs and story ideas as a way to help GMs flesh out their worlds on the fly. They are GM tools to save work having to flesh out every single NPC and location history in a game for those times when the players go off the main story. That is why we list these products under Supplements>NPCs and not Maps. I regret the confusion. If you came across this product under a search for maps, please let me know so that I can address that with the folks at Drivethru. We never categorized it that way. |
|
|
|
|
From the document: "Adventure Havens: Lords of the Manor presents twelve fully realized fantasy castles, keeps, and manors for use in 3.5 style games. Each castle listing includes a detailed history of the castle, important NPCs, and story seeds that can provide players with plenty of side quests."
Which part of "fully realized" did the author think doesn't include a map of the castle, keep, or manor? No map. Just storytelling, NPCs, and description. This is, at best, an incomplete product.
|
|
|
|
|
Creator Reply: |
I regret that you did not enjoy the product. I would like to point out the the Adventure Havens series has never been about maps, nor has it ever been marketed as such. We have always marketed the series based on the NPCs and story ideas as a way to help GMs flesh out their worlds on the fly. They are GM tools to save work having to flesh out every single NPC and location history in a game for those times when the players go off the main story. That is why we list these products under Supplements>NPCs and not Maps. I regret the confusion. If you came across this product under a search for maps, please let me know so that I can address that with the folks at Drivethru. We never categorized it that way. |
|
|
|
|
This is an absolutely wonderful book. I really love reading vampire stories and this has got to be one of the better ones I've ever read. The main character changes throughout the story. The change is gradual and you're left wondering which moments, exactly, were the ones that cause him to shift. The antagonist is an awesome character, someone who I started out hating to love and then just began to love him. He's very much a vampire, and yet has a sense of wonder to him.
The story is wonderful but there were a couple of times where the book slowed down and I had to put it down and come back to it later. It's well worth the read.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Interesting story with interesting characters but I wish that it was a little longer. Not really enough here to know what is going on or if it will get better or worse.
|
|
|
|
|
|
This adventure is a bit too micro. I find it hard to believe there will be a party out there that will take an hour to run through the adventure, as the cover states "Hour or less Micro adventure." My current party would be done with it in 15 minutes, and that's on a bad day.
The plot is a bit too obvious (ie, well there are no foot prints, so either magic is involved or something large is coming in and taking off with the cattle). Speaking with animals is a moot point and doesn't really help the party, and it's a waste of a spell.
I also noticed there were a few typos (writing"it" instead of "he" in the dm text, and typing he instead of the).
The NPC background being already fleshed out is great, but too bad most of it is not being adequately used during this particular adventure (most of the backgrounds assume that the party will visit the NPCs more often and will get to see more of their quirks, etc).
In the end a creative DM would have to flesh out the adventure some, to make it fulfilling to the party.
|
|
|
|
|
|
A solid product, worth the $5 I paid for it.
The included sites include a variety of traditional castles and highly non-traditional castles. The included NPCs (the titular Lords of the Manor) are by and large interesting and fun, and should certainly keep your players' attention. Most are of sufficient depth and quality to be well-liked (or thoroughly hated) recurring NPCs. The art is in a sketchy, impressionist style that goes well with the style of the writing - enough detail to keep your players excited, but not so much to stifle you.
If you're looking for a few castles, keeps, and manor houses to drop into your game, I would recommend this product to you.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I used this recently for my Black Company Game, which had a group of 6, all level 2. I changed out the werewolves for the wereleopards in the Black Company setting (which were all between level 4 and 5).
One of the fighters and the thief/ranger was immediately suspicious of the Mother, however they didn't question her too much, and left her to talk to the Academician.
The party and I came to the conclusion that the module was fun, needed a bit more substance to it (although they do tell you that it's a micro adventure that lasts about 30 minutes), and a little railroady.
Besides that, the party had fun with it anyways.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Caelumancy is the term used in this book for truly potent weather and nature magic. It's described as a crafting feat, by analogy with making magic items, but effectively the powers listed here are spells that affect areas miles across for months at a time.
There are eight different weather effects, which tend to closely resemble spells such as Control Winds or Lightning Storm, except for the greatly increased duration and area of effect.
Most of the effects listed in the book, however, have nothing to do with weather: for example, a further fifteen relate to living things, and here resemble (without just duplicating) spells like Goodberry or Plant Growth.
Five further effects are described as "boons" and do things like changing all water in the vicinity into healing potions, while five are "wracks" and are more like Contagion. Four "apocalyptic" effects create things like earthquakes and volcanoes.
In addition to the effects themselves, there are some additional feats for their creators, a section on how to dispel such powerful magic, and a fair sized selection of ideas on how to combine different effects to produce weird bits of magical geography. Also, some of this weather can apparently become sentient - presumably because magic items can - which does, at least to me, feel a little odd.
Its all pretty powerful stuff, although, like magic items, creating it requires expenditure of XPs and large amounts of money (quite what the money is spent on is unclear, however). As magical effects that can bring flavour to a game world its actually pretty good, and there are also rules for things like extreme weather.
GMs might, however, be wary of actually giving these powers to PCs. But even so, they can be used as rules for creating unusual meteorological or geographical hazards in a high-magic world. The list of effects is fairly comprehensive, and doesn't simply duplicate more regular spells. There are some good ideas here, although you might want to be careful how you use them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
There are many worldbuilding products available to a GM, and this is one of the simplest, cheapest, and easiest to follow. It's 16 pages long, including workbook-style sections that leave plenty of room for people to write their own notes in. There's no art - this is for working with, not for oohing and aahing over.
There are five sections in World Building. The first emphasizes the logic of your world The second asks you to try to evaluate the purpose of the world you are creating as well as its place in various classifications of fictional worlds. Third, you now have a direction in which you can develop the logic of the world you're creating. Suggestions for research also come in here. Part Four is about the civilizations and mythology of your world. Finally, you are asked to focus on the workings of the world, whether fictional or game-mechanical.
The most fun part of this supplement are the worksheets that I mentioned earlier. These have several open-ended questions and a blank space for you to answer for your particular world. Keeping these documents throughout a campaign will help you improvise during game sessions and will remind you of what your game is all about when you are in the midst of a campaign. Are you still going the way you intended to go in the beginning?
Because this product is priced exactly right and is meant to be worked on rather than shelved or archived, I give it a high rating. The only way it could be better is if the worksheets had been more developed or been form-fillable, so that people who prefer to type for their archival copies could type directly on the sheet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I thought this micro-adventure was a bit too micro. The opening scene and NPC information was good and I liked some of the descriptive text about the environment, the manor, etc. Some of the NPC speeches were competently written. I liked the artwork.
However, I think there are a few problems.
(1) The plot is very, very simple. Someone is stealing the lord's cattle, there is one obvious place to look for the guilty party, sure enough he's there, confrontation, and the adventure is over. I realize it's a "micro" adventure but it really should have another beat or a twist somewhere.
(2) Of the six pages, two are taken up on NPC background material. It's nice to have them fleshed out a little, but for a quick micro adventure, everything should be relevant to the story and a lot of the material isn't. It provides hints and ideas but in this very space-constrained format, I think they should have built the main plot out a bit more.
Not bad but not great.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I was actually rather disappointed by this one. Possibly because I expected a lot out of it from the pitch : this book ends up missing two thirds of its alleged content, allowing gameplay at the first power tier only.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|