An incredibly well done product! The more and more I see from this company the more and more I am impressed. If you are looking for more "realistic" or "traditional" D20 material, then I think you will enjoy this.

Classes and Races of Cthonia is a d20 supplement from Alea Publishing. The zipped file isn’t quite six megabytes in size, and contains a single PDF of the book. The product itself is sixty-five pages long, and has full bookmarks for easy navigation.

In terms of artwork, this book lives up to the high standards set by Alea’s earlier releases. Seemingly every page is overflowing with beautiful design, from the page borders to the background shading, even the page numbers are designed to be enjoyable to look at. Clearly, this is a book with high production values. The only problem with having such a plethora of art is that this book isn’t printer-friendly at all. With no black-and-white or even text version present, if you want a physical copy of Classes and Races of Cthonia, you may be in for a hard time.

The book itself is a deftly weaved blend of crunch and fluff. While the majority of the information here seems to fall into the crunch section, quite a bit of fluff about the world of Terra is presented also. For example, the classes chapter presents both new classes, and altered rules for existing classes, but even classes with no mechanical changes get several paragraphs of descriptive text talking about what these classes look like in this campaign setting. For those who don’t know, the Feudal Lords setting is intended to mimic medieval Europe more closely than mainstream Fantasy d20. Humans are the dominant race, with most others being marginalized. There’s only one mainstream religion, with all others being declared heretical. Arcane magic is seen as blasphemous, and there are religious inquisitions against those who practice it.

The interesting aspect of the book is how the rules are set up to help give the aforementioned tropes a life of their own. Druids have trouble using their magic in urban areas, for example. Dark powers can grant you feats at will if you’re willing to make dark deals with them (vile pact feats), inquisitors are a class unto themselves, and more. Some of these rules will be familiar to players of Modern d20, such as blood points (action points by another name) and starting occupations, but Alea makes them work quite nicely in the campaign they’ve laid out here. This is low-magic without retooling the entire d20 system, and without the game descending into “low action” as a result.

All in all, Classes and Races of Cthonia does a great job painting a picture of the Feudal Lords game world, presenting the mechanics and the flavor necessary to run things. Some folks might wish there was some more world-specific information herein (such as a listing of kingdoms and histories), but that seems to be outside the scope of this book. If you’re looking for a medieval fantasy game that’s still recognizably d20, this is absolutely worth paying attention to.

These are OK-they're not Skeleton Key by any stretch of the imagination, being too boxy, but the fact is that they are the only attempt to put a town onto tile form.

However, they are some very basic village buildins-an outdoor eatery, a small inn, a half-dozen simple homes. No other businesses, or similar items. You can do a small village, but that's about it. Hopefully there will be follow-on sets.

Another excellent product that has me more and more interested in the setting. Keep up the great work.

This was a great free product and has gotten me interested to see more of the setting and campaign world. Keep up the great work!

A very nice modern horror game. There are multi-media components and the quality is fairly good. The editing was a bit less than perfect. Some of the encounter were a little clunky. Overall it's a nice concept and well executed.

After reading Caldor: City of Crossroads, I was a bit upset that I did not find the kitchen sink download in my email. I mean, after all, they seemed to include everything else.

Caldor: City of Crossroads is a detailed, yet concise account of a city based in a fantasy Roman atmosphere. It is meant to be used with the feudal lords system but this city can be tweaked to fit in any setting.

The question is not what will you find in City of Crossroads but what is not there. This reviewer could not find a single thing that could not come I wished that city pdfs would come with battlemaps and low and behold there are battlemaps. I wished that city pdfs would come with some more descriptive adventures and they are included as well. Other documents include a nice sized 40pg PDF detailing every district in town and all of the customs and laws of the land. Also included in this is a map of the city that defines the districts and visiting spots. If that was not enough you also get both a DM guide filled with adventure ideas and a PC guide so that PCs do not get that familiar feeling of loss when they enter a city.

For the DM: There is a crime section in the main book that discusses the crimes that can be commited, their punishments and how the judicial system works. Also, do not skip over the section on Roman bath houses which is also nicely written.

For the Player: This type of book usually has nothing for the player, but the players guide is a nice touch on where to go from blackmarket stuff to temples.

The Iron Word: The only thing holding this product back from being perfect is that its designed for a specific setting. Otherwise they have included everything any DM would want when their PCs go to a city and you do not have one prepared. Best of all, you do not get the downtime that normally occurs as you scour through the documentation so that you are not as loss in this new town as the PCs. This is a product you can pick up and truly use at your gaming table on the fly if you use such a setting.

Its not fancy.

Everything is set up to fit within the limits of a PDF page with a grid overlay appropriate for miniatures use. There is a little introductory page and a comment about medieval buildings, one page of grass, a couple of cobble road graphics and more than a dozen graphics of building interiors suitable to inhabit with miniatures. The product has no NPC's, monsters or separate item cards.

The art and presentation is reasonable but very straightforward - everything is aligned in straight lines with the page for example. The product feels like the result of a dunjinni session or two. Its worth it, if you want to save yourself the work of making the graphics yourself or perhaps if you are playing online and need some rooms quickly.

Its intended to be printed and placed on a table. The pictures are clear and 300dpi for crisp printing. It is the creation of a graphic program not a great resource for other graphics programs. There are no pages with just items, clipart or other doodads - if you like making digital graphics you should go elsewhere. If you just want a few extra tiles for your strategic layouts or a floor mat on which to show off your miniatures this is a good product.

Simple, straight forward, inexpensive.

Bo

Some good, basic tiles for use in the city. The building maps are rather limited, so I found the plain grass and street maps to be the most useful.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The artwork was good.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The buildings seemed somewhat limited in what I could use them for. Very small.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

It seems that adventures for d20 Modern tend to be of the investigation and supernatural genres. It is not like there are many adventures being written for d20 Modern either. So, it makes me wonder if this is the way most people are using d20 Modern or if these are the only modules for the game that really sell. Either way it is good for me since these are the type of adventures I prefer. It is just one of those odd observations I have made on the game. Whisper of Horse is like so many others, a supernatural mystery adventure for d20 Modern, but that is not a bad thing.

Whisper of Horses is a new d20 Modern adventure by Alea Publishing Group. Alea is better known for their PDFs that deal with knights and honor. This is their first non fantasy book. The sixty-five page PDF in color and very well book marked. The zip is a bit over seven megs and contains the PDF as well as two sound files, two picture files, and two film files for some audio and video support to enhance the module.

Whisper of Horses seems to be the first adventure to be designed to be run from a laptop at the gaming table. The adventure can be printed out and run the usually way but this has a few specific options that make it better when run from a computer. The movies files and sound files are designed to be played at appropriate points in the adventure. They are not needed but really do a nice job of adding something to the adventure. The quality of these is not great but it is good enough. I really hope to see more companies start to do more of this in the future as it is a really cool and different idea.

The adventure does a nice job of bringing in characters from anywhere in the United States. Characters can probably be brought in from around the world as well but it might be harder. The characters do not need to know each other for it to work either. The characters basically win a price, get transported to New York City for a few days and then off the south west for a horse race. Of course there is a nice mystery of sick horses, veterinarians disappearing and old Indian legends the players will soon run into. Also, they will learn that they were specifically picked to win the price to come out here and investigate things.

The adventure is site based. The characters have plenty of choices of places to go and gather clues and run into a lot of fairly interesting characters. The reasons for these particular characters being brought in are also a nice little twist the players might not expect. The adventure is designed for third level characters and does involve some good investigation skills. There are many handouts to give the characters, some great layout of buildings they will explore, and of course the computer sound and video files. This module has the most variety in props for a game I have seen.

The module seems like a fun game and should be easy to use in most d20 Modern games. The module does not assume lots of magic but it does have some little magical charms. The book also presents insanity rules as an option to further make the game a little more horror oriented.

Reading through it makes me want to run the module. It seems to work for either a one shot or in a campaign. It is one that I would pick up again after knowing what it is and how the module reads. Alea Publishing has done a nice job with the adventure and I hope to see more like this from them.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

A Question of Honor: A Guidebook to Knights for D20 Fantasy (3.5 version) by Cameron Guill, Joshua Raynack and Ryan Rawls published by Alea Publishing Group. The product comes with the Question of Honor sourcebook (66 pages, 60 after covers and OGL), a small file listing all of the OGL content, and two full color maps. The layout is clean with a decorative border that may (or may not) be annoying when printed.

This is, as it promises, a guidebook to knights. It begins with a brief overview of knights and the contents, including an introduction to the new rules that are included including several small but clever tweaks to the combat system. This is followed by new uses for skills and many new feats both combat and non-combat. A new set of optional fighting styles and combat skills (which are purchased from points based on base attack bonus), such as high cut and counterattack, provide many options for those who wish to add to the complexity of combat.

Next are fourteen prestige classes: squires, troubadours and a multitude of knights. Knights of all types: historical knights (Hospitaller, Templar, Teutonic), fantasy knights (Dwarven Tor, Knight of the Dawn), and evil knights (Black Knight, Fallen Champion), something for everyone. The Squire class has very low entry requirements (can be taken after 4th level) and serves as a bridge to many of the other knightly class, nicely thematic.

Following is a selection of followers that a knight might need, animal handlers, soldiers, squires and more, each with a full statblocks and monthly upkeep cost. Then there is new armor, weapons and other items. The armor is interesting as it included pieces that can be added to other armor, but it does not fully explain how the penalties for combining pieces stack. Several new magic weapon and armor enhancements, which mostly seem a little over priced for their effect. Two new magic items, two new special metals, two artefact swords -one good, one evil- and a set of new spells round out this section. The authors seem less sure on magic than they are on anything else and these may need minor adjustments to fit into a campaign.

The product concludes with two appendices: The first, a setting, the Hill Lands of Terra, a place for knights to adventure complete with adventure seeds and maps. The second, includes two new knight-themed monsters and an NPC for the Hill Lands setting.

A Question of Honor is an interesting sourcebook, if you are planning on using knights in your campaign, you will find a wealth of material to adapt. The new combat rules are interesting, with the simple ones looking especially useful and there is much solid material here. However, most of the game information is very tied to a medieval European sort of setting which limits its easy adaptability.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Quite a few crowded, prosperous, late Middle Ages buildings. Very uniform in appearance. Not a bad product...just not at all satisfying. At least it wasn't expensive.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: One home has a garden plot, though it's way too tiny.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Large rooms overcrowded with furniture, including haphazard beds everywhere. Yet somehow, the concept of sitting on a bench seems alien to the inhabitants. Even the poorest of houses suggests a fairly prosperous inhabitant.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

Excellent product. It accomplishes it's intended purpose perfectly.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Character options come in many different forms. There are the traditional skills, feat, prestige classes, and core classes that are seen in many different products. There are the lesser known and more controversial forms like the prestige race options from Oathbound and the guild options presented in Guildcraft and the Path of series of books. These options have a cost of pure experience do not involve spending of resources that the class system grants characters. Crusader shows another option that they call a subclass.

Crusader is a new PDF by Alea Publishing Group. They are one of the few companies that really has well defined niche and for them that is medieval like crusades. They have different books as well as paper figures all built around knight orders and chivalry. The PDF is six pages long so is small even for PDF standards. Despite the small size, the book has book marks. It has eighteen things book marked; I never see a ration of book marks to pages that is like three to one. That?s impressive and shows a well book marked item.

Crusader presents a sub class. A Sub class is something that is added onto an existing class. So, the class gets a little more powerful but does get a minus twenty percent experience penalty. If one happens to take a favored sub class the penalty is only minus 10 percent. The crusader which is the only subclass presented here is a favored subclass of the humans. In exchange the class gets a few bonuses over many levels. By twentieth level one with this subclass gets plus one base attack bonus, plus to the saves, some hit points extra skill points and class skills, as well as a few abilities. Despite getting all of that it does seem like it might not be enough for lagging a level or two or even more behind the other characters.

I like the idea of the subclass. It is a nice option that can be combined with ease to any regular class. Some classes line up better with the Crusader since it is a more melee and fighting oriented class. It is also religious in nature gaining some abilities that only work on creatures that are not of their religion. It is nice way to make a character a little more focused and defined as the idea of a crusader, someone who basically kills the enemies of his own religion. It defiantly has the potential of really having a campaign or at the least a series of adventures built around the idea.

I will be interested in seeing other subclasses. If I were to use it I would prefer to have similar options that can be offered to all characters instead of just this one that would only appeal to a limited number of player characters. As a DM though, it would make a great addition to use on many NPCs of the same religion or even fighting against each other. It is a nicely written and well organized PDF that I do recommend for anyone that has use of religious zealots in their game.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

APG City Tiles

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Well done tiles<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not really a city<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>