Octavirate Expansions, Volume 2: Unusual Magic Weapons by Octavirate Entertainment is a product of unusual magic weapons (as one would expect) for D20 system games (primarily D&D). It is 9-pages long (7 after cover and OGL) with a clean layout and a mixture of clip and custom artwork.

This product provides statistics and history for sixteen new and interesting (if occasionally bizarre) magic weapons (two of which are minor artifacts) and one non-magical weapon.

The non-magical weapon is the gnomish ?dissembler blade? which can be reconfigured into different sword types as needed. The magic weapon range from the unique with fascinating histories and minor powers (Boardsword -no that is not a typo- of the Child Crusader, Learner?s Staff), to the mass produced with useful powers (Crossbow of Finding, Sai of Climbing). A type of arrow (Trollgrinder Arrows) designed specifically to deal with regenerating creatures is the only expendable ammunition-based item in the set. Fortunately there are only a few very powerful weapons in the product, two of those being minor artifacts (Chaoswave, a glaive, and the Krytonbone Chain).

A few of the weapons seem to have errors in their pricing (the Papersword being one) and the price per 50 notation for ammunition is carried over unto the weapon following the Trollgrinder Arrows. But that is easy enough to deal with, but it is something that should not have slipped through.

If you are in need for some interesting weapons for inclusion in your campaign, this is a good source for ideas even if you do not use the weapons exactly as presented.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Octavirate Expansions, Volume 3: Trick Arrows by Octavirate Entertainment is a product detailing variation on arrows (and bolts) for D20 system games (primarily D&D/D20 Modern). It is 8-pages long (6 after cover and OGL) with a clean layout (and a single ?Table XX? error) and minimal art.

This product is very focused on variations of the arrow, as one would expect from the title, all of which can also be applied to crossbow bolts. Full rules for cost, time and the difficulty of crafting each of the different arrow types are included.

It starts with the different sorts materials that the arrowheads can be constructed from ranging from stone to adamantine. This part is good but could have been expanded a little further.

Next are variations on the arrow itself. From actual types, such as blunt arrows for bludgeoning damage or fire arrows, to the possible, explosive and syringe arrows, to the exotic, such as taser-like stun arrows. A few more ?standard? arrow types, such as armor piercing or barbed could have been included as well. However, the rules here look solid and how useful they will be depends on how much ?near magic? technology one wishes to incorporate into a campaign.

The product concludes with a discussion on further enhancing (by magic for example) trick arrows and a new feat for archers who fear they may end up in melee.

If strange variations on arrows (or bolts) have a place in your campaign, this product is a good starting place.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Octavirate Presents, Volume 4: The Forgotten by Octavirate Entertainment is a product detailing the Forgotten, dragon breed monsters from an earlier age for D20 system games (primarily D&D/D20 Modern). It is 28-pages (25 after cover, credits and OGL) with a clean layout and each creature and character having its own illustration.

The product opens with a brief piece of fiction setting the stage for the rest of the book and an equally short introduction to the idea of the Forgotten, monsters crafted by the last of the draconic empires and then sealed away for reasons unknown.

The Forgotten is primarily a book of monsters with adventure hooks to make it easier to use them in an ongoing campaign. There are four monsters (CR 5 to 6) and one very adaptable template. Each of the monsters is given a full description and an illustration, along with information for those using alternate rules such as a vitality/wound point system, armor as DR and so on and suggestion for adapting each creature to different genres (fantasy, science fiction, post-apocalyptic, and so on).

The monsters include:

Ozan, vicious hunters, combining the most dangerous aspects of lion and reptile.

R?zaous, ape-like guardian creatures.

Skored, strange winged hunters, and potential mounts for the brave.

The template is the half-dragonkin allowing element of the non-true dragons, such as behirs, dragon turtles and wyverns, with seven (!) examples of the template.

Hyneel, this an unusual pack hunter is the result of a demonic experiment gone wrong.

Seven new magic armor and weapon qualities, all appropriately thematic such as banishing and chaotic surge, lastly a handful of adventure ideas round out this product

A solid product and a good example of how to build on a theme. If you are looking for a set of monsters to emerge from an unknown corner of the world, this product should suit your needs perfectly.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Octavirate Presents Vol #4: The Forgotten is a monstrous supplement from Octavirate Games. The zipped file is slightly over thirteen megabytes, and contains two PDF files, one of the product itself, and the second one being a printer-friendly version thereof. Both versions of the book are twenty-eight pages long, including a page for the cover, one for the credits/legal, and one for the OGL.

As with their previous releases, Octavirate has included several pieces of impressive art, ranging from black and white sketches to full color renditions. Additionally, each page has purple borders along the top and bottom. The printer-friendly version only removes these borders, retaining all other artwork, even the cover. This seems to largely defeat the purpose of a printer-friendly version, as it's only slightly easier to print.

The theme of The Forgotten is that, as the ancient dragon empires slid into decline, the dragons attempted to preserve at least the spirit of their culture by artificially creating hybrid draconic creatures. Even these, however, were largely failures, and were sealed away, until now.

The book opens with three new forgotten creatures: the ozan, r'zaous, and the skored. These are basically existing animals with draconic (or reptilian) overtones, following the theme of experimental hybrids. Each has the large amount of variant statistics that Octavirate is famous for, along with a sidebar for using the forgotten in other genres. Another sidebar talks about how to use existing draco-reptilian creatures as part of the forgotten.

A new template, the half-dragonkin, is given next. The half-dragonkin is like the half-dragon template, but for creatures that are not true dragons. If a behir mates with something, for example, the offspring would have this template applied. Alterations to the template are given for a suite of draconic creatures; depending on who the sire was, the template has minor variants for a half-behir, half-chimera, half-dragon turtle, half-dragonne, half-jabberwock (from Creature Collection Weekly Volume 5), half-pseudodragon, and half-wyvern. This template is fairly exemplary in its diversity, but it then goes and gives us example creatures for every single variant possible with this template, taking up over eight pages. This is far too much for a single template, since the variants mostly consist of swapping out a special power or two, and comes across as a waste of space.

A single new creature is then given, the hyeneel, which is exactly what it sounds like: a hyena-eel crossbreed. Curiously, this is also a forgotten creation by the lost dragon empires, though it doesn't fit the theme previously established. Seven new magic weapon qualities are presented, and while imaginative, it seems a stretch to tie these back to the forgotten also. A single page with five adventure ideas for working the forgotten into your campaign rounds out the book.

Altogether, Octavirate Presents Vol #4: The Forgotten is a good product, but not one that lives up to the level set by previous releases. Not only are there scant new monsters, but they seem only somewhat innovative, as they all basically take two creatures and present a hybrid. The recycling of the same template with example monsters over and over feels like a placeholder, and the hyeneel and new weapons seems out of place with what was given before. Octavirate has done a good job with their Octavirate Presents line, but The Forgotten is forgettable. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Octavirate lived up to their standard of presenting sidebars for using these creatures in alternate genres, as well as providing stats for all sorts of optional rules.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This product really only had five new creatures and seven new magic weapon qualities, with the rest of the content seeming like it was just there to lengthen the page count. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Octavirate Expansions: Ranks and Titles is a short supplement from Octavirate Games. The zipped file is two and a half megabytes in size, and contains a single PDF file. The PDF is ten pages long, with the first page being the cover and showing the credits and legal information. There is no table of contents, and oddly, there is only one bookmark, and it is for the title page.

Despite the brevity of the book, Octavirate did not skimp on the art. The first page has the only color image, but several more black and white pieces of artwork are present. They have a feel to them that suggests they were sketches, but they are still nicely done. Purple borders go along the top and bottom of each page. A printer-friendly version of the book might have been nice, but it probably makes little difference.

Ranks and Titles presents twenty different ranks and title for each of twenty-eight different character types (which fall under eight broad archetypes). The eight archetypes are martial characters (that is, fighters), naturalist characters (druids, rangers, etc.), eastern monks (traditional martial artist types), western monks (fantasy martial artists), priestly characters, thief characters, magic-users, and bards. Each of these archetypes has two to four subtypes for the specific kinds of characters there are. For example, the bard archetype has listings for musicians and actors, with twenty ranks and titles for each.

The product admits up front that it was inspired by d20 gaming, but as there are no mechanics here, this is useable in virtually all RPGs. Minor notes are given on how these don't need to reflect level advancement, how NPCs shouldn't acquire these titles as fast as PCs, etc. Each archetype dedicates a few paragraphs of descriptive text to the various subtypes listed for it, explaining what that character type basically entails.

There are a few areas that are less than exemplary, though. The fact that the titles stop at rank twenty may be a source of (very) minor frustration for people who use epic level characters. Moreover, characters who multiclass in disparate classes (such as a fighter/sorcerer) may wonder exactly what their character?s title should be now (though this is easily solved, as you just grant them both titles for their levels in each class, used in conjunction). And of course, there's no support for psionic characters, unless you want to treat them as another type of mage.

All in all, Ranks and Titles does an admirable job of reintroducing a classic staple from fantasy role-playing. With the myriad character types given here, there's a title here for almost anyone. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The presentation of twenty full ranks for twenty-eight different character types was expansive, nicely covering virtually all niches of fantasy characters.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some minor things weren't done that could have been, such as offering a printer-friendly version, or giving ranks and titles for psionic characters.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Octavirate Expansion Volume 1: Ranks and Titles by Octavirate Entertainment is a fantasy roleplaying game supplement for any system (but especially D20). It is a ten-page document (nine and the cover) with a clean layout, several pieces of mostly thematic black and white art and a minimum of white space.

The purpose of this product is to provide a list of ranks and titles by profession (warrior, knight, priest, wizard and so on) that are tied to a character?s advancement within that profession. Such advancement is most easily judged in a level based system and to accommodate such, the titles are arranged in groups of twenty by advancement and character role. This gives an in-game way to present the power of a character without using out of game conventions, a useful tool.

Twenty eight-different systems of ranks and titles are provided, for druids, monks -eight different schools of martial disciplines are provided-, pirates, cultists and others. Some of the paths include suggestions on how ranks are assigned within that organization which could allow for some interesting roleplaying possibilities.

Ranks and Titles is a fun resource for players and games masters alike, providing some useful in game tools for showing the power and position of characters. Additionally, for long time players of D&D, these titles by level recall an earlier age of roleplaying games, when things were simply and, often, made less sense. For this reviewer, there was a moment of nostalgia reading through this product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Simple Tricks and Nonsense

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Very creative and useful options<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I would have liked to seen an idea for a low level campaign to take advantage of the new low level options. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Octavirate Presents Volume 3: Simple Tricks and Nonsense is a 39 page pdf product for the d20 system, and the third volume in the Octavirate Presents line of products. Each product in the line aims to bring new experiences to the player and DM in the form of themed gaming supplements. In this third volume the theme is cantrips or minor magics, and the product contains a whole host of new material related to this theme, including spells, feats, NPCs, monsters and classes.

The product comes as a single pdf file that contains a small number of bookmarks, but not really enough to be called entirely functional. There is no table of contents either, which makes it a little difficult to navigate through the pdf. Layout is good, and there is some very good to excellent art inside the product, enhancing to overall presentation of the material. Writing and editing is good as well, and the material is presented clearly and with little ambiguity. Here and there is an odd error in the d20 mechanics, but these are rather few and scattered around throughout the product. Overall, a very good looking product and Octavirate Games have put some good effort into making this product look good.

One other neat thing this pdf does is to present a lot of the rules material in other d20 formats as well, such as, for example, d20 Modern. These variants are very useful for those games where the straight d20 system is not used, but variant rules are implemented. Typical examples include wound/vitality points or defense bonuses.

The product starts with an extensive introduction covering such topics as how to make the most of magic and the use of prestidigitation and other minor magic for profit. It them dives into a very eclectic mixture of material surrounding the common theme of cantrips or orisons. First up are a selection of feats, most of which merely grant the feat-owner the ability to cast more cantrips or to be able to cast some cantrips even if not a spellcaster. From there the pdf presents fifty new cantrips and orisons, starting by providing brief spell lists and descriptions of the spells for each class. There's a good balance between the classes, with most classes getting an equal amount of spells. In fact, one of the variants later in the product actually provides cantrips and orisons for spellcasting classes that don't normally have them, such as rangers or paladins. This is a useful addition for those that love minor magics, or just want to make those classes 'more' spellcasting.

The spells themselves are a fun, creative and generally inventive lot that offer a lot to lower level magic. Magic-light campaigns will find this material quite a boost, but most other campaigns will find the addition of these 50 spells very useful and enjoyable to try out. There are a small variety of first level spells included as well, but by far the most are level 0 spells. A neat little selection of spells that will be useful in any game.

The pdf then continues to present a number of other related material, including the Hedge wizard NPC class, several new creatures such as the cantrimp (kind of a gremlin meets imp creature) and the origami animal (the name says it all). There are also a detailed NPCs in the product called Calrith Cazaaar, a hedge wizard responsible for many of the spells in this product. The latter part of the product contains the appendix, which includes variant rules for skill-based cantrip casting, additional cantrips based on ability scores, and cantrips for spellcasting classes that don't normally have them. Overall, there's a lot of material here that holds well with the general theme.

Octavirate Presents Volume 3: Simple Tricks and Nonsense is a neat little pdf that contains some good and useful material for low-level magic and cantrips. It explores a good variety of ideas and options here, offering up something a little more than just spells. Presentation is good as well, and overall this is a solid product that's well worth a look at.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Variety of material, good spell selection and distribution, solid presentation. The addition of variant rules for most material is helpful.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: One or two minor mechanical errors, but nothing here that detracts from the material itself. Lack of bookmarks and table of contents.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Octavirate Presents Vol. #3: Simple Tricks and Nonsense is a supplement on low-level magic (mostly cantrips and orisons) from Octavirate Games. The zipped file is slightly over 6.5 megabytes in size, and contains a single PDF. The file is thirty-nine pages long, including a page for the cover, a page for the credits/legal, and a page for the OGL. There is no table of contents, and oddly, the only bookmarks are for the cover, credits, and OGL.

Simple Tricks and Nonsense has a fair amount of artwork. The cover is full-color, as are several interior pieces (including a full-page comic showing off one of the new spells in the book). The black and white art is done in a manga-esque style that I found to be quite pleasing, though your mileage may vary. There are purplish borders along the top and bottom of each page. All in all, not having a printer-friendly version might be an annoyance for some people.

The theme of Simple Tricks and Nonsense is cantrips and orisons, the lowest of low-level magic, and the people who use them. Throughout the book, it attempts to breathe new life into cantrips for adventuring spellcasters, while at the same time justifying the existence of non-adventuring spellslingers who just use magic for money, like any other craftsman. The opening of the book makes this duality apparent, as it talks about both the utility of not cutting loose with your strongest spells first, among other things, and how local magic-users make a living.

After this first section, seven new feats are given, five of which give any sort of character 0-level spells from a class list; the remaining two enhance use of existing minor spellcasting. After this, the spell lists for the new spells are given, which leads us to the fifty new low-level spells in the book. It should be noted that despite almost all of these being 0-level spells, Octavirate has managed to make them all be mechanically useful, despite how few of them have combat themes. Alter Odor, for example, can negate the stench ability of a ghast. However, a few errors creep in here and there; the Dampen spell prevents a target from catching fire for the spell?s duration, for example, but its duration is instantaneous.

Two new monsters are given next, the cantrimp and the origami animal. As with most of the rest of the book, these creatures have no real combat value, but work well in rounding out the nature of the low-level spells given here. As with all Octavirate creatures, they come complete with optional rules and sidebars on using them in alternate genres.

In a rather amusing twist, the only new class in the book is an NPC class, the Hedge Mage. When is the last time you saw a product that offered no new PC classes, but a new NPC class instead? The Hedge Mage is interesting, in that he is a character who can?t actually cast any spells, but can manage to cobble together magic items. Of course, these are nowhere near as reliable as magic items made by a real mage, but to the local commoners, or even poor PCs, they could very well be a viable alternative. A sample NPC Hedge Mage, Calrith (whom wrote several in-character sections of the book) is given afterwards.

The book closes out with an appendix of new rules. The first one is the simplest and perhaps most elegant; bonus spells for 0-level spells. The book points out that it makes no sense to have spellcasters not gain bonus spells to the simplest of magic, and a table is given to correct this. After this is a quick system for using skills instead of spell slots to cast 0-level spells, along with a new feat for this variant system. After this, 0-level spell lists are given for classes that don?t usually get them: paladins, rangers, blackguards, and assassins, along with a table to chart how many they get. They even give 0-level spells to all of the domains in the SRD. Immediately following this are similar spell lists for Modern d20?s adepts and mages. The book then ends with an expanded spell mishap chart, for what happens when a spell goes wrong.

Altogether, Simple Tricks and Nonsense does an excellent job of showcasing what the weakest of magic can do, and who?d use it. Their excellent stratagem of making cantrips more useful to adventuring characters, while at the same time providing for non-adventuring characters that make a living off of their magic, creates a wonderfully well-rounded product. While not the first book on 0-level magic, Simple Tricks and Nonsense just might be the best. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The new spells and options presented here are useful to any adventuring PC, despite their weakness. At the same time, plenty of information is given here to note how some people use magic like a commodity and make a living off of it.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The very occasional minor error crept in. Also, a printer-friendly version might have helped somewhat.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Abandoned and discarded, it is only a matter of time before you see their lone images pasted on the back of a milk carton. The red-headed step children of dungeons and Dragons magic system, cantrips, are often forgotten and unused, especially after level 5.

It is at that point, or well before, that they are reduced to errant lead on your character sheet. Octavirate Presents Volume 3: Simple Tricks and Nonsense, the third in a volume of unique niche d20 books by Octavirate games, brings the cantrip back nearly as well as Justin Timberlake brought back sexy.

Octavirate Presents book are far from conventional, which is very enjoyable in the sometimes formula prone PDF market. Simple Tricks is 39 pages long and contains a mish mash of feats, spells, classes and advice with the central theme of cantrips. The PDF begins with a fantastic foreword about magic uses in D and D, including some nice ideas for selling magic items in small villages and magic entertainers. From there, Simple Tricks moves into one of the most impressive parts of the book, a one page feat section. In a bold feat design, the writers have designed a half dozen or so feats that grant cantrips to non spell casting classes if they meet a certain ability score. Sure, the cantrips are limited, but it is a cool design non-the less. I like the idea of the barbarian whom knows Mage Hand or the ranger whom can cast Know Directions.

The next few pages brings us an expansion on the list of the current cantrips. Finally, the level 0 spell slot can be given some thought. There are over 50 spells here and a many of them are really good. A few I?d consider powerful enough to be level 1 such as Dark Omen, which wages havoc on diplomacy checks but gives boosts in will and fear. Still, even the ones that are a tad overpowered can still be argued to fit well within the cantrip spectrum.

Simple Tricks rounds out the book with two monsters, both of which are nice, low level threats for a party. There is also an NPC class called the Head Mage whom can provide the party useful scrolls and items. The appendix includes additional uses of cantrips and conversion for Modern. As usual, Octavirate adds functionality throughout the book for variants such as wounds and vitality and DR. This is a nice and considerate touch that expands the use of these variants to users not exposed to them.

For the Player The foreword does a good job of talking bout using magic to its fullest use. The 50 additional cantrips, enhancement feats and variants add a hole new dimension for the player. Spells I enjoyed the most were Maxwell?s Minor missile, which provides a 1d3 magic missile that deals non-lethal damage, and of course Dark Omen. As far as Non-Spell casters ,it is not a matter of if you should choose a cantrip feat, but which cantrip feat to use. You will benefit far more than power attack at first level.

For the DM The spells and feats are great, but the appendixes in the back are the most beneficial part for a DM. You will find new uses for cantrips and ways to make sure that cantrips are used continuously throughout a campaign.

Whereas this shines in any level magic campaign, I especially like how well this pdf would integrate into low magic, or for that factor no magic at all.

The Iron Word This seems to be a no brain must buy for anyone whom wants to get the most out of a magical class. I just started a campaign, and if I had read this book earlier, I would have chosen a spellcasting class just so I could use some of the cool feats and spells in this book. Octavirate Presents Volume 3: Simple Tricks and Nonsense is an outstanding help guide to utilize an often forgotten element of Dungeons and Dragons. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: - spells are varied and useful

• feats provide spell casting abilities to non-spell classes
• the artwork is colorful and fits the theme well
• the two monsters are different.
• Variant rules are considered.
• Great for a low magic campaigns or high magic ones <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - the one NPC class of the book was good, but didnt seem to do anything that a well statted wizard could do <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is the second collection of creatures in the weekly series. It is good to see that they have learned from one and improved the format and layout of the product. They have added a few new details to make the creatures usable in any genre. The versatility of the extra information makes these monsters very easy to use in any d20 game.

The second volume is a little bigger then the first coming in at nineteen pages. It is comes in a zip file a little over two megs in size and the unzipped PDF is a little bigger at around two and half megs. The layout is improved over the first book and this one is much easier to read. The art is a nice mix of color and black and white pictures. There are color borders that do make the book a bit of an ink eater when printed. The book also does not have any book marks.

One nice thing this monster book includes that no other one I have seen does is alternative rules and ideas for different genres. Most of the time the fantasy monster book is written assuming that it will be used in the fantasy game. This books does that but also includes sidebars that explore other genres like Modern Fantasy and Modern sci fi. It also has alternative rules for each creatures like vitality and wound points, honor, defense bonus, armor class as damage reduction, and honor and taint. This is simple information that really makes the few monster presented here very easy and fun to use in practically any d20 game.

The first pair of creatures is actually a pair of templates. They are Animal Big Bad/ Great Goodly. The idea behind these is the supernatural fairy tale animals like the big bad wolf. The names might seem a little silly for a more serious game but I think the idea behind the templates is very sound. The sample animals are the big bad wolf and the bigger and truly bad T-Rex. On the good side are the lion and eagle. There are nice easy to use backgrounds for the creatures. I really look forward to using these templates in a Grimm game, that setting really seems ideal for these creatures.

The Borm are a saurian psuedo humanoids. They area tribal people with stone age technology. Part of making these easier to use the book also has a new god for them and a scaleykind clerical domain.

The flesh stripper is a gnoll ghoul. There is alos a NPC fully defined of one of these creatures.

The Phobic Slayer and the Star Titan are the last two creatures here. Both are nicely described and offer some great ideas especially in a non fantasy setting.

This is another solid collection of creatures. There are not a lot here and it should be easy to know if these creatures will be useful. This seems to be a good series of books and hopefully the strength will continue.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Octavirate Presents Vol. #1: The Gears of War is a monster supplement and NPC book from Octavirate Games. The zipped file is slightly less than six megabytes in size, and contains a single PDF. The PDF itself is twenty-eight pages long, with a page for the cover, a page for the credits/legal, and a page for the OGL. There is no table of contents, and perhaps oddly, the only bookmarks are for the cover, credits, and OGL.

The book has a decent amount of artwork, though it?s not overflowing with it by any means. The cover is a full-color work, and it?s reproduced later on in when the relevant character is discussed, but beyond that, the rest of the art here is black-and-white. Almost all of the art depicts the new monsters or NPCs being discussed. There are, however, color borders along the top and bottom of every page.

The Gears of War is divided into two separate but related parts. The first part deals with new monsters. In this case, we?re shown four new golems: the gear golem, the ballista golem, the catapult golem, and the ram golem. These latter three fall under a larger sub-category, that being that they?re all siege golems, and have several related abilities (such as they can be manually directed by a person riding on them). In true Octavirate fashion, alternate rules and supplemental information is presented in spades, with sections on alternative catapult ammunition (try throwing rotting corpses into your enemy?s food stores), alternate creation rules more in line with modern and future settings, along with related pricing and genre backgrounds for why such creatures exist at all. Clearly, Octavirate has not lost their touch in their time away from the gaming industry.

The second half of the book deals with specific characters. In this case, these are Dyzan Setclaar, a warmonger who is making the aforementioned golems, and his (unique) half-construct marilith Myrmdyia. After each NPCs stats are their variant rules stats (wound/vitality points, taint, sanity loss, etc.), followed by their background, appearance, personality, and tactics. Roughly a page is given to explaining the layout and tactics of Dyzan?s entire army, followed by stats and variant stats (though no fluff information) of the classed hobgoblins who make up his rank-and-file troops.

All in all, The Gears of War is a very solid work. Offering both generic monsters and specific NPCs was a very clever move on Octavirate?s part, and tying them together so neatly makes this an attractive package to drop into a campaign. Combined with the variant stats and information on using these monsters in other genres, there?s really no way this book wouldn?t work in any sort of d20 game. While there are a small number of very minor errors (Dyzan is a wizard/psion, so he should have the Psionic subtype), but these are so small that they?re virtually nonexistent. Likewise, the lack of a printer-friendly version isn?t too big a deal, given the small amount of artwork, and how most of it isn?t full-color. Altogether, there?s really no way your game wouldn?t benefit from The Gears of War. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The mix of new monsters and NPCs is very nicely done, as they tie in together so well. And of course, the myriad variant rules and alternate genre information is truly inspiring in the way it shows off how this book can be used in virtually any sort of d20 game.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The lack of a printer-friendly version may make printing this out something of a hassle for some people.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Libris Personae Volume 1 is a book of NPCs from Octavirate Games. The zipped file is somewhat large, being slightly over twenty megabytes in size, and contains a single PDF file, which a few megs larger. The PDF is one-hundred-six pages long, with two pages for the covers, one for the OGL, two for the credits/legal, one for the table of contents, and one for a quirky little comic at the end of the book. The table of contents isn?t hyperlinked, but the product does have full bookmarks.

As far as artwork goes, this book is fairly rich with it. The covers are full-color, and while there are no page borders, virtually every character has a piece of art in here. Some of the artwork is black-and-white, while other pieces are a stunning full-color rendition. Unfortunately, there?s no printer-friendly version of this book, meaning that you may have to think twice about printing this out.

The myriad NPCs in Libris Personae all fall under one of five broad categories. The first is a demonic cult of gnolls. Supposedly lead by the champion of their demon-god, this cult is actually masterminded by their shaman, who conducts breeding experiments to create a champion for his tribe. However, at least one previous champion has gone awry, and is now trying to live a better life with the cult?s foes.

The second group, The Sellswords, was my favorite. An all-female acting troupe, these women come to town and put on a very burlesque show about how men who go adventuring find piles of riches, incredible fame, and an endless stream of beautiful women. And while it?s certainly disruptive to a local town when the men-folk all go get killed on half-cocked adventuring ideas after seeing this show, The Sellswords actually have a much darker purpose in mind?

The Scaleblades are a group of reptilian adventurers. Brought together by disparate circumstances, they now adventure together, though they?re not all after the same thing.

The Vortaelen Cartography League is a multi-planar institute of explorers, and is also the largest single group of NPCs in this book. A colorful cast of characters are presented with all range of alignments and motivations, though by necessity these are less intricately tied together than most of the other groups presented here. While all are technically part of the Cartography League, many (if not most) of them use that as a front for their true desires.

The last grouping is a relative hodge-podge of characters. While a few are interconnected, most of these NPCs serve as singular encounters, such as the half-fiendish treant, or the identical goblin twins.

It?s worth noting that the sidebars that describe new magic items are highly plentiful. More than half of the characters here have a new associated magic item, though oddly they?re nearly all called out as minor artifacts, despite having clear magic item creation guidelines.

The book?s first appendix gives an additional amount of new crunch, with three new spells, two new deities, and four new monsters. Of course, all of these relate back to characters mentioned previously, giving more generic options for your campaign. The second appendix gives a large able cross-indexing the various characters with Open Content variant rules, something Octavirate is famous for.

In conclusion, Libris Personae Volume 1 presents a highly diverse cast of characters, ranging from humorous to sinister, heroic to monstrous, in nature. Whether as allies, adversaries, or sources of adventure, there?s definitely some here for you in your game, and the expanded optional rules information makes sure that remains true no matter what breed of d20 you play. While there are some minor issues here (such as how the ?minor artifacts? are magic items, and the lack of a printer-friendly version), Libris Personae is a clear winner in the characters it introduces. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: There are many tings to like about this product. The excellent artwork, the innovative character designs, the overflowing new crunch material. This is a product that does a very good job in how it's presented.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It was rather odd how the magic items, which had the basic magic item creation rules given, were called "minor artifacts" so much. Also, a printer-friendly version would have been helpful, considering how much art is in here.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Octavirate Presents, Volume 1: Gears of War by Octavirate Entertainment is a product detailing golems and their makers for D20 system games (primarily D&D/D20 Modern). It is 28-pages (25 after cover, credits and OGL) with a clean layout and each creature and character having its own illustration.

The product opens with a brief introduction from Octavirate explaining the design philosophy behind their products and how this product is a successor to their Creature Weekly line of products, one they hope will be even more useful. Like their earlier products, Gears of War includes variant rules versions (using armor as DR for example) for all of the creatures and characters as well as advice to adapting the ideas to other settings.

Gears of War is a campaign book, providing the outline of a campaign of which a GM can use as much (or as little) as they choose. The basic plot starts with hobgoblin raids and turns into a massive assault on civilization when the hobgoblins return with siege engine-golems. Various ways to get the characters involved are presented.

It then moves into the new golems, four of them: the Gear Golem, a whirring engine of destruction that grinds up those it catches in its multiple gears. Siege Golems, quasi-living engines of destruction, which can have pilots, which are divided into three types, Ballista, Catapult and Ram. The Gear Golems will carve their way through most defending armies, and they are extremely dangerous. The Siege Golems are optimized to destroy structures and are not as tough as most other golems but they can be quite dangerous foes as well, especially if they have a skilled pilot directing them.

Next is the mastermind behind the golem armies and his ?pet? demon who he has ?improved? by grafting golem parts onto. An interesting and dangerous pair. Six standard types of hobgoblins who fill out the armies are provided to round out the product.

A well thought out and useful product, the campaign may not be applicable to all campaigns but the Siege Golems have wide potential use.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Creature Weekly Volume 7 by Octavirate Entertainment is a product detailing new and interesting monsters for D20 system games (primarily D&D/D20 Modern). It is 13-page long (10 after cover, credits and OGL) with a clean layout and illustrations for the three new monsters (one in color).

The product opens with a brief introduction from Octavirate explaining why there are only three creatures in this issue of Creature Weekly. It also encourages the reader to give Octavirate feedback on their product to improve their future ones.

Next are the monsters, three of them, each of the monsters is given a full description and an illustration, along with information for those using alternate rules such as a vitality/wound point system, armor as DR and so on and suggestion for adapting each creature to different genres (fantasy, science fiction, post-apocalyptic, and so on).

The monster included are: ? The Aufnac (Demodile), a strange and powerful beast, a mixture of crocodile and ape, that haunts hidden forests and consumes silver. The dwarven legend about how they came into being is very nice (and other explanations are given as well). ? The Balefire Drake or Georgian Dragon is based on the fearsome foe slain by St. George (thus Georgian Dragon). The Balefire Drake is a dangerous foe and often possesses fiendish blood, and one with such a template has been provided for use. ? The Inquisitor Devil (Orobazu) enforces the law of the Hells, it is their only concern and woe be it to any mortal who falls under their jurisdiction.

A group of interesting creatures, each well suiting to building a scenario around (low to mid level for the Aufnac and Balefire Drake, high level for the Orobazu). If any of the monsters intrigue you, give this product a try.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>