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A great addition to the Ponyfinder collection, especially if you love sea ponies, kelpies or other aquatic creatures. Well played out as always and easy to follow. Enjoy the undersea life in Everglow.
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Easy to follow, a complete setting for those that live 5e and/or PF and want more ponies involved. It’s feels like an adult version of the show we love so much. Been playing it for 3 years now and still having fun.
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Cthulhu.
Mr. Silver spends so much time filing off mlp trademarks and then puts Cthulhu in. He is not the first old god nor will he, likely, be the last but this one bothers me. I will not touch on the unpleasant parts too much just one thing spoken of in the "hazards of the high seas" chapter; that the world, in a foundational sense, is like silly putty. That is why there is a darth of maps of Everglow. Cthulhu could stretch in his bed and MOVE every island hundreds of miles or even send the continent sailing away (perhaps to collide with the elven lands?).
We have plenty of new races, subtypes, equipment and more but I was expecting more from the price tag. What, mechanically, happens to a pony caught in a red tide? Don't know. What do the note worthy islands look like? Don't know; no map is provided. Do they stay the same shape? Unlikely.
Meant to review shortly after purchase but I guess I never did. I think this was my last "campaign" book. Mr. Silver has made a great evocative world for players but, as a GM, the setting is an anathema to my approach. I need more set in stone and all this cool stuff the world does to the players is left for me to build.
I regret my purchase but I don't regret populating my coats and reefs with Shimmershells.
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Positives:
Flexible building options
Lots of options to spend resources
Lots of options for elements, including Force
Con-class seems to be handled well
I enjoy the flexibility for spell attacks and strikes
Neutral:
The Drained you get from Burn seems very, very risky, but that might be on purpose. a Drained 10 person is likely failing or critically failing every Con save.
Negatives:
Feels like you should start out with an Infusion
Gather Power and Safe Limit and such can be a bit confusing
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Creator Reply: |
Thank you for your review! Ratings and reviews help other people know what's lurking in these books. Burn is meant to be a risky source of power beyond the first few levels, not to be reached for casually, so yeah, don't let that tick up! |
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While good at delivering the overall theme of pulp action, Tails of the City fails to give useful guidance on how to actually achieve this in-game. Some elements are poorly thought-out (the requirement of fortune points for a character's highest available spell creates really weird situations if, say you're level two and trying to cast mage armor or a 5e warlock at any point) or not fleshed out enough to be meaningfully useful. For example: under "Money in Modern Times", there is an inherent assumption that characters have middle incomes and can afford basic things like meals and regular equipment, which is fine--but what about if a character has a different income or the group needs to deal with expensive costs like buying a car? How does a DM handle gold conversions when allocating treasure? Why does the 5e portion say income can be modified with feats or powers and then not describe any at any point in the book?
A similar lack of guidance is given when dealing with how to actually go about building characters for this kind of setting. The gadget rules add some help in this, but its very surface level. There aren't even any real examples given--maybe like that guy with the robot birds who appears on the page (and in the kickstarter video)? How does someone go about building that kind of character? No idea.
The "Modern Society" section more or less boils down to "it's like Earth but slightly not", and doesn't give any useful advice like how to handle characters with day jobs or other modern responsibilities. "Classes in the Modern Day" just says that your class =/= job, and classes will require minor adjustments to fit with the setting... but then doesn't actually offer advice on how to do that. Magic's role is touched on a bit, but the way divine sources (or gods/warlock patrons in general) function in the setting is completely left out.
Oversights like this are present throughout the book and in some places even extends to hard content: PF2 backgrounds are offered but not any for 5e, and PF2 familiars options are given but not any for PF1. Guns are described, but not ammo, which is especially bad when the book has a racial power that relies on being able to calculate ammo costs to function.
There are also some odd... inconsistencies in what is written vs. what is shown in some places. Hugely Helpful members are describes as having some size-changing abilities, but this isn't represented on their stat block. Black Watch members are described as having a distinctive scarf, but the image used for its member doesn't show such an item. The image used for the Mascot enemy shows a possibly-human turning into a wolf mascot, which directly contradicts how the monster's curse works (and possibly the beginning of the book that says the setting has no humans). On its own, these would be negligible, but they're symptomatic of the lack of care/oversight/polish/whatever given throughout the rest of the book.
Lastly, the writing, while energetic, really needed another editing pass. Both for consistency (the opening pages say that the Rule of Cool will be outlined later but it never is) and for avoding a number of typos--mostly missing spaces between words but the Black Watch description actually cuts off halfway through a sentence. There are also some areas of just awkward writing, most obvious in the Darwinative Solutions description.
Tails of the City offers a lot of promise but fundamentally is an unpolished, shallow work that doesn't give DMs or players the necessary tools to realize its vision.
Edit: Minor spelling correction.
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Creator Reply: |
Thank you for your review. You clearly put some thought and time into it, and we appreciate it. I admit a little confusion at some of those parts, like if someone wants to buy something out of their means, it's time to look to the GM. I did neglect to make a rich feat for 5e though. I was intimidated at the time, due to 5e feats needing to be so much 'larger' than PF1 or 2 feats to be worth having. Classes require no adjustments, however, outside of magic and gadgets. You're a ranger, great, enjoy that. You may be a video store worker... who is a ranger. The two have naught to do with one another. The mascot, confuses me, what part of them is human again? Is it the basic shape? The people are basically human shaped. That's kinda how furries tend to work.
Thank you again! We'll do our best to improve. |
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Incredible, both for those who enjoy D&d and Pathfinder, and more casual types who might be more interested in the modern social commentary- my personal favorite being "Slippery Slope" the obstructionists who use red tape and legalism to stop the progress of the city. The book is versatile enough for dystopian, post-apocalyptic, to solarpunk and all kinds of other genres. Of course, I'm a bit biased for having invested in it but the descriptions of characters and organizations will make for incredible raw material for any adventure. Highly recommended.
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Pulpy, action-y, cartoony, modern, I look forward to running and playing in the City. Plenty here for "persons" of any type, I will be using monsters, mechanics, and items in other settings, too.
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This book is very well written and perfectly balanced for all three systems. I see that one or two people have complained about there not being enough 5e stuff in it, but there really is more for 5e than those one or two people have claimed. The setting itself is brilliant, and the stuff that you could do with this book is amazing! the characters that were put into this book via the kickstarter were all very well drawn and colored, the front cover shows exactly what you are getting in for, and the armory in this book was balanced very well.
A lot of TLC went into this book, and it clearly does show. :)
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Creator Reply: |
Aw, thanks! We'll keep on putting that love into the books. <3 |
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For full disclosure, I was one of the Kickstarter backers of Tails of the City, having an orginization and NPC created for inclusion as part of my pledge. Overall, I am quite pleased with this campaign setting and am satisfied with supporting its creation. Where if you are a fan of pulp fiction adventure and superheroes, as well shows like Ducktales or movies like Zootopia, then you may want to check this out. Being for the systems D&D 5e, PF 1e, and PF 2e, you will have rules and mechanics to add to your campaign for more modern adventures. With TotC including rules for more modern gear and weapons, which was a pleasant suprise since originally there was discussion of not including such. With different originizations and NPCs you can use to bring your city to life and effect the direction of the campaign. Allowing for many different characters with different strengths and flaws, which I do look forward to playing and making use of. Including the information and rules involving the many originizations.
You will need to check other reviews involving assurance on the balance of game rules and mechanics, yet I have followed the work of David Silver for many years now, with his Ponyfinder campaign setting, and have confidence in his abilities. Where David has very much come a long way from when he created the original version of Ponyfinder for PF 1e, and I haven't personally had any balance issues of note for his rules and mechanics. This even includes him having races able to fly at 1st level, which is a more contraversal and contentous point for many. Especially in D&D, but even Pathfinder.
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A wonderful start into this tabletop world. I was a bit hesitant to play Pathfinder or 5e, but once I got my hands on this book and got absorbed in the lore I knew I could do something with it. The art is wonderful and the setting has a nice mythos to it with some good winks thrown in if you know the source material. When it comes to the layout, things are in a nice, neat manner and it's easy to reference what can be done by what type of character. The amount of feats is amazing and can spur build ideas completely on their own. For me it was money well spent and I look forward to what other releases are coming in this setting.
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Covers all the basics. Both versions of Pathfinder and the new D&D.
Has magic, tech and everything in between. The perfect pulp starting point.
Plus Fatbergs. Who could want anything more? :)
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Speaking as a backer for this kickstarter project, I'm sad to say that it provides few options for 5e players, and fewer of them spark the imagination. I can't speak to the Pathfinder side of things, as I don't play either edition, but if you're coming to this for 5e options, I'd suggest you steer yourself towards other projects.
Buyer beware, it seems.
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Creator Reply: |
We have the person race, pulp heroes with properly dramatic boons and flaws to make them pop.
17 new spells.
14 new choices of equipment.
5 monsters.
10 antagonists (monsters with a purpose!)
And 6 new skills/proficiencies.
The fortune system for players to engage with the narrative in a new way.
This is all for 5e. We do hope 5e players have lots of fun with the wealth of options we're bringing to the table. |
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Love the format (including rules for all 3 systems in each topic), and the feat work is great. It looks like it'll be a blast to play.
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A nice addition to fleshing out the world of Everglow if your players are finding it difficult to use the native gods of 5e or Pathfinder. Contained within are some possible plot hooks and can serve as a background for why an area believes the way it does. Does this character follow the Moon Princess, here's what they would believe. Another fun addition to this book is the ability to pick Luminous Dragon as another choice players can take if they want to play a character that isn't a pony. I've used this book in my own campaigns when looking for something to entice the players in a call to action. This book is wholeheartedly recommended if your looking for something to add some life to your Everglow experience and give it some individual flavor.
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks for the kind words! We'd love to hear how the pantheon perched themselves in exotic new worlds. |
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I was looking for a way to add ponies to dnd and I didn't like the ttrpg Hasbro had put out themselves so I got Ponyfinder to have the same feel as dnd.
The similarities to MLP are clear if you know what to look for and some of it was bound to happen since unicorns and pegasi are common in fiction already, but Ponyfinder makes all of it its own and adds many more pony types to the standard three.
Pro: The book has both pathfinder 1st ed and dnd 5e versions.
Con: It's easy to look at the wrong section even with the color coding.
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