This is the basic introduction of the Zeitgeist Adventure Path campaign setting. I wouldn't call it steampunk, but it adds renaissance politics and steam engine technology to the standard D&D fantasy setting.

I would very much recommend the Zeitgeist campaign, because it is full of interesting moral decisions for the players. There is no simple good vs. evil here, but various factions and philosophies in conflict with each other. If anybody ever told you that you can't roleplay in 4E, this is the proof that you can. The player's guide introduces special background themes for the player characters that help anchor them in the world and provide many story hooks throughout the campaign.

This is the Player’s Guide for the Zeitgeist Campaign. It’s a thorough and well-fleshed out setting guide, complete with lots of detailed setting information (fluff), as well as a healthy variety of new character options (crunch).

In theory, you could use this as a standalone setting guide to run your own adventures in the world of Zeitgeist, but the intent is that you’ll be playing the associated adventure path. I want to contrast this with other free Player’s Guides that are generally available for Pathfinder adventures: this isn’t just a quick “here’s how the party comes together” followed by “and here’s what favored enemies your Ranger should pick” like you might expect. This is a robust guide that can stand as its own product. Again, you could use this as a complete setting guide for your own homespun adventures, which is pretty good deal for a free product.

There are five chapters, which I’ll review separately:

• Character Options
• World Overview
• City of Flint Overview
• RHC Overview
• Naval Combat Rules

The first chapter is where you get the standard “player’s guide” stuff: how the various fantasy races fit into the setting, what classes make sense, a few house-rules, etc.

This is where you also get nine character “themes”: these are distinct roles that highlight key aspects of the setting. (They remind me quite a bit of the “social splats” from nWoD.) These include things like the Skyseers, who are part of the old traditional order who spiritually guides society with their astrological insight, or the Technologists, who focus on developing the cutting edge of the revolution, or the Dockers, who represent the interest of the common workers and their plight against government oppression, to more esoteric roles, like the Vekeshi, a secret society who seeks to sculpt destiny through selective assassination. Every player is supposed to choose a specific theme, which helps define how they fit into the wider fabric of Zeitgeist. It’s important to note how well integrated these themes are in the setting, and how they are continually reinforced (complete with organized-play-esque faction-quests) in the associated campaign. I love the idea on paper, and I’m thrilled to report, that in practice, my players took to these with gusto, and really ran with these ideas. Each theme has enough information to give you a lot to work with (and again, natural setting elements will “call out” to these themes frequently, to help reinforce this), but also each theme is loose enough to allow every player to define what it means for themselves. My players have ended up comparing the themes to the various guilds you can join in Skyrim and other Elder Scrolls games … honestly, that comparison doesn’t ring as true for me, but that’s my PCs' perspective.

Each theme ends up being a prerequisite for a specific three-level Prestige Class (thus, there’s nine PrCs in included in this guide). Most of these are pretty awesome, and my players are very excited for them, as they offer up really interesting crunch, and are exquisitely flavorful. (Mostly: of the nine, seven are great, but two of them I feel like they dropped the ball.) Unfortunately, they have the normal problems that PrCs have (for example, a halt in the caster’s casting progression, but I just houseruled that.) To give a brief taste: the Monument of War can call up memories of dead comrades to defend him in battle or launch artillery strikes, the Mad Shootist crafts experimental weapons and overpowers his gear mid-combat, and the Applied Astronomer taps into the powers of the stars draws them down to earth.

While all of this crunch is designed with the Zeitgeist campaign in mind, my players have asked if they could use it in subsequent campaigns, which to me suggests they worth it.

This chapter also includes rules for spending “prestige”, (which we call “favor” at my table). This works like the old World of Darkness LARP rules, where you can have influence in various political structures in the city, and spend your influence to accomplish setting-tasks. For example, run a false news story, get a priest defrocked, cause a riot downtown, etc. It’s a fun way to mechanically represent political power or social pull.

The second chapter is a 15-page gazetteer of the entire world, with the longest section being dedicated to the country of Risur, which is intended as the PC’s homeland. As the Zeitgeist campaign is geared towards one of international intrigue and conspiracy, and as such, it focuses on six countries with detailed histories and politics, rather than a huge grab-bag of varying locations. Each of these six countries is given notes on their geography, political structure, cultural touchpoints, and in particular, ascendant philosophies. In keeping with Zeitgeist’s pseudo-18th-century feel, each of the heads of state and other movers-and-shakers are detailed as interesting NPCs. The game assumes that you will be playing on a level such that you have to interact with heads of state.

This chapter also includes a discussion of the setting’s metaphysics, namely, the planets that orbit the world, the various planes of existence, and even a bit about the fey courts that rules one of the other planes. The guide also explains the setting’s dominant religions and philosophies. However, it does not contain a staple of other Pathfinder setting guides: a list of deities (and the all-important list of domains and favored weapons). This was intentional, rather than an oversight, and players are encouraged to read up the description of their religion, and invent their own deity within the described pantheon. It certainly strikes a unique tone, but at least for my group, it caused my players to rule out anyone playing a Cleric or Paladin.

All-in-all, it’s a good setting guide, and I really like the world that is both succinctly as as well as thoroughly developed. Here’s the weird thing about it though: everything is Chekhov’s gun. In case you’re not familiar with that literary term: everything mentioned in the guide is of direct relevance to the Zeitgeist campaign. Passing reference to an abandoned city? Your PCs will go there. Sidebar on an old legend? Not only is it true, but your PCs will become the heroes mentioned in it. Any NPCs mentioned? Your PCs will definitely meet, and likely have to kill him/her. Historical event that just sounds like setting dressing? Your PCs will travel back in time and interact with it first-hand. Before you realize that this is what’s happening, the gazetteer just reads like a cool setting. But after you realize every detail exists to be exploited in the coming adventure, the guide becomes a bit surreal, almost like it’s a giant check list of all the things that have to be explored or killed before the end of the campaign. What finally clicked for me is that Zeitgeist is not a western RPG, in the vein of Baldur’s Gate or Elder Scrolls, but is rather a JRPG.

The third chapter is on the city of Flint, the second-largest city in the country of Risur, and is intended as the PCs’ home-base. Risur is otherwise a traditional (read: non-tech), agrarian society. However, Flint is the one city in Risur where industry has been allowed to flourish, and it’s bursting at the seams with cultural strife. We get an overview of its nine districts, two nice maps, and its power players: from its political powers, to crime lords and eco-terrorists. The city gets a lot of love, and my PCs have learned to really call it home. The Zeitgeist setting takes care to detail depth in its urban environment, and supports running entire adventures exclusively within the city of Flint. The city is multi-layered enough (and enough of a powerkeg) to handle such adventures. And no need to resort to sewer-crawls to do it!

The fourth chapter is on the Royal Homeland Constabulary, the FBI-meets-CIA-meets-JackBauer that the PCs are supposed to be apart of. Here you learn about the organization’s chain of command, meet your coworkers, get a map of your office, learn about rules and regulation, and get a list of boats you can rent. It’s up to each GM how much they want to emphasize this part of Zeitgeist. It’s possible to play in Zeitgeist without including the RHC, or by playing it down. My group, however, took to it with a passion, and detailed out all their relationship with their coworkers, office protocol, and even put together their in-game schedule and Scrum-board. But my players are weird. :-)

This section also includes some rules on how to shadow a suspect, and perform advanced interrogation. I tried to use these, but they didn’t feel natural for my group, so we don’t use them anymore.

The fifth chapter is a bit incongruous: it’s naval combat rules. Unlike all of the above, which is very setting-speciifc, this chapter is not, and feels like it’s been imported in from another product. Anyway, it’s included because Zeitgeist exists in the age of sail, and canon-battles on the high-seas are a thing. (As are blowing up smuggler’s boats in the harbor, or trying to evade experimental u-boats hiding in a reef, or battling the kraken out at sea, etc.) The rules are serviceable. They’re probably my second-favorite naval combat rules (I like them better than Paizo’s Skull & Shackles, but they’re not as elegant as FGG’s Razor Coast). Also included are some stats of other ships the PCs might commandeer. Since the Zeitgeist campaign has naval combats built-in to the adventure, these rules get brought out every so often. The rules are certainly generic enough to spin up your own ad hoc naval combats as well.

In Conclustion, So, would I recommend you buy it? And by that I mean, “is it worth the $17 DTRPG charges for a print copy & shipping?” and the answer is “yes.”

If you’re planning on running the actual Zeitgeist campaign this book is essential. Full stop. You need a copy to design your character and play. And since so much from the player’s guide is referenced during the campaign, you’ll want your players to have that print-copy handy.

If you’re not planning on running the Zeitgeist campaign, this book is still worth a purchase. Yes, even if you’re not playing the campaign. It’s a fun setting, it’s got great ideas, and has some awesome ways to get your PCs enmeshed in the setting, and the moods the setting is trying to invoke.

This review written from the perspective of a GM who has been running from this guide for over half a year now. I actually got my players to read the thing. When's the last time you were able to say that about a 70-page player handout?

I'm currently running this steampunk(ish) campaign. This is by far the most well thought out adventure path I've ever DM'd. I can't recommend this AP enough. This isn't just your typical hack n slash, dungeon crawl with random NPCs. Everything has a purpose. Every fight has a purpose. Get it. Now.

I've been working to introduce steam power into a game setting for a while, and the flavor text in the introduction of this guide was worth the purchase price. The impact of the technology is considered and discussed, giving the GM quite a few ideas to consider in making the choice to add this new technology to a fantasy setting.

Even if the base system isn't d20 based, this guide is worth considering if you're thinking of introducing the technology in your world. Conversion to anther system isn't terribly difficult, and the ideas that can be spawned, not to mention the surprises that can be dropped into a game, make reading the guide worthwhile.

Glad I purchased the material.

As you probably now by this point, Future Core is the game mechanics & rules section of N.E.W., the science-fiction portion of What's Old Is New. The creator is really great at responding and dealing with issues, so that's always a plus to any game. On top of that, it's an interesting system that uses dice pools for tasks, and they don't get too large, unless maybe you want to recreate Bambi VS Godzilla. I and my friends haven't yet played this particular iteration of the rules, but we have played with the earlier stuff, and I've read this latest one in preparation, and so I'm definitely looking forward to it. :)

Ran it once (will run it again), and its a unique adventure that twists the end of a dungeon crawl. I thought the BBEG would be harder, but my players squashed him too easy after taking care of 3/4 relics. Id like to run it again to see if it was a fluke but the relics may have hampered him too much.

I would like to add the maps are horrible if you print or VTT them. Nothing lines up and the wood grain is awful to figure out battle squares.

Of the three WOIN products, this is the one I'm most looking forward too.

Can't wait for the full version of this to come out.

I have been following and privately playtesting here and there since these materials started to come out of the Kickstarter. I love the way the rules run, they flow nicely and are so easily customisable. I can't wait to get the full versions of these, in the meantime enjoying the starter kit!

This is pretty meaty for a free preview of a new game. The game itself is a setting agnostic system designed to help you build your favorite sci-fi setting. It's towards the crunchier end of the spectrum.

This does give what you need to decide to get the game or not. And gives more details than most such previews in that it at least shows how the game is played if not how to do it. (how to do it is in another free offering.) So it does the job in superior fashion.

Not knowing the background to the team that put this together, I am struggling to take anything other than a neutral view. I am starting to tho k that the more you a book when you were young the more disappointed you will be by something like this.

I loved these books as a teenager. The rules and characters are not bad, just not very well presented in my opinion.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The 10th installment of the Zeitgeist AP clocks in at 87 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, 1 blank page, leaving us with 81 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Now before I go into spoiler-territory, you have to know one thing: The Zeitgeist-team got it right this time around - my fears regarding the new rules of reality as presented in the review of #9 proved to be pretty much unjustified, with an appendix covering them in an easy-to-grasp and concise manner. Oh, and if until this point you've been annoyed by Zeitgeist's campaign setting adhering to rules regarding magic that deviated from the base PFRPG-assumptions, then you'll probably like quite a few of the changes, since e.g. flight is "unlocked" by the change in cosmology, among other things. Now yes, there are still some special rules here and modifications of a certain PrC, but overall, the changed rules provide a unique backdrop that changes radically the way in which the world works - to a point where one can definitely say "VERY" high fantasy -and at this level, that's a good thing.

All right, but you're here for the review, right? All right, as always, from here on out reign the SPOILERS. Potential players of this saga should jump to the conclusion to avoid them.

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All right, still here? Okay, so the New World Order of the Ob has come to pass, at least regarding the rules imposed on reality itself - as the PCs come to grips with these new rules, the tarrasque-excrement hits the elder air elemental's whirlwind. Remember those fun, kaiju-sized colossal fey titan-thingies? Like the Voice of Rot that could be forced to an at best uneasy escape/truce? Well, the other 4 have awoken and wreck havoc across the lands - the Ash Wolf, the Father of Thunder,Granny Allswell and She-who-writhes all have arisen and need to be bested, defeated, tricked - whatever...that is, if the spontaneous generation of hiveminds that are exceedingly lethal don't put a premature stop to the PC's careers as, potentially, the people in charge of the nation. And yes, each titan receives a stunning artwork. It should be noted that the latter of these creatures is provided as a naval engagement - if you dislike Zeitgeist's subpar naval combat rules, let me kindly recommend Rite Publishing's Kaiju Codex to provide some fitting and exceedingly deadly substitutes. You're welcome.

While the PCs were busy stopping these titanic threats with wits and blade and fleets, Pemberton has taken Axis Island from the Ob and presents an interesting wildcard-option - an alliance, with the PCs essentially now heading the conspiracy against the Ob's New World Order - provided they do not fall victim to more hiveminds and similar threats. After further conversations with Nicodemus etc., the PCs will have to face the fact that they're standing pretty much alone against the world - with Pemberton offering an airship as a way out, as the Ob's forces prepare to crush Pemberton's forces on Axis, while the OB is starting the Forward Symposium, wherein the world's leaders are supposed to chart a course for the unified world government. Thankfully, the PCs and their allies have a man inside by now - unfortunately, not even for Nicodemus everything goes right - his symposium, enhanced by the rationality-enhancing nature of the new reality, is doomed to failure. The unfortunate hivemind phenomenon, brought, according to Nicodemus, about by the PC's meddling (like the vanishing of stars and sun...) as well as the presence of the gidim race, takes a hold of the symposium - where every delegate is a hivemind of his ideology, their collective becomes a brutal, nasty super-hivemind, the eponymous godmind, an entity that can be defeated by reasoning with the people subjugated among its vast power - or killing them. Either way, the symposium has failed, for now, with Nicodemus tucking his tail between his legs - a result, which leaves the world significantly less unified than the master of the Ob planned.

Alas, unbeknown to the PCs, the grinding gears n the heavens actually have a draw on the world, pulling it slowly closer - and it turns out, this phenomenon is essentially a way for the multiverse to destroy useless planes and planets - the gyre is grinding, but chances are, your PCs won't know that, so let them revel in their triumph for now...the stakes are getting higher.

As always, the appendices cover the creatures and NPCs as well as supplemental rules like aforementioned new ways in which reality itself works.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch. Layout adheres to Zeitgeist's beautiful 2-column full-color standard and the pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. Artworks range from drop-dead-gorgeous original pieces to solid stock and the pdf is layered, allowing you customization for ink/toner-use and modification of the full-color maps provided - I just don't understand why one cannot get rid of the legend/key on the maps to render them more player-friendly.

Ryan Nock delivers a rather fast-paced action-romp, at least as far as Zeitgeist goes - don't get me wrong, that is exactly what is required here. The new rules of the world breathe a change of pace and offer tactical options the PCs need to become familiar with.

That and the guise in which all of this happens is thoroughly compelling - taking on these legendary creatures is immensely satisfying, as is the finale, in which the PCs may finally execute a strike that really hurts their enemies. After the massive amounts of investigations and scheming, this pdf provides a great introduction to the 3rd act and can be considered the equivalent of the massive, initial fight-scene one can see in action movies in the beginning - at least more often than not. This is an unapologetic high-fantasy love-letter to dealing with the truly fantastical and works well in this context. Were I to voice any gripe in this regard, it would be that one titan should have non-naval stats and that imho, the final social encounter could have definitely used more diverse tactics and lines of reasoning for the gathered individuals - but that may just be me being spoiled. All in all, this is an epic continuation of the saga and well worth a final verdict of 5 stars plus seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

Fun, simple as that. A bit of light relief for an encounter.