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Review of Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns by Natural 20 Press
This is one of the most universally useful books I have ever seen. It is also a fun read. Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns is a pdf book about contests and games. They have done a great job of creating interesting games from all sorts of cultures both human and non-human. This book is seventy-four pages of fun.
The book is color with black and white art. The pictures are of people playing the various games, and not all the games are illustrated. The format is very readable with tables that really make the new rules easy to use. The games are designed for anyone to play and it would be easy to challenge low and high level characters with them. One of the great things about this book is many of these games can be slightly altered and used in any game. With even a little more work these games can even be used in other gaming systems. It?s rare that we get a book so full of ideas that can transcend genres and systems. The book has a nice table of contents but no index. The games all seem to be listed he table of contents so finding a game should be really easy.
The book begins with the basic new rules many of the games use. These are very well done and kept relatively simple for ease of play. Here is also the drinking rules, as in alcohol consumption. These rules are very well put together and can easily be used in any of the many different d20 games like d20 Modern, Spycraft, Dragonstar, and Star Wars.
Chapter two is Classic Games. In here is arm wrestling, dice games, and chases. Chapter three is Martial tournaments like fencing and archery. Chapter four is tavern games and includes some rather interesting ones like Gin and Rabbits and Stageless Play. Chapter five is Magical Competitions and many of these could be substituted as Mage Duels and other ways to prove power or pass a test to learn magical knowledge as well as for fun and games. Chapter six is Festival Games and these games are not only for larger groups, but have very cool histories along with them to show how they came into existence. Chapter seven deals with how to run the games and really gives great advice for making them the best they can be. It then goes into detail of different places that many of these games and tournaments can be played and encountered at.
I simply cannot recommend this product enough. It has wide appeal and is easily used in most campaigns. It offers a great departure from just fighting and other routine encounters. This book is well written, full of great ideas, and all for rather good price. It?s rare to see all those qualities in any single product.
<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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Adventures are sometimes a tough thing to follow. The writer has what they feel to be a good linear set of encounters that should move the plot along, but as can happen the players make a critical turn that the module does not cover. No one can predict what players will do, something they can be anticipated but with the creativity of players sooner or later they just go off the map. This is one of the great and challenging things about role playing games. Terror of Freeport is a module, the second in fact in the Freeport module line. It handles some of these problems in a very interesting way.
Terror of Freeport is the second in the Freeport modules series. It is designed for second to fifth level characters. It was first released in the early months of d20 but has now been fully revised to use the 3.5 rules. It is also released only as a PDF. The layout and art are all up to Green Ronin?s high standards. The book is very well book marked and has the same consistent look of many of Green Ronin?s products. The book is forty eight pages long and the file is not that big to be a concern.
Terror of Freeport picks up a month after Death in Freeport. While the first module is not needed for this one, it is highly recommended. The module seems to assume the first one has been done however. A clever DM could bring the characters up to date with the happenings of the city through rumors and other ways or just have the players get involved in these plots at a middle point. It would be more challenging for both players and DM but it can be done.
This module has a lot more going on for ity then the first. It makes a nice addition and ups the complexity level enough to really make it interesting. One of the great things this module does is have little sidebars about what is really going on. This can allow a DM to have players that do things unexpected but still have the module go on. The little bits do a nice job of explaining the under lining plot and the DM can follow that and then have events the PCs do just reflect this. Obviously, it will still be more work and more challenging for a DM then if the players just follow the module, but it is not hopeless if they do not.
As the module takes place in Freeport it is interesting to see the city slowly getting fleshed out in them. At this point many people will have read or seen parts of the Freeport City book, but even without those later published Freeport books the module is easy to run. Those other books can be used with great efficiency to make the city come even more alive and to create other side problems if the DM thinks such additions will be beneficial.
The module is a good bit of investigation as well as some problem solving. There are more encounters and battle in this module then the last as well. There are some very good handouts and NPCs provided. The module is nice and complete even having three really good adventure seeds to keep the players busy before taking on the next module in the series, Madness at Freeport.
It is really nice to see some really good early products being upgraded and re-released for people to enjoy again or for the first time. Freeport has proven to be a popular setting and with these PDFs new people can also take advantage of some of the best early products in d20. The Freeport Modules have become some of the early classics of the d20 era and now no one has to miss out on them.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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This book oddly enough reminded me of their Arsenal series. It takes a single item from the core rules and expands upon it in new and exciting ways. The first Arsenal book did that for Spiked Chains, and this does it for the Mystic Theurge. However, the Arsenal books is to be a series as they expand upon the weapons, and from my understanding this was just written because happenstance at the gaming table. But these is the line of books that needs to done, take the prestige classes from the core rules and do this with them. Expand upon them; give the gamers new and exciting options that cater to them.
Secrets of Theurgy is a PDF by EN Publishing. EN Publishing is one of the leaders in the PDF market and are the creators of such classics like the Kid?s Coloring Book o Critters, Thee Compleat Librum ov Gar'Udok's Necromantic Artes, and Tournements Fairs and Taverns. Secrets of Theurgy comes in a zip file a little over a meg in size and the PDF is not much bigger. The art, layout, and look of the book are top notch. EN Publishing has really shown it can create great looking PDFs. The book is also well book marked going so far as to even book marking all the sidebars in one place.
The book itself is small, only around fifteen pages. It starts with a good introduction into the Theurgy classes even suggestion that the road into them of dividing levels between divine and arcane magic?s is needed and they suggest not allowing people to start in any of the prestige classes even if one is starting a campaign at a higher level. As the Theurgy gain power there are those who believe that it quickly becomes too much, so the first optional rule is to only increase the ability of either the divine or arcane for the first level of the class. This makes it a little harder before they true benefits start being reaped.
The Mystic Theurge is reprinted here with the added ability of Theurge. This prevents a character from taking more then one of these prestige classes as that would greatly increase their power especially at the higher levels. The firs new class is the Elemental Theurge. It requires an elemental domain to get into it so the optional rule of giving druids access to a single domain is presented. The Elemental Theurge does not gain spell casting abilities in both classes every level. They also get some elemental abilities and still have strong casting abilities, just not quite as strong as the Mystic Theurge. Lord of Undeath is the Theurge focusing on undead. He gets some great abilities to control and master the undead. Theurgic Lorewarden is perhaps my favorite of all the classes here. It combines a bit of the Lore Master into it. The class that I was not expecting but was really happy to see is the Heirophant Theurge. They area high level prestige class needing fifteen ranks in three skills and ability to cast seventh level arcane and divine spells. They don?t get any more spells per day but do get to choose from an array of options like increasing intelligence, getting a bonus to Use Magic Device, or a new Domain. Then there are the Theurge feats. These feats can only be taken by a character with a level in one of these classes.
This book takes a bland class and shows the potential it has. The creativeness in this book is matched only by the crisp writing and character ideas one can find by reading about the classes. Anyone with interest in using the Mystic Theurge from the DMG needs this book to be seen what the possibilities of the class truly are.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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The Quintessential series from Mongoose has been a hit and miss series. They have a lot of writers so book to book the quality changes and style changes. They do try to stay with the same formula of chapters, but covering different classes and races always in the same way does not work. Quintessential Aristocrat is different from the normal books in the series in two ways. First it is a pdf while most of the others are in print, and more importantly it covers an NPC class.
Quintessential Aristocrat looks standard for the series. Even though it s a PDF it has the same cover, the same type of art, and the same layout that is expected in the series. The PDF is ninety nine pages in length. That?s about thirty pages shorter then the Quintessential books in print, but about the same size of the PDF ones. The book has borders so while it is black and white it can still end up eating an ink cartridge when printed. It also has no bookmarks. The table of contents is rather basic and there is no index. So, when it gets read must either memorize where everything is or spend timing finding it because there are no sources in the book like bookmarks to help one find anything fast.
I do not normally talk about editing but since Mongoose has had some big editing problems I think that many people?s first question for any new Mongoose book is about the editing. It is not perfect, but reading through the book there are no big errors that make a section impossible to understand. There are some small things like in the Magistrate Character Concept the character has to be lawful. He can also be good, neutral, or chaotic according to the text. Errors like that might be a little frustrating to the reader but they do not hinder comprehension. There are no big problems in here that will ruin the book, only a few little mistakes but that is par for the course.
The book itself is well done. This was researched and well thought out. The first major thing the author does is explain why someone should play an Aristocrat even though it is an NPC class. He has some good reasons and while it is not the strongest of classes his points are on solid foundation. He also fully admits that while research went into this book, it is not truly based on facts. They have been altered and changed to fit that this is a game, but he does encourage people to do their own research if they want a more realistic feel.
The book then goes into the character concepts. These are a way to focus a character by giving them some role playing tips and a small mechanical bonus and flaw. For the most part the effect in game is small but the concepts really help define characters and help in the role playing. I especially like these for players that can not quite grasp how to role play a particular character.
Following that is a section not seen in Quintessential books but one that is perfect here. It goes through the multi class possibilities of the Aristocrat with each of the core classes from the Players Handbook. Since it is an NPC class this section will help boost the power for the character by combining it with a class that is appropriate. Each class combination has an arch type associated with it that best shows what this type of character might be.
Prestige classes are a staple in the game these days and Quintessential Aristocrat does not fail to deliver. However, the author does something that few do. He allows the prestige class to have as many levels as it needs. Not all ideas fit easily as five or ten level classes, but people stretch them out or shrink them down because somehow prestige classes must have only five or ten levels. In here that is not always the case. And those classes feel find and seem okay for what they do. He provides an aristocrat prestige class for each race. There are other ones in here, but it s the racial ones that I found to be the most needed and easiest to use.
Negotiations are the bread and butter of a diplomat. There are some good rule for using dice to negotiate but they may be a little to complex. I also did not like that the bribery amounts was solely based on the level of the person being bribed. It is a good basis for these types of rules, but I would change and refine them some if I were to use them in my game. There are some great new uses for old skills in here. I think this rates up there with Quintessential Rogue as being the best source for this kind of information. They are mostly knowledge skills but they are well expanded upon making some easily over looked skills become important. The chapter also goes into family icons. It does a great job of showing their importance as well as having a nice list of them and possible meanings they have.
Next, it goes into feats and equipment. There is not a lot truly amazing things here but these sections are solid none the less. The equipment does give good descriptions of some mundane items that can be useful to any one. It s the affiliations section though that things get interesting and complicated. In a game that feature diplomacy and contact these rules will be highly beneficial. But for the more average adventure and kill things game these rules would just bog it down when they became relevant, which would not be that often. The same goes for the section on status and building a manor. All three sections are well done and for the right game this should be just what everyone is looking for. The same goes with the list of titles.
It is not a perfect book, but I am still going to give it a perfect rating. The writing and research that went in here is very good. The bibliography alone is a full page. Martin Thomas, the author did his homework and deserves an A. The lack of bookmarks is annoying, but truthfully this should have been in print. The book does something very difficult, it takes an NPC class and makes it worthy of a PC without rewriting the class.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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In the days of D&D dwarves have always been a rather well depicted and well defined race. Racial books in d20 were one of the first areas covered. Green Ronin had a very good on in Hammer and Helm, Bad Axe Games had their highly respected Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves, and Mongoose had the under appreciated Quintessential Dwarf. Yet, even with three solid books to reference there is always room for more especially one of quality. Hammer Dwarven Lords is another good book on Dwarves that will serve well as a stand alone or in conjunction with the other books.
Hammer Dwarven Lords is a new PDF by Dark Quest Games. They have put out some very good books like Dweomercraft: Familiars, Moon Elves, Death: Guardian at the Gate, and In the Saddle. They have a good handle on PDF publishers and are one of the unsung companies that constantly do good work. Hammer Dwarven Lords is eighty-six pages long. It is well laid out with excellent art. The book has good production values and is fully book marked.
The one thing that Hammer Dwarven Lords really excels at is the details. It has a few really well defined dwarven cultures, dwarven gods, and dwarven society. It describes the life of the dwarf from birth to death. The level of detail really makes this book stand out.
The first three chapters covers three different dwarven clans. Each is fully detailed as to what the dwarves do from birth on. The culture, art, fashion, government, religion, and foods are all discussed. These dwarves seem alive with the detail giving some great ideas for both players and game masters. This is a very strong set of chapters and really covers a lot of information.
There is a small chapter on gods making them easy to use, but not taking up too much space for people that are wanting to use their own deities. There are a few new domains and almost fifty new spells. There is plenty of new equipment but the highlight is the wide assortment of new alcoholic beverages. The details are again great in these sections.
The book finishes with feats for dwarven wrestling and some new classes. The classes are thought out and well balanced. I like how they are in the back of the book as the clear emphasis is on the details of the clans and their people.
The Hammer Dwarven Lords is a very well written book that covers lots of areas. It has a good amount of rules and detailed text, but the writing and the details are clearly the emphasis of the book. Once again Dark Quest Games has done a very good job of detailing a race and subject matter in great way.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves is Bad Axe Games first book, and is also the first in their line of race books. This book is rather small being only 62 pages and it is not a full size book. However the price is only about ten dollars American and it is packed inside. The cover is one of the coolest covers I?ve seen. It?s very simple, yet really says Dwarf. It has a symbol of an Anvil and Hammer on it. The tones are very earthy and title and author?s name are seamlessly part of the cover. The art inside is also very fitting. It adds to the text and is not overbearing.
There are two basic points that need to be said before getting into the specifics. The first is that this book is filled with rules and very little narrative. It has feats, new uses for old skills, prestige classes, but only a little on dwarven culture and other extra information. Some people prefer the ?crunch? to the ?fluff?. Second, this options presented in this book are very well in line with everything in the core rules. There are no odd new rules, different presentations of the dwarven people, or sub races.
The book starts with a two-page introduction. It?s very basic and reiterates what one expects of dwarves. From there we go directly to the feats. There are new fighter feats as well as feats recommended only for dwarves. There are many new combat feats like Giant Killer and Hammer Mastery. The first one negates reach of some creatures, the other grants a bonus to attack with all Hammer weapons. There are a few other types like Sturdy Back that reduces encumbrance. All the feats seem useful and balanced. Next we get into fighting styles. These are four styles: Single Weapon, Weapon and Shield, Two Handed Style, and Two Weapon Style. Each has certain feat requirements and if all the requirements are meet, one automatically gets and additional bonus when using this style. Then each style also has a specialization that can only be taken as a feat for characters with at least four levels in fighter. The bonuses received are nice, but not overpowering. Next the book goes into dwarven runes. These are simple additions that can be added to any weapon, armor, or item. The runes are a nice, simple way to add a bit of dwarven mystery to items.
Next the book covers some new uses for old skills, although it?s mostly new dwarven options for crafting. There are many new traits that can be built into weapons and armor. These new options are easily presented here and all the craft DCs and price included. I really like this section as it shows the superior quality that dwarven items can have.
The real meat of the book are the prestige classes. This is well over half the book. There are ten prestige classes, and each one is aimed towards a multi class fighter. A fighter with levels in any of the other ten core classes will find a prestige class in here that fits. Each prestige class shows their role in the dwarven society and their role in an adventuring party. I really liked that that information was added to all the classes. It makes them easy to use as NPCs to show the diversity of a Dwarven civilization. All of the prestige classes seem pretty well balanced and interesting.
The book ends with a couple of pages on Dwarven Society. Over all it?s a good little book. It really presents many options for the dwarven character, but I feel it centers too much on the fighter. As a first product it is well done and void of the usual mistakes in editing and organization one tends to see. And lastly, I have to comment on the clever name of the company: Bad Axe Games. I think it?s the coolest sounding company out there.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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Heroes of High Favor: Elves is what I feel is the best book by Bad Axe Games to date. The book is small and one might not notice it on the store selves if not for a most majestic cover by Brad Kelly and Andrew Hale. The cover is amazing; I can not really do it justice in a description. But the picture to the right should do the job nicely. This is the third book in the Heroes of High Favor series. The first two covered Half Orcs and Dwarves. Each book is more geared towards the player characters then the dungeon masters, but both will find a lot of useful information to expand upon these races.
The book is seventy eight pages in length and comes in a $9.95 The book though is not full sized, but well worth the money. The cover art is amazing and the interior art is well done. The layout is easy to read and the format of the tables is fine.
It starts with a small introduction into the series and then gives a little information on elves. The book does not have long passages of info on the elves, but cleverly hides it in the prestige classes and other areas. Next the book covers feats and skills. It starts with some general feats and then has many arcane feats followed by a small section on skills. All the feats have a strong elven feel and none of them seem to have and power problems. Next the book covers new specialization rules for Wizards and ley line and nexus rules. I think these rules are the strongest part of the book and do a great job of expanding the Wizard class and adding the elven feel to it all.
The prestige classes are the bulk of the book. They cover pairing each core class of the Players Handbook with the Wizard class in a unique blend of abilities. Personally, I think the idea is brilliant. Each class is more then a prestige class, it also discusses the particular multi class combination. My favorite is the Spell Shikar, the Ranger Wizard combination. They hunt and destroy the ancient enemies of the elves and have a range of abilities to help them with that. They can track across the planes and greater abilities to be used against their favorite enemies.
The last section covers some good role playing advice on elves. Then it has something that seems to have been left out of other books: rules for creating spells. It just seems that by now one would think that rules for creating spells would have been published, but I?m more then happy to have them included in this book.
Over all this is a great resource for elves. Players and Dungeons Masters alike will find it very useful. It is filled with great ideas and it is tough to beat the cost.
<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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Heroes of High Favor: Half Orcs by Bad Axe Games
Heroes of High Favor: Half Orcs is Bad Axe Games second book. This one focuses on Half Orcs and their favored Class Barbarian. The set up is exactly the same as the first with feats, new uses for skill, and prestige classes being the primary focus of this book. The size of the book is also the same, 62 pages and smaller then the standard d20 supplements. The cover is again very well done. There?s a symbol of an eye on parchment with bloodstains on it. The name of the book and the author?s name, Benjamin Durbin, are part of the parchment. I really like that style. The interior art, while done by Andrew Hale, the same person who did their Dwarf book, I did not like as much. I think most of the half orcs have a demonic look to them.
The book starts with a couple of pages on the introduction. This section tells one exactly what is to be found in this book. Next we get to the feat section. There are a few reprinted her from their earlier book. The types of feats are general, half orc, fighter, and rage feats. The rage feats are very interesting, they allow one to spend a rage ability to get an additional ability like damage reduction or do more damage with unarmed attacks.
Next, the book goes into new uses for old skills. This section has more craft item options including the ability to create shoddy items. An interesting idea is presented with the Handle Animal skill: the ability to cross breed. It covers the ability to cross animals with animals, beasts, and magical beasts. There is also expands the intimidation rules and good uses for Wilderness Lore.
The next chapter, and again the bulk of the book, is on the ten prestige classes. Each prestige class is geared to a certain Barbarian other class combo; pairing the barbarian with each of the other core classes. For the most part the classes seem okay; I just was not inspired by many of them. The Dire Stalker is a very nice Barbarian Ranger combination and the Moulder is a Barbarian Druid that specializes in cross breeding creatures.
Overall I think the book is pretty good, especially for people using half orcs in their game. I do like their Dwarf book better, but that doesn?t take anything away from this one.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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Heroes of Hope is a book for a charity. The Charity is for the Tsunami victims of the Tsunami that happened last December. All the profits from this book go towards relief for that disaster. Now the good intentions of the book are not going to be weighed in for the review. Buying the book though to help out the charity is never a bad idea though.
The PDF is by a variety of people who helped on the project. There is also a list of web sites that helped in this PDF. The PDF is seventy four pages long and has some nice art and layout. But it has color, backgrounds, and will be heavy on the ink if the PDF gets printed out. It has no book marks to help using it on the screen and book marks would be a big help. Because of the heavy backgrounds and art scrolling through the PDF on screen can go a little slow.
The book consists of NPCs for a variety of genres. There a re no particular game the PDF is attached to. So there are also no mechanical information for any of the NPCs. Each has a picture, extensive personality and backgrounds. Everyone needs NPCs and this has NPCs that can work in most games especially the ones of the most common genres like fantasy modern and sci fi. Most of the NPCs are of a normal sort but there are a few odd ones in there showing a nice level of creativity. Each NPC also ha a few good plot hooks attached to it for easy use and adventure ideas. Most of the NPCs take up about two pages in the book and since none of that is game info there is a lot of good background and personality information on the characters.
The product I think tries to be a little too useful to a lot of different genres. One gets about twenty pages of each of three major genres in the book. There is more fantasy character then the others with modern characters being the fewest. It is easy to use though and I am sure there are a few characters everyone will like. They made it useful to as many different types of gamers as they could by keeping it generic and crossing over many genres. Hopefully that strategy will pay off for them.
It is nice though to see gamers trying to help out the world at large. There are just not that many different charity projects that I see involving gamers. The company has another product for the same charity as well though I am not going to be able to review that one. There is useful stuff here and knowing the money goes to help a good cause will appeal to some people and hopefully they will pick this up. This is the type of book that will not be used a lot all at once but can remain useful in many different campaigns and game genres. If you pick it, do not forget about it in a few years as this book will be useful then as it is now.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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In the Saddle by Darkquest Games
In the Saddle is a nice little pdf all about horses and mounts. Its 101 pages in length filled with great detail good art. The text density is fine and the two column layout is easy to read.
Like many of Darkquest Games pdf?s In the Saddle is filled with detail to the overflowing point. The first chapter describes horses and taking care of them in great detail. No longer will horses just be a way to get from point A to point B. With this the horse can be given personality and style. One can spend time properly caring for the mount and criticize others who do so poorly. There is information on breeds, different types of horses, and a nice random horse trait table. I really like the detail and research that must have gone into this first chapter. It really can bring a level of detail to mounts that would be impossible otherwise.
The second chapter goes into who has needs for what type of mount. Sure, through the forest it?s easy to decide but what about in other terrains and other areas? How about the best beast of burden to carry along all those coins and treasures adventures find? Well, this chapter helps answer those questions.
Chapter three goes into what races like what mounts. Humans of course like their horses, but what mounts does a half orc prefer?
Now that one has his mount, one needs to train it. Chapter 4 goes into training and the skills and feats that are most beneficial to a mount. It also goes into many tricks both common and uncommon that mounts can be trained to do. Need one?s horse to wear armor or smile? This is how one does it.
Chapter five deals with new rules through feats, skills, and spells. It starts off with new uses for old skills as they apply to mounts as well as veterinary healing. There are new feats like ride by larceny and nap riding that will really make riding mounts more versatile and useful. The spells are simple ones like create fodder (food for mounts) to dragon mount, it gives the half dragon template to your mount temporarily.
The sixth chapter goes into prestige classes. I really like that they have a good mix of combat oriented ones like the Fog Rider, and have a good mix of non combat ones like the Galloping Trollop and the Wandering Merchant. They do include a Mongol core class that seems a bit on the powerful side. I like the class but would need to find a way to scale it back. Aside from that, though, all the classes are both interesting and balanced.
The seventh chapter goes into detail on chariots. This is much better then the information found in Sword and Fist. They even have chariots for non humans as well as historical information on chariots. This chapter might just convince people to start using them in their campaign.
The eighth chapter covers equipment, and mounts need lots of equipment. It starts out with a simple table with the prizes and weights of everything presented here and then it moves on to the descriptions of the items. There are even some new and alternate types of mounts here.
The ninth chapter covers everything magical: from horseshoes to saddle, and carts to lassos. It has rules for making magical horse like weapons as well as miscellaneous items like flying wagons and feedbags a plenty. There are many good items here that will allow any mount to become helpful in combat and not be placed at so much risk.
Lastly, we have chapter ten: The Bestiary. This chapter fully stats out all the new mounts from chapter seven. There are some very interesting ones like the Saddle Hopper which is a giant grasshopper, to things a little more mundane like Frostfox. I think the mounts are mostly hit or miss, but if one is looking for something other then a horse there is a good chance it will be found here.
This is another good Darkquest Game?s book. They are a about the details and this books goes into the details on mounts and especially horses. Anyone looking to bring a little more character or interest level into mounts really should be looking at this book for all the mount needs.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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Zorcerer of Zo
At first I wanted an opening paragraph filled with Z?s instead of S?s but I felt that was a bit too annoying. Instead I will dive in on the fun of Fairy Tale gaming. It is games set in those mythical worlds or ones heavily influenced by them. The Shrek movies give an okay example of how such things might work but all one needs is a little imagination and a What?s Next question. In most of the tales the characters got a Happily Ever After or at the very least some sort of conclusion. It would be easy to find some of the original stories that ended a little darker then the now more familiar Disney interpretations of them. Welcome to the Zanfabulous Zorcerer of Zo.
The Zorcerer of Zo is a new RPG by Atomic Sock Monkey Press. They are the makers of a very good super heroes game called Truth and Justice. Zorcerer of Zo uses a simpler version of those rules. The book is over a hundred pages but much of it is campaign notes. The PDF is very well book marked. It has an interesting layout that presents two pages from the printed version on its of its pages. The printed book is half sized so the writing is not too small and it can be read. The art work is nicely done and the layout is over all very good.
The system is nice and easy. It was useful that I have read and played Truth and Justice which uses a more complicated version of the PDQ rules. And anyone that knows those rules will find that it sounds odd to use the word complicated along with them. It uses 2d6 for a simple task resolution. Characters have qualities that can be anywhere from -2 to +6 with the higher being the better. It is interesting that damage makes the qualities get worse and once all of them are gone the character dies. It is a rather neat way of doing health. There are outside modifiers a GM can apply and the PC can use hero points to help himself. Once a concept is thought of it takes only about twenty minutes at the most to detail out the character and once one gets a few characters under their belt and or gets used to the game that will go even faster. It is a good system for the kind of games a fairy tale based RPG wants to create.
The game starts with a great look at fairy tales. It really dissects them well and presents the different types and really does a great job of setting up a game based on them. This information will be great for anyone running a fairy tale based game be it Grimm or Zorcerer or another game. The rest of the book takes on into the land of Zo. One unique item the writer does in have his campaign notes and side bars from himself and his players. This can be seen as informative or a waste of space. Some people are going to be curious about this behind the scenes information and other obviously will not. I find it neat to read through.
Most the book is on the descriptions of the world. The original information the campaign started with is in here. The book and PDF though also present a more expanded version that is more appropriate for a campaign setting. It is still not overly detailed allowing for a lot of places and items a GM will have to define himself. There are a few NPCs here and the focus is on the campaign the game was based on. It is a very creative place that draws on a lot of inspirational sources. It has the feeling of a typical fairy tale world. It has a few modern elements brought in in a sort of cross over like in Narnia and in Oz. I did find it interesting how the GM was at first really resistant to doing this and later realized that it was a mistake. That?s some of the behind the scenes information the book presents.
The Zorcerer of Zo is a nice fairy tale game. It is more about this one setting them about creating one from scratch. The book takes a nice approach to the subject and has some truly creative ideas in it.
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<b>LIKED</b>: Great use of the PDQ system and very creative<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: A little too much on the campaign they ran<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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I guess it is time to start using the term old school in a review. I haven?t reviewed any of the new old school games or supplements though I have been reading many of them. I still fondly have all my old first edition and old D&D books. It gets its use as reference material these days. I?m not sure the group of gamers I have is quite ready to game in the rules of an older edition. But with support like this maybe some day I will get to run one of my old campaigns again. I will have to add that to the list of things in gaming I want to run.
OSRIC Unearthed is a PDF published by Ronin Arts. It is written by Charles Rice and has the look and feel of an older edition supplement. It is in a product line called First Edition Fantasy and is supplement two. The forty two page PDF is superbly book marked and has some good art and a nice lay out. As a supplement of mostly classes and martial arts maneuvers with a few new magical weapons this will be easy to use from the computer.
The book starts off with eight new and easy to use classes. These all cover specific arch types that one will find useful in their fantasy game. Some of them are of an eastern feel while others are typical from other fantasy games. There really is not anything new here but it does offer some missing options. The inclusion of the Bard or Noble will not be seen as overly creative or daring. They are pretty standard as far as fantasy arch types but they are archetypes one would have trouble doing with just the standard OSRIC rules.
The Barbarian is a nice magic hating variety. They have bad saving through verse spells and magical spell like items. But if the Barbarian saves he goes into a super berserk rage an attacks the magic user or illusion who cast something at him. He has no problems with druids or clerics and their spells. The Barbarian has a normal berserk ability and great hit points. The class is slow in gaining levels but at the high level ones becomes a Warlord and can attract over 30d10 first level barbicans plus other leaders.
The bard is also very typical for the archetype. They get some cool mystic music abilities. Many of them imitate other magical spells. They gain some thief abiliti3es as they gain levels. But other then that they do not have anything. So this is not the old jack of trades class that some people might expect.
The Brawler is a class that has always been missing from D&D. It is a western style unarmed fighter. They can take weapon specialization unarmed combat and get access to many of the new martial art styles the book introduces.
The Ninja is a class that only goes up to fifteen levels. It also uses one of the martial arts and they get some cool magical abilities and disguise. It is a good write up of this archetype.
The Noble does best with a group of people. They have abilities that help and aid others out. They get some good followers at higher levels as well.
The book also has the Knight (which they forgot to book mark, Samurai, thief acrobat, and Yamabushi. The Yamabushi is the eastern version of the brawler. But of course with enough different to warrant it being its own class.
The martial arts section is really what separates the book from other class books. The system is easy to use and fits well within the weapon proficiency system the OSRIC system already uses. What I like best is that even though the term Martial Arts usually conjures up traditional Eastern themes OSRIC Unearthed has Martial Art styles for the Bow and Sword and other items that will fit very well with a more typical medical game. Each style gives a small bonus and allows the user to select new maneuvers with proficiency slots they gain through level advancement. It is a simple system that makes an easy add on. And it can really add a good new feel to an old style game.
OSRIC Unearthed is a good and solid product that opens up plenty of new options people will want to play. The classes are all basic ones that have been popular archetypes for years. And the martial art system is simple and seamless with the weapon proficiency system. This is a very solid product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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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>
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It seems odd to be doing a Halloween review during the week of Thanksgiving. However, given that I have not seen any Thanksgiving oriented adventures in a few years this one will have to do. This adventure is a nice horror bit that takes place in an insane asylum. It has a lot of good qualities that I?ll into shortly but the most important aspect of the adventure is that it is free.
I rarely talk about the cost of a product in my review. What is expensive to one is cheap to another, it all comes down to the person buying. But there is no excuse for not getting this module as it is a free download. I have seen a lot of free downloads and this is one of the better ones. So, go get it?it is costing you nothing!!!
Now that we have that taken care of let us get one to the actual product. Where Madness Dwells is an adventure written by Thomas Knauss and CD Bennett. They are part of the Inner Circle. They are the people behind two great products Denizens of Avandu and Legends of Avandu. If you have not checked them out you should. Where Madness Dwells comes in a zip file a bit under nine megs. It comes with player handouts, maps and a print and on screen version of the adventure.
The adventure is designed for character of six to eighth level with ways to scale the adventure. The adventure is supposed to be really challenging for the players with one or two encounters that will be extremely hard. This seems to be by design and with the setting these extra challenging encounters should make this adventure memorable. In fact the writers even say that completing this will give the players bragging rights for years to come.
There is a PDF of player handouts. Handouts are a great addition to any game and it is good to see them included here. There is a map of the city, and two sheets that are for the players to find. They really are nicely done and this type of quality is rarely seen in anything free. There is also a map of the Asylum and this is of course for the DM.
The adventure is a good mystery. The setting can get creepy if properly run. It is a an asylum and they capture the craziness of it in the adventure. There are plenty of unique characters for the players to encounter. As the modules itself says the feel should be one of lurking dread.
I am not going to offer any spoilers for this one. Again, it is free and if the if the idea of a creepy asylum adventure sounds cool then go get it. If it turns out to be something you do not like it will be easy to delete it off your hard drive.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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The common folk are usually ignored. That may be putting it a little blunt but in the world of adventures the little craftsmen, the laborers, the town guard rarely get any thought. The classes for them in the DMG are basically a joke. They are boring and offer very little. The game seems to have designed them to be bland and ignored. There has been a few attempts to make them a little more interesting and to help people use them like Everyone Else. But no one has really created individual classes for them that actually give characters a reason to advance in them and offer things the regular core classes do not. Unlikely Heroes does this and does it well.
Unlikely Heroes is a PDF by Plot Device. It is really their first product even though it is actually eight. One thing that they did that is really good is they offer each class separately so one only has to get the classes they want. However, one can not buy them all together like what I am reviewing just yet. One can buy all seven and then get bonus material from them and its not like these are expensive.
Unlikely Heroes has standard layout. It does the job but is a bit plain. The art is pretty much the same. There is a color cover and some color in the front of the book but most of it is black and white. The book is book marked and comes in two forms. There is a pdf and rich text format of them, but the individual classes only come in PDF format. They have some color, no book marks (not that they need them), and are only a few pages each.
The first think I was concerned about with the book was the balance of these classes to the core ones. While these are stronger then the standard NPC classes they are still a bit weaker then the PHB classes. At lower levels there will not be as much a difference but at higher levels there will be some. That is not to say that the classes cannot adventure beside each other, it will just take some getting used to. The classes here are usually more skill base so they do have advantages. They tend to have good hit points as well.
The first class is the Arcane Dabbler. This is a wizard but weaker. They get better hit points, better skill points, and more bonus feats. They however only can get up to seventh level spells and at twentieth level they are only casting as a thirteenth level wizard. This is a great replacement for the wizard in a low magic campaign or for someone who wants a wizard but is more of a dabbler as the name suggests. It has a much better survival rate at low levels.
The Guard is really self explanatory. It is interesting because it gains weapon proficiency and armor proficiency as it gains level. So a guard that is using a heavy armor the players will know is pretty skilled as they need to be fourth level to do so. They have the same hit points as a fighter but do gain more skills. They do not get nearly as many bonus feats but do get other abilities like Shield Other which works like the spell except has a range of five feet. I like they at first level they still have things to learn like weapons and armor. I think this would make a great addition to a game that uses training for instance and for people that don?t want their character to automatically know how to use all the weapons and armor.
The Laborer is both cool sounding but probably the weakest of the classes. It gets some great abilities like increased encumbrance and can lessen the penalties of wearing many armor types. It gets damage reduction; a d12 hit die and some good skills and skill points. But the abilities are more passive then active and even though carrying much more then a normal person of same strength can be useful it really is not that powerful. They also have a lousy base attack bonus. In a low magic campaign or even a city based on this class could really do well though.
The Mystic is perhaps the one class that not only has about equal power of the PHB classes it is in my opinion more interesting then the sorcerer which it is very much like. It gets better hit points and more skill points. It cast spells spontaneously and does get up to ninth level spell access. It does not get a familiar, but more importantly its spells known are restricted to domains. The Mystic starts with two domains and learns one more every 5 levels. These are the only spells the Mystic will ever know. The Aura of the Mystic is a really cool idea. Basically, a good character can get power from an evil good or vice versa so the alignment aura of the character will show up as both. It is a fascinating idea and I think this is my favorite class out of all the ones presented here. It can work well in most campaigns that sorcerers work in.
The Noble might be the least likely class here I would use. It does a good job of presenting the Nobel, but frankly other books have done a much better job. This is one concept that has been published more then a few times. Still, the class here works for people looking for one. It does have one thing that is sort of neat, the idea of the servant and mechanically it works much like an animal companion. That it is gains power as the noble does and not based on its own experience points.
The professional truly is. They get great skill points, good hit points, good saves, and the ability to enter the ?Zone?. The ?Zone? is the state of working that they just excel at what they are doing; it works quite similarly to the Barbarian?s Rage. They do not really get much else but it could be a good class for a low magic and or city based games.
The scholar is the skill oriented class. It gains more skill points then the rogue. It also gets less hit points then them as well. They get skill mastery, and abilities that deal with intelligence and skills. They are probably the least combat oriented class but they excel in many other areas. Like most classes this will be useful in low magic but also low combat campaigns.
The bonus material is eight plot seeds and some design notes from the writer. The plots are designed more for characters that are these unlikely heroes then the truly adventurous ones. The design notes are very insightful and I am a big fan of authors who include them.
Unlikely Heroes fill the role of characters from a more normal background adventuring. The classes are mostly well thought out and very interesting. The power level is toned down and rightfully so. With some tweaking these classes would work well in Conan, Slaine, Arcana Unearthed, and other alternative d20 settings. I also really like the options of just buying the classes one wants instead of having to get them all.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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