|
|
|
Other comments left by this customer: |
|
|
|
|
Iron Nuggets
One of these days, I would like to post a negative review about a Super Genius Games product. If for no other reasons than to not sound like a fanboy. But, with a name like Super Genius, you have to produce, else face ridicule for having such a cocky name. And that they do. Ultimate Options: Guns and Grit is a thorough recalibration of the Gun rules presented by Paizo in Ultimate Combat. It adds a number of “make sense” options to the system like additional Grits that give more variety to the Gunslinger. A lot of the new options take the Gun Slinger from a ranged damage dealer to an excellent area control specialist.
Guns and Grit also adds some new feats specifically for players who are playing other classes but are packing heat. The mix of gun rules with abilities like the alchemist’s Bomb (grenades) ability and fighter’s melee prowess (pistol whipping) are genius ideas. Towards the end of the book a new class is introduced and a system for the gun slinger to use intelligence or charisma instead of wisdom. Ultimate Options, Guns and Grit is one of the best supplements to compliment the fine gun rules Paizo introduced.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Iron Nuggets
Because of the overcomplicated and tedious crafting rules that has plagues D&D from the age of time, books on the subject of making your own things in Dungeons and Dragons have been scarce.
More Damage Through Alchemy, by Tangent Games, is one of the few crafting books that adds a considerable amount of meat to the crafting ability. Built for 3.5, though fully compatible with Pathfinder, it provides a list of items and new rules for Craft Alchemy. If all you find yourself doing with Craft Alchemy is making acid, the book provides various types of acids, bases and new alchemical products that can hinder enemies, blind foes and help comrades. The 24 page book is quite balanced except a few spots where the product seems to do a bit much, despite the logical reasons behind it. Layout is great, and there’s a neat table in the back of the book for quick reference to what each of the new concoctions do.
|
|
|
|
|
Creator Reply: |
Nathan,
Thank you for your comments. We hope we can continue to provide high quality books to enhance your game play. If you have any suggestions for other titles you would like to see please let us know. We'd be happy to hear from you.
Geoff Habiger & Coy Kissee
Tangent Games |
|
|
|
|
One of the most impressive adventure path’s I have ever used was the War of the Burning Sky written by Ryan Nock and published by En Publishing. Nock’s writing style emphasizes PC Choice over story telling, and Burning Sky really pushed that. The only problem was the story still felt locked in place during some adventures.
With Zeitgeist, Nock has now perfected the technique of presenting an adventure path, and has handedly beat Paizo at their own game.
Zeitgeist is the new En Publishing Adventure Path that will be released over the next two years. It features a unique setting of a fantasy world going through an Industrial Age. Before the first adventure was published, the adventure path released player and campaign (DM) guides for both 4th edition and Pathfinder. The free supplements were extensively detailed and worth downloading if only to use in other campaigns. Instead of developing a slew of new classes for the campaign, they instead tell you how to use existing core material, this also includes the new gun rules from Paizo’s Ultimate Combat.
The Adventure Path stems around the country of Risur as they began to leave their magical history behind and move into a new steam and steel way of thinking. An overarching mystery permeates throughout the path, putting the PCs in the middle of the changes in this world.
The setting is innovatively brilliant. It is not a steampunk world. Instead truly feels like Nock took a traditional Greyhawk type setting, plopped it in the middle of the 17th century and said grow up. The game still feels like Dungeons and Dragons, only in a slightly more aged setting.
The first adventure, Island at the Axis of the World, introduces not only the setting, but an organized new method for laying out an adventure. The layout emphases the fact that the PCs are fully in control and includes notes and sidebars to accommodate players who travel off the beaten path. The adventure is broken down into 3 acts, each of which divided into sections. The section headings tell you what type of encounters the PCs will face during them. It also includes what NPCs are affiliated with it.
The problem with Paizo’s adventure paths, is that I find myself frequently deleting creature encounters that have little to nothing to do with the campaign, they are only there so that Paizo can reach some arbitrary XP number that must be met. Thank goodness Nock eliminates the whole nonsense from Axis by simply telling DMs when to level their PCs.
The art and layout throughout the Zeitgeist book is great, allowing the setting to show through the industrial color schemes. There are battlemaps included for every described combat encounter.
For the Dungeon Master
The final ship encounter is an intense, tight encounter that will really impress your players. The helpful guides and sidebars will insure that as a DM, you are never lost as to where your players should go or what to do next. I mentioned above how much I enjoy the de-emphasis on XP, but I also should mention that the de-emphasis on party loot is a nice touch as well. PCs are required to turn in all loot to their superiors and then receive a stipend to buy it back later. This creates a more orderly way of handing out items.
The Iron Word
There is a firm difference between a writer who writes adventures and a DM who writes adventures. Nock is a DM who writes adventures. The material throughout the campaign is designed so that the DM can relay things to their players in a fashion that is easiest to them. The open writing style allows DMs to institute their own ideas, side stories and PC shenanigans and still keep up with the campaign. If the next adventures are anywhere as different and exciting as Axis, this is going to be one of the epic Adventure Paths of this decade.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Iron Nugget
I am not sure why Paizo only released six measly curses with the Oracle Class (though I suspect it has something to do with leaving the door open for future supplements). Super Genius Games, though, comes to the rescue by presenting over a dozen more oracles to spice up the class.
These curses are packed with flavor and feel better than the ones in the book. There are also more detailed rules for creating your own curse.
The Iron Word
I love the weird mysteriousness of the Oracle Class, and things like Addicted and Amputee rules increase that mysteriousness. The curses in this book fit the Oracle Class like a Snuggy in an Alaskan winter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Iron Nugget
The Elusive Foe is the 2nd in a trilogy of adventures published by Interaction Points Games and designed for their campaign setting Kingdoms of Legends. The idea of dungeons and dragons using too common modern elements like England and France does not make for my cup of tea. Despite the setting, Elusive is a nice series of chase scenes that attempts to include two adventures in one. The adventure is both written for players who are following the trilogy and for players who are using it as a stand alone game. IN some places, this works great, in others I wondered why they didn’t just include a few notes, as the separate hook for the standalone adventure is unnecessary if you give the write advice in the Adventure Summary. It also made no sense that the stand alone adventure still uses the Kingdoms of Legends setting, which makes for a bit more work to use in a traditional campaign.
It’s a shame too because the extra text hampers an otherwise fun romp for your PCs as they chase a series of thieving killers throughout the country side and attempt to block their escape. The writers do a solid job of developing nice encounters to slow down and hamper the PCs. There are also lose conditions for the adventure, which add a since of urgency to the adventure.
Iron Word
I scaled this adventure down and used it as the “intro” adventure to the Zeitgeist campaign. Despite the extra text, the adventure is fairly solid and a nice way to get a group together and accomplish a task under duress---taking a bunch of PCs on traditional guard duty and giving them a chance to shine by chasing down some thieves.
|
|
|
|
|
|
One of the most impressive adventure path’s I have ever used was the War of the Burning Sky written by Ryan Nock and published by En Publishing. Nock’s writing style emphasizes PC Choice over story telling, and Burning Sky really pushed that. The only problem was the story still felt locked in place during some adventures.
With Zeitgeist, Nock has now perfected the technique of presenting an adventure path, and has handedly beat Paizo at their own game.
Zeitgeist is the new En Publishing Adventure Path that will be released over the next two years. It features a unique setting of a fantasy world going through an Industrial Age. Before the first adventure was published, the adventure path released player and campaign (DM) guides for both 4th edition and Pathfinder. The free supplements were extensively detailed and worth downloading if only to use in other campaigns. Instead of developing a slew of new classes for the campaign, they instead tell you how to use existing core material, this also includes the new gun rules from Paizo’s Ultimate Combat.
The Adventure Path stems around the country of Risur as they began to leave their magical history behind and move into a new steam and steel way of thinking. An overarching mystery permeates throughout the path, putting the PCs in the middle of the changes in this world.
The setting is innovatively brilliant. It is not a steampunk world. Instead truly feels like Nock took a traditional Greyhawk type setting, plopped it in the middle of the 17th century and said grow up. The game still feels like Dungeons and Dragons, only in a slightly more aged setting.
The first adventure, Island at the Axis of the World, introduces not only the setting, but an organized new method for laying out an adventure. The layout emphases the fact that the PCs are fully in control and includes notes and sidebars to accommodate players who travel off the beaten path. The adventure is broken down into 3 acts, each of which divided into sections. The section headings tell you what type of encounters the PCs will face during them. It also includes what NPCs are affiliated with it.
The problem with Paizo’s adventure paths, is that I find myself frequently deleting creature encounters that have little to nothing to do with the campaign, they are only there so that Paizo can reach some arbitrary XP number that must be met. Thank goodness Nock eliminates the whole nonsense from Axis by simply telling DMs when to level their PCs.
The art and layout throughout the Zeitgeist book is great, allowing the setting to show through the industrial color schemes. There are battlemaps included for every described combat encounter.
For the Dungeon Master
The final ship encounter is an intense, tight encounter that will really impress your players. The helpful guides and sidebars will insure that as a DM, you are never lost as to where your players should go or what to do next. I mentioned above how much I enjoy the de-emphasis on XP, but I also should mention that the de-emphasis on party loot is a nice touch as well. PCs are required to turn in all loot to their superiors and then receive a stipend to buy it back later. This creates a more orderly way of handing out items.
The Iron Word
There is a firm difference between a writer who writes adventures and a DM who writes adventures. Nock is a DM who writes adventures. The material throughout the campaign is designed so that the DM can relay things to their players in a fashion that is easiest to them. The open writing style allows DMs to institute their own ideas, side stories and PC shenanigans and still keep up with the campaign. If the next adventures are anywhere as different and exciting as Axis, this is going to be one of the epic Adventure Paths of this decade.
|
|
|
|
|
|
One of the most impressive adventure path’s I have ever used was the War of the Burning Sky written by Ryan Nock and published by En Publishing. Nock’s writing style emphasizes PC Choice over story telling, and Burning Sky really pushed that. The only problem was the story still felt locked in place during some adventures.
With Zeitgeist, Nock has now perfected the technique of presenting an adventure path, and has handedly beat Paizo at their own game.
Zeitgeist is the new En Publishing Adventure Path that will be released over the next two years. It features a unique setting of a fantasy world going through an Industrial Age. Before the first adventure was published, the adventure path released player and campaign (DM) guides for both 4th edition and Pathfinder. The free supplements were extensively detailed and worth downloading if only to use in other campaigns. Instead of developing a slew of new classes for the campaign, they instead tell you how to use existing core material, this also includes the new gun rules from Paizo’s Ultimate Combat.
The Adventure Path stems around the country of Risur as they began to leave their magical history behind and move into a new steam and steel way of thinking. An overarching mystery permeates throughout the path, putting the PCs in the middle of the changes in this world.
The setting is innovatively brilliant. It is not a steampunk world. Instead truly feels like Nock took a traditional Greyhawk type setting, plopped it in the middle of the 17th century and said grow up. The game still feels like Dungeons and Dragons, only in a slightly more aged setting.
The first adventure, Island at the Axis of the World, introduces not only the setting, but an organized new method for laying out an adventure. The layout emphases the fact that the PCs are fully in control and includes notes and sidebars to accommodate players who travel off the beaten path. The adventure is broken down into 3 acts, each of which divided into sections. The section headings tell you what type of encounters the PCs will face during them. It also includes what NPCs are affiliated with it.
The problem with Paizo’s adventure paths, is that I find myself frequently deleting creature encounters that have little to nothing to do with the campaign, they are only there so that Paizo can reach some arbitrary XP number that must be met. Thank goodness Nock eliminates the whole nonsense from Axis by simply telling DMs when to level their PCs.
The art and layout throughout the Zeitgeist book is great, allowing the setting to show through the industrial color schemes. There are battlemaps included for every described combat encounter.
For the Dungeon Master
The final ship encounter is an intense, tight encounter that will really impress your players. The helpful guides and sidebars will insure that as a DM, you are never lost as to where your players should go or what to do next. I mentioned above how much I enjoy the de-emphasis on XP, but I also should mention that the de-emphasis on party loot is a nice touch as well. PCs are required to turn in all loot to their superiors and then receive a stipend to buy it back later. This creates a more orderly way of handing out items.
The Iron Word
There is a firm difference between a writer who writes adventures and a DM who writes adventures. Nock is a DM who writes adventures. The material throughout the campaign is designed so that the DM can relay things to their players in a fashion that is easiest to them. The open writing style allows DMs to institute their own ideas, side stories and PC shenanigans and still keep up with the campaign. If the next adventures are anywhere as different and exciting as Axis, this is going to be one of the epic Adventure Paths of this decade.
|
|
|
|
|
|
When you hear that the writers of Citadel of Pain began their endeavor with a fairly simple map on gaming paper, you shouldn’t feel bad for cringing a little. I know I did. I fully expected a run of the mill by the number adventures adventure to sell a product, behavior that has been honed from years of putting up with this from those wizards on the Coast. I even put off reading it for 3 days because I was afraid I was going to have to give a fairly low review as I hate run of the mill adventures.
Just as it is living at home with a wife of 10 years, I was familiarly proven wrong, as Citadel of Pain is a meaty, campaign inspiring product that is one of the best adventures I have read in the Pathfinder game since Paizo’s Kingmaker path. Good adventures include out of the box mechanics and that is what makes Citadel of Pain shine. The unique story that begins with the players surfing on the back of a mechanical drill is sugary icing on the cake.
At 120 pages, City of Pain, written by Lou Agresta and Rone Barton and published by Gaming Paper, spaces out a lot of adventure. DMs can certainly center a storyline around the Fortress of Rogthandor, now nicknamed the Citadel of Pain because of its weird alchemical monstrosities and defenses. The scientific creations gone wrong scenario allows for some strangely unique adversaries for PCs. In one part of the adventures, PCs will have to negotiate with several different factions within the Citadel, and this presents a cool new mechanic where players actions are placed on a chart that will determine the future adversaries later in the adventure. Unlike traditional reputation point systems, I found the letter crosschart to be far easier to handle and way less math to keep up with.
The adventure is broken up into several acts, each act containing a very non-linear path of movement. In addition, every part has a “lose scenario” which makes for a very open ended adventure that always puts the PCs in control and provides them positive and negative consequences for their actions.
For the Dungeon Masters
Citadel of Pain is incredibly organized and contains detailed artwork and detailed handouts that will truly engage your players. The adventure does a strong job of integrating mystery, puzzles, combat and social encounters.
The Iron Word
Citidal of Pain is an impressive outing by first time adventure publisher Gaming Paper. There is so much to do in the adventure. The non-linear way the adventure was written makes you glad to be the DM so you can read about the dozens of pages of material you probably won’t use, depending on the routes your PCs take.
Disclaimer – Lou Agresta is the organizer (and orange leprachan) of the Iron GM Tournament, of which I am a yearly competitor. Gaming Paper is a yearly sponsor of the Iron Player Tournament, of which I am lead organizer. I take great pains to make sure that my reviews are unbiased and that a crappy product will be lambasted like the others .
|
|
|
|
|
|
Iron Nugget
I hate using words like best, because, in 10 years of reviewing, you tend to see a lot of material that always outdoes the previous. However, with Tomb of the Fallen Angel, I feel confident in saying this is the best rendered dungeon map I have seen in my years of gaming. Despite having the traditional overview appearance, the detail of the walls and floor shimmer into a 3d feel. This is the kind of map where you design a series of encounters based off of what you see.
If you buy one map this year, I highly recommend this one. Buy it, print it, laminate it and wow your players.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Once in a DM’s career, he is going to attempt to stir another genre into a fantasy campaign. Traditionally it’s horror, but every now and then a DM will get the urge to blend a dose of Sci-fi into the mix.
Accidents of Birth, a 31 page supplement by Otherverse Games, allows players and DMs to create characters that have grotesque, yet beneficial mutations. For these mutations players receive Deformities which are suppose to balance out the mutations.
The system is very similar to the OGL rules for mutations that were once floating around for the 3.5 gamma rules. As a matter of fact, in many places they are disappointingly similar, including references to old school 3.5 DR in some of the abilities that had failed to be converted.
Thankfully, the crisp layout and creative fluff writing helps drown out many of the mechanical flaws. The writing really helps you transition into a less fantasy and more alien environment.
For the Player
If you can sneak some of these by your DM, try choosing a non-healing class and choosing any of the abilities that feature healing. The price cost feels slightly underpriced for many
For the DM
Though the taint system feels unbalanced in many places, a sharp DM will be able to readjust for their own campaign. Gigantism is a neat ability to epic up an otherwise normal creature.
The Iron Word
There is just enough in Accidents of Birth to hurdle it over the edge of a recommendation. Though the point system feels a bit off, the mediocre integration into the pathfinder society of the opensource gamma material is a nice jumping off point for those hoping to add mutants and new aberrations into a campaign.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The easiest way to integrate a new supplement into a campaign is to use rules that already exist in the main world. Advanced Options: Alchemists Discoveries, from Super Genius Games, takes the innovative alchemy rules in Paizo’s Advanced Player Guide and generates enough options to amp up the uses of the class.
The short 9 page PDF is compacted with new discoveries that you can use in place of the premade discoveries in the APG. Each of the 21 discoveries bring a new creative flare to the alchemist. Adding these to a campaign, the alchemist broadens from a two trick pony (mad bomber or screaming hulk) into a dozen or so new archetypes.
Wrapping up the last few pages of the book, two new types of discoveries are introduced. Spagyric Devices allows the alchemist to make magical items and retype them as technology. Metamorphosis is the cooler of the two, allowing you to perform one of the true origins of alchemy, turning metals into other metals.
For the Player
Alchemist tanks were one of the most pleasant and different surprises about the class. Players going this route will find the Essences quite useful. They have a barbarian flavor written into them, allowing you to take on aspects of various animals.
For the Dungeon Master
Alchemists also make great party damaging foes. High Explosives and Mini-bomb both can really amp up the damage.
The Iron Word
Advanced Options: Alchemists Discoveries takes the Alchemist system and explodes almost two dozen game changing options for the class. If doing more with the same is not enough for you, the two new types add a different dynamic all together.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Any gaming supplement that allots a heavy amount of page space to show how to create a furry campaign automatically gets the ballsiest publisher of the year award.
Thankfully, Fursona – The Definitive Guide to Creating Anthromorphic Characters, is much, much more than a book for RPG animal lovers. It is one of the most thorough and creative race creation books to come down the Pathfinder line.
Fursona is not just a book on how to create animal races. It is actually a book on how to create any weird race, with any weird traits that you can think of. At 105 pages, there is very little that you can not build by using the system.
The layout and simple black and white images matches the standard set by the clear and concise writing. The creation process is also very simple. You first choose one of the 33 different orders which are takes on the various species in the animal and fantasy world. Then you receive 4 points to choose minor or major advantages- over 130 choices to choose. There’s also an optional 60 disadvantages that can get you more build points.
The PDF offers a ton more choices as you get to the end. There are a few templates to give you bizarre options for creatures. The last few pages take the time to explain how to recreate the traditional races for a more animal campaign.
For the Players
There’s a furry in every gaming group. The amount of choices is absurdly plentiful. Any animal you can build a race into.
For the DM
I tended to lean more towards the Lovcraftian type options: Tentacles, multiple eyes and mystic powers.
The Iron Word
The balance of the book is simple. The abilities players receive never seem too overpowered than what else is out there. Futura is a high recommendation if you are into customizing campaigns as a player or dungeon master.
|
|
|
|
|
|
As Pathfinder grows older, classes are moving from the traditional “static class” to class designs that allow the user to modify the class to serve a variety of roles.
The Codex Mechanica: On the Creation of Fabricants, from Necromancers of the Northwest, is an impressive example of the class design.
On the surface, the fabricant is a new race of steampunk humanoids for your Pathfinder game. The Fabricant race is divided into the five basic races (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Half-Orc, Halfling and Gnome) all rewritten to include more artificial reasons for their abilities. The history and backstory of the Fabricant is strong enough to build off of, but light enough to include in any campaign.
However, this race is designed to be the fluff behind the two classes included in the 43-PDF. The two classes, Iron Warrior and Iron Magus, are the real meat of the book. The Iron Warrior, the only full class (the Iron Magus is a prestige class for magic users), allows you to receive steampunk augmentations every level to build on your fabricant character. Depending on what mods you choose will allow you to recreate most of the melee/non-magical classes.
The material in The Fabricant is well written and this product based on that alone deserves a five star, however, the font choice for the layout is atrocious and makes it very difficult to read for any real length of time.
For the Player
The Weapon Upgrades were the most exciting to my players. Anything that takes steampunk tech and applies it to medieval weaponry wins brownie points in my group.
For the Dungeon Master
Each of the classes contain lore and easy integration into a campaign world. Even if you are not into steampunk, there are some great fantasy tie-ins in the mechanics and fluff.
The Iron Word
The Fabricant is an awesome steampunkish race and class supplement that can lightly introduce tech elements into a fantasy campaign.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some clerics just don’t want two domains. For those holy PCs who would rather have one mighty domain as opposed to two decent domains, Owen Stephens and his geniuses over at Super Genius Games have created the Exalted Domain, an uber-domain for Clerics who want to specialize in one thing.
The Genius Guide to Exalted Domains of Storms and Savagery brings allows clerics to gain a lot more nature power for their domain buck. Nature powers have always been a point of contention in D&D, and granting a few druid abilities (like animal companions and access to druid spells) may be something the DM needs to keep an eye on. Still, the new powers and spells invoke the feeling of a being a true warrior for a god of nature. The 12 domains include elemental domains such as Air, and traditional nature domains such as plant and animal.
Exalted Domains behave a lot like normal domains. You select them at first level and they grant all the powers and spells of their name counterpart. However, in addition, most grant or replace a power with a supped up version of that power. This puts the cleric a bit higher to the role of chosen by the god than a normal priest who got a special favor. Many of the exalted have subdomains that allow the player to replace the uber-powers with other, even more direct uber-powers
.
For the Players
If your dungeon master is hounding you with fey creatures, have your cleric utilize the exalted domain of Cold Iron. The Iron Aura ability will frustrate allergic NPCs.
For the Dungeon Master
I like putting the Exalted Domain of Luck on an NPC to make for a trickier NPC. The domain grants an ability that allows for multiple DM rolls and a super bonus to initiative.
The Iron Word
The Exalted Domain breaks new ground in the Cleric domain, allowing for a fresher take on the class. The ability to focus on one aspect of a God is a nice alternative that PCs will enjoy. Storms and Savagery tips slightly over the edge of overpowerness in some areas, but still feels manageable with a watchful DM.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some clerics just don’t want two domains. For those holy PCs who would rather have one mighty domain as opposed to two decent domains, Owen Stephens and his geniuses over at Super Genius Games have created the Exalted Domain, an uber-domain for Clerics who want to specialize in one thing.
The Genius Guide to Exalted Domains of Light and Lore feels the most balanced of the three Exalted Domain books and is the one, more than likely, that players will find the most use of when playing a traditional cleric. There are 12 exalted domains covered in Light and Lore. This includes the healing domain, magic domain and light domain.
Exalted Domains behave a lot like normal domains. You select them at first level and they grant all the powers and spells of their name counterpart. However, in addition, most grant or replace a power with a supped up version of that power. This puts the cleric a bit higher to the role of chosen by the god than a normal priest who got a special favor. Many of the exalted have subdomains that allow the player to replace the uber-powers with other, even more direct uber-powers.
For the Players
I find the Sun Domain to be highly effective in an undead campaign, allowing more powerful channels and daylight spells.
For the Dungeon Master
If you want to put a sage with the party to help them move certain plots along, the Exalted Lore Keeper skill from the Knowledge Domain allows an npc to touch objects and gleam knowledge.
The Iron Word
The Exalted Domain breaks new ground in the Cleric domain, allowing for a fresher take on the class. The ability to focus on one aspect of a God is a nice alternative that PCs will enjoy.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|