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Can you have too many collections of magical items? Not really. It's one of the reasons we play, yeah? Sure, playing itself is rewarding. But we want loot! The more, the better. Shopp has made a convincing case for why these items would exist in the first place, how they were curated into Ezzat’s Catalogue of Magical Oddities, as well as a reasonable methodology for mechanically and thematically including them in your sessions.
Furthermore, Ezzat and Ipses are fun characters and deserve to be part of your campaigns' lore.
https://summoninggrounds.com/catalogue-of-magical-oddities/
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If you took American Gladiators, the Colosseum, and the Quidditch World Cup and then mashed them all together I imagine you'd end up with something like Dragonbowl. More than just a combat-focused adventure, Dragonbowl is a Bacchanalian-style festival with its own economy and ecology. Opportunistic entrepreneurs (some more shady than others) are out hustling for profits and corporate sponsors have sunk their claws into monopoly (looking at you Bloodwizer).
This adventure is overflowing with well-designed NPCs for the players to engage with. They could also either oppose the players or join them, if need be. Dragonbowl has all the charm of a longstanding recurring carnival or state fair to include questionable prizes, hawkers, and mini-games and attendees. With so many personalities and activities competing for your attention, all players are bound to find things that speak to their characters while working their way through the adventure to its conclusion and main prize (who couldn't use 500,000 gold pieces?!).
Also, as someone who shamelessly plugs a pop-culture reference here and there, I love that that this adventure and setting does the same!
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If a rat wielding a knife and wearing a filthy ruff while emerging from a sewer doesn’t spark inspiration for some sort of subterranean political coup, nothing does.
Read more: https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/the-vermin/
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Should you buy a copy of The Art of War for D&D Players? Probably. It’s taken the crucial elements of 5E’s combat mechanics and distilled them down into an easy-to-read pamphlet. It doesn’t introduce new mechanics or tweak existing ones. It just shows you how to better employ the rules that are already there.
Read more: https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/the-art-of-war-for-dd-players-dms-guild-review/
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Despite receiving a special thank you in this adventure, I had nothing to do with its creation. This is a great solo adventure and I believe that solo D&D, on the whole, is under-appreciated and this adventure ranks among some of my favorites. No prep work required. Grab your dice and a note pad and get going!
Read more: https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/shipwrecked-dms-guild-review/
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What I’ve come to know, and expect, of Micah Watt’s work is his detail. And there is a lot of it packed into this adventure. With its compelling purpose, the new magic items (and that machine!), and the flexibility to get into—and out of—the heat of things in any manner that befits the players, this is a great adventure to bring to the table. However, it leaves me wondering…what is the price of a soul?
https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/the-price-of-a-soul/
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For what little bit is in The Enchanted, it is well-written and inspirational. One issue, perhaps the only issue, I have with it is that it’s incredibly brief. Give me more. Can we get some thematic reasons for why we may be running a low-magic campaign, for example? What are the repercussions of openly practicing magic? Is it a crime? Or is it that magic is unstable and has larger consequences?
Wood states in the supplement that there are plans to release more unique backgrounds through Grisly Eye Games (presumably via DMs Guild) which, to me, suggests that either this product is incomplete or that you'll need to buy extra supplements to have a fully-realized player options accessory.
https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/the-enchanted-by-r-g-wood/
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Aside from standing toe-to-toe with some of this adventure’s baddies (undead, a necromancer, a blue dragon, etc.) the real challenge here is in roleplaying the characters who will be caught in a complex web of motivations from all the many NPCs. Will they go the knight-in-shining-armor route and just outright defy anyone who stands in their way? (Bear in mind that keeping a red dragon concealed is no easy feat.) Or will they feel compelled to mislead, or ally with, evil to give their own plans a better chance? This is a great adventure that affords the players a lot of agency to dig deep into roleplaying their characters.
Read more: https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/last-march-of-the-tyrant-wyrm/
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All in all, First Adventure is a wonderful effort and is without a doubt, a good way to introduce kids to D&D. But experienced players may find themselves frustrated at the linear story wherein the intent is for them to lose encounters.
Read more: https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/first-adventure/
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Christian Eichhorn's typical work is a masterful blend of content, form, and functionality. Secrets of Icespire is no different. It has bar-setting production and can be used whether you have played the Dragon of Icespire Peak or Lost Mine of Phandelver campaigns or not. Check it out!
Read more: https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/secrets-of-icespire/
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Fantastic Terrain is incredibly useful and imaginative. We should all be so lucky to face these terrains in our adventures. Gilles Deleuze once wrote, “You never walk alone. Even the devil is the lord of flies.” I like to think of that as meaning that just because an enemy is unseen, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Read more: https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/fantastic-terrain-by-crit-academy-justin-handlin/
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks so much for the review Patrick. I will make sure to improve my layout technique. It has improved over time, but still has a long way to go. |
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The professionalism of the book is great. Art is used effectively without taking center stage and navigation is a breeze with the bookmarks and table of contents. But it’s the book’s usefulness that pushes it towards being worth owning in physical form.
Ultimately, Faiths 2 is a wonderful guide for players and DMs alike to enrich their game. For those of you who involve yourselves in ongoing campaigns, it is almost a must-have.
Read more: https://www.nonzerosumgames.com/faiths-of-the-forgotten-realms-2-by-micah-watt-et-al/
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