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The Consort
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/22/2020 17:59:17

I was provided with a free copy of The Consort in exchange for an honest and unbiased review

This is a story about love.

A Consort is a character who has drawn the attention of a powerful Fey Sovereign (an archfey). The fey becomes that character’s patron, muse, or similar, granting them abilities in return for their service. Their fey patron loves them, to whatever value of ‘love’ this strange, fey, creature understands. Mutual or otherwise, romantic, platonic, healthy or exploitative, at the heart of every Consort is a love story. And, to my mind, D&D is lacking in love stories, so this core concept is a bold and original move.

How you interpret the relationship at the heart of the class is entirely down to the player and DM, and your respective comfort levels: you might have a hero in love with their patron, or a poor creature tormented by their loss of freedom or the magical world they’ve barely glimpsed. In terms of flavour and story potential, The Consort is superb, though you’ll need a fairly mature group to negotiate the necessary conversations about consent, reciprocity and other concepts that sneak in when you start to talk about love across a power gap.

A Consort character is mechanically versatile, too. It’s both a half-caster and a fighter, with room for the player to customise how far their character leans in either of those directions.

There are only two points against the Consort, but they’re both fairly important.

For a class that’s fully based on an interpersonal relationship, it’s disappointing that there are only four sovereigns to pick from. A player and DM will probably have to at least reskin one of the existing four, or more likely make a new one, for every new Consort created.

Secondly, and related… there are a lot of conceptual similarities with a warlock dedicated to an Archfey patron. The mechanical package is different – a Consort will play differently from a Warlock – but you could, and may already have, tried out this character concept with an existing class.

Buy it if: you’ve always wanted more strong relationships in your D&D games (and goodness knows, that’s a good reason); you’re unsatisfied with the abilities and powers of a warlock.

Don’t buy it if: you’re opposed to re-flavouring/re-skinning, and working closely with your DM to build a character; warlocks are your comfort zone.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Consort
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Cliffhanger Abbey
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/13/2019 22:22:58

It's very exciting to see Gothic Earth arriving on The DMs Guild. It's almost as exciting to see Oliver Clegg's trademark dark humour turned on it.

I'm very tempted to run this at a convention just to see a bunch of unwitting strangers' faces when they reach the ending.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Cliffhanger Abbey
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There's Someone Back Home
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/21/2019 18:10:44

A nice way to bring some structure to roleplaying family & dependents - which should hopefully help to get players and DMs thinking more about this aspect of characters. Good and concise, and easy to put into practise without any complicated mechanics.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
There's Someone Back Home
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Blood Sea: the Crimson Abyss (5e)
Publisher: Onyx Path Publishing
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/19/2019 20:56:06

It's. So. Good.

The Blood Sea is an exceptionally cool part of Ghelspad (who's not into an ocean that's literally poisoned by the blood of the titanic monstrosity imprisoned beneath the waves?) and its corruption adds a uniquely Scarred Lands twist to the challenges and tropes of seafaring. So obviously I was excited. I mean, there's a big tentacled octopus that might be made out of blood on the cover.

That cover is a promise, and the book fully delivers.

Of course, it's extremely cool. The thought that's gone into how the nature of the Blood Sea affects sailors (especially low level characters) is excellent, and the subclasses based around its corruption definitely spark the imagination. It's easier to imagine some of them as NPCs than as PCs, and some example stat blocks would have been much appreciated, but however much mental gymnastics it takes to work in a PC who single-mindedly devours gobbets of decaying titan-flesh as a source of power... I'm down.

Blood Sea is also pleasingly functional. The background on crew roles and duties is light, informative, but easily digestible. In a few minutes, a GM can figure out supporting characters and crew politics - and answer the useful question of "ok, but what does my character do all day?". I really could have done with this book when I decided to kick off my last campaign with a shipwreck.

The NPC factions and crews do well at putting meat on the bones of all the suggestions the author makes throughout: they present a good range of crews, with different compositions and ambitions, and there isn't one I couldn't see myself picking up and throwing into an adventure. My favourites, it has to be said, are the mysterious fae-touched crew, and the Sea Hag. Always here for hags.

There are a couple of minor issues: another editing pass would have picked up minor errors (there's a dreaded "page xx" on pg. 10), and maybe tightened up some phrasing here and there, but these are trivial and in no way affect the quality of the book. If you're looking for crunch - sea combat systems, ship maintenance and the like - this isn't the book for you (though the ship maps are useful), but for setting, story and inspiration it's first class.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Blood Sea: the Crimson Abyss (5e)
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Demon Doggos and Barbarian Boyfriends
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/18/2019 06:01:10

8/10 would pet the dog. And the boyfriend.

Look, this adventure is adorable. Fun gay love triangle, many good doggos. Had a great time reading it. Fully delivered on the promise of the title.

It looks like it would run shorter than 4-6 hours but hey, sometimes you need something short and sweet and you never know when players are going to spend 90 minutes investigating a bloodstain. My biggest issue is that the adventure would benefit from a professional editor: the writing is mostly clear, but often could be more concise.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Demon Doggos and Barbarian Boyfriends
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Creator Reply:
Thanks so much for the feedback! I'll take note for the next thing I create! :)
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Scott Harshbarger Presents: Brown Jenkin
Publisher: Misfit Studios
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/28/2019 16:00:40

Would have been useful if this was available on a transparent background.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Scott Harshbarger Presents: Brown Jenkin
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DMs Guild Cover Image Template (Photoshop)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/16/2019 18:06:58

Professional looking cover in less than 2 minutes. What's not to love?



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
DMs Guild Cover Image Template (Photoshop)
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DMs Guild Creator Resource - Creatures Art 5
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/13/2019 05:39:56

This is a massively useful resource, but it bugs the heck out of me that the file names are so unhelpful I have to trawl through the whole pack to find what I'm looking for.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
DMs Guild Creator Resource - Creatures Art 5
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DDAL05-02 The Black Road (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/14/2019 13:34:36

The Black Road is such a good example of a short, low-level adventure. Although it's linear (for a 2 hour session it has to be!) characters have important choices to make that will really shape the outcome of the adventure. There are two particularly great,standout, aspects: the use of terrain and weather as a danger every bit as pressing as a monster, and the smart use of ability checks - with well-reasoned outcomes for different levels of success - that help to flesh out choices and give characters an edge.

Just all around, a lot of fun.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL05-02 The Black Road (5e)
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Reflectionist Class
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/02/2019 15:35:32

First up - this review was written before actually trying out the class in play, so may be updated at a later date.

It's rare to find a new class that actually adds something unique - but also desirable - to the game. The Reflectionist does, and pulls it off pretty well.

The core concept of the Reflectionist is really strong, and does a great job of differentiating it. In practice that means it has a new playstyle, and a nice range of abilities without treading on the toes of any other class. The subclasses flow logically from the main concept, and make sense. None are obviously better or worse than the other (though the last option will require some planning and a strong character concept to make best use of).

Between the core abilities and the expanded, optional ones, it's easy to draw comparisons with Warlocks, and it does look as though the Reflectionist would match them for versatility.

I'm highly excited to try out this class and see how it actually plays!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Reflectionist Class
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Temple of the Nightbringers - Adventure
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/01/2019 12:32:32

A solid tier 1 adventure.

Nice simple, straightforward plot though the twist at the end doesn't really add anything. A good intro for new players who aren't familiar with some of D&D's tropes, and a good way to teach a range of concepts like combat, exploration, and skill checks.

On the other hand it's very linear and there are gaps and oversights that could have been handled with just a little more detail (e.g. why won't the NPC who's been scouting the location come in with you "under any circumstances"? Without knowing that, it's hard for a DM to gauge their response to players doing something clever and unexpected).

The combat encounters are also highly deadly, especially if players hit all of them. I personally quite like high risk and setups that encourage players to play smart, and sneak, deescalate, or retreat where possible, but YMMV.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Temple of the Nightbringers - Adventure
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Mistresses of Stone: A Playable Medusa Race for Ravnica
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/16/2019 09:36:35

Love this! It's one of the better monstrous races I've seen. The lore is really nicely written and the author has done a great job making a potentially very powerful creature comparable to other player character races. Even though I bought this to see whether it would also work for medusae in Eberron (it will) I'm now very tempted to play one in Ravnica.

My only niggle is that the Poisoned effect of one of the racial abilities needs a duration and clearer rules on saves (once? Every turn?) but that's a really easy fix.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Mistresses of Stone: A Playable Medusa Race for Ravnica
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Dramatic Chases
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Catherine E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/15/2019 10:00:54

This is a great way of abstracting chases.

It makes for really short, dramatic scenes (they'll be over in 3-4 turns in most cases, with average dice rolls) and most importantly it keeps the camera on the player characters the whole time. I love subsystems that let the players be in control of the outcome: as a DM I'd much rather be throwing interesting narrative complications at my players than rolling a massive amount of dice for NPCs.

It deals well with complexities like abstracting different movement speeds, and defining clear end states for the chase.

Nitpicking, there are a couple of typos - stray commas and apostrophes - but they don't impact the readability.

Players as pursuers doesn't seem as well detailed as players as pursued, missing from the example chases, and just given a quick 'just switch everything' description in the rules.

My one issue is that it's very hard for pursuers to 'win.' To do so requires PCs to have 0 Escape Points and 3 Chase Failures. The rules read as though only one Chase Failure can be gained every round... and it's easy enough to gain Escape Points that this probably won't happen on consecutive rounds. This feels like a rule too far, and I'll probably just drop this requirement and have PCs caught the first time they end a turn at 0 EPs.

The example chases included are a great resource and really help to (a) bring the rules to life and (b) give a DM a 'pick up and play' option for when their players screw up, get into trouble, and need to be chased down :).



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Dramatic Chases
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