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Anne Gregersen's Monster Loot series is popular because it fills a gap in D&D, and it fills it INCREDIBLY WELL! What adventurer doesn’t want to harvest a dragon tooth or claw or scale to craft new items, weapons, or armor? These harvesting and crafting rules are easy to follow and fun. And for only $0.95, this booklet was an instant buy for me. I happily promoted it in my Icespire Peak DM guide series, and I look forward to promoting more of these books in the future!
https://www.youtube.com/bobworldbuilder
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Video review: https://youtu.be/JNIou4OVmt8 I reached out to Lydia, the author, about creating a video for the Adventurer's Domestic Handbook because I feel that this work fills a telling gap in Dungeons & Dragons. Way back, the game was about dungeon crawling, but from watching interviews and speaking with a lot of old-school veterans, we know that combat isn't what made people fall in love with the game. People wanted their heroes to survive the dungeons so they could enjoy life in a fantasy world and a build a home or a family! As D&D aged and grew to model the video games that were modeled after its combat system, roleplaying became less mainstream. Gradually, the hobby became more associated with a competitive, sometimes problematic gamer culture that shyed away from social connection. The lighter rules of fifth edition give roleplaying more room to breathe, but not much tangible support-- that's where the Adventurer's Domestic Handbook comes in. There's no wrong way to play D&D if everyone at your table is having fun, but if your group would have MORE fun with rich and dynamic characters that care for the people and places they defend from monsters, Lydia's book has your back.
https://www.youtube.com/bobworldbuilder
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Video: https://youtu.be/BUavI100KGM The Call of Cthulhu 7e starter set does a fantastic job of guiding new Keepers through the process of learning this game. As someone who has only been playing TTRPGs for about 5 years with little experience outside of D&D, I found the ordered booklets (solo scenario > introductory rules > sample group scenarios) to provide a natural progression from beginner to GM. This intuitive format is reflected in the game mechanics themselves. I think Call of Cthulhu's straightforward, roleplay-heavy design allows for a level of creativity and adaptability that is perfect for new players and game masters, and I highly recommended trying this game. If you just want to see the basic rules, there is a free quickstart pdf available here on DriveThruRPG, or you can see my walk-through of the CoC introductory rules in the video above!
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Video: https://youtu.be/BUavI100KGM These quickstart rules are exactly what they claim to be, a bare-bones explanation of Call of Cthulhu's basics to get a new Keeper up and running. For free, this pdf is certainly worth a read for anyone considering the game! However, I think many Call of Cthulhu fans would agree the 7e Starter Set does a much better job of guiding you through the learning process. You can see my walk-through of the CoC introductory rules in the video above!
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Video review: https://youtu.be/GVLOM3jVfoU
Secrets Of Icespire is a wonderful addition to your Dragon Of Icespire Peak, Lost Mine Of Phandelver, or homebrew wilderness campaign! I love the diversity of creatures, quests, and encounters, and even the formatting and art presented in this supplement evokes a strong sense of adventure. This book is another fantastic installment to Eichhorn's series of noticeboard materials and to any DM's collection!
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Video review: https://youtu.be/3w-5zBFf9-E
I had an absolute pleasure reviewing this one-of-a-kind module! First Adventure is straight-forward and cinematic, and it includes beautiful handouts, music, and descriptive text -- plus an innovative kid class! This adventure has everything a DM create a fantastic gaming experience for their players!
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Faiths of the Forgotten Realms II is exactly what you want in a sequel! This gorgeously-formatted text contains 100 subclasses and spells, 50 Faerun deities, holy books, and new magic items. Coming from a star-studded cast of authors, you can rest assured the contents of this product have been tested. My only critique is the lack of an appendix sorting the archetypes by class and/or an appendix of the spells, but navigating the document is still straightforward.
I have yet to read it all, and choosing favorites is not easy, but I would have to go with:
- Archetype - the Druid Circle of the Raccoon under the Gnomish deity Baervan Wildwanderer for their big raccoon companion!
- Spell - Corellon's Arrow for the Legend-of-Zelda-light-arrow nostalgia it gives me :)
- Holy text - Gruumsh's Litany of War, Death and Conquest, which is in fact a massive wardrum crafted from the tattooed skin of ancient shamans.
- Magic item - the Spider Rod because the user can expend charges to cast the web spell and fire silken strands at targets 60 ft away AND because its charges replenish at midnight -- just a great detail!
If deities feature at all in your games, you will benefit from Faiths of the Forgotten Realms II.
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Face The Music looks like a great encounter! I have some aethetic nit-picks about the format, but I am pleased that the author included a summary, multiple adventure hooks, and detailed opening boxed text to set the stage.
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The Masque of the Red Death Player's Guide is the perfect 5e supplement for bringing late 19th Century earth -- with all its science and supersition, its etiquitte and secrets, its steamy and sooty late-industrial revolution technology sprinkled with the arcane -- to your gaming table!
"Perhaps you learned the truth in some antediluvian book of arcana. Perhaps secrets were whispered to you at an accursed altar beneath a gibbous moon." Yes, this work is positively dripping with Poe and Lovecraft, and fortunately, it is not spoiled by any "historical" opinions associated with the latter author or patriarchal imperialists of the era. This guide's authors point out early: "Consent to encounter certain story elements in the game must be given, not assumed, and withholding it is not something anyone needs to explain or defend."
Like the increasingly popular Call of Cthulhu TTRPG, the characters are almost exclusively going to be humans with little capacity to recover from bodily harm, and in great danger of succumbing to primal waves of fear. The devasting injuries and new combat options such as exerting influence, taking aim, and targeted strike are probably going to make their way into my houserules for regular 5e fantasy campaigns, and I like this supplement's take on archetypes as a blend of traditional 5e backgrounds and subclasses while backgrounds are still included. Plus, the classes, firearms, and explosives make a great ruleset for the wild-west mini campaign I've been wanting to run!
For its fantastic combination of gorgeous art and layout with masterful writing and editing, I highly recommend the Masque of the Red Death Player's Guide!
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Nameia's Crimson Tome is a fantastic supplement for DMs and players intrigued by the vital powers of blood magic! Within the first 20 pages, you are given sanguine subclasses for each character class. Barbarian path of the blood rager, druid circle of the blood court, monk way of the crimson blade, and rogue bloodcurser all do justice to my favorite classes, and every one seems well-balanced. The 25 orginal spells present a mix of low and high levels, making them useful for all tiers, and the rules for group ritual casting provide a mechanical backbone for the dark rites of your campaign's villainous casters! The following section on the Crimson Order details exactly the kind of dastardly cult you would want to bring this blood magic to your table. Plus the magic items, monsters, and NPCs, this supplement covers all the bases in one beautifully-illustrated, professionally formatted package. I highly recommend Nameia's Crimson Tome by Stratos Fotakis.
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The Garradrugh is a great class for nature-enthusiast DMs and players of the druidic persuasion! The core feature of this class is a symbiotic creature, the beocryd, which fills a garradrugh with pure, natural magic. The primary features appear well-balanced, and I particularly like the 2nd level Planting Strike feature -- dealing an extra 1d4 force damage and attempting to bind the target in roots and vines! At level 3, a garradrugh's beocryd specializes, allowing the player to choose one of SIX unique subclasses (certainly more than what is usually provided by 3rd-party classes). The subclasses also come with the optional lore of only six garradrugh existing on one plane at a time, inspiring a campaign ideas of the other garradrughs, or even their sacred grove, coming under threat of destruction!
The formatting of the class table and some images could be improved, several cover art characters' body-types are oversexualized compared to most 5e art, and the quick-build recommends making Strength and Wisdom your primary ability scores while Strength and Charisma are the basis of the garradrugh's features. Some of these critiques are easier to resolve than others, so I hope the creators will consider these points in future releases.
For any 5e setting where the nature world (or its absence) plays an important role, I recommend the garradrugh!
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Creator Reply: |
Many thanks for the time taken out to do the review - all definitely things to work on in the future! My crux is always that I focus too much on story and not enough on mechanics - a work in progress. With the art, going to hopefully remedy that in future pieces. |
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[Video Review: https://youtu.be/Cv1g40hOZJM]
Glittergold's Clockwork Combat is a fantastic one-shot adventure for any level of play! This 15-page module is a fun campaign-insert where the party joins a rock gnome celebration of jokes, pranks, and storytelling in honor of Garl Glittergold, the gnome god of having a good time! The intro includes a chapter-by-chapter summary and three adventure hooks -- as if your party will need any convincing to join this robo-battle tournament! There are short bios for each small NPC, and an overview of the subterranean celebration: a magically lit, comically small, tightly packed, gnomish charity event, the Communion of Laughter. Plus, there are rules for turning this oneshot into your own charity event, with audience donations impacting the story as blessings from Garl Glittergold!
The author recommends creating combat bots before the adventure itself, but the module does include 5 sample bots statblocks, and bot creation is fairly simple. See my video review linked above for more details! For its professional and thematic formatting, its creativity and spirit of pure fun for a great cause, I highly recommend Glittergold’s Clockwork Combat!
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Alternative Medicines is a great collection of lore and specialized healing potions, tonics, ointments, and salves. Interestingly, this supplement specifies the damage type relevant to each healing method, which creates a tradeoff between the apparent requirement for players to record the amount of each type of damage taken in combat, and the excitement that comes from having the perfect item for a given situation! Furthermore, I appreciate the carefully detailed descriptions for the realism of each medicine having a specific application rather than healing ANY wounds whatsoever.
This information is perfect for any player character with an outlander, sage, or hermit background, the ranger or druid class, or NPCs that act as herbalists or physicians. I would like the inclusion of a table of contents and/or an appendices organized by damage type, though a clean, professional formatting with simple scientific-sketch illustrations tie this lore together into a well-designed supplement.
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Eberronicon: A Pocket Guide to the World is exactly what it claims to be: a concise yet comprehensive guide to the noir and pulp action world that many people (myself included) are meeting for the first time in D&D 5e. After reading the first few pages, I already have a better understanding of this thrilling setting, and as someone who typically prefers a low-mid magic medieval-fantasy atmosphere, this guide is inspiring ways I can bring Eberron to my table! For DMs, players, and lore-loving fans of D&D, the Eberronicon is the perfect balance of background information and teaser material, wrapped into a well-written, beautifully formatted package.
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Baldur's Gate: City Encounters is a fantastic expansion to your party's adventures in the City of Blood! The city of Baldur's Gate is dangerous; it is a darker, human reflection of nature's heartless power struggle between predator and prey, and this supplement encapsulates the unsteadiness of that power. The twenty "Tension Encounters" are based on the Law-Chaos axis of alignment, and expressed through the relative influence of Baldur's Gate's main factions, namely the Flaming Fists and the Dead Three. There are also twenty neighborhood encounters, linked to specific locations in the Upper, Lower, and Outer City. My favorite neighborhood encounter is #3 High Hall Temples, in which a vigilante priest wanting to upset the corrupt court system is planning his very own Gunpowder Plot! While the details of each encounter link them to this infamous Forgotten Realms city, they could be plugged into any urban setting with minor adjustments. Baldur's Gate: City Encounters is well-written, professionally formatted, and a simple way to enhance your group's tier one experience in Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus!
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