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I was pretty excited about getting to read through Tribes of Mother Night, by Better Mousetrap Games. The setting sounded interesting, and it used the F20 System, a variation of the d20 System that I wasn?t familiar with. That said, I?ll tell you a little bit about Tribes of Mother Night. It?s a fantasy setting, complete with magic and monsters, and revolves around the interactions between two peoples, the Haeloti and the Ehkaet. The Haeloti are a numerous people, and are named after Haelot, the sun god; they more-or-less run things, in one fashion or another. The Ehkaet, by contrast, are a nomadic people who have the unique ability to assume animal form. The two groups aren?t overly fond of each other (and, beyond that, Haeloti of different countries tend not to be overly fond of each other), and that?s where the conflict comes in.
As I?ve said, it?s an interesting-sounding setting; however, the book, itself, doesn?t really do justice to what it could have been. For one thing, the text (at least, so far as the setting, itself, is concerned) is peppered with clich?s, spelling errors, and muddy language. In addition, the text often jumps from subject to subject without any kind of transition, and the author doesn?t even break the text up into chapters (to be fair, there is a fairly exhaustive table of contents). Not only that, but much, much more could have been done to flesh the setting out. As it is, the Ehkaet are very clearly the misunderstood, downtrodden protagonists, while the Haeloti are the authoritarian, corrupt, and prejudice-ruled bad guys. It?s interesting that, for a game that uses prejudice as a central theme, so many stereotypes permeate the setting. All of these things combine to make a rather unprofessional-seeming product that isn?t exactly easy to digest, or really particularly interesting to read.
Worth mentioning, also, is the section dealing with the F20 System, itself. I found no egregious flaws with the system, though it does seem as though some skills are far more useful than others, even though they all cost the same number of Option Points to purchase (Running, for example, seems far more widely applicable than Art Appreciation). What really struck me about this section of the text, however, was the fact that the writing was so much better, and that there seemed to be a number of references to things found only in modern-day Earth, not in a low-tech fantasy setting. There were numerous references to concepts like the Olympics, SWAT officers, the CIA, and even Wal-Mart, and these seemed pretty anachronistic given the setting. Further, this is the only fantasy setting I?ve seen in which weapons like brass knuckles and police batons are given stats. In short, it seems as though the entire section on the F20 System was lifted from another text and pasted whole cloth into Tribes of Mother Night, with very little consideration given to internal consistency (though, thankfully, there were no modern firearms on the weapons list).
<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The F20 System seems interesting and somewhat flexible, though far more complex than the standard d20 System. In addition, the core concepts of the setting, itself, have a fair amount of potential.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Sadly, that potential is never realized. Far more effort is put into detailing the world?s creation myth than into detailing the state of the world and its peoples. The writing is some of the least professional I?ve seen in a published product, and the entire text lacks any real degree of polish.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>
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I?m a big fan of d20 Modern; I waited eagerly for it to come out, I read the SRD while I was waiting for Amazon to deliver the book, and I read the book again when I got it. Big fan. As such, when I get to review something for d20 Modern, I get kind of excited. Enter Basic Classes: Apprentice, by 93 Game Studios. The idea behind this product (or line of products, I suppose) is that d20 Modern needs more magic, and magic needs to be available from first level (rather than circa fourth level, as the vanilla product is designed). Apprentice introduces a new basic class?the Apprentice?that represents a low-level caster, apprenticed, as it were, to a higher level caster. The Apprentice can be either arcane or divine?or, indeed, both?and gains some rather rudimentary spellcasting ability while advancing up its ten-level progression.
I?ll start with what I liked about this product. The class, itself, seems well-balanced with the other basic classes, and I didn?t really notice any blatant balance issues with it. It gains a few spells by taking specific Talents, and can also gain some magical resistance and crafting ability. The Apprentice is a very skill-heavy class (as I?ve always thought spellcasting classes should be), evidenced by the fact that it gains eight skill points per level, has an a full Talent tree devoted to skill improvement, and almost all of its bonus feats (with the exception of two) are skill-boosting feats.
As for the not-so-good, let me start with what struck me immediately: the writing isn?t very good. The author is prone to spelling mistakes, grammar and syntax errors, muddled language, and somewhat trite prose. It may not matter to some, but I found that it detracted from my overall enjoyment of the product quite a lot. The class, itself, suffers from a specific problem, too. Though this problem is not mechanical in nature (as I?ve said, it seems to be well balanced), it does make the class somewhat less attractive. Simply put, the class doesn?t have much flavor. If you take levels in the Apprentice class, you?re going to get a few spells, or some numerical bonuses. Period, nothing else. I certainly would have liked something a little more interesting from a ?magical? class. Now, granted, this may not be a problem for everyone; the main reason that it bugged me was that, aside from getting a few spells, I couldn?t think of a single compelling reason to take levels in the Apprentice class. And really, if I wanted spells, I?d wait a few levels and go for the superior spellcasting ability of the Mage.
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<b>LIKED</b>: Good balance, and a skill-focused magic-user.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Sloppy presentation and an overall lack of compelling flavor.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>
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After being on a steady diet of d20 products and World of Darkness for the past couple of years, Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot: The Roleplaying Game, by Atomic Sock Monkey Press, was like a breath of fresh air. MNPR:RPG uses a very flexible, rules-light system called the Prose Descriptive Quality system, or the PDQ system. The basis for this system is that characters have a number of Qualities that define their abilities. These Qualities are roughly analogous to skills in other systems, except that they can cover a lot more ground under their ?penumbra?, and you basically make up whatever Qualities you want, rather than choosing from a pre-defined list. The GM has final say over whether a Quality is too broad (or too narrow), but this system offers a great deal of flexibility (and creativity) to players. The PDQ system also has the advantage of allowing you to generate characters very quickly; I?d estimate that, once you have a concept, it would take mere minutes to stat out your character.
The game, itself, takes full advantage of the PDQ system?s flexibility. While characters are more-or-less restricted to being either a monkey, ninja, pirate, or robot, the restrictions end there. Want to be a ninja accountant who uses a frying pan in combat? Go for it. How about a robot lounge singer with laser eyes and hover jets? You can do that, too. If you wanted to eventually combine the abilities of a monkey and a ninja, to become a monkey-ninja, the game allows for that, too. And it?s all very simple. There are only a few core rules in the PDQ system, and a few more that are specific to MNPR:RPG, so there?s very little opportunity for the rules to become unclear, needlessly complex, or broken. Balance is left primarily to the GM to arbitrate, rather than the system, itself. You could take a Quality for using a sword, for example, but if you?re a ninja or a pirate, that?s probably already covered by your basic Ninja or Pirate Quality. The system doesn?t prevent you from doing this, or from taking a Quality even broader than Ninja or Pirate; instead, it?s up to the GM to decide whether or not something is balanced.
Now, this isn?t to say that MNPR:RPG is perfect; it?s not. There are a lot of mistakes throughout that could have been caught with more editing and proofreading, but that?s not a major problem, and it doesn?t really make the game harder to understand, as the intent is always clear. The biggest problem that I see with MNPR:RPG is that it?s flippant and frivolous tone, while genuinely appealing, doesn?t really lend itself to more serious games, or to ongoing campaigns. Interestingly enough, the book does admit this, and even goes so far as to devote a few pages to discussing how tone impacts the longevity of the game. Points for that, by the way. In any case, though, once I had finished reading the book, I felt like I probably wouldn?t play MNPR:RPG too often, but I?d really like the opportunity to use the PDQ system for a more serious and ongoing game at some point.
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<b>LIKED</b>: The PDQ system is flexible and simple, and encourages creativity and evocative descriptions of actions. It?s designed to keep gameplay fun, simple, and (most importantly) moving. The book itself is presented with a great deal of charisma and humor, which makes it a lot of fun to read. That, and you can?t help but smile when you read a game about monkeys, ninjas, pirates, and robots protecting the world from alien invaders and fighting over sweet, sweet uranium.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The artwork was a little bit too simplistic for me. And by that, I mean that it is entirely composed of black-and-white stick figure drawings. Literally. There were a few editing and proofreading mistakes throughout. The biggest flaw is probably the fact that the game isn?t really suitable for ongoing campaigns (though if you tend to play quick one-shots a lot, this might not matter to you).<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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I?ve always thought that the core rules? method for creating specialist wizards was a little lacking. Because of this, I was very excited when I downloaded Misfit Studios The Enchanter: The Core Specialist Wizard. The Enchanter is the fifth PDF in a series of books, each one focusing on a different specialist wizard (abjurer, conjurer, enchanter, etc.) and converting it into a full, 20-level core class. It was exactly what I thought should have been done in the first place.
However, although I like the concept behind this product, I found the execution somewhat lacking. The Enchanter could have used some serious proofreading before being released; the writing isn?t exactly top-quality, and it?s difficult to understand in places. More serious, however, are some balance and flavor concerns that I have.
The product starts off with some discussion on mundane hypnosis, through the use of the Profession (hypnotist) skill. It?s a neat idea, but overall, I think that Profession (hypnotist) seems a little overpowered. Imagine a skill that allows you to implant suggestions, create delusions, ferret out information, and even help people regain lost spell slots. Now compare that skill to, say, Profession (sailor). I?m also not entirely sure that I agree with the use of the Profession skill for hypnotism, from a flavor standpoint. In my mind, hypnotism has much more to do with force of personality than force of will; it seems to me that Perform (Charisma-based) would be more appropriate than Profession (Wisdom-based). However, that is just my opinion.
The Enchanter then moves on to new feats. For the most part, these feats seem fine, though I noticed that the table of new feats lists a feat, Charlatan, that does not appear in the text. Next is the meat of the book, the Enchanter core class. As I?ve previously stated, I really like the idea of specialist wizards being separate classes, with their own, unique class abilities. However, the core class presented here seems to fall a little flat, while at the same time being of questionable game balance. The only truly unique abilities that the enchanter gets are simple numeric bonuses (to Charisma-based checks and saving throw DCs for mind-affecting spells) that increase with level. In addition, it seems that the author as essentially taken the enchanter specialist wizard from the core rules, and simply added these new abilities onto it, along with some more class skills and Charisma-based spellcasting. This begs the question: if the core rules specialist enchanter is balanced, what does that make this version of the enchanter?
Next are two new prestige classes, the alpha warden and the enticer. While they both seem fine as far as balance goes, I can?t help but feel underwhelmed by them. Perhaps I?ve just been desensitized by the dearth of prestige classes available at large, but there wasn?t really anything that made me want to make a character based on either concept.
Finally comes perhaps the most interesting part of the book: the magic items. The book presents a few magic items revolving around the enchantment theme, and there?s more flavor in these pages than in the rest of the book. While some (the lover?s arrow, for example) seem somewhat trite and predictable, others (like the bewitching stone) started my brain generating adventure ideas almost immediately. If only the rest of the book could have been this creative.
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<b>LIKED</b>: The magic items were good for the most part, and the prestige classes and feats seemed balanced, if bland.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The book could have used a lot of proofreading and playtesting. Many of the rules presented don?t seem balanced in comparison to the core rules, and much of the product is lacking the kind of flavor that I feel should have been present in a product like this.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>
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Creator Reply: |
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The issue with the feats has been corrected. If you purchased the version with the error and did not receive the update email, please contact us directly at trustrum@misfit-studios.com to receive it directly from us. |
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I?ve always liked the idea of swarms in D&D. Basically, a single centipede, or beetle, or mosquito isn?t going to make much of a challenge, even for a single first-level character. Pack a bunch of them together into a writhing, hungry, ten-by-ten mass, and you?ve got yourself a party, though. And that?s a swarm: a group of small, usually mindless, creatures acting as one, much larger, creature. Notebook Essentials: Swarms, Stampedes and Skirmishes, by Throwing Dice Games, takes that idea and expands it in the most logical of ways: by applying it to larger creatures.
The product starts off by going over the basics of swarms and giving a few examples. It goes on to offer feats for swarms and special abilities that multiple swarms can gain when they join together. Then it moves on to stampedes. A stampede is, basically, a swarm of large quadrupeds, like horses or bison. The book also covers skirmishes, which are a way to treat an out-of-control melee of humanoids (or other, similar, creatures) as a single creature, rather than tracking each creature?s initiative and actions. Both new ?creature? types offer ways to run different, very hectic encounters with a lot less bookkeeping and headache on the part of the GM. I even got to run an encounter with a skirmish just last night (a barroom brawl, specifically), and it did a good job of capturing the flavor that I wanted for the encounter, while allowing me to minimize the number of individual creatures that I had to keep track of. Definitely a plus in my book. The book also offers some spells for dealing with swarms (or creating them), and even offers a sample epic swarm: the skull swarm, which is a swarm of demiliches. Nasty stuff, trust me.
Overall, I?m pretty pleased with this product. It?s definitely a no-frills affair, weighing it at only ten pages (including the OGL declaration), with very little art. However, it does have the advantage of getting right to the point. The book gives you useful, balanced rules in a clear, straightforward, and easy-to-follow manner, which is more than I can say for a lot of fancier products. It?s not without its problems, but most of those are minor. There are a few editing mistakes, the worst of which is an apparent copy-paste error (a new spell, greater summon swarm, seems to have been copied from the SRD?s summon swarm; however, while the statistical information was changed, the body text seems to have been left the same).
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<b>LIKED</b>: This product expanded on a useful and evocative creature type in a very logical way, giving us two new very useful creature types. The rules are clear and seemingly well-balanced.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not a whole lot. There were some editing mistakes, but nothing major. The skull swarm isn?t really suitable for characters below, say, level 60 or so, and so it?s probably not that useful, but I imagine it was probably included as a gag, anyway.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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The Thieves? World Player?s Manual, by Green Ronin Publishing, is clearly a labor of love. Those involved wrote this material because they love and respect the fiction that it is based on, and they wrote the material with other, like-minded individuals in mind. And it shows. A lot of attention is paid to the details of the city of Sanctuary, from the minutia of currency conversion, to the interactions between different ethnic groups, to the individual languages spoken in Sanctuary. There?s even a bibliography for those who want to immerse themselves further in the Thieves? World mythos (as I, myself, would like to now). Overall, the setting information is detailed, interesting, well-written, and useful. It gives your mind a kick-start, allowing you to come up with your own ideas. One thing that I found missing, however, was a timeline of some sort. I very much would have liked a ?History of Sanctuary? section, or at the very least a timeline of major events. Considering that I, and many others, have not read the Thieves? World anthologies, this seems an obvious oversight.
As good as the setting information is, I?m somewhat less pleased with the mechanics of the setting. This isn?t to say that they aren?t good, it?s just to say that they perhaps aren?t as good as they could have been. There are good points, such as their version of the ranger (which I like quite a lot more than the core ranger), to be sure. However, there are also a number of questionable mechanics in the setting. The rules on serious injury and infection stand out to me in this regard. They certainly add realism to the setting, but they make combat much harder to recover from, they add an additional layer of complexity to combat, and I?m not entirely sure they make the game more fun (I am of the opinion that every rule contained within a game should make it more fun in some way, and if it doesn?t it should be removed). Some of the prestige classes, too, seem underpowered. The Mrsevadan Sailor, for example, has a number of useful abilities as long as he is on a ship. Once in the city of Sanctuary, however, he loses many of these abilities, or they become nearly useless. I question the utility of a prestige class like this in a game that is clearly not designed to be sea-faring.
Another thing that irked me somewhat (though I didn?t take any points off for this) was a nagging feeling of having seen many of the ?new? rules before. The rules on massive damage are almost verbatim from d20 Modern. The rules for curses seem heavily inspired by, if not taken directly from, The Ravenloft Campaign Setting. Finally, the magic system seems very similar to the one presented in the d20 version of The Sovereign Stone Campaign Setting, by Sovereign Press. As I said, these things bothered me somewhat; however, the Open Gaming Movement is all about shared material, so I didn?t dock Green Ronin any points for using other peoples? work.
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<b>LIKED</b>: A well-written, interesting, and very playable setting, with some interesting and refreshing ideas, and a bevy of character options.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not all of the rules seem balanced, or even necessary. I experienced a lot of d?j? vu while reading.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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I had heard a little bit about EN Publishing?s Elements of Magic prior to reading Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth, so I was somewhat intrigued from the start. As I read this book, however, my enthusiasm for it quickly grew. Here was an e-book that was edited and proofread better than many print products that I?ve read, and with an interesting, flexible, and fun magic system that?s pretty easy to plop into any modern or fantasy d20 game. Allow me to explain where my enthusiasm comes from.
The e-book starts with an introduction, as you?d expect, and then leads into a very intelligent discussion of myth, legend, folktale and superstition. It not only discusses what these things are, exploring various types of myths, including the Monomyth and the Fellowship Cycle, but it does a very good job of explaining why myth can make a good game better. This is not just a theoretical essay, it?s a guide for breathing new life into your game, for adding resonance to quests that might feel somewhat generic otherwise.
As interesting as this discussion is, however, the real meat of the product is the magic system, and it is very, very good. Magic is broken up into a series of spellcasting skills?skills like Create, Attack, Illusion, and Charm, to name a few?which you gain access to by taking Tradition feats. A Tradition feat represents the spellcasting tradition that you follow?again, to name a few: Stage Magic, Dreamtime, Necromancy, and Classical Fey?and give you access to certain spellcasting skills as class skills. To cast a spell, you simply choose the effect that you want, including range, duration, and other particulars, and work with the GM to find an appropriate level and DC. Then you cast the spell. It sounds like magic might slow the game down, doesn?t it? It really doesn?t. Spontaneous casting, as described above, takes two full rounds to use. To mitigate this, you can create ?signature spells?; basically, spontaneous spells that you?ve created beforehand, that do the same thing every time you cast them, but only require a standard action to cast. Thus, the flexibility is maintained, and the game is sped up considerably.
Granted, the book is not without its problems. There are a very few editing mistakes, and I can think of a few places where some errata is needed. For example, the book explains that, in order to cast a spell of higher level than is normally possible, you must take Strength burn. However, at certain points in the text, a different penalty (the fatigued condition) is referred to. In another part of the book, a few Tradition feats are provided for standard fantasy d20 (the system is designed with modern d20 in mind). However, one of these feats requires the use of action points, which are normally unavailable in fantasy d20. However, little things like this do nothing to detract from the overall superb quality of this product. Perhaps the best thing I can say about it is that I fully intend to use it in my own game, and I?m very, very excited about it.
UPDATE: I recently had the opportunity to playtest some of the rules presented in this product. While I stand by my rating, and I'm still very enthusiastic about the magic system presented, I'll admit that it might err a little bit on the side of being overpowered. I plan on using a 'mana gathering' mechanic (somewhat similar to what's presented in the Thieves' World Players Guide) to reign it in a little bit. When I've playtested that particular idea, I'll update this review again.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Great writing, intelligent discussions, and excellent artwork. Not only that, but the magic system is perhaps one of the most interesting, flexible, and balanced (at least, against itself) systems I?ve seen for quite some time. Also, for those looking for a little flavor with their crunch, there?s a lengthy section on the default campaign setting for Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth, a setting called High Fantasy for modern d20. It?s well-written and very interesting, and gives you a lot of good examples of how to create spells via the system.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Very little. There were a few errors and items requiring minor errata, but nothing game-breaking. It's also possible that using this magic system could make mage characters a little too powerful; I'm not entirely convinced of it, but the possibility is there.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>
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The Poor Gamer?s Almanac, by the Alea Publishing Group, is somewhat difficult to review, given that I?ve only read a single issue (issue 6, incidentally). As such, I?m going to give my general impressions of the magazine, rather than focusing on the specific articles within issue 6.
First of all, I?d like to say that I think that Alea definitely has the right idea. As the magazine is published by Alea Publishing, its content is almost entirely made up of snippets of their product catalog. Granted, they do give some space to other publishers (in this issue, most notably a snippet from The Year of the Zombie by UKG Publishing), but it?s mostly Alea content that you?re looking at. This acts as a good way to advertise their upcoming products, as well as inform people about what?s inside of their current releases. Personally, I think more companies should do this. I can?t tell you how many times (and I?m sure many of you can sympathize) I?ve wanted to read more about an upcoming product, but the information simply hasn?t been there. I think that there are a lot of people out there who would pay a small fee for a regular magazine from their favorite publisher, and I?d include myself among them.
That aside, however, not everything about The Poor Gamer?s Almanac is good. It?s a good idea, to be sure, but the execution could use a little bit of work. I often found the flow of my reading interrupted by grammatical errors, and there was more than one occasion on which I had to re-read a section because I simply didn?t know what the author was trying to say. I also wonder about how balanced some of the rules contained within this magazine are. Granted, I?m only looking at a single issue, and granted, some of these game rules might still be going through play-testing, as they?re from unreleased products, but I?d still give anything you read in this magazine a thorough examination before including it in your game. Of course, I?d say the same about feats and prestige classes found in Dragon Magazine, or even in some of Wizards? splatbooks, but that?s beside the point.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The artwork throughout was of a very high quality, and I was very impressed. The layout is clean and attractive, and there seems to be a good balance of crunch and flavor in the articles, themselves. I also like the way the ads are integrated into the magazine; specifically, the fact that you can click on them to visit the advertiser?s website. Very slick, and a good example of why PDFs are good for this kind of thing. And, of course, I really like the concept.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This magazine could use some pretty heavy editing and proofreading before it goes to press (so to speak). Some play-testing might not hurt, either.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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Superior Synergy asks the question: why does skill synergy begin and end at five ranks? It's an interesting question, to be sure. In a nutshell, skill synergies now have four 'benchmarks': one at five, ten, fifteen and twenty ranks. Some are simply higher skill bonuses, while others allow you to use skills faster, or cause skill effects to last longer.
Slightly more interesting, but possibly less balanced, are feat synergies. When you take certain combinations of feats, you gain bonus abilities related to the required feats, without having to spend another feat slot. These abilities tend to be more potent than skill synergies, but not quite as powerful as true feats.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: In general, the new skill synergy effects are easy to integrate, seem to be balanced, and are pretty useful on the whole. While the feat synergies may seem somewhat unbalanced (and the author as much as admits to this), this concept is not without precedent. In Wizards' own Oriental Adventures there is a similar mechanic used to emulate mastery of a martial arts style. Still, look at feat synergies with a careful eye.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It should be mentioned that more effort could have been put into editing this work. I noticed a number of spelling and grammar errors, though this hardly makes the book less useful as a resource. In addition, those looking for something to add flavor to their game should look elsewhere; this work is almost one hundred percent mechanics.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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