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Post by Gilvan Blight on Feb 20, 2008 16:13:40 GMT -5
I get this newsletter since I have purchased a few products in PDF format from RPGNow.com... I will duplicate the latest issue here. Let me know if this is something people would like me to continue posting as I receive them. Newest Free Products Robot Combat Board Game - Variant of Sen So by TwinBlade Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54430&it=1&SRC=newsletterYes you are a robot! Does that compute? Designed as the ultimate fighting machine combat is all you know. Any opponent that faces you in the arena will be put to the test. You cannot and will not be stopped! All other contestants will fall before your nex... Tunnels & Trolls Free Rulebook by Flying Buffalo www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54407&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis is a short version of the full Tunnels & trolls Rules. It is sufficient to play the solitaire adventure, and to show your friends how to play with the GameMaster adventure.Tunnels & Trolls is one of the easiest role playing games to learn and... S&G Free Rules by Bad Baby Productions www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54406&it=1&SRC=newsletterS&G is the premier skirmish battle system from Bad Baby Productions. A fast paced skirmish game of battle, skill and guts, S&G (Skirmish Games) allows players to field small bands of warriors, who will then fight bloody engagements. Ea... Storytelling Adventure System Guide by White Wolf www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54404&it=1&SRC=newsletterWhite Wolf's Storytelling Adventure System (SAS for short) is a series of stories in PDF format for our various Storytelling game lines. Think of a Storytelling Adventure System product (SAS) as a story kit, as if you’d bought a piece of modern ... FUDGE DICE! by Digital Alchemy www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54385&it=1&SRC=newsletterPalmOS Die Rolling, Un-Opposed/Opposed Action Resolution and Wound tracking application for FUDGE based Roleplaying Games including our own Hack-n-Slash and Firing Solution games. FUDGE DICE! is an easy to use application which performs basic FUDGE result... Newest Products COVER ME! Collection Two [BUNDLE] by Dungeon Dwellers' Guild Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54707&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $8.50 $6.00 THIS IS A BUNDLE PRODUCT. WHEN BUYING THIS ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE SEPARATE DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR EACH PRODUCT LISTED BELOW... COVER ME! #10 - Old ManPRICE: $1.50SALE: $1.00COVER ME!Stock Art Series #10 -Old ManEach product in the COVER ME! Stock Art... COVER ME! #10 - Old Man by Dungeon Dwellers' Guild Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54706&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.50 COVER ME!Stock Art Series #10 -Old ManEach product in the COVER ME! Stock Art Series presents a new, full-page graphic (Portrait, 8.5x11) at 150 DPI for use by gamers and publishers alike who want a slick book cover to a product or project witho... Other Side of the Mirror -- Feb 2008 by Cracked Mirror Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54442&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 $0.00 Other Side of the Mirror is the monthly newsletter of Cracked Mirror Publishing. Each month we put together some game reviews, money saving coupons, book reviews, company news, gaming ideas, and sprinkle in a little personal opinion and release it to th... Classic Spycraft: Mastermind by Crafty Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54705&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $24.95 $10.00 Topple governments! Ransom the moon! This essential Spycraft GC aid presents hundreds of new campaign options, from new ways to expand your basic criminal organizations to devious plots they can unleash upon the agents. This definitive volume not only exp... Classic Spycraft: Agency by Crafty Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54704&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $24.95 $10.00 Teamwork — on a global scale. This essential Spycraft aid presents hundreds of new agent options for players and contains a unique new system taking the game in brand new directions. With the Agency sourcebook, players have the ability to design an ... Newest Staff Reviews Sidetrek Adventure Weekly #2: Blood Stained Trail by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54408&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.75 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review I have noticed a few things about LPJ Design that I think should be noted before I move on with this review. They make some amazingly beautiful products. Whether you like the description or not, their cover art is usually so tantalizing that it makes you want to pick up the product just to see what they have in store from you. Another thing is that they refuse to sit idol and let the norm dictate their products, instead they are pushing the envelope. The Side Adventure Weekly line is another one of these sets of envelope pushing products. Instead of giving an adventure or port of an adventure, the product line aims to give you an expansive sidetrek with 2 or 3 encounters neatly tied together. They also use something that I really enjoyed and found useful as a DM--- A color sticker system that indicates what type of adventure this is and what it includes. This is a great feature that a lot of DMs can find useful. After all, the first thing I do when I get a new adventure is flip through it to see what type of adventure it is, what’s it about and how will it fit into my campaign. These stickers make it so easy to do a review of the product. For instance, Side Adventure Weekly 2, Blood Stained Trail is a Low Level, High NPC interacting mini adventure with lots of threats, traps and magic rewards based in an urban setting for 4 to 6 player. I got all that from the 6 info stickers on the front. Blood Stained Trail, follows right in line with the previous edition. It is 15 pages long and very colorful. It picks off where the last side trek left off, with the enemies running off into the sewers. You can either run the adventure from that point, or use it as a stand alone substituting the main villains for any one from your campaign. All that is needed is that the PCs have to be chasing them for a reason. The very helpful breakout boxes do a wonderful job of telling you how to slide the adventure and how to fit it into your campaign. For the DM: Blood Stained Trail contains very creative encounters with some cool encounter specific mechanics. There is a really cool encounter where the PCs are fending off enemies on a skiff and the mechanics for it is very impressive. The Iron Word: LPJ Design has put their own spin and created a very interesting niche product of mini adventures. Though I felt it could have had a couple more pages, you still get quite a bit of information in the 15 pages. There are the three encounters, maps and some new mechanics. Buying a subscription for this would be a good bet, considering the great quality of the first two and the consistency of LPJ. For a mini adventure this is one of the better ones I have read. The Lazy GM: Dungeon Beasts by Creative Conclave www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=51545&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $21.99 $9.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review One of the great things about the d20 core rules is that they're expandable and customizable, and for monsters that is a real treat. With templates, advanced monsters and other means around, the DM can create a treasure trove of wild beasties to throw at their players. No two monsters of the same species need to be the same, and the flexibility this allows is huge. In fact, some of the best books for the d20 market out there have dealt with templates. Part of the DMs job is to create fun and challenging encounters, and customizable monsters offers a powerful tool in doing just that. The Lazy GM: Dungeon Beasts is the latest product from Creative Conclave and the 5th product in their Lazy GM series (6th if you count Creative Conclave's free Halloween release last year). This product show cases (within the limits of the core d20) the power of customization of monsters. In the pages of this product 40 dungeon beasts have been turned into over 400 through the use of advancing, templates and the like. As the name suggests, this product is about dungeon beast, essentially all the creatures with the magical beast or aberration types. The Lazy GM: Dungeon Beasts presents 146 pages of stat blocks of every CR allowing the DM to pick a dungeon beast to suit his needs without any hassle. This product is compatible with the revised d20 core rules. This product comes as a single easy-to-use pdf file. While there are no bookmarks, the product allows you navigate at the click of a creature's name, meaning with the extensive table of contents you can go wherever you want within the pdf. Layout is in a single column, with the various monsters sorted alphabetically throughout the product. Like the other products in the series, the stat blocks are impeccable, and with over 400 stat blocks in this product, that's saying something. The product also includes an extremely useful introduction, as well as handy tables to sort creatures by role, such as ambushers, guardians, and relentless hunters. This is a very well presented pdf, with excellent mechanics. The Lazy GM series is all about providing DMs with scores of pregenerated stat blocks of various creatures in a large number of different variations. Dungeon Beasts features creatures such as: ankheg, grick, rust monster, hellhound, choker, basilisk, owlbear, manticore, chimera, gorgon, and numerous others. Naturally these creatures have been expanded and advanced in numerous ways, and templates such as zombie, skeleton, vampire, paragon, phrenic, fiendish and pseodonatural have been applied liberally to each creature, creating a vast quantity of creatures of every CR. Some creatures have class levels as well, where appropriate, for example, with a blink dog. And speaking of CRs, the CRs range from 1/3 for the lowly dire rat, to 35 for that paragon purple worm. The majority of the creatures fall in the region below CR 10, but there are a fair number of scores of creatures in the higher CR ranges. A product like this is a huge undertaking, particularly if you want to provide huge variation and get the details right. Creative Conclave have once again succeeded at this, creating an extremely useful document for those that don't really like generating creatures or typing out stat blocks for various creatures. It's one thing to create a product with 40 stat blocks, and quite another to do that for 400 accurate stat blocks. This is a valuable resource, and along with the other four products so far in the series, almost means you'll never really need to create another stat block again. Creative Conclave have produced an impressive product. While it doesn't bring anything new to the d20 arena, its utility is enormous and as such a product that many DMs wonder what they did without it. This product can shave hours off preparation time, particularly if combined with other products in the series. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what's next for The Lazy GM series. Excellent product. Twisted Menagerie by Silverthorne Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=51671&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $14.99 $11.99 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Silverthorne Games, the company known for its variety of interesting and bizarre templates, has returned after a long absence with their latest product, Twisted Menagerie. But how well does this new product hold up compared to their previous works, particularly their magnum opus, The Book of Templates? Funny you should ask… Twisted Menagerie is a book of monsters. It contains a grand total of forty-two monsters, with several being specific individuals. I hesitate to call them “new” monsters, however, because all of these creatures have one or more templates from The Book of Templates: Deluxe Edition 3.5. In essence, Twisted Menagerie is something of a companion piece to that book, though make no mistake, all of the monsters here work just fine if you don’t have the BoT – that said, there is a single brand new template here (“Servant of Olamet”), along with several new magic items, some new non-magic items, a few new deities, and some spells reprinted from the BoT:DE 3.5. Note that each creature also has, in their description, a listing for what the base creature is, along with (in several cases) full PC race information. The zipped file that I received contained only a single PDF of the full version of the file. Presumably this has since been corrected and a printer-friendly version has also been added, but I can’t say for certain. The full version of the file is seventy-one pages long. It has full bookmarks as well as a table of contents. The art in the full version is quite plentiful. All of the pages are grey, with the edges being a darker color than the center; while I wouldn’t say the color scheme made the text any harder to read, it did seem to present a sort of muted tone when browsing the book. Almost every monster has a black and white illustration, nicely showing what they look like. The book keeps a fairly orderly layout, with every monster occupying either one or two full pages. Each entry begins with some descriptive text, and moves right on to the creature’s special abilities. Their full stat block is listed at the bottom of the page, and the picture is off to the side. Listed by the picture is the name of the monster, and in parenthesis what the base creature and template is. This is a fairly compact system, and works well enough, but it leads me to my major complaint about the book: the text resolution is too small. While never truly hard to read, the text is just small enough that I found it to be slightly uncomfortable, and in a few cases confusing – the letter “e” and “c” were largely indistinguishable at that size, for example. It won’t be anything that ruins the book for anyone, but it’s slightly irking. Twisted Menagerie is a very nice book, and a good return for Silverthorne Games, but while I liked it, it doesn’t quite live up to the book that it’s working from. Even with the scattering of new crunch, a book of existing monsters with templates applied doesn’t quite raise the same level of excitement as a book of new monsters/templates does. This book tries hard to compensate for that by giving us flavor text to try and integrate these as new, complete monsters, along with racial information for some of these as PC races, but it doesn’t quite pull it off. Add in the problems with the text size, and while I’d still say this book is a gem, it’s a flawed one. Nevertheless, it’s worth its cost, and if you want a book to nicely showcase what you can get from the Deluxe Edition of the Book of Templates, look no further than Twisted Menagerie. Sidetrek Adventure Weekly #1: Blood on the Waterfront by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54344&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.75 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Sidetrek Adventure Weekly is a new series from LPJ Design, and each product in the series provides a detailed adventure scenario that can easily be dropped into your campaign or adventure. The scenarios can either be played as stand-alone scenarios, or all 12 scenarios of the, presumably first, series can be linked together to form an action-packed and fast paced adventure. The first scenario is called Blood on the Waterfront, and sees the PCs involved in a mad skirmish in an abandoned warehouse filled with rope swinging masked monks and scurvy pirates. LPJ Design have generally always impressed me with their presentation in short pdfs, and this product is no exception. Blood on the Waterfront features some excellent art by Anthony Cournoyer with a really gripping front cover that allows one to vividly imagine the scene of the scenario battle. But they don't just stop at providing great art, but also include a bunch of other useful features in their pdfs, including useful counters (monks only, unfortunately, so none for the pirates), a margin on each page for notes, and blank stat cards to fill in for easy reference for the various NPCs and villians of this product. Sidetrek Adventure Weekly also features a new rating system which allows you to judge each adventure based on difficulty, magic, traps, location, etc. This is extremely useful, although it doesn't always capture the complexity of the adventure itself. Blood on the Waterfront is quite a complex scenario, involving scores of combatants, and novice or beginner DMs may have a hard time keeping track of all the elements of the adventure as they unfold around them, something that's particularly important in order to keep the action fast paced. Still, this first product has impressed me with the presentation, attention to detail, good writing, excellent stat blocks, and quality artwork. The scenario takes place in a dilapidated warehouse, where the PCs, for reasons developed in a number of plot hooks, watch an illicit trade going on. No sooner has the cargo changed hands, that masked monks jump down on ropes from the ceiling, and a massive battle ensues with monks fighting from ropes, pirates jumping on crates, and battles raging all over the dodgy floor of the warehouse. The action is fast paced, with the entire scenario battle likely over in about ten rounds of combat, although that excludes the adventuring to be had before reaching the warehouse, and of course what happens afterwards in the second instalment of the series. DMs can cater for the outcome of the scenario as they see fit, depending on how they're planning on running the adventure - stand-alone or as a part of a series. The general outline of the pdf details quite effectively the general flow of the battle and the precarious nature of the location. Good sections of read-aloud text are provided where needed and hints for DMs that do not wish to run the entire combat by rolling for each individual NPC. The advice for running the adventure is sound, and the attention is on the important NPCs and the PCs rather than the dozens of mooks that are running around the place. The pdf also provides two wonderful maps - one detailed with the locations of all the NPCs, while the other is more of a PC handout in that it is blank except for some minor details. Both can be used effectively to run the encounter, and to prepare for the scenario set-up. Where needed, new rules are provided, such as for fighting on the various stacked crates, or for fighting while climbing or holding on to a rope. References to page numbers in the core rules are provided for other useful rules. This pdf certainly lives up to its promise. The action is fast paced, the scenario filled with vivid action, and there's loads of swashbuckling fun to be had. Given the sheer number of combatants, it might be intimidating for some to run, but the advice on glossing over the numbers allows it to run more smoothly. The adventure gives a few hints about what's next in the series, but doesn't really cover significant details on the overall plot of the whole series. So, those wishing to run these as a 12-part adventure will most likely need to wait for the first few to appear before deciding if they like where the adventure is going. Nevertheless, this first instalment in the series is grand and bold, and players and DMs alike will have fun describing a mad battle that's bound to excite. Very good scenario and great presentation. Monsters of NeoExodus: Harvester of Sorrow by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=51560&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $0.99 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Sean Holland) Review Monsters of NeoExodus: Harvester of Sorrow is part of the support for the NeoExodus D20 fantasy setting by Louis J Porter Jr Design providing monsters and enemies linked to that setting, this volume was written by Greg Oppedisano. It is a seven-page product (six after OGL) with an easy to read layout and the only art being the very nice full color cover piece (of which part is used for the character tokens included at the end of the product) with the last two pages being a sheet of tokens and a record sheet. Harvesters of Sorrow are undead created when the soul of a suicide victim is refused entry to the afterlife. The Harvesters of Sorrow seek others to kill and convert into lost souls like themselves. It is a solid background for an undead creature with appropriate hooks into mythology. The Harvesters of Sorrow uses a plaintive wail to overwhelm the listeners with its terrible soul-felt grief. While its bite carrying a magical disease whose victims in turn become Harvesters of Sorrow as well, allowing the numbers of these foul creatures to grow. In addition to the standard Harvester of Sorrow (CR 4), a Harvester of Sorrow Paragon (CR 6) is also fully statted out, the Paragon’s aura of hopelessness is manifest around it making it a much more dangerous foe than its lesser version. The Harvester of Sorrow fills an interesting niche in the ranks of the undead and can be used in many styles of campaigns. However, it is a very power-oriented creature, if its abilities (especially the wail) can be negated, it is likely to find itself easy prey for its hunters.
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Post by johnnywannabe on Feb 21, 2008 9:26:22 GMT -5
I think this is great. It's a good way to promote small publishers and it introduces people to PDFs. Of course, before you buy, make sure you do your research so you get what you want.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Feb 21, 2008 10:49:55 GMT -5
Good enough for me. I will continue to share when I think of it. Unfortunately it goes to my little used Gmail account (which I only use for things like signing up for sites like RPGNow) and I don't remember to check it very often, but when I do and there is an update I will post it.
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Post by johnnywannabe on Feb 21, 2008 13:16:52 GMT -5
Your Games Now and Precis Intermedia are two other sites to check out. I particularly like Precis Intermedia (formerly P.I.G.) The site is mostly dedicated to their own stuff, but other publishers sell on the site as well.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Feb 21, 2008 16:01:42 GMT -5
Any clue why they changed their name from Pollically Incorrect Games? Just going for a more professional image? DriveThruRPG.com is another great site for indy games. There is also a great forum site for indy game designers called The Forge that I got involved with while playtesting carry. Can't seem to find the link though...a quick google search later I slap myself on the head for forgetting this : www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/
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Post by johnnywannabe on Feb 21, 2008 22:57:37 GMT -5
Any clue why they changed their name from Pollically Incorrect Games? Just going for a more professional image? I don't know really, and I've never thought about it. I'll have to ask Brett. There is also a great forum site for indy game designers called The Forge that I got involved with while playtesting carry. Can't seem to find the link though...a quick google search later I slap myself on the head for forgetting this : www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/Ah, yes, the Forge. The Forge community is heavy into game theory; something I can do without. A number of "indy" game designers came out of the Forge. Check out IPR (Indie Press Revolution - another RPG sales site). It has a "Forge influence".
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Mar 5, 2008 15:27:23 GMT -5
Feb 28th edition: Freebie of the Week Castlemourn is a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting where kingdoms fight for power through political intrigue and outright warfare; where the brave seek their fortunes in dangerous ruins, and where everyone fears the unspeakable evil that shadows the land. A Player’s Guide to Castlemourn is a 40-page introduction to the lands of Mourna. It will allow you to create and run a character with basic knowledge of the setting using current Third Edition rules. The Guide includes original fiction by Ed Greenwood! You can find the FREE players guide and the Castlemourn Campaign Setting, both from Margaret Weis Productions, here: www.rpgnow.com/index.php?cPath=331_700&SRC=NewsletterGM's Day: Too big for just one day Get your favorite Game Master something nice. GM's Day rolls in next week, so RPGNow and our publishing partners are celebrating with a sale: Dozens of publishers are discounting over a thousand titles by 25% or MORE! It's so big, we couldn't stop at just one day. The sale runs from Tuesday, March 4th to Thursday, March 6, no saving throws required. On Tuesday, March 4, we'll have a handy guide to GM's Day discounts available from RPGNow's home page: www.rpgnow.com! Publisher Product Discounts Blight Elves: Architects of Despair by Reality Deviant Publications www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54819&it=1&discount=84600&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $7.50 Discount Price: $6.50 In celebration of the release of this eagerly anticipated follow-up to the Blood Throne campaign setting, we at Reality Deviant Publications are offering you a discount of one dollar off the listed price for Blight Elves: Architects of Despair. This 57 page E-book explores one of the most vile races to walk the face of Simarra. So don't wait, grab your copy today! Newest Free Products Heroic Sci-Fi Alien Hybrid Accessories by One Monk Miniatures www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54893&it=1&SRC=newsletterSF011 Alien Hybrid SlashersFREE Set of 18 weapon arm and leg accessories. The weapons represent a wide variety of hand held and alternate limbs usable by this class of Hybrid Bug Trooper. Each weapon is designed for both the left and right arms, and in tw... Fantasci20: Gazetteer of Aurianis by RPG Objects www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54875&it=1&SRC=newsletterScience Fiction Fantasy to the 20th Power! The Gazetteer of Aurianis is FREE induction to the world of Fantasci, a science fiction fantasy setting for Modern20. The World of Aurianis Aurianis is a world not unlike our own. In fact it might be Earth, b... Neverwhere by Postmortem Studios www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54783&it=1&SRC=newsletterAn early outing and a free fan-game at that (the letter of permission is included in the PDF). This was the second edition of Neverwhere that I produced, the first being entirely web based. Looking back this is quite an amateurish effort but the content r... QUEST CARDS Free Demo by Fuller Flippers www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54722&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis QUEST CARDS Free Demo features instructions, example of play, and 32 cards. The cards include the Heroine character (levels one and two only), about half of the cards from the Mox's Mansion adventure, and over a dozen magic items. The PDF file c... Robot Combat Board Game - Variant of Sen So by TwinBlade Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54430&it=1&SRC=newsletterYes you are a robot! Does that compute? Designed as the ultimate fighting machine combat is all you know. Any opponent that faces you in the arena will be put to the test. You cannot and will not be stopped! All other contestants will fall before your nex... Newest Products Krigat Manor & Afairen Keep by Cartography Unlimited for RPGs www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54904&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.50 Another product for the Pick A Place line -- Krigat Manor & Afairen Keep. There's a brief description of Krigat Manor, Afairen Keep, NPCs and the Skullcrusher orc tribe.This product contains the following maps:Krigat, Remdon, Afairen Keep Overview... Adventure Minis 2: Barrow by Red Moon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54903&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.99 As you awake from your slumber, the sun casting its morning orange glow across all the land, you notice a solitary grassy knoll sat silhouetted against it. For a moment, you just take in the majesty of the scene and look forward to the day ahead. But then... FSpace Roleplaying Conspiracy Convention Skills Guide by FSpace Publications www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54902&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $0.50 $0.50 FSpaceRPG is a science fiction roleplaying game in the classic mould.This guide is a great addition that is best used to expand FED RPG for better skills description. Or it can be used as a stand alone reference for FSpaceRPG.Originally released in 1997 f... Quirin Stock Art #12: Zetto by GMC www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54897&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.19 GMC - It's Game Master's Choice! Come to the world, where mortals created and became gods, where the Long Night powers orcs and undead and where ruins of a glorious past let deities fear for their existence. A world of enigmatic NPCs: from... Airships by DragonWing Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54900&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $9.99 While some choose to sail the seas and oceans seeking trade, adventure, and fame, others are more daring and sail the skies of their worlds. Discover the wonders of flight and the beauty of sailing the winds from many different methods and in many differe... Newest Staff Reviews Black Tokyo by Skortched Urf' Studios www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54698&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.99 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Sean Holland) Review Black Tokyo is D20 campaign support for D20 Modern and D20 fantasy (though primarily D20 Modern) written by and published by Scorched Urf' Studios. It is quite massive at 171 pages (168 after covers and OGL) with a mostly clean layout marred by a lack of a table of contents or index and a few formatting errors later in the book. The book contains a fair amount of illustrations of varying quality. However, very few of them fall into the safe for work category. First, to repeat the warning, this is a product for mature readers. The subject themes are dark, brutal and nasty as it takes its inspiration from horror-themed Hentai manga and anime and thus deal with the dark side of human nature mixed with blood magic and demons hungry for human . . . flesh, in all forms. If you are squeamish about sexual situations or easily squicked, avoid this product. It begins with an introduction to the subject matter, summarizing the style of game Black Tokyo is a sourcebook for and the themes it emphasizes. One of the most important things the introduction stresses is making sure that all of the players are comfortable using such material in a game, vital in fact. Additionally, notes for incorporating Scorched Urf Studio’s other D20 products are included, useful if you have them. Next are new feats (62 of them) ranging from the benign: Cosplay (which allows the costumes made by the character to provide minor skill bonuses) and Junishi Zodiac (minor bonuses based on the characters zodiac sign). To dangerous, Hissing Bile (you can spit acid) and finally to the bizarre and horrendous things such as using body parts as weapons, inciting lusts and drawing upon dark forces. The more disturbing of the feats generally seem on the higher end of the power curve and would need to be carefully balanced in a campaign. Then Prestige Classes, seven, two antagonists, one heroic and the remaining four can play either side. They are rather unusual, as one would expect, but look mechanically balanced. One annoying thing is that several of the classes gain bonuses feats and the list of feats include those from outside both the core D20 Modern rules and this product. The Magic chapter opens with a variant set of item creation rules to make them more fitting to the setting. There are 47 new items, ranging from recovered demonic artefacts to minor protective items and everything in between, some of them (especially the demonic items) are exceptionally powerful and would have to be used with care. Spells follow with several renamed SRD spells and some new spells, interesting but nothing really groundbreaking here. The Cosmology chapter gives an overview of the way the worlds, human, demon and other, interact. Then it introduces 15 races (one reprinted from another source) that live on the border of the worlds, intelligent undead, halfbreeds and other human-like creatures that can be used as PC or NPC races. Lastly, the monsters, 19 of them ranging from a CR of ½ to 28 (!) some are usable in any dark fantasy campaign, but others are tied much more closely to the setting. An interesting mix, though including adventure seeds for each of the monsters would have been a good addition. The World of Black Tokyo includes more background, adventure locations, organizations and a list of works that this product took inspiration from. A solid chapter if not long enough, campaign styles and example arcs would have really improved this chapter, also the formatting is off in this chapter with random underlining, bolding or other strange problems. Obviously, this product is not for everyone or every campaign, that being said if you and your players are interested in exploring these dark reaches, Black Tokyo is a useful starting point but only that. Animal Archives: DinoFiles II - Theropods by Blackdirge Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54712&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review It might be hard to remember now (or, if you’re one of the younger gamers, you might not be able to remember at all), but back before Jurassic Park made raptors into the most fearsome dinosaurs, the T-Rex was the image that everyone had when the terrible thunder lizards were discussed. The second entry into the DinoFiles series brings these deposed kings of the dinosaurs back into the spotlight. Strictly speaking, theropods comprise a wide variety of dinosaurs that were bipedal carnivores, including raptors. As they were covered before, however, this product covers similar non-raptor dinosaurs; the T-Rex itself isn’t here (as it’s in the SRD) but its cousins are the main thrust of this book. Animal Archives: DinoFiles II – Theropods comes in a zipped file that’s just under six megabytes in size. The PDF is a full twenty-four pages long, including the front cover and the OGL. Full bookmarks make for convenient zooming through the book. The artwork here is what you’d expect from a Blackdirge product; the cover has color pieces around a central black and white piece of art, with the rest of the art being black and white interior pieces. Of course, borders with information of the book line the top and bottom of each page. I just want to take a moment to talk about the book’s art here. Usually I mention the art only in passing before moving on to the contents, but I have to say more this time. Anyone familiar with Blackdirge’s products will be familiar with illustrations by Hunter McFalls, who’s black and white illustrations are very clean and crisp in their design. Here, however, McFalls has truly outdone himself, presenting several pictures of each of the dinosaurs detailed herein that are spectacular. From a cloud giant riding a gigantosaurus (and chasing some very, very unlucky human) to a piece of two knights jousting (one on a horse, and one on a ceratosaurus, and holy crap that guy on the horse is either really brave or really stupid to be jousting a guy on a dinosaur!), this is incredibly evocative art, and really lends itself to what kind of niches dinosaurs would occupy in a magical fantasy world. Bravo Hunter! The book itself presents five new dinosaurs. Cousins of the T-Rex, most of them are smaller than the so-called king of the dinosaurs, one is the same size, and one in particular (the gigantosaurus) is actually larger. The introduction details special attacks that most of these dinosaurs have, and in addition to that, each has a section detailing how player characters can use them (whether as animal companions, or as summoned monsters), and what ecological niche these dinosaurs occupied when they lived in the real world. Two of these dinosaurs also have fantasy variants presented by adding templates to them; in one case (the crested spitter), this rather amusingly recreates the base dinosaur as it was misrepresented in the Jurassic Park movie. Both templates are reprinted in their entirely at the end of the book, right after listings for celestial and fiendish versions of each new dinosaur, and a table listing what dinosaurs are summoned by what spells. That this product presents a wealth of great new ideas for the dinosaurs it covers should be self-evident if you’ve read this far. While there were no individual advanced dinosaurs the way there are creatures in most other Blackdirge products, the templated creatures largely fill that niche. The new options for all of the dinosaurs here make this product almost a necessity if dinosaurs are at all a large part of your game. Blackdyrge's Templates: Devout by Blackdirge Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=51691&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.25 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review The latest in Blackdirge’s line of synergy templates, the Devout is for adding clerical abilities to your monster, without necessarily making them a cleric (though it helps). The zipped file is just over four megabytes in size, and has the singular PDF in with it. The product itself is nine pages long, including a full-page cover and a page for the OGL. Full bookmarks are given, despite the book’s brevity, which is always a nice touch (though, rather embarrassingly, the bookmark for the template itself calls it the “roguish” template, rather then “devout”). The book’s cover is quite colorful, with the outer portions being a vibrant yellow, with black veins running through it, around the central image of an azer. That same image, along with one of a devout gnoll, can be found inside; the only examples of the interior black and white artwork. There are page borders along the top and bottom of every page, having basic information about the book. There’s no printer-friendly recourse, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you neglect to print the cover. After the opening statement from Blackdyrge himself, the book dives right into the new template. The Devout template grants a creature some cleric-like abilities. On the surface, this seems like a tricky prospect, since clerics are known for several things (divine spellcasting, healing support, and turning/rebuking undead). The template manages to adequately give thematic powers regarding all of these to the base creature. If the creature has five or more levels in the cleric class, then not only are these powers still useful, but it gains additional powers as well. In true Blackdyrge style, two example monsters are then given. The first one is a low-level devout gnoll that can’t take advantage of the template’s synergy powers, whereas the second one is a high-level azer with more than enough clerical levels to use this template to full effect. The idea of synergy templates remains a good one, and while this template had its work cut out for it with simulating clerical abilities, it did so quite well. Like all of the synergy templates, it can be used when you want a clerical-themed monster without having to add the class levels, or you can drop it on a cleric-classed creature to increase its power in new and unexpected ways. Either way, this template is a winner. Targum Magazine - Issue 04 (for Testament, Eternal Rome & d20) by Highmoon Media Productions www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54271&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of role-playing in the Biblical era (and, to be honest, with role-playing in any historical time period before the AD system came into use). As such, I quite enjoyed Testament and similar d20 RPGs set in ancient times, and was quite happy when I heard about Targum magazine. I have every issue so far, and the fourth one delivers just like its predecessors. The product comes in a zipped file just under ten megabytes in size. The PDF of the magazine is forty-eight pages long, with a full-page front cover and five full-page interior ads. Interior bookmarks let you easily zip around to whatever article you want, which is nice. However, there is no printer-friendly version, which can be quite disheartening as this is a very colorful book. In fact, like previous issues, the fourth release of Targum is resplendent with art. Beyond the ubiquitous pictures that accompany each article, the first few pages of the articles have a background that looks like a tan, slightly crumpled parchment. In short, this is a magazine that is very easy on the eyes, but printing it out might be a bit of an issue. There are six articles covered in this issue, and I’ll touch on each one here. The first is the Ostraca column, this month detailing how two Biblical kings apparently show up twice in pre-history. The article attempts to reconcile two kings with same names, ruling very close geographic areas, around the same time. The article meticulously goes over the accepted history, and then posits reasons for why that history may have intentionally been misconstrued. Endnotes pepper the article, which closes out with a few game ideas for this scenario. I found this part fascinating, but perhaps a bit too obtuse for me to truly understand – I can’t rule out that that’s likely due to my not knowing Biblical history very well, however, and serious groups looking for new opportunities for role-playing in that area may find this invaluable. The second article covers the Kalevala Mythos, listing out ten Finnish gods described in the Kalevala (the epic Finnish tale). Each god is listed by name, along with their divine level and alignment, followed by a (translated) passage about them from the Kalevala, and then some metagame description of them. The rest of their information is given in the style of WotC’s listings for gods, with their portfolios, domains, favored weapon, cleric training, quests, prayers, temples, rites, and herald and allies all given. The article closes out with a minor artifact (also from the epic saga) and some ideas for using the Kalevala in your game. I personally liked this article a lot, as I always enjoy seeing new gods detailed. However, it felt slightly out-of-place to me. While Targum is for all ancient-world settings, virtually everything we’ve seen to that effect so far has been for the Biblical area; that is, the Mediterranean/Middle East area set over two thousand years ago. Something set so far north, and potentially much later (the Kalevala was first written down in the late 17th century, though it was already quite old by that time) seems to break from that idea. Still, it’s a very well-done article, and could be useful for a change of pace (particularly if the PCs decide to go exploring some of the wider world during that time). The third article is the second of a two-part series covering Akhenaten, the monotheistic pharaoh from Egypt (part one was in the second issue). Not quite four pages long, this article briefly touches on various parts of Akhet-Aten, Akhenaten’s capital city, as well as art in his empire, adventure ideas, and stat blocks for common NPCs. A sidebar also gives three new feats. While this article was brief overall, it’s much longer taken together with the preceding article, which paint a great picture of Egypt during the time of this unorthodox ruler; by itself though, this article feels like it’s over just a bit too fast. The Legions vs. Hordes article is meant to deliberately bring together disparate sourcebooks that focus on the same general time and place, something I very much enjoy seeing. In this case, various Roman legions and barbarian hordes (indicative of the Eternal Rome book) are given statistics so that they may be used with the Battlefield Resolution System in both Testament and Trojan War. It’s likely that this will be useful to anyone who purchases this magazine, since you’ll likely have one of the two latter books already. This is a great way to bring Rome into play as a major power in battlefield campaigns. A few new battlefield feats also help round out differentiating Roman soldiers from others at the time. As per usual, Arion Games has included several fold-out minis with the magazine. In this case, there are four minis of Roman legions. Each mini has the front of the depicted characters on one side, with the back on the opposite side, and are in full color. Also included are flipped versions of each mini (as though looking in a mirror), allowing for a nice bit of customization. The final article in the magazine is perhaps the one that will draw the most attention, especially from people who play Testament. This issue is part one of the official 3.5 Testament update. The author briefly talks about how this is indeed an official conversion, and not just a fan-made one. Further, this is not just an update, but also fixes several points of errata in the Testament book. Going on for almost twelve pages, this is what many Testament players (myself included) have wanted for a long time now. It’s just a pity that this is being given to us at the twilight of the 3.5 era. This first part of the update covers up through the first eight chapters of Testament, leaving the rest for the next part. Altogether, I felt this issue of Targum lived up to the high bar set by the preceding issues. It has some minor issues (lack of a printer-friendly version, how the Kalevala article felt off, etc.) but is still a very high-quality publication. If you’re at all interested in role-playing in the Biblical era, purchasing Targum isn’t just a good idea, but a very-nearly necessary one. Sidetrek Adventure Weekly #2: Blood Stained Trail by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54408&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.75 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review I have noticed a few things about LPJ Design that I think should be noted before I move on with this review. They make some amazingly beautiful products. Whether you like the description or not, their cover art is usually so tantalizing that it makes you want to pick up the product just to see what they have in store from you. Another thing is that they refuse to sit idol and let the norm dictate their products, instead they are pushing the envelope. The Side Adventure Weekly line is another one of these sets of envelope pushing products. Instead of giving an adventure or port of an adventure, the product line aims to give you an expansive sidetrek with 2 or 3 encounters neatly tied together. They also use something that I really enjoyed and found useful as a DM--- A color sticker system that indicates what type of adventure this is and what it includes. This is a great feature that a lot of DMs can find useful. After all, the first thing I do when I get a new adventure is flip through it to see what type of adventure it is, what’s it about and how will it fit into my campaign. These stickers make it so easy to do a review of the product. For instance, Side Adventure Weekly 2, Blood Stained Trail is a Low Level, High NPC interacting mini adventure with lots of threats, traps and magic rewards based in an urban setting for 4 to 6 player. I got all that from the 6 info stickers on the front. Blood Stained Trail, follows right in line with the previous edition. It is 15 pages long and very colorful. It picks off where the last side trek left off, with the enemies running off into the sewers. You can either run the adventure from that point, or use it as a stand alone substituting the main villains for any one from your campaign. All that is needed is that the PCs have to be chasing them for a reason. The very helpful breakout boxes do a wonderful job of telling you how to slide the adventure and how to fit it into your campaign. For the DM: Blood Stained Trail contains very creative encounters with some cool encounter specific mechanics. There is a really cool encounter where the PCs are fending off enemies on a skiff and the mechanics for it is very impressive. The Iron Word: LPJ Design has put their own spin and created a very interesting niche product of mini adventures. Though I felt it could have had a couple more pages, you still get quite a bit of information in the 15 pages. There are the three encounters, maps and some new mechanics. Buying a subscription for this would be a good bet, considering the great quality of the first two and the consistency of LPJ. For a mini adventure this is one of the better ones I have read.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Mar 7, 2008 16:29:52 GMT -5
Update 3/7/2008 GM'S DAY SALE A HUGE HIT... SO WE'RE EXTENDING IT! With record sales and interest, we've decided to extend the GM's Day sale through Friday. That's four full days of 25% or better off on hundreds of items. For those of you waiting on Friday as payday, well, now you can spend it all with us! Also, if you are keen to actually get your Game Master something nice in honor of the celebration, by all means! We have gift certificates, so you can empower him to shop for whatever he might like to spin a grand tale for you with... or, you know, kill your character with. GM's Day values can be found here: www.rpgnow.com/index.php?filters=0_31809_0&SRC=Newsletter SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE DICE E. Gary Gygax had a literally immeasurable impact on countless lives. This very newsletter would almost certainly not be coming to you if not for his efforts to bring RPGs to the world. He will be missed, truly, but his presence among us is eternal. Roll some dice, have some fun, and remember the Great Dungeon Master. Newest Free Products Domains of Adventure: The Museum of Infamous Heroism - Rules Appendix RuneQuest by Highmoon Media Productions www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54927&it=1&SRC=newsletterGM'S DAY VALUE, MARCH 4 - 6!This is the RuneQuest Rules Appendix companion to Domains of Adventure: The Museum of Infamous History. This product contains only the rules portion of the product, and you need Domains of Adventure: The Museum of Infamous... Domains of Adventure: The Museum of Infamous Heroism - Rules Appendix d20 by Highmoon Media Productions www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54926&it=1&SRC=newsletterGM'S DAY VALUE, MARCH 4 - 6!This is the d20 System Rules Appendix companion to Domains of Adventure: The Museum of Infamous History. This product contains only the rules portion of the product, and you need Domains of Adventure: The Museum of Infamous His... Twilight: 2013 Promo - Shall Not Perish by 93 Games Studio www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54925&it=1&SRC=newsletterTwilight: 2013 is a roleplaying game of post-apocalyptic survival and renewal. Twilight: 2013 is the official 3rd edition of Twilight: 2000. Begun in early 2005, 93 Games Studio has been working hard to create a new edition to this strong and excit... Free Cursed Empire 2nd Edition Automated Spread(character)sheet by Cursed Empire www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54922&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis is a great way to speed up character generation and get those characters falling off the production line. Heroic Sci-Fi Alien Hybrid Accessories by One Monk Miniatures www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54893&it=1&SRC=newsletterSF011 Alien Hybrid SlashersFREE Set of 18 weapon arm and leg accessories. The weapons represent a wide variety of hand held and alternate limbs usable by this class of Hybrid Bug Trooper. Each weapon is designed for both the left and right arms, and in tw... Newest Products D20 Decade: The 1980s by Skortched Urf' Studios www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54958&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $5.99 $3.59 D20 Decade: The 1980s is a sourcebook designed to immerse players and gamemasters (particularly those gamers who grew up during the 1990s) into the culture and color of 1980s America. GMs will find a wealth of cultural and historical details about the 8... Solipsist by BoxNinja www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54957&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $10.00 Solipsist is a diceless role-playing game for 2 or more players. Stylishly presented with a luscious green cover it features the artwork of author David Donachie as well as Gregor Hutton (Best Friends), Kurt Taylor and Frieda Van Raevels.Solipsists are pe... Sidetrek Adventure Weekly #5: Attack of the Trigga Noir by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54956&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.75 Exhausted from their excursions in the dungeons den of the Ghost Dogs our heroes find themselves enjoying some well-earned rest at the Burnt Ember Inn. A visit from an old “friend” quickly turns into a ambush by a deadly band of ancient assass... FSpaceRPG Psionic System v1.1 by FSpace Publications www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54955&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.50 $1.25 FSpaceRPG is a science fiction roleplaying game in the classic mould.This guide is an overview of the psionic system in use by FSpaceRPG and provides recent expansions about rare talents and new equipment. Includes library data entries of relevance as wel... Revelation Station (Scenes of Adventure #1) by QuikLink Interactive, Inc. www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54954&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $7.50 $7.50 Revelation Station was designed to provide your players with an anchor or home base from which to operate while adventuring in your campaign. As such the material presented is done so as generically as possible with regard to the setting outside of the st... Newest Staff Reviews Book of Experimental Might by Malhavoc Press www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54689&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $20.00 $6.75 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Few books have inspired me like Monte Cook’s The Book of Experimental Might has. It is as if he took a lot of the good things that designers have talked about in 4e, merged it gracefully with 3e and still retained the Role playing game feel that early playtesters of 4e say WOTC’s new system lacks. If you are waiting to play the next version of Dungeons and Dragons, there is no need to wait until June, Cook has already created it. Dubbed by many in the fan community as 3.75, this book feels like it should be 3.99. It is fully compatible with 3.5, making it possible to utilize to new system and its mechanics with your current game. There are three major changes in Experimental Might. The biggest overhaul is to the spell system, which is changed from a 1 to 9 to a 1 to 20. Spellcasters can spells that equal to their level. It is a much more fluid delivery for magic. The Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Paladin and Wizard are given a small revamp. Whereas saves are not covered, you can use the PHB version, their special abilities have been stripped away. Instead, players may choose disciplines every even level. Some of these disciplines replicate abilities such as wild shape and turning, whereas as some represent spells such as healing and magic missile. They are all standard actions. Another overhaul is that players receive a feat every level. Another fascinating concept that does not really change the game much in hindsight. Considering that most feats can only be done at specific times the players feel more balanced in this system. Along with other brilliant changes to the poison and skills, there is a pretty balanced spellcasting fighter class whom uses ruins to enhance his fighting. A lot simplier than the Book of Nine Swords, though just as effective. For the Dungeon Master I really enjoyed making NPCs with more feat choices. It gives me the chance to round out the character without overpowering them. I also loved the changes to spells, as many of the changes eliminate save or die spells and make some of the traditional spells different than just damage dealers. My favorite spell change is the one that finally makes raise dead special. Whereas it is easy to cast, you have to put more effort into it. There is also a 10th level “quick” revive” spell that allows a player to wake up a downed player who fell in an encounter. For the Player The new class is the perfect antidote to those with the gimp disease. It does not lean too far one way or the other in terms of magic and fighting. The ruins feel very creative, covering defensive moves and attack options. The Iron Word Buy the Book of Experimental Might. It is amazing and will change the way you play 3.5. I’d even go as far as to say that this book, combined with Malhavoc Press’s Book of Iron Might, is a spectacular choice for those not interested in 4e but want a better version of 3.5. Behind the Monsters: Skeleton by Tricky Owlbear Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54697&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 $1.40 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review The skeleton is one of the most common creatures in most fantasy gaming systems, and as such I was pleased to see this release from Tricky Owlbear Publishing deal with this quintessential creature. Behind the Monsters: Skeleton is one of a growing number of monster products in this new series from Tricky Owlbear Publishing, by the same author, Bret Boyd, that originally brought d20 the successful Behind the Spells series. This 7 page pdf deals with the origins of the skeleton, and adds some useful new rules and enhancements to your gaming experience. The Behind the Monster series of pdfs is a series of good, interesting and entertaining pdfs. Monsters are brought to life will some good background flavor and some new elements of game play are added to make dealing with or encountering these creature more interesting. On top of that the pdf provides some good presentation and art from artist, Rick Hershey. The writing is clear and concise, and the editing and layout done to match all the other products in the series and give them an unique identity. For those OGL junkies out there, all the mechanics in the product is OGL and clearly marked as such, although the background information is naturally not. The skeleton backstory deals with the fall and 'rise' of a powerful priest of the god of protection. The pdf details his life under the god of protection, his battling with his enemies, his eventual almost tragic fall, and the subsequent matters of his rebirth as the first of a new race of undead creatures. The imagery is good, and the prose well written, although as far as enthralling stories go, it's not the best I've seen out there. Nevertheless, it gives a compelling and useful tale to the rise of the skeleton, and it's a tale that can be easily modified to suit your campaign world and pantheon. Like most stories, they can easily be adapted and changed to meet one's needs, or to spice up some of the more mundane aspects of the tale. There is a brief tie-in to a product from the Behind the Spells series (Animate Dead), although this is not required to use the material in this specific product. The pdf adds a few new mechanics, including a Knowledge check table on the skeleton, ways of weakening the bone structure of the skeleton to give you an advantage in combat, new turning effects when dealing with skeletons, a new magical item and a variant monster called the flesh stealer skeleton. These variants and ideas can add some spice the skeleton, and the flesh stealer skeleton can be quite creepy. Mechanics is generally good, and nothing presented is too outlandish. Behind the Monsters: Skeleton is a good pdf with some good writing and a number of suitable mechanical variants. It's a good pdf, although there's nothing that jumps out of the page and hits you in terms of fabulous new mechanical ideas, brilliant imagery, or imaginative invention of the skeleton's origin. I think in the old end despite it's good presentation, writing, and overall potential for usefulness, it's lacking in that bit of spark that will grab somebody's attention. With so much new material out there, something really has to shine to allow DMs to take hold of it and incorporate it in one's game. While there are certainly elements of this pdf that can be used, convincing a DM to use them might be difficult, despite the niche this product fills. The flavor is far more useful than the mechanics, and perhaps that's the part that will see more use, in its current form or not. Black Tokyo by Skortched Urf' Studios www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54698&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.99 $7.79 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Sean Holland) Review Black Tokyo is D20 campaign support for D20 Modern and D20 fantasy (though primarily D20 Modern) written by and published by Scorched Urf' Studios. It is quite massive at 171 pages (168 after covers and OGL) with a mostly clean layout marred by a lack of a table of contents or index and a few formatting errors later in the book. The book contains a fair amount of illustrations of varying quality. However, very few of them fall into the safe for work category. First, to repeat the warning, this is a product for mature readers. The subject themes are dark, brutal and nasty as it takes its inspiration from horror-themed Hentai manga and anime and thus deal with the dark side of human nature mixed with blood magic and demons hungry for human . . . flesh, in all forms. If you are squeamish about sexual situations or easily squicked, avoid this product. It begins with an introduction to the subject matter, summarizing the style of game Black Tokyo is a sourcebook for and the themes it emphasizes. One of the most important things the introduction stresses is making sure that all of the players are comfortable using such material in a game, vital in fact. Additionally, notes for incorporating Scorched Urf Studio’s other D20 products are included, useful if you have them. Next are new feats (62 of them) ranging from the benign: Cosplay (which allows the costumes made by the character to provide minor skill bonuses) and Junishi Zodiac (minor bonuses based on the characters zodiac sign). To dangerous, Hissing Bile (you can spit acid) and finally to the bizarre and horrendous things such as using body parts as weapons, inciting lusts and drawing upon dark forces. The more disturbing of the feats generally seem on the higher end of the power curve and would need to be carefully balanced in a campaign. Then Prestige Classes, seven, two antagonists, one heroic and the remaining four can play either side. They are rather unusual, as one would expect, but look mechanically balanced. One annoying thing is that several of the classes gain bonuses feats and the list of feats include those from outside both the core D20 Modern rules and this product. The Magic chapter opens with a variant set of item creation rules to make them more fitting to the setting. There are 47 new items, ranging from recovered demonic artefacts to minor protective items and everything in between, some of them (especially the demonic items) are exceptionally powerful and would have to be used with care. Spells follow with several renamed SRD spells and some new spells, interesting but nothing really groundbreaking here. The Cosmology chapter gives an overview of the way the worlds, human, demon and other, interact. Then it introduces 15 races (one reprinted from another source) that live on the border of the worlds, intelligent undead, halfbreeds and other human-like creatures that can be used as PC or NPC races. Lastly, the monsters, 19 of them ranging from a CR of ½ to 28 (!) some are usable in any dark fantasy campaign, but others are tied much more closely to the setting. An interesting mix, though including adventure seeds for each of the monsters would have been a good addition. The World of Black Tokyo includes more background, adventure locations, organizations and a list of works that this product took inspiration from. A solid chapter if not long enough, campaign styles and example arcs would have really improved this chapter, also the formatting is off in this chapter with random underlining, bolding or other strange problems. Obviously, this product is not for everyone or every campaign, that being said if you and your players are interested in exploring these dark reaches, Black Tokyo is a useful starting point but only that. Animal Archives: DinoFiles II - Theropods by Blackdirge Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54712&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.99 $3.74 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review It might be hard to remember now (or, if you’re one of the younger gamers, you might not be able to remember at all), but back before Jurassic Park made raptors into the most fearsome dinosaurs, the T-Rex was the image that everyone had when the terrible thunder lizards were discussed. The second entry into the DinoFiles series brings these deposed kings of the dinosaurs back into the spotlight. Strictly speaking, theropods comprise a wide variety of dinosaurs that were bipedal carnivores, including raptors. As they were covered before, however, this product covers similar non-raptor dinosaurs; the T-Rex itself isn’t here (as it’s in the SRD) but its cousins are the main thrust of this book. Animal Archives: DinoFiles II – Theropods comes in a zipped file that’s just under six megabytes in size. The PDF is a full twenty-four pages long, including the front cover and the OGL. Full bookmarks make for convenient zooming through the book. The artwork here is what you’d expect from a Blackdirge product; the cover has color pieces around a central black and white piece of art, with the rest of the art being black and white interior pieces. Of course, borders with information of the book line the top and bottom of each page. I just want to take a moment to talk about the book’s art here. Usually I mention the art only in passing before moving on to the contents, but I have to say more this time. Anyone familiar with Blackdirge’s products will be familiar with illustrations by Hunter McFalls, who’s black and white illustrations are very clean and crisp in their design. Here, however, McFalls has truly outdone himself, presenting several pictures of each of the dinosaurs detailed herein that are spectacular. From a cloud giant riding a gigantosaurus (and chasing some very, very unlucky human) to a piece of two knights jousting (one on a horse, and one on a ceratosaurus, and holy crap that guy on the horse is either really brave or really stupid to be jousting a guy on a dinosaur!), this is incredibly evocative art, and really lends itself to what kind of niches dinosaurs would occupy in a magical fantasy world. Bravo Hunter! The book itself presents five new dinosaurs. Cousins of the T-Rex, most of them are smaller than the so-called king of the dinosaurs, one is the same size, and one in particular (the gigantosaurus) is actually larger. The introduction details special attacks that most of these dinosaurs have, and in addition to that, each has a section detailing how player characters can use them (whether as animal companions, or as summoned monsters), and what ecological niche these dinosaurs occupied when they lived in the real world. Two of these dinosaurs also have fantasy variants presented by adding templates to them; in one case (the crested spitter), this rather amusingly recreates the base dinosaur as it was misrepresented in the Jurassic Park movie. Both templates are reprinted in their entirely at the end of the book, right after listings for celestial and fiendish versions of each new dinosaur, and a table listing what dinosaurs are summoned by what spells. That this product presents a wealth of great new ideas for the dinosaurs it covers should be self-evident if you’ve read this far. While there were no individual advanced dinosaurs the way there are creatures in most other Blackdirge products, the templated creatures largely fill that niche. The new options for all of the dinosaurs here make this product almost a necessity if dinosaurs are at all a large part of your game. Blackdyrge's Templates: Devout by Blackdirge Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=51691&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.25 $1.69 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review The latest in Blackdirge’s line of synergy templates, the Devout is for adding clerical abilities to your monster, without necessarily making them a cleric (though it helps). The zipped file is just over four megabytes in size, and has the singular PDF in with it. The product itself is nine pages long, including a full-page cover and a page for the OGL. Full bookmarks are given, despite the book’s brevity, which is always a nice touch (though, rather embarrassingly, the bookmark for the template itself calls it the “roguish” template, rather then “devout”). The book’s cover is quite colorful, with the outer portions being a vibrant yellow, with black veins running through it, around the central image of an azer. That same image, along with one of a devout gnoll, can be found inside; the only examples of the interior black and white artwork. There are page borders along the top and bottom of every page, having basic information about the book. There’s no printer-friendly recourse, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you neglect to print the cover. After the opening statement from Blackdyrge himself, the book dives right into the new template. The Devout template grants a creature some cleric-like abilities. On the surface, this seems like a tricky prospect, since clerics are known for several things (divine spellcasting, healing support, and turning/rebuking undead). The template manages to adequately give thematic powers regarding all of these to the base creature. If the creature has five or more levels in the cleric class, then not only are these powers still useful, but it gains additional powers as well. In true Blackdyrge style, two example monsters are then given. The first one is a low-level devout gnoll that can’t take advantage of the template’s synergy powers, whereas the second one is a high-level azer with more than enough clerical levels to use this template to full effect. The idea of synergy templates remains a good one, and while this template had its work cut out for it with simulating clerical abilities, it did so quite well. Like all of the synergy templates, it can be used when you want a clerical-themed monster without having to add the class levels, or you can drop it on a cleric-classed creature to increase its power in new and unexpected ways. Either way, this template is a winner.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Mar 28, 2008 10:42:02 GMT -5
Publisher Product Discounts The Celestial Gardens by Dark Skull Studios www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54241&it=1&discount=33898&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $8.95 Discount Price: $6.95 Add more depth than you can ever imagine with The Celestial Gardens PDF for only $6.95! This is a savings of $2 USD! This supplement for New Gods of Mankind RPG details a mythic place where the souls of all meet Fate and their gods. Also if you have not purchased New Gods of Mankind, now is the time as both PDFs New Gods Handbook and Fate's Guidebook are in a bundle pack called the PDF Core Pack. This PDF pack is on sale now for $16.90.! That is an additional savings of $2 USD! www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54984Get all three items and save! Elemental Gemstones by Bards and Sages www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54301&it=1&discount=14526&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $5.00 Discount Price: $4.00 Gemstones have long played an important role in the magical arts. Magic users believe each gem is imbued with its own distinct energies, and that it is possible to tap into those energies for personal gain and insight. Unfortunately, most roleplaying systems have simplified gemstones to the point of uselessness, serving little purpose in gameplay other than as a variable description for a piece of random loot. Elemental Gemstones offers 70 gemstones with related folklore and reported magical properties. Use this information to customize magic items or to add a touch of wonder to a piece of treasure. Newest Free Products Gamescapes: Story Cards, Western Set 1 by Talisman Studios www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54995&it=1&SRC=newsletterFive Shadows sang the song of summoning, calling on Crow, her guardian spirit... "I seek to avenge my father." This set of character cards, illustrated by Alida Saxon and written by Michelle Klein, gives you a pre-generated party to use in you... Control Reference Sheets by Reality Cheque www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55067&it=1&SRC=newsletterThese are all the important charts and tables needed to create characters quickly or run the game smoothly. Control Character Sheet by Reality Cheque www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55066&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe indispensable player and controller aid, this file includes player-character sheets and sheets for the controller's minions and lieutenants, as well as several ready-made minions for use by any conspiracy. PrecisRoller (Windows Version) by Precis Intermedia www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54981&it=1&SRC=newsletterDon't have any dice or tired of them rolling under your desk? Not a problem! Precis Intermedia's dice rolling application lets you roll dice on your desktop or laptop computer for a number of our proprietary systems, as well as generic mechanics. It also ... PrecisRoller (Mac Version) by Precis Intermedia www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54980&it=1&SRC=newsletterDon't have any dice or tired of them rolling under your desk? Not a problem! Precis Intermedia's dice rolling application lets you roll dice on your desktop or laptop computer for a number of our proprietary systems, as well as generic mechanics. It also ... Newest Products Rocketship Empires: Ship Compendium No. 1 by Storyart www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55075&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $13.95 $6.99 The Rocketship Empires 1936: Starship Compendium No. 1This seventy four page book contains 43 pages detailing snugfighters, starfighters, fast transports and capital ships for the Rocketship Empires campaign setting.This volume also contains sections cove... Monster Modifier by Adamant Entertainment www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55072&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 “You see a lumbering, 9-foot-tall humanoid, lurching towards you. It's hunched over at the shoulders, it’s arms nearly dragging the ground. Its rubbery skin is the color of green moss, and it has tufts of greenish- black hair....” “It’s a Troll -- eve... Fantasci20: Creature Creator by RPG Objects www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55071&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.50 $2.50 Create monsters the Modern20 way with the Fantasci20: Creature Creator. Included in this supplement: Creature feats: 25+ new feats unique to creatures and monsters. Sample Animals Sample Elementals Sample Oozes Sample Sprits Sample Undead 100% full colo... Quick Covers- Vol.4: Heavy Metal by Small Niche Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55070&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.00 Standard Stock Art - Quick CoversVol. 4 : Heavy Metal Quick Covers - Vol.4: Heavy Metal illustrated by Rick HersheyThis is a collection of 4 print quality covers available for use by publishers, gamers, websites, etc. Each cover is designed to act as a s... The Big Score by Crafty Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55069&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $5.50 Fortune favors the bold! Or is it the other way around? Tired of turning in your gear after every mission? Running a game with no home office? Just want to kill things and keep their stuff? No problem! The Big Score presents three all-new system upgra... Newest Staff Reviews Heroic Moments: My Favorite Charity by Highmoon Media Productions www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54808&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.00 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Heroic Moments: My Favorite Charity is a short scenario for the 4C or 4 Color system. The 4 Color system is a simple superhero game system very reminiscent of older RPG games and game systems, and the core rules for the system are freely available to download from the publisher, Seraphim Guard. The 4C resolution system is based on the d100, the result of any given roll being used to assign a specific outcome color to the roll (via a Master Table). For example, an outcome color of red is a minor success, and black is a failed attempt. Based on the color of the attempt roll, a specific outcome is achieved for each action. The higher a character has a rank value in a particular ability or for a particular task, the easier it is to succeed at it. This system, while tied to a table, allows easy, adaptable, flexible, and straightforward resolution of most tasks or actions. My Favorite Charity is a short 4C scenario set in The City, a generic city full of superheroes and supervillains. This 5 page pdf product can be dropped seamlessly into any superhero 4C campaign, with minimal preparation time. The product comes as a very well presented pdf file written by Mark Gedak. The format and layout is easy to follow and essential information is clearly indicated. The editing missed a few issues, and some the text reads a little halting, but for the most part I was pleased with the presentation and general production of the pdf. This scenario features a revengeful mastermind, Dr. Nightmare, and his involvement in a movie-production charity event that draws his attention. The scenario involves a battle between Dr. Nightmare and his minions, although with hostages abounding, and Dr. Nightmare's unique powers, things aren't as simple as they seem. The pdf provides full details of Dr. Nightmare and his minions, including background, personalities and motivations. Two new powers are also provided for Dr. Nightmare, with which to torment the characters and make their super lives difficult. The various NPCs involved in the charity event also get detailed write-ups, and the adventure scenario makes the flow of the action easy to adjudicate and handle. The scenario does feel a little incomplete, though, simply because some of Dr. Nightmare's plans as revealed in the adventure have only a tenuous link to his activity at the charity event, and the scenario could've used this depth of information to expand and turn Dr. Nightmare into more than just a single bump in the road for the superheroes. That said, the other side of the coin means that GMs can use the information to expand the adventure themselves. Generally, though, the adventure appeared a little short, with not much substance other than a single staged encounter with some plot hooks to get the characters involved. Overall, this was a decent scenario for the 4C system. I liked the NPC and villain personalities, the fact that this adventure didn't feature off the chart supervillains, and the new mechanics was a great addition to the 4C system particularly the Fortune Fund, which allows superheroes to pool Fortune. The 4C system works really well with the scenario, and the superhero genre as well, creating a simple and even elegant design system. On the down side, the adventure could've used a little expansion, more continuity and a tighter link between the nature of the scenario and the villain himself. Image Portfolio 1.27 Romans & Robots by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54709&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $9.99 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Image Portfolio 1.27 Romans and Robots is an art resource pdf containing 8 pieces of art of robots and Roman soldiers. This product is the 27th product in the Image Portfolio series of products from LPJ Design, and each product in the series provides several images and a license governing their usage in publishing and product use. Romans and Robots features five color images of Roman soldiers, commanders and the like, as well as three black and white image of robots (or mecha for those that use d20 Future). The product comes as a single pdf file that contains the eight images, and includes a one page license that governs the use of the images for various uses (profit or non-profit, for example). Each piece of art takes up its own page, and although the resolution of the images is never specified, it looks very good on a A4 size page when printed. The black and white images, however, look like they've been drawn on a piece of paper and then scanned in, but the scan has left tell-tale signs on the actual image, like, for example, black lines, or in some cases what looks to be the remnants of some sort of inverted text. A little more work could've been put into touching up these images nicely, although unless you plan to use them at their full size, it's unlikely that you'll noticed it in a smaller image. The five color images are all of Roman soldiers and commanders of various stations in Roman civilisation. I generally liked these - they had very good attention to detail in most cases, with good use of color, and the drawings look accurate with good posture and proportions. Here and there the images look slightly odd, like the one Roman soldier's shield that lacks the detail the rest of the image does, or other areas where heavy shadowing was used. Other than that, these are high quality images that would enhance the product they were used in. The images of the robots or mecha are much better than those of the Roman soldiers, despite the errors mentioned earlier. The attention to detail and the fine drawing is excellent, and the robots really come to life on the page. Again, though, areas of the image where heavy shadowing would exist (for example, the back leg of a robot that's behind the robot itself), lack the detail that the rest of the image contains, making it look slightly odd. Nevertheless, these are great images as well, with vivid details and imaginative creations. Image Portfolio 1.27 Romans and Robots is a very good and high quality selection of images from LPJ Design. Apart from the one problem with the tidying up of the scanning of the images, this is a top notch product that many publishers will find use in for their products. For as little as slightly more than a dollar for a single image, it seems like good value, although in some instances there may be a licence fee attached to the use of the product. Nevertheless, I was impressed by the quality and detail of the images, which makes for a good art resource. Book of Experimental Might by Malhavoc Press www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54689&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $20.00 $9.00 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Few books have inspired me like Monte Cook’s The Book of Experimental Might has. It is as if he took a lot of the good things that designers have talked about in 4e, merged it gracefully with 3e and still retained the Role playing game feel that early playtesters of 4e say WOTC’s new system lacks. If you are waiting to play the next version of Dungeons and Dragons, there is no need to wait until June, Cook has already created it. Dubbed by many in the fan community as 3.75, this book feels like it should be 3.99. It is fully compatible with 3.5, making it possible to utilize to new system and its mechanics with your current game. There are three major changes in Experimental Might. The biggest overhaul is to the spell system, which is changed from a 1 to 9 to a 1 to 20. Spellcasters can spells that equal to their level. It is a much more fluid delivery for magic. The Cleric, Druid, Ranger, Paladin and Wizard are given a small revamp. Whereas saves are not covered, you can use the PHB version, their special abilities have been stripped away. Instead, players may choose disciplines every even level. Some of these disciplines replicate abilities such as wild shape and turning, whereas as some represent spells such as healing and magic missile. They are all standard actions. Another overhaul is that players receive a feat every level. Another fascinating concept that does not really change the game much in hindsight. Considering that most feats can only be done at specific times the players feel more balanced in this system. Along with other brilliant changes to the poison and skills, there is a pretty balanced spellcasting fighter class whom uses ruins to enhance his fighting. A lot simplier than the Book of Nine Swords, though just as effective. For the Dungeon Master I really enjoyed making NPCs with more feat choices. It gives me the chance to round out the character without overpowering them. I also loved the changes to spells, as many of the changes eliminate save or die spells and make some of the traditional spells different than just damage dealers. My favorite spell change is the one that finally makes raise dead special. Whereas it is easy to cast, you have to put more effort into it. There is also a 10th level “quick” revive” spell that allows a player to wake up a downed player who fell in an encounter. For the Player The new class is the perfect antidote to those with the gimp disease. It does not lean too far one way or the other in terms of magic and fighting. The ruins feel very creative, covering defensive moves and attack options. The Iron Word Buy the Book of Experimental Might. It is amazing and will change the way you play 3.5. I’d even go as far as to say that this book, combined with Malhavoc Press’s Book of Iron Might, is a spectacular choice for those not interested in 4e but want a better version of 3.5. Behind the Monsters: Skeleton by Tricky Owlbear Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54697&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review The skeleton is one of the most common creatures in most fantasy gaming systems, and as such I was pleased to see this release from Tricky Owlbear Publishing deal with this quintessential creature. Behind the Monsters: Skeleton is one of a growing number of monster products in this new series from Tricky Owlbear Publishing, by the same author, Bret Boyd, that originally brought d20 the successful Behind the Spells series. This 7 page pdf deals with the origins of the skeleton, and adds some useful new rules and enhancements to your gaming experience. The Behind the Monster series of pdfs is a series of good, interesting and entertaining pdfs. Monsters are brought to life will some good background flavor and some new elements of game play are added to make dealing with or encountering these creature more interesting. On top of that the pdf provides some good presentation and art from artist, Rick Hershey. The writing is clear and concise, and the editing and layout done to match all the other products in the series and give them an unique identity. For those OGL junkies out there, all the mechanics in the product is OGL and clearly marked as such, although the background information is naturally not. The skeleton backstory deals with the fall and 'rise' of a powerful priest of the god of protection. The pdf details his life under the god of protection, his battling with his enemies, his eventual almost tragic fall, and the subsequent matters of his rebirth as the first of a new race of undead creatures. The imagery is good, and the prose well written, although as far as enthralling stories go, it's not the best I've seen out there. Nevertheless, it gives a compelling and useful tale to the rise of the skeleton, and it's a tale that can be easily modified to suit your campaign world and pantheon. Like most stories, they can easily be adapted and changed to meet one's needs, or to spice up some of the more mundane aspects of the tale. There is a brief tie-in to a product from the Behind the Spells series (Animate Dead), although this is not required to use the material in this specific product. The pdf adds a few new mechanics, including a Knowledge check table on the skeleton, ways of weakening the bone structure of the skeleton to give you an advantage in combat, new turning effects when dealing with skeletons, a new magical item and a variant monster called the flesh stealer skeleton. These variants and ideas can add some spice the skeleton, and the flesh stealer skeleton can be quite creepy. Mechanics is generally good, and nothing presented is too outlandish. Behind the Monsters: Skeleton is a good pdf with some good writing and a number of suitable mechanical variants. It's a good pdf, although there's nothing that jumps out of the page and hits you in terms of fabulous new mechanical ideas, brilliant imagery, or imaginative invention of the skeleton's origin. I think in the old end despite it's good presentation, writing, and overall potential for usefulness, it's lacking in that bit of spark that will grab somebody's attention. With so much new material out there, something really has to shine to allow DMs to take hold of it and incorporate it in one's game. While there are certainly elements of this pdf that can be used, convincing a DM to use them might be difficult, despite the niche this product fills. The flavor is far more useful than the mechanics, and perhaps that's the part that will see more use, in its current form or not. Black Tokyo by Skortched Urf' Studios www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54698&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.99 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Sean Holland) Review Black Tokyo is D20 campaign support for D20 Modern and D20 fantasy (though primarily D20 Modern) written by and published by Scorched Urf' Studios. It is quite massive at 171 pages (168 after covers and OGL) with a mostly clean layout marred by a lack of a table of contents or index and a few formatting errors later in the book. The book contains a fair amount of illustrations of varying quality. However, very few of them fall into the safe for work category. First, to repeat the warning, this is a product for mature readers. The subject themes are dark, brutal and nasty as it takes its inspiration from horror-themed Hentai manga and anime and thus deal with the dark side of human nature mixed with blood magic and demons hungry for human . . . flesh, in all forms. If you are squeamish about sexual situations or easily squicked, avoid this product. It begins with an introduction to the subject matter, summarizing the style of game Black Tokyo is a sourcebook for and the themes it emphasizes. One of the most important things the introduction stresses is making sure that all of the players are comfortable using such material in a game, vital in fact. Additionally, notes for incorporating Scorched Urf Studio’s other D20 products are included, useful if you have them. Next are new feats (62 of them) ranging from the benign: Cosplay (which allows the costumes made by the character to provide minor skill bonuses) and Junishi Zodiac (minor bonuses based on the characters zodiac sign). To dangerous, Hissing Bile (you can spit acid) and finally to the bizarre and horrendous things such as using body parts as weapons, inciting lusts and drawing upon dark forces. The more disturbing of the feats generally seem on the higher end of the power curve and would need to be carefully balanced in a campaign. Then Prestige Classes, seven, two antagonists, one heroic and the remaining four can play either side. They are rather unusual, as one would expect, but look mechanically balanced. One annoying thing is that several of the classes gain bonuses feats and the list of feats include those from outside both the core D20 Modern rules and this product. The Magic chapter opens with a variant set of item creation rules to make them more fitting to the setting. There are 47 new items, ranging from recovered demonic artefacts to minor protective items and everything in between, some of them (especially the demonic items) are exceptionally powerful and would have to be used with care. Spells follow with several renamed SRD spells and some new spells, interesting but nothing really groundbreaking here. The Cosmology chapter gives an overview of the way the worlds, human, demon and other, interact. Then it introduces 15 races (one reprinted from another source) that live on the border of the worlds, intelligent undead, halfbreeds and other human-like creatures that can be used as PC or NPC races. Lastly, the monsters, 19 of them ranging from a CR of ½ to 28 (!) some are usable in any dark fantasy campaign, but others are tied much more closely to the setting. An interesting mix, though including adventure seeds for each of the monsters would have been a good addition. The World of Black Tokyo includes more background, adventure locations, organizations and a list of works that this product took inspiration from. A solid chapter if not long enough, campaign styles and example arcs would have really improved this chapter, also the formatting is off in this chapter with random underlining, bolding or other strange problems. Obviously, this product is not for everyone or every campaign, that being said if you and your players are interested in exploring these dark reaches, Black Tokyo is a useful starting point but only that.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Apr 11, 2008 18:34:39 GMT -5
FROM THE FROZEN LANDS OF THE NORTH TO YOUR ADVENTURE! Born from a partnership between Conclave Publishing and Secular Games, Vikings - Midgard is the English version of the core book in the series that became a bestseller in Brazil, and contains all the information necessary to start a campaign in a setting that draws its inspiration from the mythology and culture of the ancient norse. In 140 pages, Vikings - Midgard will bring you the following: Optional Rules, such as feats and prestige classes for viking characters. New races and monsters, based on the Scandinavian myths. Mass Combat rules. Renown and Exploit Points. A rich description of the Midgard setting, starting point for the adventures in the universe of Vikings. Publisher Product Discounts Fate's Screen by Dark Skull Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=54384&it=1&discount=98583&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $2.95 Discount Price: $1.05 If you are tired of looking up everything for New Gods of Mankind, then look no further. Get a GM screen for your game for a buck o' five! The artwork done by Frank Wall is excellent and serves as a nice front for your GM to plot his moves. Be sure to take advantage of our other offers as well! Our coupon for The Celestial Gardens will expire this month so take advantage of this offer. If you are still looking to buy the first two books you can get them in a product bundle for only 16.90 a savings of 2 USD. Fate's Screen by Dark Skull Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=54384&it=1&discount=98583&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $2.95 Discount Price: $1.05 For a limited time get the New Gods of Mankind GM screen for just a buck o five! the GM screen is 8 panels. The 4 front panels beautifully illustrated by Frank Wall. Inside is all the information you need to get your game going.Don't forget our other coupon for The Celestial Gardens as it expires this month. Also if you have not picked up our core book and GM guidebook we have it now in a bundle pack. Get both here www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54984&filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=2167 and save! Suberle, the Healer's Guild by Sceaptune Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=54745&it=1&discount=83523&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $5.50 Discount Price: $4.00 Do your Healer player characters just stand around and look useless until fighting is over? Then try Suberle, the Healer's Guild, the first in a new series of RuneQuest supplements from Sceaptune Games covering major guilds and their associated cults. Here's the chance to pick up a copy for a limited time at over 25% off the normal price! More Guild & Cults books out soon! Milk Run by Mind Storm Labs rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55248&it=1&discount=77373&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $0.00 Discount Price: $0.00 Are you ready to head into the unknown at the request of a total stranger for a dubious promise of financial reward? Of course you are....... Milk Run is the first official adventure set in the Alpha Omega universe. Milk Run is a 70 page adventure with full color illustrations, pre made characters, new NPC's, creatures and vehicles. It’s designed for 4-5 players for play over 1-2 sessions. Of course you are free to build your own, but we have provided 6 pre-generated characters for you to choose from so you can get started right away! The Alpha Omega Universe Alpha Omega is set in a futuristic, war-torn, post-apocalyptic Earth. It provides a world of endless adventures, epic heroes, vile villains, horrific monsters and unknown dangers. It is a world ready for you and your imagination. It is 2280. The world has been reclaimed by primal forces, savage and deadly. Humanity is evolving, its ingenuity unchained. It fights to reach out from beyond the protection of its great cities and reestablish global order. However, ancient war returns-fought by legendary enemies of incredible power threatening all that has been rebuilt. Mankind has raised great cities out of the ashes of the Old World; mammoth vertical towers reaching to the clouds out of the violent environments around them. Aliens have been discovered living amongst us, their ancestry shrouded and confused by ancient texts. Earth is their battleground and their forces are poised to wage their epic war once again, however mankind is no longer an insignificant and ignorant bystander. Mankind will be central to the Evolutionary War whether they want to be or not. Game Mechanics – The 6-6 System Alpha Omega uses the 6-6 System as the foundation of its game mechanics. It is a system created by Mind Storm Labs to govern game play in a world where characters and creatures are capable of unbelievable and extremely powerful actions. The 6-6 System is a progressive dice pool system where players always have 6 dice to use during a game round. Additionally, as character strength advances so too does the strength of their dice pool. Most characters begin the game using 4 and 6-sided dice, however in time they gain access to larger die types, all the way up to 20-sided dice. The 6-6 System allows players to choose how their dice will be used, giving them a high degree of control during game play. They may roll more dice to increase the probability of success during their character’s actions, or save dice for use during defensive Counter Rolls. 20 Labyrinths&Lairs Map Set by Stainless Steel Dragon rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=50712&it=1&discount=71915&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $4.95 Discount Price: $4.50 You have driven them from your castle walls. You have cleared them from the surrounding lands. But are you ready to take monsters on where they live? This Map Set explores these possibilities with 20 (11x8.5") maps. These theme-based maps have great detail and depict furniture, doors, traps, fortifications, and much more! (Like having 20 dungeons - just add monsters) 10% off for a limited time. Newest Free Products Strike the Earth! by 44Productions rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55284&it=1&SRC=newsletterA game of Dwarven hardcore inner strength, stupidity, and just plain WTF, Strike the Earth includes rules for dwarves on fire, opening a door into hell, and more. Alpha Omega Character Sheet by Mind Storm Labs rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55275&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe Alpha Omega Character Sheet will provide you with all the details you need to create your character and begin your adventures in the Alpha Omega universe. Seeds: Fantasy I by Expeditious Retreat Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55272&it=1&SRC=newsletterSeeds are story ideas, plot ideas, creature ideas, adventure hooks, anything that can grow into an enjoyable gaming experience. Each seed is small (only a paragraph or two at most) and each Seed product will be small as well (only four to five pages), but... Old-School Gazette #1 by Expeditious Retreat Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55271&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe Old-School Gazette is a periodically released short PDF supplement line. Each issue of the Gazette will be approximately 5 pages long and contains information suitable for OSRIC compatible gaming. Monsters, magic items, spells, and unique campaign det... Old-School Gazette #10 by Expeditious Retreat Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55270&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe Old-School Gazette is a periodically released short PDF supplement line. Each issue of the Gazette will be approximately 5 pages long and contains information suitable for OSRIC compatible gaming. Monsters, magic items, spells, and unique campaign det... Newest Products Other Side of the Mirror -- April 2008 by Cracked Mirror Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55291&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.50 $0.00 Other Side of the Mirror is the monthly newsletter of Cracked Mirror Publishing. Each month we put together some game reviews, money saving coupons, book reviews, company news, gaming ideas, and sprinkle in a little personal opinion and release it to th... The Magical land of Yeld [Play Test Edition] by Atarashi Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55290&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.00 This is the play test edition of the Magical Land of Yeld, the new adventure game from the creators of Classroom Deathmatch and Sea Dracula! We're eager for your feedback and support. get in on the ground floor and help us make a better, stronger game... The Blighted [BUNDLE] by Reality Deviant Publications rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55289&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $14.45 $10.50 THIS IS A BUNDLE PRODUCT. WHEN BUYING THIS ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE SEPARATE DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR EACH PRODUCT LISTED BELOW... Blight Elves: Architects of DespairPRICE: $7.50SALE: $0.00 “Life is a meaningless torture only made bearable when en... Steamworks by 12 to Midnight rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55288&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $15.50 Ever wish you could just toss a grenade into a room full of orcs? Or wish you had an automaton to scout out a booby trapped hallway? Or that you could let your fantasy characters explore the ruins of an ancient, technologically advanced civilization? If y... Vintage Clipart: Ships & Boats Volume 1 by Skirmisher Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55281&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.99 This book contains more than 20 vintage clipart images from a number of sources and which were originally or subsequently published between 1880 and 1926. All have been scanned at 600 dpi and are provided individually as or grayscale JPEGs and/or as black... Newest Staff Reviews Heroic Moments #2: Unregistered Mutant by Highmoon Media Productions rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=54949&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Heroic Moments 2: Unregistered Mutant is the second product in Highmoon Media Productions' Heroic Moments series. This series of products is designed for the free 4C System (from Seraphim Guard), a superhero system that uses a easy and streamlined task resolution system based on the d100. Each Heroic Moment is a single scenario that can be inserted easily into any superhero campaign with minimal preparation required. This Heroic Moment sees the heroes deal with an unregistered mutant, a superhero that can be either friend or foe, and the powered-armored group of genetic purists that aim to capture him. The products in this series share a unified presentation format, and in all cases it's very good. The product makes great use of blocked text, sidebars and other features to highlight important details, and streamline the use of the material when gaming. The scenario itself only has 3 pages of text, with 2 further pages of text provided for various new items, powers and stat blocks. The writing and the editing is good, and I liked the new mechanics and concepts introduced to expand the core 4C system. The scenario takes place in a crowded Farmer's Market, where the heroes are unexpectedly thrown into a sequence of events involving a potentially dangerous mutant superhero, and a group of high powered people attempting to catch him. The product provides a detailed and exact description of the scenario, which makes it really easy to run and handle. Numerous hooks are provided to get the PCs to the market, although one of them requires some small changes to one's campaign with regard to mutants and mutant registration. This is a prevalent thought throughout the scenario, though it is fairly easy to circumvent if required. I liked the way the scenario was handled, as well as the new powers and equipment of those involved. This means that the superheroes will face the unexpected. Depending on how the scenario plays out, there can be quite a few different outcomes, and the pdf also provides a number of useful ways in which to mix up the encounter, making it more interesting or generally complicating matters for the PCs. This makes the scenario quite varied, and one that players will very likely enjoy. The product also provides a number of useful new rules and additions to the 4C system. There are two new powers, digging and poison touch, and there's new equipment in the form of combat gear and a special gun. Most of the new material is used in the scenario, although the digging power is not, making it a rather unrelated addition. There's also a very useful new rule, The Unexpected Event, which allows characters to change their powers. While this is not something that should be overly used, it's a neat plot device tied to a good mechanic. This is a good little pdf and scenario. The scenario provides exciting options, is varied, and the outcome is not fixed. All these things combine to create something fun. Some of the overarching assumptions of the scenario (for example, there being registered and unregistered mutants) affect the campaign as a whole and might not fit a specific game, but those are relatively easily circumvented. Good use of additional material and powers, streamlined layout for easy use, and some good new mechanics. A good pdf, and at the price worth looking at if you want a fun new scenario for your superhero game. Hero High Exchange Students by Green Ronin rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55256&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review High School is a very awkward place for any teen. It is pretty much an adventure in itself. Green Ronin’s Hero High series of Mutants and Mastermind’s supplements capitalizes on this awkward time in all of our lives. Their latest supplement, Hero High Exchange Students, brings ten more students with various social discomforts into the Hero High fold. The 14 page book is much like Green Ronin’s other 10 Supers PDFs. Expect nothing less but great detail placed into the artwork and an even greater emphasis placed on the stories of these characters. The background stories for these new teens are a tad more detailed than the last batch. I felt that all of these characters came alive. All 10 are teens from other planes, planets and existences of earth. All carry baggage and all have the kind of mysterious backgrounds that you can focus any campaign on. Green Ronin knows their system better than anyone, and this is very evident with the unique builds using the same abilities. It is what makes the Mutants and Masterminds system one of the most fun to make a character for and play. The abilities, drawbacks and super powers are described distinctly enough to be effective but broad enough that you can apply certain powers in different ways. I can have one character who gets his super strength from his over mutated muscles and another who is this little skinny kid whom uses a small psionic force to do so. For the Game Master Many of these heroes are standout design. My attention was drawn to the more “different” superheroes. I know I am crazy, but I was very intrigued by Mystery Mutt. When I flipped through the book and saw the picture, I thought to myself, oh my I can see the Fonze on a pair of water skis. But reading the description and powers I found a character I would enjoy playing in one of the serious gritty campaigns I like to run. A character from a “cartoon” world whom is so powerful he has to restrain himself because physics on earth do not work the same. Another character I liked was Caryatid from anti-earth (not to be confused with ani-earth, Mutt’s home world). She is the only superhero on a planet of supervillians. The Iron Word Even if you are not running Hero High, I like any of these characters popping up somewhere in a traditional campaign world in which other planes have the possibility of existing. Hero High Exchange Students tells 10 brief stories that encourage you to want to know more about these teens. A very good supplement to keep on hand in your game. Gem Cards Set One by Tangent Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55181&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $5.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Screw just diamonds, Tangent games has a thing for all gems. They first created a trilogy of unique ways to use gems in game, and to make sure that the point is being hit home, they have released Gem Cards: Set 1, a very unique and useful tool to keep track of gems in game. Gems are very useful in a game that strains to stay on the better side of the suspend disbelief chart. They make much more sense to carry around and use for trade as opposed to gold. Without banking features in your game, and I am still really leery on allowing this concept in one of my games, buying and expensive gem and holding on to it gives the PCs more leeway when it comes to weight capacity and carrying space. Gem Cards provides 96 gem cards to print out and use for your game. The PDF is only 19 pages long with 8 gems a piece on them. Each entry is nicely designed with a gorgeous picture of the gem along with stats for the cut, value, size and accent. They also contain a “harness” stat which refers to special gem powers provided from the previous gem books. For the DM Great tool for the DM. The organization is very nice and the artwork is quite stunning. I wish there was a box on it for quantity as I really do not want to print out a card for every gem. It’s not that bit of a problem because you can always share the value box as a quantity box. The Iron Word I was fairly surprised by how useful this product was. I use a bartering system and having physical cards and not have to consistently refer to character sheets was a nice touch. There very easy to pass around the table and the simple organization allows for on the spot changing. With 96 gems installed, I hardly see anything else for a Set 2. Cartophile No. 4 by SkeletonKey Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55147&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.50 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Cartophile No. 4 is the latest product of 2D Building/Terrain Tiles from Ed Bourelle and the crew at SkeletonKey Games. Most gamers that regularly buy pdfs know of SkeletonKey Games and the quality gaming aids and terrain tiles that they produce. This product is part of the relatively new Cartophile series, where each product presents a unique miniature-scale set of terrain tiles that cannot be easily built using conventional e-Adventure Tiles. This fourth product contains a large ziggurat in an open wilderness area, possibly even a clearing in a jungle or forest, and can form the basis for a ruin that the adventurers can explore. The Cartophile series is compatible with other tiles in the e-Adventure Tiles series. Cartophile No. 4 contains 8 tiles that form the ziggurat - 5 are used to form the actual building, while the remaining 3 allow you to customize the ziggurat with a few extra features and add-ins, such as added plants and vines or a plain platform or sacrificial circle at the top of the ziggurat rather than a shaft. The product also includes a number of other useful features, including a small map showing how the tiles in the product fit together, a one page summary of all the tiles, and a miniature map that uses the tiles and a number of tiles drawn from e-Adventure Tiles: Deciduous Wilderness. The summary page gives you a great overview of the various tiles in the product, and how to assemble them, while the miniature map provides you with a ready-to-go map for that ziggurat encounter. All the tiles in this product at 6x9 squares, with each square being equivalent to a 1-inch scale. The artwork of the tiles is fantastic, with good use of colour and good detail on the various part of the product. Vines and other plant crawling up the sides of the ziggurat give it some additional definition, while the entrance to the ziggurat via a shaft is littered with small bones from animal, beast, or creature. I love the attention to detail in this (and indeed all SkeletonKey Games' products) product as it gives the scene more depth. The various tiles are easy to print, and not terribly ink consuming. The tiles in this product are not modular like the e-Adventure Tiles product, and can only create a very small number of scenes, meaning reduced versatility compared to an e-Adventure Tiles product. However, they allow one to create a novel and unique scene, and something that is more specific than the e-Adventure Tiles. In a way, these are almost add-ons to the E-Adventure Tiles, allowing you to create unique and novel features that you wouldn't otherwise be able to, at good value for money. Nevertheless, using the five tile pattern does make it difficult to extend the scene, whereas perhaps a slighlty different arrangement of tiles (and the addition of a universal ziggurat edge) would've made it possible to increase the size of the ziggurat. Cartophile No. 4 is another top notch product from SkeletonKey Games. It's got fantastic art in the tiles and the details on the tiles, and good utility in building something unique for your game world. While not as versatile as your typical e-Adventure Tile set, it nevertheless fills an important niche in the 2D Building/Terrain market, and it's great to see novel and unique buildings and features appear through SkeletonKey Games. Blackdyrge's Templates: Brute by Blackdirge Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55119&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.50 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review I started playing D&D back in the “halcyon days” of second edition. Though it’s been a while, I have vague memories of goblin chieftans who were twice the size of their subjects, presenting the “boss” of the dungeon as being physically bigger and badder than their minions. This is the feeling that Blackdyrge’s Templates: Brute seeks to recapture. The book is eleven pages long, including a page for the cover, one for the credits, and one for the OGL. Full bookmarks are present for easy navigation. The cover is the only instance of color in the book, with there also being two black and white illustrations (one for each of the example monsters). Grey borders are along the top and bottom of each page. After Blackdirge’s introduction, we’re presented with the Brute template itself. Curiously, while the template says that creatures with this template are larger, it doesn’t actually increase a creature’s size category. Rather, it gives it several functions that make it functionally larger and stronger, as well as being quite a bit tougher. This actually works quite well, since it makes the resulting monster notably more deadly than the base creature. Two example creatures, a kobold and an ogre, are given to showcase what the template can do. Curiously, neither of these creatures hit the double-digit Challenge Ratings, which is a bit odd for Blackdirge. The Brute template lives up to its name, presenting a creature that is notably more deadly, not through any particular martial prowess, but simply because it’s just that much tougher than normal creatures of its type. It does a great job of harkening back to those boss monsters that awaited foolish adventurers at the end of an adventure. I know that the next time my players have their characters go dungeon-diving, there’s going to be a goblin chieftan waiting for them…
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Post by Gilvan Blight on May 4, 2008 11:41:06 GMT -5
EXPLORE A SHATTERED DUNGEON WITH A DARK SECRET! Centuries ago, forces of good and evil collided in a titanic battle at the mountain fortress of Slaughtergarde. Armies of mortals and angels fought and defeated a rampaging demon horde, banished its demon prince, and tore Slaughtergarde apart, hurling it back into the Abyss. However, the destruction of Slaughtergarde was incomplete. Parts of the fortress were embedded underneasth the Valley of Obelisks, buried for all time. Now, malign forces have found Slaughtergarde's dark chambers, and they toil ceaselessly to restore the magic gates that will reconnect Slaughtergarde to the Abyss. If they aren't stopped, a new demon horde may emerge from the shattered fortress to rampage across the world. This adventure takes characters from 1st level to 6th level, and it includes material that can be used to expand the story to an entire campaign. Inside this folder are a 64-page Adventure Sites book, a 64-page Campaign Guide, a 16-page Player's Guide, 8 pages of illustrations to enchance the adventuring experience, and a double-sided battle mapdesigned for use with D&D Miniatures. For use with these Dungeons & Dragons core books: Player's Handbook Dungeon Master's Guide Monster Manual CALLING ALL GREEN GAMERS At RPGNow, one of the many things we love about digital books is that they are better for the environment. Each time we choose to consume most or all of a book in digital form only, we save a few trees and help the world stay a little greener and a little healthier. Some of us here are very green-minded, and no matter where you fall in many of the great debates about the environment, it seems like everyone agrees we can do a lot more to help the world and our fellow humans. We thought as long as we have this marketplace code that seems to work pretty well for helping gaming fans find games, we ought to try using the code to spread the word on ecological issues as well. So, we started a new site at www.EcoBrain.com. It’s all downloadable, green books on green living. If you might like feeding your brain on more ways our decisions can help or hurt Mother Earth then please check out EcoBrain and let us know what you think. Naturally, with the help of our partner publishers, we get you something free to try this week too. Head over there now to get a FREE copy of "Tired of Making Your Utility Company Rich?" This book gives you the information you need to compare and contrast different energy options. From installing compact fluorescent light bulbs and adding insulation to your home, to installing a complete solar electric (photovoltaic) system or buying a new hybrid car, the eBook explains your energy options in simple, easy to understand terms. You will also discover why this energy crisis will not go away. Includes some of the best federal, state and private sector technical resources and references available today. Publisher Product Discounts Deep Blue Death by Exploding Goat Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55254&it=1&discount=19722&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $7.50 Discount Price: $6.50 Exploding Goat Games is pleased to announce the maiden voyage of Deep Blue Death! To celebrate this new title we're offering a special discount of $1.00 off the list price. This fast playing game is perfect for a quick lunch-time game or an evening tournament for bragging rights to the world oceans.Deep Blue Death is a two player board game were each person controls a fleet of 6 high tech ships as they battle for control of the world oceans. This "beer & pretzels" hex-based game comes with complete rules, a massive full color map, tokens, scenarios, and our "short attention span" cheat sheet!Deep Blue Death is simple yet combines a strong need for tactics with a heavy dose of resource management. Play time: 45mins-1hr."Pride Runs Deep"Thanks and, as always, GOOD GAMING!The Goat 1,000+ Forgotten Magical Items Volume I (Weapons & Armor) by Stainless Steel Dragon www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=51095&it=1&discount=61612&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $9.95 Discount Price: $8.95 Over 1000 new and unusual magical weapons, suits of armor, shields and helmets. Minor items such as Invisible Helms, Shields of Light and the Lances of Challenge! Major items of name such as "Wizards Bane," "Heart Cleaver" and "Ogres Plague." Perhaps the largest self-contained universal FRPG Magical book of kind. Compatible with most FRPG Systems. For a limited time 10% off - Just $8.95 Figure Flats Set 1 - Male Fantasy by Infinite Dreamers www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55441&it=1&discount=70613&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $3.99 Discount Price: $3.50 A new range of high quality paper miniatures and associated character portraits. This set has 36 Male Fantasy Heroes to represent your precious heroes at the specially discounted price of $3.50. Newest Free Products Karma Quick Guide by Bards and Sages www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55485&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis PDF presents a quick reference guide to some of the rules behind the upcoming Karma Roleplaying System. Get a peek at character creation, spell creation, and learn how experience and training points work. This free download also explains ... OGL 3.5 System Compatible Logo by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55437&it=1&SRC=newsletterWith all the recent changes due to the release of 4e, the GSL and the OGL, we here at Louis Porter Jr. Design have decided to create an all new OGL 3.5 logo which can be used by any and all 3rd party publisher, completely and absolutely free of charge, wi... Alpha Omega Core Rulebook - Sample by Mind Storm Labs www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55436&it=1&SRC=newsletterEnter The World Of Alpha Omega! It is 2280. The world has been reclaimed by primal forces, savage and deadly. Humanity is evolving, its ingenuity unchained. It fights to reach out from beyond the protection of its great cities and reestablish global or... Combat Stats-D12 Core Rules by Cobra Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55426&it=1&SRC=newsletterCS-12 is a core system mechanic depicting the future from a set of rules for Tri-Worlds Universe, which will be the main rule-book and contains a detailed setting with a background. However, since this book is a Core—meaning everything about setting... AGON-Temple of Hera by Lame Mage Productions www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55424&it=1&SRC=newsletter"Heroes, my anger is hot within me! Slay those who defile my shrine! Cleanse my temple! Let not one escape the wrath of Hera!" Temple of Hera is a FREE adventure for the AGON roleplaying game. Satyrs, snakes and sorceresses (well, one anyway). The A... Newest Products Dijishy: The City of History by Kenzer & Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55507&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $9.99 From the same author that brought you Fury in the Wastelands, Friend & Foe: the Elves and Bugbears of Tellene, and Friend and Foe: the Gnomes and Kobolds of Tellene, comes an exciting new supplement! Welcome to the desert city of Dijishy - a city so ... Greed and Glory by Kenzer & Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55506&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $11.99 It's all about tactics... Whether used to ambush a caravan or drop your foe's corpse in the arena sand, tactics applied in unique ways yields results undreamed and unthought of - until now! Like all Kenzer and Company products, this 81-page sea... Dijishy: The City of History (HackMaster edition) by Kenzer & Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55505&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $9.99 Welcome to the desert city of Dijishy - a city so ancient that none know its true origins. It is a city governed by the Inevitable Order of Time; a city that is trading post, oasis, refuge, den of thieves, home of prophets, and site of the most ancient... Shadis magazine issue #8 by Kenzer & Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55504&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.50 Witness the beginning of a great adventure! Shadis: the Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine was started as a small press magazine in 1990 by Jolly R. Blackburn - the first step in what would eventually become the Knights of the Dinner Table magazine! ... Shadis magazine issue #7 by Kenzer & Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55503&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.50 Witness the beginning of a great adventure! Shadis: the Science Fiction and Fantasy magazine was started as a small press magazine in 1990 by Jolly R. Blackburn - the first step in what would eventually become the Knights of the Dinner Table magazine! ... Newest Staff Reviews Choice and Blood by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=24459&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $5.00 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Picking one of – if not the single most – controversial topics in the United States to focus on, Choice and Blood is a “d20 abortion” supplement. The book presents a mixture of fluff and crunch, presented over twenty-four pages. The illustration on the cover page is the only instance of artwork in the book. However, a slice of this is reproduced as a border at the top of every page. Further, page numbers and section headings are all in light blue. There are no bookmarks present. Despite my calling it a “d20 abortion” book, Choice and Blood isn’t focused on abortion so much as it’s focused on the massive controversy around abortion. In this context, the book’s aim is understandable. Not since civil rights has there been an issue that’s nor only evoked such strong feelings, but networked in the religious right, military-style attacks on people, and government actions of all kinds. Knowing this, the question then becomes how well does it present this with a d20 focus? The author opens with a rather forthright notation that he personally is pro-choice, and that the book is slanted towards presenting the pro-life camp as being the bad guys. Beyond that, the book opens with a large amount of explanation regarding the issue and related things. Brief descriptions are given of a typical abortion procedure, of a clinic’s layout, tactics used by pro-lifers to discourage/stop abortions. This takes up roughly a fourth of the book before we move on to the crunch. The main thrust of the book is the new classes it offers. A single new advanced class is given, the abortion provider. This class is a mixture of a medical practitioner and public speaker; a person who can treat injuries and at the same time sway people at a rally. The remaining classes are intermediary classes. Intermediary classes are a new concept, presented here. They’re short classes that can be taken at character creation, having only story-based requirements to take levels in. Most are three to five levels in length, and serve as gateways to a specific advanced class. For example, a character can take their first three levels in the Blogger intermediary class, at which point they’ll be in a perfect position to take levels in the Personality advanced class, though don’t need to. Discouragingly, there are some errors here, such as missing numbers for the Blogger’s Fort and Ref save progressions. Following that is a too-brief section on running a medical campaign, which then segues to sixteen new feats are presented, with a selected bibliography rounding out the product. Choice and Blood isn’t a bad book unto itself. However, by focusing more on crunch than fluff, it ultimately paints itself into a tough position; the new classes and feats need to be recognizably abortion-centered, but not too much so or they’ll become too specific to be used. The book handles the dilemma relatively well, by making the classes short and leading to more generic advanced classes, but the feats have no such out. Moreover, the best part of the book, how to run a medical campaign, is glossed over with little in-depth instruction for how to make such a campaign work. Add in to this some mechanical errors that cropped up throughout, and the book can largely be summarized as “hit-or-miss.” Ultimately, concrete ideas lend themselves to role-playing games much easier than political ones. It’s easy to dedicate an entire sourcebook to a new race, or a particular region. A supplement based around a political belief, however, is much harder to cover from a game standpoint. Choice and Blood tries its best to do so anyway, but only achieves limited success. Greenbaum's Prison: A Trip to Hell by LichHaven Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54687&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.00 $6.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review If Dungeon Mastering was High School, sending your party into the bowels of hell for a seemingly one way mission is the final exam of Physics class. At least once during every campaign, at some point the PCs should flirt with the afterlife. Consider then, A Trip to Hell: Greenbaum’s Prison, by Lich Haven games, written by Tom Ryan, to be your text book. Greenbaum’s Prison is a 50 page adventure that takes a group from a devastated farming community, down a well and onto the fringes of hell where they must invade a tower prison of a rogue demon. With most books and hell adventures, trips to the fiery pits usually turns into large hack and slash sessions with groups of demons. What a relief it is that the author took a different route with the adventure, instead introducing a tense political climate among different groups of devils. Sure there is lots of combat, of which the author made sure to include as many creative sets and situations to challenge the pcs, but there are a few really good times where having a diplomacy or bluff skill will save a party’s skin. However, what is most enjoyable about the adventure is its focus on out of combat encounters. Though the author plays a little too much with the adventure’s own deities, which can easily be replaced with your campaigns, the history is very engaging and understandable. Readers will enjoy that it is not overly advanced as with a lot of adventures, and the simple explanations given to the devil’s imprisonment are kept simple. For the Dungeon Master Seek and Destroy adventurers are very common, which is why it is so nice to see a seek and rescue adventure produced. The fact that the success of your adventure depends on how many people you rescue is a nice touch. The Iron Word Greenbaum’s Prison is a pretty unique adventure that combines creative encounters with some good social encounters. The artwork, especially the cover, is great and the author does not get too caught up in his own world. Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 2: The Undead Chronicles Player’s Guide by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55236&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.99 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review I've thoroughly enjoyed the first scenario series of Sidetrek Adventure Weekly, and have to admit that I was pleased to see this second series of scenarios coming so soon on the heels of the first. The second series is titled 'The Undead Chronicles' and this product serves as a player's guide to that series, giving prospective players a brief introduction to the series, NPCs, towns and environment in which the various scenarios and adventures will take place. This player's guide is identical to the one found in the Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 2 Subscription, so it's not required to purchase if you're picking up the product subscription. As the title of the product suggest, Sidetrek Adventure Weekly will feature undead, although it hasn't been specified what level of play this scenario series will be for. Judging by what I've seen so far, it's likely to be in the mid-level range of 4-6, and I'm also assuming that this will be written for the d20 OGL revised rules. The Undead Chronicles Player's Guide is a 21 page pdf product that aims to provide players of the second Sidetrek Adventure Weekly series with options and details for them to create interesting characters for the series. The product looks great, with some excellent art on the cover and throughout the pdf, and the production standard and quality of presentation and writing is high. The product includes a full set of bookmarks, lovely maps (with and without legend) for the town of Merzel's Fall, and contains a good amount of detail to get you started in creating that undead battling concept for the Sidetrek Adventure Weekly series. I've always been pleased with LPJ Design's presentation and in particular the artwork, and this product does not fail to disappoint. They've created a unique presentation style which means that you can open a pdf and know that it's from LPJ Design just by looking at the presentation. This adventure is set to take place in and around the small prospecting town of Merzel's' fall. The Player's Guide provides a brief introduction to the history of Merzel's fall, and includes a detailed map with overview of all the important locations within the area. I found the information useful, and it sparked a few ideas for concepts for characters that can take part in this adventure. I suppose one can always ask for more information, but given that characters are likely not going to be familiar with the little town at the start of the 6 scenario adventure, the amount of information is fair. The second half of the pdf details a bunch of new mechanical elements for the adventure, including a new prestige class (Hunter of Ghedet), several new feats, new spells, a new clerical domain, and a new undead-loathing god. Apart from the goofy names for the feats (although I suspect some horror fans might like them), most of the mechanics is fairly decent. I guess my only concern with all this material is that it is geared towards undead. What I mean by that is that players will inevitably build their character to be geared at destroying undead, which will most likely mean that the undead will not stand a chance, or will have to be tougher than normal for the given challenge level. No doubt there will be undead slaying Hunters of Ghedet around that could spit and kill undead, and likewise a fair amount of clerics with Improved Turning, Sun Domain and other undead-busting abilities. I realise this is probably not the intent of the product (or maybe it is), but it's possible that the focus on undead for the player builds might make the rest of the scenario too easy. I hope I'm not correct. In addition to the overview of Merzel's fall and the variety of undead related mechanics, the product also includes a full character sheet (7 full pages), some initiative cards to smooth things along during combat, and some counters for the Hunter of Ghedet prestige class. The character sheet is good, although to nitpick it does refer to spells as being memorized rather than prepared. A range descriptor in the spell section would've also been more useful than the Area descriptor. Other than that, the character sheet is as complete as you could need it. It's naturally very hard to judge the scenarios of the second SAW by the contents of the player's guide. The player's guide, though, does a decent job of introducing characters to the environment of the adventure, and provides them with numerous mechanical options in feats, prestige classes and spells, that will naturally make them more effective against undead creatures. How well this undead focus will work for player characters remains to be seen when running the adventure. Overall, I liked what I saw in the player's guide. It gave a good feel for the scenario, and while zombies might not be for everyone, from what I've read I think this one will be different. Good player's guide, and I'm looking forward to seeing the first scenario! Clash of Stone by RPG Objects www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55200&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review The idea of role-playing a game set in the prehistoric era has always fascinated me. Seeing the Stone Age of a high fantasy world is something that I feel has never been depicted as good as it could be. Set even before the ancient empires that most such worlds have, what would such a setting be like? What is pre-history like in a world where the gods are real, tangible powers and magic is right there alongside science as peoples evolve? As such, I was quite happy to see Clash of Stone, which gives you rules for Stone Age role-playing. But does it give enough? Let’s take a look. Clash of Stone is a 3.5 d20 product by RPGObjects. The size of the zipped file is a little over two megabytes, and the PDF itself is nine pages long, including a page for the cover and a page for the OGL. Full bookmarks are given. The cover depicts a full color image of a hand-stitched purple hide of a creature acting as the cover for the book, superimposed over which is the image of a primitive dwarf. The dwarf picture is repeated on the next page. Beyond that, and the purple borders around all of the subsequent pages, that’s it for the illustrations here. There is no printer-friendly version, but overall one isn’t necessary. The product is divided into four sections. The first covers primitive versions of the PHB races. This mostly covers minor alterations to existing racial abilities. One oddity here, however, is that it lists each races racial stat modifiers. Presumably these are further modified beyond the standard stat modifiers, but it’s hard to be sure. Is it saying that half-orcs gain an additional +2 Str -2 Cha on top of what they already have, or not? It very briefly covers further modifiers for savage versions of these same races; savage races being even less evolved than the primitive versions. The classes section is the largest part of the book. Each of the eleven core PHB classes get at least cursory treatment. Several are done away with altogether, noting that in a prehistoric setting, several of these classes haven’t been invented yet. Others receive relatively minor modifications. Two, the ranger and the druid, get class variants that are more savage in nature. This section was good, particularly in its bold choice to write off several class entirely, but my main complaint about the book – that it doesn’t go far enough – is showcased here. Specifically, it ignores NPC classes, as well as the basic prestige classes, entirely. Does a savage society have commoners, or is everyone a hunter/gatherer (largely showcased by rangers) here? Are adepts more common than the primitive druids that tribes have? Questions like these are ignored. To say that the skills section is brief is an understatement. It consists of exactly one sentence, outlining which skills aren’t available in this setting. However, even here problems arise. For example, it makes sense that Open Lock is written off, but why is Ride removed from the list? Is it really inconceivable that someone would domesticate an animal and learn to ride it? Similarly for Spellcraft; wouldn’t a savage sorcerer take ranks in that skill to learn about his developing powers? On the flipside of the coin, it makes little sense that Knowledge isn’t mentioned; apparently you can still take ranks in Knowledge (nobility and royalty) just fine in the Stone Age. The last section of the book deals with weapons and armor. It covers new materials such as bone, wood, etc. which replace existing materials. It then covers the available weapons and armor. This part of the book is done well, and I had no problem with it, except that it was, as mentioned, the last part of the book. There’s no discussion of what monsters are and are not available, no mention of the role of magic items in a campaign where there aren’t even gold coins, and no fluff information at all about adventuring in such a world. Clash of Stone is a good book, but ultimately an incomplete one, with the things that are written sharply highlight the things that are not. The mechanical information it presents is well-done, but there needs to be more, both in terms of mechanics and in terms of fluff presentation. Without that, this is a starting point that’s going to require more than what’s presented here. Ultimately, this is a good framework for a Stone Age game, but not the prehistoric role-playing guide that I’m still waiting for. Shamanistic Warrior by Paragon Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=55216&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.25 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Shamanistic Warrior is a new d20 product from new publisher, Paragon Publishing, and one of several simultaneous releases of products for their Warriors of the Wild product line. This product line is designed to offer players and DMs a variety of classes and prestige classes constructed from animal, natural or tribal themes. Releases for this line so far include Child of the Bear, Wolfpack Hunter, Owl Prowler, Adaptive Hunter, the free product Juggernaut, and several others. Shamanistic Warrior features a core tactical combat class that relies on animal powers and links to nature spirits to overcome foes. Shamanistic Warrior comes as a single 10 page pdf file, of which 6 pages are devoted to the content, and 4 pages to the covers, credits and OGL pages. The overall presentation and design of the pdf is very good, with some great custom art by Karim Idrissi, and a professional layout and design that's great to see from a new publisher. The writing is clear, presenting a well-constructed class, both in terms of concept and mechanics, that captures the flavor of a wild, animalistic warrior that relies on the powers of the animal spirits. I'm pleased with the presentation and overall look of the pdf, which is shares with other products in the series, and the production quality is very good. The Shamanistic warrior relies on his wilderness abilities and the powers of animal spirits to enhance him in combat or in other scenarios. The key ability of this class allows the warrior to infuse himself with a totem power, granting him the ability of a specific animal. For example, a shamanistic warrior can draw on the alligator spirit to enhance his initiative, or on the crocodile to enhance his natural armor. Other animals such as the rabbit increase Reflex saves, while the scorpion gives a bonus to damage rolls. As a shamanistic warrior advances in level, the power of these abilities increases, and the bonuses granted consequently get bigger. In addition, the shamanistic warrior has knowledge of more totem powers of which there are dozens to choose from. In addition to this key ability, the shamanistic warrior also gets a number of abilities related to the wilderness, such as trackless step and hide in plain sight. Overall, a versatile warrior class. On first look this class looks quite neat and elegant. It's written with good flavor and solid mechanics, and offers quite a lot of tactical options in combat with the various totem powers that the class gains. On second look, though, it appears to be a variant druid with a handful of abilities added from the ranger and barbarian classes. Despite the fact that by it's core it appears to be an amalgamation of standard core classes, it achieves a harmony between these classes in the shamanistic warrior that I think would be difficult to achieve otherwise. It does easily with this class that cannot be as elegantly done using a combination of other classes, though it fills the same niche as many wild warrior concepts. In that sense, this is a good class that's easy to play, looks fun to play, and appears mechanically balanced. The useful design notes that accompany the class indicate that the class was designed as a tactical fighter, and I think it succeeds very well at that. The pdf includes two new NPCs that highlight the strengths of the class and illustrate how the class can be implemented. These are just stat blocks without any background information, but nevertheless still useful. There are one or two mechanics errors here (the saves are wonky, for example), but otherwise they look good, and illustrate well the class in action. Having thoroughly looked at this class I'm quite pleased with it. The concept of the wild and savage warrior tied to the animal spirits is not necessarily new, and even some parts of the implementation are just hacked from other classes, but I think the end result is a somewhat unique, balance class in both flavor and mechanics. There's a good harmony between the class' flavor and mechanics, and the mechanics flows neatly throughout the 20 level progression of the class. The bottom line is this class allows you to play a animalistic warrior without the need for multiple classes or prestige classes, and looks like a lot of fun. I would certainly want to play one at some time. Good class, good presentation, and overall good quality pdf.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jun 6, 2008 11:25:47 GMT -5
C&C UNABRIDGED PLAYERS HANDBOOK FOR $10.00! For a LIMITED time only we are offering the Unabridged C&C PH for $10.00!! This is the complete Unabridged version of the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook. This Fantasy Role Playing Game is what so many other FRPGs claim to be, its simple to learn . . . even a novice can master the attribute check system in just a few minutes . . . its easy to make out characters . . . 15 minutes or less. The Players Handbook is one of two books needed to master and run fantasy role playing games. The Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasure is also available from this vendor. The first part of the PH is dedicated to the player, the rules to play, how to make a character, the races, classes, spells and more. The second part of the PH is dedicated to the GM, what we call the Castle Keeper. You don’t know it yet, but your already familiar with Castles & Crusaders. This game has the same 13 classes, the same 7 races, the same spells, equipment etc. However it is unified under one driving mechanic, The Siege Engine™. Our simple attribute check system allows for all non-combat related challenges to be resolved quickly and easily with the minimum of fuss. Guidelines are given but your imagination is the limit. The power of the game returns to the Castle Keeper and the quick paced action and riddle solving fun returns to the players. C&C invites any style, from high fantasy to the dark and gritty. You’ll set the tone for your game. Download this amazing resource and you will be catapulted into a gaming world that is both easy and fun. With all that was good in the old school style combined with logic of the new. Leave behind the editions, Join the Crusade! PREVENT AN APOCALYPSE... KILL A HERO. World War III is over -- a nuclear holocaust begun when the Republic of Turrannia detonated a suitcase bomb in an American city, in retaliation for the assassination of their President. Two years after the bombs, a super-scientist has developed a rudimentary time machine. There's enough power for a single window to open for a few minutes. A few of the world's remaining heroes (along with a villain or two) volunteer to go back in time and prevent the apocalypse by eliminating the superhero who assassinated the Turrannian President. Unfortunately, that superhero is one of the Player Characters. Time Bomb is an M&M Superlink adventure for three to five heroes of 10th level, in a standard four-color campaign setting. The adventure is designed to plug into any setting, featuring modular notes on tailoring the adventure for insertion into your own campaigns. Publisher Product Discounts Zombie Combat Board Game - Variant of Sen So by TwinBlade Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=54432&it=1&discount=58694&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $4.99 Discount Price: $3.99 Get the Zombie at 20% OFF and play it against the Alien, Gladiator, Viking or FREE Robot variants of Sen So. The Zombie may not be fast, but his Squishy Flesh allows him to take a beating. Use your Arm-O-Rang to throw your arm at opponents. Do not worry it will crawl back to you.Sen So is a 2 or more player strategy board game for ages 10 and up. Most games take about 15-30 minutes to play. Broken Swords & Battered Shields by visioNation studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56267&it=1&discount=41064&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $19.95 Discount Price: $15.95 For a limited time, buy the Broken Swords & Battered Shields core book for only $15.95. That's just a dollar more than our original Beta Release earlier this year. Get over 400 pages packed full of content, including over 24 races and nearly 50 career paths to choose from. Become the greatest hero the world of Soluna has ever known. Crime Scene: SUPERNATURAL by Greywood Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56195&it=1&discount=30289&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $9.99 Discount Price: $8.00 We are offering a special $2 discount offer on Crime Scene: SUPERNATURALCrime Scene: Supernatural takes you into the world of police and federal investigation of supernatural crime. This book details all the history, from cattle mutilation and Armageddon cults right through to serial killers, ghosts and para-zoology. Learn about processing an occult cime scene, who to involve, and what steps to take. Castles & Crusades Players Handbook 3rd Printing by Troll Lord Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56273&it=1&discount=42655&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $10.00 Discount Price: $10.00 Troll Lord Games has at last released the unabridged Castles & Crusades Players Handbook in electronic format. For a limited time only we are offering this core book for only $10.00. This Fantasy Role Playing Game is what so many other FRPGs claim to be, its simple to learn and even easier to make out characters . . . 15 minutes or less. And it is the game you’ve been playing for years. Leave aside your Edition Shock and join the Crusade! Newest Free Products Signs & Portents 57 by Mongoose rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56284&it=1&SRC=newsletterIn this month's issue; * Starchild – A Traveller Scenario by Courtney * Irregular Forces - Three New Units for Allied and German Forces in Battlefield Evolution: World at War by Agis Neugebauer * The Southern Traitors - A Warrior Order for Slai... Free Monster sampler by One Monk Miniatures rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56310&it=1&SRC=newsletterFR001 Free Monster set 01Set of 7 unique creatures and monsters for your fantasy games. Included in this set is a Pegasus, Giant Rat, Giant Bat, Dire Wolf, Nightmare, Slime and Giant Spider. These are just samples from a large range of forthcoming monster... Mutant Future by Goblinoid Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56282&it=1&SRC=newsletter The sinister and sadistic bleating of spidergoats echoes in the night, a complementary chorus to the rustling of an unfortunate victim caught in their webs. In deep, dank caves to the north, corrupted humans take communion with an unspeakably... Giddy Ghost inn by Myth Merchant Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56269&it=1&SRC=newsletterNestled in the scrub and brush of the forest’s edge is a small inn for the weary traveler. The inn is of strange design, being built around the trunks of the old growth with a hodgepodge of wooden beams, slats and mud daub. The only civilized-lookin... Pirates: Downloads Pack One--free mini-adventures by New Dimension Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56229&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis book contains six mini-adventures for the Pirates game system, though they are generic enough to be easily converted to most any RPG system. Just our way of saying thanks. Enjoy! Newest Products Blackdyrge's Portfolio: Warriors I by Blackdirge Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56328&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $7.99 $6.99 Blackdirge Publishing presents the first in an all new line of royalty free, fantasy clip art: Blackdyrge’s Portfolio. Each installment of the portfolio includes 5 to 10 high-quality, black & white images of themed fantasy subjects. The art is p... Invaderz by Postmortem Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56327&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $5.00 Greetings Jerkian warrior elite! Know this, that your very existence is down to the orders of our Portly Potentate and that without him, you would not exist. Your very conception, in the clone tanks of Clonius, is ordained by his Obese Omnipotence and fro... Classic Spycraft: Pan-Asian Collective Chamber Book by Crafty Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56326&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $24.95 $7.50 “Honor. Treachery. Vengeance. This is the path of shadow.” Their agents have been seeded in every government, shadow community, and Chamber — up to and including the Archer Foundation. What was once a routine exercise in precaution is no... Classic Spycraft: Hand of Glory Threat Book by Crafty Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56325&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $24.95 $7.50 Evil never dies. In 1945, victory was seized from the jaws of the greatest evil of the 20th Century. Now, a new threat rises from the ashes of the Nazi regime, a criminal organization with dreams of global domination powered by the might of a living god. ... Classic Spycraft: Archer Foundation Chamber Book by Crafty Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56324&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $24.95 $7.50 “That’s quite all right. We all play the Game here…” Delve into the very heart of intrigue with the first sourcebook for the Shadowforce Archer world setting, The Archer Foundation. Learn the stunning secrets the world’s pro... Newest Staff Reviews Blackdyrge's Templates: Deep Spawn by Blackdirge Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55761&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.50 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review I'll freely admit that I'm a big fan of templates. And monsters in general too. But templates are great as they allow you to take something familiar and turn it into something that your players won't expect. Templates are by far one of the best things about the revised d20 core rules. In fact, many of the best books published for the d20 system are books about templates. Templates allow you to take something generic, and turn it into something specific. Blackdyrge's Templates is a great series of products from Blackdirge Publishing, featuring a brand new template and some sample creatures using the template from the mind of author Aeryn Rundel. This offering, the Deep Spawn template, features a horror of the depths of the oceans, an aquatic creature of nightmares. The product comes as a single, high quality pdf file. The presentation is excellent, with some fantastic art from Hunter McFalls, and some very good descriptive writing from the author. Like other products from Blackdirge Publishing, this product includes the campaign construction system, which is a system that allows one to utilize the material in the pdf to create a campaign binder or folder. Information such as author, type of material, etc. is printed clearly on each page so that when placed in a binder it can be easily found and identified. Blackdyrge's Templates: Deep Spawn is a very professionally presented product that ticks all the boxes as far as presentation goes. The Deep Spawn is an aquatic horror from the depths of the ocean. As such it's a template that can be applied to any creature with the aquatic subtype, although Deep Spawn are also amphibious and hence can go on land. The Deep Spawn's signature abilities include its great maw that can swallow creatures whole, and the bioluminescent patches on its skin that can duplicate various spell effects. As such it ties in with the concept of the 'lure of the deep' or the general concept of 'enchanted by the oceans'. The template is solid from a mechanical point of view, as are the sample creatures, a Deep Spawn hag and a Deep Spawn sea cat. The flavor and descriptive text is very good, both the introduction from Blackdirge on the Deep Spawn, and the descriptive text of the sample creatures and the template. Despite resting on solid mechanical ground and having good descriptive flavor, I felt that the template was disappointing in that there was nothing unique or new about it. The mechanics was really just a bunch of stuff from other creatures mixed together to create the template and I'd hoped that something new would come out that would be more closely related to the flavor text. The mechanics just lacked imagination - there's the familiar improved grab, the familiar swallow whole, the familiar fast healing, etc. and even the new bioluminescence ability just used familiar spell effects. Where's the novelty in the mechanics? Has this version of the d20 game depleted everything that makes creatures unique? It's great to come up with good concepts, even if they are somewhat familiar, but then to not support it by great new and novel mechanics just makes the template provided uninteresting. Like all of Blackdirge Publishing's products, this is very well presented, with solid mechanics and great descriptive text. But there's nothing that's really new. It feels like old mechanics jumbled together to make a new template, rather than designing new mechanics to create a novel and interesting template or new creature. I think the pdf lacked a little uniqueness in the mechanics and could've done something a little more interesting. That aside, it's still a useful and solid product, although not something that inspired me to use it immediatly. Metamorphosis Book III: Ascension by EN Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55738&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $8.99 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review The story of Hazergal, the mortal wizard-king for whom the adventure of his life began after his death, comes to a close here. The third and final book in the Metamorphosis trilogy brings things to a head as the daemon lord Yaghur Hod makes his move to conquer the cosmos, with only Hazergal and his motley crew of demons standing against him. Written by Aeryn Rudel, the eponymous Blackdirge of Blackdirge Publishing, “Ascension” is about three and a half megabytes in size and is one hundredy eighty-seven pages in length. This doesn’t count the front and back covers, both of which are bundled in as separate JPG files. Given that this is the standard, novel version, there’s very little in the PDF of the book beyond the text of the story itself. There are no illustrations to be found, nor game stats for any creatures. There are also no bookmarks, which is something of a shame. It would have been useful to have them to jump to various chapters more easily. I want to take a moment to mention the lack of illustrations or game stats. I can’t really hold the absence of either of those things against this book. After all, it’s not the Deluxe Edition of the story, which is where those typically are to be found. However, EN Publishing mentioned (over on EN World) that this last book won’t have a Deluxe Edition available at all, which means that there won’t ever be pictures or stats for the characters depicted here. That’s quite a loss, since the stats were very useful for high and epic gaming in the d20 system, and the illustrations were a nice bonus. The story itself continues in the same style as from the previous books. While I found the characters to be engaging, the structure of the plot seemed a little too straightforward. Despite the cast of characters (particularly the large number of demons, which are treacherous by nature), things proceed in a fairly linear fashion straight from beginning to end. In fact, canny readers will see the various plot twists coming with relative ease. The narrative style is still enjoyable, and the story is entertaining, but the book is one that’s almost totally without surprises. My only other complaint about the book is how abruptly it seems to end. The way it does still works, of course, but I prefer to have at least some glimpses of the characters after everything has been resolved; with one exception, we don’t get that here, which I found slightly irking. I found “Ascension” to be enjoyable to read, and had a good time getting to the end of the Metamorphosis trilogy at last. It keeps the par set by its predecessor books, and remains a fun bit of D&D-esque fiction through to the end. It has its faults, but they’re not bad, and the story of one man’s climb up the demonic hierarchy wraps up nicely. Blackdyrge's Templates: Deep Spawn by Blackdirge Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55761&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.50 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review There’s something about sea monsters that evokes a sort of primal terror in us. Maybe it’s that they can potentially grow to such huge sizes, making us fear gigantic predators that have long since died out on land. Maybe it’s because the sea is so dark and murky, hiding its terrors in a blackness much deeper than the night. Or maybe it’s simply because things from under the waves are structured so differently, with bodies reminiscent of lovecraftian nightmares. Whatever it is, just the thought of what horrific things could be lurking down there tends to give us shivers. It’s this fear that Blackdirge attempts to capitalize on with his newest fearsome template, the deep spawn. Let’s see how it fares. The book is a standard-sized entry into the series, being eight megabytes in size, and eleven pages in length. Despite its brevity, it has full bookmarks, which is a nice touch. The illustrations are once again handled by Hunter McFalls, who continues his domination of the black and white spectrum of art with his evocative drawings. There continues to be a lack of printer-friendly options, but I can’t hold it against a book this short. The deep spawn template is meant to be added to existing aquatic creatures, requiring the base monster to have a swim speed. The template adds several powers such as swallowing hole, fast healing, and the big one is that, like an angler, is has several luminescent mind-affecting powers to lure in prey. Two example monsters show concepts of existing creatures changed to be deep spawn versions. While the template was quite well done, I found myself less than enamored of this as a creature concept. What got to me was the limited nature of the deep spawn; simply put, they’re supposed to be aquatic creatures from the darker, deeper parts of the seas. In other words, this template just makes an aquatic creature even more aquatic. That’s such a small change to the base creature’s concept that it doesn’t seem to count for much. Likewise, a lot of the new abilities added felt too generic. Deep spawn have to deal with the cold damage from the depths, and the crushing damage of the hydraulic pressure. The template’s answer to both of these just seems to be its fast healing, rather than any sort of more specialized resistances. Moreover, the creature’s powers seem slightly contradictory, since it has bioluminescence and light blindness at once. Ultimately, this template wasn’t bad, but it seemed to be both too limited in scope and too generic in execution. This is little more than a themed power-up for aquatic monsters, and doesn’t seem truly indicative of the terrors that the lightless depths of the oceans are supposed to be capable of conjuring up. The work here isn’t poor by any stretch of the imagination, but for a monster called the deep spawn, it’s ultimately a fairly shallow entry. Blackdyrge's Templates: Greater Half-Dragon by Blackdirge Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55623&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.50 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review The ubiquitous nature of half-dragons has become something of a moniker regarding 3.5. One could almost call the game “Dungeons & Half-Dragons” now, it seems. Even Blackdirge isn’t able to avoid this, as he brings us a second product dedicated to the progeny of draconic xenophilia. Whereas the last book on the subject dealt with the spawn of Dragon-type creatures that were not true dragons, this one deals with creatures spawned by exceptionally powerful true dragons. The book is one of the larger ones in the Blackdyrge’s Templates series, weighing in at over eleven megabytes. It’s eighteen pages long, a length accounted for by having twice the number of example creatures. Full bookmarks are present, which is always a plus. As always, the cover is the only full color artwork, with the interior having black and white illustrations by Hunter McFalls (who continues to astound with what he can do in black and white). Between that and the ever-present page borders, this isn’t the most printer-friendly of books. However, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem given its brevity. The nature of greater half-dragons is that their draconic parent is a true dragon in one of the last three age categories – apparently dragons get even more promiscuous when they become elderly. Spawn of such encounters have more power than children of younger dragons. They gain all of the benefits of standard half-dragons, as well as additional powers such as new movement modes, spell-like abilities, spell resistance, etc. In other words, creatures with the greater half-dragon template have inherited more of their draconic parent’s genes. Four example creatures are then given. Two are more monstrous creatures that are certain two be antagonists, while two others are NPCs (class levels and all) who are more likely to have peaceful encounters with the party (though this is by no means guaranteed). While I enjoyed this new template, and the mechanics and writing are all of Blackdirge’s usual high quality, I found myself not as impressed with the greater half-dragon as I had been with its lesser counterpart. While this template was certainly different enough from the standard half-dragon, its core concept was basically just tweaking the existing template to offer more, whereas the lesser half-dragon was a different series of templates altogether. In my estimation, this template is a flawless execution of an idea that was really just for a bigger, badder version of the half-dragon we already know so well. I’d rank it as being 4.5 stars, but since I can’t call it that, I rounded it up to 5; this is done too well for me to hold its comparative unoriginality against it. After all, if you’re going to have yet another half-dragon in your campaign, it might as well be one that’s better, stronger, faster than the others are. Book of Experimental Might II: Bloody, Bold, and Resolute by Malhavoc Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55582&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $16.00 $9.00 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Good ol’ Monte. Even though he’s announced that each of his last several books would be his final RPG product, he just can’t seem to keep himself away. The experiment that was his most recent finale product – the eponymous Book of Experimental Might – turned out to be a resounding success. Or at least, it was in most respect. However, a dedicated minority pointed out that something was missing; that although the BoXM had a lot of great stuff, most of that stuff was for spellcasters, with the few non-casting classes being left out in the cold. Well, Monte couldn’t let that stand, and his answer comes in the form of his (by my count) fourth final product: the Book of Experimental Might II. Aptly subtitled “Bloody, Bold, and Resolute,” this book is geared for Fighters (though sidebars and notes point out how other martial classes can use it also) to let them have great and devastating options also. Weighing in at sixty-six pages, the book is just under three megabytes in size. It has full bookmarks, which is good to see. However, there’s no printer-friendly version available. While not too bad, it’s still a bit discouraging that one of the pioneers of the PDF RPG industry still hasn’t embraced the idea that some people like to print out their PDFs, and that giving them a graphics-free option can help a lot with that. In this case, while the book isn’t loaded down with illustrations, it still does have a fairly sizeable number of (very nice-looking) pictures throughout it, as well as scattered page borders. The book is divided into three sections. The first presents the new option of fighting domains. Similarly to clerical domains, these fighting domains are meant to be taken by fighters, though other classes have options to take them also, granting them small powers, a list of domain-based (which the character may swap out for other feats on the list), and a bonus power gained when you’ve taken eight feats in the domain. It’s a pretty ingenious concept that helps to add a lot of versatility to the generally-bland fighter class. The second section of the book is the meat of it. This chapter presents something close to two hundred-fifty feats (though some of them are tweaked feats from the PHB). Several new types of feats are given here as well. Uberfeats are the culmination of a fighting domain, and give unbelievable power to a character who takes them, but at a considerable cost (namely, requiring you to give up several other feats). Double feats are feats that cost two feat slots to take, meaning fighters have to spend their normal feat and fighter bonus feat to get them. Finally, oblation feats have you track the amount of damage you deal to activate their effect (e.g. if you’ve dealt out 197 points of damage over the course of combat, and your oblation feat costs 200 points to activate, you can activate the feat once you deal at least 3 more points of damage). As if that’s not enough, Monte also gives rules for “feat boosts” which can add greater effects to a feat so many times per day. Of course, even if the book didn’t have all that, there are still over two hundred new feats here! Even if you don’t care much for the new feat types, or some of the variant rules (such as the grace and health points variant from the first BoXM – a few feats use that rule), then there’ll still be plenty here that you’ll get quite a kick out of. The last section of the book is very short. Two pages are given to “very optional rules,” ideas Monte had that he’s tossed in here off-the-cuff, so to speak. Things like throwing a character that you’re grappling, or naturally being able to turn during a charge are all here. At its core, the BoXM2 is a book of new feats. That’s not all it is, certainly, but when the table listing the new feats is eight pages long in a sixty-six page supplement, it’s pretty clear that that’s the main thrust of what you’re getting. These feats are indeed bloody, bold, and resolute, however, and combined with the other new options presented here, make fighters go from being a fairly standard, hum-drum class into varied dervishes of destruction with a large number of options at their disposal. Once again, Monte’s experiment is a clear success, and it’s the martial characters who are rewarded for that.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 14, 2008 11:45:30 GMT -5
The classic Crooks! sourcebook is back for the 2nd edition of Mutants & Masterminds! More than 50 of the world's most dastardly supervillains, monsters, power-mad sorcerers, and would-be conquerors return to the World's Greatest Superhero Roleplaying Game in this lavishly illustrated catalog of criminals conceived, written, and art-directed by Super Unicorn design studio. Battle the maniacal Atomic Brain, conquer the demon within Johnny Reb, and maybe score a date with the Other Woman, mysterious maven of the Clique. Crooks! includes four complete villain headquarters, a host of villainous devices, and an introduction to the META-4 Universe. You'll definitely want to catch these Crooks! Where can you find Claudia Christian, see a designer sculpt a unique 25mm figure, and play all the games you like ? Only at GenCon UK. Newest Free Products Octagon Combat Arena - for use with Sen So by TwinBlade Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56535&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe Octagon Combat Arena is not a game, but a game supplement for use with any and all of the Sen So Combat Board Games. The 13”x13” octagon game board is made up of 129 (1 inch) octagons. The octagons are colored to provide the ideal combat s... FGC Nine Sample Characters by Spectrum Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56505&it=1&SRC=newsletterIn this sample PDF, you get nine ready-to-play fantasy characters with background stories, design considerations, various notes, and the full game stats for the adapted Cartoon Action Hour system (First Edition). These characters are taken directly from t... FSpaceRPG Universe 3 Cartography by FSpace Publications rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56499&it=1&SRC=newsletterA guide to the stellar mapping principles and templates used in universe 3 of FSpaceRPG. FSpaceRPG Character Sheet by FSpace Publications rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56440&it=1&SRC=newsletterTwo page character sheet for use with FSpaceRPG. Available for download as a PDF. Wrecked on the moon by Spectrum Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56410&it=1&SRC=newsletter"Wrecked on the Moon", or rather "Schiffbruch auf dem Mond" in German, is a short system-free adventure suitable for any science fiction RPG. It does not contain, or require, any specific rules information. It is written as a short and... Newest Products Quactica: Battles for the Soul of Middle Aesopia by Skirmisher Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56557&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $8.99 Quactica: Battles for the Soul of Middle Aesopia is an innovative set of miniatures rules by veteran game designer and miniatures sculptor Steve Lortz, author of the famous Perilous Encounters rules released by Chaosium in 1978. Set in a world inhabited b... Black Magic Grimoire by Ironwood Omnimedia rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56554&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.50 This product contains 3 new spells for the E-RPG system and the Sagas Role-Playing Game. The spells are of the spirit aspect, dark spells with dangerous consequences. Each spell is printed on seperate scrolls, and reprinted on printer-friendly pages with ... The Island Of Ice Maggot: Ruins Of Locks: Marine Eye by The Forge Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56552&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $7.96 THIS SUPPLEMENT INCLUDES40 printable, colour tiles:36 new tiles4 bonus tiles from different extensionsQUALITY WARRANTYIf our product doesn’t meet your expectations, please mail s on tfs/AT/theforge.pl and tell us what we can do better. s a token of ... No Hero by White Silver Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56550&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.95 $8.50 Legends are created by circumstances, not born to hovels with dirt floors. Champions train their entire lives for one single opportunity to stand in the stead of another, to pit their might against the best of another culture. Conquerors destroy civilizat... Guardian Universe II: Game Master's Guide by Dilly Green Bean Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56549&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $5.00 Welcome to the setting of Guardian Universe II. Get all the setting material, MORE NPCs and more powers! This book is meant to be used with the Guardian Universe II: Player's Handbook. The world has changed and Evolutionaries are becoming more and mor... Newest Staff Reviews Gamescapes: Story Maps, Fantasy Set 1 by Talisman Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56356&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $16.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Gamescapes: Story Maps - Fantasy Set 1 is a 80 page pdf product and the first set of fantasy story maps produced by Talisman Studios. This product features nearly 80 1" scale, full-colour dungeon tiles filled with all sorts of magical and supernatural terrain as the set's title 'Mystic Dungeon' suggests. The product comes as a large pdf file, and barring the covers with brief credits, contains only high quality mystical dungeon tiles to create a magical 2D dungeon layout. There are quite a number of companies that do 2D terrain tiles these days, and more seem to be heading in that direction as time goes by. I've seen quite a few new publishers to this area, which is always a good thing as it provides the customer with a larger variety of tiles to choose from. Talisman Studios' offering of Fantasy Story Maps is one of the more unusual ones, in a good way. It offers a vast amount of different tiles, and probably a selection of tiles that you won't likely find anywhere else. This particular set, Mystic Dungeon, has tiles filled with various magical effects and other mystical features that I've rarely seen in other products. For that Talisman Studios are to be commended. As such these tiles allow one's imagination to run wild. While some of the tiles are quite confusing and often appear somewhat psychedelic, the majority contain elements that spark the imagination and put a little bit of magic back in the dungeon. It's the supernatural tiles that really make this set, but it also includes several variations on standard wall tiles and various other standard room configurations. But if you wanted a dungeon filled with random and wild magic, the bizarre and the supernatural rather than another series of kobolds and orcs in four-walled rooms, this set of story maps has plenty to offer. I wish, though, that there had been even a one line or one word description of each tile, as it would help clarify some of the more bizarre tiles and make what they're depicting a little clearer. The images are generally quite dark, so it's hard sometimes to see the detail, or see how the tile is meant to be implemented. For all its wonderful magical tiles and imagination running wild, there's an element of non-user-friendliness to this set. I'm sure that's not the case, but it looks like some of the tiles may have been thrown together to create a bizarre looking tile without thinking what the customer would make of it. Overall, though, I found this a stimulating product with some good, unusual, interesting and inspiring tiles. This set puts the magic back into the dungeon, and creates an environment that will terrify players and spark the imagination. Here and there the tiles can be confusing as it's not always easy to be certain how a tiles should be used. The sheer volume of tiles, and the balance between standard tiles and mystical tiles, though, makes this a good product that can be used for a wide variety of 2D dungeon tile needs. A good set of tiles from Talisman Studios. Blackdyrge's Bits & Pieces: Weapons of Synergy by Blackdirge Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56537&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Weapon function is another one of those things you chalk up to the game aspect of D&D. No matter if you are a peasant farmer or an elite guardsman, a weapons damage is pretty much identical. Hoping to change this, Blackdirge Publishing has decided to put a different take on Synergy weapons in D&D, crafting arsenal that instead of bonding with other objects, as most Synergy Weapon publications do, the weapons bonds with specific characters and abilities. Once again, Blackdirge manages to do a lot with very little. As with most of their books, this one is short, coming in at 8 pages. Compacted into it, are 12 weapon qualities that improve either a feat or a class ability of a character. Each weapon quality has a primary function that, for the most part, repeats the feat or class ability it enhances if the character does not have it. The enhancements are not overpowering, usually granting in most cases half to twice as much of the numerical bonuses the ability would. At the end of the book are three weapons using qualities from the book. Each includes a bit of lore and flavor for immediate inclusion in a game. For the Player Each ability includes cost and spell necessities for crafting the object. The balanced abilities are not too out of the ordinary, so any reasonable DM should allow it. For those players who really want to center a character’s concept around an ability or skill, having a weapon that insinuates the concept can go a long way in making an impact character. I like the point blank ability when making my fighter based archer classes. For the Dungeonmaster Its always nice to Easter-egg a pc specific item on a non-NPC. This allows for the crafting of PC specific items that will not break the game. They are also quite useful for creating the super-smiting paladin NPC or hyping up the speed of a quick NPC with a serpent strike weapon. The Iron Word I only wish there were a dozen more of these weapon qualities that filled a niche for every major class. Hopefully we will see more of this series. Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 2: The Undead Chronicles – #1 The Blood Rush by LPJ Design rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56472&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.50 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 2 has finally arrived and it's learnt some lessons from the first series of 12 adventures that formed part of Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 1. This second series of SAW features the town of Merzel's fall, and sinister undead creatures that plague the town. I was generally impressed with the first series, but had a few reservations about the format and how things were strung together. This second series seems to tie things together a whole lot better, allowing more leeway in running the series as a complete adventure rather than as the individual scenarios. The presence of both a Player's Guide and a Gamemaster's Guide to this series goes a long way in accomplishing just that. The individual scenarios, judging by this first offering The Blood Rush, still feature high octane, fast-paced action. Sidetrek Adventure Weekly 2: The Undead Chronicles #1 - The Blood Rush starts off the new SAW series with a action packed battle as the dead come to life in a gold panner's stream. The PCs are systematically drawn into the action, eventually culminating in them arriving in Merzel's Fall where even more sinister foes and events await. This 20 page scenario forms parts of the larger series, and can be played as a stand-alone scenario, or as part of the larger adventure. I think, having read this offering, that it's likely better played as part of the overall adventure, mainly due to the 'cliff-hanger' type ending to the adventure. Nevertheless, the product offers plenty of advice on using the scenario for both these situations. The Blood Rush is for characters of 5th level, a fact you really only learn once you hit page 12. Why this information is not readily available on the product cover is beyond me. Most DMs pick up adventure by looking first at the adventure level to see if it's suitable. Why bury it at the back of the pdf? Admittedly, the very useful rating system on the front cover tells you a lot about what the adventure is suitable for, but a level of 'Medium' doesn't really equate to much. Presentations-wise this product is very well done. Good cover, good rating system to give information on the product, good writing and editing. In addition, the product provides a whole host of other additional useful things, such as monster initiative cards, monster counters, a character sheet and a useful 'Notes' bar at the side of each page to add DM comments or statistics. The adventure itself is well structured and organised. There are one or two areas that are somewhat contrived, but for the most part the action is smooth and runs quickly and easily. One of my initial concerns on an undead focused campaign is that any cleric focused on undead would breeze through this adventure. Thankfully this so far doesn't seem to be the case. While there are undead about, there are more encounters featuring other creatures that don't make it feel like this is the cleric player's adventure and chance to shine. The foes the PCs encounter at Merzel's Fall are cleverly done with good additional flavor that ties in nicely with the theme of the overall adventure. Much of what's written in the Player's Guide and Gamemaster's Guide haven't come to the fore yet, but I'm assuming this information will be useful as the adventure progresses. The Blood Rush is a good start to this 6 scenario adventure. It's an interesting start to the adventure, is good at drawing the PCs into the action, and maintains a steady pace with good combat and roleplaying opportunity throughout the scenario. In many ways this is a better start to the series than for the first SAW, and it looks like the adventure is going to improve over the next few scenarios. I'm looking forward to seeing them, and what SAW 2 can deliver. So far it's off to a fun, exciting, and interesting start. The Forgotten Tomb of Felgar the Goblin King by OtherWorld Creations rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56490&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.99 $5.99 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review There are a lot of goblin kings in the Fantasy Realms. It seems that most low level quests are geared towards combating the evil monarch of the goblin lands. You would think that in all these years the goblins would move to a more democratic government or at least elect a prime minister to be the proxy target for adventuring heroes. The Forgotten Tomb of Felgar the Goblin King is a unique product that features a party of adventures heading to find the tomb of another clichéd Goblin King. The adventure itself is pretty tried and seen before, but what makes this product different from other smash through the goblin site adventure is its attempt to provide a quick one session adventure with minis and maps in one package. Published by OtherWorld Creations and sitting at a small 31-pages, The Forgotten Tomb is a quaint little adventure that is well paced and designed. The layout is impressive, separating the descriptive adventure from the tactical encounters. Each tactical encounter, of which there are three, includes combat tactics for the creatures, very nicely detailed battlemaps and standup minis of all the NPCs. The only thing missing are the statblocks for the NPCs, which were left out to make the adventure playable in multiple system. A move I was not too happy with, as if I am attempting to run this in one night, I would have to spend an extra 10 minutes pulling the stats. Whereas the setup is pretty good, the story itself is pretty weak. The adventure begins with the party already at the location of the tomb. It feels like there should be some suggestions included as to how to setup the adventure as opposed to throwing the PCs. The dungeon is pretty linear and an experienced party may move through it pretty swiftly. There are no real traps or puzzles to provide a variety from the combat. For the Dungeon Master The maps are pretty impressive and possess a very gritty color quality about them. The only nagging thing abut them are the ugly out of place red asterisks on the actual battlemaps. The Iron Word For a pinch, The Forgotten Tomb of the Goblin King Felgar might work with a slightly inexperienced group of players, or those just looking for something to do. I like like the minis and maps idea and wish more complete adventures included them. Hopefully future products will have more variety and a bit more of a challenge for players. There just needed to be more of a story if you are making a self contained adventure. I look forward to seeing more in the One Night Stand series from OtherWorld Creations as they try to find the right balance between challenge and a quick adventure. The Shady Forest Part1 - The Coppice Of Wispering Souls by The Forge Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56350&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $7.96 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review It is pretty apparent that the Forge Studio seeks to spoil its customers with their line of tile products. Their latest collection of tiles, The Shady Forest Part 1- the Coppice of Wispering Souls, offers a lot of material for a similar price to other products. Apparently The Forge believe that they should have as many pages of material as they do letters in the name of their titles. The Shady Forest is a walloping 44-pg book of tiles that form a Forest setting if compiled together. With normal tile books, you are lucky to get 12 to 16 pieces of artwork for the same price. The fact that there is 44 pages of lush scenery makes me wonder if I have been overpaying all of these years. The artwork is very detailed and very colorful. It is realistic fantasy, somewhere between photo realistic and fantasy coloring. As you flip through the book, the artists made a huge effort to differentiate each page. Not just a bunch of trees and shrubbery, there are remarkable looking ruins and various sand and snow terrain for an alternative perspective. For the DM This product will put you in an odd situation if you are one of those that like to use every tile of a book for a scene, usually a because of the diagram that comes with it. There is so much material, I found myself wanting to only use 5 or 6 new ones at a time so that I could use the rest later for something else. The Iron Word I am quite amazed at the level of quality and product that comes with the Shady Forest Part 1. I hate the long title, but love the beautiful effort put into the product. This is some of the best detail work I have seen with fantasy tiles. With so much for so little, its hard to not enjoy the Shady Forest. The only thing I am curious about is why such a long title.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 14, 2008 11:46:38 GMT -5
Newsletter from 7/10/2008 In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. Beneath the deserts of Iraq, among the ruins of the ancient Babylonian civilization, lie secrets. The ancient servants of a dead god stir again. Forgotten magic waits to be claimed. Evil spirits yearn for souls to consume. At the heart of it all is a terrible hunger for power, forservitude, but most of all for blood. A squad of soldiers escorting an archaeologist is thrown into the maw of these ancient secrets, and its men must fend for themselves against an ancient horror beyond their understanding. But survival is not enough, for deep in the ruins of Ur the very tools of their salvation could cost them their souls. A story in the Storytelling Adventure System for the World of Darkness, inspired by World of Darkness: Dogs of War. Ruins of Ur contains a number of hyperlinks to various portions of the text as well as bookmarks, so you can always jump right to what you need with just a click. Dogs of War is not required to run Ruins of Ur. Don't forget about the release of D&D 4th Edition on RPGNow, including the just released "Keep on the Shadowfell!" Newest Free Products Two-Fisted Tales Revised: Pulp Villains by Precis Intermedia rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56707&it=1&SRC=newsletterEnhance your world of Thrilling Pulp Action with Pulp Villains. The threats of world domination, unusual powers, and evil genius await... Pulp Villains provides an interesting assortment of antagonists for use with your Two-Fisted Tales Revised saga. I... FSpaceRPG Dice and Skill usage primer by FSpace Publications rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56705&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis is a small guide aimed at players and for those wanting to see the base mechanics for the FSpaceRPG game system. It covers information about dice usage and how the skills system functions along with a list of core skills used in the game. And ideal r... Large & Medium Tree Tiles by The Kyngdoms rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56657&it=1&SRC=newsletterLarge & Medium Tree Tilesby Keith Robinson A small pack of large and medium tree tiles, which can be printed out and used in your game. Each image is 300 dpi and full color. So if, like me, you're fed up of looking some attractive, simple tr... Signs & Portents 58 by Mongoose rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56649&it=1&SRC=newsletterIn this month's issue; * The Starchild – Part Two of Courtney Parsons’ adventure for Traveller. * Battlefield Evolution: World At War Battle Report. Find out what happened when Alex Fennell called into the UK office to duke it out with T... Hunter: The Vigil Quickstart (The Hunt) by White Wolf rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56639&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe HuntThe Special Cases Unit of the Philadelphia PD was used to handling strange cases, but when a flesh-eating ghoul killed one of their own, they're thrown into a new world where literal monsters roam the night. Now they're working for an orga... Newest Products 4th Edition Adventure: Keep on the Shadowfell by Wizards of the Coast rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56709&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $29.95 $20.97 An introductory 4th Edition D&D adventure for characters of levels 1-3 The town of Winterhaven stands watch over a ruined keep that was once a bastion of good in the realm. This keep overlooks the Shadow Rift, a dark scar in the world that was once a ... The Bloody Desert Part3 - The Revine Of Poison by The Forge Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56708&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $7.96 THIS SUPPLEMENT INCLUDES40 printable, colour tiles:36 new tiles4 bonus tiles from different extensionsQUALITY WARRANTYIf our product doesn’t meet your expectations, please mail s on tfs/AT/theforge.pl and tell us what we can do better. s a token of ... STOCK ART: Dungeon Maps #3 by Big Finger Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56666&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.99 $2.49 STOCK ART: Dungeon Maps #3 presents a royalty-free stock art map you can use in any non-profit or for-profit project of your own. These maps are presented as 300dpi TIFFs. Dungeon Maps #3 presents one map as pictured in the preview below both with and wit... Your World No Longer by Misfit Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56704&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.95 Did you sit on the sidelines? Did you watch as your world changed? Did you fight back? Whatever you did … … it is your world no longer. But now it’s time … … to take your world back … Resistance begins now. Your World No Longer is a S... Diviner's Grimoire by Ironwood Omnimedia rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56702&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.50 This product contains 3 new spells for the E-RPG system and the Sagas Role-Playing Game. The spells are of the divination aspect used to empart revelation of the unknown to the caster/ Each spell is printed on separate scrolls, and rep... Newest Staff Reviews 4th Edition Players Handbook by Wizards of the Coast rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56692&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $34.95 $24.95 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review The Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is here! After being announced almost a year ago, the Core Rulebooks are published, and to everyone’s delight, PDF versions of them all have been promptly released on the heels of the print books. The Player’s Handbook, as always, is the first among equals for the Core Rulebooks, laying out the basics that are needed for players, and the foundation for Dungeon Masters. Before I go any further, I want to mention the manner in which I’m reviewing the 4E PHB. The difficulty with any view is figuring out precisely criteria the review should be based on. In this case, I want to judge the PHB (and, by extension, D&D Fourth Edition) by how artfully it achieves what it set out to do. However, there’s also a reason to compare it to previous editions of the game (notably, its immediate predecessor, 3.5). And of course, the book needs to be judged on its technical merits as a PDF product. I’ll try to tailor my review along those criteria, listed in order of importance. Wizards of the Coast has done a very nice job of turning this book into a PDF. Everything from the print book, with the exception of the back cover, is here. All of the text is searchable, meaning you can select, copy, and paste just fine. Further, WotC was very quick to come through with the promised bookmarks; every section and sub-section is clearly listed in the bookmark tree included. The one electronic publishing feature that WotC ignored was adding some sort of printer-friendly version. It goes without saying that this book is very rich in artwork, from illustrations to page borders (in the corners) to section headings. Clearly, the print book would be a better value if you were considering printing this entire thing out, but if you just wanted a section to carry around, a version without any of the visual bells and whistles would have been nice. An unexpected touch, however, was that certain portions of the book have hyperlinks to other portions. For example, at the beginning of the classes chapter, it has hyperlinks to each of the classes after their abbreviated description. As a book, the Dungeons & Dragons 4E PHB is quick to get started after it introduces itself. A brief introductory chapter to role-playing and D&D leads right into the books role as the primary book for PCs, talking about character creation in the broad sense of both mechanics (“crunch”) and the character’s personality and beliefs (“fluff”). It’s here that the game starts to talk about the basics of play, such as making checks, gaining levels (which now top out at thirty), and keeping a character sheet, among other things. The third chapter covers races available for play. Fans of older editions will see some new faces here, along with old ones that are now gone. For example, there are no longer half-orcs or gnomes (they’re a monster, RAWR!), but we see the inclusion of tieflings (semi-demonic mortals), dragonborn (dragon-people), and eladrin (a sort of magic-elf). Each race description nicely covers some of the innate powers they have that you can select, their racial background, and what sort of characters they work best as. The section regarding classes is the longest part of the book. It’s also where you’re likely to begin fully realizing the game’s orientation as a tactical combat game. There are eight classes (loosely categorized into four “roles” that they’re supposed to fill on the battlefield); the cleric, fighter, paladin, ranger, rogue, warlock, warlord, and wizard. Each has a broad suite of powers available, with different powers being selected as you gain levels. For spellcasting characters, the spells are listed right there as part of the class powers. This part is also emblematic of how big of a paradigm shift the new D&D is from older versions. Here, along with blatantly super-heroic powers for all classes, the sheer focus on tactical combat is overwhelming. Everything is about doing damage, setting things up to do damage, or protecting yourself against damage. Skills are still around, as are feats, both being largely unchanged from v.3.5, though the emphasis is off of them now. Many feats, for example, boost your class powers. The equipment section is also surprising, because it includes magic items listed right alongside the mundane ones. While familiar magic item categories are still here, such as weapons, armor, rods, wands, etc., miscellaneous magic items are now broken up and categorized by what body slot they occupy. This is a very convenient way of breaking them down, and helps adjudicate how many items a character can have. However, magic items are also simpler in function, as well as design. Each item has but a single power, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to combine them. So that means no more acidic flaming magic swords, for example. The chapter on adventuring doesn’t get ten pages, presumably because the bulk of this topic is better reserved for the DMG. It lasts just long enough to cover topics such as rewards, resting, and similar topics, before leading to the chapter on combat. This chapter was very well done, neatly breaking down what actions are available in combat like you’d expect, but also emphasizing things such as healing during combat, which was previously just the job of the cleric (or whatever magic healing item you had). Clearly, combat has been made to be quicker, easier, and much more fun than in editions past. The books final chapter covers rituals, which is where many of the older spells went. Rituals are now lengthy (several minutes long) magical ceremonies that achieve non-combat effects (e.g. raising the dead), and like spells, each ritual has a level that you must be to use it. This, to me, seemed fairly artificial, not in terms of flavor (where it worked well) but in game design. Making rituals a separate kind of magic (which are mostly open to anyone with a magical background) seemed like a good way of cleaning up spell lists, but only to add more of a combat focus to the game. Still, that view aside, rituals work very well in the niche they’re given. So, altogether, how does the new D&D stack up? Well, it largely depends on what you’re looking for it to do. If you really enjoy the tactical combat part of the game (e.g. kill monsters and take their stuff), then this game isn’t just slick in how well it performs, it’s greased lightning! But the emphasis on combat seems to come at a cost, namely how everything else seems to fade into the background. In many regards, choices for what characters can do are really only exemplified in their class abilities, and magic items feel stunted in terms of ability. You can still add a role-playing element to the game, of course, but that part will now intersect with the mechanics of your character much less (which, in fact, may be a good thing). To summarize, D&D 4E is a game that focuses on one style of play very well, and is unapologetic that it doesn’t cater to other ways to game. That may not be for everyone (I know it’s not for me), but it can’t be denied that it masterfully accomplishes most everything it sets out to do. That it isn’t the game it was before, nor the game that other people wish it was, isn’t something that I can honestly hold against it. The PHB is a five-star book in terms of the game it represents. Blackdyrge's Bits & Pieces: Weapons of Synergy by Blackdirge Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56537&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Sean Holland) Review Blackdyrge’s Bits and Pieces: Weapons of Synergy written by Aeryn Rudel and published by Blackdirge Publishing. It is the first of the Bits and Piece series that will look at various ideas for D&D/D20 fantasy and play with them. This product is 8-pages (6-pages after cover and OGL) with a clean layout and a limited amount of black and white art. The product deals with a new class of magical weapon quality, synergy qualities, which have a basic ability and then a secondary ability that is usable by those with the proper feat. There are twelve new qualities and three named weapons that make use of them (each of which is illustrated). Example qualities are: Deft, which allows high Dexterity wielder to gain additional advantage when using it and even more if they have the Weapon Finesse feat. Saddlescorge which gives an advantage to mounted attackers and an additional bonus if they posses the Mounted Combat feat. The three named weapons are: • Addertongue, an elven rapier suited to those who master a flashing and flamboyant style of swordplay. • Blackguard’s Bane, for the mounted Paladin or holy warrior. • Goretooth, an evil -as one could guess from the name- and intelligent spear well made for a villain. Like all of the Blackdyrge books this is well written and shows Rudel’s mastery of the D20 rules. It provides interesting options as well as ways to reward certain types of character builds. All in all Weapons of Synergy is a useful addition to a DM’s library. Codex Arcanis by Paradigm Concepts, Inc. rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55802&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $34.99 $17.50 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Arcanis has always been special to me. I remember how one of the first d20 products to come out alongside Third Edition was an Arcanis adventure, one my group had a lot of fun with. From there, it did more and more, until it became one of the first full-fledged campaign settings for the d20 system. The book that really delivered in that department, fleshing out a bold new world of adventuring for a reinvigorated D&D game, was this book, the Codex Arcanis. Of course, this isn’t the exact same book that came out in 2001, per se. The original Codex was updated (including making it 3.5) in 2007, and it’s this book that now is released in PDF format. A hefty book, Codex Arcanis weighs in at over two hundred fifty pages in length. It has full bookmarks, which is a must for easy navigation since the book has no table of contents. The covers are the only instances of color artwork, with the rest being black and white. Borders are present along the top and alternating sides of every page. There is no printer-friendly version, which is a touch disappointing. The major purpose of the Codex Arcanis is to provide a background and setting for the Arcanis campaign. After an introduction that sets up the religions of the world, and touches upon related topics such as what happens after you die, the book’s chapters focus on various portions of the world. These chapters cover the history, major institutions, notable NPCs, and much more of the various areas throughout Arcanis. Altogether, fully 80% of the book is dedicated to this, making the Codex Arcanis a very system-neutral supplement. If you’re looking purely to cherry-pick new mechanics, though, then you’ve only got the book’s appendices to look forward to. The book has sections detailing the game stats for the major races of the world, along with new feats and prestige classes. While I may be mistaken, I’m pretty sure that this game material is mostly new, compared to other crunch-heavy Arcanis supplements. The Codex Arcanis is a book that lays out the campaign world in all its glory (updated to include events from various supplements), and it does so very well. It’s 80/20 approach to fluff and crunch guarantees that while it’s mostly usable regardless of what game you play, it has enough to immediately start an Arcanis-centric 3.5 game if you feel so inclined. After so long, it’s great to see Arcanis get (what I’d call) a re-release at the close of Third Edition. Things have come full circle for one of d20’s first campaigns, and Paradigm Concepts sends d20 Arcanis out in style! Blackdyrge's Bits & Pieces: Weapons of Synergy by Blackdirge Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56537&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review There can be little doubt that the d20 system is one that (normally) requires characters to have magic weapons. Without them, hitting creatures becomes very difficult, if not impossible, due to high ACs and escalating DRs. Indeed, it’s often been said that you literally can’t run a high-level character who uses mundane weaponry. This is almost universally seen as a drawback, because while characters have innate abilities from feats and classes, these tend to be overshadowed by their gear. The debut product in the new Blackdyrge’s Bits & Pieces line, Weapons of Synergy aims to, not correct that, but try and reign it in some. The book is a comparatively long one, for the content it has. Eight pages in length, it details twelve new magic weapon properties, and has three example weapons. Full bookmarks are given, which is always a nice touch. There’s little artwork to be found throughout the book. Each of the three example weapons has an illustration, but aside from that the cover is the only art here. However, there’s a very light background of a grid on each page, which may slightly irritate some readers (remember the underlines for the text in the PHB?). Each of the new magic weapon properties normally mimics an existing feat or class ability. So in other words, if you don’t have Improved Disarm, you effectively will if you’re using a disarming weapon. The twist is that each of these properties grants a greater power if you do have the feat/ability they mimic. For example, if you did have Improved Disarm, then when you used a disarming weapon you’d gain an additional +2 to disarm attempts, and could make an immediate attack on someone you’d disarmed. The three example weapons all have more than one synergy properties. Overall, I found myself liking this product for what it presented. Synergies between a character and his weapon(s) help to make the character feel much more whole, rather than just a stand-in for wielding some phat lewt. This book is a good step towards making the items flesh out the character more, rather than the other way around. Fright Night: HAUNTED SCHOOL by Greywood Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=55580&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $7.50 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review It’s an odd staple that schools can be scary places. I don’t just mean from the constant threats of detention or being stuffed into your locker, either. Rather, schools are scary because, at night, they become the exact opposite of how you envision them. Instead or bright, crowded, noisy places, they become shadow-filled corridors of vast, silent emptiness…the kind that are perfect for some sort of monster to lurk in. Could there be a better, or more accessible, place to adventure in? The Haunted School supplement of Greywood Publishing’s Fright Night line takes a look. The book comes as a single PDF file, almost four megabytes in size. The book is sixty-four pages long, and has Optical Character Recognition, but no bookmarks, which is unfortunate. Somewhat annoyingly, the font for the book is all set to look like an old-style typewriter. While this is cool at first, the entire book is written this way, and it quickly becomes annoying since it slightly inhibits readability. The book is entirely in black and white. Despite the cover shown on the product page, the PDF has neither a front nor back cover. Periodic illustrations break up the text, and while the (slightly anime-style) drawings are nicely done, they don’t seem to have taken to being scanned too well; they’re all slightly pixelized. Pages have bloodstains forming borders along the sides and top. Since this product was pretty clearly a printed book before being put out as a PDF, you may be better served to just find the actual book if you’re considering printing the entire product. So how well does Haunted School cover its namesake’s genre? Interestingly, and rather oddly since this book debuted in 2004, it mainly styles itself on the D&D PHB rather than d20 modern, but despite that it adopts a large number of d20 Modern tropes. For example, all of the classes it introduces (which are meant for students attending school) are ten-level base classes that have a built-in AC bonus. But there’s no Reputation bonus, despite how much sense that makes in a clique-ish high school, and skills are based off those listed in the PHB, with d20 Modern skills (such as Computer Use) listed and explained here in the book. Of course, the book has more than just character rules. Its introduction does a decent job of explaining how to run a horror game. Backing this up later in the book are a few short chapters with new rules. Ranging from the expected things like mechanics for fear and insanity are the unexpected, but fun, additions of things like rules for trying to verbally humiliate other students, or gaining a free feat based on your clique. The book also walks you through a sample location and adventure. A sample haunted school is given, not just with a map and description, but also a few antagonists. The last part of the book then walks you through a short mini-campaign set in the haunted school, giving you guidelines rather than a full set of short adventures. All in all, Haunted School isn’t a bad supplement, but it’s not superb either. Things such as the typeset font, the lack of bookmarks, and the hybrid of D&D and d20 Modern rules make it stumble on the technical side of things. However, when it does introduce new rules, it does so well, and I’d go so far as to use as least some of these rules (such as the social interaction ones) for most Modern games – or at the very least, ones with teenagers. In short, this is a mixed bag of a product; not great, but it may be just what you’re looking for, since it covers a rather specific niche (the eponymous haunted school) within a niche (horror RPGs). If I were the teacher, I’d give this book a C+.
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talon
Level 2 PC
Posts: 48
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Post by talon on Jul 14, 2008 12:47:54 GMT -5
It's good to know that there some web sites that do this, but if you don't know that you are looking for it just too much info to take in at one time .
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 28, 2008 13:27:01 GMT -5
CHRISTMAS 2 - ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Santa's been drinking too many pina coladas again (as, apparently, have our copywriters), so it's time once more to get yourselves some really fabulous savings on great game products! For the next couple of days (maybe four, if you're particularly nice and don't cry or pout), you can get 25% off selected products all over the site. Here's a list of all the publishers who are participating in this year's sale (so far; more are being added all the time): Action RPG Counters, AEG, Anglo-Canadian Games, Applied Vectors, Arid Hills, Bailey Records, Bard And Sages, Blackdirge Publishing, Castlewrks, Chaosium, Creative Conlave Publishing, Creative Mountain Games, Cutter's Guild Games, Dakkar Unlimited, Dark Skull Studios, Dark Skull Studios, Dream Pod 9, Empty Room Studios, Evil Hat, Fat Dragon Games, Fiery Dragon, FSpace Publications, GMC, Healing Fireball, Highmoon, Infinite Dreamers, Ironwood Omnimedia, Ki Ryn Studios, Legacy Of Maela, Lone Star Press, Louis Porter, Jr. Design, Otherworld Creations, Postmortem, R Talsorian, Ranger Games, Reality Deviant, RPGObjects, Stainless Steel Dragon Games, Tangent Games, Unicorn Rampant, Usherwood Publishing, Valent Games, Victory RPG, White Wolf Studios So crank up the A/C, special order some eggnog from your local dairy, and toss some tinsel on the game table! It's Christmas in July! Newest Free Products The Green by Valent Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56873&it=1&SRC=newsletterDeep in the darkest jungles of the inner world, where the red sun can barely be seen above the trees, there is The Green.Millennia ago two immortals, the Lady of Leaves and the Insect Queen, had a contest here. The Lady of Leaves brought forth her chalice... Free Powerstorm Deckbuilders Card Set by Veritas Games Company rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56827&it=1&SRC=newsletterPowerstorm is a superhero fighting, non-collectible, customizable card game. This PDF contains around 90 total cards for the Powerstorm Top Cow Edition game. You'll need these and a pair of Powerstorm starter decks (or the $7.00 deck bundl... EAGB - Vengeance Quick Reference by Greywood Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56804&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis free download provides a quick reference to the EAGB rules. It also contains full sized artwork and the colour character sheet.This product is available in both A4 and US letter format EMG Maps Collection I by Emerald Giant rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56795&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe maps in this document are samples created by the EMG Mapper computer program for the PC. The EMG Mapper generates an endless variety of maps using a simple set of options. You control the density of the map, the type and frequency of exits (doors, arc... Dungeon Crawler Features Collection I by Emerald Giant rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56794&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis Dungeon Crawler Collection is a free sample of items generated by Emerald Giant's Dungeon Crawler software. The Dungeon Crawler program allows players and GMs to generate classic dungeon crawls on the computer, exploring dungeons room-b... Newest Products Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land by Wizards of the Coast rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56874&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $29.95 Elminster’s tower lies in ruins, and the town of Shadowdale has been conquered by evil Sharrans and the nefarious forces of Zhentil Keep. To drive the villains out of Shadowdale, the heroes must organize and lead a desperate revolt of Dalesfolk agai... Advanced Adventures #6: The Chasm of the Damned by Expeditious Retreat Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56872&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.00 $6.00 Advanced Adventures #6: The Chasm of the Damned is an OSRIC(TM) module designed for 4-6 adventurers of levels 6-10. Every Inn hearth is ringing with chatter and every guildhall is silently watching and preparing. Nobles are equipping adventuring par... World of Nevermore (True20) by Expeditious Retreat Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56871&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $35.00 $15.00 Step into the dreamscape and uncover an ever-changing world where reason fades into the mists of slumber, and imagination emerges into a land of fanciful dreams and dreadful nightmares. Within these 200 pages are: An overview of Nevermore Detailed h... Image Portfolio 1.28 Everyday People by LPJ Design rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56870&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $8.00 Image Portfolio is online PDF art resource that gaming companies can use. All the art pieces in this art resource can be used in any of their upcoming RPG ideas or projects. When a person acquires Image Portfolio, any of the art in the PDF can be used in ... DRIFT: The Inferior Planets by Alternate Realities Publications rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56864&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.00 After three years of development, we are finally introducing DRIFT: Chronicles of the First Space Age, a retro-realistic scifi setting focusing on the expansion of Mankind across the solar system.Set around 2150, DRIFT: Chronicles of the First Space Age i... Newest Staff Reviews Reign of Discordia by Reality Deviant Publications rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56479&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Sean Holland) Review Reign of Discordia, a True20 Adventure Roleplaying campaign setting by Darrin L. Drader and published by Reality Deviant Publications. It is a 137-page product (134 after covers and OGL) with a clean layout even against the color watermark that graces most pages. The cover is a full color piece evocative of classic science fiction while the interior art is spare but thematic. What happens after an empire falls apart? The product looks at that question. The Stellar Imperium has collapsed under pressure from the “barbarians” outside as well as from corruption from within. It has been five years since the fall, will the worlds rebuild, fall apart or even survive? The book begins with a history of the future charting the rise and fall of the Stellar Imperium leading to the present situation. A brief overview of commerce, communications and technology is provided. Chapter Two looks at some of the major worlds, including Earth, which are given a brief look providing a wide range of potential places to set adventures. With Chapter Three, Character Options, the system starts becoming integrated with the setting. It starts with seven races (including humans), among them the aquatic shellfish-like Relarra and the insectoid Tallinites. Next are eight class variations, including the psionic using Mentalist, and seventeen feats for the setting. New equipment, including weapons and armor, and environmental effects such as gravity, radiation, atmosphere and lack thereof round out this chapter. Chapter Four outlines some of the most important organizations which can serve as allies or enemies in a campaign, ranging from navies to mega-corporations to criminal combines. Several generic NPCs from various of the organizations are presented for easy use. Chapter Five brings starship combat to True20, not that such combat is necessarily a central aspect in every Reign of Discordia campaign, but rules for such are still good to have available. Chapter Six is all about how to build starships from fighters to dreadnaughts with example ships of all sizes. The final chapter provides a setting, Rover’s Beacon, in some detail. Rover’s Beacon is a large space station and major transfer point as well as a base of operation for several groups of raiders. A useful setting and jumping off point for a campaign. A strong, if loosely organized, setting based on a good and intriguing idea. After all, what does happen after the Evil Empire is defeated? However, some adventure seeds or even a short introductory scenario would have helped to hook players and game masters both into the setting. A worthy addition to the range of True20 adventure settings. Venture 4th: Ice River Battle by Adamant Entertainment rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56577&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Venture 4th: Ice River Battle is a 12 page pdf product and the first in a new series of products from Adamant Entertainment. The Venture 4th series of products provides both game tiles and adventures in support of the 4e ruleset, although it can be used for the revised d20 core rules as well. This first game tile product in the series presents a unique and exciting setting for fantasy combat - a battle on a icy river containing dangerous and slippery blocks of ice. Ice River Battle presents a good mix between new rules for the scenario setup, and game tiles that allow you to make the setup or encounter come to life. The product is well presented and well written, with clear rules, good editing, and a useful variety of game tiles. There is some good art inside the product, and the front cover is professionally done. Overall, a well presented pdf as one would expect from Adamant Entertainment. Many companies produce game tiles these days, and this product is Adamant Entertainment's first foray into such tiles. They've gone the extra mile by not only presenting game tiles, but by also tying them to both a specific location or terrain and providing specific mechanical game rules. This means that the game tiles themselves are more than just props that look pretty, but are also functional parts of the adventure or scenario itself. I quite like this take on presenting game tiles. The pdf starts by giving the brief rules for using the various ice blocks on the river. These include moving across the ice, jumping from block to block, the effect of heat on the blocks, the result of falling into the water, and various rules for the scenario itself including static and flowing ice blocks in the river. The rules are fairly simple and straightforward, though I can imagine that running a flowing scenario can be quite tricky as the position of each block needs to be adjusted every game turn. The rules presented are fairly generic, but provide enough information that you can easily use it with the d20 or 4e game systems. The game tiles provide a small selection of river and river bank tiles, and a larger selection of tiles for the ice blocks in various different sizes. Sizes vary from single square blocks to larger blocks that could easily host a small skirmish. The river and bank tiles are good, although I wasn't that pleased with the ice blocks, which appear rather jagged as if they'd been cut from paper with a scissors. Nevertheless, for the purposes of creating an exciting scenario, the props and rules are all you need to give your PCs an encounter they will never forget. Venture 4th - Ice River Battle combines good rules with good game tiles to create an exciting scenario for an encounter setting. I was generally pleased with the product; the only negative being the look of the ice block tiles. Adamant Entertainment have made a good start to this Game Tile line in the Venture 4th series, and I'm looking forward to seeing some quality products in this line in the future. Fantasy Fiends: Kobolds! by Myth Merchant Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56656&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.50 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review When the first sneak peaks of the new 4e ruleset started to appear shortly after the announcement of the new edition, people in various forums on the net started hammering the revised d20 rules as more information about 4e got released. In particular many were complaining that the 3.5e rules were too strict and cumbersome when creating monsters, and that the 4e system somehow liberated people into designing more creative monsters outside of the supposed constraints of the 3.5e system. It is true that the 4e system has shown good and exciting design in monsters, but I don't agree with the sentiment that 3.5e's system was too constrained to achieve was 4e has done. And this product seems to agree with me on that front. Fantasy Fiends: Kobolds is a short 15 page pdf product that presents kobolds like you've not seen them before. This product is the first in the Fantasy Fiends series of products from Myth Merchant Press and is fully compatible with the revised d20 core rules (3.5e). The product presents 6 new and unique kobolds, using the standard 3.5e rules with some new variations to create exiting and interesting kobolds that can challenge even higher level parties. Myth Merchant Press is a relatively new pdf publisher, having released their first product, a fantastic adventure called Trouble in Tallreed Waters, less than two months ago. And if they continue the way they are with the two products they've released so far, then I suspect they'll do rather well, providing top class presentation and material for the d20 market. This product looks great, contains fantastic art, reads easily, is well organised, and very well formatted. I was impressed by the effort of presentation that went into the product - it's a top notch effort. Kobolds in the revised d20 game (3.5e) are fairly standard fare for most PCs. As are most humanoids in fact. And one of the things I constantly hear is that the various humanoid races don't do enough to distinguish between them. This product is a big step towards making the distinction clearer as it presents a set of kobolds (in a style similar to the new edition) using the 3.5e rules that truly feel like kobolds in their mechanics. There are 6 new kobold types presented here - the kobold footman, the kobold grunt, the kobold thrower, the kobold wyrmward, the kobold dragonmouth and the kobold matron. All of them are based on the standard d20 kobold with various PC and NPC classes added, but have added extraordinary abilities, bonus feats and supernatural abilities to make them stand out as more unique creatures and more unique humanoids. These aren't just smaller goblins or orcs - these are kobolds. Examples of the abilities of these kobolds include a mob mentality that grants bonuses in large numbers of kobolds, the ability to dart around in combat, and the neat ability to gang up on a larger enemy and overpower them. I truly enjoyed what Myth Merchant Press have done with these kobolds and what they've presented in this product. Not only are the new kobolds and new abilities, but the product also briefly details kobold society and ecology, battle tactics, typical encounter groups, new kobold traps and even some very useful kobold counters. I will admit that some of the mechanical changes haven't been done in the smoothest way possible (using spell-like abilities for some things instead of supernatural abilities or feats), but the product does a good job of showing that the d20 ruleset is not in any way constraining on your ability to design good and useful monsters. I thoroughly enjoyed this product. It's a well presented, well conceived product, and I'm really looking forward to the next releases in the Fantasy Fiends series. The kobolds in these pages will provide good challenges for parties over a wide range of levels, really surprise the players and provide more tactical options than your standard kobold would typically allow. This is a great product, good value for money, and well worth a look at. H1 Keep on the Shadowfell (4th Edition Adventure) by Wizards of the Coast rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56709&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $29.95 $20.97 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review H1 Keep on the Shadowfell is the first adventure for the newly released 4th edition D&D game. In fact, the print copy of this product was released several weeks before the core books themselves were released, and the product is aimed at offering an introductory, quick-start adventure for characters of levels 1 to 3. This 145 page, fully bookmarked, introductory pdf adventure takes the characters to the Keep on the Shadowfell, where they must attempt to stop the evils that lurk within, and save the town of Winterhaven from certain doom. The product consists of 3 parts - a 16 page introduction and overview to the 4e rules system (including 5 pregenerated characters), a 80 page adventure, and 50 odd pages of 1-inch scale battle maps. Those familiar with the revised d20 core rules (3.5e) will no doubt pick up everything in this product fairly easily, despite some of the large scale changes that have taken place between the two rule sets. The presentation of the product is good and professional, and, given the aim of being an introduction to 4e, offers lots of DM advice that experienced DMs and gamers can just glance over. The rulebook is concise, covering all the basics, and is easy to learn and implement. The battle maps (poster maps converted to page-size maps for easier printing) cover some of the more important combat events of the adventure, though don't cover much of the keep itself. Nevertheless, the entire product package comes as a complete, easy to run and easy to learn adventure, that can kick-start a new campaign, particularly when combined with the beautiful counters offered free by Fiery Dragon productions. The H1 in the title is the first adventure in the so-called Heroic tier (levels 1-10) with the second product H2, Thunderspire Labyrinth, due for imminent release in print. I liked the format of the adventure, and the product provides everything you need to easily run the adventure, from characters, battlemaps, clear and concise encounter areas, good advice and guidelines, and useful pieces of information to keep the story flowing. The adventure itself takes the PCs in and around the Winterhaven area and the Keep on the Shadowfell. There are several interwoven plots about the adventure, and each will take more precedence depending on which of the adventure hooks is used to draw the PCs to Winterhaven. There is good opportunity for roleplaying, but by and large the adventure takes place in the wilderness around the town of Winterhaven, and naturally the Keep itself. As such there is a large focus on combat, and the majority of the adventure could easily be classified as a standard dungeon crawl. In fact, there isn't a single skill challenge in this adventure, although I suspect that it has to do with the introductory nature of the adventure itself. So let's talk a little bit about the combat in this adventure. The wilderness encounters are fairly standard fare really, but I liked what they'd done in the Keep itself to make the combat a little more dynamic. Here, the Keep is divided into areas consisting of multiple rooms, each area an encounter rather than a single room. Meaning that the combats take place over a much larger area, there's more room to manuever, and of course, there's more chance for surprise behind every door in a given room. I like the approach as it feels more dynamic - rather than taking the Keep one room at a time, it's one area at a time, and it covers ground much quicker and means the dungeon crawl itself doesn't feel that long. In addition to liking the adventure format and combat format, I generally liked the encounters themselves, as they offered a good mix and variety of different encounter types. That coupled with the more dynamic approach of monsters in combat and the differences between monsters through editions, and the battles should be fairly exciting. Some of the combat encounters, though, are very lethal, and given the inflated hit points and number of creatures, it's possible that these encounters can become fairly lengthy and boring, though I think it should be fairly balanced on that front. The plot itself is fairly standard as well, although I wouldn't call it something that every 1st level character would be involved in. While I understand that one of the precepts of 4e is that characters start out heroic, I'm still not comfortable with the idea that first level PCs should be out saving the world from unspeakable horrors. That, coupled with the fact that the adventure assumes the PCs will succeed and gives no advice on what happens if the PCs fail, doesn't make the overall plot too satisfactory. There's plenty of support for this product though, from the pages of D&D Insider, and at the same time H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth will hopefully feature some tie-inns to continue this adventure. There's a lot to like about 4e, and while this adventure showcases some of that, I think as an adventure itself, it could've done a little more. Then again, it's unlikely that this was the intent of an introductory adventure. As an introductory adventure, I think the product and the adventure have done well. The 4e rules system is well explained and fairly well utilised, the adventure contain fun encounters that will hopefully not become too deadly or too tedious, and for the most part the story evolution is good and the plot exposition satisfactory. Keep on the Shadowfell is a good start to 4e roleplaying and adventures. 4th Edition Players Handbook by Wizards of the Coast rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56692&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $34.95 $24.95 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review The Fourth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons is here! After being announced almost a year ago, the Core Rulebooks are published, and to everyone’s delight, PDF versions of them all have been promptly released on the heels of the print books. The Player’s Handbook, as always, is the first among equals for the Core Rulebooks, laying out the basics that are needed for players, and the foundation for Dungeon Masters. Before I go any further, I want to mention the manner in which I’m reviewing the 4E PHB. The difficulty with any view is figuring out precisely criteria the review should be based on. In this case, I want to judge the PHB (and, by extension, D&D Fourth Edition) by how artfully it achieves what it set out to do. However, there’s also a reason to compare it to previous editions of the game (notably, its immediate predecessor, 3.5). And of course, the book needs to be judged on its technical merits as a PDF product. I’ll try to tailor my review along those criteria, listed in order of importance. Wizards of the Coast has done a very nice job of turning this book into a PDF. Everything from the print book, with the exception of the back cover, is here. All of the text is searchable, meaning you can select, copy, and paste just fine. Further, WotC was very quick to come through with the promised bookmarks; every section and sub-section is clearly listed in the bookmark tree included. The one electronic publishing feature that WotC ignored was adding some sort of printer-friendly version. It goes without saying that this book is very rich in artwork, from illustrations to page borders (in the corners) to section headings. Clearly, the print book would be a better value if you were considering printing this entire thing out, but if you just wanted a section to carry around, a version without any of the visual bells and whistles would have been nice. An unexpected touch, however, was that certain portions of the book have hyperlinks to other portions. For example, at the beginning of the classes chapter, it has hyperlinks to each of the classes after their abbreviated description. As a book, the Dungeons & Dragons 4E PHB is quick to get started after it introduces itself. A brief introductory chapter to role-playing and D&D leads right into the books role as the primary book for PCs, talking about character creation in the broad sense of both mechanics (“crunch”) and the character’s personality and beliefs (“fluff”). It’s here that the game starts to talk about the basics of play, such as making checks, gaining levels (which now top out at thirty), and keeping a character sheet, among other things. The third chapter covers races available for play. Fans of older editions will see some new faces here, along with old ones that are now gone. For example, there are no longer half-orcs or gnomes (they’re a monster, RAWR!), but we see the inclusion of tieflings (semi-demonic mortals), dragonborn (dragon-people), and eladrin (a sort of magic-elf). Each race description nicely covers some of the innate powers they have that you can select, their racial background, and what sort of characters they work best as. The section regarding classes is the longest part of the book. It’s also where you’re likely to begin fully realizing the game’s orientation as a tactical combat game. There are eight classes (loosely categorized into four “roles” that they’re supposed to fill on the battlefield); the cleric, fighter, paladin, ranger, rogue, warlock, warlord, and wizard. Each has a broad suite of powers available, with different powers being selected as you gain levels. For spellcasting characters, the spells are listed right there as part of the class powers. This part is also emblematic of how big of a paradigm shift the new D&D is from older versions. Here, along with blatantly super-heroic powers for all classes, the sheer focus on tactical combat is overwhelming. Everything is about doing damage, setting things up to do damage, or protecting yourself against damage. Skills are still around, as are feats, both being largely unchanged from v.3.5, though the emphasis is off of them now. Many feats, for example, boost your class powers. The equipment section is also surprising, because it includes magic items listed right alongside the mundane ones. While familiar magic item categories are still here, such as weapons, armor, rods, wands, etc., miscellaneous magic items are now broken up and categorized by what body slot they occupy. This is a very convenient way of breaking them down, and helps adjudicate how many items a character can have. However, magic items are also simpler in function, as well as design. Each item has but a single power, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to combine them. So that means no more acidic flaming magic swords, for example. The chapter on adventuring doesn’t get ten pages, presumably because the bulk of this topic is better reserved for the DMG. It lasts just long enough to cover topics such as rewards, resting, and similar topics, before leading to the chapter on combat. This chapter was very well done, neatly breaking down what actions are available in combat like you’d expect, but also emphasizing things such as healing during combat, which was previously just the job of the cleric (or whatever magic healing item you had). Clearly, combat has been made to be quicker, easier, and much more fun than in editions past. The books final chapter covers rituals, which is where many of the older spells went. Rituals are now lengthy (several minutes long) magical ceremonies that achieve non-combat effects (e.g. raising the dead), and like spells, each ritual has a level that you must be to use it. This, to me, seemed fairly artificial, not in terms of flavor (where it worked well) but in game design. Making rituals a separate kind of magic (which are mostly open to anyone with a magical background) seemed like a good way of cleaning up spell lists, but only to add more of a combat focus to the game. Still, that view aside, rituals work very well in the niche they’re given. So, altogether, how does the new D&D stack up? Well, it largely depends on what you’re looking for it to do. If you really enjoy the tactical combat part of the game (e.g. kill monsters and take their stuff), then this game isn’t just slick in how well it performs, it’s greased lightning! But the emphasis on combat seems to come at a cost, namely how everything else seems to fade into the background. In many regards, choices for what characters can do are really only exemplified in their class abilities, and magic items feel stunted in terms of ability. You can still add a role-playing element to the game, of course, but that part will now intersect with the mechanics of your character much less (which, in fact, may be a good thing). To summarize, D&D 4E is a game that focuses on one style of play very well, and is unapologetic that it doesn’t cater to other ways to game. That may not be for everyone (I know it’s not for me), but it can’t be denied that it masterfully accomplishes most everything it sets out to do. That it isn’t the game it was before, nor the game that other people wish it was, isn’t something that I can honestly hold against it. The PHB is a five-star book in terms of the game it represents.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 1, 2008 8:20:01 GMT -5
SUPPORT YOUR FAVORITES! VOTE IN THE ENNIES! It's one of the most well known awards programs in our hobby, put on by the good folks at EN World and GenCon. Many of your favorite publishers are up for the prestigious Fans' Choice: Best Publisher Award. They've also got tons of other great categories, all featuring products that we carry for you. And to top it all off, they have the Best Electronic Book category, which we obviously have a keen interest in. And of particular note to anyone who voted on Monday, July 28th, they had some kind of technical glitch. So you need to make sure you go back and re-vote! CALLING ALL MALHAVOC FRIENDS WHO WANT FREE STUFF! For quite a while now, you've been enjoying Malhavoc Press products like the Books of Eldritch Might, Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, or Ptolus to provide your game with cool new experiences. You've interacted with other Malhavoc fans on the forums, and even helped influence Monte in what products to create. 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Further, the person that refers the most new customers by August 31st will also receive a signed and personalized copy of Ptolus: Monte Cook's City by the Spire. To find out more, just click the link above and follow the instructions! TRAVELLERS! THE WAY TO THE SPINWARD MARCHES IS OPEN... It's one of the most anticipated sourcebooks for Traveller to come out in some time, and you do not want to miss it! The Spinward Marches lie on the edge of Imperial space, and area that borders rival interstellar governments that directly oppose any further expansion. Far from the major centres of power the local rulers have more practical power than the Emperor himself. It is here that bands of daring individuals can take advantage of the hostile factions in order to carve out a fortune for themselves. The Spinward Marches offer untold asventure for those willing to seek it out. THE CREATORS: CHUCK WENDIG Something new we are going to start doing is featuring the various creative talents that bring you the great products you enjoy so much on RPGNow. With the impending release of Hunter: the Vigil, we thought we'd start with the prodigious White Wolf powerhouse that is Chuck Wendig. Chuck Wendig hails from the wilds of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he grew up on a farm that raised--amongst other creatures--whitetail deer, elk, and one peacock that ended up as a meal for an angry raccoon. Upon graduating from high school, he went on to Queens College in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he immersed himself in a study of English and Religion. After college, he remained in Charlotte for several years doing several odd jobs, including shredding paper, selling computers, and writing ad copy for a magazine dedicated to the cash register industry. From there, somehow he ended up back in Pennsylvania, which is around the time White Wolf's Ken Cliffe hired him to do some freelance work on the earlier Hunter iteration, Hunter: The Reckoning. Since that time, Chuck has contributed his writing to over 50 books for White Wolf Game Studios, and has also been tapped to do some freelance development work--particularly the Hunter: The Vigil game-line, dropping this August at Gen-Con. To find out more about Chuck, and to get a special 20% discount off all of the books he's worked on, be sure you stop by the store on - Tuesday, August 5th, for "Chuck Wendig Day" on RPGNow! HUGE NEWS OVER AT DRIVETHRU COMICS - MOONSTONE SIGNS ON! Featuring some of the greatest characters and licenses in popular fiction, Moonstone brings you absolutely the best in heart-stopping adventure and dramatic, compelling tales. Check out these FREE TITLES they are offering to RPGNow fans just to show you how great their stuff is. Just click and grab - they're a gift to you just for reading this newsletter! Newest Free Products Dungeon Dudes 3D - LITE Version by Dimensions Game Software rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56973&it=1&SRC=newsletterDungeon Dudes 3D Game System"Not Just Another Virtual Pet"Not sure that your computer can handle the graphical power of the Dungeon Dudes 3D? Now you can download the LITE version for Free! This demo has less items, sk... Starblazer Adventures FREE Preview by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd. rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56970&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis is the 40 page free preview of the new Starblazer Adventures RPG release from Cubicle 7. It gives you an idea of the artwork packed 632 pages of space opera action in the full book. Here's the text from the Starblazer Adventures Core Book page...... Bleeding by Emerald Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56963&it=1&SRC=newsletterThere's more than one way to kill a villain...Bleeding creates a new damage type and keyword for the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, presented here as a free PDF from Emerald Press PDF Publishing. Part of our Combat Advantage series, these ... Power Knowledge by Emerald Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56962&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe path of an adventurer is never even, never perfect. There are many ways by which a hero can gain their strengths, master their spells, and present their faith. Power Knowledge is a means by which any character can learn additional powers a... This Just In From GenCon Preview 02 by This Just In From GenCon rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56960&it=1&SRC=newsletterOn the second preview episode of This Just In From GenCon, Ryan and Paul talk about events that have them excited, including the Spiel-A-Thon (http://www.thespiel.net/), podcasting and media events (http://pulpgamer.com/gencon/), and Games on Demand. They... Newest Products Savage Worlds Handbook: Perilous Places & Serious Situations by Triple Ace Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57061&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.99 This sourcebook contains ways to liven up your games by looking at different locales and the varying dangers they present.Inside you’ll find rules for expanded arctic and desert survival, the dangers of collapsing tunnels and stampedes, fighting ato... Clipart Critters 78 by Postmortem Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57060&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.00 A 300 dpi .tif image for you to use in your personal or professional projects, subject to the attached license. Art by Bradley K McDevitt. Tome of the Lost Realms Pantheons Unleashed by Red Dragon Tavern Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56978&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $10.95 Tome of the Lost Realms Pantheons Unleashed is a new and exciting guide that describes in full detail the deities and demigods of the Lost Realms. The most powerful beings known to mortals. The tome also contains new feats, prestige classes of the faithfu... Mechagenesis: The True20 Robotic Roleplay Sourcebook by Reality Blurs rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56985&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $15.00 The Earth has been invaded by the Legion, an army of extraterrestrial shape-changing robots bent on galactic domination. They are opposed by the Global Defense Corps, brave humans who sacrifice themselves each and every day to preserve humanity, but they ... Æther Core Book by Silver Gryphon Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56984&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $24.99 $12.49 Prepare Yourself! Prepare for a game system that combines fast character generation,streamlined combat, and a skill system that enhances the roleplayingexperience. Prepare for a system where game mechanics make sense, characteradvancement is granted throu... Newest Staff Reviews HOT CHICKS: The Roleplaying Game by Dakkar Unlimited rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56643&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $29.95 $19.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review There’s always been a wish-fulfillment aspect to role-playing games. Whether it’s playing a character that’s as strong as we wish we were, or amassing an ungodly amount of wealth, it can’t be helped that sometimes we bend our favorite RPGs to fantasize about getting what we want. Of course, sometimes the game in question unabashedly tries to appeal to those desires. Enter Hot Chicks: The Role-Playing Game. Guess which desire this RPG appeals to. The PDF of Hot Chicks the RPG is moderately-sized, being not quite a dozen megabytes. This is very compact considering that the book is over four hundred-fifty pages long. There’s a full table of contents, which does not have hyperlinks, but the bookmarks are extremely thorough in what they cover. It almost goes without saying that Hot Chicks the RPG is pretty heavy on illustrations. The majority of these are fully-rendered 3-D CGI pictures, which are of course in full color. Similarly, there are also a number of illustrations in black and white that aren’t CGI, rounding things out. Pages are surrounded on each side with a blue line that acts as a border, broken only by pages numbers at the bottom. There’s no printer-friendly option here, which is discouraging. For a book this long, with as much illustrations as it has, it really needs some method to make printing it out more viable. The Hot Chicks RPG uses the new Inverted 20 system. Just to be clear, while there’s obvious a d20 System influence here, the Inverted 20 rules are their own, and not a variant of that more ubiquitous set of mechanics. As you may have guessed, the Inverted 20 rules are based around the idea that on a d20 roll, a 1 is the best result you can achieve, and a 20 is the worst. Built around that, the rest of the game’s mechanics are actually fairly simple. Characters have six stats, whose numerical ranges run from 1 to 10, with several derived statistics based on that. Characters also have merits, flaws, and skills (including special skills, which are what let your character do fantastic things). Later in the book, there are myriad chapters and appendices for all sorts of things characters can have and do, from huge equipment lists to magic, psionics, and super powers (among others). There are even rules to modify existing things, or even create your own. Over the course of four hundred-fifty pages, the RPG takes care to cover almost everything you could think of for a character. So what’s the story for this game? Well, in the very near future, the Earth is pretty well screwed. Corruption is everywhere. And space aliens are stepping up their covert attacks on our planet. And demons are working to open massive gates to Hell. And in a lot of instances, the corrupt humans, aliens, and demons are working together. Humanity is about to get seriously @#$%ed, and for different reasons the hot chicks of the world are going to get the first and the worst of it. Hence, this is a world that needs heroes, and needs them pretty badly. This isn’t all of the story of course, and the book presents quite a bit of backstory, as well as related fluff elements (such as various organizations that are major players in the world today), but that summarizes the basics of where PCs will find themselves. The tone of the Hot Chicks RPG book is one that fluctuates as you read through it. In some places, the book doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, like describing the rules for just how dead you can be if things don’t go your way in combat (complete with jokes for characters that end up Dead as Hell). In other places, it takes itself and the world it presents very seriously, such as with the opening fiction that’s present in several chapters, which borders on being quite dark. Moreover, the game doesn’t seem to be quite certain of how much it wants to play-up the “sexy” aspect of itself; there’s no real erotic content to the mechanics of the game, but several parts of it seem to be leaning that way (the first merit listed, for example, is called “A Whore in the Bedroom”), and the writing flirts with a sexual undertone in several places, never quite coming out and saying how important sex is or isn’t in a Hot Chicks game (presumably to leave it up to the players). In fact, there’s little here (illustrations notwithstanding) that’d prevent you from simply throwing out the “hot chicks” theme altogether, and just using this RPG to run a “super-modern” game if you wanted. Altogether, the Hot Chicks RPG presents itself very well. The book is substantive, yet stylish, presenting a wealth of options, a relatively thin-but-functional story, and a very generous amount of artwork. However, the book’s theme feels a tad bit wishy-washy; it wants to be an action/adventure RPG with sex appeal, but isn’t sure how much. Moreover, between that and the lack of a printer-friendly version (which I consider to be significant in a product this long with this much art), and the book is imperfect. Of course, it hits much more than it misses, with a set of mechanics that are simple but still solid. If you’re looking for something new, but feels familiar, check out the Hot Chicks RPG. Cartograph Pro by Digital Alchemy rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56800&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $34.95 $29.95 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Talk about an awkward first date. Cartograph Pro did not start our relationship off well. As a matter of fact it left a pretty bad impression and never offered the type of sophistication I request from my map designing software. Cartograph Pro is new cartography software designed by Digital Alchemy. Its purpose is to create simple world and dungeon maps for your Role Playing games. And by simple, I mean bare minimum simple. If you are hoping for any type of detail you should file that wish with the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause and a decent Ben Affleck movie. The company advertises that users do not need to have any type of artistic capability to make a map. Apparently that also applied for designing the artwork. The images in this software would have been amazing 3 generations of RPGs ago when Atari graphics were cutting edge. I can image the ohs and ahs from my 15 players as we mull our way through 14 hour in the Dungeon of Never Ending crawling. However, in an age where companies give users the power to make meticulous maps by click on PDF options, Cartography seems outdated or, at best, an Open source project that should have remained that way. If not for the graphics, this would be a pretty cool program. The interface is easy and lets you do a ton of different things with each art tile. Savvy users can create scripts to automate tasks and randomly generate maps based on criteria. It uses a fantastic layering system. The art manipulation features are robust. This is one of those pieces of software that will probably take off a year from its release once the fans get involved. However, for now it really lags behind the competition. I mentioned earlier that the relationship between the software and I did not get off on a good foot. This is because I could not use it for 2 days after purchasing it. Sure there was the flimsy “trial” version, but If you purchase a program, you expect to use it relatively soon. Instead the form email told me that it would be up to 24 hours before my registration code was sent to me. Instead the code arrived 2 days later. I see this over security of software by independent developers all the time and it could not be more annoying. For the DM This software could be used to design very quick and dirty maps when you absolutely do not have any other choice and preparation is not an option. A better function of this software was to use it for small regional overland maps in which my only intention was to show key locations of particular places. Even still I hope someone designs some Isometric tilesets soon. The Iron Word The tilesets for this software are disappointing. They are such a poor complement for to a cartography programs that potentially could be used to produce the comprehensive type of maps that map using DMs are used to. The interface is simple and easy to use. There is also a method for adding your own tilesets, something I strongly recommend. Adventures into Darkness: Truth & Justice by Atomic Overmind Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56919&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $9.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review While engaging myself in Adventures in Darkness, by Atomic Overmind Press, I was often reminded of the old cliché that less is more. Adventures in Darkness: An M&M Superlink is a supplement that contains writeups of heroes and villains from the Lovecraft comic series published in the early part of the 20th century. Despite its age, the flavor of Lovecraft really picks up in the books, despite his non-contribution to any of the comics or characters. As you can expect, its all Golden Age goodness here. Over the top heroes and villains that capture the feeling of that era. You won’t find too many things that you have not found in other golden age series, but there is that twinge of bizarre that can only be derived from the Lovecraft world. The game stuff is solid, but the comic related stuff is just not interesting unless you actually have collected the comic, and were avid about it. Adventures in Darkness is unfortunately written for a very specific type of Mutants and Masterminds player. I thought myself to be the demographic, both a fan of Lovecraft and a fan of the Golden age of comics, but the supplement also seems to require that you be a fan of the comic book series as a good quarter of the 47-page book is geared towards the history of the comic and a price guide for collectors. The history is very well written, if not dry in many places and the price guide seems a bad choice considering that comic prices can change from month to month or any significant discovery. Luckily the Mutants and Mastermind gaming stuff really stands strong with detailed writeups of the 17 heroes and 11 villians. The writer’s knowledge of the comic book shines in these parts as each has a brief history and power overview. The brevity of the writeups is refreshing and was missing from the earlier parts of the book. Each hero felt like I could pick them up and run them the way I wanted to without the writer imparting how the character should be played. I also liked how specific heroes had specific villains attached to them. The villains, both minor and major, are over the top like I expect a Golden Age Villain to be. For the Player As with most Golden Age comics, most of the heroes seem to be a play on other heroes. Thankfully the writer is talented enough to make heroes like The Mask and Mystico more than cheap knockoffs. For the Gamemaster Skipping towards the end of the book is a nice set of rule for tracking sanity in an Mutants and Masterminds game. Also pay attention to the villains as they can be used for non Golden Age games. The Iron Word The comic book history may be a bit too much in the beginning, but plays a vital part in making these characters we have seen before seem like true new versions. Adventures in Darkness brings the Cthullu mythology to the Mutants and Mastermind world in a fun way. Adventures into Darkness: M&M Superlink by Atomic Overmind Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56820&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $9.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review While engaging myself in Adventures in Darkness, by Atomic Overmind Press, I was often reminded of the old cliché that less is more. Adventures in Darkness: An M&M Superlink is a supplement that contains writeups of heroes and villains from the Lovecraft comic series published in the early part of the 20th century. Despite its age, the flavor of Lovecraft really picks up in the books, despite his non-contribution to any of the comics or characters. As you can expect, its all Golden Age goodness here. Over the top heroes and villains that capture the feeling of that era. You won’t find too many things that you have not found in other golden age series, but there is that twinge of bizarre that can only be derived from the Lovecraft world. The game stuff is solid, but the comic related stuff is just not interesting unless you actually have collected the comic, and were avid about it. Adventures in Darkness is unfortunately written for a very specific type of Mutants and Masterminds player. I thought myself to be the demographic, both a fan of Lovecraft and a fan of the Golden age of comics, but the supplement also seems to require that you be a fan of the comic book series as a good quarter of the 47-page book is geared towards the history of the comic and a price guide for collectors. The history is very well written, if not dry in many places and the price guide seems a bad choice considering that comic prices can change from month to month or any significant discovery. Luckily the Mutants and Mastermind gaming stuff really stands strong with detailed writeups of the 17 heroes and 11 villians. The writer’s knowledge of the comic book shines in these parts as each has a brief history and power overview. The brevity of the writeups is refreshing and was missing from the earlier parts of the book. Each hero felt like I could pick them up and run them the way I wanted to without the writer imparting how the character should be played. I also liked how specific heroes had specific villains attached to them. The villains, both minor and major, are over the top like I expect a Golden Age Villain to be. For the Player As with most Golden Age comics, most of the heroes seem to be a play on other heroes. Thankfully the writer is talented enough to make heroes like The Mask and Mystico more than cheap knockoffs. For the Gamemaster Skipping towards the end of the book is a nice set of rule for tracking sanity in an Mutants and Masterminds game. Also pay attention to the villains as they can be used for non Golden Age games. The Iron Word The comic book history may be a bit too much in the beginning, but plays a vital part in making these characters we have seen before seem like true new versions. Adventures in Darkness brings the Cthulhu mythology to the Mutants and Mastermind world in a fun way. City Builder Volume 6: Mercantile Places by Skirmisher Publishing rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56556&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Immersion is an often ignored but vital part of role playing. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of supplements produced that aim to tell gamers what happens outside of the tavern wenches, corrupt city guards and dragon attacks. For those hoping to add a bit of texture to their games, in particular their villages and towns, I highly recommend the City Builders series. Published by Skirmisher Publishing, the series is a fine resource to have when world designing. The latest in the series, City Builder Volume 6: Mercantile Places, is another detailed sourcebook of seven places to add to your game. Mercantile Places introduces places of commerce to your game world. Even the typical places such as marketplaces and trading posts receive a realistic touch that add another dimension to them in your game. The writers take each entry very seriously, providing a bit of researched references without dipping into the dry well. Each article in the 22 page PDF is 2 to 3 pages in length. It discusses history and definition of the place, and describes how it would work in a medieval or fantasy environment. I neat little addition are the adventure hooks. I found the adventure hooks to be very creative add-ons that utilize the place. For the DM I was very impressed with the descriptions of the typical places such as the marketplace and trading post, but overwhelmed with admiration at the writups of not so traditional pieces such as the banks and brokerage. I for one had written off such things in my game, as previous resource books I found were too elaborate and broke the immersion factor. Mercantile Places puts the buildings in their context and provides good examples for integration. The Iron Word City Builder Volume 6: Mercantile Places is another great addition to a series that aims to improve an important part of the role-playing game world. The series is not affiliated with any particular system, which makes it useable for any DM. If you find your villages Mundane, adding a Mercantile Place might be the right flavor you need.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 25, 2008 13:24:22 GMT -5
THE LATEST 4E TREASURES FOR YOU! We've got a couple of great new products for all you Dungeons & Dragons fans out there - The ancient trees of the Shadowsong Forest have borne witness to the passing of epochs, and hidden beneath their dark canopies are the remains of empires long departed. Few souls brave enough to explore the primeval forest ever return, for countless horrors haunt the crumbled ruins. When a band of evil criminals seeks refuge within the darkest reaches of the forest, brave adventurers are needed to root them out. The trail leads to the heart of the woods, wherein looms the greatest secret of all — the Pyramid of Shadows. H3 Pyramid of Shadows is a D&D adventure designed for heroic tier characters of levels 7–10. It can be played as a stand-alone adventure or as the final part of a three-part series. This product includes an adventure booklet for the Dungeon Master, a campaign guide with player handouts, and a full-color poster map, all contained in a handy folder. H3 Pyramid of Shadows is the third adventure in a three-part series that began with H1 Keep on the Shadowfell and H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth. It can also be played as a stand-alone adventure. Welcome to Faerûn, a land of amazing magic, terrifying monsters, ancient ruins, and hidden wonders. The world has changed since the Spellplague, and from this arcane crucible have emerged shining kingdoms, tyrannical empires, mighty heroes, and monster-infested dungeons. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide presents a world of untold adventure, a land of a thousand stories shaped by the deeds of adventurers the likes of which Faerûn has never seen before. This product includes everything a Dungeon Master needs to run a D&D campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting, as well as elements that DMs can incorporate into their own D&D campaigns. The book provides background information on the lands of Faerûn, a fully detailed town in which to start a campaign, adventure seeds, new monsters, ready-to-play nonplayer characters, and a full-color poster map of Faerûn. Some Apologies are in order... We just wanted to take a moment to let you know that we consider each and every one of you a valued member of our community of both fellow gamers and treasured customers. And we've made a couple of mistakes in recent days, and we need to do better by you. For one, there was that business where some of you got a newsletter from us multiple times. If you are one of those folks, please accept my personal apology for that; it was entirely my screw up, as I made a mistake with the tool I was using to send it. If you didn't have this happen to you, I am glad. If you did, thanks for understanding. The bigger apology, goes out to everyone who was affected by the Database Incident of 8/11. In essence, we had a couple of accidents happen at exactly the wrong, same time. This resulted in, among other things, any new customers who signed up between 7/31 and 8/11 of this year getting erased, as well as all purchase records during those periods of time. As well, if you made any changes to your account settings then, they will have gone missing. Because our backup system was also in failure at that time, we might not have been able to recover some of your information. Please do let us know, via the Customer Service link on the site, if there is any information still missing from your account. And thanks for your patience and your patronage. We are constantly striving to be the best possible service for you. But we must always strive to do even better. - Sean Patrick Fannon, Marketing and PR, RPGNow Newest Free ProductsLibram Mythos: Wizard Powers (Preview) by Dungeon Dwellers' Guild Games rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57399&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe Libram Mythos series from Dungeon Dwellers’ Guild Games is designed exclusively for compatibility with DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 4th Edition rules in accordance with the Game System License agreement.This product is released prior to October 1st, 2... This Just In From GenCon 11 - Sunday 5pm by This Just In From GenCon rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57371&it=1&SRC=newsletterWith the show floor closed, Paul and Ryan finish up the show with Jeff Tidball of Fantasy Flight Games and Things We Think About Games. Ryan shares his GenCon Moment on meeting Benjamin Baugh for the first time, and the round it out with thank yous &... This Just In From GenCon 10 - Sunday 11am by This Just In From GenCon rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57369&it=1&SRC=newsletterDespite suffering from Convention Brain, Ryan and Paul sit down with Robin D. Laws to talk about his work with Pelgrane Press, 3:16 - Carnage Among The Stars, Sweet Agatha, It's Complicated, Things We Think About Games, Tour de Lovecraft: The Tales, a... This Just In From GenCon 09 - Saturday 5pm by This Just In From GenCon rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57368&it=1&SRC=newsletterPaul and Ryan talk about How To Host A Dungeon, Games on Demand and The Continuum, and welcome JJ Lanza from Fist Full of Comics and Games to share his GenCon Moment. This Just In From GenCon 08 - Saturday 11am by This Just In From GenCon rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57281&it=1&SRC=newsletterOn their first two-guest show, Ryan and Paul sit down with Dominic Crapuchettes from North Star Games (publishers of Say Anything) and Thomas Tullis from Fat Dragon Games to talk about their companies, the ENnie Awards, and everything else they've bee... Newest ProductsDW: Revenge of the Terminals (GenCon 2008) by RPG Objects rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57405&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.00 You are a terminal, recognized from an early stage as having little or no chance of surviving. Mercilessly cast out to by your community to conserve resources, you miraculously survived, saved by a community of other mutant terminals. Some years later, yo... Wizards of Shadowfell by Skortched Urf' Studios rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57404&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.25 The Wizard of Shadowfell is a variant core characterclass for D20 Fantasy gamers, a twist on the Wizardcharacter class most gamers are familiar with. TheWizard of Shadowfell is an attempt to emulatethe wizardly heroes and protagonists of myth andliteratur... Quirin Stock Art #14: Felgar by GMC rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57400&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.19 GMC - It's Game Master's Choice! Come to the world, where mortals created and became gods, where the Long Night powers orcs and undead and where ruins of a glorious past let deities fear for their existence. A world of enigmatic NPCs: from t... Vade Mecum by Catalyst Game Labs rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57389&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $39.99 $25.00 The Last War ContinuesFoes without. Foes within. It seems that safety is just an illusion in 2085. Congregations of dead religions work their evil on the world. Armies of monsters and alien creatures bring death and horror. Hidden cults chew away at the i... Dark Passions by Catalyst Game Labs rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57390&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $19.99 $15.00 At Your DoorstepThe Aeon War rages outside. The Migou encroach on the heart of civilization from Alaska. The Rapine Storm throws itself against failing lines in China. Dark things awaken in the forgotten corners of the world. All the while, sinister cults... Newest Staff ReviewsMhar Fantasy RPG Player's Book by Fool's Moon Entertainment Inc. rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=25631&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $18.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Sean Holland) Review Mhâr Fantasy Plasyer’s Handbook, for the Mhâr Fantasy RPG by Greg Older and published by Fools’ Moon Entertainment. It is a one hundred eighteen page product with a simple and easy enough to read layout. The cover is in color with a full color map on the back “cover” while the interior art is all black and white. Mhâr Fantasy is set in a world very much like medieval Europe, right down to using versions of real world religions of the period (Christianity and Islam) as part of the background. The author notes that they have no wish to offend anyone but seek a setting grounded in reality: “Though presentation of each religion within this setting is made to be as balanced and true as possible without intended prejudice, keep in mind that medieval society, especially in Christendom, was exceptionally bigoted. [. . .] Remember that part of the game’s theme is the exploration and understanding of other cultures . . .” The book begins with a discussion of the world, its history and an overview of the Kingdom of Anæland, the default setting. A glossary of world specific terms is also provided in this section which is very useful. The system begins next, it is a straightforward system that should be easy enough for any gamer to pick up. It uses a D20 for task resolution, seeking to roll under or equal to the target number. It is a simple and solid system that includes rules for contesting skill against skill and for resolving long term projects. Character creation is a point buy system with the ability to take flaws for additional points to build with. Seven races are available, the standard human, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, goblins, Hood (fox-people) and Nicila (cat-folk). Several pre-built character archetypes are provided to ease character construction and demonstrate the flexibility of the character creation system. There are some nice touches to the skill system, such as a character gains extra damage with a weapon as she becomes more skilled with it. Magic is divided into the power of faith, with each faith having a few rituals that are unique to it, and the magic of wizard, alchemists and spellweavers, each with its own style of magic. Miracles are more reliable but more structured, while magic is more flexible but more dangerous. Character advancement is by improving specific facets of a character and includes rules for training outside of adventuring. The product ends with a good index, collection of useful tables and a character sheet. The Mhâr Fantasy Player’s Handbook is half of a solid game, certainly everything you need to start playing the game as a player. Mhâr Fantasy is obviously a work of love by it creators and is very much crafted to match the play style of those campaigns, which may not be yours. But it has many interesting ideas that may be applicable to other games as well. Interface Zero by Reality Deviant Publications rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=57230&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $13.95 $11.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Sean Holland) Review Interface Zero, a True20 Adventure Roleplaying campaign setting by Matt Conklin, Hal Maclean, Patrick Smith and David Jarvis, published by Reality Deviant Publications. It is a 165-page product (160 after covers and OGL) with a clean layout though there is a smattering of “see page XX errors.” The cover is a full color piece to set the cyberpunk mood while the interior art is B&W but thematic. Who says cyberpunk is dead? Interface Zero is a noble effort to keep the genre alive . . . at least for roleplaying purposes. The book begins with a piece of fiction and then glossary of terms, skim them first, it will help to understand what follows. Next come history of the future charting the evolution of the Interface Zero future, it is a year by year chronicle of events from 2011 to 2088, when the game is set. Various sidebars explain the most important events and changes in more detail. With Chapter Two, Hero Creation, the system starts becoming integrated with the setting. It starts with advice on how to build a place in the campaign for your character. New backgrounds linked to the setting are made available: cultural ones such as conglomerate raised or ganglander, biologicals ones such as the improved human 2.0 or those gene-spliced with animals or technological ones such as simulacrums (created humans) or AIs. Six new roles are included, each with a specific place in the IZ future: Hacker, Icon, Martial Adept, Rake, Technician and Tough. Several new feats are provided, covering both technological and societal options, even a few combat related ones. A good chapter with many new and interesting options for characters. Chapter Three explores the World in greater detail. Giving an overview of the regions of the world and highlighting a few important areas in each one. The world of IZ is quite different from ours, the US has shattered into smaller states, Africa is an up and coming power, China is ruled by the New Mandarins and Japan by the Techno-Shogunate. Opportunities for adventures abound in 2088. Chapter Four gets into mechanics, the major portion being on how to run and envision the omnipresent virtual world and “the Deep,” this includes programming, hacking and information gathering. Equipment is also included in this section from chain-swords to powered armor, from hover bikes to high fashion, cyberware and bioware. Chapter Five is advice for narrating the game and includes good, sensible advice, nothing really new but useful for new narrators and to review for experienced ones. What is most important is that it talks about the styles of play for the IZ setting, suggestion for themes and tricks to enhance play. A solid chapter. Chapter Six provides premade adversaries and allies, very useful. An Appendix lists inspirational media and a character sheet rounds out the product. Interface Zero is an excellent cyberpunk/post-cyberpunk worldbook and a most interesting read for those who like the genre. If such a setting interests you, give Interface Zero a try. HOT CHICKS: The Roleplaying Game by Dakkar Unlimited rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56643&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $29.95 $19.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review There’s always been a wish-fulfillment aspect to role-playing games. Whether it’s playing a character that’s as strong as we wish we were, or amassing an ungodly amount of wealth, it can’t be helped that sometimes we bend our favorite RPGs to fantasize about getting what we want. Of course, sometimes the game in question unabashedly tries to appeal to those desires. Enter Hot Chicks: The Role-Playing Game. Guess which desire this RPG appeals to. The PDF of Hot Chicks the RPG is moderately-sized, being not quite a dozen megabytes. This is very compact considering that the book is over four hundred-fifty pages long. There’s a full table of contents, which does not have hyperlinks, but the bookmarks are extremely thorough in what they cover. It almost goes without saying that Hot Chicks the RPG is pretty heavy on illustrations. The majority of these are fully-rendered 3-D CGI pictures, which are of course in full color. Similarly, there are also a number of illustrations in black and white that aren’t CGI, rounding things out. Pages are surrounded on each side with a blue line that acts as a border, broken only by pages numbers at the bottom. There’s no printer-friendly option here, which is discouraging. For a book this long, with as much illustrations as it has, it really needs some method to make printing it out more viable. The Hot Chicks RPG uses the new Inverted 20 system. Just to be clear, while there’s obvious a d20 System influence here, the Inverted 20 rules are their own, and not a variant of that more ubiquitous set of mechanics. As you may have guessed, the Inverted 20 rules are based around the idea that on a d20 roll, a 1 is the best result you can achieve, and a 20 is the worst. Built around that, the rest of the game’s mechanics are actually fairly simple. Characters have six stats, whose numerical ranges run from 1 to 10, with several derived statistics based on that. Characters also have merits, flaws, and skills (including special skills, which are what let your character do fantastic things). Later in the book, there are myriad chapters and appendices for all sorts of things characters can have and do, from huge equipment lists to magic, psionics, and super powers (among others). There are even rules to modify existing things, or even create your own. Over the course of four hundred-fifty pages, the RPG takes care to cover almost everything you could think of for a character. So what’s the story for this game? Well, in the very near future, the Earth is pretty well screwed. Corruption is everywhere. And space aliens are stepping up their covert attacks on our planet. And demons are working to open massive gates to Hell. And in a lot of instances, the corrupt humans, aliens, and demons are working together. Humanity is about to get seriously @#$%ed, and for different reasons the hot chicks of the world are going to get the first and the worst of it. Hence, this is a world that needs heroes, and needs them pretty badly. This isn’t all of the story of course, and the book presents quite a bit of backstory, as well as related fluff elements (such as various organizations that are major players in the world today), but that summarizes the basics of where PCs will find themselves. The tone of the Hot Chicks RPG book is one that fluctuates as you read through it. In some places, the book doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, like describing the rules for just how dead you can be if things don’t go your way in combat (complete with jokes for characters that end up Dead as Hell). In other places, it takes itself and the world it presents very seriously, such as with the opening fiction that’s present in several chapters, which borders on being quite dark. Moreover, the game doesn’t seem to be quite certain of how much it wants to play-up the “sexy” aspect of itself; there’s no real erotic content to the mechanics of the game, but several parts of it seem to be leaning that way (the first merit listed, for example, is called “A Whore in the Bedroom”), and the writing flirts with a sexual undertone in several places, never quite coming out and saying how important sex is or isn’t in a Hot Chicks game (presumably to leave it up to the players). In fact, there’s little here (illustrations notwithstanding) that’d prevent you from simply throwing out the “hot chicks” theme altogether, and just using this RPG to run a “super-modern” game if you wanted. Altogether, the Hot Chicks RPG presents itself very well. The book is substantive, yet stylish, presenting a wealth of options, a relatively thin-but-functional story, and a very generous amount of artwork. However, the book’s theme feels a tad bit wishy-washy; it wants to be an action/adventure RPG with sex appeal, but isn’t sure how much. Moreover, between that and the lack of a printer-friendly version (which I consider to be significant in a product this long with this much art), and the book is imperfect. Of course, it hits much more than it misses, with a set of mechanics that are simple but still solid. If you’re looking for something new, but feels familiar, check out the Hot Chicks RPG. Cartograph Studio by Digital Alchemy rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56800&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $34.95 $29.95 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Talk about an awkward first date. Cartograph Pro did not start our relationship off well. As a matter of fact it left a pretty bad impression and never offered the type of sophistication I request from my map designing software. Cartograph Pro is new cartography software designed by Digital Alchemy. Its purpose is to create simple world and dungeon maps for your Role Playing games. And by simple, I mean bare minimum simple. If you are hoping for any type of detail you should file that wish with the Easter Bunny, Santa Clause and a decent Ben Affleck movie. The company advertises that users do not need to have any type of artistic capability to make a map. Apparently that also applied for designing the artwork. The images in this software would have been amazing 3 generations of RPGs ago when Atari graphics were cutting edge. I can image the ohs and ahs from my 15 players as we mull our way through 14 hour in the Dungeon of Never Ending crawling. However, in an age where companies give users the power to make meticulous maps by click on PDF options, Cartography seems outdated or, at best, an Open source project that should have remained that way. If not for the graphics, this would be a pretty cool program. The interface is easy and lets you do a ton of different things with each art tile. Savvy users can create scripts to automate tasks and randomly generate maps based on criteria. It uses a fantastic layering system. The art manipulation features are robust. This is one of those pieces of software that will probably take off a year from its release once the fans get involved. However, for now it really lags behind the competition. I mentioned earlier that the relationship between the software and I did not get off on a good foot. This is because I could not use it for 2 days after purchasing it. Sure there was the flimsy “trial” version, but If you purchase a program, you expect to use it relatively soon. Instead the form email told me that it would be up to 24 hours before my registration code was sent to me. Instead the code arrived 2 days later. I see this over security of software by independent developers all the time and it could not be more annoying. For the DM This software could be used to design very quick and dirty maps when you absolutely do not have any other choice and preparation is not an option. A better function of this software was to use it for small regional overland maps in which my only intention was to show key locations of particular places. Even still I hope someone designs some Isometric tilesets soon. The Iron Word The tilesets for this software are disappointing. They are such a poor complement for to a cartography programs that potentially could be used to produce the comprehensive type of maps that map using DMs are used to. The interface is simple and easy to use. There is also a method for adding your own tilesets, something I strongly recommend. Adventures into Darkness: Truth & Justice by Atomic Overmind Press rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=56919&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $9.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review While engaging myself in Adventures in Darkness, by Atomic Overmind Press, I was often reminded of the old cliché that less is more. Adventures in Darkness: An M&M Superlink is a supplement that contains writeups of heroes and villains from the Lovecraft comic series published in the early part of the 20th century. Despite its age, the flavor of Lovecraft really picks up in the books, despite his non-contribution to any of the comics or characters. As you can expect, its all Golden Age goodness here. Over the top heroes and villains that capture the feeling of that era. You won’t find too many things that you have not found in other golden age series, but there is that twinge of bizarre that can only be derived from the Lovecraft world. The game stuff is solid, but the comic related stuff is just not interesting unless you actually have collected the comic, and were avid about it. Adventures in Darkness is unfortunately written for a very specific type of Mutants and Masterminds player. I thought myself to be the demographic, both a fan of Lovecraft and a fan of the Golden age of comics, but the supplement also seems to require that you be a fan of the comic book series as a good quarter of the 47-page book is geared towards the history of the comic and a price guide for collectors. The history is very well written, if not dry in many places and the price guide seems a bad choice considering that comic prices can change from month to month or any significant discovery. Luckily the Mutants and Mastermind gaming stuff really stands strong with detailed writeups of the 17 heroes and 11 villians. The writer’s knowledge of the comic book shines in these parts as each has a brief history and power overview. The brevity of the writeups is refreshing and was missing from the earlier parts of the book. Each hero felt like I could pick them up and run them the way I wanted to without the writer imparting how the character should be played. I also liked how specific heroes had specific villains attached to them. The villains, both minor and major, are over the top like I expect a Golden Age Villain to be. For the Player As with most Golden Age comics, most of the heroes seem to be a play on other heroes. Thankfully the writer is talented enough to make heroes like The Mask and Mystico more than cheap knockoffs. For the Gamemaster Skipping towards the end of the book is a nice set of rule for tracking sanity in an Mutants and Masterminds game. Also pay attention to the villains as they can be used for non Golden Age games. The Iron Word The comic book history may be a bit too much in the beginning, but plays a vital part in making these characters we have seen before seem like true new versions. Adventures in Darkness brings the Cthullu mythology to the Mutants and Mastermind world in a fun way.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Sept 19, 2008 10:10:56 GMT -5
PIRATE DAY That's right - September brings us that wonderful excuse to jabber like scurvy-ridden morons with bad teeth (or fail miserably at our Johnny-Depp-as-Keith-Richards imitation). It's also an excuse to get a great deal on all kinds of high-seas-flavored gaming goodness. And don't miss "Quiet Like a Ninja Day" next week! Those pesky pajama-wearing assassins demanded their own sale, and we were too afraid to say no! THE LATEST DUNGEONS & DRAGONS EXCITMENT! A mysterious presence has taken up residence in one of the towers of Spellgard, and now its dark minions plague the Gray Vale! Scepter Tower of Spellgard is the first full-length Forgotten Realms adventure published for 4th Edition D&D. When paired with the adventure that appears in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, this adventure provides the Dungeon Master with all he needs to get his campaign started. This stand-alone adventure is designed to take characters from 2nd level to 5th level. The complete guide for building Forgotten Realms characters! Welcome to Faerûn, a land of amazing magic, terrifying monsters, ancient ruins, and hidden wonders. The world has changed since the Spellplague, and from this arcane crucible have emerged shining kingdoms, tyrannical empires, mighty heroes, and monster-infested dungeons. The Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide presents this changed world from the point of view of the adventurers exploring it. This product includes everything a player needs to create his character for a D&D campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting, including new feats, new character powers, new paragon paths and epic destinies, and even a brand-new character class never before seen in D&D: the swordmage! Hundreds of new weapons, tools, and magic items for your D&D character. The Adventurer's Vault, a supplement for the Dungeons & Dragons game, presents nearly a thousand magic items, weapons, tools, and other useful items for your D&D character. Whether you’re a player looking for a new piece of equipment or a Dungeon Master stocking a dragon’s hoard, this book has exactly what you need. The book features a mix of classic items updated to the 4th Edition rules and brand-new items never before seen in D&D. DOWNLOAD AND BUILD AN ENTIRE CITY, THEN BLOW IT UP! Fat Dragon Games has just released the first model set in our new E-Z BATTLEFIELDS line. MECHBATTLE CITY offers you a complete 6mm sci-fi cityscape perfect for mech wargames. E-Z BATTLEFIELDS brings you the finest wargaming cardmodel terrain available. Mechbattle City features a 6mm sci-fi city perfect for mech wargames. These models feature our simplified construction techniques, and all are sturdy enough to have metal miniatures placed on them. All art is created by award winning industry artist and is in Adobe PDF format so it is Mac and PC compatible. This PDF includes: * Eight city buildings * Mech hangar complete with interior * City defense turret with rail gun * Storage tanks * Generators * Satellite dishes * Free standing fire model * City street tiles (hex and hexless versions included) GOODMAN GAMES ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF 4TH EDITION! Check out these great releases, representing some of the best (and earliest) ready-for-4th Edition products on the market! Character Codex Record your rise from apprentice to archmage with this character codex! Extremely useful for characters of any class, this book provides a record of your character that can expand as your character does. It includes plenty of room for all your hero's statistics, equipment, cohorts, and magic items, and even has an adventure journal and a place to design your character's keep! The Character Codex is compatible with the fourth edition of the world's most popular role playing game. Sellswords of Punjar - An Adventure for Character Level 1 Deep within the heart of the slums, in the rat-ridden city of Punjar, the Beggar-King weaves his plots. Unearthing rites best left forgotten and offering up sacrifices to the loathsome Lords of Shade, the Beggar-King's ambitions threaten to unleash a horde of shadow-horrors upon Punjar's huddled masses. You and your fellow companions must bring the reign of the Beggar-King to an end. Your quest will take you from the rooftops of Punjar to its filthiest alleys, and beneath the streets of Punjar to the fetid heart of the city, where even the bravest of sellswords will tremble before the fell secrets of the Beggar-King of Punjar. An introductory adventure designed specifically for first level characters, Sellswords of Punjar is an urban Dungeon Crawl Classic unlike any other. It includes a full-color double-sided battle map to allow your characters to fully experience the perils of Punjar! This stand-alone adventure can also be used to launch a campaign in the epic fantasy world of Áereth. Master Dungeons M1 - Dragora's Dungeon Some explorers perish in pit traps while others found fiefdoms. What sets them apart? Master dungeons: heroes are chiseled from the challenges they face, and those who conquer master dungeons rise to be kings. Lost artifacts that raise continents from the sea, an empire's treasures buried to avoid capture, nascent godlings amassing divine energies: choose these challenges over the goblin cavern if you want to prove yourself worthy of glory and empire! Eons past the fabled sorcerer-kings of Parhok perished in a rain of eldritch fire. But legends hold that one tribe survived the apocalypse, fleeing with their slaves to a hidden city, where the greatest enchanters of all time could sleep away the centuries, and awaken in a future age as rulers of a ruined land. Now once more the forbidden spells of the Parhok threaten the good folk of the Known Realms. A kingdom lies ensorcelled, a royal family ensnared by the forgotten dweomers of a long-dead race. When the best attempts of seers and diviners have failed, it falls to the heroes to save the kingdom. Have the sorcerer-kings risen to reclaim their bejeweled thrones? Or has a more sinister power bent their ancient magics to its sinister will? Only the most courageous and cunning of heroes will emerge victorious from Dragora's Dungeon. GET IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF THE FIRST REAL GAMER-ORIENTED SOCIAL NETWORK! MDC, owners of the RPG Host Network, are upgrading their entire network and consolidating into one mega RPG social site- RPGLIFE (www.rpglife.com) Now, today is your lucky day as we have more FREE PDFs for you all! + People, Places, and Things 2: Living in a Fantasy World by Second Rat Games + F-210 Phoenix by Fat Dragon Games + Ave Molech - Journals - Volume 2 by Morbidgames + RDP: Blood Throne: The Survivor's Guide to the Age of Blood by Reality Deviant Publications Over $25 worth of free products for simply trying out our newest site! RPFLife.com will have just about everything you ever wanted in one place... Blogs, resource files, social groups/clubs, live chat, forums, top sites, reviews, images voting, original articles, podcasts, feed aggregator (with over 100 blogs & news filling it daily), banner exchange, classifieds, store & player locator, web directory, user polls and surveys, art gallery, online convention, and more! 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This message is posted in partnership with Minion Development Corp., a separate company we have a long-standing association with.) Newest Free ProductsSkirmisher Update: Fall 2008by Skirmisher Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58020&it=1&SRC=newsletterWelcome to our quarterly newsletter! We hope you enjoy the information, free game content, and other material it contains. Skirmisher Update is published by Skirmisher Publishing LLC and Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine. Feel free to print it out or forw... FREE PREVIEW 1 from HOT CHICKS: The RPGby Dakkar Unlimited www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58018&it=1&SRC=newsletterSTRONG LANGUAGE and MATURE THEMES - Reader Discretion Is AdvisedTake a peek inside the world of HOT CHICKS: The Roleplaying Game! The Free Preview includes a Seven Page comic, a horiffic set of villains, usable Player Characters, and an adventure of... Modern d20 Core Kitby RPG Objects www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57989&it=1&SRC=newsletterRPGObjects built its reputation creating critically acclaimed d20 Modern supplements such as Darwin's World and Blood and Fists. With D&D 4th Edition now out and the d20 Modern RPG harder to find, we've put together this new alternative core... Portraits matching Overhead Character Map Tokensby DW Publications www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57987&it=1&SRC=newsletterIs your character on the map a specific Token Box person with a sword? Make your character's Portrait the same person with a sword, but correctly adjusted to the FGII "portraits" data type and size. A collection of some of the most fre... Initiative Cards: 4Eby LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57981&it=1&SRC=newsletterAs with d20 and OGL, Initiative Cards have become a staple of gaming. Why shouldn’t that be the same with 4E gaming? Initiative Cards make the task of keeping track of initiative in fantasy combats easy by providing a place for the GMs t... Newest ProductsKingdoms of Kalamar 4th edition campaign settingby Kenzer & Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58027&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $24.99 Here, creatures of dark evil roam the lands in search of prey, while others rule a terrified populace from the safety of their throne rooms. Meanwhile, elven warriors battle expansionist human kingdoms to protect their forest homes, dwarven slaves plot... Zoa: Citadel of the Bayby Kenzer & Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58029&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.99 Welcome to the port city of Zoa - a city that is trading post, citadel, shipyard, refuge from tyranny, and haven for smugglers. Whether you claim to be a native, a traveling merchant, an adventurer, or one of the brave small folk who struggled here see... Imperium Chronicles Role Playing Game - Cardboard Citizensby Imperium Group, LLC www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58028&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.99 Paper miniatures for use with the Imperium Chronicles Role Playing GameTM54 Tri-folded miniatures:6 Aristocrats (3 Male & 3 Female)3 Courtiers3 Merchants6 Techs (3 Male & 3 Female)6 Nomads (3 Male & 3 Female)6 Soldiers (2 Desert, 2 Jungle, &... Knights of the Dinner Table #16by Kenzer & Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58026&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.99 Knights of the Dinner Table is the award-winning comic focusing on the hilarious gaming misadventures of a group of players in Muncie, Indiana. They represent a gamut of people we’ve all known at the table (though personally deny being)! Their ad... Knights of the Dinner Table #15by Kenzer & Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58025&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.99 Knights of the Dinner Table is the award-winning comic focusing on the hilarious gaming misadventures of a group of players in Muncie, Indiana. They represent a gamut of people we’ve all known at the table (though personally deny being)! Their ad... Newest Staff Reviews Sisters of Raptureby Fantastic Gallery www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57961&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.00 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Romance. Sex. Love. Call it what you will, it’s a subject that has never really been done well in D&D. Serious attempts to cover it invariably seem to foul it up, while more humorous endeavors lampoon themselves (and their readers) right from the beginning. However, by narrowing their focus and using a more concrete central theme (that of a specific organization) Fantastic Gallery’s debut product, Sisters of Rapture, actually seems to be one of those rare products about sex and love in the d20 System that gets it right. Or at least, it gets it right in terms of thematic presentation. Looking at Sisters of Rapture from a technical standpoint, Fantastic Gallery has made all of the mistakes you’d expect a new company to make when releasing their first PDF. There are, for example, no tools to facilitate ease of navigation; bookmarks, something that every PDF product should have, are absent here. Likewise, while not necessary, hyperlinks in the table of contents are usually a perk, but there’s also nowhere to be found. The biggest missing thing, however, is a printer-friendly version of the book. Such a thing is absolutely necessary here – not because of the ornate page borders and backgrounds (though that’s also part of it), but because of the artwork. While I greatly enjoyed the art here (more on that below) it’s imperative that customers have the ability to print out a version without it. Many, if not most, gamers would be embarrassed to bring pages of this book to the table if it meant they’d also be showing pictures of naked women. Hopefully, this will be corrected in an update. Having said that, the artwork here is everything you’d expect (and hope) it to be in this kind of product. In other words, naked women abound! Done in full-color, the quality of the artwork here ranges from pretty good to damn nice (it’s a welcome change from, say, photoshopped images of real people), and almost all of it depicts women in some state of undress. The majority of these are women either topless, or wearing only diaphanous clothing above the waist, though there are also plenty of women showing full-frontal nudity. Interestingly, none of the artwork here is truly salacious; there’s only one picture of a couple actually having sex, and they’re shown from the side, tastefully hiding the naughtier bits. So, having said all of that, what is this book actually about? Well, it’s right there in the title. Sisters of Rapture is about an all-female religious cult of the same name. Devoted to love in all its forms (as a concept, an act, a force, etc.) the Sisters largely focus on their own holy trinity of deities: Aphrodite, Isis, and Freya, though other love goddesses are not excluded. The first chapter shows us the Sister of Rapture base class, and its here that the book begins to showcase that it can handle d20 mechanics as well as it can artwork and exposition. As a spontaneous divine-spellcasting class, the Sister of Rapture has the finer nuances of good mechanics, making sure to give unique class abilities at every other level, and allow for swapping out spells known periodically as levels are gained. My only complaint was that there’s no listing for an epic progression to this class, something that I consider mandatory when introducing a new base class, but that’s a comparatively small omission. The second chapter introduces four new prestige classes, all five-level classes and all of which are intended for a Sister of Rapture character. Interestingly, while all of the prestige classes offer some degree of advanced spellcasting ability, all expressly state that they only add to the SoR’s divine spellcasting ability, firmly tying them to that class. The Inamorare uses love to inspire her fellows to greater heights. The Patron Mother takes a younger Sister of Rapture under her wing, guiding and guarding her. The Spellswinger is like the mystic theurge, but can use sex to pay for metamagic. The stormsister is a vigilant protector of women everywhere. These PrCs were all good in design, save for the Spellswinger – she gains Sexual Energy Points which are used to buy-off levels of metamagic. However, it takes a relatively short period of time to gain SEPs, and they can be replenished indefinitely. This makes this class’s main power prone to abuse, as PCs will be prone to taking short stops throughout an adventure to let the Spellswinger “recharge” herself. The third chapter contains most of the crunch you’d expect to find in a d20 book of any stripe. Here is where we get the new skills, spells, feats, and magic items. The book doesn’t try to give too many new things here, which is good since less is probably more where this subject is concerned. Many of the feats, in particular, are tied to the Sister of Rapture class, and couldn’t be used by other characters. I enjoyed this section for some of its more innovative concepts (Penelope’s Portable Playroom, for example, is a pocket dimension specifically set up to watch over small children, letting Mom go adventuring in the meantime), and it handled the more overtly sexual matters with a deft touch (for example, the sex-based spells are exclusively part of the new Carnal domain). There were a few things that could have been added, however, such as a table summarizing the feats; similarly, the Carnal domain’s domain power didn’t seem to have any game effect. The fourth chapter of the book covers the religious aspects of the Sisterhood, covering each goddess and what they mean to the Sisters of Rapture, as well as a section discussing other goddesses in the organization. There’s very little game mechanics here, mostly limited to just what classes worshippers of these goddess are inclined to take (though there’s the occasional oddity, such as the mention that Aphrodite – a traditionally chaotic deity – has paladins). The major new crunch here is a sidebar describing the goddess Parvati as an alternate choice for a deity. Chapter five is devoted to the organizational hierarchy of the Sisters of Rapture. The SoR base class is given a table showing what titles are earned at what levels, and various sections in this chapter describe what rights and responsibilities those titles come with. This part of the book is totally fluff, but it does a good job of better showcasing the group that this book is about. Chapter six is the ubiquitous “monster chapter” of the book. This section was the one that I had the most problems with. While some of these creatures were great in theory (the Passion Archon – Heaven’s answer to the succubus), I found errors in pretty much every stat block I looked in. Now, there’s never been an RPG book that didn’t need some errata, but it’s still a bit disheartening. Moreover, there were some odd choices for additions to this chapter. For example, the Congress of the Wolf, a brotherhood of evil misogynistic men, is debuted here, with abbreviated stat blocks given for three sample members. Why wasn’t that put in its own chapter on enemies of the Sisters of Rapture? Similarly, Lileetha is a succubus queen, which sounds cool…until you realize she’s just a succubus with class levels (and she’s got a CR in the mid-teens, so how does she have “a large army of fiercely loyal balors”?). This chapter isn’t bad, but could have used some more work. The book closes out with two appendices. The first covers a half-dozen high-ranking members of the Sisters of Rapture, with abbreviated stat blocks and fluff information on their history and personality. The second appendix is a nice bonus, giving us a Modern d20 version of the Sister of Rapture class, made into an advanced class here. It would have been nice to also have conversions of the prestige classes, but I can’t really complain about that, since a Modern version of even the base class is more than would normally be expected. Finally, there’s a character sheet for a Sister of Rapture class…a long character sheet, as it’s a whopping eight pages in length. Sisters of Rapture is a good supplement by any standard, and a very good one by the standard set by previous books about sex/romance in d20. Having a good balance of crunch and fluff, great artwork, and good design, it doesn’t try to be everything, and excels in an area where most books fail because it doesn’t try to surpass every limit. It’s not a perfect book by any means, but what it does, it does well, giving an organization that lets you plausibly introduce mature themes into your game to the degree that you’re comfortable with. Check this book out, and put a little Rapture into your game. 4th Edition Dungeon Master's Guideby Wizards of the Coast www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=56694&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $34.95 $24.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Throughout the history of the D&D game, the Dungeon Master’s Guide has always been afflicted with middle-child syndrome. It was preceded by the PHB, which laid out the basic facets of the game like character classes and spells, and followed by the MM, which introduced the initial host of baddies that characters would be fighting. The DMG, by contrast, was always left with the leftovers; usually the only worthy one being the section regarding magic items…a section that has now, in Fourth Edition, been appropriated by the PHB. Let’s examine then how well the book handles itself in its new incarnation. The PDF version of the DMG is nicely constructed. Full bookmarks are present, with sub-sections of chapters being nested for easy reference. There are some hyperlinks in the book as well, but these are for internally zipping between sections where there’s a page reference; the table of contents, by contrast, has no hyperlinks. The book’s artwork is quite nice to behold, but presents a not-inconsiderable barrier to printing the book out. That may seem silly, since there’s always the option of buying the print version, but someone who wants to just print out part of the book might face some difficulties with ink usage. I know WotC doesn’t give us printer-friendly versions of their PDFs, but until they do I’m going to keep tagging them for that. With the PHB and the MM being almost totally packed with the game’s mechanical aspects, the DMG is arguably the only Core Rulebook ties it all together. That is, it talks about the “how” of playing the game that isn’t creating individual characters or monsters, but is more about how to mix all of the components together to actually play the game. The first two chapters lay this out fairly nicely, talking about the things you need to be a DM and run a game of D&D (though it was slightly disheartening to see that D&D Minis have been listed as a necessary component of playing the game). After this, a fairly significant portion of the book deals with encounters. Combat encounters, and how to build them appropriately, are given, along with information on non-combat encounters. This is where you’ll find information regarding things like cover, building a balanced encounter of monsters, or creating series of skill challenges. This is probably the section of the book that’s going to be used most often by 4E DMs, as the encounter and challenge design tables are very nearly a necessity to create balanced challenges for PCs. The third major section of the book is adventure design, which includes rewards for completing an adventure, and making campaigns. Topics such as how to tailor a published adventure, what monetary rewards characters can be given, and properly ending an established campaign are all covered. It’s towards the end that the DMG starts to move to more familiar topics. Here we get sections covering the various planes of existence, a greater overview of the various deities of evil, and a look at artifacts. Only artifacts have any crunch, with the planes and the gods being flavor descriptions, but the new method of handling artifacts is nice. All artifacts are sentient, with a suite of powers, and grant more or less powers as you move in and out of their good graces. Best of all, artifacts all have a way of removing themselves from characters’ possession as it suits them now. This is sure to have a lot of DMs from headaches when a PC never takes off the Invulnerable Coat of Arnd. The last parts of the book focus on things that the DM can tweak or create as necessary. Interestingly, the topic turns back to monsters as rules for customizing them – including a number of templates – are given here. This follows with rules for creating monsters, and NPCs, from scratch. Guidelines are even given to create house rules. The book then closes out with a sample town, Fallcrest, fully fleshed out and ready to go, even having a nearby dungeon that new adventurers can clean out. The new DMG does a decent job of showcasing why it earned its place among its more popular brethren. However, despite having some very good (and nearly vital) information regarding things such as encounter design and monster customization, it still hasn’t shed its status as the least necessary of the Core Rulebooks. Fourth Edition is the most tightly interwoven incarnation of the D&D game to date, but even so the DMG still feels like a really good supplement, rather than a necessary part of the game’s rules. It’s entirely possible to run a 4E game with just the PHB and MM now, though the DMG will certainly make it a lot easier. It’s in that ease of use, making things smoother for play, that the DMG holds its own. Dead of Winterby Black Death Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57417&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $5.99 $4.25 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Often, adventures by independent companies fall into two categories. Dreadfully boring romps that feel like it was written a few decades ago or wildly imaginative pieces that are quite imaginable but too over the top to run with an average group. To much surprise, the Dead of Winter at Bearhammer Hall by Blackdeath Publishing falls into the narrow chasm between two and into the pit of traditional fantasy with strong bursts of creativity. On the surface the adventure is one we have heard before. People are missing and the culprit is slowly revealed through a fast paced dungeoncrawl. And despite a twist here and there, the story does not divert too much from what you would expect. But like a sheep in wolf’s clothing, Dead of Winter’s talented writers craft such a good tale with their strong descriptions and tight editing that a group may have found lost children, sheep, doctors, merchants and warthogs in their past adventures and still would feel the all the exciting mystery and suspense of every NPC and encounter in the adventure. The writers also do a good job of placing DM tools and not getting wrapped up in their own story. There are explanations of the encounters, monster statics in early 3.5 format (my favorite format and the one most easily transferred into other sources) and extra encounters that can be thrown anywhere in the story. Dead of Winter is strikingly well produced. There are plenty of distinctly designed maps and artwork that capture of the feel of the land. Unfortunately there are no navigation tools, though the adventure is only a mere 29 pages, there are 5 parts to it. The world is also a bit tricky, taking place on another plane, though again this is easily adjusted. For the Dungeon Master The writers speak Dungeon Master English throughout the book as opposed to over the top Hemmingway type descriptions some books have. This made the adventure a more natural fit to the party. Often times a player can hear module a mile away because of language not normally heard at a game table. The Iron Word The Dead of Winter is a good side-trek adventure with an overt horror tone to it. The writers capture the feel of the region with crisp descriptions that create a suspenseful mood. The adventure does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, which makes me excited to read the next chapter. Dungeon Crawl Classics #1: Idylls of the Rat Kingby Goodman Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1787&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.99 $3.50 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Megan Robertson) Review An RPG Resource Review: This was the one that started Goodman Games's successful line of Dungeon Crawl Classics, in which they claimed to be attempting to create the feel of the original 'dungeon bash' adventures of early D&D. Despite the rather depressing introductary statement that stated the NPCs were merely there to be killed, the line has actually produced excellent role-playing adventures which combined the best parts of Dungeons & Dragons as it has evolved over time. In this adventure, a bunch of 1st-3rd level characters arrive (presumably while going about their own business) in the remote mining town of Silverton, whereupon their aid is enlisted to clean out a deserted mine full of rather nasty and aggressive wererat goblin bandits who have been making a nuisance of themselves in the area. Once your characters are in Silverton, three different ways are suggested for getting them involved - only one of which involves that stand-by of being approached in an inn. Indeed, the whole adventure is full of helpful suggestions for the DM, laid out clearly so that they are ready to hand just when you need them. A comprehensive, yet concise, backstory sets the scene for the DM, and provides him with local knowledge to let slip in conversation should the characters chat before rushing off to storm the mine. However, conversation over the beermugs is not why we are here, and the rest of the product consists of a whole four levels of abandoned silver mine to explore. Well, 'abandoned' by its original miners - there are plenty of others in residence who really don't want to be disturbed. Everyone has their reasons for being there, and their own plots and plans to be busy with, but they would rather attack intruders than debate with them. For each room, there is a clear description of the contents and inhabitants, with detailed directions as to how they will react and fight once the characters enter. A novice DM should feel confident with this level of support, while a more experienced one will be impressed with every detail being to hand when he needs it. If you are looking for a low-level adventure full of excitement and strenuous combat, in a well-designed situation where everyone has a good reason to fight, then look no further! Wizards of Shadowfellby Skortched Urf' Studios www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57404&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.25 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review I suspect that I, like others who first saw this product, were drawn to it because of the use of the word 'Shadowfell'. And I suspect as well that this intentional or unintentional 'marketing' has done its job, even though the product in question has little to do with anything related to Shadowfell or the newly released GSL game. In fact, Wizards of Shadowfell is a 14 page base class for the revised OGL rules, and provides an alternative to the standard wizard built along the lines of the wizards of literature like Gandalf or Merlin. This pdf is presented in the familiar style of Skorched Urf' Studios, and consists of a neat cover with good art, good layout and some excellent pieces of art scattered throughout the pdf. The writing and editing is good, and the product contains some solid mechanics that's well designed without being clumsy. I was generally impressed by the effort on the presentation side of things, and Skortched Urf Studios have done a grand job of producing a very presentable product. Wizards of Shadowfell presents a new 20 level base class, the Wizard of Shadowfell. This wizard is modeled after the powerful wizards of literature, and as such is both strong in magic but also handy when wielding a blade or in battle. The pdf provides an excellent introduction to the class, with some useful information on the concept behind the class, how it fits into a campaign world, the roleplaying opportunities and a brief comparison to the standard wizard. The pdf readily admits that the Wizard of Shadowfell is more powerful than the standard wizard, which does raise a few eyebrows since the high level standard wizard is already the most powerful class in the game. Nevertheless, this pdf does bring some interesting and refreshing new ideas to the game table, particularly the new mechanics of the class. Unlike the standard wizard, this Wizard of Shadowfell gains a new ability at each level, and these include a new spellcasting progression system, Lessons of the Arcane. This allows the wizard to cast lower level spells at will, while progressing largely the same at higher level. The at-will abilities are thankfully restricted by the wizard's rank in the Spellcraft skill. Other useful new mechanics include a wizard mount, various abilities that enhance the wizard's senses, improved BAB and hp, the ability to sense the use of magic, powerful summoning, various roleplaying restrictions, immortality, and the ultimate ability to cast spells with lightning speed. As can be seen from the list of impressive abilities, this makes for a very powerful class, and while the new mechanics is the product's strength, it is also its weakness. But given the design considerations and the aim of the project, that's probably what the product set out to do. Wizards of literature were insanely powerful, and this product has demonstrated that in spades. How well that concept works in game play over a table is another matter, but one that could work if handled carefully. Wizards of Shadowfell closes by providing a starting package and an epic level progression for the character class, rounding off a very complete, interesting, and generally well designed class barring the large power boost. I found this product interesting to read with a concept that would appeal to many. Handled carefully or modified to tone down the power, this would make a strong concept in a campaign world, both as PC and NPC. A solid product, with great presentation, good mechanics, and a strongly designed class.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 3, 2008 13:51:41 GMT -5
THE MONTH OF DARKNESS BEGINS NOW White Wolf and RPGNow.com join together through all of October to bring you special deals on the best of horror roleplaying.Click here to see all the titles in the New World of Darkness And we begin by offering you the world - the World of Darkness, that is! Enjoy a special additional discount of 20% off of all titles in the New World of Darkness line, and make sure to check back in a week to see what's offered on special next! CRY HAVOC - NO, CRY MALHAVOC! OCT 1st - 5th! In celebration of the upcoming release of the amazing free product, EARTHBLOOD (a fantastic d20 product featuring new feats, spells, and items as well as a fun tool DMs can use to spice up their fantasy campaigns and add a lot of flavor), Malhavoc is having a blowout sale on all their products. From October 1-5, you can get ALL of Malhavoc's products at an incredible 25% OFF! So now is the time to get all those wonderful Malhavoc Press books you've been dying to add to your collection, and while you're at it, grab a brand new FREE GIFT from Monte Cook! "DON'T BE A HALLOWEENIE!" Crucifiction Games Halloween Sale Crucifiction Games is proud to announce our "Don't Be A Halloweenie" Halloween Sale! Now's the time to dish out scares, screams and panicked pant-wettings on your players, and to help you we're putting our entire inventory on sale at a whopping 25% off during the month of October. This includes ALL Horror Rules books and supplements, from the core rules to every last Adventure Script. So what are you waiting for?! Find out why this quick-to-learn, easy-to-play horror-comedy RPG has earned 5-star reviews and traumatized gamers around the world... and get your players on that list! Once you've stocked up, though, just remember: scare responsibly... Publisher Product Discounts Caverns, Tunnels, and Caves: Volume 2 by The Fantasy Cartographic www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57976&it=1&discount=88569&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $1.75 Discount Price: $1.50 The Fantasy Cartographic is offering this discount on Caverns, Tunnels, and Caves: Volume 2 in anticipation of the upcoming release of our Battlemaps product line! If you are playing 4E, you NEED battlemaps. The first three Battlemaps releases will provide you with miniature-scaled maps for the 15 locations presented here. They are designed to be easy on the eyes and easy on your printer! Dungeon Dwellers' Fantasy Boardgame by Dungeon Dwellers' Guild Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=23530&it=1&discount=7118&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $1.00 Discount Price: $1.00 PRESS RELEASE 09/12/2008: After 5 years of living the dream that is indie RPG publishing, Dungeon Dwellers' Guild Games has decided to close its doors. As of October 1st, 2008, development and distribution of all products from this publisher will cease. As a last hoorah we are reducing the price on absolutely all of our products, large and small, to $1. The time to act is now. In a few weeks, these products will be only a memory. The Deft Fighter by Thomas W. Simpson www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57889&it=1&discount=48640&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $5.00 Discount Price: $2.50 Give your players more options for fighters!!! This feat lets them perform special opposed skill checks (called Fighter Tricks) that can add wonderful benefits, or nasty penalties - - - the dice will decide! 24 pre-written Fighter Tricks to choose from and more! Thanks to eveyone for feedback - - and more Deft Fighter may be in the works! Lady's Rock by Erisian Entertainment www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57982&it=1&discount=1261&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $14.95 Discount Price: $5.00 Erisian Entertainment has just released the second edition of its d 10 based RPG. It's scheduled to hit the store shelves in November of this year, but you can get your hands on it before then for a fraction of cover price. Rooks' Haven by Erisian Entertainment www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=23816&it=1&discount=57510&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $12.95 Discount Price: $5.00 In addition to releasing a new edition of our core rule book, we've released an updated version of our Rooks' Haven city sourcebook. Come visit the city founded by pirates and ruled by thieves. Deck O' Names - Japanese by Tabletop Adventures, LLC www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=23621&it=1&discount=82647&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $7.50 Discount Price: $6.00 Tired of Japanese character names that sound like cars or food? Generate authentic Japanese names on the fly! Create male and female first names, family names, and place names, suitable for both modern and historical periods. Also includes details on Japanese naming customs and culture to add to the feel of your game. Buy it Today, Play it Tonight! Fractal Mapper v8.0 by NBOS Software www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=28465&it=1&discount=80982&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $34.95 Discount Price: $27.95 To celebrate Fractal Mapper 8's first year, NBOS Software is offering a special 20% discount on our flagship map-making program for gamers, Fractal Mapper 8. That's a savings of $7 off the regular price! The Hot Chicks Art Book by Dakkar Unlimited www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=23402&it=1&discount=19193&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $24.95 Discount Price: $12.48 Because You Can Never Get Enough Hot Chicks!Follow the link below to get our HOT CHICKS Art Book for only $12.,48 - HALF OFF the list price!108 Pages of full size, full color graphics from our Paper Minatures sets "HOT CHICKS 1" and "HOT CHICKS 2: A Space Fantasy!"CLICK HERE FOR YOUR DISCOUNT!These models have been featured prominently in our flagship product "HOT CHICKS; The Roleplaying Game."Really... can you ever have enough Hot Chicks? Medieval Bestiary: Anthropophagi by Alea Publishing Group www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57723&it=1&discount=36192&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $1.75 Discount Price: $1.50 Enter the world of dark horror and prepare your heroes to combat against authentic medieval creatures of myth and fantasy. The Medieval Bestiary line of products empowers Game Masters to enliven any adventure or encounter by bringing truly ghastly monsters to life. Medieval Bestiary: Anthropophagi features a cannibalistic race of fiends with a voracious hunger for flesh and the means necessary to enslave the living or undead to later gnaw on their bones. Newest Free Products Space Frontier: Ship Interior Free Addon by Ranum Graphics www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58363&it=1&SRC=newsletterA free addon for your Space Frontier: Ship Interior tiles. You get four maintenance tiles to add more variety to your tabletop gaming needs. All tiles are 300 dpi for the best detail and are geared for the 1 inch square based miniatures. Signs & Portents 61 by Mongoose www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58355&it=1&SRC=newsletterIn this month's issue; Conan: Pygmies of the Hyborian Age, a new race for the Conan RPG. Gangs of Mega-City One: The Bite-Fighter, a new specialist for especially vicious gangs. Traveller: Adapt and Overcome, a complete scenario pitting the players a... Silver Gryphon Monthly - October 2008 by Silver Gryphon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58347&it=1&SRC=newsletterSilver Gryphon Monthly is a newsletter showcasing the products of Silver Gryphon Games and of select other publishers, artists, writers, editors, and freelancers from around the world. It cuts to the core of the Silver Gryphon mantra; gaming is for ... Template Freebie by Sade www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58326&it=1&SRC=newsletterMy second freebie. Enjoy. A4 Size, 300 DPiFor Personal use only. Check my other templates: AND MORE GM-fu: Session Prep by Tabletop Adventures, LLC www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58076&it=1&SRC=newsletterNow, the Masters of GM-fu present their secrets of Session Preparation! Successful session planning requires inspiration and execution. We will help with both! Learn how to foster ideas, mine tropes from TV and movies, and tailor content to your players w... Newest Products Classical Hack: Ancient Warfare 600 BC to 600 AD Second Edition by LMW Works www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58373&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $24.00 Classical Hack: Ancient Warfare 600 B.C. to 600 A.D. Rules Designed with the Historical Gamer in Mind... What this volume is to the Historical Gamer •Unabridged •Fast Play Game System •Historical Approach •Period Orientation &bu... MonkeyGod Presents: At the Edge of Dreams by Highmoon Media Productions www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58372&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.00 Highmoon Media Productions and MonkeyGod Enterprises present At the Edge of Dreams.The body of a Faean lord is found skewered by an iron lance, one of his retinue surviving long enough to whisper, "Mortals" An entire human family is found ruthle... Animated by Radioactive Press www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58371&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.50 The cartoons have escaped from the land of two-dimensions into our world. Now the world is in total chaos as the cartoons perform their unique brand of comedy. The world may never be boring again. Animated allows players to create characters from their ow... Castles & Crusades: Aendryth's Eldritch Compendium by Adventure Games Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58370&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.50 Aendryth's Eldritch Compendium is the title of a thick black tome of spells arcane, unusual formulae, and strange magic items developed and written by a mighty wizard known as Aendryth the Eldritch Wizard, or simply, “The Eldritch,” who kn... Atomic Super Humans by Radioactive Press www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58367&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.99 In the late 50’s a scientist studying the affects of radiation on the survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki discovered a new virus that could cause mutations in plants and animals. He later discovered that this virus was responsible for... Newest Staff Reviews PC Pearls by Goodman Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57424&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.99 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review I’ve always felt somewhat leery of products that were entirely fluff-based. When I bought an RPG book, I wanted it to do the heavy-lifting for me in terms of game mechanics; to calculate numbers and invent new crunch for me to tinker with. Fluff, I felt, was something I could do on my own. Why pay for a book filled with things that I could just as easily invent on an imaginative whim? With PC Pearls, however, Goodman Games comes back with some answers – namely that it’s fun, it’s convenient, and sometimes there’ll be things that I honestly wouldn’t have thought of. PC Pearls is aptly named, in that the book covers the broad ranges of an RPG player-character (from creation to retirement) and drops little pearls of information regarding each stage. Often told by the Lord Bedlam Havok, many of these parables are humorous, often poking fun at the conventions that RPG players have adopted for years (for example, don’t ever tell the GM that your PC is eating a meal; that’s presenting an opportunity for the GM to screw with you). Others are surprisingly useful tips and additions that are great advice for when in-game…my next character, for example, will absolutely be taking advantage of the professional services of the Grennar family. Of course, there are also some articles that I found less than eminently useful. In many cases, these turned out to be the humor articles, where use had been traded for laughs, something I don’t particularly care for – after all, something useful now tends to be useful again later, but few jokes are as funny the Nth time around. Similarly, the book has several lists that are meant to be used when fleshing out a character (e.g. backgrounds). I’ve honestly never liked those very much; I’ve yet to meet a player who was so bereft of narrative drama that he couldn’t dream up three sentences about how his character became an adventurer, which is what most of these lists tend to consist of. That said, it’s a given that not all pearls will be perfectly formed. However, this book definitely has more good pearls than bad. I loved the article on how to set up a successful ambush. The list of yes/no questions to ask the gods when you’re able to speak to them was quite brilliant, and the section on basic items no adventurer should be without made me nostalgic for the days of ye olde-schoole. Ultimately, I found myself grinning as I flipped through the pages of the book, making mental notes for the things my next character could use, and biting back a chuckle or two at the more amusing parts of it. It may require some buffing, but PC Pearls is something you’ll find quite valuable. Master Dungeons M1: Dragora's Dungeon by Goodman Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57977&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $7.99 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Master Dungeons M1: Dragora's Dungeon is a 50 page pdf adventure for the new 4e GSL game. This adventure is the first in Goodman Games' Master Dungeons series, a series of adventures for more experienced players where the characters get to face epic challenges and become legends themselves. This first adventure is for 1st level characters, and sees the characters explore the realm of the long-lost sorcerer-kings of Parhok to save their kingdom from an ancient magic. This adventure comes as a single pdf file. Like all of Goodman Games' products, the presentation is very professional and well done, with high quality art, layout, writing and general presentation and direction in the product. The front cover has an excellent Larry Elmore look to it (and is perhaps slightly suggestive for younger readers), and the product organisation and structure make it easy to navigate and obtain everything needed to run the adventure. Details on scaling the adventure and plot hooks are provided to get the DM started quickly and easily, while the background details provided allow the DM to always have the adventure story fresh in his mind. An excellent presentation all round. The premise behind the Master Dungeons series is to create adventures that are grand and epic, the kind of adventures that if succeeded will create heroes and legends from the characters. This is an exciting prospect as the adventures will most likely be grand in scope and vision allowing a high fantasy series of adventures where characters achieve something epic and meaningful on a campaign scale. Whether this premise is suitable to 1st level characters is up for debate, though. If your opinion is that it isn't then this adventure will most likely fall flat at the first hurdle during the introduction, but if you're a fan of high fantasy and epic battles and adventures, then this is an adventure that will create heroes from 1st level PCs (or at least more hero-like than the 4e GSL rules envisage 1st level PCs to be like). The adventure starts with an assassination attempt that the PCs manage to hopefully thwart, and at the same time uncover powerful magic at work in their kingdom. From there the PCs have to track the assassin, and so plunge themselves into the heart of the lost kingdom of the sorcerer-kings - Parhok. There they delve into the ruins of an ancient land, and uncover a forgotten race of ape-like beings, the zain-kin. Through careful and devious interaction with the zain-kin, and very clever thinking, the PCs can uncover the true masters of the plot to unleash an army into the kingdom, and hopefully they have the power to foil it. Like most of Goodman Games previous offering for the d20 OGL edition of the game, large parts of this adventure are an elaborate and intricate dungeon crawl. What sets this adventure, and indeed this dungeon crawl, apart from its predecessors, though, is the cleverness of the encounters, and the way in which each encounter is designed to make sure the characters and players think. Players that are not on their toes will not survive, particularly when it comes to finding the city of the zain-kin and the interactions between the three factions of the zain-kin. The zain-kin are probably the meat of the adventure, and allow PCs to get embroidered in a complex setup of three zain-kin factions, their gods, religion and their beliefs. Careless PCs will easily get themselves killed by simply being outnumbered by the zain-kin, and careful deliberation, subterfuge, deceit and diplomacy will be required. This will make for an interesting adventure for players and their characters. For the DM the adventure will most likely require a little more work. While the dungeon aspects are fairly straightforward, the interaction with the zain-kin will require a little more preparation and work. Each faction's beliefs and motives are spelt out, but to make those work within the overall scope of the adventure and without getting the PCs killed fairly easily will take some careful thought and planning. This is a good adventure from Goodman Games. There's a little bit of everything in the product, and a good combination of roleplaying and combat. The encounters are more tactical in nature, and there's plenty of room for innovation and creative action. There is a lot of combat, though, in places, which can grow a little tedious, and the encounters with the zain-kin in their city need to be handled carefully while not giving the PCs the impression that an escape route is available should they need it. Make no mistake, this adventure can kill, and quickly, and only the clever PCs will survive. This fits in nicely with the premise behind the Master Adventures, though I wouldn't be averse to allowing 2nd level rather than 1st level PCs to pass through Dragora's dungeon. Another good offering from the masters of adventures. Enemies of NeoExodus: Folding Circle by LPJ Design www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58061&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.99 $4.99 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review If you open up your Websters and look up the phrase, “grow on you” I am convinced that you will find a picture of a big hulking figure of some minotaur looking creature with gold hoop nipple rings and the term NeoExodus written somewhere in the passage. The Enemies of NeoExodus is a new line in the NeoExodus books introducing villains affiliated with and outside of the first ones. The Folding Circle, is the first line of these books and presenting a criminal organization bent on achieving their twisted view of justice. Folding Circle presents a band of five villains who make up the folding circle. Their henchmen consist of Enuka (the NeoExodus war like orc race) and the occasional undead. Each villains receives an extensive treatment, exploring their motives and 5 versions of the villain from 4th level to 20th. Though they all make up the same band, the villains motives are quite different. The leader, and the villain you first meet through the lengthy prose introduction is Makesh, a barbarian leader cursed by a dark portal created by the Gods. He now appears more of an earth elemental and follows a strict code of law. His allies are The Destroyer, a violent Enuka who leads the foot soldiers; Emok a prymdian (half-demon) woman who revels in death; Nysska, the political schemer and Haru, a creature composed of the pain and suffering of thousands. What the 52-page PDF does well is put the NPCs and their organization into a helpful context for the Dungeon Master. All of the NPCs have 2 or 3 paragraphs explaining the interests and diplomatic wants of each one. A section following the descriptions discusses the relationship the creatures have with the other organizations and races in the NeoExodus world. Mechanically forging relationships with these individuals shows in the form of Protégé feats. Feats given to those who have favor with one or more of the Folding Circle. For the Dungeon Master The NeoExodus world is a fascinating world that is unlike any other Dungeons and Dragons world I have experienced. Its exotic races, enemies, wars and politics is so alien that it will be a fun undertaking for a group tired of the mundane. For a DM in a traditional setting, it is a great resource to shake up a campaign. Folding Circle’s enemies are the type of exotic roving gang that will make a splash in any game world. The history of the group may need to be tweaked slightly (ignoring any references to NeoExodus landmarks), but there is no reason that this band of misfits could not exist in a Goralon or an Eberron. The Iron Word The Folding Circle has some organization problems as I found it difficult at first to find the purpose for the organization. I would also like to see some of their current exploits in print. Still, the history, motivations and design of these characters are just plain evil and can make a formidable ongoing advisory for a party. The Great City Campaign Setting by 0one Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57932&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Campaign settings centered around a particular city or small region are a special kind of campaign setting for a specific type of gamer. This gamer often forgoes the world exploration and dungeon hopping romps of a world campaign setting in lue of intricate political schemes and lost haunts within and surrounding a large city. For the gamer looking for an expansive city to adventure, 0Ones Games presents The Great City Setting. The Campaign Setting is a well crafted anthology of regions composed of the talented writers at werecabbage, headed by notable RPG Adventure writer Tim Hitchcock. The setting is designed for the 3.5 edition and compatible systems. The biggest fear about City Adventures is that there will not be enough to do. One of my early D&D Campaigns consisted of waking up in the city, talking to the governor and then heading off to the underdark for the day. The city was uneventful and the NPCs lacked any color. The writers of the Great City avoid this pitfall. With the writing spread out, each region feels alive like its own world with Hitchcock skillfully applying the glue to make it all cohesive. The 162 page PDF starts off with a strong introduction and almost too lengthy history and moves into the description of the various wards. The city history revolves around the Azindraleans and the Great City that was conquered by the Kortezians. The tension between the two sides is evident throughout each region. Each region is divided into subsections of special interests, power groups, important NPCs, keyed locations, adventure opportunities and adventure locations. Each also has a detailed map of the area. The regions or Wards, step away from what is too be expected. There are no merchant wards or noble wards. Instead the wards appear to be more organic, generating from the back-story of the occupation. There is the Army Ward, where the major armed forces reside; the Castle Ward, where the elite live and the government offices lie; The Dock Ward, where merchant ships and the large navy dwell; The Residential Ward, housing roving gangs and common citizens who secretly plan rebellion; the Temple Ward, constituting a number of faiths and the Trade Ward, an area similar to a merchant area with a strong blackmarket feel to it. The Great City does not simply hand you the keys and drop you off at the door, it provides you an introductory adventure to ease your players into the world as well as a list of creatures unique to the setting. For the Player City Campaigns are great places for players who like campaigns with more of a political edge to it. The NPCs in the Wards seem to come to life on the pages. For the Dungeon Master The most creative parts of the book are the Adventuring Hook descriptions of the Wards. Sure there is a large dungeon nearby, but instead of resting solely on that, the Wards include a lot of other places for the PCs to find trouble. The Underscore, located in the Traders Ward, is a fun, moody place to flesh out an adventure and stood out as one of my favorites. The Iron Word 0Ones is more known for their amazing map cartography, however, they score a home run with their first campaign setting. There are a few typos, but never to the point of distraction. The Great City offers a far different setting that creates a dynamic city with a wealth of material to take a party from levels 1 to 20. The history is very intriguing, though a bit too long in many places, it does benefit the story and add to the richness of the campaign. Counter Collection 4th Edition Heroic 1 by Fiery Dragon www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57445&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $35.00 $10.00 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review 4th Edition has been around for several months now, and one could almost say that the new edition wouldn't be complete without some artwork and counters from artist Claudio Pozas and Fiery Dragon Productions. Counter Collection 4th Edition Heroic 1 presents hundreds of counters for the Heroic tier of the 4th edition GSL game from the talented mind of Claudio Pozas. This 19 page pdf product presents one inch square counters for every 4e GSL creature from levels 1 to 10, and includes both new artwork, older artwork that's been updated, and several pieces of work from previous counter collections. The counter total in the product is a staggering 656 counters, of which there are 223 unique images. This product does not contain digital copies of the counters - digital images will be released later this year in the announced Counter Collection Digital v3.0. This product comes as a single pdf file, in which 17 of the products 19 pages are devoted to the artwork and counters. Counters are organised by level, starting with level 1 creatures and ending with level 10 creatures. Each page contains a header indicating the level, and the names of the creatures on the page are provided in text at the bottom of the page. This is probably not the best way to identify the counters, since you'd need to count the counters while scanning the text below to check the name of a creature counter contained in the middle of the sheet, which is somewhat time consuming and clumsy. However, I understand that this is likely required to ensure the maximum number of counters per page for easy printing. It would also be useful to have improved spacing between the counters to make then easier to cut out without blotching the line between the counters. The product contains no bookmarks. Overall, a well presented product, though I have very minor reservations about the organisation. As far as the content and artwork is concerned, this product cannot be faulted, really. The artist presents some vivid and richly detailed images of the various GSL heroic creatures, and some that are truly stunning. Colours are vibrant and vivid, giving the counters impact when placed on the gaming table. There's such a huge selection of counters in this product, that most counters can double for all sorts of other creatures that your characters will face while adventuring. This product offers excellent utility, providing a way to create as many counters of any type of heroic creature you want to. The counters themselves are square - some might prefer to have round counters, but I think the square ones are fine. There's a lot to like about this product - high quality artwork, excellent variety, good quantities of counters, attention to detail and great overall utility. The product also offers good value for money. My only minor reservation is about the organisation, with something like a table of contents and bookmarks would've improved. Even something as simple as a numbered grid would help to more easily identify creatures in the middle of a sheet. I think this is an extremely useful product, and almost a must-have for any gaming group that uses battlemaps. Excellent product, great artwork, and great utility.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 21, 2008 17:37:18 GMT -5
THE MONTH OF DARKNESS GOES ON... White Wolf and DriveThruRPG.com join together through all of October to bring you special deals on the best of horror roleplaying. This week takes us to the creepy and strange world of CHANGELING: THE LOST. Living lives of tragic pasts and hunted futures, the Lost know a special kind of horror. You'll know a special kind of savings if you buy now! Don't forget to check back in a week to see what's offered on special next!! See all the Changeling: the Lost titles by clicking here. FEAR THE NIGHT... BUT DO NOT FEAR THE SAVINGS! In celebration of All Hallows Eve, RPGNow.com is happy to guide you down the dark, dangerous path towards terrifying savings on the creepiest of products. Hey, it's a holiday! Of COURSE we're gonna have sales, and of course we're gonna use thematic words to exploit the holiday theme! To do otherwise would be frightfully stupid! FAT DRAGON GIVES YOU A BIG FAT TREAT! Have you always wanted to have a gorgeous and fully 3D dungeon on your table for game night? Or perhaps you need a castle for the PCs to storm. If you've every thought about trying 3D and 2D card stock terrain here is your chance. The Fat Dragon Sampler Pack gives you several sample models to try out, previews of many of our fantasy sets, and valuable coupons for major savings on some of our most popular model sets. Try us out now, completely risk free and well...for FREE! TAKE YOUR 4TH EDITION GAME TO THE NEXT LEVEL! Advance your 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game with Advanced Player's Guide, written by one of the most experienced Dungeons & Dragons writers Ari Marmell. Prepare yourself for 112 pages of 3 new races, 5 new classes, 20 new paragon paths, new feats, new rituals, optional rules for crafting and lingering wounds, and over 300 new powers! Races The Earth Gnomes - Miners, wanderers, and tricksters who dwell either in the wilds or underground, often underestimated until it is far too late. Orc-Blooded - Wild and savage warriors, often bestial yet capable of great nobility. Shire Halflings - Small, practical people with a wanderlust that sometimes overcomes their distaste for adventure and their love of comfort. Classes Martial Artist - ”You wear your steel on your body. I wear mine in my soul.” Paragon Path Master of Flowers - ”Safety in numbers? It’s an illusion. Watch.” Paragon Path Master of the Four Winds - “The victorious combatant never allows the foe an opportunity to strike back.” Paragon Path Stickfighter - ”This? This isn’t a weapon. This is just my walking stick...” Paragon Path Unseen Ninja - ”You won’t see me coming, won’t hear my footsteps. Death walks unseen, and I am death.” And many, many more classes, Paragon Paths, and other incredible additions to your 4E gaming experience! CHECK OUT THIS GREAT CONTEST, OFFERING RPGNOW PRIZES! The You Meet In a Tavern "Can You Scare Us?" Contest! With Halloween fast approaching the YMIAT staff wants to be scared! Do you have what it takes to terrify us? Can you design a horrifying monster or villain? If so, enter our "Can You Scare Us?" Halloween contest and you'll have the chance to win $15 or $25 in gift certificates from RGPNow.com! A MESSAGE FROM JOSEPH GOODMAN OF GOODMAN GAMES... I have expanded my “The End Is Near” sale to include ALL my old d20 products, so the 50% sale price now applies not just to Dungeon Crawl Classics, but also to Judges Guild, Wicked Fantasy Factory, Xcrawl, Complete Guide, and all my other 3.5 products! And watch for the Goodman Games referral program, coming next week! AND FROM OUR DRIVETHRUCOMICS FRIENDS - GIRL GENIUS SECRET BLUEPRINTS! The Original Secret Blueprints! This teaser volume was released just before the debut of Phil and Kaja Foglio’s critically acclaimed story: Girl Genius. It includes lots of background details and character illustrations, with entries on: the World of Girl Genius, Agatha, the Clays, Dr. Beetle, Merlot, Glassvitch, Klaus, Gil, Boris, the Jägers, clanks, Castle Wulfenbach, VonPInn, Wooster, Krosp, Othar, Bang and von Zinzer. It also includes brief historical notes and a glossary. Gaming fans all around the world will recognize the art stylings and the wit of the Foglios (Phil & Dixie, anyone!), and the Girl Genius universe is just the kind of place that gamers and comics fans alike cannot help but fall in love with! Publisher Product Discounts Against the Darkness by Tabletop Adventures, LLC www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=12523&it=1&discount=53454&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $9.00 Discount Price: $8.50 Do you have what it takes to stand Against the Darkness? Try it now, at 15% off! This Halloween, strike back against the supernatural horrors that threaten the world! Armed with miraculous powers, help protect humanity against unspeakable evils in this exciting game of modern Vatican horror and investigation. E-Z DUNGEONS: Basic Set by Fat Dragon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=19605&it=1&discount=461&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $11.04 Discount Price: $10.99 Fat Dragon Games is proud to present 'E-Z DUNGEONS', the most flexible 3D card dungeon set ever designed and silver winner of the 2007 ENnie Award for Best Miniature Product. This base set features over 35 models that allow you to build virtually any dungeon you can imagine. Try it now with this great discount for $2.00 off the regular price. HOUR OF GLORY: Stronghold Kit by Warm Acre www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58182&it=1&discount=96516&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $19.95 Discount Price: $10.00 We would like to offer all Wargames Vault regular customers a special price of only $10.00 (RRP $19.95) for a limited time of our popular WW2 game - Hour of Glory - Enter into a world of espionage and clandestine warfare. While the Allies prepare to liberate fortress Europe, a small team of spies must investigate reports of an atomic weapon being developed in a Stronghold deep behind enemy lines. Newest Free Products Ghostories: Exit Music by Precis Intermedia www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58539&it=1&SRC=newsletterWho is the Child? Who is the Other? And how are they linked to the werewolf? Find out in this free classic Halloween adventure, now updated for use specifically with Ghostories. It includes 4 ready-to-use characters, but can also be played with existing o... Fat Dragon Games Sampler Pack by Fat Dragon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58536&it=1&SRC=newsletterHave you always wanted to have a gorgeous and fully 3D dungeon on your table for game night? Or perhaps you need a castle for the PCs to storm. If you've every thought about trying 3D and 2D card stock terrain here is your chance. The Fat Dragon Sampl... Dungeon Crawler Criticals and Fumbles Collection I by Emerald Giant www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58534&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis Dungeon Crawler Collection is a free sample of items generated by Emerald Giant's Dungeon Crawler software. The Dungeon Crawler program allows players and GMs to generate classic dungeon crawls on the computer, exploring dungeons room-b... BAM! Basic Action Magazine #3 by Basic Action Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58531&it=1&SRC=newsletterIn this issue: To the Rescue: Bricks-- Tips and Tricks to make your big bruisers into effective team players. New Powers Teamwork RulesMystery Men: Pulp-Era superheroes for BASH! Info on the BASH! Sci-Fi UpdatesCapital Ship Showdown rules-- for one-on-one... FREE HACK Issue One by Ganesha Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58277&it=1&SRC=newsletterFREE HACK is a free PDF magazine focusing on Ganesha Games products. Issue one includes a scenario, two new fantasy races, and pages of FAQ and rule clarifications on Song of Blades and Heroes and Mutants and Death Ray Guns Newest Products Advanced Player's Guide Power Card Pack by Expeditious Retreat Press www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58538&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $7.00 Advanced Player's Guide Power Card Pack contains all the new powers found in the Advanced Player's Guide, including racial powers, class features and powers, and paragon path powers. The color-coded cards are 2.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches t... All Hallows Eve: Devils and Imps by One Monk Miniatures www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58537&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.95 Set of 5 Devils and 5 Imps. Classically designed Devils and Imps to torment your players. The Devils are 30mm tall and are armed with pitchforks. The Imps are 20mm tall and are unarmed, but are still bloody nasty little buggers. These are great classicall... DRAGON TILES: Mega Bundle [BUNDLE] by Fat Dragon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58533&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $59.93 $51.93 THIS IS A BUNDLE PRODUCT. WHEN BUYING THIS ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE SEPARATE DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR EACH PRODUCT LISTED BELOW... DRAGON TILES: CavernsPRICE: $8.99SALE: $7.99 Dragon Tiles add a new dimension to boring miniature tiles...literally. We... Zombies Want Fluffy by Veritas Games Company www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58532&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $5.00 Zombies Want Fluffy™ is an exciting two-player head-to-head board game where shambling undead horrors meet Fluffy, the adorable family dog. Each game takes 20 to 60 minutes to play, and features a tense, surprise-filled chase mechan... Secrets of Sarlona by Wizards of the Coast www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58527&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $29.95 Secrets of Sarlona explores the continent of Sarlona for the first time. It gives players and Dungeon Masters their first real glimpse inside the empire of Riedra, home of the Inspired and the kalashtar. It also explores the mysteries of Adar, a nation is... Newest Staff Reviews Post-Apocalyptic Dispatch (#19): The Slaver Advanced by RPG Objects www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58405&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.25 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review The flesh trade is one of the most pivotal aspects of making any game grim-n-gritty. It immediately showcases that the campaign isn’t going to duck the uglier issues, and puts a more mature, more dark spin on things. After all, killing monsters and taking their stuff is one thing, but finding a thriving economy based around the buying and selling of sentient creatures is quite another. Of course, in such an economy, there’ll be people who specialize in the acquisition and training of such “merchandise.” Enter the Slaver advanced class. Like all of the “Dispatch” series from RPGObjects, this product is a short one, being five pages in length (one of those pages being the OGL). The book opens with some grim (and slightly gruesome) flavor text showcasing the capture of a new slave. Following this are a few brief paragraphs about the kind of circumstances in an area that give rise to a Slaver, and some text about what sorts of character builds make best use of this advanced class. A full 10-level class, the Slaver uses the Modern d20 rules, and isn’t Darwin’s World-specific. In fact, there’s no reason this class needs to be post-apocalyptic at all, as it’s certainly feasible to have such a character existing in the contemporary world, or possibly even the past. The class itself is based less around the process of capturing slaves, than it is about their training and breaking. The class abilities are both colorful and balanced (save for the mindcrusher ability, which has no cap on the total bonus it can grant), granting things like a small pool of obedient slaves the Slaver can command, or even the ability to change a slave’s allegiances! At the same time, the flavor text in the ability descriptions are minimal, meaning that the text never becomes uncomfortably detailed regarding the “how” of the Slaver’s slave-training abilities. Overall, I found myself rather impressed with this advanced class. Save for the single mechanical problem mentioned previously, all of the class mechanics are well-done, being both innovative and colorful, as well as balanced. The flavor for the class is a bit on the sparse side, but there’s still enough here to thoroughly convey what it’s about and how it works best. Clearly, this is a class that will be regulated mostly to NPCs, but it helps fill a small but important niche in that regard. If your Modern campaign has a slave trade, the Slaver is an excellent addition. Caverns, Tunnels, and Caves: Battlemaps 3 by The Fantasy Cartographic www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58330&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $10.90 $8.30 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Caverns, Tunnels, and Caves: Battlemaps 3 is the latest set of battlemaps from The Fantasy Cartographic. This product is the third set of cavern and cave battlemaps released in this product line, and features 5 complete maps of different subterranean locations, including one-inch scale versions of each of the maps. The large-scale maps are taken directly from TFC's product Caverns, Tunnels, and Caves: Vol 2, although that product is not required to use this one. This product is suitable for any gaming system where one-inch scale battlemaps are required. The product comes as a single 109 page pdf file. The product is organised by presenting a large-scale map (DM's map), followed by a sectioned large-scale map indicating the locations of each one-inch scale section, and lastly the one-inch scale map sections. This pattern repeats for the five different locations presented in this product. A brief outline of the product is provided to allow you to jump right in and start printing these maps. All maps are black and white, which assists in saving ink on printing, but at the same time naturally doesn't look as impressive on the gaming table. One useful feature for such a large pdf that's been left out is bookmarks - to find, for example, the third of the five maps, you have to actually scan through the pdf using the table of contents for a page number. Bookmarks would've made this a lot easier. The battlemaps presented in this product are fairly generic and old-school, the latter in the sense of them being simply caverns with no distinguishing features or other details of note. In fact, these maps are simply grids with caverns carved into them to form a larger battlemap. This kind of approach has both its advantages and its disadvantages, the latter being that they don't look that great, while for the former you're allowed maximum customization. I think both approaches have their merits, and although I haven't seen the product these maps were drawn from, I can only image that they will have more use if used with that product and any adventure hooks or plot details. Each map contains about 20 sections with each section being 9 by 7 inches. Sections between different maps cannot really be joined together to form new maps. The cavern and cave maps each contain up to about ten possible locations that can be fleshed out to fill with encounters or possible key areas. Having looked through the maps there's plenty of scope to be creative, and I think any DM interested in these maps should be aware that using them will require extra work since they are generic in the most basic sense. I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't have been easier to simply create a set of tiles that can actually be joined together to create any kind of map rather than only the ones presented here. While these are certainly unique, a little added versatility would've been really useful. I think in the long run one-inch scale generic cavern tiles that can be used to create hundreds of different caverns go a lot further than those that can only be used to create 5 maps. I think this is a useful but fairly average product. It offers a lot in the area of customization and allows one full scope for creativity, but at the other doesn't offer much in terms of versatility or presentability of the individual tiles. Essentially this product is a quick and dirty way of creating a battlemap with no frills attached. Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide by Wizards of the Coast www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57376&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $39.95 $27.97 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review The Forgotten Realms have long since risen to become the campaign world that most people think of when they talk about Dungeons & Dragons. Having long since supplanted Greyhawk, and still more familiar than Eberron, the Realms are the most familiar, and successful, of the established D&D campaigns. This book, the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, serves to bring the setting up to the Fourth Edition of the game. Those familiar with the setting from its previous incarnations will immediately notice that this book is referred to as a campaign “guide” rather than a campaign “setting.” While that’s a minor change, I feel that it nicely encapsulates the feeling that this book gives off – this is more like a gazetteer that gives you an overview of the setting, rather than a whole-hearted setting for a game world. Now, in all honesty, that’s somewhat inevitable, being that the book is only three hundred pages long and has a huge amount of ground to cover, but it still comes off as somewhat unsatisfying, especially given that this is one of only three FR-specific books that WotC is making in 4E (and of the other two, one is an adventure). Added to this is the fact that the book needs to simultaneously introduce the world to new players, while at the same time covering the one hundred year time-skip made since the previous edition for the established players. The favor is clearly given towards the former, as there are a lot of mysteries and details about what’s changed that aren’t touched on here. Again, I can appreciate that the book simply had too much to do – it would have felt short at twice the length – but it still feels frustrating. The Realms are known for the rich amount of detail they give us on such a wide variety of topics that being given so little on those topics here is almost maddening. Tell us more than just two or three paragraphs on Elminster’s current status; how was Cyric able to get the drop on Mystra and kill her? There’s so much more than what’s given here. The book still tries, of course. Quite literally half of it is spent covering the various nations and lands of the world, giving them brief descriptions (from one to six pages) and trying its best to describe both the history, current sketch, and more. And of course, there are (too small) sections devoted to things such as the various planes of existence, the gods, eminent organizations, and more. In fact, the book is quite a bit more fluff than crunch, as it only gives a few new monsters, some basic overviews of magical features (such as the spellplague), and an entire chapter on a city called Loudwater – another nod to new players, as its clearly meant to be a starting location. Overall, I wanted to like the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide more than I did. Ultimately, though, the book is like a single employee manning the Starbucks during the noon rush – it just had too much on its plate to do. Clearly, it’s trying to pack an entire product line’s worth of information and playability between its covers, and its just not up to the task. Ultimately, everything is covered only sparsely, and what’s left out is unlikely to be seen again until the next edition (notwithstanding updates given out as part of WotC’s DDI). In fact, were it not for the fact that the timeline has advanced so drastically and changed so much, the book likely wouldn’t be very necessary to running a 4E Forgotten Realms game at all. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide is ultimately very honest in what it is – a guide and not a setting – and that’s the saddest part about the book. Forgotten Heroes: Fang, Fist, and Song by Goodman Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58439&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review If there was one company that could make the board game heavy /RPG-lite role playing system 4th edition playable, it would have to be a long established company with a history of producing products for Dungeons and Dragons that went against the grain of marketing gimmicks. And thus finally after Wizards of the Coast solved their original Licensing gaffu, Goodman Games produces Forgotten Heroes: Fang, Fist and Song. Having finally read the complete book and playtesting it at the 2008 Gencon, Forgotten Heroes gives 4th edition the Dungeons and Dragons makeover it so heavily needed by bringing back classic archetypes such as the bard, barbarian, the monk and the druid. It was one of those cases of not missing something until it is gone. 4th editions urge to make a new hotness system deleted the four staples of RPGs and replaced with the likes of warlords and warlocks. The Iconic warrior barbarians, charismatic bards, disciplined monks and nature druids were left to be used as marketing tools for buying more books. If the current line of accessories are any indication, its doubtful that WOTC will be able to reproduce the creativity and strength of the classes in Forgotten Heroes. At 90 pages, it is obviously not a simple collection of 3 new classes. Instead Forgotten Heroes takes aim at putting 4th edition into a traditional fantasy setting, introducing an optional campaign setting that DMs can use to segway their players into a traditional RPG Setting. The setting revolves around a great apocalypse that presumably destroys the current setting. After the world is set, each of the three classes is given an in depth treatment. Described in great detail is the class’s power source, and reason for its role. The description scripts how the class plays a role in the world and thankfully does not treat the reader as inept. Nowhere will you read “Play a Barbarian if you like to say “Ugh” a lot and scream.” Instead the writing is creatively tight and speaks to any fan of role playing games. At no time is Forgotten Heroes ashamed of being a role playing game. The entries show a refreshing contrast to the 4th edition classes, often giving various suggestions on ways of play and using the abilities to role-play the class. The Barbarian class is a powerful brute whose embrace of nature has fueled his warrior prowess. He calls on totems to fuel his powers and his rage. He has two Paragon paths, the Berzerker, whom has increased Rage abilities and the Mundane, whom gains anti magical abilities with his hatred of magic. The Bard is back in all his musical glory and is one of the best designed bards I have seen. What is unique about the Forgotten Heroes bard is how its power effects change depending on what type of instrument or voice is used. The book has two ways you can build the bard, either swashbuckling or Euphonious. The bard is still equipped with his bardic knowledge and a slew of bardic songs. It is by far the most creative of the classes and will make new fans of the Bard once again. He has two paragons, the song weaver who has increased musical powers and the loremaster, who has a compelling understanding of things. The Druid can be built with either strong elemental powers or strong environmental powers. Druids attach fetishes to weapons and armor to boost their powers. It has a wide array of spells that effect several different forms of nature. Its Paragons includes the Shapeshifter, who has more mastery over wildshape abilities or the Purifier, who uses its magic to cleanse nature. Finally, the Monk, is still created as the fighting monk, and, though written fairly faithfully to its traditional Dungeons and Dragons archetype, may disappoint fans who were hoping for at least the option of a more peaceful variation. His two build variations , the grappler and the kickboxer, are both strong, but not as distinctly different from one another as the previous classes. The monk uses a variety of fighting styles and postures that a lot of character to the class. For the Player If you have been forced to play in a 4th edition game because you were voted out, beg your DM to let you play the Bard or the Monk from Forgotten Heroes. While the other players are doing tide of irons and tornado blow me down punches, your characters will stand out with its role playing infused actions such as singing anthems that deal psychic damage or breaking a chair over someone’s head with a unique fighting style. For the Dungeon Master If you have been holding off from switching to 4th edition despite the constant badgering of your players, this is the book for your game. Forgotten Heroes is the traditional game you want to play with the compromise of using a system designed for tactical board games. It does not fix every problem with 4th edition, but its strong world history provides enough inspiration to build off of. The Iron Word Forgotten Heroes is a nice compromise of traditional Dungeons and Dragons with 4th editions shenanigans. Each of the classes promotes the battle and RPG strengths of the class. If this is an indication of future supplements, which I think it is, 4th edition will have enough 3rd party material to provide a thorough traditional fantasy setting by June 2009. This book actually made me want to play 4th edition again, and considering how awful an Dungeons and Dragons edition it is, that is saying a lot. I do wish the world was more fleshed out and hope to hear more about it in future supplements. Still another masterpiece by Goodman Games. Mhar Fantasy RPG Game Master's Book by Fool's Moon Entertainment Inc. www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=26014&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $18.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Sean Holland) Review Mhâr Fantasy Game Master’s Book, for the Mhâr Fantasy RPG by Greg Older and published by Fools’ Moon Entertainment. It is an one hundred fifty four-page product with a simple and easy enough to read layout. The cover is in color with a full color map on the back “cover” while the interior art is all black and white. Mhâr Fantasy is set in a world very much like medieval Europe, right down to using versions of real world religions of the period (Christianity and Islam) as part of the background. The author notes that they have no wish to offend anyone but seek a setting grounded in reality. This book supplements the Mhâr Fantasy Player Handbook, which contains the core rules and mechanics for play, and both are needed to play the game. The product begins with a brief fictional slice of the world, followed by an introduction to games mastering roleplaying games. The advice is solid and designed to support the style of play that the creator of Mhâr envisions for the world. This section gives an overview of information on the world, the people within it and the various powers that be. This section ends with a useful lexicon of world specific terms. The next chapter deals with the mechanics of the system from skill use, combat and magic. This chapter is filled with examples to clarify the use of the mechanics. This section is useful for understanding the system. The next sections deal with time and movement, movement includes land and ship travel as well as tactical movement and goes into considerably detail in the technology of medieval travel, which is quite interesting. Then the supporting cast is addressed, non-player characters and animals. Chapter six, covers combat in greater detail. This chapter in nicely organized with charts for reference and some examples. Chapter seven cover the supernatural from spell-casting and alchemy to miracles along with rules for fear. Chapter eight covers immaterial rewards such as experience and reputation. While chapter nine deals with material rewards and traps, several examples are included, as well as rule for magic items and their creation. Chapter Ten comprises an extensive bestiary ranging from useful NPC types to animals to fantastic beasts and monsters -fae, demons, elementals and the undying-. Quite enough to keep any group busy for some time while providing enough information to develop your own creatures as needed. The next chapter is advice for building stories and sagas, which is solid advice for a game’s master on how to structure games. The final chapter details Calshire as a place to start one’s saga, providing a strong setting overview to work with and places to find adventure in. The product ends with a useful index, an even more useful glossary and two pages of weapons and armor charts. A very solid product but also very strongly tied to the Mhâr setting. If you are interested in a more traditional medieval fantasy setting, Mhâr may very well be what you are looking for. The setting and game are both well done and worth looking at.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Dec 23, 2008 8:24:12 GMT -5
THE END IS NEAR SALE TWO DOLLAR SALE! Goodman Games 3.5 d20 products are only $2.00 until December 31, when they go off sale forever. Buy now while you still can! Click here to find all of Goodman Game's titles www.rpgnow.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=36BLOCK BY BLOODY BLOCK You can look out over the city and see what you want to see. Maybe you see the bright lights, and it gives you hope. Maybe you see the tall buildings casting their powerful shadows, and it makes you feel small. But high up, it's not that you can't see the forest for the trees - it's that you can't see the trees for the forest. Best way to see what's really going on? Turn away from the bright lights, big city, and sit down at this card table right here and roll out a map. Take this box-cutter, and just start hacking it up. Slice-slice. The docks go to the bloodsuckers, the banks, too. The projects, we don't know who has them because we can't get close. The park falls to the beasts, and the highways to the jackals. Slice-slice. You cut the place to ribbons, then soak it in blood, because that's how they got what they got - by soaking the city in blood, theirs and everybody else's. And this right here? This tiny piece, this shitty little nowhere piece that's half the size of a postage stamp? That's your cut. That's your part of this god-forsaken city. You content with that? You satisfied leaving the fatty cuts and the sweet meats for the monsters to fight over? Maybe you are. But I'm not. So gear up, because it's liberation time. - LCpl Erwin Emerson (ret.), leader of the Crusaders of Night cell Block by Bloody Block is a PDF book for Hunter: The Vigil. It includes: Systems to run a Hunter: The Vigil chronicle on a larger scale, reclaiming parts of your city from various supernatural factions Eight urban territories, complete with story seeds and Storyteller characters, ready to be dropped into an existing chronicle or modified to your troupe's tastes Storytelling advice on how to create your own territories, as well as running a Block by Bloody Block chronicle Links to a Block by Bloody Block online wiki www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59385 IT'S A CRAFTY CHRISTMAS! Crafty Games will be offering nearly all its titles at 20% off all the way up to the New Year! The sale kicks off this Monday, December 22, and runs through December 31. Be sure to stop by and pick up all those Spycraft 2.0 and Classic Spycraft products you've had your eye on, check out a host of freebies, and most important of all, have a very merry Christmas! www.rpgnow.com/index.php?filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=341ON OUR SISTER SITE DriveThruComics welcomes new publisher 2000 AD! 2000 AD is Britain's cult sci-fi comic, and has been at the cutting edge of contemporary pop culture since 1977. It's a multi-award winning cocktail of explosive sci-fi and fantasy, infused with a mean streak of irony and wry black humour. Imaginative, hard-hitting stories and eye-popping art have made 2000 AD essential reading for its legion of fiercely loyal fans for 25 years now. 2000 AD has been a proving ground for the finest young writers and artists of the generation, and many of the biggest names in comics today honed their skills within its pages. It has become synonymous with the very finest in comics art, and has won the Best British Comic award at the UK Comic Art Awards, National Comics Awards and Eagle Awards too many times to list. Over a quarter of a century, 2000 AD has created literally hundreds of memorable comic book characters. Their lasting appeal has been proven not only in the ultra-competitive world of comics publishing, but also by numerous merchandise deals including movies, computer games, radio plays, action figures and merchandising. comics.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=2560Newest Free Products Coins of Fletnern by Board Enterprises www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59424&it=1&SRC=newsletter Every adventurer hopes to fill his pockets with coins, but what do they look like? How much do they weigh? Is it really gold, or is it something else? This supplement is going to give you dozens of examples of co... ‘The Noble Wild’ Holiday Bonus Pack by Skirmisher Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59421&it=1&SRC=newsletterThis free download contains several holiday-oriented items suitable for use in any OGL game supported by The Noble Wild, Skirmisher Publishing LLC’s ENnie-nominated “Animal Player’s Handbook.” Its contents include a new Species, th... The Forgotten Futures Compendium by Marcus L. Rowland www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59417&it=1&SRC=newsletterA new supplement for the Forgotten Futures RPG, containing material that for one reason or another hasn't been included in the main releases of the game:The League of Extraordinary GeometersA Crossover Adventure For Forgotten Futures & The Origina... Taking The Tunnel by Marcus L. Rowland www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59416&it=1&SRC=newsletter1897. When Queen Victoria visits France for the ceremonial opening of the Channel Tunnel she little realises the danger she faces; danger to Queen, Country, and the Empire, as a group of ruthless men plot an atrocious crime. Only a small band of adventure... Forgotten Futures by Marcus L. Rowland www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59415&it=1&SRC=newsletterComplete Rules For Adventures in Victorian and Edwardian Fantasy and Science Fiction.Remember how the future used to be?When vast fleets of flying ships blackened the sky . . .When psychic investigators used electric pentacles . . .When Venus was a paradi... Newest Products Apocalypse-Z by Mongoose www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59425&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $19.95 $13.97 The future is a dark one as the dead have risen to feast upon the living. Cities have been shattered, neighbourhoods torn apart, and humanity is hanging on by a thread. Massive hordes of zombies gather under the control of Overlords, zombies that have r... Rogue Pack by Kimagu www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59423&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.00 It's a Rogue Stock pack with six rogues. Six colored and six black and white image.One picture is: 2000 x 1414 px largeFor personal or commercial use Updated Animal Familiars: An OGL Supplement Inspired by ‘The Noble Wild’ Animal Player’s Handbook by Skirmisher Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59422&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.99 This booklet is dedicated to expanding the options for familiars available to arcane spellcasters like Sorcerors and Wizards and is inspired by a number of the concepts introduced in Skirmisher Publishing LLC’s ENnie-nominated The Noble Wild. This b... 7th Day of Christmas Sale [BUNDLE] by Troll Lord Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59420&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $57.65 $16.00 THIS IS A BUNDLE PRODUCT. WHEN BUYING THIS ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE SEPARATE DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR EACH PRODUCT LISTED BELOW... C&C DB1 Haunted HighlandPRICE: $8.95SALE: $2.50Upon the bloody northern marches lies a curious Roadhouse. Here are gathered... 6th Day of Christmas Sale [BUNDLE] by Troll Lord Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59419&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $147.70 $50.00 THIS IS A BUNDLE PRODUCT. WHEN BUYING THIS ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE SEPARATE DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR EACH PRODUCT LISTED BELOW... Gary Gygax's Cosmos BuilderPRICE: $14.95SALE: $10.00Volume Seven in the GYGAXIAN FANTASY WORLDS Series, COSMOS BUILDER deli... Newest Staff Reviews Inner Darkness for HOT CHICKS: The RPG by Dakkar Unlimited www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58761&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $19.95 $10.47 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Several months ago I reviewed the Hot Chicks RPG, and noted that it seemed unsure about how far it really wanted to go with its implied themes. Was it a horror-themed RPG with a bit of an erotic twist thrown in, or a sexy-flavored RPG with a dark bent? At the end of the day, I wasn’t sure, and I marked off points for that. Now, the guys at Dakkar have provided the answer to that with their Inner Darkness supplement to the HC RPG. Inner Darkness takes both of the main themes of the Hot Chicks RPG – namely sex and horror – and focuses on them directly, rather than pussyfooting around the ideas. If it sounds weird to have eroticism and horror mixed together, don’t fret, the book makes sure to explain in its intro as to why those are the two great tastes that taste great together. So given that Inner Darkness is focusing on the areas that most RPG supplements ignore, how well does it do? Well, that’s something of a difficult question to answer. On the one hand, it has no reservations about presenting mechanics regarding a number of mature subjects. There are rules here for non-consensual sex, for example, and they plainly discuss what effects this can have on a character (also governed by mechanics), which is a refreshing change of pace. The downside is that the book is quite clearly focused primarily on the crunch. Don’t get me wrong, the writing isn’t afraid to provide exposition about various topics and walk you through the new materials, but that’s the lion’s share of the book by far; there’s very little material about HOW to actually run a game with an erotic focus. Yes, the book makes sure to remind us (several times) that these rules are not for everyone, and to make sure your players are comfortable with the subject matter, but after that, there’s only a bit regarding how to construct an adventure where sex is an important aspect. I can understand that it’s easier to just focus on giving us new rules, but what can you tell us about how to successfully integrate sex into the “role-playing” part of a role-playing game? NPCs and sex rules just aren’t enough. Another thing that got me here was the illustrations. I appreciate Dakkar’s CG art style, and there was plenty of it to be found here…which is sort of the problem. Not only does this make it hard to print the book out (depending on your printer) but it can make it awkward to bring to the game table. Are you really going to show people the page you’re citing a rule from if the page has a naked woman on it also? Ideally, if you’re using material from this book, that wouldn’t be an issue to begin with, but I think it’s better to err on the side of caution here; a printer-friendly version certainly wouldn’t hurt! Inner Darkness presents rules for the Hot Chicks RPG covering pretty much every aspect of sex and sexuality you can consider. Rules for sex are just the beginning, as there are new spells, super powers, psionic powers, items, villains, and quite a bit more. This is a great toolbox of erotic new options for your game, and let’s be honest, if you’re playing an RPG titled “Hot Chicks” that’s quite likely to be something you were looking for to begin with. I just wish that there was more than a toolbox here, because this is a subject that hasn’t gotten (comparatively) much coverage, and everything from advice to tips would be a great help in how to make a game like this work. The Lazy GM: Savage Creatures by Creative Conclave www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58648&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $21.99 $9.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review It can’t really be denied that 3.5 is a game system that requires a fair amount of work to run. Whether it’s calculating the Encounter Levels in your homebrew adventure or building a high-level PC, there’s a lot of numbers to take into account. Nowhere is this more ubiquitous than when designing a non-standard monster (“non-standard” here meaning a monster that differs from how it’s presented in its source material). Luckily, the guys at Creative Conclave are taking care of that for us with the latest addition to their Lazy GM series: Savage Creatures. The book takes just over forty monsters from the SRD, and introduces myriad variant stat blocks for each and every one. Advanced (and sometimes diminished) natural Hit Dice, templates, class levels, and combinations thereof are given for each creature. Some creatures have only a half-dozen variant stat blocks while others have over a dozen. Each entry also has a brief paragraph discussing the creature (and occasionally offering a variant idea or two) and also lists the unaltered stat block for the creature just to be helpful. What impressed me most about this book, however, was that Creative Conclave didn’t just throw the stat blocks in here and leave the GMs to figure out what to use. Instead, after a hyperlinked table of contents of creatures, there’s a handy introduction that discusses the various aspects of the stat blocks in terms of how they were made and tips for making your own alterations. There’s also a hyperlinked of creatures by CR, and beyond that, a breakdown of creatures by the roles they play (e.g. “guardians,” “ranged attackers,” etc.), and an index of the variants used. Creative Conclave clearly understood that in a product like this, cross-indexing is king. It’s almost impossible find fault with a book like this. It does the heavy lifting on one of the most mathematically-intensive aspects of the game, and does it very well. There are hundreds upon hundreds of stat blocks in here, which means that even if you only use a fraction of those in your game, you’re saving yourself a metric ton of effort. Even if you still want to make an altered stat block, using these as a baseline can still save you quite a bit of work. There’s really no downside to this book; just a list of different ways it helps you out. Master Tiles No.2 - Perilous Passages by SkeletonKey Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58467&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Master Tiles 2 - Perilous Passages is a short 6 page pdf product from SkeletonKey Games, offering, as the name suggests, several extremely useful passage and corridor tiles riddled with an impressive selection of traps and puzzles. This product is the second product in SkeletonKey Games' Master Tiles series of products. Each product in the series presents a small number of highly customizable tiles, using Adobe's layers function to increase the versatility of the product quite significantly. Perilous Passages introduces mundane and magical traps to catch characters unawares, although the tiles can be used for non-trap purposes as well and should fit in nicely with SkeletonKey Games' other tilesets. This product requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 6 or higher to use the layers. SkeletonKey Games have long set the standard for quality and versatility in their 2D terrain tiles, and this product is no exception. It's very well presented, impressively illustrated, and the tiles are highly detailed and of high quality. Despite the fact that this product only contains 5 pages of tiles, it can produce endless more using Adobe's layers feature. A short but useful introduction gives a brief overview of the product, and an overview sketch of the tiles is provided to give a useful imaginative nudge to your creativity when using these tiles. Overall, a top quality presentation. The variety of different traps in the 10 ft. wide passages of this product include arcane traps, pit traps, energy barriers, meatgrinders, spikes, otherworldly tentacles, acid pools, and sharp blades. In most instances, these traps can either be configured to be singular, or if you wish to spring more elaborate traps you can use two or more traps on each tile depending on which tile and which traps are available. One of the useful things about the layers here is that you can put a tile down that doesn't include the trap, but place the tile with the trap down once the PCs have sprung it or circumvented it. The nature of the traps and their lethality is naturally entirely up to the GM and the game system, but there's a really good variety of traps here and a large number of useful configurations. The tiles also include a number of other features that can be turned on or off, such as the wall shape and colour, rubble on the floors, the floor tiles themselves, and various platforms and shelves. This allows you to change the décor of the passageway tiles to create different combinations. The passageways themselves also contain a good mix of junctions, corridors and corners so that you can easily design some sort of trap gauntlet that needs to be run. Tiles, all suitable to a 1-inch scale grid, can also be rotated to create alternative configurations. Basically, with only a set of five tiles, you can create a large number of configurations and tile options that can readily be combined with other tilesets. I was impressed with this product. It offers great artwork, good versatility, and surprising options with such a small number of pages. And, as the series continues to build and more products are added, I suspect the older products will become even more useful. Combining products in this series is hopefully something that will be done in the future. While the first two products in this series focus on very specific areas (traps and vampire hideouts), and generic set of tiles that is fully customizable would not go amiss. Overall, a splendid product that lives up to SkeletonKey Games' reputation. Remarkable Races: The Oakling by Alluria Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59365&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.25 $1.95 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Injecting traditional role playing fantasy into Dungeons and Dragons 4e is a remarkable task, and a task that Alluria Publishing has shown they have a firm grasp of the concept if their introductory book in their Remarkable Races is any example. Remarkable Races is a planned series of race books to add a more exotic variety of races to the 4e world. The first book in the series presents the Oakling, a sentient plant that is written fairly alien from most races. It is one of the first non-humanoid 4e races to hit the market and, though it does not do as well a job of branching away from the elementary basic writing that tends to plague official 4e products, it does manage to inject role playing game elements into the race. The 12 page PDF on Oakling is well layed out. The artwork is colorful and vibrant and jumps off the page. The action shots of the Oakling facilitate the well written, descriptions of the creature. The entry begins with an overview, detailing how a plant creature can fit into your campaign world and what ecological differences separate the Oakling from normal humanoid races. The list of abilities and bonuses provided to the Oakling complement the plant status we have seen from vegetative creatures in previous years. It has bonuses in intelligence and wisdom with a penchant for being susceptible to fire. Following the basics of the creature are a series of creative racial and paragon feats that compliment the role playing elements of the Oakling. There is also an Epic Tier Feat called Mighty Oak that introduces the full maturation of the Oakling. Following the feats, there is a brief section on mistletoe, which can be used to create a poison element in encounter zones. Towards the end are writeups of Oaklings that can be used to build combat encounters. For the Player The Oakling is a very alien class, and though I will not dumb down my language and say play an Oakling if you want to play a plant, the Oakling is the type of race you choose when you want a nature bend or background to your next character. For the DM If your forest encounters are permeated with elves and traditional fey creatures, the Oaklings present an exotic and different encounter that may catch your PCs by surprise. Whereas, venturing through a forest may have seemed like a simple task, venturing through one occupied by a peaceful tree race that does not want you there may not. The Iron Word The flurry of 4e supplements continue to impress, slowly turning a once unplayable system for the Iron DM into a broader system where creative minds like those at Alluria Publishing can create simple and expanding pieces. Oakling is not a race that should replace any of the standards (except tiefling), but should be considered to add spice to a 4e campaign that may be venturing on the dull side. City Builder Volumes 1-11 [BUNDLE] by Skirmisher Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59033&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $26.89 $19.89 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Nathan Collins) Review Like a fine television mini series. City Builders: Volumes 1 – 11 by Skirmisher Publishing, is a consistently informative and entertaining bundle of pieces that can be taken separately as is, or combined as one comprehensive city building experience. Over the last few years of reviewing at RPGNow, I have had the displeasure of seeing many a series begin, only to fizz out incomplete. Thus, it is a welcome site to see the diligent team at Skirmisher see forth their vision of the entire series of City Builders. I have reviewed several books in the series, all of them providing fantasy historically accurate portrayals of buildings and professions within the traditionally fictional world of Dungeons and Dragons. The detail and historical accuracy without information bludgeoning is what makes the books shine. Each book contains a collection of buildings associated with one theme. Each building is distinctly different from the previous. The listing of each profession explains their significance in the community in terms of sword and magic. So often these types of explanations come off as dry, but the very brief and straight forward language makes reading very easy. Each entry ends with a list of adventure/plot hooks. The adventure hooks are very well thought out and often provide enough information to provide a well thought side-trek, adventure or mini-campaign arc. Filtered throughout are meticulous pieces of artwork, layouts and imagery that can be printed out and used as handouts to enhance the gaming experience. Never overdoing it, the artwork is just enough to give a clear example of the profession’s use. For the DM Players often venture towards the seedier or religious sections of a city, thus, the two most used books in this set may be Volume 11: Underworld Places and Volume 9: Religious Places. In Volume 11, I know the first instinct is to go toward the brothels but the pit fighting scene is by far the best of the book. The Iron Word A true systemless role playing game supplement series, City Builders is one of the most useful city building tools to come around in this half of the decade. Strong writing accompanies fantasy element nicely. Whether you need to develop one isolated building the PCs are set to encounter, or a city that needs to “pop up” quickly, There is something in this set that will greatly help you.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jan 19, 2009 9:52:59 GMT -5
EVEN MORE NEW GAMES FOR THE NEW YEAR! 2008 is out, 2009 is in, and more than ever, it's is a time of change. That means it's a great time to try a new game! We really like to encourage people to try new games here at RPGNow.com, and we are willing to put our money where our mouth is. Check out the really cool bundles we've created especially for our "New Year, New Game" Event, where you can get three great new games for the price of two. That's right - buy two, get the third complete game for FREE. And now, just added, there are two new bundles - Tactics & Strategy (featuring Hour of Glory, Modern20, and Skirmish!) and The Horror of It All (featuring Against the Darkness, Cthulhu Live, and World of Darkness Rulebook) It's a New Year - Try a New Game! NO MERE SHEET CAN CONTAIN YOUR CHARACTER! The CHARACTER CODEX from Goodman Games! Record your rise from apprentice to archmage with this character codex! Extremely useful for characters of any class, this book provides a record of your character that can expand as your character does. It includes plenty of room for all your hero's statistics, equipment, cohorts, and magic items, and even has an adventure journal and a place to design your character's keep! The Character Codex is compatible with the fourth edition of the world's most popular role playing game. All-new, designed completely for the 4th Edition, and most importantly - Upgraded to be FORM-FILLABLE! ONCE A MONTH, LOUIS PORTER, JR. GETS A LITTLE BIT CRAZIER! This Saturday, January 17th, we are having our monthly ONE DAY SALE. The majority of Louis Porter Jr. Design and Devil’s Workshop products will be on sale at 25% OFF their normal cost at RPGNow.com. If you put any of our products on your Wish List from us, then Saturday is the day to buy it. Only this Saturday! Only at RPGNow.com! HIGHMOON GAMES & SERAPHIM GUARD IN A TITANIC TEAM-UP! THE 4C SYSTEM HEROIC MOMENTS INTRO PACK Jump into a world of marvelous superheroics with the 4C System Heroic Moments Intro Pack. Emulating a well-loved superhero game of marvelous proportions, the 4C System is an easy-to-use engine to power your quest for truth and justice. With the Intro Pack, you get the core rules and two Heroic Moments scenarios, enough to get you and your friends clobbering villains in no time. Grab some dice, don the spandex, and live your own Heroic Moment with the 4C System! The Four Color (4C) System is an emulator of an older game system. With the Four Color System not only can you create new super-heroes, world, universes and adventures but you can plug and play the old games and new Four Colors materials. Four Color is a complete super-heroic role-playing system in 34 pages (including the cover) that is waiting for you to create your own worlds and universes for play. Publisher Product Discounts 2000 AD: Prog 1600 by 2000 AD www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59333&it=1&discount=71049&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $3.75 Discount Price: $0.00 Get a FREE issue of Britain's finest pop-culture comic. Zombacalypse by Silver Gryphon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59632&it=1&discount=47533&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $9.99 Discount Price: $7.99 Just released is the newest book from Kevin Rohan, Zombacalypse! It contains rules and ideas fro making your zombies faster, smarter, and better than they were before, as well as 30 adventure hooks, and much more! This book is for fans of all systems, and especially for fans of the Æther system.Now available for $9.99, this special discount takes 20% right off the top. Come get some. DRAGONSHIRE: The Cemetery by Fat Dragon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59772&it=1&discount=21183&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $8.99 Discount Price: $8.49 Fat Dragon Games brings you the newest addition to the growing DRAGONSHIRE fantasy city series, the cemetery. Complete with 3D dug out graves, modular elevated terrain, fences, gates, mausoleums and more, don't miss out on this great set with this special discount . Newest Free Products Silver Gryphon Monthly - January 2009 by Silver Gryphon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59806&it=1&SRC=newsletterIt's time for the January edition of Silver Gryphon Monthly, our growing monthly newsletter dedicated to the gaming community.What's Inside This Month?Behind the Scenes - A look at all projects related to Silver Gryphon GamesMeeting of the Minds -... Skirmisher Update Winter 2009 by Skirmisher Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59781&it=1&SRC=newsletterHappy New Year! Skirmisher Publishing LLC hopes 2009 has been going well for you so far and is sending this update to tell you about our latest news, freebies, and special deals! Skirmisher Update is published by Skirmisher Publishing LLC and Skirmisher O... The Black Ice Scenario by Majellan Entertainment www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59715&it=1&SRC=newsletter This is a scenario for the Majellan Role Playing Game: The story revolves around the inner workings and politics of a Level Two company called TZIGRE Corp. The upper echelons of the organisation have a dark secret that they wish to keep. However a... Original Edition Options - The Halfling Adventurer by Brave Halfling Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59698&it=1&SRC=newsletter By the time they reach fourth level, most Halflings will want to be back in the comfort of their home, enjoying their loot and weaving ever-expanding tales of their exploits. However, a very rare few will make adventuring their life-long occupation... Signs & Portents 64 by Mongoose www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59676&it=1&SRC=newsletterThe start of a New Year - and the latest issue of Signs & Portents is ready, jam-packed full of great gaming material to inspire your campaigns. And best of all, it is still free! In this month's issue, we have; * Press Play ... Newest Products Manga Races: Fae (Men) by Sade www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59807&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $1.50 7 high resolution transparent PNG images (each one around 2000 px)Both for personal or commercial use. Please check the first part of this series too: Into the ... [BUNDLE] by DragonWing Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59805&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $29.97 $19.98 THIS IS A BUNDLE PRODUCT. WHEN BUYING THIS ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE SEPARATE DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR EACH PRODUCT LISTED BELOW... Into the Black: A Guide to BelowPRICE: $9.99SALE: $6.66by Thomas KnaussContributing writers: Darren Miguez, Jacob Driscoll,... Hero Art Templates 2 [BUNDLE] by Applied Vectors www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=57380&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $8.40 $6.00 THIS IS A BUNDLE PRODUCT. WHEN BUYING THIS ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE SEPARATE DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR EACH PRODUCT LISTED BELOW... Hero Art Templates Compendium 4PRICE: $2.80SALE: $2.00REVISED EDITION! A compilation of character templates that you can us... Delving Deeper - Skill Systems by Brave Halfling Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59804&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $0.75 In this Issue of Delving Deeper you will find three different Skill Systems to use in you Labyrinth LordTM and other Basic Edition rpgs. The systems have been designed using existing mechanics so that they will fit seamlessly into your current gamin... Werewolf Stock Art by Bards and Sages www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59803&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.49 Artist Shane Woodis presents this high resolution, full color painting of a stylized werewolf for use in your personal or professional projects. Intiguing color scheme and texture give this image a unique quality. Large dimensions (1700 x... Newest Staff Reviews Larm by Brave Halfling Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58647&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.00 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Megan Robertson) Review The intention of this product is stated clearly: to provide a settlement that not only can be used as a base for a party of adventurers, but to include opportunities for dungeon-exploration and role-playing as well. Larm is the classic small village on the edge of nowhere, an outpost of civilisation subject to attack by the denizens of the wilderness. The history and daily life of the settlement is given in a concise manner, yet with sufficient detail for use whenever the characters visit, enabling a consistency of approach which enhances the alternate reality of your game. There are loads of rumours to add atmosphere or even spawn whole adventures if you have a mind... while every establishment and nigh-all of the 112 regular inhabitants have a brief listing, again aiding you in consistancy when characters return. For those seeking more than one of the delightful snacks listed under the bakery, there are a couple of adventures to be had right here in Larm. To start with, the miller needs some help - there's SOMETHING in his store room, he thinks it may have eaten his apprentice... it may just be a vermin problem but beginning adventurers should enjoy playing exterminator (as well as making themselves quite popular in the village for dealing with it!). There is also an abandoned temple, and characters who venture within will soon discover why. Again a straightforward but atmospheric simple scenario for the beginning character. If your characters would prefer to deal with unpleasant neighbours, there is also a well-detailed goblin camp which needs dealing with before they become too much of a problem. There are some nice clear maps of Larm and the 3 adventure locations and a collection of new items to round the book off. This is a nicely-written piece which, while of general application, will be of particular use to novice players just beginning to explore the potentials of role-playing. For the more experienced gamer, it brings back memories of early exploits and has a certain charm which means it can still play a part in their adventures with low-level characters. FSpaceRPG Robot Guide v1 by FSpace Publications www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58644&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.40 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Megan Robertson) Review No science fiction game would be complete without a few robots, so here is an introduction to the subject as handled in FSpace. It begins with a short discourse on the diversity of constructs which fall under the title of 'robot' - fascinating reminder of the range that could be imagined, marred by a very heavy image behind the text that makes it rather hard to read. Robots range from automated factories to human-form constructs given the appearance of sentience by programming, artificial intelligence and downloaded skills. Some are suitable for use as player-characters, and the interesting suggestion is made that a remote-operated robot might be a novel avatar for a character. Most of the rest of the book consists of the details of a variety of robots to be found in the worlds of FSpace. They range from space construction 'bots to robotic riding animals, surveillance and security and even toys. Other specialised but useful ones include a self-mobile searchlight, a camera capable of professional-standard work, and an android domestic servant. Needless to say the military has been very interested and there's a range of combat and recon models to choose from. Each one comes with about a page of description, game statistics and an illustration. There are a few slips that a thorough proof-read would have caught. The ideas will be useful whatever game you play, although statistics are, of course, aimed at the FSpace player. Overall this is a fascinating glimpse of the sort of robots likely to be developed by the 22nd century. However a bit more on robot design, both in terms of the alternate reality of the game and in game mechanical rules, would have improved this greatly, but as a catalogue of some common ones it's excellent. Well of the Twice Born by DragonWing Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59429&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.00 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review What’s the dollar value of an idea? The above question is what popped into my head after I finished reading Well of the Twice Born. If you had an idea, and just jotted it down with maybe a bit of exposition and an illustration, how much could you sell that for? The question is a topical one, because that seems to be the case here. As a quick overview, this PDF is seventeen pages long (including the title/credits page, and two pages for the OGL), and has full bookmarks, which is a plus. There’s almost no artwork to speak of – the only picture here is that same one you saw on the product page. That’s reproduced in the PDF as well as being included separately as a JPG file. Beyond that, and a company or product line logo, there’s no illustrations here to be found. Well of the Twice Born is a Drop Zone Encounter, a location that can be dropped with minimal fuss into your campaign setting. In this case, the location is a well with religious significance. Long ago, a druid met the Goddess of Nature here, and built an altar to her on the spot, along with a magical well that would awaken animals that drank from it. Over time, this collection of animals – calling themselves the Clan of the Twice-Born – became the keepers of the site, protecting it from despoilers. There is more here than what I’ve just described, but make no mistake, this product is almost all fluff text fleshing out the above material. There’s the longer version of the history, several different adventure ideas, what the site looks like, the basic structure and combat tactics of the Twice-Born animals, and a few other ideas for how to use this, among other narrative additions. On the mechanical side of things, while this is a 3.5 OGL product, there’s honestly very little new material here. A table of members of the Twice-Born is fairly edition-neutral, as it just lists various animals and their Hit Dice and hit points. Likewise, two members of the Twice-Born are given stats (in fact, they’re given several different stat blocks, depending on what specific animal you want them to be) but they’re just normal animals that have been awakened. There’s only one other NPC stat block here (the ghost of the original druid), meaning that the total crunch here isn’t just fairly lacking, but what is there is nothing original. My overall feeling towards this product was ultimately one of disappointment, because while the basic premise isn’t a bad one, very little was done to really flesh it out. The author seems content to toss out a collection of possibilities for things that could be done with this encounter, but all of the heavy lifting is left to the GM. Moreover, there’s a lot that could have been done here, but wasn’t. Why isn’t there a detailed map of the location that can be used for a 5x5 ft. tactical area? You could have a listing for various traps and things that the animal guardians have created. Why don’t we get stats on the magic well itself? It sounds like possibly a minor artifact, so that wouldn’t be hard to create. How about giving us definitive stats for several characters, rather than several possible stat blocks for just a couple, and outlying specifically what they do in case of a fight. How about having some new feats, spells, or magic items specific to animals? I’m not the sort of person who’s happy with nothing but long lists of new crunch, but having even a tiny bit of new crunch is a good selling point for an OGL product. As it was, this product really felt like it wanted to be edition-neutral with how vague and undefined it acted in regards to game mechanics for most things – it either should have gone in that direction totally, or committed itself more fully to its OGL leanings. As it stands now, the Well of the Twice Born is just an idea with a few pages of exposition and some stat blocks to help round things out. It’s not bad, but it really felt incomplete for how much more could have been done, but wasn’t. Still, if you don’t mind fleshing out more of the specifics yourself, and can run with what you’re given, this may be the idea you’ve been looking for. Random Esoteric Creature Generator for Classic Fantasy Role-Playing Games and their Modern Simulacra by Goodman Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=58916&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $7.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Monsters just don’t seem as monstrous as they used to, in RPGs. While there are a lot of plausible explanations for why this is (or rather, why it feels that way) I think the main reason is that a byproduct of the growing success of role-playing games – as well as general information tools – has quantified monsters to the point where they’re all just obstacles rather than creatures now. Admittedly, there are a lot of monster books out there, but the ones used most often are also the ones the players are most likely familiar with. When players know exactly what they’re up against, they just evaluate the challenges as little more than a cost-benefit analysis of how their characters will do in a fight. In other words, familiar enemies aren’t ones that cause fear, or excitement. This is the problem that the Random Esoteric Creature Generator for Classic Fantasy Role-Playing Games and their Modern Simulacra aims to fix (along with going for the award for Longest Name in an RPG Supplement). Before we go into the belly of this beast, let’s go over its particulars. This book is just under three dozen pages long, including the covers. Full bookmarks are present, allowing easy navigation around the PDF. Somewhat surprisingly, there’s actually quite a bit of artistic presentation here. All of the pages are grey, rather than white, and there are quite a few interior illustrations. While I usually don’t mention the artwork that much, I really have to sing the praises of the illustrators here, they (Brad McDevitt in particular) drew a number of black and white pictures that excellently portray some of truly hideous, twisted freaks of nature that can be created with the tables found in this book. Before going further, it’s important to understand that this book is clearly aimed at being used with D&D. In fact, it’s forthright about this, saying so right in the introduction (though it does the usual tap-dance around using proper names). While this book could easily be used for any game system in particular, it drops references to things such as Hit Dice or AC that are clear indications of where this will be best put to use. On that note, however, the book really is edition-neutral. There’s never enough specificity here to clearly say that it’s meant more for one edition than another. After the author’s introduction, he walks us through some of the basics regarding creating monsters. That is, he presents some basic aspects of a creature (e.g. Alignment, Experience, Morale, etc.) and tells us what general guidelines we should use when determining these, after rolling on the appropriate tables, for whatever version of D&D we play. It’s after this that we get the actual tables for building a creature. A grand total of ten tables are present, varying wildly in what they present (a few results have sub-tables, but these are rare). Some table results have mechanical effects, others don’t, but the possibilities here are as imaginative as they are diverse. While I suppose one could multiply all the possible table results to determine exactly how many possibilities there are here, it’s reasonable to say that you’ll always make monsters that are incredibly different every time you use these tables. Even non-physical factors have tables for them, such as the creature’s combat strategy and motivation. Unexpectedly, the book doesn’t end when the tables do. There’s a five-page section after this called Putting it All Together which is, hands down, some of the best advice a Game Master will ever get regarding how to use monsters in the game. Breaking it down into sub-sections, the author presents wisdom and tips that may not be new, but are still incredibly valuable to read and remember. From little things like not telling the players the name of the creature they’re facing, to major epiphanies like using any given monster only once over the course of an entire campaign, all of the advice here is solid gold that any good Game Master should read before starting a game. Combined with the diverse tables and the advice for filling in the blanks beforehand, this book might be the best supplement a GM ever reads, no matter which edition of D&D he plays. The greatest strength of the Random Esoteric Creature Generator is that it makes monster creation be an exercise in design philosophy, rather than balancing mechanics. By providing just enough mechanical and narrative framework so that the generated results form a clear picture of what monster you’re making, without getting tied down in the minutia of making things exhaustively detailed and “balanced,” this book makes creating monsters an exercise of imagination – in other words, making new creatures is both easy and fun to do! It’s because of that that the Random Esoteric Creature Generator is inspirational, evocative, and truly impressive for how it puts the magic back into monsters for your game. I really can’t recommend it enough. Fantasy Fiends: Kobolds! by Myth Merchant Press www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=56656&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.50 $1.85 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Sometimes you really can have your cake and eat it too. That’s the best way I can think to sum up Fantasy Fiends: Kobolds. What else do you call a product that utilizes 4E layout and design elements in a 3.5 d20 product? From the description, this book doesn’t sound like it should be as interesting or as useful as it is. A short book of kobolds? It hardly seems worth the effort. However, those who give this a chance will find a product that’s truly inspirational in not only what’s given here, but how simple and easy it is to use what’s presented. Opening with a brief introduction on the society, combat tactics, and advantages that kobolds have, the book then gives us several listings for encounter groups in ascending Encounter Levels, each with a brief description of what the band consists of and what their tactics are, along with stat blocks for short traps. It really has to be seen to be believed, but the layout is exactly like what’s in the 4E books, but with the 3.5 stats instead, which is pretty exciting. Then we move on to the kobolds themselves. A basic stat block is given for a typical kobold, along with separate blocks containing the text of new powers and abilities that other kobolds can have. This is the major draw of this product, and the biggest 4E-ism that it utilizes – various new combat abilities are presented here, and are assigned to various kobolds. It’s not that these are feats, or various alternate class abilities. They’re just new powers, and they’re assigned to kobolds in different roles as needed. Most have group frenzy, others have mob mentality, etc. It’s the best of 4E added to 3.5 enemies. A half-dozen such kobolds are presented, each with an illustration, and a special box where you can record the initiatives and hit points of various kobolds of that type, so you can quickly keep track of everything in game. Even typical spells used by a kobold dragonmouth are listed here, also in 4E layout. There’s even a sheet of small counters included to print out. Being a written review, it’s hard to do justice to this product, since it really does have to be seen to be fully appreciated. When 4E came out, there was a lot of talk about what aspects of it could enhance a 3.5 game, and this book showcases some of those extraordinarily well. The simplicity, the innovation, the tactics and ideas presented are all superb, to say nothing of how a group of PCs will never see these kobolds coming – and it’s all still completely 3.5, so you can continue to tweak and fiddle with the stat blocks as you need to. Fantasy Fiends: Kobolds! is a book with 3.5 edition rules, and 4th edition feel.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Feb 6, 2009 11:21:19 GMT -5
Listen While You Shop! This year continues to be one of innovation and really fun new developments, and the latest is the launching of RPG Countdown, a bi-weekly podcast that goes over the hotest recent releases on RPGNow. Every two weeks, you'll get a brand new show that features: The Top Ten Hottest Items In-Depth Descriptions and Overviews Interviews with the Publisher and Creators And much more! You can click on the link on the right side of the main page and launch a stand-alone player that lets you listen while you shop around the site, or you can actually download the file and listen at your leisure. Also featured on War Pig Radio! Set Your Course for Adventure... with ENCOMPASS! Taverns, Laboratories, and Castles... just the Beginning! Combining the talents and experience of some of the top creators in gaming, ENCOMPASS brings RPGNow customers the latest in fantastic scenes and settings for their gaming excursions. With each product, you get both gorgeous, detailed maps for regular perusal and figure-scale battlemats of the locations for when the swords are drawn and the spells fly. Check out the first three fantastic offerings - Tendril's Oak Inn, the Mad Wizard's Laboratory, and the sprawling Octagon. You will see why Encompass is your compass to find the most amazing places for adventure. AVAILABLE STARTING FEBRUARY 1ST! Get a Glimpse of World of Darkness: Slasher! Murder Most Foul What at first seems a case of an insane but isolated killer expands to put the cell at the mercy of an enemy that lives off violence itself, and can only be defeated by an act that could make the hunters killers on a par with the mass murderers they oppose. The story pits the players¹ hunters against implacable killers of every stripe, and leads them into the grisly secret that links them all. A story in the Storytelling Adventure System for Hunter: The Vigil. Murder Will Out contains Storyteller character records, props, a number of hyperlinks to various portions of the text as well as bookmarks, so you can always jump right to what you need with just a click. It is inspired by the upcoming World of Darkness: Slashers, but that book is not required to use Murder Will Out. Lay Out Every Square Inch of Your Game World - for 50% OFF! A personal message from Ed Bourelle of SkeletonKey Games - Greetings everyone, I will be moving SkeletonKey Games across the country in the coming weeks from Baton Rouge, Louisiana back to where it started in Seattle, Washington. While it will be great to be home after many years a move like this can put a sizable hit on finances so it's time to have a sale. There will not be another SkeletonKey sale in 2009 with a 50% across the board discount so now is the time to get caught up on your collection of e-Adventure Tiles and try out some of the new product lines like Cartophile and Master Tiles. If you are not a GM, consider gifting e-Adventure Tiles to your hard working game master. This sale will end Feb 6th so get the deals while they are hot Publisher Product DiscountsE-Z DUNGEONS: Borderland Keep by Fat Dragon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=56655&it=1&discount=98740&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $8.79 Discount Price: $8.99 BORDERLAND KEEP comes complete with working portcullis, opening gate doors, three interior building styles, our 'E-Z' design crenelations and both gridded (1 inch) and no grid ground tiles. This model features our award winning texture art and simplified construction techniques, allowing you to build a richly detailed fortress quickly and easily. Field of Daisies (w/Quickstart Rules) by Columbia Games Inc. www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=56717&it=1&discount=54292&SRC=newsletterNormal Price: $16.99 Discount Price: $13.49 Want to rekindled the old excitement of gaming? Field of Daises is an opportunity to explore the rich world of Hârn. Included is the innovated and exciting adventure Field of Daisies, complete Hârn Quickstart rules, and four fully detailed and flushed out characters; allowing you to get into the action right away. Available through this newsletter offer at 20% off the list price. Newest Free ProductsFree20: Monkey Business by Skortched Urf' Studios www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59869&it=1&SRC=newsletterDuring the 1950s, DC Comics had aneditorial rule governing how many of its books couldhave a monkey on the cover in the same month;issues with monkeys sold better than a guest appearanceby virtually any other superhero. And whodoesn’t love a monkey?... Harn Religious Calendar by Columbia Games Inc. www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59845&it=1&SRC=newsletterA calendar showing all twelve Hârnic Months, with observed holy days of each of the Hârnic faiths. A great supplement for any game, and a valuable asset for those using HarnMaster Religion. Wayfarers Guild Journal #1 by Ye Olde Gaming Companye www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59840&it=1&SRC=newsletterWayfarers Guild Journal is a semi-periodical containing optional variations and supplements for the Wayfarers Roleplaying Game.The Journal is co-created by the YOGC staff and YOGC community members.Visit us at the YOGC forums and share your ideas for the ... BHB: Archetype by Heroic Journey Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59839&it=1&SRC=newsletterReady to get Into the Hunt?Bounty Head Bebop:Archetype is a motley crew of characters just waiting to jump into the fray and start collecting some bounties! These rockin' characters, who represent the type of rivals you can expect in the BHB uni... Silver Gryphon Monthly - January 2009 by Silver Gryphon Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59806&it=1&SRC=newsletterIt's time for the January edition of Silver Gryphon Monthly, our growing monthly newsletter dedicated to the gaming community.What's Inside This Month?Behind the Scenes - A look at all projects related to Silver Gryphon GamesMeeting of the Minds -... Newest ProductsDungeon Tiles Mini Sets - Dark Irons Prison by Empty Room Studios Publishing www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=60012&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.99 No one escapes from the hellish confines of Dark Irons Prison, or do they? It's up to you to decide the fate of your adventurers in this new Mini Set for our popular Dungeon Tiles 2D gaming tiles.If you haven't used our tile sets before the Mini S... Zombie Dudes, Dungeon Dudes 3D by Dimensions Game Software www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=60011&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $2.00 Zombie Dudes, The Dungeon Dudes 3D "Not Just Another Virtual Pet"New Zombie Characters, phrases, items, and skills. Collect brains instead of gold. When exploring, instead of avoiding a steaming pile of poo try to avoid the cute little puppy, be... Factions 2009 Special [BUNDLE] by Other Court Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=60010&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $63.90 $12.00 THIS IS A BUNDLE PRODUCT. WHEN BUYING THIS ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE SEPARATE DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR EACH PRODUCT LISTED BELOW... Factions at War RevisedPRICE: $34.95SALE: $7.00Secret Societies Behind the Curtain of RealityThe World is Not as it SeemsTh... Bloodthirsty Adventures [BUNDLE] by White Wolf www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=56787&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $26.96 $14.99 THIS IS A BUNDLE PRODUCT. WHEN BUYING THIS ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE SEPARATE DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR EACH PRODUCT LISTED BELOW... Blood Red + Ash Gray (Vampire: The Requiem)PRICE: $8.99SALE: $0.00This story about consequences, murder, lies, and the ethi... The Road to Revolution: Tides of Blood by 0one Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=60007&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $6.99 Welcome to The Road to Revolution Campaign Arc; a series of adventures designed for use with the 3.5 version of the world’s most popular role-playing game. Set in the Great City, this epic campaign takes characters from their humble beginnings,... Newest Staff ReviewsEquipment Card Set 1 by WeeWarriors www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59537&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.00 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Equipment Card Set 1 is the first product from new RPG publisher, WeeWarriors. This product features a collection of printable cards of weapons, armor and equipment that can be used as handouts during your game. The product comes as a set of 20 png files within a zip file, and the image files are organised with 9 images to a page. To provide more flexibility with this card set, a number of blank and card back pages are provided to add your own images, write on or create your own cards. The set comes with a wide variety of different weapons and armor, including axes, daggers, clubs, bows, quivers, swords, polearms, crossbows, hammers, helmets, shields, staffs (magical and mundane), rods, scimitars and others. The variety is very good, and each weapon-type has fairly good representation, although things like swords, axes and shields are more commonplace which is probably the best approach. Artwork is done at 150 dpi resolution which is good for printing, though not photo quality, and each image is placed on a tan/brown background. Images are rendered to provide good 3D detail and light reflection, and most of the images capture this quality well. The images capture the fantasy feel well, and depict more fantastical weapons than the typical medieval weapon. As the images are all the same size, they're not too scale on the paper, meaning that the polearms look rather flimsy compared to the beefy swords or even axes. In fact, the polearms are all fairly thin, making it difficult to gather the detail from the image. In a way it would've been somewhat better if some attention to scaling and size had been taken, particularly if you want to give your players an accurate representation of the item they've just found or acquired. The tan background is also in places somewhat cumbersome, dwarfing out the detail and colour of the other images. Having the images on a plain white background as a second option would've been nice. I think WeeWarriors' first offering is fairly good. There's some good artwork, good variety, and I liked the fact that this wasn't too medieval but rather more fantastical. There are some minor issues with the product particularly related to the scaling of the polearms and perhaps the background, but for the most part this is a really useful collection of images that can be used as handouts, or for those that which to scale them even further, the images can be used as 2D terrain tile objects. The rendering and artwork has been done very well, creating lively pieces and with the ability to write on the card backs, you can create artifacts or interesting weapons with histories that will hopefully be more than just another magical sword. Good offering. SORD Plus 1.0 by Myth Merchant Press www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59026&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $3.95 $1.95 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Organization and layout are all too often ignored in RPG books these days. We, as gamers, like to go on and on about how well balanced a system is, or the ratio of crunch vs. fluff in a book, or the quality of the artwork, or any one of a hundred other things. How clearly the information is explained and organized in the book, however, doesn’t usually get discussed. That’s a shame, because products like Myth Merchant Press’s SORD Plus 1.0 showcase just how much difference that can make when playing an RPG. Made specifically for the Beta Edition of Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder RPG, SORD Plus 1.0 (or as I like to call it, Sword +1) is a dramatic reorganization of the Pathfinder rules regarding all aspects of combat in the game, the operative word here being “dramatic.” The PDF uses a number of techniques and ideas to make everything INCREDIBLY easy to reference. For instance, each topic is dealt with on a single page. Want to quickly reference the rules for Initiative, including holding and readying actions? Go to page four. Need to double-check exactly how grapple works in Pathfinder? It’s all right there on page nineteen. That alone would be convenient, but it doesn’t stop there. On each page, clever use of colored tables segregating various aspects of the topic into different, easy-to-manage boxes makes it possibly to quickly reference whatever part of whatever it is you’re looking for. Suppose, for example, you’re looking at the aforementioned new grapple rules for what effect they have on spellcasting. Just look at the side of the page for the Conditions sub-header, and glance down the bullet points until you find the one for spellcasting. That’s all there is to it, and it’s like that with everything! The book doesn’t skimp on the technical aspects either. Beyond the ubiquitous (and necessary) bookmarks, the initial table of contents is also hyperlinked for ease of navigation. Moreover, the PDF is layered, so you can enable or disable the layers as you need to to remove things like page numbers or the front cover. It’s really difficult to find any fault with this product when it goes the extra mile like this. Just as a reminder, it’s important to remember that SORD Plus 1.0 is specifically for the Pathfinder Beta RPG, unlike its generic 3.5 counterpart. If you’re buying this product, it’s for the Pathfinder Beta rules and no other. Likewise, this book covers the combat aspects of the game. While that does extend to a very broad definition (such as various skill breakdowns, action types, channeling energy, etc.) don’t expect to find things such as class breakdowns or XP tables here – those are beyond the scope of this product. As the original SORD did for 3.5, SORD Plus 1.0 makes itself essential if you’re running a Pathfinder Beta game. The sheer level of convenience that this book gives to Game Masters cannot be overstated. No more dog-earing your books and flipping through pages to find where various rules are. This book proves that while content may be king, layout is the power behind the throne. Is a lack of rules management causing damage to your game? Well overcome that “manage reduction” with a SORD Plus 1.0! Blood Reign of Nishanpur by Paradigm Concepts, Inc. www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59529&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $4.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review Broadly speaking, adventures can be divided into two categories - those that are generic, and those that are written for a specific campaign. Granted the former can easily be adapted for a specific campaign setting, but that's not necessarily the goal at the outset. Both types of adventures have their own inherent constraints, but if you have a good campaign setting as the basis to write on, then it's the adventure specific to the campaign setting that's likely to outshine the more generic one. I mention this because this pdf, Blood Reign of Nishanpur, written for the Arcanis campaign setting, will likely hands down beat any similar adventure out there, because it's based on one of the best campaign settings ever created, and uses that beautifully in the adventure to create a rich adventure to play through. Blood Reign of Nishanpur is a 35 page adventure for the Arcanis Campaign Setting, and follows on after the events in the adventure The Spear of the Loghin, also from Paradigm Concepts, as the second adventure in the Carceri Chronicles. While it's probably best that you run that adventure before Blood Reign of Nishanpur, this pdf adventure provides plenty of background and advice on running this adventure on its own. It should also be noted that despite being recently released in pdf format, this adventure is actually much older, and utilizes the 3e (not 3.5e) d20 ruleset. This adventure in Arcanis is suitable for characters of levels 5 through 7. The product comes as a single pdf file. The presentation and look of the product is very good, although parts of the product look like they've been scanned in, in particular the front and back covers and the credits page. Writing throughout is excellent, and this is complemented by some good artwork from several artists. Organisation and layout is very good, with the product broken down into 'hard points' and 'soft points', the former being encounters that are required to be run, and the latter being those that are optional. There's a good number of optional encounters, and you can mix and match to add the flavor that you desire. Bookmarks are based on these hard and soft points, allowing you to easily find the encounter you're after, as long as you know it by name. Expanding the bookmarks to identify the hard and soft points in order of appearance would've been helpful. Overall, a well constructed and presented product. In the previous adventure in the Carceri Chronicles series, the PCs set out to destroy a powerful demon and retrieve the fragments of a holy spear. In doing this, they become embroidered in the affairs of a demon prince, and soon find themselves on a quest that takes them to the city of Nishanpur, where the Council of the Nihang is in turmoil following the destruction of the Dark Apostate. In an attempt to complete their pact with the demon prince and close a powerful gate to the lands of Sarish, the PCs must uncover the truth behind the Council's trouble, keep their pact with the demon prince, and in doing so deal with the lesser of two evils in the dark lands of Carceri. Blood Reign of Nishanpur is a fantastic, if somewhat complex adventure, that will take the PCs through the darkest parts of Arcanis. The complexity of the adventure derives from its brilliant use of the Arcanis campaign setting, which is a rich and detailed setting. Despite the complexity, the adventure does a grand job of explaining things very well, giving thorough adventure backgrounds and summaries, and providing a detailed glossary to explain the background behind various aspects of the adventure. In this way the complexity gives way to a brilliant adventure that is probably unlike anything your PCs have ever seen before. The adventure combines all the classic elements of an RPG into one - combat, diplomacy, mystery, intrigue, hard choices and plenty of roleplaying opportunity. Combine this with the rich detail of the campaign setting, and you get an adventure that's breathing with life, and full of riveting scenes and exciting encounters. I have to admit that despite a few presentation flaws, I love everything about this adventure and the campaign setting that binds it together. It might not be an adventure for the younger audience with its dark overtones, but for more mature gamers this adventure is a blast. I've said it before about the Arcanis campaign setting in general - it's one of the best out there. I thoroughly enjoyed this adventure, despite it being for the 3e d20 rules. It combines rich detail, fantastic story telling, exciting scenes and encounters, excellent roleplaying opportunity, and challenging encounters with a great campaign background to form a fantastic adventure. Some might argue that the various hard points can be too constraining on the PCs, and perhaps there is some element of truth in there that you really need to know Arcanis to make the most of this adventure. It is very much an Arcanis adventure, and while you could move it to another setting, it would be a fairly difficult conversion. Nevertheless, for those that love attention to detail, rich stories and backgrounds, and adventures that are varied and different, this is a fantastic choice. Hearts Swords Flowers by Electric Mulch www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=18493&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $10.00 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars (from Shane O'Connor) Review Hearts, Swords, and Flowers covers how to introduce a shoujo style into your BESM Tri-Stat game. A "shoujo style" here is understood to mean a game that focuses on emotional interaction between characters to advance the game. While it doesn't necessarily exclude action, combat, or other plot-driven motives, it strongly lends itself to games where the player-characters have strong emotional investments in other characters. Well over two-thirds of the book is dedicated to "fluff" (non-mechanical text) regarding various aspects of shoujo style, with frequent examples made of existing anime/manga. The remainder of the book introduces a new mechanic (Bonds and Ties), and deals with what optional rules from the BESM rulebook are particularly appropriate to a shoujo style game. Anyone looking to find a sourcebook on running a shoujo game need look no further. The book's content being largely fluff means that almost all of this book can be applied to any system. Of course, that is a downside for people who want something to rigorously expand their BESM game. A book that is largely about style of play doesn't necessitate a lot of mechanics, and Hearts, Swords, and Flowers doesn't try to pretend otherwise. I gave this product three stars because I felt that its focus on shoujo style ultimately eclipsed its nature as an RPG sourcebook, something that was abetted by the dearth of mechanics. It will, however, be the first book I turn to whenever I need emotional character interaction in my game. QUALITY: Acceptable VALUE: Satisfied In Search of Adventure by Goodman Games www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=59634&it=1&SRC=newsletterPrice: $12.99 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (from Peter Ingham) Review In Search of Adventure is a 115 page pdf adventure collection from Goodman Games for the 4e GSL system. This product contains 6 short adventures for budding first level adventurers, though these adventures are each scalable for slightly higher levels if required. The adventures all vary in theme and location, and contain an eclectic and intriguing collection of plots ranging from ancient temples in the jungle, to a forgotten wizard's tower, to the desert pyramid of the Snake Queen. These adventure are ideal for kick-starting a new campaign, introducing players to the game, or just as a one-off adventure. The adventures come in a single pdf file, with each adventure clocking about the same page count in the product. In addition to the six adventures, the product contains a plethora of new monsters in the appendix, and a few useful ones at that that failed to make the cut in the release of the new 4e GSL edition. The writing and design is excellent, with top quality RPG writers and authors contributing to this product, and the product sporting a highly professional and well-developed presentation. The cover illustration by Ben Wooten is excellent, as is the interior art, although the latter is all in black and white. A full set of bookmarks and a useful table of contents is included to round off a superb presentation and a great-looking product. The first adventure in the product is titled King Dretch and takes place in a wizard's tower where a particularly fiendish dretch has managed to build himself a small army of creature to do its bidding. Player characters must take on the dretch in his tower, and solve the mystery of what happened in the tower, and where the dretch had come from. The adventure is a single location scenario, with plenty of new and fiendish monsters and a few useful and clever traps. It's a fairly simple scenario to run for novice DMs and players, although the ending does involve somewhat more involved future quests that new players or DMs would likely want to leave out or deal with more easily. The ending leaves some strings loose and it would've been better if there was at least a simpler way of solving the problem rather than having it hanging over the PCs' heads. Nevertheless, it's a fun romp through the tower, fighting dangerous and challenging creatures, and dealing with the magic of the wizard's tower. The second adventure, Children of the Snake God, sees the characters stumble upon the lost temples of ancient powers within the jungle. There they must contend with a local tribe of serpent creatures which has plans for the lost temples and the wealth of treasure they are supposed to hold. This is probably one of the better adventures in the series, as it features more guile and cunning, subterfuge, and opportunity for roleplaying and diplomacy. Coupled with a fun romp through an ancient temple, this is a strong adventure and story. Like most adventures, the story is often something that's largely left for the DM rather than the players, but this adventures explores the plot well with the PCs. The Scorpion Queen is the next adventure, and sees the characters travel to a pyramid where they must face off against the traps and beasts that do the bidding of the malevolent Scorpion Queen. The characters will get a chance to discover the mystery behind the pyramid's appearance, and vanquish the evil that lies within. The Scorpion Queen is another straightforward dungeon adventure, where the PCs battle their way through the pyramid to the source of its evil. As with most of the adventure in the series, the locations are quite fun, and there are lots of remnants of events from older adventures gone by. Having such interesting and varied locations allows new players to get hooked into the endless possibilities of RPGs and the fun they entail. The fourth adventure, The Forbidden Crypt, takes the characters deep into the heart of the tomb of an ancient king, and allows them to explore its riches and its history. Like all the other adventures in the pdf, this is a single location scenario where the PCs enter a maze and work their way through it. Unlike the other adventures, this one contains a number of clever riddles, and is perhaps more of a thinking person's adventure that a straight fighting adventure. It has to be said of this adventure, and indeed of the others, that the combat encounters and encounter locations are all fairly interesting, with new creatures abounding and clever use of terrain and creatures throughout. Next is Legacy of the Labyrinth, which again sees the characters explore a labyrinth, but in this instance the labyrinth serves a far more sinister purpose, and the actions of the characters can have repercussions should they not navigate the labyrinth correctly. I quite like the premise of this adventure, and it's certainly one of the more interesting ones. The location, too, is fairly intriguing, although I though in places that it could've been done a little better. Nevertheless, it's a fun adventure and one that's easy to use for incorporating long-term adversaries into your campaign world. The last adventure is called Tides of Doom, and is probably my favorite of the bunch, although that's not saying anything about the quality of the other five. In this adventure the characters are confronted with something sinister in the village of Crafthaven, and will need all their guile and cunning to survive the machinations of evil in the village. I do wish that a little more roleplaying opportunity had been included in this adventure, as the premise is fairly 'classic' and one that young adventurers will have fun exploring. When I first looked at this product I was impressed with the quality of presentation and the novelty of adventure locations but couldn't quite shake the feeling of 'It's been done before'. Having thought about it, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing - a new era of gamers is bound to stumble across this series of adventures, and, looking at it from this point of view, it's no different from the classic adventure of old from thirty odd years ago that shares the same name as this one. Also, while the adventures on their own aren't that fantastic, I think together they create quite a good combinations of adventures that cater to quite a few different tastes in adventuring style. The strength in this product is that it does a splendid job of creating good first level adventures, particularly for new players or players new to the system. Old gamers might not find the adventures as good, but I think there's a richness in here that's bound to appeal to many, and even those that have played games for many years will still rediscover some magic within these pages. Very good product.
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