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Beautifully drawn and with evocative detail, here is a giant battlemap - best used on a virtual table top if you don't have access to poster-sized printing facilities, as there is no multi-page version - depicting the sort of place that might make a suitable campsite if you are busy exploring some ruins when night falls.
Crumbling walls, brooding statues and a central... well, I don't know, might be a fountain, or another statue or other ornament, give over a feeling of ancient crumbling grandeur.
The download includes four versions - day and night, each with and without 5' square grid lines superimposed. Even the daytime version is pretty gloomy, but the night-time one has the central structure and a bit of decorative stonework emitting illumination. Magical or mundane? It's not clear but I think the former.
It's gorgeous enough to make me scuttle off to write an encounter, if not a whole adventure, just so I can use it!
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Lucky oracles! For here, presented in delightfully atmospheric and in-character terms, are a collection of magic items specifically designed - by one Suilaliun of Our Sovereigns in Heaven - to suit their particular character and style. All delightfully illustrated in the pre-raphaelite style too, a feast for the eye as well as for the gamer.
A suit of armour that bites back - or at least, casts a curse spell at anyone who has the temerity to damage the wearer - starts the collection. with a fantastical cape whose mere appearance alone is wonderful even before it starts reducing the cost of using metamagic feats, a pair of sandals that aid the oracle's dodging ability and several other wonders following. All are soundly rooted in the peculiarities of the oracle class and appropriate to their qualities, yet they are also customisable to suit a given oracle's tutelary deity... at least, they would be if he has them made. Of course, you somewhat take what you find when rooting through treasure hoards!
If you have any oracle characters in your game, get this... and if you don't, a few hints about the goodies herein will have at least one player rolling an oracle up forthwith - yes, they are that good, that fun to play with.
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OK, so what is a 'mystical site' anyway? To put it simply, it is any location that's got something special about it, a place where magic may act a little differently from normal perhaps due to something that once happened there or as part of the natural ebb and flow of magical forces across the land.
To aid you in making your campaign world suitably and subtly different from the everyday one you inhabit when not revelling in your shared alternate reality, herein is presented a whole bunch of 'qualities' that you can apply to appropriate locations within it. Each comes with descriptive text that may explain how the site has developed or what it feels like, or something else which lets you know the flavour, the feel of that location. Then the rule mechanics of how that location's otherness has an in-game effect, and finally a brief example to demonstrate that quality in action.
They can be quite powerful, quite disturbing or startling; and should be used sparingly. Placed to best effect, carefully chosen, they can be a potent reminder to your players that they are not wandering round Kansas or Cheshire, but are truly elsewhere, in that shared alternate reality that you are creating and inhabiting around your game table. They ought to be rare. You won't find a mystical site on every street corner or every hill top, but they should reflect the grand sweep of magic through your land, influenced by events and in turn influencing future events.
Just reading through them may spawn ideas for events, encounters or even whole adventures. Or you may realise that a location already in your campaign world is eminently suitable for this treatment. Maybe even something your characters have done in the past may lay the seeds for a mystical site... and their discovery of the changes that have taken place the next time they visit that spot will be memorable indeed.
Some are beneficial to creatures entering the area, some malignant... and some act differently depending on who you are and what you are trying to do. This is a resource to study thoroughly and to think about, before picking which qualities you want to use and where you are going to put them. Done with care they will enhance your world and the adventures you have there.
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Hauled screaming and kicking out of the depths of Rappan Athuk to infest a campaign world somewhere near you, here is a fine selection of monsters collected from the 'new monsters' section of the Rappan Athuk adventures and kitted out with full descriptions, complete Pathfinder RPG statblocks and even complete lairs all ready to raid.
The collection includes some 28 monsters, ranging in CR from a lowly one-half to a mighty 20, and presented in alphabetical order so watch out that you select ones appropriate to your party (or you may discover how good they are at running away, a sadly neglected skill amongst modern adventurers in these days of well-balanced adventures!).
So out they come, gibbering and oozing, ranging from tiny albino cave spiders to zombie hordes, devouring mists and river trolls. Perhaps your luckless characters will run into a stirge swarm (sorry, the stirge was the very first monster I ever encountered, the first time I played D&D in 1977!). Or some witch lights and water weirds will lead them astray.
They are a fine collection of monsters and the added bonus of detailed lairs ready for them to inhabit and your characters to raid make this an excellent addition to your monster collection. You can never have too many monsters, after all!
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Some truly beautiful line drawings of a selection of mediaeval buildings that can be used for anything from just enjoying to showing to players 'This is what you see...' to illustrating your own adventures or other products.
A clear licence is provided - on the OBS product page, no less, so you know what you can do BEFORE you purchase - that permits personal or commercial use (except as part of an art collection), stating clearly how credit is to be given in a published work.
As for the drawing themselves, they are line art in large scale including a complete township clustered around a hill-top castle, street scenes, buildings, town walls, and a wonderful bridge heavy with buildings clustered on and around it.
These will help make the settlements in your campaign world come to life... and for that matter I can feel some ideas spawning as I look at them!
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They say it is not so much a matter of how well the bear dances, but that the bear actually dances at all is a wonder. So thus we are swept up in the musings of a self-aware, genius even, straw man as he tells of his strange situation and as best he can, what it is like to be him.
Told in the first person, it grabs you up and sweeps you along wondering whatever revelation will be next. By exploring the human condition from outside, yet able to think as men do, this straw man illuminates corners that often lie unconsidered. As you read on, though, you discover that you know him. Or at least, thought that you did. As the tale unfolds it brings a whole new slant to things you thought were familiar.
Role-players in games that investigate the strange and unexplained may find him somewhere - he does not shy away from communicating with flesh and bones men, so may well pause to talk with such explorers of the unusual and the bizarre.
An enjoyable read.
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This work presents two quite fascinating and well thought out 'mysteries' which Oracles might choose. These are Fathoms and Lunar.
Firstly, Fathoms is a distinctly wet option! It involves water, and grants the Oracle the ability to swim as well as adding Knowledge (nature) and Survival to his class skills list. As he rises in level (or sinks to the depths?) he also develops other watery powers such as the ability to breathe underwater and descend to extreme depths without problems. As water, especially deep down, tends to be cold the Oracle also gains benefits in casting cold-related spells. All-in-all it is an interesting package especially if your adventures are at sea or at least on a shore...
The other, Lunar, involves the moon, of course (assuming your campaign world has any!). The abilities conferred on Oracles that study this mystery are many and various ranging from skill at Acrobatics, good perception, a talent for both diplomacy and bluffing and even the ability to frolic the night away! Low light presents no obstacles, and other gifts are based on the 'inconstant' nature of your average moon... the waxing and waning in the sky. Again, it's quite fascinating and appropriate to any Oracle wherever he might adventure - after all, the moon shines down on everywhere too.
They are both thorough and consistent mysteries, worthy of consideration as alternatives to those in the core books.
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This product consists of two beautifully-drawn and shaded rooms, one with a flagged stone floor and one that looks more like packed earth, along with stairs and a bit of passageway. Both rooms are completely bare.
If it's the right shape for the dungeon chambers in which you wish to stage a brawl, well, here's an excellent battlemap for you. It's probably best used with a virtual tabletop of some kind, as what you get is a single ginormous JPEG image... if you want to print it out you will have to chop it up for yourself unless you have access to poster-making print facilities.
Best thing is, it is really good-looking.
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This is an intriguing take on a wilderness adventure, based around some hills known for the number and variety of trolls living there. Based on large hex-gridded maps, the GM's notes consist primarily of information about the occupants of each hex... but it is far, far more than a random wander around hitting whatever you find!
For a start, there's a whole lot more than trolls in them thar hills. There are ruins to explore, people to talk to and plenty more things to do, find, hunt, fight or marvel at. The whole gives the clear impression that it's a living community that will carry on whether or not any player-characters ever go there, bringing an excellent air of reality to this area within your game world.
There are rumours too, and wandering monsters, and tribes of humanoids wandering around. There are whole adventures to be had, and other things that the characters might want to follow up... even space for you to drop in other material, home-brew or published, that seems appropriate.
If you find it difficult to persuade your players that they want to go troll-hunting, why not send them on an errand that requires them to cross the Troll Hills to get there? Depending on the route they choose, run the appropriate encounters and make the journey as much an adventure as whatever they are going to do when they arrive where they are going.
Anyone fancy a spot of hill-walking?
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Claiming inspiration from low-budget 1970s space epics, it's not just stock-art that has been used to illustrate - indeed spawn - each and every monster. Some ideas and concepts are clearly there... take for example the adorable little Breeder Poof, a tiny fluffy beast that reproduces like crazy, or at least exponentially, at the drop of a hat. The notes do not mention if they like triticale seeds, but any follower of the original Star Trek will recognise the inspiration for these little menaces!
There is a whole collection of other critters here, all with copious notes on appearance and behaviour along with stats and a picture, plus a section headed 'Role-Playing' that covers not just the creature in question but their role in society as well. Excellent material to help you embed your space monsters into the universe rather than just use them as a monster-of-the-week to provide a spot of combat exercise for the characters.
There are constructs and ancient dinosaur-like creatures, even humanoids, all ready to stride across worlds and do battle... or even be cute and cuddly. It's good to see the 'monster' concept firmly embedded into space gaming, it's not just a fantasy thing!
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Adventuring often involves journeys, and I believe that the journey should be as much a part of the adventure as the dungeon delve or whatever that happens at the end of it. Making journeys realistic also aids in developing the sense of an alternate reality, making your campaign world come to life in your players' minds as their characters travel around it.
Now consider that you may be sending the party through some hilly terrain. Even if it's marked so on your map, you are going to want to add a bit more detail when boots hit the ground. I used to teach map-reading and whilst I am pretty good at 'taking a walk' through a map, there are still far more details to be seen when you actually arrive there and get a good look at the ground truth for yourself. Time to turn to this product...
The first table presents some (mostly) hill-related minor events, things that might be seen, heard or otherwise noticed. You can roll percentage dice, or read through and select an event that suits. Some are as benign as a few birds circling overhead filling the air with birdsong, others potentially threatening or even liable to change the whole course of the adventure - an earthquake, say, or finding a severed head in the middle of the trail...
The next table provides a wealth of 'hill dressing' - minor features like a patch of tasty mushrooms or unusual rock formations - again there are an hundred options to choose from or for which to roll your dice. It's a way to make that journey sound more vivid and real as the characters make their way onwards.
The final table presents twelve random encounters suitable for hilly ground. Watch out, they rapidly escalate into quite high CR level encounters so unless you believe that characters need to learn when to run away bravely, you may prefer to select one rather than roll for it.
But there’s more, a look at ‘terrain features’ that you can use when describing the surroundings. Most game maps do not have contours marked so you need to work out things like slopes and lines of sight for yourself. Here there are notes on how a gradual or steep slope and other features will affect movement and observation, and even things like how much cover a streambed will afford should they need to duck out of sight.
Make the hills come alive… if perhaps not with the sound of music… next time your party needs to travel through them.
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Those adventurers lucky enough to have mothers ought to have been warned to avoid alleyways... but for those who never got or fail to heed such warnings, here is a fine resource to enable them to get into trouble at the drop of the GM's hat.
As usual the information is provided as a series of tables. If you like randomicity or are in a hurry (mid-game even, with the players staring at you over your screen waiting for the scene to be set) you can roll on them, while if you have a little more time you can read through and select whichever descriptions and features appeal.
First up is some basic descriptive text detailing width, what's underfoot and other salient features - slanting sunlight, perhaps, or a few piles of crates cluttering the place up... even the odd snoozing dog or a 'No Trespassing' sign. Next, if you decide your alley warrants one, there is a list of names.
Scene set, there's a table of 'Hooks, Complications and Opportunities' - these are things that are going on, but which don't affect the characters directly, unless they decide to stick their noses in, of course. We ARE talking about player-characters, after all! It's suggested that you roll a D20 on this table, and you don't really want to get a 20: "Without any warning, a slum dweller throws a bucket of night soil into the alley from an upstairs window."
Assuming you avoid this, next comes a table of actual encounters. There are 12 of these, ranging from wandering monsters to strange plants or some guards out to meet their arrest targets by making false accusations against whoever is unlucky enough to bump into them...
Finally there are 20 detailed NPCs who may be somewhere to hand, each with a hook that could be used to spark off all manner of thing, should you so wish.
This will make characters think twice about ducking down a 'backsie'...
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Back in 1983, a dungeon rang with song: "What shall we do with a drunken dragon?" as we'd managed to kill one off, a black one as I recall, and were wondering what to do with it...
Herein perhaps I shall find the answers, even if that black dragon is long since roasted and eaten. The work details all the parts of a dragon, their value and possible uses. Apart from featuring on the party's menu, the skull might make a trophy, the hide as armour or boots, other parts may serve as spell components, jewellry or even aphrodesiacs (I'll leave you to imagine which bits!). Let nothing go to waste.
However, it's not quite that easy. Once you have decided which bits to collect, you have to butcher the dragon, extract the chosen bits and then get them safely to wherever you plan to sell or otherwise use them. You may also wish to have a chance that parts were damaged during combat - well, the dragon is dead and it's unlikely it died of fright when the party arrived, so there may well be battle damage. And of course, if you're clumsy, you might damage bits even as you try to harvest them. Even if you are taking care you might encounter all manner of problems - trapped gas, for example, or a parasite which realises that its host is no more and it had better find a new one.
The second part of this work looks at equipment that might be useful if you are fighting dragons, or which can be manufactured from their remains. Specialist arrows, harvesting tools (what? You went hunting dragons on purpose, for the express reason of bringing back dragon parts? Why not, indeed!), preservative chemicals... and the equipment that the best-dressed dragon might itself have: talon covers, prosthetic scales and so on.
And then, back to roast dragon. Or at least some recipes for choice dragon parts, for the ultimate dungeon feast, or for when you haul that mound of dragon-meat back to town and sell it to some enterprising inn-keeper. Blood pudding, dragon haggis, dragon-fat fried potatoes, dragon liver soup and more (om nom nom) plus a few drinks into the bargain.
Finally there's a handful of plot hooks involving the potentials of dragon-hunting for pleasure and more importantly profit. Fruit for a few adventures there, and overall a product redolent of ideas...
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A scene that hopefully will be enshrined for all posterity... this recaptures the excitement of the first Moon landing in 1969, taking me back to an excited small girl who stayed up all night to watch!
Of course, it won't look quite like this. Here we have the lander entire, ascent stage as well as the descent stage. The flag appears to be that of the United Nations rather than the United States.
Otherwise, however, it's wonderfully evocative. The barren landscape, which as you look closer has far more texture than you might imagine. The lander itself, in top-down view, in all its weird almost spider-like glory.
Not quite sure what you would use this for... but it's nice to look at!
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This work manages to cram a lot into a few pages without even feeling cluttered. It combines an overview of Pulp the RPG game mechanics (sufficient to be able to play), an introduction to the game world and a complete adventure... plus plenty of hooks and ideas to spawn further adventures if it's caught your fancy. Oh, and monsters. Lots of them.
Basically, this is fantasy done pulp-style. Swift high adventure with rugged heroes battling against the odds... and here we're scampering around an island where, if the flaura and fauna are not actually giant-sized, they certainly are larger than life. A bunch called the Blue-Eyed Wizards have hired the characters (separately or as a party, doesn't really matter!) to explore some ancient ruins and bring back some kind of artefact.. it doesn't matter what they find, but if they return empty-handed, there's no pay.
The whole adventure is quite freeform - here's an island, here's your task, get on with it - with plenty of incidents and encounters to toss in whatever the characters actually decide to do. Most can be resolved in a number of ways, and there's opportunity for two-fisted brawlers and subtle negotiators to shine, and to accomplish their goals.
Pre-generated characters are supplied, the best route if you haven't picked up the core rules yet, and certainly if you are eager to give this game a whirl. The adventure should fill an evening nicely, let you accomplish something and know whether or not this game system appeals - if you like rules-light, story dominent, cinematic games you probably will.
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![Class Expansions: Oracle Mysteries [PFRPG]](images/3827/112665-thumb100.jpg)
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