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Do you have those annoying sort of players who seemingly have memorised every monster and so as soon as the first few words of description pass your lips they rattle off the name and known weaknesses of the critter before a single die is rolled?
(If not, you've never had me at your table, a side-effect of an eidetic memory & reading a LOT of RPG books means I have to be very careful not to be so annoying...)
A common tactic, especially if you do not have the time or inclination to make up hordes of original opponents for your characters, is the so-called 'reskinning' of monsters - changing enough of a standard monster so that he's mechanically the same but looks and feels like a wholly new critter. Even that can be quite taxing and requires a good understanding of the game mechanics underlying monster design.
So here, nicely ordered by CR, are a host of variant monsters all ready to line up against your characters. Each entry gives the name of the new variant with the original monster in brackets - you'll need to use this book in conjuction with the Bestiaries, because the core statistics are not given here. The rest of the entry covers what is different about the variant monster, but gives you both evocative descriptions to help you paint the scene for your players as well as apposite game mechanics, new abilities and so on.
A valuable resource if you like a bit of variety at your table!
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If you like zombies, you are going to love this one!
It's a fine pen & ink style sketch, coloured discretely in shades of red (on his check flannel shirt and also for flesh showing through a battered pale skin and blood around his mouth from the last meal) which proves remarkably effective and atmospheric.
This would make a fine cover for a zombie game or scenario, an image that grabs the imagination and draws you in to the core theme of ravaging hordes of zombies that have to be defeated at all costs.
Shame about the potty-mouth title, a few coy asterisks do not obscure obscenity. Fortunately the licence terms only require credit in the shape of the artist's name, should you use this picture in a commercial product, you do not need to give the image's title.
It's enough to make me write something zombie-related, just so I can use such a great picture!
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Publisher Reply: |
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The title is a reference to the Pigface album. I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that for wordplay. |
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Whilst like the preceding adventures in the Basic Paths series this one is aimed particularly at beginning players and GMs, this is both aimed at slightly more experienced (4th Level) characters and is set in the same township, with the intention that the characters are beginning to get to know, and hopefully care about, the locals.
The adventure opens with a scream, as a lone orc attacks the settlement of Gafolweed. A single orc is no trouble to a whole party of adventurers, but it soon becomes apparently that there are hordes of orcs out there all on the warpath, and the characters' help will soon be enlisted to deal with the problem. And we're off...
Background is vivid and engaging, be it the backstory to the adventure provided for the GM, the overview of Gafolweed, or the details of locations and individuals encountered along the way. Particularly of note are sidebars designed to highlight and explain features of the rules for novice GMs - even the most experienced will find snippets of mechanics that will enhance their game knowledge - for example, a clear description of the art of 'reskinning' a familiar monster to give it a wholly-new aspect without having to go to the trouble of designing one from the bottom up.
The adventure doesn't shy away from things that novices might find hard, like mass combat, but settles down to explain what needs to be done clearly and concisely. Worth studying in advance, but even a new GM should find it possible to run hordes of orcs and equally-numerous defending cavalry confidently.
As the adventure unfolds, there is plenty to do and a quite surprising route to discovering and combatting the evil that has come to roost in the neighbourhood. Everything is presented clearly, with discussion of the options available and catering for many of the things that players might do that could so easily catch an unprepared or new GM on the hop!
In classic style, this adventure moves smoothly from the initial set-up and a good brawl, through a journey along which information, resources and even allies can be gathered to wind up with a dungeon-delve and climactic showdown. There's a lot to see and do throughout, with interaction and investigation balanced well with combat. The dungeon is no mere backdrop to the climatic fight, either, just getting there provides a good challenge with plenty of the things all good dungeons have (traps, monsters, tricky bits...) even before you get to the final showdown.
Everything is laid out clearly and where you're going to need it, with some flavourful illustrations, delightful maps and battlemaps for the main brawls. There are even paper 'standee' miniatures for the main opposition. Overall a well-presented adventure that is a delight to run... and ought to be fun from the other side of the screen.
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'Quirky' can be overdone in role-playing, but used with thought and care it can enhance your game. Here's a collection of thoroughly developed and considered NPCs which just happen to be 'constructs' rather than flesh and bones people that you can use, a bit quirky perhaps but thought through in such a way that they make sense within the fantasy world for which they are intended.
Each group or individual comes with a lot of background material to set them in context. Not just appearance and backstory, there's plenty to help you set the scene when they are encountered as well as all you need - from likely reactions and conversational gambits to combat tactics - to play out that encounter if the characters decide to interact. And of course there are fully-developed stat blocks for everyone involved.
Most are perhaps best suited to an urban setting, but constructs can and do move around - or are placed - wherever they like (within whatever limitations they may have in terms of locomotion, energy supply, etc.) and so if your plot requires it, they can be located wherever you need them to be.
An interesting collection, and well worth having if constructs are to be found on your campaign world. Indeed if they are not common, this work could help you to introduce them as something rare and wonderful that will make for a memorable encounter.
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It can be quite difficult coming up with ship names sometimes, so if inspiration fails this might help. Wish it had been around when assorted characters of mine ended up on vessels such as the Hognose, the Keep Moving Forward or the Profitess...
Ok, so this consists of an hundred (mostly) plausible names for ships. Fantastical they may be, but just as much use for painting on the side of your starship as on a sailing vessel in your local fantasy world.
Mostly plausible? Well - #49 is 'A List Of Lees' (wonder where that came from?). # 93 (The Virtue's Last Reward) is plausible, but #66 'Advanced Dinghies and Deckhands' might raise a few eyebrows and #32 - A Legitimate Business Ship (No Piracy Going On Here (Seriously We Promise)) - sounds like every bunch of characters that ever set sail or headed for the stars!
There are some good gnome jokes as well. Hope any gnomes in the party are tolerant. What's that. Gnomes ARE a joke? Now then, play nice! This product is good for a laugh even if you decide not to use any of the names for your ships.
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Here's a neat little collection of fantasy mounts for your cavalier characters (or indeed anyone who is fed up walking), stemming, as the author points out, from the thought having arisen one day: Why should the only riding beasts available be horses or a camel if you're lucky.
A Cavalier is defined by his mounted status after all, and as this is a fantasy world, fantasy mounts are surely appropriate. So here we have the likes of salamanders, elk, eagles, hawks and spiders all presented rather bare bones (just the statistics you'll need to run them including the level-based advancements). The underlying concept is that these are animals that are bred and trained to be riding beasts, very likely by cavalier orders for their members, and so likely to be quite hard to obtain if you are not a cavalier of the correct order!
Inventive GMs - or even business-savvy PCs - might set up a business breeding and training a particular species as mounts, of course... indeed, I can feel an adventure idea coming on... but they are still likely to be hard to acquire and quite expensive.
Neat thoughts, ripe for expansion and incorporation into your campaign world.
(As an aside, I actually find the 'printer' version easier to read electronically than this one!)
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Here's a neat little collection of fantasy mounts for your cavalier characters (or indeed anyone who is fed up walking), stemming, as the author points out, from the thought having arisen one day: Why should the only riding beasts available be horses or a camel if you're lucky.
A Cavalier is defined by his mounted status after all, and as this is a fantasy world, fantasy mounts are surely appropriate. So here we have the likes of salamanders, elk, eagles, hawks and spiders all presented rather bare bones (just the statistics you'll need to run them including the level-based advancements). The underlying concept is that these are animals that are bred and trained to be riding beasts, very likely by cavalier orders for their members, and so likely to be quite hard to obtain if you are not a cavalier of the correct order!
Inventive GMs - or even business-savvy PCs - might set up a business breeding and training a particular species as mounts, of course... indeed, I can feel an adventure idea coming on... but they are still likely to be hard to acquire and quite expensive.
Neat thoughts, ripe for expansion and incorporation into your campaign world.
(As an aside, I prefer the layout of this version for reading electronically rather than the one marketed as the 'laptop/tablet' version!)
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What a refreshing change! Not, I hasten to add, a bloodthirsty and cannabalistic cult that produced this treasure; but the statement that "No true minister of the dark god’s teachings considers his own blood too sacred to spill" - it is good, if that's the appropriate word, to hear that the priests are as ready to mutilate themselves for their god as they are to spill other people's... there are far too many such that will sit back and expect others to do all the bleeding and dying for them!
Herein there are all the materials you need to create and run an entire nasty cult worshipping a deity called Kahyne, who demands blood - plenty of it - from followers and enemies alike, as well as a powerful artefact created by a devoted preacher of the cult. Acting as a +2 keen flaming burst spear, this sceptre lusts for blood to the extent that if its owner does not use it to spill the blood of an intelligent creature at least once a week they suffer mounting impairment to intelligence, wisdom and charisma until they either kill something or manage to get rid of the thing.
Perhaps your characters will have to face cultists led by a blood-crazed cleric wielding the sceptre, or they may find it lurking innocently in some treasure hoard and discover its dark secrets the hard way. A neat (and nasty) thing to have around, enjoy!
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Do you want to have something really weird going on in your campaign world?
If so, you might just find the resources, the tools to arrange for some serious oddness here, especially if you like Lovecraftian-style weirdness. Apart from a few references to the world of Abbadon, on which it is assumed this infestation of alien beings has landed, it is not tied to a specific location so it could come to a campaign world near you.
The resources provided are rich and varied. The core aliens, the H'laqu, that are bringing about the weirdness are gone in to in quite a lot of detail. There are new feats, traits and spells galore; even a new cult based around misperception of their almost god-like abilities deluding people into thinking they deserve or even want to be worshipped. A real gem is the array of 'new monsters' each of which has not only the usual bits and bobs you expect with a monster listing, each one also has its own selection of plot seeds to help you incorporate them into your game.
There's also an illness that can be contracted, and the way - through 'breaching points' - that the aliens arrive on your campaign world in the first place. These too come with masses of ideas on how to weave them into your plots or create whole adventures around them as the characters - and no doubt just about everyone else - battle to save their world from the infestation.
There's a lot of magnificent stuff here... but it lacks any overall coherence (hence 4 rather than 5 stars... it's so almost a 5* product!), rather its a toolbox that you'll need to sift through and work with to attain your desired outcome.
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This is a delightful resource, a wander through some of the cities in the world of Camelot Cosmos.... but a wealth of detail that would provide flavour to any steam-fantasy setting even if you do not use this one which you ought to try if you like steampunk meets fantasy with a bit of chivalry thrown in.
There is a lot crammed in here. It's more flavour than hard fact with everything from likely names of street gangs to notes on the Gentlemen Assassins and Unseelie influences... Evocative descriptions of the Factols - distinctive bastions of industrial might - jostle with tables of Wyrd Effects and discussions of the war economy, Fyrd patrols and the role of Hags, grotesque crones with oversight duties within the Factols.
Some bits are very setting specific, although there is little rules 'crunch', but much could be transplanted elsewhere if your fantasy setting is subject to heavy industrialisation in steampunk style - I can think of a couple of games in my collection in such a style for which this might be raided.
This makes for an entertaining and flavourful read. While it is primarily aimed at the GM, there is little conflict in allowing players access if they want to get more of a feel for the world in which their characters live.
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Who ever said that your party of adventurers were the only folk out travelling the highways and byways of your campaign world?
Even worse, who thinks that everyone you meet is merely a 'wandering monster' for you to hammer seven bells out of and then take their stuff?
If you have a slightly more civilised approach to fellow travellers, this resource may be of use. Here, on three tables you may either roll percentage dice on or just select an entry that appeals, are a whole bunch of people who have reason to be treading the same paths as your party, and with whom they can interact if they so choose. Divided into peddlers, merchants and traders; bards, minstrels and troubadours; and finally mercenaries, sellswords and freebooters, each entry gives you a short paragraph about the individual or group in question - plenty and enough to fuel a conversation.
Depending on your needs and the style of the games you like to run, most could easily serve as recurring NPCs, be used to further one of your plots or even spawn a whole side-adventure (or more). Take as an example Elion Menel (roll 09-12 on the bards, minstrels & troubadors table) He (NG male elf aristocrat 1) is the fourth son of an elven noble who fancies himself a poet. Morose and dressed in black, he is looking to emotionally suffer in order to improve his art and he finds death incredibly romantic. Seeing adventurers as agents of death, he tries to follow them from a distance that he might draw inspiration from their brutal actions.
Now, you might like to portray poor Elion as a complete pest and really bug the party with his attentions. Or perhaps he can give them directions to a location where they can be assured of a good brawl (it being, of course, part of your adventure to lure them there). Or maybe some bandits, realising he's of noble stock, kidnap him and the party is asked to rescue him! Or... I'm sure you can come up with some other ideas.
Some of the entries give suggestions for how to use them - merchants who try to sell the party their wares, or have information that may be of use to them... even a couple of the mercenary encounters who actually are after each other over some dispute, both happy to air their grievances and ask for help in finding the other.
Heck, if you're not careful, the journey may end up being the adventure, instead of the way to get to it!
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Publisher Reply: |
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Blimey! You've certainly taken a stroll through this product, Megan! Thanks every much for taking us all on your journey! |
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Whilst described as a 'modern' library, this is really quite timeless, a haven for those of us who like 'dead tree' books whether we are in mediaeval times, somewhere in the far future or sometime in between. Especially when looking at the top-down battlemap version, where the style of the chairs and nature of lighting fitments is not so apparent - they are early 20th-century vintage and might jar a little if this is supposed to be the treasured library of a medieaval/fantasy lordling... or his wizard.
It's basically one long cavernous hall. The cover illustration and 360° view give a beautiful impression of a vaulted roof and the booklined walls. Pity there are no freestanding bookstacks - both a waste of space if you are thinking of how many books you can shelve and quite fun to dodge around if you are having a brawl in here. (Just remember to keep the noise down, this is a LIBRARY you know!)
Otherwise it is a good layout with comfortable chairs and a good table depending on whether you want to curl up with a good book or take notes as you study. I can think of lots of situations where this will come in handy. You get the choice of a square grid, a hex grid or no grid at all (with notes on which pages to print), plus an enormous single-sheet JPEG for virtual tabletops or if you have access to a commercial poster printer.
I'd recommend this even if it wasn't free... as it is, grab it!
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So, a game of World War I flying aces, with the key ingredient that's been lacking from other aerial combat games: intelligent apes... now, I cannot say that I've ever felt the lack of apes, intelligent or otherwise, in any aerial combat game I've played but... now I've read this, there's a certained warped corner of my mind that sees that they could be an asset!
The premise is simple. Back in the 17th and 18th century, human explorers from Europe found civilisations in distant jungles built not by primitive men but by apes. Urang utans swarming over the Indies. Chimpanzees in West Africa. The apes took advantage of the encounters every much as humans did, and by the beginning of the 20th century, they lived in the west enjoying all the benefits of civilisation in harmony with their hairless cousins, human beings. Five ape species have stepped up to take their place in society: Orangutans, Gorillas, Bili Apes, Chimpanzees and Bonobos.
After this swift yet comprehensive history we move on to Character Creation, which uses the QAGS ruleset (which you will need to make the most of this game). Characters may be humans or one of the ape species and details of the 'ape modifier' that you apply to any ape character are spelled out here. Given the original premise of the game, characters are intended to be pilots... but there is plenty of material if you intend a more general early 20th-century alternate history game where aerial action is not quite so important.
The next section discusses the Great War, weaving actual and alternate history into a seamless whole to set the scene for the game. Positing a date of 1916 when combat had settled into trench warfare with biplanes buzzing about overhead, the next section looks at the Flying Squadrons and how aerial combat was conducted. Aircraft, the nascent art of war in the air, even uniforms and squadron life are covered. The section ends with game details for several different aircraft.
And then... Flying Monkeys. It doesn't matter if you are human or ape, you need to be aware of certain details - and the rules that will model them. The effects of altitude, even frostbite, must be survived. A system for aerial combat itself is then presented, which a few die rolls and prangs later can be reported to be mostly workable, although a knack for abstracting and presenting the combat in narrative form improves things greatly. It's not about rolling dice, it's about adventure and derring-do, after all!
Finally some notes on the sort of adventure that ought to work well are followed by a fully-developed one, Masque of the Black Death. There's plenty there to get a good flavour of the game. A whole raft of appendices deal with the timeline of the alternate history, pre-1916 aircraft, the major nations, other theatres of war, speaking ape (common ape slang), a Great War glossary and (of course) some dumb tables to exercise your die-rolling skills upon. There's even a page of Inspirations, a GM cheat sheet and a character sheet - everything you need, really.
All jolly good fun, what? Gentlemen, gentleapes, start your engines!
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It is a while since I squelched through a good swamp... probably only a few times since I finished studying botany and was seduced to settle at a computer instead. So, if you want your characters to have that genuine swamp experience and don't have too many of your own to draw upon, this product could be a godsend.
The stated aim here is not to get too bogged down (sorry!) in detailing the swamp. Let the players' imaginations do that for them, and provide little snippets that make it all come to life. To that end, the first table is 'Minor Events' and details an hundred different things that the characters might notice, or which might notice the characters. It might be midges and gnats, or a backpack strap breaking, a flight of birds or a plume of smoke in the distance... or the characters discovering that a few leeches have decided to dine on them! (Note, this is how you spell 'leeches' - a rare spelling error for this publisher has snuck in!).
The next table is 'Swamp Dressing' and deals with the sights, sounds and smells of wherever it is your characters find themselves. Again, there's an hundred options from a great mass of mushrooms growing in the shadow of a steep bank to shallow pools of particularly fetid, muddy water beside the trail. It's all about creating the right atmosphere.
Next come 12 random marsh encounters you can run. They range from EL 2 to EL 16, so it is probably better to pick an appropriate one than to get your D12 out. Each is a little more than just a monster to have a brawl with, there are a few sentences describing what is going on to make it an actual event rather than a combat to enliven the tedium.
Finally, a section on Marsh Features talks about some of the trials and tribulations of swamp travel and discusses rule mechanics that it is well to be aware of when running a game that involves movement through a marsh. These include movement and detection ranges, and a nice sidebar about quicksand.
If you have many swampy areas in your campaign world and a reason for your characters to want to go there, this is worth a read.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks very much for taking the time to review this, Megan. I much appreciate it. Glad you didn't get bogged down in the text. |
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Here's a very nice selection of neat, crisp paper miniatures. Entitled 'Heroes and Goblinoides' the collection includes five adventurer types (at least one is an elf, I can just about make out pointy ear tips!), three of them in standard travelling clothing with weapons and one in robes with a staff. The last is very clearly a dwarf, with a fine set of whiskers and a big axe.
The rest presumably fall into the Goblinoides category. Green skins, pointy ears and a generally grumpy disposition in various shapes and sizes... along with a couple of large rats and a huge spider. And a few really big club-wielding and VERY grumpy fellows - giants, perhaps. Or trolls?
The drawings are clear and neat, without being cartoon-ey, and they are well-coloured. The miniatures make up into 2-sided flats with a circular base. No instructions are given but it's pretty obvious what you need to do to prepare them.
A nice, useful set to have to hand.
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