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100 Polearms
Publisher: Lee's Lists
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/22/2012 12:24:57

When the original AD&D came out the RPG community, which was comprised almost entirely of wargamers, noticed a distinctive feature of the weapon tables. There were an awful lot of polearms culled from various geographies seemingly at whim. The running joke was not to write the rulebook name down on your character sheet, but to simply write 'Silly Renaissance Polearm.'

So here Lee's Lists have complied 100 such items, some of the old favourites even feature. For whatever reason they've even researched them. A copy is a must for every old school player. Keep a copy with your character sheet and at the beginning of every combat roll d100 and proudly exclaim "I charge in with my ...'



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
100 Polearms
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Back Streets
Publisher: Hex Vestige
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/21/2012 12:28:03

At 13 pages including front cover, character sheet and a scenario Back Streets has gone beyond rules light to minimalism. The system is barely more complex than Monopoly and the rules read more like a set of notes than prose. However, if you're looking for an interlude in your usual RPG fare and fancy a brief excursion into the world of modern day organised or gang crime, Back Streets is a good tool for a suitable short sharp shock.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Back Streets
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One Dollar Dungeon: Ranger's Camp near the Ruins Map Pack
Publisher: D20 Cartographer
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/15/2011 20:29:03

In two words - buy this!

Let me explain why. First the art is good, yes good. Evocative, adequately detailed and it works when printed out on floor tiles (or at least the color version I printed did). If you were to measure the quality of the art in relation to the price it is absurdly good.

Second compared with ordinary floor tiles it is a good investment. Why, it comes enough formats that whatever fantasy game system you are using now or in the future you will be able with a little work to use this map. For example the formats include JPG, which although intended for online play I cut up and overlaid hex using ImageMagick (free) to make my floor tiles. There's even an international A4 paper size version, wonder of wonders the whole world can print it without getting either the scale slightly off or bits missing at the edges. With the relative ease with which all the formats this map comes in can be produced from a single master other publishers should consider themselves spoiling the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar.

It is nice to know that somebody still understands the good business sense of honest value for an honest product.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
One Dollar Dungeon: Ranger's Camp near the Ruins Map Pack
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Faces of the Tarnished Souk: Brynhild Eirensdottir, the Shining Valkyrie (PFRPG)
Publisher: Rite Publishing
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 07/14/2011 12:47:07

I am so glad I got this, it is a pleasure on many levels. Why, you may ask, has someone who hasn't GMed anything involving a d20 in over two years said this? Firstly I'm currently doing the plot design for a GURPS Banestorm campaign and Brynhild Eirensdottir , being a solid, well thought out, interesting combination of fantasy elements nicely makes a link I was wanting to form between Blackwoods and the Emperor of Megalos. The fact that I am going to have to do some re-statting is neither here nor there, as an NPC she is a good strong story element.

Secondly, the writing and editing. The PDF is not simply a padded stat block. Right from the first word the writing is clear and has no fat. All the text works to the end of delivering you this well constructed creature.

Thirdly, the design. I'm no design geek, but with low cost PDFs one does appreciate someone who knows the benefit of using clear fonts consistently. The front page character illustration is line art on a white panel. Great I can easily extract and manipulate it to make a paper figure as well as use it as an illustration for my players.

Lastly, of course I'm not reviewing this for the balance or mechanics of its stats, but the powers all make good sense for the character.

As a reviewer it is pure pleasure to come across something which embodies a good idea that has clarity in writing and layout. Full marks to Rite Publishing for this product as source material.

Techie TIP: If you're a Linux user and you should have worked out that the best way to print RPG PDFs is to feed them to CUPS from the command line using the lpr or lp commands. Know that this is one where you are much better off doing that.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Faces of the Tarnished Souk: Brynhild Eirensdottir, the Shining Valkyrie  (PFRPG)
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Type S Scout/Courier "IISS Dreamcatcher"
Publisher: Scrying Eye Games
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 06/15/2011 05:03:47

I was not yet a teenager when I watched the first moon landing on TV. Like many of my generation I was simply possessed with idea of spaceflight. When having to wear glasses put paid to my childhood aspiration of being an astronaut I looked forward to the space tourism we were being guaranteed. Nowadays, of course, I have to accept that short of someone doing something very suddenly with carbon nanotubes and space elevators, maps like "IISS Dreamcatcher" are the closest I'll ever get to leaving Earth.

This map is teaming with loads more adventure potential than that tourist flight I anticipated rescuing in Thunderbirds style ever had. I can see in the bridge that one of the consoles is glowing a different color to the others. Definitely a sign that it is shortly, at a most inopportune time, going to go on the blink. Some of the odd hazard checked floor panels might be lifted and someone spill their coffee, or worse fall in and break something. Lord knows what will happen if there's a bureaucrat around when that happens, you think safety regulations are bad enough in c21? Wait a few hundred years. The Captain won't like having to bribe his way out of that. And should you really be leaving blasters out in your cabin when that rich dilettante passenger the Cap' had to take on board is looking strung out and withdrawn? On the other hand the drone bay has some spare room; customs won't notice the odd bottle going planet side... will they?

There are minor irritations - at the time of this review there was no 3 feet to an inch hex version of this map for my GURPS Traveller game. There is no exterior underside in the map - forgetting that in space there is no upside down. Despite this the map is good quality and well detailed. At this price if you have a Traveller game that uses 5 feet to one inch scale you can't afford not to buy this map on the off chance you need a Scout/Courier map for those times when, as always, your players drive a truck through your session planning.

Plus, let's face it, the IISS Dreamcatcher and your imagination represents a better class of space travel than you're likely to see in your lifetime - which undoubtedly will be more cramped than tourist class, full of more screaming kids and babies and have floating globules of unidentified biological matter. Need I say more? Take the sane alternative.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Type S Scout/Courier "IISS Dreamcatcher"
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Kingmaker
Publisher: Ludibrium Games
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/28/2011 09:07:24

One forgets that old school anything is not actually the past revisited. So I am happy to report that Kingmaker is not some rotten old Model T Ford you've just found under debris in someones barn, compared with such it would be a 1950s Morgan in showroom condition. Under the hood you find well recognized parts such as "hired on as caravan guards," still much in use today. You won't find "random encounter tables" or "meaninglessly populated dungeon rooms" or any such past unpleasantness. The plot is direct as old school should be, but it is strong, unlike many then and now. There is opportunity for roleplay, allowance for the take the money and run players, and, timeline and triggered events.

If you have a fantasy campaign that involves travel then buy this scenario whatever system you are playing. Re-statting it is simple and it will at least be good to keep handy for an interlude. Kingmaker has already made its way into one of my campaigns. In short, a fine veteran sports car as it should have been, the past re-engineered.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Kingmaker
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e-Adventure Tiles: Encounters No. 2
Publisher: SkeletonKey Games
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/07/2011 11:21:15

Encounters 2 is a PDF containing three multipage scenes for dungeon tile print and cut out use.

All the maps are in the classic d20 five feet to one inch scale and have the familiar one inch squares integrated into the graphics. The graphics are of good battlemap quality with the occasional pleasing detail such as pieces of broken paving intruding across the five feet boundaries. The fact that walls are represented as solid black lines is in someways a let down, but not a fatal flaw. On the plus side the maps are a little brighter in color than common. Something which means they still look good and not too murky when printed at ordinary quality (as opposed to photo quality).

The maps are the last parts of a ruin standing proud of a swamp, a town dwelling complete with work area and an ice jail, complete with magical force walls. All these tiles fit in well with the standard d20 setting but have little to do with historical buildings.

These tiles will make a welcome addition to your d20 campaign collection.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
e-Adventure Tiles: Encounters No. 2
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Art by Shinkei: SciFi 6
Publisher: UKG Publishing
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 03/29/2010 07:27:23

This artwork is shipped as a zip containing 11 pieces of art as full color JPEG files, and an HTML file to ease viewing. There are also autorun files for MS Windows but you don't need them to access the graphics (I used Ubuntu Linux and had no problems).

The art consists of:

Adam and Eve

A futuristic pair of body builders. Adam is so laden with muscle that this future obviously possesses technology that allows body enhancements that mere steroids will not achieve.

Bud Showin' Off

A shaven headed tattooed super fit male wearing an ultra tech light armor vest, khaki pants with tan knee high boots demonstrates his martial arts high kick. All set in a high tech all metal interior.

Corporate Assault

Two full-body ultra tech armored gun toting figures have just stepped out of what appears to be a cross between a camo'd drop module and a pod from Thunderbird 2.

Look to the Skies

In an urban backwater a capped and eye-patched pilot complete with sheepskin coat, knee high boots and jodhpurs points skyward. He female companion's deep blue eyes looks along his arm. She is wearing a mid-tan cycling outfit with padded shoulders and gray boots.

Marauder

In what could be a current day industrial setting a suited and armored figure walks toward the viewer carrying what looks like a good old fashioned slug-thrower with under-slung grenade thrower.

Move along nothing to see here

Unfortunately this picture portrays violence against a woman.

No admittance

A guard in gray and green-gray armor stands at a ship door with his gun propped nearby refusing entry to a black booted, red headed male wearing mid gray lycra.

Privateer

A bi-pistoled humanoid male with black cyborg eyes and perhaps too even skin is dressed in what appears to be a tan suede suit, complete with silver boot buckles and jacket clasps. I'm not sure whether the smooth skin complexion is an artifact of the render or the artist is deliberately allowing you to possibly use this image as one of an almost human android.

Safe at Last

A blond woman in a shiny dappled pink suit with yellow and white trim, and white gloves nurses an elbow wound while looking through a window onto a space scene which could be a spaceship venting air and bodies.

Vampire Hunter

A redheaded female with a pair of goggles that give her insect like eyes is dressed in a black leather suit with a long coat of the same material. She, the floor and her weapons are bloodied.

Workman's Coveralls

A red-eyed female wearing a green-brown baseball plus and sleeveless coveralls and elbow pads in the same color stands right knee cocked looking into the camera.

The images would be suitable for any scifi or cyberpunk campaign. GMs or players could use them as character (or NPC) appearances, however they are of such good quality you might use them as the license allows for your own web and print publications or simply collect them.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Art by Shinkei: SciFi 6
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Øone's Blueprints: Drow City - Military Academy
Publisher: 0one Games
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 03/20/2010 00:01:58

Drow City - Military Academy runs to 19 pages including covers. For the price you get 2 copies of the 5 pages of maps. One set in old school blue on white and another in black and white. Using the PDF buttons included you can select in and out such things as room numbering or furniture, and can even switch from 5 feet squares to 1 yard hex. There's a one page legend of the map symbols and four pages of room purposes laid out as tables with space for brief notes. Further there's a blank copy of the table. The maps are stored as "vectors." This means that unlike many maps, which use the same method as photographs for their data, this map can be enlarged with no jagged edges.

The "keep" of military academy featured in the map has been carved from a very large stalagmite and is on four levels. It is clear and the room purposes are logical, without major omissions such as the classic in old school dungeons of failing to provide loos (well the medieval equivalent). There are no arrow slits shown in the exterior of the keep wall, which leads one to think that the whole building could be cleared simply by sealing its five exterior doors and waiting for the occupants to suffocate. But then there is no need to let in light in the Underdark.

The grounds of the academy has a constructed wall whose top which is presumably patrolled. One assumes that the section at the business end of the of bow shot range is walked by students on disciplinary. Many DMs will fail to resist the temptation to fill the large outside swimming pool with acid.

Overall this is a well executed map in retro style. At this price it will make a sensible inclusion in any DMs 'just in case' arsenal of maps. It's also perfectly suitable for population and use as a full scenario.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Øone's Blueprints: Drow City - Military Academy
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Operation Hydra
Publisher: Bedrock Games
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/28/2010 10:36:34

Operation Hydra is a module for 2-6 novice to intermediate PCs using the Terror Network RPG rules. Based in Dallas, TX the player characters are assumed to be FBI counter terrorism agents or a mixed agency group who form a Joint Terrorism Task Force. The module is broken up into four chapters. The first contains background information, the terrorists time line and the module hook. The bulk of the module is in the next two chapters, one of locations and the other of NPCs, their stats, behavior, and knowledge. The final, short, chapter covers how to wrap up the module and its potential big finale.

In choosing to arrange events mainly by location Reuben Hinman and Bedrock Games have succeeded in building a scenario that is more like the investigative sandbox they give as their aim than the more typical "linear with a couple of options" kind. Right from the introduction your players have three paths to follow. Given the terrorists schedule and the introductory events the players should feel a sense of pace and pressure of time.

Much of the module is investigative in nature, with many of the useful clues being obtained during NPC interaction which will please storyteller players. There is a sprinkling of action, which given the lethal nature of combat in Terror Network RPG is probably all that is wise. Tactician style players will be pleased to hear that it is possible to complete Operation Hydra without the PCs firing a shot. Converting this scenario to other systems will require the GM to write stats for a medium sized cast of NPCs and to assign DCs or equivalents for gaining clues, however, there is nothing that locks Hydra to one system.

Operation Hydra is a pleasingly well designed investigative scenario.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Operation Hydra
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Terror Network: A Counter Terrorism RPG
Publisher: Avalon Game Company
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 02/27/2010 11:58:02

Terror Network is a counter terrorism RPG. This, the main rulebook, comprises of 114 pages including covers. The interior is monochrome throughout and printer friendly. There are nine chapters and one appendix. Given that one of the chapters is comprised of sample NPCs and another is a sample scenario, the game is as you will guess rules-lighter.

It also has a separate chapter on U.S. Agencies and one on Terrorist organizations with guidance on faking up imaginary terrorist factions for the game. This guidance is useful for GMs wanting to avoid the copious research workload presenting real terrorist groups would entail. The concept of a continuum starting with peace going through protest, then terrorism and eventually warfare is mentioned but there is no discussion of the gray areas this leads to nor any advice to GMs as to mining this for more sophisticated play.

The essential mechanism is to roll a pool of up to six d10 and hope that at least one meets or exceeds a target number. There's a handy matrix in the appendix giving the probabilities charted by target number (1-10) and number of dice, an essential tool for GMs in a rules-lighter treatment. The system is entirely skill based. Some of the skill descriptions are mysteriously similar to those of attributes yet there are no derived scores so it qualifies. As the authors warn it is a deadly game, you fall after a maximum of three successful hits. This reflects that fact that bullets really are very dangerous and adds to the dark, serious tone befitting the milieu.

The text makes mention of many Terror Network scenarios having their success hinge on one skill roll, Robin D. Laws in both is See Page XX column and GUMSHOE system writings has argued I believe convincingly against this. Beware GMs who do make their scenarios depend entirely on one roll and enforce that, that you will have dissatisfied players.

Terror Network is essentially a sound, if black and white and political solution free, treatment of the subject suitable for groups comprised mainly of storytellers.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Terror Network:  A Counter Terrorism RPG
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Shadowrun: Missions: 03-06: Jackknifed
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 01/30/2010 16:11:24

Shadowrun Missions (SRM) are designed to be run in the standard 4 hour convention slot. So by design they have to be simple and quick to play. To follow the references in this scenario you'll need a copy of Shadowrun 20th Anniversary Core Rulebook plus the usual suspects in terms of expansions (Arsenal, Running Wild etc.).

Clearly with something so brief I am not going to indulge in spoilers. The text is well written, and edited to the usual Catalyst standard. I suggest GMs read Jackknifed well in advance of play as not all continuity issues are written out, though they are explainable. The distinctive rich Shadowrun atmosphere is maintained.

There are three maps at the, one needs a color printer. Interior maps are in a simple black and white building plan like format but because they contain spoiler text etc. they're not suitable for use as handouts even though that is their description.

At first glance you might be tempted to think that this scenario is little more than a variant on the classic GMs exercise, a 5 room dungeon, you'd be wrong. Given, the plot is simple, defend a truck, but Shadowrunners paying attention to inter-corporate politics and action will have to give some thought to the background information they glean from this mission. That Catalyst are carving a plot arc in the background is part of the interest in these missions. Yet a wider picture is absent from the PDF. This is good for GMs who want to drop this into their existing campaign and with a little effort maintain their own corporate politics, even better for people wanting to play a series of missions then discover the big picture in the Shadowrun history as it develops. You never know, your character might be part of it!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Shadowrun: Missions: 03-06: Jackknifed
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Rulebook
Publisher: Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 01/22/2010 12:21:39

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Rulebook (for 3rd Edition) is a 98 page graphics intensive PDF. You will need the cards and custom dice in the core box set to GM the game. However, this PDF will tempt owners of the Adventurer's Kit and dice who would like to be abreast of the rules without going to the expense of the box set.

Being graphics intensive does mean both that it's impractical to print this PDF off and that on low power machines you will experience delays in rendering a page. My 1.6 GHz 2 core Netbook pages took in the order of 15 seconds to render if approached sequentially and around 1 minute if I jumped into the document at random. However, my 2.3 GHz 4 core 64-bit desktop rendered a page within 10 seconds if I jumped in at random and sequential access resulted in sub-second page renders. I was running Ubuntu Linux on both machines (the Netbook Remix for the portable) and used the default "evince" document viewer for the tests. Evince has the handy habit of preparing the pages either side of the one you're viewing so reading the PDF was a delay-less experience, even on the low power computer.

As you may know, the boxed set provides the rules and components for a GM and 3 additional players. The introductory chapter of this PDF provides an overview of this fact, what are called Story and Encounter modes and pictures of the various cards and dice with an overview of their purposes. Naturally these dice and cards are not included in this PDF.

The first chapter covers Characteristics & Abilities describes the six base stats of a WFRP character, which although they differ in name are mysteriously similar in description to those of another well-known 6 stat system. Again Fortune Points fill a familiar role in providing PCs with a spendable "fate" resource, though the mechanism of adding one of the white custom d6 is different. The same bonus is provided by each level of training in a skill above the basic "everybody can do this" attribute roll.

The game introduces "Party Sheets." Party Sheets summarize the party's outlook and provide a place to collect Fortune points the GM awards during play, these are distributed each time the number of points equals the number of PCs. Each party sheet has a different party ability. Party members can also use the sheet to share "Talent" cards (which along with Action cards fill the role Feats do in DnD). The downside of this is that parties can become stressed resulting in a game effect.

In the brief Chapter 2 WFRP Rulebook describes the four standard races. Reikland Humans, Dwarves, High Elves and Wood Elves. Happily in such a small space it manages to describe some of their histories and culture at the same time.

Normally players get to choose their race, as explained in the next chapter "Character Creation." However, if following the default system, once the player has drawn three "Career" cards and chosen one, character generation devolves into a points based system and will be subject to the usual time consuming min-maxing. That said the character sheet is brief and much of the usual note taking from the rulebook will be replaced by simply selecting the appropriate card from one of the box set decks. GMs wanting to start characters at a higher than introductory level might want to take inspiration from The Burning Wheel and use completed or partly completed careers instead of additional experience as suggested.

A PCs "Stance" range is calculated as this stage. Stance is a game mechanism for measuring how conservative or reckless a character is and governs the quantity of certain dice used to make up the pool a player rolls. Being reckless carries a higher potential reward, but also a greater risk of failure or bad things.

In WFRP all players are rewarded equally and this is to the tune of one, or occasionally 2 experience points per session. Each XP received entitles a character to one advancement, which can be in skills, a new action card (combat action), talent card, in "Wound Threshold" (HP), a "Fortune Die" (good d6) for an attribute, or an additional Stance piece. 10 XP make a "Rank" (Level). I have read elsewhere that the box set provides for Clerical and Arcane magic use to Rank 5, which even with a consistently over generous GM is 6 months of a weekly game.

At last in Chapter 5 we get to learn the core mechanism. Which is simply 1) roll a pool of dice 2) after all other factors if there is at least one net "Success" the action succeeds. Success is a symbol on the dice, there are a total of nine different symbols on the dice (not all dice have all symbols). Critical success and failure are calculated from the appearance of symbols other than Success or its opposite "Challenge." As mentioned in my article on a demo session I attended, the method of constructing a pool of dice is quickly and simply learned, within 3 rounds of combat we were all building our own pools.

Each combat round for each player comprises of a number of phases but the meat of it is one manoeuvre and one action. Actions are described on the cards in the WFRP box set. The Rulebook contains a short list of broad standard manoeuvres, players and the GM are encouraged to improvise others. A player can buy additional manoeuvres in a round at the cost of "Fatigue" too much of which can lead to collapse or combined with "Stress" to "Insanity," the truly grim part of Warhammer.

Although the box set provides what the rules refer to as "standies" (card miniatures slotted into a plastic base), combat is map-less and deals with range in an abstract fashion. There being a set of range steps which are marked out with tokens on the playing area. Initiative is determined by rolling dice at the start of combat, but in each round the players are free to swap which of the given initiative slots their characters use. This allows for some battle tactics you don't see in a static initiative order game.

Equipment (including weapons) is dealt with in very broad categories. Pricing is based on category and how likely you are to find the item you want in the settlement your character is in. There is a chapter on "The Empire" which at 11 pages is enough to get some flavor but not enough to prevent two games of WFRP 3 from having radically different interpretations of the setting.

There is a short appendix containing 3 maps (the known world, the Empire, and Reikland the area within the Empire which is the default setting). Surprisingly there is no index, which given the brevity of the book and the detail of the contents pages shouldn't affect its use too much. However, the location of the weapon tables is missing from the contents so be prepared for occasional annoyance.

This PDF makes a sensible buy for a player who wants to read the rules and is content with buying the forthcoming dice pack rather than go to the whole expense of the box set. That said, much of the detail of WFRP3 is on the cards and not in any of the books. Further the mechanics of the game as presented in the book are easily learned in play. The graphics heavy nature of this PDF and the consequent long rendering times doesn't make it a sensible buy for GMs wanting to cut down on what they carry to a session or have as a search-able copy.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Rulebook
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Exodus Post Apocalyptic RPG: Wasteland Adventure #17
Publisher: Glutton Creeper Games
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/09/2009 11:53:04

Exodus Post Apocalyptic RPG: Wasteland Adventure #17 is a post-holocaust d20 Post Apocalypse OGL scenario that requires the Exodus Survivor's Guide, Exodus Southwest Guide and Exodus OPS Campaign Manual to play. It also has an alternate title of "The Glow of Death" on the cover. OPS, in case you're wondering, stands for "Organized Playable Scenarios" and as far as that goes this 22 page PDF does what is says on the tin. The Glow of Death is designed for 4 to 6 characters of 4th to 6th level.

Unusually for the normally dark and grim post-holocaust milieu The Glow of Death takes a light tone, playing up to martial arts movie tropes. This is apparent even in the plot which is a basic "find the parts of the broken up McGuffin." A bit of flavor is added by the loss of one piece as the result of the death a martial arts master in the first scene. His student, now out to recover the artifact and avenge his master's death is the party's "new best friend NPC." You could argue that the McGuffin trope has been mined so many times it has descended to the level of a cliche. However, there are many such as Hollywood, computer games designers and even such RPG luminaries as ChattyDM who would disagree with you. Further in a scenario that can only be taken as humorous using well trodden tropes can not only be forgiven but is arguably necessary to prevent plot details from distracting the players as they hamm up the jokes. Given this the default player entry hook, a nice familiar "you interrupt an apparent mugging" is pleasing in that it telegraphs to the players the presence of a big sign saying "This Way to the Dungeon."

Whilst humor and trope mining does allow the designer to introduce the PCs to a set of mysteriously familiarly named NPCs with obvious powers as opposition, it does not excuse the almost entirely linear encounter structure. Having said that the writer has documented, where needed, multiple paths between each encounter in the line. So the GM is less likely to find herself extemporizing plot links or being accused of railroading the players.

As to the "can be converted to any post-holocaust game" tag, this scenario has, perhaps, a too lighter touch for many post-holocaust campaigns. But if you do wish to convert, maybe for a one off interlude, then the included Martial Arts Technique descriptions and a familiarity with d20 should be all you need.

Apart from the logo on the front the only art in this PDF is the collection of maps at the back. These are straight forward and basic affairs but should, when enlarged, be suitable for use instead of dungeon tiles.

There are demerits. The text contains a number of grammar and spelling errors though it does remain understandable. All the named NPCs are male and the campaign background contains gratuitous mentions of a pastime which is counted as animal cruelty by many.

All in all the scenario is competent and meets, but does not exceed, the quality expectations set by its 3.00 USD price tag.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Exodus Post Apocalyptic RPG: Wasteland Adventure #17
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Power Pics Villains 2 -Greenman
Publisher: Mesozoic Press
by Andrew L. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/05/2009 09:33:02

This four page PDF presents a good quality full size single pose of a fanged, green skinned, pointy-eared humanoid rendered in color, line art and greyscale. Across the bottom of each page is a small copy of the art placed in a two sided paper figure with a silhouette as the back view. "Greenman" as Mesozoic Press call him would fit in as a guest villain in a supers campaign but could equally be a special monster in a fantasy setting or a viable mutant in a post-holocaust scenario.

Having a line art version is handy if you want to create a custom colored version, or even to print a copy off for budding young artists in your family. The greyscale copy has been done well, and produced noticeably better results than my mono laser's built-in greyscale conversion of the color picture did. When printed the lines in the artwork remained smooth with no jagged edges (aliasing) even on high-res color output. The only problem that I found was that the paper figure lies in the non-printing footer area of my laser. This is easily corrected by opening the PDF in the free program GIMP (or similar) and copying out the mini into a separate image.

Using this art is a great way to fire the imagination of the visually oriented amongst your players.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Power Pics Villains 2 -Greenman
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