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Obviously, this map set is tailor-made for fantasy RPG campaigns in Eberron or very similar high-magic settings. The artist has done a great job of depicting both the inside and the outside of the engine and the caboose and everything that goes in between, including cabin cars, a dining car, and various types of cargo cars. The artwork is very nice, and it’s provided in both color and black-and-white, in both letter and A4, and in both PDF and JPG. It’s hard to ask for more. Well, okay, I could ask for better proofreading; some embarrassing errors (like “your party is have dinner with the captain” and the consistent misspelling of “incorporate”) slipped through the editorial process. If you’re using the letter-sized pages, you’ll need two pages to print the interior of one car, and four pages to print the exterior.
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Thrill the players in your nautical fantasy campaign by setting this beautiful cardstock model on the table. You’ll need pretty good modeling skills, as this is no easy model to build. Once it’s done, though, the results are terrific. I’m not sure, though, why Fat Dragon broke out water tiles individually, and omitted a grid from them (even as an option).
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If you’re running a sci-fi RPG that involves interplanetary travel and you, like me, don’t know all that much about the details of planetary physics, then you owe this resource to yourself and your players. You’ll need to track along with some science and math, but author Mark Wightman keep it simple, always with an eye on helping the GM create interesting yet basically realistic planets. Aspiring sci-fi writers would benefit from this book, too.
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Like Ruined House #1, Ruined House #2 features great artwork and customizability, but requires at least an intermediate level of paper modeling skill and a substantial amount of free time to put together well. You can choose from four different wall styles, add snow to everything, and even add bullet holes to the outside walls, making Ruined House #2 a perfect companion for Ruined House #1. In all, it’s a great addition to LZW’s 3D offerings.
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You’ll need at least an intermediate level of paper modeling skill and a substantial amount of free time to put this complex piece together well, but the results will look great on your gaming table. The model offers more customizable features than I first realized; you can choose from two different wall styles, add snow to everything, and even add bullet holes to the plastered/stuccoed walls. In all, it’s a great addition to LZW’s 3D offerings.
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Kor-oggo-rok, the central threat in this single encounter for early paragon-tier D&D characters, is an interesting variation on the typical earth archon. Author Michael Evans has given not only Kor-oggo-rok but the encounter as a whole some distinctive features that add fun to this encounter and are worthy of emulation in other encounters. One of Evans’s best innovations is the inclusion of “taunts” that the DM can use as lines of dialogue each time Kor-oggo-rok uses a new power. On the “con” side, the formatting isn’t very attractive, and the grammar and style could use some help. Also, Kill or Be Killed seems to predate Monster Manual 3, so DMs using this encounter may want to update the “monster math” (actually, Neuroglyph Games should consider issuing an update to reflect MM3 power levels). Even if you end up not using Kor-oggo-rok at all, you can get a lot of good ideas from the way Evans has laid out this encounter.
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This large (40" x 26", if I counted correctly) map depicts a small inlet on a frozen coast, with stairs leading up to an ancient temple. (For the temple itself, get Fantastic Maps — Illfrost: Ancient Temple.) This exterior map would make a great stage for an initial incursion into the temple (if the temple is defended) or for an attempted escape from the temple (if that escape is hindered by enemies). You don’t need the Illfrost setting to use the map; you just need an ancient temple in a snowbound or tundra-type setting.
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This is a nice piece, with the feel of an energetic Irish reel and a great rhythm. However, it has a very distinct ending and beginning, so it doesn’t loop well—a liability for a gaming background track. If the looping issue doesn’t bother you so much, use this track as the score for a lighthearted, or at least non-threatening, tavern scene.
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This small expansion set includes eight easy-to-build sarcophagus models, variously decorated. The largest version has a removable lid and cleverly accommodates four inserts to allow for different things (skeleton, treasure, map, pit) inside. The printable pages have been divided into five different PDF files to make use of layers, but the only thing you can customize is whether or not each sarcophagus has a blood spatter on top. For maximum reusability of your models, omit the splatter (which is turned off by default).
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That’s a funny subtitle there—“Lava, Water, and Poop”—but it’s accurate, since Fat Dragon leverages PDF layers in this product to let you choose whether lava, water, or sewage flows through the recessed spaces on the 2D tiles in Expansion Set 7. You can also turn off all the “fluids” and just have stone floors if you wish. Those 2D tiles, by the way, come in 6" or 8" squares, giving you additional flexibility. This pack also includes some 3D elements, chiefly an ornate set of double doors and a dragon-headed fountain embedded in a wall; again, you can choose (using layers) whether the fountain spews lava, water, or sewage. This isn’t a set for complete beginners at cardstock modeling, but it’s not difficult to put together, either. You’ll want to practice on a couple of more straightforward models, probably, before tackling the fountain.
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You get two sailing ships for the price of one in this nicely-done pack by LZW. As in all LZW products, the artwork is quite good. Due to the nature of the maps, this pack doesn’t include isometric views, nor would they be especially helpful. LZW did, however, include exploded views to help you see how the decks stack up together. You can choose to print the ships with or without water, and with or without a grid in both cases; you cannot, however, get rid of the cannon. The ghost ship is essentially the pirate ship redressed with glowing green furnishings. Unfortunately, LZW hasn’t yet taken steps to improve the English in the instructions and annotations; a product published in English needs to use good English. In the ship diagrams, for example, the bowsprit is mislabeled as the “bowstrip.”
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Publisher Reply: |
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Dear Christopher,
Please download the Pirate Ship again, we've updated the description with our friend, Rich Crotty, who lives in Seattle and his English is much better than ours ;)
There is no bowsprit in the new version.
And yes, you're right about our English, we started to update all of our products a few weeks ago.
Thank You!
Antal Kéninger
Lord Zsezse Works |
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Down a curving corridor lies a hidden harbor with a broken pirate ship and plenty of loot—an excellent stage for a series of encounters with a gang of thieves. The artwork lives up to LZW’s usual excellence, and you get both top-down and isometric views of everything. JPGs are included for online virtual tabletops. The tabletop battlemap measures 40 inches square when assembled, and should be a big hit in your game. The product even includes a couple of rowboats that you can mount on foam board separately and use to stage the PCs’ incursion into the thieves’ den. Unfortunately, LZW hasn’t yet taken steps to improve the English in the instructions and annotations; a product published in English needs to use good English.
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This adventure for Villains & Vigilantes combines super-powered piracy with superspy-like intrigue to form a fairly engaging story. The best type of GM for this adventure is one who can really ham up a wide variety of NPCs. Enough “if/then” decision points are built into the adventure to allow for a good range of PC choices, all ultimately leading down parallel paths toward the climax. You need relatively mature players for this adventure—not due to anything objectionable, but just because young players aren’t likely to get the jokes, pick up the more subtle clues, or understand the villain’s plot (without additional explanation). Author James Bishop also contributes the artwork, including figure flats; Bishop’s black-and-white style works well for the retro feel of V&V. Despite its strengths, this adventure isn’t a “must-have.” It’s got a good story, and would be fun to run and play, but it doesn’t really compel attention. You won’t regret running it, but you probably won’t regret passing it by, either.
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Hero Pack 3 presents 19 new super-beings for your ICONS game. This pack will activate the nostalgia factor for long-time comics fans, since the tone of the characters and their origin stories, as well as the artistic style, pay tribute to Jack “King” Kirby—himself a true icon of the comics industry. Setting sentimentality aside, the results are mixed.
The artwork clearly evokes Kirby, but Dan Houser doing Kirby isn’t as good as Houser doing Houser (which, if I can utter such blasphemy, I actually prefer over Kirby doing Kirby).
The Tomorrow Squad is a fun team, and holds together well, even if Astral Girl is a warmed-over Marvel Girl, and Astro-Man is a warmed-over Green Lantern.
The heroes who make up the Storm Agents should’ve hired a consultant to help them distinguish their superhero names better from their secret identities. Dr. Seifer is Cypher? Enrique Feeley, Jr. is Dr. Feelgood II? Dr. Shade by day, Dr. Tenebrous by night? How long will take the intrepid local media to figure those three out?
The remaining characters in Hero Pack 3 aren’t connected in a team, but only the Table of Contents and the team picture on p. 13 serve to indicate that the Storm Agents writeup ends with Warden. Another “divider page” would have been nice right before Bella Trix. Elder Brotha is an interesting character, though the spelling of his name smacks of “Blaxploitation” (perhaps that’s intentional, as another ’70s tribute, like Dr. Feelgood?). Illegal Alien and the Immigrant make a “cute couple” (of enemies), but the alphabetization in the third section puts several characters in between them. If Professor Q’s aspects hadn’t specified “evil boy genius,” I would have thought—based on the artwork—that Professor Q was female. For some reason, Professor Q doesn’t have a “secret origin” page like the other characters. Unstoppable Girl provides a great dose of comic relief, though she, too, is separated from her nemesis by several entries due to the alphabetical arrangement.
Unfortunately, Hero Pack 3 is marred by the same sorts of grammatical and stylistic errors and inconsistencies that seem to plague so many small-press products, and that should have been caught and fixed in the copy-editing phase. Sometimes true (“curly”) apostrophes (inverted commas) appear where they should; sometimes, (straight) foot marks appear instead. Often, when true apostrophes are used to indicate missing characters (as in “let’s light ’em up” or in references to the ’70s), they’re printed backwards—indicating reliance on software rather than a knowledgeable human editor. The document varies between British-style and American-style use of quotation marks (i.e., “single” vs. “double”). Poor capitalization crops up occasionally, especially in catchphrases. Where dashes should appear, we get double hyphens instead. Some entries lack the final punctuation mark. The biggest proofreading fail, though, is the document’s indecision about whether Warden’s secret identity is “John Warren” (p. 23) or “John Hill” (pp. 24–25). It’s really a bit heartbreaking to see such sloppiness in an otherwise enjoyable product.
Finally, the fact that only three of the characters (Bella Trix, Illegal Immigrant, and Professor Q) are straight-up super-villains raises the question of usefulness. Indeed, the very name Hero Pack implies that the product is essentially a roster book full of superheroes. While roster books of this kind make good sense for games based in the Marvel or DC universes, they’re less useful for ICONS, where most players will want to play their own heroes, not someone else’s heroes. Sure, the heroes presented in Hero Pack 3 could be interesting NPCs—especially Señor Misterioso, who has built-in alien-related plot hooks—but GMs will want to be careful not to create a “Mary Sue” situation or to make the PCs “bystanders” in a fight between longtime enemies (such as Professor Q vs. Unstoppable Girl or Illegal Alien vs. the Immigrant). If you’re an ICONS GM looking for villains you can drop into your home game, Hero Pack 3 won’t do much for you. If you’re looking for superheroes you can include in your world as NPCs, or just as examples to fire your own imagination, Hero Pack 3 gives you several interesting choices.
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Take a trip—a very long trip—down memory lane with this impressive history of the role-playing game industry (with some forays into related game forms like customizable card games). Shannon Applecline has done gaming enthusiasts a remarkable service here. For players like me who grew up with this history (I was born in 1967, and got my first exposure to D&D in 1978–79), many of the “names and faces” will be familiar, and yet there’s still so much to learn! The book is organized by date and company, so it’s easy to follow the narrative flow.
On the production side, the layout is spare and uncluttered. The “grayness” of most pages gets interrupted by full-color product covers—some readers will enjoy this, and others will find it jarring. In a 442-page document, some typographic errors and outright misspellings are pretty much inevitable; witness, for example, the indecision about whether Adamant Entertainment’s superhero games is “Icons” (p. 77) or “ICONS” (p. 426). Occasionally, reliance on “auto-correct” features results in single quotation marks (inverted commas) facing the wrong way. But these little glitches are minor, as well as few and far between.
Such a large book may wear down readers who try to read cover to cover, and the RPG industry can appear as a tangled web with many interconnections. Thus, in a stroke of brilliance, either Applecline or editor Charlotte Law included wonderful bullet lists of “What to Read Next” at the end of each chapter. Unfortunately, Mongoose didn’t bother to hyperlink these lists in the PDF edition, nor even to provide bookmarks to the chapter headings (much less subheadings)—a glaring oversight in a digital product of this magnitude.
Unless Dungeons & Dragons is your favorite RPG, you’ll probably come away a little disappointed that your favorite game didn’t get more press in the book, especially if your favorite game is a more recent publication with a fairly short history. If you start to feel that such-and-such a game was unduly neglected, set that aside and remember the huge scope of this work.
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