Call to Arms: Archer’s Arsenal by Fat Goblin’s Games is a collection of bows, crossbows, arrows and accessories both mundane and magical. I like that each item has a short description though some of the mundane items (foot bow and drum-fed repeating crossbow, for example) are verging on silly. Overall, the items are useful and interesting mechanically but some abilities (such as the crossbow of inevitability) could have been a new weapon quality, the mundane options for arrows (such as broad-headed) should have damage changes be based off the arrow’s size otherwise small sized archers can really take advantage of them. Overall, however, this product has many useful tools here for archers and crossbow users.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

This pdf is 10 pages long, 1 page front cover and introductory fiction, 1 page SRD, leaving 8 pages of content, so let's check this out!

The first two pages of the pdf are devoted to bows: From a bow that grows its own arrows to one that can transform from a quarterstaff into a bow and back to a bow that only provokes AaO's from its target, the magical bows herein are neat, though none do something I haven't seen before. The true stars here are the new martial and exotic bow variants - from bows with blades that can be used in melee to special bows for riders and even the foot bow, which most people may know from e.g. "Hero" and can only be shot while prone, the new types of weapons are neat and add some variation to the usages of these ranged weapons. One page is devoted to crossbows and features some enchantments like Inevitable crossbows, which gain subsequent insight bonuses to attack (up to +5) as long as they keep shooting at the same target and rules for repeating crossbows and sniper's crossbows. While the former has been done before, the latter lets you sneak attack from up to 60 feet away. Unfortunately, the latter also features a major formatting glitch with a line of layout striking through one of the lines.

3.5 pages are devoted to ammunition, both magical and mundane: Heavier arrows (that deal more damage), barbed ones that stick in wounds and more magical ones - Cockatrice arrows, for example, turn their foes to stone. Unfortunately, I noticed an anachronism here: The disintegration arrow is supposed to deal massive amounts of damage (2d6 per caster level) in PFRPG, not instantly slay the target as presumed by the arrow's text. Unfortunately, no caster-level is given for the arrows and thus, we don't know the correct amount of damage on a failed save. Rather cool, on the other hand is an arrow that lets you see through its embedded gem. There are also a lot of "Trick"-arrows which can open smokescreens, temporarily deafen foes, generate whistling etc. - nice for green arrow/hawkeye/dark project-style characters.

There are also 4 new quivers, which include one that has a never-ending supply of alchemical silver arrows and one that can cast true strike. Yeah, have never seen that one before. The true stars and final components of the pdf, though, would be the 4 accessories - the crossbow shield (which is essentially a stationary shield from which he can fire his weapon, a sling to prevent being disarmed and powder to retain one's grip as well as a special, oiled string.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are bad- I noticed quite a bunch of easily avoidable editing and formatting glitches - from the very obvious crossed line to spells being not in italics, flavor-text that has glitches to the rules-section, typos and a 3.5-anachronism, I'm somewhat astonished this got published as it is. Layout adheres to a 2-column standard, comes with some nice full-color artworks and the pdf has no bookmarks. Oh boy, I really want to like this pdf. I'm a sucker for trick arrows and the non-magical pieces of ammunition that e.g. trade power for range or vice versa are AWESOME and a must-have, especially for low-magic campaigns. But, oh but. The magic items per se, especially when compared to the mundane pieces of equipment, are LAME. I've seen these done multiple times and none of the new magic items felt compelling to me. A bow that shoots light arrows? Yawn. A crossbow that deals more damage? Woaw. Seriously, the magic weapons herein feel like filler to me, as did the boring quivers. Again, BUT: The arrows are mostly AWESOME and the variant mundane weapons are COOL. In fact, they are good enough in conjunction with the low price to almost warrant a 4-star recommendation. Were it not for the amount of glitches in such a short pdf that accumulate to the point where the whole offering feels somewhat sloppy in its final execution. If you're looking for some trick arrows and additional archer's gadgets and are willing to see past the glitches, you might enjoy this. If you're nitpicky like me and get upset about anachronisms in crunch-design, you might want to round down from my final verdict of 2.5 stars. Personally, since I'm a sucker for cool ammunition, I'll round up.

Endzeitgeist out.