The theme this issue is archers and its well served. Let’s see, it opens with the Elven Archer, a race specific class for the Pathfinder RPG. It’s an interesting mix of the ranger and the rogue that fits a traditional fantasy niche. The article has some typos (and you all know I’ve got plenty of those, so I shouldn’t be nitpicking), but I found it interesting and it’s a perfect fit for my long running campaign. The notes on adapting the class for other races, cultures, or even weapons make it useful in other contexts. There is also an article on magic arrows, which again provides what in my mind are some archetypical magic arrows. These two articles seem plucked from my adolescent love for RPGs updated for Pathfinder.

What else is there? Read on to find out…

Other Pathfinder articles include a collection of ooze themed spells and familiars, including the ooze magic school. Four new terrifying low to mid-level creatures that range from the creepy to the terrifying, a fifth level adventure, which begins with some railroading, but this a is a short adventure and due to length I’m willing to overlook it, since the rest is really entertaining. An article on older adventurers, including feats, which makes me reconsider the possibilities of my concept for the old hero and another one on Midgard themed fey hunters, with lots of campaign flavor BUT easily adaptable to any campaign.

But my favorite Pathfinder article (even more than the archery themed ones simply because this one is just so much more useful for me as a GM) was the article on four fully fleshed planar allies, with details on what negotiations with them would entail, personalities. Kudos! The weird article award goes to magical fish one for Pathfinder. You eat the fish and get some magical effect, from removing curses to permanent ability boosts, weird, interesting but weird…

For AGE you have 5 new specializations for the game’s classes. I love to see Kobold Quarterly expand the possibilities of this terrific system.  For D&D 4^th edition there is a bard themed article, new utility powers for gomes, tieflings and minotaurs (a race near and dear to my heart), and an article on nature spirits, dual-statted for Pathfinder. The recent announcement of D&D Next/5^th edition has made me take another look at the rule set, wondering what will be part of the new game. Whatever happens I hope in the future Kobold Quarterly gets to support all the games they already do and the new D&D!

There are systemless advice articles, like Monte Cook’s on the role of the GM. It might not be the most original, but there is some solid advice in there and he did bring up some interesting issues to consider. The mechanic for time sensitive adventure, called haste points, seems interesting, but I would have to test it out, I’m not sure how it will play out. The idea is solid and well presented, but they are something else to track in game and I’m not totally convinced I need that. The regular cartoons are here, funny as usual, I love Stan!’s humor, and I particularly liked D20 Monkey’s this issue, juvenile but funny. Read it, you’ll see. And of course, the closing one page article on the City of Zobeck by the one and only Jeff Grub!

The magazine is 84 pages long, full color, with terrific art, great layout and an appropriate ratio of articles to adds. I’ve said it before, it’s reminiscent of the old Dragon Magazine, but this is not a magazine just for the grognards like me, but for all fans of the major fantasy games out there. You can get the PDF of Kobold Quarterly #20 for $5.99 or the PDF+ Print bundle for $8.99, or better yet subscribe, well worth it in my opinion. Thank you for the makers of Kobold Quarterly for providing a review copy!

Related posts:

1. What about Kobold Quarterly, specifically the winter issue, number 16? A review…
2. Review: Kobold Quarterly Issue 14
3. Spring is here… Can’t you smell the kobold? The Kobold Quarterly that is!

These books where provided by the publisher for review and even if I took my sweet time to get to them I am always really flattered that publishers will submit their products for review. Thanks, that doesn’t mean I’ll pull my punches!

So without further ado, the reviews…

What about Kobold Quarterly #19?

Issue 20 of Kobold Quarterly just came out, and I plan to review it much faster than the previous issue, but the issue at hand (pun intended) is 19, the Fall issue. I’ve reviewed previous issues and the wonderful people at Open Design have made me a fan, with a mix of nostalgia for the old Dragon Magazine coupled with great new content for some of the most popular fantasy RPGs in the market right now, D&D, AGE and Pathfinder. So what’s good in this issue? Glad you asked!

Pathfinder goodness: The White Necromancer, a fully fleshed out non-evil necromancer option; Druid archetypes; an article on magic shops, and making them more than simple wholesale magic warehouses, giving them flair and turning them into role-playing opportunities; and death themed archetypes for Druids, Barbarians, Monks and Summoners. There is a preview of the new Paizo’s Dragon Empire and Dragon Empire themed Arch-Devil. Overall, great content for all Pathfinder fans!

Then there are the AGE articles. I love that they are supporting this system and adapting Midgard content for it, in this case ten backgrounds for the game. A system less article on court adventures, including the power players and adventure ideas is a great source of inspiration for role-playing. There is another system less article on traps; the winner of the Relics of Power is published in this issue; a solo adventure; Mont Cook’s balance free bonuses ideas, bonuses that don’t impact game balance, adaptable to any edition, was my favorite article of the issue.

There is just one D&D 4^th edition article, with rules to play werewolf characters. It seems interesting enough, and I’m sure this will be popular. I was surprised that this was the only article written specifically for the system. True there are many excellent articles that can be adapted, but I was surprised. I guess they can only publish the articles submitted and wonder if this is a sign of the popularity of the games. Even if I don’t play the game, I know many D&D 4^th edition fans that love the magazine and hope to see continued support for the game in future issues.

All the usual suspects are here, the cartoons, book reviews and Free City of Zobeck closing article. Overall I loved this issue; it was full of Pathfinder articles which makes me personally happy. But I know fans of other games read the magazine and I hope to see more balanced content in the future. If you love a system, be sure to check out their Writer’s Guidelines and try to get published.

What about Divine Favor the Inquisitor?

Here is the final installment of the Divine Favor series; this time around it’s the Inquisitor’s turn. The cover is a little drab, just an Inquisitor in a battle pose, I am a fan of Christophe Swal’s art and I think using the same Inquisitor from the Advanced Feat cover was the right choice, but the art seems off and the ocher background left much to be desired.

Inside its 17 pages of content, with clear layout, the use of stock art, most of it appropriate, but there are a couple of odd choice, nothing that is terribly distracting. The new abilities and new inquisitions are refreshing and thread some interesting ground, expanding the possibilities of the class. There are some interesting archetypes, feats and spells. They all play well of one another and Stefen Styrsky provides a good closing to the series.

What about the Book of Drakes?

This is my favorite of the three books, and this is my favorite one. Drakes in Midgard are fascinating creatures, the idea of dragon-like creatures that are not as powerful and can appear in the game in very different roles than traditional dragons are an excellent option.

From the cover by Kieran Yanner, to the layout, to the interior art, this is a beautiful book to look at. And the writing is top notch too! Kudos to the design team… The ecology of the drake that opens the book is reminiscent of the old ecology articles of Dragon Magazine and a great introduction to the creature in Midgard. There are rules for drakes as companions, feats for them, class features, prestige classes, spells, and equipment, mundane and magical. I was NOT a fan of the rules for playing drakes, I think they are better allies or opponents that a playable option. The bestiary is great, providing drakes from CR 1 to CR 14, and rules for creating new drakes.

This is a great book that while officially a Midgard setting book, can be used in any Pathfinder game. The book is available in PDF and a print+PDF. I recommend the latter; this book is just too pretty not to have in print.

There you have it, three great books that have been out for a while now, but you can’t go wrong getting them. I hope you enjoy them!

Related posts:

1. A great opportunity and a good cause!
2. Pathfinder RPG Goodies: Venture Captain
3. Preview: “Open Game Table, The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs”

—Promethean: The Created, by Bill Bridges, Conrad Hubbard, et al.

Chapter 4: “Storytelling and Antagonists”

Everything ends, no matter how we may wish otherwise. Roleplaying games are no different. Sure, there are plenty of stories of twenty-year-long campaigns of Dungeons & Dragons to be heard; you might even know of or participate in one yourself. If so, congratulations! By and large, though, most games will end in a few months to a handful of years. Groups dissolve. Stories reach an end and have few other places to go. It is the way of things.

There are games out there that do not wait for the end to either blindside or creep up on the players. They often avoid the sweeping, epic scope of the “campaign” that is so familiar to Dungeons & Dragons and similar RPGs. These games are small affairs: sometimes filled with whimsy, sometimes bittersweet, and almost always with something to say.

I’m going to talk about those kinds of games for a short while. Then we’ll end.

As we must.

Inevitability

“Here’s what I do know: most of the world thinks being good for goodness’ sake isn’t good enough. People you help will turn on you. People you love will manipulate you. And sometimes it seems everyone in the world is more sure of their beliefs than you. That’s this game, in a nutshell.“

—They Became Flesh, by Elizabeth Shoemaker Sampat

“Author’s Notes”

Promethean: The Created from White Wolf, Dō: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple by Daniel Solis, and the upcoming They Became Flesh by Elizabeth Shoemaker Sampat are all great RPGs that have a goal in mind.

Promethean: The Created

In Promethean, your character is a Frankenstein’s monster—cobbled together from the parts of the dead, instilled with life through unspeakable forces, and reviled by all that is proper and natural in this world—who seeks to find humanity. The Pilgrims of the Flying Temple are young kids with good intentions and a penchant for getting into all kinds of mischief as they help out with problems both comically absurd and touching, who eventually grow up and find their destiny. Players assume the roles of fallen angels in They Became Flesh, and are torn in several directions between God, Humanity, and their fellow Fallen, making decisions that inevitably edge them ever closer to their final judgment.

An RPG with a clear end goal has a great advantage: focus. Knowing what that goal is, and being aware of the in-game steps you must take to influence the outcome, gives a you a greater impact on the story of your character.

Admittedly there is nothing preventing players and GMs from collaborating like this in other games: Dungeons & Dragons, Vampire: The Requiem, Savage Worlds… In fact, Promethean’s method is quite similar to this. Mechanically it plays much like any other World of Darkness RPG; the main difference is it explicitly acknowledges its intention for an ending, and roughly how you should approach that as a player or as a GM.

Dō and They Became Flesh have more intrinsic approaches: the resolution mechanics contribute, bit by bit, toward a character’s eventual destiny.

Each time a Fallen uses his or her traits in They Became Flesh, there is a minimum number of dice the player must use. The player can roll any amount of dice they wish beyond that. Roll doubles, and those dice leave the pool forever, locked to an ability. A player never gets more dice. When they run out, the Fallen is judged, the outcome decided by where the dice have ended up.

Dō: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple

Whenever a pilgrim of the Flying Temple tries to help someone, or get out of trouble, the player draws differently-colored stones out of a bag and his or her choice between them decides the outcome. The stones a player chooses are tallied at the end of every session, and added to an overall total. If the pilgrim is retired at the end of an adventure, the totals of those stones determine what he or she goes on to do.

These are excellent mechanics, because they give a player direct control over his or her character’s path, while still giving a nod to the whims of chance. A player could certainly go with the “right decision” at any given moment and just find out where they end up as a result, but there is also the option to sculpt a character’s long-term path, fraught with short-term complications.

In doing so, each of these games says something. Perhaps more powerfully, each of them allows you to say something, through your choices.

Destiny

“One day, your pilgrim will end her pilgrimage. The many little decisions along the way will culminate in her fully realized destiny.”

—Dō: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple, by Daniel Solis

Chapter 4: “Advice”

Several years ago, when Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition had not yet appeared on the radar, I played a paladin in my friend’s 3.5 game. The party was less a group of adventurers and more of an elite military force, subject to politics and orders from the top. We were sent to enlist the aid of pirates against an invading nation.

Arriving on their island, I immediately noticed the sheer debauchery of the pirates. Their lord had a harem, they dealt with slaves, murder was commonplace. My paladin bristled. Here was something he cared for not at all. In order to get their help, the pirates wanted our characters to eliminate the threat of some lizardmen who had been harassing them.

It turned out the island had once been home to the lizardmen, and they’d been displaced and slaughtered by the pirates. I knew what the right thing was for my paladin to do. Alas,  I didn’t have that option. It came down to diplomacy with the lizardmen, or combat. At the very least I was able to choose the diplomatic solution. Staging a full-scale rebellion and overthrowing the pirates would have, to put it gently, derailed the entire focus of the campaign.

My friend wasn’t a poor GM, though obviously there was some room for player-GM collaboration in the situation. Sometimes you get overwhelmed. Sometimes you put a lot of work into something and want to see it happen. I don’t blame him, but at the same time I’m sad I didn’t have the opportunity to have my character take the path I felt most appropriate to him.

Games like the ones I’ve mentioned here tell you what kind of endings you can expect to see. It may sound restricting, but they do an incredible job of giving you, the player, leeway. They encourage, even demand player-GM cooperation, or provide an engine that drives the story forward to its various conclusions. They set the stage and say, hey, do something with all this.

Personally I’m a huge fan.

Other Games

It’s hardly my intention to imply these are the only three games that do what they do. None of them float your boat? Perhaps these will suit you:

Blowback by Elizabeth Shoemaker Sampat

This modern television spy action-thriller stuff-goes-wrong game encourages episodic gameplay (via “jobs”), while still having a sense of connection (through the relationships your characters develop and the answers they seek to find). The mechanics drive each job toward its end, while like Promethean, the long-term end is an encouraged matter of agreement between players.

Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at Utmost North by Ben Lehman

Polaris is a melancholy game about a tragic, beautiful people who lived in a time before. Their civilization lies not in ruin, but in void. Nothing remains. You will die, or you will become what your people fear most. Your character will be torn in many directions and will accumulate scars of weariness and heartache, driving them ever-toward their unfortunate destiny.

My Life with Master by Paul Czege

The players collaboratively create a mad scientist, magician, or what have you, then suffer under his or her infernal whims as Igor-like assistants who crave companionship, love, and all those things they are denied. Eventually one will successfully resist the yoke of the Master, pushing everyone into an endgame culminating with the Master’s death.

Did I miss any? I can guarantee it. Hook us up in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Adult themes in RPGs
2. Other sources of inspiration for RPGs: Comics
3. Communication Breakdown: Language in RPGs

The 374-paged book not only contains the Kerberos Club setting, but also all the rules actually needed to play the game. What I like a lot about this game is that it allows you to play in three eras. During the early Victorian century, things are already touched by the Strange, but still pretty close to what you can read in history books. In the middle era things start to get more fantastic. While early era games are still almost historical with a hint of the supernatural, middle era games resemble a street-level superhero setting. In the late era you get a full-blown Victorian superhero setting with everything from airships to dinosaur cavalry. So the GM can basically pick between three power levels for his campaign.

Explaining all the details of the FATE system would probably be beyond the scope of this post. I guess most of you are probably at least fleetingly familiar with at least one of the FATE games. What sets Kerberos Club’s version of FATE apart are the following:

a) Skills in the game are measured on two axes. There’s the skill rank like in all other FATE games and the Power Tier. All skills start out in the Mundane Tier but they can later be increased to the Extraordinary, Superhuman, Ascendant and Godlike Tiers. When characters of two different Tiers compete with each other, the player who uses a Skill in a higher Tier replaces one of his Fudge dice with a six-sided die for each Tier of difference. That’s in my opinion a pretty easy and elegant way to simulate super powered abilities in a FATE game.

b) Instead of dozens of Stunts, Kerberos Club uses six “Gifts” that basically serve the same purpose. They can be bought during character creation and character advancement and allow to bend the rules a bit. The Gifts are Companion, Equipment, Impact, Signature Aspect, Skilled and Theme. Veterans of the FATE system will quickly notice that the Gifts are actually a neat way for the player to design his own stunts instead of picking them from a huge list. For example the Equipment Gift grants the character an important or special piece of equipment that has one or more improvements like adding a +1 bonus to a certain skill or it allows the wielder to use one skill in place of another in certain circumstances.

c) Collateral consequences are additional consequences player characters can use to avoid any kind of Stress. But unlike personal consequences they don’t need to be directly connected to what caused the Stress in the first place and they affect the player character’s environment, the Kerberos Club, maybe even the whole Empire itself. Collateral consequences are another narrative device the players can use to affect the world around them.

I have to admit I haven’t delved too deep into Kerberos Club, yet, but it looks like it could be for the Victorian Superhero genre what Starblazer Adventures was for Space Opera. Even if you don’t intend to use the Kerberos Club background you get enough material that you can use in any game set into the era. It also introduces a few new and very intriguing elements to the FATE system.

This first look is based on the PDF version of the game which I got on DriveThruRPG. It sets you back $24. There’s also a free Quick-Start Guide which contains an introduction to the setting, four sample characters and a taste of the FATE system.

Related posts:

1. Freebie: Free FATE
2. Strands of Fate
3. Free FATE

I am primarily a role-player, while I dabble in the occasional board game and played some CCGs back in the day, there is nothing I would rather do that chuck dice and tell a story among friends. So you can imagine role-playing games were my primary draw at Gen Con. I did not even visit the wargaming and board games area until Saturday. I did not see the card games at all (sorry CCG fans). However I did see some very interesting games of the strictly non-rpg variety in the exhibit hall and got to demo a couple of them.

Fantasy Flight Games was there, talk about beautiful games. The number of FFG bags around the convention was outstanding. I was particularly impressed by their Dust Tactics demos. I just watched but the miniatures and terrain that drew me in seemed to be part of a fun game that made me want to play.

WizKids was there, with their HeroClix minis, and the preview of Paizo’s heroes set. There was the announcement that they will be doing collectible pre-painted miniatures, Pathfinder Battles (must fight the lure of plastic crack), they had a set of LotR Miniatures I knew nothing off (goes to show you what I know!), but what impressed me the most was Star Trek Feet Captains. The game looked incredibly entertaining and the miniatures were gorgeous.  And there is a Munchkin Conan expansion coming out… How cool is that? ‘Nuff said!

But these were games or companies I knew about to an extent. There were some nice new discoveries during the convention…

Super Dungeon Explorer from Soda Pop Miniatures was a fun romp, reminiscent of 8-Bit games of old. They were running demos and you could pre-order the game at Gen Con. True that the miniatures I played with were painted and the terrain was constructed for the demo. As I understood the game comes with a two dimensional board and some of the minis we played with were form a future expansion, still this was fun!

All you need to know about your character is in a card (I played a sexy purple haired super-deformed sorceress), the game uses custom colored coded dice and as you gain treasure they are coded so as they are placed around the character card. The game ran smoothly and I could hear myself humming the theme of games like Zelda and Dragon Knight. The company was demoing other games as well, but alas I did not get to play.

I don’t paint miniatures but I saw some incredibly detailed miniatures, many painted beautifully. I was impressed by Enigma Miniatures, the Cool Mini or Not booth had some terrific miniatures and some great pieces. They were doing some Sedition Wars demos that looked intriguing, alas I did not get to play!

Wyrd Games has their Malifaux game miniatures. My friend PJ (@luniticus) had told me about them and while I have not played it I did get to see the Puppet Wars game he purchased which looked like a lot of fun. And then there were the Terraclips by World Works Games… Modular buildings that require no arts and crafts skills to put together. Despite salivating over them all weekend I ended up NOT getting them and I am sorry I did not. When all the sets are put together they look amazing.

Fat Dragon Games was displaying their sets. They even had a terrain set with a cliff that included slots for miniature bases to simulate climbing. I am always tempted but know that I have little skill or patience to put them together. And they seem easy enough, but I will not devote the time or effort necessary, easy as they may be. My lazy ass needs Dwarven Forge! Just like the last time around I must have gawked at their sets for a while. Getting them at Gen Con was impractical in terms of transporting them back home. I visit their site every so often and fantasize (no not that kind of fantasy get your mind out of the gutter) but have never ordered any.

Last but not least, there was a Redakai game, I had NO idea what it was but the figures (action figures?) they had on display looked pretty so I had to take a picture…

Well I think I have rambled enough about games and minis. There were other things that caught my interest and that I ended up buying during the convention, but I’ll save the details of that for my next post. Got to hold something back to keep you coming for more, see you in a couple of days!

Related posts:

1. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 1: Role Playing Games
2. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 4!
3. Gen Con 2011, a retrospective… Part 3: On to other stuff…

A while ago

And it’s funny how the excitement about an upcoming game can also change your attitude towards certain styles of music. Because I wanted to learn more about the band Abney Park, I watched a couple of music videos on YouTube and was not really impressed at first. But in time their songs finally grew on me and I ended up buying their three most recent albums.

The music and lyrics really make you want to play or run a steampunk game. I wouldn’t recommend playing Abney Park’s music during a game session, because I think that players get to easily distracted because of the lyrics but it’s great to get in the mood.

As far as I know Cubicle 7 already sold a few copies at Gen Con, so the release should not be that far away. You can already preorder the game at the Cubicle 7 store or from the Abney Park market.

By the way, if you were at Gen Con at had the chance to check Airship Pirates out, please share your impressions in the comments below!

Related posts:

1. Airship Pirates preview
2. First impressions: Abney Park’s Airship Pirates
3. PDF version of Airship Pirates is now available on RPGNow/DriveThruRPG

I am NOT their market for adventure paths. I rarely, if ever, play pre-published adventures. I may read the occasional one for an idea, stealing a map here, a trap there, but let’s just say the last adventure I ran ALMOST straight from the book was an AD&D 2^nd edition adventure. Still I find the format Paizo uses intriguing because each adventure installment is accompanied by other gaming material. I have also recently become more interested in Golarion. While I doubt I will ever run a game in that setting, it’s one of those worlds I love reading about for inspiration and just for the sheer fun of it.

One thing I love from all adventure paths is the free Players Guide! Who doesn’t like a freebie! This one is no different. This time around the traits are tied to some key NPCS. The NPCS are very nice and can be used for any campaign. The guide also has rules for caravans. Yes you read that right, caravans… Their statistics, events, job, combat, the idea seemed farfetched at first but for a campaign where the PC will be making the long journey overland to a distant land it seems like a good mechanic to add. I will need to read it better to see how I could put this to use. Interesting!

So if you like adventure paths and are interested in one out of the adventures of Marco Polo, and you want to visit the distant Asian themed lands of Golarion, this Adventure Path may just be up you alley. Me I’m sitting down to read the Player’s Guide. Enjoy…

PS- As I was re-reading this post for typos I noticed I had originally written Rise of the Rune Lords as RIDE of the Runelords… That adventure path would have been very different if the protagonists were a bunch of Harley ridding guys with big beer bellies. Just saying…

Related posts:

1. Review: End Time
2. It’s a good time to be a supers fan!
3. Hit me Magus one more time! (With apologies to Ms. Spears…)

Now, I am unfortunately stuck in an even bigger pickle. Most of my former gaming group has now left Japan, also, with my son and wife now currently living with me again, in our very, very small Japanese style apartment, I have very little ability to bring anybody over to my place to game (and going anywhere else is pretty much out of the question as well). So, what is the answer to my pickle? How in the world will I ever get to play any roleplaying games ever again??

I think it is about time for another conversion attempt! Let the quest begin!!

This time, my plan of attack is going to have to be very, very different. Previous attempts at breaking the will of the muggle Spouse and pulling her into our realm of RPG-enthused have proved totally useless. I think, this is going to call for me to meet her on her level. I’m going to have to start thinking like a muggle. Time to finally put all of my psychology classes to work.

This really just comes down to getting to know the audience. My wife enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies, but she doesn’t really have that much interest in fantasy and magic and stuff of that nature. So, playing a hardcore high fantasy style game with her might be a very, very bad thing to do. In fact, apart from those films, I don’t really recall many genre films or TV series that I have been able to get her interested in. Probably the best that I have been able to manage is convincing her to watch a couple episodes of the most recent iteration of Dr. Who.

So, here are the other basic things I plan to try and play off of when running my next game with my wife.

1. She is Japanese.

Considering that my wife hails from near Tokyo, speaks primarily Japanese (and a little bit of English and German), and has a healthy knowledge about Japanese history, it makes sense that I might want to play a game that has more of an Asia-centric focus rather than a western one. The reasoning for me behind this decision is a matter of relating to her. Given my shabby Japanese, it might be very difficult to convey concepts based in a fantasy world that is entirely foreign to her, but… if I base our game in a world which is more familiar to her, things might be much easier.

I plan to capitalize on this fact by playing a game that is heavily influenced by Japanese society and history – Legend of the Five Rings. I love the game, it rocks. I also love the fact that the basic dice mechanic utilizes only one type of dice; this is going to make the system pretty easy to play with my wife who has trouble recognizing the difference between a d10,d12, and d20 sometimes.

2. She is very, very “girly”

My wife is very much a girly girl. She doesn’t like fighting. She doesn’t like being dirty. She doesn’t like bugs. She really, really hates bugs. She loves sweets. These are all things that I am going to have to consider when trying to play a game with her. Honestly, the biggest problem that I am seeing right now is that she has very little interest in playing a combat heavy game. In fact, I think she might not have any interesting in playing a game that features combat of any kind. This is potentially going to be a big problem since most of the RPG’s that I know out there feature combat in a major way.

I plan to adapt to this by having my wife play a character with a fairly high power level, so much so that things like minor combats are simply unnecessary. I will also reward her character through stuff like Gold (which she can use to buy cool, shiny, fashionable stuff) or just give her character sweets. Also, one of the coolest parts about L5R is that you can play a character that is not focused on fighting, but rather on other pursuits. We’ll definitely take this into account when creating characters. I’ll try to get her to play something in the Courtier area so that we don’t have to be mixed up in fighting all the time.

3. She LOVES cheesy, funny, romantic Korean Dramas

Yup. My wife loves some of the funkiest television that I know of. I have been pulled in once in a while, but most of the time I have a very hard time getting into the plots of most Korean Dramas. They are pretty far fetched and are really not much different that the super lengthy and ridiculous American soap operas. She loves them, taking 2 hours out of every day to catch her dramas in the afternoon. I might be able to capitalize on that mindset by building some equally ridiculous stories of my own.

I think based on the game system that we are playing with, and the type of character I am going to try to get her to play, this type of game should come along pretty easily. If I can manage to set the game in some type of Imperial Court setting, we could probably develop some really interesting Court based plots which don’t involve her and her characters running rampant through the forest stabbing a bunch of ninjas in the face all the time.

Well, that about covers it for my thought process going into this quest. Next time, I’ll go over how we went through character creation and how my wife reacted to the proposal of our new campaign. Stay tuned!

Related posts:

1. Converting the Spouse: An Ongoing Quest – Part 2
2. Converting the Spouse: An Ongoing Quest – Part 3
3. Converting videogames to the gaming table

If some of you are scratching your heads and saying, “Well this isn’t exactly a timely review!” You are right, the gracious folk at Open Design had provided a review copy on PDF of this book some weeks ago and I had been unable to review it. I apologize to them, real life has just not let up, and I hope that this is a better late than never situation and I can do my part to spread the word of this excellent supplement. How awesome is it? Read on to find out…

Let’s dispense with the layout first. It follows the same format as all previous books, two columns simple yet functional layout, a beautiful cover by Christophe Swal, who has become eponymous  with the look of the Advanced Feats series, and decorations through the book that manage to mix the mysterious of the arcane with the a martial theme. The book is sprinkled with useful sidebars, about shields, swords, rule considerations, including advice on running low charisma characters and balancing feats, all useful and enlightening about the creation process of the author.

The overview of the class is what opens the book, and I found it especially useful. New classes are always a tricky thing, especially for me who can often get lost in the role-playing and lose sight of some of the rules long term. And then come the feats; 30 new feats, useful for the Magus, but many are useful for other classes, both magic and combat oriented. The feats have the author’s comments, understanding the rationale behind the rule decisions is almost like having a director’s commentary track on your RPG book.

I love some of the feats because of their flavor, while they are good solid rules, these rules enhance the role-playing possibilities for players and that to me is a win-win. Arcana Thief is a feat that enhances the Magus’ Arcana Pool when the character disrupts a spell or counterspells, filling a particular niche that is often overlooked in my games.  Greatweapon Spell Combat lets the Magus use the Spell Combat feature with a two handed sword, granting greater variety to the class. These are an example of a feat specific to a Magus.

And then there are some gems of a feat, like Hobbyist, an elegant solution to earning decent skill ranks through the use of a feat (I won’t spoil it, let’s just say I really like the idea), Parrying Defense (sacrifice an attack when doing a full attack for some extra defense) and Reckless Attack (get an attack bonus and suffer penalties and attacks of opportunity), all seem interesting and a good option for many other classes. Sure there are a lot of Magus specific feats but I think there is a good overall balance. There is a brief section on the feats from previous books in the Advanced Feats series that would be useful to a Magus rounding out the feats section.

Then there are the builds. The Fae Blade is an elven themed build, the Lady of the Lash is a whip themed Magus and the Rune Fist mixes Monk and Magus. While these are some interesting themes, the builds seem more themed to the character they represent than archetypes of myth or literature. I like that! The NPCs are imaginative and immediately useful for a Game Master at any level. Kudos…

Overall I think this is a GREAT addition to the Advanced Feats series. The book is available as a PDF here for $3.99. I hope to see more books in this series, full of crunchy rules, but with many ideas that enhance the role-playing. What’s up next? I for one can’t wait…

Related posts:

1. Hit me Magus one more time! (With apologies to Ms. Spears…)
2. What about the Magus? A new Pathfinder RPG playtest…
3. What about Advanced Feats: The Cavalier’s Creed? A review…

I review a lot of Open Design books, and I make no qualms about admitting how much I enjoy their products. I am a Pathfinder fan true and true, and well they simply publish so many awesome books for my favorite fantasy RPG I can’t help myself. The 18^th issue of Kobold Quarterly does not disappoint. This issue weights in at 100 pages with content not only for the Pathfinder RPG but to the other two big players in the fantasy RPG field, Dungeons & Dragons 4^th Ed and the newcomer AGE system from Green Ronin. I am a fan of AGE as well and I am happy to see more options for fantasy RPG lovers out there and I applaud Open Design for supporting it. It’s chock full of goodies…

Want to learn more? Read on…

The first thing that jumped at me was the cover. Wow! Dragons fighting mid-flight, one a very traditional looking red dragon and the other an exotic yellow spotted specimen, it just screams action, and I love it. Kieran Yanner provides a great opener for this issue. The art inside does not disappoint, excellent art and layout all around. There is a good mix of articles, mostly are for D&D or Pathfinder, some are for both (Heresy! Just kidding…) but AGE is well represented.

Gift of the Gods, divine talents for AGE, brings divine magic that may be superficially more familiar to fans of other rule sets to this game. An excellent article, which makes me want to play AGE so much more. The Savant is a new class for the Pathfinder RPG, which is intriguing because it lets you do a little bit of everything, and while it may fill the needs of some players it struck me as a little out there. An interesting concept, not one I would play but that’s just me, I can imagine some of my players being really intrigued by it. I liked the Dragon Hunter prestige class much more. There is a Midgard specific article on the ecology of minotaurs. One of my favorite non-traditional fantasy races, it was a great read, even if the rules where D&D specific.

This issue has a lot of adventures. A solo adventure for a halfling thief, which requires no previous knowledge of the rules reminiscent of the “choose your own adventure” books of old, and excellent short adventure ideal to show someone who wants to learn about RPGs what it’s all about. The Exorcist is an intriguing Pathfinder adventure for 1^st level characters and last but not least a short and fun adventure for 4^th level D&D characters, Who Watches the Watch Fires. And how can you just NOT read an adventure with that title.

There is plenty of more Pathfinder goodness like rules for combining spells for extra effect, for Midgard Cavaliers, and Leadership feats that allow you to have beasts as followers. There is a piece on building mystery adventures, geared to D&D 4^th edition but good for any GM. And then there are the columns, advice, rule clarifications (Ask the Kobold), I was particularly impressed by the Heroic Flaw mechanic by Philippe-Antoine Menard (aka Chatty DM) simple concept, easy to use but full of possibilities, very nice…

There is much more this issue has to offer. I just scratched the surface; there are book reviews, a primer on Asian cinema for gamers. I did tell you it’s 100 pages long right? The book is available electronically and in print. It is a steal for all the goodies you get. Congratulations to the kobold on another great issue.

Related posts:

1. Review: Kobold Quarterly Issue 14
2. Spring is here… Can’t you smell the kobold? The Kobold Quarterly that is!
3. Kobold adoptions going on right now! Free Kobold Quarterly #11…

If you are a Pathfinder RPG fan like me you might already know this, but just in case you missed it, Paizo launched applications based on their Critical Hit Deck and Critical Fumble Decks for your iPad or iPhone. The iCrit and iFumble (I’ve read some criticism of the names, but what the heck it’s an iWorld after all!) are digital versions of the real deal. If you own the decks they may not seem that useful, BUT they keep you from having to take the decks along to the game, and at $1.99 they are cheaper than the real thing.

I already do most of my GMing digitally so these are no brainers for me. I also own this Pathfinder SRD app which lets me plan for the game from my phone. That coupled with PDF readers and dice rolling apps make my life so much easier. With two iPhones and two iPads among me and my players I have a feeling these little apps will see a lot of use when we go back to playing Pathfinder.

Related posts:

1. What about the GameMastery Plot Twist Cards? A review… (And slight ramble!)
2. Words of Power, part two of the Ultimate magic playtest…
3. What about Kobold Quarterly #18? A review…

I will say this about M&M/DCA, my party has never laughed so much during a single gaming session and I think that says something about the game itself. From my first attempt at running this kind of game it is clear that it is not as rules heavy as Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition is. My players where able to focus more on the story and worry far less about dice rolls. They all loved it.

As my gaming party showed up for our weekly game night know one knew which RPG we would be playing. No one had any prep and no one had any character sheets. I thought it might make for a better surprise if we just jumped in and I think that worked.

I was going to use official DC comic book characters that everyone would recognized for the very first game. I wanted to introduce people one-at-a-time and give them all a chance to shine. I felt the best way to do this was have them all fight a generic crime and partake in general acts of heroism that made superheros so popular in the first place. So many superhero movies now a days just show superheros fighting huge battles. What happened to their simple acts of heroism that made them popular int he first place? Like stopping a old lady from having her purse snatched or helping a little girl rescue a kitten from a tree. I wanted to bring back that feeling of awe and wonder that we all had as children towards superheros.

So, we all gathered around our gaming table when I looked over at one of our players. “Henrik”, I said “You find yourself in Berlin, sitting on a bench outside a monorail station just about to eat a croissant. Something zips past you so fast that the force pulls the croissant out of your hand and it lands on the ground several feet away. People on the platform are scratching their heads not sure what is going on, but you realize that the monorail train is speeding out of control. You are a superhero. What do you do next?”

My friend Henrik said that his character walks into the monorail station and into the men’s bathroom to change into his superhero costume. It was at that point I handed him his character sheet for The Flash! It did not take long for Henrik to get into the swing of things, he described his character racing after the train and jumping up onto the back of it. He ran across the top of the cars and to the front of the train where he bent down and looked inside to find the conductor of the train passed out on the controls. He leapt and kicked through the front windshield and remove the conductor from his seat and preceded to bring the speeding bullet train to a stop. The people in the cars behind the front of the train started to cheer. Just then The Flash’s JLA wrist watch started beeping. His presents was requested at JLA headquarters.

That is how much of the game went. After the Flash’s adventure I focused on another player, and than another until all had completed their acts of heroism and met up at JLA headquarters where The Martian Manhunter gave them an assignment to prevent Cheetah from robbing Gotham City Museum.

At the end of the game my party was given the homework assignment to build their own characters.

The thing that was clear right from the get-go with this game was that everyone was having a great time. Every single player was engaged. Everyone was cracking jokes and having a good time with it. It was effortless fun. I think that speaks volumes about a game. I just can’t wait to play it again.

I went to the effort of recording our first game. Please feel free to download it and give it a listen. Let me know in the comments section below if you would like to hear more podcasts like these. My group and I are more then happy to record them.

Download audio file (SGW_DCAMnM3rd_01.mp3)

Related posts:

1. Mutants & Masterminds 3rd edition Unboxing
2. Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition Gamemaster’s Kit Unboxing
3. Can Mutants & Masterminds replace d20 Modern?

They are part of the Midgard Campaign Setting, their campaign world (and current patronage product), and continue to flesh out what has proven to be a fascinating setting, full of interesting ideas, whether you want to run it as is or you want inspiration for your homebrewed campaign. I reviewed PDF copies of both books. Streets of Zobeck is a 94 page (90 pages of actual content) adventure anthology full of locations, NPCs and new rules of the gritty fantasy variety. I was impressed by the layout, art and tone; it all reeks of the seedier elements of fantasy. There are some adult topics here (prostitution for example), but nothing that seems gratuitous or uncalled for, it’s fitting, gritty and dark.

Want to learn more? Read on…

When I read the preface to Street of Zobeck I was a little worried. I have never thought of myself as a grim and gritty fantasy fan. I read some Lieber and Thieves’ World but they were never my favorite. Some of the other inspirations mentioned, the Black Company, Mieville, I have never read. I think of myself as more of an epic fantasy guy… But my players may disagree. Some have called my campaigns dark, gloomy and not at all black and white but all shades of gray. So how I perceive myself may be totally different from the reality. This may call for some introspection, but you are not here for that, you are here for the review. Let’s get back to that.

Streets of Zobeck is a supplement for another book, Zobeck Gazeteer. I do not own that book, so I imagine there is some details I am not getting, but from what I see here, I really want that first book. There is even a city map… I see the Kobold’s devious plan; they give me a taste to reel me in! I am on to them.

I REALLY like the art in this book. It is very fitting for the book, even the maps which look hand drawn, maintain the gritty feeling. Yeah I know I said this before but it’s worth reiterating. Which takes me to the firs t part of the book, Faces of Zobeck, an excellent set of NPCs, some are what you expect for adventures set in the underworld, others truly surprising. Some get illustrations, but with such a beautifully illustrated book, I would have loved to see images for each of these characters.

Places of Zobeck is my favorite chapter of the book. It’s all about locations, with maps, scenario ideas, personalities, even a new rogue archetype, The Fixer. I rarely run pre-published adventures, so this is the chapter I can probably use whole cloth with little modification. And then it’s on to the adventures, seven in total. I really enjoyed reading them and there are lots of little details I’m sure to lift for my games. The adventure spread is pretty good, from level 1 to 11, which I think it’s about as high a level as this type of gritty adventure works. There are combat, investigation and role playing opportunities a plenty in these adventures. The highest level adventure, Flesh Fails was my favorite of the lot. Put together they can be the base of a great campaign. The last chapter, Traces of Zobeck, has feats, traits, spells, and new magic items.

Alleys of Zobeck is a supplement for Streets of Zobeck. It’s a 17 page book that opens with a brief adventure that introduces the city to new players and has additional goodies for the first book. It has rules bits, locations, NPCs, all good, but you really need Streets of Zobeck to make the most of this book. I get a feeling this is a collection of all the stuff that had to be cut from the first book. Don’t get me wrong, its good content but it really does not stand on its own. It’s a mere $2.95, so I cannot begrudge them for the price. Street of Zobeck is available as a PDF for $9.95 and as a Print+PDF combo for $19.95.

This is true fantasy noir. I was pleasantly surprised by the content of these books. This is usually not my fare and it was a pleasant surprise. Kudos to Ben McFarland the lead designer and his team, this is dark fantasy at its finest!

Related posts:

1. Soapbox Games Reviews
2. Check out these WR&M reviews!
3. Grognardia reviews Dungeonslayers

This questionable honor falls to the German roleplaying game “Perry Rhodan – Das Rollenspiel” which has been released in 2004. In order to understand why this game was such a major disappointment I have to start back in the early 80s.

As I already mentioned in a recent post, I have been a Science Fiction fan since I was a kid. One reason is that both my parents read quite a few SF stuff back in the day. My dad has been reading Perry Rhodan, which is supposedly the world’s largest SF series, pretty much from day one. So it’s no surprise I started reading the series, too. Today I own about 65 hardcover books, several paperbacks and hundreds of the Perry Rhodan pulp novels, and a few merchandise products including two space ship models. I think you can call me a Perry Rhodan fan.

When I’ve read about plans to release an official Perry Rhodan roleplaying game, I was quite excited. Even when I heard that it should use a modified ruleset of the German RPG Midgard I was not expecting to be disappointed. A friend of mine always praised the Midgard rules and I had no reason to question his judgement. If I knew more about said game, I would probably have been quite wary at this point.

Midgard, which has nothing to do with Norse mythology or the upcoming setting by Wolfgang Baur, is a classic German RPG design from the 80s. Which basically means that it’s mostly simulationist, with overly complicated rules and a lot of abbreviations. While it might work for a traditional fantasy game it doesn’t work that great for SF and the style of the rules doesn’t fit the setting at all in my opinion.

From a production quality standpoint the Perry Rhodan RPG was pretty good: Hardcover book, clear layout, very nice artwork created by the same artists that create cover art for the novel series, good printing and solid binding. Alas the contents were not what I had hoped for.

The 344-paged book contains only a few pages about the setting. If you haven’t read the series for years it’s almost impossible to get a feeling for the Perry Rhodan universe with the core rulebook alone. On the other hand, the rules (especially the combat rules) almost take up the rest of the book. As you all well know I prefer games with less emphasis on rules than that, so this put a big damper on my excitement. To put insult to injury the core rulebook only contained stats for two (!!!) spaceships.

Even though I wanted this game to be great I quickly became highly frustrated with it. And it didn’t really surprise me when the publisher announced in December 2010 that they don’t intend to renew the license. So the Perry Rhodan roleplaying game officially died after 6 years and about 8 released products. I’ve lost interest in the game long before that.

Related posts:

1. Best & Worst of Gaming 2009 [Part 4]
2. Best & Worst of Gaming 2009 [Part 1]
3. Best & Worst of Gaming 2009 [Part 3]

The Alchemist, The Cavalier, The Inquisitor, The Oracle, The Summoner, The Witch

The larger part of the book are obviously the feats. They are all here, in one unified list, which is a big plus. Like I said before, while many of these feats will enhance the classes they were written for, they will be useful for other classes. There are some corrections done, and all the things I liked, such as commentary on the reasoning behind the feat’s design, and sidebars appropriate to the feats. I am not a fan of feat books for feats sakes, but this does not feel like a random list of ideas, there is a theme and focus here unlike other feat books I have read. This may be my favorite book of this sort in print.

And of course the other big part of the books is here, the builds. This is where the author shows you how all this get’s put together and how the feats make these types of characters unique. I must commend the author for showing so clearly his vision on what feats should be, not by telling us but by doing it. The build each feature archetypes of the classes and yet makes them different.

So what about the art? I must say I love all of it! There wasn’t a single one I did not like, a mix of color and black and white art with very fitting decoration on the page. Some are a little tongue in cheek, like the one accompanying the Lighten Weapon feat (which allows the character to use oversized weapons) with the little war Chihuahua pulling the cart where his mistress carried her giant hammer (the art is FAR cooler than I am able to describe it) and the pet lover in me just loved the cat sleeping on top the giant from on page 16. Many pieces were reused from the previous books, but put to good use. The few new pieces illustrate some element of the feats on the page. The art is sparse but appropriate, the layout clear and very elegant.

So indulge me here for a moment as I type out a few partying words. Thanks to Mr. Trent for writing an excellent series, to Shelly Baur for giving me the opportunity to review it, and to the whole Open Design team for the high quality products you keep churning out! I don’t know what you are feeding that kobold, but you keep doing it. Here is looking forward to Mr. Trent working his magic on the other classes in the Pathfinder RPG game, specially the Magus. I would love to see what he does with it…

Related posts:

1. What about Advanced Feats: The Cavalier’s Creed? A review…
2. What about Advanced Feats: The Witch’s Brew? A review…
3. What about Advanced Feats: The Summoner’s Circle? A review…

I’ve had the book for a while now (and apologize for taking so long to review it) but every time I sat down to review it I was at a loss for words. Mind you, it’s not because the book is bad, on the contrary, I loved it. It presents a detailed and very original NPC, very fitting with the dreamland setting but usable in many campaigns. And here lies the rub…

This is such an interesting concept for an NPC that talking too much about it might just ruin the surprise. I really thought about how I could review this without giving it away and I realized I can’t. So I will resort to the tried and true method of game manuals of old. From this point on this post in meant for Game Masters and possible purchasers of the book, all others turn away! (And we all know how well that worked on the books…)

Gozutozawa is a will-o’-wisp Summoner (the class from the Pathfinder Advanced Player’s Guide) who gave up its evil ways and plays musing in the dreamland market though its eidolon, a humanoid bard it summons with its powers. The concept is so simple and at the same time so original. The book includes an introduction to Gozutozawa, ideas on how to use the NPC and statistics for it at Challenge Ratings 21, 14 and 8. It details the will-o’-wisp at different moments in its history, along with the Eidolon.

I did not comb over the details of the stat block, but they seem solid after cursory look. The book also has new rules for monstrous Summoners, magic items, templates. In 16 short pages the book certainly covers a lot of ground. After reading it I thought this was a much longer book, and I mean that as a compliment, it just manages to accomplish so much. The layout is simple yet functional, the art sparse but it covers the most salient aspects, specifically Laughing Lucky the eidolon.

One of the things I liked the most about this product is that it doesn’t present a combat heavy NPC. In fact Gozutozawa is more a dreamer (well more accurately a music lover) than a fighter. The will-o’-wisp is an enigma for the players to puzzle over, a source of mystery and information, a great role-playing opportunity. Which is also what I liked least of all, let me explain.

Though my years as a Game Master I have learned that I do not need to write up the statistics of every single NPC, or even every opponent, re-skinning and repurposing stats is one of the best tools a GM can have. A creature such as Gozutozawa for me works better as a series of notes of what it could do with no hard and fast stats. I understand the benefits of having full stats, Pathfinder is after all a crunch heavy game and I know some players would mind the GM making things up as he went, so this is an invaluable resource to have fully stated NPCs.

Matt Banach and Justin Sluder create an interesting NPC, made me look at wil-o’-wisps in a whole new light. The writing is solid, informative and entertaining. I must say despite what I said above I really enjoyed this book. If this is a sample of the quality of the series, then I look forward to reading more of it. Faces of the Tarnished Souk: The Ghost Light That Dreamed, Gozutozawa is available at $1.99 on PDF. Let yourself be lulled by the sweet music of this intriguing NPC.

Related posts:

1. Ready to become the BADASS you always dreamed to be?
2. [Blog Carnival]: “We travel light. Let’s hunt some Orc.”
3. What about Advanced Feats: The Cavalier’s Creed? A review…

The above video and this post are a follow up to a post I wrote titled: Castles & Crusades Unboxing. It was particularly about the shipping and the conditions of the Castles & Crusades books when I received them.
I am going to take some time here to clarify my thoughts and opinion on a couple of other issues I had with the Castles & Crusades books that I did not bring up in the video due to time.

PRINTING

I am not particularly upset that all the Castles & Crusades books are printed in black and white. I just was not expecting that and felt others might like to know this as well. It seems like most modern day produced RPG books are in color. I own several modern day RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, Mutants & Masterminds, DC Adventures, MouseGuard and Dresden Files. They are all in color. I just had the expectation that Castles & Crusades would also be in color.

When I go to used book stores seeking out older RPGs I fully expect them all to cost more and be in black and white. I have paid a pretty penny for some older pre-made adventures. Sometimes you stumble into a used book store or a garage sale that has RPG books for sale very cheap, but that seems to be getting more and more rare.

My comment was not a slam on the art in the books themselves. Just that I expected the books to be in color and for me it was a surprise to find it was all in black and white.

PDF

To me, it seems ridiculous, that in this day an age PDF downloads (or any electronically form for that matter) are not an option (or should I say affordable option?) to those buying books from RPG companies. There seems to be a divide between RPG companies that offer PDF downloads at a reduced price and those who may not even offer them at all. In the case of Castles and Crusades you can get the PDF copies of the books for just a bit under retail cost of the actual books.

I personally am far more likely to invest in a new RPG if I have the option to buy the books and the PDFs of those books at a reduced price. It’s also better for my gaming group because I am far less anal retentive about my RPG books in their hands when they are eating over them and spilling things on the gaming table because I know I have a PDF backup of the game.

For me the reason that I ended up buying Castles and Crusades as the direct result of a couple of friends who said the game is worth it. I believe my friends that this game is going to be great. But if I had just read a couple of good reviews and went over to the Troll Lord Games website and saw the overpriced PDFs I never would have bought the game.

It seems like my experience has been that most companies offering PDF copies of gaming books sell them for between five and ten dollars. To me this is a perfectly acceptable cost to someone who is also buying the books at the same time.

Now one may argue that PDFs are not the best format for gamers to download their books in. This may be the case, but until that perfect format comes around you should still offer the PDFs. Every modern day Operating system can handle them and will for quite some time. Hell, offering any kind of digital option for gamers would be nice. Text, PDF, ePub, just give us something so we don’t have to worry so much about our physical copies!
Just like I said in the video. With all the fuss my original post made regarding Castles and Crusades I am excited to play this game and give it a sold review here on Stargazer’s World.

Related posts:

1. Castles & Crusades Unboxing
2. Follow-up on my Warhammer FRP 3rd Edition rant
3. Star Without Number POD Unboxing!

But that’s only part of what Suzerain is. It’s also a whole multiverse. Characters can move between worlds, if that’s what you wish. For high ranked characters one world might not be enough. The Suzerain product line contains various sourcebooks that provide players and GMs with details for the different Suzerain realms.

One of these realms is Relic, a high fantasy realm and the world Caladon Falls is set in. In order to play Caladon Falls you need at least the Savage Worlds Explorer Edition, but owning a copy of Savage Suzerain is also highly recommended.

I haven’t really had a chance to have a deeper look into the crunchy parts of the book, but from what I’ve seen so far, you should be fine with the core Savage Worlds rules for the most part. Savage Suzerain makes some minor changes to SW terminologies like Bennies are now called Karma and Power Points are Pulse, but these changes are explained in the “Savage Suzerain Play Now, For Free” booklet, which is – as the name implies – available for free. So If you got interested in Savage Suzerain, you might check this out.

What immediately grabbed my attention when I first read about Caladon Falls is the artwork. The production value of the PDF is definitely on par with what you would expect from companies like Paizo or Wizards of the Coast. Of course artwork alone does not make a great product but Caladon Falls is definitely very pleasing just to look at.

But let’s have a look at what’s there content-wise. The book is divided into two parts: a Player and a GM section. The Player section gives a broad overview of the realms of Relic with special emphasis on the lands of Caladon.

Caladon Falls is set into the so called War of the Wild. Caladon has been invaded by Warlocks who wield god-like powers and are followed by their monstrous hordes. The 148-paged book not only describes the lands at the time the invaders landed at the shores of Caladon but also contains a 12 episode Plot Point Campaign and 18 Savage Tales set into the aforementioned war.

Let’s have a look at the High Kingdom of Caladon. As the name implies it is ruled by a High King. The High King is selected by a council made up of the rulers of the seven kingdoms of Caladon. Each of the kingdoms is rules by one of the Noble Houses which are Killian, Laneer, Marron, Sumner, Thrace, Vesper, and Wallend. The state religion of Caladon is the Church of the Trinity which has more than just a fleeting resemblance to the Catholic Chruch.

The third pillar of Caladon (aside from Nobility and the Church) is the Wizards Guild. In Caladon people with the talent for magic have to be registered with the Wizards Guilt. Rogue mages are hunted down, at least in theory.

Since Caladon Falls was created with a certain time and place in Relic’s history in mind, the player’s choice of characters is limited to humans with ties to the High Kindom of Caladon. But in my opinion that’s not really a drawback. The Player section contains a plethora of new edges and drawback which should make it easier to create memorable characters fitting into the world of Relic.

Especially interesting are the Arcane Backgrounds which are called Pulse Paths in Savage Suzerain. Caladon Falls has rules for the Druid, the Enchanter, and the Protector. And if I am not mistaken they are meant as additional option not as replacements for the ones provided in Savage Suzerain. Again at least owning the free Savage Suzerain booklet might be helpful here. The Player section concludes with a extensive list of new powers and Caladon-specific gear.

The GM section of the PDF contains the background information on Caladon’s invaders and provides enough information for GMs to run a campaign set into the War of the Wild. Since I just got a copy of the book I haven’t really delved deeper into the GM section yet, but I plan to do so, as soon as I have the time.

But from what I’ve seen so far, Caladon Falls is definitely one of the more interesting Savage Worlds campaign settings out there. And although it’s high fantasy it’s not your standard garden variety setting with elves and dwarves, but more human-centric, which is a good thing in my book. You might need to invest into Savage Suzerain if you want to get the most out of it, but the free booklet might be enough to get you started.

Caladon Falls is currently available at DrivethruRPG for $19.95. The publisher Savage Mojo is currently trying to raise the funds for a hardcover printing of Caladon Falls. You can learn more about this fundraiser at IndieGoGo.

Related posts:

1. Caladon Falls Fundraiser
2. Inner Sea World Guide: First impressions …
3. First Impressions: DC Adventures

Wait! What did I say? I should not say “just”, man there is an online CHARACTER GENERATOR for Pathfinder in the webpage. Great!

I’ve become a great fan of online tools that can speed up my game in any way, from the SRD to spell cards and generators! I own Hero Lab and love it but realize not everybody wants to (or can) invest in software for their games. The Venture Captain Standard Character Generator includes all the basic races and classes from the core rulebook, it’s easy and intuitive to use and you can save the result to a PDF. This is obviously a labor of love and the creator is still working on it (here is his stated roadmap for the development) but so far so good.

I love the generator and look forward to the any features added in the future. So be sure to drop by, give it a whirl and thank the creator for this awesome tool! Enjoy…

Related posts:

1. The Pathfinder Role Playing Game Reference Document UPDATE!
2. Pathfinder RPG Spellcards, for free!
3. Oldies but goodies! Some great digital game supplements for the New Year…

As you all well know I am a huge fan of everything remotely Lovecraft-related and I love SF and space opera games. Traveller was actually the first RPG I bought myself and ran, so Chthonian Stars was love on first sight.

In order to run Chthonian Stars you need a copy of Mongoose’s Traveller Main Rulebook. In the coming months Wildfire plans to release a second version of Chthonian Stars using a different system, so if you’re no fan of the Traveller rules you might perhaps pick up that version.

The Chthonian Stars campaign is set into a near future where humanity has started to colonize the solar system. It’s a golden age for humanity but the approach of a large shard of dark matter, known in obscure writings as the Chthonian Star, threatens our very existence. The closer this Chthonian Star gets the more unspeakable horrors start to awake. Formerly dead moons develop alien ecosystems, people go missing all over the solar systems, terrifying things stir in the dark void of space.

The players are Wardens, sent out by the Unified World Council, to learn everything about this new threat to humanity and fight it where ever possible. But as in any good Lovecraftian campaign things are looking not good for humanity…

The setting is described in a lot of detail and the great artwork help you to get a feel for what life in 2159 is like. The book also contains a couple of short stories set into the Chthonian Stars universe. If you intend to run a game using this setting you definitely should not miss them. Every planet of the solar system is explained in all details and should give players and the GM a good overview of what the solar system is like in Chthonian Stars.

But of course, the book is not all fluff. Chapter 3 details the character creation method which is a slightly modified version of Travellers point allocation method. There are also new Advantages and Disadvantages that help to flesh out the characters.

Chthonian Stars contains new rules for Horror Checks and Madness, since we all know that no game inspired by H.P. Lovecrafts works could exist without them. There are also additional rules for exotic environments and tips on making combats a bit less deadly. Traveller is already pretty deadly as it is, and the designers of Chthonian Stars obviously thought it might be a bit too lethal when you add Mythos creatures to the mix. And the book actually contains quite a few of those. Even in the futuristic world of the year 2159 you won’t have to miss your old friends the Deep Ones, the Mi-Go or the Night Gaunts.

The chapter about spaceships is quite extensive and not only contains rules on how to create spaceships suited for the setting but also a couple of pre-built ships. Each ship comes with some background information, full stats and of course a Traveller-style deck plan. As I said before, you just have to love this book.

The referee chapter contains a lot of helpful tips on how to run a game using the setting and explains some of the tropes of the genre. The book also provides GMs with several pages of rumors and plot hooks that should help to get a game of the ground pretty quickly even if you don’t wish to use the three fully fledged-out adventures in the back.

My favorite chapter is definitely the one about Secrets, where you learn everything about the Old Ones, the deities known as the eternal ones and what happened millions year ago and what’s going on right now.

In a lot of ways, Chthonian Stars reminds me of CthulhuTech, which is actually a good thing. CthulhuTech managed to combine Lovecraft’s works with the mecha genre and Chthonian Stars does the same with Space Opera. The production quality of the book is great and the Traveller rules are a good fit for the setting. But sometimes you have that dreadful felling of “been there, done that”. That’s of course no surprise especially if you have read several games based on the Cthulhu Mythos.

But if you are into space opera with a good dose of Lovecraftian horror, you should definitely check out Chthonian Stars. The PDF version is available at DriveThruRPG for $15.00 right now and should be available in POD in the coming weeks.

Related posts:

1. Pre-pre order Ashen Stars now and get a lot of cool stuff at release!
2. Freebie: Stars Without Number
3. Ashen Stars!

What did I think about it? I loved it! Norsemen, their legends and mythology are such integral parts of fantasy gaming that a book like this seems like a no-brainer. But traditional fantasy has appropriated these tropes, myths and images and dropped them into the stew of pseudo medieval/dark ages/ renaissance mish mash that is the typical fantasy campaign (not knocking it if that is what you like, don’t construe that last sentence as value judgment). Here is a book that presents the creatures, culture and legends of the mythical north in a way that feels authentic and filled with gaming opportunities. I heartily recommend it!

Want to learn more? Read on…

I have loved “Vikings” since I was little. I know the term is sometimes used to group together historically disparate cultures, myths and histories in a grab bag Hollywood sense, but as a child as I read the history of the north I could not help it but be enraptured. Later when I began gaming many of the ideas in D&D were familiar because they were borrowed from (among other things) the myths that so captured my imagination. When I first read Beowulf I immediately began to stat the characters in my head. So when, within the first six pages of the book I run into a side bar detailing said epic as an adventure idea to illustrate playing the sagas as adventures, well consider me sold on the book.

The first chapter is an excellent primer about what life is like in the hard unforgiving north, from culture, to details about daily life, hospitality, games… The discussion about honor was very interesting, there is a section about types of drink and their potency, even religion, with description of the deities and what they expect of their followers. There are rules, such as the DC for the different types of drinks and the Domains of the gods, but they are so well integrated into the text they are not intrusive; indeed you may even forget you are reading a rule book, and that to me is high praise!

Chapter two is a guide to the Northlands, the region of Midgard populated by the people and creatures described in this book. It includes a brief overview of its history, places and races, as well as a guide to the vast north. My knowledge of Midgard is based on what I’ve read in Kobold Quarterly and the website, and what I read here really makes me want to learn more of what is obviously a vibrant, exciting and well put together campaign world.

And then there is chapter two, aptly titles Heroes of the North. Here are a lot of the crunchy bits. Discussion about human cultures, as well as the Hyperboreans, humans born in the lands where the day and night last months, and depending on the season they were born they have different stats, interesting stuff, with good mechanics and lots of role playing potential. There are alternate racial traits for the local dwarves, and the Troll-Kin race. Classes are also discussed; the Barbarian obviously gets a lot of love with new rage powers and paths, the Bard has an alternate version, the Skald, I have seen the class done before, but I think the options fit the feel and tone of the book seamlessly.

Clerics get new domains fitting to the north, Sorcerers get Bloodlines, and Monks, a class I would not normally immediately associate with the setting get a lot of attention. Here they are brawlers, wrestlers; this is a great way to play a very different Monk. Oracles and Witches from the Advanced Player’s Guide get goodies as well. It is good to see they take these two classes, which fit with the milieu very well, into account.

Alternate uses for skills, like for skiing and skating (I kid you not!) are touched upon, new feats running the gamut, including Teamwork feats, always nice to see. I’m a big fan of Traits (and you can see the rules for them here in the Pathfinder SRD) as a way to individualize character origins and this book had a great selection. Equipment rounds out the section. And while the details and options are nice I am not a fan of more and more equipment. But that’s just me; all the stuff here is useful and evocative.

Chapter four is all about magic, of course there are spells, and lots of them with evocative names and very interesting options. With spells I always like to see them in play since my players are definitely more creative than me with their applications. I will be using these spells. But there is more… Grudge magic builds off existing effects and powers and plays off the Fate mechanics in a later chapter, but it’s nicely integrated with the Action Points option, again from the Advanced Players Guide. Rune magic you get access to through feats and each runes gives you bonuses and powers and again seem rife with possibilities for role playing. There are Incantations, magic items, artifacts; crunchy goodness!

Chapter 5 is about the land, the environmental dangers, rules for chases in the north, new hazards, new haunts; it all makes sense in a setting where the unforgiving nature of the environment is such a vital part of the feel of the campaign. The Fate mechanic and how it plays off Action Points, the integration of Fate Afflictions, all seem intriguing and very well thought of for the campaign. Very campaign specific, and again a great integration of mechanics and role playing, something that’s big for me as you can see.

Chapter six is the bestiary, and of course there are giants and valkyries, but there is so much more. The CR spread is nice, mostly mid and high CR. The illustrations of all twelve creatures are top notch and there are no simple write ups, these are creatures integrated into the campaign’s mythology. The book finishes with a one page color map of the Northlands, excellent cartography and big enough in scope so a GM can fill in the details. The art on the book is sparse but very good, a combination of what seems to be woodcuts or historical pieces; I have no idea if they are reproductions in that style or the real things, but regardless they are put to good use. Chapter opener illustrations are my favorite, each embodies the theme of what’s about to be presented, and the cover is beautiful.

I really wish the book had an index, but that is really a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent book. This is a topic covered before in other supplements, but none of the supplements before made me want to read the whole thing. I would pick and choose pieces to read on those books, but this one really captured my imagination. I may not use the Northlands itself as a setting, but most of this will be incorporated into the “Viking” inspired regions of my home brewed campaign.

This book has a lot of details crammed in it. I love that it plays to the Pathfinder RPG strengths, uses all the options and systems developed for the game. This is not a D&D project with a few bells and whistles added to call it Pathfinder; it is designed for the system. Dan Voyce and all the other designers involved deserve to be praised for their work, as well as the patrons who supported them.

If you are a Pathfinder fan get this book and embark on your perilous adventure to the north!

Related posts:

1. What about In the Company of Minotaurs? A review…
2. What about Advanced Feats: The Cavalier’s Creed? A review…
3. What about SORD? A (short) review…

I have not posted about it but, recently I’ve been getting more and more Pathfinder RPG books that are Golarion specific (that’s the name of the campaign world for the uninitiated). While I am a confessed Pathfinder RPG fan I have stayed away from the Golarion specific books. I did get some of the original Adventure Paths but as part of my “more is less”/spend less in games philosophy I stayed away from a lot of fluffy books and stuck to the rules.

So that means I missed both previous incarnations of the Golarion campaign setting. I had heard excellent things, and the bits and pieces hinted at in the core rule book and other supplements, really enticed me. I have seen the promos and when my friend and fellow player called me to let me know the Inner Sea World Guide had arrived at the FLGS I gave in and said “hold it for me!”

I tweeted my very first impressions after leafing through the book and later after spending about half an hour looking it over, but I could not put it away and this led to this post. Mind you this is still VERY preliminary, I have only read bits and pieces, but I’ll share my first impression.

I am very impressed. Very happy I got this book. The price tag is by no means small, $49.99, and while I could have gotten this at a discount online I am trying to support my FLGS now that they are carrying more Pathfinder products.  But you know what? This is a beautiful book, full color, with the quality art I’ve come to expect from Paizo and its simply HUGE, 318 pages! (A friend of mine complains about reused art in Paizo books, of course he gets ALL the Adventure Paths so that may be the case, I really have NO idea, for me this is all mostly new art, your experience may be different.) So I am not sorry I spent the money!

And, what about the content of the book you say? Well let’s dig in… The first part are races, all the traditional fantasy races are there, as well as specific human cultures. Each gets their one page description with common names, appearances, and mostly rules free, the one exception being a very powerful human culture with inordinate bonuses which can only be used with GM approval, which seemed to me a poor choice in an otherwise fine chapter. There are brief discussion of other races that can be player characters and references to where you can find the rules to play them.

If you are not a fan of the type of campaign worlds with lots of fantasy races the plethora of races may turn you off. But I believe lots of fantasy fans like this hodgepodge that gives them many options to choose from, it may offend your sense of verisimilitude, but you can downplay certain races in your campaign. This is one thing I get from the book, this is a large catalog of options and ideas, which work together as a whole, but put in your hands to shape as you see fit. I appreciated that each human “race” or ethnicity is given their own page. Oftentimes in other campaign settings you’ll get discussions on elves and dwarves and their myriad sub-races, and humans get lumped together as a whole. Here I got a very different feeling. True dwarves, elves, gnomes and such get their own one page write up, but each major human culture gets a separate description. You know who’s emphasized here!

The next chapter is an overview of the Inner Sea region, its history and a four page write up of each country or region. I have only read a couple, but I love the combination of details and broad strokes. The write ups open with a short phrase that summarizes what the region is and specific details (alignment of the region, population, language, a crest or symbol of the region), and an image evocative of the place. I love the page layout; the opening page has a small detail on the header that includes a small version of the map of the region, with a proper map later in the write up. It covers history, government, and a gazetteer.

What did I mean when I said “details and broad strokes” on the previous paragraph? Well when I read a description of a kingdom I get enough details to feel what makes the place unique and to plan a game there, but room to tell my own stories. I am sure that if you have played the Adventure Paths you’ll know more about the regions, but this is a great primer for the uninitiated.

I don’t have a proper grasp of how all the culture come together, haven’t read enough, but there seems to be something for everybody here. There are pirate islands, Middle Eastern themed kingdoms, more traditional European themed fantasy kingdoms and their inevitable variants, unexplored jungles, something for everybody.

The wide spectrum of diverse cultures may not be for everybody, it reminds me of Mystara in some ways (And I’m a Mystara fan, so this is a plus in my book!) but it seems there was more thought put into why each culture is where, not simply a new culture across each mountain range that seems to have been the case with Mystara.

I love the hints and details on what’s beyond the Inner Sea and the discussion of planar cosmology. There is even a discussion on the solar system. It immediately made me want to run a Spelljammer campaign in Golarion.

Then there is a chapter on religion, including major deities, minor ones, even cults. Then one chapter on life on the Inner Sea, calendars, flora, fauna, and then comes a chapter on faction of the Inner Sea. I have really not much to say on this since I have not read much, but it seems a great source of possible groups the players can join, or antagonists, depends on how you play it.

The 6^th section is called Adventuring and there is a lot for me here. Rules I can pillage for my campaign: prestige classes, feats, magic items, spells, and equipment, including the firearm rules recently presented in the Gunslinger playtest in the Paizo website. The firearm rules are interesting; I need to use them to see how they work. I had adapted Monte Cooks technology rules to my game and I’m not convinced I should switch to this new ones.

The feat list even has a feat that mimics the D&D 4^th edition healing surge, Godless Healing, available only to characters without a patron deity. I like the idea and the implementation, but the similarity to D&D 4^th edition threw me off at first. The book closes out with a short monster section, just a few but I liked them. In case you are wondering, yes there is an index, another big plus for me.

I’m sure I missed a lot of details on this preliminary reading, but I like what I see and I want to read more. Golarion seems to be the spiritual inheritor of settings of old likes Greyhawk and Faerun. Yes, yes, I know the Forgotten Realms is still in print, but when I read the Inner Sea World Guide I get the same excitement I got when reading the original Forgotten Realms gray box.

Will I play in Golarion? Probably not… But I want to read more about this world. So I may just get a couple of more Pathfinder books. There goes my saving on RPG games resolution! If they are as good as this one, well, then it will not be a bad thing.

Related posts:

1. First Impressions: Caladon Falls
2. First Impressions: DC Adventures
3. First impressions: Abney Park’s Airship Pirates

But I don’t want to talk about piracy today. Recently there were several posts about WotC’s SF roleplaying game Alternity here on Stargazer’s World. The comments on these two articles show that people still hold this game in high regard and quite a few people regret not having picked it up while it was still in print. If it were available as PDF on sites like DriveThruRPG, I am pretty sure WotC could still make some money off of it. But the way it is now, only second-hand book sellers make the profits now.

It would be so much easier if I could go over to DriveThruRPG and get a PDF copy of Alternity, one of the old D&D books or whatever suits my fancy there. With the new POD service even books which have been out of print for decades could find their way back into the hands of today’s gamers.

The way  I see it, it would a win-win situation. Wizards could make some money off some of their older products with minimal effort and we gamers could easily get our hands on legal copies of out-of-print products. If Alternity for example was available as a legal PDF I would definitely buy it even though I already own it in print. In this day and age with tablet computers and smartphones in almost every home, PDFs are getting more and more popular. Why WotC ignores this whole market is beyond me.

The costs and effort involved in bringing old products back into the hands are minimal. In most cases they should still have the PDFs, in other cases they could scan the originals and use some OCR software to create proper PDFs. I am sure a lot of fans would even offer to help with this for free. If WotC doesn’t want to run its own download store, they can easily go back to OneBookShelf’s sites.

If anyone from Wizards of the Coast reads this, please talk with the people responsible and try to convince them to bring the PDFs back. And if it’s at all possible make Alternity available as well.

Related posts:

1. Wizards of the Coast stops all PDF sales
2. Hey Wizards of the Coast! Where Are My Apps?
3. Driveby Nerfing! The recent Wizards of the Coast update to D&D 4th edition…

Little by little I began to buy more and more RPG books on PDF, from True20 to ICONS and a whole lot more. This was ideal as I attempted to convert my gaming books collection to electronic format. As I embraced the presence of a laptop behind the GM Screen, or in this case supplanting it, I began to see the advantage of having the books on PDF. During my last D&D 3.5 campaign I lugged around a plastic chest (yes a chest) full of books to the game. I needed a handcart and the help of my player to unload the box form the car!

So you can imagine the advantage of carrying just my laptop and a few select books to the game. That’s why, even when I get hardcopies of the books I use (mostly Pathfinder and Mutants & Masterminds these days), I also invest on digital copies to go along with them.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not giving up on print. Even if I got an e-reader and love my gaming PDFs, I still collect books. I just won’t buy every book that comes out if I can get a digital copy. But every so often a game comes along that even when you’ve read it digitally you know this is a game that deserves a sport on your shelve. This was the case when I read Stars Without Number!

(And by the way that is a roundabout way to get to the topic of the post…)

Michael already posted about his preliminary review of the book, and I have to concur. The book is a refreshing entry into the old-school genre. While it may be mechanically inspired by old-school games the book is well written, concise, presents and imaginative setting and includes some excellent sandbox campaign mechanics that seem to be great tools to get the players involved in the development of a campaign. I am yet to try it out, but it seems promising and Star Without Number is edging out other competitors on the race to see which system will be the one for my upcoming sci-fi campaign (Alternity and Savage Worlds being the other two horses in the race right now).

Unless you live under a virtual rock by know you know that RPGNOW and DriveThruRPG are offering Print on Demand, or POD, on various RPG books, some out of print, others original creations that before used to be only available on PDF. Many times when I purchased large electronic books I would print and bind them at the local printing shop, so the possibility of actually having the book I like printed and delivered to me intrigued me.

I was a little reluctant, despite good reviews and the proliferation of POD over the last couple of years; I wondered how it would come out. Also the shipping worried me. Puerto Rico is part of the US Postal Services but some companies fail to grasp the concept and charge astronomical prices to ship to the island. But I liked Stars Without Number so much that I decided to test the waters. During a recent sale I ordered the book, including shipping, the hardcover version of the book set me back $24. Not bad for a 210 page book…

I ordered the book March 2^nd; the book shipped March 7^th and was here March 9^th. The book looks and feels like any commercially printed book out there. Sturdy, well put together, with excellent binding. True the art on Stars Without Number is sparse, mostly stock art and NASA pictures, but Sine Nomine Publishing did such a stellar job with their flagship product and used the art they do have so well that this is not a major issue for me.

I am impressed by the book; it is truly amazing to be able to order such a high quality hardcover print copy of this electronic book. Star Without Number is available for free in PDF. If you like the game in PDF, I cannot recommend enough getting it on print. The price is actually cheaper than what it would have cost me to have it printed and bound at the print shop and the end product is decidedly better.

If you look closely at the pictures accompanying this post you will see they are taken in my car. I wanted to wait to get home and take proper pictures but I could not contain my excitement. See, even if the book arrived March 9^th to the island, I was unable to get my hands on it until today. This is the only bad part about my first foray into POD. Despite RPGNow having my correct address (and I did check) UPS truncated the address and claimed they could not deliver it. I tried to contact UPS and correct the address but they claimed ONLY the sender could do this…

RPGNow customer support was MORE than helpful and offered to have another book shipped, apparently the easiest solution UPS gave them. I asked them not to. Despite having to brave some heavy traffic and not the most helpful customer service people at UPS I decided I would drive to their offices and get it. I’ve had my issues with UPS before, their delivery personnel is very amicable, and I was pleasantly surprised by the helpfulness of the person at the counter today, but dealing with some of their corporate policies and their call center employees can be, to say the least, frustrating.

So the only complain on this whole experiment was something RPGNow had no control over. This might be my first POD purchase, but will not me my last. I am now the proud owner of a print copy of Stars Without Number. I have a feeling I may need to get another copy once my players see this one…

Related posts:

1. What about Kobold Quarterly, specifically the winter issue, number 16? A review…
2. Freebie: Stars Without Number
3. Follow up Castles & Crusades Unboxing (Now with Moving Pictures!)

The gaming community is truly a global community and we can all chip in and do our part, plus get some gaming swag while doing it. The bundle has a selection of games worth $338.91 that you get for your donation of $20. All excellent games! These are some great companies that have contributed to the bundle and for their efforts we thank them.

So click your way to the New Zealand Red Cross Earthquake Relief – RPG Bundle page and donate, it’s for a good cause. Thanks for reading…

Related posts:

1. A great opportunity and a good cause!
2. Japan Disaster Relief at DriveThruRPG
3. Gamers Help Haiti Product Bundle @ DriveThruRPG