So what do we have here?

First of all, it's a freebie. It's not PWYW, it's free. So judge all of this with the knowledge that it costs you nothing for this PDF.

Semper Fidelis is 3 pages long. It includes a very short piece of fiction, about 100 words, 1/2 a page telling what this product is, 1 page of discussion about the story, and a page of FATE OGL.

The fiction is a character piece. It presents you a situation with no real lead in or conclusion. Even the action had already passed. But I think it does what it sets out to do. It serves as a hook.

The story mostly asks questions and tries to prompt you to think about how you could use it in your game. It wonders why things happened, suggests the lack of specific detail allows it to fit into a variety of settings, asks what would happen if things were changed, and what the consequences of the story are.

These questions are fine. Nothing that really sparked my imagination. I think an important question potentially left out is "who are the PCs?" or "how does this relate to others?". I feel as if the assumption is that this might be a PC. But what about if the PCs were cops (I immediately thought this would be a great hook for NCIS)? Or friends of John? Or friends of Gunny? Those things get me excited about the story.

The side bar on this page includes a situation aspect, 2 character aspects, 2 consequences, and a boost. These, I think, are the best part. The aspects are good. They offer suggestions on how they're applicable, and what they mean. The boost is great. It's something I can really get behind. The consequences are a little lack luster, and I'd like to see more questions asked about it. What might happen to John? How will this affect those around John? How will this change John?

To sum up, this is a good, first, free sample. You can't go wrong for nothin'. I'd like to see future products have longer fiction. I'd like them to ask more questions with bite. I'd like them to offer more tie-ins with potential PCs. But if this is a preview of what's to come, I'll gladly get on board. I could use more of this. And I think other people could as well.

This is extremely thought provoking... and what really makes you think is not the overt concept of a piece of fiction and the role-playing snippets you can extract from it, but the underlying thought-processes of how to look at something you read and glean it clean for role-playing ideas.

Now, this is something that I have been doing ever since I started role-playing, a mere couple of years before the author did, but he explains it so well, breaking it down and relating the elements to different aspects of the game system of choice (here, of course, the FATE system).

The story itself is but an hundred words or so. It would be easy to dismiss it as holding little for a role-player to grab hold of... but you'd be wrong. Just a few words can contain a lot if you look at them in the right way, and here you are shown how.

I'd recommend you to buy this, but it's free! No reason at all not to pick it up and read it through.

Like me, author Berin Kinsman reckons that the most dangerous monsters come on two legs, thinly disguised as the other people around you... and whilst major villains deserve full development, the 'bit-part' NPCs can be a lot more basic. Yet although many can be roughed out in a few descriptve words, sometimes you need to know their stats as well.

Here, then, is the solution: a ready-made collection of 'character frameworks' to put the mechanics into the NPCs you need all the time, the ones who you can readily describe to your players but need the stats for when the dice come out - be it a full-blown brawl, a game of cards or someone attempting to sneak by undetected.

The core of the product are the stat blocks for the five NPC classes - Adept, Aristocrat, Commoner, Expert and Warrior - each for levels 1 through 20. To make everything clear, there is quite a lot of explanation, and the stat blocks themselves have been laid out for ease of use (including links to the Pathfinder SRD if you are using it online). NPCs who can be expected to use spells have prepared spells listed (and there are notes on changing these if prefered), and weapons used, feats, skills and equipment carried are also included. Interestingly, each one is given TWO XP totals: one is the XP accrued by that NPC to reach the level he's at and the other is the XP that the party can earn by defeating him - this can be in combat, or could even come by thwarting his plans or otherwise outwitting him if you choose to allow it. Indeed, any resolution to an encounter that results in the party gaining their objective can lead to the XP award.

As these NPCs are elves, their racial bonuses and abilities have already been factored in, so you do not need to worry about them. As these are NPCs, built using the NPC class, they are not really suitable to be used as player-characters, although the suggestion is made that they could be used as 'less complicated' characters for newcomers to Pathfinder, or as GMPCs to fill out a party as needed - being easier for a GM to play whilst attending to his other duties.

If you make use of a lot of interactions between the party and an array of NPCs, this can help with your prep work, or even supply the NPC you need on the fly mid-game. A nice, handy resource.

I love "alternate" versions of monsters, and I don't play Pathfinder -- let me start off with that statement, to put my review in context. I run a couple of 13th Age games, and I've been looking for some variations on the classic monsters to mix things up a little in the Dragon Empire (13th Age's default setting). While I've never played D&D 3.x or Pathfinder, the stat blocks for monsters are easy enough to interpret that I can use them as starting points to create 13th Age monsters (especially when they're linked to d20pfsrd.com). Even more than that, the flavor text or "fluff" is universal. Without ruining the surprise, this little sourcebook contains a neat twist on hobgoblins that I can easily see fitting into my 13th Age campaigns (especially since my players have never encountered hobgoblins in that setting). Each of the five hobgoblin variants tie in to this unique back-story, while remaining different from one another. Any one of them could be used in a battle with otherwise "ordinary" hobgoblins, or you could go all-out and introduce several of them at once. The stat blocks could be used without the flavor text, and could be used with the standard hobgoblin back-story of Golarion, I would think. The price is right for a supplement that sparked my imagination and gives me something new to send my players' way -- not just a new stat block, but a whole new definition of the hobgoblin.

I had a couple of small complaints, which prevented me from giving this a 5-star rating. First, the physical description of hobgoblin and the orc on page 4 is unclear. I understand that it's trying to tie orcs (or is it hobgoblins?) to the old AD&D, porcine orcs, but the paragraph doesn't make it clear which race (orcs or hobgoblins) get confused with the pig-faced orcs, or why. And this points to the overall issue of a lack of editing. There are several typos, incorrect punctuation, and content that isn't as clear as it could be. It's certainly readable, but when I buy something, even at this low price, I expect it to come across as edited and polished. It's not a huge gripe, but it's enough that I couldn't rate this 5-stars.

If you're looking for a fun take on hobgoblins, along with some interesting hobgoblin variants, I suggest you pick this little supplement up. You certainly can't beat the price.

This is a great resource for someone who can't find the critical & fumble card decks for Pathfinder, or just prefers a dice-rolling mechanic over card draws.

As someone who actually knows the person who wrote the Dragon Magazine article the authors cited, they are a worthy successor to that article.

However, if there is any real lack to these charts, it is one shared with Carl's, in that they are designed with melee weapons in mind. Blunt weapon criticals work in a pinch for weaponless combat, but the weapon fumbles bring on an uncomfortably high level of broken bones (I had one monk PC break both hands in a single melee from fumbles, and was reduced to kick attacks, on the FIRST ENCOUNTER we used these charts), given how monks are much more popular and playable in PF & 3.x. And there are so many things that can go wrong with missiles that have no comparison in melee, and melee accidents that can't happen in missile fire.

I wouldn't mind it if somewhere down the road, the authors would expand it to have a separate critical charts for missile weapons & weaponless combat, and develop separate fumble charts for each weapon type, missiles, unarmed and animal attackers. What works as a fumble for a longspear doesn't necessarily work for an arrow, thrown dart or bite attack, nor does a fumble chart written for a sword really work when it's a monster fumbling with a claw attack. The current table that clumps all fumbles together still results in the occasional headscratch.

I would also suggest that the authors explore using 2 columns per page on the charts that run over one page, to see if they can get them to fit on a single page.

For many gamers, just rolling dice and doing damage in combat just doesn't cut it. Here's a way, following in the steps of an early Dragon magazine article that's referenced in the work and - for me at any rate - some glorious tables from the Rolemaster game produced by Iron Crown Enterprises, to make your damage rolls far more interesting than a steady attrition of hit points.

So here is a set of tables to bring into action whenever a critical hit is scored. There are several tables to cater for different weapon types - bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, etc. - and also, as these assume a vaguely humanoid target, a table for critical hits on animals. Each works on a percentage roll and nicely whenever a specific condition or other game mechanical effect is caused, that descriptor is hyperlinked to the Pathfinder SRD (natuarally, only if you are consulting the table electronically with an internet link!).

To redress the balance some, there is also a fumble table for all weapons, to consult if you are unfortunate enough to roll a 1 on your d20 attack roll. Whilst this is based on weapon use, most results will work for unarmed combat as well with little or no modification.

While there are plenty of this kind of 'colourful critical' tables around, this one has been written specifically with the Pathfinder RPG in mind, so if that's the ruleset you use, this is worth picking up.

A brief collection of alternate additions to a group of Ratfolk. Five different creatures offer up alternate leaders - in the form of a Pack Leader, King or Queen - and 'shock' troops - in the guise of Knight and Plague Children.

The creatures range from CR 1/3 up to 7, and all add their own distinctive twist on the purpose behind the Ratfolk a party might encounter.

Interesting viewpoints with complete stats ready to play straight off the page.

After years of gaming in the late 70's and early 80's, I took a very extended break from pen and paper gaming.
Now that the kids are grown and gone, I have time to get back into what I loved. I had never played Pathfinder before, so finding a guide like this was perfect for me.

And for the price, I thought I couldn't go wrong.

The workbook is laid out in a very logical fashion and helps you find everything you need to know to get your character up and running.
It's a pretty plain jane format, just black ink on white paper. I like this, cause if you want to print your workbook, you save your ink.

It does have handy links to http://www.d20pfsrd.com/ topics, so if you encounter something you are unfamiliar with, an answer is just a click away.

The bottom line is that I recommend this for anyone wanting to get the most out of their character creation process.
I will definitely buy the other workbooks as I need them.

The Forager’s Guild for Pathfinder by Asparagus Jumpsuit is a short document presenting an “adventurer’s guild” that can be easily adapted for most campaigns, proving a base of operations, resources and training and a clearing house for adventure. Three of the upper level members of the guild are detailed for use as advisors, trainers and generally useful people as are a squad of bugbears converted to good who act as agents for the guild. Some fun, and very classic, things to play around with here, worth your time to look at if such a group would have a place in your campaign.

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

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

Elemental Builder for Pathfinder by Asparagus Jumpsuit is a short document presenting a simple system for constructing elementals (using a bacon elemental as an example!). While a useful resource, it would have been helped by a step by step walkthrough of elemental building and maybe a few fully statted example elementals. Berin Kinsman is a creative fellow and I would have liked to have seen him display it a bit further with this product.

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

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

I have a secret: I hate the 'number-crunching' aspects of character generation, especially in systems which have pre-conceived ideas of particular groupings into which you have to shoehorn that delightful concept that sprang into your mind when someone proposed the game that's being planned... even more so if it's an unfamiliar ruleset so I don't know how to do half the things that I want my new guy to have or be able to do.

Here's a product which can help. It takes you by the hand and leads you through the process of creating a Wizard character for the Pathfinder RPG, explaining each stage and the ramifications of your choices. The really neat thing is, it doesn't just let you set up your starting character, it takes you through levelling up, level by level right up to level 20. Now, you will probably have figured out how Wizard characters work by then, even so it is very useful in ensuring that you do not miss anything out. No forgetting which levels you gain feats or special abilities, it's all there.

There are also handy worksheets for skills, feats and your familiar, along with a spell list and experience point log - good if you want to track it in detail (although the assumption seems to be that you only ever get experience for killing monsters...). Now I once had a GM who'd only give you experience if you gave him an itemised list of what you reckoned you'd earned it for - this would have been perfect!

One thing I'm not sure about: do I use this online or print it out? It's replete with hyperlinks to the PFSRD where every term is explained, which suggests reading this on my computer, so I can refer to anything that puzzles me or on which I want more information before I make a choice. Yet it has generous spaces in which to make notes... but it's not set up with form fields to type into, so if I want to scribble on it, I'll need to hit the printer. Now, as a confirmed non-writer (longhand is beyond me since a stroke) I do know a sneaky way to make Acrobat let me type on most PDFs anyway - use the 'Comment' button and select Add Text Comment - but you need to be quite precise in positioning your cursor before you begin to type.

Whichever, this is a beautiful and thorough tool to aid particularly new players or those for whom the number-crunching parts of character generation and development are a bit of a chore.

Amazing little booklet for only $2.50, helps track your character to level 20! The only slight, tiny, miniscule problem for me, is some of the lines where you write are bold midway through. Other than that this little bad boy is quite nice

There’s something to be said for going the concept of “showing your work.” It’s easy, when we think we know something inside and out, to do the intermediary steps of a problem in our head and write down the conclusion. After all, that’s fast and simple, whereas taking the time to write things down, especially when we know them well, can be tedious and inconvenient.

The problem is that, all too often, we make a mistake in our off-the-cuff calculations, or find that we’ve forgotten a pertinent detail when we go back and review our work later on. This is natural, of course, as we’re only human, but it can still be irritating, particularly since we’ve no one to blame but ourselves.

The Character Change Log for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, from Asparagus Jumpsuit, is an attempt to make it easier to walk through the basics of leveling up characters so that nothing gets missed.

The product’s format is a fairly straightforward one. The book has twenty-two pages; one for each level (with level one having two pages) and the OGL. Each page walks you through the basic aspects of what you gain each level, leaving plenty of blank spaces to write down what you’ve gained. Each such sheet is largely the same, through the book wisely has certain level-dependent effects, such as new feats and new ability bonuses, noted when they occur.

The most salient detail to remember about this is that its name is accurate: this is a log of changes made to your character – it is NOT a character sheet. It’s certainly similar in function, and even somewhat in appearance, but whereas a character sheet is meant to display your character’s aggregate abilities, each sheet of this book is meant to record only what you’ve gained for that specific level.

Some might not see a need for such a book, and I can understand that view. However, I’ve gamed with people who’ve had to go back and frantically rewrite some aspect of their character in the middle of their game because they realized they’d done it wrong, or that they had simply forgotten something while leveling. Notes are, in my opinion, never a bad thing.

The downsides to this product are largely the compromises that it had to make in order to be universal to every class. These aren’t too bad, but you’ll likely feel the differences between using this to record the changes to a fighter versus the changes to a summoner; in fact, you may want to use another set of these sheets to record the growth of class-based NPCs, such as familiars or eidolons. It’s the cost of making a one-size-fits-all log, and while slightly inconvenient, it’s nothing that seriously compromises its utility.

Overall, I think that this is a book that is likely to be underestimated until you start using it. Being able to go back and chart your character’s growth over each level is more valuable than I think many players realize, and I certainly think that it’s worthwhile. I’d definitely recommend that players, especially new ones, record their levels in the Character Change Log.

The revised edition of what was formerly the "Tome of Missing Magic" is 141 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 139 pages of content, so let's check it out - again! This pdf, sans frills etc., seeks to reproduce items from older editions and update them to PFRPG , including feats to make potions of higher levels and wands of higher levels (via a total of 4 feats). Without any ado, the pdf delves right into tables - a realize that this revision is not a half-hearted one: We get stock-art (which is ok) but more importantly, we get a completely reorganized pdf: Want random tables for potions? They are in the potions chapter. Much easier and intuitive to use than the split of tables first, contents later that we had before. Kudos! Hence, we delve into the descriptions of potions, which include ones of bear's endurance, alter self etc. as well as potions that allow you dominate e.g. any type of dragon as per the dominate monster spell for 17 rounds. Sample scrolls of baleful polymorph etc. are included, but that's where the problems creep in: This pdf provides a lot of potions, scrolls etc. that can be created via the standard rules as well as e.g. items like rings of confusion etc. - all coming with solid statblocks, creation rules, auras etc., including entries that point towards the core-rules for e.g. rods of lordly might.

Per se, this pdf's massive collection of expertly presented items could be considered a nice professional offering, but honestly, the problem is that the items herein can be made by any DM worth his/her salt - no one needs these scrolls and potions, they can be created easily. The item-section could be considered an collection of them like the AD&D encyclopedias of old - but by now, we have the APG, UM and UC - all of which are utterly ignored, with all the rules introduced by them. Now yes, if you're like me, this pdf tugs at your heart's strings with phylacteries of eternal youth, ropes of entanglement and especially the artifact section, but more on that later. Manuals for all attributes get a d%-table to determine their bonuses. Old-school, yes, but do we really need this?

The artifacts especially are a blast from the past, coming with advice and sample DCs for knowledge checks to know about their past. And oh boy, is this nostalgia tugging at the heart's strings - whether it's the arch-lich's hand and eye or a staff made of 7 component parts - this pdf essentially provides you with the IP-free versions of artifacts like Vecna's Hand and Eye or the Rod of 7 Parts and mechanically, they actually aren't bad and come with nice consequences and means of destruction. They are well-made and have their own twists to set them slightly apart from their inspirations without being unrecognizable. Seriously nice.

We also get tables of e.g. banded mails, breast plates etc. from +1 to +5 with price, cost to create, total bonuses, max dex-bonuses etc., also in special materials - again, in tables upon tables, including modifications of e.g. mithral or adamantine, darkwood or dragonhide. Special weapon qualities (though called "templates", which is an incorrect term in PFRPG) are also displayed, e.g. providing the cost etc. stats for a general axiomatic melee weapon +2. And yes, these weapons may again have the benefit of being ready-made for your convenience, but again: Every Dm could create them him/herself. The final section of this pdf is devoted to types of ammunition, including e.g. shocking burst +2 ammunition.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good, bordering on excellent: I noticed no significant glitch over a pdf this long and the general presentation of the items adheres to all the conventions of PFRPG. Nice display of professionalism there. Layout adheres to a no-fills, 2-column standard with light green used to highlight the respective item entries/table-entries, making the pdf generally rather printer-friendly - were it not for all the entries that only consist of the item's name and a sentence pointing towards the core-book. Were the respective pointers towards other books also included, this would make sense - with the focus on just the core rules, though, this means that the entries only empty toner/ink-cartridges without contributing anything. Hyperlinks to d20pfsrd.com would have gone a long way there. A massive and perhaps the most signifcant improvement, at least for me, though would not be cosmetic rearrangement or the inclusion of stock art, but rather the fact that we now get a vast variety of nested bookmarks, which makes handling this book so much better. This revision is much more professional in style, presentation and content and is does several things very right indeed: Adhering to PFRPG-standards in wording and formatting, item-blocks etc. Rereviewing this pdf was a colossal pain that took me forever, including checking many of the item's math and from what I could glean, they are correct, meaning that A LOT of work has gone into this pdf. The artifacts and their tugging of one's nostalgic heart's strings also means that grognards will probably find a collection of items that will have them smile.

In the end, a massive problem I have with this pdf is how to rate this: On the one hand, evidently a vast amount of work has gone into the creation of this pdf and generally, the result can be considered professionally appealing. The pdf, while still not beautiful, is much improved from its previous iteration. The price has also been reduced to a point where it is more than fair for teh increased value and usability. There's a potential problem you might encounter, though: The lack of creativity. Much like academic writing and writing in general, game design is both an art and a craft - craft-wise, this pdf is devoid of flaws regarding the crunch, but it is also utterly artless. This pdf, for me, at once was nostalgic and terribly, utterly dreary to review. I couldn't find a single piece of creative spark, of soul in these pages. Much like a Sepia-tinged photo of an unremarkable day (in contrast to e.g. a wedding or cherished childhood day) gone by, this pdf elicits feelings of nostalgia and can be considered useful, but fails to truly evoke an emotional response or excitement. It signifies towards a nostalgia, but offers not much soul beyond that, remaining a solid example of crafting, but much like something produced in a factory, it lacks the charm of e.g. a work of the "Arts & Craft"-movement. In the end, whether this is a good purchase for you depends utterly on how lazy you are as a DM and how nostalgic-prone you are. If you have fond memories of those items of old, consider this revised version a neat offering and 5 stars. If You're not that into it, this book still provides a LOT of hard work for you and should be considered a 3-star offering. While personally, in spite of definitely being prone to massive bouts of nostalgia and old-school gaming, this didn't grip me, I can consider the effort and dedication that went into the creation of this pdf and its revision a supreme example of a will to improve. My final verdict for this revised book will hence be between both extremes, at a solid 4 stars and thus a massive upgrade from its previous iteration.

Endzeitgeist out.

When I first read this it struck me as fun, but little more than a novelty. There are some good ideas in here and the background story implied and hinted at throughout of a slowly unhinging wizard obsessed with immortality is very evocative. But, it lingered in my head a lot longer than I expected. I keep thinking about that wizard and his magic masterpiece and a whole mess of new ideas keep spinning off "my take" on the immortality obsessed wizard.

So, kudos for that. Anything that provides me with the amount of inspiration I've been squeezing out of a $3 product is worth the price of admission.

I stop short of five out of five because, the product is a laundry list of magic rings and that's really it. There isn't anything particularly new in this product (though the weapon traits applied to the hand that wears the ring is clever and new to me). I honestly think for most people this is a 2 or 3 out of 5 product because of its very narrow focus.