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100 Hooks and Rumours to Hear in Symbaroum
Publisher: Free League Publishing
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/05/2022 03:36:16

The title of this is '100 Hooks and Rumours to Hear in Symbaroum"
This is a niche title, but there are remarkably little rumours in the core books. This supplement sets out to change this.

We get 100 well written, slightly intriguing rumours, that could be correct (or semi correct, or false). The 11 page pdf doesn't say which are true, and which are false. Of these 11 pages, 9 are full of rumours, so they are chunky rumours. I'll post one in the interest of the review [q] 78. The Spider-King was a legendary warlord against whom the barbarians united under the first High Chieftain in order to defeat. The Spider-King had a host comprised of, amongst others, truly enormous species of spider. Those are thought to have been eliminated when the Spider-King was defeated, but there are rumours that, in some of the darker regions of Davokar, some of the greater spiders still live, plotting revenge. [/q]

So we get a few sentences. These rumours are Symbaroum specific, and very grounded in the world. They will make the players ask questions, and probably inspire adventure.

My only negative is that I like rumours to be written 'in voice of the teller' where as these are written in 'history voice'. Minor complaint, and if you want more hooks and rumours as a GM for Symbaroum, this is the product to get.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
100 Hooks and Rumours to Hear in Symbaroum
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The Sunken Crypt
Publisher: Free League Publishing
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/05/2022 03:30:28

This is 37 pages, and my printer says it A4, I think the pages would be better suited to A5. (which is fine but printing these at a4 will give really big letters)

The adventure is a ruined crypt to run across in the forest of Dakovar. The first 12 pages are the 8 monsters that are in a wandering monster table. The monsters are new, being mostly corrupted beasts or undead. Sadly the table doesn't give any suggestions as to what these random encounters are doing (Boo!). The next nine pages are the monsters who are found in the crypt, so 21 pages are Monster stats/rules. It is good you get all of these and its laid out, but it does pad the page count.

We have four pages of maps, leaving 8 pages for the dungeon, where it prints some of the basics of the stat blocks again. (Again props for usability).

So of these 8 pages, we are covering the approach to the Sunken crypt, and an 8 room (linear) crypt. This module is high on creep, and whilst it deliberately dangles some questions that players may stumble across for further play, it is a very much 'get in, kill everything, get out' style scenario. It's fine but nothing special. There isn't' anything particularly surprising or unexpected in these 8 pages. It fits well into Symbaroum's dark themes. It sadly however assumes combat is the only option. Which for undead in a short tomb is probably correctly.

This might sound particularly negative, and the designer has clearly tried to make this easily usable. There is plenty of clear space on the pdf for in game notes. The stat blocks are in obvious places (and repeated). The dungeon descriptions gives you some good solid descriptions to hold onto and run with as a GM. Also buying the pdf gets you the VTT maps, which is lovely.

Running this site as is will probably take a group 90-120 minutes. If you are looking for something to 'drop in' to your large forest in Symbaroum it's not a bad choice at all.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Sunken Crypt
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Barrowmaze Complete
Publisher: OSR Publishing
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/05/2021 04:48:39

So I ran this, and for the authentic experience with the Labyrinth Lord rules. (I'll give my opinion on that here, I think after running a lot of it Labyrinth Lord has lost a large amount of the appeal for me, the book is hard to look things up in (monster saving throws) and has some rules quirks that are difficult. If I were to play this again or another of Greg's dungeons I'd be using a slightly more modern OSR ruleset). This campaign took 51 character deaths. About 35 sessions (I think). Lots of dungeon crawling.

I used my Print on Demand book almost exclusively. I will say that I found the paper selected for this print on demand book lacking, it is quite thin and flimsy. Its not the more thicker paper I'm used to. Which for a $70 title I was expecting better. Honestly I would consider printing my own copy + binding it locally as my usual paper feels thicker. I'm guessing this is 60gsm in the book.
The artwork is in the old school black and white style, and as per this old school has a number of pictures to show players. All are good, some include details the players will find helpful if they pick up on.

This is a large dungeon. Over 400 rooms. It is very undead heavy. So undead heavy the rules specifically include house rules for gimping, sorry, adjusting, a clerics turn dead ability. Because otherwise it is Over Powered as all heck. I know this as I missed these rules for our first few sessions. The dungeon is written in a relatively minimalist way. This coupled with the large number of undead could make it boring. As a GM I strongly recommend keeping a list of things undead skeletons/zombies could be doing and using those. Also whilst there is a list of dungeon paraphernalia/wall writing it is only 40 items long (2 tables of 20) and you'll burn through that rather quickly. So create more. There are some more set piece style combats, and some wicked and clever traps, and equally a number of rooms of "4 zombies".

This is designed as an old school dungeon in that time is highly important. There are wandering monsters (which as players level up do get less and less dangerous) but also a number of rooms have funerary urns which take quite some time to search. If running this again I'd use a box of grid paper to track time. I wouldn't worry about the encumbrance rules as the dungeon is accessible enough three days of weary slogging to get the loot back to town is fine.

Speaking of loot there is a lot of magic items and weapons. So many your players will want to sell them. I went for the Pathfinder prices and this turned out to be too high. I'd suggest a flat rate of 2k per every +1.

Plot - the plot here is okay. There is a not-quite-dead god of Death and an artifact that could bring him back to life. Or undeath. Or something.
The best thing about the plot is how discoverable it is. This is due to clay tablets scattered across the place that drop hints of the plot, and some factions of living dead gods who will also provide hints. And then the plot comes out in an organic way, which is infinitely better than an excellent plot being dolled out in a dreadful sloppy way.

Maps that were clear and easy to read. There are two 'levels' for want of a better word. There are the Barrowmounds, a hex crawl with a number of different mounds. (I do have a minor complaint that this hex map is for a GM eyes only, and whilst a player facing copy is easy to whip up, you definitely need to). Some of these mounds are short dungeons, others lead to the mega dungeon complex. My only complaint is that when looking at the stairs up from the lower dungeon, its not always possible to tell from the lower level description which upper level mound the stairs lead to. It did take my players a long time to realise the large lower dungeons were all connected. Keep this a surprise.

Ease of use at the table was high, I'd have several bookmarks, one for the map pages, another for the dungeon text around the area the players were in, and sometimes a fourth at a particular monster page. It took me longer to find things in the Labyrinth Lord rulebook than it did to flick through here. I wasn't scanning long lines of text trying to parse information. I deliberately ran this with minimal prep. I'd do dungeon restocking rolls, and some prep work for things undead could be doing, and sometimes skim a large area of a dungeon before play. But I deliberately wanted to see how this would run with low prep - and the answer is very very well.

My conclusion is this: If you want a large megadungeon that is feasible to actually complete, that doesn't clutter your head with unnecessary backstory, and will have a story that will organically become developed this is a really good option. There is a lack of negotiable factions (see - lots of undead) and there is some work you'll have to do as a GM, but not as much as other campaigns. The biggest negative was the paper type used in this POD book. I felt as a GM this dragged slightly towards the end, but not enough I was beginning to hate running it. If you want an experience of old school dungeon delving this is probably the best option I've seen.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Barrowmaze Complete
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Knights of the Shadow Realm
Publisher: World of Oranth
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/03/2021 18:49:43

I Will start with the good: The maps are clear with excellent cartography, and they look like 5e maps. There are a number of mapped encounters areas, which are well laid out and could be mined for ideas.

However there are some serious problems with this book.

So we start with 9 pages of text, about the world. It seems irrelevant to the plot. Then text  about 9 deities, one for each alignment. At least this is only 3 pages. One of these deities is plot relevant, but this isn't highlighted to the reader.

Then page 25 the adventure starts. We're still missing a grand overview. We get this gem of an opening The party starts I the outskirts of the kingdom of Kalorr in the town of Treefold, which has been at peace for many years until recently. As of late, the city of Kalorr, leas by its king, Aethelhun Ryder and the surrounding towns have found themselves on the brink of war against the kingdom of Redia. As tensions grow, Kalorrian troops can be seen marching through the small town of Treefold on the outskirts of Kallor's lands. The sight of Kalorrian guards have become part of the towns daily routine. Several citizens of Treefold manage to earn small sums of coin for helping the guards with menial tasks as they move through. One quiet morning the town wakes to the sounds of the guards requesting aid. In the town square is a small platoon preparing to march into battle. Beside them in thick iron chains are five prisoners. The guards are traveling in the opposite direction but need the prisoners taken to Artin Hammerbeard back in Kalorr. The offer for the return is 10gp per prisoner. The party has accepted the offer to take the prisoners on the 3-day journey to Kalorr Wowzer, where to start. This opening commits many many sins. Firstly it's too long. It's in the passive voice. It chooses boring words "sounds of guards" not "gruff shouts" or "strict hollering for aid to the imperial service". The opening moves between war happening, war about to happen, then soldiers going to battle. Oh and Hammerbeard is a human. That's not even considering how railroading the hook i.

The prisoners don't have names. There is a short one sentence saying they will try to escape. But there isn't a set piece of a combat where you have to deal with the logistics of trying to keep chained prisoners alive. This sort of set piece combat would have been different, and an interesting 1st combat of a campaign. Also upon entering the city the party are directed to immediately examine the sound of a ringing brass bell. Then we get rumors. My players? If the adventure starts with "you will escort prisoners" their first action on entering a city will be to locate the person they are meant to deliver to. Instead we get a city gazetter with ... no easy way for me to determine where Hammerbeard is. Lots of side quests however!

e layouts a mess, one rumor refers to see back alley investigation but there is no title with this header.

We then get several mini dungeons. And random encounters between dungeons such as "2d4 goblins " and "1d4+1 wolves" Nope no other information given, just some random monsters because that is what adventures always have.

Back to the dungeons, they don't lead with players objectives. But the link to the next chapter is a journal at the end of a dungeon. I've tried to understand but it seems like the prisoner hook is pointless. It an excuse to get to main city and find rumors. it leads nowhere.

The journal leads to an npc in another city to decipher its full meaning. So in chapter 2 we hear hostilities between Kalorr and Redia is increasing. So is it more hostile than war? This point isn't mentioned. Its just confusing . Oh and no encounters actually showing this hostility on the journey. A random deal body with a note instead. The flowchart however says midway though this section "war breaks out "

This chapter suffers from the previous chapters failings. I don't know where the key npc is. There is no scene deciphering the journal. Instead the chapter is rumors, sidequests, maps. The conclusion sums up the information the party should know, plan to open portal to shadow realm, 3 macguffins of power, and the location of 2. Onward generic fantasy!

Next chapter! Repeat formula! Introduce an adventure site, the village of Homlett. Make your gm sad of no evil temple rumors in village of Homlett

Next chapter! The introduction is read aloud telling players how they feel. This time macguffins meant to be forced into one powerful weapon! Can't let 3 pcs have cool things. Again new npcs, dropping skyrim quests in a confused order. Then combat against big bad God busting through into reality

Fun fact - magic weapons as rewards across the adventure seem relatively non existent. This will cause some issues.

Then the usual 5e appendices, stat blocks, spells, handouts. The monsters seem to break 5e rules varying proficiency and skill bonuses without reason.

One thing really missing from this is a page describing key NPCs, where they are (map wise), how to RP them, what information they have. The other thing really missing is a sense of organization. There is no index, no easy way to parse the sections, no overview. I'll mine this for maps, but I certainly won't be trying to run it.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Knights of the Shadow Realm
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LLA005: The Stealer of Children
Publisher: Small Niche Games
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2021 05:22:10

I'm going to gush in this review.
So my country entered a lockdown at very short notice, on a Wednesday when we were meant to be playing D&D that Saturday afternoon + evening. There was some discussion and on Friday night it was decided I'd run something Pathfinder via Discord, and it would have level 2 or 3 pregens that I'd create.

I needed an adventure that would take about 7 hours to play, and needed minimal prep, and I had this one on my watchlist.

Best $1.49 I spent at Drive-Thru, absolutely recommend you go and buy it. For personal reasons I wanted the party to be all elfs, visiting and elf village so I quickly reskinned everybody's race. I spend about 10 minutes writing the stats for the titular fey, and ... that was it. The rest of the monsters I could fill from a usual bestiary.

I printed this, but didn't feel the need to highlight or take notes. The party got thrown into the adventure, and started the investigation of a missing child (a good strong hook that most parties will take), and as parties will always do, went off on the wrong direction. But that is fine there was enough stuff in here to flesh everything out. I had to quickly pull a short dead exit dungeon out of my prep shelf, but I knew what needed to be in it.

At its heart this is a simple mystery/investigation. It has a strong fey vibe, and it plays up the creepy and unknowing attributes of the fey really really well. The village comes alive easily, and feels real.

The session was very memorable. I spent longer whipping up 6 pregens in herolab than other prep work. My only negative comment is there didn't seem to be a player facing map to give the players, so I just gave them the real one. *



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
LLA005: The Stealer of Children
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Creator Reply:
Many thanks for taking the time to review! Glad you enjoyed it!
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Dark Obelisk 2: The Mondarian Elective (Pathfinder)
Publisher: Infinium Game Studios
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/10/2021 21:37:15

Spoiler: I haven't run this adventure. I am running Barrowmaze, which I will review once finished, but thing about Greg Gillespie's dungeons is that often the random tables get heavy heavy use. And often the random tables both revel the plot, and are the most dangerous encounters. This is key OSR. Pathfinder has always taken a different view, that dungeons are prepopulated, every room is explained, and combat is likely to be 'fair'.

This book tries to use a method similar to Gillespies, and apply it to Pathfinder. Does it work? Sort of? But first some related comments:

Firstly I have the print on demand volume. It's big. Like biggest book on my shelf big. 837 thick pages. I'm legitimately worried the spine will not hold up to age or play. Honestly I think the book would have been better being in two volumes.

As with Dark Obelisk 1 the author has tried to colour code everything. But they've used some very solid hues of colour and instead of helping, there is just too much different coloured items it looks a mess. It's a great idea, but the colour scheme itself needs to be worked on.

The maps (in general) are excellent. There is a large overview map of each area, then smaller more detailed maps of each section. Some maps (such as page 249) don't have a grid when they should. Unlike the previous book there are not player facing maps, which is a huge shame, as printing out handouts from the book shows the secret doors. And running this dungeon I'd want to print out handouts of each section (ideally unnumbered) as there is enough detail there for players to really run with.

My next comment is that the random encounters are not actually in the book. They are in a separate pdf. As are the random treasures, and all the core random tables. Not cool. It doesn't even look as if there is an option to buy this 92 page pdf in print. So if you are a printophile (like I am) this puts you out of luck.

Now we come to the default check time for wandering monsters - 5 minutes. There is an encounter introduction table - but it only focuses on combat, the size of the map the monster(s) arrive from, and who is surprised during combat. At least use a reaction table like B/X where monsters could be helpful.

Also you need to use the print book and the side pdf to generate these encounters. You roll a % dice to see what type of encounter happens (or if it happens as there is often a 25% chance of no encounter) then a second % roll looking up what the monster is.

The monsters also seem to be chosen for their CR rating rather than their theme. They are a cornucopia, and the wandering monsters, mines, average, table we have Ankeg, Doppelganers, cocatrice, ettercap, hell hound, howler, Giant Mantis, Ogre, Rust Monster, Giant Scorpion, Shadow, Spriggan, Giant Wasp, Dire Wolf, Giant Stag Bettle, Fungal Crawler, Crab Swarm, Dark Stalker, Mimic, Minotaur, Giant Vulture, Dire Wolverine, and the four types of medium elementals. (and that is only 66% of the table!) This is a particular shame as the adventure talks about the taint of the titular Dark Obelisk. There was every chance to grab a Dark Obelisk template, do up 2 dozen or so tainted monsters, and build a really good solid theme (just like Barrowmaze does with undead).

I can see how this is meant to work. Large dungeon crawl. Players fighting their way in and out. Slowly uncovering what is happening. But it's too big. The book is too big. The monster range for combats is too big. The headers take up too much space when the maps communicate the area so much better. Barrowmaze can be flipped through during play, this cannot. I like the base idea here but the execution needs a lot more work.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Dark Obelisk 2: The Mondarian Elective (Pathfinder)
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Creator Reply:
Hi J H! Thanks for your thoughtful review. A few clarifications: 1) "there are not player facing maps" There are, actually--over 200 of them, in fact. They physically could not fit in the printed book because OBS' printer limits hardcovers to 840 pages, which this book tops out at as you pointed out. You can download the entire half-gig map set, as well as the dedicated Atlas PDF, here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/226450/Dark-Obelisk-2-The-Mondarian-Elective-Atlas-Unisystem Since you're a hardcopy fan (like I am!), the Atlas itself is also available as a separate hardcover volume. 2) "random encounters are not actually in the book" Yep, that's true; see above as to what can physically fit in the book. DO2 includes the FlexTale Encounter Generator PDF for FREE, which is typically priced at, or above, the price of the adventure itself. 2b) "It doesn't even look as if there is an option to buy this 92 page pdf in print" There absolutely is, actually: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/234601/FlexTale-Encounter-Generator-General-Purpose-v10-Pathfinder---5E---Unisystem 3) "There is an encounter introduction table - but it only focuses on combat, the size of the map the monster(s) arrive from, and who is surprised during combat. At least use a reaction table like B/X where monsters could be helpful." Well, first, I'll point out that the vast majority of published adventures I've ever seen across 30+ years don't even have this much information; typically it's just a table and that's it. DO2's approach is more informed than that, as you describe. In terms of a reaction table, I've very, very rarely seen anything like that in a published adventure, but good news: IGS also offers an industry-leading, massively-detailed, and highly innovative approach to combat and social encounters called FlexAI. FlexAI is a gold-bestselling toolset that can be applied to a wide range of rules systems, which supports every single one of the 1,660+ monsters published under the Pathfinder era. You can grab a free sample here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/275572/FlexAI-Guidebook-Free-Sample ...or the full version here (which is also available as either a full-color hardcover, or softcover): https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/324651/FlexAI-Guidebook-unisystem-5E-Pathfinder-P2E Finally, as FlexAI consists of 860 tables, they're all available in Excel format for those wishing to macro up some at-the-table tools for themselves to help guide zero-prep, dynamic monster behavior across a wide range of combinations of reaction, context, and battlefield landscape: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/342294/FlexAI-Digital-Resource-Companion-unisystem-5E-Pathfinder-P2E-OSR 4) "The monsters also seem to be chosen for their CR rating rather than their theme" This is the comment I was actually most surprised by, since I specifically chose everything based on theme, and not by CR... since the entire IGS approach to monsters and indeed ALL adventure content is a Quadded Statblock approach which means it doesn't matter what the CR of a given monster is, you can use it against a wide range of PCs at ANY level. In fact, we've applied this approach to all of the 1,660+ monsters published during the Pathfinder era, resulting in the world's largest fantasy bestiary across six mammoth PDFs and hardcover volumes: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=aquilae+bestiary+pathfinder 5) "the adventure talks about the taint of the titular Dark Obelisk" Well, the adventure does also include full quadded statblocks and artwork for several brand-new, custom monsters. I'll admit that if I had it to do over again, I'd probably add even more along these lines: rules for new monster templates and additional atmospheric effects... maybe fodder for a Collector's Edition in the future, but as I said, I literally couldn't fit anything else in the book unfortunately. At any rate, thanks again for your thoughts, and I'll certainly take your comments to heart as I continue to produce books. Onward!
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Preview: The Well of Darkness
Publisher: Goblins Comic
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/04/2020 06:20:19

poorly formatted. Really small dungeon with very few pathways through it. Lots of talking about the background of the dungeon. wizards who were acting like 6 year olds. Desperately hope the finished product better



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Preview: The Well of Darkness
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The Hyper Halfling's Book of Lists, Vol.1
Publisher: Goblins Comic
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/03/2020 07:26:54

This book is pretty poorly formatted. There are much better far more imaginative lists out there. Lists that will help GMs build magical worlds. These lists are boring and mundane.

I like lists and purchased this years ago. I've never used it and on rereading I remembered why I didn't and why I probably never will



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
The Hyper Halfling's Book of Lists, Vol.1
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Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm: Volume 3 (Pathfinder)
Publisher: Infinium Game Studios
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/24/2020 15:18:45

There are many Kickstarters I don't back. There are only a few I wish that I did back. This one is almost one of them. When this Kickstarter launched there were red flags. Inexperienced designer, ambitious project, large stretch goals. Unfulfilled other projects. I mean I wanted in, but the risk was too great. So I passed. I checked in on the project intermittently, and found it was marred with delays. But to his credit the author produced the Pathfinder books. And I hemmed, and I hawed, and I watched, and eventually I purchased them.

So for $80 what did I get? A really big print volume. 670 pages is a fair chunk, but the print on demand style really bulks it up. Is it worth it? Especially as you are going to be after a multi volume set. I'm not sure, and for this reason I started with volume 3. In my experience after the novelty wears off and the grind sets in it is really the measure of a creator. I'm going to try not to be too harsh as this is clearly a labour of love, but there are some things that I'm less than happy with.

The first one is in the backer credits (which here are before the table of contents) where it is listed "Please do not put my name in the credits" Well okay then.

The purpose of this set is to give 4 CR levels for every monster in the Pathfinder Bestiaries. The idea is to make a GM's life easier. No more working with templates, adding HD, or the like, just use this. Which definately sounds appealing.

And in many ways this is what the product is. Each monster has 4 stat blocks, in collumns in alphabetical order. This formating is good. Each CR level is on a different collumn, and there is good use of colour to keep them apart.

The other thing I really like is that almost every feat, and special ability, has the full text repeated in the monster stat block. As someone who really struggles to look up monster feats in prep work this is a large boon. Honestly this is probably more useful than having the range of stat blocks.

The different stat blocks are built using monster HD rules. So Drow are expanded by way of humanoid hit dice, rather than class levels. Despite being a monster that you want to use class levels for. I would have thought it better to leave monster out that advance by class level. (God, that is such a 3.0 term )

As a result of this reliance on hit dice, some of the monsters are a little off. Save DCs don't always scale as you would expect. But this is relatively minor.

The other 'waste of space' is that there are a variety of CR monsters in this volume for elementals. In bestiaries elementals already come in a range of CRs. But here there are four different CRs for ever type. 4 different small fire elementals. 4 different medium. 4 different elder. Repeat for every type of elemental. This is a lot of pages, and honestly for me brings this volume down.

The range of CRs is usually good and sensible. It looks like the CRs are trying to go up/down in CR levels of 3-5, which is ideal. For an increase/decrease of 1-2 you are usually able to use a template. But stacking templates is a pain, So this is an ideal range.

In addition to the monsters we have a long introduction. I'm pretty sure this is copy and pasted from another product as it contains information not relevant to the volume, such as quadded stat blocks for traps. One thing it does do is to talk about FlexAI which looks to be a cool nested table system for generating a monsters actions. Which could be useful as often I'm not quite sure how to play monsters in combat, and tables to help are a good thing. However this plus the copy pasted content runs for 31 pages which is a bit excessive for a monster book.

One thing the monsters don't have is a description of them. I don't mind that there is no art, but I want to know a little about the monster. I'm not sure what a Fellsig is, so whilst I could find out a short description of it would help immensely.

As a weird point - I'm confident that the OGL is incorrect. It does not reference the monsters that entered the OGL through The Tome of Horrors Complete (Pathfinder Version). This book is referenced by Paizo in a number of bestiaries, and when these monsters are used they absolutely need to be referenced seperately. I know one of these monsters is the Dust Digger, which is included but not referenced. Despite this Villain Codex is referenced but I don't think it is refered to in this volume.

It is little things like this and the backer name, and some sloppy editing (one of the monsters gets the full set of dwarf racial traits listed beneath it despite it not being relevant to the monster) makes me wonder how correct the monsters and their building were. It definately makes me consider buying the full set.

Which is a shame as it is labour of love. The idea to have a range of CRs for monsters is a good one. The idea to have the feat text listed with the monster is amazing. But I'm left wondering how much these monsters will map to their new CR, and if the published stat blocks will hold up as appropriate at the table.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Aquilae: Bestiary of the Realm: Volume 3 (Pathfinder)
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Tournaments of Madness and Death
Publisher: D101 Games
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/01/2020 03:25:27

You know this is probably a good idea if you are going to publish your own game. Do some convention scenarios. Hone those adventure scenarios then sell them. Capitalize on that shit. Get other people running them, and get more people playing the system. I mean if the adventures are good it'll work.

So these are Newt Newport's convention scenarios for the very excellent Crypts & Things. I have a 38 page saddle stapled A4 booklet. The cover art is nice. The inside art is black and white. The maps are very good. The rest of the art is okay. It's neither quite evocative enough, nor useful enough to show players. It certainly doesn't detract from the adventures, but neither is it good enough to get me amped to run the adventures. (That cover art tho!)

I want to start with the middle section - the part that talks about how to run a good convention game. Some of this is fething amazing stuff. Things like : schedule toilet breaks and TELL YOUR PLAYERS! And KEEP THE PACE UP! And (what should be obvious but probably isn't) BRING PREMADE CHARACTERS AND EXTRAS. I'm all for this. Especially for one shots. This is only four pages but its a really good section. THe first part of the advice is "Focus on what makes Crypts and Things What It Is" which is a great statement. However despite Newt going into four things that he thinks makes Crypts and Things different (and I mean as the author he should know!) he doesn't mention one of the things I'm a big fan of : a simple sanity based system. This point sort of links in with the adventures, none of them have enough potential for sanity loss that it becomes mechanically important. It's a minor point, but I would have preferred failure by insanity to be an actual possibility in these scenarios.

Both adventures are structured similarly. There is a hook, there is an urban environment to explore, then a short dungeon, then a boss fight with a twist. For a timed scenario this is the best you are going to get. It avoids the (far to common) trap of living group play - the travel montage of four short scenes. (Just the memory makes me rather slit my wrists). The hooks are good, solid, and on point. A hanging iron moon is collapsing, and foes are trying to wake up a confined evil emperor. The urban exploration for both is smashingly excellent. Almost every location has a hidden piece of information, that the GM is told only to reveal if the players are clever. These are never essential (yah to no gatekeeping!) but are almost always helpful (again big thumbs up to rewarding players) and will often only be gained by roleplaying (again, reward what you want players to do!).

Then short dungeons (about nine rooms) which in a timed environment is all you want. They're not linear (again fantastic!) and feature a good mix of combat, intriguing situations, and just cool stuff.

Lastly the boss fight, again these are not quite as straightforward as the intro would leave the characters to believe. Here players will be rewarded for actually finding out stuff during play.

They're not perfect. One of the adventures has a powerful wizard quest giver who effectively betrays the party. The adventure points out he doesn't need the party and instructs the GM to ignore this.

Despite this and the redundancy of the sanity system I think this is an excellent product. Whilst hard to integrate into a campaign they will stay on my shelf as 'bloody good one shots'. If convention GMing is your thing, check this out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Tournaments of Madness and Death
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Gruesome Foes
Publisher: Rogue Genius Games
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/01/2020 02:52:17

The Advanced Bestiary is one of those books that is known for 3.X versions of the world's most popular roleplaying games. It's a really good book as templates are awesome.

Why are templates awesome? Because at its heart (I believe) D&D really revolves around troupes. You need to know the genre and roll with the punches. If there is a thunderstorm and your carriage breaks down, and lightening illuminates a sign of 'Castle Inn 1 mile' you are absolutely going to be going there. There will be some form of horror monster. But finding out what is half the fun.

The problem is that the monster needs to be new. It needs to be different. There are only so many times you can face a vampire and be really surprised that your usual weapons aren't doing the damage they should.

This is where templates come in. You keep the core of the monster, the zombie still shambles. But it does different things in mechanics.

Gruesome foes understands this. It is 45 templates. Each one has a monster stat block of a monster that this template has been applied to. There are a number of things it does well:

Each template mixes it up with how the monster attacks/how the monster is challenging. We're not simply granting a +4 to STR. We have creatures that make another attacks when they threaten a critical, creatures that swallow you and then get bonuses depending on how much loot you were carrying, and 43 other cool effects. These effects will make players stop and thing.

Each template also has a weakness. This isn't just DR 5/Silver. For example Whispering creatures are shaken inside a silence spell. They're nice, their understandable, and they will enable savvy players to feel useful.

Tying into this is something I loved from Monster Manual V, there is listed information for a successful knowledge check. These tie in with the strengths and weaknesses.

The templates also support Mythic play, with a number of them (about 20%) incorporating mythic rules. These are as well done as the other templates.

The books has a number of appendix's. These are pretty standard. We have one for monster feats. Then the spells introduced. Then we have the standard bestiary ones, monster types, monster sub types, universal monster rules, list of template by CR increase. (Most are either +1 or +2, with the highest being +3). Then a list of the monster stat blocks by CR level, with their names and page number. We have our OGL, with an absolutely massive section 15. I'm sure there is a reason for it being so massive, mostly with Frog God Games monster from Tome of Horrors (2002), but a number of these monsters didn't appear in the actual book. We're also referencing Ultimate Equipment and Ultimate Campaign so virtual chocolate fish for the person who can tell me why.

The art is full colour, with each template getting its own piece of art. The art is good, but it's not my thing. It's black lines, with some shading in the (often very light) colors. I definitely prefer the more aggressively shaded and more photo realistic art you find in say 5e's Monster Manual.

The book came close to being a perfect 5, but fell short for a few reasons: The first is that there isn't herolab support for it. Which for templates can be a drag. Templates are awesome but applying them to monsters can be really unfun.

The second reason is that the book is only avaliable in pdf and softcover. If I'm going to use this book (and I will) I'm going to have it on the table open, and I'm going to want it to stay open as I reference it and another bestiary and my note book. I'll want to see the original monster, the template, and put the finished monster in my GM book of secrets. Softcovers don't stay open. I'm going to use another book (I play pathfinder I'll have heaps on hand) to wedge it open. This will (probably quickly) cause more damage to the book than I'd like. However I'm a hard man, I buy books to use to collect.

Another disclaimer - I was a kickstarter backer for this. I know I tend to be quite a happy kickstart recipient I maintain this is because I am a selective kickstarter and usually only back good stuff. But you are welcome to think it is because I have a sunk cost fallacy.

In summary this is a very good book of templates. The content is very good. If you are a pathfinder GM I do recommend it. I would recommend it over Advanced Bestiary if you were a pdf user.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Gruesome Foes
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King for a Day, Map Package
Publisher: post world games
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/29/2020 02:10:38

If you are going to run King for a Day (and you 100% should! It's amazing) you will want these maps. Just get them. They are clear, detailed, and make your life so much easier as a GM.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
King for a Day, Map Package
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Forest Kingdom Campaign Compendium
Publisher: Legendary Games
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/29/2020 02:08:33

Some good background information for a famous campaign. But the connecting adventures are actually really good. One is probably in my top 5 list of adventures I've run, and is definately one of the few I've run for 3 different groups.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Forest Kingdom Campaign Compendium
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The Genius Guide to the Talented Bestiary
Publisher: Rogue Genius Games
by J H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/29/2020 02:06:42

This 411 page hardcover is a Pathfinder Bestiary, of sorts. 98 pages are devoted to rules for the creation of monsters, and the remaining pages showcase monsters created with these rules.

Monster creation is a complicated part of Pathfinder. Different types of monsters progress at different rates. Certain monsters (looking at you Fey) need more Hit Dice to be an appropriate challenge rating, and this can often throw curveballs when creating monsters via the standard rules. Also once you pass CR2 its often as much effort to make a monster as a 5th level NPC. You can use Herolab, but there are frequently times (especially as a homebrew GM) that you know what sort of monster you want and why, but finding something the right level is difficult. In fact the book opens with that exact example, the GM wants to run players through a ruined factory at level 2 and encounter a golem. And well, there are no CR appropriate golem encounters at this level.

Pathfinder Unchained introduced quick monster creation rules with grafts. You take a monster type, apply a graft. The idea was refined in Starfinder and it has advantages. It is very quick. It is very good for creating mooks, it is less good for making solo encounters that are not just speed bump combats. Some of Pathfinder's features didn't work very well with the quick monsters. Especially unusual spells, for example [i]maze[/i] requires an Intelligence check, and these monsters don't have an INT score. It's less good for compelling or complex monsters. Which is where this book comes in.

The best part of this book is its system for monster creation. You chose a role for your monster out of Barbaric, Soldier, Skilled, or Spellcaster (this has two subtypes, Divine & Arcane). This is pretty straightforward. Barbaric are more of your solo damage dealers. Soldiers are more designed to take punishment. Skilled monsters have more feats and abilities.

Then you select the desired CR, which produces the monsters saves, AC bonus, BAB, and statistics. This also determines the number of feats and AP points to spend on the monster.

AP points are sort of universal abilities, and these take up 73 pages. Everything is governed by AP points. Want the monster to be an ooze? That'll be 2 AP points. Want it to have a burrow speed? 1 AP point. Want it to have a class feature? Well there are rules to grant that as well.

Once you've selected these abilities, selected the feats, you assemble the monster. There is some maths, for example you have to add it's strength bonus to it's BAB to generate it's to hit roll (unlike Pathfinder Unchained where the attack modifier was grabbed from the chart and you didn't really generate a statistic array for the creature).

There is more effort required in this manner. In some ways it is a tradeoff. 99% of the time you won't need to know a creatures STR score, so having to calculate it's To Hit bonus isn't a great use of prep time. However for larger fights players will smack your monsters around with STR penalties, so knowing it then is more useful.

The large amount of AP abilities here is high. There are some monster type specific ones (want cool dragon powers? We got cool dragon powers). There are enough that I think I'll always be able to make cool and novel monsters.

The rest of the book showcases monsters created via this method. Most of them are 'classic monsters' that have been changed. Dragoon Driders,Death Ettin, Forgemaster Fire Giants, Void Kraken. They are good showcases, showing how with an extra AP utility you can change a monster for your players. However I suspect the book will suffer from the issue of me forgetting to look here for monsters. If I want a Kyton I'll go to Bestiary 1 and am more likely to change things with templates/class levels rather than look in this book.

I've gotten to this point and I haven't mentioned the art. The book has a lot of full colour art. Every monster has an illustration. The sections on how to creature your own monster have some (also full colour illustrations). The style is consistent, but it is quite different to the usual fantasy art. It reminds me of the art in Tome of Horrors 4. Solid black lines, filled with lightly shaded colour. It's not bad, but it doesn't speak to me the same way the modern trend of fully shaded and highly textured rpg art does.

My only last comment is that the book is POD. The paper is nice and thick, giving a thick book. Given how much of a reference book this is going to be for me, I'm concerned that the binding may not hold up as well as I'd like. POD is fine, but this is going to be open on my table being used.

In conclusion this is an excellent monster book. If you want to creature your own monsters but want them to be more fleshed out than a graft method, but quicker than the 'standard' method this is an ideal way. My only wish is that the first 91 pages aren't avaliable in a nice a5 hardback (perhaps a4) for me to use as a quick reference book whilst doing prep.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Genius Guide to the Talented Bestiary
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King for a Day, Revised Edition
Publisher: post world games
by John W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/17/2015 01:01:24

This is an excellent product. This is a system neutral sandbox. It has several plots, a good cast of npcs, and a GREAT setting. Seriously the land of Brycshire is highly emotive and memorable.

This will form the basis for a memorable campaign.

On a plus the author is really awesome.

There are some negatives. The setting being so unique and remote it will be hard to weave other published tales into the campaign. Second whilst the npcs have their relationships described very few leap off the page and play themselves, you either need to plan them, or be very quick on your feet to play them. My last point is locating information in this book can be hard. There is no index and I've been grateful for the pdf a number of times.

It is still an awesome adventure much better than 99% of them out there.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
King for a Day, Revised Edition
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