DriveThruRPG.com
Recherche
$ à $















Retour
pixel_trans.gif
Autres commentaires laissés par cet éditeur:
Vous devez vous acheter ceci pour évaluer ceci.
pixel_trans.gif
Fey Folio: The Unseelie Court
par Dennis S. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 04/10/2011 18:16:02

This product is a Monster Manual style book that focuses fey creatures drawn from various legends, including Jack In Irons, Dullahans, Erlking, and other creatures you can actually input into a Wikipedia search and learn some interesting stuff about. The mechanics in the book offer solid baseline 4e entertainment, there's nothing in it that will cause one's eyes to burst with its inventiveness, but at the same time nothing broken or unreasonable. The iconic monster, Jack In Irons, is a campaign-ending Solo creature in the ranks of monsters like Orcus and Demogorgon. There are a variety of other creatures for multiple levels. I would put this book at around Monster Manual 2's level of quality, with a lot of useful monsters of which you can be sure none will be too tedious to use (unlike, say, Wraiths). The layout is serviceable and the artwork is pretty good. If you need more Fey monsters, you'd likely enjoy this book. You certainly will find it hard to beat the price tag. If it had been a bit bolder with its mechanics it would have earned a five star score, but in 4e it is perhaps better to keep the rules tried and true.



Classement:
[4 sur 5 étoiles!]
Fey Folio: The Unseelie Court
Cliquer ici pour afficher la description du produit

Ajouter à la Commande

pixel_trans.gif
Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting
par Dark M. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/30/2010 22:56:57

Cerulean Seas by Alluria Publishing

This product is 290 pages long. It starts with a cover, credits, and ToC. (4 pages)

Chapter 1 – Undersea Basics (22 pages) It starts with a IC introduction explaining what has happened and why 99% of the world is covered in water now. It moves onto a OOC explaining how and why the book was made, followed with advice on using it and common terms in the book. Next it gets into the environments of the sea. The different zones in the ocean, close to land, far from it. How deep one is from the surface, including how much light there is, the effects of the tides etc It gets very in depth and covers everything very well.

Next they get into buoyancy, it goes into great deal of the effects this has on characters and creatures under the sea. It also gets into drag effects of pulling a object or person along underwater. Followed by the effects of pressure has on living things. Next is current's riptides, and undertow, swimming speeds, terrain above water and at the bottom of the ocean. I don't know how realistic all of it is, but it is well written and seems like it would work very well and makes sense.

Next it gets into perils like poisons, diseases, blood in the water drawing sharks, water conditions like murk or whirlpools etc. It ends with a short section on undersea combat, with some differences. Like it being a 3D environment.

Chapter 2 – Undersea Races (20 pages) This chapter details the undersea races one can play in a undersea campaign. They are all done in enough depth and detail to easily pick one up and start playing with them, giving you everything you need just like the main races in Pathfinder core rule book. The are broken up be species type and then by individual race. It finishes with a whole host of half bread combinations. Since many of them are egg laying races it is far easy to get cross breeding as any male can fertilize the eggs. Anthromorphs -Karkanaks -Mogogols -Pisceans -Sebek-kas Feykith -Elves, Sea -Naiads, Viridian -Nixies, Deepwater -Selkies, Lochgelly Merfolk -Cindarians -Kai-lios -Nommos -Seafolk

Chapter 3 – Undersea Classes (34 pages) At first it talks about how you can adapt the existing Pathfinder classes to use in the game, including the APG classes. Some are pretty minor changes some are a bit more complex. It also introduces two more domains, undersea Flora and Steam domains. It also has a table of 27 deities, domains weapons etc, more details in chapter 7. The druid has 18 new animal companion options. There is several new Eidolon evolutions to choose from. Plus 12 more familiars for the witch and wizard.

Next it introduces three new classes. They replace the niche of some of the existing classes in new and interesting ways. There is nothing stopping you from using both classes in the same game though. Kahuna – replaces the Druid Mariner – replaces the ranger Siren – replaces the Bard

Next it gets into PrC's and which ones fit and what you need to change if anything and the ones that don't. It also includes three new PrC's as well. Beach Comber – They go up on some of the little land left and spend time there. Glimmerkeepers – Honestly to hard to explain but very cool. SeaWitch – a PrC for the new Siren class.

Chapter 4 – Aquatic Skills and Feats (14 pages) It starts off talking about all the skills that are different and how they are different. Next it moves onto existing feats that need to be tweaked and what they do now to fit. Next it introduces 45 new undersea flavored feats that all fit very well.

Chapter 5 – Money and Equipment (20 pages) First it gets into the new money system, since most metals tarnish or rust underwater it makes sense. They use small shells, gold, pearls and such. Now on the shells they really should have made it clear they had to have stamps to make them valuable or people could just go kill the creatures and take their shells for money.

It follows this with a section on weapons, armor and undersea gears. There is simply way to much to list or even high light. They did a good job with the gear for the most part. Other than a few minor issues like Spiked Chain which honestly just would not work underwater. It even has a section on sailing ships. There is several new weapons, armor and a couple of dozen new gear items, not to mention many of the old stuff tweaked to fit the setting.

Chapter 6 – Magic of the Sea (34 pages) It starts off talking about how spells will work differently underwater. It is followed by a table of aquatic material components in place of the existing ones. I thought that was very cool as some stuff just wouldn't exist underwater. Next it has a chart of spells and their new names, while not needed it was very cool and makes sense. I mean no one would call a fireball and fireball underwater, instead it is mageboil as it makes the water boil instead.

Next it details all the new spells and spells that have changed such as fireball to mageboil. I tried counting but I lost count. There is around a 120-130 spells, I am honestly unsure how many are new and how many are altered. At a glance I would say close to 50/50. It ends with 9 new magic items and a few new magic item properties.

Chapter 7 – The Cerulean Seas (25 pages) This section gets into the campaign setting, it has the gods, cities, etc, it is a campaign gazetteer for the default setting of the book.

Chapter 8 – Mastering the Sea (10 pages) This is the game master section of the book on how to run games underwater. It gets into greater detail of some of the previous stuff like buoyancy etc. About how to find depth tolerances for creatures, by what they are. The most interesting section is on 3D combat and how to make your own 3d combat mat to use with mini's if you like. It ends with a section on how the planes interact with the sea.

Chapter 9 – Cerulean Sea Bestiary (72 pages) This chapter is just a monster bestiary for the setting but also a great one for anyone that ever wants to run a undersea adventure. There is 95 new monsters including new sound based dragons which all looked different and where really interesting. Many had more than one stat block like the dragons. There was also 5 new templates.

Appendices (6 pages) There is a few Appendix in this section, monsters listed by CR, pronunciation guide, index of tables and index of art.

It ends with a OGL, 2 page character sheet, 4 cardboard mini's, hex sheets to make the 3D battle map with, a full page map, indepth index and back cover. (17 pages)

Closing thoughts. This is a very well written, very pretty book about undersea campaigns. The art work is mostly color and very good high quality art. The editing, layout and production values was top notch. Simply put if you ever wanted a book to help you run a undersea campaign THIS is the book to get. Even if you don't want to, this would be a great tool if you ever wanted to just run some adventures underwater.

Now the book is not perfect, there is a few minor issues where and there with it, like the spiked chain or the shells I mentioned. But most of them are pretty minor issues. My only real critic is honestly the price. I understand Alluria publishing is a small company and art is very expensive, after seeing the art in this book I am sure they spent a bundle on the art budget. But it is a bit high priced at 29.99 for a PDF. If that was the print price I would say fair price, for a PDF though? I felt a tad high. So whats my rating? Well just on the book it is easily a 5 star product, with the price I would say a 4.5 star. I know the price is a little high but I don't think you will be disappointed picking this up, if you find undersea adventures interesting at all.



Classement:
[5 sur 5 étoiles!]
Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting
Cliquer ici pour afficher la description du produit

Ajouter à la Commande

pixel_trans.gif
Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting
par joshua e. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 12/29/2010 10:37:58

Shane O'Connors excellent review pretty much covers all the bases. Except for one. Where are my octopus-people? Thankfully the Cecaelia from Fell Beasts Vol. 2 can easily be used to fill this gap. Otherwise, two thumb up for this awesome book!



Classement:
[5 sur 5 étoiles!]
pixel_trans.gif
Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting
par Shane O. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 12/27/2010 11:56:14

Underwater adventuring has always been, insofar as Pathfinder is concerned, one of those ideas that seem great in theory but difficult in practice. After all, taking your adventuring party underwater means that everyone’s aware that one good dispel magic will take away whatever spells or magic items they’re using to keep breathing. Add in penalties for how melee and ranged attacks work, changes to spellcasting, and even the continual Swim checks to keep moving, and it’s not only a headache for everyone involved, but quite likely a TPK waiting to happen. And don’t even get me started on the logistics of fighting across three dimensions of movement.

And so, underwater adventuring was quietly pushed off to the side. Just enough rules were provided to make it theoretically possible, without anyone worrying about how practical it actually was. Few adventures were published that dealt with characters going into the waves, and those that were kept it to the shallow end of the pool, with dry land always being close by. Finding new paths under the sea seemed like it’d always be resigned the realm of pipe-dreams and a few die-hards, never to be accessible to the mainstream Pathfinder gamers.

All of that changed when Alluria Publishing released Cerulean Seas, a massive campaign setting-slash-sourcebook that not only takes Pathfinder underwater, but actually makes such a game doable. Let’s take a look at what the book offers so that you’ll know this isn’t just a fish story I’m telling you.

As a PDF file, Cerulean Seas hits all of the high-water marks. It has full, nested bookmarks (an absolute necessity in a book that’s nearly 300 pages long), and allows for copy-and-pasting without problems. And of course, the artwork – oh wow, the artwork! Alluria has always had a reputation for their lavish illustrations, and they certainly live up to it here. An entire team of interior artists have lovingly portrayed myriad aspects of the book’s material, from new races and monsters to new equipment, to spell effects, to a map of the Cerulean Seas area, and so much more, (almost) all of it in lush full color. Alluria is perhaps the only company that can compete with Paizo on an even footing for how gorgeous their books look.

Of course, this (and the subtle but ornate page borders) means that this book is far from printer-friendly. At the time of this writing, a print version of the book is still in the works, but isn’t yet available. If you want a hardcopy of Cerulean Seas, you might be better to wait for that, as this PDF would likely send your printer to Davy Jones’ Locker.

The book’s opening chapter dives right in, opening with framing fiction that defines the game world. The Cerulean Seas campaign setting used to be a normal game world, but had a great flood that covered the world with ninety-nine percent water. There’s more to it than this, of course, including a recently-won genocidal war against the sahuagin, the role the gods played in the great flood, and more, but this is the main thrust of the story, and sets the stage for this water world.

The chapter takes us through some basic terms and definitions before we start to get into the specifics of living under the sea. It’s here that the book might start to scare away some of the more casual-type gamers, because this chapter pulls no punches in what it presents. We’re given an introduction to how things like buoyancy, hydraulic pressure, ambient sunlight, and more work underwater. The first chapter is basically a primer for things to be aware of regarding life underwater, and how these translate into game terms. This is especially true for underwater combat, which has its own section here.

I’ll take a moment to say that while this section can be off-putting for how dry (ironically) its listing of various undersea features can be, as well as how complicated the rules for buoyancy and the accompany combat changes are, it’s worth persevering through. The book deals with this more in the Game Mastering section, but these are the changes that really make an undersea game feel different; and as with all parts of a complex table-top game, they’ll become more familiar (to the point of being second-nature) over time.

The second chapter returns to more familiar territory where PF sourcebooks are concerned, presenting twelve new undersea races (though one or two, such as sea elves or the mogogols, may seem familiar). Cleverly, these are sub-divided into three groups: the anthromorphs (who have humanoid bodies), the feykith (fey-related sea-dwellers), and merfolk (who are humanoid from the waist up, and fish from the waist down). Interestingly, the human-equivalent race is presented as the “seafolk,” a merfolk race. They not only have the human’s “floating” +2 ability bonus that can be applied everywhere, but are the only race to have various cross-breeds listed, with alternate racial traits presented.

Each race received a generous focus, listing not only their statistics but also plenty of flavor text regarding their society, alignment, possible names, etc. However, ardent Pathfinder fans may be somewhat disappointed that the expanded racial options from the Advanced Player’s Guide aren’t reproduced here. That is, there are no alternate racial features available (seafolk crossbreeds notwithstanding) nor are there alternate favored class options.

I’m of two minds about this, as it seems somewhat unfair that these have suddenly been assumed to be default necessities for third-party contributions to the Pathfinder RPG. At the same time, those bring a hefty level of customization to the table that are very helpful in making your character’s race be of greater importance. That said, twelve colorful new races here certainly make that notable in and of themselves. It’s also worth noting that the book doesn’t forget to bring us the various vital statistics for these races (one of those little things that are nevertheless important).

Subsequent to the races chapter is the chapter on classes, and it’s here where things get truly interesting. The book makes some generalized notes about changes to existing classes before dealing with how to alter each base class specifically for an undersea game. This part of the book does deal with the APG classes, so you alchemists and oracles and such can all breathe a sigh a relief.

The changes made in this regard are absolutes, rather than the optional class archetypes presented in the APG. Interestingly, a few classes are recommended to be discarded entirely in favor of three new base classes presented here. Bards are passed over in favor of sirens, druids are replaced with kahunas, and rangers are given the boot in favor of mariners.

These new classes do a great job presenting their own twist on the niche that their replaced classes fill. The Kahuna, for example, is a full-progression divine spellcaster, but selects a single animal spirit that, as she gains levels, is able to utilize greater and greater spirit powers to bolster herself and her allies (or alternately harm her enemies).

This chapter also deals with prestige classes, listing which ones from the Core Rulebook and APG are useable without any changes, which need some changes, and which aren’t available at all. There are also three new prestige classes presented here, the each comber (those who venture into the wilds of the remaining dry land), glimmerkeeper (fast-moving undersea hero), and sea witch (an aquatic necromancer).

Skills and feats are the subject of the fourth chapter. As with many things, the skills section offers a series of new interpretations of existing skills, though there are no new skills added (something I was grateful for, as adding new skills often feels contrived). The feats section got a similar examination for several existing feats, but here we’re given almost four-dozen new underwater feats as well.

The chapter on money and equipment was interesting for how much stayed the same, though quite a bit changed in appearance. Most precious metals have been replaced by things like shells or pearls, though the measurements of currency are largely the same. New equipment helps there be a greater selection of viable weapons and armor underwater, not to mention various items that are unique to undersea adventuring, such as holy sand to replace holy water. Oddly, ships are presented here also, reinforcing that some aquatic races still spend a lot of their time above the waves.

The magic chapter presents some very imaginative alterations to not only existing spells, but also existing material components and foci before it moves into new spells and magic items. Some of what’s here deals with the change from fire damage to boiling-water damage, while others present alternate ways of harnessing electrical spells, or various utility spells such as defeating undersea pressure, or even breathing air for characters who want to go top-side.

It’s at the seventh chapter of the book that we take a look at the Cerulean Seas campaign world. This chapter takes a surprisingly light tone with the campaign, presenting many different facets of it but not going too deep with any of them, letting you fill in a lot of the blanks to make the game world your own. It does cover the recent histories and major NPCs of all of the major races, presents a number of major cities, a brief overview of the spoken languages, and an overview of the world’s recent history. My favorite, however, was the presentation of the Cerulean Seas religions. The undersea races uniformly decided to prevent religious strife by allowing only nine deities to be worshipped, one for each alignment. However, in order to sweep everyone under this umbrella, there are various “cults” that worship different aspects of these deities (each deity has two cults presented, with their own alignments, domains, etc.). These cults may only operate with the blessing of the parent faith, and it was engrossing to read about how various races merged their native religions with that of a more dominant faith, often resulting in the major god literally consuming the smaller one as a consequence.

I don’t mind saying that chapter eight, the Game Mastering Chapter, was perhaps the most friendly and helpful such section I’ve ever read. It speaks frankly, and almost familiarly, about the problems with running an undersea game, and what to do about them. Remember those scary new rules from chapter one? It goes over what the most important are to get down pat and how to ease into them. We get general guidelines on converting other materials for an undersea game, whether in terms of buoyancy or pressure tolerance. But my favorite section here was the unabashed look at the problem of 3D combat.

The book outlines roughly a half-dozen options for what to do about this issue, ranging from buying commercial elevation trackers to ordering a pizza and using those little plastic things that keep the cheese off of the box to elevate your minis. But by far the most favored option it presents is the one where it walks you, step by step, through creating your own adjustable boards for elevation. These are basically a few square inches of hard foam boarding that are moved up and down a standing rod; add a half-dozen of them to your game table and you can easily simulate characters moving across every dimension. It’s a fun little project, and works great for any tabletop game that needs a 3D combat solution.

There’s also a fascinating section on the planar arrangement (or perhaps just the widespread belief in the arrangement) of this campaign world. After all, an undersea culture hardly believes in a plane of fire, especially one that stands equal to the plane of water! Likewise, the oceans of the outer planes are considered much more prominent than the dry areas of such realms.

The final full chapter of the book presents almost a hundred new monsters to help populate your undersea game. From aquatic familiars to a large selection of new giants and true dragons (which are given their own grouping, rather than being chromatic or metallic), there’s plenty here to round out an underwater bestiary. New selections of simple templates and guidelines on how the major creature types work underwater provide further options and guidelines.

The book closes out with a number of helpful aids, such as a consolidated list of undersea monsters from this book, the Pathfinder Bestiary, and Alluria’s other Pathfinder books. Add in a pronunciation guide, cardstock minis, a character sheet, and more, and there’s everything you’ll need to get started on your Cerulean Seas game right away.

And if you’re not already excited about using this book to run an underwater game after reading this review, then trust me: it’s more due to my descriptions lacking enough fidelity to the book’s accomplishments than anything else. Cerulean Seas not only looks at every aspect of running a game in an underwater world – from what it means to be submerged to the logistics of it at the game table – but presents holistic options and alterations for setting a Pathfinder game there. The new material is expansive and the campaign setting covers a wide range of topics while still leaving room for customization. And of course, the artwork is beautiful and prominent. This is easily one of the best Pathfinder books to come out of the third-party market, and the absolute best for the topic it covers.

Don’t be afraid to make your game better by taking it down where it’s wetter. Bring your characters to the Cerulean Seas; it’ll make a big splash amongst your gaming group.



Classement:
[5 sur 5 étoiles!]
pixel_trans.gif
Three Dimensional Combat Solutions
par Christopher H. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 12/25/2010 19:46:11

If you're looking for a straightforward and workable method for adding a third dimension to your gaming table for purposes of staging underwater or (with modifications) aerial combat, you'll find it in this product. Be aware that you'll need to purchase some additional materials and to apply some basic woodworking skills in order to use the solution presented here. Had I not already purchased a manufactured acrylic product to accomplish the same thing, I would definitely give this method a try. (I do wish Alluria would give more attention to proofreading, though; the first page holds at least half a dozen grammatical, usage, or spelling errors.)



Classement:
[4 sur 5 étoiles!]
Three Dimensional Combat Solutions
Cliquer ici pour afficher la description du produit

Ajouter à la Commande

pixel_trans.gif
Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey
par Shane O. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 08/23/2010 16:16:30

If there was a single word that I’d use to sum up the fey (in the context of a Pathfinder game, at least) it’d be “lame.” Other contenders for the top spot are “suckitude” “craptastic” and “eye-rollingly-boring.” After all, how many cool fey can you really think of? Sure, nymphs and dryads are nice eye-candy, but there aren’t any fey who could honestly be called badass; that distinction goes to the demons, the dragons, the undead, and pretty much every other monster type that isn’t fey.

It’s that perception that Allura Publishing apparently set out to combat with their second monster book – Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey. And if its use of the word twice in the title didn’t clue you in, this book is about fey monsters.

A twenty-seven page PDF, the book’s technical presentation lives up to the high standards that Alluria has set for itself. Full nested bookmarks are included, and everything is easily copied-and-pasted. The book has a table of monsters by Challenge Rating, and continues its use of their own set of symbols to indicate type, terrain, and environment.

Of course, I have to mention the artwork. Alluria’s emphasis on gorgeous interior illustrations is second-to-none among the third-party companies, and this book carries on that tradition. Even beyond the evocative cover, each monster has a full-color illustration from the inimitable Vasilis Zikos, which should tell you just how superb the art here is. Each page is also set on a slightly off-white background, which darkens to a parchment-color at the edges, making it look like the PDF is written on an old book. It’s a great way to color the background without drawing attention to it.

But enough with the technical commentary, what are the book’s monsters like? Well, of the thirteen monsters here, these aren’t your typical fey – or rather, they are. A significant number of these fey (maybe all of them, since I didn’t research the mythology) are taken from actual myths and legends – the dullahan, the erlking, the sylph, etc. Of course, the book doesn’t seem to feel constrained by these restrictions, as it paints a fairly interconnected backstory between various fey. For example, several fey are related through being former servants of the book’s big bad evil guy, the Jack-in-Irons. It’s an effective way to make these creatures seem like members of a society, instead of a group of individual monsters.

It should be noted that almost all of the fey here are meant for lower-level play. The book has a table breaking down the monsters herein by CR, and very few hit the double-digits.

Following this is a helpful, albeit brief, guide of things to keep in mind that make fey distinctive from other monsters. After that, a campaign overview is given, separated into three sections (low-level, mid-level, and high level) regarding the fey trying to free Jack-in-Irons while the PCs attempt to prevent it. A single page of new magic items rounds out the book.

Overall, I found myself surprised with just how good of a job this book did of making the fey seem not just interesting, but rather kickass. Both in terms of presentation and mechanics, most of these creatures seemed like a legitimate threat to any party that encounters them; even the ones that aren’t threatening seem that way by design, rather than a failure on Alluria’s part. I actually could see using these fey in my Pathfinder game, as challenging antagonists no less – that’s the highest compliment that I can give the Fey Folio: it makes the fey frightening again.



Classement:
[5 sur 5 étoiles!]
Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey
Cliquer ici pour afficher la description du produit

Ajouter à la Commande

pixel_trans.gif
Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey
par Peter I. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 08/15/2010 13:11:40

I've never been a large fan of fey creatures, largely because the treatment they get in the core fantasy books is often weak and without that specialness that attracts or appeals to many GMs. As a result, many publishers have brought out various books on the fey in an attempt to do them justice, and I have to say that Alluria Publishing's Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey is hands down the best treatment for fey I've yet seen on the market. This product shines - it's got fantastic production values, with mind-blowing art, and vivid and descriptive writing that leaps out of the page. But that's not all - the creativeness behind the design and implementation of the mechanics, and the unique and novel background material are top quality. I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book - if you're looking for a book on fey creatures you can look no further than this product.

The product details 13 different kinds of fey, and gives them the royal treatment by allocating enough page space and descriptive/background material to make each creature unique. I was very impressed by the ingenuity and handling of the fey - as twisted and dark creatures that aren't entirely evil. The fey creatures just leap out of the page and scream to be used. The interaction and hierarchy between the fey creatures creates a novel and interesting culture of fey creatures, complete with the dark and malevolent lord of the Fey, Jack-In-Irons. The product even includes an interesting campaign that builds on the material presented, and one that I suspect many GMs will itch to run as is, or with some minor modification. I thought the special abilities and attacks that the fey creatures had were fabulous, really integrating neatly and elegantly with the fey creature's personality and background. On top of that, the product also includes a handful of fey related magical items. Overall, it's hard to beat a product like this - excellent all round.



Classement:
[5 sur 5 étoiles!]
pixel_trans.gif
Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey
par Dark M. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 07/26/2010 15:20:41

Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey Realm by Alluria Publishing.

This product is 27 pages long. Cover, credits and introduction takes up the first 5 pages.

Monsters section. (17 pages) All have at least one full page devoted to them, a few have more. Each also has artwork. Dullahan and horse – A headless, whip wielding dark fey. Stats for them, a Dark Mare mount, plus a variation Dullahan Deathknight.

Erkling – evil shadow fey that kindnap bad children. Which is how they make more of themselves. Very creepy and cool monster.

Fachen – A interesting violent fey, with a second set of stats for a sorcerer version.

Jack in Irons – supposedly the first fey and king of the fey.

Kapre – medium sized tree race of fey a little like treants.

Nightshade Wisp – elf like plant race that punishes those that defile the fey realm.

Rarog – fire elemental fey that are not native to the fey realm.

Sidhe – Two kinds lean and bean fey, Both female fey. Both feast on energy, the lean feast on creative energy while the bean on misery. Both act as muses so they can feast.

Spriggan – small savage evil fey, with stats for their use as a PC race.

Spring-Heel Jack – fey that prefer to live in mortal cities. Embodiments of mortal wanton appetites.

Sylph – related to pixies, sprites and brownies. They often like to play tricks and pranks.

Vodnik – evil aquatic fey that may or may not be related to gnomes. Half troll template as they breed with trolls sometimes.

Yallery – small lazy fey that prefer living in cities, terrified of dwarves. They seek to inspire lethargy in others.

GM's section. (2 pages) With advice on how to play fey and some encounter idea's by level for fey.

Magic Item section (1 page) In this section there is 5 new magic items. Boots of Blazing Dervish – can make a wall of fire in a interesting way. Dullahan Hide Armor – deals with fear, both protecting and causing it. Sidhe Locket – social skill bonuses and lets the owner break out of enchantments. Sprigganblood Crudgel – magic club that can at times be a reach weapon Sylph's Sword – can cause sleep effect.

It finishes with a OGL and back cover. (2 pages)

Closing thoughts. The art work runs from good to top notch in this product. The monsters are interesting. If you are a fan of the dark fey and things like Grimms tales, this product will help bring that feel to your game. If you are looking for that or just some new interesting monsters then I highly recommend this product. The CR ranges from 1/3 to 21, with all but three of them being between 2-10 CR. Only one at 13 CR and one at 21 CR. I would like to see a follow up to this product, perhaps a part 2 with more fey and/or a fluff heavy book about the fey realm and more fluff about the creatures.

I did notice one thing odd that I am not sure if it was done on purpose or not. In the Vodnick section there is looks like there is drops or circles where the text is just a bit blurry, not enough where it is still not easy to read but enough to be very noticable. I am not sure if that is suppose to be drops of water on the page as they are aquatic fey or not. That appears to be the case and I think it was done on purpose but I am honestly not sure.

So whats my rating? Well I couldn't really find anything wrong, but to be fair I am not a huge number cruncher when it comes to stat blocks. As long as it looks like it will play well I am content. But I didn't notice any stat block errors either. My only real complaint is I wish they had had about half a page or more of fluff for each monster, I think that would have turned this from a great product to a fantastic one. So with the top notch art and interesting fey monsters and no real errors to speak of. I am giving it a 4.5 star review.



Classement:
[5 sur 5 étoiles!]
pixel_trans.gif
Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey
par Nathan C. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 07/21/2010 14:13:38

My wife was the person who turned me on to how cool fey can be. Before I assumed fey were dainty little creatures that danced and frolicked and through occasional bacchanals. I discovered that a good many are borderline psychotic creatures that should always rival the most devious in the D&D universe.

Alluria Publishing's Clans of the Fey, originally released as a 4th edition supplement, makes its way pathfinder. It is just as amazing, creative and vicious a bestiary as its counterpart. If you like fey or just want a different kind of creature, to mix it up with your PCs, the Fey Folio is hands down the best bestiary out there for the Pathfinder system.

The artwork, ingenuity and writing in the 27 page Fey Folio is top notch. So much so you would assume that Alluria was a big time publisher. Each of the 13 creatures given two to three pages to absolutely shine. I have seen a many fey renditions of creatures, none more explosive as the ones here. The artwork jumps off the pages, escapes the pages and smacks you into appreciation.

The writing is concise and descriptive. It gives a lot of credit to the fables and folklore these creatures are based on. The abilities really play off of the unpredictability that fey are known for.

For the Dungeon Master My new favorite fey is the Jack-in-Irons. I once saw a rendition of it in another book, and it just felt like a giant with the fey descriptor. Fey Folio turns him into a god and a great antagonist for a campaign.

The Iron Word If fey are going to make any appearance in your campaign, Fey Folio, Clans of the Fey is a great supplement to help fill in the gaps. More than just creature of the weeks, they can be used to really push a campaign world.



Classement:
[5 sur 5 étoiles!]
pixel_trans.gif
Creepy Creatures: Bestiary of the Bizarre
par Sean H. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 07/17/2010 14:35:09

Creepy Creatures: Bestiary of the Bizarre is a 115-page PDF (111-pages if you remove the covers, front paper and OGL page) for the Pathfinder RPG written by Sam G. Hing and published by Allura Publishing.

The layout is a traditional book design, primarily two-column and easy enough to read. The monsters follow standard Pathfinder templates. The art is full color throughout with each creature having its own illustration, with each artist credited on the page (which is appreciated) additionally each creature gets a set of glyphs which label it by type, terrain and climate.

Creepy Creatures begins with a brief overview about how the monsters are marked with glyphs for quick sorting of their role. The Challenge Ratings of the monster range from 1/3 to 20 (with the CR of 16-19 not represented) and the appendices in the back nicely divide the monsters by CR, role, type and terrain.

Each monster gets a page, except for the two dragons who each gets two pages, and its own full color illustration which are average to excellent in quality. But for many of the creatures, it just seems that they could use a bit more information to make them really come alive.

There is a good variety of monsters here, fairly light on the outsiders, which is all for the good. Several of the monsters are chimeric beasts (such as the hawkape and frogodile) and crazy animal variants (carnivorous elk!) which I actually approve of as they harken back to both old school designs and just general bizarreness. As is usual for such works there are several undead, which are always difficult as so many have already been done but some of the ones here are quite clever and adventure ideas immediately came to mind reading them.

My only complaint is to fully use one of creature templates, Gixubus, you need the Remarkable Races collection for the base creature (the Anumus) to use beyond the example creature. A few other monster reference races from the Remarkable Races collection but are not as closely tied to them.

Overall, if you like bizarre and unusual creatures (they are quite correct in their subtitle) for your Pathfinder campaign, this book should be quite inspirational.

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.



Classement:
[4 sur 5 étoiles!]
Creepy Creatures: Bestiary of the Bizarre
Cliquer ici pour afficher la description du produit

Ajouter à la Commande

pixel_trans.gif
Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey
par Ben G. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 07/13/2010 09:59:47

I have an abiding love for the world of the Fey. It's clear that Alluria Publishing share this love with me. They've spent a lot of effort to make a fantastic product.

Let's start with the content because, when it comes down to gaming, that's the most important part. The 13 Fey creatures presented here are well thought out, balanced and span a range from CR 1/3 to CR 21. They're well balanced and can offer a lot to a campaign, not just as threats but as creatures a party can interact with.

In addition to the Fey themselves, there are a number of interesting magic items that can fall into the hands of the party. Again, a balance is very well struck between interesting, functional and fun.

If that weren't enough to recommend this, let's move on to the layout. This 27 page document is absolutely beautiful. The layout is stunning, the artwork is professional quality and the document itself is done in a wonderful style.

Do I have any beefs at all? Surely this can't be a quintessential Pathfinder supplement? I did find one thing I did not enjoy, but it's a personal opinion of mine and shouldn't detract from the product as a whole. The font used to illustrate a creature name is damned hard to read. You can find the name in a variety of places though, including the actual stat block and this shouldn't deter anyone from purchasing and using the Clans of the Fey.



Classement:
[5 sur 5 étoiles!]
Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey
Cliquer ici pour afficher la description du produit

Ajouter à la Commande

pixel_trans.gif
Creepy Creatures: Bestiary of the Bizarre
par Dark M. [Acheteur vérifié] Date Ajoutée: 07/10/2010 02:28:52

This product is 115 pages long. The beginning has cover, credits, splash page etc(5 pages). Next it gets to the introduction, which is a intro by the author and explains the symbols used. This is 1 page. The bulk of the book is taken up with the monsters. There is 100 new monsters in the book(107 pages).

I wanted to list all the monsters names but the ToC is inside of a table and I was unable to copy it with out copying the table sadly. So no list. I will try and get a list from the publisher to add to this review. There is a nice mix of CR's in the product.

Then final two pages is taken up with OGL and back cover.

Closing thoughts. First off I am not a huge monster book fan, I am not one of those that buy all the monster books. They tend to need to be very interesting and or different to get my interest. This book accomplished this. While not all the monsters are creepy or horrific most of them are. Many are very well done and should freak out players as well as their characters. The art work is meh to good. I didn't notice any major errors in stat blocks, but take that with a grain of salt. I am not the best with stat blocks. So my rating is 3.5 stars. It is good but not great. Many of the monsters are very cool and fit the product description very well but not all of them do. I know art work cost a lot which drives the price up. But I felt the price is a little high, which is what dropped my rating from a 4 to a 3.5. If the price doesn't bother you for a monster book then I recommend it, if you like or want more creepy or horrific style monsters I also recommend it. I look forward to seeing what this company does next.



Classement:
[4 sur 5 étoiles!]
Creepy Creatures: Bestiary of the Bizarre
Cliquer ici pour afficher la description du produit

Ajouter à la Commande

pixel_trans.gif
Creepy Creatures: Bestiary of the Bizarre
par Shane O. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 07/06/2010 14:34:32

We take it for granted that most monsters in our Pathfinder game will be somewhat intimidating. All too often, however, this is a high as the fear factor gets for a creature. A great red wyrm makes players nervous for the amount of damage it can do to their characters, but nobody looks at the picture and feels a shudder go down their spine, or fights one and then says later “man that dragon was creepy!” In other words, most creatures are intimidating, but not frightening.

That’s something Alluria Publishing aims to rectify with their new Pathfinder monster book, Creepy Creatures: Bestiary of the Bizarre. So let’s take a look at this folio of fright and see what terrors lurk therein.

The book is 115 pages long, containing an impressive one hundred monsters exactly. Bookmarks are present (having been quickly added after the initial release lacked them), and do an excellent job of linking to various sections as well as each individual monster. Every creature has full color artwork, which is absolutely essential for a monster book, and Alluria did a great job finding talented artists to depict their menacing menagerie. Further, all of the pages are set on a slightly off-white background that turns more tanned towards the edges of the page, like parchment. There’s an alternating border in the lower corner that contains the page numbers as well. Unfortunately, no printer-friendly version is to be found here, but that’s a relatively small oversight, all things considered.

Now, what about the monsters themselves? Of course, it’s beyond the scope of this review to cover all of them in detail, but I’ll try to give some concrete overviews.

The monsters range from CRs 1-20, with the majority being in the upper single-digits. As mentioned previously, there are one hundred such monsters here, and the majority concentrate on being fairly gruesome, freakish, or downright creepy creatures. For example, centipede folk are giant centipedes with a human face on the underside of their insectine head. The giant virus is exactly what it sounds like, a germ raised to macroscopic levels, which makes it more alien than most aberrations, as well as a potent spreader of disease. And the eye parasite is like a tiny beholder, save that it’ll dissolve your eyes, lair inside your head, and interchange which of its two tinier eyeballs rest in your sockets while it controls your body’s movements…all while you’re still alive.

Needless to say, a lot of these creatures will (presuming the unspoken but still acknowledged effort on the part of the GM) likely freak your players out pretty well. There are some nasty freaks in here.

Of course, that’s not to say the entire book was a homerun either. There were several monsters that really felt like one-trick ponies to me. The hammertrunk elephant uses its trunk as a bludgeoning tool. Okay, I can live with that. Two variant kinds of gryphons, each one of which changes up what sort of cat and bird make up its component parts? I like the visual, but there’s really nothing that makes them different from a standard gryphon with different flavor text. Monsters like these didn’t seem to pull their metaphorical weight.

I can live with a few duds though, especially since most of the creatures are at least adequate, and usually better than adequate, in their presentation. What I didn’t care for was that I kept finding small errors cropping up. The bone druid, for example, has its spell levels listed from least to greatest, instead of greatest to least. The suncat has the Angel subtype, but none of the mechanical benefits that subtype grants. It’s little things like that that dimmed the book’s luster for me, especially since they could have been easily caught and corrected if the editor had gone back a few more times with a critical eye. Here’s hoping the book will get an errata-based update soon.

The book has a few appendices after all of the monsters have been presented, as well. It briefly summarizes the Remarkable Races that were the subject of Alluria Publishing’s previous works, since several of those get referenced in various monster write-ups. There’s also a set of tables indexing the monsters by CR, type, role, environment, etc. Unfortunately, while I was hoping for some information about what creatures would make good familiars, special mounts, or animal companions for PCs, such information was nowhere to be found (though a few creatures do discuss training them using Handle Animal).

In closing, let me say that if my notations on where the book could have done better are making you hesitate to buy this volume, then I’m doing you a disservice. This bestiary hits far more than it misses, and vast majority of the creatures are inspiring for how they can be used to vex your players. If you want to inject some unsettling species into your Pathfinder game, I heartily recommend giving Creepy Creatures a chance. You won’t regret it, though your players most certainly will.



Classement:
[4 sur 5 étoiles!]
pixel_trans.gif
Creepy Creatures: Bestiary of the Bizarre
par Erathoniel W. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 06/30/2010 16:06:01

This is a pretty good product, loaded with content and more.

However, maybe this is just the incredibly jaded part of me, but most of these creatures didn't seem that creepy. Only a few were truly scary, and none caused me to jump in my seat.

That said, good monsters, and if played right by a GM, they could be perfect.



Classement:
[4 sur 5 étoiles!]
pixel_trans.gif
Creepy Creatures: Bestiary of the Bizarre
par Ben G. [Testeur star] Date Ajoutée: 06/30/2010 14:04:08

Creepy Creatures contains 100 new monsters available for your Pathfinder game. The book is good, and will make a great addition to any pathfinder campaign where the GM chooses to use some odd creatures.

Some of the creatures have a bit of what I like to call a "cheese factor". They're less creepy and more like a low budget horror movie. But these aren't terribly bad creatures mechanically and I suppose it's a matter of taste. This book also features a Dire Skunk, which I've personally been hoping to see for some time. Now that's a monster.

It's clear that some decent work went in to the mechanics and creation of these beasties. Same goes for the artwork which varies in quality from decent to great.

At the current price of $17 it is a bit on the pricey side so consider if you're really willing to part with almost $20 for 100 new creatures. If your answer is yes, you won't be disappointed. If not, you can live without this expansion.



Classement:
[4 sur 5 étoiles!]
pixel_trans.gif
Affichage 31 de 45 (sur 73 critiques) Pages de Résultats: [<< Prec]   1  2  3  4  5  [Prochain >>] 
pixel_trans.gif
0 article
 Derniers Produits
 Cartes cadeau