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| Reviews and Comments From Our Featured Reviewers |
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As well as encouraging customers to leave comments for products they've bought,
we have a number of featured reviewers tasked to give more detailed
opinions. Click their names to see lists of their
reviews.
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| Shane O'Connor | 336 reviews averaging a rating of 4.1 |
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I missed the boat on the First Edition of the world’s most popular fantasy role-playing game, having gotten into it a few years into Second Edition. As such, I never quite got what the thief-acrobat was all about, save for a vague idea that it was a more acrobatic version of the normal thief. Now I play Pathfinder, where the thief is called the rogue, Acrobatics is a skill, and LPJ Design has just released Lost Classes of Fantasy: Thief Acrobat in what I assume is a thematic (rather than literal) update for the old 1E class. So, let’s look under the hood.
The PDF is nine pages long, counting six for the class itself, one for the OGL, and two for a character sheet that’s included also. Save for the graphic on the first page, there’s no art here (notwithstanding the company logo on the character sheet), though there are grey borders along the top and bottom of each page; hence, printing this won’t be a problem. I’m always a fan of bookmarks, and initially was pleasantly surprised to s...
Rating:  [3 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Darren MacLennan | 4 reviews averaging a rating of 2.8 |
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Large Man with Dead Body: Who's that then?
The Dead Collector: I dunno, must be a king.
Large Man with Dead Body: Why?
The Dead Collector: He hasn't got shit all over him.
-"Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
And while the joke had been made before, that's Warhammer Fantasy in a nutshell; a world in which shit not only exists, but in which player characters can actually take up a career in its collection. (No lie. You can now, as of Forges of Nuln, start your adventuring career off as a Dung Collector.)
The Career Compendium is a compilation of every career created for the second edition of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play - it's a player resource, so that you can browse through and pick up whichever career strikes your fancy - everything from the low trades that you would never see in Dungeons & Dragons (Dung Collector, Lamplighter, Mate, Sheperd, Man Covered In Shit) to realistic professions of the Middle Ages (Barber-Surgeon, Noble, Minstrel, Noble With Shit On Him) t...
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Sean Holland | 176 reviews averaging a rating of 3.6 |
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![[PFRPG] The Harrowed](images/97/65782.jpg "[PFRPG] The Harrowed") |
The Genius Guide to: the Harrowed is a 3-page PDF (2 pages if you remove the credits/OGL page) for the Pathfinder RPG written by R. Hyrum Savage and published by Super Genius Game. This is the first of Super Genius Games’ Genius Guide line.
The layout is a screen-friendly landscape design, with cover art and 1-column on the first page and three columns on the second. A few minor glitches on the formatting of the template but everything is readable. The only art is the cover piece which is nice and creepy as befits the subject.
The Harrowed are mortals sundered from the web of life by a foul magical spell (called, unsurprisingly, Harrow, a 6th level wizard spell) which is used by a powerful group of wizards to instill fear and obedience. The spell is, of course, included.
The Harrowed are represented by a template which reflects their forced removal from the pattern of life. They become feral, destructive, animalistic. They might even be mistaken for undead, which could cause g...
Rating: [3 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Andrew Branstad | 84 reviews averaging a rating of 3.8 |
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With this product, EN Publishing kicks off a grand adventure path: twelve modules designed to carry a party of first level heroes into the heart of an escalating war between powerful nations. When the dust settles, the PCs will have reached 20th level and become instrumental in the outcome of a dangerous conflict.
Like all great adventures, this one begins in a tavern. The PCs are charged with a simple task: escort a cleric out of harm's way while an invading army of mage-hunting inquisitors lays siege to the city. Things, of course, get more complicated once the action gets going. By the time the adventure concludes, the seeds have been sown for the greater campaign to come, hinting at the intrigue and danger building in the background.
Throughout most of the adventure, the PCs are in a city that is under attack by an invading army. The adventure includes plenty of tools to help the DM make this fact very clear to the players. In some cases, the war adds an additional level of d...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Megan Robertson | 376 reviews averaging a rating of 4.2 |
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Written by the author of the Mythweaver RPG, this is a nicely-presented collection of ideas for and additions to the game. It starts with a discussion of the concept of 'role' as it has been presented in Dungeons & Dragons 4e, showing how careful selection of characters to build a coherent party can be of benefit even without the rigidity imposed by the D&D 4e roles. Sensible stuff, marred only by use of that nasty American slang term 'buff' to mean enhance - rendering at least one point unintelligible if you do not happen to know of that usage.
Next come a couple of useful additions in the shape of a collection of spirits for those who fancy supernatural opposition and a piece on heroic mounts, enhancing and expanding on the core rules about riding animals. Then there is an article on 'Bounties and Missions' inspired by online computer games in which a character can undertake solo tasks to increase his wealth or skill points. As well as the obvious benefits to the character, and th...
Rating:  [4 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Joe Kushner | 13 reviews averaging a rating of 4.2 |
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To my perception, one of the biggest hits among Game Masters, is a big old book of monsters. When Chaosium had opportunity under the OGL and their deal with Wizards of the Coast, who produced a full color Call of Cthulhu d20 hardcover, to make a Monster Mallus for 3.0/3.5 and didn’t take it, I thought it a massive lost opportunity. Game Masters of the Dungeons and Dragons game want to bring in elements of the Cthulhu mythos. Paizo and Green Ronin, along with others, have been tweaking the material that’s open for years. This doesn’t count the various homage such as WoTC’s own Far Realm and various critters from the beginning like Mind Flayers.
For me personally, this is a great product in that I’ve been waiting for more material in this vein for a long time. While the old 3.0 hardcover from WoTC was nice, it’s great to have this material in 4th ed. Between the original Deities and Demigods, which was essentially useable with 1st and 2nd edition, this means we’ve got eldritch goodne...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Jason Corley | 97 reviews averaging a rating of 4 |
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Full disclosure: I am friends with Jess Hartley, the author of this supplement.
This is the first Instant Antagonist supplement from Flames Rising Press. It is intended to be used in any modern supernatural/horror game.
There's a brief introduction to what the IA line is about, then a one and a half page story about (one version of?) the succubus.
The next few pages are a physical and social description of the succubus and how she interacts with typical situations. There's an interesting but short summary of her "mind, body and spirit" which is meant to be used to translate her into the systems of your chosen game.
The supplement concludes with three possible origins for the succubus as well as several story hooks.
The strength of the supplement is the detailed examination of how the character interacts with people and situations. However, the main weakness of the supplement is that there isn't enough of this examination.
For example, the character's behavior at part...
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Jeff Greiner | 4 reviews averaging a rating of 4 |
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This book is an interesting concept. It may not be for everyone, but if you want to take all of your books, pdfs, options, settings, and crazy ideas and make them all possible this setting is all about making that happen. If you are a DM who wants to tell your players "yes" when they have a crazy idea that they're excited about this is a setting to consider. It's all about allowing for these things without breaking the setting.
That said, you don't get a setting with a clear direction, focus, and theme like you do with more detailed, and thus more directed settings. But for the low price offered and 23 pages of mostly fluff you do get a lot of inspiration.
The only real crunchy mechanics to the whole product is a group of time-based monsters at the end.
All in all, this might be a good pick for you and at the very least it might provide inspiration for your own setting. Production quality is good. Artwork and layout are top notch and the writing meets any D&D product standa...
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Edward Healy | 4 reviews averaging a rating of 2 |
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NOTE: This review tackles both the Judge and the Player map products.
The Southern Reaches map is part 18 of the Wilderlands of High Adventure series. There are actually two maps, sold separately - one for the Judge and one for the Player.
The Judge map is decent. It is detailed enough that a campaign could be set wholly within the Southern Reaches. The abundance of natural boundaries makes dividing up the region into geo-political units an easy task. However, for $3.00 I wish they'd included the Player map, instead of forcing one to purchase it for an additional $1.00.
There are a fair number of large towns on the map, leading me to believe that it is a densely populated area. Furthermore, the proliferation of citadels tells me that it's not a very peaceful region. I could be wrong, of course, since I have not read the optional campaign material available for use with the maps. Regardless, for $3.00 there is enough here to be worth the price.
The Player map is... lacking. ...
Rating:  [1 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Peter Ingham | 241 reviews averaging a rating of 3.8 |
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Everybody loves a good monster, and everybody loves a challenging and exciting battle where fortunes sway back and forth until through sheer brilliance the PCs finally prevail. And one of the beauties of RPGs in general is that there is infinite choice in battle - you can use a variety of tactics, you have a variety of combat and magical options, you have terrain to exploit and you can even run away. Essentially, a good battle and a good monster will allow you to dabble in all these aspects of combat, where each round is different from the last. I mention this because The Hero's Bastard deals with a new monster that effectively takes one of those listed options away - the option to run. When dealing with the The Hero's Bastard, or Morekareth, it's not fight or flight, but just fight. And that changes the ball game quite a bit.
The Hero's Bastard is a short 8 page pdf product presenting a new monster for the Pathfinder RPG. The product comes as a single pdf file, and is professionall...
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Ron McClung | 30 reviews averaging a rating of 4.2 |
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CthulhuTech
By Ron McClung
Catalyst Game Labs in conjunction with Wildfire LLC and Black Sky Studios have released a twisted vision of a dark future, combining anime-style mecha with the Cthulhu mythos. This stand-alone roleplaying game uses the Framewerk system and is contained in a full-color hardcover book with amazing art and a compelling premise.
The game’s story is deep-seated in Cthulhu mythos and mixes it with world politics and sci-fi technology to create a world of amazing potential. Set in the year 2085, Earth as we know has changed. Since the discovery of arcanotechnology and the creation of the first mecha, global war engulfs the planet. Man’s expansion into space has attracted the attention of aliens called the Migou. Evil cults plot against the world government, summoning creatures from beyond. Mecha war machines walk the Earth battling the alien and cult forces.
Players take on roles of people in a war-torn Earth surviving under the New Earth Government (NEG),...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Nathan Collins | 239 reviews averaging a rating of 3.8 |
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After eagerly reading through Feats 101 this morning, I wanted to send it to other publishers who are making books of Feats to show them how it is done. Feats 101 is a true feats supplement for the Pathfinder System. The 30 page supplement is neatly filled with 101 feats to enhance your characters. It is the best book of feats released for the system so far.
Feats 101, written by Steven D. Russell and published by Rite Publishing, is delicately laid out. A feat table precedes the feat listing, listing the feats in alphabetical order, with exception for feat chains, which are listed with their preceding feat. The table is written very concisely. Whereas many feat books attempt to save space by briefly, and often inaccurately, posting a blurb description of the feat in such a table, Feats 101 goes the extra mile of including at least a two sentence explanation of the feat function. Not to be outdone, the layout also includes useful bookmarks that allow the reader to navigate by alphab...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Shannon Appelcline | 1 reviews averaging a rating of 3 |
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Does it job. Not particularly exciting, but if you want a nice lizardfolk tribe, this is the resource to buy.
Rating: [3 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Nathan Russell | 3 reviews averaging a rating of 3.7 |
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The first four pages of this product are just the cover and images of "assembled" figures, kind of redundant. Once you get past these, however, you get 6 different kind of skeletal undead, including a chariot and dragon (just like the cover shows). They are attractive and nicely represent the figures - they kind of remind my of "old school" undead, I can't put my finger on exactly what it is that does this, they just do. The mounting system is neat, giving you a nice big base that helps the figure stand up. There is, however, a lot of white space around the figures (between legs, bows, boney protusions) which is a real pain to cut out - which means it is either time consuming to assemble, or you are left with big white spaces. It might be nice if in future sets Cerberus offers "plain" figures with the white space and then the same figure with some kind of background to save some fiddling!...
Rating: [3 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | C.M. Brendelson | 2 reviews averaging a rating of 4 |
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In almost every RPG created, gamers can’t get enough of two things: classes (or class-like options) and races. For my first staff review, I took a look at a new race supplement by a small indie publisher, so this week I thought it’d be fitting to explore a class that’s been integrated into the 4e products. I found that class in One Bad Egg’s witch doctor.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, the classes are separated into four different types: Controller, Striker, Defender and Leader. Unfortunately the original D&D Player’s Handbook only included one of the Controller type (the wizard) and so larger gaming groups had to either settle for two wizards in their campaign or players had to look elsewhere to find another Controller to add to their party.
One Bad Egg’s witch doctor fits perfectly into that Controller type, but stands apart from WotC’s Wizard in a number of unique ways. First off, the Witch Doctor uses two implements that ...
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Flames Rising | 15 reviews averaging a rating of 3.9 |
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A Flames Rising Review:
First, let’s talk about what the four files are in this PDF package. The main file is the game itself, a fourteen page set-up to a story about a forgotten Hollywood set. The second file is a nine page primer for new players. Third is thirty-eight pages of character sheets. The fourth and final file is ten pages of reference sheets. Considering that the new player primer and reference sheets may have to be printed multiple times, storytellers may want to charge admission to this game to off-set printing costs. Yep, I’m still seeing no printer friendly options despite all my “helpful” suggestions with my reviews.
I find the story intriguing because it taps upon a time in Hollywood when it was still fascinating. Many of the Kindred feel the same way, ushering in the story. The thirty plus characters in this adventure (a social/mental adventure with next to no physical altercations) are a properly conceived and diverse mix of film makers, lawyers, criminals, v...
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Mark Meredith | 4 reviews averaging a rating of 4.5 |
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Kobold Quarterly has been around for a while now, having just reached the double digits (congrats, guys!) and their magazine keeps getting better.
They’ve recently expanded the length of the magazine to account for more 4e material, which, as a 4e player, I really appreciate. They make it obvious that they won’t be reducing their 3e material, but expanding on their 4e (and most likely more Pathfinder as well).
Now, just because I’m a 4e player doesn’t mean I don’t care about things like Pathfinder, so I was pleased to see them put a preview of the new game right near the front of the magazine. In the sneak preview, they talk about what’s changed from 3.5 to 3.75, and more importantly, what’s stayed the same. Also, there is a new Prestige Class, the Shadowdancer, a group who strikes from the darkness.
There’s a fantastic article by Michael Brewer, Quinn Murphy and Jonathan Jacobs about Skill Challenges called “Swords Against Darkness”, which includes a few very cool skill chall...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | will wong | 2 reviews averaging a rating of 1 |
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Download wasn't a PDF, it was several HDC files which Seem to require hero designer to open.
Rating: [1 of 5 Stars!] |
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| | Stu Venable | 2 reviews averaging a rating of 5 |
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Although none of the hosts have yet played it, we are all very excited to try a game. The players portray ordinary school-aged children who are whisked away to a magical world where fairy tales are true ... and twisted.
We've analyzed the game system, and we've found it simple to learn and elegant.
A more extensive review is available on our podcast, Happy Jack's RPG Podcast, Episode 14 (http://www.happyjacks.org/?p=348). Note: the podcast in general is NSFW and contains explicit content....
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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