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The Quintessential Paladin
Series: d20
Publisher: Mongoose Publishing
Type: Sourcebook
Media: Softback
Review: here
Review Intro:
It says at the start of the Character Concepts chapter that at first sight the Paladin appears to be a narrow class. It says at the start of the Prestige Paladin chapter that the Paladin is a narrow class. Aljandro Melchor, author of the book, is right. The Paladin class is annoyingly narrow and given the introduction of prestige classes looks an awful lot like a fighter with prestigious abilities. I’ve taken to skipping straight to the end of Mongoose books and reading the Designer’s Notes first. Here that begins with the quote "Lawful Good is not the same as Lawful Stupid" and so it is clear from that that Melchor is going to avoid the worst of the D&D cliches. In fact the designer’s notes mention all the right things; the prestige class question, the importance of roleplay for the Paladin and that special but often ignored bond between the Paladin and her mount. There’s no sign that there was any ever question of presenting an alternative Paladin class in the book though. There isn’t an alternative Paladin class in the The Quintessential Paladin even though the book offers a number of new Paladin powers and dives headlong into Paladins paying homage to specific deities rather than just a general good.
"Dives headlong", that reminds me of one version of the Malkavian Clan Book and its heavy use of the phrase "When you’re falling – dive". The quote suits the Quintessential Paladin rather well. Instead of trying to reign in and refocusing some of the class’s outrageously cheese fantasy abilities it dives straight in there. The book produces a huge range of similarly high fantasy alternatives and extras for the Paladin. Most of these alternatives live in the "Tricks of the Trade" chapter; we’re given a range of Detect Evil abilities, a range of different types of mounts and even a way to use the Paladin’s abilities on the fly and earn faith points. Faith points can be used them to bounce extra dice. ... [ more ]
Atomik Psioniks
Series: generic
Publisher: Atomik Vortex Studio
Type: Psionics Add-on
Media: PDF
Review: here
Review Intro:
Atomik Psioniks is an add-on from Atomik Vortex. Like the other add-ons you’ll need a copy of the Atomik Add-On Booklet to use it. Unlike the other add-ons Psioniks is 64 pages long and that’s the largest to date. The booklet is free and I strongly encourage anyone to download it first, check it out and make sure the concept of a generic, suits all game systems, add on is something that you’re comfortable with. Atomik Psioniks is such an add-on, you can use it with whatever roleplaying game or system you want to add psionics to.
Atomik Psioniks is a list of psionic powers for RPGs and it isn’t. The PDF download is more of an intelligent discussion of psionic powers in RPGs and of real life theories than it is a list of kewl powers. After reading this add-on I feel as if I could drop intelligent snippets of Steven Hawking theories into a conversation, reflect on Akashic Records and comment on the Buddic Dimension. I might even note that a powerful telepath wouldn’t need to be able to transmit 12, 742kms to reach around the world because he could simply broadcast his thoughts through the Earth. In fact, if you flick to the bottom of the download you’ll see a page of references the author has used. There are over a dozen books that all have the scholastic ring to them. I’m sure every student will recognise the publisher Prentice Hall. Atomik Psioniks does have that academic air to it and if you’re just after the crunchy bits then you might find yourself flicking past it. I didn’t. I enjoyed every word. I’m all psyched up to run a psionics game now and that must be one of the tell tale signs of a successful RPG product.
The add-on begins by looking at possible origins for the psionic powers. Suggestions include evolutions, drugs, a strange plague, the birth of the mind and more. The beginning is a good place to start. Atomik Psioniks moves on to look at what they call the "Nature of Psionics" and talk about just what the stuff of psion might be; Ether, sheer mind power, influenced energy or other options like the manipulated of probability. There are also different campaign settings where psionics might be appropriate to, super hero, far future, alternative history, mecha and more. Again we’re treated to fairly short but intelligent discussions and observations on these.
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Escape from Monster Island
Series: Action! System
Publisher: Firefly Games
Type: Giant monster supplement
Media: Softback
Review: here
Review Intro:
Escape from Monster Island is an inexpensive and effective expansion for Monster Island.
Monster Island was published a few months ago at about the same time as another game dedicated to giant monster fun. Escape from Monster Island wins the race to be the first supplement; well, the first paper supplement anyway. Escape from Monster Island makes good use of being a paper product (rather than PDF) and follows on from one of Monster Island’s strongest selling points. In the centre of the Escape from Monster Island book you’ll find a removable cardboard stock of perforated army, emergency service and civilian tokens. You don’t have to root around the toy box or miniatures collection to get going with Escape from Monster Island or it’s parent book, it is simple and yet effective to use the tokens as battle pieces.
It is the military, emergency services and civilians that are the focus of Escape from Monster Island. As the name of the supplement suggests, the monsters escape the island and are now free to reek havoc in the cities. In FireFly Games’ mythology the kaiju (giant monsters) are radiovores, they eat radiation, therefore smashing up a nuclear power plant and bathing in the glow of the meltdown sounds like a great plan to them. This is just one way in which Escape from Monster Island insidiously works great battle plot ideas into the core game mechanics. The presence of the military is handled well. The worse case scenario would be that the introduction of humans to the Monster Island mix would result in the simple and fun game being dragged down by complexities and turned into a half-baked war game. The best care scenario would see military units treated as similarly as kaiju as possible, the number of extra models kept down and the game kept great fun. We don’t end up anywhere in the middle of that scale, we land bang on the best end of the spectrum. Military, emergency service and civilians do not clutter the game up. That is to say, they don’t clutter the game up any more than can be hoped for. For the same point cost as an average kaiju you might expect a couple of units of ground troops and a few special rounds when air strikes can be called in. Taking advantage of the futuristic weapons and by using such military units as flying tanks you could simply have two human units for every kaiju. That’s certainly nowhere near the confusion of war games. Escape from Monster Island remains good fun for you and for your kid brother.
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The Complete Guide to Wererats
Series: d20
Publisher: Goodman Games
Type: High Fantasy / Supplement
Media: Paperback
Review: here
Review Intro:
The Complete Guide to Wererats is a classic example of an "on the ball" RPG product. At 32 pages long and only $11 the Guide falls safely in the budget end of the gaming spectrum. The Guide works, there’s plenty in the book that can be taken into your own campaign and so being on the budget end of the scale is a boon, not a bane. There are already well established "were" RPGs and supplements, although perhaps not so much in the d20 mechanic. There’s certainly quite a few famous ratmen in the d20 camp. Given this it would be all too easy to rehash what’s done before, scrape the barrel in search of something new or loose any really convincing wererat atmosphere or feel for the book. This would be dropping the ball. The Complete Guide to Wererats manages to give us something new and yet safely wererat, it’s focused, it’s on the ball. The size of the book acts as a safety net in some respects, it acts a cap in others. In 32 pages a tight focus is possible, for example, we’re told about different families of wererats, different broods, and there’s room for just a bit of information on each but not enough space to stray too far. On the other hand, 32 pages isn’t really enough space for the successes to become run away successes.
It all started with the Council of Flesh, so say the wererats. The Council was a group of mysterious wizards who sought perfection by blending their bodies with that of an animal. In the infamous Council meeting the debate was over which animal would be best for such a blending. The Council finally agreed that the rat was best. It wasn’t a smooth ride though; some of the wizard members disagreed and left, some quitting almost immediately and others waiting for secrets to be shared before slinking off treacherously. It’s a good creation myth and it comes with some inherent advantages. It didn’t matter which races composed the Council of Flesh, the heated debate was over the animal form. This makes it easy to explain where there’s no sign of racism amongst the wererats with regards to the apparent race of the non-rat form. The creation story also opens up two great goals for the wererats; to finally achieve the perfection that the Council of Flesh was seeking and to deal with the rebels, the other non-rat lycanthropes, for their treachery.
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Plains of Penance
Series: d20
Publisher: Bastion Press
Type: Fantasy Sourcebookl
Media: Paperback
Review: here
Review Intro:
The Plains of Penance is a worthy follow up and addition to Bastion Press’ spectacular Oathbound: Domains of the Forge. Oathbound gave us a vibrant world; chock full of races, cultures and magic. The name "Oathbound" comes from the powerful oaths that bind Seven Feathered Foul to the Forge. It’s these Seven who have created the Forge from a divine prison, forging the land to their will and forming seven domains. Penance is the domain of Queen Israfel and the city in the middle of Penance, known as Penance, gets a whole wad of pages in the core Oathbound book. The chances are very high that if you’re playing Oathbound or want to play Oathbound then you’re interested in Penance. The Plains of Penance is a comprehensive tour of everywhere else in Penance: the plains, the forests, the rivers and even the ocean shelf. There’s more than just new monsters and new player races here, there’s a new type of magic, spotlights onto the ecology, prestige races, the history and diplomatic relations between the cities on the Plains.
The Plains of Penance is a full colour, 160-paged book. US$29.95 isn’t an expensive price for it if you consider Bastion Press’ own Allies & Adversaries is about US$15 for 32 pages. The illustration styles are unmistakably Oathbound. This is both a boon and a bane. Some of the artwork is worthy of poster status, it’s no surprise that Bastion Press has a whole collection of art previews up on their Plains of Penance page. There are just a few illustrations that don’t work with the styles used. In particular some of the city scenes drawn in lines and blobby colour simply fail and failures stand out terribly so amongst so many strong successes.
The opening chapter is a walkthrough of the various parts of the Domain of Penance. Straight out of the box one of the meaty interests is tackled well. The dominant Queen Israfel, Penance’s Feathered Foul, enforces strict rules about how can claim leadership of an area and what sort of areas, known as Cantons, can be ruled. There needs to be enough people living in the area to begin with and out in the wilderness there are very few people. The book comes up with a believable enough system where the Bloodlords, those who do rule Cantons, are able to sell their protection (as a personal deal rather than a law) and their badge of support to the farms and homesteads in the wild. We’re first introduced to the politics and role of the Druids in the many forests in the domain here.
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