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Other comments left for this publisher: |
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We had a bunch of demons in our Advanved Kit so we needed some demon art which is hard to get without crossing into Wizard's IP.
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While there are the core idea of some interesting characters here they are not fully fleshed out. They could use more background, some adventure seeds, maybe some normal people they are tied to. And, since you have all of these characters in one product, why would you not suggest some ties and confliects between them to spur ideas for the GM?
The character sheets are bare bones and could also use some additional details to make them easier to use.
But if character descriptions appeal to you and you are willing to put in some extra work to flesh these characters out, and fit them into your game world, it may be worthwhile picking up as it is not too expensive.
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Excellent product. It bears a clean design, and the grid is both simply and effective. We need more large-scale, moddiable maps like this!
The creator was highly helpful with my specific needs for this product. I highly recommend, especially for the price!
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A great supplement for the Plane of Shadows in 5E, with cool player options, cool monsters, and even a ready-made delve so that you can jump right in the action!
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The art is good but the 12 images are in a single file (pdf/ tiff). This means that users must seperate the images, e.g. by screen print or cropping to use a single image. Not sure why the creator chose this format but it's not convenient for buyers. Hoping the artist can fix this issue because the art is good and the product could be 5 stars.
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I bought the softcover and PDF. It's a nice looking book, it's a shame that so much of it is filled up with useless, non-gameable material.
There are 10 adventures. Each one has a full page of credits, in massive font - as if what follows was a triple-A movie release, or the best module ever, instead of another six-room dungeon.
Each adventure also takes two pages to repeat the OGL terms, at the end of every adventure.
And every adventure starts with exactly the same "Odysseys & Overlords" introduction - another half page per adventure, wasted.
Hey, how about, I don't know, maybe only printing this identical information ONCE, instead of TEN TIMES?
Maybe, in a 109-PAGE BOOK, it would be good if 32 PAGES weren't filled up with completely useless, non-gameable material? That's 29%! Nearly one page in three! It's not exactly a pleasure to flip through.
(Yet another 10 pages are taken up with reprinting the covers of the individual modules - fair enough - but it really starts to feel like the actual module content in this book is on the light side, to say the least.)
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I picked up Citizens Divided in search of a fast, streamlined cyberpunk setting for SWADE.
I like the idea of the setting, which is over the top near-future cyberpunk that doesn't come with reawakened magic, elves or other stuff that I think would make it feel overloaded. What I especially appreciate is that cyberware isn't the norm for everyone just because it's cyberpunk. The setting isn't described in deep detail, but I think it mostly just gets right to the point and lets the players fill out the rest. In some places, it's a bit too sparse for my taste. I would've appreciated a few more factions, ongoing conflicts, interesting areas or other adventure hooks to get the game started or connect the players to the world.
The graphic design of the product is good – the style of the artwork might not fit everyone's taste, but it uses evocative artwork and looks cool. It's also nice to read, both from the looks and from the structure.
Where I think the product could be much better is the mechanics. There are a few leftovers from SWD, especially in the amount of bonuses granted by Edges and equipment. This isn't solely the author's fault, of course, since the product relies on the Science Fiction Companion which isn't out for SWADE yet. The new mandatory professional Edges feel a bit like classes and seem to be wildly unbalanced. The worst thing to me was the Sheen setting rule in which a new meta-currency is introduced. Sheen points are limited, can't be renewed, require a certain GM-style (you can't know the penalties / bonuses of your roll when you spend a Sheen point) but aren't really exciting in their usage compared to Bennies. I didn't understand their point at all.
All things considered, Citizens Divded isn't for me. As a GM, it doesn't add anything to a game that I'd like and isn't already in the core book or the Sci-Fi Companion (which you still need to play this). As a player, the setting is too vague to excite me.
I'm looking forward to read an updated setting book once the SWADE-SFC is out and I hope the setting will get a bit more detailed with supplements and the like!
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks so much for your thoughtful review! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the look and structure of the book.
I would recommend checking out the free Bad Chips and Gun Control supplements for a few adventure seeds that dip into the setting, and Election Night, which was just released and discusses a bit about the political state of the U.S.A. in 2068.
As to the modifiers from equipment, I did a bit of wrenching as I updated to SWADE, and felt that the things I wanted to convey in the setting (huge Hacking bonuses for a custom deck, for example) were fitting in emphasizing the importance of tech and the right tool for the job. The way this plays out from a Hacking perspective is further elaborated on in Election Night, where you see penalties applied for the target system quality, and an example of hacker vs. hacker conflict.
Regarding the mandatory Professional Edges, part of the purpose of the design is to spotlight power structures and imbalances, while encouraging cooperation. Ideal groups will include a selection of Professional Edges that compliment one another while letting each person have their specific spotlight. Of course, one can also play an entire gang of Gutter Punks, or a mobile medical unit filled with Doctors (and maybe a Chromer bodyguard), which I assume is likely a common play style.
With regard to Sheen, it is really designed as a last-ditch resource (which speaks to its rarity) that you can use to get out of a sticky situation without the need to spend a Benny. You are just cool enough to get out of that scrape.
I greatly appreciate the feedback and will keep it in mind as the Citizens Divided setting grows!
Thank you,
Travis Legge
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hiYeahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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I can't wait to play this adventure. I love the logic puzzle aspect of getting the variously sized woman free. The changing conditions depending on player's approach are well described and the NPCs have such agency and personality!
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You know those classic choose-your-adventure books? It's great for those. Really made me think of those old Steve Jackson books. I love those books.
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Includes 6 image files, two in color, and two more that have smaller images so they're actually 3 images each, for about 9 black and white images and 2 color images. The style is very distinct and put me in the mind of psychedelic rock album covers, or trippy animated movies from the 80's. Definitely not your usual fare.
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PDF. 14 pages, color cover, b&w interior, two maps
This adventure is a pretty straightforward affair that can be run in a long afternoon. Designed for four to six characters of 2nd to 3rd level, the character must retrieve a missing child, defeat harpies, kobolds, and an ancient curse and not awaken an army of undead. Suitable for any OSR game or really any d20 based fantasy game with tweaks. This one also includes some new monsters, which I always like.
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks so much for the review! Glad to hear you've enjoyed Temple of the Harpies! |
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PDF. 56 pages, color cover, b&w interior.
The Player's guide has what you should expect a Player's Guide to have. Here you get a bit of background on the campaign world of the O&O game. It's fine, as far as these things go, but I have no emotional investment in it. It does help situate some of the game-design choices and that is nice. Still, I see a campaign guide or gazetteer sometime in the future. Since this is a Basic-era OSR game based on Basic Fantasy races and classes are separate. With this, we get some new races, called genus in this book (a more apt name really). We get Abyss-kissed, which are like other games' Tieflings though more in-line with this game's mythos. Spellscorched, which cover the same niche as elves only here children of the gods. Wild folk, humanoids with animal traits and blood. And garden variety humans. No elves, dwarves or halflings here and that is great by me! (Note: they also do not appear in the Monsters section of the Game Master's book)
Classes include the favorites of Clerics, Fighters, Magic-users and Thieves and also adds another take on the Bard class. Might need to give that one a try sometime. Bards do not have spells but do have songs they can learn for different in-game effects.
Additionally, there is a section on equipment. I'll be honest, I don't pay much attention to equipment lists anymore. I have so many games with so much equipment that if I need to find something I am sure I have it OR I can just make it up on the spot.
Spells follow next. Spells for both clerics and magic-users only go to 6th level. Personally, I still like my magic-users to have more spellcasting power than clerics and would have liked to see magic-user spells go to at least 7th level. All the expected suspects are here.
We get some adventuring rules and finally some combat rules.
The layout and art is really good and has a solid old-school feel. The book just looks nice and fills you with all sorts of old-school nostalgia. I do wish the book though offered some more new unique classes to go along with the new unique races. A little more on the world background as it applies to the characters would also have been nice.
There is a character sheet at the end of the book. You can also get the character sheet for free.
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PDF. 63 pages, color cover, b&w interior.
This book covers a bit of material not found in the Player's guide.
Again we get some great Dean Spenser cover art and again we get the same overview of the campaign world.
We get into a section on various encounter areas, including my favorite, Urban Encounters. Tips on dealing with players, hopeless characters, and weapon and armor restrictions.
There is also a good section on XP advancement and narrative advancement, which has come to be called "milestone" advancement in D&D 4 and 5. It provides some nice balance. I am using both types in different games and it has the effect of taking the focus away from combat and more onto role-playing for Narrative/Milestone advancement.
Magical research into new spells and new magic items are also discussed.
There is a monster section following the discussion on dungeons and wilderness exploring. The problem I have with the monsters here is that you are directed to use Basic Fantasy there are not any new monsters. Nearly all, save for two, can be found in what I would call the "common canon" of the OSR. There was a real chance here to set this book apart from others with some new and unique monsters, or at least some rare ones. It is too bad this chance was not taken.
Magic items follow next. A good variety here, but again I would have liked something unique to this world to stand out.
We end with the Kingdoms. Ah! now here is the new and unique material I was hoping for. There is a good amount here to work with without being overly detailed. The descriptions are good, but a map, even a rough one, would have been great. Tip: Can't afford a good cartographer? Scribble one out and call it "an adventures map found in a dragon horde".
Interestingly enough, there are maps in the books from Dyson Logos, but that causes an awkward mix of the OGL and Creative Commons Licences that I have been told to avoid doing. Hope this works for them!
I think there is something here to the world put forth, I just would have liked to have seen more of it. There is a lot of potential with this line and would like to see more.
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks so much for the thoughtful and in-depth review! There will be a known world map coming soon, probably as a standalone download. We expect to have a greatly expanded monster book by year's end, but the focus in this volume was to present familiar creatures in the context of the setting, hence the lore re-writes and expansions in the included creature entries.
Thanks
-Travis |
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After the standard account of the state of the setting (chiefly for those new to Odysseys and Overlords) we get the background to the adventure: a merchant called Madeina Ilrekar hired an adventurer, a fellow called Jorasco Vinn, to go into the Untamed Gauntlet to prospect for precious metals. Apparently he didn't do very well, when he returned he spoke of an ancient shrine, the name of which is lost to antiquity. Now Madeina's daughter has vanished, and she thinks that Vinn has kidnapped her with an eye to reviving the practice of human sacrifice at the shrine he discovered!
This is where the party comes in. Perhaps they have heard about the daughter's disappearance, or maybe Madeina hires them to go in search of her... she is, it transpires, of marriageable age, and Madeina has a few potential suitors in mind. There's an optional opening encounter with Madeina, or you can start the adventure with the party already travelling through the Untamed Gauntlet. One encounter is provided for the journey, you may wish to add others of your own devising.
The main part of the adventure is the exploration of the shrine. This starts with a puzzle to unravel to get in which is very well presented. You get the puzzle itself (and its solution - not all GMs are puzzle fanatics, after all!) and suggestions about how to use die rolls to help the party crack the code and gain admission, if they don't figure it out on their own. The few rooms are described clearly, along with contents and inhabitants, and the party ought to find out what happened to the daughter. Every possible outcome is covered, depending on what they decide to do about the situation.
Overall, it's a neat little adventure. Can the party save the daughter? Only you and your group can tell!
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