DriveThruCards.com
Browse Categories
$ to $







Back
pixel_trans.gif
Other comments left for this publisher:
You must be logged in to rate this
pixel_trans.gif
Welcome to Scarthey
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/20/2019 04:58:05

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This setting supplement clocks in at 64 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page acknowledgements, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of advertisement, 1 page SRD, 1 page inside of back cover, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 53 pages of content – at least in the single-page version. If you prefer e-readers and the like, there is a double-page version of the pdf included as well.

This review was added and moved up in my reviewing queue because I was tasked to review a module set in this setting, and it makes no sense and violates my OCD-tendencies to cover a module without first talking about its backdrop.

Okay, so Scarthey is a magical university, one that sports 4 different Houses that you’re assigned to; there is an orientation, and courses are assigned based on the things you wish to learn. Anyone wishing to study magic can enroll in Scarthey, and among the staff, there are rectors – basically the sanctioned adventurers of the university, which also contain non-casters. As such, this can create an interesting dynamic, as a adventuring group is assumed to consist of a mix of rectors and students.

Archchancellor Gwydion Ambrosius gets a full-page artwork, one that makes him, aptly, look like a cross between Gandalf and Dumbledore – it’s a pretty damn gorgeous piece, and indeed, this is something you realize once you open the pdf for the first time: This is one beautiful book. The pdf sports a parchment-like background with blue highlights and headers and a ton of baroque graphic elements that don’t detract from the text, but rather enhance it – the layout is absolutely stunning and deserves some serious applause.

Scarthey is properly mapped in a solid, if slightly less impressive two-page spread map (one page for the double-page version, obviously), which I’d usually applaud. However, it would have been nice to a) get a player-friendly, unlabeled map (though I can, for once, stomach its absence, considering that campus-maps will be present) and b), the map lacks a scale. As provided, it’s hard to glean how sprawling or cluttered those grounds are supposed to be. The map also, obviously, lacks a grid, so it remains pretty much abstract. Scarthey also seems to have only one means of getting there by land (as noted in the description of the gatehouse), but unfortunately the exact dimensions of where the university is can’t be gleaned from the map.

The description of the individual keyed locales that follows is written in a semi-IC-prose style, reminiscent of the pamphlets you’re handed when enrolling in a new university – “friendly librarian staff under the direction of Professor Raama Tuko” will gladly assist you, though some levels are obviously off-limits for new students – you get the idea. I enjoyed the implementation of this particular narrative conceit. From a prestigious healing house to a bardic school, there are quite a few different components here – at this point, it’s also worth mentioning that quite a few perfectly-chosen pieces of public domain drawings supplement the academy – there are a lot of those inside, and from alchemy tower to artificer’s hall, this section covered a lot of ground – with curious absences: None of the occult classes seem to receive instruction in Scarthey.

Speaking of which: While e.g. stabling is covered with costs for flying mounts and the like per semester, the book, as befitting of its tone, does make mention of e.g. the phantom chariot spell and similar components. This brings me to a crucial thing you need to know:

This supplement, while nominally declared PFRPG-compatible, makes many of Raging Swan Press’ offerings look positively crunchy. It is basically almost bereft of actual rules-relevant material in all but cursory references. No settlement statblock is provided for Scarthey, no feats, traits, spells – nothing in that regard. This also becomes pretty obvious with the staff: A total of 13 different NPCs are presented with a gorgeous artwork, a brief introduction, and a sample quote. The artworks deserve mention, as I did not expect to see so many gorgeous pieces herein. However, we don’t even get an inkling about their alignment and chosen classes – not even a brief “N male human transmuter 14” or the like. This is a bit puzzling to me, considering that the pdf for example does present the structure of the university in a handy two-page spread chart. Speaking of gorgeous two-page spreads – there is a rather impressive two-page artwork that depicts Scarthey, which made me think of Neuschwanstein – just with waterfalls and a gothic architecture hall (that seems weirdly out of place in contrast to the rest of the architecture) added – but that may just be me being a Bavarian.

Rules for conduct in Scarthey are presented alongside a variety of punishments for breaking said rules – these, fyi, remain pretty lenient and enlightened. A total of 4 pages is devoted to the chronology of Scarthey, with banner like headers denoting the respective year – I mention this, because the banners, while gorgeous, take up quite a bunch of space, and some people are irked by the like.

After this, we are guided through the process of choosing a house – and oddly, here we do get stats for the chancellor’s crown of casting, which only enhances your Intelligence by +2 and nets you a bonus equal to your HD to concentration checks. It comes with construction notes – and as you could glean, is just a reskin of the headband of vast intelligence +2, one that fails to note the skill-component correctly, and one that is mispriced rather severely, as its additional benefit should have increased its base price – it costs the same as a headband. It also kinda made me think that it’s weird that a school of magic can’t afford a better item for its most prestigious positions.

Anyway, we do get information on the 4 houses, which all feature their own absolutely stunning crests, with house master, motto, alignment, values, beliefs and mascot briefly noted – but we don’t get to know about total strength of the like. Each house comes with its own campaign trait; these are okay, but e.g. ignoring up to 3 rounds of staggered is probably preferable to +1 Diplomacy and getting it as a class skill. As an aside, in the latter case, the trait is missing its bonus type.

The pdf continues to talk about wizard supplies and takes another cue from the Harry Potter franchise, in that it presents a variant of wand-based casting – personalized wands can allow you to ignore up to 25 gp worth of material components, and casting without one makes you increase spell failure chance. This is per se a cool notion, but one that would have needed to be supplemented by rules that explain how metamagic, options that ignore somatic casting and the like are balanced within the context of the modified wand-engine. It is a nice notion, but one that will not survive contact with an experienced group of rules-savvy players.

After very brief write-ups of a tavern and some extracurricular activities (like dragon boat rowing!) that could have used more crunchy representations to make them engaging mini-games, the pdf closes. The rowing game does have a touch of crunch sprinkled in, but to me, remained somewhat opaque.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on a formal level; on a rules-language level they are solid regarding the presentation, but less exciting regarding the underlying design. Layout, as noted, is GORGEOUS and provides a unique identity to the supplement. I really enjoyed this quasi-baroque aesthetic employed within, and a surprising amount of gorgeous full-color artworks and well-chosen public-domain art, initials and the like make this one beautiful book. Seriously. The cartography’s utility does not live up to the beauty of the artwork or layout, alas, and no unlabeled version is included. Unfortunately, there are two components here that must be mentioned. Neither of the two versions has any bookmarks, which makes navigation a colossal pain. Additionally, printing this, in the absence of a printer-friendly version, will be a massive drain on your ink and toner-resources.

More important, and jarring: This book takes the same grating approach as Wayward Rogues Publishing: You can’t highlight or search ANY TEXT in this file. Every page is basically an artwork. Combined with the lack of bookmarks, this renders the pdf a huge pain to navigate, and if you want to create a GM-cheat-sheet, you’ll be copying text by hand. URGHH. Particularly for a setting supplement that provides an overview of a region/organization/etc., this is utterly grating.

Bob Storrar and Rodney Sloan provide a very vanilla experience regarding a wizard school here – if you expected intricate notes on courses, an engine to acquire spells or feats or the like, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Then again, considering the gripes I had with the few pieces of crunch within, this may have been a wise decision. Depending on how you look at it, the fact that this book doesn’t really integrate the rich lore of PFRPG and casting traditions into its framework may be a bug or a feature – if you expected to see truly unique and potent faculty members with stats, well, then I’d probably recommend Drop Dead Studios’ “Wizard’s School” sandbox/mega-adventure/bestiary instead.

If you, however, wanted a Harry Potter-style wizard’s academy with very enlightened tenets and an overall wholesome appeal, then Scarthey may be more up your alley.

To make that abundantly clear: Scarthey’s main problem is not the fact that it’s so fluff-centric; my main gripe, apart from the atrociously grating experience of actually trying to use the pdf, is that it remains solely concerned with the surface level. So, necromancy’s heavily sanctioned. Okay, how? No idea. You can’t cast death magic. There is a great hospital, got ya- how do they research these afflictions that are not easily curable with magic? Quarantine measures? The book never dives beyond a surface level – “this is here.”

Okay, understood – how does it work? Well you won’t find the answers within.

While beautiful, the layout, at times, with its copious artworks, almost felt like it attempted to make up for the lack of depth regarding the information provided. Ultimately, the text probably could have been jammed into a book half the size of this one. This would be fine as well – but in the end, I couldn’t help but feel that I wasn’t comfortable running this as written. The supplement lacks so much information regarding depth that I can’t help but feel that I simply don’t know enough about Scarthey to run it for a prolonged time.

And this is a genuine pity, for this book, in spite of its shortcomings, does not feel phoned in. It is a book into which, when all is said and done, showcases energy, time and genuine passion. For me as a person, this represents a failure – while I admired the aesthetics (I really did!), I want more depth from my supplements. At the same time, I can understand and easily conceive of people for whom this would be amazing. There hence are two opposing points of view that can be contrasted with one another, and there’s no reconciliation between them. Do you want mechanical and narrative depth? Then this doesn’t have much to offer. Do you want a stylish pdf that executes its notion of being basically a “start of the semester pamphlet” rather well? Then this may well be fun for you and yours!

Usually, this’d mean that the book ends up somewhere in the middle of my rating system, probably on the upper end – however, this also is one of the most inconvenient, asinine pdfs to actually use I’ve seen in quite a while. The combination of the lack of any form of bookmarks AND the fact that you can’t even cut-copy-paste text together renders this pretty much unusable without an e-reader. And that is a huge no-go for me. Hence, my final verdict can’t exceed 2.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo and the impressive work that went into the overall presentation. If rated for its content alone, you should probably detract at least another star.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Welcome to Scarthey
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Welcome to Scarthey
by Marco v. D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/14/2019 10:38:19

Really only a few pages with the most rudimentary and introductory words you can imagine.

Compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game? There aren't any game-stats, classes, abilities, skills, traits or anything else for even a single person or creature or other rules-related content whatsoever. Members of the faculty are only presented giving their name and about two further sentences. Nothing is decribed in any more detail. There's an overview map and a picture of the "academy". This book contains nothing you cannot come up with much better with a few minutes of thinking about the given topic - especially related to a theme like a magic academy with the idea of Hogwarts in mind.

In addition to that the file has a very low technical quality. It's very large since all "texts" are pictures. No bookmarks, no hyperlinks and you cannot search or mark any text, since there is no "text".

Conclusion:

The book is utterly useless for players and GMs alike.

Might only be useful free of charge as the pages of an advertisement for a large setting-book with some truly groundbreaking content.

This book is a bad joke, especially at $5.95.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Forest of Secrets
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/26/2018 07:51:50

Solo adventure with a time constraint: the final encounter is harder if soldiers reach the end cave before the character. Lacks meaningful choices: the end reward is the same whether your character opts to be honourable or mercenary. Would be improved by the addition of codewords, for example HONOURABLE and MERCENARY, that may change according to character actions; some encounters should play differently according to which codeword, if any, is held. A potentially interesting encounter with a satyr may be missed. Otherwise variety in replays seems to depend on random encounters rolled. A good addition would be areas where profit is available at the expense of time.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Forest of Secrets
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Where Heroes Stand
by Kim F. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/08/2018 12:55:37

This was originally reviewed on the Open Gaming Network.

We take products and review them, intending to give the reader the best chance of evaluating whether this particular release is for them.

There is, of course, a scoring system, similar to that used elsewhere, in a 5-star rating, which we have determined as follows:

1 * – Bad

2 * – Mediocre

3 * – Decent

4 * – Good

5 * – Excellent

Now, let’s get on with the show!

This week we give you Where Heroes Stand!

Publisher: Rising Phoenix Games

Author: Rodney Sloan

Cover Artist: Julia Sloan, Rodney Sloan

System: Pathfinder

Page count: 42 ( 1 page cover, 1 page credits, 38 page content, 1 page OGL and 1 page back cover)

Right, so let’s look at the cover first. The Kabuki mask that you see, with the Japanese flag style overlay, gives off a very “Japan”-vibe, making you expect a game set in that country or at least the “classic samurai era”. I’m happy to report that THAT is exactly what we get here. But let’s skip to the contents.

I’m happy to report that this particular adventure does NOT succumb to one of my pet peeves of content to cover ratio. In fact, you get a LOT of content for your buck in this one, though I’ll admit that it’s not what I had expected.

Since this is an adventure, I won’t go too far into spoiler territory, in that it’s a murder mystery set in a Japanese village, complete with fireworks, a “Shogun” like village lord, brutal bodyguards, and kitsune. The basic setup is simple, in that the village lord is murdered (a man named Honda) by a mysterious group aiming to attack and take the village, to use as a spearhead for further hostilities. Good, but simple setup, but I’m not a fan of how the murder itself is accomplished, as it feels just a bit too much like railroading. I suppose that’s hard to avoid when setting up a murder investigation, but it is nonetheless slightly annoying. The players then take on the roles of people from the village (which I like the execution of. They’re an interesting range of characters, and very believable within the context of the adventure), and they’re tasked with figuring it out. Since I won’t spoil it, let’s just say there are tengu and oni involved. It all ends up with PCs retaking a castle.

The adventure itself is decent enough, if a bit straightforward, but there are a few things that I have a bit of an issue with. One is the kitsune. I like the kitsune, but they feel like they were just thrown in here for no particular reason. I’d have liked to have seen a bit more reason for them being included, or at least a bit more to do with them.

My other issue actually is, well, less of an issue. And that’s because I don’t want to call this an adventure. I want to call it a mini-setting. And I like this mini-setting, but I really want to use it more, than for just an adventure. A bit of a luxury problem.

And so we come to the conclusion:

OK, I’ll preface this by saying that you’re getting a large amount of content with this book for the price (though admittedly there isn’t much art as such, and the maps are a bit simple). As said before, I found a lot to like in the book, though the adventure itself is likely not something I’d be running. The setting and village, however, is what I’ll be taking away from this particular book, as I find that it’s what I’ll be using from this. As such, I don’t think I can give it the full 5-stars since the adventure part isn’t what I’ll be using. But playing around with the NPCs and PCs of the near-Japan fantasy village, and the potential for conflict with the traditional lifestyle of the village and the Spanish priest does make for an interesting clash of cultures, one that the right group of games would enjoy. – So, as said, while I can’t quite give it a 5 star, it is a VERY solid 4. If I had liked the adventure part itself better, it would have been a 5-star. (Though I do find it a bit of a shame that there’s no more art within the pages of this book, I’d have loved some fitting artwork for both GM and players to enjoy).

Well done Rodney. Can we get a followup, for the ACTUAL lord and his area too? – But this time, make it a full setting book.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Where Heroes Stand
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Forest of Secrets
by Troy W. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/27/2018 21:30:28

After playing and enjoying "Death Queen and the Life Stone", I tried its sequel, "Forest of Secrets".

"Forest of Secrets" is not as linear as Death Queen. Aside from the first and last encounters, most of the adventure is determined by the route the hero chooses to move from one end of the forest to the other. The player is given 25 tiles representing the encounter sites (start tile, end tile, and 23 others). There are some duplicates (5 copies of one tile, 2 copies each of three other tiles, the other 12 are unique encounter sites). The player is instructed to randomly place, upside down, all but the first and last tile within a 5 tile by 5 tile grid. As your hero moves into a tile, the adjacent tiles are revealed so you can plan your next move provided you survive the current situation.

Tiles may indicate terrain based obstacles or site specific foes or challenges. There is also a chance for a random encounter on every tile using a four entry "wandering monster" list. The hero must navigate across the forest within a certain time limit (based on time it takes to traverse the tiles and specific obstacles on those tiles) before a competing party moving around the outside of the forest reaches the end square. If the competition gets there first, the situation for the final scene changes significantly.

The tile system, with their random layout, makes this module much more appealing than its predecessor for replay. Very little is fixed in place, and in my first run through the mission, I actually missed a lot of interesting scenes that would have provided additional challenge, deeper atmosphere, and some interesting clues about the mission.

The difficulty I had with this module is in understanding how I was supposed to use the tiles. What counts as "adjacent tiles" is not clearly explained. Do diagonal's count? I assumed yes, but maybe not. A visual example would have helped. A hex based tile system would have been clearer, but hex's are tedious to cut out (or snapshot and paste as images into a VTT).

The other issue I had was in knowing what resources were available for one specific fight scene. Since I was using my character from the previous adventure, I had the necessary tools to prevail. Had I simply generated a 2nd level Fighter for this adventure, I would not necessarily have come across the tools I needed for that fight. At least, not as the adventure is written. I suspect this might be due to an oversight rather than a deliberate hurdle the character is expected to face.

The randomness, replayability, and the inclusion of an interesting NPC are the things I like best about this module. The best way to improve on it would be to provide greater clarity about movement across tiles, and the reduction in the number of duplicate tiles/scenes in the set.

I really look forward to the next entry in this series!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Forest of Secrets
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Death Queen and the Life Stone
by Troy W. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/25/2018 23:37:49

I enjoyed this adventure. I think it was very well written.

It was pretty short, good for a short evening's play (a couple of hours), but it really can't be much longer for a lone first level fighter/cleric type without providing rest spots or a supply of healing potions. The way it is written makes sense and forces the character to rely upon its own resources (Second Wind, Cure Wounds spells, and possibly a healing potion if one was purchased during character creation). While I wish it was longer, a first level character would be very unlikely to survive any more combat encounters than were presented here.

There are fifty entries/decision points, some of which are used multiple times (at least in my playthrough).

There seem to be two "mission was a success" endings. One of which provides a patron and hook for the "Forest of Secrets". A player/GM could just as easily use that ending, with modifications, to provide a patron and hook into any future adventure or serve as a kick off for a longer campaign.

My character died in the first run. In the second, I was able to make it all the way through after noticing in the intro that all healing effects are supposed to have maximum effect, and adjusting some of my combat tactics.

The book also provides some suggested varants for future replay which will modify the adventure to make it more challenging.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Death Queen and the Life Stone
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Mecha — A Field Guide
by Taylor H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/20/2017 12:40:35

Mecha, A Field Guide is a Starfinder product attempting to add mecha and powersuits to the game. While the game certainly could benefit from rules for mecha, this product missed the mark for me and did not fullfill the potential that I had hoped it would reach. The problem doesn't come so much from the presented rules, but from a lack of following a pattern already present in Starfinder for starships. It gives rules for using mecha, and presents a couple options for what a mecha stat block could be, but it fails to offer a method for creating your own, much like how Starfinder did for starships. What is presented appears to be balanced and follows much of the same patterns and level balancing that Starfinder's Core Rulebook uses, and thus I would approve of the material at my table if I had a use for it. The art inside is nice and the layout is decent, with the exception of occasional overly large art and the broad header and footer. The writing could have used some work, but that might be an issue of my personal writing style preference making me biased. There were also a few places where terms were not correct, such as using "Full-round action" instead of Starfinder's "full action", but that is easily forgiven as everyone is still learning the various differences between Pathfinder and Starfinder.

I'm giving this 3.5 out of 5, because the rules are usable as they are but the scope is limited, there isn't anything presented to allow for new mechas to be made, and the writing could use a little more work. I think this is a great first step forward and hope more is done with the concept, but this is not a must buy unless you are looking for multiple options for mecha rules.

Disclaimer: I was given a copy to review.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Mecha — A Field Guide
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Mecha — A Field Guide
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/12/2017 08:34:52

Disclaimer: I received this copy for free for the purposes of reviewing it.

Here we have the Starfinder compatible Mecha: A Field Guide from Rising Phoenix Games by author Rodney Sloan and artist Bob Storrar. We have a cover page, inside cover, ToC, and 6 pages of ad and back cover leaving a total 35 pages of content.

I would like to start out with saying artist Bob Storrar has done a fantastic job. While the header/footer (which alternates every other page) are a tad big to my liking, the wide side margins and background are great and the character models and weapon/armor art is spot-on and the two column layout is nice and clean. I will say I noticed a couple of boob armors, a pet peeve of mine, but it wasn't in your face. There is also some odd extra-beefy muscles for a normal sized neck/head but that's completely a style choice. I did notice a bit of a lack of alien characters but that's not a deal breaker in any way. Seriously, great artwork.

The first page of text we get is a little story about a group (I assume the character models we see in the artwork) on some kind of mission in mecha. It is an interesting little one pager and it gives some great session ideas.

Then we have a page describing mecha and some rules references for power armor as well. Mecha operate very similarly to powered armor, you may need a ladder or some mechanism to get into a cockpit on a tall mecha, which is a little touch I appreciate.

A new feat is introduced which is basically proficiency with mecha (like powered armor has its own proficiency feat). I'm a little torn on this one, while I completely understand the decision to make it a feat, I could also argue that just having enough ranks in Pilot should enough, and mecha are a little feat intensive...you have to have proficiency in light and heavy armors as well as a prerequisite. Soldiers will have no problems but if you want to play a character who pilots mecha and can switch to powered armor that's a total of 4 feats you need to do so.

Mecha are essentially presented as a type of vehicle with its own EAC/KAC and HP which are targeted and depleted first. There's a nice little table where if you're mecha's HP is depleted, further hits against it require a save or a Hit Location is damaged and you lose certain things, like Right Leg means move speed is reduced by half. I'm a huge fan of things like this.

Max Dex, ACP, Speed, Str, and Con are all determined by your mecha or powered armor. Each mecha or powered armor requires a battery and there is mention of possibly using an alternate power source in mecha such as a nuclear reactor which can recharge the battery (still needed for ignition). Mecha and powered armor have weapon slots and upgrade slots for customisability. Mecha can have a crew complement. Crew basically can act the same as in starship crews (and do in starship combat) during regular combat. Some mecha are also capable of space flight and can have starship scaled combat, a separate starship stat block is presented alongside it for those. Starship combat for mecha follows starship combat rules. Regular combat with a complement has an interesting caveat that all complement can fire any weapon from any cockpit on the mecha as a standard action during their turn and reload as a move action, but any given weapon can only be fired once per round. Its a neat little design that allows for, say, five mini lion mechas to come together to form one huge mecha and each can fire any of the associated weapons, but it prevents every pilot from just firing the ultimate weapon on each of their turns. Mecha with arms and hands can wield any weapon sized for them from the Starfinder Core Rulebook, which is nice but I would have appreciated some words on what the damage/etc is for something like a Colossal longarm.

Starting at page 21 we are presented with 5 pregen mecha and frames, from a sneaky infiltrator, magic/tech fusion, to a kaiju hunter and starship scale mecha. Interesting and diverse, its a good mix and good starting base. The book assumes we will either take these 5 or be building our own.

Starting at page 34 we get 9 new mecha weapons, mostly focused on plasma type weapons, and 5 pieces of mecha equipment. Weapons are presented with a credit cost, and 3 of the equipment pieces are presented with credit costs while 2 are build points...indicating their use during building or upgrading your mecha. Without spoiling the surprise...these 2 pieces of equipment lean towards starship things and they immediately conjure images of Robotech being laucnhed. Page 37 brings 6 new armor upgrades for your mecha from camouflage to shock absorbing fall dampers which reduce damage from falling. Some good ideas here and plenty flavorful.

Would I recommend this book? At $6.95 USD you get 35 pages of content, which boils down to closer to 25 pages with artwork (which is still great!). If you dream of playing as a mecha piloting character then, yes I'd grab this book. Its fun, flavorful, I didn't notice any major errors and only a few very minor grammatical errors, and most importantly it got me imaging an entire campaign based around mecha. While I could wish for some specific rules on joining mecha to make a big mecha or for more weapons/armor upgrades/pregens, at the end of the day what's presented here is useable and makes it easy to reverse engineer and build my own and the book itself presents itself as simply that and not a mecha building guide. Four out of five stars, would recommend.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Mecha — A Field Guide
by Joseph C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/08/2017 14:34:57

Massive amoubts of wasted space with Terrible art . (The Pin headed muscle man comes to mind A few pages in. Mecha Designs that are terrible arts wise, and varebones rules. What charles said, but twice. I want my money back.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Creator Reply:
Thanks for your feedback. Send us an email and we'll see what we can do for you. (You can contact us from the "Contact Us" page on our website.)
pixel_trans.gif
Mecha — A Field Guide
by Charles A. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/08/2017 03:07:47

No disrespect to the producers, but I can't say I'm too pleased with this product. I expected something similar to the Starship Construction rules, but for Mechs (or at least a bare bones system, considering the price point).

Instead I got some several pre-made examples of Mechs/Power Armor, plus some bare bones rules for using them in combat.

Also, even though the artwork in it is nice, There are several cases where, in the 44 page count of the product, where the art takes up 1/3 of the pages, and a couple of times where its half or ALL of a page, with no words/game content.

Oh, well, its not like there aren't MANY old Mech construction rules for a d20 game out there, and it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with my own system using them, Starfinder, and this, as source material.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Creator Reply:
Thanks for your review Charles. We'll certainly keep your views in mind going forward.
pixel_trans.gif
Contagion's Kiss
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/05/2017 14:43:38

This was very smoothly entered into a "Arabian" desert campaign and to put it mildly, FUN was had!

As a DM just sit back and watch the party try all the possible ways to get into the keep, just not the obvious one because that seems to easy, except that it would have been the best choice by far...

And then the chains, the chains and the chains. A very good way to keep a party busy for a while, add on top that it puts the real fear of PC death into each and every player, very nicely done! And don't forget the poison. One little mistake two sessions earlier and there you go, a brand new thing to track in a party with no cleric and youre stuck in the middle of the bloody desert.

I would definitely reccomend this module for any game type. It can be easily modified into any setting and will do wonders for a combat or RPG heavy party as the DM can very easily balance the NPC's and puzzles to suit the game tempo and party composition. The adition of creepy into the mix makes it a nice spine chilling adventure, even by daylight!

~Swampy



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Contagion's Kiss
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Chilling Curiosities — A Field Guide
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/24/2017 01:34:42

Excelent piece of work this! It sets the tone for a low level graveyard visit and can add flavour to any haunted house excursion, adding just the right amount of spooky and intrigue. The ranger archetype is also a fresh take on the classical "I protect the forest" cliche.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Chilling Curiosities — A Field Guide
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Chilling Curiosities — A Field Guide
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/03/2016 16:33:56

Another home run from this company! As always outstanding artwork and creative monsters on a double page layout format. Wonderful additions to your horror adventures. I think my farvorite of this group would be the dream stalker, very scary but the helm lurker takes a second place. Wonderful product. keep up the great work. Five Stars. :)



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
Phoenixes — A Field Guide
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/17/2016 20:16:39

I love this product! I have always loved phoenixes even when i was a kid. Conan (the cartoon version) had a phoenix for a friend, Needle, which i always loved. Most bestiares and monster guides usually deal with many types of dragons and while dragons are great, it's nice to see other mythical beasts getting some love and attention. As for this product, the artwork is amazing, the layout is wonderful (in a double page layout) and the types of phoenixes are creative. i am having trouble finding a favorite and they are all wonderful and unique. I absolutely love the choices for the familairs. One of them in fact may have been inspired by the old Conan cartoon. This a wonderful product on par with the Field Guide to Grffins published by the same company. I can't wait to see more. FIVE stars. :)



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Phoenixes — A Field Guide
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Griffins — A Field Guide
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/16/2016 22:53:13

I have always loved monster manuals, I still do, so when this PDF came out i knew it was going to be one that i was going to buy. This product did not disapoint. The artwork is beautiful and top notch. Each of the grffin species is unique and a pleasure to read about as well as being a creative take on different griffin species. I also thought it was a very nice touch that the authorsand artist included pictures of heraldic griffins as a base for the griffins species that they used. You also getinformation on how to take care of the young griffins, an cavalier order and 2 archtypes to round out the PDF as a very nice addtion. The only thing that might turn people away is the price. $6.95 is not a great amount but for some this might be too much for a PDF that some might consider to be fairly short. My advice in regards to this product is to go for it. if you love griffins you will love this product. I do. if the authors and artist decide to do other prodcuts like this with other creatures (and i hope they do), I would like to make a few suggestions. First; if it is possible to have the wonderful artwork on a single page alone and then follow with the stats. Second: two of the enteries have double page artwork which in this PDF, means that i am looking at half of the picture at a time. I feel like i am missing the full effect of the artwork when i have to look at the picutres only a half at a time. Perhapes having a PDF that has a double page style would be better for those pages. Despite those two little things (and they are very little in my opinion), i love this product. I do hope that the authors make more. My suggestions, phoenix, unicorn and pegasus but i would love to see any entry in this new series. Great job and i look forward to more releases like this. FIVE stars :)



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Griffins — A Field Guide
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruCards.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Displaying 16 to 30 (of 32 reviews) Result Pages: [<< Prev]   1  2  3  [Next >>] 
pixel_trans.gif
0 items
 Hottest Titles