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NPCyclopedia: Psionics
by Shane O. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 02/09/2006 00:00:00

NPCyclopedia: Psionics is a new book from Silven Publishing. The zipped file is just under 2.5 megabytes, and contains one file of 4 megs. The book is 176 pages long, including front and back covers, OGL, and table of contents.

The file has a hyperlinked table of contents, as well as bookmarks. Besides the covers, all of the product is in black and white. Each opening entry for a character has a picture of what that character looks like, comprising the only art in the book (again, covers notwithstanding). There is no printer-friendly version, but save for some light gray shading and a box at the edge of each page identifying the section that you?re in, this isn?t much of a concern.

NPCyclopedia: Psionics is, as the name suggests, a book of NPCs with psionic themes. Interestingly, not all of the characters are necessarily psionicists, however. Rather, all use something thematically psionic, such as a single-classed cleric who is a maenad. Most of the characters use some sort of psionic class though, such as the half-elven monk who takes levels in the psionic fist PrC, or a half-giant psychic warrior.

A short introduction (less than half a page) opens the book. It talks briefly about how the characters can be used as a recurring NPCs, or as possible PCs for players who want a psionic character and/or don't want to build one from the ground up.

Eleven characters are featured in total. Each character entry opens with their name, and then their race and class. Following this is a description of the general role they fulfill (such healer, tank, manipulator, etc.), and then the character?s history. The histories are quite inspiring, explaining how the character?s choice affect how they level up later in their careers, and linking them to the other characters in the book. A few paragraphs of adventure hooks are then given, along with several paragraphs of tactics. These tactics sections are quite in-depth, as they span what the characters can do over their entire leveling careers. Finally, any special notes to remember are given.

After that, each character has stat blocks given for each level, from 1 to 20, with few exceptions (the exceptions are for special characters, such as a doppelganger who only gains 17 levels since he?s already a CR 3 creature). Each character has a new feat, items, or psionic power, which is tucked away between the myriad stat blocks, usually after the first stat block where they acquire it.

The appendix at the end of the product collects all of the aforementioned new material and reprints it there for easy reference. Altogether, the product has ten new feats, six new items, and one new psionic power. While there isn?t much new material here, the quality of this section is truly exceptional. Not necessarily all of the feats are psionic, for example, but all are useful, such as the Enthusiastic Familiar feat, which lets your familiar (or any class-based companion) improve according to your total character level, instead of your class level. This section is almost worth the cost of the book on its own.

All in all, this book is an excellent choice for a DM seeking to use psionics in their game. All of the psionic classes and races are used, along with other characters that are at least tangentially psionic in nature, the rules are finely tuned and presented very insightfully, and the new material is superb. NPCyclopedia: Psionics is a book that presentation is eclipsed only by its usefulness. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The character backgrounds were engaging and tied together very well. Also, the new material presented here was excellently designed, both in terms of being cool and filling in niches where they'd be useful, but not overpowering.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There was virtually nothing I didn't like about this product, save that it left me wanting more after I was finished reading it.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
NPCyclopedia: Psionics
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Skinwalker
by Jim C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/03/2006 00:00:00

The Green Mark logging firm has earned the murderous ire of an attacker who can take the shape of anyone he kills. As his spree continues, the local law calls on the FBI who find themselves not well equipped to deal with the situation.

If the PCs get involved (and the GM is advised to mock them mercilessly if they won't) they face a series of gruesome, chilling and very dangerous attacks from a deadly magician.

The adventure provides a strong base of detail and interconnected NPCs for the party to investigate. There's a particularly solid description of how Texas and federal law enforcement would work such a case.

For me, the decision early in the design process to make the villain a D&D druid was a serious mistake and will be a lot of work to re-engineer before I use this adventure.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Skinwalker magic is well researched, though the implementation is focused on the needs of the adventure.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: D&D Druids, D&D Druidic Irish people, D&D plant-creature Wild Hunt. It's just a bad, bad idea.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Skinwalker
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Modern Dispatch (#34): Party Crashers
by Jim C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/03/2006 00:00:00

Here's a detailed description (with map) of a high-class get together at the country club. Here are the great and the good of Pinebox with their complex pasts, their shaky allegiances and their dirty secrets. Here are the PCs, provided they can find their way in to this high society.

Here's a 20-foot-tall red devil guy. Fight!

Sometimes it seems as if 12 to Midnight are Elmore Leonard who, when he gets excited, is suddenly possessed by Ed Wood. Ridiculous. I suppose if you need a country club party, or a red devil guy, you could use half of this PDF.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Modern Dispatch (#34): Party Crashers
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NPCyclopedia: Psionics
by Peter I. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 01/31/2006 00:00:00

NPCyclopedia: Psionics is the latest mammoth offering from Silven Publishing, and contains 176 pages of psionic NPCs and stat blocks. The product contains a single fully-bookmarked pdf, light on color which makes printing of the desired parts of the pdf easier. The product is aimed at psionic campaigns or adventures, whether DMs wish to incorporate psionics into their campaigns, or whether they wish to expand current non-psionic adventures with psionic NPCs. Eleven NPCs are detailed in this product, each with full stat blocks from level 1 to 20, meaning that there are a total of 220 stat blocks in the pdf that should cater for most psionic campaigns or adventures. As such, it's a very useful resource even if you ignore the background material on each NPC and simply use the stat blocks provided.

The cover and interior art is by Pablo Palomeque, all which is good although the resolution of the interior art made it look grainy and pixelated on a high resolution monitor. The pdf starts with a brief introduction on how to use this book, although most DMs and even players will find a use for this book that suits their needs. Psionic adventures and psionic campaigns are not widely supported in the current market, so this is definitely something that those interested in psionics may want to take a look at. Layout and presentation was good, although there were a number of minor editing errors throughout the pdf.

The eleven NPCs are all provided with a detailed background, adventure hooks and tactics. Only in one instance was more detail given on a NPCs motivations and personality, something I felt was missing from this pdf. The background information was interesting but did not reveal as much about the NPCs as I would've liked and a dedicated section describing the personality of the NPC would've made this much more useful. While the artwork was good as well, there was very little in the way of descriptions for each of the NPCs, even such mundane things as hair or eye color, clothing and dress was missing. One can speculate about whether the intent was to keep this as generic as possible or not, but for NPCs I always appreciate more detail that gives the NPC character rather than history and mechanics.

The NPCs in this pdf all have some form of connected background, most tying in the 'good' NPCs' with the 'evil' NPCs or villians. I though this was a good way of handling the different backgrounds by providing an overriding story arc that can be used. It would've been more useful, however, if a summary of this could've been provided because while the backgrounds are connected, it's not always totally clear how. As an example, Alkorn Svehold joins up with Groven Sandstorm to bring Skagul, a dromite, to justice. Later in Alkorn's life he meets Shadra Illiesko and together they fight against the drow and the telepath Ilexsar. The latter in her past has an encounter with the duergar, Thargran Mindsplitter, who joins Shadra in fighting the drow. Other similar, though not so intricate details tie the other NPCs together.

The backgrounds to each of the NPCs are generally good and enjoyable to read and offer DMs or players a lot of useful information to use, including plot hooks and story elements for a campaign. Each NPC is also detailed with tactics, and suggestions are given as to how the NPCs handle combat at different levels, which abilities they prefer to use, and what feats or spells they favor. Constant reminders are also scattered throughout this section to remind those reading the tactics to remember various abilities or feats that are useful to the NPC. In addition to all this material a number of new feats or spells are also included where relevant, but also summarized in the appendix.

The following NPCs are included in this pdf: maenad cleric, elan wizard/psion (shaper/cerebremancer), half-giant psychic warrior, drow psion (telepath), half-orc psion (egoist), half-elf monk/psionic fist, xeph soulknife/pyrokineticist, doppleganger psion/thralherd, human rogue/psion (nomad)/elocater, dromite wilder, and a duergar ranger/psion (egoist)/slayer. As can be seen from the list there's a good variety of different races and classes that go well with the backgrounds and details provided. Stat blocks were generally good, although there were quite a number of minor errors, some of them carrying through from one stat block to another as the NPC progresses in level. Most of these are minor, and include incorrect attack bonuses, BAB, grapple checks, AC and so forth. For the most part, everything appeared accurate and well-put together.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This is a very valuable resource product for any psionic orientated game, providing a wide variety of psionic NPC material at different levels. The immense amount of stat blcoks is incredibly useful. The NPCs are well-detailed in background and tactics, and provide enough information to run a solid encounter using them.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not enough detail was provided on the character and personality of the NPCs, nor on their descriptions and notable features. There are a number of errors in various stat blocks, although they shouldn't be noticable in play to the casual observer.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
NPCyclopedia: Psionics
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Hussle
by Robin C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/23/2006 00:00:00

A great little adventure in a small town where things are not as they seem, and are about to heat up in unplanned ways. Some neat new ideas that were great fun to run.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Hussle
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Modern Dispatch (#41): Fallen
by Jim C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/13/2006 00:00:00

The heroes are called upon to trace a desperate man who has spotted a legendary creature in the woods. This short modern adventure leads to moderate physical danger and a strange discovery that is likely to spark further investigations.

The background assumes some conspiracy/cryptozoological events in the game but the adventure can run without them. The earlier Dispatch #38: Big Thicket Adventures would be helpful to describe the setting and add side encounters.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Modern Dispatch (#41): Fallen
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Flatlands: Modern Tiles and Tokens Megaset 1
by Chris J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/06/2006 00:00:00

Nice artwork, a great selection of vehicles and items counters in several different styles. The character counters are all 2D and only show head and shoulders, so there's no kit-bashing potential for people who prefer fold-up figures. But the counters are replicated in multiple styles, and a selection of blank counters are included for enterpising GMs to adapt.

The floorplan textures are OK, though I would have liked to have seen a wider range of interior floor textures. The furniture counters are great.

The vehicles are great but limited to Police, Humvees of various styles and Blackhawk helicopters. Some civilian vehicles would have been very useful.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Attractive graphics, lots of stuff here for your $$$<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The 3 interior textures are all crammed together on one sheet, whereas all the exterior textures have a sheet to themselves.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Flatlands: Modern Tiles and Tokens Megaset 1
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Modern Dispatch (#38): Big Thicket Adventures
by Jim C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/28/2005 00:00:00

The description of the Big Thicket itself was probably of greatest use and interest to me. El Chupacabras and a description of the effects of rabies are useful among the creature descriptions and the Confederate gold hunting adventure is well developed.

Unfortunately this product sees yet another different usage of the term "revenant".<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Modern Dispatch (#38): Big Thicket Adventures
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Libem Liborium: The Complete d20 Guide to Books
by Robin C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/28/2005 00:00:00

This is THE single most useful reference you can have to explore and expand upon literacy and knowledge dissemination in your campaign world. It's also helpful if your players enjoy collecting books and knowledge. The feats were very interesting. Useful spells and magic items as well. Very well done!<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Very thourough coverage of most everything related to books in a FRP setting that I could think of.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Compaired to the value of other books I've purchased here, it's bit pricey. I had it wishlisted for months before it went on sale. While I'm glad I got the book, I'm also glad I didn't pay full price.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Libem Liborium: The Complete d20 Guide to Books
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Creator Reply:
I am delighted to know that you enjoyed the book and found it useful! As you mentioned the quality of material we publish is very high, and this is no coincidence. The reason our books are pricier than most here at RPGnow is that we put down far more than the production values normally associated with PDF production in order to get them to the quality they are at.
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The Pun is Mightier than the Sword
by Josh B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 11/23/2005 00:00:00

I have fond memories of some of the earlier Xanth novels. I worship Terry Pratchett as a minor deity. All of which is just a long-winded way of saying that I like humorous fantasy. So the promises made by books like The Pun is Mightier Than the Sword attract me like a moth to the flame.

Not that everything in the book is slapstick, or even funny for that matter. The feats in particular are presented as rather standard fare, with an effect adapted from the name. I'd be at a loss if asked to explain how some of them actually work, and you may not always agree with what effect the writers have assigned to a given saying, but they're all presented as normal feats.

The spells provide us with a bit more in the silliness department. It's also here that we encounter some sayings which are a little more modern and culture specific. All Your Base Are Belong to Us is a perfect example; it did certainly seem to catch on widely, but the actual audience was fairly limited to internet/geek culture. There's nothing wrong with this, but for gamers of more recent vintage, among others, might miss the references.

Many of the spells are both amusing and useful. High on Life ranks among my personal favorites, as if Kentucky Fried. As for Light as a Feather... let's just say that the other half of that particularly saying is missing from the spell lists.

Chapter three is given over to items. Here I was a bit disappointed with the jury rig, as they just limited it to traps rather than making it something that applied to all devices. The rest of the chapter features such items as the slapstick, the uglystick and just to prove everyone wrong ? the free lunch.

There are four new prestige classes ? the all around handy jack of all trades, the not always so funny jokesmith, the spit and polished knight in shining armor, and the proverbial proverbial. Some of these have fairly powerful abilities; particularly the ability of the jack of all trades to stack prestige class levels to class levels for a number of class abilities.

As a bonus, a brief appendix provides information on a few spells from two of the publisher's other products.

I didn't always agree with the writer's interpretations of a given saying. I also would have liked a little more slapstick to some of the selections, but at the same time that lack of outright goofiness makes the product usable in a wider variety of games.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Lots of fun new toys.

Nature's Calling.

For such a short product, it's well bookmarked and has a hyperlinked table of contents.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The cover of the print version is just the cover for the screen version turned grayscale ? which isn't all that printer friendly.

Some of the feats just seemed inexplicable.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Pun is Mightier than the Sword
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Races of Twilight: The Green
by Gregory H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/31/2005 00:00:00

The race presented here is given a great deal of background and well-thought-out game mechanics. I'm not sure how I feel about the prospects of a series based upon races that are dying off, but it works well enough for this particular example. Still, there was something... predictable about the whole thing.

Overall it was well-done. It just wasn't overly exciting like some other series of new races that are out there currently. It really just comes down to whether a race of treant-like beings is something that you are interested in having spelled out for you in your game world. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Easy to read, plenty of background and history.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It's just that nothing particularly jumped out and grabbed me about it. It was OK... but there was no feeling of something special. Perhaps it was a bit predictable given the base material.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Races of Twilight: The Green
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Green's Guide to Ghosts
by Joseph B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/29/2005 00:00:00

12 to Midnight is fast becoming one of my favorite game companies. I love everything they do, from their epic d20 Modern horror adventures like Bloodlines and Last Rites of the Blackguard, to their Pinebox Texas campaign setting. Green?s Guide to Ghosts is no different.

If RPGObjects?s Blood and Spooks is Ghostbusters, that Green?s Guide to Ghosts is the SciFi Channel?s reality show Ghost Hunters. In fact, these two books compliment each other nicely with very little overlap. There?s a little more fluff than crunch in this book, but it works and it?s good campaign building stuff. The dozens of plot hooks and adventure ideas alone are worth the price of admission. I really like the Lost Soul template, which can be customized to fit the particular type and power of ghost you want in your adventure: Lesser Manifestation, Poltergeist, Atmospheric Ball of Energy (ABE), Phantom and Dominating Spirit. Other nice touches include a table of twenty random s?ance events and a lexicon of ghost hunting terminology, most with an adventure idea as well! There?s also a very simple, elegant mechanic for exorcism that any character can use.

Green?s Guide to Ghosts is an excellent addition to any d20 Modern horror campaign. In fact, that can be said of everything 12 to Midnight releases. And this just may be the only time you see a New York City Liberal singing the high praises of anything from out of Texas! (Yes I caught the Modern Dispatch #34 in-joke: Kerry McGovern indeed!)

Only joking - keep up the great work, guys, and I look forward to seeing more! <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Green's Guide to Ghosts
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Brainwashed
by Shane O. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/28/2005 00:00:00

Brainwashed is a Modern d20 adventure by 12 to Midnight Games. While it is meant to be used with their Fear Effects product, there is no major loss if you don?t own that book; the game still runs just as well.

Looking at the technical aspects of the product, it already begins to make an excellent showing of itself. It has a full (non-hyperlinked) table of contents, and bookmarks. The zip file comes with an illustrated file, and a printer-friendly version that has no illustrations or maps. The printer-friendly version is thus eight pages shorter.

The basic premise of Brainwashed is that the PCs are investigators of some sort. When people in a small town attend a rave out at an old hippy farm, they suddenly don?t want to leave. In fact, most go home only once or twice to rave about how they?ve found enlightenment before returning to the farm. One man, concerned for his son, calls the PCs in. Things get steadily creepier from there.

The product opens with the story of how this adventure came to be, along with the ubiquitous (but still very helpful) necessities of suggested levels, GM background, plot summary, etc.

The adventure itself is broken down into three sections: Investigating the old farm?s background, infiltrating the grounds, and the final showdown. Each section is broken down into various sub-sections, each of which has a handy reminder at the end about things that the GM should be sure to have done to help advance the plot; essentially a checklist of what each section is supposed to bring to the adventure as a whole.

After the adventure are three appendices. The first one lists the major NPCs met during the adventure, with full stats, a description, and quotes of things that NPC would say. The second appendix details new creatures and items. The third appendix contains information such as scaling the adventure, and player hand-outs and maps (the player handouts are quite well done, and the maps are very nice also).

All in all, Brainwashed is an excellent adventure. It gives the GM all the tools necessary to run it, and provides helpful notations and tips to boot. Everything that could be done has been done, and done well. Anyone running a Modern campaign with supernatural horror will do very well to find a place in their game for Brainwashed. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: I liked how each sub-section had reminders for the GM of what the PCs were supposed to gain from that section. I liked the beautiful player handouts and maps.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There was very little I disliked about this product. I felt that the revelation was slightly contrived only that it required the villain to explain it to the heroes.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Brainwashed
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Mitarra: The Agenda of Itherelle: Centipedes!
by Mark G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/27/2005 00:00:00

?Mitarra: The Agenda of Itherelle: Centipedes!? is a 64 page adventure/sourcebook for 1st level characters. The adventure takes place in the country of Mitarra. It is a human civilization secluded from the rest of the world and in a point in its history where the humanoid races (orcs, goblins, kobolds, gnome, halflings, dwarves) are but creatures of myth and legend. There are limits on the availability of metal and discussions regarding the appropriateness of some classes. It is said that this setting can be placed in a larger pre-existing setting, however without a map of Mitarra its hard to see how this region would fit in your larger game world.

The product itself is divided into 3 sections, Section 1 - the Adventure, Section 2 ? Monsters, NPCs, and other goodies, and Section 3 ? Mitarra.

The adventure itself is roughly 40 pages and involves the defense of your home town, overland travel, investigation of a ghost town, encounters with mythical humanoids and the discover of a forbidden city. There is a good range interaction, investigation and combat encounter to keep the gameplay fresh. Although there are a couple optional encounters, the overall quest is quite linear in its design. With the heroes expected to do A then B then C. There are suggestions in place for, ?What if the PCs say ?No?? but the advice breaks down to either a) appeal to their greed or b) give the job to someone else (which sort of aborts the module). Throughout the module there is extensive suggestions for the GM to make the playing of the module smoother including two variants to handle the large opening battle (we used the scripted version), information on the religions near where they talk to the Archbishop, information for scavenging iron ore, meta-game information, battle tactics, getting lost in the wilderness, and social interaction/violence with an outlaw village. There is no advice for awarding experience in the non-combat or combat portions. The ending ends passively with, ?I?ve got something I?d like to discuss with you sometime in the next few days,? essentially having the PCs waiting to be sent on a next mission instead of a more cliffhanger like ending.

The second section includes a magical item, a new spell, monster and npc statistics. The magic item is a flute that can be used to partially control vermin, the spell a variant of stinking cloud with a non-standard duration, and the monsters represent most of the creatures potentially encountered in this module (see below). The NPCs look extremely well done with care given to adjust statistics that are affected by equipment such as chainmail reducing an enemies speed. Another nice feature that I haven?t seen before is the inclusion of attack bonuses to spells such as acid splash (+0 ranged touch) to make it easier for the GM to use them without having to refer to another source (though it would have been fantastic if they had include the damage such as acid splash (+0 ranged touch, 1d3 acid). A number of sample Npc humans are also included that could be used as support characters over even pre-gens.

The last section of the book weighing in at 10 pages details the default setting for this campaign (since this is part one). It provides a general overview, history, religion, churches, military, justice, grand families, technology, classes, geography, Ravennora (where the adventure starts), Iron Hollow (the ghost town), and the Agenda itself. All these sections do a good job of conveying what you need to now to make the setting authentic to your players. What I would have like to have seen is a one page primer that could be given to players to assist them in making their characters. I found the section a little lacking in the area of classes because some of the elements that link to the setting seem suggest rule changes without stating them, such as sorcerers are considered blessed by the gods and are adopted and trained by the church (should Knowledge (religion) be a class skill for them in this setting?). Languages possessed another problem, with elves being very distant and other intelligent humanoid races being myths I had trouble picking languages for my more intelligent characters.

One of the biggest problems I have with this product is in its sloppy editing/design. There are several mistakes that routinely pop up as you are playing this adventure. One of the first things I noticed was the meddling of boxed text (read aloud) with general instructions such as one section that reads, ?When the fight is over and the dead and wounded are being tended, Captain Laskaris approaches the PCs. ?Good Work.? she says, adding worthy praise for whatever specific PC actions warrant it.? Secondly, there are some logical errors like having the PC provided with longspears to throw at the attacking Centipedes, even though they have no range increment or having one group (not the PCs) fight an Advanced Large Centipede for which no statistics are provided. Thirdly, while I appreciate the inclusion of monster statistics in the module it would have been nice for them to be clearly identified in the encounter like this:

2 Spider Swarms (9,11 hp)

and for the statistics of the creatures to be correct. All of the monsters statistics were copied and pasted from the SRD and not time or care was taken to make sure they were consistent with current errata such as the spider swarm not listing that it is immune to weapon damage (as a diminutive swarm it should be) or a viper having Weapon Finesse. Also there are sections copied that make no sense such as this comment, ?Many different creatures can mass as swarms; bat swarms, centipede swarms, hellwasp swarms, locust swarms, and spider swarms are described here.? except only the spider swarm is described because its the only one that is needed. There are a number of sloppy errors like the kobold mine shaft (E) is actually labeled A, the kobold guarding it wears leather armour in its description and chainmail in its statistics, and the npc list features Bilis Kadabron as the only level 1 Bard of course he?s listed as the only level 1 cleric as well. Finally, the maps are very small with a difficult to read font and no scale for the maps is provided. All of these things really hurt the modules presentation.

Overall, I plan to return to Mitarra with our now level 2 characters to ?The Caves of Crystals? and I think my players won?t be opposed to returning either. Though I hope some of the editing on the second release is clean-up so as to reduce my initial prep-time.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: - advice provided to new GMs

  • variety of encounter types
  • notation of attack bonuses for spells<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - adventure is quite linear
  • many editing issues detailed above<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>


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[3 of 5 Stars!]
Mitarra: The Agenda of Itherelle: Centipedes!
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for the detailed review Mark, we will be revisiting design and editing issues when we come out with the second book and taking your suggestions for improvement. Thanks again!
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Brainwashed
by James H. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/26/2005 00:00:00

Aesthetically pleasing as well as both witty and well-written, as an adventure module, Brainwashed does not fail to please. Weighing in at 39 pages (or at 31 pages in the included ?printer-friendly? edition), Brainwashed was specifically designed to showcase the 12 to Midnight OGL sanity rules found in Fear Effects, serving as a means to introduce those rules to your players. My experiences with the product follow.

I?ve tried to sum up the adventure?s basic plot line here without spoiling too much of the charm inherent to discovering such things on your own. The basics are as follows: Several members of a hippy commune in East Texas have dug up something in their field. Something bad. Something alien. Something that has enslaved their minds and turned these once peaceful people into violent maniacs. When a young boy becomes wrapped up in the cult-like activities going on up at the commune, you are tapped to investigate.

Sprinkled with cattle mutilations, poisoned fruit punch, tin foil hats and other bits of conspiracy theory pop culture, at first glance you might assume that Brainwashed is yet another schlock conspiracy theory adventure - but that would be an assumption made in error. By presenting these tropes in a serious context rather playing them up as humorous in-jokes, Brainwashed manages to convey a tone of urgency that many other such conspiracy-oriented adventures fail to capture.

As an engaging modern horror adventure, Brainwashed is well worth the admission price of $6.50. As a showcase for 12 to Midnight?s Fear Effects, it is slightly less impressive, but will serve as a good introduction to that product?s insanity rules for your players. Brainwashed is disturbing, atmospheric, fun that shouldn?t be overlooked by those with a genuine interest in Horror as a genre, or in modern conspiracy adventures.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The tin foil hats, cattle mutiliations, and other pop culture conspiracy references being executed 'straight' rather than as in-jokes. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing, really. I was honestly impressed with all of it.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Brainwashed
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