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The Soul Tamer - A Dungeon World Playbook $1.99
Average Rating:4.6 / 5
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The Soul Tamer - A Dungeon World Playbook
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The Soul Tamer - A Dungeon World Playbook
Publisher: Sandy Pug Games
by Liam D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/01/2017 17:27:33

I very much enjoy the concept that the book is going for, but I feel like it has a few slight issues, particularly with the way that the process of capturing beasts and subsequently tagging them is elaborated upon. The first thing that stands out to me is that there's no specification as to what tags a player can or cannot give to his beasts within the Your Beasts move itself (although the Advanced Moves "Breeder" and "Deeper Training" seems to imply that they immediately apply, say, 1-armor or +n damage to a beast upon capture). Rather, a player (or better yet, a GM) examining the playbook only receives possible examples of tags in the description for the 6-10 move "Mutation", which implies even still that these abilities listed are for a "higher form" of the original beast. I feel that providing a list of example tags off to the side would be, at the very least, useful for sparking the creativity of the player.

The second issue I've encountered is the severity of a 7-9 on some of the moves in this playbook - most notably, "Capture a Beast". I feel like forcing the player to surrender one of their beasts immediately with no alternative is a bit restrictive, particularly with the fictional explanation. The effort drains them - perhaps either they loosen their control over one of their beasts, or they take a debility of their choice? If you still want to retain the singular option, I'd make the fictional effect of the 7-9 a tad more specific ("On a 7-9, you capture it, but you loosen your hold on another spirit to do so ...").

Lastly, examining the Gear section, I'd like to ask a few questions regarding the options provided. Firstly, is something one of the options listed below? And, if so, could you please elaborate on the usage and purpose of taming gear? Moving on, the weapons options for the class seem rather focused towards ranged combat - was this a purposeful choice, and if so, why are there so many ranged offensive options for beasts under "Mutation"? The armors you provide don't make sense either - why does a "buff coat" weigh one point less than a simple long leather coat (ignoring that both outweigh basic leather armor from the DW book for the same level of protection)? If this is all RAW, then this makes the obvious option for any sensible amount of armor the buff coat. And, finally, the miscellaneous gear: why include trap-making gear to start when the move that validates its use is only immediately accessible at 2nd level? What is the fictional function of the map (is it a map to a location where beasts are known to dwell, of the region overall, ...)?

I apologize if this sounds like excessive nitpicking - I truly enjoy the concept the playbook is trying to evoke, but in its current state I feel there are issues with how the content is being explained and integrated into the fiction of the class.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thank you so much for taking the time to write up your thoughts - not excessive nitpicking at all, I deeply appreciate it. Allow me to address some of my thoughts when making the sheet! The lack of tags is very much a personal thing - when running games myself my players and myself tend very much to prefer a blank slate when designing monsters and the like, and so the lack of explicit tags stems from that - I agree though, that really isn't the way most people play, and I suspect you're correct that a list of tags would greatly help people when designing beasts. Partially this is page space, finding an area to include this is difficult but, I expect, not an unsolvable problem. This second point comes from how I expected the character to be played, with a great deal more Monster turn over. That said, again, you're correct in that the language doesn't properly express what I intended, that one would choose between this monster and the one you would lose. I'll certainly be changing that up for an updated version of this sheet. Lastly, gear. "Something" is just somewhat of a linguistic flare, as in the stuff below is the Something you carry. Its something I've stopped doing for exactly your confusion but its intended to convey that these first three things, you just start off with without choice. The ranged equipment is very much intended, though I have no real justification for the fact that the Mutation also affords ranged options beyond that I envisioned this as a semi-ranged class itself, and the beasts aren't necessarily supposed to supplant that. For the armors I'm afraid that's entirely an oversight - you're correct that it makes little sense and I will fix that asap. Finally, the misc gear - I'd argue the move for trapping merely enables better options, and the trap kit is there for players that wish to start trapping stuff early on, before they get a specialized move for it - a clunky option maybe but one I think I'm happy with. The map is intentionally vague - I've a habit of including one or two 'flavor' items in the gear that's usage and relevancy is down to the player, the map could be a map to anywhere, or of anything, its kind of a meta joke on the "Make maps, leave blanks" phrase too, if you'll allow the artistic flourish. Again I want to thank you for the feedback, I'll take all of this and produce a V2 of this sheet when time permits and set it out to all purchasers. Its genuinely really great to have a chance to revise one of my characters and I, again, really appreciate you taking the time to talk about this stuff. Thank you!
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The Soul Tamer - A Dungeon World Playbook
Publisher: Sandy Pug Games
by Kieran W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/04/2017 14:35:44

Neat book, kinda reminds me of Shin Megami tensei with the summoning and everything. I love customizing stuff so being able to breed new monsters and stuff is cool. Love the art on the book too!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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