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Cyclops, manticore, medusa, hydra... Greek myths and legends gave ‘the world’s oldest role-playing game’ (and its successor Pathfinder) some of its most iconic monsters and creatures.

Jason and the Argonauts. Troy. Clash of the Titans (either version). Greek myths and legends have also given the visual imaginations of modern culture, and modern gamers, some of their most iconic images and scenes.

Now, this reasonably-priced release by Little Red Goblin Games has given the PFRPG community the tools and gear they need to portray the iconic heroes who fought those monsters and ‘lived’ those scenes. ;)

Personally, I find great appeal in the images of a band of heroes in bronze breastplates, wielding hoplon shields and armed with spears and xiphos shortswords, especially if they’re duking it out with a hydra, or shooting arrows at a chimera while riding a pegasus or griffon, so having the tools to replicate those images is a great satisfaction to me. I’m even tempted to use this toolkit to overlay Greek trappings onto the famed Rise of the Runelords AP.

Fair warning: there are some minor typos scattered throughout the text, and one occasion where a piece of crunch is cut-off mid-sentence, apparent victim of a cut-and-paste error. Speaking for myself, I’m OCD enough about such things that I can’t give Odyssey the full five stars; at the moment, I’m awarding it four-and-a-half stars, rounded down to fit within DriveThru’s set-up. (If LRGG release an updated/corrected version, I’ll re-assess then... /subtle hint ;) .) That said, I’m one of those grammar-enforcers that everyone despises; if your primary concern is finding tools for adding awesome Greek flavour to a Pathfinder game, you really should pick up this supplement. ;D

THE GOOD: The class has some creative ideas behind it. It essentially uses an extra pool of HP as a spell point system, using the HP instead of spell levels. This gives it enviable flexibility, and the added benefit of some resilience, as the extra HP can be used to avoid death blows. There are some interesting limitations on when the pool can be formed and how it can be replenished when spent. (The usual method of replenishment is an at-will ranged touch attack that drains the HP of the target into the pool.)

THE BAD: The class is missing too much information to actually be used. Hit dice, class skills, weapon & armor proficiencies, even the key ability for the spellcasting is all missing. Most of the extra abilities key off of Intelligence, so presumably that would be it, and if the base attack can be trusted for the hit dice, it would be d6. The Soul Ward ability (the spell point pool) mentions that it starts half full each day, but then later says it can only be replenished via soul drain and consume soul. This same section also mentions preparing spells for the day at the same time as the soul ward is reformed, but the spellcasting section states that the class is a spontaneous caster rather than prepared. The class is also incredibly strong; the spell point pool means you can use higher level spells more frequently, but having a ranged touch attack that restores "spell slots" on a 1-for-1 basis with damage dealt is incredible, even if the ranged touch attack itself isn't badly damaging- by the time you can quicken spells, you can fairly consistently get back your spell's points the same turn you cast. This also breaks one of the limits on metamagic- since there isn't a limit on how much HP you can spend to cast a spell, you can use powerful metamagics like quicken on your highest level spells as soon as you get them, instead of having to wait until you had a higher-level spell slot to spend. The at-will touch attack deals "unholy" damage, which isn't resisted by any creatures, spells or magic items that I know of, and on a failed save, it inflicts a negative level (and does this at level 1). Negative levels stack with one another, kill just about anything when equal to their HD, and are generally wicked business. The ability also doesn't state whether the negative levels are permanent or temporary- for NPCs and monsters this won't really matter, but for PCs facing an enemy bokor, this difference can have serious consequences. The class also gets the ability to consume souls at 4th level, which allows them to replenish their spell point pool when a nearby creature dies. Normal enough, but it also prevents the creature from resurrecting without 9th level magic... more of a danger to PCs if facing an enemy bokor at low-level, or DMs partial to returning villains. They also get the ability to create undead rather cheaply, paying 1 spell point per HD to cast animate/create undead as a spell-like ability, therefore bypassing the need for the usual onyx gems. The class is remarkably spartan for a Pathfinder class, as well- there are four dead levels where nothing is gained, and most of the levels are simply increases to the touch attack damage or new spell levels.

Overall: I like the feel of the core mechanics and would love to experiment with the spell point system, but it's missing too much info and is far too powerful for me as it is. If the info gets fixed, my rating goes up to two stars for being fairly interesting.

This product contains two new base classes with full 20-level progressions -- the Noble, a master of rhetoric and charm, and the Skirmisher, who prides himself on fighting creatively.

Before I explain my rating, I want to note that LRGG really does deserve some credit for making this product "pay what you want," in that even supporting the developers just a little bit can't hurt you that much and is worth doing if you're the least bit curious about the content of this rules packet. On the other hand, though, it's also a gesture that says "we're not really confident in estimating the value of this product, and we hope you have just as bad an idea as we do." The danger of selling products like this on a pay-what-you-want basis is that you could pay a little and feel like it was money well spent to sate your curiosity, but you could also overpay significantly and feel a bit slighted. Having a discrete price point would give potential readers a much better idea of what they're getting into.

So, what WOULD be a good price for this product, then? I'd suggest about $2.50, give or take, as it has a bit less content and much lower production values than other base class packets available from DrivethruRPG, like LJP's Machinesmith, or TPK Games' Deductionist. To be specific, there are two classes contained in this packet, but neither of them is accompanied by any supporting material; there are no archetypes or even any racial favored class bonus options listed. The Skirmisher has a few feats, but otherwise this makes both classes a bit thin on options compared to other products and Paizo's own base and core classes, and thus a bit of a hard sell. I feel like I'd have preferred it if each class were sold separately in their own packet, with expanded supporting material included to make them more fully-featured. As this product is currently sold, I feel like I've bought a half each of two different products.

Meanwhile, the writing and formatting are a bit on the sloppy side. To give an idea of how bare-bones the packet is, there is no introduction -- it drops you right into the Noble's class entry as if you'd paged to the middle of a core rulebook. The body content of the packet takes a two-column format with a neat, period-appropriate backdrop and font -- the graphic design is just lovely -- but the sidebars are denoted by the same headers as class abilities, with only the word "Sidebar>> " to denote otherwise. It seems like a bug, like whoever was editing this just didn't get the memo to apply the "Sidebar" style to everything marked "Sidebar>>". Apart from that, the ability descriptions are mostly clear, but then after having these very elegant line breaks to put the reader in the Noble's cultured mindset, the level-up tables are unformatted, basic, solid black line tables. It all gives the impression that the editing and formatting are all somehow half-finished.

To discuss further we need to look at both the classes in turn.

NOBLE The Noble is a class based around wit, charm, other social skills, and morale. It features a d8 hit die, good will, bad reflex, bad fortitude, 4 skill points per level, and proficiency with light armor and everything through martial weapons. Perplexingly, despite having a d8 hit die, it has the bad base attack bonus progression -- +10 at level 20. For those wondering exactly what I'm harping about, one of the conventions Paizo established in the transition from 3.5 to Pathfinder was to tie base attack bonus to hit die, meaning that d6 has +10, d8 has +15, and d10/d12 have +20. It might seem like a nitpick, but the discrepancy feels a bit sloppy. Even disregarding the convention, it feels like a mistake given all of the Noble's combat proficiencies and abilities, and this class should be operating on the +15 attack bonus.

The Noble's role otherwise is very strongly skill and social skill-based, benefiting strongly from a high Intelligence for more skill points and a high Charisma for better Diplomacy. The core of a Noble's class abilities is the use of social skill checks, including the ability to impose morale damage on an opponent as a sort of alternative rule to nonlethal damage; thus, demoralizing an opponent into dropping their weapons is not only a possibility, but key to how a Noble operates in a fight, essentially monologuing his opponents into submission. Otherwise, it gets substantial bonuses to social skills, a number of social feats, and a few perks regarding teamwork feats, operating as a leader-type in a similar position to a Bard.

This class leaves me a bit torn. On one hand, I like the idea of having a class that can represent a social character like this, and I'm a sucker for a class that can literally monologue opponents into submission. I think the concepts behind morale damage are very applicable, and I think the foothold on Teamwork feats is very strong. On the other hand, the mechanics behind how the Noble does morale damage are either extremely weak or outrageously broken, depending on how a GM chooses to run the game.

For instance, it specifies that the "Talk Down" ability requires the Noble to simply make a Diplomacy check, DC of 15+target's hit die+target's Wisdom modifier. Opponents need to be able to hear and understand you for it to work, and they need an intelligence greater than 3 to appreciate your scathing remarks. If it succeeds, they deal a number of morale damage depending on their level, comparable to a Rogue's sneak attack damage in scale. There are no limits to how often this can be done, and the rules packet doesn't specify what kind of action it is -- simply that it DOESN'T count as an attack action, but does count as a Diplomacy check. So, either this is a standard action, per the "Request" use of the Diplomacy skill, or it's an "Influence Attitude," and therefore takes a full minute to do. Or, since talking is a free action, that might mean this, too, is a free action. It's all very unclear, but given how enormous skill check bonuses can get even WITHOUT the Noble's perks to Diplomacy, you're almost guaranteed to nail an opponent equal to your CR every time. Morale damage compounds with lethal damage the way that nonlethal damage does, so even at low levels a Noble with a stiff tongue can tear through opponents' morale quickly.

What's especially troubling is that there's no supplemental material for the morale mechanics apart from all the ways the Noble does damage. There's no way to heal morale damage, for instance, and there's no way to protect against it or reduce it. Other classes have nothing to contribute in the way of doing morale damage (though lethal damage is complimentary to it). Maybe worse than ANY of that, try and imagine turning the tables around and pitting a party against a Noble and some flunkies, and inflicting morale damage on the party -- how do you explain the party just dropping all their weapons before the scathing rhetoric, even if they wouldn't NORMALLY be in danger of losing? Shouldn't that decision be up to the players, and not this mechanic? If you rule it that way, then who's to say the Noble's word has any power anywhere?

Bear in mind that this is regarding just one mechanic introduced via the Noble; there are several other abilities that raise questions, like "Disarming," which allows the Noble to attempt a disarm maneuver using Diplomacy instead of CMB. Rules-wise this is explained clearly, but in-character there's no explanation given.

All in all I like the flavor and the idea of the Noble a lot more than I like LRGG's execution of it. It's nothing if not extremely creative, and the class is about well-rounded enough for play, but the holes in the morale system and the use of social skills in combat leave this in need of another design pass.

I could suggest two changes that would make this feasible to run, both in different directions:

A) Drop the morale damage system and instead impose a morale penalty system, making the Noble an offensive equivalent to the Bard, who imposes morale bonuses. This would be a lot more consistent with established conventions for the use of "morale" in combat, and when you want to go really extreme you can have the Noble cause opponents to become frightened, sickened, or shaken. Leverage those status conditions -- the idea that you can nauseate someone by talking at them is hilarious and fun.

B) Keep morale damage, but make it so that the Noble can only use it once per opponent in a day -- regardless of whether it succeeds or fails, the Noble can only attempt it one time on an opponent, and then can't do it again for 24 hours. What this does for the morale damage system is turn it from a nonlethal sneak attack damage crank with no limits into something that requires timing and precision to do effectively, the idea being that you want to try and use Talk Down SPECIFICALLY to finish an opponent off. This can be likened to how a Rogue needs to either get a solid flank or else get an opponent flatfooted in order to rack up sneak attack damage, which is an apt comparison since Talk Down's damage goes up the way Sneak Attack damage does. Otherwise, it would be a good idea to find some kind of rhythm to how the Noble is able to deliver morale damage; right now it just feels like a big beatstick.

Either of these would be a good start, though I'd lean towards dropping morale damage entirely as it's just too abstract and uneven. If I can't confidently or fairly apply it AGAINST players, then it probably shouldn't be a mechanic.

SKIRMISHER The Skirmisher features a d10 hit die, a +20 BAB progression, good reflex, bad fortitude and will, 4 skill points per level, and a mess of skills to go with it. They've got light armor, bucklers, and anything up through martial weapons at their disposal. It's essentially a mobility-based fighter class, designed to run around a battlefield and hit as many different enemies as possible, as hard as possible.

The crux of this class lies in two mechanics: Skirmishing, and Creativity. Skirmishing is essentially a series of bonuses applied to attacks and damage done while the Skirmisher is moving. Unlike other classes, they can spread their attacks between as many enemies as they can run between on a full action. The Creativity ability is perhaps not so well-named, but interesting. Essentially, when you roll an attack, you can turn the die to a side adjacent to the one you rolled as long as it's lower. In exchange for taking the lower roll, if you do hit, you get a special bonus depending on which number you picked -- usually bad status... so long as you can substantiate the attack with a bit of roleplay explaining how you do it.

Oddly enough, neither of these aspects are the Skirmisher's problem. Over time a Skirmisher can get up to an 80 foot move speed, and the bonus they get to damage while skirmishing gets to be +10. In the meantime, they also get a goodly selection of combat feats as well as an innate bonus to critical hit range and multipliers. They get the benefits of critical focus while skirmishing... so, at level 1, with an un-enchanted scimitar, they've already got a 15-20/X2 critical. Over time, this'll become a 13-20/X4 and they'll be doing four attacks at everything within a generous 80 foot move speed.

This is all without anything done on the player's part to commit towards their character build. For a fighter to be comparable, he'd need dodge, mobility, spring attack, a set of boots of speed, a specific weapon with critical focus, and a pile of feats focused on amping up damage. This class can forego all of those and just go straight for power attack with a two-handed weapon, or two-weapon fighting to add more targets. Toe to toe on a full attack they're more powerful than a fighter by a ridiculously wide margin, so it hardly matters.

What I'm saying is that the concept is solid but the passives are all way too much, especially the crit boosts. It was MORE than enough to just have a fighter and add Skirmishing bonuses to damage and the Creativity ability. It'd make a great archetype. It DOES make a great archetype, in fact, called Mobile Fighter, which presents both a more flexible and more balanced means of doing the same thing. As this class is, though, it's outrageously overpowered.

CONCLUSION If you're curious about the Noble it's worth putting down a few bucks, but as it is neither of these is something I'd recommend for anybody to use in a game. While not for a lack of effort on the designers' part, the rules for these are either too broad or too powerful. In the case of the Noble there's not enough support outside the Noble's own abilities for the morale mechanics and too many things about them are ambiguous; in the case of the Skirmisher, well, look at the math -- what it'd take a fighter many levels to do it's already capable of at level 1, and in the meantime you don't actually need the Skirmisher in order to create the type of character presented.

THE GOOD: The concepts in this tome are excellent. The Noble class, unlike many other attempts at social-skill classes, actually has something it can contribute in combat encounters instead of sitting them out or trying to short-circuit them. The idea of morale damage as nonlethal damage that merely ends aggressive action (but doesn't leave them helpless or unconscious) is inspired, and has potential to create situations both players and GM can work with. The Skirmisher's Creativity ability relies on interesting descriptions of what you are doing in combat, which several players I've had have already insisted on doing, so they'll probably like this. The art is also quality work, which is impressive for this price point.

THE BAD: The classes were revised in a second file, but the text of the Noble class rebuild conflicts its class table a few times. It isn't clear exactly which one should be followed. The Noble rebuild breaks Pathfinder convention by having a D8 hit die but poor base attack (though the original followed convention). Battlefield Mobility for the Skirmisher might also benefit from clarification- it seems like it's basically Spring Attack for a full attack sequence, but that's remarkably powerful for an ability granted at 3rd level. It also states it can only be used when skirmishing, but the only way to engage skirmishing (and therefore qualify to use it) is to 5' adjust- which can't be done if you move in a round. Both of the rebuilt classes have some skills on their class skill list that seem very odd for the concepts- particularly the Skirmisher. There are a few minor editing problems in the class rebuild document- mostly just sidebars that weren't formatted properly.

OVERALL: Definitely worth the price for the concepts alone, but some ambiguous wording and mechanical conflicts make it difficult to use without a bit of patching.

THE GOOD: The class makes for a semi-magical melee combatant, using "recipes" as boosters to attacks with various effects like elemental damage, condition infliction, and even a bit of healing or self-buffing. Chaining meals together sacrifices flexibility for enhanced effects as the chain progresses. The class also gains quite a few little side benefits like fire resistance, resistance to poisons (and the ability to ID them with a small sample), a bite attack, silvered weapons, a swallow whole attack, the ability to prepare Heroes' Feast, and resistance to slashing weapons (from knicking yourself so much). This is great for friends of mine who get bored from constant seriousness in games and want things a bit silly, but still playable. It looks to have a good mix of clever, usable mechanics and enough novelty over the levels to keep them from being bored with it.

THE BAD: It has a lot of editing mistakes. Abilities and items are referenced by names that are just slightly off, sentences are incomplete, capitalization is inconsistent on the class table, and the occasional word substitution creeps in. The PDF is understandable and useable, but the mistakes are distracting. The class also breaks Pathfinder convention by having a D10 hit dice and a 3/4 base attack bonus; it might have been better to have a d8 and a hit point bonus ability if having more hit points was a priority. I'm sure they could have made the ability hilarious.

OVERALL: A class I'm happy to have, and a purchase I'm quite satisfied with. A pass through an editor would probably make this the shining example of how to do a Pathfinder parody class with flair.

Let me start by saying that my four-star review misses the fifth star based only on the fact that I tend not to give five-star reviews for anything that isn't absolutely perfect in every regard. If I was only to rate the idea and 98% of the execution, I'd have given five stars here, but a couple of minor details held it back from that point.

On to the good stuff: First, check out the art. Little Red Goblin have stepped up more than just one step here. As a talented group of game designers, I gave a pass on much of their prior products' art because I loved their dedication and the quality of their game content so much. The art is finally getting in line with the quality of the rest of the product and I'm really happy to see this. Secondly, spell checking and grammar are greatly improved, although there do remain some few errors here and there, but far fewer than in previous products, and few other people may notice them. Thirdly, the concept is near and dear to my heart and I love the points of flavor that they have provided, including providing damage bonuses only with thematic weapons, the ability to curse opponents, thematic dependence on a god-king, and undead command (to name just a few). And lastly, who in the world would have thought that Little Red Goblin (or anyone else, for that matter) would be able to come up with a full-BAB, 9-level caster that was somehow balanced? I'd hate to give away the show, but the quick gloss is that they can trade in their martial power to cast spells, bit by bit, eventually giving up all extra base attack bonus (beyond what a Wizard would get) in exchange for the ability to cast no small number of pretty cool divine spells. Kudos, too, for making Charisma the primary casting stat and keeping the presence and bearing of the character so central.

And the bad stuff: Frankly, there's not much here. One thing that I did notice is that the Medjay (a limited-list spontaneous caster like the Bard, Sorcerer, or Oracle) can eventually know up to nine (9) 0-level spells, but only five (5) are listed as being available. Beyond that, there are pretty much only the minor spelling and grammar errors, and I'm sure most people won't even notice them (I tend to be REALLY nit-picky here, so feel free to ignore this criticism).

Frankly, I'm excited about this new caster in a way that I rarely have been about new spell-casting base classes. Here's a big, "Thanks!" to the guys at Little Red Goblin Games for yet another great base class.

Necropunk by Little Red Goblin Games is not the game I expected or at the time even wanted. Now let me explain why I think it’s a game that you should buy. I have chosen review Necropunk as a setting instead of a chapter by chapter break down. If you prefer that type of review please see the great review by Endzeitgeist either on RPGNOW.com or at Endzeitgeist.com.

Its a 5 out of 5 for me.

In conclusion GO BUY this setting you wont be wasting your money.

For those who wish to hone their sword skills, this product is quite a treat. Even the cover is striking, a well-equipped lightly armoured swordsman ready to duel or engage in skirmish (although I'm not sure quite what he's got in his oddly-lumpy breeches...maybe he keeps his lunch there - don't laugh, I once knew a 17thc re-enactor who fished half a roast chicken out of his britches one day!).

First up is the Fencer, an alternative to the Cavalier class but operating on foot rather than mounted and - as you'd expect by the name - dedicated to mastery of the sword. Like Cavaliers, Fencers are required to join an Order at first level, and they gain other special abilities based around sword-fighting and supporting a certain flamboyance that gives a cinematic, swashbuckling feel to this class. Being given to being lightly armoured, the cavalier develops expertise at defending himself with no more than a buckler or a 'companion weapon' in his off hand - a range of such weapons is provided, and each provides its own flair and distinctive approach to the task of defence. They also have a Challenge ability, which operates much as the Cavalier's one (note, you really need the Advanced Players Guide from Paizo to make the most of this class, although you can get most of what you need from the System Reference Document).

Next a fencer archetype called the Elven Magebane is presented. These meet the misuse of magic with cold steel... and do so most effectively and stylishly. Many have some magical ability themselves, and thus an awareness of how seductive such power can be. Perhaps a bit specialist, but quite potent given the appropriate adversary. Oh, and they do not have to be elves if you feel another race is best suited to this role.

This is followed by a cavalier archetype called the Meister. They specialise in a particular weapon (which, you can choose) and practise to hone their skills with that weapon to a very high level. As he increases in level, the Meister is able to choose additional weapons in which to specialise. Each weapon group specialised in confers particular advantages which are listed for light and heavy blades, axes, bows, double-edged weapons and so on. It is possible to develop complex and distinctive fighting styles as you combine these specialties to create a unique character.

Then comes the Myrmidon, a prestige class based around skill with blades and unswerving loyalty. He is followed by a selection of new weapons and feats that should prove useful to any character wishing to become a master of the sword, and in particular the ones introduced here.

My fingers are itching for a sword already...

The cover art does not do justice to the contents, for here is an inspired adventuring concept, the wandering artist in search of inspiration, written up as an entire character class. In a way, it is taking the bard class and retooling it away from 'performance' to 'creativity' yet this is something distinctive of its own.

Wandering artists have limited arcane spell use, but their real power lies in developing their artistic talents, learning new techniques for their chosen discipline that confer power and abilities (as well as making their artwork better!). Such characters are on a true journey through life, seeking to perfect their art as well as gaining inspiration from everything they see and experience.

Each wandering artist must choose a discipline, the precise form his artistic expression takes, and which he focusses on in an almost obsessive manner. Each provides related spells and other abilities as the artist rises in level, making them distinctive as well as potent adventurers. These disciplines are wide-ranging covering craft skills as well as purely 'artistic' ones: basketweaving, brewing, cooking (ah, at last I can play a wandering chef without having to pretend to be a rogue or ranger at the same time!), metalworking, origami, painting, pottery, scrimshaw, sculpture, tailoring, tattoo, textiles, and even writing are available - each with a fully-developed list of the techniques that can be mastered.

A spell list and a few new feats round this out, but it blows a refreshing breeze through adventuring as a concept... at least you know WHY the wandering artist is in the party!

Would you like to match your favourite character against a dinosaur? Or does exploring a primeval jungle appeal?

Whether you decide to base an entire game here in Karkus, or merely have characters chance upon it (perhaps through a dimensional rift or as a remote 'Shangri-La' style location) it is ripe with possibilities for adventure.

Giant plants, dinosaurs, sabre-tooth tigers and more abound. The environment alone provides plenty of challenge and environmental disasters can add to it. Perhaps the characters can train a riding raptor to speed across the grasslands... But there are folks already living here too with whom they can interact. (Or of course, amongst whom they number if your whole game is set here.)

Everything is laid out in sequence, beginning with a brief gazetteer. Notes on technology (surprisingly advanced at times) and religion follow, and then we are introduced to the natives themselves. A diverse lot too, with some interesting and unusual features... like the long-necked Corsath who display some of the features of a brachiosaur, and are nomadic farmers and warriors, rather good with a longbow and seemingly capricious - your best friend one day, a deadly enemy the next. Others look a bit like bipedal crocodiles and so on. Humans live here as well, but are not native. All the relevant game mechanics to play any of these races are provided (apart from Humans, use the ones from the Pathfinder core rulebook!).

Next comes information on the native flora and fauna. The plants are fascinating, the animals are decidedly 'Lost World' in nature, dinosaurs and other strange beasties. Then comes some new feats appropriate to the new races and the way in which they interact with their environment.

It sounds a fascinating place to visit... as a hidden land or something accessed via a portal it could prove an exciting addition to your campaign world.

This would be a delightful and well-presented monster collection - had the layout not been so peculiar. It is neither convenient to read on screen nor does it work if you print it out, due to an attempt to cram 2 pages on to each actual page on the PDF with no way of splitting them - too small to read comfortably on screen without magnifying to a level that means you have to scroll around, and just plain inconvenient in print. OK. Rant over.

The book is divided into two sections: Aliens and NPCs, beginning with an Alien template. The main thing about aliens is that as they did not develop in the known world, their biology and behaviour is, well, alien. You cannot compare them to other creatures, magical or mundane, from your own world because they are different from them, no shared heritage, no shared ancestry.

Each alien listed comes with a detailed stat block and good 'ecology' notes - where they are encountered, what they do, and so on. Many are illustrated with some nice drawings, too. Most seem to be regarded as pests at least by some who have encountered them, bringing hazards from noxious smells to painful bites and even transmitting diseases.

The second section contains four NPCs each presented as 1st, 5th, 10th and 15th level. They can be used as anything from allies or enemies to pre-generated characters, all honed to fit the Necropunk setting.

A nice collection of critters...

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This campaign setting is a whopping 196 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page of links to the galleries of the contributing artists, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 190 pages of content, so let's take a look!

Full disclosure: I have read the Beta of this book and provided feedback on it and some minor editing help - I was not compensated in any way and don't consider my verdict in any way compromised or influenced.

That being said, let's jump into Necropunk: The first chapter introduces us to the basic tenets of Necropunk: The "Necro" in Necropunk made me anticipate a grim, gory setting - which it essentially isn't - at least not necessarily.

Mankind has left earth and evolved, developing species-wide psychic powers, spurned by a genetic trigger left in our DNA by some progenitor (god? aliens? something sinister? -for what ends?) to activate upon achieving a certain distance from our solar system - the means of conducting these powers being uncommon and smart - human bones.

Taking a rather realistic approach to how societies handle things, the results of this discovery were catastrophic to say the least - a bone-rush began and since bones not only contained power, but also were a means of attaining wealth, forever changing how society works. Via these bones and the psychic augments at the beck and call of humanity, a renaissance of melee weapons and extreme powers that hearken to fantasy without copying genre conventions was the result.

The races of Necropunk have developed from humanity and no elves, dwarves etc. will show up - why? Since races, especially in roleplaying games, lend themselves to overly simplistic stereotyping, they would rather hamper what the setting sets out to do - in spite of appearances, the setting's goal is not a dystopian nightmare of body horror (though you could easily make it one), but rather a setting of political intrigue, social combat and horror - the subtle type of horror that speaks to our psychological discomfort - uncanny valley-style horror. Psychological horror and tackling philosophical questions relevant to life and death and what constitutes a human are core themes of the Necropunk setting. The respective human races are quite different from one another and should still offer something diversity-wise -also thanks to rather extensive and interesting pieces of information on the respective cultures that developed. - but more on those later.

As you could probably glean from the description so far, body horror is a central theme of the setting - though not the gory, alien-type body horror, but rather the one you're familiar with from moving mannequins, androids etc. - again, uncanny valley and subtlety are the defining themes here, not all out conflict. In a setting defined by such uncommon basic premises, why is anyone still standing and why hasn't everything devolved into a bloody orgy of violence that consumed all mankind? Well - MAD. Mutually assured destruction. Social interaction, diplomacy etc. - these are not simple names here, but a basis for the very foundation of the logic of the setting alongside the "necro" component - essentially, what steam is for steampunk, what (magic and mundane) electricity is for Storm Bunny Studios' stormpunk setting Rhûne, that is necromancy (or rather necrotheurgy)for Necropunk.

Which is VITAL, but different in a way you probably wouldn't have expected, but which becomes evident in the section on classes: No magic. None. Not even the standard cop-out of scifi settings, where magic is rationalized with the sentiment of being super-science indistinguishable from technology. Instead, the setting flat-out bans casting classes - though basic advice if you DO want to introduce them is provided.

But before I get to the classes, let's take a look at the races - i.e. the human ethnicities. Let's start with the Ewgee (a bastardization of U.G. - united governments) , the people coming from the Coreworlds of the human expansion. Ewgee are essentially the default humans - +2 to one attribute, + 1 bonus feat, +1 skill rank. Exiles grew up on the Exile Shards, where the influence of the Ewgee grows thin and the loyalties become divided - exiles get +2 to Con and Wis as well as a bonus feat, but suffer from a tech level -1 (more on tech levels later). From deep space explorers called Welshen (after their chief theorist) now, a strict militaristic, nomadic empire has spawned - a tradition of conservative values like family, honor etc. and rigid clan structures, including a unique martial tradition called Qu'em. Their attribute bonuses are governed by clan membership and Welshen also get access to proficiency with Welshen weapons. The clans offer the following suites of attributes: +2 Int and Cha, -2 to Str;+2 Str and Wis, -2 Cha; +2 Dex and Int, -2 Wis; +2 Dex and Wis, -2 Cha; These clans also come with additional benefits and rather extensive write ups. And I know what you think - how do the Welshen stand against a massive confederacy of planets? Warriors one and all, the Ewgee have a more "normal" demographic and thus, their numbers don't count as much.

And then, there's the Prime Bloodline - think religious fanaticism crossed with a penchant for eugenics under the command of an emperor called Godson. Yeah. Creepy. There are various ideologies within the bloodline described as well and rules-wise, members of the Prime Bloodline get +2 Wis and Con, -2 Int, +2 to will saves, +2 to Knowledge (Psionics) and +2 to saves versus poison. Oh, and their strange combination of matriarchal structures paired with a requirement for breeding of the chosen makes the prime bloodline's society structure indeed unique and intimidating - for members of both sexes, subverting traditional gender roles and dichotomies - dichotomies only work on a very superficial level here and collapse in on themselves as soon as you dig deeper. In a hobby, where black and white are so clearly defined as in PFRPG, this is worth something - at least for me. As a subrace, you may also play so-called firstborn, which get +2 to an ability score of their choosing, +2 PPI (more on that later), +2 to saves versus poison and on Knowledge (Psionics)-checks. Now the latter sound powerful - but you should be aware that the Prime Bloodline is in total opposition to the world-spanning Necromancer's Guild that is a powerful entity indeed and its members abhor Nerotech, thus serving as a balance of their slightly superior racial traits.

After this section, we are introduced to languages - and they actually go above and beyond what I've seen for languages, coming with alphabets, extensive notes of the respective languages (and yes, we get a number-based language as well) and beyond even that, the languages come with information on dialects that can be used/are spoken to obscure meanings and which increase the difficulty of communication - I really would have enjoyed this approach to be used in standard Pathfinder - as anyone who has e.g. ventured to rural Germany or respective areas can attest, dialects can be hardcore and make for an identity-constructing element. Alignments are less important in Necropunk - factions are more important, but before I get into handling such options, let's get back to the PPI - the Psychic Potential Index. Average humans have a PPI of 3-5 and the value per se is determined by your starting class. Gear is made ideally from human bone, since that gear conducts human thought the best - other gear (or some particular pieces of equipment) come with a PRI - Psychic Resistance Index. A piece of necrotech usually requires one PPI to equip and qu'em styles, psychic powers etc. tap into the same resource. Thought-transmissive weapons and armor can be charged with said psychic energy as well: This excess charging has a cost of 1PPI+the item's PRI - after being charged, the power remains as long as contact is not interrupted. And the rules are elegant: For each point of energy you invest in weapons, you deal an additional point of damage. For each point invested into an armor, you can get a DR of 1/- or + 1 AC. The cap of the max amount of energy to be invested for an item's bonus being determined by the character. Simple and elegant - and there's quite some potential here. Yeah, I know, I'll put the 2 bucks in the bad pun jar.

And yes, obviously this changes the dynamics of combat - but not nearly as much as the central incision into standard Pathfinder combat - so-called combat phases. In a setting where acting at the speed of thought is possible, the combat can also be something completely different - but what are phases? Essentially, they net you extra actions. Depending on equipment/power, you can act in different phases: Wearers of e.g. golem armors can act in Phase 3, which means they receive one standard action in Phase, 1 standard action in Phase 2 and the regular full turn in Phase 1 that we know from standard combat. And believe me, that can DRASTICALLY alter the way how battles pan out - having experimented with similar systems in my own campaigns, I can attest to the efficiency of such action economy-benefitting powers. The system is concisely explained, as is the system of tech levels, which are not only dependent on your starting race and class, but which can also be raised via numerous ways.

That's not the only innovation in Necropunk, though: We are introduced to one crucial change - Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive and Intimidate are no more in Necropunk. Instead, the campaign setting introduces a mechanic for social combat - and it's simple and elegant: Essentially, it takes the basic mechanics of how combat works and provides social analogues: The equivalent of HP would be confidence - a character gets wis mod times HD confidence - which regenerate faster than HP, with each round seeing the regeneration of wis-mod confidence, at least one. Attacks in social combat work via the social bonus (equal to the BAB) + cha-mod+ position modifiers - said formula is called SMB. Position modifiers are the result of your standing and may add a penalty or bonus of up to +8 to your check. In order to hit the opponent, the attack has to surpass the SMD of the target - which is 10 + social bonus + cha-mod+int-mod+position modifier. A total of 12 concisely presented social maneuvers are included - and can be used to make bartering, teaching etc. actually exciting and not something to be glanced over. If this section managed one thing, then it was to make me stoked about seeing implementations and further expansions of what is promising indeed - not only for Necropunk. Midgard, for example, with its Status-rules imho screams to have this one implemented/modified as well.

The setting also provides easy to use variants of underwater combat for zero-g combat and ship combat and provides quite some advice on converting classes to and from Necropunk.

The Necropunk-setting hence also has a massive array of different new classes - with the respective write ups featuring social modifiers integrated into the respective classes. In order to keep this review from becoming longer than 10 pages, I'll just give you a general impression, all right? In a setting where MAD and social interaction are themes, we need a specialist - enter the diplomat, the social razor's edges and sledgehamemrs to rhetorically dismantle your foes. This class, like the others, is a beast in social combat (but not so much in physical combat) and comes with several racial-specific archetypes - another peculiarity of Necropunk I welcome: You for example can't play a bureaucrat of the Necromancer's Guild when coming from the Prime Bloodline/Firstborn or a Welshen - leaning some sense of cohesive identity to the respective organizations.

Engineers on the other hand are masters of tech and may create extremely deadly, modifiable and heavily customizable special weapons - these fellows are based on alchemists and include archetypes to play the dreaded necromancers and choose different corporations to sponsor their escapades. Magpies are perhaps one of the weirdest classes out there and honestly, would probably fit just as well into just about any other setting. Know the trope of the traumatized/insane person who may perceive some peculiarity on our existence and can glean information from it? Well, in Necropunk, when a weird person asks you whether you'd like to swallow a weird fish-like being, you may wish to think twice, for your life will be changed forever - those that do, become magpies. Eccentric one and all, these beings may perceive what is known as D'jek - essentially the flow of destiny itself. The class may cause its practitioners to develop compulsive ticks, but it also allows them to create unlikely accumulations of accidents that may prove fatal - a glorious variant loosely based on rogues and yet a completely different class that should make this setting very interesting for those not interested in the setting per se.

Medics are the non-magical healer-class from the War Journal II-supplement reskinned for Necropunk - and my criticism remains - it's a great class, but oh so linear. I would have loved some additional choices. However, seeing that in Necropunk it replaces all the other divine healers, I think it makes for a more compelling option here - also thanks to the thematically flavored archetypes, which add quite a few intriguing options to the medic's arsenal - and it should be noted that these guys can stand their ground in melee. Psychics are also interesting - they can not only high-jack so-called ghouls (i.e. the perished ones), disable necrotech (via the so-called Legion Lock) or hack necrotech. 12 psychic powers are provided - and make for a great starting point, but also for one that has me clamoring for more - I hope to see more psychic powers in future Necropunk supplements to further expand the class. Oh, have I mentioned the Magdaline (one of the Welshen clans) Tu'Line, who focus on telekinetic attacks and may attack foes at range? Yes - actually a telekinetic monk-like style that works without being broken - for they lose the crucial ability to use psychic hack, which allows them to get the benefits of legion locked tech. And yes, while the latter is optional, it still is probably one of those must-take psychic powers, so you'll hear no complaints on my end.

Next up are the Qu'em - the Welshen martial artists, whose class is inspired by the monk - but wholly different at the same time: Like the monk, they eschew martial tools, armor, necrotech etc., get an AC-bonus and faster movement - but they are much more than a monk: First of all, they get bonus PPI instead of ki, using essentially the basic rules that apply to all classes in a more streamlined fashion. Furthermore, they are FAST - and I'm not talking about movement here - Qu'em act in phase two - even at first level. And that makes them lethal with a capital "l". Also interesting design decision - they do average damage, making them extremely reliable in melee - especially since they also get their wis-bonus to atk and damage up to a maximum of their level - again, neatly balanced. Have I mentioned that these guys can also opt to take a magpie/qu'em-style archetype for an interesting evolution of traditional drunken masters?

Where the Qu'em represent the martial traditions of the Welshen, the Ewgee also get a base-class of martially inclined soldiers - the sentinels: Members of the best of the best elite units -and as such they not only get access to special elite armors, they may also requisition military gear 1/week (and exchange said gear), gaining access to superior tools. Selling is not an option, though - unless you plan on being expelled as well as hunted down for selling military gear. Since Welshen and sentinels don't mix, advice on handling Qu'em and Sentinel in one group is provided as well. Of course, renegade mercenaries might also be an option. Stalkers are based on rogues - but are an altogether different beast: Stalkers are stone-cold killers and may mark targets somewhat akin to SGG's Shadow Assassin-class, making them very deadly versus their chosen targets. And fitting well in with the MAD-concept of Necropunk - at 11th level access to Death Attack (and later, talents to make this possible sans studying!). further enhance this impression.

The next class we are introduced would be the Wild Card - the class that more appropriately can be considered fortune-seekers, jack-of-all-trades that are all about variety, gaining multiple abilities to enhance their skills, gain feats and e.g. an eidetic memory. Another class that might be considered appropriate for settings beyond Necropunk as well. It should also be noted that each class comes with some roleplaying advice on character-inherent conflicts and tough questions - if you're a psychic or a wunderkind, are you perhaps a supremacist? What if other people fear you for what you are? What if your professional code clashes with your own ethics?

Of course, we also get a massive array of feats - to enhance your tech level or enter overwatch-mode. And honestly - in the context of Necropunk, I think the overwatch some of you may know from the PFRPG-Strider class works MUCH better than in regular PFRPG, fitting well with the theme of stand offs, social combat mixing with physical combat etc. - why negotiate? Well, when both your ally and the enemy is in overwatch, talking it over seems so much more enticing -especially since combat in Necropunk, with its phases and advanced weaponry can turn lethal damn fast. (Plus, the requirement for automatic weapons makes in game much more sense to me than the same with bows...). Of course various feats enhancing PPI-based abilities, social combat and equipment are also provided. We also get multiple new style-feat mini-trees, with Jak Pan deserving special mentioning - available to members of the Prime Bloodline, the combat medics will love this one, as it merges surgical prowess with martial arts, allowing you to impose negative conditions on hit foes with successful heal-checks. Also rather interesting - the Sentinel's Synchro-style, which blends teamwork feats and styles, making for a good representation of twin/synchronized fighting. Two thumbs up for that one! We also get a style for using ranged weapons in melee and one based on fencing - all in all, rather cool selection of unique options.

We also get 15 new traits to customize your character within the setting before we dive into equipment. Of course, in Necropunk GP-values would make no sense, and hence we're introduced to the resource-system -as well as a section-by-section breakdown of the value f human bones: Hands, e.g., would be worth 5% of the 3K a full skeleton's worth. Special materials (and their PRI) are covered - but much like e.g. Cyberpunk-settings, shopping is rather rewarding: Beyond materials, properties applied to weapons also make for massive differences - magnetic rail gun-properties, bone material (allowing for usage in higher phase orders), slag weapons, those that require a spin-up - rather cool array of options. Also interesting is the fact that specific weapons can fire different types of ammunition - from chaos rounds to slag strikes, weapons of course can also be upgraded to fire for example the deadly tombstone-rounds. Of course, grenades and a large selection of armor-types are also at your perusal - as is a rather cool idea: Applying bonuses to social maneuvers etc. depending on the outfits you wear. Yes. Clothes actually MATTER.

Another interesting component of Necropunk's society is the existence of ghouls - part tech, part chemical concoctions, all shambling corpse-based serving class, they are the remains of the dead, reanimated to get persons posthumously out of debt. Modifying ghouls is covered as well via a rather list of modifications. Speaking of modifications:

Body modifications - they are awesome - from advanced circulatory system to the option to emit deadly sonic-damage dealing screams or graft extra arms to your body - if one wants, one can get full-blown FREAK and really push the limits of whether one can still be considered human - a great toolbox of Frankensteinish modifications indeed. Drugs with different stages of addictions and a massive array of craft-DCs for modifications are also provided in here.

And then we are introduced to the setting per se - via organizations, ships, how religions have developed (not shying away from how Christianity, Judaism etc. have developed without being condescending to any of these religions) and the new ones that have risen since we left the solar system to regions of the galaxy. Advice for DMs and players, an example location and space travel and a massive glossary of specific terms and a timeline of the setting.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting aren't superb - there are some minor glitches here and there - but the emphasis is on "minor" - when compared to anything I've read by LRGG, this is not one but two steps in the right direction, providing a massive book that can be considered well, if not perfectly edited. Layout adheres to a unique, relatively printer-friendly full color standard with appropriately-themed, easy to read fonts and grey/black themes as well as several pieces of at times page-spanning full color artworks that have in common that they range from mind-boggling to good and are actually original pieces. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience adn comes with greyscale and color char-sheets, though both lack a SMD and CMD.

Let me for a second state in what I believe in: I believe in the fact that gamers are looking to expand their horizons - even the most conservative of our kind have taken up this hobby not only because it's fun, but because it consciously or subconsciously expands our horizon. How many 5th graders know the difference between thaumaturgy and necromancy, know some terms from the knightly courts of old and have a conception of what a jarl is? I know I did. Gaming has not only broadened my vocabulary at an early age and prompted me to master foreign languages and invest myself into different cultures, it has guided my approach to a wide array of challenges I have faced throughout my life, maybe even provided a type of moral compass on what I consider right and what wrong. The one way to get me riled up is to demand simplification not for the sake of understanding, but for the sake of laziness - if I see terms that intrigue me, concepts I find thought-provoking, I try to look them up. And gaming is a great way to get a tiny inkling of knowledge about topics that may incite you to want to know more about them. Whether its cultures, literature, history, languages, myths - there's a lot of lore to be discovered via gaming.

Once in a while, recent editions have made me a bit disillusioned - while Paizo has avoided the obvious books mostly ("Hey, let's make an oriental, a psionics-book, a class-book for class z etc."), still, once in a while, I like to have my brain teased, to get some new impulses: If you want to know what I'm talking about, think back in the days, when Planescape first brought the WEIRD, when Ravenloft started blurring the line between players and characters to evoke true fear. Gaming can touch us on a basic level and actually refine our character and there are many books that play it safe by catering to a target demographic and I won't judge them for that - as long as they're good, that is. But still, you once in a while want something DIFFERENT. Something that hasn't been done before. A sense of Jamais-vu.

There you have it. Ambitious beyond anything they've done so far, the crew of authors and designers from Little Red Goblin Games have created a setting that dares to be different: You won't find the standard plasma and laser guns here, no alien zoo of weird player-races that will ultimately just make gaming ridiculous. There's no weirdly sexless b/w-mythology à la Star Wars (which NEVER made sense to me, not even as a child -and before all the SW-fans come out of the woodworks - more power to you, the franchise is just not made for me) in here - this setting is HUMAN. Decidedly, dauntingly so - from the basic premise over the absence of direct alien interventions to the bone-foundation of the tech to the price of bones, this setting explores a dystopian future that actually is not that dystopian when you think about it: All in all, no massive evil empire looms, no extraterrestrial mechanic squids seek to annihilate everything - Necropunk is about human conflicts and ultimately, what it means to be human - it's a narrative of conflicting ideologies that are all partially right or partially wrong, a narrative of diverse traditions and mindsets and of complex questions. And of buying cool augmentations to turn yourself into a deadly engine of destruction with multiple devastating mag-rifles, of fusing your spine with a suit grown from a dead corpse into a bone-golem-like monstrosity and modifying your weapons via x add-ons and custom modifications to wade through legions of foes. Of saving the galaxy by deciphering a deadly conspiracy according to the stain of your spilled coffee and the urgings of the fish-like parasite you imbibed on a whim that can perceive the flow of fate, destiny or whatever you'd wish to call it. Necropunk is weird, yes, but not necessarily dark - nor light. It feels human - just like our own world can be defined in no absolute terms, so are there no straight answers for questions of transhumanism, morality and ethnicity. All these questions are tackled, supplemented by solid rules that almost exclusively whet one's palate for future expansions.

This is not a rip-off of an established genre - neither of Shadowrun-like Cyberpunk, nor of Warhammer 40K's grim vision of the future - this is something jaded guys like yours truly only see rarely: Something DIFFERENT. Something original. And for that alone, it deserves to be applauded - much more so for decisions like the social combat or the item-modifications or the fact that the PPI-mechanics serve as a unifying mechanic that offsets the perceived differences between classes and ethnicities, with the latter serving as a subconscious reminder that most of us, even in the future of Necropunk, still bleed red.

Is this book perfect? No, it does have its editing and formatting glitches here and there. But does it deserve your attention, deserve your bucks? The answer to that question, I'll answer with a resounding "yes". In an age where we already have covered so much ground in RPGs, dealing with serious topics in a thoroughly original context without forcing an ideology or easy answer down your throat means that this can be considered a great first step into a setting I am sure to follow - I want to know where this setting goes, what new tools, places and modules will be released in the days to come. Necropunk has come completely out of left field and if LRGG can keep this quality and perhaps even further improve it, then we're looking at one damn fine cult-setting in the making. My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

(Oh, and if you haven't, take a look at this review on my site. You won't regret it)

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf is 28 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 25 pages of content - quite a bit of ground to cover, so let's dive in!

After a short intro-narrative, we get the first new base-class, the combat medic, who gets full BAB, good fort and will-saves, d8, 2+Int skills per level, proficiency with simple and martial weapons as well as all shields (and even tower shields) - and no spells. Yes. This is actually a healer-class that doesn't use divine spells - so let's look at whether this works out: Essentially, they get a special ability called "Field Medicine" that allows you to expend a use of your healer's kit as a standard action to grant a target temporary hit points that cannot exceed the character's maximum hp. These temporary hp only last for wis-mod hours and a total of 1d6 + wis-mod hp per use of the healer kit are netted by the ability. At 3rd level and every two level after that, the ability is upgraded by +1d6. A combat medic can use this ability unlimited amounts of time per day, the only limit being the amount of healer's kit charges available. Each use of the ability refreshes the duration of field medicine, allowing you to keep your allies patched together until they can collapse into a bed. Also, 3+wis times per day, a combat medic can heal the same amount of damage to an unconscious creature below 0 Hp.

Beyond that, the class may expend 10 gp worth of herbs to make supplements for allies that net them bonuses: Remember Starcraft stimpacks? Yeah. Essentially, combat medics can buff allies to deal +2 damage (scaling up to +8), but also take damage every time they attack (up to 4 hp damage), make targets faster (or boost defenses) at the cost of accuracy or reduce the amount of required sleep at the cost of the target's willpower. Healing is also increased at later levels, counting 1s and 2s at higher levels as higher results. They also learn at higher levels to expend healer's hit uses to cure ability damage and starting at 10th level, they may convert some of their temporary hp-healing into properly healed hp and finally even return the dead to life.

The combat medic is linear - and painfully so - why painfully? Because it's a great concept with an awesome execution: A non-magical, non-divine healer, essentially the one class gritty, divine magic-less dark settings always required. Mundane healing as the default versus the miraculous powers of the rare agents of the divine. Yes, we get one archetype, the doctor, which is slower and takes more resources to heal, but also "properly2 heals targets, but the class per se is PAINFULLY linear. Choosing from some bonus feats does not a compelling class make - essentially, the per se awesome class lacks any meaningful choices on the side of the player, which is a huge pity, for the base mechanics work well and are really cool - but as written, the linearity of the class does detract from its appeal and especially replay-value.

The second new class would be the shadow knight, who gets d10, 4+Int skills per level, full BAB-progression, proficiency with shields (not tower shields), simple and martial weapons and light as well as medium armors and good fort- and ref-saves. Their first ability would be shadow assault - 1/day (+1/day at 4th level and every 3 levels afterwards) as a swift action, they can get class-level as bonus to damage (2 times that much if the target is flatfooted) versus a foe in dim light or darker conditions. Furthermore, the shadow knight gets cha-mod as deflection to AC versus this foe and AUTOMATICALLY bypasses any DR. Not a fan of the latter, though the limit of uses per day keeps the ability viable. The class also gets darkvision/ increased darkvision range and one rather cool ability - shadows conceal the face of shadow knights, making identifying shadow operatives harder and protecting their privacy. Furthermore, the cloak gets multiple layers and several abilities of the class are based on expending the shadow cloak. At 3rd level and every 3 levels after that, the shadow knight also gets a so-called shade, essentially their version of talents. Shades only work when in dim or darker light conditions or to targets of their shadow assault ability. These shades include blur-effects, the ability to expend the shadow cloak for an instant AoO as a riposte for a missed attack or using stealth while observed. The shades also are organized by levels, with new ones becoming available to extend the basic roster of 4 at 6th level, 9th level, 12th level and 15th level. Some of these actually are rather ingenious - targets of shadow assaults for example can be forced to treat terrain in dim light/darkness as difficult terrain or silence foes hit by their shadow assault. At 15th level and above, assassination also becomes possible - while usually, I'd complain about save or die, at levels this high it's probably appropriate. They also can create darkened areas and bond shadowy spirits with their weapons, enhancing them or alternatively gain a variant shadow companion. All in all, a solid shadow-themed shadow operative/vigilante class that comes with three archetypes:

The Shadow of the Beast is essentially the one archetype for fans of the "The Darkness"-comic books and games and, instead of a regular shadow bond, gains touch attacks with reach and deadly effects, actually also reducing the damage received from the target's first attack the round it is damaged by the amount of damage the beast inflicted before, essentially allowing you to nova power-wise by invoking the beast. The second archetype, the Night Warrior, may use his/her abilities to get minor fast healing, DR equal to cha-mod for her/his turn etc. The third archetype does not have the sub-header denoting it as an archetype for the shadow knight and also has a blank line between two abilities missing. All in all, it essentially the option for those wanting to play shadow knights with unarmed strikes and increase shadow cloak layers via attacks - a lost chance, though, as combining ki and/or flurry of blows with the shadow knight's signature powers would have made for a truly interesting concept. Oh well. All in all a solid shadow-themed base-class with some uncommon mechanical decisions that I expected to be utterly bored by, but which turned out surprisingly fun.

Next up are two new 10-level-spanning PRCs - the first being the Brother of the Vulture, who gets 7 levels of spellcasting progression, full BAB, good fort and will-saves. I'd also tell you how many skill points the PrC gets - but that information is missing from the pdf including even the list of class skills available! That's just sloppy. Fluff-wise, the brothers are servants of the forgotten old deity known as the vulture king and they get celestial vulture companions which may harry foes and impede them and at higher levels even channel your spells. They also get anti-undead/life-related abilities. Personally, I'm not too big a fan that the vulture's harrying is counteracted by a will-saves instead of a CMB/CMD-solution. Also: While I get WHY the vulture does not incur AoOs from entering opponent's squares, there's an in-game issue of logic here - so other incredibly agile creatures provoke AoOs but those birds don't? Don't get me wrong, I get the MECHANICAL decision, but in-game, at least to me, it opens up a logical conundrum.

The second PrC, the Legendary Wielder, gets d10, full BAB, good fort-saves and a list of class skills (Yeah!) but again, no information on how many skills per level the class is supposed to get. sigh Even basic editing should notice the lack of such crucial pieces of information. Concept-wise, the class gets a ki-pool and invests ki into his/her signature weapon, which may be studded with special qualities -at 1st level the maximum equivalent of +1, at 2nd the equivalent of +2 etc. I GUESS the enhancement is additional to already existing enchantments, but the ability never specifies. When adding a +1 to a +2 base weapon, does that count as +1 or +3? I assume the former, but a tighter wording here would have been appreciated. Also: What happens if the item is destroyed? The PrC never specifies the penalty, if any, to choose a new legendary item or whether a new item would require to be the same weapon category/type. And yes, starting 2nd level only artifacts can sunder the weapon and it can be reforged, but at 1st level, it still can be destroyed so that's a massive hole in the rules. The PrC also gets a selection of different talents to choose from at 3rd level and every 3 levels after that. There is a shockwave with DR-ignoring falling damage (weird) and the PrC may use their weapons to make combat maneuvers the weapon can't usually perform for a limited amount of time per day - per se a good idea, but one that imho would have been better suited for an ITEM-ENHANCEMENT/QUALITY than a temporarily available power - it would make the PrC work more logical in the context of a world. That being said, overall, these ki-powered legacy powers per se are an ok representation of kensai-style characters.

After that, we get a new type of feat, so-called strategy feats, which take up most of the 21 new feats included herein. Strategy-feats use a mechanic called strategic arc, which covers 20 ft. + 5 ft. per point of int- or cha-mod. Also, each such feat nets you one brilliance point, which can be expended as a free action for increased benefits. And generally, I really love the idea - the feats per se are an awesome concept and one deserving of further support and/or even a full-blown class. Unfortunately, though, there's a "however" lurking in the wings here - and much to my dismay, it's a big one. The rules language in these feats SUFFERS. Significantly. First of all, it suffers from sloppy editing that forgets to print "Brilliance" in bold or properly uses game-terms: "Non actions" for example are not a fixed term - usually we'd speak of "not an action". That's nitpicky, though, as would be complaining about the numerous punctuation errors that at least to me, partially obfuscated the intent of some feats. What's not nitpicky, but grievous are sentences like:

By spending a brilliance point as a swift action

allies may utilize the benefits of feats that directly improve

a combat maneuver if the feats are possessed by you, or an

ally adjacent to them until the start of your next turn.

What if said feat has a prerequisite allies don't have? Do they get access to said prerequisite-feat's benefits as well? With the amount of feat-trees out there, that's significant. Or take Improved Combo Style:

Benefits: Adjacent allies gain the benefits of all feats associated

with one of your styles. Your allies do not gain any ki

points or other feats that the style may be related to.

Brilliance: Spend 2 brilliance points to grant the benefit to

all allies within your strategic arc for 1 round.

I don't have to tell you how broken that feat is, do I? Even cursory scrutiny should make your head spin with the plentitude of options with which this can be abused to all hell. Or take the text from the Learned Deed-feat:

Allies in your strategic arc may spend 1 of your

grit points to use one of your deeds. They must then pay

that cost as normal.

So do they spend your grit and then again grit? Do they have to have their own pool? What if they don't have a grit pool? What do they spend? Unfortunately just about every feat herein has some sort of wording/rules-ambiguity in the waiting that lays waste to what could have easily been one of the most celebrated classes of feats. Hence the strategist cavalier archetype also doesn't work.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are this pdf's downfall. While in no way catastrophic, the rules-language is severely flawed and impeded by the above-average amount of punctuation glitches and similar lesser issues that accumulate to the point where they partially obfuscate the rules. Layout adheres to a parchment-background two-column standard with neat pieces of original full color artwork and the pdf comes bookmarked (with one dead bookmark), but not extensively so - don't expect e.g. bookmarks to single archetypes or feats.

Oh boy do I want to love this pdf. The combat medic class has potential galore, but is impeded by its linearity. The Shadow Knight is ok, I guess, but didn't completely blow me away, mainly because I felt like some of its abilities could have used a slight rephrasing to come off as clearer. And then the PrCs hit - and can't be used, lacking class skills and skills per level and honestly, being both not that captivating. The Brother of the Vulture e.g. being problematic in in-game logic, the Legend Wielder lacking imho necessary information. And then there are the strategy feats - a glorious idea - sloppily executed. In fact, that's more or less the tragedy of this pdf - it has this certain spark of brilliance, of great ideas, its instances where it works just as it should and delivers something awesome - and then it buries that brilliance under a sludge of avoidable glitches, unnecessary omissions and ambiguities. Editing a rules-supplement isn't exclusively about typos and punctuation, it's about getting the rules-language as easily understandable as possible to the reader - and here the pdf falls flat on its face - while showing at the same time that it could have done so much better. It's a bit like a potential straight A intelligent, gifted student who can't be bothered doing basic chores and thus ends up scoring mediocre results due to a lack of polish.

Glitch-wise, I'd usually rate this down to one star, but I do like its potential and I do want to love this pdf and in fact, partially do -hence my final verdict will clock in at 2 stars. That being said: Aspiring designers out there, take heed, especially if you don't like divine healing: Slap some talents or some other options to actually make meaningful choices on the combat medic and you have a glorious class worth the asking price..

Endzeitgeist out.

One of the best and most imaginative space opera sci-fi settings I've ever seen. Necropunk has a great premise and explores the possibilities inherent within that premise fully. This awesomely weird setting takes the concept as far as it can go and leaves me wanting some more splatbooks soon.

It is a nicely set up treatment of both the use of dogs in war and hunting in history. It also adds, a few nice touches in terms of new types of fantasy breeds of "dogs". I am not a true dog lover so I am not the best to judge how it treats them in relation to the real world, but the fantasy dogs look to fit the races that they are breed and raised by. I feel that the notes that certain ones are not true dogs are very nice as they point out how something can be called one thing and really be something else.