The Black Lady of Brodick Castle is the third official Adventure Entertainment for Castle Falkenstein written by Lady Jennifer R. Povey

A mystery plot centred around discovering the true nature of the being known as “The Black Lady” and her motives. Set on the Isle of Arran, in Scotland, this story is short but well-structured

The final outcome of this adventure has several options laid out and has been crafted to hinge entirely upon the actions of the Dramatic Characters. A few ideas for follow up scenarios are included.

Another well-explained and straightforward adventure which is well suited for Dramatic Characters whose Abilities are not orientated towards combat. It can be used for most types of character, but I feel that Lower Class characters may struggle a little due to their lack of Social Graces.

This short book has six pre-generated Dramatic Characters, however, four of them were previously published in “Firearms & Margarine” .

This mystery-filled adventure gets a four out of five.

The Babbage Engine, the second official Adventure Entertainment for Castle Falkenstein wrritten by Grandmaster Stephen Kenson and Mister J. Gray.

Players in this story have the opportunity to take a trip on the World’s First train controlled by an Analytical Engine - What could possibly go wrong? I am sure that dastardly villains will not take an interest in this Technological Marvel!

As it stands,this beautifully illustrated adventure would make a nice introduction for a new Host or new players. The plot and any Feats (actions) required are well explained. If the Host (GM) has some experience, either with Castle Falkenstein or running other RPGs, they can easily expand the plot with the useful suggestions included by Grandmaster Kenson. The epilogue provides more leads for future fun following the conclusion of this adventure.

Again, this short book has six pre-generated Dramatic Characters, however, four of them were in the previously published “Firearms & Margarine” adventure.

The slight railroading involved in the plot and the re-use of sample characters means that this action-filled adventure only gets a four out of five.

Firearms and Margarine is the first published official Adventure Entertainment (scenario) for Castle Falkenstein written by Mr. J Gray.

It is a fine Murder Mystery set in the city of Paris. The underlying plot premise is based on the point of view of Brownies, a nice touch to bring out the Faerie side of the Falkenstein Universe.

The story opens with a murder at a labour protest which the characters then investigate. The search for the culprit involves dealing with the Upper, Middle and the Working Classes and their appropriate prejudices. There are enough suspects and red herrings to keep the characters guessing. When the players have found the probable murderer, there are hints on adjusting the final denouement to suit your on campaign style.

The introduction has ideas on how to involve most types of Dramatic Characters in the storyline.

The plot line allows for different paths of inquiry, giving the players a range of freedom in their actions. Any aspects of the case that are unique to the Castle Falkenstein setting are clearly explained.

There are several sub-plots mentioned during the narrative and these are expanded upon in the last section of the supplement giving a Host (GM) the opportunity to extend the adventure or to trigger new ones.

Lavishly illustrated with six pre-generated Dramatic Characters to get you started, this excellent product is well worth the price.

If you haven’t tried Castle Falkenstein, get the core rulebook and this supplement.

Not only do you gain a fun adventure, it gives plenty of guidance on play that is useful for new

Hosts. Also, the layout of the book can act as a framework for building your own Adventure

Entertainments if you have just started to play the Great Game.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The fourth installment of the Haunting of Hastur-series clocks in at 36 pages, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 34 pages of content – this does not take the sturdy wrap-around cover into account. This cover is detachable, and the inside of this massive cover, is a GORGEOUS map of the city of Meavold, depicted in full color and in a player-friendly version – you can just hand it to your players. Big aesthetic plus!

The module, like every installment in the series, does come with an alternate introduction to the series, should you and your players be new to the series, making it easy to get into the series. This is easier this time around, courtesy of the structure of the module, but more on that later. My review is based on the Kickstarter exclusive premium print edition, which I received in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.

If you have been playing the series, you will have heard about Meavold before – it is the human city on the surface that is the primary trading partner of the City of Talos, now that the PCs have hopefully ended the self-imposed isolation of the Formene Elves.

The pdf does sport a total of 5 different statblocks, one of which belongs to a new creature, a so-called brain-drinker – you can probably glean from the angle that this fellow is basically a reskinned Illithid. This critter, with a vole’s head, is a pretty deadly adversary and its rendition is pretty solid. Annoyingly, the statblocks don’t provide the values for all attributes in the statblocks, which may require a bit of GM-mojo on your end – much like the previous installments. That being said, chances are that these minor hiccups won’t impact your game unduly. Skills are noted in allcaps, attribute checks are bolded and the like – the formatting deviates in several crucial ways from standard 5e conventions, so if that type of thing annoys you, it’s something to take into account.

Now, this module is unconventional in its structure, in that, much like the previous modules, it doesn’t really offer the traditional read-aloud text for new school modules or the like. Genre/structure-wise, this adventure is a sandboxy investigation that covers quite a few influential people. These NPCs are depicted with detailed background stories and characteristics and feel well-constructed and multi-faceted. The respective homes of these NPCs are fully mapped in detailed and high-quality maps – in the pdf, these are full color; in the print version, b/w. The maps by Justin Andrew mason are amazing and if you need a ton of mansion/upper-class mansions and stuff like that, then this may be worth getting for the maps alone.

Anyhow, this is as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

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All right, only GMs around? So, the PCs are contacted by Wyatt, a human agent of Talos – and he has unearthed troubling intelligence. The cult of Hastur, thwarted in the first adventure, has basically gone one step further: Wyatt is convinced that the cult is once more attempting to create a statue-vessel for Hastur, somewhere within Meavold. The consequences, obviously, would be dire, so it’s once more up to the PCs to thwart the machinations of the cult. Wyatt has thankfully started the investigation and limited the number of suspects : It obviously takes quite a lot of resources and clout to generate a larger statue of Hastur and keep the shrine/cult hidden – and this does limit the list of suspects in the massive city down.

Thankfully, the PCs still get a rather sizable list, and clever players will be able to already disqualify quite a lot of these beings. The encounters to do so and these easily disqualified NPCs are noted with names and occupations, but the module does not provide details regarding these. Some GM skill is required here to make these exclusions work. Alternatively, you can just handwave this away, but personally, I think that reducing this aspect of the module does take a bit away from the achievement of the module. The main meat of the module is devoted to the 5 primary suspects, all of whom feel alive in an interesting manner…and they all feel alive. The maps provided for their mansions and the like are super helpful. The fact that we get maps helps a lot to make them “qualify” as a potential villain: The players can’t just deduce the validity of the NPC being a villain by the presence or absence of detailed cartography. The details provided for the NPC-backgrounds also help regarding these fellows, and while we get ability scores noted for these NPCs, we don’t get detailed stats of sample hit points for them. As noncombatants, this is no issue, though. Associated NPCs are also noted, which further emphasizes the concept of a living, detailed cadre of NPCs.

Now, there are plenty of secrets to be unearthed regarding these NPCs – there are illicit affairs, for example, and there are folks trying to escape the bonds imposed by the prudish morals of Meavold’s upper class. One individual involved in an affair attempts to manipulate the partner to assassinate the spouse and hang for it, for example. A former smuggler gone legit has been goaded into a duel that he can’t win without help, and his thoroughly professional relationship with his unique live-in-chief can provide an interesting further angle. The fact that his manor has an observatory obviously makes him suspect. There also would be a brilliant businessperson, ages ahead of their time, who has a sham of a marriage and a long-term same-sex relationship…alas, their spouse has plans to get rid of them and end the charade, which may well result in rather disastrous consequences. A mighty dynasty of landowners has also been stretching their fingers towards the underworld, and a well-respected, reserved Royal Explorer complements this section.

The presence of the brain drinker also means that there is some rather dangerous aspect to the investigation – beyond the requirement to tread delicately when investigating the most powerful people of Meavold. Here, the adventure misses an obvious chance: The presence of the brain drinker could have allowed the GM to justify making any of these NPCs the culprit, but the adventure instead opts for a fixed culprit. While this does slightly decrease the replay value of the adventure, a GM halfway worth their salt will be able to modify this aspect thus. Still, as a reviewer, I think this could have made for a cool twist of the angle presented. Now, ultimately, the PCs will find the thankfully not-yet finished statue devoted to Hastur – and destroying it is simple enough, but in the aftermath, the Old One will have had enough – in a blast of unearthly light, the PCs will be spirited away to the final adventure’s locale – to the dread Carcosa Complex, but we’ll get to that in module #6.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good on a formal level; on a rules-language level, the adventure could have provided more regarding NPC stats and the like. Formatting also deviates in multiple ways from 5e’s standard. Layout adheres to a two-column standard and the module sports quite a bunch of original nice b/w-artworks. The cartography is particularly impressive, and the impressive amount of maps makes for a great selling point for the adventure. The print version is a nice book that embraces its old-school aesthetic in a concise manner, and the full-color map of Meavold on the insides of the detachable wrap-around cover is nice.

L. Kevin Watson’s “Confronting Hastur” is, in a way, the logical progression of his sandboxy adventures. Where #2 was limited by locale and #3 was focused on depicting a general timeline, supplemented by set-pieces, this one is, as befitting an investigation, as wide-open as possible. You can’t run this spontaneously, and novice GMs may well feel overwhelmed here. This adventure basically provides an array of plot-lines and complications, red herrings and the like, and requires that you run the module as the PCs explore the possibilities. I at once love this, and am somewhat disenchanted by it: On the one hand, the sheer amount of cartography and eccentric NPCs work exceedingly well: They make sense, are intriguing and won’t make the solution readily apparent. On the other hand, I can see some GMs annoyed by this – you get these lavishly depicted places, mansions and castles, but anything that happens here needs to be structured by the GM. This is both a crucial bug and a huge feature for the adventure – what we have here, is essentially a set-up. What you do with it is up to you.

Now, unlike adventure #3 “The City of Talos”, you’re left without set-piece tidbits to splice into the module. All such concrete components herein need to be crafted by the GM. Now, on the plus-side, the complex NPCs and their detailed agendas and exciting characters do mean that these basically write themselves, but it’s still something to bear in mind. Whether you can handle this or not, and whether you consider this an issue, depends on your own priorities. If you’re looking for a ready-to-run adventure that doesn’t require work, then this may not be for you. If, on the other hand, you want a complex investigation with amazing maps, one that sports unique NPCs, if you enjoy the idea of having a complex, fully mapped investigation scenario at your hands, then this may well deliver what you’re looking for. If you’re willing to properly flesh out the components of the adventure, that is. Now, I do consider this module to be a really worthwhile experience, but similarly, I can see this not work half as well for some groups.

As a reviewer, this puts me in a rough spot – I could see this work really well, and I can see it not live up to what some folks might expect. That being said, if you are aware of the sketch-like set-up and would like to see a great investigation set-up, then is definitely worth getting! Hence, my final verdict will clock in at 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the Masters & Minions-series clocks in at 19 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page introduction, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 14 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Now, this is a toolkit for a basically ready-to-play evil cult. As such, there will be some SPOILERS below. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

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All righty, only GMs around!

So, I can summarize this pdf in one sentence: This is Vidocq, the gaming supplement. If you haven’t seen the 2001 movie, then do so at your earliest convenience. I used its visuals and aesthetics with great fun in my Ravenloft game back in the day – it’s an inspired supernatural mystery movie with a pretty subdued magical angle that makes it perfect for low/rare magic or gritty games, though it works just as well in a high fantasy context. And yes, this would work perfectly in Fat Goblin Games’ Shadows over Vathak. As an aside: The title track was contributed by Apocalyptica featuring Matthias Sayer, the singer of Farmer Boys, an obscure German metal/rock band that is criminally underrated. The music video for Hope Vol.II, said track, made me get the movie, and it floored me as much as the excerpts from the video made me hope it would. It’s not a super high-budget blockbuster, but it’s still one of the movies I’d consider true, hidden cinematic gems.

Now, there are some differences between the movie and the supplement – instead of the singular “Alchemist” serial killer in the movie, we have a cult on our hands here – one that serves the eponymous Mirrored King, a mighty devil who specializes in deception and overthrowing authority – and interesting decision to represent the methodical approach here, as opposed to the chaos of demonic agendas we’d usually associate with overthrowing authorities. Now, while in the movie, the chemical component is represented by the title “The Alchemist”, it is here provided via the angle of a drug manufactured by the cult – Unachieved Dreams. This drug, obviously, helps capture the seedy, grimy aesthetics of the movies without having to use established drug-stats for, for example, opium, which do not fit the narrative requirements.

So, this magical drug nets 4 hours of sleep, uninterrupted, and imbibing it risks severe addiction with a nasty DC 24 Fort-save. At 1 gp, it is pretty inexpensive and nets +2 to Charisma checks (not properly capitalized) – here is the nasty twist: While the imbiber sleeps, they witness their greatest desires made manifest, but unbeknown to the imbibers, their souls are drawn to the Mirrored King’s palace in hell, where they actually experience these; upon reduction to Wisdom 0, the souls of the addicts are magic jar’d by the nasty entity, and their body, outsider-possessed in a way, may continue functioning. This has horror potential galore and can be really frightening when played right.

Now, such a drug operation obviously does require some muscle and cogs in the machine to work – this time around, this is represented by three CR ½ flunkies: A bruiser, a drugrunner, a catburglar, and we get a CR 4 cult initiate – all of these come with full statblocks using NPC classes. Beyond these generic NPC stats for the lower ranking cult members, we get stats for Borunda “Smasher”, the CR 4 barbarian muscle of the cult – alas, her statblock does have a few glitches – her raging version’s CMB and CMD, for example, are incorrect – they do not take in the boosts. Easy enough to fix, but kinda jarring. For more delicate tasks, there would be “Shorty” Mirrek Novos, a CR 4 halfling rogue, who takes care of accounting as well. This fellow’s stats do get CMD/CMB right, btw.

The star here, though, would be the Mirrored Man, the stand-in for the primary antagonist in the movie: The mirror mask-wearing mastermind of the cult: The Mirrored Man clocks in at CR 10 and is an interesting cleric 6/alchemist (mindchemist) 5. We get a background story here, and in an interesting twist, the stats here do come rather close to the tricks the character can pull off in the movie. Speaking of which: The mask is represented here as a mighty, unique magic item, the mirrored mask, which allows for excellent redirection of divinations, and enhances Disguises – the hands of an evil vigilante, this one could become even worse… As a minor missed chance, it would have been nice to see the movies’ soul-glass angle represented here as well.

The supplement does not stop here, though: We get a summary of the current goals of the Mirrored Man, with the plots woven by these smart and dangerous foes and their considerable ambitions noted. Beyond these angles, the pdf also depicts the Tavern of Achieved Dreams, the headquarter of the cult – and guess what: We get a surprisingly nice, full-color map of its two floors, with squares noted. Getting a full-color lair map, particularly one you can use just as a handout, makes for a great additional option here, and ends the pdf on a high note for me!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect – I noticed a few minor snafus, though nothing that wrecks the supplement. Layout adheres to a fitting and flavorful two-column full-color standard with blood splotches etc. – this is an aesthetically-pleasing pdf, and we get quite a few nice full-color artworks I haven’t seen before. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Kim Frandsen’s tribute to Vidocq is a truly fun little pdf – but I have a hard time rating it. You see, I’m a pretty rabid fanboy of the movie, and its one of the very few movies I watched more than once. On one hand, I do think the lore does have more potential than what we get in here; on the other hand, I really enjoy the twists that have been made regarding the concepts the movie provides.

Let me make that very clear: This is a riff on the subject matter, and a good one at that.

Now, personally, I’d be making the mirrored master of the cult a gestalted mythic alchemist/skinchanger (Legendary Games’ excellent hybrid class), but one can’t conceivably expect the like from a supplement intended for mass consumption. While it has a few rough edges, the pdf delivers on what it promises, and it could have easily really botched the pretty demanding subject matter. Hence, my final verdict will clock in at 4 stars.

Endzeit

Bought the printed book, Perfect for any cartographile, And it is exactly what you'd think you would get.

Good print quality Despite the low resolution and with a total of 200 spell pages and space for extra magical goodies it will more than do the job. I'm using one of the physical copies I ordered to make a custom spell compendium for a Custom world campaign I'm planning to run. Worth the money for the P.O.D. And if you like having your known spells on hand without going through the large lists in a core rulebook this is great if you don't mind the effort of transferring the info manually.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This combined settlement supplement/ecology and adventure clocks in at two times 32 pages – 28 pages each for the adventure and gazetteer booklets, if you take away cover/editorial/etc. My review is based primarily on the kickstarter premium print version of this adventure/supplement. The sturdy wrap-around cover has a massive, gorgeous full-color map of the eponymous city of Talos on the inside – and Justin Andrew Mason’s map is player-friendly! That’s a huge plus for the print version right there.

As you can glean from the above, I have received a print copy of the module/setting supplement for the purpose of a fair and unbiased review. The books have thus been moved up in my reviewing queue.

So, at the end of the last adventure in the series, the intriguing “The Buried Zikurat”, which could be solved sans a single combat (amazing!), we this time take a sojourn into a sandboxy scenario in the truest form; but in order to talk about the adventure, we have to acknowledge the unique two-book approach. You see, one book is an extensive gazetteer of the massive City of Talos as the PCs encounter it, while the second book depicts the changes that will now befall this unique area.

Before we dive into the SPOILERS themselves, let me comment a bit on the formal components: The gazetteer is VERY rules-lite and can be of use in pretty much any roleplaying game. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a plus for the type of scenario presented here. Anyhow, the gazetteer also reprints the destroy stone spell that justifies the presence of the underdark as presented here, reprinted from the previous adventure. Similarly, the three formene items that granted the PCs access to this otherwise shrouded part of the realms below have been reproduced here. The minor hiccups present in them in the former adventure are still here, though. The prose, an important component of such a book, for the most part, is really tight and engrossing, though a few paragraphs feel slightly rougher than others. Still, atmosphere-wise, this does achieve something – more on that in the conclusion of the review, below. One aspect that I sincerely hope will be remedied at one point, would pertain nomenclature: The books use “Formene” to refer to both the reagion after which the unique elven culture herein is named, and to the elves. While this shorthand makes perfect sense to me, it can act as a minor detractor regarding reading flow. You won’t stumble over these, and context makes getting what’s meant easy, but it’s something I felt obliged to mention.

It should also be noted that the adventure-booklet includes an alternate segue into the module that does not require the PCs to have finished “The Buried Zikurat” – including an encounter map by Dyson Logos! It’s a pretty detailed alternate introduction and goes above what one usually gets to see. Skill references are usually bolded and in all-caps, making it easy for the GM to determine rules-relevant text on the fly. I noticed an exception, where the skills were only in Allcaps, but since it’s still easily discernible, I chalk this up to negligible aesthetic nitpickery.

The adventure book does come with a brief bestiary-appendix that includes short-hand monster stats that do not note all attributes; I know this is probably due to page-count issues, but it’s an aspect that slightly detracts from the otherwise nice chapter. As before, alas, formatting here also deviates in the statblocks from 5e’s standards: Colons instead of full stops, “Hit:” not italicized…you get the drift. The material is, as a whole, functional, but these deviations make it feel less refined than it otherwise would be. We do get a brief random encounter table for the Formene, should you require one.

We do begin the gazetteer-booklet with a detailed history of the Formene Elves, their trade nexus network and self-imposed isolation…but those were components we could piece together before. The two books go much farther than that. But in order to discuss the content, I need to go into SPOILERS.

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All right, only GMs around? Great! So, beyond discussing the connections with Hastur, placing Trade Nexuses in the campaign world (SUPER useful when playing this in e.g. Golarion, Faerûn, Oerth, etc.), we get something I haven’t read in about 20 years; the discussion of Formene Elves goes beyond just throwing stats at you. In fact, that’s probably one of the best things about this book. Instead, we are told about the Dehava. These beings are basically elemental-like, rocky creatures that were afraid of the other Formene denizens for their propensity to steal their eggs as trinkets or decoration. In a surprisingly sensible twist, the dehava did not really consider cohabitation or true sentience possible prior to making magical contact with the Formene Elves. Considering how alien they are, this rang plausible to me – and their unique metabolism, which can excrete ingots of precious rock, has led to a surprisingly smart and unique form of cultural symbiosis. The Formene Elves can guard dehava young while the parents hibernate, and the dehava can provide a truly “elven” form of mining that feels both distinctly magical AND plausible.

The Formene Elves, hence, also have the ability to fabricate weaponry of mithril, adamant and similar materials, generating a type of resonance with the old concept of the “riddle of steel” from our own history, one often quoted in sword &sorcery contexts, but without requiring copious rewiring of your game-world. Indeed, the adventure book does note the type of weaponry that may be available. The culture of Talos’ Formene Elves and their first gaze upon surface-dwellers in ages, can yield an interesting roleplaying potential.

And more so than in pretty much any book I have read in a long time, culture is emphasized as a roleplaying catalyst and as a means to generate immersion and wonder. The culture of Formene Elves is focused on the 5 virtues of Efficiency, Grace, Knowledge, Harmony and Privacy. Notice something? While many of us may subscribe to these values being important, we do not place the same value upon them. The consequences of this clash of cultures between PCs (and players!) and Formene Elves is amazing to experience and see. Anyhow, the different quarters are assigned special things of note: For example, the focus on Knowledge means that the quarter houses transcriptions of books deemed long lost on the surface, while new books are cherished. Opinions of the locals regarding the reopening of trade relations with the surface, as well as potential problems, can yield here a treasure trove of intrigue, side-quests and unique encounters – probably enough to last you a whole campaign, should you choose to really dive into this section. I should also mention that we get a sample farm area map and discuss other humanoids living in the Lower Formene.

This gazetteer fits seamlessly with the adventure booklet; you see, the module takes a defiant stand in favor of capital letters ROLEPLAYING. If you disregard the alternate introduction to the adventure, we get a total of 12 side-quests of sorts that form the very sandboxy and open plot of this adventure. The PCs are basically ambassadors for the whole world above! The PCs will have to negotiate reopening the trade network with the surface, with key aspects of the surface and the Formene Elves provided in bullet points. No, there is no simple “roll to solve.” I love the adventure for that. ROLEPLAYING, not ROLLplaying. Discovering the archive of the Formene Elves, negotiating trade of mithril weapons (and whether or not to teach the skills to make them…) – this is utterly inspired!

If your players get antsy and want to do some exploring, we also get a deserted, similarly alien city of the Ryba-Wiek fish-people, rendered abandoned by a strange statue that still remains, with explorers haunted by flashbacks. The PCs may have to contend with a temporarily insane Dehava, look for the lost caravan, deal with potentially hostile human encroachment upon Formene Elf territory, explore an abandoned duergar temple, deal with a black dragon…and there is a mushroom cave, which can have really chaotic psychedelic spore-effects – in case you needed an angle to insert a Narcosa-module, there you go! Defeating a pair of medusas can allow the PCs to free no less than 23 beings! (Ages since petrified, looks and names provided…)

Well, all of that, plus any underworld sidetreks you may want to throw at your players! Each of these little sidequests on their own would not be more remarkable than e.g. a solid Mini-Dungeon or OSR-one-page dungeon sidetrek; but their contextualization and detail does elevate them. The whole is here, for once, truly greater than the sum of its parts. Oh, and if the like doesn’t fit the tastes of your PCs, you can easily run this as a series of combat-related issues and make the whole module go by quicker…whether or how you tie these scenario-components together lies within your purview as a GM – this is, in the truest sense of the word, a modular module.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting, on a formal level and rules-language level, are good, but remain the one aspect of the module where I can see some folks being less enamored by what’s presented. Layout adheres to a 2-column b/w-standard with copious amounts of high-quality cartography provided. Artworks range from compelling, original b/w-pieces to a few less amazing stock art pieces. As a whole, this is an aesthetically-pleasing module/supplement, though.

Okay, I have rarely been this glad to have been proven wrong. When I read the first adventure of this series, I filed the whole under “solid, but forgettable dark fantasy with obligatory Mythos reference”; I was dead wrong. “The Buried Zikurat” had a distinct voice, and so does this one. You see, L. Kevin Watson’s “The City of Talos” is an adventure unlike any you have probably read since the advent of d20. What do I mean by this?

Well, 3rd edition brought a focus on crunch, i.e. rules-relevant material. We’d get a gazillion of different elves with minor modification in racial stats. Fire elves, air elves…yeah, you’re probably as sick of them by now as I am. Rules-relevant material, from racial stats to archetypes, subtypes, weaponry and spells, began replacing what was once considered to be, you know, what made a race distinct. While the OSR-movement has somewhat flipped this, here, we often see an almost fetishized emphasis on really old-school dungeon-crawling and/or on immediate “gameability” – immediate hooks that affect the PCs on the personal level, that immediately segue into adventure.

This has cost us dearly, at least in my opinion. It took me a long time to formulate what exactly I loved so much about these two booklets; it’s not the presentation; neither the bite-sized quests/mini-adventures. It’s also not the emphasis on roleplaying over rollplaying, though I do like that. Still, we have seen all of these in recent years – not often, but we’ve seen them. Similarly, I have read and designed more races over the years that I could count, and the Formene Elves, while certainly distinct, also could not account for my fascination with these two booklets.

Then, it suddenly dawned on me. You know, when I started playing the game, and had NO IDEA what the difference between “gnomes” and “haflings” was, I read the books released in the boxed sets here in Germany. I read about gnomish ruby wine, and how it could render other races comatose, in strange psychedelic dreams; I read about elven poetry so haunting, it could break the hearts of mortals that witnessed it. I read about dwarven ales and bread. I learned why haflings wouldn’t usually want to go adventuring, about their agricultural (and pipe-weed growing) prowess, about the marriage customs of these races…and they came alive for me. Not because of rules, stats or immediate adventure hooks – but by virtue of their CULTURES.

Know what these things have in common? They are not immediately “gameable” and they are, what the low-attention-span, lowest common denominator demographics would consider “boring.” Now, it is my observation, that there, in some books, is merit to this observation. I know that plenty of racial books have bored me to tears with being uninspired twists/inversions on tired tropes. If I had to review one more “element + humanoid”-race (ice dwarf, fire elf, air halfling…blergh), I may smash my head against the table. I very much get how this type of writing got a bad reputation.

If anything “The City of Talos” represents a resounding rebuttal to the claims that only rules and immediate gameability matter; neither do you have to be weird to be interesting. Don’t get me wrong – there is PLENTY of material within this adventure that does offer immediate gaming; there are splices of things herein that can become atmospheric, weird, etc.

But that’s not where the soul of these booklets lies. The beauty, and I mean that in the truest sense of the word, was that this made me see elves, perhaps the most tired and exploited by various forms of media of the humanoid races, tarnished by a flood of good scimitar-wielding wanna-be Gary Stu drow Drizzt-clones and shield-surfing Legolases, in a fresh light. It showed me a magical culture that feels distinctly elven and yet, distinctly unique.

In a way, this module is an heir to an aspect of old-school gaming and aesthetics that is almost lost, that no one seems to give the proper due; an aspect that may, without folks realizing it, be responsible for a significant part of the fondness felt for those days long past. I couldn’t name a single adventure, or supplement for that matter, that takes this approach. This is very much conservative fantasy; it’s not weird, psychedelic or defiantly different – and yet, it proves in structure and presentation, in imaginative potential, that culture does not have to be boring; that it can engender, even nowadays, even among jaded veteran roleplayers, once more the sense of wonder that we all once felt upon exploring the first dwarven mine, the first elven town. Combined with the unconventional focus of the adventure and its open structure, we thus get an adventure that is wholly, utterly distinct in a surprisingly subtle way.

Is it perfect? No, as noted before, there are complaints regarding formatting to be fielded here, and when scavenged and divorced from the phenomenal flavor, this feels less compelling; the rules-components are simply not where the focus lies here. If these aspects truly irk you (they do irk me, don’t get me wrong), then detract a star from the rating. If you only want to murder-hobo everything, then this will not be for you.

However, otherwise, I can only wholeheartedly recommend you checking this out. L. Kevin Watson has found a distinct narrative voice and provides something within that is unlike anything you’re bound to find out there. This humble book has inspired me beyond anything I expected, even after module number #2- hence, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up due to in dubio pro reo…and this does get my seal of approval for managing the rare and tough feat of depicting a traditional fantasy culture that is wholly new. Highly recommended.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you once more welcome in my lounge! Please, do take a seat, as I want to show you a thing most intriguing; surely, you recall the little pieces of intangible ephemera that we tend to conjure to diversify the experience of engaging in the Great Game?

Well, this little booklet now, for the first time, compiles these ephemera, while, as I was told by my servants, also getting rid of some of the minor imperfections previously noted by astute dignitaries, personas and individuals of staunch character and stellar pedigree. At 48 pages, 4 less once you subtract covers and similar components, we have a rather hefty little tome.

Oh yes, I wholeheartedly concur, my dearest. As you can see after reading Tom Olam’s introductory text (which is situated, mind you, on the page denoting the contents), the entrepreneurs that so charmingly self-depreciatingly style themselves “Fat Goblins” have not simply stitched magically the contents of our beloved ephemera together; nay, I say! They, as befitting of the care and respect due our pastime, elected to redesign the formal presentation of materials within, employing a wide cornucopia of artistry, ranging from the thematically-suitable artworks (which, it should be added, could be at home in a proper salon such as this!) to the presentation of the pages themselves: Unobtrusive, yet gorgeous aesthetics render the book a balm for sore eyes, not unlike all those looking upon me and/or reading these lines right now.

But I digress; we begin our discussions within with a further look regarding specializations and their interactions with abilities; particularly useful for debutantes in the Great game would be the explanation of the lexicon employed by our most civilized of pastimes. It should also be explicitly mentioned that a previously slightly ambiguous component accompanying the implementations of specializations in the Great Game has been done away with: The booklet now explicitly notes that extraordinary abilities are exempt from specializations – a decision that rings as sensible to me, considering that they are already designated as extraordinary, n’est-ce pas?

A table of the most useful kind indeed is provided here, providing the tools to implement these in conjunction with all of our favorite elaborations and expansions of the Great game – criminally few though there may be.

Now, as all of you may well be aware, I am a staunch proponent of the notion that all ladies and gentlemen should be able to employ and use the specific implementation of the Great Game that best suits their respective taste, and as such, I am not opposed to seeing the notion of the Divorce Variation, a modification that removes the direct tie between suits and abilities – though I do have to say that the resulting potential bickering strikes me as unbecoming of a proper environment and something more suited to those newfangled, class-less new-money people babbling about FATE, as though shouting (most uncouth…)

More steeped in tradition, though not necessarily our tradition, but tradition nonetheless, would be the suggestion to employ “improvement points” to determine the growth of a dramatic character; as you all are well aware, this steeps the progress gained very much in a literary tradition regarding the journey and growth of a dramatic character. As the profane rabble would call it, “experience points” or some such nonsense, though they are still kept very much in service to the demands of proper etiquette and narrative sensibilities. As such, I have no qualms about recommending these to hosts to so inclined – there even are suggestions presented for various growth velocities.

Awareness of the, at times, almost incredulous feats accomplished in our Great Game, is expected at this point; but, as well all know, when paraphrasing an adage by Hardy, “there ought to be sympathy for the less fortunate.” Or at least, that’s what my maid used to tell me the other day. Anyways, as you are well aware, the experience of those less fortunate than ours, who are living a life less characterized by adventure and great deeds as providence foresaw for us, might well be intrigued to play when given the chance; heck, we might well want to step back ourselves and be immersed in a scenario or two where we are not as…impeccably extraordinary. As such, imposing a hard limit on cards played serves as a truly fantastic way to envision a world that is, at least slightly, more mundane than the at times tiringly wondrous lives we lead. What’s that, James? Ugh, tell the faerie I want the yard clean for the late afternoon tea.

Pardonnez-moi, mesdames et messieurs – good help is so hard to find these days. Now, when recalling, as individuals of such astute faculties undoubtedly can, the Half-Off variant is pretty self-explanatory, focusing on providing half the benefits when cards do not align…like that of my fate and that splendorous debutante last year…And yes, at this point, I should not be remiss to note that the variations presented within actually can be modified and tinkered with further. Think of them like the intricate wheels of a proper clock – they run just fine on their own, but depending on your joyous curiosity regarding experimentation, you’ll have different experiences.

Perhaps one of the most vital variations ever devised upon this wondrous world, though, would be the finer differentiation between Feats difficulties that one of these provides; this one, all on its own, should easily make the truly paltry price, respectfully asked, truly worth it, and it frees the host from the requirement to play cards to enhance difficulties – in short, it enhances the fair play at a table by taking a needlessly divisive burden off the host’s back, while also enhancing the gravity of the decisions made by dramatic characters.

Now…I’d ask those of faint dispositions, those of weak hearts, to leave the room. The fairer among us may want to take out there fans, for yes…it is my outraged duty to report that the most scandalous dice-based variation, devised by the mischievous, malignant Moriarty, is also included within this booklet! The criminal mastermind’s attempted subversion of our proper world order seems to be alive and kicking, and while obviously despicable and dastardly, one cannot help but find a sick genius in the implementation of these rules. While obviously worthy of shunning and prosecution, one must be able to look into the eye of savagery, even in the variations, imposed in this case, upon the Great Game. Now, unflinchingly, I have to concede that there is a well-based foundation underlying this, but now that I have determined this, none of you will have to. If I may, ladies and gentlemen – keep this variation out of the hands of savages, staff and similar beings of less firmly-grounded morals. We don’t want them to feel entitled to play in our grand pastime now, do we?

As you may know, this series of ephemera started with a humble little offering, highlighting how one of these decks, these Tarot cards, that are all the rage right now, may be employed with the Great Game; success bred…more success. Like our family trees, correct? We did, hence, get more than one of these ephemera, which have since been properly fitted with a more evocative nomenclature, namely that of the Fortunate and that of the Sorcerous Tarot Variation. If you, like me, love to regale your astute audiences as a host, then the following happenstance may well have occurred in your game as well: You have the Major Arcana…and its effects simply would not fit properly. Quel dommage!

Now, it seems like some distinguished individuals, who shall not be named for now, have observed this as well, and thus proceeded to alter the tables of the effects of these types of cards, making them more widely applicable. While it is my firm assertion that a host of the proper caliber would not require this modification, I couldn’t help but marvel at the simplicity of the modifications added to the material at hand. Speaking of which, this book does also note an option that can combine our classic deck with major arcana, and one that would allow for the discarding of a major arcana card to redraw – this one, ladies and gentlemen, obviously does vastly enhance the power and versatility of dramatic characters. If you want to weave a truly outlandish yarn, this may well be the way to go!

Now, as noted before, the aesthetics of this booklet do not leave anything to be desired; there are these little bookmarks included for ease of navigation in the ephemeral iteration of this booklet. The compilation and refinement exerted throughout combine to make sure that these variations, transcribed by the esteemed Mister J Gray, is a masterpiece, pure and simple; had it not been for the fact that I have already bestowed my highest accolades upon the components, this would have been a candidate for my list of best offerings of the year. Since this already has reached these heights, I am in the unfortunate position of not being able to bestow these honors once more.

This, however, should not be taken to mean that this is anything but a truly required purchase – this humble offering should be considered to be an EZG Essential, a required reading for any host of distinguished character and skill, a 5 star + seal of approval supplement.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

Gather round, ladies and gentlemen! I Am glad to serve once more as your host for this discussion of an ephemeral piece of media associated with the Great Game!

This installment of the Variation-rules for Castle Falkenstein clocks in at 8 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, leaving us with 6 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

My dear ladies and gentlemen, it is with utmost concern that I have to express this warning; it is only with greatest hesitation that I even dare mention the existence of a pamphlet which may well shake the foundation of all that is right and proper to the core; were it not for the continuation of the exploits of master Tom Olam, which I did promise you at the last gathering, I would not tarnish the good graces and reputation of my house mentioning this sanctimonious, scandalous development.

I do advise those with a fairer disposition to leave the room, for, as the narrative provided makes clear with ample gratuity, the very soul of our cherished and proper Great Game is in danger! None other than the dastardly Professor Moriarty has found a way to, and I ask you once more to brace yourselves, employ DICE with the favorite pastimes of well-bred persons of proper pedigree!

Dice! The plebeian, profane gambling tools of the masses! Dice! My outrage, as that of my maids, butlers and angelic significant other, knew no bounds! Indeed, this horrifically deamonic pamphlet, undoubtedly planted by criminal elements of illest repute in the hands of the courteous Fat Goblin cadre of entrepreneurs, includes even more than the means to replace the tools of properly civilized folk – it also sports a means to replace the noble cards with CHITS. 52, divided into sets of 13. 4 are drawn, and spent chits are put back inside and a new is drawn. They are drawn from the same bowl! Scandalous! Preposterous! Imagine the moral decay – for the hand of a proper lady to touch the same chits as that of one of a male! In sequence! The outrage is, indeed, staggering! What next? Are we to take off our gloves?? Truly, this malignant Moriarty is trying to tear asunder the very values upon which our grand station is based!

Worse, special chits can be included, including so-called “royal chits”! The implications! As if being of royal blood was not the prerogative of the divinely ordained, as if it was bound to profane luck! Chaos reigns, even before Wild Chits are added – only the most malignant of malfeasants would contemplate this!

But…and here, I’d like to ask our faerie friends in particular to remain strong – this is not where Moriarty’s perfidious incursion ends; instead, we are faced with a blasphemy that attacks the very nature of our world-order, implying that sorcery can be similarly…modif. Modif…I can’ bring myself to use any other word that “tainted”; “perverted!”

Indeed, while this ephemeral text may adhere to a 2-column presentation and may look as aesthetically-pleasing as other offerings in our beloved series, I cannot recommended this abomination. So please, take a close look and memorize the contents of this pamphlet, so we may warn others of its corrupting nature, which surely only gracious characters of impeccable morals such as we may resist.

(5 stars + seal of approval – an amazing little file by J Gray! It's also a Candiate for my Top Ten of 2018, just fyi.)

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This little bestiary clocks in at 11 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 7 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

The supplement begins with a brief, one-page run-down of the Silver Tower noted in the title, sketching the environment and noting some sample denizens that can be found within, taking creatures of up to Bestiary 6 into account. While no terrain features or concrete details are provided, this at least provides a nice contextualization for the creatures to come.

The first of these would be the CR 7 Riven, a plant that had me shudder and flash back in aesthetics to a certain game – a pair of humanoid legs splits to a body of a vast maw with a leaf-like interior and lashing vines. With grabbing bites, paralytic vines and the ability to consume identities of those it eats, as well as pheromones and the ability to blend into new environments, these lavishly-illustrated plants (kudos for the twisted full-color artwork!) made me flash back to the forgotten Dreamcast title D2 in the best of ways. Cool nightmare fodder!

At CR 12, skrianix are 4-armed aberrations of a vaguely insectile bent, making for horrid meat-grinders in close combat – but they are more than that. They have an acidic saliva and, when exposed to other acid (saliva doesn’t count…unless you’re a sadistic GM like I am and ignore this explicitly stated caveat…), they split. Like a frickin’ ooze. Yeah. Creepy as all hell. Yes, their defenses actually mean you won’t easily tear through them.

The final creature herein would be the zworoam swarm – at CR 4, we have a swarm of jelly-like flying creatures can engulf targets, hampering their movement…and turn acidic. Yes, you can basically use these to temporarily lock down escaping/fleeing PCs, while the big bad guys draw near… I know I’ll be using them, concept-wise beyond the borders of the system and extensively, particularly in modules like LotFP’s “The God That Crawls.” (Review forthcoming!)

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout is as beautiful as we’ve come to expect from Vathak supplements and the three full-color artworks provided for the monsters are amazing – and I haven’t seen them before. Considering the fair asking price, that’s a big plus indeed! Speaking of which: In spite of the brevity of the file, it’s fully bookmarked! Kudos!

Brian Duckwitz’ monsters are…surprisingly amazing. I mean it. I got this pretty much on a whim, since I wanted to show support for the criminally-underrated Vathak product line of Fat Goblin Games, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the monsters within engaging, fitting regarding the horror-tones of the setting, and mechanically challenging to face. I do have to say that I had hoped for the eponymous Silver Tower as a general framing environment to perhaps sport a sample hazard or a bit more context for the critters, though. Now, granted, none of the monsters reinvent the wheel, but this costs 1 buck. As in: One Dollar. The creatures herein are definitely worth more than this. My final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up due to the great bang for buck ratio.

Endzeitgeist out.

Good concept, but needed that little bit extra.

I love the concept, and the pdf, but it feels like it needs more. I'd love to see a feat that gives more construct points. At least 4 more at a time. Right now, a living doll can't be brought to life AND have superior darkvision? A living doll isn't a construct of any kind? What's it's type? One of the feats, Masterwork, says "Living Doll or other Construct", so is it a construct too? They're "constructed", but gain no benefits of a construct. How are they healed? Is it with a variant of repair damage (3.5 spell)? How about a sewing kit that is the equivalent of the healer's kit? And if you use two uses of it, allows you to reattach missing appendages.

As good as this is, it's needs more for its price. A web enhancement that gives us monstrous dolls, or the ability to change limbs (see Toy Story and the Lego movies), would be great. More feats so you can enhance the doll, and even a conversion of the slaymate (Libris Mortis) and carrionette (Dragon Magazine 339, AD&D Monstrous Manual).

Not much else is needed, just a couple of things here and there. Overall, it's decent. It was just lacking that extra push to be spectacular.

Hopefully there's a 5e version someday that fixes a few of these minor aspects.

I'd like to someday I'm hoping that one day I can do a one-shot with these races at a convention. It'll be fun for everyone to play something different.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The second installment of the Haunting of Hastur-series clocks in at 28 pages of content if you take away the editorial, ToC, etc., but that does not really represent the module properly.

This review was moved up in my queue due to me receiving a print copy of the adventure.

You see, that page-count only covers the core adventure sported, and the book comes with two supplemental tomes: The first would be the Map and Illustration booklet, which provides full-page, high quality renditions of the artworks, as well as all the full-color maps of the module. These are provided in the pdf as well, and oddly, the maps in the Illustration and Map booklet are a bit pixilated.

Speaking of maps: My review of this supplement is based on the neat kickstarter print edition of this module, which comes with a detachable cover and full-color maps inside – these are high-quality indeed, and properly high-res, though no player-friendly, key-less versions are included. This is the ONE book I’d consider to be optional.

You see, there are two more supplemental books for this adventures, the Book of Lore and the Book of Puzzles. The former contains more than 20 (!!!) pages of handouts! No, I am NOT kidding you. More than 20 pages of frickin’ handouts, all laid out like documents, letters, etc. with different fonts etc. The Book of Puzzles covers 14 pages…and is AMAZING. You see, the module sports a series of puzzles…but not all tables enjoy having their wits challenged. So this remains optional. In this book, we can find three difficulties of puzzles, ranging from basic riddles to number puzzles, logic problems to cryptography quotes, these are damn cool and add some all too often neglected mental exercise to the gaming process. Two thumbs up!

Both are de facto 100% optional, as combat is always a means to bypass these locks, but frankly, I believe that the Book of Puzzles is absolutely mandatory. The Book of Lore is highly recommended as well. Why do I consider them to be so crucial? You see, this module is unique in that it can be cleared without a single combat encounter! As such, it can theoretically also be run as a 1-on-1-adventure, as it primarily tests PLAYER-skill, as opposed to character-skill. So, after module #1 was a pretty standard, solid dark fantasy yarn, we take a totally different approach here: The module is essentially one that can fit seamlessly with pretty much all fantasy games and, genre-wise, is what I’d consider to be one of the exceedingly rare examples of “strange archaeology.” More on that in the SPOILER-section below.

The module includes an optional appendix for inclusion in the world assumed by Dark Naga Adventures, a brief dressing list, a table of fluff-only mushroom effects and three magic items that are variants of classic ones. There is one new monster here, and its formatting slightly deviates from the standard conventions, noting e.g. “blunt” instead of “bludgeoning” among the resistances or “All Others” to shorten the ability score section. I do not like this needless deviation. This also would be a good place to note that a few cosmetic typos can be found in these books: “actoins”, “delimas” and the like – nothing serious, but something that an editing pass could have caught. The module also sports something I enjoy, namely a spell that allows, at high-levels, for excavation of complexes. The spell exists primarily to account for logic, but rules-formatting-wise, the duration should not be instantaneous; the duration and casting time are contradictory; the spell should have operated with concentration instead. In short: The rules-language components are somewhat rough around the edges. On the plus-side, the spell’s hiccups don’t really impede the module, as it primarily serves a lore purpose.

Okay, so another thing that is important should be noted right now: NO, this is not yet another Cthulhu-themed Zikurat-dungeon. It’s something radically, dauntingly, different. In order to explain what it is, though, I have to go into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

…

..

.

Okay, so whether or not the PCs have completed module #1 (the ending here is smoother if they have), they are contacted to visit a nearby clay mine, where a Zikurat has been unearthed. Unbeknown to the PCs, they only see half of it – human side. Below the surface, the edifice stretches on its head, providing a symmetrical structures separated in two halves. One was held by the surface folk, and one by the Formene elves. Who are these elves? Well, picture an elven tribe that is Not evil, but still lives underground, acting as stewards of sorts to the realms below, a necessity, considering the power of the rare ores found there. It should be noted that Hastur’s rising back in the darker ages has made them go into isolation…and that the sound defeat of his forces in module #1 will sport the impetus for the elves breaking their self-imposed exile. The Zikurat was once a trade-hub, a magical nexus that made invasion by armed forces all but impossible, and thus, the PCs explore an edifice out of time.

The mysterious function of the location is slowly unearthed as the PCs defeat either puzzle locks or hack through the vault-guardians and piece together the lore in a rather fun combination of direct and indirect storytelling. From pylons to the unique structure of the zikurat, the module manages to do something only rarely seen: It manages to be exciting and atmospheric without constant threat of death. It is almost like a clever horror-point-and-click adventure, slowly building tension and excitement. This is also facilitated by the very presentation: Each room notes the respective means of ingress/egress, a brief description for the GM, one description that you can paraphrase to the players, and, where applicable, a summary of the lore, though the handouts in the Book of Lore do a much better job. Still: Kudos for not requiring them!

In short, the module works LIKE NO OTHER D&D-adventure I have read so far. It feels at once old-school in a good way, generating a sense of true exploration and investigation, but still does something fresh and distinct. I cannot overstate how much I love how courageous this is – and better yet, the adventure manages to pull this off without becoming boring, proving that you don’t have to hack apart something every 2 rooms. It breathes a sense of internal consistency and has what the first module lacked in abundance: It is utterly UNIQUE. That alone makes this worthwhile in my book.

Anyways, I could go through this room by room, but that wouldn’t help you and just bloat the adventure; we conclude the scenario when the PCs meet one of the fabled Formene, a mage who botched a teleportation, half trapped in stone and dying, who bestows upon them the tools to traverse the dangerous region that gave these elves their name to the fabled city of Talos…for the first time in literally an age, outsiders will be allowed to set foot in this mythic place…

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good, but could have been slightly tighter for the experience, both on a rules-language and formal level; layout adheres to a nice two-column full-color standard in the pdf version, but frankly, I prefer the b/w of the print version. The artworks are b/w and adhere to different styles, with some being amazing. The pdfs come fully bookmarked for your convenience and the full-color cartography is really neat, though I wished we got a player-friendly version.

I…have a hard time rating L. Kevin Watson’s “The Buried Zikurat” (The Book of Lore’s handouts were written by Ismael Alvarez, Kalyna Conrad, Troy Daniels, Jennifer R. Povey and Matt Roth, fyi); on the one hand, the lack of player-friendly maps is a serious disappointment as far as I’m concerned. As noted, the editing could have been slightly tighter, particularly in the rules-department. HOWEVER. Ultimately, that is not really relevant. The adventure does not require any of these aspects. It is, in essence, a truly rules-lite take on the essence of roleplaying; this is not about tweaking numbers, it is about storytelling, about using your mind, about exploring wondrous places. This is an investigation and exploration of a wondrous locale that works, surprisingly, sans NPCs, sans searching for clues with roll upon roll; this is radical in the way in which it allows you to really ROLEplay. If you get frustrated, you can still easily start a fight, sure, but the emphasis here is radically, drastically, different.

And honestly, I adore this module for the courage this must have required. Think about how much chutzpah that must have taken to pull; write a module in this day and age that is not contingent on a big boss fight, a flashy over-the-top sequence, but one that can stand on its own by the virtue of being clever, by its atmosphere. I love this. It is one of the VERY few jamais-vu-experiences I have seen in the last years. If you enjoy using your mind and need a break from mindless crawling and hack’n’slashing, then get this RIGHT NOW….just get it with the lore and puzzle supplements.

While I like that the base module does not require them, it loses a lot of the unique flair that sets it apart; on its own, you should probably detract a star from the final verdict.

That being said, I consider this to be absolutely inspiring, and I will rate this as intended, with the companion tomes. And, in spite of its formal hiccups and minor rough edges, I consider this to be amazing and unique. My final verdict will hence clock in at 4.5 stars for the whole experience, rounded up…and because I LOVE the courage and design of this adventure, I will also slap my seal of approval on this. Highly recommended for groups that want more out of gaming than killing monsters!

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The second installment of the Haunting of Hastur-series clocks in at 28 pages of content if you take away the editorial, ToC, etc., but that does not really represent the module properly.

This review was moved up in my queue due to me receiving a print copy of the adventure.

You see, that page-count only covers the core adventure sported, and the book comes with two supplemental tomes: The first would be the Map and Illustration booklet, which provides full-page, high quality renditions of the artworks, as well as all the full-color maps of the module. These are provided in the pdf as well, and oddly, the maps in the Illustration and Map booklet are a bit pixilated.

Speaking of maps: My review of this supplement is based on the neat kickstarter print edition of this module, which comes with a detachable cover and full-color maps inside – these are high-quality indeed, and properly high-res, though no player-friendly, key-less versions are included. This is the ONE book I’d consider to be optional.

You see, there are two more supplemental books for this adventures, the Book of Lore and the Book of Puzzles. The former contains more than 20 (!!!) pages of handouts! No, I am NOT kidding you. More than 20 pages of frickin’ handouts, all laid out like documents, letters, etc. with different fonts etc. The Book of Puzzles covers 14 pages…and is AMAZING. You see, the module sports a series of puzzles…but not all tables enjoy having their wits challenged. So this remains optional. In this book, we can find three difficulties of puzzles, ranging from basic riddles to number puzzles, logic problems to cryptography quotes, these are damn cool and add some all too often neglected mental exercise to the gaming process. Two thumbs up!

Both are de facto 100% optional, as combat is always a means to bypass these locks, but frankly, I believe that the Book of Puzzles is absolutely mandatory. The Book of Lore is highly recommended as well. Why do I consider them to be so crucial? You see, this module is unique in that it can be cleared without a single combat encounter! As such, it can theoretically also be run as a 1-on-1-adventure, as it primarily tests PLAYER-skill, as opposed to character-skill. So, after module #1 was a pretty standard, solid dark fantasy yarn, we take a totally different approach here: The module is essentially one that can fit seamlessly with pretty much all fantasy games and, genre-wise, is what I’d consider to be one of the exceedingly rare examples of “strange archaeology.” More on that in the SPOILER-section below.

The module includes an optional appendix for inclusion in the world assumed by Dark Naga Adventures, a brief dressing list, a table of fluff-only mushroom effects and three magic items that are variants of classic ones. There is one new monster here, and its formatting slightly deviates from the standard conventions, noting e.g. “blunt” instead of “bludgeoning” among the resistances or “All Others” to shorten the ability score section. I do not like this needless deviation. This also would be a good place to note that a few cosmetic typos can be found in these books: “actoins”, “delimas” and the like – nothing serious, but something that an editing pass could have caught. The module also sports something I enjoy, namely a spell that allows, at high-levels, for excavation of complexes. The spell exists primarily to account for logic, but rules-formatting-wise, the duration should not be instantaneous; the duration and casting time are contradictory; the spell should have operated with concentration instead. In short: The rules-language components are somewhat rough around the edges. On the plus-side, the spell’s hiccups don’t really impede the module, as it primarily serves a lore purpose.

Okay, so another thing that is important should be noted right now: NO, this is not yet another Cthulhu-themed Zikurat-dungeon. It’s something radically, dauntingly, different. In order to explain what it is, though, I have to go into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

…

..

.

Okay, so whether or not the PCs have completed module #1 (the ending here is smoother if they have), they are contacted to visit a nearby clay mine, where a Zikurat has been unearthed. Unbeknown to the PCs, they only see half of it – human side. Below the surface, the edifice stretches on its head, providing a symmetrical structures separated in two halves. One was held by the surface folk, and one by the Formene elves. Who are these elves? Well, picture an elven tribe that is Not evil, but still lives underground, acting as stewards of sorts to the realms below, a necessity, considering the power of the rare ores found there. It should be noted that Hastur’s rising back in the darker ages has made them go into isolation…and that the sound defeat of his forces in module #1 will sport the impetus for the elves breaking their self-imposed exile. The Zikurat was once a trade-hub, a magical nexus that made invasion by armed forces all but impossible, and thus, the PCs explore an edifice out of time.

The mysterious function of the location is slowly unearthed as the PCs defeat either puzzle locks or hack through the vault-guardians and piece together the lore in a rather fun combination of direct and indirect storytelling. From pylons to the unique structure of the zikurat, the module manages to do something only rarely seen: It manages to be exciting and atmospheric without constant threat of death. It is almost like a clever horror-point-and-click adventure, slowly building tension and excitement. This is also facilitated by the very presentation: Each room notes the respective means of ingress/egress, a brief description for the GM, one description that you can paraphrase to the players, and, where applicable, a summary of the lore, though the handouts in the Book of Lore do a much better job. Still: Kudos for not requiring them!

In short, the module works LIKE NO OTHER D&D-adventure I have read so far. It feels at once old-school in a good way, generating a sense of true exploration and investigation, but still does something fresh and distinct. I cannot overstate how much I love how courageous this is – and better yet, the adventure manages to pull this off without becoming boring, proving that you don’t have to hack apart something every 2 rooms. It breathes a sense of internal consistency and has what the first module lacked in abundance: It is utterly UNIQUE. That alone makes this worthwhile in my book.

Anyways, I could go through this room by room, but that wouldn’t help you and just bloat the adventure; we conclude the scenario when the PCs meet one of the fabled Formene, a mage who botched a teleportation, half trapped in stone and dying, who bestows upon them the tools to traverse the dangerous region that gave these elves their name to the fabled city of Talos…for the first time in literally an age, outsiders will be allowed to set foot in this mythic place…

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are good, but could have been slightly tighter for the experience, both on a rules-language and formal level; layout adheres to a nice two-column full-color standard in the pdf version, but frankly, I prefer the b/w of the print version. The artworks are b/w and adhere to different styles, with some being amazing. The pdfs come fully bookmarked for your convenience and the full-color cartography is really neat, though I wished we got a player-friendly version.

I…have a hard time rating L. Kevin Watson’s “The Buried Zikurat” (The Book of Lore’s handouts were written by Ismael Alvarez, Kalyna Conrad, Troy Daniels, Jennifer R. Povey and Matt Roth, fyi); on the one hand, the lack of player-friendly maps is a serious disappointment as far as I’m concerned. As noted, the editing could have been slightly tighter, particularly in the rules-department. HOWEVER. Ultimately, that is not really relevant. The adventure does not require any of these aspects. It is, in essence, a truly rules-lite take on the essence of roleplaying; this is not about tweaking numbers, it is about storytelling, about using your mind, about exploring wondrous places. This is an investigation and exploration of a wondrous locale that works, surprisingly, sans NPCs, sans searching for clues with roll upon roll; this is radical in the way in which it allows you to really ROLEplay. If you get frustrated, you can still easily start a fight, sure, but the emphasis here is radically, drastically, different.

And honestly, I adore this module for the courage this must have required. Think about how much chutzpah that must have taken to pull; write a module in this day and age that is not contingent on a big boss fight, a flashy over-the-top sequence, but one that can stand on its own by the virtue of being clever, by its atmosphere. I love this. It is one of the VERY few jamais-vu-experiences I have seen in the last years. If you enjoy using your mind and need a break from mindless crawling and hack’n’slashing, then get this RIGHT NOW….just get it with the lore and puzzle supplements.

While I like that the base module does not require them, it loses a lot of the unique flair that sets it apart; on its own, you should probably detract a star from the final verdict.

That being said, I consider this to be absolutely inspiring, and I will rate this as intended, with the companion tomes. And, in spite of its formal hiccups and minor rough edges, I consider this to be amazing and unique. My final verdict will hence clock in at 4.5 stars for the whole experience, rounded up…and because I LOVE the courage and design of this adventure, I will also slap my seal of approval on this. Highly recommended for groups that want more out of gaming than killing monsters!

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This GM’s Guide to the region of Ina’oth clocks in at 62 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with a massive 58 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

First things first: While this does not require the Player’s Guide to Ina’oth, it is interesting to note that there is no overlap between them per se – the two guides have been crafted to complement each other, which is a big plus as far as I’m concerned. Instead of getting an unredacted version of the Player’s Guide, we get basically a massive amount of new material and a glimpse behind the curtain. In short, this is a great example of how Player’s/GM’s Guides should be employed.

Okay, structurally, we begin with a piece of introductory prose, presented as a letter, including a proper visual representation of said missive. Aesthetically, that much is certain from the get-go, we have a distinct and nice book here – the grimoires-style layout (with stains and splotches) makes this an aesthetically-pleasing experience to read, complemented by plenty of flavor-wise perfect full-color artworks; while some obvious have been taken from the public domain, they have been recolored or modified…or chosen perfectly to seamlessly generate a unified aesthetic as far as artwork is concerned. The original pieces I saw are, no surprise there for Fat Goblin Games, really, really nice.

But what about the content? Well, this guide begins with the usual introductory notes and some advice for the GM that is important to bear in mind – Vathak as a setting is conductive to a variety of different horror types, and selecting properly the themes to convey is important. Anyways, after this, we receive a brief history of the region, with the amazing banner added as a pleasing visual identity. We thus learn of the golden age long gone, far from the grip of the dreaded old ones and vampire lords, but we also learn of the bitter wars that ravaged the land, of the Plague of Shadows and worse – Ina’oth, at least to me, has a very distinct Masque of the Red Death vibe, with disease as a leitmotif.

Next up, we take a tour of the settlements of Ina’oth, and here, we get not only juicy and evocative angles, we actually also get full settlement statblocks for these places…and if that should not suffice for you, then rest assured that that the massive 50-entry-strong table of random settlement hooks should inspire you. Why are a settlement’s sole inhabitants children? Why does a crazed old couple attempt to fling excrement at the PCs, calling them plaguebearers? The table is excellent and absolutely inspiring.

Speaking of inspiring: We go through the lands of Ina’oth and sport something that should be considered to be required for pretty much all games: We get DCs for knowledge the PCs might have on the area, yes, but instead of just getting the success…we also get massive amounts of information for FAILED checks. This is a simple operation, yes, but it adds to the element of uncertainty required by good horror. (Suffice to say, the GM should roll such checks.) Beyond that, PCs that do their legwork may unearth even more information, adding yet another level to this section. This is tremendously useful and takes the need to redact and compartmentalize information off the GM’s shoulders. I adore this. Please continue doing this!

Anyways, if all that technical stuff regarding immediate usefulness does not inetrest you, well then I still have excellent news. You see, Ina’oth’s regions are written in the most inspiring way I’ve seen since the old 3.X Ravenloft Gazetteers, with a focus on immediate usefulness, rather than novel-like plots. In short, this book does a phenomenal job here! Now, this level of quality also extends to the movers and shakers of the region, providing detailed, fluff-centric write-ups for the powerful beings f the region…and for, for example, the dreaded Stick Man, an impossibly gaunt man shrouded in black, with a wide-brimmed hat…From the locales to the persons, a palpable sense of the horrific, a knowledge of what works, suffuses this supplement. This, unsurprisingly, also extends to the fluff-only write-ups of the potent organizations that can be found in the region: Dedicants of Miasma, who arose during the Plague of Shadows, are often surgeons and the like, struck by visions of horrible winds felling men and plagues alike – here, we have the belief of the old concept of miasma, aptly translated into what may or may not actually grant power. Knights of the Blackened Sun seek to harness the power of the One True God and the vampiric lords at the same time, making for a ruthless and philosophically interesting knightly order, while the people of ash believe that they were killed in a past life and may attain knowledge and learn how to escape what they perceive as the cycle of reincarnation. No, this is, by far not everything, and I remained rather brief here, because I do believe that this should be read in its entirety to properly work.

The book also explains, in details, the realities of life in the region and also has a whole section devoted to festivals and local traditions, which adds tremendously to the sense of this being an actual region. Heck, we even get a fully-depicted prayer for the dead here!

Now, in the beginning, we already read about the book being cognizant of the different tropes associated with horror subgenres. If you, as the GM, are not 100% sure, though, well, there is an extensive selection of adventure hooks provided for Gothic Horror, Survival Horror or Cosmic Horror, grouped by theme. I love this. The next section becomes crunchier and provides something that, once again, should imho have been standard a long time ago: We are introduced to a variety of diseases, which come with multiple stages! This can mean that even Pathfinder’s liberal magics will be taxed more by curing them, and adds a level of tension here…particularly since the engine provided means that you can easily design further stages and tweak what’s here. The Plague of Shadows, for example, is presented as a 3-stage disease. Know what’s even cooler? We get a disease-template that you can employ to change things up and further codify and tweak these hazards!

The last big chapter is something most GMs will adore: With the region’s focus on ghouls and ghosts, the guide does not seek to needlessly reinvent the wheel. Instead of clogging your game with a ton of templates, it provides an extensive array of alternate monster features, with CR-modifications noted. Are you old-school and want a ghost that ages you? Ability’s here. Fancy some Ring-action? Drowning’s an option. What about ghosts that can hitch a ride on beings that defeat them, to rejuvenate next to their one-time vanquishers? (YOU FREED HER!!) Oh yes. What about…splitting and being there in multiple places at once? What if misplaced love of a lover makes a ghoul return as a corpse loved? Did I mention the table that sports 12 disturbing ghoul hobbies or 12 advice/services that could be gained from “friendly”/satiated ghouls? We also get 12 mementos for them, and 12 sample quirky mannerisms – obviously with a focus on the odd and somewhat macabre.

The pdf closes with 2 monsters: The face taker, at CR 10, can compress itself and rip the faces off their victims, adding them to their horrid form. The CR 4 shroud mummy, then, would be one of the most interesting, at least theme-wise, variant mummies I know, sporting the ability to demoralize via their death imprints and to leech away the life of those caught in their shrouds.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are very good on both a formal and rules-language level. I noticed no serious issues. Layout adheres to an absolutely gorgeous 2-column standard that blends perfectly together with the artwork to create an aesthetically-pleasing whole. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

John Bennett provides a true gem here. The Gm’s Guide to Ina’oth focuses on being useful for the GM. While there is plenty of amazing lore to be found here, I was surprised by how actually USEFUL this book is – the hooks and angles, the details and settlements…this is basically both a great region sourcebook AND a great horror toolkit; even if you do not play in Vathak, this is worth every cent of its asking price. The prose and ideas are interesting and fun to read, further cementing Fat Goblin Games’ run of excellent Vathak-supplements. If you even remotely enjoy horror and if you are not adverse to having annoying stuff like signature abilities and settlement statblocks laid out for you, if you enjoy some nice dressing to go along with inspiration for both folks, places and organizations, then I can wholeheartedly recommend this.

As an additional aside: This may be a coincidence, but even if you do not play Pathfinder, the book’s structure and ideas, when seen as apart from the rules-components, still warrant getting this one in my book. If you like your games dark, then this will have something for you! My final verdict will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval, given without the slightest sliver of a doubt!

Endzeitgeist out.