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Battlemasters & Berserkers
Publisher: Legendary Games
by Chris B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/27/2021 19:31:31

So I have to say that I am a little disappointed with this KS backed book. Before I continue though, I will point out that there are quite a few good things in here. And what I'm disappointed with is not bad so much as weird or I don't see the point of.

I'll try to show the mostly positive stuff first. The layout and presentation are excellent. Clear, concise, and easy to read. That's always a plus. Now, onto the meat of the book.

Most of the Fighter Subclasses are neat ideas, usable except for tthree. Although I'm not entirely sure of the constant need to add Wisdom or Charisma stats for certain things. The Chainmaster bothers me because the 5e play-testers fought hard to get rid of single weapon specialists. Even the Monk's Kensai doesn't do this, which this would be better for anyway. And the Guardian is pointless when I can do everything better with two feats and a Fighting Style by level 2. And the Gladiator shows that really, there needs to an alternate rules option for fantasy sword and sorcery play. But again, most of the rest of the class are interesting ideas.

Most of the Barbarian subclasses, the same. Some I want to like, but... Path of the Destroyer is built around breaking the enemy's items. But the best way to break a weapon, is to break the warrior wielding it. Still, most of them are functional, if somewhat limited in application. And Primal Fury is cute, but not entirely too sure about. Still, willing to let players try them out for themselves.

I love the alternate class features and rage powers though, which again is a mixed bag, but the fact of the matter is that you can mix and match adds flavour and that's always appreciated in my book. The brands and severing limbs are also fun additions, although I think that the severing could have used some expansion. But then I'm always up for finding ways for the Fighting Men of D&D to end fights harder and faster, then forcing the Wizard and Magic to do it for them.

The Backgrounds are nice, I like them, even if most of them are just extensions of the basic Player Handbook alternate background features. But that's part of their appeal, more flavour is always nice. The Magic Items section is also pretty nice, with lot's of cool, if a little too setting focused.

The Fighter/Barbarian in 'other genres' is unnecessary, as most already know this, not to mention this weird apologetic tone for the Barbarian tribes section. We know it's fantasy, we understand, don't worry.

But here's my biggest issues: The Feats and Weapons sections. Most of the feats are cute, but I'm not sure the authors understand what they're meant to be. Small packets of at least two to three slightly special abilities to enhance the character, some of them are better off as either in game manoeuvres or part an actual Feat.

My biggest bug bear are the weapons, though. The reason the 5e core books don't have the Katana or Bastard Swords listed is because the Long Sword is meant to cover them. A Long Sword is any blade between 3-4.5ft in length, able to be used in one or two hands. Anything bigger is now a Great Sword, smaller, Show Sword. And the extra weapon 'tags' are unnecessary. Finally, I'm not sure the authors understand that Reach means the weapon can go out to 10ft, often making them that long too.

All in all, however, it's a good book, despite my gripes, I still say it's worth what I paid for.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Battlemasters & Berserkers
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Vigilantes: Rise of the Powerless
Publisher: Tricky Troll Games
by Chris B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/01/2018 22:02:54

I rather like this setting. The adventure generator is a bit lackluster, and the first printing had some impressive typos but for the most part, it's a nice modern pulp setting with appropriate rules. I recommend this one.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Vigilantes: Rise of the Powerless
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25 Magic Items
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Chris B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/01/2018 20:08:24

Let's get the good out of the way. The format and layout is excellent. the art is clean and well chosen. And most of the items are clever ideas, and there are a few that are good. However, the implementation is such that it's clear that the author was clearly too scared to actually make them actually useful.

Mechanically speaking as a DM, you do not double dip into punishments. Either make it cost an action type like a reaction, make it so you can only use it once per day or give it charges of use that recover per day (I'd say no more than 3 per item.) Do not hit players with two at a time. I understand that they wanted to keep these in the realm of the 'Uncommon' magic items, but the author needs to look at comparable abilities or spells.

The Feather Cloak for example, despite it's obscenely short usage time (it's barely useful as a scouting item) is still powerful enough to classify as a Rare. Most of the armours cost Reactions to use and only once per day, which is a pretty hefty cost, but even without either, most of them are Uncommon, as element damage is very rarely inflicted until the higher levels.

There are only four that are decent, the Lion Pelt, Quill of Grammaticus (mostly for amusement value), the Shield of Tall Tales and the Talking Skull. Out of the entire list, these four do not need to be looked at and/or rebalanced.

I understand this is a free product, but I don't give passes for that. If you're putting something out, you should want to put out your best. Having less than a fifth of your outing actually useful is not a good sign for me.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
25 Magic Items
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Creator Reply:
Hi Chris Thank you for taking the time to write this thorough review instead of just leaving the rating as some might do. Your comments give me a chance to improve my product. You are completely correct in asserting that I want to keep the items in the range of the uncommon magic items in the DMG. With regards to the armors and weapons I really wanted to make the effects rather limited, as they are already better than the standard +1 weapons, as these are +1 plus the abilities. I can see that the once per day plus needing a reaction on the armors might make the effect too insignificant. Would upping it to 3/day, removing the reaction cost or both be enough to push these into the useful category for you? Would the Feather Cloak be more useful to you if the duration was 10 minutes, or 30 minutes? or usable 3 times per day? I want it to be a good uncommon item, without stepping too much on the Druid's toes. Kind regards, Michael
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Authentic Heroines: The Guide to Solar Woman Preview (M&M 3e)
Publisher: Authentic Heroines
by Chris B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/06/2018 17:32:33

Let's ignore the rather unbelievable premise, because this has some other glaring issues. The art is functional, but nothing really comic book level that it's trying to promote. The information inside is also lacking for a preview. They give to characters, the unimaginative Superma-I mean Solar-Woman without her background and at a power level that isn't really playable as a PC.

The villainess's background with is interesting, too bad there's no stats. I'd have rather had Princess Darcovia's stats instead of Solar-Woman's, more usable as a product and gives something for players to fight against. The planet eating movie Galact-I mean Kor'Dhum isn't really something designed for average power level heroes. To be honest, this seems to be more of a passion project, turned advertisment that doesn't really give anything to grab a prospective players' interest.

All in all, with the lackluster art and uninspired setting and main heroine, this isn't it worth the free price, it just takes up space better used for another setting.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Authentic Heroines: The Guide to Solar Woman Preview (M&M 3e)
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Creator Reply:
It's a free preview and you got what was advertised. Too bad that you're so butthurt because you didn't get a bunch of characters that you paid nothing for that you felt the need to actually write a review for a free preview (that admittedly barely has anything) and give one start to something that was exactly as described. But, then again, this is the guy who gave Masters of Umdaar 3 stars and cried about paying a dollar for it. Nothing to see here, move along; but at least now we know that the "B." stands for.
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In fact, when the actual book is released, please - by all means - keep your little $10. That doesn't even scratch the surface of what it would cost for me to listen to more of your entitled bullshit.
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Legends of Steel - Barbarians of Lemuria Edition
Publisher: Dicey Tales Productions
by Chris B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/21/2015 18:48:47

I rather like this book, it's clean, it's professional and it's got all the stuff the Legends of Steel had but coupled with a personally (which means subjective taste) believed to be better game system for Sword and Sorcery. There is enough detail about the various 'nations' and cities in the setting's world of Erisa, but more than enough wiggle room for players to expand as needed or wanted. There are the same sample adventures that the other Legends of Steel products have, but they've been nicely converted for the Barbarians of Lemuria system.

However it's not perfect. There are some specific issues I take with concerning the character options. Some of the two point advantages are a little too unbalanced, and apparently bare handed fighting gives you a bonus, but there's no specialist bonus for those who want be an expert in a class of weapons (like a Sword or Axe Master.)

There's also the matter of the weapon chart having a single flaw of not combining clubs and staff together, because frankly, they're pretty interchangeable in the base system.

On the other hand, the art is sparse and serviceable but with no real piece popping out and grabbing the viewer. It's functional, so at least those that don't like art in their books could find it easier to ignore.

That said, most of the issues are incredibly minor and I'd still recommend this book if you like the BoL system especially if you want a mostly premade setting to work with that's closer to the old Savage Sword of Conan magazines of the 70's.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Legends of Steel - Barbarians of Lemuria Edition
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Free20: Troublemaker
Publisher: Skortched Urf' Studios
by Chris B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/11/2015 13:55:17

So outside of a couple of *bad examples (assuming you know or even care about comics) which are a tiny little niggle that quite frankly doesn't matter on the whole, this is an excellent product even outside of it's intended usage of the creator's settings. It's designed for D20 Modern, but it can be adapted to other versions and quite frankly, I'm going to be using it as an idea mine for another game system all together. And it's a steal at a sale price of FREE. If you want some ideas for superhero style sidekicks, this is a great little PDF.

The only reason I'm taking a mark off is that it's tied (mechanically) to D20 Modern, which frankly, was a bad system for what it wanted to do.

*(The only issue is that he uses Kitty Pryde (X-Men's Shadowcat) and Jubilation Lee (X-Men's Jubilee) and claims that they were 'petite'. Kitty Pryde started off at 13 at about 5' 2" and ended up being 5' 6" as an adult, she was never petite. And Jubilee ended up at 5' 5" which is average for an American woman, and tall for her Asian background. Not to mention that she got turned into a Vampire that magically gave her the chest she always wanted. But again, as a Comic Nerd, little things like that bother me, but not enough to remove marks, simply because I know what the author was trying to go for.)



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Free20: Troublemaker
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Masters of Umdaar • A World of Adventure for Fate Core
Publisher: Evil Hat Productions, LLC
by Chris B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/04/2015 20:18:51

Full Disclosure: I got this as a "pay as much as you want" and spent $1USD. Secondly, I don't know the system all that well, I own the Fate Accelerated booklet, and my personal experience was a disastrous Dresden Files demo (due to two players backseat DM'ing, and the system being harder than advertised) and will be reviewing this as a stand alone product.

First off, I am a little disappointed because I was under the impression that this book would have a full setting in it. Instead we get seeds and suggestions, maybe a hint or two of a real setting. That being said, however, what it does have is a series of very useful character creation tables, and ideas for a Do-It-Yourself world based on various 80's and 90's power science-fantasy cartoons and movies. What you get is really well done, but I personally want more. Perhaps more Masters detailed, what the world is like, some kingdoms both good and evil and maybe more super-tech/magic, it doesn't matter what, just more than what this booklet offered.

Still, you're allowed to spend as much as you want for it, which means you decide how much value it has. Personally, I found it worth the U.S. Dollar I spent.

I wouldn't complain if this turns out to be a primer for a fully fleshed out setting down the line, however. That would definitely get more of my money.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Masters of Umdaar • A World of Adventure for Fate Core
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