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  Product Link Product Type: DMing Tools CoS-Required? Yes Earlier in this thread we covered She Is the Ancient, which built off the idea of making Strahd Von Zarovich a woman and the implications this entails for a campaign. Although far from the only gamer to do this, turning this idea into a fleshed-out paid-for product is quite rare. Countess Von Zarovich is one such book, and whereas She Is the Ancient changed the genders and backstories of far more NPCs in CoS, this book focuses first and foremost on the main villain. In addition to new material, it is a collection of essays, as well as characterization and DMing tips on elements to handle subjects that you wouldn’t ordinarily get with a default male Strahd. Countess Von Zarovich is split into three chapters plus five appendices, with the Introduction discussing the design goals for this book and reasons why DMs might opt for applying Rule 63 to Strahd.  This chapter covers broader discussions on gender-swapped characters and media portrayals of women beyond just Curse of Strahd. It discusses a history of classic portrayals of vampires in media, particularly female vampires who tended to be more sexualized and also how they were the oldest film portrayals of lesbians in media. It also discusses how female villains (vampire or no) are often less likely to be viewed as irredeemable or predatory by society, and similar topics. In the coverage of Strahd, the book notes that while the original character displays many tropes of predatory men using their power to abuse and possess women, a simple gender change won’t lessen this by default. The book also theorycrafts the idea of Barovia being a patriarchal society, and how that would have shaped Strahd’s formative years. From what obstacles she’d have to overcome into becoming a noted military leader, and to what extent she would accentuate stereotypically masculine or feminine expressions. For this last part, the book has no single right answer, instead asking the DM various things such as whether Strahd would be more comfortable in a suit or dress, would she wear her hair more simple and short or longer and elegant, how this would affect her Vasili Von Holtz disguise, and so on. There’s a sidebar for talking about ways to project a powerful aura as a female Strahd via roleplaying, like avoiding comically high-pitched voices and that she should sound “commanding and arresting, not pleading or suggestive” given her background. There’s also talk on alterations to Strahd’s name, as it has a “strong, masculine-sounding presence” by default, and if she would have been given or later chosen a more traditionally feminine name like Strahdova, Stroya, or Strahd von Zarovichna. The book also goes over some common tropes for female characters, vampires and monsters, and what purpose they can serve and what to look out for. For instance, the portrayal of lesbians as sexual predators in fiction was often done with vampires both for titillation purposes and homophobic messaging. The book thankfully doesn’t say to make Strahd misunderstood or to make Tatyana/Ireena a man to avoid this, but it suggests how the DM can avoid sending bigoted messaging, such as allowing a wider variety of LGBT representation in the module besides Strahd’s unhealthy obsession. The book also talks about how to handle PCs making unwanted sexual advances towards Strahd at the table: basically, the book points out that this would be inferred as a blatant show of disrespect towards the ruler of Barovia in-game, and Strahd is not one to forget such a violation. In other words, it asks how a DM would run a male Strahd being shown such disrespect by a PC. The chapter’s final section talks about “Physical and Emotional Violence,” how different villains in media use coercion and the threat of it to establish their villainous nature. There’s a sidebar noting that the DM should ensure a healthy separation between player and character distress, and ways to avoid making Barovia and the battle against Strahd feel too depressing to avoid player burnout.  This chapter talks about larger worldbuilding considerations beyond the personal. For instance, it talks about the possibility of Barovia as a demiplane gradually shifting towards a matriarchal society due to Strahd’s rulership. Beyond just the various town burgomasters being women, it discusses how women would have the final say on major decisions and dominate various businesses. Exceptions are provided, such as the Church of the Morninglord still having male priestly leaders due to a holdover of the Valley before its conquest by Strahd. Or the idea of Vargas Vallakovich being openly defiant against Strahd, as the family patriarchs refuse to bow down to Strahd and women leaders in general. Additionally, a matriarchal society may place greater (perhaps sacred) emphasis on motherhood, leading to situations where pregnant women would be considered untouchable by werewolves and other monsters. And also that the hags of Old Bonegrinder may not be cannibalizing children, but instead harvesting nightmares from captive children to imbue their pastries with magic. Additionally, the book adds a new faction of witches inhabiting Berez, who can exist in a matriarchal Barovia or the standard one, and are known to be a haven for exiled women looking to start a new life. They learned various means of crafting magical trinkets, and parties who get on their good side gain exclusive access to their services, with a sample list of items grouped by rarity and accompanying cost in time and gold to create. There’s also a section on Jeny Greenteeth, a hag from the Adventurer’s League version of Curse of Strahd that acts as a magic service shop. In Countess Von Zarovich, Jeny still serves that purpose, but is instead a powerful human rather than a hag, and in addition to casting spells for gold she also has a 1d20 chart of favors for the party to do in order to finalize the magic. They are appropriately strange and folkloric, such as obtaining 13 strands of hair from Madam Eva’s head, payment in the form of a vial of blood from a beast they killed with their bare hands, or letting Jeny polymorph a PC into a toad for an hour to affectionately pet as she misses her old pet toad. The chapter’s final major section touches upon Castle Ravenloft and its various inhabitants and quests. I won’t go over all of them, but will highlight some significant entries. There is one section that isn’t directly related to the Castle, namely Strahd’s relationship with Tatyana/Ireena. One idea discusses gender-swapping Ireena, and the fact that reincarnation doesn’t necessarily need to always be the same gender. In fact, Ismark may be the one targeted by Strahd’s predations and not Ireena, effectively swapping their roles and backstories. Another idea is that in order to avoid elements of Strahd’s abusive “romance” with Tatyana/Ireena, to instead have it so that Tatyana was Strahd’s biological daughter. She received a disease incurable even by magic, so Strahd made a deal with the vestiges at the Amber Temple in order to save her. But such an act required turning Tatyana into a vampire, who became a monster that Strahd was forced to kill, sending Barovia into the Mists. In this case, Strahd’s goal is not to gain Ireena as a vampiric bride, but to be doomed to kill her daughter again and again. Each time Tatyana reincarnates, she is destined to see Strahd as (quite rightly) a monster responsible for most of Barovia’s woes. Beyond these changes, specific NPCs in the Castle have some noted variants. For instance, Strahd’s brides are given unique personality traits, backstories, and statblocks, the latter being derived from DragnaCharta’s Curse of Strahd Reloaded overhaul guide.* As for Gertruda, a suggestion to avoid sexual predation elements of her originally being charmed into admiring Strahd and awaiting him in his bedchamber, she instead may be a nanny tasked with watching over Zhoya and Kai, a pair of vampire children. Alternatively, Gertruda can be a lady-in-waiting if the gaming group won’t be comfortable with the idea of possibly fighting evil undead children. Zhoya and Kai also get unique backstories and stats, being turned into undead by a former consort of Strahd who believed this would earn her favor. Instead, Strahd was disgusted at forcing such a state upon children and had her locked in a crypt. Zhoya and Kai are treated compassionately by Strahd, who still remain physically and emotionally stunted in childhood and mostly take to crafting new magical toys in order to entertain themselves. Toys which can be dangerous magic items, and possible rewards for PCs who manage to do errands for the two, such as fetching them a state-of-the-art clockwork construct from Blinsky. *And is listed as a cited source in the Appendix for footnotes.  This is our final chapter and the shortest one, detailing a birth-to-undeath overlay of a female Strahd’s life. It follows the general story beats of default Strahd, but with some changes. For example, Strahd’s mother was initially infertile, and became so via a potion brewed by Baba Lysaga who surreptitiously put some of her own blood in it to ensure that the child will be magically talented. Or how the King and Queen showed favoritism towards Sergei, and little to none towards Strahd, who grew to resent this. King Barov, however, was himself a cruel man who began to appreciate seeing a bit of himself in Strahd, and sought to fashion her into a ruthless military officer. While she earned respect and fear, it still paled in comparison to Sergei, who was to be crowned ruler. The nobility’s push to have a native family rule over the valley of Barovia rather than a conquering warlord, pushed Tatyana and Sergei to be seen as ideal candidates. Faced with the knowledge she’d never be truly loved and respected for her accomplishments nor gain her heart’s desire, plus her own mortality possibly dooming her to be a footnote in history, Strahd was told about the Amber Temple’s dark magic via Patrina. Her months of research in that dreadful place placed her on the path towards becoming a vampire, and her extended absence worried Tatyana and Sergei. The two learned of her location via one of Strahd’s friends, who then became angered at this “betrayal.” Another touch is that when Tatyana’s reincarnations are bitten by Strahd, that unlocks prior lifetimes’ worth of memories, which is how Ireena (who was initially fond of Strahd) realized how wicked Barovia’s ruler truly is. There are five Appendices in this book. The first one, the Lilac House, is an optional encounter and location of Tatyana’s original homestead, where it and the surrounding landscape are magically preserved by Strahd to not change and decay from age. It is not particularly deadly, and primarily serves as a means to fill in the backstory of Ireena’s original incarnation, plus a possible Tarokka treasure via the Fortunes of Ravenloft replacement for the Nine of Coins (which would ordinarily be in Castle Ravenloft’s Treasury). The second appendix is a list of women villains in both fiction and the real world, although not all of them I feel are necessarily appropriate for inspiration for Strahd specifically. It feels more like a general listing of “the worst women ever” vs “here’s some female villains who really fit the vampire mastermind mold.” The third appendix is more appropriately relevant, listing some inspirational media of female vampires, and similarly villainesses with supernatural horror themes such as Jennifer’s Body. The fourth appendix is a list of stat blocks for new and altered NPCs, such as Strahd’s consorts (basically vampire spawn but more powerful and with some unique actions and traits like Ludmilla being a druid), Jeny Greenteeth (mage who specializes in a variety of magic), and the vampire kids Kai and Zola (vampire spawn artificer-style mages that can create weapons and construct minions). The final appendix is a series of footnotes, with a handy list of hyperlinks to the original sources and “Go Back” entries that take you back to the page number in which they were first mentioned in the book. Overall Thoughts: Countess Von Zarovich does a good job in outlining the various tips and considerations for a campaign with a female Strahd, and adds onto that with new content. The various design decisions are well thought-out and consistent, while also allowing for leeway and suggestions for the needs of individual campaigns. My major complaints tend to be on the smaller side of things. For example, in a Barovia where mothers and children are given greater protection, I’m not really buying the idea that the Old Bonegrinder coven would be easily able to evade persecution by kidnapping children and harvesting their nightmares as opposed to killing and eating them. I would recommend this book as a useful tool for DMs to mine ideas for a female Strahd. I cannot recommend it for more traditional Curse of Strahd campaigns, as the outright new content such as the witches of Berez aren’t enough to justify buying the entire thing. Comparisons will inevitably be made between Countess Von Zarovich and She Is the Ancient. I reviewed the latter book and overall wasn’t fond of it, so my opinion is that Countess is superior. As to reasons why, it doesn’t try to lessen or have implied sugarcoating of female Strahd’s predatory behavior, and the campaign changes made are more tightly focused, better organized in the book, and don’t make additions simply for the sake of things. There’s also the fact that I found out via the SitA author’s comments on the DM’s Guild page that she used generative AI in making portraits for the various NPCs via the site ArtBreeder. The artwork in Countess doesn’t appear to be made in that fashion and I recognize several of the pieces from traditional tabletop artists, so that’s another point in this product’s favor. And thus concludes my October slew of reviews for DM’s Guild Ravenloft sourcebooks! Barring several days of absence in the final week, I almost managed a near-daily posting rate in covering 21 products. This year has been my most successful one yet in terms of total reviews, and I’m happy that I got the opportunity to share some otherwise overlooked books with readers. Who knows what next year will bring? While I will be taking a well-deserved break for the time being, this month of November I have plans to review Devabhumi, a new 5e/Pathfinder 2e setting based on the legends and folklore of India. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Oct 31, 2024 |
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Oct 31, 2024 02:32
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This also seems to be a more complete gaming product than SitA which often felt like some DM'S unsorted campaign notes.
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Oct 31, 2024 08:15
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Really great run of reviews! Enjoy the well deserved break! I admit to finding the gender swapped Strahd interesting in a theoretical sense. This is definitely better than SitA as a result of the work put into it, but it really does seem more interesting as a "what if?" than an actual campaign, considering how much work it is but yet somehow not meaningfully change 90% of the actual content of a CoS campaign.
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Oct 31, 2024 12:24
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I feel like it should be buyable for DMs for the starting essays, as hoo boy they can be weird about female BBEGs but I suspect the ones who most need this kind of reading won't go for it.
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Oct 31, 2024 14:10
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By popular demand posted:This also seems to be a more complete gaming product than SitA which often felt like some DM'S unsorted campaign notes. While size isn't everything, I feel that SiTA tried to overreach from its original concept and got a bit too big. Capfalcon posted:Really great run of reviews! Enjoy the well deserved break! There's a weird balancing act when it comes to these styles of changes. I recall back when I covered the Multiverse Files which had different ways of altering Strahd's core nature, and also what else to change about said campaign so it doesn't feel like a simple palette/creature type swap. The campaign ideas are too minimalistic in making changes; for instance, Strahd as an artificer-lich and Barovia is in Eberron would take a lot more work to the core adventure. But if you go SitA it begs the question of how much it's "worth it" vs running the adventure out of the box. Robindaybird posted:I feel like it should be buyable for DMs for the starting essays, as hoo boy they can be weird about female BBEGs but I suspect the ones who most need this kind of reading won't go for it. That's definitely a thing I've noticed in a lot of otherwise socially progressive-minded game designers who provide tips and suggestions. At best they reach people who are inexperienced but already open, at worst the advice they give is already basic in said spaces to the point that they can't give you anything that free online resources already have. And then you have to ask what you're paying for. I also want to note that some of the most popular products tagged with the Ravenloft label on the Guild aren't actually accurate. Instead they're setting-neutral horror adventures who at best have brief notes on how to incorporate them into the Domains of Dread/Curse of Strahd. The Madhouse of Tasha's Kiss, Happy Jack's Funhouse, Freak Show Collection (which has the former two plus a less-popular third for a trilogy), the Haunt, Shadow Over Pinewood, and Vecna's Book of Vile Darkness to be specific. As Tasha's is one of the most popular Guild products period, I did consider reviewing the Freak Show trilogy, but as they're not part of Barovia or even Ravenloft in general a part of me doesn't want to reward what is basically false advertising. Also the Tasha's adventure isn't worth all the fuss, and had quite a number of grammatical errors when reading. Along with a madness mechanic that looks like it would be tedious to deal with in actual play. But the good news is that this means I reviewed pretty much all of the best-selling Ravenloft homebrew products. The ones I haven't gotten around to (and will definitely consider for next year) are Keith Baker's Dread Metrol, a pair of map packs, the Interactive Tome of Strahd, another Cyre 1313 adventure, and a pair of Van Richten's Encyclopedias detailing a complete collection of pre-5e domains. For 2025 I'm considering focusing on various PC-centric character option books, which there's quite a bit out already. One of them, Van Richten's Treatise on Lycanthropy, looks particularly neat as it's part-bestiary, part extensive rules for lycanthrope PCs. And another that has rules for playing Masque of the Red Death with the 5e ruleset. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Nov 1, 2024 |
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Nov 1, 2024 02:14
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Indeed was a great run enjoyed it all.
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Nov 1, 2024 07:50
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Yeah, thanks for adding a little theming to the thread for spooky season. It's great to see all these different takes on what more people want out of Ravenloft.
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Nov 1, 2024 21:22
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 DM's Guild Link. Sometime last month I completed reading Frontiers of Eberron and wrote up a short review for it on RPGnet and EN World. This won’t be in-depth like a proper review, but instead a general collection of thoughts and initial impressions from my time reading the book. It's notable for being the latest large Eberron sourcebook written by Keith Baker, and may very well be the last of its kind by him for the foreseeable future, given that he doesn't have the amount of creative control over the setting due to WotC owning it. While he'll still be writing material for Eberron, it will mostly take the form of thoughts shared on blog posts and podcasts. Still, it's quite the worthy product to end things on.  Chapter 1, Life on the Edge does a good job of outlining the general vibe of the campaign region known as the Western Frontier. A “fantasy Western” with wandslinging duelists in a barren region filled with marauding bandits (of both humanoid and monstrous variety), fallen ruins of prior ages, byeshk and dragonshard deposits serving as a “gold rush” drawing in prosperity and greedy opportunists, and fugitives from justice taking advantage of the murky political borders. It goes over common campaign themes, with a focus on more “small town” vibes than bustling metropoli like Sharn. In regards to this latter element, the book suggests a number of Character Roles for PCs tied to a local community, like being the town Sheriff wearing a tin star holy symbol of Dol Arrah, a Mysterious Stranger from parts unknown who is waiting for someone or something, or the town Preacher providing spiritual guidance to the faithful. The later chapter detailing the town of Quickstone was made with this in mind, where if not a home base, a recurring hub where they have more personal and explicit connections to the community where the town shopkeep and House Sivis sending stone operator has a name and face. As usual, Keith Baker (and Imogen Gingell, the other author) does a great job of world-building, with ways to make the Western Frontier feel unique from other locations in Eberron. Immediately I get a vibe that sets it apart from the jungles of Q’barra or the wilds of Xen’drik, other frontier regions with themes of being on the edge of civilization.  This chapter has rules for the Arcane Duel, based off of the iconic Western trope but using magic instead of pistols at high noon. In lieu of a typical rolling for initiative, it is a contested series of rolls where the stakes are for pride, first blood, or death as the ultimate result. During a duel, a character can choose from one of five Dueling Styles with a unique benefit which can alter how many Trick or Fault Dice are gained by one or the other side, and each style is effective against two others. The same thing is done during the Stare, which are mostly social roles to gain an edge on the opponent, such as The Look that uses Intimidation to falter one’s resolve, or Tactical Analysis in trying to read your opponent. The Shot is the final result, where opposed ranged spell attacks are rolled and Trick/Fault Dice respectively add or subtract 1d6 from the result, and certain Styles have the opportunity to reroll them. The highest roll wins the duel, but a tie causes them both to suffer the effects of the Stakes. If a duel was done for Pride, the loser loses one Hit Die and is affected by a short-term magical debuff effect dependent on spell school, First Blood makes the loser take damage equal to half their maximum hit points (or 1 hit point if less than 50% currently), and to the Death reduces them to 0 hit points. While there’s more to it than that, I’m summarizing the broad strokes. I think it’s a pretty neat sub-system that obviously merits inclusion in a Fantasy Western and gets around the default initiative/hit points of traditional combat that can’t be so easily done in 5e. The book also goes into more detail on Droaam, specifically the more populous and iconic monsters from that nation: gargoyles, gnolls, harpies, medusae, tieflings, and worgs. The Tiefling and Worgs are newer entries in terms of publication, with 4th Edition granting the tieflings a once-hidden city known as the Venomous Demesne, and the Worgs primarily live in the Watching Wood. Some of the information is from earlier publications, such as the Gnolls of the Znir Pact including history touched upon in Exploring Eberron, but there is enough new material here to make it a worthy read for even Eberron veterans. There’s also roleplay info for PCs of the aforementioned races, with discussions on popular outlooks, motives for adventuring, and common cultural behaviors and traditions. There’s also brief writeups on other monstrous PC races and their place in the Western Frontier, such as centaurs, goblins and kobolds, and minotaurs. Even ogres get a shoutout despite not being a playable race, with the book suggesting that they’re a reflavored Goliath who is small for an ogre and the Large Form trait reflecting them stretching out and standing up for a limited time, being ordinarily hunched over. A similar line is suggested for oni, who are goliath with spellcasting features. The mechanics for the new races are further back in the book, and given that many other people covered them first thing I’ll save them for later. But I really liked the expansion material given for them from role-playing perspectives, as monstrous races tend to have a stigma of being picked first and foremost for mechanical benefits and not necessarily for their place in the world. There is one bit of persistent criticism I have for Frontiers of Eberron, and that’s the fact that it can use a second editing pass. Throughout the book I noticed various errors and inconsistencies, like the words Advantage and Disadvantage being randomly capitalized. These weren’t just referring to the game mechanics, but more general common speech. Another example is when talking about the Khaar’paal kobolds of Quickstone, the book gives contradictory information on them being nomadic. First result on page 114: quote:The Khaar’paal Camp is occupied by a clan of kobolds, who came to Quickstone to work on the lightning rail. The Khaar’paal are camped on the southern edge of the camps, and live in distinctive leather tents with an armadillo-like design. The Khaar’paal are nomads, and have a well-established, efficient camp. Look at the later entry in this book, on page 124-125 quote:The Khaar’paal are a group of about sixty kobolds camped on the southern edge of the Tents. They don’t work metal; their tents are made of leather, their tools of wood and stone. At a glance, most assume these kobolds are a primitive nomadic tribe; this assumption is wrong on every count. While it’s been a while since I read Exploring Eberron, I don’t recall as many mistakes being made in that book or Chronicles of Eberron, which I read more recently. While I still overall like Frontiers, the above does bring it down quite a bit. The next chapter is the Western Frontier, a very meaty chapter covering towns, landmarks, and notable NPCs in the region from a big-picture view. As it’s also the longest chapter in the book, I’ll cover it for the next post.
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Nov 4, 2024 03:14
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Libertad! posted:There is one bit of persistent criticism I have for Frontiers of Eberron, and that’s the fact that it can use a second editing pass. Throughout the book I noticed various errors and inconsistencies, like the words Advantage and Disadvantage being randomly capitalized. These weren’t just referring to the game mechanics, but more general common speech. D&D24 just came out and has pretty different standards for capitalization than '14--I could see that wreaking hell with the editing OtspIII fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Nov 4, 2024 |
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Nov 4, 2024 03:46
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OtspIII posted:D&D24 just came out and has pretty different standards for capitalization than '14--I could see that wreaking hell with the editing Yeah,
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Nov 4, 2024 05:07
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  Chapter 2, The Western Frontier is the longest one in the book. It comes with a gorgeous full-page map, some sample random encounters, and is broken up into several sections: Towns, Distant Cities, Landmarks, Famous and Infamous People, and Faiths of the Western Frontier. Towns cover the major population centers, 11 to be exact, and we have quite the assortment of neat places along with notable figures and adventuring opportunities as well as connections for how a PC’s backstory may involve that place. Some of the more interesting entries include Argonth, a Brelish mobile battle fortress designed as a counterbalance against Droaam’s aggression, the monstrous hub of Graywall and Droaam’s primary economic center, the Eldeen border town Sylbaran whose druidic sects allow Dragonmarked outposts to operate albeit under intense restrictions, and the citadel of Turakbar’s Fists whose minotaur warlord is but the latest in a long line of local rulers afflicted by the tyrannical influence of the fiendish Overlord known as the Horned King. Distant Cities covers population centers that aren’t in the Western Frontier, being further inland in Droaam. But they are major centers for various races that have a presence in the frontier as immigrants, so the entries merit talking about where certain characters come from, such as the medusa city of Cazhaak Draal or the mobile hidden changeling village of Lost. Needless to say, all of these places have hooks and problems to serve as springboards for adventures. For example, the town of Shavalant relies heavily on Vadalis-backed ranching, and Asbhound druids recently carried out a violent assault on them and may be hiding out in the nearby forest, or that Vadalis has a secret farm breeding poisonous animals to serve as assassins. The lack of a central authority, the vague geopolitical delineations preventing either Droaam or Breland’s forces from committing to widespread “taming” of the region, and that the more fortified military outposts can’t cover and protect everyone from raiders and other dangers creates an environment where PCs are needed more than ever to make a difference in meting out justice. Landmarks focus on geographic terrain prominent in the Frontier. There’s less and shorter entries than the towns and cities, and are more big-picture than local. Their entries generally talk about the lay of the land, things of historical and economic significance, and interesting things about them for adventure ideas. The Graywall Mountains’ many tunnels is a boon for smugglers and hidden places far from the reaches of the surface, be they rumored tombs of Dhakaani kings who test intruders the right to wield their weapons. Or a supposed portal to Irian, which dissident harpy flights retreated to after losing battles against the Daughters of Sora Kell. And we even have some more supernaturally-touched regions, such as Nasaar Kol that lies within an extensive Mabar manifest zone that makes it a dark, spooky place that necromancers, restless spirits, and others consumed by death venture to. Famous and Infamous People covers the big names in the Western Frontier, household names of heroes, villains, and those of more undecided allegiance in the public eye. We have 12 figures constituting 10 entries (the Daughters of Sora Kell are grouped as one), and run the gamut. For example, Beggar Dane isn’t a real person but a folkloric hero of Brelish legend, and a high-ranking member of the Swords of Liberty has taken the title for propaganda purposes against that country’s monarchy. Breggan Blackcrown is your stereotypical ruthless outlaw leader, whose Company of the Blackcrown is equipped with wands and military-grade magic weapons meaning that most law enforcement doesn’t start trouble with them when they pass into town nonviolently. There are two blatantly heroic characters, although they aren’t omnipotent to the point that they present the Elminster problem, and have flaws of their own that hold them back from changing things on a large-scale. Epitaph is one of them, a tiefling priestess of the Silver Flame who seeks to guard the good folk of the frontier against evil forces, and is trying to make goodwill gestures to Droaamish citizenry due to the tragedies of past crusades. Even on the Brelish side there aren’t many Flamers, so Epitaph usually has nobody to rely on but herself a lot of the time. Faiths of the Western Frontier rounds out the chapter, covering common religious beliefs. The Sovereign Host is the most popular among Brelish citizens, while the Cazhaak Creed interpretation of the Dark Six is the most popular among Droaamites. There is a peculiar secret society known as the Three Faces of Coin that helped found the town of Quickstone. They, along with other tripartite cults, view the Sovereign and Six as being supplementary aspects, often holding three deities from both pantheons as part of a related whole. For the Three Faces of Coin, they honor Onatar (for creating goods people desire), Kol Korran (inspires honorable deals and trade), and Kol Turrant/the Keeper (who represents ambition to get what you want). While the Three Faces tend to be secretive, their membership is high enough in Quickstone that their presence in town is more of an open secret than a deeply-held one. The Cults of the Dragon Below are another active group, and much like elsewhere in Eberron they’re a bonafide villainous group often in thrall to some daelkyr or fiend lord. The Horned King is the most significant Overlord worshiped in the region, while various daelkyr such as Orlasssk and Dyrrn are rumored to have historical ties to the area. Further regarding the Cults of the Dragon Below, daelkyr worshipers are much more disliked than fiend worshipers among Droaamites. As to why, the Cazhaak Creed of the Dark Six views celestial/fiend distinctions as more arbitrary, and combined with taking a more positive view of the Six in general and how many warlocks can draw from fiends yet be non-evil, some of these cults can operate with more acceptance, particularly the Horned King. That being said, that overlord’s followers still have a reputation for malevolence. Turakbar’s Fist is their biggest center of worship, and often raid Brelish settlements. The daelkyr are treated as just as much a threat by the Daughters of Sora Kell as they are anywhere else. Overall, this is a really strong chapter, and I have few if any complaints about it. It does a great job of painting the Western Frontier as an interesting place to set a campaign, and you can pick just about any area and come up with multiple adventure ideas. We’ll cover Quickstone in the next chapter, the major hub settlement of Frontiers.
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Nov 4, 2024 23:00
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  Normally I'd wait a full 24 hours or thereabouts before making my next post, but I predict that election day is going to occupy much of my free time, so I'm posting this half a day in advance. Lucky you, reader! Chapter 3, Quickstone is the primary hub settlement of the Western Frontier. While not the largest settlement in the region (that honor goes to Ardev), its position places it geographically within reasonable distance of other population centers and interesting locations. The city began as a mining town, named after a unique substance of the same name which can be shaped and molded into various forms with magic, allowing for a diverse array of architectural uses. Nobody knows how it’s formed, although there are theories. A group of miners known as stone chanters are magewrights that use a form of the Mold Earth cantrip to work with the quickstone, and some claim that the stone itself speaks to them. There’s also a secondary industry of byeshk mining, although many mines have been tapped out. Quickstone numbers nearly two thousand strong, but a minority of inhabitants are transient, often using the town as a stopping point before going somewhere else. The town’s five major districts are Oldtown (miners, smugglers, merchants independent of the Dragonmarked Houses who leave cheaply but not in squalor), the Square (the town square, lightly populated but holds many decorative buildings and businesses), Main Street (new money, made of traditional Brelish architecture rather than Quickstone and is mostly home to Dragonmarked dignitaries running their local businesses in town), the Tents (shantytowns made up of Brelish veterans, Cyran refugees, and Khaar’paal kobold laborers), and the Haunt (mostly abandoned, a former Brelish fortress destroyed in the war with Droaam, is ruins and believed haunted by undead and monsters). An interesting thing to note is that while the Dragonmarked Houses are a known commodity on the Frontier as virtually anywhere else in Khorvaire, the new nature of Quickstone’s settlement and relatively lawless nature of the region means that they don’t have the same reach, smaller local businesses can afford to be more independent,* and the Dragonmarked members who are in town are often still in the process of building up the goods and services omnipresent elsewhere. For example, Quickstone sits at the end of an Orien lightning rail that just connected the town to Ardev last year. The Dragonmarked House is negotiating with the Daughters of Sora Kell to link it to Graywall, and a clan of kobolds known as the Khaar’paal serve as railroad workers due to having a knack for lightning magic. Amenities are fewer in number than in larger and more settled places back east: for example, the local schoolhouse is the biggest library with but a single bookshelf, and the House Sivis speaking stone is currently malfunctioning for unknown reasons and may need the PCs to look into repairing it. There are some general and specialized goods for adventurers such as a blacksmith and potions seller, although the local doctor for that last one often tries to convince customers to subject themselves to hairbrained experimental cures. The Kundarak enclave relocated to Quickstone from Graywal due to a bank robbery, proving that the town is far from safe, but it’s still in the process of being built. *This serves as a source of tension for a few NPCs, who worry about being squeezed out by the larger Houses. Every major establishment or social gathering spot has a list of Possible Ties for PCs, with recommended options based on race, class, and background, all the better to make it so that the party aren’t complete strangers to everyone in town. Unless of course, they want to be. There’s quite a bit of little ideas and suggestions for the DM to build off of for adventures: for example, the wealthy Aurum investor Honoria Soldorak may hold a ball in the honor of a PC who made a name for themself in town, but her true reasons for the ball are currently unknown. The goblin tailor Deven knows an awful lot about the Empire of Dhakaan for someone of his station and profession, and there might be more to his story. He can also help craft magical clothes if PCs get him rare and exotic materials. The Quickstone chapter wraps up with four other places of interest outside of town for adventures, such as abandoned mines filled with cockatrices and other dangerous monsters, or outlying farms struggling to grow crops and thus end up drawing additional income from helping maintain cells of smuggler networks. We also get writeups on four major criminal groups that may cross paths with PCs: the Black Crown Company who’s been mentioned before, the Pennyroyals (the Three Faces of Coin cult, think secret society), Daask (Droaam special operations units who are a more violent kind of organized crime), the Tago (Cyran spies and assassins who bear a grudge from their country’s destruction; book says they may not even exist and are a conspiracy theory to dredge up prejudice against refugees), and a d8 table of Lone Wolves who operate in smaller groups or are solo travelers at best. Quickstone really exemplifies the feel of a small fantasy town, the kind where everyone knows your name. Just about every NPC has some quirk, hope, or fear beyond their immediate job or goal, and the book creates easy opportunities and suggestions for PCs to either know or even outright replace a character, making it more malleable for a DM to personally customize the town for their campaign. Quickstone is poorer and more hard-scrap than Sharn, but it is flavored in a way that its people don’t feel hopelessly impoverished, the PCs can help build things up in a substantial way, and you don’t get the feeling that you need to go to Graywall or Ardev all the time whenever you want something more expensive than a crossbow or light armor.
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Nov 5, 2024 11:17
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Ahhh the not quite deadwood.
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Nov 5, 2024 16:26
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 Chapter 4, Frontier Characters focuses on new options for players: subclasses, backgrounds, species, feats, and spells. I should note that this book uses 2024 5e as the baseline, and I don’t own the Player’s Handbook for that, so I can only make judgments and inferences based on classic 5e. Let’s start out with the six subclasses. Path of the Demonshard represents a barbarian embedded with a demonshard, a fraction of the prisons binding the fiendish Overlords in Khyber, and the Barbarian learned to draw power from it. Its major class feature is Fiendish Punishment, where while raging they can deal fire or necrotic damage to foes that harm them or a nearby allied creature within 10 feet. However, its 10th level feature makes being nearby a risk for allies, as all other creatures within 10 feet of the Barbarian take the damage as well as the triggering foe, and since this cannot be “turned off” it brushes against the former ability that rewards allies for being nearby. The College of Wands Bard represents a magical “gunslinger” who relies on blasty cantrips. They get a bonus sorcerer cantrip, can use non-instrument casting focuses, deal bonus damage with cantrips by expending Bardic Inspiration, and are able to reduce a foe’s initiative when that’s rolled if the bard speaks to a creature for at least 1 minute first. It’s a rather cool idea, but the base Warlock is still a better cantrip user on account of Eldritch Blast and invocations that improve its use. The Commerce Cleric uses conjured magical coins as its major class feature, which can be “spent” to gain bonuses to rolls and debuff enemies, and the coins can be “gained” whenever the Cleric voluntarily accepts some kind of debuff. A cool idea, and its low level feature is pretty useful and nifty. The Bloodhound Ranger makes use of ley lines (did such a concept exist in Eberron lore before?) to track down creatures. They can mark creatures as their bounty, which lets them use divination spells on them regardless of distance and deal extra damage with the Hunter’ Mark, and they have related abilities like using their reaction to move their speed towards a distant marked target, or adding the grappled or prone condition as part of an additional attack when attacking only one creature with the Attack action. I should note that the subclass specifies that only Ranger divination spells work with its features, so you can’t dip into it as a full caster and apply your more powerful magic this way. Nemesis Sorcery represents sorcerers who specialize in one on one duels. Their bonus spells are offensive/combat inclined, get advantage on saves and ability checks when readying an action to cast a spell, can spend their reaction to halve the damage from a spell or other magical effect, and so on. Their 18th level capstone lets them enter a super-focused mindset that grants them very powerful features like concentrating on multiple spells. Looks to be a very strong subclass from my initial reading. Stone Sovereign Warlock Patron can represent the daelkyr Orlassk, King Grayfinger of Thelanis, or other earth-related entities of great power. Your expanded spells center around earth and stone stuff, and you get features like once per rest being able to Petrify instead of kill a creature, imbue limited stones with sentience to learn about the terrain, and transforming into a stone statue as a reaction against an offensive attack to reduce or eliminate that damage and then reemerging out of a nearby stone surface as your decoy statue crumbles. Pretty cool subclass. The five new backgrounds are specific to Eberron’s magitech industry. I don’t know if it’s a new standard for 2024 D&D or not, but each of them grants a bonus feat. While this may sound more powerful than standard 5e backgrounds, they are restricted in what said bonus feat is. Three of them involve being a Dragonmarked and grant the Lesser Dragonmark feat: Bravo means you’re of a more martial and adventurous inclination, Foundling is someone who isn’t born into a House but still has the mark, and Scion is someone born into a House. Magewright represents someone who learned some minor spells via the Magic Initiate (Wizard) feat and a tool proficiency, while Wandslinger is much like Magewright but of a more martial inclination. Species is the part that got the most attention when Frontiers initially released, and for good reason. Not only do they provide new tiefling subraces and give us the warforged for 2024 5e, we also get 5 explicitly monstrous races representing common peoples of Droaam. Several feats in this chapter correspond to unlocking more powerful features of the following races. For instance, the Gargoyle race doesn’t begin play with a fly speed, but they can gain it as a feat if they’re 4th level or higher. Gargoyles are our first species: they’re elementals instead of humanoid, which grant them a lot of defensive benefits, they can look perfectly like a statue when motionless, have natural armor base rating of 13 when not wearing armor, and can remain aware while long resting instead of sleeping like a warforged. They don’t excite me as much as other races, in that most of their stuff are features other races already have, with only the Elemental type really standing out. Also their lack of a fly speed at the start of play, which Harpies have, also makes them feel less appealing. Gnolls actually reprint mechanics from Exploring Eberron, but change some things around for 2024 5e. In short, they are quite solidly martial, with a bite attack, can gain a bonus action attack whenever they bite or reduce a creature to 0 hit points, and gain Perception/Stealth/Survival as a bonus skill representing their tradition of hunting. Harpy is a humanoid and not monstrosity, for those who might be wondering how close they hew to the Monster Manual. They have a fly speed that can’t be used with medium or heavy armor, and their mesmerizing song is represented in the rest of the features: proficiency in Perform and can cast the Friends cantrip right off the bat that only needs verbal components. If they have Spellcasting or Pact Magic, they add a variety of enchantment spells to their spell list that can be cast with only verbal components in place of their usual components. Overall this race is really pigeonholed in being some kind of non-armored (or lightly armored) caster. A harpy paladin better be planning on using a finesse weapon and studded leather if they want to take advantage of flight, while a Rogue won’t really have a mesmerizing song beyond what a rather unpopular cantrip can’t already do. Medusa is a Monstrosity, which makes me wonder why Harpies are Humanoid. Their gaze attack is represented as knowing the Gray Gaze cantrip, which deals necrotic damage and disadvantage on Dexterity saves as a bonus action, but the Medusa can augment it a limited number of times per long rest to Restrain foes. Like the Harpy, if they are a spellcaster, they get additional unlockable spells that revolve around movement restriction such as Ensnaring Strike and Hold Person. Their non-gaze features include knowing a sign language they can communicate using their snake hair, proficiency in Intimidation, and darkvision. They strike me as a pretty strong race, in that a bonus action cantrip, even if it doesn’t do much, can be a nice option to add on top of an existing Attack or damaging spell. Tiefling isn’t so much a new race as a bunch of new subraces. In Eberron, tieflings aren’t necessarily fiendish-blooded by default, and can represent all manner of people bearing evidence of planar interference, such as mortals born in potent manifest zones. The default tiefling subraces still exist, but we get 7 more subraces drawing inspiration from different planes of existence, which determines their damage resistance and bonus spells and cantrips. Two subraces bear special note: Sakah (rakshasa-descended) tieflings don’t have a damage type resistance but instead advantage on all Wisdom saves vs magic, which is pretty decent in making them mentally resilient, while Shavaran tieflings don’t have resistance either but are proficient in light and medium armor and shields. Shavaran tieflings are going to be a popular option for spellcasters who’d like to rely on something better than Mage Armor. Regarding the Warforged, they are more or less identical to the Warforged from Rising from the Last War, but with one particularly big change: their creature type is Construct, not Humanoid. This means that they have immunity to various spells and effects that target humanoids, such as Charm/Dominate Person or being turned into certain kinds of undead like wights and shadows. The Worg is our final species and certainly stands out, one because the prior races were already noted as being quite iconic in the Eberron setting before Frontier’s publication, and two because they’re the only race here without any opposable thumbs. They’re a Monstrosity with darkvision, Keen Senses, and a very powerful bite natural weapon that deals 1d8 damage. They can use a new martial weapon known as Steel Jaws that deal 2d6 damage and has the Finesse property. They can Help as a bonus action, have natural armor that applies when unarmored but isn’t very good at 12 default, and can carry a medium size or smaller rider and count as one size larger for carrying capacity. Their quadrupel nature and lack of hands imposes a variety of penalties, such as slower movement when climbing, armor specially designed for them costs four times as much, and they have disadvantage on ability checks that require fine manipulation. First off, I like that in realizing that worgs can’t really use most manufactured weapons, they give them a really good one and a means of DEX-based worgs to still do good damage. However, I feel that their limitations may prevent a lot of players from picking them. Worg rogues, unfortunately, won’t be proficient with Steel Jaws by default, and their natural weapon isn’t finessable by default, which makes them a suboptimal choice for this class.  Feats is our final section. First off, Frontiers revamps Dragonmarks. In Rising From the Last War they were treated as a subrace, but here they are represented as an Origin Feat known as Lesser Dragonmark,. Said feat is more or less identical to the subrace boons from Rising From the Last War, but their bonus spells only go up to 2nd level rather than 5th level as per Rising. Sadly, we don’t get any more feats to represent Greater and Siberys Dragonmarks for these levels of power. I figured it could be saved for a future supplement, but as this is the last book Keith Baker’s going to work on for the setting for the foreseeable future, it feels like a downgrade overall. The remaining feats number 15. 5 represent being an Initiate in one of the five Druidic orders that grant you additional themed spells and abilities, like being able to conjure undead creatures as Winter or Greensinger being able to gain bonus movement via dancing whenever they Charm a creature. 5 are restricted to the new races and involve improving some iconic monstrous feature, like Hewn For Battle which increases a gargoyle’s natural armor and can have their skin enchanted and improved upon as if it were nonmagical armor, or Stone Eyes letting a medusa turn a target to stone if they fail a save by 5 or more from a medusa trait or spell that would paralyze or restrain them. 4 represent expertise in a particular arcane focus and new ways to enhance your spells with them, such as Rod Expert ignoring disadvantage on ranged attacks vs adjacent targets, rods can be treated as club weapons, and can reroll the damage dice results of 1 or 2 for a cantrip. The last feat is a Fighting Style feat, Wandslinger, which grants +1 to attack rolls made with spells and +1 to the save DC of cantrips. This chapter ends with New and Reprinted Spells, with three of the reprinted ones being earth-themed spells, one being Enemies Abound, and one being Magecraft from Exploring Eberron (cantrip that lets you gain advantage on ability check with tools you’re proficient with). The two new spells are cantrips: Gray Gaze, that aforementioned spell, and Orien Step which lets you teleport into an adjacent square you can see as a bonus action. Orient Step cannot be learned normally, as it’s only available to those bearing the Mark of Passage. I really don’t have much strong opinions on the new spells one way or the other, although I do like the idea that some magic is exclusive to the Dragonmarked Houses as opposed to something virtually anyone can possibly learn. In short, I think this chapter has a fair amount of options. When it comes to the more potentially unbalancing abilities of monster traits, the idea of having existing spells replicate their use (plus some extra features from the species, like a Harpy only needing verbal components) is a nice compromise. I feel that the backgrounds are thematically appropriate, and think that Magic Initiate for Magewright/Wandslinger is a clever means of making it so that PCs can still be a Barbarian/Fighter/Rogue/Monk that had a trade in doing some minor cantrips without having to spend a precious feat slot or multiclass. That being said, I do have my criticisms: I wouldn’t use the new Dragonmark system given that it’s incomplete, and I feel that some of the races are a little pigeonholed.
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Nov 6, 2024 08:23
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 Chapter 5, Treasures Beyond is a rather short chapter focusing on new items both mundane and magical. We first start out with explanations of common aesthetic designs that can be found in the Western Frontier, such as the brutalist yet durable Dhakaani architecture and armaments, military surplus from the Last War that filters down into the local economy, and druidic woodwork and goodberry wine common up in the Eldeen border. None of this has any explicit game rules, instead being more flavor text and suggestions for how certain iconic items and equipment may appear or be fashioned by various cultures. For magic items, we have 16 new general ones, 4 kinds of fiendish items fashioned from demonglass, 4 new daelkyr symbionts, and 13 items produced in Droaam designed by and for monsters. The book notes that while still using magic item rarity as an indicator of power, there are some “common” and “uncommon” treasures that aren’t very powerful yet still unique in being made by a certain person in the Frontier. Some of the more interesting items include Daff’s Wonderful Draught (experimental potion that has a d6 random effect, from restoring hit points to granting a buff to suffering Tasha’s Hideous Laughter), Flashdraw Wand (cannot be surprised while attuned, can draw the wand immediately during initiative with no action required, grants bonus to initiative and adjacent targets take lightning damage), Lightning Runner (think of a handcar, but for lightning rails whose pump can be powered by spell slots or the Mark of Passage), Shock and Ore (pair of +1 war picks with the light property that can spend charges to do bonus lighting damage or cast Earth Tremor as part of a melee attack), and Thunder Coach (vehicle that only Mark of Passage bearers can attune, is an animal-drawn stagecoach that can hasten movement of animals, has an extradimensional cargo chamber and arcane lock). For more monstrous items, we have such choices as Demonglass Weapons (+1 enhancement, target is frightened when you crit them and you have advantage on saves for 1 turn), Demonglass Orb (wielder can take necrotic damage in exchange for imposing penalty on a target’s saving throw when targeted by wielder’s divination spell), Orlassk’s Reach (artifact symbiont that was a limb of Orlassk, grants a petrifying touch, ability to speak with stones, speak with any Aberration and cast Dominate Monster on them), Barghest Collar (lets an attuned worg transform into a Small goblin), Grist Cakes (consumable food that is akin to goodberry and pack of cakes regenerates each day as long as at least 1 cake is left), Lharvion Lens (command word lets you see ghostly images of other shapes a creature took within the last 24 hours as well as ongoing magical disguises and polymorph effects), Ogre Tines (designed for Large and bigger creatures, nails can bend and twist like the fingers of a Tiny size creature), and Oni Braid (worn like a belt, command word changes wearer’s size to Medium). Overall, I like this chapter and have few complaints. I am particularly fond of how we have quite a bit of items that aren’t immediately useful in adventuring but reflect Eberron’s wide magic. The Lightning Runner for transportation is a good example, or the various Droaam items designed for quality of life conveniences for oddly-sized and less humanoid creatures.
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Nov 6, 2024 23:59
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 Chapter 6, Fearsome Foes is Frontiers’ bestiary, providing us with 23 stat blocks for various monsters, NPCs, and famous folks. It leans heavily on the Humanoid side of things, with 8 being of that type. The next-most common type are Beasts at 3, with the rest just 1 or 2. In regards to Challenge Rating, about half of them (13) fit within the boundaries of the first tier of play at 4 or lower, and the four entries that are CR 20 or higher represent unique named beings. The remaining 6 are mostly Tier 2, with 1 (Rhesh Turakbar) being CR 12 for Tier 3. In addition to stat blocks, specific NPCs and monsters have advice for how to use them in campaigns, along with motivations and common minion types. We start things out with Breggan Blackcrown, who is a CR 8 warlock who specializes in offensive magic and debuffs. She has a saber as a pact weapon in addition to force blasts, letting her do well in both melee and ranged combat. She is not proficient in Perception and has an 11 Wisdom, so she’s actually pretty easy to sneak up on. Blackcrown Spellswords are CR ½ minions who are akin to bandits with cantrips, and have mistyped Wisdom and Charisma scores of 6 and 3 but with +0 modifiers and saving throws.  Orlassk is a CR 23 daelkyr, a high-AC bruiser type who can “summon” new minions by reshaping petrified creatures to fight for him, has a curse that restrains and then petrifies targets, and legendary actions such as a far-reaching punch and maddening assaults that deal psychic damage and debuffs. Demonglass Warrior is not a specific creature, but a template that makes the implanted person more frightening in battle, such as proficiency in Intimidation and gains temporary hit points whenever they knock out or kill a target, but disadvantage on mental saves vs the effects of fiends reflecting the fiendish overlord’s mental influence. Dolguul is a new daelkyr-created aberration, formed from bugbears merged with quadrupedal beasts. They basically look like stony centaurs, but with a bony cleaver for an arm and a toothy maw emerging from their torsos. As you can imagine, a dolguul is primarily a melee fighter, and its other arm is a reach weapon hook that can pull targets closer to it. Gantii’kaas are fairies that live in mountain ranges and underground, and miners who grant them gifts may be blessed with rich veins. But if they feel disrespected, they are known to cause cave-ins and worse, perfect for their role as servants of the greedy archfey King Grayfinger. Statwise they are CR 5 fey with a blinding claw attack, can throw rocks, and can cause an eruption of damaging stone as an AoE. We have two new types of Gargoyles. The first is a Demonglass Gargoyle, which has a frightful presence like that of a dragon and can see in magical darkness. Quickstone Gargoyles, on the other hand, are formed from quickstone by Orlassk, the daelkyr still has more influence over them in being closer to his lairs. They are shapechangers who can make themselves look like humanoids and can adapt either a Softened Form that lets them Dodge as a bonus action or a Hardened Form that makes their claw attacks deal more damage. King Grayfinger is an archfey who embodies the storybook archetype of greedy kings of the underground, holding treasure troves of gems, crystals, and all kinds of treasure taken from around the world. In spite of being evil, the daelkyr’s influence in Khyber are encroaching on territory he views as rightfully his, making him an “enemy of my enemy” for those fighting Xoriat’s forces. Grayfinger is a CR 23 boss monster who can merge with stalagmites like a dryad does with trees, can summon a variety of unique magic weapons to fight with in combat, can steal weapons from the hands of attackers as a reaction, and summon emanations of stone and cast earth-related magic for battlefield control. Pretty cool tactics for an end-game foe. The Merchant of Misthaven is a fey who represents a “deal with the devil” archetype, a mysterious figure who shows up to give someone a precious item or opportunity to set some major event in motion. The Merchant’s deal often has some kind of limit and price, playing upon the person’s greed and short-sightedness. She is a CR 20 creature who specializes in illusory spells, can summon a variety of trinkets that do random effects, and can succeed on a failed saving throw but also choose a new target to take its consequences instead. Tol Kharash, the Horned King, is a fiendish overlord. At CR 28, he is the most powerful being in this book. Given his appearance as a giant demonic minotaur and representative of tyranny, his stats and tactics revolve around being a big melee bruiser whose overbearing presence can frighten and deal psychic damage. He has a cool thematic trait called “None Above Me” that causes creatures above his eye level to spend their movement to go beneath it on a failed Charisma save.  Rhesh Turakbar is the other “BBEG Raider” NPC in the Western Frontier. He’s tougher than Breggan Blackcrown at CR 12, and unlike her is more solidly a melee fighter, although he has a ranged attack that can deal damage, frighten, and curse enemies within 40 feet on a failed Constitution save. Steel Horse is basically a construct horse designed by Brelish engineers to make tireless steeds for cavalry, but their expense made them too prohibitive to replace their living counterparts. There’s not much to say about them besides the fact they restore 1 hit point when Mending’s cast on them. Stoneborn is a template representing creatures warped and manipulated by Orlassk, gaining natural armor, resistance to non-magical non-adamantine weapons, darkvision, and can look like a statue when motionless like a gargoyle can. Stone Cultists, by contrast, are Humanoid NPCs who serve Orlassk and have unique stone-themed supernatural abilities, like gaining temporary hit points whenever they see a creature suffer the Petrified or Restrained Conditions. Tribex have existed in Eberron lore as quadrupedal cattle, but haven’t had stat blocks until now. They are Beasts that come in three varieties: Plains Tribex are primarily beasts of burden or cattle with increased carrying capacity; Riding Tribex have the highest movement speed at 50 feet, can ignore difficult terrain when Dashing, and advantage on Constitution saves for forced marches; War Tribex have the most damaging attacks of the lot, plus a trample ability that can damage and knock a target prone. Nonplayer Characters ends our chapter with four generic archetypes that are common on the Western Frontier. Without exception, they all fit within the first Tier of play. Sentinel Marshals are elite warriors of House Deneith, heavily armed and armored, have some Dragonmarked spells, can trade places with an adjacent target to take their attack, and advantage on saves vs various conditions that impose some kind of reduced movement or inaction such as Stunned or Prone. Tharashk Hunters specialize in tracking targets, and their main offensive ability involves setting up traps in squares that can impose damage and the Restrained condition. Wandslingers are basically martial wizards who have rapier and arcane blast as their primary attacks, and their spells focus on defense or utility. Westwind Riders are elite soldiers serving the Brelish government as border patrol on the Western Frontier. They are primarily cavalry, moderately armed and armored, and are good team players by having a reaction that adds +2 AC to allies and a constant trait granting nearby allies advantage on Wisdom and Charisma saves. All in all, a good assortment of interesting characters and creators. There is a dearth of high-level threats, but that’s nothing new to 5e and isn’t particularly problematic in Eberron’s case. The last chapter of this book focuses on Heart of Stone, a level 1 to 5 adventure. I will not be covering it in this writeup, but I hope that what I presented already gives people a taste of what Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone has to offer. In short, a nifty sourcebook I highly recommend to any fan of the setting!
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Nov 8, 2024 03:59
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Hey how did this Shadowrun image get into your review?
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Nov 8, 2024 06:22
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By popular demand posted:Hey how did this Shadowrun image get into your review? Dragonmarked houses as burgeoning megacorps isn't even really subtext.
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Nov 8, 2024 15:00
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Really, the only thing missing to turn Eberron into a cyberpunk setting is a proper computer/internet substitute. As is, it's more the Gilded Age running straight up through the Roaring Twenties.
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Nov 8, 2024 16:52
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Also it doesn't rain enough in Eberron.
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Nov 8, 2024 22:06
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Zilargo would like a very wet word with you.
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Nov 9, 2024 02:10
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I thought Sharn was known for its almost nonstop dreary-noir rainfall?
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Nov 9, 2024 02:36
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It's usually not drawn that way, though it's supposed to be hot and humid and with rain more days than not, even if it's only just brief bursts. Kind of like visiting a relative in eastern Florida when I was a kid, I imagine - drat near every day had a short storm mid-afternoon. Basically when you need rain to happen, it'll be there.
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Nov 9, 2024 03:39
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That just makes it a really good noir city.
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Nov 9, 2024 03:42
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disposablewords posted:Really, the only thing missing to turn Eberron into a cyberpunk setting is a proper computer/internet substitute. As is, it's more the Gilded Age running straight up through the Roaring Twenties. If you add elements of Cyptomancer and you got a legit fantasy "cyber"punk setting.
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Nov 9, 2024 06:51
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disposablewords posted:Really, the only thing missing to turn Eberron into a cyberpunk setting is a proper computer/internet substitute. As is, it's more the Gilded Age running straight up through the Roaring Twenties. Someone already made this as a series of adventures on the DM's Guild called Eberron 1099 YK. While it does have a magical pseudo-internet, there isn't a writeup for the wider setting which is unfortunate. I don't own said adventures, so they could be terrible for all I know. Buyer beware!
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Nov 9, 2024 07:12
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Libertad! posted:Someone already made this as a series of adventures on the DM's Guild called Eberron 1099 YK. While it does have a magical pseudo-internet, there isn't a writeup for the wider setting which is unfortunate. The author appears to have a line of adventures that take Eberron in directions inspired by other media such as Golgo-13 and Disco Elysium.
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Nov 9, 2024 18:17
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Opsikion Themed posted:7th Sea (Second Edition): Land of 1000 Nations I appreciate your writeup, it has a very good mix of details jokes, btw.
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Nov 19, 2024 05:17
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JcDent posted:I appreciate your writeup, it has a very good mix of details jokes, btw. Thanks! It was my first one here, so I was hoping I hit the stylistic mark. (I've enjoyed reading your Degenesis stuff, too.) I've still got Cities of Faith and Wonder on my todo list, but my life has been a bit busy these last six months. Still, it will hopefully come eventually. Opsikion Themed fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Nov 29, 2024 |
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Nov 29, 2024 23:06
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 Itch.io Store Page The history and legends of the Indian subcontinent are full of material suitable for heroic fantasy, from the dynastic wars of the Mahabharata to the fearsome tales of asuras in their endless struggle against the devas. Such things did not escape the notice of tabletop gamers, as can be evidenced in the adoption of the rakshasha monster, or controversially the incorporation of Hindu deities into the old Deities & Demigods sourcebook. During the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons we got some material that sought to make self-contained settings inspired by Indian legends, such as Green Ronin’s Mindshadows and Wizard of the Coast’s Mahasarpha. However, Mindshadows is now out of print and not sold online, making it hard to get, while Mahasarpa was but a brief 11 pages. In line with increased emphasis on cultural sensitivity and social progressivism, WotC created several Indian-influenced content in their works written by people with ties to that land’s cultures, such as the domain of Kalakeri in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft or the In the Mists of Manivarsha adventure detailed in Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel. However, full setting sourcebooks in the vein of Mindshadows more or less remain the province of third party publishers, and even then those are relatively rare. Devabhumi is written by Khanjan Patel, who sought to write a setting inspired by the epic stories of India. Although they’ve published gaming content in the form of cartography as Silver Compass Maps, this appears to be their first hand at writing a full-on complete sourcebook. Written for both the 5th Edition of D&D and Pathfinder 2nd Edition rulesets, Devabhumi’s PDFs are split into a complete Campaign Setting and a Player’s Guide that just includes the content necessary for PC building, with a pair for each ruleset. As I am familiar with 5th Edition D&D and not Pathfinder 2e, I will be reviewing the former ruleset’s mechanics for this Let’s Read. While the book is relatively short as far as campaign settings go in totaling 134 pages, the first thing I notice is a lack of bookmarks. This harms its navigability, and is also a problem in the Player’s Guide which is a much shorter 48 pages. Welcome to Devabhumi is our introduction, setting up the core themes of the setting along with a lexicon of common terms and definitions. Devabhumi hews closely to epic fantasy, where heroes can be expected to travel across the land and meddle in the affairs of gods; where an adventuring party by happenstance might stumble upon long-forgotten ruins home to mythical beings; where magic is rare but those who do possess it are capable of wondrous feats spoken of for generations, such as erecting forests made of crystal or building chariots that can travel across planes of existence. And where even the victory of the gods and other divine beings isn’t certain, as mortals and rakshasa also scheme and plot to make their mark in history and influence world events to their liking. History of Devabhumi talks about the major events of the setting, but just as importantly the cosmic concept of the Kalachakra, or “wheel of time.” Time itself has no beginning or end, and is infinitely cyclical. Due to this, there is no Big Bang or creation story in cultures, but people still research the past and present as a means of coming to understand the world and its changes. Time is divided into four Yugas, or Ages, which last around 4 million years each. Satya Yuga, the golden age, is the first yuga, where gods and mortals lived together in harmony and is generally regarded as the most ideal age by historians. However, it wasn’t a utopia free of conflict, for asuras sought to wreak division and suffering by encouraging mortals to commit evil via deception and tempting offerings. Treta Yuga, the silver age, saw the first kingdoms to arise along with specific class distinctions via the division of labor, and through this many cultures walked a fine line between pursuing selfish desires and ambition while still striving for virtue. Gods still lived in the world of mortals, but they started becoming more isolated from wider society, and asura and other evil forces started to operate more openly via overt warfare and conquest. The Dvapara Yuga, the bronze age, is the current age of the setting, and is 2.5 million years into the cycle. This age is marked by a notable decrease in the standard of living via frequency of wars, famine, natural disasters, and societies becoming increasingly fractured over competition of resources. The asura manage to become significant power blocs via the formation of expanding kingdoms, and the gods almost never interact with mortals beyond close circles of sages. On the plus side, this age is marked by development of innovative magic and technology, along with the discovery of new lands. While it’s still far off, the end of the Dvapara Yuga will be marked by the gods leaving the world entirely and the asura conquering Devabhumi in full. Once this happens, the Kali Yuga, or iron age, will arrive, a time of strife and darkness where the asura rule almost completely unchecked, and knowledge and technology of past eras is forgotten. The age will end once the god Kalki reincarnates and destroys the world. Only a few pious souls will be spared, and then reality will reset into a new Satya Yuga. After this general explanation, we get specific entries on recent history in Devabhumi proper. The last great war was the Mahabharata, which occurred a little over a thousand years ago but its effects are still being felt today. What began as a dispute between the Kuru and Pandava dynasties escalated into a cataclysmic war that used Astras* which destroyed entire regions and cities. The Pandavas achieved a pyrrhic victory, but the war left most of their subjects dead. Northern Devabhumi is covered in ruins, leading to southern realms on the subcontinent to grow as rising powers. We get a sidebar of notable figures who participated in the Mahabharata and would thus be remembered as household names in the setting, such as the peerless archer Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna, the latter of whom sought to remain neutral during the war. The calendar system has 12 months which each have 30 or 31 days, and the denomination for years is centered around the end of the war, with NS a shorthand for Nave Sal or “new year.” The current year is 1044 NS. *basically magical Weapons of Mass Destruction.  The asura managed to take advantage of the political instability by seizing control of a handful of western coastal settlements. But one such figure, Maladhari, stands head and shoulders above the rest and became known as the Asura Queen. The precursor to her rule began at the end of the Treta Yuga, where the drying up of a great river that sustained millions of people saw mass migrations from the desertification of their homelands, with most fleeing to the coast and causing a refugee crisis. In the city of Khara, the rioting and political division from the stretching of resources allowed Maladhari to storm the city with an army of asura in the name of “restoring order,” and after establishing her power base she conquered nearby city-states in a growing kingdom-to-be. I will note an inconsistency in the text regarding the Asura Queen. As the book notes that it’s 2.5 million years into the Dvapara Yuga, that would mean that the refugee crisis around the end of the Treta Yuga occurred around that long ago. But 11 pages later, the book notes that the Asura Queen’s rise to power happened a few decades ago, and the rest of the book treats her as a new rising power vs one that’s been in place for what would be countless mortal lifetimes. This section ends with a description of seasons and how they manifest in regions. Basically Devabhumi is a hot subcontinent, being more arid in the north and more humid in the east and south. There are three Realms, which are similar to but distinct from planes of existence in that they are planets which can be visited via portals and magic. But people arrive there most commonly by being reincarnated into a being that then lives on said planet. Bhuloka is the planet that contains the continent of Devabhumi, Svargaloka is the home of the gods who each have their own kingdom populated by their servants and greatest devotees, and Patala is a planet shrouded in darkness home to asuras, nagas, and the souls of people who committed deeds of great evil in their past life. Yamaraj, the god of death and judge of souls, rules over the realm of Naraka, and releases souls back into Bhuloka once they “served their time.”  The People of Devabhumi focuses on the continent’s major cultures on the macro-level. The inhabitants of the subcontinent are known as Devavasi, or Vasi for short, which translates to “dwellers.” Devabhumi also has a shortened term of Bhumi, which simply means “land.” The overarching customs, predominant languages, and religious traditions that tie the various people of the subcontinent together is known as the Indic culture, serving as an umbrella term encompassing the many varied subcultures living here. There are three major geo-cultural groups: the Bhavata preside in Devabhumi’s north and northwest regions which is home to deserts and heartland plains, the Parthiva comprise the south and are heavily based around the coast, while the Asrita dominate the eastern rainforests. There’s a fourth group, the Zhav, who are nomads that travel the land and adopt elements of various cultures they interact with yet also have their own unique traditions. Indic culture has various commonalities, grouped up into 11 major subjects, ranging from organization of family units, common forms of food and currency, cultural taboos, holidays, and common forms of recreation. I won’t go over every subject, but I will highlight some I deem particularly important or interesting. Devabhumi still follows the copper/silver/gold standard, and particular kingdoms often stamp their own seals which are typically the face of the ruling raja. There’s a wide variety of food, although barley and millet are common crops across Devabhumi and it’s taboo to eat any form of cattle (cows and bulls, buffalos, etc) as they are considered sacred animals. The majority of the populace has access to and eats various forms of meat and seafood, but vegetarianism is practiced by a minority. Abstaining from meat, garlic, and onions for 3 days is required to be pure enough to conduct a Puja, a form of ritual involving fire and a sacrifice whose particulars differ upon the god(s) being honored. Reincarnation is a cosmic reality, where upon death a soul leaves the body and enters a new one. A soul’s karma, or accumulation of the deeds they performed in their last life, determines whether they are born into a new life in more or less fortunate circumstances. In a rare few cases they might descend into Patala or ascend into Svagaloka. There are exceptions and ways around reincarnation: the first case involves a soul who has a strong desire to rectify what they view as “unfinished business,” causing them to persist as a ghost-like bodiless Bhoota who is trapped in a constant cycle of hunger-like pain. The other way is via necromancy, as the soul thus becomes stuck in limbo and restlessness. Like most campaign settings, this school of magic is seen as particularly vile by the general populace. Devabhumi has its own languages, with 8 major ones detailed here. Bhavata is the most common and functions as the Common tongue, being spoken in the center and north and is used for trade and cross-cultural interaction. Parthiva is the second-most common language, spoken mainly in the south and whose inhabitants take great pride in preserving it. Asrita is spoken in the east, and while the region is pretty isolated it has incorporated elements of Bhavita and Parthiva into everyday speech. Anarya is the umbrella term for the many languages of the Zhav nomads. In terms of racial languages, Vaanara is spoken by the primate humanoids known as the Vaanars, and Varali is spoken by the treelike Yakshi people. Patala is the “common” tongue of Patala as well as asura and naga in general, while Svarga is akin to Celestial in being the language of the gods along with apsaras and garudas. One aspect of Indian society that is interestingly absent, save for an implied example in one kingdom the next section, is the caste system. The author explained this reasoning in the comments section of the Itch.io storefront here, basically that the desire to leave it out along with other sensitive issues of Indian history is to make a setting where a player has freedom to play the character they want and not “not a place where they face the same issues as the world that they live in.” While in the real world caste discrimination is illegal on paper in India, it isn’t always enforced and its legacy is still a major issue today. So I like Patel’s explanation on this, and feel that it’s worth pointing out given that most other Fantasy India campaign settings still have a caste system in some shape or form.  Nations & Tribes takes a look at Devabhumi’s various regions, split up into smaller kingdoms and domains listing major population centers and general points of interest. Like the culture section, I won’t be covering every such particular place, but rather highlight the ones that stand out the most. North Devabhumi is bordered by the Aakashparvat Mountains, from which the holy Devapani River flows and is a major economic and religious power for countless communities among its banks. Even after the end of the Mahabharata, conflict is still sadly a reality for the people. In addition to mortal rajas and ranis*, there are bandits, asura, and other evildoers and opportunists scouring the land to enrich themselves off of other people’s misfortune. But it is also a land of great beauty and history, with ruins once home to the dwellings of mythic races, sages, and even gods. *female term for rajah. The Kuru Kingdom is the oldest in the region, whose current raja treats his subjects well but is warlake and feared by his neighbors. The people hew to conservative and orthodox ways and are distrustful of esoteric teachings and foreigners. Their adherence to the Law of Dharma heavily discourages people from straying too much beyond their societal occupations. One interesting place includes the Colossus of Rudra, a likeness of one of the god Shiva’s forms that serves a popular yet dangerous pilgrimage route, as the water flowing from the head of the statue is believed to extend one’s natural lifespan by a century. Another is the battlefield of Kurkshetra, where the Mahabharata took place, and is a haunted realm where not even the smallest animal or blade of grass grows, and holds many abandoned legendary weapons. Opportunistic scavengers have to compete with asura and undead who prowl the land. The Matsya Kingdom is west of the Kurus, and while smaller in land it is a magical superpower whose capital city of Virata is home to an old and famous school of magic. They allied with the Kurus, but even their power wasn’t enough to turn the tide of war, and in modern times they made up for their shortage of soldiers with magic-users. In comparison to the Kuru, the Matsya subjects are known for being open-minded and display a curiosity to new things and foreigners, but they are fiercely patriotic and brook no talk of disrespect to their land and people. In addition to a college of wizards, the raja is in possession of an airship known as the Vimana which he lends to adventurers in exchange for them accomplishing important quests for him. Maladhari’s Dominion is the growing empire of the Asura Queen, currently consisting of four cities on the western coast. Each city has a governor appointed by her, not all of whom are necessarily asura. For example, the city of Ranapur is ruled by Vilamba Rani, a human woman. It is a dangerous realm to visit, for the people have been pretty thoroughly cowed into submission, being too fearful to mount rebellions and their reigning asuras are eager to do what they want and take what they will. But the asura serving Maladhari are not necessarily unified. The city of Malini is a particularly chaotic place, whose soldiers are prone to killing and stealing for the thrill of it on a large scale. Maladhari might be wicked, but she isn’t fond of getting rid of too many mortal slaves and laborers at once, so if its ruler is unable to reign in such excesses the Asura Queen will send in outside armies to take control. Beyond the cities, one interesting place includes the cursed mobile town of Upadi, which appears like a mirage to tired travelers, inhabited by undead eager for new prey. Not so much a location as a major culture, the entry on the Zhav concludes our overview of Northern Devabhumi. They immigrated to the subcontinent from foreign lands around the beginning of the Dvapara-Yuga. They come from a wide plateau to the far west, and worship a sky spirit by the name of Dyuman. They are renowned horse-riders and archers which are taught to them from a young age, and their talents and technology were incorporated in the rest of Devabhumi. One such example is the brigandine armor known as Chilta Hara Nakh, or “Coat of a Thousand Nails.” Even to this day, their livelihood revolves around the animals they herd. I spotted an error in the entry of this book, where a section of a paragraph is repeated twice: quote:The Zhav people have their own unique culture separate from the culture of Devabhumi. Born under the open sky, a Zhav has lived on the road and slept under the stars as early as they can remember. Every Zhav learns the skills of archery and horse riding, starting as early as six. They believe in a central sky spirit, the one who created the vast open sky and the grand plains they roam. The Zhav have elaborate worship rituals, where they venerate their ancestors surrounded by a circle of stampeding horses. They are pastoralists that travel with large herds of goats and cattle, sustaining themselves from the animals alone.  Eastern Devabhumi is heavily dominated by forests and jungles, with the eastern end of the Aakashparvat Mountains lowering into hills. The omnipresent woodland prevents large-scale warfare due to the difficulty of moving troops through them, and many kingdoms can be comfortably hidden beneath the eaves of tall trees. When diplomacy fails, conflict takes place as smaller skirmishes that inevitably end in negotiations. The smaller Hira mountain range is home to mostly-untapped veins of diamonds, known for being the largest known in Devabhumi. Many people have tried and failed to mount expeditions to them, and in addition to natural hazards the naga who live there are hostile to trespassers. There are four major geo-political entities in the east. The first is the Magadha Kingdom, whose inhabitants live in treetop and stilt homes raised above the forest floor, and their friendliness and hospitality makes them a popular trading hub. The second is the Chandavati Kingdom, who are fiercely devoted to the god Indra who managed to dispel a roaming supernatural famine that afflicted their people when they were once desperate refugees, but their continual conflicts with rampaging danavas (bulky anthropomorphic fiends) and other threats have made them xenophobic. The Neelanag Kingdom has a naga-majority population, who make ample use of diamonds and gemstones into local art and architecture. But the realm is troubled by a succession crisis on the horizon, for its raja has been unable to conceive a child and it’s rumored that he might be able to sire offspring with a naga who shares his rare olive scale tone. Most naga in this kingdom are blue, as Neelanaga literally means ‘blue snake.’ Finally, we have the Samya Confederacy, a loose network of six hunter-gatherer tribes whose local appointed leaders convene regularly for important matters that affect them as a whole. We get brief names and details for each tribe, such as the Unnata tribe whose members are very tall, averaging seven feet or more. All of the tribes domesticated a rare animal known as a makara, aquatic beasts who have the head of an elephant and body of a crocodile, and can be ridden on safely in bodies of water which makes them effective naval cavalry. There aren’t many Points of Interest in this section. Magadha has the shrine of Bhamsvedi, one of the holiest sites on Devabhumi whose waters are dedicated to the deity Moksha, and thus can help cleanse the sins of the truly remorseful. Crocodiles guard the way to the shrine and can see whether a pilgrim is pure of heart. The Saya Confederacy has Devabhumi Bay, the endpoint of the Devapani River that could be a major economic and trade hub. Yet the Samya people and many natural disasters prevent any large-scale town-building here. Lastly we have the Sampriya Wilderness, a portion of jungle that is home to animals of amazing size, and those few Samya who live here are on a constant combat footing against the many local dangers. Southern Devabhumi is a diverse region, home to the Dakkhana Plateau that is the subcontinent’s heartland and teeming with towns both old and new, ruined and standing alike. The hilly Shur Range is home to many caves and an active volcano, with cities on the coast and misty forests inland where the elusive Vaanar people are known to dwell. The wet lowlands are a natural hiding place for monsters of all kinds, but its fertility makes it perfect for growing rice that feeds countless people across Devabhumi, making it a dangerous realm in which to live but necessary to defend. The subcontinent’s southern tip is home to the island of Thaara, from which many stories of amazing adventures come from. There are five major geo-political entities in the south. The Avanti Confederation grew from hardy independent tribes who raided others. They united under a great warlord five centuries ago, but their territory has shrunk over the last two hundred years. The Confederation is made up of clans ruled by nobles who elect one of their own to be the Peshwa, who rules over all of them. The current Peshwa enacted a series of reforms, such as universal education in the capital city and forming a conventional standing army, not all of which is well-received by the Confederation. Another source of potential conflict includes the city of Jinkale, originally part of the Vindhya Kingdom but claimed by the Avanti during a prior war. The current rani of the latter kingdom seeks to liberate the city, which will lead to all-out war. The Vindhya Kingdom has a long and proud history stretching back to the Satya Yuga, whose standards of living and wisdom of its leaders were the envy of even the gods. But it’s fallen greatly, and its current government is riddled with incompetence and corruption. Adding to this problem, a long-lasting famine has halved the kingdom’s population over the last hundred years, and they suffered various invasions over the last thousand years that saw the capital city losing much of its splendor. The Danda Kingdom sits at a crossroad of several rivers, and the recent discovery of sea routes that circumnavigate the subcontinent granted the realm great wealth as well as a powerful navy. Some of Devabhumi’s most famous explorers hail from this kingdom, although its rulers have a less rosy reputation given the large amount of kinslaying and infighting over the throne.  The Vaanar Forest is home to the simian race of the same name, who are insular and their family units form larger clans. Vaanar are loyal first and foremost to their clans over any pan-Vanaar sense of identity. The forest is filled with magical clouds that can mislead visitors, along with monsters such as the cyclopean bhramrachok. Temples to the god Hanuman are hidden throughout the forest, who led an army of vaanar to aid Rama in rescuing his wife Sita from the asura king Ravana. While there are hundreds of vaanar clans (and a series of tables for generating clan leader NPCs), two bear special mention. The Angada clan is the largest and most widespread, whose leader is wise and far-seeing but finds his hands full at being a peace-keeper. An increasingly popular movement to re-establish the old vanaar kingdom of Sugriva is growing, encouraging war with smaller clans and extending their borders beyond the forest. The other source of conflict is the Yugyuva clan, who ended up becoming possessed by demons known as yakkas whose evil nature is causing these vanaar to become monstrous in appearance as well as mentality. They have started attacking other vanaar and anyone else they can get their claws on. The final realm of the south is the Kingdom of Thaara, a lush island that has been ruled by a dizzying array of cultures: mortal, asura, and gods alike, with Ravana being the most famous historical king. Currently the island is ruled by Aamaya Rani, whose origin is the speculation of folk tales. But the common consensus is that she was set out to sea as a baby, part of a raja’s sacrifice to appease the sea god Varuna for killing one of his priests. She was safely sheltered and the winds blew her to Thaara, adopted by a local family of fishers. Aamya later married the prince and was given the throne after his death. Thaara is notable for having not one, but two capital cities: Katalmakkal and Vanamakkal, the former on the coast and the latter in the interior forest. The raja/rani’s court traditionally switches places between them every so often, so as not to cause feelings of elitism or resentment in making one seem more favored. In addition to the large number of kingdoms, Southern Devabhumi has a good amount of Points of Interest, too. For instance, the Tejasvi Falls are rumored to hold a secret cave temple to the sun god Surya that is rumored to hold a great reward, but can only be entered by a leap of faith from the waterfall’s peak. Or the ruined city of Aranyanagar, which is said to hold treasure that remains undiscovered by scavengers to this day. Or the Pushpaka Crash Site somewhere in the rainforest of Thaara, housing the remains of Ravana’s flying chariot but whose scattered pieces can still be useful for building a new magical vehicle. The Great Churning is the final region of this chapter, consisting of the Purvaja Sea. The Great Churning is the name of an old legend, speaking of a rare collaboration between the Devas and Asuras in churning the ocean in order to obtain an immortal elixir known as Amrita. Many mighty monsters spawned from the Great Churning as a result, such as the seven-headed horse of legend, the Uchaishrava, that was once used as a mount by the god Indra. The sea is home to a chain of islands that lay mostly undisturbed, and contain all manner of wondrous places, creatures, and treasure, but the book is kind enough to give us two sample locations. The first is the Garuda Isles, inhabited by legendary bird-people who form various settlements here, trading, interacting, and warring with each other. It is said that they are descendents of the great sage Kashyapa, which would make them distant relatives of the nagas. Garudas primarily hunt and build nests for their young, and there’s hundreds of colonies across the isles. Being ardent worshipers of Vishnu, they build temples inside trees dedicated to him. There is a clan of asura known as the Nastasva who were long forgotten by the gods and other asura during the Great Churning. Lacking the traditional magical abilities of much of their kind, they fruitlessly seek ways of amassing power. They are still a danger, often raiding isles and sailors unlucky enough to be in their path. Jalpurush is both an island and a creature, a gigantic turtle believed to be an avatar of Vishnu. A mountain reaching to the heavens on the turtle’s back is known as Magnha Pravatah, or “the sinking mountain.” Jalpurush’s blood flows through the many tropical plants and animals growing upon its back, each bearing a cerulean mark as proof of their ties to divinity. Natural springs of amrita give the native life immortal lifespans. A magnificent city known as Deakurmapuram is carved into the mountain, a near-utopian settlement of splendor and plenty whose inhabitants devote themselves to various forms of art and music. Thoughts So Far: Devabhumi starts out with a strong first impression right out of the gate. Its introduction is brief yet paints a clear picture of what kind of campaigns the setting wishes to support. Its history and locations paint a picture of a land wrought in various kinds of conflict, along with potential realms of interest to dungeon-delving and adventuring types. While one gets the sense that the Asura Queen is being set up as the BBEGal, there’s quite the number of smaller-scale threats in every region of Devabhumi. Due to this, just about anywhere feels like an ideal place to start a campaign, without feeling the need to move the party to a more interesting locale. The text is easy to read, as strategic use of bolded font calls attention to locations, NPCs, and concepts of note under the various sections, and the placement of illustrations is frequent enough that you’re not hit with too many walls of text. The book also does a good job of providing brief descriptions of new monsters or unfamiliar concepts so that the reader can quickly know what the author is talking about. It still has that “first-time publisher” feel, like the lack of bookmarks and the accidental repeating text, but so far the errors haven’t been too numerous. Join us next time as we cover two major Cities and Devabhumi’s gods and cosmos in Religion, Cults & Factions, and Karma!
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Dec 7, 2024 10:51
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Fivemarks posted:Strike Legion Part 1: You guys aren't ready. Strike Legion Part 2: They Tried.  So, last time we went on a large scale and quite fast overview of Strike Legion's setting, and barely scratched the surface of how bonkers it is. Today,we're going to be taking a look at the basic game mechanics and combat of Strike Legion, the Dice Torrent Game System. I know what you're all thinking: This is going to be a poo poo show. Its Strike Legion, it has to be near unplayable, you can buy the rulebook for maybe a dollar on DrivethruRPG. Well, I regret to inform you that it's... not entirely bad, and seems passable? The Dice Torrent Roleplay System feels like a kludged together monstrosity that combines Warhammer 40k's stats with the Storyteller System's mechanics, while learning lessons from both them and RIFTS. At its very basic core, it is a dice pool system: all rolls will have a pool of ten-sided dice rolled. Any dice that meat or beat the difficulty are successes, any that don't are failures. A 1 is a Major Failure and removes one success from the dice pool, while a 10 is a major success, which is an automatic success and they get to roll another dice. That's it, for the most part. Everyone works off of this, and it doesn't even do the thing of having difficulties above what the dice pool can roll. The recommended difficulty for rolls range from 4, up to 10. Beyond that is the Legendary Difficulty, and for that the rules just say that you need two 10's in your Dice Pool to count as a Legendary success.For things like skill and attribute tests, you roll based on your rank in the skill or attribute, with unskilled checks being a single D10 with a -3 modifier. Characters can also stunt, with successful stunts as judged by the game master giving the player extra dice on their rolls. Even opposed tests are easy- both sides roll, with their successes cancelling each other out. This is different from a Contest, where both sides roll and the higher score wins. Its all very simple and refreshing. The rules even explain guidelines for how much of a success the number of success a player gets should be, ranging from marginal successes at 1 success, up to things like INCREDIBLE at 8 or more. So then we move onto Combat, which... Actually makes sense and tries to do what Rifts did without making the same mistakes as Rifts.I 'm not going to go too deeply into combat here because I don't want to copy and paste the rules (Really, Strike Legion is like a buck on DrivethruRPG, go buy it) Combat works on an Initiative system, with higher Agility going first, and characters with the same Agility going simultaneously. It cuts down on rolling and pretty clearly makes Agility important for going before you get got. But, okay, before we can go any further, we need to talk about Factor. I don't mean that meal prep service youtubers like to shill, I mean the Factor System Strike Legion uses. All vehicles, personal shields, body armor, and weapons have a Factor rating. Damage is multiplied by a weapon's Factor before being applied to a target- Factor ratings are also multiplied by a vehicle's stats like shield, armor, and structure and speed to determine their actual rating. Body Armor does the same. In effect, it helps keep things less cluttered while being a less clunky version of MDC from RIFTS. A pistol and an autocannon may both be Damage 2, but the pistol may be Factor 1 while the Autocannon is Factor 10- and this is useful because Strike Legion is the kind of game where the players can be expected to singlehandedly wipe out a Space Marine Chapter. So we go back to talking about Combat in General, and we get on Range. Strike Legion likes to keep things simple, so it measures distance in combat using Range Bands. Range Bands aren't set in size, but they are supposed to be big- you can only do close combat to characters in the same Range Band, while weapons can shoot out to their Range in Bands.. multiplied by their factor. The same is true for moving, where characters move a number of range bands equal to their Speed times their factor. Characters gain a bonus to Defense when being attacked by characters in a different range band, with that bonus increasing by 1 per range band. Which is to say, the system tries to sidestep the issue of mapping by being simple, though I can see how this could get a bit clunky when you have multiple different things with wildly different Factors in the same combat. For combat between stuff with large but similar factors, you effectively treat the factor as being 1 for range and distance, and I see how that works. In terms of actually attacking in combat, you roll a Dicepool equal to your relevant skill rating: Gun for ranged, Fight for melee. You deal damage equal to the weapon's damage per success, multiplied by the Weapon's Factor. the example given for ranged weapon is RA Multilaser, which has a Factor of 10 and a damage of 5; on a hit with three successes, it deals 15*10 damage for 150. When a cahracter is hit, damage is first done to the character's Shield (Shield rating X Factor). Once the Shield hits 0, any damage remaining is done to the character directly, reduced by the character's Armor x Factor, before its applied to a character's Life and Stamina. Once a character has 0 Stamina, they're out cold for 1d10 turns; once they're out of Life they're dead. Combat effectively works the same way for Vehicles, Frames (Mecha like Gundam), and animals. Its a surprisingly simple and straightforwards system. It's not Perfect and it may not even be GREAT, but it does seem fun and that they definitely knew the vibe they were going for. Next time, we're going to take a look at Character Creation, because that's where some meat is. Meat like "How to be a Jedi Mage", "I want to be a Space Gorilla", and "I have the power of God and Anime on my side."
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Dec 7, 2024 16:19
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Devabhumi looks very interesting, @Libertad. Fun fact - it's generally accepted that we're in the Kali Yuga right now, with a small minority of optimistic gurus saying that the maths was wrong, and it finished around 1600CE
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Dec 7, 2024 17:15
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  You can see a full-sized map on Reddit. Whereas our prior post looked at Devabhumi on a subcontinental and then regional level, Cities goes even smaller scope by detailing two major population centers. The first is Hastinapur, the capital of the Kuru Kingdom. It is one of the largest metropolises on the continent in both land and population, and circular stone walls separate the city into several districts. The Devapani River runs through its center from west to east, with smaller tributaries running through the city that are used for drinking and bathing. Beyond the walls, several farming communities are counted as part of the city’s population, while the outermost ring holds districts housing artisans, merchants, and skilled laborers. The second inner ring houses the noble families, temples, and guard barracks along with the royal palace. Hastinapur has 20 detailed locations, such as the Temple of Vishnu whose high priest secretly possesses a powerful astra and is in search of a worthy wielder to use against the Asura Queen. There’s also the Royal Palace, which houses two princely brothers, with the younger one willing to resort to dishonorable tactics to secure himself being next in line. For those with an eye for shopping, the impressive Mandir Markets sell just about everything legal, from street food to a rare magic item every now and then. But there’s a conspiracy of merchants engaging in counterfeit spices to sell to those not sophisticated enough to discern real ones of quality. An arena used to train war elephants supplements the armies of the kingdom, and they’re even willing to sell mounts to civilians. But only the older and injured ones, and via auctions that are the frequent site of expensive bidding wars. Devakurmapuram, the City of the God Turtle, is located on the mountain adorning the island-sized turtle Jalpurush. Its architecture is shaped by Saraswati’s Stonemasons, a guild of spellcasters who use a blend of geomantic and aquatic magic combined with bardic music to shape rocks and rivers for urban development. It is separated into three districts, each named after a deity. The Vishnu District houses much of the city-state’s military, and is home to the city’s only hostel where soldiers disguised as travelers keep an eye on visitors. The Indra District house stables for mounts, where magical towers channel the power of lightning to repel large-scale invasions and more powerful monsters. This district is home to Yashdeva, the half-asura general of Devakurmapuram’s army who is willing to go the extra mile to prove that his heritage doesn’t define him, and has recently become susceptible to Gayatri’s plots. Finally, the Saraswati District is an artistic neighborhood with problems spelling trouble in paradise. First off, the local oracle Gandhari used to apply her talents in predicting future calamities so that the city can avert or prepare for them, as well as giving blessings to newborn children in choosing their name. But she’s fallen ill the past three months, and nobody’s been able to cure her. She may very well die from this, and there’s nobody talented enough to replace Gandhari as orcale. The other problem pertains to Gayatri, a half-apsara whose human heritage caused her to be spurned by her fellows, with her own mother going on to leave with them in a secluded garden part of the city. Gayatri is eager to prove herself a worthy equal to the three immortal apsaras and finally live with her mother. In order to do this, she secretly plots to obtain a dose of amrita from the exclusive garden and drink it. The city’s inhabitants are forbidden from consuming the elixir of immortality, for in so doing the island would become overcrowded and the supply of amrita would eventually run out. If Gayatri becomes the first to do this, this will spell eventual political instability as the once-sacrosanct line has now been crossed. “For if she can be justified in doing so, why can’t others?” Thoughts: Hastinapur may be short in page count, but it has just enough sample sites and characters for the DM to build the foundations for adventure, along with some seeds to grow further plots such as the Vishnu priest’s hidden astra or the scheming younger prince. The other locations covered strike a balance between general world-building to make the city feel authentic, and places of interest to adventuring PC types like suggestions on where one might look to buy magic items and other common services. Devakurmapuram feels lacking in comparison, as barring two sample crisis points the city feels too idyllic and well-defended to be the site of adventures. It’s the type of place that in an RPG would serve as a safe haven where characters can stop between adventures, as opposed to a place that can sustain adventures.  Religion in Devabhumi is united by three central concepts: Karma, where every action comes with a consequence; Dharma, or behaviors that are in line with nature and harmony and pertain to the duties of an individual; and Samsara, the cycle of reincarnation that governs all life. Powerful though they may be, not even the gods can defy these cosmic laws, and are subject to them just as much as mortals. But beyond these three rules, faiths take on many forms and can change, not just from kingdom to kingdom but even village to village. Devabhumi is a land of many gods, and in some cases even non-godly beings such as rakshasa form religious orders dedicated to their worship. The Indic pantheon has six major gods, followed by an innumerable number of devas (devi is feminine form, basically a “goddess”) that cover just about everything in existence, both conceptual and material. The latter category has over 10,000 such divinities chronicled in-universe, but only 11 of the most commonly-worshiped ones are covered in the book. As evidenced with the Zhav’s sky spirit and the Samya Confederacy’s adoption of relatively unknown nature spirits, there are deities foreign to Devabhumi, so they aren’t the end-all be-all. The book notes that the DM is encouraged to create deities based on the needs of the campaign, particularly for local gods, and has a list of common questions to ask when creating local faiths and their traditions. The listed gods and devas are all explicitly taken from real-world Hinduism. The gods have specific alignments listed on the ninefold axis: for example, Brahma is True Neutral while Shiva is Chaotic Good. The Devas, however, are more fluid in that they only cover one axis of alignment in being “lawful,” “good,” and so on. For instance, Ganesha is listed as Lawful. No deity has an evil listing, and while not technically gods the role of asura and rakshasa appear to fill in the role of “evil deities” in Devabhumi. None of the gods have listed domains, although the text discusses common areas of influence along with holy symbols and why said symbols are representative of that deity. Additionally, a god’s worshiper doesn’t have to be the same or even close in alignment, and such people usually perform great penances and sacrifices for proscribed behavior in order to get back into a deity’s good graces. The six main gods have male-female pairings of spouses and consorts, each representing creation, preservation, and destruction. They are Brahma (creator deity, responsible for creating many creatures that populate the world to this day) and Saraswati (governs education and the arts, the more ‘practical’ aspects of creation), Vishnu (a rather hands-on god who acts as a divine do-gooder and is a very popular deity) and Lakshmi (represents beauty, fertility, and worldly gain and success), and Shiva (holds the role of destroying the world in order to create a new one) and Parvati (goddess of motherhood, gentleness, and strength and can take the form of Kali when roused to anger). Common types of temples and worshipers vary in line with the god’s nature. For example, Lakshmi’s centers of worship tend to be small waystation shrines or household paintings and statues, the former to help grant travelers good fortune and the latter as a means of inviting the goddess to dwell within a house. The eleven devas and devis include Agni (god of fire, acts as a middleman to other deities given the use of fire in puja rituals), Ganesha (god of good luck and prosperity who people commonly pray to before beginning great tasks and endeavors), Hanuman (god of loyalty, strength, and wisdom, favored by soldiers, laborers, and others saddled with burdens), Indra (god of storms and rain, worshiped by farmers and sacrifices are made during the planting season), Kali (goddess of death and violence, not regularly worshiped save by Thugees and usually turned to by people who view violence as inevitable in their lives), Kamadeva (god of beauty and desire, favored by couples and the married who wish to sire children), Kartikeya (god of battle and strategy, is a popular deity in the south and soldiers often call upon his name before carrying out their duties), Surya (god of light, the sun, and new beginnings, a dispeller of darkness of all kinds and is universally popular), Varuna (god of the sky, sea, and other bodies of water, does not control the ocean so much as soothes and nudges it, is a popular deity among sages and doctors as well as sailors), Vayu (god of the wind, messages, and breath, plays an important role in keeping living creatures alive via giving them air to breathe, not commonly worshiped save in order to enact particular healing rituals), and Yamaraj (judge of the dead, is impartial and was actually one of the first mortals to exist by rejecting immortality to avoid a life of endless boredom and ennui). Thoughts: I am not a Hindu and I don’t know much about the religion beyond common knowledge stuff from a Western perspective, so I cannot speak to the appropriateness of their portrayal in a role-playing supplement, much less how accurate are their assigned alignments. But their descriptions in Devabhumi more or less seem to match their general portfolios and purposes in the real-world religion. The divinities provided here cover a wide ground for PCs of the more religious types, and along with the below cults there’s enough distinctive faiths and methods of worship to make a cleric of Kartikeya feel different from one who pays homage to Indra. Devabhumi is very Hindu-inspired in terms of the religious traditions of real-world India. But when it comes to the other religions of the subcontinent, I did spot some things associated with Jainism in this book. Such as special shoes in the equipment chapter designed to minimize surface area, and thus less likely to crush bugs and small creatures. But for Buddhism and Sikhism, I don’t see any counterpart groups, or rather I may not have enough know-how in their traditions and peculiarities to immediately spot things that jump out at me, like the aforementioned shoes. And I do know enough about Islam to say that they aren’t present as a fantasy counterpart here. This isn’t a criticism necessarily, as trying to holistically cover every major faith of the world’s most populous country is beyond the scope of an RPG book. But I did feel it worth pointing out for those who might be wondering how, and if, those groups get represented here. Cults & Factions represent widespread groups in Devabhumi, usually but not always of a religious nature. Unlike other settings, the term “cult” doesn’t necessarily imply a secretive circle of evildoers nor an abusive pyramid scheme ruled by a charismatic leader. It instead refers to a subculture bonded together via a common god, group of gods, and/or rituals. It is not considered unusual or shameful to join a cult in and of itself, although certain cults can earn societal scorn and even retribution depending upon their actions and ideologies. This section provides us with 9 sample cults. Ahimsayas are pacifist worshipers of Vishnu who maintain strict lifestyles designed to cause the least amount of harm. They are vegetarians and perform occupations deemed to be largely beneficial to the common good, such as artisans and merchants. They have a universally good reputation to the point that some inns and restaurants provide vegetarian menus to encourage their patronage. They also get involved in local government in order to advance their principles of non-violence on a political scale. Aghoris are a decentralized, individualistic movement of Shiva worshipers who believe that the world is an illusion. Furthermore, they believe that things regarded as unhealthy and unclean are actually spiritually beneficial, and that pleasurable things are the opposite. They tend to do actions in line with this, like consume cold and rotten food or live as hermits, although some still live relatively normal lives save in largely avoiding worldly luxuries. Beyond their patron deity and questioning of reality, they have no other steadfast tenets, so each Aghori is encouraged to find their own path. The Hijra are people who are considered neither male nor female, to embody qualities of both masculine and feminine genders. Hijra are largely considered blessed by the gods and are commonly sought after to bless newborns and newly married couples. They live in communal housing with a guru serving as their leader, and their households are considered to be “neutral ground,” so those on the run from an enemy or the law can come in for sanctuary. Hijra tend to worship female deities, but this isn’t universal and they often worship one based on how they identify. The Kamuaram, or Cult of Kartikeya, is a sect of warrior-sages whose namesake patron deity is revered as a role model for which to model one’s principles. Their group was founded by Agastya the Sage, who created an internal language of Por Moli designed for clarity of communication in regards to “the language of war,” a new martial art known as Silambam, and scientific medicine to encourage a multi-faceted path for a warrior. That way, a practitioner becomes more than just a slayer of lives. Cult bases are closer in purpose to community centers than military fortifications, where they teach civilians means of practical self-defense. Maha Yaksha is a little-known movement that worships Yakshis, nature spirits* who live in forests. They hope to earn the aid of such Yakshi as a means of having some goal or desire fulfilled, such as finding an ideal romantic or marriage partner. *and a new playable race. Tirth Taraka are a society of traveling warriors who owe no allegiance to any particular deity, instead united by ideals of religious freedom and so act as guardians of pilgrims on the road. While they were once large and influential, the Mahabharata caused most of their order to die. In current times they are a small and stretched out sect who have their hands more than full yet no less vigilant in protecting who they can, where they can. Thugees are a loose movement of bandits across Devabhumi. Many worship Kali and even the more secular members tend to adopt her iconography, but by and large their primary motivation is selfish opportunism wrought by violence and the threat of it. They draw most of their number from the desperate and outcast, but prospects are subjected to demanding trials in order to prove both their loyalty and competence. Thugees play a delicate balancing act; they need to keep a certain distance away from civilization in order to evade the law, but retreating too far places them in dangerous and remote territory with little reward. Yamadutas are centered around the god of death, but don’t worship him so much as use his name as an excuse to enrich themselves as killers-for-hire. They draw their number from the worst-off in society, granting them shelter and a new family of sorts in order to gain their loyalty. Such loyalty is expected to be absolute, for a superior’s orders are to be followed without question. Failure or insubordination are grounds for execution. Yogis are practitioners of exercises known as yoga. While some perform them as a means of religious expression, yogis are overall secular in being united as fans of the activity. Yoga is performed as a means of strengthening one’s physical and mental discipline, and their schools are known as Ashrams and typically located in the wilderness. But even nobles and the financially well-off have grown fond of yoga, so some tempt yogi to urban centers as well-paid teachers. Thoughts: While brief, the sample groups provided have a good mixture of general world-building, patrons and allies for PCs, and adversaries to oppose. For instance, the Ahimsayas’ vows of non-violence aren’t ideal for most 5e PCs, but their integration into communities and politics makes the setting feel more realized and three-dimensional. The Kamuaram and Tirth Taraka look the most suitable for paladins and “honorable warrior” types. Thugees and Yamadutas are tailor-made to be antagonists in the classic bandits in the wilderness and sneaky assassin” types, or perhaps a backstory for a PC with a checkered past.  Karma is a new sub-system that acts as a kind of point-based morality. This reflects the universe reacting to an individual’s deeds and misdeeds, bringing them boons and consequences down the road. Karma is rated on a scale from -15 to 15, and as one gets closer to one end of the spectrum it requires greater and greater acts of altruism or villainy in order to continue. Conversely, slip-ups that knock one’s Karma back become easier; if you’re saintly, even minor selfish desires and actions can lower your karma, while the world’s wickedest person can end up gaining karma from even a tiny act of self-restraint or kindness. Due to this, even the gods and oldest entities rarely if ever maxed out their score or dropped it to its lowest point, and those few who did are some of the most holiest sages and vile entities that ever lived. Examples are given for what kind of person sits at a general level of karma, and what they would have to do in order to make amends to raise a negative score or how easy it is to slip up and falter for a positive score. For instance, the score range of -3 to 3 is an inoffensive medium, where karma can be gained via minor good deeds that result in a tangible loss or inconvenience that is not dangerous or ruinous, like giving some coins to a beggar. Conversely, karma can be lost via acts of minor harm, such as petty theft or insulting a god. For another example, a karma score of 10 to 14 is typically the highest most pious people get in their whole lives, where in order to gain more one must perform actions of great danger and sacrifice such as putting one’s life in danger to save another or completing a difficult pilgrimage. Meanwhile, losing karma at this level can come from even telling a white lie or succumbing to anger. The rewards and punishments for karma are primarily driven by DM Fiat, where things auspiciously line up in ways that might be supernatural but have a rational explanation. The magnitude and frequency increases the farther along one gets on the axis. For example, someone of -3 to 3 karma may find a coin in the street as a little convenience after performing a good deed, or mud is splattered on them from a passing horse after doing a bad deed. Meanwhile, someone of 10 to 14 karma will have good things happening to them on a daily basis, with enemies subconsciously targeting others in combat and they seem to stumble upon treasure just from traveling around. Albeit this last example this tends to happen to PCs in a typical campaign by default, so it might not be the best means of showcasing karmic justice. Thoughts: Given the prominence of karma in Indian culture and their religious traditions, I can understand making it an important and persistent aspect of a campaign in order to reinforce themes in line with myths and legends. However, whenever one introduces a new sub-system, it should ideally be both easy to understand and seamless enough to insert into play. Barring gaming groups whose PCs shoulder their burdens together and make decisions as a team all the time, a DM will need to juggle the consequences of various individual karma scores and come up with events of cosmic consequence for each PC’s actions during play. Then, there’s the delicate balancing act of ensuring that the players feel that said consequences are the natural result of said actions, rather than making them continually guess as to what is just a coincidence or karmic in nature. At worst, perceptions of favoritism can arise if one player appears to be suffering less or being rewarded more despite having a close or same score, or arguments over the DM being inconsistent in their rulings. While I don’t think that a karma or “morality with consequences” sub-system is a bad one in and of itself, Devabhumi’s default could use more fleshing out to account for these potential difficulties. Thoughts So Far: I found these chapters to be overall good, but the Karma subsystem left much to be desired. The coverage of gods and cults does much to make Devabhumi’s religious traditions feel authentically unique as opposed to generic fantasy with a South Asian paint job. The maps for the two sample cities are beautiful and just begging to be used. If I had any suggestions for improvement, I would’ve liked to see more discussion on where divine casting classes would fit into Devabhumi’s faiths. While it would more appropriately be covered in the next set of chapters, there isn’t much talk about in this book on how existing classes and subclasses fit into the setting beyond some generalities. I would’ve loved to see how Druids, with their penchant for animal shapeshifting and unique shared language, would’ve been interpreted in the setting, or how Paladins and their oaths would interact with gods and the world. Join us next time as check out new races, backgrounds, feats, and items in Character Creation and Equipment!
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Dec 7, 2024 22:32
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Angrymog posted:Devabhumi looks very interesting, @Libertad. Very optimistic, I'd say! In their view, what happened around 1600 CE to end the cycle?
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Dec 7, 2024 22:33
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Libertad! posted:Very optimistic, I'd say! In their view, what happened around 1600 CE to end the cycle? That's just when they calculated it to end. The yugas have a set duration. re: other religions - Sikism is a very modern religion - late 15th century, and Islam relatively modern - 610CE - both way in the future of the time scale that Devabhumi seems to be based on, if the author is going with the Mahabharat war being 1000 years in the setting's past. Even Buddhism was only 600BCE, again around 1500 years after when the setting is set. Angrymog fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Dec 7, 2024 |
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Dec 7, 2024 22:45
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It seems plausible that Buddhism or a Buddhism-equivalent wouldn't be present if this isn't meant to be ancient India; Buddhism faded out in India despite starting there, although I think it was generally known (there were plenty of relics and statues, etc)
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Dec 7, 2024 22:49
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 Character Creation is a brief overview that summarizes the following chapters. I should also note that all of the content in this post (minus the Astras) are also available in the Devabhumi Player’s Guide, which also includes the History of Devabhumi and People of Devabhumi chapters in addition to the Welcome and Epilogue. Said guide’s content more or less has everything the same, save for a formatting error on page 12 where the colored sidebars for particular entries don’t exactly line up with the text. An error that isn’t in the main campaign PDF. The book mentions that backgrounds and classes from the SRD can fit into the world without trouble, although it doesn’t really talk in detail about how the classes would be different in flavor than the typical Western fantasy realm. The mentioning of the SRD is an odd choice, as the only applicable background from that is Acolyte. I presume that the author meant to say that Devabhumi is built with allowing the Player’s Handbook options, but can’t outright say that on account of being a third party creator. There are eight major Races of Devabhumi, which more or less replace the ones from the core rules. Humans are by far the most populous race, followed by half-apsaras and half-asuras. Unless noted otherwise, the following races are medium humanoids with walking speeds of 30 feet. Humanity was created by Brahma during the Satya Yuga, with Manu being the first among them. Thus, many humans call themselves Manushya, or “children of Manu.” They used to live peaceful, egalitarian lives before Kausilya became the first king, imagining himself to be greater than all the others. This caused humans to divide themselves over all sorts of matters. In terms of stats, humans use the Variant Human option from the PHB, although they don’t get a bonus skill. Thoughts: There isn’t much to say that hasn’t been said about Variant Humans, although I am curious why they don’t get a bonus skill in this case. They’re still a really good option due to their bonus feat. Half-apsaras are humans with apsara lineage, the latter of whom were creations of the gods made to entertain them. Apsaras sought to leave the heavenly realms to explore the world, so the gods punished them by casting them into the mortal world naked without any of their belongings and limited to mortal lifespans. Half-apsaras are known to look beautiful and have a great passion for art, crafting, and scholarship, but have a shorter lifespan than humans where they die of old age in their 50s. In terms of stats they have +2 Charisma, +1 to another ability of their choice, have Svarga as a bonus language, a once per day Inspiring Voice ability that grants up to 6 allies a bonus on ability checks and saves equal to the Half-apsara’s PB (proficiency bonus) for 1 minute, and a Warding Light which is akin to the Light Cleric’s Warding Flare but whose use is based on PB rather than Wisdom modifier. Thoughts: The Warding Light is too powerful to include for a race, as it’s part of the reason why the Light domain is one of the best subclasses for Clerics. Furthermore, the Inspiring Voice really messes with bounded accuracy at middle-to-higher levels. A +2 bonus alone is still a significant boon. Half-asuras are humans with asura heritage. Asura in Devabhumi serve the narrative purpose of demons and the text even describes them as “demons” and “demonic” at times. While half-asura have free will, they experience urges throughout their lives to do violent and wicked deeds. Half-asura that continue to give in to these impulses have their physical appearance grow more and more beastlike. In terms of stats they have +2 Strength, +1 to another ability of their choice, darkvision 60 feet, gain Patala as a bonus language, and a unique feature based upon whether they have an evil or non-evil alignment. Non-evil half-asura are particularly strong-willed specimens who gain proficiency in Wisdom saves and advantage on saves to avoid becoming charmed and frightened. Evil asura can assume a more monstrous form once per short rest (no action type listed), causing any hostile creatures who see them to become frightened for 1 minute should they fail a Wisdom save, and can make a new save every round to shake it off. Thoughts: Aside from the naga, the half-asura are the only race in Devabhumi that have darkvision by default, which makes them rather useful for dungeon-delving and night-time encounters. Their alignment-based features are both quite strong, with the non-evil one being more broadly applicable and also persistent in use rather than per rest. Frightened is still a very potent condition to apply to foes, and being able to target multiple foes makes it even better. Even evil half-asura aren’t necessarily suboptimal, depending on the right build. Garuda are humanoids with birdlike wings, heads, and feet. They were created by the god Vishnu, where a sage with two wives prayed to the god in order to conceive children. Vishnu answered each woman their wish: one asked for a thousand offspring, the other asked for just two who would be equal to the other’s thousand. Both laid an egg, one of which hatched two eagles that became the garuda, the other hatched a thousand snakes that would later become the naga. Garuda and naga have a fierce hatred of each other, much like eagles and snakes. Naga are nocturnal, while garuda operate during the day, and naga are fond of kidnapping garuda eggs to eat. Garuda have a tradition known as the Shahi Shikar, where a young member of their species goes on a hunt for a dangerous creature as part of a coming-of-age ritual. Those who fail in their hunt are exiled from their society, which can be a background story for a garuda PC. In terms of stats garuda have +1 to Dexterity, Wisdom, and third ability score of their choice. They have Svarga as a bonus language, a flying speed of 40 feet provided they’re not wearing medium or heavy armor, their talons are unarmed strikes that deal slashing damage and grant advantage on checks to grapple targets, and once per short rest can Mark Prey by granting themselves advantage on all attack rolls until the end of their next turn. This last one doesn’t require an action type to activate. Thoughts: The flying speed alone makes the garuda a powerful race. While they don’t get a boost to strength by default, advantage on grapple checks opens them up to some rather potent combos: if they get some speed-boosting effect like Cunning Action or Haste, they can fly upwards with a grappled foe and drop them from a great height. Furthermore, their Mark Prey is useful for Rogue’s Sneak Attack or a Fighter’s Action Surge in really being able to up their potential damage. Vaanar are monkey-like humanoids with fur and long tails who live in isolated jungle communities. They were created by Brahma in order to aid Rama in fighting Ravana who kidnapped the latter’s wife. Vaanar worship their creator deity as well as Hanuman, who was also a fierce foe of Ravana while he still lived. Vaanar society is divided into groups of clans and tribes, the former being smaller and higher priority in loyalty. They spend their childhood years in schools known as Gurukulas to be instructed in practical skills along with language and spiritual matters. They are incredibly social and enjoy spending time with their fellows, so exile from a clan is considered a fate worse than death and reserved for only the most heinous crimes. In terms of stats, Vaanar have +2 Dexterity, +1 to another score of their choice, speak Vaanar as a bonus language, have a climbing speed of 30 feet provided they aren’t wearing heavy armor, can Disengage as a bonus action, and have a prehensile tail that can carry objects weighing up to 10 pounds and spend a bonus action to perform various simple tasks. Tails cannot be used to wield weapons or aid in spellcasting. Thoughts: The Vanaar’s features come up short in comparison to the other races here. A climb speed isn’t as impressive as outright flight, and their tail is more of a situational utility.  Naga are serpentine shapeshifters who can assume various forms between a full giant (human-sized) snake and humans who have telltale signs such as faint scales and yellow eyes. A naga’s human form is always unique to themselves and cannot be used to impersonate others, and in all of their forms they possess a meena, a forehead jewel that constantly emits a radius of light. Many humans regard nagas as beautiful, but such unions are the story of tragic romances, for both societies look down upon inter-marriage and they cannot conceive children with each other. Statwise naga have +2 Charisma, +1 to another ability score, gain Patala as a bonus language, are resistant to poison damage and saves vs the charmed condition, their meena shines bright light up to 10 feet and dim light up to 20 feet but can be covered up by a hat or head wrap and loses its light if a naga is knocked out or dies. They can assume a fully Serpent Form that melds their equipment into their body in order to gain darkvision 60 feet, natural armor of 12 plus Dexterity modifier, and a natural bite attack that deals 1d6 piercing + 1d6 poison damage which has the finesse property. They can assume such a form as a bonus action, but can also enact partial cosmetic transformations, such as having the lower half of a snake and upper half of a human, a human with a snake head, and so on. However, the mechanical benefits of their Serpent Form only activate when fully snakelike. Thoughts: Naga are the only other race that has darkvision, but their meena also grants them a continual source of hands-free light which can aid their party members in dungeon-delving. Their Serpent Form’s bite attack is effectively as damaging as a greatsword but suitable for Dexterity builds, but is hobbled due to poison being one of the most resisted and immunized damage types. A base Armor Class of 12 isn’t very impressive on its own, so naga focusing on a bite build are likely going to be Rogues, Monks, or Mage Armor gish casters. Yakshi are nature spirits who look like humanoids with flowers, stones, and other natural features growing upon their flesh. They live in remote forested regions, and while there are many tales as to their origin no outsiders can be certain and the yakshi aren’t forthcoming. While most are staunch defenders of their woodland homes, yakshi have a natural curiosity which leads some to venture out into the wider world. In terms of stats they gain +2 Wisdom, +1 to another ability score, speak Varali as a bonus language, are fey instead of humanoid in type, have a base AC of 13 + Dexterity modifier when not wearing armor, and once per short rest they can dig their roots into a patch of soil at least 5 feet deep in order to regain maximum hit points for each hit die rolled to regain health. Yakshi also gain bonus spells at 1st, 3rd, and 5th level akin to tieflings, with the bonus spells being Druidcraft, Entangle, and Spike Growth, using their Wisdom modifier for casting checks and DC. Thoughts: Yakshi are a very strong race, in that being nonhumanoid makes them immune to a variety of effects which specifically target that creature type, and as their rest-based healing is activated as part of a short rest its usage limitation is effectively a nonissue. Furthermore, Entangle and Spike Growth are very useful bonus spells suitable for all manner of builds. Jambavan are humanoid bears who are rare in number. In fact, most live solitary existences, most only ever encountered a few dozen others of their race, and are raised by their mothers and expected to live on their own once they demonstrate adequate skill in hunting and building. They are known for being expert hunters and craftspeople, and are known to build multiple cabins to serve as homes for them to stay in while surveying their territory. In terms of stats they have +2 Strength, +1 to another ability score of their choice, get Varali as a bonus language, have a climb speed of 15 feet, their unarmed attacks deal 1d6 slashing damage due to their claws, can communicate with bears and have advantage on checks to convince bears to help them, treat themselves as one size category large for push/drag/lifting purposes, gain proficiency in one set of artisan’s tools of their choice, and have advantage on checks to build and repair any kind of construct, object, or structure. Thoughts: Much of a Jambavan’s features are situational rather than broadly applicable. Their climb speed is worse than a Vanaar’s, bear communication is highly reliant upon DM Fiat in encountering such creatures, and 5e by default doesn’t have a crafting sub-system so their tool proficiency and advantages may not see that much use or get easily eclipsed by spells such as Mending. Devabhumi provides us with five new Backgrounds representing unique cultural vocations and organizations. They adhere to the standard of core backgrounds in providing two skill proficiencies, bonus equipment, a unique feature, and tables for personality traits. However, their bonus languages and tools can differ in that not all line up to being two in total. For example, the Pehelwan has only one bonus language and no tool proficiency, while a guru has a whopping three bonus languages and one tool proficiency, and the ayurved has proficiency in two bonus languages and a herbalism kit. The five backgrounds are Ayurved (practitioner of traditional medicine who are trained by gurus and believe that illnesses are caused by disturbances in both the mind and body and that healing one isn’t enough), Guru (general term for a teacher of some kind of subject and schooling consists of individual student/mentor relationships), Pehelwan (practitioners of akhada, a mud wrestling sport), Sarathee (charioteer, either for sport or battle), and Yogi (veteran practitioner of yoga). Unlike other background Features which tend to be more geared towards vague roleplaying for DM Fiat, the ones in Devabhumi all have explicit mechanical benefits. For instance, Ayurved can create a batch of consumable herbs once per day by spending 25 gold on ingredients to end a disease or the blinded, deaf, or paralyzed condition. Sarathee earn 2d4 gold pieces a day when using their skills to entertain others, guru gain a noncombatant NPC student companion, a Pehelwan can maintain a Comfortable lifestyle in a population center free of charge by either competing in wrestling events or training others at a lodge, and a Yogi can once per day meditate for 10 minutes to regain an expended Hit Die and remove the frightened and charmed conditions upon themselves. Alternatively, yogi can choose a variant Feature known as Tantra, which lets them recognize magical effects and the appropriate spell school via a successful Wisdom check. There’s no sample DC or action type for this latter ability, so this is more up to DM Fiat. Thoughts: The sample backgrounds are higher-powered than the PHB ones, if more due to the fact that their Features provide explicit benefits and several grant one or two more tool/language proficiencies than normal. But as the latter proficiencies are quite situational in most campaigns, none of them are unbalanced enough to be a problem in the average session.  Devabhumi has 10 new Feats, and seven of them have some sort of prerequisite (usually race) in order to be selected. Most are quite powerful in being worthy options to take for particular builds or broad options, such as Bhakt (devout worshiper of a particular god, +1 ability score of choice and advantage* vs charmed and frightened conditions), Charred (yakshi who got burnt, gain +1 to their Natural Armor, +10 maximum hit points, and learn Flaming Sphere as a racial spell at 5th level), Dhanudara (amazing practitioner of the bow, bow attacks deal extra damage equal to PB, can spend a reaction to shoot a projectile and negate a ranged weapon attack within 30 feet), Gadadhari (deal extra damage with maces equal to PB, critting with a mace causes targets to be stunned on a failed Constitution save), and Might of the Wild (Jambavan only, +1 Strength and can make a bonus action unarmed strike whenever they successfully grapple a target). One of the feats, Vaanar’s Cunning, breaks convention with the feat format in granting +1 to not one, but two different ability scores (Intelligence and Wisdom) along with granting expertise in one skill of the PC’s choice and can perform the Help action as a bonus action. Personally, I’d reduce the ability score increase to just one ability rather than two, as it’s too tempting to select otherwise. *the book says resistance, but that’s for damage types, not saves. The remaining four feats are more situational in terms of build. Two of them involve mounted combat of some sort, with Hathi-Yodha for elephant riders and Ratha-Yodha for chariots, along with advantage on rolls for repairing/controlling their vehicle of choice. The latter doesn’t grant proficiency with land vehicles, but only for their particular mode of transport. Charioteers actually make good sniper builds, for when wielding a ranged weapon in a chariot they ignore disadvantage on attack rolls at long range, but otherwise Sharpshooter is the superior choice for this. Fierce Hunter is the garuda racial feat, granting triple damage on critical hits and darkvision up to 60 feet along with a +1 ability score increase, while Naga’s Charm grants Charm Person once per day, +1 Charisma, and can let them appear as a full human with no telltale snake signs. Thoughts: In terms of balance, Charred is perhaps the most powerful in regards to granting a substantial hit point boost along with a (not so powerful) bonus spell and situational Armor Class increase. Dhanudara is going to be a no-brainer for most archer builds for the damage bonus, but I don’t think it will win out over Sharpshooter; the likely case is that a PC will take both of them rather than one or the other. Hathi-Yodha is going to be of situational use, only taken by that one player who really likes the idea of an elephant war mount, and same for Ratha-Yodha. Bhakt is also a good option in applying to a wide variety of mind-affecting effects. Equipment is a chapter for new gear, mounts, and magic items for campaigns set in Devabhumi. In the major urban centers, the subcontinent’s technological wonders are on full display, and there’s even day-to-day magical effects helping maintain city infrastructure. But there’s a large divide as seen in rural communities, where artisanry is more basic and given over to small smithies and woodworking. Many city-dwellers act elitist to their “primitive” neighbors, while visitors from the country are often gobsmacked at seeing how people live in a metropolis. Horses and elephants are favored Mounts in terms of “mundane” animals, although we have stats for five new monster mounts as well as new rules for chariots and elephants. Chariots have variable speeds depending upon how many horses are pulling them, ranging from 40 feet for 1 horse to 70 feet for 4 horses, while most chariots have room for two occupants. As for elephants, they are traditionally used as powerful cavalry in war, although they require a special proficiency in elephant-riding in order to ride one in combat. Those mounted on an elephant are out of reach of non-reach melee attacks,* but in return they cannot make non-reach melee attacks against those on the ground. Elephants are particularly mercurial, where an Animal Handling check is required to avoid it going berserk whenever the mount takes damage. The DC is equal to half the damage dealt, rounded down. A berserk elephant acts erratically as determined by a d4 table, such as attacking a randomly-determined target, fleeing, or freezing up and doing nothing. The elephant stat block is reprinted in the book, but with a curious addition of natural claw attacks instead of stomping, and can Multiattack with one gore and one claw attack. drat, Devabhumi elephants must look extra-scary! *What about Large and larger melee attackers? Presumably they have a better chance, but the book doesn’t specify. Chariots and elephants can also be outfitted with their own unique gear and customization. Elephants get barding types and giant sword extensions for their tusks, while chariots get armor plating and wheel scythes that deal AoE damage to adjacent targets for up to 20 feet. The other five mounts include Gajasimha (CR 1 beast with head of elephant and body of lion, move as fast as a riding horse but have a core and claw multiattack), Farasa Bahari (CR 1 amphibious green-maned horses from Jalpurush, swim speed and advantage on Stealth checks to hide in aquatic environments), Bhimthadi (CR 1 horse breed found on the central plains, have a trample attack to knock a foe prone and bonus attack against them if this happens, can Dash or Disengage as a bonus action and rider can Help horse as bonus action), Kathiawari (CR 1 desert-dwelling horse breeds that have advantage on saves vs exhaustion and only needs half food), and Makara (CR 1 creature with elephant head and crocodile body, are used by humans and vanaar as naval cavalry, gore attack that deals double damage to ships and naval vessels). The following section lists a variety of Clothing and Mundane Items, of less specific interest to adventurers but do much for world-building. They all derive from things that originated from the real-world Indian subcontinent, such as the bansuri bamboo flute that is used by shepherds to call their animals, gadra flower garments that are traditionally worn by women during festivals, holidays, and other times of celebration, and rudraksha stones that are incorporated into prayer beads for worshiping Shiva.  Weapons & Armor more or less replace the ones from the SRD, which the book says can still exist in Devabhumi but “might be rare.” Unfortunately we don’t have a handy table for reference listing all of their stats and properties, which makes it harder to compare at a glance. We have 5 simple melee weapons, 1 simple ranged weapon, 10 martial melee weapons, and 2 martial ranged weapons. For armor we have two types for each category of light, medium, and heavy armor as well as 2 shields. Like the prior section, all of these implements of warfare are based off of real-world South Asian inventions, such as the iconic Bagha Nakha “tiger’s claw” of three sharp blades or the Katar “punching dagger,” although the dao sword shares the same name as one that’s Chinese in origin yet is functionally distinct. I won’t go over each piece of gear, instead highlighting those of particular interest. Such entries for weapons include Bichuwa (basically a dagger, but has the 1d6 Versatile property and deal 1d6 piercing when two-weapon fighting with Bagha Nakha), Dao (rectangular sword dealing 1d6 slashing damage and doubles as an axe and shovel), Bagha Nakha (claw-like weapon, 1d6 slashing that has light, finesse, and Versatile property and deals 1d8 when two-weapon fighting with Bichuwa), Dandpatta (1d6 sword that grants +1 AC to the wielder as its hilt is also a steel gauntlet), Gada (sharp two-handed mace that deals either 1d12 bludgeoning or 2d6 piercing), Katar (basically a dagger without thrown property, and when wielding it and no other weapon can make an additional attack with it for free), Talvar (1d6 saber with light property that grants advantage when attacking with it while riding a horse or chariot), and Chakra (1d4 throwing disc with light property that ignores half and three-quarters cover). For armor we have the Sunwheel (has a dozen wooden balls affixed that when spun with both hands can automatically deflect any number of ranged projectiles within a 5 foot radius, no action required) and the Kavacha (steel breastplate, basically half-plate but no disadvantage to Stealth checks and is 500 rather than 750 gold). For the heavy armor, the Varman and Chilta Hazar Nakh (coat of a thousand nails) grant the same AC as splint and plate mail respectively, although they are both much more expensive than their PHB counterparts at 1,000 and 2,000 gold pieces. Thoughts: I like the new mounts and chariot rules, although I think that forcing an Animal Handling check for every time an elephant mount is damaged is going to make it a very suboptimal choice. The more times a player has to roll, the more times they risk failure, and as an elephant’s default AC isn’t very high at 12 (plus being a big tempting target for enemies) is going to make it so such a scenario is going to happen a lot. As for weapons and armor, I think it would’ve been better to have the weapons as supplementing existing common ones rather than a general replacement. Even though the book says SRD weapons “may be rare,” I imagine that daggers, shortbows, spears, leather armor, and the like are “common” enough across cultures to more or less be allowed without any major hassle. A few weapons are going to be optimal choices, like the Bichuwa/Bagha Nakha combo for two-weapon fighting given their high damage dice, and the Katar’s additional attack is going to work nicely with poison and other damage-stackers. I personally think that the Vadda Chakkar/sunwheel shield is too strong in auto-negating multiple ranged projectiles in an AoE. Even if it requires both hands and thus prevents a character from easily using weapons and spells, using a summoned creature/companion with opposable thumbs or even a hireling is going to be something many gaming groups try.  Magic Items wraps up our equipment section with 25 new supernatural treasures to reward your PCs. In terms of rarity we have 1 Uncommon item, 10 Rare ones, 8 Very Rare ones, and 6 Legendary ones. And of those 25, 15 require attunement, in some cases requiring an appropriate race or alignment (no evil ones, however). Some of the more interesting magic items include the Amrita elixir (legendary consumable whose effects last for 24 hours, regain 1d10 hit points per round and can only be killed by an Astra), Anklet of a Gandharva (uncommon item worn by celestial dancers that let you choose from 1 of 4 magical dances that grant certain effects to onlookers such as +1 bonus to damage rolls for the next hour or compelled to dance along on a failed Wisdom save), Conchshell of Kurukshetra (very rare, when blown summons 1d6+1 bhootas who fell during the Marahbarata war and will attack any creature you point to for the next hour, cursed to have 50% chance that they will attack you instead and will summon once per day even if not blown), Guru’s Upanaya (very rare, holy threat containing accumulated knowledge of a wise sage that grants additional effects as the attuned person’s PB increases, such as gaining an additional proficient skill, Wisdom score increase, or regaining a spent spell slot once per day), Kalachakra (+3 chakra weapon, can intercept a ranged weapon projectile attack as a reaction a number of times per day equal to PB, can swap two creatures’ initiative results once combat begins, reduce speed of creature they crit to 0 feet for 1 turn), Manisha (legendary +3 khanda sword, grants one clear-sightedness in various forms such being able to see 60 feet into the Ethereal Plane and immunity to blind and defeaned conditions), Teerpani Wand (rare, can spend 1 of 3 available charges to turn a stone of up to 200 pounds into a pool of fresh water, can use 2 charges to turn an incoming ranged projectile into harmless drops of water as a reaction), and Vayuratha (legendary chariot once used by Indra when fighting asuras, was given to a mortal warrior during the Mahabharata and disappeared; rider cannot be knocked off chariot through nonmagical means, immune to grappled and restrained conditions, chariot is immune to all damage types and cannot be destroyed). Thoughts: I like most of these magical items, and find that they have both interesting flavor text and neat abilities. I don’t have any real complaints about them. Astra are technically magical artifacts, but their special niche in Devabhumi makes them deserve an entry of their own. They are divine weapons created by the gods, and intended only to be used by them in times of great need. In the setting they are akin to nuclear weapons, but on a much larger scale. They have enough fearsome power to destroy the world, but there have been a few rare times when a mortal got their hands on one. Either via stealing it from a god, being rediscovered if lost, or being bequeathed to a mortal by a god during a time of great need. Astras do not take on physical forms. One comes into possession of an astra as an unseen spiritual force that is activated by the chanting of a specific mantra. Once activated, its powers can be implanted in a weapon or piece of ammunition. An Astra can only be activated once per day, and only one Astra can be used in a day even should one end up possessing multiple Astras. An Astra that is given to another or otherwise surrendered causes the last user to lose all memory of it. Otherwise, Astras use the format of spells in terms of game stats, albeit with no level or school of magic and often with extremely large ranges and areas of effect. The sourcebook provides us with six Astras and what gods are known to possess them, and their names correspond with said deity. Devabhumi mentions that the ones listed here are “all of the Astras,” which feels a bit limiting in that one would think that leaving their total number open would allow for making more for future sourcebooks, to say nothing of encouraging the DM to come up with their own. They are Agniastra (shoots out a 200 foot line of fire that deals 6d10 fire damage, but affected creatures, objects, and spaces catch fire and continue to burn over 1 minute and can only be put out by Varunastra), Brahmastra (summons a cloud of divine light can be used either to counter the effects of another astra or deals a pool of 1,050 radiant damage to be spent on killing all creatures in an area, strongest to weakest), Brahmashira (the most powerful astra, summons a fiery spear and dark stormclouds that can target anything up to a city or mountain in size, the target and all living within it are utterly erased from existence and nothing can grow in the location for 10 years), Indrastra (takes the form of a lightning bolt that takes the form of a 50 foot radius up to 1 mile away that deals 10d10 lightning damage to all within), Manavastra (not known to be possessed by any god, was first used by the original human Manu, lets one teleport themselves to a location that they have seen or heard, including unknown locations provided that they are adjacent to known locations), and Varunastra (releases a giant wave of water in a 100 foot radius up to 1 mile away, dealing 10d8 bludgeoning damage to all within, can be used to counter the effects of Agniastra). Thoughts: The Astras are a cool conceptual plot device, the kind of stuff that should define campaigns. So barring the Brahmastra and Brahmashira, they still feel less than I would’ve expected. Take in point Manuvastra, which is basically no-error teleport but can only target yourself rather than a group. Or Agniastra, which can affect a large area but its raw damage output isn’t going to be enough to put a dent in epic-tier foes. And when you look at Meteor Swarm, which has a similar range yet greater damage (but smaller radius) as Varunastra’s AoE, these feel less like world-ending magic nukes that even epic-tier PCs marvel at, but rather high-level spells with altered stats of existing baseline ones. Thoughts So Far: I overall like the new races, feats, and backgrounds, but would definitely knock the half-apsara down a peg and give the Vaanar a bit more to chew/climb on. I was let down by the astras, and the weapons and armor are another weak point particularly in not having tables. Join us next time as we finish this review by going over Devabhumi’s new Monsters!
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Dec 8, 2024 22:30
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So the last part was a bit small and dry, because we were mostly going over the basic rules so that we’d have a base for everything else. Well, now we’re starting the Character Creation section of the game, so we’ll cover the basics of building your character and the first seven races- then we’ll cover the remaining 14 races next time. Strike Legion Part 3: All player characters in Strike Legion are Legionnaires in the Strike Legion. A party is generally a Strike Team, engaged in missions to weaken the Imperium or to save the lives of republic Citizens. Legionnaires are.. So, the book says that Legionnaires are “perfect fighting machines that have been reconstructed and reprogrammed to succeed at missions with impossible odds.” I think that understates how absolutely goddamn powerful Player Characters are in Strike Legion. They’re incredibly powerful and capable, with the expectation being that enemies are either going to come in large numbers that they’ll mow down, or will be just as powerful threats. A Legionnaire is, if you’ll excuse my media references, a combination of the Lensmen, Exalted, the X-Men, Jedi, Super Robot Wars, and the crew of the Enterprise-D. You’ll want to buckle up, because things will start progressively getting gonzo from here.  This is actually accurate to a Strike Legion Strike Team Character creation in Strike Legion is a five step process: first, characters have 50 Character Points to split between their seven attributes. Then, a character’s race is selected from the list of 21 playable races, only five of which are humans or humans with extra steps. After that, you have 70 Development points to spend on Skills, Advantages, and Acts of Mastery (Read: The Force (Read: Magic Spheres from Mage: The Awakening (Read: Mutant Abilities from X-Men))). After that, you work on a character’s personality and origin, and you can go on to pick equipment from a list of common Strike Legion equipment. Compared to some character creation systems, this is downright simple and easy to follow. For now, let's go through Attributes. Attributes are a character’s physical and mental abilities. They start at zero, and a character has 50 points to split between them. And that’s an honest 50, not “The price per point increases as it goes up” or anything like that. The minimum any Attribute can have is 1, but they start at 0. The exception to this is Mastery, because not everyone is a space newtype psychic. There’s also no real upper limit on where they can be, but scaling benefits stop at 15 in an Attribute. Now, mind you, an average Imperial human- who is essentially at Captain America or Batman levels of peak human fitness, has a 1 across the board, except in Mastery, which is 0. This is before we start getting into races. Strength (STR) is a character’s raw power, endurance, and physical toughness. It makes a character stronger and tougher- characters regain Stamina equal to their Strength every single turn in combat- Strength is also used for damage with many melee weapons, as well as stun damage. Strength also has a modifier which reduces the time a character is unconscious after their Stamina is reduced to zero.  Considering that the amount of time a character can spend unconscious is a d10 roll, at high levels of strength there’s a 4/10 chance of instantly waking up after being knocked out. Agility (AGI) stands for a character’s dexterity and balance of general overall speed and reaction time. In a game like Mekton Zeta, it would be the god stat because everything would work off it. This is Strike Legion and everything is busted, so it balances out. Agility is used for Initiative and Defense, and high Agility gives extra Actions based on a chart.  Yes, that is a lot of Actions. It's actually far, far more insane than you think because of the base number of actions that a Legionnaire gets. Intelligence (INT) Is, well, Intelligence. Its your book learning stat, and is good for wanting to use technology and be smart. Intelligence also benefits Defense, and High Intelligence gives extra Development Points based on a chart  Perception (PER) represents how well a character can sense things and track targets. Perception isn’t just about being able to see and spot things- its also useful for things like detective work, reading the motivations and emotions of others, and generally being a perceptive person. High Perception gives a bonus to attack, based on this chart here.  Resolve is a stand in for things like willpower and wisdom in other systems. It stands for mental strength and stubbornness, and has uses from resisting social influences to resisting mind control, or just plain staying calm. High Resolve gives a bonus to Life and Stamina, which is, again, in a chart.  Presence (PRE) is the other half of what Charisma got broken into. It is a character’s personality and charm and social skills and general charisma,with things Presence can do include getting people to listen to you or tell you something, interviewing people, or doing romance stuff. High Presence is weird in that it gives you Boost, with the specifics of that Boost depending on your Presence. Boost gives allies within its range an extra Action and a +1 resolve modifier, and the bonus from Boost is cumulative- so if multiple characters have it then someone within range would get all the benefits. The only rub is that you can’t benefit from your own Boost.  Yes, this does mean that it is very possible to have a build that, before Race and Advantages, has 10 actions per combat round. In Strike Legion, the players are the horror monsters! Mastery (MAS) is something I’ll go over more when we go over how Mastery and Acts of Mastery work. To break it down simply, you’re psychic but also its The Force but also it makes you an X-Men Mutant, as well as being a Mage from World of Darkness. High Mastery gives you free Acts of Mastery, with 8-10 mastery giving you a free Act of Mastery 1, 11-14 giving you a free Act of Mastery 2, and 15+ giving you Act of Mastery 3. Traits are based on and derived from your Attributes, but aren’t directly purchased. They’re still important, though, because they’re things like your health and stuff. Life is a character’s Health, and is equal to their strength times 2. When it reaches zero, they die. If a Character’s Life is reduced to half, they’re Wounded and all of their Dice Pools are halved. If it is reduced to 1/4th of its max, that character is Mortal and their Dice Pools are reduced by three fourths. Stamina is a character’s stun meter. Stamina is equal to their Strength times 3. Defense is a character’s ability to not get hit by things, but it is special. Defense is equal to the sum of Agility and Intelligence, but the maximum Defense a character can have is 10. Any attack roll of a 10 still hits a character with 10 Defense. A character has, by default, 2 Actions. Player Characters are special and start out with 5 Actions because Strike Legionnaires are that badass and advanced. Surge is special- Surge can be used to add a die to their dice pool, reroll any dice pool, restore Life and Stamina by his Strength, or gain a +1 Dice Pool modifier to any test. In addition, two Surges can be used to force an enemy to reroll any dice pool, remove an Action from an enemy for one turn, allow a friend to reroll any dice pool, or give a friend an additional action for one turn. Game Masters are generally expected to reward players with Surge during gameplay, but I understand this can sometimes be a problem as with any metacurrency like this. I like it, though. Oh, and Sanity is a Trait, it starts at 10, but it isn’t really that important when a Legionnaire can point at the horrible monster and suplex it so hard it explodes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh8cXfLJPaU Hard to be terrified of something when you explode people by throwing them. There are 21 playable Races in Strike Legion, representing Gens, metahumans, and humans that live in the Republic. These races give Attribute modifiers and other bonuses, and each race is… well, Strike Legion is simultaneously original and unoriginal at the same time. You’ll see. As you read through these, I’d like you to keep in mind that having a 1 in an Attribute makes you the peak of human capability in that Attribute. The first race on the list are the Arayans. They’re the Cosmonauts from Earth Defense Force 5.  I’m not exaggerating about that in any sort of way. The Arayans are a race which are massive gray humanoids with no facial features except for eyes, nasal and auditory slits, and a mouth. They were engineered for incredible strength and physical resilience, so Arayans are the only race that is Size 2- making them the same size as a Giant Robot. Arayan society is divided heavily among gender lines, with the males being the workers and fighters while the women are the ruling class, making them Matriarchal Greys. Their stats represent this as well: Female Arayans have +2 Strength, +2 Agility, and +1 Action; Male Arayans have +5 Strength and -1 Action. Arayans live for 120 years, and automatically get the Night Vision and Tough Advantages. Arayan society is highly segregated, with men and women limiting interactions to family life because public interaction between genders is considered obscene. Arayan society is traditionally family oriented with very large families, and have a distrust of outsiders Their society is also matriarchal, with women dominating all aspects of life, to the point that male soldiers won’t do anything without a direct order from their (and this me quoting the book verbatim) “Dominatrix”. Most soldiers are Male, and most Arayans outside the Arayan’s own space are handled by males. The Arayans were forced to join the Star Republic when the Imperials rocked their poo poo, and this contact has led to a gradual liberalization and loosening of cultural restrictions on Arayan worlds that border the Republic They’re valued members of the Republic now, and many have joined the Republic’s Fleet to help in the fight against the Imperium. Some of the race sections have a blurb from the Empire’s perspective on the race, and where those exist, I’ll post them entirely. Imperial Icon posted:SPECIES 456 SHOULD BE HANDLED WITH GREAT CARE IN CLOSE COMBAT. THEIR LARGE MALE WARRIORS CAN TEAR AN IMPERIAL MARINE APART WHILE THEIR FEMALES, WHO APPEAR TO BE IN COMMAND, MOVE AROUND WITH LIGHTNING FAST SPEED ALLOWING THEM TO PICK OFF OUR MARINES AT WILL. THIS COMBINATION HAS RESULTED IN MASSIVE CASUALTIES IN ALL PLANETARY ASSAULTS AGAINST SPECIES 456. WE RECOMMEND MASSIVE PLANETARY BOMBARDMENTS AGAINST THIS SPECIES BEFORE ENGAGEMENT. Next up are the Cheden, and I’m not sure who or what they’re based on, based on their description.  Maybe… Gnomes? Cold Yetis? Regardless, the Cheden are short, hairy blue people who live on arctic worlds. They’re nomadic so live in floating domed cities that ate ten kilometers across, but the Cheden population is small because of their two year gestation period. Each city in the Cheden Collective has its own space military and they work together to collectively defend themselves. The Cheden are masters of defensive shielding and technology, and their ships rely on being basically invincible to get close to enemies and destroy them with extremely short range weapons. In terms of stats, Cheden have +1 Strength, +1 Agility, and +2 Resolve, with an Immunity to Cold. Not the strongest or best species, but still pretty workable. Imperial Icon posted:THE CAPITAL SHIPS OF SPECIES 5 HAVE INCREDIBLY POWERFUL DEFENSIVE SCREENS THAT MAKE THEM ALMOST INVULNERABLE TO OUR ATTACKS. WE BELIEVE THAT THE ONLY WAY TO DEFEAT THIS ENEMY IS TO RAM THEM WITH OUR SHIPS UNTIL THEY ARE DESTROYED. And now… we have the Draken. You already know what the Draken are. I don’t need to tell you what the Draken are, you can see the name.  They’re space Dragon People. They have snouts. They all have unique scale patterns of any color they want. They have wings they can use to glide. They’ve got a culture with a strict code of honor, that retreat is cowardly, and that death in battle is the only way to get into heaven. They… gently caress. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xGeSso_45Y I’m way more down with them being Disney’s Gargoyles: The Race. Okay I’m actually way more interested in the Draken now than I was before. Regardless, every Draken has to do five years in their military, with only the finest warriors remaining in it after their term of compulsory service. There’s also some fluff about how the Draken have the best fleets because they care more about tactical genius in leaders than physical strength, with warriors judged based on their actions on the battlefield and not duels, which they see as cowardly and dishonorable. Interestingly, the Draken’s lineup of stats isn’t about strength: they have +1 Strength, +3 Agility, and +1 Action with Flight and Natural Weapons. They’re noted as having legendary agility and being the most feared close combatants in the entire universe. Look, they’re space dragon people, of course the game is going to say that they’re cool. ”Imperial Icon” posted:SPECIES 377 HAS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS FLEETS OF ADVANCED CAPITAL SHIPS THAT PERFORM PERFECTLY EXECUTED FORMATIONS THAT CAN DEFEAT IMPERIAL FLEETS THAT VASTLY OUTNUMBERED THEM. AFTER REVIEWING BATTLE RECORDS OF PAST ENGAGEMENTS, WE BELIEVE A SWARM OF BATTLE DRONES USING BATTLE TACTIC 734A CAN DISRUPT THEIR FLEET FORMATIONS ENOUGH TO GUARANTEE ERADICATION WITH ONLY A 12:1 NUMERICAL ADVANTAGE. Next up, are the Eleden. You ever play Star Control 2?  The Eleden are a race of small, mouselike Gens that come in various fur colors. The Eleden were designed to be living computers for use in high radiation environments, so they’re Mouse Mentats. Mousetats. They’re generally small and frail, but they have incredible mental abilities and a very short gestation period that allows them to spread quickly, and thrive on radiation worlds. The Eleden live in massive arcologies, and their total population is roughly a hundred billion across three hundred worlds, and they’re masters of nanotechnology and other sciences. Eleden have a lifespan of only 50 years, but have Eidetic Memory, a Max Strength of 6, but their Intelligence starts at 6 instead of 0. Now we move onto the Fermorin. The Fermorin are Orks, but Vulcans.  The Fermorin are massive green humanoids with huge jaws and jagged, overgrown teeth. They were developed to be used as terror weapons in the Old Empire, and spawn from cysts that can grow anywhere there are nutrients and moisture. They rapidly grow to full size and are programmed for destruction, and grow larger and larger every year to the point that ancient Fermorin are three times the size of an adult. Now, here’s the kicker: the Fermorin decided that they don’t want to be violent terror weapons. They’ve reprogrammed their genetic memory to be full of knowledge of science, technology, literature, and art. They have a culture built around control and suppression of their emotions with strict mental control; their society is based entirely on improving their minds and suppressing all forms of emotion and desire. Which is to say, the Fermorin are Ork Vulcans. The Fermorin have +2 Strength and +2 Agility, but as they grow older, they gain +1 Strength and lose 1 Agility every hundred years of their life. An that’s a long life, with the Fermorin having a lifespan of 1000 years on average. As a special trait, the Fermorin have 5 extra development points. The next race we have are the Grank, who I believe are based on the Derro of Richard Sharp Shaver and Fantasy RPGs, albeit not evil. The Grank are extremely small humanoid Gens with dark purple skin and green bioluminescent eyes; they’re short at anywhere from a half meter to a meter, but are immensely strong and full of power. They were designed for underground and deep sea trench mining, so prefer those environments. Franks live on desolate worlds in isolated, self-sufficient underground complexes. Isolationist, their government has a Social Exchange system, where every where ten percent of Grank in each Grank city state are transferred to an ew city on a different Grank world, all to avoid the Grank’s inborn hatred of change and to keep their society versatile. The Grank are master miners, and their mastery of mining and geothermal power has made sure that many worlds in the Republic have unlimited power and resou- they’re dwarves. They’re Space Dwarves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34CZjsEI1yU Anyway, statwise, the Grank have +3 Strength, +2 Resolve, and -1 Action, with Night Vision and High Density as their special traits. They have al lifespan of 200 years, and… yeah they’re Space Dwarves, but instead of being racist neckbeards they’re Scandinavian Social Democrats. ”Imperial Icon” posted:SPECIES 145’S UNDERGROUND COMPLEXES SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. THEIR TUNNELS ARE LINED WITH TRAPS AND AUTOMATED WEAPON SYSTEMS THAT HAVE RESULTED IN TOTAL LOSSES FOR ALL IMPERIAL MARINE KILL TEAMS SENT INTO THESE LABYRINTHS. IMPERIAL FLEETS SHOULD DESTROY ALL FUTURE COMPLEXES USING HELLBORE MISSILES FROM ORBIT. The final race that we’ll be taking a look at today are… Neko Arc.  What the gently caress The Guardians are meter tall feline humanoids, with a long tail and short chubby limbs that end in four large fingers or toes. They were designed to be cute companions for humanity, and have large heads and eyes and cuddly bodies. They also all, because of Old Empire meddling, ave incredibly levels of Mastery and all Guardians are incredibly powerful Masters. Modern Guardian Society focuses on living in a low tech society that uses Mastery instead of technology, with most of its resources spent on gaining further insight into how reality works, with children taught that it isn’t worth to acquire material possessions and to avoid all technology. Wait where have I heard that before?  Regardless, the Guardian’s home worlds are shrouded in mystery. They’re all hidden in pocket universes created by the Guardian’s collective Mastery, and they only allow fully enlightened Masters of other races to visit after extensive screening. They’ve also dedicated themselves to destroying all Dark Masters, and fully support the Master’s Guild of the Republic. The Guardians are also all in on fighting against evil, and many spend their lives wandering the Republic to help people. In terms of stats, Guardians have +4 Mastery, and a Life Span of 60 Years. That is a lot of Mastery, but not much. ”Imperial Icon” posted:SPECIES 12 IS CONSIDERED A TIER 1 THREAT. THEIR RACE APPEARS TO HAVE INCREDIBLY MASTERY POTENTIAL MAKING THEM EXTREMELY DANGEROUS EVEN THOUGH THEIR SOCIETY IS TECHNOLOGICALLY PRIMITIVE. ALL IMPERIAL FORCES ARE ORDERED TO STAY AWAY FROM THEIR WORLDS AT ALL COSTS. EVERY IMPERIAL FLEET THAT HAS WANDERED INTO THEIR SPACE HAS BEEN LOST WITHOUT A TRACE. THEY APPEAR TO BE NON-AGGRESSIVE SO THE BEST POLICY IS TO SIMPLY AVOID CONTACT WITH THEM. Okay, that’s it for now. Next time, we’ll go over the other 14 Races, and take a look at skills. The first race we’ll take a look at is a race of Zoraks, from Space Ghost. Fivemarks fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Dec 9, 2024 |
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Dec 9, 2024 04:35
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Are Cheden smurfs? I'm struggling to think of anything else blue and short.
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Dec 9, 2024 07:45
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@libertad! What sort of guidance is there in Devabhumi about what a campaign would look like?
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Dec 9, 2024 08:22
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