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OBE: Races of the Shroud for D&D 4E: The Apelord
by william w. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/02/2008 16:23:08

If your looking for a really cool ape race for your 4th ed. Campaigns this IS the product you've been waiting for! Nice Illustration by Storn gives you a good idea of what this race looks like. A selection of feats to customize your Apelord, and several stated out apelords for you to encounter (including some undead ones). Some interesting adventure ideas round out this pdf. I was very satisfied with this product and look forward to more info, supplements etc. about the Shroud Setting. I can't wait to play an Apelord in our next Campaign.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
OBE: Races of the Shroud for D&D 4E: The Apelord
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Targum Magazine - Issue 03 (for Testament, Trojan War & d20)
by Christopher H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/11/2008 00:02:42

Targum 3 lives up to the great standards set by issues 1-2. Spike Jones's "Ostraca" column focuses on the "Lost Tribes" of Israel for a Testament campaign, and Scott Carter's article on "The Passover" also adds richness to your Testament games. You might initially think that "Bless Me, For I Have Sinned" by Allon Mureinik would be Testament-centric, especially since it begins with a biblical quotation, but it actually has broader application and introduces system-neutral concepts that you could use in just about any RPG. Turning from ancient Israel to ancient Greece, Eric Hansen presents "The Battle of Thermopylae," tweaked for the Trojan War rules set. Interestingly enough, if your Testament game is set during the era of Persian dominance, there's no reason why you couldn't work Testament characters into the battle of Thermopylae in some ancillary fashion. This issue's free paper minis from Arion Games are five Spartans, perfect for use with the Thermopylae scenario. All in all, a great little collection of enhancements for d20 ancients role-playing.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Targum Magazine - Issue 03 (for Testament, Trojan War & d20)
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Targum Magazine - Issue 04 (for Testament, Eternal Rome & d20)
by Shane O. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 02/21/2008 12:43:08

I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of role-playing in the Biblical era (and, to be honest, with role-playing in any historical time period before the AD system came into use). As such, I quite enjoyed Testament and similar d20 RPGs set in ancient times, and was quite happy when I heard about Targum magazine. I have every issue so far, and the fourth one delivers just like its predecessors.

The product comes in a zipped file just under ten megabytes in size. The PDF of the magazine is forty-eight pages long, with a full-page front cover and five full-page interior ads. Interior bookmarks let you easily zip around to whatever article you want, which is nice. However, there is no printer-friendly version, which can be quite disheartening as this is a very colorful book. In fact, like previous issues, the fourth release of Targum is resplendent with art. Beyond the ubiquitous pictures that accompany each article, the first few pages of the articles have a background that looks like a tan, slightly crumpled parchment. In short, this is a magazine that is very easy on the eyes, but printing it out might be a bit of an issue.

There are six articles covered in this issue, and I’ll touch on each one here. The first is the Ostraca column, this month detailing how two Biblical kings apparently show up twice in pre-history. The article attempts to reconcile two kings with same names, ruling very close geographic areas, around the same time. The article meticulously goes over the accepted history, and then posits reasons for why that history may have intentionally been misconstrued. Endnotes pepper the article, which closes out with a few game ideas for this scenario. I found this part fascinating, but perhaps a bit too obtuse for me to truly understand – I can’t rule out that that’s likely due to my not knowing Biblical history very well, however, and serious groups looking for new opportunities for role-playing in that area may find this invaluable.

The second article covers the Kalevala Mythos, listing out ten Finnish gods described in the Kalevala (the epic Finnish tale). Each god is listed by name, along with their divine level and alignment, followed by a (translated) passage about them from the Kalevala, and then some metagame description of them. The rest of their information is given in the style of WotC’s listings for gods, with their portfolios, domains, favored weapon, cleric training, quests, prayers, temples, rites, and herald and allies all given. The article closes out with a minor artifact (also from the epic saga) and some ideas for using the Kalevala in your game. I personally liked this article a lot, as I always enjoy seeing new gods detailed. However, it felt slightly out-of-place to me. While Targum is for all ancient-world settings, virtually everything we’ve seen to that effect so far has been for the Biblical area; that is, the Mediterranean/Middle East area set over two thousand years ago. Something set so far north, and potentially much later (the Kalevala was first written down in the late 17th century, though it was already quite old by that time) seems to break from that idea. Still, it’s a very well-done article, and could be useful for a change of pace (particularly if the PCs decide to go exploring some of the wider world during that time).

The third article is the second of a two-part series covering Akhenaten, the monotheistic pharaoh from Egypt (part one was in the second issue). Not quite four pages long, this article briefly touches on various parts of Akhet-Aten, Akhenaten’s capital city, as well as art in his empire, adventure ideas, and stat blocks for common NPCs. A sidebar also gives three new feats. While this article was brief overall, it’s much longer taken together with the preceding article, which paint a great picture of Egypt during the time of this unorthodox ruler; by itself though, this article feels like it’s over just a bit too fast.

The Legions vs. Hordes article is meant to deliberately bring together disparate sourcebooks that focus on the same general time and place, something I very much enjoy seeing. In this case, various Roman legions and barbarian hordes (indicative of the Eternal Rome book) are given statistics so that they may be used with the Battlefield Resolution System in both Testament and Trojan War. It’s likely that this will be useful to anyone who purchases this magazine, since you’ll likely have one of the two latter books already. This is a great way to bring Rome into play as a major power in battlefield campaigns. A few new battlefield feats also help round out differentiating Roman soldiers from others at the time.

As per usual, Arion Games has included several fold-out minis with the magazine. In this case, there are four minis of Roman legions. Each mini has the front of the depicted characters on one side, with the back on the opposite side, and are in full color. Also included are flipped versions of each mini (as though looking in a mirror), allowing for a nice bit of customization.

The final article in the magazine is perhaps the one that will draw the most attention, especially from people who play Testament. This issue is part one of the official 3.5 Testament update. The author briefly talks about how this is indeed an official conversion, and not just a fan-made one. Further, this is not just an update, but also fixes several points of errata in the Testament book. Going on for almost twelve pages, this is what many Testament players (myself included) have wanted for a long time now. It’s just a pity that this is being given to us at the twilight of the 3.5 era. This first part of the update covers up through the first eight chapters of Testament, leaving the rest for the next part.

Altogether, I felt this issue of Targum lived up to the high bar set by the preceding issues. It has some minor issues (lack of a printer-friendly version, how the Kalevala article felt off, etc.) but is still a very high-quality publication. If you’re at all interested in role-playing in the Biblical era, purchasing Targum isn’t just a good idea, but a very-nearly necessary one.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Targum Magazine - Issue 04 (for Testament, Eternal Rome & d20)
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MonkeyGod Presents: From Stone to Steel
by Nathan O. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/15/2007 14:21:52

Few PDFs I own elicit a wow reaction whenever a player sees it. This is one of those. The amount of research that went into this project has created a toolkit to allow DM's to represent a culture with rules that match. The weapons are broad and present sufficient flavour that mechanics are no longer the only issue for weapons and armour. The icing on this cake is that Stone to Steel finishes with a set of master tables allowing easy lookup and comparison of different items. Every gaming group should have access to this book!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
MonkeyGod Presents: From Stone to Steel
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MonkeyGod Presents: From Stone to Steel
by James J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/10/2007 10:04:53

Wow. I love this book. It provides a comperhensive and entertaining write-up of arms and armor for a variety of eras. Want to have an aztec camapign..look for the arms and armor within, Roman legionares..you are covered. Hoplites and vikings..also covered, and many more.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Liber Sodalitas: The Dream Healers (3rd Fantasy edition)
by Mark L. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/17/2007 00:00:00

For less than the price of a cup of coffee I picked up Liber Sodalitas: The Dream Healers by Lonnie Ezell (from Dragons Landing I presume) and I am here to spread gossip about the product.

The 9 page PDF begins with a fantastic color illustration of a Dream Healer by Anthony Cournoyer. Surrounding the picture you have a handsomely laid out text consisting of background & history regarding the Dream Healers. It flows from the history to the Tenets and then moves into the organization of this society of mystic monks. The remaining 5 pages have class information, tools, a few interesting items and a small guide for campaign implementation.

The information is a little sparce, not going to deep into any one aspect of the Dream Healers keeping it loose for interpretation. And that is great for my personal game style.

The class of the Dream Healer would be an awesome one for a RP heavy game. When you finish all 9 pages your mind immediately begins thinking of how this might work in your game. As a concept I think Lonnie Ezell has given a GM something to really spice up a game. I can imagine as some point in a RP heavy game a character seeing something so horrific & awful that they just shut down. No normal healing can bring about a change in this person; he is scarred by the horror of what he saw. And thus enters the Dream Healers. I?m not going to go into detail as to what they can do (download the book), but let me just say it would make a epic moment in any campaign and I promise you that your players will remember it for it?s uniqueness.

The only places I can see for improvement are perhaps a few more ideas on Lonnie?s part with how to implement this book in your game both as a story hook and as a player class. As it stands it has only 3 paragraphs. Also maybe some ideas on/for antagonists in the dream world would be neat. Lonnie wrote a little about this but it needs further expanding. I recall 2nd edition MM appendix 3 or 3 had a handful of monsters and horrors that drifted in the ether of dreams. So I recommend you looking those up and updating them to D20 for your game.

In any case my critiques are minor problems as Liber Sodalitas: The Dream Healers is another damn good product. The layout is easy on the eyes, artwork is nice and the ideas are pure gold. This module is a great way to ?pimp? a campaign (as Lonnie would put it). So do yourself a favor and lay off the Starbucks coffee for one day, support an independent game maker. Pick yourself up this book.

Next up Liber Sodalitas: The Pneumaphagoi

Enjoy,

-Kit<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Liber Sodalitas: The Dream Healers (3rd Fantasy edition)
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MonkeyGod Presents: From Stone to Steel
by Jon D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/02/2006 00:00:00

I must say this is a wounder product it really does help me with the making my gaming table more enjoyable with the use of different weapons and adds more real feel to it.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: EVERY THING!!!!!!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: nothing it is a perfect product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
MonkeyGod Presents: From Stone to Steel
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Targum Magazine - Issue 01 (For Testament)
by Robert H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/28/2006 00:00:00

As a student of bible, I was really excited when Testament came outand looked with much anticipation for additional resources to come out, for a while my hopes were put on hod. But now my prayers have finally been answered! The folks at Highmoon media have come out with an extremely professional magazine, that truly supports the Testament setting for D20. Well reseached with supporting scriptures and ideas for your own setting, I highly recommend this to anyone intrested in using the Testament setting or someone wanting to add the Judeo-Christian God to their own games. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Well laid out - graphics, text, and information was solid and helpful. The idea of having the Tribes of Israel given bonuses really expands the options in a Israeli/Human only campaign that I am running. The same goes for the lost books of the bible and incorporating that into your game. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The only thing that I didn't like about this product was that there wasn't more! I know that Targum has also decided to use this magazine as a forum to talk about other nations in during this period - Egypt, Greece, Etc. While my own setting is in the land of Canaan, I look forward to source material to send my players on adventures to these areas as well. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Targum Magazine - Issue 01 (For Testament)
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MonkeyGod Presents: The Jade Magi Sewer Crawl
by Alan K. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/13/2006 00:00:00

The Jade Magi sewer crawl invites the PCs to act as troublshooters to take care of the problem with a few oversized creepy-crawlies, and investigate the reason behind them.

The adventure, the title might suggest, has a Chinese flavor to it. The characters have Chinese sounding names and the background details about the Dragon Empire are styled like that of ancient China. This is not a huge obstacle if you aren't running a campaign with such a setting, as many of the conventions could exist in a traditional faux-European setting, but playing up the Chinese flavor could aid in setting a unique tone for the module. No special mechanics are use to reflect a Chinese culture.

The adventure is structured with the first 2/3 or so with the party interacting with the locals and troubleshooting problems with creatures rising from the sewers. In addition to the old school monster bashing, the PCs get to deal with corrupt guard captains, oversexed teenagers sizing up adventurers for husbands, and a cooky old sage that you will surely picture portrayed by Victor Wong.

The last part gives way to more traditional dungeon crawl, when the PCs find clues to the reason behind all this mayhem.

Overall, I find that the adventure has a depth in NPC characterization and great roleplaying potential that is missing from many d20 adventures. I highly recommend it.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Interesting scenario, well developed NPCs, amusing storyline.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It's statted for 3.0. This isn't too big an issue because the specifics of NPC abilities aren't terribly important, and most creatures are right out of the MM/SRD, thus easy to update.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
MonkeyGod Presents: The Jade Magi Sewer Crawl
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MonkeyGod Presents: Hellstone Deep
by Jim C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/04/2006 00:00:00

Here's something to see: a high-level adventure that assumes the use of teleport, high-level divinations and resurrection and goes out of its way to explain why there are so many high-powered templated creatures and manifestations of negative energy wandering about. There are some great visuals in this adventure and a chance for a PC to get converted into a Hellish Ripper, which seems like fun.

The PDF shows several locations where missing text has been corrected by inserting a note to the electronic document, which is impressive service for a print-to-PDF conversion.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some creature descriptions are repeated three times. I would hate to think anyone was trying to pad out the length of the original.

The Vampire Pool's stats are really not adequate considering the plot importance of countering its effects.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
MonkeyGod Presents: Hellstone Deep
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Targum Magazine - Issue 01 (For Testament)
by Peter I. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/20/2006 00:00:00

Targum Magazine Issue 1 is a 35 page d20 pdf magazine aimed at providing material for Testament: Roleplaying the in Biblical Era, a Mythic Vistas product from Green Ronin. The material is also equally suitable to other Ancient World campaign settings. The aim of the Targum Magazine is also to provide support material for Green Ronin's Mythic Vistas line of products, including Eternal Rome, Trojan War and Hamunaptra. While this first issue focuses only on Testament, further issues of this magazine will be supporting other Ancient World products.

The product comes as a single bookmarked pdf file. Like most magazines, it has a combination of editorial, articles and advertisements. Presentation and overall look of the product is great, with some wonderful art and overall top-notch job. The articles inside add to the high quality with some good writing, well-referenced works and interesting themes and concepts. For a magazine, this is a very good support product for Green Ronin's Testament and other Mythic Vistas products. A great effort for an inaugural magazine.

There are four main articles to this magazine: Ostraca: Lost Books, The Caravan, The Hekau Adept, and the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The first two are largely flavor offerings, while the latter two are heavy on additional mechanics, overall thereby providing a good balance of different material for most gamers. In addition to the articles, there are also a number of paper miniatures from Arion Games, a company well known for its high quality paper miniatures.

Ostraca: Lost Books is a brief article detailing how DMs can use the lost books of the Bible in their games. These are specifically the books that are mentioned in the Bible, but for which no copies actually exist. The article is interesting and provides some valuable advice. One thing that I'd have appreciated a more detailed look into, while not specifically lost books, would be the Biblical Apocrypha. Using these would be largely as valuable as using lost books, although in a different context. Perhaps future articles could deal with this myriad of books.

The Caravan offers a look at the inns of the time and provides a detailed overview and floorplans for a typical waystation. Again, a very useful article, with good and explanatory detail. The Hekau Adept, my favorite article, deals with Egyptian Sorcerers, and provides full mechanics for the base class, including a new spellcasting system. This is ritualistic use of written magic, and an intriguing and usable way to make a different sorcerer, in any game era, with some modifications to the flavor. A well-presented class and good mechanics.

The last articles deals with the Twelve Tribes of Israel. This takes a detailed look at the twelve tribes, including their history and background. PCs or other NPCs can belong to a specific tribe, and that provides them with certain characteristics such as benefits and access to certain feats (a whole slew of which are listed). This is an interesting article, and I'm looking forward to seeing Part II in a later issue of Targum.

Overall I think this is a very good offering from Highmoon Media Productions. With Targum expanding into the other Mythic Vistas products in later issues, I can certainly see this as a high quality magazine of note for those campaign worlds. Interesting articles, well-researched work, good balance of crunch and flavor, and lots of readable articles.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Targum Magazine is a good-looking and professional product offering a wealth of new material and interesting articles. It maintains readability, a good balance between mechanics and flavor, and provides the reader with numerous options for their campaign world.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing much - one or two articles could've touched on additional details, but they're fine as they are.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Targum Magazine - Issue 01 (For Testament)
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MonkeyGod Presents: The Maze of Screaming Silence
by James G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/26/2006 00:00:00

Truly top-notch writing elevates this work. The entity (I don't do spoilers) in the maze, was, to me, lacklustre, but the maze itself is mainly a McGuffin
in any event; the setting is the real prize here. Even if you don't use the product directly, it is easily worth the price just for the read alone. I give this work an unqualified 5 stars just on that merit alone.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The writing is absolutely superb!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing. The sole criticism is that hack-and-slash style purists will not really have that much to do in this scenario.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
MonkeyGod Presents: The Maze of Screaming Silence
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Liber Sodalitas: The Blind Path (3rd Fantasy edition)
by Chris G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/30/2006 00:00:00

The prestige class is a common component of many books. There has been a great deal of talk though on them. People find they can be hard to use and hard to incorporate in their world. Prestige classes can represent special training, insight, organizations, or just a specialization. They are versatile and that seems to cause problems with people that want them to only be one thing. This book is not about prestige classes, it is about a single prestige class. But it presents it in a way that is easier to use then most others. Its advantage is that while most classes take up a page or so this one class is five pages.

Blind Path is the first in what seems to be a series of PDFs called Liber Sodalitas. It is the first product by Highmoon Media Productions. It is a small PDF coming in at only six pages one of which is the OGL. The art is good but there is only a single picture. Layout is good and basic. There are no borders or other fancy items that will cause this to eat a lot of ink when printed. There are bookmarks.

The Blind Path is a prestige class for blind people. The class has a specific history of how it came to be and how the teachers spread the world of the teachings. The creator of the Blind Path is a woman known as Mang-Ren. She was a woman who tried to manipulate and get to a place higher then her birth would indicate and was eventually punished for it. The book gives a nice description and history of it all. The punishment included being blinded and goes into how she learned to live with it. While the class itself does make up for being blind one thing not covered is that blindness is really easy to cure in the typical D&D game being a third level cleric spell. A cleric will have access to curing the blindness before the character can qualify for this class. It would have been nice to have some alternative blindness rules that made blindness a little harder to fix.

The class itself is simple and nicely focused. It helps the blind person being able to see without sight. It offers a decent amount of skills, okay base attack bonus, and two good saves. The character gains blind sight and awareness like abilities making him hard to flank and eventually even able to detect ethereal creatures. I like that the abilities all focus on seeing without sight and not incorporating anything martial art like or magical. The class might be considered a little on the weak side as the abilities are all passive in nature, but in a lower powered game this could be a great character concept to explore.

The class and history and easy to use and should fit nicely in most campaigns. I like that the teachings come from a single person originally and have that NPC stated out and ready to be used. This is a good fully developed and described class.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Liber Sodalitas: The Blind Path (3rd Fantasy edition)
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MonkeyGod Presents: The Treasures of Elbard
by Peter I. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/21/2006 00:00:00

The Treasures of Elbard is a 40 page d20 pdf adventure. This adventure was originally released by MonkeyGod Enterprises but has been re-released in unaltered form by Highmoon Media Productions. The adventure is suitable for characters of 8th or 9th level, and involves searching for the lost artifacts of the County of Elbard, a place originally overrun by goblinoids and other humanoids. This adventure, having been released in 2001, still uses the 3e revision of the d20 rules.

The product comes as a single pdf file that contains the adventure. There is a brief table of contents although no bookmarks have been included. About 25 pages of the pdf are the adventure itself, while the remainder is NPC statistic and write-ups, maps and other details. Writing and editing is generally good, as are the maps and art, but the most glaring feature missing from the product is decent organisation and summary. An adventure summary would've gone a long way in making the adventure clearer and easier to run, and gives some idea as to how the adventure is scoped or organised. In addition, such a summary would at least include details on how the players are expected to make their way through this adventure, and cater for any other eventualities regarding how to tackle this search.

The adventure starts by presenting a brief history of the region and its people before plunging into the adventure itself. The County of Elbard was a prosperous nation eventually overrun by goblinoids, and the three treasures of Elbard, minor artifacts, were spirited away in the wake of the battle. The PCs, for reasons of their own, are in search of these artifact treasures, and venture to the County of Elbard to find them. The plot is straightforward and simple, and the execution as straightforward. On their journey through the County of Elbard, the PCs gradually uncover the history and locations of the Treasures of Elbard, and eventually work their way through several locations and encounters to find them.

The adventure is location based, featuring a handful of location that the PCs can explore as they search for the missing treasures. For the most part the adventure is entirely PC driven - there's nothing really that forces them in any particular direction, although the random encounters in the forests of Elbard might force the hand of the DM in revealing the locations of interest. Once there, the locations offer a challenge based on their nature, and characters with good sets of physical skills will fare well in the locations of the adventure. While the locations are not particularly innovative or unique, they are challenging, and characters should enjoy them.

The Treasures of Elbard is one of many MonkeyGod Enterprises print products now released in pdf by Highmoon Media Productions. This particular adventure is pretty standard fare, although more by the standards of yesteryear rather than today's adventure standards. This adventure is a long treasure hunt and exploration, which has very little unique or even interesting in terms of execution, encounters or locations. Having said that, some of the combat encounters may present a challenge to players, although that might not be enough to keep them interested.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The Treasures of Elbard is a well-presented adventure with good maps and general layout. It offers and quick and standard adventure for those interesting in an evening or two's gaming.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The adventure is lacking in several areas, including an adventure summary, but mainly in the organisation and interest level. It's pretty standard stuff really - find lost artifacts - and the adventure provides very little guidance to the DM running it.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
MonkeyGod Presents: The Treasures of Elbard
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MonkeyGod Presents: The Treasures of Elbard
by Nathan C. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 07/18/2006 00:00:00

Treasures of Elbard is a very typical find the treasure adventure for 8th and 9th level characters that has the feeling of the same ole Tuesday night meatloaf. There is nothing innovative about it and the new sauce tastes like rubber tire tread.

Treasures of Elbard was originally created in 2001 as a print supplement for 3.0. It is very unclear whether or not the document was updated to 3.5 standards. The PDF itself is 40 pages, upon which about 25 pages is adventure, and the rest is supplemental NPCs, treasures and monsters. There?s also a ton of the assuming box text that seems to attempt to forecast where and what your PCs will do and see.

For the DM If you are like most DMs, you want to go to the summary to see what you are into. You will first be miffed that there is no table of contents. You would figure if the material is 5 years old, they would at least do some cleanup and deck out the PDF with separate tables, maps and bookmarks. The beginning of the book goes into the history of the treasure, and from there right into the adventure. There is not a single adventure summary to be found. And after reading the adventure I can see why, most DMs would find it too simple or unimaginable for their campaigns.

The summary would probably go something like this. There is a treasure. You got to the castle to find out about the treasure. You go to the place the treasure is. There is a bunch of spiders and halflings. Then there is a big ole halfling-spider you have to fight for the treasure. Then it?s over.

This all may not be too bad, if the writer accounted for anything else that could happen to the PCs. The only tactic the writer seems to assume is that the PCs will rush forward without using other tactics such as stealth, diplomacy or magic. This assumption is quite bad. If the PCs consider that the halflings took the treasure into the valley as a favor for a good king, they would not be so anti-social to a good party. Even if they were, at 9th level, the challenges presented would be a cakewalk for an experienced party. A couple of charms and the party will be at the treasure in a couple hours riding on the back of a monster spider.

The Iron Word

Treasures of Elbard works as an historical document of how adventure writing has changed in five years. With its lengthy box text, lack of a summary and very A, B, C style of writing, it dates itself worth than grandma?s blue wig. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: - The treasures are very nice <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - Seems like a retread of every other adventure

  • Just seemed like they scanned in the book with no updates or PDF enhancements
  • Without a summary, the DM doesnt know where he needs to switch things up beforehand. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>


Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for the review. Just to clarify, all MonkeyGod electronic products are presented the same as their original print counterparts. Our agreement only provides for distribution, not alteration of the files, so beyond bookmarks (which I completely forgot to add to this adventure and which I will update soon), there is nothing else we can do.
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