Instant House Rule: Lower Self Control Numbers

Whether it’s Curious, Compulsive Carousing or Impulsiveness, disadvantages with self-control numbers add colour to a character without crippling them (mostly! Looking at you, Berserk, Lecherousness and Gullibility!). However, most players take them at standard level or even at half cost. The end result is that they come up rarely and are often just taken to get some easy points. That’s because the standard probabilities of failures are

  • 15: slightly less than 5%
  • 12: slightly more than 25%
  • 9: slightly more than 63%
  • 6: slightly more than 90 %

The big discrepancy here are between 15, 12 and 9. Double points for six already seems pretty fair – you get a hefty chunk of points, but it will constantly be a problem. 15 would be a standard crit fail in D&D and seems far too good for anything but Berserk.

5-Minute Cooking Time: lower 15 to 14 and 12 to 11. The nice-looking progression in the numbers is ruined, but you get almost 10% failure chance for 15 and almost 38% for 12.

Season to Taste: If you can’t leave the progression alone, going 5, 8, 11, 14 doesn’t really ruin things either, but it makes 1.5 x cost pretty punishing at almost 75% failure chance. If you feel like shaking things up a bit, give from -3 to +3 depending on the severity of the temptation or repeated self-control rolls.

A GURPS/DFRPG Bestiary is Coming Awake Snarling and Growling

Douglas H. Cole of Nordlands’ fame is kickstarting a bestiary and enemy book for his Norse-inspired and officially licensed Dungeon Fantasy RPG setting. Depending on the campaign’s success the book will be between 128 (classical 3rd Edition GURPS) and 240 pages in hardcover format.

If you’re like me and have problems coming up with good encounter stats on the fly, the book will be a huge boon for game-mastering. How do I know that, when the book is not yet out? Because I’ve been using Cole’s excellent Lost Hall of Judgment‘s 33-page mini-bestiary and enemy collection whenever I am in need of a quick foe with a good illustration for the players to visualise it.

While I love most of GURPS 4th Edition quick stats for encounters is not one of its strong suits. The 3rd Edition GURPS Bestiary still does a decent job if you’re looking for animals and GURPS Animalia by Pizard is great for filling the gaps, but for monsters you’re looking at about two dozen books with wildly varying level of detail and illustration. The problem is not that there is no data, but that it isn’t easy to search and compare.

Cole’s Nordlond Bestiary and Enemies Book promises to fill that hole with one large (or maybe even humongous) volume that combines ease of use, colour illustrations, variants and encounter notes in a searchable and well-organised whole. Think of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters I only three times the size with full-colour art, easier stat blocks and also including write-ups different human foes – something that’s still almost completely missing from official sources.

So have a look and then back this baby to make it the best it can be.

Civ6 LAN Games with Epic Client

If you’re one of us freeloaders and got Civilizazion VI at Epic Games’ free game giveaway, you might have had the same problems we had to get the bloody thing running multiplayer. Internet play is desync hell, cloud didn’t work at all and hotseat is… well, annoying. And created LAN games just didn’t show up on the other person’s radar.

After trying all the usual LAN solutions and several well-meaning Civ-specific solutions, we managed to get it working. The secret was friending your LAN partners in the Epic Games launcher, which a weird prerequisite for a LAN game, but there you are. We also signed up for 2K Games accounts beforehand, but that alone did nothing. Can’t say whether it helped in the end, though. So try it if you’re stuck after friending.

Groups.io – a Functional Replacement for Yahoo!Groups

Earlier this month Yahoo announced the imminent end of Yahoo!Groups. If you’re an old fart like me, that’s bad news. Either you don’t want to join data krakens like Google and Facebook or you don’t want everybody in your book club, dog fancying association or society for creative role-playing to get your social media handle. Yahoo!Groups was a simple service that did what you needed if all you wanted was pass around important messages and organise some meetings – or even share the occasional photo. Yes, it got progressively worse like the rest of Yahoo, but it wasn’t quite so bad yet.

Now it’ll be gone by December and ther are a lot of lists of possible alternatives going round. Google Groups and Facebook lead the list and very restricted freemium options like GaggleMail, MailList.com or OnlineGroups.net share the rest of the list with completely public options like FreeLists.org and extreme nerdery like running your own Listserv or implementing a forum you don’t want or need.

I needed to send e-mails to a group without disclosing its members, but still let everybody who wants reply. And I felt I was stuck to restrict myself to 20 members (not an option), pay through the nose for an over-engineered system even though I only need to send a couple of e-mails a month or delve deep enough into webhosting that the Balrog would certainly come and get me.

I was ready to give up and pay $7 / month for my seventy-member mailing list. Thankfully I found an underappreciated post on Lifehacker.com that offered another alternative: Groups.io

Groups.io is freemium too, but instead of restricting its free option to twenty members, it just offers more features for its premium versions – things like 20 GB storage space instead of 1 GB, calendar, polls, wiki etc. In short things a small business might consider paying $20 / month for, but nothing like the essentials other sites want you to pay for.

Administration is a tiny bit more complicated than Yahoo!Groups, but not much – definitely not on the level of setting up your own forum. You get a couple more options, but the only important ones are how to moderate new users and how to set up your privacy. I suggest setting messages to private for practically all groups and either moderate new user posts or restrict membership to moderator approval. If you’re a semi-public group, you might want to be listed in the directory, but it’s probably better to just put a button on your website.

If you’re interested, but want to know more, check out the Lifehacker article linked above. I just got to say kudos to the Groups.io team for providing such a hands-on, no-nonsense tool for free. That’s something you don’t see often enough anymore.

Bite-sized Review: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Setting – Cold Shard Mountains

Thanks to an unfortunate lull in our real-life roleplaying I actually got to read another GURPS book and now I actually have the time to write up the review since our next session is cancelled due to the Corona Virus. Without further ado I present Matt Riggsby’s latest GURPS offering.

Cover GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Setting - Cold Shard Mountains

In the tradition of Kromm’s pretty dang  good GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Setting – Caverntown Riggsby gives us another DF setting: Cold Shard Mountains. Both detail locales with a rich history that can serve as a home base (“Town” in DF-speak), but the similarities pretty much end there.

Facts

Author: Sean Matt Riggsby
Date of Publication: 20/03/20
Format: currently PDF-only (Warehouse 23-only)
Page Count: 59 (1 cover page, 1 content page, 2 index pages, 1 page ad, 8 map pages)
Price: $10.00 (PDF), $ 0.22 per page of content; Score of 7/10
Preview: http://www.warehouse23.com/media/SJG37-0353_preview.pdf

Review

As all my other reviews this one will be rated according to meat (rules, stats, game mechanics), cheese (setting, characters, story), sauce (form, writing, style, art) and generic nutritional substance (universal nature, adaptability). At the end you find a weighted average of those components and a value score that also takes into account price per page.

As a Dungeon Fantasy book that is mainly setting, this will be classed as both cheesy and meaty. And indeed there are even more meaty bits than in the Caverntown book. The present volume is structured a little more traditionally starting off with a chapter on geography and some geology (6 pages), then delves into history a lot more expansive than what Kromm does for C-Town (4 pages). After that there’s a gazetteer that goes into considerable detail as to factions, religion, settlements, some NPCs and sites of interest (20 pages), Treasures & Monsters (10 pages) and finally campaigns (5 pages). The rest are mainly differently zoomed and labelled versions of the campaign map.

Meat

There’s relatively little in the way of meat in the first three chapters. Three NPCs are statted out in detail, but they’re not quite so extensive as in Cavertown, though two have been given (relatively banal) gear lists. Do we really need to know a dwarven general carries a blanket and a – yawn – fine dwarven axe? Not that it would have saved much space, but still.

“Treasures & Monsters” on the other hand is mostly – but not all – meat. We get clear stats for a couple of Yangite sacred relics. Yangite is the local flavour you can apply to your campaign religions and the way their relics work is simply a great way of giving a temporary boon to your group without having to forcibly take it away later. They just tend vanish on their own – The-One-Ring-style.

Then there are some other legendary artefacts tied to the region’s history and a couple of cheaper knock-offs as well as some new concoctions and the ever-popular set items you know from MMORPGs – here called additive sets.

A bestiary with 13 entries makes up the rest of this chapter. Most of the entries have complete stat blocks and one is a racial template for a Wise Raptor – if you ever lacked a bird-man for dungeon-crawling (hint: that’s not their strength, but they’re great for wilderness adventures.

The monsters range from mundane Mountain Wolves, over exotics like Ice Scorpions and Hive Lizards to clearly supernatural demons – who have played a big part in the history of the setting. There’s also a box on which monsters from other books are common in the Cold Shard Mountains.

The last chapter also has a couple of meaty bits in it with very basic rules for “living dungeons” and “Hex Crawls”. These are not your usual encounter tables as you know them from Caverntown and other places, since there’s only one entry for all sorts of monster together. The living dungeon bits are useful for making sure the cleared sections of the underground don’t just stay the same forever – especially after being cleared by the delvers. The rules for hex crawls aren’t really what they say they are. There are combined tables for interesting places, people and events one might encounter. They’re not bad for a story-telling purpose, but they are not anywhere near to what people think when they hear the words hex crawl. The accompanying maps are, however, split into hexes.

What’s missing compared to Cavertown? There’s less in the way of NPC stats and much less about economy – though it’s noted which settlements count as Town and some places have special services. There are also no urban dangers and fines or punishments, random encounters or more elaborate random events (the ones on the hex crawl table are mostly one-word descriptions). So, the focus is quite different. It is, however – with  the exception of the Hex Crawl bit – an extremely satisfying mix that meshes extraordinarily well with the cheesier parts of the setting.

Meat score: 9.5

Cheese

The story bits are where it all comes together like a charm. While the intro is a bit weak, the geography chapter takes us right into the middle of a locale perfect for dungeon-delving. This section and the history chapter explain perfectly how the dungeon-friendly features came about and how they interact with underground and surface societies. One can certainly tell that Matt Riggsby has a classical education from how he gives tips on making the tunnels, artefacts and dwellings of the different races (dwarves, coleopterans, demons and humans) that shaped the mountains distinctive from each other.

Also the local flavour of religion is a stroke of genius for a generic setting like this one. The battle between a polytheist strain and one that sees all gods as faces of one god, is at the same time very interesting and very easily adapted to whatever pantheons the GM has in their campaign.

The history is multi-layered with some interesting characters and some more typical fantasy tropes. The author manages to strike just the right balance between too much and too little detail. There’s not too much focus on when exactly and who exactly, but broad strokes that convert well to most campaigns.

The gazetteer makes it all come alive in the present moment. Again the level of detail is pretty much on point, maybe a tiny little more about the bigger towns could have been included, but it’s very hard to argue with the level of interest and zaniness that is already in there. For example the town of Dry Triangle is ultimately ruled by a talking stone, there are ancient alchemical waste-dumps that can be tapped for potentially useful if unstable potions, a mountain range made that is really a dead dragon and an underground “river” whose banks rotate around it.

The campaigns chapter spells out some very solid hooks that have been developed earlier on. With the factions given factions, it’s easy to find employment for different kinds of missions. And even the “Hex Crawl” rules mentioned above are not a complete loss story-wise.

There are interesting titbits everywhere from crops to historical NPCs (who might still be around sleeping) to quirky details on governance or geography. The only thing that’s a bit weird are the naming conventions, which seem a bit all over the place. And is Ardo Yang a joke on kitchen appliances? Didn’t quite get that.

Apart for the zanier elements this feels a lot like Douglas H. Cole’s Powered by DFRPG offerings, except that it is just a little tighter and more concise and easier to use in an unspecific fantasy setting.

It’s hard to convey how exactly ‘right’ this feels when reading. It just is. Basically an old-school approach if old-school had had more people who knew what they were doing instead of slinging random encounter tables.

Cheese score: 9.5

Sauce

Aye, there’s the rub. It’s almost traditional for me to bemoan GURPS products under this heading and this is not much different. Apart from the map bits, there are seven illustrations in the book (and I’m being very generous by counting Demon Hornets). Apart from the hornets they are among the better black-and-white art pieces I’ve seen in GURPS. And then there’s the map…

While I appreciate that Campaign Cartographer has quite a steep learning curve. This is an ugly jumble of the same half-dozen cut-outs repeated ad nauseam and the overview map makes me faintly dizzy just by looking at it. The best you can say of them is that they do manage to give you a rough overview and that you hand-drawn hex crawl maps will look neat in comparison. If you have Hot-Spots: The Silk Road you get the general idea, though the larger scale makes it a good bit uglier.

But while Riggsby might apply to join the club of visually-challenged cartographers, his writing is of a high standard – clean, concise, funny – sometimes to the laughing-out-loud level. I still prefer Kromm at his best, but it’s a close-run fight between the So I’m glad he doesn’t get to review my writing. Editing’s a little choppy in this one with me personally stumbling over four typos & mistakes, but the good two-page index makes up for it. Now if it just weren’t for the map…

Sauce score: 5.5

Generic Nutritional Substance

A setting is by nature not very generic, but Cold Shard Mountains is pretty dang easy to drop into any old corner of a vaguely Tolkienesque fantasy world. Yeah, without Coleopterans and Dwarves it’s a bit hard to make it work, but the former could be unique to the area nowadays while the latter are ubiquitous in fantasy campaigns. The way the Yangite religion has been designed, it’s easy to supplant the few mentioned godheads with whatever a GM has in their main pantheons.

The only things that might be tricky to fit into your own personal world are the two full-scale demon incursion, but then those are a staple for most worlds too. The monsters, gear and even some of the sites can be easily dropped someplace else.

It’s not exactly easy to use it in a non-supernatural setting, but some things could be readjusted for SF. That would necessitate rejiggering most of the stats so. Generic Nutritional Substance is still high for DF.

Generic Nutritional Substance score: 7.5

Aftertaste (Summary)

If you want a setting to go adventuring in, then the Cold Shard Mountains are probably a better choice than Caverntown. If you want a unique and weird home base with its own economy and politics to start adventuring from, then it’s probably the other way around. Both are excellent, but Matt Riggsby’s latest offering did strike a special chord with me. It just felt like coming home…

Total score: 8.4
Total score is composed of a weighted average of Meat (32.5%), Cheese (32.5%), Sauce (20%) and Generic Nutritional Substance (15%). This is a balanced book. A “cheesy” setting- or a meaty rulebook would change the percentages for cheese and meat.

Value score: 7.7
Value Score is composed of the average of Total and Price.


GURPS is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.

Bite-Sized Review: Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 2 – Powered by GURPS

I am a bit late to the party, since the newest Dungeon Fantasy RPG offering has come out almost almost two months ago. But since that has only been the PDF and the print version is still to be shipped out, I think this still qualifies as hot off the press.

Cover Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 2

If you haven’t heard about it yet, Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 2 (Powered by GURPS) was the latest official GURPS kickstarter that ran through March and raised over $50,000 from over 1000 backers. The turnaround on the pdf was just a bit more than two months and now let’s see whether the final (electronic) product delivers.

Facts

Author: Sean M. Punch (a.k.a. Dr. Kromm)
Date of Publication: 04/06/19
Format: currently PDF-only (Warehouse 23-only)
Page Count: 55 (2 cover pages, 1 title page, 1 content page, 1 index page, 1 page ad)
Price: $15.00 (PDF), $ 0.30 per page of content; Score of 5/10 (+1 for full-colour)
Preview: http://www.warehouse23.com/products/dungeon-fantasy-monsters-2

Review

As all my other reviews this one will be rated according to meat (rules, stats, game mechanics), cheese (setting, characters, story), sauce (form, writing, style, art) and generic nutritional substance (universal nature, adaptability). At the end you find a weighted average of those components and a value score that also takes into account price per page.

The biggest surprise is probably that I class this book as both meaty and cheesy as it contains a lot of story ideas, probably more than any non-adventure Dungeon Fantasy title so far. This is such a big change from the otherwise excellent GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 (DFM 1) that it bears repeating: You don’t only get 24 new monsters, but also 48 adventure seeds to use them in your games. That’s a huge help, especially for the newbie DFRPG game masters that this is geared towards.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The book is structured really simple. The short introduction tells you what you need to play (the DFRP, especially the Monsters book, but DF 1-2 and DFM 1 along with GURPS Basic work just as well) and a couple of important things about the stat blocks. Then you’re knee-deep in monsters. Each of those gets a two-page spread (unfortunately not aligned for pdf use) with a full-colour illustration, stats and explanations, an atmospheric lead-in (sometimes quite extensive and with lots of historical, social, occult or ecological information) and the mentioned adventure seeds. Extras vary between variants, companion monsters, using the monster as a PC, meta-game hints or looting the body parts. The whole thing is rounded off by a table of contents and an index.

Meat

That’s what folks are coming for when buying a Monster Manual and the book delivers a wide range of foes with detailed stats – although don’t expect character point notations in a monster book. The power level is mid-to-high. There are few pushovers, but most of the challenges don’t require a ST 20 Barbarian or a Magery 5 wizard to overcome – some however do. Quite a few rely on horde tactics, but some can hold their own against a whole party. The mix tends towards the weird of  the spectrum, but doesn’t really discriminate by type: undead, demons, animals, humanoids, constructs and what that-other-game-tm calls outsiders are all there. Angels, giants, nagas, succubi/incubi (guess which gender the illustration depicts) and Trétold (basically ents) are plugging holes in the DFRPG. Most others are strange new additions that will be new for even the most jaded players.

What’s new and extra-useful are the detailed notes at the end of the stat block that explain the weirder abilities or things that are not explained in standard DFRPG and cribbed from regular GURPS. There are quite a few new ideas among these, even if most replicate stuff that standard GURPS has been doing for some time.

Tactics are represented for all monsters, though more detailed for some and less for others. About the only thing that’s missing is some sort of danger scale. In some cases, there are explicit statements on how dangerous the monsters are for weaker or stronger delvers, but most often than that we are left with just an impression through the descriptions. Par for the course in GURPS and I am not sure other systems really do better with their difficulties and challenge ratings, but a simple five-skull system wouldn’t have been a bad idea.

Apart from that, the meat is pretty much perfect.

Meat score: 9.5

Cheese

As I said, there’s a surprising amount of story-relevant stuff in there. Instead of a single descriptive paragraph like in DFRPG: Monsters or DFM 1, we get at least four longish paragraphs and occasionally much more. The less complicated the monsters are and the less space the boxes with variants, loot, minions etc. take up, the more lore we get. This flexibility makes each entry unique and ensure we don’t have to read the same boring headings for each monster.

The backstories of the mosters are fun to read and at times extremely imaginative. Most of the situations the monsters will be encountered in are combat-oriented, but every other monster seems to have a purpose – or at least a way to pull dirty tricks – that means it is not purely sword-fodder.

The ecological, historical and otherwise relevant details make the monsters come truly alive and give them a place in the – deliberately generic – game world. We still get a sense of which factions are going to care about which monsters and why, but of course the details are malleable enough to be dropped into your own campaign.

There are no harsh incompatibilities between the monsters, but there is also no real unifying theme, even though the monsters presented tend towards the weird and horrifying from Tomb Bugs who entomb you to breed there young, over the crazed Ramex who reach inside you thinking they can regain their humanoid bodies that way, to undead Bleeders who collect the spray of your blood from the smallest wounds and Redthorn plants who are looking to turn you into fertiliser. This collection is certainly not PG-rated.

The book doesn’t lend itself to just rifling through it and plomping down a monster without reading through its entry thoroughly. For that the older DF titles are better. Most of the monsters here, especially the stronger ones are its own mini-story. While this is not so great for beer-and-pretzels games, it does make for a much better story.

Speaking of story, some of the adventure seeds are more like encounter seeds, while some might form the basis for a multi-session adventure. What especially caught my fancy is that often they don’t treat the monster in question in a vacuum, but also examine who might want to make it the delvers’ business to get rid (or capture or butcher or transport) the monster. While they are not always original, they all offer some hooks to place the monsters in a dungeon or a quest.

There is a certain Dungeons-and-Dragonesque zaniness inherent in some of the monsters like the Fly-Dragon or the Redthorn. The book is certainly surprising to the reader and the encounters with its inhabitants will likely be unexpected by your players too.

All in all, the fluffy cheese side gets served very well indeed. One might miss a larger framework tying some of the monsters together, but then this is a monster manual and not an adventure or campaign builder. The fact that the collection of monster illustrations was probably licensed together and half of the monsters written just to fit the artwork might have something to do with that too.

Cheese score: 8.5

Sauce

The biggest departure from regular GURPS books (and also DFRPG: Monsters and the DFM  series) is the full-colour artwork. And the monsters are almost all from the same artist too: Rick Hershey. While he is never going to be my absolute favourite, the monsters are mostly appropriately alien and scary looking and the unity of art gives the book a nice and coherent look. The more alien monsters generally look better than the old fantasy standbys like Angels, Succubi, Nagas and Chimeras.

You can get a good overview on the cover and the preview shows one of the, in my opinion, less stellar examples, the Chimera. The only really atrocious image is the Manaplasm. Yes, I get it’s a slime, but I can see the border pixels even at page-view size! Likewise, the text alignment following the artwork is sometimes a bit weird and out of whack. I wouldn’t have minded smaller images in some cases to get a better text flow. You can see a less annoying example of that on the preview of the Strix. Generally, I wouldn’t mind getting the art separate in the PDF version to do quick printouts for the players. The text alignment makes it a bit easier to copy and paste, but the readability suffers.

That cannot be said about the writing as such, though. Dr. Kromm was in super-charged mode when he was writing this. Not only is it an extremely enjoyable read, the information is presented in easily accessible format, there are also puns galore. True, I didn’t laugh out loud, but I did chuckle quite a few times. The adventure seed titles are a motherlode of jokes that will surely find their way to many tables.

Editing and indexing are top-notch as usual, though there isn’t that much to index anyway. The PDF is fully bookmarked and the table of contents is hyperlinked.

The following section was updated  with new information 06/08/19 (thanks to T-Bone of Games Diner fame for pushing me to find a solution instead of whining):

A tiny defect is, however, that the two-page monster spreads are misaligned if you go for a two-page view in the PDF in many readers, because the backcover is included before the title page. You can easily rectify this with a PDF editor – or by changing settings on your reader (for my Adobe Reader it was done by menu>View>Page Display>Show Cover Page in Two-Page View). I still don’t get why the back cover has to go before the title page, but this way it’s no big deal any more.

This is probably the most unified GURPS supplement in a whole while and it does set a high standard for all that follows. Let’s hope the same will be said of Magic Items 2.

Sauce score: 7,5

Generic Nutritional Substance

As a Dungeon Fantasy supplement, there is usually not a high bar to clear in terms of generic usefulness. Yes, all these monsters can be used in standard Tolkienesque fantasies. Some of them will probably look out of place in Narnia and some will be a bit too weird for some tastes. But a surprising number of them will also fit right into some modern-day horror, dark urban fantasy or even dark faerie tales.

It’s not an extremely generic supplement, but certainly caters to more than just hack & slash fans.

Generic Nutritional Substance score: 7,5

Summary

A more than solid effort that leaves very little to be desired, except maybe being four times as long and a nice hardcover with stitched binding. If Steve Jackson Games is going to run two kickstarters like this every year and maybe finds a way to the page count up to a hundred, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a GURPS revival in the future.

This book is pretty much a must-have for Dungeon Fantasy aficionados and a very good investment for anybody who likes their fantasy monsters a bit weirder than usual. Have a look at the preview yourself if you are unsure. You get two complete monsters for free that way. Even if you decide not to buy that’s pretty much worth taking the time to have a look.

Price is still high, which comes with the limited page-count, but without considering that we have a new high-score, edging out some recent very high-quality stuff like The Hall of Judgment by a not too tiny margin. The Hall gets its own back in the value score, though.

All in all, think twice before you’re passing on this tasty morsel!

Total score: 8.475
Total score is composed of a weighted average of Meat (32.5%), Cheese (32.5%), Sauce (20%) and Generic Nutritional Substance (15%). This is a balanced book. A “cheesy” setting- or a meaty rulebook would change the percentages for cheese and meat.

Value score: 6.7375
Value Score is composed of the average of Total and Price.


GURPS is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.

Bite-Sized Review: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Treasures 3 – Artifacts of Felltower

And it’s time for another bite-sized review for one of the new five-bucks GURPS morsels. The title is a bit of a mouthful and could have easily been shortened to DFT 3 – More Artifacts.

Cover of Dungeon Fantasy Treasures 3 - Artifacts of Felltower

Facts

Author: Peter V. Dell’Orto
Date of Publication: 20/06/2019
Format: PDF-only (Warehouse 23-only)
Page Count: 17 (1 title page, 1 content page, 1/2 index page, 1/2 page ad)
Price: $7.99 (PDF), $ 0.22 per page of content; Score of 5/10
Preview: http://www.warehouse23.com/media/SJG37-0351_preview.pdf

Review

As all my other reviews this one will be rated according to meat (rules, stats, game mechanics), cheese (setting, characters, story), sauce (form, writing, style, art) and generic nutritional substance (universal nature, adaptability). At the end you find a weighted average of those components and a value score that also takes into account price per page.

Instead of adding more detail to all sorts of treasures like the first volume or going for the extremely epic like the second one, this third volume in is just a list of unique or near unique artifacts that is most akin to GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 6 – 40 Artifacts, which is explicitly referenced as necessary for play. That is a bit of an overstatement though, as is needing GURPS Magic for the spell descriptions. Yes, there’s no handy guide to reading the entries as in DF 6, but most of it is self-explanatory enough. And the only two spells you need to know are Accuracy and Puissance, which are also present in GURPS Basic – hint: together they make a +1 weapon like in That Other Game ™.

It’s a bit of a shame that this information wasn’t included to make the book even more accessible to DFRPG players. The origins can be easily gleaned from DFRPG Exploits p. 77. Not that DFRPG 6 is a bad book to have for DFRPG players.

The book is split in three chapters, aptly titled Weapons (6 pages), Armor (2 pages) and Other Treasures (5 pages).

Meat

Like in DF 6 every item has an origin, a FP value as a power item, a description, a list of properties with game-relevant stats and often a number of possible variations listed. There are 31 items on the whole (just missing the mark for calling this For Another 40 Artifacts More), running the whole gamut from the powerful, but simple like axe  Shieldslayer to the intriguing like the Potion Ring to the plain weird like the Gorilla Gloves.

The items are diverse enough that you don’t get bored after the sixth weapon, but the variety can’t quite reach the sheer numbers of the old GURPS Magic Items series (which incidentally can found for just $7.99 on Warehouse 23). However, these are tried and true DF items and fully Fourth-Editon-compatible without any conversion wonkiness attached.

Also there are some specials that are generically useful. A box on Magical Set Items takes you back to your favourite MMORPG (even though there is only one set in this book), Bad Influences is more something for the old-school players that miss weapons with a corrupting influence. Expired potions also hearkens back to classic That Other Game ™ days. The book also includes a few gems like Hero’s Brew, Mana Gout and dehydrated elixirs that plug holes in the Dungeon Fantasy catalogue and add extra options for more traditional items.

All in all, this might not be the most focused treasure book yet, but it certainly delivers more than a couple of useful tools and rewards for the enterprising DF game-master.

Meat score: 8

Cheese

Yeah, it’s Dungeon Fantasy, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be anything setting-related. Indeed the book starts out with two paragraphs on Dell’Orto’s Felltower mega-dungeon that make one hope it’ll see the light of day in some form or other. More relevant are the back-stories of the items in question that are on the whole longer and more detailed than in 40 Artifacts without quite reaching the level of the Magic Item series. Most of the cheese fluff in this comes from Felltower itself, but there are also plenty of ancient items mostly unrelated to the mega-dungeon.

There are also hints on what to do with the items and how to use them as plot hooks or integrate them into the campaign. Especially the section on set items is useful for campaign building. More stuff than you’d expect from Dungeon Fantasy.

Cheese score: 7

Sauce

The good news is that this volume actually has unique art pieces, the bad is that there are only two of them (the third being generic rings) and one of them shows a sabre, when it’s supposed to be a short sword). Well, it’s baby steps for GURPS 4th Edition. The editing was generally good, except for annoying typo on the first page (‘treasure hordes [sic]’). Dell’Orto’s style is generally more no-nonsense than Kromm’s, but it is very readable and there are still a couple of tongue-in-cheek jokes in there.

All-in-all par of the course for GURPS – a bit sad compared to most other RPGs, but not unexpected.

Sauce score: 5.5

Generic Nutritional Substance

Most of the gear inside the book is meant for generic-fantasy if not necessarily Dungeon Fantasy. That still covers a wide enough base and some of the pieces can be repurposed for modern urban fantasy or horror games. Some seem a little out of place for polytheistic Dungeon Fantasy (like the Bishop’s Cross), but in these cases there are always variants to make them fit.

As artifacts without a price tag, the items are more generic than the lower-priced off-the-shelf items in other DF publications.

Generic Nutritional Substance score: 6.5

Summary

Artifacts of Felltower is a solid book for GM’s looking for a 4th-Edition-compliant collection of special magic items. It can be used with minimal adjustments for any GURPS Dungeon Fantasy or Dungeon Fantasy RPG campaign and also the more epic fantasy campaigns. As MacGuffins or special prizes the gear also fits a variety of other campaigns. For the price of a fancy cup of coffee you get some good stuff. However, the shortness of the offering means you pay more than usual per page, hence the low Value Score (below).

Total score: 7.125
Total score is composed of a weighted average of Meat (40%), Cheese (15%), Sauce (20%) and Generic Nutritional Substance (15%). This is a meat-oriented book. A “cheesy” setting- or drama-orientied book would turn the percentages for cheese and meat around.

Value score: 5,0625
Value Score is composed of the average of Total and Price.

After-Taste

One thing I am starting to get a bit annoyed at is the the weird naming of products and the haphazard placement in established series. Artifacts of Felltower is a nice enough name on its own, but with DF 6, DF 8 and the Treasure series, not to mention the relevant DFRPG books, it’s getting hard to keep all your treasure supplements straight. By now I would have appreciated a re-naming á la Backdrops: Tower of Octavius to Locations: Tower of Octavius.

Now that’s a bit harder to pull off with such a large series, but modelling the title a bit more on 40 Artifacts would have been nice. As it is, new players might look towards the Treasure series first, when they would be better advised to get the older volumes first.

Also, I was really hoping for more art, but for that we have to look at Gaming Ballistic, I guess.


GURPS is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.

Charaktere für GURPS DSA Hexentanz

Am 01.06.19 leite ich auf dem KURT in Mannheim ein kleines Einführungsabenteuer für GURPS DSA namens “Hexentanz” (aus der Anthologie Sphärenkräfte für diejenigen, die Spoiler vermeiden möchten). Voranmeldung ist unter den obigen Links möglich. Hier sind die Kurz-Biographien der vorgenerierten Charaktere, die ihr spielen könnt. Ihr könnt gerne mit Kommentar einen davon auswählen (Voranmeldung beim KURT vorausgesetzt).

Ailgrid Lindenfold – Weidener Kriegerin

Nicht alle Krieger sind von Stand, auch das wohlhabende Bürgertum schickt manchmal einen vielversprechenden Sprössling auf die Akademie. So geschah es auch mit der kleinen Ailgrid, die zuerst alles andere als begeistert war. Nach und nach gewöhnte sie sich aber ans Kämpfen, wobei ihr gehöriger Dickschädel ihr manches mal zugute kam. Ehre und Tradition waren der Akademie wichtig, ließen Ailgrid allerdings auch wenig aufgeschlossen für Neues und etwas vorhersagbar werden.

Kämpfen ist das Handwerk, das Ailgrid erlernt hat. Ob mit Axt, Bogen, Morgenstern oder Lanze. Sie kann mit allen ritterlichen Waffen umgehen. Die wichtigsten sind allerdings Schwert und Schild. Auch in der Wildnis und mit der Menschenführung kennt sie sich gut aus. Taktik, Strategie, Geschichtswissen und Sagen gehören auch zu ihren Kenntnissen. Die Tatsache, dass sie eine gute Reiterin ist, wäre von größerer Bedeutung, wenn sie nicht vor kurzem ihr Pferd verloren hätte.

Alrico Honorio Vascagni-Scirra – ein almadanischer Gelehrter

Eine Weile dachte Alrico, dass er immer wieder ein neues Studiengebiet finden könnte, aber irgendwann drehte auch seine wohlhabende Mutter dem ewigen Studenten den Geldhahn zu und er sah sich gezwungen mit seinem mannigfaltigen in vielen Semestern erworbenen Wissen hausieren zu gehen. Dabei träumt er eigentlich von Heldentaten, die der Kriegsgöttin gefallen und hat nicht umsonst lange Jahre mit dem Degen trainiert. Dass das Kriegshandwerk alles andere als romantisch ist, hat er bislang noch nicht mitbekommen.

Alrico kennt viele verschiedene Sprachen, hat Geschichte, Astronomie, Philosophie und leider auch Juristerei studiert. Er kann gut zeichnen – auch halbwegs leserliche Karten, wenn es nötig wird – und verfügt über ein phänomenales Gedächtnis. Mit Degen und Linkhand-Dolch sowie mit Fäusten und Knien weiß er sich auch ganz ordentlich zu wehren. Ein rondragefälliger Recke ist er damit aber noch lange nicht.

Cavarya Lucara Grimani – eine Liebfelder Kampfmagierin aus Bethana

Wenn sie nicht der Zufall ins verschlafenen Bethana verschlagen hätte, wäre das Straßenkind Cavarya wohl zu einer Streunerin herangewachsen, aber hier fiel den Magiern der Halle des Vollendeten Kampfes bald ihre magische Begabung. Die Ausbildung in den magischen wie nicht-magischen war ein solcher Segen für die junge Cavarya, dass sie die Werte der Akademie verinnerlicht hat und ein ausgeprägtes Ehr- und Pflichtbewusstsein aufgebaut hat, das sie – zusammen mit ihrem Hang zur Meditation weit weltfremder wirken lässt, als sie tatsächlich ist.

Neben den grundlegenden wissenschaftlichen Kenntnissen einer Magierin, verfügt Cavarya auch über fundierte Kenntnisse im Kampf mit Schwert und Stab. Auf der magischen Seite ist sie stark auf den Kampf und hier vor allem auf Feuer-Zauber fokussiert. Sie kennt jedoch auch einige andere Zauber in den Bereichen Heilung und Verwandlung, vor allem Zauber, die den Körper für den Kampf stählen.

Colgar (‚Col’) Jergelmann – ein Streuner aus Gareth

Col ist auf den Straßen der Kaiserstadt Gareth aufgewachsen und ist mit allen Wassern gewaschen. Dieses harte Leben hat ihn gelehrt die guten Dinge so nehmen wie sie kommen. Und so nimmt er auch gerne Geld, das nicht ihm gehört, ein gutes Bier nach einer langen Arbeitsnacht oder einen Kuss von einer schönen Ratsherrin. Er stellt dabei jedoch so gewitzt und voller Charme an, dass ihm vieles nachgesehen wird, für mach andere im Kittchen landen.

Col kann gut mit dem Rapier und auch Wurfmesser und Fäusten umgehen. Seine gefährlichsten Waffen sind aber sein flinkes Mundwerk und seine strahlenden Augen. Er kennt sich bestens in der städtischen Unterwelt aus, ist aber dafür auf freiem Feld etwas aufgeschmissen.

Duranja, Tochter der Muraxa – eine Geodin aus dem Volk der Brillantzwerge

Die Geoden sind die ältesten Zauberwirker Aventuriens, dabei sind Zwerge alles andere als magisch und es braucht schon ein traumatisches Erlebnis um eine Zwergin auf die magische Bahn zu bringen. Duranja war nach einem Stolleneinsturz mehrere Tage unter dem Schutt begraben und hielt es danach nicht mehr unter Tage aus. In freier Natur lernte sie im Kreise Gleichgesinnter die Elemente zu beherrschen, vor allem Feuer, ihr großer Liebling.

Duranja kennt sich gut in der freien Natur aus. Im Kampf schwingt sie eine Keule, aber lieber noch ruft sie Feuer auf ihre Feinde herab. Aber auch für friedliche Anwendungen eignet sich ihre Magie, kann sie doch heilen, Tiere vom Angriff abhalten und Pflanzen formen. Auch kennt sie Heilpflanzen und geodische Heilmethoden.

Elkwin Firnske – ein Gaukler aus dem Bornland

Auch im rauen Bornland wollen die Menschen gerne mal lachen und Elkwin ist einer, der etwas Freude ins Leben von Arm und Reich gleichermaßen bringt. Wohlhabend wird man durch Schaukämpfe, Feuerschlucken, Seiltanz und Schauspielerei zwar nicht, aber für jemanden, der aus dem Bauch heraus entscheidet, unter Wanderlust leidet und seine Finger ab und zu mal in fremde Beutel steckt, ist es nicht das schlechteste Leben.

Elkwin ist der geborene Unterhalter und versteht sich auf alles, was Körpereinsatz oder Fingerspitzengefühl erfordert. Als Schaukämpfer kann er auch einigermaßen mit dem Schwert umgehen, aber im Zweifelsfall verlässt er sich auf seinen eigenen Körper und ein Wurfmesser zur Ablenkung.

Glennar ui Inveric – albernischer Schwertgeselle

Glennar war schon früh anzusehen, dass aus ihm mal jemand werden würde, der das Raufen liebte. Dass er sich aber das Raufen mit dem Schwert aussuchen würde, konnten seine Eltern damals noch nicht ahnen. Es hätte ihrem Geldbeutel und Glennars Charakter sicher nicht geschadet, wenn er sich ein anderes Metier ausgesucht hätte. Trotz des ständigen Spiels mit Schwert und Buckler ist aus Glennar kein schlechter Mensch geworden, abgesehen von einer Neigung zu Arroganz, Selbstüberschätzung und weltlichen Freuden

Glennar ist ein Virtuose beim Kampf mit Schwert und Buckler oder auch Linkand. Er versteht sich aber auch auf den Kampf ohne irgendwelche Waffen und kennt sowohl die Grundzüge der feinen wie auch der anrüchigen Gesellschaft. Allerdings ist er mit Worten wesentlich weniger gewandt als mit Waffen und fühlt sich vor allem in großen Städten wohl.

Herdan (‚Dan’) Terfel – Verwandlungsmagier aus Lowangen

Beim kleinen Bauernbuben Herdan zeigte sich schon früh die magische Begabung, weshalb er von seinen Eltern bei der Magier-akademie in der großen Stadt Lowangen in die Lehre gegeben wurde. Dort lernte er gemeinsam mit vielen anderen Eleven, was die Welt im innersten zusammenhält, aber auch praktische Dinge, die sich zum Wohl der Menschen (und Elfen und Zwerge) einsetzen lassen. Als Idealist versucht Vitus in jedem das Beste zu sehen, außer es ist Nacht, dann sieht er nämlich nichts.

Vitus ist zwar kein Fachidiot, aber sein Spezialität sind eindeutig Verwandlungszauber. Er kann sich unsichtbar machen, unter Wasser atmen, sich in eine Katze verwandeln und noch allerlei mehr. Auch die Heilkunde kam bei seiner Ausbildung nicht zu kurz. Schlägereien sind nicht sein Ding, aber wenn’s hart auf hart kommt, kann er sich mit seinem Stab verteidigen.

Kunhag, Sohn des Kuhim – ein Söldner aus dem Volk der Ambosszwerge

Kunhag war für einen Zwerg immer etwas zu unstet. Schon nach zehn Jahren wurde ihm die Schmiedelehre etwas langweilig und er schaute sich nach anderen Betätigungsfeldern um. Raufen und Trinken sind aber auch bei den Angroschim keine Ausbildungs­berufe, weshalb sein Onkel ihn unter seine Fittiche nahm und dem Jungen das Kriegshandwerk näher brachte, das er dann auch einige Jahrzehnte ausübte. Jetzt ist ihm der Garnisonsdienst aber ebenfalls zu langweiligen und er sehnt sich nach neuen Herausforderungen.

Kunhag ist ein solider Kämpfer mit Axt und Schild, auch wenn er nicht gerade für seine Finesse bekannt ist. Auch mit der Armbrust und den Fäusten (sowie seinem Dickschädel) kann er ordentlich austeilen. Abseits des Kriegshandwerk kennt er sich mit Metallen, Höhlen und Gängen aus. Auch handwerklich hat er einiges aufgeschnappt, das sich oft als nützlich erweist wie etwas Zimmern, Schustern und natürlich Schmieden.

Neraida saba Alima – eine ausgestoßene tulamidische Amazone

Neraida wurde in der traditionellen Amazonenburg Keshal Rondra aufgezogen. Der gemeinsame Drill an der Waffe und das Fehlen jeglicher Männer waren selbstverständlich. Trotzdem zog sich die zerstreute und verträumte Neraida häufig in die Bibliothek zurück, wo es freilich wenig nicht-militärische Bücher gab. Als sie durch ihre Vergesslichkeit die Geheimhaltung des Wegs zur Festung gefährdete wurde es ihrer Ausbilderin zu bunt und nach einem Beschluss der Amazonen wurde sie aus ihrer Gemeinschaft ausgestoßen. Seither zieht Neraida durch Aventurien und verdient sich mit ihrer Kampfkunst das Brot, träumt aber von Büchern und Universitäten und einem Leben, das nicht sein kann.

Neraida ist eine geübte Fechterin mit Säbel uns Schild, versteht sich auf den Kampf und die Jagd mit dem Speer und kennt sich bestens in der Strategie aus – wie sie in allen jahrhundertealten Standardwerken beschrieben wird. Ihre große Liebe gilt aber Geschichte, Geographie, Sagen und Legenden.

Rhayad ben Haimamud sâl Bahir – tulamidischer Veränderungsmagier aus Khunchom

Aus einer wohlhabenden Familie stammend, musste sich Rhayad bis zu seinem Eintritt in die Drachenei-Akademie nicht wirklich anstrengen um im Leben weiterzukommen. Doch dann musste er feststellen, dass Geld zwar bewegt, das Familienvermögen aber nicht groß genug war um ihm hier noch Türen zu öffnen. Notgedrungen fing der etwas behäbige Rhayad an sich in bislang ungekanntem Fleiß zu üben. Seine Bemühungen zeigten zwar Erfolg, jedoch verfiel er auch dem Laster des Stressessens, was nicht gerade positive Auswirkungen auf seine Körperfülle hatte.

Magische Artefakte und ihre Herstellung sind die Spezialität Rhayads, aber im Abenteurerleben etwas schwierig unterzubringen. Dort helfen ihm vor allem vielerlei telekinetische Zauber und ab und zu ein beherzter Paralyse-Spruch. Mit dem Stab weiß er sich eher schlecht als recht zu wehren, dafür ist er in gesellschaftlichen Dingen nicht unbeleckt.

Salkya Durenald – eine Liebfelder Einbrecherin

Salkya stammt eigentlich aus einer gutbürgerlichen Familie im kulturell hochentwickelten Lieblichen Feld. Einbrüche waren für sie anfangs ganz klar Beschaffungskriminalität. Schließlich brauchte sie Lesestoff! Die Tatsache, dass sie dafür Talent hatte überraschte sie selbst. Früher oder später fliegt aber jeder mal auf und so ging es auch der Jugendbande, die Salkya Zuflucht geboten hatte, so dass sie ihre Heimat verlassen musste und seither von Ort zu Ort reist.

Salkya ist Meisterin darin rein zu kommen, wo sie niemand haben will. Kämpfen ist weniger ihr Ding, obwohl sie sich mit Axt oder Brechstange auch zu wehren weiß. Sie kann sehr leise sein, gut klettern und auch das ein oder andere im Laden mitgehen lassen. Unterhaltung und Diplomatie sind nicht ihr Ding – sie ist eher schüchtern – aber dafür kennt sie sich gut in Geschichte, Geographie und Literatur aus.

Sayara Wipfel-Wandlerin – eine elfische Wildnisläuferin aus dem Volk der Auen

Sayara war immer schon getrieben von ihrer Neugier. Die Neugier trieb sie aus den Auen in die Steppen, die tiefen Wälder, die schroffen Gebirge und schließlich in die Welt der Menschen, jener merkwürdigen, kurzlebigen Wesen, die trotzdem so faszinierend sind. Ihre Welt ist Sayara aber noch fremd und wenn sie sich auch verständlich machen kann, gibt es vieles, was für sie befremdlich ist. Häufig zögert sie, wenn sie mit solchen Dingen konfrontiert wird.

Speer und Messer führt sie eher leidlich, denn der Bogen ist ihr vertrauter bei der Jagd wie bei der Verteidigung. Zaubern war nie ihre Stärke, aber mit etwas Geduld kann sie einige typisch elfische Zauber sprechen, die ihr in der Wildnis weiterhelfen. In Wald und Aue kommt sie dafür mehr als gut zurecht. Schwieriger wird es in überfüllten Städten.

Shulinai Aylasunya – Aranische Hexe

Die Hexen Aventuriens sind eine uralte Schwesternschaft, die allerdings in den meisten Gebieten wenig angesehen und oft verhasst sind. Anders im matriarchalisch geprägten Aranien. In der Heimat Shulinais sind Hexen oftmals hoch angesehene Beraterinnen der Mächtigen. So weit hat es Shulinai freilich nicht gebrahcht, aber ihre Kenntnis von Kräutern und allem, was man daraus herstellen kann, hat ihr einen bescheidenen Wohlstand eingebracht und ihre Neugier auf die anderen Teile der Welt geweckt. Impulsiv wie sie ist, entschloss sie sich eines Tages auf Wanderschaft zu gehen und die Weite des Nordens zu entdecken

Shulinai ist keine große Kämpferin, aber sie verfügt über heilende, stärkende und schwächende Zauber, nützliche Tinkturen und Pülverchen, etwas geistumnebelnde Magie und eine gehörige Portion Selbstbewusstsein. Auch ihre fliegender Besen erweist sich mehr als hin und wieder als nützlich.

Taimi vom Stamme der Lieska-Leddu – eine nivesische Jägerin

Das Volk der Nivesen lebt seit Jahrtausenden mit den gleichen Rhythmen der Natur und folgt den Karenherde jahrein, jahraus auf ihre Sommer- und Winterweiden. Unter den wachsamen Augen der Himmselwölfe wuchs Taimi wie die meisten ihrer Stammesgenossen auf. Aber selbst für die nomadischen Nivesen fand sie übermäßig viel Geschmack an Wanderschaft und neuen Eindrücken, so dass sie sich schließlich alleine aufmachte für einige Jahre die Welt zu erforschen und zu sehen, was wie das Leben außerhalb von Tundra und Taiga aussieht.

Taimi ist eine hervorragende Fährtenleserin und versteht sich gut auf das Überleben in der nördlichen Wildnis. Auch wenn sie beileibe keine Kämpferin ist, kann sie als Jägerin geschickt mit Bogen und Speer umgehen und versteht sich auf den Umgang mit Tieren.

Taron (‚Ron’) Trall – Svelltländer Druide

Die meisten Druiden treiben sich eher im Wald herum, aber einige dieses alten magischen Kultes haben es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht die Geschehen der Welt aus dem Hintergrund zu beeinflussen. Tarons Lehrer war ein solcher Hüter der Macht. Er hat ihm beigebracht wie einfach man manchmal Dinge in die richtige Bahn lenken und Fehlentwicklungen (wie Druidenverfolgungen) vermeiden kann. Ein wenig hat sich das allerdings auch auf Taron ausgewirkt, so dass er etwas herrschsüchtig und wehleidig wurde. Zur Tarnung übt er den Beruf eines Schreibers aus.

Taron kennt sich gut mit dem menschlichen Geist aus und hat allerlei Zauber um diesen zu manipulieren. Daneben gilt seine große Liebe dem Element des Wassers, das ihm, unter anderem, erlaubt sich in eine Nebelschwade zu verwandeln.

 

 

 

Bite-sized Review: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 20 – Slayers

At long last, there’s a new Dungeon Fantasy supplement and this time it’s a main line item. We haven’t had any of those since… apparently September 2016 when Christopher R. Rice produced No. 19 – the excellent Incantation Magic volume. The current offering is a little smaller, but it’s also a Splatbook and it’s by the master himself: Let’s have a look at DF 20: Slayers!

Cover of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 20 - Slayers

Facts

Author: Sean M. Punch (a.k.a. Dr. Kromm)
Date of Publication: 18/04/2019
Format: PDF-only (Warehouse 23-only)
Page Count: 24 (1 title page, 1 content page, 1 index pages, 1 page ad)
Price: $6.00 (PDF), $ 0.27 per page of content; Score of 4/10
Preview: http://www.warehouse23.com/media/SJG37-0350_preview.pdf

Review

As all my other reviews this one will be rated according to meat (rules, stats, game mechanics), cheese (setting, characters, story), sauce (form, writing, style, art) and generic nutritional substance (universal nature, adaptability). At the end you find a weighted average of those components and a value score that also takes into account price per page.

DF – Slayers is a close cousin to the previous splatbooks Sage, Summoners and Ninja, though it is more focused than the others. The lion’s share of the books 20 content pages is taken up by three new professions, one 5-page chapter for each the Demon-Slayer, the Mage-Slayer and the Undead-Slayer. A one-page intro and four pages on gear and assorted loot items rounds off the mix.

Meat

New abilities, perks, pseudo-magical skills and the templates themselves take centre stage in the as far as the crunchy meat is concerned. The templates are just what you’d expect from DF and though the abilities show some doubling (each slayer has a Detect and a Gizmo version) the abilities are different enough to give each of them a slightly different feel.

The slayers all share the lack of power modifiers and a special set of non-magical skills that duplicate appropriate spells and cost FPs as well. Especially interesting, even outside of DF and heroic fantasy are the many variations of Blessed and the appropriate perks, some of which have already appeared in other sources. Many of these could be ported whole-sale to a Buffy-esque Monster Hunters campaign as could the templates themselves. Each template comes with the usual customisation options, though lenses to add slayer-cross-training for other professions are not available. Slayers are born, not made.

For those of you who have access to Pyramid 109: Thaumatology V, the presented write-ups are very similar to the Mage-Hunter presented there (also by Kromm) – although there is no sample character. The Undead-Hunter from Pyramid 122: All Good Things is quite a different beast with a decidedly clerical bent and far less in the power-up department.

The equipment section is partly lists of useful gear, partly genuinely new stuff like Holy Weapons (not enchanted so Secret-Order-of-the-Mage-Slayers-approved), Heroic Power Items to give Slayers extra FP to use on Heroic Feats or their “spell” skills, blunt arrows and stake spears, couple of new (holy hand) grenade potions.

There are also rules for making up your own slayer variants, for varying monster flaws, having slayers research them and a box on Demon Talismans that is an interesting way to have demons that can be permanently destroyed – or safely spirited away before they’re defeated. All in all, there are a lot of useful titbits in there along with all the basics.

Meat score: 9

Cheese

Dungeon Fantasy is traditionally shy on flavour and setting, but slayers are not a generic profession. They come with some background already attached. The customisations and the choice of advantages can make a lot of difference in character. There are hints on how to make slayers useful in the campaign, behind-the-hood infos on why the the templates are built as they are. The last section – Secret Weapons – has ideas on how to mix things up and maybe take Dungeon Fantasy a bit more into a Buffy-esque direction with an obligatory research session before the dungeon. Demonic Talismans provide probably the most detailed description of how demons are summoned in DF.

The fact that slayers are explicitly self-powered, Buffy-style without blessings from supernatural entities does make quite a difference too. They’re in the same category as Barbarian, Knight and Swashbuckler and yet they are quite capable when dealing with their chosen supernatural foe. This will greatly appeal to a certain kind of player – and since a lot of us have grown up with Buffy, it won’t be such a small part of the player pool.

On the whole, there’s quite a bit of story built in this, at least for Dungeon Fantasy.

Cheese score: 6.5

Sauce

Dr. Kromm’s writing is precise and eminently readable. There are some tongue-in-cheek asides as usual, but the style is mostly concerned with clarity. As usual I had no complaints with the editing.

In GURPS the art is usually a problem, especially in short books. This one has a cover that actually looks kind of decent and the interior illustrations (that re-use the cover art) are mostly fitting too (yes, even Dan Smith has a good and fitting picture).  They are still black-and-white and aren’t quite the high quality we’ve seen in the DFRPG or DF Monsters 1.

Sauce score: 6

Generic Nutritional Substance

There are limits as to where Dungeon Fantasy templates can be applied, but as mentioned the templates can be used for a lower-powered Monster Hunters campaign or as a basis for a regular one. The abilities – especially the Blessed variants – can be useful in a variety of campaigns. So some overarching usefulness is certainly there.

Generic Nutritional Substance score: 6

Digesting Everything

Slayers is definitely a useful little volume that’ll scratch the itch of many a player and game master alike. If you don’t feel strongly about concept of self-powered (or universally-powered) slayers it isn’t a must-buy, but GMs should note that it is certainly possible to set the party against a Mage-Slayer (or more if players are making full use of Dungeon Fantasy 9 – Summoners). In short, a good, if somewhat specialised book.

Total score: 7.325 (still very good)
Total score is composed of a weighted average of Meat (50%), Cheese (15%), Sauce (20%) and Generic Nutritional Substance (15%). This is a meat-oriented book. A “cheesy” setting- or drama-orientied book would turn the percentages for cheese and meat around.

Value score: 5.6625 (short books are more expensive)
Value Score is composed of the average of Total and Price.


GURPS is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.

Preview of The Citadel at Norðvörn powered by DFRPG

I had the uncommon luck to get a very advance copy of The Citadel at Norðvörn and Douglas Cole graciously allowed me to publish a short article to provide you with a first look at his newest Kickstarter offering. Though something tells me his reason for that might not have been to boost the page-views of my blog…

First things first: this is a spoiler-free preview. You can read on without having to fear that I reveal the big plot behind it all. Indeed, it may come as a surprise to you that there is a larger plot in a setting book. After all GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Setting – Caverntown – a clear inspiration for this volume – doesn’t have dangling plot hooks all over it. The Citadel does, however, and the overarching developments are quite interesting, involving multiple dangerous factions that plan to bring the Northland down.

It is left to the GM to arrange the discovery of each and every clue themselves, though. This is not a pre-scripted adventure and player characters might well go on a quest in the service of one of the more villainous characters without realising it until later. Not exactly something for utter novices in the art of game-mastering and a bit more on the roleplayey side of things tan dungeon-delving. On currently seventeen pages, the author gives us the main villain plot and who is directly or indirectly involved in it, as well as several related adventure seeds. The seeds are relatively short, but hey, that’s a stretch goal, right? You know what you have to do.

The plot is not the main purpose of a setting book, however, and the larger part (about 75 pages as of now) is made up of detailed descriptions of the citadel city of Norðvörn and the surrounding lands, including to some degree what lies beyond Audreyn’s Wall. All those dragon-gods of yore sure did leave a lot of treasure lying around.

The civilised lands are organised similarly to the description of Isfjall in Lost Hall of Judgment. Only instead of 18 pages you get 26 for Norðvörn, 8 for Áinferill and 6 for Löngbrú. The rest are for smaller sample villages and the destroyed outpost of Elskaðr. The author really manages to make each of these come alive and differentiate them enough to avoid blurring them in players’ minds.

Each of the bigger places has its history, geography and main features detailed. Law and Order, resources, magic, and important social groups as well as notable residents round that off. There are also sections on shopping and services – a bit less detailed than in Caverntown, but it’s still more than enough for most tastes. Most importantly, there are taverns and inns. What better place to make the party meet up? Unless you want to use one of the adventuring hooks provided to introduce your newly-minted DF heroes to the setting.

The really interesting bits are the interspersed parts about Norse-inspired laws, customs and preferences, though. Especially the festival section is fun and not quite the same as in Hall of Judgment. It’s in these cultural sections where Douglas Cole really gives Sean Punch a run for his money.

In addition to information on NPCs in the town sections, there’s also a whole chapter of more in-depth information that is still unfinished. Same goes from the bestiary, which includes some of the foes from Hall of Judgment and keeps the same one-page monster style.

Art is, of course, still a work in progress, but what I’ve seen looks good and certainly up to the standards of Hall of Judgment and the Dungeon Fantasy Boxed Set (reprint also on Kickstarter, at the moment). It’s not quite as good as the really big productions from Wizards of the Coast or Paizo, but it gets close enough. No maps yet, though – something that will hopefully change soon!

Writing is good with the asides typical for a Dungeon Fantasy product. I still like Sean Punch’s acerbic wit better than Douglas Cole’s more down-to-earth humour, but you mileage may vary.

On the whole, the book looks extremely promising and will tickle your fancy if you are at least somewhat interested in Norse-inspired fantasy. Hopefully we will get an overview of the whole realm of Torengar some time in the future, but on the savage northern frontier The Citadel at Norðvörn will soon serve as a fine entry point for any adventurer worth their salt.