A Kobold's Score

As Kobold Quarterly #20 attains its score, its coverage of Dungeons & Dragons – and its primary variants, continues to maintain a high standard with its mix of articles, advice, and scenarios. As with Kobold Quarterly #19, this latest issue from Open Design continues to move away from its previously self-avowed tag line – “The Switzerland of the Edition Wars” – with more coverage for Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder Roleplaying Game than Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. This is not to say that Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition receives less coverage than in the previous issue, but the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game definitely gets the most space. In addition there are articles for the Adventure Game Engine, the mechanics that power the Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying from Green Ronin Publishing.

So if being neutral is not what Kobold Quarterly #20 is all about, what then, does it have as its theme? Again, the clue is in the tag line: “A Strong Bow and a Full Quiver,” for its theme is all about archers and archery, arrows and quivers, hunters and the hunted. Kicking off this theme is John E. Ling, Jr.’s “The Elven Archer: For Some Heroes, the Arrow Strikes Swift and True” which provides a Racial Class for the player who wants to play a character akin to Legolas. The Class is essentially a variant of the Ranger Class, but a pleasing touch is that it includes notes on how to adapt the Class to other races, roles, and missile weapons, as well as how the Class fits into the publisher’s Midgard Campaign Setting with a discussion of the Arbonesse Exiles and Daughters of Perun.

Thus “Arrows of the Arbonesse” by Jarrod Camiré can be seen as a companion piece, describing as it does the deadly and varied arrows of the Elves known as the Arbonesse Exiles. Again for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, it offers arrows that splash acid on a target, that release an obscuring fog, that leave a trail of razor wire, and need to be fired in pairs to create the anchoring points for the equivalent of the Web spell they release. The theme continues with Christopher Bodan’s “Fey Hunters & Shadow Hounds: Hunting PCs in the Margreve and the Shadow Plane,” which delves into the dangers of the hunt in the Old Margreve Forest in Open Design’s Midgard Campaign Setting. The region itself is described in more detail in the supplement, Tales from the Old Margreve, but this article looks at one particular aspect – how the Shadow Fey use the forest to hunt their prey. Their prey being the player characters… Discussed are the shadow fey’s tactics, devices, and servants, the latter possibly being the heroes’ fate if they fail to escape the shadow fey’s predations. It is perhaps not as punchy as the previous articles in the theme, but instead provides a greater depth.

Nicholas L. Milasich adds a mucky element to the art of Alchemy in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game with “Derro Ooze Magic: New Discoveries and Archetypes for Alchemists.” It introduces the Ooze School of magic, a variant of the Transmutation school, the most notable features of which includes the ability to turn your arm into a slimy pseudopod and attack with its acidic touch and even temporarily transform into an Ooze! Similar abilities are available to the Sorcerer who selects the Ooze Bloodline, whilst adherents of the Ooze School who can take an Ooze familiar! Naturally, the article includes a list of oozy spells, but it is also much more than its mechanics as there is plenty of detail to be found here that can be added to a game, whether for player characters or NPCs.

A regular contributor to Kobold Quarterly, for this issue Mario Podeschi offers “Servants from Beyond: Lesser Planar Allies that are Ready to Summon,” a quartet of servants that the heroes could summon to their aid by casting the lesser planar ally and lesser planar binding spells. All four come with motivations as well as their stats and a list of negotiation mechanics that help bring them alive. The best of the four is Kaliskaria, an ambitious Fire Mephit whose jealousy and arrogance will surely try the patience of anyone who summons her. More obviously dangerous creatures are on show in Jack Graham’s “Night Terrors: Four Creatures to Truly Terrify.” They include the Chrysalis of the Changeling Moth, which charms groups of humanoids to care for it to the detriment of their own well-being and the haggard Pishtaco, a form of undead that butchers the living for their body fat and are reputed to be Alchemists or Gunslingers. Each of the four threats comes with a corresponding adventure hook and should present an interesting challenge to the heroes. Both articles are for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Of a similar nature is “Small Spirits: 5 Nature Spirits for Any Campaign” by Matthew J. Hanson, which is written for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Each of the five is powerful force of nature within a localised area and whilst capable of granting a boon will not always do so readily. Each comes with an adventure hook or two that the GM can develop. My favourite of these is the “String of Grandfathers,” a necklace of teeth from a lost tribe’s shaman that will offer the wearer the toothy advice of the ages if he can win the shamans’ approval.

Christina Stiles makes two contributions to Kobold Quarterly #20. First, she authors the issue’s single scenario, “Captured in the Cartways.” Designed for use with fifth level characters for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, it is an entertaining side trek adventure set in the tunnels under the Free City of Zobeck that sees the adventurers captured and given a small task before they can progress with their current task. Quite literally a mucky adventure, it throws the adventurers into the murk of the city’s underworld politics as well as providing a set of NPCs that can be added to a GM’s campaign. Written to support the release of Open Design’s Streets of Zobeck, to get the fullest use out of the scenario a GM will need access to the recently published Zobeck Gazetteer and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 1. For her second contribution to this issue, Christine is interviewed as part of the magazine’s regular “Kobold Diplomacy” feature. This is a thought-provoking article because the interviewee has been involved in various aspects of the industry that are rarely considered by the gaming public at large. As an editor myself, it was interesting to read her thoughts on the process.

Although the idea of old heroes coming out of retirement to perform one last deed is not new – it certainly gets used in books and movies aplenty – it is rare that such a narrative device gets used in roleplaying. Stefen Styrsky remedies this with “Putting the Band Back Together Again” for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, supporting it with examples and a full set of age related Feats. This has everything bar the plots specific to the GM’s campaign, but it could spur a great campaign and be a chance to bring back old, retired player characters that could revisit the sites of their former victories. (As an aside, an existing example of how this could be done would be with B2, Keep on the Borderlands followed by Return to Keep on the Borderlands).

Kobold Quarterly #20’s single article for the Adventure Game Engine is Randall K. Hurlburt’s self-explanatory “AGE of Specialization: Five New Character Options.” This presents five new Specialisations, one for the Warrior class, one for the Mage class, and three for the Rogue class. These become available once a character in Adventure Game Engine reach sixth level – as detailed in Dragon Age – Dark Age Roleplaying Set 2: For Characters Level 6 to 10, with the selection here providing some alternatives to the limited number given in that set. The number assigned to the Rogue class is indicative of the class’ flexibility, with the inclusion of the Marksman Talent covering for an odd omission in the rules given in the box.

“The Bardic Arts” by Aaron Infante-Levy is the first of the issue’s few articles written solely for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. It provides a set of new Class features that expand obvious features of the class, whether that is its use of magic with “Cantrip Study;” interaction with “Carousing,” “Etiquette,” “Seduction,” and so on; and study with “Polyglot” and “Student of Human Nature.” Over the course of a Bardic character’s career he gets to choose four of these and they nicely add non-combat aspect to the Class and the game. This is followed by the second article, Jerry LeNeave’s “Unearthed Ancestry: Racial Utility Powers for Gnomes, Tieflings, and Minotaurs” which provides five new Utility Powers for these three species that do add more flavour to them in play.

The last article for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition is actually for the Adventure Game Engine and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game as well. “Make Haste! How to Design an Adventure with Time Pressure” by Ron Lundeen is really a generic article that provides a simple set of mechanics handling adventures that are a race against time. It is well explained and its mechanics are so light that it would work with many other RPGs too.

Rounding out Kobold Quarterly #20 is perhaps the issue’s oddest article, “Fish of Legend: Magical Seafood for Fighters & Wizards Alike” by Crystal Frasier. The idea is that in a world of magic that fish can provide more than the mundane – dyes, food, medicine, cosmetics, leather, and so on. This adds magical elements to fish and gives them innate abilities and secondary abilities to anyone who consumes or uses them. For example, the abaia has the knack of creating small rainstorms, but when eaten, renders a person impervious to dehydration and able to drip water from his skin for a day. In addition, it can be used as a material component doubles the duration of the control water and control weather spells. As the article explains, this is a means of recreating magical items in a different form, and a clever one it is too. Its contents should be used sparingly, but there is detail enough to add flavour and feel to a game.

For his regular Game Theories column, Monte Cook offers “The Power of the Game Master,” an exploration of the “GM as God,” the “GM as a Player,” and how this affects the group. All told its conclusions might be obvious to anyone with an interest in some of the theory behind roleplaying, but this is a well thought out piece. Of the other regular columns, Skip Williams answers questions about disease and poisons in “Ask theKobold,” Jeff Grubb explores “The Ruins of Arbonesse” in the “Free City of Zobeck” column, plus there are the usual cartoons and book review column.

Physically, Kobold Quarterly #20 is an improvement over Kobold Quarterly #19. It feels far less rushed, the art is more appropriate, and there are fewer editorial problems. The issue also feels as it has much more in the way of content. Similarly, the inclusion of more content, even if only a slight increase, for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition makes the issue feel more balanced. Anyone who wants to play a character akin to Legolas will get a lot out of the issue, but equally, the article on Ooze magic begs to be added to a campaign (now can I persuade my GM to me play a Kobold Sorcerer with the Ooze Bloodline?). There is material aplenty in Kobold Quarterly #20 that can be added to a campaign, with the detail galore present that add flavour and feel.

At the 19th Kobold

Regular as clockwork, along comes another issue of Kobold Quarterly from Open Design, the only games magazine to support Dungeons & Dragons – and its primary variants – or any more than the one RPG and make it to the shelves at your friendly, local gaming store. As with previous issues, Kobold Quarterly #19 provides support for Dungeons & Dragons style RPGs, particularly Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition as well as of Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying from Green Ronin Publishing; and as with previous issues, Kobold Quarterly #19 comes with a theme or two. This time around, those themes are death, magic, and a trip to the East along with various other articles and regular columns.

It should be made clear upfront that the focus upon the games that the magazine normally covers shifts with Kobold Quarterly #19. There is just the one articles for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition in this issue, the rest primarily being for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. This is not to say that the articles written for one system will not be of use for the other, but the DM or GM will have to provide the mechanics.

The issue’s death theme gets off to a decidedly clean start with Marc Radle’s “The White Necromancer: To Understand Life One Must Also Understand Death.” Written for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, this explores characters that though fascinated with the dead, instead honour them and aid the living. The White Necromancer is an arcane spellcaster with a limited spellbook, but with the ability to heal and as his studies of the undead advance, knowledge of some of the abilities of the undead, including Ghost Walk. This is a nice twist upon the Necromancer concept, allowing a character to interact with the undead without turning to the dark side.

More deathly characters for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game are discussed in “Archetypes of Death: For a More Badass Barbarian, Druid, Monk, or Summoner” by Phillip Larwood. The three Archetypes are the Deathrager, a Barbarian whose link to the spirit world is so strong that he can stave off death and eventually, even fight on after death; the Grave Druid, a Druid that protects graveyards and wards against the undead; the Master of Worms, a Monk that uses the abilities of the undead to fight them; and the Zombie Master, a Summoner that summons a zombie or skeleton, and then is able to evolve it to his own design. Of the four, the last again feels the least interesting, but the first three feel well thought out and will make nice additions to campaigns with a darker tone to them.

With “Bottled Hubris: New Discoveries and Archetypes for Alchemists,” Jerall Toi gives new options for the Alchemist Class in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Using options available in the Advanced Player’s Guide and Ultimate Magic, this delves into the issue’s magic theme by giving deeper areas of study for the alchemist and new ways of playing the Class. The new Discoveries range from hardening the Alchemist’s mind to the influence of Outsiders and his skeleton with spikes against melee weapons to enhancing the intimidation effect of his intelligence and enhancing a familiar or other animal companion with another Discovery. The three new Archetypes are the Calligraphist, able to conjure creatures and weapons from his ink drawings; the Evolutionist specialises in the enhancement of his animal companion; and the Specialist, which takes up the study of singular areas of knowledge, such as the stars and planes beyond, plants, or the transmutation of metal. Of these Archetypes, the Calligraphist is likely to be the most attractive to play, whereas the Specialist as presented feels a little undeveloped.

The magic theme continues with what is potentially a divisive discussion of the magic shop in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. “Magic Shops, What's In Store: How to Turn a DM Nightmare into a Tool for Better Games” by Christina Stiles and Spike Y. Jones explores how and why the magic shop might exist in a Dungeons & Dragons style world, the divisive aspect being that some GMs feel that allowing players to purchase magic items for their characters detracts from the wondrous nature of magic and the sense of achievement in gaining such items during their adventures. The arguments are well realised and the article is supported by several sample magic shops, the most entertaining being “The Bargain Bin” and its accompanying list of items that are magical, but far from perfect (Scroll of Faecal Storm? Euw!).

The last entry following the issue’s magic theme is “The Gordian Knot” by Mario Podeschi. Again for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, this is winning entry in the magazine’s the Relics of Power competition. It is an artefact created from the very tapestry of the planes that protects the owner against detection and scrying. In either case, the owner has to work the threads of the Knot to activate its abilities. This is great artefact for any campaign that involves high level magical scrying and intrigue.

“Welcome to the Dragon Empires” is the first of two articles that take the reader out East to Tian Xia in the world of Golarion, the home setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Written by James Jacobs, this is a quick introduction to the region of Golarion that will be detailed further in the forthcoming Dragon Empires Gazetteer and Dragon Empires Primer supplements as well as the current Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Adventure Path, Jade Regent.The piece is really a list of the setting’s key points, since it lacks the space to go into any detail. That said, it is a preview and the setting does look interesting.

More detail though, is to be found in the companion article, “Làu Kiritsu: Golarion’s Lord Of Absolute Obedience.” Written by Richard Pett – one of my favourite writers for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game – it describes Tian Xia’s greatest archdevil as well as the strictures that his adherents must obey absolutely. There is plenty of flavour in this article, not just in how he is worshipped, but also in the magical objects particular to Làu Kiritsu’s worship that constrain and admonish those that they are used on. The author also provides some nice advice as to how Làu Kiritsu can be used in a game and a trio of good adventure seeds.

The issue comes with three generic articles. The first is Rick Hudson’s “Courting Adventure: Bringing the Royal Court to Life in Your Games,” an excellent description of the courtier and the offices that he could take at court along with some adventure hooks and the author’s inspirations. This would be useful for any game that takes place at court – not just one in a fantasy setting, whether that is a court that the player characters have to visit or hold themselves. The latter is a possibility for characters of higher levels, of course. The second is “10 Ways to Turn Dull Traps into High-Stakes Encounters” by Britian Oates, which discusses how to make traps in a GM’s game much more of a challenge. The last is Monte Cook’s “Balance-Free Bonuses (Or, Making the Elf More Elvish),” part of his regular Game Theories column. It explores how to give “little” benefits that expand racial abilities without resorting to the traditional “+1” effect. For example, whilst Elves never get dirty and can see half again as far as humans, they also possess mystical empathy/intuition that grants them occasional flashes of insight. Only though, when the DM wants impart some information, and not when a player wants it to work. It is a well thought out set of ideas and a referee should be inspired to add these to his game or create some of his own.

The two articles for Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying from Green Ronin Publishing are not actually for the Dragon Age setting, but rather for the age system. They are all about characters and backgrounds, both written to tie in with Open Design’s forthcoming Midgard Campaign Setting. The first of these is “Land of Horse and Bow: 6 Midgard Campaign Setting Backgrounds for AGE” by Simon English, which give Backgrounds suitable for characters originating from the Rothenian Plain, whether that is a Free Tribes Centaur, Windrunner Elf, Steppes Shaman, or Vidam Boyar. The sextet are pleasingly accompanied by a list of Arcane Lance variants such as Flame, Lightning, Wind, and Winter that are more likely to find their way in to Dragon Age before the Backgrounds, that is until the arrival of the Midgard Campaign Setting.

Just as the “Land of Horse and Bow” provides Backgrounds for one region, Josh Jarman’s “Scions of Terror: 4 New AGE Character Backgrounds for the Midgard Campaign Setting” gives Backgrounds for another, in this case, the Western Wastes. These Backgrounds have a harder edge to them, each necessary to survive the dangers of the Western Wastes, the grey desert created following a war of magic. What is interesting about both of these articles is seeing how they model elements particular to Dungeons & Dragons. In this case, races more commonly found in Dungeons & Dragons such as the Goblin with the Dust Goblin Dune Trader which scavenges the Western Wastes for artefacts and the Tiefling with the Tintagerian Hellborn.

The one article in Kobold Quarterly #19 for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition is Brian A Liberge’s “Bark at the Moon: Werewolf Themes for Your Character.” This explores the origins of lycanthropy and how to make the werewolf playable as a player character, moving it away from the ravenous beast into a more heroic role. As much as the author tries to add flavour to the various powers of this new character theme, it still feels all too mechanical and not up to the ideas presented in the main body of the article.

Similarly, this issue comes with a single adventure. As with recent issues, Matthew J. Hanson’s “Aneela, Human Cleric: Party of One” is a solo adventure. It is a quick affair, easy to play, and pits a young cleric against some undead, keeping it in theme with the issue’s deathly theme. Rounding out the issue is Kobold Quarterly’s usual book review column; Kobold Diplomacy column, this time interviewing the award-winning indie designer of Grey Ranks and Fiasco, Jason Morningstar; and Wolfgang Baur’s regular Free City of Zobeck end piece.

Physically, Kobold Quarterly #19 is disappointing. This is not to say that some of the artwork, including the cover, is excellent, but in places it feels ill suited. Further, the magazine needs editing in places, which was not the case with previous issues. Overall, the impression with Kobold Quarterly #19 is it has been rushed. It also feels as if there is less to this issue than previous ones, but that may be due to the fact that “Welcome to the Dragon Empires” is more of an enticement than something that can be added to a game.

There is much to like about this latest issue. Though some will decry its shift in emphasis away from Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition to Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, this does mean that there is more room for the Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying articles, and the likelihood is that there will be more of them given the forthcoming publication of the Midgard Campaign Setting. Kobold Quarterly #19 contains an interesting selection of articles that each in their own way can be added to a game, with the plethora of strong options for the player outweighing the GM support.

Kobold Comes of Age

Another three months and another issue of Kobold Quarterly reaches the shelves of your friendly local gaming store to provide the reader with more support for Dungeons & Dragons in the form of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, as well as Open Design’s house setting of Midgard, best typified by the Free City of Zobeck. This issue – number eighteen – brings the magazine to its “Age of Majority” and in doing so, devotes itself to the themes familiar to players of both games, that of adventurers, flaws, dragons, and magic, supporting them with the usual mix of articles and columns as well as three whole scenarios.

Unfortunately, Kobold Quarterly #18 begins with some bad news. Its first article is the only one for use with the AGE System, the mechanics seen first in Green Ronin’s highly regarded Dragon Age: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying – Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5, and then more recently in Open Design’s Midgard Bestiary Volume 1. Fortunately, Steve Kenson’s “Gifts of the Gods: Divine Talents for the Adventure Gaming Engine RPG,” plugs a hole that opens up as soon as you move the AGE System into any setting that resembles a Dungeons & Dragons style campaign setting. Which is that it does not delineate between the divine and the arcane roles in the same way or as clearly as Dungeons & Dragons does, but by allowing the Divine Gift to be attached to each of the AGE System's three classes – Mage, Rogue, and Warrior – Kenson enables a player to create a scholar-priest, proselytizing preacher, or crusader type character. Taking the Divine Gift also allows a character access to miraculous abilities and divine stunts tied into the Domain of the god worshipped. Of course, the Domains of the Gods of Zobeck are listed. This is an excellent means by which divine characters can be added to an AGE System game without resorting to the less flexible option of adding a whole new Class.

The class options continue not for the AGE System, but for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Ryan Costello, Jr. offers us “The Savant: Master All Trades as a Universal Hero,” a Class that writes down things that he sees and hears about as Knacks and Trades in a Notebook and then is able to recall them and bring them into play. The idea is one day he might see how a wizard casts Magic Missile or an Orc wield a double-headed axe, and then on another day he can do both or any of an array of abilities and powers that taking a single Class would not allow him to do. It presents a very flexible Class concept, though one that is not straightforward to play.

More straightforward is Tracy Hurley’s “Ecology of the Minotaur: Children of the Moon,” which describes the Minotaur for the Midgard Campaign Setting. It does a good job of mixing the race’s bloodlust and love of mazes whilst also making them an honourable people. Mike Welham and Adam Daigle provide another character option and add to the issue’s dragon theme with “The Dragon Hunter: Taking Down the Titans,” a ten-level Class focused entirely on taking down dragons, whilst “Beast Masters: Why Should Humanoids Have All the Fun?” by Marc Radle gives an alternative to the Leadership feat in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. With the Beast Leadership feat a character can take fauna as followers rather than fellow men, a useful expansion for Druid or Ranger characters.

More feats are added to the issue’s draconic and magic themes with David Schwartz’s “Into the Dragon’s Den: Lair Feats and Auras.” Written for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, it allows the GM to add spell effects to the lairs of his dragons. For example, with Inspiration [Lair], a Bronze Dragon would let its servants and visitors breathe in its aquatic environment, whilst a White Dragon might cast Fickle Flurries [Lair] to impede the movement of any intruders in its lair. This is a nice combination of colour with rules effect. Two further articles carry on the draconic theme. These include Adam W. Roy’s “Cavaliers of Flame and Fury,” which add two knightly orders to the Midgard Campaign Setting, one of which rides dragons; and Wolfgang Baur’s regular Free City of Zobeck column which also looks at dragons in the Midgard Campaign Setting.

The other magic article in the issue is Phillip Larwood’s “Synergistic Magic: Combining Spells for Twice the Power,” which does exactly what says on the tin and has the potential to add the most fun in the game. Again written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, it allows a wizard to combine two of his spells or his spells with another wizard to get extra effects. For example, combining the Maze and Summon Monster V spells gets you Claw Maze which allows the caster to not only trap an opponent in a labyrinth, but subjects them to claw attacks from the walls of the maze too!

The flaw theme comes in three flavours. It gets very personal in Anthony W. Eichenlaub’s “Soul Broker,” which details a type of contract that once signed, lets a character borrow either rare or magical items in return a temporary portion of the character’s soul. Another option allows for a player character to actually offer these contracts instead of taking them, this it suggests as being a task favoured by Tieflings. Either way, the inclusion of this in a game gives it a diabolic tinge.

Situational flaws come with a discussion of “10 Reasons Why Your Characters Should Be in Jail” for both Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Written by Russell Jones, it is really more of a generic fantasy piece that explores how to use these suggestions to create adventures rather than to punish the player characters. Philippe-Antoine Menard gives us the type of flaws that every player character wants in “The Heroic Flaw.” An actual generic article, players of other more progressive RPGs will be familiar with its concept of a player character having a personal flaw such as a Code of Honor, Vow, or Personality Quirk, and in return for bringing it into the game, the GM will reward the player with a point that can be used for a variety of effects. Familiarity should not breed contempt though, as this is good way to encourage roleplaying.

The first two of the issue’s three scenarios are written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Matthew J. Hanson’s “Silus and the Red Dogs” is a solo adventure that comes with a ready-to-play character, a Halfling Thief, and in just forty paragraphs sees Silus attempt to escape his current life as a member of a street gang. This is enough to show how the basic combat rules work and tell a decent little story, though it would have been more interesting if Silus could have been allowed to make use of his Thieves Skills. It is followed by “The Exorcists,” a scenario that combines the themes of dragons, flawed characters, and magic. Written for four characters of first level by Tim and Eileen Conners, it begins with the adventurers waking up to find themselves having been resurrected by mistake and trapped in a monastery by a rampaging, possessed Gold Dragon! This is a single-session adventure that can either be run as a one-shot or the start of a new campaign, and is a clever, well thought out little affair.

The third scenario, by Jonathan Roberts, is for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Designed for a party of four characters of fifth level, “Who Watches the Watch Fires?” opens with the adventurers discovering not only the dead bodies of some border guards, but their watchtower still manned and foreign troops making their way beyond the border. Can the adventurers find out who now mans the watchtower and ensure that the fires are lit to warn of the impending invasion? This is an efficient, short adventure whose focus is primarily upon the Skill Test, which only serves to highlight one of the reasons why I dislike Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, that skills are a feature of the game, sort of a bonus to all that combat. (Open Design is to be commended for having Josh Jarman, author of the Midgard Bestiary, Volume 1, do a conversion of this scenario for the AGE System and make it available for download on its website).

Of the other articles, Paul Baalham’s “Elementary, My Dear Wizard: How to Build a Rock-Solid Mystery” works as well for other fantasy RPGs as much as it does for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition which it is written for. “Tools of War – Siege Weaponry” by Matt James is also for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, adding these weapons of war to work with the rules given in Open Design’s Soldiers of Fortune supplement.

All of which of course, is supported by the usual selection of cartoons, advice columns, book reviews, and more. Amongst the assortment is “Battle Wizards & Sword Maidens: Essential Asian Movies for Gamers” by David Gross, which provides a nice introduction to the Wuxia genre.

If there is a downside to Kobold Quarterly #18, it is there are fewer articles for use with Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. That is subject of course, to Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition being the game of your choice. Not so this reviewer, but it seems only fair that said reviewer point that out. That aide, this is another fine issue, the mix of articles achieves a pleasing balance and the inclusion of three scenarios makes the issue all the better.

Villains Never Get Even

After a change of straplines with the last issue, Kobold Quarterly returns to its ever faithful, “The Switzerland of Edition Wars.” Which is a little odd, because this edition also happens to contain material for Green Ronin Publishing’s’ Dragon Age: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying, and that is yet to get involved in the fraternal squabble that is Dungeons & Dragons. Nevertheless, there are enough articles in this edition to satisfy devotees of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game alike. As to the theme behind this latest issue of Open Design's Kobold Quarterly, it is one of villains and villainy, and since villains never truly get even, it seems appropriate that the issue number is seventeen.

Getting under villainy’s hood begins with Michael Kortes’ “So We Meet Again!” Written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, this gives optional extra powers called Adversary Abilities to both player characters and NPCs when they become sworn enemies, such as Ears to the Ground which grants a Diplomacy bonus when gathering information about your nemesis. Adversary Abilities are graded, so that initially only Returned Foe abilities can be gained, but after surviving subsequent encounters with each other, both will learn better ones, right up to Arch-Nemesis abilities. This is a neat idea that progressively gives an edge to the player characters whilst still making the villain more capable and more likely to survive a meeting with his foe. With “The Right Way to Do Wrong,” Brandon Hope switches scale in describing a nonet of cons and tricks that can be pulled by player character and NPC rogues alike. Although again written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, the article is relatively light in terms of rules and mechanics, so they can be adapted to most games.

Stefen Styrsky’s “The Scourges of Vael Turog” describes the results of villainous efforts long in the past of Open Design’s forthcoming Midgard Campaign Setting. Derived from magical research the three diseases have mutated over the years, one being transmitted by handling magical items, another actually becoming a physical hazard and one last has gained a certain sentience. Although possible encounter groups are listed and a potential adventure detailed, what flavour the article has is lost under the mundanely mechanical rules of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Complementing all of this practice is “The Value of the Monster,” Monte Cook’s exploration of the monster and the villain in his regular Game Theories column, which nicely puts the meaning back in monster.

It is my heartfelt belief that every issue of Kobold Quarterly should include an adventure, so issue seventeen has given me no cause to grumble. “Ambush in Absalom” by Mark Moreland is an Official Pathfinder Society Quest, so is specifically designed for use as part of Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign. This is a quick, and since it takes place in a sewer, a dirty affair that has the player characters attempting to locate a lost messenger who took a shortcut underground. Their instructions are that if they cannot find the messenger, they should at least find the message and deliver that. A mostly combat orientated affair for low level characters, this could be slipped into a game set in the Free City of Zobeck. Likewise, “The Black Goat,” the Zobeck tavern famed for its mundane magic show as fully described by Richard L. Smith II is located to a locale of the GM’s choice, along as the horror in the basement goes with it, of course.

From its title, it is clear that Matthew J. Hanson’s “Elf Needs Food Badly” has been inspired by one computer game at least, though with recipes as diverse as Candied Spider and Gnomesalt Taffy, it could just as easily been influenced by a more modern MMORPG. Anyway, this article for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, describes fifteen magical foodstuffs and a Feat with which to cook them. When eaten during a rest, each provides a bonus to any Healing Surge plus an extra effect such as Poysenberry Pie’s poison resistance. This could be a fun addition to your Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, but tastes will vary. Candied Spider anyone…?

“Secrets of the Four Golden Gates” by David Adams provides support for the monk in Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition with four new societies and their associated items. For example, adherents of the Path of the Singing Sparrows greatly value nature, and sparrows and songbirds in particular. Their bamboo flutes are capable of inflicting damage when played, and each day, will grant a listener extra Hit Points. The items are themselves well done and nicely supported with plenty of background.

For anyone with a penchant for pyrotechnics, Jonathan McAnulty offers up “Magical Squibs, Crackers, and Fireworks” for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Often just as dangerous for the user as they are for the target, these offer something a little more than just bangs and bedazzlements. For example, a Blinding-Goblin Cracker explodes in a blinding flash, whilst the sparkles from a Guiding Rocket always drift to the North. Anyway, these can add pleasing bang to your game, and would be sure to fascinate any overly curious Halfling.

Completely ignoring the Edition Wars, Quinn Murphy’s “On the Streets and In the Books,” which details two new sets of rules for Dragon Age: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying, both of which come with their own Stunt Tables for when the players roll well. As the title suggests the second of these sets covers research, whilst the former handles chases and fights in chases. Both new rule sets are useful, but there is an imbalance between the two, the rules for chases being more detailed, but have fewer options on the Stunt Table, whilst the opposite is the case for the research rules. It is the concept behind the Stunt Tables in Dragon Age: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying that Jeff Tidball discusses in “Feats of Stunning Might and Brilliance,” looking at how they work and why they are fun before suggesting how concept might be applied to Dungeons & Dragons. As a bolt on feature this does not add much in the way of complexity to earlier iterations of the game, but to later versions that have Feats, it does and in part, would it actually being doing that existing aspects of the Dungeons & Dragons rules are meant to be doing already?

Tom Allman’s “Lackeys, Hirelings, and Henchmen” and “Group Concepts” by Mario Podeschi all but complement each other. Both are generic articles, although the latter is written for the Midgard Campaign Setting suggesting as it does ways, means, and reasons as to why the player characters come together. It gives several campaign frameworks under which they can do so, from all playing members of the same race or species, profession or organisation to being from the same family or on the same quest. Accompanying each framework is a number of examples particular to Midgard, though there is nothing to stop a DM adapting them to his campaign setting, each of which shows how a framework can give a campaign direction. Once a group concept and its particulars has been decided upon, the player characters are going to want some hired help and the DM some interesting NPCs, to which Allman’s “Lackeys, Hirelings, and Henchmen” provides a serviceable introduction. Plus, if the characters want a four legged friend, Skip Williams describes everything that you might want to know about owning a guard dog in “The Barking Kind of Party Animal” for column, “Ask the Kobold.”

“Getting Ahead” is about as bad a title you could get for an article devoted to the power of the severed head, but fortunately, there is a deliciously evil streak to relish in Ben McFarland’s article for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The Craft Shrunken Head Feat is one that every tribal shaman or necromancer should consider taking. Lastly, should an adventure result in character death, then “It’s Not Supposed to End This Way” by Scott A. Murray describes six ways to avoid it, though not without consequences, which should be entertaining to play.

As we have come to expect, this issue of Kobold Quarterly is rounded out with its usual supporting features. There are the cartoons, the letters page, the book reviews, and the regular column that ends every issue, Free City of Zobeck. This is in addition to Monte Cook’s already mentioned theories about monsters, but there is also another interview with “If You're Having Fun,” this time with Jeff Tidball, author of supplements for RPGs as diverse as Ars Magica, All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and The Edge, and co-publisher of the excellent Things We Think About Games.

After the previous issue, Kobold Quarterly #17 is as a whole, not as interesting an edition. Understandably, Kobold Quarterly #16 had more of focus and more of a reason for that focus in the announcement about the Midgard Campaign Setting, but it also had more energy to it. This is not suggest that there is any one bad article in this issue or that it being an odd numbered issue that it is suffering from Star Trek movie curse, but rather as a whole this issue is not quite as satisfying. Nevertheless, the articles are themselves good, with “Getting Ahead,” “Group Concepts,” and “The Right Way to Do Wrong” all being excellent, making Kobold Quarterly #17 another solid issue.

Fortune On Open Design's Fifth

Let it be known that for whatever reasons, Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition is far from my favourite iteration of the classic fantasy roleplaying game. Which begs the question, what I am doing reviewing a book that is expressly written with that game system in mind when my target audience are not necessarily fans of that game either? The answer is simple. Soldiers of Fortune is from a publisher that I like – Open Design; which publishes a magazine that I like – Kobold Quarterly; which publishes supplements that I like, from the Zobeck Gazetteer: An Introduction to the Free City to Sunken Empires: Treasures and Terrors of the Deep; and because Open Design is celebrating its fifth birthday last week. So think of this, if you will, as a birthday present for all concerned at Open Design. A late birthday present I will admit, but a birthday present all of the very same.

Soldiers of Fortune is the latest sourcebook from Open Design, an examination of the mercenary and the sellsword, of the reasons that he fights, of the ways in which this can be introduced to a campaign, and of the ways in which his wars, battles, and campaigns can involve the player characters. Ostensibly, it is written for use with Open Design’s house setting of Midgard, which the publisher began describing with the Zobeck Gazetteer: An Introduction to the Free City, but much of the contents of Soldiers of Fortune applies to any fantasy medieval setting as much as it does to Midgard.

The book opens with a discussion of the most obvious question when it comes to war – why? The five reasons given – Conquest, Defence, Necessity, Patriotism, and Religion are not examined to any great depth, and nor need they be, since that will come with whatever flavour and detail that the DM wants to add. Each reason though is supported by a trio of adventure hooks, one for each of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition’s character tiers. There are also suggestions on how to run a multi-system campaign, for example, using Games Workshop’s Warhammer Fantasy Battles to handle the broader combat whilst still using Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition for the character involvement.

As its title suggests, “Warfare in Midgard,” the second chapter is perhaps the most specific to Open Design’s home setting. It examines how each of the major races in Midgard approaches and handles warfare, so providing background material that works well with the five reasons for war mentioned above. The more generic part of the chapter provides three extended skill challenges – Besieged, Command the legion, and Defend the Kingdom, that each in their way map out a whole military campaign. Again, they require fleshing out with flavour and detail, but are easily adapted to other settings.

The third chapter, “Midgard Stratagems,” devotes itself to the most highly regarded treatise on strategy in Midgard, “The Midgard Stratagems.” Written by the near mythical heroic knight, Sir Yaran the Even-Handed, it lays out and discusses the seven edicts or principles of strategic warfare – the Calculations of War, The Challenge of War, Positioning, Engaging the Force, The Army on the March, Areas of Resistance, and The Five Situations of War. Heavily influenced by Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War, these pieces of advice are not really that specific to Midgard such is the aphorism-like nature of each. What this means is that they can easily be slipped into the setting of the DM’s choice. Now while the advice is good, it is almost a pity that the seven edicts were presented separately so that a player could have them for his character to read in-game independent of the rest of Soldiers of Fortune. Perhaps they could be made available as a download for that purpose. A nice touch is that each edict is supported with an associated background, representing a character’s mastery of said edict. For example, the associated background for the fifth edict, The Army on the March is “Field Medicine,” which grants bonuses that enable an army to march effectively without succumbing to the effects of terrain, weather, and disease.

Mechanically, mercenary characters are supported with just the single new Theme, that of Mercenary, but a host of new Feats; At-Will, Encounter, Daily, and Utility Powers of levels one through twenty-nine; and Paragon Paths. The Powers, some of which work with the use of siege engines, are drawn from a variety of sources, enabling Arcane, Divine, Martial, and other Powers to select them instead of the standards given for their associated classes. Which means that it is possible to build mercenary style characters that are not just Fighters, Paladins, and Rangers, but also Mages, Priests, Warlocks, and so on. This aspect is also carried into the four Paragon Paths. While “Soldier of Fortune” and “Veteran of War” are what more or less what you would expect, the author gives two other interesting Paragon Paths. The first is the “Sacrosanct Legionnaire,” which is for the mercenary who fights with the conviction of his faith, while the “Spellscourge Mercenary” actively hunts down spellcasters for coin and country. Certainly the latter lends itself to interesting possibilities away from the battlefield as the potential enemy of a player character spellcaster.

One issue that the author raises with these new options is that of party optimisation. The inference is that this an important aspect of the game and of the mercenary campaign, but none of these aspects, important or otherwise are really ever discussed. Except that is, in the author’s note that character optimisation should never come at the expense of character, and though good advice, seems at odds with his intent. We shall never know, for the matter is left un-discussed.

Every Dungeons & Dragons supplement has to have its selection of magical items of course, and fortunately, those in Soldiers of War are appropriate, well thought out, and amusing in places. Of the latter, the Deserter’s Boots stand out, preventing as they acts of cowardice by making harder to run away from battle. In fact, Soldiers of War contains few personal magical items, listing instead the Battle Standards carried by various forces in Midgard along with the abilities they grant to their units, as well as several common rituals and martial practices. The given Battle Standards can easily be adjusted to most fantasy settings, or at the very least serve as inspiration for both DM and players to create their own. In general, the rituals and practices, such as Forced March, Inspiring Speech, and Supplies Divination are more utilitarian than combative in nature.

To get a mercenary campaign started, Soldiers of Fortune includes a short battle scenario designed for five characters of seventh level. “The Battle of Sanguine-Crag Pass” is again nominally set in the world of Midgard, but is easily located elsewhere. The scenario opens with the player characters hired to take a mountain pass at all costs, and is presented not just as a series of encounter to be overcome, but also as a series of skill challenges that replicate the guidelines given earlier in the book. As with much of the rest of the book, this is another example that can be fitted to suit other campaigns and settings.

Rounding out Soldiers of Fortune is an extensive bestiary of “Monsters, Minions, and Templates.” The templates, such as Bold Commander, Inspiring Sergeant, Jittery Conscript, and Reckless Commander allow a DM to add detail and differentiate between the NPCs in his military campaign, whilst minion hordes get new powers for on the battlefield that avoids the DM having to roll for every single one. The new monsters range from the generic archetypes for the major races and mercenary types to be found in Midgard right up to Perun, God of War and Lightning! The last three entries – the ballista, the cannon, and the trebuchet – will invariably end up on the battlefield and tie into the feats and Powers given earlier.

Physically, Soldiers of Fortune is a nice looking book, though you getting the feeling that both the artwork and the cartography would have looked better had both been presented in colour. Although it needs an edit in places, the book is well written.

If Soldiers of Fortune has a problem, it lies in the balance between the generic content and that relevant to Midgard. The likelihood is that the reader is going to want more of either, if not both. So there is a certain lack of depth to the book for that reason, just as there is a certain lack depth in the book because the book never examines the place of the mercenary beyond the battlefield. It is almost as if they have no interior life. Neither problem as such is down to the author. The first comes of his remit from the publisher, as does the second, but the second also comes from the choice of game system which does not always lend itself towards play away from the skirmish style play mandated by the Encounters format.

Nevertheless, this is far from being a poor book. Soldiers of Fortune provides an excellent set of tools if the DM wants to run a more military orientated campaign in his Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition game and the book is full of details, large and small, that the DM can bring to his wars.

Your Zobeck Handbook

If you follow the gaming hobby – and to be fair, that is not necessarily an easy prospect with the dearth of good news sites – you will have scarcely failed to notice that one of the projects currently under way at Open Design is the development of Wolfgang Baur’s own campaign of Midgard into a full blown campaign setting. Since the launch of Kobold Quarterly in 2007, Baur has been drip feeding us small details about the world, or more specifically, about its signature setting, the Free City of Zobeck. From these we have learnt that Zobeck is a mercantile city ruled by a council rather than the nobility, that it is famed for its manufacture of clockwork and steam driven mechanisms, that it is known for the high number of Kobolds who number amongst its population, and other interesting facts. Unfortunately, beyond that, finding out more about Zobeck takes a little effort, as the only book available is the Zobeck Gazetteer and that like many of Open Design books being only being available from the publisher’s website.

Published in 2008, the Zobeck Gazetteer: An Introduction to the Free City is a slim volume that provides just about information to get you started, but still leaves you both wanting more and with questions unanswered. It is written for use with the d20 System, so is compatible with Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition and to some extent, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, but apart from details on the Gearforged, clockwork devices, and clockwork magic for both arcane and divine spellcasters, the book is low on technical details. For example, not one of the single NPCs mentioned is given a full write up with attributes and statistics. Rather they are given simple thumbnail descriptions along with an indication of their class and level.

The Zobeck Gazetteer confirms much of what has been hinted at in issues of Kobold Quarterly – and indeed, actually references issues of the magazine for more information – that the city was ruled by House Stross until eighty years ago when the populace rose up against its harsh rule and demonic practices. Since then, under the patronage of Rava the Gear Goddess, the city has grown and prospered, establishing itself as a Free City and a trade nexus founded on its skill with cogs and gears, the silver from the mines worked by the Kobolds below the city, and the smuggling that passes under the city via the Cartways. The book also suggests that some of those infernal practices goes on still in the city, but obviously in secret. It does not elaborate on this though.

What the book describes the Free City’s rulers and most notable figures, its most notable inns and taverns, the presence of the Kobolds and their Ghetto – with a focus on the traps they lay for the unwary, its main districts, guilds, and gods, the latter known for penchant for dabbling in Zobeck’s affairs. Every section is accompanied by two or three adventure hooks for the GM to develop. A little information is given about the locations that lie outside of the city, but still within its borders. This limited geographical detail does mean that the city could be placed in a DM’s own campaign. A map of Zobeck is included the book, but it is in black and white – a colour version is available, and it does not show the full extent of the city’s borders beyond its walls. It is full of little details, such as how the Kobolds waylay their quarry, the Great Stross Clock which is said to hide an oracle and a temple to Rava the Gear Goddess, and how the Vigilant Brotherhood of Scribes serves the city not just as its memory and history, but also as its secret police.

Along with the description of the actual city, Baur also includes his designer notes for the setting. From these, the main thing that we learn is that his aim in creating Zobeck is to present a setting that does not draw from Western Europe for its fantasy influences. Even apart from the fact that the Zobeck Gazetteer describes a partly industrialised city rather than a rural idyll, this is not a Tolkienesque setting and its fantasy is low rather than high. Instead, he primarily draws from his own family’s origins in Eastern Europe, bringing to the fore elements already present in Dungeons & Dragons like Golems and Kobolds whilst also adding the Ghetto, mentioning the Kariv – who might be the setting’s equivalent of the Gypsies, but they are never explicitly described, and so on. The Golems show up in the presence of the Gearforged and the other mechanisms in the city, whilst the Ghetto in Zobeck is not home to a religious minority, but to the Kobolds, who have turned its tiny narrow streets into a warren of traps and tricks to foil any non-Kobold daft enough to enter the Ghetto. Even then, the Ghetto’s border guards take great delight in searching any non-Kobold going in and coming out for contraband and then taxing them.

That said, the Zobeck Gazetteer’s influences are limited, Baur never quite managing to bring in those from further afield that he clearly wants. It is true that they are hinted at, such as the dark and oppressive forests beyond the city’s borders and neighbouring nations ruled by undead masters, but the book’s influences are mostly confined to emphasising things already present in Dungeons & Dragons and thus to a limited area suggested by the presence of both Golems and Kobolds. The former suggests Prague, while the Kobold suggests Germany. So what the setting is more of a “mitteleuropan” feel, more the feel of central Europe. For anyone who has played in the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, this will certainly be familiar.

The book’s technical details include the first write up of the Gearforged, an alternate player character race to the Warforged that is now a staple of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. Clockwork driven, each Gearforged possesses a soul which passed into it via a ritual from the elderly, the dying, the dedicated, and the convicted crook, which means that a player character can live on if he purchases the materials and undergoes the correct ritual to become a Gearforged. Revered in Zobeck for their aid in defending the city, but there is nothing to stop a DM adding the Gearforged to his own game. They are described in more detail in the recently published Kobold Quarterly #16. Clockwork devices are also covered along with the Clockwork school of magic as well as numerous new spells, which together would make useful additional source material to go with “The Clockwork Adept: A Prestige Class of Mechanical Precision” article in Kobold Quarterly #16.

Lastly, several clockwork creatures are described. These include the Clockwork Watchman, the Steam Golem, and the pleasing little Weaving Spider, complex devices used by the Honourable Guild of Weavers to create amazingly fine pieces of cloth and tapestries. The Weaving Spider also has other uses, but the Honourable Guild of Weavers will admit nothing about this. If the player characters have to face one of these mechanisms, then they will soon discover that the Weaving Spider can shred cloth as well as it can weave it.

While the Zobeck Gazetteer: An Introduction to the Free City is certainly full of information, it only just about serves as an introduction to the setting. The issue is that not that it is not well written, but rather that each individual section is well written. It feels very much like a compilation of articles rather than a cohesive whole, even if they are all dedicated to the one setting. It also feels incomplete because not only does it refer to articles in Kobold Quarterly, sometimes for the smallest of details – for example, it mentions that a Kobold mining gang as being armed with kobold picks and refers to Kobold Quarterly #5 if the DM wants their statistics, it also refers to other aspects of the setting without explaining them. For example, who are the Cloven Nine?

Another issue is that of the map and the constant need to refer back to it when reading through the descriptions of the various districts. The map could have better used with relevant sections of the map being placed on the appropriate pages where the districts are described. This is a minor issue, but as a design feature it would have been useful. Similarly, it would have been nice to have had some discussion of how to apply the Dungeons & Dragons rules to the setting, for example of what character classes and races are available at the very least, if not the Domains for the various gods worshipped in Zobeck.

One of the reasons that I am looking forward to seeing the Midgard Campaign Setting is that it will address the issues that I have with the Zobeck Gazetteer: An Introduction to the Free City. That it will be a more rounded, cohesive book with more depth than is available in this primer. This does not mean that the Zobeck Gazetteer is worth dismissing out of hand, as it provides more information than is available elsewhere. Indeed I would recommend it for that very reason and for the fact that presents an introduction to an interesting setting that feels very different to the other cities described for Dungeons & Dragons. The Zobeck Gazetteer: An Introduction to the Free City evokes the heavy and close feel of an industrious European full of aged, but solid stone and timber buildings with secrets to hide. While still not quite perfect, The Zobeck Gazetteer: An Introduction to the Free City is the best starting pointing for anyone wanting information on the setting. Once there, you will be intrigued enough to both stay and want more information.

Sweet Kobold 16

Almost as soon as I review one issue of Kobold Quarterly, another one appears ready for me to read. Then again, I should be reading and reviewing them – and the host of other books to hand – a whole lot faster. Then again, that is by the by, because what you really want to know about is the latest issue of Kobold Quarterly #16. The most curious thing about this issue is the strap line, which reads “Digging Deathtraps All Winter” rather than the usual “The Switzerland of the Edition Wars.” Not curious because it means I have to find something else to make an aside about other than chocolate and cuckoo clocks, but rather because the last issue was the one with the traps theme. So if the theme of this issue is not traps, what is it? Well, in continuing to provide support for both Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, its theme is that of artifice and magic, in particular the artifice that is clockwork. In addition, this is the issue that announces Open Design’s forthcoming Midgard Campaign Setting, which was begun with the Zobeck Gazetteer, and Kobold Quarterly has been visiting again and again in its various issues. This provides the background for many of the magazine’s articles and serves to give the issue a more cohesive feel.

The Midguard based articles begin with the first article, Henry Brooks’ “Ecology of the Gearforged.” We have seen a mechanically bodied player character race before, in the form of the Warforged from Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, but the Gearforged are different. Clockwork driven, each Gearforged possesses a soul which passed into it via a ritual from the elderly, the dying, the dedicated, and the convicted crook, which means that a player character can live on if he purchases the materials and undergoes the correct ritual to become a Gearforged. Gearforged are revered in Zobeck for their aid in defending the city, but there is nothing to stop a DM adding them to his own game. A nice touch is that this article is for both game systems, Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, potentially making it useful to every reader rather than dividing and disappointing them by being for one game rather than the other. As much as I am not all that much of a fan of Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, covering both games in one magazine is a clever, more inclusive move.

The second article is specifically set in the Midgard Campaign Setting, but again, its contents can be transplanted elsewhere. “Odalisques and Concubines: Courtesans of Zobeck” by Stefen Styrsky expands on a “Free City of Zobeck” column from an earlier issue of the magazine and gives rules and support for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Apart from forcing me to look up the meaning of one of the words in the title because I had forgotten it – you can guess which one – this details an interesting variant of the Bard class complete with Conversation and Storytelling as alternative Perform skills, new spells that charm and entice the victim, and new magical items like the Pillow Book which collects salacious details about the high and mighty. Although written for the Midgard Campaign Setting, this class can easily be put into any game that primarily takes place in large towns and cities, or that has an Arabic feel. Although this type of character has been seen in other RPGs and settings, its potentially prurient nature has kept it out of Dungeons & Dragons since the appearance of the Houri character class back in White Dwarf #13. Of course, that was not an official character class, but this one is and is all the better for being tastefully done.

The third article written for the Midgard Campaign Setting is for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, and is the shortest of the pieces for it. Russell Jones’ “The Royal Order of the Golden Fox” examines an ancient, but secretive organisation that dedicates itself to the hunt, sometimes of dangerous animals, but sometimes of more dangerous foe, such as murderers, necromancers, and so on. It is useful as potential patron, especially for Druids, Rangers, and similar classes. One reason to accept the invitation to join is the Order’s treasury of magical items that it rewards members for completing quests.

The clockwork theme begun in “Ecology of the Gearforged” is continued in “The Clockwork Adept: A Prestige Class of Mechanical Precision” by Jason Sonia. This details a new Arcane Prestige Class that is capable of commanding, crafting, and understanding clockwork mechanisms. This works very well with the earlier “Ecology of the Gearforged” and it would have nice this had been worked into the Midgard Campaign Setting as well. In “Clockwork Monsters,” David Adams continues the theme for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition with rules and guidelines adding clockwork and steam driven technologies to a trap or creature.

As to artifice, Michael Kortes’ “Dancing Brooms, Skittering Sconces: Animated Mayhem” provides an entertainingly obvious use for the animate objects spell in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game – bringing to life the mundane contents of the room around you, just like Micky Mouse did in Disney’s Fantasia. More artifice comes with “Magic Items of Golarion,” though all of them complete and in working order. The twelve on show here all come from Paizo Publishing’s RPG Superstar Contest of 2010 and are inventive and clever. My favourite is the “Vessel of the Deep,” a squid shaped submarine that is stored as a bottle of ink, but others will enjoy the “Tankard of the Cheerful Duellist” and the “Goblin Skull Bomb.” Lastly, the dangers of artifice are explored in Scott A. Murray’s “Potion Miscibility” for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition, which looks at the potential perils and benefits of mix potions.

In what is a nice change, the issue comes with not one, but two short scenarios, both for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Christina Styles’ “Beer Run! An Adventure in the Northlands” uses material from the forthcoming Frozen Empires supplement to present the scenario and has the heroes raiding a giant’s mead hall to get back two casks of ale, and not just any ale, but ale that heals! The other scenario is more demanding and will require some roleplaying and investigation upon the part of the players. By Willie Walsh, “The Curse of The Blue Titchyboo” begins with one of the characters having his pockets picked and the culprit appearing to have run into a school. Not just any school, but a school for turning out Tengu! This is a pleasing change of pace after “Beer Run!” with the characters trying to determine feathered friend from feathered foe.

Elsewhere, Jonathan McAnulty explores and expands upon “Places of Sanctuary” for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, while monsters for Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition get a tune up in two articles. In Raymond D. Falgui’s “The Minion Academy: Making the Most of Your Minions” the mooks of the monster world get a last hurrah that will make player characters give them ever so slightly more consideration. When a minion dies – easy enough given that most possess a single Hit Point – it grants a one-shot combat ability to an ally, usually the minion’s lord and master. With “True Hit Locations: Monsters with Weak Spots and Tactical Combat” Matthew J. Hanson makes monsters more challenging with abilities and powers that can also be targeted by the heroes to negate them and weaken the creature.

As ever Kobold Quarterly#16 is rounded out with cartoons and comic strips, the Book Reviews column, a column of Ask the Kobold – this one devoted to illusions, and of course, Free City of Zobeck, the regular column that ends every issue, this time devoted to Zobeck’s armies. In addition Monte Cook tells you how he handled a really powerful magical item in “The Ring of Rule-Breaking” and in “If You're Having Fun” game designer Robin D. Laws is interviewed about his Gumshoe RPGs from Pelgrane Press; his guide to storytelling, Hamlet's Hit Points; and his Pathfinder fiction.

If truth be told, Kobold Quarterly #16 feels a much better issue than the last. There is much more of a focus to its themes and they are well served in all of the articles. There is more energy to the issue as well, partly due to the focus, but also to the fact that the Midgard Campaign Setting is announced and then supported to a greater length than has been the case in the past. I can only hope that this focus is maintained in future issues that will also further illuminate Open Design’s house campaign. The news that Green Ronin Publishing’s "age" or "adventure game engine" mechanics – used in the publisher’s Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5 – has polled well with the patrons of the Midgard Campaign Setting, also signals the possibility that we will see more articles for that system in Kobold Quarterly. In the meantime, an excellent issue and Kobold Quarterly certainly deserves its sweet sixteen.

Trapped in the Wilds

“Kobold Quarterly is a like a box of chocolates. You never know what you gonna get.” Which is about as cheap a way of summing the latest selection box of articles and columns devoted to Dungeons & Dragons and its variants as you could get. After all, the cover does proclaim the magazine to the “The Switzerland of the Edition Wars” and quotes about chocolate are more prevalent than they are about Cuckoo Clocks, so I can get away with paraphrasing Forest Gump at least the once. Which begs the question, what bad quote will I use to open my review of the next issue with? No idea, but I have three months to come up with something and I really do not want to set a precedent...

Anyway, what of the latest issue, Kobold Quarterly #15? As ever it primarily provides support for Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, but both these and other articles have wider application and are suited for Dungeons & Dragons style gaming in general. Of course, you do actually have some idea as to the contents of the issue, as they are highlighted on the cover, and as with previous issues, there is a theme to the latest issue, or rather two separate themes, that of traps and nature.

First up for the nature theme is Ryan Costello, Jr.’s Pathfinder Roleplaying Game article, “Nature’s Orders,” which describes three options or Orders for the Druid Class. Druids of the Bestial Order do not cast spells or use orisons, but has a deeper understanding of the animal world to gain natural attacks such as claws or constriction, better senses, and increased access to the Wild Shape ability. Druids of the Godai Order are not as bestial, but focus on casting spells that draw from the four elements and have access to the matching Clerical Domains. Lastly, Purist Druids are even more like Clerics, actually worshipping nature and able to cast Cure spells rather Summon Nature’s Ally. The article also discusses where the variants might found in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game default setting of Golarion. Of the three variants, the Purist Order is the least developed and the least interesting.

Also for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is Jonathan McAnulty’s “Ecology of the Giant Ant.” This not only examines the Giant Ant, but also adds a dozen variants upon the species, from Acrobat and Carpenter Ants to Trap-Jaw and Treecutter Ants. The lighter mechanics in this means that it is easier to adapt to other Dungeons & Dragons variants. Rounding out the nature theme is Stefen Styrsky’s “Children of the Wood,” also for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. This is in effect, a companion piece to the publisher’s forest adventure anthology set near the Free City of Zobeck – of which there is a review to come – Tales of the Margreve. This is written for the spellcaster in your game, providing a new Bloodline for the Sorcerer – literally the Blood of the Green, that embodies the natural powers of growth and renewal; Forest and Harvest Domains for Clerics and Druids; and the School of Nature for the Wizard who has studied life and death under the green canopy, represented by the Conjuration and Necromancy schools.

For Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, David Adams corals innumerable options for the rider in “Reasons to Ride.” These include new riding gear, but they primarily consist of new Feats such as Fury of the Horselords, which enables a Barbarian horseman to use a Rage Strike attack when charging. There are also several new mounts described that are more fantastical in nature. Overall, this is an excellent article for the DM that wants to take his campaign onto horseback.

The traps theme is explored in three articles. The first is for Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition and explores a logical development for anyone with the Thievery skill. It really works for the Rogue Class, because with “Rig This!” by John Flemming, he not only gets to disarm traps, but set them too! Not ones in situ mind you, but ones prepared earlier and carried on his back. In a concept reminiscent of the alchemical rituals discussed in Adventurers’ Vault, Rogues with the Trapsmith Feat can learn Schematics, each one the instructions for a clockwork, oiled, and alchemically fuelled bigger-than-a-bear trap. The article is supported with numerous examples and begs to fall into the hands of the inventive and wily Rogue. The second article for Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition offers an interesting approach to the trap. “Jack in a Trap” by Philippe-Antoine Menard combines monsters with traps and traps with monsters to create hybrids. The examples given have more of a Science Fiction feel than fantasy, despite their stone dressings. The third article devoted to traps is for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and is more obvious in its contents. Older gamers will find the nastiness of the traps described in Andrew Hinds’ “Pits of Despair” more than a little reminiscent of Flying Buffalo Games’ Grimtooth’s Traps, and if you are not aware of that venerable series, then Necromancer Games has released The Wurst of Grimtooth’s Traps! Anyway, if you do do dungeons – and if not, why not considering what the magazine is for? – then you can never have enough pits.

Theme aside, Kobold Quarterly #15 includes several articles for both games. For example, Anthony Eichenlaub expands upon the concept of skill powers first seen in the Player’s Handbook 3 to provide thirteen new skill stances in “Masters of Great Skill.” While the concept is welcome given how Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition has de-emphasised skills, the author never quite develops it fully. The problem is that the flavour text for each Utility or stance feels at odds with its effect and the effects themselves are often more powerful than the flavour text suggests or warrants. The DM would be wise to consider carefully if he wants these in his campaign. Better developed is Quinn Murphy’s “A Call to Awesome” for Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition in which he expands upon the critical roll. Where in the past that would have just given a player greater damage, with Critical Actions and Scene Criticals that natural roll of twenty can be used to trigger more interesting and longer lasting effects such as trying to being able to climb a behemoth and so gain access temporarily to a weak spot. This is an excellent article that nicely develops an idea. It will take a little set up by the GM to set up, but if done right, the heroes get to be more heroic than just hitting an opponent with an axe! Jobe Bittman gives us a nasty dungeon denizen, the Horakh in “King of the Monsters.”

Michael Kortes’ “Collaborative Killers” for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game keeps things mechanically simple for a discussion of tactical manoeuvres that a group can co-operate in performing. They include the “Eldritch Flank” for spellcasters, the “Lure” for pack animals, and “Pile On” for when the heroes need to overpower an opponent. Of course, there is nothing to stop a GM from turning them on his player characters! This is followed by “Blades from the Past” by Alex Putnam which describes ten historical weapons for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and suggests where they are used in Golarion.

Penultimately, in Mario Podeschi’s “Going Vertical” we are given a system-less discussion of side view dungeons exploring the fun, excitement, and danger of adventuring in the vertical rather than the horizontal. It comes with a full sample setting and suggests that the DM look at old fashioned side-scrolling video games for further inspiration. Lastly, Kobold Quarterly #15 returns to the Free City of Zobeck a second time for its more traditional visit, this time to explore the Cartways as its undercity is known.

Of course, there is always more to an issue of Kobold Quarterly than gaming articles and Kobold Quarterly #15 is no exception. Historians of the hobby will enjoy “Those Dark Dungeon Blues,” James Lowder’s look back at the hysteria surrounding Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s, while anyone with an interest in how we roleplay will enjoy Monte Cook’s opinion on simulation versus game play in “Simulating Game Reality.” Besides the usual fiction reviews, the latest issue includes an interview with the author and publisher, Margaret Weis. The fiction reviews are likely to be of more use than the interview or the issue’s two cartoons, and as good or as humorous as they are, they are just extras and hardly what the reader will come back to in the future.

Available as a seventy-six page magazine or a 33.59 MB PDF, Kobold Quarterly #15 is cleanly laid out and written to the magazine’s usual standard. It feels a little light on colour and technical in style. That said, much of the information it has to impart is technical and has to be technical to get that information across. With that limit in place, Kobold Quarterly #15 is as always, readable.

While not every article in Kobold Quarterly #15 hits its mark – “Masters of Great Skill” sadly letting the side down, there is as ever a plethora of ideas to be found in its pages. All of them are well presented and all of them are worth GM or DM leafing through to see what he can borrow and adapt. Sadly there is no scenario this issue, though my wish for some “Edition 0” material is all but answered in both “Going Vertical” and “Pits of Despair,” both of which have a pleasingly Old School feel. It is a pity that there are only three article devoted to its traps theme, though these articles are well done. As are all of its articles, with options aplenty for both the DM and the player alike. If I have to pick favourites it would be “Rig This!” for its portable traps, “Going Vertical” for forcing the heroes up (or down), “A Call to Awesome” for opening up both the action and the story, and oddly, “Those Dark Dungeon Blues” for its history, but then I like that kind of article.

Kobold Quarterly #15 marks another solid issue for the magazine. Solid though for Kobold Quarterly is still good though and what else would you expect but more ideas and more food for thought from a magazine with standards as high as it has?

Definitely Bigger Than #13

Just in time for Gen Con 2010, Kobold Quarterly #14 hits our virtual door mats bigger and bolder than before. At one hundred pages, Open Design’s magazine continues its support for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, along with articles aplenty that have a wider, though still no less specific application. By which I mean that the articles in question are specific in their contents, but can be applied to most Dungeons & Dragons variants. What you have in issue #14 then is another trove of advice, ideas, and support, which happens to be appropriate given that its theme is “treasure”!

Support for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game begins with James L. Sutter’s “Prince of Wolves,” a full write up of Radovan, the Hellspawn Bodyguard who makes one half of the central duo from the novel Prince of Wolves, the first in the Pathfinder Tales line that will make its debut at Gen Con 2010, and also happens to be reviewed in the “Books Review” column. To be honest I am more used to seeing such a write up after a book has appeared, so this is more advertising than a preview – since there are no excerpts from the book itself. The write up is not badly done though, especially as it includes one or two nice spells and magical items, and it would be nice if we could see it joined by an equally full write up of Radovan’s charge, the half-elf, Varian Jeggare.

This is issue’s “Ecology of...” article by R. William Thompson is devoted to the Tengu, the avian humanoids inspired by the Japanese monster-spirits. It’s an enjoyable read, full of little ideas that can be added to a game, the article being accompanied by a sidebar that discusses their place in Golarion, the default setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, from their home in Tian-Xia to around the Inner Sea, where they are found as thieves, mercenaries, and piratical mascots. They retain an oriental feel and can be excellent mimics – which is exploited by the Tengu Streetsinger Prestige Class which replicates the sounds around him to distract his opponents, both features that the GM can use to make memorable NPCs, and if the GM allows it, a player to create a memorable character. For devotees of the Free City of Zobeck setting, Wolfgang Baur devotes his regular column to the Tengu in the world of Midgard, providing a broad overview of where they can be found.

Paladins receive a double feature in Kobold Quarterly #14, first with James Graham’s “Healing Hands,” several new feats for the class that work with the Mercy class feature in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game to enhance his Laying on Hands feature such that he can cure anything. Then with Dan Voyce’s look at alternative Paladin Codes in “Men of Honor,” that like the Paladin role itself, draws from history to provide codes of conduct drawn from Norse, piratical (!),ancient Chinese, and duelling traditions. Pure role-playing inspiration for anyone who likes to play a Paladin in any fantasy RPG.

The issue’s theme gets underway with “Perfumes of Bourgund” by Stefen Styrsky with another feature for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Set in the same world as Zobeck, with the appropriate feats an alchemist can become a Perfumer, capable of creating and identifying particular scents, whether to hide a stink, enhance a charisma, or create an allure or a lure. Michael Furlanetto’s “Hoard Magic” might be written for Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, but the numbers are not all that far away from the Dungeons & Dragons variant of your choice that you could just as give that dragon or dwarf lord the enhancements that having a big stash of coins, jewellery, and other treasures would grant, such as a Liche Lord’s hoard enhancing necrotic damage and reducing the effect of healing magic. Just in their respective lairs of course, but it gives a hoard a little more meaning than just being pretty.

With “Paper Treasures” John Baichtal gives us not just books, but a quintet of adventure seeds, while Adam Daigle gets all bourgeois with the type of “Middle Class Magic” favoured by the merchants of Zobeck. Want to enhance the flavour of your drink? Then the Spicebox Spoon contains the condiments you need, while a Tailor’s Clasp will scuttle across your clothing tightening buttons, repairing fraying hems, and so on, being just one the various little knick knacks that make the upwardly mobile man’s life that little bit easier.

Lastly, Phillip Larwood takes a big step up from the more mundane magical items to provide us with new “Figurines of Wondrous Power” each a small statuette of an animal that contains the bound spirit of the depicted animal. When summoned the creature faithfully serves you, usually as a mount or in battle. From the Citrine Toad (mobile storage device and battle toad) to the Tourmaline Crab (a battle mount that grants water breathing) the ten on show here could easily become objects of veneration or desire with a little effort upon the part of the GM.  An aid towards this is inclusion of Maker’s Marks that can add an extra power or a curse to the figurine.

Perhaps the least immediately useful article in issue #14 is Sigfried Trent’s “How to Create Feats” dissecting as it does what makes a good Feat. Unless getting under the hood of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is something that you like to do, the likelihood is that the contents of this piece will be too dry. It is at least worth reading the once, if only to gain an insight into the designer’s theories and practice on Feats.

From industry stalwarts Monte Cook and Ed Greenwood, there is excellent advice. The former discusses how randomness can improve your storytelling in “Dice versus Story” while the latter talks about “How to Create Memorable Characters.” It would be churlish of me to say that there little that is really new in either of these articles because the advice given in both is worth saying again. Another stalwart, John Wick gets together with Jesse Heinig to reinvent the last of the core races in the “Wicked Fantasy” series.  Here the race in question is us, the Humans. In this reinvention, the humans are the first race, a species predicated not on looking to the gods for their inspiration and insight, but on themselves and the human spirit, on learning, philosophy, and so. What is interesting here is that the authors pick up the explanation of a gaming element often used to balance the human race against the extra abilities of other player races and actually develop it into flavour and mechanics. So there is a reason for the human drive, resilience, and flexibility. Not only do the authors support it with a new racial profile, but with new racial Feats and an ideal or philosophy rather than a god. This ideal is the “Elevation of Man,” which for human clerics adds the Humanity and Philosophy domains. This might well be all too radical for some, but it nicely fits in with the previous three entries in the series and just what you would expect of Wick.

For Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, the focus in issue #14 is skills. “Skill Battles” by Matthew J. Hanson shows you how to add skill checks to a battle or to make skills the focus of a battle, supported by examples that have the heroes attempting to prevent the opening of a dimensional rift, hunting for golden hares, and so on. Although they will not have the same name, “Skill Battles” are regular features of other RPG adventures, so their discussion here is a welcome addition to Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition and shifts its focus slightly away from one skirmish after another. Scott A. Murray finds new ways to use a character’s skills in “Art & Expertise.” He gives two or three suggestions for each skill, such as using the Acrobatics skill to determine the slight angle of a floor or to locate perfect vantage points for observation with the Perception skill. Most come with little pieces of flavour text that nicely enhance the suggestions just as these new skill challenges would add to a game.

Both articles could complement Mario Podeschi’s “Courtly Games of the Wizard Prince,” which looks at the types of games and competitions that a noble wizard would hold. Whether participating in Basilisk Baiting (played with mirror shields), the competitive weaving of illusions in Glamers, or Shoves, a ball game played with an adamantine ball and spells, these courtly games could add much to a game, whether that be simple competition, rivalries, or intrigue, with all fitting into a high magic setting.

Also for Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition is “Aasimar: You Can’t Keep a Good Aasimar Down” by Kolja Raven Liquette which presents a new divine race descended from angels native to the Supernal Realms. It comes complete with the three Tier Feats and Path Features and should appeal to anyone who wants to play a character of divine origins with strong religious inclination. Lastly for fans of the game, issue #14 includes an enjoyable interview with its lead designer, Rob Heinsoo.

Of note is Jeff Tidball’s “Moral Choices That Matter,” an article not for Dungeons & Dragons, or variant thereof, but for Green Ronin Publishing’s Dragon Age: Origins. The latter game happens to be one of the better introductory RPGs to appear of late, and this article is certainly welcome. Although its subtitle is “Creating Serious Dilemmas for your Dragon Age Campaign,” the author is essentially using that game’s setting as the basis for his examples, because setting up situations in which a player’s decision has repercussions – whatever his choice – is just as applicable to Dungeons & Dragons or the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. This should be excellent food for thought for any GM and done right, will add depth to both his game and the player characters.

Rounding out Kobold Quarterly #14, as is traditional, is a short scenario. This is “Amber Heart” by Tim and Eileen Connors, an adventure for third level characters that ties in with Open Design’s forthcoming Tales of the Old Margreve supplement. Just as easy to drop into any setting with a forest inn during the depths of winter, this sets up a fight for survival in a locked room situation with a nasty, gooey monster.

My grumbles about Kobold Quarterly still stand. A longer scenario, a Sterling price on the cover, no game reviews, and so on. Also, and given that it describes itself as “The Switzerland of the Edition Wars,” should it not also be devoting a few of its pages to “Edition 0” too? Grumbles aside – and they are just exactly that, because I just checked and I am repeating myself – issue #14 of Kobold Quarterly is another good read. Of this issue’s theme, the best of the treasure articles is “Middle Class Magic,” full of little items that add to the game, yet there are better articles still. “Ecology of the Tengu” is excellent, making me want to play one or add one as an NPC to my own game, while both articles on the Paladin make me want to play that class again. Once again then, Kobold Quarterly delivers lots of good articles, even the ones that are not written for the game that you play, that are all well written and all food for thought.