Paradigm Concepts

[BluSponge]

...and wanted to say great job on the Grand Tome of Adversaries and the adventure. I've only been able to read a bit thus far, but so far so good. Rucht really did a bang up job on both of these. Hopefully we'll see more from him in the future.

Any chance we will get some preview material from Blessed and the Damned before it shows up at GenCon?

Tom

[Concrete]

Hey BluSponge,
care to write a little review of the 'Tome'? Chances of me attending GenCon are getting slimmer by the minute, and it might take a while for the books to reach Germany (heck, having bought the core rulebook at GenCon last year, I don't even know who's carrying the system over here)...

Thx a lot in advance!

[Freemage]

I had dispatched minions (ie, my home game players) to Origins this year on my behalf, and so have now completed my perusal of the Grand Tome of Adversaries.

Without a doubt, this is a fantastic piece of work. Particularly glorious was the decision to write the flavor-text portions of the book from the POV of the Gray Pilgrim, the spectral former Witch Hunter in the back of the core book. Not only do we get a knowledgable and first-hand understanding of these fiends, but we also get a bit of insight into what makes the Gray Pilgrim himself tick. It makes for a fun read-through, as well as bringing the Crunch better than almost any game-supplement I can think of.

The book has three subsections:

The first is easily the best, IMNSHO. It covers seven Forbidden Societies, organizations which employ, control or in some cases are composed entirely of monstrousities. Some are in direct service of the Adversary; others are more ambivalent, simply willing to use dark means to gain worldly power. Each organization is detailed in history, tactics, recruitment & organization, belief system & goals and current activity, special rules (typically some supernatural powers or signature equipment) as well as stat-blocks for both rank-and-file minions and a Named Feature Villain.

A more in-depth review would, I'm afraid, be fairly spoiler-heavy, but let me just say that this section alone not only justifies the purchase of the book, it also completely cast my home game into a new light; I'm working on incorporating elements from it already, and many seem to fit quite seamlessly.

The 2nd portion is the monster-mash, a collection of horrific and ghoulish beasties. The layout for these entries pretty much mirrors the back portion of the core book, but of course there's a LOT more critters of every stripe. There are no Mortal entries, but really, that's what the first part of the book is for.

This is also excellent value; the write-ups are evocative, the creatures truly terrifying and grotesque, and the Feature Villains interesting reads (as well as providing inspiration for building your own, if you prefer that route).

The 3rd portion is pure cruncheriffic powers, prices, rituals and talents, lead off with a bit of advice for the GM, including an expansion of the threat-creation system (such as guidelines for how to build minions). Again, quite excellent material, all around.

A decision was apparently made to reprint the Talents, Prices and Powers from the core book, with a bit of editing. This, IMNSHO, was the right call. In addition to keeping all the rules for monster-building in one key place, some significant issues with the original rules have been dealt with. (For instance, Chilling Wind at Factor 5 is no longer a guaranteed death-sentence for an entire party, as they are at least allowed to resist it.)

Also included are a couple of claris/corrections from the original rules:

The Fighting Minions section makes it clear that you ignore Weapon Complexity and Damage Modifiers when fighting minions, so you just roll your appropriate combat skill and then compare successes to their levels. It also makes it clear that area attacks (Eldritch Blast, Blunderbuss weapons) are the way to go against minions, since any minion caught in the area of the blast is affected equally. There's a good bit of text explaining the reasoning behind the rule, as well as how to portray it in the games to up the cinematic feel of mowing down hordes of cultists.

Also clarified is the fact that Villains cannot 'spend' their Damnation Points the way Hunters can; they get their powers from those, and that's it. (Though check out the Spiteful Talents for some interesting ways to make your PCs regret their sins.)

About the only complaint I have is that, like many PCI products, this one has a handful of editing errors. Most are minor--bare for bear, plaintiff for plaintive, and so on. Probably the most notable one was a duplicated paragraph on pages 153 and 154. However, even in this regard, this book represents a strong improvement for PCI--in my first read-through, I never had to stare at a paragraph and wonder what the garbled English meant, nor were there any of the typographical missteps that often plagued much of the Arcanis line. So they're learning and improving their product, which was already award-winning stuff (congrats on another win, BTW, PCI folks!).

I'm also inclined to give a high-middling grade on the interior art. While individual pieces are evocative and powerful, many of them have an unfortunate sameness--after awhile, the images of multiple twisted, demented forms tend to blur together. There's a few stand-outs, though--the Mongers on pp. 88-89, for instance, are gorgeously shown as they torment their victims. And I've always had a soft spot for items like the Reclaimer on page 109.

Overall, on my personal scale, as a Witch Hunter GM, I'd put this at a 9 out of 10. (Note--I own VERY few books which would get a 10, so this is really high praise.)

[HighmoonMedia]

Thanks for the review, freemage. I was going to pick it up anyway, but your review makes me want it even more!
_________________
Daniel M. Perez
Highmoon Media Productions
The Gamer Traveler Podcast
The Digital Front Podcast

[Concrete]

Yes, echo that! Thanks for the review Freemage. Looking forward to purchasing this beauty!

[BluSponge]

[HighmoonMedia]

Folks, I started a thread for the Grand Tome of Adversaries specifically and reposted Freemage's review of it. Maybe we can continue exploring the book over there, so it's easy to find for newcomers to the board.

http://www.paradigmconcepts.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=266
_________________
Daniel M. Perez
Highmoon Media Productions
The Gamer Traveler Podcast
The Digital Front Podcast