by ambush8853

$150.00 for RPG Item: Dungeon Designer's Kit
Condition: Like New
Location: Switzerland

by sdonohue

Pathfinder Map Pack: Sea Caves is a 2015 release from Paizo Publishing. Although it says Pathfinder in the title, these maps could be used for any game which uses 1" squares. The design is by Stephen Radney-MacFarland and the cartography is by Jason Engle.

Presentation
This comes in print and pdf versions. The print version features 18 5"x 8" map tiles in a tuckbox. The tiles are single-sided ad in full cover on heavy stock. They are made to be written on and wiped off with permanent, wet or dry-erase markers.

Content
There are 18 tiles in the packet and they all contain images of water and stone with black borders. On the back cover these are identified as "river" sections, but honestly, the dark borders make it feel more like the sea caves described in the title. The tiles are geomorphic with entries and exits always coming in the middle of the edge. Most tiles are set up to connect on the short edge, but the advantage of tiles is that they don't have to line up perfectly.

There is no rules content here; these are intended for use as map tiles. For the most part, there aren't many features here, just a waterway and some rocks. The orientation of the map will provide any tactical interest as there is very little that would qualify as cover.

Evaluation
These are very pretty tiles and they do perform as advertised. It would be nice if they were double-sided, but of course that would make them more expensive and probably just result in having multiples of tiles on different sides. Overally, these are a nice addition for those who play a lot of games where sea caverns or other waterways are common.

by sdonohue

Path of Hope is a 2017 release from Nocturnal Media. It is intended for use with any rpg system. It was designed by Roderick Robertson and illustrated by Jennifer Wieck and Richard Thomas (I).

Presentation
This is available as both a pdf and a tarot-sized deck. The deck comes in a tuckbox with 32 cards and a folded sheet of instructions. The cards are black & white on good quality stock for cards -- both thick and glossy.

Content
The deck consists of 36 cards. Each card has a title, a brief description, an illustration and a number. The numbers range from 1 to 7 and cards are played sequentially, so once a 2 hits the table, only 2 and higher can be played. The 1s are themes and are reserved for the GM. They set the plan for the adventure. The rest of the cards are shuffled and each player gets 2 or 3 of them. They can then play them when they feel like they might help move the game in a new or exciting direction.

The general idea is that the GM reveals a theme then players add "tone" by playing the cards in the 2s and 3s. The cards in the 4-7 range are considered climax cards and may end the use of cards at the GMs discretion. Once a card is played, the GM has the option to accept it, veto it, or edit it. Veto means the card is outright rejected, hopefully because it's not going advance the story but maybe because the GM doesn't like it. Edit means the player & the GM (and possibly the rest of the table) discuss the card and arrive at a slightly different version of the text which will better suit the story.

Players who play cards can draw new ones, but there's not a clear mechanic there.

The composition of the deck is
1 - 4 cards
2 - 8 cards
3 - 7 cards
4 - 6 cards
5 - 5 cards
6 - 4 cards
7 - 2 cards

Evaluation
The cards are interesting and they do a good job of fitting with the tone of a hopeful adventure. The cards are an interesting crutch to try and get more input from the players during the adventure. I'm not convinced how well they'd work in play -- giving the gm the ability to veto means GMs who don't welcome player input could just ignore it all and make things even more frustrating.

There's an alternate use where the GM uses the cards as part of adventure prep to help create different ideas. This seems like it would work for most GMs and may help make the cards worth the price of admission.

by biosludge

$80.00 for RPG Item: Draw Steel Book One: Heroes
Condition: Like New
Location: United States

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