mmm…dinner….
Vesk
If it can be eaten, you can eat it. You can spend three actions to eat any organic material. You regain hit points equal to two times its level. The object is destroyed. This counts for corpses.
Thoughts?
Where’d he go?
General Skill
Prerequisites legendary in Performance
Frequency twice per day
Used to getting onto stage but not being seen on stage. You can attempt a Performance check in place of a Stealth check. If you succeed, instead of being hidden, you gain the invisible condition to the creatures you passed your stealth check against.
Thoughts?
Product– Cthulhu Awakens: The AGE RPG of the Weird Century
System- AGE RPG
Producer– Green Ronin
Price– $29.95 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/454809/cthulhu-awakens-the-age-rpg-of-the-weird-century?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR-A few small issues keep this from a perfect book. 93%
Basics– The end comes NOW IN AGE! Cthulhu Awakens uses the popular Call of Cthulhu Setting and mixes it with the AGE system. Let’s dive into how to play and then the review.
Age Basics- AGE takes a lot of inspiration from GURPS. Basic tests are three six sided dice with one being a different color or standing out. When you do anything, you roll 3d6+focus+ability, add, and then see if you hit the target number. Ability is just like ability bonuses in DnD or Pathfinder. Focus would be best thought of like feats. That stand out die is used for multiple things, but indicates how successful you are with a 1 being barely successful on a success and a 6 being AMAZING successes.
Stunts- The more important role of the different die is stunts. When two of the three dice, including the stunt or standout die, are the same, you use the stunt die to get special events. You spend the number on the stunt die to get bonus things like spraying more damage, hitting more creatures, bonus to next roll, reducing damage to yourself, and so on. For perspective, this happens about 42% of the time on average.
Sanity- The interesting thing in this game is how the Cthulhu monsters affect the character beyond just ripping them to shreds. The loss of sanity also means gaining in understanding the mythos. The more you lose yourself, the more you gain in powers. These might be Faustian bargains, but power’s power!
The rest- This system uses the 3d6 and stunts for almost everything. It’s very fast and simple, but allows for interesting and crazy things to happen. From there it’s just like any other RPG system with HP, damage, and sanity being drained by monsters in the world.
Mechanics or Crunch– AGE is an interesting one. It’s fun and fast, but might not be for me. Character growth is somewhat limited as you don’t level past 10. It’s classless, so you can mix and match anything you want. But you do get kind of stuck into siloes as you grow. This is not a problem, if you want that. The notion of gaining power from exposure is fun. Overall, this is a good system, but might not be for me. 4.75/5
Theme or Fluff– This game is less Call of Cthulhu and more action Pulp Cthulhu. Characters fight the apocalypse, which is fun, but that is not quite what I want in a Call of Cthulhu adventure. I want more people to go absolutely mad from seeing things, and less gaining acceptance and power from seeing monsters crawl out of different dimensions. However, that’s more my opinion on the matter and not an indictment of the system. 4.5/5
Execution– This has ALMOST everything I need for a solid RPG book. The book reads well and has a fun story. Its layout makes it engaging and easy to read. The book tackles difficult issues with care, dealing with mental health, offensive games, and HP’s racism. The book is hyperlinked. It’s even got not one, but TWO adventures having both a 1920s adventure and a modern day one. It doesn’t have characters. I’d forgive that as there is a free intro RPG, BUT that one only has pregens for one time setting. The stuff that’s here is fantastic, but the stuff that’s missing is felt. 4.75/5
Summary– This is a good book with a fun RPG, but small things keep this from perfection. The mechanics are not quite what I want; hoping for 40% chances to occur so you can do cool stuff can annoy you. But when they happen, it is awesome. The theme isn’t quite what I want. I want more helpless horror, and this is more punching the Dark in the Face. And lastly, the book does fantastic execution, except no pregens. Most of my gripes are in how I want a game to be, but not necessarily in AGE being bad. It’s honestly fun, and quick. Not my cup of tea, but if you want to punch Cthulhu in the face with power you got when you went crazy, then this is the RPG for you! 93%
Feel better!
General Skill
Prerequisites legendary in Performance
Frequency once per day per target
targets one ally, Range 30 feet
HEED ME MY ALLY! You rouse a target in range with a quick speech. You attempt a Performance check using a chosen DC as a treat wounds check. The target gains temporary hit points equal to the amount of hit points they would have gained. These hit points last for one hour or until depleted. A target can not be the target of this ability till after a long rest.
Thoughts?
That’s not right…
Skittermander
You can’t lie to me. You gain a +1 competency bonus to save and skill checks against illusions and uses of the deception skill.
Thoughts?
FEEL BAD!
General Skill
Prerequisites legendary in Performance
Frequency once per day, Duration 1 minute
targets All enemies, Range 30 feet radius from you
Defense Will
You break down your enemies. With a word, you force all enemies in range to make a Will save against your Performance DC.
Critical Success The target gets a +1 competency bonus to all skill checks, attacks, and saves for the duration
Success The target is unaffected
Failure The target gets a -1 penalty to all skill checks, attacks, and saves for the duration
Critical Failure The target gets a -1 penalty to all skill checks, attacks, and saves for the duration and is stunned 1.
Thoughts?
Turn into a bat!
| Animal Form | ||||
| Level: 1 | Range Personal | Duration: varies | Casting time: 1 action | Save: None |
| General | You turn into animals | |||
| Manifestation | roll 1d4: (1) In a poof of smoke, you become the animals (2) Your body falls appart into the animals (3) You melt and reform into the animals (4)You just change in the blink of an eye into the animals | |||
| 1 | failure, power may not be used again today | |||
| 2-11 | failure | |||
| 12-13 | You turn into 1HD of animals for 1d3 rounds. Damage done to the animals does not affect you after you turn back and if the animals die, you are unharmed. | |||
| 14-17 | You turn into 2HD of animals for 1d6 rounds. Damage done to the animals does not affect you after you turn back and if the animals die, you are unharmed. | |||
| 18-19 | You turn into 2d3HD of animals for 2d6 rounds. Damage done to the animals does not affect you after you turn back and if the animals die, you are unharmed. You can turn into swarms of animals | |||
| 20-23 | You turn into 3d4HD of animals for 2d6 rounds. Damage done to the animals does not affect you after you turn back and if the animals die, you are unharmed. You can turn into swarms of animals | |||
| 24-27 | You turn into 4d4HD of animals for 3d6 rounds. Damage done to the animals does not affect you after you turn back and if the animals die, you are unharmed. You can turn into swarms of animals | |||
| 28-29 | You turn into 4d6HD of animals for 3d6 rounds. Damage done to the animals does not affect you after you turn back and if the animals die, you are unharmed. You can turn into swarms of animals | |||
| 30-31 | You turn into 6d6HD of animals for 4d6 rounds. Damage done to the animals does not affect you after you turn back and if the animals die, you are unharmed. You can turn into swarms of animals | |||
| 32+ | You turn into 6d8HD of animals for 6d6 rounds. Damage done to the animals does not affect you after you turn back and if the animals die, you are unharmed. You can turn into swarms of animals | |||
Here me!
General Skill
Prerequisites master in Performance
Frequency once per day, Duration 1 minute
targets All allies, Range 30 feet radius from you
You have things to say! You launch into a long speech rousing your friends.. All allies who can hear your speech gain a +2 competency bonus to all attacks, skill checks, and saves for the duration of the spell.
Thoughts?
Author– Liane Merciel
Book- ~$24.99 here https://paizo.com/products/btq06j6k?Pathfinder-Godsrain
TL; DR– Solidly for the fans, maybe too much. 87%
Basics-Gods can’t die…except when they do! The god of war is murdered and it kicks off a series of events that might result in the death of them all! Can iconic Pathfinder characters stop the death of every god?
Characters– This book uses iconic pathfinder characters and follows them on a typical, world shattering adventure. This is the first book I’ve read featuring these characters. The iconics all feel like they should and are well written. The one issue I have is the book feels like it was written with only diehard Pathfinder fans as the audience. Readers who don’t know these characters from playing Pathfinder Society might be a bit lost. I enjoyed it, but some newer fans might be lost. 4.5/5
Setting– This book features a number of iconic Pathfinder Society locations, but has the same issues as the characters. This book is pretty world spanning as characters run from desert, to Pirate Cove, to Lost Island in an eternal hurricane. The places are well described, but are not as linked to a larger world or history as newer readers might need. It’s good but some readers might get lost if they don’t know these locations from the Pathfinder game. 4.5/5
Story-The story is good, but feels disjointed. The main event of the title is the death of a god, but then that is just kind of abandoned. I felt like that was important and might be the main threat in multiple novels after this one. The main story is more about the threat that a different god might have to all other gods. That’s intriguing, but a major event in the world happens, and then is just kind of abandoned. It’s a plot point, but not a major one. I felt like there was lost potential and that that main event was just abandoned. 4/5
Summary-This is a good book and a fun step back into the Pathfinder Tales. I want more books, so I’m glad this book exists. It’s not perfect; the novel might not have enough inroads for new readers to Pathfinder. Also, the title feels abandoned about a quarter of the way into the book. I want to know more about the Godsrain, but this book won’t tell you about it. If more novels focus on that and these characters, I’ll keep reading! 87%.
Throat Punch Games 