A new artist, new art and subtle hints at a new zombie type for Aruneus

 Aruneus, Pathfinder, Role Playing Games  1 Response »
Sep 242010
 

I am very pleased to announce that we have a new artist joining our talented ranks for the Aruneus Project!  Tim Reardon will be contributing original artwork, featuring among other things, zombies!

Tim is a very talented artist, working in mediums ranging from pencil and napkin through digital painting and CGI.  He’s got a ton of experience doing things like digital animation for some pretty well known projects. He also happens to be a great friend of mine since childhood and I’m very excited that he’s contributing!  I’m so happy that I want to share a preview of his work with all of you, even though it means divulging a bit more about Aruneus than I had planned at this time.

Now that’s not just any ordinary Contagion Infected Zombie there.  I can’t give out specifics yet, but as the World of Aruneus gets further into development there will be some new nasty undead types to mess about with and this fellow is one of them.  Something more suitable for mid level characters to square off against.

[tags]zombies, aruneus, rpg, role playing games, pathfinder, pfrpg, art[/tags]

Win a print and PDF copy of the Book of Monster Templates [Pathfinder] from Rite Publishing

 Contests, Pathfinder, Role Playing Games  3 Responses »
Sep 242010
 

Rite Publishing has teamed up with us to give away a print and PDF copy of their forthcoming Book of Monster Templates! One lucky winner will get themselves a print copy and the PDF.  A second place winner will find themselves with a free PDF and a 50% off coupon for the printed book and a runner up will be offered 50% off of both the PDF and print copy!  If that isn’t enough for you, every single person who enters will receive a discount off of the PDF purchase.  Don’t forget too that right now you can pre-order the print and pdf bundle at a discount

Just what is the Book of Monster Templates?

Art by Hugo Solis

You think you’ve seen it all?

It’s a big, scary world out there, and for your players, it’s gotten nastier. The Book of Monster Templates gives you more options, more creative flexibility and more ways to just freak out your players with new templates – itching to be added to any Pathfinder monster.

Enjoy innovative templates like The Bloody Maw who consumes magic items for their eldritch power, The Boundfury who lives to punish and guard those it has found guilty, and the Phlogiston Creature, an arcane construct that combines magic and technology to create truly frightening additions to your  favorite evil wizard’s laboratory.

Art by Frank Walls

More than just a collection of templates, each entry comes with Lore information, Ecology, and succinct, yet detailed guidelines for how to use the templated creature in your next game.

The Book of Monster Templates gives you the creative oomph you’ve come to expect from Rite Publishing, and it’ll give your party something to remember for a long time – if they survive!

For several examples, check out the Bloody Maw Creature template and the Entropy-Infused Creature template over at DriveThruRPG.

Art by Grey Thornberry

Here’s how you can enter to win:

First go to the Monster Templates page and note the length, in pages, of the finished product.

Then, email us and let me know the answer!  Be sure to put “Monster Templates” in the subject line.

It’s as  simple as that!  Winners will be drawn at random on Friday, the 1st of October and announced here on Troll in the Corner.

Art by Arthur Wang

The rules:

All decisions are final.

You must use a valid email address to enter, or we will not be able to contact you and let you know that you’ve won.

You can’t write for Troll in the Corner or Rite Publishing.

You must live within the United States.

You’ve got one week to win!  This contest closes on Friday, October 1st at 11:59 pm EST.  Any entries received after this will be void.

A big huge thanks to Rite Publishing who stepped up and provided us with everything we’re giving away here!

[tags]contest, book of monster templates, pathfinder, pfrpg, rpg, role playing games[/tags]

Quick Review: Advanced Feats – Secrets of the Alchemist – 30 new feats & a few character builds for Pathfinder’s Alchemist class

 Pathfinder, review, Role Playing Games  3 Responses »
Sep 102010
 

Advanced Feats: Secrets of the Alchemist by Sigfried Trent offers an in depth look at the Alchemist class as it’s available in the Advanced Player’s guide.  Trent introduces 30 new feats designed with Alchemists PCs in mind, as well as a discussion on what the Alchemist can do as a class, and several suggested builds.

I’ve often toyed with the idea of playing an Alchemist and I’m glad that Pathfinder has introduced this as a class for PCs, rather than shady NPCs who sit in shops and charge players lots of money for stuff.  If you’re looking to play this class now, or as a GM want to introduce Alchemists into your game, Secrets of the Alchemist is certainly worth taking a look at.  Most of the 30 feats are well balanced and will fit nicely into your game (more on this in a bit).

This PDF starts of with an examination of the Alchemist class and what bearing they’ll have on your party.  It’s worth the read as Trent has put a lot of thought into this and gives an easy to follow overview of the Alchemist which goes a bit above and beyond what’s covered in the Advanced Players guide.  I finished this section knowing how I’d implement a character in a game, rather than having a few interesting but vague ideas about the Alchemist.

Next we come to the 30 new feats designed for Alchemists.  Many of these are great feats which will be eminently useful to your party without breaking the game.  Here though, lies my only beef with this supplement.  A few of these feats seem to be a bit overpowered and may have some serious effects on game balance.

Take for instance Accurate Assessment.  This feat allows a player to take a standard action in a combat round and “learn on statistical value of a foe during combat’.  That could be the foe’s Strength. Or hit points. Or Will save.  To me, this is a bit game breaking on two levels. It first takes the in-game character into the realm of player knowledge. Secondly, it allows players to know things they shouldn’t know.

Another such feat is Lighten Weapon, which allows you to use a weapon one size category larger as if it was your own size, with a -2 penalty to hit.

Trent has specific notes on these two feats as well, in which he gives his reasoning for including them.  I can agree with his reasoning but I still think they could be potentially game breaking feats.

The good news is there are tons of excellent feats which will add a lot to your game as an Alchemist.  Craft Anywhere is one of my favorites, basically allowing you to double the amount of crafting you can do while adventuring. This calls to mind the distracted tinkerer, always with a hand in something.

After detailing the new feats, there are three character build paths for the Alchemist which I think demonstrate a lot of insight into this character and give players and GMs some very viable paths to follow.  The first is the Carpet Bomber, who essentially maximizes the number of bombs that can be thrown and their damage. Next is the Mighty Mutant build, which specializes in Mutagens to create a pretty hefty front line Alchemist tank.  The last is the Mad Scientist build, who plays more of a support role but can equip a party with some pretty neat stuff.

I’d certainly recommend picking this up, if you keep an eye on a few of the feats and make sure they’re not too powerful for your game.  4 out of 5 stars.

[tags]review, pathfinder, rpg, role playing games, pfrpg, alchemist[/tags]

Quick Review: Green Ronin’s Freeport Companion for Pathfinder. Pirates, guns and madness!

 Pathfinder, Role Playing Games  2 Responses »
Aug 242010
 

Green Ronin has produced a superb Pathfinder expansion with the Freeport Companion, an expansion to their system agnostic A Pirate’s Guide to Freeport.

For a decade now Freeport has stood as one of fantasy gaming’s most distinctive cities. Home to pirates, foul cults, terrifying monsters, vicious gangs, crime lords, and corrupt politicians, Freeport is a dynamic setting that offers a unique blend of high adventure and cosmic horror. Now the City of Adventure returns to its roots with the Freeport Companion: Pathfinder RPG Edition, a rules supplement for the Pirate’s Guide to Freeport. Its 160 pages are packed with all the support you need to run a Freeport campaign with the Pathfinder RPG. In addition to giving game stats for all the city’s major characters, the Freeport Companion provides new core classes like the corsair and monster hunter, new prestige classes like the musketeer and witch hunter, famous magic items, an insanity system, new spells and incantations, and an introductory adventure. Celebrate 10 years of the City of Adventure with the Freeport Companion: Pathfinder RPG Edition!

I always like to look at the layout of a book as I’m looking at the content.  I feel that RPG books should be something of a standing work of art in their own right.  The artwork in this book ranges from good to outstanding, with the front cover being an excellent example of what you will find (although all work inside is black and white).

The layout itself is clean, easy to read, well set up for finding what you need and bookmarked throughout, which I always find extremely handy.

What you’ll find inside the Freeport Companion is everything you’ll need to launch a Freeport campaign in the Pathfinder RPG system.  This includes descriptions of all of the Pathfinder core races and how they fit into the world of Freeport, and Azhar, a new race of outsiders who travel the waters around Freeport.  The Azhar as PCs are akin to the Efreet and carry a number of abilities appropriate to these races.

The Freeport Companion also boasts a number of new character classes.  The Assassin, Corsair, Monster Hunter, Noble and Survivor are all available as player characters.  The Cultist is a new NPC class.  Along with these classes come a number of new skills, feats spells and prestige classes.

With mentioning the Cultist NPCs, we get in to the aspect of Freeport that makes it very interesting.  This campaign comes with two things not normally found in the Pathfinder system – guns and a huge nod to Lovecraftian horrors, complete with it’s own madness system.

The introduction of firearms is handled very well. They’re treated as something new to the world and as such are expensive and unreliable, but can be very effective.  Think muzzle loaded pistols, rifles and small canon in your favorite swashbuckling movie and you’ve got a good idea as to how firearms are used here.

The horror aspect is also very well implemented and gives Freeport a nice edge on other, less gritty aspects of the Pathfinder universe.  Your characters can deal with some pretty scary things, and eventually go insane doing so. Of course, being a high magic world, there are cures for this.

What Green Ronin have done best is allow the GM and players to decide how much of each aspect introduced in Freeport they wish to include in their game.  You can emphasize buckling swashes, or the horror of unearthing ancient gods, or none of the above and simply use the setting as a standard Pathfinder campaign.  Brilliant!

Freeport Companion is full of interesting NPCs to throw directly into your game, another big bonus.  And when you’ve finished reading through the book, there’s a good 1st level adventure included in the Appendix for you to launch your campaign with and get a real feel for Freeport.

Clocking in at 172 usable pages (a page of licensing and a blank page are also included) you will not be disappointed with the Freeport Companion.   Also, while you may be interested in picking up the Pirates Guide to Freeport, it is not strictly necessary to run a decent Freeport game in Pathfinder.

5 out of 5 stars

[tags]rpg, role playing games, pfrpg, freeport, pathfinder, green ronin[/tags]

Zombie cards and my absence from the site

 Aruneus, Ben's Corner, Pathfinder, Role Playing Games  4 Responses »
Aug 182010
 

Hey folks!  To get some business out of the way, you won’t be seeing much of me on Troll in the Corner for a few weeks.  I’m set to go in to Surgery tomorrow and am expecting it to take a few weeks for me to recover.   That’s the not so good news.

The good news is, late last night Eric dropped off the reformatted Zombie Cards!

The problem with a zombie apocalypse is that there are so many darned zombies.  It can become hard for you, the GM to keep track of them all.  Enter the Contagion Infected Zombie Cards.  Not to worry, it’s the zombies that are infected, not the cards.

On each these cards you’ll find all of the important stats for each of the three types of zombies, plus an easy way of keeping track of their hit points (starting and current) whether or not they have additional armor and a helm (meaning a Head Shot isn’t possible), current AC and whether or not they’ve moved or not.

Just check off the number of each type of zombie you want and off you go!  How many zombies make a party?  Use the Encounter Chart to determine the exact number of deadly, infected and hungry undead come shambling towards your party.

Track up to 15 of each type of Contagion Infected Zombie.  Or just grab a bunch of cards and make your party very, very nervous.

Print this out double sided to save paper and to get yourself some double sided zombie cards.

[tags]zombies, pathfinder, aruneus, rpg, pfrpg, role playing games[/tags]

A massive Aruneus update – lots of new art and a layout artist joins us!

 Aruneus, Pathfinder, Role Playing Games  3 Responses »
Aug 122010
 

Here’s an update on the ongoing Aruneus Project.  The world of Aruneus is vast, and gave room for an uneasy peace amongst the Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs. Empires were formed, lives created and destroyed, magic flourished, and for a brief time Humanity strove to master the world.

First and foremost – while work continues on all of the new Aruneus documents, I’m also heavily involved in revising the existing core of Aruneus works.  I’ve brought in a fantastic layout artist, Eric Vernon, who’s already redone one of my non-Aruneus projects, Mirkmoot.  (Go here to view a full sized preview).   Eric is currently working on the Contagion Infected Human Zombies and the Zombie Cards.  Once the zombies are done, I’ll have the errata from the Orcs applied, as well as some re-written material and possibly some new additions and they will be next to receive a revised layout.

Recently I was very pleasantly surprised to get the latest art from Seth Kumpf. Seth has provided the Aruneus Project with the lions share of the artwork and he’s coming through with even more. I’d like to share the new World of Aruneus header which will be on the Aruneus documents. As well as our new header, Seth has provided a new, full color zombie.  He’s got more coming our way too, which is fantastic!

I’ll also be bringing in art from a number of new artists!  Ever hear of Dan Houser? He’s a great artist who’s work can be seen in Adamant Entertainment’s Villainomicon, Phipps Publishing’s upcoming ‘Book of Villains’ and ‘Wargames’, as well as serving as Line Artist for Adamant’s ICONS line of modules and supplements. And now it an be seen in Aruneus as well! Dan’s given us a sweet meat treat, in the form of this guy!

Another addition to our artist pool is Hayley Ehrenfeld, who is illustrating the Magical Herbs and Plants of Aruneus, which will feature a number of new herbs and plants that can be used either directly or in rituals and spells.  Here’s two of the six new paintings she’s providing to us.

Another bit of cool news.  I’ve been talking with Jess at Geeky Clean who doesn’t just make really freaking cool soap.  It turns out she’s one of those multi-talented people and is a very good artist as well.  She’s going to try her hand at a bit of Aruneus art and we’ll see where that goes!

Lastly, a bit of not so great news. I have a touch of the zombie fever, or something modern and medical that’s not to distant a cousin to it. It’s looking like I’ll be heading into the OR and out of actively working for a few days just about when this project is set to wrap. Nothing would please me more than coming out of this whole thing with an RPG book to be made!  That’s my impassioned plea to please bring this project above it’s current 83% mark!

If you’re interested in what you get for becoming a backer and have not clicked on the widget or seen the project, here’s what you’re in store for:

Pledge $10 or more

For $10 you will receive the finished Aruneus source book in full color, PDF format when it becomes available. You will also, should you choose, have your name (or a favorite character name) listed in the credits as a Patron. No copyrighted names for characters please.

Backer 2 BACKERs

Pledge $25 or more

For $25 you will receive the full color PDF, be listed as a Patron, and receive the complete back catalog of all Pathfinder PDF’s I’ve published as of September 10, 2010.

Backer 1 BACKER

Pledge $35 or more

For $35 you will receive all of the above, plus a 1 year subscription to any future PDFs published, starting on September 10, 2010 and lasting until September 10, 2011

Backer 4 BACKERs

Pledge $50 or more

For $50 you will receive all of the above, plus the hard cover of the book when it is complete. In addition, you will be listed as a Founding Patron, should you wish, and you will receive an exclusive Aruneus T-shirt.

Backer 3 BACKERs

Pledge $75 or more

For $75 you will receive all of the above, with all available digital products pre-loaded on a 1GB flash drive. You will also become part of the Aruneus canon. I will include your name, or the name of your character in the Aruneus source book as a named NPC.

Backer 1 BACKER

Pledge $100 or more

LIMITED REWARD     19 of 20 remaining

For $100 you will receive all of the above, be listed as a Friend of Aruneus, receive an original and a one of a kind magical item designed by me and provided in digital and print (on parchment) copy. You will enter the Aruneus canon as a named NPC who plays a pivotal role in the world, and will appear again in at least one future Aruneus document.

Backer 1 BACKER

Pledge $200 or more

LIMITED REWARD     12 of 15 remaining

For $200 or more, you will receive all of the above, plus have your name (or character name) permanently embedded on the Troll in the Corner website, be featured as a Patron Par Excellence in the finished book. Your NPC will be featured with original artwork based on a description or photo provided by you. I will write you a personal letter of thanks, sign your hard copy, feature you in an article on Troll in the Corner (should you chose) and design a one of a kind short adventure featuring your NPC. Two, count ‘em, two copies of the book, both signed and lastly, you will receive ANY future Aruneus PDFs free of charge.

Backer 3 BACKERs

Pledge $500 or more

LIMITED REWARD     3 of 3 remaining

The Uber-Patron is what we’ll call you. You will be added to the Aruneus pantheon of gods. You will effectively become immortal in the Aruneus world. Customized artwork for you will be created with great reverence. You will receive this special document as one of a kind hard cover featuring your artwork on the cover. Your god will feature prominently in the Aruneus campaign, with a new domain and complete spell list dedicated to you, and will be available to mere mortals only by purchasing or pre-ordering the Essential Aruneus. You will also receive three, signed and dedicated copies of the hard cover, everything mentioned in the above rewards, and a custom T-shirt featuring your god. You’ll be listed not in the patron section of the book, but in the credits as an Executive Producer.

[tags]aruneus, rpg, pathfinder, pfrpg, zombies, undead[/tags]

We have our winners! The International Pathfinder Contest!

 Aruneus, Pathfinder, Role Playing Games  2 Responses »
Aug 052010
 

This morning I hit the old random number generator and gathered up our 16 winners! First, a quick breakdown. We had 362 individuals enter, with a total of 2,532 entries generated. Out of all of those entries, just under 60% came from the continental US, with England and Australia following in second and third place for number of entries (total). 15 people didn’t tell me where they were from, so I don’t know where those entries originated from. Now – on to the winners!

The Grand Prize winner, and proud new owner of three Pathfinder RPG books, the Core Rule Book, the Bestiary and the GameMastery Guide, along with all of the PDFs I’ve produced through TC or Aruneus is – Andrew Massey!  Congratulations Andrew!

Next up – these five folks have gotten themselves a copy of all of the Pathfinder expansions documents I’ve published so far: Michael D. Moore, Sergio de Isidro, Rafe Ball, Aaron Broder, and “Silver”.  I’ll be emailing you all to verify your email addresses before I send out your download codes for the PDFs.

Finally, these 10 folks will all get a copy of one of my published PDFs:  Matt Moran, Tresi Arvizo, Marshall Jansen, Rachel Michelle Epperly, Chris Hazen, James Crawford, Greg Hurst, Lynn Dixon, Catherine Howsham, and Anthony Bulldis.

Thanks to everyone who participated!  I’m hoping to have another contest like this as soon as I can!

[tags]pathfinder, rpg, role playing games, pfrpg, contest, aruneus[/tags]

Quick Review: In One’s Blood – new bloodlines and spells for Pathfinder Sorcerers

 Pathfinder, review, Role Playing Games  1 Response »
Aug 042010
 

In One’s Blood is 25 pages of new Sorcerer bloodlines, spells and abilities which can add some oomph, or ooze, to your game.  Done in an easy to print black and white format, light on the graphics but heavy on content, players and GMs will find this expansion to the Sorcerer class fun and useful.

The new blood lines consist of Aquatic, Divine, Giant, Ooze, Plant, Psychic and Vermin.  Along with these seven new bloodlines come 15 new spells, a new creature in the form of a Behemoth Pudding, and some exposition in to what exactly one gets by turning into an ooze.  Mark L. Chance also makes good use of text boxes to add descriptive and colorful examples of each bloodline.

The layout of the document is simple and straight forward – each bloodline is described in detail, including special bloodline powers, arcana, bonus feats, skills and bonus spells.  Speaking of spells, these new additions to the Sorcerer’s tool kit are well balanced and fairly implemented.  Two favorites that stand out for me are Conqueror Worms and Ocean’s Depth.  I also found the Ooze bloodline to be a lot of fun. Helpfully embedded throughout the document are links to d20pfsrd.com, useful for quick look ups if you’re reading this online.

All in all I think In One’s Blood can add more depth to the Sorcerer class.  I can’t see any reason why these bloodlines and new spells wouldn’t fit will with most campaigns.  My two complaints with this document, neither of which should be deal breakers for anyone, are the font used for titles, and the overall plainness of the document.  The font can be a bit hard to read.  The document is very printer friendly, but lacks the pizazz I’m used to seeing in RPG expansions.  At the (slightly odd) price of $1.26, it’s hard to go wrong.

4 out of 5 stars

[tags]pathfinder, rpg, pfrpg, review[/tags]

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