Monstrous Mondays: Monster Manual V (3.5)

We are getting to the end of the D&D 3.x Monster Manuals now. There are more 3.x monsters to be found; not just official D&D ones, but thousand through the d20 explosion.  Today though I want to spend some time with the Monster Manual V.

Monster Manual V (3.5)

PDF. 223 pages. Full-color covers and interior art. 

For this review, I am considering the PDF from DriveThruRPG and my hardcover I had a number of years ago.

Published in 2007 this was one of the last hardcovers published for the D&D 3.5 game prior to the announcement of the D&D 4e.  

I picked this one up cheap at the local RPG auction and I think I sold it back at next year's auction. Not a ringing endorsement I know, but in mine (and this book's) defense I was reducing my 3.x collection to make room for more OSR books and the upcoming 4e.  I am glad I picked up the PDF though.

There are just over 110 monsters in this book (ranging from CR 1/2 to 22), the least amount for any of the "Monster Manuals" for 3.x. There are 11 templates, and many companion and summonable creatures. There are even new feats and spells.  So at least this late in the game there is (or was) new material that could be shared.

The monster entries are again limited to whole pages. To make up the space there are "Lore" entries on some monsters. Others even have a Sample Encounter, Typical Treasure and/or how the monster appears in various campaign worlds.  I admit these do not feel like padding and instead feel like a value-added feature.

Alignments are also prefaced with "Always" or "Usually" in some cases, giving more variety to alignments. 

Among my favorite creatures here are" the Arcadian Avenger, the various new demons, the unique Dragons of the Great Game, Frostwind Virago, the God-Blooded creatures, Kuo-toa (finally!), Mindflayers of Thoon, Skull Lord, Spawn of Juiblex, the unique vampires, and the Wild Hunt.

While I was expecting a lot of "also-rans" and some diminishing returns on monsters this one actually is pretty good.  The details are greater for each monster entry, so this explains the low monster-to-page ratio here.  

Still, you have to be playing D&D 3.5 to really get the most out of these monsters.

#RPGaDAY2022 Day 29 - Who would you like to see take part in #RPGaDAY?

Who would you like to see take part in #RPGaDAY?

Honestly? I would like to see some of the big names in the industry do something with it. So Wizards, Paizo, and others. Sure, use it to sell your own games, but it would be fun to get some of the big names involved.

Though the more the merrier to be honest!

100 Days of Halloween: Children of Midnight: Coven Quickstart

A bit of a different game tonight. Felt I needed a bit of a palate cleanser. The DriveThruRPG page says "Children of Midnight: Coven Quickstart is a gender inclusive urban fantasy Forged in the Dark table-top game. Players take the roles of Wyld Witches and their Familiars who form a Coven for mutual support in a dark and harsh modern world."   Sounds interesting. Let's get to it.

As always, to stay objective I will be following my rules for these reviews.   

Children of Midnight: Coven Quickstart

PDF. You get six files with this:

•  GM Session Notes
•  Quickstart Consent Form
•  Starting Undertaking
•  Quickstart GM Cheat Sheet
•  Children of Midnight Coven Quickstart Grimoire
•  Children of Midnight Coven Quickstart v1.3

In order, the GM Session Notes are exactly that, a form for recording sessions.   The Consent form is similar to others I have seen before. Green, Yellow and Red indicators on what all the players think on various topics. Starting Undertaking is a three page document with an overview/background on the game rules and the world.  Quickstart GM Cheat Sheet is a 6 page PDF with various guidelines and rolls used in the game.  Children of Midnight Coven Quickstart Grimoire is a colorful 2 page character sheet.

Children of Midnight Coven Quickstart is the game proper. This is a 40 page PDF.  It uses a system called Forged in the Dark that I am not entirely familiar with. The authors are Gavin and Áine Moore. For 40 pages there is a lot of material here. The font is a little small, but I can put this on a larger monitor than what I am using now. 

There is an absolute ton going on in this game. There is lore. There are detailed NPCs with photos and social media. I honestly feel I need to do some more research into this game before I can even properly review it.  So since this is a quickstart, I feel a quicky review right now is good. But really there is a lot of promise here.

To get a better feel I'll certainly need to play it, but I like what I am seeing so far.

#RPGaDAY2022 Day 28 Style Sunday

Style Sunday: Roll 1d8+1, tag that many friends with your favorite RPG cover art.

Well. Again, I am not a huge fan of tagging people at random. 

So instead here are some (1d8+1) of my favorite pieces of RPG art. 

D&D Basic Erol Otus

WitchCraft by George Vasilakos

Vampire the Masquerade

Monster Manual

Larry Elmore Witch

Blue Rose

100 Days of Halloween: The White Vale: Sex Starved Witch,Alien Horrors,& Dark Secrets

My goal here is to review, or at least talk about, all the witch products I can get my hands on. Mostly for my own benefit, I am a self-admitted fan and all, but to also share the products I enjoy and think are good.

Today is not one of those days.

Now. I try to avoid ripping into products. There are plenty of bad products out there that you will never hear about from me because frankly, I would rather talk about products and books I like. 

The White Vale: Sex Starved Witch, Alien Horrors,& Dark Secrets

PDF. $4.00. 10 pages. One cover, one title. 4 pages of art. 1 map. 3 pages of content.

So yeah there is this title. 

I am not sure what this is supposed to be. Is it an adventure or a location? Hard to tell. The art is...sub-par to say the least and mostly terrible to be honest.  There is no witch mentioned, but there is one pictured, though it looks really amateur. 

It has an "Adult Content" warning for the previously mentioned "witch" art. 

No. This is pretty bad.

#RPGaDAY2022 Day 27 - How has the character changed?

After 40 years all my characters have changed a bit. 

One character I had, Nigel was a Neutral Evil assassin, but over the years my DM pointed out he wasn't actually acting very evil anymore and he slowly had drifted to Chaotic Neutral, even to the point of losing his assassin's guild.

Larina went from a rather minor character in the late 80s to more and more importance in my games. I even made subtle changes to her looks, ie her eyes went from brown to blue, and in-story I claimed it was because her magic had become more powerful.

Now how *I* have changed with my characters is I am far more willing to try weird characters. Crazy Gnome bards (although not that weird anymore), crazy little goblin cultists, anything. I was never big on the Sword & Sorcery trope characters, but now even less so.

100 Days of Halloween: Sade Stock Art

A long time ago I picked up a bunch of stock art for my witch books.  I never got around to using all of it.  I might one day. But until then here are some reviews/overviews.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Be-witched Stock Pack

10 High-res CG images of witches.

I like Sade's style and I would love to find more places I could use this art. 

I used some of this art for the Sisters of the Aquarian Order.

Fae Folk Stock Art Pack

A cute little frog-fae girl. 7 images, beautifully done with transparent backgrounds.

Girls of Fantasy #1

6 images, three different figures with a transparent or detailed background each.

The art is good and I am glad I bought it, I just need to find a good use for it.

Moon Witch Stock Pack

The art is good and hi-res. Not sure why it is called a "witch", "moon elf" would be better. I had been using these for characters in my old D&D4 game.

Arch Druid Stock Art Pack

Good art for a character concept. The variety of images/poses are good.

Unnamed heroes #2

Nine images of the pictured hero.  Works great as a noble or other important NPC.

The art is very good.

Dawnbreaker Stock Art Pack

Fantastic works of art. Human (or half-elf) cleric/druid girl in a variety of poses and backgrounds. 3 with backgrounds and 8 without. She wears armor and carries a staff. 

There is no attached license though the main page says for commercial or personal use. The lack of a clear-to-understand and read license is a bit of a downgrade for me, but if you are looking for art for your own personal use then this is a 5/5.

Sorceress

8 image files of a redhead sorceress.  Various poses with transparent backgrounds.

She is partially armored and carries a staff.