Hmm. These questions can sometimes be a little cringe. BUT I am going to take it at face value.
I rather like my Ordinary World setting for NIGHT SHIFT. The supernatural is real, but it largely wants to be left alone. I just kinda like the idea that vampires work the morgue night shifts, werewolves are postal carriers, and the scary old lady down the street really is a witch.
Who knows. It might be fun!
.jpg "Echelon Reference Series: Witch Spells (3pp+PRD)")
As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.
Echelon Reference Series: Witch Spells Compiled (3pp+PRD)
2 PDFs. $33.99. 186 pages (PF) and 544 pages (3PP).
Yes. 730 pages total. This compiled collection covers both spells from various Pathfinder products and the 3rd Party Pathfinder products. There is no fluff. Very little art. Here is how each book breaks down. There is a cover page, and OGL statement of Open Content page, a table of contents, and two pages on what this book is. For the Pathfinder book there is three pages of OGL. For the 3rd Party book there are seven pages for the OGL. There is a hyperlinked index for both and hyperlinked table of contents.
The rest is solid text of spells.
And by spells. I mean every single witch spell ever published by the date of this book. The 3rd Party book for example has nearly 30 pages of cantrips, 50 pages of 1st level spells, 60 2nd level spells and so on.
The spells are given an editorial clean-up so that they all look similar and can flow well.
What these books lack (and were never trying to cover) is all the fluff or explanatory pieces that might go with the background of a spell. For example "Air Bubble" mentions a firearm can be loaded within an Air Bubble, but makes no attempt to explain anything more. This is perfectly within the scope of this product.
The number of spells break down as follows:
Witch 3pp
Cantrips: 123
1st level: 200
2nd level: 251
3rd level: 221
4th level: 188
5th level: 163
6th level: 142
7th level: 131
8th level: 122
9th level: 109
Total 1,650
Witch Prd
Cantrips: 15
1st level: 83
2nd level: 107
3rd level: 88
4th level: 70
5th level: 51
6th level: 39
7th level: 40
8th level: 28
9th level: 22
Total 543
That's insane really.
He also has these per level and for every spell casting class in Pathfinder.
You might ask if you buy this does that get rid of the need to buy other Pathfinder spell books? I say no since there is nothing here but the spells. Other products often have the spells, explanatory notes, monsters, feats, and items that might go with them. These books are a fancy SRDs. Highly organized and very useful ones at that.
If you are like me this is a treasure trove.
When did I start Game Mastering? Right away to be honest.
It would have been with the D&D Basic Set edited by Tom Moldvay. I am sure I ran my younger brother and sister through some adventures. I know I had made my own dungeons then and still have a couple of the maps. One, in particular, had a red dragon in one room and a green dragon in another. No idea how they got through the doors.
I would like to think I got better.
As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.
PDF. $1.49. 7 pages. 1 page cover. ½page OGL. 5½ pages of content.
This PDF gives us what I consider the "usual bag" of options for the Pathfinder Witch class. NOTE that is not a slight on this book or even a bad thing. It is very, very often exactly what people want.
There are 10 new Patrons with their bonus spells. There are 10 new hexes as well.
There are three (3) new archetypes as well. These include the Devoted Witch (I might call this a Divine Witch or Witch Priestess), Green Witch (largely the same as mine in feel), and the Storyteller Witch which is a lot of fun. It is closest to my "Good Walker" witch.
So for just under $1.50 you can get all of this. Not at all bad really. If you need some new witch options then this is a good choice.
I took advantage of the latest Christmas in July Sales at DriveThruRPG to get myself some Print on Demand deals.
I wanted a new Dragonlance hardcover to replace the one my son absconded with when he was little. I have also been wanting copies of City System and A Paladin in Hell for a while now. Cult of the Dragon and Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy are gifts for the aforementioned son.
While that was getting printed and shipped to me my youngest was 3D printing my Sagarassi minis.
They are a little hard to see, here is a close-up.
Yeah, still a little hard. Here is what they will look like painted.
I am pleased with how the prints turned out.
Ok. This one is up for some debate.
D&D and its variants of the time were all my "First" RPG. I played them like they were all one game.
My Second RPG?
That one was a bit fuzzier. I know where I bought it though. It was from the Mail Order Hobby shop. I know this because I am sure I bought them both at the same time because they were not available at my local book store.
It was either Chill or Traveller.
For my "street cred" I will say Chill, but in my gut, I think it was Traveller. I do know that I did not get a chance to play either of them until much later in life.
I still rather enjoy both games.
Incantations from the Other Side: Spirit Magic
PDF. $9.99. 38 pages. 1-page cover. 1 credits page. 1-page table of contents. 1 page for OGL and index. 34 pages of content. Landscape page orientation (sometimes this cuts off art).
As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.
This book is divided into four major sections, each with a different author from the cover. Each covers a different type of magic.
The Spirit World by Scott Gable introduces us to the book and the three types of spirit magic we will cover here.
Vodou by Scott Gable. This is our first and is familiar by name. It involves working with various spirits, the Loa, many listed later in this section. There seems to be some campaign setting specifics here. This is not a surprise because in our world Vodou, Vodun, and Voodoo are very location specific. This is mentioned in a sidebar here.
There are some new spells, but beyond that there is plenty of information on how these spells are supposed to be used. This section will not replace any of the works of say C.J. Carella on the subject, but it works great for Pathfinder.
The Middle World by Uri Kurlianchik. Covers the magic found in the tales from Russia and the Slavs. This includes a number of "House spirits." Again we are treated to some familiar names; the Leshy, the Domovoi, but here they are spirits and not fae creatures exactly. Here we also have a few spells associated with the various creatures.
The Arcanum by Clinton Boomer. Lastly we have the Arcanum. This one covers "Starry Patrons" but there is a solid "from beyond the stars" feel to these. You can read these as Lovecraftian horrors, but they seem more aloof and alien even than that.
This book succeeds in giving us a very different felling magic system that still works with the rules of Pathfinder. Since the publication of this book there have been more book on magic for Pathfinder, so it would be interesting to see how this works with these new works.
The art is full color and quite good.
