The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: Snakefing@sdragon: I'm not familiar with any of those, but it occurs to me you'd be more likely to get good feedback if you posted that question in Meta

Quote from: RaelifinAZTECS!!! (Truly)

Quote from: Aztecs: Empire of the Dying sunfirst off, the impression i got when i first looked at the book. my initial reaction was one of suprise when i saw it was paperback. for a second, thats what i credited the slimness to, but then i realized it wouldn't have been as thick as WotC books, even if it has been hardcover (it totalled to a whopping 64 pages, five of which had no gaming content whatsoever- not even fluff). on top of those two issues, i had mixed thoughts on the cover design (as mentioned below); on the one hand, i enjoyed it alot, but on the other hand, it made me suspiscious of the content.

speaking of the cover design, on to the presentation. assuming "presentation" can be summed up with "let's put a hot, half-naked chick showing undercleavage on the cover", then this book has it down pat. On the other hand, if presentation means having sidebars properly leveld on the page-- or, at least, at an angle thats consistant with other sidebars-- then 'Aztecs' falls flat. the game information for the classes seems to be just as uneven as the sidebars: on one page, the description of one class ends and the next class begins. two pages later, there is the spell/day table for the first of these two classes. however, me being the type of person that i am, i decided to try to look past the sloppy, unproffessional appearance of the book; ultimately, isn't it the quality of the rules presented that matters, and not how bright and colorful, or even how level the pages are, that matters?

the first three chapters are fluff, on historical Mexica. the first is on culture, the second, society and history, and the third, magic and religion. i can't give these chapters a good review without giving them a good look, but from what i have seen, i don't think i could give a better review then to say that they read like a third grade culture textbook.

after that comes classes. this introduces two new base classes, and two new prestige classes. the flavor on these look nice, but even i, who has very limited knowledge about game design, stopped wondering how balanced these classes are when i saw the nagual (a sorceror variant): the Nagual is a spontaneous caster that knows all arcane spells, has a faster spell/day progression then the sorceror, and has a d8 hit die. there's even five class features, as opposed to the sorceror's sole 'Summon Familiar' feature.

the section 'Outfitting the Character' was the start of a nice turnaround in this book. after three chapters of stuffy fluff that consisted of a lot more words then information, and  unbalanced classes, this section provided several new feats, magic items, and even three new spells. there's even a list of restricted core items that only fit in the traditional european-inspired settings (crossbows and full plate are obvious choices for the list). while two of the new spells don't mention what class they're for, the fact that they require a divine focus makes it somewhat obvious that they belong with the cleric.

animals, creatures and monsters: here, i was pleasantly suprised. the Serpent Quetzl provides a nice, low-level alternative to core Couatl, and there's even two real-world animals that, despite how well they fit in the book, still make you laugh when you see them statted out: the llama and the chihuahua. that's right, they included stats for a spitter and an ankle-bitter. this section was definately a high point.

all in all, this book is a great read that has plenty of potential, but it doesn't live up to much of that potential. a bargain-bin buy to be used as inspiration for mesoamerican settings, if nothing else.

Quote from: Legends of the Samuraiwhile the phrase "third party rendition of OA" may not inspire much confidence in a book, that's a somwhat accurate description of LotS. quite frankly, i would say it was very well-done.

  it has "over twenty new classes" (according to the back cover; i have yet to count exactly how many classes), new feats (including 'Banter', which actually puts some usefulness in CHA), new uses for skills (the 'Psychic Duel' use for concentration is one of my personal favorites), and even entirely new Systems (point-based magic, anybody?).

one advantage it has over OA is that it's more flexible when being applied to new settings. while a lot of the mechanics (particularly the chapters "Martial Classes" and Martial Arts") are based on historical Japan, not mythical oriental land, it sets the baseline for inspiration. it allows you to deviate from real-world as little or as much as you like. while there is support for mythical aspects, the fact that they aren't already associated with an existing fictional setting is incredibly liberating. chapter 7, "Gamemastering", even offers suggestions on how to work with both historical and mythical Japanese settings.

while this book may be great, however, do not get me wrong: it's not exactly flawless. the one major weak point is that alot of the material is based on the new systems. sure, the mages ("Mystic Classes") could adopt vancian magic by simply taking spell/day and spells known charts, but the Honor system (an awesome system for settings where social ranking is a very important factor) can't be removed without completely crippling the Kuge class, and forces several other classes to be retooled. even weaponry is an offender in this; without the "simple, martial, and exotic" groupings, a Fighter would need to take weapon proficiency )spears and staves) in order to use a naginata. fortunately, alot of the weapons are in the PHB (a bo, for example, is obviously a quarterstaff).

all in all, ths is a great book. while i may have gotten this for free, it still would have been worth the money, even if i did pay for it.