OGL Horror (take 4, I think)

"I hear her, she's calling me to her, I belong to her... don't stay here, the curse! The curse!"

At long last, I finally got OGL Horror, which ends a six month odyssey for me.* I was interested in this because I am looking for a modern d20 horror game that wasn't based on Call of Cthulhu. I like CoC, but the Cthulhu Mythos have jumped the shark, even more than that phrase has, plus I wanted something more broad in focus. Something that could be used to simulate things like Bureau 13, Friday the 13th: The Series, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and even things like the various Hammer movies.

d20 Modern itself has been something of a turnoff to me, because at first I didn't like the class system used in it (though I now like it, seeing various alternatives that have worked poorly), but also because it feels too much like D&D in modern times. Urban Arcana, with it's gnoll pimps and D&D style magic system didn't help.

So, I was hoping OGL Horror would be at the worst, d20 Modern tweaked a bit for horror (similar to how OGL Cybernet was d20 Modern tweaked for Cyberpunk), with the silly fantasy gnoll pimp stuff removed.

To a certain extent, that is the case.

"I created your body just as I created your mind."


Much like how d20 Modern has an Occupation and then Base Class (or Hero Type), this has a Occupation and Base Class. Occupation is exactly the same as in d20 Modern, but instead of the 6 Hero Types (Strong Hero, Fast Hero, etc, each keyed to one attribute), there are only 4 classes: "Combatant", "Scholar", "Investigator", and "Ordinary People".

To a certain extent, this combination is a bit less flexible than d20 Modern, but it does pretty much fit the genre.

For instance, Kolchak (of Night Stalker fame) was a reporter, so he would be an Investigator. Mickey and Ryan of Friday the 13th: The Series would be Ordinary People, while Jack would be a Scholar. I actually never have watched Poltergeist the Legacy with the sound on (usually I just put it on because later seasons have this really cute blonde), but I get the impression they are mostly scholars or ordinary people.

It's not perfect, since the vast majority of people are simply shoved into a category called "Ordinary People". But at least they are accounted for, unlike d20 Modern itself. The only real quibble I have, is I think there should have been two sorts of investigator. Ones like police, FBI and such, who also have weapons training and access to vast databases of information, and reporters and amateur investigators, who mostly have to learn stuff by talking to people or use things like the internet.

There's actually not a huge difference between 3 of the classes. The combatant has a +1 to his base attack bonus every level, while everyone else gets the worst progression (+1 every other level). Instead of special abilities every other level (called "talents"), like in d20 Modern or other games, characters just get feats, which tend to be less powerful. There are some minor differences in saves and skill points, and of course, class skills.

So in d20 terms, this is actually somewhere between how Call of Cthulhu d20 and d20 Modern handles classes. As mentioned, it does seems to work pretty well, and you can simulate police type investigators by simply having characters alternate between "Investigator" and "Combatant".

Skills pretty much work exactly the same as in normal d20, and this pretty much reprints the d20 Modern skill list word for word.


For those not familiar with d20, basically, skills are ranked from 0 to 22 or so, and to see if your character succeeds at a skill, you roll a d20 and add the result to the skill rank, plus attribute modifier (each skill is keyed to an attribute), plus misc. modifiers, and see if the result is greater than a target number, or difficulty class. 5 for easy, 10 normal, 15 hardish, 20 tricky, etc. For tasks where you can take your time, you can simply assume you rolled a 10, or in some cases, a 20 (this is called "Take 10" and "Take 20")

Each skill gets explained pretty thoroughly, with some target difficulthy class numbers. The skill system is probably the best part of d20. Simple, but fairly realistic, and the semi-diceless method elimates the need to roll for easy tasks.

There are two things that work similar to skills, but not quite. Attack Progression, and Save Progressions. Both are resolved the same way as skills (roll a d20, add all the bonuses and compare to a target number or Difficulty Class), but are determined by a character's class and level (plus the apropriate attribute modifier).


Combat

"And then he picked up an oil can and threw it at me, almost knocked out my teeth!"

Combat works more or less like how combat in normal d20 works, or d20 modern. Basically, the same way the skill system works. The attack rolls a d20, adds his attack bonus, and if greater than the difficulty class (which is the defense value or armor class of what he's attacking), it's a hit. Damage is then rolled, and subtracted from the target's hit points.

Except I was shocked to notice that there was no massive damage threshold. At all! What's a massive damage threshold you say (for those not familiar with d20)?

In systems where hit points inflate, one of the many common complaints is that high level characters can do crazy things that normal people can't, get shot point blank, jump off cliffs, stick their heads in lion's mouths, etc, because even with a high damage total rolled, they'll still have plenty of hit points left.

d20 solves this by having a "Massive Damage Threshold". If a character takes more hit points of damage in a single attack (or round) than this, then they have a chance of simply dying on the spot. They basically have to make a Fortitude save. What this number is set at goes a long way to determining how cinematic a game is.

D&D sets this number at 50 hit points. So you can have fighters fall off cliffs and be okay. Call of Cthulhu d20 set it very low, at 10 hit points. This made just about any blow dangerous, especially gunshots, which can normally do 10 hit points a shot. d20 Modern sets it equal to the Constitution of the character, which is a pretty good compromise.

You can also tweak the difficulty of the fortitude save, by either fixing it at a given difficulty class, or having it equal a fraction of the damge (half damage is typical, full damage is gritty).

There's a whole lot of options available. But this book completely omits this rule, period. I was really shocked. I mean, it's such an essential rule, especially for the genre. I expected a fairly novel way of handling, or a discussion on how to simulate different types of horror by setting it at different levels. But instead, nothing.

This is almost a book breaker. I mean, for me personally, it's not that big a deal, I own well over a 100 d20 books, including several core rulebooks. I know the rules pretty well, and having been running a d20 game on and off for the last few years. But for someone new to the d20 system, well, it makes this book almost unusable. At least for the horror genre. Because it makes all the cliches about hit points true.


"And I told him that's crazy!"

Insanity Stuff

OGL Horror handles it by two basic mechanics, "Fear Saves" and "Shock Points"

Fear saves are basically just will saves, but different situations get different modifiers, and so get their own name. There are 3 sorts of fear saves. Fear, Panic, and Madness. "Fear" probably should have been called "Dread", to reduce confusion and be more accurate, it's the fear of going into spooky places, like a Haunted House or Michael Jackson's bedroom. Panic would be seeing something scary coming at you, like a ghost or a werewolf or Michael Jackson without his nose. Madness is more akin seeing something so awful, learning a terrible secret, or seeing something so bizzare, it drives you bonkers. Like a really grisly crime scene, finding out your parents are really brother and sister, or watching that Clint Eastwood-Lee Marvin musical.


Magic, Psychic Powers, and Faith

"I don't wanna hear another one of your rational explanations!"

There are all considered to be optional.

Magic and Psychic powers actually work suspiciously similar to Call of Cthulhu d20 (which is a good thing, as those are nice rules, and you can't copyright rules, just the specific text).

Spells basically work by making a skill check. There are no spell points, but they cause temporary ability drain (that is, a character's ability scores are reduced temporarily). Which ability varies from spell to spell. The spells in the book are not particularly flashy, but there are guidelines to convert spells from the regular d20 spell system (aka, D&D's fire & forget system).


Psychic abilities are also similar to the Call of Cthulhu d20 method, that is, psychic powers are gained by taking feats. In that, it was somewhat balanced by the characters getting few feats. In this, characters get quite several feats, so they could stock up on psychic powers if they want. So, balance is basically up to GM fiat.

That didn't bother me all that much, but I was disappointed in the selection of Psychic feats. Rather than being "realistic" ones (that is, duplicating supposed real world psychic powers), they tend to be more cinematic, fairly flashy. Things like "Pyrokinesis". Which does fit Stephen King's Firestarter pretty well, but it seems to be at the expense of things like psychometry (basically, getting impressions from objects people have touched or owned), which is probably the most useful skill for occult/horror investigations.

Faith is kinda of weird. Basically, it's almost a religious version of "Lets make a deal". The player "bets" God (or whoever he worships), saying in effect, if I make a prayer check, you'll do this for me, if I fail, then you can screw me over somehow.

Honestly, I found this to be very bizzare, both metaphysically and mechanically. It also goes against the very notion of faith, I thought. There's a quote I always liked, "I will not serve God like a laborer, in expectation of my wages.". You don't believe in a religion to get goodies from it, you believe in it because you believe in it. "True devotion is for itself; not to desire heaven, or to fear hell."

Game mechanically it's bad because the negative effects can be very vague, and in some cases, could affect the players as a whole.


"You're one of us!"

Organizations have always played a fairly large role in the horror genre, whether they are groups fighting against the darkness, or for it.

Bureau 13. The Legacy. SAVE. The Men in Black (Tommy Lee Jones/Will Smith variety). That paper in the show on the Sci-Fi channel that got cancelled after one season a couple of years ago. The O.S.I.R. from Psi-Factor (which apparently was based on a real organization, but in reality, was just 2 guys and a van).

The Hellfire Club. The Rotary Club. Various vampire clans. The Illuminati.

And of course, there's things like MUFON, CUFON, CSISCOP, various Fortean societies, etc.

So, this book has rules to address all of those things. Basically, organizations are treated very similar to characters.

This is actually very clever. Very very clever.




"Experience the door to your mind, no matter how bizarre. You create your own brave new world."
GM Advice

The author of this book is apparently a long time Call of Cthulhu GM (or "Keeper").

"Who the hell do you think you're dealing with? Some old slut on 42nd street?"
"In case you didn't happen to notice this, I'm one hell of a gorgeous chick."

Appearance wise, this is probably the ugliest of the 3 OGL books I own (which are the first three OGL books, period). The cover is really dark - I never realized that was supposed to be a cheerleader on the cover of it until I actually held it in my hands. From the smallish pictures I've seen on their website, I thought it was a Scottish guy with a kilt and a mustache! Usually there is a slight line where the mouth region hits the cheeks, but it's overly pronounced in this picture, which to me, looked like a mustache when it was very tiny. Full size it doesn't look so bad. That's really funny. Though now that I think of it, it could be a reference to the actress that plays Buffy: The Vampire Slayer - she always looked to me like she has a mustache, at least sometimes.

The interior art is generally good, but is also generally pretty dark. So color is rarely taken advantage of. There are a couple of nice landscapes by the artist whose work I liked so much in OGL Ancients, the one who uses a symbol that crashes the RPG.net review database. But in this book, his stuff is very pixelated, like it was scanned in badly.

"This is what I've been waiting for, all my life... I'm going... I'm really going... I'm finally taking a step..."

So, is this worth buying? Well, that really depends. The rules for characters are a bit better for horror than d20 Modern, being somewhat less cinematic and more realistic. The equipment, wealth rules, and some monsters are pretty much the same as d20 Modern (some tweaks and a few additions).

But the section on campaigns and running horror games is very good, and I really like the organization rules. On the downside (and this ia a major one), there is no massive damage rule, greatly reducing the deadliness of the game.

If you don't have d20 Modern, and want something to run horror games with, then this is a decent choice. It's not quite the definitive OGL/d20 Horror game I would have liked, but pretty close, and the compatibility with d20 Modern is pretty high, so you could presumably use things like the Menance Manual and the gun books without any conversion at all. It also should work well with RPGObjects excellent looking "Blood & Relics" occult/conspiracy campaign book and some of their other d20 Modern stuff. There's somewhat more suitable source material if you are into PDFs, there's several products from 12 to 6, including "Bloodlines", which apparently is d20 Modern based, but uses the OGL Horror magic rules, and the upcoming "Lost Destinations"

If you want to have psychic characters, I also strongly suggest getting the "Fright Night: Haunted House" supplement from Hogshead. While it's not d20 Modern based, it has a much better depiction of real world (and horror genre) psychic powers, I think. (Actually, you could also simply use the rules from Call of Cthulhu d20 as well)

I really would have liked more monsters, and I'm not sure I like how classes only go up to 10th level (though this is tied to how classes work in d20 Modern). To a certain extent, the type face is a larger than the one used in OGL Ancients, so I imagine that actually could have been a lot more room for more monsters and such.

On the other hand, if you have d20 Modern, then there probably is no pressing need to buy this. Some nice stuff, but probably not worth the cover price.

Still, I'm fairly happy with it. Probably happier than the grade it gets, as I mentioned, others might find it lacking if they don't have any other d20 resources.

C+








* Basically, I bought it on ebay from an ebay store in early January as a "pre-order", sent them a money order, and never heard from them for a month. Til I got a payment reminder notice. At which point I filed a missing money order claim, and sent them a new one. Never received anything. So I filled another missing claim, thinking this seller was playing games with me. In the mean time, I buy one from FRPGames, which is an honest dealer. But later I found out that the original seller on ebay deposited my 2nd money order in March, and simply never bothered to ship me anything. (And since it's several months after the fact, I don't even have the limp satisfaction of leaving negative feedback, which is worthless anyway). So I basically paid for this book twice. Plus $10 worth of money orders and money order inquiry fees. I mention this mostly in the interest of reviewer bias (though also a bit to vent), I might be more picky, having paid around $80 for this book. And as a lesson, stick with reliable sellers, like FRPGames, Noble Knight, or the store here. I've been ripped off 4 times on eBay this year - all from sellers that had 99% or better feedback, too. I guess I had that poor luck to be that 1%.

Into the Blue (3rd draft)

"We've done four already, but now we're steady, and then they went, one, two, three, four"

Into the Blue is the 3rd book in Bastion Press's "Into the ..." series, which are basically d20 sourcebooks devoted to a specific enviroment. While going the title, it could conceivably be about the sky, this book is actually about the ocean. If you've read or seen Into the Green or Into the Black, then this is pretty much exactly like them, only devoted to the sea.

This book was good timing for me, because I just read Tanith Lee's "Venus Preserved", which is about a city under water in the future (in an alternate history, where Venice was called "Venus" for some reason). So it got me thinking about putting a similar underwater city in my campaign. This book should help quite a bit in fleshing out the neighborhood, so to speak.

There are 6 chapters. The first is sort of an introduction to oceanic living (that is, assorted info about oceans in general), then comes one chapter on each main sort of ocean enviroment (coastal waters, open sea, and deep water), a shortish chapter on equipment, and a shortish chapter on new spells.

RPG books often talk about "En Media Res", that is, starting a session in the thick of the action. Well, that somewhat applies to how this book starts. Right away, you're presented with a discussion of algae blooms. Definitely not your typical d20 sourcebook.

Most of the first chapter will probably be known to those that have actually lived around an ocean. I used to live in Florida, so I knew most of this. It generally discusses basic facts of the sea, things like tides and such, plus types of animals and plants that appear in all areas of the ocean. You learn about sea cucumbers and octopii and that sea water ruins books.

"Under the sea,
Under the sea,
There'll be no accusations,
Just friendly crustaceans
Under the Seeeeeeeeeeeeea!"


The meat of the book are the 3 chapters which describe specific regions. Much like the two previous books in the series, it starts off with an overview of the region, along with specific terrain highlights and hazards. Then it discusses some common plants and normal (non-statted) animals, and finishes off with several monsters and their stats.

The coastal waters chapter describes the ecology of the region where the land meets the ocean. Beachs, coral, kelp, reefs, salt marshes are all described. I also learned what a Maelstrom is.

It also describes coastal sea animals like the deadly manatee. Well, actually, they're about as harmless as animals get. I used to watch them while I was in Florida, and I would often puzzle that they aren't extinct yet. I mean, they basically float there and splash a little. They're sitting ducks for anything that would want to eat them. I mean, they really are like cows, but cows have been domesticated. I guess no one but man wants to, for some reason. I always thought they looked fairly taste. It does mention crocadiles, but no gators.

The monster section for the coast has a couple of dolphins, who are of course portrayed as nice, charming animals. This irked me, as in reality, nothing could be further from the truth, though that is the common perception of them. Probably the most interesting in the coastal section is the "Kelp Stalker", which is basically a shambling mound, only derived from kelp.

The "Open Sea" chapter largely deals with ocean life near the top of the ocean, away from the coast. There's actually not much plant/animal life here worth mentioning, apparently. Barnacles. Sargasso seas. There's also a line of sight chart (though presumably only valuable on an earth sized planet) which determins how far you can see on the sea.

The

The Deep Water chapter is basically under the sea, and away from the coast. Things are a bit more interesting here, terrain wise, with Abyssal Plains (flatter than Kansas) and Brine Lakes (will pickle you if you enter, which is actually like parts of Arkansas).


"Look at me, living free
Free and clean amongst the Sea People"



Although shoved into the monster section of the various chapters, there are 5 new races in the book that are suitable for players or NPCs. The most interesting race in the book, I thought, is the "Orcam". Basically, they are ocean travelling orcs, sort of playing off the name "Orc" and "Orca". Oddly enough, the Sovereign Stone campaign setting does the same basic thing, having Orcs being related to Orca, but in that, they are just Sailors, in this, they are more like nomadic plainsmen of Earth, only on the ocean.

2 of the new races in the book are basically antromorphic animals. For instance, Otterkin, which are basically intelligent otters. And Turtle Folk are basically intelligent, upright walking turtles. Actually, it's about half the main characters of Spellsinger. Except the Turtles explode if they come to the surface (it seems they are high pressure creatures, despite their shells).

There's also the "Trench Elf", who besides wearing trench coats, also have a thing for black clothing and katanas. Seriously, while they are kind of angsty and have pale skin, they actually get their name from where they live, in the deep water trenches of the ocean. Because they cannot stand low pressure, they cannot go above 1000 feet of water. Because of this, they feel isolated.

And I almost forgot, there is the "Reef Scapper", which seem to be poor Tritons, who have been forced to live on the scraps of the sea. I found this race to be a bit distasteful, if not a bit offensive, actually, as it seems to stereotype poor people. (As I happen to be one, I find this irksome).


"Come Aboard. We're expecting you."


The equipment chapter is largely stuff only used underwater. All sorts of kelp and bone/shell armor. Sharkskin armor.

Similarly, most of the spells in the spell section (which is 6 pages) are mostly useful underwater, or in some cases, on top of them. Bubble of Air. Buoyancy. Animate Kelp. Waterproof. Desalinate. Ink cloud.


The book is pretty nice looking. Doom Striders was a bit uglier than most Bastion Books, but this is more in line with what you expect. Though in a nice touch, they've also added titles to the illustrations in addition to the artist's name. While generally speaking, the text of a book is the most important thing, I do apreciate art, and it's nice to know who did illustrations I like and what they are supposed to be.

My favorite piece is something of a landscape called "A sea maiden calls out to an approaching vessel." by Jesse Mohn. It's mostly a landscape, you can see the ghostly maiden, and a ship way out on the ocean, but it's mostly sky and sea illuminated by a full moon, all of which are very well done. (Though the ship actually seems to be headed in the other direction, and the critter is technically called a "Sea Scorned". But it's very nice and evocative.)

Actually, another label is probably wrong - there's a picture of what looks like a jellyfish, but is called a "lightning ray". However, the lightning ray is basically just a manta ray that can shoot lightning. Manta rays look nothing like jellyfish, they look sorta like futuristic airplanes, that fly through water.


"As I looked across the still waters,
A voice spoke to me in the darkness"


While this book contains some Dolphin propaganda, it's a very good look at the ecosystem of the ocean. As mentioned, it happened to come out just when I was thinking about placing some domed cities on the bottom of my campaign setting's seas. So I plan on getting a lot of use out of it. Should also be invaluable if you are running a pirate or ship based game, like say one based in Freeport. Or if you wanted to run a d20 Modern game set "The Day After Tomorrow" with Al Gore.

It's not perfect, though. As previous books in the series, it doesn't mention if an animal/plant/whatzit is real or fictional/magical, which wouldn't have taken much, and would have greatly added to this book's value for non-fantasy games. It omits some things, like what a lagoon is. And no alligators. Or insects like mosquitos, which are generally problems in saltmarshes. Or Lobsters. While kelp is discussed, just what exactly kelp is isn't mentioned. I mean, clearly it's a plant, presumably seaweed. But not being a diver, I don't think I've ever really seen what it looks like. And I really didn't like the Reef Scapper race, finding it somewhat stereotypes poor people. There are also 4 variations on dead sailors (or their wives), which is overkill. Personally, I thought it was probably the weakest of the three "Into the ...." books, but still pretty good.

B

"I'm sailing away..."

To a certain extent, the oceanic enviroment is vastly different than "normal" D&D style adventuring. Into the Green was simply about travelling in green areas (woods, forests, etc), while Into the Black was about underground areas, both places that are supported by the default D&D rules and are fairly normal enviroments. But this, well, it's vastly different, it doesn't have much info on actually adventuring under water, for that you need something like Mystic Eye Games "The Deep" (which in fact is recommended by this book). So it's not quite as useful to the default D&D game, at least the chapters on the open sea and deep sea.

It's a great supplement for "The Deep" or the various seafaring books (and Freeport), but you would have trouble running a sea based game (either on ships or down below) with just this book. To a certain extent, it wasn't meant to, it was just an ecology sort of book, but the back blurb makes it sound more useful than it is. When I review game books, I judge them on how well they do what they were meant to do, and what they were advertised to do or to be. Sometimes those two things can be at odds a bit.




http://www.tidepool.org/hp/hpflipper.cfm

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/07/06/MN58982.DTL

In the Blue Rough Draft Two (now with Song Quotes!)

"We've done four already, but now we're steady, and then they went, one, two, three, four"

Into the Blue is the 3rd book in Bastion Press's "Into the ..." series, which are basically d20 sourcebooks devoted to a specific enviroment. While going the title, it could conceivably be about the sky, this book is actually about the ocean. If you've read or seen Into the Green or Into the Black, then this is pretty much exactly like them, only devoted to the sea.

This book was good timing for me, because I just read Tanith Lee's "Venus Preserved", which is about a city under water in the future (in an alternate history, where Venice was called "Venus" for some reason). So it got me thinking about putting a similar underwater city in my campaign. This book should help quite a bit in fleshing out the neighborhood, so to speak.

There are 6 chapters. The first is sort of an introduction to oceanic living (that is, assorted info about oceans in general), then comes one chapter on each main sort of ocean enviroment (coastal waters, open sea, and deep water), a shortish chapter on equipment, and a shortish chapter on new spells.

RPG books often talk about "En Media Res", that is, starting a session in the thick of the action. Well, that somewhat applies to how this book starts. Right away, you're presented with a discussion of algae blooms. Definitely not your typical d20 sourcebook.

Most of the first chapter will probably be known to those that have actually lived around an ocean. I used to live in Florida, so I knew most of this. It generally discusses basic facts of the sea, things like tides and such, plus types of animals and plants that appear in all areas of the ocean. You learn about sea cucumbers and octopii and that sea water ruins books.

"Under the sea,
Under the sea,
There'll be no accusations,
Just friendly crustaceans
Under the Seeeeeeeeeeeeea!"


The coastal waters chapter describes the ecology of the region where the land meets the ocean. Beachs, coral, kelp, reefs, salt marshes are all described. I also learned what a Maelstrom is.

It also describes coastal sea animals like the deadly manatee. Well, actually, they're about as harmless as animals get. I used to watch them while I was in Florida, and I would often puzzle that they aren't extinct yet. I mean, they basically float there and splash a little. They're sitting ducks for anything that would want to eat them. I mean, they really are like cows, but cows have been domesticated. I guess no one but man wants to, for some reason. I always thought they looked fairly taste. It does mention crocadiles, but no gators.

The monster section for the coast has a couple of dolphins, who are of course portrayed as nice, charming animals. This irked me, as in reality, nothing could be further from the truth, though that is the common perception of them. Probably the most interesting in the coastal section is the "Kelp Stalker", which is basically a shambling mound, only derived from kelp.

The "Open Sea" chapter largely deals with ocean life near the top of the ocean, away from the coast. There's actually not much plant/animal life here worth mentioning, apparently. Barnacles. Sargasso seas. There's also a line of sight chart (though presumably only valuable on an earth sized planet) which determins how far you can see on the sea.

The monsters in this tend to be fairly big,

The Deep Water chapter is basically under the sea, and away from the coast. Things are a bit more interesting here, terrain wise, with Abyssal Plains (flatter than Kansas) and Brine Lakes (will pickle you if you enter, which is actually like parts of Arkansas).


"Look at me, living free
Free and clean amongst the Sea People"



Although shoved into the monster section of the various chapters, there are 5 new races in the book that are suitable for players or NPCs. The most interesting race in the book, I thought, is the "Orcam". Basically, they are ocean travelling orcs, sort of playing off the name "Orc" and "Orca". Oddly enough, the Sovereign Stone campaign setting does the same basic thing, having Orcs being related to Orca, but in that, they are just Sailors, in this, they are more like nomadic plainsmen of Earth, only on the ocean.

2 of the new races in the book are basically antromorphic animals. For instance, Otterkin, which are basically intelligent otters. And Turtle Folk are basically intelligent, upright walking turtles. Actually, it's about half the main characters of Spellsinger.

There's also the "Trench Elf", who besides wearing trench coats, also have a thing for black clothing and katanas. Seriously, while they are kind of angsty and have pale skin, they actually get their name from where they live, in the deep water trenches of the ocean. Because they cannot stand low pressure, they cannot go above 1000 feet of water. Because of this, they feel isolated.

And I also forgot, there is the "Reef Scapper", which seem to be poor Tritons, who have been forced to live on the scraps of the sea. I found this race to be a bit distasteful, if not a bit offensive, actually.


The equipment chapter is largely stuff only used underwater. All sorts of kelp and bone/shell armor.

Similarly, most of the spells in the spell section (which is 6 pages) are mostly useful underwater, or in some cases, on top of them. Bubble of Air. Buoyancy. Animate Kelp. Waterproof. Desalinate. Innk cloud.


The book is pretty nice looking. Doom Striders was a bit uglier than most Bastion Books, but this is more in line with what you expect. Though in a nice touch, they've also added titles to the illustrations in addition to the artist's name. While generally speaking, the text of a book is the most important thing, I do apreciate art, and it's nice to know who did illustrations I like and what they are supposed to be.

My favorite piece is something of a landscape called "A sea maiden calls out to an approaching vessel." by Jesse Mohn. It's mostly a landscape, you can see the ghostly maiden, and a ship way out on the ocean, but it's mostly sky and sea illuminated by a full moon, all of which are very well done. (Though the ship actually seems to be headed in the other direction, and the critter is technically called a "Sea Scorned". But it's very nice and evocative.)


While this book contains some Dolphin propaganda, it's a very good look at the ecosystem of the ocean. As mentioned, it happened to come out just when I was thinking about placing some domed cities on the bottom of my campaign setting's seas. So I plan on getting a lot of use out of it. Should also be invaluable if you are running a pirate or ship based game, like say one based in Freeport. Or if you wanted to run a d20 Modern game set "The Day After Tomorrow" with Al Gore.

It's not perfect, though. As previous books in the series, it doesn't mention if an animal/plant/whatzit is real or fictional/magical, which wouldn't have taken much, and would have greatly added to this book's value for non-fantasy games. It omits some things, like what a lagoon is. And no alligators. Or insects like mosquitos, which are generally problems in saltmarshes. Or Lobsters. While kelp is discussed, just what exactly kelp is isn't mentioned. I mean, clearly it's a plant, presumably seaweed. But not being a diver, I don't think I've ever really seen what it looks like. And I really didn't like the Reef Scapper race, finding it somewhat stereotypes poor people. Personally, I thought it was probably the weakest of the three "Into the ...." books, but still pretty good.

B

"I'm sailing away..."

To a certain extent, the oceanic enviroment is vastly different than "normal" D&D style adventuring. Into the Green was simply about travelling in green areas (woods, forests, etc), while Into the Black was about underground areas, both places that are supported by the default D&D rules and are fairly normal enviroments. But this, well, it's vastly different, it doesn't have much info on actually adventuring under water, for that you need something like Mystic Eye Games "The Deep" (which in fact is recommended by this book). So it's not quite as useful to the default D&D game, at least the chapters on the open sea and deep sea.

It's a great supplement for "The Deep" or the various seafaring books (and Freeport), but you would have trouble running a sea based game (either on ships or down below) with just this book. To a certain extent, it wasn't meant to, it was just an ecology sort of book, but the back blurb makes it sound more useful than it is. When I review game books, it's on how well they do what they were meant to do, and what they were advertised to do or to be. Sometimes those two things can be at odds a bit.




http://www.tidepool.org/hp/hpflipper.cfm

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/07/06/MN58982.DTL

Into the Blue Review - Rough Incomplete Draft 1

Into the Blue is the 3rd book in Bastion Press's "Into the ..." series, which are basically d20 sourcebooks devoted to a specific enviroment. While some might hope for Smurf porn, this book is actually about the ocean. If you've read or seen Into the Green or Into the Black, then this is pretty much exactly like them, only devoted to the sea.

This book was good timing for me, because I just read Tanith Lee's "Venus Preserved", which is about a city under water in the future (in an alternate history, where Venice was called "Venus" for some reason). So it got me thinking about putting a similar underwater city in my campaign. This book should help quite a bit in fleshing out the neighborhood, so to speak.

There are 6 chapters. The first is sort of an introduction to oceanic living (that is, assorted info about oceans in general), then comes one chapter on each main sort of ocean enviroment (coastal waters, open sea, and deep water), a shortish chapter on equipment, and a shortish chapter on new spells.

RPG books often talk about "En Media Res", that is, starting a session in the thick of the action. Well, that somewhat applies to how this book starts. Right away, you're presented with a discussion of algae blooms. Definitely not your typical d20 sourcebook.

Most of the first chapter will probably be known to those that have actually lived around an ocean. I used to live in Florida, so I knew most of this. It generally discusses basic facts of the sea, things like tides and such, plus types of animals and plants that appear in all areas of the ocean. You learn about sea cucumbers and octopii and that sea water ruins books.


The coast water chapter describes the ecology of the region where the land meets the ocean. Beachs, coral, kelp, reefs, salt marshes are all described. I also learned what a Maelstrom is.

It also describes coastal sea animals like the deadly manatee. Well, actually, they're about as harmless as animals get. I used to watch them while I was in Florida, and I would often puzzle that they aren't extinct yet. I mean, they basically float there and splash a little. They're sitting ducks for anything that would want to eat them. I mean, they really are like cows, but cows have been domesticated. I guess no one but man wants to, for some reason. I always thought they looked fairly taste. It does mention crocadiles, but no gators.

The monster section for the coast has a couple of dolphins, who are of course portrayed as nice, charming animals. Nothing could be further from the truth, though that is the common perception of them. Probably the most interesting in the coastal section is the "Kelp Stalker", which is basically a shambling mound, only derived from kelp.

The "Open Sea" chapter largely deals with ocean life near the top of the ocean, away from the coast. There's actually not much plant/animal life here worth mentioning, apparently. Barnacles. Sargasso seas. There's also a line of sight chart (though presumably only valuable on an earth sized planet) which determins how far you can see on the sea.

The Deep Water chapter is basically under the sea, and away from the coast.




Although shoved into the monster section of the various chapters, there are 5 new races in the book that are suitable for players or NPCs. The most interesting race in the book, I thought, is the "Orcam". Basically, they are ocean travelling orcs, sort of playing off the name "Orc" and "Orca". Oddly enough, the Sovereign Stone campaign setting does the same basic thing, having Orcs being related to Orca, but in that, they are just Sailors, in this, they are more like nomadic plainsmen of Earth, only on the ocean.

2 of the new races in the book are basically antromorphic animals. For instance, Otterkin, which are basically intelligent otters. And Turtle Folk are basically intelligent, upright walking turtles. Actually, it's about half the main characters of Spellsinger.

There's also the "Trench Elf", who besides wearing trench coats, also have a thing for black and katanas. No, they actually get their name from where they live, in the deep water trenches of the ocean.

And I also forgot, there is the "Reef Scapper", which seem to be poor Tritons, who have been forced to live on the scraps of the sea. I found this race to be a bit distasteful, if not a bit offensive, actually.


The equipment chapter is largely stuff only used underwater. All sorts of kelp and bone/shell armor.


The book is pretty nice looking. Doom Striders was a bit uglier than most Bastion Books, but this is more in line with what you expect. Though in a nice touch, they've also added titles to the illustrations in addition to the artist's name. While generally speaking, the text of a book is the most important thing, I do apreciate art, and it's nice to know who did illustrations I like and what they are supposed to be.

Probably my favorite piece is something of a landscape called "A sea maiden calls out to an approaching vessel." by Jesse Mohn. It's mostly a landscape, you can see the ghostly maiden, and a ship way out on the ocean, but it's mostly sky and sea, both of which are very well done.


While this book contains some Dolphin propaganda, it's a very good look at the ecosystem of the ocean. As mentioned, it happened to come out just when I was thinking about placing some domed cities on the bottom of my campaign setting's seas. So I plan on getting a lot of use out of it. Should also be invaluable if you are running a pirate or ship based game, like say one based in Freeport. Or if you wanted to run a d20 Modern game set "The Day After Tomorrow" with Al Gore.

It's not perfect, though. As previous books in the series, it doesn't mention if an animal/plant/whatzit is real or fictional/magical, which wouldn't have taken much, and would have greatly added to this book's value for non-fantasy games. It omits some things, like what a lagoon is. And no alligators. Or insects like mosquitos, which are generally problems in saltmarshes. While kelp is discussed, just what exactly kelp is isn't mentioned. I mean, clearly it's a plant, presumably seaweed. But not being a diver, I don't think I've ever really seen what it looks like. And I really didn't like the Reef Scapper race, finding it somewhat stereotypes poor people.


http://www.tidepool.org/hp/hpflipper.cfm

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/07/06/MN58982.DTL