This week I review 93 Game Studios’ Basic Classes: The Apprentice.

                I’m a big fan of d20 Modern; I waited eagerly for it to come out, I read the SRD while I was waiting for Amazon to deliver the book, and I read the book again when I got it.  Big fan.  As such, when I get to review something for d20 Modern, I get kind of excited.  Enter Basic Classes: Apprentice, by 93 Game Studios.  The idea behind this product (or line of products, I suppose) is that d20 Modern needs more magic, and magic needs to be available from first level (rather than circa fourth level, as the vanilla product is designed).  Apprentice introduces a new basic class—the Apprentice—that represents a low-level caster, apprenticed, as it were, to a higher level caster.  The Apprentice can be either arcane or divine—or, indeed, both—and gains some rather rudimentary spellcasting ability while advancing up its ten-level progression.

                I’ll start with what I liked about this product.  The class, itself, seems well-balanced with the other basic classes, and I didn’t really notice any blatant balance issues with it.  It gains a few spells by taking specific Talents, and can also gain some magical resistance and crafting ability.  The Apprentice is a very skill-heavy class (as I’ve always thought spellcasting classes should be), evidenced by the fact that it gains eight skill points per level, has an a full Talent tree devoted to skill improvement, and almost all of its bonus feats (with the exception of two) are skill-boosting feats.

                As for the not-so-good, let me start with what struck me immediately: the writing isn’t very good.  The author is prone to spelling mistakes, grammar and syntax errors, muddled language, and somewhat trite prose.  It may not matter to some, but I found that it detracted from my overall enjoyment of the product quite a lot.  The class, itself, suffers from a specific problem, too.  Though this problem is not mechanical in nature (as I’ve said, it seems to be well balanced), it does make the class somewhat less attractive.  Simply put, the class doesn’t have much flavor.  If you take levels in the Apprentice class, you’re going to get a few spells, or some numerical bonuses.  Period, nothing else.  I certainly would have liked something a little more interesting from a ‘magical’ class.  Now, granted, this may not be a problem for everyone; the main reason that it bugged me was that, aside from getting a few spells, I couldn’t think of a single compelling reason to take levels in the Apprentice class.  And really, if I wanted spells, I’d wait a few levels and go for the superior spellcasting ability of the Mage.

What I Liked: Good balance, and a skill-focused magic-user.

What I Didn’t Like: Sloppy presentation and an overall lack of compelling flavor.

This is a review of Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot: The Roleplaying Game, by Atomic Sock Monkey Press.

                After being on a steady diet of d20 products and World of Darkness for the past couple of years, Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot: The Roleplaying Game, by Atomic Sock Monkey Press, was like a breath of fresh air.  MNPR:RPG uses a very flexible, rules-light system called the Prose Descriptive Quality system, or the PDQ system.  The basis for this system is that characters have a number of Qualities that define their abilities.  These Qualities are roughly analogous to skills in other systems, except that they can cover a lot more ground under their ‘penumbra', and you basically make up whatever Qualities you want, rather than choosing from a pre-defined list.  The GM has final say over whether a Quality is too broad (or too narrow), but this system offers a great deal of flexibility (and creativity) to players.  The PDQ system also has the advantage of allowing you to generate characters very quickly; I'd estimate that, once you have a concept, it would take mere minutes to stat out your character.

                The game, itself, takes full advantage of the PDQ system's flexibility.  While characters are more-or-less restricted to being either a monkey, ninja, pirate, or robot, the restrictions end there.  Want to be a ninja accountant who uses a frying pan in combat?  Go for it.  How about a robot lounge singer with laser eyes and hover jets?  You can do that, too.  If you wanted to eventually combine the abilities of a monkey and a ninja, to become a monkey-ninja, the game allows for that, too.  And it's all very simple.  There are only a few core rules in the PDQ system, and a few more that are specific to MNPR:RPG, so there's very little opportunity for the rules to become unclear, needlessly complex, or broken.  Balance is left primarily to the GM to arbitrate, rather than the system, itself.  You could take a Quality for using a sword, for example, but if you're a ninja or a pirate, that's probably already covered by your basic Ninja or Pirate Quality.  The system doesn't prevent you from doing this, or from taking a Quality even broader than Ninja or Pirate; instead, it's up to the GM to decide whether or not something is balanced.

                Now, this isn't to say that MNPR:RPG is perfect; it's not.  There are a lot of mistakes throughout that could have been caught with more editing and proofreading, but that's not a major problem, and it doesn't really make the game harder to understand, as the intent is always clear.  The biggest problem that I see with MNPR:RPG is that it's flippant and frivolous tone, while genuinely appealing, doesn't really lend itself to more serious games, or to ongoing campaigns.  Interestingly enough, the book does admit this, and even goes so far as to devote a few pages to discussing how tone impacts the longevity of the game.  Points for that, by the way.  In any case, though, once I had finished reading the book, I felt like I probably wouldn't play MNPR:RPG too often, but I'd really like the opportunity to use the PDQ system for a more serious and ongoing game at some point.

What I Liked: The PDQ system is flexible and simple, and encourages creativity and evocative descriptions of actions.  It's designed to keep gameplay fun, simple, and (most importantly) moving.  The book itself is presented with a great deal of charisma and humor, which makes it a lot of fun to read.  That, and you can't help but smile when you read a game about monkeys, ninjas, pirates, and robots protecting the world from alien invaders and fighting over sweet, sweet uranium.

What I Didn't Like: The artwork was a little bit too simplistic for me.  And by that, I mean that it is entirely composed of black-and-white stick figure drawings.  Literally.  There were a few editing and proofreading mistakes throughout.  The biggest flaw is probably the fact that the game isn't really suitable for ongoing campaigns (though if you tend to play quick one-shots a lot, this might not matter to you).

This is a review of Notebook Essentials: Swarms, Stampedes, and Skirmishes, by Throwing Dice Games.

                I've always liked the idea of swarms in D&D.  Basically, a single centipede, or beetle, or mosquito isn't going to make much of a challenge, even for a single first-level character.  Pack a bunch of them together into a writhing, hungry, ten-by-ten mass, and you've got yourself a party, though.  And that's a swarm: a group of small, usually mindless, creatures acting as one, much larger, creature.  Notebook Essentials: Swarms, Stampedes and Skirmishes, by Throwing Dice Games, takes that idea and expands it in the most logical of ways: by applying it to larger creatures.

                The product starts off by going over the basics of swarms and giving a few examples.  It goes on to offer feats for swarms and special abilities that multiple swarms can gain when they join together.  Then it moves on to stampedes.  A stampede is, basically, a swarm of large quadrupeds, like horses or bison.  The book also covers skirmishes, which are a way to treat an out-of-control melee of humanoids (or other, similar, creatures) as a single creature, rather than tracking each creature's initiative and actions.  Both new ‘creature' types offer ways to run different, very hectic encounters with a lot less bookkeeping and headache on the part of the GM.  I even got to run an encounter with a skirmish just last night (a barroom brawl, specifically), and it did a good job of capturing the flavor that I wanted for the encounter, while allowing me to minimize the number of individual creatures that I had to keep track of.  Definitely a plus in my book.  The book also offers some spells for dealing with swarms (or creating them), and even offers a sample epic swarm: the skull swarm, which is a swarm of demiliches.  Nasty stuff, trust me.

                Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this product.  It's definitely a no-frills affair, weighing it at only ten pages (including the OGL declaration), with very little art.  However, it does have the advantage of getting right to the point.  The book gives you useful, balanced rules in a clear, straightforward, and easy-to-follow manner, which is more than I can say for a lot of fancier products.  It's not without its problems, but most of those are minor.  There are a few editing mistakes, the worst of which is an apparent copy-paste error (a new spell, greater summon swarm, seems to have been copied from the SRD's summon swarm; however, while the statistical information was changed, the body text seems to have been left the same).

What I Liked: This product expanded on a useful and evocative creature type in a very logical way, giving us two new very useful creature types.  The rules are clear and seemingly well-balanced.

What I Didn't Like: Not a whole lot.  There were some editing mistakes, but nothing major.  The skull swarm isn't really suitable for characters below, say, level 60 or so, and so it's probably not that useful, but I imagine it was probably included as a gag, anyway.

This is a review of Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth, by E.N. Publishing.

                I had heard a little bit about EN Publishing's Elements of Magic prior to reading Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth, so I was somewhat intrigued from the start.  As I read this book, however, my enthusiasm for it quickly grew.  Here was an e-book that was edited and proofread better than many print products that I've read, and with an interesting, flexible, and fun magic system that's pretty easy to plop into any modern or fantasy d20 game.  Allow me to explain where my enthusiasm comes from.

                The e-book starts with an introduction, as you'd expect, and then leads into a very intelligent discussion of myth, legend, folktale and superstition.  It not only discusses what these things are, exploring various types of myths, including the Monomyth and the Fellowship Cycle, but it does a very good job of explaining why myth can make a good game better.  This is not just a theoretical essay, it's a guide for breathing new life into your game, for adding resonance to quests that might feel somewhat generic otherwise.

                As interesting as this discussion is, however, the real meat of the product is the magic system, and it is very, very good.  Magic is broken up into a series of spellcasting skills—skills like Create, Attack, Illusion, and Charm, to name a few—which you gain access to by taking Tradition feats.  A Tradition feat represents the spellcasting tradition that you follow—again, to name a few: Stage Magic, Dreamtime, Necromancy, and Classical Fey—and give you access to certain spellcasting skills as class skills.  To cast a spell, you simply choose the effect that you want, including range, duration, and other particulars, and work with the GM to find an appropriate level and DC.  Then you cast the spell.  It sounds like magic might slow the game down, doesn't it?  It really doesn't.  Spontaneous casting, as described above, takes two full rounds to use.  To mitigate this, you can create ‘signature spells'; basically, spontaneous spells that you've created beforehand, that do the same thing every time you cast them, but only require a standard action to cast.  Thus, the flexibility is maintained, and the game is sped up considerably.

                Granted, the book is not without its problems.  There are a very few editing mistakes, and I can think of a few places where some errata is needed.  For example, the book explains that, in order to cast a spell of higher level than is normally possible, you must take Strength burn.  However, at certain points in the text, a different penalty (the fatigued condition) is referred to.  In another part of the book, a few Tradition feats are provided for standard fantasy d20 (the system is designed with modern d20 in mind).  However, one of these feats requires the use of action points, which are normally unavailable in fantasy d20.  However, little things like this do nothing to detract from the overall superb quality of this product.  Perhaps the best thing I can say about it is that I fully intend to use it in my own game, and I'm very, very excited about it.

What I Liked: Great writing, intelligent discussions, and excellent artwork.  Not only that, but the magic system is perhaps one of the most interesting, flexible, and balances systems I've seen for quite some time.  Also, for those looking for a little flavor with their crunch, there's a lengthy section on the default campaign setting for Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth, a setting called High Fantasy for modern d20.  It's well-written and very interesting, and gives you a lot of good examples of how to create spells via the system.

What I Didn't Like: Very little.  There were a few errors and items requiring minor errata, but nothing game-breaking. 

This is a review of Superior Synergy: Fantasy by Misfit Studios. 

Superior Synergy asks the question: why does skill synergy begin and end at five ranks?  It’s an interesting question, to be sure.  In a nutshell, skill synergies now have four ‘benchmarks’: one at five, ten, fifteen and twenty ranks.  Some are simply higher skill bonuses, while others allow you to use skills faster, or cause skill effects to last longer.  In general, the new synergy effects are easy to integrate, seem to be balanced, and are pretty useful on the whole.

            Slightly more interesting, but possibly less balanced, are feat synergies.  When you take certain combinations of feats, you gain bonus abilities related to the required feats, without having to spend another feat slot.  These abilities tend to be more potent than skill synergies, but not quite as powerful as true feats.  While they may seem somewhat unbalanced (and the author as much as admits to this), this concept is not without precedent.  In Wizards’ own Oriental Adventures there is a similar mechanic used to emulate mastery of a martial arts style.  Still, look at feat synergies with a careful eye.

            It should be mentioned that more effort could have been put into editing this work.  I noticed a number of spelling and grammar errors, though this hardly makes the book less useful as a resource.  Overall, I found this e-book to be worth using, and I plan to pillage it for ideas to use in my campaign.  However, those looking for something to add flavor to their game should look elsewhere; this work is almost one hundred percent mechanics.

Alchemy [Lore] Through intense study and experimentation, you have learned to create compounds and potions with extraordinary properties.
Base Mastery: 1
Benefit: You gain access to the alchemy token pool. This pool represents your ability to collect ingredients for your compounds in your spare time, as well as your ability to mix them. If you spend one hour and make a Survival check (DC 10 in natural surroundings, DC 15 in urban surroundings), you gain one alchemy token, as your knack for collecting useful items allows you to harvest reagents for your potions. In addition, you may make a Gather Information check (DC 20 in anything smaller than a city, DC 15 in a city or larger) in order to locate potential ingredients for sale, which you may then purchase at a rate of 1 token for 10 gold. This check takes four hours.
You may spend one hour and a variable number of tokens in order to create any of the following compounds. Once created, a compound is viable for a number of days equal to your Intelligence modifier. You may increase this duration of viability by spending additional tokens; you lengthen viability by one day for every additional token you spend to create the compound.
Explosive: You may spend 2 tokens to create an explosive compound that detonates upon impact. When thrown as a grenade-like weapon, an explosive does 2d6 points of fire damage to the square that it lands in, and 1 point of splash damage to each square adjacent to it. The target of the explosive is entitled to a Reflex save (DC 15) for half damage. You may spend additional tokens to widen the blast area of the explosive; spending 3 additional alchemy tokens causes anyone within a 10-foot area to suffer the primary damage, while any square adjacent to that area suffers 1 point of splash damage, as normal.
Acid: You may spend 2 tokens to create a vitriolic acid that burns upon contact, and continues to burn for a short time. When thrown as a grenade-like weapon, a flask of acid deals 1d6 points of acid damage upon contact, plus an additional 1d6 points of damage on the next round. A target may negate the effects of the acid by submerging himself in water. You may spend additional tokens to increase the duration of the acid; spending 2 additional tokens causes it to burn for an additional round.
Flash Powder: You may spend 1 token to create a volitile powder that creates a bright flash of light upon impact. When thrown as a grenade-like weapon, flash powder blinds its intended target for one round, as well as anyone adjacent to the target. The target of the flash powder is entitled to a Reflex save (DC 15) to negate the effect; adjacent targets are also entitled to a save, but the DC is 10. You may spend additional tokens in order to increase the DC of the save; every additional token spent in this manner increases the DC by 1.
Poultice: You may spend 2 tokens to concoct a curative poultice to bind wounds. It takes one full round to apply a poutlice to someone. Once the poultice is applied, the subject’s natural healing rate doubles for the next 24 hours. You may spend additional tokens to increase the longevity of your poultice; spending 2 additional alchemy tokens increases the effect’s duration to 48 hours.
You can have a total number of alchmey tokens equal to your character level + 10; any tokens beyond this limit are wasted.
Expanded Mastery: 2. You have learned to create the elixer of stimulation, a potion that increases the mind’s natural abilities. The elixer, when imbibed as a standard action, grants the user a +2 bonus to all Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based skill and ability checks for the next hour. It takes 4 hours to brew an elixer of stimulation, and requires the expenditure of 4 alchemy tokens. The elixer remains viable as described in the base mastery of this feat.
Expanded Mastery: 2. You have learned to create the elixer of invigoration, a concoction that accelerates the body’s metabolism. This elixer, when imbibed as a standard action, grants the user a +2 bonus to all Strength-, Dexterity-, and Constitution-based skill and ability checks for the next hour. It takes 4 hours to brew an elixer of invigoration, and requires the expenditure fo 4 alchemy tokens. The elixer remains viable as described in the base mastery of this feat.
Expanded Mastery: 2. You have learned to create fast-acting antidotes to various deadly poisons. You gain access to the venom token pool, though you cannot actually create poisons. Instead, you gain the ability to mix antidutes to these poisons by using the toxins, themselves. If you spend four hours a day seeking out poisonous substances and analyzing them, you gain 1 venom token. In addition, when you slay a creature that has a poison special attack, you gain 1 venom token after you you make a successful Heal check (DC 15) to extract the poison from it. You can gain only 1 venom token from a creature in this manner, and you must collect it within an hour of the creature’s death.
You may spend 1 minute mixing poisonous substances with various curative substances in order to create an antidote; creating an antidote costs 1 alchemy token and 1 venom token. When imbibed as a standard action, an antidote renders the user completely immune to poisons for 10 minutes, even neutralizing any poisons already in his system. An antidote, once created, remains viable for only 1 hour; however, additional tokens (either venom or alchemy) may be spent to increase the antidote’s viability by 1 hour per token spent.
You can have a total number of venom tokens equal to your character level + 10; any tokens beyond this limit are wasted.
Expanded Mastery: 2. You may mix various ingredients in order to create a phosphorescent paste. This paste, when spread upon a substance, illuminates an area as a torch would, except that it lasts for six hours and generates no heat. To create a phosphorescent paste, you must spend a full round action and 1 alchemy token. Once created, the paste immediately begins producing illumination for the next six hours. You may spend additional alchemy tokens to increase the paste’s lifespan by 2 hours per token spent.
Expanded Mastery: 3. You can create a substance called woad, which induces a potent battle frenzy. In order to use a dose of woad, you must spread it on your face or other exposed skin as a full-round action. Once done, you gain a +4 bonus to Strength and Constitution for a number of rounds equal to your (newly improved) Constitution modifier + 5. However, during this frenzied state, you pay little attention to defense, and therefore suffer a -2 penalty to defense. In addition, you cannot use any skills or abilities that require focused concentration or coherent thought; you instinctively favor direct action while under the drug’s influence. Finally, when the drug wears off, you immediately take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage.
In order to create a dose of woad, you must mix ingredients for 1 hour and spend 4 alchemy tokens. You may spend additional tokens in order to increase the potency of the woad, and thus its duration. Each additional token spent increases the woad’s duration by 1 round; however, each additional round also inflicts 1 additional point of nonlethal damage when the drug wears off. Woad remains viable as described in the base mastery of this feat.
Expanded Mastery: 3. You are able to mix a concoction called houndsbane, which is so foul-smelling that it foils any attempts to use extraordinary olfactory senses. You can throw a vial of houndsbane as a grenade-like weapon; if it hits its target, that target cannot use its scent ability for two hours. In addition, the target suffers a -4 penalty to Hide checks and any attempts made to track the afflicted creature by scent receive a +4 bonus during those two hours, as the pungeant musk clings to it tenaciously. In order to create houndsbane, you must spend 1 hour mixing ingredients and 2 alchemy tokens. Houndsbane remains viable as described in the base mastery of this feat.
Expanded Mastery: 3. You have learned how to create a vaguely luminescent substance called sparkle powder. When thrown as a grenade-like weapon, sparkle powder negates the effects of concealment on its target, even if that creature is gaining concealment from invisibility; the creature may make a Reflex save (DC 18) as a standard action each round in order to end this effect. In addition, while the effect lasts, the target suffers a -8 penalty to Hide checks. You can create sparkle powder by working for 1 hour and spending 3 alchemy tokens. Sparkle powder remains viable as described in the base mastery of this feat.
Expanded Mastery: 4. You can create a substance called nocturne, which increases visual acuity in poor illumination when spread under the eyes. When applied as a standard action, nocturne grants the user low-light vision for one hour. If the user already possesses low-light vision, nocturne doubles its range. If the user has darkvision, nocturne increases its range by 150%. You can create a dose of nocturne by spending one hour working and spending 4 alchemy tokens. Nocturne remains viable as described in the base mastery of this feat.
Expanded Mastery: 4. You are able to create vigor, a potent healing draught. When imbibed as a standard action, vigor replenishes both hit points and reserve points as if the user had rested for eight hours. However, vigor is notoriously foul-tasting, and is difficult to keep down. Upon ingesting the mixture, the user must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) or immediately spend a full round retching it back up; in this case, the user does not gain vigor’s benefits. Even if the user manages to choke the concoction down, he is still nauseated for 1d4 rounds after consuming it.
In order to create a flask of vigor, you must spend 2 hours brewing the potion, and spend 6 alchemy tokens. You may spend additional tokens to improve the potion’s taste; each token spent in this manner reduces the Fortitude save’s DC by 1, to a minimum of 8. Vigor remains viable as described in the base mastery of this feat.
Expanded Mastery: 5. You have learned the secret of fool’s silver, a substance that gives weapons similar properties to silver. When spread upon a weapon as a full-round action, fool’s silver allows the user to treat that weapon as a silver weapon for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction for 1 hour. In order to create fool’s silver, you must work for 2 hours and spend 4 alchemy tokens. Fool’s silver remains viable as described in the base mastery of this feat.
Expanded Mastery: 5. You can create a substance called feybane, a liquid containing particles of iron that causes severe damage to fey creatures. Whe spread upon a weapon as a full-round action, feybane allows the user to treat that weapon as a cold iron weapon for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction for 1 hour. In order to create feybane, you must work for 2 hours and spend 4 alchmey tokens. Feybane remains viable as described in the base mastery of this feat.

I got Iron Heroes about a week and a half ago, and I finished it a few days ago.  Wow.  Just wow.  Anyway, I thought I’d post some stuff that I came up with, making use of mastery feats and tokens and whatnot.  For your reading pleasure, here are three feats: Biting Repartee, Fortune’s Favor, and a mastery version of Improved Unarmed Strike.

Biting Repartee [Social]
You gain confidence from your opponent’s failures, allowing you to use your words as a powerful weapon.
Base Mastery: 1
Benefit: During your action, you designate an opponent to watch for mistakes. Every time your opponent attempts an action and fails, you gain 1 barb token.
During your action, you may spend 1 barb token as a free action in order to insult your opponent in attempt to rattle her; you may spend additional barb tokens to increase the DC of the save that your opponent must make, as well. When you use this ability, your foe must make a Will save (DC 10 + your Charisma modifier + the number of additional tokens spent) or suffer a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, skill checks, and ability checks until the end of her next action.
You can maintain a total number of unspent barb tokens in your token pool equal to your character level + 10. Tokens beyond this maximum go to waste. Your pool lasts until the end of the encounter. You can build up tokens against one opponent at a time. If you switch targets, you lose the tokens that you have already built up for this ability.
Special: All uses of this feat are mind-affecting, language-dependent effects.
Expanded Mastery: 2. Your jibes and insults can cause your foe to lose focus momentarily, creating an opening for an attack. Any time your foe performs an action within with in a threatened area (either yours or an ally’s), you may spend 2 barb tokens. If you do so, her action provokes an attack of opportunity, even if it normally would not.
Expanded Mastery: 3. You can verbally distract your foe to such an extent that he simply fails to do anything useful. You may spend 2 or more barb tokens as a free action. When you do so, your opponent must make a Will save (DC 10 + your Charisma modifier + the number of additional tokens spent) or become dazed until the end of her next action.
Expanded Mastery: 4. By distracting your opponent with your repartee, you can cause her to lower her defenses momentarily. You may spend 4 or more barb tokens as a free action in order to force your opponent to make a Will save (DC 10 + your Charisma modifier + the number of additional tokens spent). If she fails, she loses her active bonus to Defense against the next attack aimed at her.
Expanded Mastery: 7. You can force your opponent to focus her ire upon you and you alone, ignoring all others. You may spend 4 or more barb tokens as a free action. If you do so, your opponent must make a Will save (DC 10 + your Charisma modifier + the number of additional tokens spent); if she fails, she must take the shortest path to get to you and engage you in melee. Your opponent does not have to move through any dangerous or damaging terrain; you cannot force her to walk through flames. However, you can force her to move through an ally’s threatened area, or into an area that would spring a trap that she does not know about.
Expanded Mastery: 10. Your criticism is so insightful and effective that you can provoke your opponent into taking a specific action by questioning her ability to do so. As a free action, spend 8 or more barb tokens and designate an action that you wish your opponent to take. The action must be relatively straightforward, and it cannot be obviously suicidal or against your opponent’s nature. For example, you cannot force your opponent to jump off a cliff or attack her allies, but you could force her to take a combat challenge that lowers her defenses, or engage your berserker ally in melee combat. Your opponent is entilted to a Will save (DC 10 + your Charimsa modifier + the number of additional tokens spent) to resist this effect.

Fortune’s Favor [Special]
You are luckier than most. You’ve found that, if you take significant risks, you tend to have good luck later on.
Base Mastery: 1
Prerequisite: This feat does not have an associated mastery category. As such, your mastery rating, for the purpose of this feat, is equal to the number in the column listed �Other Feat Mastery� or �All Feat Mastery�.
Benefit: You gain access to the luck token pool. Any time you make a skill check for which there is a penalty for failure (i.e., a check on which you can neither take 10 nor 20), you may take a special skill challenge. By taking a -5 penalty to your check, you gain 1 luck token if you succeed; note that you gain no other benefit for this challenge. In addition, you may take a special defensive combat challenge in order to gain tokens. If you take a -4 penalty to Defense (following the normal rules for combat challenges) you gain a luck token.
At any given time, as part of another action, you may spend 1 luck token in order to gain a +1 luck bonus to your next d20 roll. There is no limit to the number of luck tokens you may spend on a single roll, but you do not gain any luck tokens from a check on which you have spent luck tokens.
You can maintain a total number of unspent luck tokens in your token pool equal to your character level + 10. Tokens beyond this maximum go to waste. Your pool lasts until you rest for 8 hours.
Expanded Mastery: 3. Your luck is sometimes more potent, though this is not always the case. Instead of spending luck tokens for +1 bonuses on a 1-for-1 basis, you may spend 2 luck tokens in order to add a luck bonus of +1d6 to your next d20 roll. Otherwise, this ability obeys the same rules as listed above.
Expanded Mastery: 5. You have learned to play the odds, risking much for great rewards. Any time you must make a skill check, ability check, attack roll, or base attack check with at least a 50% chance of failure, you may risk any number of luck tokens. If you fail, you lose any luck tokens that you risked on the action. However, should you succeed, you gain an additional number of luck tokens equal to the number that you risked. If you spend any luck tokens on this roll, you gain no benefit.
Expanded Mastery: 7. You are so lucky that it seems as if you often get a second chance at things. Any time you make a d20 roll, you may spend 6 luck tokens to reroll the die once you have seen the result. If you do so, you must take the second roll, even if it is worse than the first. Note that this second roll gains all of the same bonuses as the initial roll, including bonuses granted by spent luck tokens.

Improved Unarmed Strike [Power, Finesse]
You have trained to fight with punches and kicks, which allows you to engage an armed opponent on equal terms.
Base Mastery: 1
Prerequisite: When you take this feat, you must choose to take it as a Power or Finesse feat.
Benefit: You are considered armed even when unarmed. You do not provoke attacks of opportunity from armed opponents when you attack them unarmed. However, you still get an attack of opportunity against any opponent who makes an unarmed attack on you. Also, your unarmed strikes can deal lethal or nonlethal damage, at your option, and your unarmed damage improves as if you were one size larger than you are.
Normal: Without this feat, you are considered unarmed when attacking with an unarmed strike, and you can deal only nonlethal damage with such an attack.
Special: Note that the benefits for expanded mastery levels 3, 6, and 9 are all identical. They are listed as separate mastery abilities because you can’t take the same ability more than once. However, their effects stack.
Expanded Mastery: 2 (Power). You can deliver devastating blows with your unarmed strikes that send your opponent reeling. Your unarmed strikes gain the power descriptor. When fighting unarmed, you gain the benefit of the Foe Hammer feat, though this benefit applies only to your unarmed strikes and not to cudgels. If you wish to use Foe Hammer with a cudgel, you must purchase it separately. You can spend feat selections to gain Foe Hammer’s expanded mastery abilities for this use of your unarmed strikes.
Expanded Mastery: 2 (Finesse). You can attack with great speed, dazzling your opponent with your lightning-fast strikes. Your unarmed strikes gain the finesse descriptor. When fighting unarmed, you gain the benefit of the Razor Fiend feat, though this benefit applies only to your unarmed strikes and not to daggers. If you wish to use Razor Fiend with a dagger, you must purchase it separately. You can spend feat selections to gain Razor Fiend’s expanded mastery abilities for this use of your unarmed strikes.
Expanded Mastery: 3. Your unarmed strikes deal more damage, making you a living weapon. The damage dealt by your unarmed strikes improves again, as if you were an additional size larger than you are.
Expanded Mastery: 4. You are capable of reacting with complex moves at a moment’s notice. Any time you make an attack of opportunity, you may initiate a disarm, trip, or grapple attempt without provoking an attack of opportunity in return. In addition, you no longer suffer the -4 penalty to disarm attempts for using a light weapon when you are unarmed.
Expanded Mastery: 5. As a move action, you may make a base attack check opposed by your opponent’s own base attack check, or by his Sense Motive check, whichever is better. If you succeed, your opponent loses his active bonus to Defense until the start of his next action.
Expanded Mastery: 6. Your unarmed strikes deal more damage, making you a living weapon. The damage dealt by your unarmed strikes improves again, as if you were an additional size larger than you are.
Expanded Mastery: 8. You know how to strike at your opponent’s weakest spots, often avoiding his armor’s protection. You may make an unarmed strike as a full-round action. For this attack only, your foe takes a -1d8 penalty to his damage reduction.
Expanded Mastery: 9. Your unarmed strikes deal more damage, making you a living weapon. The damage dealt by your unarmed strikes improves again, as if you were an additional size larger than you are.

After a long haitus, I’ve decided to start posting again.  In addition to using this space to talk about game-related things, I’m also going to be using it as a sort of blog, to just talk about random stuff that’s happening or that I’m thinking about.  Don’t worry; it’ll still be mostly geek-oriented.

One thing that I wanted to do a quick post about was Batman Begins.  I saw this on my Monday, and I was really impressed by it.  In fact, I think I’d have to say that it’s probably the best movie in the series, hands down.  I liked how Bruce Wayne’s character was fully explored and not just Batman’s cover identity.  I liked how there were multiple villains that Batman had to contend with, and I liked how the villains weren’t presenting a united front, but were working against each other in minor ways.  I liked that there was a lot of gray morality in the movie; there were clear-cut good guys and bad guys, but they weren’t your typical moustache-twirling bad guys.  Instead, we got complex bad guys with complex motivations.  All in all, while the movie wasn’t necessarily completely believable (and hey, what comic-book movie is, aside from maybe Road to Perdition?), it was very convincing within its own fabricated reality.

Jade Empire has been a big influence on my creativity lately.  I’ve been anticipating it for a while, and I recently got it and started playing it, and I love the game.  At any rate, a little while ago, because of the limited availability of some of the people in my monthly D&D game, I decided to start a secondary game for when people are missing.  Not surprisingly, the style of game was influenced somewhat by my anticipation of Jade Empire.

Ever heard of Dragon Fist?  For those who haven’t, Dragon Fist was a stand-alone RPG released by Wizards of the Coast just before the release of 3rd Edition D&D.  It used a version of the 2nd Edition rules that was somewhat similar to the d20 System, so it acted as a sort of preview of 3rd Edition, as well as a preview of Oriental Adventures.  It was a game based on wuxia movies and Chinese folklore, and it was a lot of fun.  It threw any form of realism out the window in favor of high-powered, cinematic kung fu action sequences.  Anyway, I wanted to play Dragon Fist as my secondary game, but I wanted to stick with the d20 System, or as close to it as possible, so as to reduce the learning curve somewhat for newer players.  Conundrum.

A while ago, Green Ronin purchased Dragon Fist from WotC, so that they could make a d20 version and put it up for sale.  This would have been fine with me; I’d gladly pay for d20 Dragon Fist, if it were availalble.  Unfortunately, it is not, as far as I can tell.  So, because I couldn’t find the d20 version anywhere, I decided to do something on my own.

My first thought was to use d20 Modern as my basis, but I soon discovered that that would take a lot of work, and it still wouldn’t emulate Dragon Fist in quite the way I wanted to.  I also thought about using the Oriental Adventures rules in combination with the Dragon Fist campaign setting, but that didn’t really do what I wanted it to, either.  I thought for a while, and I looked at the books I had on my shelf.  Then, suddenly, it hit me.

What book did I own that allowed people to create high-powered heroes capable of super-human actions?  Why, Mutants and Masterminds, of course.  I glanced through the book, and to my delight I discovered that I would have to do very little to make the rules compatible with the setting.  So, I opted for that.

Anyway, on the last gaming day, we sat down and made some characters.  Now I’m going to be GMing a game including the following:

• A wise man who gouged out his own eyes so that he could see more clearly.  He wields a sword with deadly percision and can see through untruths that would fool others.
• An acrobat who has the ability to assume a ghostly form.  Her chosen weapon is a bow, and she is so accurate with it that she can even paralyze her targets for breif periods.
• A short old man with a penchant for peeking in windows.  He casts a variety of spells, and rides on the shoulders of a large, hulking student of his.

So, after a little bit of searching, I found exactly the kind of game I was looking for.

So, who’s heard of Iron Lore? If you haven’t, you should head over to Monte Cook’s Website and check it out, as it’s one of Malhavoc’s upcoming products. Basically, it sounds awesome. Anyway, it got my juices flowing somewhat, so I figured I’d post some thoughts.

Iron Lore is an alternate Player’s Handbook for D&D, and it makes some interesting changes to the core rules (at least, as far as I can tell from the limited amount of information currently available). At any rate, while it isn’t necessarily a ‘low magic’ setting, it does make magic a lot less reliable as a source of easy power. There’s one magic casting class, the arcanist, and as I understand it, casting spells in Iron Lore isn’t as simple as simply saying, “I cast fireball”. Further, magic items are few and far between. I’ve heard them likened to artifacts in d20 Call of Cthulhu, in that they’re largely unique items that have unpredictable and often dangerous effects.

At any rate, this all got me thinking how great these rules would fit into a steampunk-style setting. In rules terms, it would be as simple as adding some more modern weapons to the mix (firearms, for one), and a new, gadgeteer-type class.

Now, Iron Lore has a mechanic where different character classes can do things to earn ‘tokens’, and can then spend their tokens to access class abilities. For example, an archer could spend a round aiming, earn a token, and use it the next round to ignore a target’s armor. This mechanic fits very well with my vision of a gadgeteer. In my head, the gadgeteer spends a round rummaging through his pack and constructing a doodad, and he earns a token. He can then cash tokens in to create effects, like dealing area-effect damage, blinding someone, or filling an area with smoke. More complex and powerful effects require more tokens to activate; thus, they take longer to ‘build’. If the gadgeteer already has a few tokens, he’s basically got part of the item constructed already.

This brings up the question, “If the gadgeteer can create all sorts of effects by simply cashing in tokens, wouldn’t that sort of step on the arcansit’s toes a little”. Not really. The gadgeteer and the arcanist should be able to do a lot of the same things; magic and technology are basically two different routes to the same power. The difference is that magic tends to be more dramatic and powerful, but far more unpredictable and dangerous, while technology tends to be more reliable but less powerful and somewhat slower. Both classes might be able to fill a twenty-foot radius with fire, but they’d go about it in different ways. The arcanist would make a check and do it in a single round, but the result might not be exactly what he wants. The gadgeteer, on the other hand, will get the exact result he wants without a check, but it’ll take a couple of rounds of doing nothing but earning tokens in order to accomplish it.

Anyway, that’s what Iron Lore got me thinking about.