Starring:
Mannix, level 4 Human Inquisitive Rogue
Khaless, level 4 Half-Drow Assassin Rogue
Gillian, level 4 Triton Bard of Whispers George, level 4 Tortle Battle Master Fighter/Rogue
Therin, level 4 Hill Dwarf Druid of the Moon
In a special shortened Thursday session we finished up the fight at the Wreck of the Star Goddess. The party climbed to the top of the skyship wreckage only to face down a trio of Girallon Zombies.
Designed by: Tim Bannock, with Matt Butler, JVC Parry, Janek Sielicki
Hags are a classic foe in literature and increasingly in the horror genre in the form of witches. They’re no strangers to the world of Dungeons & Dragons, receiving three types in the Monster Manual (Green, Night, Sea) as well as a detailed section and another two hag variants (Annis, Bheur) in Volo’s Guide to Monsters.
In case you need even more hag-related content, there’s “The Hag’s Hexes.” It’s a 60-page supplement with a very obvious theme, featuring new statblocks for hags and hag-related allies, as well as magic items, curses and bargains, mini one-shot adventures, and tips on role-playing.
An impressive ruleset that skillfully converts D&D 5E into a cyberpunk sci-fi setting, along with an excellent adventure that uses those rules.
Review copies of “Investigations & Androids” and “Off World Colony” were provided by the publisher. Find more tabletop RPG reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
I adore a good cyberpunk setting. Blade Runner. Shadowrun. Dredd. Altered Carbon. Even The Expanse, in some ways. In fact when I began DMing and playing online sessions via Roll20, we originally started with Shadowrun (and then switched to D&D 5E because Shadowrun’s rules are super ugly).
“Investigations & Androids” smartly takes the core malleable d20 gameplay of Dungeons & Dragons and converts it into a classic cybernoir theme. It’s extremely well written and organized, focusing on the most important changes while letting the original ruleset do most of the heavy lifting.
The 80+ page rule book includes four new classes, nine new races, four new backgrounds, new or altered techpowers (spells, basically) as well as biomods, weapon augmentations, and several new maps and NPC statblocks.
I’m also reviewing “Off World Colony,” a companion adventure that utilizes all of those rules. Sadly it’s only a part one of four (as yet unreleased), but the level 1 adventure includes three chapters that perfectly blends open world exploration within a structured environment, allowing for fun choices and character building within a space-staged murder-mystery plot.
Starring:
Mannix, level 4 Human Inquisitive Rogue
Khaless, level 4 Half-Drow Assassin Rogue
Gillian, level 4 Triton Bard of Whispers George, level 4 Tortle Battle Master Fighter/Rogue
Therin, level 4 Hill Dwarf Druid of the Moon
From Dungrunglung the party had gained fancy new magic items and two new allies, including skyshipwreck survivor Oloma. They traveled west from the Aldani Basin back into the jungle to find the Wreck of the Star Goddess, besieged by undead.
Puzzles are criminally underused in nearly every D&D dungeon I’ve come across. I don’t expect Portal-level puzzle designs in every dungeon but logic puzzles, riddles, and environmental traps offer a welcome change to the standard Kill, Loot, Rest, Repeat cycle of dungeon crawling.
On the other end of the scale is “The Secrets of the Twisting Colossus,” a 5th level adventure that features a deathtrap dungeon design of over a dozen individual trap rooms. Puzzles range from exciting environmental dangers to complex block and matching puzzles, culminating in a memorable boss fight that pits the PCs in a literal science experiment.
