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Of Sound Mind by Matthew D. Grau and Timothy R. Erickson

Apex Publications, Inc. P. O. Box 20405 Bloomington, MN 55420

32 pages, saddle stitched Price = 8.00

Reviewed by Lisa Padol

This review originally appeared in The Familiar #6.

Of Sound Mind is a supplement for Shattered Dreams, one of last year's pleasant surprises. The PCs are Dreamwalkers, people who walk into other people's dreams to fight their Nightmares. At first glance, Of Sound Mind seems to be a supplement on insanity. It does devote some space to the topic, but it covers other things as well.

Of Sound Mind fits a surprising amount of material into its 32 pages. There are expanded rules for insanity, including descriptions of a large number of disorders. These are also useful for games such as CoC and Kult. Also included are rules for curing disorders, based somewhat more on fact than on mechanics, and an invaluable section on the effects of disorders on Dreamwalking.

The meat of this supplement, however, is the material on Dreamwalker groups. Three such groups are described, with full descriptions of 22 NPCs. This section alone is almost worth the price of the module, for the NPCs are well-fleshed out. About half of the descriptions are accompanied by a sketch. The organizations are fleshed out as well. One is based in the USA, another in Europe, and the third in Japan. The last two seem a bit small, but presumably what is being described is the core membership, rather than the total membership. After all, describing every member of a worldwide organization would take up too much space, and it would probably result in less vivid NPCs. Also, describing only the core group gives the GM enough background to customize the groups for her campaigns. Still, a sentence or two explaining this would be useful.

Of Sound Mind is rounded out with a brief section on using asylums as settings and two adventure seeds set in -- where else? -- an asylum. One adventure seed has pretensions of being a full adventure. It is not, but it does round out the book nicely.

The art is adequate, and the layout is simple and readable. The print does not smudge. Different fonts are used for the NPCs of the different groups. Unfortunately, one of those fonts, the blacklettering used for The Watch, the European group, is difficult to read. There are still a few too many copyediting goofs, but Of Sound Mind is far less sloppy than Shattered Dreams. Unlike Shattered Dreams, Of Sound Mind has an index, although it does not need it as badly as Shattered Dreams.

Of Sound Mind is worth the asking price for fans of Shattered Dreams. Be aware, though, that it does not have a complete adventure and that it more of a grab bag of miscellaneous material than a supplement devoted solely to covering insanity in Shattered Dreams.

Grade: B+

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Of Sound Mind
Author: Matthew D. Grau and Timothy R. Erickson Category: game Company/Publisher: Apex Line: Shattered Dreams Cost: $8.00 Page count: 32 pages, saddle stapled Capsule Review by Lisa Padol on 05/07/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day Horror	Of Sound Mind by Matthew D. Grau and Timothy R. Erickson Apex Publications, Inc. P. O. Box 20405 Bloomington, MN 55420 32 pages, saddle stitched Price = 8.00 Reviewed by Lisa Padol This review originally appeared in The Familiar #6. Of Sound Mind is a supplement for Shattered Dreams, one of last year's pleasant surprises. The PCs are Dreamwalkers, people who walk into other people's dreams to fight their Nightmares. At first glance, Of Sound Mind seems to be a supplement on insanity. It does devote some space to the topic, but it covers other things as well. Of Sound Mind fits a surprising amount of material into its 32 pages. There are expanded rules for insanity, including descriptions of a large number of disorders. These are also useful for games such as CoC and Kult. Also included are rules for curing disorders, based somewhat more on fact than on mechanics, and an invaluable section on the effects of disorders on Dreamwalking. The meat of this supplement, however, is the material on Dreamwalker groups. Three such groups are described, with full descriptions of 22 NPCs. This section alone is almost worth the price of the module, for the NPCs are well-fleshed out. About half of the descriptions are accompanied by a sketch. The organizations are fleshed out as well. One is based in the USA, another in Europe, and the third in Japan. The last two seem a bit small, but presumably what is being described is the core membership, rather than the total membership. After all, describing every member of a worldwide organization would take up too much space, and it would probably result in less vivid NPCs. Also, describing only the core group gives the GM enough background to customize the groups for her campaigns. Still, a sentence or two explaining this would be useful. Of Sound Mind is rounded out with a brief section on using asylums as settings and two adventure seeds set in -- where else? -- an asylum. One adventure seed has pretensions of being a full adventure. It is not, but it does round out the book nicely. The art is adequate, and the layout is simple and readable. The print does not smudge. Different fonts are used for the NPCs of the different groups. Unfortunately, one of those fonts, the blacklettering used for The Watch, the European group, is difficult to read. There are still a few too many copyediting goofs, but Of Sound Mind is far less sloppy than Shattered Dreams. Unlike Shattered Dreams, Of Sound Mind has an index, although it does not need it as badly as Shattered Dreams. Of Sound Mind is worth the asking price for fans of Shattered Dreams. Be aware, though, that it does not have a complete adventure and that it more of a grab bag of miscellaneous material than a supplement devoted solely to covering insanity in Shattered Dreams. Grade: B+ Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)