Touched by the Gods
Touched by the Gods is the first non-adventure product in Atlas Games' Penumbra line for the D20 system. It is a 128 page hardcover book detailing churches, cults, cabals, and secret societies.
For those not familiar with Penumbra, the product line is written for the D20 system with the principle that gamers create their own worlds, and so their products are not written with a specific campaign setting in mind with an eye towards being adaptable to nearly any campaign. I find this to be a very savvy principle, and this philosophy is likely to mean that Penumbra line products will lack some of the game world specific baggage that other D20 vendors' products have.
The book has a variety of contributors, each writing their own section or sections. Some names you may recognize are Mike Mearls, Justin Bacon, and Michelle A. Brown Nephew.
Trying to make a supplement that is creative and yet not game world specific can be a task, though. We'll see if Atlas Games is up to the task.
A First Look
Touched by the Gods is a 128-page hardcover book priced at 23.95. The cover has a white background and depicts a winded figure standing in front of a brazier surrounded by some flaming snake-like creatures.
The interior is black and white with average text density and margin width. The layout is attractive, and makes good use of shaded blocks and watermarks. Each society / chapter has an symbol, and the symbol is used throughout the chapter to denote which chapter you are in, much like many of the old AD&D 2nd edition softcover supplements.
The art on the interior is very good. Many of the pieces are ink, though some look like pencil, though most are well done and professional looking.
A Deeper Look
The book is sorted into chapters, each featuring a religious or covert organization of some sort. Though the books title and tone implies that all of the organizations are of a religious nature, some are not. For example, there is a group of "power to the people" commoner anarchists, a cabal of mages who have transferred their essences to constructs, and so forth.
Each chapter contains the history, background, and goals of the organization, details on major figures in the organization, statistics and games rules, and adventure ideas involving the organization. New rules presented varied in scope in each section, but included such things as new feats, skills, spells, prestige classes and stat blocks for the major figures.
As I read through the book, was struck by a feeling of Déjà vu. The way that the book presented the basic idea, history, and personalities, and then spun off into adventure ideas reminded me of Task Force Games' Citybook series with D20 game system material added.
The book includes a total of 15 chapters, though one chapter contains multiple iterations of the same idea applied to many races. The chapters are:
- The Anthenaeum (by Alex Knapik) - The Anthenaeum is a collective of scholars obsessed with collecting all knowledge. One of the central concepts / game mechanics is a ritual called information exchanged that lets a recipient exchange power (attributes, year of life, skills ranks, or XP) for skill or XP in another.
- Davlika (by Michelle Nephew) - A group of magically influenced spiritual goblins who are spreading their newfound faith and philosophy.
- Death's Forsaken (by John Seavy) - A secret society of heroes who have been slain and returned, and have a special insight to the world beyond the veil of death. Includes a prestige class that requires that the character had died.
- The Forge (by Keith Baker) - A cabal of wizards who create artificial body parts and even whole bodies for them to store their essence in.
- The God Seekers (by James Malizewski) - A secret society that believes that some select mortals have the stuff to become gods, and are seeking to find these individuals with a divine seed and bring about their apotheosis. This struck me as very familiar, much akin to the Planescape setting's Harbinger House and Godsmen.
- Justicars (by James Malizewski) - A vigilante cult dedicated to eradicating those who have used the law to escape their due.
- Lurient's Legacy (by Alex Knapik) - An underground movement of the lower class aimed at diminishing the power of monarchies. I liked this one a lot in that it didn't belabor a lot of new mechanics but made good use of the oft-ignored NPC classes.
- Openers of the Way (by John Seavey) - An ancient cult that believes in the prophecy of a "chosen one" who is fairly important to saving the world from a demon at some point. The catch is, they aren't quite sure who the chosen one is and have only vague prophecies to guide them. I appreciated the charm and adaptability of this one - the tests that they might subject a possible chosen one to could be humorous and engaging encounters and the DM has a lot of flexibility about which prophecies to use and whether or not they are genuine.
- The Order of Ending (by Scott Reeves) - A nominally good but zealous church with an unusual belief system.
- The Reborn (by Keith Baker) - Take the druid concept and turn it on its head. Instead of humans that watch over nature, these are animals that watch over the affairs of humanity and other humanoids! The animals are primarily reincarnated humans, and have a special "totem" prestige class. Probably the most unique concept of the bunch!
- Shepherds of the Root(by Mike Mearls) - Ah, at last! With all the ambivalent could-go-either way cults and cabals, I was wondering where the classical despicable "they must be stopped" cults are! The Shepherds of the Root aim to topple civilization and return the world to a primitive state.
- The Spirits of Bohnaraii (by Alex Knapik) - A fad cult of misguided young nobles who believe that an ancient goddesses spirit dwells within them. This chapter has an interesting "destiny" system that you may consider using even if you don't use the group.
- Survival Cults (by Scott Reeves) - This is not one organization, but five. There is one for each of the five major pure blooded PC races. The organizations all have in common philosophies of racial superiority and purity. But their methods and makeup differ wildly.
- Ten Thousand Heroes (by Mike Mearls) - This is a brotherhood of warriors that engage in heroic actions in battle to prove themselves part of an ancient (now divine) legion of warriors. This is a good chapter with good "crunchy bits" and good background.
- Way of the Wolf (by Justin Bacon) - A little more traditional in scope than most of the other entries, the Way of the Wolf is a cabal of werewolves led by a werewolf lich.
The chapters provide a plethora of adventure and campaign ideas. Few of the adventure seeds fit the straightforward conflict model. Ruses, double dealing, and moral conundrums are more standard fare.
Not all of these will be perfect fits for all DMs game worlds - heck, I don't even have lycanthropes in my campaign. However, there is enough of a variety that most DMs should get some use out of it unless there world is truly unusual for a fantasy campaign.
Summary and Conclusions
The book is primarily about ideas, but the system material is part of the value. There are many good ideas for spells, feats, and prestige classes. But there were some bits that troubled me, primarily in that D20 system conventions weren't followed. For some strange reason, the biggest problem seems to be save and attack bonus modifiers for prestige classes. Many of them do not follow normal conventions.
Further, it seems to be typical D&D convention to avoid making new skills and to make most skills rather broad. The God Seekers introduces a new feat and a new skill, which seemed like overkill to me.
There are a number of other places where I said to myself "I would have done it different." Most of those are forgivable, as many of these are explicitly plot devices. However, I can think of a few places that doing it right would have worked better. For example, the Forge really needed a template to represent their transformed members, including giving them d10 for HD like other constructs.
I have mixed feelings about the overall value of this book. On one hand, when I picked it up, I was expecting something a lot bigger. For /ia hardback with a cost a dollar less than Relics & Rituals, I was expecting something a little closer in size to the Relics & Rituals… but it has 100 less pages.
On the other hand, if you contrast it with adventure material instead, it starts to look pretty good. If you are the sort of DM that finds that you have to strip down and rebuild adventures to begin with to make them fit your campaign, or simply don't like following strict plotlines, then you will get a lot more out of this book than a handful of 8-9 dollar D20 system adventures.
As is the case with many supplements, the worth of Touched by the Gods will largely depend on your DMing style. Even so, I am of the impression that this book really didn't need a hardcover, and if the lack of it saves a few dollars, it would help allay some of my concerns about price.
Still, I like Atlas Games' approach to D20 system product design. If they continue the engaging and useful approach displayed here, I am looking forwards to future products in the Penumbra line.
- Alan D. Kohler
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