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The Temple of the Lost Gods details the rise and fall of a fantasy religion. What you get for your ten bucks is basically 80 pages worth of adventure seeds and campaign ideas. Almost any GM will find something here for their campaign – regardless of the system, setting, or genre of said campaign. That in itself is a pretty impressive accomplishment, although the PDF fell a little short of expectations in several minor ways.
The firs third or so of the book is occupied by a history of "the Faith of the Lost Gods", and this is by far the coolest part of the supplement. Years ago, the Gods were hurled from Earth and lost in the vastness of space. The prayers and virtue of the faithful will help lead the Gods back to earth. When they return, all will be good again. Judgment and brimstone are optional. The premise is impressive for being simultaneously plausible and immensely creative – a virtue Underkoffler's shown in his other work as well.
The history chapter, then, starts the church out as a mystery religion centered on a possibly insane prophet/wizard. From there, the Church builds followers and political support until its the dominant faith of a major kingdom. Eventually, plague and political upheaval causes the church to be come more aggressive and worldly and less serene. So far, this looks like its been ripped straight out of the history books. That's where the occult weirdness comes in. The Last Priest, upset at the moral decay of the world, gathers a few of the faithful into an underground temple complex and puts up a veil of mist that isolates the temple from the rest of history.
Each of these phases is described in some detail. This is what gives the supplement its remarkable versatility. If you've got a fantasy campaign, the Church in its middle years makes a great official religion. You've got lots of different Gods to hand out spells, along with ideas for the sort of Church sponsored cover-ups and corruption that figure heavily in games like Final Fantasy Tactics. If you've got a Cthulhu campaign, the Lost Gods take on a more sinister aspect, and the church becomes a cult summoning back demons to end the world. In Exalted, the church could be some mad Solar's brain child left over from the first age, Solar Circle Sorcery protecting it from Chejop's astrology. And so forth, and so on. A number of different ideas are given. There's even a section that turns the setting into a one shot adventure of the "invade dungeon, kill monsters, find out something interesting" mold. Its hard to imagine the campaign that couldn't get at least one session out of Temple of the Lost Gods.
But unless you're running the dungeon crawl, it will take some significant work. Most of the setting ideas are a little underdeveloped. They give enough to get your creative juices flowing, but not much more. The whole thing reminded me of the GM's section of Unknown Armies. Here's a big box of legoes. Put 'em together yourself, kid.
Speaking of putting things together yourself, the material is adaptable for almost any rules set. If you're running D&D, you could replace the described monsters and traps with CR appropriate encounters from the DMG and you'd be fine. If you're running Unknown Armies, you could easily enough figure out some unnatural effects and magick rules for the weird cultists. The PDF is written for GURPS lite, and has some freeform looking magic rules along with a few new skills included. They look pretty decent, but I don't know GURPS nearly well enough to really evaluate them. In personally found the GURPS rules were more of a hindrance than a help. You've got about a bazillion numbers on the character sheet, so its hard to get quick sense of a given GMC's power. But I'm normally more of a "low crunch" kinda guy, your mileage may vary. In particular, if you are a fan of GURPS, this is an excellent buy.
Visually, the layout is clean and easy to read in both print and PDF. The art, however, sets a new low. Neither Steve Jackson Games, Underkoffler's independent work, or PDF products in general are known for their good art. Combine the three, and the results are predictable. I literally know 3rd graders who could produce better artwork. The economics of the PDF market are what they are, but still. There's a point beyond which you're just embarrassing yourself.
In any event, don't buy this if you're looking for good art or a really complete campaign world. Its a short PDF product, and short PDF products have their failings. But other than that, Temple of the Lost Gods is a refreshingly professional product. This is a PDF you can actually use. You'll get at least one session out of this in any campaign you bring it into. That alone is worth a lot. If you also happen to play GURPS, this is probably the best short supplement of the season. Underkoffler and SJGames have been doing this for a while, and they stand head and shoulders above most of the folks on rpgnow. Recommended.
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