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Speaking of 4th edition, the writers of 4e including Andy Collins, James Wyatt, and Rob Heinsoo, provide some background and answer questions. We get to see what they’re excited about in the future (Players’ Handbook II, and Martial Power), as well as some of the reasoning why some of the core planar changes occurred. I’m not saying I agree with James Wyatt when he states, “Mechanus existed purely because the structure demanded a plane for the Lawful Neutral alignment. Modrons existed purely because the plane needed inhabitants. Neither of them was particularly good for the play of the game.” I’m not arguing the first part of his reasoning but that latter part? That Modron’s aren’t awesome? As opposed to the frog men from the chaotic neutral plane? Matter of taste and all that. It’s a nice meaty interview and doesn’t shy away from asking questions about the GSL and business methodologies as well as their own favorites. For inspiration though, the Princess of Hell article, Jezebel by James Jacobs with art by Cris Griffin provides a nice CR 23 devilish entity to add to your games. What’s even better? Of the five pages, four of them are back ground details including Jezebel in the real world (although there’s no reference to KMDFM there!), her origin, current goals, allies and enemies. Perfect for those looking to add a mover and shaker behind the scenes where the game stats don’t necessarily have to dominate the game.
For those looking for something with a little more crunch, the Ecology of the Homunculus with a great illustration by Pat Loboyko, provides spellcasters with a not so friendly face that has several feats to customize the critter. “At creation, a homunculus ‘ personality is a cross between a housecat and a chimpanzee;” for some reason that just strikes me as humorous until you read on, “prone to mischief and killing”.
Unique Altars by Phillip Larwood provides some magical altars for use in your d20 campaign. Each altar has a description, deity typically associated with it, sacrifice, primary powers and secondary effects. For example, the Altar of the Green God provides the effects of a entangle spell for its primary and vegetation springing to life on the altar itself. It’s a nice article with general enough information to be useful for most campaigns that have the standard deities.
For those who can’t get enough monsters, we have “V” is for Vermin and several new monstrous bugs rnaging from the giant pincer bug to the huge giant sand worm. Some changes I wasn’t too crazy about. Unless I’ve been sleeping, I don’t recall Book Reviews being covered before and while I’m not completely against the idea, I often find that Amazon.com and other web sites cover this type of material fairly well and that it should be a “bonus” if you will on the PDF and not the print side of things.
Kobold Quarterly continues to offer gamers more of what they’re looking for. In some instance, unlike the official Dungeon and Dragon magazines, they even have online comics. I know, WoTC has some fancy animated cartons but I still miss the good old ones like Quiver and Bolt, which ironically enough is in here. If you’re looking for a good read, Kobold Quarterly should satiate that need.
