Review of The Koboldnomicon

As I read this PDF, two things occurred to me. One, I have not been using my kobolds to their fullest potential. Two, there are some people out there with some serious, serious issues. And apparently many of them were involved in putting together this fun, campy, and slightly demented product.

The Koboldnomicon is heralded by the publisher as “the ultimate tome of koboldic lore.” I didn’t even know “koboldic” was a word. It opens with a short introduction from the publisher involving blood-stained packages from Mexico and nightmares involving zombie kobolds. It then follows with an introduction from “Simon.” Yes, fans of Lovecraft rejoice. It seems our friend Simon didn’t learn his lesson screwing around with Elder Gods. No, he had to go awaken kobolds living under the ruins of an ancient temple in Mexico. But what made the story funny is that you can imagine how terrifying kobolds would be to folks in the real world. Sure, as PCs our character laugh at kobolds. But I wouldn’t want to run into a bunch of them in real life.

Before getting into the crunch, we get another story, Love Slave of the Kobold Queen. This is actually a really funny two-part story (the second part is at the end of the PDF). I think the title says it all. I’m disappointed that, with all the really great kobold illustrations throughout the PDF, there is no illustration of the Kobold Queen! How did the publisher let that opportunity pass? And where are the Kobold Queen’s stats? How am I supposed to have the Kobold Queen seduce MY party if I don’t have her stats? *sigh*

Now, to the crunchy stuff. We get three new sub-races in this product. The Dragonmarked are broken into three clans, which correspond to red, white, and blue dragons respectively. Each clan has a breath weapon that can be used once a day that corresponds to its type, and these kobolds actually have leathery wings that allow for flight. While only three types of Dragonmarked are listed, the sub-race can easily be modified if you want to use other dragons as the model. The Tamarin are a jungle race of kobolds that are actually friendly. They live in the treetops of the jungle trees and are in touch with nature. Finally, the Quahali are a primitive sub-race that believe in reincarnation and on occasion practice ritual cannibalism.

Have you ever read kobold poetry? Did you even know it existed? Can you think of a sane reason why someone would write it? Well, there is kobold poetry in this collection as well. And again, it is funny. Ode to a Kobold Sentry is a pretty long poem that follows the exploits of a lone kobold dealing with a band of gnomes. The Things I Love About You is a…well…kobold love sonnet. Really, I’m serious.

Next up, kobold classes. There are four new prestige classes and a new player class in the PDF. My favorite is the Vermin Kin class, which is a weird ranger type class that can train and summon all sorts of insects to do its bidding. It makes sense that a race that lives in filthy, underground environments would learn to use the vermin there to its advantage. All the prestige classes seem pretty balanced and logically thought out.

The next section focuses on new feats and skills. Many are sub-race specific, allowing players who want to experiment with one of the sub-races to customize even more. The majority of feats and skills are logical extensions of the typical kobold idea, and allow kobold PCs to compensation for some of the kobold race’s inherent weaknesses without getting too cheesy. There is a whole section for new kobold spells, but few are kobold specific and could be used in any campaign.

After the feats, skills, and spells, we get some more fiction. Dinner is a short tale of what happens when a lone adventurer makes the mistake of attracting the attention of hungry kobolds. And The Trap is another short tale of kobolds and revenge.

The next section focuses on kobold equipment. You can’t have a book of kobolds without traps, right? Well, we get plenty of them. And there is even a Lovecraft’s Chest of Black Stone. There are also some interesting cultural items, like story boards and word stones, that add a little depth to kobold culture and make them more of an actual race than just scaly little monsters.

I’m not sure what to think about the bio-weapons. Granted, I fully intend to use Angry-wolverine-strapped-to-a-battering-ram in my next game. Many of them are borderline silly, but in a silly, but oddly useful sort of way. When you are done laughing at things like caltrop-toads and centipede-bombs, you’ll find there might be a place for them in your game. Surprisingly, there are only a handful of new magic items. The award for most functional and yet cartoonish item goes to the Portable Escape Route, which brings to mind visions of the Bugs Bunny escaping Elmer Fudd by jumping into a handkerchief.

There is an entire kobold pantheon presented as well. I really liked these, as they added a bit of complexity to kobold society by introducing inter-faith intrigues. They also provide options for PCs playing kobolds that are not the traditional lawful evil alignment.

The last section focuses on new monsters and NPCs. The monsters aren’t meant as adversaries for your kobold players. Instead, these are monsters with something of a symbiotic relationship with the kobolds. Again, a great additional if you are running a game that deals with a lot of kobolds. The NPCs presented illustrate some of the creative things that can be done with the race. All are relatively high level.

There are a few things that annoyed me about the PDF. There are no bookmarks. There’s no index. As stated earlier, there is no information or illustration of the Kobold Queen. While the interior art is very good, the layout is relatively simple. Guess I was expecting more tentacle-themed art with a book called the Koboldnomicon. But overall, a solid product that is a lot of fun to read.