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Review of Book of Demons
So, what is this book about?
Demons. The book is about demons. To be more specific, it's a grab bag of different things related to demons in the 13th Age game and setting. Demonologist PCs, how to run demons, new demon stats, info on hellholes (and 6 sample hellholes), and info on the strongholds of the Crusader and Diabolist are the focus points of the book. How does it do? Well....
Chapter One: Demonologist (28 pages) - Do you like new character classes? Do you like new character classes loaded with options, different builds, filling a cool niche? Look no further. Demonologist are built by players choosing one to three talents from three Paths. The Paths consist of Corruption (curses and poisons), Flame (burn baby burn), and Slaughter (because you want your spellcaster to wear armor and get into melee too). Each Path summons different demons, and has access to different sinister spells. Now, here's the kicker, each Path has multiple different talents. If you pick any one talent from a Path, your character is an initiate of that Path, and has access to its spells, demon summonings (yes, each Path has multiple different demons it can summon), and other perks. Pick two talents from a Path and you're a devotee, with better perks and more spell uses. Pick three talents, and you're a fanatic of the Path (it's like being a devotee, but cranked up a notch or two). So you could be an initiate of all three Paths, a devotee of one and initiate of another, or a fanatic in a single path. And while there's a lot to be said for diversity, specialization gives perks too. So, do you want to be (for example) a fanatic of Slaughter, and have a damage resistance of 11+, wear armor and weapons without penalty, more Slaughter focused spells, and enhanced summoning of battle ready demons, or do you want to diversify across all three paths and have multiple options and spells and a sampling of powers from the different Paths? You could easily have a party of nothing but Demonologists, and they all play similarly-yet-different.
Honestly, this chapter is the highlight of the book, almost worth the cost alone. Lots of customization options for players, all for a class that manages to feel unique to the 13th Age game and not a rehash of a D&D character class. I do wonder, with all the options and builds available, that the Demonologist class is overpowered. Of course, there's also some caveats to the class. Summoning demons is kind of the class' defining trait, and demons... demons tend to get loose and run amok in fairly short order. This is probably the main thing that offers the class balance against other classes: you have limited summoning ability, and what you do summon is going to turn on you in short order. But it's you have a fun ride with a devoted minion until it the timer runs out!
Chapter Two: Gamemastering Demons (12 pages) - If the last chapter was Player focused, the rest of the book is pretty much exclusively GM focused. The first hodge podge chapter, you get a broad overview of how to run demons, 13 Lies demons tell to show they relate sympathetically (!) to the 13 Icons, how hellholes form, 9 new demons, and the idea that random demon abilities might work better if they're more specific in context (I'll come back to that idea later). There's not really anything that a player couldn't read in this chapter, and I'd probably encourage a Demonoligst's player to read this chapter.
Honestly, the two big take aways from this chapter are that demons in 13th Age are impulsive (chaotic!) and destructive (evil!), and that hellholes and demons tend to take on the traits of the area they form in. See, a hellhole opens in... a forest, and the demons take on more forest-themed traits. Like a vrock with bark skin and leaves in place of feathers. Meanwhile, another hellhole opens in a mountain, and a vrock has stony skin and lightning for wings. Or something completely different, like a vrock could just be a vrock. Why? Because demons are meant to be a foe you can plug in anywhere, because... well... demons are everywhere! (Unlike those ambition-lacking swamp trolls that just live in swamps. Slackers!)
Chapter Three: Six Hellholes (48 pages) - I don't want to get into specifics here, because these are basically frameworks for larger adventures. I'll just say that most of the hellholes each have some NPC demons and some random demon ability tables specific to each hellhole. So you might have abilities specific to a space ship if the hellhole is set on a space ship.
Note: None of the hellholes are set on a space ship.
I will say however that the chapter has some interesting and unique demons for assorted levels of adventurer. There's no shame in running away from (and I quote!) a "considerably bigger than huge 12th level landmass". This chapter also has the Floating Market, an abyssal-themed marketplace for all levels, because sooner or later everyone needs to buy something you can only find being sold in a town full of beings bent on destroying the world.
Chapter Four: Citadels of the Icons (10 pages) - You get a broad look at First Triumph, home of the Crusader. It's 6 pages, and like the hellholes previously, serves more as a starting point for GMs to customize and expand on than to just use out of the box. Then... you have some rough notes or something on the Diabolist. Honestly, in a book on demons the utter lack of detail on the Diabolist is a sad shortcoming. "But we wanted to keep her stronghold vague, so we don't stamp on the stuff GMs have already designed for her." Not buying it, considering we just got 6 pages of info on First Triumph that's actually freaking useful! It's like the authors realized they had to fill four pages, and managed to come up with barely enough content for three, and then used layout tricks to stretch it out. It's bad.
Style: I consider Style a combination of writing and art and presentation. All the stuff that doesn't matter in terms of actual gameplay. If 5 is something so beautiful and engaging that I share it with non-gamers, and a 1 is so bad it actually hurts the substance of the game (i.e. so poorly written I can't understand the mechanics), I'll give this a just barely over the line 4. The art isn't bad, and even the pieces I didn't like grew on me. The writing is casual and easy to read, but suffers from needing another proof-reading or two. But ultimately, this is just an average looking book; a solid 3. Some better layout with less white space, fewer random closed parentheses with open mates, and maybe a more unified art theme would help I guess, but really it's an average book in terms of presentation. The only reason I'm rating this book as high as I am is for the informal writing where the authors directly speak to the reader. If you're familiar with 13th Age products "breaking the fourth wall" (so to speak) you'll know what I'm talking about, and hopefully why I appreciate it so much. I could argue that these authorial insights should really be put under substance, but it could fit under Style as well I think, so... yeah.
Substance: Okay, grab bag hodge podge books are usually pretty hard to rate. A monster manual book has a unified theme ("here be monsters") and I can say that different people will like and dislike different parts. Here it's pretty easy though. It's a low 5. The Demonologist chapter is excellent, the assortment of stuff in Chapter 2 is... varied in quality but all at least decent, the chapter on sample hellholes is actually pretty good (even if needing more development and tailoring to use), and the section on First Triumph is also a good starting point for GMs to work with. Honestly, the only problem I had with the whole book was the lack of useful info on the Diabolist. There was more useful info regarding the Diabolist in the sample hellholes (which I won't spoil) than in the section of the book devoted to her (or rather, her stronghold). This was a severe lacking I think.
I want to complain that there's not enough info for specific demon types, but to be honest there's already plenty of "ecology of the balor" info out there already. I also want to complain that there's not enough stuff on demon princes in 13th Age here, but the game seems to handle demons as more "throw away" foes than iconic figures. You have the Diabolist instead of Orcus and Demogorgon (which helps explain some of my disappointment with the lack of Diabolist information), and some sample high-end demons are in the book (even if only as limited use antagonists).
Despite my gripes, overall, this is a book I'd recommend for anyone who wants to add more demons to their games of 13th Age and this is a great addition to games of 13th Age. It's not as essential as 13 True Ways, or broadly useful as the bestiaries, but I'd probably put it above the Book of Loot in terms of plain and simple fun (if not as utilitarian in application). So go get a copy, write up your demonologist, and get to dealing with the chaotic hordes of evil.
