4 out of 5 rating for Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Technology Guide
First, a brief disclaimer: If you're hoping that Pathfinder's Technology Guide will help you round off your futuristic pathfinder campaign, you're going to have to be prepared to do some extra work.The Technology Guide is designed for use with the Iron Gods adventure path, and seems heavily inspired by adventures like "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks". They even have the old color coded key cards! As a result, the book is pretty biased toward the idea of "technology in a fantasy setting". The book itself is divided into three sections. The first, "Technology in the World" contains character options for use with the Iron Gods AP. There are new uses of several skills (several of which require a special feat to be proficient in), as well as a collection of new Crafting Feats. The Technology Guide is very restrictive over when and how new technology can be crafted, so it's questionable as to how useful these can be. There are also a set of new "technological spells". Greater Make Whole is excellent for players of construct characters, and there are a surprising number of spells that deal with radioactivity. Finally, there is a small set of archetypes and a prestige class. Oddly, the Technologist prestige class requires magical knowledge to even use. After that is a selection of technological items, many of which are quite potent. Not to mention obscenely expensive. If you've ever wanted to be a chainsaw wielding cyber paladin, Pathfinder has you covered. If you have gold, of course. And a way to get charges. The items are flavorful and quite interesting, though the lack of energy swords is a disappointment. Finally there's a brief section on hazards and artifacts, as well as a list of "sky metals" that seem more magic than sci-fi in some cases. The artifacts are interesting (they include Power Armor!) and could make an interesting plot focus for an Iron Gods game. Finally, the front cover contains an (optional) list of glitches for people using time worn technology, which range from the helpful to the annoying. None are particularly lethal though. All in all, the Technology Guide is useful for its purpose. The art is decent (especially the cover), and the items are flavorful. My one concern is that I wish they handled the item pricing better for a more "high-tech" campaign. The bias toward Iron Gods style campaigns means that any high tech campaigns (in the vein of Dragonstar, for instance) would need some way to handle the gold disparity. I suppose it makes sense for balance reasons, but it was a nitpick I had.Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5.