Simon Collins
Explorer
Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.
Price: $5.00
Page Count: 44
Price per page: About 11 cents per page
Designed for Character Level: 10
Format: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) 2.78 MB file
External Artwork: A beautiful piece of artwork depicting lightning flashing from a pair of powerful eyes.
Additional Page Use: The final page is OGL. The second and third pages are credits and contents.
Internal Artwork: The black and white internal artwork is average to good, and is relevant to the text.
Maps: The maps are clear, basic and practical.
Text Density: The text density is good, with little white space. The graphic margin at the top and left of each page are fairly large and there is also a smaller clear margin on the right of each page.
Text Style: The style of writing is intelligent and relevant to the theme, ably discussing tactics or painting a word picture of the scene. The text seems weel-edited.
'If Thoughts Could Kill' is actually in two parts. The first is an adventure, the second is a host of new psionics rules.
The Adventure: The adventure begins with some Background, introducing The Colorless Lodge (a psionic organisation) and their knowledge of an artefact called The Crystal Consciousness which gives the ability, to one of six psionically talented individuals, to replace one of the six current psionic disciplines with one of their own choosing. The Crystal Consciousness only 'awakes' every few centuries, and has recently done so again. The six individuals are chosen by The Crystal Consciousness, which sends each one a vision that calls them to action. One of the PCs (or alternatively an NPC known to the PCs) becomes one of the Chosen. Three other main players are a lich who seeks to introduce necromantic psionics as a new discipline, a member of the Colorless Lodge who seeks to retain the six current disciplines, and a disguised mind flayer who is manipulating a cult of psionic-hating magic-users to kill off the competition so that she can amend the Telepathy discipline to the advantage of Illithids without interference.
Needless to say, the adventure surrounds the PCs avoiding assassination attempts by the lich and the mindflayers patsies before accessing the ancient vault where The Crystal Consciousness lies. An overview is given in The Adventure Summary. Some basic Character Hooks are also given.
As the adventure progresses, the PCs are invited to become members of the Colorless Lodge (which gives them certain benefits including access to a Prestige Class) and the headquarters of The Lodge are detailed.
After possibly revealing the disguised mind flayer to the cult, the PCs can face the lich who resides in the animate skeleton of a Dire Bear with a 'Tardis' effect in place such that the inside of the skeleton is much larger inside than it appears on the outside. Eventually the Chosen is hit by another vision, giving a clue to the location of The Crystal Consciousness.
Once in the vault, the PCs must overcome monsters, traps and puzzles set in place by the Azure Emperor, who introduced the discipline of Metacreativity when The Crystal Consciousness last 'woke' and did not want the discipline to be replaced the next time the crystal gained consciousness. The vault has shrines to each of the six disciplines. In some of the shrines are guardians the Azure Emperor left behind, of a new race called Kuresh, who strive to maintain the balance of the six current disciplines. Also, the PCs must face a new monster, the duncharath, which are psionic undead monsters.
They eventually reach the Crystal Consciousness where the Azure Emperor himself, who had trapped himself in a stasis field centuries before, wakes to face the PCs. The Emperor is a powerful Psion, and must either be defeated or convinced that it is necessary to change the disciplines, as he favours retention of the current six. Any remaining Chosen remaining in the room after the Emperor is defeated can choose their new discipline - except that a consensus must be reached or the crystal preserves the current equilibrium.
The Chosen PC may get a chance at this point to bring about the emergence of a new discipline, and the module offers options for replacement or addition, and gives advice for handling any changes, including the possible new discipline of Psychonecromancy if the lich manages to Choose.
The Rules: The next section of the module deals with new psionic features and rules. It begins with a new template - the psionic lich including details of creating a psionic lich's phylactery. Next up are details of the new monster introduced in the adventure - the duncharath (a cross between a huge maggot and a human), and a new PC race, the Kuresh, also introduced in the adventure (they are thin, homeless wanderers with a luck bonus and an aptitude for, and resistance to, psionics).
Four new feats are detailed (Continual Power, Creature Capacitor, Sequester Power and Transcend Limits) and four new items (cloak of probability, ring of improved teleport, third eye of continual power, and The Crystal Consciousness itself.
Nine new powers are also introduced: Chrysalis, Double Dimension, Greater Mindlink, Id Cascade, Improved Teleport, Mindquake, Probability Mantle, Psianimate Dead, and Stabilize Construct. There are also two variant rules, for power scaling (dealing more damage with powers by paying extra power points) and secondary disciplines (latent powers that slowly develop and are affected by the ability linked with the Psion's primary discipline).
The Colorless Adept Prestige Class is detailed next (benefits include power sharing (sharing knowledge and use of powers), access to special energy attacks called Colorless Fire and Colorless Rain).
The remaining section is a list of spells from the Players Handbook and Malhavoc's 'The Book of Eldritch Might', converted to psionic powers for Psions and Psychic Warriors. The list does not include those already converted in the Psionics Handbook, and a few that were unconvertable.
The High Points: As you would expect from the author of the Psionics Handbook, the new rules and the way they are featured in the adventure are imaginative and balanced. The list of converted spells is a huge boost to the number of psionic powers available. The adventure itself was balanced in the opportunities for combat, investigation, and roleplaying. The world-changing possibilities offered by the plotline was exciting and the twists in the plot and the characters involved were interesting and unusual.
The Low Points: My major grudge against this module is the lack of character background and depth of personality. With the interesting opportunities for roleplaying, it seemed a huge shame that virtually nothing of the personality of the NPCs was observed. The niche role that psionics plays in Gaming may limit the flexibility of the module.
Conclusion: For those of you who like and use psionics in their games, this is a must-have module with a very reasonable price tag. I'm not a great fan of psionics myself but I was impressed by the creativity and thought that went into this product. It may spur those who have a mild interest to introduce psionics into their game. However, the adventure failed miserably in portraying its NPCs in any depth. For me, this is a very important part of an adventure and its lack left me with a sense of frustration. If you're less concerned with this aspect (or more able to create your own NPC depth of personality off-the-cuff), and like Psionics, ignore my Good rating and go buy the product.
This is not a playtest review.
Price: $5.00
Page Count: 44
Price per page: About 11 cents per page
Designed for Character Level: 10
Format: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) 2.78 MB file
External Artwork: A beautiful piece of artwork depicting lightning flashing from a pair of powerful eyes.
Additional Page Use: The final page is OGL. The second and third pages are credits and contents.
Internal Artwork: The black and white internal artwork is average to good, and is relevant to the text.
Maps: The maps are clear, basic and practical.
Text Density: The text density is good, with little white space. The graphic margin at the top and left of each page are fairly large and there is also a smaller clear margin on the right of each page.
Text Style: The style of writing is intelligent and relevant to the theme, ably discussing tactics or painting a word picture of the scene. The text seems weel-edited.
'If Thoughts Could Kill' is actually in two parts. The first is an adventure, the second is a host of new psionics rules.
The Adventure: The adventure begins with some Background, introducing The Colorless Lodge (a psionic organisation) and their knowledge of an artefact called The Crystal Consciousness which gives the ability, to one of six psionically talented individuals, to replace one of the six current psionic disciplines with one of their own choosing. The Crystal Consciousness only 'awakes' every few centuries, and has recently done so again. The six individuals are chosen by The Crystal Consciousness, which sends each one a vision that calls them to action. One of the PCs (or alternatively an NPC known to the PCs) becomes one of the Chosen. Three other main players are a lich who seeks to introduce necromantic psionics as a new discipline, a member of the Colorless Lodge who seeks to retain the six current disciplines, and a disguised mind flayer who is manipulating a cult of psionic-hating magic-users to kill off the competition so that she can amend the Telepathy discipline to the advantage of Illithids without interference.
Needless to say, the adventure surrounds the PCs avoiding assassination attempts by the lich and the mindflayers patsies before accessing the ancient vault where The Crystal Consciousness lies. An overview is given in The Adventure Summary. Some basic Character Hooks are also given.
As the adventure progresses, the PCs are invited to become members of the Colorless Lodge (which gives them certain benefits including access to a Prestige Class) and the headquarters of The Lodge are detailed.
After possibly revealing the disguised mind flayer to the cult, the PCs can face the lich who resides in the animate skeleton of a Dire Bear with a 'Tardis' effect in place such that the inside of the skeleton is much larger inside than it appears on the outside. Eventually the Chosen is hit by another vision, giving a clue to the location of The Crystal Consciousness.
Once in the vault, the PCs must overcome monsters, traps and puzzles set in place by the Azure Emperor, who introduced the discipline of Metacreativity when The Crystal Consciousness last 'woke' and did not want the discipline to be replaced the next time the crystal gained consciousness. The vault has shrines to each of the six disciplines. In some of the shrines are guardians the Azure Emperor left behind, of a new race called Kuresh, who strive to maintain the balance of the six current disciplines. Also, the PCs must face a new monster, the duncharath, which are psionic undead monsters.
They eventually reach the Crystal Consciousness where the Azure Emperor himself, who had trapped himself in a stasis field centuries before, wakes to face the PCs. The Emperor is a powerful Psion, and must either be defeated or convinced that it is necessary to change the disciplines, as he favours retention of the current six. Any remaining Chosen remaining in the room after the Emperor is defeated can choose their new discipline - except that a consensus must be reached or the crystal preserves the current equilibrium.
The Chosen PC may get a chance at this point to bring about the emergence of a new discipline, and the module offers options for replacement or addition, and gives advice for handling any changes, including the possible new discipline of Psychonecromancy if the lich manages to Choose.
The Rules: The next section of the module deals with new psionic features and rules. It begins with a new template - the psionic lich including details of creating a psionic lich's phylactery. Next up are details of the new monster introduced in the adventure - the duncharath (a cross between a huge maggot and a human), and a new PC race, the Kuresh, also introduced in the adventure (they are thin, homeless wanderers with a luck bonus and an aptitude for, and resistance to, psionics).
Four new feats are detailed (Continual Power, Creature Capacitor, Sequester Power and Transcend Limits) and four new items (cloak of probability, ring of improved teleport, third eye of continual power, and The Crystal Consciousness itself.
Nine new powers are also introduced: Chrysalis, Double Dimension, Greater Mindlink, Id Cascade, Improved Teleport, Mindquake, Probability Mantle, Psianimate Dead, and Stabilize Construct. There are also two variant rules, for power scaling (dealing more damage with powers by paying extra power points) and secondary disciplines (latent powers that slowly develop and are affected by the ability linked with the Psion's primary discipline).
The Colorless Adept Prestige Class is detailed next (benefits include power sharing (sharing knowledge and use of powers), access to special energy attacks called Colorless Fire and Colorless Rain).
The remaining section is a list of spells from the Players Handbook and Malhavoc's 'The Book of Eldritch Might', converted to psionic powers for Psions and Psychic Warriors. The list does not include those already converted in the Psionics Handbook, and a few that were unconvertable.
The High Points: As you would expect from the author of the Psionics Handbook, the new rules and the way they are featured in the adventure are imaginative and balanced. The list of converted spells is a huge boost to the number of psionic powers available. The adventure itself was balanced in the opportunities for combat, investigation, and roleplaying. The world-changing possibilities offered by the plotline was exciting and the twists in the plot and the characters involved were interesting and unusual.
The Low Points: My major grudge against this module is the lack of character background and depth of personality. With the interesting opportunities for roleplaying, it seemed a huge shame that virtually nothing of the personality of the NPCs was observed. The niche role that psionics plays in Gaming may limit the flexibility of the module.
Conclusion: For those of you who like and use psionics in their games, this is a must-have module with a very reasonable price tag. I'm not a great fan of psionics myself but I was impressed by the creativity and thought that went into this product. It may spur those who have a mild interest to introduce psionics into their game. However, the adventure failed miserably in portraying its NPCs in any depth. For me, this is a very important part of an adventure and its lack left me with a sense of frustration. If you're less concerned with this aspect (or more able to create your own NPC depth of personality off-the-cuff), and like Psionics, ignore my Good rating and go buy the product.
