The chapter on monsters is actually pretty good. This isn't a random grab bag of obscure beasties; these groups of monsters are well thought-out with lots of flavor text and story hooks. Several of the groups, notably devils, have tables of nasty extras you can use as needed.
The monstrous groups written up are: Azers, (additional) Dire Beasts, Bat Demon, Cloud Giants, Devils, Devil of the Fangs (see below), Metallic Dragons, Elementals, Flowers of Unlife, (nastier) Gnolls, Mummies, Pixies, Soul Flenser (see below), Spectres, Treants, Werebeasts and (still more) Zombies.
The section on devils is especially detailed, to dovetail with Chapter 5, Deviltry. Devils have their own detailed hierarchy and they specialize in different parts of the process of corrupting mortals. These aren't your stereotypical guys with pointy beards, either, there are some really disturbing creations here. Devils also have nasty abilities called the 'Devil's Due' where they block you from using the escalation die unless you allow them to do something unpleasant.
Although devils vary between campaigns, they need to retain certain key elements to feel like they fit the name. Some of these derive from mythology, while others come from timehonored fantasy gaming tradition. Devils:
• Come from somewhere unearthly.
• Embody evil, or at least one particular flavor of it.
• Act through stealth, calculation, and guile.
• Covertly interfere in mortal affairs.
• Respect power and hierarchy—theirs, if no one else’s.
• Are clearly distinguishable from demons. Or are at least arguably distinct. Or could at least have that argument made by a determined grognard.
• Have horns.
Heh.
After reading over the section on devils, I can say that if you use them in your campaign the players will hate them with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. Which is great! Of course they will not hate them as much as they will hate...
Soul Flensers! No, these aren't just off-brand Mind Flayers. These things are NASTY, basically rust monsters on steroids. A Soul Flenser attack has the potential to
permanently remove one of the PC's power (ie a spell slot or a flexible attack). After they do this, they run away! Then the PC then has to find them and kill them if they want their power back.
If you have a problem with a party of PCs that never considers fleeing an option, well, I think a judicious application of some Soul Flensers might change their minds in a hurry.
The 'Devil of the Fangs', by the way, is something else entirely, a one-off threat called a 'River Devil' that grows in power throughout the campaign. Some cool story hooks here.
There's a ton more good stuff in this chapter, but you need to get the book and discover it for yourself. I'll note one last cool thing, though: the pixie 'Madness' power.
The target is maddened until the end of the pixie’s next turn. The first thing the creature does on its turn is use a standard action to make a display of power that has no practical benefit. The GM chooses the attack, spell, or other power, which should be the most powerful one the character has, preferably a daily. The target expends the power in a great show of prowess, aimed for display rather than effect. Wizards cast their fireballs into the sky, monks demonstrate flawless form while shadow-boxing, and clerics bless the very stones underfoot instead of allies.
If that isn't enough for you, there follows a table of equally frustrating effects that madness can have.
The monsters in the core book felt a little bit cut-and-dried to me (no doubt due to space constraints). The 'art' was also weak. I have no such complaints about the monster chapter in 13 True Ways!!
Next, a wicked chapter on...
Deviltry!
OK, I have
one complaint. It's a relatively small one, though.
This book is full of lists. In keeping with the '13' in
13th Age and
13 True Ways, these lists inevitably contain 13 items. That's cute the first couple of times, but at this point I'm starting to wish the book had been called
7th Age. It's hard to come up with 13 interesting things over and over and over...
The chapter on Deviltry gives us not one, not two, but
thirteen possible scenarios for where devils come from, what they're trying to accomplish and how they are organized to do it. Many of these scenarios are really clever and ingenious, but some are just kind of so-so, and after about the sixth one it starts to feel rather repetitive. Basically each scenario is organized around the proposition that the devils are opposed to a specific icon. My favorite, believe it or not, is the one where the devils are opposed to the High Druid because it conjures a nightmare scenario of bureaucratized industrialization.
After the 13 icon-related scenarios come another sixteen really short scenarios that don't tie to particular icons. At his point, if you can't work devils into your campaign it's really your own damn fault!
Okay, that was a crunch-free and highly thematic chapter. Now for something completely different:
The Gamemaster's Grimoire!
There’s a little bit of almost everything in this chapter. It’s probably a betrayal of the little-bit-of-everything compendiums that inspired this chapter to organize the contents alphabetically. But what’s more arbitrary than the alphabet? Contents include:
• Artifacts
• Dungeons & Ruins
• Flying Realms
• Inns, Taverns, and Roadhouses of Note
• Magic Items
• Monastic Tournaments
• Nonplayer Characters
• Underkrakens
• The Wild Garden
I'm pretty excited about Underkrakens (because I love Cthulu-style aberrations and the like) but let's take it one step at a time.
Artifacts are more-than-ordinarily powerful magic items. Instead of having only one power associated with them they have several, associated with different tiers. You don't automatically get these powers as they become available, you have to choose to activate or 'tune' them. This is because they take up item slots. Three artifacts are presented here, which isn't a lot, but provides a clear map to create your own.
Dungeons & Ruins presents a list of (
gasp!) thirteen ideas for dungeons to explore. Mostly these consist of a one-paragraph description and nothing more.
Flying Realms is similar, a list of airborne locations. How many are there?
Guess. No really, go on, guess. Yes well, the descriptions of these are at least more colorful and amusing than the dungeon list. One of the Realms is a giant flying sword, which is all kinds of awesome.
Inns and Taverns is a list of... a certain number... of inns and taverns. It's disappointingly rote, just a brief name and description for each. I would have liked them to at least list some boozy bar-flies and some plot hooks.
Magical Items features, well, magical items. And not 13 of them! I have to admit, I don't care much about magical items, but there are at least as many here as there were in the core book. The introduction promises a forthcoming volume focused exclusively on items so item enthusiasts have that to look forward to. Anyway, these seemed fine and included items like bracers for the new classes. There are also some cursed items, which are nearer and dearer to my heart.
Monastic Tournaments describes three such events. Some interesting ideas and some nice extra flavor for Monk-centric adventures in the Dragon Empire.
