Akrasia, Thief of Time

[deurbroucq]

Akrasia, Thief of Time, by David Chart, presents a series of vignettes (short descriptive literary sketches). It is a collection of source material and several mini-modules that can be inserted into any campaign. It is also the first vignette book in the Eden Odyssey line of d20 system games.

The Layout:
The product is a softcover booklet. The exterior art by Allen Douglas is nice. The interior artwork by Kieran Yanner is excellent, both evocative and relevant, though sparse. The cartography is well-done and very usable. The writing is clear and concise and enjoyable to read. The layout is efficient and professional--very little space is wasted. There are a few editing mistakes, but they do not detract from the value of the product. The overall presentation is exceptional and ranks among the industry's best.

The Cult of Akrasia:
There are several pages of source material on Akrasia (a-KRAH-zee-ah), the Thief of Time. She is the chaotic evil goddess of failed resolution and weaknesses of will. Her history, doctrine, followers, clerics, temples, and motives are briefly outlined in this section. Also presented is a major NPC. Just enough information is provided to sufficiently implement the new deity. There is a solid foundation to build upon and plenty is left to flesh out. The material is informative and interesting, featuring one facet of the chaotic evil alignment with a great example of a cult devoted to distracting people from achieving their full potential--a subtle way of spreading evil. Very cool!

The Vignettes:
The bulk of the product is a series of five mini-modules that introduces several locations and NPCs. Though self-contained, the modules can be linked together to form an additional plotline for an ongoing campaign or even a large disjointed adventure. Hooks are provided to help introduce them into an existing campaign and "Plot Intersections" give suggestions on how to tie them together, though rather loosely. There is nothing incredibly new or exciting presented in the vignettes, but they are well-written, interesting, solid, and usable.

The Appendix:
The final section details a new prestige class, the Distractor, with seven new spells and a new domain to complement it. Some of the spells are neat, but only NPCs will find the prestige class useful. Also presented are five new monsters and four new magical items, all of which are interesting and useful.

Is Akrasia, Thief of Time worth $8.95? Though not a bargain page-wise, the quality of the material makes up for it. It introduces and fleshes out some interesting ideas--the vignettes, linked together, will enrich any campaign. The presentation of the material in a series of vignettes is refreshing and just plain neat. Though some work will be required to get the most out of this product, it is worth checking out and definitely worth a second glance.

 

[enrious]

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this product in return for a honest review of it. There was no contact from the publisher after my email to them volunteering to review it.

Akrasia, Thief of Time is a 32 page staple-bound book. It has a full-color glossy cover and black and white interior pages. It is promoted as a series of vignettes, essentially small settings rather than a complete adventure.

Artwork: The art in this book was tastefully done (i.e. all women are wearing an appropriate level of clothing) with the cover depicting Akrasia holding one of her holy symbols. The interior art looked to be penciled and fit in with the subject matter quite well.

Novice DM's need not apply: This book details a minor goddess who has the portfolio of wasted time. Her motto seems to be, "Why put off today what you can put off tomorrow?" She is a very subtle evil and her followers are not likely to be the in-your-face type of followers that you may think of as evil. The ideas presented in the book really require a great deal of subtlety on the part of the DM as well as a willingness to role-play on the part of the players. If everyone's idea of a fun adventure is to hack their way through an enemy fortress then you will likely be disappointed with this product.

On the other hand, if the DM can pull it off, then this supplement could lead to many hours of quality enjoyment and role-playing. Because it usually takes some time and maturity from all concerned, I think inexperienced players and DMs will not get that much out of Askrasia.

Ideas: The book contains a number of small snippets, ranging from a single NPC to a large temple, all with the idea of challenging your party by various means of wasting their time. Whether it's a potential NPC party member or a tavern where the customers are loathe to leave, there are plenty of ways to provide trouble for the party. As an example, if they take along the NPC, she will subtly try to sabatoge their various projects.

The ideas presented in the book can be dropped into virtually any campaign. Some require little modification (like the NPC vignette or the tavern) while others would require a major change or have the PC's already located in a base town (like the group trying to disrupt the building of a dike). I actually like this approach as even with most printed adventures I still have to a fair amount of work to fit it into my campaign.

Game Mechanics: Some of the spell levels seemed inappropriate for their effects. Some of the other reviewers have gone into detail already about some of them so I won't repeat their efforts on spells, monsters, or magical items.

Summary: I'll be honest with you; had I picked up this book on the shelf I would have looked through it and put it back on the shelf. It has 7 pages devoted to new items, monsters, or spells (and some of them seem to be a bit wrong), so I wouldn't have thought it had anything to offer.

However, the strength of this book lies in the role-playing ideas presented. I think you could get through most of the vignettes with a minimal amount of die-rolling and still have a very fun time.

I took a star from the book for the high per page cost and from what I think are problems in the D20 rules implementations. Having said that, I think you could throw out the new rules and lose nothing from this product.

 

[Cyragnome]

Akrasia Thief of Time
By David Chart
Eden Studios Inc.
Copyright 2001
32 pp
List Price 8.95 USD

NOTICE: The author of this review received this book as a part of a promotion offered by Eden Studios. This disclaimer is an upfront declaration of honesty in that this review is conducted by the author in accordance with the unwritten social contract of providing honest and forthright reviews to the d20reviews community.

Akrasia: Thief of Time is a set of adventures, or "vignettes" as they are called, that all revolve around a central theme, the cult of the goddess Akrasia, the Thief of time. In this book we are introduced to Akrasia, her philosophy, a number of her minions and clerics, and situations where her outlook colors the potential adventurers' career. The book itself consists of seven chapters and an appendix that provides adventures and encounters for characters from 2cd level up to 12th level. The writing itself is concise, clear and well presented throughout. The editing is well done with a very limited number of typos or misplaced words. The interior artwork, by Kieran Yanner, ranges from good, for example the monsters in the appendix, to excellent, which encompasses pretty much everything else. The maps are well done and fit the descriptions, but have textured backgrounds that may be something that some people find provides difficulty when attempting to copy those maps. The end technical result is a high quality production.

The book itself opens with a short, page-long, story that sums up Akrasia's philosophy and how her minions go about furthering her works. It continues with a brief introduction to the Akrasia, a quick chapter summary, the standard "How to use this book" and some generic DM information (and, of course, information about the author).

The book moves on to the Cult of Akrasia itself. This is a solid and concise chapter discussing important Akrasian subjects. These subjects include the doctrine of Akrasia, a goddess who delights in procrastination, delay and distraction, her followers, clerics and temples. There is a section on how to use Akrasia as an enemy stressing the subtle nature of her followers and their schemes. Then a series of legends that further stress how Akrasia's followers work their will. An interesting Artifact is presented that can be used in later vignettes and an NPC who has the capability to be integrated into the rest of the series as well.

The core of the book, though, is the five "vignettes" or mini adventures, these range from an NPC Bard who is a worshipper of Akrasia to Temple built for the goddess and her machinations. Without giving out too much spoilish information the five vignettes consist of a shrine, a bard NPC, an inn, a plot inside a small town and a temple to Akrasia. The adventure at the shrine provides a simple introduction to the Akrasian cult, more a location, than an actual adventure. It also acts as an introduction to the Merithian culture, which Eden presents in their Wonders Out of Time book. The next vignette, details an NPC bard, Yaraemon, who is a worshiper of Akrasia. Yaraemon is provided with various hooks, both to adventures in this book, other books and the DM, to allow his integration into the campaign. These hooks include what information presented in the Cult of Akrasia section that Yaraemon knows, such as the story of the artifact presented earlier. The inn, which is the third vignette, describes a small inn ran by a follower of Akrasia. This vignette highlights some of the other methods at the goddess' disposal to further distract and delay people and players alike. A convoluted plot, a village or small town (which needs to be detailed by the DM), and a group of Akrasian conspirators make up the fourth vignette. This is probably the weakest of the set, as it relies on four detailed conspirators, yet less than half a page of plot. This could be a very good adventure, but it would require a good DM to fill in much of the hazy details. The final vignette presents a typical temple of Akrasia, a number of her clerics. This is another location-type adventure, but the location presented is detailed quite well, along with the inhabitants of the temple. It would take very little for an industrious DM to create a solid adventure with the material presented.

The Appendix presents five new monsters (the spider-like Gloomholt, the Life-reft, the Phanera and its Phanera Monster and the feline Saphard), a new domain of magic, the Distraction Domain with nine new spells, four new items and a prestige class. The monsters, themselves, are fairly unspectacular, but appear balanced and potentially useful. The Distraction domain and its spells are interesting and don't appear to be particularly overpowering. There is one spell for each spell level one to nine presented. The Distractor prestige class, with a typical Distractor presented in the opening chapter, is an interesting class but seems only suitable for villains. It would be interesting to see a PC with the class, if only for the vast amount of roleplay required to utilize the class abilities. It does not seem to be overpowered in any specific way, though.

Final Result: With any book the final test of whether it is useful or not is the "Would I use this book or portions of it in my game?" This book clearly has found a place in the author's campaign. The vignettes as a whole offer an interesting, and diverting, subplot for a campaign, an additional layer to the onion, so to speak. If nothing else this book presents a solid foundation on how to introduce an interesting subplot into a campaign.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

First off, I recieved a free copy of this book in return for submitting an honest review. Well, personaly, I love this book. For a mere $9 u.s., you are getting so much content.
I felt the same way as Weylan did. (see above). I got this thinking to myself this isn't going to be anygood, as I usualy dislike pre published adventures. Though, in the case of Akrasia: Thief of Time, I was totally suprised. It is a very robust adventure, fully detailed with very, very little usuage of premade items/creatures. (as far as associating them with the main story). The presentation is very good overall. There are few grammar/usage errors.
I'm not going to retell the exact same thing that most of the reviewers have already done. That would be a waste of your time to read again. I will, however, say that I agree in that some of the abilities are somewhat too powerful, such as the Steal Time. I also don't see why Akrasia was made evil. I personaly think that she would do just fine as neutral. She does not exhibit the usualy properties of an evil godess. She does not just go off slaughtering people constantly. She really acts more neutral.
Novice DMs shouldn't attempt to run this as it is not your usualy hack and slash, simple story.
I do think that any experienced DM should give this book a try. For the mere $9 it is well worth it.

 

[Psion]

Akrasia, Thief of Time

Akrasia, Thief of Time is a small "vignette book" for the d20 system.

Just what is a vignette book, you ask?

Well, as far as I can tell, vignettes are supposed to be a site, an NPC or collection of NPCs, or mini-adventure that you can plop into your campaign. A vignette book appears to be a collection of such vignettes with a linked theme.

The Book

Akrasia is the first such book by Eden. The book is 32 pages for a cost of $8.95 US. This yields a cost of 28 cents per page. This is a bit high, but unfortunately normal for books in this size (frex, the price and page count are shared by Burning Shaolin and Demons & Devils.)

Fortunately, Eden's layout is very nice. The interior is black and white, and the art is generally well done. The book uses a nice, dense font.

The Contents

The central figure of the book is Akrasia, a goddess whose sphere of influence is failed resolution and weakness of will. The book starts off with a recounting of the legends behind Akrasia. Supposedly, Akrasia was cutting class the day that gods where receiving their portfolios. When she arrived, she discovered that all the good portfolios had been taken. So, she made one up of her own. She would be the goddess of lost opportunities.

After recounting the legends and details of an important artifact and NPC (Litarra, a priestess of Akrasia presented at 9th and 12th level), the book jumps into the vignettes.

There are 6 "vignettes" featured in the book, appropriate PCs are listed in parenthesis:

- The Sheltering Shrine (2-4) : Really simple, basically the sheltering shrine is a small square shrine occupied by some followers of Akrasia and a gloomholt, a spider-shaped outsider minion of Akrasia.
- Yaraemon the Bard (4-12) : This section details Yaraemon, an NPC bard and follower of Akrasia. He is presented at three different levels for the PCs to run across. He carries a magic item in the vein of his mistress, the Harp of Distraction, and if the players are able to extract information from him, he may be able to offer some information useful to other vignettes.
- The Way Choice (6-8 ) : The Way Choice is an inn run by the followers of Akrasia. The NPC stat blocks and a complete description of the inn are provided. However, the "hook" providing the PCs involvement in the inn is rather curt and leaves a lot of weight on the GM to decide what goes on and how to get them involved.
- Until the Rains Come (any) : This vignette describes a village in which four lay followers of Akrasia are conspiring to create a disaster for the village. Again, just how the characters get involved and the flow of events is a little weak.
- Temple of Present Delights (7-10) : Pretty much the culmination of the book, this is a temple of Akrasia for the players to take their aggression out on once they figure out what is up. Complete with a map and followers.

These can be dropped in at various points in your campaign. On the good side, I liked how the vignettes where interlinked, forming sort of an interesting backdrop and chain of events. That said, they vignettes almost seemed like an event based adventure stuffed into a site based adventure. Many of them have no clear plans or ideas for getting the players involved, and what actually happens. For the most part, it is some fairly vague hooks followed by a location and some NPCs.

The appendix of the book provides some new rules material describing Akrasia's followers and associated magic items. A new domain, Distraction is described with several new spells. Some of the spells seem a bit powerful for their level. For example, indolence causes an effect similar to a daze for 5 rounds per level, which seemed a bit much to me.

The new prestige class is the distractor. The class gains ability to actually steal time from those that they loiter with and then use it. The class has no continued spellcasting abilities, so it shouldn't be too powerful.

There are a number of new creatures that are minions of Akrasia, such as the aformentioned spider-like outsider, an odd creature that sprays the party with will-sapping needles and produces a decoy to take the blame, and a tiger-like creature that dazes onlooker. The concepts of these cretures is alright. However, the creatures abilities are not neatly outlined as with most D&D creatures, and the saving throws and skills see arbitrary.

Conclusion

As nice as the book is, it didn't really grab me. The idea of a less conventional villain is a good one, but as presented in the book, it seemed like a lot of work is required of the GM to get this thing rolling. The vignettes seemed like they needed a little more direction.

As well, it appears that some of the rules materials, particularly the creatures, could use a little more fleshing out.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Messageboard Golem]

This review is for Akrasia: Thief of Time by David Chart. Published by Eden Odyssey, this book is a 32-page collection of "vignettes" or short adventures about a goddess and the cult that worships her. It retails for $8.95.

Akrasia is a chaotic evil goddess that specializes in being subtle. She is the goddess of failed resolutions and weakness of will. Her followers come from the common man - entertainers and service providers such as bards and innkeepers. They also come from other walks of life but still strive to exploit those whose will is weak, like convincing soldiers to stay and play cards rather than assuming their post. The first ten pages give GMs the tools they need to effectively run an Akrasia influenced campaign.

There are five vignettes presented and each can be linked together to form a larger adventure module. There are adventure hooks for each mini-story along with cult member NPCs to vex your players. The vignettes are decently written, easy to follow, and suitable for use in any campaign.

The appendix contains new spells, a new prestige class - the Distractor, a new domain, five new monsters and four new magic items. The Distractor is a rather fun no-combat prestige class, while the monsters will still need modification before being properly balanced. The magic items are also fairly balanced and suitable for use outside the sourcebook.

Overall, Akrasia: Thief of Time is a decent book. It is great for GMs who are looking for bits in between large adventures or something to pass the time if you're short a player. For the price, it's a reasonable investment. Although, if you can get it cheaper than regular price, then the value's even better.

To see the graded evaluation of this product, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.