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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cyragnome" data-source="post: 2008767" data-attributes="member: 165">Akrasia Thief of TimeBy David ChartEden Studios Inc.Copyright 200132 ppList Price 8.95 USDNOTICE:  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.</blockquote>

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