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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Black Kestrel" data-source="post: 2684956" data-attributes="member: 4903">Black Market: The Definitive D20 Guide to Cyberpunk GearBlack MarketPublisher: Adamant EntertainmentAuthor: Elissa Carey and Malcolm SheppardGraphics: Gareth-Michael SkarkaPage Count: 29 (1 cover, 1 credit, 1 OGL, 1 Advertisement)OGL Content: 100% (yes, that means the brands are open content)Bookmarked: YesDisclaimer: The art and layout of the books in the Terminal Identity line offends my sense of aesthetics. The art is photo-realistic and appears to be digitally retouched images (though there is one piece of B&W and one piece of color art in Black Market). This style of artwork has never appealed to me and I feel it detracts from the book. The layout, while PDF friendly (including wider margins) has one oddity. The page number art interferes with the placement of text and images in some places and is rather jarring when you are reading.Black Market is billed as the “definitive guide to cyberpunk gear”. While I’m not sure it is definitive, it is the first book in Terminal Identity line to truly discuss elements of the cyberpunk genre and how they effect and influence the information provided in the book. This is cover in sidebars scattered through the book that cover such things as faxphreaking, older and exotic armors and scrounging. Black Market breaks down into three sections: General Gear and Services, Weapons & Services and Vehicles, plus a very brief introduction.The Introduction provides paragraph descriptions of each of the three major sections.The General Gear and Services chapter plunges straight into the heart of the matter by beginning the chapter with a discussion of how branding/style are important to the cyberpunk genre and how they can be employed in the game to enhance the roleplaying experience. Additionally your get three brands ready for use in your game. Next is discussion of what the authors call ubiquitous converged computing. This is the addition of computer processors to nearly everything in your household and beyond. This followed by a section on wearable computers which are broken down by function, including teleoperators (which are expanded on later). Following wearables is a short section on clickables, which are peripherals that can be used with the wearable computer components. Following clickables we get a section on nanofactories and nanofaxes which are the primary manufacturers of goods. Included is a discussion of subscription services (Want to always have the latest fashions? No problem just sign up for the haute couture service, assuming your have the money to afford it), durability and disposable and how they affect the game (not mention it keeps the corps flush money as you buy new gear to replace your old stuff). The last part of the chapter covers odds and ends that don’t fit anywhere else, like nanowriters (PDA of the future), Pretty Happy (dermal drug tattoos), artificial foods and holography.The Weapons and Armor chapter contains seven new weapons, two new armors and mods. The weapons includes the CPAWS (a follow-on to OICW), Needler, Kinetic Tactical Weapon (sniper railgun), Gray Goo grenades, Screamer grenades (sonic grenade), “Rattler” Whip (a retractable, steel whip that can also carry an electrical charge) and the Tagger, a non-lethal weapon utilizing tagger nanites to track a suspect. Following the weapons is the Holographic Targeter which can provide a variety of benefits to the user, but is listed as a piece of equipment when it would have been more suited as a gadget, mods follow this theme. Mods are described as add-on parts for older weapons that are designed to improve one more aspects of said weapons performance. According to the description that sounds like mods should be a gadget. Instead they are pieces of equipment that can be added to a weapon. While I like the idea of after-market modifications for weapons I think the authors should have presented the mods as both gadgets and pieces of equipment (which could then be added to a weapon using the integrated equipment gadget). The end of the section covers two new armors: Chameleon tactical armor and reinforced clothing. Again I think some of the abilities of the Chameleon tactical armor could have been represented as gadgets or equipment attached using the integrated equipment gadget.The Vehicle chapter consists of eight vehicles, one cybernetic device and an Advanced Class. The vehicles range from the cheap build-it-yourself derby to high-tech panzers (the art for which I like). The vehicles while not overly imaginative fit the cyberpunk genre. Following the vehicles is the Teleoperator Cybernetic Control System which is basically an implanted version of the teleoperators equipment from chapter one. This makes for an easy segue into the Teleoperator Advanced Class. The Teleoperator is a specialist in operation remotely controlled vehicles and drones. The class has 10 levels, with a poor base attack progression, good Rfelex saves, regular Fortitude and Will saves, d8 hit points, a decent skill list and 5 skill points per level (4 for non-humans). The Teleoperator gains several special abilities related to the vehicles he teleoperates at every odd level and a bonus feat at ever even level. The special abilities include Immersion (which I have some serious issues with game mechanic-wise), Vehicular Evasion, Defensive Maneuver, Op Specialization (while not as bad as Immersion it is vague on saying what exactly the bonus from specialization applies to), Op Trick and Kick It. Likes: More than anything else I liked that Black Market actually discussed how equipment is viewed and used in the cyberpunk genre. I found the sidebars scattered throughout the book to be very informative and conciseDislikes: While I made comments about the layout in my disclaimer, Black Market’s layout is terrible. While running all the sections together leads to little wasted space it makes reading the book more difficult. Also the inconsistent application of d20 Modern/Future standards (e.g. breaking equipment down by PL, gadgets etc.) in comparison to other books in the line causes Black Market to get a lower grade. Note: Also posted on RPGNow</blockquote>

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