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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Samuel Leming" data-source="post: 2620577" data-attributes="member: 16462">E.N. World Critters Volume 3 - Tulenjord: Land of the Fallen One<a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=4752&SRC=EnWorld" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=4752&SRC=EnWorld" target="_blank">[IMAGER]http://www.rpgnow.com/products/product_4752.jpg[/IMAGER]</a>[H4]Introduction[/H4]E.N. Critters Volume 3 - Tulenjord: Land of the Fallen One is a PDF created by the folks at Bearded Dragon, illustrated by the guys at Guillotine Studios & published by E. N. World Publishing.  The folks at Bearded Dragon are Joshua Courtney, Robert Lajoie, Rich McCarthy & Jim E. Vilandre.  The guys at Guillotine Studios are  Allen Kerswell, Jeffrey LeBoeuf & Mike McMenemey.  Within this catalog of critters you’ll find twenty one frigidly themed creatures with CRs ranging between  ¼ and 15. I was given this complimentary PDF for review and I haven’t playtested any of these creatures.[H4]Art[/H4]There are 26 illustrations in this PDF, including the cover but not counting the margin graphics.  Most of this art is passable for a product of this type, but some illustrations are inaccurate, goofy, and/or ugly.To begin with, the cover illustration is done in what seems to be a quick primitive style that isn’t out of place for an inexpensive PDF, but the central creature depicted, a Dyravul, doesn’t really match their descriptions very well.  The text describes the Dyravul as a large four legged animal combining the features of a large cat, a ram & a bull, but the cover shows it as a huge shaggy bestial humanoid bordering on gargantuan.  Maybe the guys shown fighting the Dyravul are extremely small Halflings.  The illustration on page twelve is just as inaccurate, even if it is one of the better drawn pictures in this book.  The editor even goes so far as to point out the discrepancy in a note on page 13.The Dyravul is not the only creature with an inaccurate illustration.  The Fissure Fisher, the Fleshite, the Frystkalma, the Herjalti, the Johtuliva, the Morns & The Skyte all suffer from inaccuracy in their drawings.  Eight out of the twenty creatures(40%) illustrated in this book(the Wooly Goat has no illustration) are incorrect. Some of the art in this product is goofy and primitive even by old-school standards.  The Guillotine Studios logo, found on the right side of page 2 a little more than halfway down, is close to illegible at any magnification.  It’s a bad sign when a group doesn’t take pride in their logo.The worst illustration I’ve seen in any recent role playing product would have to be the Fleshite on page 17.  It sort of reminds me of the Chicken Heart from the old Fat Albert cartoon show.  The pictures of the Fissure Fisher(never give your cat PCP) and the Johtuliva(looks like a kid costumed for a school play) aren’t as bad, but they’re still goofy.[IMAGEL]http://img314.imageshack.us/img314/9634/fleshite2cr.jpg[/IMAGEL][IMAGEL]http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/7595/fissurefisher6fj.jpg[/IMAGEL]<img src="http://img314.imageshack.us/img314/4669/johtuliva9mm.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />I’m not one to judge a product only by its art, even when it’s below par for its product category.   The real value in an RPG supplement is in its content, so I can forgive the art even when it’s this bad.[H4]Layout[/H4]Layout looks good other than the text being too close to the page header decoration.  Adding a little leading there would have helped.  I only found one mistake: The “general” heading on the Snow Blind critter was misplaced by the illustration.  For a product of this type, the layout is above par.[H4]Content[/H4]E.N. Critters Volume 3 begins with three pages of theme description.  This section gives a brief synopsis of what “The Fallen One” is and how that relates to the small floating island of ice and rock known as Tulenjord, the setting that this collection of creatures is organized around.  Next comes a details of the dense geography of this island followed by descriptions of the most likely habitats for the creatures found in this volume.  This island could make a good setting for several higher level adventures.  There isn’t a map for the island.  That would have been helpful, but it isn’t really necessary.Each of the 21 creatures has full stats, description, combat notes, ecology, knowledge suggestion tables & designer notes.  The knowledge suggestion tables are a very good idea.  These tables list the knowledge skill needed for knowing something about the creature and an increasing DC for more detailed or obscure information about the creature.  I also found the designer notes at the end of each creature entry to be interesting.  These give a good account of why the designers did what they did.Here’s a quick list of the critters found within:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Artic Sea Dragon: A huge draconic walrus</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Delphine: Fundamentalist humanoid dolphins</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Diggers: Large evil intelligent albino apes with less then savory religious practices</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dyravul:  Large shaggy animal combining the features of cat, ram & bull</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fireheart Golem: A large hollow iron golem filled and animated by a fire elemental.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fissure Fisher: A weird beast that would have fit in the first edition Fiend Folio perfectly</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fleshite: Pieces of a dead god that have taken on a life of their own</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Frostbitten: The undead corpses of humanoids that died from the cold</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Frystkalma: Ice Elemental</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Glacial: Colossal clear frozen blood clots of a dead god that have taken on a life of their own</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Halsingdrek: Huge six-legged wingless ice dragon</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Herjalti: Flying blood-sucking jellyfish with an electrical attack</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Johtuliva: Small winged artic fey that dress in leather and fur</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Morns: Huge elf-like evil giants with dark blue skin and a talent for the arcane</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mursigla: Large walrus-like humanoids</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Skyte: Flying stingray with an electrical attack</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Snow Blind: A small icy tornado with a blinding attack</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Snow Fleas: A swarm of frigid fleas</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Snow Spirit: Mindless incorporeal undead of the artic wastes</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Surrissa: Large crablike aberration with extra claws and extra appetite</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wooly Goat: A really big goat that’s wooly</li> </ul>In general, I liked these critters.  Among my favorites are the giant Morns, partially because of their goal of bringing their dead god back to life.  Another interesting race are the Delphine.  Their agenda is similar to the Morn’s, but they go about it in a less evil way.The Glacials are also creatures with interesting possibilities.  Though not so bright, a glacial has enough willpower to back up its psionic attacks.  It’s also able to control those ugly Fleshites I mentioned earlier.I usually judge a new creature by how readily they inspire ideas and the creatures in this volume succeed at this for the most part.  As I read through this PDF I jotted most of these ideas down.  There were well over 60 of them not including the obvious ones listed in the designer notes.  I’ll spare the readers the list and only detail one of these notions.What if it were possible to bring the Fallen One partially back to life by combining a minimum number of Glacial and Fleshites using difficult ritual magic.  How this would play out would depend upon whether the Morns or Delphine discover this.  The Delphine favor for divine magic and the Morns preference for the arcane would factor into this also.  There really wouldn’t be any creature on Tulenjord that would oppose this scheme, except the rather dim Glacials & Fleshites themselves, so this is where your party of adventurers would come in.[H4]Conclusion[/H4]Tulenjord: Land of the Fallen One is overall a good collection of creatures.  For the most part, these creatures are interesting and inspire creativity.  It is unfortunate that the art hinders the presentation.  I would have given this PDF four stars if not for some of the goofier illustrations.Despite the sometimes atrocious art, I still recommend Tulenjord and plan to use several of these creatures myself.</blockquote>

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