By Duane Nutley, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack
Sizing up the Target
Fringe Races: Rogues is a 37-page pdf by Khan’s Press and available from www.rpgnow.com for $4.95. Written by Garth Wright and illustrated by David Hendee, Fringe Races: Rogues is a Race/Class sourcebook introducing four new races and prestige classes.
First Blood
When I first read the title I wasn’t sure if this pdf was meant to be a book about races or about rogues. The first sentence in the introduction put me straight by informing that the book is about four races which share a common theme: rogues. But this is not all the book contains. Each of the four races comes with a prestige class that is suited to that race, but not exclusive to that race or even just to rogues. There are only two chapters to the book: the first which contains the four races in race stat block, then in monster stat block and finally the prestige class suited to each class. The second chapter introduces new weapons, poisons, deities, spells and magic items.
One thing I noticed shortly after reading a number of pages is the amount of white space. The book could easily have been shortened to about 30 pages. Of the 37 pages, there is the front cover, a full page for each chapter with the cover art replicated and some flavour text, the OGL page, a credits page and the table of contents. That leaves 32 pages of text, which easily could have been condensed into 26 or 27 pages.
The four races detailed in the book are as follows: Crag Goblin – flying goblins, Darkness Dweller – humans who have adapted to life permanently underground and without darkvision, Impet – tiny fey who resemble little demons and act very mischeviously and Moon Siren – female only subrace of humans. Each race has a corresponding prestige class that can be used by any race or class, just that rogues and these races prefer these prestige classes. The Aerial Blitzer is for Crag Goblins and any race that can fly. They gain better sneak attack while flying and camouflage against the sky. Stone Ghosts gain sneak attack, but it is more lethal in close quarters and gain general underground abilities. Poison Snipers are adept at using poison and camouflage in natural settings. They also gain spells, but there is no requirement for previous spell knowledge and this is reminiscent of the assassin to me. Finally the Silver Amazon is a female only class that is partly lycanthropic and with fighter BAB.
I found the ECL for the Darkness Dweller over the top for the abilities gained, the same with the Impet. I don’t have much experience in creating races, but for a +2 ECL, I would expect more abilities or more powerful ones than either race gained.
The majority of the last chapter is comprised of new spells and magic items that are useful and appropriate to the races. Minor additions include new weapons, especially for the Impet, a new poison, little information on 2 deities, and a new domain. All this information is supplemental to the first chapter and is nothing earthshattering or exciting.
Critical Hits
New playable races are always welcome to the d20 market. Each of these races can be easily slotted into an existing campaign by an experienced GM.
Critical Misses
The amount of white space was quite disappointing as well as the use of trademarked terms, eg DM and MM. I would have expected that any publisher would use the correct terminology, especially for a paid for product.
Coup de Grace
I wasn’t expecting much from Fringe Races: Rogues as I wasn’t sure of what to expect from the title alone and I had not heard of this product from other sources. So my expectations were low and easily met. However new races are always welcome, especially for those players who want to play something other than in the SRD.
To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to Fast Tracks at www.d20zines.com.
