Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keeper of Secrets" data-source="post: 2011897" data-attributes="member: 13836">I should begin by pointing out that I received a complimentary copy for review.Gatekeepers:  Lords of the Gateways is the latest offering from Ancient Awakenings.  The author, John W. Bowden, has created a class (Gatekeeper) for use in either standard Dungeons & Dragons or for D20 Modern.  The Gatekeeper class is provided in detail, complete with Class Information, Class Features and a new skill and spell for use with the class.  Essentially, the reader has at their disposal a compact class with everything they need to introduce it into their game world.  As mentioned, the class is given information for use in either standard Dungeons & Dragons or D20 Modern so it can be used by either genre which is a nice touch.  A brief description of the class is certainly warranted.  An enterprising individual (the Gatekeeper) can train themselves to open gates between point A and point B, transferring merchants (and their goods), refugees, or even armies for a fee.  Obviously, the opportunities for this would be limitless in any world where the time of travel (and the potential dangers associated with it) is eliminated.  Naturally, this also causes a potential problem if the Gatekeepers became too prevalent, as it could add some game balance problems as well as introduce a form of science/magic that the GM may not exactly be prepared for.  However, I was pleased to see that Bowden addressed this issue up front, not only warning the reader of the possible ramifications, but also pointing out that this should be approached carefully.  I am no expert on the minute details of mechanics but careful study of the skill, spell and class specifications seem to be well balanced and they seem to fit properly.  The Gatekeeper progression table looks like any other class in the Core Rulebooks and gives DCs for the Gatekeeper’s attempts to transport individuals from the location they are interested in leaving and to the location they are interested in arriving.  Ample and well-thought out rules are in place to cover a variety of questions readers may have:  the spell discusses successes and failures, the class does contain prerequisites and the hit points for the class.Certainly, Ancient Awakenings, like many other PDF publishers offers simple products at very affordable rates and gives the reader a small product devoid of artwork or exciting graphics, but this is what makes the PDF market so valuable; for a small price a gamer can get a wide variety of goodies and walk away happy with their purchase.  Ancient Awakenings seem to not only understand that this works well but creates the exact kind of product that is made for the PDF market.  An unusual product like this might not be able to have been marketed on its own through major vendors.In any event, whereas I was pleased with the product overall, I did have a few minor concerns.  First, my personal preference would have been to see the possibility of a disaster when teleporting people through major distances.  Under current rules, ‘failure’ simply means that the teleportation does not work.  The nasty GM in me would have liked to have seen something more catastrophic occur if a failed roll was particularly poor.  It would be a reason why people might think twice about teleporting (other than the enormous cost involved) and specifically, it might make PCs more hesitant about using it on a whim, reserving it for the most dire of circumstances, since they would know there was always a chance something could go horribly, horribly wrong.  The second concern I have is that this is really more of a GM tool than it is a player tool.  I can’t imagine too many players finding it all that fun and exciting to have their character’s life dedicated to Gatekeeping.  Sure, the money would be great but adventures would be a little substandard in the excitement department.  Honestly, it seemed more like a great tool for the GM to add an interesting flare to their campaign worlds and having the rules to back it up.  Gatekeepers:  Lords of the Gateways is a great product at a low price.  I highly recommend it for a few reasons.  First, the obvious reason I would recommend it is that GMs could get a lot out of adding this to their campaign as a plot hook or some secret forgotten technology/magic.  The second reason I would recommend it is because anyone interested in doing any kind of publishing of their own work could use this as a standard or model on how to put out a clever and affordable product with few frills (if the budget is cost prohibitive).Mr. Bowden and Ancient Awakenings have done a great job.I give the product 4 out of 5 stars.</blockquote>

Verification