JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Mindshadows branchs fantasy out of the Western Knight mode in a manner similar to Rokugan and Nyambe but doesn't spread it's wings far enough.
Broken into ten chapters, Mindshadows introduces Naranian by providing a map of the country, prestige classes, feats, skills, weapons, equipment and background on the setting. The first two chapters set the tone for the setting with the dwarves taking over the surface world but eventually being overthrown and a new ruler emerging. Ties to Freeport and the Serpent People who worship Yig are also scattered about here and there. Also nice are the little notes about Mindscapes, the Malhavok Product, that allow you to use it's variant psionic combat system.
In terms of history, the book insures that the reader knows that before all else, the serpent people were there, followed by the elves and eventually, other races. Unfortunately, they take a stance where the gnomes are descendants or an offshoot branch of the dwarves. If this setting was entirely self contained, it's be no problem but that indicates, at least to me, that gnomes all over hail from dwarf stock. Another potential problem is that the book uses a caste system. Not an issue for those wishing to play an entire game here as it will create tension and depending on the campaign, political turmoil, but for mixing outsiders and natives, perhaps more difficult than it needs to be.
On a positive side, there is a lot of diversity in the types of lands found on this island. On one hand, we have the Sudarsha, a region just coming out of chaos as the dwarves who ruled were beaten back and the lands have only recently been reunited under the hand of Vasudha. There there is the Spice Coast, a region where traders and remnents lurk about. There are some ties to Freeport thrown in here again as one land, Varupa, is ruled by the pirate Ammeth Baalrad. The problem with all of these places is in the details. No maps, no stat blocks, and just enough information that if you're really looking forward to customizing just about everything, then you'll love it.
The key to the book though, is that there is variety. Take for example the religion. There are three major factions, Matyanism, Pranaism and Sujahnism. This allows the GM and players to put a lot of interesting factions side by side and see how they run along. Even more impressive is the GM uses outside influences like traders from Freeport. Take Matyanism, the sate religion that involves worship of thousands of gods with sample gods provided and their opposites, the Asura (devils and demons) who are lesser aspects of Lord Night that aren't gods, but are often worshipped as such with blackguards and other followers of an evil bent.
Now for me, the key elements missing were everyday stuff. For example, we have information on timekeeping, weather, caste system, and even some day to day material, but what do these people eat? They keep cows as livestock, but it's against the law to kill one, so obviously, there is no beef. Do they use a lot of spices in their foods? What's the average weight and height? What variations in skin color can be found throughout the coast? Not a lot of answers there.
Still, the information on the Ashrams or fighting schools, helps kick up the cool factor. Like Martial Arts from other supplements where you gain a special ability for having certain prerequisites, the Ashrams here provide unique abilities to those pupils who meet the requirements. Even better is that several sample schools with their abilities have been provided as examples so GMs can use what's here or make up their own material.
Unlike many other setting books, the races don't come into place until latter in the book. Usually with setting books, you get the races, classes, feats and then the setting but I guess they were trying to set the stage. The good news is that there is a lot of variety and when full racial traits aren't needed, they aren't provided, saving space. Players can chose from the Amarati or Rainforest elves, atypical primitive breed, the Jendram (gnomes), Nivashan (Dwarves), Puskamu, ungle elves, also relatively primitive , Rangsten (halflings), and the Yuan-Ti.
Most of these races, like the dwarves, gnomes, and hafllings, are virtually identical to their PHB counterparts but have different cultures, outlooks, and favored classes. You know that when the halfling's favored class is the Monk, that it's a seriously different creature.
In terms of classes and prestige classes, the book goes over the role the standard PHB classes and those from the Psionic's book (psion and psychic warrior), play in the setting. Not only that, but the core prestige classes and classes from other Green Ronin products, like the Assassin, Holy Warrior and Noble, are discussed as well with the appropriate notes.
The real meat of the section is on the new prestige classes. Many of these have some psionic elements about them. This includes power points and either discovering new powers or going up in manifester level. These range from the master of the psionic blade, the jatyash, to the masters of the Juggernauts, huge machines used on the battlefield. Of course no fantasy India would be complete without it's own snake cult assassin and the Serpentine Assassin fills that role in nicely. The PrCs help round out the section and provide the GM a good groundwork and a further look at how the setting is different than others. Many of these roles have similar ones in other products but the psion base give these a different feel like the beast master or wizard killer.
To round out the classes, skills and feats are usually used and this is no different. Skills tend to focus around the Juggernaut with Craft and Pilot skills, but also notes on poison and crafting antidotes. The feats are the real meat of these section with some flash in the form of Cut Arrows, allowing you to knock arrows from the sky either unarmed or armed, as well as Acrobatic Attack, where you jump and tumble by a foe even as you attack. The Juggernaut has a few feats here too like Juggernaut Dodge and Juggernaut Operation, but the bulk of the section is in it's psionic material. These range from draining power points via Psychic Leech, to learning to use your Touch Attacks to their maximum with Improved Touch attack.
Another weak section is the equipment. While there is a listing of new weapons, what about standard PHB weapons? Are they the same price? Rare? Never found? What about armor? It's mentioned that armor is used in the setting (despite the feel of many of the PrCs and feats), but which types and are there any modifications in price and availability? Still, if you're looking for weapons with an Indian feel, like the Bagh Nakh or Tiger's Claws, or the Katar, which I always thought was similar to the Punching Dagger in the PHB, then this is definitely the place to look.
The most important and innovative section here, to me, is that on Juggernauts. These machines are in essence, mecha. Their base specifications are similar to what you'd see for creatures of different sizes. For example, Grapple Bonus, Space/Reach, Speed, and Strength Bonuses, but their Hardness and Hit Points, vary. The former on the material it's made of, the latter, the size of the Juggernaut. It's a nice little self contained system and shows that there are different ways of handling things like Mecha in d20 even though it all boils down to a big machine taking damage for you even as it makes you stronger.
The last chapter, Adventures in Naranjan, is also a little weak as it gives some generalities. How about some sample material? How about some crossovers with Freeport? Instead we get some adventure seeds and some general ideas on how to use the differences here either to showcase them to parties playing foreigners or to those who originated from the setting.
The prestige classes, feats and juggernauts make the book worthwhile for me. The lack of city maps, actual Adventures, detailed NPCs and other everyday details, lower the settings value as a setting. Overall, I enjoyed the book and the setting and will be exporting some of the material to my own campaign and perhaps using the Yuan-Ti, some actual adventuring in the land. Compared to Testament and Skull & Bones, other Mythic Vistas, it feels too small. Sure, there is material in the Monsters of the Mind, and with that, it's about the size of Skull & Bones but not everyone wants to buy two books. Some are saying that it's apples to oranges as the other two Mythic Vistas books as they are semi-historical. How about Rokugan and Nyambe? Both hardcovers with full color (one all the way through and the other the first chapter). And with Nyambe, that was a gamble as it doesn't have the following that Rokugan, the past editions, card game or support of Wizards of the Coast via Oriental Adventures.
If you want a fully fleshed out setting and don't want to work a lot, then Mindshadows might require too much customizing but if your lust for strange vistas hasn't been satisfied then Mindshadows is for you.
Broken into ten chapters, Mindshadows introduces Naranian by providing a map of the country, prestige classes, feats, skills, weapons, equipment and background on the setting. The first two chapters set the tone for the setting with the dwarves taking over the surface world but eventually being overthrown and a new ruler emerging. Ties to Freeport and the Serpent People who worship Yig are also scattered about here and there. Also nice are the little notes about Mindscapes, the Malhavok Product, that allow you to use it's variant psionic combat system.
In terms of history, the book insures that the reader knows that before all else, the serpent people were there, followed by the elves and eventually, other races. Unfortunately, they take a stance where the gnomes are descendants or an offshoot branch of the dwarves. If this setting was entirely self contained, it's be no problem but that indicates, at least to me, that gnomes all over hail from dwarf stock. Another potential problem is that the book uses a caste system. Not an issue for those wishing to play an entire game here as it will create tension and depending on the campaign, political turmoil, but for mixing outsiders and natives, perhaps more difficult than it needs to be.
On a positive side, there is a lot of diversity in the types of lands found on this island. On one hand, we have the Sudarsha, a region just coming out of chaos as the dwarves who ruled were beaten back and the lands have only recently been reunited under the hand of Vasudha. There there is the Spice Coast, a region where traders and remnents lurk about. There are some ties to Freeport thrown in here again as one land, Varupa, is ruled by the pirate Ammeth Baalrad. The problem with all of these places is in the details. No maps, no stat blocks, and just enough information that if you're really looking forward to customizing just about everything, then you'll love it.
The key to the book though, is that there is variety. Take for example the religion. There are three major factions, Matyanism, Pranaism and Sujahnism. This allows the GM and players to put a lot of interesting factions side by side and see how they run along. Even more impressive is the GM uses outside influences like traders from Freeport. Take Matyanism, the sate religion that involves worship of thousands of gods with sample gods provided and their opposites, the Asura (devils and demons) who are lesser aspects of Lord Night that aren't gods, but are often worshipped as such with blackguards and other followers of an evil bent.
Now for me, the key elements missing were everyday stuff. For example, we have information on timekeeping, weather, caste system, and even some day to day material, but what do these people eat? They keep cows as livestock, but it's against the law to kill one, so obviously, there is no beef. Do they use a lot of spices in their foods? What's the average weight and height? What variations in skin color can be found throughout the coast? Not a lot of answers there.
Still, the information on the Ashrams or fighting schools, helps kick up the cool factor. Like Martial Arts from other supplements where you gain a special ability for having certain prerequisites, the Ashrams here provide unique abilities to those pupils who meet the requirements. Even better is that several sample schools with their abilities have been provided as examples so GMs can use what's here or make up their own material.
Unlike many other setting books, the races don't come into place until latter in the book. Usually with setting books, you get the races, classes, feats and then the setting but I guess they were trying to set the stage. The good news is that there is a lot of variety and when full racial traits aren't needed, they aren't provided, saving space. Players can chose from the Amarati or Rainforest elves, atypical primitive breed, the Jendram (gnomes), Nivashan (Dwarves), Puskamu, ungle elves, also relatively primitive , Rangsten (halflings), and the Yuan-Ti.
Most of these races, like the dwarves, gnomes, and hafllings, are virtually identical to their PHB counterparts but have different cultures, outlooks, and favored classes. You know that when the halfling's favored class is the Monk, that it's a seriously different creature.
In terms of classes and prestige classes, the book goes over the role the standard PHB classes and those from the Psionic's book (psion and psychic warrior), play in the setting. Not only that, but the core prestige classes and classes from other Green Ronin products, like the Assassin, Holy Warrior and Noble, are discussed as well with the appropriate notes.
The real meat of the section is on the new prestige classes. Many of these have some psionic elements about them. This includes power points and either discovering new powers or going up in manifester level. These range from the master of the psionic blade, the jatyash, to the masters of the Juggernauts, huge machines used on the battlefield. Of course no fantasy India would be complete without it's own snake cult assassin and the Serpentine Assassin fills that role in nicely. The PrCs help round out the section and provide the GM a good groundwork and a further look at how the setting is different than others. Many of these roles have similar ones in other products but the psion base give these a different feel like the beast master or wizard killer.
To round out the classes, skills and feats are usually used and this is no different. Skills tend to focus around the Juggernaut with Craft and Pilot skills, but also notes on poison and crafting antidotes. The feats are the real meat of these section with some flash in the form of Cut Arrows, allowing you to knock arrows from the sky either unarmed or armed, as well as Acrobatic Attack, where you jump and tumble by a foe even as you attack. The Juggernaut has a few feats here too like Juggernaut Dodge and Juggernaut Operation, but the bulk of the section is in it's psionic material. These range from draining power points via Psychic Leech, to learning to use your Touch Attacks to their maximum with Improved Touch attack.
Another weak section is the equipment. While there is a listing of new weapons, what about standard PHB weapons? Are they the same price? Rare? Never found? What about armor? It's mentioned that armor is used in the setting (despite the feel of many of the PrCs and feats), but which types and are there any modifications in price and availability? Still, if you're looking for weapons with an Indian feel, like the Bagh Nakh or Tiger's Claws, or the Katar, which I always thought was similar to the Punching Dagger in the PHB, then this is definitely the place to look.
The most important and innovative section here, to me, is that on Juggernauts. These machines are in essence, mecha. Their base specifications are similar to what you'd see for creatures of different sizes. For example, Grapple Bonus, Space/Reach, Speed, and Strength Bonuses, but their Hardness and Hit Points, vary. The former on the material it's made of, the latter, the size of the Juggernaut. It's a nice little self contained system and shows that there are different ways of handling things like Mecha in d20 even though it all boils down to a big machine taking damage for you even as it makes you stronger.
The last chapter, Adventures in Naranjan, is also a little weak as it gives some generalities. How about some sample material? How about some crossovers with Freeport? Instead we get some adventure seeds and some general ideas on how to use the differences here either to showcase them to parties playing foreigners or to those who originated from the setting.
The prestige classes, feats and juggernauts make the book worthwhile for me. The lack of city maps, actual Adventures, detailed NPCs and other everyday details, lower the settings value as a setting. Overall, I enjoyed the book and the setting and will be exporting some of the material to my own campaign and perhaps using the Yuan-Ti, some actual adventuring in the land. Compared to Testament and Skull & Bones, other Mythic Vistas, it feels too small. Sure, there is material in the Monsters of the Mind, and with that, it's about the size of Skull & Bones but not everyone wants to buy two books. Some are saying that it's apples to oranges as the other two Mythic Vistas books as they are semi-historical. How about Rokugan and Nyambe? Both hardcovers with full color (one all the way through and the other the first chapter). And with Nyambe, that was a gamble as it doesn't have the following that Rokugan, the past editions, card game or support of Wizards of the Coast via Oriental Adventures.
If you want a fully fleshed out setting and don't want to work a lot, then Mindshadows might require too much customizing but if your lust for strange vistas hasn't been satisfied then Mindshadows is for you.
