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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2011153" data-attributes="member: 172">MindshadowsMindshadows is a setting book in Green Ronin's Mythic Vistas series of books. The setting details a land heavily inspired by the history, culture, and myth of ancient India, and also emphasizing the role of psionic powers. The book is written by Kevin Brennan and James Malizewski.A First LookMindshadows is a 128 page perfect bound softcover book priced at $22.95.The cover of the book is a beautiful full color painting (by WotC alumni artist Todd Lockwood) of a swarthy skinned woman wielding a sword in front of a ornately decorated wall depicting a many-armed female figure similar to those in Hindu mythology.The interior art is black-and-white, illustrated by Colin Adams, Dennis Detwiller, Julian Allen, Kevin Crossley, Torn "Macbin" Atkinson, Drew Baker, Kent Burles, and James Smith, and cartography by Kevin Brennan, James Malizewski, and Hal Mangold. This is a larger stable of artists than Green Ronin usually employs, and this gives the book a bit less consistent feel than some other books. That said, it was nice to see more work by the stylish work of Kent Burles again, and I think that the pieces by Atkinson are some of his best outside of Armies of the Abyss.A Deeper Look(Spoiler warning: this section contains references to some setting secrets.)Ever since I read the Psionics Handbook for D&D 3e, it has reminded me a bit of some sorts of eastern mysticism. Obviously, I was not the only one to see this resemblance. Mindshadows plays up this resemblance and places it as a culturally and historically important element on the equatorial island of Naranjan.Unlike previous mythic vistas book, Mindshadows does not attempt such a drastic alteration of the system and classes in order to build its vision. Rather, it is a place that you can comfortably visit with your normal D&D characters without much "tweaking" needed. Indeed, the book describes Naranjan with respect to Green Ronin's Freeport setting and also describes several other potential link-ins with other Green Ronin d20 fantasy products.A bit like Nyambe, the races are given their own cultural roles in the setting, in the process redefining them a bit for the purposes of the setting. Dwarves are the most important race other than humans for the setting historically.As described in the book, humans once lived in primitive tribes until Dwarves, with steamtech-style Juggernauts emerged and established order, and forged them into a vassal empire rules by a viceroy, complete with a caste system that strongly resembles that which sprung up on the Indian subcontinent. This social structure saw the brahmins (the priest caste, but also includes under the D&D class structure, arcane spellcasters) at top, followed ksatriyas (warrior caste), vaisyas (merchant caste), sudras (laborer caste), and untouchables. By way of major events, corruption among the human vassal empire formed the seeds of destruction of this empire and casting off dwarven rulership. This rebellion was, in part, fueled by the discovery of psionics as a viable art, which not only put some tools in the hands of the lower castes but started a few social movements and created some power blocs that rose up against the dwarves.Though the rule of the dwarves was thrown of, this only invited chaos and weakness that was preyed on by yuan-ti and cannibal elves. Eventually, a man by the name of Vasuda arose, and re-organized the human empire of Sudarsha. He reestablished the caste system, though initially it was somewhat more flexible than it was under the rule of the dwarves. Eventually, Vasudha became more despotic, and the people's newfound social mobility became more limited. Why this formerly even handed leader became despotic is something of a mystery, unveiled only for the GM...Those this empire, named Sudarsha, is the largest human empire in Naranjan; the book provides brief details on each of several major provinces of this empire. In addition to Sudarsha and the various non-human kindgoms, there are several city states along the spice coast that have evaded Vasuda's rule, each briefly described with its own character and potential conflicts.Religion in Naranjan goes a little beyond what is the norm for d20 fantasy campaigns, most of which almost treat individual deities in a pantheon like miniature monotheistic religions. In Naranjan there are individual deities, but there are also some overriding religious philosophies. These are Matayanism, Pranaism, and Sujahnism. All of these are ultimately based on the same basic principles, but differ in certain ways. Matayanism teaches that the caste is an important part of the cycle of life and death, and each incarnation can approach closer to achieving transcendence. Pranaism is similar except on how divine figures are viewed. While Matayanism reveres a number of deities and tends to treat three deities involved in the creation as dispassionate and not caring for worship, the Pranaists view these figures as important; most Pranaists are Brahmin arcane spellcasters. Sujahnism is the revolutionary belief that spread with psionics. Sujahnists view the gods as beings to be emulated and not worshiped, and believe that transcendence can be had in one's lifetime, and thus disdains the caste system.Both the religion and social structure of Naranjan are cleverly written to accommodate the D&D classes and interpret their roles. Brahmin are composed of both arcane and divine spellcasters, though the Pranaist offshoot explain the difference between them. Sujahnism explains the role of psionics. Within the pantheon, there are different sorts of deities; those considered to be "weapons of the gods" are followed by the warrior caste, and provide spell power for paladins and blackguards. Overall, this gives the setting a great consistency with the system without being too familiar.The book provides details of the people, culture, and other details of Naranjan, including such things as the calander, crime, city life, and so forth. The first hint of mechanical add-ons show up in the presentation of ashrams, or fighting schools. Ashrams have organizations and philosophies surrounding them, but each of these translates into a "style mastery" much like those that appeared in 3e Oriental Adventures: if you meet a number of prerequisites, you receive a mechanical bonus. The ones here are all related to psionics, in keeping with their background in the setting.As you recall, I was not too fond of the style masteries as they appeared in Oriental Adventures. However, Mindshadows has one major (but simple) innovation that makes it better than the OA version: all of these have membership or course of study at the school as a prerequisite. This minimizes the possible "overlapping styles" exploit that had a potential to exist under the OA version.The standard d20 fantasy races are slotted in as other cultures on Naranjan, in a manner not too dissimilar from Nyambe. As already mentioned, dwarves were the former rulers of the main human empire and established the existing social order, and still wield complex mechanisms called Juggernauts (essentially magical mechas.) Other races see more drastic alternations. The only race of elves are primitive and savage. Halflings live monastic lives and have monk as a favored class. Gnomes are a rebellious offshoot of the dwarves. Yuan-ti fill a more classical role as a degenerate race that is still a threat to humankind.As mentioned above, many existing core, psionic, and Green Ronin published classes are neatly addressed by the book. To supplement and extend these roles, a number of prestige classes are provided. Most are psionic specialties, save three that are also directly related to setting details: The juggernaut pilot's role is self explanatory. The snake cultist and serpentine assassin are vassals of the Yuan-ti.The various psionic prestige classes are devoted to special proficiency with psionics (such as the guru), secial applications of psionic powers (such as the wizard killer or the beastmaster), or a practitioner of a specific style.Most of the psionic prestige classes are designed similarly to the ones in the original 3e Psionics Handbook in that they start a new psionic progression instead of continuing their existing progression. Unless psionics is not a primary focus of the class, this makes them very unappealing compared to staying in the psionic core class. Even Psionics Handbook author Bruce Cordell realized this and released updated continued-progression style versions of the PsiHB PrCs through Malhavoc Press, and the Minds Eye feature on the WotC website also typically uses a continued progression approach.Co-author James Malizewski responded to concerns about this design decision by providing alternates on the Green Ronin forums, but we will probably have to wait until the release of the Expanded Psionics Handbook for a formal revision on the Green Ronin website.One beneficial feature of the book's psionic classes: they include conversions for Malhavoc's excellent Mindscapes expansion, making integrating Mindshadows classes with those rules a breeze.The skills and feats section only has brief coverage of new skills and skill uses, all tightly integrated with setting features. Craft (poisonmaking) provides more general details for creating poisons and antidotes than other versions of the same feat, but they fail to take into account the damage dice caused by the poison. Craft (juggernaut) and Pilot Juggernaut are required for the creation and control of the machinces.Many of the feats are psionic in nature. Owing to the emphasis that the setting puts on psionic combat, many of the feats are related to using psionics in physical combat (such as attune item, which is a specialized item creation feat that lets you charge items with psionic power.) Various feats are also related to other setting elements like juggernaut use, and the dwarven bloodgift feats from Hammer & Helm make a new appearance here.Of new magic items, the most significant are the Juggernauts. The construction cost calculation is simple, and you can make juggernauts in a variety of sizes and compositions. Advanced juggernauts are built by incorporating magic items in their design.ConclusionsIf you are interested in a setting based on India, focussing on psionics, or just a single volume setting with some unusual takes on typical D&D material, you should give Mindshadows a look. It cleverly integrates fairly standard D&D mechanical elements into a setting that is decidedly different from the bog standard psuedo-medieval setting.Being that the setting uses essentially the same classes as core D&D/d20 fantasy and the setting is limited in size, it has great potential use as a secondary setting or "exotic distant land" for characters in a more mundane campaign to visit.It seems like the setting could easily afford much more depth and development to make some of its adventure possibilities flourish. If you are a creative GM, this book may just whet your appetite.As mentioned, I did not agree with the design approach of the psionic prestige classes. Normally this is a pretty minor flaw, but considering that this is a book that will specifically attract psionics afficionados, many purchasers are likely to find this approach unsatisfactory.Overall grade: B+ -Alan D. Kohler</blockquote>

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