John Cooper
Explorer
NONE SO VILE: DISCIPLES OF DARKNESS I - THE RAVENOUS OF AGRAMOGG
By Aeryn Rudel
Skeleton Key Games/Blackdirge Publishing product number BDPNSVDOD01
16-page PDF, $3.75
None So Vile: Disciples of Darkness I - The Ravenous of Agramogg (hereafter referred to simply as "The Ravenous of Agramogg" for simplicity's sake) is the first in a new line of PDFs devoted to "Evil-with-a-capital-E" material for your D&D/d20 Fantasy games. While Wizard of the Coast's Book of Vile Darkness is not Open Game Content, the None So Vile line seems to be focused on the same general area without crossing any non-SRD lines. It looks like the series will focus on particularly vile prestige classes, with associated material on relevant deities, cults, and so on. This first entry examines the demigod Agramogg the Devourer and a 10-level prestige class (the eponymous "ravenous of Agramogg") devoted to gluttony and cannibalism.
The cover is a simple but effective piece by Erik Nowak, consisting of the symbol of Agramogg done up as a red-and-silver amulet, superimposed upon a fake black leather cover. If you look, though, there are drops of blood spattered not only upon the amulet, but also on some of the words in the title and on the Skeleton Key Games logo in the lower left corner. That was a nice touch!
Erik Nowak also provides all of the interior artwork, a total of 7 black-and-white illustrations. Many of these are very disturbing (and thus very appropriate), especially the slain-human-as-banquet on page 4 and the full-page portrait of Isked Doomtongue on page 9. (I pretty much guarantee that Isked is the fattest duergar you're ever going to see, and the fact that he's naked but for a pair of gloves and boots doesn't approve his appearance any; and let's all take a minute here to thank Erik for the fortunate placement of his greataxe!) Erik does a really great job on this PDF, reveling in really getting the vile into his work. This is exceptionally good artwork, especially for a PDF.
Aeryn does a fine job as well, starting us off with a page-and-a-half short story that manages to be truly revolting and true to the material that follows. His "Ravenous of Agramogg" prestige class is pretty well thought out, with logical abilities being granted by a demigod devoted to greed, gluttony, and cannibalism. I particularly like the fact that Aeryn keeps a very narrow focus on the logical aspects of the granted abilities; while many designers would just keep on heaping cool new abilities in an effort to make their prestige class as appealing as possible, Aeryn lets logic be his guide, and assigns some really debilitating side effects to the powers granted by Agramogg as well as the beneficial stuff. The result, after 10 levels in the prestige class, is a truly horrid, revolting cannibal that probably won't ever leave the room that it lairs in, having its devoted cultists bring its intelligent prey to it. Make no mistake about it: the ravenous of Agramogg is a prestige class much more suited to NPC enemies than PCs, even PCs in an evil campaign.
I was pleased to see on the credits page that there were two editors assigned to The Ravenous of Agramogg; however, as one of them was Aeryn himself, there might as well have been only one. (That's no dig at Aeryn; it's just incredibly difficult to edit your own work, as anything you missed while writing is probably also going to be missed while editing.) In any case, while I managed to accumulate a full sheet of paper (both sides) documenting errors noted while reading The Ravenous of Agramogg, only a few of them are likely to cause problems to the reader. There's a class ability that's listed on the Ravenous of Agramogg table as starting at 2nd level, but described as starting at 3rd level in the actual write-up. (I believe 2nd level is accurate.) And then there were some problems with the sole stat block, which as usual I'll list here, although I provided Aeryn with my entire errata list and have no doubt that he'll make the appropriate changes directly to the PDF himself. Still, in the meantime, I recommend making the following changes:
The Ravenous of Agramogg is an excellent start to the new None So Vile: Disciples of Darkness line. It's got fantastic artwork, well-thought-out gaming material, and a nice layout. A little extra attention to detail would certainly go a long way to skyrocketing this series to the very top of its niche. I give The Ravenous of Agramogg a very high "4 (Good)," and would easily bump it up to a "5" after its errors were taken care of. I'll also note here that I will be reviewing the next two entries in the line as my next reviewing projects.
[Edit: Aeryn sent me a revised copy of this product with the errata already incorporated into it (including a few things I had overlooked, which I added into the review above - thanks, Aeryn!). That was incredibly fast - surely that's got to be a new record for errata turnaround. In any case, I've looked it over and it's definitely a 5-star product now, so consider this the official "John Cooper thumbs up."]
By Aeryn Rudel
Skeleton Key Games/Blackdirge Publishing product number BDPNSVDOD01
16-page PDF, $3.75
None So Vile: Disciples of Darkness I - The Ravenous of Agramogg (hereafter referred to simply as "The Ravenous of Agramogg" for simplicity's sake) is the first in a new line of PDFs devoted to "Evil-with-a-capital-E" material for your D&D/d20 Fantasy games. While Wizard of the Coast's Book of Vile Darkness is not Open Game Content, the None So Vile line seems to be focused on the same general area without crossing any non-SRD lines. It looks like the series will focus on particularly vile prestige classes, with associated material on relevant deities, cults, and so on. This first entry examines the demigod Agramogg the Devourer and a 10-level prestige class (the eponymous "ravenous of Agramogg") devoted to gluttony and cannibalism.
The cover is a simple but effective piece by Erik Nowak, consisting of the symbol of Agramogg done up as a red-and-silver amulet, superimposed upon a fake black leather cover. If you look, though, there are drops of blood spattered not only upon the amulet, but also on some of the words in the title and on the Skeleton Key Games logo in the lower left corner. That was a nice touch!
Erik Nowak also provides all of the interior artwork, a total of 7 black-and-white illustrations. Many of these are very disturbing (and thus very appropriate), especially the slain-human-as-banquet on page 4 and the full-page portrait of Isked Doomtongue on page 9. (I pretty much guarantee that Isked is the fattest duergar you're ever going to see, and the fact that he's naked but for a pair of gloves and boots doesn't approve his appearance any; and let's all take a minute here to thank Erik for the fortunate placement of his greataxe!) Erik does a really great job on this PDF, reveling in really getting the vile into his work. This is exceptionally good artwork, especially for a PDF.
Aeryn does a fine job as well, starting us off with a page-and-a-half short story that manages to be truly revolting and true to the material that follows. His "Ravenous of Agramogg" prestige class is pretty well thought out, with logical abilities being granted by a demigod devoted to greed, gluttony, and cannibalism. I particularly like the fact that Aeryn keeps a very narrow focus on the logical aspects of the granted abilities; while many designers would just keep on heaping cool new abilities in an effort to make their prestige class as appealing as possible, Aeryn lets logic be his guide, and assigns some really debilitating side effects to the powers granted by Agramogg as well as the beneficial stuff. The result, after 10 levels in the prestige class, is a truly horrid, revolting cannibal that probably won't ever leave the room that it lairs in, having its devoted cultists bring its intelligent prey to it. Make no mistake about it: the ravenous of Agramogg is a prestige class much more suited to NPC enemies than PCs, even PCs in an evil campaign.
I was pleased to see on the credits page that there were two editors assigned to The Ravenous of Agramogg; however, as one of them was Aeryn himself, there might as well have been only one. (That's no dig at Aeryn; it's just incredibly difficult to edit your own work, as anything you missed while writing is probably also going to be missed while editing.) In any case, while I managed to accumulate a full sheet of paper (both sides) documenting errors noted while reading The Ravenous of Agramogg, only a few of them are likely to cause problems to the reader. There's a class ability that's listed on the Ravenous of Agramogg table as starting at 2nd level, but described as starting at 3rd level in the actual write-up. (I believe 2nd level is accurate.) And then there were some problems with the sole stat block, which as usual I'll list here, although I provided Aeryn with my entire errata list and have no doubt that he'll make the appropriate changes directly to the PDF himself. Still, in the meantime, I recommend making the following changes:
- p. 10, Isked Doomtongue, male duergar cleric 7/Ravenous of Argamogg 10: First of all, let's change "Argamogg" to "Agramogg" in his title, as it would be poor form for him to anger his deity by spelling his name wrong! Add "Undercommon" to his list of languages known, as this is an automatic language for a duergar. Bite damage should be 2d6+3/19-20/×3, not just 2d6+3/19-20 (one of his benefits a 4th-level Ravenous of Agramogg gets is triple damage with his bite on a successful critical). Command undead rolls should be at +1, not -1 (his -1 Cha modifier is supplemented by a +2 synergy bonus from having 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (religion)). He should have 5+1 3rd-level spells prepared, not 6+1 (4+1 as a Clr12, +1 for having Wis 18) - the easiest fix here is by dropping one of his searing light spells. Special Qualities should include "regeneration 1 hp/hour" (the result of having a pearly white spindle ioun stone), although I suppose the case can be made that that certainly won't be a player in most combat scenarios. He spent 61 of 60 skill points, so you'll have to drop one skill point total by one. (I'd drop Knowledge (religion) from +12 to +11, but you can take the point from anything but Profession (butcher), as he needs his 3 ranks there to even qualify for the prestige class in the first place.) Speaking of skills, add the following: Appraise +1 (+3 armor, weapons) [0 ranks, +1 Int, +2 synergy bonuses from Craft (armorsmith) and Craft (weaponsmith)], Move Silently +0 [0 ranks, -2 Dex, +4 racial, -2 armor check penalty], and Survival +4 (+6 following tracks) [0 ranks, +4 Wis, +2 synergy bonus from Search]. Finally, while the damage that swallowed creatures take is internally consistent with the rule on page 6, I question why every single ravenous of Agramogg deals 2d6+8 points of crushing damage instead of it being Strength-based. Likewise, Isked's internal stomach AC 17 matches the rule on page 6, but I'm not sure why Aeryn didn't follow the standard "AC = 10 + 1/2 natural armor bonus" rule for Swallow Whole, which in this case would give Isked's stomach interior an AC 14.
The Ravenous of Agramogg is an excellent start to the new None So Vile: Disciples of Darkness line. It's got fantastic artwork, well-thought-out gaming material, and a nice layout. A little extra attention to detail would certainly go a long way to skyrocketing this series to the very top of its niche. I give The Ravenous of Agramogg a very high "4 (Good)," and would easily bump it up to a "5" after its errors were taken care of. I'll also note here that I will be reviewing the next two entries in the line as my next reviewing projects.
[Edit: Aeryn sent me a revised copy of this product with the errata already incorporated into it (including a few things I had overlooked, which I added into the review above - thanks, Aeryn!). That was incredibly fast - surely that's got to be a new record for errata turnaround. In any case, I've looked it over and it's definitely a 5-star product now, so consider this the official "John Cooper thumbs up."]
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