Purgatorium - Seasons of the Soul
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 0094
By Tim Hitchcock
96 pages (PDF) $12.00
In his "Designer's Notes," author Tim Hitchcock says he created Purgatorium - a realm of the recently-dead - due to a particular need in his home campaign for a way to bring PCs back to life without resorting to the "plunk down the cash, get your
resurrection spell" method so common in many RPGs. In doing so, he has done a great service to many campaigns (mine included). In short,
Purgatorium is a brilliant idea with a pretty decent execution.
The cover is fairly well done: the worlds of Purgatorium as see from afar, four inverted cones connected by land bridges floating in the infinity of the Astral Plane. (Actually, it's rather reminiscent of something you might expect to see on a "Yes" album cover, now that I think of it.) Purgatorium is described as a gray and colorless world, and this is emphasized by the landscape being drawn up as black-and-white artwork. The Astral Plane is purple in the background, making for a jarring contrast (if possibly somewhat inaccurate: I've always heard of the Astral Plane being featureless white or with a silvery cast to it, but that's neither here nor there). Of course, one problem with a purple background is when you choose to go with red lettering for the title; unfortunately, Mongoose chose to do just that and it really detracts from the overall look.
The interior artwork is very sparse - surprisingly so to me, but I don't buy too many PDFs so this may be the norm. In any case, it consists of only five black-and-white illustrations (one of which is the exterior world-shot of the cover) and four color maps of the four lands (or seasons) of Purgatorium. The maps were very well done and the color was an unexpected (but very welcome) bonus. One of the B&W illustrations is a demon picture by Marcio Fiorito that was previously used in
The Slayer's Guide to Demons (although it's been blown up to full-page size here), and the others were done by Tim Hitchcock himself (as was the cover), these being illustrations of three of the creatures one might expect to meet up with in Purgatorium. One last thing about the artwork (or lack thereof): unlike the Mongoose printed products I've seen, many of the chapters in this PDF end with significant white space. I imagine that had this been a printed product, there would have been additional artwork to fill in those gaps. Again, this may just be a standard "PDF thing" to which I'm unaccustomed.
Purgatorium - Seasons of the Soul is broken down into the following sections:
- Introduction: A one-page intro of what Purgatorium is and how it might be used in a game
- Mythology of Purgatorium: More detail on Purgatorium and how one can get there, spirit guides, and leaving Purgatorium
- Inhabitants and Characters: Departed souls, claimed souls, unclaimed souls, natives, different views on Purgatorium by PC race and class, new uses for old skills, and 6 new feats
- Prestige Classes: The Astral Bounty Hunter, the Channeler, the Eiothain Empath, the Fate Defier, and the Siphon
- Magic and Purgatorium: Channeling and siphoning, plus 14 new spells, 6 new semi-magic items, and 12 new magic items
- Seasons of Purgatorium: The 4 separate sections of Purgatorium and details of the terrain and physical features found therein
- Running the Setting: Special conditions like aquatic creatures or vehicles entering Purgatorium, weather conditions, encounters, and 4 plot hooks for parties of different levels
- Creatures of Purgatorium: 10 new monsters and 3 templates
- Organizations: 7 organizations for the PCs to join or battle (or just avoid!)
- Appendix: Glossary of names and geography, bits of the eiothain language, Purgatorium slang, and a spell glossary
- Designer's Notes: Tim's reasoning on why he wrote this PDF
I really like how Tim laid out Purgatorium. Each of the four connected areas corresponds to a season: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn, in that order. PCs entering Purgatorium either through a frost tide (a sort of planar gate) or through the alternative method of having been slain end up in Winter and must walk through Purgatorium through all four seasons before moving on to the appropriate afterlife. (The passage through Purgatorium takes 100 days - if you're lucky.) Of course, this is not an easy task, for there are creatures (and organizations) looking to hunt you down and eat you (or add your soul to their collection) and the geography is inherently confusing, making it quite easy to get lost.
The whole realm of Purgatorium is filled with all kinds of flavorful details. I especially enjoyed the fact that ravens are common throughout Purgatorium (they're rumored to be native to Purgatorium and only show up in the Prime Material Plane as a way for the dead to spy upon the living), and the fact that one of the bridges connecting two of the Seasons is made entirely of orchid petals. The fact that it takes so long to complete a journey through Purgatorium gives a character plenty of time to reflect upon his life (and the fate awaiting him once he gets to the end, if he's of evil alignment), possibly giving an excellent reason for an alignment change should he end up being restored to life (either by
resurrection magic or simply having his friends travel to Purgatorium, find his soul, and return him to the Prime Material Plane).
That last idea is a particularly important one. Not only does it incorporate Greek (and other) myths into the campaign world (in Greek mythology, you could actually travel to Hades - where all departed souls went after death - and "fetch" a loved one, returning him or her back to life simply by retracing your journey back to the land of the living), but it also provides low-level PCs a way to return a companion to life at a stage where they probably can't afford a
resurrection spell. Best of all, it replaces "I plunk a bag of gold down in front of the cleric to have him
raise the party fighter back to life" with "we travel to Purgatorium to search for our fighter friend's soul and return back home with it."
Of course, there are a few problems with
Purgatorium - Seasons of the Soul as written. First of all, while I respect Tim's writing skills, I simply can't stand most of the names he's come up with in this book. Here are a few of the worst offenders: eiothain (a fey race native to Purgatorium), D'Nar Fhalgh, D'Nar Alum, D'Nar Chayl, and Ptran (3 cities and a riding mount in the fiction on page 4), Yrpis-mnar (a race of soul crystals), Eiosamu and Ioethirn (two tribes of eiothain), Nar-Kyosohk (a set of ruins), Cyoith (a dome-like mountain), Olnag-Kun (more ruins), Frmaer Gmaiun (an azer guarding a bridge), Aoemzyre (a footpath), Eiosanahk (a mountain), Ason-eiohk (pools of water), oglayn (a musical instrument), Cyois-ghalfung and Pnul-ghalfung (trees), Raungkeer Sourwind (a dwarf), Cotlhroc (a locathah), Brah-Saan (an annis), Kkrgor (a harpy), Aiosu (an eiothain), Ahnglixa (a tiefling), and Q'asial (a half-elf). I like this setting enough that I'll probably incorporate it into my campaign, but the very first thing I plan on doing is printing out the PDF and using up a great deal of white-out to replace the vast majority of the names Tim used. Honestly, some of them look like his cat stepped on his keyboard and he used whatever resulted. (Disclaimer: Actually, I don't even know if Tim has a cat.) On the other hand, I can give him credit for at least making the eiothain language sound consistent (many of the words used are based on the eiothain language).
There are also a couple of rules gaffes and oversights. On page 12, while discussing the concept of "expulsion" (a living being on Purgatorium being thrown out of the realm), there is the following passage:
At the end of each 24-hour period, any living creature that is not native to the realm of Purgatorium must make a Fortitude save. The difficulty of the save is determined by the amount of successive days that the individual has remained in Purgatorium (DC 10 = +1 per day). Thus, the Fortitude save for a mortal taking a 15-day stay on Purgatorium has a DC 16. By the rule stated above, a DC for a mortal in Purgatorium after 15 days should be 25, not 16. Unless, of course, the DC rule is "1 + 1 per day" instead of "10 +1 per day," in which case the example is correct but the stated rule is wrong.
Another problem: one of the creatures (the harvester) has paralytic antennae, but nowhere in the creature's description does it say how long a PC is paralyzed should he fail his saving throw. Most of the creatures and organizations failed to impress me, coming across as rather bland. The main exception here is the Astral Bounty Hunter prestige class: I can see bands of these guys causing a primary concern for those making the trek across Purgatorium. For the most part, though, the monster sections seem like the weakest part of the book.
One last nitpick: the term "Estimated Class Level" is used throughout the work, when I think what Tim means is "Effective Character Level" - at least, that's what "ECL" stands for in a standard d20 sense.
Given as a whole, though, I can recommend
Purgatorium - Seasons of the Soul for anyone who's a little disturbed by the whole "video game/new life" aspects of
raise dead and
resurrection spells. It's a flavorful work that does what it sets out to do: provide a new way to go about returning dead PCs to life, or even a way to continue on adventuring once your PC is slain!
