Because the review page doesn't have this one on the list yet...
Score - 5/5
This is not a playtest review.
When the Sky Falls
This is the second event book from Malhavoc Press. It is available as a PDF for $7, and contains 60 pages of material (the others are the front and back cover, add for Arcana Unearthed, Open Gaming License, and table of contents). It is divided into eight chapters and an introduction.
Introduction
This answers the question of, "Why crash a meteorite into you campaign world?" along with what an event book is and how to use it. I mean, why would you have a huge chunk of flaming rock come down from the sky and obliterate part of your carefully crafted world? Why do you have a master lich with an artifact that can turn every living thing into an undead creature? Why do you have hoards of orcs that plague your cities? Why do you have ancient pools of magic that can corrupt the landscape for miles around? Because they create opportunities for adventure! Most of us just never thought about raining down death from the skies before. This is an innovative idea to base a campaign around that most PCs are not going to be able to metagame their way out of. Sure, most are pretty good about keeping player and character knowledge separate, but once they learn about the lich and the artifact, they pretty much know how this is going to play out. Slay lich, destroy lich's phylactery, destroy artifact, everyone's happy. But when the skies fall, no one knows what's going to happen, either in or out of character. This is the time for surprises for everybody.
Chapter One: The Impact Site
This chapter tells you what actually happens when a meteor falls. Further more, it gives you not just the mundane chunk of rock, but two more options, the thaumaturgic (magic-laced), and the engram ark, which contains the memories of a destroyed world.
It describes the impact itself in exhaustive detail, down to the exact hit point damage of creatures depending on their distance. It also describes about acid rain, wildfires, lava bombs, the possibility of the awakening of magma elementals, and the cooling of the weather (and the impact on the ecosystem and crops). How much meteoritic iron (and what it can be made into) is described. For a more fantastic meteor (like the thaumaturgic or engram ark), it includes the EMP (ethereal-material pulse, think mordenkainen's disjunction on a massive scale) and the changestorm (strange magical effects co-currently with acid rain). In addition it describes theomaturgic iron, or starmilk, which can be used as a focus for several feats and prestige classes in this book. Using it can result in a large range of fantastic effects (gaining new spells, blasting plasma, a new energy type, or directly use its magic in a variety of other effects).
The engram ark contains within it the memories of a world shattered by a malevolent force. If the characters can get inside, they can obtain of these engrams to grant themselves new powers. There are feats, spells, and a prestige class that make further use of the engrams. There's a great deal of material on the engram ark concept, and of all the three, the engram ark offers the most interested and well-fleshed out premise for adventures.
The chapter ends with a list of options of other things the meteor could be (five of which are elaborated on in the last chapter).
Chapter Two: Integrating the Event
This chapter helps DMs figure out the many ways in which this even can be used and what impact (no pun intended) it may have. Foreshadowing (prophesies, visions), accidents, or even discovering the crater many years later are discussed. Things like landscape and climate changes are mentioned. Two new organizations are presented, the Sky Callers and the League of Astronomers. The Sky Callers revere the meteorite for its destructive potential and wish to call down others on their enemies. The League of Astronomers is interested in studying meteorites. Both groups are well-fleshed out with goals, tactics, and several NPCs. Both groups could offer great possibilities of adventure hooks, either from the evil Sky Callers, or the relatively good League of Astromancers.
Another change in the world is mentioned, which is changes to the nature of magic. A magical meteor could disrupt, empower, or drain any of the schools of magic, and several options are presented for each possibility. If the meteor strike occurs a great distance from the PCs, things like this fundamental change in the nature of magic could spur them to investigate the cause.
Chapter Three: Prestige Classes
Four prestige classes are presented:
The Astrogineer - who is able to use a great variety of the powers of the meteor, such as unfettering the energy from starmilk, to flinging meteors (small ones) around, to being able to wish upon the stars.
Engram Adept - who is able to have more than one engram upon his body, and use them in fascinating ways, from throwing them, to sustaining their own lives, and even making them more powerful.
Lord of Silence - who is able to command silence and darkness from everything around him, recalling the airless, dark, silent void in which the meteor traveled. He can literally move in a demiplane of silence, through walls and obstacles, and create voids around his enemies, and can even make himself part of the Soundless demiplane.
Ruin Priest - who desires only destruction. Typically members of the Sky Callers, one of the ruin priests powers is to be able to Cleave with spells. They can also sacrifice victims to cast extra spells, and can even (given enough time and victims) call an actual meteorite down to destroy their foes.
These all are quite unique in theme, and would be great villains or allies for the PCs. The Ruin Priests would make a truly memorable villain, as their ability to basically bring about an apocalypse from the sky is pretty much unique in the D&D fantasy world. The Lord of Silence would make for an enigmatic and nigh-unstoppable Kind of Thieves. The Engram Adept could be either friend or foe, as could the Astrogineer. While the Engram Adept might be initially mistaken for some kind of tattoo-focused caster, the truth behind their strange markings could be a plot hook in and of itself.
Chapter Four: Feats
All the feats in this chapter has a unique astrological theme. The "star" feats allow you to use plasma energy in a variety of ways, from slowing one's fall to literally turning yourself into meteoric stone. The "astromacy" feats can allow to do anything from converting spells into plasma bursts to storing extra spells in your astromancy focus.
Chapter Five: Spells
Several of the spells allow one to do things with engrams, to using them to heal yourself, stealing them, gaining knowledge from them, or other things. Other spells relate to the Dark Plea, a malevolent force that may have been behind the reason the engram arks were created (to flea a planet destroyed by the Dark Plea). Several are more potent versions of nightmare or other spells relating to fear, sleep, and death. There are also a host of spells relating to summoning magma (molten) elementals, as well as calling various strengths of meteors to smite one's foes.
While the engram spells are unportable if one is not using engrams, the meteor spells are useful for any cleric, druid, or mage interested in mass destruction. The ones relating to fear, death, and sleep are useful for any cleric or mage interested in said things. A god of dreams or nightmares would be particularly interested in these spells, though they were included for those that worship the Dark Plea.
Chapter Six: Afterfall Magic Items
These include weapon special qualities and weapons relating to meteors. Several are more effective if one is wearing an engram. There are two staves, one relating to several of the astromancy spells, and the other to the fear/death/sleep spells of the previous chapter. There's also a handful of wondrous magic items, including the very weird nightstrider mask, which allows one to animate objects by placing the mask on them.
There are also two artifacts, one of which is the Staff of the Dark Plea, which has the nasty habit of being able to transform its victims into monsters.
Chapter Seven: Monsters
There are five monsters here. One is the ark guardian, a dragon-like creature composed of plasma that guards engram arks. The cruor is a half-nightmare leech-like abomination that can infect others to turn them into more of itself. The hungry dreamer is born when a pregnant woman delves too deeply into the nightmare world. It desires above all things to pierce the eyes of living creatures so that it can eat their minds. The memekeeper is the damaged, paranoid, sentient construct that is the inner guardian of an engram ark. Finally the star ooze is a hardy creature that only exists to feed and propagate itself. Given enough time and food, they could easily decimate an entire country or even a planet.
Chapter Eight: I Found It In The Crater
This chapter has five different scenarios for what else the PCs might find after a meteor strike. They could find anything from an angel cast out of heaven, a strange machine, or an evil artifact. What is particularly cool is that not only are each of the scenarios well-described and also offer ways to integrate other material from this book, but each includes a fully statted-out creature or item to make full use of the idea.
The Art
The interior art is by Kieran Yanner - who has done several previous books for Malhavoc Press. The art is quite excellent, clean, and appropriate for the page it is on and subject it is portraying. I particularly like Lord of Silence picture (both cool and whimsical, he's holding up his finger in a "shh" gesture). Alan Pollack did the cover - which is of some enormous (as evidenced by the sword-wielding warrior for scale) almost Cthulhu-esque creature that seems to be made of cooling lava with purple energy glowing through the cracks of its black body, with a ravaged, burning, cratered landscape in the background. The pictures is quite evocative, and rather scary. You definitely don't want to be there!
Overall
The book is very well put together. It is detailed, interesting, and gives you every possible tool and idea for raining down fiery rocks on your campaign world. If you every desire to make the skies fall, pick up this book!
Score - 5/5
This is not a playtest review.
When the Sky Falls
This is the second event book from Malhavoc Press. It is available as a PDF for $7, and contains 60 pages of material (the others are the front and back cover, add for Arcana Unearthed, Open Gaming License, and table of contents). It is divided into eight chapters and an introduction.
Introduction
This answers the question of, "Why crash a meteorite into you campaign world?" along with what an event book is and how to use it. I mean, why would you have a huge chunk of flaming rock come down from the sky and obliterate part of your carefully crafted world? Why do you have a master lich with an artifact that can turn every living thing into an undead creature? Why do you have hoards of orcs that plague your cities? Why do you have ancient pools of magic that can corrupt the landscape for miles around? Because they create opportunities for adventure! Most of us just never thought about raining down death from the skies before. This is an innovative idea to base a campaign around that most PCs are not going to be able to metagame their way out of. Sure, most are pretty good about keeping player and character knowledge separate, but once they learn about the lich and the artifact, they pretty much know how this is going to play out. Slay lich, destroy lich's phylactery, destroy artifact, everyone's happy. But when the skies fall, no one knows what's going to happen, either in or out of character. This is the time for surprises for everybody.
Chapter One: The Impact Site
This chapter tells you what actually happens when a meteor falls. Further more, it gives you not just the mundane chunk of rock, but two more options, the thaumaturgic (magic-laced), and the engram ark, which contains the memories of a destroyed world.
It describes the impact itself in exhaustive detail, down to the exact hit point damage of creatures depending on their distance. It also describes about acid rain, wildfires, lava bombs, the possibility of the awakening of magma elementals, and the cooling of the weather (and the impact on the ecosystem and crops). How much meteoritic iron (and what it can be made into) is described. For a more fantastic meteor (like the thaumaturgic or engram ark), it includes the EMP (ethereal-material pulse, think mordenkainen's disjunction on a massive scale) and the changestorm (strange magical effects co-currently with acid rain). In addition it describes theomaturgic iron, or starmilk, which can be used as a focus for several feats and prestige classes in this book. Using it can result in a large range of fantastic effects (gaining new spells, blasting plasma, a new energy type, or directly use its magic in a variety of other effects).
The engram ark contains within it the memories of a world shattered by a malevolent force. If the characters can get inside, they can obtain of these engrams to grant themselves new powers. There are feats, spells, and a prestige class that make further use of the engrams. There's a great deal of material on the engram ark concept, and of all the three, the engram ark offers the most interested and well-fleshed out premise for adventures.
The chapter ends with a list of options of other things the meteor could be (five of which are elaborated on in the last chapter).
Chapter Two: Integrating the Event
This chapter helps DMs figure out the many ways in which this even can be used and what impact (no pun intended) it may have. Foreshadowing (prophesies, visions), accidents, or even discovering the crater many years later are discussed. Things like landscape and climate changes are mentioned. Two new organizations are presented, the Sky Callers and the League of Astronomers. The Sky Callers revere the meteorite for its destructive potential and wish to call down others on their enemies. The League of Astronomers is interested in studying meteorites. Both groups are well-fleshed out with goals, tactics, and several NPCs. Both groups could offer great possibilities of adventure hooks, either from the evil Sky Callers, or the relatively good League of Astromancers.
Another change in the world is mentioned, which is changes to the nature of magic. A magical meteor could disrupt, empower, or drain any of the schools of magic, and several options are presented for each possibility. If the meteor strike occurs a great distance from the PCs, things like this fundamental change in the nature of magic could spur them to investigate the cause.
Chapter Three: Prestige Classes
Four prestige classes are presented:
The Astrogineer - who is able to use a great variety of the powers of the meteor, such as unfettering the energy from starmilk, to flinging meteors (small ones) around, to being able to wish upon the stars.
Engram Adept - who is able to have more than one engram upon his body, and use them in fascinating ways, from throwing them, to sustaining their own lives, and even making them more powerful.
Lord of Silence - who is able to command silence and darkness from everything around him, recalling the airless, dark, silent void in which the meteor traveled. He can literally move in a demiplane of silence, through walls and obstacles, and create voids around his enemies, and can even make himself part of the Soundless demiplane.
Ruin Priest - who desires only destruction. Typically members of the Sky Callers, one of the ruin priests powers is to be able to Cleave with spells. They can also sacrifice victims to cast extra spells, and can even (given enough time and victims) call an actual meteorite down to destroy their foes.
These all are quite unique in theme, and would be great villains or allies for the PCs. The Ruin Priests would make a truly memorable villain, as their ability to basically bring about an apocalypse from the sky is pretty much unique in the D&D fantasy world. The Lord of Silence would make for an enigmatic and nigh-unstoppable Kind of Thieves. The Engram Adept could be either friend or foe, as could the Astrogineer. While the Engram Adept might be initially mistaken for some kind of tattoo-focused caster, the truth behind their strange markings could be a plot hook in and of itself.
Chapter Four: Feats
All the feats in this chapter has a unique astrological theme. The "star" feats allow you to use plasma energy in a variety of ways, from slowing one's fall to literally turning yourself into meteoric stone. The "astromacy" feats can allow to do anything from converting spells into plasma bursts to storing extra spells in your astromancy focus.
Chapter Five: Spells
Several of the spells allow one to do things with engrams, to using them to heal yourself, stealing them, gaining knowledge from them, or other things. Other spells relate to the Dark Plea, a malevolent force that may have been behind the reason the engram arks were created (to flea a planet destroyed by the Dark Plea). Several are more potent versions of nightmare or other spells relating to fear, sleep, and death. There are also a host of spells relating to summoning magma (molten) elementals, as well as calling various strengths of meteors to smite one's foes.
While the engram spells are unportable if one is not using engrams, the meteor spells are useful for any cleric, druid, or mage interested in mass destruction. The ones relating to fear, death, and sleep are useful for any cleric or mage interested in said things. A god of dreams or nightmares would be particularly interested in these spells, though they were included for those that worship the Dark Plea.
Chapter Six: Afterfall Magic Items
These include weapon special qualities and weapons relating to meteors. Several are more effective if one is wearing an engram. There are two staves, one relating to several of the astromancy spells, and the other to the fear/death/sleep spells of the previous chapter. There's also a handful of wondrous magic items, including the very weird nightstrider mask, which allows one to animate objects by placing the mask on them.
There are also two artifacts, one of which is the Staff of the Dark Plea, which has the nasty habit of being able to transform its victims into monsters.
Chapter Seven: Monsters
There are five monsters here. One is the ark guardian, a dragon-like creature composed of plasma that guards engram arks. The cruor is a half-nightmare leech-like abomination that can infect others to turn them into more of itself. The hungry dreamer is born when a pregnant woman delves too deeply into the nightmare world. It desires above all things to pierce the eyes of living creatures so that it can eat their minds. The memekeeper is the damaged, paranoid, sentient construct that is the inner guardian of an engram ark. Finally the star ooze is a hardy creature that only exists to feed and propagate itself. Given enough time and food, they could easily decimate an entire country or even a planet.
Chapter Eight: I Found It In The Crater
This chapter has five different scenarios for what else the PCs might find after a meteor strike. They could find anything from an angel cast out of heaven, a strange machine, or an evil artifact. What is particularly cool is that not only are each of the scenarios well-described and also offer ways to integrate other material from this book, but each includes a fully statted-out creature or item to make full use of the idea.
The Art
The interior art is by Kieran Yanner - who has done several previous books for Malhavoc Press. The art is quite excellent, clean, and appropriate for the page it is on and subject it is portraying. I particularly like Lord of Silence picture (both cool and whimsical, he's holding up his finger in a "shh" gesture). Alan Pollack did the cover - which is of some enormous (as evidenced by the sword-wielding warrior for scale) almost Cthulhu-esque creature that seems to be made of cooling lava with purple energy glowing through the cracks of its black body, with a ravaged, burning, cratered landscape in the background. The pictures is quite evocative, and rather scary. You definitely don't want to be there!
Overall
The book is very well put together. It is detailed, interesting, and gives you every possible tool and idea for raining down fiery rocks on your campaign world. If you every desire to make the skies fall, pick up this book!
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