Rings of Power

[Messageboard Golem]

Each of the 78 unique rings in this book is fully detailed with a legend to spawn adventures, and with the powers it confers upon its owner. What's more, each of these rings is actually available in sterling silver, so that players can wear the rings their characters possess!

 

[Psion]

Rings of Power

Fast Forward Entertainment is a small game company that has been subsisting on offerings like their Dragon-Elves e-card game. However, with the advent of the D20 system, the company's founders -- including longtime D&D luminaries such as Jim Ward -- saw the opportunity to once again contribute to the game.

Rings of Power is the first book in one of their planned book lines. Upcoming books in this series include "Swords of Power" and "Wondrous Items of Power". The basic concept is to present many examples of one type of magic item, complete with history / flavor text and game statistics. Further, in an unusual spin, you (as in you personally, not the characters) can by physical replicas of the items depicted in the book, for use as props.

A First Look

Rings of Power is a 160 page hardcover book, priced at $26.99 US. The cover is red, with the "metal bound" look that is popular for D20 system products. The front cover panel features a hazy picture of a gloved hand holding up a shiny ring.

The interior is black and white. There are illustrations at the beginning of each section header depicting a variety of figures from a fantasy setting (including some splotchy looking elves who I am guessing are FFE's Dragon-Elves.) Some of the illustrations are decent, but some look rather unappealing to me, with distorted or disproportionate features. The rings themselves are illustrated by what seem to be retouched black-and-white photos of the prop rings, which I also found visually uninteresting.

The margins are slender. In the beginning of the book, where the history and flavor text for the ring is provided, the typeface used is rather large. In the much shorter section in the back of the book where game statistics for each ring is provided, a much denser, more efficient typeface is used.

The book's price per page is rather high for a book of its size. Coupled with the widespread use of a large typeface, the book does not deliver much comparative content for the price.

A Deeper Look

The bulk of the book is comprised of historical accounts and flavor text regarding each ring. This part of the book is divided into nine sections, each section containing a different category of rings. The nine categories are: rings of legend, beast rings, dragon rings, necromantic rings, artifact rings, heroic rings, rings of destruction, fey rings, and ruling rings.

This part of the book contains little in the way of game mechanics. The descriptions of the rings are couched in short stories or historical accounts of the ring's histories. Some of the stories are fairly decent. For example, I liked the account of the Ring of Weeping, told from the vantage point of a fairly archetypal evil overlord with a disdain for elves.

Some stories (and the conventions that they use) are a little cliché or a silly. For example is the somewhat odd habit of inverting words gets some extra mileage in this book. As you may be aware, the classical D&D wizard-figure Drawmij - who makes some appearances in this book - was actually on of Jim Ward's early characters. The name Drawmij is actually "Jim Ward" spelled backwards. Well, ward doesn't give this tired and uninspired technique a break. The central character in the story about Thoth's Ring of Knowledge is named Lidabmob.

After the ring histories is a short section on creating magical rings. Some of it is merely a rephrasing of the existing rules for ring creation, with some added expostion and campaign details you may or may not want to use in your game. Some additional rules and ideas are provided such as the accidental creation of magical rings or creation of rings by deities. Many of these ideas aren't exactly new and there is nothing all that special about the rules implementation. For example, it merely assigns percentile chances that a ring may be made magic during a wizard duel, or if worn by a paladin or dwarf that dies.

The statistic section in the back contains most of the game mechanical aspects of the rings in the book. Most of the rings presented are on the order of major magic items or artifacts, most of them having multiple functions or affecting a large area.

Further, there are some obvious rules discrepancies. I found it interesting that the first paragraph in this section proclaims that the rings are "completely compatible with any d20 system game." That is a rather bold claim, since some d20 system games don't even have magic items. But even taking it in the spirit it was meant, that the rings are completely compatible with the d20 baseline, is also in error. The very first ring on the list refers to "morale checks, a mechanic that is not used in the existing d20 system rules.

Normally I would also complain that none of the rings have creation requirements or prices done for them as they are done in the core d20 system rules. However, since so many of these rings are artifact level in power, that may be largely pointless.

The last section of a book is basically a brief catalog. If any of the rings listed in the book grab your attention, you can order a sterling silver ring that matches the depiction given in the book. The prices run from $15-$50. Ward purports that having such props could grab the players attention and have some impact on the game.

Conclusions

There are some decent ideas that you can insert into a campaign within the pages of this book. Many of the stories may give you ideas for a campaign in and of themselves, and the ring creation and item abilities may give you food for thought as well. However, the very high-powered nature of these items will probably limit their use to once or twice during the campaign. I feel that the buyers would have been better served if the rings covered the whole spectrum of power leveled, and include more in the way of rings appropriate for lower level games, but with curious and interesting abilities nonetheless.

Even so far as this book does serve as a useful resource of ideas, I felt that devoting a 27-dollar hardbound to the topic of rings was a little excessive. I might have been more comfortable with the idea of a single product covering a narrow category of items if it was smaller and cheaper. A book of the price that they ask is typically thicker, color, and covers a much broader topic.

I was not really grabbed by the idea of ordering facsimiles of the represented rings. Though I can see the point behind the use of props, I am hardly inclined to spend $15 (much less $50!) on a prop unless I happened to want it for some other reason. I could probably find a suitable prop cheaper at a pawn shop if I really wanted it.

Finally, the book has some annoying editorial gaffes that suggested to me that they did you a spell check, but didn't invest in a real editing job. For example, in Ward's preface, he notes that he was fresh out of collage when he met Gary Gygax.

Considering the price, scope, and presentation of this book, I really can't recommend it unless you are really drawn in by the concept of buying the props presented here or have a significant need for powerful rings in your campaign.

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[jdanovich]

While I appreciate every reviewer's right to his/her opinion, and I truly thank each and every one for taking the time to showcase products for the benefit of others trying to make an informed decision, I have a couple of pet peeves that continually irk me. First of all, that the basis of this review is to give weight to whether or not the price is worth the product I would comment that the number one factor should always remain content. Yes, the price could have been less. And if Fast Forward were printing tens of thousands of this book the retail price would have been amortized over a much larger print run saving thousands of dollars, and the retail could have been lower. The interior could have been color. Again, more a factor of size of print run versus cost of goods. Fast Forward would love to be able to put the extra bells and whistles into every product that large print runs afford. But until that time the production values will be more conservative. That being said, what part of those production values bring content value to the game? Having full-color interiors are visually pleasing but hardly "add" to the gaming experience, as they are not going to be seen by 90 percent of the gamers these rings would be introduced to. It would just be nice to have. No more, no less. I would be more interested in reading a review about the content rather than the packaging. But then again, I'm one of those people who could give a rat's hind end whether or not something was pretty, I care about the words.

Secondly, I am always rubbed the wrong way when a large amount of effort is put into telling about typos and spelling errors. Everybody hates them, especially those that publish for a living. Everybody tries real hard to make sure that they don't happen, and they always seem to slip in, as evidenced in your review (people who live in glass houses...). 'Nuff said.

That the review only gave the product a 2/5 isn't the point of this rebuttal. Make the review about the worth of the product as I would use it, not as how I would sit it on a shelf and stare at it. I want to know how it will affect my game should I buy it. Can this be a product that is useful to me? Will it make my game a better game? What type of gaming would this be best suited for? What did you think about the utility of the stats in the back, rather than interdispersed throughout the book? Wouldn't buy the individual rings? Great! That's useful information.

And that's why I read a review in the first place.

 

[mostrojoe]

About this comment, sorry, but I have to strongly disagree about the whole question of the pricing.

While I partly agree with the question about the typos (that HAS to be considered in a review anyway), I have to say that the price/quality report is important when I have to spend my money.

Ever if the gaming content is really good, when I go in a hobby store to spend my supposedly hard-earned money, I would like to invest in a product that worth that expense. And for a product, to be worthwhile of an expense, there must be in the product not only good ideas but several good ideas, can you take the point? If (for an extreme exemple that I hope will render the idea) a ten page book is sold for 20$ I'm not going to buy it, as if there will be great ideas inside. I will not buy it because 20$ for only ten pages will not worth the investiment. Sure, I'm not saying that I will buy a 100-page book for the same price only because it has 100 pages. Those 100 pages have to be full of good material. I'm only saying that some good ideas can still disappoint me because they were not so stunning good (and reading the review it seems our case) or only because they were really good but were all in all too much few if I take a glance at the price of the book.

So, a review take in account the point of view of a customer, or try to do so, and in the point of view of the customer there's the economic side too.
I understand the entusisthic effort of the publisher, I understand the lack of budget and all. But what can I say? These are the laws of the market... I customer myself cannot do anything about them, but for sure I will not spend my money for a book that contains nothing really new or that is too small for that pricing. Sorry.

 

[Psion]

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. However, there are a few things I would like to say in my defense.

First off, I invite you to take a look at my other product reviews. They have a rather similar format. I try to evaluate price per page and text density on every one. This section of the review is brief and after it is done, I consider the discussion of the content the true "meat" of the review. I agree that style matters less than substance; I think you will find that when my reviews are presented here, I round in favor of the substance rating as compared to those on RPGnet.

But size and presentation are factors to consider. If someone goes to the bookstore and can get similar quality content in a smaller, more cost effective package, that is the way that the customer will naturally lean.

However, you say you are more interested in reading a review about content than packaging. Every one of my reviews has that too. I describe how the book is laid out and what it contains.

Finally, you say that I spend too much time on typos. I hardly consider one paragraph too much. And yes, there are typos in my reviews here... at least until they go to my editor (yes, I have one.) But unlike RPGnet, most people here aren't finnicky about that sort of thing, so I get them the review sooner, and since I can edit them, I worry about any corrections that crop up later.

 

[Archer]

This is the sort of book that would be a very nice $5 pdf download from Rpgnow. It is however, a poor choice for a $27 book. If you have a chance to pick this up for $5-$8 I would encourage you to do so. Petition FFG to release this book as a pdf so you can get your hands on a copy. Very few people would be disappointed. The content is considerably better than the 100's of $5 downloads out there. I'd put it on the level of a Monte Cook product for value.

d20 magic items are just a infinite combination of a bunch of powers that have a certain cost. This book gives you 78 artifact rings that are unique, which is the only type of magic item book worth getting. Each ring comes with a nice story and the stats are all listed compactly in the back which I suppose is a good way to do things if you need to reference the stats.

I enjoyed reading the book and I might have use for a ring or two in my game.

I used to say I'd always prefer a hard cover over a soft cover even though it would cost a little more. This is the sort of book that makes you change the word always to usually. In fact, it would be much better off not being a book at all to reduce the cost to something reasonable.

To comment: I'm saying there are good $5 electronic files but they are drowned out in a wash of crap. Anyone can make something and put a $5 price tag on it. They can even get their friends to give it a few good reviews. This is something ideally suited to such a medium. I took off 2 points because of the price. I took off 1 point because there are a few slight non-compatibilities with the d20 system which make me suspect "I just write for these games, I don't actually PLAY them" syndrome.

 

[jdanovich]

Huh?

You liked the content. You enjoyed reading it. You would use some of the rings in your game. You'd put it on a level of a Monte Cook product for value. You consider the content considerably better than the 100's of $5 downloads out there.

And you give it a 2/5.

Apparently, all on the basis of price. If the content is considerably better than what you could get for $5, shouldn't paying more than $5 be reasonable?

Granted, if you think that it would have been better served as a softcover, fine. Say so. Take off one point. End of story. If you liked everything but the price, fine. Say so. But quite frankly, if you are simply looking for $5 product that you can download, expect to be disappointed in the quality of the writing.

 

[jollyninja]

this is my first review so bear with me.

Rings of power is a hardcover seemingly well bound book written by 10 seperate authors. the result of this is a lack of consistency in both quality of writing and feel of the content. it has a page count of 160 and retails for $26.99 american.

78 rings in total are detailed each with it's own 1.5-2 page backstory and a fairly decent black and white picture of what the ring looks like. also the book tells us that the rings can actually be purchased to augment their use in the game from the publisher a neat idea that will probably never turn a profit. the rings are devided into types based on their origin and the abilities/curses they give to the wearer. the catagories are as follows with the central theme of each being quite clear in most cases. rings of ledgend (8 rings), beast rings (10 rings), dragon rings (10 rings), necromantic rings (6 rings), Artifact rings (8 rings), heroic rings (12 rings), rings of destruction (10 rings), fey rings (6 rings), ruling rings (8 rings). the rings range in power from nearly useless to so powerful i might not consider giving it to an epic level character and many of them serve the purpose of sitting on the hands of villians more then pc's unless you like eliminating pc's from the party as their curses make the character truly unplayable. most of the rings fit fine into the game and some even seem the type to inspire a campaign unto themselves. there is also a section detailing what facilities and tools the creator of a magical ring must have at his disposal as well as what effects an intelligent ring might have on it's wearer.

while there are some interesting rings detailed in the book, the main reason i do not like it even slightly is due to the fact that 130 pages are devoted to giving a backstory to the rings and a mere18 pages dedicated to actual magical rings that can be used in a d20 game. some of them tell you alot about the creator of the ring and the motives behind it's creation. others are accounts of the behavior of one or more individuals that have posessed the ring in question. some are well written and some are not so well written. even if they were detailed by Tolkien hemself however the balance of backstory to usable game items would leave me with the sense that i had been cheated out of my money. 18 pages of game material for $27 is not the sort of value i am looking for. I could have purchased several novels for my money and been treated to far better drama in the process. i give the book a 1 out of 5 though i might be willing to look at a product by fast forward entertainment in the future, it will be read from cover to cover before it leaves the store in my posession.

well there it is short and not so sweet, my first review.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Wow.

I know there are people in the world who prefer "crunch" over "chew", but to rate a book that poorly because of a backstory to stat *page ratio* really baffles me.

You state very clearly why this is, in my opinion, a fine book. If I am going to base my campaign around a LOTR "get the big bad guy with the big bad ring" sort of idea, what do I need? Loads and loads of stats? Or story hooks?

You say the text is pretty good (uneven, but you still seem positive about it overall). And you don't say the stats are *bad*. You are giving the book a bad rating because there aren't *enough* stats.

 

[jollyninja]

well, the reason i gave it so poor a score was not entirely due to the lack of "crunch" as it were but in fact because even the crunch that is offered is largely not usable to me. with most of the rings in the book you will be giving whoever gets it far to much power for my tastes compared to anyone else in the party or changing the very nature of their character and what group of pc's will not want to use the incredibly powerful ring their enemy used to thwart them for so long? these are two things i like to avoid in my campaigns. i really didn't stress this in my review and for that i apologise. of the 78 rings detailed in the book only about 30 would ever have any chance of being used in a campaign i was running. the interesting ones were the ones i would never use.

while i had little objection to the quality of the writing in the "story" section of the book i found most of them useless as plot hooks or that the story had little to do with the powers of the ring. many of the good stories were so specific that i would either have to change the world i am using to fit the story or come up with an entirely different story for the item.

what i wanted from this book was magic rings, what i got were 78, 2 page stories about rings or their owners and a small section detailing the d20 stats of the rings in the stories. i could have better spent my money on nearly anything. THIS BOOK HAS SEEN ABSOLUTLY NO USE IN MY CAMPAIGNS IN THE YEAR THAT I HAVE OWNED IT. if that's not a 1 out of 5 i do not know what is. i reviewed it as a gaming product, not a literary piece. and i made it clear that if a book of 2 page stories is what your looking for, you need look no farther.