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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 2008645" data-attributes="member: 172">Rings of PowerFast 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 LookRings 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 LookThe 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.ConclusionsThere 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</blockquote>

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