Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2009960" data-attributes="member: 9860">This is not a playtest review.Swords Of Evil is an accessory detailing twenty two evil-aligned blades from Fast Forward Entertainment.Swords Of Evil is a 96-page softcover mono product costing $19.99. Margins, text and white space are all fine though the OGL and ads take up four pages. The front cover shows a white-cloaked figure with burning red eyes wielding a ridged sword - atmospheric if relatively poor in detail. The rest of the artwork (which consists mainly of what look like touched-up photos of weapons) is fairly poor. Maps vary in quality, some missing scale or compass direction, and with varying scales. Writing style and editing are poor.Each blade (swords, daggers, etc.) has four pages dedicated to it and is assigned an artifact level - minor or major (these seem a little excessive for the actual powers wielded for some of the major artrifacts). As well as the basic stats for the sword, there is a section detailing the history of the sword, its current wielder (with stat block) and the wielder's lair (with map, and creature stat blocks where appropriate).The villains and lairs themselves vary in quality - a review of the sword Dwarfeater, for example, reveals a number of errors in the villain's stat block (a CR of 8 for a 5th-level rogue presumably takes into account his use of the blade but no explanation of how this is done is given), and he shares his lair with an ancient red dragon, a colony of barghests, and three flocks of cloakers - wow! that's some strain on the local ecology.The different lairs are influenced by a variety of historical influences and fantasy genres, from Egyptian trapped pyramids through Romanesque towers to the society of mediaeval Japan as well as more standard fantasy settings, including a number of references to the drow goddess Lolth in the final lair.There is a table at the end of the book summarising the powers of the different blades.Conclusion:What begins as an interesting premise falls down on several levels - the stat blocks contain numerous errors, the ecology of the lairs is 1st-Edition style with apparently little thought of the impact of different creatures living so close together, and with the repetitive theme it is likely a GM will only use one or two of the provided adventures (considering also the high impact of the artifacts on a campaign).This book does not compare with Swords Into Plowshares, which provides more interesting and useable weapons with better plot hooks and sounder stats at a quarter of the price (though it is a .pdf). There may be a few ideas to plunder from Swords Of Evil for those who enjoy dungeon bashing, but there is little else to recommend it.</blockquote>

Verification