Vanuslux
Explorer
This is another book that I was given a review copy of. I didn't pay a dime for it, but that won't stop me from giving my honest opinion of it.
Synergy Artifacts by The Le Games is a book about artifacts that are parts of sets of powerful magic items that are even more powerful when combined. An interesting concept I have always liked and was very interested in seeing a full product devoted to such items.
Appearances - As I've said before, I adore The Le Games for the fact that their e-books are presented in multiple formats. A landscape version for screen viewing, a portrait version for printing (the one I most use, even for reading on screen), and an .rtf version for easy editing, cutting, and pasting.
I like the cover image a lot and it fits the material nicely, though the cleavage level is a bit high (not that I consider that a bad thing or have the knee-jerk reaction that a product is lower quality by virtue of emphasized female anatomy in its art). Like the other product that I've reviewed by The Le Games...Unorthodox Druids...Synergy Artifacts uses unoriginal interior art, this time from www.clipart.com. Unlike that other product, the interior art doesn't really evoke much synergy with the content of the book.
Content - Lots and lots of really potent magic toys. True to the advertising they are presented in sets...the more complete your collection of a particular set, the more potent they are...gaining abilities beyond what they have individually. There are a lot of them as well. For the most part, they're pretty bland though. Even the names of the sets are dull, usually following the format of "someone's something" (i.e. "Cano's Heart" or "Corrigan's Temper"). While the items aren't really bad, they're not terribly inspiring. To be honest, most are painfully generic in my opinion.
Each set has a short history which ideally would give them a little context and flavor, but not only are the histories fairly uninteresting...they often don't say much about the artifacts themselves, usually being more about the people who they're named after rather than the artifacts themselves.
I don't mean to dwell on the negative, but these factors really drag down the book. There is a good side though. There is a pretty good diversity of items here and there should be something of use to just about anyone. The synergies generally work well, so the book delivers on that front.
In Conclusion - It really sucks to see such a great idea for a supplement fall so short of its potential. The book has a great crunch factor, but is nearly completely flavorless. If it were a food, it would be a rice cake. It's not without value though. It's still a bunch of magic things that would work just fine in the hands of significant villains and the synergy aspect is a great one that doesn't get nearly the use it should. Factoring in the relatively low cost of the book, I'd consider the pros and cons to balance out to a rating of average. There are a number of routes this book could have gone to receive a better rating. One is more imaginative and inspiring backgrounds to the artifact sets...backgrounds that focus more on the items than whoever's name they bear. Another is for the usefulness of the product to be expanded by not taking the easy way out and making everything artifacts...thus getting out of having to deal with things like market value, creation information, and stuff like that. It seems like most of the items in this book get their power by association with powerful individuals, which isn't entirely unheard of buy this book really wears that concept thin.
So, would I recommend this book? Well, it doesn't cost much and it certainly doesn't hurt to have. It's a tough call, though, given how many magic item products are out there. Thus I would say one should get it if the synergy element is appealing, as no other magic item product I know taps that concept much.
Synergy Artifacts by The Le Games is a book about artifacts that are parts of sets of powerful magic items that are even more powerful when combined. An interesting concept I have always liked and was very interested in seeing a full product devoted to such items.
Appearances - As I've said before, I adore The Le Games for the fact that their e-books are presented in multiple formats. A landscape version for screen viewing, a portrait version for printing (the one I most use, even for reading on screen), and an .rtf version for easy editing, cutting, and pasting.
I like the cover image a lot and it fits the material nicely, though the cleavage level is a bit high (not that I consider that a bad thing or have the knee-jerk reaction that a product is lower quality by virtue of emphasized female anatomy in its art). Like the other product that I've reviewed by The Le Games...Unorthodox Druids...Synergy Artifacts uses unoriginal interior art, this time from www.clipart.com. Unlike that other product, the interior art doesn't really evoke much synergy with the content of the book.
Content - Lots and lots of really potent magic toys. True to the advertising they are presented in sets...the more complete your collection of a particular set, the more potent they are...gaining abilities beyond what they have individually. There are a lot of them as well. For the most part, they're pretty bland though. Even the names of the sets are dull, usually following the format of "someone's something" (i.e. "Cano's Heart" or "Corrigan's Temper"). While the items aren't really bad, they're not terribly inspiring. To be honest, most are painfully generic in my opinion.
Each set has a short history which ideally would give them a little context and flavor, but not only are the histories fairly uninteresting...they often don't say much about the artifacts themselves, usually being more about the people who they're named after rather than the artifacts themselves.
I don't mean to dwell on the negative, but these factors really drag down the book. There is a good side though. There is a pretty good diversity of items here and there should be something of use to just about anyone. The synergies generally work well, so the book delivers on that front.
In Conclusion - It really sucks to see such a great idea for a supplement fall so short of its potential. The book has a great crunch factor, but is nearly completely flavorless. If it were a food, it would be a rice cake. It's not without value though. It's still a bunch of magic things that would work just fine in the hands of significant villains and the synergy aspect is a great one that doesn't get nearly the use it should. Factoring in the relatively low cost of the book, I'd consider the pros and cons to balance out to a rating of average. There are a number of routes this book could have gone to receive a better rating. One is more imaginative and inspiring backgrounds to the artifact sets...backgrounds that focus more on the items than whoever's name they bear. Another is for the usefulness of the product to be expanded by not taking the easy way out and making everything artifacts...thus getting out of having to deal with things like market value, creation information, and stuff like that. It seems like most of the items in this book get their power by association with powerful individuals, which isn't entirely unheard of buy this book really wears that concept thin.
So, would I recommend this book? Well, it doesn't cost much and it certainly doesn't hurt to have. It's a tough call, though, given how many magic item products are out there. Thus I would say one should get it if the synergy element is appealing, as no other magic item product I know taps that concept much.
Last edited by a moderator:
