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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rodrigo Istalindir" data-source="post: 2119267" data-attributes="member: 2810">Captain's Guide to Alien Lifeforms is a two-part electronic product -- a 14 page .PDF containing a basic taxonomy for alien life forms, and an Excel spreadsheet capable of generating random creatures using the traits from the .PDF.The PDFThe book is broken into four sections: Classification, Abilities, Reward, and Vehicle Technology.The Classification section is the meat of the product, and is sure to appeal to the world-building crowd. It includes descriptions of basic body types, limb arrangement, intelligence and aggression, and creature type. The first two are useful in establishing the appearance of the organism, and should help those designing creatures by hand in determing what other attributes and abilites the beast should posess. For example, it is improbable (but not impossible) that a creature with two legs and no grasping appendages would have Improved Grab. Since many times a designer will work backwards, deciding what attacks he wants a creature to have before anything else, this can provide a nice reality-check. At the least, it should prepare the DM for the inevitable questions. (Player: How can it grab me? It doesn't have any arms. DM: It's got a prehensile tongue. Shut up and roll.)Of more use, I think, are "Intelligence Analogue" and "Aggression Analogue". More useful than a number -- how different is a 5 INT from a 4? -- the analogues equate to real-world animals. DM'ing something with an Intelligence Analogue of 'Fox' is a lot easier to get a grip on than 'INT 3'. Aggression Analogue is similar, detailing how something will react to when threatened (or hungry!). These two characteristics give a wonderful sense of how to run the encounter.AbilitiesThe abilities section is a breakdown of special qualities and attacks forms that various organisms will possess. Most of these should be familiar to d20 regulars: Improved Grab, Swallow Whole, etc. Each ability includes a description and any associated mechanics, including how to calculate DCs for specific creatures. The abilities included seem to encompass a pretty good range; I couldn't think of anything off the top of my head that wasn't covered in one way or another. Heck, I can even make a Hypno-toad.Reward CriteriaA short section on calculating how valuable a creature might be to an exploration crew. Variables include whether or not it is captured alive or brough back dead (No disintegrations!), size, aggression, etc. For those of you who ever wondered exactly how much Weyland-Yutani would have paid for an alien, now you can figure it out.Terrain Vehicle TechnologyA one-page write-up of a vehicle used by crews attempting to make a living exploring and bringing back specimens. It includes a breakdown of different scientific modules and their abilities, including sample DCs.The SpreadsheetThe spreadsheet is a straightforward random generator that will produce a creature based on the categories and abilities detailed in the book. It is essentially non-interactive -- the only action you can take is hitting F9 to generate a new beastie. It produces a statblock suitable for cutting and pasting into a larger document, or simply printing out for quick reference.This two-part approach is interesting, as it appeals to (in my mind) two different audiences. The written rules should appeal to a GM that wants to hand-create creatures to populate his univerise. The general classification system provides a nice framework for producing consistent critters. The spreadsheet appeals to the GM that wants to wing it, or who gets caught flat-footed and needs to whip up a new foe on the fly (not that that has ever happened to me).There are a few things missing that I wish had made it into the product. Being the kind of person that would spend hours creating a planetary system in 'Universe', or spaceships in 'Space Opera', the detail is a little light. Categories covering coloration, body covering (carapace, fur, etc), and habitat would be welcome additions. Also, a breakdown of social structure (solitary, hive, pack, etc) would be an ideal compliment to the Intelligence and Aggression Analogues. The generator, as one would expect from something so random, produces results that range from stuff good enough to drop into a published monster book to the completely absurd. But since a new creature is only a keystroke away, it's trivial to generate a hundred or two till you see one that works for you. Adding a bank of drop-down boxes to the side that would let you contstrain the generator to certain subsets would be a nice touch. Also, the spreadsheet is protected, and the mechanics hidden, making it hard to see how different variables interact.This product would be a welcome addition to those running sci-fi games where the emphasis was fast and furious planet-hopping adventures, where the party was heading into the unknown on a regular basis. It would certainly cut down on DM prep time, and still provide a consistent and reliable way to generate creatures that may see use in a single encounter.Disclaimer: Wulf provided me with a complimentary copy of this PDF.</blockquote>

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