Alzrius
The EN World kitten
The latest in Creative Mountain Games's eConic series of pay 'n' play products is The eConic Halfling Rogue. As with the previous book, this is a zipped file with twenty-one PDFs - one with the cover, OGL, and table of contents, and the other twenty being character sheets statting out a halfling rogue character from levels one to twenty. The bookmarks in that first file link to each of the characters, and each character sheet PDF has the Creative Mountain Games logo in the upper right-hand corner, which when clicked on automatically opens up an email to send to the company regarding their product.
Each character is mechanically fleshed out, with all of their feats, skills, equipment, etc. picked, while all of the fluff information on the character sheet (which is the very familiar two-page sheet) is left blank. This makes customization an easy option, especially when you realize that the PDFs are formatted so that you can type any changes right into the PDF prior to printing them out, instead of having to scribble over them afterwards. Be careful though, as the PDFs do not save any changes you make to them when you close the file. In all fairness, if you wanted to make a change that affects the character class selection (that is, if you wanted a Halfling rogue/wizard), you might find yourself in a bit of a jam, as there are no spaces on the character sheet to record spells (though there is a space to note the stats of a familiar or other cohort/companion), but that isn’t really the fault of the product, since it is, after all, about a single-classed halfling rogue. On the flipside, there’s a small section for miscellaneous things such as action points or reputation, if you use those in your game.
It is worth noting that all of the characters were created as NPCs instead of PCs. In most ways, that's not a factor; the only relevant area where that makes a difference is in terms of character wealth. Luckily, Creative Mountain Games has taken care of this too. The table of contents on the first PDF has a listing for each character regarding how many gold pieces should be added (or subtracted, for first- and second-level characters) to bring them in line with PC-level wealth.
My only real complaint about this product is that it has no epic-level support. Even then, I can't really blame Creative Mountain Games for that, as it's an understandable decision, since epic-level gaming is a minority. Still, I wish that at least a few epic-level characters had been given, just for the people who would need them. It is, after all, exceptionally time-consuming to build an epic level NPC (or PC) from scratch.
That one minor quibble aside though, The eConic Halfling Rogue is an excellent product that requires virtually no work to be added to your game immediately (virtually in that you still have to give the character a name). It's the latest in a long line of plug 'n' play products that Creative Mountain Games is known for.
Each character is mechanically fleshed out, with all of their feats, skills, equipment, etc. picked, while all of the fluff information on the character sheet (which is the very familiar two-page sheet) is left blank. This makes customization an easy option, especially when you realize that the PDFs are formatted so that you can type any changes right into the PDF prior to printing them out, instead of having to scribble over them afterwards. Be careful though, as the PDFs do not save any changes you make to them when you close the file. In all fairness, if you wanted to make a change that affects the character class selection (that is, if you wanted a Halfling rogue/wizard), you might find yourself in a bit of a jam, as there are no spaces on the character sheet to record spells (though there is a space to note the stats of a familiar or other cohort/companion), but that isn’t really the fault of the product, since it is, after all, about a single-classed halfling rogue. On the flipside, there’s a small section for miscellaneous things such as action points or reputation, if you use those in your game.
It is worth noting that all of the characters were created as NPCs instead of PCs. In most ways, that's not a factor; the only relevant area where that makes a difference is in terms of character wealth. Luckily, Creative Mountain Games has taken care of this too. The table of contents on the first PDF has a listing for each character regarding how many gold pieces should be added (or subtracted, for first- and second-level characters) to bring them in line with PC-level wealth.
My only real complaint about this product is that it has no epic-level support. Even then, I can't really blame Creative Mountain Games for that, as it's an understandable decision, since epic-level gaming is a minority. Still, I wish that at least a few epic-level characters had been given, just for the people who would need them. It is, after all, exceptionally time-consuming to build an epic level NPC (or PC) from scratch.
That one minor quibble aside though, The eConic Halfling Rogue is an excellent product that requires virtually no work to be added to your game immediately (virtually in that you still have to give the character a name). It's the latest in a long line of plug 'n' play products that Creative Mountain Games is known for.
