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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Teneb" data-source="post: 2011467" data-attributes="member: 3572">Disclaimer: I am a playtester for Bottled Imp Games. I don't think this unduly biases me, but you may not feel the same way. The Lords of the Night: Zombies is the third book in Bottled Imp Games' Darkness Rising series (Vampires and Liches being the first and second, respectively). Zombies is a 96 page softcover with a pricetag of $19.95. The cover depicts a necromancer standing over a corpse which is strapped down to a table. The ominous appearing wizard is casting some sort of spell on the cadaver. The whole piece has a green tinge, conveying a sinister feeling. LotN: Zombies isn't about your average mindless brain-eating undead. The book talks about what I like to think of as advanced zombies, which the book refers to as Risen. Chapter 1 (pgs. 5-9) details how Risen came to be; let's just say it involves a crazed scientist experimenting on how to bring back a lost love. It's a very good overview of how Risen are created, what drives them, and what their limitations are. Chapter 2 (pgs. 10-13) details the rules and mechanics for creating and running a Risen. Corpus energy takes the place of Constitution when a creature becomes Risen. Corpus energy is incredibly important: all of the Risen's special abilities and powers are manifested using Corpus energy. In fact, a Risen must expend at least one Corpus a day to remain unliving. If a Risen's Corpus energy ever falls to zero, it becomes a mindless killing machine (a la your traditional zombie). Never fear, each type of Risen (below) have different ways to regain Corpus. Chapter 3 (pgs. 16-38) talks about the six Paths which create Risen:    Path of Alchemy: Create Alchemical Zombies using a new elixir known as Serum. They regain Corpus through regular infusions of Serum. Alchemical Zombies are      a new creature type: Living Dead. They're not living, but they don't suffer many effects of being undead, notably, turning.    Path of Sorcery: Create Eldritch Zombies, which feed on magic. These bad boys are my absolute favorite in the book. Got a cocky spellcaster? Throw one of these spell-eaters at them and watch them go crying to mommy.    Path of Ether: Create Ether Zombies, which feed on life energy (character levels). Ether Zombies have great control over undead, being able to raise corpses to unlife. They command powerful necromantic abilities.    Path of Surgery: Create Golem Zombies, the traditional Frankenstein monster pieced together from multiple corpses. Golem Zombies have tremendous strength but don’t tend to be heavy thinkers. They gain Corpus through electricity, and have many abilities that make them melee combat machines.    Path of Corruption: Create Mock Zombies, perhaps the strangest of the Risen. A Vampire (note the capital 'V') fails in its attempt to turn a mortal into a Vampire with the Black Kiss, they may instead rise as a Mock Zombie. They have many abilities tied with acid and poison; Mocks feed on blood (Con drain).    Path of Invocation: Create Revenant Zombies, a spirit called back to this world and given physical form to complete some task. The wound that originally killed them is an eternal mark on a Revenant Zombie; nothing they do can remove it. They regain corpus by eating flesh. Chapter 4 (pgs. 40-45) details Corpus Powers, all those cool abilities you can spend Corpus energy on. Risen select a number of Powers based upon a number of criteria, including character level and relative power (known as their Signum). For brevity's sake, I'll just say they range from the mundane and useful, such as Claws or Bite, to the really cool and nasty like Black Turning (rebound a cleric’s turn attempt back at them). There's a nice range of powers, and I should note that many of the Risen types have some special Corpus Powers open only to them. As a DM, at this point, I'd be asking about balance, and that's where Chapter 5 (pgs 46-51) Marks of Decay comes into play. Each Corpus Power in chapter 4 has an associated number of Marks attached to it (from 1-3). These need to be balanced with an equal number of Marks of Decay, which are detrimental to the Risen. Marks usually make it harder for a Risen to hide in public, gives them weaknesses against certain things, or forces them to burn more Corpus energy. The really nice thing is that THE DM PICKS MARKS OF DECAY FOR THE PLAYER.   I really like this because it limits min-maxing; i.e. players don't take Marks of Decay that won't effect them much. Never fear over-worked DMs, each Corpus Power has a suggested Mark of Decay if you’re feeling a little lazy. Chapter 6 (pgs. 53-56) details the Manse, a sort of sanctuary for Risen. Chapter 7 (58-70) introduces new monsters, mainly variant zombies which don't rise to the level of Risen. Chapter 8 (pgs. 72-74) details….necromantic children. I really don't know how else to explain it. This part of the book was probably the least useful to me personally; others may find it kind of interesting. Chapter 9 (pgs. 76-84) details a new core class, the necromancer. It follows in the same vein as FFG’s School of X books in that the necromancer is severely limited in their spell selection (almost totally consisting of arcane and divine necromancy spells with a few divinations thrown in), while gaining some interesting new abilities, such as an undead minion, some additional feats, and growing immunity to level drain, disease, and the like. Overall I think it's a pretty strong class. The alignment prerequisite is any non-good, so PC necromancers are possible. This chapter also has three prestige classes, the Black Surgeon (can surgically enhance zombies), the Reanimator (can create legions of undead to serve them), and the Spirit Reaver (can manipulate the souls of the living). The PrCs seem well balanced and interesting, although the "evil only" alignment restriction may limit them to NPCs. The most glaring error occurs in the level progression chart: in speaking with the publisher, it was indicated that the number represented show the minimums needed to enter the PrC. In other words, a level 1 Reanimator has a BAB of +5 and F+3, R+5, W+3. It becomes a problem when you only want a couple levels of a PrC and then want to go back to your base class. I’m told this will be addressed in the errata. Chapter 10 and 11 (pgs. 85-92) offer advice to DMs on how to run a Zombie game, as well as many scenario ideas. This is perhaps the most solid portion of the book, with many many great ideas crammed into these pages. Chapter 12 (pgs 93-95) details a smattering of new necromancy spells. Whew! This got a little long, but hopefully you have a better idea of all the fantastic stuff in this book. It's the most generic book in the Darkness Rising series, which left me a little disappointed; I would have liked to see a little more tie in to Vampires and Liches. Nevertheless, I certainly understand the business reasons for keeping it more generic: it appeals to almost everyone, DMs and players alike. Whether you need new monsters, or would like to start a Zombie campaign, this book certainly has something for everyone. For the editing "oops" with the PrCs and the lack of Darkness Rising material, I’d like to give Lords of the Night: Zombies a 4.5 out of 5. Darn the lack of a ".5" ranking in the ratings system!</blockquote>

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