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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2010016" data-attributes="member: 18387">By Steven Creech, Exec. Chairman d20 Magazine Rack Sizing Up the Target So you’ve bought the Spycraft Espionage Handbook and even convinced your gaming group to take a break from regular fantasy D&D to adventure in the world of Shadowforce Archer. Now what? Well obviously you need an evil organization to threaten the world. Since Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) is the publisher behind the whole Spycraft/Shadowforce Archer setting, it only makes sense that they would provide the supplements to support it.The Hand of Glory is a 96-page supplement for the Shadowforce Archer campaign setting. It is written by Sean Michael Fish, B. D. Flory, Scott Gearin, Patrick Kapera and Joe Unger, illustrated by Veronica Jones, Zak Hennessey and Jonathan Hunt, and carries a retail price of $24.95. First Blood After a short fiction piece, chapter one provides updates to the ongoing interactive campaigns for the Shadowforce Archer world. It also introduces new plot hooks and references other ones from existing threat books. There is one plot hook that works nicely with the Spycraft release “Gentlemen’s Agreement.” Chapter two details the Hand of Glory organization itself; its history, influence and allies. You learn exactly how truly evil the Hand of Glory’s leader, Eva Kraus, is. Born from the ashes of the Third Reich, the Hand of Glory represents every bit of the evil and malice that was once associated with Hitler’s forces. The history leading up to the beginning of the organization and its evolution to the present day is quite interesting. Chapter three is the meaty section of the book. Here you find new rules for your campaign. A new base class, the Explorer, is introduced. This is an agent who is frequently found in exotic locations. There are four new prestige classes: Channeler, Sage, Spiritualist and Valkyrie. Each plays a role in the Hand of Glory organization. In addition to the new classes, there are also new feats, new rites and rituals for Mystics, and several new relics (including one of Odin’s legendary ravens). The section on fringe science is filled with new equipment that would make even Q jealous. Nine new NPC classes ready for use in the Hand of Glory round out the chapter. The final chapter gives GMs a collection of NPCs complete with low, mid and high level stats. These NPCs represent Eva Kraus’ inner circle and help flesh out the Hand of Glory organization. There are also new threats that can be used for staging future adventures. Critical Hits The depth of detail is excellent with strong attention paid to keeping the new rules balanced and within the d20 ruleset. I especially like the NPC presentation of three different levels, which saves GMs a considerable amount of work. The advanced rules for Mystics adds a level of attraction to the class that I felt was missing before. Critical Misses Because Shadowforce Archer is a type of “living” campaign (in that the actions and reports of gamers on the Shadowforce website affect various threat levels and the content of future supplements), there are constant references to specific content in other books. This necessitates the need to either purchase or already own the other Shadowforce Archer supplement books in order to completely follow everything. The other problem lies with the NPC classes and an inherent weakness in them. Each class is only a 10-level class, but their purpose could easily be replaced with an existing core or prestige class. For example, using the soldier core class with additional ranks in Swim can easily duplicate the frogman’s benefits. All in all, they come across as mostly uninteresting. Coup de Grace The Hand of Glory is a good book in the Shadowforce Archer line. People who campaign in that setting will find it required reading because of the trend of books in that line. It has application potential in other Spycraft game campaigns and even d20 Modern with some work. If you have a need for a fully detailed evil organization for your non-fantasy world, the book fits the bill. It’s not a “must have” book, but it’s certainly worth investigating for yourself.To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments, go to Fast Tracks at <a href="http://www.d20zines.com/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=index&catid=&topic=4" target="_blank">www.d20zines.com.</a></blockquote>

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