JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Spellslinger is the latest Horizon book by Fantasy Flight Games. The Horizon books are 64 page mini-campaigns that run $14.95. Each one professionally illustrated with good layout and easy readability, each one a mini-d20 game that build new environments and rules to try out different assumptions than the standard fantasy Dungeons and Dragons.
Broken up into seven chapters and one appendix, Spellslinger provides all you need to get up and started on the new continent known as the Territories. You have all of your standard races with a few tweaks to them, mainly in skill bonuses as the skill list has changed, plus a new one, the Gray Runners. These wolf like inhabitants take the place of Indians in a traditional Western game but pack a huge punch being a +1 Level Adjustment Race due to their physical prowess.
The classes are highly restricted. There are three core classes, Gunfighter, Maverick, and Trailblazer. Here's a neat feature. Each class has a 'core' ability that you don't get if you multi-class. Another cool feature is that brands can be taken that are basically one level classes. I'll get to those in a second though.
The core classes are a little better in some aspects than standard ones. Because there is no armor in the setting, classes get Armor Class bonuses based on level. Classes also get an Initiative bonus based on level. The Gunfighter starts off with a +2 base attack bonus. And his ability, “True Grit”, that makes him immune to fear effects, morale penalties and the Intimidate skill (unless it's a opponent with 4 more levels then him), in addition, he gets a bonus to one saving throw of +2. Nice core ability eh?
All three of the classes get a lot of bonus feats, allowing the players to customize their characters highly. The lowest hit die class here is the Maverick, at a d8. The West is a tough place amigo!
Now let me get back to those brands I was talking about. There are no pure based spellcasters like a standard campaign. If you want something like that, you have to go with brands. The brands however, are actually your first level and cover more than just spellcasting. There are six brands as follows:
Blackhand: Magic Resistant folk with one black hand.
Magi:Spellcasters with one milky white eye.
Padre: The healers of the setting with a flame birthmark on their head.
Pale Rider: Ah, death has come for you amigo! Note the burn mark that looks like a hand print on their face.
Skinwalker: Shapechangers with the crescent moon birthmark.
Steelheart: Masters of craft with a hammer shaped birthmark on their chest.
Now one of the things is each brand must be visible to use it's powers. Each band is known and there is extreme prejudice for some of these brands. After all, if you're a magi, do you want a black hand around and if you're just plain living, do you want a pale rider around?
Now in terms of spellcasting, the magi, Padre or Skinwalker, get the First Circle Feat for free. This allows them to cast three 1st level spells per day from their brand list. They can then move on to Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Circle, each one granting more spells, each one with a higher prerequisite. It's not a spellcasting type of world, but a 10th level character with Fifth circle is going to be able to cast 3 5th level spells which isn't bad for a low magic setting.
Another aspect that's great are the other feats related to your brand. Maybe you want to be the type of Pale Rider who can have a more powerful steed or who has a real mean eye when trying to intimidate people. Maybe you want to be a Blackhand who can forge items to kill magi. The extra feats remind me of some of the racial feats I've seen in other books that make you more of what you've started as and insure that if you want to go your brand mark, you've usually got at least three feats to pick from, in addition to your various Circle Feats, insuring you'll be highly customized.
The skills in this setting are reduced as many have been combined. For example, instead of Hide and Move Silently, much like Monte Cook's alternative PHB, we have a single skill, Creep. Instead of Balance, Climb, Jump and Swim, we have Athletics. This helps players spend their skill points a little more freely on abilities they might not normally take and doesn't slow the game down at all.
A new setting and system means that there is new equipment. Because this is a rough and tumble setting, like Fading Suns and a few others, it's recommended that you start off at 3rd level, giving you 2,700 gold pieces to start with. There's a fair amount of weapons, including firearms, as well as some standard goods like good Cigars and Pistol Holsters as well as Magekiller ammo and good old Rotgut liquor. David Griffiith provides a great sample of illustrations, especially on the weapons of the era to give the section a nice feel. The Orcish Hand-cannon for example, will inspire almost as much fear as the dangerous Gnomish Contraption.
Since we have firearms, it's only natural that we have some new rules to go with it. These vary from Aim at a Target, using a move action to get a +1 circumstance bonus to hit your enemy, to Showdowns. Now the Showdown is a lot like a dual from Legend of the Five Rings in that it's exceedingly dangerous to do so. If you're shooting to kill, “any hit made during a showdown is treated as a successful coup de grace attempt.” plus it's automatically a critical. As the old song goes, “Momma don't like your babies grow up to be cowboys.”
Some other rules creep in like Reputation and Drinking. For the former, your rep is based on the toughest CR creature/enemy you've killed in front of a crowd while the latter provides stages and penalties for various levels of drunkenness.
The setting information is a brief look over at the land. Because it's a small book, there isn't a lot here, but there is enough to get you started. Some of the things that are important to note are right at the beginning like the Prairie War between the blackhands and the magi or the fact that there is a gnomish rail i nthe setting. The Gray Hills house numerous horrors and create undead, but due to rich mineral deposits, are always being used by dwarves.
It's a very potentially rich setting that GMs can use to explore, set up gold rush style campaigns, undead battling fun or explore prejudice as the Gray Runners fight to keep their life style alive similar to the World of Darkness Werewolf setting.
Spellslinger is beautifully illustrated by David Griffith, Mone Moore, Michael Philippi, Joseph Querio and Hian Rodriguez. It starts off with a great illustration of a gunslinger facing down a dragon, and features numerous western style images like the gray runners in powerful poses or the iron horse being ridden down the gnomish rail. Good stuff overall. Editing is fair, layout is simple and easy on the eyes.
I find it interesting that it's possible to move normal characters into such a setting unlike previous Horizon Games, as well as play it as a straight Spellslinger game. Those type of mini-games, like Spelljammer and Invasion from Polyhedron, are always my favorite as I can use them in-game as opposed to starting a new campaign. If you're looking to take your D&D game to another level, you should check out Spellslinger.
Broken up into seven chapters and one appendix, Spellslinger provides all you need to get up and started on the new continent known as the Territories. You have all of your standard races with a few tweaks to them, mainly in skill bonuses as the skill list has changed, plus a new one, the Gray Runners. These wolf like inhabitants take the place of Indians in a traditional Western game but pack a huge punch being a +1 Level Adjustment Race due to their physical prowess.
The classes are highly restricted. There are three core classes, Gunfighter, Maverick, and Trailblazer. Here's a neat feature. Each class has a 'core' ability that you don't get if you multi-class. Another cool feature is that brands can be taken that are basically one level classes. I'll get to those in a second though.
The core classes are a little better in some aspects than standard ones. Because there is no armor in the setting, classes get Armor Class bonuses based on level. Classes also get an Initiative bonus based on level. The Gunfighter starts off with a +2 base attack bonus. And his ability, “True Grit”, that makes him immune to fear effects, morale penalties and the Intimidate skill (unless it's a opponent with 4 more levels then him), in addition, he gets a bonus to one saving throw of +2. Nice core ability eh?
All three of the classes get a lot of bonus feats, allowing the players to customize their characters highly. The lowest hit die class here is the Maverick, at a d8. The West is a tough place amigo!
Now let me get back to those brands I was talking about. There are no pure based spellcasters like a standard campaign. If you want something like that, you have to go with brands. The brands however, are actually your first level and cover more than just spellcasting. There are six brands as follows:
Blackhand: Magic Resistant folk with one black hand.
Magi:Spellcasters with one milky white eye.
Padre: The healers of the setting with a flame birthmark on their head.
Pale Rider: Ah, death has come for you amigo! Note the burn mark that looks like a hand print on their face.
Skinwalker: Shapechangers with the crescent moon birthmark.
Steelheart: Masters of craft with a hammer shaped birthmark on their chest.
Now one of the things is each brand must be visible to use it's powers. Each band is known and there is extreme prejudice for some of these brands. After all, if you're a magi, do you want a black hand around and if you're just plain living, do you want a pale rider around?
Now in terms of spellcasting, the magi, Padre or Skinwalker, get the First Circle Feat for free. This allows them to cast three 1st level spells per day from their brand list. They can then move on to Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Circle, each one granting more spells, each one with a higher prerequisite. It's not a spellcasting type of world, but a 10th level character with Fifth circle is going to be able to cast 3 5th level spells which isn't bad for a low magic setting.
Another aspect that's great are the other feats related to your brand. Maybe you want to be the type of Pale Rider who can have a more powerful steed or who has a real mean eye when trying to intimidate people. Maybe you want to be a Blackhand who can forge items to kill magi. The extra feats remind me of some of the racial feats I've seen in other books that make you more of what you've started as and insure that if you want to go your brand mark, you've usually got at least three feats to pick from, in addition to your various Circle Feats, insuring you'll be highly customized.
The skills in this setting are reduced as many have been combined. For example, instead of Hide and Move Silently, much like Monte Cook's alternative PHB, we have a single skill, Creep. Instead of Balance, Climb, Jump and Swim, we have Athletics. This helps players spend their skill points a little more freely on abilities they might not normally take and doesn't slow the game down at all.
A new setting and system means that there is new equipment. Because this is a rough and tumble setting, like Fading Suns and a few others, it's recommended that you start off at 3rd level, giving you 2,700 gold pieces to start with. There's a fair amount of weapons, including firearms, as well as some standard goods like good Cigars and Pistol Holsters as well as Magekiller ammo and good old Rotgut liquor. David Griffiith provides a great sample of illustrations, especially on the weapons of the era to give the section a nice feel. The Orcish Hand-cannon for example, will inspire almost as much fear as the dangerous Gnomish Contraption.
Since we have firearms, it's only natural that we have some new rules to go with it. These vary from Aim at a Target, using a move action to get a +1 circumstance bonus to hit your enemy, to Showdowns. Now the Showdown is a lot like a dual from Legend of the Five Rings in that it's exceedingly dangerous to do so. If you're shooting to kill, “any hit made during a showdown is treated as a successful coup de grace attempt.” plus it's automatically a critical. As the old song goes, “Momma don't like your babies grow up to be cowboys.”
Some other rules creep in like Reputation and Drinking. For the former, your rep is based on the toughest CR creature/enemy you've killed in front of a crowd while the latter provides stages and penalties for various levels of drunkenness.
The setting information is a brief look over at the land. Because it's a small book, there isn't a lot here, but there is enough to get you started. Some of the things that are important to note are right at the beginning like the Prairie War between the blackhands and the magi or the fact that there is a gnomish rail i nthe setting. The Gray Hills house numerous horrors and create undead, but due to rich mineral deposits, are always being used by dwarves.
It's a very potentially rich setting that GMs can use to explore, set up gold rush style campaigns, undead battling fun or explore prejudice as the Gray Runners fight to keep their life style alive similar to the World of Darkness Werewolf setting.
Spellslinger is beautifully illustrated by David Griffith, Mone Moore, Michael Philippi, Joseph Querio and Hian Rodriguez. It starts off with a great illustration of a gunslinger facing down a dragon, and features numerous western style images like the gray runners in powerful poses or the iron horse being ridden down the gnomish rail. Good stuff overall. Editing is fair, layout is simple and easy on the eyes.
I find it interesting that it's possible to move normal characters into such a setting unlike previous Horizon Games, as well as play it as a straight Spellslinger game. Those type of mini-games, like Spelljammer and Invasion from Polyhedron, are always my favorite as I can use them in-game as opposed to starting a new campaign. If you're looking to take your D&D game to another level, you should check out Spellslinger.
