The Monster Hide series by Asparagus Jumpsuit, which means by Berin Kinsman, provide pre-generated monster statblocks for Pathfinder and, as the subtitle “classic monsters reskinned” implies, presents a new take on the role of each these humanoids in a campaign world.

The basic structure of all of the Monster Hide books is the same: cover, 1-page introduction to why Kinsman wrote the series and some background on Asparagus Jumpsuit, then a discussion on how the races fits into the Desteon campaign, Kinsman’s campaign world, and how they vary from the norm and suggestions for their use in a campaign. Next is the core of the product, a set of five statblocks with the interesting parts all hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the d20PFSRD. Each ends with a copy of the OGL as you would expect. There are a smattering of errors scattered through the works but nothing that cannot be easily sorted.

Ogre Hide, Giants Reskinned, these ogres are nasty, brutish and . . . well, just nasty and brutish. They form the brute squad of the humanoid ranks forking as living weapons for others, with the smart ones forming their own groups to get more nastiness done. These are the monsters from fairy tales that will grind your bones to make their bread or worse. Useable for a wide variety of situations when the GM just needs something that hits hard.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

The Monster Hide series by Asparagus Jumpsuit, which means by Berin Kinsman, provide pre-generated monster statblocks for Pathfinder and, as the subtitle “classic monsters reskinned” implies, presents a new take on the role of each these humanoids in a campaign world.

The basic structure of all of the Monster Hide books is the same: cover, 1-page introduction to why Kinsman wrote the series and some background on Asparagus Jumpsuit, then a discussion on how the races fits into the Desteon campaign, Kinsman’s campaign world, and how they vary from the norm and suggestions for their use in a campaign. Next is the core of the product, a set of five statblocks with the interesting parts all hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the d20PFSRD. Each ends with a copy of the OGL as you would expect. There are a smattering of errors scattered through the works but nothing that cannot be easily sorted.

Lizardfolk Hide, Reptilians Reskinned, places lizardfolk firmly in the lost world / mysterious tribe role among ruins of once great civilizations and dinosaur tradition. So, if you like those sorts of things in your campaign, you will find useful creatures here.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

The Monster Hide series by Asparagus Jumpsuit, which means by Berin Kinsman, provide pre-generated monster statblocks for Pathfinder and, as the subtitle “classic monsters reskinned” implies, presents a new take on the role of each these humanoids in a campaign world.

The basic structure of all of the Monster Hide books is the same: cover, 1-page introduction to why Kinsman wrote the series and some background on Asparagus Jumpsuit, then a discussion on how the races fits into the Desteon campaign, Kinsman’s campaign world, and how they vary from the norm and suggestions for their use in a campaign. Next is the core of the product, a set of five statblocks with the interesting parts all hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the d20PFSRD. Each ends with a copy of the OGL as you would expect. There are a smattering of errors scattered through the works but nothing that cannot be easily sorted.

Kobold Hide, Small Reptilians Reskinned, in this version, Kobolds are servants of dragons, acting as household staff, an interface between dragons and visitors and all around hard workers for their draconic masters. Here there are outcasts, workers and even a physical combat oriented kobold, an interesting variety.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

The Monster Hide series by Asparagus Jumpsuit, which means by Berin Kinsman, provide pre-generated monster statblocks for Pathfinder and, as the subtitle “classic monsters reskinned” implies, presents a new take on the role of each these humanoids in a campaign world.

The basic structure of all of the Monster Hide books is the same: cover, 1-page introduction to why Kinsman wrote the series and some background on Asparagus Jumpsuit, then a discussion on how the races fits into the Desteon campaign, Kinsman’s campaign world, and how they vary from the norm and suggestions for their use in a campaign. Next is the core of the product, a set of five statblocks with the interesting parts all hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the d20PFSRD. Each ends with a copy of the OGL as you would expect. There are a smattering of errors scattered through the works but nothing that cannot be easily sorted.

Hobgoblin Hide, Alternate Orcs Reskinned, Kinsman’s hobgoblins are from an alternate reality, where orcs are a form of goblin and they hate the orcs of this reality for stealing their name. They are discipled and militaristic, using tactics and allies to make up for their limited numbers. They should present a good challenge to those who enjoy tactical puzzles.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

The Monster Hide series by Asparagus Jumpsuit, which means by Berin Kinsman, provide pre-generated monster statblocks for Pathfinder and, as the subtitle “classic monsters reskinned” implies, presents a new take on the role of each these humanoids in a campaign world.

The basic structure of all of the Monster Hide books is the same: cover, 1-page introduction to why Kinsman wrote the series and some background on Asparagus Jumpsuit, then a discussion on how the races fits into the Desteon campaign, Kinsman’s campaign world, and how they vary from the norm and suggestions for their use in a campaign. Next is the core of the product, a set of five statblocks with the interesting parts all hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the d20PFSRD. Each ends with a copy of the OGL as you would expect. There are a smattering of errors scattered through the works but nothing that cannot be easily sorted.

Goblin Hide, Toothy Tricksters Reskinned, for Kinsman goblins are “the cockroaches of the humanoids” living in the abandoned corners of the world and preying upon others by stealth and deception as they are too weak to win a stand up fight, so they cheat instead. The goblins here range from disgusting mutants to abandoned undead and subtle and clever tricksters but all will betray you as soon as look at you, so beware.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

The Monster Hide series by Asparagus Jumpsuit, which means by Berin Kinsman, provide pre-generated monster statblocks for Pathfinder and, as the subtitle “classic monsters reskinned” implies, presents a new take on the role of each these humanoids in a campaign world.

The basic structure of all of the Monster Hide books is the same: cover, 1-page introduction to why Kinsman wrote the series and some background on Asparagus Jumpsuit, then a discussion on how the races fits into the Desteon campaign, Kinsman’s campaign world, and how they vary from the norm and suggestions for their use in a campaign. Next is the core of the product, a set of five statblocks with the interesting parts all hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the d20PFSRD. Each ends with a copy of the OGL as you would expect. There are a smattering of errors scattered through the works but nothing that cannot be easily sorted.

Gnoll Hide, Hyena-Men Reskinned, these demon-worshipping hyena kin serve as the ultimate scavengers in Kinsman’s version, they leave nothing to waste but also enjoy inflicting suffering, these gnolls will laugh as you die in pain and then make use of all of your flesh and bones. It is an interesting mix of undead, demon-blooded and other gnoll variants designed to challenge adventurers expecting more traditional gnolls.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

The Monster Hide series by Asparagus Jumpsuit, which means by Berin Kinsman, provide pre-generated monster statblocks for Pathfinder and, as the subtitle “classic monsters reskinned” implies, presents a new take on the role of each these humanoids in a campaign world.

The basic structure of all of the Monster Hide books is the same: cover, 1-page introduction to why Kinsman wrote the series and some background on Asparagus Jumpsuit, then a discussion on how the races fits into the Desteon campaign, Kinsman’s campaign world, and how they vary from the norm and suggestions for their use in a campaign. Next is the core of the product, a set of five statblocks with the interesting parts all hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the d20PFSRD. Each ends with a copy of the OGL as you would expect. There are a smattering of errors scattered through the works but nothing that cannot be easily sorted.

Drow Hide, Dark Elves Reskinned, Kinsman focuses upon the Dark Elven love of power and immortality and the ability of the Drow to work together to oppose outsiders, these elves are willing to embrace undeath to continue their quest for dominance among their rivals and against their enemies. It is a good fit for the most sinister of elves and includes those who willingly chose to survive after death and those whom unlife was forced upon.

It is also nice that many of the Monster Hide products comes in PDF, epub, mobi and png formats so you can use the optimal file for whatever sort of reader you are using.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

The Monster Hide series by Asparagus Jumpsuit, which means by Berin Kinsman, provide pre-generated monster statblocks for Pathfinder and, as the subtitle “classic monsters reskinned” implies, presents a new take on the role of each these humanoids in a campaign world.

The basic structure of all of the Monster Hide books is the same: cover, 1-page introduction to why Kinsman wrote the series and some background on Asparagus Jumpsuit, then a discussion on how the races fits into the Desteon campaign, Kinsman’s campaign world, and how they vary from the norm and suggestions for their use in a campaign. Next is the core of the product, a set of five statblocks with the interesting parts all hyperlinked to the appropriate parts of the d20PFSRD. Each ends with a copy of the OGL as you would expect. There are a smattering of errors scattered through the works but nothing that cannot be easily sorted.

Bugbear Hide: (Fuzzy) Goblins Reskinned, these bugbears are swamp-dwelling tricksters and friends of bears. It is a good role for them and the bugbears here are quite fun, the bugbear cubs, who operate in adventurous packs, and the champion who is a mistress of traps and misdirection, look especially useful.

It is also nice that many of the Monster Hide products, like this one, comes in PDF, epub, mobi and png formats so you can use the optimal file for whatever sort of reader you are using.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

Alignments can be a tricky topic, depending on your group they may be a shorthand on how your character behaves, how a spell knows your morals, or mostly ignored! This book makes Alignment a fun integral part of the game. Thinking about what your character values, or weaknesses may be, can have a meaningful, and mechanical, aspect on the game beyond the result of a spell. This book introduces the idea of Fate aspects in a way most D&D, Pathfinder, or other permutations of d20 games, can understand and help them integrate it into their games. I had a blast with this book and recommend it...

The layout and art revisions improve the pdf overall. There's some creativity here: namely the various colony worlds based on fundamentalist religious doctrines. The fate accelerated rules are included, so if you want to run a Star Trek TOS campaign using FAE, all your really need is this pdf and maybe a cheap used copy of the Star Trek Encyclopedia. There could be some improvements. For one, there are no Romulan or Andorian analogs, which is minor because this can be fudged on the fly. More on creating alien species and world would have been nice, or another sector or two described, and there's no mention of Star Trek in the bibliography at the end, but there's something to be said for not stating the obvious. Is there anything here mechanically that really surpasses combination of the FAE core book and the free star ship FAE pdf, both available for free here on rpgnow? No. Is it a fun read? Yes. The $10 price point, which I paid, is too high. Given the recent revisions, though, the current sale price of $8.50 is just right. I encourage those on the fence to buy now.

The material is fun, but at $20(even though I did get it for the pre-order of $10) for a pdf product I expected better art and at least some kind of nice Layout. The clipart/stockart of historical items everywhere, only 3 pieces of art for Kaiju, nothing for Sentai, Henshin, Kyodai. One great piece of art for the propaganda/recruitment poster. Black walls of text on white backgrounds. LONG list of historical events.....many having little or nothing to do with the theme.

I think it is best to wait to catch this one on sale.

I feel the information provided is not really worth much. The stuff in the Workbooks is more or less just what is already in the rulebook, blown out of proportion for every class and every level. The monster books are just a much too short description of the monster (some would be interesting of they provided more information) ... and then some monster variants created for the author's home campaign? There is not really much information about the monsters in general. I really did not get much out of all those books.

For me the Character Workbooks were a complete waste of time and money. All they were is just a set of reminders for each class just repeating what is already listed for each class in the core book as well as the sources for each class (e. add HP, add feat at levels 3,6,9, etc., remember to add favored class bonus etc.). I had expected something like discussions of the merits of various class abilities, pros and cons of choosing various feats etc. They basically took the info from the various tables and put them in blocks of texts. The Monster books were just minor variants from the author's home campaign. I don't care what they are like in your home campaign. I already have hundreds of monsters so I would not spend a cent for variants.

For me the items of this collection are worthless. Really, I want my money back.

Got this as part of the free rpg promotion. The first thing that came to mind is that the fiction parts of this are just BAD. Like, worse than airport trash novels bad. All those lovely 'mystical black woman' tropes are present in force.

Beyond that, though: I think the whole concept is flawed. The idea seems to be that you're given a short story, and a few select quotes are pulled from it as aspects. 'Jenny never liked the Walbergs', that sort of thing. The problem is that the authors don't acknowledge the differences between RPGs (creating a story with a group) and novels (one person telling a story).

There was no real discussion on why the aspects were chosen, and how to weave them into a game. It's a shame, because I really want to like the concept, but all this has done for me is to emphasise how different fiction and RPGs are.

Black Dreams and Other Bad Juju is the second installation of the FATE+Fiction line. It’s a PWYW product that includes 5 original short stories, each with a breakdown of suggested situation aspects, character aspects, consequences, and boosts. The stories come in separate files, about 5 pages long apiece, with the last page being taken up by the OGL.

Each story is about 1,000 words and they’re all character or setting pieces. There’s not a whole lot of plot to these - they’re mainly setting the stage, conflict, and characters. But that’s also sort of the point - to give you enough to spark your creativity.

A Flock of Cranes is the first story, and potentially the weakest. The setting was a little vague, there was only 1 aspect that got me excited, and there were some awkward sentences. That said, the ending was good enough that it got me interested in putting this into play.

All In is a story about some type of supernatural hunters sitting down to play poker. There’s a lot of passive voice in this story, but it’s interesting enough to get me excited. The aspects weren’t bad and there were good suggestions for consequences, but I wish they would have gone farther. Problems with the law are all well and good, but this story screams at me to hurt the PCs friends and family.

Bad Juju is a great cyberpunk vs. voodoo story. It’s loaded with flavor, has some actual action, and gets me excited about playing. There’s some French in there that they don’t translate and some colloquialisms that I had a little trouble following, but that actually seemed to enhance the setting for me. There’s some wacky punctuation in places, but that’s pretty secondary to me. The aspects were a little verbose (but ok), the consequences were good, and there was an interesting take on a boost.

For me, Black Dreams was a different kind of story than the others. Rather than dealing with a conflict, it deals with the consequences. I’d love to play in a game that explored this style of play, but I know I’d struggle with running one. Regardless, I found it a fascinating choice to include and it really kind of broke out of the box. There’s some profanity in this one, if that kind of thing offends you.

The last story, Call Me Ishmael, is a religious/supernatural story about the struggle of good and evil. I enjoyed the story and the deconstruction was pretty good. Again, I’d like to see the consequences taken a little further. Possession is an obvious consequence, which was overlooked. But I think some type of supernatural judgment is potentially implied and would have been in interesting addition.

I liked these stories and I really dig the idea behind this product. It does what it sets out to do - it gives me fodder for my imagination and gets me thinking about games. It’s equally useful for both players and GMs, since it includes story ideas and aspects both can use. It’s PWYW, so it’s absolutely worth it to download these.