I've seen this book in play once in addition to play testing early versions of it. We were doing a Spell Jammer-esque game of DW for a goofy one shot that I was DMing. The Living Star (LS) was fun to watch. This class doesn't fit in a typical fantasy game, but if you are doing something more atypical it should be a welcomed addition. The core mechanic is seldom seen (I've only seen something like it in one other playbook, an ice mage of some sort) so it has a very unique feel compared to other classes. The player said he had fun with it and the class seemed to work just fine with the other classes in play (no toes were stepped on for the duration of the game). The LS can go many directions based on what you choose for your advanced moves which makes it a welcome addition to any group.

The only problem that crept up was when the group was trying to make camp every time the LS was low/out of Radiance. The LS player really wanted to avoid taking damage for recharging. I allowed it the first time but after that I made sure to not give the party that much down time to keep healing up. So just watch out for that.

Also the authors notes at the end explaining intent and extras are a definite bonus and I wish other play books would follow suit on moves that can be harder to interpret.

I'm giving this product a 5 star review because it is put together well (character sheet is clean and organized, the book is easy to read and the extras are fun) and the price is fair since it's around what most people charge for a single class, yet the LS offers a little extra with some author's notes and moves that weren't thrown in originally but were included if you wanted to use them.

Note: have not actually played the class, only read it.

Some very cool ideas which in the current form are wrecked by a very poor core mechanic. Virtually all of the class's moves are reliant on spending a class-specific resource, and that resource can only be recovered by damaging yourself in one of two ways. One of these ways requires you to have none of the resource left, so you can't top up as needed, and the other isn't even listed in the playbook, but in the accompanying reference book–which you will need to use if you want to copy your moves into a Google Docs for online play, because the playbook itself is images instead of text. Also, because of the core mechanic none of your attributes matter to the class aside from constitution; this is doubly reinforced by the fact that the only non-radiance attribute your moves key off of is Constitution.

It's a shame, because like I said it's got a few cool ideas, but as-is it's one of a very few playbooks that I wouldn't even consider bringing to the table, except maybe to ape some moves from through multiclassing.

A very good playbook. Nice moves, and a lot of extra pages with magic items, potions etc. This take of the Witch is quite grim, very useful for a dark campaign. You have divination / hex / storm control / thaumaturgy powers. Also, a little bit of blood magic and necromancy. Companions, flying brooms, wands etc. have less importance in this playbook, while present. Moves are quite narrative, GM and players have to agree on the boundaries of the witch powers, this can be good or bad for you, depending on your usual style of play. For example, thaumaturgy is a variant of wizard's Ritual move. Finally, I loved the usual cool "Mignola style" cover. Sidenote: if you already possess the PDFs with the collections of magical objects, still by Awful Good Games, remove a star from my rating, 'cause you already have the magical items you'll find in this playbook.

Very in depth and fun ideas. Book came in two PDFs, one of the entire book and one just the character sheet which is very handy. Great work!

There's a lot of stuff you can get for Dungeon World. Unfortunately, with these niche products there aren't many reviews so it's difficult to decide if they are worth your time (and money). That's why I'm taking a look at the supplements 10+ Treasures Vol 1 and 10+ Treasures Vol 2 by Awful Good Games.

The authors started this project after giving feedback on magic item creation in the Dungeon World community. People started asking for a compilation and he realized that advice on creating magic items is also welcome.

Look & Feel

Both PDFs weigh in at around 30 pages, give or take. There are no illustrations. That's ok for such small products. The first volume has two parts: magic items and tips on how to make them. It includes 31 new magic items., available at DrivethruRPG as PDF for USD $1.99 or PDF + softcover bundle for USD $4.99. The second volume is divided into more subcategories: weapons, armor, rings, potions, miscallenous and the section on how to make magic items. (This section is identical in both PDFs.) It includes 30 new magic items. I would have liked to see digital bookmarks. The authors already made the effort to divide the items into categories so there's only a minimal step left for bookmarking the pdf. Vol 2 is available as PDF only at DrivethruRPG, cost: USD $2.49. Please note that a bundle with both items as PDFs can also be obtained via DTRPG. The books are layouted in one column with easy to read fonts and good use of bold and italic text. Very functional, nothing fancy but it works nicely. While Vol 1 has a plain white background, Vol 2 comes with a grey parched-paper look. While this is nice for reading it's a bit of a hassle if you want to print it out.

Content

10+ Treasures Vol 1

The wide range of items is sorted alphabetically. The authors use fantasy tropes and thus it should be easy to incorporate the items into your own adventures. You may have seen some of them before in other games, i.e. the Blasting Rod. Nonewithstanding, there are also new additions.

Some of them have new tags, for example the freezing tag (excerpt):

Freezing Tag The item is unnaturally, likely uncomfortably cold, to the point where frost or even ice might form on it. [...]

All in all, I really like what I see: a good mix of the well-known, some original items, some items with a a nice twist of humor (Barkskin Potion, whoof!). They have a good power level: Although the pieces are magical and some of them are quite powerful they are not earth-shattering (except perhaps the Earthshaker Boots, heh?). What I really dig is that some items have Designer Notes or suggested Tweaks so you can adjust them to your needs. Mechanically, these items look very solid. The custom moves and other system-related implementations make sense and are crafted with a profound understanding of Dungeon World's game engine.

The advice on making magical items is useful. The authors give a set of questions to guide you through item creation. They also aid you with defining the high concept of an item and how to create Moves. Furthermore, there is a walkthrough, always useful if you give instructions. For me, the whole process makes sense and gives me a good framework I can work with.

10+ Treasures Vol 2

This volume gives you six new tags, summarized in the first part of the book on one page: agonizing, infernal, living, maddening, spirit and telepathic. The book is divided into subcategories so you can find things easily. As this is a continuation of the first volume the praise I it applies to Vol 2 as well. Mechanics are very good, the power level might be a bit higher but won't break your game. It's a pity that there are no Tweaks here but Designer Notes still have a place. The theme is overall a bit more darker, some creations can be considered cursed items and will fit well into a gritty campaign. There is a lot of Lovecraft here, take the Madstone for example: it's tied to the cults of the stars and other elder things. The Skin from Space, a mysterious blob of a slime-like substance, is another one. While the items in Vol 2 are more original it might be more difficult to use them for your own games as they might not fit the tone. Nonetheless, there is still enough "generic fantasy" stuff so you will get your money's worth.

The instructions of how to create magic items is identical to Vol 1. It's nice to see that it is included here, too. If you don't want to buy Vol 1 you still get this chapter.

TL;DR

The 10+ Treasures series give you lots of interesting magic items: some traditional fantasy and some new and unusual. The advice on creating magic items is pretty sweet and adds a lot to the value of the products. The price tag is totally ok and with the bundle you can get both PDFs for USD $3.98. People often complain because the DW corebook only costs USD $10 (in PDF) so supplements look a bit pricey at first glance. In my opinion, the price of DW is pretty low (due to the success of the crowdfunding campaign?), so you can't really use it as a baseline. Recommended.

If you want more material for your DW games check out my list of Dungeon World resources: http://scriptogr.am/sbr/post/dw-resources

There's a lot of stuff you can get for Dungeon World. Unfortunately, with these niche products there aren't many reviews so it's difficult to decide if they are worth your time (and money). That's why I'm taking a look at the supplements 10+ Treasures Vol 1 and 10+ Treasures Vol 2 by Awful Good Games.

The authors started this project after giving feedback on magic item creation in the Dungeon World community. People started asking for a compilation and he realized that advice on creating magic items is also welcome.

Look & Feel

Both PDFs weigh in at around 30 pages, give or take. There are no illustrations. That's ok for such small products. The first volume has two parts: magic items and tips on how to make them. It includes 31 new magic items., available at DrivethruRPG as PDF for USD $1.99 or PDF + softcover bundle for USD $4.99. The second volume is divided into more subcategories: weapons, armor, rings, potions, miscallenous and the section on how to make magic items. (This section is identical in both PDFs.) It includes 30 new magic items. I would have liked to see digital bookmarks. The authors already made the effort to divide the items into categories so there's only a minimal step left for bookmarking the pdf. Vol 2 is available as PDF only at DrivethruRPG, cost: USD $2.49. Please note that a bundle with both items as PDFs can also be obtained via DTRPG. The books are layouted in one column with easy to read fonts and good use of bold and italic text. Very functional, nothing fancy but it works nicely. While Vol 1 has a plain white background, Vol 2 comes with a grey parched-paper look. While this is nice for reading it's a bit of a hassle if you want to print it out.

Content

10+ Treasures Vol 1

The wide range of items is sorted alphabetically. The authors use fantasy tropes and thus it should be easy to incorporate the items into your own adventures. You may have seen some of them before in other games, i.e. the Blasting Rod. Nonewithstanding, there are also new additions.

Some of them have new tags, for example the freezing tag (excerpt):

Freezing Tag The item is unnaturally, likely uncomfortably cold, to the point where frost or even ice might form on it. [...]

All in all, I really like what I see: a good mix of the well-known, some original items, some items with a a nice twist of humor (Barkskin Potion, whoof!). They have a good power level: Although the pieces are magical and some of them are quite powerful they are not earth-shattering (except perhaps the Earthshaker Boots, heh?). What I really dig is that some items have Designer Notes or suggested Tweaks so you can adjust them to your needs. Mechanically, these items look very solid. The custom moves and other system-related implementations make sense and are crafted with a profound understanding of Dungeon World's game engine.

The advice on making magical items is useful. The authors give a set of questions to guide you through item creation. They also aid you with defining the high concept of an item and how to create Moves. Furthermore, there is a walkthrough, always useful if you give instructions. For me, the whole process makes sense and gives me a good framework I can work with.

10+ Treasures Vol 2

This volume gives you six new tags, summarized in the first part of the book on one page: agonizing, infernal, living, maddening, spirit and telepathic. The book is divided into subcategories so you can find things easily. As this is a continuation of the first volume the praise I it applies to Vol 2 as well. Mechanics are very good, the power level might be a bit higher but won't break your game. It's a pity that there are no Tweaks here but Designer Notes still have a place. The theme is overall a bit more darker, some creations can be considered cursed items and will fit well into a gritty campaign. There is a lot of Lovecraft here, take the Madstone for example: it's tied to the cults of the stars and other elder things. The Skin from Space, a mysterious blob of a slime-like substance, is another one. While the items in Vol 2 are more original it might be more difficult to use them for your own games as they might not fit the tone. Nonetheless, there is still enough "generic fantasy" stuff so you will get your money's worth.

The instructions of how to create magic items is identical to Vol 1. It's nice to see that it is included here, too. If you don't want to buy Vol 1 you still get this chapter.

TL;DR

The 10+ Treasures series give you lots of interesting magic items: some traditional fantasy and some new and unusual. The advice on creating magic items is pretty sweet and adds a lot to the value of the products. The price tag is totally ok and with the bundle you can get both PDFs for USD $3.98. People often complain because the DW corebook only costs USD $10 (in PDF) so supplements look a bit pricey at first glance. In my opinion, the price of DW is pretty low (due to the success of the crowdfunding campaign?), so you can't really use it as a baseline. Recommended.

If you want more material for your DW games check out my list of Dungeon World resources: http://scriptogr.am/sbr/post/dw-resources

Very fine addition from Awful Good Games to an already fantastic game. A great treat to trick your players come Halloween or if you're looking for a fun alternative to the over-used warrior-wizard-thief-trifecta.

What I really enjoyed was the look inside the kitchen to see how each class came to be. It also makes everything less set in stone and open to tinker with.

I just bought 6 Dungeon World-related class books from 6 different publishers. It seems the trend is to throw together a 3 page class playbook with little thought put into it and to charge me $1 per page. The only purchase of the 6 that has not been a disappointment was The Witch by Awful Good Games. Do not fret, the poor reviews for the other 5 products are coming, but I wanted to praise this product first.

Both the playbook and the narrative text of The Witch match the original Dungeon World layout and font style but with minor non-intrusive improvements (hit point heart graphic for example). Not all of the other 5 products I bought look as good.

But forget looks, what I really care about is content. It takes a lot of thought to cover a class concept thoroughly but concisely and yet evocatively, and to then test all the parts together as a whole and to then attempt to compare power levels to the original classes to make sure they are equitable. In the case of The Witch, one can tell when reading it that this has been performed excellently by thoughtful Dungeon World fans.

Page count! Almost forgot, you get 20 or so pages for your $3. And it isn't pointless filler. I will not repeat the product description but I will comment to say that you get what it says, no deception. Even the stuff that I thought would be pointless filler (behind the scenes notes) was actually interesting.

Speaking of the long form text, you definitely need to read it to understand the playbook. Looking at the playbook first was a mistake. It introduces poppets, arcane tags, familiar rules, and so on that will confuse you if you just examine the playbook.

If I have a complaint it is that it does not have racial moves. I love racial moves per class. Also, if you use some fancy word for dagger and then in your glossary you define the fancy word as "essentially a ceremonial dagger", dude, you could have saved me a trip to the dictionary and yourself a trip to the thesaurus by simply using the word "dagger" in the first place.

Ok, first of all, the bad news: ehi "Awful Good Games", you chose a very bad name :D Come on, I think it's a happy coincidence I bought this one, 'cause I had leftover money. I'd usually skip a title that give me "10+ Treasures". Please, change the name in "MAGIC ITEMS ENCYCLOPEDIA 1" or something like that :D Seriously, here you can find about 20 - 30 useful treasures (weapons, utility tools etc.) for your adventures. Also, every item has variations and hints for make an item more "yours". With some item you could build a Compendium Class - for example, the Bloom bow: you can entangle, you can generate rations, you can produce ammos, poisoned arrows, use it for save you ass when falling, throw ziplines to climb... Want to make this a better product? Give us an UPDATED version with:

• a couple of extra treasures (we never have enough...)
• an useful index: I don't mind to have those items alphabetically ordered, I'd prefer a custom built index with categories:

  Weapons ... ... Armors and Shields ... ... Potions and Scrolls ... ... Utility Stuff ... ... etc.

However, it's well worth a couple of bucks.

this character class is very well built and quite intriguing. Looking forward to giving it a run. It has as old school wizard feel as their ever was, and I look forward to players frantically whipping through their spellbook looking for the spell that they need. would rate it higher, but want to see it in play first.

I loved this one. About 60 pages, with ready to use settlements, dungeons, monsters. It's plenty of moves (standard and custom ones), and there are lot of factions the players could associate with. Also, you'll find stakes, so you as GM can really "play to find what happens". Of course, dungeons are not described room by room, but a good Dungeon World's GM should have no problems to bring all those descriptions, notes, impressions to life. Nice plus: monsters and settlements was actually built with the standard D.W. rules! :D Cool enough for me! Finally, you get the new Lizardfolks race (apply that to standard playbooks), and a new Compedium Class. About the latter - ok, english is not my mother tongue, but why to write things like: • You do not hit someone or something you did not want to. • You do not take -1 ongoing until you have a chance to rest for a while. Maybe all that can be simpler if you reduce it to: • Hit someone or something you did not want to. • Take -1 ongoing until you have a chance to rest for a while. (it's the player's choice, so this way he choose what negative things he has to suffer, not the one he doesn't want).

Long story short: good work.

I found this class to be super interesting. I had a pc of mine gain the ability to turn into this character on command after encountering an unusual magic item. He really enjoys playing it.

The mechanics feel a little clunky, the system of bone points is a new set of rules specific for this character type. I would not recommend using this for a player not accustomed to the DW rule set. It's an advanced class. But like I said its super fun to play and can become an interesting component to a campaign. This would be a great class to come back as if your pc rolls a 7-9 on a last breath role.

Fantastic creative items and if you like these you should absolutely check out Scavenger Studios "Unusual Magic Items" I have pulled many ideas from this book for my campaign.

Originally published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2014/05/05/tabletop-review-the-mummy-a-dungeon-world-playbook/

I’ve been a big fan of Dungeon World since it started. Heck, I was even one of the original kickstarter backers. It’s a great game that deserves more mainstream attention that it is getting. Third party publishers are taking note though, with many companies releasing playbooks (character creation profiles) to allow all sort of new and crazy PCs into the game. Case in point is Awful Good Games’ latest – The Mummy. I love mummies. They’re my favorite undead. Whether it’s old Anktepot from Ravenloft to modern mummies like those found in the award-winning Mummy: The Curse, I have owned and/or reviewed it. Unfortunately, aside from TSR and White Wolf/Onyx Path releases, most mummy-related tabletop pieces are mediocre at best. Especially Pathfinder ones. That’s why I’m so happy about the sheer quality of this Dungeon World playbook. Not only is it well done, but I can actually play a mummy PC for the first time outside of the World of Darkness games. I’ll definitely be using this playbook for my next Dungeon World character – let’s see why!

The Mummy consists of two PDFs: a seventeen page playbook and a two page character sheet. The character sheet is like any you’ll find for Dungeon World. The two pages cover all the possible options for a mummy character, and you simply check off which options pertain to your PC. It’s incredibly well done, and I love seeing all the options from Levels 1-5 directly in front of you while you are playing. I do think Dungeon World has the best character sheets in gaming today, and if you haven’t viewed one, you really should. Awful Good Games hasn’t reinvented the wheel at all here. They’ve just copied the same format and plugged in their Mummy options. No complaints here.

Then we have the playbook itself. If you’ve played Dungeon World, you have a good idea what to expect. The playbook starts off with a list of six new Mummy related tags and what they mean play-wise. It then gives you a couple pages of background for the mummies and the decision making process behind the character class, which was a treat to read. I was surprised they relied on the 1999 remake of The Mummy rather than using the classic Universal black and white films or even the Hammer horror movies, but hey, it’s their playbook, right?

From there, you get a list of sample names and eleven and a half pages of character building options. Of course, some of those pages only have a paragraph on them, leaving a lot of blank space, but it is what it is. You’ll find a lot of options for physical appearance (eyes, bandages, head topping and fleshy form), three starting backgrounds and a list of your four starting abilities. I loved Soul Food because this is the first fantasy RPG that really talks about how food and beverages were left with mummies to consume in the next life. This really makes the race fit in line with Egyptian folklore and makes them a more playable PC, since they have to eat, drink and sleep like other classes/races. There are also nice twists on conventional D&D mummy tropes, like the ability to curse victims, the aura of fear and the usual mummy rot effect. After that, you pick your alignment, gear and bonds, and your character is ready to go. You should be able to have a Level 1 Mummy PC ready for play in about 15 minutes.

Advanced Moves are where things get interesting. For Levels 2 through 5, you get to pick one ability from the list of twenty options. There is a further list of four non-canon options that didn’t make the final product. Cool to see that included as a bonus. Anyway, of the Advanced Moves, my personal favorites are Dust to Dust (cloud of sand form!), Eternal Retainers (mummy NPC sidekicks!), Sand Storm (vomit a cloud of sand or vermin!), Seeker of Secrets (lifeline to the GM who reveals hidden things to your character), Wrap it Up (using your bandages as constricting or grappling tendrils) and Organ Donor (steal organs from living beings for free health boosts!). All the Mummy options are pretty fantastic, though, and as I have said, I’ll definitely be making a character with this playbook.

After the Advanced Moves, you are given a list of new gear and magic items for a Mummy, and that’s that! It’s pretty to the point with this playbook, and I loved it. It’s by far my favorite third party Dungeon World playbook so far, and if you’re a fan of the system, this is $2.50 well spent!

I picked this supplement up because the price was right and because I wanted to support a third-party publisher that is producing 4E materials. I've never played a Seeker, and I've moved on to 13th Age as my game of choice in recent months, but I still enjoy 4E products, as they're fairly easy to convert to 13th Age, give me ideas for NPCs my players might run into, and besides, 4E is my favorite edition of D&D.

This little supplement provides exactly what it says: 14 seeker evocations from levels 1-9, a paragon path, and five magic items. Having run an Al-Qadim campaign using 4E not too long ago, I wish I'd thought of a desert-themed Seeker, and still might end up using some of these powers in an NPC roaming the Dragon Empire's Red Wastes (in the default 13th Age setting). The powers presented in this supplement have some imaginative names and flavor text, and comparing them to the Players Handbook 3, they appear to be fairly balanced (although I haven't playtested this). I would have liked to have seen these desert evocations expanded across the paragon and epic tiers, as I feel that a player would be in a bit of a jam if he or she were to use these powers in the heroic tier, only to run out of support at level 11. This is the only thing that prevented me from giving this supplement a 5-star rating.

Overall, if you're interested in playing a Seeker, and are in a desert campaign or envision a character with a desert background, these are some worthwhile powers and magic items, particularly that this price. Even if 4E isn't your game, you could still borrow from the ideas in this sourcebook to create a unique character or NPC.