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Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Vol 2 $4.50
Average Rating:3.8 / 5
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Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Vol 2
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Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Vol 2
Publisher: Octavirate Games
by Nathan C. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/28/2007 11:01:32

Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon 2 is very reminiscent of a sequel to a spoof movie such as Airplane or Naked Gun. The second crop of jokes never hit the same mark and you can not loose the been there done that feeling.

The Lethal Lexicon series, produced by Octavirate, are monster books that contain a dozen or so creatures that play off of puns. The second book in the series contains 20 baddies with names such as Poultrygeist and Space Beagle. The PDF is 43 pages long. Each description is informative in both flavor and text.

The minus about such a book is that in a serious campaign, such creatures are pretty much unusable on a consistent basis, so having more than one book of this type is pointless unless you like the humor. The abilities are creative but after a while of reading it feels kind of corny and redundant.

For the DM If you are going for over exaggerated humor in our campaign, by all means this is a great purchase. But if you are trying to set any type of serious mood you will want to use some of these sparingly. As an old school Michael Jackson fan, I loved Rhythmic Dead. The most out of all the creatures in the book. They are undead whom break into choreographed dance. Another one that was a tad more usable was Fauxfire, an ooze that takes the shape of fire to capture its prey.

The Iron Word Detailed descriptions and creativity litter the book, but I question the usability of it in a normal campaign. It is worth having at least one of these books in your library to add needed humor in a campaign, but too many of these showing up and your players will not know what to take seriously. .



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Vol 2
Publisher: Octavirate Games
by Peter I. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/27/2007 02:55:18

Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Volume 2 is a 43 page d20 pdf product. Lethal Lexicon Volume 2 is the second Lethal Lexicon product, both of these products featuring classic new monsters, strange monster parodies and other interesting and humorous creatures for you roleplaying game. Lethal Lexicon is part of the Ocavirate Presents series of mini-game supplements, covering a wide range of different topics that can readily be inserted into your game. This product is compatible with the revised d20 core rules.

Lethal Lexicon Volume 2 comes as a single pdf file containing more than 25 strange monsters that cater for the needs of both the serious campaign and the humorous campaign. The product is very well presented, with an excellent and detailed cover, a complete set of bookmarks, and the wonderful addition of rules for variant systems such as Wound/Vitality points and Armor as DR. Not only does it cover variant rules systems, but ample advice is given on using these 'fantasy' creatures in other genres, such as modern or science fiction roleplaying games. Editing and layout is well done, as is the bountiful artwork found for most of the monsters in the product, and the product layout is quite retro-style. Mechanics is excellent as well, with very few errors contained in the stat blocks, and new mechanics clear and concise. Overall, very good presentation.

Monsters are the staple food for any DM's diet. This product contains a selection of the rather bizarre, unusual, and sometimes downright humorous monsters, and probably some that would make most DMs choke. And to get some idea of what's meant by that, you just need to take a look at some of the creatures found in this product - the dread mascot, an accident prone creature that follows a party around, a mock turtle straight out of Alice in Wonderland, a dire penguin, more monster crossbreeds that you can care to imagine, the infamous chicken swarm (or other semi-flightless food-animal), and even the rhythmic dead, creatures that could probably star in a Michael Jackson music video. The book is a delicate blend between the serious and humorous, although veering strongly towards the latter. Many DMs would be more than happy to use some of these creatures just for a laugh, although others may refrain from using them at all.

The product aims to be a throwback to an earlier age of gaming, the retro style gaming of the seventies and eighties, and in that it succeeds admirably. The layout and creatures found in the book leave one in no doubt as to the audience that it caters for. Having said that, the more modern gamer can find some use from these creatures. Gaming is after, by its very nature supposed to be fun, and one of the best ways of having fun is to laugh at the experiences of one's character in a game. And, these creatures can be serious challenges proving that sometimes even laughing can kill you.

It's hard to take this product too seriously - it’s like magical experimentation gone wrong. And I suppose in a sense that's the point. Sometimes the world is filled with strange and bizarre creatures. Lethal Lexicon is the platypus of the d20 world. Overall, this is a well presented product with humorous monsters that cater to earlier editions of gaming, but fully useful and compatible with current rules. For those looking to see the lighter side of gaming, a reminder of the past, or even to kill your players before the laughter dies, Lethal Lexicon is worth a look.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Vol 2
Publisher: Octavirate Games
by Shane O. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 09/06/2007 14:45:38

Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Volume 2 is d20 monster book from Octavirate Games. The zipped file is slightly over twelve megabytes in size, and contains a single PDF of the product. The book itself is forty-three pages long, including a page for the cover, a page for the credits, and a page for the OGL. Full bookmarks are provided.

The second volume of the Lethal Lexicon is, like the first, fairly generous with its artwork. The cover is the only example of full-color art here, but each monster has a black and white depiction; there are no page borders. The artwork for the creatures, as well as the layout and font type, is all very reminiscent of First Edition rules. There isn’t a printer-friendly version, which is a shame, since there’s a goodly amount of art here.

Volume 2 of the Lethal Lexicon picks up where its predecessor left off, presenting monsters that are slightly off-kilter, but are no less deadly for it. Picking up with the Dread Mascot (a cowardly little creature that follows an adventuring group around, inadvertently bringing them bad luck) all the way to the Wooly Bulette, twenty-five new monsters are given here. Interestingly, several of these build off of monsters from the previous volume, such as the Endangered Half-Dragon templates being the logical extension from said dragons in the previous book.

The humor here is well-done, because it never compromises the utility of the product, but at the same times does a good job poking fun at the various tropes of the game. For example, the Sticksnake is the leftover result of all the gods getting together and collectively deciding to get rid of the spell Sticks to Snakes (hence why it’s not in the new edition of the game), the Noffig is the inverse of the griffon (and looks pretty stupid for it), and the Gelatinous Sphere actually seems more normal than its cubic counterpart.

The stats here are rock solid. I only found a few errors while looking through the book, and those seem to have been since corrected. Of course, all of the monsters have stats for the optional d20 rules that Octavirate is famous for. An appendix at the end also covers using these monsters in various alternate genres.

Altogether, the second Lethal Lexicon does as great a job as the first. There are some omissions that would have been nice, such as a listing of monsters by CR, or a printer-friendly version, but not having these isn’t a big deal. The monsters here are funny, until they start to shred your adventuring party, making them easily adaptable for humor or deadliness. Whether as joke monsters or just more freaks from the dungeon, sick the Lethal Lexicon Volume 2 on your players today!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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