Close
Close
Browse Categories
$ to $















Libris Personae Volume 1 $15.00
Publisher: Octavirate Games
pixel_trans.gif
by Nathan C. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 11/20/2006 00:00:00

After my first time flipping through Octavirate Entertainment?s Libris Personae, I asked myself, where were you at last week. There was just a lot more variety of NPCs in this book than I have seen in other publications.

NPC books can be helpful in a pinch and depending on which one, you have your good ones with useful NPCs and your bad ones that are a majority of creative mistakes. Libris Personae falls closer to the good side of that line. What makes it different is that instead of producing individual NPCs, the 106 page PDF presents you four very distinct mercenary groups with 36 NPCs between them. The NPCs within the group are fairly different with the kind of minor distinctions that have the potential of giving an NPC staying power. The writing emphasizes the character of the NPCs, and whereas the stat builds are decent, it is the personalities of the characters that make them more useful.

There is not too much emphasis put on setting which makes most of them easy to drop anywhere. The builds of the characters are decent, with a number of PDF only content used to make them distinct. The good thing is that nothing is over the top. All too often with a book of NPCs, there are a ton of good mega villains or mega heroes, but few basic adversaries, rivals and allies.

One of my favorite features of the book is not the NPCs themselves but the artwork attached to them. Though there is not a consistent art style, all of the art is consistently good. I would say a few pictures border on work appropriate, but you really get a lot from the personality of the characters with them.

A cool thing the writers added with one of the appendix. Sure there?s a cool appendix of monsters and spells, but it is the second appendix that is eye catching. There is a chart that of the NPCs and various stats for variants applied to them. For instance, I use armor as DR in my Egyptian campaign, there is a column listing each NPCs AC and dr under this variant. I also use a spell point variant which it also contains. They also contain stats for wounds/vitality, defense bonus, action points, magic rating, reputation, honor, taint, sanity and sanity loss.

For the Dungeon Master

There are a lot of niches these NPCs can fill in a campaign. Obviously the rival mercenary group is a given, but they also can be used as spot villains, helpful tavern folk and personal guards (what I used one of them for). Though I was not too much a fan of the Cult of the Gnoll, Vortaelen Cartography members more than make up for them. This was a very creative idea. It is an adventuring company that sets up shop in various libraries across the planes, making them useful and accessible in almost any location your PCs may find themselves. I have already snagged one for my players whom are venturing in the Astral Plane for the first time. The writers seemed as excited as I would about this group as they have a lot more print space and a ton more detail. In all honesty, this book could contain only this group and the adversaries and still be worth it. Consider the other three groups thrown in for good filler.

The Iron Word

Publishers whom are just putting books out using the same ole formats and mega NPCs should take notice. You do not have to invent personal classes and items for every NPC in the book and you certainly should try to think outside the box.. Octavirate has managed to ink out a unique publication in a crowded market by making innovations on the product in both style and artwork.

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: - artwork has a lot of personality. It is not just an addition but apart of the character write up

  • a chart of variants is the kind of out of the box idea that really makes a publication stand out
  • the npcs are not over the top and are very usable. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - the additional spells and monsters did nothing for me
  • some of the earlier mercenary groups are not as written as the two latter ones<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>


Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif Back
You must be logged in to rate this
pixel_trans.gif
Libris Personae Volume 1
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

0 items
 Gift Certificates