[Review] Kobold Quarterly 14

Kobold Quarterly 14, the extra-large Summer 2010/GenCon issue, weighs in with an impressive 96 pages. The publication is filled with role playing goodness, with articles written by industry giants such as Monte Cook and Rob Heinsoo. Systems covered include 4th Edition, Pathfinder and Dragon Age – but, as with all well written RPG material, all of the articles, including the system specific and system neutral, prove to be great sources of inspiration. That said, since I’m most involved with Pathfinder at the moment, I’ve decided to restrict my review a bit and focus on my favourite PFRPG articles:

Perfumes of Bourgand, written by Stefen Styrsky and with art by Joe Slucher, introduces a new item type: perfumes. Styrsky discusses the basic mechanics of creating, wearing and detecting mundane and alchemically special perfumes. The mechanics are clean and I found the sample collection of perfumes to be both mechanically and narrativelly interesting. I can definitely see myself playing a character that uses and/or trades in perfumes. There’s also a collection of magical items and feats that further enhances perfumes or add extra uses/options for them. The article also covers a fantasy history of perfumes, tips for placing them in treasure hoards and adventure hooks – everything you need to bring perfumes into your game.

Paladins receive a lot of love in this issue and the PFRPG-specific article, Healing Hands, written by James Graham and with art by Giulio Bonasone, provides new feats that expand on the paladin’s mercy class feature. These new mercy options allow paladins to combat more conditions, including charmed, dazzled, dead and petrified, which allows one to create a more specialised paladin or better define a particular paladin order. Speaking of paladin orders, I found the collection of alternate paladin codes in Men of Honour, a system neutral article written by Dan Voyce and with art by Maurice Leloir and Howard Pyle, to be of particular interest. Paladins have tended to be at the centre of several game table arguments in my gaming history – often due to a lack of shared understanding of the paladin’s code or a serious case of Lawful Stupid. Dan Voyce shares several paladin codes and character concepts that cover a large number of play styles, making paladins more accessible to more people. Plus, he discusses paladin pirates!

Figurines of Wondrous Power, written by Phillip Larwood and with art by Michael Bielaczye, is my favourite article in this issue. I’ve always thought that the classic figurines were rather mechanically boring or inefficient – normally due to a combination of cost, limitations on usage per day/week/month and actual ability/uses. Larwood introduces a collection of new figurines that has made me rethink my stance on FWPs. Several of the new figurines offer an additional benefit to the wielder/carrier while in statuette form. The benefit is lost for x hours when the figurine is transformed into its creature counterpart. It’s a simple, but elegant and attractive change to FWPs. My favourites have to be the Citrine Toad  (I really like the froggy art) and Electrum Eel.

The KQ team has done a great job – excellent writing and artwork – and I really enjoyed reading through this issue of Kobold Quarterly.

- Jerall