Central Casting: Heroes of Legend Review

by Paul Jaquays

 Ah, the Tour de Force of random tables and charts for your fantasy roleplaying game.  Central Casting: Heroes of Legend was written to help you as a gamer figure out the background of your character.  From unusual births (such as, being born exactly at Noon or Midnight), to childhood events and events in your adolescence.  To events in young adulthood, this book has it all. Although it's dated (like how it treats homosexuality, we now know that there is nothing wrong with a homosexual). This book is still useful in creating a 3D character.  Although some roleplayers tend to think up their characters whole cloth for fantasy roleplay, others could use a little bit of help.  As such this book is out of print and buying a copy from Amazon is way expensive: it costs almost a thousand dollars on Amazon.  So it's best to download it from the Internet (as if anyone is willing to spend that amount of cash for this book.)

What's in it?

Paul goes over how characters in most roleplaying games are one dimensional.  Actually, characters are often one dimensional.  Even characters I created do not have the depth to them.  I just go with a character with a small background and then proceed to play them.  The tables and charts in this book proceed to change all that.

The book takes you through some considerations for your character. The book talks about survival skills (something that equals the skill survival in Pathfinder first edition and Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition). Literacy, motivations, and generating NPCs using the tables in this book.  The tables begin with your character's race.  Of course you could choose your race, or randomly generate the race. Races in the book include humans, elves, dwarves, half-elves, halflings, beastmen, reptilemen (Dragonborn or lizardfolk), orcs, and half-orcs.  Although your fantasy campaign might have their own races.  

By DomCritelli from Shutterstock.

The book continues with a random table choosing culture (and this goes from neolithic and stone age cultures to decadent cultures). Then you can randomly choose your social status and whether or not your character is legitimate (bastards are possible).  Reasons for being illegitimate (like your character's mother might be a harlot), then your character's family, your character's siblings, then birth order.  The tables are relentless -- birth order, your character's time of birth, place of birth, even exotic birth locations.  Then you see whether or not your character had an unusual birth.  After that, your character's parents and important NPCs can be randomly generated.

After that, you can randomly generate what happened during your character's childhood and adolescence.  First, you figure out how many events happened during your childhood and then you roll.  This table, unlike other tables in other products (Ultimate Campaign, for instance); does not pull any punches.  It is very detailed and controversial.  One of the events that happens in childhood or adolescence (since you are using this table twice) is that the character could have been sexually molested.  There's even one where the character enters a political marriage with another (arranged marriages can happen).

Besides that, certain events require you to go into other tables. And there is a lot of them. But, the book maintains that in childhood and adolesence a personality develops -- so you may get certain traits based off of your character's history that you roll up.

From Shutterstock.

After that there are many tables with which you can generate your character's history and personality.  A lot of them.  From randomly generating personality traits, to love, to others, to non-humans, to time in the military, to being enslaved, to unusual skills, this book has it all.  Even something that is GM only.

Conclusion

If you are looking to go beyond what Ultimate Campaign and other similar character generators offer for generating your character's background.  This book provides that.  Unfortunately, unless you are ready to pay a small fortune for this book, I suggest downloading it off the internet.  It may be illegal, but it's the only way you're going to get it.  The book is worth it to get off the Internet, or to pay for the near one thousand dollars for a copy.  It's an excellent resource for your fantasy campaign; even though it's jaded and dated.

The Book of Erotic Fantasy Review

 

From White Wolf

This review is one that was made as a request.  I talk about it in my censorship article, and one of my players said I should give it a proper review.  So, I bought it from Drivethru and read through it, as fast as I possibly could.  It was written by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel and Duncan Scott.  The project's manager was Anthony Valterra.  Who used to work for Wizards of the Coast.  It was published by White Wolf's Art Haus.  White Wolf (Paradox Interactive) owns and publishes the book through Drivethru.

Disclaimer

This is not a book for minors.  At least, not a book for the immature. It contains photos with depictions of the naked body, sexual congress, and fetishes.  While the pictures do not affect me, some are clearly pornographic in nature and some aren't.  Since the subject matter is sex, there are pictures of people having sex (only two, mind you).  Reader discretion and parental guidance is advised.

Sex

Okay, disclaimer aside, lets talk about this very controversial book.  The book is controversial because it talks about something our culture doesn't like to talk about.  That is, as you guessed, sex.  I'm a married man, so I enjoy sex with my wife (as much as I can get it, we're currently separated as of this review).  As a nudist (as if you couldn't guess), I can talk about this openly without restraint. This review only contains a picture of the cover, and not any pictures of people -- both real and imagined, having sex.

Sex is an important part of our lives.  But our repressed culture doesn't like to talk about it. It's something discussed behind closed doors.  In roleplaying games, it's hardly something to talk about.  You make a pass at the barmaid, and the GM either has the barmaid hit your character, or if she likes you, go into a room and things fade to black.  However, without sex, none of us would be here.  Sexuality is important for us as a species to reproduce ourselves.  It's a physiological drive to have us mate.  Most of the time, it's with the opposite gender (Adam knew his wife); however there are some that seek sexual congress with the same gender.  With today's politics going about how one can change their gender, and other topics, we have to talk about sexuality some time in our games.  So lets talk about it.

This book is the result of Wizards of the Coast making a change in their d20 logo guide.  This was done long ago, and I didn't like it.  I liked seeing naked bodies in my RPG products for the d20 system.  However, Wizards of the Coast made the change in order to increase sales.  They would try to change the OGL this year for the same reasons. Yes, this book talks about sexuality, but in the context of a roleplaying game.  And this book doesn't pull any punches.

The book begins with an introduction to what the book covers.  It then goes into a discussion of Sexuality.  And boy, it has a lot to talk about.  Most of the material covered in this book is in the first chapter.  It talks about including sex in your game, and why you should include it.  It also talks about marriage, sexual taboos, the consequence of love and sex, handling sex in a mature way, and how sex fits within a roleplaying game. Given how most of this book is written for Dungeons and Dragons third edition; this chapter has good advice for any roleplaying game.  Including GURPS.

After that, rules for the d20 System is covered, including new skills and feats. All appropriate for a game that includes sex. (remember, feats are important resources within a d20 OGL game). One of the new skills included is Perform (Sexual Technique), a very good skill for everyone to have actually.  Although this skill is apparent when I do my Central Casting: Heroes of Legend review.  And I like the new feats -- some feats are described as sexual and others general. My favorites are the Kundalini feat and the Tantric feat.  As both feats give a bonus to your wisdom and your intelligence respectively -- after twenty minutes of sex.  Also, the chapter talks about crossbreeding and other matters of sex.  Also, a new ability score -- Attractiveness -- is discussed here.

The next chapter talks about introducing new classes and prestige classes into the game.  These include the imagist, which is a sorcerer that uses her attractiveness as a font for magical power.  The kundala, which is a monk that has a sexual code of conduct.  They also gain spells from sexual congress.  The Kundala works well in campaigns based off of Indian mythology.  Last new class is the Tantrist, A mixture of divine and arcane spellcaster -- and she turns sexual energy into spells.

After that comes the prestige classes, which is usual for prestige classes for games that uses the revised rules -- they are all focused on a theme.  Some of which can be useful in a game that includes sex.  These include a prestige class that is devoted to a life of Chastity.  And another for temple prostitutes.

The next chapter goes over spells.  And there is some new domains introduced for the d20 system.  And includes new spells for each spellcasting class.  Some of these spells are questionable -- plus it talks about new uses for old spells -- and the ethical ramifications for using certain mind control spells  for getting what you want.

Gods are described in the next chapter.  And there are a lot of gods having to do with sex.  Although you don't really need them, you could adapt Forgotten Realms gods to these rules easily.

The next chapter discusses magical items.  And there are some interesting ones. From sexual items to weapons, they are all discussed for use in a d20 game.  Like Pathfinder.  Then the next chapter talks about creatures, and there are no shortage of interesting creatures.  Some creatures do best as a race, while others are special in their own way.  The final chapter talks about certain adventures that can happen. And also provides about one hundred adventure seeds for use in a campaign. Finally there are two appendices and an index.

Conclusion

This is a book that really talks about IT!  If it weren't for mature readers, I suggest you get it.  It contains frank pictures of naked humans.  While not particularly attractive, all of the pictures are tastefully done and not very explicit.  There are pictures of humans having sex, but there is like two of them (also one of a human masturbating).  But it's expected in a work like this.  The book is the seminal work on sex in a roleplaying game. It is one hundred and ninety pages long and came out in a time when Wizards of the Coast got repressive to protect their sales.  Although it's a double standard since Wizards of the Coast did include a naked succubus in their revised Monster Manual for 3rd edition.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide

 

From Paizo.com

Thought I should do something Paizo related.  Don't worry, I'll be getting to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game in quick order.  Right now, I'm reviewing the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide.  Why, because I have a hard copy I can check out and go through it chapter by chapter.  It's an ambitious project -- recounting the Inner Sea region for campaigning using your favorite game system, not just Pathfinder.  Although I suspect my GURPS peers may have a conversion guide up (soon I'll be reviewing GURPS Banestorm and GURPS Fantasy).

The Inner Sea World Guide is quite simply, a guide to a piece of the world of Golarion called the Inner Sea.  It's as ambitious as the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting for 1st edition, 2nd edition, and 3rd edition.  My copy came as new, and I also have a digital copy. I refer to the hard copy I got from Amazon.  It's also the third incarnation of the Pathfinder campaign setting.

Disclaimer

This work is a fantasy world.  Thus it has many gods and the people are usually polytheistic.  Plus, there is nothing tying it to the Electric Universe.  You shouldn't take it as reality, it's a work for a game and therefore not real.  Yet. 

 Overview

Inner Sea World Map

 Lets get into it.  The first part of the book is the Introduction.  It welcomes you to the Inner Sea, a campaign setting that works with Pathfinder and written for Pathfinder.  However, like I said, you can use The Inner Sea with just about any game system you wish.  Including FATE, Rolemaster, and Dungeons and Dragons.  It describes how a god of humanity died and now the world is in need of heroes. It also describes the Inner Sea region as the trading and cultural hub of two mighty continents: Avistan and Garund.  These are based on Europe and Africa, respectively.  The book provides a broad overview of the Inner Sea region, yes.  And already I have an area I'd like to run a campaign in.  Also the introduction goes over the Pathfinder society, which is like the National Geographic Society.  Kind of.

The next part of the book goes over races.  And there are many different races that are recounted in this chapter, mostly human ones.  Then it devotes a page to the common races in Pathfinder.  The first chapter is scant, to tell the truth, but most of the meat of the book is in Chapter 2 -- The Inner Sea.

The Inner Sea region chapter goes over the Inner Sea in detail.  First water ways, including the Eye of Abendego -- which is a perpetual hurricane, like the Red Eye Spot of Jupiter. Then we get history.  And a good part of it. After the timeline, we get into the roll of nations.  Each nation in the Inner Sea region gets four pages detailing it's culture and a map of that nation.  The first nation, Absalom, gets turned into Absalom station in Starfinder (another game I'll get to reviewing).  Each kingdom and nation has a theme going for it.  For instance Andoran is based on the American Revolutionary War, while Cheliax is a kingdom where devils rule. And Jalmeray (an island kingdom) is based on Medieval Hindu India.

After the roll of Nations and Kingdoms, some effort is put forth on what is beyond the Inner Sea. Including Arcadia, Azlant, Casmaron, and Tian Xia (which is based on China and Japan, I'll review the Far East later).  Also what is recorded is the Solar System of Golarion.  Which I'll get into detail with my Starfinder review.  After that the lost empires of the Inner Sea is recounted in a section called Before the Inner Sea.  It's a hefty chapter full of information for you and me.

 

The Religion chapter goes over the Gods of the Inner Sea. There aren't a lot of Core Deities worshiped in the Inner Sea region, this is different from the Forgotten Realms powers -- where there is a a lot of them.  There are two additional domains for Pathfinder in this section and each Core Deity gets an overview of what their area concern and their domains. After that, there are a few other deities and Archdevils and demon lords.  And then other powers that are worshiped as well.  After that there is a whole section of Philosophies that are covered.   Then the great beyond is also covered -- these are the outer planes.  And each is given a section.

After that a chapter is devoted to life in the Inner Sea. This chapter covers trade, weather and climate, languages, coinage, and technology.  Animals and plants are also covered in this chapter. One of the technological wonders it covers is the moveable type printing press. Since it makes printing spell books easier, its also instrumental in publishing books on a far range of topics.

After that, the book covers Factions in the Inner Sea on an entire chapter devoted to them.  Each major faction has two pages devoted to them. After that, the chapter on Adventuring is covered.  Here you find ways on how the classes are worked into the Inner Sea, from alchemists to magi to the wizard.  Then there is a section of Prestige Classes remunerated.  From the Harrower to the Hellknight, to the Red Mantis Assassin.  Then there is a section of new feats, along with new equipment and spells.  Finally there is magic items.

The book's final chapter is on monsters.  And there isn't a lot of them.  However, they are there as suggestions for use or conversion into your favorite roleplaying game systems.  Then there is an index and the Open Game License with it's lengthy Section 15.

Conclusion

At three hundred and eighteen pages, this is a hefty tome.  But one that should be considered if you are adventuring in the Inner Sea region with your favorite game system or Pathfinder.  Conversion from Pathfinder to GURPS should be easy.  Some monsters may need work to do, but beyond those the book can be used as is.  I suggest you purchase the digital version first before getting your hard copy, just to see if the Inner Sea is somewhere you'd like to adventure in.