Check this new PATHFINDER product: Classic Horrors Revisited

Discussing all things Ravenloft
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osdem
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Check this new PATHFINDER product: Classic Horrors Revisited

Post by osdem »

I'm sure you are going to find this one very interesting. The guy in the cover reminds me of someone... :wink:

http://paizo.com/pathfinder/pathfinderC ... 48btpy87d7

If someone is going to buy it or already have it i'll like to see his opinions about it.
Last edited by osdem on Thu Jan 21, 2010 3:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by alhoon »

Interesting find.
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Post by The Lesser Evil »

Has this already been released?
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osdem
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Post by osdem »

No it wasn't released yet. It'll be in stores in february. I'ts a pitty it has only 64 pages. Too much inforation for a small splat book.
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Post by hidajiremi »

I got my subscriber copy in the mail this week, and holy crow, is it full of Ravenloft influences. The opening story is written very much in the tone of the old Van Richten's Guides intros, the cover is very consciously attempting to allude to the Ravenloft boxed set covers, and it's a great book for anyone who wants to breathe new life (excuse the pun) into old D&D monsters--which is really what the original Ravenloft module was all about. I thoroughly recommend picking it up. (The first two books in the series, Classic Monsters Revisited and Dungeon Denizens Revisited, are both also quite good.)


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Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

me want
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Post by Joël of the FoS »

The PDF has just been released (11,89$). Got it, and a first look to it is satisfactory. Those guys dig Ravenloft, that's for sure.
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Post by Joël of the FoS »

The first monster presented is Derros. But the twist to add these monsters in an horror book is to use them as we use aliens in our world's science fiction - cattle mutilation, gruesome serial killer, human abductions and experiments, etc.

The answer isn't in the stars, but below ground!
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
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Post by Joël of the FoS »

As a teaser, how about this cool ghost ability, simple and effective in a game:

Fatal Fate (Su): The ghost died with some work undone or
desire unfulfilled. In its desire to see its efforts completed,
once per day, a ghost can lay a compulsive curse upon the living,
forcing them to either take up its work or face a terrible end. A
ghost can lay this curse by making a touch attack, which forces
the target to make a Will save or be stunned for 1 round. During
this round, the target receives a f lood of images suggesting a
course of action—though such might remain vague or require
research into the ghost’s history to discern an exact meaning.
The target has a number of days to fulfill the ghost’s intentions
equal to 14 days minus the ghost’s Charisma modifier, to a
minimum of 7 days. If the target does not fulfill the course
of action suggested by the vision within this set period, he
takes 1d4 points of Constitution drain per day. This effect can
be overcome via the spell remove curse, requiring a caster level
check with a DC equal to this effect’s initial DC. (CR +0)

---

And the cover is of course inspirred by the infamous Ravenloft Black Box.

Joël
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Post by Matthew L. Martin »

Joël of the FoS wrote:The first monster presented is Derros. But the twist to add these monsters in an horror book is to use them as we use aliens in our world's science fiction - cattle mutilation, gruesome serial killer, human abductions and experiments, etc.

The answer isn't in the stars, but below ground!
Woah. Now that's retro.

(According to an article in DRAGON #183, 'derros' originated in Amazing Stories back in the mid-20th century as an underground inhuman civilization, IIRC.)

Products like this almost make me wish I was interested in Pathfinder.
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Post by Matthew L. Martin »

Joël of the FoS wrote:Those guys dig Ravenloft, that's for sure.
F. Wesley Schneider's name can be found in the last three BoSes.
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Post by Joël of the FoS »

Matthew L. Martin wrote: Products like this almost make me wish I was interested in Pathfinder.
Remember PF is very close to 3.5 so IMHO you do not need to get or increment PF to play with it in your game.

And just the flavor text is worth the buy. There are cool descriptions and twists.

Another example:

Although a ghoul’s basest urge, to feed on humanoid flesh,
might seem savage and bestial, the ghoul itself is an intelligent
and often imaginative creature. They temper their insatiable
hungers with other desires that are all-too-human: a need for
companionship, entertainment, education, and comfort. Yet
one would be foolish to assume that these traits instill in the
ghoul a chance at redemption or peaceful coexistence with
the living. For a ghoul, companionship means either time
spent with others of its kind or time spent conversing with
prisoners the ghoul fully intends to feed on. Entertainment
is focused on grisly “dinner parties” where meals are served
raw or rotten direct from coffin, or from tombstones serving
as platters and plates. Education manifests as an urge to study
the dark secrets, be they necromancy, demonology, torture,
or some other vile pursuit. And comfort, to a ghoul, means
the pursuit of the most grisly and hideous accouterments
imaginable—chairs made of bones, curtains made of f lesh,
and decorations made from parts of the body a particular
ghoul might find distasteful to eat.

That's another way to see ghouls, different from the MM's.
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Post by Matthew L. Martin »

Joël of the FoS wrote: Remember PF is very close to 3.5 so IMHO you do not need to get or increment PF to play with it in your game.
That's the problem--I'm not particularly fond of 3.5. :-)
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Post by Joël of the FoS »

Matthew L. Martin wrote:
Joël of the FoS wrote: Remember PF is very close to 3.5 so IMHO you do not need to get or increment PF to play with it in your game.
That's the problem--I'm not particularly fond of 3.5. :-)
Ah, I see. Sorry, didn't know. 2e or 4e? :)
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Post by ewancummins »

Matthew L. Martin wrote:
Joël of the FoS wrote: Remember PF is very close to 3.5 so IMHO you do not need to get or increment PF to play with it in your game.
That's the problem--I'm not particularly fond of 3.5. :-)
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