David Lim
The plot progress was ok... up until how there's a twist to further tie up our protagonists and the stalker agent. I wanted to like this volume, as there's actually more story and exposition here (and a "third-but-actually-second" force), but I find myself a bit apprehensive over how it's going to end, as I simply do not like the implications of having them all head to the location.
I'll admit the ending wasn't what I thought when reading the previous volume (I thought the protagonists and the agent would end up actively cooperating with each other). But it's still a pretty disappointing ending; with many plot holes (e.g. why did Kittyhawk lure and manipulate when she can kidnap? Why experiment with unreliable human bombs, if she's so rich and powerful - just build actual bombs... that "CCE" energy thing actually makes much more value-sense as a perpetual energy source), illogical situations (facility conducting top-secret and probably-illegal experiments, and an old man (sure, he has "powers") basically just walked in), and unresolved issues (that poor agent doesn't even get to say anything). I suppose the idea is to show that there really is a much bigger picture, but given the short comic medium, I think it tried to go too big.
This issue basically confirmed what I was expecting last issue - poor payoff for the dramatic setup. And we're off to a second “arc”, after a very unsatisfying first “arc”.
The secret agent reveal wasn't much of a reveal, as it was pretty obvious by that point - and yes, it's basically proven that what he did in the last issue was completely nonsensical (i.e. revealing his powers, wanting to talk and then trying to kill, and then wanting to talk again, and trying to kill again - either stop trying to talk to people you're trying to kill, or stop trying to kill people you're trying to apprehend).The explosive disaster wasn't much of disaster when it came to body count (i.e. zero). And the wrapping up of this "arc" wasn't satisfying at all, leaving it very much open to interpretation, since nobody died and nobody get caught.Oh, and there was an interlude of a completely disjointed scene of two people having a chat on a plane. I guess thats the mysterious benefactor we'll be seeing more of? I'm almost dreading the reveal of the reason behind why this benefactor is helping Adam and Elakshi.
Not too sure what to make of this. It's some sort of hybrid between a game lore book and a campaign setting, but not exactly. As the former, there's not really enough extra information to satisfy lore aficionados, with what's already available in-game. As the latter, it's a bit too light and not broad enough in its scope. I guess it's more of a compilation of all of the lore currently in the game up to the point where the game starts.
A short story set in Eora, the world of the Pillars of Eternity game. It's actually something of a follow-up to an-ingame quest, although it has nothing to do with the game's plot.
The story, towards the end, is an ok read, but it starts off very poorly. I believe the problem lies with the subject matter itself. Wael is a god of knowledge, but also of secrets, so mysteries and and unknowns and the confusion is all probably par for the course. Unfortunately, this creates a very befuddled protagonist (who knows even less than the reader) and a very odd (not in a good way) antagonist. While it clears up a bit towards the end, it's done in a way to purposely create more questions than it answers. Again, I suppose the author meant for it to be in keeping with the lore, but it does not help the reader appreciate the story. And you'd need a bit of background in the game to even “get” some things.
I also wanted to mention a contributing factor to the confusion - the reader is actually reading about people who are using the in-game quest item. This extra layer of complexity does not offer enough to be worth the complexity and context switching.
If it only that were the only problems, I'd have enjoyed it a bit more. But unfortunately, the author chose to intersperse the main story with “effect descriptions” and “item descriptions” - as if the reader is a gamer playing through a game. The end result feels like watching a movie scene, then switching over to a “behind the scenes” clip, before continuing the movie. It's very jarring, and feels like a cop-out of not having to make the protagonist “figure it out”.
And speaking of the protagonist... and jarring... that boy protagonist transitions very abruptly - from an awkward confused boy, to a comtemplative manipulative sort, to a suddenly dutiful and faithful priest (but still a boy). If the previous sentence doesn't really make sense, well yeah, that how I feel about the protagonist.
The nice bits about the short story is that the antagonist presents some interesting ideas about the nature of divinity (in the context of the game world). Too bad the antagonist wasn't really developed much.
Krynn is a world of conflicts. This sourcebook is one of conflicts as well, in more ways than one.
A disclaimer upfront is that Dragonlance is not on my list of favourite official settings, though it is one of the earlier ones I got acquainted with. As I got older, I just found the core (and constant) morality conflicts, to be too clear cut, and thus unappealing to me.
The campaign setting presentation starts off with an introduction to the world of Dragonlance, the continents, and the history of the setting. Like many, my introduction to this world is heavily coloured by the beautifully written novels, especially the earlier trilogies. This section kind of summarises it, and presents it as a world that constantly sees a conflict between good and evil, and scales of balance.
The first chapter presents the races, focusing on their outlooks, and giving readers an easy comparison on how the standard races are different from the core game (not really in a good way - just exchanging one set of stereotype with another). We also get a first look on how the new edition allows for draconian PCs. The “joke” races are included too (kender, gnome, and gully dwarves) and while they make for comedic reading material, in general, I feel like these races are unrealistic. They always throw me out off - one minute it's all serious and heavy, and suddenly one of these characters would do something ridiculous, yet completely in-character.
Chapter 2 introduces all the character and prestige classes available. This is the first taste of the uniqueness of Krynn, where the Knights of Solamnia and the Wizards of High Sorcery truly set the world apart. They come with a rich and detailed explanation that oozes with flavour. Of note is the mystic (kind of like favored soul, but Krynn-flavoured), the Knights of Neraka, and the Steel Legionnaire. Although the existence of the latter two is a prime example of the ever-present mirroring of good, evil, and neutrality found in Krynn. There's also a dragon rider prestige class, but it's extremely unlikely to see any PC play, for obvious reasons.
Chapter 3 explains magic in more detail. The new spells are interesting, but it's great exposition to exlain the various states of magic in Krynn. An age where arcane magic is gone, another where divine magic is gone, another, both. It's quite flavourful, although somewhat irrelevant since most campaigns aren't unlikel to take place across the different ages.
Deities are in chapter 4. I've always found the divine conflict to be mostly limited to Paladine and Takhisis. The rest of the deities are more like side characters, given how little they affect the narrative compared to the primary two. The gods of neutrality are even more in the background. It's a strange kind of conflict. All the problems on Krynn are directly caused by the deities, but they always end up indirectly resolving the conflicts, through mortals. Makes for great storytelling though, if nothing else.
Chapter 5 presents the continent of Ansalon in detail, but unfortunately not detailed enough. It is divided into regions, but it only presents short overviews, so unless you're very familiar with the setting (or have forgotten much), there's really not much material to go on. Many of the regions end up feeling generic (i.e. “this region was devastated by a dragon overlord”, “trade was severely disrupted”, “the terrain was completely messed up”). One really huge miss was the lack of a world map. Each region presents a regional map (all in different scale), but it's really hard to visualise where they are.
Side note: Neraka means “hell”. The very first time I came across Neraka (before the internet became a common one), I thought it was a coindence. Then I saw Taman Busuk, and I just found it really funny that Weis and Hickman basically just took words from another real world language.
Side side note: One aspect of the worldbuilding in Dragonlance I found to be poor was in names. Peoples and locations in the same region can have different naming styles.
Chapter 6 finally brings up adventuring in Krynn. The default is after all the books are done - basically, all the major wars and magic upheavels have come and gone, and things are finally settling down. It touches on the aftermath of all the wars, and how different regions have changed. The whole continent is kind of “known”, but the wars have left enough ruins and altered landscapes for “typical” adventures to take place.
Chapter 7 presents some of the unique monsters and creatures found on Krynn. Of note are the draconians and the unique types of undead.
Chapter 8 focuses on the dragons themselves. As with the treatment of the standard races, dragons of different colours are narrowed down into stereotypes. But it makes for good reading to see the myriad conflicts on Krynn from a dragon's point of view.
Finally, the final chapter presents gameplay and rules changes to place campaigns during the earlier Ages. It could be fine to adventure alongside heroes of the past, but depending on how one feels, the strength and epicness of the novels could be a hindrance to such adventures. The primary obstacle being the fact that PCs either end up doing side quests and playing side characters to the true heroes, or end up overshadowing or replacing the story heroes.
Overall, the seting is fine. The presentation of the material makes for an easy read. My quips are that in several places, the mechanics don't quite match the flavour, and the artwork is strangely inconsistent (some great pieces, some horrible). There's a decent amount of details and flavour, but some pre-knowledge of Dragonlance is likely necessary to make the any Dragonlance campaign richer.
Wasn't what I was expecting. Didn't even realise it was part of a series centered on the X-Files. No Mulder and Scully here (except for their names). From the narratives and dialogue, I'm guessing the series is about sending messages through time (ala Stein's Gate, if you're familiar with that visual novel or anime).
The typical banter of a Ghostbusters comic that you'd expect are all here, but the Lone Gunmen were a bit awkward, like even the writer don't know how to make the Lone Gunmen react to ghosts, except vague emotionless comments. Maybe the points made by Egon at the end plays a role in the bigger series, but as a standalone, it's a pretty boring plot with loose ends all over the place.
The series closed on a high note, relatively-speaking, and only just slightly. The stories in this volume go from okay to ridiculous and back to okay again, but each still having the typical eye-rolling moments I've come to expect.
The first in the volume is a 4-issue story focused on Kyriani (and her promiscuity). As usual with stories where Kyriani is involved, Khelben is also somehow involved - and supposedly helping, but not really helping. It's meant to have an investigative or mystery theme, but it falls short of it as the plot jumps from location to location and partner to partner and ends up being unnecessarily dragged out.
The second 2-issue story turns up the dial on the dwarves-as-comic-relief theme, as they somehow managed to come up with a plot that involves Onyx's family members. The characterisation here makes no sense at all, with almost-full party deaths, family betrayals, a monster and a god appearing out of nowhere, getting completely ignored or just glossed over. Easily the 2nd-worst story of the series (the lawyer story in an earlier volume takes the cake).
The third story (single-issue) is actually not too bad... except it's built on an eye-rolling premise (an arm-wrestling competition at the wrong time opened up a rift to an dimensional prison...). Onyx and Kyriani gets most of action, and Khelben again makes an appearance of helping, but not really helping.
And the final 3-issue story puts a closure on things, with our cast of characters going their separate ways, on very sudden and very flimsy excuses (but, it's the last issue, doesn't really matter anymore). This story is somewhat decent, and a bit above the rest (and thus somewhat enjoyable), and it starts off with a usual con request from Conner (and I'm really glad how he ended up). On another note... using Vajra (a feared gladiator, who has prominent muscles and scars) as bride bait in a skimpy outfit is... a pretty stupid idea. Silliest moment in this story: I never knew that the spell Ice Storm was meant to shoot snowballs.
Anyway, I'm done with this series. There are a few moments of fun to be had reading them, but they're spread out thinly. Maybe the series just didn't age well, or maybe I'm just not the type to enjoy the gags.
Got this novella in a bundle so it's not something I usually read. The premise drew me in, but felt like I got baited into something else. It opened with topics that it had no intention of resolving, and it brought forth a protagonist to emphatise with but who would get no resolution, no closure.
I do find it an easy read but found it a little cringey in the way it uses computer terminology, and the assumptions it makes about how research actually works, especially when it comes to applied technology that cuts across multiple complex fields of study. VR gets mentioned in other reviews, but the novella itself actually explains that it is not really VR - it's watching dreams - and that's where the idea falls apart for me. See... VR is about the conscious mind - dreams are about the subconscious - and the subconscious will process information at an extremely rapid rate, too quick to be watched like a movie.
But, ignoring the “science-y” stuff, I actually do find the two main characters to be nicely fleshed-out (given it's just a novella); it feels like pleasant relationship. But as alluded earlier, it's just wasn't very satisfying to have an opening devoted to pitting the two main characters against each other and then to render it all completely irrelevant after putting them to sleep. A McGuffin if you will.
I did like the villain too; might have been an interesting character in a longer book. Too bad there's another plot hole with the villainous plot that I couldn't get past. How her employer knew so much about this supposedly very closely guarded secret, and knew enough specifics to provide the villain with detailed steps on how to use this supposedly secret technology, and how to expertly use supposedly proprietary software to commit the sabotage that she did... was just too unbelieveable. The explanation was to discredit the researcher by having her suffer real consequences - but there are dozens of easier ways to discredit someone, especially when you have the means to hire a corporate spy/saboteur/assassin.
Overall, I did like the idea or concept of the plot, it's just that the way it happened (and the premise not even acknowledged at the end) didn't quite sit well with me.
A very nice read that covers the birth and evolution of D&D all the way through its acquistion by Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro. Although it's a celebration of D&D, it sometimes also read like a corporate history book. But stories about what happened behind the scenes were an interesting read. Interspersed throughout were short “cover letter” of sorts by industry notables and other celebrities on how D&D came into their lives and how their lives were influenced by them. I too had my own story about D&D, but I guess the book included a tad too many, because by the time I was halfway through, I mostly just skimmed the rest.
Since this book has included lots of great artwork both old and new (and some very nostalgic!), there must be some critique of its design. Whoever decided to “slant” the text at an angle, or to “interleave” two different narrations (in the latter parts), should hopefully have learned that it was a bad idea. They did not make for comfortable reading.
I don't play RPGs anymore (except CRPGs), but it's a nice bout of nostalgia to read through this.
The Drow of the Underdark, just by its name, had a lot to live up.
As with this type of sourcebooks (focusing on a specific race or race subsets), chapter 1 kicks off with a discussion about the drow and drow culture. It explores the drow pysche, and what makes a drow civilization tick, and especially how a culture filled with infighting and backstabbings could even survive, let alone thrive in such a hostile environment. I would've loved to be a fly on the wall when all this lore discussions and brainstorms had taken place. It was all quite well-reasoned and well-explained. Unfortunately, this was the high point.
Chapter 2 presents the character options - the usual feats, variant levels, spells, invocations, etc. While there are some new drow-specific options, there were some rehashes. I didn't find it particularly inspiring (the drow bard was especially weird - mechanics conflicting with flavour text).
Chapter 3 goes into prestige classes, which I also found to be particularly disappointing. Forced flavour that don't really jive with the content in chapter 1, and a greater-than-usual amount of conflict between flavour vs mechanics - most noticeable in Cavestalker, Insidious Corruptor, and Kinslayer. It felt like a checklist, as opposed to any true inspiration of something that truly belongs.
Chapter 4 is on drow equipment and tools. There are some very interesting bits here, like protective equipment, the poisons, and special materials. This would have been a chance to really shine the light (pun intended) on the Underdark or unique devices for living underground. Wish there was a lot more of this.
I found chapter 5 to be quite a waste of space. It wants to showcase monsters of the Underdark, but it contains a lot of rehashes and variant monsters with class levels (although with flavouring specific to drow culture).
Chapters 6 and 7 bring the bar back up slightly as it provides a lot of information to support a drow campaign. Numerous adventure hooks, motivations, sample locales, and an entire city to place a campaign in. But personally, given my own understanding of drow culture, especially Lolth-centric ones, such a city cannot exist - from a drow's perspective. Outsiders are allowed too much freedom. But at least, there's quite a lot of meat to it, so there's that.
All in all, it was quite disappointing that there wasn't more about the drow - I mean, the title is “Drow of the Underdark”. What I found most glaringly missing is a discussion on the drow pantheon. The drow is a culture so controlled by religion that its an injustice to not discuss about the other deities - especially since the writers decided to discuss about drow manipulating surface societies (an area where the other drow deities are particularly active).
Other bits I thought could have been more would be more on how the drow actually thrived in the unique underground environment, more on how living such a place is different from surface societies - the customs, the daily life of commoners, the unique tools and concepts, etc. It's not like they haven't done these bits for other “race” products (that were focused on multiple races), and yet it felt like they did less of it for a sourcebook focused wholly on a single subrace.
I basically found the product to be underwhelming from a lore and flavour standpoint. Mechanics-wise, it's adequate I guess. As a campaign support, as long as you're willing to accept some inconsistencies between chapter 1 and chapter 7, there's quite a lot of material that can be used to drow-focused campaigns, whether with the drow as allies or antagonists.
And... we've gone past where the anime stopped. The aftermath of Clayman's utter defeat, as usual, doesn't make Rimuru's life easier, as it again sets off chain reactions. It's nice to see some light moments again after all the confrontations. The spotlight turns towards the west, upon the human nations and all the hidden strings that are pulling things along.
This volume is pretty awesome. The fights are all becoming super-powered. While it's great to see Rimuru flexing his skills in the latter chapters (but it was never really difficult for him - even if it's Milim), it's even better to see how some of his subordinates have grown in strength, like Benimaru's one-hit on a previous foe (granted, it was a weaker version). The anime definitely took the fights in a much different direction - they prolonged some of the fights, which had the effect of making the enemy seem stronger than the impression you'd get from the manga. Like Yamza was pretty pathetic (yes Alvis, I agree with your comment). The oddest fight was Phobio and Geld, where in the anime, they actually made them outright lose pretty badly; here, it just seemed like they were a bit hard-pressed. Shuna's fight, like Benimaru's scene, was really epic. And then there's Diablo...
A volume of politics and one-sided army bashing. First off, the build-up and then the actual Walpurgis was pretty excellent. These here are the movers of this world. A showdown for Rimuru and Clayman is imminent. And speaking of Clayman, he's completely unaware that his army is getting hit hard by allied forces of Tempest and Karion's beastmen. And new reveal of just how powerful Milim's followers (or rather, worshippers) are. An interesting thing to note that the anime actually stretched out this build-up quite a bit - the planning for Walpurgis, the strategising, the logistics, etc. The manga pretty much just hints at it. Both are rather well, in their own way. And speaking of hints, I wonder if Rimuru got the hint of just who might be pulling the strings of string pullers.
A lot happens in this volume.
There's one more round of power-creep. With Raphael's augmented abilities, Rimuru fulfills the first promise he made to his first sworn friend in this world. Tempest just got a massive power-up (not that it was lacking in power in the first place though). Rimuru turns towards analysing his newly-evolved and newly-acquired skills. These moments are usually a bit lacking in the anime, but I guess it'll take too much screen time to go through all of it.
And the “game world” just got expanded too, as we now get a reveal on Clayman's background, how the harlequins are connected, and a surprising mastermind behind the mastermind. Old and new allies show up as Rimuru makes preparations for getting back at Clayman's interference.
Rimuru leveled-up! Again! Well, he “awakened” as a demon lord. Which was not as epic as I thought, but I really liked all skill evolutions (and how everyone get a power-up as well). It was quite satisfying to see everyone back (and the comeback for Benimaru was really funny), but there's only a small bit of reprieve as other situations still need to be resolved. Milim carrying out her threat against Karion is hinting at something else happening behind the scenes.
This volume puts the spotlight on how the humans have completely underestimated Tempest. Each of Rimuru's evolved followers carried out the simultaneous counterattack. One the best moments of the series so far, laced with heavier and darker themes. Two additional elements have been introduced - a powerful and sinister human mage and actual demonic entities. So far, we've only heard the term “demon lord”, but actual demons appeared. And based on the dialogue, we can expect something very significant to come from these summoned demons.
Well now, unless my memory failed me, this volume contains the most material not in the anime - specifically the part where Rimuru was traveling with Eren's group and until he reaches his destination. Or maybe I'm just misremembering? Not sure, but I found the journey itself to be funnier than I remembered from the anime.
Anyway, yes, Rimuru is on a trip - essentially trying to tie up a loose end with him having made a promise to Shizu to take care of her protégés/students. From the anime, I didn't particularly like this arc, as I just found Rimuru's teacher role to be somewhat underwhelming.
What's welcome in the volume is more worldbuilding outside the Jura forest - specifically, human kingdoms. A bit of conspiracy, diplomacy and trade gets thrown in as well, to remind us that Rimuru is still very much a person of interest.
And Rimuru goes from conspiracy to diplomacy. More worldbuilding at this point (or rather, Tempest-building), as we see the effects of the aftermath of the Forbio/Phobio incident and Charybdis. Tempest is shaping up to be notable power in the region. Lots of lighthearted moments in this volume, which is also one of the things I find endearing about this series in the anime as well as manga. Nine volumes in and truly, there's really not that much missing from the anime.
Hmm... the Charybdis arc was a bit unerwhelming compared to the manga, but I did like the fact that there's a lot of little details in this arc that was missing in the anime. For example, the anime chose to show Phobio finding Charybdis, which wasn't really important, instead of showing a bit more of the aftermath, where the gang is now alerted to the fact that there could be more than one group pulling the strings behind the recent incidents.
This volume continues with the pleasant developments, barring a particularly tense moment with the followers of another demon lord, watching Milim getting integrated into the group is fun. Also, humans are back in the picture, with Shizu's old gang back in town, this time with their guild master in tow. Together with another group humans, Rimuru hatches a plan for better relations with human kingdoms. Lastly, with the way it ended, things are going to take a turn for the worse soon, as Clayman starts another plot in motion.
An ambiguous story from the point of view of a sculptor, about how he met a mysterious character who became his friend, and they would visit strange places together. It feels more metaphorical than real, in the sense that the protagonist might be hallucinating, especially since drug abuse is part of the story. Even the end seems to support that rather than any real supernatural force at play. It's an interesting narrative, as per the author's usual style.
Volume 5 marks the end of the Orc King arc and the beginning of the Great Jura Forest Alliance. We got introduced to an interesting Great Sage ability (or rather, “mode”) that wasn't in the anime during Rimuru's fight with the evolved Orc King. Not too sure what to make of it, it felt like an “auto-play” mode. And as the volume wraps up, well, Rimuru ended up giving out names again... a lot of it.
Dragon Magic turned out to be something I was not expecting. I was expecting more of a focus on, well, dragon magic - magic of draconic origins. But it turns out it's more of a sourcebook for dragon-themed options.
The basic premise of the sourcebook is a “what-if” scenario - what if dragons had a more prominent role in humanoid societies? What if dragons are much more influential in what exactly happens in the world? Such a setting would basically justify the greater amount of draconic “magic” (read: side effects) out among the civilised races. The focus here is on varied player options, unlike Draconomicon (more DM options) and Races of the Dragon (more focused on kobolds and half-dragons).
Chapter 1 kicks us off with new racial variants, where common or popular races are matched off with a specific colour of dragon and given a draconic heritage (and thus, draconic abilities or influences). These are the dragonblood races, a new subtype. The standard character classes each, as expected, also get variant levels with a draconic bent. Add in draconic feats and that's the chapter. Personally, I'm not particularly fond of the races (they're flavourful, it's just that I don't like this kind of clear-cut lines/pairings), but the variant levels are fine.
Chapter 2 gives us a new core class and seven prestige classes. A pretty weak chapter for me. The new dragonfire adept can be described as “like a warlock but with a draconic bent”. The prestige classes are as generic as they come, with poor flavour. One of them is a psionic prestige class (some sort of obligatory inclusion of psionics I suppose). One of them utilises a new type of pact... with a dragon obviously. They're not “bad” per se, I just found them either forced or weird from a flavour point of view.
Chapter 3 gives us what I had initially thought was the focus on the sourcebook - magic options. What I didn't expect was that it has a little bit of everything - even new soulmelds (Magic of Incarnum) and vestiges (Tome of Magic)! Of course, expect new arcane spells, new invocations, the dragonfire adept breath weapons, new magic items, and even a new magic item type - magic imbued into dragon scales. There's also a legacy item - a helm.
Chapter 4 brings us new draconic monsters, including dragonblood animals (named collectively as drakken) and new dragon species. I found many of them rather creative. There's also an interesting option of having variant dragon abilities - mutations if you will - much like the idea of variant races. It helps buck player expectations when they see dragons of a certain colour.
The fifth and last chapter closes with ideas on how to integrate these options into existing campaigns and explores different ways that dragons can play a greater role in humanoid socities (whether they are openly in control, or acting behind the scenes, things like that). There's a few locations and maps (very basic) and a campaign idea to build around. It's not exactly a meaty chapter.
If you were looking for dragon-focused options, from themes, influences, to having actual draconic characteristics and abilities, then this could be a good sourcebook to have. But some of the options are a bit derivative.