Game
Reviews
Hard
Boiled
Ideas
±m
Cultures
is
a
4th
edition
supplement
writing
by
Fred
Hicks
and
Jonathon
Walton
for
One
Bad
Egg.
It
is
14
‐
pages
in
length
and
runs
you
about
$4
at
Rpgnow
and
the
One
Bad
Egg
store.
This product is a bit different from most 4thedition supplements I’ve seen. It is not a crunchybook filled with cultural options (as one mightexpect from the title) but instead is more of adesign essay and guide for creating andcustomizing the races in your campaign world.Though written from the perspective of 4thedition (whose races lack differentiation withinrace) this product is probably useable for anyonelooking to add variant to the stock races.Without revealing too much, the text suggeststhat are four main ways to affect the culturalcontext of your races. First you need to state acultural norm for your you race. I’m going to useelves and make adjustments for them in myEldfjallon setting. The norm I’m working fromis: Elves are freedom-loving wilderness folk. Foradjustments the text suggests that I can embodyor strengthen that norm, twist or be heretical tothe norm, break from the norm completely or bechanged by the expectations of the norm.For Eldfjallon, I’m going with the break approach – the elves that first encountered theelemental invasion became transformed, nowcalled Litalinyna or “Betrayers” by theirsouthern cousins. The Litalinyna have embracedlife under elemental rule and seek to teach othersabout the value of service to our elementalmasters. There that’s pretty good.In
HBI: Cultures
there are ideas on providingmechanical adjustments for the cultural offshootfrom ability scores, skills, languages to racialpowers. Though written for 4e, these could bealso adapted to fit with your own campaign inyou are not a 4e player. The book ends with anextended example of culture building using OneBad Eggs own Apelord race and a Dwarf example. I found the book at little pricey at$4.00 and may have passed over it initially but Ithink there are good ideas in here that are easilyused for any system.
Modern
Dispatch
#135
‐
Dark
Future
If
you
read
X
‐
men
comics
in
late
1980
or
early
1981
one
of
the
comics
that
probably
stood
out
the
most
for
Claremont
and
Byrne’s
run
was
the
two
issue
Days
of
Future
Past
storyline.
In
#141
and
#142
of
Uncanny
X
‐
men
readers
were
treated
to
a
view
of
a
possible
apocalyptic
future
world
(circa
2013)
ruled
by
Sentinels
with
most
superheroes
or
villains
dead
or
on
the
run.
Modern
Dispatch
#135
–
Dark
Future
by
Charles
Rice
of
RpgObjects
is
a
campaign
model
for
their
Supers20
and
Modern20
that
emulates
some
of
the
elements
of
this
classic
arc
while
remaining
fixed
within
their
own
developing
mythos.
The
PDF
is
16
pages
and
costs
$2.25
at
Rpgnow
or
RpgObjects.
The
world
envisioned
by
Charles
Rice
one
set
in
the
near
future
of
2020
and
is
not
as
overtly
bleak
as
the
world
created
by
Claremont/Byrne
but
it
is
one
set
at
a
tipping
point.
A
place
that
can
dramatically
change
based
on
the
action
or
inaction
of
the
player
characters.
Dark
Future
feels
to
be
part
of
a
larger
story
that
Charles
is
working
on
because
he
has
threaded
this
campaign
model
into
existing
concepts
such
as
U.S.H.E.R.
(United
States
Headquarters
for
Emergency
Response)
as
well
as
connecting
it
to
the
timeline
seen
in
Modern
Dispatch
#122
‐
125
which
ties
superhero
gaming
into
World
War
II.
The
product
is
divided
broadly
into
two
sections
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