Game: The Other Side: Minigame issue #1
Publisher: Valent Games
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 13th, September 2004
Reviewer’s Rating: 8/10 [ Really good ]
Total Score: 19
Average Score: 6.33
Apologies; I’m working through a backlog here and reviewing a magazine dated April 2004. Sometimes there’s nothing quite as off-putting as trying to review something old and established. Sometimes, though, sometimes you find a little gem.
The Other Side is a little gem. Okay, it’s not a whopping great big gem; it’s a little gem which is as exciting as it is original and useful. The Other Side, the first of the minigame series from Valent Games. This is an ezine. It’s 52-pages and Valent’s pricing structure is $6 for the current issue and $5. I like that – it’s a good and fair pricing structure, it’s going to be a pain in the butt to maintain though.
The Other Side aims on turning the tables on the average game. This isn’t about giving your dwarf, elf or human hero more ways to fight back against those big, mean, villains. Instead we look at those poor lizardfolk who just want to live in the swamp and not be molested by treasure hunters or the goblins who just want to raise their family in safety but who are caught between dwarves on one side and hobgoblins on the other. We also look at the hobgoblins whom are doing their best to marshal their goblin army to finally finish that dwarf menace once and for all.
As you might expect there are mini adventures, mini games if you will, in this PDF – but they’re not the majority offering here.
Good.
The PDF begins by giving the goblinoid races the sort of overview that the PC races in the core rules. If you skip ahead to the orc racial stereotype you’ll read that the orcs believe they once had the world and it was stolen from them. The world, in this case, isn’t limited to physical things but includes abstract things like hunger (stolen by the gnolls) and forethought (stolen by the bugbears). The ogres stole big. These racial views present clearly the hook on which each monstrous race is built on. This isn’t quite the StarTrek model where every alien is the paragon of its species. From time to time, Valent Games remembers to point out there are always exceptions. It’s an entertaining read. No, I’m not joking. Give any decent GM a few minutes and he’ll wing some reason why the goblinoids are doing what they need to do to terrorise the players or helpless NPCs. But it’s a hassle. It’s all too easy to come up with the same reason. It’s all too easy to be uninspired by the same-old same-old that churns itself forth when any old reason will do. The Other Side, I think, is a great tonic to this. It’s familiar enough to be entirely playable and it’s refreshing enough to actually make you want to use it.
This section, nearly half the PDF, is promptly followed by Racial Adjustment stats for the creatures. You can play the trap-building kobolds, smash happy ogre or militant orc yourself. The Other Side uses Equivalent Character Levels as an adjustment to keep things fair. A level 1 ogre, with +6 ECL, would balance with a group of level 6 orcs. It’s a bit tricky because the same ogre would also balance with a group of level 6 goblins. That’s the limitation in ECL.
Wizards have published Savage Species which does exactly this – a hardback book which runs through all the monster races it can find and then gives you stats with ECL to make them playable. The difference between The Other Side and Savage Species is that The Other Side inspired me whereas the Savage Species managed to convince me that monster PCs are a bad idea.
This is a d20 supplement-cum-magazine and we’ve already had stats for new character races. Oh look! New skills, feats, weapons and prestige classes! I think we all saw that one coming – but what else would you put in a d20 ezine? Besides, these skills, feats, weapons and prestige classes enjoy that whole novel (or at least ‘more novel’ than the average d20 supplement) slant that The Other Side enjoys. Feats include “Runt” and “Pillar of Society” – that last one being somewhat ironic as so many charming heroes are rogues and outcasts. The exotic weapons include nets and siege rams – normally those things which players are trying to defeat or dodge. (The monsters use nets the non-lethal deterrent where so-called heroes fireball first and ask questions later.) The prestige classes are a lot of fun – the GateSmasher appeals to certain monsters and the sly Infiltrator to others. There’s the Ogre-Rider and the Trapmaster. Monsters can belong to the standard classes to and The Other Side finds space in this PDF for a quick look at that too. New skills include the like of Craft (poison). There are plenty of new poisons in the ezine (an ode to the trap building kobolds, perhaps).
Throw in some GM Advice (GM rather than DM) as well as the mini-games and I feel The Other Side has done wonderfully well as an ezine. I think The Other Side is comparable too and superior to many d20 PDF supplements of the same price. The Other Side even has superior illustrations to many d20 supplements of the same price.
Sometimes it’s worth digging through the backlog and rummaging around in archives. I’ve come late to Valent Games’ minigames line and now I’m looking forward to reading the rest.
