Tested: Ultimate Toolbox
Ultimate Toolbox by AEG
The fine folks over at Alderac Entertainment Group were kind enough to send me a copy of their Ultimate Toolbox, a book of tables, charts, seeds, and sidebars to inspire and aid the Game Master or player of any fantasy based roleplaying game. This book is far larger than its predecessor, the Toolbox, and is system agnostic to boot. It clocks in at 400 pages, none of which are wasted.
Within those pages are over 1000 charts and numerous sidebars that should help any player (Game Master or not) flesh out player characters, non-player characters, cities, governments, religions, dungeons, and plots (just to name a few).
The book is laid out into seven chapters and an appendix. Each chapter is also divided into sections conveniently marked in the table of contents. Each chapter ends with a section called Using This Chapter which gives a capstone on implanting the many charts and various sidebar information presented throughout the chapter.
This is a veritable mine of ideas, description, and seeds with which to grow your campaign. The utilitarian nature of the Ultimate Toolbox combined with the sheer amount of information provided makes it a difficult supplement to adequately review. So to give readers a better idea about what is contained in this massive tome, I’m going to reproduce the table of contents as well as craft a section of a city using the book.
1: Character
2: World
3: Civilization
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4: Maritime
5: Dungeon
6: Magic
7: Plot (GM Only)
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Crafting with the Ultimate Toolbox
The description below was created after about five minutes of rolling a d20 on several charts in from the Civilization chapter and the Architecture & Atmosphere section. As you can see you can generate some detailed descriptions fairly quickly.
- Building Description: Complicated Connections span a series of buildings all owned by a single landlord
- Architecture: Second-story structures with many windows
- Districts & Quarters: Red-light district
- Neighborhood Features: High crime rate in alleys
- Monuments: Obelisk
- Building Types 1: Aqueduct
- Building Types 2: Concert Hall
- City Sights: Local crowd partaking of a public stoning or execution
- City Sounds: Glass breaking
- City Smells: Burnt Sugar
- Statue Description: Tall, once pure-white obelisk rises to the sky. It is covered with strange ancient writings and is rumored to be only one of many
Conclusion
I have a theory that the best Game Masters are actually accomplished improv artists. They are able to play off of unexpected player decisions without missing a beat. While this book will not teach you improv, it can prove indispensible as a tool at the table to quickly generate details for unexpected situations at the table, especially if you bookmark likely used tables beforehand.
Needless to say, despite the marked price of $49.95, I highly recommend this book. This book will survive the current edition of whatever game you’re playing and prove useful time and again. You can shave nearly $16 off the cover price if you pick up the Ultimate Toolbox from Amazon.
Choose Your Own Adventure
Before I ever touched a set of polyhedral dice, I read the Endless Quest books from TSR. My mother had purchased a set of them at a yard sale based purely on the fact that they had dragons and whatnot on the covers (I was a big fan of fantasy art, especially dragons).
EQ #13 - Dragon of Doom
The first book I remember reading was EQ#13: Dragon of Doom. It was probably that book that single-handedly gave me an unsatiable appetite for storytelling and adventure gaming that eventually led me to the world of roleplaying games via Dungeons & Dragons.
I still have a handful of Endless Quest books and I am always on the lookout for more (so if anyone has any that are looking to unload them, let me know).
Fast forward about fifteen years to when I was teaching myself Actionscript and needed a simple project to practice states and frame changing. I remembered those classic days of choosing my own adventure path with Endless Quest books and decided to make a short tribute to those books that sparked my passion for the roleplaying game hobby.
While backing up my system, I just happened to stumble across my Flash version of a Choose Your Own Adventure book and figured I would share with my readers. Also, I am aware of several spelling errors, but I haven’t had the opportunity to revisit the project to make changes.
Portrait of a Villain: Mad Archwizard
Mad Archwizard ill. by Crystal Frasier
The Mad Archwizard (aka the Insane Sorcerer) is probably one of fantasy roleplaying games’ most used villain archetype. 90% of the world’s dungeons have been excavated and populated by these nefarious personalities. Many have turned to the cold embrace of undeath to continue their magical studies, picking up the Lich template. Just as many (if not more) become victims of their success as some rare magic they have just discovered ends their mad obsession with obtaining arcane lore. The trick is spinning the cliché into something new and original.
Once again, I would like to thank Crystal Frasier for providing the fantastic illustration accompanying this article. Look for her work in an upcoming issue of Kobold Quarterly (I hope I can say that!).
Xephero Valderann
All I seek are exceptional apprentices to whom I can instill my great knowledge. I invite all seekers of arcane lore to my school, the Arcane Academy, where I unlock their potential with the Art to become great wizards. I am the 10th headmaster of a long line of powerful wizards. All one must do to enroll in my academy is to sign this application…
Background
The Arcane Academy has been around for around five hundred years and has a tradition of changing headmasters every fifty years. Xephero is the tenth such headmaster, who has all had a reputation for being loony, but commanding a large measure of loyalty from his students. In fact, no student to date has ever spoken about their time at the academy, merely stating that if one wants to know more they should apply with the headmaster.
The truth of the matter is that Xephero is actually the founding headmaster and is over five hundred years old. Xephero has gone by many names, but he often reverts back to his original given name which he claims currently. Xephero created the Academy because during his obsessive search for arcane power, he became cursed by the patron deity of magic.
Xephero had reached what he considered the pinnacle of mortal achievement in the studies of Arcane Lore. Not one spell, ritual, or tome had escaped his research. So he prepared an ancient ritual for communing with the gods, thinking to impress the deity of magic.
During his commune the deity of magic, Xephero demanded to be shown the divine secret of magic, thus ensuring his ascension to godhood. The god of magic was enraged at Xephero’s hubris and placed a curse upon him:
You shall truly be known as the greatest wizardly instructor of the Art, for you shall be compelled to instill your vast knowledge upon any apprentice who seeks it. You shall never be able to expand your precious knowledge, only share what you have learned thus far. This shall be your fate until the Prodigy surpasses your achievements in the Art.
Motivations & Goals
Xephero is under divine geas to teach anyone who wishes to learn from him, but he makes an effort to seek out the most talented apprentices in the land to enroll in his Academy. By doing so, he hopes to discover the prodigy destined to surpass him. Every generation, he chooses his most promising student to become the next headmaster. Then during a secret ritual, he traps the soul of the student in a crystal and possesses the student’s body, thus preventing anyone from surpassing his achievements.
When a student signs the application for enrollment, she is magically bound to defend Xephero from all threats while attending the Academy as well as being sworn to secrecy about anything she learns or hears within its walls. With the magical contracts, Xephero hopes to ensure his continued existence free from external peril.
The life of a student of the Academy is harsh and full of work. Xephero pushes the students to their limits and his motivation is twofold. One, since he can no longer expand his arcane knowledge, he uses the students’ discoveries to increase his powers, though he has been unsuccessful at reproducing any student discoveries. Two, he actually tries to make the students’ life as miserable as possible so they will quit and leave the Academy, keeping him from having to share his knowledge.
His previous research indicates that there may be an ancient artifact powerful enough to sever the geas the god of magic placed upon him. However, since he is forever busy instructing apprentices, he is unable to look for it. He has sent several groups of adventurers to retrieve it, but none have ever found it. The years have not been kind, and Xephero becomes more fanatic every year the artifact goes unfound
Organization
The Arcane Academy is home for anywhere from ten to twenty students at any time. The turnover rate is quite high, as not many students have the determination to subject themselves to the rigors that Xephero puts them through.
Because of the contract, they are all required to defend Xephero to the death should any aggressors attack the mad Archwizard. They are all wizards ranging from level 1 to 25. Also, the contract swears them to secrecy, even after quitting the school, which leaves much mystery to anyone requiring knowledge of the interior or inner workings of the Academy.
The only way to free the students from being bound by the contracts is to find them and dissolve them with acid. Once the contracts are dissolved, students will be governed by their own free will, which could mean they might defend Xephero out of self interest.
Hooks
The mother of an apprentice of the Academy, a noblewoman who serves as a priestess of the goddess of healing, has been receiving visions about her son. In her vision, her son has been imprisoned in a cage of glass. All of her correspondence goes unanswered from the Academy, and she fears the worst.
A power artifact is rumored to be held by an elder black dragon in the swamps to the south. A band of worthy heroes are being sought to recover the Quill of Fate before the dragon discovers its fate and uses it. The ancient relic is supposedly capable of rewriting one’s fate should he know what his destiny truly is. The Arcane Academy is willing to store and protect the artifact.
The player characters are in need of a rare ritual to cure a deadly disease. They have heard the Arcane Academy houses much lore and may have the ritual in question, but the headmaster requires enrollment.
Check out some other villains hiding out on the web this week:
The Core Mechanic’s Morgan Le Fay
Listening to: Machine Head – The Burning Red – Nothing Left
gamingD&DrpgroleplayingvillainsNevermet Press
Portrait of a Villain: Tyrant King
Tyrant King ill. by Crystal Frasier
Acario Macellarius IX
These people survive because I have gifted them with law and order. They who usurped this very throne upon which now I sit from my family a century ago had allowed the decadence benevolence to deteriorate my kingdom. The borders shrank as invaders carved up the countryside unchallenged while the aristocracy grew fat and lazy on the taxes that never made it to the royal coffers.
The people should hail me as a hero for executing those noble thieves and reclaiming the lands that belonged to my ancestors. But instead they hate me and speak of revolution behind closed doors. Well, they shall repay me with sweat and blood as I forge a new empire! Devils be damned…
Background
It has been twenty years since Acario Macellarius IX emerged from familial exile leading his infernal host against the descendents of usurpers. It is now the thirteenth year of his sovereignty, having restored the throne to its rightful heirs.
Acario is the last of a lineage of an exiled king, Acario Macellarius VI, overthrown and banished by the aristocracy of his kingdom. When exiled, the Macellarius family managed to leave with much of the kingdom’s wealth which bought them a barony in the neighboring kingdom where they sought refuge. Many members of the family looked to infernal pacts to increase their power and influence.
Slowly, the Macellarius family expanded their influence and power within borders of their new home, eventually staging a nearly bloodless coup as the Macellarius IX had risen to be a prominent general in that kingdom’s army. However, the Macellarius family had not forgotten about their ancestral home.
During their exile, the Macellarius family had maintained close relationships with sympathetic nobles as well as infiltrating the court and army with their agents. When Macellarius IX marched upon the capital of his ancestral home, almost half of the nobles had been turned or neutralized along with the army. However, there was a long and bloody succession war fought against the remaining units still loyal to the king pretender as well as the remnants of the losers of the coup from his home in exile.
Acario Macellarius is cruel and revels in power, ruling his burgeoning empire with the proverbial iron fist. He was born and bred to be the Macellarius that returned the family to their place as the rulers of their ancestral kingdom. He was corrupted as a youth by the infernal teachings of his mother, but quickly showed an aptitude in battle, becoming the youngest general of his home in exile’s history.
Motivations & Goals
Acario is consumed with expanding his dominion. He has already conquered two kingdoms and is preparing to launch a new campaign against the realm on his southern border. But before he continues his conquest, he is overseeing the construction of his new seat of power, a mighty fortress that perched on a cliff overlooking the fields his ancestral home.
Acario was raised to believe it to be his destiny to become the emperor of the known world and sees himself as a benefactor, bringing law to the lawless. Acario has re-written the law to conform to his vision and has ensured that his laws have been posted in the taverns and common areas throughout his kingdom, as it is in fact the law to do so, regardless to the reality that very few people are literate. He ensures the law is enforced through a large constabulary.
To keep the peasants happy, and therefore reduce the chances of revolution, Acario has established weekly tournaments and games to distract his people from their miserable lives. Some of these games are brutal gladiatorial contests between prisoners and slaves. It was during one of these weekly events that Acario met the woman who he has decided to make his queen.
The Macellarius family is disgusted at his interest in this woman, Erin, who is a commoner from one of the outlying villages, thinking she is below his station. His family has encourages Acario to marry a noble and take Erin as a mistress, but he will not hear of it. Acario has courted Erin for a little over a month now, and she has developed feelings for him as well; they plan to wed by next summer.
Organization
Acario Macellarius IX possesses the crowns of two kingdoms, but has gutted their original infrastructure and established his own. After wiping out much of the old aristocracy, he divided his lands into duchies and appointed trusted family and associates as dukes to govern their operations. These dukes are supported by a small bureaucracy of officials including tax collectors, magistrates, and advisors.
Acario also maintains a large and well trained standing army which has garrisons located strategically throughout his burgeoning empire. To maintain civil peace, Acario has also created a constabulary chosen from the most ambitious locals.
The army that marches with Macellarius IX strikes fear into the hearts of his enemy because of his hellish royal guard unit known as The Possessed. The Possessed are men who have voluntarily (or otherwise) allowed the spirit of devils to warp their mind and body. The ritual to create The Possessed was acquired through a pact with a devil, for which he still owes his first-born son.
Acario also established a network of spies to watch his trusted dukes as well as root out troublesome antagonists and revolutionaries. The spy network is called the Steel Web by those aware of its existence due to the fact that no one can escape it once caught. The Steel Web has usually have members on the local constabulary to assist it in apprehending suspects.
Hooks
Young men and women have been forced into slavery in outlying villages to participate in the weekly games sponsored by a particularly malevolent duke. The PCs must stop the slavers as well as fight in the gladiatorial event to win the slaves’ freedom.
The PCs have been asked to join the constabulary to help keep the peace (and help the Steel Web keep an eye on them). The PCs uncover a cabal of warlocks performing ghastly experiments on pregnant women. If the PCs defeat the cabal, they recover a royal charter to perform the deeds signed by the king.
The Steel Web has deemed the PCs a threat to sovereignty and has dispatched a unit of The Possessed to hunt them down. If the PCs are successful at defeating a Possessed, the devil within him makes a deal to trade information for his freedom. If the PCs barter, they discover that Acario plans to perform a ritual on his innocent queen that will transform their first-born into an avatar of a powerful devil.
The PCs have been recruited by a resistance movement to overthrow Acario. Their first task is to infiltrate an outlying fortress, neutralize the night watch, and raise the portcullis to allow the revolutionaries to storm the fortress with minimal casualties.
The PCs are sent on a secret diplomatic mission to obtain an alliance between the resistance and the realm to the south. Unfortunately, the Steel Web has caught wind is attempting to frame the PCs for an assassination.
The resistance has finally taken the battle to Acario and the PCs must face the tyrant on the field of battle. But Acario is not just a man any longer, he given his mortal shell over to his infernal master and the PCs must defeat him before the devil fully materializes on this world.
Statblock
I have created several statblocks for Acario Macellarius IX, spanning the three 4e Tiers: Heroic, Paragon, and Epic. Due the length and complexity, I don’t want to overwhelm this article, so instead I will release the statblocks throughout the week. I am also working on a 3.5/Pathfinder statblock.
Just to give a taste of how I built Acario, he is based upon the Avenger PC class multiclassed with Warlock and wields the executioner’s axe. Acario definitely shares powers from those classes but I have also created three original powers that are unique to him. Check back later this week to see his statblocks.
Villainous Thoughts
First I want to give a huge shout-out to Crystal Frasier who created the fantastic illustration accompanying this article. Many thanks for providing me the art! Please go check out more of her work at her website, Clockwork Amazon, as well as her illustrated Mutants & Masterminds campaign setting, Emerald City Guard, over at Atomic Think Tank. I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate it!
It is very difficult to create a villain that is at once system/setting generic while actually providing enough detail to use the character in a game. This is my first hard attempt at doing so and I think I came pretty close to my mark, but still feel I could improve.
If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to sound off in the comments section. Also, be sure to check out my partners in villainy:
At-Will - The Song of Flame: Savis Rayn
The Core Mechanic – Portraits of a Villain: Sir Mordred
Exchange of Realities – Villain Spotlight: Zora Aldebar
Listening to: Meshuggah – Chaosphere – Neurotica
gamingD&DrpgroleplayingvillainsNevermet Press
Super Human Role-playing in the World of Heroes, Archetypes, and Modern Myths
- Gestalt: The Hero Within
Gestalt: The Hero Within is an original campaign world, written by Scott Bennie, for use with either the 5th Edition Hero System or Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition (along with the Ultimate Power sourcebook). It is a mammoth book; with the PDF weighing in at just shy of 350 pages and it’s published by Black Wyrm Games.
Many gamers avoid the short stories many game supplements include to set the atmosphere and tone of the game, yet this is usually the first thing I read when evaluating any material. Why? Well it establishes what kind of game the designer(s) was aspiring to create. This is especially true of campaign settings, where the aesthetics are the primary objective of the product. I think Gestalt: The Hero Within hit its mark.
The introductory fiction for Gestalt is titled In Mourning and chronicles the origin of a super called Lament, who is the Gestalt (or archetype) of Eternal Grief. The tale of her origin, dealing with her gestalt abilities, and learning to master them is very graphic and definitely sets the mood for the campaign world. Lament’s story is a hard look at how superhumans (known as gestalts) of Gestalt-Earth are the living embodiment of their archetype.
The world is recommended for experienced GMs and players, and after reading about Lament, I agree. Not because Lament’s origin is rather graphic, but because I feel only mature gamers could take advantage of Gestalt’s true potential as an exploration of the human psyche. Gestalts are the personification of the human condition, and that is where the strength of the material lies. Of course, that being said, a campy style campaign could still probably fit right at home on Gestalt-Earth, I just think it would be under using the material.
Gestalt brings a unique (or at least I haven’t encountered it before) origin for superhuman powers. The source of all gestalt abilities stems from a source called the Gestalt Dimension, which is a realm where the collective minds of humanity generates large amounts of psychic energy. This psychic energy is the power source for all Gestalts, of which there are three types: Pure, Bonded, and Chain.
Pure Gestalts are being spawned completely from the Gestalt Dimension is pure psychic energy contained in purely fabricated forms (usually human). Bonded Gestalts are humans that have merged with psychic entities and serve as the entity’s link to the world. Chain Gestalts are humans created by other Gestalts, are usually controlled by the creating Gestalt. Most gestalts were created during one five Gestalt Waves. These waves of pure psychic energy originated from the Gestalt Dimension and tore through the world creating superhumans in its wake.
The Gestalt world is described as “a serious campaign world with a lot of really dark places, some really light moments, and a lot of genuine weirdness.” It doesn’t focus on any single age of comics (Golden, Silver, etc.), but takes what worked best from each and uses it. Gestalt-Earth is a super-heavy world, but one where many gestalts remain unnoticed (such as the Gestalt of the Perfect Cucumber Salad). There are those that where tights, and those who don’t, and most normal people fade into the background.
Gestalt: The Hero Within includes chapters on character creation, history, new heroes & villains, extraterrestrials, the Gestalt Dimension, Gestalt influence (entertainment, politics, educations, space, space, technology, public opinion, and religion), and even two adventures. If the world of Gestalt sounds interesting to you, I recommend that you head over to Black Wyrm Games and download the Gestalt Player’s Guide for free (it’s under the Extras tab)and take the setting for a test drive.
Want to learn more about Gestalt? Read on…
- Atomic Array: Episode 019: Gestalt
- Game Cryer: Gestalt Review
- Uncle Bear: Gestalt: A Mythic Supers Setting
- All Games Considered: The Hero Within
- A Butterfly Dreaming: The Pieces of Gestalt
- The Bone Scroll: ‘G’ is for Gestalt
Drop by Black Wyrm Games today!
Listening to: Nine Inch Nails- Starfuckers, Inc. – The Fragile, Right
gamingMutants&MastermindsHERO Systemrpgroleplayingcomicssuperhero
