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today I'm going to take a look at Clockwork Gnome's latest pdf
The Cloven Hoof Syndicate
This pdf is
45 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC/SRD, 1 page
back cover, leaving us with a total of a whopping 41 pages of content, so let's
check this out!
The pdf
kicks off by announcing its intent, which essentially is bringing a new and
sinister twist to the old trope of the thieves' guild and then goes on to
introduce us to the presumed default setting of Eorthe, the world of CGP.
However, you should be aware that the content herein can easily be transported
to just about any setting and is in no way too tied to campaign setting
specific tropes. Aerendal, City of viridian princes, built upon 6 rocky
islands, connected via bridges, makes for the default and we get a whole page
describing the city, including a broad over-view map with color-coded
districts. I hope we'll one day see an extensive gazetteer including
excessively detailed maps on what could become a Venice-style den-of-sin metropolis
and intriguing setting extraordinaire.
The Cloven
Hoof Syndicate is an interesting organization not only because of its extensive
history - reaching back towards a planar event involving Faerie and the realm
of Abaddon, the syndicate and its twisted members are detailed in excruciating
detail. To be more precise: From smuggling, to drug-dealing and prostitution,
the kraken-like tendrils of the syndicate reach into all spheres of
illegitimate businesses and describe the methods of the syndicate and its means
to avoid detection in detail. Better yet, sample incidents involving
key-members of the syndicate's operations are covered and, along-side
interspersed seeds of crunch like a new drug etc. serve to paint a tapestry of
sin most foul and subtle that not only makes the organization a believable
threat, but also makes it clear that the paranoia necessary to uncover its
operations will border on the insane, limiting (apart from the blackmailed
officials) the options of prospective PCs even further and making this
conspiracy a threat that is most definitely not to be trifled with unprepared -
their capabilities to create so-called Star-motes, "gems" (complete
with rules)with a more sinister origin, is also testament of this.
Of course,
no organization can live only from a stellar frame narrative prefacing each
chapter or the excellent description of the operations -it needs people to
conduct said endeavors. From rank-and-file members (CR 2) to high-level
assassins (CR 9), we get a selection of 6 sample statblocks before we get to know
them also fully-stated key-members of the syndicate, from its instigator and
commander-in-chief , who is a challenge rating 16 brute and comes not only with
a full statblock and more than one page of concisely-written prose, to a
half-orc brute and the mistress of the prostitution-racket as well as the
insane derro alchemist (including 2 new alchemist discoveries) that refers to
himself in the plural majestatis (or has MPD) to smugglers that not only are
dark creepers, but also carry a cursed taint, the key-members all provide
interesting statblocks, entwines, cool narratives and perform key-functions in
the smooth running of the syndicate. Have I mentioned the rakshasa-blooded
skeletal champion (magus) rogue/sorceress or the tainted nixie bard? You get
the idea - the key-members of the syndicate are not only dastardly villains,
they are truly intriguing characters of their own right and can play in the
upper echelons of cool builds, their abilities reflecting well their status and
role in the organization.
Even
better, the two level-base of the syndicates operation, the halls of abandon,
are portayed in excruciating detail as well, providing a cool location and a
neat potential for an "into-the-lion's-den"-type scenario or even as
a base that can be established for the underworld contacts of the PCs, slowly
sowing seeds of the conspiracy...
Conclusion:
Editing and
formatting are very good, though not perfect - I encountered some minor typos
in the text. Layout adheres to a greenish-tinted parchment look and the
2-column standard and the full-color artworks are nice: While city-scapes
feature an almost impressionism-style standard and transport the taint well,
most of the characters come with artworks I've seen before in other
publications. The pdf comes fully
bookmarked (though I would have enjoyed nested bookmarks for the statblocks)
and with a printer-friendly b/w-version. This version, while art-free, has only
removed the pieces of artwork, resulting in odd blank spaces in this version of
the pdf -reformatting the text in order to save more space would have been the
more prudent thing to do here. The cartography is excellent and while letters
denote the functions of each room, as a DM you could hand out the maps to the
players as is. The pdf comes with full herolab-support.
Clockwork
Gnome Publishing as a company so far does not have a steady output, but oh boy,
when they do release something, I look forward to it - after their last
offering on the maggot god Morithal became my new benchmark for what to expect
of cults and religion-write-ups, the Cloven Hood Syndicate by author Paris
Crenshaw seeks to establish a new default of what to expect of conspiracies and
secret societies - and let me assure you, this syndicate is not another
tiefling organization, but something much more sinister - so sinister in fact,
that they might make great replacements of e.g. Zobeck's Cloven Nine or similar
guilds. The prose in this supplement is of a quality scarcely seen in
rpg-products and makes the reading of the pdf an actual joy to do rather than a
chore and the frame narrative of an increasingly alienated and desperate investigator
also helps to convey a sense of the depth of this particular rabbit hole.
Better yet, there are numerous side-bar, should you be so inclined, to inform
you about CGP's upcoming world and some peculiarities regarding e.g.
ethnicities. That being said, this pdf unfortunately is not perfect: There are
some minor editing glitches and I would have loved to get a map of the
stunningly enticing default city in which the syndicate is set. Furthermore,
the sloppy b/w-version is a disgrace to the quality of an otherwise stellar
offering. HOWEVER, even with these blemishes, I can't bring myself to rating
this book low - I've read a lot of tribes/secret society sourcebooks and for
the low price, this is definitely one of the best. Hence, I'm going to do
something I seldom do - I'll rate this 4.5 Rudii and still
award the endzeitgeist seal of approval. I urge you strongly to check this out
and hope the printer-friendly version will be revised to reflect the quality of
the full color pdf.
All right, that's it for now - as always, thank you for reading my ramblings,
Endzeitgeist out.
Endzeitgeist out.
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