By Thilo Graf
This pdf from Super Genius Games is 8 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving 6 1/3 pages of content, so what exactly do we get?
This pdf provides us with 110 different oddities you might put into the loot of your monsters. But why would you do it? Well, because most of the items provided herein have no intrinsic value, but are ODD.
For example, you might find phosphorescent pine splinters. A rattle filled with children’s teeth. An acorn carved from a lacquered stair or bed-post and even an empty picture frame that can light itself up. All the items have in common that they can feel rather out of place when used for diverse critters and that they may all inspire an adventure or provide a lead and a bit of detail and intrigue to a fantasy setting.
In addition to the vast amount of cool items herein, we also get a page of advice for the Dm to deal with item fixation and help one use the items presented herein.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. The pdf adheres to SGG’s classic 3-column layout and features some neat pieces of artworks. The pdf has no bookmarks. Designer Rich Redman provides us with an extremely usable, cool and imaginative array of odd items, strange contents and thus potential hooks that is sufficiently different from e.g. Raging Swan’s "So what’s…"-line to be useful when used in combination with it. The items herein are cool and feature weird ones along more common items, which also brings me to my only and rather minor gripe with this file – not all of the items are as imaginative as I would have liked – a vial of blood or a brass ring don’t constitute interesting items in my book. While the vast majority of items ROCKS, it is these minor hick-ups that make me go a bit lower than I would have liked to – thus, my final verdict will be 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4. I hope for a sequel with more of these wacky seeds!
Endzeitgeist out.
The Genius Guide to What’s in my Pocket? is available from: