You’re Gonna Die Screaming – Optimization Guide for Commoners

You’re Gonna Die Screaming – Optimization Guide for Commoners

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This Pay-what-you-want-optimization guide clocks in at 22 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 17 pages of content, so what exactly do we get here?

 

Firts of all – this is exactly what it says on the tin – an optimization guide. In case you’re not familiar with these, usually, a color code of Red, Green, Blue and Purple is applied to skills, feats, spells etc.pp. to denote at a glance the feasibility of options available.

 

That being said, personally, I’m not too big a fan of optimization to the oomphteenth degree, mainly because some of my players *are* into it – adhering strictly to these can get in the way of making a character rounded, if you adhere too strictly to a guide. Those little touches like your PC being a baker’s boy – they don’t contribute to the combat capabilities and thus are often left by the wayside. Rogue Genius Games proposed bonus skills per level for exactly such “non-relevant” skills and introducing this house-rule into my game helped quite a bit.

 

That out of the way, the more pressing question on your mind will probably be “Why play a commoner?” And the pdf delivers answers – in brevity, here are *my* answers, for I have actually already pulled off this stunt. 1) The challenge. My players are extremely capable and taking away all those class features makes for a very challenging game-play less based on system mastery and more on guerrilla warfare and player smarts. 2) Get a perspective. I do like my main campaign (the non playtesting one) gritty and beyond 15-point-buy, players are wont to forget *why* those commoners keep on buggering them to kill threat xyz – even 15-point-buy heroes are exactly that – HEROES. This means they have so much more capabilities to deal with threats than average joe. Playing a commoner can make that apparent and drive home the reason why those guys don’t deal with threats themselves. 3) Go for a tactics-high game. Every item, every purchase in a commoner game is relevant – each little bonus precious. 4) A change of pace. The PCs have been captured and those guys they saved time and again may now be their only hope – as an alternative to a TPK, the “PCs are captured”-scenario that has the players save their characters via commoners is better because the adversary not necessarily has underestimated the PCs, but failed to take those nameless, faceless losers into account – and that, ladies and gentlemen, is rather easy to justify and believe…

 

So these are my basic suggestions, so what does the pdf offer – well, essentially an optimization break down of attributes, core races, skills – one by one, with feasible and well-thought suggestions. It should also be noted that general combat styles (as in not-style-feats) receive their break-downs – suddenly those light crossbows and halfling slingstaffs don’t look so bad anymore, don’t they? Fascinating, what a few lacking attributes, feats and proficiencies can do…

 

It should be noted that even non-recommended styles d receive concise break-downs of options to make them work. Traits mainly are glanced over, with highlights pointed out.. Beyond these options, advice on granting at least a bit of starting gold, weapon-selection and magical/mundane items rounds out this pdf.

 

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to Misfit Studios’ two-column full-color standard with artworks ranging from b/w to full-color and being stock as far as I could tell. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

 

This is intended as a teaser and first introduction to the matter at hand for author J. M. Perkin’s “The Adequate Commoner” kickstarter to making commoners not suck…so much. As an optimization Guide, it does a decent job and is actually a good read, though you should be aware that it does not go through all options available at the level of detail found in some guides online – it can be considered a basic optimization guide that is well-written and actually fun to read. It offers smart advice for truly low-power-level gaming and as such can be considered a well-crafted book. This being a “Pay what you want”-file, it can be obtained for free, though I do suggest some sort of donation. But how much? Basically, this guide is good at what it is intended to do – it’s a teaser, a help, an introduction and does that job well. If you have expected a full-blown, ultra-detailed 100+page guide of covered options, well, then this pdf does not deliver – surprise.

 

What it’s intended to do, it does well and hence, my final verdict will clock in at 4.5 pages, rounded up to 5 for the purpose of this platform.

 

You can get this guide for any price you want to pay here on OBS!

 

Endzeitgeist out.

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