Superior Synergy: d20 Fantasy
From: Misfit Studios
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
Superior Synergy: d20 Fantasyis a new d20 Fantasy Rules Supplement PDF from Misfit Studios.
Possibly the most under-used aspect of d20 in my game is Synergy. It is a great concept, just not implemented well. Superior Synergyis a PDF series that expands and explores it, in hopes to make it more practical for higher level characters. Superior Synergy: d20 Fantasy covers skills and feats found in the open license related to d20 Fantasy.
From page # 1: “Such a restricted range of synergy not only limits the entire cross-over reward for a character’s knowledge in a skill to an unusually early period in that character’s career,…”
Synergy is a concept that started in the d20 Fantasy rules and is pretty well defined in that rule-set. Many of the skills already have a preset of synergy opportunities. So this PDF expands off those. It is broken down into 2 sections – Superior Skill Synergy and Feat Synergy.
The Superior Skill Synergy takes many of the existing d20 Fantasy skills and extends the synergetic opportunities for them. There are 14 skills lists in 5 pages. Skills include Bluff, Craft, Decipher Script, Jump, Knowledge, Search, Spellcraft, and Use Rope. The ranks range from 5 to 20, and bonuses range from +2 to +5. Most are fairly simple and clear, like Escape Artist aiding in tying someone else up.
From page # 1: “…it also ignores the many things that a character can learn through the course of its continuing experience.”
Feat synergy is a new concept introduced here that simply makes sense, even though it could be considered border-line power gaming. It extends the concepts of synergy to feats, giving the players some extra functionality out of the right combination of feats. Some would say it is getting a free feat out of it and in many ways it is. Feat Synergy includes feats like Acrobatics, Athletics, Agile, Animal Affinity, Endurance, Combat Reflexes and others. There are 24 instances of Feat Synergy explained in these pages.
In conclusion, like the d20 Modern/Future version I also reviewed, I feel like there should be an easy way to look up the Synergy skills. Bold facing the skills within each subheading would help. The interior art is nothing to write home about but the formatting (other than what I mentioned above) is acceptable. Otherwise, I love this concept because I have been wanting to write something like this also for my games. Something like this will get used in my games. This is less impressive than the Modern version, only because d20 fantasy already has a good amount of low-level synergy.
For more details on Misfit Studios and their new d20 Fantasy Rules Supplement PDF “Superior Synergy: d20 Fantasy” check them out at their website http://www.misfit-studios.com.
Superior Synergy: d20 Fantasy
From:Misfit Studios
Type of Game:d20 Fantasy Rules Supplement PDF
Written by:Steven Trustrum
Art by:David Hamilton
Number of Pages:22
Game Components Included:One PDF file
Game Components NotIncluded:Core d20 rulebooks
Retail Price:$ 1.50 (US)
Website:www.misfit-studios.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung