Doom Striders

Doom Striders
From: Bastion Press
Reviewed by: John Kirk

Imagine a wide-open battlefield, with two armies forming on either side. Hundreds of knights, foot soldiers, and archers line up, hoping to win this battle for their king and country. Then, all is silent. One force watches in horror as a forty-foot tall spider-like machine rounds the hill opposite them. It has giant plates of armor, sharp legs, massive cannons, and a dark blue glow from within. The tides have suddenly turned. A Doom Strider has just won the battle.

From the back cover:
“ At their heart, doom striders are magical constructs whose purposes are limited only by the imagination of their creators. Wizards and sorcerers craft them as weapons of war or as a safeguard to privacy; clerics can build them as monuments of faith and might; warriors might seek to lead one into the thickest of combats. The choice is yours… ”

When I first picked up this book, I was skeptical. Mechas in D&D;? It just couldn’t work well. It would ruin the fantasy element of Dungeons and Dragons, turning it into a quasi-Sci-Fi game. It would overpower the campaign settings they were used in. I’ll tell you right now; I was wrong.

The book opens up with an introduction to ease feelings and remove the doubts that readers would invariably have (as I did). It shows exactly what doom striders are, what they’re capable of, and how civilization could possibly have invented such massive technological breakthroughs. It is fairly convincing, and made me want to read more.

The next chapter is entitled “The Campaign.” It details all the possible uses and reasons for doom striders (more so than the introduction), what the impacts are if they were to be dropped into a campaign setting, and how to do so effectively. It gives examples such as privateers or mercenaries using smaller doom striders, and even goes so far as to put tables in for chances of jobs, their value, and a little on the contract normally used. The chapter then moves to reputation, and a fine adaptation of it. The base reputation score for a doom strider and its crew depends on its cost, then, certain deeds (such as betrayal, completing objectives, excessive collateral damage, etc.) raise or lower that reputation score, helping or hindering the chances of getting another job. Next comes more on the contracts and how they are used and written. Then, the chapter details in full the various aspects of maintenance; upkeep repairs, breakdowns, salvage, etc. These vary by the damage taken or the size of the doom strider.

Chapter 2: Construction comes next. This chapter covers everything from construction materials, to the size, type, and cost of the torsos, heads, and limbs of the doom striders, to the Craft (doom strider) skill, to armor, controlling methods, power sources, and weapons. The materials section details eight building materials, such as adamantine, darkwood, mithral, and necrotic tissue. These all have their own bonuses and costs, such as AC bonuses, speed increases, decrease in armor penalties, and damage reduction. The size of the doom striders are detailed next, from medium (person sized) to colossal, each with its own crew, strength, HP, AC, limbs, and cost. There are many types of armor (about fifteen), from dragonscale to vine armor. Also included are ample visuals for each armor type. Various styles of controlling the doom strider come next, and range from mechanical, poor to mental, average to organic, good, to remote, excellent. Many different types are detailed and explained, giving you a wide variety on the type of doom strider you wish to create. The chapter goes on to include other miscellaneous augmentations (like climbing rigs, passenger platforms, targeting beams, and detection lamps), energy sources (like arcanofurnaces, prayer engines, and vampiric translators), and finally on to the wide variety of weapons and other accessories (chain cannons, crossbow clusters, life shock, shard cannon, concussion shell, thundergun, and water cannon among them). All of these are included with solid descriptions and rules, with most of them carrying along a illustration.

Combat is the focus of the next chapter, showing that doom striders use a modified version of the standard d20 combat rules. The chapter begins with a little on using miniatures and a battle grid for combat with doom striders, and offers a few example ways to handle that situation. It then goes on to explain attack rolls (the same as normal combat for direct weapons), damage and critical hits (hit placement is included), energy sources, damage (to the doom strider, its parts, and its crew), armor class, hit points (depends mainly on the captain of the doom strider), saving throws, initiative, and attacks of opportunity. Next comes a long list of possible actions during doom strider combat, such as: attack with one of the doom strider’s weapons, bull rush another doom strider, coup de grace another doom strider, and many things the crew inside can do, such as aid another, heal, use magic items or spell-like abilities, etc. Range, reach, spell resistance, and doom striders in mass combat rules finish up this portion of the book.

The fourth chapter is about the captain and crew of the doom strider. It goes over the various roles and jobs crew can play, what the requirements are, and how they can do them. It goes on to list seven new feats and three new options for the Profession skill dealing with the doom strider. Two prestige classes follow; Doom Strider Captain and Master Engineer. All of this ‘crunch’ is well balanced, but isn’t very useful to a player character unless he or she is going to spend most of their time inside one of these giant mechanical beasts.

The last chapter, Allies and Adversaries, details six organizations that use or deal with doom striders and twenty four NPCs in those organizations. These are all well done, and provide a lot of help for bringing doom striders in on a campaign.

The last pages include twenty three example doom striders, and their illustrations and then some, rounding the book out with a blank stat sheet for your own doom striders and the index.

In conclusion,
Even if you aren’t into high fantasy or lots of technology, you’ll still find this book useful. I was completely surprised by the wealth of information included, and although some of the art isn’t of the best quality, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something new to add to their campaigns.

(Product Summary)

Doom Striders
From: Bastion Press
Written by: Sam Witt
Cover Art by: Kari Christensen
Additional Art by: Christopher Herndon, David Hendee, Ed Bourelle, Jacob Elijah Walker, Jesse Mohn, Joylon Minss, Scott Purdy, Thomas William Babbey, and Yap Chong Aik.
Retail Price: $ 22.95 (US)
Item Number: BAS1019
IBSN: 1-59263-014-6
Website:www.bastionpress.com

Reviewed by: John Kirk

Added: June 2nd 2004
Reviewer: John Kirk
Score:
Related Link: Bastion Press
Hits: 345
Language: eng