Available at RPGNow.com

The third installment from Third Eye Games fittingly brings three new demon races to the world of Apocalypse Prevention, Inc. This minor races don’t merit a full book like the recently released Lochs supplement, but still offer some quirky newness to an API game. This trim PDF comes in at eight pages, which consist of one cover sheet, six pages about the creatures, and a one page ad. Let’s see what these three writers offer when only given two pages to play with.

We’ll also see how long a review is on an eight-page PDF.

Except for the ad, there is no artwork in this brief file, which makes perfect sense because it would eat up much-needed space. The layout matches with the corebook and other supplements, which earns big points from me. Printing this out along with the corebook makes good sense and look proper (except for the page count thing, but we do what we can). The only artistic sense to this are the fonts for the three races. These were needed to keep in line with the other projects, but none of the three really stood out. Not bad. Just not anything to really work with. It’s a font.

First are the Naga, a snake race fascinated with Earth’s many religions. They are one of the more unique creations I’ve read in some time. The Naga possess a humanoid upper body and the lower body of a serpent. Due to their beliefs though, these rather fearsome looking beings aren’t altogether nasty (notice I didn’t call them helpless). They make for a good role-playing character in that they are simply so different.

Next are the Jaguar Warriors, a bloodthirsty race linked to South America where they are known as the Ixchel’aj. I personally would have went with that name or one of their other names (there are a handful of alternate names for the Jaguar Warriors) because the leading name just seems weaker. These beings come from a mysterious source. There is no talk of an alien world in regards to them and they are one of the races that can infect humans. In fact, infection is the only way for this race to continue existing (sexual couplings result in human offspring). While I wasn’t overly wowed by this race, I did like their weakness. Like a traditional werewolf has a bane to silver, the Jaguar Warriors possess a similar weakness. For the hunters tracking one of these bad boys down, good luck figuring it out (‘cause I ain’t telling)!

Third are the Hopkins, a mysterious race of demons that look like, well, aliens. They also have a mysterious heritage as their dimension is apparently gone. Where they come from beyond that is also a mystery as these beings are asexual. With a world cut off and no means to populate themselves, mysteries are the norm for these demons. These creatures are calmer, intellectual types that hardly understand human culture. Keeping the stereotypes about the “Grays” will paint the picture for these beings perfectly (except that they aren’t aliens). They fit the nice Spock or Data role in a group though as they attempt to parrot human emotions in an effort to hide among them.

In a few of my recent reviews, I’ve been discussing experiments. Publishers, both large and small, are trying different tactics to draw in readers. Third Eye Games seems to be running with the idea of “fresh product keeps fresh interest,” which I think is a valid, valid tactic. My only concern is that the quality of the work has to remain on par with earlier work. At just shy of three dollars, I’m not convinced many readers will gamble on such a brief supplement. I believe the quality of this text is as strong as their other releases, but such a short size may cause it to be unfairly dismissed. Several bundles exist for their games, but none seem to include this. I personally think this is worth the look, but would expect more people to take the risk were it attached to one of the larger finds.

My scores for Demon Pack 1 are:

Artwork: No grade (no artwork)
Layout: Four out of Five Dice (it keeps with the other releases, but had uninspired fonts
compared to those earlier releases)
Writing: Four out of Five Dice (I found myself only liking the first two races)
Overall: Four out of Five Dice

Tags | apocalyse prevention inc