Review: Rite Publishing – Coliseum Morpheuon Accessories

The following products are accessories for use throughout the Coliseum Morpheuon setting and the Gladiator games. This review, however, focuses on their value and usage outside of the Coliseum Morpheuon setting. Each one will be reviewed separately with their own ratings.

PAPER MINIS

Don’t be fooled by the title, this is more than a PDF with paper miniatures. Paper Minis: Coliseum Morpheuon details and fleshes out two of the opposing teams participating in the Damnation Epoch Gladiator games including the paper miniatures. While their use is obvious within the setting, outside of the setting may will require GMs to make a few tweaks to their descriptions, traits, and tactics. The teams are designed for use within the Plane of Dreams so the changes are few to take them out of this setting and into any other Epic Fantasy setting.

The part that makes this accessory truly shine is the fact that it contains the source material for the two teams, and their individual members, plus the paper miniatures. There are may third party supplements out there that present new adversaries into your game system. If you’re going to take the time to fully illustrate these adversaries, then why not include the paper miniatures?

Each team contains 5 members along with their appropriate stats, descriptions, and illustrations. While the illustrations are cartoon-like, they are really cool and far from boring. Any GM could easily take these two teams or the individual members and place them into any Fantasy setting.

Rating: 9 out of 10

ARENA OF FIRE

Arena of Fire is my second favorite battlemap of this set. If you “remove” the trees and baskets used for the Gladiator games, you get a great area with a number of uses. By “ignoring” the river of lava or defining it as something else, you could create a throne room, reception hall, grand foyer, or massive hallway. By keeping the river of lava, you could create a room within the Plane of Chaos or something within one of the Nine Hells.

While the design is intended for Epic Fantasy, it could easily be used for Sci-Fi, Pulp, Medieval, or Alternate History. The 1″ grid is usable for numerous game systems while easily being ignored for others (simply consider it as floor tiles). A perfect place for a grand battle!

Rating: 10 out of 10

CLOCKWORK MAZE

The Clockwork Maze has a very distinct purpose for the given setting, but it’s use outside of the setting is a possibly less useful. It’s not very often you come across a giant room filled with massive gears and very little open space. However, the gears are beautifully detailed and from an artistic standpoint this one tops them all.

It does have it’s potential uses though, especially within other Fantasy or Pulp settings. It definitely has uses in a steampunk or clockwork environment as a giant machine or even robot that the heroes find themselves inside of hoping to shut the monstrosity down! So why the lower rating? The gears are very tight and walking space is limited. While practical for the Damnation Epoch, a bit of a hindrance outside of the setting.

Rating: 8 out of 10

GLASS SHIPS AND ICEBERGS

Glass Ships is my least favorite of this set, although it’s still a wonderfully drawn battlemap. The setup is designed to specifically support two of the Gladiator games, but it’s hard to discern uses outside of the Coliseum Morpheuon. The positive aspect of this battlemap is that it contains a rather naturally occurring environment that could potentially be found in every Earth-like planet.

By “removing” the ships from the map, you have created a simple terrain for a quite interesting encounter. You could create an arctic crossing, partially-frozen lake or river, or the scene during the spring thaw. The battlemap is basically genre-neutral but finding other uses may be tricky.

Rating: 7 out of 10

RUINED LIBRARY

The Ruined Library is my favorite battlemap. Not because of it’s illustration quality, but because of it’s potentially thematic and cinematic use. The Ruined Library could be placed virtually anywhere and within any genre. It could be as-written in a Fantasy setting attacks raining down on all sides. Or maybe it’s an ancient structure of a distant planet from a race long-since gone. Or perhaps it’s a glimpse of what has become of the world after a devastating apocalyptic event. But my favorite of all is it’s possible use as an ancient structure now used for cultists calling down their beloved demons in a horror setting.

The possibilities are vast, except for the occasional period-specific setting where the architecture doesn’t fit. Add a stairwell into the corner leading down into the underground and you’ve created a great entrance to a dangerous dungeon filled with denizens of the deep. The grid is laid over the structure, but is faint enough to easily be ignored, as it doesn’t really have any other possible uses than a 1″ grid. While the giant rocks are part of the Damnation Epoch, they can easily be defined for other purposes giving you a fantastic structure for use almost anywhere.

Rating: 10 out of 10

STEPPED PYRAMID

While I like the simplicity of the pyramid and the use of shadows and highlights to define height, it would definitely benefit from some type of wall between the different levels to add depth to the 2D perspective. It’s not easy creating a 3D environment from a 2D drawing especially when each level of depth is connected to the each lower and higher level. But to add that many shades represent the different levels is amazing. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen so many shades of “sand” in my life…

While it’s use may be limited, it would make a great centerpiece for a desert-themed encounter or some type of “King of the Hill” combat. The 1″ grid is fairly obvious, but is still hidden enough to be useful for many different systems.

Rating: 7 out of 10