Review: Kobold Press – Envy (Monsters of Sin)


Monsters of Sin #2: Envy
Envy is a supplement from the Monsters of Sin series of supplements for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game written by Ryan Costello, Jr. and published by Kobold Press (AKA Open Design).
By Cape Rust

Learn more about Envy here
Purchase Envy here
Find more Monsters of Sin products here

Monsters of Sin #2: Envy is the second supplement that delves into the 7 deadly sins giving players and GMs ideas of what creatures created from the concept of those sins would be like.

CONTENT

This 10 page supplement contains 6 pages of content. Included in this product are 4 new monsters and the Envious Creature template.

OVERALL

This is the second in a seven part series of supplements that delves into the 7 deadly sins in a creative way that makes sense. After reading, buying and using this product your views on the big 7 and alignment might never be the same.

RATINGS

Publication Quality: 10 out of 10
The cover art on this one tells such a story! You have a woman lamenting the death of her man in the foreground while a woman whips her dagger clean slightly behind a curtain. Not only is the art really good but this really embodies the “if I can’t have it, I will destroy it” aspect of Envy. The rest of the product falls inline with the first Monsters of Sin installment. I am a bit confused by the inclusion of the Kobold Press emblem on the back cover of this product. I think I know what is going on, but if the name is changing why retain the Open Design moniker? It is a small matter but it did catch my eye. The Kobold Press symbol is really cool, cool to the point of being t-shirt worthy. If these guys are switching Open Design to Kobold Press, I won’t be disappointed!

Mechanics: 9 out of 10
There is much to love about the monsters and the template presented in this supplement. However, the doppelganger, Re-Eco, really fell short. The concept is spot on, but the Re-Eco doppelganger is out to “fit in” rather than being part of a larger doppelganger plot. The folks at Open Design/Kobold Press focused on the combat mechanics of this creature, rather than giving it an even more devious, envious purpose outside of initiative. The doppelganger is a perfect creature to display envy. If they had better focused on the creatures need to take the identity of others and destroy the original identity in the process, this creature would have really been the bee’s knees. The addition of the creatures need to constantly consume better and different identities would have been icing on the cake. These qualities were given lip service, but I feel like aspects like this were covered much better in the first installment in this series.

Value Add: 9 out of 10
As a seed for a seven deadly sins campaign, this product is actually of limited value; only because you really need all seven products to make it work. The opposite can be said as well as without this product you only have 6 of the 7 sins needed to make that campaign work well. The creatures will work well as stand-alone and there is still enough of a variation of CRs to mix things up for the players.

Overall: 9 out of 10
This series is interesting and well-made, two things that are hard to combine. While reading this supplement, I had no less than ten great ideas for encounters and adventure ideas. I enjoy products that get me thinking that quickly. I am excited to see what the next 5 installments have to offer, I only hope that they focus on the good descriptions used in the first supplement.

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