Game: Emerging Forms – Rin
Publisher: Primal Urge Games
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 24th, February 2005
Reviewer’s Rating: 5/10 [ Perfectly acceptable ]
Total Score: 5
Average Score: 5.00
With Emerging Forms – Rin we return to the series from Primal Urge Games which sets out to break the mold for d20 races but which often dipped into the swamp to find inspiration. To date a decent percentage of the Emerging Form races have been insectoid too and this isn’t the case for the Rin. A glance at the kick-arse bird-cum-thug on the front cover confirms that.
We pick up 15 pages about the Rin for a mere $2. This is the usual value for money we see from the PDF market.
Are the Rin thug like birds/humanoids? Perhaps. The usual mistake is to assume they’re thick and slow whereas they’re actually acute and cunning trappers. These xenophobes live in… yes, they live in the swamp. As is another trait with the Emerging Forms series there’s only a single character race of the entire race (in this time the xenophobia) which prevents the Rin going on a conquest rampage in your gaming world.
The average male rin stands between 7 and 8 feel tall and weighs about 300 pounds. Ouch. They’ve a proective shell too. If we skip down to the racial traits we see a +2 Strength and -4 Charisma. Here we have to trust the player. Too many players couldn’t care a toot about Charisma. I don’t think they should be allowed play Rin. I’ve described the Rin as birds with shells and the racial trait section calls them reptilian. I’m sure paleontologists will be nodding sagely.
The non-religious Rin have a bonus save against divine magic too. They have natural armour, handy additional languages (goblin and giant which, er, these xenophobes learn somehow) and +2 AC from their shell. If you’re waiting for an Effective Level modifer then you’re in for a surprise. There’s none. Instead Emering Forms uses a racial class system where instead of advancing in character class the player can increase their Rin class (up to three) and its through this process the character picks up the best of the racial advantages. The Rin is an impressive race up front and I suspect they’re going to be a pain the arse to incoprate as a PC race without risking the game balance of the party but I much prefer the racial level rather than effective level.
There’s no shortage of material on the Rin. The PDF details the race overview, their personality, physical description and language. Emerging Forms is like every other d20 supplement. The PDF stereotypes the entire race with one personality but also tries to remind us that there will be exceptions.
There are notes on the lands the Rin call home and their take on religion and adventure. We have random starting ages suitable for Rin character along with notes on how age effects them. Rin get wiser and more diplomatic with age but get weaker and slower.
As is typical with the series we’ve also a small sampling of new spells (just one in this case; Bait), new weapons and trappings.
This is an inexpensive product but it does not look tacky. Emerging Forms – Rin has a professional look and feel to it. It has a fully functional set of bookmarks and original illustrations.
Emerging Forms – Rin is simple. If you want a rather scary swamp based race then check out this PDF. You’ll hard notice the money. If you want a xenophobic, secular, under estimated and cunning swamp race then make a bee line for the checkout.
