You can pick Banes up at DrivethruRPG for US$5 and its only 17 page long. The RPG accessory is a set of system-agnostic tips for adding weaknesses to monsters in exciting ways.
Given that Banes is so cheap and lightweight it is not usually the type of RPG supplement sites like Geek Native will review. Why not? It’s hard to add value to readers, and no one risks more than a $5 disappointment if they splash the cash and regret it. However, Banes is Sergeant Nerd Games first product, and it’s written by John Beattie the author of Cake Walk. Cake Walk is a favourite adventure and a 2015 ENnies Nominee. I was certainly curious enough to see what Banes might be like so I risked that $5 and took a look.
I like this RPG accessory, but I’m not sure it tells me anything I didn’t already know.
The goal of Banes is to add weaknesses back to monsters in interesting ways. Beattie reminds us its a bit of a snoozefest when players all know that the only way to deal with the werewolf is silver. While Banes does not fall short on the essential business of adding weaknesses to monsters the only real disappointment is the lack of exciting ways to deploy them. Banes focuses on combat. In this supplement, a ‘bane’ is something that hurts a monster more when you hit it with it. There’s nothing here about singing monsters to sleep, or holding monsters at bay with lines of salt, or tricking them with mirrors, although there are a few paragraphs on usual banes.
The layout that Sergeant Nerd Games have used for this accessory is a delight to read. In the world of paper products, I’m sure these 17 pages would squeeze to 7, but I prefer it this way. I’m currently struggling my way through a 350-page core rules book that uses a variable three-column format, and I hugely favour Banes’ screen safe alternative approach. Not only is this a Kindle or Edge appropriate product to read, Banes is also mobile phone screen suitable. These days I tend to store my PDFs in Evernote so I can access them on any device. There are times when I use my smartphone as a second screen, to quickly check something or search for inspiration, and Banes works very well with that approach making it a welcome addition to my GMing collection.
Banes begins by discussing how the weakness might impact damage; does it do normal damage, double damage or some other effect? If the creature has a bane, does that mean it takes less damage in different situations? This discussion is balanced towards the end of the accessory with a quick reminder to adjust Challenge Ratings (if your system uses them) as necessary.
The bulk of the product is, therefore, free to focus on the subject matter; on banes. There are two suggestions per page with bullet point suggestions of clues that might help your player characters work out what the monster’s weakness is and how it might manifest once they begin to exploit it. When I wonder whether this accessory is telling me anything I didn’t already know, then it is this section I’m wondering about it. I strongly suspect newer GMs and DMs will find far more use from Banes than an old veteran but, as I’ve already said, Banes easily found its way to my Evernote archive of useful gaming PDF purchases.
In conclusion? Banes is a lovely archive to scroll through and consult. It’ll appeal most to newer Game Masters. It also acts a pretty interesting forerunner of Sergeant Nerd Games products, and I hope to see more from this new publisher.
Take a look: Banes at DrivethruRPG.
