Post originally by MetalMan at 2004-12-17 10:43:13
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First of all, thanks for the review!

Before I make comments, let me go ahead and say that I was the layout guy for the book and strongly suspect that one of the bad pieces of art that you mentioned was mine.

I'm guilty on all charges for the layout problems. The Book of Curses was our first product and I was just getting the hang of InDesign so there were mistakes made.

Art-wise, we did what we could with a limited budget (most of which went into the cover (lovingly done by Socar Myles)). I'm not much of an artist but I put one of my own drawings in the book to help loose some "white space" but this was obviously not a good idea.

I would, however, disagree with you on needing a high fantasy game to use these curses in. Our own campaign (in which the author plays) uses the book for it and it is definately a low magic game which makes encountering such a curse a truly horrifying thing... there is no readily available source of information that knows the cure. Magic is dangerous and mysterious.

I will admitt that I was a bit baffled by your statement concerning the need for a setting. That information was included for the reader that just wanted to move it over as is. Any modifications that should be needed to them would be minimal and require only changing the names of NPCs or locations. We at Heyoka are big believers in "flavor" to help illustrate both the theme and atmosphere behing each of our creations. Some people like it while other people want more "crunch." In the end, it was a decision that we based off of our own play style.

The main idea behind all of the curses in the book wasn't just something to hit the players with and let them get out of it quickly. These things are ugly, disgusting, brutal things that will inspire quests that will last the PCs several sessions or even an entire campaign at the hands of a clever DM.

Just my opinion but I'm also biased so take my words as you will

Either way, thanks again Demetrius for your well thought out review. I appreciate it and will strive to make our books better with each release.