A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Annals of the Archfiends: Phosonith the Cruel Charmer

Annals of the Archfiends: Phosonith the Cruel Charmer by Darrin Drader and Owen K.C. Stephens is a role playing game supplement published by Rogue Genius Games (formerly Super Genius Games) for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

This is a nine page PDF that is available from RPGNow for $1.99 although it was purchased at a greatly reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two thirds of a page are the front cover and one pages is the Credits and Open Game License.

This supplement gives an overview of one of the major devils, the archdevil Phosonith, the ruler of the city of Ess on the layer of Stygia. This looks as if it was intended to be the first in a series of supplements, but it is the only one published.

First is the History, which describes Phosonith earliest beginning as a mortal to his gradual rise Hell’s hierarchy as a devil to becoming a unique devil and finally deposing the existing rulership of Ess and becoming ruler himself. Phosonith is an individual who keeps his true self hidden behind a charming and charismatic façade, betraying those who trust him if they are his superiors and taking advantage of his inferiors, even as they continue to trust him.

Phosonith in the Real World gives a list of inspirations for the character, the real life Roman emperors Caligula and Nero and the fictional characters Uriah Heep, Dr. Henry Jekyll and Professor Moriarty. Another major inspiration is listed as Niccolò Machiavelli, author of The Prince (it should be noted that Machiavelli was not actually a fan of the sort of ruler portrayed in his book; he preferred republics, as is clear from his Discourses on Livy).

Cult of Phosonith describes those who follow him. The Duplicity Domain is their domain, and skills, feats and spells are listed.

Portraying Phosonith is how Phosonith might be encountered in game.

Appearance and Powers lists the stats for the devil.

The City of Ess lists twelve regions of the city that Phosonith rules.

Annals of the Archfiends: Phosonith the Cruel Charmer in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, although it is fairly short, these would have been appreciated. Navigation is below average. The text follows Super Genius Games’ old three column landscape format, which is intended to be easier to read on tablets (it’s less useful for printing and on smaller devices) and a few minor errors were noticed. Bar the front cover image, there are a few colour illustrations that appear to be stock. Presentation is okay.

This supplement has a lot of interesting ideas. The background on Phosonith is surprisingly extensive, providing a long and detailed history of the human turned devil. The duplicity domain is interesting and there’s a good game description of Phosonith. The trade entrepôt of Ess sounds like an interesting place too.

The downsides are the lack of development of many of the ideas. Phosonith’s cult isn’t covered in as much detail as it could have been, a lot of space is devoted to Phosonith’s history but none to handling him in combat and the city of Ess lacks a stat block – which is a surprise in a city that is described as being a trade hub, welcoming neutral and good peoples – and the list of locations is numbered, suggesting a map, yet there isn’t one. A map would have cost more to make admittedly. The whole feel is this is a supplement that could easily have been quite a lot longer. Perhaps these are reasons why it appears to be the only one in the series. Annals of the Archfiends: Phosonith the Cruel Charmer can be found by clicking here.