Demon Lord’s Companion by Robert J. Schwalb is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is a collection of new rules for the system.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a 54 page PDF for $8, as a softcover print on demand book for $20.99 or as both PDF and softcover for $20.99. It is also available in a printed version from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed and it was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. The PDF comes in two versions, one with and one without a page background. Two pages are the front and rear covers, one page is the front matter, one the Table of Contents, two pages are the Index and one page is an ad for Tales of the Demon Lord.
The single page Introduction explains how, when the Kickstarter campaign to publish Shadow of the Demon Lord was launched, enough had been written to fill a 400 page rulebook. The author explains that he decided to trim the core rulebook to stop it from being too unwieldy, but still wanted to release the game material. The material in this Companion is, therefore, material that could be classed as core but wasn’t published in the core book.
Chapter 1: Ancestries starts with Story Complications; various problems that can have a game effect. There are then two new ancestries: Faun, offspring of humans and fey who are rejected by both, and Halflings, short people who are generally liked. These are laid out in the same way as the other ancestries from the core book.
Chapter 2: Paths has new paths. There are eight new Expert paths and nine new Master paths. These include such as psychics, swashbucklers and elementalists; Master paths introduces alchemist, demonologists and others. These are then all described; most could be considered to be pretty logical new paths rather than anything truly exotic.
Chapter 3: Equipment starts with alchemical items and there is a sidebar on creating any equipment. Next are forbidden items, which are generally odd. Marvels of engineering has new technological items, but they aren’t truly marvels, such as blunderbuss, pocket watch and bomb. This is followed by some new potions, with a sidebar on the effects of mixing them.
Vehicles, like NPCs and creatures, have their own stat blocks, which are explained. There are some rules on using vehicles, including manoeuvring, attacking from, damaging and attacking with. Finally, there are some sample vehicles; not a huge number, with only six, but they include airship and locomotive engine.
Chapter 4: Magic has seven new magical traditions. Two of these, telekinesis and telepathy, are psionics rather than magic. There are two new black magic traditions as well, death and demonology. Other than that, there are alchemy, spiritualism and incantations, the latter being written down.
Chapter 5: Game Master Tools has some rules on magical places, including null magic and haunted. A sidebar describes trinkets, which are enchanted objects created using the magic item spell. There are five new relics, which generally have the potential for bad side effects, such as a magic carpet that may stop obeying the user in mid air. Finally, the bestiary introduces a handful of new monsters.
Demon Lord’s Companion in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with most of the major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents is to a greater level of depth, and is hyperlinked, as is the Index. Navigation is very good. The text maintains a two column full colour format and a few minor errors were noticed. There are a variety of colour illustrations, up to about half a page in size, as well as some black and white ones that could be stock. Presentation is very good.
As mentioned in the Introduction, the companion can be considered to be additional core rules. Whether or not these rules should have been included in the core rulebook is a matter of personal opinion. The author felt that the core book would have been a bit large in such a case, but there are certainly core rulebooks that are larger. Having these in a separate book does increase the amount of page flipping needed if the new options are used. On the plus side, as the new rules in this book were originally part of the core rules, they do fit in without any problems. They largely provide additional material of the same type as is in the main rulebook, which is naturally needed in order to use these. This book increases the options available for the game but it might have been more convenient to have them in the core rules. Demon Lord’s Companion can be found by clicking here.
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