A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.04: She Demons

Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.04: She Demons is a role playing game supplement published by Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778. This is a collection of material related to she-demons for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess, although it could probably be adapted to other systems. It is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is the fourth in the Examples of the Dark Arts series.

This is a 16 page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $1.75 but was purchased at the reduced price of $1.40 during a sale. One page is the front cover, about half a page is front matter, one page is the Contents, about half a page is ads for other supplements and one page is the Open Game License.

About half a page explains that this supplement provides new options for the summon spell from the core rules, that she-demons wait to be summoned in a number of forms, that there are seven gifts of the she-demons, two she-demons are fully detailed and there are nine spells.

To Summon the She-Demon explains that this version can call forth a different breed to the regular summon spell. There is a five step process for doing such – including control; the ability to summon does not necessarily mean the summoner can control what is summoned – and a brief explanation of thaumaturgic circles, which have conditions for summoning a specific she-demon.

Forms of the She-Demon has nine different forms: Amazon, Angel (probably of the fallen type, as stated later), Succubus, Crone, Mother, Maiden, Whore, Fury and She-Demon. Each has a different description and Sacrifices, these being needed to summon a specific form.

New Appendages is an optional set of tables. First a d6 is rolled to decide which two d6 tables are rolled on next, these being adjective and nouns, such as “Iron” and “Nails”, with a d8 table of colours.

Powers of a She-Demon is a d100 table of different powers a she-demon can have, some interesting, some weird and some horrendously dangerous.

Gifts of the She-Demons are seven magic items that can be obtained from she-demons, through destroying them, through bartering for them, through creating them – two cannot be created this way; the others are treated as potions – or perhaps they are simply named after the she-demon. This is a collection of interesting, and sometimes dangerous – to the user as well – items.

Next two she-demons are described. The first is the Princess of the Cannibal Night, a creature that is hungry and can be summoned deliberately, or can turn up through hunger, especially of the cannibalistic sort. There are nine spells associated with the Princess, all to do with hunger in some way. Summoning the Princess is pretty risky as well.

The second she-demon is She who Sees / Sszee Hu’ Tzees, an interesting use for a piece of stock art, building the monster around the stock (art is always a problem for small publishers). This she-demon has eyes, lots and lots of eyes. She can exchange one of hers for one belonging to a character for a time, or steal a character’s eyes. Again, she can be summoned, and again failing in the attempt is risky.

Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.04: She Demons in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks, and they would have been appreciated. The Contents are, however, hyperlinked, and there are a number of internal links as well (the external hyperlinks to other supplements all appear to go to the DriveThruRPG main page though). Navigation is better than in previous supplements.

The text maintains a two column full-colour format and some minor errors were noticed (the author gives his standard disclaimer about not being a native speaker but more errors have been seen in supplements written by people who are native speakers). There are some stock colour and black and white images; as mentioned, one is interestingly used to create the she-demon description around it. Presentation is okay.

This is the most expensive in the Examples of the Dark Arts series to date – which only means it’s actually closer to its true value. It’s still underpriced. There is quite a variety of content, with variations on monsters, two completely described, more ways of using the LotFP summon spell to ruin the caster’s life (for a low-level spell it’s pretty hazardous to use), interesting magic items and some nasty low-level spells based around hunger. There’s also a bit of flavour text added in, which is a nice addition. Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.04: She Demons is definitely recommended for OSR fans, although some work will be needed to adapt parts to other systems, and it can be found by clicking here.