SERPENTINE – Oldskull Serpent Folk is a role playing game supplement written and published by Kent David Kelly. The supplement is intended for use with Dungeons & Dragons games and, as such, is covered by the Open Game License with some parts considered to be Open Game Content as a result. The supplement introduces a new race.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a 41-page PDF for $1.99 but was purchased at a reduced price during a sale. One page is the front cover, one and a half pages are the front matter, two pages are Recommended Further Reading and About the Author and three pages are the Open Game License.
The half-page Description explains what is in the supplement and the various sources of inspiration. The Overview is another half a page, which mentions again the inspirations, gives various names for the creatures and how the fit into the author’s Tyrrhenian campaign and World of Oldskull.
History and Pre-History of the Serpent Folk starts with Yig, the creator of the serpent folk, who came into being about 330 million years ago. The serpent folk considered humans, born of an experiment of the Elder Things, to be a disease on the planet. All snakes bear the spark of Yig. An eleven-step history gives various milestones on the serpent folk history and suggests various places for inspiration. Serpent folk today are mostly underground and are only a fraction of their former power, although many have infiltrated human governments.
Serpent Folk Truename Generator is for generating truenames, although these would not be used by them whilst hiding amongst humans, for obvious reasons.
Description covers what the different sorts of serpent folk look like, from nagas to nearly human.
Next are some game stats; ability score minimums and maximums and modifiers. Serpent Folk Behaviour covers how the creatures behave and that the followers of Yig consider humanity to be a disease; those that follow Tsathoggua are just plain evil. Serpent folk also have an experience point penalty, given their innate powers.
Game Considerations of Serpent Folk Alignment I: In General has an examination of alignment for the creatures. Game Considerations of Serpent Folk Alignment II: Serpent Deities Beyond the Cthulhu Mythos has a list of suitable serpent folk deities.
Available Class Options for the Serpent Folk is the classes they can take, including a new one, and Maximum Experience Levels for Serpent Folk caps these classes at various levels. The author states that such level limits are not considered appropriate for new styles of play, but they are there to prevent overpowered exotic creatures.
Coils of Death: The Soul Slaver Class is a new class; serpent folk cannot be clerics or magic-users and this is a new spellcasting class for them, one that is a combination of both, only with many of the disadvantages of both as well. No armour, low hit points, limited weapons, limited spell selection and only up to 7th level. Titles are given for the classes and the souls that NPC Soul Slavers have access to are explained. Starting age and age modifiers explains that age is largely irrelevant; serpent folk do not suffer from age penalties and live for thousands of years.
Racial Special Abilities I: General Powers has the general class powers; infravision, poor eyesight, vibration detection, long-lived, affinity to snakes, but definitely not dragons, and moving on all fours.
Racial Special Abilities II: Nagini in Excelsis: Bond Serpents is for PCs and allows them to bond a spiritual snake. The snake can become more powerful at higher levels; it can also die and can only be replaced when a level is advanced.
Racial Special Abilities III: Vile Powers of the Viperous Metamorphosis means that serpent folk may choose to attempt a metamorphosis when gaining a level, the main benefit being stat gain. At 9th level, this happens whether chosen or not and the serpent folk gains a snake head. There are also negative effects.
Racial Special Abilities IV: The Dread Exaltation is experienced by NPCs at level 12 and they transform into a naga-like creature. PCs, should they choose this, become NPCs.
Serpent folk also have a number of racial attacks, such as with their claws and bite.
Racial Special Vulnerabilities has the downsides. When a serpent folk dies, they are dead with no chance at resurrection, not even with a wish. In the early D&D games this race is aimed at, this is a significant disadvantage; poisons, for example, can be instantly fatal on a failed save and there are other instantly fatal things. Serpent folk are also disturbing to others when touched and are hated by dragons. They have a penalty in daylight and other races react poorly to them.
Finally, languages, weapons, armour and shields allowed are covered.
SERPENTINE – Oldskull Serpent Folk in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that they would have been appreciated. Navigation is poor. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of error. There are a number of black and white stock and public domain images and a single colour one in a rather different style. The illustrations are related to snakes and snake-creatures. Presentation is okay.
This is a complex and in-depth consideration of a new class and race; more depth than most are given. Serpent folk are aimed at the author’s preferred older systems and would probably be comparatively more powerful in a more modern game, as some of their disadvantages would be less of a problem. Adapting it to something like Pathfinder would therefore take quite a bit of work. The supplement pulls together material on serpent folk from a lot of different sources, mostly from the earlier days of weird fiction, and blends them into a whole. SERPENTINE – Oldskull Serpent Folk is an interesting compilation of serpent folk material and it can be found by clicking here.
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