A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement The Genius Guide to Loot 4 Less Vol. 7: Krazy Kragnar’s Used Chariots

The Genius Guide to Loot 4 Less Vol. 7: Krazy Kragnar’s Used Chariots by Owen K.C. Stephens is a role playing game supplement published by Rogue Genius Games (originally under the Super Genius Games label) 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 the seventh in a series of cheap magic items intended to make low level gear belonging to foes more interesting, make it easier for low level PCs to build wealth and give mid level characters more items to construct.

This is a nine page PDF which is available from RPGNow for $3.99 but which was purchased at the reduced price of $0.20 as part of a special bundle. Two thirds of a page are the colour front cover and one page is the Open Game License and Credits.

The supplement starts with an introduction explains the point of the series (mentioned earlier) and how the sidebars work – in some cases determining the gp value of an item was not straightforward and these explain the assumptions.

Next is a section on Chariots, an item that isn’t mentioned in the Core Rulebook. Given that the supplement is based on chariots, some explanation is needed. Much of this section is taken up by vehicle rules for chariots, which are intended to be fairly simple, as there are no chariot rules nor vehicle rules in the Core Rulebook either. There are therefore some basic vehicle rules followed by extras for chariots. Chariots and houdahs (howdahs) are then given costs and defined, followed by some rules on used chariots. It’s stated that wagons, carriages and other vehicles are also included.

Finally there are the new vehicles. There are five chariots, three wagons, two carriages and one cart. These fulfil a variety of roles. The chariots are all essentially intended to be used in combat. The cart a folding one, the land equivalent of the folding boat. One wagon is intended to be a support vehicle for repairing things, another is a self-steering one and the third increases the carrying capacity of mounts. One carriage unfolds to become a campsite and the other is a mobile shrine.

The Genius Guide to Loot 4 Less Vol. 7: Krazy Kragnar’s Used Chariots in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and, despite its brevity, these would have been appreciated. Navigation is as a result fairly poor.

The text maintains Super Genius’ old landscape three column format, which is intended to be easier to read on tablets; this is true on larger tablets, but less so on smaller ones. It is also not that convenient to print out. No errors were noted. There are a variety of black and white and colour illustrations, but they are of very different styles and don’t really work together that well. Presentation could be better.

The concept of having low-value but useful magic items, that aren’t one shots or those that can be used up, such as potions, scrolls and wands, is an interesting one – at least for a fairly high magic campaign. admittedly, most D&D variant campaigns fall under this definition. Chariots have an interesting combination of being bulky to ship back to civilisation and easy to transport because they have wheels (less easy if there are no horses or other beasts of burden). The selection of vehicles is interesting, but whether or not characters will find a use for them other than as large, oddly shaped pieces of treasure is another question. Most tend not to have more than a horse at most.

Kragnar himself is used in three offshoots from this series, starting with Krazy Kragnar’s Alchemical Surplus Shop.

The Genius Guide to Loot 4 Less Vol. 7: Krazy Kragnar’s Used Chariots is still a useful collection of low value and low power magic items that do have defined uses, and it can be found by clicking here.