Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: Cults of the Stinging Sea

Cults of the Stinging Sea is a role playing game supplement written and published by M. C. Planck. The supplement is set in the author’s World of Prime novels and is intended for use with Heroes of Prime but is also suitable for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as a 14-page PDF for free from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover, one the Open Game License, one the Contents and one is an ad.

The Stinging Sea explains that the supplement contains a number of cults found in Scorpus – The Stinging Sea. It uses the rules from Heroes of Prime, Explorers of Prime, Merchants of Prime, Lords of Prime and Generals of Prime, but should work with D&D 3.5 without much trouble.

Cults explains that these are essentially a specialised criminal gang that are organised around one or more demons. They summon greater and greater demons and could eventually summon a truly dangerous one unless stopped.

Realm Addresses explains that each group lists the realm addresses they can be found on the Scorpus map.

Alignment explains the World of Prime‘s colour-coded alignment system.

Archetypes explains that the NPCs are drawn from Heroes of Prime.

Next are the cults. Each has details on where they can be found, what treasure they may have and stats for the NPCs and monsters.

The Night Riders are a mobile group that ride around on horses and have no permanent camp.

Meretha’s Mansion is a run-down mansion owned by a succubus who is collecting men.

The Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow is a cult of devil worshippers from Varsoulou. This cult has a map of their underground complex.

Hellnest is a cult that has been turned into a demonic nest of larva and it is being guarded by devils. This also has a mapped location.

Cults of the Stinging Sea in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and has enough different sections that these would have been useful. The Contents is reasonably detailed and is hyperlinked. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of error, bar for something detailed below. The only illustrations are two maps which sadly don’t come in player-friendly versions. Presentation could be better.

There appears to be a confusion about the differences between demons and devils. Cults are stated to follow demons, but the Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow are said to be devil worshippers and the Hellnest is said to be demons guarded by devils. This sort of thing is easy enough to fix, but it is a bit confusing.

Though the cults are intended for the World of Prime, only the Brotherhood of the Golden Arrow is truly connected to it, and that is still easy enough to alter. The cults can therefore be dropped into pretty much any world, making them more useful. Cults of the Stinging Sea is a decent little supplement and it can be found by clicking here.