Review: Dungeon Fantasy 18: Power Items

Here is my usual caveat - I generally review stuff I like. Also, this is yet another book written by my friend and sometimes co-author Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch. I'm not remotely unbiased.

For me reviews, please check my reviews page.



GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 18: Power Items
by Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch
Published January 2016 by Steve Jackson Games
14 Pages
$4.99 (PDF, available on W23)

This volume expands on what's just a small box in Dungeon Fantasy 1, the rules for Power Items.

This is basically a 10-page (not counting the table of contents, W23 ad, etc.) FAQ on power items for DF.

What's in it?

There is an extended power item table, going all the way up (from 20 power, by 5s) to 120 power at $1.4 million.

There are Power-Ups, like:
- Perks allowing better power items and self-charging power items.
- A power-up for extra power items.
- Access to the secret power item charging ritual (a mere 75 points . . . )

There are sections that go into very specific detail on how power items work and get charged and get used. The book answers a lot of little questions I bet Sean had to answer online and by email. How to swap power items. How to deny them to others. How close you have to be to use one. Static power items. Overcharging power items (and yes, I'll allow it.) Power items for non-casters. How to calculate the price for determining power item value. Improving power items (both cost to get it done, and how to do it yourself.)

There is more, too. Restricted Power Items by type of items they power. More detail on Endurance Items from DF8.

It's really a good resource. It's extremely narrowly focused, but it does its job nicely and concisely.

Overall: I like it. I made up some of my own rules for some of the situations covered here, but I'll swap these in for mine. Worth it for people running casters in DF games or who like the "Power Item" approach for GURPS magic in general.