Review: Effin Fairies

This will be a somewhat regular feature of this blog. At least once a week I'll be doing a review of something. It might be a tv show, movie, book, gaming supplement, core book or something else. This time it's gaming material.

Title: Gangworld: Effin Faires
System: d20 Generic
Author: Uri Kurlianchik
Publisher: Postmortem Studios
Format: pdf
Length: 5 pages 
Corebook/Supplement: Supplement
Price: $.99 (Disclaimer: I received my copy for promotional purposes. Plus I consider Uri a friend so this review may not be the most un-biased review out there)
Where to get it: At DriveThruRPG

Premise: When it comes to supplements they're almost always just pure fluff. However there's the good kind of fluff which is interesting, brings a new idea to the table, is entertaining, etc. Then there's bad fluff which is none of those things. Effin' Fairies is the good kind of fluff.

The premise be hind the supplement is that there is a criminal organization made up of fey. Most fantasy settings will have the fey remain mostly aloof or cause mischief just for the thrill of it. These fey cause mischief but they do it for the loot. Originally calling themselves by the more prosaic term "Weather Solutions" they offered their services to people in the area as a type of insurance. It quickly went from real insurance to mobster insurance, i.e. pay us the money or something bad will happen to you.

I love the concept. It's one of those concepts that on reflection should have been absolutely obvious but isn't it. That's either genius on Uri's part or stupidity on mine--I'll leave the reader to decide.

Layout:
Generally the book is laid out very well. The cover has some artwork which I didn't care for, but that's my personal taste (the fairy reminded me of an anime character, not a wild fey). Then there's a history of the organization from it's founding to the current status (the leader in jail where he continues to run the operation). There's a brief section on some of the activities they do now, followed by another section on the organization of the group. This is a great little detail that I love, having 12 under-bosses of the fairies named after each of the months and responsible for a certain type of racket.

Following this there's a random chart (roll a d10) for adventure seeds. Some examples:

3.) Gangsters and officials are routinely found gnawed to death. Investigation reveals that March has awakened rats to serve as assassins and unleashed them upon the enemies of the Fairies. Even if March is killed, the rats, now sentient and malicious, will continue to kill, possibly even starting their own gang.

10) A discussion on classic Seelie poetry leads to a rift between Winter and Summer. Before this escalates into fighting, and the inevitable insane weather that will accompany it, the Seasons ask the PCs to serve as neutral mediators. This task is not easy, since fairies on both sides have completely skewed sets of priorities and very alien morality.

There's a new fey called The Winter Fey with some pretty cool powers, one of them being the ability to inflict the common cold on anybody. There are some great special abilities too. There's also a Summer Fey that has the ability to cause dehydration with a touch, along with some other major powers.


Dislikes:
Not much. I didn't care for the artwork. Based on the description of the fey the artwork didn't fit the image. I didn't care for the stats of the fey either--they seemed underpowered. Had I seen the stats without a description I would've been bored and not wanted to read more.

Should You Buy It?
Yes, especially at only $.99. That's less than a pack of gum or a soda.