Occasionally it is nice to see a different take on a game. It is one of the reasons I like d20 so much there are all sorts of authors offering up interesting and new ideas. The inclusion of so many people can keep a game fresh and new feeling. And while d20 has succeeded and failed in this regard, this is about Arcana Evolved and a different company doing some work. Malhavoc usually does the work but this book is done by Blue Devil Games.
Akashic Nodes is a PDF by Blue Devil Games. Blue Devil Games is best known for their Poisoncraft book and Dawning Star Sci Fi campaign setting. This one hundred and three page PDF has a separate file for the cover and the bulk of the book. The art is done by about a half dozen different artists each of them having their art in a separate chapter. The writing is also from different authors for different chapters. The book is mostly black and white with a bit of color here and there. It is not so much color to make it difficult to print and there are no borders or other large ink eating areas of the book. The book is very well book marked making it easy to use and find things on a lap top or other computer.
Akashic Nodes deals with places of knowledge but that are not libraries or places of learning exactly. They are places of great events. They can be great battle that left tens of thousands dead. Or they can be a peaceful glen that a village resided on for many centuries. There are many different kinds of nodes but they all can be used potential by the Akashic, one of the classes presented in Arcana Evolved. This book is written for the Arcana Evolved rules. With some work the ideas can be used in normal Dungeons and Dragons or even a completely different system. The mechanics though may take some work to get it to the proper feel, but the descriptions and ideas of a place that retains something of the people who lived and died there is an easy and common enough idea to be easily useable.
The most interesting part of the book I found to be the first chapter. It goes intro different types of nodes. Each has a type of power rating, an area of effect, a particular theme, and personalities able to actually manifest themselves. There are many different types of nodes described here, and even dozen to be exact. There is the alien node. It can be created with a group of outsiders or possible a planar gate in the vicinity. A Haunting node is formed when a community, if one can call it that, of undead is finally put to rest. Hostility Nodes form from a civilization of great hatred. They could be possible raider, xenophobes, or genocidal conquers. Then there are the powerful Legacy Nodes. They can only be formed with the passing of Dragons. The variety and adventure ideas for each node are really excellent. The ideas in this chapter alone really make the book worth while.
One weakness of the book, and it is a weakness of d20 in general, is the stat blocks. Some companies have found some good ways to deal with it and it would be nice to see some of those used here. It gets a little tiresome flipping pages to get past the extensive stat blocks at times. I have found that placing them in an appendix works well especially for PDF products. The ability to place a direct link from the page to the stat in the appendix and from the stats in the appendix back to the place in the book they go makes moving between them easy. It also allows a reader to not have to worry about the stats if they do not want to at that time.
With as many authors as they have the books stays with a rather high consistency of writing. Having different authors and artists for each chapter almost makes them feel like individual books. This is one of the better books I have read that tackles the multi author and multi artists. Usually they come across more hit and miss then this one does.
Blue Devil Games once again shows they can produce a good quality product. The writing and ideas are very flavorful and this book has a lot of adventure ideas as well as a full adventure in it. It makes a very strong addition to Arcana Evolved and it also can serve as some interesting encounter ideas in other games
