By Duane Nutley, Staff Reviewer

Initiative Round
Divine Forces: Benten The Golden Goddess of Good Fortune (hereafter known as Benten) is a 16 page pdf, recently released by Interactive Design Adventures LLC and written by Steve Miller. The sourcebook details the deity Benten and a bit of history of said deity. Benten is available from RPGNow or DrivethruRPG for $3.50.

This is the first time I have heard of Interactive Adventures (or ID Adventures), who create a number of different games for purchase. All games seem to be available only in pdf format, most not for print. Benten is the first sourcebook in a new range called Divine Forces, which will detail information about a specific deity's avatar stats, prestige class, magic items, spells, etc as required.

Benten is the lone female deity among the Shichi Fukujin - the Seven Gods of Good Fortune, who travel the universe in their magical ship, dispensing good fortune to those they believe deserve it. The sourcebook is loosely based on a real world deity, but has been tweaked to roleplaying game mechanics. The sourcebook starts by detailing who Benten is and how she fits in with the other deities she travels with. The sourcebook then details how Benten is depicted in artwork, who her worshippers are and any clergy, and the interests she has. Of important note is that clerics of Benten are rare outside of port cities or other major cities, thus adventurer clerics of Benten are few and far between. The relationship between clerics of Benten and other clerics is looked at, as well as where most temples will be found. As a goddess of good fortune, Benten is well looked upon by gamblers and thieves.

Benten's avatar is then detailed, as well as two items that the avatar always carries "Benten's Dagger and Headdress of Stealthiness". A prestige class, Priest of Benten is then detailed. Anyone wishing to become a priest of Benten must have first been a bard before deciding to worship the Seven Gods. Lastly new spell domains are detailed. An appendix on the Seven Gods in a roleplaying world, as well as their real world equivalents rounds out the 16 page sourcebook.

Benten is riddled with errors – both game mechanical and grammatical. On my first read through the sourcebook I was unsure whether this sourcebook was aimed at 3.5 d20 or the original d20 as there are inconsistencies. For example the avatar has levels in Horizon Walker and has in the stat block Grapple and Full Attack information. However one of the divine powers is Damage Reduction 10/+1 – which is 3.0, whereas 3.5 would say 10/magic. Another example is the Sea Serpent on page 9 – the stat block does NOT have any Grapple or Full Attack information, it looks like a 3.0 stat block. Another game mechanic error is the requirements of the prestige class – a Charisma 15+, 1 level of bard. Attribute scores are never used as requirements of prestige classes, they are used in feats. Also a prestige class should never be limited to a class (in this case requiring bard). Instead it should be something like Bardic Music or Bardic Knowledge (depending upon the focus of the class) is required.
The editing of the sourcebook could have been better. In the prestige class write up, part of the Game Mechanic information is missing (it ends with “the character must me”). The first page of detailed information has sentences missing words, thus making it difficult to understand what is meant. At no time is the alignment of the goddess detailed. Mention is made that the deity will never accept a cleric of evil alignment, but she will respond to prayers from evil creatures.

The sourcebook is 850 kb in size and comes as a portrait-oriented pdf with full bookmarking for easy navigation. Images are kept to a minimum and are black and white to maximize printing the sourcebook. The margins for the text could have been decreased as it looks like the text is squashed on the page, especially as the margin between the columns is quite small.

Critical Hit
I could find very little to credit the sourcebook, but think there would be some DMs interested in incorporating Asian-style deities into their campaign world.

Critical Fumble
The concept behind the sourcebook is good, but the execution is very poor. Spelling and grammatical errors are common and the game mechanics are mix-matched between 3.0 and 3.5 d20. The layout of the sourcebook could be a lot better by not having as much white space around the text, and more white space between the text columns.

Coup de Grace
The concept behind Divine Forces™ – Benten The Golden Goddess of Good Fortune is intriguing and definitely useful, but I hope Interactive Design Adventures improve the quality of the editing process before making another Diving Forces sourcebook available for purchase. I would be asking for my money back or an updated copy as soon as possible if I had paid money for the sourcebook rather than receiving a review copy.

Review Scores:

Overall Total (Does not include OGL Rating): 83 (66%)
Final Grade: C-