Studios Books

I first read this book in 1994, when a friend from Tucson sent it to me. It's a pity it is out of print, since I find that it expresses the wonders of nature in an intensely personal and internal manner. The perceptions of the Natural and nature are expressed through the poet's mind, rather than a sense of sight or touch. Charles Jones has died, I am told. What a shame that such an intense spirit, so in tune with natural things and places, should be stilled. - Gretchen Schoonmaker Ellis

This is a really fun video for any age. Denzel Washington's Caribbean accent and UB 40's funky music are real treats, and the cartoons are cool. This video even managed to capture our oh-so-cool and very hard to please seventh-graders! I heard plenty of "yah mahn's" around the halls in school afterwards. Enjoy this video of the clever teeny-weeny spider who tricks both the longest and the strongest animal in the jungle!

Whether you are interested in art anatomy, an interesting coffee table book or just want to know how your dog, cat or horse work then this is an excellent book.

The major animals are covered in greatest detail - with plates of exterior, muscles, skeleton in addition to providing information for the artist on proportions.

The quality of the work is quite extraordinary and I have many friends who will flick through this book with avid interest even though they have never considered anatomy an area of excitement or interest before.

These are some of the finest illustrations for children that I have EVER seen, and I see a lot of children's books throughout the year.

From the Bologna International Children's Book Fair comes this annual compendium of originality and talent in children's book illustration. Chosen from over 600 entries worldwide, the 94 featured illustrators represent a spirit of excellence which pervades better children's books, respecting the child's intelligence and boundless imagination.

Included is important biographical information about each of the chosen artists, the art schools they attended, their publishers, their primary medium, and a sampling of their work -- reproduced magnificently in full color. In some cases, an excerpt from the book is included.

An ideal reference for illustrators, graphic designers, editors and art directors, children's librarians, art schools, and all who delight in the ageless creativity of contemporary children's book illustration.

This and Terra Primate are the two games Eden Studios has done and not heard many sung praises for. The premise for Armageddon is simple: a near-future World War 3 setting involving demons and angels, because something else threatens to destroy reality. Armageddon is the first Eden game to have a massive power scale, going from normal humans right up to godlike beings. In fact, I think it's the most diversly spread Unisystem power level to date. This game uses Classic Unisystem, of Witchcraft, All Flesh Must be Eaten, Terra Primate, and Conspiracy X 2.0 fame

In this way, it reminds me of Nobilis (search books for that one, you can't miss it), save the baddies are basically Cthulu with the serial numbers filed off (great tentacled beasts from beyond). In fact, I initially discounted it because I already had Nobilis, and let my prejudice cloud my judgement.

I was wrong. While Nobilis fits at the demigod level exceedingly well, Armageddon sets this toward more "realistic" war action. I say "realistic" as a genre in this sense, not as an actual nod toward true realism, which would take much more math than this 350 page book could contain. That said, it does it's job admirably.

Several different races are listed in the game, all with pulpy overtones (norse gods, atlanteans, immortals, etc). There's also another big difference from Nobilis: humans.

In Nobilis, humans are playthings of the gods. In Armageddon, humans are (as the good book says) made in the likeness of the creator. While Angels and Demons are more powerful physically and spiritually, both will not adapt or evolve, unlike humankind which will advance to near the power of the creator.

And here's why I think Armageddon has been put under wraps. It could bother people who think the game is mocking a real world faith. CJ Carella (the author) has a disclaimer proclaiming that it, like all RPGs, is a complete work of fiction, not meant to be taken as "an occult manual or religious work". While it may contain many elements of real world religions, anything it says about them it claims upfront are completely bogus when placed next to their real world counterparts. CJ looks like he did his homework when writing the setting, but never once does he claim to be a theology scholar or any other type of expert in the field, and never once does he claim that anything he says is a fact. Quite the reverse, actually.

Anyway, with that unpleasantness out of the way (it had to be said), I'll continue on to another merit of the system in my eyes: mechanically, it treats Angels and Demons as the same thing: Seraphim. While they may have fallen, Demons still are basically the same beings. They have wings, holy fire, and can weild a blazing sword. The only difference is the power source (divine or infernal).

The other great element is free will. Nephilim are half-Seraphim, half-humans. While socially looked down upon, they are more and more a great asset in the war, as they have human's spirit, and angel's blood. Another step I like: Nephilim aren't just watered down Seraphim. While at a lesser power level, Nephilim have unique powers all their own, and unique differences as well. Seraphim can learn magic, while Nephilim are practically immune to it's application (and for obvious reasons may never learn it).

The fast and loose Unisystem mechanics shine like always, bleeding into the background. There's even a section on Cinematic Combat which takes the game a step toward Cinematic Unisystem, the version of Buffy, Angel, and Army of Darkness fame, which happens to be my favorite version as of this moment.

The artwork is of average quality throughout, save the cover, which is quite good.

Overall, I think a person could look to a much worse place than this to start his Eden Studios collection, and a fan without this game should get it right away.

Seller was great. He helped me get what i want. Game was in great condition, like promised. Got it quick, even though i'm in afghanistan. thanks.

Quick: An excellent game that captures the feel and fun of the movie and expands on the established mythos. Great as a stand alone game, as a "Campaign sourcebook" or as an addition to any other Eden Unisystem game.

(...)

Time to kick some Ash.

If nothing else the new Army of Darkness RPG from Eden Studios (AoD RPG) will give your game group hours of puns like these or spontaneously shooting off quotes from the movie, if they don't already do that now.

The new AoD RPG is the latest offering from Eden using the Cinematic Unisystem rules. Cinematic Unisystem is a stripped down to basics rule set to foster fast play in a cinematic style game. That is not to say the rules are non-existent, just non-obtrusive. Cinematic Unisystem plays similar to it's big brother Classic Unisystem, which powers such games as All Flesh Must Be Eaten, WitchCraft and Armageddon. If you want to use this game with those, no problem, not only is it very easy, but there is a great Appendix in the back to handle the details. AoD shares Cinematic Unisystem with Eden's Origin's winning Angel RPG, Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG and Ghosts of Albion RPG. Here taking characters from one game to next is easy and no conversions are needed. In fact one could conceivably play one game consisting of all four game books in one big, really bad world.

Rough parallels can be drawn between Cinematic games and Classic one. Buffy is built like a cinematic version of WitchCraft, Angel invokes the same feel as Armageddon, and likewise AoD takes on a lot of it's feel from it's older brother All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

If you like the movie Army of Darkness (or any of the Evil Dead movies) or any of Eden's other games then you should pick this up. If you are not sure if the AoD RPG is for you then let's get into the details.

Chapter 1 is the introduction with some Army of Darkness style fiction added in. It's nice, but you will only read it once in your life. The rest of the chapter is pretty straight forward and reads exactly like every other Chapter 1 in any Eden book. This is both good and bad. Bad in the fact I have now bought this chapter at least 10 times now. It's good because it also means that I can pick up any of those books and know immediately what to expect. There is a new part here though, one on the cosmology of the game. It's not bad, but I am not sure if I will use it or not. Like most roleplayers I have a varied and complex mythos surrounding my games where the machinations of powerful beings 5,000 years ago shape my world today. Then again this is supposed to fast and loose and for crying out loud the movie depicted England with a desert, so heck with all that, what I really want to do is stomp on some deadites. I don't care if they were sent by "The Old Ones", Satan or Santa.

Chapter 2 is the meat for the normal gamer; how to create characters and give them some cool stuff. Again, some of this is ported right over from "Angel", but that is not really that bad since it is really the best stuff with more added. Plus I want my games to be compatible, so I do want my "white hats" and my "mundanes" to be able to hang with the "primitive screw heads" and not bicker over which version of "Hard to Kill" to buy. There are some new qualities and a lot of new drawbacks to choose from. Plus the focus shifts from the magically empowered supernaturals of Buffy/Angel to the regular guys and gals doing what's right of Army of Darkness. If you enjoy playing "normal" characters then this is the book for you.
The skills are unchanged from Angel/Buffy in keeping with the Cinematic scope, but they are a little more defined. Let's face it, Ash did more with his car in two hours than Buffy/Angel did in 12 collective seasons, so a little more attention is paid to what you can do.
The archetypes are great and if you are familiar with the archetypes from Buffy or Angel you will recognize the style and art here. In general the archetypes reflect the focus of the game, normal guy or gal, way weird circumstances. I found them a tad hard to read with the colored background, but that could be my PDF. Loved the archaeolbogist (though her portrait has Appearance of at least +2 even if she doesn't in the sheet) loved the Zorro guy, gunslinger, night stalker dude, and the roller baller. Adding the game designer might have been a little too cheesy, but hey I don't blame them one bit and for this game it works. It also includes the original cast, but Ash is the main guy. For anyone that has ever wanted to know "who would win in a fight, Ash or ____?" well here is where you can find the answers.

Chapter 3 is also the same as many of Eden's chapter 3s. It has the rules. Since the rules are not significantly modified from other games, some can skip this all together. But if you do you will be missing some good bits. First off Eden has learned from Buffy and Angel and this chapter is laid out a lot clearer. There is also the whole new set of rules covering land vehicles; a really nice addition to the Cinematic game universe.

Chapter 4 is really nice. Every Eden book has it's true gem, the one thing that makes that book worthwhile. WitchCraft has it's magic system, Angel has it's demon creation rules, and Army of Darkness has it's Battle System. This is mass combat system for Cinematic Unisystem but on reading it, it would certainly work for any Unisystem game. It keeping with the cinematic tone the rules are fast and free flowing, but like all of Cinematic Unisystem they are designed to maximize the fun and playability.

Chapter 5 is the information for the Directors out there. Not too different, and in this case that is not the best thing. I was reading it over and the whole time I keep feeling I was reading a chapter out of Buffy or Angel, with the talk of "episodes" and "Seasons". Yes, episode is still a fine name and great workable game mechanic. But "Army of Darkness" is not a TV show, it is a movie. I would have liked to see how to set up a big epic battle or mimic the feel of a movie with some plot elements compressed. Like Ash said to Shelia "first you want to kill me now you want to kiss me", things like love have to happen pretty fast, faster than TV. So what I would have liked then is to see the sidebar on "Other Ways to Do It" expanded into a full chapter with "The TV Show" set up as just one option. Granted, for those Directors planning huge AoD/Buffy/AFMBE/WitchCraft epic crossover campaigns, this chapter works to your advantage.

Chapter 6 sets up the who, what and where elements. All needed for this game where being sucked into a portal and waking up in England in the Middle Ages is normal. It is nice the see that one other movie is Eden's most watched list outside of Army of Darkness and that is The Holy Grail. Or at least that is how I felt after reading this chapter because I sure as hell can run that Holy Grail RPG now with this book. It is a bit odd that some characters, Arthur in particular, got a full character sheet in Chapter 2 and a quick sheet here as well. Reason? Don't know, see the disclaimer above. But I do know that it was spaced used that could have been dedicated to something else. No big. Moving on.
I have to admit the title "Graveyard...of the Dead" made me laugh.
The creatures are neat and there are a lot of ideas here for an AoD game or even adding them to your Buffy/Angel game. OR better yet expand these little nasties with the Angel demon creation rules.

Chapter 7, coughWorlds of Darknesscough is actually really cool. It is your typical "heres how you set up adventures", but the examples given are more fleshed out that some other entire game worlds. There is an ancient Sumerian style adventure where you need to prevent the writing of the Necronomicon (you have to love any game that refers to Ereshkigal as a Goth Chick); a pulp-era stop the Nazi's from getting occult artifacts adventure and future setting hinted at in the Director's Cut of Army of Darkness. All are complete with more really cool monsters and vehicle rules.

Chapter 8 is a full blown adventure, I won't talk about it too much here so as not to ruin it for potential players.

There is an Appendix of Unisystem conversion notes if you want to switch between this and Classic Unisystem. I nice detailed list on Character Creation, all the tables from the text including a comprehensive list of qualities and drawbacks from the book. Tables and charts for combat and weapons. The book ends with a solid index (the weakest part of `Angel', not repeated here) and a nice character sheet. Sure you can use your "Buffy" sheet or even the Buffy or Angel character Journals, but this is a nice clean sheet. Since I have the PDF I printed one out on a B&W laser printer and it looked great.

Whats Good: Overall the book is fantastic, a completely playable game based on Eden's Origins award winning Cinematic Unisystem rules (Angel, Best New RPG 2003). Plus it captures the feel and the fun of the original movie quite well.

Whats Bad: I have to admit I got tired of the informal tone of the book, but that could be just me. And let's be honest, it is a perfect choice to go with the movie.

Whats Missing: No magic rules. But they do acknowledge this and there wasn't really any magic in movie that wasn't used "off stage" or by the minions of evil. Want magic in your AoD game? Buy a copy "The Magic Box Sourcebook" for the Buffy RPG or get a copy of Ghosts of Albion whe

I have read this book, and believe it is quite telling of the man and his life as an artist, and a man who saw the Great War and was changed.

My grandfathers both fought in the Great War, and never told me about it. I learned more from reading this book, or with the book on the Army Engineers he penned than any other.

Charlotte
www.fertilityfair.com

This catalogue will open the American public's eyes for Raw Art which is not American rooted.

They will learn and get excited.

In January I visited New York City for a few days. One night my friend and I happened to walk past the Museum Of American Folk Art, and saw something going on inside that involved wine and cheese. We took the bait, paid our admission/donation and joined the tour of the exhibit, which to our tremendous enjoyment, was the artwork of Nellie May Rowe,. The tour was given by the author of this book, Lee Kogan. Not only was this most definitely one of the best things I ever did on the spur of the moment, but the book is one of the nicest things I ever purchased on impulse.

Nellie May Rowe's art combined with Lee Kogan's insight make for a powerful and strangely personal experience. We are given mystifyingly beautiful portraits of a woman's inner life and outer circumstance. The images embrace and thereby transcend the small human details that , by the nature of the beast itself, exist to be integrated into what I believe is the creation of real magic. Real magic doen't take shortcuts.

Lee Kogan graciously signed the book for my daughter, saying that Nellie May Rowe's energy, spirit and marvelous art inspire us all, and this is certainly true: If I may be so bold as to take a quote from the book, from the writings of James Baldwin: "..go back to where you started, or as far back as you can, examine all of it, travel your road again and tell the truth about it. Sing or shout or testify or keep it to yourself; but know whence you came"

Yeah. What he said. Anyways, do right by yourself, get your own copy because I'm not gonna be lending out mine anytime soon!