Games Books

I won't get into details, as the other reviewers here have already done a great job. Monte Cook has never let himself be constrained by the conventions that hinder the mainstream rpgs. This book has near-endless customizability--each class, spell, and even race has many options. The book contains rules, setting, and a good bestiary. If I had one gripe it would be the selection of races. Cat-people and dog-people? Come on! At least their backgrounds are fleshed out and believable. Better than your standard Tolkienesque fantasy races, which have been worn out, resurrected, and beaten to death again by many games. This book is full of original ideas, and it just begs readers to introduce their own. There are some great supplements, too, but this is all you need.

Get this one. Just buy it, sit down read and be amazed as you see all that was DnD change into what it should have been for a very long time.

Arcana Evolved is, for the most part, a very well-thought out variant of D&D. There are new races, new base classes, and a whole new spell system. Except for the magic system it sticks pretty closely to the d20 rules, so it's recognizable to the average D&D player.

For those of us who dislike the "Vancian" magic system in traditional D&D where spell casters have to memorize spells but forget them once they're cast, the new spell system is a vast improvement. At it's core it's a spell slot system much like sorcerers in 3.x D&D, but more flexible.

The spell system also lets you do a variety of things to change the power of the spells. You can cast it diminished, using a lower level slot but with less effect; you can cast it heightened, using a higher level slot for more effect; and there are spell templates that can tack on an additional effect (for example a Fire Mage would add the Fire template to do additional Fire damage).

That's the "Aracana" part of AE. The "Evolved" part refers to the concept of racial levels. Instead of ECL modifiers from D&D, several of the races have racial levels you can (optionally) take in lieu of a class level to gain the speical racial traits. In addition for all races (including humans), there are "evolved" levels. These take the racial traits and augment them.

All in all IMHO, an interesting variation on D&D. It still has many of the d20 quirks though (especially annoying is the miserly allocation of skill points)so if you really, really detest 3.x D&D because of things other than the magic system, you won't be happy here either. Everyone else should give it a try.

I will give you a quick overview of the product itself. Second, I am going to talk about its appearance, ergonomy and detail its contents. Third, I will tell you what I think are the "Critical Hit" and "Critical Miss" of this book and finally conclude with my overall appreciation of the product.

Overview

Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved can be purchased in PDF format on DriveThruRPG.com or in hardcover format at your local game stores, Amazon.com and gaming websites. It is 432 pages long, one of the first "mammoth volumes" of its kind.

First and foremost, Arcana Evolved combines materials of Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed, The Diamond Throne (detailing the default setting for Arcana Unearthed) and the Player's Guide (which was provided with the Arcana Unearthed DM Screen). If you want a "group price" for these books buy Arcana Evolved. If you have Arcana Evolved, you do not need these books at all (but for the actual DM Screen I was talking about, which is a nice product in itself, but that's another review altogether).

Arcana Evolved isn't just a compilation of previous Malhavoc products. It adds little bits and pieces to the award-winning Arcana Unearthed and makes something new and refreshed out of it. These "bits and pieces" include a new character race, a new character class, new options for your character's development on a "mechanical" level. But it also adds in terms of background, if you are interested in new ideas for your Arcana Unearthed or D&D games: the Tenebrian Seeds allowing access to "Evolved Levels" and the "Return of the Dragons" to the Diamond Throne (or your homebrew setting), for instance.

Lay Out

The first impression people get when they open Arcana Evolved is usually one of awe. First, the book is huge (more than four hundred pages, as precised above). Second, it is a full-color volume. One could expect a very confusing lay-out as a result - lots of color equals less clarity, right? Not with this book. Colors enlighten the product while not covering or confusing its contents. The lay-out is simple and efficient. The art is sometimes just okay, and sometimes outstanding, but always colored with taste. The overall impression it leaves is one of beauty, simplicity/clarity and coherence (there is a lay-out "theme" in tones, fonts and so on. This is one of these little details making for me the difference between very good and outstanding books).

The Actual Contents

Introduction: New Possibilities - This obviously presents Arcana Evolved to the reader, with its scope, its ambition, the themes and concepts that inspired it, how to use the book and how to create/level up characters. This is an important section for this review, since it states the goals of the product: bring the power back into the DM's hands, increase the player's choices, base the game on the notions of character choice, uniqueness, use a background made of rituals and traditions. With these goals in mind, we can actually know more or less objectively if Arcana Evolved fulfills its mission or not.

Chapter One: Abilities - nothing particularly new for a D&D player here. It presents the main ability scores used in AE, none of which are new. It also presents the classic tables of bonus spells and, something new here though, rites. Combat Rites are used mostly by the Ritual Warrior, the new character class in this book, but also other, revised character classes, such as the Oathsworn (at mid-level) and Warmain (at high-level).

Chapter Two: Races - First, the actual races are: Humans, Dracha (humanoid, medium-sized dragons), Faen (little feys between the PHB elves and halflings which can transform into the tiny, flying Sprytes), Giants (a noble, civilized race whose society is centered on the concept of ritual and tradition), Litorians (lion men), Mojh (humans who decide to become more draconic to uncover the mysteries of magic), Runechildren (kind of "Chosen Ones" who defend the world against agressions), Sibeccai (whose physical appearance is akin to the Egyptian god Anubis - they were animals who have been "elevated" to sentience by the giants) and Verrik (some near human beings with crimson skin. They have a cursed, heavy past and have a close relationship with magic).

Some little things change from Arcana Unearthed. For instance, the Mojh can no longer gain access to a breath weapon. This is mainly because of a larger, more significant change: the introduction of the Dracha, which is also part of an even bigger change - the Return of the Dragons to the Diamond Throne (see below). The Dracha seem very fun to play. They have a sort of "coolness" about them akin to the dragons many of us love. It's actually great to be able to play a draconic character without having to wait for high levels to do so or rely on various templates that may seem "wrong" or "artificial" when I added to a given character concept.

The main particular feature here compared to D&D is the introduction of Racial Levels and Evolved Levels. Racial Levels were already present in Arcana Unearthed. They allow players of all races but humans to take a few (between 1 and 3) levels that increase their racial abilities. Giants become bigger and stronger, Mojh gain magical spell-like abilities and the like. This is all simple and yet, original. The new additions here are obviously the "Evolved" levels. These are additional racial levels any character (including humans) can take if they've been exposed to the Tenebrian Seeds of the dragons. They are a plot device in the hands of the DM. In other words, this allows game master to monitor how these levels are accessed. Nice way of justifying them.

Chapter Three: Classes - They are: Akashic (a Jack-of-all-Trades using various skills and abilities reached through a new concept named the "Akashic Memory", which is akin to an alternate plane combining all the memories of all sentient individuals through the ages), Champion (a dedicated warrior more open-ended in its purposes and allegiances than the Paladin), Greenbond (a sort of Shaman spellcasting class. The Greenbond is a healer and represents the force of "The Green", the lifeforce of all things, which is the opposite of "The Dark", the force behind dark and unnatural forces creating aberrations and undead), Mage Blade (the archetypal fighter/mage with a focus on his chosen weapon, called an Athame), Magister (the best spellcaster of the lot which, besides spells, develops various flavour abilities related to his staff and his use of magic), Oathsworn (an unarmed fighter devoted to the fulfilment of his Oaths, which he can change once they have been fulfilled), Ritual Warrior (a warrior using Combat Rites, which are comparable to feats used in a "spell-like" manner - i.e. with a number of uses per level per day), Runethane (a spellcaster able to create runes, foci of various magical effects), Totem Warrior (a fighter developping traits related to his chosen animal totem), Unfettered (the archetypal fighter/rogue), Warmain (the ultimate tank) and Witch (a primitive spellcaster focusing on manifesting particular aspects of her chosen specialty which could be Wood, Winter etc).

These classes all follow the same pattern of description: short introduction, then description fields such as Adventurers, Background, Races, Other Classes (how they combine with this class in a party), NPCs, Hit Die, Class Archetypes (describing what kind of roles they can fulfill in the game), Skills, Class Features (with the usual table summarizing the class progression). It is interesting to note that there are no "favored classes" and the like. Players can multiclass their characters freely, which is a major element of AE's gameplay when combined to racial, evolved levels, prestige classes, and other options (like those proposed by the excellent supplement Transcendence, which among other things introduces players to Ability levels, Substitution levels and more - with these two books it becomes virtually possible to take levels in every aspect of character development).

Same thing as in the races above: there are minor changes, albeit more of them. Some classes needing to be more balanced have been slightly modified for the better. For instance, the Greenbond had too few skill points (which one of the players of my gaming table experienced the hard way). This is fixed here. Oathsworn and Warmain can now use Combat Rites.

There is one major addition here of course: The Ritual Warrior. One big change when compared to the D&D Player's Handbook is the many ways in which the player can specialize and/or customize a character. The Akashic abilities one chooses with the character progression. The Causes of Champions. The Runes of Runethanes. The animal Totems of Totem Warriors. The Manifestations of the Witch. All these game elements make sure that almost no character with the exact same levels will look alike.

Chapter Four: Skills Nothing important changes from Arcana Unearthed here. There are differences when compared to the D&D Player's Handbook: there is no "Profession" skill, the available Knowledges are different (more specific to the particular flavour AE with Knowledge (Ceremony) and various racial Knowleges for instance). Differences that make the gameplay easier mostly by combining these or those skills together. But nothing groundbreaking.

Chapter Five: Feats and Talents -There are two new types of feats when compared to core D&D: the Talents, which are feats that are only available to first level characters, and Ceremonial feats, which require some type of ritual performed on the character and a True Name to be gained. True Names are one of these cool additions typical of Arcana Evolved: it's not a "groundbreaking" idea but everything's in the flavour. Each character either has a True Name or not (this is called an "Unbound" character). This defines which types of feat the character starts the game with, and which feat categories he has access to in the future. This is also important for some spells (such as Raise The Dead) which require the True Name of the target to be performed correctly. Another thing worth mentioning: metamagic feats which allow a spellcaster to gain access to "Spellcasting Templates" which are described in Chapter Eight: Magic.

Chapter Six: Equipment - This chapter mostly describes the base equipment for characters, the weapons, the items particular to the Diamond Throne and the like. I like the new ways in which you can personalize your equipment (with crystal, devanian, dire weapons and armor, for instance, which are nice additions to the classic masterwork piece of equipment).

Chapter Seven: Playing the Game - This is the core system, the reason why a DM wouldn't need a Player's Handbook to play Arcana Evolved. All the rules are here: combat, actions, types of damage and so on. It also details the mechanics of Hero Points, which can be used by the players to tweak the rules in the favor of their characters with panache. A good idea, much more opened to personal interpretations (and possibly powerful) than the similar mechanics of the Eberron Campaign Setting, for instance.

Chapter Eight: Magic - The big chunk that makes Arcana Evolved different in its gameplay than D&D. This isn't as different from D&D that one could believe, however. At least not as different as Elements of Magic would be.

There are still spell slots and spell levels, but new mechanics have been implemented to allow more flexible uses from players and DM. You can for instance use spell slots of inferior or superior spell levels to fuel your casting. Or you can cast superior (heightened) or lesser (diminished) versions of each spell with a slot of one level higher or lower than the one indicated in the spell's description. Another original feature is the way spells are not prepared daily like in D&D. You have a list of spells prepared yes, but you can keep this list as long as you want. You don't have to "revise" your spells each morning. Prepared spells are used in the same way sorcerer spells would be: you can cast the same one several times or just once, up to your number of slots per day for this spell level, or even more when you use higher or lower slots.

Perhaps it doesn't seem like much when you read it but it breaks the overall rigidity of D&D's spellcasting. Add to this the Spell Templates, which allow you to apply effects (like Flaming, Blessed, Cursed, etc) to all the spells you want, and you have a very adaptable, very open-ended magic system.

Also included are all the rules related to the magic items of Arcana Evolved. Nothing incredibly original there.

This chapter is the part of the book many fans are raving about, and for good reasons, I think, since spells are such a huge part of the D&D experience.

Chapter Nine: Spells and Combat Rites - The list of spells available is changed when compared to the PHB. There are no alignments in Arcana Evolved, and thus no alignment-related spells. There is much more balance in the spell selections. No "magic missile". No "save or die" effects. This is a bit underpowered compared to D&D spells, but with the heightened and diminished versions of each spells, the spell templates and all the other options available to spellcasters, this is in fact just as powerful.

The main particular feature here is the presence of Simple, Complex and Exotic spells within any given spell level. Most spellcasting classes only have access to Simple spells or some Complex spells with a particular descriptor. Only magisters have free access to both Simple and Complex spells. Exotic spells are unique and rare - a character may use these only through specific feats, usually.

Combat Rites are akin to temporary feats. They allow you to score a critical on your next it. Or move faster. Or add to your Armor Class by taking a particular stance. In use, they are like spells: your character can use a number of them per day. There are divided per "rite level" the same way spells are. These are great addition to the game: they give to warriors the same potential flexibility as the spellcasting characters. It was about time to have someone come up with that kind of addition to the core rules, wouldn't you think?

Chapter Ten: Diamond Throne Gazetteer - The contents of this chapter are mostly taken from the Diamond Throne supplement to Arcana Unearthed. There are some changes though: first, the Tenebrian Seeds and the concept of evolution, experiments of the dragons that led to the creation of the Dramojh (the bad buys of the setting) are introduced. Second, the Dragons are back, and they intend to recover what is theirs: the Lands themselves now in the care of the Giants. This may be the source of endless adventures with the PCs torn apart between Dragons and Giants and both of their claims on the Diamond Throne. What really makes this background addition flavorful is that none of the factions is either "right" or "wrong". They are both understandable and somehow justified in their claims. This makes for great role-playing moments potentially.

Another thing worth mentioning is the way the Diamond Throne and all its geographical, historical, sociological elements are described: they are summarized and leave the DM as the real master behind the world. As a DM, you can choose to interpret this or that element of the background as you want. It makes the Diamond Throne "your" world more than any other published world could be while still detailing what is absolutely essential to it.

Chapter Eleven: Prestige Classes - They include Beast Reaver, Crystal Warrior, Darkbond, Dragon Kith, Esoteric Mage, Giant Paragon, Knight of the Axe, Mage Priest, Nightwalker, Ollamh Lorekeeper, Rune Lord, Somnamancer. I have not much to say here, apart of their balance which is perfectly fine, and their design, which covers many of the possibilities for character development while tying each particular class to a concept or another of the setting itself. That's in my opinion what Prestige Classes are for: to give more flexibility to characters while tying them mechanically to the world around. That's exactly what these Prestige Classes do.

Chapter Twelve: Creatures - This chapter includes Alabast, Chorrim, Cyclops, Dark Warden, Dragon, Dream Hunter, Evolved Creature Template, Harrid, Inshon, Radont, Rhodin, Shadow Troll, Slassan, Undead Creature Templates, Xaaer (Death Ooze).

Let's just say the basics are covered: the setting-specific grunts, higher level grunts, and various classics from the Diamond Throne. The Dragons are especially original. No dragon is defined by its color here. They are each unique creatures, and all the rules to build them are presented here. The Corporeal and Incorporeal Undead templates are really winners because they allow you to create creepy baddies with virtually any creature from any source you might possess. Which is especially cool when used with the undead-creation spells given in this book.

And that's it. An annex describes possible conversions between AE and D&D, the character sheet is well organized and designed with good taste (like the book itself - see the Overview above). Same thing applies to the Index, particularly useful for a mammoth like AE, and the mandatory OGL follows.

Critical Hit

First, let's remember why Arcana Evolved is conceived the way it is: : bring the power back into the DM's hands, increase the player's choices, base the game on the notions of character choice, uniqueness, use a background made of rituals and traditions.

Here is the Critical Hit, in my opinion: AE does exactly what it's supposed to do. It opens horizons for players and DMs in terms of character customization, game setting and rules flexibility. It offers many options, none of which seem superfluous or useless. Everything can find its own appeal in an Arcana Evolved game. Most importantly, and this is the real critical hit, it lets the reader open the "hood" of the system to find out how it works: it provides guidelines to create your own causes for Champions, totems for Totem Warriors, and so on. In clear, it gives you the tools to make this game your own.

If only for an understanding of how the d20 system works and can be modified in original new ways, this is a must for any DM and player of the game.

Critical Miss

Arcana Evolved suffers from its Critical Hit. As it offers more and more options, variants, possibilities for DMs and players, it is not a product for beginners. Sure, it is always possible to use it with newbies, but the DM would then have to know the system inside out and be able to break it down for the players. This isn't "D&D for Dummies" in clear. Which is great for some gamers, and a potential source of headaches for others, not because it is especially "complicated" (it isn't any more complicated than D&D is), but because there is so much stuff in there, so many game elements and so many choices for DMs and players.

Conclusion

In the end, the versatility of AE is its best trait and worse enemy at the same time. It all depends what you want out of your game: something simple where newbies can come in and play without much to explain, or a complete game allowing you to "put your hands in the motor" and make it your own.

If the second approach is the most interesting to you, you will rave about Arcana Evolved like I do. Even with newbies, it is possible to have great gameplay (I run a tabletop campaign with five newbies to RPGs), but it will require some work and patience on your part as a DM.

Once that is said, Arcana Evolved shines for its own qualities: it is one of these rare products on the d20 market exploring new ways in which to use the d20 mechanics while doing it with talent and knowledge such as none other than one of its original designers could have. And, away from these gamist considerations, it is simply an awesome, fun game to play: all the archetypes are here, all the options are available to have some great game sessions out of this product. You can buy Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved with a blindfold covering your eyes: the probability of being disappointed is nearly non-existent.

From what I understand, Arcana Evolved (previously a black and white book called Arcana Unearthed and a thin paperback Diamond Throne setting primer now married in one book with color versions of mostly the same art from the first book) is the attempt of Monte Cook to make use of the benefits of the Open Game License to push past what he saw as meaningless and arbitrary restrictions imposed on "Official" D&D material.

His goals are commendable. He wanted to get rid of arbitrary game mechanics that limited the growth of characters (like alignment requirements or race based limitations on multiclassing). He also wanted a clean Player's Handbook, that DM's could use for any fantasy setting, without a bias toward the published setting. Unfortunately this is not Arcana Evolved.

Most of the classes in Arcana Evolved cannot be multiclassed. Some, such as a combination Warmein/Unfettered (Only use heavy weapons and armor/Only use light weapons and armor) are so flatly contradictory as to be a joke in our group. The Oathsworn (basically a monk) can't use any weapons or armor at all. The Magister "disdains the way of the sword" having chosen to channel all of his magic through a staff, whereas the Mage Blade channels all of his magic through an athame or key weapon. Champions are so fanatically devoted to a single ideal that it endows them with paladin-like abilities. Hard to see that devotion leaving room for any other class pursuits.

The races have also given me fits when trying to create non-Diamond Throne settings. As opposed to races like gnomes or elves that can hop settings with very little baggage, there are some races in Arcana Evolved that are really tough to transplant. Sibbecai, for example, are a race of jackalmen raised to sentience by the Giants in Diamond Throne, which is responsible for a lot of their cultural identity. So you either keep that bit of history in every setting (which would be very odd) or you are forced to create a new origin for them that keeps their personality, but does not recreate the Diamond Throne history every time. Likewise the Mojh are a group of humans who have transformed themselves into draconic hybrids out of devotion to the hated Dramojh who were once owned the Diamond Throne's inhabitants as slaves. Hard to break the Mojh apart from the Dramojh of the Diamond Throne--not impossible, but it certainly doesn't seem like a step toward a clean PHB.

Now what Arcana Unearthed has going for it is impressive. The classes are beautifully developed, even if they don't stack very well, and full of fresh, exciting ideas. The weapons list is one of the few I've seen in D20 products that expands on the standard list of D&D weapons to provide some fun new inventions like battle claws, spikesticks, and dire weapons. The list of feats is huge (the summary list is two full pages in tiny eight point font), with a much greater focus on drama and customization. It's divided into General, Ceremonial (connected with the custom of recieving a true name, a big part of the Diamond Throne setting) Item Creation (only a few, but organized based on the duration and nature of the enchantment, rather than whether the item is a staff, rod, or a ring, which always seemed a bit arbitrary) and Talents (Feats that define inherant qualities of the character, and as such must be picked up at character creation or not at all).

The character classes are a bit mediocre. While they're not the typical elves and dwarves, they're not too much more original than that. You have jackalmen (Sibeccai), lionmen (Litorians), halflings that metamorphose into pixies (Faen, two kinds), half-giants (called Giants, but closer to the D&D style half-giant in look), red-skinned pragmatist near humans (Verrik) and a yuan-ti style race of transformed dragon-men (Mojh). There's also a mechanic for leveling up in race instead of class. I'm not sure how I feel about this. While it adds a certain amount of customization to characters, it tends to feel a bit like an arbitrary mechanic--as though someone can grow larger, or gain a breathweapon or claws and teeth through experience? Age maybe...special ritual perhaps...but probably not through multiclassing in your race when you level up. That's just weird.

The art in the book on the whole is rather good. There's only a couple of bad pieces and quite a few that are really nice stuff. Most of it is printed too small--stuff relegated to the margins or a dollar sized art insert, forcing you to squint at it. Likewise the layout is awful. Most of the book looks like it's printed in 8-point font broken into two columns. There's no white space, no rest for your eye. It's dense and impenetrable. Every page feels like every other page. It can get really straining and claustrophobic if you have to read too much of it in a sitting.

So yeah, the content is pretty darn good. Not what I think the authors were trying to make at all--but good stuff nonetheless. The layout and tiny font are excruciating, though the art now being in color helps a bit. Could definitely use more art and graphical playing around with.

This is a fantastic book. I have always felt a little inadequate as a writing teacher. I can write, but I don't know where to begin on the road to teaching children to write. This is a step-by-step plan and it is fantastic!

I have reviewed many books about how to teach children to write stories, and this one is by far the best! To begin with Mariconda is the only author I've read who distinguishes between character-problem-solution stories and what she calls "personal narratives." Personal narratives are more about an experience than a character, are usually heavily descriptive, and there is no "problem." The character-problem-solution mantra had always bothered me, because we all know that there are wonderful stories that are more "mood pieces" than solutions problems.
More importantly, the book consists of specific lessons on teaching the elements of story writing, in isolation. It can be done! Look at the Table of Contents to see exactly what is covered. These lessons are explained so well explained that you feel fully equipped to teach them, now!
Additionally, the author herself writes with "voice," unlike the usual dry, anonymous style of textbooks. When I leafed through the book and saw an entry that said something like, "getting students to elaborate with detail is the bane of most English teachers' existence," I bought it then and there. What we all need is to hear about teachers' experiences, not just "programs" that seem to spring from nowhere.
Lastly, her approach works! When this program was implemented at the school she taught at, the percentage of students passing the state writing assessment rose from 47% to 92% in four years. That is amazing! I am planning on using this book for my high school students as well as elementary and middle school!

I used this book to teach 3rd and 4th graders in Watts how to write. This book has lesson plans that teach step by step. All kids have wonderful ideas but sometimes do not know how to express these ideas on paper. This book shows you how to teach them. It was incredible to read the stories my students wrote after learning the techniques in this book! All my students became amazing authors! They were so proud of their stories and I was so proud of them! Thank you for writing this amazing book!

I have used this book with 3 schools in two states to help teachers teach writing and to help students prepare for state writing tests. This book shows you many simple ways to help kids understand narrative writing. The diamond graphic organizes the students's thinking and writing. The mini-lessons are great, and the test prep advice, the paced prompt, works. why should anyone take a test they aren't prepared for? the paced prompt shows the students how to organize their time and thougths, and the scores showed it. If you or your teachers are using Write Traits this will fit beautifully, but the book also stands alone. I've bought copies for all my teachers!

A book that, incredibly, lives up to its title! This is my 13th year of teaching elementary school and this book does what no other book has been able to do: it works! I found myself reading the entire thing in the teacher's store where I first found it. I suggested to my entire 3rd grade team that we implement it and they whole-heartedly agreed. If you want to teach kids to write narrative that A. makes sense, and B. is interesting, you cannot go wrong. Haven't you tried the formula of character, setting, problem, solution, one too many times and not been satisfied with the results? I know I have. This approach is much better, and shows you how to teach beginnings, elaboration, suspense (the best part), main event, resolution, and satisfying ending. The beauty is you teach it by parts using real literature examples, modeling, and then students practice. You will find yourself nodding your head as the author relates the same kinds of frustrations you have when reading elementary school writing and shows you how to change them. This book is the best I've ever seen to help you teach writing. There is no fluff and many great insights. Your students will write amazing stories and you'll never teach writing the same way again!

If you order or have the Motherpeace tarot deck, you must have this book to go along with them. It describes what each card means and it's layed out in a way to easily access the card definition you are seeking. It gives one a lot to think about while reading your cards. You will also learn a lot about women's herstory.

it is a most have book.with easy to read for beginners.you will not regret purchase

I've used this book and matching Tarot deck for 7 years or so. (I go through phases where I consult it regularly and then periods when I don't use it at all.)

The book is easy to understand, explains in detail a lot of symbolism you might not know, and also offers a quick "if you get this card in a reading" section if you just want to zoom into your current reading. It importantly also encourages users to use the book for general understanding of symbols in the cards, and the larger context of the cards, and to trust in one's own intuition for readings.

One thing I really liked about the book is how the 22 Major Arcana cards tell a story of the history of the world--one that has not yet been completed. It is all a big cycle, with many little currents running through.

This is a tarot focused on the goddess, a panorama of earth-based and matrifocal cultures. But I am a man and have never felt astranged or put off by this focus... quite to the contrary it has been helpful.

I've been using the Motherpeace Tarot cards with the original version of this book for almost twenty years. The cards have a wonderful matriarchal/woman/goddess focus, and the book uses gender-nuetral language, so the cards can be used easily by both men and women. I continue to gain new insight and inspiration from this deck even after all these years! The detailed symbolism in the artwork is incredible, and the book is well organized to either read about the card in detail or get a quick summary. I don't usually use the cards in the suggested layout because it can take a long time to go through each position. I usually spend a little time centering myself and form a question or situation clearly in my mind, then shuffle and cut the cards and lay out one to three cards (one for just the situation, or three for past-present-future interpretations). I then spend some time looking at the cards to see what jumps out at me, then read about them in the book. Sometimes I'll keep a card from a reading out on my nightstand for a few days to continue contemplation of the image, or to remind me of an affirmation or message that came to me from the card. I don't necessarily use the cards for "telling the future", but rather as a tool to help me clarify and focus my intuition and thinking. Every now and then, for really key situations, I'll use the layout described in the book. It's very comprehensive and can be useful to help think about things in many different ways (atmosphere, hopes, fears, obstacles, conscious and unconscious impressions, etc.). I also use the Motherpeace Tarot Playbook by Vicki Noble and Jonathan Tenney, which goes into more detail on how to interpret cards that are leaning in one direction or the other, or are reversed (upside down). The Playbook also has more information about the recommended layout, and about using the cards with astrology and the chakras. I would recommend that anyone who plans to use these cards frequently get both of these books to use together. I've used other tarot decks, but have always come back to my Motherpeace cards!

I actually bought this book several months before I bought the Motherpeace cards--I liked the card interpretations better than the art. The book was useful for reading any deck--the meanings correspond most closely, of course, with the Motherpeace deck, but they can also add a different flavor to a reading with any deck. Motherpeace, as you probably already know, is a deck that focuses on ancient matriarchal culture and its contact with patriarchy. History doesn't tell us much, but a woman angry at the world can find some comfort in the theory anyway. The Motherpeace book will add a slant to your reading that will give you a sense of power--whether you possess worldly power or not. And it may give you a sense of hope about the kind of society we could build if we'd stop fighting. And, politics aside, it's a pretty solid tarot book in general.

This is exactly the bank I was looking for. There is a place to save for church, savings, and fun stuff. The bank is large enough to hold plenty of money and it is also easy to get the money out. We are very happy with the bank!

Awesome tool to teach your kids at a very young age (about age 3) how to begin dividing up their money. Works great for us!!

Just a basic bank, what came in the box is just like the picture and description - a bank with three slots in it. The stickers came on a sheet that you had to peel off and stick on the bank, and they were a little hard to get off, but then again, maybe I'm sticker-challenged!

Wonderful tool to help even small children understand saving, spending and tithing. We bought one for a 3 year old and a 5 year old. They both love the bank and understand how to use it.

I have heard wonderful things about this giving bank and finally decided to implement it with my 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son. Obviously the 2 year old is a little young for the concept, but I drew up a chore chart and at the end of the week they each get $3.00 and each dollar goes into the separate banks. I explained each bank and my 5 year old cannot wait to give her money to "those who don't have any". It's a great teaching tool!

The only reason I gave this a four out of five stars is because the author wrote in all caps which is incredibly hard to read page after page. It also goes against the graphic design rule of not writing in all caps unless it's a short headline. Other than that, this book is great for all levels of designers. For beginners it tells all the principles and walks through how to go about projects. For intermediate and advanced it's good to have by your computer to refresh yourself every now and then on the principles of good design. Great book... would recommend to anyone in the design field.

This book is a great reference and reminder of the basic elements that make graphic design and visual communication effective! Every student in any graphic design program should buy this book!
Gregg Berryman knows what he is writing about!

You couldn't hope to get more useful information from a 460 page book than you do from this thin 46 page book. I learned 90% of what I was taught in 5 separate design classes within this single tiny book. It's a must-have for all beginning, and even expert, designers!

I got this book during my junior year in high school for an intro to graphic design class...and still refer to it every so often. I would recommend it for any graphic designer, especially students, as it has a wealth of knowledge-from basic design principles to the grid, typogrpahy, etc.- contained in it's small amount of pages.
A must have for any graphic designer!

Notes on Graphic Design and Visual Communication is the most essential graphic design book written. Despite being very thin in quantity of pages, this book holds an enormous amount of graphic knowledge. I am currently studying Industrial Design and was refered to this book by a professor to help me with my graphic design knowledge. It opened the world of graphics up to me in an easy to read, fun package. The only complaint I`ve heard of this book is the font used for text. This book has a hand written font which can sometimes be hard to read. I have had no problems with the font however.

Now, the first Nuisances is absolutely hilarious. It's creative and unique, and adds a whole new dynamic to your regular D20 campaign. The directors cut gives you a whole lot more of that, it takes what Nuisances did well and does it even better, and the full color art looks great too. I look forward to even more Nuisances stuff in the future.

Expanded with a new introduction, still crazy, developed to deliver laughs and groans in play as well as in reading, this is a worthy return to one of Skirmisher's deserved flagship titles.

There is, quite possibly, no other fantasy roleplaying game book as irreverent and off-color as this one, and I would not have thought something with so many scatological references could be so funny. Nuisances: Director's Cut is, however, absolutely hilarious, and even better than its predecessor, Nuisances: A Comprehensive OGL (d20 System) Sourcebook for Fantasy Role-Playing Games. I am glad to have a copy of both, however, as the original is available in print format and this expanded version only on CD-ROM as a PDF.

You can't keep a good half-human down! This latest edition of the highlariously playable Nuisances has been playtested and expanded upon to give gamers more to groan about and DMs more to smile about, and vise versa! Nothing like an already tiny halfling with the Dwarfism defect (which grants and extra Feat choice as well) to really ankle bite and frustrate the legions of tall gnolls around the countryside!

Seriously- the first Nuisances book made me laugh until I cried and my stomach hurt so of course when I saw this extended version, I had to own it... The beautiful new design is awesome and the additions to the original material made buying this book worth every penny! This book is a lot of fun and anyone who likes d20 games needs to have it!

I have bought several books on cooking with venison. I thought the pictures were beautiful. However, once I started cooking and pulled one of the books out, I quickly realized I only had a few of the ingredients needed. Those books went back on the shelf without another glance. Quick and Easy soon became my middle name once I had a family, but I didn't want to rule out taste either. Oh Deer is perfect! The recipes are easy, quick to prepare, and oh so tasty. Most of the recipes have the same key ingredients that compliment your venison, so once you stock up on those few things, your good to go. This book never goes on a shelf. It is left out on my counter all the time. Since my husband's family are all hunters, I gave each wife a copy for Christmas.

Great recipes using ingredients most of us have in our cupboard. Most recipes simple enough to fix after a busy day at work. Recipes are every day food that children will eat. Good book, fair price; appreciate author's sense of humor. Not just for 'beginners'. I've been eating and cooking venison for 40 years and still find it a useful cookbook.

I really enjoyed the first 8 chapters of the book. You see, I met Cheri at my 20 yr class reunion in the summer of 2000. The avid hunter she married was my classmate. That is when I found out about the book. My husband and now 13 yr old son are also hunters and I very much needed some variety for my venison menus. We have three deer in the freezer this very minute and one hanging in the shed to be de-boned tomorrow. I know many of the places and people she mentions in the book and that makes it even more interesting for me. But the best part, and the reason I bought the book is the wonderful recipes... all made with ingredients that I either have on hand already or can easily find in my local grocery store in a town of 700 people. I learned a few things in the first few chapters, also. I just now ordered another one to give to my dad for Christmas. He loves "cooking up" new ways to use his venison. I'm sure my brother will be borrowing it also. Thank you, Cheri, for a great help in the hunters' wive's kitchen.

My husband and I have been together 4 years, and it was not until this year's hunting trip that he had success (and I had panic!) He shot two deer and I had no clue what to do with the meat. I had previously tried masking the flavor with excessive salt, but beyond that I was clueless. I ordered several books, and this one has made me the venison goddess! My husband and family have thoroughly loved all of my creations (I've tried 8 recipes now). The author is so down to earth and lets you know which recipes are "potluck worthy" and which are most kid friendly as well. The ingredients are normal stuff. She also taught me some things about nutrition, field dressing, and psychology! Of all the books I ordered, this is really the only one I keep going back to. It gets my two thumbs up, and I am a pretty picky reviewer. Happy cooking!

It is good to see a book which has been so well thought out prior to its conception and better yet to see that a lady like Cheri Helregel has devoted her time and energy to share this with us. We have many other good cookbooks on our shelves but non have been so compelling to read and enjoy. This must be attributed, I think, to the writters personal style and commitment to tHis work. We are looking forward to enjoying any futher efforts which the author may chose to share at some future time.

Again, Thank You

This book was extremely informative and answers most of the questions you would have about the gaming industry. I'm hoping for a second edition! Definitely purchase this book if you are considering a career in this field.

I bought this for my bf because he was thinking of a video game career, he hasn't done anything with this field yet, but he said the book was good

Are you considering going into the video games industry, but you want to find out more about it before making the decision to make the jump? This book will give you an honest and insightful look at just about every facet of this competitive industry.

Whether your serious or curious about the games industry, you'll enjoy this entertaining read. I wholeheartedly recommend it!

This book gave me more insight about what the Gaming work world is like than all the other research I did my whole life.

This is an essential read for anyone who wants to design electronic games!

As a graduate advisor for gaming students at Westwood College Online, I can not stress enough how important and worthwhile this book is. I recommend this book to every student that I work with because it is full of numerous "wake-up calls" and good ideas for breaking into the industry. Check this book out, it will greatly help you in your career search.

This book covers everything you need to know to write a ray tracer with
advanced features like photon mapping, volume scattering, path tracing,
etc. The scope of the material it covers is stunning. It starts from the
basics of topics like 3D geometry and ray/object intersections and then
builds up to explain reflection models, advanced texturing techniques, and
then light transport algorithms.

It has excellent discussions of the theory and underlying math of physical
rendering blended (rather well) with very very useful practical
implementations of the theory. The leap from theory to implementation is
often difficult to do, and to do well or efficiently even more difficult.
(The ray acceleration code alone is worth it's weight in gold.) This is an
indispensable book for anyone who wants to write their own ray tracer or
learn more about the latest techniques used in photorealistic rendering.

This book mixes detailed algorithm descriptions with actual code in a book that never loses sight of the "big picture" of physically based ray tracing and image synthesis. Although it is very well written and is not a dry academic book at all, it would help if the reader is already familiar with basic computer graphic techniques, linear algebra, calculus, and optics in order to get the most out of this book. It was never meant to be a replacement for Foley & Van Dam's classic book on computer graphics, even though the first few chapters go over basic computer graphic material. The book includes a website where the source code of the authors' renderer can be downloaded. This code is very well organized and commented so that if you wish to lift individual pieces from the entire software package you can with just a little bit of work. I highly recommend this book to the programmer who wishes to implement physically based rendering in his/her own code or wants to know about the practical implementation of image synthesis techniques. Amazon does not show any details about the book here, so I shall explain the contents in the context of the table of contents:
CHAPTER 01. INTRODUCTION
This chapter talks briefly about all kinds of topics related to ray tracing. It also talks about how to understand the code in the book and the book website.
CHAPTER 02. GEOMETRY AND TRANSFORMATIONS
This chapter is pretty basic computer graphics stuff. It talks about coordinate systems, vectors, arithmetic, scaling, dot and cross products,etc. Applying transformations via matrices is also discussed as well as the representation of points, vectors, normals, rays, and bounding boxes.
CHAPTER 03. SHAPES
More basic computer graphics continues with discussions on spheres, differential geometry, cylinders, and disks, paraboloids, triangles and meshes, and the representation and bounding of all of these shapes.
CHAPTER 04. PRIMITIVES AND INTERSECTION ACCELERATION
This chapter is about accelerating the speed of your graphics through grid acceleration, tree construction and representation, and object instantiation.
CHAPTER 05. COLOR AND RADIOMETRY
XYZ color system is discussed along with radiometric integrals including integrals over projected solid angles, integrals over spherical coordinates, and integrals over area. Beginning in this chapter the math becomes more advanced.
CHAPTER 06. CAMERA MODELS
Projective camera models are discussed along with orthographic, perspective, and environment camera models. This information will already be familiar to students of computer vision.
CHAPTER 07. SAMPLING AND RECONSTRUCTION
Frequency domain techniques are discussed starting with the Fourier transform and ideal sampling and reconstruction. Also, antialiasing techniques are explained.
CHAPTER 08. FILM AND THE IMAGING PIPELINE
This chapter talks about topics such as luminance, photometry, bloom, and imaging pipeline stages.
CHAPTER 09. REFLECTION MODELS
The various reflection models are discussed including specular, Fresnel, Lambertian, Oren-Nayer disfuse reflection, and the Lafortune model.
CHAPTER 10. MATERIALS
Matte, plastic, bump mapping, and other material effects are explained very well.
CHAPTER 11. TEXTURE
We return to frequency models some in this chapter. The texture sampling rate, filtering functions, and mapping in spherical, cylindrical, and planar form are explained. Procedural textures are also discussed including the famous Perlin noise, marble, and windy waves.
CHAPTER 12. VOLUME SCATTERING
This chapter is considered more advanced material, and discusses volume scattering processes, absorption, emission, in and out scattering, phase functions, exponential density, and volume aggregates.
CHAPTER 13. LIGHT SOURCES
All kinds of light sources are described including point lights, spotlights, texture projection lights, distant lights, area lights, and infinite area lights.
CHAPTERS 14 and 15 both discuss Monte Carlo integration techniques including improving efficiency.
CHAPTERS 16 and 17 are about light transport. The first chapter is about surface reflection and the second is about volume rendering.
CHAPTER 18. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION includes a design retrospective, a discussion of abstraction versus reality, and design alternatives including triangles only and streaming computation.
APPENDIXES- These include sections on utilities, scene description interface, input file formats, an index of code fragments, an index of classes and their members, and finally an index of identifiers.

I do ray tracing and GI for a living. When I got started on my ray tracer I was struggling with several basic issues. Even though I tried to locate all the published material on those subject there was still significant gaps. Issues like 'how to shot photons', what about all these 'cosines'. How do you actually implement a kd-tree. I read Shirley's, Jansen's, Glassner's and Advanced Global Illumination and a lot of the older Siggraph papers. PBRT came out just in time to rescue me. It contains the only complete implementation of a photonmap.

It's strong point is a complete running GI engine. However the literate programming style used in the book meant a lot of time I cannot read a subject by itself. The use of abstract interfaces sort of force you to use the class browser to follow the logic. You pretty much have to read it from the beginning. The quality of the code contained goes beyond the usual standard of code published as examples. It contains a rather sophiscated random number generator. Its treatment of LDS plus sampling and recontruction in general is excellent. It is the only source that shows how to implement Li's algorithm to generate random rays to sample a sphere. Same goes for Malley's. Shirley and Chui's concentric sampling method is hidden in the appendix of a old Siggraph paper.

The book also has code to sample and model most of the common light sources. Which is surprisingly non-trivial.

I highly recommend this book but it does require a certain level of commitment to get the most out of this book. The chapters on sampling, ray differential, texture filtering, light transport I consider must reads for all graphics programmer even though you might not be working on ray tracing.

I cannot praise this book more than the others already have. The book is about producing high-quality images using raytracing. It basically walks you through the creation of a fully-functional raytracer, discussing all the different algorithms and techniques that are needed along the way.

It's written in the context of their particular implementation of a working raytracer, using the fweb programming/documentation system, where basically the program source and the documentation are written as one document. I've always thought this was academic nonsense as far as writing real code in a production environment, but it turns out to be an EXCELLENT way to write a book or code intended for a learning environment.

This strikes the perfect balance between explaining the theory thoroughly and showing how the ideas can be implemented in a real, functional raytracer. They avoid the trap of many other book that focus on a particular implemention, by not getting too bogged down into pecularities of their system.

The source code itself also stands out as a strong point. There are so many books out there with poorly written and unorganized code that you'd never want to read, much less try to work in. The code is well organized, and the coding style easy to read. It's one of the few books I own that contain source code where I actually read the source code and it added something to my experience. I wish everybody who wrote about programming was actually a decent programmer and not just a mathemiticion.

This book has academic rigor and but also well-written explanations. I'm still learning a lot from it. I expect to refer to it frequently over the next years as we (in the video game industry) take more concepts from raytracers and apply them to real-time graphics, as the processors get more and more powerful.

You probably should not be an absolute newbie when it comes to basic 3D math and things like vectors and basic graphics concepts before buying this book. The authors use some calculus, too, if that scares you off.

Although it is not possible here, I am fairly sure this book deserves such rating. This is truly remarkable work and is likely to become a classic text in the field of computer graphics.

It is not a survey-type book, instead of trying to describe every possible method out there, the authors have concentrated on a few selected techniques, that are not only good (modern, fast, easy to implement, etc.), but also have some pedagogical merits and can serve as a gentle introduction to the world of ray tracing and digital image synthesis. Despite focusing on selected areas, the authors managed to squeeze here in an amazing amount of material. Among other topics, this book covers: subdivision surfaces, ray-primitive intersection acceleration techniques (3D DDA and kd-tree), color and radiometry, anti-aliasing, tone mapping, physically based reflection models, texture mapping (including texture anti-aliasing using ray differentials), area lights and HDR Image Based Lighting, volume scattering and much more.

A large part of the book has been devoted to the light transport and Monte Carlo techniques. One can find there an introduction to the theory of Monte Carlo estimation (including selected methods for reducing variance and computation time, like Russian roulette, multiple importance sampling or stratified sampling) and explanation of important light transport equations (rendering and transfer equations).

Finally the authors have described (and implemented) several solutions for the rendering equation: Whitted-style recursive ray tracing, direct illumination estimation, path tracing, irradiance caching and photon mapping.

However, it is not only the vastness of the material covered in this book, that causes this volume should be praised so highly. Perhaps, the style, in which this book has been written, is even more impressive. For each of the topics, the authors start with what is usually known as "dry math and theory", and then show how it is supposed to work as an algorithm (including its dirty details) and finally they explain how to turn this algorithm into C++ code. Each of those transitions concentrates on a small portion of the problem, so it is still easy to understand. Anyone, who had to turn a SIGGRAPH paper into something that works, will immediately recognize what kind of gem this book is - it actually shows how to do it!

This brilliant blend of theory and practice is one of its brightest spots, for learning the theory and math formulas is one thing, but writing a working, robust implementation is completely another.

Those, who prefer studying sources, will get source code of a very good, physically based, extensible ray tracer (called pbrt) with the best documentation one could ever imagine. Documentation that gives the rationale for almost every line of code. It shows not only how they did it, but also why they did it that way.

It is not the only book, that one will ever need - computer graphics is a vast topic - too big to be covered in a single volume, even as huge as this one. However, it is certainly one of the books that everyone interested in photorealistic rendering should buy. The price of this book is really low, if you think about it as of an excellent, first-rate computer graphics course.

Aimed at students, researchers and people interested in computer graphics algorithms, it is an indispensable book for anyone willing to write his own photorealistic (not necessarily physically based!) ray tracer and learn more about computer image synthesis.

This next installment in Toshihiro Ono's shonen(boys) Pokemon manga series is called 'Pikachu Shocks Back'. It's aimed more at older kids and teenagers, and the artwork is drawn very well. There are four stories here:
(1)The Human Race and the Pokemon Race: Ash decides to travel along with Brock, and he meets up with Misty(again) and her three beautiful sisters at the Fuschia Festival. After causing a Tauros to get angry, Misty and Ash end up being saved by a girl named Lara, who's arm is broken thanks to an accident she had while riding her Ponyta. Ash decides to help her out by racing in the Free-For-All with her Ponyta. Unfortunately for Ash, a racer that likes to cheat has other plans for the boy with the red cap.
(2)To Evolve or not to Evolve That is the Question: Misty joins up with Ash and Brock as they head to Stone Town, the place where Evolution Stones cmoe from. Misty meets up with a timid boy named Mikey, and finds out he's apart of some underground society that likes to evolve their Pokemon. The problem is, Mikey doesn't want to evolve his Eevee. And that doesn't exactly make his three brothers happy with him. Misty also begins to question whether she has a 'weakness for younger men'.
(3)Pikachu's Excellent Adventure: Pikachu gets seperated from Ash, and tries to find his way back to his trainer. The electric mouse joins up with Squirtle and some other Pokemon on a journey to find a Poke-Paradise that's supposedly guarded by some godess. On their travels, they meet up with a trio of shady fellows that call themselves 'Team Rocket'.
(4)You Gotta Have Friends: Ash begins to wonder if Pikachu is drifting away from him as he stumbles upon a Pikachu colony.

The artwork is way more realistic than the art in the other Pokemon mangas, and I thought it was kinda cool. Even though this series was aimed at teenagers, Viz decided to edit alot of the scenes to make it appropriate for the kiddies, making the women and the girls less 'endowed', and they now wear FAR more clothes than they originally did. This was good and bad at the same time, because they sorta went overboard with the editing; Misty and some of the other girls are like walls now, if you know what I mean! But still, this is a great book if you're a Pokemon fan, or a shonen manga fan. It's got lots of action, funny and likable characters, and some great artwork.

the comic at the very beginning was the cutest and the first story, the human race and the pokemon race. looked amazing althou ponyta looked more stronger and less graceful. the second story, to evolve or not to evolve (i'm sure you all know what this is about) has the best pictures and is soooo cute. Pikachus adventure, is a new story that is wonderful and a nice touch. the the last one you gotta have friends... was touching and confirmed pikachu is a guy!!

You have to try this awesome comic!If you've seen the episodes, and you son't want to read them all over again, donn't worry, it has humor, action, and things that weren't shown in the show.Every comic is extra long and you get 4 for a real low price!You don't even have to like pokémon, and the pictures are creative and wonderful.And I wouldn't put it past Brock to not to say anything funny in the story.This Pokémon Comic Colection is a must-buy!!!

I loved this book. It was great and I would recomend it to all the pokemon fans out there. Even people who are not particularly fond of pokemon can enjoy this book.

This book was great.I really enjoyed it.It has some different pokemon adventures in it, like the one about mikey and his eevee.That one was very funny. I have read this book alot of times and I still do.What it means by "graphic novel" is that it is just like a comic book, so that I could read it at school and the teachers didn't know.Hehehe :).But anyway, if you liked the pokemon T.V. series,(I think this is a lot better ), you should definatly consider this.I'm still going back and reading it!