Roleplaying Books

I am an avid B-tech fan and have been reading this series for over ten years. This book is by far one of the best I have read. Vlad's literal rising from the ashes was very captivating. Also the political intriuge that accompanied it kept you guessing. I felt that Vlad really developed as a character as well as a leader that the Wolf Clan needs to bring them back to thier former strength. As for Victor Davion ,while I am a fan of his, I was glad that the spotlight was not squarly foucused on his exploits. He is still shown to be a great leader, but his role here was secondary to the other players.

This one kept me going, for a book of its size I read it fast. The book was too interesting to put down.

Great book, full of action and huge amounts of background data (which is one of the reasons I love Battletech).
Fans of the older books though will start to notice that this is where the characters start to change drasticaly.
Victor Davion starts entering his 'wimpy' stage and Kai starts to become this ruthless cold killer (which is a total switch on the two characters).
Still, the two of them are not as bad yet as they eventualy become, so it's not too bad.
Buy this book, good stuff.

Stu.

If you're a MechWarrior fan and you only buy one Battletech novel, this is the one to get. It's not only a captivating story by a great author, but it effectively bridges the gap between the Refusal War (i.e. classic MechWarrior 2) and the Inner Sphere counterstrike against the Clans (the events of MechWarrior 3), and it also well foreshadows the Steiner-Davion civil war (the background of MechWarrior 4). If you're interested in MechWarrior backstory, this gives you a good look at the major players in the latter two installments of the series and explains how certain key story elements came about. And it's a riveting read in its own right.

This was a great book. But I think that it was Stackpole's worst. Now, I am Vladimir Ward fan, so naturally this book was great, until all of a sudden Vlad and Clan side of the novel just finished without warning. Though the rest of the novel was brillinat I don't think Stackpole should have just dropped Vlad. I mean he was the centre of attension at the beginning (he got the first chapter), but half through the book it was like Stackpole got bored and decided to continue Victor's and Doc's side of the story. Another problem in the novel was kai. It was like some else wrote him. He didn't have the same attitude as he did in other novels. He was sort of distant and cold in this. Still great novel and worth the money.

It is an ecetial piece in the werewolf series. I have spent many the hour batlling it out with my buddies with this addition to our war against the wyrm. Get this book if you want to bring your game to a new and higher level.

Wow! Raw, energetic, and untamed. Ratkin and the book itself. I suspected a few things about them, but it was nice to be justified and have something to point at when it came right down to it. I like the view on Ratkin and their world. The only thing I have problems with are possibly the 'Freak' aspects. They are fairly powerful and very disruptive, not to mention weird. Still the new gifts, different perspective on old ones, and new stats/abilities are new breath to old campaigns. Among all the shifting breeds it looks like the Ratkin are the most prepared for the end of it all. With the growing trend in WW toward the "Last Days" theme Ratkin will truely come into their own. If you want Ratkin characters, buy it. If you want a change of pace in the foes your Garou are fighting, buy it! I keep having this vision of the movie Aliens when the marines were being overrun as being what it would be like to stumble over a Ratkin nest.

Now you too can be one of the rats. Included are the rules for playing as one of the freak aspects, ratkin aspects formed in the modern day which represent some of the most bizarre and awesome characters possible in your troupe. Enjoy this one!

The Ratkin have a purpose; when all the other werecreatures fail to keep humanity in line, it's the Ratkin's turn. They are purely of the Wyld, and though the Weaver has its place, it often gets out of line. That's where the Ratkin step in. The Ratkin seek to hasten the Apocalypse because it will provide for a new beginning, and the hordes and hordes of Ratkin are more than ready for this day. In this book, you'll find a lot of good stuff. The Ratkin are along the lines of the Bone Gnawers, just with more enthusiasm and take themselves even less seriously. As a result, there's a lot of neat stuff in here; since television shows (particularly cartoons) are often given a lot of attachment and watched a lot, they have a reflection in the Umbra, just like everything else. Tom and Jerry is a good example, and for the Ratkin Engineers, there's Pinky and the Brain. Anyway, aside from all that, the Ratkin book is well worth reading if you have a sense of humor about it; they're spastic, destructive, and at the same time, quite shrewd about what they do. Should another War of Rage erupt, you can bet the Ratkin would be messing any Garou that got in their way...

Like so many White Wolf expansion books, this one pulls the rug out from under the Storyteller by reversing many of the earlier sourcebooks' assumptions and by loading down player-characters with previously unavailable goodies. Nothing new so far, but this time the changed premises are really silly. Rattus norvegicus, the Norway rat (which the book keeps pointing out is THE rat we're talking about) is a parasite on Homo sapiens. It couldn't survive in anything like its present numbers without man and his works, such as apartment buildings and grain silos. So the Norway rat would necessarily be a great friend of the Weaver, no? NO! Also, remember that Rat is the Totem Spirit of the Bone Gnawer tribe. So Rat must be pretty confused, or pretty disgusted, by the Ratkins' determination to exterminate all Garou without regard to tribe. And then you have the ability of some Ratkin to enter a cartoon realm and/or use cartoon abilities just because rats often feature in Saturday morning cartoons (e.g. Pinky and the Brain). In sum, the Ratkins presented in this sourcebook are slavering cartoonified lunatics dedicated to bringing civilization crashing down around their own ears for - no reason in particular. If that sounds like fun to you, hey, knock yourself out.

Solid construction and good lamination. Product should last for years of use, barring unforseen beverage spill accidents. Excellent art without being distracting. I appreciate how well the different sets work well with each other.

These tiles are great, this is a must get tile set along with the rest of them. I would not pass any tile set up they are just great and easy to drop down and speed up the process. Another great thing is the fact that they work just as well for 4th as they did for 3rd edition.

I hate these sealed package products, especially when you can't find what you're buying. This is for all you other folks like me.

What you get in this pack are six double-sided pages of thick cardstock with a plasticy finish. No adventures or anything else--just map bits. Some of them are cut into 2x4" or 2-8" strips, with other bits that have groups of boulders or other terrain on them. The idea is to mix and match them Tetris-style to make a variety of maps. Presumably you could also use them with another forest map, but the thick stiff cardstock makes it so they wouldn't blend well--it's really thick. You could still make color copies of them though, cut out the bits you want, and keep the originals pristine for future use.

Another problem is that about half the cards are dominated by pretty exotic stuff that would be less useful for general purposes: an 8x8 circle of druid stones, hunting lodge floorplan, campsite or big round room filled with hay and bones. The campsite is alright, but the others are way too specific for my preference--determining the adventures you can do rather than giving you tools to run the adventure you want. Now there's still plenty of good stuff. Just about everything that is strange or difficult to use has some perfectly normal foresty grassland on the opposite side--and there's enough variety to the cards that you could just lay down the forest tiles, rotate and swap them periodically and you'd be fine. There are a couple of strange ones that would be a little tough to use in a normal game, like a gargoyle statue, a graveyard, a gypsy wagon, a giant's thighbone, scattered adventuring gear, a full giant's skeleton, a wrecked wagon, and...horses?? More of them are perfectly good and useable than that are odd, however.

One big advantage of the cards is that because they're in peices you can move characters along, laying cards down in the direction they move and pulling away ones where they've been. Especially if you buy a few of the same pack of map bits you could fill a full table with forest terrain and flip some cards over and switch them around and the characters could explore forever. It's a novel idea and I like it.

It really is a lot better than I was expecting. Certainly my first review of them was a bit unfair. I actually hadn't turned the tiles over to see that they were printed on both sides. Yeah, that made a difference. Boy, do I feel kinda' dumb.

This is a great product. The heavy, coated cardstock really makes it easy to pick up the tiles. I use the Ruins of the Wild quite often in my D&D games. My only complaint is that we need more variety. I hope they make a second set with more wilderness tiles.

Good, solid tiles. Bought them for my husband for a stocking stuffer gift. He loves all of these tile packs, and make for easy detailed map addtions without drawing scribbles on your battle mat and having to explain they're trees. Stairs? there ya go. This set even comes with horses on 10x10 squares, perfect for standing your D&D mini on to make him or her mounted. This is a great series, and I highly recommend them.

If you're looking for the black spiral dancer tribe book, look no further! If you're looking for the wyrm's take on the whole triat "war," look no further. this book has all you could need to begin effectively using black spiral dancers in your chronicle--including gifts and totems. It also has the history of the world--wyrm style--and the thousands of ways it interacts in the modern world. It also discusses the "Triatic" Wyrm--the wyrm's avatars while he's still wrapped in the weaver's webs. Fomori are glossed over in this book, but if you are looking for a source book for them, pick up the new Posessed book or the old Freak Leigons book.

The BSD's rock the casbah and all that! None will stand before the colective might of the Wyrm! Buy it now! no no now! u missed it okay 1 2 3 NOW!

The book of the wyrm is an expansion to werewolf the apocalypse. If you need some bad guys for your game (because the main werewolf book does'nt REALLY provide any) or you would like to play as a Black spiral dancer -formerly known as the white howlers- OR you would like to know about the wyrm, banes, fomori(freak legion suggested instead), pentex(subsidiaries: a guide to pentex suggested instead), OR you just want some more "fun stuff" for your game (like mustard gas) then this book is highly recomended. This book is in general about the "bad guys" (but not from the wyrms point of view, which is also in this book)!

I got this book as a suggestion from a friend after I had started werewolf, and said I was planning ot run a campaign. This did not disappoint me. This book has most everything you need in it to make a serious Wyrm chronicle. From various themes to use, such as Horror, Terror, or Splatter, to the nature of teh Wyrm itself.

I mean, after reading this, one can actually feel SORRY for the Wyrm, and as I looked through the various Urge Wyrms, one begins to realize just WHY the Wyrm is doing what it is doing.

It also includes good information the Cosmology of the Wyrm, information on Malfeas, the Umbral knot created by teh Wyrm's struggles, the Maejin Incarna, a mini-BSD tribe book that shows just WHY they fell and just why they are possibly the greatest threat to Gaia. Information on Fomori, Banes, wyrm-fetishes, mOrtal Cults, and other things ae all included.

My only gripe is the Pentex section, whihc played up the "destroying the world for the sake of it" feel a bit too much for my liking. Though the fiction throughout that part of the book made up for it, as it is very interesting and is more of what I will use Pentex for int eh future.

My favourite parts were the Mortal Cults and Aliens. A non-supernatural group serving the Wyrm is a ncie way to be sadistic to players, and the concept of an Alien made my mind start spinning.

If you plan to run a Werewolf campaign, and want the Wyrm as the main antagonist, get this book. It will help you make a great in-depth, serious, and dark game, exactly what Werewolf is about. To boot, there isn't tha tmuch that doens't need to be changed for Revised rules, just a bit of thinking with Spirits, and some BSD Gifts and Rites, but that's it. So enjoy folks...

An excellent book. A must have if you are a ST. First of all, this book describes the cosmology and myth of the Evil One. Next, follows a mind thrilling hoard of details about the Wyrm Things in world of darkness - Banes, Monsters, Fomori, wretched homid cults....And, of course... The Black Spiral Dancers - From their deepest lairs in hellish Malfeas to gifts, rites, totems and fetishes unique to those who no longer call Gaia their Mother. Overall - a superb book, which easily fits into campaign and mind alike (beware!!). If you need that extra touch of corruption - thats what you've been looking for.

The second of these game books. Riding on the back of the fantasy role playing game craze came these interesting books, and plenty more popped up along with them on other topics, from other publishers.

They were designed so that all you would need was a pencil and a simple randomiser and be able to carry the whole thing around with you, and introduce the game and chance into it.

The Citadel of Chaos is the second book in the successful Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. In this medieval style gamebook, you play the part of a wizard/warrior hero, sent to prevent an invasion, by slaying a Dark Sorcerer Warlord called 'Balthus Dire'.

In the adventure, you have to journey to Dire's citadel, explore his dastardly maze-like fortress, overcoming traps, hostile fantasy creatures and collecting certain artefacts; which you must find to complete you quest. If you manage to avoid being imprisoned or killed, you can face Balthus Dire in a melodramatic fight to the death.

This FF book is not the best one ever written but, without doubt, is an absolute FF classic. The second book in the series, the first one written by Steve on his own, the Citadel of Chaos has all the fresh enthusiasm of a first work. The traps, monsters and situations are original and exciting; a must for all FF readers.

Another thing that tipped the balance for me was the wonderfully wicked way Dire keeps putting you down when you confront him in his lair. I have vivid recollections of being branded as an 'impudent peasant' by the shaven headed scourge of Allansia. The ending is especially satisfying, if you get that far that is...

Citadel of Chaos is the second in the wonderful series that is Fighting Fantasy. Here, your job as the star pupil of a powerful wizard, is to slay a malevolent leader that is amassing an army of evil. The introduction of magic into the series is excellent, making many encounters decided by finesse rather than by "boring" hand to hand combat. Personally, I like FF gamebooks that have something in addition to Skill, Stamina and Luck. Typical of many gamebooks, the adventure climaxes in a battle with a powerful foe. However, the book contains many interesting encounters leading up to the final foe that makes it stand out from an ordinary "dungeon romp". All in all, this book is worthy of any Fighting Fantasy collection.

I would have to say that this book is one on my favourites. I have got the entire series and can say without a doubt that this must rank as one of the best! - Although it took me a while, slaying Balthus Dire is extremely satisfying! (e-mail me for info on the other titles! )

The Citadel of Chaos is the second book in the successful Fighting Fantasy gamebook series, written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. In this medieval style gamebook, you play the part of a wizard/warrior hero, sent to prevent an invasion, by slaying a Dark Sorcerer Warlord called 'Balthus Dire'.

In the adventure, you have to journey to Dire's citadel, explore his dastardly maze-like fortress, overcoming traps, hostile fantasy creatures and collecting certain artefacts; which you must find to complete you quest. If you manage to avoid being imprisoned or killed, you can face Balthus Dire in a melodramatic fight to the death.

This FF book is not the best one ever written but, without doubt, is an absolute FF classic. The second book in the series, the first one written by Steve on his own, the Citadel of Chaos has all the fresh enthusiasm of a first work. The traps, monsters and situations are original and exciting; a must for all FF readers.

Another thing that tipped the balance for me was the wonderfully wicked way Dire keeps putting you down when you confront him in his lair. I have vivid recollections of being branded as an 'impudent peasant' by the shaven headed scourge of Allansia. The ending is especially satisfying, if you get that far that is...

One of the most memorable things about Star Wars is in just how unique the worlds are, and that is definitely the case here. The worlds in this book have one thing in common: they are Core planets. Other than that, they are as different from each other as Hoth is from Tatooine.

This wonderfully illustrated hardcover book details no less than 29 Core worlds. Coruscant gets the most space at nearly 30 pages, and most of the other worlds, including Alderaan and Corellia, get three to five pages each. In general, each world has brief sections on its description, history, people, and important locations. Changes from the time of the Old Republic up to the New Jedi Order are also discussed.

At the end of each planet's profile there is a "GM-only" section for each world with adventure hooks and a selection of important NPCs. There are also several new species, six new feats, about a dozen items of new equipment, over a dozen new vehicles and starships, four new droids, and more new creatures than you can shake a stick at (my favorite was the fearsome Coromon Headhunter). Sadly, there is only one new Prestige Class, the five-level Seyugi Dervish.

While I really would have preferred to see a greater selection of PrCs, the book's other qualities largely make up for this deficiency. I should emphasize that while each planet receives a generous amount of information, it is by no means a complete description. The focus of the book seems to be on providing GM's and players with ideas for their own campaigns and characters, rather than on being an exhaustive resource.

As a GM I found the plot hooks and NPC sections to be the most useful. And boy, there are a lot of NPCs, over a hundred of them in fact. Even better is the fact that the plot hooks and NPCs are often connected to each other, which makes for easy adventure creation.

My main complaint regarding this otherwise excellent book is that some of the maps are a bit lacking. Specifically, many of them don't have a scale, which makes it difficult to tell if the map of this or that location covers hundreds of meters or dozens of kilometers. The maps are also far too small for tabletop use, but a trip to the copy shop should solve that problem.

As others have pointed out, a GM would probably get the most use out of this book, especially in a Core-based campaign. Of course, a player could still find this book to be a valuable tool for fleshing out the background of a favorite character. Even so, there is so much variety, information, and so many ideas in this book that I'd recommend it to anyone. Overall I'm giving Coruscant and the Core Worlds a very strong 4 out of 5.

And besides, what campaign could possibly be complete without the main characters visiting Coruscant at least once?

Prior to the release of this sourcebook, there were only three decent sources for information on Star Wars worlds. The first was the Star Wars Encyclopedia, which is filled with so much other stuff that unless you know the names of these worlds already, it's unlikely you'll find them. The second is the Guide to the Star Wars Universe, which additionally has no illustrations and little enough description. The third, and the one I used, is the Essential Guide to Planets and Moons, which provides some useful background info but was obviously not written with the RPG in mind (in fact, it predates it by several years). It's therefore a great relief to see that purpose-written hardcovers are being released that detail parts of the galaxy.

The Core Worlds include many of the worlds mentioned in the movies and expanded universe- Corellia, Ralltiir, Duro, Alderaan, Chandrila, Kuat, and other notables. The systems are listed in alphabetical order save for Coruscant, which is first, and each section has the following parts: General stats (general trivia regarding the system), Description (basic description useful for introduction), History (summary of notable events in all SW periods), People (species and how they behave), Locations (some notable spots and cities, with at least one map).

Additionally, there is a 'For the GM' section with adventure hooks, NPC heroes and villains from various eras that can easily be adapted to any of them, and various stat blocks for said NPCs, creatures, and unique vehicles and starships. There is only one new prestige class- the Seyugi Dervish (an unarmed fighter) but this book isn't really meant to detail those in the first place. Several new feats and species are added, most of which are obviously meant for NPC locals (the Brachiation feat, for example, lets you swing through trees at your speed).

Perhaps the best thing about this book are the illustrations, which are numerous, original, and inspiring. Just getting a glimpse of the Core Worlds is often enough to describe them and plan a few nasty surprises for your players, and the sourcebook does a fine job of providing visual cues. The corresponding information is thorough but not long-winded, and ideal for getting your adventure going with minimal fuss. Coruscant and the Core Worlds really sets the standard for ease of use and value. I am looking forward to seeing similar ones that will describe the other parts of the Star Wars galaxy.

I'm not a big fan of the WotC SWRPG -- it's simply too complicated mechanics-wise for my tastes -- but this book is an excellent supplement and could be used obviously by its intended audience or by the old d6 WEG crowd with very little modification. It goes into substantive detail on a number of worlds and is well worth the price, especially for what Amazon charges.

Each Planet listed in this book has details on length of day, length of year, species, population, size, climate, terrain, & much more. Each one also has a picture of the planet accompanying it.

There's also a map of the core worlds along with key location / site maps on nearly every listed planet(very cool).

Coruscant has a huge 29-page entry to it. It also has the GM character Dexter Jettster, info on the Jedi Temple, and many more spots on this planet. Great for many, many adventures.
Alderaan & Corellia get around 7-pages.

There's also a few new species, many new creatures, and a lot of GM characters to throw at Players.

Some starships are also in here, inlcuding : TIE/Ad Defender prototype & E-Wing.

My only complaint is, there AREN'T more of these Planet books out there for this RPG. WotC could have done a series of Secrets of... books for each system (or something like that.)

Otherwise, there ARE a lot of things in this book that will make players believe that their characters are in STAR WARS.

So, yes, buy the book! Support this space fantasy RPG!

I for one can't imagine playing the Star Wars universe without it. I just reciently started playing using the core book and I have to say that world design is the tough part foe me. I don;t lack imagination but I like to have a little consistance from game to game and be able to create a sense of "reality". You know, plot continuity from the movies and all that. Without this book that would be an impossibility for me. I am not a die hard star wars fanatic so I really don't have the info on the entire universe memorized, and even though I don't know tons of facts, I find that usually my players can sense when we're just winging it. Making stuff up and it really doesn't make much fun. This books has what you're looking for. It has all the core worlds and info on each, carefully detailed and well written in a professional way. Weith plenty of NPC and plots tossed in. Just buy it. You won't go wrong.

I dont play the game, but I bought this book anyway simply because it had such terrifying pics of the creatures that I have only read about in the literature. The posters included of the G.O.O's are really cool too. The descriptions of the entities are great and the sideline articles by the occult investigator are icing on the cake. Buy this book if you voted Cthulhu for President! (It couldn't be much worse than Dubya could it?)

I found this book to be handy and very well organized. It's definitely got some very useful information for Keepers. I agree with the other gentleman here, though, that this is a book players will want to avoid. This book is like a set of Torx-head wrenches - much of the time, you will probably not need it. However, every so often, there are times when it is PERFECT for what you need. If you are just starting to run the game, the creatures in the rulebook should hold you for quite a while, though.

This sourcebook is fantasic, and no CoC Keeper can afford to be without it. Pick it up as soon as you can; you won't regret it!

If you think CoC is just an RPG game, think again. I recently bought the [price] CoC 20th Anniversary Edition Rulesbook (worth every penny) and was looking for some new monsters to enhance my gaming...Here they are in this beautiful guide...morbidly illustrated...crisp text (not simply a tedious chart collection)...and scares the living bejesus out of me. When I was first reading Lovecraft, I became hooked, and simply LOOKING at this book was a surprise - really quite cool. A must-have accessory for any player as well as keeper - even players can marvel at the creature statistics, and hope they don't meet whatever is in the book on their CoC adventures...Cthulhu's stats made me jump...Anyway, a visually pleasing (depending on your asthetic values) book, as well as a necessity to playing the greatest RPG ever created...enjoy!

Like my subject line states, I have no clue what to do in the [paper and pen] role playing world. But when I was going through Amazon's list of H.P. Lovecraft material, this little gem popped up. I've been a Lovecraft fan since before I even knew who he was. To explain that better- I played the PC/Mac game: Alone in the Dark (the very first survival/horror game that many have imitated but failed) in the early 90's. I didn't know that a good portion of the game was based around the Mythos or even minor story characters. The tone of the game caught me immediately, and I began to love everything it stood for. Only a few years later in 1997 did I realize that it was based around H.P.'s work. Immediately, I became an avid reader. Immersed in the world of the twisted, I wanted to learn as much as I could. It's a good thing this guide exists, as it gives you a good idea of just how dangerous some of the creatures are.

The book covers just about everything you've read in most of the stories and some nice side-info here and there. I was blown away by the detail found in the "The Greatest Gods of the Mythos". Obviously it covers the 4 main ones, and gives a few bits not found in the stories. I, like others, was baffled at Cthulhu's stats, and I don't even know how to play the game. And reading about the damage he deals in just one round, it's eerily powerful. Though I suppose it's obvious that he'd be one of the top powers, I didn't expect him to be -that- strong. About 94% of the rest of the creatures are pitiful in comparison. Just about everything gets a nice black and white picture, most of which are just as how I pictured them. Though the rat-people from "The Rats in the Walls" aren't as menacing as I expected. But that's the greatness of reading without pictures- your mind does the drawing and details for you.

Included in the middle of the companion are PHENOMINAL color artworks of The Court of Azathoth, Cthulhu, the Haunter of the Dark, and I don't know if this is a mistake in my book but there are also two of the same print of Shub-Niggurath. They're all great and would make for nice posters on your wall or even framed as display pieces/"real" art.

If you play Call of Cthulhu, you'll obviously be wanting this. Even non-Keepers will enjoy just reading the descriptions and looking at the stats. The book is well organized and even have mock-up newspaper articles on the side of the pages to add that extra Lovecraft touch. A great companion to this would be the Lovecraft Tarot Cards which are also available from Amazon. And the artist is an incredibly loyal guy, who like me, is disghusted by the "Cthulhu For President" things. This and those cards are the real deal.

I have an extra copy of this and wouldn't mind it going to a loyal H.P. fan or CoC player. If interested, email me at carnby_juice@hotmail.com. I'd sell it on here but can't at the moment. It's in mint condition, no bent pages or tears and the color prints are still in tact.

Awesome product. Detailed figures, with a dragon, and includes a map. Great buy!

I've bought these miniatures to play Dungeons and Dragons RPG. It just not good for playing the RPG, but the miniature game is very interesting. It's like combine a chess game with a Magic: the Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh trading card games. It has a good strategy.

The miniatures are cool, well painted and full of details.
I really recomend for fans of wargames and RPG games

A great gift, playability for kids and adults. The advanced rules can let adults throw in some tactics. The basic rules work great for kids (mine and 6 and 8) and provide a great excuse for some basic math practice. Well quality package, definitely recommended.

After many different expansions, the D&D miniatures comes to a new edition. There is necessity for this? I think so, after 13 expansion booster packs, two actualizations, the game was in necessity of a new edition. Now, the combats run much more smoothly, with more balanced creatures, new ways of forming your warbands (rules like Factions adds more of D&D lore to the game), and the compatibility with the new D&D 4º Edition. The minis have all great looks, and do their job, being it D&D minis or Roleplaying. The site of wizards have the actualized rules to download, and they are updating the old expansions (although, I wish they could do it with haste).
A great way of enter in the world of D&D Minis!

This starter set includes five FIXED and EXCLUSIVE figures and stats cards for the newest version of the D&D minis game (this means that each starter set contains the same five figures, and that this starter set is the only place you can get these five figures). You get three good guys (Human Sellsword, Elf Warlock, Dwarf Battlemaster) and two bad guys (Yuan-Ti Swiftscale and Young Green Dragon). The starter set also contains a book with the latest quick start and advanced rules (which have changed quite a bit in this edition of the game -- but are still easy to follow), a double sided map (one side contains two smaller maps for 100 point games, and the other side contains one larger map for 200 point games), and pretty much everything else you'll need to play right out of the box (a D20, damage counters, area effect templates, etc.).

The game is easy to understand and quit fun. There are a variety of interesting character types, special abilities, commander effects, and magic spells just to hit a few of the highlights. The game is also very flexible. For example, there are three alignments (good, neutral, and evil) four different factions (borderlands, civilization, underdark, and the wild), and enough different figures that you can put together virtually any army you can imagine (you can play this game right out of the box, but you'll probably want at least a few boosters for greater flexibility/variety -- at the time this review was written, there were two booster/expansion sets available for the newest rules, and they seem to release two to three new expansion sets each year).

A couple of other things are also worth noting. First, thought there are some similarities between the Star Wars minis rules and the previous D&D minis rules, there are also several important differences to keep the game different and interesting. Second, if you have an older version of the D&D minis rules (such as those released in the Harbinger or Aberrations starters, in the Miniatures Handbook, or in the War Drums starter), you'll find that they've changed the rules quite a bit (I've played all three versions of the game, and while I think the game has improved with each iteration of the rules overall, I have to admit that from time to time I still find that I like some of the older rules better than some of the newer rules). Third, and on a related note, they changed the rules so much that previous figures and stats cards are no longer compatible with the game (and, while I found this to be both disappointing and biggest drawback of the game, I've read that the Wizards of the Coast web page will be providing electronic stats cards for older figures that are compatible with this version of the game to help rectify the problem).

In sum (and at a minimum), I think this is a very good and inexpensive way for new players to try the game for the first time, and for experienced players to give the new rules a try. Of course, if you don't like minis games, this is not the game for you. But if you do like minis games (especially the Star Wars minis game or the previous D&D minis games), I think you'll find this one worth a try.

If you buy any 3rd Edition rule book this is the one to get. It is just shy of being completly self-containted. Unlike this book, anything produced from a 3rd party still requires the WOTC core books as a component to play. All the classic races and classes are here in this book. So far from what I can see is that it lacks only two things, monsters and advanced classes (providing that hasn't been acounted for the creation of the class system in this)

Not to mention the art is pretty nice in there too, a rarity in alot of these poorly illistrated RPG books and WOTC is guilty of the same thing.

Ahh, finaly an Everquest where Shadowknights and Paladins don't happily co-exist. An Everquest where an Iksar could logicly choose to be a rogue for adventuring beyond Kunark.

I liked it. There are some useful thinking in it. I can't get the group to play 'Evercrack' though. ~sigh~ Well, I still liked it.

This book provides an interesting twist to the 3rd edition rules. There are both new concepts in this game and other parts of 3E thrown out.
For example, there are several damage types added to this game like acid and electricity. This leads to new spells and character development rules to accomodate.
On the other side, taken away are magic-user's craft magic item feats. There is no scribe scroll or any other creation feat.
Fans of DnD can enjoy the new way of looking at classes, from an EQ perspective. However beware of the races, the balancing on racial modifiers, bonuses and penalties are only for the most avid RP'ers. In my opinion the races are far from being balanced.
Probably the best part of the conversion from EQ online to pencil-paper game is the spells. The writers did a fantastic job trying to maintain all of the spells from original to luclin expansion. EQ fans should be pleased to know that they are all useful now also! It's neat to see some life put into some of the really stupid spells from the online game.
Happy adventuring.

I have always wanted to play Everquest, but never had the net connection to do it. After looking at the book at GEN CON 2002 a couple of times, I went and bought it.

First, it is mostly compatible with 3rd Ed. D&D but a warning to DMs: the EQ classes were figured with a different experience table than reg d20. Instead of needing (current level *1000) more experience points to gain the next level, as in regular d20, you need (current level *2000) to gain the next level, which may result in slower progression of your characters. Plus, EQ RPG does not use challenge ratings, another divergence from standard d20.

My recommendation in using this book is as an extension of TSR's Epic-Character Handbook, as characters above 20th level in EQ keep the same rates in gaining attack bonuses and new spells as they do in lower levels, whereas in TSR's Epic Handbook the rates tend to retard into a slow pace. There are also spells of up to 14th level in EQ RPG, another perk for Epic Characters to use this book instead.

This game from Sword and Sorcery Studios is great for all type of roleplayers from beginners to advanced. The game, based on the EverQuest computer game, takes roleplayers into the actual realm of Norrath.

As a player, you are offered a variety of races from the EQ game. You can play races such as the Dark Elves, Erudites, and Vah Shir. Each picks a class to play from the game such as the Enchanter, Beastlord, and Shadow Knight. Characters are then given points to spend on their skills and some character classes can cast spells or songs, as in the computer game.

The game uses the familiar d20 system used by Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition with some slight differences. One of them being instead of rolling your attributes, you spend points to buy them. The game even gives you a conversion chart to create your PC character into a roleplaying character.

The book is full color, over 400 plus pages, hardbound, and has great art of scenes from the EQ world, but great writing as well. The price is cheaper than most roleplaying games that large and it is worth every penny. For Dungeons and Dragons fans, the character classes can be easily used in your own games or you can bring D&D characters into the world of EverQuest.

This book is a must buy for all EverQuest fans, fantasy gamer fans, and fantasy fans alike.

Monte Cook's World of Darkness (McWod) is an incredible work of transition. It's a very well thought alternate setting to that of White Wolf's original work.
It includes the Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage factions in a single book, adding Demon and Awakaned factions. Because of this, and the fact that all these factions have only been around for 1 year, their history and background is not as detailed or profound as you might like.
Unfortunately, it seems this is a stand alone product. I've searched the internet for any supplemental material but nothing surfaces. This leaves feeling stranded in some way. What about more monsters? The upcoming Hunter faction?
Still, it's an interesting game. It's worth a try, a read, and atleast one gaming experience.

If you wanted a version of Werewolf or Vampires of the Masquorade but in an understandable system then this is for you. I like Monte Cook's mind and use of language in this book. He takes the indescribably strange and arcane system of the WOD and allows D20 folk like myself a useful way to look into this world.

Have a great day people.

Although I like (and have) the Old and New WoD books, several in my gaming group do not wish to learn a new system. This is the answer to our problems because it is a solid modern supernatural game that is a great compromise. Monte did a great job with the setting and rules and although this is in no way a 100% conversion of O/NWoD game, it is a fun game and will allow my group to alternate between Medieval & Modern fantasy games. I highly recommend this book to d20 Players.

It's nice to see what d20 can do when it's in the hands of a team who don't let it get in the way but rather use it's strengths to great effect.

I love the way this game comes across for those who already know d20. For those who don't it is a great game with simple rules.

Ever have one of those doomsday-visions with vampires and demons and werewolves on motorcycles in graveyards with shotguns? It's kind of like that. Accessible and fun.

Its a new and refreshing way to look at the world of darkness, its the same feeling of dread, but in a new aspect. Aside of that it gives up open possibilities within the dark world that earth has become... which we are developing ourselves. Thanks Monte for this excellent book.

We also discovered that moving a bit the intrusion zone (or just using part of the nightmare wave) we can get excellent places within our world that serve as catalyst for horror and adventure. Anyone want to visit the Catacombs of Paris or the Castles of Romania after I-D (Intrusion Day)? Well if they do, they are for a hell of a trip.