2 comments about Dungeons & Dragons Deluxe Dice (D&D Accessory).

1. I really love this dice set. It is dark green with gold numbers, very well made. The little bag can carry the dice set and even more (the bag that comes with the multicolored D&D dice set is smaller). Just waiting to use it for the first time. Highly recommended!



2. These are an excellent set of dice for someone who is in need of a set.They are green with some bluish highlights and the set contains 10 dice.The bag,black with red D&D logo,that comes with the dice is a very nice bonus and has plenty of room to expand your dice collection.The dice are a little on the light side,I would prefer them to weigh a little more.The set I bought rolled great right out of the bag and I will probably keep them with me for a long time.Hope this helps.

5 comments about Player's Guide to Faerun (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Accessory).

1. I'm usually a pessimist when it comes to the glut of D&D monthly products, but this book is entirely character options, and while none of them are top notch, it's got very detailed info on deity and regional stuff that pertains to players. Very useful, and although some of it is only a rules update from the F.R. campaign book (3rd edition), it's also a lot easier to skim through for bits of information. It's definitely a solid book, a must-have for DMs, and I'd give it 5 stars if it weren't campaign-specific.



2. A USEFULL GUIDE FOR FAERUN PLAYERS
   
   This book contains 3 specification
   - 3.5 Updates of FR Realms Campign Setting
   - A gathering book from other FR Rule Books
   - Some new addition things
   
   The most important thing of this book that is care us; it is a gathering guide book from main books of Forgotten Realms. (FR Campaign Setting, Faiths & Pantheons, Races of Faerun, Magic of Faerun) This Guide takes the important things for players from these 4 books and collects together. It is a Summary of them.
   
   Player Guide to Faerun includes nearly all things for Forgotten Realms players. The players can find necessary knownlodge for their characters in one book. But if they wants more details and other specific things they should to have ektra books.
   
   The main reason for to get this book is; The standard Faerun Players may use this book without need the other books. They may take only two book to games; The Players Handbook and Players Guide to Faerun. This may be second main book for them.
   Also, they can create their characters and play after for dont need the FR Campaign Setting.
   
   It is only few new additon things whose is not other books. So dont think to buy for only new additions.
   
   If you thing to have minimal number books to play in Forgotten Realms, you should buy only two books; FR Campaign Setting, Player Guide to Faerun. (After to have 3 core rule book of D&D)
   The players who have other FR books, they may also get this book if they want quick summary guide under their hand during their games.
   
   Includes the Collection of these:
   Races, P.Classes, Skills, Feats, Domains and Spells, Magic Items, Epic Levels.
   
   This was my fifth FR book, I have had before these books; FR Campaign Setting, Faiths & Pantheons, Races of Faerun, Magic of Faerun, but I want to take this guide also because I want a usefull thin guide for bring it to games. Sometimes it is some difficult to look and find your needs other 4 books, it may took time.
   
   I recommended this book for Players of Forgotten Realms Players, but not for any DM. It is a Player Guide like name. And I repeat this; it is a summary book for FR players.



3. I'm always a little leary about buying "Player's Guides" since I'm a DM most of the time, but this one was almost necessary to correct the errors and region system in the original Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (Dungeons & Dragons). Also upgrades spells from the Magic of Faerun! Very cool and worth every penny I spent so far.



4. This book was well worth the money I spent, it was delivered to me in quick timing, and was in almost perfect sondition.



5. Player's Guide to Faerun is a very good FR supplement, but it lacks any information on the facts that happened (are going to happen depending on the year your campaign is going on) after the Year of The Rouge Dragons. It focus a lot on the planes other then the material plane and prestige classes, but not much on geography and politics between the realms.

5 comments about Wizards Presents: Classes and Races (Dungeons & Dragons).

1. I loved reading this book. I've been pretty indifferent about 4E since I heard it was coming (which is virtually as long as I've been playing D&D). This book got me completely excited about it.
   
   That said, there is little, if anything, in this book that a little web-surfing couldn't tell you. Everything is presented as "we have this idea, but it may or may not be the first thing we give you and may or may not be exactly as we're telling you, now." When 4E is released, this book will be obsolete; we'll have all of the real information.
   
   I am no web bloodhound. I am not about to go scrounging for information all around the net, so this was a great source of gossip-y info for me. $20 does feel a bit expensive, but I expect it at this point. Some reviewers feel like the contributing authors are talking down to the audience, but I never felt that at all. They are players who have their own issues with 3.5 and they are members of the community, who have heard the complaints of their fellows; and we should all know that the complainers have louder voices than the praisers.
   
   This book is a conceptual preview, not an early release of rules. I enjoyed it thoroughly, but will have little value, come June '08.



2. A total waste of time. Avoid this like the plague.
   
   This same kind of information, when the game evolved from 2nd to 3rd edition was included in the monthly paper issues of The Dragon magazine (which WOC has killed off) and those articles were much more in-depth as to rules and design philosophy.
   
   Perhaps, most of all, during the switch from 2nd to 3rd, the designers did not talk down to (ie. "no fun" in reference to the old rules) nor insult (see: the 4th edition intro video which features the guy with the fake french accent) their customer base.
   
   After the fiasco WOC has made of the intro of 4th edition, I would hope that they would be reaching out to their customers a little more, rather than trying to feed them what, in essence, one can get online for free from various boards and blogs.
   
   Very disappointed.



3. Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters (D&D Supplement)
   
   Much has been said about the quality of this product. It is light on pay data, it is a filler product to keep the line going while the products are retooled, and so on. And some of this is correct.
   
   The reality though this is an excellent product for what it is designed to do: provide space for the designers to voice some of their designer notes in an open way to a very vocal and nervous community who has, lets face it, bolted en masse before from missteps in this production line.
   
   People looking for lots of inside information with numbers and tables will be disappointed. These products are designers notes, not mini rule books. For me, who is forever tinkering with rules and trying variants, they are invaluable. For the average mook, they might not be as useful.
   
   I highly recommend this product for anyone who likes to look under the hood of creative products.



4. No one should buy this book. It is nothing more than an advertisement for the upcoming 4th edition D&D. You might as well pay to watch commercials on TV.



5. This preview of the new D&D 4th edition realy peak your intrest in the new gamesystem for D&D and the new classes presented in it.
   I would though recomend that you buy the core rulebooks instead. Now that they are been released, there is no need to purchase this preview book.

5 comments about Theatre Games for Young Performers: Improvisations and Exercises for Developing Acting Skills (Contemporary Drama).

1. I found this book very easy to follow and the ideas are great for both regular classroom teaching and one off drama workshops. The excersises are even split into catagories depending on their topic and energy/noise level.



2. After nearly fifteen years of being away from the classroom, I was a bit nervous about teaching drama again. In searching for a resource that would get me back in the swing of things, I debated between this book and the classic Viola Spolin books. I finally decided on this one, and I couldn't be happier! The lessons in this book are easy to follow, easy to prepare (there's not much to preparation at all!), and, best of all, fun for the kids in class! The lessons are also easily adaptable to different circumstances, such as short class periods, environmental concerns (like needing a quieter activity), or needing a quick activity to warm the kids up. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in integrating drama into a classroom, or as a stand-alone resource in a full-fledged drama curriculum.



3. This book is not based on sound acting principles. It directs teachers to ask students to play emotions rather than objectives, thus breaking one of the cardinal rules of acting. Once I saw this, I refused to read on and immediately returned the book. It literally made me physically ill to read this book.



4. I love this book. I use something from it at least once a week in my classroom. It's wonderful for teaching the basics. Pantomime, expression, scene building, creative thinking... As other reviews state, it doesn't get into playing objectives, but you can cover that in other lessons and activities. That's simply not the scope of this book and that's fine by me. The activities are especially good for sixth graders. Seventh and Eighth, you'll have to play it by ear depending on your group. Most of mine are "too cool" for some of the activities, but a lot of the games are pretty adaptable for that age group if you get creative.



5. Maria Novelly's book was one of the first I purchased as a new drama teacher, and I'm very grateful to have had such an excellent resource so early on. Most of the the theater game compendiums I've read before or since have been hit-or-miss; I'd get use out of some suggested activities, but the others lacked depth or educational merit. Not so with Novelly's book--I've used every activity outlined in her book, and I continue to use them with great results. Children love these exercises--especially "Walking Through," "Imaginative Journeys," and pretty much everything in the Improv chapter--and importantly, they learn a lot about what it means to be a performer through their engagement with them. Highly recommended!

5 comments about GURPS Basic Set: Characters, Fourth Edition.

1. The idea behind GURPS is that it provides a set of core rules that can be adapted to any setting (thus the "universal" part of General Universal Role-Playing). It does a good job of this, although it is better suited to a somewhat more realistic feeling than heroic wackiness. A human isn't going to take too many sword hits and shrug them off.
   
   The strong point of GURPS is character generation. Players are allotted a number of points to build their characters, and may buy characteristics, skills and "Advantages" (things like the ability to use magic, being wealthy, or any of hundreds of other things), and may get additional points by taking "Disadvantages."
   
   This new 4th edition is in by far most ways an improvement over 3rd edition. They closed a lot of loopholes and fixed a number of less-than-optimal things. I like the changes to combat especially.
   
   There are a couple of things I would have done differently.
   
   1) They took the skills out of psionics (and every other supernatural system, for that matter), making it purely advantage based, but they left magic as skill based. They really should have made each magic spell into an advantage too, because now it's not as well balanced with the rest of the system as it could be. Couple this with the fact that you can now take IQ at 10 points a level if you don't take the associated Will and Perception, and you can easily have a Wizard character with an IQ of 17 or so in a 100 point campaign, who can buy spells at a very high skill level with 1 point.
   
   2) They should have dumped the "earn character points through study" system. Yes, it's easy to just ignore it, but if you get stuck with a GM who goes by the book you may very well find yourself wasting a lot of time with tedious accounting issues.
   
   4th edition institutes a good set of rules that allows the GM to create powers and abilities by modifying Advantages with an extensive set of Enhancements and Limitations. This is really nice for the workaholic GM, but the GM who lacks huge amounts of free time is going to be hoping for supplements with a lot of sample powers worked out for him or her.



2. 
   The "Gurps 4th Edition" just fixed all "Gurps 3rd Edition" weakness. The two books are so great. The color and hardcover look and feel are some big diference between the books and the the old versions.
   
   The bad comercial thing: are two books, and you need to have both if you want to be a Game Master.
   
   The "Characters Guide" have lots of resources to make a rich character and the "Campaigns Guide" have a good Game Master stuff.
   
   If you want to have some good RPG System, well, you need to buy "Gurps 4th Edition", but you need some time and practice, cause the game system is so rich, then the rules number is high.



3. An awesome upgrade to GURPS 3rd Edition. Full colored and illustrated book, some new rules added and some old rules banished, creating a better balanced and understandable system.
   Five stars again to SJG.



4. I have played GURPS since it first came out and I was shocked and horrified by this version. I can't believe people are raving about it. The new version barely addresses the problems of the previous one, is poorly laid out and hard to read, and many changes were made to parts of the game where there were no problems to address. There's none of the humor of Steve Jackson's original work. The book reads like a technical manual. Thank you, but I'll stick with the old version or switch to a different system.



5. Been a long time GURPS fan and I think the 4th edition is absolutely great.

3 comments about Daeva: Kiss of the Succubus (Vampire the Requiem).

1. There is an old saying about storytelling, "show, don't tell". This Clan Book is all about showing instead of telling. (Come to think of it, the saying applies to the Daeva themselves, too.) It is almost entirely a collection of autobiographical stories either by a Daeva, or about a Daeva. The variety is incredible. It starts off with an account of a mortal's mutual obsession with a Daeva, and also features cartoons and a movie script.
   
   The themes of this clan come through crystal clear in this book,as Ventrue did not manage to do. The major theme is love. Are the Daeva capable of inspiring and feeling true love, or are they dead hearts manipulating human erotic programming? Does the past matter, or is the present all there is? It's basically a hundred pages of Daeva showing the choices they make, and how these shape their Requiems. The writing is generally excellent, although the movie script is deliberately written in an over-blown style that almost overshadows what it shows.
   
   The artwork also works to show the Daeva off. On the White Wolf forums, their Q&A about this book explicitly states that the artwork was intended to treat the Daeva as sex objects. It works. We view them as sex objects ... and they view us as blood banks. Both may get what they want, but we end up dead as a result. That's what the art shows even before you get to the text.
   
   Technically, the only books you need to read to follow this are the corebooks. Obviously, you will get much more from it the more Vampire books you have read. However, there are so many ties to the Ventrue Clan Book that I think you would have to read it in addition to this for this to have full value. This book also seems to tie in with the upcoming Hunter: the Vigil, too. It mentions the neo-Masquerade, which seems to be that Kindred can take advantage of the popularity of vampire fiction to communicate almost openly. (It uses the term without telling exactly what it means.) On the flip side, the game is about individuals. The issue isn't whether the Masquerade falls, it's whether an individual Kindred gets identified by witch finders.
   
   The Appendix features one new bloodline and a few new merits and devotions. Rather surprisingly, it also contains a section on role playing the Daeva. It talks about how to treat the Daeva focus on Vices and bringing that into the game. It also directly states that gamers must respect the limits of other gamers when it comes to sensitive topics.
   
   In explaining why they chose to do Clan Books, one of White Wolf's reasons was to create books that were more accessible than the corebooks to people new to the World of Darkness style and perhaps even to role playing. That is the one failure I would say the book has. This is for mature role players in every sense of the word.



2. This is an excellent read, if you are just looking to be entertained. If you are looking to expand on a gaming system, it is a total waste of time. There is less than 3 pages, total, of anything that you can add (mechanically) to your game. It could have been done as a $7.99 novel, and saved customers a great deal of disappointment.



3. First of all, I must say that the artwork and graphic design is supurb. Unfortunately beyond the physical appearance of the book there is little to appreciate. This is not a conventional RPG supplement; it contains only a few pages of new mechanics. The majority of the book is made up of short fiction pieces which I personally found rather lack lustre. Essentially, if you want a book that will help you run a vampire game, this is quite useless. If you want unimpressive vampire fiction, go for it.

5 comments about Grand History of the Realms (Forgotten Realms).

1. I got the book hoping for a good read of the GRAND history of the realms. While it starts off fairly well (I liked the little one page clips throughout) it falls short when reaching the years of the FR novels I'm very familiar with. Then it goes into FAR too many details about the whole Areavin and reclamation of Myth Drannor series. I was not looking to read all of that story again on a timeline. (I find it sad that Wizards of the Coast has felt it necessary to wreak Faerun with the spellplague so they can sell the NEXT edition of DND material.) I was hoping for so much more. The best part of the book is the front and back cover pictures. One would think that Drizzt being on the cover would warrant more than 7 lines in the entire book and that the creation of the SPIRIT SOARING would appear at least once. Alas, no. He is used only on the cover to sell the book.



2. Having played the Forgotten Realms from the beginning but not still having all the products this is a valuable resource of the past, present and possible future of the realms. I really like it!!!



3. I don't play much AD&D these days, but I love to read the Forgotten Realms books. This is a great reference to keep close when reading the stories. I also own the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying, Forgotten Realms Setting).



4. Finally! A Book put out that does not include a slew of GAME-MECHANICS. This book was the compliation of years worth of books, guides, magazines, references, and other outlets. This is the most complete timeline that I have see on the Forgotten Realms. Author Brian R. James should be commended for this book and even some kudos to WotC for allowing a pure content-based book to be released.
   
   All around, it is a handy book and you can even learn a thing or two. 5-stars purely for those who love Realmslore.



5. This would be a good book for anyone new to the Forgotten Realms. There is some useful information here without going into detail. As a result, I find use the term "Grand" an overstatement.
   
   For the long time veteran of The Forgotten Realms campaign, there isn't enough new material to justify the price. "The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting" by Greenwood, Reynolds, Williams, and Heinsoo (2001); and "Lost Empires Of Faerun" by Baker, Ronny, and Stout (2005) are a much more detailed books on the subject.
   
   The advantage of "Grand History..." is the updated timeline current with the latest novels, a few good ancient maps, and some timelines for local regions.

5 comments about Tome of Battle: The Book of Nine Swords (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying).

1. I haven't totally devoured the entire book. However, i am currently playing a third level Warblade (class level of four) in a very active campaign. I made sure to OK the class with the DM before using it. I made sure he was aware of how some people declare the class is broken, but he said it would be fine.
   
   I have to admit, i didn't think it was broken until i had taken a few levels in the class. In short, my character just seems over powered, in combat. At the cost of next to nothing, he can add an extra d6 of damage to every other attack...and that is only one of the five "maneuvers" he has in his repertoire. As he continues to level, the amount of extra damage dice continues to climb. Along with these dice come other perks, such as disallowing your enemy to move for a round, or to bypass damage reduction. It just seems too easy to accomplish spell-like abilities for no real cost to the character.
   
   It feels as though these maneuvers not only take the place of figher feats, they are far superior to them. Also, the Warblade gets some pretty decent class features, that make it almost swashbuckelerish, without any real penalties. My character is a Dwarven tank.
   
   I should note that we are playing a rather high powered campaign. Strength and Constitution are both 18 and he has points in Intelligence to aid with the class abilities of the Warblade. He also has no negative modifiers on any of his abilities (all are 10 or above). However, all other characters were made using the same sytem.
   
   I certainly wouldn't say the book is bad. The system they lay out for maneuvers and stances works and is consistent. I certainly have fun playing the axe-wielding cuisinart who mops up the bad guys. Our campaign has a deep enough storyline that just excelling in combat doesn't make for an over-powered character compared to the other characters.
   
   But just be warned, that if you have a large party, with more than one front-line fighter, there may be some jealous glances thrown the way of your Warblade. And if your players aren't mature enough, you may find some arguments breaking out.



2. Great new classes in the book. It opens up wonderful new possibilities for melee characters.



3. My entire gaming group reached a consensus: this book is our new favorite book for core classes in DnD 3.5.
   
   First off, a cautionary note: DM's WILL want to read this before letting their player with all the disposable income roll up a character from this book, as its systems are complicated and the character abilities have been created almost whole-cloth. In general, we've found the classes to be powerful for a long time over a long series of encounters, but not QUITE overly so. When compared to the amount of damage a like-level sorcerer can throw around or a twinked-out feat-er, they're about right.
   
   The core mechanics added are the nine martial Styles, which provide a choice of Maneuvers and Stances.
   
   Styles: various fun, flavor-filled fighting styles, each with their own distinct forms, themes, signature weapons, etc. Example: Desert Wind focuses on slashing weapons and often allows a fighter to move quickly around the battlefield and deal elemental fire damage.
   
   Maneuvers: Specific martial attacks with often near-spell-like effects that add a distinct descriptive element to the game. Maneuvers are used once, then lost, but can be regained during combat in a number of different ways, depending on your core class. Many attack-based maneuvers focus on making one standard action to achieve a very nice, powerful effect, so if your player knows his rules, this can actually speed UP combat if he usually plays a dual-wielding cheese monster (no, that's NEVER happened in any of my games...)
   
   Stances: A martial stance that provides a continuous, ongoing benefit. Players can switch between them as a swift action.
   
   The core classes are all very cool, and determine which Styles you have access to. As they start, they have access to a choice of lower-level maneuvers and stances, but these can be readily switched out later for more powerful ones, so their early choices don't become useless later on. In fact, the core classes are so cool, you often will stop looking for a prestige class, unless it is one of the few included in the book that also make use of the martial stance/maneuver system.
   
   In addition to having access to specific style choices, each class also gets interesting class abilities as well. One cool example: the Warblade, a medium-armor figher type, can buy fighter-specific feats as an equivalent figher a few levels lower (read: weapon specialization, greater weapon specialization, etc.). In addition, they can CHANGE any weapon-specific feats to focus on a different weapon, such as weapon focus, weapon spec., with only a short amount of exercise at the beginning of the day. Did your character focus on swords but find a sweet magical greataxe? No problem.
   
   Fans of White Wolf's Exalted game with notice some similarity in the stances and maneuvers to Exalted's Charm structure, the big plus being that lower-powered maneuvers learned early in a characters career can be switched out for higher ones, rather than lingering around at higher levels not doing anything like a bag of caltrops.
   
   All in all, the Book of Nine Swords is not a must-have to play the game, and is certainly not appropriate to every single type of campaign, but most long-time DnD players will find the book adds new spice to their game, with new and interesting options that remain effective no matter what level your character is at the moment.
   
   JT



4. I don't know where to start with this book. Some people will complain that it is "broken" or far too complicated. It's only broken if you let your players actually break their characters. For instance, if I let my Half-Orc Fighter with a 20 Strength score, Monkey Grip, and a Large size Greataxe (which deals 3d6+7 damage) take maneuvers that give him +2d6 damage and bypass damage reduction, that would be broken. Especially if all it takes him to renew that maneuver is not attacking for a round. That would be broken. So that being said, DM judgement is involved. Otherwise, I think using this book is a great way to spice up your tank. For my part, I will never play a Fighter again. I would maybe multi-class a bit with it, but when maneuvers such as those that enhance your allies or allow you to deal extra damage are available, they are much more interesting to me than feats. The base classes presented here also allow for more skill selections, so you're not stuck with the handful that a Fighter is allowed. As far as saying this is more complicated...its not. It's just as complicated as casting spells, you just have to read the system. As long as you've read the system, know what the maneuvers can do, and when the maneuvers are recovered you're fine. I hope that bits of this book show up in 4E, because it makes the dedicated-mellee classes a lot more interesting and fun to play.



5. ToB is a great read and at first glance you think it would be a great addition to any existing campaign. It is not.
   
   ToB brings spellcasting to melee classes. Read here a wizard that has easily 2x the hps, a better AC, and spells that renew upon each and every encounter and if the encounter is a long one with feats a ToB character can renew his abilities by not doing anything for 1 round.
   
   If the campaign were exclusive to ToB classes then the book would be ok. The material presented by itself is great, backstory interesting, rule set easy to implement. But when you watch a Master of Nine rip through 3 of 5 enemies with relative ease as the rest of the core class party struggles to survive you start seeing the drawback to the supplement.
   
   The class takes advantage of conditionals and leverages the swift action quick action mechanics far in excess of any of the core classes. Just doesn't work without a lot of retooling. Combined with Magic Items and buffs that the rest of the party can provide (which is true for alot of the things in the game) it makes party survivability and offensive capabilities ridiculous.
   
   Just my 2 cents. I have spent several sessions in heated debate over the balance of the characters. Taking a 10 to hit an AC of 30 or below and then having a +15-20 to damage before rolling dice is a bit much.
   
   My 2 cents.
   
   -Joe

5 comments about Exalted, Second Edition.

1. I haven't personally played too many White Wolf games but I have played 3rd Edition D&D a lot so I liked the fact in this game that I started out beefy instead of a character who could easily be killed off. I think the style is also very different from D&D in that its pulling more from Eastern style medieval period instead of the European one typical in D&D. Most impressive to me was how they did mass combat rules an item that doesn't typically occur much in other RPGs. My issues with this book is that it can be hard to find particular rules at times and some rules aren't entirely fleshed out enough that we've spent about 30 minutes debating on how a rule should work. The other issue is that this book gives you the entire background to the world which players themselves shouldn't always have because this book tries to be a combination of a GM and Players handbook. Overall, its has been a very enjoyable game to me and I would recommend any D&D player give it a chance.



2. you might be apprehensive about switching over from 1st edition, but if the hollidays are coming get your friends to buy you the 2nd edition core. they've cleaned up a lot of problems, both in the setting and the mechanics, granted they've added a handful of new problems, but that was to be expected.



3. Just as the Japanese meld influences from Europe, the Americas and Africa into media (and Scotch!) that is uniquely Japanese, White Wolf has crafted a uniquely American RPG with vast influences from both Asian myth and pop-culture as well as Classical European mythology. The synthesis is nothing short of an amazing collaborative work of fiction.
   
   The Fluff, as it were, is entirely engaging and as a fantasy series, and even bereft of the RPG mechanics, all the books are pretty fine reads. In Second Edition, not only have the mechanics gelled, but the backstory has matured as well. What White Wolf has laid out in this core book is a giant buffet of Fantasy and HiFi-sciFi that Storytellers can pick and choose what type of campaign they wish to play--whether it's taking down errant gods, swords and sorcery, or post-apocalyptic survival very similar to Gamma World, or a straight, in-canon campaign of Solar Exalted against the hated Scarlet Empire. Suffice to say there is an incredible amount to explore in the backstory and swaths will probably never be touched in the published materials.
   
   Fluff aside, the mechanics of the game as presented in the core book show a long, hard road of playtesting and years of refining game rules. Somewhere in the early 90's there was a reason that White Wolf published the Street Fighter RPG: Exalted is that reason. The combat system is simply amazing, incorporating stunting (much like the Daedelus RPG, Feng Shui) which opens combat to the highest level of narrative, as well as an incredibly deep skill and charm system. The additions of Mass and Social combat round out what is one of the best combat systems for an RPG to date. Good stunts and on the fly imaginative play will always win out over the Min/Max (which in Exalted is mostly MAX), but there is plenty of depth for the Min/Max player to excruciatingly choose the best charms for the job of giving fatal beatings, tongue lashings or driving the armies of the Jade Dogs before them.
   
   The book itself has held up very well over the last couple years and is very solidly produced. The physical size of it is simply intimidating. The art has taken a major step up over first edition, obviously due to the inclusion of color, but also moving away from the cartoonish anime style to a more hybridization of say Frazetta and Katsuya Terada.
   
   The writing, while a bit dry in certain areas as is typical of RPG books, is extremely clear in it's presentation of both the rules and the backstory. The index is surprisingly useful and the inclusion of sidebars where White Wolf felt certain aspects of the rules needed clarification outside the narrative are all exceedingly helpful figuring out what can, at times, be quite complicated. The Storyteller section is not only essential reading for running a game, but a solid discourse on running a high-powered, pulpy RPG.
   
   As for things that could have been done better, there are some typos as well as some flat out confusing mistakes here and there. References to splitting dice pools, a mechanic thankfully removed from the system with second edition, appear in the back half of the book.
   
   Also the antagonists section, while touching on what's coming up in the new books, really doesn't help the fledgling storyteller as most are either far too powerful (Octavian the Living Tower), too localized (Gri-Fel the god of the Imperial City), or too abstract (The Fair Folk) to be easily fit into a starting campaign. I would have liked to see a chapter dedicated to Dragon Blooded antagonists and a full list for a sample Wyld Hunt because that's who typically will be getting the first fatal beatings in a vanilla campaign.
   
   The lack of a starting adventure in a book this size was also confusing. White Wolf released a free module for the game on release, but the module itself breaks the cardinal rule set forth in the Storyteller section of the book--start with a bang! With a set of mechanics and background this large, it's a bit intimidating for a new storyteller to know where to begin.
   
   Bottom line, this is an amazing start to what I expect will be a long and healthy product line for White Wolf and an incredible world for players to explore. More importantly, Exalted is triumph in RPG system design that fits perfectly with the high powered background.



4. 
   
   Exalted second edition 1th edition wos good 2edition is epic
   it a great game so buy it at amazon for $26 not $40!?!



5. If you're tired of the archtypical Fantasy RPG, if you like Anime and Manga, and want to be able to destroy armies single-handedly, then Exalted is for you. Unlike other RPGs where you begin barely able to hold your own against an angry goblin, in Exalted you begin as the holder of a shard of godly power known as a Solar Exalt and can wipe out ordinary troops without breaking a sweat. There are five different kinds of Exalted; Solars, Lunars (Wild, shape-changing exalted), Sidereals (Fate-meddling hidden manipulators that others have a hard time remembering), Dragon-Blooded or Terrestrial (Weakest of the Exalts, but their numbers more than make up for it and they don't like the other types of Exalted) and the Abyssals, who are nasty, evil Solar Exalted created by the Deathlords, who in turn are servants of the Neverborn. The last four Exalted types are fully detailed in their own Manuals of Exalted Power. Unbelievable stunts such as running up the sides of buildings, martial arts that defy human ability and spells able to annihilate cities are the norm in Exalted. Although it deals (as do all White Wolf products) with mature themes, it's not hard to do a game with younger players, as long as the Storyteller is careful about it. Exalted has a rich background that gives almost limitless possibilities with stories, and this Second Edition streamlines the combat, charms and spell rules so battles go by a bit faster. And if you played 1st Edition, the supplements are still just as valid and converting stats of NPCs aren't going to be major headaches. All in all, Exalted is a welcome break from the typical hack-and-slash dungeon crawl style RPG and recommended for fans of that genre as well as those who enjoy something different.

5 comments about Dungeon Master's Guide: Special Edition (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying).

1. From WotC's description, the Special Editions are "premium black bonded leather". "Bonded leather" is a manmade compound; it is essentially leather fibers plus latex. This is far from the quality of a true leather-bound book (which would use real leather). As one bookbinder puts it: "recommended for use only if the book will be used infrequently."



2. loved the book. the leather binding gives it a beautiful touch on one of the Dungeons and dragon most bought book i loved it.



3. Very handy when playing. hes some extra things that is why it is version 3.5. the cover is very good and is why it is the special edition.



4. Having been a gamer all my life (since 1980) and have coddled and loved and invented different covers for many of my DnD books, this Special Edition just spoke to me. After receiving it as a gift and going through it, it is now my favorite gaming book. Satisfyingly reminds me of all the things I imagine in my game worlds, books of spells, lore and adventure.



5. I can't believe I bought this thing for $8.00 (After shipping)!
   Still in the plastic wrap, not a single mark, blemish, or scratch.