2 comments about Legends & Lairs: Portals & Planes.

1. If you purchase WoC's Manual of the Planes, then this book has alternative/redundant rules for many of the points covered. However, I don't always find WoC's rules as useful as the alternatives...



2. I bought this book on a whim because I was able to get such a good price on it. I'm really glad I made the investment.
   
   Normally, I'm not a big fan of planar travel, but this book changed my mind. Inside, you will find a large number of clearly and concisely explained concepts that make adding Planes and Planar travel into your game a snap.
   
   I've always found D&D's Great Wheel concept of the Planes confounding and overly complex. Portals and Plains ditches the wheel. Instead, it provides you with sample planes and ways to integrate them. There's even a handy table for creating random planes using die rolls.
   
   I was especially fond of the more sci-fi oriented concepts like wormholes that connect two places on the same plane together. There are also new spells that allow even low level casters to take advantage of limited planar travel. The new monsters and planar races are an added bonus that form a large part of the book.
   
   The first chapter of the book was the only weak part for me. The guides for how to best utilize the core classes when traveling through the planes is interesting, but the new Prestige Classes and feats just take up space. But then, I'm not a Prestige Class fan.
   
   All in all, I'm very happy with my purchase and recommend it to anyone who wants to integrate the Planes into their game.

2 comments about Oadenol's Codex (Exalted Roleplaying).

1. This book contains all the hard rules for artifact and manse creation, most likely needed for Storytellers, and can be useful for players. It adds information on new artifacts, although none are as interesting as in the previous book of sorcery, as well as a slew of new hearthstones. Information for custom artifacts is included and a similar system for manses has been added, allowing for things like magically hidden manses, and even factory cathedral manses (those used for creation of the higher level artifacts)



2. Although artifice is rumored to be just for essence wielders, this book shows otherwise. And it rocks. Mortals can try to make small wonders! Now magic is for almost everyone and small miracles can be achieved without need of been Exalted. Been Exalted just improves an makes faster this natural way of magic in the world of Creation.
   
   Rules for thaumaturgy as well as new procedures and processes. Great thing and of course a lot of applications and how to use em as well as guidelines for creating even more procedures.
   
   Rules for Demense and Manse creation. Built with a point by point purchase and interesting powers for each manse. Also examples of several of em.
   
   A vast list of useful Hearthstones by level, by Element and by Celestial alignment.
   
   Guidelines to create artifacts instead of magitech. Also quite few pages of examples of solid artifacts. A good companion to magitech. YET I dont see why the need to create another kind of artifacts. BUT it is a good idea really. Magitech is like advanced sciene and Artifice is more of a natural wonders discovery and mix.
   
   Also few examples of natural wonders of Creation.

No comments about Players Guide To Glorantha (Runequest).

No comments about Babylon 5 - A Call to Arms 2nd Edition: Main Rulebook (Babylon 5).

No comments about Country Sites (Ad&D Accessory).

No comments about Etherscope The Great Metropolis (Etherscope).

No comments about Etherscope Mysteries of the Occult (Etherscope).

No comments about Etherscope Upload Etherpunk (Etherscope).

1 comments about The Shadow Players Guide.

1. Don't be fooled by the title- although it focuses on the dark side of every Wraith, this outstanding book contains tons of important information on all sorts of subjects- from exactly what your Eidolon IS, and when it comes into play, to roleplaying romance and love.

   Other important topics covered include exactly how Castigation affects your Shadow- and while your Shadow is by definition your adversary, the isn't always your enemy. There is a lot more to Psyche/Shadow interaction than just "I'm the Good Guy, he's the Bad Guy."

   Every Circle of Wraiths should have this one- you owe it to yourselves... and to your Shadows. :)

5 comments about The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons & Oracle of Ages: Prima's Official Strategy Guide.

1. I'll list the pros and cons of this book one after the other; hopefully it's not too confusing...

   Pros:

   A great enemy list!

   Okay boss strategies

   Only guide so far to use coordinates (I find that fact surprising; the Zelda games are THE games to use coordinates with!)

   Has an okay section about passwords

   Nice cartoons

   Cons:

   Maps are TINY, boundaries not well marked, does not show inside of houses

   Screenshots are small and blurry

   Walkthrough is confusing; it might say something like, "In the next room, push the block and open the chest. In the next room, use the key," and it doesn't give details on WHICH keyhole to use the key on, and WHICH room is the "next" one. The could have used coordinates to their advantage way better than they did

   The whole thing is somewhat monotonous

   Cartoons, while cool, are VERY distracting. They are just plopped down anywhere; you might be in a section when you're encountering Zoras, and right there is a picture of a Goron!

   Some AWFUL typos; it got me all confused about the Harp of Ages. It said that the Tune Of Currents made a temporrary Time Portal, that the Tune of Ages activated Time Portals, and that the Tune of Echoes gave you tital freedom to travel in time. Then it said that you wouldn't get the ToC until later on in the game. The real scoop on the Harp is this: The Tune of Echoes (the frist tune you get) activates Time Portals; the Tune of Currents (the second tune you get) lets you move from the past to the present (it does create a temporary Time Portal, but that's not it's main purpose) and the Tune of Ages lets you go from Past to Present and Present to Past. Those typos really got me mixed up.

   Overall, this guide seemed like it was carelessely slapped together, and though it has some stuff you won't find in the Versus Guide, it has a lot more stuff that Versus does WAY better in.




2. This book is the WORST zelda book EVER!!! The map are so tiny! I need a microscope to see the it! It make me and my friends so confused! I would suggest to get The Lengend of Zelda oracle of Ages&Seasons from Versus Books.



3. I was disappointed in this book. It's too much page flipping. If you don't do EXACTLY what the book says, you get totally lost!!! I quit playing the game early out of frustration. That's just me. OH well.. if you decide to buy this, have patience...



4. its a good guide. I think i could have managed w/o it though.



5. I must say that I've been playing Zelda games since 1987 when the first one was released. I've been using Prima guides for Zelda games since the first book came out in the early 90s covering "A Link to the Past". Since then I've been using Prima Guides ever since after beating the Zelda games at least once in order to find the secrets I just couldn't find prior, and I have always found Prima to be the BEST at making guides, particularly for Zelda games. In fact, I can categorically say that their guide "Link's Awakening DX" is one of the best ever released for any game in the industry.

   Now I am faced with two very recent exceptions. One is their guide for "The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker", and the other is this guide. In fact, this guide isn't just bad for Prima, it is possibly the worst Zelda guide I have ever tried to use.

   As mentioned I had already beaten the games, each twice: Once starting with Oracle of Seasons, and then linking to Oracle of Ages, and then once starting with Oracle of Ages, and linking to Oracle of Seasons. Yet even after beating these games, and knowing most of the secrets and details of both of them, I found this guide EXTREMELY confusing. I couldn't easily map my experience to the guide's content, and often found it in error. It was difficult to view the maps, as they were very small, and usually sectioned off with little context. The details of game play were simply not instructive (or even comparable) to direct game play. The best thing about it was the cartoons, but that is the most cosmetic and least instructive thing about the whole guide.

   I suggest skipping this guide altogether. Heck, even the Nintendo Power guide was better than this one. I won't be giving up on Prima, but I hope this latest trend doesn't continue.