5 comments about GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns (4th Edition).

1. 
   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.



2. 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.



3. GURPS is one of the most, truly, generic systems around... and that's no suprise since it's the first. In this fourth edition, SJ games brings to bear their 20+ years of experience with this system and delivers an excellent addition to the GURPS line. The system is fully able to be employed in any genre from fantasy, science-fiction or horror and it flexible enough for even the most creative of gamers. If it has any weaknesses they would be:
   1. too many options: some gamers might be overwhelmed by the number of options available. Keep in mind that the game can be as simple or as complex as you like.
   2. all of the "flavor" is on you: GURPS (since it is generic...duh) is not set up to convey flavor through the design of its character sheets, the naming of abilities or the graphics in the books. Flavor is ALL up to the game-mast
   
   ... on the otherhand, perhaps those are strengths.



4. I've been contemplating the purchase of this book for a couple of years now, and finally broke down to make the purchase. The physical object itself is a thing of beauty. It has the lovely full color design and quality printing and binding that past purchasers have come to expect from GURPS products.
   
   This isn't a product for somebody who wants to buy it and run a game the next weekend. GURPS itself is less a game than a toolkit for making your own game. Once you have the rules, you need to either create your own setting and character archetypes (what GURPS calls templates), or you need to purchase one of the many game world books published for use with the game. Fortunately the book provides a lot of good guidance and examples. The published material that describes game worlds is also excellent. The high quality of this supporting material is what helped me decide to purchase GURPS Basic Set: Characters, Fourth Edition and GURPS Basic Set: Campaigns (4th Edition).
   
   Given that caveat, I recommend this product for any gamer who wants to expand their gaming into new directions. There's nothing revolutionary here, but this toolkit gives you what you need to produce any other kind of game that you want to play. You might want to play ghost hunters right now, but in six months you can switch to a space opera, and six months after that to cape-wearing super heroes. And for any of those options, you can purchase additional supporting material, or just wing it on your own. The number of games you get by purchasing this one set of books makes it an excellent bargain for the serious role player.



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

5 comments about Elder Evils (Dungeons Dragons).

1. Like previous reviews, Elder Evils has completely new art for each of the elder evils. It includes the lore on the birth of each elder evil and what its goals are. The book supplies information for both Forgotten Realms and Eberron campaign settings. Each elder has a specific sign its presence and influence upon the world. They are marked with DCs ranging from Faint to Overwhelming. Faint is the hardest to detect and overwhelming is the equivalent to stating the obvious.
   
   There are some incredibly terrifying monsters that exist in this book. (My personal favorites are Atropus followed by Pandorym.) There is one section of monsters that really should be re-tooled, I.E. the Hulks. To me, this is the only negative of the book.
   
   The writers do leave a majority of the work to the DM but with a bit of creative manipulation of a campaign module, a DM could work the elder's presence into the campaign. Or for those who prefer to construct their own campaign, these creatures will make the event very entertaining.



2. I had a chance to preview this before buying it, and it was a great disappointment. NONE of the "Elder Evils" from the book "Lords of Madness" is covered, and neither are any of the "Eternal Elder Evils" of the Forgotten Realms (Kezef the Chaos Hound, Dendar the Night Serpent, and the Elf-Eater). What we get instead are a few -- a very few -- NEW "Elder Evils" (as if we didn't have enough trouble with the others already!). And fluff. Lots and lots of fluff. And Atropus, the god-head (literally: he's the head of a god!) who floats through space destroying entire worlds as he reaches them; HE is a great "Elder Evil." The others? Meh... Buy a copy for six dollars and you probably won't be disappointed. Did I mention the fluff?



3. I bought Elder Evils expecting not much more than was found in Fiendish Codex I, and found just what I was expecting. And this is not a bad thing. It has plenty of different hooks for your campaign, NPCs to go with them, and a decent selection of feats. I was disappointed that there were no prestige classes, spells, or even a real monsters section, but it did exactly what it set out to do: Give the DM a half-dozen or so storylines that make the PC's feel heroic (or villainous) without making them take on the stereotypical dragon, pit fiend, or deity.



4. Good assortment of borderline epic level big bads in here. everything you need to plop them into any campaign.



5. Demon lords, devil princes, dark gods, ha! They all pale next to Elder Evils, the latest hard cover supplement designed for the ultra high-level player. Oh seriously now, if as the book describes, that even Gods are wary of standing in the way of Elder Evils, what chance do even the mightiest of player characters have? The first thing that is well evident is that this is WOC's attempt at creating cosmic monstrosities in the mode of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Even the name `Elder Evils' freely borrows from Lovecraft's Elder Gods and Old Ones, mythical creatures whose hint of existence can drive men insane. These Elder Evils are not merely monsters to battle and gain treasure from, but rather these are threats on an epic scale, such as a Morgoth or Sauron, if not even more threatening. These are what challenges epic level characters when there is nothing left to challenge them. Elder Evils have no interest in life other than to destroy it.
   
   Chapter one provides an introduction to Elder Evils. The arrival or awakening of these being is usually foreshadowed by signs of its presence. These can be things like drastic changes in weather, outbreaks of disease or infestation, the dead returning to life, and so on...Cults soon spring up devoted to the Elder Evil. Dozens of new feats are included that can be acquired by the servants of an Elder Evil.
   
   The next nine chapters spotlight a different Elder Evil being. Each chapter provides a background on the being, its goals and motivations, the signs of its arrival, tips on running the being in a campaign. The Elder Evil have several powerful minions which serve them and would be the likely actual foes of the PCs. These servants are also included in each chapter with full statistics and abilities included. Finally, each chapter comes with a mini-campaign that is fully developed and comes complete with maps and locations.
   
   The Lovecraft influences are again very obvious as you read about each of these ultra-powerful foes. Father Lymic, for example, seems to be a bit of an amalgam between Cthulhu and Azathoth. He sleeps, dormant, in an icy prison, locked in a glacier, yet his alien thoughts are still lethal to mortals.
   
   Leviathan is a great sea creature which owes its influence to both biblical writings as well as the Norse Mythology of Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent which is large enough to completely encircle the world. Ragnorra, Mother of Monsters is almost certainly based on the Babylonian myth of Tiamat who gave birth to all manner of dragons and serpents.
   
   As you can see, there's not a great deal of originality to Elder Evils. These are creatures that seem mainly built on existing myths and legends. But how does it all come together in D&D land? Well, that's a tough question. Even with very high-level characters I can't see where a good DM would have to resort to the use of these mega-powered threats in order to provide a challenge. On the other hand, the mini-campaigns are actually very good and I can see taking these, and adapting them for use without incorporating an apocalyptic-style of campaign. This is another WOC product that falls into the category of being well designed but is it necessary?

5 comments about Dragonmarked (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Eberron Supplement).

1. Dragonmarked was another strong entry in the growing Eberron saga. As a player-oriented sourcebook, the player options were of course many and varied -- from the dozen prestige classes to the host of new feats and spells -- and on the whole, added to the setting precisely what one would expect the new mechanics of such a book to add. Unfortunately, some of the "meat" of the individual houses was thin if not outright gamey (no pun), in a few places. Here was a great opportunity (THE opportunity, in fact) to reveal the real deal behind some of the more intriguing and mysterious of houses, and it seems like the developers failed to capitalize on that opportunity at times. As a player in the setting, yes, I wanted more dragonmark-related goodies, but I wanted the depth of narrative that I've been waiting for since the corebook was released. Did the writers try to do this and were edited "down" by the developers? We'll never know, but the end result is a bit of a missed opportunity when it comes to such explication. In particular, the places where the tone retains its mystery -- "It might have been this, or it might have been that" -- were especially aggravating. That's what we've heard all along, folks; this was the place to stop prevaricating, and show us the hidden truth. If you don't intend to reveal it, don't make the promise that the book makes by its very design. All in all, the book is 5 out of 5 stars in game content, as one might expect from WotC; but as one might also expect from WotC in the 3.5 era, the narrative leaves a little something to be desired in some places (though a few house descriptions, such as Sivis, don't disappoint at all). And so it must needs drop from 5 to 4 stars, though it's still a very good sourcebook.



2. I like the product. It tells a lot more about the Dragonmarked and would be a good addition to any Eberron campaign. I only gave it three stars because of how limited it is in scope. While some history is explained, it doesn't go far enough. What about the thirteenth mark? It's all but unmentioned and it's a significant part of the past. A prestige class from another product is referred to several times but I only stumbled on it by luck when I was looking at the other book. It's a book that you can do without and that's a shame since the Dragonmarked are in interesting idea.



3. I'm really disappointed that this book didn't contain information on the lost mark. I have planned a resurgence of the lost mark in my campaign setting and I was looking forward to an official breakdown of the least, lesser, and greater mark of death.
   
   This book does contain a great many new and interesting feats for characters who have dragonmarks. Though, once again with the recent release wave of WOTC, there are issues with balance in regard to feats. Some feats are lame, some are very obviously uber.
   
   Who wouldn't want to take a feat that grants Damage Reduction 5/magic or Damage Reduction 5/byeshk. Dm's will need to tweak things here and there to make them more balance minded.
   
   There are some very promising prestige classes in this book. My personal favorite is the combat oriented prestige class for House Orien. Reminds me of Nightcrawler from the Xmen.
   
   Since this book lacks information on the 13th mark...this is what I'm using...feel free to implement it in your campaign!
   
   +2 knowledge(religion) checks
   least mark - 1/day command undead or invisibility to undead
   lesser mark - 1/ day animate undead or halt undead
   greater mark - 1/ day create undead or undeath to death
   siberys mark - 1/ day create greater undead or control undead
   
   Overall...I feel this is a strong addition to my Eberron campaign and will enrich the setting.



4. If you're going to run an Eberron campaign, you absolutely must have this book. One of the hallmarks of Eberron is the Dragonmarked houses, and you can't really understand the Houses until you have this book.
   
   It's well written, and the consistent format makes it easy to find what you are looking for. Plot hooks abound, albeit in a slightly more subtle manner than a section entitled 'Plot Hooks for House..."
   
   If you like Eberron, you'll love this book.



5. The book is good, but my major issues with it is its lack of depth in describing the Dragonmarked houses. It gives you good information, but I wish they had taken more time to describe major players in the individual houses, perhaps intrigue not only within the houses, but between the houses. In the game I am playing in I created a character within House Deneith with monarchist views. They do mention a member with the house that has similar views but it's brief and not as detailed as I'd like it. I also wish they had mentioned more about the houses goals and views from perhaps several of the elders with each house.

4 comments about Explorer's Handbook (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Eberron Supplement).

1. Well, another Eberron book, and another winner.
   The artwork in this book is awesome, the cover art, the chapter beginning and pictures throughout are all of consistent high quality.
   
   The content seems to be well laid out, however the lack of index in reference books is becoming frustrating.
   
   The book contains the following Chapters (you will need the TOC as there is no index...)
   Introduction
   Intro and overview, how to read the stat block etc.
   
   Chapter 1: Travel
   Reasons for travel, motivations for travel, (I especially liked the section on travel vs. teleport, which gives a range of situations in which travel not teleport is appropriate.), how to travel, modes of transport, travel encounters
   
   Chapter 2: Tools of the trade
   Elemental vessels, everything you wanted to know, how to construct, controlling bound elementals, freeing them and so forth. Airships, attacking airships, elemental landcarts.
   Lightning rail, movement of, battles on and a useful lightning railcar map.
   Stormships and wind galleons and other vessels.
   The chapter then goes on to boarders, forged papers, funded expeditions, organisations and then has...
   3 Prestige classes
   Cataclysm Mage
   A seer like mage who's desire for forgotten knowledge and prophecy leads to great power and greater risk
   
   Thunder Guide
   A sort of scout/ranger adventurer
   
   Windwright Captain
   Most likely an NPC class as it revolves around piloting elemental vessels.
   
   Chapter 3: Points of Origin
   (Containing 4 Map Sites)
   Where adventures start, a few adventure hooks, a map of the docking tower at stormhome, a lightning rail station etc.
   The Crimson Ship deserves special mention as an inventive and potentially exciting role-play side adventure.
   
   Chapter 4: Midpoints
   (Containing 4 Map Sites)
   The places along the way, along with many further adventure ideas to go with them
   
   Chapter 5: Destinations
   (Containing 9 Map sites)
   The final destination of the adventure, described in the chapter are several fairly well detailed locales. The Khyber Dragonshard Cavern, the Shalquar Monastery and Tharkgun Dhak appeal particularly to me.
   Appendix: Ancient Treasures
   Giant and Dhakaani Antiquities
   Magic items from past ages, some cool new items and a new special material (Eldritch whorlwood)
   
   The book is packed with adventure hooks, detailed maps and ideas.
   Looks like it will be a fantastic game aid and the artwork is fantastic.
   
   4 stars, possible 4.5, however the lack of index prevents a 5 star rating.



2. it seems to me that the entire Eberron product line is victimized by the same glaring flaws. I now own this product,the main campaign book, and 5 nations. they all have wonderful art, a durable design, and a very pleasing interior layout. However, this book cost $30 (less on amazon) and has roughly 128 pages of text. If you're the type of gamer who is looking for an enjoyable read full of clever twists/plots/ideas; then you might also tend to gloss over the assorted charts, npcs, and worthless side notes. That brings it down to under 100 pages. Not only did WotC rip me off with this book, but they also don't have much to say about this shiny new campaign world.



3. The Explorer's Handbook advertises itself as being a book for, well, exploration for both DMs and players. When I first purchased it I was expecting a well written discussion on travel and adventure in Eberron, perhaps similar to a wilderness guide discussing all the fantastic inbetween places in Eberron. What I got was disappointment.
   
   This book is, by far, a DM oriented book that describes a number of locations you may wish to insert into an Eberron game. The locations tend to be focused on the mid to extremely high levels. The Prestige Classes are the only part of the book I would consider being oriented towards players, and there are only three of them. The writing, on the whole, is sub par.



4. As others have stated, this book really is more valuable for DMs than players. Being a DM playing in the Eberron setting, however; I find that this book includes many of those little tidbits of information like travel times and side adventure material that really fill in a world. A lot of the information in this book could be made up by a DM if they didn't have it, but having concrete rules in place lends a stability to the world. I found that reading a 'starting location' entry can give numerous adventure ideas that can easily be fleshed out.
   
   Again, really much more useful for a DM than a player, but interesting either way.

5 comments about World Of Warcraft: The Art Of The Trading Card Game (World of Warcraft).

1. I was looking for the perfect book to display the beautiful works of art I had seen in the world of warcraft franchise. This book certainly delivered. There is nothing low quality about this book. It included many of the pictures I'd already seen on the internet and many beautiful paintings I had never seen before. I'll let each buyer see for themselves, but the book is organized in a very simple and interesting way. It is so full of paintings, even after a month, I can look through and find a painting I'd never noticed before, and as an amateur artist, I find plenty of inspiration. A valuable book for any fan of warcraft or fan of fantasy art.



2. I am not a World of Warcraft gamer, but the beautiful art in this book drew me to it the moment I saw it on the shelf in my local book store. This book is filled with page after page of gorgeous renditions of highly stylized creatures and monsters that entrance the viewer. Discovering some of these artists for the first time was a treat for me, so much so, that I had to go online to find out more about some of them. This is a wonderful book with some great art in it. I highly recommend it for both WoW gamers and non-gamers alike!



3. This is a wonderful book, and any fan of fantasy art, or Warcraft, would absolutely love it, I've had it for over a month, and i still open it up and just stare at some of the wonderful artwork. Just buy it, you won't be disappointed.



4. I bought this as a gift. The person who received it just loves the book. He really enjoy the art work. So if you need a gift for someone who plays world of warcraft I'd recommend it as a good gift.



5. I am another person who bought this book who doesn't even play Warcraft but is just a lover of Fantasy art. I've always loved the Warcraft universe, which seemed like an expansion of/variation on the fantasy universe first created by Tolkien.
   
   When I got this book I was surprised by just what a hefty volume this is. This is a very thick book printed on the finest quality heavy-duty stock.
   
   Not only did this book live up to my expectations, but I found that the great variety of styles and artists included has also helped me to clarify my own tastes in Fantasy art, and has even introduced me to some great new artists I had never heard of before.
   
   The spectrum includes everything from the breathtaking photo-like hyper-realism of Clint Langely (check out his great new solo book "The Art of Clint Langely" by the way!), to the brilliant use of colour in the works of Jim Murray (very Bisley-esque) and Michael Komarck, to well-established artists like Todd McFarlane (--why are both of the pieces credited to him signed as "Greg Capullo"???) and Udon Studios, to the cartoony cuteness of the works of the book's editor Samwise Didier (sorry Samwise, but just gotta say YECH~!)
   
   It was also interesting observing the differences in the variety of mediums used (--I found I preferred good ol' non-digital art.) And a few pieces of preliminary sketches are also included to give us a brief taste of the process from concept to finished work (In some cases I found I liked the initial sketch better than the finished product. Samwise Didier, you ninny, what were you thinking? [...])
   
   The book is organized into sections according to Warhammer race of the subject of the painting. And in the back it also includes indexes of the works by title and by artist, making it easy to look up other works by an artist you may find you particularly like.
   
   I am happy to highly recommend this book, and look forward to further volumes in this series (this book says "Volume 1" on it, hooboy!). I really feel like I got my money's worth with this one. Well done people!
   
   And to all you publishers out there, I hope that other series of trading card art will be made into beautiful art books like this. (--Hear that Wizards of the Coast?) It's such a waste just having it on those tiny little cards. It deserves to be enjoyed properly like this!
   
   And to you people over at Blizzard, how about some art books for Diablo and Starcraft too? I love them too!

No comments about Classic Battletech Techmanual (Classic Battletech).

5 comments about Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game (Dungeons & Dragons).

1. This is one of the most endearing books I've ever read! Girl gamers have been rare in my circles, but I've recently welcomed a new one to my group, and my girlfriend finally decided to embrace my geekdom and join us as well. Reading this book gave me a look into the way they may think and what they are looking for.
   
   This book is not really meant for experienced gamers; it is meant to give to those females in your life that you may not think have an appetite for adventure. Once they read about a "normal" (and I use that word for Shelly loosely...) professional woman that enjoys shooting magic missiles at her foes (complete with sound effects!) they may be willing to give it a try.
   
   Shelly's reverence of her Dungeon Master reminded me of the importance and responsibility of that position.



2. I'm a male D&D player who bought this book for myself after seeing some of Shely Mazzanoble's articles on the Wizards of the Coast website. Her writing style struck me as comedically exaggerated, but with a genuine affection for the game.
   
   To that end, the book absolutely did not disappoint. Mazzanoble's tongue is planted firmly in her cheek as she takes her girly-girl spin on longtime male-dominated hobby.
   
   For the existing enthusiast, Confessions is an interesting "outsider-looking-in" sort of book. I found it gave me a different perspective on how women see the game and has actually helped me change up my gaming habits to make the female players more welcome.
   
   For the non-player, it's a quirky look at how the writer found her place in a weekly D&D game... helped along by a touch of writer's embellishment.
   
   For either audience, the book also provides very real-world analogies of some of the rules of the game, and culminates with an appendix that gives us a peek at the character sheet for Astrid, the titular sorceress.
   
   It's a unique offering from the normally rules-and-boys oriented Wizards of the Coast, but one I hope to see more like in the future.



3. The purpose of this book is to counteract D&D stereotypes. The author decided to fight fire with fire. There are negative reviews written by people who do not understand the purpose of this book. The author deliberately counteracts antisocial cheetos-snorfling loser-monkey stereotypes with airhead shopper girl stereotypes. The reason is not because she has any real belief in the airhead stereotypes. The reason is that if you counteract Stereotype A with Stereotype B, any reasonably intelligent person is going to say, "OK. Let's look beyond the stereotypes."
   
   The purpose of doing this is to **introduce new people to Dungeons and Dragons.** If you already play D&D this book is useless to you; it's like being introduced to somebody you already hang out with. But if you want to loop people into your game and they don't know much about D&D, this book is a much better Player's Handbook than the Player's Handbook, for **some** players.
   
   The author is not really an airhead. The voice she takes on during the book is the voice of a character, devised for a particular purpose. You would expect people who play role-playing games to recognize when an author is playing a role-playing game. Please keep this in mind as an antidote to the negative reviews. This is a silly book, but it is a **deliberately** silly book, and the D&D community needs more books like it. This is a fantastic propaganda piece which can rescue you from boring-as-hell sausage-fest games. It is a GOOD THING.



4. I am mostly through the book at this point and it reads more like a commissioned project than a labor of love.
   
   Ignoring the fact that the book seems to be targeted at the vapid, materialistic, celebrity-fixated girlie girl who would NEVER play D&D (apologies to the vapid, materialistic girlie girls out there who do) it reads more like a dumbed-down version of the DnD player's guide than as a tribute or a testimonial. I get the sense that the marketing guys at Wizards of the Coast wanted to reach out to a different market and tapped Mazzanoble to write a guide that could be passed off to people outside the traditional game audience.
   
   Problem is, it doesn't actually make the game very appealing. I'm one of those snotty, beat-a-dead-horse RPG players that never quite jibed with DnD and I'll be the first to admit that the rules can be very intimidating to new players. Rather than discuss the joys of sitting down, using your imagination, and playing games with your friends, the writer is frustratingly vague about the appeal, the mindset, or actually HELPING people enjoy their first game. Worse, the group she plays with strike me as a very unpleasant group of people to spend an afternoon chained to a table with. The writer (and by extension her character) seems to enjoy the passive aggressive sniping between herself and Helena, but I would find that table very uncomfortable and the experience unpleasant.
   
   The book's strong point is Mazzanoble's clear, conversational prose. Unlike the dry, legal-brief language of the DnD rulebooks, the book has tremendous wit and personality. Unfortunately there is very little depth in the hopefully fictitious persona she creates of herself, and instead we get a deluge of brand names and gossipy asides. These elements are almost apologetic, given the subject matter. It's as if she's trying to communicate to the reader "It's okay that I play dragons and make-believe. I'm normal too! I'm into normal stuff we can all relate to! I'm a girl and I value important girl things. Please empathize with me so you will identify with my experiences and you'll want to play too!"
   
   Put bluntly, the kind of people who tend to play this game have interests and personality types that are very dissimilar to the one Mazzanoble creates in her book. I had heard positive things about this before reading it and I recommended it to a smart, sophisticated lawyer I knew whose husband was a devoted DnD player. She bought it and then later told me she felt insulted. I can now see why.



5. I loved this book. I play computer games and console games, but never really tried Dungeons and Dragons. The book, was funny hilarious and easy to read. Some of the shopping references were over the top but thats what made them so funny. Guys give this too your girlfriends if you want them to play D&D with you. Trust me. But, just tell them its so they can understand what you're doing a bit more. They'll have fun :)

5 comments about Mage the Awakening (Mage).

1. I've always liked the Storyteller game system used in the World of Darkness. Back in college I had a lot of fun playing Mage using the old system, which was full of great concepts and fun ideas. I picked up the new book after I started playing in a World of Darkness campaign, optimistic about the changes they've made. Wow, what a disappointment.
   
   I agree with many of the other critical reviews here. The 9 Traditions from the old book were far more interesting and evocative than the rather generic Paths and Orders offered in this book. The consensual reality of the old game was far inspired than the dull myth of Atlantis that they wheel out for the new version. Basically they've gotten rid of everything I really loved and replaced it with ideas that feel plain in comparison.
   
   The book has very high production value and a cool cover, but that doesn't overcome the fact that the book is poorly organized, confusing, and overwritten.
   
   That said, it's still a good game system and still a lot of fun to play. Given the choice, I'd rather play the old Mage, but I imagine new players to the game will enjoy this quite a bit.



2. i used ot play the old vampire the masquerade and i had little to no knowledge of mages or mage culture except some bargains i had struck with NPCs. so looking into the new world of darkness i was pretty interested in buying this book.
   
   it is really good, although i have not played as a mage yet, i would recomend this to any world of darkness player as a bit of research material.
   
   white wolf does a good job making their books worth reading.



3. The game rules are not terrible. They are fairly streamlined and idiot-proof. However, WW apparently could only simplify the rules by simplifying the background material. They took a wonderfully open-ended and absolutely brilliant background world (the consensual reality) and stripped it down to a cartoonish and rather silly Atlantis myth. Terrible. Just Terrible.
   
   I also find it amusing that they cleared out all of the metaplot history in Vampire to make the game more open to interpretation and less confined by metalplot events, and then went and eviscerated the background of MAGE, the WOD game that was MOST open to interpretation. A pale and dumbed down version of MAGE for the WOW generation...



4. This game used to be the best by far in old WoD edition. Seriously, I don't understand how could people who developed something as cool and inventive as the old Mage come up with this piece of manure.
   Just don't buy it. Save yourself the pain.



5. A lot of reviews cover the chapters and describe some of the stuff inside, and that's great; it's super helpful stuff and a great start to help someone decide whether or not they want to buy this book. But this isn't a book to sit down and read. If you just want to read a book, buy an actual novel. This is a Role Playing Game. You have to actually play the game to figure out if you like it or not.
   
   Like any Role Playing Game, this game is really only as solid as the person running it (DM for D&Ders, GM for most other games, Storytellers for WoD fans). If the person running the game is clueless, the game isn't fun. If the person running the game is a creative person, already familiar with World of Darkness and has at least skimmed the rules for Mage, the game is going to be fun.
   
   The game play mechanics are simplified so that you aren't spending an hour rolling dice to find out whether or not you've smacked someone upside the head. The magic is complicated because it's magic. You can do, literally, anything with it. If you can't think of your own applications for magic, this book provides tons of examples of things that you can do and those are all pretty simple to use, even though it may take a lot of referencing during game-play.
   
   Bottom line:
   If you don't play RPG's, start with something a little easier. Maybe start with just a mortal character in the World of Darkness or perhaps something out of the Second Sight book.
   
   If you play RPG's, this book is worth putting aside your normal game for some test play. Chances are pretty good that you'll enjoy it, but make sure that the Storyteller knows what they are doing.

5 comments about Steve Jackson Games Munchkin 3 Clerical Errors.

1. This expansion set is an example of the rules of synergy in action. It isn't very many game systems that can get better and better as more and more product is added.

   Munchkin, with both expansions, measures in at nearly 400 cards. Despite being almost eight times the size of the standard card deck, it is a very playable game that has gotten better with each addition. The new cards make the game less "fixed" in that you can no longer really anticipate any particular card coming into play during the course of a game. My group has abandoned the equally good, but not supported with expansions, Star Munchkin, to play Munchkin +2+3 exclusively when the evening involves card gaming.




2. This 112 card expansion to the Munchkins game add an additional race and class to the game, as well as more loot and even more monsters and curses.
   
   The Gnome is a powerful race which can stand on it's own and the Bard class is provided a variety of cards which increase it's power over time.
   
   The new cards build on the core in a very good way and really flesh out the original Munchkins game. Additionally, these cards easily fit in the original box.
   
   I highly recommend this expansion both because it adds to an already great game, but because it's relatively cheap.



3. A set of additional cards to the Munchkin set, it can also be played without the basic set. New classess and races, unforunately, aren't balanced, thus being an Orc, a Gnome or a Bard is much better than any other race or class. Nevertheless, the monsters are charming



4. Muchkin is a fun game for lots of personality types. The game states it will be about 45 minutes. But plan on an hour or more for your first game with people not knowing the rules and having to read the card for what to do. This is a fun game to play with a group of friends with good a good sense of humor who have a certain, nerd flair. : ) I highly recommend this game.



5. Inside you can find gnome (race) and bard (class) and so many new monsters and item cards. 112 cards to improve your fun rating :)

5 comments about Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Rulebook (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay).

1. Warhammer Fantasy is an angry game. The setting is bleak and forlorn and the system is very lethal making the lives of characters nasty brutish and quite short. Characters are as likely to die of disease or mishap as they are of a sword in the chest and dying of old age (anything over 30) is practically unheard of. Instead of strong kings and a centralized government the Empire, such as it is, is a patchwork of independent kingdoms with a weak emperor chosen by each of the electors. Religion, unlike many other fantasy roleplaying games that skirt the issue, is a very powerful force in the kingdom that is at the same time one of the most unifying and dividing forces in the Empire.
   
   Gods and demons, or at least demons, are as real to the backwards, superstitious denizens of Warhammer Fantasy as they were to the backwards, superstitious people of the 14th century. Magic, while legal under license from the Empire, is hunted down and exterminated as heresy and chaos corruption.
   
   Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay has one of the best system-setting matches. Everything is based off of a percentage or D10 roll, armor provides damage reduction instead of making you harder to hit. Landing a good solid blow can lop off an arm, leg or outright kill. Magic is very powerful and consequently very dangerous - spells are only slightly more likely to work than they are to backfire with disastrous consequences.
   
   The book itself is mostly mechanics - there is only a chapter or two of setting information provided. While this might seem to short shrift the setting the concentration of rules here makes later books more able to focus on the setting rather than simply serving to add only more rules to the game.
   
   WFRP is historically inspired fantasy at its finest - hard-bitten, dark, depressing and violent. Hero is a relative descriptor even in the face of villains that are absolutes. WFRP is a much needed injection of bile in a hobby choked near to death with stale heroics.



2. A Fantasy role playing game from those whacky guys that made Warhammer 40K. As a consequence, this is much grimmer, nastier and dirtier than some of the fantasy roleplaying games out there, so if that is not your thing, and you want a more lighthearted high fantasy type of approach, then do not get this game, you likely will not enjoy it at all.



3. I was worried when they announced a second edition of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay rules. Part of the appeal of the WFRP rules is that they are so simple, and I feared fiddling could only make things more complicated. But now, having played several sessions with the new rules, I can honestly say that the changes were a great improvement. They managed to keep the simplicity that encourages role-play over power-gaming while cleaning up some of the more clumsy elements (the magic system is a notable improvement). The same career system is in place, but the careers choices have been balanced well enough that there's a good reason to choose any of them, unlike the old rules where some few careers were hardly worth considering.
   
   Someone who has never played before and doesn't know the rules could have an entire character rolled up and ready to play in as little as 30 minutes. The entire process is die rolls, so you don't have to make decisions that require knowing the rulebook, like when you have to choose skills or spells in other games.
   
   The history of the world is quote a bit lighter than in the previous rulebook, and in my opinion easier to read. Where previously even though it was interesting it was pretty dense and dry, but the history has been rewritten now to be a bit more interesting and relevant for the players.
   
   They've removed a few things that used to be included, for instance in the back of the book there used to be maps and images of common buildings but that has been moved to a supplementary book (the Game Master's screen, I believe). That's unfortunate but I can live with it.
   
   If you're used to playing with more complicated rules, like d20, Rifts, GURPS or similar, I highly recommend trying out the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay system. See what it's like not having to worry whether your mace does more damage than your longsword. In WFRP the story and the lives of the players are the focus, instead of the rules. Less "roll-play" and more "role-play".



4. Long-time gamers searching for a change of pace should definitely take a look at Warhammer Fantasy RPG's unique setting and d10/d100 system. I enjoy it much more than your typical d20 system, and the Old World "low fantasy" setting feels more gritty and realistic than your typical D&D game. You don't have to worry about picking the right class and skills, either; your starting profession, skill set, and gear is a package mostly determined by the dice and you take it from there. Since everything is based on D10 and percentage rolls, it's easy to determine your character's limitations and strengths. This makes a campaign easy to get started, even for new players that don't know all the rules since game play is very intuitive and moves along smoothly. Experienced GM's- give this one a try. Fun alternative to your d20 games, and it's also a great way to introduce new players to RPG's. The book itself is very high-quality and gorgeous. There's enough information here to put together a variety of campaigns and there's so many careers and paths to take your characters that you'll never be at a loss for something new.



5. As an avid AD&D player, that has also sampled other RPGs with friends, I enjoy Warhammer immensely. This is a concise core book that is great for players and DMs alike. Being used to a D&D type of world, it's hard to get used to the idea that magic is ultra rare and frowned upon due to Chaos. But, that's a great twist with this game. Those of you looking for a difference RPG system to try, I'd highly recommend this one. The core book is a must of course. ;)