2 comments about Bastards & Bloodlines: A Guidebook to Halfbreeds (Races of Renown).

1. Having enjoyed their Master Class books, I decided to give one of the Races of Renown books a try.

   Now, my understanding is that Green Ronin is prohibited from using any race-related material already published by Wizards of the Coast, so I avoided the books on orcs, whom I already know quite well, and drow, who I scarcely ever use, and went for what promised to be the most original book, this one.

   This book really is original, providing some unique half-breed races, along with balanced rules for creating you own halfbreeds, either as races or templates. A few of the half-breeds use rules that make them a little to easy to abuse, particularly the Wyrd, an ogre mage/elf cross, but for the most part they're fair and balanced and, most importantly, playable.

   There's only one real flaw with this book, and that's a definite trend towards a lot of nature-focused half-breeds, combining various fey creatures with various woods-friendly humanoids. The results are always interesting (I have a player who now wants to play a woodwose), but perhaps a trifle repetitive. Since I generally run a very nature-focused game, I don't have a problem with it and the book doesn't lose any stars.

   The feats and items sections are interesting as well, providing rules for making new race-specific items along with a few new examples, and feats that take advantage of the mixed heritage of the book's races.

   The prestige classes are adequate but, in my opinion, underpowered. Since they only take up a scant eight or nine pages, again, the book loses no marks with me for this. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go look at the Green Ronin web-site and see if any other books catch my eye.




2. I absolutly loved this book. I've always loved "half-breeds", so when I saw this book I quickly bought it. I wasn't dissapointed. The art was great (with the exception of Makbin), the writing was wonderful and it also offered quite a bit of "crunchy" parts as well.
   
   Pros:
   The layout was wonderful and the writing was well-written and interesting. Though not as entertaining as a novel, I enjoyed reading this book- it was interesting and well written. The art is also great, if slightly comic-booky in style. The races written up are interesting, albeit strange and exotic- but that's the way I like them. The info on half-breeds in society is helpful. All in all it's a great book, but...
   
   Cons:
   As the previous reviewer stated, quite alot of the races are crosses between nature friendly humanoids and nature "monsters". There's also quite alot of elf half-breeds. The races listed are also extremely exotic and strange- so if you don't like bizaare stuff then this book isn't for you. I was expecting stuff like orcs/dwarves and that sort of thing, not things like halfling/blink dogs, elf/naga or elf/giant eagles. Still, I was fine with that-I loved it actually, but it wasn't what I was expecting. Bastards and Bloodlines still has some or the more "normalish" half-breeds, too, though.
   
   This my own personal pet-peeve, but it seemed to me like alot of the half-breeds parents got together, had a baby, and then seperated and abandoned the child to one of the parent races. One of the reasons that I love half-breeds is that the idea that two unlike races can fall in love and marry and have a half-breed child is interesting and has great story and roleplaying oppurotunity. A treant that fell in love with an elven druid and worked hard to win her heart, overcome elven resistence and established an area to ensure peace for their children and their lives is much more interesting then "a treant and an elf have a baby and then abandon each other and their child".
   
   Still, this book is great, and has very little flaws.
   
   Art: 9- the art in this book was great, if slightly comic-bookish. I dislike Makbin (one of the artists) but otherwise the art was good.
   Writing: 10- it was extremely well-written, with very minor flaws.
   Playability: 9- if you ever need a resource for half-breeds, this is the book for you. One of my players begged for me to "magically change" his half-elf into a Decataur, they loved it. I've also dropped in a couple Half-breed NPC's in the campaign, and they made the game much more interesting and fun.
   
   All in all, a great book, and if your even remotely interested in half-breeds, this is your book- buy it now!

No comments about Dawnforge: Age of Legend.

1 comments about Ultimate Divine Spellbook.

1. It has a tonne of new spells for druids and clerics. Some of the spells are a little off colour but quite useful (I'm not really British, I just decided to try British spelling). For instance, Breeze protects you against hot weather, Resist Water will help keep you waterproof, and Dig allows you to burrow underground. These are functional spells, but there are also spells that are just weird. Bandit's Lament causes someone to lose body parts if they commit crimes, Surface keeps objects from sinking in water, and Awaken Element is oddest of all as it allows a ball of fire to become sentient. All in all very interesting spells, which I plan to add to a druid or cleric I play as.

No comments about Zombie Smackdown (Afmbe).

No comments about The Power Gamer's 3.5 Wizard Strategy Guide (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying).

1 comments about *OP MET: Camarilla Guide (Mind's Eye Theatre).

1. This book should have been called, the "Elders Salon," or something to that effect. This book is designed for Elders and STs wanting to run Elders in their Chronicle.

   Of Interest to STs and PC Elders: 1) The re-write-ups on Higher Level Disciplines (a new level for each Gen below 9th). EXCELLENT 2) A re-write of the Influences level 6+, irrlevant if you have LoE, excellent otherwise. 3) A re-write of the "What it is to be an Elder" from Laws of Elysium, excellent 4) How to run an Elder Chronicle, or insert them into your game, mediocre 5) How to design a city, mediocre

   Of Interest to General PCs: 1) Gagoyles re-written with Visceratika, Excellent 2) Bunch 'o' Paths for Tremere, Excellent (now they are even MORE powerful, great. 3) Decent description on what each of the Camarilla positions are, and expect, including Scourge. EXCELLENT 4) Presenting to the Prince. EXCELLENT

   Chapter Four is worth the price of the book, in and of itself. Regardless of Generation or Flavour of your, (unless you are Sabatt) Chronicle.

   What is TERRIBLE about this book. NO INDEX!

   I would recommend this book, and would love to play in a LARP that approximates the level of Role Playing required to fulfill the very high expectations of Chapter Four.

   Enjoy!

5 comments about Final Fantasy Tactics (Prima's Official Strategy Guide).

1. ...because I think that the strategy guide is quite useful. You would have to be a buffoon to need actual STRATEGIES to win the battles - this is not the intended purpose. However, knowing that the marquis has an entire complement of Genji armor, which otherwise cannot be found, makes the gaming experience much more enjoyable. Also, knowing WHERE to find Cloud's materia blade, without which he cannot perform any special attacks, is quite nice. I guess I COULD complain that Square put these things into the game in order to get us to buy strategy guides, but hey, that's not a complaint against the GUIDE, right?
   All in all, I found the guide useful, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get everything possible out of the game. However, if you need the guide simply to get through the battles, well, maybe you should switch to another game, like Candy Land.



2. I got the stratagy guide almost the earliest day possible. I hope to do business with this person in the future.



3. Final Fantasy Tactics is a game where you have to use tactics. You have to THINK. You can't expect a book to do your thinking for you. The guide's strategies are a joke anyway.
   WHat is usefule, however, is some of the job descriptions and the other million details you want for a perfect file. However, be warned--there are many inaccuracies and errors. Besides, you usually find better information on the net anyhow.

   Buy it if you're a die-hard FFT fan, too dumb to think of a good strategy, too lazy to bother yourself to think, or don't have internet access (then why are you here? hmm...). Otherwise, you don't really need color maps and fancy fonts, now do you?




4. Very Good Nobulaks.......om kotomou mato nu!!!! mamatai ko dogo?? patazon kui ziau doino... bantaton katatanak...



5. This is a pretty good strategy guide. I had already beaten the game once before I actually bought this guide of Amazon for 10 bucks. When I played the game the 2nd time using the strategy guide, it helped me find secrets and other things that I had no idea about before. It also has a very useful appendix that lists all the Armour you can buy, all the monsters, missions, etc. Along with a very useful description of each of the 20 Job classes.

No comments about Hunter Screen (Hunter).

No comments about Runebound Second Edition Adventure Variant Expansion: Avatars of Kelnov.

No comments about Midnight: Destiny and Shadow.