2 comments about Vampire Rome (Vampire: The Requiem).

1. Quote: "The grandeur that was Rome was an abattoir erected on a mass grave."
   
   The rhythm of this book moves like a locomotive, running over any pedestrian horror fan. This will appeal to both the Old World of Darkness fan who felt there was a lack of flavor in the Requiem core, and to the new player looking for a historical setting. A note to OWOD players: this book is darker than any Sabbat or Baali book and comes without any cheese. This is World of Darkness all grown up.
   
   NOTE: You will need the Requiem core and World of Darkness core to use this book.
   
   A quick rundown of the chapters:
   
   Forward: The Deathless City by Kenneth Hite
   The forward will practically read itself to you. It felt as if I was being relentlessly run down by a Roman legion--I couldn't stop reading. What's worse, is that it's a very hard hitting section and I couldn't get those horrible images painted of Rome out of my head. Very appropriate.
   
   Prologue: Why o' Why must White Wolf continue to use hand scribbled fonts. It looks very evocative of the era and I'm sure it's a great read...it's just rough on the eyes of us older players. I'll add more when I read it.
   
   Introduction: Standard fare of how to use this book, complete with film, movie, and literature references. There is description of theme and mood, as well as a lexicon.
   
   Chapter One: The History of Rome
   This chapter does a great job of not being dry and covering (in broad strokes)the key points in the history of Rome from fabled beginnings to the bitter end. There are cross-references within this chapter giving historical context to kindred in Rome. They too, are caught up in the machine of The Great Republic. There is a great sidebar on each page that moves you through the timeline for quick reference.
   
   Interlude I: More scribble...
   
   Chapter Two: Player's Guide
   Here lies the Camarilla. The Camarilla is a very structured kindred society with three traditions, and four wings. The three traditions are Dominion, Destruction, and Amaranth. The four wings are The Senex (Wing of the Ancients--they make the law for all kindred, Legio Mortuum (the military wing), The Cult of Augurs (the wing of prophets), and The Peregrine Collegia (basically the wing of bastards). As a kindred in Rome you will belong to at least one of these wings if not more--whether you want to or not. The Lancea Sanctum are recognized, nominally, as an independent organization within the Camarilla. All of these wings/organizations function like covenents in Requiem--each vying for a little bigger piece of the pie. The Lancea Sanctum's power base grows with time, starting out on the bottom and rising near the top toward the end of Rome.
   Here you will also find the clans with one omission and one addition. The Julii take the place of the Ventrue and function as primary rulers with the majority of them falling within the Senex wings they are the movers and shakers. They are very much like the Ventrue in discipline and weakness.
   This chapter also has era specific merits, devotions, and theban sorcery.
   
   Interlude II: More Scribble
   
   Chapter Three: Rome and Necropolis
   Everything from Iconic locations for scenes (these are great visual tools), what it means to be a Roman citizen free or slave, and some really great rules for debate in Elysium which covers getting frustrated and possibly frenzying when you fail in debate--very Roman stuff here. You can actually loose points in merits if you loose on the floor here. Beware the debate!
   
   Interlude III: As before
   
   Chapter Four: Storytelling and antagonist
   Complete with numerous types of conflict, sample settings that span the breadth of time and space of the Empire, and Striges (whoa!). The last one, is a very creepy supernatural creature that looks like a smokey black bird in it's natural spirit form when it isn't possessing a body of some sort. These things are not ghosts, or anything else I've read about in other books... and they have a serious beef with the Julii. Man, I'm not going to go into detail here about them because as a storyteller, this is the kind of thing we prefer to spring on poor unsuspecting players.
   
   Index: I haven't noticed any XX page references, yet. Looks good.
   
   Epilogue: More Sribble



2. If you liked the old World of Darkness(WoD) setting, you probably liked the intrigue and various mystery elements WW threw into the books. Lots of us loved the story, but the backstory was always somewhat restrictive. It gave some great ideas, and a good storyteller could grab the parts they wanted and discard the rest, but that often meant a lot of work.
   
   Enter the new WoD. No restrictive backstory, just some historical elements in broad strokes. Requiem for Rome is a setting book for the late-Roman (and, thus, late-Camarilla period) from the Vampire: The Requiem books.
   
   Unlike the oWoD "Vampire: Dark Ages," Requiem for Rome is not a standalone. To make full use of the book, one would need the base "World of Darkness" and "Vampire: the Masquerade."
   
   The book sets up a series of historical elements and gives a good description of the setting from a Roman vampire's standpoint in that era. The various views of self that the vampire's hold, and the culture are all rather well described. The book tries to give a postage stamp view of Rome through the ages, but wisely only focuses on one era, that being the end of Roman dominance.
   
   The historical content is fair, though very few things are detailed very far. It focuses on vampires in the era, and mentions humanity only slightly. The book could really have used a few extra pages devoted to some of the topics, especially mortal institutions and legal doctrine.
   
   What is present was done well, if brief in places. It's understandable, of course, but it was a bit of a letdown.
   
   This book is one of the best examples of a historical setting supplements that I've seen. It describes the sweeping trends but doesn't try to tell a specific story, leaving that for the storyteller and his troupe. I think that this is a dramatic improvement over the older WoD approach, as it provides many of the missed story aspects, without caging plot.
   
   It's a good book, and one worth reading if you are interested in running or playing in a historical setting for Vampire.

5 comments about Committed: Confessions of a Fantasy Football Junkie.

1. I received this as an XMas gift and can't get through it. The book feels forced and manufactured. There are points that are relatable but are painfully obvious, if you are a fantasy football player you are better off reading your league message board. Everyone can relate to the overzealous owner in their league, most overzealous owners don't try to write a book.



2. I liked this book but at times it dwelled to much on the authors own FF team from 2004. The stories about the FFL's he visited was interesting and there was some good technical information here and there, all with a humorous twist.
   
   You know how it is when someone insists on telling you about their Fantasy Football team? What if it was their Fantasy Team from three years ago? That's where this book gets a bit cumbersome for me but if you are interested in what it's like to be insane about Fantasy Football this is a good read.



3. Mark St. Amant is the Bill Cosby of Fantasy Football. He captivates you with his passion for the game and then makes you wet your pants with his spot on humor about this addictive hobby we all love so much. He is part story teller, part Bill Bryson sarcastic explorer and part average fantasy football owner. This book is a must for anyone even remotely interested in fantasy football. It will explain to our loved ones why they are widowed to FF for 6 months of the year and help them to understand why we wake up screaming "Throw T.O the ball!!!"
   It is a funny, poignant, heart-felt and realistic look into the world of Fantasy Football from someone who has been there and done that. His most recent success in the World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF) in 2007 is just one more reason why this is a book that should be on every Fantasy Footballers book shelf.
   Fantasy Football Guidebook



4. As someone who started playing Fantasy Football in 1992 and has not missed a season since, I have lived through many of the same things as the writer. My first question is how did he get his wife to let him take a year off jsut to play fantasy football? He is one lucky guy. I have also learned that it doesn't matter how much research. etc. you do sometimes it's just plain luck.
   If you play or want to play fantast football this book will give you an idea of what it's like.



5. Very funny combination of history, investigation, and how-to book about fantasy football. St. Amant captures the intensity and comradery of fantasy football.
   
   More vulgar than it needs to be, funnier than it should be. Made me laugh out loud and nod knowingly when he touched on the emotions of fantasy (football, that is).

3 comments about Fantastic Locations: Hellspike Prison (Dungeon & Dragons Roleplaying Game: Rules Supplements).

1. This is a premium product from Wizards, again showcasing the major changes since buying-out TSR. The packaging is great: shrinkwrapped, with an outer cardstock cover, great cover art by Francis Tsai; interior cardstock is a color repro of the four miniatures maps included in the module. As alluded to, the module also includes four full-color maps of Hellspike, printed on bonded, heavy gloss paper. These look good, and are great for use with miniatures and as a imagination booster. The text of the product is well-written, informative and interesting to read, with great, atmospheric B&W interior illustrations that borrow from the surrounding text (not just cool art that has nothng to do with the story, as in some old TSR works). A great bonus is a collection of encounters that can easily and creatively be combined by a DM into a short adventure; the encounters are designed for 9th Level PCs, but a good DM can adjust to allow for lower-level players. The text is a short 16 pages, but the maps are worth the additional four dollars (over a typical module cost of around ten bucks). I bought this at a hobby shop at 10% off; but it's discounted pretty steeply here at Amazon, and costs the same as a standard module. All told, a fun product. I run my own brand of D&D gaming, based off the 2nd Ed Rules (1989), with selected changes found in the new 2000+ (3.0, 3.5) rules. Works great all the way around. To run this accessory/module you must have a Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide. Players DON'T need to buy this, or similar products; let your DMs buy these things, and you'll enjoy the surprise of new discovery as you play in a 'Fantastic Location!' The Monster Manuals are pretty cool, but with some imagination you can make your own monsters, or download some cool critters free off the internet. There are a few Hellspike-specific monsters included in this product, but not enough to really play an adventure. PS: I don't work for WOTC; this is an honest review.



2. The adventure is not all that great but the mini maps are excellant and you can use them for just about anything. I run an Eberron game and needing a cave with some lava running through it makes a great place for a trek into Khyber to a fight for the hard to find Khyber Dragonshards.



3. Call me a throwback but I miss the days when TSR would at least try give you more bang for your buck. This set consists of nothing more than a 16 page book, poorly concieved and written, and two doublesided maps. There is nothing here that could not have been included in another set. Instead someone in marketing had the idea of squeezing even more money out of us clueless gamers- and so they did. I have maps. I have a monster manual. Therefor I didn't need any of this, especially not for this price. It simply makes more sense to convert second or even first edition modules to third and don't waste your time on this drivel.

2 comments about Dice Changeling.

1. Woaw. This dice really are awesome.
   Nice, beautiful and so changeling.
   A must have for avid fans.



2. Unlike some of their previous creations, these dice are attractive and easy to read. Kudos. They also fit the color scheme of Changeling: The Lost nicely.

3 comments about Scion God (Scion).

1. While I like the concept behind the Scion game, I really can't recommend either Scion: Demigod or Scion: God to anyone but Storytellers. From a player's perspective these books are a very bad value. Scion: Demigod and Scion: God each contain about 50 pages of useful player information detailing Epic (and Ultimate) Attributes, Boons, and Knacks at the Demigod and God levels respectively. In a move to get players to buy these books before their characters reach those levels of power, White Wolf has also thrown in some Knacks that can be bought at any power level, even just starting out. Everything else in these two books is of no real use to anyone but a Storyteller. Given the high list price of these books thats a terrible value for your money.



2. Having read the previous review below (or above) I had to post a review myself. This game is the final of a trilogy of books that cover an amazingly popular and IMO well developed role playing game. Herein you play the scion (or son) of a god of myth. Whether you explore the Messoamerican or Amerindian mythos, the Norse gods or even the Olympian pantheon, you can tailor and construct a character that has epic qualities and abilities. In this the third installment you play a character on par with a god of legend. Yes, the books are not for newbish or twinkish gamers who may revel in D&D. Does it require a higher level of roleplaying skill? Yes. Does it demand more from the game master? Yes. Does it deliver a dynamic system and a fun milieu? Absolutely yes. So, if you want a colorful, detailed and exciting game with an equally exciting setting, then pick it up and judge for yourself. In fact due to popular demand and sales, White Wolf, the publishers of the game, have decided to print yet another sourcebook and provide pdf expansions to the game. This despite the fact that they orignally only meant to publish the basic 3 books.



3. I've always wanted to feel how to achieve godlike state...
   
   This book help me too feel that way...
   
   For powerplayer gamers, I highly recommend this book...

5 comments about Special Edition Player's Handbook (Core Rulebook I) (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying).

1. This book is so worth the bragging rights that come with it. It also always has this really cool crackle when you turn the pages.



2. You can judge this book by it's cover. All the updates for the Player's Handbook is gathered in one place.



3. what can i say...everything about this book is great...only complaint i have is now that i have it i need to find some people to play with. BUY IT! !!



4. The players hand book is the most widely bought book in the dungeons and dragons gamers book set. i love that they have brought it out in the lovely leather bound book and updated some of the rules. i love haveing it in my colection plus it makes the other players in the game a little jeoules seeing it on the table. i have the whole set now of the d&d specail edtion and i love the set.



5. very handy for playing the game and the cover looks really good. there are extra things in it that is why it is version 3.5. the special edition part is more just the cover but is still very good

3 comments about Shadows of the Last War (Dungeon & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Eberron Adventure).

1. While I have not yet run Shadows of the Last war with my PCs, I have looked over the adventure and found much of it to my likeing. The story line is continued relatively smoothly from the previous modual (Forgotten Forge), and a new group of foes for the adventurers are introduced, making for an exiting and well developed adventure. The adventure's primary merrit is, however, the sense of Eberon it imparts. With its technology like magics and cinamatic battle scenes, Shadows gives a DM wishing to learn a bit more about Eberon before writting his(or her) own adventures just the sort of model and set of possible adventure hooks one needs. In adition to this, I found the adventure easily modifiable, enabling me to edit out parts I did not particularly like and replace them with some of my own, with minimum difficulties. My one gripe concerning Shadows is the fact that the principle villians are not those implicated at the end of the Forgotten forge. While this is merely a matter of opinion, and I know that I said that the adition of the new enemies is an overal good touch, if I where a player, I would likely be somewhat dumfounded to discover that the oposition I faced in the last adventure is present only in the start of the modual (albeit in an exelently talored encounter). Over all, the Shadows is a great adventure for an Eberon campagn, and I recomend it to DMs in search of inspiration, bearing in mind that much of it may need to be tweeked in order to make it run best with your party.



2. If your new to Eberron as i was trust me theres no better way to meet this great new world than with this adventure!!!
   Your supose to go from 1st to like 4th level but we got to 5th so the next carry on adventure might be a little bit easy for us but in saying that there was only 3-4 of us playing most of the time.
   A few fights were probley a bit frigen harder than they have should have been but what do you exspect when you walk down the main road into a busted ass town thats the bad guys main base and start a fight!!!!!
   3rd level and had a CR8! But over all i had a great time roleplaying in this world and am looking forward to next week when we start the next Adventure!!!!



3. Definately a different kind of D&D Avdenture.
   
   Eberron is a breath of fresh air to the typical "Midevial Europe" D&D and give technology and such a twist.
   
   The adventure here was really good, up until the last part, part 5 where the charecters seemed to get railroaded a bit.
   
   But all-in-all a great adventure!

No comments about Pathfinder #1 Rise of the Runelords Chapter 1: "Burnt Offerings".

5 comments about Xenogears Official Strategy Guide (Bradygames Strategy Guides).

1. Some strategy guides are vague and are a waste of money. They leave a gamer wondering where exactly to find an item or a location, learn a certain ability, or how to defeat an enemy. The Xenogears Strategy Guide blew these flawed strategy guides out of the water and proved that there are guides with all the answers to your questions! I strongly recommend this to anyone that owns Xenogears!



2. This is a lot like other walkthroughs that I have used before, it is easy to go through and understand and makes it extremely beneficial for a player to have. It may not be the best for the first time playing through the game because of some of the spoilers that it has throughout (mainly screen caps of the anime sceens), but I would highly recomend it to anyone



3. There are online walkthroughs available that are more helpful than this guide. However, this is a must-have for those who love to collect video game strategy guides. Personally, I liked the artwork. Also, the guide is made of quality materials, unlike more recent strategy guides. The cover and the pages seem to be made of thicker paper. I highly recommend this for those who loved Xenogears.



4. I'm probably the only one here who is going write a review bashing on this guide for it's quality. I don't mind the plot spoilers in the guide because...well it's a guide. Every guide has spoilers (and yes I actually DID get my hands on an FFVII guide by VERSUS BOOKS so don't tell me "well you should see THAT guide" I KNOW, but even that one had a few spoilers...just not plot spoilers).

   A guide is meant to do just that guide you. The reason I gave it a three was because the guide misses a lot of secrets, the bestiary lacks and there are no maps in the walkthrough.

   Let me start off by saying this, at least we can all agree on this, Maps are ESSENTIAL to a strategy guide and ESPECIALLY RPG guides. That goes without saying and for that I couldn't let the guide come within a mile of five stars. Second, a guide should NEVER spoil the ending. Plot I'm okay with but the ending is the whole reason you play a game in the first place. Sure it's no fun when you know the plot but if you know how the game ends then that just plain stinks! So I don't mind the plot spoilers but the fact of the ending being spoiled really made me mad.

   The walkthrough is dim too. The screens are blurry and out of context and the content that the guide contains is not always clear. The directions they give you in dungeons are only going to help you in getting lost. The bestiary doesn't detail a monsters weakness instead the only good thing we really get is how much HP they have.

   So in short, the guide isn't the best buy for you. It has a complete walkthrough and it actually isn't all that bad. Boss strategies are nice and you get the general idea of what they're telling you to do. But again, I didn't give this guide a considerably low score for the plot spoilers. I never actually even read the plot spoilers since I was using the guide as a reference book and not a magazine.




5. For a new company this is a great way to start out by never over rating an item for sale. I can say I am happy with my purchase,since it was in better condition than what I percieved.

4 comments about World of Darkness: Antagonists.

1. This book a GREAT utility to help spark your imagination. It helps you get into the mind set of yuor underworld aware characters, a find out what makes their skin crawl, what exactly are vampires afraid of? or even a werewolf? If you are wanting to run a high risk game this is definatly something to invest in.



2. This is absolutely the greatest supplement in the new World of Darkness. There is no other way to describe this book.
   
   It's divided into sections about the living dead (not including Vampires. You'll need the Vampire: The Requiem core rule book for that,) cultists, monster hunters, and just plain weird stuff that's really better to use against supernatural players.
   
   All of the sections are fantastic, and I very highly recommend this book for anyone looking to start a World of Darkness chronicle.



3. When I heard about WORLD OF DARKNESS: ANTAGONISTS, I thought I would be buying a "Monstrous Manual" for the Storyteller system, maybe some boogedy-men for supernatural types. This assumption was quite wrong. ANTAGONISTS is a book on antagonists from a narrative perspective; what an antagonist is, what is an antagonist's purpose for a story, some classes of antagonists from which to draw inspiration, and ten specific examples which can be used in any story.
   
   ANTAGONISTS opens with a bit of zombie-voodoo fic; not a bad story but fairly predictable. The content itself begins with the purpose of an antagonist, which is to highlight the protagonist. This is an excellent point which I had never considered. The purpose of an enermy in gaming is traditionally to "level up", but in literature an enemy serves to either contrast the postive aspects of the story hero(es) or to highlight the similarities. It depends on the story you want to tell - is it to plumb the depths of darkness and fight the good fight or is it to expose the evil that is a part of everyone and how easily we are corrupted? An antagonist also has a purpose to his/her/its conflicts with the protagonists. Monsters and madmen may exhibit irrational behavior, but that behavior is not undirected. That behavior could be rooted in envy, territoriality, bigotry, hate, or even hunger. But there is always a motive, and discovering that motive is often the key to resolving conflicts that don't lend themselves well to violence. This is especially true in a mortals chronicle, who have little enough on their side to begin with.
   
   ANTAGONISTS also has some chapters on types of enemies; who they might be, possible goals, possible resoultions, and sample antagonists. The first is zombies - an interesting coincidence with my having just finished ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN (the zombie role-playing game). The contrast is striking; in the latter, there is almost always some apocalyptic scenario and the best hope is short term survival in a doomsday world. In ANTAGONISTS, it is pointed out that an apocalypse would have strong repercussions for the other supers, who would no doubt bring their powers to bear on the subject. So zombie outbreaks tend to be local, keeping the horror more personal. Maybe the characters need to bargain with the loa causing the dead to rise, or find the scientist who created the undead virus and bring back the antidote. Nevertheless, if the group decides to play a zombie attack in WOD, I would highly recommend also reading ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN as the definitive source on zombies.
   
   Next up are mortal hunters. I really found this chapter useful, since hunters are antagonists to supernaturals but protagonists in a mortals chronicle. The information for making mortals a credible threat to a supernatural creature is necessary reading for a group of mortals who WANT to be a credible threat to THEIR antagonists (hey - it's the original crossover game!) There's information on what motivates a normal Joe to abandon his normal life and take up arms against what's out there, strategies for maximizing the likelihood of survival in fighting a super, and how hunters might organize to make themselvesmore threatening. After some thought i realized that it is important for humans fighting supers to have symapthetic characteristics to avoid the storyline devolving into comic book drama. One might argue that vampires and werewolves have alien psychologies and do what they do for their own purposes, but humans MUST be believable. They are, after all, us. There are a few human hunters provided, along with their backstories. These are genuinely sympathetic characters, even as they threaten the existence of the PCs.
   
   And who could forget those crazy cultists? This chapter explains why people join cults, how cults recruit people, and how a cult might serve as an opponent to your group. Cults tend to be portrayed more like the Mafia than like serial killers; it's nothing personal if they are after you. Maybe you have something they want, or you are in the way of their goals, or maybe this is pledge week and they're making an offer you can't refuse. Some sample cults are listed, although I would recommend that you also read anything by Lovecraft or his Mythos servitors if you want cults.
   
   Some potential enemies are listed in the final chapter, with background stories and stats. These are meant to be rare, once-in-a-lifetime encounters with something Really Awful. Some prey explicitly on supers while others seem interested in protecting humanity, if as nothing else than a food source. Most are designed to be slowly introduced, to build mystery and fear as the characters come to realize what is happening. I thought all of the examples had possibilities.
   
   ANTAGONISTS is an excellent book overall. The enemies and conflicts provided are meant as material for supernaturals, but could just as reasonably be applied to mortals games. The chapter on hunters is absolutley necessary for mortals who plan to do their own hunting. It is consistent with the theme and flavor of the WORLD OF DARKNESS setting and I would highly recommend it for any story-telling game.



4. I read a few reviews about this book and they all said this was not a monsters manual, I disagree. It has a few pages in the beginning of the book talking about antagonists in general and their function of a story. Then the book starts explaining about various antagonist races. A expanded monsters manual, without the nice imaged D&D's has.