1 comments about EverQuest Roleplaying Game: Monsters of Norrath.

1. Fans of D&D or swords and sorcery who enjoyed everquest will greatly enjoy the monsters in this book which includes the smallest rat up to the God of hate innoruk.

5 comments about Ironclaw: Anthropormophic Fantasy Role-Play.

1. My actual experience playing this game was with one of the playtesters for it's companion, JadeClaw...and it was confusing, to say the least, even given the fact I had a bad GM. The book has no index, and a lot of items (like the "Bezerker") are referenced in the text but impossible to find. The system is very limiting as well. This is an iffy game at best. I would reccomend, if you really want an anthropomorphic game, to get JadeClaw instead. At least you can FIND things in that book.



2. The system is highly reminiscent of other games like "Over The Edge", "Big Eyes, Small Mouth", or the Storyteller system from the World of Darkness games. Take a bunch of different sided dice and roll them for results. Of course, this is an oversimplification, but why should I give away everything?

   The chargen system is confusing upon first read, but makes sense after a few reads. I think that if the editor took out much of the 'flavor' test, the readibility of the book would be greatly improved. The division of rules and flavorful examples is what I mean. You have some sentences in the middle of an explanation that have little or no bearing on what you are trying to understand.

   The edition I purchased has an index and tables of equipment, so likely the lack of such things was a common complaint among players.




3. I was given this as a gift back when it was first made, signed by it's creator and everything as a family member knows them. Didn't think much of it as I was too young to learn it. Well, recently I found the book again and learned it and I'm impressed. I'm happy it's one book unlike D&D, so it's cheaper. And it's a lot of fun. True you have to read through the book a few times to get it and find everything as there isn't an in depth index and they refer back and forward interchangeably but if you learn it it's a good deal of fun. I'd reccomend it to anyone who likes RPGs and doesn't mind anthro. ^_^



4. There is no problem with WS and anthros... it's is just we have gone on a strange search to find what furries ahve truley made big. realy theres just small iron claw sasquine here, furcadia there and it's small amount of players, and the genreal of a anthromatic wich has only been picked up by furries , no one else. what we whanted to find some real big anthro makers, game makers, and writers. tails of true adutl porportion , reality, maturity, and idealisum, games that would set all minds to and fro, and something a lot older and darker. Why do you pople do such things? theres not a single one. the oauthors who do things like that aren't furries at all not anthro loving , not yiffers, and cerntly ain't coming to conventions... these authors like mr. Jhon RObert King have created horrid epics wthat gives you your anthro charactors and us and everthing bewtweeen ad shows how much the world is balanced. and Oh how terrible it is. ecpecialy int the mental part when it comes to the loss of hiuman faith and humainty and the priahs, ambointions, and the death of thousands because of rasicts and wolf folk that tear down human tapstrys.



5. I've played and read this game (and its sister game, Jade Claw), and I have to say that it's an interesting an innovative system. The task resolution system offers a scale of conflict and skill that's unique to this system, as far as I know, and the setting is quite rich. I would have to rate the power-level of the game as "swashbuckling," the characters can be exceptionally skilled and capable, but they never reach D&D levels of epic unkillability. The races are also a colorful addition that add to the game rather than just being a sideline element.
   
   The only thing that brings this game down is the bad editing. I have to agree that Jade Claw was an improvement, and it's good to have both games for that purpose.
   
   Get over the furry stigma, and see a colorful system with colorful characters and colorful possibilities, outside the current vein of fantasy games.

2 comments about Dungeon Crawl Classics 28: Into the Wilds (Dungeon Crawl Classi).

1. I used this module in my first attempt at DMing 3.5 D&D. It worked like a charm. It is loosely-inspired by the classic Keep on the Borderlands, featuring a frontier keep surrounded by evil denizens. The encounters are varied and fun, and Wildsgate Keep serves as a great base of operations for the characters, filled with interesting NPCs, and potential for intrigue. I recommend this module as a fun beginning to a campaign, with many opportunities available for expansion.
   
   IK



2. Another great design bu Harley Stroh, one that re-imagines an old "classic" in clever ways. The truth is modern product like this one is an improvement on the original. It has the same great detail, but is smarter (more than a "dungeon crawl," whatever the series title may say) and more professionally done (amazing maps!). So you get to relive the past and improve it at the same time: Good deal!
   
   While modules like these may be more than Dungeon Crawls, they also keep it mind that fun is what it's all about, and that means tough fighting and smart tactics against some cool bad guys. I hate this new tendency in adventures with so much emphasis being put on negotiating with NPC's with endless back stories ("soap opera" you might call it--I think it really started back in the mid-80s with Ravenloft and its sequel). Too much today seems geared to "role-playing" and pretentious backgrounds, with what little actual fighting there is completely uninspired. So many modules the last twenty years or so seem like they are written by frustrated, would-be fantasy novel authors or amateur thespians. "Role-playing" has its place, of course, but some of us still believe that at heart the game is about good dungeon adventures: Putting one's life in peril and coming out on top. Apparently that's too "competitive" for some people today!
   
   Into the Wilds is a smart adventure, and it doesn't forget it's about the fighting. It's written by a brilliant craftsmen, who knows that dungeon creation is a craft. Goof dungeons call for someone who understands the mechanics of design: traps, puzzles, tricks, etc. If anything really revives the Old Style, it will be great works like these, by the people who remember the old classics, but have also learned from the good things in the newer works (there are some!).

2 comments about Classic Battletech: Master Rules (FPR35000).

1. Unless you're an extremely casual Battletech player (as in maybe play once a year and with interest in playing outside family), skip the Classic Battletech Boxed Set and go straight here, do not pass Go. The Classic 'Tech box contains the very minimum to play, but to really get rolling as well as use any of the 'Mechs in the Technical Readouts, this is the book to go with. Includes all the rules to play any game up to tournament level, including miniature scale play, create your own 'Mechs or use 'Mechs from the Record Sheets or Technical Readouts. Literally a must-have for playing Battletech.



2. This is exactly what it says. It's the classic battletech core book. Other than the starter box set, which you may need to play, the core book is what you really need. This is the main rule book with optional combat rules and construction rules. It also has rules for vehicles, naval, infantry, battle armor, and the new protomechs. This book is a step into the open door of the Battletech universe. Have fun gaming.

5 comments about Dungeons & Dragons Dice with Cloth Dice Bag (Dungeons & Dragons Accessory).

1. For what you get this item is too expensive. You can get the same number of dice plus an additional percentile dice for $2-3 less in most places. This is not worth the price with all the options for getting your dice from another source.



2. The dice are nice and a good start for the game. You get everything you need to start playing D&D. The bag is a little small and does not leave room for too much expansion. A True D&D player likes lots of dice and different kinds. You can probably find less expensive dice in a hobby store. You are bascially paying for the bag with the D&D logo.



3. This is perfect for old-school gamers who insist on dice being of a certain sort and like the traditional pouch arrangement along with the distinctive colors. This item was well worth the time to find.



4. This was a very useful accessory for the mini Dungeons and Dragons game. Great for first time players!



5. Dice are an essential for Dungeons and Dragons. My son and his friends couldn't find the specialized dice in local stores so they made their own out of paper. I do not think I need to mention how poorly these dice worked (though it was a great lesson in geometric solids). We found these dice on Amazon and they have changed the reliability of the randomness of the boys' games in a good way.
   
   The dice are sturdy and come with a short explanatory pamphlet to guide use of the dice in gaming.

2 comments about World of Darkness: Mysterious Places.

1. Mysterious Places is an excellent companion to Antagonists (1588464784) and Ghost Stories (1588464830), althoughy it's premade settings have more in common with the latter than the former.
   
   As part of the "World of Darkness" role-playing system, Mysterious Places provides a variety of backdrops (along with inspiration and a few monsters) for any mortal, Vampire, Werewolf or Mage chronicle. Storytellers playing "mortal" games might find this book most useful (unlike Antagonists, which has several entries with supernatural protagonists in mind), but with a few adaptions, any of these stories could be challenging and interesting for even the most jaded players.
   
   The only thing this books could use is a greater variety, and perhaps more for supernatural characters to interact with and challenge.



2. MYSTERIOUS PLACES is a supplement to the core book WORLD OF DARKNESS, commonly called the "mortals" line. This means that the material is not specific to any particular supernatural race but can be used with any of them, or be part of a non-supers story. I think of MYSTERIOUS PLACES and its companion books, ANTAGONISTS, and GHOST STORIES as Storyteller aids; they have characters, places, or storylines that you can drop into your current chronicle either as something to do when things get slow (as one writer put it, "when the plot seems to be going nowhere, have men with guns burst into the room") or as story seeds to get your own creative juices going.
   
   MYSTERIOUS PLACES is specifically a collection of (mysterious) locales, each of which is presented with a history, associated characters, at least one plot device, different possible reasons for the player characters to become involved, and potential resolutions to the problems that the location poses. There is also information on how to adapt the setting to other types of territory: how to run a particular scenario in a downtown location rather than a rustic village, for example. The mystery is really what drives the plot for each location, so a lot of investigation is called for (in this case, the "guns" from the above quote are metaphorical). I believe the writeup for each location has enough depth to sustain a dedicated group poking at shadows without the Storyteller needing much prep ahead of time. It's not written in a story-line format, such that the investigators must do A to get to B to accomplish C; however, one could reasonably sit down, open the book, and play a few sessions straight from the chapter, provided the ST is familiar with the material from that section and limits the amount of outside influence in the story. It seems that MYSTERIOUS PLACES has this in mind, since each of the locations is designed to emphasize isolation.
   
   In the final analysis, I believe that MYSTERIOUS PLACES is effective as a collection of story-seeds, with sufficient depth to the scenarios to be played from the book with no other preparation, although the ST needs to be able to run extemporaneously or have a good memory. As an aesthetic note, I found that I wasn't too fond of the scenarios as written on the first read, but I am more excited about them on the second and third. There are always changes that I would make for a better story, things to be added or subtracted. And this is probably the goal of the book, which is to take each location and make it your own. [As an addendum, I was pretty underwhelmed by the opening fiction. It involves particle physics, and as a particle physicist, it's hard to see any cosmic horror any smashing electrons and positrons together, unless you are working out the Feynman diagrams by hand . . . Sanity score ... dropping... ugh]
   
   I am listing the "mysterious places" below, and I'll try to reveal as little of the mystery as possible. If you don't want any spoliers, here is a good place to stop.
   
   
   1. The Swimming Hole: At the bottom of a body of water, there is a cave where you can trade your blood for wishes. As ol' Ben Franklin used to say, "If men were granted half their wishes they'd double their trouble." Even more interestingly, the force protects the water and the owner wants to drain it; too bad for everyone nearby.
   
   2. The University: An unlikely cult has awakened a powerful force that seems to be the embodiment of the university itself
   
   3. Swamp Indian Hollow: An undertaker makes "puppets" out of dead bodies, swamp grass, and stuff. The puppets live. What I find particularly creepy is that they don't even have enough will to be malicious (like zombies); they hide and wait. Neither does their creator have any plan for global domination; he just can't stop making the puppets. Oh yeah, and you can "wear" the puppets too, to effectively be one. That's pretty messed up right there.
   
   4. The Village Secret. There really is a fountain of youth; it cures what ails ya and you can live a long, long time that way. Why haven't we heard about it yet? Because of the village.
   
   5. The Statue of Weeping Alice: Someone discovers that when you make a sacrifice to the statue in the town square, good things happen. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the good. If you've ever met human beings in a crowd, you know where this is going. The fun part is where do you draw the line
   
   6. Hillcrest Center for Assited Living: Lotsa old people = lotsa secrets. Some people take secrets to their grave; this is your last chance to catch them before they do.
   
   7. The Whispering Wood: An arboreal Bermuda Triangle, except you need to be BAD to get there. And once you are, you ... change ... to show what kind of bad you are.
   
   8. The Junkyard: sort of a mechanical version of #6.
   
   9. The Empty Room: It's not really empty if you're stuck there, huh? For this mystery, I'd rather cut away all the fluff to get to the bright, shiny core: you're trapped in an empty room, you don't know how you got there, and you don't know how to get out. That's good enough for me.

2 comments about Dark Sun: Dragon Kings (2nd Edition).

1. This is an alright item- it goes into detail on how to manage super high level (20-30) DS characters. The most useful and interesting are the sections Dragon Kings and Avengions (with 10th level spells), and least useful are the sections on high level warrior classes and rogues. The guidelines for high level clerics are slightly disappointing- detailing transformation into elementals, and something even less interesting for druid characters.
   
   Aside from the lack of truly inspiring content, this is a nice hardcover book. I'd recommend it more for the DS afficionado or collector than someone looking for a new campaign resource.



2. In my Brother Aarons game is was a importan product. As our PC's became more powerful we all used the diffent sections of the book. It made his Dark Sun Game one of the best games I have ever played in. So I highly recommend this Book. Was going to use it in my darksun game but we never got that high. To bad was looking forward having the PC's be pretty much all powerful which can happen really easy if you use this product.

5 comments about *OP Mage: The Ascension 2nd Ed (Mage).

1. yes, I gave it five stars, and I will get to the why. But I do believe, like other reviewers, that this game might not suit everybody, and it is certainly not easy to either explain nor play without running into some quite peculiar pitfalls. I started out with RPGs when I was 12. I have read, played and "directed" at least 10 different RPG systems. Fantasy, star wars, star trek, marvel superheores (anyone whot thinks I was waaay to deep into it is absolutely RIGHT, I was positively addicted). I even wrote a short monthly column on RPGs for an "alternative culture" magazine for a while. So when my best friend and companion in roleplaying introduced me to White Wolf games (with a copy of Mage as a birthday present), I was openly distrustful. (Mages with computers? you gotta be kidding me!). However, I overcame my first impression and read it, read it and re-read it. I was hooked! What was going on with this game was REAL MAGIC! All the other RPGs I have played and directed have the same problem: magic is a static thing, confined to the stereotypes which are known by all: wizened old men, reading out of musty old books, recipes including bat dung and frog eyes. Interminable list of spells, some of them useless, some inaccessible until the characters were incredibly powerful already, and the eternal problem of mages being weak and useless once their spells were spent. Mage: the Ascension is my favorite RPG (out of, like I've mentioned, many others I've met and struggled with for a while). But, it's not for everyone. It's not a game you can throw at the players out of the blue. It's a challenging game for the Storyteller. Yes, it's White Wolf as far as the basic system is concerned, but the Storyteller must do extensive homework ,and at least skim some of the reference works and recommended further readings given by the authors (some of which, BTW, are very good). Otherwise any chronicle will look and sound bland. I agree with other reviewers in that the designers reach out for much and leave a lot of spaces and gaps: I believe this to be intentional. The flexibility implied by a game where reality is "up for grabs" does not allow any hard-and-fast rules regarding the nature of the stories or the possibilities of what the players might do. For example: the Technocracy's struggle can (in my opinion) be seen as equally "noble" than the one from the traditions, in that they can be understood as seeing themselves as protectors of humankind from "what's out there". They can also be insane megalomaniacs out for world domination, will ye or nay ye, but it's another thing the Storyteller must decide beforehand. The Traditions are another kettle of fish: in my opinion they are more guidelines than models to build characters upon. For example: the Akashic Brotherhood is way too big, attempting to encompass many different real-world beliefs in one page of description. Again in my opinion, an Akashic can be fashioned after Indian yogis or Tibetan ascetics just as they can be made to look and act like your regular action-film martial arts master. I tell my players not to delude themselves into thinking that all Akashics are bald, and assume kung-fu stances, and that not all Dreamspeakers wear loincloths and beat drums. The Avatar is another thing that most people I know who've played Mage seem not to understand. It's a great tool for the players to relate to their character and for Storytellers to keep the pace of the story in moments when the players seem to lose track of everything that's going on under their noses, but, again, if the Storyteller is not consistent with the Avatar thing, it either gets left out altogether, or the players see through it and cry foul when the Storyteller turns their Avatars on them. As for the system: I believe it to be a blessing, through and through. White Wolf's system really lets you forgo dozens o dice rolls, and its by far more "realistic" than any other RPG system in my experience. All the White Wolf books insist on it: tell stories first, roll dice only if it helps the story. Because, despite the occassional confusion in interpreting this or that (or finding stuff in the index: I agree, it's dreadful), can anybody deny that a magic system like this would be flat-out impossible to run with any other set of RPG rules? It's a great game, folks, but in order for it to be truly enjoyable and all that it can be, it does require more careful attention and input than other RPGs. Take the contents of this book as GUIDELINES, to be greatly expanded upon, and more than any other RPG let a lot of you into it. Do not be afraid to innovate, to discard what you don't like, and I venture to say that it will prove an unprecedented, exciting experience for all RPG enthusiasts, players and gamemasters alike.



2. Forget Revised, this is what the game is really about. A generic setting in which you can launch a game in any time, any where, with any who. The revisions made from visionary-but-glitchy First edition make it much clearer and smoother to run.

   Has everything you need to start an Ascension War chronicle (whether you want to get involved in the War or not is another matter), including details on the Technocracy, governments, secret organisations, the Umbra, the Digital Web, and a little on history.

   Magick is appropriately powerful, and the game flows much more than the "crunchier" games like Vampire or Werewolf. It's a harder game than those, requiring more in the way of maturity and intelligence, but far more rewarding. And you don't have to play some kind of freaky monster.




3. Let's face it, in the World of Darkness, hope is all too rare. Vampires are abberations of the natural order whose agelessness serves only to illustrate the beauty of death. Werewolves are fighting a losing battle against the Wyrm, the spirit of active destruction. Wraiths are dead souls wishing for Oblivion. Hunters are angsty mortals with nary a clue about their benefactors' identities ... but they kill the Outsiders anyway. (Changelings I don't know, sorry.)

   And among all this chaos ... the Mage stands tall, looking to Ascend.

   Oh, it's not all fuzzy bunnies, being a Mage. There's pain, and death, and the rest of the World of Darkness to contend with. But Mages have something to fight for other than survival. They have ideals. (Perhaps morbid ideals, but nobody ever said morbid is wrong ...) They have dreams. And, in the World of Darkness as in our own world, the perception of reality shapes reality itself. (Okay, I play too many Malkavians in Vampire. So sue me.) This is what it means to be a Mage.

   It would take far more space than I have here to explain the worldview behind Mage. Suffice it to say that Mage (at least Second Edition) is positive in outlook, with a scope that encourages the imagination. This setting focuses on wonder, pain, and Ascension to a higher state. The group Storyteller will either love this game or hate it: love because of the openness of a magic system that's actually -realistic- (okay, you Christians are probably laughing at me now - oh well), or hatred because you've just spent twenty hours of preparation on Umbral Lords and now your players just want to use the spirit world to break into a Technocracy stronghold.

   When I read this book for the first time, it was almost a spiritual experience. This is what a magical RPG is supposed to be like, in my view. However, hack-n-slashers can wreak havock on the system, mainly through over-use of Forces. I find that taking Forces away entirely is the best way to deal with this nuisance ... although with a group of powermongers, perhaps Werewolf would be a better game for you.

   Warning: Revised Mage takes all the wonder and hope out of the setting and leaves you with the same old gloom and croon of the rest of the World of Darkness. The developers certainly did a wonderful job of making sure that the backstory fit the rest of the WoD, but I'm rather sorry to see hope go. (Life is painful enough without vicarously living through a rotting pile of bones, IMHO.) So, I proudly recommend Mage: The Ascension Second Edition to the Real Roleplayers and Loonies out there, Revised Mage to the Real Men among you (heaven help us all), and Harvard to the Munchkins that exist like worms at the heart of every gaming group...




4. I really do wish they'd reprint it! Mage 2nd edition has potential! Stories can *happen* in it! It's not a bunch of gaming execs trying to squeeze a few bucks out of Vampire and Werewolf players so they can have stupid little duels to prove which kind of supernatural PC is tougher, unlike some more recent stuff! Mage 2nd edition is the *total* modern fantasy game!



5. This is the best game in White Wolf's game universe. I have never played a game with so many possibilities. This book is the core rulebook for Mage the Ascension Second Edition. The book contains everything you need to understand the Mage universe. Every aspect of the game is elaborated on fully or contains enough information for you to come up with the rest of the details. The book focuses on the Traditions but there is also a good amount of information on the Technocratic Union, Marauders, and Nephandi for you to use. The worlds beyond the Gauntlet and Horizon are also touched on along with sample umbrood. With this book any game is possible. You want to play a fireball-chucking mage? No problem. How about a hacker from the Matrix? There's a Tradition available just for that. Want to play a tough martial artist who can catch bullets? There are rules for that too. This is a great book that can stand alone without supplements, unlike its revised edition.

No comments about Chilling Tales (Ravenloft Adventure).

3 comments about Wildcats Version 3.0: Brand Building.

1. When Jim Lee and Brandon Choi started WildC.A.T.s 10 or so years ago, I don't think this is the direction they would have planned. However, since Joe Casey has gotten ahold of this book, he has turned it ino one of the most complex, underhanded, and compelling comics on the shelves today.

   Jack Marlowe runs the Halo corporation. He has hundreds of thousands of employess around the world, not the least of which are Grifter, aka Cole Cash, Jack's one time teammate and former mercenary, and Agent Wax, a man who has remarkable powers of hypnotism and is member of an organization that investigates superhero crimes. Together, they set out to wage "a benevolent war for the future," as Jack calls it, buying out the competition and culling corrupt businesses for the market. Halo's number one invention - a battery that lasts forever - has taken the market by storm, rendering other batteries obsolete.

   However, not everyone is playing alone to Jack's tune: C.C. Redozzo is having troubles with the F.B.I., and she'll use Grifter, Wax, and Jack Marlowe to accomplish her end. What happens when she manipulates Grifter into fighting a man that can't be killed? How will it affect Jack's plans?

   Mixing corporate intrigue, skewed morality, and complicated characters, Wildcats 3.0 is a comic that asks the question, "What does a superhero do when there's no one to punch?". This first trade paperback introduces you to the characters and their situations, and is the perfect jumping on point for anyone interested in intelligent, mature comics.




2. I remember buying my first Wildc.a.t.s comic book back when I was a kid. Never did I think that this story would grow up just as I did. I had ordered it from my local comic book store and waited over a month for its arrival, but if I had bought it off of Amazon, it probably would have reached me sooner. I was even able to get volume 2 but refused to read it until I got this into my possession.
   Wow, did this story surpass my expectations of what it was going to be. You don't have to be familiar with all that has happened in this epic to be familiar with the story but if you are...good. This story is a beautifully written and drawn story that takes you into the objective of the hero, a former costumed super hero in his mission to bring the world together by building a brand. No way is this story hard to understand, I believe you don't have to be a business major to understand the true depth of this story. It is brilliant and by far one of the small jewels I have come to appreciate in my quest for fine graphic novel literature. If you're thinking about getting this book, get it. It is an idea so groundbreaking it is no surprise that it was overlooked by those who rate the validity of a comic books by there reinterpretation of modifying the cliché. This story is in no way a kid's game.



3. The short lived reinvention of the Wild Cats was unfortunately that, as it was certainly interesting.
   
   Spartan developing a corporation to take over and really annoy a lot of people, Grifter as the beaten up drill sergeant, and the series was cut off just as it was going along nicely.
   
   Definitely worth a look, this one.