5 comments about Vampire : The Masquerade (Revised Edition).

1. This is not a white wolf book, rather it is the conversion rules for people who are interested in playing vampire but not in learning a new system and who are already competent with the GURPS rules. If you are new to role playing and want to play a vampire then I suggest you find the world of darkness rules for this game as they are more expansive and complex.

   However, if you already know GURPS and are interested in playing a vampire then I strongly suggest this book. The rules are clearly laid out for people to read and understand. Though it is not a stand alone product, it's not trying to be. And it allows people who like WOD but who don't want to learn a new system to use a system they already know to play it.

   For those unfamiliar with vampire I'll do my best to give a rough over view. There are many different types of vampires known as Clans. Each clan has separate special powers which give them an edge up on one another. Some people find this system to be stereotype based, I have found, however, that the point is not to play a typical Brujah, Tremere, Venture, Lasombra or Toreador (just to name a few), but rather to create one who falls with in the lines of the clan but also is a unique individual. The Storyteller then guides the players though an advanture just like any other roleplaying game.

   As for the format of the book it is a bit confusing for those who aren't used to the way White Wolf sets up books. Unlike most WOD books, however, the index is surprising useful and can be used to find just about everything that is needed in the book. I do suggest the use of sticky notes for some sections as quick reference or your can write in the margins if you don't mind writing in books.

   One last thing for those with young children, Vampire is an intense rather dark game. It's not happy or light and fluffy. The plays are playing vampires who do kill people, and it is a horror based game. The book is dark and intense and probably not suitable for children under the age of 14.




2. I wasn't a vampire player at first in fact a freind and I were at each others throats for a while over the diferences between mage and vampire. but after taking a closer look at the two games I have come to realize that they coenside with each other quite well and are very easily mixed together.
   
   And as for the stupid assumptions of this Jonnhy traunt character he probably hasn't even played the system under a descent game master. His arguments are pethetic as well and heres why.
   
   
   1)you are of course going to run into a lot of gothic players. if he read the book then he would know that it says you are playing in the gothic punk world of darkness on page# 28 the paragraph labled in BIG BOLD LETERS stating "Gothic punk isperhaps the best way to describe the physical nature of the World of Darkness". So thus endeth that stupid assumption. I think I speek for all of Us Goths out there Christian Goth or not that this is definatly a Highly goth game and that this guy has just insulted the population of Goths.
   
   2) Munchkins, Power gamers, Rules lawers, and Dicers are all varyiants that the Game master should have to syphon through. I know this because I am A GM for vampire, Mage, Werewolf, Shadowrun, and heros unlimited. It even states in the GMs guide that the GM has to take care of that problem and Either remove them or deal with it. Note that comprimises are acceptable.
   
   3) This game is set for mature gamers not for beginners. This jonnhy guy really must of started with it and thought that its rules were to complex. Wrong the rule are simple. you just gotta be smart.
   
   So last Dont take any of the whining gibering of Jonnhy truant. BUY THIS BOOK. Oh yeah and Jonnhy be smarter than the equipment you opperate, or, in this case learn to read the whole book before you try to give a stupid opinion that has no good reasoning. can we say hollow?....... Come on I know you can do it. never mind.
   
   
   To the rest of you i leave this
   
   
   Life is short, But death is eternal.



3. This was the first version of Vampire that I played, and I absolutly love it. Yes, the dice is a little confusing, but as with all systems, it all comes down to how each individual player chooses to interact with the system. My favorite part of the system is the merit/flaw system that allows characters to have twice as much depth as some other systems.



4. A novel approach to the role playing game, that was quite successful, with a different feel, style and mechanism. Vampires are a popular theme, and this had more crossover appeal to more of the population it seemed than something like Dungeons and Dragons, so a definite breakthrough at the time this was produced.



5. Ok, here's the honest deal. Some people love this game above all others. Others hate it. There are few people in the middle ground. I am certainly in the middle on this one. I will play Vampire if I am invited to a game, but there have been multiple times when I was unsatisfied. Typically, I play Malkies or Setites. That comment right there will probably stop most hard-core Masquerade fans from reading the rest of this review, but these are the clans that interest me.
   
   Ok, on the mechanics. A storyteller, and even players, need to know the White Wolf D10 system pretty well to run any of their Storyteller games properly. This becomes more true with Vampire, because this is one of the few games with huge amounts of social powers to listen in on distant conversations, dominate another person's mind or make them love you, or even drive them mad with a glance. With perhaps the exception of Changling, no other White Wolf game requires so many roles in non-combat situations. I do consider this a weakness to some extent since it really does slow down game sessions considerably while the two parties roll, and inevitably counter-attack, and so forth. Frankly, it does seem like there is a roll for everything in Vampire, which is not really the case for many of White Wolf's other storyteller system games.
   
   On the plus side, this game has an amazing backstory. From the fall of man, and more specifically Cain, to modern nights, the history is great. It ties in things from actual history that make this stuff seem almost believable. The only problem I have with this is, to get most of that history you need to shell out some hard cash to get the supplement material. You can easily find yourself lost or just relying on another player on points of Vampire history and society most of the time. Some more development in the base book on this deep history and culture would be appreciated. That said, as long as the ST of your home game is aware of this information, you should be fine.
   
   A comment on the players of this game is needed. A number of reviews have been blasted because they discussed the players being goths or just in general complained about the players. It is a valid point, however. You can't play Vampire by yourself. That is called day-dreaming. Many of the players are devoted fans with deep knowledge of their clans' histories and can tell you all didn't want to know about them. This is not a real problem, but for a new player it can be very daunting. I was fortunate that my first game only had two such people, and one was the ST. If you are the only new player in the game, however, be afraid.
   
   I should also point out, since most of the negative reviews complain about LARPing, this is NOT the Vampire: the Masquerade LARP manual. Go look for Minds Eye Theatre stuff. This is the table top version. If you are more comfortable sitting around a table with your friends with chips and pizza somewhere, this is the version for you.
   
   This game is part of a larger world created by White Wolf. The meta-plot of the World of Darkness has many other games in it. If Vampire isn't your cup of suspiciously red and thick tea, but you enjoy the world or the system, try looking into the other games. Werewolf: the Apocalypse is great for combat oriented folk in defense of nature. Mage: the Ascension is a deep thinking look at subjective reality. Changling: the Dreaming is a call to return imagination to the world. The list goes on. White Wolf's games are not like D&D or some other RPGs. What game you play gives your character preset goals. There are stereotypes, especially in Vampire, to play with. If you haven't tried one of these games yet, Vampire is a good starting place, but if pseudo-political drama-queen blood-suckers ain't your style, move on down the list until you find something you love.

5 comments about Cityscape (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement).

1. this book is great for guilds and city information allows you to wip up a city in no time.



2. Like Dungeonscape, this book is just about useless. Nothing in it is new save for a few things nobody will use. I haven't used it since I got it the day it came out. A waste of shelf space. Anyone want to buy mine?



3. As mentioned in other reviews, this is a DMs resource. This is not the book to come to if you want more base classes or advice on how to adventure in a city. As with all reviews, choose this based on what you know. If you are inexperienced and need advice on how to run urban campaigns, or if you have run urban campaigns before and merely need more ideas this is the perfect book to come to. It presents new and interesting feats, NPC prestige classes, and tips for running different types of urban settings.
   
   In this book you can find advice for:
   Flying cities
   Race-based cities
   Specific environment based cities
   Different Locales within the city
   ...and much more along those lines
   
   I am preparing for a campaign and this book is exactly what I needed. I have several years of experiance DMing and find that this and Dungeonscape both provide interesting ideas. Keep it up Wizards!



4. This product is a DM resource, despite the description. I didn't need help with rules. I wanted help conjuring up urban details to treat my players to. I wanted lists of buildings, fun encounters, maps, common city locations, business and NPC names--and tips to keep them all straight. The book offered that, but it also offered useless detailed rules, feats, classes and magic.



5. Well, in my personal opinion, DnD is not a urban game, so i don't like this book. The artwork is really good, but the game mechanics are poor, we have a few new feats, prestige classes and spells. The rules for city construction are kinda of complicated and burocratic. With the 4ed. this is a dead supplement, a collector's item only.

No comments about The Clone Wars Starter: A Star Wars Miniatures Game Starter (Star Wars Miniatures Product).

5 comments about Rules Compendium (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying).

1. This book is nicely priced at Amazon,but it ends up being another book you will carry-especially for an already heavy laden DM.It is a useful tool for the game table and it explains many rules quite efficiently,and even adds some usable twist to existing rules.
   I would recommend this book more for a helpful player character at the gaming table,it is useful-but for a Dm it is just another book because it doesn't eliminate the need for any others.



2. This is s great book to have if you want all the rules in one place!
   It it also a must if you do not want to switch to 4th Edition D&D.
   
   The only problem is sometimes the rule you are looking for is not where you would expect it, but that is overcome with use.
   
   All in all a solid book that will see lots of use by any 3.5 D&D gamer.



3. The Rules Compendium adds little new material apart from the design notes from some D&D writers. I found that commentary interesting and worthwhile. The meat of the book itself, however, is a compilation of several years of rules development stretched out over dozens of products. The Rules Compendium condenses and organizes the rules of the game into a useful format. As an in-game reference, it is nearly complete, incorporating not only the material from the PHB and DMG but also rules such as swift and immediate actions added by later products.
   
   The only warning I would make is that there is essentially nothing new in this book. It is useful whether someone has just a few books and would like all the rules in one place or they have lots of books and do not want to hunt through them to find something specific. If you are running an active D&D game, I can strongly recommend it, but it is not going to offer much to the casual player or someone looking for inspiration.



4. This is absolutely necessary if u want to stay in 3.5. The text is clear and able to solve all your doubts of the 3.5 rules. The information is well organized and the flavor texts explain how the autors think the rules. The illustrations came for all other 3.5 books, so i'll find good and bad ones. If u don't care about the 4ed. or simply prefer the 3.5 rules, this is a must have item on your table, it helps a lot, with quick reference guide and clear explains about some problematics of the game.



5. A must have for those who still play D&D 3.5. All the rules of the game in one book. Uptaded rules with errata.

No comments about Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media.

5 comments about Baseball Hacks: Tips & Tools for Analyzing and Winning with Statistics (Hacks).

1. I recently purchased this book hoping to be able to apply some of my recent work-related statistics training to baseball stats. It promises step-by-step instructions that 'anyone' can follow. While the instructions are step-by-step, if you have no computer experience outside of Windows (like me) you will almost certainly be frustrated very early on.
   
   My first hiccup was in hack #10, step 4, in which the author jumps to using Unix commands without mentioning that fact. Fortunately, I have a friend familiar with both Unix and MySQL who was able to get me through that particular hack by installing a GUI and importing the files through it. For those who are stumped on that particular step, jump to hack #18, install a GUI, and import the DataBank files as a script using the Query Editor.
   
   I haven't proceeded much farther in the book, largely because I can already see the frustration to come from fumbling my way through Perl. The author gives very rudimentary instructions in the language, followed by more 'easy to use' scripts. The problem is the scripts are based on filenames and information that is more than a year out of date. This will require editing the scripts, something a programming illiterate such as myself will find challenging at best.
   
   So after all these complaints, why did I still rate the book a 3? Because I'm trying to be fair. I've read through the rest of the book without trying to apply anything, and if you are at least familiar with MySQL, Unix, and Perl you'll probably get a lot out of it. The tools presented appear to be very powerful. Also, since I'm familiar with Access, the hacks for using it have been helpful. Unfortunately, the instructions in the book assume a basic level of programming knowledge on the part of the reader, despite the author's contention that they do not. If you can't tell a Unix prompt from a DOS prompt, this book is not the answer to your stat-processing prayers.



2. This book is uniquely geared toward the database-literate and technology-literate baseball fan. The author shows all kinds of ways to gather free baseball statistics over the Internet, load them into databases, and then to build reports and queries against them. If this sounds even vaguely interesting to you, this book will entertain you for hours - and it might help you with your fantasy baseball picks, too.
   
   The book contains 75 hacks to help you acquire and analyze baseball statistics. O'Reilly publishes a whole series of hacks books and in this context, a hack is basically a solution to a problem. It is an idea or piece of code that can be used to further your understanding and knowledge of baseball. If you follow the daily baseball box scores, review historical statistics, or play fantasy baseball, you will definitely enjoy these hacks.
   
   If you are a new baseball fan that likes the game but is befuddled by all the terms and statistics thrown around, Baseball Hacks can help. Even some long-term baseball fans don't understand things like slugging average, OPS, or DIPS. But Baseball Hacks explains them and how to derive them.
   
   If you are an open source proponent, and a baseball fan, you'll definitely want to take advantage of hack #10, which shows you how to get a MySQL database of player and team statistics. Rather use Microsoft Access? You'll want hack #9.
   
   Really. Baseball Hacks is a great book for the database/baseball nerd in all of us. If you are looking for a way to merge your profession with a hobby, look no further than picking up a copy of Baseball Hacks.



3. This book takes a fairly different approach to baseball statistics. The author goes thru and explains most all of the newer statistics. The real meat of this work is teaching the reader how to build his or her own data bases free of charge by importing information from various websites. My sense is that to really benefit from the data base aspects the reader must have a pretty good acumen for dealing with computer programing. Even though the author provides precise step by step help with codes. Still, I would say most baseball fans who enjoy statistics will benefit from this.



4. Baseball Hacks: Tips & Tools for Analyzing and Winning with Statistics (Hacks), which comes with download able scripts from the O'Reilly site, shows how to do SABR metrics like the big league analysts.
   
   If, like me, you wish to use only the free, or open source, programs on Linux, you are in for significant work. I could not get R, (the statistical analysis program much like S-Plus,) to work under Ubuntu. I was able to get it to work under the SuSE version of Linux. If exploring Baseball Statistics is like the Lewis and Clark expedition, Adler is your Pocohantuas!
   
   What satisfaction comes from comparing baseball intuition with computerized analysis of the vast databases of baseball statistics! The American economy would be much more efficient if lessons from Baseball Hacks were applied to enterprise management.



5. You have to be a programmer to do much with the code in this book. There is no robust system to download you can just run. However, it goes beyond programming and has a lot of explanations of advanced baseball statistics. Mostly historical statistics such as "Was Barry Bond's better then Babe Ruth and how do we use statistics to tell?". The world could stand to have a few more books involving baseball and programming.

No comments about Exalted 2: The Compass of Terrestrial Directions 3 - The East.

5 comments about Races of Stone (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying Supplement).

1. This is a somewhat typical WOC title. It tries to flesh out something and bring something new to the table. It focuses on 2 main D&D races and introduces a 3rd. You get dwarves, gnomes and the new goliaths.
   
   While not a huge fan of dwarves or gnomes, it was nice to see a newly fleshed out race. The sections are formulaic, as most WOC books are. There sections on life, habitat, more gods for an already crowded pantheon. But face it, everybody in a pantheistic universe, is going to have their own god of something. However a little gem appears in there, a dwarven language section. It's only a page long, column style, with one work and its equivolent. Could be more, but I've learned to take what I can get.
   
   I did enjoy the section on the goliaths. I like them. It was a nice change from the established races, complete with the same sections as dwarves and gnomes. I just felt as it was new and not something we've read before it had a fresh perspective. It gives a goo frame work on how they work, live, play (include game mechanics for playing goatball) and move around as a good nomadic people do. The sample settlements helped me as I was able to have a nice village to stumble into for my game and a larger place down the way to send them to.
   
   Unfortunately the monster's section was too sparse. A lot more could've gone in there as most places of stone, are usually mountains. Although I found the dire eagles a nice toy to pair with a hill giant attack.
   
   There are sections on prestige classes as usual. I didn't find any to grab my interest, nothing I'd wanted to put a few levels of my regular classes off for. The magic items didn't interest me too much either I'm afraid. It happens.
   
   Overall, it's a useful book. If you can, borrow and use it, it'll probably be better that way.



2. This book is pretty pathetic. There are a few feats and a few prestige classes I might use in it, but its mostly a waste of time. The only thing I think that stands out for me are the racial substitution classes. The new race, the Goliath (can anyone think of a better name? Yeah, just about anyone could)is a waste of time.
   I've seen where you can get all three of the race books in one box set. I can't imagine the shock of the buyer after picking up these three books and realizing how much money he wasted. I bought this one used for $7, so I figure its worth that much for the pictures and little I'll use.



3. Races of Stone brings insight into the lives and social structures of dwarves and gnomes. It also offers the same insight new races such as the goliaths that are great for pcs and npcs alike. This book offers great information for both players and DMs.



4. There are some neat feats and build variations in this book. I also like the in depth description of dwarven culture. Oh, I'm sure the gnome and goliath are good too, I just haven't read them yet.



5. I bought this a as a gift for my brother in law and he absolutely loved it!

5 comments about Player's Handbook: Core Rulebook I (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.0 Fantasy Roleplaying).

1. I played RPGs for 20 years. I liked them, i liked the people I played with and then i stopped. Nothing interested me after a while until 3E. I thought this was going to turn it all around again. Boy was i wrong.

   The ideas behind this haphazard collection of material is sound. The problem is, the rules do not survive under scrutiny. Balance seems to have been thrown out the window in exchange for the 'cool' factor. If you want to make a cartoon charavter out of your imaginary alter ego, this is the game for you I think.

   The skill and feat system is broken so badly that you probably can't fix it without rewriting the rules. The skills are restrictive by class - making absolutely no sense at all. Afterall, you're character wasn't born this class or that. Class seemes to have become your defining trait more than your personality. Trying to make a character a certain way is actually tougher in 3E as you have numerous skill restrictions. In short, Fighters get paltry skills and Rogues get the mother load. everyone else gets to fill in in-between.
   Rangers are useless, becoming simply lightly armored fighters with a few useless special abilities, little opportunity for growth and a dazzlingly undazzling array of spells.
   Sorcerers are similiarly built, with a few extra spells to cast per day than wizards, but FAR fewer to pick from and absolutely no class abilities that the wizard gets to choose from.
   The old moronic +1 to this ability -1 to taht rules are still in place for non human characters, with the elf that lives 750 years somehow being more frail than you average human. By the same token, dawrves get a nice constitution bonus but are uncharismatic. Why? Well because they had to pick an ability and charisma looked like a good one......
   You get to multiclass more easily according to 3E lovers. You needn't split your XP between classes, you simply take a level of any class any time you earn enough experience points to go up a level. Wanna be a fighter/paladin? GO for it. The only probalem is, it is almost useless to multiclass as a spell caster. With a level limit of 20 (which is fine IMHO) you mayonly have a TOTAL of 20 levels all classes included. That's great, but if you take 15 levels of Wizard and 5 levels of Rogue, you are going to be one disappointed mage when you realize you missed out on the best spells in the game in exchange for some paltry lock picking ability. To be fair, multi classing any of the fighter classes works just fine.
   On the topic of levels, you should reach 20th after anout 35-45 game sessions if you follow their experience charts. WAY too much XP is awarded and in addition, all classes use the same experience point table. It seem that someone decided that a 20th level paladin and a 20th level bard were pretty evenly matched. I think we all know better.
   Finally, the comabt system - which most gamers agree is the most tedious and time consuming part of any game - has been dragged out with so many extra and optional rules, that it takes forever to resolve the simplist battle. Some may applaud the detail, but the game has taken a step back toward the old CHAINMAIL table top battle rule srather than advancing as a ROLEplaying game.
   With a chartr included for every detail in the game, this book has taken all of the imagination out of your hands, and given you a rule to cover it. 3E Roleplaying is actually more ROLLplaying, and after a while, that just gets tedious.
   Well aware that the game is a mess, WoTC is releasing 3.5 later this summer to suck a few hundred dollars more out of your wallets.
   I beg you consider what you might be getting before flushing your money down this over simplified, over hyped toilet of an RPG. Go play Vampire or Werewolf - at least they don;t charge you $... to insult your intelligence by including a chart for your eye color.




2. D&D 3E is a massive improvement over previous editions in a number of ways ... D&D has finally embraced skills, a big plus; a lot of the arbitrary and annoying restrictions of previous editions have been eliminated; the whole thing has been streamlined greatly at a fundamental level (there is still a lot of rules grit - attacks of opportunity anyone? - but this has always been the case, and by using a much cleaner and less arbitrary basic system, the game is now more intuitive).

   The problem with D&D 3e is that it requires a *lot* of work on the part of the gamemaster. This is not a ready-to-play game by any stretch, unlike WotC's Star Wars d20, say. You have to go to some lengths to create a campaign setting, and realistically you're going to have to throw some of those arbitrary restriction back in. Why? Because D&D 3e has some significant imbalances, and you're likely to be playing with one player who is going to be looking for rules loopholes to create an unbalanced character. A big culprit here is the multi-classing combined with the fact that many classes are front-loaded with a lot of cool abilities at first level, so it's not unusual to find characters with 3 or 4 classes so they can cherry-pick low-level abilities from each. This is not only aestetically displeasing and unbalancing, but makes it impossible to keep a coherent character vision. The prestige classes are a cool and interesting feature, but are for the most part egregiously broken and, in the words of a fellow-player, "pure munchkinism".

   Another complaint of mine about the system is that characters are simply too hard to make distinctive; the only real tool you have is this problematic multi-classing, and that is at best a blunt instrument. The Feats are a very cool concept, but not well-balanced with respect to each other so many will simply never show up (and characters who are not Fighters and Wizards acquire them far too slowly to be of much use in distinguishing characters). Characters of some classes (notably Paladins, Monks, Druids, and Barbarians) are going to be essentially indistuinguishable from each other - an 8th level Monk is pretty much an 8th level Monk, and the variance will be quite small. I find the list of which skills can be bought by which classes unduly restrictive and occasionally bordering on the nonsensical. The restrictiveness of the class sytem, and the stereotyped nature of the classes and lack of advancement choices, is to my mind the most significant failing of D&D 3e. Some classes are now almost acceptably flexible: the Fighter has a huge number of choices with all their bonus feats, even if the basic class concept of a heavily armed and armored fighting machine can't be fundamentally altered; Wizards of course have a massive spell list, and can specialise in various schools; Clerics now can pick from a dozen or so dieties, all of which serve to flavor the class; and Rogues have immense numbers of skill points and a wide variety of skills. But if you want somthing a little more specific or flavorful, you're stuck with cookie-cutter classes.

   Anyway, from a pure systems standpoint, the d20 system is fundamentally a good one, but from a pure gaming perspective it has been done better by other games. I actually like Wizard's Star Wars game better, as it addresses many of the problems I've mentioned here; but that doesn't help you much if you hanker for heroic fantasy. D&D 3e is cool, better than previous editions (often significantly), and is popular because it is so open-ended. It has rules for everthing, and a bazillion skills, feats, spells, monsters, magic items, etc. - everybody is going to find a cool idea in here somewhere that they're ready to run with. All those options don't always work together, though, and the choices are sometimes odd, so be aware that the gamemaster is going to have to do some work for D&D 3e to be truly robust.




3. This book for most people is the only book you will ever need for Dungeons & Dragons. While there are many more accesories expanding the game, This is the ancor, and the only book needed for a player. It includes all of the Races, Classes, Spells, Feats, and Items you need to make and run a Charactor.
   The best art of this book is that not only does it list all the things you need to know, it explains in full detail how all things are related to each other. If read like a book, (front to back not just paging for specifics) It spells out what you need, need to do, and how to. You start with the abilities, go into races, classes, and then skills, and items. Finsihing with spells, and feats.
   Over all, i would rae this 5, because of what it offers, and its necesity to the game it serves. i recomend you buy it, even if you dont buy it here.



4. Woc has done it again. They have released another editon, and it is supearior. Edition 3.5 is very like third (Hence the .5), but realy cleans up the classes and makes things more balanced. This book is good, but the new Players Handbook 3.5 Edition just blows it out of the water. They tweaked all that needed tweeking, and left the good stuff there. Toss your third Edition and go buy 3.5!



5. I wouldn't listen to anyone that claims the "new and improved" 3.5 is any bit "new and improved".

   3.0 is truly the right blend of D&D tradition and sound game mechanics. 3.5 is a pile of garbage house-rules for actual D&D crafted by a new batch of "limited" designer minds.

   This book is D&D 3rd edition, no other.

5 comments about Imperial Munitorum Manual (Warhammer 40, 000).

1. Not a bad product, but really not something anyone who does Warhammer 40K needs or would really want, unless you are a fanatic. I probably will not keep it.



2. The munitorium manual, written in the style of an army field manual, is a dossier of the history of the Guard and the Imperial Army, and includes decent descriptions of a Guardsmans equipment and weaponry. Its a nice addition for fluff fanatics, and a good intro to the IG universe if you have a friend whos interested in playing a Guard in the new 40k RPG. Aside from those two niche groups, this book won't find much purchase anywhere else. The paperwork section and crimes and punishments are also entertaining.



3. This was a fun little book, a great companion for the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer but I'm deducting stars because it lacked a coherent and authentic narrative voice. While much of it was as offious as I would have expected, some of it had the wrong tone for a Departmento Munitorum bureaucrat. One minute it would be providing a dispassionate run down of impossibly harsh punishments for the slightest infraction and the next talking about something completely unofficial that simply would not have made it into the final text (and would probably have resulted in one or more of the punishments previously described being performed on the author himself). The metals section was the worst with this.
   
   Adding the "inside baseball" comments by way of marginalia (presumably added by an Imperial Guard supply officer with less respect for the rules laid out in the main text than the author of that main text) would have improved the authenticity of the book.
   
   If you liked the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifitng Primer or just can't get enough Warhammer 40k fluff (and those categories almost certainly fully overlap) pick this up. There's no reason to buy it otherwise.



4. Every now and then a W40K novel mentions the manuals. Normally it is during a narration, where Readers see (or "hear") an officer's thoughts as s/he dwells on duties or regulations. But have you ever stopped to wonder exactly what was in those manuals? Better yet, did you ever wish you could actually have one of them? Here is your chance. This is the "revised edition of the first published 945.M41". It begins with a preface by Seward Rosencraz, Chancellor of the Estate Imperium, followed by a Logistical Officer's Chain of Command. The contents of this manual, in my own words, are as follow:
   
   Part One - History and procedures.
   
   Part Two - Regiments, Raising and Structure, Supply Needs, Shipping of Equipment for the Cadian 91st (Sentinels).
   
   Part Three - Requesting of Equipment. (This section even mentions "the wholesome and nutritious" victuals supplied.)
   
   Part Four - Care and Maintenance of Equipment, Unauthorized Modifications, Procedures and Punishments for Laxity in Maintenance.
   
   Part Five - Identification of the items for front line troopers.
   
   Part Six - Identification of the weapons for front line troopers.
   
   Part Seven - Identification of the items issued to support platoons and squads.
   
   Part Eight - Identification of the items issued to senior officers and specialist personnel.
   
   Part Nine - A selection of forms for the many and varied situations likely to arise and how to deal with them.
   
   Of course, no Imperial manual would be complete without some extra sections to inform troopers about famous people (a few paintings are illustrated), badges and insignia (each clearly shown and told why there are given to select heroes), and even the guidelines for calling in a fire mission. More than once the manual stresses that the maps enclosed must not fall into unauthorized hands, so soldiers (uh, readers) must keep this manual safe. And above all remember the motto of the Departmento Munitorum: "Only the awkward question; only the foolish ask twice."
   
   ***** I really enjoy how realistic the author, Graham McNeill, made this manual. I would not be surprised at all to learn that most W40K authors keep this gem close by as they create their stories, for quick and easy reference. Littered throughout the manual are the quotes all W40K fans know by heart (and, I admit, use in conversations with family members and friends in the military) such as: "Ammunition isn't free - make your shots count!" Even the texture, color, and shape of the manual are realistic. (So much so that if you are in the military and have this in your locker, at first [and second] glance it looks like it belongs there.) Outstanding! *****
   
   Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.



5. I just got mine today (I was pleasantly surprised, it arrived five days early), and I've already read through it. It's a wonderfully written book, Graham McNeil is probably the best WH40K author out there. The garish, arrogent, over-the-top writing style is a perfect fit for the similarly styled Imperium of Man, and the pictures and codes add to the realism of a real requisition booklet. I'll be adding this to my collection of great WH40K books, and would encourage other avid fans to do the same!