Another setting but this one is quite a bit different. It is not fantasy. I have done a fair share of reviews on fantasy settings and read plenty more. A change of pace is always good. No orcs and goblins invading, no magic or gods to fear; just good old technology and people exploring the world they live in. With d20 Modern and d20 Future both out there for setting to be built from I am hoping to see more of these modern and futuristic settings.

Dawning Star is a futuristic setting by Blue Devil Games. These guys have done a few really good PDS and this is really the first big release from them. Dawning Star is a two hundred and eight page PDF. It is black and white but very well laid out and with some great art. The product has high production values and is very professional in look. The book is well book marked and comes with a great index something not usually seen in PDFs. The cover of the book is a separate PDF and is a really cool full color cover.

Dawning Star is a futuristic setting. Basically in the late 22nd century a large object is seen coming toward the Earth and people have to evacuate. One of the great big evacuation ships encounters an alien space platform that transports it with all of its crew and all of its cryogenically sleeping passengers thousands of light years away. There they find an inhabitable planet and start a new life. The planet does have some native intelligent life forms as do seemingly some other planets in the system. There are spaceship wrecks of a few different racial designs and ruins of a civilization long ago. The new plant has many new and interesting things for the humans to explore as the set up their new lives.

The Dawning Star Campaign setting is filled with a variety of different play style. It can have a very western feel as there are boom towns being set up and places of lawless activity. The settlers are going out into the world and away from the safety of the established government. There are other small forms of government people have set up and in many places the law of the land whoever has the power. The game can also have a very strong pulp feel. The ruins are deep and hold great secrets and bits of technology for people to discover and find. They can travel to unexplored areas and be the first people to brave these new and dangerous places. The game can be set up to be even more dangerous. The atmosphere can be a little more hostile allowing for equipment to breathe it. The aliens can be more mysterious and unknown allowing for a dark campaign style of unknown beings with impossible to understand motives. Lastly, the setting can emphasis the space side and be more space opera. There are other planets in the solar system to explore. The DM can also have other space fairing aliens from other places in the galaxy show up and just use this as one planet of hundreds the players can visit. The setting was specifically designed to be versatile and they succeeded on that very well.

The book starts off with a nice timeline of events. It starts with the after effects of some nasty global events on Earth and the discovery of the great rock that eventually kills the planet. It details the discovery of the planet Eos where this campaign setting takes place and through the many years of setting up a community and scientific endeavors to make the plant livable. The time of the players the humans have been there for a while though most where still in cryogenic sleep during a lot of the early ears.

There are plenty new mechanics in this book designed for the campaign setting as well as for sci fi campaigns. There are nineteen new talent trees presented here with at least three new ones for each of the six basic classes. There are thirteen new occupations, plenty of new uses for skills, lots of new feats, species classes, advanced classes, and prestige classes. Species classes are like the racial classes Unearthed Arcana and other books for the fantasy game have in them. They are just levels in one?s own race and one gain abilities suitable for that race. There are lot of new and interesting character options in this book that can easily be adapted to other d20 sci fi campaigns.

The game has lots of great intrigues, mysteries, options, and plenty of great adventure potential. However, when the curtain was drawn back and the secrets revealed I just was not that happy with the way it goes. Pretty much all the secrets of who the aliens are, what their relationships are , and what happened to them are spelled out in the book. This is not always a bad thing but for me I was just not that impressed with it. I am not going to give it away here but I was just hoping for something different. Like a movie that has great build up and great characters, but the end just does not live up to the rest of it. That is how I felt with this book. But unlike a movie the end and reasons can easily be molded and changed to fit the DM?s vision and one is not locked into the way it is presented here. And obviously, I do think there are plenty of people who will like it as is. It is well thought out and creative, just not what I wanted to have happen.

Aside from the reveal that did not like the book is really well done. Plenty of adventure ideas from exploring ruins, to alien technology, to dealing with survival and humanity await players and DMs in this book. This I do believe e is he first setting for d20 Future. Anyone looking for something to use with d20 Future has got a good product right here for them.

<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

This is an excellent little adventure that can dropped into any sci-fi campaign. The culprit in this adventure are pesky little nanites. If your campaign already has the tech level to create nanites, you're good to go. If not, you've got come up with the reason that nanites from a far more advanced tech are floating around. Either way, you can provide your players with a fun "Dawn of the Dead" style scenario in your sci-fi game. The town citizens are fairly well described, although there are no maps included of the town. Overall, a solid adventure, and at this price, it's well worth it.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Universally adaptable to any sci-fi setting.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I'd have liked a couple of maps of the town.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Good to see some development of a topic not that often mentioned in RPGs. This gives a very clear picture of the economic, military and political importance of mostly-fusion powered trains to the colony, as well as a good deal of entertaining and game-relevant physical detail. The military trains pack some heavy weapons that extend the vehicle weapon options of Dawning Star beyond just generic tanks.

If there was only the chance to do one NPC, I think the author made a good choice. There are at least 4 or 5 other characters that I'd like to see more of.

Editing is not brilliant and there's no artwork to speak of.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The back cover text of Blue Devil's Passages states ?the only Game Preperation of agreeable taste to all palates, and an excellent substitute for Cod-Liver oil.? The text goes on in a similar fashion, continuing to praise the game's ambiguous attributes using adjectives straight from a traveling snake-oil salesman's opening pitch. It concludes with testimonials from Robert Louis Stevenson and Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Any RPG game good enough for Lewis Carol is good enough for me, right?

Passages is a d20 (more accurately an OGL) RPG set in a world in which the great stories of the Victorian age were not mere works of fiction, but fantastic travelogues written by special men and women who had found a way to journey through an infinite parallel multiverse known as the Book Without End. These travelers, called Passengers, travel to worlds where they can match wits with Sherlock Holmes, set sail with Captain Hook, or help save a young Alice from the hungry fangs of Count Dracula. Players take on the role of one of the heroes of this world. Normal citizens of 19th century Earth who have learned to pierce the boundaries of the mundane and venture into the infinite.

The core system behind Passages is the familiar d20 system, although it has been altered in a number of ways. The principle difference is that only one die, the d20 itself, is ever used. Variables that usually rely on additional dice rolls are instead handled by preset numbers and degree of success. Weapon damage, for example, is based on the amount by which the attacker exceeds his opponent's defense roll (plus a handful of other factors). Many rules have been simplified or streamlined to fit the feel of the setting. Character creation has had almost all randomness stripped away, giving the player full control over the kind of PC he wants to make.

Passages positively shines with flavor. Since the game setting is based on the collective works of some of the most skilled and imaginative authors who ever put pen to paper, a worthy GM should find no shortage of inspiration. The designers have added to this by filling the PDF with wonderful art featuring both new works and period illustrations. In addition, there are fantastic quotes from such luminaries as Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling. Passages is very complete and looks very professional.

To help the GM set the proper scene, Passages contains a useful section detailing the Victorian era. Included is a timeline, a lexicon, and useful sidebars on such varied topics as phrenology and mesmerism. There is also information of the lifestyle, outlook, and interests of the Victorian people. There are adventure ideas aplenty as well as secret societies and GM advice.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Passages contains everything one needs to roleplay a group of extraordinary gentlemen (or ladies) in a Victorian era inspired earth that lies parallel to a multiverse of adventure. The writing is top-notch, and the various quotes and pieces of period art add to feel of the setting. While I've not extensively tested the modifications to the d20 system such as the new damage mechanic, the rules seem to achieve their goal.

As a complete package of rules, setting, and flavor, Passages is almost perfect. Its a top-notch, well-written book with good art, good mechanics, a clever idea to back it all up.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The PDF lacks bookmarks, which makes it unnecessarily slow to navigate. Also, I'd like to see more of the spread rules in actual play before I give them full approval. They seem to work well enough with some simple play testing, however, so I can't call this an actual flaw.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I am not impressed with this product. Of the 8 given species, 1 is not a close analog of a Terran species. Of the rest there is 1 salamander, 1 frog, 1 toad, 1 sea slug, 1 jellyfish, 1 shrimp and a leech.

Hopefully the next product on xenoforms will be of aliens.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Since I don't own Helios Rising, this psionic advanced class delivers for me what the blurb promises but not a drop more. edit: That may sound harsher than I intended. What there is, is well written and well integrated with the setting: the class background and sample NPCs give a strong idea of the class' role in velin society and the site description, though it contains no map or game description of the place's contents, is appropriate to its intended role in a campaign.

It contains neither description nor mechanics for the psionic reality of Red Truth, even the mechanics for mental damage that are a prerequisite for the class and feature of the special site included.

The class' psionic abilities are mostly informational and limited in advancement and it's not strong in other mechanics, so this is a roleplaying choice rather than a powerhouse.

Some mechanical questions: The Suppress Presence class ability seems over-complex. The escape detection power is listed twice, at both 3rd and 4th level.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

This was a very well put together product that only whets the appetite for more.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Daxion Arms is Blue Devil Games' third Terraformer supplement, which seeks to provide more material for their flagship setting, Dawning Star. Daxion Arms is a company that specializes in unique weaponry that its founder, Neil Pritchard, developed by using techniques he discovered by reverse-engineering alien artifacts on the planet of Eos.

This 14-page pdf details the history of Neil Pritchard and his mercenary relic-hunting group, the Freedom Band. It details how he came to found the company, and the steps he's taken to make it successful. Stats are provided for all of the major players in the company, and there is plenty of information on the new weapons that he has developed.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The uniqueness of the weapons is a nice touch that gives Daxion Arms its own footprint in the large setting of Dawning Star. Its mostly an attractive pdf (see below) and you get a lot of material for a pretty low price. There are also very few errors.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The largish font, coupled with the line-spacing and single-column layout make it look a tad bunched. A two-column layout with some boxes would help this product be more aesthetically pleasing.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

The Terraformer line of products basically provides more material for the Dawning Star campaign setting.

Bone Orchard Encounter, second product in the Terraformer series, brings a Dawn of the Dead feel to Dawning Star. This is an adventure set in the city of Red Hill. The characters will have to deal with the walking dead, brought back to "life" by rogue nanites.

The important locations and characters of Red Hill are fully described. This product also includes some new equipment, a new creature (nanite zombie, of course), and a new disease. There is also some quick info on how to best integrate this into Dawning Star (in or out of Red Hil) and in another science-fiction campaign settings.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Very creative, well-executed concept. This of course works best in the Dawning Star campaign setting, it can really be run in any system with a high enough progress level (nanites). <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Dawning Star: Helios Rising is a campaign book from Blue Devil Games. The zipped file weighs in at a massive 51.51 megabytes, containing two PDF files. The first is a small PDF file, just under 200 Kb, of the front and back covers of the book. The second file is the book itself, truly massive at just over 56 megabytes. At 540 pages, it really is just that huge.

The main file contains bookmarks, as well as a non-hyperlinked table of contents and index. The only color artwork is in the aforementioned PDF file of the covers. The main file, however, is swimming with black-and-white art. Borders of intricate design hug opposite sides of facing pages for virtually the entire book. Quite a few illustrations pop up, many of them scaled shots of various mecha, starships, and xenomorphs. Between these illustrations,

Dawning Star: Helios Rising is a companion product to Dawning Star: Quick Launch. While that world explored the human planet of Eos in the Helios solar system, this massive book focuses on the rest of the system, ignoring Eos totally in favor of everything else.

The Introduction to the book opens with a brief bit of framing fiction describing why humans from Eos would venture out to the other planets of the system. This flows naturally into a discussion of campaign models. Many of these are based on themes of exploring and establishing communication between planets. A quick overview of the history of the system is given, leading to discussion and tables of travel time between worlds, and of trading between planets (which affects things such as wealth checks).

Each of the next twelve chapters is dedicated to either a planet or major celestial grouping (such as Eos?s moons, or the Markin Asteroid Belt, etc). Each follows a similar pattern, giving brief framing fiction, followed by its information. This information consists of overviews of the world?s history, geography, climate, atmosphere, conditions, locations, relationships with other worlds, and more. Note that this isn?t all fluff material either, as game mechanics for various things (like the damage exposed characters take on cold planets) are given also.

Only after this information is given does each chapter then get into the crunch (game material) in earnest. Unlike other books, Helios Rising doesn?t group all of the new feats, equipment, creatures, etc., into one single location. Rather, each is segregated by world, appearing in the appropriate chapter. This is a brilliant technique that allows GMs to easily compartmentalize what belongs on what world, making it much easier to highlight the differences between various planets. The book then closes out with a few brief maps of some of the more important planets, followed by a seven-page index, two pages? worth of ads, and the OGL.

Altogether, Dawning Star: Helios Rising doesn?t just set the bar for a Future d20 sci-fi campaign; it defines it. Even with its humungous size, it?s packed with tremendous detail and overflowing with new rules and information, quite likely to the point where it?d take years to use it all in a campaign. For players and GMs looking to run a planet-hopping sci-fi campaign, you never need look anywhere else again: the Helios system is where you want to be. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Beyond the wealth of new materials and incredibly in-depth campaign information, I enjoyed how all of the new material was segregated by planet, helping to give each new world a distinctive feel.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: With the huge size of this book, and the plentiful artwork, the lack of a printer-friendly version is especially noticeable.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

"Dawning Star: Helios Rising" is a massive follow-up to Blue Devil Games' fantastic "Dawning Star: Operation Quick Launch" sourcebook, which debuted early last year. "Operation Quick Launch" was an introduction to the Dawning Star campaign setting, which was deliberately designed to take full advantage of d20 Modern and d20 Future. It also introduced the planet of Eos, which is a wholly realized campaign world in its own right. "Helios Rising" tremendously expands the Dawning Star campaign setting by fully detailing the REST of the Helios System.

This product is massive...540 pages long, with an uncompressed pdf size of 55.2 megabytes. Inside are 13 chapters, with chapter one housing the introduction and the following chapters cataloging either a planet or some other feature of the Helios System. Here is the chapter list, with a brief description of each:

1. Introduction - "How to Use This Book", history and setting info, campaign models, travel times between the planets, interplanetary trade rules, etc.

2. Markus Asteroid Belt - Irregularly spaced clumps of asteroids, burnt smooth by their proximity to Helios and with mysteries lurking beneath their surfaces.

3. Hephaestus - A hot, unhospitable planet that once held a massive prison inside its hollow body. Now, it is a pitch-black warzone.

4. Verdant - A bright planet with a deadly, corrosive atmosphere. Empty space stations circle the planet in high orbit, housing forgotten dangers.

5. C'thalk - A wild, jungle world inhabited by the fungal haimedians and the Empire of the reptilian Saurians, who command massive armies and fleets of starships, ready for conquest.

6. The Moons of Eos - Phaeton and Selene. One covered in a mysterious and potentially devastating black dust, and the other a terraformed world that will reveal much about the "advanced" Tentaari race.

7. Thres - A planet that was first terraformed and then used as an "incubator" for lifeforms transplanted from a dying world. Now over 5 races live on the planet, and war seems inevitable.

8. Hesperos - A storm-ridden gas giant many moons and space stations. Here lie the mechites, nearly AI androids who look for materials to rebuild Computer One, a massive computer housed within an asteroid in deep space.

9. Poseidon - The surface of this water world is covered in miles-deep ice. Its only inhabitants are the Ice Miner Robots, who were trapped on Poseidon long ago and now seek revenge on anyone they find.

10. Apollo - Another gas giant. The strange, tubular space stations orbiting this planet hold a strange group who could spell disaster for many in the Helios system.

11. Altas - The last planet in the Helios system, it housed the Star Confederation's massive galaxy-spanning gene seeding projects. It is now under control of the vaasi, who will use it for destruction.

12. Chronus Belt - A dense asteroid belt that houses the remains of the vaasi empire as they prepare to wipe out the races of the Helios system, thus ensuring the destruction of the last vestiges of the Star Confederation.

13. Gateway Station - Massive portals that allowed for faster-than-light travel by the Star Confederation, it is the only hope for reaching other systems.

Each of the chapters above has a wealth of information, such as: history, geography, climate, atmosphere, conditions, factions and federations, locations of interest, relations with other worlds, adventure ideas, species info (PC and NPC), NPCs and xenomorphs. Also dispersed throughout are new talent trees, occupations, skills, feats, species classes, advanced classes, prestige classes, psionics, equipment, weapons, armor, poisons, computers, cybernetics, genetic engineering, relics, vehicles, mecha, and starships. There are also interesting campaign ideas, like the Red Truth, the Great Sky Ark, the Star Harvester, the Star Confederation, its war with the Vaasi Empire, and a lot more. Finally, thereis an appendix with some planetary surface maps, a 7-page index, and the obligatory OGL stuff.

The various races and factions are fleshed out, and the interactions between each are thoroughly explained. The Star Confederation (and its connection to humans and the other races), the vaasi, the tentaari, and many other ideas in the Dawning Star campaign setting are explained in great detail as well. Basically this covers absolutely everything you need to know about the Helios system, expands upon the campaign information that was originally presented in "Operation Quick Launch", and adds a ton of extra flavor, adventure locales and opportunities for great roleplay.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: This product has got extremely high production values. From the great cover to the beautiful layout to the excellent writing and artwork, its obvious that this was a labor of love. Great care was taken in creating a sourcebook that can serve as a tool to support any number of campaign models. Blue Devil Games has been supporting this campaign setting with regular product releases, but this one ups the ante considerably with its amazingly high quality. The content is also well balanced, with nothing being grossly overpowered or overwhelming to the rest of the setting. Most importantly, its a blast to read, either as a game product or science fiction sourcebook.

With everything contained in this product, there is bound to be something interesting for everyone. I cannot recommend it enough.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The price at first seemed a bit high, but once I considered that most other publishers would have probably split this content into 15-20 separate pdfs, each costing $2.00 to $3.00 or more, it suddenly felt like a darn good value.

I did, however, experience lower back spasms after hauling it out of my printer. It broke the axle on muh truck, too.

Seriously, there is really nothing to dislike here. I'd wager that "Helios Rising" will rise to be an award-winning product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Not worth the $2-just a jumble of NPC stats crammed onto the pages. The weapons data was a couple entries too brief to be useful, and the 'Corp history' was both bland, and poorly-written.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Nothing<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Low production values, no useful data.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Poor<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Ripped Off<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Terraformer is a ezine that exists to round out the world of Dawning Star. The guys at Blue Devil games do an outstanding job with this, releasing high quality work which adds new crunch to the world, as well as providing detailed information and realistic NPCs. I highly recommend this product for anyone thinking about picking up Dawning Star, but it is also good for D20 Future in general.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Well rounded NPCs, numerous plot hooks in each product, lots of good crunch.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Interesting concept, good execution, a fine addition to the Dawningstar line. I also find the concept useful for other settings, sci-fi and fantasy.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is wonderful! I have started a campaign using the materials in it and my players are falling in love with the setting also. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Very plausible sci-fi. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a balanced and believable campaign setting. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It is a very excellent product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>