D20 Rules Options - Volume 1 is a 24-page PDF (21 after cover and OGL) for D20 Modern / OGL 3.5 written by Brian Joseph Baker and published by Stardust Publications Inc. This product “of D20 Rules Options was created for those Games Masters that wanted to add a level of more realism into their respective games than the base D20 system typically allows.”

The layout is oddly organized in some places, while it is fairly clean the strange organization and lack of clear breaks between sections makes it difficult to read in places. There is no art only text. It lacks introduction, a table of contents or an index.

As it says, there are rules options here: An Action Point System to aid heroes. Massive Damage Rules including Damage Levels (which impose penalties) with hit locations and called shots, Gangrene as an aftereffect of massive damage, and Trauma Effects by damage type. Sort of a skill based spell-casting system. A Critical Failure system for combat (fumbles anyone?). An outline of a revised Armor Class/Damage Reduction system. A set of Experience Point rewards (and penalties!) for low, mid and high level games.

These read like a set of house rules and a set of house rules designed to be explained by the GM of the game for there is no discussion here of why you might wish to use these rules, what effects they are likely to have on a campaign when used or even examples of how they have been used by the author. They are just tossed out there with no context and no support. The rules are not useless, there are interested ideas in there, but they are nearly so and to use them effectively in a campaign would require considerable work probably through trial and error in play.

Lastly, there is the price. This product given length and production value, should never have been priced above $2. Combined with the critique above, I have no choice but to give this the lowest possible rating.