There's not enough good things to say about this book. The cost is low. The book is intuative. Most of all, the author is an amazing teacher. He's summarized everything about gaming into one book. Must have for any library, no matter what system you play.

brilliant map kit well worth the money.

various warpshell maps interior two levels

buggy as well with different colour schemes.

A superb supplement! Fixes many of the shortcomings in 5e, resulting in a more deadly, fast-paced, tension filled game. As an old 1e DM, there's a lot here to like. Awesome!

Runehammer is one of those content creators that you can rely on. 100%. Especially if you're looking for meaty, real-feeling experiences in the RPG world. HC mode gives you that grit, that dark tone you might have been looking for, but couldn't really describe with vanilla 5E. Now's your chance though.

Thank you for your hard work (and also, I've ordered ICRPG since I wanted to see a bigger picture of your ideas)

This is an excellent product. It is a fantasy adventure with horror themes, appropriate for Dungeons and Dragons and the like. I played through it using Tiny Dungeon 2E rules with an adult and three children.

The most impressive thing about it is the layout. For a GM, it is very easy to navigate. You won't get lost in this book; it's always easy to find what you need.

It looks beautiful, with evocative imagery. It even comes with separate image files you can show your players for particular rooms. (Wish it had a player-view of the outside of the castle without giving away the cavern structure, though!)

The adventure itself packs a lot of narrative in a small number of pages. The castle itself has many reasons to go there, many boss enemies, multiple factions, and so on. You can pick something appropriate for the characters/players, or give them choices. This one supplement can be used for several adventures. It is horrific, so be prepared for blood being drawn from corpses and the like.

I highly recommend this product. Well done!

I have tinkered and homebrewed extensively to produce hardcore/grimdark style games, and I think 5e hardcore mode hits on all the notes I've found important. Not only that, it works right out of the box to produce the game style I am looking for. DMs, save yourselves hours of work on homebrewing your own gritty rules and just buy this product. Either using it as a jump off point or implementing the entire thing verbatim, you will not regret it if you want a more hardcore 5e experience

I'm a fan of Runehammer games and this is really the first time I've felt like I wasted money on one of their products (or rather that it was entirely a donation to a great creator who I like a lot--but something I probably won't ever use).

What I expected was a mini wargame setting with some colorful armies with a few different kinds of units and maybe some general rules so I can take miniatures I own and stat them up to make my own armies.

What you get is a pretty threadbare generic system with movement measured in "pencils" and three different unit types that only differ by having a progressively bigger number of dice to roll for damage/hits required to kill them. Then for each kind of unit you get to pick a number of abilities off a two page list. There isn't any kind of balance to any of this, you're just encouraged to work together with the people you're playing with to figure out a way to make it fun for everyone. Exemplifying this mindset is a rule called the Emblem of Honor. You get to award this coin to your opponent if they do something cool in the game and it lets them reroll a roll. I like this idea of wargaming as a creative activity meant to be enjoyed rather than as a competative sport. The rules just don't seem to be substantive enough to really be worth the purchase--I can't see ever playing them.

Which brings me to the setting. I figured at the very least I'd get a neat setting with some different cool factions out of the purchace. The problem is they're all recycled from other products (mostly from ICRPG with the exception of the Xenothrax which are derived from XENO: Dead Zone -- which is basically just Aliens...not even reskinned Aliens, just the actual movie as a boardgame). So yeah, not really much there for me to get much use out of.

All and all, I'd call this one a loss. Which is a shame because I was really excited about it.

WAR | MAKER is very aptly named, as it is geared towards the DIY and Maker crowd. Do not expect miniatures rules along the lines of Combined Arms from GDW. This is not that. These rules will allow you to run fun battles that are only limited by your imagination. Whether modern conflicts, or cowboys vs aliens, fantasy, it will allow you to imagineer whatever you want. With that flexibility comes the DIY part of the formula though, you will be customizing and house ruling things for the scenarios.

The book gives you three examples, and the organization of the rules is very logical. The layout is well done too. I saw a couple of typo's but they are nothing that will confuse you as to the intended meaning. The dice system, the pencil movement system, and the abilities list are very usable and fun. This is something you can get a newb up to speed on quickly and have some fun. This is not Advanced Squad Leader! There are plenty of miniatures wargame rulesets for that kind of simulation millieu. A beer and pretzel miniatures wargame ruleset is just what I needed. You absolutely could take a bag of the army men that come with both sides, or cowboys and indians, and play a fun and rowdy session.

I am only sad that I didn't spring for the hardbound and only bought the pdf... it is that cool. I kind of liken it to the wargamers Kobolds Ate My Baby. It can be a serious or silly as you want. I already have plans for a Wizard of Oz war with flying monkey cavalry and lolly pop dwarves that use lolly pops as warhammers.

Love the concept of heavy story-telling and role-playing! If you like ICRPG and like tabletop wargames you will also want to check this out. Great ideas on how to conduct campaings ("wars") as a series of battles that actually make sense narratively.

The "simple" dice mechanic (only 50:50 dices, modifiers are done via rerolls) sounds fun. Need to playtest first. But as to be expected by Runehammer - you can use concepts of this book in all other systems as well.

The price for the pdf + dice stl + paper minis is more that justified. Great prodcut!

Throw off the yoke of oppressive rules systems that are more interested in rules and mechanics than actual story telling! True to form, Runehammer's new book is a starting point for you and your gaming partners to play narrative driven battles on the tabletop. As with other games, like ICRPG, this book is a starting point and asks its readers/players to use their imagination and do some DIY. If you want a simple, satisfying wargame this is for you. Roll dice, tell stories, make war.

This is a must buy for any RPG enthusiast. It has been said before in the previous reviews but this book is worth its weight in gold!. So concise and directly to the point. This book is jam packed full of solid advice and inspiration. If you are on the fence about purchasing this product, allow me to shove you over to the "BUY IT" side.

5e HARDCORE MODE is a fantastic supplement to change up how your group plays 5th Edition. This product has been updated from the original version and is an excellent addition to any library. Even if you only use a handful of the information used here, it is a great buy!

this great have a back to the old school ideas, only thing to be this perfect this the Thaco (AD&D) to 5e per Class.

The lack of consistency througout this document and the fact that most of the concepts are either rehashes (of older edition ideas) or poorly thought out additions makes me regret this purchase.

Starting with the fact that not every class is mentioned in the "Classic XP" table. Sorcerers/Monks/Warlocks are missing, assuming that wizards are the equivelant for this table is fine. But that would mean that they are equal in power in this system (which they are not). This problem is amplified if we include the fact that bards, who are considered by most a top tier class in DnD 5e, are the fastest to reach level 10.

Now what you should have gained from this fact is that the game stops at level 10, which is fine, actually I like the concept of doing that. However, it is ridiculously unbalanced if you do not restructure classes or at least pose the idea of doing so to upcoming players and gm's. A bard for example gets the following at level 10: Bardic Inspiration (d10), Expertise, Magical Secrets. Whilst a Barbarian gets a social feature from their subclass :).

Some other examples that make it clear this was not designed for 5e whatsoever: Agreed initiative and the idea to remove a layered action system without any support for a way to translate these concepts (bonus actions, reactions and readied actions). The Injured concept and its implication for characters that prioritize dexterity for armor class instead of heavy armor and the slog that combat becomes if heroes start rolling on average 4 lower on their to hits (if healing is not readily available which it will never be under these rules). Another complication is to make unskilled and skilled a concept bigger than proficiency but also remove the modifiers. On a d20 system this makes it the case that there will be even more varience between characters and possible things that characters can do. A better solution is to not make it based on varience in a drastic way, but determine if an unskilled character should even be allowed to attempt the check/task.

In theory I could tackle all of the other rules and concepts that rubbed me the wrong way in this product. But my biggest point is allready discussed, I might come back to this review later. Especially if the author willing to entertain a discussion on this product. I think the philisophy behind a "hardcore mode" could very well be entertaining and a fresh experience of 5th edition. However, in my opinion, this product fails to deliver on that notice.

This game has the option to play with a different combat system that I dont care for; however it also provides info. needed to play with the I.C.R.P.G. rules. I also like the Jump Jet and APC