Absolutely loved this, wish there was more to listen to.

Really enjoyed this and loved that it demonstrated that not everything in the secret world is about slaying the things that go bump in the night, sometimes a sly deal can be far more beneficial

I'm a bit disappointed in how tiny these are. They are about 75% to 80% of the size of regular Pinnacle figure flats (the cardboard ones) for a similar human figure. I like the simple foldable cardstock style of these, just disappointed in the scale.

On the surface the product isn't too bad but as a GM wanting to use this for a new group I find a hell of a lot of questions that I and my players asking just not answered in these pages.

This is coupled with some fairly lazy class copy-pasting from standard D&D rules especially the spells that take up a HUGE amount of pages while there really is the bare minimum when it comes to feats, modern usage of skills and information about modern world issues that differ from standard D&D fantasy settings.

The lore and background sections are good, and well written updates from the MMORPG version but it just needs "more".

The bestiary misses several pretty basic creatures whilst giving stat blocks for things a GM could easily make up themselves for example, generic A'ten cultists all armed with scimitars.

And I know this isn't the publisher's fault but the printed book quality for the premium price is extremely bad. Cheap paper, terrible binding and the spine has already popped after just a few weeks of not a huge amount of reading time.

Overall, not impressed with the treatment of one my favourite IPs of recent times and really disappointed with DriveThruRPGs printing quality.

Great art and the layout is very reminiscent of the core SWADE book. I do appreciate the care the publisher used in recreating the factions and NPCs while leaving some things yet to be explored. The conduits are an amazing concept for capturing the video game feel in a TTRPG. The accessories the publisher has available will make this super easy to run at my local convention too.

Well-acted and well-written an enjoyable audio drama.

I was very happy to have backed this book. It ended up really well written and organized, Flavor text is wonderfully well done. The adaptation of the 5E rules to a modern setting works much better than I thought it would. The lore is both faithful to the original video game IP, but has enough new added to both move the timeline forward and also provide some inspiration for game masters and players alike. Additionally, the fact that you only need this one book to play is awesome. It does make for a pretty weighty tome but it's well worth it. The artwork is very nice and gives good illustrations of the setting and overall vibe most games will want to go for. As someone who played both versions of the video game to death, the inclusion of every bit of lore from the game is appreciated. You can approach this book even if you've never once encountered the video game at all. I'm sure some players of the original video game might feel a lot of the lore in the book covers old ground but it's a godsend for entirely new folk. And as a game runner, you can share as much or as little with players as you want/need. If you're already familiar with 5E as a system, I think you'll follow this without issue but even if you're not, it's all explained clearly enough that I doubt you'll have any issues. Star Anvil have done a wonderful job with this version of the Secret World TTRPG and I look forward to seeing what else they do with it in future. This is well worth your time/money if you want to use 5E's system. If you don't, there is also a version of this coming out soon for the Savage Worlds system (due to popular demand). Star Anvil are going to continue to support both versions. As a publisher, Star Anvil have been phenomenal and I, for one, plan on backing and supporting every product they come up with that strikes my fancy. If they continue with the quality of work they've already shown, I will never be disappointed and neither will you. A+++++......

Incredibly lazy, uninspiring and shallow execution of a great setting. Choosing 5e is a questionable, but not inherently a bad idea, but the mechanics are terrible.

Classes feel lazy, copy pasted mixtures of base DND classes, and fully combat focused. From what I've seen there's hardy any class or subclass features focused on social or exploration aspects of the game, It's all about combat. Every other class or subclass has Brutal Critical feature, some classes get proficiency in ALL saving throws, some can cast any spells without concentration, warlocks need to trade their spell slots for incantations... the list goes on. From a balance pow it's a mess. Backgrounds: very poor. No "normal" people finding out about secret world, again uninspiring and lazy.

Mechanics are clunky, combat, magic items, spells, it's all just unfinished and lazy. The only thing I liked is the list of spells. They got rid of most of the gamebreaking spells.

Bought the pdf on a 50% sale and I still regret it. Not worth full price.

For a 5th edition conversion a $60 price tag is far too high for such a mediocre conversion. The lore is all from the MMO The Secret World so I can't really give them credit as they did very little work designing that. I'd honestly if you want a game like this to get World of Darkness or even fan made games if you want something grimdark.

Why to buy: You played The Secret World and want a nostalgic memento.

Why not to buy: This product is 4 times too expensive. You'll struggle to find people to play it as it's super niche and just a 5e conversion (there's a million of them). There's much better grimdark.

Disclosure: I love The Secret World and supported this as a Kickstarter at the $60 level, along with other backers I was under the impression that I'd be getting the game books or at least cover a vast majority of the cost. This was not the case. If this was the only issue then I'd have given it a 3/5.

Full disclosure: I kickstarted this project, purchasing all physical material.

Can I in good conscience recommend this product? No. Why would you want to buy this product then? Simple. Because when it is good, TSW is very good. The problem is poor feedback response for community concerns, lack of attention to detail, mechanics that clunk and critical sections of gameplay that are missing.

If you wanted to run a game in mythos of The Secret World, but have never played the video game before, then certainly buy this book for the fluff. The writing and exploration is, for the most part, excellent and serves as a solid primer to the great world.

If you already know the setting, then rely on your knowledge, some refreshing from a wiki and choose another game system.

Let’s dive into this.

TSW is built on 5e. That I don’t mind. There have been excellent 5e based games such as (updated) Dark Souls, Genefunk, Ultramodern or Broken Weave. TSW is not one of them. The classes feel hollow and the irony of declaring at the start of the chapter that the Warlock in TSW is not the Warlock from 5e fantasy, yet the actual TSW Warlock is a copy-pasta of the Sorcerer cannot be lost on me. And the Trickster is just a Chaos Sorcerer but without the chance to turn blue. It feels lazy.

The Archetypes mechanic of changing subclasses in and of itself is an interesting fit. The problem is that not all Archetypes are made equal by any stretch and some lack any sort of power or flavour. A brief nod to some feature from the game and that is all.

Backgrounds are awful. Unless you directly come from a X-Files Lone Gunman conspiracy origin, you are up the creek. What about the blue-collar guy who got dragged into this mess when his work-site dug up something they shouldn’t have? Or the white-collar office worker going through their boss’s email logs and discovers secrets no mortal should know? How about a mother of three who loses a child in the park one day and becomes obsessed with their disappearance and those crows that always flock to the swings?

Sorry. You’re a pachinko player or vampire hunter or an Illuminati graduate. The normal is completely forgotten and it clunks.

Talismans are equally a joke. Yes, this is meant to be a self-contained book. But you will have no choice but to look to the 5e srd to get inspiration for any sort of magical item. The very least could have been some basic rules or concepts on how to craft and flavour the magic items of TSW.

Speaking of magic. Where is the modern arcana? People can toss fireballs around but no one can use magic to interact with the modern world? Read USB sticks on the fly. Interface with security surveillance. Transport across landline cables? Urban Arcana in the 3.0 D&D system was doing this better 20+ years ago.

Oh and don’t ask for a “Technology” skill because there isn’t one. You might know how to tame a lion with Animal Handling but sifting through digital logs or hacking isn’t there. Pretty much everyone I know has house-ruled the skill in.

The number of bullets in a magazine does not match the number of bullets you can purchase per magazine for certain weapons. Others aren’t even fully fleshed out.

The list goes on and I’m likely boring you now. TSW is a bolt-on of 5e to a game-world that just doesn’t gel with the mechanics, mechanics that in principle could work but in execution simply do not. Even the monsters just… clunk.

I think that’s how I would describe TSW. Clunk. You can tell when the writers put their love and passion into this book. Chapter 1 is a delightful read and really understands what TSW is. If they release Chapter 1 as a standalone primer, then I implore you buy that in a heartbeat. It is well worth the read. But the rest. When I got the beta release of the rules I declared “Dark Days are Coming.” With the official release all I can say is “Dark Demons Cry Gaia.”

I am, admittedly, not an expert in ttrpgs, but the videogame this is based on is one of my favorites of all time, and I feel that this book is an accurate portrayal of that world, advancing it from the early 2010s to the 2020s.

Honestly, I feel this book is worth the price just because of the lore it has. Some might disagree with this, and that's fair, but personally, just seeing Kirsten Geary again is worth any price.

Cool setting primer, good adventure. I really like that both cyberware and hacking use Arcane Backgrounds, it is a really creative use of that subsystem. I like the art style as well, I hope I will see much-much more of it in the full setting book.

Ok.. Good lord.

I've gone through this three times and I cannot wait to run this. This looks like so much fun and the perfect setting for any of us old hats who want to relive our Saturday morning nostalgia in game form.

If this every becomes a full fledged setting... "insert Fy meme here" and take my darn money!

12 out of 5 stars. I held aloft my magic sword, my wings of metal, and nerves of steel as I felt the magic, heard the roar and before I got loose and took that Tiger-shark by the tail even though none of their ships had sails.

Or at least that's what I'm hoping for my players when we get this on the table.

Great addition to my sci-fi campaign. Even though we don't do a lot of combat, the players seem to enjoy the options.

This is a fantastic little book (only 7 pages long) with great art and weapons. Each weapon, the guns and grenades, has it's own illustration accompanying it's description. What's better is the weapons stats themselves. Instead of just giving a couple of new Science Fiction sounding descriptions for guns that are just "roll to deal damage" clear effort was put in to make each item unique. With this book your soldier types will have more options than just being damage dealers; each item has it's own charm and flavor that will give gun toting bad****s a bunch of fun options that allow them to be just as versatile as your mind melters and psychic wizards (assuming you have those). Definitely a must have for anyone that wants to add some cool new gear to their campaign that will do more than change the type/amount of dice rolled on hit.