Fantasia is a great OLD SCHOOL style game also were else can you roll a d30 for something, Fantasia is the only one I know of so far. If you dont have any d30, go to the hobby shop and get a few. I also own this in hard copy as well, great game. If you dont like d20 stear clear, if you dont care get it. You might want to get the Book of Quests & the Book of Journeys as well. This game rocks!

Recommended!

I've bought other products in this line before and was reasonably happy with them. This one, however, I found mildly disappointing. Contains many spelling and editorial errors. It claims to be a historical supplement, but is quite poorly researched. Still, it contained some good ideas and was relatively cheap, so I don't consider it a huge loss.

Well put together and reasonably well researched. Nice and atmospheric. I like the creative use of public domain artwork.

OK, I had bought the printed version first off Lulu and then the PDF here. The game overall is excellent, i have ran it a few times now and my players love it, its kinda a poor mans version of Star Wars, as it has Dune Men (Tusken Raiders), Ju-Wa (Jawas), Knights or Lunar Knights if you have the Celendrian system resource book (the Jedi of SQ). I feel the creator wanted to play Star Wars but did'nt want to buy the books from Wotc to do it (lol). For those interrested in a Sci-Fi game go somewhere else for that, i suggest Thousand Suns or traveller, this game is strickly SCI-FANTASY!!! in a Big Way, you can create any race you want to play and starships are easy to build as well. The game uses the standard D&D dice sets (d20, d12, d10, d8, d6, d4 & d100), the system for combat is very OGL like but the system for Ability & Skill checks is not, it took awhile to get used to, also there are many charts in the game, which makes the GM's job even harder over 199 tables in all, some are needed more than others on a continuous basis, like the combat and the treasures tables, a Quick Reference page of tables should have been created for this game, i have no idea why there isnt one, it needs it. Otherwise It is quite fun, if you can get past the plagerisim in the game from Star wars, Star trek, Aliens, etc. I think they stuck every Sci-Fi/Fantasy universe they could think of at the time into the book, but kool none the less. Oh there are classes, Occupations and yes Levels in the game, but only 10 levels and at 10th level you retire you character as a legend, experience is slow to get and players start out at ZERO "0" level, you have to earn 1st, which is 1,000 XP, 2nd is 5,000 XP up to 9th which is 100,000 XP needed, to reach final level 10th, a player has to complete some great task related to his/her destiny, thats it.

LIKED: All encompasing rules for many types of Sci-fantasy adventures, loads or stuff packed into these rules allot of crunch and allot of choices for PC's to make.

DISLIKED: Too many charts scattered throughout book, lack of a realy well done index, especially one for all the charts or a Quick reference system of charts.

FINAL: All in All, I have to say it was well worth the cash, would like to see it in full color as its all B&W.

This science fantasy piece runs the party through a mostly-scripted story of foreshadowing, destiny, love and such matters, involving various transitions through random dimensional special effects after a mostly irrelevant but reasonably well developed military prologue. Players who found "The Fifth Element" and the more mystical side of Star Wars compelling and don't mind lots of movie steals and a heavy hand on adherence to the plot may well get into this. Editing and word usage are not the best. I found myself wishing for a few illustrations and maps at several points.

Over the past week or so, i've bought D&D 4e at my local bookshop and Fantasia from RPGNOW. I've just finished my initial read through both and its an interesting comparison.

If D&D 4e is the beautiful actress at the movie premiere, then Fantasia is her homely half sister that inherited the personality rather than the looks - but I mean that in a nice way.

Fantasia is, through and through, 'old skool' high fantasy.

Fantasia has loads of nice gaming rules. Story points that reward players for role playing and are used get useful things, avoid death, and advance to the higher character classes. Compulsory retirement of high level player characters (but the player gets kudos on their next character). 'Courage' as a player character attribute, to stop characters acting entirely fearlessly. Spell points to fuel the magic. You get the idea.

Yes, OK, you've seen these all before in 'house rules' bolted onto D&D, but Fantasia brings them all together in one package.

Fantasia also carries plenty of endearing clutter. Descriptions of 'iron spikes', '50 foot ropes' and 'small bags', anyone? Advice on how to deal with 'silly' or 'sleepy' players. A section on how to run 'simple games' and another on 'roleplaying'. And nothing wrong with any of that advice either.

There's little on world background, but that's covered in a separate book and is a story for another day.

The writing style is unusual and you'll probably either love it or hate it. It annoyed my son, I liked it.

D&D4e feels like it was written by programmers, approved by a committee and polished by the boys in marketing. Fantasia feels like it was put together as a labour of love by a real gamer. In that sense, it reminded me of the Palladium RPG, and 'the old skool'.

Bottom line is I prefered Fantasia to D&D4e. If you liked D&D2e, Palladium RPG, etc then I suspect you'll like Fantasia too.

Good book. Good price. Take a look.

An action-filled, not particularly logical romp through various SF scenes consciously knocked off from well-known movies.

Some of the scene descriptions are pretty good on their own, particularly in the visual sense. There's not a lot of narrative connecting them in places, so a GM will have to do some more work or be blessed with players who don't really care as long as they get to the next scripted scene. The bad guys aren't described much, but the GM could insert whatever hostile military force's uniforms and ranks he thought suitable.

I can't really sympathise with the authors' explanation on page 4 for the absurdities of the setting as a homage. ("Hister"?) If they wanted to write "Spaceballs the RPG", it could have been funnier than this.

On the whole, it seems workable as a non-serious pickup game, or salvageable for something more complex.