Coming from a a role-playing background of D&D 3.5 and 4e, and also several MMORPG's, I must say that Bare Bones Multiverse allows the most freedom I have seen for your own character. A very simple but tremendous fun game that I would recommend for all people (not just gamers). I am anxious to try out all the different types of genres in the months to come.

Its fast and that's just for starters. Its an easy system to learn. I have new players at my table and they are always like "How do you play?" and "how do I do this or that?" That's the best thing. It took me less than twenty minutes to explain the system and after that we were star hopping in the AAR-5 Advantage (same company). Did the system have everything? Well, it left no questions and let me use my own bean. I like a game that works with me. It didn't give me a lot of use less tables or pointless "blah, blah, blah," it just got right to the point and zoom, my game took off! There were a few typos but hey, didn't bother me none. They were minor (no more than anyone else). Hey, I recommend you try this game. I mean, I spent more time playing than rolling up characters and that is the point.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Big House is a generic supplement by Scaldcrow Games that you can use as a superpowered prison for any supers RPG. It is 48 pages and stat-free, although it does have a system of icons to help you gauge how a given NPC should compare to your PCs experience-wise, as well as the level of threat they should pose. Similarly, important skills for each NPC are given on a 1-10 scale that you can use to judge where it would fall in your system of choice. A full map of the prison is included, with staff, security measures and so on, plus a handful of adventure seeds and a big worksheet of the cellblocks so you can track who is locked up where.

WHAT WORKS: I love the system for generically statting up NPCs and such, with a clearly defined scale that you can use to compare to your system of choice. If you're not a map-guy, and I'm not, ready made maps are even better.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: There are a lot of "see page. XXX" placeholders in the version I reviewed, and if you're fairly new to your system of choice, this is going to of limited usefulness to you, as the appropriate scaling may not be readily apparent.

CONCLUSION: Perfect for a GM that knows their system well but doesn't want to put the time in to detail every last aspect of a prison for their setting. I can't call it a must-buy because a) most existing settings already include a super prison and b) it certainly isn't the most helpful for beginning GMs, but it is still a very well-done product.

Price, style, and technical issues all top-shelf. I will certainly be making more purchases from Scaldcrow in the near future! Highly recommended!

This is another great piece from Scaldcrow. I am a particular fan of the black and white inked version of this character, as the face doesn't stand out quite as boldly as the green skull of the coloured version - it makes for a much more sinister (and less comic-book) figure.

A pretty good book for running a prison set in a world of super heroes. It tells you just about everything you would need to know about a prison equipped to hold super powered criminals. The layout is nice and there is a lot of information here.

The fact that this book can be used with any system is nice, the book gives you guidelines as to the relative power of the characters and items within so you can port in the appropriate stats for what ever system you are running. Nice touch.

I was impressed with the art in the book overall. there wasn't a whole lot of it and it was mostly in black and white but it was still rather nice. the map of the prison could have been better, but that is just nit picking.

Okay - granted, I am a fan of Scaldcrow Games generic source books, that being said; check this out.. I just picked up the "Advantage" and am using it with the old TSR Star Frontiers system. It works great, though I am thinking about cooking it up in Traveller. I love how direct SG generic books are and this one is no different. After a short read I feel like I am walking down the halls of the ship. MAN, and what a ship. It's not a stale rehash of other starships that have been popular in the past. It's something new, you know - original. It's easy to get caught up in a lot of rules that interfere with good storytelling or that fill useless space in a book, that ultimatly get's disregarded in game play. This book gives me everything I need to understand the ship and doesn't bog me down with a lot of "blah, blah, blah." It gets right to the point. I waited until midinight for the book's release. (Well 1:00am here) and am I glad I did. I recommend this book as a fast and effective way to add some new good stuff to your game.

Loved it. Awesome Book, This is what alot of us have been waiting on. Really glad we did take on the Oni, now that ive seen thier stats.

Like the others in this series, I like this product in concept. There are some great bits of art to use in the design of an adventure or an NPC. There are pages of color art. Some black and white ones and some line art as well as a number fold out character. All thought all are the same picture. At under a buck this product is either priced just right if you want to try it out or an absolute steal if the creature pictured is the one you need. For this one I am not sure when I'll need a robot, but I am certain something will come up.

I like this product in concept. There are some great bits of art to use in the design of an adventure or an NPC. There are pages of color art. Some black and white ones and some line art as well as a number fold out character. All thought all are the same picture. At under a buck this product is either priced just right if you want to try it out or an absolute steal if the creature pictured is the one you need. The only thing this is missing are some basic stats, but I guess that is best left to the player.

Sweet Pic! I really think Ms. Reich would be the perfect name!

The "sci-fi mercenary" presented in this product is certainly well-drawn, and one can hardly quibble with the price. If you need a nicely-detailed picture of a whatever-this-guy-is (see the image in the product description), and you have a dollar to spend on it, you won't go far wrong here.

Even so—and as gauche as it may seem to review such a well-drawn, low-priced product negatively, I do have some questions and complaints. First, be aware that the product description uses terminology a bit differently than you may think; the "wireframe" version of the character is not a "wireframe" at all, but a simple black-and-white outline and the "counter" is really a 3D miniature-scale standup with the full-color version on one side and the outline version on the reverse (which creates a bit of an odd sensation looking at it on the table). Second, I don't understand why this product "ships" as six separate files instead of single PDF or at least a zipped folder. Nor do the files all bear a common prefix, as some publishers like to use, so after downloading the files I had to hunt around in my downloads folder to find them all. And if the product is going to ship as separate files, why does it need a "cover"? The "cover" doesn't detract anything, of course, but neither does it add any value.

I’m not sure why, but it’s a truism that people like myself (nerds/geeks/gamers) love lists. We’re never so happy as when we’ve created or acquired a large collection of information, especially in a cross-indexed, easy to reference form. Making sense of things and having data on hand is satisfying on a truly visceral level. The fact that the information itself is useful and/or fun is a bonus. Given all of that, it should be no surprise that I immediately took to Actual Factual: Dracula – A Compendium of Vampires.

From a technical perspective, the book is presented quite nicely. Almost five hundred pages long, the PDF is quite small in size. Presumably this is due to the small amount of artwork. There are only a handful of pictures here, all of them black and white and found at the beginning of each alphabetical chapter; it should be noted that the cover displayed on the product page isn’t found in the PDF of the book, however. I also wished that bookmarks had been used, as that would have made it helpful to zip around to various sections.

AcFac:Drac is, as the subtitle says, a compendium of vampires. All of the creatures detailed herein are from real-world myth and folklore, as opposed to creatures made up purely for novels, TV shows, etc.; no glitter-wearing Twilight vampires here. However, vampire aficionados are likely to note that it’s difficult to pin down what, exactly, constitutes a “vampire” in mythology, since there can be similar creatures that are called demons, or ghosts, etc. instead of being vampires per se. Interestingly, the book largely side-steps the issue of nomenclature by taking a very inclusive stance, declaring that for the purposes of what it includes, a “vampire” is anything that must consume the life essence of people on a (semi)regular basis in order to sustain itself. Thus, blood-drinking animate corpses fit right in alongside soul-eating demonic spirits. Any unnatural creature that devours (parts of) us is a vampire.

If that sounds like it’d pump up the number of creatures in this book, it does. There are nearly a thousand entries here, all neatly listed in alphabetical order. Each entry has a variety of attributes, including Type (is it a corpse? Demon? Ghost?) Abilities (what are its powers?) Prey (who does it hunt?), Modus Operandi (how does it hunt?), Weaknesses (what hurts it?), Destruction (what kills it?) and many others. In fact, there are a large number of possible attributes for each monster…the thing is, not all of them are present for each creature. Presumably, this is simply because some creatures don’t have that information included in the myths and legends about them, though in some cases this is because a given vampire is just a variant of another (with a SEE listing pointing you to that entry). Frighteningly, a few vampires don’t have certain attributes because they have no weaknesses…or simply cannot be destroyed.

The truly great part of this book, however, is found in its indexing. In addition to a standard alphabetical index, it has a whopping nine additional indexes that catalogue the monsters herein via various key attributes, such as their appearance, how to find them, or method of creation. This is brilliant organization and really makes it fast and easy to zero in on exactly what you’re searching for without having to know precisely what type of vampire you’re dealing with. Something eating babies in your neighborhood? Just flip to that section in the Prey index, and you’ll be able to start researching what you’re likely up against.

This book is nothing short of a must for vampire fans, as its thorough research and exhaustive indexing results in a tome that not only stimulates the imagination, but is easy to use and incredibly referential. Whether you need a new monster for your role-playing session, want a creature for your next great fantasy novel, or just want to know what to watch out for the next time you hear a bump in the night, this resource is the only guide to vampires you’ll ever need.

The word “Generic” means more than plain or ordinary.

In the gamer world, it is a challenge. The publisher is saying that their product has achieved the holy grail of being easily adaptable from one system to another. Scaldcrow has laid down such a challenge with the latest entry in their Scaldcrow Generic: Fantasy Landscape line, the Town of Alliancia.

The 36-book claims on the cover that it is a supplement for all systems. However, its pages tell a different story.

The town of Alliancia presents a fantasy town ready for you to plop into your campaign world. During the initial pages, there is a conversion guide to indicate how npcs rank on power level and skills to your party. A set of skulls indicate how dangerous they are. If Alliancia just included flavor, it would be a great supplement. The city comes alive with colorful characters, detailed history and a landscape marred by war that seems rich for adventuring. There are dozens of locations in Alliancia, all briefly written about with inhabitants and stories that serve as fun adventure hooks. The product is marred however, by its inability to be generic. The conversion charts are confusing to follow, as it is a difficult system to convert to another system. It would have been far easier if the writer had used a smaller scale and more generic words.

Its easy to determine that the authors didn’t use a smaller scale or more generic terms because this product leans heavily, if not was first created for, the Dark Fantasy of Sundrah Rule system (also by Scaldcrow games) and the author decided it would be more marketable to create a conversion chart and make deem it generic. Over half of the book is statblocks to play the npcs in the Sundrah system.

For the Dungeon Master Disregard the npc stats and the Sundrah system tidbits and you have a flavorful city with a lot of life for your pcs to inhabit. Its very well thought out, things like trade commissions and land lot commissions are a nice touch. And adventure hooks like the Lumberjack’s obstacles in the north can greatly be built on.

The Iron Word So no, this product is not 100 percent generic. As a matter of fact its barely 50 percent generic. But that 50 percent provides a nicely designed, fantasy town for any campaign.

Like Pow! My older bro just lays this book on me, you know Scaldcrow Games's: Town of Alliancia. No, I mean literally walloped me in the back of the head with the printed book. He was all like "Happy Birthday" and I was like "creep." Anyway, I had just taken Mike (my iguanna - thinks he's godzilla) out of his habitat for some exercise so I had some time to kill in my room before I had to go to work. I've been a Scaldcrow Games (Dark Fantasy of Sundrah) fan for a couple of years yo. I tore through this book and man, like yeah, it was good. It's the sort of book I like. Lots of NPCs for my DFoS game and it has the generic info for my other games, so - sweet. I also like that Scaldcrow Games is keeping up a descent release schedule. You know, not one game this year and another the next. Ooo-ooo-oooh, that reminds me. The book has really good subplots which is nice but what is really nice is that there is a generator at www.Scaldcrow.com that uses all of the locations and personas from Alliancia and Hokum and makes plot hooks for your games - so cool. This book still has a few typos but thats okay because the story is really good. I can forgive typos, I don't get over a bad story. Anyway, I gotto mosey, see whats shakin in Westwood today. Oh yeah, buy the book. I like it. Its short enough to read in the morning and use in your game that evening. Yup, cheap and quick, the way I like'm.