Really enjoyed this title. I used it as an adventure for a Novice level party, which required some adaption of course, but it worked pretty well. One minor point on game mechanics, this retains some of the mechanics from the old Deadlands rules on Agents gaining rank with the Agency. Deadlands: The Weird West handles that differently. One of my players was running an Agent so we were confused at first, but eventually figure it out. It didn't affect game play, other than ignoring that contingency.

To me this gold standard of addons, clearly structured with an expansion on weapons, specializations and general combat edges. Even though I'm not interested in the more detailed weapons and have avoided the weapon specializations since it seems difficult to balance into existing systems - the combat edges alone have been worth the product for me. Each edge really helps bring out a classic trope and incentivize different playstyles.

Here's what I personally have used this book for in real play: I run a pirate campaign and have been reluctant to throw a new book of edges at my players - instead I've given these edges to enemies to make for more interesting encounters. I've also used them to design magic items as unique edge-granting items. In a deadlands game my DM has allowed me to use the leadership edges in this book, which makes them much more interesting for games that don't have allied extras, they allow interesting team-support without modifier-creep. As you can tell neither of these are classic fantasy, which should only speak well of Fighters & Warlords flexibility.

Artificer's Codex is a small supplement that laser focuses on the most critical elements of magic item creation. Rules and explanations are articulate and expertly condensed, yet still find room for some alluring flavor that gets the creative cogs turning, especially in the "Alternative Power Point Sources" and example item creation sections. Magic item creation in tabletop games often falls into a deep pit of complexity, but this supplement (which expands upon the SWADE Artificer edge) keeps it FFF!

At the time of this review I had a few questions regarding the pricing of magic items which were quickly clarified by Kristian on the discussion board. I hope these clarifications make it to a future edition of the rules! But even without the clarifications, the rules laid out by this supplement easily allow for GMs to make sensible rulings regarding the questions I had.

Savage Worlds is my new RPG system of choice! I have been playing RPGs for many years and reached a point in which I am honestly tired of learning new systems. I do think the diversity of rule systems out there is amazing, however, as a GM I want to invest my time in preping a really nice story for my players instead of learning the basics of an RPG. SWADE let's me learn one set of rules and visit many different scenarios! That is fantastic and it is why I chose Savage Worlds as the RPG I will be GMing for a while now (hopefully for many years!). The only drawback of this product is that I recommend it for people that have already some experience with RPGs.

Good brain food for a GM who is thinking about houserulings for a particular game theme or table group. There is good range of rules in here, with clear explainations to why they might be used and what the consequences are. Some affect character creation, others advancments, a few seem niche but are explained to give a different emphasise for how characters are built. I found it amusing that I had already implemented one of the suggested rules (Slow and Steady) because of how I had interpreted the core rulings.

This is not a essential document, but I think it's good for the price as example material for what a GM could come up with.

Very much enjoy the simple but fun edges provided here, they seem to be easy to understand but could add so much to players looking into Martial archetypes of any setting. I would recommend this to newer GMs to encourage players to consider all the combat abilites at their disposal.

My favourites are Fast Hands (pull out a heavily concealed firearm or grab that forgotten item you need in the blink of an eye), Hustler (dart around the foe quickly and effectively), Sunder Fighting (hit those full plate knights where they hurt and break their shields to boot), Improved Marksman (now allies in the way or foes sneaking up on your sniping position are a smaller nuisance) and Defensive Expertise (makes the Defense action stronger and more flexible). There are only a few edges that are particular overpowered, IMO of course. I will add my opinions to those in the discussion posts.

As a note those who got this years SWAGtember bundle, These edges are by no means overshadowed by the Warriors and Warlords Fantasy add-on. To me, there are plenty of unique edges and prefered improvments to exisiting edges between both. Martial Options is probably the best of the two for it's ease to implement, and how it chooses make more fun combat over balanced but more complex changes.

As with the other products in this line, this book has some good ideas. The Arcane Backgrounds in the core book are very much the same. There is no difference between Magic, Miracles, and Psionics other than the name and the casting skill. That is boring. The assumption is that you will get some flavor from your setting (that is the general idea of the core book -- it gives the basics and you build upon it). This helps to give you some ideas on how to make something interesting and gives good mechanical guidelines on how to accomplish it. I have used some of the aracane backgrounds in this book and come up with a few of my own, and it has greatly added to our games.

I don't think I can give a product more praise than the fact that I use it frequently. Converting a setting to Savage Worlds means custom arcane backgrounds and this is a smart way to go about it. Often, I'll be wondering how to make an AB and find out that something very similar is already in the book as a sample. Primarily this is a GM facing book. Players can and should get use out of it, but that should be done with the GM involved. You can make all sorts of interesting arcane backgrounds, but that isn't helpful if it's not an appropriate fit for the setting the GM is running.

The book breaks down an Arcane Background to its constinuent parts. The arcane skill, the requirements, its trappings, power list, limitations, and unique features. Then you have 7 points to build the AB.

Of special note is that the features are meant to be priced the same as the Making Races rules in the core Savage Worlds book. This is excellent because it a) gives you a baseline to how potent something is, and b) if you want to go beyond the bounds of this book and add new features, maybe an Arcane Background inherently has you grow permanent claws, well that's 2 points according to Making Races, so that's 2 points worth of features!

While this doesn't cover every single situation that I've come up with, it has made the work easier for me 90% of the time. If you're making a custom arcane background, I can't recommend this enough.

This kind of out of the box thinking and application of mechanics towards non-obvious trappings shows a fundamental understanding of Savage Worlds that helps me really trust the design philosophy of this line of products.

This product is short, sweet, and I think appropriately priced. It hits a specific niche that I appreciate, that of the Gloomblade, Soulknife, Psychic Warrior, Psylocke from Marvel, etc. And the fact that it is customizable enough to hit all of those examples is of particular merit.

The book is one Arcane Background edge and one Power edge that is a direct upgrade to the Spirit Weapon.

My rating is based entirely on how well I think this product succeeds at it's intent, which I say is 5/5.

This is one of the systems with the most crunch to it, but, because of that, it lets you go for the "called shot" or dive deeper into skills so that there isn't one catchall for too many challenges. The newer system is more streamlined and uses Savage Worlds, which is not a bad thing in my opinion, if that is what you want.

This system is for those who enjoy something that rewards careful study with complex outcomes.

Also, the art is great.

Again, this is not the current version (at the time of this review) for Deadlands.

The newer version's strength is its simplicity and the fact you can use the Savage Worlds System.

Classic Deadlands is complex and for those gamers who like lots of sublte play with the outcomes of your dice rolls.

This is a great resoruce for onsters ina modern supernatural game. I love the detail that has gone into each one, especially th plot hooks to get one into your game!

This is a great little adventure but more importantly a sourcebook for eastern european historical fantasy within Savage Worlds. Very useful for anyone wanting to run low fantasy games in fact. Only minor quibble is that the artwork and layout could have been better, but the content is top notch!

These are incredibly handy to have. I like having the basics of every power in the SWADE book broken out where I can give them to players to help them remember the powers they have and give them ideas for use. Definitely worth the purchase.

This is a neat little supplement for adding Augmented Reality tech into your modern or near-future Savage Worlds settings. I found it to be a little wordier and more dense than necessary, but it'll be easy to copy-paste what you need into your own setting doc. There's some useful GM advice for incoporating descriptions of AR into your game as well. It probably wouldn't be hard at all to add this stuff into a Sprawlrunners game.

Well written book with stats for a variety of dinosaurs. The included adventure is perfect for a Jurasic Park style game. Well worth the money.