This is pretty much impossible to read. 80%+ of the material is jammed into tables. Table color changes for most sections meaning it looks like a rainbow threw up in it. The tables are also unreadably formatted. Here is a sample of text from a column formatted the same as it is in the PDF:

Choos e a Specie s. A creatur e of that species

I tried to read the material but honestly I could find no redeeming qualities to inspire me to keep going.

I feel that for a public playtest, the Aetherianica players guide in particular has been given a lot of loving attention to detail, including many pages already in colour. I note that previously, previews had already been put out for readers, so this package is the latest in a meticulous, deliberate effort to build this roleplaying system. Thanks, Kel and Lok (Dark Spire), for bringing this game to us.

One page presents a starting point into the dice system for the game. For one page, the discussion of probability for increases sounds dubious and there's a word use problem within a questionable example. It could be slow going for the whole system.

What a great idea! Instead of just making a series of rolls and hearing "success" or "failure", a token is moved about on a grid with several options available. Everything from immovable obstacles (no more handholds!) to challenges that move on their own (eeek! That snake was really a vine!) is included. The layout of the book leaves something to be desired, but the concept is great. This is certainly worth the purchase price!

Art work is awesome. Storyline is incredibly good. Lots of danger, camaraderie, and adventure.

A novel approach to dealing with skill challenges that involves moving tokens on a chart in addition to making skill rolls - this gives characters with lower skill levels more opportunity for success, and also brings a bit more opportunity for roleplaying.

The format could be improved somewhat - the background is a little distracting, and the sample chart is broken by a page break. Overall, it's a clever idea that could be used with most RPG systems with a bit of conversion, and is probably worth the cover price.

Used them and they worked out fine, but took a little longer than advertised. Would like to use them again someday.

A decent idea, though a bit short. Though that could be considered a strength if you think that the original rules for Skill Challenges are too much.

Overall a good idea, but more content would be better.

Decent story line. The thing I like about this adventure module is that it is completely plug and play. Everything you need to insert this into your campaign is provided in an easy to understand format.

While this whole title got off to a rough start, its current incarnation is a pleasure to read, especially the articles on economics. My players are of the sort that demands this type of realism at times, and it's nice to have such things already set out. "How much wine can I grow on 6 1/2 acres?" "How much income do I get from my peasants?" "What do you mean these guys don't trade in gold?!?"

If you were one of the nay-sayers who judged the whole title based on its first issue, give it another look. It's starting to get its footing, and I believe there is more goodness to come down the line.

Just as bad as the previous edition, and it is a shame that the company is getting people to boost their reviews by having shadow reviews written by involved individuals. Sad.

This is the same product as "Friar's Almanac." It was added with the numerical identifier more so that viewers wouldn't see how badly the other is rated. I advise all people to keep away from this crap and to note the horrible reviews that the original upload has received.

I found this to be a highly informative product. The layout is very good and the (awesome) background makes the text stand out clearly. If you can solve the problem of the occasional half page blank section, it may come out even better! Your article on the bad press and outright slander against D & D, propagated by some, was 'spot on' and very detailed. The facts about this are clearly on the Game Player's side. I am an evangelical Christian and consider the theme of good vs evil to be an excellent way to polish one's own ethics. J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis were both Christians and they used the fantasy genre to write exciting stories that had positive morals behind them. I also enjoyed the 'Secrets of the Heavens" very much. The whole publication has a wonderful variety of subjects with each being well-thought out. Add to this the fact that the Friar's Almanac is FREE makes for a great product. Very good job on the part of everyone who participated in this!

At a typographic level, the is product is very difficult to read. The font uses far too many embellishments to be easily read. When italics are used, as they are far too often, the text becomes unreadable. In addition, the actual text is squeezed into a column in the middle and flanked on the outside by pixelated ads for the ad space. This occasionally balanced by another space filler ad at the end of articles. I assume it too is advertising the ad space, but I cannot read it at all.

On the level of the articles, the lost value of work involved in reading the font far exceeds the value gained by reading. How many 100 world building ideas or 20 adventure ideas does the world need? Concepts that need more space to develop are given a single line while completely unimportant trivia are given far too much space. How important is precisely calculating the chance of a cave-in based on the stone type and pillars removed?

In short, even at free plus 5 minutes of your time, this product is too expensive.

I found this a fun read. It had some cool stuff in it. I really like the 100 cases of writers block, great ideas in there. I hope you do more stuff like that. Explain things a little better and this will be a 5 star, for now I give you 4. I look forward to reading the next issue! =D