Neiyar is not your normal game setting. The typical male gamer will have to completely rethink his attitude, because it is a matriarchal world (at least, the human civilization, anyway). The gender role reversal isn’t along the lines of the evil-drow-sacrifice-unwanted-males-to-lloth variety, but it is readily apparent and permeates the world. Nor is it the femi-nazi sort of GYRLL POWER thing you would expect. The social structure isn’t portrayed as good or evil, it just is what it is.

There is a sort of cold war going on in the setting. The enemies of the Neiyar culture, the Krakodons, are almost the polar opposites of the human culture. The Krakodons are a draconic sort of race that is highly patriarchal. The Krakodons control most of the southern half of the island, and while there is trade between the two groups and the war is officially over, both sides wage a subversive war to keep the other in check. Also thrown in the mix are the Mahaultae, a race of cat people, who more often than not side with the Neiyar, but sympathize with the Krakodons. The Amphikin are a frog race of con artists and opportunists that play both sides against each other. Auronnes are a swan race that are mostly loyal to the Neiyar, but try to stay out of the political fray.

There is a lot going on with the setting. Of course, you have your prerequisite assortment of ruins and abandoned cities to explore. There are also a lot of special organizations, secret societies, and sects waging political wars with each other. Joining an organization has distinct advantages in game play. Many of the churches are on the verge of fragmenting due to internal squabbles over dogma, and players can get caught in the middle. Add to the whole mix the fact that prophesy claims that the Demon God Nephar will rise and launch another Demon War soon and you can need a scorecard to keep track of who is on whose side.

Some of the prestige classes resemble similar stuff that has been produced elsewhere. There are a few really cool spells and feats, but nothing earth shattering. There is a spattering of new magic items as well. The Hearth Magic system, however, totally rocks. It’s simple and makes perfect sense considering the flavor of the setting. The monsters section includes some sweet critters to throw at players. A swarm of fleshcutter ants (carnivorous ants that are the size of a dog) will definitely strike fear in the hearts of adventurers. The Sleeper Bat can serve as a familiar, and there are special rules that allow it to learn and cast spells independently of its master.

The real strength of the book is the flavor of the setting itself. The island isn’t just an exotic jungle. There is a distinct Ravenloft vibe (I actually used the setting as a domain in a Ravenloft game I was running). See, elves, dwarves, and such are not native to the island, but sometimes end up there due to shipwrecks or magical backlashes. And once you end up on the island, it’s almost impossible to leave. Teleportation magic doesn’t work. Scrying often fails. And there is a big, nasty, immortal sea monster called the Green Death ready to crush any boat foolish enough to try to leave.

I like the look of the revised format over the old edition. The new design makes it easy to read onscreen, and easier to find information quickly. There is some nice new art added, though I wish there was more of it. The maps are the same ones from the old edition, though. They are OK, but not stellar.

A disclaimer. I bought a copy of the old version of this book from a now defunct vendor two or three years ago. When I saw the publisher’s press release about the new version being available at RPGNOW and that RPGNOW customers could get the new version free, I contacted them because I wanted my freebie, too. After some back and forth, I found my old confirmation e-mail to confirm my original purchase, and the publisher sent me a coupon to download a free copy of the revised edition. After thanking her and giving her my thoughts on the new version, she asked if I’d think about leaving a review. So I thought about it, and I did. Since she went to the trouble to help me get a new copy, the least I could do was write a review.

I confess that I’ve never been a person who cared for RPG supplements that didn’t have any rules. Such flavor-based books always seemed like a waste to me; why pay for something when, as often as not, the information you really wanted could be found at your local library, or on the internet, or even in the fertile depths of your own imagination? What I wanted was someone to do the math for me, inventing new systems and sub-systems that I couldn’t find elsewhere. And yet, despite all of that, I found myself head-over-heels for Elemental Gemstones before I’d even finished the first read-through.

The zipped file containing Elemental Gemstones is just over three megabytes in size, holding a single PDF version of the book. The supplement is a full twenty-seven pages long, though this includes the cover, a credits page, a Consumer End-User License, etc. The PDF does have bookmarks, but they’re for each section of the book, not for each gem. Luckily, the table of contents does list each gem, and is hyperlinked.

The book is also quite beautiful to look at, much like a gemstone itself. Almost every page is lightly tinted with various colors (the introduction seems to have a light violet, while the section with the gemstones is a light green, for example). Moreover, each of the seventy gemstones listed in the book has a photograph of an example stone right by the entry. There are no other illustrations here, but you won’t miss that at all, given how visually spectacular the book is. The only problem with this approach is that printing it out might be a bit of a hassle. Having a plain-text version wouldn’t have hurt.

As mentioned above, Elemental Gemstones is a system-neutral book. While it drops some hints to being compatible to Bards and Sages new Karma RPG, you’d never know this if they hadn’t mentioned it; and even so, I’m still not sure where this book intersects with that, as it still seems system-neutral. The premise of the book is that it describes seventy gemstones, and talks about their elemental natures, which make them suitable for certain kinds of magic.

The book opens by talking about the various elements. The four classical elements are discussed first (air, earth, fire, and water) followed by three secondary elements (lightning, metal, and wood), and three “astral elements” (aether and void). After this, it briefly mentions the availability of various gemstones, dividing them up into common, difficult, and rare, and discussing what those terms generally mean.

Each gemstone is then discussed (in alphabetical order) along with what elements it corresponds to, and what its availability is. The majority of each entry, which is roughly two paragraphs long, is to discuss specifically how the gem’s elemental affinities translate into magic. Both amethyst and aquamarine are water/aether gemstones, for example, but the former augments protection against fear and encourages peace, while the latter calms the restless dead and soothes the seas. At the end of the book are several lists indexing various gems by availability and by elemental affinity.

I confess that reading Elemental Gemstones reminded me of something that I’d forgotten: some supplements are supposed to stoke the imagination, rather than make new rules. And this book does that excellently. It provides a clear and lengthy list of new ideas for use of gems in your game, and leaves you to do the rest. Elemental Gemstones is a gem of a book unto itself.

Quirky little product. I actually like the ideas in this a lot, and the basic rules would work really well, particularly if you are running a modern game where a con artist could really thrive. For the typical fantasy fare, I don’t know how useful this would be. Written in a very conversational tone, as if you have a professional con artist giving a lesson to an apprentice. Pretty boring layout though. Worth picking up, however, particularly for a buck.

Somebody has too much free time on her hands. The author obviously had a lot of fun putting together this tongue-in-cheek collection of magical equipment. But before you laugh off such magical items as Barbaric Armor of the Rabbit or the Heroic Armor of the Triumphant Hedgehog, these silly named items are actually pretty cool, useful, and would add a funny splash to a game. Particularly interesting are the variant wands. Most interesting item in the collection—Rotted Mantle of Poverty, a tabard that is worn over normal clothes, with bonuses dependent on how charitable the wearer has been over the past week. The more you give, the more you get. For the price, a great addition to a your game resources.

Just beautiful, though like Cosmology of Karma this product almost killed my printer. Well written overview of dozens of gems and their supposed magical properties. Gems by Elemental Affinity Chart provides a quick reference in case you want to find gems for specific elements.

If you have ever wanted to make spiders viable familiars or get more use out of them, this is the perfect product. Presents rules on arachnophobia, using spiders as familiars, alchemy uses for different spiders, and even a few fantasy variants to make things more interesting. Plenty of full color photos of real spiders, so don't show this to friends who really do have arachnophobia!

Very cool product that does a great job presenting a variety of sharks to liven up sea encounters. The PDF redefines the core shark stats with new information that better reflects real shark abilities. Different sharks are then presented with information and whether or not there is a modifier to the CR. Finally, there is some light info on shark products, so players can sell those shark carcasses and stuff instead of whining that the shark doesn't have treasure to loot!

A very basic translation of the text that would be good for someone new to the book. Besides the translation, it also includes a history of feudal Japan, lots of color illustrations from the time period, and background info on various martial arts formats of Japan. Good for people developing an interest in the period or as inspiration for people looking to run a game in the period.

If you want to play an uber bard, this is the race to do it with. The race is custom made to be the ultimate bard. Instruments that double as weapons, special feats and spells to enhance bard abilities. Very interesting history fluff also that explains the race's obsession with beauty and art.

Make me want to run a game set in WWII. Two fully developed psionic NPCs with strong backgrounds. Good inspiration for a campaign.

Hyperlink to the coupon inside the product is broken.

For the price, this presents a couple of original influences for religion-building that are well worth adding to a DM's techniques, though they're not developed as systematically as I might like. There are better resources on the topic out there, if just starting out, such as Professor Barker's "Create a Religion for Fun and Profit".

This is one of those products that basically reminds you of stuff you already know, but forget to remember when you need it. Pretty straightforward, well-written product. For the price, definitely worth picking up if you intend to do any sort of god creation for your game.

This product is gorgeous. Just beautiful use of photos for illustration, it’s definitely the prettiest product I’ve bought so far! Of course, printing this was a bear, and almost destroyed my printer. A text only file or grayscale file would be nice. This PDF is also extremely well written, and presents some unique ideas for using the planes. As you read through it, you get this slight Elder Gods/Lovecraftian vibe from the writer. This PDF presents humans as either a food source for planar beings, lab rats, or minor nuisances for the most part, and it rethinks the motivations of different planar beings like demons (daemons), devils, gods, angels, and an assortment of others. I particularly liked the presentation of The Flux, which is where the four elemental planes of earth, air, fire, and water exist. Provides just enough information for GMs to customize the planar beings for their own games regardless of what type of game you might happen to be running at the time.

Sweet little product that really just is bursting with inspiration for GMs. Why make up new exotic metals when the real world already has so many? There is so much here beyond the traditional copper, silver, gold, platinum metals. Well written and thought out to be fully functional regardless of your game style or setting.

Another handy reference book from Bards & Sages. As with Elemental Metals, gemstone's elemental alignments, availability of the gemstone and some information (such as how the stone may usually be used as a luck charm for example) is provided as well. Very handy for item creation or for adding a little "extra" information/color/etc. as you like. Definitely a time-saver for the GM who needs detail but who hasn't got the time to do the research on their own. Each pictured gem is shown in one of a variety of formats (either cut and set in jewelry, tumbled/polished or raw). Ideally I would have liked to have seen two pictures per gem, one each as raw and finished. If you liked Elemental Metals, I'm certain you will enjoy this too.