Features one page per RPG with not much more than cut & paste description from product pages. Useless.

I want to write a review about this, but I can't find words that are suitable to express the simultaneous sadness and pride that I feel right now ...

Sadness for the loss of such a gift - I have a daughter and the thought of losing her terrifies me ...

And the Pride is to be part of a hobby where so many publishers have rallied to create such a great bundle to allow others, like me, an opportunity to try and help the victims of this tragedy.

Buy this product. As Jerry L said in his review, we've all blown money on something that we thought we might like - here is a chance to do it for a cause that deserves it

A great cause like this is hard to ignore. I am surprised this is not the #1 title on RPGNow. With so many great titles in this bundle offered at over 90% off and the opportunity to help offer financial support where needed... publishers and gamers everywhere will regret not dropping coin here. We've all wasted $20 on something stupid in life, why not rectify that with your next Andrew Jackson being used on something meaningful to others?

So sorry for your loss, Mr. & Mrs. Banks :(

Thank you very much for making it both easy and rewarding to help such a good cause!

Almost $500 in RPG titles for $20? AND you are still giving money to a worthy cause? How could you NOT do this?

There are plenty of titles here that are worth the 20 bucks alone. But you also get some games that you might not know about.

A great resource that outlines the various genres of tabletop RPGs, with examples of games in each genre. While this may seem to be of little use to a veteran gamer, it could be an excellent tool for educating new players about the hobby, and possibly even for brainstorming new setting ideas, or discussing with your players what type of RPG they would like to play.

The writing is clear and concise, and there are numerous examples in each category.

This product reminds me of the better written scenario articles in Imagine and White Dwarf, back in the days when magazines were still edited to appeal to players of a broad spectrum of games. Despite being systemless, the author addresses how to adapt the scenario to different genres of fantasy games as well as tips on how to insert it into a current campaign. (Aaron Huss has already won my fawning respect as a specialist in game genre awareness in his highly informative Gamers’ Guide to Tabletop Role-playing Genres)

This product is well structured, the main characters are outlined, plot elements are clearly defined, a cast of opponents is also described in "The Bestiary". The NPCs are generic enough to be suddenly rustled up for an evening game from any rules appendix (nobles, elite warriors and so forth). Although the trigger events are urban, the scenario can include a dungeon-chase for the climatic encounters. It's recommended that the location is a small province, or small town in a remote location distant from the main action of the referee's campaign. In my own game I would probably put the politics and events in a town on the way to another quest location - remember, that town's aren't just for taverns and shopping. ;) The plot is rich enough to be played out as a "backdrop", whilst there would always be the option of the players getting their hands dirty by influencing local events, just by protecting one of the main protagonists.

Without wishing to spoil a plot twist, if played in a certain way, the scenario presents some ethical dilemmas which may be at odds with codes of conduct or principles with which they align themselves. If this is the case, then some seriously interesting, challenging and engaging role-playing from the players has to occur. That's my interpretation - much of this scenario relies upon your chosen style of play.

Clearly inspired by the Iraq War, Lord of Tyranny is a post modern deconstruction of events in our own world (or media representations of), broken down and efficiently translated into playable fantasy game elements. The "Ripped From The Headlines" series will hopefully bring us a refreshing alternative to the usual tombola mix of plot elements derived from film or novels.

Well written, well presented with inset gaming suggestion text boxes and easy to digest sections, this is a small and perfect springboard for several gaming sessions. It is adaptable to a variety of gaming styles - appealing to storytellers and dungeon crawlers alike. Ideal as part of a larger fantasy campaign, whilst being as "self enclosed" as the referee wishes.

Buy this. It's a bargain.

I defy you not to gain something for your game by just reading it. :)

-Bb 4.11 (Cross-posted at Adventures and Shopping http://bit.ly/rpgblog )

I'm a bit of a fan of the Roleplayers Chronicle website http://roleplayerschronicle.com/ because it's manager and the author of this publication has clearly been immersed in a pile of RPG products for some time, or at least knows what's what or when it's happening.

For some older role-players, like myself, the modern gaming world is a baffling place - much like walking into a music shop after a decade away, you just have no idea whenever you'd like something or not, or even what the new categories mean.

With RPGs many discussions on the web are focussed primarily on game mechanics, but often, not far away, are discussions regarding setting and "genre". This publication deals with the latter in detail and yet is a perfect skim-read introduction for the busy DM. It's a good read because not only does Mr Huss outline the core categories of gaming genre (Fantasy, Sci-fi, Horror, for example) and identifies well used sub-catergoes (High-Fantasy, Cyberpunk etc.) but he digs further and separates games into more exacting sub-genres (meta-genres?) like "Dark Fantasy PostApocalyptic", "Modern Psychosis", "Zombie / Undead", "Heroic Pulp", "Clockwork", the list goes on.

With so many game publications, old and new, the author does not claim that his lists of example games are definitive (I found myself adding a few games but then realised that they had been long out of print). Many of the publishers of the games he does mention have their websites included in an appendix, which is very useful if you want to find out more about a range. For me hyperlinks in a document justify the use of PDF as a format, also the page layout is landscape, making better use of the computer monitor as a reading medium. That didn't stop me printing off a copy to read in bed, but I hear that's also what i-pads are for … ;) The illustrations are nice too - reassuring bookmarks, if you get lost. :)

So if you unsure whether or not you or your player friends would like an Anime game, Storytelling, a Space Western or Gothic Horror this is certainly the document for you. It's also a great value read for collectors and the "just curious".

In summary: a well thought out document - positively educational! grin I plan to show off with some of my new found knowledge.

This is a decent product, but it could be improved upon in a few ways.

A) Don't just Google. While there are a lot of games in here, all categorized correctly (to the best of my knowledge), they're almost all big-name things, or top hot games. Games like "The New Epoch", which has undoubtedly one of the best steampunk/clockwork settings, are overlooked.

B) In depth explanation of style. Seeing D&D in a list with a game like Shadowrun doesn't really tell me much more than genre, and while it is just a "Guide to Genres", there's a difference in playing style between the two, with D&D being a slow, chip-away-the-hp thing and Shadowrun being more of a "one shot one kill" thing (though, admittedly, that is kind a Cyberpunk mainstay compared to a fantasy mainstay).

C) The links don't seem to work for me (assuming they are indeed links, and not just underlined blue text), and I'd like to see something like pricing on the list. Also, a lot of things you can get here on DriveThruRPG/RPGNow are listed as "Out of Print", which is technically true, but not very helpful in the light of the fact that there is a way to acquire them.

The Gamer's Guide has two main goals. First, to cogently illustrates all of the main genres and sub-genres that are available for an enterprising tabletop RPG group. Second, to provide links to some of the leading games in each of those genres and sub-genres.

It succeeds in both goals! I was very impressed at the genre breakdown. For instance, in establishing "Space Travel" into a separate genre, the writers were able to show why Rogue Trader and Star Trek were both part of the same genre, even though from another point of view the two games could not be further apart. As I read the book, I found myself seeing new angles and ways to play I'd not thought of, just from how they presented the similarities and differences in different games.

I was equally impressed with the depth of the game suggestions. Not only does it cover the main games in each genre, but it includes really excellent but lesser known games as well, such as Warrior, Rogue & Mage; Thousand Suns; and Barbarians of Lemuria.

This is an excellent product, and well worth the $1.00.