Już na wstępie autor oznajmia (ostrzega?), że będzie traktował czytelnika bardziej jak kolegę niż "szanowną publiczność", a w tekście będą pojawiały się kolokwializmy - i faktycznie, już od pierwszego rozdziału pojawiają się dość bezpośrednie zwroty.

Osobiście, ten właśnie sposób zwracania się autora do czytelnika trochę mnie deneruje, dlatego pierwsze trzy, cztery rozdziały czytało mi sie dość ciężko, zwłaszcza, że traktują o rzeczach wydających się oczywistymi (nie bądź bucem, nie gwiazdorz, nie traktuj gry jak powieści fantasy) a przez to nie na "średnio-zaawansowanym poziomie" sugerowanym przez podtytuł.

Ogólnie rzecz biorąc w książce pojawia się naprawdę sporo dobrych porad i pomysłów - nie ze wszystkimi się zgadzam, ale widać, że autor ma doświadczenie i pisze na jego podstawie. W tekście pojawia się też naprawdę sporo odniesień do różnych systemów RPG, od tych starszych (Kryształy Czasu), po nowsze (D&D 5e).

Wbrew podtytułowi, wydaje mi się, że jest to bardziej poradnik skierowany dla osób poczatkujących, ale "nie całkiem zielonych" jeśli chodzi o RPG - dla tych którzy mają już kilka sesji za pasem, ale chcą doskonalić się w rzemiośle prowadzenia gier RPG. I takim czytelnikom książkę polecam - bardziej zaawansowani Mistrzowie Gry zapewne nie znajdą tu nic nowego, lub znajdą niewiele. 4/5

If you are looking for an old school experience of resource management (including neat ideas of taking parts of monsters for food or item creation), building fortress rules, a new, how to build a dungeon with background, ruomors and hooks all for savage worlds feel... this product is for you GM. An excellent resource for an open world recovering a major war where the heroes in your game reclaim the lost or ancient places, items (including magic items that grow with the user) and areas. Downtime ideas to spend our loot on and making your impact on the kingdom without following a plot point or set campaign, but instead a sandbox to tell their story.

A great world and resource for players to feel like they are part of a living world. Truly inspired by orginal and advance D&D with a savage twist. More than just dungeon delving and monster smashing (though there is pelnty of room for that), a world they can sink their teeth into and be a part of, hey even make their own place in it. Fleshed out world that leaves room for the players to explore and interact wiht that doesnt feel like they are following a novel.

the other reviewer Bruce R. points out the great things you will find in this book as well as the page description, but totally worth picking up for player and of course you GMs.

I looked at this more or less by chance and found a stack of useful ideas for the genre. It deserves more attention, I think.

I'm very happy with this purchase. Calling out the specifics of what I liked:

1. Funnel characters. It is a great idea to have the opening adventure being played by ordinary people who are not yet Novice level heroes. Players will play a small number of these funnel characters in the opening adventure - some will die but those who survive may go on to become heroes. (The Secrets of Tyland adventure produced by Gramel is a great example of this). I ran a test adventure of this with some friends (and my kids) and they had a ball.
2. World explanation / history of the world, including information on mundane like flora/fauna. The world of Ventar feels a little like Middle Earth - a grand realm that has been 'damaged' - there is a feeling of hope but also menace.
3. I like the changes made to the Magic system, especially the addition of the Cantrip power and the Burned Power Points (basically burning your power points for 'the big stuff', and it takes time to recover those)
4. I love the rules for cooking and eating the monsters that you find (you get hungry in the dungeon)
5. Tyrnador rules for Illumination (when do the lights run out?), Reputation, Resting and Absorbing Damage (at the cost of your armour)
6. Mass Battle Rules (woo, who doesn't like a mass battle - and there is a chance to use it in The Secrets of Tyland adventure)

I haven't yet had a chance to use the Downtime Phase rules but there is meant to reflect that there is a period for Adventuring, and there is a period for in between Adventures where the heroes are doing stuff like crafting items, training up, maintaining a stronghold etc. It feels a little bit like the Downtime Phase from Blades in the Dark where the heroes (crew) rest between Scores. I think this is a really good idea, because it allows you to focus on the action (Adventuring Phase) then skip through the period between adventures (Downtime Phase).

All in all, another solid supplement provided by Gramel. We'll be starting a campaign of Secrets of Tyland (Tyrandor) in the next two months.

Tyrnador, Secrets of Tyland provides an immersive world that the heroes can explore which will take them from Funnel Characters (more on that later) up to Veteran level.

The main campaign is time-based and I believe it'll take my group about 12-18 sessions to play through. I like that a lot because it has a definitive story arc which has a definitive ending which will end about 3 months of game time. My group wants to play something that has a clear beginning, middle and end - and this definitely ticks those boxes.

Secrets of Tyland has a combination of the main campaign arc, plus events which are triggered by location, events triggered by time (because the villains are doing stuff) and a number of events which are triggered by players' actions. It's a very clever sandbox which I'm already making plans to extend.

The overall plot is extremely interesting (which I won't spoil), and the PCs will slowly piece together what is going on over the course of time (and adventure). If they deal with the threats/events that come up, they will be better positioned to deal with the end-game. If they don't - either by ignoring threats/events or by failing to deal effectively with it - then it makes things harder for them.

I love the starting setup for the Funnel Characters. The players are playing a few would-be heroes each (Funnel Characters) in the first session - some will die horribly but those who survive will become the heroes of the game (unless of course the players choose to use regular Savage Worlds heroes). I've already test-run this opening adventure and my kids loved it. Basically the heroes are travelling on a stagecoach in the pouring rain, the driver is killed in an attack, the horses bolt and the entire stagecoach goes off the bridge and crashes into the ravine below. The heroes are the survivors of that opening disaster swim ashore and find the entrance to a cave. The cave, of course, is the first dungeon that the would-be heroes need to navigate - they are a mismatched bunch of randomly generated characters, they have limited gear, and the cave is .... occupied.

And even though this opening dungeon may seem to be randomly placed, it isn't. What is going on in that dungeon is the opening act for that main campaign arc.

Assuming the heroes deal with this dungeon and get to their destination in one piece (most won't), some of them (ie: those who will be promoted from Funnel Characters to Savage Worlds Novice-level characters) will stay in the area and start being drawn into the other plots (Savage Tales) that are in flight. There is a good reason provided to stay in this area and not to simply move on. Like I say, this is an immersive world that (I think) will pull the players in.

So this is the next campaign that my gaming group is gearing up to play..... I've read this book cover to cover and am very impressed. (Typically books produced by Gramel are first rate and this is no exception)

I had a lot of fun running Shadows over Ekul. From my point of view this is one of the two best Beasts and Barbarians adventures. I ended up running this as part of a Lords of Gossamer game (not Savage Worlds) but it could easily be adapted to any D&D/swords and sorcery game system.

Shadows over Ekul is a wonderful four-chapter adventure that can be run over 2-4 game sessions. It starts with a classic case of mistaken identity (one of the PCs is mistaken for the local Prince), and quickly becomes a job opportunity where the heroes are asked to perform a dangerous mission (and the PC who looks very much like the Prince has to pretend to be the real Prince, and go on a 'diplomatic' mission).

My PC group had a lot of fun impersonating the Prince and his entourage - it allowed for some excellent roleplaying opportunities.

This adventure has it all - role-playing, rivalries, action, plot twists, chases, assaulting a castle, climbing sheer cliffs to sneak into baddies' lair, rescuing a Princess. It has excellent examples as to how to set up an interesting dungeon based on card-draws.

High praise for Shadow over Ekul. I will almost certainly run this adventure again. One of the best.

I've been using the Tyrnador music for a D&D game (but will be running Tyrnador Savage Worlds shortly in about 2 months and will use it again then).

The track 'Deep into the Dungeon' music is suitably long and creepy for a dungeon crawl. (My kids really praised this track as very creepy)

The track 'The Necromancer's domain' is perfect for those dungeon moments when undead are involved.

The 'Through the forest of Tyrn' is great for forest exploration (again, suitably creepy to create the mood).

I haven't used all of the tracks in game yet but 'Inside the city of Bridgegate' feels like a city exploration but again there is a bit of underlying menace to the track.

All of the travelling/exploration tracks are long enough (10+ mins) so that they don't feel repetitive. I was going to reach out to Gramel and find out who the composer is and whether the composer has any more tracks like these.

Highly recommended.

This splatbook does some neat worldbuilding, a place that feels heavily inspired by Wall-E, Megaman, and Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds. Sadly, I was disappointed with the white-background pages and general "incomplete" feeling of the book as a whole. While useable and containing some good ideas, I'd like to see this fleshed out more as well as some page borders and backgrounds applied. It's a good, perhaps overpriced, beginning to an interesting setting.

This is cool! I paid for it, to help support the publisher and encourage the release of the full gamebook. Fairly easy to understand rules, nice layout, smart writing and nearly flawless editing. Nice take on modern toy soldier play!

I read through Burning Seas of Hell and (so far) was the GM for one game with it. The review includes both my thoughts and the comments of the players.

Burning Seas of Hell is published as a mini-setting, so it’s shorter than a „full“ setting. In comparison to the mini-settings by PEG I’ve seen so far, Burning Seas of Hell puts more detail into the various places and areas and skips Savage Tales. For me, the length of the setting was very good and it’s well structured, so I never had the feeling of having to read through a long paragraph without knowing what it’s supposed to go on about. It gives a good impression of the setting so I can start making notes right away without getting slowed down.

The different kinds of hell’s inhabitants are varied and interesting without feeling like a kitchen-sink. I like the concept of sins that play a big role for the damned. The ability of choosing an Edge as a nightmare feels a bit weak when the High Adventure setting rule is in effect, as the setting advises.

The concept of dealing with death when you’re already in hell is given a good thought, but I found it a bit unfair that certain kinds of PCs can just never die while others can. Also, fights can drag out quite a bit when there’s not even the possibility for someone to die – both mechanically and fictionally. The setting covers that point only with a few suggestions how to handle it in the fiction. All in all, the idea that you can’t just send someone to hell because you’re both already in there is an interesting one, but the players might need to work a bit on buying into that.

The description of the different places in hell is really awesome. What a collection of varied, freaky and cool ideas! The way it’s written worked rather well to help me getting the mood across to the players. It includes different kinds of enemies you might meet there. It also lists factions and important NPCs that are pursuing their own goals without the setting revolving solely around them, so you’re free to ignore them without needing to rewrite parts of the setting.

If that settings sounds interesting to you, go grab it and take a look!

Edit: Gramel sent me a bookmarked copy, so adjusting my review accordingly.

There are some spicy ideas in here. I love how, rather than a "monster fighting game", many other "atomic age" conspiracy tropes were added in. I see some rules for running a luchador character which is great. The atomic age vehicles all look interesting.

At this point I am planning on running a few "one-shots" in this setting. Yes, there could always be more content, as another reviewer pointed out, but there can also be too much content. I'm running another setting that has tons of lore books, and it's just too much. I have most of these ideas already in my head, and TBH this kind of bare-bones approach is what I'm looking for these days.

So why 3 stars? Because it doesn't have bookmarks, a TOC, or an index. I don't understand why this is so much to ask in a book that the publisher knows people will be flipping around in. I know how to ctrl+F, and I know how to add my own bookmarks, but why should I have to do that in a $5 PDF? The PDF isn't very long, but the information is dense enough that not having bookmarks, TOC, or Index makes it hard to find things.

I'll raise it to 5 stars if the seller sends me a copy with a functional set of bookmarks.

Not a bad map. There is a much nicer full color one for the Steel Edition.

Wow, I REALLY love this setting. I had grown a little tired of the "Tolkein" inspired stuff after having consumed (and enjoyed) so much of it over the years. I still wanted to play fantasy, but was seeking something a little more like Conan or Elric. Beasts and Barbarians delivered for me. Really interesting setting, and a well written and designed book. I also bought the GM guide, and the "first" adventure, Soul in the Water. Very happy, and planning to have this on the virtual table by next month! Typically I gravitate toward systems with free-to-use rules (SRD's and such), but I'm happy to support the designers of this game. A++.

This is a wonderful mini-setting. What is there, is great. Fraught with cool story potential, and leaving me hoping to read more. And that's why I can't give this a fifth star. Why is this only a mini-setting? It just sort of ended abruptly. There was supposed to be a list of inspirational media. None is in my PDF. No introductory adventure, much less any sort of plot-point campaign. As I said, what _is included is wonderful. I do wish there'd been a few examples of mutant characters; I'm still not sure how I'd handle a character who had, say, a third arm or something.

For a post-pulp setting, this has a gargantuan amount of pulp in it. And I mean that in the most complimentary fashion. DESPITE no fifth star, I do highly recommend this product. I just wish there were more of it! This setting definitely deserves a full treatment!