Great resource. Even just the NPC-only classes alone are an instant add to a campaign -and that's just a portion of what's here. Really hoping the author comes out with a Heartbreaker that incorporates all of this.

I've inserted all of the five lairs into my world and eagerly await the players eventual arrival at each of them. The only one they've reached so far, the Misty Cave, worked out fantastically, giving the players a lense to look at the rest of the world that makes the whole adventure more entertaining for me and I believe for them. That encounter alone has made this purchase worth it.

Filled with interesting house rules. I especially like the well considered, thourough and easily applicable rules for handling both parasites and diseases. Also, I've never been interested in playing a barbarian, but the Far Realms variation is a very tempting choice. The way that the author balances the perks and penalties of the class lends itself to interesting role-playing interactions for both the GM and player. Mr. Stump at Harbinger Games has created both a pleasant and useful addition for the libraries of player and judge alike. And I look forward to future offerings.

Five Swords From Harbinger Games is one of those supplements that fills a niche as a DM that you wish you have thought to have written. Its a damn useful little product with five magical blades. The title includes their history, powers, bits and pieces, all of the useful bits about the weapons and its all done up in a nice concise and well organized package from Harbinger Games. These are not power or munchkin blades, they have a specific set of powers and magical qualities but not enough to unbalance your old school campaigns Five Swords has a ton of uses from adding in several NPC magical blades and their history to creating brand new artifacts in the form of swords to add just that extra little bit of shine to that treasure hoard. According to the Drivethrurpg blurb:

Five Swords is exactly what it sounds like - writeups of five enchanted swords suitable for use making a treasure hoard more sought after, or to make a villain more feared!. Five Swords has writeups for the holy sword Whitestaff, the thief's sword Stardust, and killer's sword Orphanmaker, plus two more.

On the surface this title does exactly what it says on the title but more then that the Five swords adds that little extra edge of magical sword goodness to an adventure but don't make these swords that easy to aquire during game play. Place these swords within dragon hoard, as part of collections belonging to vile villains or give these swords to NPC's who need a magic sword with an impressive set of minor and useful powers. And that's one of the things that separates this from other OSR products. These swords are actually damn useful for game play. They should be the cherry on top of any hoard's gathering of gold, gems, and silver pieces. Because of the way that 'Five Swords' is written there is a ton of room to modify these items to your heart's content and allowing you as a DM to make and customize these swords as your own. There is a sense that these are magic swords that are meant to see use by your PC's. That brings up the question of balance,Five Swords definitely has its collective eyes as a product to providing you with set of swords that can easily be modified to fit your needs as a DM. The items are very accurately described and are completely plug and play allowing a DM freedom to drop these swords right into an Advance Labryth Lord campaign, OSRIC, AD&D 1st Edition, or even an Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea campaign. The fact is that only one of these swords should appear within a campaign. Seriously these are swords that should only show up once every two years or so of game play. They're well balanced and written items with plenty of DYI editing room so you can sneak these swords right into the middle of your carefully aligned campaign with a ton adventure hooks built right into each item. All in all I think that this a download with your time and your attention as a DM. Go and gran this one today!

I don't often purchase a persons house rules for my games. I prefer to make them up myself. I made an exception with Rick Stump's book, and am I a happy camper.

I got turned on to his blog first. Reading it and how he described his long running campaign using my favorite addition, 1st edition AD&D, had me digging out my books and looking at them with new eyes. His take on items I had just passed over in my games really got my creative juices going.

To be completely honest I feel I should mention these two items. First I have a great dislike of Unearthed Arcana. It started a change in AD&D that I did not like. Second I helped Rick as a proofreader on one version of this text. I took it as an opportunity to "break" his book.

With these two statements out of the way, I live this book. It is, what I feel, UA should have been. The Barbarian and Nobelman classes are worth the price alone. They are very playable and not the campaign breakers that UA presents. His take on weapon specialization are very well thought out and helps shape Fighters, not make them into a Ginsu slicing, dicing machine. His reworking of the Bard is well dine. A playable class drone 1st level. Something that was desperately needed. The Scout, a wilderness thief type, was something I didn't even realize I needed. Very handy to have in any wilderness campaign.

The initiative system was interesting, but I have mine. If your still trying to figure out how EGG didn't, stop. Use Ricks. It makes sense and is easy to implement. The disease section is well thought. The maintence and upkeep is a good way to separate a PC from his money.

The crown jewel here is the NPC only Classes section is wort the price of admission alone. Wonder how a patheon could train ebough full on Clerics to staff every small parish in the world? Wonder no more, use the Religious Brother/Sister. There is now a difference between an adventuring Cleric and his stay at home Brother. The Brother is the one who stays home and tends the flock. Brilliant. Do want to stay at home at gaurd that town. Use the Man at Arms. Not quite a full on Fighter, but not the 0 level nug that is the peasant levy. Want a small town Wizard, one who maybe self taught? Hedge Mage is for you. Low powered Wizards who fill in the gaps for local magic use for the small town. Thrives are not left out. Scoundrels are the thrives who would make up the bulk of most Thieves Guilds. Those Thieves who have no great ambition to climb the Guild power structure. Your everyday, common thief. With these classes and some notes on Hirelings, you have a well rounded campaign.

The spell section is very well done. I won't go into a lot of details here, though. I'll leave that for you to explore in your own. I'll just say Cantrips for all. And your newly minted Religious Brother/Sister has a very important job. Ceremony is the bread and butter of this class. Its how they tend to the flock. It can also form the basis of a monotheistic view on AD&D which opens a new vista for your campaign.

Final section, after the new spells for the new classes, is integrating the new NPC classes into expanded Follower lists for those that get them. At those lofty levels of Name level.

Overall this is a very well done and well thought out product. It it can be used in parts or in whole. It makes a very nice addition to any OSR campaign. It will expand your campaign and add a depth which may be missing. I know mine will be greatly expanded.

I have a long, detailed review here: http://nilisnotnull.blogspot.com/2013/06/mage-guild-wizardly-resources-for-osric.html The short summary is that while there are interesting bits and pieces here, in terms of a complete supplement (and for the original price of $4.00) it left something to be desired. At the current price of $2.00 it's actually alright, but not stellar. However the author is working on an updated version that will be free for those who bought this product, so that's good news.

This product is an ok production. Nothing about it jumped out at me screaming use me.

FYI this product contains:

12 spells 5 magic items 2 new monsters 8 NPC guild members 2 paragraphs of fitting into your game 5 ideas for hooks and or adventures (each is like 4 sentences) 0 Maps (but it tells you to buy the 'enhanced' edition for maps)

Awesome. I like the open endedness of this product, and the abilty to transpose ideas from this into other areas of creativity<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The way it discusses technology, or theories Past, present, future, and offers ideas and hints at running different things<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Want more pictures and artwork. I like pretty pictures<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The Bad product I've bought from rpgnow, absolutely usless, the book is a bad collection of ideas and information that colud be unknown only to a 6 years old baby, if you ever watched a sf movie or show or, better, read any books this product is absolutley usless!!! Simply do not buy it!!!

Okay product. It mostly focuses on what sorts of things need to be considered when developing your own d20 scifi setting, while providing info on many generic topics so that you can maintain consistency. For people looking for chunky stats, this is not your book. However, if you want advice on how to ensure your world makes sense, then get this.

Pretty good; would be better if the third installment ever came out, but that seems unlikely to happen. Still, it is well thought out and offers a great, but incomplete, starting point for anyone wanting to create their own d20 sci-fi setting.

One word: Awesome. I love the Sailing the Sea of Stars products. Their earlier release on what elements to include in a space opera game was very useful to me when I was putting together my space campaign. With this product, I have some great items to base my own creations around, and some VERY useful stuff that I barely needed to modify to put right into my game. I can't say enough.

I purchased this supplement, hoping that it would give me campaign ideas for assimilation into my campaign; not an unreasonable assumption considering the description of the product. What I recieved instead was a laundry list of technological examples from different stages of history, in different areas of development. Other than interesting philosophical questions about how communications and travel affect the development of society, I didn't come away with much from this product. It is sorely lacking in actual mechanics that could be implemented into a game, and has very little in the way of suggestions for new rules or skills. For the hefty price tag for a book without art or formatted text, I didn't find anything redeeming about the content. For the price tag, I found Blood and Space to be a far superior product.