Works great with pre-2.0 versions of Calibre. With version 2.0, they changed the version of Qt used, so plugin no longer functions once you update. I dabbled a bit, but couldn't manage to get it working properly. An updated version would be a godsend!

This is actually quite a useful product for people who acquired Lace&Steel used and are missing some cards. Certainly more useful than a Cheeseburger or two packs of bubblegum, or another D20 or whatever else one single dollar can buy you.

Hearts, Swords, and Flowers covers how to introduce a shoujo style into your BESM Tri-Stat game. A "shoujo style" here is understood to mean a game that focuses on emotional interaction between characters to advance the game. While it doesn't necessarily exclude action, combat, or other plot-driven motives, it strongly lends itself to games where the player-characters have strong emotional investments in other characters.

Well over two-thirds of the book is dedicated to "fluff" (non-mechanical text) regarding various aspects of shoujo style, with frequent examples made of existing anime/manga. The remainder of the book introduces a new mechanic (Bonds and Ties), and deals with what optional rules from the BESM rulebook are particularly appropriate to a shoujo style game.

Anyone looking to find a sourcebook on running a shoujo game need look no further. The book's content being largely fluff means that almost all of this book can be applied to any system. Of course, that is a downside for people who want something to rigorously expand their BESM game. A book that is largely about style of play doesn't necessitate a lot of mechanics, and Hearts, Swords, and Flowers doesn't try to pretend otherwise. I gave this product three stars because I felt that its focus on shoujo style ultimately eclipsed its nature as an RPG sourcebook, something that was abetted by the dearth of mechanics. It will, however, be the first book I turn to whenever I need emotional character interaction in my game.

QUALITY: Acceptable

VALUE: Satisfied

Unless you lost your players pack of the original rules do not allow for photocopying for personal use (which would surprise me) this is a useless product, card are uninspiring black & white although neatly drawn, you are better off doing it yourself with a couple of minutes on a wordprocessor.

?Hearts, Swords and Flowers? is a 96 page Genre supplement for designed for the Big Eyes Small Mouth system of anime roleplaying. It was designed to be a resource for a roleplayer instead of a manga expert which works well for me because although I have watched a decent amount of anime I would in no way consider myself an expert. The product is divided into five chapters and an appendix.

This is a comprehensive book detailing the focus of this type of campaign, common character types, themes, villains, relationships, and campaigns suggestions. One of the strengths of this product for the non-manga expert is the depth to which each topic is discussed and the overwhelming number of examples that the authors provided so even if I wasn?t familiar with one of the anime/manga listed I was familiar with two or three of the others listed. The mechanics section of this product is short but one of the strengths of the BESM system is its flexibility so not a lot of expansion is needed. The editing is strong, the art while spare does an good job of keeping you in the genre. As the product is 96 pages it might have been nice to include bookmarks in this pdf.

The analysis and examples provided in this product go a long way to make the shoujo campaign style less difficult to implement in your own campaign. The inclusion of some more mechanically examples, such as for the ?levels of villainy? or common attributes, skills or defects of archetype characters would have made it easier still. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Solid advice Plenty of examples Clear in presentation of this campaign style<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Could do with some bookmarks. I would have like more mechanical examples as well as video/print examples.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Hearts Swords Flowers seems to be more of a primer for running an anime-style game, and a specific style of anime at that, than a general gaming product. "Shoujo" is a genre of manga aimed at young girls, with "a strong focus on character interaction, atmosphere, and complex dialog."

As a sourcebook on a manga-style game (for the BESM Tri-stat system) it is invaluable. For anything else, it's pure fluff. The content is hyper-focused on the topic, and it does a great job of breaking down the genre into usable conventions for role-playing. The breakdown of the various conventions and symbolism may be valuable to other writers who want to see a good example of how to structure their writing, but overall the book reads less like a game and more like a dissertation.

The layout is single-column and bookmarks are non-existant in the 96 pages of text. The art is all manga-style and very good.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The comprehensive and detailed handling of the subject matter.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It's a little too focused on a subject that I care little to nothing about. The layout is a bit hard to read in electronic format and there are no bookmarks for easy reference.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

More wargame based than role-playing the engine focuses on the combat system and hand-waves the non-combat sides of gaming especially with regards to powers. It needs serious editing, and some clean up of terminology to be more concise and clear.

I'm going to start off being open and mention that I consider the main author a friend of mine. I've got a bit of a personal bias here, but I'll try to be fair.

Suffice to say, I know that Robo Macs is very much a labor of love. It's great for fun and quick pick-up games, and rules light. If you want a quick game of robots beating the snot out of one-another, here ya go.

Downside is that it's not really designed as open ended, and other genres can't easily adapt to the system. So very little mixing and matching with genres is possible.

Ick .... not intuitive at all. Clunky, cluttered, and poorly organized. Has some decent ideas inside if you're willing to look for them. I'm glad I bought it on "special".