You could run it as is but I think it would be a fairly dry adventure. Essentially it's a list of random encounters as part of a dragon hunt.

It's an OK resource if you want a few NPCs or some encounters.

Phenomenal and flexible system. Using everyone's trusty D20 to adjudicate difficulty on a scale from 1 tot 10 (then multiplying by 3 to get a DC to roll for) is very intuitive way for players to understand difficulty. Then the bargaining starts with players offering their assets, skills, efforts or more to lower the DC is a great way of setting up a narrative around how this check is going to look feel and sound like. Bad rolls getting you down all night? Use effort from your stat pool to nudge the scales in your favor when you just want this one roll to succeed, but there are no guarantees! The character creation being split up in "[name] is a [descriptor] [type] who [focus]" creates incredible amount of variety in player identity, speed of character creation and broad appeal to a lot of settings. Highly recommended if you want a rules light system that can scale up if you want it too. P.S. Check out the Origin sourcebook for great settings to dive into.

I cannot give this enough stars. Endless tables, each result stunningly, beautifully weird.

Ring Side Report- RPG review of The Magnus Archives Player's Guide

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea every day!

Product- The Magnus Archives Player's Guide System- Cypher System Producer- Monte Cook Games Price- Free here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/498598/the-magnus-archives-player-s-guide?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR- Good, but this doesn’t cover most of the basics. 80%

Basics- What’s your statement? The Magnus Archives is a podcast that was adapted to the cypher system. Players take the roles of investigators looking into paranormal events. WIll you find what’s causing all these strange events?

Base Mechanics- This is the cypher system. Players state an action, and the GM states a difficulty. The difficulty times 3 is what the player needs to roll on a d20. If the player wants to lower the DC, players can spend points from a pool for mind, body, and dexterity to reduce the level. The GM doesn't roll dice!

And that's it. It's built on the basic cypher system.

Mechanics or Crunch- This book gives the very basics of the cypher system, but dont expect to play the game with this alone. You can’t build characters with this. Nor can you really run a game with this alone. You get the base mechanics of this game with a good explanation, but you get no options. It has pregenerated characters, which I love, but it's very bare bones. 3.5/5

Theme or Fluff- There is more here, but it's very basic. I don't know what the Magnus Archives are and why there are statements. I know there are podcasts about it, and I’m interested in them now. But I don't really know why or who is doing the investigating. What’s here will draw you in, but you will need the full book to get those answers. 3.5/5

Execution- Monte Cook Games does solid work in production. The book reads easily, has solid art, and is well laid out. Overall it’s just a well done book. 5/5

Summary- For the price of free, this is a good intro to the Magnus Archives. If I had paid for this, I would be upset. In a player’s guide, I expect a bit more character options and explanations to the game. This has a decent explanation, but no options. I also expect a bit more in terms of world building. I’m intrigued, but I have no answers to what is going on. As a product, this is a good book for production. I want a lot more, and all of that is found in the main game book. Worth a look at free if you want to see the basics of the system and world. 80%

The Planar Bestiary from Monte Cook Games is a difficult text to be critical of. Published by Monte Cook Games, and authored by Bruce R. Cordell and Sean K. Reynolds, this is a text for 5e written by what could only be called D&D Royalty, being two of the lead designers behind D&D Third Edition and the 3.5 system derived from it that I effectively grew up playing.

That being said, I have some serious problems with this book. In terms of flavor, there's nothing to complain about. The lore is phenomenal, and many of the creatures show the creators' enduring creativity and the thematic sense that made third edition in all of its forms such a phenomenon.

However, when one comes to the matters of statistics, some problems emerge. While this is not true of every monster, there are a handful for whom the math simply does not add up. As examples, I will pull from two early entries in the book, the Dissolute Angel and the Anokapsik. Both of these creatures are CR 10, which means that they hold similar places of power, and should be of similar threat to an adventuring party. More importantly however, this means that both should have some statistical similarities. A CR 10 creature should have a Proficiency Bonus of +5, and a creature's Passive Perception should equal 10 + it's Perception Bonus.

While these may seem like strange things to bring up, bear with me for a moment.

Going to the Dissolute Angel first, the Dissolute Angel has a Strength Score of 20, which gives it a +5, and a Wisdom Score of 13, giving it a +1. Assuming it is proficient in Perception, which it is, this should give the Dissolute Angel's melee attacks a +10 to hit, and its Perception Bonus and Passive Perception should be +6 and 16.

However, for some reason the Dissolute Angel has a +9 to hit with its Greatsword, which still does +5 damage. To this one could say, alright, that's fair, they thought CR 10 has a +4 Proficiency Bonus, easy fix, just give it a +1 to all of its proficient die rolls.

BUT IT GOES DEEPER THAN THIS.

The Dissolute Angel has a +5 to Perception, implying once again that the author assumed a Prof. Bonus of +4 at level 10- But it has a passive Perception of 14, one LOWER than the 15 that a Perception Bonus of +5 would give. These numbers simply do not line up, and it reads as if Cordell's monster creation is stuck in third edition, which I hate to say, as this man's work shaped a significant portion of my childhood dreams and storytelling.

Moving on to the Anokapsik, similar issues arise. +5 Proficiency Bonus, +7 Strength, Strength Saving throw of- ... +11? Not 12, 11. Wisdom of 12 for a +1, Perception of +8, which again doesn't math at all.

However, the Anokapsik then has a Passive Perception of 14- 14! That's a solid 4 points lower than what its Perception Bonus of +8 (already incorrect_) says it should be.

This problem continues intermittently throughout the book- Some creatures' statblocks math perfectly fine, while some leave me scratching my head at how this made it into a published product. I don't know what caused this, maybe some creatures were written by Cordell and some by Reynolds, maybe they hosted some backer-made monsters as part of the crowdfunding campaign and those are the ones that just- ... don't work. All of these issues are easy enough to fix if you sit down and crunch some numbers, but tweaking the monster's statistics in this way could also risk tweaking its challenge rating up or down a level depending on how messy each one's math is.

I wish that I could recommend this book more, as solely on the tier of art and creative writing, it feels exceptional. However, the absolutely mind-boggling math on a handful of its creatures makes it incredibly difficult to speak words of praise for it.

Excellent way to help new players who are used to games Like D&D to enjoy the Cypher system!

What is contained is good but what is excluded is inexcusable.

TLDR: If you want to create a character and play the Magnus Archive RPG do not buy this, buy the full book instead.

If you are going to buy this book so you can make Magnus Archive RPG characters you will be disappointed like me.

All this book contains is a run through of the basic rules. This is all well written at least.

Unfortunately this book misses a lot of information that you would need to actually create a character. The book contains the names of descriptors, type and focus but does not actually detail what these give you. It does not contain the stats you get for your character. It does not contain any information on the various special abilities you get at character creation. It mentions cyphers but does not contain any of the cyphers you can get in this Cypher system game.

It is good at explaining on how to play the game but does not provide you with the information to play the game. Ignore this book and buy the full book. I wish I had not spent my money on this.

This players guide seems a bit rushed, and it surprise me because the Monte Cook productions are usually top notch. You can't create a character with this book. Bummer. You still need to use the big corebook... There are 2 entire pages of spoilers (!!!) in the middle of this booklet about the secret supernatural forces. Really I don't understand why. It's an horror game, and players needs to discover by themselves these threats. There are some references to rules that doesn't exist in this booklet. Some equipment depicted in the PG are not in the lists... So, this booklet needs a better editing and the price is too high for this. I hope you will update it.

When i first saw this book, i was sure that i give it a pass. It seemed a bit too "cozy" for my taste. But because i own every single mcg book, i thought that there would be something in it that could be of use elsewhere. As time went by and the release date came closer, i got more and more excited and couldn't wait for it to come out.

When the book appeared on dtrpg, it was an instant-buy for me and after the first flip through i have to admit that i am completely sold. The content is very well written, the art is amazing and there are so many useful optional rules in it. But the best of all are the included settings.

I learned so much about running oneshots and quick adventures from this book. Fast, fun, incredible!

Well... Looks like it's just not my game. I was looking for something in the Lovecraft style, but without the Mythos setting, because I was tired of it a long time ago, thanks to Arkham LCG. And in this book, I found something more like what I was looking for, but... It's not exactly Mythos, but it's not something unusual and inspiring either. Just another story about strange communities and untold powers. A game that I can't say anything good or bad about because even after 400 pages it hasn't touched anything in me.

Angel wrote a great summary (his review linked). Great city but for a large city has only one entrance through its walls. Well, two. One entrance from the west and a second to the east. Ancient Rome had several.

This has an excellent discussion of themes and world building prompts for post-apocalypse settings. Nice discussion of despair and hope in these settings.

Contains "AI-generated" images and text, but does not disclose that in the item description.

A very good resource. It's important to note it shouldn't be considered a straight-jacket -- it's not rules that must be followed but guidelines you can adopt, if helpful to you. It's clear and well considered.