Can't wait for this to come out! It's not your father's Gamma World without Humans!

Intriguing. I'll be looking forward to this. I don't even play 4E, but this looks like a book that may even have some worthwhile things to mine even for me. I'd like to be able to see the table of contents at some point.

Is it Gamma World, Rifts or something else? The concept seems fun and exciting. I am a big-time fan of the Rifts campaign setting but not the system. If this is something similar or better then that, we may have something wonderful here! It will really depend on how they develop this concept world. For now I would say I am optimistically cautious, but definitely looking forward to it.

These are images culled from public domain sources. They have been cleaned up and presented at a higher resolution than one would generally be able to find online. If you are looking for images suitable for print format, this is a good deal. If you are only interested in digital format, you can get the images free elsewhere. But really at the price no point in going through the process of cleaning the files up yourself unless you enjoy that sort of thing.

This is by far one of the best 3rd party resources for 4th edition. This resource introduces a small extension to the 4th edition rules that lets players choose flaws for their character in exchange for receiving an extra feat. Both the flaws and merits listed in this book are very flavorful and explore a lot of new ground not covered in the WotC's resources. These options can really help you develop your character in new ways and make him/her feel unique. Want to play an aged Wizard, a hero that is dreadfully afraid of spiders, or a proficient teacher that can bolster your parties skills? There is mechanical support for all these things in this book and more. Everything looks really well balanced, though a few have a few "loopholes" that may require DM arbitration.

This begins with a hyper-excited editorial concerning not just the arrival of Dungeons & Dragons 4e but some incoherent references to online gaming (I think referring to some of the hype from Wizards of the Coast that has yet to materialise), and saying that they'd decided to drop the Poor Gamer's Almanac in favour of a new journal. They see it as a 'newsletter with perks' with an erratic release shedule, containing upgrades of existing product to 4e, previews, playtests, maps, small adventures... a bit of whatever comes to hand or mind.

Without further ado, an update to the Noble character class, as presented in Feudal Characters: Noble; giving him some novel powers such as the ability to deliver a 'tongue lashing' - literally berating an opponent into submission (useful trick for teachers!). Next, a preview of a product called Noble Characters: Possessed, a class drawing power from a new power source, the infernal, but unlike warlock's pact magic the character can have quite a struggle keeping the demonic or devilish entity possessing them under control. Some unusual ideas there, and definitely one for those who enjoy role-playing to the full!

The next item is an exploration of noble titles, used in human circles as both rank and reward. It's intended to provoke thought in the hope of receiving feedback for future products - with such matters being important in their Feudal Lords campaign setting, it's vital to ensure that they work mechanically within the context of the game. While these noble titles - closely based on the British system, even to the proposed design for coronets! - are humanocentric, the next article covers the Ancestral Knight, a path that can be followed by eladrin or dwarven warlords; while those of evil aspect may prefer the Dark Champion instead. Good paladins can try the Knight of Dawn, dedicated to the destruction of 'foul nocturnal creatures' as they believe only the righteous can walk in the daylight.

For those who wonder what this feudalism is all about, there's a piece on Feudal Obligations - true feudalism consists of a network of obligations in both directions, each individual owing loyalty and service to his lords but having a duty of care to those inferior to him that is just as important. Putting some rules behind these obligations a sample house that you might wish to take service in is presented, along with the requirements and benefits of so doing. Finally, a couple of rather small maps of Caldor, a city that features in their campaign world, are given.

Whle a bit fragmented, and of use mainly to those using the Feudal Lords campaign setting with its structured feudal system, it is an interesting first issue. Wonder when the next one will be out?

Player Options: Flaws and Merits is a 16 page pdf product from Alea Publishing Group by author Joshua Raynack. This product provides elegant mechanics for giving your player characters certain flaws and merits, thereby combining roleplaying and mechanics in a useful little system for enhancing your player character's options. This product is stand-alone and self-contained, and is written for the 4e GSL system.

Player Options: Flaws and Merits comes as a neatly presented pdf file. The cover illustration is good, though perhaps not entirely related to the product content. No bookmarks or a table of contents are included, but it should still be fairly easy to navigate the pdf. The interior of the pdf contains some striking and impressive art by artists N.C.Wyeth, Sade and Joshua Raynack. Of the 16 pages of the pdf, 14 are devoted to content, offering good value for money. Writing and editing is good, and the new mechanics are well defined and well described. Flaw and merit descriptions are straight to the point and easy to understand. Layout is also very impressive. Overall, this pdf shows all the characteristics of a professional product and indeed it is.

I'm generally a fan of combining the mechanics of the game and roleplaying characteristics all in one. It has, of course, its up and down sides. On the up side, it gives you a neat system of roleplaying your character within certain clearly defined rules, and those rules have a certain in-game impact. On the down side, this kind of thing is often quite stringent, and doesn't provide a lot of flexibility in escaping the rules. That depends on how a system is written, of course, but most I've seen through the years in different gaming system don't escape this very well. Characters by their very nature change their persona as time goes by - you can hardly expect that 1st level novice to be the same as the 30th level god-killing champion.

Which brings me to Player Options: Flaws and Merits. This product details a flaws and merits system which is essentially based on the feat system. Whenever you would gain a feat, you can take a flaw (to a maximum of 2) and given the nature of flaws, you can also take either a feat to offset the flaw or a merit, which is essentially a special kind of feat. The system balances itself very well, offering roleplaying opportunities in both flaws and merits as well as good mechanical balance. The system is designed to offer flaws and merits to specific character roles - so a striker will have different flaws and merits to a controller, for example. There's impressive variety here, which means you can place mechanical emphasis on pretty much any character roleplaying trait.

I think for the most part this system works well. Unlike other systems that are largely on or off, this system has an additional mechanic called 'going against the grain'. Essentially it means you can choose not to suffer from your flaw should you choose to do so. In this way, the mechanics effectively allow you unlimited roleplaying freedom when it comes from your flaw. Does your nervous character want to show some backbone - it's possible every once in a while where your roleplaying dictates it. With 52 flaws and 28 merits to choose from, you gave great flexibility in designing a character, working through the flaws, and even overcoming them. This was the only part of the system I didn't agree with - when you overcome the flaw you also lose the associated feat or merit. I would've thought that if you'd gained a skill, you would be able to keep it. Just because you overcome sort of phobia it doesn't mean you forget to do something like be a natural leader of a fast healer.

The last few pages of the pdf are devoted to providing flaw and merit combinations for all character classes, which provides a very useful framework starting point for using this product. Overall, I think this is a welcome product for the 4e GSL system. Now that the product for the 4e GSL are moving away from races and monsters, publishers are starting to fiddle and add to the rules with new and useful additions. Flaws and Merits will make a good addition to your game, and it will certainly encourage roleplaying. It's a very well presented pdf, with good and useful material that's well worth a look at.

Anyone familiar with the GURP system will recognise this idea but I think that it is a better format here. In GURPS you get enough disadvantages to buy the advantages you want. Not with this format. Pick a flaw and then you can have a merit that affects your attitude or behaviour. The lists are arranged in controller, defender, striker, leader or general order. At the end are suggested lists in character order. The suggested scenarios show how these can make the game more interesting and characters more fun to play. Or use it as a jump start to making up your own flaws or merits. Either way you can add so much more depth to the game and your character.

I have always enjoyed this original campaign setting. The two authors have spent a lot of time and effort to not only make it a 'fun game' but to also incorporate a lot of historical material. Yes, it is still a fantasy game; but I think anyone who enjoys history, especially of the medieval era will enjoy this setting.

Having used this product in the game I am playing in; I can honestly say good job to the Alea Publishing Group and it's authors, Cameron and Josh. I agree that while not all the powers mesh 100% with each other or a real game, it's a well written and useful multiclass.

This is a great side quest. It's easily ran and played as part of a larger campaign or indeed as a one shot module. Kudos to Alea Publishing for bringing us this.

This is a great quiet start for 4ed d&d so have fun with it.

This is a good but not great way of doing a noble multi-class only class. By making noble a class you dabble in, any character class can be a noble. This is a great design goal but the implementation is unfortunately lacking. Weapon based characters are much better represented than implement based characters. The level of disparity in power a Noble Fighter would have over a Noble Cleric for instance is a bit jarring and detracts from what would otherwise be an excellent product. Also, the non-weapon powers don't have the implement keyword although adding that as a houserule is easy enough to do. The Paragon Path and the DM Noble templates are very good.

Absolutely bautiful cardstock Knights. Several different figures provided. Some are also provided with several copies of the same figure. They use the inverted T version which I personally prefer as I am able to glue the base to a 1" square foamcore board which works well with cardstock terrain.

For the Price, these are absolutely beautiful card stock miniatures when printed out. There are also several figures provided with the set and several copies of each figure. The only dissappointment I had was that they are only provided in the 3 sided versions and I prefer the inverted T that I can glue to a foamcore board base.