Given that most parties of adventurers fall foul of the Watch at least once during their careers, this is a very useful set of miniatures for the GM to have to hand!

The rather startled looking fellow on the cover looks almost as if he's been discovered in his skivvies, but on closer examination it is a breastplate rather than a vest that he is wearing. His helmet is better shaded and coloured to depict metal, that's all.

The rest is a goodly array of different figures all in plausible poses. There's a fairly haughty looking Captain, a human Sergeant and a number of Watchmen of various races, including several dwarves and a couple of female guards as well. Obviously an enlighted equal opportunities city as regards Watch recruitment!

Nice crisp figures, uniform colouration - and at least the white breastplates mean that you can add city colours or badges if you want to. A useful set.

This is comparable to many of the quick-start products available for free at Drivethru. The premise here is to give you enough rules to play at least one game, to include said game, and to showcase the general feel enough to entice gamers to purchase the full product. I picked this up as I loved the ‘Fighting Fantasy’ series as a child and teenager and haven’t revisted the series for many years. I recall that it was easy to play, didn’t take itself too seriously, and had a definite old-school feel akin to ‘Dragon Warriors’ and first edition D&D. In reading over this title, I found nothing to contradict my fond memories.

The rules take up 2 ½ pages of the seventeen allocated to this product, and you’ll also find eight pre-generated characters, and a short adventure. This would easily serve the purpose of filling in a regular game night, or acting as a promotional games days product at your FLGS. The average person should take about five minutes to master the rules (which does make me curious as to the longevity of AFF campaigns), and this would suit new players very well. The art is consistent with the older FF books and suits this very well. I will be most pleased if this is the standard for the rest of the AFF books (which I am now tracking down).

The adventure is a very standard dungeon crawl, that can be run with little preparation and includes many of the familiar fantasy tropes from evil spellcasters, hidden treasure (and traps!) and magic chalices. The map is very rough-drawn (it looks like the author designed it on a napkin whilst at the local pub), but does inventively leave space for the Director (AFF’s name for the GM) to draw in some of their own details. The adventure is not to be taken too seriously (when you meet the two dwarves, you’ll see my point), but does promise a lot of fun.

There certainly wouldn’t be a lack of material to draw from when running this game – I’d consider grabbing an old FF novel and adapting it for a night’s play. As a free tester, the title does well and it has enticed me to dust off my ‘Fighting Fantasy’ novels once more, and also look at the newer products in the range.

Nice variety of very different monsters. I would have liked to see more of the bigger figurines, though.

A great set for the price. Whether you want to play out an RPG or skirmishes either set around Dumas's books anything else at that time, this is a great-looking set of figures, including four Cardinal's Guards, plus figures to represent Milady de Winter and Constance.

The only obvious figure missing from this set is someone to represent Rochefort. I guess one of the musketeers would have to stand in for him (there are six of them).

I liked the DragonLords set very much. Nice art, very skillful work, particularly the evil lord and the dragon lady. This set is a really great addition to any rpg involving dragons. In addition to that, I like the variety of types of dragonlords.

Great stuff. I particularly like the Bugbears. Very nicely done.

Great stuff. I love the quality of the Arion Minis

The Roman Republic, and later Empire, remains a source of interest and inspiration today. From countless novels set in those times to the popularity of movies such as Ben-Hur to Gladiator and TV shows such as Rome, that ancient civilization still seems to fascinate us. It's easy to see why--Rome stood for power in its time, and adventure in remote, wild places. Add this to the intrigues of power, a whole host of insane wars and battles, and images of gladiators and martyrs alike facing bloody doom in the Coliseum, and you have a time and place that's fertile for stories and adventure.

Enter Graham Bottley's Rolemaster Rome, a product by Arion Games that seeks to provide all that's dynamic and involving about Classical Rome for Rolemaster Classic. For those of you out there that are Rolemaster SS or FRP fans, worry not--a conversion document has been released as part of the pdf download. Ringing in at 200 pages, this was the first Rolemaster-dedicated product from Arion, whose previously best known product was perhaps the re-issue of the classic RPG Maelstrom. No matter, because there's a lot to like in Rolemaster Rome, though also a couple of places for improvement.

Rolemaster Rome begins with racial selections (Roman, Gaul, and Greek), and briefly mentions traning packages suitable for a Roman Campaign. The table of special abilities seems to fit quite well into a Roman-themed campaign, with entries like "Rome-Born", "Man of the People", and "Natural Roman" conveying some of the edges in Roman public life amongst the privileged.

There are some minor rule adjustments included to tweak Rolemaster Classic for a Roman campaign--mostly telling you which options from Character Law to "turn on". Of particular interest here is the addition of Dignitas, an attribute reflecting social standing, public achievement, and honor. This is largely a social attribute, to be rolled in sort of a "don't you know who I am?" situation. I found one of the best tweaks Rolemaster Rome presented.

Curiously enough, Rolemaster Rome glosses through some of the geographical descriptions of the Roman Empire itself. Chapter 3, which is supposed to address this, covers under 10 pages. I thought this was a strange design decision. A short Chapter 4 on Magic follows this, which discusses the minor modifications and restrictions of spells for the setting.

If Chapter 3 was a disappointment as far as presenting Roman geography, Chapter 5, which deals with Roman Life, is not. 30 pages here cover every facet of life in Rome, from the role of family to the life of slaves to wages, travel, sexuality, and so much more. This is where Bottley's writing really seems to come to life, and is a highlight of the work.

Chapter 6 is a brief overview of Rome. This session again suffers from the same brevity of Chapter 3, but will provide a basic overview of the historic capital of the Roman Empire.

Chapters 7 & 8 cover weapons/armor and price lists, respectively. The weapons and armor chapter is a fun one, with plenty of illustrations, and it's clear a lot of consideration went into its crafting.

Chapter 9 covers the Roman Legions, and does a good job of providing guidance on some of the different organizational methods that were used. Chapters 10 & 11 cover deities and mythology, and likewise do a nice job of subject presentation.

Chapter 12 discusses customizing your Roman Rolemaster campaign to various eras and playstyles, and that ends the Chapters portions of the book. But what would a Rolemaster product be without plenty of appendices? Guess what follows Chapter 12?

The appendices cover everything from races, professions, training packages (expanded here from earlier in the book), treasure tables, encounter tables, standards stats, and a bibliography. Add in a few sheets for Roman settlements and characters, plus a pretty nice index, and you have Rolemaster Rome. In their own way, the appendices tie this product together and make it so much more useful. If this information were spread across the book, it would be maddening. Nice work on organization by Mr. Bottley on that account.

This is not a product that shows complete 100% veracity on historical material, but neither is it too burdened with errors or anachronisms. At it's best, Rolemaster Rome evokes favorable comparisons to products such as the old ICE Campaign Classics line.

I would have liked to have seen a few more illustrations, but the art is relevant and generally informative and well-placed. The layout is a bit Spartan in places, but aside from a few curiously short chapters, is clean and well-considered.

For overall value, Rolemaster Rome definitely packs a lot in 200 pages, though perhaps a bit unevenly on various topics. However, at $10 for the pdf, some gamers might find that slightly high. It all depends on how you value pdfs--and that's an entirely different discussion right there. Either way, it's great to have a quality Rolemaster supplement out there. Rolemaster Rome is going to scratch an itch for Rolemaster fans looking for new source material.

I haven’t reviewed one of Arion Games’ products for quite some time (well, any product, really, for that matter), but I was quite surprised to see that their product code was already standing at ARG151 – more than 150 products! Arion games have been busy! And I’m pleased to say that the quality and to a certain extent more importantly, their diversity has not diminished. This set, Swamp Dwellers Set, is testament to the diversity and talent of the Arion Games team, and is another good quality offering from a top notch miniatures publisher.

Swamp Dwellers Set contains 14 paper miniature figures straight from the deep reaches of the swamps. The product comes as both pdf and PowerPoint (*.ppt) files, the latter allowing for customization of the set of miniatures you want to print. There are some familiar creatures in this set such as the catoblepas (incorrectly named a bugbear in one of the figures), but also some new creatures such as the series of swamp hoppers and the turtlemen. The latter, I unfortunately have to say, are my least favourite of the set, but their bloated quality is made up for by the great swamp thing. The quality and level of detail of the set is high, and the printed product looks refined and realistic. You can’t go wrong as well with both A-frame and triangular figures.

This set is overall good. If you’re looking for something unique in the swamps or just some old favourites like the giant toad, then this set is good value. The swamp hoppers and the crocodilians will make nice additions to any swamp, though personally I would give the turtlemen a miss. There’s something about them that just doesn’t scream ‘dangerous swamp dweller’, but rather ‘odd-looking critter’. Still, the mix and diversity of favourites with a dash of new make this a rewarding product to take a look at. After some many product, Arion Games keep going strong! Good product.

This is a really useful generic resource for any warrior in need of some retail therapy... and even better if you happen to be the GM for such warriors!

Within the pages of this product, which is written 'in character' as a mail-order catalogue for armour, weapons and, well, just about anything the fighting man or woman might want or need, you will find a wealth of armour, helmets, shields and weapons. Each is illustrated - as if posed on a shop dummy/stand - and accompanied by notes and commentary, even down to its availability for human, elf, dwarf, etc... customers. Even better, there is a fillable space (which saves) to allow a GM to add appropriate prices for his chosen game system and setting. So, instead of the poor GM having to look up everything the characters want to purchase, he can add prices and print it out to pass to the players to make their selections.

It's filled with all manner of realistic comments such as for a suit of Paladin plate armour: "This armour has an integral chain for a holy symbol and side chains for attaching a holy book." Now, what Paladin wouldn't fancy that? Or maybe you want your gear personalised? "A heraldic design can be added to the breastplate for a small extra charge."

The sketches are crisp and clear, and the accompanying descriptions explain precisely what you get for whatever you choose to purchase. There are even specially-designed armours for female warriors - and I don't mean chainmail bikinis but proper armour that you can fight in! A nice touch...

Weapons come in similar generous amounts, illustrated and described (but please, find out how to spell 'vicious' - about the only error I've found!)

As an added bonus, the product rounds out with a listing of the sales staff - excellent instant NPCs to assist your warriors when they set out for their retail therapy! Overall, a delightful work and useful too.

A nice variety of figures, well detailed, and a useful addition to any card figure connection.

A nice variety of figures, well detailed, and a useful addition to any card figure connection.

Nice set indeed, and my introduction to the 2013 collection.

The tails on the horses look a bit stretched, but very well done nonetheless

If you want a diverse set of miniatures for a historical mediaeval or quasi-mediaeval setting, especially if you want people who are not all tooled up for combat, this is well worth a look. Most of these figures would not look out of place on the streets of any historical or fantasy town.

In the set you get a selection of fighting men - knight, serjeant, man-at-arms, crossbowman and mercenary - and a huntsman who might after all not be looking for boar with that long spear... Then the others: a lady, a priest, a monk, a woodsman, a wise woman, a peasant, a shepherd, a rogue and a thief. The two religious figures are robed, the robes being nondescript enough that they do not scream 'Christian' even though that's what they are, if you are using these figures as actual Normans. The peasant, rogue and thief are pretty much interchangeable, just regular commoners with nothing to make the 'thief' character any more villainous than the rest!

There are also a few mounted figures: a knight, a lady and a serjeant and possibly the real gem of the set: an ox wagon! That makes a fine addition to any scene, and could come in useful for a band of travellers if they have plenty of stuff.

All figures come as both 2-sided and 3-sided variants - although the 3-sided ox cart comes in two separate bits due to its size (and is labelled 'Serjeant' for no readily apparent reason). A nice set.

What can I say...These sets are just beautiful... Incredibly detailed, High Quality Images, that far surpass the majority of the paper minatures available. The cover image is an honest indication of the quality of the image for each figure included in the set. True Value for Money... Go have a look at the range of sets offered... well worth a look!