One of the things I most appreciate is the writeup of the Warlock class. The Pathfinder modernized specifics make it a viable class for those of us who don't like MMO-at-the-tabletop WotC 4.0 rulesets. Other components such as chase rules, Morale (Dread, Fear, Insanity rules), and the like round out the Pathfinder core well for use with other settings.

So far so good.. Everything I've received from drivethru has been satisfactory.

The Savage Worlds RPG is perfect for a pulp campaign. Trilling Tales 2nd Edition (Savage Worlds) makes the job super easy for a prospective Game Master. It's also a fantastic pulp sourcebook.

If you like the Savage Worlds RPG system... and love Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian series... then MARS: Savage Worlds Edition will be right up your alley.

Excellent book!!!!!

The Mutants and Masterminds Superlink license allowed many companies to produce material for it. As always, Adamant brings a high quality of product to the table. ATA1 supplements the base M&M material with both time-saving measures for those who are looking to use it more efficiently, and new material for those wanting to extend the base game. The format is that of a "magazine" type of supplement, something that I think the e-format is extremely well suited for.

The first few pages are taken up by several thorough characters, detailed, with vivid art and several options for where individual campaigns can take them. My favorite is the Cybercorps, who remind me of the Reavers (villains from 1990s X-Men titles), particularly the hook that might permit them to return from their crazed mercenary killer ways to normal life. This would be a fun scenario for any group of heroes to face.

There's a page of very basic new powers, nothing spectacular, more to "fill the gaps" in M&M's base system than anything else.

A couple of new archetypes follow. I think these are very undervalued by the M&M community, since they provide quick and easy ways for people who don't want to dig around in the character creation section and want to get started fast. I like the Charmed Scrapper a great deal, it reminds me of martial arts heroes of the 70s/80s.

An interesting plot hook in the form of a decentralized network of super-technological kitbashers is presented...I would almost rather have seen this expanded into its own work! The role of gadgets/technology in comics is well explored, but something that puts a human face on it and centers challenges around it is hard to come by.

A location and linked scenario are presented, surrounding a mysterious island and an alien who seeks a powerful hero to save his home planet. Pretty good, though very straightforward, stuff.

An article about team formation is very helpful (much of this would eventually make its way into the ICONS RPG, where it was also quite good.)

Although ATA didn't last as long as the postscript indicated it was planned to, this issue is full of solid material and for the now-ridiculously-low price tag, you absolutely cannot miss it.

I happened on this during a Cyber-Monday sale and honestly even at full price this little diddy is well worth the price of admission. This small 27 page PDF carries with it a nice punch as it offers some great Skill Challenges, a small section on how to make them more challenging for the player, and some new example on how to use the very "small" list of skills in the 4e game.

If you are a DM who wants to add a bit of RP flavor in your game, you should not be without this book.

If any feedback I would have to give... you could take out the rituals and add more ways in which to use skills.

The tiles in this set are beautifully drawn, and excellent use of PDF layers offers a wide range of customization options. The set is designed for pulp games, but with judicious use of the layers, you could adjust the church and its grounds for use in fantasy games, too. The catacombs don't even need customization to serve well in multiple genres.

Another superior product from Empty Room. These guys keep hitting home runs. I especially like the way they take advantage of the Layering capability of Adobe to allow you nearly endless opportunities to personalize your caverns. They also provide ways to connect the caverns with their regular dungeon tiles and their "Blasted Canyon" set. As usual, they provide plenty of "scenery" in the caves themselves for your viewing pleasure, but equally, you can get rid of it, even removing pools of water and apparent cliff sides to permit you to structure your caves anyway you like. Well done, as usual, Empty Room! The set up is perfect for standard miniatures use, or just to provide your players with some "eye candy" as they work their way through your dungeon/cavern lair.

In Chapter Four of the Crimson Emperor, our intrepid heroes are brought before the Emperor himself as prisoners. In best Pulp fashion, the Emperor will reveal his plans to date and how they have now been successfully accomplished thus far. At a subsequent dinner, the Emperor will continue his monologue, revealing his plans for world conquest and the he is the perpetrator of the "Crimson Death" chemical weapon used to slaughter the nearby village (as a test of its power). From there, the adventure is loosely written so that the adventurers have an opportunity to experience various aspects of "durance vile" eventually culminating in their escape from the Crimson Palace with the help of one of the visiting ambassadors. The ensuing escape has all of the plot elements necessary for even the most hard-boiled fan of pulp -- running gun battles, sudden set-backs, treachery, and airplane flight, whatever you could wish.

Another tour de force by Adamant Entertainment, this one actually has some room for the players to move without following a set pattern so much (at least as long as all the necessary prerequisites are followed for moving on to the next stage). Combined with the many thematic pulp elements, this may be the best single "pulp" adventure yet. As always in this serial, this one is written as both a stand alone adventure and as part of the bigger serial adventure. Additionally, there are several excellent plot hooks buried in the story for this Chapter which can lead to other adventures later.

The third chapter of the Crimson Emperor adventure sees our heroes researching the mysterious Crimson Emperor and discovering that an old "friend," Sheldon Gray (from the Dragon Island adventure) is coincidentally attempting to mount an expedition to Tibet (the area where the Crimson Emperor disappeared several centuries before), in an effort to discover the Abominable Snow Man of the Himalayas. Gray, who chooses to remember the heroes positively if they have already met in the earlier adventure, invites them to accompany his expedition so they can search for clues to the elusive Emperor. The heroes sail for London to meet with Gray and the rest of the expedition and then proceed to India where they will board a plane for the Himalayas. One nice feature of the adventure at this point is that there are suggestions on how to enliven or expand the travel portions of the book to add more time and interest to the game, though little information necessary to do so is provided. As the adventurers approach their landing field the plane they are on is shot down and they are forced to crash-land on the mountain side. Meanwhile, Gray has become ill and they decide to proceed to a nearby monastery to seek shelter. Along the way, they run across mysterious tracks indicating the presence of the fabled Yeti! (Another nice touch is that for once, the GM doesn't have to railroad the players away from this mini-adventure and an appendix containing it "The Lair of the Yeti" is included in the game). The expedition takes shelter in the monastery and learn many things, including the presence of a Communist patrol seeking a strange weapon reputedly hidden in the mountains. Along the way they discover a murdered village and get captured by soldiers of the Crimson Emperor.

This particular scenario is very well written, with plenty of information allowing the NPCs to be well role-played. Likewise, there are several opportunities for the players to take more control of the course of the adventure, thus making it seem less like they are puppets on the GM's sting than is usual. While this adventure can be played as a "stand-alone," it almost cries out to be played together with Chapter Four, EVEN if it IS a stand-alone. In effect, Chapters Three and Four could be used to form a mini-campaign if the GM so desires.

The second part of the Crimson Emperor serial (or campaign, for those of you more used to that terminology) involves our heroes in following up some questions raised in the first part, along with the seemingly unrelated matter of the disappearance of Ms Simms, the girlfriend of a mobster killed in a recent hit. During this process they discover that some mysterious force has unified the two rival gangs in the city into cooperating together despite their long history of warring upon one another. As the adventurers unravel this puzzle, they become aware of the Scorpion Lady who is seemingly pulling their strings. Eventually, this leads to a confrontation which reveals the Scorpion Syndicate is but itself a pawn of a much larger threat in a far-away land. Along the way, the players will interrupt a drug smuggling attempt and learn the name of the Crimson Emperor while involving themselves in several gun battles in locations as diverse as a "night club" (nee brothel), a steamer, and a warehouse.

The adventure is well written, again with opportunities to do some research, plenty of action, a rescue (hopefully) of a damsel in distress, and lots of other fun, "pulpy" things to do. While somewhat linear in its nature, it should be possible for a clever GM to loosen up the order of events fairly easily. As before, with Chapter One, this one is written to either serve as a stand-alone adventure or as part of the serial. Chapter Two is more involved and complex than Chapter One was, and can serve as an excellent stand-alone adventure, especially for those whose games revolve more around crime fighting than esoterica. If played as part of the serial, the players now find themselves considered worthy foes by the Crimson Emperor and must seek to discover more about him and his machinations before it's too late.

This particular adventure is a bit different from the usual AE Thrilling Tales adventures on two counts. First, it can be played as either a stand-alone adventure, or as part of a five section "serial" adventure -- much like a Call of Cthulhu campaign in that regard. And second, the overtly political nature of this episode sets up some potentially interesting character conflict and some unusual situations for the players. While there is still plenty of fisticuffs and opportunities for mayhem and gun battles, the players' objective this time out is a little different in that they are expected to try and preserve the life of Senator Morrison, a popular (and populist) politician along the lines of Huey Long who seeks to become President of the United States. During this adventure, the players become involved through any one (or perhaps more than one) of a series of possible intros. The upshot of all of them is that the players seeming stumble on a plot more serious than the usual political shenanigans that occur around the time of Presidential elections and involves a plot to kill the Senator. This culminates in an exciting confrontation aboard a train carrying the Senator to his next campaign stop. While the adventure is fairly simple, it does include some opportunities for investigation and information gathering, and it lays out some of the key players in the serial in some detail. As a stand-alone adventure, this one is mainly good for an evening of relatively light play, as the introductory chapter to the serial, it sets the stage for more dangerous and exciting events to follow. While most AE adventures are written in entirely too linear a form, this one has some nice features allowing it to be played more loosely and giving the players more of a feel of being in control. One problem I noted with this adventure though is the lack of specific guidance to the GM. In several cases he is simply instructed to provide information in "some other way." Not perhaps conducive to a new GM running this one! Other than that however, it is a simple, easy adventure which as a stand-alone provides a good beginners scenario and as part of the serial, sets the stage for further adventure!

This is a surprisingly good adventure, involving the players in a unique way (they have the opportunity to foil a robbery at the museum) and taking them on a world-spanning chase to recover a series of coins that lead the way to a vast treasure plundered centuries before. Along the way, they will confront the dreaded Pirate Queen of the South China Sea, and even face a group of skeleton warriors cursed long ago by one of the original owners of the treasure lost at sea. The plot mechanisms are fresh and exciting for most gamers and the touch of occult is perfect if your campaign runs that way. As usual, the adventure is easily converted to other systems and, while somewhat linear, the very nature of the coins themselves (and who has them) means that they can be sought in any order depending on the clues the players find. A worthy GM will take time to make sure that there are clues to at least one other coin in each location where a coin can be found, and will also ensure (a la Gumshoe) that the clues ARE found. The villain-ess is vile and beautiful (as all such should be) and will be a definite problem for the players, perhaps even returning in future adventures if she survives this one. There are enough plot hooks buried in the adventure to keep our players involved in the Far East for some time, if the GM so desires, and overall, this adventure is a must.

At first glance I didn't think Dragon Island would be all that great as an adventure, however, eventually, I decided that for a buck, I couldn't go too far wrong, and so I purchased it. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. The method of involving the adventurers is one that is fairly elegant and doesn't involve yet another long lost friend or lady-love popping out of the woodwork and even sets up the potential for tension within the group if you want to use it that way. The adventure itself is interesting (and includes a Zeppelin -- how do you go wrong with that?), though admittedly fairly linear again, though in this case, Adamant Entertainment provides some helpful sections on different ways the adventure could evolve and suggestions on how to play it out if the players insist on going there. Even better, there are suggestions at the end of the adventure on how to edit it or change it around with minimal fuss. Basically, the adventure begins with a world-renowned (and egotistical) explorer, Sheldon Gray setting up an expedition to a lost island in the Indian Ocean, where they will seek to find the "dragons" reported by the locals to a previous expedition. However, recent activities by Gray have created some enemies for the team, and Thugee attack as the explorers organize. Eventually the expedition lifts off in their zeppelin for the journey, arriving, eventually at the island and seeking out the natives. Unfortunately, things have changed since the first expedition and our heroes are trapped, drugged and imprisoned. After eventually escaping, they make their way to the dragon's lair and must confront the beast, perhaps winning its treasure if they are successful in their efforts. They must then seek to escape the island despite attacks from more of the dragons who seek to damage or destroy their airship. Rescue awaits though as a passing steamer bound for Bombay can pick them out of the drink if they go down. Finally, at the end of the adventure, AE has included some additional plot threads that can lead to other adventures deriving from this one. Actually, AE did themselves proud with this one and it is well worth buying. Highly recommended.

Another excellent little one-off by the folks at Adamant Entertainment, this one involves our heroes in an auction that goes awry over the attempt to sell the legendary Jade Monkey. In the process a beautiful woman is kidnapped and held for ransom, an attempt is made on our heroes' lives and a message is delivered, a dangerous and difficult race through China Town to solve the mystery, avoid various nefarious death traps and unravel the clues to find the hostage, and a final confrontation with the evil Dr. Sin (clearly a take-off of Dr. Fu Manchu) culminates in the final climactic scene! The adventure is pretty well plotted, though also somewhat linear in its arrangement. A clever GM will spend some time to ensure that the players can follow the clues in any order they are discovered and still reach the denouement in time to rescue the fair maiden. The confrontations are well thought out, and the Jade Monkey itself can play a role in the game. All in all this one is pretty good. And it introduces Dr. Sin (who could probably use a renaming) as a potential future villain if he survives this adventure. I liked it, and it can easily be converted to other campaigns as well.