This particular adventure sets the players up to investigate the mysterious death of an Archaeologist and the disappearance of the mummy he'd brought back to the museum in NYC. This is a pretty classic set-up and sounds less intriguing than it actually is. One of the nice features of this one is that its written so you can play it as a standard murder mystery (with the "Mummy's Curse" theme as a classic red herring to drag across the investigators' trail), or as a horror/Call of Chtulhu type adventure where things "man is not meant to know" get involved. The mystery itself (who killed the professor) is confusing enough and with enough potential suspects, all with valid motives that the biggest fan of Agatha will find themselves intrigued by the puzzle. If it turn out to be a supernatural explanation, why the mummy did it, but then the task becomes the even more daunting one of tracking down the creature and rendering it harmless. Throughout the adventure, both tracks are provided and there is a brief but well-written guide on how to run a classic mystery story at the beginning of the scenario. Overall, it's well plotted, loose enough to avoid "rail-roading" the adventurers, and complex enough to remain interesting right up to the bitter end. Among other advantages to this type of scenario, it might provide an excellent transition from the more standard mystery adventures to something with occult or supernatural tendencies. If you have run your players as, say, a firm of PIs investigating mob hits and "Maltese Falcons" and the like, this would be an superior adventure to let them glimpse things "beyond the veil." Just a thought....

Another snappy little adventure from Adamant Entertainment. (Let's face it, the cover illustration alone is worth a buck!) The papers of a deceased professor eventually enable the players to learn that he had discovered a lost civilization buried in the jungles of central America. They also learn of the golden idol these tribesman worship, and the unscrupulous nephew of the dead professor who has rushed to steal the treasure. Our doughty heroes follow after to save the tribe from the dastardly nephew. Along the way, they are captured by the tribesmen (who have been seduced by the nephew and told they are evil men trying to kill him), and are brought before the Chief of the tribe. If our heroes can confuse the issue enough, they can prevent their own deaths and undergo a test of their honesty; however the nephew may manage to force them into the old temple to overcome the hidden boobytraps and recover the golden image of the god, with the intent of stealing it from the tribe and fleeing back to civilization. Can our heroes overcome the ancient defenses of the temple and triumph? Will they prevent the nephew from stealing the idol? Only the Players can tell for sure. This particular adventure could be of great use to the GM, setting up not only an Indiana Jones style of adventure, but also perhaps even creating a villain that can appear again somewhere along the way to confront the players. I liked this one a lot.

This particular adventure lays out a situation that involves the adventurers in a journey to Darkest Africa following the clue provided by a recently discovered map to a long-lost city deep in the wilds of the Belgian Congo. Along the way, they are repeatedly attacked, have the opportunity to rescue a princess, and become involved in a political conspiracy against the throne of the lost kingdom itself! This adventure should be very easily plugged into most campaigns and could even be used as a one-shot designed to get the Players to Africa for some other adventure as well. Even the name of the missing map (the "Marsh" Map) would work well to tie the adventure into Call of Cthulhu and the inbred degenerates from Innsmouth. Overall, the adventure is well written in the classic pulp style with plenty of confrontations and desperate escapes to keep the players heavily involved all through the adventure. One of the things I like about adventures like this is that even the "librarian" types from games like Call of Cthulhu can get involved in the action, and despite all the action, some thought (and even, perish the thought, some research can easily be incorporated into them. This one combines some political intrigue as well, making it satisfying on many levels, and perhaps gaining some allies for the adventurers in the future as well!

A typical Pulp-style adventure written in the cinematic style, the Valley of Mystery has plenty of excitement, travel, and opportunities to react with a variety of villains in order to survive the valley and escape with the knowledge of the past it promises. Along the way, you get to thwart the Nazi's, reveal a treacherous follower, and cavort with dinosaurs. What more could any red-blooded pulp hero ask? There are a couple of jarring elements in the scenario (depending on the kind of campaign you're running), but they are easy enough to weed out or change to something more suitable. Overall, its an excellent little adventure with several distinct ways to expand it and connect it to other events in your campaign. A good solid effort by Adamant Entertainment.

This tile set by Empty Room Studios represents an Antique shop and a couple of houses, surrounded by streets and sidewalks. In addition, there is a complete basement complex that makes it look like some pretty nefarious things have been happening in the 'hood. The details are well done, with things like pillows, candy dishes, a rusted-out car, and the occasional statue of Cthulhu (at least from the look of it) scattered throughout the area. The setting is perfect for a gruesome murder (indeed, at least one has already apparently occurred), or a eldritch battle against things man was not meant to know. Empty Room uses the layering capability of Adobe to lay out the rooms and allow you to adjust or edit them as you like. Given all the extras thrown in at the end, you can easily redesign and "redecorate" the buildings as you like, ranging from the Beverly Hillbillies look all the way up to a fairly nice block of houses with an upscale shop. This one is a good one, with lots of flexibility.

A great product from Empty Room Studios. Basically, this provides an entire area of docks for use with your modern era city campaign. Perfect for use with crime, pulp-era, Call of Cthulhu, horror and Supers games. As always with their materials, it includes plenty of extras and a few options that you can substitute for the features on the main tiles, and, Empty Room makes use of the "layering" function of Adobe to permit you to remove items from the areas you want to print. Thus, you can vary the warehouses from building to building, simply by carefully selecting which layers you want to print. I strongly recommend playing with this feature a bit before rushing into print, but the way -- it will give you some excellent ideas for further use of the buildings! There is guidance included on how to print, where to trim, and how to attach different sections together to complete the big picture. There are also areas where other Empty Room products (such as Dungeon Tiles or Cavern Tiles) can be attached -- perfect for those attempts to recreate the docks of haunted Innsmouth! A job well done by Empty room.

A very nice apartment depiction -- allowing you to quickly integrate players into a common area for a modern setting adventure (say, Call of Cthulhu), where you might need to arrange for your players to meet quickly -- how better than an apartment building where Graduate Students at Miskatonic U can stay and get acquainted? The layouts are sensible, especially for the 1920's to early 1930's period and allow players to rapidly determine where they are, and to visualize how the action is going -- even to game it out with miniatures if you are so inclined. It also provides a likely setting for murder mystery or gumshoe style event to play out -- heck, even some of the classic "Maltese Falcon" was filmed in a simple apartment like these. All in all, a very nice addition for your modern city role-playing game. As usual the data comes in layers, so you could even have one or more of the rooms completely blank, and with the extra items provided in some of the other Empty Room City Tiles sets, you could even redecorate!

Empty Room tries something very difficult here -- putting together a usable miniatures/Role Playing template for a modern steamer. There are a few glaring issues with the ship (which Empty Room admits right up front, but states were done in the interest of more playing surface) such as the lack of Smokestacks or funnels and scuppers and that sort of thing. But overall, they do succeed admirably. As usual, they've layered the data, and provided sufficient additional items that it ought to be possible to convert the Shearwater into a tramp steamer with a few accomodations cabins thrown in -- a la Indiana Jones. The ship would be very usable, especially for miniatures gun battles (anyone for the final confrontation scene from the novel, The Berkut? You could do it on this ship...). An excellent overall effort, all things considered, and one of the nicer touches is the "flip and fold" lifeboats and elevator -- which allow you to have some overturned lifeboats in the water if you are in the midst of ship-wrecking your adventurers, or to have someone gain access to the roof of the elevator if they need or want to. One minor quibble -- it's definitely NOT the HMS anything -- HMS was reserved for naval vessels in His Majesty's Service. Steamers of this sort were simply the "SS Whatever" (which is simply the abbreviation for "steam ship") and this product should probably be relabeled if Empty Room ever decides to re-issue it. I'd also suggest they consider adding in the smokestacks and funnels as at least optional items -- after all, how can Indiana Jones hide in one of the darn things if there AREN'T any?!?

Another great item from Empty Room. These particular tiles will work wonderfully well to help lay out your city for any miniatures action you want. They even provide some vehicles (though admittedly they are only really useful for late 1920' to 1930's pulp action). The church is well configured for all sorts of adventuring (including the catacombs beneath the graveyard) and should work very will with your Horror or Crime or Call of Cthulhu type adventures. In addition, there are items you can use to replace the existing features within the church, or change the configuration by adding more doors and stained glass windows. There are event items which would even allow you to make it abandoned if you wanted. Plenty of "extras" are included too in the form of spare church features, sidewalk tiles, and various stretches of road and road intersections, complete with storm drains and manhole covers. All in all, this is an excellent piece of work with superior graphics which should be easily enough to reproduce. The diagrams also include trim lines so you can fit the church together on your tabletop. Overall, I have to rate this one a 5 for flexibility and all the extras! Good job, Empty Room.

(full disclosure: I am a freelance writer working on Adamant's MARS line, so my comments may be biased. :) )

'Warriors of Mars' is an excellent expansion for MARS. Savage Worlds excels at blending tabletop miniatures action with roleplaying adventures, and MARS as a setting is perfect for the sort of sprawling tactical battles that Savage Showdown does so well. The Good: 'Warriors' details combat troops for all the various races in the MARS setting, and includes three tabletop battle scenarios so you can set up and play immediately. The Savage Showdown rules and a custom 'Warriors' Excel troop-builder spreadsheet are even included in the download. The artwork (primarily by Jesus Garcia Lopez) is gorgeous and very evocative. All told, 'Warriors' is a great value for the price. The Bad: Unfortunately, there are some spelling and grammar errors which slipped into the final product. Nothing that makes the text unreadable or the information unclear, but it is an annoyance in an otherwise fine product (and the cause of my 4-Star rating instead of the 5-Star rating I wanted to give).

I snapped this up as soon as I saw it was released. I;m a big fan of the MARS Savage Worlds products, and this is another great addition to the line. I am already planning to build me own tripod and sky galleon! The art is fantastic... look a that cover!!!

Adamant, please, please PLEASE come out wit ha line of paper minis for this game... I beg you! PLEASE! (trifold, pretty please!)

I haven't had the chance to actually read the book yet, so I cant comment on its content. I am wanting to comment on the excellent customer service received from Adamant concerning the problems I had downloading this product. After I get the opportunity to read the book I will be back to give it a review as well.

Great product.

Everything it claims. The ground tile is multi-layered with an optional 1" grid, trees, stumps, a log, bones, bloody body, arcane symbols, 2 wells, and a pond!

I look forward to seeing more in this collection. Horror, or more correctly Lovecraftian Mythos inspired creatures, are under-represented. THis product takes a good step forward to correcting that.

Savage Worlds doesn't need too much help to do pulp, but this guide has some really fun supporting material, including new edges and hindrances, some alternate rules to increase the daring do, and and expanded equipment list, with black and white photos of 1930's weapons and vehicles.

It also has a great random adventure table, some sample villains, and a series of linked pulp adventures that form a complete series, "The Crimson Empire."

Since it is basically a collection of converted materials for Savage Worlds, it's a bit of a strange mix. But most of the info is useful, the new pulp rules seem to work well, and of course, it sports the cover of one of the greatest pulp games in history!

Considering this was just a free one sheet, I wasn't expecting much. After downloading it, I was pleasantly surprised! This is a great little adventure, with memorable encounters, some neat Mars creatures, and a really cool twist! If your a Mars fan, grab it, you won't be sorry!