...basically all you'll need to run Steam Punk with d20 Modern. ...uses a build point system derived from d20 mecha along with Craft DCs.

Adamant bills this product as correcting two specific flaws in the monster creation guidelines given in the "DM's Toolbox" section of the 4e DMG: (1) DMG-bred monsters are overpowered at high levels, and (2) Monster Manual monsters don't follow the DMG guidelines. The key questions for evaluating the success of Adamant's Monster Maker are (1) whether you agree that those flaws really exist, and (2) whether Adamant does a better job than WotC at showing you how to create 4e monsters.

On the first score -- whether DMG-bred monsters are too powerful at high levels and whether Adamant's Monster Maker does a better job -- I don't actually agree with the premise. The introduction to Monster Maker practically equates "more exciting and faster-paced monsters" with "monsters that don't hit the PCs as often and get hit by the PCs more often." As a DM, I'm not convinced that's a good thing, especially at epic tier, where PCs can have abilities that begin "Once per day, when you die ..." But suppose that you do agree with Adamant that DMG-bred monsters are overpowered. If so, you'll find that building monsters with Monster Maker instead of the DM's Toolbox will yield monsters that generally have weaker defenses and lower attack roll modifiers than DMG-bred monsters.

But that's just about where the differences end. To test just how different Monster Maker monsters would be from DM's Toolbox monsters, I took three Monster Manual monsters -- the visejaw crocodile (level 4 soldier), azer raider (level 15 brute), and efreet pyresinger (level 25 controller) -- and tried to recreate their basic stats using the DM's Toolbox and Monster Maker. Except for the efreet's defenses and attack bonuses, the results from the DM's Toolbox were very similar to those from the Monster Maker, and also very similar to the actual finished monster in the Monster Manual. You can see detailed comparisons at http://d20.heardworld.com/?p=368 if you wish.

I also took two of the sample monsters presented in Monster Maker -- the rock ape and movie zombie -- and tried to recreate them myself using the Monster Maker itself and the DM's Toolbox in the DMG. I was surprised by the results: the Monster Maker and the DM's Toolbox gave very similar guidance, and the actual creature writeups in Monster Maker differed from the Monster Maker guidelines more than the DM's Toolbox guidelines differed from the Monster Maker guidelines! Admittedly, both creatures are heroic tier monsters, and the differences should be more evident at the paragon and epic tiers. Even so, with results like this (which, again, you can view in detail at http://d20.heardworld.com/?p=368), the charge of WotC "not following their own guidelines" rings hollow when echoing against Adamant's own departures from their alternate guidelines.

On the bright side, the artwork is reasonably good (though I don't know if it's unique to this product), and if nothing else, you do get three new monsters, one of which is a dragon statted out at multiple ages.

Overall, I found this product rather disappointing. Given that the Monster Maker and the DM's Toolbox produce very similar results, that Adamant's method requires more complex math (and directs you to round fractions up, different from the standard D&D practice of rounding down), and that big portions of the text just paraphrase what's in the DMG, I expect that I will keep using the DMG's guidelines instead of Adamant's.

"Characters by Level" presents 30 quick templates for creating a D&D 4e character of any level. In many ways, the product does nothing more than give you the same information as p. 29 of the Player's Handbook, plus some mathematical calculations. If you've been confused by the process of creating a 4e character above 1st level, you might find the $2.00 for this product a good investment. On the other hand, if you can read the chart on p. 29 of the Player's Handbook and calculate 1/2 of your character's target level, keep your $2.00 and buy a Coke.

If you do use this product, though, be careful with your character's ability scores, as the guidance given herein is not quite accurate. At levels above 4th, "Characters by Level" tells you to "distribute X bonus points after assigning starting scores." You need to go back to PH p. 29, though, to make sure you "distribute" these points within the rules. If you're creating a 4th through 7th level character, for example, "Characters by Level" tells you to assign staring ability scores and then "distribute 2 bonus points." The real rule, however, is "add +1 to each of two ability scores"; you can't "distribute" both bonus points to the same ability score. Things are a little more complicated if you're making an 8th through 10th level character, but "Characters by Level" doesn't seem to recognize this. To create an 8th through 10th level character, "Characters by Level" tells you to "distribute" 4 bonus points to your starting ability scores, but doesn't tell you that you can't add more than +2 to any one ability score during this process. If you're not careful, you could end up creating an "illegal" character.

In brief, the product gives you a set of useful shortcuts, but do-it-yourself-ers don't need it.

In the 4e campaign that I currently run, I've been slow to incorporate third-party options for the player characters. I haven't opened the door to Goodman Games's barbarians, bards, monks, and druids from the misnamed Forgotten Heroes book, or Ari Marmell's martial artists, nature priests, savage warriors, and troubadours in the equally misnamed Advanced Player's Guide by Expeditious Retreat Press. That "conservatism" hasn't kept me from checking out third-party options, though, and I have found myself very intrigued by the alternate warlock pact offered in Adamant Entertainment's Pact of the Angelic Choirs.

The warlock definitely occupies the lowest slot on my current ranking of class preferences in D&D 4e. Call me prudish--well, call me whatever you want--but I don't much like the dark overtones of the warlock for heroic PCs, though I like them just fine as NPC villains. In fact, the only house rule in my current campaign is that infernal pact warlocks exist only as NPCs in my campaign world.

Enter Pact of the Angelic Choirs. In this booklet, author Stefen Styrsky presents a warlock pact that involves tapping the brighter powers of the Astral Sea. Styrsky maintains the independence of the angels over against the gods, following the standard 4e storyline, but still balances the standard warlock's infernal pact with a compelling supernal counterpart. Styrsky brings out the flavor of an angelic pact quite well, as long as you think of avenging angels meting out righteous fury rather than sweet little Raphael cherubs. Angelic pact warlocks maintain the striker role perfectly, and Strysky has a good explanation for why they remain arcane strikers, though he tips his hat to DMs who want to redefine angelic pact warlocks as divine strikers.

If I were playing in a 4e campaign right now, I would probably ask the DM to let me play one of these angelic pact warlocks--that's how much I like the flavor that Styrsky has put together here. I don't like everything about the pact, though. In particular, I cringed when I saw that Styrsky had made the "true name" trope a part of his angelic pact. I find the whole "true name" trope to be hokey, but more importantly, I recoil when third-party products introduce such significant concepts in bits and pieces without a larger exploration of the implications. Also, a few of the powers seem, well, overpowered to me, chiefly those that boost all defenses on a scale determined by the PC's Intelligence modifier. Consider the warding presence power (utility 2): "Until the end of the encounter, you add 1 + your Intelligence modifier to AC, Fortitude, Reflex and Willpower defense." Now imagine a tiefling warlock with an Intelligence of 16 (+3). Granted, warding presence is a daily power, but adding +4 to all defenses until the end of the encounter is over the top, I think, for a 2nd-level utility spell. Compare forge fire heart, a power presented in Martial Power for the dwarven defender paragon path (utility 12): "Until the end of your next turn, you gain a +4 power bonus to all defenses, and any ally adjacent to you gains a +2 power bonus to Will." Again, I grant you that warding presence is a daily power while forge fire heart is an encounter power, but the angelic pact allows a 2nd-level character to generate for an entire encounter a bonus that forge fire heart enables a 12th-level character to generate for one round. In most cases, the angelic pact powers seem to me to play on the same field with the standard pacts, but a few powers like this one do seem out of whack. I'd love to play an angelic pact warlock as a player, but as a DM, I have a problem with some of the some powers giving too much bang for a PC's buck.

Oh, and "angel" on the front cover is the same stock art figure who appears as a "demigod" on the cover of an LPJ Designs product--an effect almost like two socialites wearing the same dress to a fancy ball.

Overall, though, I like what Adamant and Styrsky have done with this product. Even if a few powers might need small tweaking--and I would really need some playtest time with the pact before knowing for sure--the pact of the angelic choirs strikes me as a good addition to the warlock toolbox.

I have been really glad to pick up this product during a 1$ sale. As such, it was a gift, for which I am thankful to the publisher. however, if I had to pay 25$ for it, I would have been disappointed: it's mostly a rule-book, with very little of the setting itself. Now, the art is really great, probably the best style I have seen in rpg products, and strongly reminding of Frazetta. So, if you like d20 Modern rules and are searching for a planetary-romance rulebook, this is an excellent product (I would give it 5 stars). However, if you are mostly interested in the setting and very little in the rules (as I was), 25$ is probably too much (I would give it 2 stars).

This adventure is designed to serve as an introduction to the game, and does this well with plenty of background material woven into it so that players new to the setting will find that they soon know quite a lot about their new alternate reality, without having to settle down and wade through reams of material before they start play.

The adventure itself is quite straightforward, involving a native town under attack, with plenty of opportunities for the characters to lend their assistance and save the day. It would be quite good for a novice GM, as options are presented clearly depending on how events fall out, all the GM has to do is select the most appropriate one to continue the narrative flow with.

Both combatants and those who prefer to talk will find themselves with plenty to do in order to complete the adventure successfully. There are moments of terror, opportunities to do good or ill, and generally plenty going on - with a feeling that the characters have just happened by on the right (or is that wrong?) day rather than events taking place merely because they are there.

The township of Chisca is well-detailed with some interesting inhabitants, and could serve as a base or recurring location in future campaigning. The caves of the title, which are located nearby and are the source of the trouble that needs to be dealt with in this adventure are also described in excellent detail, which should make their exploration a memorable experience for those characters brave enough to venture in. There are also some ideas for further adventures.

The book ends with full information on all NPCs and creatures to be encountered (with excellent background to help the GM make them come alive) and 4 pre-generated characters for those starting the game who want to dive straight in.

Overall, it is a very well presented adventure that serves as a good introduction to Northern Crown and leaves me wanting to explore the world further - & I speak as someone who has played in this adventure before settling down to read it for the review!

Nice creepy set of powers with a theme I might describe as "lolthian." I am using this to build some unusual drow warlocks for a forthcoming scenario. Not sure how many players would want to use these....they're a rather creepy power set, so would most appeal to players who fancy ugly and unpleasant PCs. Haven't noticed any unusual rule gaffs or anything off hand....seems pretty sound. Nice layout and art as well.

This adventure is broken down into simple chapters that do a good job of detailing the chapter's purpose while providing linkage to the next one. There is very little opportunity for combat, except in two places, but these can be avoided with good roleplaying and GMing. There is a whole section devoted to the cast and generic NPCs. There are no maps, as they are not really required although pictures of the cast would have been nice.

Overall this was a fair introductory adventure. If you and your group are combat monsters, avoid this. If you are more cerebral (read Holmesian) you'll have fun. This has linkage to the next adventure in the series, The Price of Immortality.

I like Imperial Age London. While you could go on-line and find all of this information on your own, this product removes that tedious work and combines it all in one neat product.

The layout is simple and lacks much in the way of frills. The art is clipart from the period with a few black and white photos thrown in. The color maps are authentic maps of the day.

The flaws are few but substantial. The book lacks a proper index or table of contents, and the pages are not even numbered. I hope they make one available as a free pdf to those that bought it.

A fine example of what third parties can provide for the new edition: flavoursome, edgy but easy to incorporate, solidly designed and well presented. Powers are well suited to warlocks in general as well as those of this pact. Excepting only a couple of mechanical questions and derivative names, this is a good 4 1/2 stars for me.

Mostly a useful survey of the hand-to-hand combat styles taught in the late Victorian period, represented by advanced classes and statistics for implements such as the sword cane and reinforced walking stick, and particularly referring to Sherlock Holmes as the cover suggests. Good treatment of a defensive fighting style (bartitsu) and information on boxing.

I'm not too happy about editing. I was disappointed with the Fencing Master and background information on savate and the 1 1/2 pages spent on fiction pitting Self-Defence Girl against Saucy Jack detracted from the product for me.

Herein are a selection of floorplan tiles that - if you use the suggested layout - give a city block of two houses and a store, with the surrounding streets. Roof tiles are also provided, so that you can reveal the interiors as appropriate - a neat touch. Naturally it is possible to arrange the tiles in different configurations to suit your needs.

The standard of artwork is high, and the 'layers' facility of Adobe Acrobat is used in a sophisticated manner to enable you to show or remove furniture and other items, change the apparent use of a room or even to make it appear derelict. The array of extra items presented on separate sheets means that you can add other artefacts if required.

If you like using miniatures (or cardstock figures), or just like to be able to show the players what their characters can see, this is an excellent visual aid. While both fantasy and to a lesser extent modern/future settings are well-served, it is good to see early 20th-century fixtures and fittings for the many games set in the first part of the last century.

I got this pdf during an Adamant $1 sale, and does a nice job of offering gaming opportunities and source material based on many of the sagas of the Red Planet so many of us love. A couple of sections seemed a bit skimpy on content, and often this product feels like an accessory rather than a stand-alone attempt. I'm not sure I'd have picked it up at $24.95, but at a lower price, I certainly would again.

A VERY GOOD SUPPLEMENT!

This is what the DDI stuff should be.

My only complaint is that a few things seem to good, like the at will here, it's clearly better than Dire radiance. I fixed this by changing the at will to ding no initial damage, and 2d6+int after the trigger. (giving a bit of variation from dire radiance.)

Yeah, insect pact warlocks. It might sound like a kinda weird idea, but it works surprisingly well and, due to being basically just a new set of powers that any Warlock can take, is eminently usable by players.

At $2, this is probably one of the best low-price PDFs available for 4e.