Well I have to say I guess I cannot complain too much for the price. But that's about all I can say. I was expecting a bit more than some vague guidelines and a few flimsy charts. I was looking for something with a bit more crunch to it. I think this product could have done with a bit more time devoted to it, even if the price had gone up a notch. Something a bit more modular would have been refreshing. Take piece a plus piece b and get new and unique monster c. That sort of thing.

These are definitely cool. Stats: 7 pages with 25 shapes, full color, layered PDF file. Different options in the layers give effects for thousands of looks.

I'm planning on printing these on self adhesive waterproof paper then backing them with foamcore. I'll print the "extras" layers on clear plastic sheets to overlay where I see fit. Overall the best DIY solution to tile based gaming.

-Troy Caban

Excellent treatment of the subject matter, well up to Adamant's usual high standard. Perils of the Orient is a primer on utilizing the "Yellow Menace" in your pulp games, and it serves that purpose well. The product opens with long piece of flavor text, which I find a bit too long for the purpose. While this detracts from my overall rating, the rest of the product redeems this editorial choice. The introduction cites numerous examples of oriental pulp villains and provides the social and historical context of the "Yellow Menace" as a genre. Different types of villains are detailed in successive chapters, and there is even a chapter on Asian weapons, their origins, and uses. The d20 stat blocks would be useful for anyone running a pulp d20 scenario. This product could have used a few more maps, perhaps of an historical or quasi-historical Chinatown neighborhood. The illustrations are evocative of the era and genre, even if some of them are seen elsewhere in Adamant's product line. Overall, I'm satisfied with the purchase and happy to recommend it to any pulp GM, especially if you're running a d20 system game.

This product was really cheap, so I don't feel ripped off. However, this product fails at it's stated task. It makes monsters that are just as uniform as the method in the Monster Manual. I tried to use their formula to create an Epic level solo monster, and the stats aren't any better than the one I made using the MM. Some of the ideas within are good, and it includes a couple of new monsters. I can hardly say it isn't worth the price, but don't expect it to fix all your home-brew monster needs.

This is a commercial version of Tequila Sunrise's manual, adding a good-looking layout and two more complete examples - very reasonable value added for $2. In turn this collects and cleans up the DMG monster building guidelines, suggests some changes and fills in some gaps. Notably, this manual contains extra information on minions, which unfortunately doesn't match with my reading (but don't take my word for it, check the formula against Monster Manual examples). A useful clarification and contribution to restarting some more open development for 4e.

I dig what they're trying to do with this product, and they go in some interesting directions with it. The idea of abstracting a monster's rank (Regular = 1, Elite = 2, Solo = 5) and making a few implementation decisions off of that is clever. There are a few choice bits of "be careful about doing X" that can be taken from here and blended together with the DMG's take on building monsters to very good effect. And the goal to make monsters scale at a rate that's a bit more in keeping with the rate of character progression level to level instead of a slow outpacing of same is a noble goal (though there are numbers yet to be crunched on that one to get me fully convinced).

At around ten pages, it's a decent $2 offering. I don't feel my money was wasted, even though I'm not sure the guidelines here would replace my current monster design methodology. It made me think.

This said, I do have some problems with some specifics of the product at first blush. When I first got this, I read the first page, which talks about the goals of the product and notes (fairly) that the D&D 4e designers haven't always followed their own guidelines when it comes to the monsters in the Monster Manual. With that in mind I eagerly pawed through it and raced for the last page. There, we find the Movie Zombie ... and there we find that this product doesn't follow its own guidelines too well either.

As a rank 2 monster (an elite level 6), it's listed with 2 action points -- the guidelines say it should have 1. Its AC is typoed, showing a whopping AC of 219 -- so obviously a typo it didn't really bug me that much, and I did have a chuckle over it (it's a case of two overlapping numbers -- a 19 that got adjusted to 21 by the Elite formula). A few of the other errors -- quite probably typos (I know them well myself) -- are a little harder to catch at first glance. The main attack of the creature is a +17 vs. AC. That's 6 too high -- by either the DMG or this product's guidelines, the attack should be +11. Its three non-AC defenses are all pitched a little too high -- the product's guidelines say they should start at 12 + 4/5ths of level + the monster's rank, which should leave us with 18.8, or 19. But that's what the lowest defense (Reflex) is set at, and the other two are at 2 to 4 above it. I'm also not too sure about a monster at level 6 having ongoing damage of more than 5, and this one has ongoing 10 damage in addition to the base damage the attack deals -- the accompanying text talking about building this particular monster does not shed much light on that.

At the end of the day all of this may simply be water under the bridge, though. While the example monster I've particularly paid attention to has a number of errors, that's only one page out of the ten, and the guidelines that it doesn't seem to pay attention to -- which make up over half of the product -- look to be pretty solid ones. These guidelines may be of particular use when designing monsters at the middle of the Paragon tier or higher (where I believe these guidelines and the DMG's begin to diverge most notably). So while it may be an entertaining faux pas to talk about the 4e core designers not following their own guidelines only to present new guidelines and an example that doesn't follow them, it's not TRULY a value-destroying mistake for this product.

The only true test will be actually putting the guidelines found here to use at the table, and this product's too new for me to have done that, so please do take all of this with a grain of salt. This product would be a solid 4 stars for me without the errors. I've knocked one off because of them. But at $2, this one was still worth the buy.

If you are the type of GM that like spends hours of your life making up your own monsters...if you have dreams of publishing your own monster compendium one day for 4e...if you just want a better understanding of how monsters are "built"...grab this product. For the price, it is a great primer to understanding monsters for 4e. And if you want to make your own monsters for 4e, you'll want this to help keep your monsters somewhat balanced (not that balance ever really mattered in D&D, no matter how much we kid ourselves otherwise). This is written in plain English, and even people relatively new to gaming in general will be able to "get it."

Venture 4th: Monster maker is exactly what the name implies; a solid set of guidelines for creating your own unique creatures for 4th edition games.

I don't consider myself an expert at game mechanics, but I felt that, after a few reads (I've read through it three times now), I am able to create monsters of any level, whether they are solo creatures, minions, elite monsters: Whatever type of monster I need, I can make with this set of guidelines.

The only thing I noticed were some nagging typos

Kudos to Adamant Entertainment for a great 4e product.

Two dollars well spent! I love the artwork and layout. That and the concept grabbed me right off the bat. I'm looking forward to including some Linotaur NPCs in my campaign, first spotted by the PCs in a traveling zoo/freak show. Later the pair will be escaped, one is on a murderous rampage, the other only seeks to stop him and then somehow return across countless leagues to his pride!

I have only minor complaints; about their size, why not just say they're large? There was a minor typo or two but nothing near as bad as the 4E core books. Also wondering how well the NPC's abilities are balanced but only one way to find out!

Thanks for a great product for a fair price. 2$ is definitely in that threshold where I'll grab it just for curiosity's sake!

This product continues 4e's trend of presenting playable character races that are fantastic yet different from the Tolkien-esque staples. The Linotaur is cool, and that alone is a draw. The mechanical design is on-par with the core races, giving you something that will stand out but should not unbalance things. I like the fact that the Linotaur occupies non-standard space on the grid; along with its high mobility it opens up a lot of interesting tactical options. The racial abilities presented are expected for this type of creature, enhancing the race's natural abilities and weapons. It also includes information on Linotaurs as monsters, making this product twice as useful.

The only thing I would have liked to see included is a bit more information on the ancestral spirit cult of the Linotaurs. We get a glimpse of it via a sample adventurer's description and a Heroic feat, but that's it. Which is a shame because it provides a very interesting story hook, alongside the Linotaurs' tradition of gathering tales of life experiences to recount at pride meetings. Perhaps that can be included in a future expanded version, one that also includes one or two paragon paths and an epic destiny.

This is a solid product, at a good price, presenting an interesting new race for 4e gameplay. I'm very pleased with it.

Empty Room Cardstock Scenes: Dungeon Tiles - Base Set 1 is a 14 page pdf presenting a set of customizable and flexible 2D dungeon tiles suitable for any gaming system. This set offers a base set of dungeon tiles, including rooms, corridors, intersections and other dungeon chambers. One of the key strengths of this product is customization, and for that it utilizes Adobe Acrobat's layer functions to allow maximum customization of the each section of the dungeon. For this reason, this product requires the use of Adobe Acrobat 6 or higher, or other suitable pdf reader.

Dungeon Tiles - Base Set 1 is a very well presented pdf. The cover gives you a good general idea of the style and nature of the tiles contained in the pdf, and there is an excellent overview page which gives useful information on the product and how to use the layers if you're not familiar with them. This product contains 7 pages of customizable tiles using layers, with some pages containing multiple rooms, intersections, corridors or the like. The tiles themselves contain high quality art and look very good when printed. The layers function generally works well, although in some instances removing walls can result in the edges not overlapping properly resulting in a jagged edge to a room. Overall, though, this pdf is very professional and the layers function well to achieve the desired customization.

Most people who enjoy using props and 2D tiles at the gaming table have probably at some point wished for a 'tile creation' computer program that was perfectly customizable and where you could create a room, drag the objects onto it that you want, and press print. While I've not yet seen anything even remotely capable of such versatility, many RPG publishers are striving for something similar using pdf technology rather than computer programming. This product is a big step in that direction, using pdf layers to allow one to customize the one-inch scale tiles the way you want them. So, for example, you can remove a well from an image, or add some barrels, or remove a deceased body. You can even re-arrange some of the chamber walls to alter the overall size of the exits or the size of the chamber itself. I have to admit that I was impressed by the depth of customization that this product allows.

The seven pages of customizable corridors, hallways, rooms and objects allow you to create a good quantity of different configurations. Naturally there are some configurations that one would perhaps want to add, but for the most part this caters to the more standard configurations and allows you to place objects to add more flavor to corridors and rooms. Want a pit trap in the corridor? One click away. Want to make the corridor a dead end? One click away. Using pdf technology gives this product a lot more versatility. And coupled with the excellent artwork and general look of the dungeon features and objects, this is a very useful product for anybody interested in 2D tiles and gaming props.

The latter part of the pdf contains a sample dungeon, a Smuggler's Lair, created with these tiles, and also includes a player handout. This sets you going on the road to adventure, and provides a sneak peak of the possibilities that you can achieve with this set. Overall, this is one of the best sets of 2D tiles out there, not so much in the quality of the art, but in the vast customization that this set allows for. It's by no means all encompassing in its scope, but with only seven pages of material, you can provide quite a wide range of dungeon configurations with added features. Overall, this set combines good use of the layer technology to enable versatility with great art, and good design on the variety of dungeon features contained in this pdf. Very good product.

While I was disappointed with the unoriginal racial power, I'm overall happy with this book. The art is cool, the design is nice, and there's enough mix of crunch and fluff to fill up a pdf of this price.

If you think the cover looks even remotely cool or intriguing, you should be happy with this inexpensive addition to your 4E racial options.

This is an excellent product. The layers make these tiles incredibly customizable. The artwork is beautiful and imaginative, as well. These tiles fit seemlessly with Base set 1 and Butcher's Lair (I also have both of them). The Empty Room tiles are definately my favorites. Wizard's Chambers have some of the most incredible scenery just waiting for an adventure that I have ever seen in a tiles set. Keep up the good work!

This is an excellent product. The layers make these tiles incredibly customizable. The artwork is beautiful and imaginative, as well. These tiles fit seemlessly with Wizard's Chamber and Butcher's Lair (I also have both of them). The Empty Room tiles are definately my favorites.

This set is awesome. I love the artwork, and the ability to use layers and customize the tiles makes for incredible possibilities. I have many other tile sets, but the Empty Room tiles are by far my favorites. I will continue to purchase each new set as it comes out.