Stats bonuses tables that look like AD&D's Backstabbing bonuses table that look like Palladium's fighting proficiencies bonus table Damage table according to strength that looks like gurps' Critical damage tables that look like merp's

However skill list is nice, classes bonuses list is nice too, and some criticals are fine. But all in all, just another rpg.

Nice little game that tries to fill up all 6 pages with as many rules as possible.

Characters have skills level (almost 50 are shortly presented) + aptitudes levels (like a class bonus, 6 are presented) + stat bonus (11 stats) + modifiers from +4 to -10. All that gives you a basic chance of success that you roll against on a D20. You have a few karma points that you can use to reroll (costs 1) or do the roll (costs 3 but must be spent before rolling). So very classic, and that's an advantage. It's also quite easier than many systems with D20 because you roll against the computed BCS, like in old FGU games. All is done by dropping the given points where you want.

However, as usual, this mutli-layers of numbers adding can be boring, like in combat because you have to sbustract the DEX of an attacker if you parry or the AGL of a defender when you attack. Any attack has a BCS of DEX stat + Fighter Aptitude + Weapon Use skill - Opponent’s AGL +/- other modifiers. It's all logical for sure, but there is always the tempations to add "just anpther layer of bonuses" like say, weapons accuracy, or magical weapon power or armor ability to deflect blows, or target's fighter aptitude. And every parry or dodg will have the same kind of computations.

It is just my opinion, but I believe that for a "Lite Core" it gives quite a Rolemaster like feeling that can be frightening. Giving a character sheet that shows how BCS are computed already (basic stat + aptitude + skill levels) would have been compforting. Players would have known that it will be about looking at a single value and adding a modifier or two. In fact it's my biggest complaint: the game is solidly grounded with sturdy and logical principles but given the fact that there is a whole column left on the last page, making an effort to present them in a "softer" way would have been mercyful.

Imperial War is a good strategic level game playable in an hour. Some thought about your position on the map and the cards in your hand suggest your options. Very good examples of game turn.

The map is simple and could easily adapted to other periods as could the "whims of the gods" be converted to other period significant events.

One player suggested that the game could be used as the strategic background for a battle (board or miniature) game.

It was just not what I've been looking fore. Nothing special here.

This is a fun simple game. Possibly the best squirrel based rpg game around. the squirrels rule

Just in case the cover design didn't give it away, this is a delightful spoof/homage to the original Star Trek series. Designed to be played in a single night, you'll need the core Squirrel Attack! rulebook. You can use the characters from there, updated objectives are provided for them or you can use some of the odder denizens of the starship instead, for whom full character sheets are provided.

The concept is simple, although the starship boldly going is crewed by human beings - er, well, somewhat strange and mutated beings including dogs, rabbits and other squirrels as well as humans, some sentient squirrels are - unbeknownst to the rightful owners - also aboard. They have an unwitting ally in the shape of a lowly security ensign who, in classic 'red shirt' mode is about to be sent on an away mission. So the squirrels decide to go along to make sure that the supply of left-over food this disorganised ensign tends to leave around won't dry up!

If the set-up is a bit confusing, don't despair. The opposition draws on several of the better - or is that zanier - of the original series' enemies and monsters. While simple, the adventure can prove a fair challenge and the squirrels will have to think their way through various problems to survive.

All in all, a merry jape; a short and humerous game that ought to play out in a single evening when you are in search of some light relief rather than serious role-playing. Jolly good fun!

Excellent alternate history RPG on a magical and longer lasting Roman Empire. Great stuff, great system. Great setting.

It's fun. There are many different types of squirrels, including communist, vampire, monk and knight, and everyone has another objectives. It's untypical. The idea of creating game in which PCs are squirrels is really interesting. It's a good game, but nothing else.

The plot of scenario "O:GMJN" is kind of typical dungeon crawl, but there is big house and garden exept dungeon. The Irydium System is not something that fits to squirrels and all game - while almost everything looks fun, it's too serious and boring.

But it's good game and if you're looking for something untypical, buy it and have fun.

Roma Imperious is brought into the True20 fold with this excellent conversion by HinterWelt. For those that enjoyed the original flavor of Roma Imperious, Roma True20 maintains that while adding in the simplicity and elegance of True 20. Roles and feats are exhaustively addressed, and appear to be an excellent port of HinterWelt's character ideas in this extension of an Eternal, long-lasting Roman Empire. Some folks might find the magic system feels to be a bit of an add-on and perhaps not as streamlined as it could be, but all in all, this is a very good entry, and hopefully a prophet for more great settings finding True20 to be a fantastic conversion basis. An all-around excellent offering.

Grab your nuts, pull up a chair, and get ready for the fun. Squirrel Attack is a great diversion if you need a break from a long campaign or a quick pick-up game when not everyone in the group shows up. Squirrel Attack could also be used as a great introduction to role-playing for young or new gamers. Hinterwelt does a bang-up job of creating the fanciful game-world of Nuttopia - a world of tribal rodents, oblivious hateful farmers, and watchful crafty canines, cats, and hawks. Using Hinterwelts Iridium Lite game system, Squirrel Attack is easy to pick-up, crack open, and dive into the meat of the action. . . no complex systems or a steep learning curve here, just nutty goodness. Players first select from colorful pre-gen denizens of Nuttopia. Each character is unique coming from the variety of tribal squirrel-kin scurrying around Nuttopia and with their own individualized skill sets and goals. Goals are vital to Squirrel Attack as characters are awarded points for completion of these tasks. . . unlike standard RPGs, Squirrel Attack is a game to be won. . . I know, don't get your tail in a knot - there can only be one . . .winner. So as a GM how do you keep a bunch of walnut-brained squirrel-kin from running wily-nilly around Nuttopia? - you really don't, you let the goals handle things; some characters gain points for protecting other squirrel-kin or preventing death, others for finding specific items, or stuffing your puffy cheeks full, etc.

Hinterwelt is up front that Squirrel Attack is a one shot - and this is due to balancing characters goals that are unique to the story yet provide flexibility for game action and a framework of party cooperation. Although Squirrel Attack is a one-shot, Hinterwelt provides such a rich and cohesive game setting one could easily run a Nuttopia campaign. Rules are present for character creation if one does not find a character to their liking - but this means a little extra work as the GM and player would have to establish game balancing goals.

pros: easy to grab and go, game setting, character goals cons: may be a little squirrelly for GM's needing a structured story-line and unaccustomed to running "setting style"

If you're tired of logical fellows with pointy ears or the war in your stars has kinda burned out - then you need to check out Nebuleon. Hinterwelt does an excellent job of presenting a rich background to play in, while allowing the gm and players the flexibility to create their own niche of the universe. Both the Iridium system and the Nebuleon backdrop allow you to play the type of sci-fi game you want to play. Want your sci-fi served up crunchy? Take a peek. Like a more military feel? You got it. Desire a sweeping space opera? The fat lady is singing. . . everything you need to play in one book. The Nebuleon is well presented in an organized fashion and boasts both a lexicon and a detailed "functional" index. A nice bonus is the Hinterwelt's website - they do a great job of supporting the game: on-line character gen, quick responses to questions, a good forum for discussion - just check it out.

I have both the hard cover and the e-copy, and for an Indie, Nebuleon is top-notch. I can only think of two negatives - some of the artwork is "old school," but I would much rather have that than clipart - it at least shows that Hinterwelt is trying to do something original and fresh. The other negative - well I can't remember what I was going to say so it must not have been that big of a deal. . . so lock and load and grab a Mog ( love these guys, Mogs) and prepare to have some fun.

First the good parts: The part that I liked perhaps the most about the book was the very nice way the book was scanned into the computer and the very nice color layout and maps for the scenario provided. The maps perhaps could have had a little more detail within them, (the maps don't show bodies for example) but thats me being somewhat picky. The other thing that was very well executed was the description of the whole worldview and the basic concept which is pretty original. However the main issue is that they basically condense what should be basically a corebook of well over 100 pages (in my opinion) into 50. This means that the powers which in a superhero game are kinda central, are left to a very vague description which frustrated me along with one generic weakness that doesnt always make sense considering the power that could be gained, the other problem was that they mention that side effects from gaining powers might happen, such as insanity and then say, but those arent going to have an effect here. I should empathize though that the combat and general system are pretty nicely done and they allow for adjustments to that part of the game. I would reccomend this though for many reasons, it's fairly reasonably priced, very nice graphics and the file will not take up a large amount on the harddrive, finally the basic idea is one that could easily be used for other games and the setting is very well done. I can't give half a star or it would be 3.5 stars so i'm rounding down to three.

Excellently written adventure, useful for any rpg system.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The maps are very basic, and the effort to set tone was limited to createing place & tribe names of odd complexity.

The scenario plot was interesting, if rather linear.

An important note is there is little if any application in the scenario for other settings or systems.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Some good ideas.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Very basic maps.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

A Little Background

Rehendi Prison ? The Grave is a supplement for HinterWelt?s space opera RPG ?Nebuleon?. For those who are unfamiliar with the system, it?s not dissimilar to D20 involving as it does those old friends ?character classes? and of course ?character level? although in a much simpler manner. It is peculiar in that while the player uses a D20 for making attack rolls in combat, all non-combat orientated skill rolls are made using a combination of percentile dice and tables. Copious amounts of tables. Hit locations are involved. No, it?s definitely not a system that will appeal to those who prefer a quick-and-easy resolution, but it does make a refreshing change for a simulationist who has grown tired of D20 and the background information is original and absorbing.

Back on Track

So that?s Nebuleon, but what of this supplement? The PDF weighs in at a petite 32 pages for the core of the information, with a four-page map of the eponymous prison complex and a likewise four-page PDF of the world that it orbits in separate files for a total of 40 pages. Let?s start with the maps. The first thing you?ll notice about them is that although they are (for the most part) quite competently drawn, the detail is very small and their resolution is very low. This makes them rather difficult to read. I also found that in some cases they were inadequately labelled. Certain of the maps are cluttered up with all manner of hi-tech set dressing with no clear function and there is no key beyond scale markings. Likewise I have no idea as to how the two maps of Mine 212 connect up and can only presume that one represents the surface portion and the other is underground. There are several areas of the underground section that could correspond to the ?mine entrance? on the above ground section, but since none of the underground is labelled at all I can?t tell which it really is.

The world map is one of those height elevation maps that anyone who has seen the Nebuleon core rulebook will be familiar with. Different shades of colour correspond to different heights of terrain with a handy little chart that gauges the precise height. It?s not particularly attractive but it gives you the information you need to know, which in this case boils down to being the location of the various mines on the planet?s surface. There is also a system map showing the other planets orbiting the same sun, although this map is of negligible use and takes up an entire page to itself, most of which is white space.

Layout Issues

Although two separate map PDF?s are provided for the convenience of printing, most of the maps are also featured in the 32-page main pdf. Since in places these maps bridge across the middle of a two page spread it?s easy to see why the clearer version was included, but I can?t help wondering why they weren?t simply given their own pages rather than being splashed across the centrefold as they are, forcing the text to be scrunched up into narrow bands around them. This lack of attention to text wrapping makes for pretty ugly and unreadable pages in places, particularly on page four where a tiny amount of text no more than three or four lines high appears directly underneath a large flow-chart diagram that dominates most of the page. It doesn?t help that the font used seems to be rather large, I?m guessing around 11 or 12 point. It seems a shame that these basic problems with layout weren?t addressed since otherwise the product is quite nicely arranged.

There are one or two pictures included in the PDF that aren?t maps, one in particular of which is very nice indeed but I can?t shake off the feeling that I?ve seen it in another Nebuleon book somewhere before. Mark Brooks has definitely done a sterling job on that front. The artwork does raise the question ?why is this PDF called ?RahendiB&W.pdf? when several pages are in full colour?? A printer-friendly version would have been a useful addition, but at least the pretty pictures are there in colour for those who want them in colour. Nevertheless what non-map art there is, is of a high quality and while it lacks a little in action it does at least illustrate the text adequately.

The Text

Spelling and grammar is scrappy in places, and quite a few sentences feel a little clumsily structured. The author doesn?t seem to have been able to make up his mind on how to spell Rahendi (Rehendi?) and both spellings are used in the product. The adventure included is also rather higgledy-piggledy and has a tendency to get ahead of itself and leave out important details. The actual adventure itself is mostly scattered through the sections that detail each area of the station and what players are likely to encounter when they arrive there. Once you sort out which parts go where it?s actually quite a nice little scenario, but it could have been organised so much better. Apart from the adventure the pdf also details a race of aliens, the Trigannitaroes (who are mercifully referred to as ?Trigs? for pretty much all of the document). There is a pleasant little discourse on this desert culture including a few notable characters, although these would have been greatly improved in value with a few more game statistics. It would have been nice if the Trigs had been presented as possible playable aliens rather than pure NPC fodder, especially since it would have taken very little to include a strip of statistic modifiers. Then again it wouldn?t take much for a fan of the system to convert the Trigs into a fully-blown PC race, so maybe this isn?t such a terrible omission. The book finishes off with a selection of NPC?s, and thankfully these are fully statted-up and ready to run with. A little more personal information would have been nice, but that is a minor niggle. The important thing is that the numbers are there.

A Prime Example of how PDF can make Reading Easier

As PDF?s go, the product has a comprehensive index that makes full use of the bookmarking capability of the format. Quick bookmarks are provided both in the text and in the bookmarks tab making it a breeze to find any little snippets of information that you might have lost. If a note says ?see comment X on page Y? you can be pretty certain that all you?ll need to do is click and Acrobat will take you straight to the appropriate page. This in particular is a feature I?d like to see more PDF authors making use of.

UPDATE

Since this review was written, HinterWelt have made some important changes to the document. First and foremost the maps are now fully labelled and 100% more useful. Some aesthetic changes have also been made to the system map which now looks a lot prettier. Certain layout issues have also been addressed, namely pictures that were in the middle of a two-page spread forcing text to wrap around uncomfortably are now on a single page making the document far easier to read all round. There is extended game information on the Trigs as well who are now fully statted out (a major boon for the GM in a hurry). I am leaving the original review in place for the reasons of comparison. It's nice to know that there are companies out there who are willing to make such drastic changes in the name of quality. All in all I think the alterations made fully warrant the extra star on the rating. Well done HinterWelt for not dropping the ball in the after-sales service department.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Good use of NPC?s, background detail on the prison itself and the Trigs is interesting if brief, excellent use of PDF format, excellent incidental art, intelligently priced.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Still a few minor issues with layout but nothing sinfully bad any more, still not too fond of that big font but that's mostly my own personal preference I guess.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>