WHAT WORKS: I love the setting concept. I love the idea of playing an adventurer riding around on a giant bird. It’s just cool. I really appreciate all of the tools provided to make Volant your own, right down to the resolution mechanic used. All of the various examples at the back of the book are certainly appreciated, and the maneuvers are a cool feature to provide mechanical support for more versatile combat.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: The extra cost tables on weapon creation just seem out of place because, unless I missed it, there is no real benefit to paying more for better quality weapons…so why would you? As much as I love tools and random charts, I do also like having ready-made material to work with, so I would have appreciated a larger bestiary.

CONCLUSION: This one “sings” to me more than clash’s other games do, because of the fantasy element over the alternate history element. That and it’s just overloaded with cool factor. Also, I can’t NOT love this many random charts in one book. This is definitely not your average fantasy game. There’s no dwarves, elves, gnomes or halflings, or orcs, goblins and drow here. That said, if you’re wanting something you can just jump right into and run, that’s not going to work unless you’re adept at running with the random results. That’s not a knock on the game, just an observation. My favorite iteration of StarCluster yet.

For my full review, please visit http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2013/06/tommys-take-on-volant-kingdoms-of-air.html

My first-read review of Volant is that it's a good value. The writing is clean and straightforward, and the writer sticks with his concept and keeps the whole deal coherent, both the milieu and the book's content and construction. Most of the things you'd want to see covered in a book about a world of floating cities and giant birds are here, and they seem well-designed. Twelve dollars is a fine price, although page-count padding abounds, like it does with all of these projects, with loads of white space and full-page art that's nothing special.