I ran a group of old hands through the first adventure a couple of weeks back using the Old School Essentials ruleset rather than fifth edition They all loved it, it made a great change of pace from epic adventures and heavily plotted adventure paths. Lovely just to drop the team into a sandbox with a murder mystery in progress and leave them to figure out how, when or where to get involved.

As with all one page adventures, you need to be willing to improvise and go with whatever seems fun fo your players, but this all adds to the enjoyment. Suffice to say, my ending was not one that was described in the text!

We all enjoyed it so much we are going to carry on with the other adventures in the book in the manner of an episodic campaign.

I'm not going to waste anybody's time here, Cha'alt is a Marmite product. You are going to love it or hate it. If you like your fantasy four square and wholesome, down the line and by the mediaeval numbers, takes itself seriously and is possibly a bit po-faced, then Cha'alt is not the campaign setting for you. Don't get upset about that, don't get mad, don't feel cheated or take Cha'alt as a personal attack on your idea of what fantasy role-playing is about, just pass on by. Nobody will mind.

On the other hand, if you are looking for something that is probably unlike anything you have ever purchased before, that for sure has a few rough edges, but is a labour of love that's given birth to the demented love child of Frank Herbert, Walter M. Miller, and Robert E. Howard as the result of some sort of crazy threesome. then it probably is the campaign setting for you. At the very, very least, you will be able to mine it for a plethora of ideas easily transferable to your Gamma World / Mutant Future / Apes Victorious / Aftermath / Metamorphosis Alpha / own generic gonzo fantasy-scifi game starring Traci Lords. At the most, you will be able to enjoy years of gaming goodness that will certainly give your players something to remember, for good or ill.

One last thing, in my view the artwork on its own is worth the price of admission. Outstanding.

Disclosure: these comments are based on a read through of the rules immediately after purchase - I have not (yet) played any of these games.

First thing's first, you're getting eight board games for $3. Where I work (the City of London) that isn't even going to buy you a sandwich. This is a phenomenally good value package. Each game consists of (roughly) one page of rules and a sheet to be printed out for each player. There is no real limit on the number of players but I would imagine that two players would make for a dull game and more than six or eight might make a time consuming game, at least for the ones where the rules require each player to complete all possible actions before play passes to the next.

The games are largely abstract and there is no movement element. The theme is competitive resource allocation and building, with options to attack any of the other players. In fact, it plays somewhat like a cardless card game. Each game tries to play to its theme (the sci-fi games have power cells, the fantasy games have archers, etc). The mechanic is die rolling using d10s. You roll a number of d10 equal to your population and can then use those dice to manage your economy. It doesn't really matter whether you roll high or low as each action requires different dice for different reasons, e.g. use two dice with the same value to build resource type 'A', use any even die to acquire technology 'B', and so on. The skill lies in using the dice you have effectively (like backgammon).

As far as I can see, the only downside is a common theme of inconsistency between rules and player sheets. It really needed a read through by an independent person. For example, the rules may say "to get building type 'A' spend an even die and three ores'" but the player sheet will say "to get building type 'A' spend an even die and three crystals". Which is correct? Who knows? Some errors are obvious to resolve, for others there's no way to tell.

All in all an interesting package with a clever mechanic at a bargain price, but it is crying out for a proof read and with each game having only one page of rules there is no excuse for that really.

A real eye opening product that totally does what it says on the tin. This will save you hours of prep time through its no nonsense approach on how to successfully run encounters for your fantasy group with little to no prep without you players ever realising it was anything other than a detailed piece of intricately prepared work.

As well as very useful guidelines, it also contains a dozen excellent examples of side quests you can whip out to eat up an hour or two of your game session for those times when you're either short on inspiration of real world demands cut into your prep time that week.

At the reduced sale price of $4.95, a bargain.

Probably the best set yet from Arion Games, a collection of figures for all your pulp sci-fi needs. Firmly focussed on 1930s style Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers views of the future, there is everything you need here in glorious CGI detaail... hawkmen, the evil emperor, guards, heroines, scientists, the works. There are even spaceships.

For the price, this set cannot be beaten for value and utility.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The evil emperor figure is so cool. The set is worth is just for this figure alone.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Good, no nonsense guide to running pulp adventures. The real meat of this product is the scenario generator material. Most of the other detail is fairly cursory but solid enough. All-in-all a solid overview of the genre. For more detail you will need something like Hero Games' Pulp Hero product.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The scenario generator.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Very printer unfriendly layout.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Stunned - some of the best quality paper miniatures I have ever seen.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Where else can you get 3D CGI Roman paper miniatures for this price? Nowhere.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Lovely collection of 3D CGI droid figures. Most are humanoid but there are a couple of multi limbed or anti-grav units. Good selection of figures, ranging from some that wouldn't look out of place in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy to more conventional hard sci-fi types. Unlike the other sets from Arion, there are no special extra large figures (vehicles sized droids, for example) but the set is cheaper as a result. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Dirt cheap collection of good looking 3D CGI droids. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: No really BIG droids.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Nice, no nonsense collection of SF troopers. All are human, wearing grey spray on combat fatigues with a variety of blaster rifles, lasers, etc. Mixture of men and women. No 40k style powered armour guys or imperial stormtrooper types, these are recognisable and realistic humans. Unlike the other sets from Arion, there are no special extra large figures (vehicles, mounted troopers or the like) but the set is cheaper as a result.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Dirt cheap collection of good looking 3D CGI troopers.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The figures are all a bit samey.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

As far as I know, this is the first attempt to use realistic looking 3D CGI for paper miniatures, and it works extremely well.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The price, the quality, the range!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The rather camp looking sailor. He looks as though he's just stepped out of a an audition for a Village People tribute band ;-)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Pleasing piece of retro-nostalgia dungeon crawl. Having played Tomb of Horrors way back in the day, this product captures that atmosphere nicely. Very tough and very challenging. If you don't like dungeon crawls and deadly traps around every corner, you won't like this. If you do, you would do far worse than to spend an evening with your next gaming group trying to survive to the end of this one.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Very useful utility. Gets all the info I need for druid spells in one place.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Genuinely handy in-game utility. Cheap as chips.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Usually top quality product from WorldWorks. Crystal clear artwork and easy to assemble 3D scenery. Makes for nice rough-walled and other cave dioramas.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Beautiful art work<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Lovely novelty piece for Christmas. Perfect for sending to your gaming friends. Such a shame this gentlemen is no longer active in the card modelling field as he had real talent.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Too cartoony for my liking and not enough variety for the price.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>