If you've ever taken the time to change one of the basic rules of a game system, you realize how much work it takes to make your changes comprehensive and consistent. That's exactly what this book does for you--and let's face it: how many of us are actually happy with the d20ish alignment system, as written? This book presents an intelligent, well-researched, and conscientiously transparent means for removing or replacing alignment in your Pathfinder games. The basic system it presents is a way for you to take alignment out of your Pathfinder game without breaking any of the existing classes. Its changes are rational, consistent, and easy to implement. They're also spelled out in detail by section, so they're simple to understand and reference, and it's easy to modify or ignore anything you don't like piece-by-piece. In addition, the author includes a fair number of alternative options to the alignment system. The systems it proposes are, as with the rest of the content, well thought-out and presented. Most of them aren't very detailed, but that's kind of the point. It's worth noting that this is system-specific for Pathfinder. You could probably make it work for other OGL systems, but it'd require some tweaking. The writing isn't technically perfect, but it is easy to read, and the formatting is generally good. Despite the deceptively high page count, it is concise; the author uses all that space to make his lists easier to digest and scan. It's a quick read. (Remember, that's good when you're talking about rules you'll have to learn and reference in the middle of combat.) If you'd like to run a Pathfinder game but are dissatisfied with the standard rules for alignment, pick up this book. It's worth the price, easy to read, and simple to use. I'd definitely recommend it.

If you're familiar with the Mythic System, you'll feel comfortable with this random amalgamator. To use it, you'll throw together a few lists of elements that will describe the different locations within your setting; the rules then give you a system for mashing these lists together to come up with meaningful encounters on the fly. Since it's completely freeform, you'll have no problem slipping in your scripted locations and encounters to form the backbone of the adventure. The system is heavily subjective, so don't expect any rules assistance, but its narrative emphasis allows it to work equally well with just about any RPG system out there. This book is great if you're comfortable with extemporaneous GMing. If you like for everything to be scripted beforehand, don't bother--this book isn't for you.

Okay, so the writing could've used some more proofreading, but let's face it--you're buying this for the charts anyway, right? And charts this book delivers: Level progression charts detailing Experience Point costs for every aspect of your SRD character, from Domain Spell Casting to Craft: Basket Weaving. (Or is that Profession: Basket Weaver? So hard to tell...) If you're looking for an out-of-the-box solution for bringing a true point-buy system to your SRD game and you don't mind using a calculator or spreadsheet (especially if you're planning to generate NPCs with this) to ring up your point costs, buy this now. It's fun to spend the points, the system leaves you with plenty ideas on how to advance your character after it's created ('Dang! I wish I could've afforded that second point of BAB... Time to go kill some kobolds!'), and you can replicate standard class characters without much trouble if you really want to. Even better, with this system, getting 500 XP will actually make your players happy. Do you recognize this conversation:

DM - "Good session! Hope to see you next time." Player 1 - "How much XP did we get?" DM - "Everybody gets 500 XP for the session." Player 2 - "Aw! But that only puts me 200 XP away from the next level bump! I wanna go kill that troll we saw on the road!" Player 1 - "Yeah, me too! I've only got 195 XP to go! Okay. Player 2, you go up and start shouting at him and I'll go behind him and Sneak Attack with my Alchemist's Flame! That'll do..." [Spends time Doing The Math.] "16d6+4 fire damage. Fire damage will kill trolls, right?" DM - "Wait. You mean the troll cleric that was selling you discount healing potions to raise money for the goblin orphanage?" Player 2 - "Yeah, him. I never trusted trolls!" Player 1 - "Or goblins!" Player 3 - "Ooh! I'll bet they're 'discount' healing potions because his goblin street urchins lifted them off a real cleric!" DM - "He was a priest of the Healer and only had one good leg!" [Throws hands up in disgust.] "Okay, fine. But he's only worth half XP for the kill. That's... 175 XP each." Player 4 - "Hm. Wonder where that goblin orphanage was..."

--Never again! And perhaps best of all, you can use the standard XP progression from your favorite SRD game as-is with this book. The only thing that'll be changing is how the players use their experience rewards, and this book covers that subject from top to bottom. Now, how the author chose to handle class abilities is consistent, if a little confusing; however, he took the time to spell out how to handle all the class abilities from the standard SRD classes in a listing in the back of the book, so I can't complain. There's also a complete index of XP tables in the back, which is very nice. (Although... publisher, if you're reading this, it'd be nice if the Skill Rank Cost by Intelligence chart were in the index, too.) One last warning: the XP costs presented in this book are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5, so your players will actually have to use The Math, rather than just winging it. If that turns you off and you're not comfortable using a spreadsheet for whatever reason, you may want to think twice about buying this product. For everybody else, fear not! The author wisely chose to tabulate the final XP costs for pretty much everything up through level 20, so most of the Strength-20 lifting has been done for you.

My overall impression is favorable. Although there's about 40 pages of solid reading the DM should invest to make the system work, it's easy to pick up and it's consistent enough that you don't have to go back and refer to the text every time you make a new character. That also makes it easier to explain to the players. The charts are all arranged in the back of the book so it's easy to print off copies or hand around an e-Reader for character creation sessions. And best of all, it's fun to make characters! Just remember, if your player complains about how it's hard to add 36 + 45 + 100 to make his 1st level barbarian, just point out that his 1st-level barbarian can start with Cleric spells and the War domain, if he wants to. That should make him happier.