Thank you ELSA SJUNNESON! This book should be on everybodies reading list. It gives such a valuable insight and definitely affects my approach on gaming and thinking when it comes to accessibility. It is helpful not only for gaming purposes, but also in every day situations. Well done!

I've picked the hardcover up at a gaming convention and was initially just impressed by the beautiful artwork, the layout and the love that was put into it. After reading and playing a session with the author, I got hooked. The game mechanics are simple, but offer enough depth to support a shorter or medium campaign. Combat is quick and can end quickly, too. The use of trauma tables to find out how hurt you are is a concept well stolen from some other games - love it. Overall, this game system feels like it has picked mechanics from different games systems I've played over the past ten years.

The System You roll a d20 and add one of your three Attribute bonuses to it. Compare it against a target number (Defense value or Attribute of your target, or a number decided by the GM). Your Attributes (ranging approximately from 8-13) also act as your Hit Points. Once one Attribute has been depleted, you roll on the Trauma Table to find out how hurt you are. Combat is interesting, as you have to make a tactical choice: either go first and have one action, or go later in the turn but act twice. This means the bad guys could potentially act before you ... The inventory system is simple but effective: once all your Slots are filled, you cannot carry anything more. Done. NPCs and monsters are created easily on the fly. Not much prep needed for stats, so you can concentrate on Special Powers.

The Setting Now, this is where it gets interesting (or should I say weird?!). Think of retro SciFi and Horror (before 1980) and mix them all up. This is where you play, in the UltraCosm. You can play an Alien, a Construct, a Royal, an Ultranaut, a Revenant or a Beast. Every Archetype gives you 2 Powers and you can then select 3 more. The UltraCosm is not really described, it is more suggested you play a group of adventurers from different settings and themes. You should then find portals in order to jump from setting to setting (e.g. Fantasy to SciFi and Horror). There is no definitive description or rule to guide you - just come up with something that works for you and your group.

Conclusion This basically describes the game and the mechanics - a lot is left to the GM and it feels very open. Good, if you like to come up with your own stories and are not afraid to play it in a weird setting. The Archetypes support that idea strongly and you might need to come up with a good explanation why your concept fits into one of the available Archetypes. Your characters tend to be over the top and full of greatness - not really the fragile 1st level adventurer. You are someone - or something.

If you like more down to Earth games with many rules guiding you, this is not the game. If you are an experiences gamer, though, you can marvellously pull ideas from different games and settings and incorporate them into one magnificent story.

You will have trouble using this system for standard human characters, e.g. in a Cthulhu setting, if you are not open to the idea of including fantastic beasts or the undead as player characters (or beasts, or … ).

If you want something rules light, narrative and over the top - this might be the game for you!

One thing I would have liked to see: a Difficulty table. I figured out that '12' is good for an Average task, 10 is easy and 15 is about right for something difficult. Having this guidelines in the book would have been great.

Nice maps, easy on ink, good scale (1 inch). Good style, not too genre specific - I use it for modern day settings.

Things to improve my rating by one more star:

• add a general overview of the complete map as a pre-view
• add some cut marks to the PDF pages

Overall I'm very happy with the maps

Nice maps, easy on ink, good scale (1 inch). Good style, not too genre specific - I use it for modern day settings.

Things to improve my rating by one more star:

• add a general overview of the complete map as a pre-view
• add some cut marks to the PDF pages

Overall I'm very happy with the maps

For me, this is a sweet mix between HeroQuest 2, Chaosium Basic Role Playing and The Cypher System. If you like a narrative game system with fixed Characteristics, a small number of Skills (about 20) and a Combat system that can be basic enough or very detailed, this might be your set of rules.

You can use all the BRP content from Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest) or settings from other companies (Crusaders of the Amber Coast, Achtung! Chthulhu, etc) virtually without any conversion needed, as they all use the same basic Characteristics and ranges.

Conflicts are opposed rolles, where the winner subtracts Ressource Points from the opponent. Ressource Points depend on Characteristics, so there are no dumb stats - and no Hit Points. Once the Ressource Points of one side reach zero, the Conflict ends and the loser describes positive and negative Consequences (which can possibly affect future Conflicts, giving a Bonus or a Penalty). These Consequences are written down on the character sheet for future reference.

Combat comes in two falvours: basic and advanced. Basic Combat is good enough for most battles, but if the group wants more detail, advanced combat rules are for you. They have a more traditional RPG feeling, introduce Toughness, Strike Ranks and Hit Points, and allow for fast tactical (miniature) battles.

Equipment is done well, creation is not complicated. As I currently run a hard scifi setting, the Powers section is one I did only skim through.

Overall I really like the game, the rules are easy enough to understand and after playing the game a few times, things come naturally. If you do not like narrative games, you might struggle a bit more, although the detailed advanced combat rules could easily convince you this game system is well done and worth a try.

I played BRP (25+ years) and recently Cypher System (~2 years) and put myself between the narrative and simulative camp. BRP was getting old, Cypher System was good, but I do not like levels and classes (although they are well blended), HeroQuest was a bit too loose and wide open, Other Worlds was just too much the same for me.

Revolution D100 just sits between all these options, giving a good guidance (Characteristics, Skills, Traits), is narrative (why is a persuasion encounter easier to win or lose than a combat), can handle combats fast or detailed (depending on options used) - to me a perfect blend for the campaigns I play.

One more thing: I often had a hard time to interpret the results from a conflict in 'HeroQuest 2' (e.g. picklocking a door) or even playing a dungeon crawl - something that never happened in Revolution D100.

It is simple to use, genre neutral and let me tell you: it just works. A great add-on to Mythic GME. All you need to come up with is a good imagination and about 15 to 30 words for a small to medium location.

Your words are then divided into three categories on which you roll randomly to fluff out a location. Easy, simple to use, no frills and really well explained. You cannot get wrong with this.

I finally got around to read through this setting book - 110 pages of pure setting information takes a while to get through.

The book starts with a small introductory story that continuous along through each chapter. In fact the setting information IS the story as the character in the Preface narrates the history of planet Earth, starting at the Bronze Age and continuing all the way to the New Age (2053).

It is an interesting setting, interweaving mythology and horror with our real world, changing the source of talents during the different ages. As an example, most of the time the gods provide the powers, the occult has its own source of power, modern times develop psionic abilities and the New Age uses cyber implants to harness/enhance powers. Clockwork technology is available during the early modern age, too.

So, what do you get? Everything you want to play, really. During the Dark Ages you could create a Fantasy like feeling, including dwarfs, Elves and such if the campaign is set in northern Europe. The Iron Age sets the stage for nice adventures within the Roman Empire, hunting monsters (aka aliens) - or fighting Germanic Nations. Or use the Egypt background to fight the undead hoards of Anubis during the Bronze Age. Fight the occult during the Dark Ages, be a Crusader and free the Angels of Heaven, subjugate the Baltic area during the Middle Ages, support the settlers in the new world of the Americas during the Early Modern Age or fight occult Pirates, use Clockwork devices to win the battle against evil in London, be part of WWII and stop occult Germans from exploiting secret powers, use your cybernetic enhancements to infiltrate corporations in the New Age.

These are just examples, drawn from inspiration while reading the book. I think I could fit a good part of my adventure collection from different settings, rule books and game systems into the Shadowed Earth. Maybe not as vast as some settings are described, but a city like Freeport I could fit in somewhere and have fun with. Maybe I stretch the canon of Shadowed Earth a bit, but hey: the author encourages this! It is a 'alternate earth' after all, so the GM can do what is necessary. Call of Cthulhu? A very easy fit for this ... maybe an interesting twist to the Shadowed Earth canon, too. Steampunk Victoriana? Sure, somewhere in London - evil is all around to fight. Alien Hunting? Yep, the world is full of aliens and they are hiding behind myths and sometimes in plain sight. There was a time where aliens could enter Earth very easily. Find them, kill them, save humanity.

Although I read the book cover to cover, I think it is not really necessary as each Age is more or less self contained. You could skip some pages if you find them uninteresting at that time, just read the side bars as they give a quick overview about what happened or is presented on the pages you skip. This helps getting through the book much easier without missing a necessary part.

The only thing that is missing are some good descriptions of possible societies and groups. Something that puts a face to the evil, to the occult, to the hunters and eventually to the players. I think this is where additional books come into place, but I really would have wanted a handful of names, characters and hints how to place the players into the setting. As it is, Shadowed Earth is a very well done setting that provides a lot of possibilities and gets your imagination going. But to place the players into it, the GM has to do a bit of work creating groups, societies, characters, allies and adversaries.

As stated before, it is easy to take my "Savage Worlds Rome" setting book and get going with the Shadowed Earth. Or my "Crusaders of the Amber Coast" to cleanse the Baltic area from all evil. Or "Call of Cthulhu" to make sure the time is not right for certain beings. Be a hero and fight chaos beings with the "Solomon Kane" setting book. Sail the North Sea with the help of "Mythic Iceland" and bring christianity there. Revive your old "Cyberpunk: 2020" stuff and sneak into corporate buildings.

This is extremely easy to do and I like the idea to be able to do so. Finally a setting that is smart enough to incorporate all my favorite setting books while providing a solid ongoing background story that is always good for a twist. I'm curious when the author writes some kind of time-travel add-on for the Shadowed Earth so you can walk the Ages of time with one group of characters for a long lasting campaign ;)

A very nice layout with a trimmed down content of the full rule book. Enough rules to get the included (new) adventure in it going and it provides most of the stuff a GM needs for a fantasy setting (and the first handful of adventures).

Try it out, it is a wonderful set of rules!

I would give it 5 stars for content, 5 stars for layout (color version) and 4 stars for the b/w version (because of the black border, see Discussions). The text is also a bit smaller when printed on A5 paper with this new layout and printing on correct size paper is nearly impossible as it is not available in shops (17,78 x 25,4 cm). On A5 the text is still readable, but in dim light conditions it could be a bit harder for some people.

So, 4 stars for now as it is, due to the black border and smaller text when printed.

A nice group of characters to be placed into a modern horror setting. Good ideas, some nice starting points (adventure hooks), many information about why, where, when ... all the bits and pieces you need to have some recurring NPCs that are not necessarily evil and an enemy to the players. Would not dare to say 'neutral', but in a shady-grey zone.

layout, text, artwork is as all the other EGS products: good, light on ink and well printed on A5 paper.

A nice short adventure about a town with a castle and an unanswered love. A town maps is presented to give a quick overview of the town.

The adventure itself is more an open sandbox as there is no railroading how the characters reach the goal. A few options are available and presented in the book, I could come up with a few more easily. The writing is inspiring and the background story is easy to follow.

Just prep it up a bit more by drawing a connection between the NPCs if you want to play it, add a location map here and there if you are into that, and you are good to go. Prep time for the adventure is about 2h including reading it through. Just make sure while reading to write down how the NPCs are connected to each other and what their goals are. There aren't too many (about a hand full), but at least for me it helps to get the story running smoothly without re-reading text or flipping through the document.

Layout is good, printing on A5 paper works well, no wasted ink, stats for creatures all included (no flipping through the main rule book), nice artwork.

I think for 2$ it is worth the price as you get nice art and a nice reusable location (maybe as a base or starting point for a campaign).

A nice short adventure about a temple and a necromancer. Maps are presented to give a quick overview, although I found it hard in some places to follow the description given in the text on the maps provided. But it might just be me (or me reading late at night) and it does not matter a lot as these were just minor issues. Depending on if your players have access to the map or not it could bring a bit of irritation to the table, though.

Layout is good, printing on A5 paper works well, no wasted ink, stats for creatures all included (no flipping through the main rule book), nice artwork, story is easy to follow and straight forward.

A good adventure for a Friday evening after a busy week that should last about 4 to 5 hours. Don't expect great plot moves here - it's more in the spirit of the Savage Worlds One Sheets. Or Dungeon Crawls.

I think for 2$ it is worth the price as you get nice art and a nice reusable location with a few maps to get your imagination running - and an adventure you can easily extend as you like.

This book reminds me of the Xeno book MTE put out earlier.

In the beginning you get a list of Keywords divided in Classifications and Traits, each explained in detail.

After that you get straight to the 30 creatures listed here. I like that I do not get the same old demons here, but rather a list of -at least to me- unfamiliar creatures. Some I know (Djinni, Incubus, Succubus, Ifrit and Imp), but the rest is (I would say) at least unpopular. Nice to have something the players don't know / think of.

Each creature is given one page, including a description, picture and generic stat block and everything is well done. No wasted ink on backgrounds, pictures are b/w capturing the mood, layout is excellent, fonts are good to read even if you print the book on A5 paper.

I like what I see here: a lot of individual alien races, technology levels and interesting NPCs. A good addition for every Sci-Fi setting and it can even be used in a Fantasy setting (who says mythical creatures aren't aliens?!).

You'll get 34 alien races in this book, some are friendly, some hostile, some just don't care. Each alien is given a classification, including technology level (0 to 3), Military rating (0 to 3) and a Society Progress (0 to 3). These classifications follows a list of keywords (hostile, Nomadic, non-organic, beast, aquatic, etc) to give a first impression what the species is like. The classification ratings are explained at the beginning of the book, together with all other keywords, traits, etc.

A longer description follows the classification list, covering everything you need to place the alien into your game - Physiology, Environment, Origins and Motivation. Race specific Special Traits are listed and explained here, too.

After that you get at least one NPC with name, stats, short description and equipment - ready to use in your setting.

A generic stat block is placed somewhere within the description (easy to find as its background is light grey) as well as a picture picturing the alien.

The book concludes with a random creature generator using a deck of cards. I thought it is a remnant of the Savage Worlds edition, but the author convinced me (via email) a deck of cards is simply the easiest way to create aliens as you do not get bogged down in a lot of dice rolls & writing down the results.

Final thoughts: the art is good (no stock art AFAIK), the text is easy to follow, the races are fun to read, the descriptions give a lot of adventure hooks and ideas, printing works well (no waste of unnecessary ink/toner on fancy backgrounds and looks great on A5 paper), Fonts and Layout are well done and page breaks are not distracting.

I really appreciate the work. If I were to criticize something, it would be the lack of hypermarks in the Table of Contents - but that is not an issue in using the document as the PDF includes well done bookmarks (which are even better to use than a hyperlinked ToC).

This is not a full review, but I am so intrigued by the EGS system, I have to place a comment here. For me this generic RPG system is the EABA, a perfect blend of the old Cortex, Savage Worlds and Master Book systems.

Basically characters have an Ability and a Skill, all measured from d4 to d12 and you combine these two in a way that suits the situation. After that you roll both dice and compare them to a Target Number, usually 7.

But there is a lot more to this system. The combat system is not a plain „roll-hit-damage“ thing, but offers tactics, strategies, qualities and hero points to make combat entertaining and memorable. Especially I like the Fear Dice Pool for monsters and the Heroic Dice Pool for the characters. An additional layer of brilliance and fun.

I would say these rules are not overly complicated and can be put in the rules medium section, same as I would put Savage Worlds. But this is NOT Savage Worlds, although it might look similar on the surface. It is different, does not use any cards (thumbs up!), characters are being defined by Skills & Abilities and Qualities are used for gaining Hero Points during dramatic situations. And not a lot of calculations here: a good thing on Friday evening after a long week of work.

The book includes a good amount of situational rules (Falling, Drowning, Poison, Chases, Morale for Minions/Allies, Exhaustion, Disease, Aging, etc.) but they are all easy to comprehend and use common sense - very intuitive.

A Bestiary with enough monsters and characters to keep you going for some time is included as well. It consists of just the stats for the beasts, but hey, we all have our own understanding of a goblin or dragon anyway. Oh, and Stats are short: 8 lines to describe an average monster/animal/adversary.

What else can I say except of this is the game I was looking for since 2006. Well worth the $5.00 and a hot alternative to a lot of other generic RPGs.

I hope this system really takes off and a lot of people will hop on and put out some cool settings for it. The included OPEN GAME LICENSE is a good thing for developers, I suppose.

This is a real gem.

This is a nice story idea, offering different ways to solve the problem and depending on the characters actions the ending is different. While the adventure will be long enough for an evening, it can be used as a starting point for much more.

Nicely done! :)

Since I did not look at the game system, I cannot judge on that. It seems simple and fast, but then again I only skimmed it.

5 points for content 5 points for the price 5 points for artwork and presentation

no rating for the rules sytem

I like it!