Really love this. Has the feel of AD&D but the simplified game mechanics of an OSR Basic D&D clone. Fast, easy and drags the action back to where it belongs - the group interaction between the players. The descriptions of the rule mechanics are super clear and unambiguous - just excellent. Reading this made me get my old AD&D manuals out for comparison and even with the weight of many (many!) hours of love and study for AD&D I think I would prefer this as a starter set for people new to OSR style play. Expensive - but sometimes you get what you pay for and comparing cost / quality I see this as a bit of a bargain TBH. Thoroughly recommend.

Just as you remember it! In one book not 3 - but no less easy to use. You have literally everything except D6 you need to get started playing here. I still like the old "can die during character creation" method - it stops people from shooting for old mega skilled types all the time. The rules are very "hard sci-fi" and suit Star Trek more than Star Wars style campaigns - and they do it well.

Fantastic product - the setting is dark and scary, the mechanics flow nicely and overall the quality tis top drawer. Throughly recommend.

Creative and innovative - full of good ideas. You can make this as dark and mioserable as Mork Borg or be entirely family friendly and light, as your taste dictates.

As far as I know this is an entirely unique game setting and is a delight to play.

Not as good as the core rulebook. While the rulebook for Five Torches Deep is well thought through and a delight this comes over as a bit hasty and not properly considered. There are sections which definitely come over as very preachy.

Thereare some good ideas here (the life paths section on p6)- but there are also some questionable ones (lineages).

It's cheap, so not much lost, but doesn't jump the high bar that the original rules set.

[Had a dialog with the game designers - this time I think it was me missing the point of where they were going with the rules - so revised the review upwards]

OK attempt at a new idea. I like the idea of a fantasy tavern (or I wouldn't have bought the book!) but by including literally every fantasy race ever invented makes it a mess to play. The rules are OK - but when we tried it the concept just didn't seem to gel too well at all.

I need to have at the rule set with a pencil erasing about 30% of it and try again. I suspect there is a decent game buried in there.

Old School D&D with a superb twist.

Human centric (it assumes all characters and NPC's are human by default) this game focuses on the dark side of fantasy life. A world where killing innocents and taking what you need is seen as morally neutral. Not to be applauded, but not forwned on either. Your character does what it needs to to make some money and keep on adventuring.

Magic and monsters are rare and unusual. you certainly wont be running "monster of the week" type campaigns with this rules set. But if you wanted to do "Lies of Locke Lamora" then this would be almost ideal.

I love the artwork, and the short pirce of fiction at the start and end set the tone very nicely indeed.

Very Good. I really like the way that has three separate time zones. Immediately during / post outbereak, a few years after and then many years later, with slightly different rules for each.

You would therefore be able to play the entire timeline of WW-Z (the book) or Walking Dead Franchies as easily as Black Summer / Train to Busan. This is a hige convenience and lets you plan long term campaigns or plotlines for your little group of survivors.

The character generation is straightforad and easy to follow while the game mechanics are simple enough to not get in the way of fluid play while still givng the players a feeling that things are not 100% GM driven.

Throughly recommend.

Really nice addition to a game which should have been much much more of a success.

PDF copy is good value and gives you whole lot of new options for your campaign.

The British Monster Manual!

A collection of monsters from the pages of White Dwarf magazine - most of these have been well playtested and undergone significant development before release.

There are some classics here - the Giothyanki and Drow are notable highlights. I even liked the Flumphs. True there are also a few duds - but for the price this is a great deal.

Where this book really coms into its own is when your players have all bought the Monster Manaul and are now meta-gaming like mofo's because they memorised the stats blocks. You can spice it up with something now.

Softcover printed copy was a bit dark but very crisp and legible.

Reprint of a (slightly) expanded version of the original three little books.

I always thought the "little books" version of the game was a bit spoiled by the introduction in slow dribbles of Mercenary and then High Guard. Characters generated from the original three books soon looked so underpowered and feeble in comparison that they became irrelevant and it quickly became "Mercs in Space" as a game.

This goes back to the prospect of evenly powered characters in all of the career streams and brings good balance back.

I'm a huge fan - this is still very very playable and a lot of fun.

Just like you remember it from the 1980's. The only difference is that it comes in a later version "commemorative" cover. Apart from that thistook me straight back to being 14 and knowing ALL the rules by heart.

Dangerous, low level (it takes forever to grind your way glorously, letally and with much luck, up to 5th - or 6th levl) but huge emphasis on thinking your way through problems.

Roleplay is much more genuine.

5th ed Player "I want to seduce the guards" Dm "OK - roll a charisma check"

1st ed Player "I want to seduce the guard" Dm "OK bring it" Player "I sashay over like talcum powder is free... [5 more paragraphs of description] .... " Dm "Yeah - that would probably work" or "Naw - guard offers you money to go away"

Much less rolling - much more describing in detail. You have to puzzle out traps, tap the floor for pits, and save your one spell per day for when you really really have no other option.

If you're thinking of going OSR then you can sut out the other interpretations and just buy the product from the 1980's.

My reprints were clear, the quality good and the text and graphics crisp and legible.

Warning - it is a bit more complex, and takes a while to learn the rules. But that's kinda half the fun.

This is really very good indeed.

Enough material here to get up and running with a low level (1-9) campaign in jut 48 pages. If you are happy with a mostly humanoid characters and monsters being very rare one off creations then this really is all you need.

If you like having fights against monsters by the barrel load then you wll need to get hold of a the Monster Manual or similar to give you pre-generated creations.

The book is beautiful, the layout logical and overall this is a job well done.

Post Apocalypse done Mad Max style rather than Walking Dead. This game is so much fun, short enough to be easy to pick up, complex enough to support a decent campaign.

I really like the dice pool d6 based combat and task resolution mechnaism. Fast, intuitive, and engaging. I would love to see more content for this system.