I suppose I should start off with a disclaimer: I do most of my reviews over at flamesrising.com (from where my free reviewer's copy originated); however, this product also comes from them. For that reason, you're reading about it here instead. The concept behind Instant Antagonists is brilliant in its simplicity. through years of gaming, I have picked up books with the purpose to mine them rather than play them. Some games have no viable playability for me, but contain something to them that I need for another setting. Every GM does this. Maybe they mine music or television for their inspirations, but all ideas have their source material.

Instant Antagonists attempts to provide this source material without any misconceptions. This series offers no statistics beyond basic descriptions of three core attributes--Body, Mind, and Spirit--and any powers the creature may have. What readers get is a handful of origins for the creature, some story seeds, and other random bits of goodness. What you build from these essential materials is up to you, you crazy would-be gods of the imagination.

The cover artwork (and only artwork) for the Succubus comes from Jeff Preston. This piece was linked to this character a year ago when Flames Rising gave thirty-one horrors to readers over the course of October. It's a great character rendition. The flames in the background make for a nice touch.

The layout, which is provided by Preston P. DuBoise, is a standard two-column layout. Some icons were used on the first few pages for added effect; however, I'd like to see bordering in this series (why not flames?). Of course, no borders means this is wonderful for a quick pre-game print job.

Jess Hartley's creation also comes from the website's 2008 October experiment. Her piece is included at the beginning of the booklet for atmosphere. From there, Hartley offers the Descriptions, Mannerisms, Powers, Attributes, Origins, and Story Seeds. It gets a little tricky in that the Origins offers three different explanations for the creature (Game Masters pick the one that works best for their campaign). Each origin though has to link up with the Descriptions given earlier. The Story Seeds sometimes link to a specific origin story, which is fine.

Hartley's writing continues to impress me, despite this being such a small project. Only one typo caught my attention. The Story Seeds have individual names. One of these is "Damned if I Do" and another is "With Great Power." What caught my eye is that "Damned if I Do" is mentioned at the very end of "With Great Power." It's a minor mistake, but one nonetheless.

All in all, I think this is a fantastic new concept for a very old idea. More creatures (and more) will come from this series, so check the trailblazing addition out today with the Selfish Succubus. She may just be that NPC antagonist you need to sex up your game. My scores for Instant Antagonists: Selfish Succubus are:

• Artwork: Five out of Five Dice (Perfect fit)
• Layout: Four out of Five Dice (I'm on the fence about the sparse look)
• Writing: Four out of Five Dice (Would have liked to see more from the author)
• Overall: Four out of Five Dice (Can't wait to see more from this line)

If number three is ever released and is as much better than two is than one, then it will be a perfect gaming fanzine. I didn't like volume one much; however, they worked out the bugs (needless interviews and wasted space) to make a much stronger second issue. The biggest problem with this series is the sporadic (okay, dead) status of it. If you have to pick between issues, try this one out. It has more adventures, ideas, and twists than the original issue.

The vampire focus really worked well too.

I liked this better than Stinky's Pizza, but it is just one simple building. It is, however, a free product that will serve a specific purpose quite well. Take a look-see.

I wished this game had been purely devoted to the Unisystem, but D20 has its hold on it. This basically means the majority of the book is useless to me.

I'm still giving it a strong rating because the concept of the game is terrific.

You travel alternate dimensions

You have two characters in the games.

Also, I find the paperwork required at the game's end to be great. Make your players fill it out alone so they can't get their stories straight. You can then hose them for lying to their superiors! Trust me . . . this is wicked fun.

The PDQ system makes for a quick and easy dive into a four-color super hero game. There are helpful settings to use in the game, but the real fun would be making up your own. This is an indie game and the art sometimes suffers throughout the game; however, the writing is very sound and what I find most interesting.

Pick up this game. It's one of the few good super hero games on the market.

I really don't know how anybody can write a negative review of a free item. The art is fine and works for any occasion when you'd need such a room in a game.

Good

This game has a great review of the shows I grew up with. The author's doubtlessly love the genre as many kids did during the eighties.

The rules are pretty clean and clear. Once you get going, they are straight-forward.

Several settings are included in the book and some are quite imaginative.

Bad

Character creation is rough . . . really rough. I gave up making a Transformer-style character. Way too many pages flips are needed to make a hero.

Basically, if you like the other expansions and telling god-awful jokes all night long is your forte, then pick up this freebie. It's small, but filled with choice phrases that will make your cheeks blush. It's great for what it is . . . an excuse to be vile.

I was generally disappointed with this book.

Bad

Firstly, I didn't want to buy articles of interviews with soft questions. There is nothing in the interviews that couldn't be found on Eden's forums.

The archetypes are a popular aspect to the game books for some players perhaps, but I find they waste space. One cannot fault this too much for this aspect though as they do provide examples . . . just too many examples.

Good

If you can't buy the Serenity game, there are (let's say it) Firefly rules in this edition that are fairly sound. With the rules of the now-released All Tomorrow's Zombies, a good sci-fi game could be ran.

The monsters for Buffy, Witchcraft, and Armageddon are cool.

If you're making a city for mini's Stinky's Pizza is free and well-designed. There isn't much to it beyond what you see in the photo, but hey, it is free. Stock up on as many of these as possible, alter the color, and you can build yourself a fun little town for heroscape or mini games.

This game's biggest benefit is to a would-be game designer who has an idea for a setting but absolutely no idea as to what kind of system to devote to it. What the author's of Myriad have created is an open license role-playing engine for that purpose. At a cost of FREE, it is well worth examining.

This game is simply beautiful, especially to a hopeful game designer. Be warned that the majority of the book deals with the author's campaign for this setting and it reads more like a fairy tale than a game text; however, that was an added feature to my tastes! The simplicity of the game allows for a quick start. One might not think of it as one, but it can just as easily be a beer and pretzel game as it can be a long-running campaign (though I'd recommend the later).

After buying several hard copies of this item, I found the layout much more to my liking that the standard sheet. By buying the PDF versions I could make character exclusive copies for my players. Got a witch? Add more sheets of spells. How about a Slayer? She might need an extra sheet or two dedicated tow weapons. What about that player who takes great notes for the session? Extra sections for him or her can also be printed out!!!! If you like the Angel or Buffy RPG, this is an awesome accessory to it.

All in all, another great product from 12 to Midnight.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This is a fairly useful PDF for Savage Worlds games (or any game where a layout is required).<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Wide variety of locales<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the locales were too specific, never to be used beyond a handful of times.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>