I purchased this because I thought I might like it, but I ended up liking it more than expected. A great, concise seafaring campaign world that accomplishes what it sets out to do, and establishes some really fun ways to create the verisimilitude for how players can have the same home base and yet visit constantly changing areas and why there are so many undead present in the world.

The mechanics are well done, and the distinction between individual scale and ship scale activities is clear without adding layers of cumbersome rules or hand-waving the differences away. The creatures are entertaining, with special kudos to the way great creatures that can attack ships (leviathans) are given two tiers of attacks: an attack against the ship, and an attack or effect against individuals. It's a great way of keeping the focus on the larger combat while still adding a layer of what happens to the individual crew members against such a beast.

The lore of the setting is fun, and the inclusion of the Silt, the shifting lands beneath the reduced sea, and the Mist, the ever-present fog over the sea, provide a great in-game reason for the characters to continually explore and never really know what is out there. At the same time, they allow for enough stability to establish longer term quests, such as an attempt to restore the sea which has been corrupted and is indirectly responsible for spawning undead after undead. The source of that corruption is clever, and offers the potential for a truly epic quest without removing the realities that characters in the game are ultimately rather fragile and all too mortal.

If you like the Mark of the Odd type systems, this is a great setting that offers a clever twist. If you are familiar with Lilliputian, you will find similar ground covered with the Undying Sea; though for my money I'd favor the Undying Sea. That said, since I have both, I can also see how elements of the two games can rather seamlessly interact with one another, expanding the range of available ships, creatures, and ocean generation.

As the Gods Demand is a nice little package with a simple yet very smooth system combined with some bizarre gods that don't fall into the traditional mode - and that's a good thing! Regarding the system: it is indeed easily integrated into pretty much any other system, and would fit well with the suggested ones as well as at least three others that I can think of without much effort. The Favor accumulation system allows for the assurance that you'll be able to engage in at least one miracle a day, yet challenges roleplaying and decision making to accumulate additional Favor for more robust performance. That said, these are by and large not combat oriented, which is again a good thing. Miracles reflect the personalities and ambitions of the gods, not the PCs, and therefore are oriented on fulfilling the mandates of a creed rather than the expediency of murderhobos. The intiations and sacrifices necessary to acquire the miracles of the gods make this clear, and the default pantheon - while odd - is evokative and entertaining. The limitation of this product is in what is left out. It does not have any guidelines on designing new miracles, which hurts it especially since most of the odd gods in this zine do not parallel existing gods in published or (many I would wager) homebrew settings. They could be added, but it woudl have been nice to see the methodlogy used to determine the miracles and rites in order to better facilitate creating miracles for other campaigns and for existing gods in myriad settings. And yes, I can just reverse engineer things and develp my own, but it would have been convenient. Overall, it is still worth the price, even if just for the bizarre pantheon included and as fuel for my own homebrew. It is hurt by lacking any guidelines on miracle creation, so 4/5 stars. Go ahead and get it!

Yet another outstanding Kevin Crawford product. WWN has become not only my preferred OSR game, but also my preferred RPG overall. This atlas is loaded with fantastic information and evokative ideas. Even if you don't plan on playing in a Latter Earth campaign, the rich world is worth mining ideas and inspiration from at the minimum or even moreso wholesale lifting nations and background from Latter Earth for your preferred campaign world. Well worth the money, and the best RPG writer currently producing material!

There really isn't much I can say about this product that hasn't been said. It's quite simply excellent. You can see certain similarities with other city books that the authors have worked on (ie. Freedom City by Steve Kenson), but it still has it's own personality. Excellent work.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Almost everything<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some editing needed to remove old Champion's references.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

First: Buy this product, if only to support the cause. That said, even if there were no cause, this product was great. It is what "Swords of Power" should have been. A compilation of magic weapons, both amazing and simple, each with interesting and fun histories.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Clear, and many weapons had great origin stories.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing much.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Hollow World was a campaign setting released for Basic D&D some years back. It was a fun campaign. In today's climate of D&D 3.5, many will find it quaint at best. However, I think it remains a great resource, not for D&D, but for pulp era "lost world" games. Since the system is antique, you'd need to adapt all the stats anyway, so I say use it for pulp explorers. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: It's fun, and it puts little but significant twists on traditional D&D races.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing in particular.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This is a decent adventure that adapts very well to fit in pretty much any home or published campaign. The only way that adaptation would be difficult would be if you've already detailed the District Attorney's office extensively. In other words: Simple fit.

The action is varied enough that most character types have a distinct role to play in the adventure. At the same time, though, is your group lacks a role, such as the "detective", the adventure can proceed without much hitch. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Good basic story; highly adaptable.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The NPC opposition were weak. The Spectre, in particular, definitely needs replacement. My advice is to go ahead and make your own opposition,and just keep the rest of the adventure intact. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Contrary to Daniel Hoffman's all-too-inaccurate assessment, this is not a bad product. Not all of the classes are particularly good (Feral Ravager), some are flat out worthless (Corpulent), and others are typical (Bounty Hunter). This is expected and found in any product, however. Chosen Warlord is a very interesting class, well done (outside of one ability "Spirit of the Fray", which is overpowered) and useful. The Lord of Sorcery is a good idea, though it might be superfluous in light of the Spellpool option of the Guildmage from Tome and Blood. Despite this, it's much cheaper to buy LE with a variety of Prestige Classes of all types than each of the classbooks which cost 4x as much and only give prestige classes for a specific type. Some are hits, some are misses. For the price, you are not being cheated in any way. Mileage may vary, but it's worth the $5 it costs.