This is a bold attempt to provide a lot of detail when generating any part of a game-universe, at least as far as we currently understand the "real" universe (or think we do). There's a lot of detail here - arguably too much for many potential universe-designers - but it's fairly easy to pick and choose those parts you may actually want for your own game. Personally, that'd be primarily parts of the planetary system tables, which have far more detail than I'd thought of for my own home-brewed system generator of 25+ years ago, such as major chemical-element relative abundances - but then we (think we) know more about planetary systems now than back then anyway!

There is the question of how long parts of this will remain current, given the huge increase in the numbers and types of "real" non-Solar System planets discovered by various techniques just in the last 5-10 years. That could mean tweaking the relative likelihood of encountering certain planetary forms in different parts of a star system, for instance. While that probably won't matter much to most gamers, it may impact on the book's claimed usefulness as a teaching-aid for youngsters, astronomy enthusiasts and any factual writers who may use it.

The main downside is the text assumes quite a high level of pre-existing physics-astronomy knowledge. There's no glossary of terms, some of which aren't explained at all, such as "billion" (presumably the short-scale "thousand-million" version, also called the "milliard", rather than the long-scale "million-million", because that's the short-scale's "trillion"; "trillion" also features here undefined, million-million-million on the long-scale), "parsec" (roughly 3.26 light-years, 31 million-million kilometres or 19 million-million miles) or "AU" (= astronomical unit, the mean distance between the Sun and the Earth, almost 150 million kilometres or 93 million miles). Other terms, like "Me" ("Mass of the Earth") are used, and then only later explained. In a work of this type, size and overall considerable complexity, this is disappointing, and could mean some of its potential users will be put off doing much with it. Maybe there's an argument here, as with many RPG systems, for saying less (complexity) would be really more (useful).

This version of the Ranger just doesn't do it for me. The dice pool mechanic feels uncomfortably artificial - not keen to have to throw MORE dice, as this always seems to distract from role-playing generally. Too much seems to have been pushed into 3rd level as well, whereas what the Ranger often lacks is early-level punch, aside from problems beyond 10th. Plus I had the uncomfortable feeling elements were drifting too close to the Rogue. Then I went back and read the designer's notes and found out why... So still looking for the real Ranger!

Rather like the preceding FA-series Filbar woodland product "FA2 - Springwood Forest", this is another interesting forested area, with some handy ideas and atmospheric photos most GMs would have little problem in slotting into their latest campaign. Again, there are internal hooks which could develop into further stories as well, so plenty to make use of and be inspired by.

The Tunnels map benefits from a good-quality printout especially, as it's not quite clear enough with "normal" to "ink-saving" printer settings (though the text and area map are), and the English needs a little effort to follow in places. These aren't really negatives though, so it's easy to give this Filbar area a deserved five-star rating.

This is a delightfully interesting small forest area, easily adapted into an on-going campaign by any GM in need of such, with options to expand beyond this package, notably using the two areas presented in other Filbar products, "FT - Silvantri" and "FN6 - Sunken Temple of Bulu", aside from the possibilities here. Four flavour photos help in setting the scene. Always good to have something to show the players for their imaginations to adopt and adapt.

The English is a trifle oddly-applied in places, "fauna" should be "flora" in the photo caption to p.9, and the map would benefit from an upgrade to improve its clarity a little, though these are all fairly trivial points, and don't detract enough from the whole to mark the product down at all.

There's nothing inherently problematic with this area for adventuring so far as the descriptions, story hooks, etc., are concerned, as it's a useful small region GM's can easily slot in to an on-going campaign without too much extra effort. Plus there are the usual Filbarrian flavour photos and images to help set the scene.

However, two of the four maps have features which are confusingly not referred to. One, showing the Bandit Caves, has three areas of what must (from the fourth map's description) be water, possibly moderately deep. Two stretches of this completely block both passages leading to key cave 6, whose description suggests it is lower than the other caves, yet for some reason it is not flooded. Given the water here seems to be wholly irrelevant, these water areas should best be ignored.

The other problematic map is that showing the Giants' Encampment, described as an area depressed into the surrounding rock, rather like a small dungeon area with the ceiling removed. This text description is fine, but on the map, one of the two routes in is labelled "Down", the other "Up", yet BOTH must logically lead DOWN into the depressed area or UP from it! Two giants are here, but eight "X"'s are shown on the map with no explanation as to their meaning, nor any hint as to where the giants are meant to be camped. Again, nothing insurmountable for most GMs, but overall suggesting too much haste in preparing this product, and too little subsequent checking.

By comparison to some of the other Dreamworlds products, I found this disappointingly routine. The map is certainly attractive enough, albeit at a scale far different to the typical form most would think of as a "floorplan". It also follows in virtually identical style, and not dissimilar layout, to the first great fantasy RPG city, Judges Guild's "City State of the Invincible Overlord" from 1976. However, the text descriptions here provide far less detail or imagination than that 40-year-old work. While the background notes are for the typical form of pseudo-medieval setting favoured by many fantasy RPGs still, there is too little evidence of the magic and fantasy such settings really need to me. However, a GM prepared to put in a LOT of work could doubtless make this city their own, and the map is certainly attractive enough to help in that.

This is a well-constructed and well-thought-out product, encompassing not just a new Shaman class for 5e, but also a discussion on the nature of shamanic "spirits" as envisioned for running it. The latter especially has long been a tricky subject for D&D to handle, to keep such spirits separate from the turnable undead, and the material here both helps with that dilemma and provides much thought for fresh role-playing situations in the game. Not all the possibilities for running Shamans from previous incarnations of D&D have been explored here. However the ones that have, have been handled with some depth and care. While a few numerical tweaks may prove necessary in play, albeit perhaps not for all DM's, the designer's ready willingness to engage in detailed discussions regarding the product, including making amendments where necessary, as well as the product itself, leave no doubt for me that this fully deserves my firmest recommendation.

As other reviewers have noted already, this is indeed an excellently detailed book, with uses for ANY watery adventures, including those set on, below, and far below the waves, while the superb set of encounter tables also encompasses a host of larger on-shore coastal settlement types. Plus the encounters usually go well beyond the basic "monster X appears", providing fresh story hooks at every turn. With a large number of new monsters statted-up for 5e, and a ship's company of variant NPC types, this sets the bar for any future water-bound D&D adventure products.

The "Dark Caribbean" setting won't be to everyone's taste - too much gunpowder and cannon for my liking, certainly - although it's been only lightly applied here, so is easily ignored if preferred. An Ancient Mariner NPC, and maybe an omen-haunted albatross from Coleridge's "Rime", would have been pleasing additions, plus as ever, there are other creatures which might have featured but which currently don't - such as dolphins and manatees. Nothing an inventive DM couldn't cope with easily however, and it's difficult really to even identify such minor points as "faults" in such a wonderful tome. Easily 5 stars out of 5 - and happily more if I could give 'em!

A great addition to the Hex Tile Maps range, including some transitional hexes to the "normal" greenfield hexes in other packs. Perhaps a few other things might have been done in places - a dry wadi bed or two wouldn't have gone amiss, perhaps some variant dune shapes, and maybe even a hex showing what happens in the aftermath of a rare desert rainstorm, where the desert suddenly blooms with flowering plants. However, there's plenty to work with already, including a tented encampment, rocky hills, a variety of oases, a huge fortified castle, a smaller paved town, and several other structures, fortified and less so, in desert settings. There are even three tiles with expanses of blue water that could be used for desert coastlines, but very handily, they will also group together to form one roughly hex-sized lake or small inland sea spread across three hexes, including a tiny rocky island with a tower. A fine set overall.

This set seems a little lacking in inspiration compared to some of the others in the DreamWorlds Hex Tile Maps range. The eight blank sea tiles don't help this impression certainly, but there are few sea cliffs, and although noted on the cover as also suitable for lakes, the lakes would have to be vast, as the set won't accommodate anything less than multi-hex in size. It would surely have been easy enough to use some of the too many "blank ocean" hexes to set up a single-hex lake, or one spanning just two or three hexes, maybe even a ribbon lake, the archetypal Scottish loch. Options for fjords too are extremely limited. What is here is good, but with a little extra effort, the set could have given a rather broader range of possibilities overall.

The river options are a little limited in this set, and there are no snowy mountain peaks, glaciers, lakes, scree slopes or areas of moorland shown, and surprisingly few cliffs, which makes it a little restricted in its potential for recreating any but fairly minor mountain ranges. Overall, it's perhaps best to think of it more as a "Hills" extension pack, providing higher hills than those in the "Medieval Maps Countryside Hex Tiles" set, as opposed to one useful in visualising serious mountains. Even so, it does add more possibilities to the "Countryside" pack.

The descriptive text notes accompanying these four tomb drawings are nicely atmospheric, although it's unclear if they're based on specific real-world examples, or are simply variants using actual examples as a basis. They're not strictly "floor plans" in the RPG sense, as there are no scales for the drawings, nor even overall sizes, let alone squares or hexes superimposed to help regulate movement, but they should provide inspiration for reuse in self-created RPG adventures with a little extra work by GMs. Plus they run the range from simple to large and quite complex, so have possibilities for various locations and plots.

A nicely done opening adventure for a new party, with useful possibilities for continuation into a small campaign - or indeed further still. The maps would benefit from being reworked/rescanned at a higher resolution (parts of the two area maps aren't very clear presently, especially around the castle remains on the Mont du Plat map, with many of the vegetation and building shapes heavily pixellated). Printing the map page at half size helps somewhat with this, if you find it a particular problem. Oh, and page numbers would be nice to prevent the classic sheaf of unidentifiable pages when you accidentally drop your printout on the floor!

This has proven a difficult product to review, because in one sense it's simply an example of what can be done with a small stationery pad of squared paper. In that sense, it succeeds well in showing what you might draw by hand onto such items, in this case, once you've printed off enough blank sheets.

However, it's also presented as providing sample geomorphs (the title on the actual product, not the product page, is "Pad of Geomorphic Intent: Sample Geomorphs"). While the drawings are nicely done for the most part, in a basic style, they're only loosely geomorphic, because the number of ways in which you might combine the drawing-tiles is heavily limited thanks to variable numbers of exit points per drawing, in different places, and of sometimes varying size. As the sample product image shows, one includes a 90° river in a corner, which would have to be used on a map edge, yet it has corridor exits on the same map edges as the river, and these can't be linked directly to anything else from this product in a strictly geomorphic tile fashion.

So it works well as a pad of squared paper (which alone would have had little interest for me; as a long-standing GM, squared paper pads I have in profusion already!), but not as a set of geomorphic floor plans, so I've marked it down accordingly.

This is a low-level wilderness adventure that includes interesting elements of exploration and investigation, and naturally enough, likely some combat too. However, I found it much too linear for my taste, with the party liable to have severe, if clumsily-plotted, difficulties if they stray far from the less than obvious one-true-path. There's also an uncomfortably weak ending, where the party may have discovered what the problem is, yet be no closer to its solution.

The maps are surprisingly poor. Not in style, which is a pleasing hand-drawn, black-and-white format, but in content. Getting the characters from their starting town to the village where the problem lies involves them either cutting across country without a guide, or following a road, and then taking a track from it to the village. Only the general area map shows no such turn-off track. There are two woodland areas which may need investigating, one the party "must" check-out, the other which they "mustn't", according to the storyline (there's also a third which passes unmentioned). None of the key places in the "must" wood are shown, yet there are three points of interest marked in the "mustn't" wood, which receive no description, and which the party will be prevented from reaching anyway. The essential further place, a pass through the mountains, isn't marked or named on any of the maps.

There's then a detailed hex map which supposedly zooms-in on the important pass, and the hidden city the players have to find. Only it shows neither the pass nor the road, and seems to have only a limited relation to the general area map at all. The city is at the junction of three hexes, so isn't actually in any one of them, yet the party can only search hex by hex, and have to find the exact hex (singular) the city is in. Should they guess it might exist (there's nothing to tell them), the party can travel to the hex north of the city to find a secret way in, according to the text on page 17, yet there are actually TWO hexes directly north of it.

Finally, there's the city map, and I could make no sense of this at all. The text talks of caves, yet the map suggests the entire thing is a series of sharply rectangular platforms suspended with no apparent support in mid-air, surrounded by mountains. Long stairways and paths lead from "platform" to "platform", but one set of stairs passes directly in front of some "rooms"/"platforms" without connection, and one of the "platforms" is labelled "Courtyard", so whether it should be in the open or enclosed becomes anyone's guess. There are also unlabelled black shapes on three "platforms"/"rooms", including five such rectangles of two sizes on the "Courtyard", whose function is again a matter for conjecture.

By the end, I'd given up any hope of being able to run this adventure easily from the product as presented, and while there are aspects which could be reused elsewhere, the whole needs far too much extra work to be useful as it stands.