I bought this primarily for two reasons: curiosity (it has received lots of praise in forums I frequent) and for the adventure generator. I got the whole RPG product instead of the Game Master Emulator product because my curiosity about the RPG engine outweighed my frugality.

I was not disappointed. While I have not played it yet, I was immediately turned off by the RPG engine and probably will never play it. It's a little too freeform for my tastes. That said, the adventure and world generation sections are really, really nice once you wrap your head around it. Those portions will become a powerful addition to my GM toolbox.

Everything is ruled over by the Fate Chart and a smattering of given reference charts and tables. Players are expected to expand on the reference tables and several pages of blanks are provided. There is an element of randomness which alters the Fate Chart, even, though this is element is not actually explained until three or four chapters after the Fate Chart use chapter.

The basis of the system is the phrasing of yes/no question and rolls on the Fate Chart. In that sense, this is little more than a magic eight ball, and the answers given by the chart requires as much interpretation, though guidelines for doing just that are given in the text.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The adventure generation section will soon become a powerful addition to my GM toolbox.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: * No print-friendly version.

• ToC & Index entries not clickable bookmarks, however the simple fact that they exist at all is really quite nice.
• Crossreferences are not direct, but mere references to some future unknown. No indication of precisely where to look. It would be particularly nice if they were clickable bookmarks.
• The organization, in general, is... not; organized, that is. There are whole sections that essentially reappear in different words in two or three different areas of the book. Some items are simply in the wrong part of the book (particularly, the Chaos Factor should be explained in the chapter on how to use the Fate Chart.)

A reorganization would gain this product two additional stars in my review.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

So... It's been a while since I've actually looked at these since they stopped being useful when I stopped playing D20-engine games.

From memory: These are really handy if you're one of those GMs who keeps a card-file handy at the table. They are also really nice for handing the card to your player so (s)he doesn't have to cram all those details into a small space on a character sheet. They very nicely paper-clip to it or fit in a pocket of a folio.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Really, really handy IF you're a gamer who likes card-file boxes, like me.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Drop that box and they scatter all over the place. What a mess.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

If you play Grunt, this is way neat stuff. Lots more options for building up and customizing your forces to your style of play. [NOTE: This has been fixed.] The layout sucks, but there's a way to fix it yourself (see below) if you know how.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Loads of new stuff to build and control my force. Lots of this stuff is way neato! Really rapid response to minor quality control issue [Thanks, guys.]<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nearly every flaw I found was rapidly fixed and I need to apologize to GoB for taking so long to update this review. Much, MUCH better than original release.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Moderately useful for GMing EverNight. 8.5 x 11.0 landscape. Some glaring flaws as far as useability goes.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Landscape format allows me to conceal a larger table area from my players and still be able to see over the screen to see the table and my players.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Lots of graphics. While they make it pretty, they also distract from my ability to read the thing. Also, the background graphic could not be disabled for printing, further muddling the usefulness.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This is funny! As the cover blurb states, it's also a really good introduction to what goblinoid society would be like in a "traditional" fantasy setting. Everything is painted with a really broad brush, but it's done well enough to integrate into any campaign.

And the price is worth reading it, even if you don't intend ever to use it for your game.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

For about $1.50, this was slightly more than I expected. Four pages, including the cover which contains the rules. The other three pages are spell cards and unit stands. Simple and playable. A terrific addition to the BDA line of beer-n-pretzels miniature games.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Spell cards awfully small and hard to shuffle conveniently.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Really great setting from MicroTactix. Similar, in concept, to Earth: Final Conflict; a bunch of aliens show up and start negotiating with the various factions of humanity, trying to help us. Or so they claim...

This actually would have worked better with a mini-campaign attached to it. It contains about the same amount of setting material as GWG's Savage Settings, but lacks the campaign backbone. Story ideas are not forthcoming to this GM.

That being said, if you enjoy cloak-n-dagger style play with lots of political intrigue, this looks like a really fun setting. Myself, I will probably use it to borrow ideas from for use in other settings.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Seems incomplete, somehow, without an attached mini-campaign. Motives for the aliens never really spelled out, so GM has to find his/her own plausible reason for their coming.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This is a terrific product for a player to purchase. It contains nearly everything from the main ToD book that a player might need access to. Nearly, because there are four or five pages in the back of the book that should not be concealed from the players (military organization, what units were based where, ranks, some history, etc.)

Not a very good option for GMs wishing to provide free [printed] player's guides and references to his game group. While this provides a lot of useful information, only about five pages (of 37) make useful in-play references for players, about 15 pages of character creation and the rest setting information.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Makes it easy for players to look something up without risk of them scanning into GM-only land.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Left out some useful pages from the back of the main book. Can't disable the background image when printing (eats lots of ink).<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The artwork is not what I expected from a gaming-house such as GWG/Pinnacle, but the quantity of troops is pretty incredible.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Lots and lots of inexpensive troopies for visual reference on the table top.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Artwork not what I expected. Prefer fold-over or tee-pee style to tri-fold.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Very superior to the EverNight screen. Most of the tables are relevant in a game session and the graphics are less intrusive.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Landscape format allows me to conceal a larger amount of table space (for the same number of panes) while maintaining my ability to see the tabletop and my players.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some tables which are less-useful in-game on same page as some which are extremely useful in-game. Unable to disable background graphics for printing.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The rules are great! Very creative and unchanged from the older print version, as near as I can tell.

The page layout leave much to be desired. The original book was printed as four 5x8 pages printed per physical 8.5x11 landscape page and saddle-stapled. This layout has one single 5x8 page centered in one 8.5x11 portrait page. Very wasteful of paper to print.

The fold-ups are nice to have but the artwork is a major disappointment being limited to black silhouettes.

I was mildly disappointed by this purchase. I expected more than the given number of recipes.

That said, these are some fairly traditional recipes with cost breakdowns and a few tips for how to keep everyone at the table well-fed.

Tired of the traditional preconceptions of what elven battlegear looks like? Don't like the look of the haughty elf in scale army on a fancy-barded horse? These are for you. If you need a different feel for your elves, these are what to use.

Need some troops to use against your RPG players? How about an instant army to try out a new set of wargame rules or even to use for Budget Battlefield? These are for you.

These figures are fabulous. Solid black silhouette back-side could be a gray if not art, but otherwise wonderful product.

The extra bits on that last few pages really make the product shine!