The Sunken Ziggurat is yet another quality addition to the Dungeon Crawl Classics lineup. Author Richard Pocklington has created a solid D&D adventure with a fantasy-Babylonian flavor which sets it apart from almost every other D&D adventure out there.

The Sunken Ziggurat is an excellent "change of pace" adventure, and it doesn't require substantial changes to your player characters, their situation, or to your game world, in order to run. So long as you can accommodate the idea that an ancient Babylonian-style culture once existed in the history of your campaign world, you're good to go.

If you want to do the Indiana Jones thing, and have your player characters travel to distant lands to track down the mysterious Sunken Ziggurat that way, you can add all that in yourself.

As ever, Goodman Games understands the realities of the gaming table, and knows that many gaming groups need to get into the action as quickly as possible. So, whether the mysterious stone tablet takes your players to distant lands, or merely to a foreboding swamp in the player characters' home nation (implying that their medieval society is built above the buried remains of a lost ancient civilization), the adventure accomodates both story setups (and a few others), focusing instead on what happens after the player characters arrive at the fabled Sunken Ziggurat itself.

And what an adventure it is! The author obviously knows his Babylonian myth and history, but he has diligently turned history into fantasy, so that it all meshes perfectly with a baseline fantasy campaign's sensibilities. There are notes on how to handle the ancient fantasy-Babylonian language (called Unuul), even going so far as to suggest Unuul be treated as a forerunner of modern Common, so that modern-era player-characters might have a decent chance to read it.

Likewise, the author provides all the Babylonian-style names for the new creatures encountered herein, but only in parantheses. Each new creature has a more-familiar D&D style name for ease of gameplay.

Bardic Lore can be used to "remember" other key details about the lost civilization, if the requisite Knowledge skills are not with the players' party.

Simply put, this is a great dungeon crawl in the Goodman Games tradition. It's very fun, and -- as I intimated earlier -- it brings a kind of Indiana Jones feel to the proceedings, with the players immersed in ancient ruins, strange traps, and an exotic culture underlying it all.

Player-characters will find themselves dealing with a fascinating, yet unfamiliar, adventure site -- a place where they don't automatically recognize or understand the significance of everything they see.

And the creatures and monsters they battle won't all be familiar either. There are new challenges and new thrills to be had in combat as well. Like the best of the Dungeon Crawl Classics line, the Sunken Ziggurat is a fun, action-packed sword and sorcery romp. At a time when other companies -- including WotC itself -- insist that "adventure modules don't sell" Goodman Games continues to prove this assertion wrong.

Adventures like The Sunken Ziggurat show that Goodman Games understands the reality of the gaming table better than the competition. They know what a gaming group needs, why they need it, and how they need it presented. Action and fun rule, in adventures where the player characters and their choices are the focus of events, and player character actions have a genuine impact.

If you have a group of D&D players with some 5th to 7th level characters looking for some action, buy The Sunken Ziggurat. It's well-made, engaging, and a welcome change-of-pace from the usual medieval-style adventuring.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Everything.

The artwork and player handouts do an excellent job of communicating the "exotic" setting to medieval-minded players.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

For those who want the flavor of the Firefly TV series in their d20 Future spacefaring campaigns, Future Armada's latest deckplans for the Clydesdale-class transport Jo Lynn may be exactly what you need.

I've always admired the impressive artwork and high-quality deckplan maps in Black Wyrm Games' Future Armada series, but I think the Jo Lynn is the best ship design that Ryan Wolfe and company have released to date.

Why? Well, in my opinion, past Future Armada designs didn't always follow through on their promise. Black Wyrm Games tended to release starship designs which were "visual homages" to certain famous starcraft from TV and the movies ? but those homages tended to be only hull-deep.

The Venture transport, for example, strongly resembles Han Solo's famous YT-1300 transport from Star Wars, and yet -- beyond the exterior resemblance -- there's little in the actual design of the Venture which captures the spirt of the "fast, modified cargo ship" archetype that the cover art suggests.

And again, the visual look of the Wayfarer scout ship resembles a Klingon Bird of Prey from Star Trek, suggesting an agile, small-crew reconnaisance vessel, perhaps even one with stealth capability. Instead, the Wayfarer is merely a single-person scout ship, which can severely limit its campaign use as anything other than an NPC vessel.

With the Jo Lynn, however, Ryan Wolfe has decided to let his homages be homages. While enough has been altered in the design to avoid lawsuits (or midnight visits from Joss Whedon and an angry, heavily-armed Adam Baldwin) the Jo Lynn is exactly what the cover art suggests ? a spiritual sister-ship to the Firefly-class mid-bulk transport Serenity.

Designed for a crew of four (captain, pilot, medic, and engineer) and capable of also accomodating two passengers with some double-bunking (a fugitive doctor and his psi-sensitive sister, perhaps?), the Jo Lynn would make an excellent PL 6 "starter ship" for a d20 Future campaign.

For those who care less about Firefly and more about "blowin' stuff up real good", designer Wolfe has also included statistics and full deckplans for the Jo Lynn in its original, unmodified configuration as a PL 7 military gunboat/light troop transport. While the transport version of the Jo Lynn carries some weapons and defenses, its military "prequel" version is a much tougher beast, and should satisfy those who like their SF with a military or mercenary slant.

With excellent-quality deckplans and graphics, a starship homage played out in full this time, and two fully-presented versions of said starship for the price of one, the Jo Lynn deckplan is one I can heartily recommend.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This ship is one of the few d20 Future deckplans I can recall which actually gives consideration to crew space. Most deckplans just double- (or triple!) bunk the players into tiny cabins, but the Jo Lynn makes sure all four of the ship's crew get a cabin to call their own. While this may seem minor ? as a long-time SF Gamemaster, I can tell you that giving each player his or her own personal space aboard ship goes a long way toward bonding them to the starship and encouraging them to regard it as a campaign home.

Also, while career-military folks learn to put up with cramped quarters and double/triple bunking, do I really need to spell out what usually happens when you cram independent-minded, heavily-armed player characters into too-cramped spaces for game-weeks on end?

Speaking of close-quarters, the Jo Lynn has got to be one of the few deckplans I've seen that actually devotes space to both a washroom and a shower aboard ship. No doubt these details will also reduce the crew stress levels (and weapons fire) during long weeks in space.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not a criticism, so much as an observation: I'm not sure why an NPC crew and their backstories needed to be included in this package. I suppose it helps if the GM is using this ship as an NPC-controlled ship, or if the GMs player crew is short-staffed, but it always surprises me to find these extra (extraneous?) details in the Future Armada releases. Ah well, at least it keeps the products from being "just a pile of stats and art"

Also, be advised that -- while designer Ryan Wolfe has taken pains to keep the Jo Lynn an homage to the Firefly starship, Serenity, rather than a mere copy -- you may still be subjected to players spontaneously singing the Firefly theme song at you during gameplay ? especially this part:

Take me out To the Black, Tell `em I ain't comin' back. Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me.

What can I say? It's a good gorram starship, this Jo Lynn.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is THE sourcebook for those who want quasi-science gadgetry and alternative technology in their fantasy campaigns.

Honestly, if you can't find what you need in this book (or can't see your way to creating what you need through this book) then your fantasy-tech needs are so specific that you'd better get used to the idea of writing your own document. For most ordinary needs, the Technologist Sourcebook will do the job -- and then some.

Buy this book. As of this writing, it's the definitive source for the subject matter.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The amount of thought and effort that went into this sourcebook is evident on every page. Not only does this product look good, every effort has been made to ensure that it's as user-friendly as possible. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the class is structured like a magic-using class, so DMs don't have to learn a whole new paradigm to use the class.

The Technologist Sourcebook also tries to put options into the purchaser's hands: building your own devices is covered, as is treating devices as equipment in-game. Also broached is how to use the Technologist class and/or Fantastic Science devices in a d20 Modern Arcana/Shadow campaign. Lastly, a Technologist NPC example is presented at three different power levels (low, medium, high) for DMs who may wish to introduce Fantastic Science that way.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The product is fully -- and I do mean fully -- bookmarked, but there's so much here I occasionally found myself wishing for an actual Index. A quibble on my part, certainly not a flaw.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The Future Player's Companion is a must-buy for anyone who wants to run or to play in a d20 Future starfaring campaign. The third chapter alone warrants the full price of the book.

The greatest failing of the d20 Future rules (and, by extension, the d20 Modern rules) is, arguably, that the rules do not allow easy implementation of player character concepts from the very beginning of play.

The d20 Future starting occupations are ? for the most part ? very shallow and very narrow; simultaneously over-defining a player's concept, while giving him or her very little with which to build their intended character.

Take, for example, the Astronaut Trainee starting occupation in d20 Future. This starter occupation, with its emphasis on basic spaceflight skills and an array of college-level sciences, is very good if the d20 Future campaign is going to focus on modern-day space shuttle pilots.

If one is looking to create an ex- space navy deck officer, a hotshot volunteer starfighter pilot, or a gifted civilian freighter pilot, then Astronaut Trainee really isn't an appropriate starting occupation. The only other space-pilot friendly starter occupation in d20 Future is Transporter, and again, this occupation over-defines certain aspects of a character, while leaving other aspects unacknowledged.

Some would point to the Advanced Classes as the answer to character definition in d20 Future, but as The Future Player's Companion itself points out, Advanced Classes also "narrow down" and limit a character concept, in exchange for various gameplay benefits. The added problem is, of course, that Advanced Classes only become available later in the game.

Players always want to start off the game with some version of the character concept they bring to the table, and as I've been saying, d20 Future (and d20 Modern) are actually very bad at providing this.

The Future Player's Companion addresses the problem by introducing what it calls Class Combinations. Class Combos are essentially short guidelines, showing GMs and players how to construct certain kinds of archetypal SF characters using a pair of Basic Classes and a careful selection of feats and skills for customization.

For example, the book explains how to build a Freighter Captain character by alternating levels in Charismatic and Dedicated, and choosing Skills, Feats and Skill Trees (many of which are newly introduced in this book) to further define the exact sort of Freighter Captain the character is meant to be. Options are discussed ? including Advanced Class options for those who wish to go that route ? so that it's possible to build, say, both a Malcolm Reynolds style of Freighter Captain, and a Han Solo type Freighter Captain using the same Class Combo guidelines.

There are 17 different Class Combination archetypes covered in the Future Players Companion, including: Aide (Deanna Troi to C-3P0); Astrophysicist; Cybertechie (a cybernetics expert); Freighter Captain; Ground Pounder (the soldier/merc/marine Combo ? think Hicks from Aliens or a redshirt from Star Trek); Gunner (starship gunnery); Marshal (space lawman); Mechanic (Montgomery Scott to Kaylee Frye); Medic (Dr. Phlox to Simon Tam); Miner; Navigator; Net Jockey (cyberspace hacker and cracker) ; Pilot (Luke Skywalker to "Wash" Washburn); Pirate (more skull-and-crossbones true criminal than Han Solo here); Scavenger (a space salvager/looter); Warbot (for robot/android characters with combat programming) and finally, Xenobiologist for those starship science officers, or curious academics who just can't resist getting closer to those interesting fanged plants ?

There's a lot of other worthy material in the Future Player's Companion besides the Class Combinations chapter, and the new Feats, Skills and Talent Trees which make the Class Combos possible. I'm going to let other reviewers touch on those remaining details, though. As I've already said, I think the Class Combination guidelines are what makes this product indispensible, and that's what I'm interested in talking about today.

If you plan to run, or to play in, a spacefaring d20 Future campaign, buy this book. My recommendation can't be any plainer than that.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The Class Combinations concept corrects what I consider one of the basic flaws in the d20 Future (and d20 Modern) rules as printed.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The interior layout is clean and readable, but the graphic design of the cover seemed a little less ... polished ... than one might expect from a company of designers with WotC credits behind them. It's a fairly busy and muted cover design, not something that's necessarily going to call attention on the shelves. Not a criticism, as such, merely something which surprised me.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Ever since the earliest days of superhero rpgs, when Hero Games' Champions and FGU's Villains & Vigilantes were really the only major contenders out there, the two products have been hotly debated. Most gamers love one, and hate the other.

Now I see that same sort of love/hate response to Living Legends (a.k.a. V&V 3.0) continues here today

Why? It's a question of approach. How each major game approaches making superheroes "real" in an rpg sense.

Champions is very detail-oriented and mechanics-heavy. There is an ongoing effort to have a rule for every possible power variation, and for every gameplay situation. For those gamers who like incredibly fine-detail character building, mathematics in general, or just a sense of significant control -- Champions is for them, and they swear by it.

Living Legends takes a much looser, concept-based approach. It's about having a character idea, putting it together as quickly and easily as possible, and getting into the superheroic action. The rules exist to be helpful to players and GMs, not to cover every possible game-table development. Living Legends presumes an actively involved GM who will make judgement calls when necessary to keep play fast and fun for everyone.

Champions fans often hate Living Legends/V&V, and decry it for being "rules light" and "not comprehensive" like Champions -- fans of the V&V legacy love the games precisely for their loose, fun-centred approach, where rules are there to assist rather than to dictate play.

Players and GMs who like one game's approach, typically dislike the other game's method. The Champions versus V&V "war" has been waging thus since the beginning of the 1980s.

Some may wonder where a modern game like Green Ronin's Mutants & Masterminds fits into all this -- essentially, it's less rules-intensive than Champions, but it's still detail-heavy enough to fall in the "Champions" category; it's not as fast or as fluid to run as Living Legends.

Me, I have run both Champions campaigns and Villains & Vigilantes campaigns at length, and I personally prefer the V&V/Living Legends style. From a purely practical standpoint, V&V takes less preparation to run.

The paperwork difference in creating V&V style game sessions and Champions game sessions was about 3 to 1 for me -- I could write up three full V&V adventures by hand (villain stats, maps and all) in the time it took me to work up one fully-detailed Champions scenario. The Mutants and Masterminds versus V&V ratio was about 2 to 1, again in favor of V&V/Living Legends.

I definitely recommend Living Legends, but whether it's the superhero game for you will depend on what style of superhero rpg you require.

And thus, the war will continue ... :-) <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: It's fast and fun, making a real effort to capture the feel of being a superhero.

The game encourages gamers to play superheroic versions of themselves. You would not believe how powerful this "childhood wish fulfillment" angle can be, once players try it. I've found that players roleplay more readily, and can get very intensely involved in the game world, once it's "them" behind the mask.

The implied campaign background in the Living Legends book is superheroics on the grand scale. Alien worlds, Atlantis, Lost prehistoric islands -- players can link their origins to all these types of places, and more. The epic scale reminds me of the DC Universe, or of Marvel Comics back when it actually was the House of Ideas.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The rules will not necessarily cover every single power concept you or your players can dream up -- either that, or else the game will handle the power differently from the way you envision. Not a criticism, just a warning that GMs must be willing to adapt the power rules on the fly, if required.

Similarly, the rules don't scale up infinitely. You can certainly have a Superman-like character, for example, but building a character with precisely Superman's level of extreme power may prove difficult. Again, only a warning.

The layout and production values of the product seem a little low-end. The recent upgrade to version 1.0 of Living Legends helped a fair bit, but be advised that this is not an ultra-slick-looking product. Jeff Dee's art has a nice Silver/Bronze Age comic book feel to it, but again, this is not a PDF with production values like something you'd buy from Malhavoc, Green Ronin, or WotC.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

"We who are about to die, salute you!"

Let me make one thing perfectly clear -- under normal circumstances, I hate, scorn, detest and despise so-called "killer dungeons".

I'm the guy who wrote such a scathing (and accurate, I insist) review of Necromancer Games' execrable Rappan Athuk 3 over at ENWorld, that Psion himself pulled it off the website after personally chastising me. Buy me a tequila at a convention some time and I'll tell you that story ?

As far as I'm concerned, my fellow D&D grognards who rattle on about the tradition of the original Tomb of Horrors adventure, can take said module and stick it right up their Unearthed Arcana.

Tomb of Horrors remains the only first-edition module my original gaming group ever walked out on ? we picked up our character sheets and left the table, somewhere around room three.

Why? Because these so-called killer dungeons are typically stupid and shallow. They require the least amount of thought or creativity of all the dungeon types to design or to run.

All a writer or DM needs is a mean streak, and a serial killer's affinity for near-impassable traps and nigh-impenetrable riddles. Throw in some high-end NPCs and monsters with enough magical power behind them to furnish a flimsy backstory which "explains" the existence of the slaughterhouse housing the deathtraps, and voila, one killer dungeon!

More importantly, in my opinion, killer dungeons run counter to the entire role-playing ethos. Role-playing games work because the players and an impartial gamemaster get together to entertain each other -- the players face the challenges the GM creates, and the GM adjudicates those challenges as fairly and as entertainingly as possible for all concerned.

As soon as the gamemaster's mission becomes "I'm going to make the players suffer and their characters die", it's essentially game-over, literally and figuratively. If any worthy gamemaster sets his or her interests squarely against those of the players, the players will lose ? and their characters will die quickly, repeatedly, and in droves.

With most killer dungeons, the D&D game gets reduced to nothing but mere mechanical dice rolls and random chance -- because the impartial judge has abandoned his or her responsibility to be fair and entertaining. While the threat of character death is entertaining to players, the guarantee of it is not.

So, if I hate, scorn, detest and despise killer dungeons, why am I reviewing Goodman Games' Crypt of the Devil-Lich?

Because this killer dungeon is good

Despite the introduction insisting that this adventure is a death-trap, it's the right kind of death trap. This adventure module is not about low-end, low-brow DM brutality, or intentionally-impossible situations, or foregone conclusions of player-character death ? Crypt of the Devil Lich is about high-end role-playing possibilities, combined with high-risk, serious challenges. Goodman Games has wrapped a story around the mayhem which makes all the chaos and insanity serve a purpose.

Will some of your player-characters die? Most likely, yes. Best be sure your party cleric's on good terms with the angels for those prayers of resurrection.

Yes, there are confounding riddles here, and yes, there are a few very difficult lethal traps, but one never gets the feeling that all of this is contrived merely to make the players suffer. It feels like part of an over-arching fantasy story where the stakes are very, very, very high.

This adventure is about destroying a brilliantly evil arch-villain on her home ground. It's going to be rough on the heroes, and it will be a death-trap for the foolish, the impatient, and the reckless.

In the introduction, publisher Joseph Goodman talks about how his company solicited several authors for contributions to this adventure ? how the Crypt of the Devil-Lich is actually a combination of the best ideas and elements submitted by a host of authors. The strategy worked, as there doesn't seem to be any weak "filler" content in this adventure; no mindless deathtraps placed just to keep things tense. Every element in Crypt of the Devil-Lich feels deliberately chosen and placed, so the sense of a genuine setting, with it's own internal logic, is maintained.

Yes, it's deadly, but it feels like a story, never a contrived series of no-win situations randomly slung together by a malicious author. The villains -- including the titular Devil-Lich -- are well-conceived, powerful, and evil. They would make fine recurring master villains for a campaign, should they escape the players' final vengeance. After this adventure, the villains' names will surely provoke a strong reaction from any player, or player-character, who knows them.

As with the best Goodman Games adventures, this adventure presumes the default fantasy setting presumed by the D&D core rulebooks, making the Crypt of the Devil-Lich easily importable into most fantasy campaign worlds.

Lastly, Crypt of the Devil-Lich started life as a Gen Con tournament. If your players wouldn't (or shouldn't) risk their beloved D&D characters on an adventure so obviously dangerous as this one, you can always run them through the adventure with the pre-made tournament characters, which Goodman Games has kindly (mercifully?) included in the package.

In my first review of a Goodman Games product, Idylls of the Rat King, I justly praised the publisher for resurrecting and reclaiming all that was good about old-school dungeons, while leaving all the stupidity and dross behind.

Now, to my amazement, Goodman Games has managed to single-handedly redeem the "killer dungeon" sub-genre, and to create something worthwhile out of a sub-genre which I have always considered beyond redemption.

In my opinion, the student has surpassed the master in this endeavor. The Crypt of the Devil-Lich is the high-level, high-risk adventure the Tomb of Horrors never was, and ought to have been.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: - the assorted player handouts are a very good idea, considering that this is a high -stakes adventure, with player characters' lives in the balance.

• notes are provided allowing this adventure to be run as a tournament or as an adventure, depending on the owner's preference.

• The art and layout continues to carry that old-school strength and simplicity.

• the full-color this time was a nice change, although I'm not sure it's nice enough to warrant a permanent change (and a permanent price increase).

• the pictures from Gen Con of the Goodman Games team, and the winners of the original Crypt of the Devil Lich tournament were amusing.

• an Erol Otus sketch of the tournament winner's character. Erol Otus, kids!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - For all that this adventure takes the high ground in its design, I still feel that there are a couple of spots in the adventure where it veers dangerously close to the "unbeatable trap" cliche. For that, it loses a star. We've had enough of such no-win contrivance posing as a challenge for years now. If there's no way to win, it's not a challenge, it's simply lazy, vindictive design.

• the pictures from Gen Con :-) Why do all gamers look like they're related, or at least share the same genetic code? Other than the rather radiant Mrs. Goodman, everyone in these pictures looks like relatives of everyone I've ever gamed with. Perhaps it's that gamers seem incapable of wearing anything but T-shirts? :-)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

"Look, I'm telling you! There's something movin' and it ain't us!!"

Thirteen is a lucky number for fans of Ronin Arts and Skeleton Key Games' Future: Starship deckplans series. With Future: Starship 13 Ghost Ship, the Future: Starship team moves away from pure player-friendly starships and into a deckplan which is more of an adventure setting.

My only problem here lies with how much to say next. My original plan was to go into some detail concerning just how many adventure options Ronin Arts has crammed into this deckplan, but then I was reminded of the obvious ?- players read these reviews also. As a person, I hate spoilers, and as a GM I absolutely hate it when the players already know what they're up against. Suspense is half the fun of a good adventure. Let someone else take the low road and spoil the contents of this deckplan; it won't be me.

Suffice it to say, if d20 Future GMs have any need in their campaigns for a derelict spacecraft which players can salvage and/or explore, then this deckplan is an easy, obvious choice. The ship itself ? while intended to be a lost and obsolete "old model" starship ?- is statted out at both PL 6 and PL 7. Ronin Arts has also changed their normal area numbering for this deckplan, numbering every map area (even redundant ones) individually, allowing GMs to key unique encounters.

Did I say encounters? Well, yes I did. While Ghost Ship is not written up as an adventure per se, one possible backstory for the vessel is included, and at least three different ways of utilizing the starship as an adventure site (beyond simple salvage) are proposed.

Most of the ideas put forward are archetypal, SF fan-favorite notions, and they're done well. Statistics for what the players might encounter in each plot are provided, and it's quite possible that especially sadistic GMs could find a way of writing all three threats into one single adventure.

Elements of films like Aliens, Event Horizon, The Black Hole, and even 1950s classics like the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers are all referenced ?- and referenced lovingly and well ?- in Future: Starship 13 Ghost Ship. Once again, kudos go to publisher Philip Reed, author Michael Hammes, and map-tile maker Ed Bourelle for another inexpensive, yet eminently useful and adaptable, d20 Future product.

Future GMs will no doubt have a lot of fun scaring their players with Ghost Ship, and I suspect that the players will have a great time being scared.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Ronin Arts seems to have found the perfect balance between a useful product and an enjoyable one in their Future: Starship series. Plus, you can't beat the low price.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: GMs should be aware that there seems to be a typo in one of the (no spoilers here) "threat NPC" statistics. One possible threat comes in two categories, major and minor, but both are listed as CR 6. Judging from the stat blocks, I'm guessing that the minor version of the threat should be only CR 2 or CR3.

As ever, newcomers to the series need to be aware that these are not tabletop-sized deckplans. You'll have to buy the tilesets mentioned in the product description (and available at RPGNow from Skeleton Key Games) if you want to lay out the Ghost Ship to minature scale on your gaming table.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

"Something loved is always beautiful"

If the Norwegian proverb holds true, then this awkward-looking starship is bound to become the most beautiful ship many d20 Future GMs and players will ever lay eyes on ?

If you buy only one Future: Starship deckplan from Ronin Arts, buy this one. Everything Ronin Arts and Skeleton Key Games do right in their Future: Starship series is crystalised and nigh-perfected in this Horizon Traveler deckplan package. Attention to detail, useful support material ? it's all here ? plus a level of flexibility which will allow GMs to fit the Horizon Traveler to their campaign and its needs, rather than the other way around.

The Horizon Traveler is presented as a frontier merchant vessel, but with very little work on the part of the GM, the starship can easily serve as an exploratory vessel, a military patrol vessel, a police starship, an intelligence-service vessel or a derelict vessel for players to explore and salvage.

Starting d20 Future characters can even come aboard the Horizon Traveler as passengers, and end up staying on as crew ? even significant crew ? should GMs feel inclined to create that story.

If you're a GM looking to start a d20 future campaign, and you're not sure where to begin, buy this product. Sure, the exterior of the Horizon Traveler may seem ugly at first glance, but believe me, ugly is only hull deep.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Everything.

Four decks of flexible, easily-adaptable starfaring fun, all at a low price. What's not to like? <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing.

But again, I must caution newcomers to the series that these deckplans are not tabletop-miniature sized. If you want to lay out the Horizon Traveler to scale on your gaming table, you're going to have to buy some of the printable starship e-tile sets from Skeleton Key games (also available at RPGNow). This particularly large deckplan uses pieces from many of the e-tile sets, specifically: Star Patrol, Star Chasers, Star Command, Star Freighter, and the Battle Damaged Starship set.

The good news is, the Skeleton Key starship tiles are first-rate, and can be used with the other Future: Starship deckplans from Ronin Arts.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

"Is this gonna be a stand-up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?"

"Secure that sh#t, Hudson. With the deckplans for the Devastator-class gunship from Ronin Arts, the op will be whatever the GM says it will be!"

"It's a bug hunt ?"

The ninth Future: Starship deckplan package from Ronin Arts provides the perfect support ship for d20 Future players who just can't get enough of ground-pounding military science-fiction adventure. The Devastator gunship is armored-up and armed to the teeth, plus it's got a complement of infantry robots aboard who serve as shipboard security, and who can fill out any planetside strike force. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: - Besides the usual excellent deckplans and ship's data, this product also stats out two versions of the InfantryBot (at Progress Levels 5 & 6) for use in d20 Future games.

-There's also a discussion concerning how GMs might create ground-based anti-starship weaponry (vehicle-mounted and stationary) using the d20 Future and d20 Modern rules. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - Minor quibble first: the Crew number is omitted in the ship's stat block. The number can, no doubt, be inferred by looking at the remaining information, but it's an unfortunate typo.

• My biggest complaint with this product is that the Devastator is only written up as a Progress Level 6 ship. It has no interstellar drive, and in interstellar-scale campaigns at PL 7 or higher, it must function as little more than a glorified military dropship. The Devastator as presented will not fill the role of a "home ship" for a PC squad of space mercenaries travelling the galaxy looking for contract-work -- and the pity is, the ship's design would otherwise make it perfect for this sort of role -- if not for the PL 6 sublight engine.

Certainly, enterprising GMs could add a starship template, such as the Lightning-class template in the d20 Future rules, but that generic template was not designed with a military gunship in mind, and scaling up the Devastator's armor and weaponry to PL 7 properly could prove problematic. It's puzzling that Ronin Arts did not provide a template for a PL 7 Devastator; nor did they provide a PL 7 version of the InfantryBots. A puzzle, since Ronin Arts has done just these sorts of things in earlier deckplan packages.

So, tying the Devastator firmly to PL 6 limits it's versatility, making it only nominally useful in most interstellar d20 Future campaigns. This lack of flexibility will cost the product a star in this review ? regrettable, since in every other aspect, this deckplan package is as top-notch as the rest of the deckplans in Ronin Arts' Future: Starship series.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

"To boldly go where no Ronin Arts starship deckplan has gone before ?"

(Cue Music)

Okay, so the Magellan starship is hardly a military heavy cruiser like the starship Enterprise, but it is the perfect player starship for d20 Future GMs who want to run a starfaring campagn based on space exploration, and deep-space encounters with the unknown.

The Magellan is a Progress Level 7 exploratory vessel, and it contains everything a group of players will need to take their characters beyond the edge of known space and into adventure. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: - Everything, basically. Beyond the always-excellent deckplan and ship's data, this product also offers a new ship's system (Improved Radiation Shielding), and tabletop-scale map counters for the starship's hovervan, as well as it's cadre of scientific sensor drones.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - I have no complaints.

• First-time buyers ought to be reminded, however, that the ship deckplan is not tabletop scale. If you want to lay out the starship on your gaming table, you'll need to buy the requisite printable-tile PDFs from Skeleton Key Games mentioned in the starship info. These tiles are available here on RPGNow, and are high-quality.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

If you're running (or planning to run) a d20 Future spacefaring campaign, these Nova Star deckplans will give you a perfect "starter" player starship.

Be warned: these inexpensive Future: Starship series ship's data/deckplan packages are like potato chips -- once you have one, you likely won't want to stop there. Futhermore, you'll probably also want to buy the high-quality, printable PDF tilesets from Skeleton Key Games which were used to create these deckplans -- just so you can lay out the entire starship to scale on your gaming table! <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: - It delivers exactly what it promises, and at a low price.

• The additional starship details: new starship rules and components and the like.

• the bonus tiles from Skeleton Key games: -- the beginning of the addiction!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - I have no complaints.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is a very well-crafted guide to custom-building character classes and abilities for Dungeons and Dragons. Unfortunately, it has yet to be "patched up" to incorporate the D&D 3.5 rules changes, so its usefulness is now severely limited.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: - I was impressed with the amount of customization this book offers. Even though there are a lot of elements to be considered in custom character building, this book makes it all seem like plug-and-play fun<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - some of the options may create unbalanced characters. I didn't see any of this myself, but I want to make plain here that I am not a "rules lawyer" type -- certain things may have slipped under my radar without my noticing.

• this book is designed for Dungeons & Dragons version 3.0. Since basic character classes, like the Paladin and the Ranger, have been fundamentally altered since the release of D&D 3.0, this book is now more of a curiousity, or a possible example for those who wish to do something similar, than a useful gaming product.

While the quality is good, and the ingenious effort is clearly there, I cannot, in good conscience, give this book a passing grade. With the release of D&D 3.5, it no longer fulfills its basic function.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

This is the first science-fiction adventure from QLI to be set in Traveller's classic era: when the galactic Imperium was overseen by the benign Emperor Strephon. The greatest strength of Traveller's classic era setting is that it is a far-reaching, yet inherently stable campaign background -- allowing GMs (or Referees, as Traveller calls them) to tell whatever sorts of SF stories they prefer (battle, exploration, trade, politics), whenever they choose, against a background broad enough to accomodate it all.

This is an excellent adventure for those new to QLI and/or Traveller, and should be adaptable to other SF games like d20 future with little trouble. On the downside, for those of us who have bought previous QLI Traveller adventures, a certain thematic "sameness" is beginning to creep in which can make this adventure feel like something you've already seen.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: - The Third Imperiun backdrop is arguably the best of the Traveller settings, for its breadth, stability, and adaptability.

• The writing is top-notch, both in terms of readability and plot design.

• This adventure should be easily adapatable for GMs who run SF games other than Traveller. The story's the thing, and it's all here.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - Most of the QLI adventures published to date have a certain thematic "sameness" to them: there always seems to be some sort of high-level corruption and/or conspiracy going on; there are always hidden enemies and/or traitors lurking somewhere nearby; the action almost always centers on small, planetary "pocket empires" of some sort. The plots are well-written, to be sure, but these themes seem to crop up in every adventure published by QLI thus far. Taken together, the adventures all seem to read like some sort of X-Files, Honor Harrington, Tom Clancy cross. Not a bad pedigree, I admit, but this repetition in the adventure themes is starting to wear on me. It's becoming formulaic.

• The Far Trader starship deckplans in this adventure are ugly as hell. Someone went big for loud color using what appears to be Campaign Cartographer 1 or 2. The results look, well, ill-advised and are very hard on the eyeballs. The problem with these deckplans is exacerbated by the fact that there is a second set of black-and-white deckplans in the adventure, drawn in the more familiar Traveller style, and these look polished and professional.

On its own, this product probably rates a 4/5 for the quality of the writing and the general production values, with one star off for that ill-considered and hideous deckplan. If you haven't bought any of QLI's previous Traveller adventures, or you are simply planning to adapt this adventure to your SF setting of choice, then you'll probably find a lot to like here. For those of us who've been buying the QLI adventures since the beginning, however, you may not need this one; even with the Third Imperium campaign backdrop, it doesn't seem different enough from what's gone before.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

A good guide for GMs who want to design more-plausible alien races for their science-fiction campaign settings, wrapped up in a completely nondescript presentation.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: - Atomik Alienz delivers exactly what it promises: a guide to designing alien species for your SF role-playing game. It even addresses the different types of alien design, from the "humans with bad skin conditions" humanoid type common to New Trek, to the more difficult (from a role-playing standpoint) hard SF truly-alien aliens. Example aliens are provided and, in a clever touch, even a few fantasy creatures (elves, dragons) are designed under the rules to demonstrate how the design sequence works.

• With the free Atomik add-on PDF (referenced in this product and free to download from RPGNow) gamers can fairly easily translate aliens designed under the Atomik system into their favorite gaming systems, including FUDGE, GURPS, and the ubiquitous d20. The author explains his conversion system well enough that, no doubt, Atomik alien species could be translated into game systems not inferred by the Atomik book with little ease. Only truly unusual and/or obscure game systems might present a conversion problem.

• The author avoids technobabble and design jargon, and makes every effort to explain the scientific concepts, and the design concepts, of Atomik Alienz in ordinary terms.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: - The scientific references in the author's bibliography seem rather old; I don't think any source newer that the late nineties is credited. While I don't think the author got any of his basic xenobiology or space science details wrong, space science knowledge is being updated pretty much every week these days. I would've felt better about Atomik Alienz if its source material were a little more current.

• Visually, Atomik Alienz is the equivalent of a clear, well-presented college term paper. Beyond the cover, there is essentially no artwork of any significance in this product. A few charts, and perhaps a stock galaxy picture, but that's it folks. Mostly, it's two columns of black text on a white page, every page. Be warned.

Because it's so bland, I'm tempted to give Atomik Alienz a 3/5, but while it is unbelievably bland-looking, it's not actually ugly. Besides which, the product delivers exactly what it promises, content-wise: guidelines for designing more plausible alien races for your SF game, plus (with the free add-on PDF) the means of transferring your newly-designed aliens into your favorite game systems. Call it a 4/5, then, with one star off for potentially-obsolescent science data, and a nonexistent visual style.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Another high-quality high-fun adventurous romp from Goodman Games!<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The straightforward sword and sorcery action. The clean, clear aesthetically-pleasing look of the adventure. The Erol Otus (Erol Otus!) cover art.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: As has been mentioned elsewhere, the ultimate guardian of the tower's treasure is a good-aligned creature. The author assumes that PCs will be the cliche greedy types who won't care about killing a good creature when so much treasure is at stake, but I know PCs (and players) who would care, and who would walk away rather than slay a good creature being forced to act against its will. DMs who also care will have to swap in an evil counterpart for the guardian creature -- the Monster Manual will make this fairly easy to do -- yet the tactics of the final battle will be changed thereby, which will mean more work for the DM. Honestly, this is the one objectionable element of this product; the author should've gone with an evil guardian, or else added in a means by which non-Lawful Greedy players might free the good-aligned guardian and still inherit the treasure. If not for this design lapse, I would've awarded The Mysterious Tower a perfect five stars.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>