I hate the way items never wear out or become damaged in most RPGs. It begets all sorts of unrealistic characters and situations, such as the tank-style figher-- those heavily armored warriors who need never bother to duck, parry or dodge because they can depend on their armor to always protect them, as it never gets damaged. I actually know something about actual combat, armor and weapons, so the unrealistically heavy and ever-durable armor and weapons in RPGs grates on my nerves.

Anyway, I was starting to work on rules for item durability when I ran across this title. Not only does this save me some work but Wear & Tear is much better than what I was coming up with. And it covers item flaws, so stuff doesn't just work fine until it breaks in this system. I play various systems-- d20, True20 (my fave), Storyteller, Fate, plus I've played Dungeon World, GURPS and Savage Worlds-- and though you'll need an assortment of dice for true randomness, Wear & Tear truly would work with any game system.

I'm planning to start a Baroque Space opera campaign soon when I spotted this little gem while browsing rpgnow. And it is a little gem. I wasn't planning to use vampires in my future campaign but now I've changed my mind.

2 files, one printer-friendly. 30 cool ideas to replace regular vampire weaknesses (e.g., holy water) with limitations more appropriate to a SF setting. Truly a steal at 50 cents!

A fun little book of monsters, definitely not to be taken seriously for even a minute. Of course, these "fearsome critters" were never meant seriously in the first place.

The Good: Silly critters are great for a silly adventure. Any of these is a perfect encounter for an April Fools day game. I especially enjoyed that these are accurate descriptions of the critters from American folklore. And the recipe in the back should make an easy, nice stew if you substitute beef.

The Bad: Noty much to say here. The critters are kind of under-described, I suppose. If you mean to actually mean to use one, you may need to add abilties, feats, etc., unless you're playing it old school. I'm not going to deduct a star for that though, not given the intentionally ridiculous nature of the content and its cheap price (though I did catch it on sale).

As others have noted, the rules for the Craft skill are more than a little broken in Pathfinder (a legacy from old d20). Making Craft Work fixes this smoothly without making things more complicated. Small, bite-sized and cheap, it's invaluable if the Craft skill sees much use in your game.

This is a 4-page booklet with the last page being dedicated to the OGL license. The three pages of material here covers feat for ships. A few of these feats affect the crew but most affect only the ship itself. Though hardly a must-have it's an interesting idea and well-executed. Short and sweet, these ship feats could make for a great enhancement for a maritime campaign.

This product helps you to modify monsters in small ways (such as changing its appearance so your players don't recognize it) and in big ways (such as changing its special attacks and qualities). It even has a small section for giving a critter the special ability of another monster. The tables provided make it quick and easy. Short, sweet and simple, this little ebook is definitely worth its low price.

I just got it a few minutes ago. I won't go into long details -- the web page about sums it up on the content of the book and the material is quite good. If you're accustomed to RPGs where the undead seem to exist just to feed and lie in wait for the heroes, you're in for surprise.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Great material, very evocative atmosphere to both the game and the writing.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Terrible scan. I'm glad I caught this on a good sale. Buy it in print from an rpg shop. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

First, let's let get this out of the way. This is not a rulebook or adventure module for CoC. This is a book of ideas and interesting essays. With that said, there is some crunch here in the way of adventure-planning, but this book is more for the Lovecraft/CoC fan than for a Keeper looking for adventures to play soon; that part comes later, after you've digested what you've read and thought about it a while.

Ken Hite is a good writer. The essays here are thoughtful and well-written. He delves into the history behind a lot of the names Lovecraft used (Dunwich, Dagon, etc.) to mine that for ideas -- often quite clever ideas. He also digs into vamprisim in New England. There's a lot more too.

In conclusion, this is a good book for an old-time CoC fan who, like me, already has a big stack of adventures. This will help inspire you to come up with some good ones for your players, even jaded players like mine.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The quality of the writing is very good. The data provided is excellent, and some of suggestions as to what to with that info are sometimes inspired; but he doesn't suggest too much, leaving the rest up to you.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: While some of Hite's own ideas are sometimes inspired like I said, some simply wont' be to your taste. And regardless, with all the positive features of it, the book is still just a bit over-priced for a pdf this size. Wait to catch it on sale or after you've been sent a coupon, like I did. If you can catch with just $1.50 knocked off it's worth the money.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Well, this product is kind of a mixed bag. Nevertheless, if you would prefer a more realistic assassin without spellcasting ability, this book is a good addition to your library.

The assassin presented here is laid out like a core class, rather than a prestige class. Yet it features only 10 levels rather than 20. It almost looks like a prestige class that someone forgot to write down the requirements to. But the class has the background, characteristics, etc., layout common to core classes in 3rd Edition rules.

The class is a bit over-powered at first glance -- but then if you compare it to the spellcasting asassin of the DMG, they seem nearly even. I suppose that if this assassin does seem a bit too powerful in your game, you could always remove a class feature and turn it into a feat.

Whether a bit too powerful or not, all of the class features of assassin are focused on assassination and make perfect sense. This is where the product really shines, as the class features of the actual assassin make more sense than any assassin prestige class I've ever seen. There's no extraneous fluff here, no fantasy-based assassins guild with a Grandfather you'll have to kill eventually. Each class feature is useful and well thought-out. These are the abilities an assassin should have.

All in all, this may present soem difficulty in your campaign since it seems like should be a prestige class but isn't quite written as one, but you can always have the same requirements set for it as the assassin in the DMG. But I think it's worth it, as the class presented here really is a better assassin. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Content. The class features of the assassin are well thought-out and make sense.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: As I mentioned above, this class is a core class but has only 10 levels. It needs to be advanced to 20th level or made into a prestige class to balance against other core and prestige classes in the game.

One minor nitpick: the image behind the text makes it a bit harder to read. A bolder, somewhat larger font would fix that easily.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

If, like many people, you've never understood why the paladin is restricted to a lawful alignment when they are supposed to be representatives of goodness, then this book is for for you. If you would simply like some variety in your paladins, you may also find this book very appealing.

The Holy Warrior's Handbook supplements or replaces the paladin -- your choice. Here, the focus is on the nature of the holy warrior's religion or deity, not on lawfulness. Thus, the powers of the holy warrior are divided into domains, similar to cleric domains. However, they are not identical to cleric domains, so a holy warrior and a cleric with the same domain will have different powers.

Each holy warrior domain has more than one power associated with it. Unlike the original Book of the Righteous, the powers of the domains aren't gained at 1st and 2nd levels; some powers require the holy warrior to be 3rd level before they can be used. Many of the powers have been touched up since the Book of the Rightwous as well, with a few minor clarifications and somewhat better editing.

This is not a point-buy or feat system. In fact, it's a very simple scheme. To be fair, you would need to ask your GM which domains s/he will allow. When you know this, you just which of those domains you want. Then you have a custom holy warrior who can be of any good alignment without the need for separate classes differentiated by alignment. Having seen quite a few paladin variants in the last two decades, I can safely say this is the best I've seen yet along these lines.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Everything; the layout is good, the concept and content excellent. The writing is also very professional.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I've seen shaman-based products come and go since 2nd Edition AD&D. Since I actually know a little about real-life shamanism, I'm confident in pronouncing this book as the best game treatment of the shaman yet. The shaman class detailed here is also well-balanced in terms of game power.

It's also worth noting that using this product as the basis of the shaman in your own world doesn't negate the usefulness of shaman classes published in other supplements. Feats are an obvious reason, as this book doesn't include any -- but for this price you can't expect all the trimmings. The DM could also adapt the powers of other shaman classes in various ways.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Pretty much everything. Some would say the setting-specific info was unneeded and might prefer that it be replaced by feats, but I think including it was a good idea. A DM can adapt it to his or her own world and the shaman does need a bit of background mythology or the class has no basis.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Miracles & Wonders details a well thought-out system of replacing divine magic with miracles and ceremonial benedictions. It's divine "magic" in the style of the Bible, essentially making the cleric character a saint. Yet, despite its Biblical roots the system is made to accommodate pretty much any culture that believes that the god(s) would grant miracles to their faithful mortal servants.

In two decades now of FRPGs this is only the second time I've ever seen a system like this. The other, published in the UK during the early 80s, was called "Fantasy Wargaming". All other game systems have had divine spellcasters or simply ignored the idea altogether. I don't mention this to detract from the originality of Miracles & Wonders but rather to illustrate how rare it is for anyone to come up with s system for miracles and miracle-workers for an RPG. The only other thing I've seen remotely similar was in Genre Diversion's Ghost Stories and RPGObjects Blood & Relics, but these two gave the saintly character special powers rather than the ability to call down a specific miracle as needed by the situation at hand. Thus, this book is a rare gem indeed.

The divine servant gains two statistics, Grace (good) and Hubris (bad). Both act as influences on the die roll when attempting to perform a miracle. Needless to say, it is always up to the DM if a miracle manifests ? or if it was what the character requested, for that matter. The religion's doctrine (sins and virtues) are also given treatment, something that tends to be far too generalized in the standard system. It also covers what happens if the character betrays his religion in ways big and small; it's possible for a character to become cast out the gods grace and earn himself a lasting curse... and yet that might not be the end of his interaction with his god.

If you're satisfied with clergy being spellcasters then this book isn't really for you, although you may find it worth considering. However, if like me, you never liked the idea of a god's priests being spellcasters but didn't want to deny the influence of the gods in the setting without having them make regular appearances ala Greek mythology, this book is probably exactly what you're looking for (and it's inexpensive too).<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Pretty much everything. The book is laid out well and, after a brief intro, gets to the point quickly without a lot of clutter. I also particularly liked the sample ?adventures? (not to mention the touch of humor there) which exemplifies the character's status as something of a saint rather than being just another cleric. In other words, the character is regarded as a true miracle-worker instead of the power of the gods being taken for granted as the typical power of clerics.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: As I said above, this system isn't for everyone. The only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is that it assumes that the DM should be generous enough with miracles to fully equal the standard cleric's spellcasting power. I would have liked it if there had been a section on how to make up for it if you, the DM, didn't want to have miracles in your game so much, i.e., powers/feats/whatever that would re-balance the cleric if the DM doesn't want to be that generous -- although if you're using the standard D&D rules you essentially are having miracles being that prevalent (or more) in your game. Otherwise this book is excellent.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Perfect backgound music for a game with a somewhat ominous feel. Pretty song, rather slow-moving and long track, not loud or intrusive. Also nice and soothing music to read by.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>