Blackdyrge's Templates: Martial is a 9 page d20 pdf product that features a new template and two sample monsters. This product is one of several products in the Blackdyrge's templates line, although it is the first in a new series of 'synergy templates' within that line. This product deals with the martial template, for those creatures born with peerless skill at arms, and future synergy templates include roguish, devout, sorcerous and scholarly. This product is compatible with the revised d20 core rules.

One of the things I've always liked about Blackdirge Publishing's products in the Campaign Construction System. This system clearly identifies d20 material in terms of author, type of material (template), title of the material, and publisher. Blackdyrge's Templates: Martial, a fully bookmarked pdf, also includes these details, making it extremely useful in arranging Blackdirge Publishing's material in a binder, for example. The product has a great cover by Jesse Mohn (also responsible for some fantastic interior art), some excellent writing and editing, and a standard layout that fits in perfectly with other products in the series. Mechanics is excellent, as usual, and the general presentation is of a very high standard.

The product starts with an introduction by Blackdyrge, the 'author' of this series of product on d20 templates. The introduction gives a little background to the martial template, and how Blackdyrge scrutinised those that were born to warfare in an effort to illuminate on the martial template. The martial template, presented next, is for those creatures or races that have a natural talent for armed combat and armor. This inbred skill gives them exceptional ability with weapons and armor, doubly so if they can combine this talent with traditional (fighter class) training. Creatures with this template gain access to a number of martial abilities and bonus feats that could put a fighter of the same level to shame. In that vein, the template is provided with a LA, so PCs can take this template as they harness their born potential and talent at fighting and defence.

The martial template is naturally only for those that excel in battle, even though it could benefit most types of creatures by improving their abilities in combat. When combined with a few levels in the fighter class, the template increases in ability and power, providing a 'synergy' with that class. I quite like this concept behind synergy templates. One of the things that I've always found odd about certain creatures is that you can advance them by HD, but their innate magical abilities never improve. I'm hoping these synergy templates can provide an avenue to do so. The CR increases as a result of this template look reasonable, although for high HD creatures the ability score increases and the effective addition of about five combat feats might be worth more than a +1 CR increase.

The product concludes with two NPCs using the template - the martial bearded devil, and the celestial eradicator, a hound archon with fighter levels and the martial template. Both are well presented and written with good flavor and background details, and descriptions that bring the creatures into the imagination.

Blackdyrge's Templates: Martial is a good template built on an interesting and very useful new concept of a synergy template. While the idea of synergy is not new to most templates, as they often play to the strengths of certain creatures, this template is specific to the fighter class, and builds strongly on that. The martial template is well developed, contains good new mechanics, and will give those martial creatures in a campaign new skills and abilities in combat. Good product.

Mini-Adventure 2: The Black Mist is a 65 page d20 adventure for four characters of levels 5 to 7. This is the second adventure in Dream Machine Productions' Mini-Adventure line, the first adventure being The Complex of Zombies. In this adventure the PCs are challenged by a city wracked by a deadly plague, and must attempt to deal with the city's terror, or flee the quarantine imposed by the city officials. The adventure is suitable for easy insertion into any campaign world, and in particular any large city in that campaign world. This adventure is compatible with the revised d20 core rules.

The product comes as a single pdf file. There are no bookmarks, but there is an extensive table of contents (which unfortunately refers to actual page number rather than pdf page number, and in this instance they're about 6 pages different). The product is decently formatted and presented, barring the odd blank page and the occasional white space, with some good art from a variety of different sources, and good use of boxed text, useful playtest tips, good handouts and well-identified subsections. Writing and editing is good as well, with some solid mechanics for the new material and the various statistics provided. Overall, a nice looking product, although probably something that could've been condensed into less pages with better formatting and layout.

This adventure is an event-based and location-based adventure taking place in a large city. Given the nature of the adventure, it's probably best to set this adventure in a city that can support the adventure, in particular the nature of the city defences (number and level of NPCs), and the large number of people needed for riots and mobs. The adventure background is fairly simple - a city is affected by plague, a deadly one, and the PCs are drawn in, willingly or unwillingly, to deal with it and the effect that the plague has on the city.

As such there is no specific format to this adventure, being loosely presented, with major and minor events highlighted within a specific timeframe, and additional random encounters and ideas given. The city itself is not detailed at all, and, given the intricacy of the adventure, one must probably have a decent city map with well detailed information and locations to make this adventure work well. This includes, of course, city personalities, shops and other locations. To run this adventure smoothly, would probably require a fair amount of work, but work that will most likely be worth it.

The adventure is all about a deadly plague affecting a large city. The PCs have the choice of either helping to combat the plague or attempt to hole out and possibly flee the city. The latter will be quite difficult given the city's defences, and most PCs will be inclined to do the former, but both options are dealt with effectively. Threats that the PCs will face include dealing with mobs, catching fleeing city folk to avoid spreading the disease, fires, necromancers raising the dead in the city, and of course the deadly plague itself.

The plague is something quite akin to the Black Death, and I often wondered if it wasn't too deadly given the timeframe of the adventure. While the plague is staged, a few poor saving throw rolls can easily spell out the death for a particular PC. The restrictions on magical aid against the plague make it particularly difficult for PCs to deal with it and the effects of the plague, such as ability score loss. A few failed saving throws can really hurt. Over large timescales, the plague can almost not be avoided, and PCs will have to hope they survive and can help the city in their weakened state.

The adventure provides plenty of new material to add some spice to the game and make things run smoothly. These include the rules for the plague, new templates for diseased undead, various new necromantic magical items, new spells, rules for running mobs and large crowds, and rules for handling large fires in a city. As such there's plenty of new material to digest, and plenty of new things that will challenge the PCs as they try to survive the plague and defend or flee the city, both tasks that will require the utmost care and a little luck to avoid the worst of the plague.

Overall, though, I find this a refreshing change from most adventure that you find on the market these days. While it is by no means problem free or won't require some work and possibly some tweaking, it's a challenging and different adventure that will both terrify and challenge the PCs. Having to deal with mobs, armies of undead, fires and a deadly plague make for a chaotic scenario that can be quite breathless, for both players and DMs (who need to keep track of everything in the adventure). The lack of a city plan and details means DMs will need to come well prepared to throw the players and the plague into the city, and to make the adventure come to life with real people and lasting consequences. I was pleased with the adventure, and would certainly recommend running it if you're after something different.

Lotsa Blocks is a 31 page d20 pdf from Bret Boyd and Tricky Owlbear Publishing. This is a standalone product featuring one hundred and three stat blocks for your fantasy d20 game, allowing you to easily grab the details you want and minimize preparation time for your game. This product is compatible with the revised d20 core rules.

The product comes as a single pdf file with a simple, straightforward layout devoid of any significant art barring some bricks on the cover that have various mechanical stats written on them. There are a few bookmarks to guide on the various sections of the pdf, although something more comprehensive would've been of greater help. A table of contents that listed the 103 NPCs by class or race would also have been a useful addition. At present you only have the option of searching for a particular NPC based on the larger framework of a role (rural warrior, arcane spellcaster, etc.).

The editing and layout is generally good, although as mentioned before, something to find a particular NPC easier without having to look through the entire 'role' section would've been nice to see. The stat blocks themselves are very good, with almost no errors, and the ones that I briefly found were editing related rather than mechanical in nature. Overall, a simple pdf that does the job, but could do it better with improved navigation.

The pdf starts with a brief introduction to the product, and this section also includes a brief breakdown of the roles that are used to sort the various NPCs in the pdf. The CR ranges within each role are also provided, but once again a table of CRs or sorting the NPCs by class would made finding a particular NPC much easier. CR ranges for the whole product cover CR 1 to CR 18, although the majority of the NPCs are in the range below CR 10. The various roles that NPCs can be selected from include the following: rural warrior, urban warrior, divine spellcaster, lore keeper, arcane spellcasters, thieves, monstrous and extras (mostly NPCs classes and 'non-combatants' that populate a fantasy world). All NPCs are constructed using the core rules only.

It's very difficult to say much about the distribution of classes and races in this product, given that one would have to scan every stat block and come up with some sort of statistic. One thing that is blatantly obvious though, if that there are very few gnomes, dwarves, half-orcs and halflings. In fact, I don't think there is a single NPC that uses the latter two races in the list. By far the majority of the NPCs are human, elves and half-elves (of course, excluding the monstrous section that has orcs and hobgoblins). So, distribution-wise disappointing on the races front.

As for classes, the representation seems fair - sorcerers, wizards, clerics, rogues, warriors and fighters all abound, as do bards (lore keepers). Druids, rangers, monks and barbarians are less frequent with less than a handful of each. The NPC classes offer a good selection of commoners, experts, aristocrats, and warriors. Overall, it looks like this product is geared to fit the standard demographic, although while that makes for good demographics, it doesn't always make for good selection of NPCs.

Lotsa Blocks is without a doubt a useful product. It has some excellent correctness in the stat blocks and a good number of NPCs. However, the navigation/organisation could've been more useful, and the selection means that a large portion of common races and classes seem to get missed almost entirely. The pricing is fair, but by no means good. The pdf does succeed at making sure you can just select a NPC and run with it, although you might find what you're looking for either takes a little longer to find or is completely missing.

Cadre #1 is a 52 page comic book from Nifty Games. This is the first in a new series of adventures featuring the Cadre, and is publishing bi-monthly. Cadre #1 was written by Mat Nastos (of Elfquest fame) with additional material by Jorge Vivoni. Artwork on the comic was done by Kenneth Rocafort and Mat Nastos. In this first issue of the new adventure series, the Cadre, a band of unlikely heroes, sets out saving Empire City from a monster known as Monolith. The issue is entitled 'Birth of a Dream'.

This first issue, Cadre #1, is an exciting super-hero romp that acts as an introduction to a group of unlikely heroes, the Cadre. The Cadre consists of six members - Basilisk (a controller of earth and stone), Rapture (with psionic abilities), White Dwarf (a powerful, flying and strong super-hero), Skyfire (uses the power of lightning), Thunderbolt (the living avatar of thunder) and Lamprey (a hero who can steal energies from living creatures). In this issue the six heroes band together after an incident at the sacred ground to a native tribe leads to the unleashing of a power the world hasn't seen in quite some time. In a series of fantastic and epic battle exchanges between the six heroes and the monolith, a new band of heroes is born, all under the eye of a sinister, yet presently unknown, entity that watches them from afar.

As far as the storyline goes, I was suitably impressed. It's a good blend of initial character development with background details of their lives and Empire City, with high-paced action and a manic frenzy of mayhem and destruction. The story leaves enough unanswered questions as to the next events, reveals some truths about the characters that serve as an introduction to them, and acts as a tantalizing introduction to an interesting group of heroes. Having read through the comic book, there's enough to pique your interest and get you hooked on the Cadre. In a way I'm glad that Nifty Comics also has another comic released that serves as an introduction to these heroes, and hopefully answers some more questions as to their origin and backstory. This is not just another bunch of superheroes that fight against big, bad, evil guys - here is a more interesting backstory in which the heroes can get involved in. Add to this the creative writing and humorous lines, and you have the making of a good comic book.

The characters themselves, in the brief pages of this comic book, show some interesting areas of development. Their abilities too are interesting, and while the initial blurbs regarding their powers give some idea as to what they can do, it's interesting seeing the interpretation of these abilities in the comic book. The powers are certainly not one dimensional, although one can imagine that the complexity of their abilities may make them characters that are hard to identify with. Many of the more popular superheroes of today can readily be identified by their abilities - in the case of the Cadre, one can't be so sure, although perhaps it's too early to tell after one comic book. Most of the comic left me wondering about the nature of these superheroes and how they came by their abilities. It's clear many are reluctant to enter the 'superhero' world and that in a sense makes them more believable characters.

The artwork is very good throughout, particular the full-color cover, although given the lack of greyscale in the art, a panel can sometimes become very crowded with lines making it difficult to discern the details. For the most part though, the art and expressions of the characters provide enough emotive response to get a feel for the experiences of the characters in the story. The background details of the climatic scenes are quite spectacular, particularly during the lengthy battle with the giant monolith which gives the battle an epic feel. Who's going to pay for damage control certainly crossed my mind.

So, what can one say about Cadre #1? In a few words - exciting, epic, believable, fantastic. On the flip side of things, there was very little about the origin of these heroes or how they came to be who they are. This can make it hard to identify with the characters while reading through the comic book (particularly if you're not familiar with the exploits of the Cadre over the past twelve years). Despite these areas that left me wondering, this is an action-packed comic strip with good writing and humor, good art, characters with room to develop, and interesting story lines that aren't predictable. I guess all one can say is that I hope this comic strip is here to stay.

Behind the Monsters: Bulette is a short 7 page d20 pdf product and the third in Tricky Owlbear Publishing's new Behind the Monsters series of products. Those familiar with Bret Boyd's Behind the Spells series from Ronin Arts and Tricky Owlbear Publishing will no doubt be familiar with the idea behind this series of products. Each product in the Behind the Monsters series details the history, creation and background of a particular monster, and includes new variants and rules based on the particular monster. This product features the bulette, or landshark, and is written by Mike Ferguson, with illustrations by Rick Hershey. The product is compatible with the revised d20 core rules.

The product comes as a single pdf file, complete with a useful set of bookmarks. The product follows a design and layout similar to other products in the Behind the Monsters series, and indeed similar to the Behind the Spells series (originally written by Tricky Owlbear Publishing's owner, Bret Boyd). Layout features a simple two-column format with a title page and introduction, followed by the content of the pdf. Two pieces of good black and white art are included, one featuring the narrator of the pdf, Jadrin Nelv, and the other a bulette. The editing, writing and mechanics of the new material are all good. A good job for a short pdf, particularly the inclusion of the art, and the solid layout and mechanics.

This product describes the creation and origin of the bulette, also known as the landshark. The bulette is a burrowing predator, aggressive and always hungry, living only for the kill and the taste of meat. In this pdf the narrator, Jadrin Nelv, a monk of the Order of the Sacred Branch who teaches about monsters and their ecologies, describes the origin of the bulette, and provides a number of additional useful pieces of information, including a new monster and a new spell. The origin tale tells how an aquatic elf sorcerer, in his desire to have vengeance on the land-based elven races, created a creature that would be both terrifying, powerful and aggressive. He succeeded, creating the bulettes, but failed to control them, and hence unleashing them on the world. The tale is interesting, and incorporates nicely all the aspects of the bulette into the story, such as why it is called the landshark, why it is aggressive and lives the way it does, and other aspects of the creature. There is an individual table of Knowledge checks related to the bulette, that incorporates the information in this product, and allows PCs to know more about the creature they encounter.

The next section deals with encountering bulettes, and provides some useful tips on tactics and spells that can be used when facing a bulette. This is mostly additional rules information not contained in the description of the bulette monster itself, and expands nicely on some of the ideas in the product, while giving PCs a few more options when facing this dangerous creature. The pdf also details a new spell, bulette strike, and provides details of a new monster, the maglette swarm. This swarm is a land-based version of the piranha - like the bulette is the landshark, so this swarm is the equivalent of the deadly piranha.

Overall, I enjoyed this pdf. The concept behind it is very good, and the material provided gives the DM and the players something more regarding a creature they may encounter. This provides a more complete world-view to any campaign story, turning creatures encountered into more than just an encounter, but also a myth or a legend. The information can easily be incorporated into a campaign world, as, for example, a bard's tale in a tavern. The new spell is useful, and the maglette swarm will provide an interesting and unusual challenge to a group of PCs. A good pdf, an interesting read, useful material, and a good taster of what's to come in the rest of the series.

Octavirate Presents: Lethal Lexicon Volume 2 is a 43 page d20 pdf product. Lethal Lexicon Volume 2 is the second Lethal Lexicon product, both of these products featuring classic new monsters, strange monster parodies and other interesting and humorous creatures for you roleplaying game. Lethal Lexicon is part of the Ocavirate Presents series of mini-game supplements, covering a wide range of different topics that can readily be inserted into your game. This product is compatible with the revised d20 core rules.

Lethal Lexicon Volume 2 comes as a single pdf file containing more than 25 strange monsters that cater for the needs of both the serious campaign and the humorous campaign. The product is very well presented, with an excellent and detailed cover, a complete set of bookmarks, and the wonderful addition of rules for variant systems such as Wound/Vitality points and Armor as DR. Not only does it cover variant rules systems, but ample advice is given on using these 'fantasy' creatures in other genres, such as modern or science fiction roleplaying games. Editing and layout is well done, as is the bountiful artwork found for most of the monsters in the product, and the product layout is quite retro-style. Mechanics is excellent as well, with very few errors contained in the stat blocks, and new mechanics clear and concise. Overall, very good presentation.

Monsters are the staple food for any DM's diet. This product contains a selection of the rather bizarre, unusual, and sometimes downright humorous monsters, and probably some that would make most DMs choke. And to get some idea of what's meant by that, you just need to take a look at some of the creatures found in this product - the dread mascot, an accident prone creature that follows a party around, a mock turtle straight out of Alice in Wonderland, a dire penguin, more monster crossbreeds that you can care to imagine, the infamous chicken swarm (or other semi-flightless food-animal), and even the rhythmic dead, creatures that could probably star in a Michael Jackson music video. The book is a delicate blend between the serious and humorous, although veering strongly towards the latter. Many DMs would be more than happy to use some of these creatures just for a laugh, although others may refrain from using them at all.

The product aims to be a throwback to an earlier age of gaming, the retro style gaming of the seventies and eighties, and in that it succeeds admirably. The layout and creatures found in the book leave one in no doubt as to the audience that it caters for. Having said that, the more modern gamer can find some use from these creatures. Gaming is after, by its very nature supposed to be fun, and one of the best ways of having fun is to laugh at the experiences of one's character in a game. And, these creatures can be serious challenges proving that sometimes even laughing can kill you.

It's hard to take this product too seriously - it’s like magical experimentation gone wrong. And I suppose in a sense that's the point. Sometimes the world is filled with strange and bizarre creatures. Lethal Lexicon is the platypus of the d20 world. Overall, this is a well presented product with humorous monsters that cater to earlier editions of gaming, but fully useful and compatible with current rules. For those looking to see the lighter side of gaming, a reminder of the past, or even to kill your players before the laughter dies, Lethal Lexicon is worth a look.

Standard Stock Art: Issue 1 - Places and Locations is the first product in the Standard Stock Art line of products from Small Niche Games. Each product in the series contains a selection of stock art, in this instance of places and locations for any campaign genre, and a license agreement whereby these images can be used in products or websites. All illustrations are by Rick Hershey.

The product comes as a single zip file that contains the license for using the images, as well as two interior zip files that contains the images. The first zip file contains 9 images of places and locations, while the second contains a bonus set of images of random items such as rings and potion vials or bottles. The images contained in this product are all black and white, 600 dpi TIF images that come in an assortment of 1/4 and 1/2 page formats when printed. The license incidentally also allows modification of the images contained in the product, as well as contains legal and usage guidelines.

Places and Locations contains nine images along with a selection of bonus images. These images can be used in modern, fantasy, or science fiction areas, although some locations will be more suitable to certain genres than others. The images contained include the following - a dark cave, an inn (house or tavern), a garden path (lane with trees), a blacksmith shop (for modern genres), burial ruins, a woodland path, a mountain path, the deck of a ship (fantasy or pre-industrial times modern), and a second dark cave. The bonus images include mundane or magical rings, pendants, a treasure chest, a lock tool set and several bottles, vials or potions.

My initial impressions of this product were that the art was good, and the artist had shown some creativity and imagination in putting the stock art images together. As black and white images, without any significant greyscale, they can appear quite flat and lack depth, but the artist has done a satisfactory job of overcoming this restriction. In some places the lack of greyscale means the image appears darker than it should be - rather than throwing a shadow, it's plain black. This also means that in some place it's hard to discern exactly what you're looking at, particularly if you take a quick glance at some of the cave images that are meant to be dark. The images are very detailed, down to the finest features, making for a more realistic and thorough image altogether. In the bonus items there's quite a bit of variety as well, making the images overall more useful. The high resolution means that these images can be used over the gaming table as well for props and the like.

Overall, I think many people will find these images useful, particularly because they are cross genre, and given some of the variety in the images. They will make useful additions to any product or website, although the lack of greyscale does hurt the depth of the image in places. Generally, good quality artwork at high resolution, with wide utility.

People, Places and Things 2: Living in a Fantasy World is a 54 page pdf product for any fantasy campaign system. This product in the second product in the People, Place and Things series, and features details and maps for a number of locations that one would find in a fantasy world, often in and around a town or village. The product includes complete descriptions of a 11 new places, along with large scale 1" battlemaps and general overview maps of said locations.

The product comes as a zip file containing a main pdf file with overview maps and descriptions, and 11 individual pdf files containing the 1" scale battlemaps for each of the locations in the product. The main pdf contains a full set of useful bookmarks. The product layout and editing is good, and there is a scattering of art throughout the product, mostly NPC faces done by Larry Elmore, but there are some other pieces of art in there as well. As this product is generic, there are no mechanical details or statistics for any of the NPCs mentioned, and those wishing to use a particular system would have to create their own (although a web-enhancement with suggestions would probably not have been a bad idea for more popular systems). Overall, a very well presented product, with decent layout, editing and writing.

This product is about locations - it provides a detailed description of each of these locations, as well as two different maps. The first map is a general overview map of the area using a smaller scale, while the second map is a large scale 5 feet = 1 inch map useful for combat or miniature gaming. Both types of maps are located on separate pages, making it easy to print them if desired. Examples of the locations provided in this product include The Mill, The Blacksmith/Farrier, a Pottery, A Charcoal Burner's Encampment and an Arcane School. The descriptions of each of these locations include details regarding physical location, layout and description, NPCs typically found there and details about them, as well as numerous plot hooks for using the location in your campaign.

This product provides not only complete descriptions of a number of locations, but also fantastically beautiful maps and some really intriguing plot hooks. There's a lot of meat and utility to this product that most DMs will be able to use. The maps are excellent, and show even the fine details such as food on a dinner plate, or a book on a table. They're practically laid out as well, with the location making sense, and providing some of the items and furniture one would expect from such a location. The location descriptions are detailed and vivid, providing not only a clear picture and sense of purpose of the location, but also some intricate and wonderfully detailed plot hooks. These are some very good plot hooks in there, offering plenty of opportunity for using the locations in your fantasy game.

This is a great product that offers good value for money. For the price of this pdf you get two sets of beautifully rendered maps, including battlemaps, detailed locations with interesting NPCs, and a whole slew of plot hooks to wet your appetite and encourage using these locations. The locations are in a sense 'non-standard' to your fantasy world, often the more forgotten locations or those overlooked. So if you're looking for something slightly different to your typical inn or tavern, then this product provides something a little less ordinary, and concentrates on the 'little people' in the fantasy game, giving even them a chance to provide adventurers with good challenges. Worth a look at this product.

Blackdyrge's Templates: Primordial Beast is a short 9 page d20 pdf and one of several products in the Blackdyrge's Templates line of products. Each product features a single template for your fantasy d20 game, and includes some example monsters complete with background and details on combat and roleplaying. This product features the Primordial Beast, a primitive but savage creature not unlike what one would come to expect from something like King Kong. The product is compatible with the revised d20 core rules.

Blackdyrge's Templates: Primordial Beast comes as a single, handsomely presented pdf file. The style of the product is very similar to other products from Blackdyrge Publishing, and the product also incorporates the Campaign Construction System, where every page is given headers and footers identifying type of content, authors and content captions. Layout and editing is very good, and artwork by Hunter McFalls and Edward Bourelle (from SkeletonKey Games) is excellent. Mechanics is very detailed and thorough, and the slight complexity of the template is very easily explained with all the required mechanical information. Overall, a splendidly put together pdf.

The Primordial Beast template creates creatures of legend; creatures that dwell in the hidden and dark places of a world unexplored by man or civilization. The nature and feel of the template is very much 'King Kong' - although perhaps not on the scale of the great ape himself. The primordial beast template takes ordinary animals and transforms them into fearsome beasts, yet still retaining much of the character of their animal species. The template can be applied to animals of Medium or larger, although I quite like the idea of being able to apply this template to other animals as well to which it should be equally applicable with a little alteration of the details. Deep jungles aren't always ruled by just big creatures - small, primordial creatures also have their place in the ecosystem. The template also lends itself well to creating 'dire' creature off a base animal, although the template perhaps creates a more powerful version rather than the standard dire animal.

The product provides an introduction by Blackdirge - a brief overview of the product and the creatures inside in a narrative vein. Two sample creatures are provided - the primordial leopard and an advanced primordial tyrannosaurus rex. Both are given their own unique flavor and character, making them stand out above the standard primordial animal of its species. Each of these creatures not only increases in size, but also gains a number of useful new special attacks that make them even more fearsome and dangerous. Overall, the template succeeds at creating something far more dangerous from a standard animal, and something player characters can fear.

While this template may perhaps not be the most unique of ideas, it's very well executed and presented, making for a very useful product that can be used often to instil a little extra power into standard animals. Presentation is very good, and the primordial template provides a step up from the standard dire animal, providing a challenge for higher level parties. A very good product and useful to DMs (and players if DMs can agree on information regarding animal companions or summoning of primordial animals).

The Lazy GM: Goblinoids is a 119 page d20 pdf product and the first product from a new pdf publisher, Creative Conclave. This product is the first in the Lazy GM series in which each product presents hundreds of pre-generated NPC statistics from different monsters. This first product features goblinoids, and includes such creatures as goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears and related creatures such as worgs and dire wolves. The product contains over 360 different statistics blocks, all fully compatible with the revised d20 core rules.

This product comes as a single pdf file. There are no bookmarks, but the extensive table of contents, which lists full creature details by CR, is 'clickable' and therefore allows you to quickly find any particular creature, although it only takes you to the creature page, not the position of the actual stat block on the page (and it increases the zoom on the page which can be quite annoying). The product includes a simple cover with some goblin silhouettes, but there is not other art to speak of in the product. General editing is good, although there are a number of statistics blocks that end in commas rather than full-stops.

This product is exclusively about providing stat blocks for various goblinoids, so you have to ask what the mechanics is like. I have to admit that I didn't check all 360 odd statistics blocks, but those dozens I quickly checked were pretty much impeccable. This has got to be one of the most impressive displays of actually getting the mechanics right. I did find one or two omissions (a +3 not listed in the hit points section for the Toughness feat, for example), but otherwise these are as correct as they come. Well done, Creative Conclave. In fact, they've even set up a forum for readers to inform them of any errors. They obviously take pride in their mechanics, and so they should, judging by the high standard of correctness. Presentation-wise what you would expect from a pdf detailing hundreds of statistics for creatures. Decent layout, excellent mechanical editing, and solid product.

The product starts by providing a brief introduction to the book and an explanation of the way they've formatted it and done the various statistics blocks. The stat blocks generally follow the standard format found in the d20 system, although here and there some additional information is provided. For example, the skills section includes information on the armor check penalty as applicable to certain skills. Following this introduction, the product jumps in and gives over 360 stat blocks for goblinoids. The CRs range from 1/4 for the zombie goblin, to CR 18 for a hobgoblin lich cleric. The majority of the creatures (~90%) are CR 8 or below making this product extremely useful for low level games and presenting cannon-fodder for higher level PCs.

There is quite frankly an enormous variety of different goblinoids in this product. The standard goblinoids are all presented in numerous different flavors, such as archer, heavy, standard, fiendish, defender, scout etc. These flavors are varieties in weaponry, armor, feats, skills, classes and the like. Not only that, but the product also uses extensive material from the OGL Unearthed Arcana from Wizards of the Coast to include information on other goblinoid species such as aquatic goblins, fire hobgoblins, and artic goblins. The level variety is excellent as well, with most creatures having class levels in a variety of different classes at different levels. It's probably impossible to cover every eventuality, but this product takes a very good stab at doing just that. Included are not only goblinoids, but a variety of support creatures such as worgs and advanced worgs, dire wolves, and numerous undead goblinoids and wolves such as ghost worgs, skeleton goblins, and zombie dire wolves.

This is a very impressive product, not only in its sheer volume and number of creatures, but also in the variety and correctness of the stat blocks. As such it's an extremely useful resource, and easy to just take what you want from the product and use it with confidence. The stat blocks are written in such a way as to make it as easily as possible to modify, and hence many additional modifiers are included. If you want to modify a creature's armor, for example, it has the armor check penalty listed to update skills and the armor bonus next to AC to the modify that. Other factors are generally just as easy to modify, and hence this product is easily expanded to cover many other creature possibilities. The Lazy GM: Goblinoids is an excellent and extremely useful product and I'm looking forward to seeing future releases in the series. If want a bucket load of different goblinoids for your game, this product will not disappoint.

Realms of Arkonus: Dark Raiders of Misty Ridge is a 18 page OSRIC adventure for 6 characters of levels 4 to 6. The adventure is set in the Realms of Arkonus, but can readily be transported to any other campaign world. This product is designated as MGQ1002 and is the second adventure release from Magique Productions, the other being MGQ1001, The Forgotten Isle. Both adventures are written by Thomas J. Scott. In this adventure the town of Misty Ridge is threatened by raiders and the PCs are sent to uncover the nature of the raiders and solve the riddle of the Dark Raiders.

The product comes as a single pdf file. As with most other products for OSRIC on the market, the presentation and layout of the product should be familiar to most old school gamers. This pdf includes a fantastic front and back cover, and some excellent artwork in the interior. The sketch, by Paul Daly, of the new monster, the Sprat, is particularly good. Complete bookmarks and a table of contents are provided to allow the DM to easily navigate through this pdf. General writing, editing and organisation of the adventure is very good, and maintains the style of old school games where DMs were given as much information as they needed, but were otherwise left to their own devices. Maps are very good as well, and four well-detailed maps are given for all the various locations, wilderness and dungeon, in this adventure. Presentation-wise an excellent product with some stunning artwork.

Dark Raiders of Misty Ridge takes place in the small and quiet village of Misty Ridge. The villages has recently been raided by mysterious creatures, and the PCs are hired to investigate and put an end to this threat of pillage and killing. PCs will get the chance to be involved in some investigative work, and soon uncover the agents of the raids. Over the course of the adventure the PCs will face threats from both creatures and wilderness as they adventure on the misty cliffs that surround the area. All types of characters and classes will have fun playing this adventure, and the various scenarios are both challenging and fun.

For the most part this is a very simple adventure, but it does being simple extremely well. The exposition of the adventure is very good, and there's plenty of opportunity for the PCs to uncover the entire plot and backstory to the adventure. Too many adventures are written today where there's a fantastic backstory that PCs just never get a chance to learn. The nature and simplicity of the plot means that I'd have probably liked to have seen this adventure for lower level characters. When characters reach levels 4 to 6, I'd have expected something a little more meaty, although this would do fine for a little sidetrek. It's not a long adventure, and should be easy to play through in a couple of enjoyable sessions. The product introduces a new race and a new monster, both which will make a useful addition to the monster repertoire.

Dark Raiders of Misty Ridge can best be summarised as 'simplicity at its best'. This takes a straightforward, yet interesting, storyline, and articulately expands on it to make an enjoyable and thorough adventure combining elements of dungeon crawling, wilderness exploration and roleplaying and investigative work. There are no loose ends by the end of this adventure, although there is scope to expand the adventure beyond what is provided here and room for further adventures after the PCs have completed this one. An enjoyable adventure, very well put together, and worth a look at for any OSRIC gamer.

Dungeon Crawl Classics Presents: Blackdirge's Dungeon Denizens is a 129 page d20 fantasy pdf product collecting all the new monsters and creatures that have featured over the years in the Dungeon Crawl Classics line of adventures. The Dungeon Crawl Classics series of adventures is one of the most popular series of adventures for the d20 system, and has featured a whole host of new and interesting monsters. This product sees them all collected and compiled by Aeryn Rudel, also known as 'Blackdirge'. The creatures, more than 100 of the best monsters from the Dungeon Crawl Classics line, have all be updated to the revised d20 core rules.

The product comes as a very presentable pdf file containing both a full set of useful bookmarks and a table of contents for easy navigation. The product very much has an old style look to it, and gamers from the early editions of the game will recognise the look of the product. The product contains a very good cover, and some fantastic interior art drawn from the Dungeon Crawl Classics series. Over the years many great artists have contributed to the series, and this product showcases their talent with almost every monster having its own artwork.

Writing and editing is good as well, as is the layout, although some of the monsters tend to start their entries on odd places on the page which often means that a statistics block runs over two pages. Speaking of statistics, generally good, but there are a fair number of errors in such things as hit point totals, and other odd things like the governing ability score for the save DCs of some constructs being listed as Constitution. Overall, though, great art, great presentation, and good writing and general stats.

Blackdirge's Dungeon Denizens collects more than 100 creatures into one easy to use library. The creatures are listed alphabetically in the product itself, and a number of tables are provided to help you select a creature further. These include the obvious alphabetical table of contents, but also a listing by type, CR and environment. CRs range from 1 to 21, although the bulk of the creatures are in the range CR 1 to CR 0 (~ 85%). Most of the creatures tend to be aberrations, outsiders, elementals, swarms, undead, constructs, or magical beasts. Fey, dragons, or giants get no representation (barring in one or two templates where type changes), and there is only one solitary humanoid, although in the latter case that's probably not such a bad thing. In addition to all this useful information in the product, a list of summoning spells is also included along with the creatures that are applicable to each level of summoning spell. This is something I wish were included in more monster products, and so it's very welcome to see here.

Like the adventures of the Dungeon Crawl Classics line, the monsters themselves are quite eclectic and varied, and in most instances very good. This is one of the better monster books that I've seen in a while, with some interesting choices, good background information and details, and in some cases excellent concepts. There are of course a fair number of standard fare as it were, or creatures that standard with a different ability tagged onto their stats. Another type of bat, another type of swarm, another beetle, yet another demon, etc. But for the most part this collection contains some very enjoyable creatures - bone swarms, doomtwitch zombies, the spirit of uru-nuk, and some of the others, including several templates. Any DM will find a lot of use out of the creatures in this product, and the strength of this product is testament to the huge impact that the Dungeon Crawl Classics series has had on the d20 adventure market.

Dungeon Denizens is a good monster book. It's got a great selection of monsters that come out of a great selection of products. There are a lot of interesting critters, some good ideas, and some fantastic artwork and descriptive writing. Barring the fair number of stat block errors in the product and some minor layout quirks, there's really nothing bad to say about it apart from a few 'standard' monsters too many, and not too many new and unique creatures. It's a thoroughly enjoyable product and well worth a look at. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Great artwork, good monster variety and selection, interesting monster concepts, good descriptive writing, and generally a good product. If you're a fan of monsters or monster books, then this is worth a look at. DMs and players that regularly use products from the Dungeon Crawl Classics line will look with fondness of the creatures it has created.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The product still contains a fair number of stat block errors or incorrect mechanics. It's limited, but still present. Otherwise nothing really negative to say about the product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The True Arcane Story: Gauntlets of Ogre Power is a short 5 page d20 fantasy pdf and one of a very fast growing line of products in the True Arcane Story line of products. Each product in the series details the history, creation and variations on magical items found in the core rules, and in this case Gauntlets of Ogre Power. The product contains information that can easily be slotted into any game world as history or legend, and is suitable for use with the revised d20 core rules.

The product comes as a single pdf file and follows an identical layout to all the other products in the True Arcane Story line of pdfs. The pdf has a simple heading, standard layout, top and bottom page bordering and contains no artwork or bookmarks. Editing and writing is fair, as are the general mechanics for new items and feats introduced in the product. For a short pdf it's a presentable product, and slots in well with other products in the line.

Almost all gamers who've ever played warriors or melee combatants before in fantasy games will be familiar with Gauntlets of Ogre Power. It's a reasonably low cost item that characters tend to find early on, and it's a good choice to boost Strength for those that need to hit hard and fast in melee. This product delves a little deeper into the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, presenting a history on the creation of the first such item, the creation of subsequent items, and details on the person responsible for their creation.

The product tells the story of the ogre responsible for creating the first pair of gauntlets, his motivation in creating the gauntlets, and his circumstances at the time. It's a fair story, but perhaps not the most novel or interesting story that one could create for this item. It's by no means spectacular or fantastic in any sense, but it gets the job done and provides a little more back story. The pdf then details numerous other brief accounts of wielders of Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and even the original pair created by the ogre. The last page of the pdf presents two new magical items, very slight variations on the Gauntlets of Ogre Power, and three new feats that provide a number of bonuses to skills as long as you are 'ogre-blooded' or have the Ogre Blooded feat.

The True Arcane Story line of products is a good idea, and certainly something that can be developed into something fantastic. This volume, however, doesn't quite reach such heights, but it's a decent pdf and gives a little more background information. It was a little disappointing in the lack of true novelty, but otherwise useful. The magic items for example, are mere extensions of Gauntlets of Ogre Power along the lines suggested in the core rules, while the feats don't offer that tantalizingly tasty benefit that is worth taking. The background story is fair, although probably somewhat contrived in places. Why, for example, pick an ogre to create Gauntlets of Ogre Power? Or, for that matter, a very weak ogre as well that turns out to be a mage? Overall, some useful material although probably not the strongest product.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Interesting line of products and I look forward to looking at others in the series. Gauntlets of Ogre Power contains some useful material to create a more interesting backstory to a popular magical item.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: A little uninspired in places, and more could've been done to spice up the material and bring some novelty into the product. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

Pride Goes Before a Fall is a short 9 page d20 adventure scenario for 20th level characters. The adventure features a single one-off battle that pits the player characters against a mighty balor, with a few added twists thrown in. The adventure is entirely standalone, and can easily be inserted into any campaign world or just run as a quick one-off encounter. This product uses the revised d20 core rules.

The product comes as a zip file containing both a screen and a printer friendly version of the product. Both contain a full set of bookmarks for easy navigation to the various sections of the pdf. Only 6 of the 9 pages of the product contain the adventure material, the remainder taking by the credits page, cover and OGL declarations. There is some good art in the product, and the general presentation is good. Writing, editing and layout are all done professionally, more so because of the length of the product. Each page is bordered by fine runic script and the layout contains two-columns. A very simple map is included for the encounter area involving the balor. Overall, a very presentable product.

Pride Goes Before a Fall is a short adventure and scenario that can easily be inserted into any campaign world. It can be used as part of an ongoing adventure, or as a final 'hurrah' for characters not planning on using the rules for epic play. The adventure is essentially a 'challenge', in that the player characters accept the challenge of fighting a balor within the dungeon created by a high level wizard. Unknown to the characters, the balor has a few twists up its sleeve, and the adventure briefly explores these, although the characters are unlikely to find a chance to discover them during its course. The adventure contains several seeds for further adventures based on these twists, and these could offer alternative challenges to the PCs at a later date. As far as this adventure is concerned, destroying the balor as part of the wizard's challenge is sufficient to conclude it, with several unresolved matters that are left for DMs to explore through further adventures.

The dungeon containing the balor contains its own little surprises, and offers the characters both further roleplaying opportunities and addition challenges as they face the balor. It's generally a decent encounter with some interesting bits thrown in, but one cannot help but wonder why the adventure didn't include more detail and get expanded a bit to more actively use some of the background information provided. As it stands, it's decent but not terribly exciting for the players (beyond the scope of actually fighting a balor!), and more could've been done with it to expand the concepts and ideas into something stronger. If you want your characters to fight a balor, then this adventure is a good as any in providing that. Beyond that, it does offer DMs scope to expand by working on the ideas presented. For the most part though, it seems a little incomplete as an adventure, and not too interesting as a short scenario.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Some interesting twists and changes in the adventure that will challenge the players and their characters beyond the actual combat itself. Good art, and presentable product.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: More could've been done to expand on some of the ideas presented to turn this into a longer adventure that explores some of the interesting twists in the adventure rather than leaving them to the individual DM. A few minor editing and mechanics errors.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

Orc Hordes is a 22 page d20 pdf product and one of two new products in the Layonara Core: Hordes series of products, the other product being Goblin Hordes. This product develops Layonara orcs for the Layonara campaign setting, although the statistics are naturally applicable through all d20 fantasy gaming environments. This product details a variety of different orcs from four different tribes, and provides detailed statistics and useful gaming cards for each orc presented in the product. This pdf is suitable for use with the revised d20 core rules.

The product comes as a single pdf file that contains all the gaming statistics and handout cards for the various orcs presented in the product. There is an extensive table of contents to aid in navigation, but no bookmarks are included. Some of the artwork in this product is superb, particularly the various pieces depicting orc armor and some of the other orcish art. The detail is quite magnificent on most of these. Artwork is generally quite abundant, with there being almost a piece or more per page. The writing and editing is fair, although the mechanics suffers in a few places with some errors (for one, the stat blocks don't follow standard 3.5e nomenclature). For the most part, though, this is a well-presented product and the game material can quickly be used without concern for the odd errors.

By its nature this product is an accessory containing stat blocks for a variety of different orcs with various classes and weaponry. It's not a NPC product since each orc doesn't contain its own personality or history, but rather a useful utility product containing statistics for 16 different orcs, 4 from each of the four tribes presented in this product. The product also contains a brief overview and description of orcs (Layonara specific), and brief descriptions of the four tribes that the orcs are derived from. Following this, the various orcs are presented with brief descriptions on the role of each orc and a physical description of the orc in question. The orc tribes include the insane Rabid Wolf orcs, the stealthy and mercenary Black Hand orcs, the battle-worshipping Fiery Tusk clan, and the ravaging Slayer clan of orcs.

Each orc comes with a complete statistics blocks, and although it uses the revised core rules, the format of the statistic block is non-standard. The descriptive text and brief background gives some useful information on the role and utility of each orc. There's quite a variety of different orcs to choose from, although naturally with only 16 orcs, one cannot cover all the bases. Orcs include warriors, sorcerers, fighters, ranger/rogue multiclasses, and barbarians. The roles chosen for the various orcs are also quite varied and interesting, and helps one to place them more easily within a specific region of a campaign world.

Following the orc descriptions and stat blocks, some information is provided on treasure drops for defeating these orcs, and lastly there are several pages of statistics cards for each of the orcs in the product. These are very well done and look quite professional, and will make a useful gaming aid at the table. Four cards are printed on a page, meaning that with only four pages you can have all the orcs in this product at your fingertips.

Orc Hordes is generally a useful product. It's very well done in certain areas, particularly the artwork, but in others it certainly could use a little more polish, such as using a more standard stat block format. This kind of product will always be useful, as the standard orc is staple fare in most campaign worlds. Unfortunately it's very hard to capture an enormous variety, so many DMs might find themselves using only the occasional orc from this product. Despite the fact that each orc presented is given a more unique flavor, one cannot help but feel that a little more variety would've made this product better. The printable statistics cards are extremely useful as a gaming aid and a welcome addition. Overall, this is a decent product with some useful material and gaming aids and probably something most gamers can get some good use from.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Fantastic artwork and some really well-done statistics cards for printing. Each orc is slightly more than a statistics block in that it is given a description and some brief text on its role and function.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The lack of polish in the statistics blocks, both in the errors contained and the non-standard format. The stat blocks also contain large amounts of superfluous information which bloats them. Given that this product is about stat blocks and using them as gaming aids, this was somewhat disappointing.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>