I enjoyed the ship vs ship combat rules. There is a lot here that will be useful in any adventures you run where ships will fight, or where a monster will attack a ship.

There are cool rules for equipment, cannons, roles on the ship, and more. It's the kind of read that is not only useful for your game, but helps you come up with more things you might want tinker with to make sea combats fun. Recommended!

This supplement is primarily intended for players. It provides 4 variants to the Sailor background from the Player's Handbook, 3 feats (Deck Brawler, Flintlock Expert, Nimble), rules for new weapons (including bayonet, cutlass, various pistols and a musket, and ammunition) and gear (eye patch, sextant, etc.), and various Shipboard Roles.

The Roles are particularly fun. Each person takes on a role (Captain, Pilot, Boatswain, Quartermaster, Master Gunner, Ship's Surgeon) and you gain benefits you can use during ship encounters due to your role. The ideas are fun. For example, the surgeon can stabilize a crew member with a check, and if they do well enough, get them back to work or repair the ship. There are some nice tactics here.

As with the Naval Combat supplement (also by Tribality), the ideas here are likely to foster more ideas for fun variants you come up with. Recommended!

This is a fun adventure (I have read it but not run it) with some absolutely stunning art by Raluca Marinescu. It provides a new town you can add near Chult or another location of your chosing. It has several aspects that tie in with the Elemental Evil storyline and the location works as a side quest for a party in Chult. The town is primarily inhabited by Shou people, which allows a tie-in to any adventures themed with the Kara-Tur setting (hey, you could run Adamantine Chef after this).

There are some minor grammatical issues and a few cases where the plot can be a bit tricky... however, I was able to make sense of it and it is a fun plot my gaming group would enjoy. As a DM, I recommend thinking through how your players might react to the situations and consider ways to use the excellent NPCs to create role-playing opportunities and keep the party engaged while in the tavern. The time estimate of 3-6 hours seems right, and there are opportunities for a DM to expand the final area further.

Overall, this is a very solid adventure. The excellent maps and arts edge it into the 5-star rating, especially for DMs who will take the time to understand the plot and work with the plans their characters may hatch. Recommended!

Phoenix: Dawn Command is an excellent RPG that I highly recommend. It takes a typical RPG and changes a number of factors to create a truly unique experience.

You know that campaign where the apocalypse is coming and only a huge epic sacrifice might save the world? In Phoenix: Dawn Command, each adventure is one of those epic moments! The PCs are heroes who died in a memorable way, and have been reborn as Phoenixes. They can die a total of seven more times and have superhuman capabilities – they would barely take a scratch from fighting off threats that would fell a mortal. However, they face the supernatural and overwhelming threat of the mysterious Dread. Nearly each adventure features challenges so epic that one or more PCs are likely to die. Instead of worrying about whether you might die, here you worry about making each death truly change the course of the apocalypse.

PC death is built into the game. With each death, you level up. The game is, interestingly, played with cards. Each character type has rules for the types of cards you can use and the benefits you gain with them. Special cards are chosen as you level. You get stronger until you reach your final death and are no more.

Phoenix feels different than most RPGs, even while it has some familiar aspects. It isn’t about the cards (these tend to quickly become second nature as you play) as much as it is about the story aspect of the game. Each adventure is a vital mission with important choices. Adventures are written to highlight these and create a strong collaborative narrative. Players are often asked to define aspects of the adventure so as to make them memorable. The game box includes an absolutely incredible campaign, where the secrets of the apocalypse and how it might be stopped are slowly revealed. So much of this game is groundbreaking and amazing, and well worth checking out. Check out my full review and how to use Phoenix's ideas in any RPG.

This is a excellent purchase if you are running Tomb of Annihilation or a jungle campaign. The ten encounters work really well as interesting scenes to sprinkle in as the party explores the wilds of Chult. As I discuss on my Alphastream.org blog, this is something which happens very often. Using the random encounter charts in the ToA book can be a bit dull, so having these encounters ready greatly helps the DM.

All but one adventure is on a single page. Print out a couple that you like and throw them in when you roll a random encounter or need to make travel interesting. Most will run about 30 minutes or so in duration, and have a nice combination of an interesting setting, skill interaction, and a trap or monsters. The APL is not stated for each encounter, so you may wish to plug the foes into a combat calculator (or use the DMG) to get a feel for the challenge level. All of the stat blocks are in the back of the adventure, making it easy to run these at a moment's notice. A table of contents with APL would be a nice addition, but isn't critical. Highly recommended!