I liked this, I really do. The premise, that it's all just a game, diminished my enthusiasm somewhat. But honestly, the creators are just really cool and inventive people. The dragons are interesting and unique. I'll absolutely use things from here in my own games. It's worth it just for the artwork and creativity that went into this project.

The amount of passion put into this project shows! Built for 5 E with the Rule of Cool in mind, this setting really delivers when it comes to imaginative monsters, creative races, and unique classes. Playing in the Retroverse setting is a joy, as it brings many elements from my childhood to life in a D&D setting. As a DM, wastching the confusion and delight on my players faces when they come a cross a Retroverse element in my game is just.... the best feeling ever.

If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend it!

Only reason I'm not rating this a 5 outright is that I know Chris and Lluis are still working on final product.

All the work that has been put into this, considering it is during free time with minimal resources, really shows how much these two are putting their nose to the codestone. (You're welcome to use that, friends.)

Overall, this product does still need some polish to the chrome and a few bugs to defrag, but with our help after the eventual KS 2.0 we can be certain this product will offer a new realm with which we can live out our nostalgia-driven pun-punching cassette-punk fantasies.

Best idea what i see in roleplaying universe pls dont stop and creat this awsome game

really love this cannot wait for thetest wavw whenever that maybe

Overall: The Holo-Knight class has some flaws but is a very flavorful and interesting class and VERY differnent from your generic 5e fighter/ paladin/ eldritch knight. I'm interested and can't wait to check out the kickstarter.

Some abilities seem a little strong (Double Team mostly) and a few seem a little weaksauce to me (Weapon Shatter, Armor Burst) but overall pretty good.

The Dragonborn variants are interesting and fun, and the new spells are a little silly but still fun and interesteing. The monsters (and shiny variant templates) are unique and really cool looking. I like the blending of classic D&D mons into something new.

Really interested to see the whole thing! Full review here.

tl;dr: Mechanically solid, incorporates retro/homage elements in interesting ways, good writing, layout, art that could benefit from a paid editor. If this at all sounds like it's up your alley, read it (it's free!) or check out the Kickstarter.

I'll cover things in order, except the Holo-Knight, which I'll tackle separately.

Four varieties of dragonborn -- neon, laser, xenon, tesla, with stats and physical description. I like how there's more going on here than just slapping some different damage types. e.g. neon's fire breath flows as a gas and can filter through cracks in cover, and xenon deas less damage than the others but creatures who fail their save are blinded for a round.

Mercenary Background -- Excatly what it sounds like. Feature lets them always find good-paying work. A nice variety in the ideal/bond/flaw tables. 100 starting gold, which is a lot more than the Player's Handbook backgrounds, but still within the realm of game expectations (i.e. plate armor is unaffordable at 1st level)

Shiny Variants for monsters -- A set of 14 "palette swaps" and associated templates (4 detailed in this sampler), which are randomly chosen via d100. Suggested 1 in 100 chance of any randomly encountered monster being shiny. Each probability is 5% or 10%, so I would have just used a d20 table, but that's a minor quibble. I'm also not a fan of templates that alter ability scores, though 5e has much fewer flow-on effects to calculate than 3.5 did.

Monsters Gooblin -- Goblinoid oozes, which are instantly going in my game as unstable biomantic flesh-vat creations. For their CR, they have low hp and AC, but high damage. Slow speed and no ranged attacks, expect savvy player to kite them. Neo Bandit -- Pretty stock bandits, except they have an extra ability based on their clan. I assume all four clans are references, though I can only spot two of them. High damage, including at range. I think they're closer to CR 1/2 than 1/8. Pizza Slime -- Low AC, high HP, potential for high damage. CR seems about right, but again, expect players to kite them as they're slow and their ranged damage is terrible.

Magic Items: Fanny Pack of Holding is just what it sounds like, a Bag of Holding with a different storage capacity. This reprints all the normal rules adjusted for its different size, which might annoy some people for such a minor tweak, but other people might appreciate not having to refer to the DMG.

Great Shield -- not a magic item, this is a two-handed shield that gives +4 AC and has some extra rules for wearing on one's back. Probably needs an clarification on whether it requires 2 hands to carry, not just wield. e.g. could a cleric forgo the AC bonus for a round to have a hand free to cast a spell, without having to drop the shield?

Sunglasses of Protection -- advantage on saves vs. blinding effects, +1 AC, but you're blind in dim light. Pretty straightforward. Text is a bit long-winded for what the item does. Clarification on how it interacts with darkvision would be useful.

Deity: Pahku Pahku. A neutral-evil god of hunger incarnate, symbolised by a yellow 3/4 circle. When he devours worlds, he gains their knowledge, and shares it with his followers.

HOLO-KNIGHT Holo-Knight - a new player class. A lightly-armored (at first) magic user who can conjure weapons. The big question with any new class is what can it do that an existing class (i.e. hexblade Warlock) cannot, and does it justify the rules/player option bloat?

I compared both classes at level 6, and while they're fairly similar, they're less so than, say, Sorcerer and Evoker. The holo-knight has weaker spellcasting, as a ranger but Int-based. Their spell list is illusion-heavy, with some good extras like alter self and polymorph, which suggests conjuring holo-gills, holo-claws and the like. Both can wear or conjure medium armor. Warlocks can summon/swap their weapon as an action, HKs do so as a bonus action, which makes up for their lack of damaging cantrips. Warlocks get to use their spellcasting stat for attack/damage rolls, HKs don't. Both classes have an extra attack by 6th level, but the HK can, via their Weapon Shatter ability, get a third attack every other round.

So HK ends up somewhere between an Eldritch Knight (with illusions instead of evocations) and a Hexblade in terms of combat style, and probably is a little less effective than either of them, though I'd need to playtest to know for sure.

Changes I would make -- give them simple weapon proficiency (currently they only have holo-weapon proficiency), add more transmutation buffs (e.g. fly, spider climb) to the list. I'd also change their Weapon Shatter ability. The fluff suggests it's a desperate attack, but there's little consequence since weapons can be reformed at-will. That is, the fluff and crunch are at odds.

In my own game, I'd probably just change the class to be a variant eldritch knight, but obviously this book is released under the OGL and can't implement the concept that way.

FINAL THOUGHTS Presentation 3.5/5 -- Mostly good. Lluis Abasias's art is eyecatching and immediately sets the tone, layout is readable, and formatting the Holo-Knight's spell list so that SRD spells are red is a useful player aid. A few long-winded descriptions, typoes (e.g. "unique color pallet", overlapping d100 results in the shiny monster table), But that's the kind of stuff a paid editor can pick up, which is one of the points of running a kickstarter.

Crunch 3.5/5 -- no particularly inspired mechanics, nothing broken either. Rules language occasionally doesn't follow the 5e standard, but intent is clear enough that you can use it in your games immediately.

Fluff 4.5/5 -- is this just a bunch of 80s/90s references? I don't think so. This takes references and homages and uses it to craft something distinct, goofy, and immediately gameable. You won't run into a wild Pokemon, but you might run into a Shiny carrion crawler, and infer some of its new abilities by its particular palette swap. Pahku Pahku isn't just a Pac-Man reference, it's mixed in with ideas more typical of Galactus, Unicron or an Elder God. The dragonborn variants have 80s aesthetic, but aren't a reference (i think?).

If the rest of the Retroverse is this good, I'll be a happy kickstarter backer :-)

A little taste of what's to come, I cannot wait to see everything. Everything is amazing and it looks like it will be fantastically fun to play when it's complete!

This is a great teaser for what it to come! The Holo-Knight looks like a great 20-level class that really stands out on it's own compared to the core classes of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. If you're looking for some 80's/90's aesthetic, you've come to the right place! Might use the new "Gooblins" or "Pizza Slime" monsters in a D&D session real soon!

The sneak peek is really cool, Im excited at the prospect of further development of Lasers and Liches and their upcoming kickstarter starting on april 10th.

I can barely contain my excitement for the Retroverse! The artwork is beautiful, the classes are fun and interesting, and the universe is enticing. They've done a good job at making this 5E compatible without it feeling clunky. Can't wait to see the rest.

This preview has me very excited for the final product! The weirdness and the amalgamated retro-80's vibe makes for an intriguing and nostalgic setting that I can't wait to start fleshing out and letting players explore.