D20 Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet is a short product from LPJ Design. The PDF is just over 600 kilobytes in size, and is twelve pages in length, including a page for the OGL. No bookmarks are given.

The first page of the product is done on a tan background, as though it were on parchment, and has an outlined picture of two lovers (presumably Romeo and Juliet themselves) embracing. All of the subsequent pages have borders of this color along the top and bottom. No printer-friendly version of the book is presented.

The book opens with an introduction talking about the themes and history of the play. After a short cast listing, almost half of the book is then spent recapping the plot of each act. While I can see why this was done, this overview of the play should have been much briefer than it was; synopses of this play can be found any of a thousand places, so making half of the book into one seems wasteful.

After this, coverage is given to a few items from the play (such as Tybalt's sword) before it moves on to stat blocks for the cast. Each such character has three stat blocks given, each two levels higher than the preceding one so that this can be used at varying levels. All of these are low-level, however, with only one character being 10th level. Unfortunately, all of these stat blocks are riddled with errors. From incorrect Challenge Ratings to incorrect hit points, these don't seem to have been edited at all, and are presented quite poorly.

The book ends with three story seeds that can be used to make a game out of the play. The first one suggests running the play as written, with the PCs being unnamed supporting characters. The second, and best, idea is that the seemingly-benevolent Friar is actually a villain manipulating things behind the scenes, and only the PCs can stop him. The last idea is to just use the play as a backdrop, with the PCs playing in the war between the two families.

When all is said and done, this product doesn't live up to its potential. Instead of wasting space recapping the play, it should have gone right into character stats and flavor text describing each character's role in the events. The mechanics should have been edited much more than they were. Finally, more should have been written on how the PCs can get involved. Like the play, D20 Shakespeare: Romeo & Juliet is a tragedy. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The second story idea, which reintroduces an established character as a secret villain, was very well done.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It seemed somewhat wasteful to have this product spend half its pages recounting the play. Also, the character stat blocks were riddled with errors.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

Shakespeare has a plot for every occasion, and the d20 Shakespeare line is an attempt to introduce those plots to RPGs. Romeo and Juliet has it all: vendetta, secret romance, murder, a crusading cop, a noble priest and tragic miscommunication.

The product begins with a Cliff Notes summary of the play, the stat blocks for the major characters of the play as NPCs, and then plot seeds - the straight adaptation of the play, followed by a couple of alternative readings of the play, including one that brings d20-style magic to the play.

The plot seeds are the most interesting part of the product. I would have liked to have seen more seeds and a shorter play summary.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: As always, the plot seeds. There's some good and surprising stuff here.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not enough adventure seeds, and too much summary.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The game starts with a retelling of Romeo and Juliet in acts, with notes for the events the players will be involved in. There are some custom magical items for the game including the Friars potion and Tybalt?s sword. There are four characters at various levels, 2, 4 and 6. Finally there are some variant endings and methods of play.

Good Comedy: This product ends with optional twists that left me laughing. There is room to run the game in the traditional fashion but the twist will make it more effective when dealing with players who just might have heard this story and do not want to kill themselves.

Stat Blocks: Stat block are a frustrating but necessary evil and they need to be done correctly to provide information to the Game Master and Players. A few minor elements are missing; hit die size and Constitution modifier to hit points. Designation of melee or ranged attacks. Critical modifiers are shortened but there are only 3 kinds of weapons. All the necessary information can be gleaned from the stat blocks as they are.

NPCs: There are only four characters with stats, Friar Lawrence, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio and Tybalt. There is a much longer list of characters in the play, and their levels, including the Prince of Verona, Paris, guards, citizens, pages, watchmen, attendants, Montague, Benvolio, Balthasar, Abraham, Lady Montague, Capulet, Samson, Gregory, Nusrse and Peter. There stats are not included. Some have a note about their class and level. Some have no notes. In order to properly prepare this game, for players who may wander off the script from time to time, over a dozen NPCs would need to be written, although many would only be 1st level.

Art: There is only the cover art and background art. It is simple but serves its purpose. The format is clear and the art gives it a old-scroll feel, without demanding too much color ink for a print out.

Just as a side note, I would really love to see a d20 Modern version of this product based on the modern version of Romeo and Juliet that came out in the 90?s.

The script of Romeo and Juliet is not included in full but it is so easily available on the web, and so many people own copies, it would be redundant. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: This is a solid retelling of Romeo and Juliet with some ingenious optional endings. Just enough new rules have been added to give it the right feeling. Armor and weapons, for example, are somewhat restricted in Verona, ?on pain of death?. It sends a pretty clear point to the players who might otherwise be hunting great swords and ballista. The layout is very clean and printable.

This is a great chance for those who have played in Romeo and Juliet and those who would like to, to reenact various scenes and memorize a few lines. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: With stats for only 4 characters, there is not enough here to run the game should the players get into any combat situations other than Mercutio-Tybalt fight. The product needs many of the other characters written up with stats for the players who want to see what would have happened if the fighting went a little differently.

There are no maps. This is not a major issue. Virtually everyone has seen some version of Romeo and Juliet before, but maps would help. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>