Be aware that Instant Superheroes is basically a repackaging of the three Mutants & Masterminds Archetype Archive PDFs already released by Green Ronin on RPGNow.

Yes, it's something of a "Director's Cut" edition; the archetypes have been re-written, expanded to some degree, and there's new artwork in the mix, but I'm pretty disappointed in Green Ronin that they didn't mention the content's earlier incarnation in the product description.

The quality of this product is first-rate, as is typical of main-line Green Ronin products. If you're an M&M Gamemaster, and you want a collection of iconic superhero power archetypes (e.g. "the speedster", "the living weapon (bub), "the costumed detective") then this is the place to look. Each archetype has at least one alternative version suggested, and the archetypes can be useful in creating your own, similar NPCs quickly, or if your new player needs a "Human Torch-type character" (or whoever) quickly for tonight's game session.

Pretty much every major copyrighted superhero you can think of is evoked or homaged here somewhere.

If, however, you bought all three Archetype Archive PDFs before already, you may not need this "expanded Director's Cut edition" of those products.

Shame on Green Ronin for not coming clean in the product description about where this PDF originated. They're typically better than that.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>:

-- It's solid, useful, well-presented Mutants & Masterminds material, assuming you haven't already paid for the core information once before ...<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>:

-- it's an updated, somewhat expanded "Director's Cut" collection of the three Mutants & Masterminds Archetype Archive PDFs already available here on RPGNow. You don't find this out until after you've purchased the product; it's discussed inside the PDF, and not flagged in the sales description. A shady move worthy of a super-villain ...<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

50 New Ways to Blow Things Up is a well-packaged, humorous product outlining some new ways for d20 magic-users to do what they love best; namely, doing harm in dramatic ways.

It's hard not to like this product. As above, it's charismatic and it does "cut to the chase" of dramatic damage-doing.

Unfortunately, a GM will have to look over these spells individually before allowing them into his or her campaign. Not all the spells seem balanced or appropriate for their power-level, and if you have rules lawyers and/or jerks at your gaming table, some of these spells could end up being misused or abused horribly, throwing your game out-of-whack.

As a minor example, consider Armor of Light (one of the only non-blow-uppish spells in the PDF), a 3rd level spell available to Wizards and Sorcerors (as well as Clerics and Paladins). Not only does Armor of Light grant a +1 Defensive Bonus per four levels (to a maximum of +5 at level 20), it also dazes all who look at it (-1 to attacks, Spot, and Search) for 1d6 rounds, with no save allowed.

Never mind that the text doesn't say anything about whether or not the spellcaster's companions are walking around in a constant state of dazedness or not, any time I see the words "with no save" in a spell description, I can only think about the numerous weaselly manipulations this will encourage in certain players.

I don't think the author intended to open up any loopholes with these spells. The concepts are clever and refreshing, for the most part. Just be advised that you'll have to look over each spell individually, and consider its impact on your game, before you allow it or forbid it at your gaming table. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>:

-- Clever, with a welcome dash of humor in the presentation (although the spells themselves can easily be played straight). It's also nice to see someone directly address the real reason so many players choose to play spellcaster characters -- blowin' stuff up real good!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>:

-- You'll have to review each spell and decide if it fits your campaign's game balance. The ideas are good, but the execution can be a bit sloppy, with some of the spells seeming unbalanced and/or overpowered.

-- The book feels a tad pricey at $8.00, but then again, that's only 16 cents a spell. You'll have to make your own decision.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I hate writing negative reviews; I really do. I'd much rather focus on praising what I think is good out there in the forest of PDF products available. Occasionally, though, I feel compelled to put out a "heads up" warning to fellow buyers -- something I wish I'd known before I'd spent money on a product.

My warning where the first three chapters of the War of the Burning Sky series is concerned is a very mild one. "Shelter from the Storm" is a very good D&D adventure on its own merits, with excellent production values. Be advised, however, that the dramatic tension and the sense of imminent, epic-scale danger so masterfully implemented in the first adventure, "The Scouring of Gate Pass", has been bleeding out of the series with each successive installment.

The second adventure side-trekked into a "cursed site" scenario involving blighted fey. While I hoped for some sort of pursuit from the forces of the Empire to link the adventure plot to the larger, overarching plot, this never really happens.

Yes, some Empire pursuers show up at a certain point, but it plays like an afterthought, or a necessary bit "factored in" to link the adventure. The sense of imminent danger and pursuit does not carry over from the first adventure to the second -- or this, the third.

"Shelter from the Storm" failed for me in similar ways. Again, it's a fine module in and of itself, with top-notch production values, but it was intimated that the players' arrival at Seaquen would be breathless respite from pursuit, snatched up at the last minute. It doesn't really play that way.

Instead it's a "city adventure". With the players spending roughly half their time reconciling various religious factions in the city, so that Seaquen is united in defense against the Empire, and the other half of the module is spent opposing a magical threat to Seaquen constructed by allies of the Empire.

But again, the link to the Empire's threat is muted and indirect -- something the players must root out, as in any other "city intrigue" adventure.

With a series title like War of the Burning Sky, I was expecting a much more epic and overt Tolkien-esque tale of danger. One where the (metaphoric) hooves of the Nazgul dogged the players at every turn. Simply put, after the impressive initial adventure, The Scouring of Gate Pass, I feel the dramatic tension has ebbed out of the series, with Shelter from the Storm feeling like a solid stand-alone product, but not a part of some larger epic tale.

Yes, each module has some aspect or aspects linking it to the larger story, but in practical play, at the gaming table, the players don't always feel those connections. They don't feel the continuing threat bearing down on them, and the world around them.

I'm certain future installments in War of the Burning Sky will pick up the epic feeling again; the nature of the story more or less demands it. I have been disappointed, however, in the last two adventures, as the obvious (i.e. player-detectable) dramatic tension has been increasingly absent with each installment.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>:

-- First-rate quality in all respects. Adapted into a stand-alone adventure, it would serve your home campaign very well.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>:

-- It doesn't link to the War of the Burning Sky plot in the sort of obvious ways one might expect. The sense of tension and threat from the forces of the Empire is further muted in this third installment, only truly manifesting later in the story.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

The first true supplement for the Traveller 1248 science-fiction game setting has finally been released, and it's a worthy product.

This is another very long review, but if you want to know what you're buying, read on, brave soul ...

There's been something of a delay in 1248 releases as ComStar and Avenger Enterprises took the time to make their publishing agreement with Traveller creator Marc Miller official. Now, the products are beginning to arrive, and 1248 Starships 1: Small Merchant Ships is a good place to start.

The product offers four player-friendly classes of merchant ship for five bucks, plus details on ship purchasing and maintenance, as well as a planet writeup which I'll discuss later.

As the product description states, each starship comes with a description, a deckplan, and High Guard statistics. For anyone new to Traveller reading this, High Guard statistics refers to a short-form notation used to summarize Traveller ship characteristics at a glance. The name High Guard comes from the Classic Traveller product of the same name where the notation was first introduced.

Understanding High Guard notation is not necessary to use this product fully; it's just provided as a convenience for those Traveller gamers who do use it.

Each of the four small merchant vessels presented feature a clean, simple deckplan in black and white, and an artist's conception of each vessel. All of the illustrations are black and white as well, with the exception of a color view of the newest starship type, the 300-ton Frontier Trader.

Of the four starships provided, three are long-time classic Traveller small merchant designs, updated for the year 1248. They include:

1) The 200 ton Free Trader

This starship becomes available as early as Tech Level 9 (Early Interstellar) and requires a minimum crew of five (a pilot, an engineer, a medic, a gunner, and a steward).

For those new to Traveller, a steward is the person assigned to look after the needs of any passengers onboard. If the ship isn't planning on carrying passengers, the steward becomes optional. Often, a frontier crew will simply assign someone who has no crucial shipboard job to act as a steward during passenger runs. Obviously, characters with skills related to the task do much better at it.

The Free Trader can carry seven passengers, if need be, plus twenty more passengers in low berths (suspended animation chambers a la "Aliens")

The gunner controls the Free Trader's mixed single turret, which ships with a missile rack and a defensive sandcaster (used for refracting incoming beam weapons fire) as part of the purchase price.

Cargo space is good, with roughly ninety tons possible, stored in three separate cargo holds.

The main drawback of the Free Trader class for an adventuring party is it's limited range. With its jump drive rated at the minimum of Jump-1 -- one hex on the standard Traveller subsector maps -- and a limited fuel-tank capacity, the Free Trader does best when sticking to familiar trade routes where the distances between solar systems are shortest.

2) The 200 ton Far Trader

This TL 11 Free Trader variant has a better jump drive, and thus, a longer range than the original Free Trader design, but it gains this advantage at the cost of decreased cargo space.

With a Jump-2 jump drive, the Far Trader class can carry up to sixty-two tons of cargo, seven passengers, and six low berth passengers beyond the travelled spacelanes.

The Far Trader has the same crew requirements as the Free Trader: pilot, engineer, medic, gunner, and steward. Like the Free Trader class, it also comes with a mixed single turret sporting a missile rack and a defensive sandcaster.

3) The 400 ton Subsidized Merchant

Probably the most common privately-owned cargo hauler in Charted Space, the slow, short range (at Jump-1) Subsidized Merchant ship might be for you, if your players are more interested in turning a profit than braving the dangers of the unknown.

The Subsidized Merchant -- nicknamed the Fat Trader centuries ago -- is a very traditional ship design, which becomes available as early as TL 9. It can hold up to 213 tons of cargo, or 153 tons if five starfighters are carried aboard for security.

Despite the possibility of fighters onboard, the Subsidized Merchant is not a military craft, nor any sort of "starcraft carrier". It's a large, slow, vulnerable cargo vessel, even with its fighter option available.

Ideally, in combat, the Subsidized Merchant relies on its fighters to engage any hostile craft, while the starship itself supports from long-range with missile fire from its three missile turrets.

Even with this plan in effect, Subsidized Merchants are still vulnerable in combat, and rarely last long against pirates or other serious aggressors.

This starship requires a crew consisting of a pilot, a navigator, an engineer, a medic, 4 gunners (3 for the single missile turrets; 1 for the single sandcaster turret) and a steward. If four fighters are carried aboard, then 5 craft pilots, and 5 craft mechanics must also be on the crew roster.

Note that the optional fighters for the Subsidized Merchant class are not statted, mapped, or otherwise depicted in this product. Traveller referees will have to rely on the standard 15-ton fighter statistics and details available in most core Traveller rule sets.

The last vessel described in 1248 Starships 1: Small Merchant Ships is a new design; one uniquely suited to a crew of adventurers willing to brave the dangers of the wild and dangerous expanses beyond the borders of the fledgling Fourth Imperium.

4) The 300-ton Frontier Trader

This small merchant is a TL 11 starship capable of Jump-2. It carries three turrets: a dual turret carrying one pulse laser and one sandcaster, and two triple missile turrets.

With only sixty-six tons of cargo space divided into two compartments, a Frontier Trader ship will never beat a Far Trader or a Subsidized Merchant in a trade war -- but the Frontier Trader has the range to go places the Subsidized Merchant can't go, and the armament to hold off attackers which would overwhelm both its competitor vessels. The ability to reach far ports, and live to bring back rare trade goods, has a market value all its own.

The Frontier Trader class requires a crew of nine: pilot, navigator, 2 engineers, medic, 3 gunners, and a steward. The ship can carry 6 passengers, and 6 low berth passengers as required.

Beyond the four merchant starships discussed above, 1248 Starships 1: Small Merchant Ships also features a very useful section discussing both the purchase price discount for a used starship, depending on its age -- and the increased maintenance cost for a used starship, also tied to its age. Both values are calculated as a percentage of a starship's brand new price, something traditionally listed in each Traveller starship's basic writeup.

The last section of 1248 Starships 1: Small Merchant Ships details the near-border Fourth Imperium world of Latasel, in the Beta Quadrant of Gushmenge sector.

This writeup is clever, as it not only provides a planetary site useful for travellers looking to cross the border into the wilds (Latasel has one of the better starports in this region of space), but the planetary writeup also contains the sort of dry socio-political irony and resistance to simplistic categorization inherent in the best Traveller material.

Players expecting an obviously good/bad universe with easily identifiable sides, a la Star Wars, won't find that here. While there is definitely good and evil in the Traveller 1248 universe, and the setting isn't pretentiously dark or cynical, the game setting has more in common with Joss Whedon's `Verse, or the futures seen in the Aliens films, Outland, or even the new Battlestar Galactica. Good and evil exist, but navigating between them day-to-day is a little more complicated than Star Wars' "check this box" mentality.

So it is with the world of Latasel described here. The planet is a major interstellar thoroughfare, and its leader, Jicondo Remaii, is a staunch supporter of the new Fourth Imperium. The world has been targeted for further investment by the Reconstruction Service, and Remaii is considered to be a shoo-in for a Marquis' title at the next meeting of the Imperial Moot.

There's just one slight detail which might bother some of your players -- Remaii is a charismatic dictator. Sure, most of the planet genuinely loves him and he seems like such a swell guy. Latasel is great place to live in these troubled times; safe, secure, prosperous -- until you run afoul of the local law. Death penalties are imposed for what many worlds consider minor crimes, and leniency takes second place to security.

Remaii makes no bones about his arch-conservative policies, genuinely believing that security is paramount for Latasel in the troubled year 1248. He's not some irrational, sociopathic tyrant -- which could make Remaii all the scarier to those players who oppose his methods.

As written, Latasel can simply serve as a convenient temporary stopover on the way to other adventures -- or it can be the kind of planet where a crew of free-thinking, armed adventurers could find themselves eyeball-deep in bad, bad trouble.

As with the best Traveller materials, the choice is yours as the game's referee.

Latasel and Jicondo Remaii are discussed but the planet is not mapped, nor Remaii statted out, making the background data rules-neutral. The subsector map containing Latasel is provided, but no planetary data for the sector is given, only for Latasel itself. The book only promised Latasel, but for details on the star systems around Latasel, you'll need access to Traveller 1248 Sourcebook 2: Bearers of the Flame, also available as a PDF here on RPG Now.

All in all, 1248 Starships 1: Small Merchant Ships is a solid start to the continuance of the Traveller 1248 product line. Scout Service ships will be featured in the next 1248 Starships book, and I can't wait to see it!

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>:

*** The 1248 line has recommenced, and the first release is very table-ready for game night use. Both of these things make me very happy.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>:

Not a complaint, just a heads-up to prospective buyers:

*** The maps in this product are in the Classic Traveller style: black and grey on white with a 1.5m (5') square grid. Interior detail is kept to a minimum, with obvious and necessary details featured only. These aren't the richly detailed, artistic deckplans we've gotten used to seeing from Ryan Wolfe's Future Armada series. Then again, you're getting four perfectly useable, clean, crisp, and professional starship deckplans for five bucks. Just know what you're getting here, so you don't disappoint yourself later.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

An overlooked gem, The Temple of the Screaming Skull is that rarest of things: an adventure module intended for first-to-third level characters that is both interesting, and which doesn't feel as if it were merely thrown together simply to get characters from first to third level as quickly as possible.

The common problem with most adventures for first-level characters is that they are dull beyond belief, especially for those who've already played D&D at higher levels.

Most first-level adventures either use the usual clich? creatures (orcs, goblins, kobolds, skeletons) in the usual clich? ways (oooh, look kids! a dungeon!), or else the adventure forgoes combat and tries to present something centred on puzzles and roleplay, leaving out the action which is a defining characteristic of Dungeons & Dragons.

Too many published first-level adventures feel perfunctory, as if the author is merely trying to get the characters to third level -- and the start of the supposed "good stuff" -- as rapidly as they are able. Basically, most modern first-level adventures feel half-assed and too often reflect the author's apparent boredom with low-level material.

There have been notable exceptions -- first-level adventures which were interesting, adventurous and fun, while still feeling like true D&D. Goodman Games' Idylls of the Rat King is one such adventure, and now, Dungeon Dweller Games' Temple of the Screaming Skull joins the ranks.

Temple of the Screaming Skull is not as graphically slick as the aforementioned Idylls of the Rat King, but it carries the same dedication to telling an interesting story at its core. The adventure is archetypal, yes, but not clich?. Author Matthew Muth is clearly interested in the story he's telling, and has done what he can to make it unique within its archetypal frame, and the restrictions of first-level play.

Ironically, for an adventure from a company calling itself Dungeon Dwellers Games, The Temple of The Screaming Skull is not a dungeon adventure. As the title suggests, it's a site-based adventure set in an abandoned temple.

While it still plays out like a dungeon in many respects -- player characters investigate a series of interconnected rooms and hallways -- just the fact that author Muth took the adventure out of the usual dungeon space is an indication of how this product steps away from the clich? wherever it can, while still following an archetypal adventure pattern.

The author has made a real effort to make the goings-on interesting in their own right. Possible alternative options in play are regularly mentioned.

Muth also provides a pair of wholly optional "side treks" on the way to the main site, yet still includes two Appendices describing how these optional incidents might be greatly expanded and tied into the plot of the adventure as a whole. Stats for characters needed only in the "expanded" versions are provided as html sheets in the zipfile.

Likewise, Muth takes the time and makes the effort to set up a real atmosphere of menace at the adventure site itself. He makes use of simple, descriptive and atmospheric elements to undercore the mystery of "Just what has happened here?" Players will obviously know that something has gone wrong, but the writer works the suspense very well, so that even seasoned gamers will find themselves curious to get to the bottom of things.

If this adventure has any major weak spots, it's that it may be too difficult at points for an unskilled or oddly-balanced party of adventurers. Similarly, if you're a new Dungeon Master and/or you're running a group of brand-new D&D players through The Temple of the Screaming Skull for the first time, be sure you read the adventure through thoroughly first.

Author Muth is very good at pointing out potential trouble spots for noobie adventuring parties, or groups which are oddly balanced. Be sure you know where these spots occur, and be prepared to take steps to prevent problems -- whether you fudge dice rolls a little behind your DM screen, or have one of the "side trek" NPCs accompany the party, or whatever works for you.

Beyond the need to keep an eye on the danger levels, this adventure has no serious flaws.

The black and white pages might be slightly ink-demanding if printed because of their border art; meanwhile, the color maps are unspectacular by current standards, but they serve their purpose well enough. The color on the maps may make them a pain to print for some, but there are only three in total.

Lastly, there are minor typos in places, but they are they sorts of mistakes which are easily identified (evlen for elven, in one spot) and ultimately irrelevant.

While not perfect, nor as polished as some of its slick competitors, The Temple of the Screaming Skull is still an undiscovered gem -- that rarity of rarities, a first-level D&D adventure that's well worth buying, and definitely worth playing.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>:

• A genuinely interesting first-level story.

• Optional side treks which can become much more through Appendixed material.

• Designed for the realities of the gaming table. Play options are discussed, as well as ways of easily importing the adventure into your personal D&D campaign.

• Very well-written. Author Matthew Muth knows how to use atmosphere and suspense to make even a first-level adventure compelling. Most players will want to get to the root of this mystery.

• Inexpensive

• If you're intrigued, just buy it! :-)<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>:

• Certain encounters could be tough on inexperienced or unbalanced first-level parties. DMs should be prepared to fudge a few dice rolls, or otherwise take steps, if necessary, to avoid needless total-party-kills. To it's credit, the adventure typically flags potential trouble spots.

• The maps are both functional and readable, but not pretty or sexy by modern gaming standards.

• No printer-friendly version. It shouldn't be too much of an ink-devouring beast, but you've been warned.

• A handful of minor typos, all effectively harmless.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is one of the best alternative classes for d20 fantasy that I have seen to date. It's short and to the point, and it absolutely nails the concept of the ex- (or current) city guard as a D&D adventuring class.

The feats and abilities granted absolutely capture the flavor of a "D&D Cop" -- combat-ready character who is more focussed on defending and preserving life, than making war or collecting monster hides.

More importantly, the class design opens up play possibilities, instead of dictating how the player should run his or her character.

Like all the archetypal official D&D classes, The Guard class allows players and GMs lots of room for personal interpretation, while the core mechanics remain solid.

The design of the class makes it equally useful for designing city guard NPCs, or for running a campaign where all the players are current members of the local guard. Hmmm, now THAT could be a fun campaign!<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Everything! See above ...

This class, and the Holy Warrior class from Green Ronin, are the only two third-party character classes for D&D that I feel truly meet a need the official classes don't address.

Most third-party classes are just variations on what we've already got, but The Guard is an obvious background for a fantasy adventurer that's somehow been overlooked -- until now.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This product is great -- I'm just sad that others haven't taken advantage of the OGL liscence and used this character class in other d20 products.

Buy it. Use it. Love it. :-)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Not exactly what I expected it to be, but useful to anyone who needs a text-centric overview of a hidden city concept for their fantasy campaign.

The Lost City of Jershon by R. Hyrum Savage has excellent production values -- good page design, readable text, and above-average artwork -- but it proves ultimately to be more descriptive than table-ready.

There are only two maps -- both of them general overhead views. One map shows the riverside town of Talara, and the other, The Lost City of Jershon itself. A couple of NPC characters are statted out for use with the new RuneQuest rules, but pretty much everything else is text-description only.

While this makes The Lost City of Jershon very adaptable to different fantasy rules sets and campaigns, it also means that any GM is going to have to have to fill in the table-ready details themselves if they want to use The Lost City of Jershon in practical play.

To author Savage's credit, he does describe everything quite well, and has the wisdom to keep his descriptions short, focussed, and useful for play, rather than burying the reader in unnecessary background detail.

The background material is described only in terms of how it may be relevant to actual play. Most NPC characters are summed up with a short paragraph only, again with the focus on what a GM or player would need to know.

As for the Lost City of Jershon itself, it's not an ancient ruin to explore -- which I thought it would be when I bought the product, for whatever reason -- but rather a living, functioning isolated community, hidden from the larger world. As such, the general tone of this module has far more in common with adventure-fantasy classics like "King Solomon's Mines" or "She" by H. Rider Haggard, than any ruin crawl I was anticipating.

Without spoilering, I can say that the denizens of Jershon are devoutly dedicated to their pro-active gods, and this defines their society.

Their magically-infused city features a tower dedicated to their pantheon, and when this crystal changes color, they behave in ways consistent with the god represented by that color.

For example, when the death god's color is displayed monthly, the death priests somberly and efficiently go about killing any non-death-priest they encounter until the crystal color changes.

Ultimately, The Lost City of Jershon is a handsome product with good ideas well-presented. Unfortunately, it is also a completely general product. GMs who want to use this material in their fantasy campaigns will have to do almost all the table-ready preparation themselves, from the ground up.

Not only are there only two general-overview maps of Talara and Jershon included, but there are very few explicit adventure hooks included. Yes, the river pirates of Talara are described, with the expectation that players will battle them at some point(s), but the GM with have to design those battles him- or herself.

Likewise, Jershon is an interesting location, but any specific adventuring or confict which takes place there will be up to the GM to design. A cursed tomb in Jershon is given a general description, but making that tomb into an adventure site falls entirely to the GM.

Scoring this product is a tough call. It doesn't really do anything wrong, per se -- it's adaptable across fantasy rules sets; it's nice-looking; it's easy to read; it's relatively inexpensive, and it handles its central concepts well.

The problem, as above, is that it's almost entirely conceptual. Almost all the heavy-lifting required to make this setting table-ready for Game Night will fall to the GM who buys it.

Split it down the middle, and call it a 2.5 out of 5 then, rounded up to 3 for the RPGNow score system. The Lost City of Jershon is not bad in any way, but it could have been so very much more. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: * Nice artwork and an eye-friendly layout.

• Well-written.

• Usable with most fantasy rules systems.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: * Very general. Only two overview-scale maps. No explicit adventure hooks beyond finding the lost city.

• This is primarily a conceptual-overview product. Making this material table-ready for Game Night will require GMs to do almost all the heavy-lifting detail work themselves.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

A well-produced, inexpensive way to bring white, or angelic-sourced magic, into your d20 Modern campaign.

It departs from the standard d20 Modern rules, in that all the Enochian FX detailed in this product function as skills in gameplay, not spells in the traditional d20 sense. Prerequisite feats help GMs keep the ability to use Enochian magic as rare as the campaign requires, while the concept of power strain and power exhaustion prevents players from using their abilities at will, all the time, every time.

It's not a comprehensive product, but at such a low price, it would be greedy to expect it to be. Ambitious GMs will see the general pattern of FX skills checks and balances the book sets up, and will be able to "fill in the blanks" for any abilities they feel ought to be there.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: --- Enochian magic -- angel-provided magic, as per the apocryphal Book of Enoch from the Biblical era -- seems an obvious d20 Modern counter to all the villainous diabolic sorcery floating about in d20 Modern games, and yet not even the Modern core rules have explored this idea very successfully. This product by F.J. Eastman is a good start in the right direction.

--- The book sports a nice, clean design and comes in both a standard and a printer-friendly version. The artwork won't necessarily set your world on fire, but the overall look of the product is pleasing.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not criticisms, merely notes for potential purchasers:

--- Be advised that one of the main virtues of this product is that it is cheap. As such, don't expect the world of it.

It touches on the general concept of Enochian magic, explains how to use FX as skills in your d20 Modern games, and provides a handful of FX skill "powers" for game use. That's it.

Don't expect some exhaustive catalogue of FX skill powers for every situation, and every conceivable character concept, at every level of gameplay, or you'll be bitterly disappointed.

This is an inexpensive product which introduces some basic concepts, provides nine example FX skill powers you can use in-game at varying levels (skills are not bound by character level, after all), and then the product basically points the way from there.

If you want more powers and more detail, you'll have to do the work yourself. You get what you pay for here.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Whether you love this book, or hate it, will depend almost entirely on what you expect from a d20-based superhero game.

On the positive side, this is probably the simplest, most straightfoward superhero RPG game system I've seen since the days of first- (white cover) and second-edition (green cover) Villains & Vigilantes. Superpowers are handled as feats (with "Negative feats" acting as disadvantages for balance), while nonpowered heroes a la Batman or Daredevil use stat contests or non-power feats. Characters have levels, alignments, attributes, and general classes as per the d20 system, along with what amount to feat/skill-type packages to represent their various talents and abilities -- superheroic, civilian, or otherwise.

This system seems tailor-made for gamemasters and players who just want to get into the action as quickly as possible and not sweat the game mechanics. Because the rules are so straightforward, it shouldn't be too hard for GMs to add in anything they deem missing. Again, the rules are very simple, and it's always easier to add on to a simple game system, than to take away from a complex one.

On the negative side, those who want a very detailed, strenuously logical ruleset had best look elsewhere. This game is built to be fast and flexible with an emphasis on action, rather than realism.

Perhaps the most damning flaw of this product is its embarrassingly low-rent production values. Despite the art imported from the rulesets' nakesame -- the Image Comics-published Big Bang Comics line -- too much of this book is simply double column black-and-white text. While typos are at a minimum, and the writing itself has spirit, the page layout and general design is embarassingly amateurish -- pages switch between full-page and two-column formats without warning; fonts change size for certain sections, and so on. It looks for all the world like this package was assembled on the fly by someone who was completely new to Adobe Acrobat -- or worse, was using one of those free, online PDF converters to create their master document.

The only defense one could offer is that this book is only $10 US -- about half what its competitors charge. Design-wise, though you'll get exactly what you pay for. Perhaps less.

If anyone reading this is actually a hardcore fan of the Big Bang Comics line, the supplementary material here is very much keyed to the published comics: the ruleset encourages player-characters (and campaigns) set in either the Golden Age of comics (the 1940s) or the Silver Age (the 1960s), although other eras, including the present-day, are certainly possible.

Many Big Bang Comics characters -- heroes and villains -- are statted out under the rules. For those unfamiliar with Big Bang, most of these characters are very very thinly-veiled homages to Golden and Silver Age DC Comics characters. The only Marvel icon who seems to get swiped here is the Sub-Mariner (appearing here as an homage called "The Atomic Sub"), and even the Atomic Sub didn't make it in the comics themselves. In the guide to Big Bang's timeline, it's mentioned that in the company's homage to the original DC "Crisis" story, the Sub dies saving his comrades!

There's very little in these rules detailing incidental objects (jetplanes, howitzers, and the like), but again, these rules are so transparent and straightforward that it wouldn't be to too hard to extrapolate whatever you might want as needed.

In the end, I have to rate the product dead-center, with a 2.5/5 because of the extreme reactions it will provoke.

For those who want an ultra-simple, straightforward, d20-based superhero game system, the Big Bang Comics Rpg will give you that at a cheap price. If you're a gamer who needs a professional-looking product, with an intricate, finely-balanced rules system covering most every possible game-table development, then you'd better stay far clear. Even at $10 US, you'll certainly feel ripped off.

In the end, the Big Bang Comics Rpg is a fast-and-dirty simplistic game system for those who don't want to be bothered with an intricate ruleset, and who can't be bothered to write out their own.

As I said at the beginning, you'll either love this game or hate it, depending on your expectations.

First up, a "buyer beware" warning: this is a Traveller: The New Era (TNE) adventure, set in the year 1201. Although this book came out on the heels of the Traveller 1248 sourcebook, it is not one of the promised adventures set in 1248 and beyond.

While hardcore TNE fans would immediately pick up on this, because of the mention of things like Restoration Coalition (RCES) teams in the product description, general Traveller fans, or people new to Traveller with the 1248 sourcebook might be confused. I wanted to set things straight right off the top.

Part of the reason I find myself wishing that ComStar/Avenger would adopt a separate label like "Fourth Imperium" for its 1248+ material, rather than grouping it under "The New Era" rubric is to prevent just this sort of confusion among buyers. I myself -- while tipped by the mention of the RCES -- wasn't entirely certain I was getting a pre-1248 adventure either from the product description alone. At present, it seems ComStar/Avenger continues to refer to both pre- and post-1248 Traveller material as "The New Era", even though they are effectively two different types of campaign setting.

At the very least, I wish ComStar/Avenger would adopt a different color scheme for their 1248+ products from their baseline TNE materials. Currently, TNE products appear to be marked by a yellow color-stripe, while 1248+ materials are apparently marked with (wait for it) -- a yellowish-orange color stripe.

Sigh. It's enough to make you bang your head on the keyboard in frustration ?

But enough of the whining. Is Operation Dominoes 1: Moonshadow a good adventure?

Sure. It has the same strengths (a solid, wide-open plot with many ways for players to go) and the same weaknesses (it's essentially a very large, very clever plot outline -- making this "table-ready" with maps and player handouts will fall to you as the gamemaster) as with every other Dougherty-penned Traveller adventure I've bought.

To give credit where credit is due, however, there is a clear effort made this time toward taking some of the table-ready burden off the gamemaster (a.k.a. the referee, in Traveller parlance). There are a couple of area maps provided; a full-color overview map, in both a referee's version and a player's version; a short overview of planetary military capability; and expanded personality writeups for many of the adventure's major NPCs, including details like the NPCs' favorite catchphrases.

While I will continue to call out author Martin J. Dougherty for writing first-rate intricate and expansive adventure plots -- and then leaving it to me to map out all the necessary details to make those conflicts and combats come alive on the gaming table -- Operation Dominoes 1: Moonshadow at least takes some obvious steps in a gamemaster-friendly direction.

Plot has always been author Dougherty's main strength, and that's true here again. As the adventure title and product description imply, this is very much a mercenary/para-military infiltration sort of adventure, and Dougherty deftly avoids one of the major mistakes most miltary SF game adventures make: Operation Dominoes 1: Moonshadow is not merely a modern-day military op adventure dressed up with some science-fiction scenery, it's a genuine military SF tale.

The famous science-fiction editor and author John W. Campbell Jr. used to say that a true science-fiction story was one where you couldn't take out the SF aspect without having the whole story fall apart. By sending the players to infiltrate a planet ruled by psionics, the science-fictional aspect of the plot is integral to the story. No matter how often the players follow the Ghost Recon/Splinter Cell -style paradigm while covertly gathering intel on this Tech Level 6 (1940-1969 AD) world, the fact that psionics rule said planet will always keep the adventure in the realm of science-fiction.

Is it a worthy buy? Yes, if what I've already described appeals to you and your players. Again, you'll have to fill in a lot of the table-ready details yourself, but there is a ton of textual detail at your disposal, and -- as usual -- author Dougherty's plot is deep and far-ranging.

While this adventure is tailored for Traveller:TNE campaigns set in 1201, gamemasters using other SF game systems could find a wealth of ideas to plunder here. If playing "silly bugger" (as my ex-Canadian Forces pal calls it), doing infiltration and intel gathering on a potentially hostile planet ruled by psionics piques your interest, then it's definitely worth a look.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>:

-- A large and far-ranging plot from author Dougherty, which maintains its SF cred throughout. Perfect for military SF fans who like the idea of infiltrating a planet ruled by potentially-hostile psionics.

-- There is a wealth of written background material here, and a couple of very useful maps.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>:

-- It's not made explicitly clear in the product description that this is an old-style TNE adventure set in 1201. This is not the first of the promised adventures meant to tie in to the recently-released 1248 sourcebook.

-- While effort has been made, this adventure is still more of an elaborate, intricate plot outline than anything else. It's a good story, but making it table-ready will involve a certain amount of prepatory grunt-work by the gamemaster. A lot of support text is provided, but this is still nowhere near a "plug and play" type of scenario. The downside of its large, "go anywhere" story structure is that the character-scale details are often left entirely up to the gamemaster.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

The future starts here for the Traveller science-fiction role-playing game.

This is a long review, I know, but I've tried to make every word count -- whether you're a Traveller fan, or a curious newcomer.

If you're a younger rpg gamer, you've probably heard of Traveller, but never played it. Designed by ex-navyman Marc W. Miller, the original Traveller (now typically referred to as Classic Traveller or CT) first appeared just a few years after Dungeons and Dragons, and quickly established itself as the pre-eminent SF rpg.

Other SF rpgs which came later (such as FGU's Space Opera) owed more to the science-fantasy flavor of Star Wars, but Classic Traveller kept the science in science fiction. While no game with starship jump drives and artificial gravity can claim to be the oxymoronic "hard SF", Classic Traveller owed more to Starship Troopers and Dune (the books), the Foundation trilogy, and movies like Alien, Outland, and Aliens, than to George Lucas' popular space fantasy.

As I have written elsewhere, the setting for Classic Traveller -- the Third Imperium, under the benign Emperor Strephon -- was a nearly perfect SF setting because it accomodated almost any sort of playstyle in the breadth of its setting. Frontier adventures? Check. Mercenary warfare? Check. Piracy? Yup. Exploration? You bet. Political intrigue and galactic plots? Yes. Captaining a ship a la Serenity's Malcolm Reynolds, sliding around on the shifty doing jobs out on the raggedy edge? Hell, Classic Traveller practically invented this story mode. To this day, Firefly/Serenity fans speculate that Joss Whedon was once a CT player. Last I heard, Whedon remains (wisely) silent on this topic.

And then, after a few years, Classic Traveller's publisher blew it all up. Literally.

Classic Traveller was followed by Megatraveller (MT), which plunged Charted Space and the Third Imperium into a massive civil war. It was great for those who wanted all-out space warfare in their games, but the flexibility of the published Traveller setting was sacrificed. Certain gamestyles became harder to justify against a fragmented background of Imperium-wide war.

Publisher GDW folded, and the next incarnation of Traveller was Traveller: The New Era (TNE). TNE is a hotly-debated topic among Traveller fans. Some hate it and refuse to acknowledge it as canon, while others love it above all other forms of Traveller.

Basically, TNE explored a fractured, fallen galaxy, post-Civil War. The Third Imperium destroyed, and huge sections of known space falling into barbarism and low-tech regression.

Both MT and TNE were interesting as stories, but neither setting was as flexible (and thus, as useful) as that of Classic Traveller's Third Imperium.

Put bluntly, the vast CT Third Imperium setting could accommodate both civil war player campaigns and fallen space, low-tech, restorationist player campaigns within its huge setting -- but neither MT nor TNE could accommodate other types of play anywhere near as easily within their galaxy-spanning storylines.

But now, we have 1248 Sourcebook 1: Out of the Darkness, by Martin J. Dougherty, and it looks like the best hope for the future of the Traveller setting.

1248 refers to the year in the Traveller dating system -- 1248 years after the founding of the First Imperium. More importantly, this sourcebook describes the current state of Traveller's Charted Space, some 130 years after the Third Imperium gave way to the bloodshed of MT's Civil War, and the dark, apocalyptic times described in TNE.

This is future humanity on the upswing. Sure, Charted Space is still fragmented, with pocket star nations of various sizes on the galactic map, but the Fourth Imperium has been founded, and alliances are being made. While space is still frontier-ish and dangerous, galactic civilization is returning and strengthening. It's the perfect time for adventure-seeking spacefarers to get out there and seek their fortune -- or build their legend.

Most importantly for players and for gamemasters (called "referees" in Traveller). the sense of a broad, accomodating setting is finally returning to the game. Elements of the Civil War era and the dark times still exist in the setting, but author Dougherty has created a vision of Charted Space which promises to be as flexible and as multi-purpose as the Third Imperium of Classic Traveller.

If you're an SF gamemaster, and you've ever been curious about the Traveller game setting, this is the sourcebook to buy. The sourcebook is effectively rules-neutral, so whether you're using the Traveller d20 rules; the Classic Traveller rules from farfuture.net; the GURPS Traveller rules; Megatraveller; The New Era; or even a "Traveller-ized" home version of the d20 Future rules, you can use this sourcebook without fear. It's background and setting data -- dice barely required.

Even if you have no Traveller experience at all, this sourcebook is a great introduction to the Traveller universe. It does presume you have some knowledge of what Traveller's major races are, and who the great personages of the Traveller setting might be, but if you're willing to take these as things to be Googled or Wikipedia'd later, you can still follow the setting information to good effect.

The 1248 Sourcebook is divided into three large sections and two appendices. The first section starts off with a color overview map of Charted Space in 1248, and then presents a detailed history of Charted Space from the time of the Civil War and the Collapse to the present-day. While this history section is certainly more interesting to existing Traveller fans, new gamers who want a look at how an intricate mega-plotline can play itself out might find some ideas and inpiration here.

The second section of 1248 details the major races (human and otherwise) as they now exist, as well as describing the major political states in Charted Space at this time. All of the significant races are described, but not pictured, unfortunately. Readers new to Traveller will have to rely on the text descriptions. Traveller fans might be interested to learn that the fascist, xenophobic humans of the Solomani ("men of Sol") regime have become even more racist and fascistic over time. Yet, in one of the small ironies author Dougherty delights in, Earth itself is now an enlightened world, and is no longer under their control.

The third section of 1248 covers a number of unresolved plot threads left over from the TNE plotline, and provides some not-necessarily-canonical suggestions as to how Traveller referees might want to build on these revelations in their home campaigns. The Omicron Virus, which precipitated the technological collapse during TNE; the so-called Vampire Fleets of marauding self-aware Virus-AI vessels (and their captive biological crews) which terrorized the spaceways during the Collapse era; the psionic "Empress Wave" phenomenon threatening to engulf Charted Space. All of these dangling plot threads are addressed, and more.

The first Appendix talks about how to generate Traveller planetary statistics for worlds in the year 1248. Classic Traveller d6 statistics are used, but the section is designed to be useful to anyone with a set of Traveller rules. Unfortunately, the details will be less useful to readers unfamiliar with Traveller, although the basic gist of the planetary modifications should be detectable.

The second Appendix provides a starting area near the edge of the Fourth Imperium as a jumping-off point for players who want to get out there and explore Charted Space circa 1248. The three main worlds of the tiny "County of Ukse" (literally, an area overseen by an Imperial Count -- although planets in the Imperium do, as ever, have their own governments). The three main worlds are described -- complete with orbital-view surface maps and planet graphics -- and other, nearby worlds are also described, although in less detail. Ten planets, in total, are presented.

Author Dougherty also presents ten Adventure Seeds linked to details about this frontier region, ranging from bounty work, trade and commerce, military work, to vaguely criminal work, and more.

This has been a very long review, and I extend my sincere thanks to the one or two people who may have actually read this far.

I wrote long because I feel this product is very important to the resurgence of Traveller as an SF rpg, and I wanted to make the "why" of that clear to both Traveller fans, and to those curious gamers who know nearly nothing about Traveller, except the name.

Traveller started it all, and more-recent SF game settings (d20 Future, Star*Drive, et al) owe much of their science-fiction style to Traveller -- some to the point of pure plagiarism.

Author Martin J. Dougherty has done an excellent thing with 1248: Sourcebook 1: Out of the Darkness. Not only has he allowed the Traveller timeline to continue past the grim catastrophe of the TNE Collapse era, Dougherty has brought the Traveller setting back to being a broad-based gaming universe, as it was in the Classic Traveller era. This campaign setting is large and inclusive in a way not seen since the heyday of CT. Many different types of far future adventure are possible once again, and can co-exist easily in an ever-widening game universe. Dougherty has restored the Traveller universe as a place rich with storytelling possibilities, and diverse in the sorts of adventures it can contain.

The author has indeed brought the Traveller universe "Out of the Darkness" with 1248 in more ways than one, and I salute him for it.

Fire up your starship. Strap on your sidearm. I have seen the future, and it looks good.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: See above!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: [EDIT] Since I originally posted this review, ComStar has released an updated version of the PDF (free to previous purchasers, I believe) with a new cover and additional interior art -- thus rendering my previous "lacks interior art" complaint irrelevant. On the downside, the new cover has the TNE logo emblazoned boldly across the top. I'm not sure that this product counts as a TNE product, in the strictest sense, since it has moved beyond what TNE means to most Traveller players. Also, given how many Traveller fans automatically reject anything to do with the TNE name, I can't help but wonder if this was a wise decision on ComStar's and Avenger's part. Perhaps "Fourth Imperium" would have been a better choice?

** As a sourcebook, this product plays to author Dougherty's strengths as a fiction writer and an "idea man". Adventures set in the 1248 Fourth Imperium are promised, but I confess this makes me nervous. All the previous Traveller adventures by Dougherty I've purchased have had great plots and ideas, but they have all been a serious burden to run -- essentially, all they've been are plot and outline. If area maps or building layouts are needed, or opponent statistics, or other game details to make the adventure ready to play, too often this time-consuming "grunt work" is left entirely to the gamemaster.

The overview approach works perfectly for this sourcebook, but I hope any future adventure modules set in 1248 will take a more "table-ready" approach. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Another brilliantly useful science-fiction deckplan from BlackWyrm Games, Future Armada: Vanguard Station shows yet again why Ryan Wolfe's SF deckplans have lately become the standard by which I judge all others.

The clean design and excellent artwork return here, but once again, it is the gameplay- centred design underneath all the visual appeal which makes this product indispensible.

Vanguard Station is designed as a small frontier space station, primarily a communications relay point. Yet, designer Ryan Wolfe has taken a modular design approach -- if you decide you need more barracks decks on Vanguard Station in your home campaign, simply add them to the stations central spindle. You need more cargo decks? More hangars? Again, it's simply a case of adding in extra copies of the decks provided, lengthening the default station design.

Perhaps most game-friendly of all, designer Wolfe has added what he calls a "blank deck" -- a deck with two large, empty areas on either side of the deck's central access shaft. You need some specialized laboratories? A space bar and dance floor? If you can't put what you need anywhere else, put it on a "blank deck" and add it to the station.

Vanguard Station is designed using the d20 ruleset, as a Progress Level 7 facility, but this station would be useful in many different flavors of SF game universe. Designer Wolfe has struck an interesting balance of late, design-wise -- his deckplans and product art evoke a "lived-in" SF universe -- with established franchises like Firefly/Serenity and the Aliens films coming to mind most easily. Yet, Wolfe's deckplans don't "lock" the user into a worn-down universe, merely a well-used one.

While it would be a stretch to use Vanguard Station in a game universe similar to the bright, colorful universe of original Star Trek, or the "California Hotel Lobby"-styled Star Trek: The Next Generation -- the hands-on look of Star Trek: Enterprise, and the frontier look of Deep Space Nine could both certainly fall within the scope of the Vanguard Station deckplan.

If your SF campaign design falls somewhere in the middle of the Trek to Firefly spectrum -- something akin to Babylon 5, Star Wars, or the new Battlestar Galactica -- then you will no doubt find Vanguard Station an easy fit for your material; useful, inspirational, and a genuine time-saver at the gaming table.

If you have any interest in the Vanguard Station deckplan, buy it. It's a joy to look at, easy to use, and its modular design ensures that you can make it your own with almost no effort.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Beyond the modular design, Ryan Wolfe also adds in art, stats, and plans for the station's patrol craft and the evacuation lifeboats.

d20 stats and writeups for the station commander and her executive officer are also provided. The personality profiles on these two should give gamemaster's something interesting to work with ...

It's these sort of "added extras" which help make the Future Armada series so recommendable. They go the extra mile for the customer.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: No complaints.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This is a very strange review for me to write. Make no mistake, the Exeter is a first-class quality starship deckplan. The problem -- if you want to call it that -- is only that the Exeter comes across as a "Expanded Director's Cut DVD Edition" of the last starship in the Future Armada series, the Jo Lynn.

This is not to say that the Exeter is a bad deckplan in any way, shape or form. I was merely surprised that it followed so closely in the design mold of the Jo Lynn. Like a Director's Cut DVD, the Exeter is larger, with more features, but it feels like the Jo Lynn on steroids.

Everything that I called good about the Jo Lynn, in my review of that deckplan, is also true of the Exeter. Such is the similarity between the two vessels.

This one will make a good home for a larger player-group (player crew maxes at 8, rather than the Jo Lynn's 4), especially a group interested in running large amounts of cargo or passengers. The Exeter will also make an excellent Tramp Freighter NPC ship, and the usual NPC crew stats and stories are provided.

Beyond these considerations, whether you buy the Exeter or not will depend largely on the specific needs of your SF campaign.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The Exeter shows the same full-bore quality, amazing color artwork, and attention to detail as in the previous Future Armada release, the Jo Lynn. Designer Ryan Wolfe is once again at the top of his game here.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not a criticism, as such, but a bit of a puzzlement instead. The Exeter "reads" as simply a larger, expanded version of the Jo Lynn. I was surprised at the choice to follow up the Jo Lynn with such a similar vessel. Perhaps this was my own fault -- I realize now, I was secretly hoping for a space-exploration starship -- something to address the other popular SF campaign model, done in the Future Armada style.

Some buyers may be disappointed that the "alternative version" of the Exter is not a military vessel, as with the Jo Lynn, but rather, an expanded passenger/cargo carrier configuration.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

I've really agonized over this review. If there's anyone here who follows my reviews, or gets any use from them, you may have noticed that I rarely write negative reviews.

Usually, I will only write a negative review if I feel that the product misrepresents itself in some fundamental way, or is truly an inarguable waste of money. Otherwise, I just refuse to review anything which doesn't strike me as noteworthy.

Legacy of the Savage Kings is not a waste of money, but it is arguably the weakest of all the Goodman Games adventures I have seen thus far. More importantly, I feel it misrepresents itself to the buyer.

The title and cover copy seem to suggest that this is some sort of barbarian-kingdom themed dungeon crawl. Visions of the ruins of King Conan's Aquilonia immediately come to mind. I know that's why I bought it.

In actual fact, while there is a barbarian king's tomb in this story, the majority of the adventure plays out as a pretty stock cavern-crawl adventure set in the middle of a swamp. The major foe is a female magic user, and her hench-creatures are among "the usual suspects" for a swamp/cave crawl. The Legacy of the Savage Kings of the title is essentially the aforementioned tomb -- the rest of the adventure carries a different flavor.

After much debate, I finally decided to say nothing about this module, rather than give it a bad review. After all it was functionally adequate, even if it did misrepresent itself to some degree.

However, Goodman Games has just released a "prequel" to Legacy of the Savage Kings -- adventure 17.5, War of the Witch Queen -- and I felt compelled to speak up.

I haven't bought War of the Witch-Queen. I presume it's better than Legacy of the Savage Kings. Certainly, the author of both adventures, Harley Stroh , has shown himself capable of much more creative adventure design than he showed in Legacy of the Savage Kings.

Still, I had visions of people who really enjoyed War of the Witch Queen rushing out to buy the sequel -- and I felt compelled to speak up and say, "Be aware of what you're getting here. It's very standard stuff, and the so-called legacy of savage kings barely exists in the gameplay, except as plot background"

And now, I've said it. Buyer beware.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The production values are top-notch, as ever, with Goodman Games.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This is probably the weakest adventure Goodman Games has ever released, in my opinion. Both the publisher, and author Harley Stroh, have shown they are capable of so much more. It must've been a bad day all around at the publishers when this one passed muster.

The adventure title and cover copy are subtly misleading. This is not really centred around any legacy of any savage kings -- it's a pretty standard cavern crawl set in a swamp, whose sorcerous "boss" figure has some pretty standard hench-monsters.

Maybe this adventure would be good enough for other d20 publishers, but Goodman Games is better than this. It barely passes with a 3 out of 5 stars because it's not fundamentally broken, just an unfortunate low point for the publisher.

War of the Witch Queen is probably great, but think carefully before buying this one. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

The Great City is a product many Dungeon Masters have wished for, and needed, for years. It gives the overworked DM a generic fantasy city map that he or she can customize to their own campaign needs. Use the included locations and points-of-interest, or don't. The Great City provides a fantasy city overview, with a few buildings and building names suggested, but it's up to the DM to populate the city with NPCs and events of his or her choice.

Follow-up products to the Great City overview package -- such as the currently-available Dock Ward release -- take a "closer look" at individual sections of the Great City map, providing floorplans (complete with 5 foot grid) for generic building types in that area of the city, as well as for locations listed in the initial Great City release. The Dock Ward product, for example, contains a couple of taverns, some storage warehouses, and an (ahem) "house of relaxation".

Perhaps the cleverest feature of the Great City products thus far is that, with a click of a button on the free-to-download Adobe Acrobat 7 PDF Reader, DMs can remove the numbering, the names, the 5 foot grid, or even the floorplan furniture from all of the Great City maps before printing. Again, if DMs wants to use the locations as presented, they certainly can -- but with a few clicks, the maps become completely generic, and thus fully tailorable to one's own fantasy campaign world.

There are no NPC statistics in the Great City products; such things are up to the DM. The Great City's appeal lies in the fact that it provides GMs with a solid starting point from which to create and define their own fantasy city, their own way, and all at a surprisingly low price.

0one Games provides the layout; freeing the DM to provide the life. The Great City is a great set of products. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: DMs can add their favorite NPCs and concepts from hundreds of different gaming sources into the Great City, and the setting becomes the unifying force. An innkeeper from a Dungeon Magazine adventure, a temple system from the Book of the Righteous, a genericized version of the Night Elves from WarCraft d20 -- all these things -- plus thousands of the DMs own ideas -- can be imported into the Great City to create a unique campaign home players will remember, and the DM can call his or her own.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Of course, one wants more -- more detail, more pages -- but at such a cheap price for these products, wanting more is simply a sign of either greed or appreciation :-)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>