A fantastic list of magic items to throw your party for a loop! Often I struggle to come up with magic items and I like to have a few gag items in my games, this just opened a whole slew of things to toss at my party and I am positive our bard will love them. Great job!

Minn's Magical Menagerie is a fantastic addition to bring into your game if you're looking to spice things up a bit with some interesting and useful animal companions. If you're party includes a member that oh so desperately wants a pet, and we all have one of those in our parties, then this book is perfect for you to bring in some interesting critters that could help them out!

One thing that really struck me about this was that every single animal there had a purpose that a party could benefit from. From spiders that can repair clothing and armor to bats that act as a sentry for watching your back or standing guard over the night watch, this book includes a ton of fantastic additions to your already spiffy adventuring party. One nice thing as a DM is that the way this is written is so that you could basically read verbatim what is written down as the encounter. Each description of the animals and even the introduction itself is written as though you were describing this scene to your party. I loved each description they had of the creatures because not only did it fill in on the details of the critters but it also gave you a good idea of what their personality was like.

Another great usage of this book is having animals that work for your villains. An opposing adventuring party could just as easily have a hunting dog that is searching for your party or a BBEG could have a number of these sentry bats placed around their castle when you try to sneak in, and it creates a fuller experience for the players because they suddenly have to think about basic wildlife instead of just the monsters around them.

So if you're looking for a great addition to your adventuring party, or you want to spice things up with the enemies that your party will face then i highly recommend this book.

If you are looking for a wild ride that takes off those constraints of DMing in a realistic fantasy setting then look no further, The Retroverse is here waiting with open arms in a 5th edition structure. I DMed the adventure in the Lasers and Liches Test Wave and had everyone play a new class and two played a Neon Dragonborn while one played a human. The classes were well balanced and the party was able to complete the adventure with minor difficulty as we were down a player but everyone had a blast at the table. The Gorerangyr was ecstatic about having a xord and a final xord form to battle against people, the Holo-knight summoned every one of Russell Crowe's costumes and weapons and was thrilled at the limitless potential of the class, and the Synthweaver blasted so much 80's music and beat those neon synth drums like nobody's business and boosted the party to new heights. This game was so much fun that we didn't even realize that four hours had flew by and we were all losing our voice from laughing and shouting so much while just getting into the high energy and hilarity that the Retroverse lets you unfold.

The classes and races are well balanced with incredibly fun class/racial features and offer a unique insight into what this world has to offer. The B-ugz they introduce have so much potential with creating an ultimate force against you, and you can finally experience laser raptors like you've always dreamed of. You are not limited to settings, technology, or races, you can boost or lower that world however you feel! The nostalgia factor that they have expertly crafted into this is a fantastic way to get your attention and immediately connect with the world and characters. We all know about Chuck E Cheese, Pizza, Lame prizes from tickets, and the horrors of a ball pit and they threw all that together into an amazing adventure for you to try out. This immediately set the tone of the world for me when i was reading through this and preparing our night, and really let me just go to town on adding whatever I wanted and no matter how silly it was or how relatable with our modern day tech it was completely ok because it fit right into the theme of the world! If you’re a new DM then i highly recommend this to get your feet wet because it allows you to really sandbox the world and play around with these enemies. If you’re an experienced DM then you’re just going to have a blast now that the constraints have been removed, have fun! 10/10 would recommend this and have recommended this to new and experienced players/DMs alike!

Chronomancy is a topic that is not often touched upon but is something that intrigues most DMs, as we love to have a villain that really spins a party on their heads. What this book offers is just that for both the DM and the players alike.

One thing I really enjoyed was that it gave a non magic oriented class an opportunity to mess around with Chronomancy. Having a rogue that could offer support by the means of time manipulation would be a great boon for a party or a nightmare if an assassin came by with the same capabilities. This book gives a great window into what you could do with adding Chronomancy to your game.

That being said, you need to be careful when introducing time magic into your game. This is some powerful stuff and can really bend some rules that you are used to having. Having a party that can manipulate time and potentially see into the future can be a very powerful thing, but at the same time it adds such a great new flavor of the game that it's hard to pass up.

What I enjoyed the most was the spells. For me, I want to use these for a villain. Imagine having a party walk into a room and see the Staff they have been looking for. Suddenly the air around it ripples and distorts as they watch in horror, the Staff begins to rapidly age and crumble to dust and they see this hooded figure standing there in the shadows. They rush up and in the blink of an eye the figure is gone and the sun has moved in the sky. With this book, they have spells to do just that and more. So if you want to throw a spin on magic for both players and NPCs alike, then by all means this is the book for you!