A third-party supplement for The Black Hack, which adds versions of the AD&D 1st Edition classes missing from the original rules: acrobat (thief-acrobat), assassin, barbarian, bard, cabalist (illusionist), cavalier, druid, monk, paladin, and ranger. These are all pretty solid conversions, although some class choices (acrobat, assassin, cavalier, druid, monk, paladin, ranger) are more interesting than others (barbarian, bard, cabalist).

There is one hiccup with the cavalier (some text copied from the paladin and not altered), and the formatting is slightly off from the original Black Hack, but these aren't serious issues.

The Mechanicsburg arc finally comes to end, with an ending that's kind of awesome but kind of unsatisfying. But it does set up some interesting questions for the next arc! (Originally posted on Goodreads)

A compilation of advice and tools for running D&D games with minimal preparation. The author does a good job drawing not just on their own experience, but also that of other notable DMs - there's even a whole Q&A section in the back featuring some of those DMs. Not everything in here will be useful for every DM, but the book is still worth reading in full. One note: this was written near the end of D&D 4th Edition, and some of the advice has that edition in mind - so those bits may be less useful for 5th Edition DMs. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

A perfectly adequate third-party level 1 adventure for D&D 5th Edition. It does deserve some points for being a fairly original plotline for D&D, focused as it is on the fey. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

An excellently rendered campaign world for D&D 3.5, combining traditional D&D tropes with steampunk and pulp adventure elements. Bet it'd be a lot of fun to play in! (Originally posted on Goodreads)

Dragonlance is a great fictional world, but in spite of the authors' implied hopes for this book, I'm not sold on it as a great setting for games. Since everything seems to be centered around the novel storylines, either you have to work within the existing plots, or go completely outside and make up your own stuff... and in the latter case, wouldn't I be better off making up my own setting from scratch? Don't get me wrong, this book does a great job in presenting the world of Dragonlance in game terms, and it's worthwhile for that alone... but it still doesn't feel as open a world as the Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk. (I would probably recommend it over the latter, though.) (Originally posted on Goodreads)

A deliberately freaky scenario with an interesting gimmick. Fun, if a little too dependent on your characters being mercenary. Some good weird bits, too. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

A neat, if uneven, collection of necromancy- and undead-related additions for 5E. Breaking it down section by section:

• College of the Dirge: An undead-focused bard subclass. Overall this is pretty solid, but their Dark Virtuoso ability is overly complicated.
• Circle of Blight: A druid subclass with undead-like abilities. Neat features (though Blightform may be too powerful for 2nd level), but I don't know about the theme of this one, since undead are pretty anti-nature. (Also, the official 5E Circle of Spores is a better implementation of a decay/undead druid - though it has something of the same theme problem.)
• Soulblade: A fighter who can steal the essences of creatures it has defeated to enhance their attacks. I really, really like the concept and mechanics for this one... but it just doesn't feel right as a fighter subclass. (Maybe it'd be better as some kind of hexblade warlock variant. Or just as a magic item.)
• Blood Magus (not "Bloodwalker" as in the DM Guild blurb): A wizard subclass with features centered around blood and injury. This is particularly uneven - Level 6's Fueled by Death seems pretty strong, while Level 10's Inured to Pain seems underpowered. And Level 14's Bloodwalk is just gross. Definitely not my pick of the litter.
• Spells: Four generally good necromancy spells, including one lifted straight from Diablo (Corpse Explosion).
• Magical items: Four items, all fine, if pretty macabre. (Though it's "Death's Letter" and not "Bloodletter" as in the blurb.)
• New necromancy rules: Probably my favorite part, this expands on the options for undead-creating spells, including the ability to summon more varieties of undead and adding enhancements. The only minus with the latter is that they don't tell you how the new features might adjust a creature's CR (important for fighting NPC necromancers); guess you're supposed to figure it out on your own.
• Appendix A: Guidelines for turning any creature into a zombie or skeleton, and a bunch of pre-made zombie statblocks (for use with the new summoning rules). Very useful and convenient.

The presentation is generally pretty good, although there are some typos here and there.

Overall, the class options are interesting but might need some adjustment; the spells are solid; the new magic items are fine but kind of niche; and the alternate undead rules and statblocks are very useful (though you'll have to recalculate any CRs yourself). The good parts of this product make up for its issues, so it's definitely worth buying to bolster your death-related options.

There are a lot of really fun ideas in this collection of weird magic items, but it's seriously hampered by the shaky rules. The formatting is decidedly non-standard; many items list their type or rarity, but not both; and there are even a few references to rules from different older editions. If you're willing to do the work to clean these up for use in a game - and your players have a good sense of humor about items that are mostly negative - it might be worth picking up; but if not, I wouldn't. It's a shame, because I really wanted to like this more than I did.

An interesting class, which grants you a "reflection" of yourself that you can summon for aid. There are four subclasses for different types of reflections - a demonic reflection, a ghostly reflection, an angelic reflection, and a generic reflection of your emotions - and each gets both an array of unique powers as well as access to a selection of general powers (with the emotional reflection largely defined by such chosen powers).

The class rules generally seem solid, although a d10 Hit Die seems high for a class without some kind of assumed combat training. A few of the subclass-specific abilities fueled by reflection points also seem overly complicated. Worth noting is that the pick-your-own abilities remind one of the warlock class - and as suggested in another review, perhaps this would have worked better as a warlock subclass than as its own class.

While the reflectionist is well-written overall, I have trouble buying into the default lore, where the reflection is somehow created by a transformational moment in the character's life. (This isn't helped by the fourth subclass, which is very vaguely defined in general.) I think the reflectionist would be easier to accept if it was instead some kind of entity mystically bonded to your character. Either way, the high concept is a major downside of the class - it doesn't fit easily into a traditional D&D campaign, and requires you to make some special space for it in your world.

One other minus is the $4.99 price tag, which is a little much for a single class. If you're going to buy this, wait for a sale or bundle.

All in all, if you're willing to accept the unusual class concept (or reskin it for your own purposes), this could be an interesting addition to a special kind of D&D campaign.

Something that automatically knocks this down one star: these are actually 5E versions of races from the Pathfinder RPG (specifically from its Advanced Race Guide), but this is never indicated in either the introduction or in their Open Game License text. (This is why the "everborn" is misidentified as the "samsaran" on the first page - that was the race's name in Pathfinder.) This may have been an oversight, and this work definitely goes beyond its Pathfinder roots, but it unfortunately gives the impression that the author is passing off the ideas of others as their own. (If this is corrected, I will gladly restore the removed star.)

With that out of the way, thoughts on each race:

• Catfolk: Distinct from either the Pathfinder catfolk or the 5E tabaxi, these catfolk are matriarchal by default and split into two subraces - the more human-like faol and the more cat-like saebul. The race and subraces have pretty solid mechanics, and the lore is quite well-thought out. This probably the winner of the four, although it'd be odd to have both this and tabaxi in the same setting, since they occupy the same niche despite differences.
• Everborn: At its core, a fairly direct conversion of the Pathfinder samsaran. The two subraces have interesting concepts but we don't get much on this besides mechanics. The lore is OK but seems vague on certain points (like exactly how they reincarnate). Probably the least interesting of the four options.
• Hagborn: A straightforward conversion of Pathfinder's changeling, although the three subraces are different from and more interesting than their Pathfinder equivalents. The expansions on their Pathfinder lore work out pretty well, especially the different possible relationships with their hag mother.
• Tengu: Also pretty similar to the Pathfinder version, with a few of its Pathfinder traits split between the two subraces (which are just OK concept-wise). The lore for the race expands upon the Pathfinder baseline, emphasizing their desire to show off their "possessions" in a fairly broad sense. Tengu culture still comes off as a little one-note, but it's a good effort. They do feel different enough from the official 5E kenku that you could probably get away with having both, but it might still seem redundant.

The product wraps up with a selection of new subraces for dwarves (cloud and tome), elves (frost and ghost), halflings (trickfinger and wiseheart), and gnomes (river). Unlike the earlier content, these appear to be original creations, and are all pretty neat additions.

In summary, this is worthwhile if you're looking for 5E conversions of the Pathfinder races, with the subraces at the end a nice bonus.

A fun selection of wizard subclasses:

• School of Antimagic: A wizard that specializes in combating other wizards. Interesting and flavorful, and manages to have a different approach from the official abjuration wizard.
• School of Chronomancy: A wizard with the ability to manipulate time. Another interesting and flavorful option; Temporal Stutter is probably my pick of the abilities.
• School of Hemomancy: A wizard that converts their life force into extra magical power. Neat mechanics, but this feels like it could be too powerful in campaigns that aren't pretty strict about long rests, especially since you can convert spell slots into temp HP and burn that up instead.
• School of Magnetomancy: A wizard that can manipulate electromagnetism. Cool abilities, but the flavor is a bit too science-y; would be fine in settings with magitech elements, however.
• School of Metamagic: A wizard with variations on the sorcerer's metamagic abilities. I sympathize with the desire to give wizards metamagic, but as designed this just stomps too much on sorcerers' turf. (The Metamagic Adept feat from Tasha's is a better way to go.)
• School of Psionics: A wizard with mental powers. Neat and flavorful abilities, though they might be a bit underpowered. (Also, I would have called this something else, like "School of Mentalism".)

All in all, a neat product with four pretty good subclasses (antimagic, chronomancy, magnetomancy, and psionics) and two with issues (hemomancy and metamagic).

Note, this is a bit overpriced ($2.99 for just eight pages of mostly rules content), but it may be worth picking up as part of a bundle or on sale.

About half of this book is a D&D-themed activity book for kids, featuring the goblin Muk and his friends. This would be a cute thing to give to a fantasy-loving kid, especially one who loves monsters. Only nitpick is that the Mad Libs activity might up the vocabulary too much, but a grown-up can help.

The other half provides material for kid-friendly introductory D&D games set in Muk's Dankwood Forest home. This includes pre-generated PCs and NPCs, adventure hooks, a selection of streamlined monsters (several unique to this book - but alas, no spiderfrog or rhinoshark), distinctive PC traits for a Dankwood goblin, and character sheets (which probably shouldn't include "death" saves, but oh well). A formally constructed adventure might have been nice, rather than just hooks, but going heavy on the improv is probably best for small children.

All in all, this is a neat product for introducing little kids to D&D, and the purchase benefits a good cause. (Originally posted on Goodreads)

A variant spellcasting class for magic-users with more informal training - they get less potent spellcasting, but more baseline magical abilities, plus some fighter-inspired elements (like wizard school-based fighting styles). The mage-errant also has three subclasses: the Knight, more heavily a fighter-mage (like the 5E official eldritch knight or bladesinger); the Infuser, basically a take on the 5E artificer; and the Glyph, which focuses on rune magic. The product concludes with a handful of new spells (Lightning Recoil probably being my pick of the lot).

Overall, the class and its subclasses have some interesting abilities, though a number seem a bit more complex than they had to be. The core class could probably fit into most D&D 5E settings, though it honestly doesn't feel as archetypal as any of the official spellcasting classes, which suggests the main appeal would be for the mechanics rather than the flavor. The Knight and Infuser also don't offer much conceptually that you couldn't get from official counterparts, though I could see stealing some of the Infuser's Wonderous Creations for the official artificer. The Glyph, on the other hand, does represent an archetype not adequately represented thus far in official 5E, and is the highlight of the three from a creative standpoint.

Not too much here in terms of game content, but interesting for historical value. Among other things we get some previews of the then-upcoming Gangbusters RPG, a few articles addressing overly powerful (or just overly competent) players, and miniature painting advice. Also promotion for an RPGA recruitment drive (with the members that recruited the most getting to play in the original Castle Greyhawk with Gygax as DM).