A must have for fans of the Gothic Victorian genre for use with the World's Greatest Role Playimg Game! This adaption of the Classic TSR Ravenloft Setting invites us once more to take up arms against the Red Death and its legions of evil subjects, lest they spread their corrupting influene even further...

Me and my group has used it as the basis for an ongoing Gothic Earth campaign for over a year now and I'm very pleased with the product.

The setting is Gothic Earth, released back in 1994 for AD&D 2e but revamped to fit the current 5e ruleset and adds tons of fun stuff. We got firearms, a retooled magic system that stays true to 5e but still manages to captivate the danger of casting spells in the Gothic Earth. A system for stress ( exhaustion for the mind ), better madness rules as well as new classes and backgrounds. The character creation is great fun and more flexible the normal 5e.

The setting information is somewhat lacking due to this being foremost a PHB, I do recommend people that wish to play in the setting to get a copy of The Gothic World Gazetter for AD&D. We can only hope that the hinted on Dungeonmaster's Guide is released.

All in all, this is a marvelous book and it's kinda strange that it didn't receive the praise it deserved upon release. I bought the softcover as well as the PDF and was very satisfied with the printing and quality.

I am so pleased that I finally found this gem! I always loved the Gothic Earth 'setting' and have had the 2nd edition box set for years. However, the 2nd edition version of Masque of the Red Death suffered from some rule flaws, making it too unwieldy to play. But not this version! The rules are streamlined (like 5e overall) and the new classes system is very well constructed. I can't wait to put my players against the Red Death!

I do hope that Jeremy Forbing plans to publish the Dungeon Master Guide as well!

A most excellent refinement not only of 5e, but of the original game! The quality of this product shines in every regard, from the arrangement and indexing to the choice of art to the mechanics, it manages to be a better gothic horror game than the 2e release in every regard! This ruleset allows for a freeform character, which was clearly the intent of the 2e release, but with the benefit of over 20 years of game design concept advances.

It keeps magic choices relatively limited through 'fragments' of Forbidden Lore, and ties spellcasting to a universal resource that lets non-spellcasters be greatly helpful as well! Resolve is an excellent system to keep the game flowing, though I'd raise the amount it heals a bit (or make it able to be used without an action). The firearm rules are also simple yet elegant, considering the limited HP pools due to the reduced level cap. I would consider re-adding exploding dice damage, but in general it's excellent.

The only rule I am iffy about is the Stress system, which is restored rather swiftly without even taking a rest and has too many steps that are too minor in their differences. Making it closer to Exhaustion, where each step becomes more meaningful and dangerous, would be my solution.

You cannot effectively run this game without the core 5th edition rules, but you don't need the old boxed set to get the gist of both the setting and the mechanics either! While I would still recommend reading through the original Masque of the Red Death boxed set, the Gothic Earth Gazetteer, and the Guide to Transylvania if you decide you are interested in the setting, the information provided within is enough to get started.

This book is truly an epic tome. Anyone who is a fan of the old Masque of the Red Death of D&D 2nd edition will love this homage to the setting for 5e. It is chalk of character options and historical setting primer info and good thematic DM advice. This book inspired me to write a gothic India supplement to this setting called British Raj.
This book is so good that I am hoping to see additional sourcebooks or a Dungeon Masters Guide in the future. Hope you are listening Jeremy and company.

An absolutely fantastic update to bring Masque of the Red Death into the hands of people who play 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons. The only thing I wish would've happened with regards to how the game is built is that I don't feel everyone should have access to the Ritualist ability, even though it fits with previous editions of the game. This has gotten me jazzed to run some MotRD stuff at conventions in the next year or two and hopefully get more people interested in this book!

A very solidly designed and mechanically intricate piece, but in many ways let down by its desire to be faithful to the mechanics of previous edition iterations of this setting. Whilst I can't deny a certain amount of personal bias, there are mechanical elements to this setting that might very well turn off some players and fans. The mechanical tweaks to spellcasting are a particularly prominent example of the TSR-inspired drive to depower the player, and can very easily come off as punitive rather than simply thematic, all in the name of historical accuracy. I never liked TSR's take on the Masque of the Red Death, and this just feels far too much like as faithful a conversion of that game's mechanics and style as you can get for my liking. Personal tastes willl vary, but I didn't like this book at all; still, I have to give it credit for the effort put into working on the mechanical aspects, with the new class and archetype system in particular being quite innovative.

Masque of the red death: player's guide by Jeremy Forbing is a well though book that accomplishes what it promises. It takes the skeleton and basics of 5e D&D rules and adapts them to support adventures in the setting. Mechanics are explained and provided for every aspect of the game that must be modified in order to bring alive a campaign set in a copy of 1890s our own world, which is quite different from your typical medieval-like one. The system of classes is different from standard 5e and quite customizable: 5 new classes are present and 16 archetypes that are generic subclasses that you can freely choose indipendently of your class. New rules to handle the low magic setting, new weapons (firearms and explosives in particular), new actions to support firearms, new conditions and fear, horror saving throws to grasp the horror mood. Some useful lore is in the book, on the arrival of Red Death on the Earth, on Victorian London and on the qabals (secret societies preserving the secrets of magic and fighting Red Death). Cool thing is that, for more information on the setting, you can simply search the web! The graphic of the book is well done and a pleasure for the eye. It's highly suggested to the experienced players and DMs that like a more roleplaying, horror game and want to toy with real or literary myths, from Dracula to Jack the Ripper, from Queen Victoria to Sherlock Holmes. Not suggested to unexperienced players: the knowledge of standard 5e rules is taken from granted and some rules are quite complex to understand without a solid 5e knowledge.

This is a wonderful resource! As a fan of Masque of the Red Death going all the way back to the original boxed set I can confess I was worried this book wouldn't live up to my love of the setting. Thankfully it seems the author is as big a fan or possibly even moreso. I'm particularly a fan of the class / archetype system that lets you create your character with some granularity in a system that doesn't feature character kits. I'm not going to ramble anymore. It's a wonderful book and I recommend the PoD copy myself.

The Masque of the Red Death Player's Guide is the perfect 5e supplement for bringing late 19th Century earth -- with all its science and supersition, its etiquitte and secrets, its steamy and sooty late-industrial revolution technology sprinkled with the arcane -- to your gaming table!

"Perhaps you learned the truth in some antediluvian book of arcana. Perhaps secrets were whispered to you at an accursed altar beneath a gibbous moon." Yes, this work is positively dripping with Poe and Lovecraft, and fortunately, it is not spoiled by any "historical" opinions associated with the latter author or patriarchal imperialists of the era. This guide's authors point out early: "Consent to encounter certain story elements in the game must be given, not assumed, and withholding it is not something anyone needs to explain or defend."

Like the increasingly popular Call of Cthulhu TTRPG, the characters are almost exclusively going to be humans with little capacity to recover from bodily harm, and in great danger of succumbing to primal waves of fear. The devasting injuries and new combat options such as exerting influence, taking aim, and targeted strike are probably going to make their way into my houserules for regular 5e fantasy campaigns, and I like this supplement's take on archetypes as a blend of traditional 5e backgrounds and subclasses while backgrounds are still included. Plus, the classes, firearms, and explosives make a great ruleset for the wild-west mini campaign I've been wanting to run!

For its fantastic combination of gorgeous art and layout with masterful writing and editing, I highly recommend the Masque of the Red Death Player's Guide!

• Bob World Builder https://www.youtube.com/bobworldbuilder