Thieves? World has a rich background beginning as the combined efforts of a number of writers to produce a single book which turned into a series. The book has a good cover but some of the pencils inside are so good they could almost be photographs.

Thieves World uses backgrounds which give you extra class skills and modifies your age. This is a common system, perhaps best known as the occupations from d20 Modern and it is only a matter of time before it will appear in d20 core. There are a slew of new classes to chose from, including the assassin, a variant ranger and the noble who specializes in Leadership. There are a lot of interesting prestige classes. I count 19 prestige classes with a wide range for every class to move into. I had my eye on the hazard mage. The gladiator and hell hound are some very solid combat classes ? something you will need in a party to survive in Thieves? World.

There is a section for using prestige classes from the DMG. I really like this. They?ve taken the time to make sure their product is compatible with core material.

Gambling comes up as a new skill and there are many new uses for old skills. This is handy for entering a new campaign setting. There are new haggling rules for Diplomacy. There are a number of new feats including feats to gain an additional background and a number of new meta-magic feats. They do not lean on the +2 bonus to two skill feats, instead creating feats for specific checks such as dealing with criminals.

Somebody has read d20 Modern (Modern has a lot of good additions to d20). Besides backgrounds, the combat section introduces Massive Damage rules. I think this is a good idea, especially for this setting. It makes characters a little more vulnerable to assassination or dying from a very powerful blow which matches the style of the campaign. (I don?t think any of my favorite characters in the Thieves? World novel series lasted past book 4.) They have expanded the system slightly to include resulting injuries.

Ahah, Reputation! Nothing could be more appropriate from Modern. Living and dying because of fame is suitable for this cutthroat back-alley dealing campaign setting.

The book is not modern. It?s just using the best of both worlds. It is chock full of new ideas and rules such as hidden weapons, new metals and new alchemy rules ? and of course poison making. There is a chart to rival the DMG on poisons. Might be a good idea to memorize it.

The system uses a variant magic system which makes me twinge. Still it looks well thought out. There are a variety of ways to cast spells and although it uses a mana pool, there are a lot of similarities to standard magic ? plus the earlier conversion notes for using core spellcasters. There is a big chunk on curses ? no surprise there. There are new spell tables for the new spellcasting classes and new spells which are completely usable by standard classes.

The last chapter of the book deals with new deities, done in a format similar to the Player?s Handbook. The book ends with an appendix of characters but they have no stats and a new character sheet modified for Thieves? World.

A popular complaint is laid to rest. This book has a complete set of bookmarks added to the PDF to compliment its table of contents and index. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: This is a well put together book with great art and new material that is very compatible with core 3.5 material. There is everything a player needs to build an entirely new kind of character, classes, prestige classes, feats, new skill uses, spells and a new magic system all tailored to the flavor of the cut throat setting that is Thieves? World. They?ve borrowed some of the best d20 Modern rules and added them to the game.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The famous characters from the Thieves? World novel series are given only a passing glance. The fact that most of them are dead may or may not have played a part in this. The last page hints at a supplement based on the character Shadowspawn and I?ll hope his stats show up there.

The book has a very clean layout which is easy to print. I would have liked a second PDF though which included pages with a background or border art. I?m curious to see if there is a printed version with additional background art. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Flashball comes as a set of PDF files containing, rules, a baseball diamond, figures and math questions with three levels of difficulty. It prints out nicely. With a little do-it-yourself, some cardstock or a laminator, you can print out a very nice product. The rules make for an easy game and you can have more or fewer innings to shorten or lengthen the game.

This is something new for me. I did not know games aimed at children were being sold on RPGnow but here they are. I downloaded it out of curiosity. When I found myself wondering if I could use the laminator at work to print these out for my buddy?s kids, well, I knew this was a good game. (That reminds me ? print...).

It is in my nature to ask for more but I think there is enough here. It is a short product but it has a complete feel. There are tokens which represent miniatures but, as a long time gamer, I probably have enough figs kicking around and I could always snag a box of that baseball miniatures game for figs.

I just recently got my hands on a double-sided printer and the layout of the cards works for that. Just print the same set of cards on both sides of the page and the questions and answers should line up over each other giving you two complete sets of cards. The pages are in both color and black and white, useful for mass-printers like myself who usually print using draft and B&W settings. I might want a full color version or use it is a guide to build a diamond out of felt. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: This is a good simple game for kids. It teaches them math skills and introduces them to baseball.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There are no multiplication questions but a blank template is included. You can add them with little difficulty. The game is only for 2 people. It is easy enough to adapt for 4 or 6 either taking turns or putting up hands.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I jumped into this book wanting to dislike it but I found myself liking many of the ideas presented within too much ? I want more.

First, I don?t think a synergy book is necessary. It is too easy to increase skills. Once a skill check has a +20 modifier, you will almost never fail checks. At 8th level, the average spellcasting has 11 ranks and a 1-4 bonus to Concentration and Spellcraft and rarely fails checks for learning spells, combat casting and so forth. People who take feats like Combat Casting are laughed at by this point for their lack of foresight.

Diplomacy is worst abused. A 2nd-level character with an 18 Charisma score (+4), who takes 5 ranks in Diplomacy and its 3 synergies (+6), has a Diplomacy modifier of +15. If he takes Skill Focus (Diplomacy)(+3) and Negotiator (+2) it jumps up to +20. Skills with only 1 or 2 synergies max out at only +16 and +18. In 3.5 there was an effort made to increase the DC?s of several skills but the system is still flawed after the first few levels.

Superior Synergies are well done. They proceed in a logical fashion based on the original system. If your players are not power gamers, these new rules add another dimension to the game ? unfortunately it is power gamers who look for advantageous rules such as these.

I did not expect the feat synergies and I very much like them. They give some of the less useful feats more use. I really like this part of the book, and I would have liked to have seen a much longer list of feat synergies. One synergy in particular allows characters to take a 5 foot step while using whirlwind to extend the range of their attack. Whirlwind can be difficult to use, but I debate the wisdom of giving it more firepower. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: This system opens up a lot of new possibilities. It?s the sort of thing you expect to see in the next edition of D&D. It is well thought out and executed.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This is something of a patch for existing problems in the skill system but it only aggravates the system by letting players get even higher bonuses to their skill checks. Characters become better for free. Power gamers will rush to these rules to see what little extra they can squeak out of their characters. I would have liked to have seen more feat synergies.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The book opens by telling us that everyone knows about the slow boats. I don?t. I can guess and extrapolate an idea that these are generation ships based on my knowledge of common science fiction (it turns out they are). Following are 11 pages of table of contents which could have been reduced to 6 pages by using two columns or even crunched down to 4 pages with three columns. I notice at this point the PDF has no bookmarks. It?s not something I use very often but it can be handy. I did not like the art at first but it?s really starting to grow on me.

We move on to the story. The people of earth determine that the sun is going to be vaporized in 300 years. As a ball of super-heated fusing gas, I think vaporized is the wrong term. I would have liked ?super-nova? as that is what is described. The cause is never explained. I am left to wonder if this is a Hitch Hiker?s Guide homage where all the ?trash? from civilization is sent away on arks but as the story progresses this seems less likely. In any case, a lot of people depart, Noah style, for another world. It?s a very old and much used theme and the real interest is upon their arrival.

Beginning the character generation we are told all the wondrous things the GM will do. ?The GM will be happy you too the initiative and gladly work you idea in unless it conflicts with the GM?s plans in some way.? So the GM will allow player ideas unless he doesn?t allow them.

Character Generation While there were complains from another reviewer about having to use different dice for character generation, I have plenty of dice and changing from one die type to another is not such a problem. d20 is hugely focused on d20 and d6 with a smattering of d8 but it?s good to use some different dice for a change. Besides it feels good to be rolling d100 for a stat such as IQ. There are a LOT of tables for skills and jobs. There is an interesting table with a long list of skin, eye and hair colors.

Employment Your job seems to be a big focus of the game, which is difficult because adventurers rarely have time to go to work when their arch-enemy is hunting them. It leaves only a few career options open, such as military and exploration, depending on the campaign.

Skills Skills start off a little weird. The first skill I came across was ?aqua ? the knowledge of growing plants and animals underwater?. I?m afraid this reminds me of the old joke class at college, underwater basket weaving. There are a lot of skills though and many deal with fairly primitive activities such as blacksmithing and dowsing to locate water but in the same breath there are skills for dealing with cybernetics and business. It?s very diverse.

After the skills are the meta-skills which modify the skills. I like this concept because it exponentially increases the number of options when dealing with skills.

Races There are modified human races, the fish-men, monkey-men and leopard/hyena-men. These are interesting but I would have liked to have seen some aliens too.

Equipment The more you spend on equipment, the better the bonus. With such a range of technologies, from barbaric to futuristic, this is a reasonable mechanic.

Combat Combat is based on your skills. You require certain skills to be able to use each weapon. Characters have four levels of injuries, normal, hindered, unconscious and seriously wounded. I like these systems because your performance deteriorates with your injuries.

Vehicles and Vehicle Combat We start the vehicles section with a photograph of an advanced looking car. The wheels appear to be airbrushed off to make it appear to be a flying vehicle. It?s a good looking picture so there is nothing to complain about. Vehicle and space combat rules are a couple chapters ahead. You?ve got to love a combat system that includes ?waste recycling subsystem? on the critical hit chart. The lunar transit time table is starting to make my head hurt. That is something I might just fudge.

NPCs I like the temporary NPC rules. d20 requires about an hour of work for every properly done NPC and that puts a load of work on the GM. There are a ton of pre-generated character and NPCs.

Politics The history of StarCluster 2 is interesting because it allows for such diversity. Each slow boats? coming from earth developed its own culture during the voyage. There are yet more tables about the worlds describing the stats of each world; gravity, atmosphere, temperature, orbit and so forth. Its interesting by lends little to actual play. There are not details players want to know about unless they affect the players. There are dozens of planets ? too many to visit. Then there are pages and pages of affiliations and associations for each world ? but no real details about these worlds. This is a video game programmer?s dream

?The descriptions of the worlds have been left open to the GM?s imagination.? I find this statement frustrating. We are handed dozens of pages of technical information about these worlds and told to make the rest up. I would rather have those pages filled with a complete description of a small number of worlds that I could actually use. I purchase a product to get a campaign, not the rules for creating a campaign.

Finally we get a few pages of description on a handful of worlds, complete with maps. Then we get a beautiful star chart and looks like it came out of the old Star Control video game. They are amazing maps.

The system is greatly percentile based. This gives players a very clear understanding of the chance of success or failure. With d20, you need to calculate the numbers by 5 to get back to a percentile system we should all be so familiar with after high school. However it does mean rolling a lot of d100?s, or the more common 2 ten sided dice. Its twice the dice but players love dice, well mine do. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: A lot of work has been done on this product. The table of contents and index are exhaustive. There are a ton of worlds and books of ideas here. The length of the other reviews speaks volumes about the following of this work. People are interested in it.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I don?t like the term ?mother?s milk skills? printed boldly on the character sheets. The tables are really dry and make me scared to get into this system. Maybe I missed it but I would like a summary of the rules system so I can understand it easily. I would like a 1-page outline of the game mechanics so I can look at the rest knowing how it should work.

There are a lot of ideas here, too many. It is unreasonable to expect to put out enough supplements to flesh out the dozens of worlds. With your birth world being so important, it would have helped to know more about the worlds besides the need for the GM to make them up.

The pages and pages and pages of tables could have been shorter by condensing the tables and removing blank spaces in them. The job tables are at least 50% blank space. For the length of the work, I would like to see a little more art and a page border. There are some grammatical errors left in the work but nothing too staggering.

There are several technology levels. Clearly it is an advantage to play at the highest technology level. I saw no advantage for playing as a lower technology player.

I think this product needs another author. There are only two and a few holes appear in the material. Bringing someone else in to fill in things they think are missing and give the product another theme or element could enhance the product overall. The product feels a little 2 dimensional, on the cusp of being a fleshed out 3D world.

This product is headed towards a good 5 stars but it needs some fleshing out.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This short product, 12 pages minus 1 1/2 for licensing takes a quick look at the illusionist. The best part of the product is the 9 new feats. Following is a modified version of the illusionist class which is the same as from the core rules, except that this illusionist gets 1 fewer feat, gains the new Haze mechanic which makes him harder to see and gains a bonus to see through illusions. These bonuses are not enough to make the class significantly more powerful than the original so they are balanced. There are two prestige classes add to the Illusionist and a handful of magical items to finish it off.

The book seems to lean towards the use of Disguise and Hide, making the illusionist part rogue which seems like a good idea. These are requirements for the two prestige classes. Of some debate, the illusionist does gain the Move Silently skill. I agree with this decision, preventing him from easily becoming a full ?sneaky? type Rogue. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: There are some new ideas here. The illusionist is a slight upgrade from the traditional one. There are a number of illusion modifying feats worth taking. For the cost it?s a handy little addition but it begs for a little more.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The Ring of Belief has no bonus type. This is an interesting product with some new ideas on Illusion, but the product is simply too short. There are no new spells to take advantage of the haze mechanic. There are no spells at all. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Having read the original Haven: City of Violence game, I can not help but compare the two, and this new version looks better. The backgrounds are clearer. The art is not underneath the text. This worked for the original but could be hard for those people printing a copy from the PDF. I realize there was a great debate over whether or not to convert to the d20 system but doing so opens the product up to a new audience.

It is a relief that Haven does not reprint the core d20 Modern rules. This is especially nice if you are buying the print version. You do not end up paying for pages and pages of redundant rules. It also means the 94 pages are new rules and information. Most of this is taken up with new advanced classes, feats, organizations and their talent trees. This synergies nicely with d20 Modern and makes a good add-on to the core rules.

Family and organizations are very important in Haven. They determine what special abilities your classes can get. When you take levels in a Haven advanced class, the class does not list talents. Instead each organization you belong to lists the talents for related advanced classes.

Leadership is back in with a variety of modifiers for this violent environment. This and other elements have made a big push for social interactions. Having friends and save your life in Haven. Many of the feats are related to social interaction, bonuses against and for certain groups or organizations.

There are a number of new unarmed combat feats which are neat to see, ranging from Karate to Haymaker. This gives unarmed characters a variety of options to play with and it is something I enjoy.

Age is an important factor in Haven, with an advanced table of aging effects starting with child, changing greatly through the teen years, stabilizing at adult and continuing up to venerable age.

Like many modern books there are new rules for modifying characters. This time it is disadvantages. Characters in Haven are far from perfect and here is your chance to determine how. Characters receive extra experiences when a disadvantage comes up in play and they overcome it.

There is just a hint of the supernatural creeping into Haven. A couple of feats and an occupation revolve around the occult. This is nicely done for a city campaign where there will be the odd back alley practitioner of voodoo but you do not want to turn the campaign into a full blown fantasy setting.

The theme for the book has remained the same as the original. Events have been snowballing for the last five years into what looks like a looming bloody war with a mysterious cause. This is a classic for any violent setting and I have been curious as to the cause. It will, no doubt, be one day revealed and explored in a supplement.

I could only find 18 uses of the F-word in this product, which I think is down from the original but I have the print version and can not search it. This gives the book a bit of a gritty feel and makes the target audience adults looking to play a more serious game.

If you are looking for mobs, gangs, god fathers, and social interactions where you can live or die because of what you say, this is the book for you. It?s hard to choose a ?good? side in Haven. It is more a matter choosing which organization?s brand of violence you like better. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Haven really gets into the personality of the organizations and people. You walk into this game knowing you better make friends because you?re going to need them. I like the art, which is what drew me to the original book. With so many other products with so-so art kicking around, this one really stands out. The original has 16 photo-pages of full color art paintings at the beginning. Looking at the list of their supplements to this product, I have located the missing art and it looks good.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: As per some of the other comments, I would like to see the page numbers vertically to make them easier to read in the PDF. There is no table of contents or index, both of which I make use of. I would like to see some NPCs of the many characters listed in the history of the city. And finally (again) a map would be neat. Many of these elements are likely to appear in the numerous smaller supplements which you can pick and choose from as you need or want for your campaign.

Finally I have got to ask, but I might be mistaken, isn?t there a spelling mistake on the back title? ?Out of control criminals, corrupt cops, immoral politicians, and apathetic citizen.? Shouldn?t ?citizen? be ?citizens?? My grammar checker indicates there is no problem with citizen, and no one else has said anything, but it looks incorrect to me. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This 4 page product ends with notes on how the author would like to change the game. This is a sign that the product is not finished, for whatever reasons. Perhaps we can look forward to an update that will finish the game.

This is a very simple variation on an old system, storytelling and votes. The players are directly competing against each other to avoid collecting sickness and depression counters. Each player takes turns telling stories based on a theme and if it is voted a good story, that avoids counters. It is up to the players to avoid political voting and vote honestly.

Sickness tokens are moved from right to left and depression counters are moved from left to right ? or was it the other way around? I can not remember and this makes reading the product difficult. It is a simple fix in actual play, but the terms are used throughout the product. If tokens were ?gained? and ?lost? it would be much clearer than ?moved left? or ?moved right?.

Variants for moving the tokens are included to prevent cheating. With the tokens moving left and right so much it must become easy to move a few extra where you want them. This suggests another problem with the left to right system. The variant systems work fine. I think they should be the primary system.

The morbid-children dying theme really isn?t necessary for these rules. It could be any setting. It feels like the game is made morbid to gain more attention but it does add some flavor. This product could be expanded to a number of settings ranging from appropriate for children to morbid for adults. There are only two options in this game: Go outside and play but get sick, or stay inside and get depressed. It is assumed that you can not play inside. More options would be interesting.

The song, Ring around the rosies, is included. This song refers to the black plague. During this time people believed that if you put posies in your pockets it would ward off the black plague. This bit of trivia and history about the black plague could have been included to make the product more interesting and give players ideas for stories. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I like the role-playing this system encourages. I have run systems like this before and they are a lot of fun ? right up until your hack and slash player becomes too frustrated to continue. If you can work a game like this as a short diversion during another roleplaying game, it can really improve over-all roleplaying. Though there is no "combat" system players still go head to head with voting so there is room for political backstabbing.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This product could be greatly expanded to include many more elements and a list of story elements. At 4 pages, it reads like the instruction manual for a board game ? but there is no board game. There is a card game floating around that uses very similar rules but includes cards which must be used as the elements of the story.

I would really like to see more material as the basis for stories. A lot of people have trouble dredging up ideas in the short term.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Ripped Off<br>

This is a good solid product. It could use a little polish around the edges but the ideas are there. This is the future (and past) of d20 Modern. I say the past because we saw modular systems with Skills and Powers way back when for D&D. It?s the sort of thing we can expect to see again. It?s a good idea, but highly abuseable and requires a careful touch to balance.

The math looks good. Instead of gaining levels, characters purchase abilities with their experience piecemeal. This means you can just purchase Hit Dice if you want, or really work up your defense bonus. It?s a min/max?ers dream but it also offers fantastic flexibility.

There are two things I would really like to see in this product (and since Shanya Almafeta is still working on the product there is the possibility of seeing them). First, I would like to see a way to make this system compatible with classic d20 Modern. If there was a way to combine levels and point buy, it would appeal to a larger market. IMHO this is something we might look forward to seeing in 4th edition. Perhaps characters could be granted a ?level? if they purchase everything needed for a level. By making it compatible it opens up the door to classes and prestige classes which aren?t reworked for point buy.

Second, I would like to see a comparison on the costs. Does it cost about the same XP to buy a ?level?s? worth of abilities with the point buy system? It seems that spellcasters are going to have higher costs but I did not check the numbers to be sure. You could go so far as to build the system so that once you have spent a ?level?s? worth of xp you can pick up the rest of the class abilities for a level in a class.

It?s a very intriguing system. I really want to try playing using this system.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I like the way the d20 Modern character is disassembled into chunks and pieces which you can buy as you see fit. This gives you a chance to focus on different areas of your character and does not restrict you to taking elements you do not want.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Point system are difficult and I want a better understanding of the numbers (why are the xp costs as they are?). While it may be handy, the list of feats is redundant and I would chop it before printing this product to save on ink. I would love to see the art, but that is not what I consider really important for a product like this. The many ?variants? and ?optional? systems suggest to me that there are still a few bugs to work out of the system. I would prefer a strong primary system with variants tucked away for higher power campaigns.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Well hi, I'm the third staff member to review this product. It seems to have generated a lot of interest among us and this will give it a very solid three stars I'm sure.

This is a clever little system that basically expands the scope of the Bluff skill. This system is based on using Bluff to convince someone you are performing magic upon them. It is great for characters who want to perform faith healing or play mind tricks on others. It is a good skill for diplomats, performers, barbarians or even spellcasters who want to add a little smoke and mirrors to their arsenal.

At a shy seven pages, two and a quarter spent on license and advertising, this is the shortest product I have looked at. It is based on the Sympathetic Magic feat, which is never actually listed anywhere but if you read the whole article the requirements, benefit and special conditions are explained.

There is a very narrow field of effects with this system, discluding anything that has a visual effect, Will save, does damage and spells above 6th level or higher. Of course, at the cost of a single feat, there should be some significant limits. I see care has been included to prevent abuse. If you attempt to keep bluffing the same person over and over, they gain a cumulative bonus to their opposed check each time.

Product Revision: The addition of a little art and shaded text boxes really smarten up the product. The feat is now included as a feat. All of these features make the product easier to use and clearer.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: This really expands the Bluff skill which encourages social activities in a system mostly geared towards combat. Its good to see this kind of work being done. The revisions have made the book easier to read. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There is a question and answer section which treats the reader as unknowledgeable.?Can I do this with sympathetic magic?? ?Haven?t you heard of such-and-such before!? It is meant to sound salesman-ish I am sure. - This was changed in the vision and reads much clearer now.

I would have liked to have seen a longer product. This is a great concept and could easily have been expanded into a Class or Prestige Class with a number of abilities. It could even be expanded into a variant magic system with new kinds of spells, feats and uses for other skills.

<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

My concern when approaching epic material is how is it made epic. The difficulties in creating truly epic creatures is great and, unfortunately, this product failed to pull it off. The creatures are interesting, but they are not very epic. I took a closer look at some of the creatures in the book and reviewed them individually.

The Flying Serpent The Flying Serpent is described as the most influential creature in the world, but does not have the stats to back up this claim. Its Diplomacy is a paltry +24. (A 2nd level character who takes 5 ranks in Diplomacy, Skill Focus (Diplomacy), takes 5 ranks in the 3 synergies and has an 18 Charisma, has a +18 Diplomacy.)

The Flying Serpent?s 300 hit points puts it within a one-round kill for high level adventuring groups. Its saves are a low 22/16/9. Finally the serpent only has a single attack, a bite for 4d6+15. It has a solid spell selection as a 24th level caster but this is its only serious offensive ability.

A Great Wyrm Red Dragon, with a CR 26, has 660 hit points, saves 32/22/22. The dragon?s bite does 4d8+13 and it has five other attacks. The dragon has 19th level spellcasting abilities, slightly lower than the serpent. The Great Wyrm Red Dragon is considerably tougher at a lower Challenge Rating. While it is not a completely fair comparison, the serpent could use a little beefing up, a few more hit dice.

There are three adventure hooks for the Flying Serpent. Two of those ideas have nothing to do with the Flying Serpent, except that they take place in his territory.

The Deshayvine This finy size creature has only 9 hit dice and a Challenge Rating of 18. With a level adjustment of 9, the Challenge Rating should actually be about 13-14 (CR is level adjustment + about 1/2 the HD varying by type according to the Monstrous Manual).

Doing 1d3+7 or 1d2+11 damage, its melee and ranged attack are not very threatening despite its wounding attacks and huge attack bonus. With a +35 Hide bonus it is an effective assassin. Tucked in among the spell-like abilities is ?power word kill 1/day? making it dangerous once per day.

This is an interestingly put together creature, dealing low amounts of damage with great accuracy. It could be a real challenge for high level adventurers but only an annoyance for epic characters.

Milmang Tossed in with the not-so-epic creatures is Milmang, a 225 Hit Dice, Challenge Rating 150 creature. Thor would be hard pressed to take this monster ? seriously, you can compare his stats from Deities and Demigods.

Adventure Hooks: Many of the adventure hooks refer to other products and to rivals of the PC?s, another adventuring group, rather than having anything to do with the monster. The adventure hooks switch between present and past tense from sentence to sentence.

Monsters as Player Characters: Many of the monsters in this book are ?playable as characters?. With +47 Strength bonuses and other epic abilities, and relatively low level adjustments (+9 to +15), I would hesitate before allowing a player to play such a race.

A Final Note This product has a lot of potential and, if it gets reworked, I would like to see it. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: These creatures are tough and are built on original ideas. There are some Easter eggs nestled in the back. The new armor ability, globe of greater invulnerability spell and new magic items are worth taking a look at. The picture of the scroll containing globe of greater invulnerability is a great idea (how about some color?). The cover looks good its worn appearance.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This product needs to be reworked. The challenge ratings need to be closer together rather than ranging from 18-150. A number of tense and grammar mistakes need to be fixed. There are good ideas but they need to be refined. This product introduces some interesting creatures and hint at a much larger history. More of that history needs to be included. 2 of the 18 pages are dedicated to Reading the Entries, something already covered in the Monstrous Manual. As a PDF space is hardly a concern unless someone wants to print it.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

This little inn is perfect. It has everything I need to plunk it down into an adventure and make it a memorable location. I use a lot of Inns as a DM but I never take this kind of time to generate an inn. With 32 NPC characters, all stated out, the place is perfect for any group ?whether they take the time to explore the inn and discover the hidden sewer entrance and appreciate the personalities of the NPCs, they decide to start a friendly brawl or even if they decide to try cut down the mid-level residents and owners and burn the place to the ground.

While not all DM?s would appreciate such a potential location being destroyed, the option exists because they?ve taken the care to write up all the NPC?s stats. Having written many NPCs I can appreciate the time it takes to calculate and write out all these stats and a good chunk of this product is devoted to them. The stats exist though and they can be made good use of by including the NPCs in combat situations along side the players or even opposing the players.

I like the menu of what is sold at the inn. This is a handy little thing that most DM?s simply cruise over with the words mutton, beer and a silver piece. This gives players a chance to order something they want and the pricing is already done.

I really like the fact that a barn has been included beside the tavern. This makes a good amount of sense and helps draw players, who so often just go on foot, into picking up a horse or just gives them a more detailed place to store that expensive animal that gets them around.

They even found room to tuck in a prestige class at the end ? the Cat Burglar. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I like the large number of NPCs and little details about the Inn and stables.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Just about all the NPC?s are Chaotic Good. I would have liked to have seen at least one evil person, usable as a villain tucked away somewhere in the tavern. Some pictures of the rooms of the inn would have been neat but the maps are high quality.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

What is it: Year of the Zombie is a roleplaying book with everything you will need to recreate your favorite zombie flick. This is a very adult book.

System: The book uses the OGL (Open Gaming License) and is based on d20 Modern. I am happy they did not lump in all the basic rules; making characters, combat and so forth, but it means you will need a copy of d20 Modern to play.

Combat: The all important headshot is represented by two sets of rules. First, you can aim at a body location with a called shot that has a penalty. Second, a natural 20, is an ?accidental head strike?. Zombies are hard to kill. They have immunities and damage reduction but a headshot gets past all that and they fall down.

The Story: Throughout the book is a continuous story, told in pieces by the narrator. She begins in a bunker, safe but locked up, and then moves out to explore the world and becomes a survivor doing and surviving horrible events. Some of her friends die along the way, but they are careful and some you expect to die, survive. This is a little more satisfying than the typical ?everyone dies? scenario.

Horror: The horror check is included in this book from other works. Normally players are not afraid unless they want to be or unless they fail a saving throw against a supernatural effect. The horror rules give the game a realistic touch, forcing players to make a check when they encounter horrible circumstances. Players can end up simply frightened or become driven all the way to insanity. There is a whole list to choose from.

Gear: There is a good selection of new guns and equipment that will help you survive or at least take a lot of ?risers? with you before you go. Traditional financial systems are gone but have been replaced with barter. The wealth system is still used when dealing with people and surviving settlements but values have changed. Outside of the few settlements that exist in a world without banks or working ATM?s, you take or salvage what you can find. Your odds of actually getting your hands on a tank is considerably higher than in a traditional game. The trick is getting fuel and parts.

Format: This book is laid out as a notebook that the narrator has written in. The flavor text uses a handwriting font which is easy to read for script. The important game terms are in a standard font. Some of the art is doodles. Other art is ?taped-in? photographs and there is a brilliant 2 page painting. The format reinforces the feeling of hopelessness that is so important for a zombie game. The narrator was not able to store the information on a computer or having it professionally published ? she wrote it in a notebook. The blood splatters speak volumes. I would like to see this book printed out in an actual spiral binding.

Summary: This is a great book. It introduces uncomfortable topics that lend to the horror. It makes zombies tough and dangerous. It takes a hard look at desperate people and what they do. I don?t know if I would want to be a player in this setting but I sure would like to DM it. I?m preparing my annual Halloween game and it was good to get my hands on this material. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: This book takes the gloves off. It takes some of the darkest elements of a zombie game and explores them; savage barbaric children who are almost as bad as the zombies themselves, cannibalism, mutilation, slavery, crudely cybernetic zombies, sex and so forth. The profanity and horror peppers the book in a way that is not overwhelming but just adds the right feel to the book ? things are bad. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There are grammatical errors scattered through the document. Most of them are simple omissions of a single word and are so easily overlooked. It is clear what is meant. I would have liked better art but that can be a hard, and expensive, thing to come by.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

My biggest question, when looking at a book of tiles, is why would I buy it? The answer is miniatures. If you are using miniatures, after a while that generic hex or grid map gets a little boring. Tiles are the first step towards do-it-yourself terrain. There has been a big push towards miniatures in the d20 system and with miniatures so cheap from WOTC (compared to metal figs) it?s a good time to be using miniatures in your games.

I had a chance to look at other tiles, a prison, city shops, a dungeon and etc but this is a parking lot! It gives you a chance to break away from the classic encounters in a bar or other square room. The squares are about the right size that you could break out some hotwheels and fill up some of the parking spots. This creates a fascinating new environment that, as a DM, I?ve never used but everyone is familiar with.

Parking lots have their own hazards, benefits and drawbacks. The ground is hard pavement with tiny concrete dividers. Unless there are cars there is no cover. If there are cars they become a hazard if any are moving around.

The map itself comes in hexes or squares, which I like. It is big enough for a large or small encounter and generic enough that you could slap it up beside any buildings you have. The art is a textured shades of grey with yellow and green lines. Care has been taken to airbrush in the oil stains that parking lots pick up over time and there are handicap spots.

Printing and gluing the tiles to cardboard, or printing them on cardstock would make quick and relatively cheap tiles. They also make a good base for a 3D project if you want to add the street lights and build up the dividers and glue the printout to foam. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I like the location. It?s different from a long list of square rooms and rectangular corridors. The parking spots are even all angled in what looks like a deliberate attempt to get outside of the square appearance. It looks like a parking lot in White Rock.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The shadowing and light is good but I would have liked little details. Some cracks, repaving or typical damage and wear would have made the concrete dividers different from each other. For the inspired a little work with a paint program could add these details.

Like all tiles there is the cost of color printing. Make sure you print a test in black and white in low resolution to make sure you have the size right. These tiles are mostly black and white so they really won?t be that hard on the color cartridge though. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>