This is a very usable small dungeon for ACKS and other old school D&D-alike systems, we had a great session with it.

The lore is a fun read, with a clever sense of humor.

The dwarven classes are very evocative and look really fun. I showed them to one of my players, and he's now considering retiring his current PC to try out the Pugilist.

The automatons (for making clockwork or steampunk machinery) are a cool set of rules, and I fell in love with the Exterminant automaton the moment I saw the art for it. An ogre-sized terminator designed to infiltrate into the lairs of orcs and goblins and then wreck everything in its path? Metal.

Between the experimentation rules for automatons, the delving deep rules for mining, and experimental mushroom farming rules, there's three full rulesets that dwarves can try to get an extra advantage at the risk of things horribly (hilariously) backfiring on them. I will definitely be using these.

The magic items are some of the best I've seen, with a mix of both epic artifacts and small more commonplace sorts of items. Not only is there the usual weapons and armor and adventuring gear you'd expect, but even a section for "Dwarven Toys and Marvels" with some really fun stuff in it like a toy dragon that shoots real miniature fireballs. These are items I can't wait to start dropping into my campaigns, especially the super-cool Ring of Seven Grudges.

The art is phenominal and so are the gorgeous maps of the dwarven vault. This is a beautifully-done book. Frankly I'm surprised given its level of production value that it doesn't cost twice what it does.

5/5, no regrets.

Great module with high usability and many sessions' worth of interesting content. Maps are some of the best that EMDT has published, clean and easy to use for VTT, especially the great map of the whole valley. Easily plugged into about any campaign with minimal adaptation needed.

My players' party got quite banged up by the encounters within (lost 3 to tyrannosaurs; lasting injuries from goatmen cliff ambush and statue guardians; and their strongest member field-tested the helm of alignment changing and consequently left the party to seek redemption for his past wickedness), and kept missing out on the big loot hauls due to poor choices (like casting a fireball right over the tyrannosaurus egg), but despite that, the engaging locale kept them coming back for more.

Strong recommend, 5/5.

Update: My group is on our second campaign of Ascendant at this point, and it continues to shine. Using the SP system has become second nature for just about every member of our group and it works exceedingly well.

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Just gave this a spin with my group for our final session of 2021, and we REALLY liked it.

It looked complicated at first, but actually it's not a hard game to learn. The core mechanic is simple enough: AV + Hero Points vs DV + Hero Points = RV. Check that RV on the CHART, and roll a d100 to see what color result you get. Once we had that down it was very fast to use in play--by the end of the night a round of combat was going as fast as D&D, and we've spent years using d20 systems.

We thought the SPs lining up with real-world numbers was cool. I like to run more simulationist-style campaigns in general, and my players like the idea of being able to see what the heroes they made would actually be capable of rather than just me riffing the results. The section on non-combat challenges looks like a very usable and thorough reference for me as the GM, though I haven't used it much yet (the first session was mostly combat to get the hang of the system).

I liked that the system has both a simple and complex method of character creation. Half my group just sent me a concept and wanted me to make their PC for them since it was a new system, and the other two are the kind who enjoy the process of chargen as much as they do playing the game. (One of them is a recovering D&D 3.5 minmaxer.) I found character creation a bit complicated but was able to knock it out reasonably quickly with the simple method. The two players I mentioned said they had a good time diving through all the powers and perks and planning out their character designs--they liked the variety of powers and different ways to tweak them. Also important to me as the GM was that the complex method of chargen didn't mean that their characters were out of place in the same campaign as the ones I built with the simple method.

(Aside: the reviewer who said that the rules are complex and chargen is easy--are you reading the same book as I am? That's the complete opposite of what I found.)

The layout is solid and easy to follow, with good presentation of rules, examples, and designer notes. I see some other reviewers saying the art is over sexualized, but it doesn't seem to be out of place with what's in most modern comics. It definitely isn't "G" rated though, and if buying the book for a younger gamer I'd recommend checking out the preview first.

Overall a STRONG recommendation, 5/5. My group really enjoyed Ascendant and wants to keep using it.