Streamlined Superheroes looks like a streamlined version of Amazing Tales' "Amazing Heroes" with just a smidgin of "Continual Light" thrown in. This is definitely the supers game I've been looking for: made for the Golden Age, but adaptable to all subsequent eras.

If you like to run your favorite supers game set in the Golden Age, this book is full of ideas for "one shot" scenarios that you can stay true to or adapt to your campaign. I'd love to see more offerings like this. KEEP 'EM FLYING!

If the alternate history suggested by the author had really happened and the first rpg was a sci-fi game created during the Tom Corbett era, this is probably what it would have looked like. The game has an authentic feel, and I really liked the use of "poker dice" as a substitute for d4s, d8s, d12s and d20s and "To Hit" and "Damage" rolls. I look forward to getting a group together soon to give it a test run.

For the smallest reasonable price you get the best, most concise ideas for running a fantasy rpg on the smallest possible format (a business card, unless you blow it up). The only bad thing about this game is the uncomfortable lump a d6 will make in your wallet (just kidding!).

Darkest Dice is a neat first effort by the author. It will set you to thinking about how to fill it out for fantasy or how to adapt it for your own favorite genre. I can't wait to see what's next!

Superhero Kids is the second supers adaptation of the Hero Kids ruleset and, as good as the first one was, this second one is better in every way:

1. Character creation is more easily understood and includes a new feature, Surge Dice, for those times when all the Oreos are on the line and you've simply got to be Super.. Surge Dice compensate for the fact that you are only allowed four dice in Hero Kids for character creation and two must go into Ranged Combat or Magic at the start if you are to have proficiency in them. (Melee and Armor only take one.) The Skills list is comprehensive, and covers just about every trait or piece of equipment the late, great Adam West would have had access to. (Just not all of them at once!)

2. The campaign setting is very detailed, and it doesn't take much to imagine the crime and corruption that could be lurking in each area of Evergreen City.

3. The eight pre-generated kid heroes are all four-color archtypes with six of them being easily recognized as icons from the DC (Batman, the Flash, and Green Arrow) and Marvel (Captain America, the Hulk, and Iron Man) universes.

All in all a lot of well-thought out effort went into Superhero Kids. I can't wait to see what's coming next, and since I brought it up:

1. A blank character sheet

2. Rules for the creation of teen and adult supers, for those times when the little guy or gal wants some Batman & Robin/Electro Woman & Dyna-Girl action, with parents and older siblings playing the sidekick.

3. A module set in World War II, when every deserted warehouse in America was crawling with mobsters and "JapaNazi" spies out to sabotage the war effort, and a module along the lines of Batman'66 (Will our heroes escape? Tune in tomorrow--same bat-time, same bat-channel!) or Wonder Woman'77 (Stop a bullet cold, make the Axis fold; You change their minds, You change the world!)

If there's a better buy out there for $2.99 I'm not aware of it. The rules are concise and easy to understand; the pieces are professional looking and will look even better if they are laminated, and there's a whole world of micro chapbook adventures out there in the highly unlikely event you run out of ideas for playing with what's included. But be advised: this is the dark, baby. Expect to die like we vote here in Louisiana: early and often.

Ever wanted a set of the original "white box" booklets but you didn't want to sell your oldest child to get them? You've come to the right place.

I once owned a white box, and WWIT when I got rid of it?! But it's all good now; everything is here, nothing added that I can see, and better organized and more concisely written. So if you ever wanted to do it "old school" (in this case bsfore the schoolhouse had even been finished) this is it.

My 25-year-old godson has pretty much made SDD his go-to game of choice for those evenings when the rest of the motley crew can't or doesn't show up. Since a standard deck is, for the most part, the minor arcana of a tarot deck,he's thinking about using the major arcana to add some flair when expanding to other genres.

Swords and Wizardry Light has been adapted to the superhero genre and I must say it's definitely been worth the wait. The S&WL approach lends itself well to the Golden Age of Superheroes: not-too-heavy-on-the-details storytelling of true heroes fighting the good fight with little concern for the odds. The only minor sticking point I have is that while the various classes of super heroes (Brick, Detective, Psychic, etc.) were extensively covered in fine detail, the origin stories (races) could have used a little more work. Oh well, that"s why people become Editors.

So, how long until Continual/Undying/Eternal Light Superheroes comes out? Or again, is that why people become Editors?

KEEP 'EM FLYING! BACK THE 7TH LIBERTY LOAN!

The nifty thing about S-S&W is its easy adaptability to western sub-genres and retro-television. As is you have Gunsmoke. Add the S&WCL spells list and monster manual and you've got Deadlands, as suggested earlier.

But add in some steampunk and you've got THE WILD WILD WEST!

The past few years have been good ones for OSR and minimalist, rules-light gaming. No longer do you have to carry the game between your shoulder blades; now it will fit between your ears or in the side pocket of your lunch kit, and in the vanguard for fantasy and science fiction gaming have been James Spahn and Barrel Rider Games. They may have not reinvented the wheel that is Swords and Wizardry White Box, but they have put some nice rims and mounted some nifty chassis on it.

In Untold Adventures James has managed to go beyond minimalizing S&WWB and has successfully minimalized the content and maximized the spirit of 0e and 1e. I ought to know; I was playing a mixture of both back then and I can't see anything that we were not using or anything we were ignoring. As far as I'm concerned, the last word in 0e and 1e minimalist has been published, all that's needed now are modules to adventure in.

Now if only BRG will give superheroes the White Box treatment...

Do you consider Excalibur a decent back-up weapon?

Is what you call "Improved Continual Light" what other people call "Sunrise"?

Do the gods ask YOU what's going to happen today?

Do you consider your dad multi-classed because he works two jobs to keep you in rulebooks and supplements?

Then scat. Shoo. Go away kid, you bother me. Ain't nothing to see here.

But if you remember the days when most of the game rules and stats could fit in your head, next to your imagination and sense of humor, you've come to the right place. Pull up a chair. break out your best 3d6 and d20 (that's all you'll need), open up your snack locker, grab a pencil and a character sheet (it has plenty of room to customize it yourself), and allons bebe, laissez les bon temps rouler!

Damn, the beastiary has no listing for vampire; that sucks. Oh, well...

Did you or your kid get more fun out of the empty boxes than the gifts that came inside?

Are you consdered multi-classed because you work two jobs to keep up with the 100-lb sea anchor that is most rpg systems?

Take comfort beleaguered ones, the cavalry has arrived.

Swords and Wizardry Lightl is everything you need for a complete fantasy rpg experience for levels 1-3. Everything, everything, EVERYTHING is on two two-sided notebook sized pages: the four iconic classes with starting kits and spells, weapons, treasure, appropriate foes, and combat rules. Everything works on the roll of a d6 or a d20, so no more sounding like a junk wagon toting all those dice to the table.

Giving SWL as a gift and you don't want to seem cheap? Get the Character cards (beautiful artwork with a player's guide on one side and a character sheet on the other) and the Tome of Horrors Light Volume 1 for whatever you paid for SWL. Want more on-the-fly fantasy goodness? SW Continual Light, going all the way to Level 7, should be out at any time. Want to see the Light shined on other genres? Light City, for Supers, is currently in development and I imagine someone somewhere is working to shine the Light so we can seek out new life and new civilizations in a galaxy far, far away.