This was a neat little pamphlet that further extended what was shortly touched on in the d20 Core Rulebook. For a whole $1.50 without any tax or shipping, it's definitely worth getting just to have one your computer, or spend an extra buck in ink to print and have it on hand for any time your PCs are in a "situation" and ask you "What do I see around me?"

An RPG Resource Review:

There are always times when the need to defend yourself arises when your normal combat equipment is not to hand - perhaps your character is safely (he thought) tucked up in bed, or he is visiting a place where carrying weapons is inappropriate or illegal. Never seems to stop the Bad Guys, so...

This work consists of two parts: a table listing a wide range of things that you might find in an emergency to thump or throw at a Bad Guy, and a minimal descriptive list of each item (which is a little bit given to stating the blindingly obvious). The table gives you the basic game information you need to fight with each item: damage, critical, damage type, range increment, size, and weight; and also the purchase DC - as if you are going to pause to pay in the middle of a brawl!

Overall, the real use of this product is to give you the necessary mechanical details to use improvised weapons, and perhaps to jog your mind if wondering just what would be the best thing to grab...

Weapon Focus: Improvised Modern Weapons is the 3rd product in Aleph Gaming's Weapon Focus series of products. This series explores weapons from different genres and sources, providing something a little more for each of the weapons in each product. Improvised Modern Weapons takes a look at different modern implements that can be used as weapons when one is in a pinch. From the home to the office, and the restaurant to the bar, this product contains a wide variety of weapons that can be used when the unexpected happens.

Aleph Gaming is a relatively new publisher, having released their first product just over a month ago. As a new publisher they've done well to produce good-looking short pdfs for the d20 market. Improvised Modern Weapons is no exception, and is presented well and in line with other products in the series. The overall look and feel of the product compares well with other market leaders in short pdf publishing, something on which Aleph Gaming should be commended.

The pdf starts by presenting the rules for using improvised weapons. Most of these rules are already contained in the d20 core rules, but are given here for easy reference when using the long list of weapons presented in this product. The remainder of the product is essentially one long table of improvised weapons, from alarm clocks to dinner forks, to the odd Ming vase one might have lying around (which will break if you throw it, in case you're wondering). Most items also get a brief description on their use, something that may or may not include special rules. In most instances the descriptions are fairly self-explanatory and in check with how one would imagine a particular improvised weapon being used. Some of the weapons are a little odd, for example, wielding a 40 lb. filing cabinet as a weapon. Here bulk more than weight would probably play a larger role in allowing one to use something like that as a weapon.

Having looked through the product I was left with the impression that there needed to be something more to it. The advertising blurb for the product and the series promises a lot, but this product doesn't really deliver anything significant other than the big table of weapons. While it is imminently useful, to make a product good or even great, one has to go the extra mile, and this product didn't. From that point of view it's somewhat disappointing that something new and unique wasn't brought to the d20 Modern gaming environment. Given that, this product isn't really anything more than an average summary of common implements that can be used as weapons. Useful, sure, but lacking in anything that would make it good or great.

Weapon Focus: Improvised Modern Weapons is a short product for Modern d20. As the title says, the focus of the book is on using modern objects as improvised weapons. The single PDF of the book is quite small, not even 200 kilobytes, and is ten pages long, with two of those pages being the OGL. There are bookmarks here, though you likely won’t need them. Likewise, the only art is the logo for the product in its title, and company logo at the end of the book.

Improvised Modern Weapons opens by briefly discussing how almost anything can be used as a weapon, and how most ordinary people would end up having to use improvised weapons if they were ever in a combat situation. It then quickly restates the rules regarding improvised weapons, and lays out the format for the table on the next page.

Said table gives weapon listings for more than sixty standard items you’d find in modern Earth, from cell phones to bookcases to keys, which can be used as weapons. Following this, each and every item listed gets a description, usually just a sentence or two. Most of these just briefly recap what the item is, though several have supplementary rules for using them.

In the end, Improvised Modern Weapons is a list of weapon statistics for ordinary items, nothing less and nothing more. While certainly handy to have, I can’t help but wonder if more could have been done with this product. Where’s the feat that will reduce the penalties for fighting with improvised weaponry? Where’s the “improvised weapon master” advanced class? Where’s the section regarding using these for subdual damage since they weren’t designed to be weapons (it’s unlikely that you could bludgeon someone to death with a purse, for example)? This isn’t a bad product to have, but it didn’t even try to go the extra mile regarding what it presents.