Huxtropy is a Fourth Edition D&D product that incorporates a deck of playing cards into a random, chaotic magic system that adds a new layer of fun and randomness into playing a spellcaster. One criticism I've seen of Fourth Edition D&D is that the system seems very standardized - you use a power, whether it be a spell or an attack, and you always pretty much know what's going to happen. Huxtropy lets a player that looks for more randomness play a character who uses a deck of random cards imbued with magic to sow chaos in combat through drawing cards. As they become more and more powerful and adept at using these magical decks, they are able to manipulate the decks much more effectively, turning bad luck on their enemies and combining cards for additional effects.

I'm not what you'd call a game balance guru, but it appears to me that if it's not perfectly well-balanced, the supplement is fairly close. Although powerful, especially at higher levels, huxtropy characters always have to deal with randomness. You can never count on the card coming up that you need, and that makes for an interesting tactical challenge.

The material also includes a new paragon path, as the character becomes attuned to randomness and probability. There's a new weapon group as well, "cards", which not only includes the magical huxtropy cards but comic book-ish fantasy cards with razor edges. Cool. There's new feats to bump up people's abilities in these areas and a new skill, Gambling, as well as rules for using it to make dough off the yokels who don't know any better than to get in a game with you.

Impressively, the purchase includes the full-color, full-art PDF for view on the screen, a black-and-white, simpler-art PDF for printing, and power cards which can be printed and used, in the same format as the 4e power cards. Bookmarks are well used in the PDF, and there's a full table of contents at the beginning.

I'm not a giant Fourth Edition fan, but material like this is always welcome. It's well-made, the layout is clear, the idea is compelling, the balance is good, and when you get done reading it, it passes the ultimate test: I want to play one of these characters right now!

This was something I was already interested in creating for my steampunk campaign so this saved me valuable time. I changed the damage to necrotic, poison, radiant, and psychic keywords since I didn't like the "elemental" aspect, but I appreciated everything else. As a class option, it is more about high fantasy flavor rather than perfectly balanced game mechanics.

This is an interesting concept that with this implementation I would definitely allow into my game for players, but not something I'm likely to highlight as a key point in my game setting.

The mechanics seem balanced, but don't expect a new class with a slew of new powers. What you do get is a bunch of new items, a reskinned Ranger that is a little bit awkward of a solution, but a workable one, and a new warlock pact.

All in all, a good product that is easily worth the price if you're interested in tossing elementally charged cards around your game.

Of note: This was a Pick of the Episode on The Tome Show and you can hear more about it here http://thetome.podbean.com/2009/09/13/the-tome-ep-115-halfling-cleric-and-pacing/