This is probably my favorite tabletop game of all time. Maybe it's because the Genesis game was the first non-Roguelike I really got interested in, but Shadowrun is one of my favorite settings, and this is also one of my favorite settings.

Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, and Trolls join us in the upcoming decades of supernatural strife and megacorporate takeovers. Enjoy simple gunplay, cyberpunk decking, or magic, or something in between, with super-chromed street samurai or magical physical-adepts joining deckers and shamans on "shadowruns" sponsored by corporations who want to use force to change the world.

It's pretty much one of the fastest detailed games, permitting flexibility but also allowing you to just shoot your opponent and know what will happen. I've seen a little of 4th edition and I don't like it as much as this, though I may pick it up regardless (the paperback for this cost more than the 4th edition hardcover).

I'd been looking for it for years, and I'm glad I'd stuck with it, since I love it. A simple 6-sider based system with a lot of flexibility and backstory, it's good for high-powered magical fights or less direct options, to anything in between.

Shadowrun, Third Edition, is the tabletop game that got me into tabletop gaming (though actually not the first one I got, since it was the quickstart that got me hooked), and ever since nothing has felt as right.

I picked up a print copy of this at a local used book store. It's pretty good.

All in all, it's a lot of content. Good original art, data, large pages with small text (not so good in the physical world, but for a PDF it's fine).

It does reference a bunch of material from other books (which I lack), but it's possible to run it through regardless.

I like it. It's simple, but has a lot of stuff. Plus, I'm a fan of Classic Traveller.

The nice thing about this is that it is very good on flavor. You do not just have orcs out of nowhere, they have a history, political structure, et cetera. I am more familiar with d20 than Pathfinder, so I can't really tell this for sure, but it does seem a mite unbalanced on the favor of orcs.

The art is decent, though nothing outstanding, it gets the point across and illustrates concepts. However, the bit of photoshopper in me would request that in the future, images with a white background should be cut out and down to size. It also seems one image was used multiple times, though it is not the only image.

All in all? Good flavor, good stuff, potentially unbalanced. But, it's cheap, and if you need something for a campaign (in this setting or not), this will do well.

This is a decent product, until you look further. However, despite its relatively high quality, it suffers from a few problems.

There is no mention of how frequently the figurines that turn into the characters appear, nor how one would get one (other than a brief crafting blurb). They are apparently spontaneously created chess pieces that are enchanted. I know d20 doesn't really come with any settings attached like a certain parent game did, but how hard is it to write up some flavor to break the space between numbers up? They're basically hirelings but totally mechanical.

On the upside, it does have a good degree of unique content, and shows new spells, equipment, and feats on character pages for later explanation. The art, if cheesy (and the pawn does not look human, despite being stated to be, he's more of an elf in my opinion), is decent in quality, though it's not a selling point.

On the other hand, it's too dependent on other works by the author. I know it's part of a book, but then explain it. Using standard classes instead would be easy and not too damaging. The typesetting is of about average quality, and for a maker with 50+ products, they should've gotten that right by now. For some reason it made my eyes hurt a little, though that may not be its fault, since I've been traveling recently and a bit tired.

It's also short. 8 full pages of content, if you don't count the front cover [which has a little stuff, so it's a mite unfair], the advertisements for other products which it kinda sorta halfway requires, and the legalese, leave you wondering about the other stuff. Similar chess sets are mentioned, but not shown.

Good idea, good writing, bad presentation, bad prerequisites. It's still got useful stuff for any game, but it'd really shine in conjunction with the content it requires, or with it already modified (they say how to make alternatives, but why should a GM pay to make up his own content based off of someone else's?).

Also, just nitpicking, because I know that it's fairly common to do stuff like this, but some of the feats are unbalanced and arbitrary. Why need 52 hp for a feat? Why not a certain Constitution and level?

If you're too lazy to come up with your own stuff, or if you want a chess motif, go for it, otherwise it's just not worth it. Use a character generator (and there are many for 3.5) or make some yourself by hand if you have the time and effort.

Or, better yet, just play a game of chess. You get the chess motif, and you don't have to buy other stuff. And you don't have to do paperwork or interpret arbitrary numbers for it.

tl;dr: It's cheap, literally and figuratively. Buyer beware.

Reviewer's Note: I am snarky today, so if this is a little harsh, tough. I also like chess, even if I can't play it myself, so this has to compete a lot. No, I don't hate d20, I just prefer stuff that doesn't try to rip off other stuff that is perfectly enjoyable and add more stuff.

These tiles look extremely beautiful. However, they will require immense amounts of effort to install into a game. If you are good with tools, it would be easy to assemble this, but as someone who is totally inept, the most I can do is admire the beauty and cringe at the expense (partly resulting from many mulligans).

Good for those who are skilled, but potentially expensive for all others.

This is original. It's got a lot of background that is interesting, but not necessary. It is basically a time waster for in between rounds, and I think it's pretty high-quality. The presentation is professional, and the games are well described. It's not perfect, since it's so simple and could use a little more, but it's priced right.

This is pretty good art. However, that's about as far as it goes. It's not good, not bad. I do enjoy the template for cutting out paper miniatures, which is useful for those of us who hate buying miniatures. However, they're not in the exact format I'm used to (not that that's bad), and the plain vertical miniatures could be harder to view when surveying a field for a wargame.

All in all, it's good, but you have to need it to get use of it.

Also, the license could be a little less confusing.