A great resource that outlines the various genres of tabletop RPGs, with examples of games in each genre. While this may seem to be of little use to a veteran gamer, it could be an excellent tool for educating new players about the hobby, and possibly even for brainstorming new setting ideas, or discussing with your players what type of RPG they would like to play.

The writing is clear and concise, and there are numerous examples in each category.

I'm a bit of a fan of the Roleplayers Chronicle website http://roleplayerschronicle.com/ because it's manager and the author of this publication has clearly been immersed in a pile of RPG products for some time, or at least knows what's what or when it's happening.

For some older role-players, like myself, the modern gaming world is a baffling place - much like walking into a music shop after a decade away, you just have no idea whenever you'd like something or not, or even what the new categories mean.

With RPGs many discussions on the web are focussed primarily on game mechanics, but often, not far away, are discussions regarding setting and "genre". This publication deals with the latter in detail and yet is a perfect skim-read introduction for the busy DM. It's a good read because not only does Mr Huss outline the core categories of gaming genre (Fantasy, Sci-fi, Horror, for example) and identifies well used sub-catergoes (High-Fantasy, Cyberpunk etc.) but he digs further and separates games into more exacting sub-genres (meta-genres?) like "Dark Fantasy PostApocalyptic", "Modern Psychosis", "Zombie / Undead", "Heroic Pulp", "Clockwork", the list goes on.

With so many game publications, old and new, the author does not claim that his lists of example games are definitive (I found myself adding a few games but then realised that they had been long out of print). Many of the publishers of the games he does mention have their websites included in an appendix, which is very useful if you want to find out more about a range. For me hyperlinks in a document justify the use of PDF as a format, also the page layout is landscape, making better use of the computer monitor as a reading medium. That didn't stop me printing off a copy to read in bed, but I hear that's also what i-pads are for … ;) The illustrations are nice too - reassuring bookmarks, if you get lost. :)

So if you unsure whether or not you or your player friends would like an Anime game, Storytelling, a Space Western or Gothic Horror this is certainly the document for you. It's also a great value read for collectors and the "just curious".

In summary: a well thought out document - positively educational! grin I plan to show off with some of my new found knowledge.

This is a decent product, but it could be improved upon in a few ways.

A) Don't just Google. While there are a lot of games in here, all categorized correctly (to the best of my knowledge), they're almost all big-name things, or top hot games. Games like "The New Epoch", which has undoubtedly one of the best steampunk/clockwork settings, are overlooked.

B) In depth explanation of style. Seeing D&D in a list with a game like Shadowrun doesn't really tell me much more than genre, and while it is just a "Guide to Genres", there's a difference in playing style between the two, with D&D being a slow, chip-away-the-hp thing and Shadowrun being more of a "one shot one kill" thing (though, admittedly, that is kind a Cyberpunk mainstay compared to a fantasy mainstay).

C) The links don't seem to work for me (assuming they are indeed links, and not just underlined blue text), and I'd like to see something like pricing on the list. Also, a lot of things you can get here on DriveThruRPG/RPGNow are listed as "Out of Print", which is technically true, but not very helpful in the light of the fact that there is a way to acquire them.

The Gamer's Guide has two main goals. First, to cogently illustrates all of the main genres and sub-genres that are available for an enterprising tabletop RPG group. Second, to provide links to some of the leading games in each of those genres and sub-genres.

It succeeds in both goals! I was very impressed at the genre breakdown. For instance, in establishing "Space Travel" into a separate genre, the writers were able to show why Rogue Trader and Star Trek were both part of the same genre, even though from another point of view the two games could not be further apart. As I read the book, I found myself seeing new angles and ways to play I'd not thought of, just from how they presented the similarities and differences in different games.

I was equally impressed with the depth of the game suggestions. Not only does it cover the main games in each genre, but it includes really excellent but lesser known games as well, such as Warrior, Rogue & Mage; Thousand Suns; and Barbarians of Lemuria.

This is an excellent product, and well worth the $1.00.