Having heard great things about Smallville I was looking forward to downloading this sourcebook. The main rule book's character (lead) creation seemed to me to emphasise the ninth season f the show too much. I wanted to start at the beginning and I hoped that this resource would build on the great system in he main rule book.

However, although the book does give a new pathway with some additional features it's main bulk was made up of American highschool cliques and groups. I'm sure some may find this useful but I haven't.

If you enjoy the Smallville RPG, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book as well. High School Yearbook is all about how to run stories of drama set during that very difficult time in a teen's life. The book has detailed discussions on motivations and challenges that any young adult faces as they are on that quest to discover who they are and what they want out of life.

The art in the book are screenshots of the show, as could be expected. The layout is very easy to follow and the book uses two different types of sidebar to give additional information on how the book text could be used.

My favorite part of the book is the new rule, Cliques. How many times, on TV, do we see a group of kids, the Clique, go and confront a lone character? The Clique rules allow you to have a group of like minded individuals acting like a Feature in the game. It won't be very hard to use Cliques in your game, as this book is loaded with examples and sample Cliques, along with the people and places that go along with them.

The discussions and rules presented in High School Yearbook are useful for any game, not just a story of High School Drama. If you like the Smallville RPG, this book will add to your story options.

WHAT WORKS: Pretty much an indispensible resource for running any high school era Smallville game, not just for one actually set at Smallville high. If there is a group or department that they failed to put in the book, they gave enough examples to work it out yourself. They tossed enough cute "yearbook" touches in to get their point across, but kept it from getting annoying.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Not much, really. Top notch production values, affordable price (the $15 PDF is half off of the $30 book, which is impressive for a full color, licensed sourcebook). There aren't a lot of complaints that are actually relevant to the book (if you gripe about the High School focus, for instance, that's kinda silly given what the book IS).

CONCLUSION: You probably have some idea as to whether or not Smallville is a game you'll like or not, and if you don't, then this book isn't going to convince you otherwise. It is a nicely done take on high school storytelling in general, so you could well get some use out of it even if you're running, say, a Mutants & Masterminds high school game or even a Buffy game still set in high school. Now, if you're into the Smallville RPG and only have an interest in the "adult years", I can't give this a glowing recommendation (due to content, not presentation), but they have a whole book designed for that coming soon. Great work, must-buy for Smallville High School Games.

For my full review, please visit: http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2011/05/tommys-take-on-smallville-high-school.html

An excellent source book to use with Smallville focused on the what really is the core concept of the show; Clark in High School. As expected the layout and art is top notch, this is a fantastic looking book. I love the whole "Yearbook" motif, very clever.

In you play Smallville, then this is a must have. If you play any other game based in or around a High School then this is also a great resource to have on hand for character development. I loved the idea of the cliques and think I see a bit of the "Leverage" design philosophy in this game as well. In the end it makes for a much cool game.

Very much worth the download.