A very nice and concise rule set; however, the Product Identity claimed within Fenris 2d6 almost caused me to only give a three star rating and failed to award four or five stars which this OSR undoubtedly deserves.

Product Identity [IP] is there to protect the author and creator. Yes, this is good, it protects your work... What is not good is when page 147 has the following Product Identity (see below) that is so vanilla and generic that one could find the following in just about every 2d6 rule set which rolls high. (The most absurd is "Roll a 2d6. [IP]" - seriously, that's IP?). A quick search through the document reveals that [IP] is used 1,058 times in 162 pages... That is excessive and saddens me as this is a great reinterpretation of OSR gaming at its best.

Below, examples and the Designation of IP blip...

Whenever you attempt an action that has some chance of failure, you roll two six sided dies (2d6). To determine if your character succeeds at a task you do this:[IP] Roll a 2d6.[IP] Add any relevant modifiers.[IP] Compare the result to a Check Roll Number.[IP]

A natural unmodified die roll of 2 is a failure.[IP] A natural unmodified die roll of 12 is a success.[IP]

DESIGNATION OF PRODUCT IDENTITY The name “Fenris 2d6” when used in any context, is product identity. Additionally the content of paragraphs, and sentences which are followed with “[IP]” in superscript or subscript are product identity. The content of table cells which are followed with “[IP]”in superscript or subscript are product identity. The titles and entire content of tables which have “[IP]” in the bottom row are product identity. All artwork created by Gregory B. MacKenzie is product identity. The Trade Dress of this work (font, layout, style of artwork, etc.) is reserved as Product Identity.

What a fantastic little book!

This is a compact little system that encourages storytelling. The game is driven by complications which push the narrative deeper with both the Narrator and Characters adding to the story. Yesterday’s Tomorrow creates a good balance by using Archetypes with Styles: Action, Science, Mystery and Romance. While it might seem as though Characters would be very similar, they are not. Advantages, Flairs and Serials are all available for customization and leave players feeling as though their Character is quite unique.

Die rolling is kept to a minimum and only initiated by the Character when he/she feels it adds to the dramatic situations (which are created by Complications). The Complication element really drives this game. Create a Complication and receive a Peril Point, which earns you your dice for those situations where you really want a random outcome to occur. Rolling is based on Style. It is quite strange (at first) for a character to narrate their own outcome, but once one catches on feels natural in this system.

This is a narrative game that empowers all involved to contribute and narrate the outcome (which can snowball into more complications when the outcome produces more peril points). This helps capture the feeling of “Becoming a Part of a Pulp Story.” Rather than waiting for a cliffhanger, a Character can create their own.

I would recommend this to anyone looking to try out a group Narrative/Storytelling System. This is a great primer and well worth the price tag. Easy to print, easy to read and (best of all) fun to play!

I had always heard that HarnMaster was a difficult game and had steered clear thinking back to my Rolemaster days. After seeing so many cool maps by Harn fans, rule extensions, homebrew addins and looking over the combat tables at the Columbia site I thought I should maybe take deeper look. I decided to take the $20 plunge, and am I ever glad I did. What a brilliant RPG System and World.

Harnmaster offers a rich environment and character creation that fleshes out entire histories and personas that are true to life. This is a skills based system that uses d100 for resolution, and does so in an elegant manner. Harnmaster is a realistic system that not only makes sense, it works right out of the box. At first I was like, "What? No Hit Points?" Believe me, once you use Injury Levels you'll never go back to HP's again.

Character creation takes a bit of time, but once completed everything you’ll need for play is front-loaded and recorded on the character sheet making lookup for task/skill/combat resolution a seldom used necessity. Making multiples of fives critical successes and failures is just one example of HarnMaster’s approach to simplifying the resolution system and allowing more time for role-playing instead of roll-playing. Even though HarnMaster is in its 3rd edition, you'll find plenty of fan material from all editions that work flawlessly. Being able to tack on your own homebrew with ease makes it even better.

If you are looking for a realistic system and world you need look no further. HarnMaster is a gem that I wish I’d found years ago...

This is the next best thing to Basic Role Playing, RuneQuest or Call of Cthulhu. Heck, it's the OGL of those mechanics to run just about any percentage based RPG from the second generation of Role Playing Games. Download it, print it off and give it to your players and everyone can have access to the rules you'll need to run a d100 game system. Definitely a 5 Star rating when compared to a lot of the crap that is being promoted as RPG's in this day and age. Honestly, this was a breath of fresh air with that good ole' Old School that flavor that makes it even better. Excellent example of what Open Gaming is supposed to look like!!!

Ah... This was my first Dungeon Master's Guide back in the day before there was an official Dungeon Master's Guide. Tons of useful charts, generators and inspiration in this little treasure. If you're playing OD&D or Basic D&D (Holmes or Moldvay) you should be able to drop this material right into your game with no problems. This is about as Old School as you can get but definitely worth the price as it contains most of the generators and information that was gleaned from other Judges Guild products...

Scanned from the early Judges Guild book. I have no complaints and for the price it was nice to be able to pick this up and be able to print as I need it. The generation charts are Old School. Heck, the whole thing is Old School and that's what makes it so cool. If you're playing OD&D or Basic D&D (Holmes or Moldvay) you should be able to drop this material right into your game with no problems.

A tight little system that you can modify and use under the OGL. Too bad Action! has been hidden in the shadow of other OGL's. Why? well, for a quick, cinematic and/or gritty adventure it does not take much to tweak for whatever environment or genre you wish to run it under. It is very customizable and I've found that InstantAction! rules are even easier to adapt for a quick "pick-up" game (and InstantAction! could probably be used for an extended campaign if one didn't want to use the full Action! System Rules)...

I'd rate it a 4 out 5 simply because it doesn't appear that any further development has occurred within recent [game publishing time] and the publisher's website links are not being maintained like they should. Other than that, it is quite a nice system that can be used for multiple genres.