The new classes in Unorthodox Witches all contain elements commonly associated with the mythology of witches. No one class really mimics the classical witch, however, which is a bit of a disappointment. Since there isn?t a witch class within the D&D core rules, it would have been interesting to see at least a core or prestige class in this product that attempted to emulate the potion-brewing, broom rider of mythology. As it is, we have potion-brewers and we have broom riders, but we don?t have a lot of both.

As a whole, the new classes are a pretty creative takes on the idea of ?witches.? The Beguiler is a magical charmer, the Crescent Flyer the iconic broom rider, and the Wyrd One is a mistress of fate. Other classes include the Gyria, the Moon Dancer, and the Shade Summoner.

The Le?s art is good for a small publisher. Unorthodox Witches uses some pieces by Larry Elmore, as well as some well-chosen clip art. The art?s not up to the full-color illustrations of Wizards of the Coast, but it goes a long to adding to the book?s professional look.

I?ve criticized some of The Ley?s past projects for poor writing and editing. While there are a number of small errors, Unorthodox Witches doesn?t seem to suffer from the volume of mistakes I?ve seen in other products. There are instances of what I found to be poor wording, but the class flavor and rules intent rarely suffer adversely because of it. A particularly humorous mistake can be found in the Shade Summoner?s insanities chart, in which the authors continually use the word ?the Player? where they actually mean ?the character.? As in, ?the Player gains an eating disorder.? That?s one heck of a committed roleplayer.

Game balance is at times questionable, although for some reason The Ley tends to lean toward underpowered when they make these mistakes. The Crescent Flyer, for example, gains a favored enemy ability every few levels. While favored enemy is a logical power given the class?s description, I?m not sure how useful a bonus to damage would be to a non-combat class. The additional bonuses that the ability provides to Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks would probably balance things out a bit?if the Crescent Flyer actually had more than one of these skills on her class list.

The Moon Dancer is another victim of really underpowered class abilities. Many of her powers hinge on her ability to make a successful skill check during a certain event or time of the day. In one case, all she gets for her effort is the ability to prepare spells from the cleric?s Sun domain. That seems like a lot of in-game work to go through just to gain the ability to prepare Heat Metal.

In another example, the Wyrd One, whose powers deal with the manipulation of fate and fortune, doesn?t get any kind of luck ability until 13th level. At that point, she gains the power to reroll up to three failed saving throws per day. Note that a cleric with access to the Luck domain can reroll any roll once per day starting at first level. The Wyrd?s ability is slightly better (if only because it can be used more times per day), but why must she wait 13 levels to acquire it?

It?s a shame that the Wyrd One?s abilities aren?t better designed, because the idea of a woman that pulls the threads of fate is very?witchy. The non-mechanic aspects of the class, particularly the names and descriptions of the class abilities, are very evocative. Still, as cool as ?Fire Burns and Cauldron Bubbles? sounds, it?s disappointing to learn that it simply allows the Wyrd One to boil a whole cauldron of water in 1d6 rounds. Granted, there is no listed game benefit to doing so, but hey?that?s a whole cauldron of water.

All of this isn?t to say that there aren?t good things to be found in Unorthodox Witches. The Gyria is a clever class seemingly inspired by the legends of the gypsies. The Shade Summoner, which is probably the best designed class of the whole group, is a Summoner that specializes in conjuring up ghosts and other spirits. I have small balance concerns with both of these classes, but nothing that can?t be easily fixed with a few slight modifications.

I think the best part of Unorthodox Witches is the ideas behind the classes. Instead of giving generic witch classes, The Ley has designed a half-dozen core classes (plus one prestige) that positively drip with witchy flavor.

The book ends with a number of new magic items, called Baubles and Urus. These are a new kind of magic item that can be infused with an existing weapon, shield, or other bit of gear. Once so infused, the target item gains certain powers depending on the bauble / uru used. I have mixed feeling about this section. The concept isn?t a bad one, and some of the powers are certainly useful, but there is a major flaw: I can?t find a price on a single bauble. Also, this section really has nothing whatsoever to do with witches in general, or any of the classes presented in this book. Since it?s just an appendix and it seems to be tacked on as an added bonus, I?ve decided not to alter my final score based on this section.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: I didn?t realize that my D&D game needed some kind of witch class until I downloaded this book. Some of the ideas here are very cool, and a reworked version of a few of these classes will probably find a home in my campaign. A appreciate the flavor given to each class, and an honest effort was made to fit each concept into the overall fantasy milieu.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There are enough small errors (both in the design and the writing) that I can?t give Unorthodox Witches better than three stars. It does very well with flavor and concept, but it falls through too often when it comes to actual design and implementation.

So, I guess its three for effort.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I have a lot of adventures sitting on my gaming shelf, gathering dust. Some I?ve run, others I intend to run, and others will probably never see any use at all. The problem with adventures is, unlike rules supplements, you really can?t use them for much other than, well, running an adventure.

It?s for this reason that I love the PDF medium. I can store an awful lot of PDF adventures on a CD or hard drive, where they can then sit nearly invisible until I need them. When I?m ready to run the adventure, I print everything off, make notes in the margins, highlight important stats, and otherwise deface the adventure in ways I?d never dream of with a traditional book.

Mansion of Shadows marks Green Ronin?s return to d20 adventure publishing. This book is the first in their Bleeding Edge line, which has the stated goal of providing adventures with good story, ease of use, compelling encounters, and modern design. That?s a pretty tall order to fill, but Mansion of Shadows lives up to expectations.

The adventure itself is well designed. The author does a good job leading the PCs along the necessary path while still giving them choices (or, occasionally, the illusion of choices.) There are a number of helpful sidebars (cleverly labeled ?Off the Rails?) that give advice on how to keep the adventure moving in the right direction. I thought these were a nice touch, and I appreciated the insight they gave into the design and flow of the adventure.

Reading through this book, it?s clear that the author is trying to be as helpful as possible to the DM. In addition to the ?Off the Rails? sections, there are sidebars giving advice on tactics, notes on roleplaying and running various scenes, and other considerations. This sort of help, well not always needed in a well-written adventure, is certainly welcome when things don?t go as planned.

One of Mansion of Shadow?s strengths is the way it handles roleplaying scenes. For most NPC dialogue, the authors wisely avoid long-winded boxed text. Instead, the adventure describes the relevant NPC?s attitude and motivations, and then summarizes the key points he / or she is supposed to get across to the PCs. The DM is then free to roleplay and embellish as much as he and his group want. This furthers the story while leaving the level of roleplay firmly in the hands of the DM, where it belongs.

The plot of the adventure is clever, and at times rather dark. I liked the backstory, and the events are concluded in an exciting way that either wraps things up completely or leaves them wide open for future adventures, depending on the DM?s discretion. There were, however, a few plot points that didn?t quite flow as well as the rest of the adventure. For example, the dinner scene leaves things completely in the hands of the PCs, and it?s hard to predict how they?ll react. To his credit, the author realizes this, and gives plenty of advice for keeping things on track.

The problem, though, is that the NPCs in this scene are all horrifically and obviously evil, but in order to keep things from devolving into a bloodbath, the DM must play them as somewhat subtle. It?s not a difficult thing to do, but successfully running this scene involves downplaying the NPC descriptions in the book?which is a counterproductive design.

Another scene that might prove troublesome involves a potential combat with a mob of some 200 angry villagers. While most of the adventure is heavy with advice, we?re basically left on our own at this potentially game stopping moment. The presented solution is to run the combat using rules from Green Ronin?s Advanced Player?s Guide. If you don?t have that book, the author recommends running the battle as a narrative (i.e. just make stuff up) or running a small representative battle between the PCs and a smaller force. I think the latter of the these two options is the best, but I?d prefer that the book detail this representative battle for us, rather than just list some suggestions and leave the work up to the DM.

As something of an added bonus, Mansion of Shadows gives a lot of background information on the adventure?s setting. There is quite a bit of detail here, and an industrious DM could expand on it to run a number of adventures in and around the Kirsvald region. I was also pleased to see the inclusion of pregenerated PCs, something that makes even more sense in an adventure geared toward 1st ? 3rd level characters.

Also, a handful of rules that first appeared in other products play a part in the adventure. I thought these were well used, and it?s always nice to see an adventure utilize resources from the greater d20 community.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Mansion of Shadows is a really good product. In some ways, it?s greater than the sum of its parts. There?s something about the way its written that makes it self-contained and very open-ended at the same time. Reading through it, I found myself planning for a ?Return to?? style adventure that could easily follow later in the campaign. There is lot of good information here, and the Bleeding Edge line promises good things for the d20 adventure market. I?ll be adding Mansion of Shadows to the ?plan to run? section of my bookshelf?er, hard drive.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The plot sequence was at times spotty, especially during the mass combat scene. I also found some of the darker elements of the plot a bit clich?d. Evil can walk a fine line between disturbing and cheesy, and I think that a few of the villains came close to being caricatures.

I also worry that the PCs might not get the opportunity to learn a lot of the background behind the Mansion and its dark inhabitants. As the DM, I was treated to the whole story, and I want my players to experience that as well. The way the adventure is written, it really falls on the players themselves to take the initiative to learn and explore. If they don?t, I think they?ll miss out on some the things that make this adventure so good.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Dungeon Dive 7 is not an adventure, but rather a fleshed-out adventure site. The idea is that the harried DM can work the existing dungeon into his or her campaign with little preparation outside of creating a compelling reason for the PCs to journey there. To support the product's flexibility, each encounter is designed in a modular fashion, with creatures and hazards presented in an array of increasing difficulty. The DM simply uses whatever tier of creatures are appropriate to the party's average level. This presentation is fast and very easy to use at the gaming table, and it allows this dungeon to scale for parties of about 3rd, 7th, or 11th level.

Spawning Pits of the Tomb Bats is a very well written site-based adventure. The location is less linear than other dungeons of its type, with three separate ways to enter depending on the DM's presentation and the PCs' ingenuity. The author gives some information on the comings and goings of the dungeon's residents, as well as the motivations and tactics of each creature group. There isn't a lot of detail here, but a skilled DM should find more than enough to adjudicate whatever methods his players use. I particularly appreciated the illustration detailing the threatened area of grimlocks hiding behind defensive barriers. In a product where the goal is to provide a dungeon that can be used very quickly with little prep, the monster tactics and other small touches are a welcome inclusion. Never at any point was I uncertain what the monsters where supposed to be doing or why.

The book uses a number of new spells and magic items, mostly as plot tools to explain certain dungeon features. These new rules are detailed in an appendix, and have the added value of being useful outside the scope of the adventure itself. My favorite new rules are the tomb bats themselves, which are magically altered dire bats that animate corpses as a side effect of their nesting habits. While not overly powerful themselves, tomb bats make an excellent plot device and could serve as a persistent nuisance to characters of any level.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Dungeon Dive 7 is probably the best product of its type that I've seen. While not a full adventure in the modern sense, its perfect as a fleshed-out encounter site that could exist within the confines of a home-brewed campaign. Its well organized, easy to understand and use, and there is just enough detail to make things interesting. If you're looking for a magical laboratory / lair for a reoccurring villain, or want a themed dungeon to drop into an existing lair, you're definitely getting your money's worth with this book.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There were a few of the thematic elements of the dungeon that I didn't care for. For example, one of the adversaries seems to have a bit of a cross-dressing fixation. This sounds worse on paper than it actually comes across in game, but its still a bit...weird for my tastes.

Also, the majority of the monster stats appear in an appendix in the end of the book. I like to run things straight from my laptop, so this format is less than ideal for me. I would probably have preferred the stats to be inserted directly into the relevant sections of the adventure. One of the strengths of this product's presentation is the modular nature of the encounters, and I think that having to access a separate section for stats takes away from its usability.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Riastradh is a product in Highmoon Media?s Bardic Lore series. Each PDF takes a different idea from Celtic mythology and applies it to D&D. The rules are presented with just enough history, plus a glazing of flavor text, to make them interesting and put them in context.

The thing I?ve enjoyed most about the Bardic Lore books is their ability to showcase the influence of the myths of the ancient Celts on D&D. Before reading Riastradh, I had no idea what the ?warp spasm? was, or how it related to the idea of a barbarian?s rage. It seems that the concept of the berserking warrior was not limited to the Norse, and the Celtic version was even more fanciful and chaotic than one might expect.

During a warp spasm, the recipient becomes a living embodiment of rage. His skeleton twists and inverts beneath his skin, his hair stands on end and drips with blood, and his organs protrude from his body. While in this state, the warrior mows through enemies with a mindless, ruthless efficiency. At its heart, its very similar to barbarian rage, but the description (taken directly from actual Celtic mythology) makes it seem like something more alien and terrifying than the charging Viking.

The game ability described in this book is not the barbarian's rage class ability, but it is statistically very similar. The warp spasm gives its recipient bigger bonuses, and it lasts longer, but it comes at the price of temporary Con damage. There are two ways to access the spasm: a character either has to be a member of the warped one race (a human with the blood of the riastradh), or somehow gain access to the Warp Legacy feats. The two methods are presented side by side, with advice for using one or both, depending on your campaign.

I prefer the feat option, honestly, as it seems like it would be easier to retroactively add to an existing campaign. Also, since race must obviously be selected at character creation, players must set out to learn the Warp Spasm from the beginning, rather than developing that direction over the course of several adventures. Fortunately, the Warped Ones aren?t really a brand new race so much as slightly altered humans, so either option would probably work with minimal tweaking.

The book?s mechanics, while sound, border on overpowered. I thought the Warped One probably warranted an ECL of at least +1. The race itself isn?t that powerful (though it has unbalanced ability scores), but the free access to the Warp Spasm once per day pushes it over the top. Likewise, the Warp Spasm feats seem a bit powerful compared to other feats and similar class abilities.

The main balancing factor of the Warp Spasm is temporary Constitution damage that the character suffers once the spasm ends. The book makes a special point in mentioning that this damage can only be partially healed via magic (the rest must be recouped normally). While this goes a long way toward balancing the spasm?s potent combat enhancement, I?m not sure if it goes far enough. The Warp Spasm lasts far longer than most D&D combats, and the bonuses it grants are hefty. Due to the Con damage, I think that most players would save their Warp Spasm for pivotal combats, after which the penalties of fatigue and diminished hit points won?t matter. A clever DM can (and should) work around this, but it doesn?t change the fact that the Warp Spasm is obviously better than most other feats.

While I?m a bit wary of the new rules in Riastradh, I wouldn?t call them broken. Part of the challenge is that, according to the mythology that inspired the ability, the Warp Spasm was an incredibly potent gift granted only to the greatest heroes. That?s a difficult thing to emulate while still maintaining a measure of game balance, so I have to cut the author some slack.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Bardic Lore: Riastradh is a well-written book that takes an idea from Celtic myth and fits it neatly into D&D. The ideas in this book, and the way they are presented, are downright inspiring. With a bit of rules tweaking, the Warp Spasm will definitely find its way into my D&D campaign.

I honestly had no idea that such a bizarre and fantastic ability was part of a real world culture. This book gives no less than three methods to insert the Warp Spasm into a D&D game, plus advice and supplementary rules. Everything is clear and professional, with a lot of flavor and rules crammed into ten pages.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It?s not likely that I would use the Warp Spasm as written in my home D&D campaign. The idea is neat, but the feat seems a bit powerful for my tastes. Perhaps if it had a more meaningful tradeoff or, at least, one that couldn?t be so easily circumvented, I wouldn?t be quite so wary. It?s not unbalanced enough to be called broken, so I can?t deduct major points. Without some long term playtesting, I?ll chalk my objections up to personal opinions and call the ability slightly overpowered.

There were a few mentions of concepts called Enech and Gessa, which are detailed in another Bardic Lore product. I found the references to rules detailed in another book a little annoying, but this is a minor point of contention since these rules aren't in any way essential to Riastradh.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I'm not sure how many people have contributed to the design of comic books over the years. Whatever their number, these talented men and women have spent countless hours wracking their brains to create new and interesting adversaries for our favorite intrepid heroes. When an idea sticks, the world gains an interesting and memorable badguy. When an idea fails, on the other hand, the results are often ridiculous (and sometimes hysterical).

When Villains Attack is a kind of tribute to the less inspiring super villains that have graced the pages of comic books through the years. There are seven super-powered bad guys presented here, and each is ridiculous in his or her own way. My favorite is probably Prawn the Destroyer. The text lavishes on mighty Prawn (who's real name is Lord Tyrant Alasander Prawn XXIII, High Psionicrat), going into some detail about the might of his space fleet and the incredible psionic powers he possesses. Prawn himself is a beefy PL 20, with an impressive list of mental abilities. The catch to all this is that Prawn, despite his towering mental statue...is a 6? shrimp, a tiny fish-man that lives in a floating glass bowl. I have images of Mr. Crab's nemesis Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants, except with terrible cosmic power.

Each character is given a lot of detail. In addition to game stats, the entries list the character's origin, personality, and fighting tactics. The book also gives advice for using the villains in your campaign. Finally, there is a single picture for each, which I think is very important in a game based on a visual medium like comic books. The art itself is only average as far as comic book art goes, but it serves its function.

In the past, I've been a little hard on The Le games for their often muddled writing. I'd be remiss, then, if I didn't mention that the author of When Villains attack does a great job. Typos (and just overall poor wording) are minimal, and the writer seems to know and appreciate his subject manner. When Villains Attack is an entertaining and interesting read.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This is a fun little PDF, with a nice spread of villains who are all silly in different ways. From the unfortunately named Cleavland Steamer to the surprisingly powerful Flashlight, you're bound to find a C-list villain to your liking. The stats (though I didn't run much of the math) seem to jibe with the Mutants and Masterminds rules, and the character writeups contain enough detail and advice to easily drop any of these guys into your game. A pretty good mix of PLs means you're more likely to find someone you can use in your home campaign.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Obviously, if you aren't looking for goofy villains for your supers game, you aren't going to find this book to your liking. You could probably salvage a few of these guys without too much work, but doing so would require the removal of the traits that make them so much fun.

Also, I thought the PDF was rather short. There are 7 villains here, meaning you're paying about $0.50 per character. Not a bad deal, but it would have been nice to see more. As it is, the book seems to end kind of abruptly.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Questers of the Middle Realms is sort of a parody of the type of fantasy game typified by the original Dungeons & Dragons game. I say sort of a parody, because its not directly making fun of the game in any noticeable way. Rather, the game presents (with its tongue firmly in its cheek) a world where wildly different characters inexplicably join together to explore treasure-filled ruins?all the while trying to cope with a pantheon of mettlesome deities, hungry monsters, and devilish traps. Why are these men and women (and elves and dwarves) putting their lives on the line? Because they?re adventurers?er, I mean Questers, darn it! That?s what they do.

The setting, called the Middle Realms or just ?the Realms? (sound familiar?) is presented in a bare bones manner with notes on how to expand it to whatever level of detail suits your group. There are a number of sample cities, nations, and other potential adventure sites, each with a few paragraphs to describe them. Though certainly not serious, the default setting isn?t over-the-top silly either, and represents a fairly straightforward (if clich?d) fantasy RPG setting. The clich? is intentional, of course, and the Realms end up looking like something out of a 1976 hobby gamer?s campaign folder. There?s a land of ice and snow, a dwarven kingdom, a forest with a very hard to pronounce name (Yrisiriel Forest)?all the trappings of a world of sword and sorcery that is ready and able to provide adventure without really taking itself seriously.

One of the more innovative aspects of Questers is the built-in rules that allow characters to make the world up as they go along. For example, the Middle Realm is a land in which the gods take a very proactive role in the daily lives of their mortal subjects. Rather than give you a large list of gods, goddesses, and demigods, Questers encourages you to simply make up deities on the spot. Players who do so are rewarded mechanically, and the new god gets added to a list along with a modifier indicating his/her disposition towards the heroes. The GM is then encouraged to utilize this god in later adventurers. Over time, the players will cooperatively build a pantheon of gods to populate their campaign's cosmos.

The rules system, called Prose Descriptive Quality (or PDQ) is a very simple and flexible ruleset. Basically, a character is defined by a number of descriptive skills chosen during character creation. Unlike most RPGs, these skills aren't pulled from a list. Instead, a player just makes up his characters skills, based on his or her character concept. These skills can be as broad or narrow as the player and game master decide to make them, ranging from things like Ranged Weapons to Backgammon. PDQ seems like it would work very well in actual play, with players having a lot of control over what their characters can and can't do.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Questers of the Middle Realms is a well-designed game, with a simple and elegant rules system. The design the world as you go approach built into the game is a neat innovation, and it fits the style and tone of the setting perfectly. The setting itself is intentionally and cleverly cliched, with a bare bones level of detail reminiscent of the original D&D campaign settings.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I'm not really sure who this game is targeting and, to be honest, sometimes it feels like the game itself doesn't know either. It presents itself as a tongue-in-cheek ode to an OD&D style game set in a very Greyhawk / Forgotten Realms world. That's not a bad thing to be...but, I can't help but assume that people interested in that kind of game would probably be just as well served by playing OD&D in a homebrewed version of Greyhawk. In fact, I know at least a few who are.

The game isn't overtly silly enough to truly be called a parody of anything. Its streamlined rules don't really lend themselves to mock the goofy, sometimes convoluted game mechanics of the early RPGs. On the other hand, the setting isn't at all serious, leaving the true theme of Questers (at least to my reading) somewhat up in the air.

Its a good game, and a nice adaption of the PDQ system to a traditional RPG dungeon-crawl, but its only a little silly, a little over the top, and a little serious...a combination that ends up feeling a little flat in the end.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

After the dungeon crawl, wilderness exploration is the oldest form of D&D adventuring. Its in the woods that characters with the ability to track truly shine. The Survival skill, coupled with the Track feat, provides a good tool for tracking, hunting, and thriving in the wild. Silven publishing's Tracking expands on these rules, giving more depth and options for players interested in spicing up their trackers.

The authors make a point to give equal time to both rules and flavor text, supporting the ?crunchy bits? with suitable descriptions of how the rules work within the reality of the game. The descriptions are brief and well written, and do the intended job of fleshing out the mechanics into more than just dice rolls.

After going over the basics of tracking, the book begins with a detailed look at Wilderness tracking. There are new uses for the Track feat, including expanded hunting rules and the ability to determine the size and nature of a tracked creature. The standard tracking rules are expanded a bit, with additional modifiers based on the target creature's disposition and other factors. These add to the rules in a meaningful way without bogging things down, and are a welcome addition to the core rules.

Next, the book gives similar treatment to urban tracking, which uses the Gather Information skill combined with the (new) Urban Tracking feat. Expansions to the core rules include the affects of crowds, and random ?set dressing features? for spicing up urban locations. I've seen similar rules in other products, both official and third party, and I can't help but wonder why there is no core Urban Tracking feat. In any case, this chapter does as very good job with these rules.

The next few chapters present a handful of new rules: a base class, a prestige class, new items, spells, and feats. The majority of these rules have an associate with tracking, hunting, or urban survival. Everything is well designed and, while not everything will find its way into my home campaign, some of it certainly will. I particularly liked some of the new equipment, such as the Bloodletter Arrow, which causes minor bleeding that both damages a quarry and makes it easier to track. The new base class, the Urban Hunter, would be a nice addition to any campaign set primarily in a large city.

A number of appendices wrap this book up, compiling useful information such as the terrain type and hide value of a number of animals and suggested racial modifiers for tracking checks. The book concludes with a new creature subtype: the skirmish. Skirmishes are meant to represent an angry mob or other large, chaotic group of violent creatures. The rules are similar to those that govern swarms, but skirmishes don't seem to be a template and no clear instructions are given for creating your own, making the rules less useful than they might otherwise be.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Tracking does a very good job at what it sets out to do. The writing is professional with few typos, and the rules design shows a good working knowledge of the d20 system. If you're looking to expand the roll of tracking, shadowing, and hunting in your game, you'll find this an invaluable resource.

I appreciate the designers' decision to keep things as simple as possible when expanding the existing tracking rules. The new hunting rules stand out as a good example of this kind of design. They allow you to add a layer of depth and detail to the hunt, while keeping the system fairly abstract and quick to resolve.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This is really a very niche product. It does a good job at exploring and expanding the existing rules for tracking, but offers little else. I'm not trying to criticize a book for accomplishing its stated goals, but if you're looking for a really broad product, you'll be disappointed by Tracking.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Unorthodox Fighters presents five core classes intended to serve as variants from the standard fighter class. Each one is presented using the same format used in the Player's Handbook. There are a lot of good ideas here, and the layout and presentation is well done, but the rules implementation is often lacking.

Of the classes, I liked the Bastion and the Second Son the most. The former is a defensive fighter who prefers the use of heavy armor and massive shields. The latter is a noble that, because of his place in the birth order, does not stand to gain a significant inheritance and cannot rely too heavily on his family name to make his way in the world. Other classes include the Bully, the Dogfighter, and the Legend Seeker.

There are a lot of neat ideas in this book, and the flavor text is, for the most part, fairly sound. The writing suffers whenever Unorthodox Fighters turns to rules. Too often, the author uses wordy, confusing descriptions where simple explanations would have sufficed. Consider, for example, the following from the Bully class: ?The Bully is considered to be armed and is not an attack of opportunity when attacking with his fists.? Why not just say that the Bully gains the Improved Unarmed Strike feat? And the phrase ?is not an attack of opportunity? is the author's way of saying that an attack does not draw an attack of opportunity. That phrase is used several times in this book and, even though I know what they mean, I find it very jarring.

Other rules require even more deciphering. The Bastion's Improved Steadfast Stance says that it increases his ?zone of control? to 10ft, effectively giving him reach. What if the Bastion already has reach by virtue of his race or his weapons? Your guess is as good as mine.

When the rules aren't just being vague, they're being overpowered. The majority of these classes at some point grant the ability to take attacks of opportunity against opponents that wouldn't normally draw them. Whether they take a withdraw action, a five foot step, or an action that doesn't normally ever draw an attack...they take one anyway. I pity the poor wizard that tries to cast defensively within reach of a Bastion. If this doesn't seem too potent to you, how about the Legend Seeker's +2 bonus to hit and damage when wielding his chosen weapon, a 1st level class ability that's better than Weapon Specialization.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the largely underpowered Dogfighter. The concept behind this class is a clever one: a fighter from the wrong side of the tracks that gains the services of a faithful canine animal companion. While he and his dog gain lots of feats and special attacks when fighting together, the dog itself never gets any tougher. Even at low levels, a standard dog (CR 1/3, 6 hp) is probably more of a liability than anything else. Later, the Dogfighter gains additional canine companions, but not until 14th level. I'm not sure two ordinary dogs are really going to make a big difference at that point in a character's career.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Unorthodox Fighters inspires me to take its neat ideas and rewrite them for balance and clarity. Each of the five classes presented here represents a clever and original idea that fits well in the D&D milleau. D20 books traditionally handle niche classes of this nature through prestige classes, so its a refreshing change of pace to see a company achieve the same ends via 20 level core classes.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: While the product looks very professional, the rules are either unclear, unbalanced, or both. My final score is two and a half stars, mostly for effort and inspiration. With clearer rules descriptions and more thorough design work, Unorthodox Fighters could have been a four star product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Orwell Industries is a global corporation perfectly suited for use as an antagonist in a typical four-color comic book supers game. This product, the first in Reality Blurs? Powers & Perils line of M&M Superlink books is written for Green Ronin?s Mutants & Masterminds game.

The book is very good-looking, with a nice layout and a pleasing, comic inspired color scheme. The art is genre appropriate and, while no one piece stands out as particularly inspiring, it?s pretty good quality overall. Art is especially important in a gaming genre inspired by comic books, so I was happy to see an illustration of most of the major NPCs.

There is a tremendous amount of detail crammed into Orwell Industries? 84 pages. We learn about the origins of the company, its goals and projects, and the personalities and motivations of the people running the show. In addition to the various CEOs, the book gives stats for different types of security forces, special agents, and other Orwell employees that the players may have to deal with over the course of a campaign. I didn?t crunch the numbers on the NPC stats, but no glaring errors stood out on my numerous readings.

Orwell Industries has elements straight out of comic-book reality: a machine that can peer into the future, advanced technology, a mad scientist obsessed with unlocking the secrets of immortality?but it hides these things behind a fairly mundane (if powerful) corporation. This allows the GM to insert Orwell Industries into a supers campaign of nearly any power level, changing the ?truth? about Orwell as needed. Plus, Orwell?s ability to get their hands on future technology provides a built-in rational for why, in the world of comic books, some heroes and villains wield super technology in a setting that is otherwise very similar to 21st Century Earth.

The designers did a really good job creating a villainous organization with ultimately pure motives. Super-hero bad guys are far too often insane megalomaniacs, bent on world domination for no particular reason. While this can be great in moderation, it?s nice to see an enemy that is trying to do good. GT Orwell is ultimately out to save humanity?and anyone that objects to his methods must be dealt with accordingly. To Orwell, the ends always justify the means.

There are, of course, lots of subplots going on within Orwell Industries. There is a secret project that GT Orwell doesn?t know about, an executive with borderline paranoid-schizophrenia, and the resident mad scientist Dr. Zero. The book has an entire chapter devoted to using Orwell in a campaign, with a number of fleshed-out examples, and there is plenty to keep characters interested over the course of a long campaign.

New rules are included to track the struggle of the PCs vs the evil Orwell corporation. These rules basically boil down to a chart to track whether the heroes are winning or losing the war against Orwell. They?re simple, but they look as though they?d work pretty well in actual play.

As a final note, kudos to the designers for the various literary "easter eggs" sprinkled throughout the book. I particularly enjoyed the references to Alice in Wonderland...and of course, the name Orwell, which conjures images of totalitarian futures and technology gone wrong.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This book gives you everything you need to introduce Orwell Industries as a major or minor antagonist in your M&M game. There is a lot of detail, plenty of game stats, and well written advice. The art is good, the layout is well done, and the writing is top notch. What more can I say?<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: As with any rpg book, there were things I didn?t like. A few of the super-powered villains didn?t really fit the feel of my campaign, and some of the background information doesn?t completely jibe with my established group. These are minor flavor points, and can be adjusted without significantly altering the book?s usability.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Ogham (pronounced OH-am) is a real-world language that developed among the Celtic people in ancient times. The language, which still exists in a somewhat altered form, can be traced back to the mysterious druids, making it a perfect fit for inclusion in Dungeons & Dragons and other d20 games that make use of the druid class.

In many ways, Ogham is similar to the early Viking runic language, which is probably what most gamers think of when the idea of runes comes up in fantasy gaming. Like runic, Ogham uses fairly simple characters carved in wood or stone. In a culture with a strong tradition of passing down history orally, the Celts had little use for a written language. Writing was the province of the scholarly, something that must have seemed somewhat mysterious and perhaps a bit magical to the common folk. Like the Viking Futhark, the letters of Ogham may have been thought to hold more than just a mundane meaning. Indeed, each letter is associated with a kind of tree, and is thought to have a symbolic meaning as well as literal one.

I explain all this to show you how well Ogham fits in with the D&D druid. The druid class has always given its members access to a secret druid language, a language kept deliberately vague by the game?s designers. For those DMs wishing to flesh this secret language out in a little more detail, Ogham seems like a perfect solution. Bardic Lore: Ogham gives you enough background information to incorporate the Ogham tongue into your campaign without much effort.

In addition to the background details, this PDF also presents rules for using Ogham as a kind of druid-based rune magic. The examples include a couple different kinds of wards that can be placed on standing stones, as well as a means to enhance spells using different Ogham symbols carved onto wood or stone tablets. I thought that the rules really fit the flavor of druidic magic, giving an in-game mechanic to govern such things as magical standing stones. Unfortunately, I think these rules are probably more useful to a DM fleshing out a celtic-inspired campaign that they are to a player. The majority of the Ogham items are costly and difficult or impossible to transport.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: To draw an analogy, this book is basically the length and depth of a quality article in Dragon Magazine. If you?re interested in expanding on the secret Druidic language, or you want to flesh out the history of druids in your campaign world, Ogham is a perfect fit. This product does all the legwork for you, giving you the basics and leaving the fine-tuning up to your individual tastes.

The rules are well designed and can be added to your game with little headache or worry about upsetting game balance. The book looks very professional, with a nice layout and easy to read graphical representations of the Ogham alphabet. There isn?t really any art to speak of, but its absence doesn?t hurt the final product in any real way.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It would have been nice had this book been a bit longer. Don?t get me wrong, I think it?s a fantastic value for the money, I just really liked it and would have liked to see a bit more.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

?I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it.? ? Marlon Brando, ?On the Waterfront?

Contenders is a roleplaying game about professional boxing. Rather than focus on the glitz and flash of the pay-per-view superfights, Contenders deals with the seedy underbelly of the boxing world. Characters are desperate and downtrodden, with no means to escape the hand that life has dealt them but the ring. It?s something like film-noir, with the squared circle representing the struggle to overcome pain, fear, and personal demons and ultimately achieve a better life.

The game is different from the majority of roleplaying games in a few key areas. First of all, it uses playing cards to resolve conflicts rather than dice. Maybe it?s the D&D gamer in me, but the idea of drawing cards just isn?t as appealing as rolling my trusty dWhatever and praying for a good result. To the game?s credit, though, the card system is very easy to use. In most cases, all that matters is the color of the cards drawn: red suits are successes, black suits are failures. I miss my dice, but the cards work just fine for their purpose in this game.

The second difference, and probably the most profound, is Contenders? lack of any kind of Gamemaster. Instead, each player takes a turn running his or her character through a chosen type of scene. Scenes are divided into categories, and each allows you to improve your fighter and / or advance his storyline in different ways.

For example, a player may decide that, during his scene, his Contender is trying to get extra work to earn money. The outcome of the scene is determined by the drawing of cards, and the player?s character is affected depending on whether the scene was successful or not (he either earns money, or he fails and instead earns a point in his ?pain? stat). Once the outcome has been determined, the active player roleplays his scene while the other players take on the role of the NPCs. What exactly happens is up to the active player, as long as it correlates with the results shown on the cards.

Finally, Contenders is a roleplaying game with a clear ending and a means to win or lose?sort of. There is a built-in endgame, which is reached after a character achieves a certain score in his reputation stat. At that point, you must determine whether your character achieved his dream (whatever that was) or whether he succumbed to his demons and failed to realize his goals. There is a means in-game for players to hinder the success of other players, so in a small way the game is competitive. In the end, though, it?s not about whether your Contender wins or loses, but about roleplaying the journey he takes to get there.

Since the game of Contenders is about professional boxing, there is of course a system for resolving fights. Basically, a player selects his overall strategy each round and tries to score more successes than his opponent. A player can try to play to his character?s strengths, and fighting options range from conservative to all-out aggressive. It?s fairly simple, but the level of strategy should keep things interesting and exciting from bout to bout.

All RPGs are about conflict on one level or another, and the strongest conflict in Contenders is the battle of the fighter against himself. Every scene, whether it?s a boxing match or a visit to an ailing mentor, has a built-in mechanic that reflects a fighter trying to build up the positive in his life and reduce the negative. Along the way, there are opportunities to use the negative to try to achieve success, but that path is a dangerous and generally self-destructive one to follow.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The main strength of Contenders lies in its clear focus on its central conflict. It?s primarily a game about people in a bad situation trying to overcome their personal shortcomings and achieve success in a brutal, gritty setting. The secondary conflict, the boxers vs. one another, generally feeds and supports the first.

There aren?t a lot of rules, and what few are here either serve to advance the main conflict, or help to create the story structure. The designer did a good job trimming the fat, giving us a sleek and simple game engine that does what it?s intended to do.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Before it was revised, this book was written in only 24 hours. At times, that fact shows through in the final design. The graphics and flavor bits of Contenders are already pretty sparse. If you trim them down, you?re left with a very bare-bones game. While I praised this fact above for its affect on the game mechanically, aesthetically Contenders looks a bit rushed. I think the layout and final presentation could have used some additional polishing.

There were a few instances where the game could have abandoned its ?less is more? approach and given the reader a bit more info. Early in the book, the book says that all you need to play is pencils, paper, and a deck of playing cards. Not until way later in the book does it mention that two jokers need to be left in, and it never does mention how often you should shuffle the deck. Problems like this are minor, but they could both be avoided with a little more clarity and better organization.

Finally, I wouldn?t recommend Contenders to inexperienced roleplayers. While the game itself is fairly simple to learn, a lot of it involves cooperative story-telling and improvisational acting. A bit more guidance on how to effectively do this would have ensured that new gamers weren?t overwhelmed, and that the beer-and-pretzels crowd had a bit of a helping hand to keep them going.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

EDIT: Since my original review of this product, Tabletop Adventures made a number of small changes to the Deck o? Names generator. I rewrote my review to reflect the updated version. I also raised my final star rating.

The Deck o? Names is a unique product that uses printable cards to generate character names for roleplaying games. The Deck o? Names Generator is a bit of software that utilizes the same system, albeit behind the scenes.

The generator is very easy to use. With the click of a mouse, it allows you to create a list of 1 to 1000 names. Additional created names can be added to the list, or the entire thing can be cleared to start fresh. The software is easy to download and transport, requiring no real installation. A simple HTML file is included for male and female names (one for each), and a small folder holds all the relative data. The necessary files weigh in at about 7kb, making the generator a very small commitment for the GM who uses a laptop at the gaming table.

Most of the names have a generic fantasy quality to them, and could be used for characters from a wide range of races and backgrounds. Unfortunately, there is no way to refine your lists if you?re looking for a certain kind of name. Your only option is to create a huge number of names and simply pick what you like, which is effective, but it does slow things down a bit. The program does allow you to instantly alphabetize or randomize the names, which is helpful when working with a really big list.

The system does give you some names that look or sound very similar to one another (compare Abraby to Abrady or Benjaan to Benjain). This is due to the nature of the Deck o? Names system, and it usually only occurs when I creating long lists of names. I don?t think it?s a big problem, but it?s something to watch out for. The ability to alphabetize your list makes it pretty easy to ignore names that you think are too similar.

The updated version now gives you the option of removing duplicate names from the list. There is also a button that lets you know exactly how many names you?ve generated, so you can easily see how many dupes were removed from your initial list of 1 to 1000. The count feature also confirmed my initial hunch that the Deck o? Names generator generally doesn?t create a lot of duplicates. A list of 1000 seemed to create around 25 dupes, and a list of 30 never gave me any repeats at all.

Other new features include a means to output the current list to a printer-friendly format, sorted in one, two, or three columns. While this wasn?t essential, it?s a nice addition whether I?m printing the page or copying and pasting to a World file. Also, the ability to save lists is either a new feature or something that I initially overlooked. Either way, it?s a welcome feature for anyone wanting to use the quick randomizing / alphabetizing features of the generator with a previously created list.

With the added features, the Deck o? Names generator has become a must-have program on my personal laptop. It has the means to create some 34,000 different names and, unlike some other name generator programs, almost all of them are instantly usable at the game table.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The program is very simple to use and it?s small enough to transport anywhere you might be gaming, whether via the laptop, a floppy disk, or some other means. Any GM that does a significant amount of world-building will find this program useful. It?s lightning-quick and can generate very large lists of names without much effort, making it a nice tool both during preparation and in actual gameplay. It has all of the features to make it good at what it does, without bogging it down or limiting its portability.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: My major criticism of this program is really a criticism of random name generators as a whole: While they?re good at giving you lots of results very quickly, it?s hard to refine those results into something useful. The Deck o? Names card system that is the heart of this program goes a long way toward eliminating names that are totally unworkable (Ludhmr Gulgul or something of that nature). Unfortunately, it doesn?t do much to help ensure that the generated names fit a specific type of name.

It?s a minor flaw, and has more to do the nature of random generation than it does the Deck o? Names generator itself. Future expansions could certainly target specific races or genres without significantly limiting the program?s portability. The Deck o? Names system is a pretty good name generation tool, and I?d welcome expansion.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

The Deck O?Names is a PDF product containing a few hundred cards that can be printed out, cut apart, and then used to generate random names either during game preparation or on-the-fly during the course of an adventure.

The cards each have four name segments, one segment each on the top, bottom, and either side of the card. To use them, one simply shuffles, selects two cards at random, and then matches up a white bordered segment with a gray bordered segment to create a name. If the name doesn?t work, simply rotate the cards to create a new combination until you get something you like. I thought that the best way to test it was to try it myself. For this example, I printed out a single page from the male deck and cut it apart.

I grabbed two cards from my mini-deck smaller sample and generated the name Trithew. Not bad, but let?s switch up the first card a little to get something different. Rotating the card to the other white-bordered name segment, our name changes to Fredthew. Fredthew doesn?t work at all, and I?m not totally sold on Trithew (sounds elven to me, and I was looking for a human name), so I switch the two cards around. According to the instructions, I should use a white bordered name followed by a gray, so I have to rotate the cards again since I?ve switched them. I turn each of them a quarter turn and generate the name Matrick. Now, that?s a name I can work with. Matrick took about 15 seconds to generate.

While my tiny experiment was just a single generation, I can see that cards have a certain advantage over random tables and dice. With dice, if you don?t like a result you have to roll again, double check the new result, and go from there. Rotating and swapping the cards until I found a combination that I liked was much faster and somehow more satisfying.

The disadvantage to cards is that they require some assembly. For my example, I just printed off a single sheet on regular paper and hacked them apart with a paper-cutter. Ideally, you?d want to print these on some kind of cardstock and then cut them apart carefully to insure a uniform size. If you aren?t very skilled at crafty sorts of things, this might dissuade you from actually making use of the decks. The designers could have helped out by including advice on the ideal method for cutting up and arranging to the cards. I don?t know a thing about cardstock or, for that matter, printing. Is there some ideal paper thickness for printing out cards? Is there some kind of precut ?square cards? paper I can pick up at the local printing shop? While I can figure all this out on my own, more advice from the designers on what works and what doesn?t would have been helpful.

If you?re like me, naming things can be the hardest part of adventure design, and any help on that front is greatly appreciated. In a perfect world, I like to generate NPC names in advance. If the players know that I haven?t bothered to name the barkeep, then they know he?s probably not an important character. Having a name for everyone helps with verisimilitude and it keeps the players paying attention. Obviously, coming up with a name for every city guard, shoemaker, and haberdasher in town is more work than its worth. My solution has been to generate a large list of names that can be used as needed. While the Deck o? Names would be a big help in making this list, it also presents another solution. A quick GM could discretely select two cards at the beginning of the session and place them behind the screen. Whenever a random name is needed, the GM could simply look down and pick from the dozen-plus name combinations on the two cards. After that, he would need only shuffle the deck, redraw, and wait until another name was needed.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Cards are a very nice tool for random name generation. The design lets you generate a list of possibilities randomly and then tweak them into something that you like. Some assembly is required, of course, but once you get them done I think the decks are something you?ll definitely use at the table.

Random names are hard to do well, and the Deck o? Names is certainly capable of coming up with some goofy results. The designers compensated for this a bit in the way they broke up the names into segments rather than syllables, and it does help. It?s also fairly easy to switch the cards around (or even just pick from the available choices) and turn something like Fredthew into Matrick.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I would have liked to see a little more thought given to the uniformity of the names. The decks use mostly english names, but the way they are combined and selected you end up with a real hodgepodge of fantasy names, ranging from human, to elven, to gnomish in the way they sound. Future expansions will supposedly use names from languages other than English, but I?m curious how that will affect the end results.

I have a feeling that, for example, Spanish names would give a similar mix of eclectic results. It?s great for coming up with a list of general names, not so good if you?re looking to name someone of a specific race.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Ninja Burger is a fast food restaurant that caters to ?a very special clientele?powerful people in impossible situations who need?food delivered. Presidents in the midst of high-pressure negotiation in secret chambers. Wealthy elite in remote chateaus atop distant mountains. Soldiers pinned down behind enemy lines.? As their name implies, Ninja Burger accomplishes these incredibly difficult deliveries by utilizing highly-trained ninja, elite assassins who guarantee delivery to anyone, anywhere in less than 30 minutes.

The above statement is, of course, a paraphrased description of the organization behind Ninja Burger: The Roleplaying Game. The thing that strikes me most about Ninja Burger is the duality of the idea behind it. On one hand, it?s silly in that carefree, childish way that appeals to the 10 year old boy inside me. The same boy that once remarked to his friend ?you know, a real ninja wouldn?t have to wait for the light to change to WALK. A real ninja would just jump over the cars.?

On the other hand, the idea of a crack team of highly-trained stealth deliverymen isn?t that implausible. I mean, it IS implausible, but in a world just a little more like the movies?well, in a world like that, it doesn?t seem like that much of a stretch. If a fast food company wanted to absolutely ensure that they could deliver burgers as quickly and discreetly as possible, who better to hire for the task than a bunch of ninja? This grain of surreal logic is what gives Ninja Burger its humor. If you take what we typically imagine about ninja and ninja culture (however inaccurate that may be), and apply it to the stressful world of food preparation and delivery, you find that the two fit surprisingly well. The result is an utterly hilarious premise for a roleplaying game. Plus, you get to play the role of a ninja. What could be better than that?

Ninja Burger: The Roleplaying Game uses the PDQ (prose descriptive quality) system. The rules are pretty straightforward, and should be easy to pick up for anyone familiar with roleplaying games. Basically, tasks are automatically successful if the character?s relative skill is high enough. If success isn?t guaranteed, the character must roll equal to or greater than a target number on 2d6. Conflicts are resolved by having both parties make a roll, adding relative stats, and comparing the results.

Characters are defined by their skills, which can be as broad as ?Driving? and ?Swordsmanship? or as specific as ?Zeppelin Pilot? or ?Kendo?, depending on the style of play. PDQ encourages descriptive skills, so skills usually have names like ?Can?t Control Temper? or ?Dashing Good Looks.? The one stat all Ninja Burger employees have in common is the ?Ninja? skill, which handles everything?ninja-like.

PDQ seems like a good fit for a semi-serious and fast-paced game like Ninja Burger. The open nature of the skill system lends itself well to a kind of free-form playing style where the players? imaginations define their characters abilities. The rules should appeal equally to casual gamers as well as more serious ?roleplayers.? The designers give you a few ideas to help you tweak the rules a little, and the sample settings serve as useful examples.

One of the things I liked most about Ninja Burger was the idea of the Game Master?sorry, the Dispatcher, as a character. Not only does the game expect you to stat up a GM character, but you?re encouraged to narrate the game ?in character.? The Dispatcher is the guy in the satellite van, tapping into surveillance cameras and warning the characters that ?three goons armed with M16s just entered the building?s back door. We?ve got 5 minutes to deliver the food and get out of there, or we?re in for a firefight!? Like the rest of the rules, the exact capabilities of dispatch depend on your style of play, although the book gives helpful advice (with fun and dramatic tension are encouraged above all else). While the end effect is largely the same as other RPGs, in Ninja Burger the players feel like the guy behind the screen is right there with them, knee-deep in pirates, zombies, and extra mustard.

In addition to the PDQ core system, Ninja Burger has a number of rules that add to the flavor of the setting and encourage ninja-like behavior. These rules include honor, seppuku (ritual suicide for failure on the job), passage of time, salary, and a few other things related to ninja, burgers, or both. Like the core rules, these supplementary rules are pretty easy to learn, and they all add to the game. Some will be more or less important, depending on the kind of game you want to play, and plenty of advice and options are presented to help you decide what to use and when.

The final part of the main book is devoted to a sample setting (San Francisco) and a sample adventure. I was pleasantly surprised at the detail of the setting. While I wouldn?t recommend purchasing Ninja Burger as a guidebook for planning your next trip to San Francisco, the maps, charts, and general information should be more than adequate for running adventures there. The adventure, set in San Francisco, is a humorous take on Kill Bill featuring enemy ninja, monkeys, and Alcatraz. I?ve not run it, but it seems to capture the feel of the game perfectly, and should serve as a good intro for new players.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Ninja Burger: The Roleplaying Game is great. I picked it up mainly out of curiousity. Once I started reading it, I couldn?t put it down (figuratively speaking, of course). It?s well written, it?s funny, it?s clever, the rules are well designed?I really can?t say enough nice things about it. Ninja Burger does what it sets out to do, and it does so brilliantly.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Obviously, a game like Ninja Burger doesn?t appeal to everyone. It?s a humorous RPG, and its mechanics are pretty fast and loose. People that like a more detailed ruleset may, for example, be bothered by a game that has a skill called ?ninja? that lets you do ?ninja kinds of stuff.?

Also, while the authors have made an effort to give Ninja Burger players the tools to play long term campaigns, I really think the game would work best as an on-off filler game. A really fun on-off filler game, to be sure, but not something long term.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This PDF is the follow-up to Bits of Darkness: Dungeons. Like the other books in this series, Dungeons II offers a collection of descriptions that a GM can insert into his or her campaign to build suspense, enhance atmosphere, and otherwise improve the feel of the game. As the name implies, this product focuses on dungeons and other subterranean environments.

The book divides its descriptions into a number of different categories, each with a clever title that alludes to the description?s size and its role in the building and running of adventures. These categories include Shards, Bits, Bricks, and Splinters. Each of these elements is designed to be useful in different ways. Splinters and Bits are short descriptions (one sentence each in the case of the former) that can be used on-the-fly to spice things up. Shards are longer descriptions, and are meant to be picked during the planning process before the adventure. Bricks are like Shards, but are designed to serve as major locations and features within the dungeon.

One of the main strengths of this book is the quality of the descriptions. Not only is the writing good, but the ideas are clever and often inspirational. Reading them, I?m left wanting more. I think the average D&D group would take these random descriptions as important clues. A clever DM could get a lot of mileage out of even the shortest Bit, turning something that is truly random into a major dungeon feature or adventure hook. With a little less prep time, the various short descriptions could be dropped in to enhance the mood and keep the players on their toes.

New to Dungeons II are Bricks, which are essentially mini toolkits to help you design typical dungeon rooms and features. A few examples include an armory, a guard post, and a mostly tongue-in-cheek version of Schrodinger?s room (a physics paradox with which you may or may not be familiar). These rooms are mostly mechanics free, instead giving you a description and a listing of appropriate features. The idea is that a skilled DM could use the Bricks to build a fairly detailed section of a dungeon. Some of the Bricks contain encounters, while others are meant to be used as traps. The mechanics are sound here, and the traps and encounters are interesting. The only drawback is that the Bricks are meant to represent typical dungeon rooms, meaning that a DM looking for something very different or innovative probably won?t find it here. They work well for what they are intended, though, so I?ll just note that a little more variety would have nice alongside the typical rooms.

Dungeons II places more emphasis on things that are helpful during the planning phase of an adventure, as opposed to things like Bits that are meant to be dropped in during the course of play. I think this change in focus from earlier products is a good design decision. While I think that adding the occasional random Bit or Shard into my narrative would improve my D&D sessions, Dungeons II is probably best used as a source of ideas for building interesting dungeon features and encounters. Think of it as an inspirational toolkit that can also be used on-the-fly from time to time.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Tabletop Adventures has a very cool series of products here. They fill a unique niche in d20 gaming, they are very well written, and they really go above and beyond their intended purpose. Any DM that runs the occasional dungeon-crawl should have this PDF in his or her library.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Reading through this book, I?m reminded of a problem with roleplaying games in general. Boxed flavor text doesn?t seem to work very well in actual play. Even the most attentive player seems to gloss over a bit while the DM is describing the environment. This isn?t a fault of this product, or course, but it does raise the fear that some of this rich description may be lost on the typical d20 group. I?m especially leery of particularly wordy passages. There were a few Brick descriptions that lost me as a reader, and I can?t imagine using them verbatim at the gaming table.

Fortunately, these are the exception; I think that the majority of the flavor text here is brief, descriptive, and easy to use as-is.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>