Megan Robertson's page

Designed as a comprehensive resource for robots within a science-fiction game (and Bulldogs! in particular) this is not just a list of bolt-on parts, but an analysis of what sort of things fictional robots might do, how the sentient ones might think and what sort of folks design and maintain them.

The first chapter looks at the various roles in which robots can be found within the Bulldogs! universe (much of which is, of course, applicable to any space-faring game in which extensive use of robots is to be made). It starts off by describing the discovery of Self Improving Nanocircuitry, the breakthrough that enabled robots to become sentient independent beings, rather than programmed machines. Created at the behest of a casino-owning crime lord, their captive inventors ensured that they learned the true nature of their master and eventually turned him in to the authorities - spawning undercurrents of fear that these new robots were disloyal and bent on taking over! Much research and investigation followed before any more were made, and restrictive legislation was put in place. With almost 200 years of history behind them, modern methods for constructing these SIN-based robots are discussed and their role in the contemporary universe discussed... all in a delightful quasi-academic tone.

Overall, as well as system-specific material (which could be adapted to any D20-based game), this product contains a lot of background discussion about the very nature of robots and is highly recommended to anyone wanting to use robots in a game, irrespective of the game mechanics used.

Read the full review at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

Wow! I didn't think you could do that with a PDF... this product is a system for creating your own dungein tiles. In operation it's very simple - there are a range of options for floor colour, wall position, pillars, stairs and doors: just make your choices from a 'control panel' and see the tile appear before you... then print it out.

Naturally, there are limitations. While the options are versatile, they are finite. No interesting corpses or debris, for example, to litter the place. You have to print your tile straight off, there is no way to store it for later. But the sheer advantages of being able to create a tile that is the way you want it, not just the best fit from whichever tile collections you possess, far outweigh any quibbles.

Although you cannot save tiles, there is a handy grid system to print out beforehand and design the dungeon you want to create which helps you keep track of the tiles you need to make. You can label tiles, to help in laying them out, or rely on memory/your notes and leave them unadorned.

Overall, it is a really useful tool which should appeal to everyone who likes a clear visual presentation of their dungeon to put in front of the players, whether or not you want to use miniatures.

The next entry in the Blueprints series presents fully-detailed Thieves' Guild premises. Well, that's how it started out, whether this is still true is up to you. Maybe it's the new home for your party of characters - or the lair of the banes of their lives in their home town! Or it's fallen into ruin and the characters want to see what pickings have been left... as always, the choice is yours.

Like the best 'organised crime' the place is well-disguised with the ground floor being occupied with legitimate business premises: a tavern, a forge and a stables... all of which are likely to be useful to the thieves upstairs and may even be run by them as a cover for their other activities. The upper levels of the building provide spacious living quarters and training facilities, and if your Thieves' Guild is in need of information or has to keep its members in line, there's even a dungeon and torture chamber below! For those secret forays into the city, there is access to the sewers, although you will need to sneak past a crypt or two to get there.

Technically, the maps come as blue or black vector (scalable) images, with some customisation possible - you can have a scale grid overlay, room numbers, and furniture... or not, as you prefer. Several pages of suggested room designations are given, plus a blank chart if you want to do it differently. Again, a very useful product that every DM really ought to have available.

Presenting a vast temple complex - a veritable citadel, maybe even the headquarters of a major religion within your campaign world - this set of maps will enable you to run all manner of adventures in which religious figures are the opposition or indeed your allies. Be it intrigues in the passageways amongst the devotees of the god your characters serve, or the traditional "Let's go and trash the evil god's temple" that you have in mind, here is an ideal setting: all you need to decide is who and what is to be found within the walls.

Within the PDF, you are offered the choice of printing in blue or black, all in vector graphics (i.e. you can enlarge or decrease the size without affecting the image quality). You can choose to display a scale grid, furniture and/or room numbers, and can have the main walls 'filled' or printed in outline. There's a handy chart for you to write a summary of what each room contains, or of course you can scribble on your map once you've printed it out... no worries about ruining it because you can always print another one.

A versatile and intriging setting which is tempting me to stop reviewing and go write an adventure set here!

The intention of this book, and others in the series, is to provide the DM with a ready-made map of a given location which he can drop into a suitable place in his campaign world to suit the story he has in mind. It's set up so that he can populate the buildings, and work out what's going on... and indeed be inspired by the layout to come up with a good story, perhaps a whole adventure based around the site.

Technically, the actual plans are clearly presented in a more simple form than other 0one Games maps. They are line maps, presented in both blue on white and black on white format - the blue version being a tribute to early TSR dungeons modules, which had the inside cover removeable and printed with a blue on white map of the dungeon for the DM's use. Both versions are done as 'vector graphics' which, if you're not technical, means that they can be enlarged or reduced without losing definition. Moreover, each page has a row of checkboxes which you can use to vary the presentation to suit your particular needs. They allow you to choose to have the walls solid colour or in outline (to save ink), as well as whether or not to display the scale grid, room furniture or room numbers.

The mountain keep has 10 levels from ground floor to the rooftops, as well as a couple of underground levels. Unsurprisingly, the underground levels are fitted out as a gaol, while the ground floor is guardrooms and barracks with a well-defended entrance way. Higher levels provide accommodation for the inhabitants, including some 'state apartments' and an 'audience hall' for whoever the big shot around here might happen to be.

Finally, there's a reference sheet you can use to write in descriptions and other details of each room. All in all, it's a worthwhile addition to a DM's collection of resources, leaving you free to concentrate on the creative and descriptive parts of your craft.

This work is an attempt to get around that common problem of your character knowing more about his surroundings than his player does! Distributed as a free PDF or sold as a bundle to pass around the table so that each player has a copy, the purpose is to provide sufficient introduction to the Ptolus campaign setting (calling it a mere 'city' does it a disservice) to enable the play of character who are either natives of the city or have at least had time to look around a bit.

But first, there's a bit of an introduction from author Monte Cook in which he explains how this is a true D&D city, designed from the outset to inhabit the same world governed by the D20 ruleset, where people expect magic and monsters to exist, and where delving into dungeons can provide great rewards as well as great perils.

The book goes on to present overviews of the districts of the city (and where to get the best pastries as well as other commodities), the important families and personalities in town, and a wide range of organisations. You can also read about the local religions, the main one being the worship of a lawful good deity called Lothian, whose church is embedded in the structure of the empire in which Ptolus (at least nominally) belongs. There's a growing tolerance of other faiths, and - fortunately - of arcane spell use, which the early Church of Lothian attempted to ban as deviltry! There is also a 2-page map showing some of the more important locations your character may wish to visit.

Overall, this is a very good introduction to the city and will be very useful to anyone whose character is going to visit (or come from) Ptolus - and well-nigh essential if you are going to participate in the Ptolus Campaign.

Read the full review at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

Presented in the usual and useful style, the Army Ward details the Circus, a gatehouse, some barracks and a luxurious Headquarters building which combines a command centre with the Officers' Mess (or Officers' Club).

The Circus in particular is very interesting, and should prove useful whether you plan to 'persuade' the characters to compete, or just spectate at any of the many athletic and combatative contests it is designed for. It's a big place, with 2 stories and various entrances, seating areas, etc., which could be used to advantage for plots, fights and chases if just watching the competition is too tame.

The gatehouse is a well-detailed generic one which could be used whatever city wall or fortification you need to explore.

The barrack blocks are built to a standard layout, a bit like the real thing, and options for sleeping quarters, dining hall and an armoury are given. Naturally, these can be repeated as many times as you need depending on the size of your base.

Finally, the Headquarters is a fine building in which any army could take pride. There is plenty of room for planning daring expeditions and gallant defences, for enjoying the social side of army life and so on. Whether your characters serve in the army, have been invited to a formal dinner or have sneaked in to steal the plans for the next invasion, there is plenty of scope for adventure here.

Presentation-wise, there are the usual blue and black versions of each plan, with the ability to choose whether or not to display reference numbers, grid squares, furniture and wall fills. Overall it is an interesting addition irrespective of whether you want to use these buildings in the Great City or as individual components in a city of your own.

Hauntingly familiar to an ageing role-player, this set of maps is an inspired tribute and homage to an early AD&D adventure, Descent into the Depths of the Earth. A long valley with interesting nooks and crannies to stick your nose into, provided you are prepared to do battle with whoever happens to live there, this version is expanded into an area which your players will come back to again and again given half a chance, and filled with the creative uses of PDF technology that regular users of 0one Games maps have come to expect.

There are a total of 19 separate areas to play in, distributed over 6 pages of map. In usual Blueprint style, they are available to print in blue or in black, with a nice touch being a new control which enables you to select 'Print the blue ones' or 'Print the black ones' rather than having to go through the document choosing each page that you want. The 'Rule the Dungeon' control gives you the choice of grid lines, levels, doors, text and much more, and there's an option to add a compass rose (North pointer) to the pages if you wish.

The maps are detailed, with plenty of furniture and such like scattered around (if you chose that option when you Rule your Dungeon); and there are ready reference sheets at the back where you can jot down short descriptions of each individual chamber shown - although you need to print these out and then write on them, it's not a case of text boxes.

There is huge scope here for adventure, be it a straight dungeon crawl - perhaps with your characters returning several times - or an interlinked complex, a mountain fastness of evil that needs to be cleared out. It's different from the original inspiration and yet evocative - so those with long memories will not have an advantage, yet can wax nostalgic about their earlier adventures. Overall, a fine piece of work, maintaining the traditions of the classic dungeon crawl into the 21st century!

This is a simple, elegant and very powerful system for castle design. When you open the PDF (you'll need Acrobat Reader v.6 for this), the first thing you'll see is an explanation of how the system works and an overview of all the tiles in this set. The next page is the 'Control Sheet,' a grid with all the tiles laid out in a rather conventional 'square keep' layout, which is where you pick the tiles you want to use - in that layout or anything else you please. The next page is a blank grid, which is where you create your design, by clicking on the grid square you want to use, then going to the Control Grid and clicking on the tile you want to appear in that location. Once selected you can rotate the tile, or get rid of it if you change your mind. When you have finished, there's an even neater trick - the file will automatically print out just the tiles you need to create your design on the tabletop. You can also print out the design page to use as a convential map or just to remind you what the castle ought to look like when you come to lay it out before your players.

This collection represents the top level of a castle, basically the rooftops. So here's to some epic swordfights across the tiles...!

Following on from Skirmish Tiles: Castle System Upper Level, this file enables you to create the 'top floor' of your castle. It works exactly the same way, with a system that lets you select and arrange the tiles you want on a master map and then print out just the tiles you need from the collection of full-size tiles ready for your game.

It's an excellent use of the current heights of PDF technology, and should inspire those who have been hoping for some above-ground maps from 0one (OK, we do have an Inn...) to start designing adventures to make the most of the castle(s) they can create with the Castle System.

In most fantasy campaign worlds there is a rich pantheon - or even several pantheons - of deities, but Arthad is somewhat different. There were gods, but after a climactic battle they mostly killed each other (and a large proportion of humanity) off, and any survivors fled. However, what the common people call 'The Spirit of the Gods' remains, a pervading power known as Harmony which has the happy effect of allowing clerical magic to still work, albeit a bit differently from normal.

The book opens with the background theology of Arthad, a brief run-down of the deities' murderous quarrel and its aftermath, and a list of the key players both on the side of Light and those of the Dark. It's essential reading for anyone wanting to run the Arthad-based adventures completely within this setting, rather than using them in a modified form elsewhere. It's a good example, as well, of how to create a detailed background theology for your own campaign world, even if you don't want quite such an unusual one.

Despite the absence of 'Gods' to worship, there are still groups, known as 'Brotherhoods,' who band together with a common view and purpose to conduct rituals and further their own ends. Many do not seek to spread their philosopy and may retreat from everyday life, living communually in isolated monasteries; while others mix more freely with non-religious people. However, the main contact the ordinary people have with the religiously-inclined is with 'Mystics' who practice the healing arts.

There is a detailed section on how to create your own Brotherhood - a type of community that would work well as an occasionally occuring organisation in any fantasy world even if you are not using Arthad as written - followed by complete write-ups of several Brotherhoods (and at least one Sisterhood!) that exist on Arthad.

Read the rest of the review at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

Presented in the lush 'stone effect' format familar to readers of 0one Games's Master Adventures series, this adventure is partnered with a entry in the Battlemaps series that provides a whole ship, although the bits you'll actually need are provided within the senario itself.

Aimed at 10th-12th level characters, it is set in a fairly generic riverside port town called Rivenwater, which has the right amount of detail to be usable without much effort and yet capable of being dropped into a suitable location in your campaign world. The background to the adventure gives a run-down on events in the distant past which have a bearing on the threat which has re-arisen and places every inhabitant of Rivenwater at risk. Like many adventures, the DM will need to find a reason to put the characters in the town to start things rolling (a few basic suggestions are given), but once they are there, they'll be swept straight into the action by the initial encounter.

While the whole thing is very atmospheric, and it feels like the town and its inhabitants will carry on with their daily lives irrespective of the characters' presence, the adventure itself is quite straightforward, and suited to the party that likes a good fight or two rather than those who want to interact with their surroundings in a more peaceful way. However, if combat - and combat against strange and exotic foes - is what you like out of an adventure, then this one is well worth consideration. You get to skirmish on shore, in the river, on a boat, through a swamp and finally... well, you'll see when you get there! Should you be victorious, you really will have saved the locals from a fate worse than death.

Maps and handouts are beautifully presented, as is the adventure itself. Overall, a well-written and presented combat-oriented adventure that should keep a party of adventurers on their toes.

Beautifully presented in both greyscale and full colour, this product contains detailed plans for an entire small sailing ship. It's the Cottonmouth from the adventure Blood Runs Cold, but naturally has many uses even if you don't want to use that particular adventure in your campaign.

Miniatures-users who want to have a fight on a ship are in for a treat, they can - if they have enough room - have the entire deck of the ship laid out as a battlemap on which to hold their combat. There are numerous other pictures, useful to show your players or just as inspiration - side and top views of the ship and so on.

Even by 0one Games's usual standard, this one is beautiful to look at - and should come in useful too when a ship is needed in the game.

You can read more about products from 0one Games and other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

Here is a collection of caverns, part - as usual with this series - of a larger complex. This time it's the home of a white dragon, and comes complete with odd blue crystalline structures that are supposed to be ice crystals.

The outer chamber contains a frozen pool, while the middle one is pretty much empty (maybe it's where the dragon likes to curl up) and the inner area contains the dragon's horde.

The artwork is in the normal 0one style, and fits in with other products well should you wish to make this part of a larger fully-mapped complex. You can print in colour or greyscale, and there's an option to remove the contents of the caves before printing (if you really want to get rid of the crystals... but of course someone might have already stolen the treasure). Looking at the scale, it must be a fairly small dragon - a larger one wouldn't fit, especially the passage between the big chamber and the treasure cave. Or maybe that's the problem: and a dragon wishes to negotiate some assistance in moving his horde!

There are a couple of ideas for how your characters might find their way there, and what has been going on - or of course you can come up with your own ideas.

You can read about other products from 0one Games & many other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

Presented to the high standard we have come to expect from 0one Games's maps, this product provides details of a small "Mummy's Tomb" - a suite of three chambers suitable for either using as the focal point of an adventure or for dropping in to an existing complex, whatever suits your plotline.

The three rooms consist of the Tomb itself, a laboratory/workshop area and a storage room. Each chamber can be printed out by itself, or as a group - in colour or greyscale depending on your needs. As an added feature, there's a checkbox which allows you to choose to show the rooms empty or with the contents supplied. It's an 'all or nothing' choice, but does provide scope for having characters find that others have been there before them, or that the original occupant packed up and left before they got here. After all, mummies do not always stay where their creators intended!

The laboratory area looks like it was used for mummy preparation, while the store room appears to contain some canopic jars (used to contain the internal organs - heart, liver, etc. - of the mummy). The tomb itself is quite bare, with the sarcophagus in the centre.

Overall, it is nicely put together, but naturally the adventure that leads the characters here, the surrounding area and whoever or whatever is encountered here are all up to you. For those of us who can write but not draw it's a godsend... and there are even a couple of ideas provided in the introduction to get you thinking. Next time you intend for your characters to visit a mummy's tomb, they can do it in style.

You can read about many other products from 0one Games & other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

This offering consists of a subset of an underground cave complex, three caves that comprise a giant spider's lair. The accompanying adventure suggestions include a party of adventurers encounting someone else who's just been bitten by the spider or even a very ingenious one involving a pool and some small spiders...

The artwork is of the usual high standard, and fits in with other products so if you wish to include these caverns amidst the rest of a complex you can. The caves contain lots of webs and some cocoons... the presence or placement of the spiders themselves is left to you. The technological option of an 'empty' switch that allows you to print the area without contents is provided, so if you like the caves but want to use a monster other than spiders you can clear out all the spider-specific items.

Another fine addition to the collection of map components put out by 0one Games, as always of particular use if you use miniatures but a fine visual aid for any game regardless.

You can read more about products from 0one Games & many other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

Although this product follows the standard format of earlier 'Battlemaps Lairs' books, with 3 beautifully-detailed rooms for you to drop into an existing adventure (or to build an entire adventure around, if you are inspired by them), there's the welcome addition of a fully-detailed Bad Guy who may be found there... or for that matter used elsewhere if you prefer.

The three maps presented in this book are a graveyard, an outer balcony or terrace and the mausoleum itself. All seem to be in a fairly poor state of repair, battered and abandoned for a considerable period of time.

The villain provided is Jhntehnn, Ghoul Duke, who was a fighter and tomb robber before he became a ghast - perhaps when investigating this very place (indeed, that's one of the scenario suggestions given - that the characters are hired to find out what happened to the last lot of tomb robbers to visit the mausoleum). As well as full statistics and notes about his special abilities, there is sufficient backstory and tactical information for you to make him come - well, I'd have said 'alive' but that's not quite appropriate for a ghast! - to make him become a real and potent threat your players will remember.

Overall, a nice place you can drop into any campaign - a deserted tomb somewhere little-visited outside town. Either hire the characters to take a look, give them a few rumours (treasure works well here) or just let them come across it when travelling... maybe it's raining so hard that even somewhere as uninviting as this is preferable to lurking under a tree overnight!

Read more about products from 0one Games & other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

This product has 'lair' written all over it... the inner sanctuary of the bad guy your players have been chasing the length and breadth of your world. Now they have run him to earth, and here are a suite of rooms that a mediaeval James Bond villain would not be ashamed to live in - all ready for him to die in!

The rooms provided are a storeroom, elevator chamber, necromancer's laboratory (complete with vats), an arena, an underground channel, a portal chamber (just right for a last-gasp escape into some other dimension), a flooded room, an execution chamber and the villain's bedroom. Each is provided in lush full colour and an optimized grey-scale version for those without access to a colour printer.

Each room has suitable contents - well, I'm not sure about the execution chamber which looks empty but a shadow in the middle may actually be a block and a headsman's axe - and the whole thing just lends itself to creativity. As soon as you look at the rooms, you start imagining what might be going on there. So, if you need a specific room for part of your adventure, a setting for the grand finale, or prefer to sit back and look at the picture while ideas flow in, this is an excellent product to get your hands on.

You can read more about products from 0one Games and many other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

Every time 0one Games produce another set of maps, they are better than the ones before! After customisable maps and walk-through movies, they've returned to the original 'battlemap' suitable for those who like to use miniatures (but beautiful and useful to anyone), but even here the quality and appearance has improved from earlier offerings.

The first room depicted is the entrance to a mine. It's quite technologically advanced, with some rail tracks and trucks and a big furnace of some kind opposite the way out. Light filters in with great atmospheric effect, and various tools have been left lying around as if the miners had just stepped out for a moment.

The next one is probably my favourite - the cartography room. A big room with several racks of shelving and a large table in the middle with several maps spread out over it, a big globe standing to one side. There are scrolls and charts just about everywhere, and you can easily imagine a sage pottering around muttering as he answers obscure qeographical questions posed by the characters, or perhaps a general plotting his next campaign.

There are several other chambers - see the full review at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk - but I shall just mention a couple more here:

A room associated with the temple, and one of those little details that often get forgotten - it's a dressing room for the clerics to put on ceremonial attire and prepare for worship. There are racks of vestments and chests for storage, everything emblazoned with the double-axe symbol of the deity. It may be used for meetings of the religious as well, there's a large chair behind a desk for the senior cleric and chairs around the walls for the others to sit on.

An incredible underground dock: so detailed that you can almost see the water ripple. A small boat is tied up here, and various nautical implements - including a couple of huge anchors - lie around.

These rooms just about cry out to have an adventure written round them.

In the now familiar top-down view, herein is another series of beautifully-designed rooms for adventures to visit and wreak mayhem in.

This batch includes the entrance to a vampire lair and the lair itself, an empty room, a reliquary, a throne room, a room with a big statue, a room with a large - and empty - cage and a fine mirror maze. Each room comes in 3 options: full colour, greyscale or line art; and as always they are populated with suitable artefacts and items. The vampire rooms look like they have been visited before, most of the contents seem to be smashed, but most of the others are in better condition... at least, until your party gets there.

As usual, there's an integral grid for those who want precise measurements or to move miniatures precisely on the plan. For the rest of us, the pictures can serve as inspiration when designing or describing our dungeons, or as a visual aid to show the players what we mean. Again, a worthwhile addition to the collection, especially if you make use of the comprehensive list of all 0one Games' floorplans to design places that are detailed and original.

Read more about products from 0one Games and many other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

A particular delight if you use miniatures in your games, but even if you do not this set of 'room plans' will inspire ideas and make describing locations a treat!

For each room, there are 3 maps - a lush full-colour one, a greyscale version and a line drawing - each designed to print to the correct scale for miniatures use (and with a 5' square grid cunningly melded into the design).

The rooms provided are: -

* Ruined Pool
* Conjurer's study and workroom, complete with hexagram on the floor
* Stairway/hallway
* 'Bridge Room' - a rope and plank bridge across a water-filled room
* Altar of the Spider God - big 2-page spread
* Jail... including one cell with a hole in the wall where the prisoner burrowed out!
* Guard Room
* Magical Well
* Forge

All the maps are very atmospheric and filled with lots of little details. Just looking at them starts spawning ideas about what could be going on there and how they could be woven into an adventure, or if you need a specific type of room you can select the one you want. To be even more useful, there's a checklist at the end showing where every floorplan so far published by 01 Games can be found.

A well-presented accessory, of particular use for those who use miniatures for movement and combat, but not to be disregarded by those who don't!

Read more about products from 0one Games & other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

The intention of this work is to provide beautiful yet affordable floorplans for use in your game. It succeeds!

The book consists of full-page plans of several of the most common adventuring situations (at least, if you do your adventuring underground): a crypt, a dark temple, an armoury, a circular fountain room, a torture chamber (remind me NEVER to go adventuring with the designer!), a library, the entrance to a dungeon and an alchemist's laboratory. Each is provided in a top-down, three-dimensional view in both colour and greyscale (so that you can choose which to print), and each drawing is beautifully atmospheric... it's easy to imagine the chamber that it portrays.

Moreover, each floorplan is fully-detailed with all manner of incidental items... lights, windows, bookshelves, the odd skeleton... which as well as adding atmosphere to the setting in use can serve as an inspiration to the DM when designing his dungeon in the first place. Once you've figured out why a particular item is where it is, perhaps part of your plot has come more sharply into focus, or maybe a new line has been suggested. So even if you don't go in for floorplans and figures, this can be very useful... and even if miniatures are not your thing, the picture can be used as a visual aid to help you describe what your players have encountered. If you do use miniatures, there's an integral 5-foot grid designed into the floorplan (not just overlaid, but worked into the design, usually as the stone flags on the floor) to make life even easier.

You can read more about 0one Games's product (and that of other publishers) at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

Starting with a summary page that gives an overview of the contents, this book contains a series of battlemaps based around the adventure The Divine Alligator. However, although they are designed with that adventure in mind, most elements could be used with your own adventures if they happen to fit what you have in mind.

Each map comes in full colour, greyscale and line art versions. They consist of the circle of reptiles and the obilisks from the approaches to the temple, and 8 rooms from the temple itself including the Chamber of Worship and the central Sancta Sanctorum.

If you are running The Divine Alligator, this will be an invaluable resource - especially if you like using miniatures for combat in your games.

Read more about 0one Games (and those from other companies) at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

The third offering in the Explore series, again a room originally presented as a floorplan in Battlemaps: Dungeon Rooms Vol.1, shows the interior of an armoury. A very neat and tidy one, with racks of jousting lances on one wall, it looks more like a sales area than a working weaponsmith's - a bit surprising as it's supposedly to be found in the depths of a dungeon somewhere.

As usual, there are 4 pregenerated pictures or you can make your own using Quicktime's snapshot facility, or even display the room interior on a computer during play.

Read more reviews on 0one Games' product & that of other publishers at http://www.rpg-resource.org.uk/

This is an adventure for a group of players of 4th-5th level, and it takes place in an unnamed small town - so you can locate it wherever is convenient within your campaign. It provides both role-playing and combat opportunities for your players.

It is presented in an attractive manner, with a stone-effect top border and rather cartoon-like NPC illustrations, counterbalanced by beautifully-drawn maps. The print size is over-large. For those who like to use miniatures with their games, three of the locations most likely to see combat are provided with 'battlemaps.'

The content, however, is well done with an overview of the story followed by more detailed information, beginning with the characters being approached by a beautiful lady (and two thug-like bodyguards) while relaxing in a tavern. The whole adventure is presented as a series of Events (most of which can occur in any order as the characters interact with the story) and Locations, which the characters may visit in their travels. Each person encountered has sufficient detail to enable them to be played as a distinct character in his own right (while detailed statistics are to be found at the back of the book). Most of the locations are part of the Andwan villa, and each room is given a detailed description which should make dealing with the usual player question, "What can I see?" easy.

The actual plotline itself is is quite straightforward but believable, with enough duplicity going on to make the characters have to think. Each NPC has his own reasons for being there, and it's possible to imagine them all going about their own affairs even if they hadn't chosen to bring the characters in to... well, solve a certain problem for them. The problem's valid enough, by the way.

It's a nice adventure, probably good for an evening or possibly 2 of play, and it's self-contained so that it can be dropped in just about anywhere as suits the course of your campaign.

The second in the Explore series, this one allows you to produce for - or (if a computer is available where you're gaming) show - your players a series of views of an alchemist's laboratory as if they were looking around the actual room.

Based on the floorplan first presented in Battlemaps: Dungeon Rooms Vol.1, it's a simple rectangular room with an array of alchemical equipment. There's a big work table, shelves and other equipment - all looks fairly tidy, especially the rather modern-looking shelf unit complete with books and jars.

Again, there are 4 pregenerated views if you are in a hurry, or you can create your own using Quicktime's snapshot utility... or indeed let the players look round for themselves.

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