 
Sign in to create or edit a product review. I must be fair and inform you that I am friends with the author, but I bought his book on Lulu to support his efforts and I will be fair with my review. It's great that Paizo is now offering this book. Here it goes: This book is about as far away from mainstream as you can get. I called it the Anti-Harry Potter, but that doesn't even begin to do it justice. Read it for the shock value. Read it for the zinging one liners. Read it for the fascinating setting--a world familiar yet horrifying. The novel moves at a break neck speed, fueled by pornographic images, the longing for cigarettes and vodka fueled strippers and a desperate need to be accepted and/or save the United States from demons. Giving more details would be giving out spoilers and one should... More > not spoil the fun that is this novel. As a fan of conventional fantasy, hard core science fiction, alternate history novels and historically based stories, I wasn't sure what to make of this book. I'm still not sure. After reading it, I'm sure I've damaged my psyche' somehow and I will never, ever, ever use the term goatboy again. Clinton Boomer's imagination and the ability to create a mood is incredible. The novel leaves many literary conventions behind...many loops are left open, many issues unresolved, but finishing it was like finishing a sprint....a sprint where your pursuer wants to rape you and you cross the finish line, winded, victorious, with a leather clad stripper handing you a cold beer at the end and smacking you on the rear end. You feel slightly violated, but also slightly vindicated. I want Royden Poole to take over Hogwarts. If you're a teenager and you want to shock your parents, read this book. If you're a "grown up" and want to to laugh our butt off, shake your head in mock disgust and wonder about 'who the hell thought this stuff up?' read this book. You'll never be the same, I guarantee it. I picked this game up at GenCon as a stand-in for nights when not enough players show up for a D&D game. What a perfect choice! This game is never the same thing twice and while it's simple to play, the choices and approaches vary greatly and many different strategies can be employed to try to win this game. Once you get used to the rules, the game is very fast to play, but the 60 minute time advertised on the box is a very optimistic estimate. Party selection, magic item placement and spell selection is very similar to the choices one would make in a fantasy RPG and gives it the RPG feel. I played the game tonight against just one other person and it was a lot of fun. Here are some problems, none of which prevented me from giving it a 5 star rating, which it deserves, but should be worked out in the game's next print run--1) Rule clarifications desperately needed in many places. 2) Some cards and rule references refer to some terminology not present in the game (blacksmith cards). A simple answer fixes this issue, but for a $60 game, I expected a little more quality control. 3) The box is too small to hold all the pieces after they've been punched out from the counter sheets. This means the game box won't last very long, which is too bad because it's attractive. Still, overall, this is a GREAT board game!! Dozens and dozens of unique characters, combined with unique items, strange traps, weapons, magic, spells, prayers...the variety produced by the simple combinations is virtually endless. The board is two sided, one a smaller dungeon and the other one is a larger one for experienced players and/or larger groups. Well designed--just needs some errata TLC and some tweaking and it'll be perfect. Best board game I've played since Settlers of Catan, hands down. Reign of Discordia is a classic science fiction RPG product, integrated into the elegant and easy to play True20 system. Darrin Drader and RDP did a great job of recreating the feel, look and flavor of some of the timeless early Science
Wow--I feel dirty just having read this book. What a nasty race of beings. I ditto what GGG said about this supplement. It can be easily adapted for 3.5 and other game systems, since True20 is so rules light. Blight Elves gives you an instant campaign villain--a whole society of incredibly evil, incredibly vile and fully detailed elves who are going to make even veteran players squirm. There are so many ideas and concepts in this book that can be robbed for your campaign. If your campaign is languishing mid term and needs a kick start--have your players encounter and start fighting the blight elves and they'll not rest until every last one of these b%~!#es if put to the sword. How crazy is this? I'm going to adapt this supplement for my Star Trek True20 game--these lovelies are going to make a horrifying villain--a whole planet of Blight Elves and they ain't afraid to go into space to spread the 'love.' After many years of neglecting my decades old pulp addiction, Almuric arrived on my doorstep. I was halfway through a different book, but I put it down to read this one in two days. What a refreshment! Howard's visions are just a blast to read. Mighty thews, lopping of the heads of your depraved enemies while seducing the ivory skinned fair maidens of an alien planet....this book is just plain FUN! I really liked the old Merle Rasmussen Top Secret game and its followup, Top Secret/SI. Both of those game systems lacked playability, but had tons of flavor and were excellent tools for modern RPG action. Now this supplement allows someone to bring that same kind of wonderful spy action flavor into their modern campaign, with the playability and flexibility of the True20 system to boot. Well done! Voyage of the Golden Dragon promises a lot and it delivers on its promise. This adventure is filled with intrigue, cliffhangers, combat in exotic locations and full of interesting NPCs, woven into the rivalries and politics of Eberron. Some parts were obviously edited for length and something was lost in the editing, I feel, for certain parts of the module seem "forced" and artificially simplified in order to save word count. It's pretty obvious that Wizards did that and not the author. Yet, the adventure is very entertaining. The role-playing aspects are high and it might take many more sessions than you think to run this for your players if they enjoy role-playing. It's an excellent buy for any Eberron fan, even if parts of the adventure seem chopped off at the knees. Even with those limitations, the talents of Mr. Logue are obvious. I would not have bought this module had it not been for his name on the cover. I wasn't disappointed. The appearance and font reminds me a lot of Dragon magazine of old. So do the eclectic mix of articles and features....that's a double and triple winner in my book--tug at my nostalgic heart strings and deliver useful gaming material on top of that! That list of Underdark monsters arranged by CR ratings is very immediately useful and I like stuff like that. Excellent production
farewell2kings
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I just got the print copy and what a wonderfully glossy, shiny, high quality product it is. I know it's expensive at $12.99, but it is even better quality (much, much better) than any other printed module I've ever seen. The maps are gorgeous and on thick card stock and the glossy pages just jump out at you. The module by Nicolas Logue is a great piece of work as well. Loved the colorful descriptions of the kobold king and while the plot appears simple, the complex NPC descriptions, designer notes and especially the notes about what the NPCs do after the adventure is over are really great ideas and well done. If this is what Gamemastery modules will all be like, I'm all there!!! A great adventure, while simple and straightforward, it's exactly what most DM's need--a quick short adventure to get the dice rolling and engage the players. Good for newbies as well, the mix of wildernis, role-playing and dungeon adventuring in this little gem are a great formula. I guess you're obligated to buy this movie if you're a gamer, since it mentions RPGs, but overall it isn't all that funny. There are some funny parts, but I recommend that if you buy this movie, don't watch it sober, or you'll be pretty disappointed. Don't even think it compares to Dead Gentlemen's "The Gamers." I edited this review because someone gave it 4 stars and 3 stars? What planet do these people live on??? The movie blows, not quite as bad as the original D&D movie, but almost!!! This is a great product to hand the players at the start of the campaign. The map of the city of Sasserine is very detailed and very high quality. Nice job. Those individuals that are complaining about Paizo offering it for free now when they paid for it should realize that the paper quality and thick map cardstock would cost them just as much to print out in such high quality. If they feel they got ripped off anyway, then there's no helping them. Take the player's guide to Kinkos and see how much they'd charge you to print it out on the same high quality paper that the hard copy Player's guide used. I couldn't wait, so I ordered the PDF from Green Ronin as soon as it came out, but I plan on buying a print copy from Paizo as well. Solid optional spellcasting system for those who prefer a more chaotic, unpredictable spellcasting system. The system is not faster and it's not easier than traditional D20 spellcasting systems, but the options for making spell effects go farther, shorter, higher, quicker, all by direct manipulation makes it a really good optional spellcasting system, especially for DMs whose players know every D&D spell by heart. I don't plan on using this system to replace the regular D&D spell system, but I will use it for any other D20 game I run (d20 modern, Thieves' World)...really good book, IMO. If you're looking for something fast and simple, this is NOT the book for you. It will take some work and adaptation to get used to, but I like it. I got #345 yesterday and after Oots, I read the Kostchtchie demonicon article and it is very, very cool. I could think of a campaign where the players have to face thralls of Kostchtchie and aspects of Kostchtchie and all this great background data was included. Awesome article!!! The rest of the issue was really good too...I definitely got my $8 worth (oh wait, I subscribe, I definitely got my $3.50 something's worth) The Were_platypus' equipment array class act is a really good idea. I've been kind of doing something similar for several years, but he put more thought and detail into it and it's one of those articles that's instantly useful in any game. The Sea serpent article is something I've been waiting for a long time without knowing it. It would be cool if some of them made an appearance in Savage Tide, but they're really good for any seaborne campaign. Overall, there wasn't any weak area in this magazine. I'm not a hopeless fanboy all the time as I've questioned some things Dragon does before, but this issue is just stuffed with useful material. It's plagued by some serious typos and some apparent editing problems, plus surprisingly incomplete rules on boarding actions combined with surprisingly detailed rules on ship grappling and ship maximum speed, which I thought could have been handled much easier to stay with the overall simple rules flavor of the whole book. It's not too bad overall. However, the emphasis on cannons and 17th to 18th century ships makes me wonder how much use it'll be to the Savage Tide campaign it was advertised for. The rules are fairly simple and tie in well to d20 OGL rules, but the ship to ship combat and boarding action sections left me scratching my head, plus the book departs from simplicity when discussing wind direction, grappling, ramming and ship speed, with dozens of modifiers and some confusion about when to apply the maximum speed limit and referring to a compass rose without providing for a way to determine wind direction. All of this can be ad-libbed by a competent DM, but one of the things I had hoped for in this book was something complete regarding sea combat and sea travel. It's not a bad buy for $13, but I'm still a little disappointed by some of the mistakes and omissions I've found so far. The ship illustrations and the deck plan included are very nice, however. Voyage of the Princess Ark brought back so many awesome memories to Dragon of old that it made me a little choked up. Gord--never a huge fan of the novels, but the nostalgia gates were wide open. Many cool Dragon related articles. The prison backdrop from Eberron was also very nice and easily adaptable for another campaign. Solid issue, Happy anniversary Dragon!!! They're very nice, high quality and add a nice visual enhancement to my D&D campaign. Good job, I'll order more. It's like a whole book full of Campaign Workbooks rolled into one. I agree with Steve Greer, if you're looking for DM advice or some inspiration to jump start your creative juices, this is THE single best book to get. The advice is largely non-game system dependent and can be easily used in 3.5 with no fuss at all. Of all the books other than the DMG, PH and MM, this is the absolute best and most useful book WotC has produced. Great time and space saver--great artwork, buy this book! I guess I didn't realize how much the classic AD&D content tugged at my heartstrings until I saw the incredible article revisiting all those classic monsters that didn't make it to 3.5. How cool! My wife's favorite monster made it into the magazine as well--the giff. What a great magazine this issue was....all the classic goodness redone for 3.5 is a surefire winner for me every time. I had hoped for more "classic" content, but what I got was an extremely useful hardcover book. The artwork is awesome. While I don't plan on using most of the prestige and core classes in the book, there's lots of inspirational material therein and many of the feats are very useful. The equipment and magic item section is very useful and re-introduced some weapons from 1st edition that had been left out of the PH. I particularly liked the broad-bladed shortspear. The critical hits and bad misses article was the one I had eagerly awaited--I was curious to see how it was reworked for 3rd edition. It's a workable system, but didn't quite have the instant "cool" impact that the original article did. Room for improvement? Just a little, I'm reserving the 5 star review for the Dragon Compendium that really blows me away, but I sure got my money's worth and there's lots of stuff in here that I can use in my campaign. Bloodline Feats--Awesome, I really liked their inclusion in this book!!
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