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So, rather than post when I review a 5th edition product on the 3pp product discussion forum, I will do so here. I have begun to do many reviews, and my intended focus for the last few months has been on 5th edition. So, let me briefly post here the products that I have reviewed.
So far, I only have 3 reviews, but that is set to change.
Legendary Games-
Road to Destiny (5E)
Beasts of Legend: Coldwood Codex (5E)
Jon Brazer Enterprises-
Book of Heroic Races: Player Races 1 (5E)
Glowing reviews. I recognize you on this forum, but otherwise as a consumer I'd want to know more about your scale, as you've only given 5/5 reviews so far.
My top half scale would be:
3/5: I don't regret this purchase, it's not broken, but not inspiring either.
4/5: A good product if you're looking to add new races/monsters/etc.
5/5: An amazing product that you should seriously consider even if you weren't originally looking for new races/monsters/etc.
I do appreciate the disclosure that you had review copies, that's classy.
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Your scale more or less matches mine. Let me be a bit more original and expressive though.
3/5: Not a bad product, maybe very specific in scope, or perhaps just missing a little something extra.
4/5: Excellent, great scope, lots of usability, typically well priced. These products usually fall short of 5/5 because they have a number of minor flaws, such as production issues or understandability.
5/5: Knocked it out of the park and got everything right. I would recommend you buy this even if you didn't specifically need this for your campaign. You can find inspiration in this book.
I give my "royal" approval (I am the Elven Wizard King) to something that is especially outstanding, or impresses me above and beyond. A lot of these products pay attention to detail, and are written with passion or fun in mind. I would call this a je ne se quoi, since sometimes you just feel that in the reading.
Check on some of my non-5th edition reviews, there are a few 4 stars therein.
Jon Brazer Enterprises-
Book of Heroic Races: Player Races 1 (5E)
Thank you very much!
Roger Ebert talked about the je ne sais quoi factor more than once. As I remember he described the difference between a 3 or 4 star movie (He maxed out at 4 stars) as relying on how well the movie you were actually watching in the real world lived up to an ideal version of itself in the best of all possible worlds.
This is probably one of those questions that's more trouble than it's worth, but what separates 1/5 from 2/5 in your opinion?
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A 2/5 would be an amateur effort. Text on white background, maybe some typos, and very little art. 1/5 would be all of that and no heart in it. Or something definitively overpowered, or a gross misunderstanding of the rules(either in scale, balance, or otherwise). 0/5 is FATAL.
Comparing anything to FATAL is the Godwin's Law of TTRPG discussions...
What is FATAL? I've heard horrible things about it, but only vague innuendos. Is it the Nickleback of RPGs?
I couldn't even find it on Wikipedia!
FIXED LINK
I fixed the link.
Yikes!
I'm not reading the rest of that!
I got as far as 900 page rulebook, and it seems really unpleasant to boot.
So, basically a really clunky game system about a lot of unfun stuff.
And I hated Hackmaster....
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Here is another review of the 5th edition Kensei from Tripod Machine! 4 out of 5 stars. Great for anyone wanting to play a wandering swordsman.
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Yikes!
I'm not reading the rest of that!
I got as far as 900 page rulebook, and it seems really unpleasant to boot.
So, basically a really clunky game system about a lot of unfun stuff.
And I hated Hackmaster....
A more fitting title for FATAL would have been Misogyny: The Role-Playing Game.
The game stated unapologetically that women were inferior in every way to men. Its game mechanics reflected that. The author attempted to justify these rules with factually incorrect appeals to history, and quotes from "great philosophers" like Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and St. Paul.
I wish I was kidding when I say that this pile of excrement provided game mechanics for raping women and young girls. I mean, pages and pages and pages of game mechanics for rape. Including how to rape someone to death. It treated rape like a big joke.
On the rare occasions I have run across a print copy of FATAL in a used bookstore, I always buy it. So that I can throw the thing into the nearest Dumpster, to make sure that it doesn't fall into the hands of an impressionable youngster. (I have done this twice.)
FATAL...........and we wonder why gaming gets a bad reputation. It's garbage like this that does it.
