Alchemy for d20 Modern and other d20 games. Like the other SFX skills books this one is simple, clean and to the point. This one is also a bit longer, has some more art and monster added in for good measure. The price is slightly higher, but the extra content and layout make it worth it. Everything you wanted to know to make an alchemical dabbler or a full blown Nicholas Flammel.

Summon demons and devils for fun and profit for d20 Modern. Or something like that. This book presents a new SFX skill for diabolic summoning and the hazards that go with it. There are plenty of skills here and does a good job of separating out the summoning and the binding skills (you need both). There are no example demons or devil in the book, but there are scores of books out there with this information. I noticed that this book does not contain the usual "don't summon demons, demons are bad, mmmkay?" disclaimer which actually is kind of nice. Of course this isn't real, but UKG and the author don't insult our intelligence with a disclaimer saying so. Some overlap with Enchoican Theurgy, but at this price that is fine.

Summon angels and angelic beings in your d20 Modern game. This small, but packed, book provides a new type of SFX skill for the summoning of various angelic beings to do your bidding. Based (loosely) on the Biblical Enoch, Enochian Theurgy is something that you see an many modern horror games. I would have liked some more creature examples for summoning, but for the price it is a great buy. With a bit of tweaking it would also work for other d20 based games.

This sourcebook for Spirt of the Century (or any Fate system) is very useful, not only for steampunk campaigns, but also because it gives a lot of tips and clues to be used for old technology. Specially considering that SotC is already quite steampunk on its own (zeppelins and such). Highly recommended.

People who’ve been playing the world’s most popular fantasy role-playing game for a long time may remember that, back in its first edition, the illusionist was a class unto itself, separate from their wizard brethren. Subsequent versions have simplified matters, making the illusionist into just a variant of the wizard, without only a slightly greater focus on spells meant to fool other people.

In Sorcerer Specialist: The Illusionist UKG Publishing brings us back the illusionist as its own base class, separate from the wizard once again, for your 3.5 game. This review peels back the illusion and tells you what’s really there.

To start, let’s look at the mechanics of the file. This product comes as two PDFs, one being the book and the other being a printer-friendly layout of said book. This was nice, as too many PDFs nowadays seem to think that printer-friendly versions are a thing of the past. The PDFs both allow copy and pasting, but only the full-color version includes bookmarks (presumably since the printer-friendly copy won’t be used for screen-reading).

The mail PDF file does a nice job with visual presentation. The pages are on a slightly off-white background, and include several full-color CG illustrations sprinkled throughout (in the same style as the resplendent cover). The printer-friendly version, naturally, removes all of this in favor of simple back text on a white background.

Beyond technical presentation though, let’s look at the content. Following the foreword and table of contents, we’re introduced to the illusionist itself. This is a spontaneous arcane spellcasting class, akin to the sorcerer. However, the illusionist has its own spell list (presented after the class) which while it does offer more than just illusion spells, is still fairly tightly focused; no fireballs or lightning bolts here.

The class also has several features built into it. A big one is the illusory familiar; you literally have a familiar that’s little more than a figment of your imagination. It has some interesting abilities (such as being able to turn solid for a short amount of time) but is otherwise a standard familiar. The remainder of the illusionist’s powers are built around specific bonus feats, as they gain things like Spell Resistance and Enlarge Spell, but only for illusions they cast.

A pair of new feats are introduced following this, which aren’t bad, but aren’t anything to be particularly wowed over either. One increases the percentage of how “real” your illusion (shadow) spells are, which is not bad, but the other simply lets you use faerie fire twice per day due to a fey heritage of yours, which is kind of a dud.

Following this are over two dozen new spells. These range from cantrips to 9th-level spells, all for the illusionist class (though a few make it to some other specialized spell lists). There are some real gems in here, such as Deathhunt, which makes the victim believe that everyone they have ever killed is rising from the dead to hunt them down in revenge, or Dax’s Duplicity, which makes everyone think that a specific item rightfully belongs to you.

On the other hand, there are several spells which don’t seem very worthwhile. Shadow Missile, for example, is Magic Missile save for dealing nonlethal damage. Shadow Gate is a 7th-level version of the Gate spell, just to the Plane of Shadow. Dual Image covers something in two illusions at once, so that the person needs to make two saving throws (the example given is a pit covered with the illusion of a normal floor, and the illusion of a bridge beneath that), but it seems like it’s really just making a person save twice and take the worse save, and of course it won’t fool a True Seeing.

Altogether, Sorcerer Specialist: The Illusionist isn’t a bad class for 3.5, it’s just lacking inspiration. Class features that are little more than illusion-specific feats, alongside a pair of new feats and a set of spells that are a decidedly mixed bag, and this is a product that’s good, but not great. If you’re really looking to expand your repertoire of illusion spells, you’ll find some good ideas here, but besides the illusory familiar, there’s not much to separate the base class from the standard wizard that specializes in illusions (unless you really want a spontaneous spellcaster focused in illusions – but a sorcerer with a tailored spell list should take care of that fine). Ultimately, Sorcerer Specialist: The Illusionist isn’t quite the pleasant image it hopes you’ll see it as.

I bought this as part of the sci fi uniform bundle so this review is pretty much for the bundle as a whole. While the image quality is great some of the pictures were poorly scanned and have gray blotches that I'm going to have to clean up. Not a big deal but my other issue with the bundle is some of the uniforms in the bundle looked too much alike, so it really would have been nice to have a preview. Overall though I am satisfied with the purchase.

Description -- BBS is a compliment to any D20 game ruleset, where you can experience a BIZARRE world based loosely on the Victorian era Steampunk Genre.

Easy Rules -- it's an average book; not many pages, but a lot of writing to read through, in order to understand the concept.

Fun to Play -- see the layout description below.

Layout / Design -- the cover artwork is the best piece of art in the whole book. It looks like the design was done as an after-though. There are naked female chests in this book, but not in any seductive way (it's a detraction and a negative to the book's credit, yet know that I personally see little need for porn in game books anyway). The layout of the book is OK and functional, but nothing really grabs your attention.

Like I said before, I'll say it again -- layout matters. Spend the extra money for a professional to do it ...

Worth the money -- Not really, even at 2.50 dollars. (The cover art is superb: correct color scheme, artistic style, really draws you in -- but the inside art let's you down big-time.)

Conclusion -- there are probably better products out there that will enhance your games with Victorian flair.

Dice and Dramatics is an excellent, one-stops source for doing exactly what it says it will do in the description. I tend to write reviews that will help you decide whether it is worth the money or not -- that's what I think the review system in RPG NOW is for.

Therefore, for 7.00 dollars, this is a good product if you are fairly new to the RPG game world and you want to really get into the meat of acting out your adventures at the game table. Otherwise, it is merely an OK product for play, but it does have a nice layout and graphic design.

This artwork is shipped as a zip containing 11 pieces of art as full color JPEG files, and an HTML file to ease viewing. There are also autorun files for MS Windows but you don't need them to access the graphics (I used Ubuntu Linux and had no problems).

The art consists of:

Adam and Eve

A futuristic pair of body builders. Adam is so laden with muscle that this future obviously possesses technology that allows body enhancements that mere steroids will not achieve.

Bud Showin' Off

A shaven headed tattooed super fit male wearing an ultra tech light armor vest, khaki pants with tan knee high boots demonstrates his martial arts high kick. All set in a high tech all metal interior.

Corporate Assault

Two full-body ultra tech armored gun toting figures have just stepped out of what appears to be a cross between a camo'd drop module and a pod from Thunderbird 2.

Look to the Skies

In an urban backwater a capped and eye-patched pilot complete with sheepskin coat, knee high boots and jodhpurs points skyward. He female companion's deep blue eyes looks along his arm. She is wearing a mid-tan cycling outfit with padded shoulders and gray boots.

Marauder

In what could be a current day industrial setting a suited and armored figure walks toward the viewer carrying what looks like a good old fashioned slug-thrower with under-slung grenade thrower.

Move along nothing to see here

Unfortunately this picture portrays violence against a woman.

No admittance

A guard in gray and green-gray armor stands at a ship door with his gun propped nearby refusing entry to a black booted, red headed male wearing mid gray lycra.

Privateer

A bi-pistoled humanoid male with black cyborg eyes and perhaps too even skin is dressed in what appears to be a tan suede suit, complete with silver boot buckles and jacket clasps. I'm not sure whether the smooth skin complexion is an artifact of the render or the artist is deliberately allowing you to possibly use this image as one of an almost human android.

Safe at Last

A blond woman in a shiny dappled pink suit with yellow and white trim, and white gloves nurses an elbow wound while looking through a window onto a space scene which could be a spaceship venting air and bodies.

Vampire Hunter

A redheaded female with a pair of goggles that give her insect like eyes is dressed in a black leather suit with a long coat of the same material. She, the floor and her weapons are bloodied.

Workman's Coveralls

A red-eyed female wearing a green-brown baseball plus and sleeveless coveralls and elbow pads in the same color stands right knee cocked looking into the camera.

The images would be suitable for any scifi or cyberpunk campaign. GMs or players could use them as character (or NPC) appearances, however they are of such good quality you might use them as the license allows for your own web and print publications or simply collect them.

Given its very economical price point, I wanted to like this product more than i did.

If you are playing FATE or Spirit of the Century based games, Thousand-Faced Heroes gives you guidelines for adjusting character skills, stunts and aspects to the "Epic Fantasy" genre,as well as new character concepts, and some quick pick stunt packages to speed up character generation.

No matter what system you are using, TFH gives you an overview of the Epic Fantasy genre with lots of books, movies and other games to pull ideas from, as well an overview of the Hero's Journey and how to use it in your campaign.

Finally,Thousand-Faced Heroes presents a sample Epic Fantasy campaign outline, as well as an introductory adventure. The campaign presented - The Thousand Islands - is fairly interesting, and I would welcome additional and expanded coverage of this campaign in another product.

Some bad editing could be pointed out, but for me my overall disappointment in this book is that the more interesting parts - the different mythical tropes - seem like they could have been more developed (for instance, how could "The Problem of Good & Evil" be used in game to generate adventures and character ideas), while the parts that are developed - the game rules - seem very generic-D&D.

Overall, I feel this is a fair value for its price.

Brass, Blood and Steam is a useful product, especially given its very economical price point.

If you are playing FATE or Spirit of the Century based games, BB&S gives you guidelines for "steampunking" character skills, stunts and aspects, new character concepts, and some quick pick stunt packages to speed up character generation.

No matter what system you are using, BB&S gives you an overview of the Steampunk genre with lots of books, movies and other games to pull ideas from; important tropes to consider in your Steampunk game such as Lost Worlds, Spiritualism, and the role of Women in Victorian culture; and lists of equipment that are current, cutting edge, or futuristic in the Steampunk Era.

Finally, Brass, Blood and Steam presents a sample Sreampunk campaign outline, based in an Antarctic Lost World, as well as an introductory adventure.

Bad points, in brief, are occasional editorial errors - mostly multiple or free floating articles - and some subjects that feel like they could be expanded upon in some length. Mere quibbles in the face of this product's good point.

Overall, I feel this is an excellent value for its price, and a worthwhile purchase for any fan of FATE games or anyone wanting to run a Steampunk RPG with any rules system.

This is an OK product. Its worth the $2.50 I paid, but barely. Its got some great adaptations of Spirit of the Century to the steam punk genre. However, it also has some flaws that made me grit my teeth.

First, the computer generated art, with a few exceptions, clashes with the subject matter (hint: ditch the post apocalyptic stuff, also dig up Victorian clip art). Second, page references are incorrect on several points. See the Experiment, Bartitsu Master, Ghost Finder and Mechanical man. See also Military Mind, Dr. Hill's Electric Pentacle and probably more that I couldn;'t find. Third, the table of technologies (day-to-day, modern marvels and soon to come) seem to have lost their labels making them a bit confusing.

All in all, it could be a better product. However, one aspect that stands out is the sample adventure included. If adventures like this could be made available for BBS, I'd buy them.

One of my favorite ways to begin an adventure is in medias res (Latin for “into mid-affairs”). It’s a nice contrast to start things out when the action is beginning, letting the PCs begin in the at the entrance to the proverbial dungeon rather than have to wade through the sometimes-tedious matter of how they all get together and go adventuring in the first place. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to have a crisis come to them and force them together, which is what Encounters: Year of the Zombie: Dead Stock accomplishes.

Set about two days into the Rising (the inexplicable worldwide uprising of zombies), Dead Stock nominally takes place in the small town of San Jose, but really works anywhere. The nice thing about Year of the Zombie is that the omnipresent threat of the undead (to say nothing of the human threat in a post-apocalyptic world) make a lot of these adventures largely self-driven – when survival itself is near-constantly in jeopardy, the PCs are almost always adventuring. This is true in Dead Stock, which really consists of about four buildings in a corner of town that the PCs can explore. If they’re smart, they can find food, a car or two, and most importantly, guns. Of course, there’s plenty of zombies to go around, particularly if they act stupidly, so it’s quite possible for things to go south in a hurry.

It’s worth noting that while the authors suggest using this to kick-start a YotZ game, this doesn’t have to be used in that manner; it works just as well as a side trek or filler between larger adventures. Dead Stock works best with 4th-level characters, ideally civilians who are still Ordinaries rather than Heroics.

For a set piece, I was fairly impressed with the extras that the author threw in. For example, there are tables to determine if and how many zombies are attracted, varying on the PCs noisiness, particularly if they liberally use un-silenced guns. My favorite bit of window-dressing, though, was that each of the zombies appearing has a name at the top of their stat block. It’s a little thing, and likely won’t come up in play, but somehow the thought that instead of facing down “zombie number three,” you’re shooting “Alexander Peterson – Frenzied Zombie” really adds a human element to the whole thing. Of course, generic zombie stat blocks are given at the end of the adventure anyway.

The artwork here is all computer-generated, and is full color. It doesn’t shy away from the graphic nature of the zombies, either. One piece of art depicts a naked female zombie, for example (though rest assured there’s nothing erotic about it in the slightest) while another has an action shot of a guy mowing down two zombies. The pages have an alternate border of spiral rings, as though this came out of someone’s notebook, and bloodstains are in the background of each page. Luckily, there’s a printer-friendly version also, which I consider to be a plus. Finally, the maps are reproduced in separate files (color and grayscale) with each enlarged with each piece on separate pages so you can print and use them immediately.

The major weakness of Dead Stock is also the same thing that makes it so easy to use – the unending nature of the Rising means that there’s no clear goal here. A note from the author at the end tries to alleviate this somewhat by suggesting that PCs can use some of the tools and things to try and armor a car somewhat and drive out of here, ideally with some weapons and supplies, but there’s little to suggest that to players who aren’t sure what they’re supposed to be doing beyond simply surviving. This is certainly true to the genre of survival horror, but I wonder if players might not get frustrated at the undirected sandbox-style adventure.

Having said that, groups that thrive on this sort of open play, in particular those who think creatively, will absolutely love this adventure. Dead Stock gives quick-witted players something to accomplish, and is a great way to get a feel for the Year of the Zombie.

I did not find this artwork useable. Every piece walks the line of softcore porn. The image on the cover has the most clothes and you can still see her bra and underwear. The rest wear even less. The other color picture and its b/w counterpart has 4 females in the picture and all of them have nipple bumps under their clothes. I cannot seriously consider these pieces for any projects of mine.

This art is well drawn and had these females been drawn in more sensible clothing, I would happily use these.

Acceptable Floorplans combined with very ugly rendered images.

Containes a useless executable that interferes with proper function of the windows explorer.