Product Description
The Wildside Gaming System is a flexible, innovative, ultra-realistic role-playing system designed specifically for adult and experienced gamers. Combining realistic and logical character development, realistic combat, and accurate historical elements, the Fantasy Role-Playing Edition is designed especially for Game Masters who like to create their own settings for swashbuckling heroics, magic, and adventure in a complex fantasy world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Overly complicated and often lacking any sense
Background: I was a playtester on this game.I didn't get "burned" by it, the company, or the author, and in fact, I think the author was one of the best professors I've ever had the joy to work with.That said...

Don't buy it.

Complex systems within systems rule everything you do, but with all of this granularity, there's still no medical skills.Combat with multiple attackers ganging up on a single defender is handled by a completely random roll: no regard to character skill, equipment, etc.Damage is handled by huge spreads of charts that are not thoroughly explained.Entire subsystems are ignored or glossed over in the rules to the point that you can't play the game as it is written.

Example: one of the most common results on the damage tables is X number of stuns (with X being a random dice roll).Guess what?After reading the book front to back, neither I nor my players could determine what the game effect of "stuns" were.

If you compare the system to games even 30 years ago, it's not very good, never mind with the years of game design philosophy we now have.If you compare the book itself to other games, it's years behind in terms of layout, organization, and artwork (it looks like the art was just ClipArt pulled off the internet).

With some SERIOUS retooling, I might be able to recommend this game for fans of really old school (and fully-loaded-with-options) versions of AD&D, Rolemaster, and maybe old, old GURPS (but only the fantasy parts).As it stands now, though, I couldn't recommend this to anyone for any reason.

Advanced RPG for Experienced Players looking for a flexible, realistic system
The Wildside system is for RPG players looking for a fun game full of depth and realism

Take the combat system --

Classic RPGs count the skill of the attacker against the armor, magic protection, and agility of the defender and then you roll a d20 and hit or miss. Maybe you beat the AC by 10 points, but you still do the same damage. Maybe you crit the defender and do buckets of damage.

Wildside makes combat about skill with a weapon, the dance of battle, feints and parries, and makes wounds to your opponent the result of maneuvers that tip the balance in your favor. As a result, Wildside swordplay feels like a choreographed fight in a big budget action movie or a page out of a great fantasy epic. The damage system is realistic as well. A slight advantage can result in a small wound on an arm or leg, where a larger one results in more dangerous wounds in more critical areas. The combat takes longer, but each one feels like epic in scope. And fights can have lasting impact on you. You can walk away limping or missing an eye.

Take magic and skills--

In classic RPGs, you don't need to use skills or weapons or abilities to get better in them. Simply dispatch beasts, and suddenly you are better at healing, at swinging a longsword, or casting spells.

In Wildside magic system you advance in ability not by defeating creatures or gathering gold, but by casting spells. Casting new spells for you advances your abilities the most. Once you've casted a spell X number of times, you've learned what you can from that incantation and it no longer helps you.

Swordplay is the same way --use it to get better in it. To advance in longsword, you gain the most by beating someone of equal or better skill. You can also train in a skill, depending on your learning aptitude, that can be slower or faster. But training only gets you so far -- you really need to swing that longsword to get to the next level.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Wildside tosses aside dozens of classic RPG abstractions and replaces them with logical realistic mechanics and doesn't look back.

It's a bold system that is fun to play. Best of all, though, is that it makes sense every step of the way.

Do it yourself Gaming
The game is flexible as advertised, and the system primarily uses 4d6 for skill rolls, combat, and attributes rolls.

The magic system is the most fleshed out, and it is almost jarring in its breadth and coverage compared to character creation, skill use, and combat.There are tables at the back for random stuff that I think is just odd given the hands off approach the game designer took to skill explanations.

Things I would have liked to see in the game are standard NPCs: One can assume from the text that 'normal' people would likely have an average attribute rating of 14 given that is the expected value of 4d6, but it couldn't hurt to get a sentence or two as well as campaign variant advice for power levels.Particularly when the author mentions these possibilities at the introduction of the book!

Another thing would have been nice to see is how the package deals were developed.I had to reverse engineer the cost savings to see if there were any easy to discern formula being used.

Overall, this game has some good parts - sheer number of backgrounds and package deal ideas, but leaves something to be desired between the emphasis on skills and magic.But if you like a flexible approach to gaming, try Tri-Stat from Guardians of Order, Hero System, or GURPS.These point based systems have more heft and breadth to them for flexibility.

Realistic Gaming At Its Best
The Wildside Gaming System is the most realistic and comprehensive role playing system I've ever experienced.A character's experiences and advancement are limited only by the creativity and spirit of the role player and the GM (or in spite of the GM for intrepid players).The Game works when played by individuals or large groups without losing effectiveness.The combat system is reality-based and, therefore, the most fun to use.It is the only system that bases combat damage on the realities of human (and non-human) anatomy.The Game's magic system is virtually endless with the widest array of disciplines, offering substantial opportunities for characters to explore different roles.Perhaps the best feature is the Game's adaptability to different settings and time periods, allowing groups to begin new campaigns without switching systems.Wildside should be embraced by all gamers because it caters to individual creativity and encourages each gamer to express personality, ingenuity and imagination - which is, after all, why we play.If you are looking for a gaming system that is comprehensive, easy to learn, adaptable and supportive of individual and group personality then Wildside is your game.It is simply the best.

The most terrible game I ever played
I play tested this game with a group I game with and this is easily the worst written, ill conceived game that I have ever had the displeasure of wasting several hours of my life on. To be specific character creation is overly long and involved and results in average characters with almost no special abilities unless your a magic user. There is a decided lack of useful skills like the old standby's Sneak, hide in shadows(or just hide), heal, pick locks, pick pockets, and many others that adventuring parties need.Also I believe that the character creation is rather sexist in scope due to the penalty and bonus that female characters get.

Combat is similar as it takes forever also if you have the longest weapon you have an advantage and most likely will win. If you and your party gang up on the opponent six to one you have a random chance to kill him or have him escape or some other odd event.

I could go on forever but to put it simply your characters are average people not heroes, and they rarely get the chance to progress (as that too is overly difficult).
... Read more

Product Description
It's an exciting time in Fairyland.Everyone is getting ready for the Fairy Olympics!But Jack Frost's goblins have stolen the Sports Fairies' magic objects.Now they're threatening to take over the whole competition!

The Tippington Tennis Club is swarming with goblins.If Rachel and Kirsty don't snag Alice's magic racquet, the goblins are going to win --- game, set, and match!

Find the enchanted object in each book, and help keep the Fairyland Olympics magical!

... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Alice serves a great story!
Alice the Tennis Fairy was my favorite book I read this summer, because the goblin umpire was making tennis balls go faster, so the goblins wouldn't get the magic racquet.The girls in the story, Rachel and Kirsty, helped the fairies many times. The story ends when the game, set, and match were over, and when they found the magic racquet. Another funny part was when the goblins got covered with cream and strawberries.

I recommend this book for anyone who believes in mythical creatures, and believes there are boy fairies.

Anna from Minnesota
(entered by her dad) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent product from Malhavoc press
this is the lastest from Malhavoc press.book of Roguish luck deals with the sneaky types, you know rogues and such.

The book opens with three new rogue classes.The first is the bandit who is a outdoors type of thief who can be difficult to track and has several types of sneaky types of fighting like eye strike and low blow.The second is the gutter mage who has a unique spell list and the ability to improvise or steal spell.The last is the shadow thief who sells his soul to the plane of shadow.He has the neat feats for creating shadow familiars and at higher levels actually creating shadows.There are three prestige classes also described, the deadheart gangster, the fortune hunter, and the silver tongue charmer.

the next two chapters deal with additions to the sneak attack like ranged and silent sneak attacks and guilds and gangs.

Gambling is the next chapter with sections dealing with fictionalgames of chance and how to deal with them as well as cheating and other sundries.

There is a luck system described in the next chapter.Each class has a certain amount of luck points per level that can be used.It looks similar to action points or drama points that can be found in other games.

Spells are next.I particularly like the offical title of the spell and the slang name for the spell.Spells like charming lie spell(official name) and its slang name trust me boys or card control(official)/slang I'll flip you for it.Many of the spells add or subtract from the luck pools so if you dont use the luck system there arent as many spells to work with.

There are new feats.Many of these feats also deal with luck points but there are some that I like like cool under pressure and crowd slipping.The first allows you to take 10 for certain skills even if you are under pressure and crowd slipping allows you to move through crowds in a full normal speed.

New equipment and magic items is next.there is the blarney elixir that allows a +2 on bluff and diplomacy checks and armor of climbing.

The last two sections deal with locks and bribes and contacts and the mechanics for each.

In all I enjoyed this book as I pretty much have with the Malhavoc press stuff and would recommend it to those with interest in thieving for their game.It would be a good item with either a player or a DM ... Read more

Product Description
Give your character every advantage.

When you sit down to create a character, let your mind do the work -- don't just leave it to the dice. The Hero Builder's Guidebook puts at your fingertops everything you need to know before your character's first adventure. With this book, you will:

Maximize your charactger's potential with step-by-step character advancement guides.

Create a compelling backstory for your characer, including family, friends, and enemies.

Pick from more than 70 variants to the class descriptions in the Player's Handbook.

Choose personality traits to bring your character to life at the gaming table.

Both players and Dungeon Masters benefit from the detailed character backgrounds in this book.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

Great Little Book
I saw this book for cheap so I added it on to another order. It's a fun little read, with very little in the way of rules and a lot more on the theoretical application of role playing character development in D&D. Because it's rules extra lite, there isn't any conflict using this stuff if you play 3.5

Also, 4e sucks.
That is all

A must-own for any DnD player
This is the quintessential DnD manual for anyone playing in 3rd Ed or Ver 3.5.This product tells you how your character fits in society at large, and how the ability scores should be put for which classes.This guide also contains variants on multiclassing, with guides to help you in choosing feats and skills to match.This guide is also helpful for choosing an alignment, and it also has a wonderful name section, with about 100 names each for most of the major races (Elves, Halflings, Gnomes, Humans, Dwarves, and Orcs [for half-orcs]).

The part that sold this book for me is the Background generator, or the history of your character at this point.The section is table based, and you roll percentile dice (d100 or 2d10) to find out about your character.I have used this many times when playing, and have found it to be invaluable when you need a quick backstory for your character.It has detailed tables that are easy to navigate, and if you don't want to roll, you can just choose whatever your need for your character at the time, or whatever fits your character.This can be good fot the DM, as he/she can use these parts in the campaign (like enemies and instructors, even families when the PC gets to their hometown).I would recommend this book both as a player and a DM.If you have ever struggled to make a good character backstory, only to have it backfire later, then this is the guide for you.

A very handy resource
Most of the reviews of this book have a common theme that this book is for noobs only and that experienced players will have little or no use for it.My opinion is that they couldn't be more wrong.

While the book does have some annoying and/or pointless aspects, there is a wealth of information that experienced players can use.

The book breaks down into the following 7 segments:
1. Introduction
2. Rolling your Ability Scores
3. Choosing your Race and Class
4. Creating Your Personal History
5. Selecting Your Alignment
6. Planning Your Future Career
7. Appendix: The Rule of Names

Firstly, the introduction.Yes it does state that the game of D&D is about heroes and while that may be self-evident I think alot of reviewers are taking the sentance too literally.Reading this sentance should instantly conjure certain images in the reader's mind and this I think sets the tone for the rest of the book.

Secondly, the segment on rolling ability scores.This was one of the annoying segments for me.For me, buying this book was all about ideas and inspiration for hero's and I find this kind of information pointless.You can't play the game without the PH and DMG and this information is covering in those publications and no-one should be allowed to run a game unless they can explain dice rolling conventions and the bellcurve to thier players.

Thirdly, choosing race and class.Usually most players already have a concept in mind and this quickly manifests in race and class.Covering pages 8 - 36 this is easily the largest section in the book and I look at this segment with mixed feelings.On one hand it provides some good basic information about the mixture of class and race on the other hand there is alot of repetition which had me flipping through pages faster than I could possibly read them - which meant that I missed a couple of gems when it came to suggested race/class variants, which I only picked up on during a second, more thorough reading.

The fourth segment (character's history) is quite simply the best part of this book!Despite what other reviewers have said about people lacking time and/or creativity - this section is brilliant!!I have lost count of the amount of times that I've had players who go through the routine of rolling dice, choosing skills, feats, blah, blah and are then ready to play.No explanation as to where their character came from, how they got to where they are today, or where they are going or even why they are going there!There was a previous review which mentioned the fun that can be had when different tables produce what initally appear to be conflicting results.

My only complaint with these tables would be that they are too sparse with their enteries.However, they should only ever be looked at as a starting point in developing your character's 'back story'.By adding events and/or the amount of rolls on particular tables you can come up with some truly spectacular character stories.

The fifth segment also offers an interesting take on choosing an alignment.All too often players choose role-playing friendly alignment options such as Chaotic Neutral or Neutral Good.If they do choose one of the 'harder' alignments they usually lack a true understanding of the alignment and how a person with this moral/ethical outlook would interact with a real world.

This part of the book once again reverts to tables, but in a very interesting way.It poses a number of questions under some general headings; such as under 'Relationship to King and Country' there are questions about how you would act if your country was racked by famine and if offered money would you spy for a foreign nation.Some answers are self-explanatory for certain characters (especially Paladins - a class I personally hate).But anyway, this part of the book offers alot of insight into some murky areas of morals and ethics.In each of my own campaigns I've used this as a test of sorts to which I've added alot of questions that I've drawn from various pop-pyschology tests found online.

The best way to use this section is to create the character excluding alignment and name.Let the player review the information, especially the back story and then take the character sheet away from them.Then run through the questions with them.More often than not the mixutre of half-remembered back-story and the mental character concept combine to produce some very interesting characters.Don't rubbish it until you've tried it!

The second to last section is on planning your character.There is some interesting information and guidelines for 1st level characters, but becuase the game gives itself over to so many permutations of characters, it is simply impossible to plot out the different paths that can be taken and the authors don't even really attempt to - although they do try to plot 'sterotypical' paths, which I think defeats the whole purpose of the book!

The section then goes on to detail some different 'kits' or 'templates' and what skills and feats should be taken to fit into these archetypes.Again, I think this defeats the whole purpose of the book, which is to create unique hero's.They would have been better off using the pages to either expand on the personal history or alignment tables!!

The last segment is probably the most important, but most overlooked!It's only four pages, but are probably the most important!As the book rightly states, a name can evoke all sorts of images and preconceptions and a badly named character does a disservice to this powerful role-playing aspect.A character with a truly great name can often inspire the player to truly fantastic levels of role-playing.I'll never forget my fighter Maximus Brutus (Every critical hit was Maximum Brutality! He was far too brash, I should have realised he'd never make it pass 4th level!) Or one player I had whose wizard was called Nostradamus the Black (but only because his parents had orignally named him Norman!).

The book ends with several blocks of names for the various races, which serves as a good jumping off point for developing the perfect name for your character.

Overall, the book deserves its four stars and given that I bought it for .93c on Amazon I certainly don't regret the purchase!

Cheap?yes. Usefull? Not so much.
You can pick this book up for $2.00 or less. It is 3rd edition not 3.5 and the cover has the only color pics you will see. The tables for character creation are vague in the extreme. The only good thing about them is that they are a quick and easy way to add a little (not a lot) flair to an NPC. Other reviews said that this product is good for beginers. I would say save your money and make up your own tables.

Cute Addition to the Collection
The Hero Builder's Guidebook doesn't scream "Experienced Players BUY ME!" and it shouldn't, either.

After all, the first line is: "The D&D game is a game about heroes."

No, this is a book for newbie D&D players, and thank you for it, Wizards of the Coast. When I bought this book three years ago, I didn't need a good lot of it because of my own previous experience with the game. However, the ENORMOUS class & race combinations amazed me and my comrades. We were so excited to see Variant ideas for each race and class (unexpected and so good).

The Personal History Creation section may seem a bit wishy-washy for some of the hardcore veterans, but I can tell you straightforwardly and proudly: I created the most in-depth character using the basics in that section. After all, D&D is about using your imagination, and the tables allowed me to get a huge group of ideas and expand even further on them. The cleverness of figuring out why things occurred together - IE. your character lives with a wandering troupe, but owns a home and has bad ethics - is fun, too.

The Alignment Test never fails to prove my character's alignment, and my DM secretly uses it when no one's looking for his NPCs.

The Hero Builder's Guidebook is a very good buy, regardless of your level of experience. New and moderately new players can get a lot from the book, but veteran players may feel the book beneath them. ... Read more

Product Description
The Gathering Storm is a complete campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The story centers around a series of bizarre events that bring the heroes face-to-face with dangerous enemies, moral dilemmas, and the raw fury of nature.

In addition to providing many sessions of exciting adventure, the campaign guide provides detailed information on the town of Stromdorf and a number of its odd citizens. Colorful maps bring Stromdorf and the surrounding region to life. The Gathering Storm campaign boxed set includes one full color Campaign Book, more than 20 new Standard American (2 1/4" x 3 1/2") size cards (including actions, locations, and items), more than 20 new Mini American (1 5/8" x 2 1/2") size cards (including miscasts, wounds, talents, and insanities), six full color maps & player handouts, more than 20 new NPC and enemy stand-ups... and much more

The Gathering Storm has it all. Death. Misery. Peril. Suffering. Disaster. And that's just the weather.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

good first campaign
as with all wfrp.3 products it has no shortage of production quality. Overall for the price this is a good campaign set. I personally found it to be a bit boring at times though...

Memories of Campaign Settings of Old
Opening this set brought back memories of 1st and 2nd edition AD&D for me. An actual boxed campaign setting. Inside it is packed with cards and tokens for all the major npc's, monsters, items, and locations that the players will be interacting with. A lot of people have complained about the smallish size of the map cards (career card sized) but I find that they serve their purpose perfectly well and don't take up to much table space in a system that already takes up tons of table space.

The adventure is actually a series of four linked adventures and they are constrained to a fairly small area. This is not an epic world spanning campaign, but it is well written and provides a ton of action, intrigue, and role playing opportunities. I would actually call it more of a mini campaign or really long adventure. What it does do very well is showcase the WFRP 3e system.

My only complaint is the same as my complaint about the GM Toolkit (and it looks like the next two announced supplements as well). The box that all this gaming goodness comes in is not like that of the core set or Adventurer's Toolkit, it is flimsy cardboard and opens at top and bottom so watch out for losing components because if your like me your core set is probably running out of room already.

With that said, I highly recommend this for anyone who doesn't have the time to write their own adventures, or a GM looking for a location with good adventure hooks for side quests in an existing campaign. ... Read more

Product Description
The Quintessential series is a range of class books and racial sourcebooks for d20 games from Mongoose Publishing. Slotting seamlessly into any fantasy-based game, these books are comprehensive guides to one class or race within the game, allowing both players and Games Masters to present old character types in a completely new way without overpowering or unbalancing the game as a whole. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

good but needs some house rules i.e. incomplete
Kudos to Matthias (see review below) for an excellent review !He's pretty much hit all the important highlights so there's only a few things I can add:

- there are major errors in the fleshcrafting section of the book (referrals to feats involved with the fleshcrafting skill that aren't found in the book and I don't think listing the fortitude save for every fleshcrafting type as "cosmetic" is correct either when the other methods of fleshcrafting are clearly labeled as something other than cosmetic)... I looked on the internet for some sort of fan "house rules" or corrections to the errors by mongoose publishing with no luck, could be I'm looking in the wrong place but I'm guessing a DM will have to write up the rules him or her self for those sections, which is rather annoying.

- this book works particularly well with sheoloth city of the drow book also by mongoose publishing ... combine these two books with tome of drow lore (also by mongoose publishing) and you'll have lots of material for a drow campaign if you're a dungeonmaster. Tome of Drow Lore also does a great job of filling in the "gaps" that quintessential drow misses such as the psychology and beliefs of the drow... As of this date (June 2009) as I write this the city of the drow book can be purchased for less than one third of it's suggested manufacturer retail price from various sellers.

Overall I found quintessential drow to be a fun read with plenty of info and rules to run a drow - say a campaign where all the PC's are drow for example - and worth the price you would currently pay for it from the various sellers on amazon despite the fleshcrafting errors.

A great supplement for drow, but not perfect.
When this book came out, it was one of the few d20 supplements to deal with the drow in detail. Like all of the Quintessential series, the Quintessential Drow focuses on one specific race or class, and attempts to build on it in interesting ways.

The Quintessential Drow accomplishes this task admirably - but many sections of the book are forgettable. The book is broken up into roughly twelve chapters, which I will review in full.

Character Concepts is a decent beginning, which introduces the reader to some of the new information that will be discussed later (the Sac Child and Alchemically Born stand out as examples). There are several introduced here that would be interesting to play, and a few of the others are either disgusting, or uninteresting. Your mileage may vary. For those of you who've never perused a book in the Quintessential series, the character concepts are more roleplay oriented - and the various bonuses and penalties to the character aren't usually enough to make a good foundation for a munchkin character.

The Prestige Drow introduces several new prestige classes, some of which are very strange, and while they do fit the drow, some of them would be awkward to use in a game for players, or to explain as the GM. The Blessed Master being one of those, where the first level ability grants a half-fiend monstrous spider - - that also happens to be the character's child! Most of the others are more tame, and perfectly fitting with the drow.

Tricks of the Drow deals with some of the unsavory aspects of drow culture. It provides rules for slave training, torture, and tailoring potions to individuals to gain the maximum effect. It also has rules for (sexual) seduction, which isn't necessarily unsavory in this reviewer's opinion, but certainly one of those aspects of drow culture most gaming groups won't be leaping into right away.

Drow Feats has some interesting feats for drow, though most of them grant bonuses to skill checks.

Tools of Drow adds new weapons, armor, and equipment (some of them are pretty inventive, others downright outlandish - - but this seems to be a theme in the Quintessential series).

Drow Spells has a number of interesting spells, and none of them seem overpowered in any way (except the one that creates a vampiric spider for the caster).

Fleshcrafting is all about drow fleshcrafting magic. It varies from what amounts to cosmetic surgery, to being able to graft poison glands in the mouth, and various appendages to the body. Most of these grants bonuses and penalties, so the appeal of having multiple arms might wear off when you know that every time you take damage, you have to make a Will save or take penalties to all rolls. It is an interesting chapter, and I think with some house rules, it might make an excellent addition to a drow-as-enemies or drow-as-PCs style campaign.

The Gravebond introduces necromantic magic called the Gravebond (obviously). It has rules for binding spirits and literally using their energy to fuel the drow's own abilities (to the detriment of the spirit). Of great interest is the rules for most of the base classes to utilize the energy of the Gravebond to fuel enhanced versions of their normal abilities. An excellent chapter, but has the potential to be unbalancing - thankfully, like all things in this book, it seems that the Gravebond also has drawbacks. GMs should be sure to familiarize themselves with those.

Religion of Horrors is the chapter that deals with the deities that the drow worship. This is only truly useful as suggestion if you're using the standard drow pantheon from Greyhawk, the Forgotten Realms, or Eberron. If, however, you are using the Mongoose Publishing Sheoloth: City of the Drow supplement, this becomes much more important.

The Game of Bones is an excellently laid out chapter that details a system for political intrigue. Impressive in and of itself.

Arachnophilia is basically a monstrous supplement that details various spiders that the drow use as servitor creatures. Interesting, but not exactly necessary.

Silken Strongholds is the chapter with the greatest disappointment of the book. While it has some rules for constructing drow cities, sections of this chapter seem literally copied and pasted from the Quintessential Fighter (see the Building the Stronghold section on pg 114, and tell me it isn't - - I dare you). Still, it's worth taking a look at, and if you own the Stronghold Builder's Guide (Softcover) by Wizards of the Coast, combining this chapter with that book would allow for some truly fantastic fortresses. You might also want to search the Wizards of the Coast website for the 3.5 Dungeon Masters Guide web enhancement that details city construction.

All in all, the Quintessential Drow is a worthwhile addition to any GM's library. For fans of the drow, this book is almost a requirement. Combined with the Underdark (Hardcover) book for the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, and the Drow of the Underdark (Hardcover) book for 3.5 D&D, the Quintessential Drow would allow for GMs to make truly fearsome drow enemies for their PCs.

Even by itself, this book will give veterans of D&D pause.

a must have for dungeon delving dweebs
I cannot tell you how useful this book is if you want to run an underdark campaign,you'll just have to try it out yourself.I as a dm use it to flesh out underdark villains drawn from the sheoloth city of the drow book,wish they had one for mindflayers and githyanki and derro and aboleth/skum and all the other underdark races as well!!!!Why do you need to leave the dungeon anyway? ... Read more

Product Description
The strength of the gods flows through the cleric's arms and his or her divine powers. The cleric is a divine agent who acts on behalf of the supreme powers he serves and The Quintessential Cleric gives you new ideas to make your cleric really unique and different from his or her brothers in faith.In this book you will find new origins for your cleric, new powers, new feats, and new paragon paths; you will be able to equip new items created with the cleric in mind and to perform rituals never revealed before. This book also offers many hints on how to role-play your cleric outside of combat, churches and temples for your faith, rules for creating your own organization, and many useful tactics to optimize each choice your character has to make! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good for those looking for hints on how to play a cleric
The focus of this book is role playing tips/themes for those playing clerics.Not particularly what I was looking for.I thought it would be more spells, feats, and such.

Another fine book in the collection
Being a cleric lover, I found this book to be better then the last.

There is great focus on the duties of the cleric to his faith. Churches, congregations, conversions... their loyalty and actions to their God and people. It goes into depth of the vows a character should take, and the pennence of breaking such vows. Their place as a leader in the party and the community becomes stronger, more pronounced, and more important.

It introduces the power of singing to a cleric, with domain hymns that can be offensive as well as defensive.( they seem to have omitted the sun domain, though ) They placed a fair limit on the use of such hymns, and applied it to turning. They have personal as well as congregational hymns, the more powerful requiring a congregation of people. It adds more possibility to clerics in campaigns that lack alot of undead, or makes an even trade for those that do.

The feats in this book are wonderful. They touch the cleric as a leader, a spellcaster, undead destroyer, and self-sufficient person. Makes creating the cleric as a backup fighter seem a waste of such a "wise" character.

The new spells are diverse, there is probably one or two you would adopt depending on your character, alignment, god, and campaign.

This book brings new light to the class, and shows and helps a cleric to be more then the healer, but a critical leader of the party and their community.If you are a cleric person, this book is another must-have.

Not too bad a book
I found this book to be interesting, but not as excellent as the first two books in the series.The "concepts" are not as spectacular as in the first 2, but the prestige classes are nice.It gives methods for tinkering with Domain Spell alternative, but none that are that great of a replacement.

I do like the idea of telling which sacrifices are most appropiate for various gods depending on their domains granted.I also liked the idea of making sacrifices be worth something to do, although the boons granted as such seem quite weak.

If you like clerics, buy this book.If you can take or leave clerics, just consider this one if you have the spare change. ... Read more

Product Description
This tome details over 60 aliens, beasts, and daemons of the Calixis Sector, and how to destroy them in the name of the Emperor. Each creature comes with plots and places for GMs to use in their campaigns, including overviews of some of the most infamous Calixian Deathworlds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

A galaxy in strife
I really liked it it has a genuine 40k feel to it. Gives plot ideas for the GM. thye one thing i wish it had was Chaos marines other than that a really good job was done.

almost great, notable for what is missing
As said many times in various reviews for this book, what is in the book is excellent. What is not in the book is what I want more of.

I appreciate the storytelling, the various "files" on the xenos & other creatures in the book... but for the most part, "Creatures Anathema" seems like half of a great book.

I was particularly interested in the Eldar & Tyranid entries in the book. Whilst I can get by with the Genestealer & Lictor entries for the Tyranids, the authors simply waved away Genestealer hybrids by saying that they are outside the scope of the book. So you either have to make up your own rules for hybrids & infestations, or the Genestealers are pretty much a non-factor for you.

Likewise, the Eldar section begins with a beautiful picture of a Warlock... but no Warlock stats, no Eldar psyker abilities, and not even the stats for a standard Shuriken Catapult (ostensibly because there are no rules/stats for your standard Eldar Guardians). I can certainly make my own stats for Eldar Guardians, and I appreciate the usefulness of Eldar Pathfinders & the fact that Dire Avengers will be more commonly encountered than Warp Spiders or Shining Spears... but why no Eldar psykers? It's a glaring omission, especially since we get psyker abilities for summoning rats in this book.(Oh, yes, you can play as an unsanctioned rat summoner now, thank the Emperor, but you will not find rules for Eldar Warlocks) I guess I can also create my own Warlock abilities, and say that Farseers (like Inquisitors) are far beyond the scope of Dark Heresy... but there's hardly enough meat to put together a suitable Eldar encounter without knowledge of Eldar from the tabletop miniatures game.

Instead of more details on Genestealer Hybrids & Eldar wytches, you get more Calixis sector stuff. While several pages of non-minatures game beasties are appreciated, you get 34+ pages of non-sentient vermin/beasts versus 6 pages for Eldar and 8 pages for Tyranids?

Granted, the Eldar could have an entire book to themselves... but maybe they deserved more pages when you have so many beasts/vermin entries? Maybe an entry for Guardians or Eldar corsairs (since you shouldn't have to buy Rogue Trader if you don't want to)?

That's the frustrating part of the book. There's some great stuff, but it requires a lot more work if you are interested in Xenos threats.

For Ordo Hereticus games, don't even bother with this book. It's interesting, but not worth your time IMO. Get the other books in Dark Heresy, or get the Rogue Trader rulebook instead... you'll get info on Eldar Corsairs & Ork Freebooters as well as Kroot mercs, in addition to Rogue Traders & Astropath characters, which is FAR FAR faaaaar more useful than what you'll find in Creatures Anathema.
Rogue Trader RPG: Core Rulebook (Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay)

For Ordo Xenos or Ordo Malleus games, you'll find useful info here (moreso for Ordo Malleus, with Flesh Hounds & Juggernauts of Khorne, plus Flamers of whatshisname)... but Ordo Xenos acolytes in particular will need more help from a creative gamemaster to round out what's in this one.

Interesting but flawed
Overall this is a good addition to Dark Heresy. Lots of detail, quite a few species covered, and some interesting story tie-in ideas. However, the book is rather short, and I wish they would have focused more on pre-existing alien races from 40k (even ones that were only briefly discussed in the old Rogue Trader). The main reason I gave the book only 3 stars however, was the apparent lack of any proof-reading before printing. The book is full of typos, words written together without spaces, and such bad grammer that it is hard to understand at times. Although the book isnt ruined by all this, it does become more than a little distracting and makes you wish that they had spent a little more time proof-reading the book before printing it.

Monters book
well this a good book whit lot of new way to do a monster manual.
-inquisitor story about is personal meeting with the creature
-scenario idea
-imperial threat story on some of them

one others good must is all creature is pictured, seem simple but not all monster book do it.

But....this book is pretty slim, is not hold lot of creature, 143 pages on where you can see one creature take up to 5 pages on hit and most of them take 2-3 pages. you can found 3 mutans only, 9 tech heresy, 3 death worlds creatures, 9 vermins, 12 xenos (3 eldars, 3 ork + 1 ork pet), 11 chaos, total 47 creatures only.

in the end the strenght of the book is is main weakness too. each mob take too many place (some picture of mobs take a full page and story about mob can take 3 pages.

personaly i prefer a monster book where 1 mob take 1 or 2 pages max, a book with tons a creatures (like AD&D monster manual).

but this book IS a great add on for dark heresy, with lot of infos, story and idea about 47 creatures. i have only hope for a bigger one.

Excellent bestiary for Dark Heresy
Creatures Anathema is a great addition to the Dark Heresy roleplay game. This "monster manual" provides a lot of new rules and background for bestial threats to add to your roleplay campaigns. Like the other books in the series, it's filled with great artwork and is laid out in a highly aesthetically pleasing manner. This book could even be useful for adding some roleplay elements like "pop-up" monsters to narrative games of the 40K tabletop game and might inspire some model converting too. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Here be monsters
If you are looking for the horrorific monstrocities your players will never expect to encounter, yet have a mythological feel, look no further. This book contains a variety of monsters from various fantasy sources and historical folklore and legend. While it lacks the "ubber cool" monsters of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Monster Manual, it starts the ball rolling for ideas if nothing else.

All in all, I liked the book and find it very useful as a Fantasy Game Master.

I liked it!
Previous viewers have noted that "GURPS Fantasy Bestiary" was nothing like TSR's monster manual, i.e. it does not include fantasy races like goblins and minotaurs, and it doesn't include made-for-gaming creatures like beholders.Instead, it presents samplings from various mythological traditions (European, Chinease, even rural America).Unlike previous viewers, I applaud this approach heartily.The fantasy races were best covered in another book where their uniqueness could receive the proper attention, and most made-for-gaming monsters are agonizingly lame.Any of you AD&D players remember the Flumph?My point exactly.

With this book, players can go toe-to-toe with creatures that have a solid mythological history, but are not necessarily so cliche that the fight becomes an exercise in dice rolling.Perhaps your players have heard of the bunyip, but do they know what it can do?How about the hodag?The Chon-Chon?

My number one gripe against this book is the large numbers of unique monsters in it, such as Cerebrus and Scylla.While some of these could be used as guidelines to create breeds of monsters (as is often done with, say, the hydra) others seem to be there just to take up space.The Scylla of myth was more of a force of nature than a foe to be fought, why give it valuable space in a book of foes to be fought?

Aside from that, this book provided me with considerable food for thought in designing fantasy adventures.It even includes chapters on monstrous plants and dragons (although the latter may be outdated with the publishing of GURPS Dragons).I recommend it to any GURPS fantasy GM.

Steve Jackson I need a bestiary!!!
When I bought this book,I was convicted that all my problems with
monsters are over...I was wrong. Fantasy Bestiary is a compendium of uncharismatic monsters of unnusual cultures.The good ones like beholders and goblins aren`t present on this book.
One more time the Gurps team don`t look for tradicional fantasy RPG style and the players need to do adaptations for a good session

Little bites out of a vast pie
This book provides a wealth of game-relevant information on creatures from the myths and legends of many different cultures. It's not the Monster Manual; if you're looking for "typical" fantasy races (such asthe aforementioned orcs, goblins, and minotaurs) pick up a used copy ofGURPS Fantasy Folk. You'll find them all there. Or just wait: Fantasy Folkis due for a reprinting before the end of the year.

I found the bookfascinating and very appropriate for my games. Having all of the creaturescross-referenced not only by name but also by type and native habitatsmakes it very quick to find a genre-appropriate beast for your players'situation. Need a tough challenge for your players that fits in aChinese-style game, and naturally appears in the mountains? It's just aquick glance at the included tables to find three.

Another very usefulpoint of the book is the entire chapter devoted to dragons. FantasyBestiary goes far beyond the typical Tolkien-style dragons, encompassingthem in addition to dragons from many different cultures around theworld.

As noted in another review, one of the weaknesses of this book isits sparse artwork. However, while disappointed at this at first, I've cometo realize that I never show creature illustrations to my players anyway;anything I come up with will pale in comparison with what they will createin their minds from just a few well-chosen descriptive words. See any Callof Cthulhu reference book for more detail on this GM method.

Inconclusion, I highly recommend this book to any GM interested in exoticcreatures, or beasts from cultures other than our own. If, however, youneed GURPS stats for lizard men and orcs, GURPS Fantasy Folk is the bookyou want.

I was very disappointed.
Only about 1/3 monsters have an illustration, which is particularly disappointing since most of them are obscure monsters from (non-Greek) mythology whose names mean nothing to me.There aren't really anyguidelines about the monsters' relative power either.Additionally,monsters you'd expect to find (goblins, orcs, minotaurs) are absent.Onthe whole, a very disappointing product. ... Read more

Product Description
Fearsome and formidable foes lurk within. Encounter a horde of monsters armed and ready to battle your boldest heroes or fight alongside them. The fully illustrated pages of this book are overrun with all the creatures, statistics, spells, and strategies you need to challenge the heroic characters of any Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game.

Over 200 creeps, critters, and creatures keep players on their toes. From aboleths to zombies, the revised Monster Manual holds a diverse cast of enemies and allies essential for any Dungeons & Dragons campaign. There are hundreds of monsters ready for action, including many new creatures never seen before. The revised Monster Manual now contains an adjusted layout that makes monster statistics easier to understand and use. It has 31 new illustrations and a new index, and contains expanded information on monster classes and playing monsters as heroes, along with information on how to take full advantage of the tie-in D&D miniatures line planned for the fall of 2003 from Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (39)

Everything I Expected It to Be
It's a list and description of monsters and templates for Dungeons and Dragon 3.5. It's very basic, but that's what expansion books are for. A must for any beginning gamer.

A wonderful supplement!
This is great supplement for first time and veteran Dungeon Masters. As always the core rule books are important.

Monsters for everyone!
This tome contains some fascinating monsters for use in the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition universe. They'll fit most campaign settings from level 1 to beyond level 20, whether you want to use an official Wizards setting, or just take the Animals section in the back of the book and make them the scariest critters ever for your own setting. It even contains rules for making your own monsters, if you really want to get creative. A must-own for the DM, not so much for the players.

Monster Manual review for dog-eared used books
The product came in the specified condition. A little beat up, etc. but all the pages are there, it works.

Monster Manual
The drawings are a little cartoonish...but still a great book.Now I just have to find some Die Hard D&D players. ... Read more

Product Description
From Temple to Tomb

Nightfang Spire has long brooded in lonely silence, shadowed within the walls of a steep defile. A tall stone column, it resembles nothing so much as an enormous fang of some vanished, mythical beast. Once, a fervent religious order thrived here--before its god was slain. Embracing that death, Nightfang Spire was transofrmed into a massive, hollow mortuary filled with the restless dead.

Heart of Nightfang Spire is a stand-alone adventure for the Dungeons & Dragons game. This adventure challenges 10th-level heroes who follow the rumor of a dragon's hoard to the imposing edifice known as Nightfang Spire. When they arrive, the truth about the place is revealed in all its awful clarity.

To use this adventure, a Dungeon Master also needs the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

It's not just a dungeon crawl.
The reviews that peg this module as just another dungeon crawl are selling it short.Yes the entirety of the adventure happens in a ruined tower and the catacombs beneath, but it so much more than just that.

I imagine that just about any GM could run this adventure as a purely hack n' slash montyhaul style game.However, like each preceding adventure in this "Path" it continues to build on a intricate story with many different permutations.This adventure ties in to both the preceding "Sunless Citadel" and the final sequel "Bastion of Broken Souls".I would strongly disagree with the comment that this adventure is tying the "Adventure Path" series of modules into a dungeon based epic, especially given that the preceding two adventures "Speaker in Dreams" and "The Standing Stone" were based in a port town and a forest village respectively.

The author, Bruce Cordell, has done an excellent job playing around with monster sterotypes and templates to come up with some very interesting and creative variations.This module also harks back to the good (bad?) old days of Gary Gygax (RIP) and his tournament models which were designed to be completed in "bites".If a group can hack their way through this adventure without ever leaving the tower or the catacombs then the GM is simply not running it correctly.So the comment from another reviewer about it being too powerful for 10th level characters is correct in a certain context.

This is a solid module that continues to build the story, yet contains enough of its own sub-plots that the players will have to be really switched on to catch some of the references to the bigger story.

My advice to everyone, is simply don't play these adventures as stand alones (despite the advice to do just that on the back cover!).They must be played chronologically, although certainly not back to back.

Enjoy.

Nightfang Spire the intelligent adventure
This adventure is one of the most difficult published adventures I have played in the DandD/D20 system. But, Oh is it worth the effort,from great original NPC's to an exotic local full of things that go bump in the night this adventure keeps you on your toes. The intelligent monsters in this tower are some of the most well thought out advasaries I have encountered and the consant threat of being over-run by specters, shadows and vapire spawn simply adds to the action. The descriptive text is nicely done and go's a long way towards creating the proper gothic atmosphere. All in all a fun time for those who are brave enough to take on intelligent advasaries and reap the rewards. And remeber the old maxim - "Where one cleric is good, Two-Better" hope this helps. Jake (JK)

Captivativating dungeon adventure!
On the face this may seem like any other dungeon crawl, but the deeper you dig into the content, the more you see that is not true.

A truly unique collection of imaginative, intelligent foes keep the PC's hard pressed at every turn!The module will sorely test the limits of a 10th level party, but is feasible.If your players are prone to careless actions they won't make it to the final encounter.

This is one of the more impressive highlights of the initial WoTC line of adventures.

Captivativating dungeon adventure!
On the face this may seem like any other dungeon crawl, but the deeper you dig into the content, the more you see that is not true.

A truly unique collection of imaginative, intelligent foes keep the PC's hard pressed at every turn!The module will sorely test the limits of a 10th level party, but is feasible.If your players are prone to careless actions they won't make it to the final encounter.

This is one of the more impressive highlights of the initial WoTC line of adventures.

Captivativating dungeon adventure!
On the face this may seem like any other dungeon crawl, but the deeper you dig into the content, the more you see that is not true.

A truly unique collection of imaginative, intelligent foes keep the PC's hard pressed at every turn!The module will sorely test the limits of a 10th level party, but is feasible.If your players are prone to careless actions they won't make it to the final encounter.

This is one of the more impressive highlights of the initial WoTC line of adventures. ... Read more

Product Description
Monster Gift Set collects three popular monster supplements–Fiend Folio™, Monster Manual II™, and Monster Manual III™.

This product collects three popular D&D® supplements–Fiend Folio™, Monster Manual II™, and Monster Manual III™–into one handsome package, complete with attractive yet durable slip case. This collection gives Dungeon Masters a horde of monsters to challenge players of the Dungeons & Dragons® game. The monsters contained herein are suitable for any D&D® campaign. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Great deal on Great books
I haven't purchased "the set" but I do own all the books. There are some monsters in the Monster Manuel 2 that are over-powered, but overall these books bring a great assortment of monsters. I wouldn't worry too much about two the books being 3.0 versions. There's not really enough of a difference between 3.0 and 3.5 to worry about in my opinion. However, if you really want them up-to-date, you can download files that do just that for free from the wizards of the coast website.

Not so bad
One of my very good friends owns this set and she says that the conversions from 3.0 -> 3.5 are not difficult at all. WOTC actually provides an update manual in PDF form (completely free) that shows you how to update the Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II to 3.5 so this is actually a good deal considering you get a massive amount of new monsters to play with and conversion is fairly quick.

not updated to 3.5
For all those that do not want to do the research themselves: The Monster Manual II and Fiend Folio books included in this set have NOT been updated to the D&D 3.5 rules. All three books are hard-covers though.

Note: I have not purchased this set (for the abovementioned reason), but this review was based on posts on the WOTC message boards from people who actually owned this set. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Progeny
The character Malocchio Aderre was intrigueing, I found, being a son of two beings of magic. His ability to infinately use a number of spells gives him powers any DM would enjoy to play, because it can give the players atough time, which is where plot design comes into play. Malocchio cannot bedefeated easily in combat, but the adventurers should still be able toaccomplish their task and drive him off. The scene with the lycanthropefighting pit was, I found, quite difficult to pull off, and the virtualreality Vistani boothe was stupid (I went around it). ... Read more

Product Description
Mysteries of the Moonsea™

Thomas M. Reid Sean K Reynolds
Darrin Drader Wil Upchurch


A Campaign Arc for Characters of Levels 1—18

The Moonsea–a perilous frontier ruled by tyrants and threatened by monsters. Here cities consumed by decadence and war rise and fall like the sun, and conspiracies abound. Great adventure awaits those who oppose evil, for the Moonsea is rife with it.
The Mysteries of the Moonsea accessory contains 37 loosely connected adventures that can be run individually or linked to form the basis of an entire Forgotten Realms® campaign. In addition to the adventures, this book presents maps and descriptions of the major Moonsea cities of Melvaunt, Hillsfar, Mulmaster, and Zhentil Keep, as well as statistics and descriptions for 15 important campaign villains.


For use with these Dungeons & Dragons® products
Player’s Handbook™ Dungeon Master’s Guide™ Monster Manual™
Forgotten Realms® Campaign Setting
... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Excellent book for those little 'in betweener" quests
As a DM I'm getting a TON of mileage out of this book. It contains 37 mini adventures based around 4 cities on the Moonsea region of Faerun.The adventures can be linked together into a super adventure or played separately.Perfect for when your group just wants a side quest or little tomb or something to raid outside the larger campaign. Just pop one of these settings in the middle of the woods as they're traveling and you'll have a more diverse, fleshed out world.The cool thing is each of the mini adventures can be wiped out in just a couple short hours and of course you can alter them however you want to contain things they need or NPC's you want them to meet.Since it's set in Moonsea I highly recommend the Sons of Gruumsh adventure for level 5 characters to run alongside this as a larger adventure since tyour PC's will be in the town of Melvaunt and adventuring in the wilds of Thar anyway.One of the most USEABLE adventure books/regional books I have seen.It takes a great load off the DMs back.I just wish they made more like this...

for busy dungeon master
Perfect solution for busy dungeon masters that have no time to prepare whole adventure. It arrived few days ago, I've read just one chapter and complete quest is nearly prepared. As was written earlier, this book is not like other regional books - this one contains several adventures located in four part of Moonsea region guiding your PC from 1st to 16th level. I really look forward to next game session.

An excellent resource for DMs
This book is different from most of the other supplements that Wizards of the Coast has released, and I have to say that it was a very refreshing change of pace. The best way to categorize this book would be to say that it's halfway between a regional sourcebook and a campaign module.

Unlike the other regional books, it doesn't contain a random hodgepodge of information about NPCs, locations, Prestige Classes, new spells, and so on. Instead, you don't have new Prestige Classes, feats, and spells at all, which is just as well, since I think there's more than enough of all three. The book also has much narrower scope, focusing on only the four main cities in the Moonsea region and their surrounding areas. Again, this is just as well, since at least half of the material in my other regional books sit unused.

And unlike the other published modules, the adventures presented in Mysteries of the Moonsea are very loosely connected. Most are nicely self-contained, and have just enough encounters for a party to face in a single day. Each adventure presents a few possible hooks to draw the players in, and I found that it was very easy to tailor them to fit the flavor and motivations of the players closely.

Overall, I think that this book strikes the perfect balance between being a generic regional book that puts most of the work on the DM, and a published module that railroads players.

An absolutely awesome sourcebook!
As a long time follower of Zhentil Keep, the Zhentarim, and Lord Bane, I'm sure my opinion is -most- biased. But I have to say that this is one of the best sourcebooks I've read to date. As stated below, yes, this is nore a core book. However, that doesn't at all make it useless.

As a player myself, I like to read up on the NPCs and lore of the Realms, and this is an amazing book for that. Covering the entire Moonsea region, this book delves into key aspects of the north, south, east, and west regions of the Moonsea. It provides maps of the cities, though not to large amounts of detail, and offers up new NPCs; in Zhentil Keep, it gives you the Slave Master of the city, an Erinyes working eagerly under Fzoul Chembryl's guidance, and the dottering old Evil head of the mage's society.

All in all? A worthwhile read!

Not a core book.
Please, do not buy this book if you are looking for a core book. Do not make the same mistake I made.
This is a good book if you are looking for an adventure book. But that is it. Do not spect a lot of descriptions, you will get mostly adventures, not very detailed ones but a lot of them.
I just gave one single star to this book because it is totally mislabled. ... Read more

Product Description
Provides a detailed look at the lightless world under the surface of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. This accessory provides a wealth of highly detailed information about one of the most popular regions in the Forgotten Realms world, the world beneath the ground. It includes details on the most popular Underdark race, the drow, in addition to multitudes of other below-ground species. In addition to regional feats, prestige classes, spells, monsters, and magic items, there is also background content on this area of the world, including extensive story content gathered from a multitude of Forgotten Realms products and articles. To aid Dungeon Masters, the material for running a campaign is isolated in a single section of the book and includes adventure hooks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Great supplement for Your campaign
What group doesn't want to delve the mysterious depths of the Underdark?And as a DM, you should make them go, especially when the grouop gets to be high enough level to cast Teleport, because instead of being able to go home every night, they are stuck in the endless caverns until they walk out.And its dangerous, what with the terrible creatures that lurk in the dark.Fun for everyone!

What there is , is great
Initially going through the book, its full of excellent ideas and information, all the things you want to know about the Underdark. It was only when I started to look things up , I found that there was no index. How can a reference book have no index! Then after reading through the geography section trying to find what I was looking for I noticed , half the paces on the map have not enteries, which was quiet frustrating.
Overall, what there is is excellent, but it seems like the only wrote half the book.

What a disappointment...
I am an avid DM particularly in the Underdark and I thought frankly that it really was two hundred pages of nothing save for a few paragraphs. I have found more useful information from my old box sets and Drow of the Underdark supplements than this book provided. The maps were completely worthless and the city descriptions were paltry at best. Gone are the days when forgotten realms books were jam-packed with useful DM information ready to pop into a campaign. If you are looking for a general overview of the Underdark then it fills the need, however my imagination works much better than this book.

Great for a UD Fan
I guess if you are an old school player this book may not be up to your standards, but if you're a new school D&D guy like me this book is great. Tells you a lot of things about some hardly talked about underdark races and places of interest. Sure you may find it in the novels but they are "cliffnoted" in this version. Also has some very sweet arse monsters and if you plan on building an Underdark campaign it comes in very handy with geography. Being a drow fan I am, and no not due to Dritzz, this book has my recommendations for some help in Lloth based drow but it is a bit lacking. I could go on but to sum it all up, you like the Underdark or creatures in it I highly suggest getting this book to help you in the aspects it has to offer unless you read the novels enough to just know. That is why I give it a 5 star, for one it does what it says, Underdark. Tells you a summed up describtion of it and places of interest.

Still torn on this one
This is a source book that is really ment if you are running a Forgotten Realms campaign and want to expand into the underdark. If you are looking for material for a home-made campaign this might not be the right book for you. It does offer a lot of background info about places, people, and events in the underdark of FR. Some of it can be adapted for home-made but most will not be of use. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Houses
The book is good, but my major issues with it is its lack of depth in describing the Dragonmarked houses. It gives you good information, but I wish they had taken more time to describe major players in the individual houses, perhaps intrigue not only within the houses, but between the houses. In the game I am playing in I created a character within House Deneith with monarchist views. They do mention a member with the house that has similar views but it's brief and not as detailed as I'd like it. I also wish they had mentioned more about the houses goals and views from perhaps several of the elders with each house.

A Must Have
If you're going to run an Eberron campaign, you absolutely must have this book.One of the hallmarks of Eberron is the Dragonmarked houses, and you can't really understand the Houses until you have this book.

It's well written, and the consistent format makes it easy to find what you are looking for.Plot hooks abound, albeit in a slightly more subtle manner than a section entitled 'Plot Hooks for House..."

If you like Eberron, you'll love this book.

A good entry into the Eberron saga
I'm really disappointed that this book didn't contain information on the lost mark.I have planned a resurgence of the lost mark in my campaign setting and I was looking forward to an official breakdown of the least, lesser, and greater mark of death.

This book does contain a great many new and interesting feats for characters who have dragonmarks.Though, once again with the recent release wave of WOTC, there are issues with balance in regard to feats.Some feats are lame, some are very obviously uber.

Who wouldn't want to take a feat that grants Damage Reduction 5/magic or Damage Reduction 5/byeshk.Dm's will need to tweak things here and there to make them more balance minded.

There are some very promising prestige classes in this book.My personal favorite is the combat oriented prestige class for House Orien.Reminds me of Nightcrawler from the Xmen.

Since this book lacks information on the 13th mark...this is what I'm using...feel free to implement it in your campaign!

+2 knowledge(religion) checks
least mark - 1/day command undead or invisibility to undead
lesser mark - 1/ day animate undead or halt undead
greater mark - 1/ day create undead or undeath to death
siberys mark - 1/ day create greater undead or control undead

Overall...I feel this is a strong addition to my Eberron campaign and will enrich the setting.

Good Product, limited use
I like the product.It tells a lot more about the Dragonmarked and would be a good addition to any Eberron campaign.I only gave it three stars because of how limited it is in scope.While some history is explained, it doesn't go far enough.What about the thirteenth mark?It's all but unmentioned and it's a significant part of the past.A prestige class from another product is referred to several times but I only stumbled on it by luck when I was looking at the other book.It's a book that you can do without and that's a shame since the Dragonmarked are in interesting idea.

A Strong but Frustrating Entry
Dragonmarked was another strong entry in the growing Eberron saga.As a player-oriented sourcebook, the player options were of course many and varied -- from the dozen prestige classes to the host of new feats and spells -- and on the whole, added to the setting precisely what one would expect the new mechanics of such a book to add.Unfortunately, some of the "meat" of the individual houses was thin if not outright gamey (no pun), in a few places.Here was a great opportunity (THE opportunity, in fact) to reveal the real deal behind some of the more intriguing and mysterious of houses, and it seems like the developers failed to capitalize on that opportunity at times.As a player in the setting, yes, I wanted more dragonmark-related goodies, but I wanted the depth of narrative that I've been waiting for since the corebook was released.Did the writers try to do this and were edited "down" by the developers?We'll never know, but the end result is a bit of a missed opportunity when it comes to such explication.In particular, the places where the tone retains its mystery -- "It might have been this, or it might have been that" -- were especially aggravating.That's what we've heard all along, folks; this was the place to stop prevaricating, and show us the hidden truth.If you don't intend to reveal it, don't make the promise that the book makes by its very design.All in all, the book is 5 out of 5 stars in game content, as one might expect from WotC; but as one might also expect from WotC in the 3.5 era, the narrative leaves a little something to be desired in some places (though a few house descriptions, such as Sivis, don't disappoint at all).And so it must needs drop from 5 to 4 stars, though it's still a very good sourcebook. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Good start to a trillogy with a horrible end..
S P O I L E R - A L E R T

NOTE THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ SPOILERS AND/OR MAY PLAY IN THIS MODULE AT SOME TIME I SUGGEST YOU READ NO FURTHER.




Summary: This adventure is the first part in a trilogy of modules that were some of the absolute last things to be released for the 3.5th edition of Dungeons of Dragons.

Barrow is the first module and is for 2nd level characters. The players find themselves in the city of Kingsholm investigating some disappearances. The investigation leads them to uncover a long lost burial tomb north of the city under the statue of the Forgotten King. Once into the tomb the party finds out they aren't the only ones there and the rest of the module becomes a chase trying to catch the defiler's of the Tomb.

As the module takes place first in a grave yard and then in a lost tomb you can expect lots of Undead. In addition the party will face some evil humanoids, mostly in the form of Hobgoblins and Verags. Along the way the party also has a chance to befriend a couple of creatures including a Water Elemental and a Fossergrimm. Most encounters are combat based, with very few talking encounters. There is one puzzle to be solved as well. The end of the module ties directly into the next module The Sinister Spire.

This module follows the 3.5 'new format' with all of the text and room descriptions in the front of the book and all of the encounter details at the back. The encounters give a lot of detailed and include rules for interacting with the environment as well as tactics for the enemies to use.

The Good: I liked the feel of this module. It ran well and the hook was a good one at the beginning. I found my players really were surprised to find everyone they were looking for dead and weren't expecting a race against time through a dungeon. Everything seemed very well written. I especially liked the encounter pages with nice in close 1" square maps with details on furniture, traps, and even mob tactics. This was invaluable as this is my first 3.5 campaign. The difficulty on this seemed just about right. There were a few close calls but never anything that threatened to cause a TPK.

The Bad: The puzzle at the beginning was lame. It was neat that it was a beholder and all but knowing anything about beholders was useless. Also there was a riddle with it that actually told the characters nothing. They just had to arrange some tiles on the floor to match the pattern on a door. It could have been a number puzzle and it would have been just as hard. I am not a fan of the Legacy item in this. Now I don't have Weapons of Legacy so I'm not sure if it's all Legacy Weapons or just the ones in this module. The character who got the main Legacy Weapon in this module spent the remaining three modules bitching about how crappy his sword was and how he was going to toss it in a lake (see the session reports). Some player handouts would have been nice, especially for the puzzle. I ended up scanning a couple of pages to hand out and making some counters, but it would have been a lot nicer to have that included.

The Ugly: I really don't like the whole divided book system. I found myself constantly flipping between room descriptions and encounters, always loosing the page of one or the other which really slowed down gameplay. I did like the encounter pages, but keep them in line with the rest of the text, not at the back (I'm guessing others complained about this as well as all of the 4e adventures seem to do just that now). The monsters in this are tough in an almost cheating way. They are obviously set up to fight against an experienced group of 3rd edition players, as they have a ton of abilities that negate the best abilities of the characters. Things that negate crits, flanks and have resistance to various types of damage are very common. Now this wasn't that bad in this module but is a trend throughout the trillogy that just gets worse as the modules go on.

Overall: this was a good module. I liked it and I think my players did as well. They definitely wanted to continue on at the end, which is always good to see. Besides one person not being too happy with his Legacy item, monsters immune to lots of attacks and a pretty annoying puzzle I didn't really find much wrong with the adventure, story or difficulty. What I really wasn't a fan of was the format. Unfortunately it looks like all later 3.5 modules follow the whole 'story section followed by encounter section' format. On it's own I do suggest this module pretty strongly. Just be warned that if you plan on running the whole trilogy you will want to do some modification to it as it has a horrible ending. You may want to pick up all three books at once, so you can start linking the changes right from the beginning.

Cool....and fun
Great adventure. It ttok us alittle over 12 playing hours to get through it, but it was fun and it had a decent challenge level for 2nd level characters, the story links perfectly to the next module (and the third one) so it seems to be more of a single adventure. Allowing a chance for the characters to level up is needed, but I still think it is a little "weak" for the character levels recommended (and it seems the XP awards end up with the characters being a little below the level for the next adventure). Overall a great though out module. I have one issue and it is with having all the encounters at the end, which makes for crazy page flipping all the time (otherwise I would give it 5 stars).

A nice diversion for when our own creativity becomes stale.
Great for when I get too busy to write a respectable campaign, or am feeling lazy.Well organized with exceptional illustration.

Quick, hire an editor
Well, after finally finishing it, it was actually a fun adventure, but getting there was no walk in the park.First off, for $20, I really expect more, and a lot better.The first thing you'll notice is that behind the shiny cover, you have something that looks like it was photocopied on paper barely better than news paper quality.C'mon, I paid $20!Oh well... beyond that, the most annoying thing is the layout, which is something that WOTC started doing with their adventures... the main 'story' is in the first part of the book, the 'encounters' are in the second half of the book.I don't like this format.It's supposed to make encounters easier to run, but the fact is it divides the information in a bad way.It ended up creating more work for me as the DM, which sucks.
Another thing that created a lot of work for me is that this adventure was obviously rushed out the door without anyone reading over it, which is a real shame.There are gaping omissions, incorrect references, and you'll even see references to page 'XX', where they didn't even fill in the info at all.The bad thing is that a lot of this is at the beginning of the adventure (or maybe I just got used to it by the end).I was very close to just calling it quits on this one and moving on to a different adventure, but after spending a good amount of time revamping the adventure a bit, giving it a more fitting background story for my campaign (which is set in Eberron), and changing some of the encounters and the ending, it actually ended up being a lot of fun.There are some really fun encounters in here, but be aware that a lot of them are kinda dangerous, and I had a few characters die.Again, a lot of that came in the beginning of the adventure.Had WOTC spent more time refining this one, I think it could've been great.It's still pretty good, just be prepared to spend a LOT of time prepping.

best suited for variant race classes.
I am now playing this adventure,and after three 8 hour gaming sessions it has become apparant this module is better suited for experinced and higher level characters.It is hard to judge if my assessment is correct being as I am a player as oppossed to a DM,but the creatures,puzzles and
encounter backdrops are difficult to overcome with standard character types-which in our case includes a gnome rogue,dwarf monk,dwarf fighter,human cleric and human illusionist.If your campaign is a stickler for in game knowledge only, your encounters will be overwhelming.
Our Dm says in the forward that the module specifies that it is designed for experienced players(I'm a 25 year playing veteran),I can't understand the premise of "experienced" 1st level characters/players.I have played/Dm several new WOTC modules including castle ravenloft,demon web pits and temple of elemental evil,and outside of the demonweb pit module the recommended character levels seemed appropiate for those campaigns.
If your group tends to play warforged,dragon born or other monster races in your group then this moduleis just for you,it's encounters will be more suited for your varied additional abilities-a Dm should be prepared to downplay encounters for standard group makeups. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Interesting
"Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave" is an excellent addition for the serious D&D enthusiast. Both to the DM and players this book reveals one of the greatest Forgotten Realms storylines players can participate in.

Review of Cormyr - Tearing of the Weave
This books has its good points and its bad points. As for the good points it does explain about Cormyr it more detail then the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting book. But the bad point is that its has the many adventures for this book all the way through the book instead of have it at the back of the book and a little more detail about Cormyr and its major characters would of been more helpful.

An ok adventure with some work
The plot to this adventure is a good one that is unfortunately hampered by two problems. First, the italicized descriptions placed at the beginning of most locations are for the most part horrendously bland and poorly written. This can obviously be fixed by a creative DM but surely after paying for this book you shouldn't have to. The second problem is the abundance of errors that plague the text. I can accept a few typos in a book but in the first chapter alone there were a half dozen or so glaring mistakes (the most obvious of which is on a handout of all things) A map that you are supposed to give the players tells them that a certain landmark lies to the west while the map clearly shows it to the east. Again, not an unfixable error but annoying nonetheless.
The thing that I like the most is the use of what they call "tactical encounters". A specific page is set aside for each location that is likely to see combat, presenting NPC and Monster stats, a mini-map showing locations and possible tactics that will be used. At the end of the day I would say that if you don't mind spending the time fixing things and paying attention to poor writing, the adventure itself is well worth playing through if for no other reason that to segue nicely into the superior Shadowdale adventure.

Well done end to end
This product makes it very easy to put together a reasonable campaign adventure with very little prep.The combats are interesting and the adventure is well laid out.I had little trouble integrating it into my campaign.The fact that this fits very well with either Anarouch or Shadowdale makes it easy to take a group through a fairly extensive campaign very easily.A better more comprehesive series of adventures has not been produced since the T1-4A1-4G1-3D1-2Q1 series.

Mediocre at best
I was very disappointed with this book. It has little to do with Cormyr. Even if you're focused on setting a game in Cormyr you can skip purchasing this book. You'll get nothing in the way of useful source material. The adventure has one or two interesting parts, but you can definitely do better by writing your own. This book also seems to focus on a new style that comes off as focusing more on the fights than the story. I found important information scattered about the book and it was often difficult to make it fit together. ... Read more

Product Description
As threats to the Empire's stability loom, some brave individuals step forward to lend their aid to the cause, while others are caught up in fate's plans to find themselves facing perilous adventures. The Adventurer's Toolkit lets players easily add more excitement and options to their Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game. The Adventurer's Toolkit is also perfect for new players in your campaign. Inside you will find more that 50 action cards, 30 talent cards, 10 new careers, 4 new party sheets, a pad of character sheets, new character standups, extra tokens to help manage your heroes, and much more! With the The Adventurer's Toolkit, you can now play as a sturdy Dwarf Ironbreaker, a formidable High Elf Sword Master, a nimble Wood Elf Wardancer , or as a downtrodden Ratcatcher with a small but vicious dog - or as one of the other new careers introduced. The Adventurer's Toolkit let's you face your grim and perilous adventures with more options than ever before! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Toolkit
This is a great edition to the warhammer game. The Ratcatcher is pretty cool(reminds me a little of the hunter in WOW) The weapon/armor introduced are pretty cool without being too powerful. If you enjoy warhammer fantasy this is a great edition to the game.

A great addition to the game
This is a no-brainer. You want this if you have the game. I love the rat-catcher and his "small but vicious dog".

Great suppliment for warhammer fantasy roleplay
This is a great product, includes some new options for players to choose with regard to careers as well as some additional cards for different kinds of actions and some new talents for character advancement. The follower rules for the rat catcher's pet dog are implemented very well!! Plus the small sized box is perfect for organizing the cards for the game and holding dice or tokens during play.

A solid expansion for a great new game
First, I must say that the packaging is first rate.The box is small, a little larger than a thick trade paperback, but it's sturdy and has a similar design to the main Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Core Set.The box is intended for use to store a player's cards, character sheets, career, etc.

There's a lot packed into this small box:a fresh pad of full color character sheets, 4 new party cards, more of the basic cardboard tokens (fatigue/stress, stance/progress track, etc.), many new cards (small and large, including another set of "basic" action cards to accommodate another player), 10 new careers, and stand-ups.

Among the new cards, you get many new actions, talents, and ability cards to support the new careers.There are also new condition cards for new conditions like "intoxicated".You also get 6 new wound cards.There's a career-sized card for the Ratcatcher's Small But Vicious Dog along with some "trick" talent cards which can be slotted to the dog's card.Two new item cards are included: Gromril Armour for ironbreakers, and a Greatsword of Hoeth for sword masters.

Many of the new careers are as interesting as the best offerings from the core set.Here's the list of new careers you get:Bailiff, Bounty Hunter, Dockhand, Ironbreaker, Pit Fighter, Ratcatcher, Scribe, Smuggler, Sword Master, and Wardancer.

The new party cards are:Glory Hounds, Defiant Scoundrels, Diplomatic Entourage, and Outhbound.

The Amazon price is reasonable, but the MSRP on this item is a bit steep.For the MSRP, I would have appreciated some extra dice.That's really my only complaint.

A good buy, but no Halflings
TLDR version : A good buy for a WFRP3 fan, but this product isn't going to change the minds of those who are not drinking the kool-aid.

Something that RPG buyers need to remember with WFRP3 is that you are not buying a book. So do not compare it to a 30 dollar RPG book, because if you are counting words/mechanics, the WFRP3 supplement will lose. You will also gain, at minimum, two insanity effects (see what I did there?.)

That being said, here are my impressions of the product.

Good :

* Interesting careers, with new mechanics for some. For example, the swordmaster and ironbreaker have career specific items that they come with. Like the trappings of old. Also, the rat catcher has a very compelling mechanic with the small but vicious dog. Should have they been included in the original set? Sure. But not everything is going to fit in one release, either.

* Action cards. There are some really neat new cards, esp. for melee oriented careers, along with more intelligence based ones. In addition, there are more duplicates of commonly used cards.

* The rest of the cards. All good stuff as I can tell. Nothing seems amazingly under/over powered.

Bad :

* No Halflings. Bummer. Perhaps FFG cannot find a way to make them mechanically viable.

* I personally do not care for more cardboard chits and the like. I would have preferred more cards. Or Hobbits.

* Not really a bad, but I would like to have some kind of clue what will appear in the future, as far as upcoming WFRP3 releases go.

Bottom line : You should get this if you like what WFRP3 has to offer. If you are having difficulty appreciating what WFRP3 is and expect a big book, then stay away. ... Read more