Deathwatch: Rites of Battle Review

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(More customer reviews)Rites of Battle is a 256 page hardcover rules supplement for the Deathwatch RPG by Fantasy Flight Games. You must have the core rulebook to use Rites of Battle. That said, I wouldn't play Deathwatch without it unless you want your Space Marines to chase down hordes of Tyranids and Orks on foot. Sad, but true, the Deathwatch core rules depict a spacefaring empire beset by other spacefaring empires and yet it has no vehicle rules for traveling anywhere planet-side or in space. Now there is, at least as far as combat is concerned.
The book is broken down into 6 chapters and an index.
Chapter 1: Deathwatch Origins
Pages 8 - 72.
This chapter is really cool. It fleshes out how a Chapter operates a bit and it details the Imperial Fists Chapter as well as a smattering of Successor Chapters (Novamarines, White Consuls, Black Consuls, Mortifactors, Genesis Chapter, Consecrators, Angels of Redemption, Angels of Absolution, Flesh Tearers, Lamenters, Blood Drinkers, Knights of Blood, Crimson Fists, Hammers of Dorn, and the Subjugators). Most importantly to me, though, it has 30 pages devoted to creating your own Space Marine Chapter. Yes! This has been a blast for me. It simply cannot be over-rated. It is my opinion that this is the second most important chapter of the book.
Chapter 2: The Call of War
Pages 74 - 132.
This chapter adds Deeds and Distinctions to the character creation process and it adds Advanced Specialties for the PCs to explore. Deeds are impactful actions from a character's past that can be bought to give the PC benefits in the game. For example, the No Quarter Given deed costs 500 xp and gives the PC a +3 bonus to Weapon Skill and gives him the Counter-Attack Talent. Some Deeds are Chapter-based, others are Campaign Deeds, Valorous Deeds, and Specialty Deeds. There are even Deeds of Disdain, should players wish to add a flaw to their PCs. No Quarter Given is a Valorous Deed. Distinctions are a reward for some past heroism. There are three flavors or "Marks" of Distinction. Command, Combat, and Determination. An example Mark of Distinction would be the First Among Equals command mark. It costs 1000 xp and grants the PC a +10 bonus to his Renown when determining Requisition for Missions and a +20 bonus to his Requisition total for each Mission. The Advanced Specialties are Deathwatch-based. They are Deathwatch Black Shield, Deathwatch Champion, Deathwatch Chaplain, Deathwatch Dreadnought (requirements: 0 Fate points, Renown 60+, must've performed a great deed, may not be a Librarian. Cost: 5,000 xp), Deathwatch Epistolary, Deathwatch Forge Master, Deathwatch Keeper, Deathwatch Kill-Marine, Deathwatch Watch Captain, and First Company Veteran. I like the Advanced Specialties best in this chapter, but it's all good.
Chapter 3: Expanded Wargear
Pages 134 - 161.
Gear is always good and that is true here. Power Armor gets strong coverage. The rest? Not so much. Still a good chapter, though.
Chapter 4: Vehicles
Pages 164 - 197.
This chapter alone is worth the price of the book if you ask me! It covers vehicle combat and details a variety of vehicles. Listed Space Marine vehicles include 6 different Land Raider tanks, 3 Land Speeders, 2 Bikes, Predator tanks, 3 Rhino APCs, 2 Dreadnoughts, 2 Gunships, Vindicator, Whirlwind, and 2 Warhound Titans. Chaos and Tau vehicles round out the chapter. It's too bad they didn't include vehicles from other factions. Another flaw here is the lack of a master vehicle list. You have to look up each vehicle entry to see its stats.
Chapter 5: Honour or Death
Pages 200 - 226.
Covers expanded rules for Renown and Requisition, reveals additional Assets to Requisition, details Honours such as the Crux Terminatus, as well as advanced Squad and Solo abilities. Sweet.
Chapter 6: Watch Fortress Erioch
Pages 228 - 252.
This chapter beefs up the campaign setting with various bits. Given the relative brevity of the chapter, I think they did alright. The first 15 pages cover the Deathwatch Watch Fortress Erioch. 4 pages cover various Deathwatch Mission-types. 2 pages describe in general terms the super-secure Omega Vault, buried deep within the Fortress. The final 3 pages describe a little of Jericho Reach.
Index
Pages 253 - 255.
The index has not been helpful to me as of yet, but your mileage may vary.
This is a meaningful addition to the core rulebook and I would advise anyone wanting to play Deathwatch to add Rites of Battle to their gaming library. It really impressed me.

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The Space Marines of the Deathwatch safeguard the Jericho Reach against the galaxy's deadliest foes. Do not falter: arm yourselves with the best wargear and abilities the Deathwatch has to offer! Rites of Battle, a supplement for Deathwatch, offers the means to enrich and add detail to the adventures of a Kill-team in the Jericho Reach. A host of new character options allow for increased personalization with thorough "Create Your Own Chapter" and "Alternate Specialities" rules. Play a member of the Imperial Fists Chapter or one of the Successor Chapters that send Space Marines to the Deathwatch. Meanwhile, vehicle rules add a new dimension to gameplay and expand possibilities for adventure. Battle alien tanks with your Land Raider or prowl behind enemy lines with a Land Speeder Storm. Gain access to an extensive new armoury of weapons, armour, and relics from the armouries of Watch Fortress Erioch, or earn new special honours and distinctions to reflect your Space Marine's glorious victories!A valuable handbook for Space Marines of the Deathwatch, Rites of Battle contains everything needed to prepare a Deathwatch Kill-team for any mission. Rise to glory in the service of the Emperor!

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Sorcery and Steam (Legends & Lairs, d20 System) Review

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(More customer reviews)Sorcery & Steam presents usable classes and prestige classes, a modest selection of spells, and some wonderful ideas about adventuring in a fantasy steampunk setting. It was a good overview, suggesting many directions such a campaign could go without trying to pin a GM down to a pre-made setting he has to labor to work into his existing campaign. The art was excellent as well. A very useful book, and one I am happy to have added to my RPG library.

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The definitive d20 System resource for steampunk fantasy settings and adventures.• A comprehensive discussion of what steampunk is, what it looks and feels like, and how to introduce it into your fantasy game.• Detailed guidelines on incorporating the existing corre classes into a steampunk game, along with three new classes and more than a dozen prestige classes.• A handful of new skills, including Drive, Munitions, and Use Steamcraft Device, as well as new uses for existing skills.• Detailed information on new euipment and technology, from steamcraft devices to black powder weapons.•Comprehensive vehicle rules and descriptions of several common steamcraft vehicles, including locomotives, ironclads, and zeppelins.

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Dark Heresy RPG: Creatures Anathema Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a must have for any Dark Heresy GM. It has a few classic 40k creatures genestealers*, lictors, some eldar, and some orks, and some classic daemons. But don't expect to see all the classics Tau, Necron, most 'nids, and chaos types. Most of the book is devoted to new Calis sector ceatures. (If this is a good or bad thing depends on what you are looking for.) The new creatures are well thought out and suit the investigative campaign sytle of DH. These are better suited (some might argue) than the some of the classic table top units.
*Strangely missing info on the genestealers half breeds, and cults.

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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.

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Dark Heresy RPG: The Radical's Handbook Review

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(More customer reviews)I've never found a RPG that genuinely gave me the creeps, not even Dark Heresy and their's some creepy stuff in their. The Radical's Hand book gave me the creeps. The book drives home the dangers of Madness and Corruption in the 40k Universe. For a true taste of what "Grim Darkness" really is, this is the book that will give you the understanding. Not for the faint of heart or the weak of faith. The Emperor protects.

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Radical Inquisitors turn away from the path of the Puritan and rely upon tools that most consider blasphemous. Heretic allies, alien technologies, and daemon weapons of Chaos are but a few of these instruments chosen by Radicals who believe that the end always justifies the means.This sourcebook contains new rules, dark careers, and forbidden gear for both Game Masters and players who wish to tread the forsaken path of a Radical.

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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Core Set Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a fan of the Warhammer universe and though I own the 2nd edition of WHFRP, I haven't played it much. My mainstay game lately is D&D 4E, though I've played or run most of the major RPG systems from the last two decades.
I find WHFRP 3rd edition to be a splendid mix of some of my favorite aspects from other RPGs combined with a few new mechanics and unique game concepts. This game pushes the bar up for quality and design thinking and I hope it influences future RPGs.
I know the MSRP is a little high, but at Amazon prices, this is a steal! This box is HUGE and beautiful. Of course everything inside is high quality material and full color, as you'd expect from a company like Fantasy-Flight. The books are not hardcover, but they are full color with thick, glossy pages.
Certainly the books could have used another run at editing, there are lots of typos, but none so far that make the rules confusing. That's the only quality issue I've noticed so far.
The rules are simple but powerful. They offer a wealth of options for players and plenty of flexibility for the GM. I feel the rules sit somewhere between Savage Worlds and D&D 4E in complexity. The core of the rules is easy to remember: you create dice pools and roll them to determine results, the specifics and exceptions are noted on cards in front of the players. You rarely reference the books during play. Cards are used to great effect throughout the system.
Though there's a boardgame feel to the components, this is very much a true RPG. It's a nice mix between the freedom and danger offered in older RPGs and the tactical options and balance that a system like D&D 4e presents.
The system and components are tightly integrated. Everything fits together really well. The feel of the Warhammer world is definitely stitched into the rules but the GM can easily run any type of campaign he wants, not just dark and dangerous. There's plenty of room to take the system and suit it to your group's style of play.
For those of you who dislike grid combat, you're in luck. For those prefer D&D 4E style combat, it's not difficult to adjust the rules to accomodate a grid.
There's very little math involved in the game. You're not constantly rolling numbers and adding modifiers and comparing to other numbers. This is all accounted for in the construction of dice pools. The options players and GMs have in building dice pools really make the system shine.
I could say so much more. I could go on about the party system, the stance system, the way the game supports narrative play, or how fast it plays, but I'll stop here. The game does a much better job of explaining itself, and you owe it to yourself to at least check it out at your FLGS if you're on the fence.


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Warhammer Fantasy Role play is a new, exciting way to experience the popular Warhammer Fantasy setting. It is a grim world, constantly at war. As a hero, you will take up weapon, spell, or prayer and do your best to combat the might of enemies terrifying to behold. As the Game Master, you will make the lands of the Old World real as you craft the story, the people, creatures, and the mysteries the other players will encounter during their adventures.Everything your group needs to begin its adventures in the Old World is included in the Core set. This Core set is an excellent way to bring new players into the fold, as well as to reward experienced role playing with new and exciting innovations.-4 comprehensive rule books provide all the knowledge you will need on the Old World-Over 30 Custom Dice give you unprecedented options for story-telling-Party sheets provide new skills and abilities to keep everyone engaged-30 different careers and 4 different races offer a multitude of character options-More than 300 cards keep you in the game, no need to look up skills or abilities-Three character keepers designed to hold everything your hero will need each session

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Hammer and Shadow (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Midnight Setting) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a must-have for anyone who owns Twilight Imperium Third Edition. The addition of two more colors to allow eight-player games (and extra systems to expand the game "board" along with other extra pieces (like trade goods) to fit the extra players) is alone worth the price of admission. Then they add four more species, all of whom are as balanced as the original species are (which is to say, mostly balanced). There are also scads of new concepts, from shock troops to artifacts to species-based technologies! But if the new concepts and expanded gameplay weren't enough for you, they also put the errata from their website into the expansion's rulebook, and they reprinted a bunch of cards to replace the originals! In some cases, this was to fix poorly worded cards; in other cases it was to open the card up to the new tech or concepts in the expansion.
Mixing the expansion with the original game is a tiny bit complicated (keeping track of which cards are to be added, which are to be set aside as optional, and which are replacements), and if you care enough to do it right, it does take some time to make sure you are not just jumbling everything all together. Fortunately, the rulebook lays out for you exactly what is replaced, and what is new and optional. And even if things *do* get all jumbled together, they made it incredibly easy to separate out the expansion pieces by putting the expansion's logo on most cards and tokens in the expansion! And trust me, putting this game away in a proper manner is a key to playing it again. When you feel like playing, you don't want to spend an hour separating out everything; you want to have done that after the last game, so it's ready when you are.
There is enough room in the original box to fit all the original parts and the expansion parts as well, but the expansion box does not fit inside the original box unless you are willing to remove the original game's inner cardboard divider (with very nice art on it). There's nothing to removing it; it's not glued in or anything. I just find that the divider works very well for keeping the expansion and original pieces that should be separate, separate.
So, here's a rundown of everything that's new in this set:
28 new system tiles
2 new sets of plastic units in orange and gray (the ships, ground forces, PDS units, Space Docks, etc.)
4 new species sheets
64 command counters (16 each for the new species)
88 control markers (14 each for the new species, and 2 additional markers for the 10 original species)
12 leader counters (3 each for the new species)
8 new variant strategy cards (not to be mixed in)
1 variant Imperial strategy card (optional to mix in)
8 new trade contract cards (2 each for the new species)
28 new objective cards (some to mix in, others not)
40 new action cards (5 are replacements, the rest are to be mixed in)
32 new political cards (to be mixed in)
98 technology cards (two full sets for the new colors, some replacement cards for the original decks, and additional cards to be mixed in)
14 species-specific technology cards
28 new planet cards
16 facility cards (8 colonies and 8 refineries)
8 unit reference cards
12 shock trooper tokens
12 space mine tokens
2 Mecatol custodian tokens
8 artifact tokens
1 High Alert token (for use with the variant strategy cards)
22 domain counters (including new counters for more variety in the "Distant Suns" option)
12 fighter supplement tokens (in +3 denominations)
12 ground force supplement tokens (in +3 denominations)
12 trade goods
3 wormhole tokens (including new wormhole Charlie)
In short, this expansion is *absolutely* worth purchasing. You will get even more enjoyment from a game that already has nearly unlimited replay value!

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A century ago, the forces of darkness overran Eredane and subjugated all its peoples to the will of the dark god Izrador. Almost. In what remains of their mountain holdfasts in the Kaladruns, the dwarves still resist. It has been barely a dwarven generation since the Shadow fell, and living dwarves still remember freedom. They have the finest weapons and armor on the face of Aryth, traps devilish enough to kill a thousand orcs, and a legendary stubbornness in the face of adversity. It is not enough. Every day in the world of Midnight the dwarves are losing their war against the numberless servants of Izrador. Hammer and Shadow includes:Dozens of forces, NPCs, and location descriptions for the Kaladrun Mountains and the armies that assault them. Maps, adventure hooks, and local rumors to incorporate into any Midnight campaign. New feats, prestige classes, charms, and equipment for both the brave defenders of the Kaladruns and the savage minions intent on destroying them.

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Flight from the Dark (Lone Wolf, Book 1) Review

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(More customer reviews)Gorwing up in the 80's and early 90's I had always been a fan of game books like Choose your own adventure, Advanced Dungeons, interplanetary spy etc. I first saw the Lone wolf books in a 7th grade book fair and my friend convinced me to buy one. I bought Lone Wolf 8: The Jungle of Horrors. After completing that book I was hoooked. I set out to purchase more books from this series, because I had very little money at the time, I only managed to add the following to my collection:
Lone Wolf 1: Flight from the dark
Lone Wolf 3: Caverns of Kalte
Lone Wolf 5: Shadow on the Sand
Lone wolf 10: The Dungeons of Torgar
Lone wolf 13: The Plague Lords of Reul
Lone wolf 15: The Dark Crusade
Lone wolf 16: The Legacy of Vashna
Soon after I really started getting into these books they stopped publishing them. Over the years the books I did have were misplaced. I am a lot older now and recently had a bit of nostalgia and decided to hunt down books 1 - 16 because I thought 16 was the last Lone wolf book. I soon found out that Dever actually had 20 books published in the U.S. I now have books 1 - 19 still searching for that elusive #20. I wasnt planning on reading them, I just wanted to collect them. But after deciding to read Book #1 again I was hooked all over again, I am now on book 8 and plan to complete the entire series whenever I can get Lone wolf 20.
In a world dominated by video games and TV, kids these days never seem to want to read anymore. When I was growing up, video games systems were just starting to come out and were many times too expensive for my parents to afford. Reading books and playing outside were my only forms of entertainment and I think it has done me well in the long run. Books will probally never be a form of entertainment for young kids these days as it was for people growing up in my generation. Who knows one day, books will probally be completely phased out. What a shame. I just wish more kids these days would see that reading can be fun, entertaining and educational at the same time as Joe Dever proved that to me.

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You are Lone Wolf. In a devastating attack the Darklords have destroyed the monastery where you were learning the skills of the Kai Lords. You are the sole survivor. You swear revenge. But first you must reach Holmgard to warn the King of the gathering evil. The servants of darkness relentlessly hunt you across your country and every turn of the page presents a new challenge. Choose your skills and your weapons carefully - for they can help you succeed in the most fantastic and terrifying journey of your life. The LONE WOLF adventures are a unique interactive fantasy series - each episode can be played separately or you can combine them all to create a fantastic role-playing epic.--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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