This product was really well-written, and the station is well thought-out. I really liked the two different descriptions, one for an operable station, one for a derelict station. However, I am a very visual person, and that's where this product doesn't meet my needs. Layout-wise this is very well done. It looks very professional, and is easy to read. But there's only one image. There are no maps or diagrams. I realize that for an inexpensive product like this that there may not be a budget, but some images would have helped a great deal.

EDIT: However, on a more careful read, I've discovered that the description are good enough that you almost don't need a map. Teh only description that I found lakcing was of the staff hab module. There is no reference to size or number of rooms, though this could be extrapolated.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Very well-written, very descriptive writing.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Only one illustration. Should have at least had layouts of the habitation modules and the Vicar's.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

I've been running a game of D&D since the early 70's and am I ashamed. This excellent product has shown me how jaded and bland my adventures have become. I think this is the most useful and imaginative product I have yet purchased on this site. No longer will my poor players be starved for imaginative descriptions of what they see. No more goshawful nondescriptions of non-event "empty" rooms. I had forgotten the wonder that can be generated in players with a few carefully selected descriptions. My hat is off to this company. Very well done!<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Reignites the imagination so that the world can be fully realized and experienced by both players and gamemasters alike.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not a darn thing. Good job!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Deck O' Names Anglo Saxon Places is a pdf product that allows the user to generate flavorful place names on the fly using easy to use printed cards containing name snippets. This product is the second in the Deck O' Names series, the first allowing the user to generate a wide variety of male and female names. Each Deck O' Names pdf product also has a twin generator (not included with the purchase of this pdf), a software product that fulfils the same function of the pdf. This product is for generating the names of town, villages, hamlets and the like and draws from Anglo-Saxon history to create interesting and unique names.

The product comes as a zip file containing two main pdf files - the first containing all the cards for printing, and the second containing instructions, references and other material. The cards are simple and easy to print, and the names should be authentic sounding if you can get your tongue around the pronunciation. Fortunately a pronunciation guide is provided to assist with this. General presentation of the product is good - there's even a separate page containing a box that can be printed and assembled to hold all the cards in the product. In addition to the cards, the product has added value in that it contains numerous references, a brief history of the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon runes, and pages of translation of Anglo-Saxon pre- and suffixes in the many place names.

Deck O' Names Anglo Saxon Places can generate more than 31000 names, which is more than most would probably be able to use. The names draw from a variety of sources all Anglo-Saxon, giving each one an authentic sounding name. While Anglo-Saxon names might not be entirely 'fantasy', they can easily be converted into more 'English' rather than 'Old English' sounding names by changing the spelling and pronunciation somewhat. Examples of some of the names that can be generated include Dungeard, Ceaforleage, Glinwic, and Dodbirig. Experimenting with the cards rarely turned up an odd sounding name, and I think this product succeeds admirably at providing a flexible and easy to use system for generating names.

One of the strong points of this product is the amount of supplementary information that it provides. If we take the name Dungeard, for example, the list of meanings for the various Anglo-Saxon sections translate to 'Moor Yard'. I find this to be a very appealing aspect of the product, providing both interesting place names, pronunciation guide and more English meanings for the various words. There is a lot of use that a DM can get out of a product like this. The only minor weakness would be struggling to pronounce the words (but then you can generate one you can actually pronounce) and the fact that some the words might not necessarily fit all fantasy campaign settings. Still, a good product, very useful and with expanded utility for the gamer and the historian or linguist.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Deck O' Names Anglo Saxon Places provides the user with thousands of options for generating interesting and meaningful names for places in a fantasy campaign setting. From only a deck of 100 cards, the utility of this product is high, and adding in the supplementary material such as pronunciation and meanings of words, make this useful, interesting, and very flavorful. The addition of the Anglo-Saxon runes increases the utility further.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some people may struggle with the pronunciation, while others might find that the 'Old English' names do not necessarily fit their campaign setting, but those are both minor comments. A couple of odd names here and there, and the cards appear somewhat cramped.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The skinny: Tabletop Adventures' Bits of Darkness Bundle contains the 'Bits of Dakrness: Caverns' and 'Bits of Darkness: Dungeons' products, both of which combined comprise about 65 pages of information and 200 'bit' cards altogether. Each page is jam-packed with imagination-spurring mini-encounters and descriptive tags (to use their terminology, "Shards" and "Bits") that give any humdrum underground setting an instant feel of "Huh!" and "What's going to happen next?" that is often missing in canned encounters.

If you're looking for a quick and easy set of monster encounters to throw at your players, you're bound to be a little disappointed; this isn't a Book of Lairs or similar item that lays everything perfectly out for a GM so that he has to do nothing but read and roll dice. These are more valuable as imagination kick-starters, with bits and descriptions specifically set up for the GM to have the freedom to expand upon them, or just give the players more description of a locale than its size in feet and the plot-imperative objects found within. The descriptions are lush, making even some of the more mundane settings seem mysterious and foreboding, even when there are no magical pools, grim creatures, or long-lost relics for the players to find.

IMHO, the Bits of Darkness books do exactly what they set out to do... they can help a GM turn a ho-hum section of cavern or dungeon into a place filled with sights, sounds, and smells that keep the players on edge and involved in the game. Very highly recommended.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I liked the concept on the whole, actually. The descriptions are detailed and hit all the senses, and can turn a section of cavern or empty room into a sort of small adventure in themselves.

<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The only thing about this I wasn't too fond of was the repetetive cover art, which is reprinted on other Bits books with slight backgrounding changes... that gives it a 'series' feel, I know, and in a PDF, that's a very minor issue. If I was buying it in print, however, I don't know that the cover would sell the book for me. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Deck O' Names Generator is a software utility for generating male and female names for fantasy and sci-fi roleplaying games. It is a html and JavaScript based program that runs in a browser window and allows users to generate anything up to 1000 names at the click of a single button. The program uses name segments to derive about 34000 unique and different names for each sex, thereby providing more than enough names for any occasion. This review is based on version 1.3 of the software.

The product comes as a compressed file containing three important files, excluding the actually JavaScript program files - generator for female names, generator for male names, and a text file giving simple instructions on how to run the program. The program can be run in any browser that has JavaScript support enabled. From a visual point of view the program looks good, if rather small on the screen, but then given its functionality that's hardly surprising. Buttons are provided to enable the following functions - generate names, clear name list, print name list, sort alphabetically, remove duplicate names, count number of generated names and randomise the list of names. There is also a radio-button group that defines how to sort the printing page. Names can be saved by saving the print page as a file using standard browser functions.

The program is very simple to use. One click and you can generate anything from 1-1000 names. Additional clicks generate more names, but then the risk of duplicate names is there. These can be removed by clicking on a button labelled 'unique'. This is quite a surprising feature and it would've been neater to remove the 'unique' button, and simple write the program in such a way that it ensures no duplicate names are generated. Granted this would likely require a cap on the number of names generated at any given time, but then who needs that many names in any case?

All functions of the program worked like they were intended to, and there weren't any apparent bugs in the system. Both the male and female versions work in exactly the same way, although again it would've been nice to have both in a single program rather than having to switch between the two. The printable version could then sort the name in male and female and other interesting functions. Given the very small size of this, extra functionality of 'tagging' data as male and female could've been more useful.

The names generated are generally good, although they don't have any particular feel to them. For example, the names aren't dwarven or elven or any other race, merely names. I have to admit that it was quite a struggle to find something I particularly liked in the selection, although there were a few amusing ones like 'Dammitt'. One or two are odd in the combination of consonants, like Samlbly, but for the most part it generated sensible names. It would've been nice to have the option of generating more 'specific' names for fantasy, science fiction or merely modern names.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Deck O' Names generator is a small software program capable of generating up to 34000 names for both males and females. The interface and layout is simple and easy to use, and it provides a simple way of generating as many names as one can ever need.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There are a number of areas where the program could be improved to, for example, combine the male and female programs into a single program, or generate more 'flavor' specific names rather than a collection of often 'bland' names. Given the functionality of the program, the price is disappointing. Added functionality would've made this program a little more useful and worthwhile (or, if, for example, Tabletop Adventures produced a similar program that used all their bits and shards as inputs!)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

?Destinations: Spaceport Trident Vespa? is a 9 page systemless Sci-Fi location product released by Tabletop Adventures, LLC and written by Martin Ralya. This is the 2nd release in this series. The product contains a fully bookmarked color PDF (except the spaceport itself) and a text version.

This product is designed to be 100% description in order to make it rules-neutral and therefore useable by any sci-fi genre game. The product is very gamesmaster friendly as it includes not only the general information but if filled with narrative sections that the gamesmaster could read aloud to his group or paraphase as he sees fit. Spaceport Trident Vespa has a troubling past and currently stands as a spot for traders with more ethically legal cargo or questionable business practices. Since the construction of the spaceport it has been plagued with a number of strange accidents that have made it not viable for regular commercial traffic, but a good stopover for those willing to accept some risk. The spaceport can cater to large cargo ships, smaller vessels and even atmospheric craft in its 3-pronged runway system.

Narrative text is extensive in this product providing the gamesmaster with both ground level and bird?s eye narrative descriptions on most of the locations. Though the product is stat-free there are a number of vital statistics provided in the product including size of the facility, number of employees, and description of security personnel. The final section of the product provides advice as to how to bring this mini-setting to life as well as providing a handful of plot devices to get your game rolling.

The layout of the product is clean and the editing is perfect. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Lots of narrative guidance. Five very good plot hooks provided. Sound advice on using this setting. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Lack of background smugglers/criminals. The addition of a couple smuggler or criminal groups would have been nice addition to breathe more life into the product. Lack of specific locations. It would have been nice to have one or two locations, stores, repair shops, administrative offices et cetra. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Bits of Darkness: Dungeons II is a 83 page pdf product and one of several products in Tabletop Adventures' Harried Gamemaster line. This product follows on from and complements Bits of Darkness: Dungeons by providing a whole host of new descriptions for quick insertion into any game. The Harried Gamemaster line aims to provide GMs with tools that are easy-to-use and allow the GM to minimize preparation time by providing flavorful descriptions and encounters with ambience.

Bits of Darkness II comes with both a screen and print version, the latter being a rtf file that allows quick and easy cutting and pasting. Artwork is good and liberally (probably close to one per page) spread across the pages of the pdf, enhancing every room description with some very good visual art. Gillian Pierce provides a nice cover, largely the same as what's used in all the products in the Bits of Darkness series. Interior art by Jesus and Carmona is impressive in places. Editing is very good and the layout makes everything easy to use. A full set of bookmarks is included, as well as a complete table of contents, and a extremely useful index for finding pieces of description to suit a particular theme or topic. Presentation-wise a very good pdf.

Like other products in the 'Bits of' series, Bits of Darkness: Dungeons II is about descriptions that provide an easy way of adding flavor and theme to a particular encounter or just general area that a party are moving through. Dungeons II focuses on dungeons - underground constructed chambers and locations. The product presents a number of different types of descriptions, namely, bits, shards, bricks and splinters of the senses. The latter two are new to Bits of Darkness: Dungeons II. Bricks are rooms, encounters or traps that can be dropped into any dungeon in a premeditated manner, while Splinters are one-line descriptions that can add something of the senses (sights, sounds and smell) to an existing description. Bits and shards are descriptions of differing lengths, the latter more specific than the former.

Bricks are different in that they are more like single room encounters that come complete with d20 statistics for creatures or treasures contained. While some bricks are merely room kits without any mention of encounters, others are specifically encounters and traps for a designated challenge rating. The bits, as is usual for these products, are presented in card format as well so that they can be selected randomly. Splinters are also meant to be used in this way, and a table is provided to randomly roll and select a given splinter to add to a description.

The pdf starts with an introduction to the Harried Gamemaster line and the nature of the different pieces of description included in the pdf. It then dives into the bricks of the pdf, starting with several room kits. These kits include such areas as chapel of sacrifice, arena, kitchen guard barracks and my personal favourites, Schrodinger's room (complete with a disclaimer that 'No cats were harmed in the making of this product') and the Energy Gateway. The latter two are more 'puzzle' orientated chambers, and I'd love to see Tabletop Adventures do a series that included descriptions and solutions to various dungeon or cavern puzzles. Descriptions are wonderfully visual and inspiring, and give a real feel for what it would be like to stand in a given location.

The seventeen room kit bricks are followed up by 13 encounter and trap dungeon bricks. There are very descriptive but traditional dungeon encounters complete with traps, monsters and treasure for your d20 fantasy game. They're organised in order of highest to lowest challenge rating, starting at 17 and dropping down to 1, although the majority are in the higher CR range above 5 or 6, with only 1 (a neat encounter with drugged kobolds) that has a CR below 5. Examples include a volcanic workshop, a plant colony, scrag cave, haunted cells and a ingenious mirror trap that's bound to catch most players by surprise (although for a CR 8 trap, the initial Will save DC is very difficult to pass). A good selection of encounters and traps (although the CR selection is not the best), with excellent flavor and utility, and encounters with a lot of thought and creativity.

The bits are presented next, and 36 of these are numbered and included for easy use when a piece of description is needed. Again these contain wonderful flavor and descriptive elements, and also come in card format to be printed out and randomly selected. These aren't organised along any particular theme, but the index at the end is extremely useful if you want to actively select a bit. Active selection, however, is more suited to the 48 shards of this pdf, each presented with an appropriate title. The shards are organised into doors, stairs, dead ends, sources of water and rooms and provide DMs with a neat selection of different descriptive bits, some very evocative and alive.

The last sections of the pdf present the splinters of the senses. These are one-line description by Martin Ralya that can be used to add something of sight, sound or smell to a particular encounter or area. There are 99 of these, tabulated for randomly rolling, and provided a useful toolkit for the busy DM. Including these splinters, there are more than 200 descriptions, a fantastic trove of delightful words of descriptive power.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The pdf is extremely useful and filled with descriptive flavor. Challenging and interesting encounters are presented in the bricks, while the bits, shards and splinters provide tantalizing words the increase the ambience of an encounter or location. An extremely useful pdf, for both the busy and not-so-busy GM. Good art throughout the pdf.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The spread of challenge ratings for the encounters and traps is not the best.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I'm not totally done with this, but I like it. Non-specific setup (not TOO much dammed D20-specific references, like purchase level) a logical layout for a repair station in space (3d cubic open structure) and some nice scenic descriptions leave me happy and wanting to see what the next 'Destinations:' will be.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The 3d layout. The descriptions and descriptive scenes for intro purposes. The non-specific, but personalized background for each location.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nada. I guess that there aren't more Destinations:... ;)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Bits of the Dungeon II is, by far, the best product produced by Tablesmith so far.

Bits of the Dungeon II is a sequel to Bits of the Dungeon I. Both are products that provided unique room descriptions that can easily be placed into your game. With the first one, they brought us Bits, which are quick one paragraph descriptions and Shards, more elaborate detailed rooms. I thought that it could not get any better. Boy was I wrong.

With the invention of Bricks, Bits of the Dungeon II has become one of the most useful products for any Dungeon Master, Whether you are hurried or a preplanner. I put it right up there with my Dungeon Masters Guide and Players Handbook.

Solely For the Dungeon Master:

With basic Shards and Bits, you had a great description that added wonderful atmospheres to the dungeon. With the addition of Bricks, you get a more expansive part of the dungeon that includes encounter ideas. These comprehensive descriptions are usually a page or two, and include fun settings such as underground layers and jail chambers. Nearly two dozen bricks include the colorful NPCs, descriptive rooms and interesting encounters. You can insert these bricks into any current or future dungeon for your campaign in a matter of seconds. The writing is top notch and surpasses all of the previous Bits. With some of the earlier products, I felt some of the descriptions began to either run together or look similar. With every Bit, Shard and Brick, nothing seemed familiar.

This product is a deal for the price, considering most "adventure starters" with a quarter of the information cost 10 bucks alone. You'll be giddy as you read through the 83 pages and wonder how you will fit this all in.

The Iron Word

Bits of the Dungeon II is a great for the Dungeon Master whom wants to immerse his players into his game world. Even if you are as talented as the Iron DM, Bits of the Dungeon II?s incredible writing and remarkable editing will give you delightful descriptions that your players will awed by. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Never have a vanilla room again. Every description is a role playing moment waiting to happen.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Tabletop Adventures Deck O? Names is a name generating program that generates up to 32,000 unique names. Tabletop Adventures has gained notoriety in the gaming community for their five star Bits and Shards series of books that help the hurried dungeon master. Considering the distinctive approach on their other titles, it is with surprise that Deck O? Names lacks any innovation of its own. This lack of innovation may be acceptable for under $2.00, but with a whopping price tag of $8.00 (ok at least whopping for electronic media), there are much better and more sophisticated name generating options out there in a similar price range.

For the Dungeon Master:

Deck O? Names generates names based off of the syllables of 100 female and male names, and that is all it does. And that is the problem. All it does is generate random names. 32,000 may seem like a lot, but considering that my search pulled up names such as Libnna and Libnda--- very unimpressive. The most impressive thing the program does is sort and count the number of names you inputted in it for it to output in the first place.

If this program was the first of its kind, it would have a case. But considering the market has 3 top tier name generating programs in the same price range (or free), I really would have expected Tabletop Adventures to bring something additional to the table. Other programs are capable of generating different name lists based on class and race (both fantasy and human), allow the user to edit the listings and can be expanded to include things such as item and building naming.

The Iron Word

I have a firm belief that if you come to the table with a product that is similar to another product,, you have to bring something different or bring it in at a lower cost. Deck O? Names does neither. The fact that this product does nothing that the free name generators do makes it less of an option. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: It does generate unique names and is offline. It also doesn't take up too much harddrive space.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It is too expensive for what it offers. It also lacks the functionality of some of the major name generators. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Ripped Off<br>

Bits of Darkness Dungeons 2

<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

EDIT: Since my original review of this product, Tabletop Adventures made a number of small changes to the Deck o? Names generator. I rewrote my review to reflect the updated version. I also raised my final star rating.

The Deck o? Names is a unique product that uses printable cards to generate character names for roleplaying games. The Deck o? Names Generator is a bit of software that utilizes the same system, albeit behind the scenes.

The generator is very easy to use. With the click of a mouse, it allows you to create a list of 1 to 1000 names. Additional created names can be added to the list, or the entire thing can be cleared to start fresh. The software is easy to download and transport, requiring no real installation. A simple HTML file is included for male and female names (one for each), and a small folder holds all the relative data. The necessary files weigh in at about 7kb, making the generator a very small commitment for the GM who uses a laptop at the gaming table.

Most of the names have a generic fantasy quality to them, and could be used for characters from a wide range of races and backgrounds. Unfortunately, there is no way to refine your lists if you?re looking for a certain kind of name. Your only option is to create a huge number of names and simply pick what you like, which is effective, but it does slow things down a bit. The program does allow you to instantly alphabetize or randomize the names, which is helpful when working with a really big list.

The system does give you some names that look or sound very similar to one another (compare Abraby to Abrady or Benjaan to Benjain). This is due to the nature of the Deck o? Names system, and it usually only occurs when I creating long lists of names. I don?t think it?s a big problem, but it?s something to watch out for. The ability to alphabetize your list makes it pretty easy to ignore names that you think are too similar.

The updated version now gives you the option of removing duplicate names from the list. There is also a button that lets you know exactly how many names you?ve generated, so you can easily see how many dupes were removed from your initial list of 1 to 1000. The count feature also confirmed my initial hunch that the Deck o? Names generator generally doesn?t create a lot of duplicates. A list of 1000 seemed to create around 25 dupes, and a list of 30 never gave me any repeats at all.

Other new features include a means to output the current list to a printer-friendly format, sorted in one, two, or three columns. While this wasn?t essential, it?s a nice addition whether I?m printing the page or copying and pasting to a World file. Also, the ability to save lists is either a new feature or something that I initially overlooked. Either way, it?s a welcome feature for anyone wanting to use the quick randomizing / alphabetizing features of the generator with a previously created list.

With the added features, the Deck o? Names generator has become a must-have program on my personal laptop. It has the means to create some 34,000 different names and, unlike some other name generator programs, almost all of them are instantly usable at the game table.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The program is very simple to use and it?s small enough to transport anywhere you might be gaming, whether via the laptop, a floppy disk, or some other means. Any GM that does a significant amount of world-building will find this program useful. It?s lightning-quick and can generate very large lists of names without much effort, making it a nice tool both during preparation and in actual gameplay. It has all of the features to make it good at what it does, without bogging it down or limiting its portability.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: My major criticism of this program is really a criticism of random name generators as a whole: While they?re good at giving you lots of results very quickly, it?s hard to refine those results into something useful. The Deck o? Names card system that is the heart of this program goes a long way toward eliminating names that are totally unworkable (Ludhmr Gulgul or something of that nature). Unfortunately, it doesn?t do much to help ensure that the generated names fit a specific type of name.

It?s a minor flaw, and has more to do the nature of random generation than it does the Deck o? Names generator itself. Future expansions could certainly target specific races or genres without significantly limiting the program?s portability. The Deck o? Names system is a pretty good name generation tool, and I?d welcome expansion.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

The Deck O?Names is a PDF product containing a few hundred cards that can be printed out, cut apart, and then used to generate random names either during game preparation or on-the-fly during the course of an adventure.

The cards each have four name segments, one segment each on the top, bottom, and either side of the card. To use them, one simply shuffles, selects two cards at random, and then matches up a white bordered segment with a gray bordered segment to create a name. If the name doesn?t work, simply rotate the cards to create a new combination until you get something you like. I thought that the best way to test it was to try it myself. For this example, I printed out a single page from the male deck and cut it apart.

I grabbed two cards from my mini-deck smaller sample and generated the name Trithew. Not bad, but let?s switch up the first card a little to get something different. Rotating the card to the other white-bordered name segment, our name changes to Fredthew. Fredthew doesn?t work at all, and I?m not totally sold on Trithew (sounds elven to me, and I was looking for a human name), so I switch the two cards around. According to the instructions, I should use a white bordered name followed by a gray, so I have to rotate the cards again since I?ve switched them. I turn each of them a quarter turn and generate the name Matrick. Now, that?s a name I can work with. Matrick took about 15 seconds to generate.

While my tiny experiment was just a single generation, I can see that cards have a certain advantage over random tables and dice. With dice, if you don?t like a result you have to roll again, double check the new result, and go from there. Rotating and swapping the cards until I found a combination that I liked was much faster and somehow more satisfying.

The disadvantage to cards is that they require some assembly. For my example, I just printed off a single sheet on regular paper and hacked them apart with a paper-cutter. Ideally, you?d want to print these on some kind of cardstock and then cut them apart carefully to insure a uniform size. If you aren?t very skilled at crafty sorts of things, this might dissuade you from actually making use of the decks. The designers could have helped out by including advice on the ideal method for cutting up and arranging to the cards. I don?t know a thing about cardstock or, for that matter, printing. Is there some ideal paper thickness for printing out cards? Is there some kind of precut ?square cards? paper I can pick up at the local printing shop? While I can figure all this out on my own, more advice from the designers on what works and what doesn?t would have been helpful.

If you?re like me, naming things can be the hardest part of adventure design, and any help on that front is greatly appreciated. In a perfect world, I like to generate NPC names in advance. If the players know that I haven?t bothered to name the barkeep, then they know he?s probably not an important character. Having a name for everyone helps with verisimilitude and it keeps the players paying attention. Obviously, coming up with a name for every city guard, shoemaker, and haberdasher in town is more work than its worth. My solution has been to generate a large list of names that can be used as needed. While the Deck o? Names would be a big help in making this list, it also presents another solution. A quick GM could discretely select two cards at the beginning of the session and place them behind the screen. Whenever a random name is needed, the GM could simply look down and pick from the dozen-plus name combinations on the two cards. After that, he would need only shuffle the deck, redraw, and wait until another name was needed.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Cards are a very nice tool for random name generation. The design lets you generate a list of possibilities randomly and then tweak them into something that you like. Some assembly is required, of course, but once you get them done I think the decks are something you?ll definitely use at the table.

Random names are hard to do well, and the Deck o? Names is certainly capable of coming up with some goofy results. The designers compensated for this a bit in the way they broke up the names into segments rather than syllables, and it does help. It?s also fairly easy to switch the cards around (or even just pick from the available choices) and turn something like Fredthew into Matrick.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I would have liked to see a little more thought given to the uniformity of the names. The decks use mostly english names, but the way they are combined and selected you end up with a real hodgepodge of fantasy names, ranging from human, to elven, to gnomish in the way they sound. Future expansions will supposedly use names from languages other than English, but I?m curious how that will affect the end results.

I have a feeling that, for example, Spanish names would give a similar mix of eclectic results. It?s great for coming up with a list of general names, not so good if you?re looking to name someone of a specific race.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This PDF is the follow-up to Bits of Darkness: Dungeons. Like the other books in this series, Dungeons II offers a collection of descriptions that a GM can insert into his or her campaign to build suspense, enhance atmosphere, and otherwise improve the feel of the game. As the name implies, this product focuses on dungeons and other subterranean environments.

The book divides its descriptions into a number of different categories, each with a clever title that alludes to the description?s size and its role in the building and running of adventures. These categories include Shards, Bits, Bricks, and Splinters. Each of these elements is designed to be useful in different ways. Splinters and Bits are short descriptions (one sentence each in the case of the former) that can be used on-the-fly to spice things up. Shards are longer descriptions, and are meant to be picked during the planning process before the adventure. Bricks are like Shards, but are designed to serve as major locations and features within the dungeon.

One of the main strengths of this book is the quality of the descriptions. Not only is the writing good, but the ideas are clever and often inspirational. Reading them, I?m left wanting more. I think the average D&D group would take these random descriptions as important clues. A clever DM could get a lot of mileage out of even the shortest Bit, turning something that is truly random into a major dungeon feature or adventure hook. With a little less prep time, the various short descriptions could be dropped in to enhance the mood and keep the players on their toes.

New to Dungeons II are Bricks, which are essentially mini toolkits to help you design typical dungeon rooms and features. A few examples include an armory, a guard post, and a mostly tongue-in-cheek version of Schrodinger?s room (a physics paradox with which you may or may not be familiar). These rooms are mostly mechanics free, instead giving you a description and a listing of appropriate features. The idea is that a skilled DM could use the Bricks to build a fairly detailed section of a dungeon. Some of the Bricks contain encounters, while others are meant to be used as traps. The mechanics are sound here, and the traps and encounters are interesting. The only drawback is that the Bricks are meant to represent typical dungeon rooms, meaning that a DM looking for something very different or innovative probably won?t find it here. They work well for what they are intended, though, so I?ll just note that a little more variety would have nice alongside the typical rooms.

Dungeons II places more emphasis on things that are helpful during the planning phase of an adventure, as opposed to things like Bits that are meant to be dropped in during the course of play. I think this change in focus from earlier products is a good design decision. While I think that adding the occasional random Bit or Shard into my narrative would improve my D&D sessions, Dungeons II is probably best used as a source of ideas for building interesting dungeon features and encounters. Think of it as an inspirational toolkit that can also be used on-the-fly from time to time.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Tabletop Adventures has a very cool series of products here. They fill a unique niche in d20 gaming, they are very well written, and they really go above and beyond their intended purpose. Any DM that runs the occasional dungeon-crawl should have this PDF in his or her library.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Reading through this book, I?m reminded of a problem with roleplaying games in general. Boxed flavor text doesn?t seem to work very well in actual play. Even the most attentive player seems to gloss over a bit while the DM is describing the environment. This isn?t a fault of this product, or course, but it does raise the fear that some of this rich description may be lost on the typical d20 group. I?m especially leery of particularly wordy passages. There were a few Brick descriptions that lost me as a reader, and I can?t imagine using them verbatim at the gaming table.

Fortunately, these are the exception; I think that the majority of the flavor text here is brief, descriptive, and easy to use as-is.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Another home-run by my favorite pdf outfit. I use 100% of these books, which is why I will continue to buy them. Let me ask my fellow consumers: when you buy a book of 100 feats, monsters, whatever, how many of those 100 or 101 do you use? I love splat books, don't get me wrong, but these Bits and Shards thingies get ya a big bang for the buck.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Professional quality editing. I'm a former newspaperman, so it means a lot to me.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I need more!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>