This provides options for both fans of "race as option" (AD&D) and "race as class" (Basic D&D). I really like that you support both! The racial options capture the essence of the race nicely without introducing a lot of power creep. Meanwhile, the "race as class" features are well-balanced against the Black Hack and Class Hack classes. Nicely done.

These ranger archetypes aren't just flavorful, they're well-balanced as well. I wouldn't have any issues with my players selecting these archetypes for their ranger PCs in a 5e game.

I like the concept behind this class. There's a heavily random component that reminds me of 13 True Way's chaos mage, but isn't as complex to play. Talents allow you to focus more or less on building a martial character, a self-healer, or focusing on conduit powers. Those powers range from spells to buffs to melee attacks to improvements on skill checks. I tied these abilities to my character being a cursed cleric, who was seeking a way to remove the curse and his inconsistent access to his osirons and miracles.

I had some issues with class balance. There's a talent which grants access to heavy armor without penalty and either increases your AC or your PD every round, for example. Another grants access to heavy and martial weapons and increases your attack bonus or adds a damage die each round. 13th Age is hesitant to give out bonuses to defences or attcks, so these struck me as unusual. Feats further increase the defense bonuses to +2 and increases damage die to d12's, respectively. In actual play, this resulted in a character that regularly did more damage than the rest of the group, while being hard to hit. Add to this the versatility of the conduit powers and an at-will chance to counter an enemy's spell, and this character ended up unintentionally hogging the spotlight.

Additionally, there are some unusual uses of action economy in the class abilities. For example, a feat allows a conduit to use their move action to re-roll their conduct die. Several conduit powers require move actions, even though the powers themselves aren't related to movement. These generally felt like they should have been free or quick actions, allowing the PC to move and do something cool this turn. This felt to me like the kind of tradeoff I might expect from Pathfinder, but it felt out of place in 13th Age.

I also found some of the conduit powers unusual in the way they were written. For example, I couldn't wrap my head around applying my dex modifier to intelligence checks for a round. There are a handful of other powers with similar pairings. I also couldn't figure out how to make use of these powers out of combat -- the time when you most often benefit from bonuses to attribute checks. The conduct die is only used in combat, and while I can easily house rule a system where the die is rolled before an ability check out of combat, this would have been a helpful rule to explicitly include in the class ability. Several conduit powers seemed very similar to existing spells or powers from existing classes, but were just different enough that I had to keep referring back to them. The 13th Age class mechanics are OGL content, and I would've rather seen them lifted wholecloth and added to this class (perhaps with a different name). Perhaps my biggest complaint about the conduit powers are their non-scaling damage. A power does the same damage at level 1 as it does at level 4. It even does the same damage at level 10, unless you've paid the feat tax at each tier. This made my conduit powers far weaker at level 3 than a spell-casting class' spells. 13th Age doesn't "do" feat taxes, and I wish each conduit power had featured cool feats that made it even more versatile or potent. Once again, borrowing directly from existing 13th Age classes would have provided ready-made options.

After experiencing these balance and action economy issues, I ended up nerfing my character's talents and spell-negating class feature and porting similar powers and spells and their associated feats over from the 13th Age core book. I kept the basic conduct die mechanic, and had a much better experience.

If you're willing to do some house ruling on this class, it has a fun play style and is different from any other 13th Age class.

This was a fun one-shot adventure for my group. No one had any experience with Russian myth, aside from what you might find in the Monster Manual, and this book struck the righ balance between peppering the verbiage with Russian words without making it inapproachable. We used the 13th Age system for the adventure, which it supported nicely. By having the players select icon relationships that were tied to the most important NPCs in the adventure, we were immediately tied to the story. For example, my character had a positive relationship with the empire and the church, whereas a friend had a positive relationship with the druids, who represented the Old Ways. This provided a bit of PC conflict, but also helped drive the story and played to our sympathies.

I would have liked to have seen a few more options provided for when players decide to strike out and do something unexpected. The adventure is pretty linear, and considering the page count, I've seen other products that fleshed out a bit more of a sandbox to play in. As long as your players don't mind a bit of "we should do this because the plot demands it," they're in for a good time.

We enjoyed this adventure enough that we're going to try the sequel, The Dancing Hut. As an additional suggestion, in case the publisher is reading this, I'd love to see a future Bundle of Holding that contained a slew of MonkeyGod Presents products.

This book provides a combination of a city worthy of basing a campaign, its factions, notable figures, threats and other areas of conflict, and adventure seeds. It strikes a balance between enough detail to run a campaign and so much detail that you can't make it your own.

As a 13th Age GM, I appreciate that this book speaks in the same archetypical language as 13th Age core rules and default setting. Figures are described as icons of a particular fantasy trope. There's a lich king, an emperor, a dwarven kingdom, a fallen empire, and a hobgoblin lord, for example. Their past actions are described, without detailing their personalities. This leaves the campaign setting open, so you can decide if the hobgoblin lord is completely evil and beyond redepmtion, or is he a more complex figure, with a culture at odds with the human-centric Drakonheim? Once again, there's just the right amount of detail, and it's all presented in a system-neutral manner.

If you like undead, then you'll enjoy this setting. Necromancers have recently begun to work in the open, after securing a victor over the hobgoblins. Undead are now allowed to walk the streets, and a vampire lord has revealed his nature to the city. While this isn't the first fantasy setting to explore the impact of necromancers in an urban setting, it's always an interesting twist on your run-of-the-mill fantasy city.

The art is quite good in this book. Portraits are provided for many of the important figures in the city, and they're well done. The action scenes are dynamic. The quality is more along the lines of what I expect from the larger publishers.

Overall, this book exceeded my expectations. I can easily see dropping Drakonheim into 13th Age's Dragon Empire. The setting's backstory, which involves the defeat of the Lich King and the fall of the Empire would make this an interesting setting for a 14th Age, introducing new icons and locations, while retaining some of the familiar elements of the 13th Age.

If you've been struggling to use icon relationships and your players' icon rolls in your 13th Age game, this is the supplement for you. The first section is dedicated to providing more options on how GMs and players can use icon rolls. There's more structure offered than the rather free-form suggestions in the 13th Age core book. It also provides recommendations on how to introduce proxies (NPCs), investments (equipment), events, and thematic elements related to the icons. Icon rolls become more of a currency to be spent during the session, rather than a mechanic that's purely in the hands of the GM. If you haven't approached icon rolls this way, I highly recommend it -- my games changed dramatically when I introduced similar changes a while back.

Next, the supplement details 6 new icons, which are open for other publishers to use in their products. That's a nice touch, since the default icons in the 13th Age core book are Fire Opal Media's Product Identity, and can't be used by other publishers. I would love to see other products use these icons and perhaps add to the list. Each of the 6 icons have 3-4 variants, which can also represent different icons that are used simultaneously in your game. For example, you may choose to use The Order - That Which Provides as one icon and The Order - The Glorious Conqueror within the same game. The supplement offers alternative approaches to this, such as a single icon with different groups of followers, multiple icons operating under the same name, or simply making them different icons. It's sure to give you something to think about if you use these icons during the creation of your campaign setting.

Each icon section features random tables for proxies, investments, and events that can be used to "spend" icon rolls, with optional complications for those juicy 5's. This is a nice feature, and I would have benefited from a similar approach to the core book's icons to make my life as a GM easier.

Wrapping the supplement up is a section covering some NPCs, organizations, and secret agendas that can be paired up with icons to become fully fleshed out in your game. I particularly liked the format for the NPCs -- each is presented in a succinct stat block that offers everything needed to run them in and out of combat (when combined with the general creature table from the core book).

Numerous formatting issues, a few typos, and listing a contradicting number of icon variations in different parts of the book was enough that I dropped my rating to 4-stars. I can overlook an issue or two, but there were enough of them that I wanted to pull out a red pen and make corrections. It didn't prevent me from understanding the content, and I'll still be able to make full use of the book.

With the number of posts I see on the 13th Age forums, Google+, and Facebook communities that express a need for more direction around icon relationships and rolls, I intend to recommend this supplement frequently.

I was surprised by the amount of information packed inside this supplement. Bluffside, the surrounding area, and the underworld beneath it are each detailed, along with history, power structures, and religion -- I expected that. Seven black and white maps are provided, thanks to a recent update to the PDF from the publisher. Beyond that, however, you will find monsters, NPCs, items, magic items, spells, races, and classes. While I haven't played in Bluffside yet, the races and classes look like they would work well in any fantasy setting, and could easily expand a Castles & Crusades player's options. The information is really packed into these 178 pages, with few illustrations. While I would have appreciated more art to break up the text, I still appreciate the detail that this supplement goes into.

If this is any indication of how CX1 Character Class Codex will turn out, I anticipate a great sourcebook for B/X D&D and Labyrinth Lord. This 8-page sample offers details for playing four race-as-class sub-races of gnomes: the deep gnome, forest gnome, rock gnome, and tinker gnome. The special abilities for each sub-race do a nice job of capturing the lore around the various types of gnomes. I particularly liked the 3 pages of forest gnome spells.

One small question I have is about deep gnome balance -- they are able to permanently blind or deafen one target per day (if the target fails a saving throw). This feels like it could be abused, and is powerful for an ability available from level 1. I've never heard of svirfneblin having this ability, but I'm no expert, so perhaps this was an iconic ability in earlier editions.

I look forward to the release of CX1 Character Class Codex, and hope it enriches many OSR games.

Winter Eternal provides details for a unique fantasy world that reminds me a bit of a mashup between Dark Sun and steampunk placed in the most bitter cold, rather than the scorching sun. The book doesn't try to add a lot of new mechanics to Savage Worlds, so most of its pages are dedicated to describing the continent of Ehlerrac (the campaign setting for Winter Eternal). The sun died out, leaving a mere ghost of its former self, long ago. If it weren't for magic, life would have gone extinct hundreds of years earlier. Instead, life is clustered around a handful of cities, kept (relatively) warm through magic. The settlements are detailed with places of interest, important NPCs, political factions, and history. The ability to harness power from the crystal remnants from the exploded sun has given birth to steampunk-like technology. For example, heavy suits that keep their wearers warm allow exploration beyond the cities.

After reading through the book, it struck me that I wasn't clear on where conflict would come from. I can certainly come up with ideas of my own, but most of the conflict is hinted at in the book. There are secret machinations within some of the cities, for example. There are monsters in the cold, readying for an assault on the settlements. There are lost artifacts in the frozen cities of antiquity, but there are dangers lurking in these ice-covered cities. There's enough here to build adventures and even campaigns, but it will require an investment in time and imagination on the part of the GM. You can now get started more quickly thanks to the free one sheet adventures that the author has released. Be sure to check them out if you want to dive in right away and get a feel for the kind of stories that can be told in Ehlerrac.

Having compared the earlier version of this book to its more recent revision, I appreciate that the author listened to early feedback and updated the art. The new art is an improvement and the pieces are more cohesive. The layout of the book is easy to read and easy to navigate.

If you're looking for a fantasy setting with a touch of steampunk and a large helping of post-apocalyptic fun, Winter Eternal is worth its more-than-reasonable price. Check it out, and brave the icy world beneath its dead sun.

13th Age and Kobold Press fans, I was in for a pleasant surprise when I read Gygax Magazine #4. In "The Kobold's Cavern," Ed Greenwood presents examples of Vance's Polysyllabic Verbalizations (a wizard talent in 13th Age) for each wizard spell. Additionally, Brian Liberge offers new 13th Age talents to build a corsair of Triolo, a northlands reaver, or a Valkyrie of Wotan. Awesome stuff, and a real treat for those of us who run games in the Midgard Campaign Setting using the 13th Age system.

I appreciate the appendices that are at the end of the adventure. Understanding the encounter math that was used, the new monster types, and the requirements for powerful rituals that shaped the area is very helpful. Having a list of icon boons, magic items, and new monsters is a big time-saver for a busy GM.

Advanced Races: Lizardfolk is one of my favorite entries in the series. The racial options are both flavorful and comprehensive of every lizard trait I can think of. Want to build a lizardfolk PC from a tribe of desert-dwellers who have developed the ability to spray a stream of hot blood from ducts near their eyes? You can do it! Want your lizardfolk PC to be excellent at climbing, and can blend in with their environment? Done! Want a lizardfolk cavalier who rides a dinosaur? That's in there too, complete with stats for a half dozen appropriate dinosaur mounts! Advanced Races: Lizardfolk moves the race out of the bestiary and into the ranks of player characters.

If you're interested in expanding the spells available to your 13th Age character or campaign, look no further! With 555 new spells, this book is packed with an amazing variety of spells. 13th Age is my system of choice, but being fairly new to the RPG family, there hasn't been a lot of support for spell options until now. I often found myself working closely with my players to create signature spells that they'd envisioned -- a fun, but time-consuming process. With Deep Magic, I've recently been able to hand the book over to a player who had a clear vision for his PC, and he was able to create a character that was even cooler than he'd first imagined.

The book provides 30 specialty schools of magic, as well as advice for GMs on how to make schools of their own. The schools are related to Kobold Press' Midgard Campaign Setting, but I had no problem re-fluffing the school's description to fit 13th Age's default setting, the Dragon Empire.

The section on the use of mana points, a resource that exists separately from PCs' prepared spell slots, and the talents that are available to provide characters with access to Deep Magic spells and mana points raised a few questions. ASH LAW was incredibly helpful in answering my questions on the 13th Age Google+ community immediately. It would be helpful if these clarifications were included in the book, however. For this reason, I'm giving this 4 stars, but would happily change my rating if an updated PDF is provided.

Even if you don't want to add any new mechanics around mana points, this book is quite valuable for its incredible list of new spells. Mix and match these spells with other spells from the 13th Age core book to produce a wizard that is far from ordinary. Many of these spells would be quite reasonable to give other classes access to, as well. Additionally, if you're the GM, these flavorful spells are a lot of fun to give your monsters. It's worth it when your party faces a foe whose spell shatters their very bones. This isn't just a book for wizard characters.

I've run this adventure for both a group of experienced 13th Age players and a group with no tabletop RPG experience at all. In each case, we had a great time. This adventure is fast-paced, with enough options to prevent the players from feeling railroaded, yet without being so sprawling that newcomers to the hobby are paralyzed by overwhelming choices. The adventure is set in Kobold Press' Midgard Campaign Setting, drawing upon its rich geography and key personalities (icons). If you enjoy Midgard's other products and adventures, this adventure will fit right in with your collection. This adventure is particularly exciting, because for the first time, I didn't have to convert monsters, magic items, and NPCs into the 13th Age system -- something I've been doing for the past couple years with Kobold Press' Pathfinder and D&D 4E lines of products.

I ran this as part of a campaign based in Midgard, as well as transplanting the adventure into 13th Age's default setting, the Dragon Empire, for another campaign. It worked equally well in both cases, although I had to modify the icon involvement and locations for the Dragon Empire. If you're comfortable using adventures from other campaign settings, then the work needed to run this adventure in the setting of your choice is minimal.

Overall, I enjoyed that this adventure helped shape the direction the story would take, based on the icons the PCs have relationships with. This is important to 13th Age games, and is often the most challenging thing to produce when converting Pathfinder or D&D adventures into 13th Age. Thankfully, Wade Rockett has already done that for us, providing alternate encounters, depending up on the icons that are important to your players. If you enjoy 13th Age and/or Midgard, I recommend checking this adventure out.

13th Age is the edition of Dungeons & Dragons that I've always wanted. Created by Jonathan Tweet and and Rob Heinsoo, the lead developers of D&D 3E and 4E, this is their "love letter" to D&D. It's an innovative mix of d20-based mechanics and story-focused role-playing. The System Resource Document (SRD) contains the basic rules for 13th Age, valuable to GMs and players, alike. While I would highly recommend investing in the core book, the SRD is a wonderful introduction to the system. Here are some of the highlights:

The Escalation Die: This is a simple but powerful tool to speed up combat. Gone are the 90-minute encounters of 4E, and that is greatly thanks to the Escalation Die -- a d6 that comes into play in the second round of combat, and is escalated each round. The PCs and certain powerful monsters add the value of the Escalation Die to their attack rolls over the course of a battle. This helps introduces a tactical choice between the "alpha strike" or waiting for increased accuracy. It's also a mechanic that several other spells, talents, and monster abilities are hung on.

No gridded combat: 13th Age abstracts distances to "engaged," "nearby," and "far away." While a map and minis/tokens or at least some M&Ms representing monsters and PCs on the table are helpful in communicating basic whereabouts, they're not required. Area effects will target 1d4 enemies in a group, for example. That will work whether using miniatures or more abstract combat. And it speeds things up. When the GM and players stop counting out squares, things move faster.

Backgrounds replace the skill list: Rather than an exhaustive list of skills, all skill checks are ability checks, where the players may suggest where their PC's background would provide a bonus. Let's say your ranger has a background of "Raised in a lumber camp in the Bitterwood," she could suggest to the GM that this background should grant her a bonus to a wisdom check in tracking enemies through a forest. But it could also apply to intelligence checks about local herbs when the party is in the Bitterwood. It could even apply to a charisma check to shake the morale of the goblin tribe in Bitterwood that she's encountered before. Thus, it becomes a very flexible tool, while generating wonderful hooks for the GM ("you say you've encountered these goblins before, eh?").

Characters feature One Unique Thing: What is your elevator pitch for your character? Is he a mechanical construct that was transformed into a human by powerful fae magics? What does this say about the world that the character is in? Apparently there are mechanical constructs. Will there be elements of steampunk, perhaps? And there are powerful fae magics, too. Now we know a couple of things that this player likes in his fantasy world, which will help the GM keep the player engaged. Furthermore, it makes the character interesting -- worthy of being a major character in a heroic tale.

Characters are immediately part of the world, thanks to their relationship with the world's Icons: Icons are the "movers and shakers" of the world. By tying beneficial mechanics to the PCs' relationships with these Icons and their organizations, the characters start their adventures with a reason to go on quests, to interact with NPCs, and to hate certain monsters and those monsters' powerful masters. GMs won't feel tempted to have the players meet a mysterious stranger in a tavern (unless they really love that old fantasy trope).

Monster/NPC stats don't require referring back to a spell list: Unlike 3E/5E, monsters and NPCs include their spell descriptions as part of their write-ups. This may seem like a small thing, but if you don't have a bookmarked electronic file or a handy print-out of the spell list, it's a big time-saver.

Monsters are easy to build: The math behind monsters is transparent. A GM can quickly whip up a monster in a matter of minutes.

Classes play differently: One of the big complaints about 4E was that the classes felt too similar. This is clearly not a problem with 13th Age. Classes depend on different mechanics and vary in their complexity.

Magic is rare, and magic items have personalities: There are no assumptions about characters amassing a certain amount of treasure and magic items per level. Magic is rare and special, and magic items are more like artifacts in 4E than like 3E/4E magic items. If a PC possesses too many magic items, her personality will be overwhelmed by the personalities of her magic items!

A wonderful community of players and GMs: The Google+ community for 13th Age is second to none. There is no edition warring. People are genuinely helpful toward one another, pointing out where fan-made resources can be found, helping clarify rules, answering questions, etc. This isn't something that I typically see mentioned in a review of an RPG, but it's been such a positive experience that I thought it was worth mentioning here.