2001:
On September 10, a fifth-grade schoolboy in Dallas predicts the start of World War III. One day later, Al-Qaida terrorists hijack four American passenger jets, flying two of them into the towers of the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon. The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashes in Pennsylvania after passengers confront the hijackers. Reports that Flight 93 was shot dow by the U.S. Air Force or a UFO are debunked. A photo of the WTC attack circulated on the Internet reveals what appears to be the fae of a demon in the billowing smoke of the Twin Towers.
I'm a bit disapointed by some of the new rules components. There's some nods toward the Dark•Matter FX, but a lot of the spells are either more traditional D&D spells or Urban Arcana Style tech-affecting spells (I think these are the spells from the D20M web enhancement that didn't get reprinted in UA, but I don't have my copies with me, so I'm not sure).
Hermeticism, Diabolism, and Monotheism all have their dedicated prestige classes from the Polyhedron minigame. Voodoo gets quite a bit of love in the new spells section. Shamanism and Enochiansim, though, are left out in the cold.
The Sand Slave has been stripped down to a +0 LA race. You get to choose from a list of special abilites (and can get extra abilites by taking a feat). They look pretty balanced, from what I can see.
The Sasquatch has been stripped down to a +1 LA race (not sure how this compares with the Weren from d20 Future, because my copy of future is in storage with my copy of Urban Arcana). They're large (and have reach) but still have a 5x5 space--don't see why they don't just have powerful build.
The Fraal (and unfortunately they still call them the fraal), are in here as well. They still have the absurdly high bonuses to mental stats, and the absurdly powerful Psi-like abilities. But now they have -4 con instead of -2 con.
The Moreau are in here too, replacing the Kinori and the Mothmen. Given the role that Kinori and Mothmen usually play in Dark•Matter, that doesn't bother me too much, but I wish that they would've but more stuff in the book about moreaus.
