The PDF Review Project

[Nightcloak]

Don't worry about it. Actually a lot of people might be doing these too fast. I usually read a book at least twice when I'm reviewing. I try to take my taime and comprehend everything. And after the review is written its is best to save it to disk and walk away from it for a while before rereading it and make sure it reads oka. Self editing is not fun and that can help.

This is the process I'm going through with my second review (the name for my location is a hint to the product) which has been compounded by being a play test review. It is quite the learning process and I'm enjoying it, but when combined with RL it has certainly slowed down the "turn around" time of completeing the review. I think it's worth it, however.

And yes, I also walk away and self edit many times before I'm happy with something I've written - whatever the project ...

 

[Nightcloak]

And the publishers want to know about you! So, new reviewers if you want to please tell us a little bit about yourself, your gaming experience, your gaming likes and dislikes, and other relavent things.

37 years old and have played for 26 years. 95% of that has been actual DMing and all of it is homebrew.

In RL, I'm a VP of a regional truck company and have finally decided to return to school and get a degree in business. Thus time is a real premium. I'm also into history and philosphy. The last a real science and not the playground for which it is treated.

But my love is the game and that is what attracted me to this site. I own hundreds of books dating back to 76. Many publishers besides the big one. Hundreds of Dragon amd Dungeon mags also line the shelves. Thanks to our man Crothian I also have a growing PDF collection, thankfully it is easy to store from the looks of the bookshelves. I litterally enjoy reading a good RPG book as my wife would enjoy reading a novel.

With being a continuous homebrewer, I continually buy products for all reasons. I like new mechanics to create a vision for a campaign or even highlight the flavor of a region. I also like books high on flavor, or "fluff" as it is improperly known, as it inspires devopement of great indepth games were the DM can absorb players into the world and adventure. Adventures are great, as time is a premium, I read them first as an overall adventure and then how they can be developed and worked into an ongoing campaign.

 

[Crothian]

Okay, back from Gen Con. Anyone that has e-mailed me I have responded. If you haven't gotten it, e-mail me I might have accidently deleted something important in my assualt of spam as it seems my filter took the weekend off as well.

 

[Alzrius]

As a caveat, I'm going a bit nuts getting ready for Gen Con (and I'll have to brush up with my copy of EoM:R), so it may take a little bit, though I WILL have a review posted before the con.

RangerWickett, I owe you an apology. Despite what I said above, looking for a job, freelance writing, and making a costume for Gen Con utterly consumed my life, and I wasn't able to get that review done on time. It's at the top of my list to review though, and I will get it done as soon as I can.

 

[Crothian]

Well, the dulldrums of the review project has hit. I'm still looking for people to help review many things so this is your chance to get some neat books and give back to the community!!

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

I'm working on it

(You did after all send me a 200 page document to review.)

 

[mythusmage]

Okay, I've sent off an email to Crothian, and I posted to the Ronin Arts forum with the same offer.

Background:

51, male, live in San Diego CA

Been gaming since 1975, once had a copy of Col. Pladoh's first professionally published game (Arbela from Avalon Hill). I am looking for a group to join.

Balance is a myth, crunch should be clear and consistent, if you can't use it for more than its intended purpose it aint worth buying.

Apt to use the product as a springboard for riffing on life, the universe, and small critters. All connected to the product in question.

I will be cross posting reviews to my blog.

 

[mythusmage]

Lost Book 9 from Creative Golem received, review on Monday.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Well, the dulldrums of the review project has hit. I'm still looking for people to help review many things so this is your chance to get some neat books and give back to the community!!

I'll send you an email. Here's a review I wrote over at Monte's of a pdf. Is this the sort of thing that works?

http://p222.ezboard.com/fokayyourturnfrm7.showMessage?topicID=383.topic

I picked up Athanaeum Arcane: Substandard Magic Items, from Ronin Arts, for $1.50 while getting some other downloads on RPGNow.com. This is one of a growing number of "short pdfs", quick downloadable and cheap products. Bret Boyd of Dragonstar and Foul Locales: Beyond the Gates fame wrote it.

I rather liked the ideas in this 7-page item. The mechanics of creating the substandard items are simple, and amusing in concept. The items themselves fail in a manner remniscent of the good old 1E days with explosions, random transformations and other fun effects. I like the DMs advice included - which is so true by the way and Bret does a good job pointing out likely player behavior. I also enjoyed the concept of "leaking" magical items. I know I'll use this somehow.

My one niggle with the product is that it exempts artifacts. For the money, another paragraph on substandard artifacts with one or two examples would have been fun. I personally like the idea of finding a bargain basement Machine of Lumm the Slightly Eccentric for example.

This is a set of good ideas for a buck and a half that I can toss into my DM's notebook. It gets a 7 out of 10 on the Monte scale.

 

[yangnome]

My review is also still in teh works Crothain. I wanted to playtest the stuff before writing it. I should have it posted sometime in the next week.