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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1372736" data-attributes="member: 10201">From having skimmed the book, and actually read several sections (several hp/ac variants, skill variants, and some magical alternatives), i'd actually characterize the book as, roughly:1/3 variants that are already out there in a D20 System game, though perhaps with some modifications/revisions from the original1/3 variants that are old hat in the non-D20 System world, and are many of the reasons people have historically left D&D for other games (some of the previous category also have appeared in non-D20 System games, too)1/3 more-or-less-new stuff--though the conceptual antecedents of these elements have often been out there for a whileSo, if you have a lot of D20 System books, and/or other RPG books, it's probably not gonna be as Cool and New for you.  If you're comfortable doing up your own houserules, even if they make fairly radical, low-level changes, you probably don't need this book in any case.  But if you either don't have the time, or the inclination, or the ability/knowledge to come up with radical rules overhauls, and keep them fun and balanced to the degree your group requires, this is a great book. It finally brings to D&D (and, in some cases, to the D20 System in general) a lot of the rules innovations of the last 20 years--potentially slaying the rest of the sacred cows and fully modernizing D&D.  At the cost of its D&D-ness, potentially.  And if you want to use a large selection of the more-radical alternatives, i would wonder why you're playing D&D, and not just picking up Ars Magica, GURPS, Earthdawn, Riddle of Steel, or some other fantasy RPG?  I mean, if you were to use generic classes, recharge magic, specific injury, DR and damage conversion for armor, defense bonus, contacts, reputation, bell curve rolls, complex skill checks, craft points, and spontaneous metamagic, just how "D&D" would it still be?</blockquote>

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