Better than as advertized, in my opnion. Simplistic, easy-to-learn rules that can be expanded upon and added to, if desired. Characters have basic attribute scores of 1-5, backgrounds and sets of skills. The backgrounds and skills are hardly exhaustive, naturally, since this a "learn in an hour and then play" game, but more can always be added.

One of the juicier bits, though, are the rules for the true faith skills - powers derived from the character's religious belief. Often left out of other modern horror games, such as the White Wolf lines, or too much like the cleric classes of D&D, the Ghost Stories variety is much better; both realistic and subtle, but still powerful in the context of the game. Other game systems could learn from this example, instead of religious characters who are really just another type of spellcaster.

And, btw, the magic rules for this system are pretty good too, with the more of the mysterious feel of Mage or Ars Magica, as well as being expandable.

To top it all off, there are a few sample scenarios to get you started.

This would have gotten 5 stars from me, except for one thing; the file is password-protected, so you can't copy text to make your own notes while gaming. You'll have to print out all the pages you need. Fortunately, it's surprisingly short (especially considering how much is covered so effeciently), so it won't cost you too much in printer ink.

EXCELLENT! Very pleasant, yet has a sense of mystery. Not disruptive or distracting. Wonderful to play RPGs by or as background music when reading.

Ah, yes - EVIL. A really evil race and no apologies. Demonically cruel, unfathomably, unhumanly evil. What campaign world doesn't need them?

Seriously, they're a great addition to any world, especially if you want to introduce them as an ancient, forgotten evil race the players stumble on to, as I did. Basically, if you think of way to enter them into the campaign instead of just dropping them in as another monster, they'll be quite memorable.

Regardless, it's more than worth the money; much more detailed than most monster entries in the rulebooks, and you get one color version and a b&w printer-friendly version.

Not bad. The artwork varies from wow to ooooh (includes one file with the pics in color and a printer-friendly version with the pics in b&w). Great little book of magical swords, each with a history of its own, not a +something that casts whatever.

One little nitpick; many of the swords have the special property of glowing when drawn. That's a magic sword effect I never liked myself, it just seems a bit... corny. Sorry, but it does to me, and I haven't seen any mention of magical swords glowing since the 1st Edition AD&D Player's Handbook.

Still, the book has quite a few magical swords that can be legends in your campaign, including a few unusual ones.And again, the color artwork is great.

A nice expansion on the popular sorcerer. If you're a fan of the class, you'll like this book. If you feel the sorcerer needs more flavor in the campaign, perhaps to explain their abilities, or just to make them seem different and not a game mechanics variation on the wizard(without necessarily hindering or empowering the players)you'll find some ideas in here.

Very useful for d20 modern, particularly in certain campaign models, such as Call of Cthulhu d20 or Cyberpunk d20, which doesn't use or limits the player's choice of advanced classes. Even if advanced classes are used freely, this book will give the basic classes much more versatility, and the players may find that still want to gain levels in their basic classes as well as their advanced classes.

These rules could be easily translated into D&D (as feats) or AD&D (as proficiencies)too.

First of all, this is a great accessory, especially for my home-brewed campaign world, where dreams are both meaningful and have influence on reality.

One thing really annoyes me though. The file is password-protected so you can't do anything but read and print it; you can't even copy text! Excuse me, but what if I want to copy just a part or two for my notes while GMing an adventure? What if I want to add a page or two of my notes, just for my own use? Or even just make my own bookmarks in the file?

If you've got a program that can crack pdf passwords, then it's worth the money. If not, you'll wind up paying for the book again in printer ink, and it's not worth that much.

But if you're like me (you do more than with your pdf files than just read and print them), you'll find the password protection very frustrating. People who can password-protect their pdf files need to learn to do so responsibly - I can understand protecting from people deleting pages or changing the text, but this level of protection is needless and irritating. Like I said, you can't even bookmark the pages you need to if you're going to use it when playing.

I love this work! I only wish the author would expand the system to include all magical items. Much better than the standard D&D system for making magic weapons, I'm just surprised it's so cheap!

This is a great fantasy campaign setting! Using the d20 Modern more than D&D rules, it's wonderfully dark and atmospheric but not at all derivative. Even if you don't want to play in this world itself, it's chock full of ideas for evil areas and such for your world and it's cheap!