Mark of the Xenos is an excellent addition to the Deathwatch line, and about as close as we'll get (thus far) to a truly comprehensive monster book for the Warhammer 40k RPGs. Pretty much everyone you'd want to kill as a Space Marine is here (except the Eldar and Necrons, sadly), from all the big-name Chaos daemons, to the Tyranids, the Tau's broadside and pathfinders, and the Orkz' boys, nobs and warbosses. If you've got the Deathwatch core rulebook, then you've got the complete set, basically, of tyranid, chaos and tau adversaries for the Jericho Reach, and are unlikely ever to be at a loss for enemies to throw at the Space Marines. What's more, the book is laden with adventure seeds, lore, and fluff ideas for you to base missions and campaigns around, so you can easily take the book and pretty much immediately start running missions out of it. It's fantastic. I just wish that, at some point, we'd get a book that I could review as "completely comprehensive" – with all the iconic adversaries in one place.

Hostile Acquisitions is another excellent entry into the Rogue Trader line of products. It is also an extremely useful book for Dark Heresy or Black Crusade because of its subject matter. The same laws and groups that will be faced by the Rogue Trader as he or she deals with aliens, bootlegs bolters and engages in piracy, will also be the ones that are enforced by Dark Heresy (where you can play as Arbites) and be fought against by the Heretics in Black Crusade. Hostile Acquisition includes tons of flavorful new equipment and alternate class ranks. The Nemesis Origin Path is incredible stuff. It's so nice to be able to create an adversary through similar steps to how PCs are created, and it really helps flesh out the characters. While it is a very focused book (none of the material will work if the PCs want to stay within Imperial law, especially because the alternate class ranks IMMEDIATELY make you an enemy of some, or ALL OF the Imperium) it includes so many neat details it is nonetheless, in my opinion, worth the purchase for any Warhammer 40k RPG enthusiast.

This product is a single page with 100 gems and their reputed magical properties. These properties are about the length of your average sentence fragment. Some are as short as "bleeding" (for the bloodstone, natch) while others are maybe four words longer than that. Some are a little inspired, none are really explained adequately explained nor elaborated upon. I suppose you get what you pay for with your dollar.

The product PDF is put together a bit haphazardly – it has a second page which is composed solely of a broken bit of table at the top. I suppose it is useful if you need a random table of 100 gems, and you can't think of 100 gems to put on it, or what order you would put them in, and if you can't even begin to imagine what magical properties a blue tiger eye would have. For anything more, this product falls short of the mark, and it was a fairly unambitious mark in the first place.

A simple and cheap collection of room tiles for dungeon maps, with some very quirky shapes. Put together (a good example is the cover of the book) they can make for some interesting layouts. The use of curves and non-square shapes is much appreciated and gives the dungeons a more organic and charming look than just a bunch of straight line walls would have done. The tiles vary greatly in size, with multiple-room tiles, single-room tiles, connecting hallway tiles, entrances and exits to higher or lower floors, and an overall great variety. Well recommended if you're into dungeon tiles.

The Black Crusade Game Master's Kit is a serviceable aid to any Black Crusade campaign. It contains a fairly well-developed and lengthy campaign by Warhammer 40k RPG standards, focusing on the heretics seeking out treasures and power in a warp-ravaged world that still manages to have some semblances of the destitute normality one would see in Imperium worlds, and thus quite a lot of potential for roleplay. However, the sections with actual aid for GMs beyond the module, while it does contain important rules that increase the (somewhat lacking) longevity of Black Crusade player characters in comparison to the other RPGs, are short, and much of the material feels unambitious compared to the GM aids for the other lines. It is a worthwhile product, but if you're never going to look at the adventure module its value is greatly reduced.

This product contains over 20 high resolution map images depicting a few gorgeous islands. The maps include the full-size islands in both jpg and png formats, as well as smaller "chunks" of the islands that make up the whole, all in both jpg and png formats. Included also are 11 icons that can be used to mark the map in GIMP or photoshop or some other image manipulation software of your choice. Overall I think the package is worth the price. The images are crisp, the geography is excellent, and the details are vivid. What's more, the artist generously allows the map to be used in commercial products with proper credit given. Sounds like a great deal to me. Of note, the zip file is around 105 megabytes in size, but I'm sure most folks have a connection robust enough to handle it. The individual files vary in size, with the jpg files being around 1.5 to 2 megabytes (the full map is 17 mb in jpg) and twice that in png.

First Founding was perhaps designed to allay a common complaint among Warhammer 40k fans, that Deathwatch did not include enough of the classic Space Marine chapters for prospective players to use when building their characters. First Founding includes Chapter advancement tables and powers for the First Founding chapters not covered in the original Deathwatch: the Iron Hands, Salamanders, Raven Guard and White Scars. It also includes new stuff for the previously introduced chapters, the Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Space Wolves and Imperial Fists. Fantasy Flight Games has always done a really good job with the Warhammer 40k setting, in my book. They’ve made it a really accessible universe to game in even if you have never heard of Games Workshop before, just because they digest its vast, sordid history so neatly and so well in their books. First Founding is no different. It includes reams of fluff to help you understand each Chapter of the Space Marines and how they are different. Not only that, it includes quite a bit of fluff about the ancient conflict which is the backbone of the entire setting, the Horus Heresy, as well as the Traitor Legions that initiated it. What's more, there is a lot of new rules material to fully support and integrate the First Founding chapters into the Deathwatch game. Whether you're running a Deathwatch campaign already (in which case there are new options for your old characters) or looking to start a new one entirely, First Founding is an excellent product to procure.

This product is a single page with 100 numbered trophies and trade goods. There is basically zero fluff in this product, which is disappointing compared to the creative details offered in other products from this line, such as its Rumors product. It is just a single three-column table you would roll on to generate one of 100 trophies and trade goods, from Amphisbaena fangs to Kobold ears. It certainly is a serviceable product for what it does, but it is so unambitious compared to other products in the D-Percent line at around this price range. If it would be expanded with fluff for each item, such as what its value and use might be (why the item is desirable as a trophy or trade good) it would be worth purchasing even for $1.50 or $2. As it stands it just seems very bare-bones.

For GMs looking to add an aural dimension to their games, this pack of fantasy trap sounds might be a cheap and helpful addition. The sound effects are very short cues meant to be played when a certain trap is triggered or when a player falls into a certain trap. They vary from 2 seconds up to 30 seconds of sound effects. The effects include a creaking hinge opening, a screaming man falling into water, crushing noises and others. While entertaining the first time around, they may lose their luster over time if you use traps constantly (and so have to play them repeatedly). But at least for a few sessions they might be a cute novelty, and for 99 cents, it's not like the experiment will be a monetary setback.

This three page PDF delivers on its promise of 100 Fantasy City Rumors and Mysteries. While some of them are a little underwhelming ("GOBLINS ARE TUNNELIN' UNDER OUR WALLS") there are many, many more that are imaginative and interesting, and well worth the price of attendance. Because they are numbered, you can easily roll a couple d10s or a bonafide d100 and then just run with the randomly-generated idea. While the book claims they are city rumors, these could easily be implemented in any string of civilization. What's preventing a mad inventor from setting up shop in a sleepy little village, or a merchant's daughter from being kidnapped by purple-masked men in a tiny town? That might make things even more interesting.

Get it if you'd like a generator for random, cool and evocative adventure ideas, or if you're in need of some inspiration. It works with practically any fantasy game you can think of.

This product used to be free, which was a good price point for it. I'm not so sure it is as worth at "app priicng." The product is extremely bare-bones, and while some of it is creative, most of it is composed of tropes that are extremely common to fantasy, played extremely straight.

Opening the document, one is greeted with about 3 of those pages worth of a miniature sermon on The Good Old Days™. You remember those: the ones where you kicked down doors, no setting detail needed explanation, nobody had a name except the player characters, and there were no "plot hooks" or "politics." If those days were not good for you, the author asks you to back away! The opening is mildly defensive and repetitive in its explanation of the product. It really has only one thing to say about the product – either you're "the type of person who'd enjoy it" or you are not.

The rest of the document consists of an outline of places in a nameless town (which, as the document points out to you often and pointedly, it is up to you name), and several small descriptions of outdoor locations like the "Wyvern Plains" and the "Crystal Lake." The descriptions are short, taking from a third of a page to half a page. While some are mildly interesting – such as the mountain walls lined from graffiti that, perhaps, was left there by older travelers – most of them are just vague retreads of fantasy tropes you could have really come up with yourself. The Goblin Forest is filled with goblins, being pesky and awaiting death. The Wyvern Plains are home to a pack of nasty wyverns, being pesky and awaiting death. There is a lost city, its Graveyard being the part the author calls most attention to, because Vampires lie in its catacombs, being pesky and awaiting death. A gypsy in town sells herbal things.

The product has a clean layout, readable fonts and is bookmarked. It is simple, but well-put-together.

Is it worth it to get this product? If you are very hard-up on ideas, having some kind of outline already done, and enslaving yourself to it, may be worth it as a creative exercise. Otherwise, it is simply too barren. While it is in good company with other free old school products, as a commercial item it could use some expansion.

I've always wondered about ambient collections for games, and this one delivers a pretty solid but indeed very targeted product. The introduction and fadeout tracks of each set are forgettable, but the main battle tracks offer a bevy of sonic texture. They are chaotic and use appropriate sounds to convey what they purport to, but they are low-key enough that they won't overcome your speech or be a bother (unless you blast them at enormous volume). You will get clashing blades, screams of the dying and the grunts of beasts in the fantasy battle, and clatter of horses and blast of guns in the civil war. The science fiction one sounds like someone's squeezing the trigger of that ray gun until it hits empty, and feels a bit campy.

There is a weird musicality to the loopable tracks if you listen to them enough, but they are really not meant to be listened, so much as to be played. There is one track which is musical in construction, the "Battle theme" which is an acceptable but not terribly exciting orchestral drum-and-string, of the sort you might hear in a fantasy movie nowadays. This is a very utilitarian soundset – appropriate to play over a big warfare setpiece of the appropriate period, where hundreds of blades are clashing or dozens of rifles are discharging, but not really for anything else. If you are in need of such a product, you might consider this.

This product is a Monster Manual style book that focuses fey creatures drawn from various legends, including Jack In Irons, Dullahans, Erlking, and other creatures you can actually input into a Wikipedia search and learn some interesting stuff about. The mechanics in the book offer solid baseline 4e entertainment, there's nothing in it that will cause one's eyes to burst with its inventiveness, but at the same time nothing broken or unreasonable. The iconic monster, Jack In Irons, is a campaign-ending Solo creature in the ranks of monsters like Orcus and Demogorgon. There are a variety of other creatures for multiple levels. I would put this book at around Monster Manual 2's level of quality, with a lot of useful monsters of which you can be sure none will be too tedious to use (unlike, say, Wraiths). The layout is serviceable and the artwork is pretty good. If you need more Fey monsters, you'd likely enjoy this book. You certainly will find it hard to beat the price tag. If it had been a bit bolder with its mechanics it would have earned a five star score, but in 4e it is perhaps better to keep the rules tried and true.

As usual with Fantasy Flight Games, they produce some excellent game mastering products for their games. The GM Kit is a screen, a pregen adventure and very useful tips for building missions. The GM Kits for the Warhammer 40k line have always been pretty excellent, with a lot of useful reminders on them, but if you've seen any GM Screen before you'll know whether you want to use it or not. It has enough Deathwatch specific info that you probably wouldn't want to just stick your Dark Heresy screen on the table or somewhere. But at the end of the day it's a GM screen. The enemy for the pregen adventure is the Tau and the adventure has some pretty cool stuff like an attack by a Manta craft and a chance to use a few Space Marine vehicles, like a thunderhawk and speeder. I don't want to give a lot of the module away, but there are a few cool optional rules and a plot that make this just a bit more than "Space Marine kill a bunch of Tau and leave." The section on building missions is rather short, it isn't a like having a whole chapter in a major book from the line, but what succinct info it has is very useful. It breaks down the mission-building process into bullet points for easy digestion, tackling Location design, stocking the mission with Enemies, assigning Objectives, utilizing Assets, etc. For its brevity, it holds a ton of information and I can see myself going back to it before every adventure and consulting it quickly. If you're a Deathwatch GM, you will likely enjoy this book. However, if you are not a believer in GM screens, and if you don't really care about module adventures, the pamphlet-length mission design section may not be enough for you. Overall though this is an excellent product. FFG has yet to disappoint me with their GM-oriented products.

Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition continues to provide the same interesting, flavorful japanese roleplaying game in its latest edition. The rules are still the same roll and keep you knew, and if you knew it, you'll be able to pick everything up quick. There are changes though, and I believe they're for the better. Schools have been organized better, they're more balanced, and they're very interesting. If you don't know the rules, they're easier than ever to pick up, although there's a lot of stuff to be read. Still, there really isn't any RPG like L5R out there. It's not for everyone, but the people who understand it will buy this edition of the game. It's well worth the reinvestment.