The booklet seemed very superficial and lacking in information. Also, it could have been marked better which game system it was for since it showed up for me searching for another one than what it turned out to be. However, it's not a bad buy if you're playing in a low or no magic campaign setting in d20 OGL..

Some nice ideas here if running a low-magic setting and you need some alternatives to potions and magical items. Unfortunately, some of the items seem like they should be magical, not alchemetical. Dunite, for example, is supposedly crafted from molten lava and someone holds the heat of the lava inside it to use as a grenade weapon later. Part of the problem may be the writing, which is rather plain and sometimes overly wordy. Layout is kind of boring as well, with gray text boxes used unevenly I guess to break up text. I also don’t think the new skills are even necessary, as I can’t think why I would want to have to split skill points between “normal” alchemy and mineral alchemy when normal alchemy should be enough. I can see maybe creating a feat called mineral alchemy that gives a bonus to alchemy checks when using minerals, but even then I don’t think there is anything presented in this product to justify it.

Nice complement that spices up alchemists and add some new items to the game<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: the many substances detailed<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Offers some interesting ideas. Even if you have a lot of magic in your campaign, here are items that your players can actually afford to buy off the shelf. Alternately, it's a good way to make mundane treasure special and still useful -- so the dagger isn't magical, but it glows when undead are nearby, that's interesting, and can spice up the role-playing too.

For the length of it, there are only a few items that I see as immediately useful to PC adventurers, or that I could see using as a plot device in an NPC's hands. The others might take some more twisting, but show promise.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Descriptions were nice, and so were the photos of the real gems and minerals. There's a very useful table summarizing the minerals/gems, items, and effects at the end.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the alchemical items duplicate magic spells, which may be stronger that you want alchemy to be in your game. Also, many of the gems (and thus the items made from them) are greatly underpriced compared to the D&D DMG, so if you're using those rules, you'll want to make adjustments. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Great addition to my collection! The new alchemical items were a blast!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Interesting rules and items if you're running a low-magic campaign. Some fun ways of getting some bang for your buck if a caster isn't readily available. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Good spectrum of items and abilities<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The set-up in a lot of pages for tangled a bit. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>