Nice condensed GM aid. The excel spreadsheet is a little simple at first, but certainly fits the need and passes the test for use at any level. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: It is simple to use, and can give you an Encounter level and XP in less than a minute. The PDF is nice and concise, just the way I like it. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The spreadsheet is a little simple for my use, as it only follows what would happen for single encounters. When you have multiple encounters in a given session and want to calculate the encounter level, you need to start all over again, and there is no 'reset' button to clear out information you have entered. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

I own the hard-cover Grim Tales, but this update to the CR/EL relationship originally presented in that book is nothing short of fantastic. The advice on designing serial adventures is sound and interesting, and the system for rating skill-based challenges is great. Best of all it's a stand-alone product that really works with any d20 modern, Grim Tales, or d20 fantasy game.

A GM using the material in this document can benefit from also knowing the content from the Creature Creation document and spreadsheet and the the Grim Tales Mass Combat system, but neither product is necessary.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The benchmarking examples are clear and varied. The document presents multiple styles of awarding experience. The CR/EL relationship presented in the Chi-Rho system really works well in play. The presentation is clear and professional and the charts are well-designed.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: There is no interior art. I only have Open Office on the computer I used to download this document so the spreadsheet was unavailable to me. That's not really a problem with the product though.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Stunningly good. Simple. Scaleable. Flexible. Rules for strategic and tactical levels. PCs and other heroes can be involved at many different levels. As a long-time wargamer, I have been searching for mass combat rules that work at several different levels. My search is over.

Plus, it includes a super-nifty spreadsheet that automatically calculates the BR (Battle Rating) of any unit you care to put together.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Everything...definitely worth the very reasonable price.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: N/A<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Bought this recently entirely for the spreadsheet included with it. I had already purchased Grim Tales, the hardcover, some time ago but am in the process of creating and populating a homebrew campaign setting. The spreadsheet has thusfar saved several notebooks worth of computations creating new creatures and races. Quick, easy, and accurate (as far as my own group has playtested them). In the past CR has always been the "fine art" of DMing ... this takes the guesswork out of creature creation!<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Fast (with spreadsheet), Accurate, Balanced<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

If you haven't seen the Heroes of High Favor Series, I suggest you buy this PDF version to see what you've been missing. Each book presents detailed information on culture and includes many Prestige Classes that compliment what is put forth about the race in question and gives players and DMs many new ideas to spice up what they thought were routine peoples.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

A very helpful dissemination of Challenge Ratings and Encounter Levels. It is very mathematical, but if you don't mind using a calculator (and for most things, you won't even need one), it can be very useful. The small bit about serial adventure design is very cool.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

These Heroes of High Favor (HoHF) books from Bad Axe Games are one of the best series of d20 books I've read -- each book is written with self-styled "grit" and formed around a quite elegant idea; take a race and build around its favored class. Then provide tons of cool source material and prestige classes that represent the various combinations you could get to from that point. I've got the whole set of these books, but jumped on the Bad Axe bandwagon after Dwarves went out of print. So, I'm super pumped that they re-released it as a PDF.

The book was written for the 3E edition of D&D, you should be able to easily use this stuff in your v3.5 campaign. I know I will.

Geoff Kushnick Director of Game Design Eldersygn Press Home of the SkillCraft Series http://www.eldersygn.com

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: I don't think you'll find a better book for this price! Heck, I would've paid $10 for it.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: This applies to the whole series of HoHF, not just Dwarves...this is possibly the most near-perfect (in my mind) series of books for d20 that I've read.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>