Ed Stark (1)

I'm a little late reading this. It was published in 2004 so now it's more like 38 years of adventure.

This was cool if a little confusing. I always thought that Richard Garfield owned Wizards since he was the creator of MTG. But obviously I was wrong since he was only mentioned once in the entire book. It was interesting to hear about the lawsuits that prevented Gygax from working on D&D stuff and that meant the company had to call things "Advanced" D&D or else they had to pay Arneson.

I show more didn't like how they had 2 different stories going across multiple pages. It was cool to kind of get to know some of the personalities who's names I've been seeing on products since I was a kid.

I really think it needed a "conclusion" type entry. The ending just kinda dropped off. show less

Okay, guys. You need to buy this one just for the wonderful artwork in here. Put the whole thing on a frame and stick it on the wall 'cause it's frelling gorgeous. The stories aren't half bad too. Great adventures with just the right gothic horror feel. Highly recommended, even for d20 DMs.

(Alistair) So, back in the day, when I used to game actively rather than theoretically, one of the settings which Wizards of the Coast (then TSR) had come up with was the Birthright setting, which - besides being an appealing world in its own right - added to the usual features a set of rules to allow characters to rule their own domains and actually govern.

Sadly, despite its awesomeness, it was cancelled aborning in a decision of truly mighty suck.

I found this in a second-hand bookstore show more recently, and thus snapped it up to add to my collection. Legends of the Hero-Kings is a book of short (in description, not necessarily time to play out) adventures based on the random events that may occur on the "ruling" level of the game, with ideas for how to build longer plot arcs based on the resolution of each one. As I've found with the rest of the products from the line I own, the quality of both production and writing is high, and should I be in a situation of the future where I'll actually be running a Birthright game or one in a similar scenario, I'm sure I'll borrow from it liberally.

Always tricky recommending the out of print, but hey, if you have some of the other material and like the setting, and have the chance to pick this one up, do so.
( http://weblog.siliconcerebrate.com/cerebrate/2008/03/legends-of-the-herokings-ed... ) show less

What's not to like? This book has a bunch of feats and prestige classes that are essential for warriors, no matter the archetype, tank, glass cannon, hybrids and whatever you can think of. This book also introduces the sweet Swashbuckler, and Hexblade, but also the worst class in the game the dreadful Samurai! Notable Prestige Classes include bear warrior, drunken master, exotic weapon master, master thrower, kensai, hulking hurler, dervish among others. Feats to check out include: close show more quarters fighting, extend rage, extra rage, flying kick, improved buckler defense, fists of iron, roundabout kick, divine vigor, shocktrooper, elusive target, raptor school, combat brute, and lightning mace. Good book, have fun with it. show less