This is cool! I paid for it, to help support the publisher and encourage the release of the full gamebook. Fairly easy to understand rules, nice layout, smart writing and nearly flawless editing. Nice take on modern toy soldier play!

I read through Burning Seas of Hell and (so far) was the GM for one game with it. The review includes both my thoughts and the comments of the players.

Burning Seas of Hell is published as a mini-setting, so it’s shorter than a „full“ setting. In comparison to the mini-settings by PEG I’ve seen so far, Burning Seas of Hell puts more detail into the various places and areas and skips Savage Tales. For me, the length of the setting was very good and it’s well structured, so I never had the feeling of having to read through a long paragraph without knowing what it’s supposed to go on about. It gives a good impression of the setting so I can start making notes right away without getting slowed down.

The different kinds of hell’s inhabitants are varied and interesting without feeling like a kitchen-sink. I like the concept of sins that play a big role for the damned. The ability of choosing an Edge as a nightmare feels a bit weak when the High Adventure setting rule is in effect, as the setting advises.

The concept of dealing with death when you’re already in hell is given a good thought, but I found it a bit unfair that certain kinds of PCs can just never die while others can. Also, fights can drag out quite a bit when there’s not even the possibility for someone to die – both mechanically and fictionally. The setting covers that point only with a few suggestions how to handle it in the fiction. All in all, the idea that you can’t just send someone to hell because you’re both already in there is an interesting one, but the players might need to work a bit on buying into that.

The description of the different places in hell is really awesome. What a collection of varied, freaky and cool ideas! The way it’s written worked rather well to help me getting the mood across to the players. It includes different kinds of enemies you might meet there. It also lists factions and important NPCs that are pursuing their own goals without the setting revolving solely around them, so you’re free to ignore them without needing to rewrite parts of the setting.

If that settings sounds interesting to you, go grab it and take a look!

Edit: Gramel sent me a bookmarked copy, so adjusting my review accordingly.

There are some spicy ideas in here. I love how, rather than a "monster fighting game", many other "atomic age" conspiracy tropes were added in. I see some rules for running a luchador character which is great. The atomic age vehicles all look interesting.

At this point I am planning on running a few "one-shots" in this setting. Yes, there could always be more content, as another reviewer pointed out, but there can also be too much content. I'm running another setting that has tons of lore books, and it's just too much. I have most of these ideas already in my head, and TBH this kind of bare-bones approach is what I'm looking for these days.

So why 3 stars? Because it doesn't have bookmarks, a TOC, or an index. I don't understand why this is so much to ask in a book that the publisher knows people will be flipping around in. I know how to ctrl+F, and I know how to add my own bookmarks, but why should I have to do that in a $5 PDF? The PDF isn't very long, but the information is dense enough that not having bookmarks, TOC, or Index makes it hard to find things.

I'll raise it to 5 stars if the seller sends me a copy with a functional set of bookmarks.

Not a bad map. There is a much nicer full color one for the Steel Edition.

Wow, I REALLY love this setting. I had grown a little tired of the "Tolkein" inspired stuff after having consumed (and enjoyed) so much of it over the years. I still wanted to play fantasy, but was seeking something a little more like Conan or Elric. Beasts and Barbarians delivered for me. Really interesting setting, and a well written and designed book. I also bought the GM guide, and the "first" adventure, Soul in the Water. Very happy, and planning to have this on the virtual table by next month! Typically I gravitate toward systems with free-to-use rules (SRD's and such), but I'm happy to support the designers of this game. A++.

This is a wonderful mini-setting. What is there, is great. Fraught with cool story potential, and leaving me hoping to read more. And that's why I can't give this a fifth star. Why is this only a mini-setting? It just sort of ended abruptly. There was supposed to be a list of inspirational media. None is in my PDF. No introductory adventure, much less any sort of plot-point campaign. As I said, what _is included is wonderful. I do wish there'd been a few examples of mutant characters; I'm still not sure how I'd handle a character who had, say, a third arm or something.

For a post-pulp setting, this has a gargantuan amount of pulp in it. And I mean that in the most complimentary fashion. DESPITE no fifth star, I do highly recommend this product. I just wish there were more of it! This setting definitely deserves a full treatment!

An absolutely great product. If you want to do dungeon diving in a fast, furious and fun way, this is the book that you need. It's chock full of ideas. What's neat about it is that is uses kind of a plot point, there's a meta plot that's woven through the whole book, but it's also a hex crawl. I really dig that combination.

I just wish Umberto had used a better editor. The constant use of the word 'till' instead of the correct 'until', along with severl other typos and errors put me off a bit. It probably won't bother other readers as much.

Great Story, very interesting and wonderful mechanics to bring savage worlds more old school, Hexcrawl has always been one of my favorite campaign types and they do not disappoint! I have a minor minor squibble with the hex map, but it's more on my side having trouble distinguishing grey's.

Event Zero is a Super Hero guide and setting book from GRAmel and written by Umberto Pignatelli, Andy Slack for the Adventurers! RPG, which is required for this product.

Full disclosure, I was given a PDF copy for review purposes.

Event Zero opens with details about the city of Neopolis and the Event that occurred prompting some of it's citizens to be come Specials (supers). Neopolis is a large American city and Specials appeared in 2015. Masks have been adopted do to the the fact that fist public Special, the Flaming Man, disappeared and rumors blame the government. Other public specials have disappeared, as well.

Neopolis is broken down by neighborhood with a paragraph for each presented.

Specials in the Adventurers! system must choose the Power Skill and several other skills are presented to round your character out.

The guidelines for Super Powers comes next. Nine powers are laid out and cover a good range of abilities found in comics. They are Super Stat, Damage (Telekinesis), Empower (Adrenaline Control), Investigation (Data Receiver), Mind Control (Kiss of Slavery), Protection (Dense Body), Summoning (Illusionary Pet), Super Stat (Hyper Aim). These are in addition to other Spheres of Power found in the Core game. One difference is that Specials can change which Stat to use, as opposed to basing a Sphere of Mind.

Next up is the setting's big secret and the revelation of what caused Specials to appear.

Campaign themes are then presented and I found the information beneficial to help a Game Master find a direction for their version of Neopolis.

Campaign places and important characters are also provided.

Rules for Teams are presented next and we learn the mechanical benefits of them to Specials. I find it fairly unique that Teams give new mechanical options to its members. For instance, certain Roles are presented, such as Bickering Friends, Defender, and Striker.

Equipment and lifestyle comes after and we get charts covering weapons, armor, and standard of living.

Numerous NPC's are presented for use by the Game Master, which I deeply appreciate.

An adventure, the Slug Man is also provided. It's 7 pages long and can easily get a GM up to speed to run a session within a half an hour after purchasing Event Zero.

I'm very impressed with Event Zero. The cover and interior art is excellent, the lay out is clean, and I think Neopolis and Specials are well-presented in only 44 pages. At first I was a bit surprised at the number of powers presented, until I remembered that the Adventurers! Core has other options and the the rules for Special allow you some freedom to reinterpret existing Spheres of Power.

I'm a big fan of GRAmel and this is an excellent expansion to Adventurers! and a solid Supers RPG with the benefit of several other settings that were designed for this system.

I heartily recommend Event Zero.

http://www.crossplanes.com/2019/08/review-event-zero-for-adventurers-by.html

Stumbled on this by accident and picked it up just for the subject matter, within a few weeks had run a one shot for our regular D&D group and now I have a table of Savage World converts on my hands. I liked it so much I even went and bought the physical book on Amazon.

The setting is just what it promises, a call back to the adventure movies and TV shows that mixed action with cool--be it the laid back vibe of Magnum, the crisp stylish edge of Miami Vice, or the shout out to period pulp like Indiana Jones. It has a flexibility of play that means it can fit just about any style of modern game or even all of them. Teamed with Savage World's flexibility is making this a joy to prepare and run. I can't wait to see anything else that gets added to the product line up.

"Rebirth" is an 8 pages long scenario (+ Stats) by Umberto Pignatelli for "Beasts & Barbarians" in the latest version of Savage Worlds (the "Adventure Edition"; if you prefer, you can download the conversion guidelines in a separate PdF for free on this same website). Because of its shortness, "Rebirth" is more a SW "Savage Tale" than a B&B adventure as we used to know. The heroes are marooned on a tropical island (so notice that you ought to play this adventure after your playing characters were actually sailing...), there they have to cope with the natives and a big danger, atop the main mountain. This scenario is therefore very reminiscent of some Conan tales and the part on climbing the cliffs (with the well-functioning "Abstract Navigation System") shall give some fun to the players.

The "Eye of Xalath" is a 25 pages (+ stats and book of lore) adventure for Beasts & Barbarians by Umberto Pignatelli. It takes place in the decadent empire of Tricarnia (though it may be adapted to some other dark realms). The heroes wake up tied on a sacrificial altar, while the ceremony is being performed ! Yes, I know, starting in medias res is a staple of Sword & Sorcery, but some gamemasters may have to justify this situation in front of their players. If the latters did not fail their previous adventure, I suggest that the GM, as a "reward", include some precious items in the second part of this story. A beautiful Tricarnian princess is about to stab them with a magical dagger when, suddenly, minions of her brother and foe rush into the tower. Both the heroes and the princess have to flee on a giant bat in the direction of the Brokenchain Mountains, where their "air-beast" finally crashes into a giant maze, the "Xalath", populated by strange three-eyed humanoids who capture the princess. After this railroading (that's why I spoilt this part of the story :-) ), the adventure becomes interesting : will the heroes seek to save the princess, or only their own souls ? And what about the minions of her brother ? As usual, don't await any map in this book; Umberto uses once again his acclaimed "Abstract Navigation system". Since a short book of lore of the Xalath is given at the end of the PdF, any gamemaster might well lengthen the heroes' journey in the labyrinth, in case they enjoy its pitfalls, challenges and rewards. Therefore, the course of this adventure is very open-ended.

Along with the world of Xoth, this is the best Conan-inspired sword & sorcery setting around. It's not just Conan with the serial numbers filed off though: the world has its own familiar but fresh flavour that I really enjoy.

But the setting is not just fluff; there's lots of great mechanics in here to emulate the genre. The arcane backgrounds (Sorcery, Lotus Mastery, Enlightenment) are excellent additions, and the edges (like the brilliant Loincloth Hero for playing bare-chested barbarians, and Hand-and-a-Half for wielding bastard swords) are all very well-done. Then there's also a lot of thematic gear like scythed-wheel chariots, Amazon ships, etc.

Though not in this book, there's plenty of very good original sword & sorcery adventures available for this setting as well.

The art is generally very good as well. My only complaint would be that there's a few pieces, which I believe are backers' faces, which look a bit weird and out of place.

It's definetly in the right direction, and provides the minimum skinning to use the system for what it says. But I was a little dissapointed though, i was hoping for more detailed information towards the construction of the powers themselves. There are some sample powers, which is a start. So I will probably have to develope my own rules. Either way good job guys.

I have purchased this and a number of the settings for Adventurers! here on DriveThruRPG, and have enjoyed them to the extent that I also went to the trouble of finding and purchasing softcover editions of Adventurers! Core and Adventurers! Fantasy.

As an old grognard (Gm'd my first games in the mid-70s), I enjoy its nostalgic, rules-light approach; but as a contemporary gamer I appreciate that, while simple and streamlined, the system is classless and anything but simplistic; and am amazed and delighted at how flexible, scaleable, and eminently hackable the whole system manages to be.

Just a truly impressive achievement all around.