If you wanna see what 4th edition is gonna look like, don't buy the preview books, buy this! Conan meets Midnight.

Darklore is a land where the gods warred. The land has been altered, become a harsh environment. It is a time where many of the older civilizations of been destroyed and replaced by tyrants ruling petty city states. The world is still recovering even though it is over 500 years after the event of the god?s war. The land is filled with paranoia as people do not know how the war ended or what is happening around them. Darklore Campaign Primer is a new campaign setting by Malladin?s Gate Press. It is a dark world filled with mystery, adventure, and conflict.

The Darklore Campaign Primer is a pdf of eighty three pages in length. It is filled with the lands, the races, the history, and the classes of this world. It offers many new rules to fit the way the game is run to the feel of the setting. The pdf cost five dollars and is received in a zip file of almost 9 megs.

One of the first things I look at with pdfs are the bookmarks. They are an index that one clicks on a subject and the pdf goes right to that page. They make it easy to use if one needs to find something fast like when using pdfs at the gaming table. The Darklore Campaign Primer has an excellent set of bookmarks.

The art in the book is rather sparse and of average quality. There is a map of the described region done by Clayton Bunce. The map is clear and easy to use. It is a full page in size making the details easy to see. The layout of the book is well done in the standard two column format. The book is done in black and white and prints well.

The setting is fantasy based but has more in common with d20 modern. Classes are presented in this book and are written up like d20 modern classes. They are ten levels long, have a defense armor class bonus, and talent trees. Characters are able to multi class without restriction. There are also carrier classes that serve as short prestige or advanced classes. They are all three levels long and easy to get into. They serve to offer some good focus of a character concept though.

The book starts with a good, through overview of the world. It explains some things of the history and what the campaign world is like. It sets atmosphere a little with discussions on how bad things are for many of the peoples. It covers a little bit of history but stresses that many things are just not known.

The first chapter goes into the history, well known history, of the world. It goes over some major events and covers quite a bit. It does a good job of further setting up the atmosphere with its tone and descriptions.

The second chapter goes into detail on the different regions. It talks about the geography of the lands, the politics of the people, organizations that have power and influence there, and the languages the people communicate with. Each region has a close up map of it, though no more detail is given. There is a lot of depth to this section. The setting comes together here and the present is presented in a way to spark ideas and campaigns. There are many things hinted at that I hope to see expanded upon in future books. The ideas are solid and easy to use in this setting or to be used to influence ones own game setting.

The third chapter goes into the races. Each race for the Players? Handbook is redefined to reflect the influences and history of the world. Each race gets a bonus feat at first level as well as bonus skill points. There are no favored classes since everyone is allowed to multi class freely. Most races for a series of sub races that further define the character. Each race has some sort of attribute modification. Some of these are odd numbers which is seen as a problem by some gamers. Odd attribute modifiers can be used to gain a bonus and hide a penalty. Each race is also given a class skill, and if their class already has it they gain a +1 competence bonus very much like in d20 Modern. There is also a availability of each race presented as common, uncommon, or rare. To pick a race of uncommon or rare availability the character has to sacrifice one or two or their advantages. Advantages are a new game mechanic that is explained later in the book.

The fourth chapter goes into the basic classes. Like d20 Modern each is associated with a single attribute. The classes the books has are the Warrior (Strength), Thief (Dexterity), Outlander (Constitution), Scholar (Intelligence), Devout (Wisdom), and Destined (Charisma). Each class is ten levels in length and have many talent trees as options to them. The classes are very flexible and can be used to create a wide assortment of different concepts. With the free multi classing the flexibility is increased dramatically.

The fifth chapter deals with skills, feats, and equipment. There are a few new or redefined skills. The most important is the new fighting styles. Some of them have feat requirements but as one gains ranks in them they get certain bonuses when fighting. While the mechanical part is well done, I am more impressed with the descriptions and the feel the fighting styles have. They can add reinforce the tone of the setting and the particular groups that use them. The campaign world also has gun powder. Guns have two new mechanics with them. The first is penetration and it allows the weapon to ignore X points of armor or natural armor bonus to armor class. The second is misfire chance. If the character rolls bad enough he has a chance to inflict damage upon himself.

The sixth chapter has the carrier classes in them. These work like the advance classes of d20 modern except they are only three levels in length and very easy to get into. There are a dozen carrier classes presented here. Many are simple specializations like Archer or Scout. They offer unique abilities ands serve a great way to help define characters.

Overall this is a world filled with danger and intrigue. The setting is darker then most standard fantasy games, but the tone is well defined. I found myself getting some great ideas while reading this book. As a campaign primer it does a good job of covering all the bases and given plenty of information about the world. It would be easy to start a campaign with just this. But as I read I found myself wanting more detail as there are a few things that are hinted at and mysteries that are presented. The descriptions are well done and serve the setting well. The new rules I think will do a great job of showing the players how the game feels. I really like the classes as they are presented. This is the way to do fantasy in the model of d20 Modern. The carrier classes are a nice addition, simple to qualify for, and will enhance the characters greatly. The races are interesting and are not the cookie color variety that is seen in so many settings. The races are familiar enough to be used with comfort, but different enough to really stand out in someone?s mind. Too many times I see new races used, when the current ones can be altered a little to fill the same role. Darklore does a great job in showing how that can easily be done. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I purchased this to support ENworld

I've been briefly going over this product. My comment is a snap judgement only.

This setting has an old-school feel to it, partially imparted to the reader by the heavily shaded black and white illustrations, font, and format.

There are also devils. Devils is old-school to me, ala Greyhawk and the Great Horned Society. I like devils.

Darklore makes a modest conversion of D&D character classes to d20 modern classes, giving players the flexibility to tweak core classes or interpret tweener classes for themselves. In a sense, you get the flexibility of d20 Modern basic classes, but you keep the archetypical d20/D&D class feel. Thieves are Fast Heroes.

The Fighting technique system is interesting. In a nutshell, there are skills representing various styles of fighting. Your rank in that skill gives you one or more virtual feats when wielding weapons specific to that style. Each technique also allows maneuvers that you can perform.

For example, with the Bassal fighting style, I make a Fighting Style check DC 40, after I critical with my polearm, to pierce my enemy's vitals and cause a terrible wound. This is a very intriguing idea.

Darklore also introduces an interesting mechanic to allow Players to share some of the workload in creating entertaining games, through the use of Advantages. Advantages represent the most important story elements to a character, and players may spend their character's advantage points to kink the game their way, by initiating/introducing such elements as NPCs, events, or contact with secret societies. If you prefer more traditional gamemaster/player relationship, this can be removed without undermining the rest of the world design.

All in all, its very good.

This product comes in two parts:

1) The campaign setting: not bad, but I have seen better. However, if you search for something traditional with a grim twist, simple and cheap, it could be fine. Art however, is rather average, not very inspiring.

2) The rules introduce a mixing of d20 modern and D&D. That is: six basic classes looking much like the six d20 modern classes, but with a whole new range of talents closely derived from D&D classes' abilities. I am dubious about the result. I either prefer true D&D classes, or the treatment d20 modern classes have got in Grim Tales (but it's not the same price). I would say this is finally mediocre.

Great stuff, very creative, original and meaty. I love the way the sections are broken out with just enough info but not too much. Just wish there was more!!!!

I bought this to support ENWorld, plain & simple. It has some good material, but in the end I did this to support a site that I love. Realistically, I prefer designing my own campaigns, so the material in here was not entirely to my tastes.

This is a great fantasy campaign setting! Using the d20 Modern more than D&D rules, it's wonderfully dark and atmospheric but not at all derivative. Even if you don't want to play in this world itself, it's chock full of ideas for evil areas and such for your world and it's cheap!

I bought this book not knowing what to expect. It is a D20 fantasy world. While I probably will not use much of it. It looks pretty good. The art is good. The world is well thought out. It isn't D&D it is a different type of fantasy world. All in all a prettyu good book.