Puzzles & Games Books - Page 3

Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, 4th Edition

Bruce R. Cordell, Ed Greenwood, Chris Sims, Philip Athans

Amazon Price: $26.37 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wizards of the Coast Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $22.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Role Playing & Fantasy -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( G ) -> Greenwood, Ed

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 2.5 of 5

Simply Horrible 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I have been a fan of the Realms for over 20 years and enjoyed my first look at the 4th edition rule set. But I was growing very concerned over the direction the design team was taking with my beloved Realms. 100 year time jumps, the killing off of many of the deities, the complete obliteration of whole nations.

As it turned out, it was even worse than I thought. Whole land masses were swapped with another world simply for the sake of introducing certain 4e things like the dragonborn. Mulhorand? Gone. Neverwinter? Destroyed for no apparent reason. The Zhents? A shell of themselves. The Harpers? Pathetic little group. I don't even want to discuss what happened to the various dieties.

Whats worse is that the book is not even well written. The lore is kept to a minimum, which is very un-Realms like. Unfortunately, Bruce Cordell had a lot to do with this volume. Never a good thing.

The only half way decent part was the Returned Abeir section. Maztica has been replaced with a new land mass filled with dragon emperors, Dawn Titans, and rebellious people. It would have made much more sense to merely introduced this land in an effort 4th-edition-ize the Realms, but the design team decided a better idea would be to junk decades of lore and campaigning.

The real reason behind this devastation is the effort to decrease the homework for the novelists. Two of the designers, Rich Baker and Bruce Cordell, as well as others, have been criticized for errors in lore when writing their novels. The simplest way to protect themselves was to remove the lore. Which they have done. Unfortunately, they have removed my interest, as well. Not to mention put out a subpar product.

Editorial Review:

Dark perils and great deeds await!

Welcome to Faerûn, a land of amazing magic, terrifying monsters, ancient ruins, and hidden wonders. The world has changed since the Spellplague, and from this arcane crucible have emerged shining kingdoms, tyrannical empires, mighty heroes, and monster-infested dungeons. The Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide presents a world of untold adventure; a land of a thousand stories shaped by the deeds of adventurers the likes of which Faerûn has never seen before.

This book includes everything a Dungeon Master needs to run a D&D campaign in the Forgotten Realms setting, as well as elements that DMs can incorporate into their own D&D campaigns. The book provides background information on the lands of Faerûn, a fully detailed town in which to start a campaign, adventure seeds, new monsters, ready-to-play non-player characters, and a full-color poster map of Faerûn.

INFINITE UNDISCOVERY Signature Series Guide

BradyGames

Amazon Price: $13.59 List Price: $19.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: BRADY GAMES Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $12.09

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Games & Strategy Guides -> Strategy Guides -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Games & Strategy Guides -> Video Games
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> General

Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook: Roleplaying Game Core Rules, 4th Edition

Wizards RPG Team

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wizards of the Coast Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $17.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Role Playing & Fantasy -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Gaming -> Dungeons & Dragons -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 184 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Squandered Potential 1 out of 5 stars.
11 of 13 people found this review helpful.

When I first heard about 4th edition I was quite excited. I couldn't wait to get my hands on all the brand new shiny rules. I read all the updates about the new races and classes from Wizards of the Coast online, and I thought "hmmm a little bit strange that they seem to be making so many changes, but they still sound like great ideas". When the books finally came out, I bought my copies right away, and read through them. At first I was confused by the fact that the new game was COMPLETELY new. There was basically nothing left of the old editions in 4th edition. It was a totally new game. Strange, I thought, but I ignored that little voice telling me to be wary and went ahead and started up a game with some of my friends, all D&D 3.5 players who had also been waiting for the new edition to come out... all except for one friend who refused to play because he hated the new changes. I tried to explain that they weren't changes as much as it was a whole new game, but he said that was even worse. I ignored his opinions, but now in hindsight, he was absolutely correct.

As we played the game, at first we thought the game was a blast. It was fun having special "powers" as a fighter, and being able to use spells over and over again, but as the weeks progressed we started to notice some things as we reached higher levels (I think that 12th was the highest level anyone in our group reached). We weren't really enjoying the game like we did the first few times when it was still new, and 2 players started making excuses not to show up at the game, and 1 other player though he came to the game every time, constantly expressed an interest in going back to 3.5 or playing a totally different system. Essentially everyone was bored with 4th, and after having only played for about a month and a half. We'd had 3.0 and 3.5 games that had lasted years without players leaving or expressing boredom. No one was looking forward to the next game session and no one really cared about their characters. We played a few more times, but then agreed to quit and started a new 3.5 game, but we decided to use only the 3 core books of 3.5 (PHB, DMG, and MM) to see if we became as bored with it as quickly as we did with 4th. Needless to say, that game is still going (but we did allow one player to use a prestige class from complete mage).

Overall, while 4th edition seemed fun at first, we quickly realized that character building choices, such as feats and powers mattered very little in the long run. It was almost impossible to build an interesting and unique character. Even the classes bled together, despite having different powers. The only element of the characters that seemed unique was the race, but still every character of the same race seemed the same, and if "you didn't play enough different characters to know if they can be unique or not" is your counter argument, then you would be wrong as far as I'm concerned. We played 2 times a week for almost 2 months, and with 3 complete parties wiped out by assorted "balanced encounters" each of us played at least 4 characters.

Which brings me to another point that I haven't seen many people mention; the increasesd lethality of this edition. Our DM started with a module (keep of the shadowfall or something like that) and we were killed (one person escaped) by a group of kobolds. We chalked it up to inexperience with the new system, and tried to use better tactics next time. We made it through to the end of the module but were almost wiped again by the final encounter (2 people out of 5 died, but only 1 person was left actually conscious when the bad guy died). We figured that maybe the module was just designed to be a meat-grinder style adventure so the DM started planning his own game with encounters balanced according to the DMG. Two games later our party was wiped out completely (no one escaped) by an elite solo monster that was supposedly a balanced "boss" encounter for our party level. After this another player wanted to DM for a while, so we started new characters but at the same levels as our last characters. It went pretty good for a while, but then one player stopped showing up to games, for various reasons, and then some number of games after that (i think it was about 2 levels since we started over, I can't really remember) our party was TPKed again. In between the start over and the TPK 2 people had died in isolated situations but those seemed normal at the time. Even though we were TPKed the DM said that we'd "been captured" and we had to fight our way out of prison, which was kind of fun, but it felt fake and undeserved.

When 4th edition info first started to appear on the internet, there was talk of characters being "pumped up" with hit points and that this would increase early level survivability. It turns out the opposite is actually true. The characters have more HP but so do the monsters; unbelievable numbers of HP in some cases. Fights seem to drag on and on as the players swing and do minor amounts of damage to the creatures massive HP scores which are in every case but "minions" equal to or greater than the players HP scores. Minions on the other hand may seem like a good idea; monsters that can be used as a howling horde of weaklings, but die quickly. However, in practice they take the fun out of the battle. When you hit a minion it feels like a "gimme", like patting a little kid on the head and saying "good job! you hit the ball!" (straight to the firstbaseman). They all have one hit point and die from a single hit, but they feel very gratuitous, almost pointless. Not only are they simply an annoyance, but they deprive the player the fun and excitement of scoring a critical hit for maximum damage, or even of rolling for damage at all. Very disappointing.

I could go on detailing other oddities of play experience that our group encountered, but other reviews listed here have pointed them out over and over, and in greater detail than I really care to, mainly because I simply don't care anymore. 4th edition was an opportunity for WotC to fix and update the previous edition, but instead, judging by the final product, the only thing they truly ever intended to update was the company's stock price (Oooh, he made a joke about Wizards only being out to make a profit! Get him! Nerd Rage!). They created a detailed but boring board game, from which I am sure they will make quite a bit of money off of those fooled by the brand label still attached to this unrecognizable edition. I plan to recoup some of what I gave to Wizards by selling my books back to the local game store, since in just a couple of months I've had my fill of 4th edition.

Editorial Review:

The first of three core rulebooks for the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game. The Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game has defined the medieval fantasy genre and the tabletop RPG industry for more than 30 years. In the D&D game, players create characters that band together to explore dungeons, slay monsters, and find treasure. The 4th Edition D&D rules offer the best possible play experience by presenting exciting character options, an elegant and robust rules system, and handy storytelling tools for the Dungeon Master. The Players Handbook presents the official Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game rules as well as everything a player needs to create D&D characters worthy of song and legend: new character races, base classes, paragon paths, epic destinies, powers, magic items, weapons, armor, and much more.

Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide (Star Wars Roleplaying Game)

Rodney Thompson, Sterling Hershey, Abel G. Peña, John Jackson Miller

Amazon Price: $26.37 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wizards of the Coast Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $23.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Role Playing & Fantasy -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Gaming

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A Star WarsTM Roleplaying Game campaign set during the dawn of the Old Republic...

Make the jump to lightspeed 4,000 years before the Battle of Yavin to a time when Jedi Knights and Sith Lords clashed in galactic conflict. This campaign guide offers both players and Gamemasters a wide array of new options that can be used to craft a unique roleplaying game experience. As the galaxy plunges into one war after another, the forces of the Republic, along with their Jedi allies, struggle to protect themselves from hordes of invading Mandalorians, tyrannical Sith lords, and traitorous allies on every front.

Featuring new game material drawn from a variety of sources, and including characters, weapons, vehicles, and droids, this book presents an entire campaign during the violent days of the Old Republic. This book also contains new Force powers, Force techniques, and Force secrets for Jedi and Sith characters, as well as new options for characters of all classes. Players can take advantage of new talents, feats, and other options to play a Mandalorian neo-crusader, a Republic soldier battling against the forces of Darth Revan and Darth Malak, or a Jedi in exile on the run from the Sith.

Martial Power: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement (D&D Rules Expansion)

Wizards RPG Team

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Not yet published By: Wizards of the Coast

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Role Playing & Fantasy -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Gaming

Editorial Review:

New options for fighters, rangers, rogues, and warlords.

This tome focuses on the martial heroes: characters who rely on their combat talents and keen wits for survival.

This book provides new archetypal builds for the fighter, ranger, rogue, and warlord classes, including new character powers, feats, paragon paths, and epic destinies.

Martial Power is the first of a line of player-friendly supplements offering hundreds of new options for D&D characters.

Power Hold'em Strategy

Daniel Negreanu

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cardoza Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $20.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Card Games -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Card Games -> Poker
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Finally a book about "small ball"... 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I am going to say essentially what everyone else on here has been saying... If you buy this book, know that you can use the chapters not written by Negreanu as toilet paper or kindling for your fireplace. What you are buying this book for is Negreanu's explanation of "small ball" NL tournament poker. I noticed from reading the other reviews that everyone else is similarly interested in small ball, and have found this strategy to be quite effective. I also noticed that one guy on here seems to think Daniel is advocating a "weak, passive" approach to playing poker. This is far, far from the truth. Either he didn't read the book well enough, or is just not intelligent enough to get what Daniel was trying to communicate. Here are some basic ideas behind the small-ball philosophy:

1) Keep the pots small, pre-flop. You don't want to put a lot of your chips at risk before you even see the flop. Your aces may get busted by deuces post-flop, and you'll be pot committed after a few big bets. Not good. Instead, you wait to see the flop, then evaluate the situation based on what your opponent is doing. By keeping the pots small, you will pick up more pots that people don't really care about after the flop and not risk getting drawn out on by some crazy donk.

2) Play lots of hands that have big post-flop potential. That means opening up your starting hand selection by a large amount. This has been a big adjustment for me, but by doing so I have learned a lot about how to play poker in general. I have won a lot of big pots in tournaments and deep-stacked cash games by calling raises with mediocre hands that turn into monsters post-flop. Daniel expounds on which hands to call with under which set of circumstances.

3) Don't let your opponents get a good read on you. By playing your big hands the same as you do your weak hands, it makes it very hard for your opponents to know what you are playing with. It forces players into a guessing game, and if you are fairly decent at reading other people's hands, you can make some really good plays.

4) Playing the texture of the board. A good amount of Daniel's small ball approach deals with making decisions based on the texture of the board. This is something that is key to any poker player's success, I think. You don't always have to have the best hand to end up with the chips.

Those are some main aspects to playing small ball that Negreanu pays a great deal of attention to. What I've noticed for myself and other players is that the people who consistently do well in poker tournaments rely on more than luck and aggression. They rely on skill and discipline. I think this book will help you in both areas, if you aren't a small ball player already.

Editorial Review:

Super Stars of Hold'em does for hold'em what Doyle Brunson's Super System 2 did for poker. Negreanu gathers together the greatest young players, theorists, and world champions of hold'em, to present insider professional secrets and winning strategies for the only poker game that counts nowadays-hold'em. Ten powerful chapters cover every aspect of the major hold'em games-limit, no-limit, and pot-limit for cash games and tournaments -- with in-depth coverage on all aspects of play. This weighty volume will be an instant classic-poker players cannot ignore the professional advice from the greatest stars of the game.

Harrington on Cash Games, Volume II: How to Play No-Limit Hold 'em Cash Games

Dan Harrington, Bill Robertie

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Two Plus Two Publishing LLC Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $17.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Card Games -> Gambling
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Card Games -> Poker
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Gambling -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Finally a cash game book! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book along with the first volume are the only books that I found to give in-depth coverage aimed specifically at NLHE Cash Games. The biggest thing going for the books is that they're thorough. Around 800 pages of strategy, quizzes, examples, and some light mathematical explanations. Thankfully, not a page wasted on teaching you how to play. Even the English is quite good! (Most poker books are near unreadable.) I reread this before every game to tighten up and remind me to be aggressive and I've certainly improved. I actually ENJOY reading it, too.

The only downside might be that the examples seem sometimes inconsistent, such as recommending a raise 80% of the time in one situation and 70% in another where it seems the recommendations should be reversed, though who am I to judge? Harrington's playing style is very tight and very loose players might find too few recommendations on how to act in situations with poor hands.

Neither of the above gripes is enough to knock these books down from a 5-star review. In short, you'll enjoy reading this book and play better afterward. Definitely get the first volume, too.

Fable II Limited Edition Guide (Brady Games)

BradyGames

Amazon Price: $19.79 List Price: $29.99 Not yet published By: BRADY GAMES

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Games & Strategy Guides -> Strategy Guides -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Games & Strategy Guides -> Video Games
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> General

Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 2: Endgame

Dan Harrington, Bill Robertie

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Two Plus Two Pub Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $14.47

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Card Games -> Poker
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Poker has taken America by storm. But it's not just any form of poker that has people across the country so excited it's no-limit hold 'em the main event game. And now, thanks to televised tournaments, tens of thousands of new players are eager to claim their share of poker glory.

In the first volume of this series, Harrington on Hold 'em: Volume I: Strategic Play, Dan Harrington explained how to play in the early phases of tournaments, when most players at the table had plenty of chips, and the blinds and antes were small. This book, Harrington on Hold 'em: Volume II: The Endgame shows you how to play in the later phases of a tournament, when the field has been cut down, the blinds and antes are growing, and the big prize money is within sight. Harrington shows you how to make moves, handle tricky inflection point plays, and maneuver when the tournament is down to its last few players and the end is in sight. He’s also included a whole chapter on heads-up play, whose strategies up to now have been a closely-guarded secret of the game's top masters.

Dan Harrington won the gold bracelet and the World Champion title at the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold 'em Championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker. And he was the only player to make it to the final table in 2003 (field of 839) and 2004 (field of 2,576) considered by cognoscenti to be the greatest accomplishment in WSOP history. In Harrington on Hold 'em, Harrington and two-time World Backgammon Champion Bill Robertie have written the definitive book on no-limit hold 'em for players who want to win and win big.

Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time Volume I

Eric 'Rizen' Lynch, Jon 'Pearljammer' Turner, Jon 'Apestyles' Van Fleet

Amazon Price: $19.79 List Price: $29.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Dimat Enterprises, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $19.79

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Card Games -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Card Games -> Poker
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Gambling -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Want to win poker tournaments?
Now you can learn exactly how consistent winners REALLY do it!
Meet PearlJammer, Rizen, and Apestyles. These top guns of tournament poker are frequent winners in today's highly competitive online scene, as well as in live tourneys. Their collective experience and track record is staggering: more than 35,000 tournaments played, more than 1,000 final tables made, over 200 major wins, and more than $6,000,000 in cashes. They regularly outplay fields consisting of other top professionals victories that are documented by detailed online hand histories.
Are you ready to learn winning ways from today's true tournament experts?
The authors are not only consistent winners, but powerful teachers as well. Step-by-step, they reveal their decision-making processes, using hands drawn from actual play not examples contrived to fit a particular poker theory.
Reading this book is like attending a master class in tournament poker.
You'll see the way cutting-edge pros use their wisdom and incredibly extensive experience to analyze almost every poker situation imaginable. Deep-stacked or short-stacked, against single or multiple opponents, you'll learn the skills that will make you a winner, including:
- When and how to play aggressively or tightly
- When to make moves
- When to make continuation bets and when to hold back
- How to induce and pick off bluffs
- How to accumulate chips without constantly risking your tournament life.
Poker is a fun game, but it's even more fun when you win.
If you want to become a great tournament player, shouldn't you be learning from the best? NOW You can!