Reviews by Paradave

Whatever you may think about Crowley and his ideas this book is worth reading without any regard to that. This is a fascinating non-scientists perspective on the emerging ideals on the nature of the mystical in the last century. It easily mirrors what was happening in the field of parapsychology at the time, but in a different manner, from the standpoint of 'belief first, only then analysis.' Although much of Crowley's other works did get heavily into the weird, this book should be placed into the same category as Einstein's 'Relativity' and 'Brief History of Time' (okay, not quite at the top of that category, but definitely in it =)

Okay, so this is a textbook for a Logic course, why am I reviewing it? Because this is a small, concise, and infinitely helpful book that EVERYONE should read at least once. It is a textbook in the sense that Stunk & White's handbook of writing is, more of a perfect quick reference guide for how to do stuff you'll be doing everyday, every time you talk to someone, think about something, or consider if something makes sense or not. This little book teaches you clearly how to see if the basic argument behind something is flawed, even if it sounds good and how to avoid making the same mistakes and looking a fool. Main points covered are Logical Fallacies, Categorical Sentences, Unions and Inclusion. A book that should be on every shelf, and have been read.

There aren't a lot of roleplaying systems for the Old West (Victorian era USA), but there don't need to be, because Deadlands is enough in itself. It combines just the right balance of western movie grit and style, Victorian era pseudo-science, and Lovecraftian horror. It is a superb setting overall. Magic is well presented, and well limited to keep the old west feel instead of having Dungeons & Dragons style wizards running about in leather dusters. I never even liked the old west genre, but I loved this game. Note: this review applies only to the d20 release and the original release before that, NOT the new card based system.

This book is almost unparalleled in it's utility for anyone who needs to incorporate modern weapons into any game system. Any modern weapon you need to use, modify, know the country of origin of, ect, it's there. And since their all given stats you can easily convert them to any other system and keep the relative power levels the same. This book can even be very useful outside of roleplaying as a great reference source for modern and sci-fi writers. The only small failing it has is that it has not seen an updated edition in a while now, and is starting to fall behind some of the new weapon technology.

This is an all-around very useful compendium of combat mechanics and weapon stats which can be adapted for use with any system. It's best point is that it covers a lot of how to deal with massive power levels and a wide range of mystical abilities in combat. It's main failing is the same, in that it is a designed for a mythical horror creatures as player characters environment, but this can be worked around most of the time.