When the Heroes Unlimited reached the top of the queue to be recreated as a 2nd Ed Rules format, Wayne Breaux got the rather bright idea to release a companion book with it so that the players would have all new adventures to run. This was intended to be nothing more than a small collection of short adventures, perhaps as much as 100 pages in length. Naturally, Palladium Books just can't seem to do anything small (or on time), so almost a year behind schedule and twice as massive as planned, Heroes Unlimited G.M.'s Guide hit the shelves. And sold out immediately!

Not to worry, Palladium Books produced an ample number of these; they just didn't expect that kind of a fan response for a volume that is intended for GMs only. Myself, I am only a Player in this game, but I bought one of these so that I would have access to the player info that can only be found in this volume by completing the adventures that lie within. Of course, I would like to GM my own games some day and having the means to do so is always a good thing.

The first thing that you will run into in this volume is a much awaited Q&A section that solves the problems many players and GMs alike were having due to the cuts made from the basic rules book. This is a good 10 or 15 pages of solid text that straightens out most, if not all, the issues that were skipped over in the base book.

This is followed by an in depth discussion of how to go about creating your own adventures. This section is very valuable to all GMs because, like it or not, coming up with a good adventure is hard work! A good GM wants the game to be tough enough to keep his players interested and challenged, but not so hard that he kills off the characters by accident. Reaching that happy medium is the point that all GMs strive for and this section gives tips about how to create just that kind of game. It also has quick creation tables for NPCs (non player characters), monsters, villains, and other elements that are part of good story telling.

Okay, so now we are about 75 pages into the volume and run into the first of a massive list of adventures! These are not just ideas, people. These are full adventures, complete with maps (if needed), villains, outside help for the players, on going story line ideas, everything that is needed. In most cases, these adventures can be run as stand alone or fitted together with others to make a complete story line or even stacked in with your own home brew to get something totally different for your players! There is even a small series of adventures that brings back fond memories of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (now being recreated as a new game called After the Bomb.

At last, we encounter the GM reference stuff. This includes a massive 20 pages of all new Wizard Spells that can be used in any game (please keep your arms and legs inside the car when driving through the lab, no telling what you might catch.) Since these are "unknown" spells, a responsible GM will force his players to adventure in order to gain the knowledge needed to use them.

Of course, there are more Ancient Weapons, optional rules for modern weapons, an expanded list of firearms and vehicles as well as quick find tables to locate almost anything you need to find without having to dig through the entire volume.

To top it all off, the reader is given a ton of all new artwork to admire as well as some of the better art from the older books. This is a great addition to any RPG bookcase, but please, if you are not a GM, don't read too much of this one. You will only mess up the fun that will occur while running the game by knowing too much.


Recommended: Yes