THAY: LAND OF THE RED WIZARDS, A Forgotten Realms resource book by Ed Greenwood & Alex Kammer

Statistics: deadEarth Player's Handbook

Core Game Ratings

Rating: 4.22 / Ranking: 22295

These ratings are based on 4 ratings with 2.30 average weight and 2 reviews.

This is compared to an index-wide 3.64 average ratings and 1.98 average weight.

This rating earns a low level of trust because of its low level of input.

Ratings + Reviews:

87%
9%
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4%
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Index Ratings Only:

87%
9%
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4%
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0%
0%
0%
0%
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RPGnet Reviews Only:

0%
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Core Game Comments

All User Comments

Rating User Comments
1 / 10SleeperUnplayably awful rules. A what-the-fuck-was-he-thinking setting.

But it's so over the top bad that it makes an entertaining read. And after a long thread lampooning the game on RPG.net, the author showed up, and did something completely unexpected: He took all the ribbing (and vicious shredding) in good spirits.

Which is just wrong. If you write one of Plan 9 from Outer Space games, you're supposed to be blindly convinced your game is the Greatest Thing Evar! And you're supposed to furiously defend it, on the internet. After all, that's exactly what the authors of Synnibarr, Senzar, and Wraeththu did.

But he didn't. Which is cool. (Though I'm stilling giving the game itself a score of 1 out of 10.)

1 / 10g026rOverly complex. Many poor and occasionally inexplicable design choices. (Skills that are dependent on seemingly unrelated skills. Character generation is quite likely to result in a dead or literally useless character.) Giant disconnect between setting content (gonzo post-apocalypse) and professed game tone (gritty realism). Numerous instant death results on the radiation table. Add in the self-praise, misogyny (look up "917 Estrogen treatment"), and swipes at other games, and you've got a spectacular car-crash of a book.

Core Game Reviews

All RPGnet Reviews

[ Link Reviews ]
Rating User Summary
5 + 4GenesisdeadEarth Player's Handbook.
3 + 3B. K. B. JohnsondeadEarth Player's Handbook Second Edition. A radioactive post-apocalyptic escapade that may be too prone to randomness for some, but at least the price is right.

All Magazine Reviews

Year Magazine Synopsis
2000Games Unplugged #3Rating: B.

Ratings Explanation

The following components make up a rating:

Ratings. The ratings that users enter into this index are each averaged into the final rating with a weight of between 0 and 4, with weight based on trust algorithms.

Reviews. Each review is averaged into the final rating with a weight of 8. Sometimes reviews can skew high, but they also display fan interest (or disdain) in a product.

Content. The average rating of each content--before its own bayesian weight is inserted--is averaged into the final rating. The weight of a content is equal to its own weight divided by the number of contents, and divided again if it only appears in a fraction of editions.

Bayesian Weight. A rating of 5.00 is inserted into the final rating with a weight of 35. This is an arbitrary weighting of the average rating that keeps things toward the center until they're better rated.

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