Yes, you can expect to see reviews on these soon, but here's what I've finished working with lately:
The Boy King: a campaign book with very few specifics for a King Arthur Pendragon Campaign. It's mostly a fleshed out timeline with information for including PCs in some of the events. There's really only one major fleshed out scenario for PCs, the others involve just observing, which isn't to many people's taste. But at least it lets you know what happens when, and there are some pretty good general ideas in here too.
Little People: not nearly as good as their Viking Age, Avalanche nevertheless has produced a good source book, with a load of stats and more detailed descriptions for fairies than you get in any Monster Manual. Some of the layout was too hasty and therefore error-prone, but I really wish I'd had this book before running AORP. There is a TON of stuff I could have used.
B5: I only just barely started this. I was going to make it my "bathroom reading" like I did with Traveller's d20 version, since I'm primarily opposed to d20 SF, an opinion Traveller only held up for me. But I looked over a lot of the changes to the system, and I think I'm really going to like this. What I'm seeing is a system changed so the players will want to avoid combat if they can, which means that their claim to skill heavy play should be carried out. Plus it has all those photo stills and glossy pages. Since half the book is description and setting, this may be a good purchase for d20 players and B5 fans alike.
Black Flags: another Avalanche book. I also just started this one. It's smaller than Viking Age but is of the same ilk (Little People is just a supplement for Celtic Age, which is a parallel to Viking Age). I'm seeing a lot of info on historical materials, so you can play realistically (as realistically as d20 will let you, anyway) but also what they're calling "panache" rules so you can swing the pendulum to highly cinematic. Which means that it's versatile but a good reference. I'll give a better report when I've read more. It's OOP so you might not get a full review on this one.
I think what I like about Avalanche is that it combines the research and background that GURPS books typically do (though not as much: Atlantis had like 80 pages of nonfiction or more, which is bigger than the entire volume of Black Flags) but also has more rules for a system (of course, it's d20 v. GURPS, take the one you like more) but only requires the use of one other rulebook (usually, namely the Player's Handbook, though Little People has a few scattered reference to Celtic Age, which only makes sense, since it's a setting supplement -- a 2nd generation product instead of directly supporting the system), whereas GURPS refers to at least a half-dozen, usually more in all their sourcebooks.
anyway, yes, I'm procrastinating my novel. what's it to you?
