I wandered into the game store today to get a sense of what products are out there. I’ve got a few ideas for a new campaign I want to start up and I was looking for inspiration. As I spun the new release rack around one of the guys asked me if I had checked Level Up yet.

To be honest, I hadn’t heard of it and I actually know very little about the publsher, Goodman Games. I know they do that Dungeon Crawl Classic which didn’t seem to be my flavor of D&D. I glanced through the black and white pages and lower quality paper and scoffed. I’m spoiled by Wizards, video games and other shiny objects. Why would I pay for this?

“It’s a $1.99. Hard to argue with a $1.99.”

I looked at the man behind the counter. I looked back at the magazine. What the heck. I decided to pick it up on a whim along with a few other books. Maybe it would have something useful in it.

I’ll be straight with you. I wasn’t expecting much, but then, treasure isn’t always where you think it is. I flipped through the pages as my wife watched TV. I was quickly hooked. This is their first issue and it has a little bit of everything in it with a good balance of content for the DM and the player, the fluff monster and the crunch master. What it really had in it though was a lot of heart, charm and personality. 

For instance, they don’t just introduce new feats for specific weapons. They introduce them with narration from a gruff, battle-hardened hobgoblin. They give us some great stats for some dinosaurs and then they use them in both a small adventure and an encounter that make excellent use of the critters. The issue even opens up with the age old tradition of a DM recounting a lesson learned from the player’s doing the darndest things. Oh and to make it even niftier, they give you a code to download a PDF of the issue online. If only everyone did that.

This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive review. There’s much more content than I’ve briefly covered and all of it was pretty good. It isn’t the sexiest magazine on the wrack but you know what, I found at least 4 or 5 ideas for my new campaign. If that isn’t worth the price, I don’t know what is. For a couple of bucks you should go and check it out for yourself.