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The Core Rules 2.0 is a good investment if you:

a. cannot afford to get the Player's Handbook, DMG, Monstrous Manual, the Oprions line of books, the Tome of Magic, and the Arms and Equipment Guide all at once!

b. Want to use your Table Top computer for constructing new homegrown Adventures.

c. Have a lap-top computer, and it's far easier to carry a lap-top or notebook computer around rather than a back-breaking library of books to your game.

The Core Rules 2.0 is so wonderful for DMs and Players alike, it's almost like heaven for the computer literate AD&D fan. A re-work of the classic Core Rules CD-ROM, Evermore Entertainment has made some much needed improvements.

The best improvement is the new user-friendly interface: just point to a picture which represents your favorite applet and click. The main screen is so much more, well, fantastic.

A candle lets you exit, open a book and your in the library, click on a figurine and you can create player characters for AD&D. Open the chest, you find applets that let you manage your AD&D campaign. Finally, click on the globe, and a set of cartography tools is there to help you build your maps.

*MAIN FEATURES*

The Library: Like I said, opening the book allows you access to the main library. Depending on which installation method you choose, the Core Rules library of books: from the PHB to the Player's Option: Skills and Powers, can be accessed here in *.RTF format, which can open in Word, Wordpad, or your favorite word processor.

Dice Roller: Animated dice opens this applet. The dice roller is a randomized dice rolling program, which allows you to make that roll fast! All the dice, including Percentile dice, is included.

Character Generator: The Character Generator is visually good. A picture of a medieval town springs onto the screen, allowing you to pick a building in which you can customize your character. Character Histories, disadvantages and advantages, weapons and equipment can all be bought for your character.

D.M. Toolkit: the best improvement in the Core Rules 2.0 is actually the "D.M. Toolkit", a suite of applets which help the D.M. The Monster screen shows each individual monster's picture as if in a book, along with their statistics on the same screen. Secondly, one of the applets in the Core Rules 2.0 allows you to customize your game. You can make your own monster, scan a picture, and it will show up in that little book, rather than fill the WHOLE screen. There are also new applets which allow you to customize new kits, advantages and disadvantages, and magic weapons into your AD&D game.

MapMaker: Finally, the Map Maker. I found the MapMaker utility to be too unwieldy for making maps. It may be by Profantasy, but it's useless to myself, who prefers to use an artistic approach to his own fantasy cartography, namely using PAINTER 6.0 to draw my maps.

Okay, I don't like the MapMaker program, but those who want a piece of Campaign Cartographer might find the program to be of use. I think it's useless, but that's just me.

The other little map making applet is something I find to be useful. It is better than the original map making applet found in the classic Core Rules CD-ROM. It has a lot more features than the original, and is not as unwieldy as the MapMaker utility from ProFantasy.

OVERALL

THIS PROGRAM IS NOT USELESS! In fact, it may save you money in getting those Dungeons and Dragons Core Rules (PHB, DMG, et al.) that everybody else has. If you are a beginner, and you want to start with D&D, get the Core Rules 2.0 and a Campaign Boxed Set like Forgotten Realms™. It will only save you . . . $250.

The really bad side? This program was written for Windows PCs only, sorry MAC users. I suggest you complain to WotC for being so unthoughtful to you.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

AD&D Core Rules 2.0
Author: Evermore Entertainment Category: CD-ROM Company/Publisher: TSR, Inc. Line: (Advanced) Dungeons and Dragons Cost: 29.99 Page count: N/A Playtest Review by Elton Robb on 12/11/99. Genre tags: Fantasy	The Core Rules 2.0 is a good investment if you: a. cannot afford to get the Player's Handbook, DMG, Monstrous Manual, the Oprions line of books, the Tome of Magic, and the Arms and Equipment Guide all at once! b. Want to use your Table Top computer for constructing new homegrown Adventures. c. Have a lap-top computer, and it's far easier to carry a lap-top or notebook computer around rather than a back-breaking library of books to your game. The Core Rules 2.0 is so wonderful for DMs and Players alike, it's almost like heaven for the computer literate AD&D fan. A re-work of the classic Core Rules CD-ROM, Evermore Entertainment has made some much needed improvements. The best improvement is the new user-friendly interface: just point to a picture which represents your favorite applet and click. The main screen is so much more, well, fantastic. A candle lets you exit, open a book and your in the library, click on a figurine and you can create player characters for AD&D. Open the chest, you find applets that let you manage your AD&D campaign. Finally, click on the globe, and a set of cartography tools is there to help you build your maps. *MAIN FEATURES* The Library: Like I said, opening the book allows you access to the main library. Depending on which installation method you choose, the Core Rules library of books: from the PHB to the Player's Option: Skills and Powers, can be accessed here in .RTF format, which can open in Word, Wordpad, or your favorite word processor. Dice Roller: Animated dice opens this applet. The dice roller is a randomized dice rolling program, which allows you to make that roll fast! All the dice, including Percentile dice, is included. Character Generator: The Character Generator is visually good. A picture of a medieval town springs onto the screen, allowing you to pick a building in which you can customize your character. Character Histories, disadvantages and advantages, weapons and equipment can all be bought for your character. D.M. Toolkit: the best improvement in the Core Rules 2.0 is actually the "D.M. Toolkit", a suite of applets which help the D.M. The Monster screen shows each individual monster's picture as if in a book, along with their statistics on the same screen. Secondly, one of the applets in the Core Rules 2.0 allows you to customize your game. You can make your own monster, scan a picture, and it will show up in that little book, rather than fill the WHOLE screen. There are also new applets which allow you to customize new kits, advantages and disadvantages, and magic weapons into your AD&D game. MapMaker: Finally, the Map Maker. I found the MapMaker utility to be too unwieldy for making maps. It may be by Profantasy, but it's useless to myself, who prefers to use an artistic approach to his own fantasy cartography, namely using PAINTER 6.0 to draw my maps. Okay, I don't like the MapMaker program, but those who want a piece of Campaign Cartographer might find the program to be of use. I think it's useless, but that's just me. The other little map making applet is something I find to be useful. It is better than the original map making applet found in the classic Core Rules CD-ROM. It has a lot more features than the original, and is not as unwieldy as the MapMaker utility from ProFantasy. OVERALL* THIS PROGRAM IS NOT USELESS! In fact, it may save you money in getting those Dungeons and Dragons Core Rules (PHB, DMG, et al.) that everybody else has. If you are a beginner, and you want to start with D&D, get the Core Rules 2.0 and a Campaign Boxed Set like Forgotten Realms™. It will only save you . . . $250. The really bad side? This program was written for Windows PCs only, sorry MAC users. I suggest you complain to WotC for being so unthoughtful to you. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

AD&D Core Rules 2.0