DISCOVER HEARTACHE AND HEARTBREAK, intense desire and deep affection with The Puzzle of Love. 150 PIECE GRADIENT PUZZLE for a new generation of jigsaw fans TAP INTO THE MINDFUL, SELF-CARE APPEAL OF JIGSAWS. The beautiful, mesmerising artwork focusses on the emotion of love, with accompanying text to help you understand and make sense of your feelings PART OF A SERIES that also includes The Puzzle of Hopefulness, The Puzzle of Happiness, The Puzzle of Calm and The Puzzle of Ecstasy STURDY & ATTRACTIVE BOX perfect for gifting

This hilarious sequel includes 40 new games, plus the outrageous Beer Catalog.

Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder with this officially licensed miniature figurine. * FIGURINE WITH LIGHT: A one-of-a-kind 3-inch figurine of the popular monster: the Beholder with a glowing eye * BOOK INCLUDED: Learn more about this iconic monster in this fully illustrated 32-page miniature book * PERFECT GIFT FOR D&D FANS: Display on a shelf, desk, or bookcase and show off your love of Dungeons & Dragons * OFFICIALLY LICENSED: Authentic Dungeons & Dragons collectible

In the course of a Dungeons & Dragons game, a Dungeon Master has to make one decision after another in response to player behaviour-and the better the players, the more unpredictable their behaviour! It's easy for even an experienced DM to get bogged down in on-the-spot decision-making or to let combat devolve into a boring slugfest, with enemies running directly at the player characters and biting, bashing, and slashing away. In The Monsters Know What They're Doing, Keith Ammann lightens the DM's burden by helping you understand your monsters' abilities and develop battle plans before your fifth edition D&D game session begins. Just as soldiers don't whip out their field manuals for the first time when they're already under fire, a DM shouldn't wait until the PCs have just encountered a dozen bullywugs to figure out how they advance, fight, and retreat. Easy to read and apply, The Monsters Know What They're Doing is essential reading for every DM.

Wish, daydream and discover a more optimistic outlook with The Puzzle of Hopefulness. Part of a new 150-piece gradient puzzle series that taps into the mindful, self-care appeal of jigsaws. The beautiful, mesmerising artwork of each little puzzle focuses on a different emotion, with an accompanying essay to help you understand and make sense of these feelings. Other titles in the series include: The Puzzle of Happiness, The Puzzle of Calm, The Puzzle of Love and The Puzzle of Ecstasy.

This history of role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons explains their evolution and gives complete definitions and descriptions for related game products. Arriving on the scene in 1973, such games caught on rapidly and spawned a thriving industry. These games are regularly played improvisations, with rules that allow for consistent resolution of action, in which heroic characters created by the players battle enemies or solve mysteries. Featuring essays by eighteen top industry designers, Heroic Worlds explains the evolution of role-playing games and their influence on other forms of entertainment. The art and jargon of game design, play, and collection are defined in detail.

Grandmaster and renowned chess coach Zenon Franco provides a training course designed to help all aspiring players to improve their chess. During each lesson, you are invited to play a 'game' in which you try to find the best moves at all the important moments. Points are awarded for selecting the best moves - and are deducted for selecting blunders! At the end of each lesson there is a points scale to indicate how well you have 'played'. This means you are able to accurately measure your progress as you work through the book. Readers are tested in all aspects of chess: attack, defence, counterattack, tactics, structures, strategy, endgames and so on. Following this interactive course of lessons is an ideal way to improve your game. *A structured course of chess training *Includes 40 deeply annotated exercise games *Ideal for both chess students and trainers

As the wars of Napoleon ravage Europe, chaos and fear reign and the darkness that once clung to the shadows has been emboldened. Supernatural creatures - vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and worse take advantage of the havoc, striking out at isolated farms, villages, and even military units. Whether they are pursuing some master plan or simply revelling in their newfound freedom is unknown. Most people dismiss reports of these slaughters as the rantings of madmen or the lies of deserters, but a few know better... The Silver Bayonet is a skirmish wargame of gothic horror set during the Napoleonic Wars. Each player forms an elite band of monster hunters drawn from the ranks of one of the great powers. Riflemen, swordsmen, and engineers fight side-by-side with mystics, occultists, and even those few supernatural creatures that can be controlled or reasoned with enough to make common cause. The game can be played solo, co-operatively, or competitively, with players progressing through a series of interlinked adventures with their soldiers gaining experience and suffering grievous wounds, and their units triumphing... or falling in the face of the shadows. It is a game of action and adventure, where musket and sabre meet tooth and claw.

Discover the war-ravaged lands of Dormus, the exciting world setting for the international bestselling gamebook series, DestinyQuest. Dormus is a world riven with strife and conflict, it's very fabric of reality under threat from otherworldly forces and cataclysmic events. These are dark and perilous days, where fractious tensions threaten to bring down kingdoms and empires, and demonic invaders sow seeds of chaos to hasten the fall of humanity. This is a time when great heroes will rise - legendary men and women of fame, who will spin the web of destiny anew, changing lives and history, influencing kings and nations, and becoming beacons of hope amidst a desperate world teetering on the brink of ruin. Inside this beautifully illustrated hardback volume you will find: * A detailed history of the world, from its creation by the celestial Fates, to the current End Days of crumbling empires and war-weary kingdoms. * A comprehensive timeline that charts the key events that have shaped the world of Dormus, right up to the present - interlinking with the narratives of the gamebook series. * An overview of the magic system, detailing the chaotic forces of the Shroud and the effects of its demonic taint, as well as the runic magic of the dwarves and the dangerous arts of channelling elemental forces. * Exciting character stories and biographies, exploring some of the key heroes (and villains) who have influenced the DestinyQuest world, including the legendary witchfinder, Eldias Falks, and the enigmatic archmage, Avian Dale. * Detailed summaries of the main factions that vie for power and influence within the kingdom of Valeron, from the secretive enclaves of the Arcane Hand to the scheming masters of shadow, the Nevarin. Whether you are a fan of the DestinyQuest series or a gamemaster looking for a new and immersive setting for your homebrew roleplaying campaigns, the World Companion delivers a wealth of exciting secrets and discoveries - everything you need to arm yourselves for epic adventures ahead. So, are you ready to embrace your destiny?

Bring some stardust to your card table with 54 of the most influential movie directors and stars, arranged into four suits. Hearts = Romance, Clubs = Drama, Diamonds = Crime, Spades = Sci-fi Includes illustrations of all the big names, from Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles to Sofia Coppola and Samuel L. Jackson - plus two jokers: Wes Anderson and Charlie Chaplin.

A historical supplement for Mythras. Welcome the birth of the Roman Republic, and follow it through to its murderous end, on a tumultuous ride through some of its most turbulent history.Mythic Rome encapsulates the dark and gritty past, allowing players to take part in the founding of Rome: as a bandit on the Tiber; to overthrow the tyrannical Seven Kings; conquer the rival Etruscan city states; watch the city be sacked by Gauls; battle Hannibal during the Punic Wars; take part in the malevolent Bacchanalian conspiracy; fight alongside Spartacus or against him; or choose sides during the civil war between Caesar and Pompey.This invaluable book contains rules for everything from political standing to chariot racing, along with comprehensive Roman careers and guides for the weapons, armour and combat styles of Rome's legions and her enemies. Also included are obscure supernatural creatures and new magic systems to reflect the way magic works from the perspective of the Romans themselves.Continuing the quality and historical depth of the Design Mechanism's Mythic series, Mythic Rome stands as one of the best historical roleplaying supplements of all time, describing in intricate detail every aspect of everyday Roman life. Indeed, this book is packed with quotations written during the last days of the Republic, revealing shocking details of Rome the eternal city... a shining pinnacle of civilisation built upon a grisly foundation of crime, superstition, war and treachery.Mythic Rome is not a stand-alone game. You will need the Mythras rules to make full use of the content.

These intricate illustrations of birds and butterflies are just waiting for you to bring them to life

This book contains a dramatic and revealing translation of this ancient classic into English. The Chinese original is set side-by-side with the translation. Two things set this translation apart from all previous ones. First, archeological findings are used to uncover the meaning of passages obscured for thousands of years. Second, it preserves the flavor of the orignal in a poetic rendition. An introductory part of this book provides the historical and philosophical background to the I Ching. The story is told of the ancient Chinese civilization, pointing out events and figures mentioned in the I Ching. The undisguised face of the I Ching will appeal to the modern reader, who will read it in his or her own individual way, as poetry, as discoverer of self, or as soothsayer. It is in the grand tradition of the I Ching for different people to see different things. To Confucius, who was born in 550 B.C., it was a source of ethics.; To Leibnitz, the eighteenth-century inventor of calculus, it was the essence of binary mathematics.; To Jung Freud's rival in psychology, it was an explorer of the unconscious.; To some Wall Streeters, it predicts the stock market.; As a companion to this book, a computer software, Huang's I Ching offers computerized consultations of the I Ching. In the court of Zhou, they used to do this by counting stalks of the yarrow reed. Results of the court would indicate what passages to read. In later ages, yarrow-counting was replaced by coin-tossing, as a ritual closer to people's lifestyle. And now, the I Ching is ready for the future.

More than a decade has passed since IBM's Deep Blue computer stunned the world by defeating Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion at that time. "Beyond Deep Blue" tells the continuing story of the chess engine and its steady improvement. The book provides analysis of the games alongside a detailed examination of the remarkable technological progress made by the engines - asking which one is best, how good is it, and how much better can it get. Features: presents a total of 118 games, played by 17 different chess engines, collected together for the first time in a single reference; details the processor speeds, memory sizes, and the number of processors used by each chess engine; includes games from 10 World Computer Chess Championships, and three computer chess tournaments of the Internet Chess Club; covers the man-machine matches between Fritz and Kramnik, and Kasparov and Deep Junior; describes three historical matches between leading engines - Hydra vs. Shredder, Junior vs. Fritz, and Zappa vs. Rybka.

The Imperium series continues in this asymmetric card-based civilisation building game for 1–4 players, charting the rise and fall of fourteen of the greatest civilisations from history. Formidable adversaries are arrayed against you. Your people stand ready. History beckons. In your hands lies the destiny of one of the most storied peoples of history. Under constant threat of attack, you must conquer new lands, oversee dramatic scientific and cultural advances, and lead your people into the era of empire. Expand too rapidly and unrest will bring your civilisation to its knees; build up too slowly, however, and you might find yourself a mere footnote of history. As one of fourteen radically asymmetric civilisations, you will compete to become the most dominant empire the world has ever seen. Imperium: Horizons is a standalone game that contains an astonishing fourteen distinctive civilisations, each of which makes for a unique and challenging opponent, even in a solo game. Fully compatible with Imperium: Classics and Imperium: Legends for those wanting to expand their pool of civilisations even further, Imperium: Horizons also incorporates a new trade module that allows players to recreate all the intrigue, wealth generation, and dynamic politics of a thriving economy. Players: 1–4 Ages: 14+ Playing Time: 40 mins per player Contents: 550 cards, 150+ tokens