Book One covers Astounding Action Heroes, or ways to improve your characters or make them closer to your vision. Abilities above 18 are covered and even how to get them there.
Each class is also presented and tips on how to play "other classes" with them. For example The Gadgeteer can be refocused into a street-level, Pulp Age Superhero. Think Batman in his early days. OR take the Gadgeteer and make his gadgets into potions and you have The Alchemist. The Gumshoe can give you an Ace Reporter (something I have really wanted) or the Consulting Detective. Play that aging Sherlock Holmes if you like. No new rules are needed for these since the rules are largely flexible enough. But....if you really want new characters then you are covered here as well. The Companion introduces The Acrobat, The Archer, The Duelist, The Gunslinger, The Pirate and The Soldier. What they do should be fairly self-explanatory.
The next section is one I was really looking forward to reading. This discusses porting over the classes in AA over to a Fantasy game like Castles & Crusades. While there is nothing shocking here it is a good set of guidelines. With the new classes, say like the Alchemist, Archer and Gunslinger it is nice to have so guidelines.
Next we have AA multiclassing, which is a port of the C&C "Class and a half".
We dive into equipment next which includes an expanded firearm list and how to use "classical" armor in an AA game.
Book Two covers Advanced Action Heroes. New rules for your Pulp Character. This includes some new generic class abilities. My new favorites are Occult Library and Wild Talent.
Book Three is Mysteries of Magic, Mentalism and Gadgets. It's like it was written just for me!
More information is given on Magic and Sanity; with caveats of what sort of game are wanting to run. A game where magic is dark can include Sanity and then some spells are removed, others added. We get a few pages of new spells, some tips on adapting C&C spells and then some revised Spell Lists.
For Mentalists we get some new Psionic Powers. For Gadgeteers we get some new gadgets and powers.
Book Four is Astonishing Stories. This covers some basic and advanced rules including contested rolls, Fate points, "Movie Physics", and various issues regarding damage and healing. It's kind of a catch-all chapter, but the overall theme is making your game more cinematic when you want to.
Book Five is Spinning Strange Tales. While it does feature a kickass Snake-headed monk get ready for some kung-fu fighting there is more to this chapter than that. This chapter covers different types of games you can play with AA and what alterations are needed. Most times this is about which classes to include and what equipment to use or not. My favorite might be the "Science Fantasy" section. I mean really, what is more "Pulp Adventures" than Edgar Rice Burroughs? Seriously. Reading this section suddenly I want to give up all my current games and play a Barsoom game using AA/C&C.
Of course I have to mention the section on "Tales of Swords and Sorcery". The author, Jason Vey, has honestly forgotten more about Conan and Robert E. Howard than I'll ever know. He makes some great points about using AA to emulate a Conan style game. Ok. Conan on Mars. That's what I want to play now.
Book Six is our Rouges Gallery. NPCs and Groups. This includes the historical (Harry Houdini) the semi-historical (Robert Locksley) and the comics.
All in all if you are a fan of Amazing Adventures or the Pulp Era in general then this is a must buy!
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