Author: Paco G. Jaen

Roleplaying and board games reviews, podcasts, videos and interviews

Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade

Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade was a bit of a hard sell for me, being a quasi fantasy game in an oriental mish-mash fantasy culture with a heavy anime influence…that is kind of a laundry list of things I don’t like (except for the fantasy part). And yet, while I was reading (and loving) Apocalypse Prevention Inc., the book’s writer Eloy Lasanta asked me if I would be interested in checking out Wu Xing for a review…off the strength of the API series, I said yes.

The Hobbit

The Hobbit is a light “roll and move” game with simple conditional ”success vs. failure” mechanics. There is very little player interaction to speak of, reducing the game to little more than a race to the finish line.

Old-School Magic

Old School Magic by Charles Rice is a 29 page supplement for the Old School Reference and Index Compilation (OSRIC) which, for those of you not familiar with the OSR, is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons retroclone originally written by Matthew Finch. Old School Magic expands on the OSRIC magic system by presenting a breakdown of magic levels from low to high, new ways of implementing spells, new magical archetypes, and new spells.

The Art of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos

The Art of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos is a journey into the dark and haunting images inspired by the books and stories of the Cthulhu Mythos. Within its nearly 200 pages, some of today’s most talented artists give you a glimpse of the haunting and macabre images inspired by author H.P. Lovecraft. From the sanity-destroying Great Old Ones to the mad cultists who worship them, from the gangsters of the Roaring ’20s to the terrors of the 21st century, this book brings to life the dark and compelling images of the Cthulhu Mythos.

Skull Mountain Review

Skull Mountain by Faster Monkey Games is a 36-page adventure module for the Labyrinth Lord Roleplaying Game. This is a review of the PDF I purchased from RPGNow. It uses a two-column, right-aligned layout with a clean, readable font. The font is fairly small, which means a lot of content is packed into its 36 pages. The writing is clear and the editing is good (I actually can’t recall any typos).