Thrilling Tales 2nd Edition
By Andrew Warren Thrilling Tales is a line of pulp role playing adventures and supplements by Adamant Entertainment. Although originally […]
Role Playing Games
Blades, Dungeon Dwellers & Dragons
Another in Misfit Studios’ line of microsupplements, we get 5 magic blades. The introduction informs us that each Blade’s powers should be hidden, and gives guidelines on researching them…complete with a table to roll on (there is a unique one for each blade), detailing just how much information the researcher finds. A Critical Failure means that they get it ALL wrong. This is a great concept, but stumbles just a bit in execution: If they players roll it, they will know they got a Critical Failure, and will suspect something. If the GM rolls it, they essentially lose the right to use a benny to modify the roll, which some could construe as unfair. Other than that, I love it…and I have been told by the author that a benny solution is coming soon.
Heroes of the Fallen Lands
D&D Essentials are a new product line designed for new players. It boils down some classes to a single new build (sometimes two) with the express interest of making the game easier for new players to get involved in 4th edition and to create a new baseline for players to build from. The Essentials line comes in three parts: the part for everyone, the part for Players and the part for the GM. The part for everyone includes the new Red Box, the Rules Compendium and the official dice set. The Players books are Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdom.
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.
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.
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).
Divine Foes
Divine Foes is a short PDF supplement for the Divinity system. The layout is a simple 2 column affair with a good sized font and no real art save for a background design on the pages themselves. The pages are designed to look old and faded, with a vaguely arcane symbol imprinted in the centre. While I like the virtual aging of the pages, I’m not a fan of the background image. While subtle, it draws my eyes away from the text and makes the PDF more challenging to read than it needs to be.
Trail of Cthulhu
Lovecraft based games have been around for over two decades now. The first Role Playing Game came out in the 80’s and many editions of the game have graced our shelves ever since. From the initial percentile based based system that still stands, to the Monte Cook version of the game that attempted a D20 system conversion with not terribly good results and now, the Gumshoe System that rules Trail of Cthulhu, and it does it admirably.
Deathwatch review
DEATHWATCH is the newest Warhammer 40K Roleplaying game from Fantasy Flight Games, taking players into a whole new realm in the ‘Grim Darkness of the 41st Millenium’. Following on from their succesful DARK HERESY and ROGUE TRADER titles, DEATHWATCH now gives players the chance to play the super-soldiers of the Imperium: the Space Marines.
Curse of the Riven Sky
By Paco G. Jaen The black clouds of war are gathering, and evil flocks to their thundering call! While seeking