For the last few days, I have soloed my way through a D&D Adventurers League adventure for Spelljammer – SJ-DC-ARQ-01 (29 pages, free at Dungeon Masters Guild). Instead of Fifth Edition, I used Just A Game – Playtest Packet (37 pages, free at DriveThruRPG). I created six first level characters. So, the adventure started with the PCs playing a VR online virtual game when suddenly they were all sucked into the game. Five of the PCs found themselves in a village inn and there they talked to Grannek the quest giver. They followed him to a wounded constable and healed him. Next, they followed the trail to an ancient chamber. Here they found a gray ooze (the other PC) and five magic stones. They used these stones to activate a magic circle. It teleported them to the top of a three story building.

Here they found two Xvarts. One was a warlock and one was an apprentice. They were trying to extract information from an autognome (spy) at the top edge of the building. The PCs killed the two Xvarts and found a red crystal and a green crystal. The autognome accompanied them and it was always giving them advice (sometimes the advice was obvious). On the third floor they explored four rooms and encountered the cook. Auto informed them that this was a bad guy and a werewolf. The PCs killed him using the crystals as weapons. On the second floor they explored six rooms and killed seven Xvarts. This floor also had the vault and Auto told them how to get into it. On the first floor they explored four rooms. One of these rooms was the drawbridge control room (there is an empty moat that surrounds the building). In the basement (dungeon) they found seven crew members from the squid ship that they had seen from the top of the building. They freed the crew and then exited the building. They had to kill three more Xvarts to get to the squid ship. It was now time to enjoy the feeling of flying through space. For treasure, they did find a total of 275 gold pieces, a Pearl of Power, a silver dagger, and a pistol with four bullets.

Note – This Playtest is not 100% complete. So, I would not recommend it for beginners. It uses the Powered by the Apocalypse game system. This RPG has great potential and it is loaded with great ideas.

It blew my mind how thorough this was. The NPCs were fleshed out, and I think it's a good one for transitioning from more combat oriented systems.

The idea is good, but I can see it being overly complicated in game play. In addition the document needs editing, there's some typos :(

To begin with, this is more of an EXCELLENT essay on the topic and addresses some issues in both paper and pencil and MMO RPGs.

It does do a really good write up of how it could be covered with 3 rules systems. If you are unfamiliar with any of the three, this is perhaps the best review of them I have read.

What it covers

Any version of "Toto, we ain't in Kansas!" All kinds of ideas for how a little reality can affect a campaign.

It also points out some "elephants" that have been hiding in the game room. Ol' School D&D and almost every game sense has used Hit points or some variant. It stated in the players handbook that this was not actual 'damage' but sprains and strains until the death blow. But healing time was best expressed in weeks without a healer. MMOs got that part right. In just a HP system they should regenerate at most by hours and not days.

Likewise in MMOs (Yes, I play those too), I was on an RP server and someone asked how RP was possible. We were "debating" the topic. His genius was, "How are we having this conversation when we are no were near each other???" World of magic and hearthstones and THAT was his hang up? He ignored and I guild kicked (We did this everyday).

If you are just a group of "dungeon crawlers", this offers little for you; although it did offer some excellent ideas on how the MMO idea of "Tanking" could be handled in pencil and paper. Any tactician will appreciate it. The "monsters aren't dummies; but for some reason never off the healers first" rules just got a healthy dose of why.

A couple of personal notes.

The packet talked about the problem that MMOs usually involve "farming". Really, this is just good old fashioned Hex Crawl. it can be combined with a quest like patrol the woods for remaining orcs.

The topic of death is also covered. I recommend Amber Diceless on this topic. Except for hard dungeon crawls, death is a very awkward. Don't kill people!

I had a girlfriend I was introducing to gaming (yes a real one!) and I used the old Basic D&D set. I created an NPC for every class for the one week hike to the dungeon. The first major encounter was with R.O.U.S. (raccoons of unusual size). Anyone who has ever camped knows the thrill wildlife has if you don't maintain strict policing policies. Great fun. Then rainstorms and the great stream cross of the plate wearers. Really the dungeon was the march there and the march back in defeat as they realized how much gold the week hike had cost. Especially, since round trip was a month long.

The reason for this tale was that the packet mentions raids and the forming of them. It so nice when everyone can just "appear there". Paladins use to get that mount at 4th level. Too bad they didn't get the baggage train needed to support it. They eat 40 pounds a day and if you just "graze" them, plan on walking them. And nothing eats them while they hang outside a dungeon.

In short, a great read, good information on the game systems and fantastic ideas, even if the overall does not appeal to you.

It sounds like they were fishing for ideas on where they should go with this. I REALLY want to know. It could make some great campaigns.

Before you read this review, please note that I was involved with playtesting this product but I have at no point received any monetary compensation for my time or this review. My name is in the credits for playtesting and some small contribution to editing.

I have also purchased this product for two reasons: to support the author and because it's a setting and rules expansion for the FATE system that, in my opinion, deserves support. I thoroughly enjoy the setting which also has a novel and several short stories and I have had a real blast playing games set in this marvellously detailed world. If I honestly didn't think this was worth everyone's time and money, I wouldn't be writing this review.

The setting is anime-inspired cyberpunk meets mythology. There are Gods, Demons, Psychics and Mecha. There are nations in crisis, a grand political stage for you to explore and a fully fleshed-out magical system different to any that I've experienced in over twenty years of roleplay. There are so many styles of campaign that you can play from high school drama to psychic investigators to military campaigns to gods and demons fighting for the soul of humanity. Divine Blood builds upon Strands of Fate well, so much so that it has beaten out other styles of FATE for me personally.

If I have a criticism of this book it's that the quality of the artwork varies greatly. Some of it is sublime, some of it is ok and some of it is not so hot. Despite this there is some real talent on display and those pieces that are really excellent are worth it.

This short story centres around Damir Milos, one of the main characters of the Divine Blood novel. Damir's 16 years old and was raised to be the perfect soldier at the cost of a normal childhood. Pragmatic to a fault, he finds himself having to puzzle out the awkward social interaction of buying gifts for two injured girls.

Following the events of the Divine Blood novel, Errands is a good short intro to some of the main characters. I found myself wanting more at the end. If you want to dip your toe in to test the waters before buying the first novel, this is a good place to start. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and I'm looking forward to more.

Dont Buy, this product is a sample it only includes the first five pages of the book.