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This product covers all bases. I adore the greyscale style of CSP's maps. In this pack the DM is treated to printable PDFs and jpg sections of a truly massive area. Note sheets and maps with numbered labels are provided for the DM's own notes. I haven't used any Virtual TableTop programs myself but I've experimented with using map jpgs on an iPad with figures (allbeit a tiny area) - so I now truly appreciate the power of zoomable jpgs. It's hard to see what Kristian has left out of 'Level 1. All a DM would have to do is "populate" the dungeon - or perhaps just play using random tables. Usuable for any fantasy roleplaying game and adaptable to a variety of technologies (beyond just printing the PDFs) the $5 price tag is a very reasonable price.
This is a truly wonderful product. Congratulations again to Crooked Staff Publishing.
-Billiam B
bit.ly/rpgblog
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(Review copy)
There are literally hundreds of possibilities with this set -using the PDF layers to flick between, torso, leg, head and arms options.
I always like OkumArt's style - it's clean, dynamic with a lot of character.
If you're in a rush there's a sheet of pre-made characters, which is always welcome.
Great stuff. :)
Billiam B.
bit.ly/rpgblog
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I'm not currently using any virtual tabletop software, but I have to say that for free the map included as a jpg and in PDF form is beautiful colour dungeon level - perfect for a one-to-session game.
A resourceful DM could possibly enlarge and print the graphics out, poster-style, to create a set of tiles.
Nice work.
Billiam B.
bit.ly/rpgblog
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I am mainly interested in acquiring figures for fantasy roleplaying, as opposed to wargaming, and it's not often that you see so many minotaur designs in one place. Boy, do these minotaurs have attitude and character. GMG have also provided clear assembly instructions in the attached codex. Great value for good quality art.
Billiam B
bit.ly/rpgblog
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I really like the art on this figure
Grey Matter Games are certainly a publisher to keep watching for the future. :)
Billiam B
bit.ly/rpgblog
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Great bundle. The maps are very inspirational and credible as straight forward dungeon levels. The geomorphs are lots of fun!
The quality of CSP's work in black/white map design always rivals any larger level maps I have seen in Dungeon magazine.
I really like these.
Billiam B.
bit.ly/rpgblog
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This review might be a little premature, because I'm still at that excited-post-download phase when I'm feverishly clicking through the 458 pages.
I'll say again ...
Four-hundred-and-fifty-eight pages of RuneQuest goodness.
This definitely has the look and feel of an older RQ or BRP title. The mechanics and the writing style is very accessible, with the occasional black and white ink drawing.
The rules, setting and atmosphere (with a bent towards ancient, mystical, classical) is generic enough to adapt to different campaigns, whilst providing enough detail for interesting springboard points especially regarding character (and monster) backgrounds, magic, skills, "passions" cults -not to mention the gritty effects of chaos. As well as the dice mechanics, there's plenty of tips and guidelines and optional rules.
I'm also happy to say that it appears to be an "everything-you-need-to-play" publication. (I hate buying supposed "core" books only to find that there's no monster list or many references to "essential" accessories.)
As I type it's still $25 which is a good price for a volume of this size. I'm looking forward to seeing a hard copy -surely it will be a thick tome - so the PDF on a tablet will certainly be more portable for fast rule checking at the table.
Nice work, Design Mechanism! This is a respectable descendent of a noble line.
-Billiam B.
http://bit.ly/rpgblog
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This set contains some very likeable hard drawn cartoon (almost old school) dazzling chariatures. Clear instructions, well thought out bases. Good value. These minis can be used in an assortment of settings. Grey Matter Games have also included little card/info boxes describing the alignment, schools and spell preferences of the wizards, which is most curious - perhaps there is a bigger plan afoot here? Some of the designs are repeated, but this is in order to create different aspects like "astral" form, or simply a selection of cape colours, nonetheless it's still good value for money, especially if you already collect 25-30mm hand graphic styled figures. This is a really nice first product - certainly looking forward to seeing more like this.
Ace!
Billiam B. ( http://bit.ly/rpgblog )
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The only good zombie is a dead NAZI zombie. I'm not really into the whole zombie thing, but I enjoy the shear audacity of writers who mix-up bad guys in order to create the "ultimate" adversaries. I reckon that shooting sluggish undead neighbours with a farmyard shotgun doesn't quite have the same thrill as sten-gunning Doktor Kammerstein's experimental Ungeziefer Zombies. And that's just a very small part of Achtung! Cthulhu -Zero Point - 1: Three Kings.
Just reading the title makes me grin from ear to ear. ACHTUNG!! The setting is tense, cinematic and perhaps intentded to be played straight (almost), but I can imagine that role-playing the PCs (pre-gens included!) and NPCs could also be enjoyed as period-parody. I'm reminded of Castle Wolfenstein, the Colditz boardgame, the beginning of Hellboy, and the occult-curious Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark -not to mention films and comic strips depicting derring-do raids on enemy bases in World War II.
It's the sort of PDF that I wouldn't mind owning a book (printed) copy of. Even the "printer friendly" (white background) copy is lushly presented.
I've been reading the Savage Worlds ("Realm of Cthulhu") edition, and I was going to post that it probably wouldn't be too hard to adapt to Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu mechanics, but the nice people at Modiphius have already provided a separate edition with CoC stats and rules.
This product tends towards the more pulp style of play where players may encounter fearsome horrors directly and have access to wartime hardware and weaponry, but there's still enough conspiracy, back-story and a special forbidden tome (books, there's always a book!) to place this scenario firmly in the spirit of Lovecraftian gaming. Pockets of horror and terror overlap with, and are contextualised by, real historical events in central Europe, meaning that material is very accessible, whilst being broad enough to allow for flexibility in campaign planning by the Referee. 'Three Kings can be played as a standalone adventure or as the first part of what may become a really fabulous series.
Mein Gott in Himmel ... Shoggoths fur das Furhrer!
... and so on. ;)
-Billiam Babble.
(Adventures in Shopping http://bit.ly/rpgblog )
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This is a lovely little "mash-up" of the wild west genre and sci-fi thriller, which may appeal to fans of the Cowboys and Aliens, Alien films and steampunkers.
This is a bold move by Mongoose to use their Traveller system, deviating from traditional Traveller products as it adapts the mechanics and ramps up the equipment details to root players in a Wild West setting - as opposed to just applying generic backwater world "Low Tech Level" brush.
If you're a loyal fan of the imperial galactic "feel" of the Classic Traveller canon, this might not appeal as a Traveller product per se, but if you like the Mongoose Traveller system and have a relaxed approached the gaming you will possibly enjoy the extra gloss and grit of cinematically style cowboys and their feisty female companions.
As well as adventure details (the "Town of Bent River"), a choice of alien adversaries, there's even the class / career of "Desperado" and a bunch of fully equipped pre-generated characters which actually makes this a "pick-up-and-play" supplement in my book. Even your horse can have a personality quirk - which reminds us that horses in some ways are NPCs or hirelings with relationships to the characters in their own special way. Not to mention the fact that horse-riding can be dangerous in itself - but this is optional stuff.
It's a great little supplement (50 pages), and if you don't own any games with Western/cowboy settings, there's a fair about which can be "mined" for other systems.
At $9 it's a bit pricey if you're "just curious" - Perhaps $5 to $6 would have been better for this supplement in PDF form.
If your enthused by Traveller and Cowboys and Aliens (or Alien but with a lot of dust) this is a must-buy. If you think you can do something like with you're own choice of system, there just might be the odd little detail which will improve your game.
I'm very drawn to the Giger's Alien styled "xenomorph" vs. the Magnificent Seven. ;)
Full marks for ambition and style!
-Billiam B.
(Edited from review and commentary at http://bit.ly/rpgblog )
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Perfectly laid out 2 A4/Letter page, well organised with specialisations, character sheet for the French Edition of Tunnels & Trolls. A far cry from small index cards! For players who are dedicated to their characters. :)
Parfaitement aménagée 2 page A4/Letter, bien organisé avec des spécialisations, feuille de personnage pour l'édition française de Tunnels & Trolls. On est loin de petites fiches! Pour les joueurs qui se consacrent à leurs personnages. :)
Billiam B.
bit.ly/rpgblog
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(Purchased copy)
Goblinoid Games have been really treating us recently to nibblets of the past with titles like Starships & Spacemen and Time Master.
I really enjoying buying older titles, often only to read, sometimes to mine ideas or compare and contrast with other games in my collection from the same period. With Wizards' World, it's primarily the collector, and curious archivist in me that hits the "add to cart" button (and by the way, real shoppers don't do wish-lists!). In saying that, this is an easy system to learn and play, with familiar mechanics and would definitely be enjoyed by more traditional of players
The text is an electronic scan conversion of the original rulebook (or it's been retyped) with black and white pencil and ink art - also presumably from the original book. I trust Goblinoid Games when it comes to creating loyal facsimiles. I'm guessing that this is as close as you can get to looking at the original game without maxing out of download sizes (which can happen when the original text is presented as a scanned image). At 83 pages long it's a "complete" system, but it's a pretty concise all-you-need level-based-progression D&D-type game.
Lots of space is given over to a fascinating variety of races and classes. Standing out in terms of originality are the Demonic Halflings, Metamorphic Dwarves, Jesters and Vampires (there's definitely more races and classes than in the AD&D PH). Some of the dice mechanics will seem familiar and yet it's different enough from D&D or RuneQuest to warrant a thorough look. After spell lists and a bestiary, the rest of the rules feel rather "squeezed" into this fantasy Happy Meal.
I'm guessing that if you're a connoisseur of the main game systems from the late 70s to early 80s Wizards' World will entertain and fascinate.
There's something about the production values, illustrations and writing style which really makes me want to place this game two or three years earlier than 1983: it provides more choice for players when compared with D&D B/X or AD&D, maybe T&T or RQ1, whilst not providing oodles of extra rules as in the AD&D DMG. It lacks the marketing gloss and introductory easy-play game chapters which start to appear from around 1983. (I won't be backing up this generalisation, by the way, just drawing a hazy line in my own narrow perception of gaming history. ;) However, I actually have a real soft spot for well presented do-this-then-that play-by-example games)
If you collect older games, Wizards' World is a classic, yet subtly refreshing, absolute bargain of game.
"Demonic Halfling Vampires"! What more do you need to hear?
-Billiam B. (More confused thoughts here: http://bit.ly/rpgblog_WW )
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Simple.
Compact.
Multi-genre.
Free.
What's not to like?
Awesome!
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This a great little introductory game, with plenty of replayability. The chibi art and cut out figures is cool idea, very suitable for younger players. My only problem is that the game is peppered with modern gaming terms where "powers" are "activated" and I'm not entirely convinced that always having a final "boss" monster makes the game more accessible to console gamers. However, it could be argued that this language makes it an ideal intro to modern games (CCGs and DnD4 etc) What works for me is encouragement for the dungeon master to be creative with puzzle rooms.
If I was to play it with newbies of any age I would simplify and drop some of the character powers, and perhaps make the boss monsters a little weaker, but other than that it looks like a real blast.
Well presented, great value for money. Fun all around. :)
-Billiam B
bit.ly/rpgblog
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(The following review is jointly written for Roleplayers Chronicle and Adventures & Shopping)
Alosar' ticks many boxes for what should make a really good solo adventure but I found myself very reluctant to replay the adventure to see where else the situations led. Technically it has a high replayability factor, in practice I found it a bit of a drag. The solo games I grew up with were the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, Sorcery! GrailQuest and Lone Wolf, which all used RPG styled systems. Most of the CYOA books which I saw at the time didn't have dice systems, and had objectives like "Find all 25 different endings" which seemed less of a victory somehow. Alosar is third in a series of separately published texts which (I believe) started as an article-mini-game in Kobold Quarterly. That article partly inferred or revisited the solo adventure from 1983 "Red Box" D&D. The solo game in the red box may have seemed very innovative to CYOA players, but to Fighting Fantasy readers it was lacking in description, story and the epic-ness found in a proper "quest". It was a dungeon with a few rooms, a few monsters, a handful of acquisitions. As an introduction to the D&D xp slow-climb of low level play it was perfect. D&D and Pathfinder are balanced towards group play, so perhaps introductory solos are in fact rigged so that group-play will always appear to be more exciting. I mention all this because when I buy or am leant a solitaire adventure I like to know its exact context in relation to other products. In typing this I have yet to fully explore the Pathfinder Beginner Box and perhaps there's a solo game in there too, much like in the D&D Basic game of my youth. In some ways solo texts are brave move for publishers whose meat and potatoes is often scenarios, new monsters, power lists and new classes.
Although not implicitly stated, Alosar is almost certainly a game for new players who wish to learn the core rules. The inclusion of the character sheets is for group campaign play, and not as a record sheet for the text itself (which I at first assumed it was). Alosar, as with the two titles prior to this is absolutely perfect for a Dungeon Master to give to a new player before a game, as a taster and familiariser with both a character and basic rules. In fact, I'm pretty sure that their aren't many Pathfinder Druid solos out there. I feel I have to say this in case you're a Pathfinder player wanting a new challenge on a rainy afternoon when friends are away - unless of course you enjoy the nostalgia of being led through the rules with someone else's character (which many of us do). I don't mind introductory solos, it's just that I feel that the solo medium needs championing for experienced play. Just for a moment I thought Open Design were going to challenge this concept. No, it's definitely a low level introductory solo. But hey, at least we know that the Party of One products can be played by anyone from newbie players to the jaded long-beards.
The reason why I mention gamebooks, is that for myself, the more exciting games were the ones where the reader was able to relate to the character as a detailed persona, like in the Lone Wolf. By contrast, in Fighting Fantasy and Tunnels & Trolls solos, the protagonist is an invisible persona where the reader fills in the gaps and stats. In the latter, descriptions of the hero's weapons are absent because the character might be of any class and armed accordingly. Naturally with games where different types of characters have a different skillset, it's very important to tailor the limited number of choices to that character. Party of One BB3 totally succeeds in placing the reader firmly in the shoes of forest-alert trainee-druid Alosar, whose sickle and select spells smack down the foes which have entered into his locale. Alosar is not yet a wandering adventurer, stumbling into random unknown caves (no doubt that will be his future). He is defending his territory, the living woods, from (literal) alien invaders. Therefore, the writing style flows very well - the reader is both "you" and "Alonsar", and is kept immersed in the situation in hand. I like this a lot. Unfortunately, the notion that (before getting involved in real danger) Alonsar the Druid has to perform a set of tasks or trials for his teacher feels a little hackneyed. In a larger text this would be appropriate, but we only have a handful of sections (65) with which to complete the game. Which brings me to a minor problem I have with the ending ...
"You have completed this adventure. If you would like to try for a different outcome, return to 1 and begin again."
There is a reason for this, because although the adventure is fairly linear, there are a couple of "minor reveals" which mean that as a reader you are rewarded with a somehow richer experience of the adventure. I'm just a fan of survival really, and that statement smacks of the CYOA books where the meta-game of beating the book by seeking out all of the routes is actually a goal. If this text is an introductory text to campaign play then a "one-time through" experience is all that should be allowed unless the character is a time travelling quantum physics specialist. This might be up to the DM of the campaign to decide. Again, I have to stress that I believe this product is ideal for a DM to give to a learning player before a game, and that it is not ideal as a one-off game for a player without a group.
I would like to see more of the Party of One texts produced and then bundled together as a reduced pack for group players to collectively build a party with a back story prior to their noble alliance as a party of adventurers (starting at 2nd or 3rd level – which is perfect!).
I printed the text out. When mentioning this to the editor of RC, the response was "Why the heck are you printing that?" I guess his foresight was better than mine...
Open Design produce some lush easy-on-the-eye products - Kobold Quarterly excels in this way. The Party of One products wouldn't look out of place in a glossy full colour rulebook or a coffee table magazine for that matter. There's a marbled background image and the choices of fonts are aesthetically balanced, the text is well ordered, in easy to read double columns. Easy to read, that is - if it was a magazine...
Experience has taught me that paper copies are the best way to play solos with dice and a pencil, either at a table or in bed. If I want a solo-fantasy RPG experience on a PC I'd probably play an actual PC game. There are practical reasons for printing some PDFs out. One is that when combat occurs in a solo, a separate sheet of paper is useful for scribbling HPs on, equipment found etc -if you don't have a character sheet. I mistook the two sheets at the back of the text as being working character sheets, but they are not up to the task and are intended for the character's life beyond the game text. So I printed the PDF and my partner's inkjet really struggled. The marbled background does the document no favours when in comes to low budget printing - it certainly gets worse when any of the colours are running low. An alternative printer-friendly copy of the text, or information about how to turn off the background would have been very handy in this case.
Viewing the PDF on a tablet is a fair compromise and my old school ways are slowly accepting that an iPads are less invasive at the gaming table than a laptop or tower. Playing the text on an iPad had it's own problems as the two column text made navigating through the different numbered sections even more chaotic - zoom in, out - flip forward and back a few pages - scan up, down ... what was the passage number again?
A message to all publishers: If you're selling a solo game PDF or ebook with numbered sections - please include hotlinks.
It's bad enough that some publishers don't connect a Table of Contents to the actual contents in purchasable documents. We are living in what could be a glorious new age for interactive texts. Hyperlinking is what the web and simplest of PDFs do best.
In summary, the PDF is beautiful to look at - but unprintable and unreadable on paper, but it is also lacking in the basics in terms of on screen navigation.
On the positive side, if you're collecting the Party of One publications then this product is a genuine must have. If you're DM teaching players, or a player wishing to learn some basics, this will be nice investment. If you play a lot of solo games you may find Alosar' disappointing.
It's refreshing to play a druid and some of the encounters are quite original, but overall I see this text as a pre-game tool and not standing up well on it's own as a gaming experience in it's own right.
Overall: 3-4 stars out of 5
-Billiam B.
bit.ly/rpgblog
bit.ly/RPChron
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