tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-296224512024-02-28T13:58:22.203+00:00The New FleshAn RPG preview and review blog that features updates and comments about new roleplaying products.Roberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11904963195641781169noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-72916886055357504312023-03-06T19:57:00.001+00:002023-03-06T19:57:29.024+00:00A New Era<p> While I've had a lot of success using Blogger I've decided to move away from integrating everything on Google products. In the era of GPlus everything worked together nicely but now there's always a feeling that you're one product manager away from everything being cancelled while at the same time your content is being ingested and reprocessed to create new things like generative AI that you never really were asked about.</p><p>I've decided to start writing on a <a href="https://write.as/the-newest-flesh/">new blog that is part of the Fediverse</a> and which I think has a nicer interface for writing and reading.</p><p>The first post there is a writeup of the storygame <a href="https://write.as/the-newest-flesh/scene-thieves" target="_blank">Scene Thieves</a> which is about a travelling troupe of actors who bring drama and do crime.</p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-50805044048370412962022-08-07T18:28:00.000+01:002022-08-07T18:28:03.679+01:00Exarch<p><a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/exarch-a-roleplaying-game-zine/x/835803#/">Exarch</a>
is a game of medieval scifi where the inhabitants of a small continent
discover they are living in an ecology dome adrift in a shifting sea of
mysterious abandoned rooms and empty corridors of some unknowably vast
metropolis they call the Steel City. Expeditions go off in search of
useful salvage or information before the city arranges and the prospect
of returning home fades as the locations move ever further away from
home.</p>
<p>It's an interesting twist on the idea of dungeon crawling, there and
back adventures and magic as science. It's also philosophically
interesting in terms of the way that the perceived and actual realities
are played with.</p>
<p>The Exarch of the zine title is a kind of cybernetic weirdo that
stalks the Steel City looking for prey. There doesn't seem to be any
other significance to it. It's not even a strong motif in the rest of
the setting.</p>
<p>The zine contains rules for creating random areas within the city and
uses a mechanism of rolling on a random table based on the type of area
and adding a modifier called "Depth" which reflects how far away from
Home the group is currently. Each time the party explores you roll and
add depth and create something based on the basic description within the
book.</p>
<p>There are three types of areas described: Hydroponics, Medical and
Parasite. Parasite is the most vivid with the interior of a strange
flesh corruption of the city being the exploration site. Medical seems
to provide the right mix of danger but also potential for reward and
change in the characters. There are a lot of deranged medical robots
that want to dismember you but cybernetic improvements replace the
traditional magical items and medicine that actually works is valuable
in any setting. Hydroponics is atmospheric, it feels the most like it is
part of a strange malfunctioning city, but it's also kind of dull,
there's nothing that the character's or their home seems to need her.
There no ludic purpose to it and as narrative there no mystery in the
area or any kind of thread linking the areas beyond the brutally
pragmatic production line.</p>
<p>Initially I thought the random tables were meant to generate an area
on the fly but this is actually a game that expects prep and for a
facilitator to shape the randomly generated base material into something
interesting to explore. That's pragmatic but the value of the product
will be the strength of that base it provides you.</p>
<p>The basic "there and back again" idea of the Expedition works really
well for me. There's the sense of a world revealed and powerful sense of
being lost forever if you delve too deep. At the same time the idea of
bringing back treasures works on both a personal greed and community
need level. Parties can combine both motives without friction.</p>
<p>I find the high concept of Exarch really interesting, in many ways
more engaging than the typical "almost medieval Europe" of a lot of
fantasy games. However the details given in the zine don't really do
credit to the high concept and as notes from someone's game it's fine
but as a platform for your own ideas I'm finding it thin inspiration
currently.</p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-54836078395545080112022-02-17T15:41:00.000+00:002022-02-17T15:41:52.611+00:00Kanabo<p> An <a href="https://monkeys-paw-games.itch.io/kanabo">OSR-style take on Bushido with a Legend of the Five Rings vibe</a>
on top. Aesthetically it's Akira Kurosawa and similar film makers takes
on Tokugawa-era Japan. It deliberately states that it is not attempting
to achieve a historical recreation of the period and instead wants a
broader more inclusive version of a notoriously chauvinistic society.</p><div class="post-content mb-5">
<p>The game is distributed as three zines: Characters, Chroniclers and Adventure.</p>
<p>The Characters book explains the basic rules but mostly offers a lot
of tables to quickly create a character. The mechanics use a d100 versus
stats that are based on the elements (Fire, Air, Water, Earth) which
map onto various aspects of the world. It is explicitly derived by the
Sledgehammer/Brighthammer games and therefore mechanically is almost
identical.</p>
<p>The Chroniclers booklet explains how to run sessions of Kanabo in the
default mode which is that the wandering characters encounter a
settlement that has a problem and they get caught up in resolving the
situation. The rest of the booklet is taken up with tables that help
create a mini-hex map around the village that contain geography and
encounters. It's hard to review these kind of things without actually
doing them yourself but reading through it I noticed that the usual
problems with random table creation seem to apply here. The GM is meant
to infer some likely problem from reading the situation the tables have
created rather than the tables being procedural to create something
consistent.</p>
<p>It would be nice to see some sub-table use that generated links
between the hexes. I think possibly each hex is meant to be
self-contained which makes sense in a hex crawler but less so if the
problems of the settlement are the key focus of attention.</p>
<p>There's also my usual bugbear of the terrain generator having rivers
(or equally often coast or mountains) but no rules that help create a
river. Presumably when you roll a river hex you're meant to stop being
random and add the additional hexes to make it work. To build on the
problem there are Flood Plain and Swamp hexes but no rules that I can
see at first glance that clusters these hexes together.</p>
<p>Presumably you should place the settlement in the centre, decide
where it gets it's water from (most of the time that's going to be a
river or a significant spring) and then roll for the adjacent hexes with
that settled. A revised edition would benefit from some additional
work.</p>
<p>The Adventure booklet is a pre-defined hex map based around a village
renown for the delightful quality of it's peaches. Essentially it's the
pick up and play version of the Chroniclers booklet. Various entries,
whether they be locations or NPCs, are accompanied by prompt questions
to allow each version of the setting to be made unique by the person
running it. Here there are some linked rumours, mysterious and locations
so I take from this that you are meant to prep a rationalise the random
setup.</p>
<p>The Adventure booklet looks good to go so overall you do have a zero
prep situation with a light rules system and quick random character
generation.</p>
<p>Definitely one I'm going to try and get to play this year.</p></div>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-88145637863234067962021-12-26T10:59:00.000+00:002021-12-26T10:59:17.761+00:00Beakwood Bay<p> <a href="https://jackson-adams-rpg.itch.io/beakwood-bay" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d6efd; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px;">Beakwood Bay</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px;">is a game where anthropomorphic ducks go on adventures to find and acquire treasure and like feathered dwarves end up getting gold sick and either having to renounce their greedy ways or die as disliked misers. It is a game rendition of the Duck Tales comics and television show, neither of which I'm familiar with and which perhaps you shouldn't have to be to decide whether this is an interesting game to play.</span></p><div class="post-content mb-5" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 3rem !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">The tone is definitely comedy with edgings of tragedy. The themes are friendship, camaraderie and a critique of consumerist society. The element of satire is slightly obscure in the rules. It all feels very earnest.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">Mechanically it is <a href="https://www.theerapture.com/games/mechanics/pbta.html" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0d6efd;">PbtA</a> with Advantage and Disadvantage with "critical" success on a 12+. The game is mechanically quite simple and straight-forward due to the use of Advantage and Disadvantage, most of the rules result in Advantage and Disadvantage. The game has a relatively small number of shared Moves. Specialised moves in the form of "Scout Honours" are implied as being gained through actions in play but are actually purchased via Experience system which also drives increases in stats and allows reuse of what would otherwise be single-use Treasures.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">The system also includes a story beats tracker in the form of <i>Feathers of the Magpie</i>, as you gain more Feathers you normalise your treasure seeking behaviour and start to become Coin Sick and miserly. Eventually you cease to travel and interact with friends and instead hoard and defend the treasure you've found leading to the character retiring from the game.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">This mechanism is also used to allow the Keeper to go in pretty hard on failed results, the game encourages you to go for big outlandish, even fatal, results and if the player doesn't like them they take a Feather of the Magpie to step the result up one level and you "rewind time" and play out the new result.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">I'm a big fan of "step up" mechanics in PbtA and it's logical to link it to the character's story arc.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">The advice for Keepers is not so great, as someone who is unfamiliar with the source material I need a bit more handholding and while there is a lot of advice on tone and style I would have preferred for this to have been distilled into Principles as is conventional for PbtA. In particular the emphasis on cartoon action and how it is meant to play alongside the avarice mechanics would have been helpful.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">Adventures in Beakwood Bay are quite structured and require preparation. Reading the instructions on how to create them left me feeling a bit lost and I had to read a sample adventure to understand how they are meant to work. Part of the problem for me was the use of certain terms, namely Seekers and Clues. Seekers are generally people who are trying to get the same treasure as the players but for different reasons. However it also includes people who currently possess the treasure or seek to prevent it being looted or stolen. Generally it is just a bunch of protagonists who all have an interest in the goal of the scenario and will help, hinder and contrast with the player characters.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">Clues aren't just items and information that point towards the location of the treasure and its defences. It also includes how it can be taken and transported back to the Beakwood Bay, the home city of the player characters.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">Clues are gathered during play but the players then perform a move to determine whether they can incorporate the Clues into a plan to seize the treasure and return home with it. Clues incorporated are positive modifiers, the adventure's complexity rating is one large negative rating. Interestingly there is no countdown or clock ticking the group seems to play the game until they are ready to make the game end move and the result of that roll determines whether they will be successful or not. In some ways it reminded me a bit of <a href="https://ndpdesign.com/wwwrpg">World Wide Wrestling</a>'s match structure and finishers.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">In theory I like Beakwood Bay's subversive cartoon blend of humour and politics but in practice I feel unsure as to the nature of the group who would find it enjoyable and less than confident that I can bring it in the right spirit to the table. One that is likely to get parked until the right opportunity arises.</p></div><div class="post-tags" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", "Liberation Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px;"></div>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-81696531671201140892021-11-07T17:34:00.002+00:002021-11-07T17:34:18.777+00:00Sanctum<p><a href="https://rowanrookanddecard.com/product/sanctum-a-heart-sourcebook/">Sanctum</a> is a supplement or perhaps alternative campaign setting
that focuses on settlements (or Havens in the cant) in the City Beneath.
The idea is that the Haven and it's community form the fulcrum of the
campaign play with the longer term fate of the Haven being the key
dramatic resolution.</p><div class="post-content mb-5">
<p>The setup echoes <a href="https://carnel-reviews.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-belly-of-beast.html">Belly of the Beast</a> quite a lot, in particular in how
the gameplay loop works for Havens, this felt identical to Belly of the
Beast's "Delves" to me. There's also a presence of Blades in the Dark
in terms of investing in a community for both storytelling and
mechanical benefits. The Beats system all borrows positively from the
work of people like <a href="https://lumpley.games/">Vincent Baker</a>.</p>
<p>In sure this slim volume assembles a variety of good mechanics to
create a campaign frame centred around a community in a bizarre
environment with a twist. It builds on the existing Heart rules for
Haunts, Domains and Stress to make the integration pretty seamless and
logical.</p>
<p>Haven creation is shared between facilitator and players so there's
some structured questions and a walkthrough for an example Haven.</p>
<p>The other half of the book is taken up with Angels which are strange,
immortal creatures connected to the Heart that conduct unfathomable
tasks on its behalf. While their uncanny nature mirrors the inscrutable
and inhuman nature of the Cthulhu Mythos creatures they are thankfully
less loaded with the tropes (and tentacles) of those creatures.</p>
<p>The connection between these beings and the havens is tenuous at
best. The suggestion being that if the creatures have been tasked with
removing people from an area or transforming it into something different
or explicitly destroying a Haven then the Haven inhabitants will have
to resolve the threat. I'm mean yes but all the other antagonists that
get mentioned don't have their section do they?</p>
<p>There has also been some serious effort to weave these two sections
together with some game fiction where a character provides a travelogue
of the Havens they encounter as they conduct a quixotic quest to
document the angels.</p>
<p>So top marks for effort but there are blatantly two sets of unrelated
material that have been stitched together here. Similarly the
production quality is great, with a glossy magazine style finish and
<a href="https://www.felixmiall.com/">Felix Miall's</a> artwork is evocative and intriguing as ever.</p>
<p>Sanctum offers a great play frame for Heart and stands on shoulders
of other sold mechanics and structures. However it feels like a fanzine
or two's worth of material stretched into something that justifies the
price tag. Probably something worth getting in PDF if you like the sound
of it. In my view basing play in communities is more interesting that
murderhobing.</p></div>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-30701114111724813972021-10-03T21:11:00.003+01:002021-10-03T21:11:40.399+01:00Dungeon Soul<p><a href="https://nakade.itch.io/dungeon-soul">Dungeon Soul</a> is a beautifully clear-sighted set of rules for
conventional fantasy dungeon crawling and is also a satisfying complete
package unlike many mini-rule systems.</p><div class="post-content mb-5">
<p>The core mechanic is a dice step hierarchy that will be familiar to
those who know Black Hack. What is important though is that the mechanic
is invoked not to see if an action is successful but instead to see if a
narrative risk is avoided.</p>
<p>Advantage and Disadvantage rules apply according to whether the
Referee thinks a task is hard or easier. The basic die is d6 but this is
stepped up by attributes and skills, attributes can also apply a
penalty as can injuries. The dice roll is then compared to a fixed table
of results. Six or more is success with higher rolls being "better"
(which is a little ambiguous).</p>
<p>A 1 or 2 is a Disaster with the risk being realised and the character
potentially being injured or killed. Any other result is a Setback, a
kind of partial success (although it doesn't sit very easily with the
idea of avoiding risk): a deadly risk is reduced to near death, wounds
can be avoided if the character gives up on the course of action that
led to the risk, or alternatively wounds can be accepted to complete the
intended action.</p>
<p>Equipment mostly interacts with the small rules set. Healing potions
move your character up through the four health states. Armour allows you
to ignore a number of strikes during combat.</p>
<h2>Combat</h2>
<p>Combat works differently from the main game loop as your character is
aiming to make checks (aiming to hit six or more on your dice). Weapons
are slightly odd as part of their description talks about needing a
check to inflict damage which is at odds with the rest of the system. As
a nice touch peasant or improvised weapons do Wounds but martial
weapons take a victim to near death with a single "blow".</p>
<p>Combat is probably the most disappointing element of the system as it doesn't follow through the logic of "risking" combat.</p>
<h2>Magic</h2>
<p>Supernatural abilities come in spell, prayer and psionic flavours.
Spells are based around controlling elements and players can construct
their own spells from the spell components offered (element affected,
extent of affect and a verb). Spellcasting downshifts your spellcasting
die until the next day which is an elegant limitation. Casting spells
also contains the inherent risk of miscasting although the effects of
miscasting are entirely down to the Referee.</p>
<p>Prayers are organised into categories based on what the supplicant is
asking for. A prayer check is made on each prayer, on a disaster the
supplicant will be ignored for the rest of the day. Setbacks are
misinterpretations of the prayer (or perhaps interpretations that are
more what the divinity wishes rather than the supplicant). I like the
idea of asking what you want of gods rather than picking from spell
lists.</p>
<p>Psionics are a little bit lame as written, characters have a one in
12 chance of having latent abilities that can be awoken later. If you
awaken the ability you subtract one from your strength score and get a
d8 or d10 specific ability in negotiation with the Referee. Compared to
the other two systems this feels a bit token. It also feels less
integrated with the setting.</p>
<h2>Setting</h2>
<p>The setting draws heavily on the "Soulsborne" computer games but for
me it paints a full picture of a world with very few words and a few
well-crafted random elements.</p>
<p>The Light has been lost to the world and now the Lesser Gods squabble
amongst themselves while the world-spanning Kingdom falls into
decrepitude and dissolution. The players are meant to take on the role
of those who wish to arrest this decay and defy the Darkness that lurks
all around them.</p>
<p>The booklet finishes up with a two-page dungeon that is evocative and
complete while being compact. The "dungeon boss" is surprisingly hard
to defeat but again that's marking some of the atmospheric territory the
game is trying to invoke. I also appreciate the inclusion of Hooks for
the dungeon to indicate why people might be interested in going to a
remote, dangerous place.</p>
<p>The game also has some general advice about using random rolls to
keep the game flowing by seeing whether trouble or signs of trouble
arrive. It's a weird mashup of wandering monster tables and Dungeon
World's Fronts but like a lot of things here it is a finally balanced
economy of design.</p>
<h2>Advancement</h2>
<p>There are actually two advancement systems, one a bit more procedural
and best on levels that are obtained when the group sets campaign goals
that the group set for themselves. The mechanical benefits are a bit
so-so but I do like the idea of explicitly trying to organise the group
around shared goals for the game.</p>
<p>The alternative method puts a lot of the onus on the Referee to
create opportunities for characters to learn secrets or acquire
abilities, skills, mutations or enhancements. These opportunities must
be seized in the narrative. This seems really interesting but it would
be good to have a bit more design that incorporates player ideas without
it being wish-fulfilment.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>It is a little hard to guess what the game might be like as a player
from just reading the rules but I think this is one of the best minimal
rulesets I've read and does a great job of invoking the key elements of
its creative inspiration to get the reader into the right frame of mind.
I'm excited to give it a go when I have the chance.</p>
<p>I also enjoyed the physical version of the zine with its restrained use of typography to give an atmospheric but readable zine.</p></div>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-59995304826180605852021-10-02T22:46:00.002+01:002021-10-03T21:01:12.012+01:00Bastards<p><a href="https://micah-anderson.itch.io/bastards">Bastards</a> is a booklet game (A6 in the physical version) with the author's take on what they call "Dragon
Games".</p><p>It is based on d20 rolls under 3d6 stats (Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom)
and over an opponent's Hit Dice rating or Armour Class in combat.
Advantage and Disadvantage, is used; examples include weapons conveying
Advantage and Disadvantage on Reaction rolls due to reputation.</p><div class="post-content mb-5">
<p>The game uses relatively low hit points (your character might be able
to take two hits it seems in combat) but also a pretty generous
temporary refresh and all health is restored by a rest period. It feels
relatively deadly in the reading but probably a bit more satisfying than
games based on "Into the Odd".</p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">The interesting ideas</h2>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Classes</h3>
<p>Your starting hit points determine your class. Roll 1 HP and you're a
wizard, roll 6 HP and your a barbarian. Each class has some special
abilities but the thief and assassin could do with a few more options to
help differentiate players rolling the same score.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Luck</h3>
<p>Luck can be spent to essentially add narration to benefit your
character or as a save against undesirable outcomes. After a save Luck
reduces by one and you regain it each morning.</p>
<p>I loved this "push your luck" (no pun intended) mechanic and in some
ways this could be the bulk of a rules-light system on its own. The more
you push the narrative, the more at risk your character becomes. The
reset trigger (and I would have been tempted to make the condition when
the character awakens rather than morning) puts a limit on the amount of
action you can risk in a way that is more satisfying than say spell
memorisation or fatigue.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Gear</h3>
<p>The more words (the game suggests syllables but gives an example in
the more logical words) an item has then the more expensive it is.
However how this relates the economy of coins is not clear. I liked the
idea of how this could make both mundane and magical modifications easy
to model.</p>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Spells</h3>
<p>Spells are level-less and can be randomly generated, spell slots are
related to your Wisdom score and is different from the number of spells
you know. Spells duration is standard across all spells and damage is
linked to caster level. It feels like a decent balance between mechanics
and more freeform interpretation of rules. Spells consist of an Action
and an Object, when a character gains a new spell they can create new
spells by combining Actions and Objects they know in new ways. I feel
this creates a great motive for exploring dangerous and forgotten places
which might contain new spells or magical words.</p>
<p>Some of the randomly generated objects are a bit weirdly specific though.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">Overall</h2>
<p>This looks like a decent OSR-inspired set of mini rules but without
playing them it's hard to really know what works of doesn't work. The
balance between GM interpretation, player-centric mechanics and crunch
seems to be well-honed so I'd be interested in giving it a go.</p>
</div>
<div class="post-url">
<p><a href="https://micah-anderson.itch.io/bastards"></a></p></div>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-71798545151685087762021-09-30T11:40:00.003+01:002021-09-30T11:40:58.638+01:00Sledgehammer<p> <a href="https://gayhalforc.itch.io/sledgehammer">Sledgehammer</a> is a one-page <a href="https://pocketmod.com/">PocketMod</a>
style zine that is inspired (a lot) by Warhammer. It does a
surprisingly good job of distilling down the source material, even
including rules for momentum in its combat rules.</p><div class="post-content mb-5">
<p>Mechanically you're rolling under a statistic on d100 with positive
bonuses for your career, equipment and circumstances. You have four
statistics (Weapon Skill, Initiative, Toughness and Fellowship) that you
roll on 6d6.</p>
<p>Careers give you a bonus 5 to one stat of your choice and three
things that you know about as a result of your career (later referred to
as Expertises).</p>
<p>Checks are Risks and generally you are trying to roll under the
relevant statistic. Expertises and relevant equipment both give a bonus
of 10 to the number you are trying to roll under.</p>
<p>In combat skill rolls are the same (which might lead to genuine
Warhammer 1 wiffy-ness) but elegantly the tens digit of a successful
attack is your damage in Wounds of which an adventurer has six.
Toughness and Armour don't deduct from damage.</p>
<p>Corruption is quite interesting and effectively replaces Fortune in
more recent Warhammer editions. You gain Corruption when a Daemon hits
you in combat or you can choose to take a point of Corruption to survive
after a fatal wound, to gain +10 to a roll or to heal 1d6 wounds
outside of combat (regular healing rules are not given). Corruption is a
simple countdown clock with six segments.</p>
<p>There are no rules for advancement or monsters but what is there is
surprisingly complete and close to the heart of the original Warhammer
rules. I think they're maybe too close and maybe you want a contested
combat roll and Fate points but I guess the point is that you've got a
minimal hackable system that you can work with here.</p></div>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-54202354411784383072021-09-22T09:57:00.002+01:002021-09-22T09:57:15.924+01:00Planet 28: Death of the Periphery<p>This <a href="https://www.wargamevault.com/product/311013/Death-on-the-periphery--Solo-rules-for-Planet-28">supplement</a> adds a solo option to <a href="https://www.wargamevault.com/product/307469/Planet-28--Simple-narrative-skirmish-rules">Planet 28</a>, a sci-fi skirmish wargame. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Solo rules</h3><p>The new rules actually consist of solo and collaborative rules which is a nice change from the usual skirmish game competition.</p><p>The heart of the solo rules are a one page set of instructions on how the enemy characters will act in battle. This takes the form of a prioritised list of actions and looks straightforward to implement. These kind of programmed flowcharts are increasingly common in boardgames so if you've played any of those then these will feel familiar.</p><p>Collaborative games get a nice "side quest" type feature. You roll randomly for a secret in-game objective and if you succeed in it you alone get rewards for your warband. It's a fun way to keep play aligned without it becoming multiple players negotiating how to play a faction.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Solo campaign</h3><p>The second half of the booklet is taken up with a multi-stage scenario, Escape from Lychester VII about rescuing a governor from a planet simultaneously going through a revolution and a mutagenic plague. The players are seeking to rescue the overthrown governor in exchange for a ransom.</p><p>The scenario plays out over three stages of a simple branching narrative based on whether the player wins of loses. Each stage uses pretty much the same map and enemy forces but the context varies according to how the player is doing. Either they are trying to get the governor off-world safely or they are fighting to get off the planet alive. The campaign generally all looks exciting and interesting but there isn't a big narrative close out at the end which is a bit of a shame.</p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-45239458196514757482021-09-20T22:39:00.004+01:002021-09-20T22:39:53.465+01:00Smithy of Sacrilege<p><a href="https://seanfsmith.itch.io/puffin">Smithy of Sacrilege</a> is inspired by <a href="https://carnel-reviews.blogspot.com/2020/09/tunnel-goons.html">Tunnel Goons</a> but gives the original a British OSR spin in the form of <i>Fighting Fantasy</i>. The game originally appeared under the name <i>Tunnel Puffins</i> which presumably referenced the original children's publisher of the Fighting Fantasy series.</p><p>The key attributes are the familiar Skill, Stamina and Luck which all start at zero. The game's single mechanic is a 2d6 roll against a standard difficulty of 8 (very <a href="https://www.theerapture.com/games/systems/wsca.html">WSCA</a>). The difference between the target and success drives damage in "dangerous situations" such as combat.</p><p>Advancement is based on treasure acquisition and gives a bundle of increases across your character stats.</p><p>The game's essence is simple and is a riff on familiar systems. It all seems unsurprising and a good take on the Fighting Fantasy system.</p><p>It uses a Health stat instead of Stamina, presumably to avoid a downward spiral on related checks. Inventory is based on a fixed Equipment score with one significant item being a point. Going over your score results in a penalty to your stat checks which is a nice little push your luck element. I also liked the directive to the player to describe their character's backpack.</p><p>Healing is based on resting but there is a mention of Provisions (which heal in Fighting Fantasy) but no attached rules which might be an oversight.</p><p>Backgrounds is where things are a little weaker. The culture names in the random backgrounds are suitably Allansia-esque: Rockspan, Darksilt, Birchrift but where as Tunnel Goons tables gave me a surprise twist on the world the Occupations here are uninspiring and the Aspirations are a bit generic. I do like the way that your Aspiration gives you a piece of equipment though. That's fun.</p><p>The biggest issue with the tables though is that with just six entries in each you need to be broad but also leading. Caravan guard is good, as is Soothsayer (but how many are there in this world? Implied setting?). However the alchemist feels in need of the prefix "failed" and the Publican is just quite dull particularly when there is also the more interesting aspiration to open an inn.</p><p>This looks like a successful mashup of Fighting Fantasy and Tunnel Goons with just enough rules to be engaging but light. It's implied world is a bit of bust for me but feels like a flaw the reader can correct in their own take on the game. </p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-9462170560352953952021-08-30T23:05:00.000+01:002021-08-30T23:05:27.070+01:00Enter the Dagon (DCC #95)<p>This adaption of a convention tournament scenario is an interesting
mix of ideas. At it's core it's a puzzle adventure where a wizard and
their retinue are invited to participate in a series of magical duels
for the prize of the "Master of Dagon". No surprises that even though
it's a struggle to win the duels and overcome the skulduggery of the
other duellists successful groups will ultimately have to face the
organisers of the tournament if they wish to survive.</p><div class="post-content mb-5">
<p>The structure of the adventure is somewhere between a sandbox and a
railroad. The tournament structure means that action mostly follows a
timetable. However the party are for the most part free to explore the
island and try to interact with the other duellists and their allies.
The attempt to expand beyond the convention tournament to offer more
information and opportunity is thing that doesn't really work. Really
you have a closed battle of wits on a remote island with a dark comedy
twist ending.</p>
<p>The appendices include a customised duelling system for spellcasters
and its associated tables. The other duellists are described and most of
them seem fun characters to have dropped into a campaign prior to the
scenario which would make the encounters during the tournament (and
maybe even their eventual fates) more compelling.</p>
<p>Overall this is a bit of a fun idea but really I'm not sure the
circumstances will arrive for it to be relevant to me and the physical
elements add nothing much to what a PDF would have offered.</p>
<p>Here's the <a href="http://dcctreasures.blogspot.com/2017/10/enter-dagon.html">Trove of Treasures review</a></p></div>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-86362878211802686122021-08-22T16:54:00.000+01:002021-08-22T16:54:02.025+01:00Briar Rose<p>This <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/366018/Talisman-Adventures-Fantasy-RPG--Briar-Rose">adventure</a> has lots of interesting ideas but it feels like it tries to stick to closely to having a fixed narrative. At its core it's a magical love triangle: witch loves boy, boy loves girl, boy ignores witch. The witch, rather like a typical fantasy gamer, embarks on a slightly obtuse plot to try and win the boy over and the result is that the boy is in a death-like sleep that threatens to kill him for real.</p><p>The scenario is built around the assumption that a tavern keeper pays the player characters to transport the sleeping character to a nearby town where a sage may be able to help or alternatively the cursed victim can be entombed in his family vault. This assumption leads to a three act structure about moving a comatose person while doing the usual wilderness travelling and monster fighting. All while the witch tries to make good on her plot.</p><p>The slightly odd thing is that this structure is unnecessary and the players only meet the boy's true love at the end of the scenario. It all feels as if it would be better if it were restructured so that the basic outline of the whole situation is present right from the start. There might still be a quest to find help and a lot of physical comedy around moving the sleeping boy but on reading it it feels that the whole thing would be better if the suitors, the nature of the curse and the possible solutions were all known early and the rest of the adventure revolved around making choices and working towards the players preferred outcome.</p><p>There's lots of nice little pieces of business here, simple stuff like an troll enchanted to guard a bridge on the way to the sage. There are multiple ways to pass but again making it clear that the troll has no choice in guarding the bridge makes clear the immorality of a violent resolution. However the overall effort is not a compelling reason to buy into a yet another rulesystem.</p><p><br /></p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-83689714447867260132021-08-22T16:18:00.001+01:002021-08-22T16:18:44.520+01:00Dungeon Gig<p> A mini zine (single A4 sheet folded into a multi page zine) <a href="https://lucasrolim.itch.io/dungeon-gig">Dungeon Gig</a> is no worse than many larger rule sets.</p><p>It uses a single abstract stat and that stat is used as a bonus to d20 tests, hit points, inventory slots, pretty much everything in the game. Monsters also have a stat and this again forms their difficulty and hit points. It all feels like something of absurdly minimalist take on D&D inspired games.</p><p>The fact that the stat is so important but determined randomly (although neatly by taking the middle value of a pool of three d6) feels off as players who roll high simply have more options and more fun. The stat value should have been offset by something like equipment so that the total value is always six.</p><p>Magic is a "GM judges" situation but provides a rule of thumb that mechanical effects should cost half the numeric value of the effect in hit points. Spells are learnt by sacrifices stat points.</p><p>The basic mechanism is a roll of d20 with 15 or more being a hit and the stat value being added if the character's background is relevant.</p><p>The best bit though is the experience system, where the player sets five goals for the character when one of the goals is achieved they increase their stat. This idea is worth stealing for other games.</p><p>Dungeon Gig is a pretty good stab at the one page fantasy rpg genre but at a personal level it's abstracted too far for me and ends up feeling like the characters are not immediately appealing to play.</p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-34583825552256435312021-08-14T18:52:00.005+01:002021-10-09T08:26:53.638+01:00Temple of 1000 Swords<p><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/360211/Temple-of-1000-Swords">This module's</a> title actually underplays the number of swords present in it's temple. The core conceit at the heart of this adventure is a magical forge that can turn anything it touches into a sword. This means this a temple of countless swords, swords in heaps, flowing out of the temple and steadily flowing into the surrounding environment.</p><p>This one idea (a surreal take on the fallen Decanter of Endless Water concept) drives everything else described in the module. From a game design point of view you just have to be envious as virtually everything else flows from the question "what would happen if there was a device that turns everything into swords?".</p><p>There is actually more content in the adventure but it just kind of naturally follows from the core concept.</p><p>An avatar of the god of swords is present because this is a temple of limitless swords. The presence of the god and countless swords engenders a violent conflict between the inhabitants of the caves surrounding the temple.</p><p>The god has cursed a knight who killed the temple priest to make swords at the forge until his blood debt is paid.</p><p>The presence of a god capable of granting wishes and the potential to acquire a manner of strange and unique swords provides the incentive for adventurers to enter the temple despite the dangers.</p><p>Tarot themes also run through the adventure, a tower of swords, a nod towards the rod of seven parts in the form of the Nine of Swords, the Emperor and Empress of Swords, a deceased Hierophant. The secondary theme sits comfortable under the swords one and provides an interesting structure that helps bind the whole thing together and makes it feel cohesive.</p><p>Overall on the first reading this is a hugely impressive piece of work. It genuinely has that feel of early Dungeon and Dragons adventures, it is surreal rather than gonzo but it fulfils a modern sense of cohesiveness and design.</p><p>The PDF is also <a href="https://brad-kerr.itch.io/temple-of-1000-swords">available on Itch</a>.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Other views</h3><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=7505">Ten Foot Pole review</a></li></ul><p></p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-48366495608157019722020-11-15T22:46:00.001+00:002020-11-15T22:46:39.315+00:00Acid Death Fantasy<p>This slim hardbacked book provides a realm for the game <a href="https://carnel-reviews.blogspot.com/2017/02/troika.html">Troika!</a>, it introduces the reader to the Thousand Sultanates and the Wastes that surround them. It's a post-apocalyptic science fantasy setting that leans more to the science fiction end of the spectrum. The bulk of the book is taken up with new character classes and creatures with a few pages of descriptions and a few tables and bullet points about what you might do with the content.</p><p>It's a beautiful book. I'm not sure I've seen something as striking since Mork Borg. As a teenager I loved the worlds that were conjured up by the artists in magazines like White Dwarf. I think the art direction here has the same potential to do the same for someone reading this now. It's coherent in terms of style, palette and feeling. It illustrates and amplifies the text and it feels necessary. It opens a door onto a strange world of possibility.</p><p>It is the most coherent and interesting realm I've read for Troika!. I'm not sure whether this is purely because its well written and designed or simply because I found the ideas and tropes of the setting interesting on a personal level.</p><p>One common feature of Troika material is pitching the tone from a starting point of the gonzo and surreal into the defiantly obscure and then sometimes further still into deliberate alienation beyond a tiny insider core audience. Acid Death Fantasy instead uses the character outlines in the archetypes and creatures to sketch a sense of the wider world being described.</p><p>Take the following examples from the background options, a Dune Rider:</p><p><i>You were an outrider of your fleet ..., guiding the fleet away from danger and towards vulnerable targets. Something happened and you left, perhaps by choice. You still have your single-rider craft but you've lost your purpose.</i></p><p>And this from the Warflock Outcast</p><p><i>Exiled from the Warflock you wander aimlessly, or is there some other purpose to your travels?</i></p><p>In both cases there is a suggestion of the character belonging to a wider society and world with its own views and morals. An emotional conflict for the character is suggested but is open enough to interpretation to allow each character created to the template to be different. It's a subtle but important quality.</p><p>Sadly the book ends with a whimper not a bang. Having introduced all kinds of strange and alluring ideas one of the tongue in cheek suggestions for problems the adventurers might tackle is a mysterious disappearing of shoes.</p><p>I would have loved to see a more compelling set of idea generation tables or may be a few pages of sketched situations to serve as jumping off points for a game. Situations that might both embody the world and beg the question of players: what do you do?</p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-74212043024771179502020-10-15T22:29:00.000+01:002020-10-15T22:29:13.995+01:00Better Left Buried<p><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/254584/Best-Left-Buried-Full-Rules">Best left buried</a> is a rules-light fantasy heartbreaker that seems to want to be the sidekick of Lamentations of the Flame Princess. It makes a big deal about how going into dungeons is a terrible idea and how nothing but death awaits those foolish enough to do it.</p><p>Okay, these are interesting points, but the game relies on characters wanting to do it, there's literally nothing else in the rules system. What happens if in the first session the characters get to the entrance of the deep and dangerous caves and then do turn back? What the game lacks is the motivation as to why the adventurers enter the dungeon despite the danger. You're expected to find dungeoneering compelling despite it clearly not being any kind of long term proposition.</p><p><a href="https://www.theerapture.com/games/ludopedia/into-the-odd">Into the Odd</a>, for example, deals with this a bit better by making the rewards, in the form of magical items, concomitant with the risks.</p><p>The copy-editing of the book is poor with repeated sections and grammatical errors. I'm not especially bothered but there are a lot of other games in this genre that don't have these mistakes so the feel is somewhere between an amateur and professional product without the charm of the former or the clarity of the latter.</p><p>The game mechanics uses three stats and a similar mechanism to PbtA games where you are trying to roll over 9 on 2d6 to achieve what you want. Stats added to the base die roll. Advantage and Disadvantage (by other names) can be applied to rolls.</p><p>To give players a bit more agency and to avoid bathetic failures there is an attribute called Grip that allows re-rolls.</p><p>The slightly brutal thing about Grip is that it also fuels supernatural abilities and can be eroded by bizarre or unnatural experiences as well as powering your re-rolls. So there's a lot of things that call on it but it is hard to refresh. The key way you get it back is by running out and having your character develop delusions or compulsive behaviours, after which your Grip points refresh.</p><p>Initially these disorders are easier to resist but the more times you need to refresh the harder the behaviours become to resist.</p><p>Just from reading the rules it feels all characters are on a pretty aggressive downward spiral and I wonder again what the incentive is to keep playing an increasingly deranged and unhappy character compared to retiring them and take on a new character.</p><p>The game actually mechanically encourages this as your character doesn't really massively change as a result of experience. They get an additional hit point and a point of Grip, which as I've pointed out already amounts to one re-roll.</p><p>All character abilities are open to all characters at the start of the game and they don't really seem to interplay so there's not a massive difference between characters that get a lot of play investment and those that are fresh.</p>
<h2 id="clever-bits">Clever bits</h2>
<p>The combat system uses three d6, two of the dice have to be used to try and meet the target number to hit the target while the third becomes the damage dice.</p><p>Should the damage of an attack be higher than six then it results in a critical as well so good rolls or the ability to improve your ability to land blows has a lot of mechanical satisfaction to it.</p><p>Some of the sub-systems that require Grip to fuel damage provider a multiplier to damage based on the Grip spent to avoid a double whammy of a high-spend attack resulting in an outcome no different from a low spend one. That's a good idea but it's an indication of the patch and mend approach to the rules design where the fundamentals are a bit weak and if the patches aren't applied consistently then the game systems get a bit broken.</p><p>Monsters are handled in an interesting way that rejects the "creature catalogue" zoo approach in favour of unique unnamed creatures that have an emphasis on the inhuman and truly monstrous.</p><p>Instead of stats a process is provided for either mapping the vision you have for the creature into mechanics or creating a mechanical of challenge with the right feel or colour of the creature you're imagining.</p><p>If you want to draw from existing bestiaries though there is also a formula for converting Hit Die based creatures into the games mechanics.</p><p>The game also has its take on "Iconic Characters" by having some distinctive characters appear in it's art and examples.</p>
<h2 id="final-thoughts">Final thoughts</h2>
<p>Any fantasy rules system with a retro bent or dungeoneering focus needs to explain why it exists and why someone should play it rather than anything else. Better Left Buried struggles to answer that question clearly.</p><p>It's rules-light, it's not directly indebted to d20 systems or Dungeons and Dragons but consequently has an ambiguous relationship to the implied background that those games have.</p><p>Dungeon crawling is dangerous and characters are constantly in physical and mental danger. None of the inhuman monsters seem to pose a direct threat to human society. There are no unique rewards to delving.</p><p>There is no wider political or cultural situation for the characters to be part of. Any fantasy trope is welcome here with no particular reason for anything to exist or not exist.</p><p>It's rules light and has some interesting ideas but it is also a complex game with some entwined and involved sub-systems that threaten not so much to mesh and snarl up on one another.</p><p>I could see myself playing the game but probably at the instigation of others rather than pushing for it myself.</p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-25241538837565163042020-09-29T21:58:00.001+01:002020-11-15T22:47:48.044+00:00Tunnel Goons<a href="http://natetreme.com/tunnelgoons">Tunnel Goons</a> is a very small and rules-lite game that seems pitched somewhere between whimsical fantasy and traditional fantasy dungeon crawlers.<div><br /></div><div>The basic rules system is very simple: rolling 2d6 and trying to beat a target number. Stats, equipment and so on add to the number. The referee determines the difficulty number and fills in all the other rules.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are three stats that are essentially Physical, Criminal and Education.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is no magic system, no races and no classes. Progression exists and is based on the metagame of the number of sessions played.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a tiny amount of background in the form of three tables for creating your character. The amount of flavour that jumps out of making the third table imply that most adults have been involved in some kind of world spanning war was quite exciting.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tunnel Goons is very simple and kind of gives a streamlined fantasy PbtA experience. Its subtitle, "An analog adventure for nice people" kind of points to a less violent fantasy roleplaying experience that the rules don't deliver on.</div><div><br /></div><div>It feels like it has that simple but powerful quality that things like Fighting Fantasy had and I can't help but wonder if it is similarly aimed at children.</div><div><br /></div><div>Weirdly I'd quite like to give this one a go with the right scenario material. I can't explain it, maybe I'm just a nice person after all.
</div>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-9100177297656553582020-09-27T21:43:00.000+01:002021-10-03T21:12:35.492+01:00Warlock<p><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/312204/Warlock">Warlock</a> is a modern rules-light take on British fantasy roleplaying games like <em>Warhammer</em> and <em>Fighting Fantasy</em>. The stats and skills are a lot like Advanced Fighting Fantasy while the careers system is modelled after Warhammer Roleplay 1st edition while the inventory, world and monsters echo Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1st edition. With all these influences the modern flavour sometimes feels like the use of a d20 in skill checks.</p>
<h2 id="clever-things">Clever things</h2>
<p>Each career offers two random tables that offer details about your characters background if this is their starting career.</p><p>The core skill of a career is simply named after the career and covers the breadth of what the career is about. In addition stamina (or hit points) is linked to increasing your career skill which provides a double-incentive to focus on the core of your character.</p><p>The combat system keeps the idea of being fine while you have stamina (hit points) but then taking critical hits once you are at zero. Weapons are categorised into different damage types that have their own critical tables.</p><p>Items have cost ratings that result in a randomly generated cost. This makes hunting for a bargain a mechanical thing that encourages wandering and looking for bargains.</p>
<h2 id="less-clever-things">Less clever things</h2>
<p>I think it's a bit odd that there isn't a Fate or Fortune point equivalent. You can test your Luck to break ties but that seems to be the only way you can really influence rolls that matter a lot to you.</p><p>The careers system allows you to jump from any career to any other career with the player being required to justify the change narratively. This is a sensible liberation but it would still be nice to have suggested career exits, maybe with a reduced advance cost.</p><p>Some of the writing and editing is quite sloppy with sentences not making syntactic sense let alone being grammatically correct.</p>
<h2 id="comparing-to-wfrp">Comparing to WFRP</h2>
<p>Despite it's mixed heritage Warlock is most like Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and therefore I think it is a bit interesting to compare it's modernisation effort to the 2nd and 4th Editions attempts to do exactly the same thing.</p><p>Warlock only allows characters to develop skills that are part of the character's current career. For the most part later additions of WFRP saw careers as a way of describing what your character had done prior to the game and loosened up the way you were able to develop your character later.</p><p>Magic use is a skill and therefore is much more available than in Warhammer. However access to spells is more controlled so spellbooks and scrolls are much more important. The magic system feels much closer to the <em>Sorcery!</em> gamebooks and <em>Advanced Dungeons and Dragons</em> than any of the Warhammer games.</p><p>Virtually all versions of Warhammer have very whiffy combat where dodging, toughness and armour all combines to make it likely that any individual strike doesn't make any difference to the game. Warlock makes combat a contested role so it reads like in every exchange someone is getting hurt and the game is going to move forward rather than being a stalemate.</p>
<h2 id="background">Background</h2>
<p>Warlock determinedly punts on having a background. The eponymous Warlock has betrayed the large human community that the game centres around. In addition to this internal foe goblins, orcs and hobgoblins constantly harry the humans' borders.</p><p>That's about the extent of it. I would have liked to see some principles of the game or ideas for adventures to try and understand what the author thinks the game is about but to be honest I haven't really enjoyed the world-building or colour in games with a fixed background in a while.</p><p>For a game that clearly calls back on a rich history of existing gaming the blank slate actually works pretty well.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>There's a lot to like in Warlock, I kind of binge read it when the hardcopy arrived. It has a number of rough edges and I think some of them will only be evident once you play it.</p><p>But it is an exciting take on several classic games and manages to capture a lot of that early 80s British fantasy roleplaying atmosphere.</p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-78030677811880784052020-09-01T22:34:00.003+01:002020-09-01T22:34:35.017+01:00The King Machine<p><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/253064/The-King-Machine">The King Machine</a> has some interesting premises: it is part of the author's infinite planescape (called <a href="https://vsca.blog/2019/02/12/soft-horizon-srd/">Soft Horizon</a>), its characters are non-human primates and the author rejects violence as being the primary or only way of injecting or resolving tension into a roleplaying game.</p>
<h2 id="background">Background</h2>
<p>The world consists of countless floating pieces of land and trees, varying in size and height. Height is prestige and those forced to live on the ground are in exile enduring a dark, freezing world where death can be staved off but is inevitable.</p><p>A mysterious artefact called the King Machine appoints the perfect king for the world, appointing the person that the world needs at this moment.</p><p>Unfortunately the machine is malfunctioning and has anointed a false king whose abilities and interests are not what is needed now and who will in fact stir trouble and strife throughout the land.</p><p>Even if the false king is deposed or killed then the King Machine will appoint a new, equally wrong king until it is fixed on some new way of governing is found.</p>
<h2 id="weaknesses">Weaknesses</h2>
<p>Who are the characters? Why do they answer the call to adventure?</p><p>While ultimately it is clear that either the King Machine must be fixed or a new revolutionary form of government is established there's quite a gap between that world changing adventure and where the characters start out.</p><p>There are a few good charts for generating the false king and the problems that king creates but there isn't any real relationship building for the characters.</p><p>They may be impacted individually by the king's actions but their reason for taking collective action to resolve the problem isn't clear.</p>
<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>
<p>I'd really like to give this game a go. It's non-violent, non-human premise feels like something that would really tilt the right group in an interesting direction.</p><p>However as a GM'd game with an unusual setting and world I feel it puts a burden on me to be a facilitator, cheerleader and a storyteller. A bit more support in the structure of the rules or the building of the setting would be welcome.</p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-24409236549967482822020-08-15T21:21:00.000+01:002020-08-15T21:21:10.254+01:00The Enclave<p><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/224813/The-Enclave">The Enclave</a> is a game about an isolated community separating itself from and external threat (real or imagined). Of course the community has stresses and tensions within itself that threaten the community and allow the threat to seep in a corrupt everything.</p><p>The game tone is going to massively vary within this fixed frame. A cult with a charismatic leader trying to seal out the rest of the world is going to be significantly different to a medieval town trying to quarantine itself from the plague. You can also extend the basic idea to cover children on the summer vacation hiding from neighbourhood bullies in a treehouse or even the Siege of Troy.</p><p>The group chooses a type of Enclave from a table of suggestions (or they can make their own). They mutually sketch out a drawing or map of the physical domain of the Enclave. Then each player creates a character, they roll to discover how loyal the character is to the community and how they view those outside the community. The rolls also determine which character will be the leader of the community.</p><p>The game proper then begins with players taking turns which are called Ordeals (although Ordeals may actually be positive for the Enclave). The game is played out to a fixed number of scenes and the game suggests using a sheet of stickers to record the elapsed ordeals but essentially you're going to play 26 unless you're playing with five players in which case you do 25 total.</p><p>Each Ordeal begins with a dice roll on the playset table. There is an interesting but involved process for handling duplicates where events that get repeated are either replaced by a less desirable event but a reward of tokens to the player or the player can pay tokens to shift the event to be from the more favourable part of the event table.</p><p>The system is designed to avoid repetition and provide an arc to the game play that makes it more likely for positive events for the Enclave to happen earlier and negative events more likely at the end of the game.</p><p>I admire it as a piece of game design but I had to read through it a few times to understand what was going on and I can't help but feel that something like <a href="https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year/the-deep-forest">Deep Forest</a> does a similar thing but in a simpler and more elegant way by choosing a random method that doesn't inherently contain repetition.</p><p>Having selected an Ordeal the player then frames a scene around the requirements of the Ordeal, interestingly not necessarily involving the character they created. Instead their goal is to interpret the prompt and provide the detail of what happens and how the people in the Enclave are affected. This includes drawing and modifying the map of the Enclave. It also means exploring some of the consequences that might be picked up later.</p><p>There's a lot I like about Enclave, it has really got to the heart of a particular scenario, as witnessed by all the variations you can play around with. It also has the classic elements of a storygame: a crisis that can't be ignored, characters in conflict and a flow to an inevitable end. What puts me off is the structure that it has been put around that framework. The game rules feel fussy and not particularly streamlined. It feels strongly influenced by map drawing games but doesn't have the elegance that other systems do. I'd be interested in playing a lighter hack of the game but not so much in grappling with the process or playsets of the current iteration of the rules.</p>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-78907254238811470612020-05-15T23:57:00.002+01:002020-05-15T23:57:52.628+01:00The Sword and the Loves<div><a href="https://mammutrpg.itch.io/the-sword-and-the-loves" target="_blank">The Sword and the Loves</a> is a game of chivalric romance and Arthurian legend that uses the Archipelago system.</div><div><br /></div><div>The basic structure of the game is pure Archipelago with the ritual phrases, fate deck, story card resolution and a map that is drawn during the game.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of the bespoke elements come from the obvious customisation of the fate deck and a bespoke story card and a minimal map outline of Southern England featuring Camelot and Avalon. </div><div><br /></div><div>The more subtle parts are the determination of a fixed set of aspects for the game as well as character archetypes for the characters.</div><div><br /></div><div>Instead of the relatively blank slate of Archipelago you are creating characters that are designed to fit in the framework of knights and ladies, love and duty.</div><div><br /></div><div>The rules imply that there are a fixed number of elements: . I think that in practice you are going to have to assign other elements as per regular Archipelago due to the GM-less nature of the game, however I'm willing to give this a go and see what happens. Presumably it means that anything outside of these elements is outside the world of the characters.</div><div><br /></div><div>Each character is created using an archetype that has a number of leading questions to help guide their creation.</div><div><br /></div><div>The game also provides fixed roles for the players on the left and right of the current acting player.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm an Archipelago fan and I have a soft spot for Arthurian stories so I am eager to give this a go and see if this is the GM-less storygame equivalent of Pendragon.</div>Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-77635344418329562512019-07-21T21:44:00.000+01:002019-07-21T21:44:57.848+01:00Reunification<a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/269198/reunification-letter-writing-game-about-reconcilia">Reunification</a> is about a society being divided and then reunited with individual storylines reflecting families and groups that end up on either side of the divide.<br />
<br />
The obvious examples are the Cold War east-west divisions of countries and colonial-era border drawing of colonies and states. Places like Germany, Vietnam, Korea and more recently divisions like Crimea and South Sudan.<br />
<br />
It has a kind of strange pitch for a tabletop game as players are not allowed to talk to one another until the end of the game. This is because they are playing members of a family that have been divided by war. Instead the players communicate by "letters" or rather abstractions of letters that a written on that storygame staple of index cards or scraps of paper.<br />
<br />
The game is set in the year before reunification. This idea of the "last year" combined with the silence at the tabletop reminded me of a Quiet Year. The letters though echo the letters that form the core of Slower than Light from the 24 Game Poems collection.<br />
<br />
The final year is divided into four seasons, each season each character writes a letter to another character and annotates the reply with a one-word reaction.<br />
<br />
At the end of the first three seasons there is a random event which each character responds to.<br />
After the final season the players can talk to one another again. Each character is discussed by the other characters in terms of the feelings they have towards them based on the letters that have been received.<br />
<br />
With the feelings that the family have towards each member having been discussed there is one last general discussion of whether the family can be reunited as the country is brought together.<br />
<br />
It feels like quite an odd game mixing a whole bunch of different things together; random events, non-verbal communication. I think therefore the kind of groups it might work worth are a little unusual. Groups used to game poems would be fine, those with no conventional roleplaying experience also fine.<br />
<br />
Those looking for a more traditional fair are going to be disappointed. It also lacks any meaningful game mechanics. This is a game that is purely about people's feelings.<br />
<br />
For me this feel's like a back-pocket game that doesn't demand to be played but is worth remembering the next time the right opportunity presents itself. Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-13797428612339828722019-06-08T22:22:00.002+01:002019-06-08T22:22:45.910+01:00Mothership<a href="http://www.tuesdayknightgames.com/mothership">Mothership</a> is a game of sci-fi horror/survival. It has an old-school element in that it is a collection of rules with an implied background.<br />
<br />
That background is kind of like <em>Aliens</em> and <em>Dead Space</em>. The rules allow you to create crew members on a ship that is exploring a huge and dangerous universe.<br />
<h2 id="core-mechanics">
Core mechanics</h2>
The main dice used are d10s are the main mechanism is a d% check as per so many Runequest-inspired games.<br />
<br />
The other elements such as saves and advantage and disadvantage will probably be familiar to most people through Dungeons and Dragons though.<br />
<h2 id="skills">
Skills</h2>
The skills are maybe the most distinctive thing about the system as they are setup in a tree with three tiers where higher-tier skills have prerequisites.<br />
<br />
Higher-tier skills cost more to buy and offer a bigger percentage towards checks (which seems like a sensible way of dealing with percentile whiff).<br />
<br />
While a bit involved (and with the naturally debatable choices about whether given skills sit in the right tier and have the right prerequisites) I can see that this might be an acceptable balance of crunch with simplicity of play.<br />
<h2 id="starships">
Starships</h2>
Like skills the rules for Starships are both relatively short while not being simple. You choose the things you want your ship to have and then things like engines and so on are calculated on the basis of your choices.<br />
<br />
The entire ship spend then goes towards building the stats for the ship.<br />
<br />
It is reminiscent of Black Book Traveller but again has a number of improvements over that system while still benefiting from a calculator. Mainly that it focuses on the outcome you want and then backfills the costs and the calculations.<br />
<h2 id="art">
Art</h2>
Mothership is hands-down the best illustrated game of 2018. That's because its art is integral to the content and used not just to illustrate but to illuminate the meaning of the text. This is not merely beautiful drawings that sit alongside the text, here form and function merge and become one. It's beautiful and utilitarian and is setting a new benchmark for me.<br />
<h2 id="overall">
Overall</h2>
Mothership seems a dense but neat system for playing combat and exploration orientated sci-fi games. However as a set of rules it doesn't really have a lot to say about horror. It is one of those games which hopes that throwing out a simulationist approach will result in the game it wants. Ultimately there's nothing to explain why horror will happen on the protagonists will get involved in it.<br />
<br />
I like Mothership a lot but its going to take a mix of the right idea and the right group of players to make it work.Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-76279768229124185382019-05-26T21:22:00.000+01:002019-05-26T21:22:03.184+01:00Electric Sheep<a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/251079/Electric-Sheep)">Electric Sheep</a> is a fantasy cyberpunk hack based on the extremely influential <a href="http://www.onesevendesign.com/ladyblackbird/)">Lady Blackbird</a> game but it's a bit of a strange Frankenstein of other games.<br />
<br />
Unlike Lady Blackbird the game doesn't strongly define a situation or a clear relationship setup between the characters. Even more strangely it doesn't really describe the character very much at all. It's clearly intended to be a much blanker canvas than Lady Blackbird.<br />
<br />
The basic system is the same, you build pools of dice (d6) based on the traits on your character sheet that are relevant to what you are trying to do. Rolls of 4 to 6 are a success and the GM decides how many successes are required to achieve the character's outcome.<br />
<br />
Failing a roll either allows the GM to escalate the situation or the GM can give a character a Condition (this part of the game is drawn directly from Masks) which can only be cleared by taking a specified action in a downtime scene.<br />
<br />
The pool refresh scenes were something I really liked in Lady Blackbird and I feel their replacement here with the more prescriptive cues from the Conditions is inferior.<br />
<br />
Recovery scenes allowed people to explore the relationships between the characters but with conditions you now have to be looking to hit a particular beat within the scene, such as hurting the other person in the scene which doesn't sound like much fun for the person on the other side.<br />
<br />
What does work better than the original though is the stronger game structure which is based around the idea of missions. Lady Blackbird starts strong but then tends to lack the conclusion that a good one-shot needs.<br />
<br />
Here the missions allow you to control when to end the game and the experience system allows some kind of evolution of the character in a small amount of real-time but a potentially longer span of time than the manic 48 hours of Lady Blackbird.<br />
<br />
Each mission is made up of steps that have associated dice pool difficulties. The players know the sizes of the each of the pools but the GM assigns the pools to the challenges.<br />
<br />
The game provides some standard missions such as infiltration, ambush and net run but it feels like the GM is meant to come up with a mission and it attendant stages more on the fly. It feels like the good parts of <i>Shadowrun Anarchy </i>with a kind of clear act structure.<br />
<br />
Presumably the magic starts to flow when the GM can chain together these missions to give a narrative arc to the campaign or one-shot.<br />
<br />
Electric Sheep is a Frankenstein's monster, but one of great taste, it borrows liberally from many excellent sources but the assemblage is the less than the sum of its parts. I'll want to play it before I pass my final judgement but I suspect that I'll want to hack it more than play it straight.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29622451.post-86694237350396132242019-02-20T07:57:00.002+00:002019-02-20T07:57:59.193+00:00Electra before the throne<a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/182278/Elektra-Before-the-Throne">Electra before the throne</a> is a three player, three character shortform freeform game that wraps Greek classical mythology over the throne room confrontation scene in Return of the Jedi.<br />
<br />
Electra face Hades, the King of the Dead, who has raised her father Agamemnon from the dead to serve him. Each character has a goal for the scene, an understanding of the situation (which may be wrong) and a kind of tic-tac-toe of abilities regarding the other characters.<br />
<br />
Around them the city of Argos is under attack by the dead, the three protagonists must find a resolution to their conflict in 20 minutes of gameplay, after which Argos will be destroyed and its people slain.<br />
<br />
This game is entirely a riff on the confrontation between Luke, Darth Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi, re-imagined through classical literature. The blend of high and lowbrow culture makes it seem immediately comprehensible.<br />
<br />
The requirements of the game: short play, exactly three players; means this has been kicking around in my possession while waiting for the right circumstances but I'm curious to see how this nano game works in practice.Robert Carnelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06259468486322985570noreply@blogger.com0