The New Flesh

The Rending Box and Cthulhu Apocalypse

2010-12-18T23:48:00.003Z

At Dragonmeet I picked up two scenarios by Graham Walmsley, both Cthulhu scenarios aimed at Trail of Cthulhu but neither of which really feel tied into that system's key mechanics of detection and investigation.

Apocalypse details the end of the world as a Thirties Mythos inspired bio-weapon runs out of control. The Rending Box (which comes in its own box and is a beautiful piece of packaging) is the conclusion of a trilogy which has the Investigators delivering a box containing the truth about the universe.

I'm kind of halfway through reading both at the moment and the immediate impact is Graham's beautiful turn of phrase when describing scenes. It's strong prose though also makes me question whether this really works as a scenario rather than a film script. There's an emphasis on story that seems like it might be beautiful rail-roading with little for the players to do but watch a brilliantly described backdrop unfolding.

Deathwatch

2010-10-03T15:37:00.001+01:00

Finally you get to play the metal men with really huge shoulders! This is a really hefty book and it opens with one of the better descriptions of the game universe I've seen. However I lost interest very quickly and started skimming through to see how they had solved the problems with the military genre.

Although it is still early days it does seem that there are some interesting ideas by focussing on the preparation and execution of missions. Rather than finding your own way through the game you are telling a story through very defined and narrow windows into the world. This worked just fine for Dawn of War 2 (although the pacing was often off) but it is going to be important to see what the mechanics for the relationships and interactions between the PCs are.

Dark Sun

2010-09-20T00:41:00.002+01:00

I've been skimming through the new Dark Sun books and the overall impression is underwhelming. The main problem seems to be this formula that new D&D books take. They are so busy sticking to the format of the new game they forget to tell you what you should be interested in this background and what makes is compelling as a gaming situation.

Mars Colony

2010-09-20T00:39:00.000+01:00

This new indie is a small but beautiful book illustrated with colour photographs from NASA's missions to Mars. The game is a bit unusual, designed for two players. One of the player takes the role of someone sent to resolve the problems at the Mars Colony and the other effectively seems to play the GM.

One thing I found interesting about the book is that this would have been a seen as a scenario once. The addition of a specific rules system for the scenario doesn't really change that either.

The Prince of Darkness

2010-01-11T10:08:00.000Z

This is an old-school adventure which starts with a good old railroad introduction. It's an interesting twist on the Dragon Warriors grim medieval feel with a bit of Roman pre-history and Viking present. The central idea of the PCs finding a dissolute prince among their adventuring companions is sound but the format of floorplan and encounter key now seems impossibly tired.

Diaspora

2009-12-16T22:38:00.000Z

It's hard science but it is also FATE! What's going on? Surely as a FATE book this should be massive book not a slim attractive hardback book?

Diaspora is a book that is actually designed to be a book, not a magazine. It also has a powerfully stripped back FATE system that seems to retain the key ideas of the system and only expand it to include ideas key to implementing the genre.

Pathfinder #27: What Lies In Dust

2009-12-16T22:34:00.000Z

The previous adventure path in Pathfinder left me a bit cold, despite loving the Arabian theme. I was feeling that the adventures were becoming quite rote with the inevitable escalation to the demons and devils that made up the end of adventure opponents.

This one is quite different, there's already been a scenario based around a play and I'm enjoying the current issue which involves a sealed Pathfinder lodge, vampires, assassin priestesses and pit fighting with summoned monsters.

Thousand Suns: Foundation Transmissions

2009-12-06T20:38:00.000Z

I bought this one by mistake, thinking it was the main rulebook. It's actually a collection of articles and expansion rules that are the result of a writing competition. It's nicely presented but that's all I can say about it for now.

Pathfinder Bestiary

2009-12-06T20:36:00.000Z

Another nice book in the Pathfinder line, an old-school style Monster Compendium. What is interesting is that it seems a lot more readable and enjoyable than the ultra-slick 4e books. I think the secret is that this is a genuine bestiary full of a variety of monsters and creatures including D&D classics and fantasy staples. It also includes some of Paizo's Lovecraft crossover creatures which are nice additions.

Rogue Trader

2009-11-15T10:06:00.003Z

It's a hefty slab of book that came from Amazon, however like Dark Heresy it seems to be fairly comprehensive. If you've suffered sticker shock from the price then it is worth noting that it seems to be the lavish production values that

We've given character and ship generation a go and had a tremendous amount of fun. It's a whole different scale to Dark Heresy, the PCs are very much among the Imperial Elite, able to travel freely, purchase planets and generally have a good time.

One thing I think is immediately important is that you have to create some reasoning during character generation as to why the characters have not stopped and are just enjoying the fruits of their endeavours.

Wild Talents Essential Edition

2009-04-26T11:28:00.003+01:00

I have been enjoying Reign so much that I decided to get Wild Talents as well. The book is paperback sized and cost me £7 from Leisure Games which really is a bargain.

So far bits of the book have been good, the One Roll Engine (ORE) seems to be a good fit to the superhero genre but at the same time there are the same problems I felt existed for Godlike. The system is a weird mix of grand heroic superpowers and really detailed and fiddly sub-systems for damage, armour etc. It doesn't really feel coherent.

Song of Ice and Fire

2009-04-17T23:41:00.002+01:00

It's a great looking book with a lot of atmosphere and at first reading of the rules I can't help but think that Green Ronin have created their own version of WFRP. The rules are certainly not d20/True 20 derived and the layout of the books is very similar to the books produced for Black Library.

Starblazer Adventures

2009-04-11T00:00:00.002+01:00

This book is so big you could kill someone with it. It's actually so big that its daunting to read it. What I have seen so far is that it is very similar to Spirit of the Century, with collective character generation and Stunts hanging off Skills. SotC was a much smaller book so where is this massive bulk coming from?

The reproduced art from the Starblazer comics is very nostalgic though.

Players Handbook 2

2009-04-10T10:26:00.003+01:00

It is a bit of a necessary purchase if you have anything in the Dungeon and Dragons 4e line. For a start it restores Druids and Gnomes to the player mix. Interestingly it also seems to introduce the "good" counterparts of all the "evil but cool" races like Drow and Tiefling that were in the first handbook.

Dragon Warriors: Sleeping Gods

2009-02-23T21:50:00.002Z

I'm slowly making my way through Sleeping Gods the adventure collection for Dragon Warriors. It is really more of a re-reading as I remember a lot of it from the original paperbacks.

All of the adventures are packed with a kind of Arthurian gothic feeling of pagan spirits and ancient ghosts. It is interesting that it mixes a kind of realistic feudalism with really quite high fantasy elements.

It reminds me of how Warhammer should feel.

Dragon Warriors

2008-11-23T17:56:00.002Z

I have just bought the new Dragon Warriors edition and I was surprised to find that it is actually quite an attractive book. Usually Mongoose books might be charitably described as "fugly".

Then having a look at the credits I see this is actually a product of James Wallis's new publishing company that is being printed and distributed via Mongoose. That would explain it then.

D&D 4e: Surrender or Die!

2008-09-14T15:58:00.001+01:00

An unusual situation arose in a game last week. We discovered that the Intimidate skill allows you to make an Intimidate roll to force Bloodied opponents to surrender. This significantly shortened fights and actually made the game more interesting that just stomping over piles of corpses.

I'm not sure if it is meant to be so powerful but I do think it works better than the old Red Box morale rules where the GM had to dice to see if the monsters wanted out. This way the morale collapse of the monsters is actually player initiated unless the GM things the encounter is hopeless for the monsters.

Paizo Pathfinder Beta

2008-09-07T00:04:00.002+01:00

I picked up the Pathfinder playtest at GenCon UK and I have found it quite intriguing. I actually quite liked D&D 3e and while I respect the 4e design a lot, the baby went out with the bathwater for a lot of play styles.

Having seen a lot of the new ideas in 4e though it is quite hard to go back to 3e and I hope that Pathfinder is going to square the circle here by having a more flexible, less combat-orientated and prescriptive games system while fixing flaws. What kind of things do I mean? Well the rest tendency, dead levels and avoiding classes with too many one shot powers.

I'm reading through at the moment but it is difficult because so much of it familiar I keep tending to skip read.

Albion's Ransom

2008-08-26T22:26:00.002+01:00

Finally read through Albion's Ransom and was disappointed to find that a decent police procedural runs out of steam and has no real conclusion. It almost says "Find out what happens in Part Two!".

It is also too full of the author giving us personal details, I don't care whether he's a pagan or not. I don't need to know credentials to know that the detail of the pagan rituals and ornaments is far too trainspottery and the history is through the lens of fantasy.

The scenario is strongest when dealing with the trivia of a missing person investigation and actually I want to play that part of the game. Everything else is just tired and totally within the comfort zone of any White Wolf scenario published in the last decade.

Bliss: Ignition Stage

2008-08-12T22:55:00.000+01:00

Finishing Solipsists has made me want to read all the other indie games I have piled up in the unread section. The first one to grab my attention is Bliss Stage. It's a pretty unusual premise, an alien invasion sends all adults to sleep and then their robot servants invade the earth through dreams and begin a warm of extermination.

PCs are a ragtag group of children struggling to survive the apocalypse and strike back via stolen alien technology.

I kind of like the way the players construct the premise of the game (something we've been doing with Burning Islands) and setting up how they exist as a group and how they have managed to strike back at the invaders.

At the moment the interjections from the personas are not working for me. For example there is one interjection that the Bliss GM is there to bring about consensus not to rule things in and out of bounds. It's a good point but it is one worth making explictly.

Hunter: The Vigil Quickstart Rules

2008-08-12T22:23:00.000+01:00

I'm having a look at the Quickstart rules that were being given out round about free RPG day. I was thinking of buying a copy but I am now starting to think again as I can't help but think that the investigation stuff is handled a lot better in the Gumshoe system games.

Stunning Eldritch Tales

2008-08-07T11:35:00.000+01:00

Currently reading this pulp inspired collection of adventures by Robin Laws and loving it. I am disappointed that he has managed to write the "right" Lost scenario that I have been struggling to do for a while.

In fact probably the only problem so far is that all the scenarios are pastiches. Trail of Cthulhu should also get some straight ahead horror scenarios.

The Solipsists

2008-07-23T11:18:00.000+01:00

I am currently reading and really loving the new indie gem Solipsist. It is reminding me of everything I loved about Mage First Edition but with fancy new narrativist rule systems.

This game really seems to capture the essence of what was great about early Mage and it is kind of inspiring a Carnel article.

Dara Happa Stirs

2008-07-22T23:11:00.000+01:00

Mongoose put out paperback book shocker! Now that's what I call proof of a faltering economy. This book so far brings a welcome look at the lands of the Yelm worshippers and a great opening to the scenario/campaign that occupies the second half of the book. Dragonewts make excellent patrons. However I still feel that the RuneQuest rules and the Second Age don't really mix.

4e Minions

2008-06-28T18:31:00.000+01:00

One of the interesting features of the new D&D rules is the addition of the goon-like Minion monster class. However one thing that was bugging me was that there are no rules in the DMG for converting a standard monster to a minion. However it seems that it's pretty easy, Minions don't have optional feats and do one point of damage instead of rolling dice.

The Keep of Shadowfell

2008-05-26T12:43:00.000+01:00

Billed as the D&D 4e starter pack this module comes in a card folder and doesn't skim on the components. There is a full colour map or two, the quickstart PCs booklet and the scenario and quickstart rules in a separate colour magazine style booklet. The only disappointment is that the covers of the scenario booklet are ordinary paper rather than heavier weight paper. Rips and tears in the cover seem inevitable.

The PC's booklet has four archetypal characters in a pregen fashion which is a little less flexible than I had imagined. The rules are different again from Star Wars Saga and definitely make the game a lot less flexible in genre than 3/3.5e was. This is tricky because Star Wars has a defined genre convention whereas D&D has not really done that previously. Well of course it's had its inherent narrative but this edition seems to place the game with both feet in the action adventure genre.

Anauroch: Background that tells a story

2008-02-11T22:46:00.000Z

I have just come across a delightful quote from this Forgotten Realms scenario.

After years of being lost, the Book of the Black came into the possession of the Dark Diviners of Windsong Tower, who retrieved it from the Fane of Shadows in 684DR.

Normally Capitalised Nouns in Fantasy Prose drives me nuts but these names are so well chosen I actually think they are rather evocative. After all, when reading this sentence do we have a vision of Windsong Tower? Is a place of airy galleries? Are we thinking chains and pits? Are we thinking that maybe the Dark Diviners wear black robes? It is great when a mere sentence can set off a whole chain of thoughts.

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft

2006-11-06T23:59:00.000Z

A gorgeous cover leads to a lack lustre set of introductions to the campaign. All of them rely on the PCs receiving a fake letter and entering the Barony of Barovia with little idea of the area or the "lord of the manor" who rules over it. This sadly just feels generic and while some of the ideas sound good in principle the implementation really undermines the whole principle of the book. So far there isn't much in the way of character and this feels more like a dungeon with a history.

Dungeon 137

2006-10-28T00:25:00.000+01:00

The cover game does not seem to be any great shakes but there's some good gothicy horror in the scenario Man Forever and some nice ideas in the scenario Tealpeck's Flood. The later has a flooded dungeon and double and triple dealing in a fiendish pact.

Glorantha: The Second Age

2006-10-28T00:18:00.000+01:00

This book has totally blown me away and is reminding about everything that is good about Robin Laws and Glorantha. It is well written (despite the customary Mongoose typos) and while richly satisfying it is also nicely constructed and a clear introduction to setting. I don't think Glorantha has ever been explained this well or in this detail.

It has me desperately wanting to crack out HeroQuest to give it a go. What about RuneQuest? Well until they actually have some rules for using Dragon Mystics in BRP there doesn't seem a lot of point yet.

Burning Empires

2006-10-09T00:08:00.000+01:00

The sci-fi version of Burning Wheel has turned up, via Key 20, and looks totally stunning. It also uses the hardcover novel as a format, which I have secretly been thinking is perfect for RPGs for some time. I'm both glad that someone has decided to use it and disappointed that it wasn't me, goddammit!

Runequest (Mongoose Version)

2006-09-18T21:56:00.000+01:00

At first blush I am hugely disappointed with this book it looks like a miss on an open goal. However with a bit of consideration I am starting to think that I might not be the target audience for this. After all I have both the Avalon Hill edition of Runequest and the GW extracted rulebook.
However the truth is that the GW hardback version of the book covers nearly identical ground to the the Mongoose book but does so far more concisely and cheaply.
For 15 pounds the content in the Mongoose Edition seems postively stingy and seems strategically designed to make the next rulebook, the "Companion", a necessary purchase.
Personally I am going to wait to see if the Second Age material is any good before I commit to buying any more of the rulebooks in this line.

Ptolus

2006-09-11T23:08:00.000+01:00

Well the huge sourcebook arrived and it as monsterous and as attractive as can be hoped. The art is full colour even in the sidebars and certainly from an eye candy point of view there is no denying that this is the most deluxe RPG product there has been to date.

Now I just need to find the time to read some of the 700 page monster.

White Dwarf No. 319

2006-09-11T23:06:00.000+01:00

I don't know why I bought this (well actually it was to have a look at the summer campaign) but it is a sad testament to the decline in the current incarnation of the magazine. Even the battle reports, which used to be reliably entertaining are now excessively summerized and lacking in any narrative pizzaz.

Sons of Gruumsh

2006-09-07T23:31:00.000+01:00

This a solid little Forgotten Realms scenario that offers a dungeon crawl and a mystery to be solved. The investigation is straightforward and almost cursory and the bulk of the scenario deals with the description of a reoccupied orc fortress. The occupants are varied and have sufficient backstory to keep things interesting. However there is an element of the set piece being frozen at a particular moment in time until the PCs roll up. There's no particular advice on how to use the centrepiece of the scenario in a campaign.

As you might expect from Wizards the production values are all very slick and all the crunchy stats are provided and can be used outside the booklet to provide orc groups capable of providing a challenge to a wide variety of groups.

The final analysis for me is that this is a pretty good example of a middle of the road D&D scenario. If you are looking for a conventional bash for a a few nights entertainment then you are going to be happy. I liked a lot of the ideas about having an orc stronghold and I think a lot of the material can be used outside the scenario but a lot is going to depend on how well you stomach D&D in the first place.

The Spires of Altdorf

2006-07-23T22:33:00.000+01:00

So far this book is really failing to impress. Admittedly I bought it as a guide to Altdorf rather than as a scenario but impressively it is so far managing to work as neither.

The Northern Crown Books

2006-07-23T22:00:00.000+01:00

I was surprised to be able to pick up the two Northern Crown books for the knock down price of £9 each while on a trip to Bristol. I thought the idea was okay (d20 fantasy Colonial New England) but clearly it must have bombed on the market.

A quick flick through the books does reveal a lot of flustering around the whole d20 thing but there's only a few companies that actually do it right anyway. Certainly the material on North American folklore beasties seems alright to me.

More as I get into the books in more detail. Personally I am looking for a kind of cross between the back story of Blair Witch and Sleepy Hollow.

Welcome to The New Flesh

2006-06-12T23:14:00.000+01:00

The New Flesh is the name I give to the little roundup column in carnel but I've been giving it some thought and decided that maybe while there is still room for the column it might be worth putting the kind of first reactions and quick read comments that make up the column on a blog first and using the material to form the written column.