Capsule reviews

Who doesn't like game reviews? Those are always fun, and it's been a while since I've put any up here. Scouring through my DriveThruRPG client for stuff I've consumed in the last few months, here are a few titles that are worth reviewing today:

• The Lost Valley of Kishar
• Coddefut's Stipule
• Magical Murder Mansion
• Delta Green: Control Group
• Over the Edge 3rd Edition
• Forbidden Lands: Raven's Purge

Reviewing is tiring work

Whew, that's a lot! If I want to cover all of those, I'm going to have to keep each one pretty brief. That works for you, right?

Out on DriveThruRPG now!

I'll keep this short; DriveThruRPG is now offering The Magician's House and Lark Fantasy. Go get them because they are the products of a brilliant mind.

Here's the cover; some of the PD artwork out there is really cool

Get 'em while they are hot!

I'm right on the verge of publishing The Magician's House and Lark Fantasy to DriveThruRPG. So if you're one of the handful of people who reads this blog and you're interested in getting copies, do it now if you want the free copies! Well, Lark will be PWYW, but the rest of the line will probably cost somewhere from $5-$10 for the adventure.

Introducing Lark Fantasy - the ULTIMATE rules-lite FRPG

Obviously the title of this post is exaggerating things a little, but don't let that put you off; I've got a good set of rules to share with you.

Whimsy and magic!

The game is called Lark Fantasy (click for enlightenment). It was created with the following goals:

• A character sheet is almost immediately comprehensible to someone with no prior role-playing experience.
• The core rules can be explained in 20 minutes or less to absolute novices - to the point where they can participate as players.
• Action at the table can be resolved quickly, without the need to consult tables or hair-splitting rules.
• The mechanics scale well enough to represent everything from weak peasants to fearsome mythological monsters.
• Statistics are simple enough that the GM can quickly improvise content as needed.
• Supports intuitive rulings with ease.
• The mechanics are fun to play.
• D6 only.

So did I succeed?

Review - Mothership: Player's Survival Guide and Mothership: Dead Planet

Space Horror is a rather obvious setting, but that's because it's ripe with possibility. Movies like Alien(s), Bladerunner, Event Horizon, Solaris - and many more - lend themselves to easy inspiration for role-playing. 

You can't tell precisely what you're seeing,
but you can tell what this game is about.

But with many games of this sort, the question is very much when you've said enough. In other words, the game must decide how seriously it will take its science fiction, how detailed the world-building will be, and a ton of other questions that threaten to bog down a good old-fashioned game about being chased into an airlock.

Along comes Mothership (DriveThruRPG) to the rescue! Motherfucking Mothership knows when to say when! And that's almost immediately. Mothership is a very light game designed to get you up and going as quickly as possible in your own terrifying vision of tomorrow.

Let me back up for a second. Mothership: Player's Survival Guide is the core rulebook of Sean McCoy's space horror game. The words, art and layout are all him. Mothership: Dead Planet, however, is an adventure for the Mothership RPG, written by Donn Stroud, Fiona Maeve Geist, and Sean McCoy with art from Sean McCoy and Stephen Wilson.

You'll notice that I mention the game and its first adventure together; that's because the Player's Survival Guide alone doesn't feel like a complete game so much as a game-making tool. This is a strength, but there are some drawbacks. Let's discuss.

Silent Titans - a hot take

I've actually managed to read quite a bit of Silent Titans (DriveThruRPG) over the last few days, and even though I haven't pored over every word, I think I can make a few observations worthy of merit. Consider this a pre-review - if I have any further observations after finishing it, I'll create another post for them.

Just as pretty inside and far more colorful

To put it in perspective, this is a 112-page work, and I've probably read about 2/3 of that text. Plus or minus. I've done a lot of skimming on all of the regions of Wir-Heal itself, but paid close attention to the rules, the framing, the settlements and the usability of the document. I haven't even touched Stuart's interview of Into the Odd's (DriveThruRPG) creator, Chris MacDowell. That's supplemental information, though, so it's not strictly necessary to have an opinion about the bulk of the work.

In the spirit of the text itself, I'm going to present my thoughts in bulleted lists.

Musings about reviews

You know what people like? Reviews! It's been so long since I've done a review here that there must be a couple dozen products that I've read or even played in the meantime. Fish in a barrel.

"If you just wait upstairs, I'll send you my reviews!"

The difficulty is now choosing one product out of so many. This is going to be a quick post where I brainstorm about what I could review; I can amend it as more possibilities come to me.

Here goes:

The attitudes of NPCs towards the supernatural in a fantasy RPG

Hey folks, it's been a while. The Magician's House (new link) is nearly ready for publication on DriveThruRPG! I just received the third party license approval for Goodman Games, but I'm also putting out editions for Lamentations of the Flame Princess and 5e.  

Is this a baby disposal door or a baby retrieval door?

On top of all that, I'm putting out an edition for my own homebrew RPG called Lark. I'll release that game for free; it's a lightweight alternative to d20 with an old-school sensibility.

Anyway, while that's coming together, I had some random thoughts about GMing. There are so many situations in games like DCC and Lamentations, to name two, where PCs are liable to stroll into town with marks of the uncanny, like tentacles growing out of their flesh, miniature stormclouds that constantly follow them, tears of blood...that sort of thing.

Well, how do NPCs react to all that? The GM is mostly left to wing it, which is ostensibly fine, but it's one more thing to remember to account for every time players step into a new village. Hence, the article below. Note that this is system-neutral; it's suitable for pretty much any high-to-mid-magic FRPG.