Ring Side Report: RPG Review of Time Without Tide: Mirth & Misery in a World of Fog

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Product– Time Without Tide: Mirth & Misery in a World of Fog

System– Time Without Tide: Mirth & Misery in a World of Fog

Producer– Chaosium

Price– FREE preview here https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/chaosium/time-without-tide-mirth-misery-in-a-world-of-fog/pre-launch?ref=bk-discover-homepage 

TL; DR– Shadowrun mechanics meet Cypher System in Call of Cthulhu with a somewhat jovial tone! 100%

Basics: Welp, time to face the horrors of the fog again!  The moon exploded, fog is everywhere, mutating people, and you hold a magic lantern that keeps the fog at bay as you explore.  Let’s jump into the mechanics.

Basic Mechanics: This is a d6 pool system.  You have three attributes and six statistics.  When you do a thing, you combine an attribute and a skill and roll that many dice, counting fives and sixes.  If you get enough successes, you get a success.  If you get more, you get bonuses for the event.

Features and Adaptations: Characters become special through features they choose and adaptations they don’t choose.  Both act as link feats for a character, but adaptations can be positive or negative.

Combat: This is very simple. When you get into a fight, every group and character rolls a d6 for initiative.  From highest to lowest, characters get major and minor action.  Minor is moving, and the like, while major is things that require tests like combat.  Attacking is the base mechanic as above.  Characters have armor that reduces their damage, but damage is applied to an attribute.  When it drops to zero, life gets harder.  You can keep acting, but if you fail a check while you are damaged again, you are dead!

Ok, now my thoughts.

Mechanics or Crunch: I love the simplicity of the Cyphter system, and the fun d6 dice pools of Shadowrun.  This is both.  It’s simple combat with crazy feats to help you.  It’s also a simple mechanics that just provide just enough complexity for things to develop.  I love this.  5/5

Theme or Fluff–  Steampunk Cthulhu is with comedy is just The Amazing Screw-On Head.  If you haven’t seen that, go check it out.  But this is basically how every one of my Call of Cthulhu games runs, honestly.  Players are goofballs, and I love it.  This system is built for goofballs, and as one, I enjoy this so much.  5/5

Execution:  This is an intro book, but it’s got a lot for free.  The book explains the world and has enough to get running in a solid 5 minutes.  Sure, you can read deep, but if it’s game day and the friends are done with pizza, you can get this to the table in five minutes flat.  My discussion of the mechanics is honestly enough to get players playing.  It’s solid layout, solid art, and a whole adventure with SIX PCs.  That would be fine, but this has MAPS, HANDOUTS, AND EVEN PAPER MINIS.  This is what I want out of a demo product, and well more than I could have honestly expected.  5/5

Summary:  Serious time discussion of this product.  If the RPG table is more sacred than church, and you want a horror experience where true depths of terror are evoked, then this is not for you.  I have never had that EVER in a horror game.  It’s always fart jokes and memes.  And I LOVE IT!  This game embraces the funny of Cthulhu and brings in steampunk to make a fun world for players to explore and enjoy.  I am down for this game, and you need to check this one out.  IT’S FREE SO DO IT!  100%

Ring Side Report: RPG Review of Cthulhu Dreamt

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Product– Cthulhu Dreamt

System– Cthulhu Dreamt

Producer– QuasiReal Publishing

Price–  $40.00 here https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/quasireal-publishing/cthulhu-dreamt 

TL; DR– Maybe not great Cthulhu himself, but still great.  95%

Basics: How far would you go for grief?  Cthulhu Dreamt is a horror-based RPG where you join a military campaign to confront the horrors of a woman who went to the edge to end her sadness.  Let’s break it down.

Basic Mechanics: This is a d10 system where you roll dice and attempt to hit a specific value on the dice called a TN. You can spend ability points from an ability pool to add to the roll.  But if you spend more than two, you overexert yourself.

Specializations:  When you build a character, you get a specialization.  These function as feats and allow you to build your character in specific directions.  These modify your rolls and function like feats in other systems.

Combat: Combat in this system is pretty simple.  Combat is divided into three groups based on your current agility stat.  Then, in each group, players go first, then monsters.  Each turn, you get a major action like attacking, a minor action like moving, and free actions like opening a simple door without a lock.  Players roll the dice in this one; the GM decides actions, but they roll to dodge or attack based on the monsters.  Each weapon causes a specific amount of damage, and you have armor to reduce that amount of damage.

Damage: Damage is against your mental or physical pools.  When you take damage, you reduce your pool by the amount of overexertion or damage.  When a pool runs out, you start taking conditions.  You get minor, serious, and severe wounds.  These work like reverse specializations, causing you major issues as you attempt to survive.

Ok, now my thoughts.

Mechanics or Crunch: This is a rules-light horror game.  I love what’s here.  It’s quick and has some good ties to the theme.  This is not Shadowrun Levels of crunch, but if you want a good horror game, this is even more rules-light than Call of Cthulhu.  That’s not bad if you know what you are getting into.  5/5

Theme or Fluff–  I like this one, but this feels more like “The Mist” and less like Call of Cthulhu.  A major plot point is that a researcher opened up a hole to another universe, and bad came out.  That is not bad; in fact, it’s awesome.  There are Cthulhu ties in “The Mist”, but the overall theme feels a bit off.  It’s not bad, but the Cthulhu feels lighter on this one.  4.75/5

Execution: I love what’s here but miss what’s not.  This book has some solid stuff, and in all the best ways, it feels like an Alternative Rock Band ran away from home to start a horror Publishing company with song tracks made for the background of the built-in adventure.  This book has a complete built-in adventure.  Honestly, all the mechanics are here to serve that adventure.  It’s got tons of built-in handouts for that adventure.  All that is amazing.  But you know what I can’t find?  Character sheets.  And to get really nitpicky, there is solid art in this book that is reused multiple times.  I honestly like all the stuff here, but just give me a separate character sheet, use less reused art, and maybe have your pregens in a separate doc, as you do with the handouts, and this would be amazing.     4.5/5

Summary: I like this one.  It is fun, and the music is a solid addition to the game.  BUT, it doesn’t feel Cthulhu.  It’s Lovecraftian, but that’s not as much fun.  But I do want you to know I love what’s here.  I think you should check this one out.  But know that I have a few small issues.  95%