Ring Side Report-Board Game Unboxing and Review of Sheepy Time
Category: Ring Side Report
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Starfinder Society Scenario #7-02: Zo! vs. Zo
Product– Starfinder Society Scenario #7-02: Zo! vs. Zo
System- Starfinder
Producer– Paizo
Price– $8.99 here https://paizo.com/products/btq02eza?Starfinder-Society-Scenario-702-Zo-vs-Zo
TL; DR– Fun, logic be damned! 87%
Basics– What’s ya name!? In Zo! Vs. Zo, the Starfinders are asked to help Zo! Defend his semi-good honor as his name is threatened by a city called Zo. How will your group of Starfinders fare as lawyers and in combat?
Mechanics or Crunch– This is a fairly simple adventure with some combat, some social, but no exploration. It’s all set in cities as the Starfinders have to prove they can do the fighting, then attempt to set up a legal defense, and finally a real defense in legal combat. It’s a bit on the rails, but still good. The mechanics are well done and felt fair and fun. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– The story is a bit off here. The basics are to prove you can fight, do legal skill checks, do more legal skill checks, and then fight no matter what. The legal stuff felt off. I would like the option to just not do the second fight if the characters succeed enough or for them to just push for combat. That’s how I would run this for a home group, but for Society, the flow makes the adventure feel strained. It works, but the logic is a bit off. 3.5/5
Execution– Yeah, we all know this was gonna be a 5/5. It’s a Paizo book. I keep saying this exact sentence when I write about Paizo. They know layout, text, and art. It’s an easy to read adventure. Maybe the one thing that would help is having separate art from the other legal combatants, but that’s extremely nitpicky. This is well done. 5/5
Summary-This is a fun adventure, but maybe not the most logical adventure. Any group of guys and gals will enjoy the adventure, but it’s a bit linear and a bit nonsensical. That said, it’s an adventure to a world that most Starfinders have not been to and some courtroom drama that almost no players outside of those brave profession (barrister) players do. You will have fun, but maybe don’t think too hard about why things are happening. 87%
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Monster Core
Product– Pathfinder Monster Core
System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed
Producer– Paizo
Price– $59.99 here https://paizo.com/products/btq02ej4
TL; DR-Another Solid Addition to the Core line. 97%
Basics– We’re all gonna die! Monster Core is the last of the three main books needed to play Pathfinder, providing the foes that the heroes will face in their journeys.
Mechanics or Crunch– Paizo knows their math. These monsters are the ones we know, mostly, and love. The Paizo staff designed good monsters and this just gives them the 2.5 glow up new coat of paint the system needed to get them fully ORC compliant. It’s well done. 5/5
Theme or Fluff– The story of the monsters takes a tiny bit of a dip. As we move from 3.5/SRD base to ORC/Paizo’s own world, we lose a few things. A major example is alignment. We have Demons, Daemon, and Devils. We have three different groups that are basically out to destroy everything but all just end up with the bad guy banner. There is a story, but it’s that part of the story supported by differences in alignment and motivations that really separate these different D-based bad guys (that and centuries of European occult history). The same goes with different dragon types. I want to reiterate that what’s here is good, but the theme of these different monsters does miss alignment. 4.5/5
Execution– Yeah, we all know this was gonna be a 5/5. It’s a Paizo book. It reads fast, well, and is pretty. Monsters get art for me to show players. I get a good layout and hyperlinks. Heck, there are even a few player things like a few rituals to sell your soul or talk to god! 5/5
Summary-This is a good book. My view might be tainted by the changes from 3.5 to ORC. I love the ORC, but we do lose some things along the way due to the legalese. Those are things you will have to bring with your own stories to the table now. This book will easily give you the foes to make those stories full of conflict and victory. 97 %
Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of F1 Roll and Race
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Starfinder Society Intro: Year of Era’s End
Product– Starfinder Society Intro: Year of Era’s End
System- Starfinder
Producer– Paizo
Price– $8.99 here https://paizo.com/products/btq02ez9?Starfinder-Society-Intro-Year-of-Eras-End
TL; DR-The start to the end! 93%
Basics– New boss, new random magic thing, new place, who dis? Year of Era’s End sets out to establish the next and final meta plot for Starfinder Society 1st edition. The Starfinders have made new friends with the Anacites on their barren homeworld. Will the Society understand how the latest found magic item works before evil robots try to kill us all?
Mechanics or Crunch– This adventure is fairly simple and similar to the usual first adventures of a season. You have a few fights, a few social encounters, and a few skill challenges as you explore. It’s not crazy, but it all works well. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– Much like the mechanics, this adventures is pretty standard for the first adventure of a season. You will meet the new boss, meet some new friends/middle managers of the Starfinder Society, and a new adversary group. The adventure is split in two, with two different goals in each as you try to understand the newly found device. It’s standard, but decently well done. 4.5/5
Execution– Paizo knows adventure production. Layout is good, text is easy to read, and organization is good. The maps are all available, and the monsters and NPCs all have pictures that I don’t have to crop myself. I’ve even adjusted to the increase in cost as nine bucks is about the price of a movie and this will take about three to four hours to play. Solid work. 5/5
Summary-It’s the end of the world, and I feel fine! Starfinder Society First Edition is going away, and this honestly is a decent start to that. It’s some simple mini adventures that get a metaplot started, introduce new characters in the lore, and allow for some fun encounters along the way. If all the final adventures work like this, it will be a good send off. 93 %
Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Renters
Ring Side Report-Board Game Unboxing and Review of The Road to Innsmouth
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Cryptid Creeks
Product– Cryptid Creeks
System- Cryptid Creeks
Producer– HatchlingDM
Price– Pay what you want here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/480826/cryptid-creeks?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR-Girl Scouts Call of Needful Things! 93%
Basics– Time to fight the peddler! Cryptid Creeks is a cartoon monster of the week RPG where players are all members of River Scouts. Ghosts and an enigmaticWatcher (think Zordon from the Power Rangers) guide the new scouts as an evil thing called The Peddler gives gifts to people of Clawfoot and bestows curses on them, making them more evil every day. Will you have the day? That’s the hook, and let’s dig into how we play.
Base mechanics- This is apocalypse engine basically with additional parts built in. You want to do a thing? You roll 2d6+modifier. You score 6 or less, bad. 7-9 good with a but. 10-11 good! 12+ CRITICAL and you get some awesome stuff to happen.
Advantage and Disadvantage– If something is good, you have advantage and if something is bad, you have disadvantage. In either case you roll 3d6. For advantage you take the best two and for disadvantage you take the worst two.
Bad things- As you do things, you get misfortune. These are the bad things that happen and give you those disadvantages.
Investigations- The bulk of the game is spent trying to remove curses given to townspeople from the Peddler. To get rid of the curse, the scouts have to investigate. This mostly is the players running around and gathering clues via investigating with their abilities and checks. When the players think they have enough they make a check like above but use the clues they gathered as a bonus and the difficulty of the curse’s investigation as a negative. Know enough and you know how to end the curse.
Sashes and abilities-Players have tools in their arsenal to fight the evil. Players start with one of three classes that give the a watcher’s gift and a playbook move. Both of these give you places where you can throw advantage at a situation. You also have sashes from the past dead members of the River Scouts. You can remove one to gain a bonus to a situation. And lastly you recover clubhouse collections of random things that you can take with you to fight evil.
Ok, let’s review!
Mechanics or Crunch– What’s here is good, but there is not enough to fully help me. I don’t have much experience with the apocalypse engine for RPGs, though it’s easy to run a 2d6+mod as a system. But, the rules discuss moves. I don’t think that term is ever fully discussed. Also, there are examples of how to do all these things, but not enough to fully run through how to do it. That said, I think I understand it. Again, the math is 2d6+mod to see how you do. And furthermore, the game is not designed to be a smash mouth, grind the PC to a paste dungeon crawler. It’s a collaborative story where the GM and the players both have equally active roles in playing and running the game. It just needs more description of how to do this to really make me more comfortable running. 4/5
Theme or Fluff– I love Gravity Falls, and as a child of the 80s, I love Saturday morning cartoons. This is an episode of Scooby Doo that I get to play. If there was a talking dog class, it couldn’t get more on the nose. It’s got a lot of soul in its delivery and world building. 5/5
Execution– While I might be playing by ear for figuring out exactly how to play, there is a lot here. The basics are well covered with hyperlinks, pictures, layout, and two full adventures in the book. What’s more, there are player handouts, black and white maps of the town, character specific character sheets, and even handouts from the get go. This was three bucks for me, and worth every penny. 5/5
Summary-Cryptid Creeks is a fun Saturday morning cartoon. I like the theme and the execution of it, but I need more explanation. It’s very much a narrative RPG and not an adversarial RPG. This is a game you play when you and your friends want to tell a story together and don’t just want to write a book by yourself. So, keeping that in mind, you will have fun. But maybe read the base Apocalypse World book to get a bit more of an idea on the mechanics. 93 %
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Slav Borg
Product– Slav Borg
System- Mork Borg
Producer– Slavdom Studio
Price– $26.64 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/477706/Slav-Borg–PostSoviet-SemiFantasy-RolePlaying-Game?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR– Mork Borg crossed with Night Watch!. 90%
Basics– Fight the Necromancer Zgol! Slav Borg is Mork Borg set in the eastern block during the fall of communism, but if the world was only goblins, magic, and the fight between the haves, the have nots, people with power(s), and the people caught in the middle, set with the love of cars that Mad Max brings to the table. It has rules for cars, races, multiple new classes, two COMPLETELY NEW ways to play Mork Borg, and even new character elements so your character gets some fun ways to mess with the dice.
Mechanics or Crunch– This is a fun mix, but suffers from some of the same elements that Mork Borg does. What’s here is absolutely amazing. But, I would like a bit more introduction to how to play the game. The new rules are fun, but they also don’t have explanations beyond the basics. Running through a few examples would really help. That said, all the Borgs don’t care about being exact with the rules. If you need perfectly balanced encounters where you can rules lawyer through the encounters, just keep walking. This is absolute a grind house epic set in the world of Night Watch (if you don’t know, go check out that underrated classic!) 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– From my experience, all the Borgs ooze style and this is no different. Honestly, this book is DOUBLE the page count of the original and it uses a hefty bunch of those pages to build a bigger world for you to play in. It’s still gonzo urban slavic and end-stage communist era fantasy, but I am here for it. 5/5
Execution– Slav Borg is a Borg game through and through, and much like the patriarch of the family, this one sacrifices some readability for style. The book is gorgeous in a grime covered, ork infested, end stage communism kind of way. It is a solid love letter to a tragically underappreciated time and setting. That said, its absolute dedication to style hurts legibility. I also didn’t see hyperlinks, and that makes me a slightly annoyed in a book that came out after 2020. And finally, the book is good and gives two new ways to play, with one being a rogue-like adventure method, but it doesn’t give a basic adventure. Give me an adventure I can instantly play with my friends when I buy your setting book! But it needs to be stated, my issues are absolutely with what is not here, because what is here is amazing. 4/5
Summary– Slav Borg is in good company. I love the mechanics that are here. I love adding new crazy things to the world. I love the community that decides to take a rules-light world and just throw the craziest damn things at it. This is a new deep vision of a part of the world that lots of people don’t know about and a way to bring it to light. It’s well done, and everything from the miniatures used in the art to the lovingly crafted gritty story is handcrafted. That commitment to the grit motif does make it harder to read and leaves some explanation out. That’s what hurts the product a bit. But my complaints are that I’m wanting more. What’s here is phenomenal and if you want a Mad Max goblin commie block world where you fight the necromancer to save the soul of your family, then this is the book you need to pick up. 90%
Ring Side Report-Board Game Unboxing and Review of Star Wars: Unlimited!
Throat Punch Games 