Category: Ring Side Report
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!
Ring Side Report-Board Game Unboxing and Review of Star Wars: The Deck Building Game
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Mork Borg
Product– Mork Borg
System- Mork Borg
Producer– Free League Publishing
Price– $19.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/295910/Mork-Borg-English?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR– Death Metal DCC RPG mixed with Cypher system set in Dark Souls. 90%
Basics– Hear the call of the double two-headed basilisk! Mork Borg is an old school RPG with themes that feel like you’re playing in an 80s death metal album covers. Let’s break this game down.
Basics- This is a d20 rpg. Your character has four stats and you roll 3d6 for each and use a chart to determine your bonuses for each stat. From then on you will use the bonus for each statistic and roll a d20 with it for any test. The default test success result is a 12.
Combat and Rounds- Each round of combat is about six seconds. This is a VERY old school game as someone rolls a d6. Roll high, the players go first as a group, and low the enemies go first as a group. Each round, each character gets on action and a move. That’s it. What’s interesting is the GM really doesn’t roll dice. You attack with a bow? Roll presence+d20 with a DC of 12. You are attacked? Roll agility+d20 DC 12 to not get hit That’s it. It is NOT a deep crunchy system. If you hit or are hit, you roll damage dice and take that much damage.
Classes- There are a few presented classes. These classes give you hit points and different abilities. These are pretty random like most of the system.
Powers- Characters can gain powers. These are either holy or sacred spells. You can use them a number of times per day equal to d4+presence. These allow you to do attacks, talk with animals, or any of a handful of different abilities.
Morale- Monsters run. If they are hurt enough or the leader dies, the may bolt. When they are dealt enough damage or enough of their friends die, someone rolls 2d6. If the result is over their morale, they monsters either run or surrender.
Monsters- Monsters are simple with a number of hit points, a morale score, abilities, and damage for attacks. Each has a beautifully horrible picture.
Alright, thats the basics, let’s dig in.
Mechanics or Crunch– This is a VERY rules-light RPG. You already know almost everything you need to play. It’s not deep, but it works. Some things are not described well though. That’s kind of intentional as this is much more a fun, gritty RPG and not a deep musing on the human condition. It’s much more a SOLID OSR game where you know how to play since you’ve got dice older than some of the kids at the table. But, that rules light approach makes it harder to start playing. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– If this game goes deep into one thing, it’s the theme. This game feels like what Dark Souls wants to be. It’s gritty, it’s dark, and it has mysteries wrapped in mysteries and isn’t afraid to make it harder to play to make the atmosphere perfect for the game. It really does feel like playing DnD in a death metal cover. 5/5
Execution– I like this game, but the commitment to theme hurts presentation. The book is hyperlinked. So, it’s good. But the commitment to the zine and hard core metal makes it hard to follow everything. Also, the reliance on audience assumption of how games work is maybe a bit too much. I know what I am doing, because I’ve gamed for over 20 years, but newer players will be completely lost. 4/5
Summary– Mork Borg is an artist committing to their vision. The game itself is exactly what these people wanted. It’s light on rules and deadly without being a slog to play. The theme is exactly the dark world they wanted with enough places to play and explore. That commitment is admirable, but it does take away from the ease of getting into the game if you don’t know what OSR is or how to play old school DnD. It’s a bit of an ask for new players, but for the old grognards like me I understand what they are aiming for. I like what’s here but if you’re newer to RPGs, then ask your older Forever DM friend and we’ll blare some Cannibal Corpse and show you a good time! 90%
Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Mich in the Downgeon
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Distal RPG Preview
Product– Distal RPG
System- Distal RPG
Producer– Wrel
Price– free here https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/wrel/distal
TL; DR– DCC and DnD5e had a more realistic baby! 93%
Basics– For Edervale! Distal is a new RPG currently being kickstarted. The writer has provided a MASSIVE preview that includes a lot of character options, several pregens, and even a short adventure. Let’s break it down for a review.
Basics- This is a d20 rpg. You have five statistics and a combination of 20 skills and knowledges. When you want to do anything, it’s D20 plus the statistic for checks or D20 plus the statistics and the bonus for the knowledge or skill. That’s it. Common things are a DC8 most are a DC10, and things can get EXTREMELY hard with some things being a DC22.
Dice steps- Like DCC RPG, this system uses dice steps. Distal sticks to normal dice with the dice chain being d4-d6-d8-d10-d12. No funky dice here!
Character creation- This system has a ton of options and a ton of randomness if you want it. Characters choose a race/lineage and a class. There is also a background. Backgrounds provide what you would expect: additional skills, items, and knowledges based on the life events you experienced. What makes them interesting is you can also randomly roll on several charts to randomly build a background! No traveler death during character creation though!
Combat- Combat is round based, but not based on your normal initiative score. After the GM determines who has the drop on the other side, each side does one action, then the other side does an action, alternating between the two. Characters get the expected actions in a combat round with a move, an action, and smaller things like techniques that are quick actions. In addition to the checks above, characters have an attack bonus based on their class, and it’s just D20 plus that bonus to attack. Damage is dice based like DnD with bonuses based on your statistics. The interesting change here is damage reduction with armor. Armor doesn’t really provide a bonus to defense, but reduces damage taken. Each armor provides a damage reduction die. If you roll a 1 on that die, then you don’t reduce much damage and the die gets one step smaller. Go too small and the armor is completely broken!
Willpower- Characters have willpower dice as part of their character class. These dice are gained at the start of combat and through other events, or as my favorite: story candy and buying the GM beer. When a character wants to add just an extra bit of extra to a D20 roll, a character can spend willpower and roll their willpower die to add the result to their total.
Magic- Magic is very similar to DnD5e. Characters either prepare spells once a day or know so many depending on their level. In either case, the caster can cast so many a day depending on their level and then they are out for the day. Characters might not be able to cast a lot of spells, but spells are extremely powerful with the ability to easily kill a first level character straight out!
Death- Death is PERMANENT! There is no resurrection. If your guy dies, hes dead! You do get deathmarks, however. When you drop to zero hit points, you begin to die and take a deathmark. These build up as you continue to die and each time you fall down again. You can remove some as you relax, but get too many and eventually you will not be able to get back up again, EVER!
Alright, thats the basics, let’s dig in.
Mechanics or Crunch– This is an interesting RPG. It is not a copy of either DCC or DnD5e. It is VERY close to both, but in good ways. It’s not brutal nor gritty, but it is more realistic as damage hurts bad and death is close. The mechanics are simple. Maybe a bit too simple and you don’t get a ton of skills, but that’s by design. Combat is not too simple, but simple enough to make the game flow easily. Overall, it’s good, but not the most original RPG this year. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– The fluff of this world is interesting. The preview doesn’t provide everything for good reason, but what is presented is good. It might not be the most original setting as it feels like many of the classic RPG setting pieces I know and love. It sticks with the more usual suspects like undead, monsters, and dudes with militaries being the bad guys, but those are fun things to smack back into place to save the world. Not the most original setting, but still a fun place to play. 4.5/5
Execution– This is a solid preview. There an OVER 100 PAGE document showing the system and world WITH HYPERLINKS! There is a full adventure with at least four premade characters. This is exactly what I want when I see a new RPG kickstarter. It’s new, but shows what’s to expect. I love what I’m seeing, AND IT’S ALL FOR FREE!. 5/5
Summary– Used to love DnD5e and I love DCC. This RPG is a solid mix of those two right down the middle. Simple mechanics with just a D20 plus numbers, but skills and knowledges for all. A simple world where there are bad guys and how the world addresses that. It’s the most new in any category, but it is done well. I can already see the first source book as the one group is summoning undead and those undead are running around, and I didn’t see a player character undead race. Given what I’ve seen, this will turn out to be a solid RPG that will get my silly friends to be a bit more serious and my serious friends to play a bit more loose! 93%
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Knight: An Avalon RPG Quick Start
Product– Knight: An Avalon RPG quickstart
System- Knight: An Avalon
Producer– Antre Monte Editions
Price– free here https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/all-about-games-consulting/knight-rpg
TL; DR– Power Rangers meets Dark Horror with NEON! 97%
Basics– Let’s cancel the Apocalypse! Knight: An Avalon RPG is a near modern day retelling of Camelot with men and women donning power armor to kill horrors out of the dark. Let’s break this down.
Basics- This is a d6 rpg. Your character has five aspects with three characteristics under each aspect for a total of 15 skills. When you want to do anything, you total the correct aspect with the correct characteristic and roll that many dice. Each even result is success and each odd is a failure. If you hit the correct amount of successes determined by the GM for the thing you are attempting to do, you succeed. A good aspect is a five and your off aspects are about threes with your characteristics ranging from one to three most of the time. The normal difficulty is three successes. No success at all is critical failure, while all success is a great feat/critical success.
Combat- Combat is round based and mostly theater of the mind. You have initiative which is 3d6+ an initiative score. Each round a character gets a move and an action with some reactions. When you attack a target you are aiming at the defense score for melee and at a reaction score for ranged combat. Here is the fun meat and potatoes of the game. You are not just a dude with a gun fighting horrors, you are a guy/gal in power armor. Your power armor has a force field that subtracts from all damage dealt to you. After that, you have armor points which act as the armor’s hit points and for every 10 the armor loses, you lose one of yours as you get battered around in the suit. Once the suit’s taken enough damage, it retracts and you’re just a guy/gal fighting the horrors of the dark!
Suit powers- Your suit has powers as well and these are fueled with the suits energy points. This works just like magic points in any RPG as you spend as much as you want until the suit is tapped out and you’re just left with your guns, fists, and harsh language.
Hope- Hope is sanity in this game. As you experience the horrors in the dark, you have to make checks to see if you lose hope. If you lose all your hope, you effectively die as you just become an agent of the darkness.
Heroism- Story candy! Heroism is the story candy of this game where you get it for story reasons or just being the guy/gal to buy pizza that week. It lets you reroll dice, avoid dying, not lose hope, or any other cool thing that the GM lets you do.
Alright, thats the basics, let’s dig in.
Mechanics or Crunch– This game plays like a strange version of Shadowrun and that’s a good thing. This is a VERY crunchy game with piles of d6s being thrown at a problem. I like that. Some things feel a bit inconsistent, like choosing DCs. When I want to do something opposed by a bad guy, the DC is half their relevant ability, but you do not do that for their defense stats. That feels just a tiny bit off. Not enough that it will keep me away, however. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– Want gritty power rangers with rampant evils of capitalism and magic crap all over? Yep, I do too. That’s what this game feels like. Do you remember the 90s TV cartoon where football players went back and were working for Merlin with magic power armor? Mix that with a little Clive Barker and TONS of neon light tracery, and you get this. Yes, I want that. 5/5
Execution– This is well done and almost perfect for a crowd-funded project. There is a 30+ page book with art, a basic walkthrough of the game, and a short adventure WITH five premade characters. My ONE issue is that there is no hyperlinking. But it’s 30 pages and free. If I wanted to play it with friends, it took me 30 minutes to read through cover to cover and have enough of an idea how to play and run. That’s a hell of an introduction. 5/5
Summary– I grew up in the 90s and am a sucker for any power armor heroes. I also loved the Matrix and Dark City. This is that in a blender. I have some slight reservations about how numbers are calculated, but that’s not enough to keep me away. This is one to check out as it’s free, and in my opinion well worth your time. 97%
Ring Side Report-RPG Unboxing and Review of Let’s Go! To Japan!
Throat Punch Games 