Category: Ring Side Report

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Don’t Play This Game

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Product– Don’t Play This Game

System- Don’t Play This Game

Producer– Parable Games

Price– Soon on Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/327195066/dont-play-this-game-a-cursed-solo-rpg 

TL; DR– You get out what you put in.  98%

Basics–  DON’T PLAY THIS GAME!  Welp you didn’t listen and now you’re gonna die… or so the game starts.  Don’t Play This Game or DPTG is a solo RPG that relies heavily on your own storytelling power.  It’s got some randomness built in, but often it’s you building a story from the world around you or the fake world around you as you fight the entity that has come for you!  You play you, a version of you that you want to exist, or some pretend person.  That person is attacked by an entity that is after you for…. Some Reason.  That’s where the fun really comes in.  This game has some random tables and events.  You move between an event that might be a funeral to a dream and then use a random table to build out the event a bit more.  As you go through the events, DPTG has you write down information, take pictures of things, or even physically go to a place a do something (nothing crazy but maybe find a book at the library or take a picture of a place your character woke up at after a dream).  As you go through the story it has several questions that help you build out your own story.  This is VERY much a collaborative storytelling game with the designer.

Mechanics or Crunch– Mechanically this is a VERY simple game, but it’s not built to redefine how we roll a d20.  The game has some random tables built in and some fights and events are just random rolls to see if you lose some health/sanity from an event.  You have less control over the dice than you do in DnD, but there are some things you can do like use items, burn through resources, and even sacrifice friends!  It’s simple and that might turn off some players, but if you are ok with sometimes the dice screwing you, you will have fun! 4.75/5

Theme or Fluff– DPTG is a solid story that I told to myself.  This is something I have to emphasize-you and the writer are telling a story together.  If you want a complete adventure where you read box text to your friends, this is not for you.  If you want a choose your own adventure game where you read box text to yourself, this is not for you.  Consider this almost like story prompts as you co-write with Charlie and Barney Menzies.  They have major set piece ideas and you either randomly go to different ones or they give you a leading sentence and you build from there.  It’s a fun bit of collaborative storytelling.  I have a story that happened in my head that was a fun afternoon building.  And honestly that was a fun way to spend the time.  5/5

Execution– This book is well put together.  It’s a hyperlinked PDF that reads easily, with solid layout and formatting as well as pictures to break up the text.  Parable did a solid job making this book and I didn’t have to squint or move around the tablet at all kinds of crazy angles to read it.  I simply loved what they put together.  5/5

Summary– I am going to recommend this book to everyone, but with a hefty bit of discussion.  DPTG is not a lot of things.  It’s not a canned adventure.  Love those, but this is not something you just buy and run on a friday night after beer and pizza.  This also isn’t a choose your own adventure book.  This is telling a story to yourself as you get story prompts from Charlie and Barney with random dice rolls thrown in for good measure.  It could honestly lead to you writing a solid book.  I had an adventure where swirling darkness that looked like Freddy started following me after my Grandfather died and he sent me a music box and I fought the darkness in a burned out factory on the edge of my town and I ended up hitting it with my car and barely surviving because I wouldn’t sacrifice my wife to it.  Man is she gonna be pissed that I totaled my car!  You won’t have that adventure.  Heck you can read the exact same thing I did and have a COMPLETELY different story and thats the beautiful thing.  I’m looking forward to a longer story and crazier stuff happening as you build a story.  The full game has you do part of the story and literally hand off stuff to a friend who continues the RPG.  What my wife does when I wake up from the hospital after I’m found in the burnt out factory with a totaled car would make for a fun sequel, or her strangling me with a pillow.  Either way I’m invested and suggest you check this one out as well, if it fits your gaming tastes. 98%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Starfinder Beginner Box

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Product– Starfinder Beginner Box

System- Starfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $29.99 here https://miniature-market.sjv.io/GmOnOE 

TL; DR– Good with a few issues 90%

Basics–  To the stars!  The Starfinder Beginner Box is the intro box for the Starfinder RPG, walking players through some basic character generation, how to play, and an intro adventure.  It also provides dice, maps, and cardboard standees.

Mechanics or Crunch– What’s here is good, but is is missing a few key things.  The walkthrough of how to play is a solid introduction to the game.  But, and it’s a big but, it does leave out several things like starship combat.  I LOVE Starfinder so that’s something that I think needs to be shown off.  Also, as the GM, some of the skills are mislabeled.  The skills that are used are simplified versions of the main skills to make life a bit easier for new players and GMs, but I feel that kind of handicaps the learning experience.  That all said, it does work well and is a decent introduction to the system. 4.25/5

Theme or Fluff– The box set gives a solid introduction to the world and system, if a bit stifled.  You get enough, but the adventure is a dungeon crawl.  Not bad, but a bit simplified for an adventure.  There are some social interactions, but I’d like more.  The Pathfinder 2nd ed. Beginner box has two whole levels of dungeon, and I feel this was just a bit short.  It works well, but I wanted more. 4.25/5

Execution– What’s here is fantastic.  I love the maps, standees, and books.  Everything that is included is done well.  Solid work!  5/5

Summary-This is a good, if short, introduction to Starfinder.  I like what’s here, but just need more.  I want a short space shootout.  I want more social.  I want full skills,not simplified ones.  But those are small wants compared to my friends who learned the system quickly from the box, and myself who was able to GM a game on the fly with minimal prep using this starter set.  It’s good, but you will learn more when you buy the full book.  90%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Blade Runner RPG: Starter Set

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Product– Blade Runner RPG: Starter Set

System- Year Zero

Producer– Free League Publishing

Price– $35.99 here https://miniature-market.sjv.io/nLo07a 

TL; DR-Solid value for a solid adventure 95%

Basics–  Can you find her in time and why did she run?  The Blade Runner Start Set is a single contained adventure and all the materials you need to play the Blade Runner RPG.  It comes with dice, four characters, turn and combat cards, a basic rule book, a scenario book, and a whole packet of handouts..

Mechanics or Crunch– Any starter set that comes with a rulebook and a whole adventure is built well. You get all the rules you basically need and you can honestly start playing after about 30 minutes of reading. There is one issue I have and that’s chase mechanics in this box. You get chase cards and scenarios if you drive, but the mechanics for just running are not covered as well. It’s small, but you’re playing cops pursuing escaping robots; running will happen!  Aside from that, this will get you playing Blade Runner fast and with a surprising amount of depth for a starter set.  4.75/5

Theme or Fluff– While this starter set can’t build as much of the world as the core book, this set does give enough background and comes with an awesome story with lots of handouts to draw the players in. It’s a mystery where a replicant goes missing and your job is to track her down.  Along the way, there are twists and turns as well as corporate meddling, so it’s a standard cyberpunk story but a well done one.  My one issue is that a character does something that the players might not understand, and I feel it’s not led up to enough.  That said, it has enough of a hook and solid writing to make it a fun intro to the world. 4.5/5

Execution– Execution is the stand out section of the product.  The box is well done, the books are well written, and the handouts, cards, and dice are all top notch.  I absolutely loved all the pieces in this box, and it really helped draw my players in too.  5/5

Summary-I do love me some cyberpunk noir.  The Blade Runner movies did it well, and this starter set is a solid addition to those stories.  There are minor issues like food, chase cards and mechanics and some minor story issues that I felt were not emphasized enough, but overall if you want to start playing Blade Runner, this might be a better start than the core book.  The starter set adventure ends with teasing the next adventure, and I plan to buy and run that one when it’s out.  95%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Blade Runner RPG Core Rulebook

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Product– Blade Runner RPG Core Rulebook

System- Year Zero

Producer– Free League Publishing

Price– $24.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/399929/Blade-Runner-RPG-Core-Rulebook?affiliate_id=658618  

TL; DR-Another surprisingly well done year zero system.  99%

Basics–  The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs…. Time to track down those replicants or be one!  Let’s look at how to play.

Mechanics- Ah Year Zero… the system that Free League uses for everything, but is never quite the same.  This one uses attributes and skill dice for each roll.  Each thing you want to do be it hack a computer or shoot a guy is grab the attribute and the skill die for the activity and roll.  Dice range from d6 to d12, but you do not use the basic number!  What you do is check if you roll a 6 to 9 or 10 to 12.  A 6 to 9 is one success, and a 10 to 12 is two successes.  Doing a thing requires one success.  Criticals have two successes.  Slick and simple!

Rerolls-  Rerolls and player control are the parts of the Year Zero system that mostly stay the same between all the different games they produce.  If you want to reroll a physical thing, you reroll and if you roll a 1 on any die you take a point of physical damage.  Do a mental thing, and you take stress damage on a 1.  Humans can only reroll once, but replicants can reroll twice.  However, replicants ALWAYS take stress on their 1s.  This is bad – if you hit enough stress you basically need a reboot and your max stress can PERMANENTLY be reduced!  But, the choice is always yours to make!

Combat- Another thing that is the same across Year Zero systems is combat and rounds.  At the start of combat, players and the GM draw cards from 1 to 10.  Players then take their turns doing simple things like moving and more complex things like attacking.  Actions like attacking are handled just like any other roll described above.  The more interesting thing is that weapons do a set amount of damage, and any two or more successes is a critical. Each weapon has a set critical die with rolls on that die above 10 resulting in instant death!  Guns are VERY deadly!

Ok, Let’s discuss.

Mechanics or Crunch– I love the Year Zero system.  I don’t know if I’ve ever honestly seen it entirely, as every Year Zero system uses a COMPLETELY different set of dice and die mechanics, but be it a pile of d6s, a single d20, or different skill dice, I LOVE it.  It’s complex enough to build fun characters and simple enough to play fast with enough depth to keep even my Shadowrun loving self engaged.  I also like player choice. This system always gives the players the option to do something, even on failure, and the story keeps rolling.  The total package builds toward a fun system to dive into quickly, but you’ll find a lot to play with when you are there.  5/5

Theme or Fluff– Free League does their homework.  Blade Runner is a dark, fun cyberpunk romp, but if you JUST saw the two movies you would miss large amounts of material.  Free League did not do that.  They dug deep into some crazy pieces, and there is a whole world that is out there now.  Most adventures are gonna be against the corporation and world of the movies because that’s what your players know.  But if you want more, there is a whole world to see there and Free League wrote that for you to find.  5/5

Execution– This book is well done with one small thing that drives me up a wall.  First the good.  It’s hyperlinked, laid out well, reads easily, and the art fits the aesthetic.  This is a solid, well done book.  What drives me crazy is the way the die system is discussed.  You have a d6, d8, d10, and d12.  The books refers to them as rank, D, C, B, and A. So, the GM screen needs to have a table on it so you can change back and forth from letters to dice.  Just use the dice and leave it out.  This drives me up a wall, but honestly, this complaint feels like being mad that they changed the color of the toilet paper in your favorite restaurant.  If you get past my one crazy hangup, you will enjoy this book’s production.  4.9/5

Summary– I love this book.  It’s got a simple, yet interesting system with a solid world and story put together in an excellently made product.  I have my own idiosyncrasies, but if you want a dark, gritty detective story in a cyberpunk world with no magic, I would easily suggest this to anyone.  Keep in mind, though, that this is not a big damn heroes game.  Like the movies, this is a world without happy endings.  If that’s not your preference in a game, then I would pass this by.  I enjoy a good sad story, so this is one that I will bring to the table. 99%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Shadow of the Weird Wizard

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Product– Weird Wizard Quick Play

System- Shadow of the Demon Lord

Producer– Schwalb Entertainment

Price– FREE here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/447890/Weird-Wizard-Quick-Play?cPath=46428?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR-Classic fantasy from the Schwalb?! 100%

Basics– We must face the weird wizard!  Shadow of the Weird Wizard is Shadow of the Demon Lord brought to a much more traditional and family friendly world from Robert Schwalb.  Let’s break down the quick start and then the review!

Mechanics- This is classic Shadow of the Demon Lord game play.  It’s d20 based but numbers are MUCH smaller than your classic DnD 3.5.  Bonuses to rolls are attribute – 10.  A 12 means you get a +2 to the roll and a 7 would mean a -3.  If things are good you get boons where you roll a d6 and add, and banes are roll a d6 and subtract.  You get the sum total of boons and banes together and you get a total of up to 3d6 taking the best/worst to any roll.

Combat- Schwalb’s games are not crunch forward.  It’s VERY quick!  Monsters go, then players go.  Each turn you get a move and an action.  Interestingly enough, most dice rolls are either a d20 or a d6. 

Ok, Let’s discuss.

Mechanics or Crunch– I will admit my bias here, but I love Shadow of the Demon Lord’s simplicity.  You won’t have 20 pages of character sheet at level 10 (as high as this system goes), but you also get to play and understand quickly.  But, it is a choice.  If you need 20 different levels to pull in your game, this won’t be the system for you.  Me?  I love my 500 points of character building in Shadowrun and love my 1 die systems, so this is just a well done, slick system that will have you playing in under 10 minutes.  Aside from that, the other controversy here is game length.  Each session you level up.  So if you start out level 0, you get about 11 sessions to play.  That seems way too short, but in a conversation with the man himself, he brought up that most game groups might not even last that long till life takes them apart.  His focus is on much more tight stories that you can complete.  And again, that won me over.  5/5

Theme or Fluff– This is the most controversial part of Schwalb’s work, but this system doesn’t do what we would expect here.  Weird Wizard is MUCH more traditional fantasy than Demon Lord.  Demon Lord I felt was a bit more gothic and MUCH MUCH More grotesque.  Now I love me some off the wall Schwalb based horror, but I can see how that would be too much for some people.  This isn’t that.  This feels much more in line with your classic fantasy.  It’s got some interesting elements with the fey, but it’s wizards doing strange things and having to be put down.  And given what I’ve seen it looks like it will be a fun ride along the way.   5/5

Execution– This is a free product, but it does give a bit of what to expect in the final production.  It’s pretty bland in terms of art, but again it’s there for a system intro.  And I have to say, I like it.  The art of the kickstarter is good, so if that’s an indication of a full product, I’m happy.  The other books have hyperlinks, art, and all the things I now require to be happy.  For a free product, this points in a solid direction.  5/5

Summary– Pretty much whenever Schwalb puts out a kickstarter, I drop about 100 bucks getting all the digital toys.  And this is no different.  I love the simplicity of the system and the craziness of the world that is built.  It’s interesting to discuss a new project where the controversy might be the lack of that gore/craziness.  If you want a game you can play with the kids,  those of a less cast iron stomach, or those who just want to be regular fantasy knights and dragon slaying heroes, then this is your game.  A more traditional world with Schwalb’s simple mechanics, and solid production gets you VERY far with this product and I can’t recommend it enough.  Check out this free product.  100%