Category: Ring Side Report

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%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Alien RPG

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Product– Alien RPG

System- Year Zero Engine

Producer– Free League Publishing

Price– $24 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/293976/ALIEN-RPG-Core-Rulebook?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR– No one can hear you scream how good this is!  98%

Basics– In space, no one can hear you scream!  Alien RPG is a new take on the classic Alien franchise.  Let’s dive into the basics of the game.

Mechanics- This system uses the Year Zero Engine.  Here, you take a specific skill you want to do and the associated trait and roll that many d6’s.  The GM may add or remove dice as the difficulty warrants, but if you roll one 6, you succeed.  Additional 6s add more levels of success.  You do this for everything from fixing a cargo door to shooting a xenomorph.

Stress- The Alien movies are nothing if not stressful!  When you do something, you might fail, and if you do, you can reroll but you gain a different colored d6.  If you roll a 1 on these d6’s you panic and roll a d6 and add your current stress level to that roll.  Roll too high and you can go catatonic to violent to anything in between.  You also gain stress dice when violence happens to you, to seeing androids, to fire full auto into a monster among the stars.

Combat-  This game uses cards to track initiative.  You draw cards at the start of a fight.  There is no rolling for turns.  Each turn on your card time, you can do a slow action and a fast action.  Slow is shooting a gun or fixing a cargo door, while fast is yelling, running, or even pushing the button to open the airlock.  Damage is determined by the weapon you are using minus any armor the creature or person has.  Monsters are interesting in this system as well.  Instead of the GM planning what happens, you roll a d6 when a monster attacks and that die determines what they do.  

Ok, let’s go my thoughts on the system.

Mechanics or Crunch– This is a pretty low crunch system, but that doesn’t make it bad!  What I just told you above gives you enough to jump in and start playing.  You just need a character and two colors of D6s.  It’s fast and lets you focus on the world that is here.  I will admit getting only one talent or a feat for your character is kind of a bit light to me.  I like having lots of fun toys for my character to use to get through the world.  But that is what you get from Year Zero.  I’m glad I get the talents/feats I do, but I would like just a bit more.  In terms of how it fits the world, I love it.  Stress is key in the movies and key here too.  A near perfect fit of mechanics and world.  4.75/5

Theme or Fluff– I love the Alien movies (yes even the bad ones!).  The people who made this did too.  They even reference old books that I thought most people forgot about long ago!  The world is built out a TON in this book.  To the uninitiated, it is WAY more than just Weyland-Yutani and chestbursters, and this book shows that.  Solid world building in this one.   5/5

Execution– PDF? Yep.  Hyperlinked?  Yes! Solid Art?  Yep.  Good layout? Yes. This is the first full book by Free League Publishing, and I have to say I am impressed.  Good layout, good art, good flow, good everything EXCEPT respect for my printer when I try to make pregens from the book.  The Alien world is dark.  That’s ok, but the background of the book is dark as well.  So if you print off characters for your friends, you WILL kill a printer cartridge!  Give me some pregens on nice white paper please!  4.9/5

Summary– I love me some sci-fi, and I don’t think enough is done with it in RPG spaces.  This book brings back the atmosphere of the 80’s Alien to a new decade and with a system that fits well with it.  It also doesn’t fall into any of the 80’s pitfalls of RPG book design and is a solid expression of modern book layout.  My issues are small.  I want more stuff for my characters, and I would like pregens on better, less black intensive sheets.  But, if thats the worst I can say about this, then an empty print carriage is a small price to pay for this awesome book. 98%

Ring Side Report- Pathfinder Adventure Path #165: Eyes of Empty Death (Abomination Vaults 3 of 3)

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Product– Pathfinder Adventure Path #165: Eyes of Empty Death (Abomination Vaults 3 of 3)

System- Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $24 here https://paizo.com/products/btq024xm?Pathfinder-Adventure-Path-165-Eyes-of-Empty-Death 

TL; DR-Solid finish to the AP! 97%

Basics– Time to end this!  Eyes of Empty Death is the finale of the Abomination Vaults adventure path.  You’re DEEP underground and it’s now time to deal with the evils that are rising to destroy Absalom.  What horrors are this far underground?

Mechanics or Crunch– This is another solid Paizo adventure.  Overall, the mechanics worked well and things felt balanced.  There are a few things that I feel need a slightly better explanation like how some elements work during the final fight.  But, those you can hand wave easily enough.  It might not be perfect, but it worked well enough.  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff– This was a fun story overall with extra interesting bits of world lore.  The story had new characters and twists with a crazy ending that the players enjoyed.  There HAS to be a load bearing boss at the end, because I’ve played enough classic Nintendo games to know it must be.  However, all those things just add to the charm of this one. 5/5

Execution– PDF? Yep.  Hyperlinked?  Yes! Solid Art?  Yep.  Good layout? Yes.  It’s a  book by Paizo, so I was never in doubt of the quality.  For 20 bucks as a PDF, you get a lot of nice toys, art, layout, and a solid extra book of maps that you can change levels and elements on.  Overall, this is all the things I wanted from a modern book!  5/5

Summary– This was a solid conclusion to the adventure path, and while well done, if you like it will entirely depend on if you want a dungeon crawl.  The levels are only semi connected and it’s a lot of random between them, but that’s the fun of a dungeon crawl.  You do random stuff and have fun.  I thought it was a well done version of that.  So, if you want a nine level dungeon crawl, here you go! 97%