Category: Ring Side Report

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Starfinder Adventure Path #40: Planetfall (Horizons of the Vast 1 of 6)

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Product– Starfinder Adventure Path #40: Planetfall (Horizons of the Vast 1 of 6)

System- Starfinder

Producer– Paizo 

Price– $22.99 here https://paizo.com/products/btq026i0/discuss?Starfinder-Adventure-Path-40-Planetfall  

TL; DR– Fun but it can drag if not careful! 87%

Basics–  INTO THE UNKNOWN!  Settle a planet and fend off the wildlife AND the friends you brought along the way in this Kingmaker in Space adventure!

Mechanics or Crunch– This adventure focuses on building and exploring a location.  The problem with this and most other RPGs of this kind is randomness.  Each hex has a random chance to happen there unless something is scripted.  This problem can lead to you having way too many encounters to the point the book even says reduce the experience the players get.  That feels a bit cheap.  Couple that with the fact that there are only eight random encounters means players can get bored quickly with the encounters.  There are scripted events and locations that do make things more fun, but be aware!  It’s fun, but it can get a bit same-y for the fights.  Most of the fun comes from the social and that is done well, but if a party just makes all murder hobos which are excellent in the bush, they will get decimated in town as they will be out maneuvered at every turn by the people they came to lead!   4/5

Theme or Fluff– Just like in the crunch, the story can get same-y if you are not careful.  Depending on how players handle the world, they can spend tons of time just running around in circles exploring the same hexes again and again if they are slow.  The town encounters and managing all the NPCs is the bulk of the story in this one.  There is some toward the end showing the world is more than it might have seemed, but most of the time there is just town and other local claims to deal with as the bulk of the story.  It’s fun, but this is an intro game that will help power level the characters more than dig deep into the story. 4/5

Execution– PDF? Yep.  Hyperlinked?  Yep. Solid Art?  Yep.  Good layout?  Honestly yes.  Paizo does books and adventures well.  Paizo was a publishing company before an RPG company, and honestly that experience shows in a clean book that is easy to read.  5/5

Summary-There is a reason players wanted Kingmaker in space.  You build a location and make it shine!  This book sets the foundation for that, but like all foundations it takes time to set up.  This one is a bit slow and  honestly needs an expanded random encounter table as eight separate things is just not enough.  Give me 20 or give me more set encounters in each place, even if they don’t advance the story!  That right there would lift this WAY up in the ranks as even my players had almost memorized what the D8 meant for the coming encounter!  The story that is here is fun and my players quickly learned to love and HATE some NPCs.  That makes me happy as a GM.  It goes almost without saying that I love Paizo’s bookmanship, so top marks there.  It’s a good adventure that just needs a bit more for the random to keep things a bit more entertaining.  87 %

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Dungeon Crawl Classics Dying Earth #1: The Laughing Idol of Lar-Shann

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Product– Dungeon Crawl Classics Dying Earth #1: The Laughing Idol of Lar-Shann

System- DCC RPG

Producer– Goodman Games

Price– $7 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/393055/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-Dying-Earth-1-The-Laughing-Idol-of-LarShan?affiliate_id=658618  

TL; DR-Solid adventure with a bit of crazy ending. 97%

Basics–  Who wants a drink?  Drawn to a small town where a particularly special liquor is made, you find a massive idol barking orders.  Can you find the liquor before the idol counts down to… something?

Mechanics or Crunch– Ah first level Goodman Game scenarios!  These guys know their mechanics, so everything is solidly done with the right amount of random and fun monsters to fight.  My players and I all had a blast killing monsters, searching, and finding the secrets of the idol.  5/5

Theme or Fluff– Overall this is fun, but I feel the ending gets a bit off.  There are a ton of fun in this  adventure and has some crazy turns that are just perfect for the Dying Earth.  There is one problem with the adventure.  I won’t spoil anything, but I feel like one enemy would not attack the players at the end.  That said, if you run it how you want, it won’t be a problem!.  4.5/5

Execution– PDF? Yep.  Hyperlinked?  Yep. Solid Art?  Yep.  Good layout? Yep!  This is what I expect from a Goodman Games adventure.  Solid work Goodman games!   5/5

Summary–  Ah crazy Dying Earth fun.  This with all the other adventures makes me want to read more Vance.  I love the crunch and the design, but I have a few issues with the ending.  That said, you write your own story as the Judge, so fix it on the fly!  This is a solid adventure that I loved, and I think you will too!  97%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Dungeon Crawl Classics Dying Earth #0: The Black Obelisk

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Product– Dungeon Crawl Classics Dying Earth #0: The Black Obelisk

System- DCC RPG

Producer– Goodman Games

Price– $7 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/393054/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-Dying-Earth-0-The-Black-Obelisk?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR-Short and Sweet! 97%

Basics–  Time for the trip!  You are all traveling for a possibly once in a lifetime religious trip across the dying earth.  Will you survive and thrive or will you die along the way?  What will your god have to say about the things you do along the way?

Mechanics or Crunch– This is a fun multichoice adventure, but it’s short.  There are three paths the players can take, but the paths might need a bit more.  I like what’s here, but if your players don’t roleplay a ton, you will get this done in about two hours.  That’s pretty short!  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff– This does feel like DCC, and now I want to read some Vance.  I didn’t read a ton of Jack Vance before this.  I know its where DnD magic comes from, but that was the extent of my knowledge.  After reading this, I feel its themed enough to feel like a DCC funnel as I kill loads of PCs, but I also feel like I want to learn more about the world this comes from.  5/5

Execution– PDF? Yep.  Funnel?  Yep.  Hyperlinked?  Yep. Solid Art?  Yep.  Good layout?  This is what I expect from Goodman Games and a funnel.  Solid work Goodman games!   5/5

Summary–  This was a fun adventure to get my players into the world of the Dying Earth.  Heck it got ME into the world of the Dying Earth!  I want to read more of this to get deeper in, so mission accomplished there adventure!  The crunch is good with the only real problem being the length of the adventure.  It’s not bad by any stretch, but it is short.  At a con on the last day, that might be a godsend for BOTH the GM and the players as you want to keep having fun, but you need a rest.  But, as a start, it’s a few points off.  That said, if my only real complaint about this product is I want more, then this is a solid product!  97%

Ring Side Report- Escape Room Review of Haunted Halloween Online Escape Room-The Haunting of Emmie Jenkins

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Product– The Haunting of Emmie Henkins

Producer– Masters Of Mystery

Price– $20 here https://mastersofmystery.com/collections/escape-rooms/products/online-escape-room-game-the-haunting-of-emmie-jenkins

TL; DR– Why are we here? 76%

Basics–  They all died but why?  Three bodies found and one ransom note for a fourth, but no murder weapon… why and how?  What happened?  Who did this?  Solve the mystery in under an hour!

Mechanics or Crunch-This escape room had decent puzzles, but a few were completely off and the hints didn’t help.  The first one was one we honestly just brute force solved and we still have NO idea how it happened.  The other ones worked well with a few limited hiccups.  Overall, it was fun, but be prepared to just force a solution.  4/5

Theme or Fluff– So lots of people died and the story to why really doesn’t make sense.  I will not spoil the story, but honestly, it’s just off.  You have scary things, but the “why?” of the plot just didn’t jive with anyone in our group.  We got creeped out in our living room on a Sunday at 4PM in the summer, so that worked, but why we did was more jump scare and less dread.   3/5

Execution-This room worked well, but there are some technical issues.  The mouse is hard to use in a few cases as scrolling and moving are hard to see when the mouse is a different shape, like a large investigating lens.  There were also quite a few editing mistakes that irritated one of my players. What did work well was the Sticky Note function.  Honestly that was a lovely addition.  Another cool thing is some outside game stuff.  That was a fun treat to use.  Overall, a decent execution of the game. 4.5/5

Summary–  I love escape rooms and this is my third fully online escape room.  This isn’t a bad escape room and honestly it was a fun experience.  It just has some issues with the story and one of the puzzles.  Those are some significant issues, but not something that can’t be overcome.  Will I do another by this company? Yes.  The price is fair and you do get to keep going past the house.  We barely solved it in time, so I have that feeling of accomplishment.  I also would suggest this to others, but this might not be my first suggestion.  76%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Outgunned Quickstart

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Product– Outgunned Quickstart

System- Outgunned

Producer– Two Little Mice

Price– $0 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/433185/Outgunned–Quickstart?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR– Shadowrun lite action movie?? 98%

Basics–  Getting too old for this!  Welcome to the world of 80s action movies!  Outgunned is a light weight RPG focused on action movies from the 80s.  Let’s break this down and see what’s up!

Actions and dice rolls- This game has attributes and skills.  When you do anything, you pick an attribute and an associated skill, count the number you have in each, and then roll that many d6s.  This number can never go below 2 and can never go above 9.  Your goal is to get sets of the same number or symbol on the shared dice.  Two is a basic success and three of a kind is a critical.  Most actions you want to do require critical success.

Feats and rerolls-  You further customize your character by getting feats.  These abilities often get you rerolls for specific actions.  You can also reroll dice if you get a basic success to try to get a better success.  BUT, you lose that success if you fail.

Adrenaline-  As story candy!  Adrenaline is the story candy of this game that you earn by acting like your characters.  You can spend one to get an extra die on a roll, one to activate some feats, and you can spend six to get the spotlight.  Spotlight is when you are a god among men doing crazy things, saving lives, ignoring pain, or whatever the heck you want!

Combat rounds-  Combat is very free form in this game.  The heroes take a turn doing anything, and the bad guys respond.  If the heroes succeed on their actions they can do whatever game plan they had or just injure the bad guys.  For the response players need to tell the director/GM how they avoid damage and make a roll.  Failure means losing grit/HP.  There is not a number of bad guys, but instead a giant pool of grit that the bad guys share, so you don’t get one shot kills on bad guys too easily, but you do get an action movie vibe where heroes kill a wave of thugs.

Ok, on to my thoughts.

Mechanics or Crunch– This is a prelaunch for the kickstarter, so you can’t see everything.  But I am intrigued.  The basics of add two numbers, roll that many dice, and count sets is an interesting one.  The bad guy hit point pool is fun and an easy way to keep the action movie feel.  I do have some rules questions on how to do all that, but the full rules will hopefully explain more.  4.75/5

Theme or Fluff– Ya, this feels like an action movie.  I’m honestly surprised there are not that many puns in the book, but it feels like an action movie in terms of the rules, art, and characters.  5/5

Execution– PDF? Yep.  Cheap intro?  Yep.  Hyperlinked?  Yep.  Free adventure?  Yep.  Pregens with nice art?  Yep.  SOLD!  That’s all the things I need out of an intro to get me and my friends to the table.  I read it in about 15 minutes and now I think I could run the provided adventure. 5/5

Summary–  As I get older, rules light and fast is more and more fun.  I also like brainless action movies where bullets and popcorn flow in equal, reckless abandon.  This feels like that.  I have the basic system of Shadowrun (add number and roll d6s) with the simplicity of an indie game.  I have some questions on mechanics, but its a FREE intro.  Those will hopefully be fixed in the full game.  I’m in for the kickstarter, and you reader should at least check out the free PDF.  Solid intro to this game.  98%