Category: Ring Side Report

Ring Side Report-RPG Review of AMP: Year One and Attack of the Buzz

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 1 Comment

Product– AMP: Year One

Producer– Third Eye Games

Price– ~$15 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/132784/AMP-Year-One

TL; DR– Want some amazingly customizable superheroes? Look here! 93%

 

Basics– When they showed up, everything changed.  AMP is a near future, heroic RPG.  Players take the roles of super humans in 2015.  The mutants have only been around and in large numbers for about a year, and the world isn’t really read for what they have to offer.  Will you fight to save mankind or destroy it?  Are you here to put these monsters in their place or will you stand with the mutants?  All of these are important questions that you will have to answer as you struggle to find where you fit in.

 

Mechanics or Crunch-This is a new RPG theme and with a ton of new mechanics.  Let’s do a rundown of some of the high points that are offer.

Base mechanic-This game has echoes of its d20 past, and I mean that in a good way.  Everything in this game is a d20 + skill A + skill B or d20 + 1 1/2 skill A.  That’s it.  It’s simple, it’s quick, and it’s fun to play.  Want to treat an animal’s wound?  That’s a d20 + beast handling + medicine.  Want to shoot a gun?  That’s d20 +marksmanship*1.5.  Simple enough.  It only gets slow when both the target and the attacker have to roll to determine if a hit is a success.  In my game, I found myself just saying 10 plus the skills for the attack or defense.  That change made my game run just a bit quicker.

Character Generation-This character generation is complex but has several walkthroughs.  This is a true everything point by.  You can really screw up your character if you try to min/max and fail horribly!  Everything from your speed, to your health, to your attacks is all bought via points.  You don’t have to take any points in speed, but you will move really slowly.  I love this style of customization, but newer RPG players really need to look over the example characters to make a useable character.  Unlike DnD5e where you make about five choices, when you make your character in AMP, you have at least 20+ decisions to make.  It’s easy to do as the math of the system doesn’t operate like the point buy from Shadowrun 4e, but don’t expect your first character to be made in five minutes.

Loyalties-One thing I wanted to point out from the character generation was loyalties.  This game has lots of different themes that are really well integrated into the mechanics.  One way that is done is with loyalties.  When you make a character you decide how important various aspects of your life are.  These range from your community, yourself, and to lovers you may have.  Each rank in these provides in game bonuses with ranks varying from rank zero to rank five.  I like the addition of mechanical benefits from role-playing choices, and these loyalty ranks really provide that connection.

Powers-It wouldn’t be a superhero RPG without superhero powers.  Powers come from several different general areas ranging from batteries (you store up energy) to behemoths (you are the Hulk!).  These powers all have augmentations that provide extra benefits like the behemoth has the crush augmentation that adds extra damage on melee attacks or the bolt ability which allows you to fire elemental blasts at people.  Most of these powers are dependent to on Juice.  Juice can be thought of as adrenalin, and it powers the superpowers of the heroes and villains.  Each broad category has a number of smaller augments that you get as you level up in the power.  Some categories have several different augmentations, while some only have a few.  It’s a quick and easy way to broadly provide the foundation for lots of different hero powers, options, and flavors.  Some of the names might be somewhat confusing, but looking over the powers the descriptions provide the rules and the story to how each power works.

Summary-The mechanics of this book are well done.  The game provides near endless customization and the ability to create the heroes and villains you want to be and see.  The new ideas such as the loyalties are excellent mechanics that other RPGs should employ that really developed the mechanics and the theme together.  However, this isn’t perfect.  Some aspects are a tad fiddly such as rolling for both attack and defense on both sides of the GM screen.  It’s not the worst thing in the world, but sometimes dealing with the amount of rolling in combat can be annoying.  Also, character generation is somewhat difficult.  If you know what you’re doing, you get all the tools you need to make any hero, but if you are just by yourself readying a character for a friend’s game, you might be lost in the amount of options you have to choose from.  4.75/5

 

Theme or Fluff- The basic story of AMP year One is that after World War I governments around the world worked on a super soldier project to stop war altogether.  Over the generations, the children of the experiments developed these super powers and passed them on.  Now, lots of super powered people are emerging.  How will the world change because of this?  What kind of person will you be?  This is a standard comic book intro, and this is semi-cheesy.  But, its super powered people.  You have to expect a little cheese in that territory.  Just look at the number to times Batman has died and come back to understand.  While it might not be my absolute favorite intro story, it does leave a lot of room for the GM to design a story in the near future world of 2015.  The first half of the book describes the history of the future, and provides lots of different story hooks as well as doing an excellent job of introducing the various groups at play in the lives of the mutants. Does this feel like the X-Men?  Good!  This RPG specifically mentions that as one of the main inspirations behind the themes of the game.  And since there is no currently published X-Men RPG out there, this is the best solution if you want to play in that world.  I think AMP does a great job driving home its theme while providing lots of different stories for the GM to run. 4.75.5

 

Execution– AMP is done fairly well.  The powers section is a bit wordy, but all the powers get nice flow charts explaining what augments you have to take to take the next one.  A little more art would be nice as well as color, but for a black and white book, it’s done really well.  The font, words, and layout all work well, and the hyperlinks don’t make my iPad slow to a crawl.  I would have liked a few more pre-generated antagonists for the PCs to face as well as a better guide on how to generate encounters.  But, on the whole this is a well done book that was fun to read. 4.5/5

 

Summary-If you want to play a free form superhero RPG?  Then, pick up this book.  The mechanics are simple, the powers work well, and the execution is great.  I have my minor gripes, but overall, this is a fun super hero RPG that isn’t too crazy or cheesy.  The world is fresh and interesting while providing enough open-endedness to give the GMs free reign in the stories they want to tell.  I was actually pretty entertained by the story that this book had to tell.  Since the tile of the book is AMP Year One, I hope the authors keep up with other AMP books or splat books to keep the metastory going.  93 %

 

How about two products today?  Here is the first adventure for the AMP Year One RPG-Attack of the Buzz!

 

Product– Attack of the Buzz

Producer– Third Eye Games

Price– ~$3 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/137727/Attack-of-the-Buzz-Adventure-for-AMP-Year-One

TL; DR– Know your group, and this will be a blast. 90%

 

Basics- Alice, Texas is under attack! Not by the mutants that are running around but by bees! Hundreds have died, and no one knows why the bees won’t give up attacking people.  Can you and the other AMPs you travel with find out how to prevent the bees from killing the town or will you end up like the rest of the town?

 

Mechanics or Crunch-The adventure is a fun one, but there are some problems depending on who is playing.  This isn’t a bad adventure for mechanics as everything presented makes sense in the AMP work and is balanced, but bees are swarms.  And, swarms are always hard to fight.  Especially with new characters.  Some characters will be completely useless for some of the major scenes in this adventure.  If you have a super computer hacker, then that character will spend most of his/her time running from the bees.  It’s a bold move for the first adventure put out by a system to feature swarms as the main villain, and I think it hurts the fun a bit.  However, the adventure does provide some new powers as well some equipment to help smart players.  What’s here is good, but the mileage your players will get out of the module really depends on who is at the table. 4/5

 

Theme or Fluff-This is one of the major events in the AMP Year One story.  My players enjoyed being part of the world and solving a major mystery that is presented in the main book.  It was fun for the players to work out how to solve some problems as well as fighting for their lives!  Also, the major groups all have reasons to send characters to this location helps me as a GM bring all the players to this location while still allowing the players to be whatever they want to be.  I didn’t feel like I had to shoehorn my players into this one size fits all adventure. 5/5

 

Execution-This product was laid out like the AMP Year One core book.  Overall, that’s good as I like the text, font, and layout, but I felt this lacked a few things.  Alice, Texas doesn’t have a map.  That was somewhat troubling.  However, I did like the fact that there is some new art like the main villain and the bees attacking the town. The art was well done, conveyed the sense of terror from a bee swarm attacking people, but didn’t go gory.  The RPG was still pretty age neutral, and that makes the super hero genera fun.  I would have liked a bit more art, but for the price of the module, it’s worth it.  4.5/5

 

Summary-As a mod that’s a cold intro to the system, this one might not be favorite.  The main enemies that are thrown against the player are kind of hard to deal with when players have limited resources and powers.  That said, if your players know that swarms are a problem here and they can plan accordingly, then this is a fun module.  I’d like a bit more to the module like a map, but for the price, I had fun and so did my players.  It’s a quicker mod as it doesn’t have tons of scenes, but that’s not a large problem.  If you need your AMP fix and want to learn one of the major secrets in the AMP world, this is a great way to get some more of the system. 90%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Among the Stars

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Product– Among the Stars

Producer– Stronghold Games

Price– ~$50 here http://www.amazon.com/Among-The-Stars-Card-Game/dp/B00KD4LN36/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413249689&sr=8-1&keywords=among+the+stars

Set-Up/Play/Clean-Up-One Hour (2-4 players)

TL; DR– Builds well on the drafting mechanic with a fun theme 97%

 

Basics– The galactic war is over, but how will peace proceed?  In Among the Stars players take the roles of different alien races building a communal space station to serve as neutral territory after an intergalactic apocalypse.  Players build their space stations over four rounds.  Each round a player receives some location tiles. Each turn, a player selects one tile and can either pay to build that location, discard it for money, or discard it to buy and build a reactor (some tiles need power that reactors provide).  Then, all players will pass the remaining tiles to either the right or the left.  The player then builds onto his or her station or collects money.  Some locations give instant points while others provide points at the end of the game.  A round continues until you only have two location tiles left.  After selecting your last tile, you discard the other, receive a new hand of tiles, and the game continues.  After three more rounds, the player with the most points wins.

 

Mechanics-I love drafting games.  I love planning and tile laying games.  This combines them booth beautifully.  Each choice you make maters and you never feel like you can’t do something.  Also, the alien races provide interesting powers that help you plan your moves.  This game feels like a combination of Suburbia, Carcassonne, and Seven Wonders, and that’s great company to be in. 5/5

 

Theme- The theme is good here, but not perfect.  The basic story is the alien races declared peace after a giant war.  The instruction book does an excellent job explaining all the nuances of the war and the races which I enjoyed.  However, the fact that this isn’t a co-op game loses some of the theme for me.  The story of cooperation is somewhat lost when the different races have to fight over who builds the better station.  I love the details and art that build this world, but the story and the mechanics fight at bit in the execution. 4.5/5

 

Instructions-The instructions are well written and easily describe the game.  The mechanics are not difficult to understand, and the rules explain them well.  After the rules, the book spends most of its time describing the game universe.  Since this world is well developed, it’s a nice addition to the game and the story you get to play in. 5/5

 

Execution-I like the tiles, I like the art, and I like the pieces.  The components are all well done.  I would have liked a bag to shuffle the tiles in, as it’s always harder to shuffle tiles compared to cards.  But, what is here is well done. 4.8/5

 

Summary– A friend of mine brought this game with him when he stayed at my house for a weekend.  I played once and asked my local gaming store to pick this up right away.  It’s a great game that has a lot of replay.  The randomness of the tiles and the different races all provide a different experience each time you play it.  The story might not be perfect, but it does draw you in a bit.  The mechanics are a combination of all the things I love to make something better.  You can’t go wrong with this game. 97%

Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Trail By machine

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Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-01: Trail by Machine

Producer– Paizo

Price– ~$4

System-Pathfinder

TL; DR– Good intro to the Year of the Sky Key, but some plot flaws. 97 %

 

Basics– Pathfinders-time for some basic training!  Go to the old Red Redoubt and survive a few simple tests of pathfinder skills.  All goes well until something mysteriously sets off the eons old redoubt powering up motors long dead.  Can you figure out the ancient, yet futuristic technology of the Red Redout of Karamoss to escape?

 

Mechanics or Crunch– This one has a decent mix of old and new items and mechanics.  It eases the players into the new, fantastic technology that players can pick up while exploring Numeria.  Also, this scenario presents rules for converting enemy characters to good characters in the society setting.  It’s a fun way for players to reform others by thought, action, and speech. 5/5

 

Theme or fluff- The Adventure has some interesting twists that will throw your players for a loop.  I won’t spoil them here, but they are pretty fun.  However, if the players do the smart thing, and instantly leave when they have their goal, they will only get to explore roughly HALF the area and miss all the items and faction boons!  A simple change in where some doors close would really help this adventure force the players to experience the cool technology and locations offered here. 4.5/5

 

Execution– Trial by Machine is done well.  The picture on the front of the module is nice as its something you can show your players to help them understand what they are fighting.  I would have liked a few more pictures to help my players with some of the more fantastic enemies and locations, but the art included isn’t bad by any means.  The text is decently put together as it’s not too cramped and laid out well. 5/5

 

Summary– This is a fun one.  I really like the Sword and Circuitry concept of the year of the sky key and the Iron Gods campaign, and this get that into the Pathfinder Society.  This adventure eases the players in slowly to robots and other fun technology things while teaching them how to interact with technology and new items.  You might have to do a bit of GM fiat to make half the adventure happen, but if you do, the players will have a much better time than if you just let them leave after half an hour of Pathfinder! 97%

Ring Side Report-Dual Board Game Review of Eminent Domain: Escalation

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Product– Escalation expansion to Eminent Domain

Producer– Tasty Minstrel Games

Price– ~$25  here http://www.amazon.com/Tasty-Minstrel-Games-PSITTT5001-Eminent/dp/1938146808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412735641&sr=8-1&keywords=escalation+eminent+domain

Set-up/Play/Clean-up- 45 min (2-now 5 players)

TL; DR– some good, but drastic changes the game 85%

Basics– In the future, there is only war!  Escalation is the five player expansion for Eminent Domain.  The game play doesn’t change from my original write up here https://throatpunchgames.com/2014/05/05/ring-side-report-board-game-review-of-eminent-domain/.  This expansion adds another player as well as character roles, additional research cards, new planets, and roles for the larger ships in the base game.

Mechanics– I really loved the base game, and was excited to get my hands on the expansion.  However, the expansion makes some drastic changes to the base game that severely shift the mechanics of the game.  This expansion allows some research cards to be bought using fighters instead of research.  This means that war cards become the default strategy as now a hand full of red warfare cards can buy you either research or planets.  The roles for larger ships allow fighters to more easily capture planets further enforcing this.  Instead of now trying to balance research, colonization or attack, and survey, any player will now just choose to focus on surveying and warfare.  This changes the flow of the game, and not for the better.  This is chiefly evident in one power that lets a player conquer another player’s planets.  The player who does the conquering doesn’t even have to pay for the planet; the stock of points in the middle pays the person the planet was stolen from.  This shifts the play from light deck building to “get all the red cards first” game.  It makes the game much less fun.  Hands down the best part is the expansion are cards for a fifth player.  The new planets and research cards are interesting, but many of them feed into the problem of war being so dominent.   2.5/5

Theme–   If you like the change in mechanics, then you will love the theme.  I don’t, but I can see how the theme changed.  The universe is at war now, so the cards and mechanics will reflect it.  I might not personally like the change, but it’s done well.  4.5/5

Instructions-The rules are short and get the new changes out to the players pretty well.  It doesn’t have the text book problem, and it gives a great explanation to all the changes.  Well done. 5/5

 

Execution– This is a good expansion for its parts.  The instructions are laid out well.  The cards all have great art and stand up well to shuffling.  The tokens are well done.  I like what I see here.  Heck, even the expansion box can fit in the original box. 5/5

Summary– I’m not a fan of this one.  I love the addition of a fifth player, but the changes to what warfare cards can do are just too drastic.  While you can’t get all the research cards for a victory, you can get enough to easily stomp you opponents.  Also, you can now get research cards and planets that produce new ships each turn, so every turn you will almost be invading two planets a turn feeding this problem even more.  It changes a game with an awesome balance between colonize, trade, and warfare to a hostile game of war.  I didn’t have as much fun playing this.  However, the instructions are well written, the expansion is put together well, and the mechanics, while not my favorite part of this expansion, really do reflect the theme.  If you want Eminent Domain, but need to attack your fellow players, this is the expansion for you. 85%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Shadow Spells

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Product– Shadow Spells

Producer– Catalyst Game Lab

Price– ~$7 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/137717/Shadowrun-Shadow-Spells

System- Shadowrun 5e

TL; DR– Good, but more for your GM.  92%

 

Basics– Always geek the mage first!  Shadow Spells is the first pdf book to be released post Gen Con for Shadowrun.  This book builds on larger magic book Street Grimoire by introducing new traditions, new threats and allies in the shadows, and ending with new spells and abilities for mages of all sorts.

 

Mechanics or Crunch– This book does have some cool stuff in it, but most of the presented crunch is focused on making the GM’s life easier.  The book introduces several new threats and allies for the PCs to tangle with, and they are all well done with fun new magical powers.  On the PC’s side, the new traditions all look great and look fun to play with.  The best thing introduced by far in this book is the Norse tradition.  So if you want a mage who has a crow familiar and worships Loki for power all the while screwing with everyone with illusions, then this is the book for you.  The powers and spells are ok.  Nothing is bad here, but most of the spells have extremely limited use.  There are some winner spells that are pretty useful on most runs.  However, most of these might be spells you buy later, as most of what’s here is not the kind of spells you would pick up at character generation when you only can choose 10 spells.  4/5

 

Theme or Fluff–   I love the way Catalyst presents information in their books.  Instead of “here is X information”, everything is always presented as an internet post with people commenting on what just was presented either to provide new information or to provide some snark.  It might not be laughing out loud comedy, but it’s funny and entertaining enough to keep you reading and interested in what is basically a textbook on obscure magical persons and traditions in the sixth world.  5/5

 

Execution– Much like the rest of the short Shadowrun PDFs, this one is well done.  I’d like a few more pictures and some more white space to break up some text, but overall, I enjoyed reading this.  It never felt like a slog through dense, boring text.  There are some cool pictures as well as some nice text boxes to break up the text and give the reader a chance to breath.  These all help to keep me interested and entertained rather than bored.  Some things I would have liked to see are some pictures of the named characters in this book as we see some pictures of the named people of interest, but not all.  But overall, it’s a well done book.  4.75/5

 

Summary– I love magic in Shadowrun.  It’s always fun to take down a fully armored troll street samurai with a timid elf pinned down in an alley.  This book adds some more story to the Shadowrun world.  Overall, it’s pretty well done, but if you don’t play a mage, then this book is completely useless to you.  If you don’t want to play an obscure tradition, then this book doesn’t help you either.  As a GM, this book is very useful as it provides a new set of enemies and powers that you might want to throw on an enemy.  For the average player, you really have to consider what you want.  This book provides some great character options, but it might not be useful to most players.  92%

Ring Side Report- Board Game Review of Battle Merchants

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Game– Battle Merchants

Producer– Minion Games

Price– $50 here http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Merchants-SW-MINT-New/dp/B00LXFF56K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412045384&sr=8-1&keywords=battle+merchants

Set-up/Play/Clean-Up– ~2.5 hours

Players– 2 to 4

TL; DR– You will never have so much fun fostering warfare! 95%

 

Basics– Let’s make some money!  In Battle Merchants, you play the role of a weapon supplies for different fantasy races during a time of great war.  This game is played across four seasons.  In each season, players take turns doing one action until three new battles happen and the war begins.  Each turn you can do one of four things: get weapon skill cards, build weapons, sell a weapon, or draw a kingdom card.  By getting different weapon skill cards for each of the four weapons, your skill building each weapon type increases.  This is only important for when fights occur at the end of a season.  Building weapons allows you to build up to three weapons to sell.  Selling weapons allows you to sell weapons to a spot on the board that wants a weapon you have for money.  Each race at war is fighting on two fronts, and these fronts will require one of the four weapons for each spot on their side of the conflict.  The factions won’t buy a weapon they don’t want, so you have to diversify enough to be able to sell all the weapon types.  When you sell to a side of a conflict you get money and a token for that race.  The more tokens you have for a race, the more money you get each time you sell to them in the future.  When both sides of a battle have weapons, then a battle token is moved to the center of the board, and the next battle token is revealed allowing more weapons to be sold to the sides of that conflict.  If a conflict doesn’t have a battle token as it was moved in a previous season, then you can still sell to that battle again.  Kingdome cards give the player extra abilities and powers that provide new strategies for winning the game.  When three battle markers are moved to the center for that season, then each player get one round before the time of war.  At each battle with weapons on each side during the time of war, the weapon skill of each player’s weapon is compared and the higher skill says while the winner collects the defeated weapon as a marker of conquest and extra points at the end of the game.  Weapons that are still on the board at the end of the time of war need to be maintained, so the player who made those weapons gets extra money.  After four seasons and the times of war associated with them, just like life, the player with the most money wins.

 

Mechanics– This is a deceptively simple game that has lots of deep strategy.  On a turn, you can only do one action, so the game moves at a good clip while still having to make important decisions.  Everybody starts out on equal footing, so you have to think fast and figure out how best to procedure.  My only problem with this game is a run away victor problem.  As winners get both points at the end of the game for most defeated weapons and extra points/money for having weapons on the board at turn end, a player who wins the first battle of the game can develop an unopposed lead pretty quickly. 4.5/5

 

Theme– You do feel like a weapons dealer in a fantasy war.  The boards are cartoony enough to make it light hearted, but there is the undercurrent of making money off bloodshed.  In fact, a strategy you can take is to sell weapons to BOTH sides at one battle.  You get a win money for weapons attendance at a fight, the sale of both weapons, and defeated weapons for points.  That right there nails the theme of being a cold hearted weapons dealer. 5/5

 

Instructions– The instructions are not bad but are something you have to read very carefully to really get all the small details.  It’s a half sheet style of rules folded to make several pages in the rulebook.  The rules do teach the game well, but there are a number of fiddly rules that can really change the game.  These rules could use a bit more emphasis.  Also, some rules are presented in examples, and that would be great, but the rules are not presented before or outside the example.  That’s a pet peeve that makes the game somewhat hard to completely understand your first time through.  However, after that initial first game, you will be playing this game like a champ. 4.5/5

 

Execution-I like what comes in this box.  It’s got great cards with some fun, cartoony art.  The boards are all great cardboard.  The tokens are nice chunky cardboard.  My one small problem with this game is the weapon skill cards.  It took me ten minutes to find what the rules meant by the different colored backs.  During game set-up, you separate the spring/summer weapons cards from fall/winter cards.  What that means is some of the weapon skill cards will have colored spring/summer sections of the center season wheel, while the fall/winter will be light brown and the reverse will be true for the fall/winter cards.  It’s not a major problem by any means, but I hope it helps you understand what that means when you play! 5/5

 

Summary– This is a great game.  The theme might not be for everybody as you do play a conniving war profiteer in a fantasy setting.  However, I enjoyed being the bad guy.  The mechanics are fun; even they are not completely balanced.  I liked the art and the physical build of the game.  Overall, this is a great game that I wish I could play with more players. 95%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of the Current DnD 5e Expeditions Adventures

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Product– DnD 5e Expeditions- DDEX1-1 to DDEX1-3

System– DnD 5th Edition

Price– FREE!!!  (at participating game stores)

TL; DR– Great to see the new LFR. 85%

 

Basics– Dungeons and Dragons 5e is here, and so is the Wizards of the Coast organized play program called DnD Expeditions.  Let’s look at the first three adventures as a group.  The first publish three adventures are: Defiance in Phlan, Secrets of Sokol Keep, and Shadows on the Moonsea.  They are all open for characters level 1 to 4, and all play a role in the current metaplot-Tyranny of Dragons.  Let’s do a rundown of these adventures and see how the stack up.

 

Story or Fluff– These three adventures give an introduction to the town of Phlan and its surroundings.    In Defiance in Phlan, five different short stories are introduced with a time of one hour each.  Secrets of Sokol Keep has the bay lighthouse stop working and the players are asked to fix it.  And finally, Shadows of the Moonsea has an unknown “thing” moving up the Moonsea coast approaching Phlan next.  All these modules follow a pretty standard plot as  with previous DnD living games: 1) Introduce a problem/get the PCs involved, 2) PCs find the problem, 3) PCs kill the problem.  That’s not a bad story structure for organized play adventures.  If these three have a single problem, it’s the introduction of the problem, and why the players should care.  Often a problem is introduced, and the players have no reason to care aside from wanting to play some DnD that day.  Here is one area that the DnD Expeditions loses to Pathfinder Society-pre story player involvement.  Another problem that can occur is one time checks that if not succeeded often prevent the players from finding a major plot point.  Nothing is game breaking for the story, but some extra story parts would really help the players get into the story and prevent the GM from having to do some heavy story lifting at the start on the fly. 4/5

 

Mechanics or Crunch– DnD is a pretty tight system, and the adventures show this for the most part.  The combats are well done and provide enough challenge.  Also, each combat is given a small stat block to change the combatants on the fly for really weak parties to overly strong parties.  It really helps the GM find his grove and run a great adventure with fun combats.  One encounter I can think of deviates from this as the fight is just too hard for a level one party, and it makes that adventure suffer a bit.  But, that encounter is a clear outlier for these adventures. 4.8/5

 

Execution– These are free PDFs given out to the organizers of the Adventure League, so I don’t expect art.  I don’t get any, so I don’t penalize the adventures for that.  What I don’t like is how combats are buried in the text!  When the players enter a room, a box is given with the description of the room.  Below that box is the standard description paragraph of the room with all the hidden items, other checks the PCs might do, etc, but if there is a combat, the monsters and their numbers will be hidden in that same text.  That is not helpful!  As a GM, when I have a room, I really need to know how many of any monsters are in the room first.  I’d separate that from the main text and have that listed right under the title of the room in a separate block of text.  It is the same in the Tyranny of Dragons adventure, and it really doesn’t help there either.  However, these are free adventures that do tell some interesting stories.  I like what is here, but some significant changes to the organization of the text could really push this over the top. 4/5

 

Summary– DnD is back, and so is the child of the Living Forgotten Realms.  It might not be the old Living Forgotten Realms, but if this is what its children look like, I’m fairly happy.  It’s great to see a major company give out several hours of free play to its fans.  These are not bad adventures by any means, but a few changes would really help with these be just a bit better.  Moving where the monsters are listed would make my life as a GM much easier!  I’ve read the adventures, but being able to quickly scan the text will help me find out what needs to be in the room after my 10th four hour event at a con.  The stories need a bit of work at the start to draw the players in a bit more, but the last bits of the story and the world they create are often great.  Shadows of the Moonsea has a left turn, but it’s nothing that you won’t enjoy.  All and all, these are three great adventures that any new player to DnD will really enjoy. 85%

Ring Side Report- Board Game Review of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game-Skull and Shackles base box

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Product-Pathfinder Adventure Card Game-Skull and Shackles

Producer-Paizo

Price– $60 here

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– ~25 min per player per scenario (1-6 players with expansion, 10 scenarios in the base game)

TL; DR– A fun addition to the Card Game. 89%

 

Basics-Ahoy matey!  This game is the sequel to the hit Pathfinder Adventure Card Game-Rise of the Runelords.  Players take the role of one character and progress between scenarios to move along the Skull and Shackles adventure path.  You have a character that has the six standard Pathfinder stats as a die.  Each turn you can move between different locations, and draw the top card of that deck as an encounter.  That card is either something you can equip like a spell or a weapon (a “boon”) or something that will attack you like a monster or an obstacle (a “bane”).  You can then play cards from your hand to give you extra dice or bonuses to your roll, select an ability based on the card encountered and roll the die related to that ability score.  If you beat the number on the card, you can add it to your hand if it’s a boon, while banes are defeated.  If you don’t beat the number on the card, you discard any good cards you encountered or take damage if you fought a monster.  When you take damage you discard cards from your hand.  If you can’t play cards from your hand to keep exploring, you draw up to your hand size.  If you can’t, then your character dies.  If you encounter something called henchmen while exploring, you encounter it as above, but if you defeat it, you can close the location the henchmen was at.  If you encounter and beat a villain or man bad guy for the scenario and the other locations are closed, you win!  While much hasn’t changed, what has changed is pretty different.

 

Mechanics-This game is and isn’t much different from the original.  Let’s look at each section individually.

Basic Play– The basics play described above hasn’t changed.  The rules go a little more in depth and make that section MUCH clearer, so that is very appreciated.  However, it feels like there are definitely winner and loser abilities and skills.  Maybe further in the game, some of the skills will matter.  But right now, it feels like some of the characters just don’t matter.

 

Ships-The largest new mechanic is the addition of ships.  The ships provide a constant bonus or ability for your group and the bonus to move as a group.  Also, the ships provide an awesome way to deal with not getting enough gear.  When you beat another ship or get to store plunder, you roll on a random chart, and place one of five different types of cards under the ship.  If you win, you get these cards in addition to any other bonuses for the scenario.

Display and Other Small Changes-Display is a new mechanic where you don’t just reveal a card from your hand, you set it in front of you.  The card now provides an effect and will then tell you when you can pick it up or if you have to discard it.  Some cards allow you to constantly use a displayed card.  This is just part of a handful of new terms for the game.  These new cards do an excellent job of updating the rules.  It provides new options for card design and helps the players.  I like how the rules have moved along.

Summary– The game plays like the basic adventure card game.  It’s a great game, but some of the characters don’t feel like they matter.  Maybe that will change, maybe not.  That will depend on what comes out later in this scenario.  Ships are amazing and help prevent characters just not getting enough cards.  The new terms and mechanics like display provide some new design and play space, and the new characters are fun.  It’s not perfect, but it is a blast to play. 4.75/5

 

Theme-You’re a pirate and you sail the high seas!  You get to move through the Skull and Shackles adventure path with was an amazing adventure series.  I like what I’ve seen so far as it hits the high points reasonably well.  However, if you haven’t played the adventure path, you will feel lost.  You do feel like an island hopping pirate, but the story does lack a bit since the story is still told by half card length paragraphs.  I really wish Paizo would publish a quick summary of each adventure part and an epilogue so the players would know a bit more about what is going on. 4/5

 

Instructions– Here there are some problems, but they don’t break the game.  You just might end up cheating by accident.  The rules are a giant tome!  There’s a lot going on here, but what it really needs is a one page summary to help character jump in the action.  The rules are a bit of a text book that tends to bury some important rule points under lots of other text.  The rules by themselves are ok.  They get the points across, but some concepts like who controls ships, number of cards per check, and even the blessing deck can get lost in the text.  Rules on the cards need some work too.  The first scenario of the main campaign is already errata’ed by the designers.  That’s a major problem!  That’s the scenario that should have gotten the absolute most number of plays and should be the most rock solid.  A bit more writing in some areas and much less in others would really help make the concepts and story much clearer.  4/5

 

Execution-For $60 you get a ton of cards, rules, and a nice box.  The cards are well done with great art, and they’re of decent enough quality to withstand lots of shuffling.  The design has slightly changed, but again, it’s all for the best.  As always with Paizo, the art is well done.  All and all, this is well done. 5/5

 

Summary– The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is a great co-op game.  My wife and I love to play this game.  The Skull and Shackles is a great addition to the franchise.  I loved playing through the Skull and Shackles adventure path, and this give almost the same experience.  The major problems in this game could be fixed with some clever writing.  Some of the rules and story need clarification, while some excess writing needs to be trimmed.  The characters are fun, but some just don’t seem as interesting or useful.  However, all told, I’m enjoying what’s this new base set, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.   89%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Campaign Setting-Technology Guide  

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Product-Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Technology Guide

Producer– Paizo

Price– ~$20 here http://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Campaign-Setting-Technology-Guide/dp/1601256728/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411311976&sr=8-1&keywords=technology+guide

System-Pathfinder

TL; DR– Problems with focus, but great item selection. 90%

 

Basics– Welcome to the world of tomorrow!  The Technology guide is the extra setting book that GMs of the Iron Gods will need to handle all the new technology items and some rules presented in that adventure path.  This book introduces a number of new archetypes, feats, spells, rules, and skill uses for the base classes as well as a prestige class.  Then, the book moves onto introducing several technological items, weapons, armor, drugs, and generators.  Finally the book adds new hazards, rules, and artifacts for the Iron Gods campaign and Numeria as a whole.

 

Mechanics or Crunch-This book is a combination of the Ultimate Equipment book and the People of the River.  The book adds an insane amount of items all with new rules how to handle them.  The rules make sense within the Pathfinder system and help distinguish technology from magic.  The character options are all well done and provide some awesome Numeria flavor for any technology based campaign you could be running.  5/5

 

Theme or Fluff– This book does have a decent amount of story.  Each item gets a short description in addition to its rules and a picture.  The pictures might not be amazingly large, but there are pictures you can show to your players and help them envision the world of Numeria.  The book even goes so far in depth to describe the different types of metals found in Numeria and what they look like.  It’s not a perfect theme book, as the primary focus of the book is to provide rules and items, not to provide story.  But, what is here does have some decent story to it. 4.5/5

 

Execution– I love how Paizo puts their books together.  Even though this is an item book, the pictures and layout really breaks up the text and makes this much less of a drag to read.  The problem I have is that this book is a Pathfinders setting book.  The setting books are not designed to be given to the players.  However, a 1/3 of this book is player options.  This book is kind of indicative of the problems I’ve seen with the Iron Gods roll out of as a whole. To do the Iron Gods AP justice, several new character options, items, and rules all have to be introduced.  However, all the Numeria character options are spread out across at least four books, and the rules are also spread out across some of these four books, but different rules are also in other books.  This is particularly a problem with this book as players are not supposed to look at this book.  But, as a GM you almost have to give it out, so base class characters can have additional class options.  It’s not world ending problem, but the lack of focus is apparent. 4/5

 

Summary– Honestly, if you are going to GM the Iron Gods AP, you’ve most likely bought this book already.  If you have no plans to ever put technology in your Pathfinder game, then this book has literally nothing to offer you.  It’s a good book for what it is (character options and items), but it has some problems with focus. 90%

Ring Side Report-Board Game/ iOS review of The Manhattan Project

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Game-The Manhattan Project on iOS

Producer-Domowicz Creative Group

System-iOS

TL;DR– Great for multiplayer, problems with single player. 80%

 

Basics– BOOM BABY! It’s Manhattan Project on the iOS.  It plays exactly like the original board game.  Players take turns placing workers on the main board and placing workers on different locations on their own boards, or recalling workers from where they have been placed with the goal of building the most bomb points.  For my full review of the base board game, check out this link:  https://throatpunchgames.com/2013/10/29/ring-side-report-game-review-the-manhattan-project/  This is the iOS version of the game that my mother and I played on the iPad.  Let’s break the game down.

 

Mechanics-The iOS game follows the same mechanics as the base game.  What it does add are some nice animations as well as doing all the computations for the game well.  The game functions pretty smoothly. What problem you will have are some things are not indicated well.  Some items will glow if you can do them, but others like the construction area don’t.  It’s not indicated if you can have multiple people on there.  The game works well, but a few changes would really help things.  HOWEVER, NO MATTER WHAT BAD THINGS YOU CAN SAY, THIS GAME HAS AN UNDO BUTTON!  That makes life so much better! 4.5/5

 

Visuals/Sounds– The game looks nice, but it’s basically just the board game floating in space.  It’s easy to read as you can zoom in, but it’s not suped up like some other board games on the iOS.  The game looks like the developer just took the tabletop version and placed it on the iPad.  That’s not bad, but I would like a bit more.  The sounds are ok, but the music can get a bit repetitive. 4/5

 

Execution-This game is well done, but the major problems you will have boil down to a lack of instruction.   Everything in this game comes directly from The Manhattan Project board game box: tokens, boards, and instructions.  The bad thing is that there are no instructions for how to play the game on the iOS.  If you’ve played a few of these before, you will be fine.  Your first play through will be a bit of a mess because you have to learn as you go.  That’s a pretty sizable problem.  However, it’s a problem you will have only for your first play through.  Nothing you won’t get past, but it will turn a few people away.  The AI is a bit weak; I’ve never been bombed by the AI, had espionage happen, or even lost once!  It’s fun to play, but if you’re a decent player, you will win.  When you do win, the game doesn’t allow you to do anything or prompt you to quit.  You have to manually quit.  That’s not a problem per se, but a little bit more effort would really make this game better.  As for the multiplayer, it does amazingly well with either the pass and play or internet versions.  I had to explain to my mom how to play and start an internet game (see above), but once she understood how to play she was off to the races.  So, great job on the multiplayer!  3.5/5

 

Summary– I love The Manhattan Project.  It’s one of my favorite games that I can’t convince my local gaming group to play.  I loved it before, and now I have the chance to play on my iPad.  If Playdeck’s games are the A tier games, then this is a solid B game.  The game is good, but you will be left wanting a bit more.  It’s the game you want, but a little bit more would really knock this out of the park.  The absence is what really notice and hurt the game: no iOS instruction, no prompting for things, and limited AI.  What is here is the board game you want that works well and is fun.  If you can get past the problems and know this game,then this is a great iOS title. 80%