Category: Ring Side Report

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of People of the Stars

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 3 Comments

Product– Pathfinder Player Companion-People of the Stars

System-Pathfinder

Producer-Paizo

Price-$13 here http://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Player-Companion-People-Stars/dp/1601256744/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410741048&sr=8-1&keywords=People+of+the+stars

TL;DR-It’s that book with android stuff! 93%

 

Basics-I want to believe!  People of the Stars is the player companion to Distant Worlds.  This book follows the standard Pathfinder formula for player books by adding new races, feats, items, traits, archetypes, and spells for races from beyond Golarion in the solar system.

 

Mechanics or Crunch– This is crunch-tastic.  The book is full of all kinds of great stuff to build otherworldly characters.  What’s here is pretty useful and well done if you want to have an intergalactic campaign.  If you want to keep you game on Golarion, there isn’t much for you here.  5/5

 

Theme or Fluff– There are some amazing stories here.  Each world in the solar system gets about half a page and gives a nice, short summary that world.  The races all have some nice build up and are varied enough to be good additions to the Pathfinder race line up.  However, like I said above, the stuff presented here really won’t be that much use to any campaign or player if you just stay on Golarion. 5/5

 

Execution-Paizo knows how to make a good book.  This book is well written, laid out well, and entertaining.  This isn’t the best book put out by Paizo as there are some parts that drag on, and there are a few sections with “textbook problem”.  But, this is generally a good book. 4/5

 

Summary-Going to play in the solar system in Pathfinder?  Then, get this book.  Going to play the Iron God’s campaign and want to play an android?  Get this book, because this book has some android feat and traits you might want.  Otherwise, this book might not help you much.  It’s a well done book, but this book will mostly hit a niche market.  Even the Iron Gods adventure path doesn’t use this book and advices the use of another book called People of the River.  This is a good book, but only a few people will really need this book. 93%

Ring Side Report- Board Game Review of Guildhall  

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Game-Guildhall
Producer-AEG
Price– $50 here http://www.amazon.com/Alderac-Entertainment-Group-AEG5601-Guildhall/dp/B00AQJ5Y92/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410285314&sr=8-2&keywords=guildhall
Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 40 minutes
TL; DR-An awesome, quick card game. 88%

Basics– Rise up through commerce!  In Guildhall, you play someone who starts a guildhall in the middle ages vying for power through the economy.  You do this by creating the most powerful guild in town.  You start with a hand of six cards.  These cards each show a profession and a color.  Each turn you choose two actions: play a card, discard and draw up to six, or buy victory points.  When you play a card, you place it directly in front of you and get a benefit based on the number of other cards of that profession you already have in your guildhall.  The current card does not count for this. That is really important! As an example let’s look at the weaver.  If you have no weavers in your guild hall, when you play a weaver from your hand, you get to place one card in your guild hall.  If you have two weavers in your guildhall already, you get to place two cards directly in your guildhall, but you have to take one card back to hand.  If you have four weavers in your guildhall, you can place as many cards as you want from hand into your guildhall, but you must pick up two cards from your guildhall.  There are five colors to each profession.  You can only play cards that you do not all ready have.  As an example, you can’t play a red farmer if you have a red farmer, but playing a blue farmer is ok with a red farmer in your guildhall.  When you have five different color cards of one profession in your guildhall, that stack is turned over and can be used with the second action to buy points.  As another action, you can spend one or two stacks of cards by placing those cards in the discard area to buy a victory card.  Some of these cards are just a ton of points while other cards give some points and extra actions or free cards.  The last action that you can take is to discard as many cards as you want and draw up to six cards.  After your two actions, you move all your played cards into your guild hall, and the next player goes.  The game continues until someone scores 20 points and is the winner.

Mechanics-I love this game. The mechanics are tight and card combos come out really quickly.  Nothing is too broken since any card you have a chance to get could always show up in your opponents hand too.  It moves quickly, teaches easily, and is a great game even in a short timeframe. 5/5

Theme-This is not a theme heavy game.  The art is all nice and the characters look like their concepts, but beyond that it’s just playing cards.  Some of the actions the cards do is related to the role on the card, but it’s not as strong as I would hope for some cards.  The game is really fun, but the mechanics and theme are just too separated. 2.5/5

Instructions-AEG does an excellent job on these rules.  It’s even written in two languages-English and German.  The rules have text, but columns and boxes to break up the text making this a quick easy read.  It’s read quickly and teaches the rules really well. 5/5

Execution-This game is executed really well.  The box is way too big for the cards in it, but the box also comes with some really cool plastic dividers to help make the size less of a problem.  The cards are nice quality and don’t tear easily.  The coins are nice and chunky.  And the iconography teaches the rules in a way that requires no language, just concept pictures.  Well done! 5/5

Summary-I love this game.  It’s a quick game to get out either between longer games as a filler or as a few games over a night.  It’s less than an hour even for four players.  I wish the theme was a bit stronger, but that’s my only problem.  This is a game I keep in my car when I’m out and about.  You never know when you might want or have the opportunity to get a good game in, and this one is easy to teach, quick to master, and a blast to play. 88%

Ring Side Report- Board Game Review of Shadowrun: Crossfire

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Game– Shadowrun: Crossfire

Producer- Catalyst Game Labs

Price– $60 here http://www.amazon.com/Catalyst-Game-Labs-CYT27700-Shadowrun/dp/B000B2VCDG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409799537&sr=8-1&keywords=shadowrun+crossfire

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 20 min per player (2-4 players)

TL; DR– Randomness hurts the story. 84%

 

Basics-Welcome to the shadows, chummer.  Crossfire is a co-op deck building card game where players take the roll of different Shadowrun characters.  Each character chooses a race and a roll.  The race give you hit points, a starting hand size, and  starting money.  The rolls are twofold.  The rolls give you a starting deck of cards as well as determine what cards will attack your character.  The players then choose a scenario.  The scenarios give you a set up conditions, new rules, and a story.  Aside from the scenario specific changes to the basic game, the game goes as follows.  A number of obstacles are dealt out equal to the number of players.  Each obstacle has a color and that obstacle will attack a player with the same roll color.  Then, players take turns as follows.  First, the start player draws a crossfire card.  This card will give an effect for the round such as increased damage to players or players not being able to heal.  Some cards also have an effect if enough crossfire cards are in the discard pile.  Next, the player play cards with icons that match the current icons on any obstacle to damage it.  If the players play enough cards to completely damage an obstacle, then the players get money.  Otherwise, counters are used to indicate the next icons that have to be played on the obstacles to defeat them, so damage to an obstacle is tracked between players.  When the player is done playing cards on obsticles, any obstacle in front of him/her damages that player.  Finally, the player draws cards if he/she has less than three cards, buys cards from the center, and play passes to the next player.  This player takes an almost identical turn except does not draw a crossfire card.  Play continues until it’s the start players turn, a new crossfire card is drawn, and the game continues.  If all the players do not have an obstacle in front of them, then the crossfire pile is discarded.  The game keeps going until the players beat the scenario or a player dies.  If the players beat the scenario, they score karma (experience) based on the scenario.  If a player dies, then the players run away and only get one karma each.  Between scenarios, players can spend karma to upgrade their characters, but they almost always start with the same basic cards in their starter deck.

 

Theme-This game feels like a stripped down Shadowrun game.  It’s fun, but you don’t get the complete experience.  There is a bunch of Shadowrun things here ranging from quotes and story starts for the scenarios, but the games random nature makes the cohesiveness come apart a bit.  You don’t get the story you would expect from a standard night of playing Shadowrun, the Pathfinder adventure card game, or the Lord of the Rings card game.  Both of those card games have more targeted effects and story.  Make no mistake, this is Shadowrun.  But, it’s not as Shadowrun as I wanted. 4/5

 

Mechanics– Your enjoyment of the mechanics of this game will directly reflect how many people you play with.  If you play with four, this game is awesome.  Each player gets a roll; everybody gets a ton of turns to help, even if one player has all the obstacles in front of him/her.  The mechanics of building a deck, using icons to target icons to damage an obstacle, rolls, karma, and money will all work pretty well.  But if you play with three players, or god forbid two, this game is a ride on the pain train.  With fewer players, the current players take more rolls.  But, those same players DON’T take more cards for those rolls.  You take two roll cards, choose one, and then get the base cards for the roll you choose, not the one you didn’t.  This means you get fewer icons and can still be target by obstacles from that color.  That’s a problem as the random nature of the obstacle deck means the Orc Decker/face could get all face obstacles even though Orc only has Decker cards.  That player will die, and his/her partner won’t be able to do anything because the center market cards could only be black attacking cards.  The balance is off if you are missing players, so that is a very troubling problem for me as my wife and I typically only play co-op cards together. 4 /5

 

Instructions– The instructions are ok.  The rules start with a quick start guide, but the quick start isn’t quick, and to really understand the game, you have to read the full rules anyway.  Also, the rules hide some of the more fiddly bits of the game in text.  They rules do a decent job of explaining the game, but it could use a bit more polish and a one page external summary of what to do to get you playing in under five minutes. 4/5

 

Execution– I like what I see here, but the game makes a very BAD sin!  This box is full of cards, room to expand the decks, glossy character cards, stickers, and lots of nice, hard tokens.  The cards don’t bend or tare easily.  A major complaint a while back was that the stickers would ruin the game.  But, the glossy cards and the stickers work together to hold the stickers just enough to keep them on the character cards, but not hard enough to make it a pain to change stickers.  However, this game could really use a start player marker among the many other tokens.  Also, the book says to just use a dry erase marker to track karma on the characters.  But, no marker comes in the box.  I HATE when instructions do that.  If you tell me to use something to do X, by god, you better have put X in the box!  This game has a MSRP of $60, and I don’t get a nice way to track karma besides buy another thing?!  Why not give me stickers? What’s here is well done, but what’s missing is pretty obvious. 4.8/5

 

Summary– This is a fun game, but your fun will really very with the number of players you got.  Like any good Shadowrun RPG game, you need all the bases covered-one person on magic, another on computers, a talker, and a guy/gal with a gun.  Playing a game without those people will really make life that much more hard, and that’s reflected in this game.  It’s fun, but it’s punishing if you don’t have that full party.  Another problem is the story.  It’s there, but get used to randomness.  I’d like a bit more targeted problems for my team to deal with, so each game fits the story, not just random encounters.  This game is fun, its one I want to play more of, but it’s one that I know the sheer randomness of could really make me hate playing.  A bad draw, and a bad night can really spin out of control easy.  What this game really needs is more options and cards.  I really want some more cards for characters, half rolls, and more scenarios.  If Catalyst promised semi-regular releases of this game, I’ll keep buying!  Keep that in mind, shoot straight, never deal with a dragon, and you will have a great time. 84%

Ring Side Report- Board Game Review of Machina Arcana

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Game– Machina Arcana

Producer- Machina Arcana

Price– $80 here http://machinaarcana.com/store/

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 45 min per player (1-4 players)

TL; DR– Style over substance. 65%

 

Basics– Can you stop the end?  Machina Arcana takes place in the Cthulhu mythos/steam punk world as brave heroes battle the forces of darkness.  Each turn, each player gets a number of stamina points to spend on different actions that range from one point for moving to three points to activate places on the map.  Players can act in any order each turn.  Then, each player rolls to see if monsters spawn on the map with each player who doesn’t spawn a monster making it easier for monsters to spawn.  Then, one player rolls a horror check.  If the party doesn’t have a horror event, then it becomes easier for a horror check to happen next round.  If the party does have a horror event, then another track that monitors how difficult the monsters are moves forward and a bad event occurs.  Finally, the monsters move around the map attacking players if able.  Play continues like this until players activate map points advancing the plot.  Players continue moving about the map, activating different map points for items/events/plot until the final plot card is resolved and the players win or the last available hero is killed and the players lose (and the world ends).

 

Theme-This game has a lot of theme, but it’s pretty random.  The game makes some great strides in telling a cool story as the different scenarios all have different plots.  I liked to move through the cards and read aloud the story as well as the horror cards, events, and even the characters backgrounds.  What takes away from all that is the randomness of the game.  The best comparison for this game is Arkham Horror, Decent 2nd ed., and Castle Ravenloft.  The monsters that spawn are all random in both Arkham Horror and Castle Ravenloft, with Decent only having on theme monsters for each scenario.  But, those games fix the story problem in several ways with Arkham Horror stating that more than just the big bad guy is moving around, doing stuff and Castle Ravenloft has all the monsters on theme to begin with.  This game has random monsters spawn from all over the Cthulhu rogues gallery, but the theme is off as some of these monsters really wouldn’t work together.  Some even have eaten one another in the mythos!  The boards are random too, but again this is fixed in comparison games as well.  Arkham horror has gates to different lands with random mythos encounters in the gates, Castle Ravenloft stacking the tile deck to make sure a desired tile occurs, and Decent custom building each map.  All of the problems in this game don’t completely make it jarringly difficult to get into the world, but it’s a noticeable problem.  As for a steam punk, the theme of that comes across only on the art.  Again, not bad, but I was expecting more.  3/5

 

Mechanics– Again I’m going to compare to Castle Ravenloft, Decent, and Arkham Horror.  The basics thoughts of all those games combine decently in this game.  You get the exploration of Ravenloft, the movement and attack of Decent, and the mythos/story/events of Arkham Horror.  What I got here was fairly well done.  What are new about this one are the items.  Some items have marks on the sides and bottom.  If you combine these items with other cards with the same marks on the opposite side or top, you can upgrade your equipment.  That’s pretty cool!  The only real big problem is the monsters mechanics.  Monsters all follow some basics rules.  Castle Ravenloft has much better mechanics for giving the monsters autonomy when they attack, move, or do anything else.   4.5/5

 

Instructions-These instructions are not well done.  Arkham Horror, Decent, and Castle Ravenloft all have better instructions in them to get the same points across.  This game attempts to do a semi-quick start, but the quick start doesn’t end quickly and will leave you fairly confused.  There is way too much going on on any page.  The rules are convoluted, and you will end up rereading a passage several times as you try to understand the game.  I barely made it through because I bought the game and I wanted to see how it worked. 2.5/5

 

Execution– Here is another problem area.  Lots of the boards came warped.  My box was dented on the inside.  That’s a pretty petty complaint, but I paid $60 via kickstarter, I expect more.  The art is somewhat detracting as it interferes with readability.  The cardboard is also strange as its thick but too malleable.  The monsters come as cardboard tokens with standees, but to get them in the standees, you have to force them, and they more often than not bend too much and warp.  I now have a wappiejaw Mi-Go and shoggoth standing at strange, sadly Euclidian angles! 3/5

 

Summary-This isn’t a bad game, but it’s not a good game either.  If you want a well-done co-op Cthulhu mythos game, play Arkham Horror or Eldritch Horror.  If you want a well-done co-op dungeon crawl, then play Decent or Castle Ravenloft.  If you have to have both of those together, then this game will do.  It does have steam punk, but it’s not the main push.  Its got faults, but it’s not unplayable by any means.  But odds are, I won’t be playing this one any time soon. 65%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Barrow of the Cursespawn

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Product-Darkwood Arc Excursions: Barrow of the Cursespawn

Producer– Saga RPG

System-Pathfinder

Price– ~$6 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/132931/01AE01-Barrow-of-the-Cursespawn-PFRPG-PDF

TL; DR-Zelda puzzles in Pathfinder!? 93%

 

Basics– Welcome back to the world of Darkwood.  Miners are missing, and OTHER adventures are on the way!  But, after a chance meeting in a bar, you and your friends are dragged into the events at the mine.  Can you save the day and find out what’s happening in the wilderness?  This is a Pathfinder adventure that is designed to fit well into the Darkwood Adventure path for characters level 7.

 

Story or Fluff-This is an interesting one.  To really get all you can out of this mission, a GM worth his/her salt must deeply read the background.  This company excels at building story in their adventures, and it shows in this one.  At its heart, this adventure is a simple dungeon crawl with adventure set in Saga’s world of Darkwood, but these people write an awesome intro to get your involved and build story into the dungeon to make it interesting.  However, like some fantasy or Sci-Fi adventures and stories, this adventure has the Dune problem for names-way too many terms are introduced to describe thing that have a general name like a burial mound or a shaman.  It’s not bad, but as a reader, it can sometimes be confusing.  4.5/5

 

Mechanics or Crunch-When you look at this one, it’s a pretty short adventure.  If your table doesn’t mess around, you can easily get through this adventure in about three to four hours.  The monsters are pretty par for the Pathfinder course at seventh level, but what will make this stand out are puzzles!  I love adventures that have more than just fights.  The puzzles are pretty nice.  Now as a person who’s played every Legend of Zelda game, these puzzles are not world endingly difficult, but anytime you have a TIMED puzzle in a tabletop RPG, it’s going to be a good evening!  The traps and monsters are all normal stuff, but its standard stuff you’d expect to fight at this level.  There is new stuff here, but I don’t think any seventh level party will be overly challenged by this adventure.  However, those issues maybe more of a Pathfinder system problem than anything that is written by Saga.  It’s a good stand along adventure, but you’ll need all the standard Pathfinder/Paizo books to run the adventure, but to get the most from this adventure you will also need Saga original AP book (reviewed here https://throatpunchgames.com/2014/06/06/ring-side-report-rpg-review-of-the-deft-and-the-deadly/ ) 4.75/5

 

Execution-This is a pretty short product, but the price is right.  Like I said before, these writers are great at story, but there are a few pages of nothing but text with lots of new terms.  I’d like a bit more art, but what is there is art, its put to good use.  Also, the puzzles and some of the traps get great layouts and art to really help the players and GM understand what’s going on and how to run the adventure properly. 4.75/5

 

Summary-This isn’t a perfect adventure, but it’s a damn fine one.  It’s got a good plot that factors into Saga’s other metaplot for their adventure path.  It’s a nice evening adventure sized adventure with fighting, traps, and puzzles.  If you like Saga’s current AP, then you’re getting this one regardless of what I have to say.  But, if you want some good third party Pathfinder adventure, for six bucks, you can’t go wrong here. 93%

 

Disclosure: I was provided a review copy of this adventure.

Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Crawl! #10

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 1 Comment

Product– Crawl! #10 (Fanzine)

Producer– Stray Couches Press

Price-$3 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/133560/Crawl-fanzine-no-10

System– DCC RPG

TL;DR– Class options for demi-humans! 100%

 

Basics-Crawl! is the semi-official fanzine of the DCCRPG.  This month its options for demi-humans.  Instead of the basic race as level options frorm the main DCCRPG , this book presents Dwarven Priest, Elven rogue, Halfling burglar, and Halfling champion (fighter) as options for Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings.  The book also presents a system to take half levels or multiclass and the random stats tables for height, weight, build, hair type, eye color, and other physical features.

 

Mechanics or crunch– The one thing DCCRPG needs more of is options.  This is not a universal opinion, but I know I want more books for this system.  The class options here are still fairly balanced, and things I’d allow at my table.  If you want more options for your dwarf, this is worth a look.  Also, even the tables to add to your character are random, so you get more options, but don’t lose the randomness that is pervasive in the system. 5/5

 

Theme or Fluff-I know it’s not in the OSR spirit, but I don’t want to grow up to be a dwarf!  I like the idea of race shaping your character, but I want more options for that character.  This gives a few more options for what your characters can be instead of the basic dwarf has to be a dwarf idea from old school gaming.  The classes still fit the mold for DCCRPG, so they don’t stick out badly but really just add to the world.  The last half of the book is random tables to make your character more of a living person, not just a few stats, so that is great for story and character building as well. 5/5

 

Execution- All too often a fanzine will be crap because its one guy in a basement.  This one is not one of those.  This is well done with the same layout, art, and style of the DCCRPG main book.  It’s a quick read that’s priced right for its content and size. 5/5

 

Summary-Want some quick options for your demi-humans?  Get the book.  Want some ways to build your character a bit more than just a few stats?  Get the book.  Want more DCCRPG?  GET THE BOOK!  My only problem is I’d like MORE class options, but for three bucks, I’m ok with what I get in this book.  Hopefully, we will see the more options like this soon. 100%

Ring Side Report- Board Game Review of Run, Fight, or Die

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Product– Run, Fight, or Die

Producer-Grey Fox Games

Price– ~$35 here http://boardgamegeek.com/geekads/click/361282?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coolstuffinc.com%2Fp%2F205940

Set-Up/Play/Clean-Up– 10 min per player 1-6 players

TL; DR-Zombies!!! without the annoying length/Yahtzee with Zombies! 90%

 

Basics– Zombies!!! meat Yahtzee!  In Run Fight or Die, you play several different survivors trying to flee the zombie apocalypse while gathering up different survivors in town.  Each turn, you roll the main five dice and an event die.  The event die has random occurrences ranging from a sneak attack from a zombie (lose health) to an all clear night with no more zombies spawning this turn.  After that you have your main dice which can be rerolled two more times after the first roll.  These dice have faces ranging from running, melee attacks, range attacks, finding people, the “book of the dead”, and the zombie symbol which can’t be rerolled normally.  Each player has a board with three ranges on it (close, medium, and far).  Melee kills two close zombies, ranged attacks kill one at any range, and running moves one zombie back one range or off the player’s board.  The “book of the dead” and the finding people sides have different effects ranging from finding locations, healing, killing all zombies in one range, events, or finding gear depending on the number of matching symbols.  The zombie symbol causes one more zombie to spawn on your turn during the end of turn steps.  You can reroll a zombie symbol if you take a fleeing card-these are never good events!  After you attack zombies and get followers/locations/gear, you move all zombies one space closer.  If a zombie moves on to your character (from close range onto you), you lose health.  Then, you spawn three zombies with more for every zombie die side you have at far range, and the next player takes his or her turn.  The game continues until someone dies, someone finds the town line card with enough followers or someone gets the last zombie boss victory point.  Then, its the player with the most points wins!

 

Mechanics– This game is pretty simple and pretty fun.  Make no mistake; this is NOT a brain buster of a game.  It’s a simplified run and gun game.  You run around killing an unlimited hoard of zombies while trying to find people, locations, and gear.  The dice rule this game, and if your dice run cold, you will have a phenomenally bad time.  Each character is enough different from one another because their powers really do separate them from one another.  Each character has a different dice combo that will trigger something amazing if it happens, but it’s usually really hard to pull off, so I’ve never seen it actually happen.  The best description of this game is the old Zombies!!! game mixed with Yahtzee.  You move around town waiting for an end condition card to occur or enough point to happen to end the game.  Most often though, the game will end when someone dies.  It’s not a bad mechanic, but don’t expect any surprises or extreme complexity from this game.  4/5

 

Theme – I like this theme.  It’s zombies, so I know some people think that theme is played out.  But, the way the theme of advancing undead is implemented is a fun one.  The zombies fall down your player board almost like Tetris pieces at an unstoppable pace.  It’s rather tense as you try to stay alive but know that your continued survival is all dependent on the dice rolls.  It’s a very tense game that plays out in less than 30 minutes sometimes.  The different stories from each survivor do make an interesting story for how the world’s ending, and the fact that some followers are detrimental is another interesting way to represent how hard it is to deal with some people under pressure.  This game has a lot of style that really help emerge you in the world. 5/5

 

Instructions-So funny story-When I got my kickstarter copy of the game, it came with the rules, but was missing the middle pages of the rules.  The rules were not on board game geek either.  After emailing the creator, they now posted them there.  With the rules, the game isn’t hard to play.  It’s not horribly organized, but I think it could be better laid out.  Also, some questions like how often I can flee from zombie dice have come up, and the rules don’t specifically answer that question.  The rules are not bad, and the game is playable even with these questions, but a bit more would have helped make this game a bit better. 4.5/5

 

Execution-This game is pretty well set up.  The zombie pieces are well done miniatures, and you get a ton of them.  The cards all look cool.  The different characters have great art, layout, and story.  The player aids and zombie range boards are all done well.  The dice are nice and chunky with easy to read pictures.  The one thing I don’t like is the zombie boss.  It’s a giant zombie, but for most people who buy the game, it’s a cardboard token.  I would have liked to pay a bit more and ensure that everyone gets an awesome zombie boss mini that was part of the kickstarter.  You can buy your own boss mini, but that seems off to me.  I hate paying to make my games a bit better-it feels a bit like pay to win for me.  Like all my other minor problems with the game, the problems I have are not major, but a little bit more would really rocket this one to the top. 4.5/5

 

Summary- This is a fun game.  It’s not the kind of game I’d solely invite people over to play for a weekend, but it’s a great game to bring out late game day as a quicker game to get a bunch of people playing some last minute games.  This game has elements of games like Zombies!!!, but really cuts down on the length of the game.  And, the game has Yahtzee elements as you will try to roll for combinations of different effects to make it to the next turn or find different things.  The game isn’t perfect, but it’s a great way to get your zombie fix without having to spend hours spinning your wheels. 90%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 1 Comment

Product– Monster Manual

Producer-Wizards of the Coast

Price– $50 but not now

System– Dungeons and Dragons (5th Edition)

TL; DR– THANK GOD FOR PICTURES AND BREVITY!  99%

 

Basics– Every good hero needs a better villain!  This book introduces several monsters for any devious DM to throw at their players.  Let’s hit the highlights!

 

Crunch or Mechanics-Stat blocks have been leaking out from WotC for some time, and they sleek!  Even the heavy hitters like the previewed red dragon, one of the biggest foes to throw at a PC, has a pretty short stat block.  Also, gone are a ton of keywords and references to other things.  There are powers, but they are explained in each stat block.  I don’t need to constantly look up every feat, power, and ability in some other book to run an encounter.  That was an excellent idea in fourth edition DnD, and it is amazingly well executed in fifth edition.  I can pick a monster, read its stats really quickly (about a page for each monster even at the high!) and be ready to run an encounter mechanically in under two minutes! 5/5

 

Theme or Fluff-The book is full of art, short story bits, and little explanations of each monster.  All these pieces really bring the monster to life.  In addition, each monster gets a story block that really helps build a world or worlds.  Specific monsters from several different campaign settings get short story blocks to draw the reader into the different settings that TSR/WotC has published over time.  Other fun ideas are blasts from the past like devil/demon types along side their names.  Those little nods back to the origins of DnD really tie this modern book back to the beginning.  This isn’t a setting/story book, but it is an excellent way to learn about more than just the monsters stats.  5/5

 

Execution-So, I love the layout of the stat blocks, the descriptions of monsters, and the extra bits of story.  But, you know why is amazing?  PICTURES!  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHY DO SO MANY MONSTER MANUALS HAVE WORDS INSTEAD OF PICTUES!  Every monster in this book gets a picture!  Now instead of showing my players a picture of a generic spider and saying “well….it’s like this, but with this other part….and this thing over here” I can hold up the book and show them an honest to goodness individual picture!  DO THIS OTHER COMPANIES!  The only problem I see in this book doesn’t have an index of monsters separated by CR, only an alphabetical index. 4.9/5

 

Summary-I love this book.  It’s got great art (heck it’s got individual art), great stories, and phenomenal stat blocks.  If you want to play DnD 5e, you’re going to need this book.  If you want to see a really top notch monster manual, give this one a look. 99%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 2 Comments

Product– Player’s Handbook

Producer-Wizards of the Coast

Price– $50 here

System– Dungeons and Dragons (5th Edition)

TL; DR– D&D are back!  100%

 

Basics-Its back!  The fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons was launched at GenCon.  This book covers character generation, character backgrounds and personalities, adventuring, the basic rules of the game, and magic.  If you’ve seen one player’s handbook, you know what’s going to be in any of them.  But, not really!  This book also covers gods of the multiverse, planes of existence, and the creatures your character can often work with. You’ve seen the basics on the PDF reviewed here https://throatpunchgames.com/2014/07/05/ring-side-report-rpg-review-of-basic-rules-for-dungeons-and-dragons/  Lets look at the book.

 

Crunch or Mechanics-The basic rules are online, and I loved those.  But, this book adds TONS to the game.  This book adds dragonborn, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, and tieflings.  All these are great additions to the game along with the additional classes of barbarians, bards, druids, monks, paladin, rangers, sorcerers, and warlocks.  Even the classes from the basic document get amazing additions like the arcane trickster and the AWESOME eldritch knight!  I can’t wait to bring back my 4e sword mage as a fifth edition eldritch knight!  All these classes feel different, yet balanced.  I don’t feel like I have to be any one class to be a good character.  The one topic in the new book which was not presented in the basic rules is feats.  The feats are all surprisingly well balanced and useful.  There is room for expansion in everything, but the base rules give enough to make almost every character you could want.  I love what I see, and can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next. 5/5

 

Theme or Fluff– This book feels lived in.  I loved fourth edition for what it was, but the book felt sterile.  The book was well written, but its style was very much like that of an IKEA instruction manual.  Well done to get a point across, but it feels cold.  This book is very much alive.  Even the parchment-color background of every page makes this one feel like it’s alive.  Besides that, the art and the text makes the world come alive.  Every class, background, and concept gets art and story.  This book makes me feel like I’m stepping into a world that already exists, and that is amazing. 5/5

 

Execution– So the art is good, the layout is good, and the text is fun to read and invites the reader to keep reading.  You’d expect that.  But there is one thing I want to point out, and it is the honest to goodness best part of the book.  This book features the two best charts in the existence of D&D-page 12 and page 45.  My wife pointed these out to me since I am someone who is a bit jaded when it come to the tables in books, but once you see these and really look, they are amazing.  Page 12 gives a simple summary of abilities, the skills, the races and how they all work together.  It’s amazing in its execution and how much of the book it encapsulates on one chart.  Page 45 give a really quick, one sentence summary of each class, the hit dice, primary ability, its saving throws, and its weapons.  Again, this chart is an amazingly simple description of most of the book.  And that sets the bar for the whole book:  simply amazing. 5/5

 

Summary– If you want a review of the system, check out my review of the basic game here https://throatpunchgames.com/2014/07/05/ring-side-report-rpg-review-of-basic-rules-for-dungeons-and-dragons/  .  The system is good, great even, but this book is better.  This book is an amazing piece of art, math, and storytelling that sets up an infinite number of other stories.  Like every other RPG geek out there, I’ve been waiting for the new edition as I played in the play test.  I submitted my ideas and feedback.  What came out might not have been my exact perfect RPG, but what did emerge might be my favorite RPG.  Go check this one out NOW! Even at $50, this book is worth the price. 100%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of The Strange

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 5 Comments

RPG-The Strange

Producer-Monte Cook Games

Price-$41 here http://www.amazon.com/The-Strange-RPG/dp/1939979161/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407796403&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Strange

System– Cypher

TL;FR-It’s the next RPG from Monte Cook Games, so It’s going to be good.  100%

 

Basics– Ready for some Strange?  The Strange is a semi-sequel RPG to the previous hit Numenera.  In this RPG, the concept of the Strange is first and foremost.  The Strange itself is a chaotic mix of ideas where different versions of reality can be generated.  In these different pocket “dimensions”, steampunk, video game, popular fiction, fantasy, literature worlds/universes can be created and existed in .  However, monsters that eat whole worlds prowl out in the chaos.  In this game, your job is to keep that from happening.

 

Mechanics or Crunch-There is a lot here, so let’s go topic by topic.

 

Mechanics Basics- Remember Numenera?  This is pretty much the same.  GM never rolls the dice.  Players say a task or activity, the GM sets a level, multiply that level by three, and player rolls a d20.  Hit the number-succeed. Don’t-fail.  Your differnt powers and skills may make the number on the d20 lower.  The system is quick, easy, and keeps the focus on the story.

 

I’m a blanking blank who blanks– Character generation is select one of  descriptor that give you a general power, a class from one of three options, and an additional power that grows as you gain “levels” or tiers.  Character generation is again quick, easy, and keeps the focus on the story instead of min/maxing.

 

Worlds of “who blanks”-In my day job (thing that keeps me in the RPG books), I am a research scientist.  That’s great in a place where “science” works, but what about a place with magic?  Well, since a major part of this game is about changing worlds, the last part of each characters blanking blank who blanks changes depending on the world!  So, when Ed the crazy paradox who researches leave Earth and moves to a world of magic, I get a chance to choose what kind of character I change into based on the new world.  Now Ed is a crazy paradox who practices soul sorcery and looks like Anubis as I enter the magic world of Ardeyn.  This is the BIGGEST change in The Strange.  Your character is a near infinite number of characters as you can go to a near infinite number of worlds.  And that is awesome!  The book comes with a bunch of different descriptors that give all kinds of different options based on the different types of worlds presented.

 

Infinite Worlds-The Strange is infinite (as far as we know…).  The base book comes with some basic worlds to play in, but the game comes with rules to make any type of world you want.  The book even gives rules for the players to create their own worlds.  You can tell the Bruce Cordell was a major writer as the Lovecraft world is presented, and that makes me happy.  Want to play some Oz?  Done.  Wonderland?  Done.  Again, awesome!

 

Translation-the newest mechanic that is presented is translation.  This is the process of moving from one world/universe/reality to another.  It’s fairly simple, but the rules give a good introduction on how to do it as well as different way to move between worlds/universes/realities (portals, cyphers etc).

 

Mechanics Summary-This game is basically a bigger version of Numenera.  Heck, since The Strange is all inclusive, Numenera CAN exist within this game!  That’s not a bad thing!  This game feels like Monte Cook Games learned from Numenera, and Numenera was an excellent system to start with!  Small new additions make this an even better systems in terms of mechanics.  This game isn’t for the min/maxers out there, as it’s set up to be a super easy to use system that focuses on the story.  The mechanics of this one really do focus on the story first, giving just enough math to make things happen, but enough options to keep anyone happy. 5/5

 

Theme or Fluff- The theme is strange (pun intended) and fun.  You play a combination of MIB/RIPD/Delta Green/Stargate/Warehouse 13 Agents.  It’s a fun theme with an infinite number of places to play.  Heck, the book introduces fiction leakage-ideas leaking from one place to another and creating worlds/universes in the Strange.  So, you if you want to start a game where every single work of fiction comes from a different place in the Strange and cultists from Lovecraft are summoning Kaiju/Transformer monsters from beyond reality and the ritual must take place in a world based on 50 Shades of Gray with the end goal of destroying Earth, the game give you the tools to make that happen.  The theme covers all the themes you could want while adding its own touch to everything.  And again, that is awesome. 5/5

 

Execution-This book has a lot of ground to cover.  From introducing the cypher system to the multiple different descriptors needed to play this game in different realities to describing the setting, this book does a good job explaining how the game works.  Things are as close to perfect as you can with this size book.  The book does have the occasional sections where things get a bit textbook dense, but the number of pictures keeps that to a minimum.  The font, layout, pictures, and breaks make this fun to read and will keep you digging deeper and reading.  And this book is over 400 pages!  That number of pages for the price when considering the quality of the RPG is insane! 5/5

 

Summary-Monte Cook Games knows how to make an RPG for their target audience.  You CAN’T min/max in this system.  If you want to power game, look elsewhere!  This game is designed to tell a story, move it along quickly, and draw you in as quickly as possible.  The mechanics are amazing.  If you like the cypher system, you will like this.  Heck, the best part of this game is EVERYTHING from Numenera has a place in The Strange.  Each power, descriptor, and idea can be SOMEWHERE in the strange.  I suspect that within a few weeks a handy list giving which types of worlds/universes the Numenera powers/descriptors would work in will be out there (or I will make one!).  The idea that you change, but don’t, as you enter different worlds is a phenomenal addition to the system and RPGs as a whole.  I love what I see, and if you get a chance, you will too.  However, here is a word to the wise.  Since your characters change settings and powers fairly quickly, the player’s handbook is a good addition as it will really help you know how your powers work in each world, and the game won’t stall as the players have to pass the book around to understand each world they enter and how their characters fit in.  Give this one a look as soon as you can! 100%