Tag: Review

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Dark Archive

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Product– Pathfinder Dark Archive

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer– Paizo

Price– $41.99 here https://miniature-market.sjv.io/q4marn 

TL; DR-New toys and adventures for things that go bump in the night. 97%

Basics–  What goes bump in the night?  Dark Archive focuses on all the stuff that gets thrown into your average Halloween party.  It covers psychics, occult inquisitors called thaumaturges, archetypes, feats, spells, and a TON of adventures.  Let’s dig in to this book!

Mechanics or Crunch– I love what’s here, but there are small problems that hurt things overall.  The two new classes fit within the world of wizards, warriors,and clerics as now we have a mind wizard and an occult paladin.  There may be a slight bit of power creep as these might be a bit better than the core classes, but it’s nothing absolutely game breaking.  Feat, spell, and archetypes all fit solidly there as well.  Interestingly enough, this book has almost MORE for the GM than the players.  There are adventures and ways to upgrade monsters to add the occult feel like cryptids and secret societies.  Aside from a bit of power creep, the other thing that I feel hurts this is the lack of inclusion into Pathfinder Society.  PFS is the majority of the way I play an while I LOVE that adventures are included, new options that you only get when weird stuff happens to you are not given as options in the PFS documenting materials.  What is here is well done, but balance and lack of inclusion into Paizo’s flagship gaming market hurt the book a bit. 4.75/5

Theme or Fluff– As a lover of ghost stories and campfire monsters, this book calls to me.  I love the flavor here and the fact that crunch is being tied deeper into story.  The new ways to add things like cults and monsters also helps.  What’s here is amazing.  I am slightly sad I didn’t see much Lovecraft lore here.  We can make it, but I still want my crazy horrors from beyond time and space to make more of an appearance in a book where time magic and feats get put into the system.  Couple that with adventures that GMs can drop in instantly, this is a solid book on the Pathfinder occult.   4.9/5

Execution– This is a physical book and a PDF by Paizo, so I’m almost automatically going to love it.  Solid layout, fonts, formats, hyperlinks make this a great book and a breeze to read.  My one minor issue is this is a book with almost as many pages for the GM as the players.  It would be nice to have a PDF of the maps and pictures that I can show to the players like they do with their adventure paths.  But, if my criticism is that I want more, that’s a good place to be in production.   4.9/5

Summary– I love me some crazy stuff, so I love me this book.  I listen to too many podcasts about monsters, skepticism regarding monsters, and ghost stories to pass this book up.  It has great additions to the system that might be a touch overpowered compared to things before.  It has fun adventures with some amazing options that I wish PFS players could get their hands on.  It has solid production, but a lack of web enhancements might hold it back a bit.  What’s here is good, but I just want more ways to get at it. 97%

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

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Product– Blade Runner RPG: Starter Set

System- Year Zero

Producer– Free League Publishing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Product– Blade Runner RPG Core Rulebook

System- Year Zero

Producer– Free League Publishing

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ok, Let’s discuss.

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

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

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

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

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

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Product– Weird Wizard Quick Play

System- Shadow of the Demon Lord

Producer– Schwalb Entertainment

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

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

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

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

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

Ok, Let’s discuss.

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

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

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

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