Basics– What’s ya name!? In Zo! Vs. Zo, the Starfinders are asked to help Zo! Defend his semi-good honor as his name is threatened by a city called Zo. How will your group of Starfinders fare as lawyers and in combat?
Mechanics or Crunch– This is a fairly simple adventure with some combat, some social, but no exploration. It’s all set in cities as the Starfinders have to prove they can do the fighting, then attempt to set up a legal defense, and finally a real defense in legal combat. It’s a bit on the rails, but still good. The mechanics are well done and felt fair and fun. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– The story is a bit off here. The basics are to prove you can fight, do legal skill checks, do more legal skill checks, and then fight no matter what. The legal stuff felt off. I would like the option to just not do the second fight if the characters succeed enough or for them to just push for combat. That’s how I would run this for a home group, but for Society, the flow makes the adventure feel strained. It works, but the logic is a bit off. 3.5/5
Execution– Yeah, we all know this was gonna be a 5/5. It’s a Paizo book. I keep saying this exact sentence when I write about Paizo. They know layout, text, and art. It’s an easy to read adventure. Maybe the one thing that would help is having separate art from the other legal combatants, but that’s extremely nitpicky. This is well done. 5/5
Summary-This is a fun adventure, but maybe not the most logical adventure. Any group of guys and gals will enjoy the adventure, but it’s a bit linear and a bit nonsensical. That said, it’s an adventure to a world that most Starfinders have not been to and some courtroom drama that almost no players outside of those brave profession (barrister) players do. You will have fun, but maybe don’t think too hard about why things are happening. 87%
TL; DR-Another Solid Addition to the Core line. 97%
Basics– We’re all gonna die! Monster Core is the last of the three main books needed to play Pathfinder, providing the foes that the heroes will face in their journeys.
Mechanics or Crunch– Paizo knows their math. These monsters are the ones we know, mostly, and love. The Paizo staff designed good monsters and this just gives them the 2.5 glow up new coat of paint the system needed to get them fully ORC compliant. It’s well done. 5/5
Theme or Fluff– The story of the monsters takes a tiny bit of a dip. As we move from 3.5/SRD base to ORC/Paizo’s own world, we lose a few things. A major example is alignment. We have Demons, Daemon, and Devils. We have three different groups that are basically out to destroy everything but all just end up with the bad guy banner. There is a story, but it’s that part of the story supported by differences in alignment and motivations that really separate these different D-based bad guys (that and centuries of European occult history). The same goes with different dragon types. I want to reiterate that what’s here is good, but the theme of these different monsters does miss alignment. 4.5/5
Execution– Yeah, we all know this was gonna be a 5/5. It’s a Paizo book. It reads fast, well, and is pretty. Monsters get art for me to show players. I get a good layout and hyperlinks. Heck, there are even a few player things like a few rituals to sell your soul or talk to god! 5/5
Summary-This is a good book. My view might be tainted by the changes from 3.5 to ORC. I love the ORC, but we do lose some things along the way due to the legalese. Those are things you will have to bring with your own stories to the table now. This book will easily give you the foes to make those stories full of conflict and victory. 97 %
Basics– New boss, new random magic thing, new place, who dis? Year of Era’s End sets out to establish the next and final meta plot for Starfinder Society 1st edition. The Starfinders have made new friends with the Anacites on their barren homeworld. Will the Society understand how the latest found magic item works before evil robots try to kill us all?
Mechanics or Crunch– This adventure is fairly simple and similar to the usual first adventures of a season. You have a few fights, a few social encounters, and a few skill challenges as you explore. It’s not crazy, but it all works well. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– Much like the mechanics, this adventures is pretty standard for the first adventure of a season. You will meet the new boss, meet some new friends/middle managers of the Starfinder Society, and a new adversary group. The adventure is split in two, with two different goals in each as you try to understand the newly found device. It’s standard, but decently well done. 4.5/5
Execution– Paizo knows adventure production. Layout is good, text is easy to read, and organization is good. The maps are all available, and the monsters and NPCs all have pictures that I don’t have to crop myself. I’ve even adjusted to the increase in cost as nine bucks is about the price of a movie and this will take about three to four hours to play. Solid work. 5/5
Summary-It’s the end of the world, and I feel fine! Starfinder Society First Edition is going away, and this honestly is a decent start to that. It’s some simple mini adventures that get a metaplot started, introduce new characters in the lore, and allow for some fun encounters along the way. If all the final adventures work like this, it will be a good send off. 93 %
TL; DR– DCC and DnD5e had a more realistic baby! 93%
Basics– For Edervale! Distal is a new RPG currently being kickstarted. The writer has provided a MASSIVE preview that includes a lot of character options, several pregens, and even a short adventure. Let’s break it down for a review.
Basics- This is a d20 rpg. You have five statistics and a combination of 20 skills and knowledges. When you want to do anything, it’s D20 plus the statistic for checks or D20 plus the statistics and the bonus for the knowledge or skill. That’s it. Common things are a DC8 most are a DC10, and things can get EXTREMELY hard with some things being a DC22.
Dice steps- Like DCC RPG, this system uses dice steps. Distal sticks to normal dice with the dice chain being d4-d6-d8-d10-d12. No funky dice here!
Character creation- This system has a ton of options and a ton of randomness if you want it. Characters choose a race/lineage and a class. There is also a background. Backgrounds provide what you would expect: additional skills, items, and knowledges based on the life events you experienced. What makes them interesting is you can also randomly roll on several charts to randomly build a background! No traveler death during character creation though!
Combat- Combat is round based, but not based on your normal initiative score. After the GM determines who has the drop on the other side, each side does one action, then the other side does an action, alternating between the two. Characters get the expected actions in a combat round with a move, an action, and smaller things like techniques that are quick actions. In addition to the checks above, characters have an attack bonus based on their class, and it’s just D20 plus that bonus to attack. Damage is dice based like DnD with bonuses based on your statistics. The interesting change here is damage reduction with armor. Armor doesn’t really provide a bonus to defense, but reduces damage taken. Each armor provides a damage reduction die. If you roll a 1 on that die, then you don’t reduce much damage and the die gets one step smaller. Go too small and the armor is completely broken!
Willpower- Characters have willpower dice as part of their character class. These dice are gained at the start of combat and through other events, or as my favorite: story candy and buying the GM beer. When a character wants to add just an extra bit of extra to a D20 roll, a character can spend willpower and roll their willpower die to add the result to their total.
Magic- Magic is very similar to DnD5e. Characters either prepare spells once a day or know so many depending on their level. In either case, the caster can cast so many a day depending on their level and then they are out for the day. Characters might not be able to cast a lot of spells, but spells are extremely powerful with the ability to easily kill a first level character straight out!
Death- Death is PERMANENT! There is no resurrection. If your guy dies, hes dead! You do get deathmarks, however. When you drop to zero hit points, you begin to die and take a deathmark. These build up as you continue to die and each time you fall down again. You can remove some as you relax, but get too many and eventually you will not be able to get back up again, EVER!
Alright, thats the basics, let’s dig in.
Mechanics or Crunch– This is an interesting RPG. It is not a copy of either DCC or DnD5e. It is VERY close to both, but in good ways. It’s not brutal nor gritty, but it is more realistic as damage hurts bad and death is close. The mechanics are simple. Maybe a bit too simple and you don’t get a ton of skills, but that’s by design. Combat is not too simple, but simple enough to make the game flow easily. Overall, it’s good, but not the most original RPG this year. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– The fluff of this world is interesting. The preview doesn’t provide everything for good reason, but what is presented is good. It might not be the most original setting as it feels like many of the classic RPG setting pieces I know and love. It sticks with the more usual suspects like undead, monsters, and dudes with militaries being the bad guys, but those are fun things to smack back into place to save the world. Not the most original setting, but still a fun place to play. 4.5/5
Execution– This is a solid preview. There an OVER 100 PAGE document showing the system and world WITH HYPERLINKS! There is a full adventure with at least four premade characters. This is exactly what I want when I see a new RPG kickstarter. It’s new, but shows what’s to expect. I love what I’m seeing, AND IT’S ALL FOR FREE!. 5/5
Summary– Used to love DnD5e and I love DCC. This RPG is a solid mix of those two right down the middle. Simple mechanics with just a D20 plus numbers, but skills and knowledges for all. A simple world where there are bad guys and how the world addresses that. It’s the most new in any category, but it is done well. I can already see the first source book as the one group is summoning undead and those undead are running around, and I didn’t see a player character undead race. Given what I’ve seen, this will turn out to be a solid RPG that will get my silly friends to be a bit more serious and my serious friends to play a bit more loose! 93%
