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Ring Side Report- Unboxing and Review of The Island of El Dorado
Tag: Review
Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Micro City
Product-Micro City
Producer– ThisTroy Games
Price– SOON!
Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 30 to 60 minutes (1-2 players)
Type- Euro
Depth-Light
TL; DR-Packs a punch for its size 90%
Basics- If you build it, they will come! MicroCity is a simple building game that almost has a rondel and worker placement feel to it. Each round you play a card from your hand. This card moves your one worker on the map to different locations that give you resources, let you trade resources, or even spend resources to build. The card also gives you a second action that can let you get more resources or removes investment tokens from the board. Thus, the cards really shape your play. Alternatively, you can pick up all your cards and not do a card action and just move one place. In addition to the cards, each round you roll two dice. These dice can be spent, if they match the location or the card, to make the action more powerful. Or if neither is used, you can use them to gain extra money. At the locations you take your actions then place an investment token. These tokens block future uses of that location until they are removed. The goal of the game is to spend different combinations of resources to build different parts of a building within a number of turns (in the cooperative or solo mode) or earn victory points in the competitive mode. If you run out of turns or can’t place an investment marker, you lose! If you have the most points or complete the buildings before time is out, you win!
Mechanics-MicroCity is a simple game. You just read most of the rules above. It’s pretty simple. However, it does have some meat on its small bones as the game’s timer can be brutal if you don’t plan ahead. However, much like my problems with Scythe, you can end up just doing the same action multiple times in a row. That’s not as much fun. The game limits this as investments can stop you from just doing the same location actions again and again. MicroCity isn’t the most complex game I’ve played, but it does have some depth despite it’s small size. 4.25/5
Theme-Did I feel like a builder? Solid kind of! The locations in the city where you send your one worker have a feel like you are picking up wood or steel. The pieces make you feel like an engineer. Was it the most character driven game I’ve played? No. This game can’t be that involved given its small size and small run time. Overall, this is the most solid building experience I can expect from something the size of a large matchbox. 4.5/5
Instructions-The rules are the weak point to the game. They work, but the flow is honestly weird. Parts and their meanings are explained before the flow of the game so I felt like I was lost until I saw the flow. There are multiple versions of the game which is amazing, but the way they are separated in the rulebook feels off. You won’t need YouTube or Board Game Geek to play, but learning all by yourself is a bit hard given the flow of the book. 4/5
Execution– Honestly, for a small game the pieces are nice! Check out our unboxing here-https://youtu.be/pAvDwAu_lCQ Art is solid, tokens are good, and the cards are good quality. There are lots of extra pieces given the different game modes, but there is enough here to make that happen and make you happy to get the kickstarter copy. Good pieces do come in small packages! 5/5
Summary-This is a fun game that feels like a few other games I own with some good and bad. I did feel like I was building, but some goals made me feel like I was just doing the same thing over and over again. The rules are hard to start, but get you through decently at the end. The game itself is pretty to look at and solid to play with. If I want a good less than one hour co-op building game, I think this will hit my table again. 89%
Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Pocket Lint, Light Loot & Tiny Treasures
Product– Pocket Lint, Light Loot & Tiny Treasures
System-NONE!
Producer– Beyond the Horizon
Price– $1.95 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/321954/Pocket-Lint-Light-Loot–Tiny-Treasurest?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR–Solid, random stuff! 95%
Basics– What has it got in its pocketses? Need some random stuff an NPC is carrying and not sure what they have? This is the book for you. Roll a d20, then a d6, and finally a d20 again. Random pocket stuff on the fly!
Mechanics or Crunch– Roll three dice, get an item. That’s the basic idea, and it works pretty well! The book is here to help you find some good, random stuff, and the number of dice make it pretty random. The one thing I would like is a random die to know how many items each creature should have. The book gives a bit of advice: aim between 1 to 2 and no more than six, but throw another die in there to get me a number. Aside from that, it’s an easy, quick way to find some stuff that can make a monster’s random possessions stand out. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff-This is where the book shines. You need some random crap on a monster? DONE! And it’s lively! Each thing feels like it will build a world a little bit. Solid random stuff in these tables. 5/5
Execution– PDF? YEP! Hyperlinked? No… This book is solidly layed out and has good tables and readability. It’s 14 pages including an intro and cover page, but otherwise its tables. But I can read them quickly and easily. THAT’S WHAT A LOT OF BOOKS NEED TO LEARN! Would like some linking so I can use this as a quick reference more, but that’s the only negative here. 4.75/5
Summary-If you need some random on the fly, then this is your book. You will be surprised how easily some of these things could become whole adventure seeds. Some, on the other hand, are just fun. I have my minor issues, but for less than two bucks, you get a whole lot of bang for those two bucks if you need some quick ideas to spice up the random possessions you find on a fallen foe. 95%
Ring Side Report-RPG Review of EB-03 Where the Dead Wait
Product– EB-03 Where the Dead Wait
System-DnD 5e
Producer– DMs Guild
Price– $4.99 here https://www.dmsguild.com/product/302373/EB03-Where-the-Dead-Wait?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR– Solid semi-side episode of an awesome campaign. 95%
Basics– Time for Dawn of the Dead in Eberron? You’ve escaped from the Warforged with a magic talking box, but now the dead hunger for you in the Mournland. Can you get out, keep the box, and stop the dead from eating you?
Mechanics or Crunch– The crunch here is strong! It’s a fun adventure. Mechanically it works well. It might be a bit much for some players if they don’t think straight and want to do a smack down outside with an army of undead and don’t keep track of what’s happening with the NPCs. Overall solid, but sometimes the hint stick may be needed to help if the players just can’t keep themselves from killing themselves. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff-Combine Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead 2, and From Dusk till Dawn, and you have this adventure. It’s fun. It’s mostly a side adventure, but it doesn have a major plot tie in. Even the filler episodes of this campaign are fun. 5/5
Execution– PDF? YEP! Hyperlinked? No… I like these adventures. They are a blast to run as they read quick and I feel I can tie the player into the story. Reads quick, layout is nice, art makes me feel like it’s the 1920s between the wars period, and the additional newspapers are a great touch. Just give me my hyperlinking to move easily through the materials, and it would be perfect. 4.75/5
Summary-Oricle of War keeps delivering. This isn’t the main plot for the most part, but honestly you won’t care. Solid plot, decent mechanics, and a good execution make this an adventure to play if you want to get deeper into this campaign. 95%
Ring Side Report- Board Game Review of Two Minute Dino Deal
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Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Modern Age
Product– Modern Age Basic Rulebook
System-Modern Age
Producer– Green Ronin Publishing
Price– $6.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/243966/Modern-AGE-Basic-Rulebook?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR-Three games in one where every roll matters! 88%
Basics– Dragon Age in your modern age? Modern Age Basic Rulebook is a stand alone game, applying the basics of the Fantasy Age system to a modern or near modern setting. Let’s break this up into pieces.
Basic mechanics: Modern Age is Fantasy Age is Dragon Age. All three of these use 3d6 + ability + focus to do anything. Like all RPGs, it’s the basic idea of “roll dice, plus a number, to get a different number to win” idea. Easy enough to pick up and play.
Abilities and focuses: Modern Age has a pretty simple number addition pool where you add an ability. Ability is just like your base statistics in DnD. These range from -2 to +4. You also have focuses, which are basically like skills in DnD except that you get a flat +2 to the roll instead of different values. Later you can specialize so you have a +3 instead of the +2.
Talents and Powers: While abilities and focuses do give you some room to build some fun characters, it’s not enough to really differentiate your characters from the pack. That is where talents come into play. Talents are the feats of the system. Talents provide a bonus that makes your character distinct. Talents range from being rich and getting bonuses in buying things to being a bruiser who hits harder. What makes these distinct from DnD feats is there are three levels of each talent. As you level up you can take higher levels of each talent, making you more powerful in your given area. This is how spells/powers/psychic abilities are handled as well. You choose a magic school and that school functions pretty much like a talent providing you new options like making a light happen to casting fireballs. This isn’t a Vancian magic or powers game as characters have a number of power points they can spend at will to do whatever powers they want as often as they can.
Stunt Points: This is the bread and butter of the system. The Age system itself isn’t completely novel as dice + numbers vs a different number isn’t anything new, but this system uses 3d6 with ONE die being a different color. This different die is your stunt die. If any dice show doubles and you succeed, you get to a number of stunt points equal to your stunt die value. These points range from tripping people to better haggling in the market to adding power to your psychic blasts. All dice rolls have a table of stunt points you can spend to make things interesting. This differentiates the system from other roll + number systems, making it its own thing.
Game version: Modern movies are really three different kinds of movies. You have your ultra modern, gritty movies where one bullet kills someone. You have fun pulp where you punch nazis with a satisfying SMACK. You also have movies where one hero kills hundreds of monsters while only getting a single cut over his eye to make him look even more amazing. Modern Age gives you rule tweaks to play in any of these settings by changing damage from weapons, hit points, and number of bad guys you throw at the hero.
Ok, that’s the basics of the game. Let’s look at my thoughts at the game.
Mechanics or Crunch– You can see the direct line from the Dragon Age video game to the Dragon Age game to Fantasy Age to Modern Age. And that is a good thing! I like the basic idea of powers, magic points, and mechanics of the Dragon Age video game, and Dragon Age the RPG system implemented that well. Those basic ideas go from Dragon Age to Fantasy Age and finally to Modern Age. It’s a solid, simple to play system. Stunt points and the fact that any roll can make them happen really makes this game pop. Every roll matters. Something that happens in one roll might have big changes to the next as the points can change things in ways you might not have expected. It’s a great touch to make this stick out from all the other roll vs numbers games out there. My one minor gripe is I would like more powers in a character. Characters don’t get a whole lot of powers to play with if they go that route. If you are ok with a pretty simple system without an overabundance of options, this is a good one to jump into. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff-This book is light on fluf, but that is decidedly on purpose. Modern Age is a modern setting. It’s just today. You have today’s guns. The only fantasy bit is magic powers, and that’s honestly optional. The game references a comic setting as an option to play, but mostly it leaves the game up to you. The three different versions of the game do help you set the game how you want to play. Gritty, pulp, or cinematic are good options for a GM and players to decide how the world should be played. It’s setting light, but that’s by design, which doesn’t hurt the goals of the book. 4/5
Execution– PDF? YEP! Hyperlinked? YES! Ok, we start solid. Overall the book is well done. The font and tables are not my favorite, but that’s a print issue as they are a bit cramped for my taste. I also think laying out some items in a table for character advancement would help as opposed to telling me in text. Those small issues annoyed me a bit, because I want to be able to glance over things quickly to get what I need to know quickly. Aside from that, the book is well done. The one thing that stuck out to me is the weapons page. WEAPONS HAVE LABELS IN A PICTURE! I can’t tell you how many RPGs I have read where they mention a weapon, and I have to google what they mean. That’s a small thing that keeps me in this book as I speed read through the thing. Reads quick, easy to navigate, and good art to boot make this a solid product. 4.75/5
Summary-I can’t wait for the next Dragon Age video game. That system was solid. This game is a grand child of that video game, and it’s got all the things I know and love from it. The mechanics are simple and the fact that dice rolls have a chance to make something cool happen besides a critical keep things interesting. The fact I can run three different games from one book makes this pretty versatile for the games I want to play. The book was a quick read that got me playing fast. What I don’t like as much is I would like a bit more about the basic setting, but the basic setting is today. So, I could just look outside and see what it’s like. Characters don’t get a ton of options, but that is something from Dragon Age as well. It’s a solid game that makes every roll count, so give this one a try if you crave some modern day gunfights at your table! 88%
Ring Side Report- Review of Ecos: The First Continent!
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Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Dungeon Crawl Classics #94: Neon Knights
Product– Dungeon Crawl Classics #94: Neon Knights
System-DCC RPG
Producer– Goodman Games
Price– $6.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/221855/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-94-Neon-Knights?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR-Two tastes that don’t quite go together. 78%
Basics-How do we stop a hoard who feels no pain! Zombies or unfeeling monsters have surrounded the town, and you are called to aid the defence. But mid-meeting you are whisked away to do the bidding of a wizard. Can you save the town and stop being a mister fixit on call?
Mechanics or Crunch-This adventure is short! The major bad guy is the wizard who keeps summoning you. You can fight the zombies, but the book makes it seem like you will die. As a DM I would kill you as well. The tower with the wizard isn’t bad, but he also is pretty much the only thing in it. It’s a short dungeon with balanced fights, but just not enough of them. It’s a little too old school as you have to find the fights and the goods here as opposed to them being out in the open for you to pillage and kill. I didn’t hate it, but it will require you to punch up the adventure to keep your group involved. 4/5
Theme or Fluff-There are not one, but two things for the PCs to face. But, they are tied together. BUT, only you, the GM, really get that. The wizard only brings you in when he needs help. You have to find and explore the place in seven rounds before he sends you back. The zombies are ok, but why are they here? I know why because I read the book, but it feels like two different adventures put together. I didn’t hate this, but even after reveals, my players felt like there were really two adventures here. Both of the singles are good, but together it’s three Michelen star steak mixed with gold ribbon winning chocolate. Maybe these two things shouldn’t go together. 3/5
Execution– PDF? YEP! Hyperlinked? no…That’s honestly my biggest gripe here. The execution isn’t bad. I would like clean maps I can show my players without having things marked on the map that they find. Text read fast and I could play quickly. It is one of the standard well put together DCC modules I know and love. 4.75/5
Summary-I don’t hate this one, but this might not be the first adventure I show to new players. I was able to turn this to keeping my players on the purple planet. It works well that way, but the basic story gets lost in most of the GM fluff. Not bad, but unless the players work to make friends with their captor, they won’t get it. The dungeon needs more pieces and stuff to play with in the form of fights or toys. The presentation is good, but I still want hyperlinks! Overall, it’s an ok adventure that is maybe a bit too stuffed with disparate things. 78%
Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Call to Adventure
Product-Call to Adventure
Producer– Brotherwise Games
Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 30 to 45 minutes (2-4 players)
Type- American
Depth-Light
TL; DR-Set Collection Your Own Adventure! 95%
Basics- Who will you be? Call to Adventure is a character building game of set collection and dice rolling. Each character at the start of the game will be given three cards: a background, a motivation, and a destiny. The background and motivation cards have rune symbols representing traits that your character will use to attempt to adventure, as well as powers that your character can use each turn. Each turn your character must choose either an adventure or trait from the tableau. Traits are cards you just take, but adventures are events you must choose to encounter. Each adventure has two traits associated with it. You see if you have any matching traits on the cards you currently have, you add one of those trait’s runes to your “dice pool” (which is actually a rune pool) for each symbol your character has. Then you choose on the adventure card if you will attempt the encounter on the bottom or the top section. Each one has a different story AND different rewards/challenges. You then take the three basic runes that either give one success, no success, or draw a hero/antihero (one time use card) as well as the runes you gathered before based on your current cards, and you may spend experience to add dark runes to the pool. These either add one success or two success and make you more evil! You then cast the runes (instead of rolling dice), and you count your successes. If you succeed you gain the card and place it under your current one to show the challenge you overcame. If you fail, you lose the card, but gain an experience. Play continues until one player has three cards under their background, motivation, and destiny. All other players get to finish the round and have one additional round to catch up and then you add all victory points from any cards you played and sets of icons you collected, and the player with the most destiny points is the winner!
Mechanics-This game sneaks up on you as you might only have nine turns if you are lucky! It’s very quick, and it’s easy to forget that you are collecting sets of icons and points. But, man is it fun! It’s quick enough to not wear out its welcome, but it’s also deep enough that you will have to think a bit. Experience is a great way to fix the luck of the dice issue, but dice/runes can absolutely ruin your fun here. But even then, you will still not have a bad time as it’s not a long game and some traits are won by losing. Overall, it’s a dice rolling and set collection game. 4.5/5
Theme- This is a solid story game. When you are done, you will be amazed how well the story of your character emerges. I FEEL like I am this person playing a year long campaign forging this hero in an RPG. If you are a story gamer like me, YOU WILL LOVE THIS! 5/5
Instructions– The rules here are good, but you will end up on BGG. There are some corner cases where I have to check exactly what the game rules mean. Even without board game geek, you can figure out enough to settle on house rules to get you playing. The rules are written well enough that you will get running fast enough to play in about 10 minutes. These are solid rules, but a few flaws keep them from being the gold standard. 4.5/5
Execution– This is a fantastically executed game! Check out all the pieces here: https://youtu.be/n0OI0_nS1e8 YOU CAST RUNES! It feels like every druid fortune telling scene in a viking movie. That right there is amazing. The cards are excellent. Everytime I teach this game players want to stare at the cards as the details are amazing and tell a story themselves. The box is amazing. It has great compartments to keep things organized. Honestly, more games need to be built like this game! 5/5
Summary– This is a game you will either LOVE or HATE. If you want a 12 hour euro game where each move is planned six moves ahead, then this is not the game for you! If you, like me, played eight games of RPGs at the BGG virtual con AND have two play by post games going at the same time, then I have a board game for you and for you to woo your RPG friends into. It’s light enough to be a blast to play quickly, but deep enough for you to find a story to dig into with enough mechanics that you can enjoy your choices. Like all dice games, you can be wrecked by the dice, and I would like a bit more in the rules to elaborate. But, this game is a blast to play and one that any RPG gamer and board gamer needs in their collection. 95%
Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Ghoul Island Act 1: Voyage to Farzeen
Product– Ghoul Island Act 1: Voyage to Farzeen
System-DnD 5e
Producer– Petersen Games
Price– $15.00 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/308667/Ghoul-Island-Act-1-Voyage-to-Farzeen?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR-Solid book that tells you what it is. 95%
Basics– What horrors lurk under Farzeen? This is the first part of an epic heroic fantasy campaign from Sandy Petersen. This adventure starts off with mutiny aboard a ship, involves the crew being battered by horrible dreams, losing the crew, finding the city of Farzeen, and eventually finding the crew after they flee to a temple below the island. Along the way the players meet monstrous deep ones, less monstrous ghouls, and an ancient evil long forgotten below this island.
Mechanics or Crunch-This is a solid adventure. The math checks out as it’s just applying the basic 5e rules for the crunch. It uses Sandy Petersen’s dread rules, so you will need the Cthulhu Mythos book for that. Overall, a solidly put together adventure full of fun fights and exploration for low level characters. 5/5
Theme or Fluff-This part is where expectations have to be set early. I honestly think the best way to play Call of Cthulhu is a one shot. People in a normal world, thrown into a crazy situation, damaged beyond repair, then left to deal with the horror for the rest of their lives. That’s good cosmic horror. This isn’t that, and the book is VERY up front with that. This is heroic fantasy with horror thrown in. This adventure isn’t written to be 20 levels of just sheer cosmic horror. You get to be awesome stomping a deep one. Also, some of the main characters are ghouls. Some players are going to miss this, but Lovecraft ghouls are not DnD ghouls. They are more dog men really. It’s things like that that will require your players and you to adjust expectations. Nothing is bad, but you have to read this and see exactly what the author intends. 4.5/5
Execution– PDF? YEP! Hyperlinked? no…That’s honestly my only gripe here. The layout is good. Text size is good. Art is well done. There is even a separate book that is the Farzeen Gazetteer that gives you background on the town and island. That’s an amazing value for 15 bucks considering this is a full length adventure and a whole small book on the island itself! Just hyperlink and this would be one of the best products this year. 4.75/5
Summary-Sandy Petersen’s team put out another top notch product here. It has solid crunch for the adventure. The story is good, but you HAVE to read what it is and what it is not. I also love the pieces of this thing. My gripes are small-I always want PDFs with hyperlinks now, and I went in expecting only cosmic horror all day long. If you can get past those small issues, then you have an incredible start to what is shaping up to be an amazing campaign with the resources you need to make a fun, in depth game for your players. 95%
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