Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana

August 31, 2015August 31, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product– Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana

System– AGE System

Producer– Green Ronin

Price– $13.99 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/153950/Titansgrave-The-Ashes-of-Valkana?src=hottest_filtered

TL; DR– I only wish this had more. 88%

Basics-Cyberpunk, fantasy, and Wheaton-oh my! Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana is the much hyped book using the AGE System and a setting designed by several RPG powerhouses and Wil Wheaton himself. On the Tabletop YouTube page, Wheaton played several adventures of this game with his celebrity friends, and now you can play this game at home with your friends. What will happen when you disturbed the ashes of a long dead war?

Mechanics or Crunch-Titansgrave demonstrates some amazing uses for the AGE system, but doesn’t quite hit the mark I was expected. The book has some phenomenal new additions to the system like a completely new chart to spend stunt points for one creature type in combat. Those kind of add-ons to a system show how robust and buildable the AGE system can be. The book doesn’t quite keep up that new energy throughout however. The basic Fantasy Age book introduces the system quite well, but Titansgrave doesn’t do enough to expand the system for this universe. I wanted several new additions, spells, and mechanics, however, I really only got a new race, some new items, and a few character options in the first chapter. They all work well, but it doesn’t do enough to really drastically enhance the system. AGE is great itself, but I want more to really make the AGE system Titansgrave own thing. 4/5

Theme or Fluff- Titansgrave tells an interesting story, but sadly one you’ve kind of “heard” before. The Titansgrave story is the fun romp from TableTop. Which if you saw TableTop is awesome. But, if you saw TableTop, then you have a general idea of what’s going to happen. I was hoping for a bit more original stuff like added adventures, side quests, and a continuing adventure in the world, but there is some things here to keep your players guessing. Also, the story is a bit linear. You can’t go too far off rails on this as the story is written ahead of time. 4.75/5

Execution-If you like the layout from Fantasy AGE, you will do fine here. This book is basically a giant version of the adventure at the back of the Fantasy AGE book with some serious additions. I’d like a bit more here as the art is good, but I need a few more maps to throw to my players and some more breaks in the text to help me better read the story. Overall, its well done and something that you can get through with general ease. 4.5/5

Summary-Titansgrave is the first big launch of the AGE system after it got its own push post-Dragon Age. This book isn’t my favorite RPG book of all time, but I think it does a good job of introducing the system and setting in a big way. The book provides a completely new world to play in. I’d like a bit more mechanics specific to the world, but what’s here is well done. The story is good, but depending on how much your players watch Titansgrave, they may have seen some of the high points. The book is well executed, and overall a fun read. After reading this book, I’m hungry for more in the Titansgrave setting. 88%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of I Hate Zombies

August 27, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product– I Hate Zombies

Producer-Board Game Geek

Price– $ 8 but only through the kickstarter so far

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 30 minutes (2-12players)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-A great, simple game to get a group playing quickly. 95%

Basics-Man, I HATE ZOMBIES! I Hate Zombies is a quick party/social game where players get to be either zombies or humans. After everybody is dealt a card, every other player flips their card from the human side to the zombie side. Zombies, and only zombies, then attack a human on their right or left by playing rock paper scissors. If a human lose, they take a wound and turn their card. If a human takes two wounds, they become a zombie! If the human wins, then the zombie takes a wound. Three wounds to a zombie, and that player is out of the game. Every human has a power that ranges from healing to insta-killing one zombie! If only humans remain, then the humans have won. If all the players become zombies, then the zombies win! It’s that simple.

Mechanics– This game is crazy combination of Coup and Rock Paper scissors. It’s fast, fun, and crazy. However, only the zombies attack. That’s kind of boring for the human players as they have to just endure the attacks from the zombies. It doesn’t make me hate the game, but it is a bit boring. However, it does move fast enough that players get a great taste of the game quickly keeping them from getting board. 4.5/5

Theme-This is a crazy American style game. Play moves fast, so it does feel like a zombie hoard. Overall, it’s great. The humans all feel distinct, but the zombies all just feel like the same old thing. That could be intentional as the zombies are now a hoard, but I’d like for the zombies to feel a bit distinct. Furthermore, there isn’t much story here. It evolves as you play if you play with a great group, but the game itself isn’t a story powerhouse. 4.5/5

Instructions– The rules to the game are short enough they could be written on a napkin. It’s that simple. It’s also simple enough to be quick playing and easy to explain. Good job! 5/5

Execution– This game is a bunch of cards, a bunch of people, and rock paper scissors. You have to try to screw that up! What I did get was some awesome art, great physical card stock, and a nice pouch to hold it in that fits in a CD holder. And the best part is this game costs somewhere around eight bucks. You get a whole microgame that can get a whole room of people playing for about the cost of a hot and ready pizza from Little Caesars! 5/5

Summary-This is a simple fun game. It’s not the most complex game out there, and it lacks a little in theme, but it makes up for that in simplicity, speed, and fun. If you need to get a whole room of people playing a game to break some ice, you would be hard pressed to find a better game than I Hate Zombies! 95%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–01: Between the Lines

August 26, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #7–01: Between the Lines

System– Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $3.99 here http://paizo.com/products/btpy9cu3?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-7-01-Between-the-Lines

TL; DR– DnD-NOW WITH LSD! 92%

Basics-You’ve been summoned to help procure an item. Fortunately, you know where it is, and even better, who has it. They will even sell it to you! What happens when you get what you want, and it does way more than you hoped for? What happens when you play with an ancient box that stores the mental history of all who used it before?

Mechanics or Crunch-This is two adventures in one. The first adventure is the standard one you know and love. Run some errands, and then you get what you were searching for. That’s all par for the course. The second half is crazy, out there fun. You enter a mental landscape. That’s fine, but the map and the monsters are a bit off, and a bit more front loading and modifying of stat blocks would help GMs run this on the fly. It’s not horrible, and if you read ahead (like you are supposed to!), you will be fine. However, if you’re running this after just printing off your adventure, then you as a GM will be a bit lost. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff- As I said in mechanics, this is two adventures. Half is in the regular world, and that is something your players can easily grab onto. This part is here more to help draw your players in. The real meat of the adventure is the second part. Here is where things go on and off the rails. On rails because the players progress through a linear dream landscape, but have to do so in a specific order. Off rails because this adventure plays like a LSD trip-and it is amazing! Lot’s a crazy imagery and fun ways for the GM to really ham up the crazy, psychic nature of the adventure. I absolutely love this adventure for that. 5/5

Execution-This adventure has your usual Pathfinder Society polish. What I don’t like is how the monsters are not customized to the adventure. The players fight some crazy dream monsters, but the monsters are not really customized to the purpose at hand. It’s ok, but it wouldn’t take much to really fix up the monsters here, so you’re GMs don’t have extra math to fight with. This adventure will be a bit long if the players and the GM are slow. Honestly, its about ¾ of two different adventures, so if your GM doesn’t manage his or her time properly, you will be done late if this is run at a convention slot. I’m complaining that there is too much here, which is a good problem to have, but it can be a major problem if not dealt with properly. 4.25/5

Summary-Occult Adventures kicked off this season of Pathfinder Society, and it shows in here. This isn’t completely a psychic adventure as it got strange occult influences, and I hope this keeps up through the entire season of Pathfinder Society. This is a crazy adventure that really provides some great roleplaying opportunities as well as some great scenes for players and GMs to just go hog wild with. I love what I see here, and I can’t wait for more. It’s not perfect. I’d like a bit of customization from Paizo for the monsters as a GM who has missed some important information might try to throw CR 6 creatures at a level one party if the miss the section detailing how the encounter changes. It hurts the overall presentation a bit, but honestly, I had a blast running this adventure. If this is any indication of what’s coming next, BRING ON THE STRANGE! 92%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Diamonds

August 24, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Diamonds

Product– Diamonds

Producer-Stronghold games

Price– $ 25 here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NFSBU9Y/ref=sr_ph_1?m=A7YAR2WDYOPTK&ie=UTF8&qid=1440129851&sr=sr-1&keywords=diamonds

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 30-45 minutes (2-6players)

Type-Euro

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Best parts of several trick tacking games. 92.5%

Basics-Time to throw Eucker, Hearts, and Spades into a blender! Diamonds is a trick taking game that combines the best of all of the above. Players are dealt 10 cards, and the dealer will decide to trade one to three cards. All players then choose that many cards from their hand and pass them to their neighbor. Next, the player to the left of the dealer will place one card down. These cards have values between one to 15 and have the four suits found on any normal deck of cards: hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs. Each player then has to place a card of the leaders suit, if they have any, or play any other card, if they don’t have the same suit as this trick’s lead card. Here is where the game becomes more than just a trick taking game. Each suit has a power associated with it. Diamond cards place a diamond behind a small screen called your vault. Hearts place a diamond in front of the vault in your vault. Spades take a diamond from the front and place it behind your vault. Clubs steal a diamond from in front of another player’s vault and places it in front of yours. Whoever played the highest card with the lead’s suit gets to take all the played cards and set them next to his or her screen and then take that suits action. If you couldn’t play a card with the lead’s suit, you just take the action associated with your suit. Playing off won’t get you cards for the round’s end, but it does get you whatever power the card you played has. Whoever won that trick then becomes the next lead player for the next trick. After 10 tricks each round, all players separate their cards into four piles based on the suits. Whoever has the most number of each suit gets to take that suits power again. If you didn’t get any tricks, and thus have no cards, you get two free diamonds placed right into your vault instead. Play then continues with a new dealer. After each player deals one or two times, depending on the player count, each player counts their diamonds with diamonds in your vault worth two points and those in front being worth one. The player with the most points wins!

Mechanics– I’m from Michigan, so I knew this game from another game called Eucker. Eucker is fun, but it lacks depth. This game is amazingly deep for a trick taking card game. Sometimes you do better by playing off than ever winning a single trick. Sometimes, you need to win every trick. That evolving strategy is amazing. Also, the game isn’t hard to play. I do love me some 8-hour, math fueled, Euros where I build cars, but you will learn this game in under 3 minutes, master it in 10, and have a chance of winning in 15. Honestly, this is a well done game. 5/5

Theme-Theme is a hard concept in your average trick taking game. What’s here is ok. There really isn’t a story here. But then again, I’m not really looking for one. I’d like more, as I’ve seen some reskinned trick taking card games with more theme, but I didn’t expect too much going in. The components are nice and do build a bit of a world, but don’t play this game if you need something like Dark Moon’s story. 3.5/5

Instructions-That paragraph above is all you need to play this game. The rulebook is as short as it needs to be. The game is an extremely simple to play game, so the rules don’t have to be too difficult or cover too much territory. The extremely helpful thing included in this game is a cheat card for every player giving some quick iconography on how the different suit powers work. Honestly, this is a slick, simple rulebook that will get you playing in about 5 minutes even if you’ve never played a trick taking game before. 5/5

Execution-This game is a small game, but not a poorly put together one. You can see all the components here: http://youtu.be/dugtHKid-Ko . The game is about a quarter the size and weight of most of my other games, but that doesn’t hurt its delivery. The game comes with cardboard standee vaults, a deck of cards, and plastic diamonds. What is here is well done and beautiful. The art is distinctive, but not distracting. The diamonds are nice plastic pieces that you want to collect. It’s a power-packed box. 5/5

Summary-Diamonds is the game I bring with me when I hang out with my family in Michigan. It’s got the simplicity of Hearts, but the depth I need in a great board game. It has great components and instructions. My only real complaint is the theme, and the only reason I ding this game on theme is I play too many RPGs, and I want theme in everything I play. If a games story isn’t the most important thing to you, then this is an amazing, easy to play trick taking game that’s a great game to add to any collection. 92.5%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook

August 10, 2015August 10, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 2 Comments

Product– Fantasy AGE Basic Rulebook

System– Adventure Game Engine

Producer– Green Ronin Publishing

Price– $16 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/153066/Fantasy-AGE-Basic-Rulebook

TL; DR-A strong successor to Dragon AGE. 92%

Basics-The Dragon AGE has ended, but that doesn’t mean all the stories you wanted to tell in the AGE system have. Fantasy AGE is the basic rule book for the previous Adventure Gaming System(AGE) system that came out with Dragon Age RPG providing all the basics any generic Fantasy RPG could need. Let’s break this down piece by piece and see what I think of them individually.

Mechanics or Crunch–

Game Basics- Fantasy AGE uses the same basic mechanics that Dragon AGE did; each player will roll 3d6 for an action, find the sum of the dice with some modifiers, and that will determine the outcome. Contested rolls work exactly the same with the higher sum winning the roll. This is a quick and easy way to have numeric diversity and an average in your dice rolls.

Stunts-One of the more interesting things with this system is stunts. When you roll your dice, two of the dice are one color and the third is a different color. If two of the dice have the same result, you get stunt points equal to the result on the differently colored die. These stunts have point values and will allow you to add extra flare and effects beyond hit a guy, cast the spell, or bluff the guard. Each type of action has it’s own stunt point chart that you can select icons to spend your points on with the more points spent, the stronger the effects. When I first read about this system, I was a bit put off, but then my math geek showed through. It’s easy to think that you won’t roll doubles often, but out of three six-sided dice, you roll doubles a little less than half of the time! Again, this is a fun addition to the standard “roll dice, hit guy, next person in initiative” we’re all used to.

Character Generation-Fantasy age characters make a few important choices and have to let some dice fall. When you make a character, you get to choose your race, background, class, and then you let the dice fall where they may! Lots of this system involves you randomly rolling for effects on your character. This results in your average character of a race having some average abilities and likely traits, but overall, I don’t like that part of character generation. While I’ve played older RPG editions, I prefer to let choice occur when you build your person. This system does downplay the negative aspects of low ability rolls, but I still prefer point buy. It’s an option, but most of the book tends to focus on rolling for your character.

Statistics:This game doesn’t have a ton of bonuses to your basic dice roll and that is great thing. Each person has a number of statistics being: accuracy ( weapon accuracy), communication (talking to people), constitution (body toughness), dexterity (agility and coordination), fighting (heavy weapon accuracy), intelligence (what you know), perception (situation awareness), strength (physical ability), willpower (mental resolve). You can generate these via point buy or just rolling 3d6 and hoping for the best, so your number will be between 3 and 18 white the modifier for your dice rolls roughly equal the modifiers most role players have from D&D. You can further focus in these abilities by getting ability focuses like Accuracy(Blades) where you add 2 to your dice results for all blades attacks. Thus, you will really only add two numbers to the three six-sided dice rolls. I do love any system that squashes power gaming at the start and builds in a mean and standard deviation for its die results!

Classes and Advancement-Much like the Dragon AGE RPG, there are only three core classes: mage, rogue, and warrior. These classes are much like you would expect. Mages cast spells, rogues are nimble and skillful, and warriors are heavy people-at-arms. Each level a character will get new options such as ability focus, talents (abilities in sequence like feat trees in DnD/Pathfinder), or class specific bonuses. The talents provide the bulk of the customization in the game. Every warrior has the same basic class abilities, but the warrior focusing on close combat and social interaction will be like that because of the talents he or she choose. You don’t get that many choices, but you do get a method to differentiate yourself from the press of other individuals out there.

Magic-Magic in this system is a point based system where players have a mana pool that is spent to cast a spell. Spells themselves come from the talents that players choose with each level of the talent providing more spells. It’s a simple system that reminds me of Final Fantasy and the Dragon Age video games. Not bad company to be in, but since you don’t get tons of different talents, you won’t have the abundance of spells you’re used to in different RPGs like Pathfinder.

Combat and Damage-Just like this games D20 cousins, combat flows in a turn based manner following every player rolling initiative. On your turn, you can do either two minor actions like moving or a minor and a major like attacking. Players and monsters have a defense rating that you attack just like any other skill in this game. If your attack roll equals the defense, you hit the enemy. Damage is done in this game based on the type of weapon you’re wielding with armor reduces the damage that a character takes instead of providing a bonus to your chance to dodge the attack. This doesn’t reinvent wheel, but why fix what isn’t broken?

Summary-You can see the Dragon AGE in the Fantasy AGE. That’s not a bad thing as I liked the Dragon AGE RPG and the Dragon Age video games for speed and elegance of the systems. However, my major problem is that the character and players don’t have many options. Sure, it’s fun, but I’d like a bit more crunch to my characters. That said, it is a good, quick, and simple system that you can easily use in any fantasy setting. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff- It’s always hard to judge generic RPGs for their fluff content. By their nature, there can’t be a significant amount of fluff in this book since any fantasy setting should be able to be played with in this system. But, the book does have nice art, good general fantasy additions, and all the standard fantasy pieces you will need for your toy box. Just don’t go in here expecting Tolkien as this book can’t have that level of detail and still be general enough for everybody. 4.5/5

Execution-This book reads relatively quickly and has a decent layout. I can quickly get through the book, find what I need and make a character in under 10 minutes. I’d like more pictures, and some extra tables to make scanning the book easier like in the talents section. I prefer to see something similar to how Pathfinder does summaries of feats before the full descriptions. The book even has a small bestiary with some monsters to throw at your players. It’s not large, but for the $15 I paid for the book, I’m pretty happy to see a complete system, game mastering guide, and monsters in one book. This book even comes with a small adventure, so you can jump into playing after you buy only this book. Overall, good book with a few minor problems keeping it from perfect. 4.75/5

Summary-Fantasy AGE is going to be an awesome RPG if Green Ronin can bring more out for it. Titansgrave is coming out, and that will provide an awesome series of adventures and a setting for this game. That is what this book really misses-the fluff. The crunch is good. It might not be my all time favorite gaming system, but it’s well-designed, thought-out, and easy to use-all the things a quality RPG needs to be viable long term. I’d like more options, but that’s my old D&D 3.5 gamer heritage showing through. As for the book itself, it might not be my favorite layout, but it is a great way to present a games information. If you joined the Fantasy AGE for Titansgrave, you will not be disappointed! 92%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Steel and Fury: Combat Maneuvers of the Mighty

July 15, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product– Steel and Fury: Combat Maneuvers of the Mighty

System– Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG

Producer– Purple Duck games

Price– $7 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/147952/Steel-and-Fury-DCC

TL; DR-A must have for the Dwarf or Fighter at the crawl! 97%

Basics-Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war! Steel and Fury is a Fighter and Dwarf supplement for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. This book focuses on the Mighty Deeds of Arms for both of those classes by adding several new deeds that are specific for the type of weapon you are using as well as expanding the deeds by adding mighty criticals and mighty fumbles.

Mechanics or Crunch-Hands down a home run. Every mighty deed gets its own page with descriptions of what happening. Also, the addition of mighty criticals and fumbles really adds to the dice rolling crunch of this system. And, the book has an amazing resource- an end of the book table showing which weapons can do which deed (MORE BOOKS SHOULD DO THIS!). As the cherry on the sundae, even the old deeds get a revisit by adding the critical and fumble rules to them as well. This is well done and slick. 5/5

Theme or Fluff- Again, another home run. Every deed has a ton of story to it. Not only does each deed have a description, but also the deed has a quote from an appendix N fantasy story. That right there is awesome. Also awesome is the art. I honestly didn’t expect much art from a small publisher, but it’s here and well done. You will feel every crunch from this one as Steel and Furry builds on to a solid foundation of carnage. 5/5

Execution-We’ve had two home runs, so it’s time for a foul. I love the book. It’s got great spacing, great writing, text, tables, and great art. What I don’t like is the price tag. This book is $7 bucks for about 60 pages. That’s a bit much as much of this book is pages with tables. $7 isn’t enough to keep me away, but I think this should be around $4 to $5 to keep up with other publishers’ prices. 4.5/5

Summary-This is a great book and addition to the DCC rpg. Purple Duck Games really made a top notch product by supplying quite frankly a ton of new content to the system. Every weapon get some love. At the back is an amazing chart detailing what each weapon can do with the new and old mighty deeds. Even old deeds get new additions with mighty criticals and mighty fumbles. The story this book tells is great proving that a straight crunch book can bring some story and panache to the table. I think the book is a bit over priced. But, if you can stomach the price, this is a necessary book for any fighter and dwarf that hits the table. 97%

Silver Screen Smackdown- Movie Reviews of Jurassic World, Inside Out, Terminator: Genisys

July 13, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Know what we haven’t done in a while? Some movie reviews. let’s correct that.

Silver Screen Smackdown- Movie Review of Jurassic World–

TL; DR-A good sequel to the original. 93%

Basics-It’s Jurassic Park but it works now! Until it doesn’t! Now a new dinosaur is loose and it’s up to Chris Pratt to stop it!

Story–Jurassic Park is an awesome cinematic experience, but as a story, it’s not top notch. Sure it’s not bad, but this movie has tons of plot holes. No spoilers, but you will scratch your head watching! But is a summer blockbuster with dinosaurs! I shut up the stupid adult Dr. Kabara with candy and let 8 year old Alan watch as T-Rex battled new iRex! 4/5

Acting–You know who’s awesome-Chris Pratt. Take a comedian, make him buff, then give him the best lines in the movie. He does great in his role. The others are fine as well. There are two kids I want to smack, but they end up becoming likeable. Even the female lead Bryce Dallas Howard becomes likeable. 4.5/5

Cinematography–There is just enough CGI and just enough real world stuff to keep me second guessing everything. I was never put off by some uncanny valley. Nor, did I ever think things were not real. It all looks beautiful. 5/5

Summary–This is a great addition to the franchise. It might not be Jurassic Park level, but if it’s not, its the second best in the series. Chris Pratt does well. The dinosaurs are fun. And the plot….well there plot is there. The movie could be defeated by man gates. Those are gates we use on dairy farms to keep cattle in a place where allow farmers to quickly get out of a place. About two of those could easily stop all the problems of this movie. But setting aside some obvious plot holes, the movie is a great summer movie that is fun for the little boy in us all. 93%

Silver Screen Smackdown- Movie Review of Inside Out–

TL; DR-Herman’s Head for children written by Pixar. 100%

Basics-Riley is moving to a new town, dealing with new emotions, and discovering that life isn’t the simple. Insider her head, her emotions all work together to drive her. Each of the five emotions drive her via a console like the Starship Enterprise. But, when Happiness and Sadness break the console and are lost in the bowels of her memory, Riley is now adrift without her emotions to guide her. Will she be able to cope with all the changes in her world, or will she do something drastic.

Story–This is Pixar. Even their junk sequel are decent. This one is a story about growing up, dealing with your emotions and feelings, and learning that the world isn’t just one dimensional. It well told, thought provoking, and honestly an amazing experience. 5/5

Acting–I am a screamy guy. Lewis Black is my spirit animal. He plays the role is was designed to play-RAGE. He’s my favorite, but he only gets second string screen time. The main emotions are Sadness and Happiness. Those two and all the other characters of Riley’s head are all extremely believable. No one feels out of place. 5/5

Cinematography–It’s Pixar. They do this movie thing well. 5/5

Summary–This movie is Herman’s Head for children. It’s got fewer adult themes, better writing, and computer animation, but it’s Herman’s Head. I love the movie. The story is top notch. The actors make the CGI come to life. And the thing is beautiful. This is a movie to watch with your tween to help him or her understand life a bit more. Life is sad and happy at the same time. New emotions and key part of our soul are being forged every day. And this movie finally explains why you get that stupid jingle stuck in in your head as well! 100%

Silver Screen Smackdown- Movie Review of Terminator: Genisys

TL; DR-Explosions, Dr. Who, and a new timey whimey time line. 83%

Basics-John Conor is about to win the war against the Machines. But, in his moment of sending the man to save his mother back, he’s attacked. Now the past is changed, new terminators are on the loose, and nothing is as it seems

Story–Let’s be honest here, you don’t go to Terminator movies to see Shakespeare. You go to see robots explode. This one does have robots explode. It’s got enough future stuff to keep you thinking. It’s got some ham fisted commentary on people looking at their cell phones too much. It’s got Arnold beating up younger Arnold. It’s got enough to keep you entertained for one and a half hours and in a coherent way. Some reviewers tend to get lost in all the time line mumbo jumbo, but honestly I followed it easily. Going into, this is a soft reboot of the franchise. All the movies NO LONGER COUNT! 4/5

Acting–Again, let’s be honest here, you didn’t come for some Oscar performances. The characters are OK. Honestly the best character in the whole film is Arnold as the terminator. He does a good job being a pretend robot trying to fit into human society. The other three main characters are…ok. Matt Smith is in there as well, but he’s got almost a glorified cameo. He does well, but he doesn’t get enough time to really even build out his character. It’s nothing to write home about, but it’s also not distracting from the story. ⅘

Cinematography–BOOM! EXPLOSION! That’s what you’re here for! And you get your money’s worth for explosions. Everything looks believable even though it’s all green screened to hell. A fun ride with stuff exploding. 4.5/5

Summary–This is a quintessential summer brainless action movie. The movies set up for a sequel now, which since this made lots of money it will get. It’s got lots of action, an ok plot, and decent acting. We won’t get our children to watch this one like we will the original Terminator, so this won’t stand the test of time. But, for a summer movie, this is a better than average offering. This is also a soft reboot to the franchise, so take all the other movies you know and love, and throw those away, because now they NEVER HAPPENED! 83%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Shadowrun: Run Faster

July 13, 2015July 13, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product– Shadowrun: Run Faster

System– Shadowrun

Producer– Catalyst Game Labs

Price– $25 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/141788/Shadowrun-Run-Faster?term=Shadowrun%3A+Run+Faster

TL; DR– The Shadowrun edition catch-up book. 87%

Basics-Time to dust off that chrome plated centaur! Run Faster is an edition catch-up book. While the main Shadowrun book had a comprehensive book of characters, Run Faster fills in the smaller gaps by adding all the subtypes for each metahuman race. This book also has a chapter discussing how to make your vampire and all the subtypes for that as well. In addition, Run Faster adds new archetypes, qualities, quick start packages for traits and gear, and rules for how to build up your house.

Mechanics or Crunch-This is the edition catch-up race book with a ton of extra character options as well. When a new edition arises, some people want their old, less represented races back. Here’s the book for that. Want to play a naga? Here you go! Want to play a vampire? We got rules for that! Want to play a centaur? SURE! Don’t like the new priority-based character generation plan for SR5? We’ve got several new ways to make characters from scratch now. It’s got enough chapters to bring some serious new crunch to your SR5 game. Some parts are not a useful. I’m a Shadowrun Missions game master, the entire section on vampires, while interesting, is completely useless to me. It’s well done, but something that might be better served as its own smaller PDF. There are also chapters that I absolutely love like the section on how to kit out your house. It’s amazing mechanics, but most of the Missions players will never be able to use them. What does impress me is the PACK sections. The preset packages will help you make characters quicker by giving you small, preset groups of skills, abilities, or items that you can plug into your forming character instead of slaving over the book for an hour. That, as someone who teaches the game often, will be the most useful thing out of this book. Overall, the book is amazing, but not the most versatile book for all players. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff- The core book tells some great stories on how the 6th world works. This book fills in gaps describing how individual creatures fit in it. It doesn’t just give how the freaks of the world survive, but it also gives how a basic dwarf is seen and judged. It’s got chapters on how the vampiric-ly gifted survive and try to thrive. It’s full of stories that will give you ideas for your next run. It’s a beautiful book full of great art to give you a picture of the world. This book will help you better understand the world of Shadowrun as a (meta)person who lives there. 5/5

Execution-Oh, Shadowrun, Shadowrun, Shadowrun. You honestly know how to tell a great story, but making that book useful, searchable, and easy to use is not your strong suite. Like all Catalyst properties, don’t expect an index. That right there hurts the book. Also, organization isn’t their strong suit either. Here is the textbook example of this boks problems. In the chapter on vampires and other infected, the book gives a table on the different types of infected on their stats. Thats a good start. However, not listed on that chart are the base creature that changes when infected, the type of HMVV that infects them, or their powers. Now that’s a large chart, so I can excuse the powers not being a part of it. But, I have to look up the specific infected for each type of virus and the creature it mutated from. As someone who hasn’t played a ton of the previous editions where that was a larger part of the game, I’m stuck reading text descriptions of each infected. Those get the point across well, but they don’t get the point across easily. And that’s the problem wit this book. Give me more to your tables and more tables. Give me a table with short descriptions of the qualities and the cost with them. That was done for 3.5 DnD, and it quickly got the ideas across. This book gets its ideas across, but not in a user friendly manner. 3.5/5

Summary-I am not an old gamer. I can not call myself a proud and ancient grognard-one who’s seen the rise and fall of uncounted editions. I’m actually a recent convert to Shadowrun. I joined up late 4e, and I have fallen in love with 5e. That said, I’m way behind my knowledge about the smaller details of the setting. This is a great book to fill in those gaps. I like learning how the individual races are treated. I like learning about the nitty gritty of vampiric life. I do think some mechanics are a bit useless to most of the player base, but that doesn’t hurt the book too much by providing extra information. What does hurt the book is Catalyst’s organization of the information. In the chapters where the book wants to tell a story, it tells amazing stories. In the chapters where it has a ton of crunch information to bring to bare, it does its job but doesn’t get much help from the layout. If you love Shadowrun, this is a fantastic book to learn about the world. If you want to get new players options for your SR5 game, this is a fantastic book. If you want to learn how to produce a book and need a guide as a refer to, this is not the book to look at. 87%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Elder Sign: Gates of Arkham

July 12, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product– Elder Sign: Gates of Arkham

Producer-Fantasy Flight Games

Price– $25 here http://www.amazon.com/Elder-Sign-Gates-Arkham-Expansion/dp/1616619198/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1436731542&sr=8-2&keywords=elder+sign%3A+games+of+arkham

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 45 minutes per scenario (1-8 players)

Type-American

Depth-medium

TL; DR-Arkham Horror in Elder Sign! 97%

Basics- Time to leave the museum. Games of Arkham is the second expansion to Elder Sign, and now players will explore Arkham trying to stop the spread of the Old Ones. For the most part, the general mechanics are the same. Basically, each round a player draws a mythos card. This mythos card adds new challenges and opportunities for the players. Then, players take their individual turns. First, they move to open locations. These locations have a number of dice symbols in rows on them. A Player rolls the dice and try to match their symbols to all the symbols on a row. If they can complete a row, they place those dice on the card, reducing the number rerolled, but succeeding on part of the task, and rerolls the dice. If not, they remove a die, and rerolls the dice. That player either solves all the rows of dice symbols, or they fail. Each location has a success results and failure results. Then the player advances the clock, and play continues. When the clock advances four times, either from players taking turns or location effects, a new mythos card is drawn. The game continues until either the ancient evil coming to destroy us all arrives… and destroys us all or the players amass a number of elder signs to hold the eternal evil off for a bit longer.

Gates of Arkham adds a few new things. One, a new deck of locations that are all locations in town and not rooms in the museum. Two, new locations enter play upside down with effects on their back! Unlike in the base game, cards now will affect the players before they enter play thus forcing players to go to hard locations because these locations have effects that are worse if they are not dealt with. Three, a new mythos deck dedicated to the town of Arkham instead of the museum. And four, new gate mechanics. Gates are now tied to locations as each gate has little standyies that tie a location and an other world location. You have to enter a gate to to to another world locations cards. Gates are just as hard, but if you can’t place a gate because all the standyies are out, then bad things are about to happen!

Mechanics– This is the ultimate step in the right direction for an expansion. I LOVE Arkham Horror, but it’s 45+ minutes to just set up the game without touching a single die! This game is 15 minutes of set up the first time you use it and less than five after that. The core mechanics of Cthulhu yahtzee haven’t changed, and that’s great as they are still simple and fun. The new ideas of location effects, enter locations semi-blind, and tying Arkham and other world locations together are all amazing and reflect the Arkham Horror mechaincs. My only real problem are the expansion characters. Most you will look over, then decide to not use. This new round seems a bit too topical to be that useful. They are not broken, but not as great as many of the others. The game is still as American style as it can be. You WILL lose because you will roll poorly. You WILL not have enough time. But, it WILL be fun! 4.5/5

Theme-Take Arkham Horror, remove ¾ of its game time, and you have this. If you read the cards, locations, and fluff text, you have an amazing Lovecraftian experience in under an hour. It’s a game the builds its own story organically, and something you will enjoy as it does. 5/5

Instructions– I’m honestly impressed. The game has great instructions. It’s not hard to understand, the rules flow well, and they read fast. 5/5

Execution-First, the complaint-there is too much in this box. The box itself is offset in shipping as there is just too much here. I know that’s a horrible complaint. WIth that soft complaint out of the way, the game is amazing. I like the art. The card iconography is well done. The cards themselves are great quality. I even love the standyies! They don’t destroy the components when they are assembled! This is honestly a well done expansion. You can see all the pieces during our unboxing video here: http://youtu.be/R–M3ZSPZfQ ! 4.95/5

Summary-This is as close to a one hour Arkham Horror game as you’re going to get. Sure it’s got the American Game problem of chance. But, if you and your friends can enjoy a bit of mutual misery as you all die from creatures outside space time, you will absolutely love this game. It’s not perfect. I’d like a slightly larger box and some changes to the new characters in this set. However, those complaints pale in comparison to how much I absolutely love what’s in this game. If you want a quick, fun, and easier version of Arkham Horror or an expanded version of Elder Sign with just the right amount of depth added, this is the game for you. 97 %

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–18: From Under Ice

July 11, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–18: From Under Ice

System– Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo Publishing

Price– $4 here http://paizo.com/products/btpy9ch2?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-6-18-From-Under-Ice

TL; DR– A THINKING humanoids mod. 97%

Basics-Chase a skykey under the ice of Irrisen! The Pathfinder Society is looking for traces of a Dwarven city that disappeared many years ago. Can you find where the dwarves went or will you anger either the Linnworm Kings or the Witches?

Mechanics or Crunch– This is a many angled mod that can be done in a straight forward way. Like most of the mods, there is a counter mechanics for determining how well the PC’s succeed on their job or secondary tasks. It’s not hard, but the mod isn’t so much about crunch, but how well the players think. It’s well done and fun when you see the players analyze and understand a situation. If the players are smart, canny, and show the proper deference, they will go through almost the entire mod without swinging their swords! That shows the mod is awesomely stretchable, but some players, the kick-in-the-door-and-eat-some-goblins players, will be vary bored if things are going well. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff- This is where the mod truly shines. Sure, it’s got the necessary fights and counters that all good mods need, but how the players go about this mod really makes the story. Are you simply smash and grab Pathfinders or are you social dilatants? Do you understand your mission or are you simple out there to kill a bunch of people? As a GM, watching that play out is a great roleplaying experience 5/5

Execution– Season six is the absolute best season for how these mods are put together. Need the maps? Here, we have blank maps for you to resize and print. Need monster stats? Here in the back of the mod are all the monster stats, so you don’t have to have 10 books open to run the game. It’s still four bucks, but right now four bucks for ~ 30 pages seems to be the norm for most companies. Well done! 5/5

Summary– First, the elephant in the room-If you play this mod smart, you will not have many combats. And, that’s what the success condition hinges on. That right there will turn some players away. You can’t make everybody happy, but in a mod that’s mostly going across borders and meeting people, combat is a many terrible thing! The story makes world sense. The mechanics work as well as they can. The execution is absolutely fantastic. As a GM, I enjoyed this mod. My players did as well. Just make sure you know what your players want to get. Hack and slash need not apply! 97%