Tag: Review

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-07: A God Falls Where Magic Fails 

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Product-Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-07: A God Falls Where Magic Fails

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer– Paizo

Price– $8.99 here  https://paizo.com/products/btq0d5n0?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-607-A-God-Falls-Where-Magic-Fails 

TL; DR– Good, but needs more.  82% 

Basics– Oozes with godlike powers?  The Godsrain has caused unexpected things like an ooze with a chunk of the god of war.  Are you strong enough to fight a god?  Can you prove it?.

Mechanics or Crunch–  This is a short adventure with a bit of randomness built in.  The basics are a skill challenge fest, then a fight, a possible fight, and lastly the main, big event fight.  It’s not bad, but it’s maybe a little simple.  4/5

Theme or Fluff–  There is solid stuff here, but the missing parts are a bit noticeable.  The adventure has an awesome picture of an ooze city which is cool, but there are four separate test rooms and the adventure doesn’t give descriptions or pictures of those rooms.  That would REALLY help.  The story is good, but help me help the players understand the room more.  The adventure also has a filler section which is ok, but it’s kind of strange to add filler.  I get if you want to build out parts of the story, but the parts here just for time.  That’s not as much fun as you might want.  It’s good, but focus would help this adventure  3.75/5

Execution–  Paizo does good books.  This reads fast, has nice layout, and has most of the pieces I need for the game.  I’d like more art as some of the random encounters are things I have to hunt down.  Paizo puts the stats in the adventure, but not the art?  Throw those in as well as this effectively has infinite pages.  Also, give me more art for the adventure as above.  The book is still $8.99, so I expect a bit more now.  The execution is good, but needs a bit more to be great.  4.5/5

Summary–  This is a good adventure, but is missing pieces to really help me make a great presentation. The skill rooms are fine, but no art and descriptions make life harder.  The encounters are fine, but some filler encounters that don’t build the world don’t help.  The execution is good, but I need more to run this effectively.  The price doesn’t quite justify all the parts here.  82%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of REDEMPTION Assignment 01: Meat the Enemy

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Product– REDEMPTION Assignment 01: Meat the Enemy

System- Everyday Heroes

Producer– Evil Genius Games

Price– $8.99 here  https://evilgeniusgames.com/shop/ego-assignment-1-01-meat-the-enemy/ 

TL; DR–  Good, but more will help make this great.  87% 

Basics–  Time to be heroes!  Under the direction of Walt, the everyday heroes will attempt to find out why monsters of myth and legend are showing up all around the globe.

Mechanics or Crunch–  Like DnD 5e, but want to shoot a shotgun at a chupacabra?  Then you will love this one.  This is classic 5e DnD mechanics, and they follow the same rules you will often see in these adventures.  It’s simple but functional level 1 design.  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff–   This adventure is really three adventures all in one.  The characters all choose one adventure and go after a beast.  Then you find out it’s a regular bad guy, and you hunt him down.  There you only do one real encounter.  It’s not bad, but is a bit too short. Honestly this is something that if you know what you are doing is about two hours of adventure.  It’s good, but short.  4.5/5

Execution–  This is good, but needs a bit more in layout and pictures.  Evil Genius needs to talk to Paizo and look over their living games.  The stat blocks are fine, but give me set aside pictures I can share with my players.  The maps are good, but consider separate documents that I can use.  For the price I expect a bit more.  It all works well and is something you can play with little prep, but maybe a bit more will help give this the push it needs for greatness.  4/5

Summary–  This is a fun adventure that needs a bit more.  The fights are fun and the run well.  The story is good, but needs more to do.  The execution is fine, but needs just little bit extra for greatness, especially at this price.  Its good, but not quite great.  That said, I and my players will be buying more and running more.  I like what’s here, but it needs more and polish.  87%  

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Dungeon Crawl Classics #107: Forgotten Dangers

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Product– Dungeon Crawl Classics #107: Forgotten Dangers

System- Dungeon Crawl Classics

Producer– Goodreads

Price– $10.99 here  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/506125/dungeon-crawl-classics-107-forgotten-dangers?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR– Good intro DCC RPG One-shots.  97% 

Basics–  Let’s jump in!  Forgotten dangers is a group of six random DCC adventures.  They are not really connected to each other, but they are small, bite sized fun that you can drop into any DCC game.

Mechanics or Crunch–  These adventures are set up well enough to be the right mix of deadly and fun. The crunch here works.  There are crazy powerful items to play with as well as crazy powerful dangers.  It’s solid DCC RPG fun. 5/5

Theme or Fluff–   The individual adventures are fantastic, but I wish there was a connection between them.  The individual adventures are all bat crap crazy, and that’s exactly what you play DCC for.  The fault is the individuals are not connected.  The adventures are good, but I wish they were a bit connected.  4.5/5

Execution–  Solid layout, text, art, and flow make this an easy read. If you need an adventure for a session you did not prepare for, these adventures, while a bit simple, are enough that you have a solid four hours and can just hop right in as a GM.  5/5

Summary– I love DCC RPG.  I love random one shots.  This product is just those.  It’s fun, but I wish this was a campaign or written where it could be.  But without flow, this is still just solid fun to run with your friends. 97%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Starfinder Tech Class Playtest

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Product– Starfinder Tech Class Playtest

System- Starginder 2nd Ed

Producer– Paizo

Price– FREE here  https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6zwqx&page=1?Starfinder-Tech-Class-Playtest

TL; DR– Good, but a loss of flavor.  93% 

Basics– Why not tech wizards!  The tech playtest focuses on the technomancer and the mechanic.  The mechanic is the pet class with rogue elements of being skill based and the technomancer is the wizard.

Mechanics or Crunch– The classes work.  They both operate well within the realms of the base Pathfinder 2e mechanics.  The mechanic is a pet class and it follows the basic pet class idea, and the Technomancer feels like a sorcerer bloodline on a wizard.  Those are good pieces making a great whole.  5/5

Theme or Fluff–  I like what’s here, but I also feel like we may have lost things in edition change.  The mechanic lost the ability to just put a computer in their head and do awesome stuff.  What’s here is good, but it’s also a bit less than what it could have been.  The technomancer doesn’t feel like its own thing.  It’s a wizard with a bloodline.  That’s not bad, but I wanted more.  I wanted maybe even a whole new school of spells here.  It’s still just arcane spells.  Again, not bad by any stretch, but I wanted tech spells.  These two things don’t feel distinct.  4/5

Execution– It’s Paizo.  Solid layout, production, art, and even text makes this something to be studied.  Yes, I keep saying the exact same things, but it’s for the exact same reason.   For a free product, this is amazingly well done.  5/5

Summary– I like the options, but I want more distinct things in the future.  Overall, these will play amazingly well with the rest of the classes out there.  I just want new ground to be broken with Starfinder.  Right now Starfinder 2nd ed feels more like a setting change and less like it’s own edition.  Thats good for some respects, but bad for others.  Then again, I’m gonna play the hell out of this system.  So I may not be getting exactly what I want, but I am getting Pathfinder in Space, which I want!  93%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-08: Upon Wheels and Rime

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Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-08: Upon Wheels and Rime

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer– Paizo

Price– $ 8.99 here  https://paizo.com/products/btq07fl9?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-608-Upon-Wheels-and-Rime 

TL; DR– Solid short fun.  99% 

Basics– You’re building a what?  The Winter Queen is homesick and trying to revolutionize her country at the same time.  Bids are being taken to build a train, but what is a train?  And who wants to stop it?

Mechanics or Crunch– This adventure isnt so much crunch, but world building.  There is a social interaction, then a chase, then combat! It’s short, but its fun.  The encounters are balanced for everyone.  It’s just a bit short.  4.75/5

Theme or Fluff–  This is a callback. If you played First Ed Pathfinder and killed Rasputin in an adventure path, then you will recognize all the key players here.  Those who didn’t, won’t miss anything, but it’s a call back.  The story is interesting, and it builds out some of the world of Pathfinder in fun ways that everyone will enjoy.  5/5

Execution– It’s Paizo.  Solid layout, production, art, and even text makes this something to be studied.  5/5

Summary– This is a solid, if short, adventure.  The short issue depends on roleplaying.  The combats are fun, and the story offers the players a chance to change the Society and the World via their choices.  I loved this one.  99%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-13: All That Glitters

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Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-13: All That Glitters

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer– Paizo

Price– $ 8.99 here  https://paizo.com/products/btq08c00?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-613-All-That-Glitters 

TL; DR– Solid, but too short 91% 

Basics– Ready for maybe a wild goose chase?  A lost vault has been discovered that may have a lost key to a pocket dimension.  If you check the cache, the Pathfinders get to keep everything but that key.

Mechanics or Crunch– This adventure is a good old dungeon crawl.  Not much diplomacy, not much outside exploration, but good old enter the room, explore, kill the bad guys.  You can’t beat the classics.  There might be some encounter balance issues, but overall its crunch is well balanced.  4.75/5

Theme or Fluff–  The biggest issue for this adventure is the length.  This is a VERY short adventure with a bit of story, but not much beyond the basics.  This adventure uses a map that was used in a quest, but this is a full sized adventure.  It’s fun as you explore the vault-like museum, but it needs to be longer.  I’m pretty quick as a GM, but this took me less than 2 hours to run at a con.  And something important, I dont think they describe what the key is.  You find it, but they don’t describe what it looks like.  4/5

Execution– It’s Paizo.  Solid layout, production, art, and even text makes this something to be studied.  5/5

Summary– This is a fun adventure.  I like the crawl.  Crawls in dungeons are always fun, but this is just not long enough.  Throw me more encounters here.  Some are even marked as optional.  More things to do would spice up this adventure.  But, what’s here is good.  91%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-12: The Burning of Greensteeples

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Product– Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-12: The Burning of Greensteeples

System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed

Producer– Paizo

Price– $ 8.99 here  https://paizo.com/products/btq08bzx?Pathfinder-Society-Scenario-612-The-Burning-of-Greensteeples 

TL; DR-Fun events, but little big pictures.  90% 

Basics–  Greensteeples burns!  Thrune attacks the Pathfinders at Greensteeples, and it’s your job to help.  Can you get in, get your friends, and get out?

Mechanics or Crunch– This adventure covers a lot of bases. It has an infiltration round and several combats.  Infiltration could be better described in the core books, but what’s here functions ok within the rules themselves.  There is a smattering of social encounters, but overall, it’s several small events as the players attempt to sneak in, kill bad guys, get friends, and sneak out.  It’s good overall, with only a few small issues.  4.75/5

Theme or Fluff–  I know Thrune doesn’t like the Pathfinders, but there seems like there is more going on, but I don’t know it.  I feel like this is setting up something big, but I don’t have enough to tell my players about it.  There is moving and shaking, but I don’t understand it.  I’d like to know more than what’s here.  The base plot is fine, but the bigger plot is something I think isn’t well explained.  3.75/5

Execution– It’s Paizo.  I keep saying they do this well, and they did this well again. 5/5Summary– I liked this one, but I wish I could love this one.  I need more big story beats.  I felt like I missed it here, so my players may miss it as well.  The major events went well, and the players and I had fun with the crunch.  The execution is on point as always.  I just want to know more of what is going on.  90%