Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Lorcana Rise of the Floodborn
Tag: Ring Side Report
Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Playstation Portal
Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Tesseract
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Dagon-A Necromonicon Gamebook
Product– Dagon
System- Necronomicon Gamebook
Producer– Officina Meningi
Price– On kickstarter now! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/officinameningi/the-necronomicon-gamebook-trilogy-dagon-carcosa-and-kadath
TL; DR– A solid implementation of a choose your adventure with combat. 85%
Basics– Choose your own insanity! Dagon is a necronomicon gamebook. These are a series of choose-your-own-adventures where you get to choose an action AND, like other games such as fighting fantasy, you may roll a d6 to determine combat. If you know the choose-your-own-adventure games from the 80s/90s you know the drill and may already be hooked!
Mechanics or Crunch– To determine if you will like this, ask yourself-”Do I like Choose-your own-adventure books with combat?” If you said yes and you also like Lovecraft, then this is right up your alley. This doesn’t reinvent the wheel of these games, but it doesn’t need to. You just choose your action and maybe have combat. It’s solid enough and fun. It might not be the most inventive for the base mechanic, but there are some stats you choose at the beginning and you have a solid time playing. 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– Just like above, if you like Lovecraft and like choose your own adventures, then you will like this. This isn’t new ground. If you need some crazy new angle to Cthulhu, then you will not be happy. What is novel to this type of book is the Dreamlands. When you rest and when some crazy things happen, you have random visions that can make more crazy things happen as you drift off to another reality. It might not be the newest concept, but it still does the old standard story of the Lovecraft mythos well. 4.5/5
Execution– This is the most conflicted part of this book. The art is good. The flow is good. The story is good and easily readable. What isn’t great is the rules explanation and the hyperlinking. You jump around in the book, but on a PDF there are no hyperlinks. That’s bad in a basic RPG book, but worse in a book where I am going to have to repeatedly jump all over the place. Also, the explanation of rules is a bit off. Not mostly, but one very key thing is left out: dice. The game says use a die. Man, this is an rpg book aimed at nerds; it’s aimed at me with my Horrorclix Cthulhu staring back at me as I write this. If you say die, I literally have no idea what you are talking about. They mean D6. That’s not horrible for the normal person, but me with with over 100GB of RPGs and over 1000 board games in my basement spent 20 minutes trying to understand if they meant d20 to my crazy almost non-euclidean dice I bought at a crazy gaming convention that most people can’t remember for some reason. The things I am not happy with are not even close to stopping me from buying in, but it’s a small thing that escalates to larger things. 3.75/5
Summary– I like choose your own adventure games, I like simple combat in RPGs, and I like Lovecraft. This is a fun way to get new people into Lovecraft, a fun way to get literature nerds into RPGs, and a fun way to get people gaming. I like this product. It isn’t the newest story you will see under the sun or in a terrible old book full of secrets. But, like a classic hamburger from your amazing local diner, the classics are good and don’t need to be changed all the time. What isn’t great are some things I need in this style of product in 2023: hyperlinks and a bit more rules discussion. Tell me I need a d6 and give me a hyperlinked PDF, and I will love this thing nearly unconditionally. I am the geek this is aimed for, and I am glad to have gotten this. Check out the kickstarter now! 85%
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Dark Archive
Product– Pathfinder Dark Archive
System- Pathfinder 2nd Ed
Producer– Paizo
Price– $41.99 here https://miniature-market.sjv.io/q4marn
TL; DR-New toys and adventures for things that go bump in the night. 97%
Basics– What goes bump in the night? Dark Archive focuses on all the stuff that gets thrown into your average Halloween party. It covers psychics, occult inquisitors called thaumaturges, archetypes, feats, spells, and a TON of adventures. Let’s dig in to this book!
Mechanics or Crunch– I love what’s here, but there are small problems that hurt things overall. The two new classes fit within the world of wizards, warriors,and clerics as now we have a mind wizard and an occult paladin. There may be a slight bit of power creep as these might be a bit better than the core classes, but it’s nothing absolutely game breaking. Feat, spell, and archetypes all fit solidly there as well. Interestingly enough, this book has almost MORE for the GM than the players. There are adventures and ways to upgrade monsters to add the occult feel like cryptids and secret societies. Aside from a bit of power creep, the other thing that I feel hurts this is the lack of inclusion into Pathfinder Society. PFS is the majority of the way I play an while I LOVE that adventures are included, new options that you only get when weird stuff happens to you are not given as options in the PFS documenting materials. What is here is well done, but balance and lack of inclusion into Paizo’s flagship gaming market hurt the book a bit. 4.75/5
Theme or Fluff– As a lover of ghost stories and campfire monsters, this book calls to me. I love the flavor here and the fact that crunch is being tied deeper into story. The new ways to add things like cults and monsters also helps. What’s here is amazing. I am slightly sad I didn’t see much Lovecraft lore here. We can make it, but I still want my crazy horrors from beyond time and space to make more of an appearance in a book where time magic and feats get put into the system. Couple that with adventures that GMs can drop in instantly, this is a solid book on the Pathfinder occult. 4.9/5
Execution– This is a physical book and a PDF by Paizo, so I’m almost automatically going to love it. Solid layout, fonts, formats, hyperlinks make this a great book and a breeze to read. My one minor issue is this is a book with almost as many pages for the GM as the players. It would be nice to have a PDF of the maps and pictures that I can show to the players like they do with their adventure paths. But, if my criticism is that I want more, that’s a good place to be in production. 4.9/5
Summary– I love me some crazy stuff, so I love me this book. I listen to too many podcasts about monsters, skepticism regarding monsters, and ghost stories to pass this book up. It has great additions to the system that might be a touch overpowered compared to things before. It has fun adventures with some amazing options that I wish PFS players could get their hands on. It has solid production, but a lack of web enhancements might hold it back a bit. What’s here is good, but I just want more ways to get at it. 97%
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Starfinder Beginner Box
Product– Starfinder Beginner Box
System- Starfinder
Producer– Paizo
Price– $29.99 here https://miniature-market.sjv.io/GmOnOE
TL; DR– Good with a few issues 90%
Basics– To the stars! The Starfinder Beginner Box is the intro box for the Starfinder RPG, walking players through some basic character generation, how to play, and an intro adventure. It also provides dice, maps, and cardboard standees.
Mechanics or Crunch– What’s here is good, but is is missing a few key things. The walkthrough of how to play is a solid introduction to the game. But, and it’s a big but, it does leave out several things like starship combat. I LOVE Starfinder so that’s something that I think needs to be shown off. Also, as the GM, some of the skills are mislabeled. The skills that are used are simplified versions of the main skills to make life a bit easier for new players and GMs, but I feel that kind of handicaps the learning experience. That all said, it does work well and is a decent introduction to the system. 4.25/5
Theme or Fluff– The box set gives a solid introduction to the world and system, if a bit stifled. You get enough, but the adventure is a dungeon crawl. Not bad, but a bit simplified for an adventure. There are some social interactions, but I’d like more. The Pathfinder 2nd ed. Beginner box has two whole levels of dungeon, and I feel this was just a bit short. It works well, but I wanted more. 4.25/5
Execution– What’s here is fantastic. I love the maps, standees, and books. Everything that is included is done well. Solid work! 5/5
Summary-This is a good, if short, introduction to Starfinder. I like what’s here, but just need more. I want a short space shootout. I want more social. I want full skills,not simplified ones. But those are small wants compared to my friends who learned the system quickly from the box, and myself who was able to GM a game on the fly with minimal prep using this starter set. It’s good, but you will learn more when you buy the full book. 90%
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Blade Runner RPG Core Rulebook
Product– Blade Runner RPG Core Rulebook
System- Year Zero
Producer– Free League Publishing
Price– $24.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/399929/Blade-Runner-RPG-Core-Rulebook?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR-Another surprisingly well done year zero system. 99%
Basics– The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs…. Time to track down those replicants or be one! Let’s look at how to play.
Mechanics- Ah Year Zero… the system that Free League uses for everything, but is never quite the same. This one uses attributes and skill dice for each roll. Each thing you want to do be it hack a computer or shoot a guy is grab the attribute and the skill die for the activity and roll. Dice range from d6 to d12, but you do not use the basic number! What you do is check if you roll a 6 to 9 or 10 to 12. A 6 to 9 is one success, and a 10 to 12 is two successes. Doing a thing requires one success. Criticals have two successes. Slick and simple!
Rerolls- Rerolls and player control are the parts of the Year Zero system that mostly stay the same between all the different games they produce. If you want to reroll a physical thing, you reroll and if you roll a 1 on any die you take a point of physical damage. Do a mental thing, and you take stress damage on a 1. Humans can only reroll once, but replicants can reroll twice. However, replicants ALWAYS take stress on their 1s. This is bad – if you hit enough stress you basically need a reboot and your max stress can PERMANENTLY be reduced! But, the choice is always yours to make!
Combat- Another thing that is the same across Year Zero systems is combat and rounds. At the start of combat, players and the GM draw cards from 1 to 10. Players then take their turns doing simple things like moving and more complex things like attacking. Actions like attacking are handled just like any other roll described above. The more interesting thing is that weapons do a set amount of damage, and any two or more successes is a critical. Each weapon has a set critical die with rolls on that die above 10 resulting in instant death! Guns are VERY deadly!
Ok, Let’s discuss.
Mechanics or Crunch– I love the Year Zero system. I don’t know if I’ve ever honestly seen it entirely, as every Year Zero system uses a COMPLETELY different set of dice and die mechanics, but be it a pile of d6s, a single d20, or different skill dice, I LOVE it. It’s complex enough to build fun characters and simple enough to play fast with enough depth to keep even my Shadowrun loving self engaged. I also like player choice. This system always gives the players the option to do something, even on failure, and the story keeps rolling. The total package builds toward a fun system to dive into quickly, but you’ll find a lot to play with when you are there. 5/5
Theme or Fluff– Free League does their homework. Blade Runner is a dark, fun cyberpunk romp, but if you JUST saw the two movies you would miss large amounts of material. Free League did not do that. They dug deep into some crazy pieces, and there is a whole world that is out there now. Most adventures are gonna be against the corporation and world of the movies because that’s what your players know. But if you want more, there is a whole world to see there and Free League wrote that for you to find. 5/5
Execution– This book is well done with one small thing that drives me up a wall. First the good. It’s hyperlinked, laid out well, reads easily, and the art fits the aesthetic. This is a solid, well done book. What drives me crazy is the way the die system is discussed. You have a d6, d8, d10, and d12. The books refers to them as rank, D, C, B, and A. So, the GM screen needs to have a table on it so you can change back and forth from letters to dice. Just use the dice and leave it out. This drives me up a wall, but honestly, this complaint feels like being mad that they changed the color of the toilet paper in your favorite restaurant. If you get past my one crazy hangup, you will enjoy this book’s production. 4.9/5
Summary– I love this book. It’s got a simple, yet interesting system with a solid world and story put together in an excellently made product. I have my own idiosyncrasies, but if you want a dark, gritty detective story in a cyberpunk world with no magic, I would easily suggest this to anyone. Keep in mind, though, that this is not a big damn heroes game. Like the movies, this is a world without happy endings. If that’s not your preference in a game, then I would pass this by. I enjoy a good sad story, so this is one that I will bring to the table. 99%
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Alien RPG
Product– Alien RPG
System- Year Zero Engine
Producer– Free League Publishing
Price– $24 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/293976/ALIEN-RPG-Core-Rulebook?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR– No one can hear you scream how good this is! 98%
Basics– In space, no one can hear you scream! Alien RPG is a new take on the classic Alien franchise. Let’s dive into the basics of the game.
Mechanics- This system uses the Year Zero Engine. Here, you take a specific skill you want to do and the associated trait and roll that many d6’s. The GM may add or remove dice as the difficulty warrants, but if you roll one 6, you succeed. Additional 6s add more levels of success. You do this for everything from fixing a cargo door to shooting a xenomorph.
Stress- The Alien movies are nothing if not stressful! When you do something, you might fail, and if you do, you can reroll but you gain a different colored d6. If you roll a 1 on these d6’s you panic and roll a d6 and add your current stress level to that roll. Roll too high and you can go catatonic to violent to anything in between. You also gain stress dice when violence happens to you, to seeing androids, to fire full auto into a monster among the stars.
Combat- This game uses cards to track initiative. You draw cards at the start of a fight. There is no rolling for turns. Each turn on your card time, you can do a slow action and a fast action. Slow is shooting a gun or fixing a cargo door, while fast is yelling, running, or even pushing the button to open the airlock. Damage is determined by the weapon you are using minus any armor the creature or person has. Monsters are interesting in this system as well. Instead of the GM planning what happens, you roll a d6 when a monster attacks and that die determines what they do.
Ok, let’s go my thoughts on the system.
Mechanics or Crunch– This is a pretty low crunch system, but that doesn’t make it bad! What I just told you above gives you enough to jump in and start playing. You just need a character and two colors of D6s. It’s fast and lets you focus on the world that is here. I will admit getting only one talent or a feat for your character is kind of a bit light to me. I like having lots of fun toys for my character to use to get through the world. But that is what you get from Year Zero. I’m glad I get the talents/feats I do, but I would like just a bit more. In terms of how it fits the world, I love it. Stress is key in the movies and key here too. A near perfect fit of mechanics and world. 4.75/5
Theme or Fluff– I love the Alien movies (yes even the bad ones!). The people who made this did too. They even reference old books that I thought most people forgot about long ago! The world is built out a TON in this book. To the uninitiated, it is WAY more than just Weyland-Yutani and chestbursters, and this book shows that. Solid world building in this one. 5/5
Execution– PDF? Yep. Hyperlinked? Yes! Solid Art? Yep. Good layout? Yes. This is the first full book by Free League Publishing, and I have to say I am impressed. Good layout, good art, good flow, good everything EXCEPT respect for my printer when I try to make pregens from the book. The Alien world is dark. That’s ok, but the background of the book is dark as well. So if you print off characters for your friends, you WILL kill a printer cartridge! Give me some pregens on nice white paper please! 4.9/5
Summary– I love me some sci-fi, and I don’t think enough is done with it in RPG spaces. This book brings back the atmosphere of the 80’s Alien to a new decade and with a system that fits well with it. It also doesn’t fall into any of the 80’s pitfalls of RPG book design and is a solid expression of modern book layout. My issues are small. I want more stuff for my characters, and I would like pregens on better, less black intensive sheets. But, if thats the worst I can say about this, then an empty print carriage is a small price to pay for this awesome book. 98%
Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Number Drop
Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Dawn
Throat Punch Games 