Tag: RPG

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Barrow of the Cursespawn

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Product-Darkwood Arc Excursions: Barrow of the Cursespawn

Producer– Saga RPG

System-Pathfinder

Price– ~$6 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/132931/01AE01-Barrow-of-the-Cursespawn-PFRPG-PDF

TL; DR-Zelda puzzles in Pathfinder!? 93%

 

Basics– Welcome back to the world of Darkwood.  Miners are missing, and OTHER adventures are on the way!  But, after a chance meeting in a bar, you and your friends are dragged into the events at the mine.  Can you save the day and find out what’s happening in the wilderness?  This is a Pathfinder adventure that is designed to fit well into the Darkwood Adventure path for characters level 7.

 

Story or Fluff-This is an interesting one.  To really get all you can out of this mission, a GM worth his/her salt must deeply read the background.  This company excels at building story in their adventures, and it shows in this one.  At its heart, this adventure is a simple dungeon crawl with adventure set in Saga’s world of Darkwood, but these people write an awesome intro to get your involved and build story into the dungeon to make it interesting.  However, like some fantasy or Sci-Fi adventures and stories, this adventure has the Dune problem for names-way too many terms are introduced to describe thing that have a general name like a burial mound or a shaman.  It’s not bad, but as a reader, it can sometimes be confusing.  4.5/5

 

Mechanics or Crunch-When you look at this one, it’s a pretty short adventure.  If your table doesn’t mess around, you can easily get through this adventure in about three to four hours.  The monsters are pretty par for the Pathfinder course at seventh level, but what will make this stand out are puzzles!  I love adventures that have more than just fights.  The puzzles are pretty nice.  Now as a person who’s played every Legend of Zelda game, these puzzles are not world endingly difficult, but anytime you have a TIMED puzzle in a tabletop RPG, it’s going to be a good evening!  The traps and monsters are all normal stuff, but its standard stuff you’d expect to fight at this level.  There is new stuff here, but I don’t think any seventh level party will be overly challenged by this adventure.  However, those issues maybe more of a Pathfinder system problem than anything that is written by Saga.  It’s a good stand along adventure, but you’ll need all the standard Pathfinder/Paizo books to run the adventure, but to get the most from this adventure you will also need Saga original AP book (reviewed here https://throatpunchgames.com/2014/06/06/ring-side-report-rpg-review-of-the-deft-and-the-deadly/ ) 4.75/5

 

Execution-This is a pretty short product, but the price is right.  Like I said before, these writers are great at story, but there are a few pages of nothing but text with lots of new terms.  I’d like a bit more art, but what is there is art, its put to good use.  Also, the puzzles and some of the traps get great layouts and art to really help the players and GM understand what’s going on and how to run the adventure properly. 4.75/5

 

Summary-This isn’t a perfect adventure, but it’s a damn fine one.  It’s got a good plot that factors into Saga’s other metaplot for their adventure path.  It’s a nice evening adventure sized adventure with fighting, traps, and puzzles.  If you like Saga’s current AP, then you’re getting this one regardless of what I have to say.  But, if you want some good third party Pathfinder adventure, for six bucks, you can’t go wrong here. 93%

 

Disclosure: I was provided a review copy of this adventure.

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 2 Comments

Product– Player’s Handbook

Producer-Wizards of the Coast

Price– $50 here

System– Dungeons and Dragons (5th Edition)

TL; DR– D&D are back!  100%

 

Basics-Its back!  The fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons was launched at GenCon.  This book covers character generation, character backgrounds and personalities, adventuring, the basic rules of the game, and magic.  If you’ve seen one player’s handbook, you know what’s going to be in any of them.  But, not really!  This book also covers gods of the multiverse, planes of existence, and the creatures your character can often work with. You’ve seen the basics on the PDF reviewed here https://throatpunchgames.com/2014/07/05/ring-side-report-rpg-review-of-basic-rules-for-dungeons-and-dragons/  Lets look at the book.

 

Crunch or Mechanics-The basic rules are online, and I loved those.  But, this book adds TONS to the game.  This book adds dragonborn, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, and tieflings.  All these are great additions to the game along with the additional classes of barbarians, bards, druids, monks, paladin, rangers, sorcerers, and warlocks.  Even the classes from the basic document get amazing additions like the arcane trickster and the AWESOME eldritch knight!  I can’t wait to bring back my 4e sword mage as a fifth edition eldritch knight!  All these classes feel different, yet balanced.  I don’t feel like I have to be any one class to be a good character.  The one topic in the new book which was not presented in the basic rules is feats.  The feats are all surprisingly well balanced and useful.  There is room for expansion in everything, but the base rules give enough to make almost every character you could want.  I love what I see, and can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next. 5/5

 

Theme or Fluff– This book feels lived in.  I loved fourth edition for what it was, but the book felt sterile.  The book was well written, but its style was very much like that of an IKEA instruction manual.  Well done to get a point across, but it feels cold.  This book is very much alive.  Even the parchment-color background of every page makes this one feel like it’s alive.  Besides that, the art and the text makes the world come alive.  Every class, background, and concept gets art and story.  This book makes me feel like I’m stepping into a world that already exists, and that is amazing. 5/5

 

Execution– So the art is good, the layout is good, and the text is fun to read and invites the reader to keep reading.  You’d expect that.  But there is one thing I want to point out, and it is the honest to goodness best part of the book.  This book features the two best charts in the existence of D&D-page 12 and page 45.  My wife pointed these out to me since I am someone who is a bit jaded when it come to the tables in books, but once you see these and really look, they are amazing.  Page 12 gives a simple summary of abilities, the skills, the races and how they all work together.  It’s amazing in its execution and how much of the book it encapsulates on one chart.  Page 45 give a really quick, one sentence summary of each class, the hit dice, primary ability, its saving throws, and its weapons.  Again, this chart is an amazingly simple description of most of the book.  And that sets the bar for the whole book:  simply amazing. 5/5

 

Summary– If you want a review of the system, check out my review of the basic game here https://throatpunchgames.com/2014/07/05/ring-side-report-rpg-review-of-basic-rules-for-dungeons-and-dragons/  .  The system is good, great even, but this book is better.  This book is an amazing piece of art, math, and storytelling that sets up an infinite number of other stories.  Like every other RPG geek out there, I’ve been waiting for the new edition as I played in the play test.  I submitted my ideas and feedback.  What came out might not have been my exact perfect RPG, but what did emerge might be my favorite RPG.  Go check this one out NOW! Even at $50, this book is worth the price. 100%

Blurbs from the Booth-The Price of Admission

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I saw a thread on ENWorlds discussing how much you would pay at a hobby shop vs. how much you pay online.  I thought about that for a quite a while and I think I’d pay a lot.  Let’s give some examples and thoughts that go with that.

I don’t expect my store to just be a store.  The store is a place I hang out.  I’ve mentioned a few times that I want to make gaming happen.  Gaming is a major part of my life.  I spend lots of money buying games, lots of my time reading/learning games, and lots of my life running games at stores and cons.  My store is a part of my home.  I expect a friendly place where people know who I am, who care that I’m doing well gaming and in my life, and a place that wants me to be there running games.  I know that the store manager/owner is there because on some level he/she has to make money to eat and pay rent, but I also want him/her to be there because they love comics and gaming.  I want that person to want to make games happen too.

I need that store person to need gaming in their life too.  If you are just in the comics/gaming world to make a buck, leave.  That’s not insulting, it’s an economic reality!  There are much better ways to make a buck in this world that requires much less energy.  Franchising out McDonald’s are a much better investment.  Game stores die within the first year all the time, and you can’t just run that store 9 to 5.  I don’t know about you, but 9 to 5 is when I’m working.  So, any place that will give me time to play has to have their store open from 6 to 10.  So the shop keep is looking at a 13 hour day to deal with my crap!

I realize all of this.  I realize that these men and women are working their asses off.  Sure, running a store isn’t as physically exhausting as, say, 13 hours of manual labor like heavy construction of houses.  But it’s at least mentally draining since these people have to dance a hard dance to make all the bills happen while keeping the lights on and dealing with entitled gamers/comic fans all day.

Online shopping is great, but I have NO loyalty to anyone out there.  Sure, I’ll sign up for your discount program.  Yeah, give me your newsletter.  Fine, I’ll friend you on Facebook.  But I do not care about you.  You are a means to an end.  If my only interaction with you is to check a few boxes and have PayPal hand my money to you, then you are no better than any other http place to me.  I don’t feel you care.  You’re just a means to an end.  Amazon, you, any other of the dozens of sites I know, you’re all the same.  You may be much more, but if I’m not helping someone I know needs help in the gaming industry, it’s hard to know if you do or don’t care.

Cons are no better.  I’ll see some con vendors two times a year.  I’ll make some small talk, but I don’t owe any loyalty to you either.  You’re at this con to make some money.  Cons are high profile places where lots of geeks gather.  And you can make a ton of money fast if you know what you’re doing, and you brought the right stuff.  However, I will haggle with you.  Honestly, I will walk up to vendors with my cell phone in one hand and my debit card in the other.  If my local guy/gal can’t get an item, then any con seller is as good as Amazon.  So, if you, the con vendor, can’t meet Amazon’s price, that item can be at my house in two days (prime shipping is awesome!).  Same goes for some companies.  If you are big enough to have a giant booth at GenCon, I have no problems haggling with you.  The smaller companies get a pass, generally, but I have no problems haggling with the semi-large ones unless you’ve earned my loyalty.  If a company has proven time and time again that they are great to their customers, like Fantasy Flight with its rock solid customer support or Wizards of the Coast with its FREE open play programs, then I will not try to fight them on price.  In either case, I expect a deal at a con.  At a con you’re cutting out all the middle men.  If you want to get more money from cutting out those people, then I expect to get a break too.  If you sell for 80% at a con, your still ~40% more then you normally get.  I know this, you know this, now let’s make a deal!

But, when I find a local store that gives me its time/play space, friendship, and a passion for gaming, they get my money.  If you treat me with respect, I’ll put quite a number of hours into making your store the best store I can find.  I’ll run my games there, post about it on Facebook, tweet upon my Twitter, and overall make you a part of my life.  And, for the feelings I get from your store, I’ll pay full price.  I won’t screw around asking for discounts (but giving them to me does help keep me loyal!).  I won’t be an ass and haggle over small things.  I’ll show up every week, pay for my orders, even though I know I’m losing money vs. online shopping, and I will do that with a smile on my face.  That is the price of admission to these places and the feelings and support we gamers get there.