Remnants is a mecha RPG with a broadly painted but intriguing post-apocalyptic setting and some clever rules tweaks that definitely make it worth investigating.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Monday, August 8, 2011
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Review: Misfit Studios and Savage Worlds
It's Sunday and that means it's time for some reviews, and since we're focusing on Savage Worlds this November I'll be taking a look at some offerings from Misfit Studios.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Review: Mapstravaganza, Part Two
More reviews! Tonight we finish up our Mapstravaganza. This time around we've got offerings from two longtime favorites around drnuncheons' gaming table: Skeleton Key Games and Fiery Dragon. We've also got a couple of items from Project-0 Games.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Review: Mapstravaganza, Part One
I've got an enormous stack of stuff in my review queue thanks to RPGNow/DriveThruRPG. Today I'll be looking at maps from Øone Games and Rite Publishing. Later this week I'll follow up with maps from Project-0 and counters from Fiery Dragon.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Review: Outlaws of the Marsh
A Quick LookShuihu Zhuan (Water Margin, often translated as Outlaws of the Marsh), is considered one of the four great classic works of Chinese literature, along with Journey to the West, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Dream of the Red Chamber. It tells the intertwined stories of 108 men and women who became outlaws and formed a rebellion against the corrupt officials of the Song Dynasty. In addition to being a great example of a classic plot, Outlaws is the novel that forms the foundation of the entire wuxia genre.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Reviews: Remember Tomorrow & B/X Companion
It's the weekend, and that means I owe you guys some reviews. I'll be taking a break from the free stuff provided via RPGNow to look at two books I actually shelled out my hard-earned cash for.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Review: Inked Adventures Modular Dungeons
Disclosure: these products were complimentary review copies provided by the publisher through RPGNow.
Having a visual representation of an area can be invaluable for playing a game. Even if you're not in combat, the ability to say "I go over here" rather than trying to describe in words in a scene that each player might be imagining differently can be an enormous time-saver. You can make do with a vinyl mat and an overhead marker, but if your drawing ability barely extends to straight lines like my own the results are something less than impressive. On the other end of the scale are things like Dwarven Forge and Hirst Arts - high end modeling supplies that will produce a 3-D dungeon that looks incredible. But they're expensive, bulky, and difficult to transport - and they don't work well if you're playing on a virtual tabletop, either.
Terrain tiles like the ones I'm reviewing today occupy the middle ground that make them the most useful to me and gamers like me: they're cheap, they're PDF format so they can be used electronically or printed out, they're easy to transport, and if they get damaged they are replaced at minimal cost - but they look far better than anything I'd scribble out on my Chessex mat.
A product like this will live or die on the strength of its art, and these sets by Inked Adventures are right up my alley. These are not hyper-detailed textures or simple cut-and-paste jobs. The art is hand drawn by the pseudonymous "Billiam Babble", who gives it a funky old-school feel. The tiles have clean lines and are high enough in contrast that they look good in both color and greyscale, and the movement grid is worked into the design rather than being overlaid on top.
The main set, Inked Adventures: Modular Dungeon Cut-Up Sections Basic Pack, is an enormous bargain. You've got doors (single and double in a variety of styles, stand-up or flat counters, plus specialty doors like a tomb door, a secret door and a portcullis), 5 and 10 foot corridors, corners (square and curved), junctions (T and 4-way), and dead ends. You get your choice of either diagonal corridors or adapters that let you hook normal corridors on at a 45° angle. You get stairs (straight and spiral) and rooms of various sizes. And you get separate counters of dungeon dressing: furniture, chests, pits, trapdoors, pools, rugs, corpses, piles of bones, piles of treasure, statues, tombs, fountains, bridges (over water, lava, or simply dark chasm), a dungeon entrance, and an idol room for human sacrifices. Phew!
Inked Adventures: Evil Summonings is a supplemental pack. Much smaller than the Basic Pack, it presents a four-room mini-map featuring a summoning room (is that circle inscribed in blood?) with a cell off to one side. Behind a heavy door is the warlocks room, with four-poster bed, bookshelf, desk, and stacks of tomes. A secret concealed alcove holds two treasure chests (one decorated with skulls), more books, and a pair of dubious-looking sacks.
All in all, these are some great, high value packages if you like the art style (there's a free sample if you want to see what it looks like). I'm glad I was sent these as a review copy, because I had no idea they were out there, and I'll definitely be watching for more Inked Adventures in the future.
Having a visual representation of an area can be invaluable for playing a game. Even if you're not in combat, the ability to say "I go over here" rather than trying to describe in words in a scene that each player might be imagining differently can be an enormous time-saver. You can make do with a vinyl mat and an overhead marker, but if your drawing ability barely extends to straight lines like my own the results are something less than impressive. On the other end of the scale are things like Dwarven Forge and Hirst Arts - high end modeling supplies that will produce a 3-D dungeon that looks incredible. But they're expensive, bulky, and difficult to transport - and they don't work well if you're playing on a virtual tabletop, either.
Terrain tiles like the ones I'm reviewing today occupy the middle ground that make them the most useful to me and gamers like me: they're cheap, they're PDF format so they can be used electronically or printed out, they're easy to transport, and if they get damaged they are replaced at minimal cost - but they look far better than anything I'd scribble out on my Chessex mat.
A product like this will live or die on the strength of its art, and these sets by Inked Adventures are right up my alley. These are not hyper-detailed textures or simple cut-and-paste jobs. The art is hand drawn by the pseudonymous "Billiam Babble", who gives it a funky old-school feel. The tiles have clean lines and are high enough in contrast that they look good in both color and greyscale, and the movement grid is worked into the design rather than being overlaid on top.
The main set, Inked Adventures: Modular Dungeon Cut-Up Sections Basic Pack, is an enormous bargain. You've got doors (single and double in a variety of styles, stand-up or flat counters, plus specialty doors like a tomb door, a secret door and a portcullis), 5 and 10 foot corridors, corners (square and curved), junctions (T and 4-way), and dead ends. You get your choice of either diagonal corridors or adapters that let you hook normal corridors on at a 45° angle. You get stairs (straight and spiral) and rooms of various sizes. And you get separate counters of dungeon dressing: furniture, chests, pits, trapdoors, pools, rugs, corpses, piles of bones, piles of treasure, statues, tombs, fountains, bridges (over water, lava, or simply dark chasm), a dungeon entrance, and an idol room for human sacrifices. Phew!
Inked Adventures: Evil Summonings is a supplemental pack. Much smaller than the Basic Pack, it presents a four-room mini-map featuring a summoning room (is that circle inscribed in blood?) with a cell off to one side. Behind a heavy door is the warlocks room, with four-poster bed, bookshelf, desk, and stacks of tomes. A secret concealed alcove holds two treasure chests (one decorated with skulls), more books, and a pair of dubious-looking sacks.
All in all, these are some great, high value packages if you like the art style (there's a free sample if you want to see what it looks like). I'm glad I was sent these as a review copy, because I had no idea they were out there, and I'll definitely be watching for more Inked Adventures in the future.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
RPGNow Mini-Reviews: Gems, NPCs, and Terrain Tiles
Ever since I signed up for the RPGnow Blog & Podcast program I have been positively inundated with coupons for products to review. I wish I had time to read, play, and review everything that's out there, but it would take a full-time crew and probably some support staff to handle it! I'll be focusing on the products that are either generic or for games I play so I can give them a fair shake.
Today we've got a mixed bag of small products (I've got some longer works in the queue but I need to read and digest them first). Each of these items was a complimentary review copy provided by the publisher.
Today we've got a mixed bag of small products (I've got some longer works in the queue but I need to read and digest them first). Each of these items was a complimentary review copy provided by the publisher.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Review: Umläut: Game of Metal
Umläut: Game of Metal
by Rich Stokes
Having my previous GMing plans for Bisbeecon XI sidetracked by a lack of preparation time, I turned to my collection of small press games looking for a low-stress substitute. I settled on Rich Stokes' Umläut: Game of Metal
, a game about trying to make it big in the world of heavy metal music. I had played the game once before with the usual group of Wednesday night suspects and figured that its easily accessible theme and reasonably simple rules would have us all rocking out by the end of the night.
by Rich Stokes
Having my previous GMing plans for Bisbeecon XI sidetracked by a lack of preparation time, I turned to my collection of small press games looking for a low-stress substitute. I settled on Rich Stokes' Umläut: Game of Metal
, a game about trying to make it big in the world of heavy metal music. I had played the game once before with the usual group of Wednesday night suspects and figured that its easily accessible theme and reasonably simple rules would have us all rocking out by the end of the night.Sunday, July 18, 2010
Review: Inception
Maybe it's bad form for me to start off my first review on this blog like this, but if you have not yet seen Inception, then you should stop reading this review and go make plans to see it. Don't look for other reviews, don't try to find out what it's about, just go and see it. Not only is it a great movie in its own right, it's got a lot of inspiration for gamers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)