Organizing all my RPG PDFs and deciding what was worth putting into Dropbox for easy tablet access has had a few surprise benefits.[1] One of them was seeing just how many games I’d be interested in running or playing at the moment — ballpark, around 60-70 (with varying degrees of interest, of course). Among the […]
Standouts on my want-to-play list Read More »
There are a lot of things to love about Twilight: 2000 (paid link) but one of my favorites is its hook (one of the best hooks in RPG history): The PCs, all soldiers, are stuck in the middle of Poland after five years of global war, including exchanges of nuclear and biological weapons, and then, “As
Twilight: 2000 and its amazing hook Read More »
This method for quickly mapping fantasy kingdoms over on Coins & Scrolls is really neat. Start with a blank map, just coastlines. Add dots for major settlements, and color the hexes around them to identify the “core regions” of different counties/duchies. Then roll dice to expand those counties, determine undeveloped regions, and create enclaves. The
Coins & Scrolls on fast kingdom mapping Read More »
The DCC RPG Free RPG Day 2017 Quick Start (paid link) is brilliant. Apart from featuring one of my all-time favorite covers, by Doug Kovacs, it includes everything you need to make peasants for a funnel; a fabulous funnel, The Portal Under the Stars; levels 1-3 for all of the classes; and a slightly stripped-down
The DCC RPG Quick Start is brilliant Read More »
Hot damn is Monsterhearts 2 a good book. (It’s also an amazing game in play, but right now I just want to talk about the book itself.) It’s lean, without an ounce of cruft anywhere on its frame. It’s devoid of blather. This is a bullshit-free presentation honed by years of actual play, design chops,
Monsterhearts 2 is a scintillating jewel Read More »
I love solo RPGs and samurai drama, so I was excited to come across Emanuele Galletto‘s Seppuku: Fury of the Samurai (paid link). It’s a short solo RPG (5-10 minutes, depending on whether you write anything apart from your death poem), but surprisingly melancholy and impactful. The only peace my bold but headstrong samurai found was
The solo RPG Seppuku: Fury of the Samurai is splendid Read More »
Wally West in The Flash (paid link) #82, summing up my approach to GMing.[1] maximum enthusiasm combined with zero prep If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope yours is a good one. I’ll be back in a few days! [1] It doesn’t usually go like the next narration box . . .
The Flash on game prep Read More »
I downloaded Levi Kornelsen’s Skinchangers beta (paid link) which is free, and holy crap is the list of inspirations right up my apple cart: Werewolf: The Apocalypse (paid link) and Neverwhere (paid link) meet Buffy (paid link) by way of Fate (paid link) and Apocalypse World (paid link) . . . yes, please! At first blush,
Space pirates! I buy 99% of my RPGs only in PDF these days, but when a product as special as the Pirates of Drinax (paid link) ) campaign for Mongoose Traveller (paid link) comes along, my heart goes pitter-patter and I have to make an exception. It’s a sandbox campaign with a fantastic hook: The
Space Pirates of Drinax: a gorgeous Traveller sandbox Read More »
When my Tunnels & Trolls (paid link) hardcover arrived, I was immediately drawn to the glossy color section. I’d mostly ignored Trollworld when I read the rules in my softcover copy, figuring if I ran it I’d homebrew a setting . . . but this map has me rethinking that. Rrr’lff is Trollworld’s main continent,
