Blazing headache today.
I was holding on to this post for a rainy day, but today is good.
Some more DriveThru RPG reviews. No theme today. Just a bunch of random pdfs that caught my attention.
I am trying out a new database to keep track of my reviews now too.
Action! System Core Rules (Free Version)
Good game for action/adventure RPGs.
It is designed to focus on "realism", so no super science or magic, but perfect for say a spy, detective, cop or any other type of action game.
4 out of 5 stars
Bardic Lore: Riastradh
Very cool for any Celtic flavored game and cool for any game to be honest.
The warp-spasm of Cú Chulainn is something that has been in the stories of the Ulster cycle, but never really implemented well in a game. This is a pretty good way to do it.
If you are running a Celtic game, then this is a good product to have. Great price as well.
5 out of 5 stars
Out for Blood
If there was anything you ever wanted to know about vampires or those that hunt them then this is your book.
In the 200+ pages there are 18 new prestige classes, new uses for skills, feats, and of course tons of vampires. There are a handful of new spells and campaign ideas for using or hunting vampires in your game.
What I liked best about this book though was the Fist of Light Prestige Class. It was exactly what I was looking for in one of my games and I was happy to see someone else had done all the work for me.
The layout is very clean and clear and easy enough to read onscreen. The art varies, but most it is rather good.
5 out of 5 stars
Paths of Power
Ideas and options for alternate magic systems in d20. Lots of great ideas here and can be used as a tool kit, options or just a way to give characters a different feel.
5 out of 5 stars
Teenage Demon Slayers
I do not own or ever have played a Pocket Universe game, but I was working on a "magical high school" campaign for my players and I saw this. I saw Jeff Dee's name and picked up a copy.
It makes for a good resource and translating the ideas to other games or systems is fairly easy.
It can't comment on the playability of the material, the readability was fine.
4 out of 5 stars
Campaign Builders: Modern High
Campaign Builders are quick books to help you get started with a campaign mode. In this case a modern high school (and two popular variations, the Horror High and Ninja School).
I grabbed this for ideas to help with a anime/supers/magic flavored high school game I Was working on at the time and it was a great help. The coolest feature here (and since used in other games) is the "Allowance" mechanic. This might not be the first place it has been used like this, but what they do have here is very good.
It is a great product for the price. I might have liked to see more school types and paid a little more, but all in all I am very happy with it.
4 out of 5 stars
Venture 4th: Pact of Ghosts
An interesting addition to the 4th edition game. I liked many of the powers and did not feel they were too overpowered or underpowered. I also liked the different flavor they gave to the Warlock class.
3rd party publishers of D&D4 material are at a severe disadvantage. They can't add their material to the DDi and that makes them less attractive. But if you can get past that this is a very good class build and one I plan on using in my games.
4 out of 5 stars
Silver Age Sentinels D20: Stingy Gamer Edition
Silver Age Sentinels is a fantastic d20 based supers game. It has the problem of being "that other d20 Supers game" and never got the foothold in the market it would have.
This version includes all the rules but is missing some of the text that I felt made SAS worth buying.
4 out of 5 stars
Villains for 2.0
You get 10 detailed NPCs/concepts/archetypes to use either as heroes or as villains for Mutants and Masterminds 2nd ed.
The art is comic book fare, but that is actually to it's benefit here. The archetypes are not particularly original, but they are afterall archetypes.
If you need a bad guy quickly then this is good product. I bought it for just one of the archetypes and was happy with the rest.
4 out of 5 stars
Character Builder Complete: Celtic
A 36 page, form-fillable character folio with a celtic theme. "Builder" is a bit of a mis-nomer, there is nothing here that contains rules, but nearly everything is here to build a character of any class. For d20/OGL 3.x.
4 out of 5 stars
Librum Equitis - Volume 2
Twenty new prestige classes and some new spells.
The book is good if you are looking for some more prestige classes, but I found I never used any of them myself.
I did like the new spells.
4 out of 5 stars
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
The Dragonslayers vs. The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, Part 2
I have been re-reading the original S4, the original tournament module it was based on and the update Iggwilv's Legacy and something occurred to me. For a module centered around Iggwilv and her interest in demons, there are surprisingly few demons in this adventure.
Since I need to up the ante anyway I am thinking that I am going to replace some of the monsters with demons. It will be one of the last times I'll use demons in a 3.x adventure and I have tons of books on them. So stirges for example would be replaced by chasme (fly demons), the dao in the greater caverns (the "ante-chamber of the garden of 1001 delights") will be replaced by incubi and succubi.
I won't go overboard, but I think I have a few good places where I can do this and it will work out well.
I'll keep you posted.
Since I need to up the ante anyway I am thinking that I am going to replace some of the monsters with demons. It will be one of the last times I'll use demons in a 3.x adventure and I have tons of books on them. So stirges for example would be replaced by chasme (fly demons), the dao in the greater caverns (the "ante-chamber of the garden of 1001 delights") will be replaced by incubi and succubi.
I won't go overboard, but I think I have a few good places where I can do this and it will work out well.
I'll keep you posted.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Happy 4th of July
Posting will be light this weekend (you may have noticed).
Celebrating the July 4th Weekend.
Celebrating the July 4th Weekend.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Willow & Tara: Icons
I have been missing my regularly scheduled Willow and Tara posts. I posted everything for Season 1: The Dragon and the Phoenix and Season 2: Season of the Witch.
Season 3 was going to be more "supers" or even "anime" like. So I played around with Mutants and Masterminds and Big Eyes, Small Mouth quite a bit to get what I wanted, but I never quite got it there. The idea behind Season 3: Generation HEX was Willow and Tara would play a less central role as educators of the next generation of witches growing up in a world where everyone knows all about magic.
Again I never quite got it working. But the releases of Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Ed, as well as Bash, Icons and Villains and Vigilantes has got me thinking about it all again.
So here are the girls using Icons, plus some new Icons related supplements I picked up.
Icons
Icons is not really the game I would use if I were going to run a multi-year, multi-arc long game; that's what Mutants and Masterminds is for. But if I needed to run a supers game on a rainy afternoon or a convention or just something to have some fun with, then Icons is a great choice.
Icons though is perfect for trying out a couple of episodes. The biggest issues of "Generation HEX" is it lacked a bit of an identity. "Dragon" was a "Buffy Game", "Season of the Witch" was a "Ghosts of Albion" Game. So the best thing I think is to try out a couple of different "episodes" or "issues" in the various games that went to inspire the series. Now I had stopped work on "Generation HEX" long before Icons came along, but there are still things I can do.
Since I am experimenting I am used the the official module The Mastermind Affair as my test.
You can read my review of the adventure on DriveThruRPG's site.
Since I am rebuilding this season I also grabbed a ton of books on playing in High School and supers:
Willow Rosenberg
Prowess: 2
Coordination: 3
Strength: 2
Intellect: 7
Awareness: 6
Willpower: 7
Height: 5'3" Weight: 114 lbs.
First Appearance (Icons): Season 3, Episode1: We Could Be Heroes.
Powers
Wizardry (magic) 7 (Telekinesis, Blast)
Detection
Mind Control 4
Supersenses (magic, ghosts, astral [sight, hearing, touch]) 3
Telepathy 2 (4 /w Tara)
Specialties
Science, Occult, Electronics, Computers, Languages
Stamina: 9
Determination: 1
Aspects
Qualities
Connections, Motivation: "To learn more magic"
Challenges
Personal: Out Lesbian.
Relationship: Tara
Tara Maclay
Season 3 was going to be more "supers" or even "anime" like. So I played around with Mutants and Masterminds and Big Eyes, Small Mouth quite a bit to get what I wanted, but I never quite got it there. The idea behind Season 3: Generation HEX was Willow and Tara would play a less central role as educators of the next generation of witches growing up in a world where everyone knows all about magic.
Again I never quite got it working. But the releases of Mutants and Masterminds 3rd Ed, as well as Bash, Icons and Villains and Vigilantes has got me thinking about it all again.
So here are the girls using Icons, plus some new Icons related supplements I picked up.
Icons is not really the game I would use if I were going to run a multi-year, multi-arc long game; that's what Mutants and Masterminds is for. But if I needed to run a supers game on a rainy afternoon or a convention or just something to have some fun with, then Icons is a great choice.
Icons though is perfect for trying out a couple of episodes. The biggest issues of "Generation HEX" is it lacked a bit of an identity. "Dragon" was a "Buffy Game", "Season of the Witch" was a "Ghosts of Albion" Game. So the best thing I think is to try out a couple of different "episodes" or "issues" in the various games that went to inspire the series. Now I had stopped work on "Generation HEX" long before Icons came along, but there are still things I can do.
Since I am experimenting I am used the the official module The Mastermind Affair as my test.
You can read my review of the adventure on DriveThruRPG's site.
Since I am rebuilding this season I also grabbed a ton of books on playing in High School and supers:
- Smallville High School Yearbook (Cortex Plus)
- Hope Prep #0: Orientation (Icons)
- Hope Prep School Freshman Handbook (M&M 3)
- Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition Beginners Guide
Prowess: 2
Coordination: 3
Strength: 2
Intellect: 7
Awareness: 6
Willpower: 7
Height: 5'3" Weight: 114 lbs.
First Appearance (Icons): Season 3, Episode1: We Could Be Heroes.
Powers
Wizardry (magic) 7 (Telekinesis, Blast)
Detection
Mind Control 4
Supersenses (magic, ghosts, astral [sight, hearing, touch]) 3
Telepathy 2 (4 /w Tara)
Specialties
Science, Occult, Electronics, Computers, Languages
Stamina: 9
Determination: 1
Aspects
Qualities
Connections, Motivation: "To learn more magic"
Challenges
Personal: Out Lesbian.
Relationship: Tara
Tara Maclay
Prowess: 2
Coordination: 2
Strength: 3
Intellect:
Awareness: 7
Willpower: 6
Height: 5'5" Weight: 128 lbs.
First Appearance (Icons): Season 3, Episode1: We Could Be Heroes.
Powers
Wizardry (magic) 6 (Telekinesis, Force Field)
Aura 3 (supernatural creatures affected only, fear aura)
Blast 2
Emotion Control 2
Healing 4
Supersenses (magic, ghosts, astral [sight, hearing, touch]) 3
Telepathy 2 (4 /w Willow)
Specialties
Art, Occult, Psychiatry, Languages
Stamina: 8
Determination: 1
Aspects
Qualities
Connections, Motivation: "To protect the innocent"
Challenges
Personal: Out Lesbian.
Relationship: Willow
These are built assuming this is the start of Season 3 and the girls have quite a bit of experience. I like these builds, but I think I am going to need more practice in this game.
Icons has some great advice/hints/tips on making an archenemy, I think I am going to have to take that advice and figure out someone for the girls to battle.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Icons
I go in and out of moods for my games a lot. Gamer ADHD as it has been called.
I have been going through my Icons collection of late with the idea to revive my long dead Supers game.
I have already stated Justice for Icons, but I have not used it for Willow and Tara just yet. So here is my point of view on Icons. Some of this I mentioned before, but I wanted to pull it all together in one place.
Icons
I enjoy Supers games. I don't get to play them as often as I would like, but I enjoy them all the same. I had been playing M&M 2ed and just picked up BASH! so I was hesitant to also get Icons. But Icons comes with a pretty good pedigree. First it is written by Steven Kenson, who gave us Mutants and Masterminds and also worked on Silver Age Sentinels. Steve obviously knows his supers. It has Gareth-Michael Skarka of Adamant Entertainment and one of the minds behind "Hong Kong Action Theater". Walt Ciechanowski has a ton of game systems under his belt too including M&M, True20 and Victoriana (1st ed). And Morgan Davie, whom I'll admit I am not as familiar with. But he is one of the guys that wrote Icons, so that makes him good in my book.
Comics are a visual medium. Full of art and color and eye catching action. Icons is the same. It is a really good looking book, especially one that has such a "retro" or even "indie" feel to it. It lives somewhere between the free flowing cartoon fun of Cartoon Action Hour and the slick, high production values of Mutants and Masterminds. All three of these games are fantastic and their style really tells us a lot about what they are about. Icons is a comic book game that is close to a Saturday Morning Super Heroes cartoon. The art, which some people have disliked, I think sets the perfect mood for this book. It is simple art, but it is good art and has a earnestness about that I like. That is also true for the rules.
Icons, as you may or may not have heard, is powered by FATE. Though the typical FATE/Fudge trappings of naming the power levels is gone in favor of numbers (sort of a step backwards from the FATE perspective, but fine for me). There is the option for named levels too, and I think it would fit the style of comic book action, but I myself prefer numbers. The scale is pretty simple, 1 to 10, with 3 an average. So very similar already to a lot of games I play.
I have been going through my Icons collection of late with the idea to revive my long dead Supers game.
I have already stated Justice for Icons, but I have not used it for Willow and Tara just yet. So here is my point of view on Icons. Some of this I mentioned before, but I wanted to pull it all together in one place.
I enjoy Supers games. I don't get to play them as often as I would like, but I enjoy them all the same. I had been playing M&M 2ed and just picked up BASH! so I was hesitant to also get Icons. But Icons comes with a pretty good pedigree. First it is written by Steven Kenson, who gave us Mutants and Masterminds and also worked on Silver Age Sentinels. Steve obviously knows his supers. It has Gareth-Michael Skarka of Adamant Entertainment and one of the minds behind "Hong Kong Action Theater". Walt Ciechanowski has a ton of game systems under his belt too including M&M, True20 and Victoriana (1st ed). And Morgan Davie, whom I'll admit I am not as familiar with. But he is one of the guys that wrote Icons, so that makes him good in my book.
Comics are a visual medium. Full of art and color and eye catching action. Icons is the same. It is a really good looking book, especially one that has such a "retro" or even "indie" feel to it. It lives somewhere between the free flowing cartoon fun of Cartoon Action Hour and the slick, high production values of Mutants and Masterminds. All three of these games are fantastic and their style really tells us a lot about what they are about. Icons is a comic book game that is close to a Saturday Morning Super Heroes cartoon. The art, which some people have disliked, I think sets the perfect mood for this book. It is simple art, but it is good art and has a earnestness about that I like. That is also true for the rules.
Icons, as you may or may not have heard, is powered by FATE. Though the typical FATE/Fudge trappings of naming the power levels is gone in favor of numbers (sort of a step backwards from the FATE perspective, but fine for me). There is the option for named levels too, and I think it would fit the style of comic book action, but I myself prefer numbers. The scale is pretty simple, 1 to 10, with 3 an average. So very similar already to a lot of games I play.
The rules themselves are really simple. It is a modification of the dF system. Use 2d6 with one as positive and one as negative, roll and add, apply mods. Easy. You can be up and running in less time than it takes to say "Meanwhile back at the Hall of Justice..."
Hero creation is unique for a modern game, it is random. Not that you couldn't do it as a "point buy" system, but the randomness is what I think sets it away from BASH which can fill similar needs.
I feel I must at this point call out the Character Sheet. Long ago I was a reader of Marvel and I loved their "Whos Who" of the Marvel universe where they would have bar charts to rank their heroes on various attributes. It was almost very game-like and I loved them. Icons does something similar and it really gives their characters a different feel.
I would be lying if I didn't see bits of pieces of Silver Age Sentinels or Mutants and Masterminds peeking out every so often. That is fine with me. That familiarity is a good thing in my mind.
Icons is not really the game I would use if I were going to run a multi-year, multi-arc long game; that's what Mutants and Masterminds is for. But if I needed to run a supers game on a rainy afternoon or a convention or just something to have some fun with, then Icons is a great choice.
Other Icons products:
Hope Prep #0: Orientation
Icons and M&M 3
Ever since the X-Men went to class and the Teen Titans went to their tower, being a super powered teen has always been popular in comics. It was popular before that too, but let's stick with high school. Hope Prep is another in a long line of Schools for .... you get the idea.
This book was written for ICONS, but I am certain that the same applies for other versions (M&M).
The idea here is a day spent learning about your new school, Hope Prep. A new bad guy organization is introduced, which I really liked and will use. And it works as a good introduction to supers roleplaying and the game systems as well.
Each scene is detailed well, but not in a way that tells the GM what everyone needs to do, but instead a framework of what is going on and how to move from one scene to the next. Very nice.
There is a starter map of the school grounds and some materials to print and give to your players.
All in all, a very fun intro and certainly makes want to get some more from this line of products.
5 of 5 Stars
Hope Prep School Freshman Handbook
Icons and M&M3
EDITED TO ADD:
I just found this awesome Character sheet for Hope Prep for Icons from the author's own blog.
http://www.meliorvia.com/2011/06/open-house-sale-and-icons-character.html
ION Guard
Bash! and ICONS
If you need a reason to buy BASH or ICONS then this is it. At just about 60 pages this supplement presents the Intergalactic Ordinance Network Guard or ION Guard, an intergalatic police force defending the universe from all sorts of bad guys.
Yes we have seen this before, but the the presentation in this book is so enduring you ignore the obvious DNA of this product and just pull on your ION Fist, say your Oath and protect the Galaxy. NPCs are detailed as well as bad guys for you to fight. The layout of the book is awesome and I honestly can't say enough good about it.
Dislike: would have liked to see more bad guys.
5 out of 5 stars.
Field Guide to Superheroes Vol. 3 (ICONS)
A hefty collection of archetypes for the ICONS game. Lots of familiar territory here with some standard comic book archetypes. What I came here for was the Magician, Occult hero and the Psychic.
In all cases an archetype is presented with some explanatory notes on how this character works in the comics and the game. Examples from comics are given and ways to use the character. Then we also get a full write up of a ready to use character, either as an NPC or PC for your own games. Usually 4 pages per archetype.
Very good book for the price and now I want to pick up the first two as well.
5 out of 5 stars.
Icons vs. Bash vs. Mutants and Masterminds
This is something I think I need address, but at the moment I don't feel qualified enough to do this. I think I am going to have to play some games and try them out to see which ones I like the best.
More on Icons tomorrow.
Hero creation is unique for a modern game, it is random. Not that you couldn't do it as a "point buy" system, but the randomness is what I think sets it away from BASH which can fill similar needs.
I feel I must at this point call out the Character Sheet. Long ago I was a reader of Marvel and I loved their "Whos Who" of the Marvel universe where they would have bar charts to rank their heroes on various attributes. It was almost very game-like and I loved them. Icons does something similar and it really gives their characters a different feel.
I would be lying if I didn't see bits of pieces of Silver Age Sentinels or Mutants and Masterminds peeking out every so often. That is fine with me. That familiarity is a good thing in my mind.
Icons is not really the game I would use if I were going to run a multi-year, multi-arc long game; that's what Mutants and Masterminds is for. But if I needed to run a supers game on a rainy afternoon or a convention or just something to have some fun with, then Icons is a great choice.
Other Icons products:
Hope Prep #0: Orientation
Icons and M&M 3
Ever since the X-Men went to class and the Teen Titans went to their tower, being a super powered teen has always been popular in comics. It was popular before that too, but let's stick with high school. Hope Prep is another in a long line of Schools for .... you get the idea.
This book was written for ICONS, but I am certain that the same applies for other versions (M&M).
The idea here is a day spent learning about your new school, Hope Prep. A new bad guy organization is introduced, which I really liked and will use. And it works as a good introduction to supers roleplaying and the game systems as well.
Each scene is detailed well, but not in a way that tells the GM what everyone needs to do, but instead a framework of what is going on and how to move from one scene to the next. Very nice.
There is a starter map of the school grounds and some materials to print and give to your players.
All in all, a very fun intro and certainly makes want to get some more from this line of products.
5 of 5 Stars
Hope Prep School Freshman Handbook
Icons and M&M3
The Freshman Handbook is a great product in the Hope Prep product line. Meant to follow from the Hope Prep Orientation book, this book expands what you know and provides more information.
Like the Orientation Book, this book is multi-system. I had no issue moving from the ICONS version of one to the M&M version of the other.
This book contains everything a new student will need to know about their new school. There are class schedules with information on the teachers (and their powers, listed in back). While there is a wealth of information here it's utility will vary form GM to GM. While somw may like know where the students are at any given moment of any given day, there are others that will hand wave this.
One thing I found a distraction was the multi-colored text of the two students, Maza and Kid Courage. While interesting and provided a good insight to what was "really" going on, I found the font choice and color difficult to read sometimes.
4 of 5 Stars
EDITED TO ADD:
I just found this awesome Character sheet for Hope Prep for Icons from the author's own blog.
http://www.meliorvia.com/2011/06/open-house-sale-and-icons-character.html
ION Guard
If you need a reason to buy BASH or ICONS then this is it. At just about 60 pages this supplement presents the Intergalactic Ordinance Network Guard or ION Guard, an intergalatic police force defending the universe from all sorts of bad guys.
Yes we have seen this before, but the the presentation in this book is so enduring you ignore the obvious DNA of this product and just pull on your ION Fist, say your Oath and protect the Galaxy. NPCs are detailed as well as bad guys for you to fight. The layout of the book is awesome and I honestly can't say enough good about it.
Dislike: would have liked to see more bad guys.
5 out of 5 stars.
Field Guide to Superheroes Vol. 3 (ICONS)
A hefty collection of archetypes for the ICONS game. Lots of familiar territory here with some standard comic book archetypes. What I came here for was the Magician, Occult hero and the Psychic.
In all cases an archetype is presented with some explanatory notes on how this character works in the comics and the game. Examples from comics are given and ways to use the character. Then we also get a full write up of a ready to use character, either as an NPC or PC for your own games. Usually 4 pages per archetype.
Very good book for the price and now I want to pick up the first two as well.
5 out of 5 stars.
This might well be the most awesome product I have ever paid under a buck for.
You don't get many pages here, but you get alot. A "ripped from the tabloids" personality that can be a snap to play. All the Icons stats you need, a background, awesome art and a little paper mini to use in your game.
All for less than you would pay for a Mt. Dew out of a vending machine.
I just don't want to see more like this, I want to see LiLo and all her awesome powers of...well something I am sure.
Worth it for humor alone.
5 of 5 Stars
Icons vs. Bash vs. Mutants and Masterminds
This is something I think I need address, but at the moment I don't feel qualified enough to do this. I think I am going to have to play some games and try them out to see which ones I like the best.
More on Icons tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Ghosts of Albion: Dinosauria!
This Gen Con I am going to introduce a new adventure for Ghosts of Albion. The first I have written in a while and I am quite excited.
The adventure is centered around the New Year's Eve 1853 party at the Crystal Palace. The characters are all invited to a most unique party inside one of the first ever models of a dinosuar!
You are invited by Mr. Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins,
and Prof. Richard Owens,
I'll be presenting some details for players here and the characters they can play.
Currently I have an immortal sorceress, a cowboy with golden bullets that he may have gotten from the devil, an Algonquin shaman, a faerie lady, and an American occult scholar.
Stay tuned.
The adventure is centered around the New Year's Eve 1853 party at the Crystal Palace. The characters are all invited to a most unique party inside one of the first ever models of a dinosuar!
You are invited by Mr. Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins,
and Prof. Richard Owens,
I'll be presenting some details for players here and the characters they can play.
Currently I have an immortal sorceress, a cowboy with golden bullets that he may have gotten from the devil, an Algonquin shaman, a faerie lady, and an American occult scholar.
Stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)