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Thanks for the detailed response. It definitely sounds multifaceted as to why it didn't take off further. I wasn't aware of a Fallout connection to the tabletop rpg (unlike with say Warcraft and Warhammer). As with Cyberpunk and Michael Pondsmith, I can respect an rpg developer for wanting to stay true to his or her vision and "just" earn alot of money but not necessarily "all" the possible money.

Cyberpunk is another rpg I really enjoy. I've been playing 2020, and you can feel the love through the rough bits.

Unrelated, can someone recommend me a word based or diceless RPG?

 TheBestBucketHead wrote:
Cyberpunk is another rpg I really enjoy. I've been playing 2020, and you can feel the love through the rough bits.

It's great if you play it casual with a DM familiar with it (or with good reference sheets).
The system (and feel to some degree) falls over if players are more interesting minmax murder-hoboing and/or having characters that are consistently successful.

The local group had a look at the new cyberpunk (red) recently too and it is extraordinarily dry by comparison. In the name of balance everything is boiled down to a handful of generic values - fast to run, easy to understand, but no mechanical depth or discovery.

So, the weather is terrible here so our game night was cancelled for the second night in a row. The internet is also threatening to have outages. Yikes!

However, has anyone tried an all text based RPG conducted over SMS that is diceless? What was it? What did you discover?

I haven't tried it but I'd imagine that it's a more chaotic and sped up version of play by post.

However, this is going to be my first actual RPG review. It will follow the normal format my reviews take:

- Things I liked
- Things I did not like
- Meh and other uncertainties
- Final thoughts

Let's get into this with two-fists swingin' and snub-nose .38's blazing!
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/03/rpg-review-hard-city-osprey-games.html

Thanks and I will take a look.

For those interested in OSR, the Shadowdark rpg kickstarter is in it's final 48 hours and is (at the time of this post) currently at $1.15 million in funding. Just going by the free intro rules, I don't think it's for me personally but lots of people seem to think/hope it's for them!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shadowdarkrpg/shadowdark-rpg-old-school-gaming-modernized

I am a relative newcomer to Legend of the 5 Rings. I have been familiar with it as an Intellectual Property for a long, long time but never really spent much time with it. However, I listened to an actual play of one edition or another on the Happy Jacks Podcast, and was intrigue by what I had heard. I listened to a few more podcasts and was even more interested. Then, one day I was at the Half-Price Bookstore and saw a copy of the Third Edition rulebook. I bought it.

Since then, I have managed to design a short campaign called "One Year in Rokugan" that was edition and stat block agnostic but based on my 3rd Edition knowledge. After all, there are 5 editions of the game! If you are part of my Patreon, you can find this campaign available there for free as a PDF. I have managed to play through the campaign using 3rd edition rules, and we all had a lot of fun. It was a huge difference from our normal D&D 5E games, and I enjoyed introducing the world of Rokugan to my players.



After that enjoyable campaign, there was an interest in updating from 3rd edition to 5th edition. I myself was curious about the differences, but had put off buying it. I all ready had 3rd edition, and figured there was no great need to update to the "newest". However, as I learned more about the new edition the core mechanics seemed markedly different than the AEG versions of the game I owned.

Therefore, with some hesitation; I acquired a copy for myself. Keep in mind Legend of the 5 Rings: 5th edition is NOT the same as Adventures in Rokugan; also by Edge Studios. Adventures is a skin for using Rokugan in D&D 5E. Legend of the 5 Rings: 5th Edition using its own system based on the Fantast Flight Games Genesys system. Genesys is used with games like Edge of Empire. It will be interesting to see where this game maintains and differs from the L5R I am familiar with.

So, let us don our Daisho and prepare to serve our Daimyo.....

http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/08/rpg-review-legend-of-5-rings-5th.html

Late to the discussion but I’d give a +1 to GURPS, although it’s been a long time since I looked at it. I didn’t know the Fallout thing.

I’m very intrigued by the new The One Ring, which has a Moria kickstarter now.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/moria-through-the-doors-of-durin/description
I have the Strider rules, which allow for GM-less play, and I’m hoping to try that out soon with my significant other. Anyone have thoughts on it?

Greetings all.

Some of you maybe wondering "why so many RPG Reviews?" I know, I know, this is a wargame design blog! However, I have been dabbling a lot in RPG design, writing adventures, and playing RPGs! As part of this, I have been playing a lot of RPG sessions, and reading a lot of different rules sets. Therefore, that has led to a lot of RPG reviews.

Avatar: Legends is a Powered by the Apocalypse system RPG based on the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Avatar: The Legend of Korra cartoon series seen originally on Nickelodeon. So, to many of us that sentence might not make any sense! What does it all mean?

Well, let's start with the setting. The book is about half setting details and half-rules for game play. The setting focuses on a mystical world of various elemental powers, a spirit world, and nations built around affinity to these elements. The elements are Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. In addition, there is a martial arts tradition of "bending" these elements by channeling chi. So, basically it is another Fantasy Asian culture leaning much more towards Chinese and Southeast Asian influences as opposed to Legend of the 5 Rings that leans heavily into Japan.

If you want more setting stuff, try here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender

The players are a group of young heroes who have banded together to complete a great quest or adventure. They all have chosen to participate, are all familiar with martial arts, and are all generally good people. For the most part, they are also mostly tweens, teens, and young adults.

Great, now you know a bit about the premise. So, what the devil is Powered by the Apocalypse? This is a very loose philosophy for running an RPG that has a few similar traits. It is not a "mechanics system" per se as many of the rules that use the PbtA "system" have very different mechanics. However, it is more of a philosophy of how to play RPGs using these general ideas:

All dice rolls are determined on a 2d6
-7-9 is a success with complication, and 10+ is a success with some benefits
-The Game master does not roll any dice, only interprets results
-The focus is on Narrative and leaning into the story
-The game is designed to exploit genre conventions and tropes
-There is no Class/Level system, instead using genre archetypes in the form of Playbooks
-There is no Health/Hit points, instead causing conditions to apply to the character
-Players and the Gamemaster use a variety of pre-defined actions known as moves to broadly determine the action, these are designed to highlight the genre of the game.
-If you want to know more, you can look here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powered_by_the_Apocalypse

So, now maybe that opening sentence makes more sense. It does? Great! With that being said, let's mount up on our Air Bison and "Yip, Yip" on our way!



You can see my full thoughts on the game at the Blood and Spectacles blog:
http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/09/rpg-review-avatar-legends-magpie-games.html

Whoooooooa I did not know that this is PBTA! I'm far more interested now

Well, it took almost a year but I finally pressed the button and picked up Zweihander's starter set. I discovered it last year and asked about it in thread as it seemed like a great starter box but I have almost zero experience with either the game genre (horror) and setting (including WFRPG).

Why buy it then? Well, the starter box seems genuinely very well done from unboxings I've seen and I wanted to see it in person and, more importantly I saw it was ridiculously cheap on Amazon in the US (less than $20 shipping and tax included).

Has anyone played the game here? I know it's a knockoff/evolution/whatever of an earlier WFRPG edition but I don't have experience with that either.

Well, I found out why the starters are so cheap now... because they're coming out with a new edition of Zweihander this year! Lol. I can't win. Regardless, it's a great starter set from a player perspective in terms of completeness and the sheer amount of stuff you get in terms of components for the price (even full price) but the rules aren't for me which I suspected. Same for the art other than the box cover painting. I doubt I'll ever play it and I definitely won't be trying to organize a session/campaign myself.

Any thoughts on or experience with Barbarians of Lemuria RPG? It's a rules light sword and sorcery Conan-inspired 2d6 system that seems pretty complete from a simple read through.

It also appears that Cubicle 7 (inheritors of the WFRP and makers of AOS Soulbound rpg) is also now making a WH Old World rpg as well. From their facebook announcement:

Breaking news! We are developing a new roleplaying game based on Games Workshop’s recently launched Warhammer: The Old World.
Our own Dominic McDowall said, “Exploring a new era with Warhammer: The Old World is an honour and a privilege. As huge fans of the classic Warhammer setting we’re thrilled to be working with Games Workshop on the new chapter of such a beloved setting.”
Fans of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay can rest assured it will continue as its own game line, with many, many releases already scheduled for the coming years.

https://www.facebook.com/Cubicle7Entertainment

From the chatter elsewhere, it's reported that it will use the Soulbound mechanics of a d6 dice pool system though I can't find an official source stating that.

edit: I reread the thread title and saw that this is specifically NOT for D&D so deleted most of my first impressions of the PHB from the post after rolling a nat 1 for reading comprehension!

Overall, what I saw definitely didn't make me want to buy my own copy of the PHB or other core books so I may sit out this edition. I am curious to see what they do with the 2025 starter set though from a production standpoint (rules and components included, methods to introduce new players to the game and RPGs in general, etc) and how it compares with what I consider to be stellar products with incredible value for gamers like Dragonbane, Pathfinder, and Zweihander (regardless of what I think about the actual rules/systems themselves). What rpg starter sets do folks here consider to be great examples of what to do for an RPG starter?

Any general thoughts on the ubiquitous Modiphius 2d20 systems? My only experience with it was two very short sessions of Star Trek Adventures 1e and some random character creation sessions with other rulesets when I was bored so definitely not enough to form more than a cursory first impression.

I've been looking at it in relation to the Fallout rpg so figured I'd ask.

2D20 is better than D20 but not especially interesting.

What i have found out about this week and seems very interesting is Grimwild.

It has some very interesting idea of the GM/Player dynamic and by extension really interesting map building/world building/travel.

In some ways its more loosy goody than i would prefer my games to be but very interesting none the less.

Lol, is that faint praise then depending on your opinion overall of d20 systems? I've been more interested in rules light systems as of late (as in the past five years) and in general I prefer not to depend on the linear probabilities of a single die... but it seems like every licensed IP I'm even vaguely interested is scooped up by Modiphius and inevitably they use their 2d20 system.

 warboss wrote:
Lol, is that faint praise then depending on your opinion overall of d20 systems? I've been more interested in rules light systems as of late (as in the past five years) and in general I prefer not to depend on the linear probabilities of a single die... but it seems like every licensed IP I'm even vaguely interested is scooped up by Modiphius and inevitably they use their 2d20 system.

I would definitely give Grimwild a look then. The pdf minus a chapter of some additional optional rules and GM support stuff is free and I think less than 20 dollars to unlock the extras.

It... kind of is faint praise. It's not that the system is bad, in the same way that Genesis (Fantasy Flights Starwars) isn't bad. In some ways they are actually good. But they miss some beats or just restructure stuff I have seen elsewhere. It's less that it's bad or not good and more that... why would I pick this over the more innovative and creative stuff going on in other places?

Worst Game Ever or Best Game Ever? 2D20 is just a game.

I've downloaded the free version of Grimwild but not done anything more than a cursory look honestly once I saw references to story gaming (a turn off for me personally). As for FFG's Genesis, the custom dice (yes, technically optional but they really make it onerus to not use them by design) also turn me off so haven't given it a fair shake. I'd be more than willing to try a demo of either/both if I were at a con though as I fully admit sometimes first impressions of new-to-me rule systems aren't accurate.

As for 2d20, it feels like a spork that Modiphius insists on putting alongside every plate they serve. Yes, you can technically use it both for soup and ribs... but would you want to if given a real choice?

 warboss wrote:
I've downloaded the free version of Grimwild but not done anything more than a cursory look honestly once I saw references to story gaming (a turn off for me personally). As for FFG's Genesis, the custom dice (yes, technically optional but they really make it onerus to not use them by design) also turn me off so haven't given it a fair shake. I'd be more than willing to try a demo of either/both if I were at a con though as I fully admit sometimes first impressions of new-to-me rule systems aren't accurate.

As for 2d20, it feels like a spork that Modiphius insists on putting alongside every plate they serve. Yes, you can technically use it both for soup and ribs... but would you want to if given a real choice?

I mention the Grimwild because you mentioned your interest in rules lite.

This is very much rules lite. But not without rules. In fact, this is probably the best example I have personally seen of a TTRPG making the GM a player, giving them mechanics, and those mechanics working in tandem with the PCs in a kind of feedback loop to create the story.

That doesn't mean it is without flaws. The books layout is... sometimes bad. I had to spend a couple days flipping back and forth or searching the doc for keywords to make sure I was understanding things correctly. Some things are not really elaborated on in a way that I would say means they are flat out missing. For example, PCs have these keywords or phrases made up or picked during character creation. They make up the characters "Vantage". If one of these is "Black Smiths apprentice" then if during the game you wanted to have tools or knowledge associated with that you can just have them. No need to track inventory or make a knowledge check.

The thing is at one point they call out the thing you want to do based on your key phrases being a Given, a Stretch, or a Reach and each of those terms are bolded in the text indicating that they are rules terminology. However, nowhere in the book are those terms defined and there are no rules attached to them. I get the impression that it supposed to be something like a Given is inherent. No roll. Just have it/do it. A Stretch might require a roll. And a Reach might require a roll with a penalty or cost the player a point of some kind of meta currency (story point or spark). But the book never actually say anything about any of them.

That being said the idea of the key phrases covering the bounds of PC knowledge acts as prompts for the players to do some world building. If you have a background of Orc of the Ashen Plains the GM doesn't need to explain your culture to you. YOU know your culture. YOU get to fill in those blanks and contribute to the world and story in that way. The GM has some veto power to keep the world consistent, (and the GM could always say YOU believe that even if it's not true) but for the most part it's things like that that have everyone at the table collaborating together in a way most TTRPGs don't manage.

Thanks for the rundown and I'll give it a bit more than a cursory intro skim next weekend. I'm a sucker historically for d6 dice pool systems though my more recent interest is in 2dx systems instead.

I think the 2d20 system is interesting as it actually made me think Meta-currency might be useful to have in a game, as a way to buy more dice to try and succeed, in exchange for future challenges.

I also often adds a physical attribute with why doing the thing mattes to set a target number. Motivation for doing the thing matters and can help lead to easy RP.

I also like the idea that things that are hard require you to gamble more. I.e. you won't succeed on a 2d20 so figure out how you are going to get more dice to generate a success. This often requires negotiating with your fellow players to use group resources.

Finally, it is a bit abstracted so you can use one basic dice method to handle a 1-on-1 knife duel in an elevator, to planetwide intrigue, all the way up to Galaxy-shaking Starship battles using the same basic system. Granted, on an abstracted framework.

Been away from TTRPG's for a long time having last played a DnD 5e one-shot session back in 2018/2019. Recently been invited to join a group that is looking to jump into 5.5e as none of them have any recent 5e expierence either and so are open to playing 5.5e but they are also open to different DnD adjacent or compatiable TTRPG's. I've been reading a lot of positive things about Shadowdark and with their current kickstarter it seems it might be a good time to suggest that to the group as an alternative to 5.5e.

Does anybody have any expierence with Shadowdark especially with noobies who have only casual expierence with 5e type systems?

Is the current kickstarter worth jumping on?

I'd say from the funding levels of both the kickstarters as well as Kelsey's comments at her panel at the recent GaryCon that Shadowdark has sold roughly 3x more copies after crowdfunding than during that it's worth jumping in. It seems to be the preferred flavor for alot of folks interested in the OSR space to get a retrofeeling D&D experience without some of the wierdness that would usually accompany it. Just judging from commentary online, it seems like the Shadowdark community has a good mix of old time gamers looking to recreate the feel as well as newer players looking to jump ship from the official 5/5.5e experience.

Am I personally a fan? Of the general design goals, some mechanics, most asthetics, and how Kelsey has conducted herself publicly during all the OGL debacle drama and subequently, absolutely. Will I play it myself? For a one shot, sure.. but not in any long term fashion. Randomly rolling for things outside of skill checks/combat like character progression and (gold for)xp isn't my thing as I prefer to craft my characters myself. While I'm definitely leaning towards rules light experiences in my middle age (in contradiction to my give me all the crunch younger gaming self) but I need a bit more in terms of character development/advancement than Shadowdark provides.

 warboss wrote:
I'd say from the funding levels of both the kickstarters as well as Kelsey's comments at her panel at the recent GaryCon that Shadowdark has sold roughly 3x more copies after crowdfunding than during that it's worth jumping in. It seems to be the preferred flavor for alot of folks interested in the OSR space to get a retrofeeling D&D experience without some of the wierdness that would usually accompany it. Just judging from commentary online, it seems like the Shadowdark community has a good mix of old time gamers looking to recreate the feel as well as newer players looking to jump ship from the official 5/5.5e experience.

Am I personally a fan? Of the general design goals, some mechanics, most asthetics, and how Kelsey has conducted herself publicly during all the OGL debacle drama and subequently, absolutely. Will I play it myself? For a one shot, sure.. but not in any long term fashion. Randomly rolling for things outside of skill checks/combat like character progression and (gold for)xp isn't my thing as I prefer to craft my characters myself. While I'm definitely leaning towards rules light experiences in my middle age (in contradiction to my give me all the crunch younger gaming self) but I need a bit more in terms of character development/advancement than Shadowdark provides.

Thanks for the feedback. From what you shared it sounds like Shadowdark may be a good fit for my group at the moment. However your comment about possibly shortcomings in the potential for charcter development/advancement in Shadowdark makes me think that steering the group towards 5.5e may be a better choice. Is there another TTRPG you would suggest?

Barbarians of Lemuria is my current favorite but admittedly that's only from reading it as I haven't played/ran any games yet. Forbidden Lands is a solid experience with great exploration mechanics in addition to the other pillars of combat and social interaction and I have played about a dozen games total of it. Neither are d20 based though so players familiar with 5e will have to learn different mechanics. My problem with Shadowdark's character development is that you roll randomly for what you get when you level up instead of choosing an ability/feat/whatever as well as roll randomly to see how much, if any, XP you get for gold spent "carousing". Those are things that I'd personally rather not have left up completely to chance though admittedly the former is super easy (barely an inconvienence!) to house rule that you simply choose instead of rolling.

 Easy E wrote:


I am a relative newcomer to Legend of the 5 Rings. I have been familiar with it as an Intellectual Property for a long, long time but never really spent much time with it. However, I listened to an actual play of one edition or another on the Happy Jacks Podcast, and was intrigue by what I had heard. I listened to a few more podcasts and was even more interested. Then, one day I was at the Half-Price Bookstore and saw a copy of the Third Edition rulebook. I bought it.

Since then, I have managed to design a short campaign called "One Year in Rokugan" that was edition and stat block agnostic but based on my 3rd Edition knowledge. After all, there are 5 editions of the game! If you are part of my Patreon, you can find this campaign available there for free as a PDF. I have managed to play through the campaign using 3rd edition rules, and we all had a lot of fun. It was a huge difference from our normal D&D 5E games, and I enjoyed introducing the world of Rokugan to my players.



After that enjoyable campaign, there was an interest in updating from 3rd edition to 5th edition. I myself was curious about the differences, but had put off buying it. I all ready had 3rd edition, and figured there was no great need to update to the "newest". However, as I learned more about the new edition the core mechanics seemed markedly different than the AEG versions of the game I owned.

Therefore, with some hesitation; I acquired a copy for myself. Keep in mind Legend of the 5 Rings: 5th edition is NOT the same as Adventures in Rokugan; also by Edge Studios. Adventures is a skin for using Rokugan in D&D 5E. Legend of the 5 Rings: 5th Edition using its own system based on the Fantast Flight Games Genesys system. Genesys is used with games like Edge of Empire. It will be interesting to see where this game maintains and differs from the L5R I am familiar with.

So, let us don our Daisho and prepare to serve our Daimyo.....

http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2023/08/rpg-review-legend-of-5-rings-5th.html

I've played an older edition . The latest seems quite really different though. The old system did some things I really liked, and had good flavour.


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As for other systems, I've run a short Shadowrun campaign but do not remember much about the system. Played lots of oneshots and short campaigns in a few systems like Exalted, Savage Worlds, and some others. Own multiple books of games I've never run or played though lol.