RPG Reviews

Publisher: Malcontent Games
Rating: 5
The book opens with a rambling foreword by the author, touching on how this is a complete rewrite - as the translation of the original I'm reading is of the 2nd edition of Rêve de Dragon - of the rules, suggesting the order and way in which it should be read and the like, before getting to the underlying philosophy of the game: that a dream exists only whilst the dreamer is dreaming... and that in similar vein, the alternate reality of a role-playing game only comes to life when someone is playing that game. The aim in creating the game is to provide a ruleset that facilitates the shared dream of the in-game reality. The whole is divided into three books, the first of which is called Journeyers. For this game is about journeys: be they quests, searches for enlightenment or indeed actual travels. It begins with the rules for creating a character, or Journeyer. Each is described by a comprehensive list of 18 characteristics, assigned in the main by point-buy, as well as skills and other attributes. Interestingly, the details of actually acquiring skills and the like are left until later despite a fairly comprehensive outline of how a character is described mechanically, the discussion then moves on to the crux of this ruleset, the resolution table, which is brought into use whenever it is not clear whither an action will succeed or not. Although verbose in presentation, it's a ruleset honed down to the core essentials - a means of describing the character in a manner that facilitates task resolution. The rest is left to the role-playing and storytelling capabilities of the gaming group. Task resolution revolves around a single Resolution Table, cross-referencing the character's relevant skills or characteristics against an assigned difficulty, and rolling a percentage against the target number thus found. It's a neat and elegant system, and there are plenty of ways in which to tweak it to precisely what you need on each occasion: partial successes and partial failures, fumbles, improvisation when you don't know the relevant skills and so on. The next chapter looks at the actual process of creating a character. It seems quite daunting at first glance, but provided one is methodical it's quite straightforward (if you feel that the mathematics are too complex or time-consuming, there's an Excel spreadsheet generator available from the Malcontent Games website!). No dice are involved, the whole process is one of choice. It does repay taking time to create the character that you want, and depending on the needs of the game you intend to play, working with the rest of the group to create a balanced party. The first choice to make is whither you want to be a High Dreamer (mage) or True Dreamer (all other journeyers) - the number of points available are the same, but High Dreamers need to allocate some to magic skills and spells. The characteristics, skills, and ancillary 'peculiarities' such as age, handedness, and so on are entered on the Character Sheet, thus providing the core description of the character. Next you start on the Journey Sheet, which is the living record of important variables during the course of play, and this book-keeping is quite detailed over and above the sort of hit points and spells used that is about all you need to know in many games. The character is now detailed, but the poor dear is quite naked, so the next section deals with money and equipment. Again the way in which gear is recorded is detailed almost to the point of nit-picking. Precise location and exact weights are needed, the latter to calculate how encumbered the character might be. Just remember not to say that you have a pint of oil in your backpack, you need to specify that it's in a skin... or everything else in there will be ruined! The passage of time, however, is much more loosely handled with fairly vague 120-minute 'hours' (the Draconic hour) and six-second 'rounds' when you want to get precise, each round being sufficient for one action (usually a combat one). Movement is handled in a similar manner, normally you need only concern yourself with how far you can go in a day, unless it becomes necessary to know just how fast you can run over the space of a single round! Other matters are also discussed, such as how to act unnoticed and meeting deadlines, each provided with clear examples to aid you in seeing how to use the Resolution Table to good effect. To continue with the detail-oriented nature of this game, eating and drinking is discussed, as you are expected to keep track of what your character has eaten and drunk to ensure that he gets enough each day. The next chapter explores health, discussing how characters become fatigued, and recover from it, moving on through endurance to the all-important matter of life points. If you run out of these, you die. The process whereby life points are recovered is quite complex, but explained clearly - it is becoming apparent, even before reaching the chapter on combat, that engaging in a brawl is not something to be done lightly: in this game, injuries really hurt, can easily be deadly, and take a long time to heal! Wounds, aid and healing are detailed as well, followed by a section on healing herbs. Naturally, physical injury is not the only thing to threaten a character's health: there are also diseases to catch... and such is the nature of such problems, life points cannot be regained until wounds have been healed, and wounds cannot be healed until you are free of disease! And then the discussion moves on to poisons and venom, and miscellaneous ways of getting hurt such as falling and fire. Chapter 6: Combat then looks at the whole process, beginning with a section on weapons themselves - how they are used and the damage that can be done with them. Next up, armour and the protection that it gives. This dealt with, we move on to the combat round itself. In each six-second round of combat action, firstly intentions must be declared. As the round progresses, an action may be aborted but no modification to that which has been declared is permitted. Next a fairly complicated initiative calculation is performed, based on attack type, weapon to be used and character skill with that weapon... and each individual's initiative is modified by that of his opponent. Magic use goes before any physical attack, and after the brawling is resolved, movement and any necessary assessment of character health is dealt with. Once understood, it can flow reasonably well but does rely on all participants knowing what to do - I'd recommend a few practice fights to get the hang of it before you start adventuring in earnest. Everything is well-described and the numerous examples are clear and easy to follow. Once the sequence is mastered, effects like particular successes, fumbles, and armour deterioration are covered, followed by the rules for unarmed combat. This is divided into two types: pugilism (which covers any style in which you strike your opponent, no matter which part of your body you use) and grappling (where the combatants grab on to each other with the objective of immobilising the opponent). An elegant abstraction is used for grappling, where each success gives you a 'grappling point' against your opponent - if at the end of a combat round you have two such points, your opponent is immobilised and the next round you can cause subdual damage by reducing his Endurance. This chapter is rounded off with a one-page summary of the combat process. The next chapter of the first book is titled The Archetype. This is more philosophical than the nuts-and-bolts rule mechanics that have gone before, and looks at the 'reality' of dreams. If the world of Rêve is the dream of dragons, what happens when a dragon awakens? A dream does not die when the dreamer awakens, it is remembered. But even if you're a skilled lucid dreamer, when you go back to sleep the dream is never quite the same. Character death in one of these shared dreams wakes the dreamer, but when the dream is resumed, the character is there again, often changed - in circumstance, in age, in characteristics and skills - but the core, the 'archetype' that makes him an individual remains. It's a bit like those people who believe in reincarnation and past lives, something always remains... reflected here by a listing of ALL possible skills, as the individual may have had knowledge in past lives that he does not have now. The discussion moves on to how experience is gained in the game - based on successful skill use - but then reverts to the more esoteric, as under stress, some of the character's past memories may surface during his in-game dreams. Mechanically, this is reflected by allowing a chance to convert stress points gained during the course of events to additional experience points which the player may assign to any skill provided that the current character has a lower skill level than his Archetype sheet shows for that skill. When a character dies, he is indeed dead in THAT adventure - and the usual grieving, scavenging over his possessions and funerary rites take place - but can reappear again, the same person yet different, somewhere and somewhen else. You can even meet people you knew in a past life, and maybe even share some memories of that with them. The final few short chapters deal with optional rules covering luck and destiny points, astrology, morale and even in-character affairs of the heart! We now move on to the second book, In The Dreantime. This opens in philosophical vein - dreaming creates whole worlds inhabited by the dreamer, and while he's there, they seem to be real worlds. Dragons are the Great Dreamers, and it is the worlds they dream which are inhabited by the characters in this game. This leads onto magic use - if magic is an alteration of the world, and the world is dreamed by the dragons, then magic involves whispering into a dragon's ear and so getting him to change his dream, hence the High Dreamers, those who can exert such influence, do so by learning to speak the dragon's own language. But Draconic is not a language you learn like Greek or Welsh, it is more akin to Ursula K. LeGuin's 'True Name' concept, in which if you know the true name of an item, you gain power over it. Draconic comes in four forms, the ones that a High Dreamer studies influences the sort of magic he can work. High Dreamers perceive more than one reality: there is the Dreaming (the normal reality inhabited by all characters) and the Dreamtime (where the dragons are and mere mortals cannot go), and an inbetween place called the Dreamlands. It is here that High Dreamers go - in the astral state - to cast spells, making a 'journey' around the Dreamlands dealing with encounters until they reach the right place in which to cast the desired spell. It's a complex yet elegant mechanic, that makes spellcasting far more than merely picking a spell from a list and (provided you've not used up all your daily allotment) having it happen. Things can go wrong, sometimes horribly so and sometimes just leaving the hapless High Dreamer with an overwhelming urge to kiss a pig on the snout! If you feel it sounds like all too much bother, this probably is not the right game for you, but if you find it mystical and exciting, you are in for a treat. And this is just the general material, following chapters look at the four different types of magic, exploring both the underlying philosophy and the actual spells you can cast using it. Magic done, the third book is Worlds and describes the actual game setting, now that we have covered how it all works. It's basically a heroic or mediaeval fantasy, the sort of world in which legends, fairy tales and sagas happen. However, being a setting created of dreams, there are some differences. There are, of course, multiple dreams - one for each sleeping dragon - and characters can sometimes move between them. (Haven't you ever had a dream about someone, then found out the next morning that another person dreamed about that same someone?) Another fact is that there are no deities, and hence none of the 'divine magic' that many fantasy games make available... although those characters who wish to believe in a god or gods can do so, it just is unlikely to have an in-game effect. What gets messier is the effect of dragons awakening. If one does, that is the cause - or is it effect? - of a single character dying. Somehow, there is a collective meta-dream shared by all the dragons, hence one character can die and a single dragon awaken, without problems for anyone else. But should several dragons awaken at once, a cataclysm maight occur amongst those who exist within the dream. These upheavals provide some of the history of this alternate reality. A recurrent theme in this game is journeys - indeed, player-characters are called Journeyers - so the next chapter explores the principles of travelling between dreams in much more detail. Rifts allowing inter-dream passage, a dangerous meshing of dreams called a blur... each has dangers and opportunities inherent in them, and a tendency to 'just happen' rather than be there when the characters themselves want to travel between dreams. As every good journey includes sea travel at some point, the next things to be considered are matters nautical, especially navigation and storms. Oh, and you can get rifts at sea as well! Next comes a chapter on Sciences, being primarily a resource for the in-game use of relevant skills; so there are list of plants that a botanist might find, diseases for medics to scratch their heads over and so on. Delights such as the floom, a fruit of extremely low nutritional value (remember, you need to track that your character has eaten enough each day), but which is popular with a larva that eats its way happily through a floom... and whose droppings make very nutritious eating, provided you can get over the disgusting taste! Naturally, mushrooms come in both poisonous and edible varieties, worth knowing which is which. There's also a collection of books, the most common texts that the most educated and wealthy folk might have access to, and the benefits you can gain from studying them. This chapter ends with a wealth of information on alchemy, for those wishing to practice it within the game. This is followed by a chapter on Creatures, not so much for students of zoology but a bestiary for the game. It also allows for non-human characters - giants, gnomes, the dog-headed hounders and mockturtles amongst others - or of course they can feature as NPCs and monsters. The animals are well-described and make biological sense... mostly. One delight is the oracle bird, which does indeed speak the truth but only answers a single question - and gets annoyed if you do not have one when it flies up. While it is reputed to taste delicious and has four legs as well as wings so there is plenty to go round, it is said to be bad luck to kill one. Fortunately for the hungry, there are sections on game and fowl. For less welcome encounters there are undead and disembodied entities as well. Finally comes An Invitation to the Journey, three scenarios to get your game going. The first serves to get a party together, with beautiful meshing of wierd dreams and travel through a rift to let the characters know from the outset that this is a fantasy like no other. The second involves helping a suicidal Journeyer to regain her composure with the aid of a High Dreamer whom the characters must find and persuade to help. The third adventure is more complex, but involves a sporting competition and various events around it. Each adventure is clear and straightforward to run, even if you are new to this game, and filled with charming little bits of local colour that serve to make it all come really alive. This section rounds off with a gazetteer of the area in which the three adventures are set, so as to give the referee a starting point for further campaigning. On the face of it, just another swords and sorcery fantasy game... but one with a charming air that entrances, with an underlying philosophy that actually works, delightfully presented in a faithful translation that catches the author's style, not just his words. It will not be for everyone, but for those who find it compatible, entrancing dreams await.

Publisher: Dust Devil Studios
Rating: 5
Because of formatting I have written a detailed review at my site, but this is a very entertaining linear tower defense game (much like Plants vs Zombies) in which you play Smilin' Jack O'Hurlihan - a pirate who knows he needs to save the world from the zombie menace if he wants to keep plundering it. I give it a 9.5/10 with the only complaint being that the voice-overs sometimes get a little repetitive during play. If you'd like more information, please visit this page for my full review: http://www.thevigilant.net/freerpg/?p=118

Capsule Review by Tommy Brownell (4/5): Some minor failings bring the book down just a hair, but this is by and large an amazing supplement that really sets the bar for future Demon Codices.

Capsule Review by JustiN Taylor (5/3): An atmospheric fun read for a sort of combination mini-setting and NPC organization.

Capsule Review by Shelby "D.J." Babb (4/4): Hellcats & Hockeysticks is a fun and funny little game about ruthless English school girls with no respect for authority, be it the school's headmistress, the laws of society, or the laws of nature.

Publisher: Purple Duck Games
Rating: 5
This is a great purchase, worth far more than its minimal price. One of the major disconnects between Pathfinder and its epic and fictional source material is the way magical weapons get upgraded like cars. There has long been a need for weapons capable of growing with the user. The old "Weapons of Legacy" supplement first tried this, as did the Scions rules for 3.5, but both failed for demanding that the weapon wielders take prestige classes or give away hit points or skill points in order for the blade to improve. Legendary Blades offers a better path, and is chock-full of awesome weaponry to boot.

Publisher: Pandahead Productions
Rating: 4
So what is Meddling Kids? Well it is an introductory RPG for "kids of all ages" but recomended for ages 7 and up. The writing is very clear and concise and frankly one of the better "intro" games I have seen. It is designed as an intro game and is listed as "Stage 1 of the Starter System". I don't know if other stages were produced or not, but the feel here is one of "this is your first game so have some fun, and when you are ready we will have more for you". As with most starter sets there is lot the seasoned (or grizzled in my case) player can ignore, but it was still a very fun, light and fluffy read. The premise is simple. You create a teenage mystery-solver who belongs to a clique of other liked minded teens. Like in the TV show that this is so obviously taken from, different teens of various social standing and family incomes mix together well in a group united by their love of solving a mystery. Or maybe it's the talking dog. Or dune buggy. Or chimp. Or genie. Or...you get the idea. If you grew up in the 70s-80s then you know what I mean. Character creation is simple. You create a background for your character, then are given points for Stats and Abilities. Pretty simple. Since we are talking about cartoons your Teen is put into an Archetype. So think Jock, Brain, Fluff, Goof and so on. The system is a simple one of Stat plus a roll based on Abilities plus a d6. Compare to a Target Number or resist the roll of something else. What sets MK apart though is the use of the "Wild Card" character. This is a character, usually an animal, that hangs with the clique and is run by the GM. Not an NPC or even GMPC (though very close). The Wild Card is the one that helps in the adventure/mystery. So yeah, think Scooby Doo, or even Jabber Jaw or Captain Caveman. It is a fairly clever idea really and one of the only games I have read that encourages a GMPC like character. The book is small, less than 100 pages with pretty clear large fonts, so this is not a hefty tome to learn, it is a simple game that does exactly what it sets out to do and it does it rather well. It is a great game to teach the little guys how to play using something that both parents and kids will know all about.

Publisher: Margaret Weis Productions
Rating: 5
So what is the deal with Smallville anyway? It is and isn't Cortex. Smallville uses the new "Cortex Plus" system. The biggest thing is the character development which according to the book will take your first session. Now let me pause here a bit. I loves me some character creation. I have pages of character notes on D and D characters and that is not counting what I have on characters for other systems. So I can dig this sort of interactive character development, but will everyone else? This feels rather indie for a mainstream license. I am going to roll with it all the same and see what it does for me. Now this new interactive character development does pose one issue; you need to have a really good idea of what you want your series to do and who is going to be in it. So how is it different? Well. There are no abilities or skills. How much stronger is Clark than Chloe? Don't know. Is Lex smarter than Brainiac? No idea. But it doesn't matter either. Clark and Chloe are not going to be arm wrestling and Lex and Brainiac are not going to be playing Trivial Pursuit against each other. But what we do have is how do Clark's actions affect Chloe, or Lois, or Lex. How can he do what he feels is right. So instead of Attribute + Skill +/- Assets we have Drives (Values + Relationships) + Assets. You are still using the Step Die methods from the previous version of Cortex, just in a new way. So what are these? Well Drives are what motivate you or your character. The first set are called Values. Thes are Duty, Glory, Justice, Love, Power and Truth. Each of these gets a die and a defining statement. If we go with the idea of setting a game in a theoretical "Season 5" (the default power level) then we can provide some examples. We have Drives in Values and they affect your Relationships. The player characters are called Leads and the NPCs are "features" (though I like Guest Stars better) and how they relate to each other, friend, enemy and lover alike, are called Relationships. These are mutable obviously. These are also ranked with a die and description. Relationships work out best when discussed with the other players. It looks like the die value's don't have to be equal, so Clark has a d10 listed for Chloe in the book, but Chloe has a d12 for Clark. This matches reality really; not all relationships are equal. Relationships can be with other Leads or Features (PCs and NPCs). You also can have Resources, people or things you can call on to do things. Assets are the closest to what you could describe as "Powers" or "Qualities". In my quick read over of the rules these seemed to be the most similar to Classic Cortex. Clark has things like Super-Strength and the like. But these again are more descriptive and are not a measure of his strength per se but rather a measurement of what using his Super-Strength means to the show and to the characters around him. If an asset is not here then adding one is not too difficult really. All of this though is designed around the interpersonal relationships the character have with each other. It is an interesting focus for a game to be honest, and one that leads itself to certain level of tinkering. Think about it for a bit, you could take any group of characters and provide a "Cortex Plus" sheet for them as well. They would have their powers, skills and other details in Assets and then you focus on the interpersonal dynamics. The game rules are similar to Cortex in terms of combat and skill resolution. The system is very different and has a lot to offer all players, and not just fans of the show.

Publisher: White Wolf
Rating: 4
An interesting little bit on the Spring Heeled Jack for WoD. Stats and story hooks.

Publisher: Three Sages Games
Rating: 3
One of the first Necromancers for the 4th edition D and D game. The class is more of a half of a class in truth. There are powers here and are designed for the multi-class and hybrid class rules. Some powers are written to take advantage of one trait or another; Intelligence or Charsima for example. Other powers are certainly Arcane in nature, so one could use this Necromancer as one uses the Illusionist in 4e. The powers look mostly balanced if sometimes a bit underpowered in cases. There are some paragon paths that only seem loosely contected to the idea of necromancy (a pirate for example) and there are some necromatic monsters and magic. The art is CGI 3d images like the cover and not bad. The text is clear adn easy to read and well written. Good: Finally nice to see a necromancer class and one that seems to be very playable. Bad: It is only a half-class. While that really is not a big deal if you plan to do a lot of multi-classing and/or hybrid classes. Clerics, Warlocks and Wizards are good choices. Final: Great ideas for an NPC, but in the end I wanted more.

Capsule Review by Tommy Brownell (4/5): API Canada is filled with cool stuff, none of which is directly tied into the core book, thus making the API World seem even bigger and more active. Hopefully this is only setting the stage for more awesome Region books.

Capsule Review by Tommy Brownell (4/5): Clearly written, doesn't beat you over the head with the humor and never takes itself too seriously. I heartily approve.

Playtest Review by Matthew McFarland (2/4): Blowback is a game about playing a burned spy, and dealing with the consequences of that life. It's an awesome game, but would benefit from some important aspects being more clearly spelled out.

Publisher: Sonic Legends
Rating: 4
I love the dissonant piano and creepy chimes in the background. It is more than appropriate for your group as they skulk around the streets of a city in the Underdark or other nefarious place. It definitely conveys a sense of unease and mystery. The only complaint I have is the somewhat techno/computer-y sounding effect that runs much of the track. It seems a bit out of place in a fantasy setting, but can be overlooked. I would recommend this for any night time scenes in a strange place that you want your PCs to be a bit wary of.

Publisher: Sonic Legends
Rating: 5
This track is top notch. Reminiscent of Harry Potter and other magical films, this arcane delight provides intriguing tunes with quiet whispers and mutterings of ancient tomes. One of the best tracks I've heard from Sonic Legends thus far. This is a great track for an ancient library, mage's guild, or even an elven city during an ancient ceremony. I know I like something when it inspires me to write a scenario to use it. I like the idea of a twilight city of magic where mystery abounds and the party is unsure of it's odd customs and secretive denizens.

Publisher: Sonic Legends
Rating: 4
As always the production values are good. This particular track is somewhat low key compared to what I expected for a battle with a wyvern. However, it is very dark and creepy sounding with impending doom building as the creature approaches. Sounds of wings flapping and angelic choirs pervade throughout. I think this could be used with almost any monstrous encounter with a large roaring creature. It could even be used for a dungeon crawl as the party gets close to their final battle . . . the creature waiting to strike.

Publisher: Sonic Legends
Rating: 5
This is a particularly good Soundscape if I do say so myself. It begins with a powerful intro that really inspires a regale vessel beginning its voyage or a camera zoom into a large galleon. The sound effects are of subtle water and gulls. Add in some squeeze box, ropes being run, and creaking wood and you've got yourself some fun on the high seas. I really like this track. It makes me really want to play a pirate session for my PCs. Buy this track if you want to add some atmosphere to your game set on the water.

Publisher: Sonic Legends
Rating: 4
I like the Sonic Legends line of Soundscapes. This particular Soundscape is an atmospheric representation of the conclusion of a battle. What I like about it is that it could easily be used for background for almost any session. The sound effects are fairly subtle with some vulture or crow shrieks and women crying. It could be any rundown part of a village or just ignore the sound effects for a moody, sullen feel during play.

Publisher: Deep7
Rating: 4
Arrowflight Second Edition is a good example of starting with the campaign setting and designing the system around it. Systems like this are great for small parties who do not want to delve into the glut of the big system, but instead want something of their own. This is Deep7s second go around with the Arrowflight game system and it certainly shows a good amount of polish and experience. The highly descriptive narrative input in every chapter of the 207-page PDF makes up for the traditional fantasy tropes. But, what sets Arrowflight apart from a good many of the systems out there is its emphasis on the unique fantasy subgenre of magic science. Magic is something that is researched and built upon in this world and it shows. The magic system is robust and one of the most detailed I have seen. If you have been disappointed in how little influence you have on your spell selection, spell potency and spell pizzazz, you will strongly enough playing around with the spells and arcane theories in this PDF. Character creation is fairly steamlined but quite expansive. You can make a character is as little as 45 minutes or as much as two hours depending on how much of the story your want to put behind your abilities. If you have played a d6 system before, adapting to your gaming group will come easy. For the Dungeonmaster Outside of the cool twists on magic, the GM section will really pop out at you. When dealing with an Indie game system, you will not find a lot of ready made adventures. The section walks you through creating your own and even has a nifty randomization chart to spin tales on the fly. The Iron Word Arrowflight presents a fun magic heavy campaign world. The theme is integrated well with the system, creating something that plays fluid. It does get long winded in places, but its nice to see passion in a product.

Publisher: Crispy Zombie Productions
Rating: 4
Iron Nugget Zombie Hospital puts the Directors Cut Survivor Horror RPG on full display with an original zombie story set in a diabolical insane asylum. You have to love any RPG product that has its own parental advisory disclaimer. This is a vicious adventure. There is disembowelment, rape and mass murder, all before the adventure even starts. The players are outsiders trapped on the inside who must escape as a zombie onslaught begins. The adventure has a ton of material for handouts and is told in a way that makes it easy to run sandbox style. With the players only go being escape, there is a lot of room and a lot of hooks to flesh into an ongoing story.