Reviews, articles, and material by an OSR enthusiast and a publisher.
Monday 31 October 2016
Tentacloids
Remember Lianta (free Patreon download)? She is a powerful opponent and her attacks might make you grow tentacles. When you're covered with them, you will become her mindless servant - a tentacloid!
This tentacloid article includes stats, information and rules for these beasts and how to become one just in one page!
Download: HERE
You can get tentacloids and other cool OSR stuff from my Patreon page. If you dig it, you can support me starting $0.10!
Saturday 22 October 2016
[Review] The Black Hack: Cyber-Hacked!
The Black Hack is fast and fun and D&D compatible fantasy system, which has already been hacked to fill a genre that I have not played yet (disclaimer: supers!). I have played both Shadowrun and Cyberpunk, 2300AD had a cybernetics sourcebook and I am pretty sure I've played GURPS cyberpunk stuff, too. So, cyberpunk in roleplaying games is not new for me. I've longed for a cyberpunk D&D. There are cyberstuff for OSR, but this is my first actual cyberpunk OSR D&D compatible game. Exciting!
Author +Mike Evans and illustrator +Alex Mayo are both cool guys with awesome gaming ideas and stuff. So this should be very, very good!
The PDF is 21 pages, with 18 pages of actual RPG stuff, including the character sheet. What I love in TBH is that you get a full RPG rules you learn to play while you eat a dinner before the game night begins. Like other TBH hacks, the layout is simple and apes the original. The only picture is on the cover. Very printer-friendly and space efficient, yet dull.
The rules are basically a carbon copy of TBH with few exceptions and additions that suit a modern genre. This starts to get annoying. Sure, you only need this to run the game, but now I am starting to get many, many copies of The Black Hack rules. It would be ace if the layout would be that when I'd print this, I could opt out all the basic and core TBH rules and only print the new stuff that is not already included in the original game. But it doesn't happen here. Small additional and new rules are scattered here and there within the text already in other hacks and the main game.
The most important new rules are full auto fire, which is simple. In many games when you shoot more than one shot the rules get wonky and slow. This is not the case here. Funny thing is, though, that two handed combat also affects guns you hold with two hands. But if you think about it, this is an elegant way in making bigger weapons more damaging, when the core mechanic is, that weapon damage is class based. Very, very clever!
Drugs are also easy. They give a small bonus, but you suffer disadvantage(s) under influence. Also addiction is as simple. Great! Taking drugs is fast and easy.
Vehicles and chases have also simple rules in the fashion of TBH. They are pretty good and should cover most of the situations. When a vehicle is shot enough, it is destroyed and there is a 50/50 chance can it be salvaged or not. Chase is a simple series of attribute tests, where you either gain or lose distance. Pretty boring, and it could take a long time to just roll after roll. There should be an extra rule for dangerous manouvres to gain more than 1 point of distance (starting from 5, 10 to escape, 1 to get caught). Manouvres are easily done, roll with disadvantage to gain double points. Still dull, but adds danger and story element (I try to steer to this narrow alley...).
One of the most important rules in a cyberpunk game is hacking. I think Cyberpunk 2020 is an awesome game, but the hacking part of it is extremely dull - and slow. Normal hacking in Cyber-Hacked is a simple INT test, but there is also more detailed rules, using die-drop table! You take a number of dice and drop them on a paper. The die type and value tell from a random table, what it is. Then connect them and voilá, you got a quickly generated data network to be hacked! All the stuff you do hacking you use usage die to do. When it's dropped to zero, you're booted. These hacking rules are fast, fun and brilliant!
You also get contacts who are basically people you can use as resources, and you can be either a human or a synthetic before you choose a class. There are 7 classes to choose from, including a psychic. The classes basically work like in TBH, they each have something special they do. In addition, they now are listed with starting equipment (you, I dislike buying normal gear for characters) and an interesting trinket. Some of these classes are modified from the basic classes, some are a bit different. I think every player should find their favorite easily from these.
Different kind of everyone other is Psychic, who can use his psychic abilities per day based on his level. These abilities are basically like spells in a fantasy game.
Equipment list is minimal, but enough. Cyberware has no special rules. You can have 4 of the (one character class being an exception) to gain some bonuses or other effects. That's it. No problems between a line where human ends and a machine starts. There could have been a little more to this, because now cyberware is just like equipment.
There's plenty of enemy stats to fight and use, but there could have been few more, because now the one page table doesn't reach the end of the page, but leaves an empty white space being short. This layout problem could have been fixed with more enemies! This is plenty already, but it just looks sloppy and lazy.
So, what do I think? This is very, very good in a The Black Hack good. TBH family products are DIY. A bit raw, but full of good ideas (WHEN THEY ARE GOOD, THAT IS) with simple and fun core mechanics. Even though it's dull to get same basic rules all over again, the additions to cyberpunk genre included in CYBER-HACKED are great. Inexpensive price, D&D compatible, fast to learn, fast to play... I see no reasons why everyone shouldn't get a copy. Even though you don't plan to play a campaign of CYBER-HACKED, you can keep this just in case, if someday, someone wants to play some cyberpunk in 10 minutes!
_____________________________________
You can buy the PDF from RPGNow.
Author +Mike Evans and illustrator +Alex Mayo are both cool guys with awesome gaming ideas and stuff. So this should be very, very good!
The PDF is 21 pages, with 18 pages of actual RPG stuff, including the character sheet. What I love in TBH is that you get a full RPG rules you learn to play while you eat a dinner before the game night begins. Like other TBH hacks, the layout is simple and apes the original. The only picture is on the cover. Very printer-friendly and space efficient, yet dull.
The rules are basically a carbon copy of TBH with few exceptions and additions that suit a modern genre. This starts to get annoying. Sure, you only need this to run the game, but now I am starting to get many, many copies of The Black Hack rules. It would be ace if the layout would be that when I'd print this, I could opt out all the basic and core TBH rules and only print the new stuff that is not already included in the original game. But it doesn't happen here. Small additional and new rules are scattered here and there within the text already in other hacks and the main game.
The most important new rules are full auto fire, which is simple. In many games when you shoot more than one shot the rules get wonky and slow. This is not the case here. Funny thing is, though, that two handed combat also affects guns you hold with two hands. But if you think about it, this is an elegant way in making bigger weapons more damaging, when the core mechanic is, that weapon damage is class based. Very, very clever!
Drugs are also easy. They give a small bonus, but you suffer disadvantage(s) under influence. Also addiction is as simple. Great! Taking drugs is fast and easy.
Vehicles and chases have also simple rules in the fashion of TBH. They are pretty good and should cover most of the situations. When a vehicle is shot enough, it is destroyed and there is a 50/50 chance can it be salvaged or not. Chase is a simple series of attribute tests, where you either gain or lose distance. Pretty boring, and it could take a long time to just roll after roll. There should be an extra rule for dangerous manouvres to gain more than 1 point of distance (starting from 5, 10 to escape, 1 to get caught). Manouvres are easily done, roll with disadvantage to gain double points. Still dull, but adds danger and story element (I try to steer to this narrow alley...).
One of the most important rules in a cyberpunk game is hacking. I think Cyberpunk 2020 is an awesome game, but the hacking part of it is extremely dull - and slow. Normal hacking in Cyber-Hacked is a simple INT test, but there is also more detailed rules, using die-drop table! You take a number of dice and drop them on a paper. The die type and value tell from a random table, what it is. Then connect them and voilá, you got a quickly generated data network to be hacked! All the stuff you do hacking you use usage die to do. When it's dropped to zero, you're booted. These hacking rules are fast, fun and brilliant!
You also get contacts who are basically people you can use as resources, and you can be either a human or a synthetic before you choose a class. There are 7 classes to choose from, including a psychic. The classes basically work like in TBH, they each have something special they do. In addition, they now are listed with starting equipment (you, I dislike buying normal gear for characters) and an interesting trinket. Some of these classes are modified from the basic classes, some are a bit different. I think every player should find their favorite easily from these.
Different kind of everyone other is Psychic, who can use his psychic abilities per day based on his level. These abilities are basically like spells in a fantasy game.
Equipment list is minimal, but enough. Cyberware has no special rules. You can have 4 of the (one character class being an exception) to gain some bonuses or other effects. That's it. No problems between a line where human ends and a machine starts. There could have been a little more to this, because now cyberware is just like equipment.
There's plenty of enemy stats to fight and use, but there could have been few more, because now the one page table doesn't reach the end of the page, but leaves an empty white space being short. This layout problem could have been fixed with more enemies! This is plenty already, but it just looks sloppy and lazy.
So, what do I think? This is very, very good in a The Black Hack good. TBH family products are DIY. A bit raw, but full of good ideas (WHEN THEY ARE GOOD, THAT IS) with simple and fun core mechanics. Even though it's dull to get same basic rules all over again, the additions to cyberpunk genre included in CYBER-HACKED are great. Inexpensive price, D&D compatible, fast to learn, fast to play... I see no reasons why everyone shouldn't get a copy. Even though you don't plan to play a campaign of CYBER-HACKED, you can keep this just in case, if someday, someone wants to play some cyberpunk in 10 minutes!
_____________________________________
You can buy the PDF from RPGNow.
Wednesday 19 October 2016
Fantasy AGE in public, part 2
First time I ever played Fantasy AGE, was in a local gaming store, after we played Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox at all-you-can-eat-pizzeria (here's the write-up). Today with my buddy +Kookko Jaskinen we did it again, now at a grill-lunch joint near my place called Köffi. Laptops spread, rulebook wide open, character sheet in front of me and dice scattered, we continued my homebrew lizardman Cleric's quest to this evil northern tower...
Last time we killed some zombies we found venturing forth the tower, what was used for a kind of a rapture thingie, where dead bodies souls were sent to heaven and bodies left down the earth. Now there are zombies coming out of the tower, and my lizardman Cleric, Styx Purplescale has been sent to investigate.
Last time I found this prison camp, and got few NPCs to follow me. They think I am someone else I don't even know who he is, but it's okay, they follow me. Hah! Have I worried or even considered what'll happen when they find out I am not the guy they think I should be? Nope.
So, more zombies, we kill them. Then we get to the tower. Lots of traces, no clear where zombies come from. About four floors high, upper floor (third, maybe, hard to say) has a faint light inside. Only one entrance inside the tower, but guarded by goblins - small, nasty, stupid, cowardice... We attack them from both side, and soon those who are alive flee!
Next time... inside the tower!
As you can see, we didn't have that much time to play. But it was fun. Fantasy AGE is a good system, even though I still think everything has too many hit points! An average low level monster has over 20 hit points! My dude does 2d6+1 damage with fire blast spell, and 1d3+1 melee damage. One dude does 1d6+1 damage. Well, our two handed sword fighter dude does 3d6+2, but that's crazy (and great). So, average damage of 4-5 points versus 25 point monsters is too much for me to handle. Sure, there are stunts, but you need a pretty decent stunt score to get an additional attack or +1d6 extra damage.
Kookko told me that running the game was a chore, at least this time. I do understand, when you compare stats to OSR (what you need are AC, HD and damage, most of the time for combat). Next time I shall take all NPC info and roll everything for them, and check their numbers myself. This time I did help rolling NPC stuff, but needed to check the bonuses etc. We will play this again, it's quite fun, at least in player's stool.
I am wearing my brand new lumberjack shirt (from drift store) which is damn awesome. Kookko decided to be classy with Spider-Man. |
Last time I found this prison camp, and got few NPCs to follow me. They think I am someone else I don't even know who he is, but it's okay, they follow me. Hah! Have I worried or even considered what'll happen when they find out I am not the guy they think I should be? Nope.
So, more zombies, we kill them. Then we get to the tower. Lots of traces, no clear where zombies come from. About four floors high, upper floor (third, maybe, hard to say) has a faint light inside. Only one entrance inside the tower, but guarded by goblins - small, nasty, stupid, cowardice... We attack them from both side, and soon those who are alive flee!
Next time... inside the tower!
As you can see, we didn't have that much time to play. But it was fun. Fantasy AGE is a good system, even though I still think everything has too many hit points! An average low level monster has over 20 hit points! My dude does 2d6+1 damage with fire blast spell, and 1d3+1 melee damage. One dude does 1d6+1 damage. Well, our two handed sword fighter dude does 3d6+2, but that's crazy (and great). So, average damage of 4-5 points versus 25 point monsters is too much for me to handle. Sure, there are stunts, but you need a pretty decent stunt score to get an additional attack or +1d6 extra damage.
Kookko told me that running the game was a chore, at least this time. I do understand, when you compare stats to OSR (what you need are AC, HD and damage, most of the time for combat). Next time I shall take all NPC info and roll everything for them, and check their numbers myself. This time I did help rolling NPC stuff, but needed to check the bonuses etc. We will play this again, it's quite fun, at least in player's stool.
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