Monday 27 March 2017

A Pipeful Of Trouble out now!


All is not well in Brierfield. The idyllic halfling village has fallen prey to unknown bandits and marauders. These peaceful victims of shattered loves and broken dreams need a band of heroes to save them. Are you willing to help them in their time of needs?
A Pipeful Of Trouble is a Classic Edition Adventures module for player characters levels 1-3. It features a nice mix of social interaction, a dab of wilderness travel, caves, and a traditional dungeon complex. There are strong role-playing elements, inlcuding potential ethical quandaries, though these can be toned down or dispensed with altogether should the group prefer a more martial approach.
A Pipeful Trouble includes:
  • Interesting NPCs
  • Difficult opponents
  • Dangerous locales
  • Harrowing situations
  • A brand new monster
  • Maps for Brierfield, Merrywood route to the caves, a cave and dungeon maps
A Pipeful Of Trouble is written for Labyrinth Lord* but can easily be used with any OSR or d20 fantasy system, or with the original fantasy game.
*Labyrinth LordTM is copyright 2007 – 2011, Daniel Proctor. Labyrinth LordTM and Advanced Labyrinth LordTM are trademarks of Daniel Proctor. These trademarks are used under the Labyrinth LordTM Trademark License 1.2, available at www.goblinoidgames.com.


Wednesday 22 February 2017

[Review] Universal Exploits

"I DID NOT HAVE SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH THAT PROTOS V SEXBOT!"

The review version is a PDF.

If you don't already know, +Venger Satanis is currently one of the best roleplaying games writer focused on weird, horror, sleazy and old-school; both fantasy and scifi. Alpha Blue is a great game, and Girls Gone Rogue made it even better with so much more material to use. What will Universal Exploits add to this sleazy space setting? Let's find out!

The book is divided into two chapters, "Rules, tables and setting" and "Suggestions, scenarios, and extras". But before the actual content begins, we get to read a three pages long short-story, which is

I wasn't a fan of Alpha Blue art, Girls Gone Rogue was way better and now Universal Exploits has best illustration of the trio! There are pictures from the same artist I disliked in the main game, but they blend well with other styles and artists, as they are no more (crappy) majority. They work now way much better. And line art is awesome. A warning though, many of the pictures are x-rated and sexual in theme with full frontal nudity and sexual acts, but there are also plenty of other science fiction imaginary. The porn doesn't bother me, though. Sure the sexual images oversexualize women and there could be more naked, porny men, too for balance. Again, be warned, there are so many images from which social justice warriors would rip their asses half. There are also few colored pictures, which is a nice addition.

Venger's writing is eloquent as ever, so the reading experience is really good. Everything is explained well with great writing. Because Alpha Blue's rules are extremely minimal and simple, you learn the rules additions easily and quickly. And there are plenty of them with lots and lots of random tables. The rules additions really give more detail for the campaign.

The strength of Alpha Blue product line are the random tables. There are so many, and they are so different. Many are really useful, some just fun additions to weird days you might need one. And what is best of these random tables, they are really inspiring for stories. You can easily just collect all you Alpha Blue books and start rolling tables, taking notes, and soon you have an adventure done. And naturally, you can use these tables in middle of the game to spice up, or sex up, the action and scenes. Religions, desires, alien worlds, locations, events, planets... everything in tables!

But because Alpha Blue as whole is basically made of tables after tables, you should write down all the random tables and collect them into one big index, so you know what tables are in what sourcebook. Otherwise it could be overwhelming to remember all the available material, yet shuffle through all the books to find the right table for the situation (in all sourcebooks and main rulebook together there are random tables for almost any situation).

One great part is domain management. In old-school games, when you have adventured enough, it is time to invest your money on some land. In this sourcebook, you can do it in space!

Suggestions, Scenarios, And Extras gives you hints and tips how to run an Alpha Blue game. Venger is an awesome (Space) Dungeon Master (proof: How To Game Master Like A Fucking Boss) who doesn't hesitate to share his experiences how to make games... well... fucking awesome. This chapter has lots of actual game expamples and suggestions how to get players involved in adventures - and how to make them adventure. Universal Exploits is an adventurers' agency after all!

You also get adventures, but in my opinion they are not that handy to refer during the play and read more than explained short stories. They feel a little railroading also. There are plenty of them, though, and even if not fun to run (I cannot decide that for you, or even myself without actually running them!) they are good fiction of the Alpha Blue setting. Some of the adventures here are more a location, where stuff is going on. A nice addition.

In my opinion, Universal Exploits is a great sourcebook for any science fiction game with weird, gonzo and action. If your game is pornographic -or needs more porn- even better. If you strip all the naughty, you still have lots of great content to use in different scifi settings. Well worth the buck!

Also with the PDF you get separate files for the maps included in the book. They are absolutely brilliant. +MonkeyBlood Design has outdone himself.

One final warning. Because the product is filled with tables and content, PDF version of it might be slow to use in actual game, when shuffling the book is nicer and easier. Just my opinion.
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Universal Exploits at RPGNow.
Alpha Blue at RPGNow.
Girls Gone Rogue at RPGNow.
Sleazy Space Opera (bundle of above three titles) at RPGNow.

My review of both Alpha Blue and Girls Gone Rogue HERE.

Wednesday 15 February 2017

[Patreon] Dwarven Stronghold + Bandits + Wizard Tower of Toerd + Alia(k) of Wizard Tower

Thanks to my Patrons, here is new content for you to enjoy! If you like stuff like this, you can support me to create more, and more, and more!

DWARVEN STRONGHOLD
Within this dwarven stronghold you find things like:

  • Barracks
  • Master's room
  • Dragon room
  • Sanctuary with a priest
  • Younglings educational spaces
  • Hatching chambers and information how dwarves breed... well, grow
  • And more!
Get it HERE!

BANDITS

Random tables to create bandits. You don't only get generic bandit information, new races and stats for different bandit types, but also tables for:
  • Encounters
  • Battle morale
  • Random stuff
Get it HERE!

WIZARD TOWER OF TOERD



Toerd is a small boring town, except there is a Wizard Tower.

Get it HERE!

ALIA(K) OF WIZARD TOWER


She was the first girl to start the studies of magic in Wizard Tower of Toerd. This is her story. Includes a timeline of events in her life, so she can be encountered in the campaign!

Get it HERE!

Tuesday 10 January 2017

[Review] The Blood Hack

Before I begin with the review, I want you to know, that I have had a privilege to work with this game. I did the layout, edited the text, made covers and a character sheet and discussed rules. But this review is not biased, because when I received the draft for this game, I fell in love. As I said, it was a privilege for me to get a change to work with The Blood Hack and its author +Matthew Skail.

I love The Black Hack. It takes my favorite rules system and tweaks it to simplier and more versatile form. Even though I still enjoy early D&D and OSR games, The Black Hack is something different, yet familiar. And because it is a versatile system, it is easy to reproduce for different genres, like Cyber-Hacked! which makes cyberpunk fun and fast or The Super Hack which makes super heroes not a chore, with roots to my favorite game(s).

In early 2000 I played Vampire: The Masquerade. I played it a lot! So much I grew sick of it for various different reasons. When I found OSR, I started to think what V:tM would be with OSR rules. When I found The Black Hack, I started thinking what playing vampires in World Of Darkness style campaign would be with it. Then at Google Plus I found out, that Matthew was working on a game using The Black Hack rules with a feel of 90s vampires and modern gothicpunk world.

And damned The Black Hack system works brilliantly with vampires!

You get the normal rules, where you roll everything under your Stats, be it fighting, different tasks or saving rolls. Because this game is set to a modern era, you also get rules for vehicles, firearms, chases and such, which all work great with the simple core mechanics.

There are four different vampire classes from four different Houses of the Blood. They are not just those four core fantasy races re-dressed with fangs, but great write-ups with different knowledges and skills. Each of them is great for different types of archtypes from magisters to warriors.

Vampires naturally have their supernatural powers, Gifts. They gain Gifts more experienced they get, and start with few. You are free to develop your vampire with Gifts you want to take, and are not restricted to bloodlines that determine your future gifts. The gifts are not only things that boost your vampire to be more powerful than human, they are many really clever and more towards roleplaying rather than rollplaying.

Some vampires can also learn rituals, which are blood powered powerful magic. There are five levels of ritual powers, from quite simple to truly horrific! The rituals are absolutely fantastic and don't feel that they are just replacing fantasy roleplaying game's spells. They are a different beast, and add extra flavor to the game.

The great thing is how the innovation of usage die is used with blood points and morale (basically humanity from V:tM). Instead of calculating and spending blood points like hit points, you roll usage die for blood for example when powering gifts or healing. Morale has an absolutely brilliant adaptation of usage die what really captures the downward spiral of vampire morality! Really elegant adaptation of the original system, where you used usage die for inventory items.

You also get lots of different NPC stats from commoners to supernatural beings. Many have special rules, which are simple, yet flavourful.

The Blood Hack has everything you need to begin playing in dark modern days as an undead vampire, who only doesn't struggle with her humanity, but also the dangers of the night. If you liked World Of Darkness games, this is a must have or you like The Black Hack, this is a great addition to your collection to mix with other "hack" genres.

Year 2017 has just started, but as an ex-Vampire fan and a big The Black Hack rules system fan, at this point I can already say, that The Blood Hack will be one of the greatest RPG products of this year.

You can get the PDF from RPGNow and print-on-demand will be released later.
Buy it HERE.