Seek the Wolf in Thyself!
Much has been said about the staggered release of the new D&D rulebooks and as much as I understand the complaints, I don’t really think it is all that big of deal in the grand scheme of things. Some say that the staggered release will hurt D&D’s chances of gaining any ground lost to Pathfinder but I seriously do not see it. Come December when the DMG is finally out, people are going to forget all about the staggered release and invest a lot of time in whatever game they choose.
Cascadia has proven to be a fairly descent hotbed of adventuring with the previous two adventures in this series and this closes it out in similar fashion. In this adventure, the players have a great opportunity to do something big for the patron throughout the series and be greatly rewarded. Or if things don’t go well, they could end up with a considerable number of enemies and perhaps be blamed for a terrible crime.
With much anticipation, the release of the 5th edition of the classic Dungeons & Dragons is upon us, with the first teaser product on the shelves – the Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set. In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I was not a huge fan of the major changes in 4th edition nor was I a fan of the abandonment of the SRD/OGL. I liked 3rd edition a lot, although I admit over time it got bloated with way too many rules, feats and classes. I am a fan of Pathfinder but it is running into the same problem D&D 3.5 did, in my opinion. I also did not play a lot of 1st or 2nd edition when I was younger, simply because there was not a lot of opportunity. I played other things like Star Frontiers and Powers & Perils.
Forever instantiated in geek culture are the immortal words of the captain of the Firefly, “I aim to misbehave.” These simple words can inspire a variety of ideas for adventures as well as adventurers. They are quite commonly used in game sessions to announce when a party is ready to take on their mission or bad guy. 21 Plots: Misbehave makes me think of this quote every time I look at the PDF.
Achtung! Cthulhu: Keeper’s Guide to the Secret War is a new RPG Core Book from Modiphius Games. Having reviewed the Investigator’s Guide, it is only natural to take on the next book in the series – the Keeper’s Guide. For me, as a keeper or game master, this is where the meat of the story begins. This is where the setting really comes out for me. Included in this book, among other things, are Allied and Nazi forces & intelligence agencies, Occult organizations and Mythos-based missions, new tomes, secret weapons, artifacts & equipment, key characters & vile creatures, and new rules and strategies for World War II combat & survival. Like the Investigator’s Guide review, I thought it best to go chapter by chapter and comment on each.
Achtung! Cthulhu: Investigator’s Guide is a new RPG Player’s Guide from Modiphius Games. Two of my passions are H.P. Lovecraft Cthulhu Mythos and World War II history. When these two are combined, I will dive into it head first every opportunity I have.
21 Starport Places is a new RPG Supplement from Gypsy Knights Games. One way to get a real good feel for a science fiction setting is getting to know places of business in the setting. It not only gives you a small window into the world, but it also gives you ideas on what is important to the creators, what kind of people a player would meet, and what kind of routine encounters they may have. This is the attraction to a supplement like 21 Starport Places.
After reading through the Three Kings adventure the first and second time, I set out with a plan to try and run this single adventure as a convention game. It is funny how one can read through an adventure more than once and completely under estimate the potential. It really goes to show you that you don’t truly know an adventure until you run it. This is especially true in the case of the Three Kings adventure, as I found out.
The Rogue Mage RPG Player’s Handbook is a RPG core players handbook from MisFit Studios/Bella Rosa Books. Through the years of running sci-fi and gaming cons, I have had the pleasure to meet some very interesting and smart people. Christina Stiles and Faith Hunter were two of them. Faith Hunter is the author of the Rogue Mage series of novels, and Christina Stiles is a RPG industry extraordinaire. Together they developed this volume of work that is the RPG to the Rogue Mage universe.
The Hub Federation is a new RPG Supplement from Gypsy Knights Games . The Hub Federation is the closest thing that the Clement Sector comes to a “federation” or “stellar nation.” It has limited authority and influence but has the potential (and probably desire) to grow. It is made up of six primary worlds, centered around the capital Hub. The other systems are Wilhelmveldt, Donar, Reuschle, Sigewife, and Wellington. This is the companion sourcebook to the Subsector Surcebook 3: Hub, also reviewed here.