This supplement can’t quite focus itself: As a sourcebook it tries to cover too much. As an adventure it doesn’t cover enough. Originally Published March 14th, 2002 Slavers was published in 2000 as part of the effort by Wizards of the Coast to revive the Greyhawk line. As a supplement for the second edition of AD&D, […]
A very crunchy, very useful supplement for D20. Like, Minions, Arms & Armor suffers from a price tag just a little too high for its content. Review Originally Published March 13th, 2002 CONTENT Arms & Armor is Bastion Press’ second D20 supplement. Like Minions, Bastion’s first offering, Arms & Armor is a 96-page soft-cover book […]
Review Originally Published March 13th, 2002 Most of the buzz around Mystic Eye Games which has come my way has focused on their Nightmares & books or the The Hunt: Rise of Evil campaign setting. Not very much attention, it seems, has turned to their modules – such as The Pit of Loch-Durnan, an adventure […]
The ultimate source of all miscreation and abomination. The gray mass quobbled and quivered, and swelled perpetually – and from within it, in manifold fission, were spawned anatomies that crept away on every side through the grotto. Here there were things like bodiless legs or arms that flailed in the slime, or heads that rolled, […]
The Blood that I shed do I devote to serve within the eternal Train of Souls. The Eyes of Flesh do I sacrifice for the gift of that immortal Eye which shall view all destruction. The Mortal Soul do I forsake to the void which shall be filled. My voice I raise until it shall […]
This long scroll of human skin has been stitched into a moebius strip. It speaks of dark and blasphemous rites: In the days before the Slumber, the One Who is of Many Doors came unto those who saw the truth of annihilation. And they who drank of the Truth of Blood reached through the Mouth […]
B. asks: I just finished the first session of a new campaign. One of my players pitched a character who was “very strange, but in a charming way.” In the first scene she told the chief of police that his eyes reminded her of her dead mother, then she ran in circles around another NPC, […]
A great third-party Monster Manual for D20. Minions is a little pricy for its content, but the quality is high. Recommended. Review Originally Published March 13th, 2002 CONTENT Minions: The Fearsome Foes is a third-party monster manual from Bastion Press. It’s a softcover featuring full-color printing on glossy pages, and weighs in at 96 pages. […]
On the cover of this book, written in blood, is the symbol of a coil. On the first page is an oath: “I pledge my body, soul, and purpose to the furtherance of chaos. We shall act as one. We shall breathe as one. We shall think as one. And in our crimson coils we […]
A manga that really didn’t manage to distinguish itself in my eyes. Review Originally Published February 5th, 2002 WHAT IT IS Bastard!! is a series of manga created by Kazushi Hagiwara and first published in Japan in 1988 in the pages of Shonen Jump. New episodes are still being published today, and over the years […]
The pages of the first part of this volume are covered with an exhaustive detailing of disease – partly its symptoms, but always the methods for its spread, and never a word about its cures. The second part of the volume espouses the teachings of the Brotherhood of the Plagueborn. These cultists seek to achieve […]
First: I’m frequently asked what my session notes look like. People want an example of what my prep looks like. Second: Last week at Green Dragon Fest, I was asked if I would be sharing the scenario I ran on the Alexandrian. I said I’d like to do that, but wasn’t certain if it would […]
Dream Pod 9 has established a reputation of visual excellence, and delivers it strongly with their line of poster-size blueprint files. Review Originally Published February 5th, 2002 Dream Pod 9 has earned a reputation of high excellence across its three lines of games (Heavy Gear, Jovian Chronicles, and Tribe 8 — and if you didn’t […]
This volume appears to be a cult manual for the Brotherhood of Songsingers. The Songsingers worship chaos in the form of the Discord – the “song of chaos”. They perceive the ways of order as the monotony of a single note beaten again and again. They see, in their acts of chaos and wanton destruction, […]
In a word: Excellent. Easily one of the Top 10 D20 supplements released to date. Review Originally Published October 13th, 2001 Let’s face it: When we look at the shelf in our game shop and see yet another D20 monster manual variant, our eyes begin to glaze over. “For the love of God,” we think, […]
The end of the world we know shall come like to the tolling of a bell. In the beginning there was a darkness at the heart of the world, and it cloaked itself in the shape of Shadow King – He Who Was Banished and wrapped in the threads of the Demonweb. But like a […]
You know him from The Pinky Guard and When Society Collapsed, now Luke Humphris is releasing an amazing new RPG: When Society Collapsed – Dam Nation. Luke joins Justin to share their best GM tips in the first episode of a new video series! Subscribe Now!
TM and © 2022 Monte Cook Games, LLC I’ve been running adventures in Monte Cook’s Ptolus for over twenty years, including my long-running D&D 3E campaign In the Shadow of the Spire. The Ptolus sourcebook — originally published D&D 3E, but since released in edition for D&D 5E and Cypher — is one of the best RPG setting sourcebooks ever published. […]
A classic fantasy world, Hârn continues to distinguish itself as a setting of unique detail, depth, and excellence. Review Originally Published October 9th, 2001 Hârn is a fantasy world created by N.R. Crossby and first published in 1983 by Columbia Games. In 1990, a second edition of HârnWorld (which is being reviewed here) was released, […]
You need this book in order to play Lejendary Adventures. You have my sympathies. Review Originally Published in Games Unplugged Webzine – July 14th, 2000 Republished at RPGNet – May 22nd, 2001 Gygax, who you can always count on to deliver by the bushel, has crammed a ton of material between the covers of this […]
You probably know this technique. Problem: Combat is taking too long. The players have analysis paralysis or they’re not paying attention or Solution: Add a timer, requiring each player to wrap up their turn before the timer runs out. It seems simple, but I’ve seen a shocking number of GMs screw this up. It turns […]
Go to Part 1 Consider two scenarios. In the first: Player: I want to hack the Lytekkas mainframe. GM: Make a DC 20 Hacking check. And in the second: Player: Okay, I’ve seduced the secretary to social engineer login credentials and Suzie has snuck in and planted a spoofed router to give us remote access. […]
If you’re using node-based design, does that mean you’re prepping a plot? No. We’re talking about “plot” in the sense of Don’t Prep Plots: Don’t prep plots, prep situations. Plot, in this case, means the sequence of events that happens in a story. Prepping a plot in an RPG means you’re predetermining what the PCs […]
Review Originally Published in Games Unplugged (August 2000) Republished at RPGNet – May 22nd, 2001 Robin D. Laws is the esteemed designer of Feng Shui and Hero Wars, among sundry other games of high quality. Hogshead Publishing’s New Style line of games has included games such as Baron Munchausen and Puppetland, which have met with […]
Go to Part 1 FEATURES OF CARCOSA “twin suns sink behind the lake” — “twin suns sink into the lake” “where black stars hang in the heavens” — “the night where black stars rise” — “the whole world bow to the black stars which hang in the sky over Carcosa” “strange moons circle through the […]
Although presenting a mystery which cannot be solved, The Murder of the Seven Points is probably worth checking out. Review Originally Published October 1st, 2001 After initially being very enamored with the Adventure Boosters format pioneered by AEG, I found myself rapidly souring on the idea after a series of markedly lackluster efforts (my reviews […]
Shards of the Stone is a veritable tome – weighing in at 400 for the bargain price of $25. Every page is full of information, its production values are high, its premise interesting, and its potential seemingly limitless. Review Originally Published in Games Unplugged (December 2000) Reprinted at RPGNet – May 22nd, 2001 Before time […]
FD writes: I really enjoy prepping the “macro” parts of my campaign, but I hate creating the “micro.” I use your node-based scenario design. I understand the factions and the major characters. I like creating all the connections between these elements and I understand the conflicts and motivations that drive the campaign. But when I […]
Where’s the dwarven beef? Review Originally Published October 9th, 2001 Azadmere is a HârnWorld supplement, containing four Encyclopedia Hârnica articles: Azadmere (10 pages), Khuzdul (4 pages), Habe (6 pages), and Zerhun (10 pages). It also includes full-page Player Maps (black and white, unlabelled) and Common Maps (full-color, labelled) for Azadmere (the kingdom), Habe, Zerhun, and […]
Kandahar asks: Can you run hexcrawls in a very small location? For example, I have a a single valley I want my players to explore. I made a map in Worldographer, but I used 2-mile hexes. I don’t think it’s reasonable to impose very slow travel. Even if this is densely populated, is there any […]