Upwind Review

A new game is coming to your skies, finishing up its Kickstarter pledges and getting ready for general release. Upwind a novel game in a lot of ways and I’ll admit that I hesitated before backing it. Quirky is alright but if you get too quirky you end up with something like Cairn which for me is quirky enough to be nearly unplayable. On the other hand you might get something like Paranoia which is a crazy but enduring classic. In the end it was an actual play called “The Three Beasts” put out by RPPR that convinced me to back it. Now that the beta version is out to backers I’m very glad that I did.

Freedom City, Third Edition

The famous Freedom City, detailed site of Mutants & Masterminds campaigns in the game’s second edition. The city saw a 250+ page sourcebook, five different neighborhood sourcebooks, a book of superpowered legacies, a book of street-level heroes, a book of special agents in Freedom City, and a book of criminals. That’s a whole lot and the level of detail has inspired a lot of love for Freedom City over the years. In that case, it’s hardly surprising that people (including me) are pretty excited about the new version of the city for M&M Third Edition.

Continuing Mission… Er, Continues!

In case you haven’t been following the updates on Continuing Mission, you might have missed some of the great updates for Star Trek Adventures. Here’s a quick roundup in case something catches your eye!

Dark Eras 2: Personal Reflections

If you’re not backing the Dark Eras 2 Kickstarter you might not have seen yesterday’s announcement about the book’s table of contents. Unlike the last Dark Eras book, the project didn’t start with a slate of ideas and add onto it but rather began with a blank and built it with the community. This means there was a lot of fan input into the book’s eras but also that we haven’t really known what will be in there… until now. So what can we expect? Well, here’s what I think…

Primeval Thule Review

So, I’m way late on this but I just got a chance to flip through an awesome campaign setting for 5e. Primeval Thule was first published in 2014 by Sasquatch Games when it came out with a version for Pathfinder and Savage Worlds. Last year a 5e version came out so I’m going to treat it like it’s a lot newer than it really is!

Trudvang Review

Norse mythology and culture is a rich well for drawing inspiration from, but it doesn’t always work out that way. For every thoughtful Norse game like Yggdrasill there’s a crazy horn-helmet-fest like Avalanche Press’s Viking Age and the Vikings Campaign Sourcebook for AD&D. In the end, there’s nothing wrong with playing to stereotypes for fun but it misses the bigger picture of what’s out there. An upcoming game from Swedish company RiotMinds, however, is firmly in the first category and is an original and detailed fantasy setting rooted in Nordic lore.

CAPERS Review

The “Roaring Twenties” was a time of extremes in the United States. While Prohibition had outlawed alcohol, drinking and vice were on the rise in secret speakeasies. Police officers might be everywhere enforcing the morality laws of the day but the attention pushed criminals to organize and grow more powerful than ever. Some women were out marching for the right to vote but others were flinging balls of lightning with their bare hands.

This is CAPERS.

Name Generators

Naming NPCs is one of the hardest parts of GMing. I know that when I write an adventure I can plan everything out, thinking up plots and enemies and grand castles, but when it comes up to naming people I either name them one of my favorites or a nonsense name that I’m never fully satisfied with. Best to leave it for the professionals.

Rules Lite Games

I’ve been giving some thought lately to rules lite games after a friend of mine sent me the RPG he’d been working on. Anyone who’s tried to get friends interested in a game of Arkham Horror or calmly explained the family trees of Game of Thrones to their parents: these people know that it’s better to start small with some folks and then work your way up. If you’re in this position at your gaming table, here are a few products I’d heartily recommend.