From role-playing games to television series, Flames Rising horror webzine offers hundreds of reviews on products from every world of horror imaginable. We feature nationally-distributed and licensed products like Hellboy, to small press ventures like the game InSpectres from Memento Mori.

Our philosophy on reviews is simple: we encourage our horror reviewers to channel their inner Poe to write reviews that are easy-to-read and provide you, the horror fan, with the best information possible.

Whether you enjoy paranormal romance or post-apocalyptic horror, this list has a little something for the monster in all of us. If you would like to be a horror reviewer for Flames Rising, we encourage you to visit our submission guidelines. We go out of our way to reward our regular horror reviewers, and encourage you to add your voice to our choir.

Our reviews are listed in alphabetical order by type of review category. For an alternative means of navigation, feel free to take advantage of the search box on our site to find what you’re hunting for.

Comic Book/Graphic Novel Reviews:

Anita Blake: The First Death (Marvel Comics)
Axiom Man: Of Magic and Men (Coscom Entertainment)
Dark Hunger (Del Rey)
Death Walks the Streets 0 (Scream Factory)
Dresden Files Comics (Dabel Bros.)
Fall of Cthulhu: The Fugue (Boom! Studios)
Hack/Slash Omnibus (Devil’s Due)
Lovecraft (Vertigo)
Ramayan 3392 AD (Virgin Comics)
Razor Kid (Marcus Almand)
Shadowgirls (Rodriguez & Reynolds)
Welcome to the Jungle (Dabel Bros)
Witchblade Volume 5: Firstborn (Top Cow Entertainment)

Fiction Reviews:

13 Bullets (David Wellington)
Accursed (Ghosts of Albion) (Amber Benson & Christopher Golden)
Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman)
Another One Bites the Dust (Jennifer Rardin)
Armageddons Children (Terry Brooks)
Armed & Magical (Lisa Shearin)
Awaken Me Darkly (Gina Showalter)
Battle Royale (Tokyo Pop)
Bestial (William Carl)
Bitten (Kelley Armstrong)
Biting the Bullet (Jennifer Rardin)
Bled Dry (Erin McCarthy)
Blood In, Blood Out (Lucien Soulban)
Blood Noir (Anita Blake) (Laurell K. Hamilton)
Blood Price (Tanya Huff)
Book of Nod (Sam Chupp)
Burning (Bentley Little)
Chaos Bleeds (Buffy) (James Moore)
Chosen Sin (Anya Bast)
City of Saints and Madmen (Jeff Vandermeer)
Claimed by Shadow (Karen Chance)
Countdown (Michelle Maddox)
Dead Girls Dance (Morganville Vampires) (Rachel Caine)
Dead to Me (Anton Strout)
Definitely Dead (Charlaine Harris)
Departure (Alana Abbott)
Down the Road (Bowie Ibarra)
Down the Road: On the Last Day (Bowie Ibarra)
Dragon Champion (E.E. Knight)
Dragon of the Mangroves (Yasuyuki Kasai)
Dreaming Void (Peter F. Hamilton)
Dying to Live (Kim Paffenroth)
Eat the Dark (Joe Schreiber)
Electric Church (Jeff Somers)
Elves of Cintara (Terry Brooks)
Empire (David Dunwoody)
End of Heroes (Kevin J. Herbst)
Eryn (Keri Arthur)
Every Sigh, the End (Jason S. Hornsby)
False Gods (Graham MacNeill)
Feast of Fools (Morganville Vampires) (Rachel Caine)
From Dead to Worse (Charlaine Harris)
Gangrel (Dark Ages) (Tim Waggoner)
Gehenna: the Final Night (Ari Marmell)
Gypsy Morph (Terry Brooks)
Halfway to the Grave (Jeaniene Frost)
Happy Hour of the Damned (Mark Henry)
Happy Hour of the Damned (Mark Henry)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (J.K. Rowling)
Haunted (Angel) (Jeff Mariotte)
Hell to Pay (Simon Green)
Hell’s Belles (Jackie Kessler)
Hell Week (Rosemary Clement-Moore)
Heralds of the Storm (Andrew Bates)
Heretic (Templar Chronicles) (Joe Nassissie)
Heroes Adrift (Moira J. Moore)
Hidden (Eve Kenin)
Historian (Elizabeth Kostova)
Horus Rising (Dan Abnett)
Host (Stephenie Meyer)
House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)
A Hunger Like Fire (Greg Stolze)
Ill Wind (Rachel Caine)
Into the Reach (Alana Abbott)
Iron Angel (Alan Campbell)
Ironside (Holly Black)
Key to Conflict (Talia Gryphon)
Kitty and the Midnight Hour (Carrie Vaughn)
Knights of the Cornerstone (James P. Blaylock)
Legends: the Orion Project (Dav Harnish)
Lies of Locke Lamora & Red Seas Under Red Skies (Scott Lynch)
Magic Bites (Ilona Andrews)
Magic Burns (Ilona Andrews)
Magic Lost, Trouble Found (Lisa Shearin)
Man With the Golden Torc (Simon R. Green)
Marriage of Virtue & Viciousness (Greg Stolze)
Marriage of Virtue & Viciousness (Greg Stolze)
Midnight Alley (Morganville Vampires) (Rachel Caine)
Midnight Brunch (Marta Acosta)
Monster Island (David Wellington)
Moon Called (Patricia Briggs)
Myth Hunters (Christopher Golden)
Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss)
Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss)
Night Child (Jes Battis)
Old Man’s War (John Scalzi)
Plague of the Dead (Z.A. Recht)
Plague of the Dead 2: Thunder & Ashes (Z.A. Recht)
Prince of Lies (Forgotten Realms) (James Lowder)
Prom Dates from Hell (Rosemary Clement-Moore)
Ravens of Avalon (Diana Paxson)
Reincarnationist (M. J. Rose)
Scar Night (Alan Campbell)
Scent of Shadows (Vicki Pettersson)
Season of the Witch (Natasha Mostert)
Seraphs (Faith Hunter)
Serenity (Keith R.A. DeCandido)
Shadowbred (Forgotten Realms) (Paul S. Kemp)
Shadowplay (Tad Williams)
Shield of Weeping Ghosts (Forgotten Realms) (James P. Davis)
Small Favor (Dresden Files) (Jim Butcher)
Solstice Wood (Patricia A. McKillip)
Spook Country (William Gibson)
Street: Empathy (Ryan A. Span)
Succubus Blues (Richelle Mead)
Tantalize (Cynthia Leitich Smith)
Taste of Night (Vicki Pettersson)
To Charles Fort, With Love (Caitlin R. Keirnan)
Tower (Simon Clark)
Tremere (Dark Ages) (Sarah Roark)
Twilight of the Dead (Travis Adkins)
Two Plays for Voices (Neil Gaiman)
Unleashed (Kristopher Reisz)
Vampire Academy (Richelle Mead)
Way of the Wolf (E.E. Knight)
White Night (Dresden Files) (Jim Butcher)
Wicked Game (Jeri Smith-Ready)
Witch Blood (Elemental Witches) (Anya Bast)
Witch Fire (Elemental Witches) (Anya Bast)
Witchling (Yasmine Galenorn)

Fiction Anthology/Collections Reviews:

Blood Lite (Horror Writer’s Association)
Clan Novels (Vampire: the Masquerade (White Wolf Publishing)
Complete Chronicles of Conan (Robert E. Howard)
Dark Tyrants (White Wolf Publishing)
Dark Theatres (Delta Green) (Pagan Publishing)
Dead Men (and Women) Walking (Bards & Sages)
For a Few Dead Guys More (Pinnacle Entertainment)
Frontier Cthulhu (Chaosium)
Haunting the Dead (Orpheus) (White Wolf Publishing)
Man Made Monsters (Mad Marv)
Many Bloody Returns (Charlaine Harris, Toni L. P. Kelner – Editors)
Three Shades of Night (White Wolf Publishing)
Undead 2:Skin & Bones (Permuted Press)
Undead 3: Flesh Feast (Permuted Press)
Waking up Screaming (H.P. Lovecraft)

Music Reviews:

13th Hour (Midnight Syndicate)
Blood of Angels (Michelle Belanger & Nox Arcana)
Carnival of Lost Souls (Nox Arcana)
Culture of Unaccountability (Spirit Creek)
Darklore Manor (Nox Arcana)
Desecrated Ashes (URN)
Fade to Black (Virgil)
Mythmaker (Skinny Puppy)
Necronomicon (Nox Arcana)
Out of the Ether (Virgil)

Non-Fiction Reviews:

Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures (John and Caitlin Matthews)
Gothic Tarot Compendium (Joseph Vargo and Joseph Iorillo)
One Who Walked Alone (Robert E. Howard) (Novalyne Price)
Wisconsin Road Guide to Haunted Locations (Chad Lewis and Terry Fisk)

Other Game Reviews:

Battlestar Galactica: Board Game (Fantasy Flight Games)
Dracula’s Revenge (Human Head Studios)
Give Me The Brain! (Cheapass Games)
Gloom (Atlas Games)
Haunting House (Twilight Creations)
Magentic Monsters (Mudpuppy Press)
Munchkin Bites (Steve Jackson Games)
Munchkin Bites 2: Pants Macabre (Steve Jackson Games)
Munchkin Cthulhu (Steve Jackson Games)
Reaper Horror Minis (Reaper Miniatures)
Swords & Dragons (Emperor’s Choice Games
Unspeakable Words (Playroom Entertainment)
Vampire: Dark Influences (White Wolf Publishing)
Zombie Cinema (Arkenstone Publishing)
Zombie Fluxx (Looney Labs)
Zombies!!! (Twilight Creations)
Zombies!!! (Twilight Creations)

Role-Playing Game Reviews:

a|state (Contested Ground Studios)
AEternal Legends (Mob United Media)
Agon (One Seven Design)
Aletheia (Abstract Nova)
All Flesh Must Be Eaten (Eden Studios)
All Flesh Must Be Eaten (Revised) (Eden Studios)
Arduin Grimoire IX: End War (Dave Hargrave)
Army of Darkness (Eden Studios)
Blight Elves (Reality Deviant Publications)
Blood! (Postmordem Studios)
Blood and Brains: The Zombie Hunters Guide (RPGObjects)
Blood Games (Flying Mice LLC)
Blood Games II (Flying Mice LLC)
Bloodlines (d20) (12 to Midnight)
Book of LARP (Interactivities Ink)
Book of the Arcane (Dark Matter Studios)
Brainwashed (d20) (12 to Midnight)
Buffy: the Vampire Slayer (Eden Studios)
Bust (Cold Blooded Games)
Cadwallon (Rackham)
Call of Cthulhu (6th Edition) (Chaosium)
Chaos University (FireWater Pro)
Changeling: the Lost (White Wolf Publishing)
Chicago Workings (World of Darkness) (White Wolf Publishing)
Chronicles of Ramlar (Whitesilver Publishing)
CJ Carella’s Witchcraft (Eden Studios)
Cold, Hard World (Atomic Sock Monkey Press)
Cold Space (Flying Mice LLC)
Colonial Gothic Primer (Rogue Games Inc.)
Colonial Gothic Rulebook (Rogue Games Inc.)
Conspiracy of Shadows (Bob Goat Press)
Creep Chronicle (Timeless Games)
Crossroads of Enternity (Arcadiam Games)
Cthulhu Live (2nd Edition) (Fantasy Flight Games)
Cthulhu Live (3rd Edition) (Skirmisher)
Cursed Empire (2nd Edition) (Spartans Unleashed)
Cursed Empire (2nd Edition) (Spartans Unleashed)
Dark Ages: Inquisitor (White Wolf Publishing)
Dark Heresy (Warhammer) (Black Library)
Daughter of Nexus (Exalted) (White Wolf Publishing)
Dead Inside (Atomic Sock Monkey Press)
Dead of Night (Steampower Publishing)
Dog Town Core Rules (Cold Blooded Games)
Donar’s Hammer (Arc Dream)
Don’t Lose Your Mind (Evil Hat Productions)
Don’t Rest Your Head (Evil Hat Productions)
DragonMech (Goodman Games)
Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium (Neoplastic Press)
Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium (Neoplastic Press)
Dungeon Bash (Other Game Company)
Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edtion (Wizards of the Coast)
Dungeons & Zombies (Eden Studios)
Epic Role Playing (Dark Matter Studios)
Epic Role Playing Bestiary (Dark Matter Studios)
Exalted (White Wolf Publishing)
Exalted (2nd Edition) (White Wolf Publishing)
Exquisite Replicas (Abstract Nova)
Fae Noir (Green Fairy Games)
Faith & Fire (White Wolf Publishing)
Forgotten Heroes: Fang, Fist, and Song (Goodman Games)
Ghost Stories (Politically Incorrect Games)
Gilded Cage (White Wolf Publishing)
Godlike (Arc Dream)
Grimm (Horizon d20) (Fantasy Flight Games)
Gumshoe – Esoterrorists/Fear Itself/Unremitting Horror RPG (Pelgrane Press)
Heroes of Horror (Wizards of the Coast)
Horrors of the Shroud: The Death-Mother (One Bad Egg)
Hunter Sheets 1 (Cubicle 7 Entertainment)
In the Darkness (Morrigan Press)
Initiates of The Art (White Wolf Publishing)
Inquisitor’s Handbook (Black Library)
Inside the Zone (Apophis Consortium)
InSpectres (Memento Mori Theatricks)
InSpectres (Memento Mori Theatricks)
Kult: Beyond the Veil (3rd Edition) (7th Circle Games)
Laws of the Resurrection (White Wolf Publishing)
Legend of the 5 Rings (3rd Edition) (AEG)
Legends: the Orion Project (Apophis Consortium)
Libris Mortis (Dungeons & Dragons) (Wizards of the Coast)
Little Fears (Key 20 Publishing)
Lostfinder’s Guide to Mire End (Contested Ground Studios)
Manual of Exalted Power: Abyssals (White Wolf Publishing)
Mechanical Dream (SteamLogic)
Mind’s Eye Theatre (White Wolf Publishing)
Mountain Witch (TimFire Publishing)
My Life with Master (Half Meme Press)
Myriad (Sane Studios)
Mystery Codex (Eden Studios)
Obsidian: the Age of Judgement (2nd Edition) (Apophis Consortium)
OctaNe (Memento Mori Theatricks)
Old Man of Damascus (Cthulhu Live) (Skirmisher Publishing)
One of the Living (Eden Studios)
Orbit (Jeff Diamond)
Orpheus (White Wolf Publishing)
Posioncraft: The Dark Art (Blue Devil Games)
Promethean: the Created (White Wolf Publishing)
Prouty Island (Flying Mice LLC)
Qin: the Warring States (7th Circle Publishing)
Races of the Shroud: The Apelord (One Bad Egg)
Random Esoteric Creature Generator (Goodman Games)
Rapture: The Second Coming (d20) (Holistic Design)
Ravenloft Gazetteer V (Sword & Sorcery Studios)
Requiem for Rome (White Wolf Publishing)
Resurrectionists (Vampire) (White Wolf Publishing)
Rose-Bride’s Plight (Changeling) (White Wolf Publishing
Savage World of Solomon Kane (Pinnacle Entertainment)
Schism (Memento Mori Theatricks)
Scion Companion (Part I) (White Wolf Publishing)
Scion Companion (Part II) (White Wolf Publishing)
Scion Companion (Part III) (White Wolf Publishin)
Scion: Hero (White Wolf Publishing)
Sentinel’s Bible (Creative Illusions)
Seventh Seal (Creative Illusions)
Shab-al-Hiri Roach (Bully Pulpit Games)
Shining Host (White Wolf Publishing)
SLA Industries (Cubicle 7 Entertainment)
Sorcerer (Adept Press)
Spellcraft & Sorcery (Elf Lair Games)
Spirit of the Century (Evil Hat Productions)
Squeam 3 (Memento Mori Theatricks)
Steamworks (12 to Midnight)
Stunning Eldritch Tales (Pelgrane Press)
Suzerain (Talisman Studios)
Thousand Hells (White Wolf Publishing)
Tome of Horrors Revised (Necromancer Games)
Unbidden (Precis Intermedia)
Vampire by Gaslight (White Wolf Publishing)
Vampyre: Dark Genesis (Twisted Chronicles LLC)
Victoriana (2nd Edition) (Cubicle 7 Entertainment)
Weapons of the Gods (Eos Press)
What Lurks Beyond (d20) (Cutter’s Guild Games)
World of Darkness: Antagonists (White Wolf Publishing)
World of Darkness: Ghost Stories (White Wolf Publishing)
World of Darkness: Mysterious Places (White Wolf Publishing)
Wraeththu (Immanion Press)
Wraith: the Oblivion (2nd Edition) (White Wolf Publishing)
Wraith Players Guide (White Wolf Publishing)
Zorcerer of Zo (Atomic Sock Monkey Press)

TV Series and Movie Reviews:

1408 (Weinstein Company)
2001 Maniacs (Lions Gate)
28 Days Later (20th Century Fox)
28 Weeks Later (20th Century Fox)
30 Days of Night (Sony Pictures)
300 (Warner Home Video)
4400 (Season One) (Paramount Pictures)
Aliens vs. Predator (20th Century Fox)
An American Haunting (Lions Gate)
Batman: The Dark Night (Warner Bros)
Beckoning (Zan Media)
Beyond the Wall of Sleep (Lions Gate)
Blood & Iron (Hellboy) (Starz / Anchor Bay)
Better Off Undead (Newbeat/ Head Trauma)
BloodRayne (Uwe Boll Productions)
Cemetary Gates (Kismet / Graveyard)
Cigarette Burns (Masters of Horror)
Cloverfield (Paramount Pictures)
Darkness (Dimension)
Devil’s Rejects (Lions Gate)
Doctor Strange (Lions Gate)
Dominion vs. Excorcist: the Beginning (Warner Bros.)
Dresden Files: The Series (Lions Gate)
Final Fantasy: Advent Children (Sony Pictures)
Fountain (Warner Bros.)
Grindhouse (Weinstein Company)
Grudge (Sony Pictures)
Halloween (Remake) (Weinstein Company)
Hellboy: the Movie (Columbia Pictures)
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Columbia Pictures)
Highlander (Starz / Anchor Bay)
Hitcher (Universal Studios)
Hostel (Sony Pictures)
Kakurenbo (Us Manga Corps)
Pan’s Labyrinth (New Line)
Psycho (Universal Studios)
Quarantine (Screen Gems Pictures)
Ring 2 (Dreamworks / Universal Studios)
Saw II (Lions Gate)
Serenity (Universal Studios)
Silent Hill (Sony Pictures)
Sin City (Dimension)
V (Mini-Series) (Warner)
Vampire Hunter D (Urban Vision)
Wanted (Universal Pictures)
Werewolf Hunter (Lions Gate)
Wind Chill (Sony Pictures)

Video Game Reviews:

Assassin’s Creed (UBI Soft)
Bioshock (2K Games)
Clocktower 3 (Capcom)
Dark Corners of the Earth (Call of Cthulhu) (Bethesda)
Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick (THQ)
Mass Effect (BioWare)
Resident Evil: Outbreak (Capcom)
Rule of Rose (Atlus)

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2. Flames Rising’s Reviewer Rewards Program
3. Flames Rising Favorite Horror Game Contest!

Available at Amazon.com

A Celebration of Comic Books by the Women Who Love Them

If someone had handed me a copy of Chicks Dig Comics when I was younger I would not have known what to do with it. Growing up as a comic book nut during the 80s and 90s I never saw girls reading comics so the title alone would have thrown me for a loop. While my brother and I devoured stories about the X-Men, Captain America and Superman my sister wanted nothing to do with them. I spent a lot of time in my local comic book shop and I cannot recall ever seeing a woman in that little hole in the wall.

It was not until I went to Ball State University in the mid-90s that I began to meet women who were interested in comics. Even then they were still very much outnumbered and it was not until sometime after the beginning of the new millennium I began to see a shift in the demographics. No one can deny that the comic book industry and its fans have changed and will continue to change in the future.

Chicks Dig Comics is a compilation of articles, essays and interviews surrounding the topic of women and comic books. Lynne M. Thomas and Sigrid Ellis have gathered an impressive array of writers, artists, critics, editors, businesswomen and above all else, fans of comic books to write about their introductions to comics, their inspirations and their work in the industry.

I found Chicks Dig Comics to be very entertaining, informative and quite moving all at the same time. Comic books have always had a way of affecting the lives of the people who read them. I believe many of you will enjoy these accounts of women who have been influenced by comics while also making a very important impact on the world of comic books as well.

Review by Michael Holland

No related posts.

Available at Amazon.com

Fantasy as a genre is rife with rich worlds, dense descriptions, and complex cultures. As a reader (and a writer) I’ve always been fascinated with how other authors explore cultures within the context of the genre. Sometimes, a culture is revealed through a character’s actions or speech patterns; other times, through the way a particular town or setting is described.

In my experiences, the majority of the books I’ve read keep diverse cultures at the background of the story instead of the forefront. Intellectually, I understand why this is. Often, there’s a lot of world to explore and, in the fantasies I’ve read, that means the story matches that as well. Still, I’ve often found my reading has been bereft of the richness of contemporary stories that were firmly rooted in “a” non-European culture in “this” genre. Is that a fault of the industry? No, it just means there’s been a gap in my library that this picky reader hasn’t been able to fill since I first read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho many years ago.

Now I have.

To understand why Throne of the Crescent Moon is important as a story, I feel I should point out that this tale is a lot like the mythical ouroboros. There’s a beginning and there’s an end, but you can’t quite see the separation of the head and the tail (or the skin and its bones for that matter). Reading this work feels like you’re dropping into a hustling, bustling world that already exists. This, truly, is where the writing excels. This isn’t a story where an inspired cultural iteration is popped in. Every word matters. The fluid, musical style is important to the characters and to the plot. The structure? Equally so, even though it is a traditional sword and sorcery tale, in the sense that there is a quest. The reason why the group must fight together and save the day still boils down to the unique talents they bring to the table, but it’s not the only reason. Friendships do develop over time and while that happens here, there’s a sense of established community and obligation that comes into immediate play. By focuses on a specific town and small parts of the setting, we experience the characterization of its people moreso than we would if the emphasis was on the threat Dhamsawaat faces.

Dhamsawaat is the capital city of a country called “Abassen.” Every element narrated here — from the food, buildings and traffic to the clothing, relationship descriptions, and religious beliefs — is reminiscent of ancient lands where Middle Eastern empires once flourished under the hot sun. The main character, Adoulla, is an unlikely hero and the main focus on the tale. He’s not the plucky young warrior, he’s older and more experienced. This wisdom is often crucial to the progression of the plot and the remaining the characters. This realistic take on the group is refreshing and more realistic because we can grow with characters like Zamia more easily because of their humanity. Even so, each character adds a different aspect to the danger, to the tapestry woven, and to the community. While the idea itself — a cursed villain shrouded in myth — isn’t new, what you’ll be drawn to are the characters who live out life stories of their own.

For these reasons and more, I recommend Throne of the Crescent Moon as an exemplar of pointed, character-driven fantastical fiction that provides us with a sense of wonder about our own world. It is, truly, poetic and worthy of the accolades the book has already received.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

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Available at Amazon.com

Issue: Dear Creature OGN
Writer: Jonathan Case
Artist: Jonathan Case
Publisher: Tor Books
Release Date: October 2011
Price: $15.99

“Deep beneath the waves, a creature named Grue broods. He no longer wants to eat lusty beachgoers, no matter how their hormones call to him. A chorus of crabs urges him to reconsider. After all, people are delicious! But this monster has changed. Grue found Shakespeare’s plays in cola bottles and, through them, a new heart. Now he yearns to join the world above.

Rising from a brine of drive-in pulp and gentle poetry, Jonathan Case’s debut graphic novel Dear Creature is the love story you never imagined!”

Dying Breath: 5.0 out of 5
How in the world did I miss this book when it came out? Inside of the covers of this book, lies a story that blew me away and artwork that melted my eyes out of their sockets. The visuals were so GORE-Geous, and they were only presented in black and white. The real kicker though was the way that Case was able to show expression through facial features and body movements. Every panel had a real life feel to it and it just hit home with me, as it got me invested in the cast on a more personal level, like something you would get from watching a movie. The story itself nailed so many different levels; Horror ?, Humor ?, Romance ?, Mystery ?. Every single one of those concepts is covered and played out so well.

The jokes from the crabs had me rolling on the floor. The horror elements were classic, which is what I expected with a “Monster” being the main character. The huge surprise was the dialogue. The sheer amount of time that Jonathan had to put into this writing to get it right would be mind-blowing to find out. It did take some getting used to, but once I got it down it was just poetry on the page. If you know me, you know I don’t give out 5 out of 5?s often, and this book is more than deserving of the highest score. It is so solid on every single level that I am sad to think it is over now.

Do yourself a favor and make sure to check this one out. I missed out when it came out and I regret that I had to wait for it to be nominated for a Ghastly Award to finally have a chance to check it out.

Artwork: 5.0 out of 5
Story: 5.0 out of 5

If you would like to buy or know more about Dear Creature you can find it at DearCreature.com and Amazon.com.

Review by Dan Royer

Related posts:

1. Random Esoteric Creature Generator Review

Available at RPGNow.com

When I first got this assignment, I was underwhelmed. Why on Earth would I care about guns from a century ago? I’m not the manliest guy in my gaming group. I zone out when people start talking weapons and cars. Tell me you’re shooting at the red convertible with your rifle and I’m good. I know for the Purists out there that is a lot more to it than that, but that’s your game, not mine. I’ll research a little out of love for my gamers, but I’ll be researching the occult side of the horror game quite a bit more.

I mention all of this because this book seemed to be akin to the ultra-horrible World of Darkness: Combat book or some lame D&D PDF for an arrowhead. As much as my ego forbids me to say this, I will: I was wrong about this book.

Maybe it’s the history buff in me or maybe I just like old weapons more than I thought. Whatever the reason, the angle this book took won me over. Now that I’ve gotten all personal with you, let me tell you about the darn thing.

What you get with this PDF is 130+ pages of information about weapons of the era along with a few extra files for charts and specially crafted Investigator sheets. And I should point out that this book is geared towards the player, not the Keeper (though any Keeper worth his or her salt will make excellent use of it).

Starting with the cover art, I liked the look. It breaks away from typical Call of Cthluhu or even Delta Green by having sexy Goth-inspired gun-molls emptying a Tommy gun while a grizzled Senior Citizen reminds you just how dangerous one has to be to make it to 65 while battling the Mythos’ many minions. The artwork is a mix of drawings, photography, old advertisements, and more. It’s a terrific blend of flavors the fit the writing so very well. The layout of the book is simple, but with enough fonts and layout tricks that it has a certain Great Gatsby feel to it. The great charts seemed free of contradictions though I confess I should let one of my weapon-loving friends take a closer look at those bits.

Vortisch’s take on the subject won me over after only a few pages into the book. Yes, this is a book on weapons of the 1920s and 30s. A slew of gun and knife drawings like those from the old Palladium collections would have left this gamer cold. Instead, he opens with rule tweaks for Call of Cthluhu. Readers get rules for shooting when it’s too cold or too hot, shooting at something underwater, quick draws, and much more. It then delves into the world’s views on weapons during these twenty years. Want to know how Australian authorities might react to your group of Investigators having a shootout in downtown Sydney? See page 20. Page 25 tells readers where their characters can purchase guns in key cities, along with a street address for those lazy Keepers.

And it is in these details that this book comes out a winner. By the time I reached pictures of guns with their stats beside them, I was hooked. Pistols lead to rifles, which leads to bigger and better things. Before the reader knows it, they are on the chapter about flamethrowers and grenades.

And everyone knows how fun it can be to lob that single explosive in the ever-forgiving Call of Cthluhu setting.

70% or so of the book is game stats for firearms, but each weapon gets enough treatment into their history and the likelihood of happening upon them that the research to make this book happen impressed me repeatedly. I didn’t want to like this book, but I did. I think fans of the game or weapon buffs will too.

Review by Todd Cash

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Available at Amazon.com

Issue: Doctor Spektor Archives Volume 4
Writer: Donald Glut
Artist: Jesse Santos
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: February 2012
Price: $50.00

“Confronting supernatural threats and vengeful monsters, Dr. Spektor travels from Scottish lochs to cursed swamplands–and from the surreal dreamscape of the Egyptian afterlife to New York City’s Chinatown! Collecting issues #19 to #25 of The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor and a Spektor tale from Gold Key Spotlight #8, plus notes from Spektor’s secret files, including a piece on Dr. Solar!”

Dying Breath: 4.0 out of 5
Believe it or not review reader, I have never had a chance to check out Doctor Spektor comics before. Sure I have heard of them, but it was not until Dark Horse supplied me with this great volume that I had my first chance to really check this cast out. The artwork in this volume by Santos is fantastic. He does a great job of keeping the cast consistent from panel to panel. The man can also draw an amazing monster or two. I thought that the Leviathan and the Lurker were the highlights of the bunch, but each stories creature or villain could easily hold it’s own. The stories in this series do feel dated (70?s), but they can hold up with the horror detective tales of today.

For those fans of Cal McDonald, Dylan Dog, or John Constantine you might want to check out Doctor Specktor. The same concept applies here, in that something bizarre is happening and it is up to him to solve it. Each story has it’s own tale, and they play out like a weekly television show. You have the mystery and intrigue to capture the readers from the start, but then they are wrapped up by the end. So there is a good deal of story to be had in these pages. My only downside was that I felt some of the stories we really good, but others were not able to live up to that same level.

Overall this is an amazing collection, that I am very proud to have had the chance to look at. Fans of the horror detectives will easily fall in love with this book, and I think any old school horror fans will be happy to check this out as well. These stories can stand up with the best of them and this book deserves to be on your horror shelf.

Artwork: 4.5 out of 5
Story: 4.0 out of 5

If you would like to buy or know more about Doctor Spektor you can find it at DarkHorse.com and Amazon.com.

Review by Dan Royer

Related posts:

1. Witchblade Volume 5: Firstborn Comic Review

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Alright, my first real RPG book review. Bear with me folks.

Today I’ll be talking about Northlands, the Norse themed sourcebook for the northern realms of the Midgard world. From what I gather Midgard is a homebrew setting writ large. Created with help from a proto-Kickstarter system called Patronage through Kobold Quarterly, fans can chip in to the design process and get special supplements. This is one of the first books to explore outside the Free City of Zobeck that is the heart of the Midgard Campaign Setting.

Overall this was a very well put together book. The maps are good, the art is very nice black and white and the content is engaging and well designed. I’m going to give brief run downs of each chapter with some brief highlights of things I found especially cool. Finally I’ll make some concluding remarks and give an assessment.

Personal Note on Scales

Just to get this out there, I don’t like numerical reviews or stars or some other short cut metric for evaluation. What does 3/5, as compared to 7/10 even mean? Yes something was good but could have been better. I almost made a 3 criteria with two sub criteria metric on a 10 point scale that I would average out at the end to arrive at a seemingly objective assessment of the book.

But why? I thought that telling people about what got me excited about this book would get them excited too. At least a lot more than subjective numbers in an objective suit.

Chapter 1 Intro

The book begins with essentially this mission statement: This is not the historical Norse regions and culture, this is the Norse regions and culture out of the Norse Sagas. While much of this book is based on the world and cultures of the Norse peoples from our past, in Midgard they are living in the legends.

This first chapter is full to bursting with roleplaying ideas, from culture to government, to pastimes, to the Gods and values the Norse hold dear. Some highlights, “Twenty Reasons to Go Raiding”, and simple yet robust drinking rules, with rules for hangovers. This chapter also includes mechanics for debates and contests of boasting and insult, important social skills in the North.

Chapter 2 Regional Info

This chapter is a combines the history of the land with the interactions of its peoples and descriptions region by region with details about locations. Here is my first gripe, it was hard to go back and forth to the nice half page full color map from later on in the PDF. Looking at a region I would have to go back a fair bit to see where it was. Not much of a complaint, but still annoying to me. There is also a full page map at the end of the book as well.

A particular region that I enjoyed was The Kingdom of the Bear, a small region ruled by bears. Awakened bears and lycanthropes do most of the ruling but bears are free to roam. They even have a fairly well traveled trade port protected from raiders out of the nearby steppes by swarms of bees that live around the town. Residents eat so much local honey they are not attacked. Of course the town also ships the best mead in the North all over.

Chapter 3 Player Info

This section is where a lot of the mechanical parts reside. Most of the fun stuff for players is here. It starts with descriptions of the peoples of the North, including optional racial features for Reaver Dwarfs, they out Viking Vikings. Also new class features that make Northern characters much more in keeping with the theme, such as Skald (bard), and a Fate mystery for Oracles of the Norns.

The feats section is dripping with thematic fun; one new type is Achievement Feats. These have rather daunting and story focused requirements and represent acclaim among the people and rulers of the North, such as Dragon Slayer, Lawspeaker and Viking Renown. These feats are a goal to work towards and the chance to take a place of leadership in regional affairs, a great way to expand the scope of adventuring as players gain levels.

Another really cool feat option players have is various masteries of Runes, these give you power over Runes that Wotan claimed during his 9 days handing from the World Tree. Basically runes are minor to medium magic effects that even non casters can use. I will discuss them more fully in Chapter 4 where they are detailed. Finally, just a really great thematic feat is Huginn’s Horde, you gain an unkindness of ravens to go along with your raven familiar and they are a swarm in your square and can cast divination 1 / week.

This chapter introduces a host of traits that build history and connection to the eccentricities of the North right into character creation. Finally there is Viking equipment, a host of historical and mythical weapons as well as new types of mail armor to stay in keeping with theme and history while allowing fighters to get the armor they need. Additionally there is a discussion of Northern economics, mostly a barter system instead of currency.

Chapter 4 Magic

Of course there are new spells and magic items that fit the themes and gods of the North, but the most exciting thing in this section to me was the Rune Magic. This allows characters with no magic ability access to limited magical abilities focused through Runes carved or marked onto things or people.

The Rune Mastery feat discussed above allows a character to use the mastery bonus from a Rune, usually a +1 bonus on certain skill checks, or a new language, or a characteristic bonus in certain circumstances. Also, Runes provide spells known for the purpose of crafting with the Runesmith feat, an expansion on the Master Craftsman feat. So mastering Runes can allow non spellcasters to create magic items with great skill. Taking the Deeper Rune Lore feat allows a character to use one of the powers of a Rune 1/day, there are three powers that increase in power with your level.

Chapter 5 GM Info

This chapter is about the hazards of the North itself, introducing new rules for environmental hazards such as altitude and cold that is colder that extreme cold. Cold so cold that you have weapons being broken by cold; and exposed flesh being frost bitten in seconds.

Another great GM section is about Fate, a very important theme in the North. Using Hero Points from the Advanced Players Guide is a good way to entice players to play into their Fate without having to force them. There are also Fate Afflictions, basically a compulsion mechanically similar to disease that can be acquired by going against or cheating one’s Fate. Such as We’ll Meet Again, when you escape a major foe or he escapes you can sense the direction they are in and this distracts you so much that you have to reroll a successful skill check once per day. It lasts until the foe is found and defeated or you give up pursuit for two months. Little things like this saturate this book; it’s more than new locations, monster, feats and weapons. It’s a whole new way to play.

Chapter 6 Bestiary

Honestly I felt this was the weakest chapter. It’s just new monsters that have been woven into the story and content preceding them. With wonderfully creepy creatures like Nightgarms, she wolves that devour and then birth a pod person like version of someone to infiltrate their community, that this is the weakest part of the book speaks greatly to the rest of it. Many of the monsters mentioned in story, feats and spells are here in this end section, it gives you a look at what you’ve been wondering about the whole time.

Conclusion

On a last note, this is a great book, go buy it. Seriously, if you want to run Vikings need this book. I don’t know much about Midgard and have never heard of Zobeck until writing this review, apparently it’s really cool. But I want to take this book as a full campaign setting and run games, or better yet play in the North. Go on Viking raids, become a leader of the community or a feared stone cold killer. I would take this and set it right into the Land of the Linnorm Kings in Golarian, or better in Baba Yaga’s land. Runes, the Achievement feats, the alternate class abilities, I want to play in this place.

Buy Northlands. Play Vikings. Write Your Own Saga.

Review by Bryce Pearcy
Bryce is gamer who has recently finished law school and hopes to keep playing wargames, boardgames and RPGs while holding down a job. He blogs about 40k and gaming at dissentingdice.blogspot.com. He can also
be found on twitter @bryce963

Related posts:

1. The Ship of Fools (Pathfinder RPG) Review
2. Northlands (Pathfinder) Review
3. Advanced Feats: The Inquisitor’s Edge (Pathfinder) Review

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Issue: Pandemonium OGN
Writer: Christophe Bec
Artist: Stefano Raffaele
Publisher: Humanoids
Pages: 160
Price: $19.95

“In 1951, a mother and her young daughter entered one of America’s most prestigious institutions for the treatment of Tuberculosis, The Waverly Hills Sanatorium. The events that befell them shortly thereafter, both of a supernatural and criminal nature, were some of the most sordid of the times. Based on real events. A true tale of horror, literally!”

Dying Breath: 4.5 out of 5.0
It’s always funny to me how things happen in 3?s. Take this book for example, at the time I read this, I had also just seen a movie involving an asylum and I am in the middle of reading a horror novel about one too. I think that those outside factors easily played into why this book was so great. The artwork was something to behold, as it visually depicted this great horror tale. The characters were so consistent and detailed throughout every panel.

However it was the horror elements that stole the show. Raffaele had a GORE-Geous way of being able to capture the scenes where it was needed most. I still can not remove the image of a crazy doctor from my mind. The angles chosen in these scenes was just so perfect, but they were few and far between for most of the story. Bec deserves a standing ovation what transpired in these pages. From the very start there was always this eerie vibe that could be picked up on, and while I thought that the horror elements were on the lighter side, when they did come up they packed a punch. The dialogue was sharp, and translated nicely into English.

The pacing was fantastic throughout and the ending pulled at my heart-strings A HUGE highlight to this book was getting to the backup material only to find out that Waverly Hills Sanatorium is real, and now I want to know so much more. Overall this is a book that should be sitting in your horror collection. It was an amazing read from start to finish and always had me on the edge of my seat. I really hope that other stories from this particular location can come to life on the comic page, because there seems to be so much more to tell.

BUY THIS BOOK, you will not regret it.

Art: 4.5 out of 5.0
Story: 5.0 out of 5.0

If you would like to buy or know more about Pandemonium OGN you can find it at Humanoids.com and Amazon.com.

Review by Dan Royer

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Available at RPGNow.com

Po’Kesteros, the Lostling.
This is one of the Faces of the Tarnished Souk series NPC’s for use with the Rite Publishing campaign setting/ adventure arc Coliseum Morpheuon. This is a setting of adventures and intrigues in the Plane of Dreams, where people can burn their dreams (Dreamburning) to influence fate and events. Not only can someone choose to burn a dream to control their circumstances but dreams can be stolen. On the Plane of Dreams, a dream is power. From what I can gather this high level setting, 16-20th levels, has roots in Planescape, with intrigue between factions, gladiator games, crazy occurrences, otherworldly landscapes and things unusual and odd to throw at your players.

Now on with the show. This review focuses on a character who wanders the Tarnished Souk, a fantastical marketplace in the Plane of Dreams.

The 16 page book features three versions of Po’Kesteros at levels 20, 15 and 7, with background and how to use him in the setting. The book also features his magic weapons, stat blocks and luckbringer abilities, a new class also created by Rite Publishing. Finally the book includes three templates that can be applied to Po’Kesteros or others to change and enhance an encounter.

First I will discuss the story and usage suggestions for Po’Kesteros, followed by discussion of his game abilities and finally general thoughts on the work as a whole.

Po’Kesteros is a half elf kidnapped by dark fey at birth, and left to run feral as a child. His wild upbringing has created an unlikely assassin who relies as much on his improbable luck as his enchanted knives. He is known for killing more foes by “freakish happenstance” than with his blades, even if something can’t go wrong with one of Po’Kesteros’ opponents, it likely will anyway. The book then goes on to describe how to use him, Po’Kesteros is the ultimate wildcard. His sheer improbability can make an easy explanation for utterly impossible events, or to sweep some GM handwavery under the rug. There are also suggestions to integrate him into several of the adventure sections of the Coliseum Morpheuon, and entangle him in feuds between factions that the PCs might have to deal with.

The majority of the book is devoted to the various stat blocks, magic items and special abilities possessed by Po’Kesteros. He is mostly the Luckbringer class created by Rite, with a few cherry picks for abilities that interact in interesting ways with the Luckbringer. The Luckbringer class is about using your power over probability to influence the world around you in exceptional and, you guessed it, improbable ways. There are also combat suggestions if you want to drop Po’Kesteros in as an opponent for your PCs, as stated earlier he is an assassin and I can see him doing some heavy damage to a PC with a price on her head in just a few rounds before escaping. His Luckbringer abilities, along with his alchemist and ninja cherry picked levels allow Po’Kesteros to ensure that one deadly hit, with enough punch to finish the job and improbably escape retribution. The book helpfully details the options from the Luckbringer class that he can use so you don’t have to have that separate supplement, a nice
touch.

The book also includes a few new to me templates, Adaptable, Preternatural and Trickster; as well as rules for creating fey creatures. The Adaptable template gives situational survivability to a creature. They can change damage types to bypass damage reduction; gain energy resistance to whatever energy type is around them and can gain immunity to unique attacks after being affected by them. The Preternatural template suffuses a creature with magic, giving spell like abilities, spell resistance, the ability to absorb magic and damage reduction negated only by natural weapons such as wood or a fist. A creature with the Trickster template gains spell like abilities to play tricks on opponents, such as turning a sword into a rubber snake or vanishing into thin air.

Overall this is an interesting character that could be fun to further develop what appears to be a rich and diverse campaign setting. However, it suffers from all high level encounters for many systems, especially those derived from OGL d20; pages and pages of stats and numbers and feats and abilities and spells and magic items. That is no fault of either Rite Publishing or Pathfinder, just a feature of the system. I don’t tend to play higher levels because I don’t want to keep track of all of that. But judging by this character and what I have read of Coliseum Morpheuon, Rite has created a very interesting and fleshed out campaign setting that might make me give higher level play a second look.

I would recommend this character to add some unpredictability and chaos to a Coliseum Morpheuon campaign and for those not playing in Rite’s world to give it a look.

Review by Bryce Pearcy
Bryce is gamer who has recently finished law school and hopes to keep playing wargames, boardgames and RPGs while holding down a job. He blogs about 40k and gaming at dissentingdice.blogspot.com. He can also
be found on twitter @bryce963

No related posts.

Available at RPGNow.com

Many of gaming’s long-lived members began as mash-ups of other media. Dungeons & Dragons grew out of a love of Lord of the Rings, The Grey Mouser and Conan. Shadowrun mixed Gibson’s cyberpunk with classic fantasy elements. World of Darkness grew out of Anne Rice and urban fantasy media. Legend of the Five Rings combined Asian fantasy elements like samurai, shugenja and oni with western mythology like Zeus that appeals to audiences that grew up on everything from Kurosawa films to Avatar: The Last Airbender. L5R, as it’s known by its fans, released a fourth edition of RPG rules to celebrate 15 years of blood, steel and honor.

L5R is unique in that it has a huge fanbase from two games featuring its name. It began as a CCG in 1995. The CCG’s most unique feature is the ongoing storyline. Tournaments don’t just offer prizes and bragging rights. The faction that wins a big tournaments will see that victory reflected in later sets. This inspires L5R fans to feature faction loyalty that rivals some major sports teams. These fans were jumping at the bit to play in this world the RPG was released in 1997. But the RPG also drew in fans for a setting that mixed the high fantasy and battles of D&D with the intrigues and scheming of Vampire.

The Emerald Empire, called Rokugan by its inhabitants, is an Empire run by an Emperor chosen by the gods called the kami. The Great Clans serve underneath the Emperor. Each is charged with a duty to the empire by the Emperor. Samurai are expected to do their duty while holding to the honorable code known as bushido. The clans don’t always get along, however, and the things a samurai must do for the good of his or her clan are often at odds with what bushido expects to be done. The clans themselves also have different ideas of what is honorable, offering plenty of great conflict points for roleplaying. For those who prefer monster slaying, the Shadowlands to the south offers plenty of terrible creatures as well as servants of Fu Leng, master of the Shadowlands, lurking within the empire itself. Rokugan is rife with opportunities for everything from courtly posturing to deadly one strike duels in a garden.

The 4th edition book is gorgeous. The company has 15+ years of card art to draw upon. Long time fans of the games will see a few old favorite pieces as well as see how far the art has come. Two page splashes separate each chapter break as well as evocative art inside each chapter. The full-color book also features sidebars and chapter breaks that offer an Asian feel without resorting to the same old tricks from older editions. Good art inspires players and lures in non-players more easily.

The rules are a simple dice pool system. Add a trait and a skill, roll that number of d10s, and then keep a number of d10s equal to the stat. Players can voluntarily raise target numbers to achieve better or more specialized results like called shots. The system is also level and class based. A characters level is based on insight rank which is a score derived from how many ranks in Rings and Skills the character has. Raising rings is a better deal for raising level, but higher skill ratings often unlock useful feat-like bonuses during play. Each character goes to a school that unlocks a new technique (or extra spells) upon a new rank. Each clan offers a variation on the three basic classes of bushi (warrior), shugenja (wizard) and courtier. The clans also offer a fourth school that is unique to their clan and its sensibilities, as well as paths and advanced schools which allow customization by swapping out techniques at different rank slots.

One of L5R’s greatest strengths – and weaknesses – is the 15+ years of metaplot. It makes the world feel more lived in and realistic, but it has built up a rivalry between some fans of the CCG and the RPG. Fourth Edition takes a much different tact than previous editions. The book is set up to play in whichever time period appeals the most to the play group. The 1e pre-Scorpion Clan Coup and the CCG fans turned RPG group looking to play in the most up-to-date setting will find useful ideas here. The game also has sidebars for those people who don’t care about adhering to the metaplot. Mechanical elements such as schools or clans created by the metaplot are presented in an alternate chapter with a brief explanation of where they fit in the official story.

The book is full of useful GM advice. In addition to sidebars throughout the book featuring things like how to adjust L5R’s notorious lethality up or down, a whole chapter is given to adjusting L5R to fit the play group. Suggestions for playing up elements are helpful to groups that want a more high-action wuxia or anime style. The book also suggests alternate ways to use mechanical elements in the book. Not everyone will want to have the recently-developed Spider Clan as part of their game,for example, but the book offers great ways for GMs to reskin and reuse elements of the Clan as Shadowlands tainted infiltrators.

Unfortunately, the area where this fresh approach suffers is in the organization of the book. The basic schools are in one place, but all the advanced school and paths are in a separate chapter. The index helps, especially on the hyperlinked PDF version, but figuring out where to start looking can be time consuming. The book seems to assume players are already familiar with a previous edition of the game. Even the character creation section is a bit scattered with guidelines hidden in the text rather than called out in an easy to use creation summary. Making L5R characters is not that difficult, but handing a new player the book and leaving them to figure it out will leave them frustrated.

The book also ends with an adventure. Adventures in core books feel wasteful. The motive behind the choice is noble – everything needed to get people started gaming in Rokugan in the same place. But with a world like Rokugan with so much to explore, once the adventure is used there’s a lot of space in the core that goes dark. This is compounded by the fact that there is already a free introductory adventure available on the web that was released as part of Free RPG Day (Legacy of Disaster) as well as one available as part of the GM screen bundle (Descent into Darkness). The adventure itself is okay, but it feels like a poor substitute for the Tournament of the Samurai adventure in the original corebook.

Review by Rob Wieland

Related posts:

1. Legend of the Five Rings: Strongholds of the Empire Available Now!

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Issue: Alabaster: Wolves #1
Writer: Caitlín R. Kiernan
Artist: Steve Lieber
Publisher: Dark Horse
Release Date: April 2012
Price: $3.50

“For nearly as long as she can remember, Dancy Flammarion has fought monsters, cutting a bloody swath through the demons and dark things of the world, aimed like a weapon by forces beyond her control or questioning.”

Dying Breath: 4.5 out of 5
Phew! I have to admit that I originally feared this would be a book along the lines of Twilight, due to the popularity of such franchises being turned into comics. It is not though. What is presented within these pages is a story that is visually breathtaking, mentally stimulating and when combined they create one hell of a first issue. The artwork in this book did take me a little bit to adjust to, but after 5 pages I was on board. The character designs are great, and the consistency is seen from panel to panel.

The most GORE-Geous thing in this book though, was the werewolf transformation. Easily the visual highlight of the issue for me. The story itself was something I expect from a #1. It grabs you with what it presents, yet leaves enough mystery to have you come back for more. The dialogue was fun, sadly I was not able to solve any of the riddles (I stink, I know).

I love the concept so far and really can not wait to see how it plays out. This issue was more than I expected and now I expect so much more from this series. Check this one out!

Artwork: 4.5 out of 5
Story: 4.5 out of 5

If you would like to buy or know more about Alabaster: Wolves #1 you can find it at DarkHorse.com and Amazon.com.

Review by Dan Royer

Related posts:

1. Pathfinder Tales: Prince of Wolves Review

Available at ThunderStormBooks.com

“How I wish, how I wish you were here.

Wish you were here.”

- Pink Floyd, “Wish You Were Here”

Perspective is the most powerful force at work in the universe. The angle, pitch and yaw of how things are viewed, how things are not seen, and how things are interpereted by the human heart and mind’s eye forges reality for an individual. Often times this reality, perceived by the individual, exists inimical to equidistant realities nurtured and sustained by other individuals-at-large.

Driving Through the Desert presents such a singular and stalwart perspective. A universally hale perspective. The reality of Driving Through the Desert as engineered and presented by the novella’s author, Donna Lynch, is shared – for the most part – by two individuals; Kam and Henry.

Kam and Henry are on the run from one place to another place where they hope to get lost in the din and bustle of a city. They have no money to speak of. They have no resources. They have a stolen car, a set of blood-soaked clothing for each of them, and each other.

That is all.

The desperation and tension that Lynch is able to convey from the opening salvo of the story is relentless. Consternation dominates the vast majority of Kam and Henry’s story as they try to make sense of their situation and, in kind, survive their situation as it evolves around them through circumstances, memories of what led them to where they have come to travel, and coping with grief while each are in their respective states of individualized shock and awe.

To dive right in an tell a potential reader what Driving Through the Desert is about would spoil the whole of the story for the reader. What is more important, in my opinion, is the expression of what the novella is not about. There are no vampires. There are no zombies. There are no werewolves lurking in the desert crags under a full moon. There are no monsters other than sorrow, anger and regret persuing Kam and Henry across the desert. The horror presented to the reader is not necessarily abject. The horror is a bit more subtle and surreal. The horror of Driving Through the Desert is encompassed in the shallow breathing and rapid pulses of a young woman and man, filthy, stinking of road grime, sweat and someone else’s blood as they run from one reality and hope for a new one at the end of an exceptionally finite tank of gasoline.

Because even in hell, there is hope.

Lynch is a powerful author. She does not waste much time with character sketches and appearances. She has the ability to give very basic descriptions of her protagonists and allows the readers’ minds to build the characters in their heads for themselves. This technique almost forces the reader to use the tatters of clues afforded by Lynch to create Kam and Henry from head to toe, and in doing so, the reader starts to fall into a sense of caring and fear for the pair. However, Lynch’s true power is in her affinity with the immersion of the reader into a setting that, for lack of a better descriptor, is simply “wrong” on so many different levels at many different times for many different reasons. She is able to knit a world from the wasteland of the generic “desert” and turn it into something darkly mystical and instinctually foreboding. She takes dust and vultures and makes them ill omens. She takes a lonely, sand-weathered diner and makes it into an abbatoir. She takes two people who could be any of us or any of our friends and family and she tosses them into this world head-first by the scruff of their necks. Lynch’s ability to convey the sense of loss, the nearly sterile anger born of grief, and the confusion of complete and total unpreparedness for a given situation are expressed through her written word in the same manner that a barber runs a straight razor across a customer’s throat with a single, fluid motion, wipes the razor on his apron, and repeats the action. When Lynch’s blade has passed over the reader’s conciousness, the smooth flesh radiates with the empty coldness of separation from that which has become familiar.

It almost seems that while the author is fearless in her expression of her ideas, her protagonists are nothing even close. Terror and tension are all that Kam and Henry have to keep them company through their drive, and Lynch ensures that niether of them get much of a break from the former or the latter.

A mere 95 pages from introduction to d’enouement, Driving Through the Desert is so fast-paced, so jacked up to a nearly “Eraserhead” level of tension (ironic, given the author’s name), and so artfully painted with words that tend to pluck at the reader’s emotions like a cello, the book is almost like experiencing what the coyote felt every time he fell into a canyon and made a little mushroom cloud when he hit the bottom as the roadrunner “meep-meep!”‘ed at him.

It will knock the wind out of you, if nothing else.

Review by Shannon Hennessy

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Hmm… an Editorial on that contentious question: semi-naked female characters. Traditional game fare, perhaps, but provoking comment. Being of the female persuasion but pragmatic rather than sexist, my only complaint is that if I were participating in a fantasy adventure I’d want a decent layer of armour between me and the monsters – and that doesn’t mean hiding behind the nearest paladin! A few bare-chested blokes would be nice, to maintain balance, though.

The first article proper introduces a Shaman character class for Pathfinder. Opening with an evocative narration of a shaman performing a divination (not for the squeamish, she’s using rabbit entrails!), the class is described as very druid-like, recognising the spirit with all components of nature. They are shape-shifters and healers, whilst the most powerful can send their very essence forth from their mortal body on a spirit quest. Spell lists are limited, but unlike most divine casters a Shaman does not have to prepare but can cast any spell he knows, up to his limit, when he chooses. They have a bond with an animal spirit, which takes the form of the animal in question and acts pretty much like a companion. As they gain in levels, they learn Totem Secrets – such as the ability to use entrails for divinations (or a less messy alternative involving interpreting the flight of birds) – and gain other abilities. Quite a fun class, particularly in wilderness adventures or when there are lots of barbarians around, although I’m not sure just what benefits there are over choosing a druid. Probably more style, and the variety is always good…

Next comes Daughters of Lilith, an article about the ecology of the succubus. Written in academic style, ostensibly with research assistance by a wizard called Oziel, it looks at the possible origins of succubi and moves on to dicuss their appearance and behaviour… even their growth and development from childhood. The concept of succubi celebrating their birthdays is quite unusual, as is the startling fact that apparently very few are actually able to bear children themselves, despite their tendency to engage in fornication whenever they get the chance. There’s also a sidebar on the male equivalent, the incubus… overall, this is not an article for the prudish although it’s all in the best possible taste. You may want to consider your group carefully as you decide how much (or if at all) you will incorporate into your game. If you do decide they’ll be suitable, there are several neat plot ideas laid out, while the rest of the article is quite ripe for plundering for ideas. And there are a few new powers, feats, actions – and a quite scary curse spell – for those who enjoy adding variant game mechanics to their monsters.

Then comes a thought-provoking piece on mystery cults as a way to make the religions encountered in your game world more interesting. There’s plenty of historical precedent, and they don’t even have to be evil – just a group which prefers to hold worship rituals in private. Public worship may also happen in overt temples, and even participants in mystery cults may not be required to hide their membership – they just don’t talk about what happens in their ceremonies, and may have secret doctrine that is not shared with outsiders. The article then runs through the basics of designing such a cult, along with suggestions as to how to use it to effect in your game.

The next article is a look at Clerical Conflicts, by Tim and Eileen Connors. Within the alternate reality of your game world, the deities your cleric characters revere are real (whatever your views about religion in the real world might be), and they have the potential to make personal demands on their followers. Even if the deity doesn’t intervene directly, the church or other religious organisation may well give that cleric orders. These can lead to powerful opportunties for role-playing and character development, as well as being a potent way to introduce plot events… and the real fun begins when the organised church wants something different from the desires of the deity they ostensibly serve! Plenty of ideas are presented here, along with notes for the Pathfinder ruleset. The ideas will work whatever system you prefer, of course.

This is followed by an article asking a question that’s puzzled me over decades of gaming: Why No Monotheism? Real-world religions include several monotheistic faiths, most of those with a pantheon of gods are confined to ancient history. Yet fantasy games have pantheons of deities galore, or at least gods who do not insist that their followers never, ever worship anyone else. The author comes up with some compelling reasons for why things are the way they are in the heavens of your favourite games… and presents ideas for how you can, if you wish, have a monotheistic religion and still have a good game without offending your more religious players!

Next comes a whole bunch of Divine Archetypes. Why should clerics have all the religious adventures? Lay followers can be as devout, gain special abilities, and serve their god in far more active ways than attending temple on the relevant holy days. You might also use some of these to ensure that all members of the party feel fully involved in a campaign that centres on the divine… rangers specialising in hunting undead and incorporeal spirits, fighters with celestial companions on the battlefield – there’s even a fighting style for monks called the ‘angel fist’ to play with. I wish I’d had access to them a few years ago when running a campaign in which the characters formed a party of missionaries sent out on behalf of a deity to explore and convert unknown parts of the game world!

What else? There’s an enlightening interview with Bill Slavicsek, some intriguing backgrounds in magic for the AGE ruleset – alchemists, druids, illusionists, and seers – while Skip Williams muses on heavy armour and flat-footedness in his rules query column. Then we meet the Scriveners of Allain, a bunch of scribes for D&D 4e, who have formed a cult practicing secret rituals based around glyph magic… and noted for their talents at taking revenge on those who have wronged them! Treasures from the depths under Midgard, the saints associated with the worship of Mavros, and a really creepy wizard’s familiar which bonds to the wizard’s very flesh follow, with strange goings-on in the Pathfinder Society and amidst Zobeck’s bandits rounding out this issue… an issue well worth the reading, with masses of things to spark your imagination and make any campaign divine!

Review by Megan Robertson

Related posts:

1. Kobold Quarterly # 20 Review
2. The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design Review
3. Kobold Quarterly 16 Review

Available at RPGNow.com

Pinnacle Entertainment brings Deadlands’ fans a monster tome (337 pages/no ads) that focuses on fleshing out Native American characters. There is also a bit of metaplot going on with Raven and his schemes. Coupled with the apparent removal of a major threat, the book has a very “new” feel to it, similar to what Shadowrun captures with its constant updating calendar.

Despite its size, the book is truly a supplement, a gorgeous supplement loaded with all the bells and whistles one expects from a corebook.

The layout follows the Deadlands format by starting with fourteen pages of the Disputed Lands edition of the Tombstone Epitaph. Here in the fictionalized reporting, readers get a glimpse of where the setting has taken its twists and turns. From there, the players’ section takes up only 26 pages before the rest of the book (minus five pages for an index) is devoted to the Marshall. Again, this is a supplement and this off-kilter distribution of material proves it. I personally don’t care if players read the whole book (everybody at the table should have one in a healthy gaming society) , but I’m a big believer that it does take away a bit of the fun.

The “look” of the layout in terms of art is fantastic. The bulk of the book has a lush, yet subtle back splash. It depicts a canyon landscape at the bottom of each page that morphs into the open Western sky and then morphs again into some mapping layouts. The sidebars (and there are plenty) are well-placed throughout the read without making readers forget the entire purpose for the sidebar while they read it.

The artwork was mostly a win for me, but it did have enough misses for me to comment.

This book is a full-color bad boy, the kind I would recommend buying in its dead tree glory rather than cramming it into your portable library (Heck, do both!). I think the book’s color is where the artwork went wrong for me. Deadlands started out as a black and white line with an artwork akin to cowboys and comic books. I liked it in a very EC Comics sort of way. The artwork in this book should feel the same way, but doesn’t. Something about the coloring just jacked it all up for me. One exception is what I consider to be the oddest single page in this book (Pg. 31). It’s a black and white piece showing two bikers against a locomotive. Something about the piece just works, even though it really shouldn’t. I should mention that Deadlands: Reloaded’s artwork didn’t distract me as much as the artwork here.

What about the writing? Well, skipping directly to the “Makin’ Heroes” section will give readers a wealth of material to use for creating Native heroes. There is a solid list of available tribes and a blurb for each (the book points out that true research needs to go beyond a game book). There are new Edges like “Gallows Humor,” new Hindrances, and new Powers. Powers gets the most treatment as patron spirit powers are detailed.

Next is a section on gear. While this section starts out favoring the Last Sons’ side of things, it is when it kicks into the spy gear of the Agency that it becomes interesting. James Bond meets the Old West as players get access to exploding pocket watches, false playing cards, and Black Dusters.

At this point, the book is devoted to the Marshall’s Section, which is broken down into six meaty bits. First, the metaplot is updated as evil experiences a major setback. Then, as the realizations of what has happened sinks in, the section on setting rules becomes very effective.

For example, let’s use the seven deadly sins for a moment as an example without giving away anything from this portion of the book.

In Game X, the world’s worst enemies are scions of the Seven Deadly Sins. For the purposes of the story, Greed has gotten very powerful, so powerful there are minor rule changes to affect anything related to wealth. There are Charisma adjustments, morality rolls regarding money, and so forth. This is exactly what Last Sons offers in the second portion of the Marshall’s Section.

Strange Locales comes next and, with the changes to the landscape this supplement provides, there are some excellent strangeness to uncover. Some familiar towns no longer…behave the same way. Some character types will not be happy about the changes (a good reason not to let the players read this going into the campaign). Most of this section provides great examples of the writers mixing fact and fiction in interesting ways (Just ask a certain 16th President/Vampire Hunter).

The rest of the Marshall’s Section is devoted to one-shot adventure seeds and campaigns.

There are a wealth of stories to be told in this new setting and the writers saw fit to pen out a few for fans. There are 100+ pages devoted to various adventures, making it the biggest component to the book. I obviously ain’t gonna tell you anything about them expect that the campaign is deadly, deadly.

It’s more fun to play in these scenarios rather than just read ‘em.

As a long time fan of Deadlands, I enjoyed this book because it shook the living Hell out of the setting. Good games do that, which I guess means this is a good game. It’s a massive addition to the setting, one I think came later than expected. Maybe it was just being fashionable.

My scores for the game are:

Artwork: Four out of Five Dice (layout and cartography pull out a high score)
Writing: Five out of Five Dice (like the shake-up/like the rule amendments to said shake-up)
Overall: Five out of Five Dice (Great Supplment/Fun Read)

Review by Todd Cash

Related posts:

1. Deadlands board game to be released in 2009
2. For A Few Dead Guys More (Deadlands) Review

Available at RPGNow.com

Introduction

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, the main books that describe Tolkien’s ‘Middle Earth’ have been the subject or inspiration of a great many games down the years. Computer games, RPGs and others have all fed on his rich world-building and sense of epic adventure which, itself, comes inspired by Celtic and Nordic myths such as The Ring Cycle.

ICE defined the Lord of the Rings in roleplaying terms for many, many years and to many their work is still the defining work on The Lord of the Rings in the RPG hobby, though as a ‘slimmed down’ version of RoleMaster it wasn’t the most accessible and the rules sometimes didn’t make absolute sense.

The Decipher version tied in nicely with the movies but somehow never really managed to break out of that ‘licensed’ ghetto that some games fall into and never really managed to catch that many people’s attention.

I started out gaming with ICE’s Middle Earth Roleplaying and every fantasy game under the sun incorporates Tolkien-style elements and inspiration at some point or another. Any game trying to live up to Middle Earth has a lot standing in its way from comparisons to previous games and the attention of Tolkien fanatics and scholars to the fact that whatever the source material, it’s still ‘just another’ fantasy game.

Story

This book describes an adventuring world that takes place some years after the end of the events of The Hobbit. The dragon Smaug is defeated, the lands of his desolation are being reclaimed. The dwarves have a king under the mountain again and Mirkwood is beginning to be cleansed.

The characters come into this new and even hopeful situation, ready to become heroes. There are still orcs and spiders, ruins, bandits, tensions between the people who became allies at the battle of the five armies. Plenty of opportunities for heroism and adventure.

Rules

The rules of The One Ring are a bit of an odd mixture of old-school and indie design elements and there’s much that reminds one of board game design as well. One can see hints of influence from White Wolf, FATE, Warhammer 3rd Edition and even, perhaps, from the Lord of the Rings MMORPG. The game is neither a true narrative game nor a crunch-heavy traditional game but falls somewhere in the middle – which is something that suits me just fine as that’s where I fall.

The game uses a d12 for all rolls and this is accompanied by a variable number of six sided dice, depending on your capability, skill and so on. One irritant is that the game uses ‘novelty dice’ and while they’re not essential to play – you can make do with normal dice – they do make things a damn sight easier. Integral to the rolls are two special faces on the 12 sided dice (the eye and a gandalf rune) marking critical success and failure, and the way the numbers are marked on the six-sided die, half outline, half solid and the 6 marked with a tengwar rune.

Success or failure is denoted by the total that you roll and the degree of success by how many tengwar runes you roll. The d12 being a flat roll means a ‘crit’ occurs on a flat probability curve while numerical totals themselves are more upon an average curve, depending on the number of dice. This is a peculiar mix of probabilities and it’s hard to tell how that will play out on a mere read through. Such common critical successes and failures is good for heroic, luck-of-the-draw games but TOR is written as a much more low key game, perhaps more suited to the average results you get from multiple dice.

The rules do reflect the preoccupations of Tolkien’s work, the importance of race and heritage, the importance of morale, the spread of corruption and weakness in the hearts of men. It does manage to avoid the ‘ubermensch’ problems with Tolkien elves, though this might annoy some purists I think it’s a good way to keep them under control. That said, the emphasis on race and past can be something of a straitjacket and character customisation isn’t as broad as it could be. Given that it bucks the current trend of super-competent starting characters and gives you a genuine learning curve, that’s not so bad.

There are formal downtime rules, called the ‘Fellowship phase’ which are welcome and it’s nice to have these sorts of things codified. Something we’re seeing in more games besides TOR of late. Again, this can be a little restricting but a skilled GM (Or ‘Loremaster’) should be able to overcome all these strictures.

Combat feels quick and quite deadly, not something to be undertaken lightly, but if the Loremaster wants to avoid total party wipes there are several ‘outs’ he can employ, or he can play it hardcore.

Character death and retirement is softened in its impact by rules for passing on a legacy to the characters that come after you. With the various books that will make up the series moving the timeline on this is a wonderful idea (one I’ve been toying with myself for other games) but ‘missing’ are rules for founding a family or dynasty and playing your own character’s children – something I’d like to see appear in later supplements.

People who are dismissive of The Lord of the Rings often talk about it as a ‘long walk’ with a little action here and there but travel and the landscape is an important part of Tolkien’s work and the atmosphere of his books. There are extensive travel rules then, and they’re a good thing to have. Wandering and exploration being such strong hooks for adventurers. Given the lighter rules-touch elsewhere this can feel a little strange, but it’s welcome nonetheless.

The Loremaster’s rules are mostly just a reflection of the character rules. The bestiary is a little wanting but covers the basic orcs/goblins, trolls, wargs and wolves that turn up so readily in Tolkien’s work as well as the spiders of the Mirkwood. Tolkien didn’t really use a great many monsters in his epics and so it’s not all that surprising, what is surprising is the inclusion of vampires, a barely mentioned side-note in Tolkien’s work but here presented in the main bestiary.

Some of the rules feel a little too simplistic, but the building of traits, skills etc upon that basic foundation do allow for a greater degree of complexity than first appears. I think it may take 2-3 sessions of play for this to become apparent and for people to settle in to how their characters work, but that’s faster than many games.

Atmosphere

Rules, writing and art all conspire to create a good atmosphere and I would compare the look and feel most readily with Dragon Warriors, likely due to the artistic influence of Jon Hodgson. This is a green and somewhat grubby Middle Earth which makes me think of Exmoor, Stonehenge, The Scottish Highlands and trips to Danebury Ring. It is all very evocative and effective and everything dovetales nicely to convey the atmosphere they’re trying to get across and the mood of play which is respectful – perhaps to a fault – to the source.

Art

Jon Hodgson is, to a great extend, defining the look of British fantasy in the gaming scene for me and this shines through in his work on this book and the work of his compatriots. Despite the international authorship this is a British game through and through and has broken free of the trappings of the LOTR movies. This game has its own distinct look and stands up to the earlier MERP very nicely, even overtaking it thanks to modern full-colour printing. The parchment background reduces readability somewhat, there’s a lot of what can feel like ‘wasted space’ but in this case I believe it enhances the readability and helps make the text clearer.

Conclusion

It is disappointing that a ‘Dark Heresy/Dragon Age’ approach has been taken to the game in that it’s going to be split over several books but fans will, of course, come up with their own filler material for other peoples and places in the meantime. Characters can feel a little straitjacketed and could start to feel samey after a while, this fits the source material and how important heritage is though. It’s a beautiful book with an interesting system that’s well explained and graspable to novices as well as RPG experts.

The three things that hold it back from a perfect score are its limited scope in space and time within Middle Earth and its reliance on novelty dice. While they’re not needed, it would be aggravating to use normal dice.

The last thing is a problem that’s out of the author’s hands. Much as in playing a Star Wars RPG you cannot help but feel that anything your characters might do or get involved in is going to be overshadowed by the characters from the books. In Star Wars there’s, at least, a whole galaxy to play in, Middle Earth is much smaller than a galaxy and the setting of this first book is smaller still, not to mention the time frame slaps you right between the deeds of the heroes of The Hobbit and the coming deeds of The Fellowship.

On the plus side

Fabulous and evocative art.
Deep and respectful approach to Tolkien’s work.
Hybrid game system should satisfy hardcore gamers and story gamers alike.

On the minus side

Novelty dice.
Limited setting
Time/space limitation will make expansion difficult.

Score
Style: 5
Substance: 3
Overall: 4

James ‘Grim’ Desborough

No related posts.

Available at RPGNow.com

Opening with a truly beautiful plan of the ship itself, and detailed background that explains how The Green Lady came to be drifting empty, Marie Celeste-style across the face of the ocean, we continue with little ado into various ways in which your characters can be enticed to explore, to risk the unknown dangers that await… Perhaps the ship they are on is sinking? Or someone aboard the ship owed one of them money? Or they heard a rumour about treasure concealed aboard? Or… maybe you have a better hook, you know what intrigues and attracts them, after all. There are even ideas to deal with the minor hindrance of the group not being at sea when you want to run the adventure!

So, once you have got the characters there, the adventure can unfold, redolent with atmospheric descriptions for you to read aloud. The default situation is a meeting on the high seas, with the characters as passengers on another ship (NPCs provided), but it is straightforward to modify that to suit your needs. Once you’ve got them aboard, everything is described concisely yet with sufficient detail for you to make it all come alive. Sidebars explain references that you may not know or have considered – for example, the use of arbelests, very large crossbows, as ship-to-ship weapons (especially if your world does not have gunpowder and cannons). There’s plenty to explore, things to find, with appropriate checks to ask the players to roll right where they are needed, and that’s before they encounter…

Suffice to say, they are not alone. The ship is not quite as deserted as it appears. In figuring out what went on, in merely exploring, they may unloose terror upon themselves, as well as discover interesting things. There are clear notes on how and where attacks may take place and on likely tactics to be used by the opposition.

There is no real ‘end’ to the adventure apart from the challenge of clearing the vessel and maybe even finding out what happened aboard. A few suggestions for how to make it even more difficult are given, but once the ship is safe once more it will be up to the survivors to decide what to do next. The detailed description of vessel and contents is followed by an NPC Gallery with full stat blocks and role-playing detail for everyone mentioned in the text. Then come detailed notes for scaling the adventure depending on the numbers and levels of the characters who are to enjoy this little salvage operation. Finally there is a player handout in the shape of a page from the ship’s log (which quite looks the part) and full plans – and battlemap tiles – of The Green Lady in all her glory!

Presentation is excellent, with some neat techie bits. Not only is there a properly hyperlinked Table of Contents, but from every page there is a link to take you back there, something rarely remembered! There are lots of links to apposite pages on the d20pfsrd website as well, particularly in things like stat blocks, so that you can check a rules reference without hauling your rulebooks out.

It’s a cracking ‘ghost ship’ adventure, with enough going on to keep characters busy and on their toes – if they do not wish to end up in Davy Jones’s Locker! Yes, it’s dangerous, but ought to provide excitement and enjoyment for players, if not for their characters. Stories to tell in portside taverns for many a year to come.

Review by Megan Robertson

No related posts.

Available at DriveThruFiction.com

Review: MACHINE by Jennifer Pelland
Publisher: Apex Book Company
Disclosure: I was a proofreader for this novel.

Story:

A young woman, Celia, undergoes a procedure to have her mental self – memories, thoughts, and her “soul” – transferred to a mechanical replica of her physical self while her body is put in stasis until a cure for her rare condition can be found. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of controversy surrounding the issue of these bodies. And her wife, Rivka, a very religious woman, chooses to leave her at the most difficult time in her life.

Pelland does an excellent job of weaving current political, religious and philosophical issues throughout the story without beating the writer over the head with the message(s). At the core, it is the story of Celia, a woman that must find her own way after the world has turned its back on her through no fault of her own.

Characters:

Celia is well-written, and you instantly empathize with her and her situation. The irony is not lost on her that at one point in history her marriage was deemed an abomination by some. Now her wife takes a similar stance with machine bodies, abandoning her without warning. Celia is left to fend for herself in a world she no longer understands against strangers filled with hate.

But for some she is a cause, a means to an end. For others, she is nothing more than a thing. Celia must find her own way to understand who and what she is, and what that means. Having her life turned upside down leads her on a dark journey of mutilation and crime. When it’s all said and done, what part of her self will remain?

All of the characters are well-written, and the story moves along at a realistic pace.

Shockers:

There are some very interesting shockers, and I won’t spoil it for future readers by revealing those moments.

Recommend:

Yes. An excellent book, well worth reading and adding to the collection.

Review by Nancy O. Greene

Related posts:

1. The Fields Fiction Review

Available at RPGNow.com

Do is a simple story-telling game for 3-5 players where you take on the part of a gang of Pilgrims. The Flying Temple lies at the centre of a massive universe of floating planets, each different, each special and all contained within a great sphere of air and light. Pilgrims fly from world to world solving problems for people and getting into terrible scrapes along the way.

As a Pilgrim you’re one part Santa Claus, one part Buddhist monk and one part natural disaster, all rolled into one.

Characters are defined by their names, which form two traits one of which describes how you (usually) get into trouble and one describing how you (usually) help people.

My character was Pilgrim Oblivious Locks, he got into trouble by failing to pay attention and not noticing things, he solved problems with his magical, long, flowing hair.

You play the game by taking it in turns to draw beads from a bag. There are twenty black and twenty white (or you can use other colours so long as there are two different ones) and depending what combination you draw and whether you’re in trouble or not determines what happens. The players whose turn it isn’t are called the ‘troublemakers’ and determine what goes wrong for you – if you get into trouble.

Letters from people seeking help give you keywords and these are worked into your story as you go along to solve the problem. You fail if you get too many beads before all the keywords have been dealt with, otherwise you win, huzzah!

Between letters you can change your name and thus how you help and/or how you get into trouble. Oblivious Locks, for example, became Lusty Locks after one adventure and a regrettable flashing incident at the village square.

Lastly, when you decide to finish your pilgrimage one of three things can happen depending how you conducted yourself and the balance of the beads. You can either return to the temple and a life of service and contemplation, you can vanish into the world and settle on one of the planets, or you can transcend and become something more or other.

We had some of each in our games.

Is it a good game? Yes, but it works better as a sort of creative exercise amongst friends. I suspect the real pleasure can and will come in writing up the adventures ‘properly’ from the game notes. We had fun tangling ideas and making a narrative together but it’s much more stilted than an RPG and much more vague. Determining what is acceptable or not in someone’s turn is much more about other people’s ideas than rules and dice and, thus, is a subjective judgement. Something that can become hurtful and problematic if people disagree or don’t like each other’s concepts.

The art in the book is fantastic and inspiring, really brings across the feel of the game.

Some of the included letters are charming or interesting, all show the scope of the potentiality of the game world but some are more than a little… well, pretentious or anachronistic compared to the overall presentation of the work. That’s the only real fly in the ointment of an otherwise very agreeable game.

Style: 5 (Near as damn to perfect).
Substance: 3 (It’s a light game, but there’s still a bit of a consistency issue in the letters).
Overall: 4 (Enjoyable, but there’s definite potential for hurt feelings and disagreements).
Verdict: Small-group filler game, great fun with the right people. Trust and creativity are important though it’s simple enough that anyone can do it.

Review by James “Grim” Desborough

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Issue: The Last Zombie: Neverland #1
Writer: Brian Keene
Artists: Fred Perry
Publisher: Antarctic Press
Release Date: Feb 2012
Price: $3.99

“Lost somewhere between Missouri and Iowa (after surviving the events of The Last Zombie: Inferno), the team stops to repair their vehicles and scavenge supplies. But they soon learn that they aren’t the only scavengers in town when a horde of ravenous, swarming rats attack the convoy!”

Dying Breath: 4.5 out of 5
Chapter 3 is underway of this fantastic series from Antarctic Press. Following the events of Inferno, the team is now on the other side of the fire and exploring the terrain. Fred Perry was on the art duties for this issue and he just killed it. I absolutely love his style. Typically you see it on his other titles to be more up beat and cartoony, so it was a real treat to see him take on something as serious as this. His characters look great, and the way he depicted the whole scene with Doc Russo and Private Johnson was hilariously horrifying, especially when the rats showed up. Keene is still crafting one awesome story, and this arc is shaping up to be the best yet. I love how we get the idea of what is in the house, but are never shown what is there. The dialogue and pacing are perfect and I am so on board for more. I love this series, and I can not wait for

Artwork: 4.5 out of 5
Story: 4.5 out of 5

If you would like to buy or know more about The Last Zombie: Neverland #1 you can find it at www.antarctic-press.com.

Review by Dan Royer

Related posts:

1. The Last Zombie 5 Comic Review
2. Zombie Week: Zombie Tramp Comic Review
3. Zombie Week: Nox Arcana’s Zombie Influx Review

Available at Amazon.com

Cadwallon: City of Thieves is a board game by Fantasy Flight Games set in the independent city of Cadwallon in the world of Aarkalash, made famous by the now defunct Rackham. FFG, apparently, still has access to a lot of old Rackham IP and in partnership with Dust Games is leveraging some of that into game properties, such as this.

The basic premise of the game is that each player takes the role of a small gang of thieves (each gang is made up of four individuals) and these gangs invade a district wholesale on a variety of missions to steal as much as possible and then have it away on their toes.

1. Everyone enters the same district to pilfer anything that isn’t nailed down.
2. The thieves tangle with each other and steal each other’s lewtz.
3. ?
4. Profit.

You only get seven actions spread between your four gang members each turn, as well as a random chance of controlling one of the two militia guards that are patrolling. Each individual mission also has its own little foibles as well as little sub-mission cards that reward you for collecting particular treasures or sets of treasures and trading them in early.

You supplement your tactical play with bonuses from ‘Arcana’ cards, special effects that influence your various actions, let you move in particular ways around the board or make your fighting and other abilities better or those of others worse.

Halfway through the whole thieving farce the alarm is raised and a bunch of portcullis gates slam down, cutting off many routes of escape. Your gang then needs to get out before the end of play or they get captured! Oh noes!

It’s worth your while trading in what you have early, according to the little sub-missions as you can then trade them in for Ducats, which are easier to protect from being stolen and free up more space in your ‘inventory’ for pilfering more items before time runs out.

With multiple players I can see this all getting a bit hectic, too hectic even, with a very chaotic board full of minis all running into each other and a lot of opportunity for backstabbing fun and hilarity, not to mention vindictiveness.

The only drawbacks I can see is that gameplay can be quite repetitive, not normally a problem with board games but you expect a little more from these sorts of games. The other problem is that there just isn’t really enough differentiation between the various characters in the gangs. The special skills bring a slight difference but for characters that look so different you’d expect them to be a bit more individual in their capabilities.

Score
Style: 4 (Good quality plastic minis, great board).
Substance: 3 (Rising to 4 with the free downloadable extras).
Overall: 3.5

Review by James “Grim” Desborough

No related posts.