Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Clock is Ticking on Solomon Kane



In case you hadn't heard, Pinnacle is losing the Solomon Kane license at the end of this year, and so your chance to buy the books or PDFs (if you haven't yet) is on borrowed time.

While Solomon Kane is not fully updated to SWADE, there is a free separate conversion document on Pinnacle's website. The rulebook itself is completely standalone, so you can even run it without a copy of the Savage Worlds rules, since they are already included (though an earlier version, as noted above).

The Savage World of Solomon Kane is one of my favorite books by Pinnacle, and I wouldn't sleep on this one, personally.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Bundle of Holding for Wiggy

Hey all,

Wiggy Wade-Williams, RPG writer and longtime friend of this blog, is in bad shape after suffering *three* strokes this year, and Bundle of Holding has released a Necropolis 2350 bundle to support him.

If you're not familiar with Wiggy's work, he was foundational in the early days of Savage Worlds (including the Savage World of Solomon Kane, which is a bonafide masterpiece in my book), before going on to create Triple Ace Games, where he released Hellfrost and Necropolis 2350 for Savage Worlds, as well as a slew of great games for the Ubiquity System, such as Leagues of Adventure, Leagues of Gothic Horror, and All for One: Regime Diabolique.

He's also spoken very highly of me as a reviewer, citing me as one of his only three reviewers he reads, because of my objectivity in my reviews, and how I "review games for what they are, not what he(I) would like them to be".

He is a ridiculously talented, and prolific, dude, and hopefully he can get back on his feet. His contributions to my gaming, and his vote of confidence in my blogging and reviewing, cannot be understated by me.

Tommy

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Feed Me Games: New social media site for gamers.

Hey all,

I don't know if anyone's still out there reading this, but if you are, thought I'd mention that I'd joined up at Feed Me Games, a social media site geared specifically for gamers. Looks solid so far, just not a lot of people or engagement yet. A few G+ refugees have trickled in over there. Basic interface is very Facebook-esque, without the creepiness of the Zuckerberg data mining.

If you're still looking for a home to settle into in the aftermath of the G+ implosion, I'd check it out.

Monday, May 6, 2019

Regarding The Monster Hunters Club

To anyone who had been following along, backer or non:

Due to growing responsibilities and new opportunities that I have had the chance to pursue, I have resigned from the Monster Hunters Club book as editor. Due to a variety of setbacks, personal and professional, to say nothing of the rules switchover from Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition to Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, and all that entailed, the book missed the fulfillment significantly.

As of the time of this writing, every chapter and piece of material that had been submitted to me has been returned, with edits, awaiting corrections and adjustments. I have encouraged the author and publisher to use the edited material to complete the manuscript, and have informed him that I will not be seeking compensation for the work completed, so he is also encouraged to use the funds budgeted for my editorial fees to find a suitable editor to help him bring the book to completion.

In plain English: I have received zero compensation from the Kickstarter, and I expect zero compensation from the Kickstarter. I fully support Darren's efforts in finishing the book, and I hope to see it in print.

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Tommy's Take on Knights & Legends



After this game came to my attention on The RPG Pub (my online gaming hangout of choice), I decided to give it a peek, see what's inside.

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Sentinel Comics Starter Kit - Second Impressions


Second round of the Sentinel Comics Starter Kit tonight. See Part 1 over here.

So, the way this kit works is there are 6 adventures. One is an introductory adventure that can basically be played standalone. You can even double up the first two without moving on. The next three can be tackled in any order, leading up the grand finale, the sixth adventure. We played The first two last week in Part 1. We played 3-5 tonight. I'm going spoiler lite, but providing my thoughts here.

- I still like the game system. The group has gotten used to the mechanics. Their Green-Yellow-Red abilities are starting to become second nature. They are watching for them, and ready to use them when available. That's a good thing, IMO. There's a lot on a given character sheet, so it can be daunting...but none of my players seem bothered by them.

- There's a LOT of metagaming going on here. They've figured out how to utilize their Principles to farm for Hero Points. They bend their solutions around their powers and qualities to get the best possible dice combinations they can come up with. I'm real accommodating, but I'm also not afraid to say "no" if it doesn't make sense. My players are cool with this. We're also cool with metagaming. Savage Worlds has a bit of that. I like my games to have a lot of "game" to them, or we're just telling stories. That's my take, doesn't have to be yours. If you like systems to "get out of the way"...this ain't it. You decide if that's a feature or a bug. (I call it a feature.)

- The three adventures tonight, frankly, were not very fun to run. Two of them were not much more than just a series of Overcome actions. That wasn't by player decision, that's how they are structured. In fact, they outright failed the last adventure, and I don't blame them, because the Overcome actions being called for were, frankly, silly. It required multiple overcome actions to make it through a maze...but the thing they were overcoming were...hieroglyphics. Not giving directions, but telling a story. It didn't work, and it sucked the energy out of the group. Yes, an experienced GM can circumvent this stuff. But I tried to run the Starter Kit as a starter kit, as close to the rules as possible, to decide how I feel about the product. Tonight's adventures felt incredibly one dimensional.

-  I'm not a big fan of how the information in the adventures is laid out. Part of it is on me, but there are points where the necessary information felt very lacking. I'll get into more detail in Part 3, after we finish off the Starter Kit, and that one will be a little more spoiler heavy.

- I didn't back the Kickstarter, funds being the reason...but I still want the core rulebook. One of the designers told me that one of the qualms we had about the system had already been addressed, and I'm genuinely excited to look at character creation and see how it plays putting your own characters together.

- My feeling right now is: The game is great...I'm just not sold on 3/5s of the Starter Kit adventures (jury is still out on the final adventure until we play it).

Sunday, February 17, 2019