Tommy's Take on ATOE Hero Packs 1 & 2

Yes, more A Touch of Evil reviews. Why? In part because I've been playing the game a lot lately. Now, I'm going to tackle the two Hero Packs, even though they came out three years apart. Hero Pack 1 was released around the same time as the big box expansion Something Wicked, while Hero Pack 2 was released in conjunction with big box expansion The Coast.

A TOUCH OF EVIL HERO PACK 1

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: A small box expansion for A Touch of Evil, retailing for about $25 (or less if you find can a good deal), including a handful of cards to expand the existing Shadowbrook town decks, but also (more importantly) four new heroes and a villain. Each hero comes with a new figure and a Hero Card, and the villain has a large Record sheet. First up, the Heroes:

Harlow Morgan, Inventor: This Ben Franklin looking fellow is high on Cunning and Honor, but not Spirit and Combat. He can generate Investigation each round, due to his genius, and spend Investigation for extra Fight Dice as he brainstorms ways to fight the bad guys.

Lucy Hanbrook: Lucy is actually the daughter of two of the Elders in the game, and appears as an Ally card in the main set. She gets an alternate starting position (the Hanbrook Manor) and the ability to force opponents to re-roll a die, as well as healing quickly.

Adrianna, The Foreign Traveler: A mysterious blind chick that has heightened senses, allowing her to discover the secrets of the Elders easier, as well as allowing her to land blows before her opponents do in combat.

The Scarlet Shadow: Portrayed by the game's designer, Jason C. Hill, The Scarlet Shadow is one of the more unique heroes. He has an Honor of 6, starts off on Road spaces, and can lose Investigation for venturing into town. Oh, and if he rolls a 6 for movement, he can go anywhere on the board. Like Lucy, he is also available as in Ally (in the Allies web expansion).

The new villain:

The Necromancer: A depraved man who has studied dark Magik in order to lash out at those he feels has wronged him, The Necromancer spawns Walking Dead like crazy, sending them towards Town Hall every Mystery Phase, and requires the heroes fighting him to beef up Spirit and Cunning or they'll have trouble. The Necromancer is assumed to use the Vampire Minion chart.

It also introduces a new rule covering the drawing of Ally cards for people already in the game (it can score you both Investigation) and new cards (like Event cards that allow you to add traits together when fighting, or team attacks).

WHAT WORKS: Three of the four heroes are GREAT (I don't care for Lucy), and the Necromancer can be an awesome villain with some modifications (see below). I'm also a pretty big fan of the "add one stat to another" Event cards.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: I've had some bad experiences playing as Lucy, and the Necromancer using the Vampire's minion chart is kinda weak, but a fan-made Necromancer minion chart filled the voice nicely.

CONCLUSION: Three great characters and a villain who is awesome with a bit of house ruling, and this makes for a worthwhile addition to your ATOE games.

A TOUCH OF EVIL HERO PACK 2

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: As with Hero Pack 1, you are getting a small box expansion that retails for about $25, includes 10 cards, four heroes and a villain (this time with its own minion chart). The Heroes:

Abigail Sturn, Student of the Occult: Another "ascended ally", Abigail Sturn first appeared at The Inn in Something Wicked. She can use Cunning in place of Combat, which may not seem like a huge deal...until you realize that she gets +1 Cunning for every book she has, and some of the Book items add to Cunning as well.

Jack Fellows, Privateer: A good alternate to Karl, The Soldier for a low-maintenance character, he's a stout, well-rounded fighter who can re-roll any missed to-hit rolls.

Frederic Leon, Foreign Diplomat: A French diplomat, Leon can acquire his own personal Militia to follow him around the board.

Sara, The Bright Witch: She scores 2 Investigation a turn, trumping Harlow, and can stop damage from being inflicted with a die roll and Investigation expenditure, and gains a bonus against certain monster types.

And the new villain:

The Reaper: Every bit as bad as he sounds, The Reaper is essentially death incarnate. He marks Elders for death, spreads death across the land and gains Wounds every time he kills an Elder. He will strike often, as well.

New cards include Lighting strikes that blast random locations (attacking any Heroes who happen to be there) and location cards like the chest at the Windmill that lets you carry more cards.

WHAT WORKS: Cool new concepts for characters, and a villain that just seems like a horrifying force to deal with.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: I need to play some more, but the new heroes seem a tad powerful compared to the earlier ones...power creep would be a bad thing, as it could hamper the fun factor of playing with parties of new and old characters.

CONCLUSION: The Villain is a bit cooler this time around, but the characters are a little less fun compared to Harlow, Adrianna and The Scarlet Shadow. Still, for an ATOE enthusiast, it's a strong recommendation. I certainly didn't feel like I wasted my money.

A Touch of Evil: To The Last Man Variant

So A Touch of Evil started off with eight characters and a single board...but has now blown up into 24 characters and three boards...it makes it pretty easy to never really play with some of the characters, especially since we tend to use random draws for our characters, so tonight we went with new variant:

- Everyone draws a random hero.
- If that hero is KOed, they are assumed to be killed.
- The Shadow Tracker moves 1 step closer to darkness.
- Roll d6 and discard Investigation, Allies and/or Items as normal.
- During the Mystery Phase, bring a new Hero into play. The Investigation, Items and Allies are given to the new Hero for taking up the fight for Shadowbrook.

We actually tried to play with this variant, but the three characters we drew (Heinrich Cartwright, Harlow Morgan and Eliza the Witch Hunter) actually stayed alive until the Showdown with The Sunken Seven, when Harlow's death pushed the Shadow Tracker to 0.

Still, seems like a promising variant for those times in which we are lamenting not using all the heroes.

Tommy's Take on A Touch of Evil Web Exclusives

Flying Frog Productions has released three supplements to A Touch of Evil that are only available online...and I'll be giving them short reviews here because A Touch of Evil is awesome.

The front of the CD case, a mix of ATOE, Something Wicked
and the first Hero Pack characters.

Track list.

SPECIAL EDITION GAME SOUNDTRACK

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The Flying Frog soundtracks get ridiculed a lot of times, but I'm actually a pretty big fan of them. The soundtrack with the core game includes 13 songs on it, but the Special Edition amps that up to 18. In addition, two cards are included, a Mystery Card and an Event Card. The Mystery Card, Ominous Overture, causes the heroes to gain more Investigation, but also increases the frequency of Mystery cards being drawn. Song of the Dead is an Event card that can prevent KOed heroes from being penalized for their KO.

CONCLUSION: Easily the most "optional" of the supplements, and this is a good thing because it is apparently out of stock at Flying Frog. The bonus cards are nice, but not amazing, so if you don't like the music, you should probably pass on it. Last Night on Earth fans get an easter egg as the Drifter's song in here has callbacks to the Drifter's song in that game's soundtrack.

THE MADNESS

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This is a web-exclusive card set (14 cards) retailing for about $10. The flagship card is The Madness, a wicked card that curses you and takes away your movement...not freezing you in place, but moving you from random location to random location. Cards are included for each of the four "corner" locations on the main board, featuring both useful items like the Rope and Dueling Pistol as well as dangerous encounters.

CONCLUSION: This is the web-exclusive I've noticed the most in play, because Madness is a big deal when it shows up, as it can rob you of your best laid plans...especially if it hits late in the game, when you are gearing up for a Showdown. Definitely recommended.

ALLIES

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Again, 14 more cards, designed to bolster the heroes and their efforts. These largely include new allies like Carla, The Blacksmith's wife and The Scarlet Shadow (available as a playable character in Hero Pack 1), as well as cards like Entourage which allows you to have more allies than normal. The villains get tossed a bone with Domination, which can turn your allies against you.

CONCLUSION: For sheer in-game utility and cool factor, I'd rank this ahead of the Soundtrack and behind The Madness, but still a worthwhile purchase if you're a fan of A Touch of Evil.

Tommy's Take on Don't Rest Your Head

Another review from waaaaaaaay back. Originally published on RPG.net five years ago.

I responded to a few calls for reviews from RPG designers for Horror Week, and the first one was Fred Hicks and Don’t Rest Your Head, hereafter referred to as DRYH. I only had prior passing familiarity with Mr. Hicks and Evil Hat Productions, from the recent swell of support for Spirit of the Century, which I have on my list of “Things To Get”, but just haven’t yet. This review is based off of the PDF version, of which I received a comp copy, which is available at RPGNow for $5.

DRYH is a very focused horror game in which all the PCs are insomniacs who have been sleep deprived for so long as to be “Awoken” to the hidden world around them. Among other things, they find links to The Mad City, the place where all kinds of lost items, missing people, etc. have wound up. It is also a surrealistic industrial nightmare populated with single-minded citizens dedicated to doing their one task in life, bizarre minions influenced by their leaders and controlled by nightmarish beings with tacks for heads and melted faces.

Introduction

This is a small document, clocking in around 82 pages (including character sheet and in-house ads for games like Spirit of the Century andDresden Files. Despite its size, it does include a useful table of contents, with listings for topic headings as well as chapters. There’s not a lot of fiction pieces or flavor text, but there is a nice introduction about insomniacs reaching that breaking point, when they truly awaken to the Mad City, and the realization that if the fall asleep NOW, they’ve written their own death sentence as the Nightmares will be on them in a flash. My (very) casual gamer wife thought that premise sounded really cool when I read it aloud to her…cool enough that I think she’s actually going to give the game a shot.

DRYH describes itself as an “expert roleplaying game” in that it assumes that you have already been playing something else before you came to this table, and so doesn’t go over the basic concepts of RPGs that most other games do.

The first major strike against the game is that Fred Hicks is a self-admitted dice freak, and so it not only requires buckets full of six-sided dice, but at least three different colors of them, as well as two colored bowls and a bit of pocket change. At this point the game could be considered bordering on gimmicky, but some of my favorite systems are Marvel SAGA (complete with its own prop deck) and Deadlands (which requires playing cards, colored paper clips and poker chips), so I’m withholding judgement at this point.

The game jumps right into an example of play, entitled “Running on Fumes”, which throws a bit of confusing game terminology around right out of the gate. I ultimately skipped this, then went back to it after reading the system…having done THAT, it’s a nice example of play…I just wouldn’t recommend reading it first.

Character Creations

As I mentioned above, all characters are insomniacs who are now “Awake”, which also grants them extraordinary powers, some of which are definitely superhuman. Five major questions are posed to the players: “What’s been keeping you awake?”, “What just happened?”, “What’s on the surface?”, “What lies beneath?” and “What’s your path?”. These five questions are not only important, but each heading includes a couple of paragraphs explaining why they are important: for instance, “What just happened?” can literally give the player the ability to dictate the opening scene of the game.

Every character begins with a Discipline score of 3, which is the base ability to do any action in DRYH. Every character has three responses to choose from, between Fight or Flight, depending on your character’s general propensity for running or fighting. Finally, every character gets an Exhaustion Talent, which is something they could normally accomplish but they are now incredibly gifted at (though it drains them) and a Madness Talent, which is something completely beyond human capability. The GM and the player should work together to define exactly how each talent works within the context of the game system.

The System

First off, dice are never rolled unless there is some manner of opposition. There is no such thing as an uncontested roll in DRYH. In general, your PC rolls his Discipline dice to attempt an action, with a 1, 2 or 3 equaling a success. The more successes, the better. Of course, sometimes you need to roll more than three successes…and that’s where you tempt fate. Once per roll, you can increase your Exhaustion by one, adding a single exhaustion die to your dice pool. However, whenever your exhaustion exceeds six, your character crashes, which is BAD.

You can also add anywhere from one to six Madness dice, which don’t stick around like Exhaustion does…but they do threaten mental strain on your character. Using your Exhaustion talent requires having at least one Exhaustion die in your pool, while using your Madness talent requires using whatever minimum number of Madness dice you and your GM agreed to.

In response, the GM rolls Pain dice, which represent the challenge of whatever action you are attempting. If the GM and the player tie on successes, the ties go to the player, but success alone isn’t enough. The highest die in each pool is used to determine the strength of that pool, and the highest strength is then named Dominant for each action. If Discipline is dominant, the player could well recover some exhaustion or sanity. If Exhaustion is dominant, the player’s Exhaustion increases again, edging them closer to crashing. If Madness is dominant, the situation grows more chaotic and the player checks off one of his Fight or Flight responses, reacts accordingly, and edges closer to Snapping. If Pain dominates, the action took something from him, whether victorious or not, and the GM gains a Coin of Despair (which I’ll explain in a bit).

If the player fails, because the GM outrolled him, then the player either gains one Exhaustion or gets a response of the GM’s choice checked, in addition to whatever penalty emerges from the Dominant pool. The system can be quite harsh as the characters hold onto their tenuous grasp on sanity. The one saving grace here is that the GM can’t hit the character with double-jeopardy – i.e., giving them an additional exhaustion die when exhaustion is already dominant for that action.

If Exhaustion reaches 6, the character Crashes, his exhaustion is cleared out, as are his response boxes, and he sleeps for at least a day. However, he awakens with a Discipline of 1 and no Madness or Exhaustion talents until he stays awake for as many days as he slept…if he wakes up. See, as soon as the character crashes, the Nightmares of the Mad City sniff him out like bloodhounds and try to destroy him. If he hasn’t allied with another capable Awake person, his chances of survival are nil.

If all three response boxes are checked, and the player is forced to check another one, he Snaps, which clears out the response boxes, but also drops Discipline by one die and adds a permanent Madness die. If Discipline reaches zero in this way, the character’s madness overwhelms him and he becomes a Nightmare.

If the GM has previously gained a Coin of Despair, they can use the Coin of Despair to add a 6 to any one pool (Discipline, Exhaustion, Madness or Pain), or take a 6 away from any one pool…likely deciding the Dominant pool for an action. There are a couple of restrictions: the GM can’t add a 6 to an empty pool, and if they add the 6 to make Pain dominant, they don’t gain an additional Coin of Despair.

At this point, the system sounds like a no-win scenario for the players, but that’s not completely true…though the game does evoke a sense of desperation. However, hope is a very real commodity for the players to use on their characters as the Coins of Despair, once played, are given to the players as Coins of Hope, and can be used to remove Exhaustion dice, uncheck Response boxes, remove Madness and restore Discipline (though this is costly), and add a single success per coin to the Discipline pool.

The book also includes sample Exhaustion and Madness talents, which are certainly not limited to what is listed here, just given as examples for the players and GM to work with.

Finally, before the book moves on from the system, it includes a one page summary of the game system which is the best selling point for the PDF: print this page out for everyone at your table to keep by their side as you play the game.

Running The Game

This section begins with a paragraph on narrative control: Whether your want to use the traditional “GM talks, player interrupts”, or passing the narration around the table, handing control over to whoever dominated, etc. However, the book takes no default stance on this issue, merely pointing out that it can be played any way, and you should decide going in how it will be played.

This is followed by short paragraphs telling the GM to give everyone their spotlight, to only roll when it matters and using The Five Questions in play so that your stories actually matter to the characters. It expands on this over the next couple of pages, such as using “What just happened to you?” and “What’s your path?” to dictate where the course of the campaign should go. Advice is included on using Flashbacks in the game, as well as Revelations. Resolution warns the GM against pushing his plot above and beyond the character’s goals and motivations.

The Mad City

This section is all about the world where the Awake wind up, the world where the clock strikes thirteen, where broken toys and missing socks live again. The Awake can find entryways into the Mad City everywhere, though the same entryway doesn’t always lead to the same location in the Mad City, and returning through the same portal is an even riskier proposition. The Mad City is populated by The Locals, people lost utterly into the roles they had in the Slumbering City…such as accountants crunching numbers all day and night, etc. The average local is all surface, no depth…they have their reason for existing and exist for that one reason.

The locations in The Mad City include the Bizarre Bazaar, where the PCs can barter for things like emotions, memories and the like. When the clock strikes thirteen in The Mad City, anyone still inside The Mad City is trapped, and the demented authorities attempt to hunt them down…the Bizarre Bazaar is arguably the only good hiding place at that point, due to crowd cover if nothing else. District Thirteen is where The Mad City is governed from, by The Tacks Man and Officer Tock, each twisted versions of a bureaucrat and a policeman, respectively. Their minions are also described in this section as well, as they will likely be the ones the characters encounter the most. The High School is ran by Mother When, described as the closest thing to Death The Mad City realizes, and in fact may BE Death incarnate. The Mad City is so claustrophobic that the buildings for the Rooftop Jungle, complete with a bizarre Air Fort where missing planes that disappeared from The Slumbering City have come to rest, odd chunks and sections of them sticking out from buildings. Finally, there are The Warrens, controlled by The Wax King, who is either a relatively benevolent Nightmare or an Awake who has become radically altered by The Mad City. The setting is suitably insane, but also has plenty of room for GM inspiration to add to, without removing much of what Mr. Hicks has put forth.

A section at the end of this chapter gives advice on putting all the elements together, but stresses again that the focus should always be on the PCs, their goals and exploits. Several methods of getting the PCs together are discussed, from Round Robin Lifepaths in which each person explains how they are connected to another, to linking all of the “What just happened?” answers, to more traditional approaches, such as having The Wax King hire all of them, individually, for the same mission. Finally, ways out of The Mad City and its nightmarish hold on reality are discussed, from crashing and death, to madness and transformation into a Nightmare, to giving up individuality and transforming into a Local, your existence revolving around a given task, to finally completing the path that you set out on, and what that entails. In that event, the GM is encouraged to give the player control over their ending: Do they learn to sleep again, without fear of the nightmares? Do they find a new calling in the Mad City and pursue it?

A section is also included on adding your own nightmares to the setting, from inspiration to the level of Pain a given nightmare should have…a mere minion shouldn’t more than 2 or 3 unless in a group, whereas a “Boss” Nightmare should clock in closer to 10 Pain dice.

Limited Series or Ongoing Game?

The unspoken default setting for DRYH is that it will be a finite story with a beginning, middle and an end, either a one shot or a short-term game. However, advice is included for a long-term game, including Scars of Experience, which can be used to help the PCs during an adventure, either by altering their talents to something new and different, or merely by using the things they have learned thus far in the Mad City to affect their actions now.

Inspirations

Fred Hicks was inspired by several sources, including J. Michael Straczynski’s Midnight Nation, Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, and the movie Dark City, which is actually the only thing listed in his inspirations that I’m actually familiar with. He also cites the influence of Sorcerer by Ron Edwards, Lacuna by Jared Sorenson and Dead Inside by Chad Underkoffler, which I especially want to pick up now after reading about how much it inspired this game.

Finally, impressively, the book includes a character sheet (which can also be found on the Evil Hat website) and a fully functional index.

In Closing

The book suffers from some bizarre organizational issues, not unlike someone who was working on little sleep suddenly remembering to discuss something a few pages after he had mentioned it. However, this is easily forgiven as the book includes oodles of page references, a functional table of contents and a very useful index. The art is, apparently, largely clipart and photoshopped, and very evocative of the setting, though its still a larger strain on my printer than I really wanted in the Printer Friendly version. Fred took great pains at various points to explain why things were important, how they impacted the game mechanically, and how they influenced other factors. This was some of the clearest RPG writing I have personally read in a while, and if this is the quality found in Spirit of the Century, then I’m sold.

On the downside, all the extra dice, two bowls, and a bunch of pocket change is kind of an inconvenience, but the gameplay seems like it could be well worth it. This is one of the best, if not THE best “taint” systems I have ever seen…tempting PCs to dip a little into the dark side, as it were, and then fighting like Hell to get out. I could see using this system to run a scenario not unlike the Suffering video game, and I certainly wouldn’t mind if more taint systems played out this way. That said, the system is designed to do one thing very well…if you’re not buying into the concept, there’s not much for you here. However, Fred Hicks and Evil Hat have, at no point, tried to claim otherwise, but I felt it worth mentioning.

If you like horror RPGs, unique systems and indy RPGs, its definitely worth picking up. It has a great hook and a unique system that feeds the flavor of the setting, making the sense of desperation a very real thing as you fight and explore the Mad City. Highly recommended.

Tommy's Take on Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways

The latest in the Civil War series for the Marvel Heroic RPG by Margaret Weis Productions came out recently, this time focusing on the Young Avengers/Runaways (and to a lesser extent, non-mutant teen heroes in general).

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: The pixilation issue with the art seems to be a thing of the past.  That was a common complaint for the last couple of books, but MWP seems to have turned it into a non-issue. The PDF is $12.99, though you can preorder the print book from Amazon right now for $13.59.

This book ties into the Civil War Event book for Marvel Heroic, and is essentially a supplement to a supplement. It is divided into five chapters: The New Warriors, The Runaways, The Young Avengers, The Cube and Hero Datafiles.

The New Warriors chapter gives a brief history of the team (with horrible art from their “reality TV” comic series that led into Civil War), and introduces some new Milestones for Reality TV stars. Incidentally, if you wanted to run a game based off of the brilliant Peter Milligan/Mike Allred X-Force/X-Statix, these wouldn’t be horrible milestones to get started with. Several datafiles (though you will need to adjust affiliations and add Milestones if you want to use them as PCs) of former members are included, with the most notable omissions being Nova (coming in Annihilation) and Scarlet Spider. The odd character selection of these books rears its head as Night Thrasher’s brother becomes the first character (I believe) to get two datafiles in a single book (as Bandit and as Night Trasher II). This chapter also provides for some twists to the Stamford event, allowing for different causes and survivors, with one placing the New Warriors even more directly responsible for the event, while another places the blame squarely on the Avengers for not answering a distress call. The chapter ends with the “new” New Warriors, a team of depowered mutants given technology by Night Thrasher II in order to fight crime.

The Runaways chapter focuses on the cult favorite team of the same name, a team originally comprised of the children of supervillains. The chapter opens with a brief history of the team, as well as datafiles of deceased members Arsenic and Alex Wilder, as well as the Gibborim: The ancient race of giants that gave The Pride (the parents of the Runaways) their powers. This also includes Teenage Rebellion milestones, and options for putting spins on the Civil War event based on the presence of the Runaways. An action scene featuring Flag-Smasher is included, from the Young Avengers/Runaways Civil War tie-in.

The Young Avengers are a team of legacy heroes (directly or not), and their chapter opens with a datafile for their founder Iron Lad (one of the many Kangs). This chapter includes Milestones for second generation heroes as well as some Unlockables. Additional options are provided for tweaking the Civil War Event based on the Young Avengers’ presence, as well as an action scene featuring SHIELD Cape Killers trying to bring the Young Avengers down.

A mini-event is included, The Cube, which is largely the plot of the Young Avengers/Runaways Civil War tie-in. In it, the heroes have to face The Warden of The Cube, as well as the brainwashed Marvel Boy. A slew of anti-registration heroes are included as datafiles, as well as a number of minor villains. These include Rick Jones (yay!), Phil Urich (former Green Goblin), The Living Mummy, Hammerhead, Slyde, Stilt-Man, and The Witches (Satana, Jennifer Kale and Topaz).

The book concludes with a big list of datafiles spread out among the New Warriors, Runaways, Young Avengers and teen heroes in general. They include Young Avengers like The Patriot, The Wiccan and Hawkeye, Runaways like Nico Minoru, Victor Mancha and Chase Stein, and New Warriors like Night Trasher, Speedball and Namorita. As well, heroes like Alex Power, Amadeus Cho, Slapstick and Ultra Girl are included.

WHAT WORKS: They dumped in a number of datafiles I’d love to play in a game (Rick Jones, Living Mummy and Ultra Girl for three), and I like the excuse to add in a few more odds and ends villains to provide more options. Also, it’s nice to have the non-Penance Speedball as an option.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: The awful New Warriors art. This book in general just feels way less “essential” (or way more “optional”) than the 50States Initiative, but that may be a pro, depending on how you look at it.

CONCLUSION: If you’re not sold on Marvel Heroic, this isn’t going to be the book that changes your mind. The datafiles really sell this book, as the extra material like the Milestones and Unlockables just don’t stand out as well with in this one as they did in Civil War and 50 States Initiative, so if you hate teen superheroes, you may not be thrilled with this. On the other hand, that selection of datafiles really is pretty cool, as a few more of my genuine favorites slipped in here.

Tommy's Take on Blood Games II

Another review from my pre-blogging days...back when I ever thought I'd get to have a Buffy game...clash bowley's Blood Games II, a modern horror game with its own setting, using a similar system and set-up to his alternate history RPG On Her Majesty's Arcane Service. Enjoy!

One thing I’ve discovered from the reviews I have submitted to RPG.net for Horror Week is that I don’t like the “capsule review” approach, at least, not for me. Unfortunately, with outside responsibilities, I haven’t had the time to play or run anything in some time.

I mention this, because I think that Blood Games II is a game that probably needs to be played and not just read, and I just haven’t had the time to do that. BGII falls firmly in the “modern horror” genre, which has been tackled by a great many games, including the World of Darkness, Witchcraft, Chill, Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel, Nightlife and I’m sure there’s more that I’m missing.

This review is based on the PDF version of the game, available from RPG Now, but BGII is also available in print through Lulu. The PDF is functional and searchable, with bookmarks and comment features available. Now, I don’t have a lot of experience with commercial PDFs these days, but I do hear that people quite like things like that.

The Setting

Waaaaay back in the day, humankind was prey for all manner of supernatural creatures including, but not limited to, vampires. Enoch, a being known by many names, including Thoth, Quetzalecouatl and Prometheus, brought humans knowledge, religion and magic. Humans took what he gave them, beat back the darkness, and became the dominant force on Earth.

As humans moved further along the path of progress, and became less reliant on magic, a nearly palpable force called The Nullity developed. The Nullity, essentially an absence of magic (good or evil), spread across the world. Shortly before World War I, a pack of demons still smarting over the drubbing humans had given the supernatural emerged, manipulating events and bringing about the first World War. The atrocities of World War began to open the gates for more and more supernatural beings to emerge, and the horrors of World War II only continued that. The world was on a slippery slope, and the Creatures of the Night slipped back into their playground. As the Nullity weakened, interest and study in fringe religions grew as well, and humanity began to rediscover the ways that were originally used to counter the darkness millennia ago. The religious forces of Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Pagan belief are now charged with making war on the darkness, but making it quietly: If they draw it out into the open, belief in the supernatural will grow, and the Nullity will further weaken, thus eliminating the greatest defense mankind has against the Darkness.

Not a bad hook. Similar enough to other similar settings, but it does provide a nice rationale for keeping things on the down low. If the PCs bring too much attention to things, it escalates them dramatically.

Party Structure

A handy section on party structure follows, detailing the various character types available in the game in the context of a PC party. The game assumes you will largely be using supernaturally empowered characters, but does allow for “monsters” like vampires (who are never good, just sometimes “not evil”), cambions (magically cursed half-vampires who are in danger of falling), half-angels and immortals, as well as just normal humans who have seen things they can’t explain away. Options even allow for a party full of vampires intent on following their own agenda that may include conflict with hunters on the Path of Light.

Character Creation

BGII takes a stance on character creation/advancement that I’m not a fan of, in theory: As you age, skills and wealth improve, while attributes decrease. And aging is unavoidable, as the game assumes that each adventure is a year in the life, even if said adventure doesn’t take up a whole year in game time. For this reason, everyone is strongly encouraged to make their characters approximately the same age, so that they’ll age together, wealth increasing together, skills increasing together, attributes decreasing together, etc. Since I’ve yet to see it in play, I have no idea where its too unbalancing to have, say, a 40 year old and a 17 year old in the same group (ala Buffy and Giles, for instance), but if it does turn into a huge balance issue, that is kinda disappointing. The weirdest quirk of this is the whole idea of, say, running an adventure, aging everyone a few years and skipping ahead, then running the next. That may actually work in practice, it just seems like it would probably be one of the harder sells for the people I usually game with.

Character creation has two methods: Directed and template. With directed, you’re given a pool of points (44) that you divide up between strength, coordination, agility, endurance, and charisma, maxing out at 15, then divide 180 points between IQ, Magic and Lifestyle. A chart is used to show what your actual Magic attribute, IQ score and Lifestyle are, based off of your allocation. From there, its largely a lifepath, starting from age 10 and moving to whatever age your GM told you to make your character. You start with middle school, move to high school, on to college (if you choose) and so forth, gaining skills (and possibly attribute bonuses) as you go. Once schooling is concluded, you move on to BGII’s career system until you reach your start date. At age 34, physical deterioration begins.

The Template method supplies a series of templates that show the schooling progression and skill selection, up to age 21 and geared for specific roles or professions, such as Actor, Priest, Cop, Drifter, etc. The list of professions is pretty extensive, but guidelines are included for making your own, in case you decide that its not inclusive enough for your needs.

I generally like Lifepaths, so I have no hate there…but I’m not sure about the “everyone’s the same age, and there’s one adventure a year”, but I’m willing to be convinced. However, ripping it out also requires implanting a whole new advancement system, as that’s how advancement is handled.

Player Options

Here we learn about Half-Angels and Immortals. Half-Angels are descendants of Angels and not immediate offspring, and have a variety of special skills and powers, such as wings, the ability to create flaming weapons from thin air, telepathy, invisibility and more. Half-Angels also have a unique trait: they are always born twins, one with light wings and one with dark. They are also meant to be so rare that if two players want to be half-angels, the rulebook says that they are to be twins, as a half-angel rarely ever meets another that isn’t their twin.

Immortals are people who have been killed, and then lived again. They cannot be killed, but they don’t have any other special abilities, save one: they can never gain any more skill points, but they can exchange ranks in skills at a one for one basis.

Characters who are half-angels or immortal cannot have a Path, which are discussed below. There doesn’t seem to be any inherent balance here, as half-angels are chock full of powers, and no real drawback other than they can’t have a Path. Immortals, well, they just can’t die…a bonus that’s actually kind of negated by the game system, as its touted within the book as being a system that’s rarely lethal. However, immortals are presumably immune to the effects of aging, at least, so one person could, theoretically, play the same character alongside generations of another player’s characters.

Paths

Hunters are holy warriors imbued with strength enough to combat a vampire by either a Coven or a Magus. They get stat boosts plus a pool of Luck points that they can use to tip fate their way in hairy situations. All chosen hunters most be of a strong physical AND moral fiber.

Cambions are people who have agreed to be turned into half-vampires by a Coven, usually for the purpose of revenge on a supernatural creature. They are almost a parody of Hunters, abominations originally created by Dark Circles, but the forces of Light learned how to create Cambions while still living their humanity (on some level, at least) intact. Cambions have several of the powers of vampires, but are also filled with a vampiric bloodlust that can quickly lead them on the path to damnation if they slip.

Witches are Wiccan practitioners of Witchcraft, and are also responsible for the creation of Hunters. They can also make charms, cast spells and divine the future.

Esotericists are the bookworm mages, using ancient texts to cast their spells.

The Magus calls on one of the Archangels for their magic. In-game, the Archangel and the Magus choose one another, and a Magus can only follow one Archangel. The areas of influence granted the Magus are defined by their Archangel. For instance, Michael grants power over life, while Uriel governs fire and Aneal grants power over love. A Magus can also raise a Hunter, much like a witches coven.

Templars are holy warriors granted the ability to use certain miracles in their pursuit of evil. However, every time a Templar is made, a demon escapes from Hell, and the Templar shares a link with that demon. The core doesn’t mention what happens should a Templar destroy his demon, but one would assume it should, at least, be the culmination of a long campaign.

Voudon priests can invoke the Loa for abilities, and can create and control zombies. These are zombies in the true, undead sense…though the Voudon priest does restore their soul to the body first. The other trappings of the Voudon priest are present, such as voodoo dolls and their usage.

Turned vampires are vampires who hate what they’ve become enough to hunt other vampires. Blood Games II insists there is no such thing as a “good” vampire, and stresses that a vampire in a player group should only be an alliance of convenience for both sides.

Normal humans get a section as well. BGII says that normal humans should always try to explain away the supernatural, until they are confronted with something they cannot. At this point, they are to make a roll to disbelieve and, if that fails, they have to make a Test of Faith to come to terms with it…should THAT fail, their hold on sanity slips away and reality unravels for the norm. Should they accept it, and the GM so desire, the book suggests giving them minor psychic “quirks” that are seemingly random and uncontrolled by the player…such as hearing voices from God, speaking to animals, faith healing, etc.

The game does do a nice job of making each “class” feel different. Esotericists don’t feel like Witches who don’t feel like Voudon priests who don’t feel like Magus…and none of them feel like Hunters. Probably the closest is Cambions and vampires, and even then that’s not true. Some good, distinct ideas are presented here for player choices.

Skills

Skills are bonuses to your attributes, presented as extra dice. For example, if you have a Coordination of 12 and you’re shooting a gun, you would roll a single d20 and try to get equal to or less than 12. If you have three ranks of Firearms, that gives you three additional dice, so you roll four d20s, and every 12 or less is a success. A large skill list is present, from the aforementioned Firearms to Stash (which allows you to hide items) to Leadership to Goad.

However, skills can be used unskilled, that just guarantees that you won’t hit more than a single success. The other perk to buying up skills is that every five levels grants you a Level of Mastery. What does Mastery do? Why, each level grants you a free reroll on an action. The skill list is a tad larger than I, personally, care for…but I didn’t immediately see anything completely superfluous on the list, like Witchcraft’s Beautician skill.

Magic is covered (kinda) here, with the Laws of Correspondence: The closer the caster is to an object being targeted, the more effective the spell. Laying a curse on someone who’s not around? Zap a hair sample!

Religion

The various religions relevant to the game are discussed here, with major beliefs, holidays and the like broken down for Christianity, Judaism, Wicca and Zoroastrians. This section also tackles Tests of Faith, where a religious character can try to use their faith to force a supernatural creature back. The downside is then these rolls fail: having your faith shaken like that is never a good thing in this game.

Tests of Will are included instead, in case you want to play that atheist badass who doesn’t want to be completely nerfed when facing a demon for the first time.

Rules for possession are also covered here as well, for whatever reason, and include rules for both resisting and breaking possession.

Starpool

This chapter is the system itself. A purely mechanical chapter, it is thus the driest read in the book, but that’s to be expected. As indicated above, the game mechanic is a d20 roll-under system, and one of the first games I’ve seen that even uses multiple d20s. Combat is also enclosed in this chapter, and the system has some interesting bits for combat. Levels of Mastery, as mentioned in the skills section above, apply to combat as multiple attacks. For instance, if you have Martial Arts of +10, that’s two Levels of Mastery for three attacks per round! Initiative is simple: roll a d20, low roll goes first. However, a player can trade speed for effect. If you roll, say, a five, then you can sacrifice a die from your pool to lower your initiative to two, or you can raise it to eight and add a die to your pool. The game isn’t completely clear on how many times this can be done per turn, though.

An option is present here for splitting the pools on actions, such as when a character only has, say, one attack but two opponents. I think it’s a good approach that especially allows a lesser skilled character (without Levels of Mastery) the opportunity to multitask if need be, but doesn’t let them trample upon the more skilled characters by doing what they can do. The usual suspects are present here as well: armor rules, cover, etc. Hit Points are largely covered by Constitution, which is determined by adding all your physical attributes together and multiplying them by five. Similarly, for complex tasks, the game tells you to assign a number of Solution Points, which you whittle away at like you do Constitution in combat.

All in all, I like the mechanic. Allowing for faster or slower actions in exchange for shifting you effectiveness up and down is kinda cool, and once you get used to rolling low instead of high, it seems like it would be a perfectly viable game mechanic. I’m just not convinced that it is a good enough mechanic that I would choose it over something I already have down pat, such as Cinematic Unisystem.

NPCs

NPCs get a whole chapter, complete with pre-made stock NPCs, to quick-roll charts for mildly developed NPCs to discussion of “permanent NPCs”…the guys that are actually going to matter for more than a scene or two.

I’m always a fan of a good random-roll chart, so I welcome the charts for NPCs…a few rolls, followed by making sense of the results. More importantly, I’m just happy this is in here. If nothing else, it can provide some good benchmarks for various levels of background characters, but I’ve rarely seen a game that didn’t benefit from such a list. I don’t wanna have to stop and suss out a cop or a mugger most of the time, ya know?

Bestiary

A healthy selection of monsters is included in this book, running a wide gamut from spirits to werewolves to demons to wizards. Nosferatu are present and explained as vampires who couldn’t escape from their graves and driven into an animalistic state, while even skeptics are listed, as they can impact the use of magic around them, diminishing its effectiveness.

This section does an admirable job covering the expected monsters for such a game, tossing in a nice surprise or two (skeptics come to mind), leading me to actually believe they wanted BGII to be self-contained. There are enough baddies to work with, as well as provide inspiration for your own creations.

Vampires

Vampire get their own chapter and honestly, at first, that was a huge turn-off for me. I’m kinda tired of vampires, and I’m certainly not interested in seeing them get the main event treatment. With this game, however, that’s almost like complaining that Deadlands has cowboys in it, as the game gets its very name for the feeding habits of vampires…each has their own “blood game”, where they Heroes who only feed on those that threaten the innocent, Ravers that stalk clubs, Bottom Feeders that feast on the homeless and so on. Vampires are the primary threat to humanity, and the ultimate antithesis of the Paths: A vampire is someone who was either a very bad person in life, or who wallowed in despair, and refused to move on upon death. They are selfish, anti-social creatures in the afterlife, and they only become moreso as they age. After 700 years, they shed their flesh altogether and become beings called Ancestrals, becoming even more powerful, but also more withdrawn from the world.

This chapter also includes rules for making older vampire characters, as well as providing a list of careers and apprenticeships for playing anytime before 1850, just in case you need some pirates or highwaymen in your Blood Games!

I like their take on vampires, though I’m sure its not wholly unique, it is more in line with the Dracula style vampire, instead of the clan groupings of the World of Darkness games or the cannon-fodder vampires of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Guns ‘n’ Ammo

For the gunmonkeys, a large selection of weapons are present, from flintlocks to machine guns and katanas to broadswords. BGII is designed for modern play, but has several nods to play in other eras, and they did see fit to provide the armory for that. I’m not a huge stats nut for my weapons, but I do like a game that covers its bases, and this one does a fine job.

GMing Blood Games

The last full chapter of the game encompasses actually running it, with a few tips and ideas for doing so. The author makes the suggestion of playing in your home town like a great many modern games do, a suggestion that has always gone over like a lead balloon with my players, though. My favorite suggestion is generational play, which the game is almost designed to run, what with the “one adventure equals a year” set-up. Not the most indepth GMing chapter I’ve read, but not the worst, either. Even still, there’s probably not much there that’s going to be new to most GMs that read this book.

Optional Rules

The last chapter is actually just a selection of optional rules, covering sniping, traits (like advantages & disadvantages) and Plot Points.

Final Thoughts

I like horror, and I like horror games. Blood Games II does an impressive job of trying to be a fully functional, self-contained RPG. There’s one supplement available covering Dark Paths as well as an adventure, but the game is truly useable with just this book. For that, Clash Bowley and crew should be commended. I like the layout, as the pages are generally single column with a little sideboard heading to the left of the paragraph that sometimes serves as a description of the paragraph and sometimes a sidebar. Each chapter is headed up with a piece of fiction that I have to admit I didn’t read. I tried, but it didn’t grip me. The art is generally spotty, but pretty sparse, so it doesn’t really detract from the book. The game covers enough common ground that it feels familiar, but has enough hooks that it differentiates itself from other games in the genre.

However, there are some issues. From a reader’s standpoint, there’s nothing balancing the various character types…a half-angel looks to be a truly formidable character, and the cambion, statistically, just appears to be a watered down vampire. From my reading, it looks as though group cooperation is expected to provide the balance, which will work for some groups, but not others. My other major complaint, is that while the StarPool system certainly seems solid and has its charm, I can’t honestly say that it gives me any reason to move away from a system I already know and try to convince my (hypothetical) Buffy players that they need to learn a whole new game system to hunt monsters in. However, if you’re not married to a system, there’s not a reason to give the system a go. Even if you are locked into another game system, much of the individual pieces present in this book could be lifted and dropped into another setting…a Hunter would make for a nice option for a guy that wanted to be a Slayer, but didn’t want to play a girl, you know.

The game has a few odd organizational issues, I would have placed weapons in the chapter following combat, and would have placed the possession rules alongside the discussion of spirits, for instance, but the book does include a fully functional table of contents and index, so I can forgive that. There were a few points in the rules where I had to reread things because it didn’t quite make sense, but I won’t completely fault the writing, as I’ve been prone to distraction at times during my prep for this review (a 3 month old will do that to you).

Blood Games II is worth checking out if you’re a fan of the Occult Horror genre. Either you’ll find a new game, or you’ll find an idea or two to rip out. Be warned, the covers are black, and are going to kill your printer if you do a straight print off the PDF, but the interior is probably the most printer-friendly commercial PDF I’ve encountered thus far (no black borders! Yay!).

Tommy's Take on VS Monsters Deluxe Edition

Allow me to preface this review by pointing out that it was originally written back in 2007 and posted on RPG.net for their Horror Week. Given the impending Halloween season, it seemed like a good time to bring it to the blog.

VS Monsters is quite the interesting game. I can’t completely get the feel of the game, at least as its written, and I can’t help but wonder if Phil Reed didn’t intend for that to happen. It is the game of timeless horror…and bashing monsters. At times it seems to alternate between a fairly serious horror RPG, and a parody of one.

Or maybe I’m just missing the point…which is possible.

This review is of the VS Monsters Deluxe Edition PDF, available on the Ronin Arts website but it is also available in print from Lulu.com. It was originally a 24 Hour RPG that received quite a following, so Mr. Reed beefed it up and unleashed the Deluxe version. As good as the original was, and it was an interesting read, the Deluxe edition is better. The question? Is the Deluxe edition worth paying for when you can still find the original for free?

The PDF

For a black and white PDF, this is an impressive looking document. The art placed throughout it is very evocative of a gothic mood. A few pieces are kind of weak, but a handful are truly impressive. The art is all over the book, but doesn't feel like its there in place of text, if you know what I mean. I never get the impression of wasted space here. However, there is a downside to this, as it makes for a less-than-printer-friendly document. I haven’t actually printed it out yet, mostly because it looks like I’m going to have to dedicate an ink cartridge to it. The PDF is $7 and the POD from Lulu is $15 (80 pages, perfect bound), so for just over double the price, you can have the printing trouble saved for you.

The PDF is fully searchable, which is a nice feature but not as necessary in such a short document as it might be in, say, Blood Games II. Copy and paste is also available, in case you need to remove a piece of text, a feature that is handy but, again, probably unnecessary.

Mr. Reed writes in a conversational tone that makes the book very easy to read, even in the “dry” parts, such as the mechanics section. He also includes sidebars about various aspects, such as things he added from the original and why he did so, explaining design choices and even providing a few optional rules. I don’t like my RPGs textbooky, so this is a definite high point, in my opinion, as he manages to hit that perfect line between “conversational” and “professional”.

In all, the presentation is phenomenal, considering the scale – a self-published PDF written, edited and produced by one man…my only real concern is the cost efficiency of printing it out, and whether or not it would be cheaper to just go POD and get it bound as well.

The World of VS Monsters

The setting is described in the broadest strokes possible, again striking that odd contradiction of serious homage and near-parody. Set in “The America That Never Was”, The PCs live in a town, called The Town, that is up The Road from The Village, which borders The Forest, etc. It (deliberately) is a series of set-pieces, covering the basic horror tropes, while leaving room for your Graveyard(s), Haunted House(s) and the like. This invokes the satirical feel I mentioned earlier, but then the description of The Forest is such that only the most foolhardy of heroes would venture there, for certain doom awaits, going back to the horror feel.

I like the broad strokes. I don’t know if I would want to play it SO loose as to just have The Town, The Village, etc…but it does a nice job reminding you of all the olde horror hotspots.

Characters

VS Monsters characters have four attributes: Fighting, Defending, Thinking and Running. Fighting and Defending are the offensive and defensive sides of combat, while Thinking covers all other mental activities and Running covers all other physical activities. You are given scores of 6, 4, 3 and 3 to divide up among your four attributes, to decide what kind of character you want to play.

For further customization, you can take Good Stuff and Bad Stuff, which can grant you handy abilities (Veteran raises your damage cap on weapons, while Attractive gives you an extra card during social situations with the opposite sex) or boost your attributes (like Speedy, which raises Running by one). For every Good Stuff you take, you have to take a Bad Stuff, but if you get greedy and go for more than two (the max is four), then you must also reduce an attribute by one for each additional Good Stuff. Bad Stuff includes things like Inexperienced, where you can freeze up round to round in combat, and Restless, which can disrupt your sleep with nightmares.

If you must, the game also allows for Advancement rules…with four rewards offered to the players: Removal of one “Bad Stuff” (within reason), gaining one “Good Stuff” (within reason), improvement of an attribute and drawing a free card from the deck to hold with your character sheet, to replace a card draw in a later game session.

This whole chapter reinforces that dichotomy that’s haunted me throughout the book. Mr. Reed almost condescendingly ushers you to the Combat chapter when speaking about Fighting, and – to a reader immune to sarcasm, perhaps – makes light of things like “background” and “personality”.

All that said, character creation is some of the simplest I have seen in some time. It’s not so freeform as to provide an overwhelming amount of options, especially for a newbie, but has a decent amount of customization, with the various arrangements of the four attributes and scores, and the combinations of the Good Stuff and Bad Stuff, which could easily be added to if you decide the game doesn't have something you want, or if you do want to juggle the setting a bit.

Equipment

This chapter is short and sweet, providing a “price list” for equipment, something completely excluded from the original, and providing a mechanic for “purchasing” equipment. Simply put, at the start of each session, every player picks a piece of equipment they want, draw a card and compare. If the card value is equal to, or greater than the value of the equipment, they get to keep it and draw again, until they fail a draw.

Cannons are expensive, btw. If you’re wanting in-depth pricing charts and tons of real-world research, you’re going to be disappointed…but then, this probably isn’t the game for you, anyway, if that’s the case.

Mechanics

VS Monsters uses a playing card-based mechanic. I have no inherent opposition to this…in fact, my favorite RPG uses cards (Marvel SAGA). For clarifications sake, those of you who don’t know, this doesn't mean VS Monsters isn't an RPG…dice, while perfectly great and certainly common, do not an RPG make, nor do they break.

The mechanic is straightforward. You have a task, the GM gives a target number, you draw a number of cards equal to the relevant attribute and if the highest card is equal to or greater than the difficulty, you succeed. If not, you fail.

Combat is a little more involved…in fact, three initiative options are provided: Starting with the left of the GM, everyone takes a turn. The first alternative uses card draws to determine initiative, while the second uses attributes. Those latter options were only included grudgingly, it seems, as Mr. Reed had definitely kept everything simple to this point…however, with combat resolution, things do take a step into mild over complication  First, you draw a number of cards equal to your Fighting, compare with the opponent’s Defending. If you have the high card (ties go to attacker), then you compare all cards used for the attack to the defending value. For every card that “hit”, you draw a card, and for every one of THOSE cards that is equal to, or less than, your weapon’s damage cap, reduce the target’s health by 1. That…yeah…it seems like an unnecessarily clumsy mechanic for a game that, to this point, has been pretty loose. Still, I don’t want to dismiss it out of hand without experiencing it in-game, but I do have my reservations about it.

Optional Rules

A whole chapter on optional rules, called “Unnecessary Complexities”, if that gives you any insight into how the author feels about them, is included. They include Fear Checks (Mr. Reed states that he believes that VS Monsters heroes should be largely immune to these, but they are included for those that want them), Called Shots, Multiple Attacks, Aiming rules...all things that do feel a tad out of place in this place, but are adequately elaborated upon in the VS Monsters engine. While I do agree with the author’s sentiments that they are unnecessary, I applaud the thought he did put into them.

GMing VS Monsters

Yep, a GM section…and, once more, I get that “both sides of the coin” feeling. The first section is about making NPCs, complete with NPC-specific Stuff like Minion and Wealthy.

A handful of adventure seeds follow, pretty basic stuff, including a stock Haunted House plot and a zombie horde. When in doubt, the monster section of this book alone has some ideas, but you can mine a century’s worth of horror movies for plots, I promise.

Last comes some advice on setting mood, which definitely tips the book back in the direction of “horror” over “satire”. The chapter concludes with a plug of Ken Hite’s Nightmares of Mine, which I have long heard is an indispensable volume for horror GMs.

Oh yeah, Monsters

The last chapter is a bestiary of the common, suitable types of monsters. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, cultists and even Cthuloid monsters are present, with full stats and their most common means of execution. There’s a good list here, hardly all-inclusive, but easily expandable when you absolutely need the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Finally, the book ends with a character sheet for your copy and use.

Conclusion

The Deluxe edition is much larger than the original 24 hour RPG version of VS Monsters, and is a very cool game. It’s definitely a lite RPG that probably won’t satisfy the GURPS Horror crowd, but it doesn’t try to. Mechanically, the only issue I have is the damage system makes me wince reading it, but who knows? After a session or two, I may not even notice it.

Stylistically, I love the approach of “the America That Never Was”, filled with set-pieces instead of nailed-down locations. After reading, and now reviewing, VS Monsters I think I may have figured out why I can’t nail down the tone of the writing. It is a decidedly serious game about hunting and fighting monsters, its just a horror game that doesn't take itself too seriously, something I’m just not used to. Meant for fast and loose gameplay, embracing the legacy of horror while not turning a blind eye to its camp, VS Monsters is an elegant little game that’s well deserving of its cult following.

Definitely worth checking out.

Apocalypse Prevention, Inc Savage Worlds Released

Of course, many of you know that I'm a fan of both Apocalypse Prevention Inc and Savage Worlds, so this should be perfect review material, right?

Normally, I would agree. In this case, I can't review it because I kinda pitched in a bit, especially with the monster conversions. This is a pretty complete book combining material from the original books that came before it, all geared for providing Fast, Furious Fun for your Savage Worlds groups.

You can read my original API review here, to get a feel for the setting, then run off and buy the book in PDF format for $9.99.

New Edges, new races, new monsters and a cool monster-hunting setting. What more do you want?

The Winter's Eye - Coming Soon!

Hey folks, a break from the RPG posts for a bit...as some of you know, I write comic books on the side. Well, I've worked on two stories this year with my friends Ben Soto and Cary Stringfield, and they are being released in the Winter's Eye Anthology published by The Grim Crew!

The anthology is a supernatural thriller anthology with a common thread: The Winter's Eye (which can take whatever form the storytellers needed).

Ben and I tell the tale of THE INHERITANCE, in which a sleazy con man who is running out of cash visits his ailing grandfather in hopes of ensuring a larger inheritance. Ben and I are both big fans of the Twilight Zone, and Ben gives the story a bit of a film noir vibe with his art.

THE PROBLEM SOLVER, my first collaboration with Cary, involves a hapless man pulled into a grave-robbing misadventure by his ne'er-do-well brother-in-law. This one is much more into the TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE/OUTER LIMITS vibe.

I'm very excited about this, and I can't wait for people to see it up close and personal. In the meantime, you can check out a preview here.

Games I Wanna Run/Play

So I'm looking around my office after recently moving, and I have almost all of my RPG stuff unpacked...which just serves to remind me how little I've gamed recently, and how much I'd love to game more...as well as some of the games I'd love to run.

Without further ado, and in no PARTICULAR order...

The Sideliners (Marvel SAGA) - I'm actually finishing up a long running, on and off campaign soon before my best friend moves to Boston. The characters involved are some of our oldest and longest running, and we'd like to give them some "closure".

Necessary Evil (Savage Worlds) - Hopefully, we can finish up the Plot Point campaign before my best friend moves, as he's an integral part of this game as well. Necessary Evil is the most fun I've had with Savage Worlds, and I've had a lot of fun with Savage Worlds.

Deadlands Reloaded - Whether playing something all new or resuming old campaigns, I just really wanna play more Deadlands, because it's my favorite setting ever.

Star Wars Saga Edition - My son is a huge Star Wars fan, and I ran some Star Wars for him a few years ago. I would love to resume that, I just have a real hard time coming up with age appropriate adventures.

The SAGA of Spider-Man (Marvel SAGA) - Another game with my son...and probably the only way I'll still run Marvel SAGA after my best friend moves.

The Savage World of Solomon Kane (Savage Worlds) - This is another "I want to resume an existing campaign" entry. Luckily, my player in this campaign isn't moving anywhere.

Dragon Age - I love the setting, the boxed sets just look sweet, I've played around with character creation and it's fast but fun...I wanna give this a go sometime, maybe with my kid, as Clint and Jodi Black have said it's actually a great game for kids.

Midnight (Savage Worlds) - No, there was no Savage Worlds version of Midnight...I would just be using a conversion and gladly so. The warped version of Lord of the Rings was my favorite thing to come out of the d20 era.

Ravenloft (Savage Worlds) - Based heavily off of the 3/.5 version by White Wolf with a dash of elements from the earlier versions as I see fit.

D&DNext - I'm loving what I'm reading from the files, and I have a playtest scheduled with a couple of interesting friends (using Roll20), but we haven't actually gotten to gameplay, unfortunately.

Wu Xing The Ninja Crusade - Probably the game I've wanted to play the most but haven't had a chance. I have no idea how Eloy Lasanta took so many of the things I dislike and made me like them, but he did. Oh MAN he did.

Pendragon 5.1 - Maybe even the Great Pendragon Campaign if the opportunity arose.

Monster of the Week - I've been reading this and collected all the Limited Edition Playbooks, and I'd totally dig the chance to give it a go. I'd actually choose it for a Buffy-style game over Buffy itself now, I think.

Savage Suzerain (Savage Worlds) - Specifically, starting with Caladon Falls and going from there.

Streets of Bedlam (Savage Worlds) - I'm actually planning to give this one a shot using the Mythic GM Emulator.

Hellfrost (Savage Worlds) - Because those are some awesome, impressive books, giving Savage Worlds some epic fantasy, even if it's not particularly high powered.

Dungeonworld - It seems like it could be a fun twist on D&D style play.

Transformers-ish Game (Cartoon Action Hour Season 2) - An idea that occurred to me for my kid. He even has a character in mind.

Fiasco - I got to play in a partial demo of this on Skye, but haven't had a chance to play a full game. There are some GREAT playsets out there.

Leverage - My favorite of the Cortex+ games, based off of one of my favorite TV shows.

Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor - A horror/mystery sandbox by Arc Dream...I'm not sold on the system, but the setting and premise are so cool I'd give it a shot.

Ghostories - A very cool, underappreciate horror RPG by Precis Intermedia.

I could probably go on...and I know a lot of those are kinda vague, but as a rule, I don't begin planning more than the very basics of a campaign until the PCs are in front of me...taking whatever they want to play (unless it's disruptive) and building the campaign around that.

But clearly, I need to game more.