Tommy's Take on 50 Fathoms: Fire & Earth

Last week, in my 50 Fathoms review, I mentioned that there was a new release: 50 Fathoms: Fire & Earth. So this is my review of that adventure.

Tommy's Take on 50 Fathoms Explorer's Edition

This seems like odd timing, but there's a reason for that. I've owned the original 50 Fathoms for years, and but never ran it. However, I was approached by Pinnacle last week about reviewing their new 50 Fathoms book, Fire & Earth, and thought that before I did so, I would tackle the original (or at least the version that was revised for Deluxe Edition) for posterity, and also to refresh my memory about 50 Fathoms.

Tommy's Take on Shadownrun 5th Edition, Milecastle 42 and Djinn of the Deep

SHADOWRUN FIFTH EDITION

Fun fact: I actually have no experience with Shadowrun whatsoever. Yes, I know it’s pretty much a classic and one of the bigger fish in the gaming sea…and, yet, here we are. So when I got a chance to review the Fifth Edition of the game, I took it.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: First and foremost, this is the 5^th, and most recent, version of the game. The books clocks in at 489 pages, making for a hefty tome. The PDF is about $20, about a third of what the print version is going to retail for, it looks like. Shadowrun is a mix of fantasy and cyberpunk sci-fi elements, a lot of which have now been seen over the years. The system uses a d6 dice pool system, with 5s and 6s for successes and “Glitches” occurring when half or more of the dice rolled come up 1s. The world is ran largely by megacorporations, and people deal in both Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality while Magic is a fairly commonplace element.

WHAT WORKS: I like the fantastic elements like the elves and dwarves and orks and trolls, blending them with the modern world. The magic system has some very neat points to it, with my favorite part being the mentor spirits. The book is a gorgeous piece of work, with some impressive art. There is a “random run generator”, essentially a random adventure generator, which I always love. Character creation levels are provided, so you can start campaigns with street level newbies, capable warriors or power players.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: In-game fiction doesn’t do too much for me, anymore, and there seemed to be a lot of that here (maybe it was just my perceptions), especially for the price. I’m not a fan of the approach taken with the system…for the most part, I’ve moved towards “lighter” systems over the years, and a skill heavy system like this isn’t really in my wheelhouse (75+ skills is a bit much for me).

CONCLUSION: Shadowrun isn’t really for me. I’m not surprised, as cyberpunk isn’t a genre that really interests me, and when I do have a desire to scratch that itch, I have a perfectly good Savage Worlds alternative waiting for me (Interface Zero). The book never really “clicked” for me, making it difficult for me to engage with it, and I think that might be the “Dracula” effect: In short, all those trends that Shadowrun kinda helped set are a bit overdone now, and so it has a bit of a “been there, done that” feel to it. That said, if the system were more my speed, I really think I could get into the setting due to the “magic plus sci-fi” mish-mash. Not a bad product, just not my cup of tea, unfortunately.

MILECASTLE 42

Open-ended adventures are always a good thing, IMO. One of Silver Gryphon Games’ newest releases is just that, an alternate history sandbox adventure called Milecastle 42.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This 27 page adventure costs $5 and is, in a nutshell, Romans versus Zombies. The PCs are stationed at a Milecastle, essentially a lighthouse which is part of a series of such houses 5 miles apart. The night before, Milecastle 42 signaled in desperation but now their light has gone out, so it’s up to the PCs to investigate. The PCs are given objectives and guidelines and then turned loose to investigate Milecastle 42 as they will. The outpost, of course, has been overran by zombies (this isn’t a complete surprise, as the Romans are living with the plague in this reality) and most of the zombies are capable of little more than pack mentality and animal cunning. That a more intelligent foe is directing them shouldn’t be a big surprise, but where the adventure really wins out is in the climax, which comes out of left field in an awesome way.

WHAT WORKS: The “Final Boss” is really kinda epic. The page numbering is all in roman numerals, which is a nice touch. I love a good, open sandbox adventure.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: All the characters are going to be a bit “samey” by the nature of the game, as PCs are built off of a template that is customized.

CONCLUSION: A fun one shot or convention game, Milecastle 42 also allows for a few options for continuing the game depending on the success or failure of the PCs. I’m not a big fan of what amounts to pregens, even though I understand why they’re there, but as I don’t run a lot of one shots or convention games, I’m not really the target audience. If you’re not tired of zombies yet, or if you want them in a different milieu, then Milecastle 42 is well worth picking up, especially for its “OH CRAP” moment at the end of the adventure.

DJINN OF THE DEEP

Another one shot/convention style adventure, this one casts the PCs in the role of pirates who learn that there’s always a bigger fish…

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This nautical adventure weighs in at 22 pages and $5, and is also part of a bundle that includes deck plans for a freighter by Dramascape for only 99 cents more. Players are given a template to customize, as well as a primer on the rules of pirating. The adventure is pretty straight forward: The PCs get to raid a ship, get overtaken by a bigger ship (a shark-shaped submarine, in fact), and wind up bumping noses with the biggest fish in the sea. References to pulpy authors abound and genre fans will surely catch the nods. It is built as a suitable convention or one shot adventure, though tips are provided for expanding it beyond that point.

WHAT WORKS: The layout is gorgeous, and I think a lot of folks will appreciate the assumption that the PCs are actually playing pirates and not Disney Pirates. The crazier, pulpier elements are a nice touch without getting into full blown supernatural.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK: Act Two essentially hinges on the PCs essentially becoming subservient to an adversary, which is hard to pull off without frustrating players. The editing on the version I received left a lot to be desired, but that may have been cleared up in the final retail release.

CONCLUSION: While I appreciate the pirates, the adventure just doesn’t click with me the way a lot of other Silver Gryphon stuff does. It’s not a bad product, and the bundle with the Dramascapes map is a great deal, and Djinn of the Deep may well hit that tonal middle ground between Pirates of the Spanish Main and 50 Fathoms. Recommended if you’re wanting pirate fun without the fantasy weirdness of 50 Fathoms.

Tommy's Take on ARRGH! Thar Be Zombies

As a long-time Eden fan, it was great to see them get new product out the door in the form of Arrgh! Thar Be Zombies for All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

The question is, is it the resurrection of a once strong line...or its last gasp?

Arrgh! Thar Be Zombies had been in development for quite a while now (I honestly don't remember when)...but the source material feels like an artifact of its time. That is, Pirates were still pretty hot back when the buzz was first building about this...but I don't know if the buzz is still there, at least until Johnny Depp makes another Pirates movie (and it is coming soon enough).

AtbZ's is 160 pages in black and white, $25 for print and $17.50 for PDF. For the production values, it's probably a good deal for the print, less so for the PDF. The book marks are...not impressive, though searchability and copy and paste are enabled.

AHOY MATEY

Pretty standard opening chapter for an AFMBE genre book, with an extensive bibliography and glossary of pirate-speak. We also get an impressive timeline, running from 1492 through 1722, hitting every major recorded event in historical piracy in order to give you a good perspective on the non-zombified source material.

The timeline and glossary really elevate this section above and beyond the normal opening chapter. A very nice addition to the book.

YE PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS

This is the basic pirating chapter and we get a more in-depth history of the pirates, as well as some discussion on the various motivations for being a pirate (some seeking adventure while others were making political statements)...and, of course, greed. The book also plugs Enter the Zombie for fun with Asian pirates.

In a section on disease, we get disease rules for Unisystem, covering dysentery, malaria, scurvy, smallpox, syphilis, typhoid and tuberculosis...full mechanics for each, including contracting the diseases, their effects on your PC and curing the diseases.

As is typical in roleplaying books, slavery gets mentioned but not focused on, just a nod to the existence of slavery in the era.

We also get a version of the 8 Articles of Piracy, with the caveat that they do change from ship to ship, but this is common enough that it can be used as a jumping off point for most ships. We also get the pirate punishments, such as keel haulin', walkin' the plank, hangin' and so on.

A new character type, the Silver Screen Swashbuckler, is presented, for those wanting a more cinematic approach to their piracy (without going full blown Cinematic Unisystem, which I would totally do if I were truly wanting a cinematic pirate game).

We get a discussion on how some Qualities and Drawbacks have changed, complete with a new table for Resources, fitting the age. New Qualities and Drawbacks are present as well, such as Berserker (a full on berserker rage), Light Sleeper and Internal Compass. We also get some fairly in depth rules for alcohol in there. New Drawbacks include Landlubber (for those who aren't comfortable at sea) and One Eye ('cause it's a pirate game).

Several new skills are present, as well as dueling rules, which are kind of cool, including a variety of maneuvers that one can use.

Zombies get several new Aspects as well, including Billy Bones, which basically turns them into skeletons instead. From The Ashes means the zombie will return, with the power level dependent on when they come back.

Some very nice mechanics that should make this a draw for many All Flesh GMs, as several of those Aspects could be used in any game, as well as many of the Qualities.

TH' TOOLS O' THE TRADE

THe equipment chapter starts off with tables for English, French and British currency, the ones you are most likely to deal with in a historical piracy game. Several pieces of equipment are listed, many of which I believe have appeared before, but with Piracy era pricing now.

Additionally, appropriate armor and weapons for the age are present, including cannons and flintlocks.

Not surprisingly, ships themselves are covered including - in a nice touch - ghost ships, complete with aspects. With a little work, and in some cases none at all, most of the Zombie Aspects can be applied to ghost ships!

A discussion is made on life on the high seas, such as press gangs where people were forced onto ships, and mutiny...but I'm not 100% sure why those wound up in the equipment chapter. There is a small Mutiny Point mechanic for those wanting to track the captain's loss over his men.

The chapter ends with several pages on ship to ship combat, including tables for when the ship's toughness gives way, maneuvers for ships and boarding rules.

The ghost ship rules are especially cool, in my opinion, The rest is largely functional, but not inspiring.

VODOU

The state goal of this chapter is to try to combine historical and cinematic vodou. It uses Miracles as a base (like most All Flesh metaphysics do), and seems to include most of the Loa. I'm not terribly up on my Vodou, but I did notice that Shango is missing (he's one of the few that comes to mind for me when I'm thinking of Vodou Loa).

Several new Miracles are present, many of which could be used in a non-Vodou set-up with minor reskinning, if that, such as Speak True - which forces a person to tell the truth and suddenly makes me want to play an Inspired Lawyer in a Witchcraft game.

Rituals are also present, including Samedi's ritual for making zombies, which should be a bad idea in such a game.

Again, several mechanics that can be lifted and used not only in a non-Pirate game, but in any Witchcraft game that supports Miracles.

VOODOO QUEEN OF THE SHROUDED ISLES

Here, we get the first of the Deadworlds in the book.

It all starts with two seamen who are tortured under belief that they are pirates and a mother begging to the Petro Loa for vengeance, sparking a zombie plague.

There are a few ways that this can go, with some adventure seeds that put the PCs up against the Voodoo Queen, an immortal female pirate and oodles of zombies with the hopes of setting the world right again. There is even an option for letting the PCs play as the men that started this mess: now zombies on a blood-red ship.

It's a cool little setting and I do like the hook of having the PCs as zombies from the ship that tortured the sons that started all of this.

THE BLACK FLEET

This one is a straight forward race for a crystal skull against the Black Fleet, which borrow some imagery from the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Like with the previous setting, this Deadworld also allows for a Zombie option, with the PCs playing a ship from the Black Fleet that has been dispatched in its own direction.

ISLANDs IN A DARK SEA

This is, essentially, an AFMBEd Spelljammer with serial numbers filed off and, I must say, that's awesome. Galileo creates ships that run off of personal essence and can fly up into the "Dark Sea", which you and I know as outer space...which is threatened by some nasty buggers called the Necronians. You basically have carte blanche to add whatever you like here, with a saurian race included and even a set of cyborg zombies that the PCs can cross paths with (and who look more than a little like the borg).

Seriously, I think this is the coolest Deadworld I've seen in an All Flesh book and jumps my opinion on the book up several notches.

PIECES OF EIGHT

These are a pair of non-Eurocentric Deadworlds that provide a framework to be built on by the ZM, featuring Asian piracy and Aztec piracy, as well as some mini plot seeds (literally, as one involves a hostile tree).

We do get an EXTENSIVE index at the end.

CONCLUSIONS

On one hand, I dunno, something about the AFMBE layout and set-up feels...dated. Eden has GORGEOUS production values on their licensed products, less so on their in-house stuff. On the other hand, you are also generally paying at least $15 less for their in-house stuff...

Given the lack of features (including usable bookmarks - these are not), the PDF is incredibly overpriced at $17.50...however, the print book at $25 could well be worth it, as there is a LOT that can be mined for other All Flesh games in here, presumable a credit to Daniel Davis.

If this is the new beginning for Eden Studios and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and not a last gasp, then they could do a LOT worse than give Mr. Davis more work in this line.

It is worth noting that this book heavily references other All Flesh books, including Enter the Zombie (which any ZM should already own, anyway, as far as I'm concerned and Atlas of the Walking Dead).

A must-buy for All Flesh GMs, due to the sheer amount of plunderable material, if nothing else.

Tommy's Take on Zombie Pirates

Zombie Pirates is the first computer game release by Dust Devil Studios, which is made up of more than one name you might recognize from Pinnacle Entertainment.

Zombie Pirates is a "tower defense" game where you have a variety of pirate ships in your crew, you do battle with zombie pirate ships, and you have to shut them down as they try to make it across the screen.

The game stars "Smilin'" Jack O'Hurlihan and friends as they do battle with Gruesome George and his zombie pirates all over the map. There are 8 areas, each with their own "theme", divided up into 5 stages each, with a bonus stage unlockable after beating the five. For my part, I'm currently partway through the fifth area.

You begin with just your ship and basic skirmishers...but you can unlock other vessels (including two named vessels) and upgrades for your ships. I'm currently at three named vessels (one of which is a steampunk submarine) and a decent collection of support ships, my personal favorite being the Balefires (they shooted blessed cannonballs at ghost ships, as well as heal themselves and those around them, chain throwers (which launch large chains to slow down approaching vessels) and cherry blossoms (oriental ships that fire three rockets in succession at their targets).

The game is full of corny humor and bad puns, and that's part of the charm. The story is very lightweight, but this is a casual strategy game, not a deep RPG...and while the game is simple to play, I have sure discovered that if I just go in blindly I don't get as far as I do when I think my approach through.

As another reviewer noted, it is very easy to play 15 minutes and feel like you accomplished something...it is also very easy to start playing and find out an hour passed while you were sitting there.

The enemies start off with basic zombie ships, but also include zombie bird and sharks, ghost ships, and shipheads - giants with parts of ships chained to their heads.

The Collector's Edition has two minigames in it, Jack's Nightmares and Rum Running game, as well as dozens of achievements you can accomplish.

Finally, for a limited time, you can download Zombie Pirates by itself, or in a bundle with the Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG PDF for free, instead of the normal $25 for PotSM.

Is it fun?  I enjoy it...especially for a light, point and click strategy game. I don't have a high end computer and the game has only hiccuped once or twice, but has never stalled out or refused to work. Plus, if the game is successful, then we could see some Pinnacle licenses translated into computer games...like Deadlands, for instance. Regardless, I am looking forward to what comes next, at least until my laptop can't keep up anymore.

If you like zombie and pirates, pick it up to go ahead and kill big chunks of your free time...it's done a number on mine. Good, challenging, addictive fun.