Saturday 30 March 2019

More Micro Reviews


So I did a bunch of these  a while back and people liked it. Occasionally I use my Patreon money to buy stuff. Interestingly Several of these PDFs had features to stop me making the cover comp image but it didn't really stop me and made final product slightly lower res from snapshots.

I infrequently run fantasy RPGs but play in a few. I like sandbox stuff to inspire me or I can slip in a setting. Mostly I got them from Divethru except Witchburner a gift from Luca as we have swapped some creations and have compatible work - UVG and Planet Psychon work OK together. Hydra #7 came to me as I contributed to it. Just being honest so i don't get rape and murder threats for lack of integrity in game journalism. Not all these products are recent.

Will do some more of these...

What Ho Frog Demons 112 pages
Usual quality from Hydra coop and the Hills Cantons setting. A hex crawl with several interesting adventures. Village generators and frog demon tables. You cant have enough frog demons. Art and design as always is fabulous. The map unites the previous three books and im hoping to get a compilation of them all in print one day. One of those products which everything is right. Id like to run it one day but certainly lots to steal for my own game setting. I love the maps.

A Ghastly Companion for Castles, Mansions
& Estates 275 pages
I've long planned on doing a book on manour houses for Castle Amber like antics so I grabbed this out of curiosity. Full of tables to generate estates, covers national styles and incredible detail. Lots of inspiring detail and each generated estate would be a role playing opportunity. I like that most married aristocrats are inbred. Details on servants, pets, customs, architectural tips, gardens, events, servants and more. Also entries for coaching inns, family history, underground stuff, haunting, paintings and more. I like the art and layouts that look old world but found tables looked incongruant and a repeated stone texture was over used as a art asset. B&W clip art of old manors would look better. Really my only complaint. I will use this for a long time and recommend it.

Hydra #7 105 pages
It is in Swedish. I'm in it. Look at that awesome cover! 

Red Tide 173 pages
Brilliant Sandbox I wish I had sooner but on my wish list a few years. It is a interesting setting mixing western and eastern fantasy and you could probably mix with Yoon Suin or Oriental Adventures with some changes. It is a good example of modifying game tropes to fit in a setting. Has some sandbox generation content for adventures. I wont run this as is but can learn alot from it for a setting book. I will plunder some ideas from it.

Fever Swamp 32 pages
This is a module I could easily use with great atmosphere, weirdness and utility. It has a great grimey grungy sandbox vibe. It is a good exploration misery crawl you could complete in a few sessions. At 32 pages it is well designed with some repetition for convenience. It is overall an exemplary product id like to run. Great atmosphere for adventure.

Echoes from Fomalhault #1 44 pages
A great zine with several adventures all with odd touches I enjoy. I want more. Weird haunting locations with strange characters easily inserted into a game.My current favorite Zine. This issue has great table for markets, adventures, magic powders, 

Operation Unfathomable Players Guide 40 pages
If you enjoyed Operational Unfathomable this is a must. The original is a very attractive book not really sandbox more the opposite. But it is a kind of gonzo tourist trip through a weird world. In a funny way it would fit in a DCC setting with their underground hollow world setting for gonzo. You could also scavenge it for content and ideas and it is a good read. This expansion has character classes, spells, tips for exploring, ranger tech, awesome comics and more.Its choc full of stuff and entertaining as a read and easy on the eye.

Witchburner 66 pages in edition I have
You could run this as a one off con game or insert in a campaigns. I don't want to spoil it but it certainly is a mostly role playing based adventure. It wont make your characters heroes or good guys. It might be funny to insert in a Warhammer campaign. Mysterious events in a village get your party appointed witch hunters. What could go wrong? Anyway everything Luca touches is cool and look out for Ultraviolet Grasslands.

Hexplore: Borderlands 16 pages mostly art

Amazing inspiring stuff. Art based hexes to explore approach to sand boxing. You could run these on the fly easily if you respond to using art for inspiration. Look forwards to more of these and Courtney's art has has made great leaps in quality. From creator of one of my favorite blogs, often compatible with my work and we overlap at times.   

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for these. I'm reading a lot of the same stuff. Love Red Tide and lots of Kevin Crawford's other stuff. Would like to hear what you think of An Echo Resounding, his follow-up to Red Tide.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like your micro reviews a lot!

    ReplyDelete

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