Vol 3 of chagrinspire and halloween adventures will be on Patreon this Month
I'm reviewing a couple of things not all new and also in one case someone gave me a PDF and I like it and the creators enough to want to give them a shout-out. This is most of what I've got for six months. I'm awaiting Dolemwood and Yoon Suin. Dolemwood looks amazing so far and with Rackham vale will be good for use with my Auldwook book (to be revised). Yoon Suin new edition looks good buy i still dont love layout or font bit its still one of best settings ever I will use for my Mysterious western lands. These were both KS campaigns and have had excellent updates and working PDFS.
Im a bit too incompetent to make a business out of this myself. Im spending more on synthesisers than games this year and Moon Knight had like 3 comics a month of late. I also signed up for Smork Borg which is hilarious looking and I will have to get core rules I suppose. At same time a Smurph RPG was announced. Im glad i chose the hopefully nasty version. After I buy ROM vol2 il might get 5th ed players book.
The recent adventure books would be hard maybe. The endless stait versions of old adventures just not as good as the goodman revisions and they fact they would rather try and recycle old IP to get the fans then do superficial versions. Notalgia fan service tease that wont satisfy. Breaking up the classic story arcs of module series a bit soso. Dyson maps and saltmarsh books are things that got me getting any 5th ed (also was middle class lifestyle a while and wanted stuff to read). Im sure some new old-school mega adventure will creep out in future to tempt me. Most of my want list of old games is complete now.
Also I obviously have lots of stuff and a fat reading pile next to my bed but I also write lots and cant even remember what Ive done often. Will aim to set up POD again next year and setting up a new network in my house to work smarter on working machines. Win11 wont work with my software I've used about 20 years.
💔💢💢💢 Don't Do It
💔💔💢💢 OK
💔💔💔💢 Cool
💔💔💔💔 Genius
I'm reviewing a couple of things not all new and also in one case someone gave me a PDF and I like it and the creators enough to want to give them a shout-out. This is most of what I've got for six months. I'm awaiting Dolemwood and Yoon Suin. Dolemwood looks amazing so far and with Rackham vale will be good for use with my Auldwook book (to be revised). Yoon Suin new edition looks good buy i still dont love layout or font bit its still one of best settings ever I will use for my Mysterious western lands. These were both KS campaigns and have had excellent updates and working PDFS.
Im a bit too incompetent to make a business out of this myself. Im spending more on synthesisers than games this year and Moon Knight had like 3 comics a month of late. I also signed up for Smork Borg which is hilarious looking and I will have to get core rules I suppose. At same time a Smurph RPG was announced. Im glad i chose the hopefully nasty version. After I buy ROM vol2 il might get 5th ed players book.
The recent adventure books would be hard maybe. The endless stait versions of old adventures just not as good as the goodman revisions and they fact they would rather try and recycle old IP to get the fans then do superficial versions. Notalgia fan service tease that wont satisfy. Breaking up the classic story arcs of module series a bit soso. Dyson maps and saltmarsh books are things that got me getting any 5th ed (also was middle class lifestyle a while and wanted stuff to read). Im sure some new old-school mega adventure will creep out in future to tempt me. Most of my want list of old games is complete now.
Also I obviously have lots of stuff and a fat reading pile next to my bed but I also write lots and cant even remember what Ive done often. Will aim to set up POD again next year and setting up a new network in my house to work smarter on working machines. Win11 wont work with my software I've used about 20 years.
💔💢💢💢 Don't Do It
💔💔💢💢 OK
💔💔💔💢 Cool
💔💔💔💔 Genius
I had seen people talk about this online and on some videos so I was intrigued. I saw the price and size and gagged a bit and waited and I guess prices have changed (like Gunderholfen). So I thought I'd try a volume. Go get the free map volume pdf first. Its map design is visually bare bones and its illustrations are professional. The way the maps are split in pdf and print has some people hoping for improvements still. It's probably slicker than Gundergolfen design-wise and quite different. It has a very detailed history and faction system of ancient non-humans and several civilisations and 3600+ years of history mostly with monster stats and magic items in vol IV. This could be intimidating but its at the same time skeletal enough to replace some names or make your own idea of what that the civilisation was. Mostly ancient greek gods are in the ruins and some demons. Objects and prisoners and locations all have cross threads that come up plenty but if you forget something its ok players will never soak it all in. It was surprisingly easy to navigate once used to it.
Like the classic mega dungeons of our time like Bazzowmaze, you get a regional setting to explore some settlements to inhabit in between crawls, a ruined city with ruins and many many levels and sub levels. It also has cool stuff like a huge cliff which has various dungeon entries with degrees of being hidden or accessed. There is an inn for weirdos and a troll elevator system and several markets.
If you want a huge megadungeon campaign for a few ideas with lots of depth and every broken statue or prisoner you find has deep cross plot threads this is awesome. Some might like a more lowbrow history but you could also not worry much about it if players not interested. It is not just exploring a site but putting together events of the past civilisations. That is part of the mystery and problem solving. The basic details of dungeon are concise and brief and good value content. So an over 300 page vol one has an index including other volumes and it has content referring to things in those later books. There are magic items and monsters in vol 4 that I have not seen but mentioned. I started with vol I then IV then II then V then III. Have a look at the free map pdf book - the main book has no maps in it and is dependent on this volume. I think everyone could learn stuff from this for a campaign even if you dont run it. A RPG classic and top 10 megadungeon.
The Nightmare 💔💔💔💢
A frightshow classic RPG adventure. These are in the style of 80s Chill RPG adventures but the art and style is also 80s video nasties that kids probably saw to young. A VHS era vibe.The art on the cover of this reminds me of an actual cult recruitment brochure id seen in my mailbox in the early 90s (or maybe it was the internet only 10 years ago - i can be sure it was not in Dragon magazine). If your sick of eldritch slop or edgelord cringe then go back to suburbia and blockbuster video and malls with these. It has the vibes for a one night halloween game. Nice map and adequate art. (i got a preview pdf copy but that was like over a year ago so apologies to creators of this fine series.)
The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford 💔💔💔💔
Has a nice mythic feel. A small region to explore and a dragon to kill. This makes me want to make dragon greed as a common greater curse that dragons put on their treasure. Lots of monsters living in area with personalities and mysteries. All the locals are ready with fetch quests all woven into the local lairs. Great mini setting sandbox with lots of flavour and stuff to do for a mini campaign where you start low level and climax with defeat of the greatest monsters.
Crypt of the Dog Witch 💔💔💔💢
Like the classic mega dungeons of our time like Bazzowmaze, you get a regional setting to explore some settlements to inhabit in between crawls, a ruined city with ruins and many many levels and sub levels. It also has cool stuff like a huge cliff which has various dungeon entries with degrees of being hidden or accessed. There is an inn for weirdos and a troll elevator system and several markets.
If you want a huge megadungeon campaign for a few ideas with lots of depth and every broken statue or prisoner you find has deep cross plot threads this is awesome. Some might like a more lowbrow history but you could also not worry much about it if players not interested. It is not just exploring a site but putting together events of the past civilisations. That is part of the mystery and problem solving. The basic details of dungeon are concise and brief and good value content. So an over 300 page vol one has an index including other volumes and it has content referring to things in those later books. There are magic items and monsters in vol 4 that I have not seen but mentioned. I started with vol I then IV then II then V then III. Have a look at the free map pdf book - the main book has no maps in it and is dependent on this volume. I think everyone could learn stuff from this for a campaign even if you dont run it. A RPG classic and top 10 megadungeon.
The Nightmare 💔💔💔💢
A frightshow classic RPG adventure. These are in the style of 80s Chill RPG adventures but the art and style is also 80s video nasties that kids probably saw to young. A VHS era vibe.The art on the cover of this reminds me of an actual cult recruitment brochure id seen in my mailbox in the early 90s (or maybe it was the internet only 10 years ago - i can be sure it was not in Dragon magazine). If your sick of eldritch slop or edgelord cringe then go back to suburbia and blockbuster video and malls with these. It has the vibes for a one night halloween game. Nice map and adequate art. (i got a preview pdf copy but that was like over a year ago so apologies to creators of this fine series.)
The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford 💔💔💔💔
Has a nice mythic feel. A small region to explore and a dragon to kill. This makes me want to make dragon greed as a common greater curse that dragons put on their treasure. Lots of monsters living in area with personalities and mysteries. All the locals are ready with fetch quests all woven into the local lairs. Great mini setting sandbox with lots of flavour and stuff to do for a mini campaign where you start low level and climax with defeat of the greatest monsters.
Crypt of the Dog Witch 💔💔💔💢
A nice simple dungeon with interesting monster stat block presentation. Simple slightly ancient Egypt theme ancient reliquary with some undead. You could stick the dungeon under something else easily and expand the wilderness and maybe add a local village predated on by dead. I will look for more in series.
Prison of the Hated Pretender 💔💔💔💔
A great useful dungeon I may use soon. This dungeon has swarms of luminous creatures battling a undead guy who you might negotiate with rather than kill. Its sense of balance is very different. The undead is powerful but you ca avoid conflict. Its hard to kill. I nice little lowish-level dungeon puzzle. Has lots of DM philosophy tips. The villain is pathetic and awful but they don't even remember what they have done. Fantastic NPC who could be released and become a setting villain. Fantastic stuff.
The Isle of Forgotten Gods 💔💔💔💢
A nice mesomerican island pointcrawl with some dungeons for lowish levels. A few extra evenings to insert into any island sea campaign. Simple elegant exotic fun with BX stylings.
Star Spire 💔💔💔💔
A nice mini dungeon wich fits with Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier by the awesome Gus L. Nice design and I might use soon. Well designed crystal complex from the sky. Its dungeon art really.
Britannia & Beyond 💔💔💢💢
This is for the Golden Goblin Call of Cthulhu Invicticus line (there are I think 2 new cthulhu rome games and the great osprey book all independent cos its IP is history. I also have BRP rome which is earlier and fantastic. So its well-trod territory. I was more into cthulhu than dnd most of my gaming life and currently fringe history as a field has become a less fun genre due to real world problems. My last game was Cthulhu in space last year and I avoided all the colonialist vs indiginous or rural poor subhuman tropes in fact the eugenicists were the worst people in that setting. Ive followed the Rome series since monographs for Call of Cthulhu and used them. I used the frontline colour cover setting books Chaosium did and the more recent golden goblin editions. It has to date been a great line. As I did archaeology of this in my degree id rate for a pop culture product as ok and it gives good information on the setting and tribes. I did find the colour and logo of this line a bit garish but maybe Romans were that. Some of the older books had scarce or poor art and some had basic mapping software of the day. So maps here often beautiful. The cover art featuring the same party illustrated in the past books in the line are great. The other art serious harms this book and sets me off like a frog in a sock.
Then some images look like utter gibberish. The more you look the more flawed and odd it gets. Much does not represent specific things or places or what is described in text. It's inappropriate for a book based on history. These images are incongruent in style with the tone and good art in the book. Biggest art disappointment I've felt in a long time. I've seen lots of amateur art (worse than my art which I loathe) in books and some have some charm. This slop made me feel seasick, it lacks the basic compositional properties of art. Maybe its just me. I think it really hurts the good art to be mixing this stuff with it. I did message Golen Goblin and they acknowledged my question but never got back to me with an answer. As this was crowdsourced its a bit sad and I hope they can replace this stuff. Id rather old historic art and paintings than nonsense for illustration.
Usually in an art book the characters sort of give you ideas for characters in a setting. If the deeper you look the more you see indistinct blurry fractals. I do probably judge history games and I think quite a few viking games have had bad cheesecake art of comic book vikings which kinda spoil the grim vibe of ancient Norse like 19thC opera vikings. I see kids laugh at old cheesecake fantasy trying to look like historic realism. The Britania book has cheesy female monsters that look like average contemporary digital fantasy art so leans into this too.
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Sorry went off the rails a bit on last one
Prison of the Hated Pretender 💔💔💔💔
A great useful dungeon I may use soon. This dungeon has swarms of luminous creatures battling a undead guy who you might negotiate with rather than kill. Its sense of balance is very different. The undead is powerful but you ca avoid conflict. Its hard to kill. I nice little lowish-level dungeon puzzle. Has lots of DM philosophy tips. The villain is pathetic and awful but they don't even remember what they have done. Fantastic NPC who could be released and become a setting villain. Fantastic stuff.
The Isle of Forgotten Gods 💔💔💔💢
A nice mesomerican island pointcrawl with some dungeons for lowish levels. A few extra evenings to insert into any island sea campaign. Simple elegant exotic fun with BX stylings.
Star Spire 💔💔💔💔
A nice mini dungeon wich fits with Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier by the awesome Gus L. Nice design and I might use soon. Well designed crystal complex from the sky. Its dungeon art really.
Britannia & Beyond 💔💔💢💢
This is for the Golden Goblin Call of Cthulhu Invicticus line (there are I think 2 new cthulhu rome games and the great osprey book all independent cos its IP is history. I also have BRP rome which is earlier and fantastic. So its well-trod territory. I was more into cthulhu than dnd most of my gaming life and currently fringe history as a field has become a less fun genre due to real world problems. My last game was Cthulhu in space last year and I avoided all the colonialist vs indiginous or rural poor subhuman tropes in fact the eugenicists were the worst people in that setting. Ive followed the Rome series since monographs for Call of Cthulhu and used them. I used the frontline colour cover setting books Chaosium did and the more recent golden goblin editions. It has to date been a great line. As I did archaeology of this in my degree id rate for a pop culture product as ok and it gives good information on the setting and tribes. I did find the colour and logo of this line a bit garish but maybe Romans were that. Some of the older books had scarce or poor art and some had basic mapping software of the day. So maps here often beautiful. The cover art featuring the same party illustrated in the past books in the line are great. The other art serious harms this book and sets me off like a frog in a sock.
Then some images look like utter gibberish. The more you look the more flawed and odd it gets. Much does not represent specific things or places or what is described in text. It's inappropriate for a book based on history. These images are incongruent in style with the tone and good art in the book. Biggest art disappointment I've felt in a long time. I've seen lots of amateur art (worse than my art which I loathe) in books and some have some charm. This slop made me feel seasick, it lacks the basic compositional properties of art. Maybe its just me. I think it really hurts the good art to be mixing this stuff with it. I did message Golen Goblin and they acknowledged my question but never got back to me with an answer. As this was crowdsourced its a bit sad and I hope they can replace this stuff. Id rather old historic art and paintings than nonsense for illustration.
Usually in an art book the characters sort of give you ideas for characters in a setting. If the deeper you look the more you see indistinct blurry fractals. I do probably judge history games and I think quite a few viking games have had bad cheesecake art of comic book vikings which kinda spoil the grim vibe of ancient Norse like 19thC opera vikings. I see kids laugh at old cheesecake fantasy trying to look like historic realism. The Britania book has cheesy female monsters that look like average contemporary digital fantasy art so leans into this too.
------------------
Sorry went off the rails a bit on last one
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