Thursday, 22 October 2026

Quick Reviews & Revisions Oct 2026



Arcana Unleashed - Gameplay Expansion
Thinner than I would like even at 17 dollars off store price. Subclasses great, spells ok, magic items ok, organisations with bastion stuff are good; the magic in the campagn a bit soso. I would rather it was bigger with more subclasses and spells. I think if you copied the subclasses you could do without the rest. The stats for wizards are handy, I guess. Good, but just appetite-wetting. I think id like a bastion book with non-bastion normal buildings and businesses. I guess we will never get an all subclass or species book even though ppl would like them. They would rather dole out scraps in a system designed to add more modular scraps vs a system like RQ. I will be using it just a bit disapointed.

Oz - Fantasy Roleplaying Setting
Following the Neverland and The Looking-Glass book, one of the rare lines I would call RPG Art (Pendragon another). Great maps, lots of illustration, dense well designed information and ideas you could steal for other urban dystopias. A bit more decopunk than I expected but a masterwork of city design. 

Campfire Tales - Scouts Against Cthulhu
A fun Call of Cthulhu adventure for scouts with a whole campagn. It looks pretty hardcore for a kids horror game. Great art, mini setting and wonderful vibes, making it one of my fave 7th ed Cthulhu books.

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Review Revisions
Running stuff sometimes enhances or diminishes my impressions of a book. These Two were better for having dropped in my settings.

Dwarrowdeep Again
My sandbox players saw a Dwarf ruin on a map and decided to check it out so I pulled out this book. It easily fit in minus some of the local area and players spent 3 long sessions 6-11 hours at a time, clearing most of the first level with my EMO homebrew. It was a lot of fun and I went back to reading it in more detail. I hope and suspect my players will get bored and get on with the adventure I want. There was one random encounter with extra-tough black orcs and it looked bad for the party. I got a bit soft and used an absent character to save them. They also pulled back and released giant flies locked in a room who ate a berserker and turned the tide of the battle. One player spent 3 rounds prone trying to get their shaman desperately. i always knew this book would eventually be useful even though not as useful or interesting or original as the other earlier volumes. The setting stuff around the dungeon and NPCs I will use bits of it. I might play with encounter area generator and post here. 

Caverns of Thracia Again for 5th ed
I was intimidated by the maps in this but dropped it in my Theros game and its worked well with the themes. It took me a few goes with both old and new versions of maps to understand them. The players have really enjoyed their first mega dungeon and have seldom left since. The difficult secret doors, weird traps and sense of history all worked well. They have been friendly with the lizard folk and returned their lost relics to them so they might flip this faction with friendliness and cash. Lots of unique experiences here that are quite memorable like the living door that charms you and sucks your life on touch that nearly killed the party. They get along with several NPCs and on their way to fame and glory. Works very well in my Ethyria Setting.

Also
I have lots of half-written posts currently in the works but study, love life and running 8 games a month has me as busy as I can handle. I have been reading lots though. Prepping for next OZ Orc Con too. Im running my Octopus princess game, goatquest3 and maybe Marvel Universe vs Dinosaurs Attack. Also rule revisions are going slowly but happening. 

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