Game Reviews

I’m into a wide variety of RPGs, and submit reviews from time to time – mostly to rpg.net but sometimes to other places. Here’s a place to read them all!

• Coliseum Morpheuon – November 19, 2010
  This patronage product explores the realm of Dream as a setting and an adventure for character levels 16-20 in the Pathfinder RPG. It’s freaky and good!
• Indulgences, Wave One and Wave Two (Sinister Adventures) – September 11, 2009
  These two products are four PDFs each, of adventures and supplemental material for D&D 3.5e or Pathfinder specifically designed to support a Razor Coast campaign – but any kind of sea-based adventurers will love them.
• Spirit of the Century (Evil Hat Productions) – May 26, 2008
  Spirit of the Century bills itself as a “Pulp pick-up roleplaying game.” It’s a fun, well-executed pulp game with innovative mechanics, although the amount of rules means it may only be “pick-up” with already experienced players.
• Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters (Wizards of the Coast) – April 2, 2008
  Wizards designers talk about the design concepts behind the monsters and world for Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition.
• Pathfinder RPG Alpha Release 1 (Paizo Publishing) – March 19, 2008
  Paizo Publishing forks D&D looking to produce a better, more streamlined version of 3.5e while forgoing some of the massive changes of 4e. The free alpha version is up to their usual high standards!
• Glimpse of the Abyss (Atlas Games) – February 29, 2008
  Glimpse of the Abyss: Enemies and Allies from the Underworld and Beyond is a “monster book” for the HK action movie RPG Feng Shui. Does it rock? Yes.
• Wizards Presents: Races and Classes (Wizards of the Coast) – January 4, 2008
  The Wizards of the Coast design team gives some sneak previews of what races and classes might look like in Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition.
• DC Heroes (Mayfair Games) – December 31, 2007
  Though old, the DC Heroes 2e Rules Manual I ran across at a used bookstore has a lot of things going for it still. Some good core rules and clear presentation make it stand the test of time!
• Lacuna Part I. The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl from Blue City (Memento Mori Theatricks) – November 23, 2007
  A daring, atmospheric RPG where the players get to dive into the collective unconscious and… well, then it gets weird. But cool!
• The Order of the Stick: Dungeon Crawlin’ Fools (Giant in the Playground Games) – June 8, 2005
  One of the best gaming webcomics puts out a beautiful print version.
• Star Thugs (GhazPORK Industrial) – May 9, 2005
  Star Thugs is a hilarious and unorthodox interstellar romp, written in the vein of Paranoia or Tales from the Floating Vagabond.
• Traveller20 – The Traveller’s Handbook (QuikLink Interactive) – February 6, 2004
  Traveller20 is an update of the venerable Traveller sci-fi RPG – it’s a decent foray into the d20 ruleset and has plenty of crunchy bits, but seems like a lightly revised “first stab” instead of a totally professional product.
• Miniatures Handbook (Wizards of the Coast) – November 7, 2003
  The D&D Miniatures Handbook has some good new 3.5e D&D content, and some new D&D Miniatures rules – that are completely unrelated to one another.
• Silhouette CORE Roleplaying Core Rules (Dream Pod 9) – November 7, 2003
  A generic modern/future system that is fun to play and has a good character generation system – but also has poor editing, bad vehicle design, and no weapons at all…
• The Dreaming Stone (Chaosium) – August 11, 1997
  A Dreamlands adventure for Call of Cthulhu which feels a little too much like a D&D adventure.
• The Babylon Project (Chameleon Eclectic) – March 20, 1997
  A well-engineered RPG set in the universe of the Babylon 5 science fiction TV series.