RPG Review Portal

Modern Backdrops

Publisher: RPGObjects   [Site Info]
Format: PDF
Series: d20 Modern
Review: Here
Intro:
When I say that RPGObjects are the company producing the best d20 Modern material there are a lot of people who will agree with me. It isn’t just products like Modern Backdrops, which presses all my happy buttons, that leads me to statements like that. RPGObjects has a history of quality d20 Modern supplements and of producing them first. Blood and Fists: Modern Martial Arts is a prime example. I can think of a few companies that are making strong moves to take RPGObjects’ modern crown, The Game Mechanics, for example, but RPGObjects has pushed the level higher still with Modern Backdrops.

Modern Backdrops really is what you might expect. It’s a PDF that details a series of modern backdrops. No, no, wake up! Hello there! You! Keep reading! This isn’t as boring as it seems. For a start, I think one of people’s main problems with the modern setting (as opposed to the dominant fantasy genre) is the backdrop. It’s awkward to roleplay in the present day; especially if you want a game with lots of fantasy elements and you can’t quite integrate it, or if you want a realistic game but can’t quite seem to turn that into an adventure. Modern Backdrops helps out here. There are three levels of plot hooks; the first is for those "low FX" genre adventures, the third is there with lots of fantasy elements (think X-Files) and the second snuggles between the two. This is the sort of attention to detail that is always likely to impress me.

We have five complete rural areas of various shapes and sizes in the supplement. There’s San Carillo, Rio Hevrir, Schaddo Creek, Delora Valley and Dunklin. Yeah, these are made up places but that’s my preference for modern games. It’s easier, I feel, to suspend disbelief in a made-up city than refer to a real one. If you don’t think a made-up city can ever match the character of your hometown then what about Gotham, Metropolis or even Buffy’s Sunnydale? There’s more in the supplement than just these locations . . .

DarkLore Campaign Primer

Publisher: Malladin's Gate Press   [Site Info]
Format: PDF
Series: d20
Review: Here
Intro:
DarkLore is really good. It’s really good. Don’t say, "Malladin Who?" or "Who’s Gate? What? Where?" say, "DarkLore is really good".

This isn’t Malladin’s Gate first product. The small company has been praised for their sharply designed Forgotten Heroes and Academy Handbook series. I’ll be amazed if a fulfilment house/imprint deal isn’t set up for them by the end of the next year. Why would I be amazed? I’d be amazed because DarkLore is really good.

DarkLore is, as the name suggests, dark. It’s a d20 game too. Oh now. Stop laughing. It might be possible. In fact, it is possible, Malladin’s Gate have done it. Out goes the stratospherically high fantasy of most D&D and inspired games. In comes Dark D20. DarkLore isn’t dark in the sense that you’ll be playing a weakling street thief desperately trying to earn his first silver by creeping into the fat’s merchant’s house, the one with a guard, at night. No. DarkLore is dark in the sense that the whole world has gone to hell in a hand basket and stayed there. The gods are dead. At least, the gods have gone and they didn’t go easily. Maelstroms, complete with purple lightening, shred the landscape whenever they touchdown. Rumour has it that the maelstroms even go after people. It’s dark too, not dark in the atmospheric sense, it’s dark due to the thick cloud known as the Cloak of Acheron, that keeps the sun at bay. It’s either night or twilight and as you might image the undead are a problem.

Player characters in DarkLore tend to be more powerful than normal. There’s an easy explanation for this, survival of the fittest. You have to be pretty damn fit to survive in Krynas, the DarkLore world. The bump up in power also gives the game mechanic maestros of Malladin’s Gate room to introduce new rules without loosing the abstraction d20 was designed for. I like the abstraction! I also like dark fantasy. The fighting techniques that characters can learn or the short three-level ca . . .

Heroes of High Favor: Halflings

Publisher: Bad Axe Games   [Site Info]
Format: Book
Series: d20
Review: Here
Intro:
The Heroes of High Favor is a d20 series that seems to provoke comments like "You’ll either love the series or hate it" – but it’s not true. I wasn’t enamoured with the Heroes of High Favor: Dwarves much but I really did like the Heroes of High Favor: Half-orcs.

The Heroes of High Favor have a good shtick. The book takes the preferred character class of the race in question and pairs that off with every other core class in the style of a multi class to produce a prestige class. This didn’t do anything for me for the dwarves because fighter prestige classes are ten a penny and pretty boring. The half-orcs, on the other hand, are still under catered to and interesting barbarian prestige classes continue to be rare. What’s this to do with Halflings of High Favor? Well. Let’s just pause and admire the unfortunate class of words :) Heroes of Knee High Favor: Halflings. Hmm, no, perhaps not. The halfling preferred class is rogue. That’s not as boring as the fighter but it has received more attention than the barbarian class. There are some interesting combos to expect; the rogue-paladin, the rogue-cleric and the rogue-barbarian even. I didn’t even need to open the book to come to this conclusion. Talk about pre-judging a product.

Let’s get to the prestige classes in just a minute. The /other/ shtick these Bad Axe Game books have is a look at the racial talent of the, er, race. Heroes of High Favor: Halflings breaks from tradition just a little bit here by going through a range of synergic rogue crafts. Lashworking is the art and science of putting together ad hoc equipment. Rather nicely the mechanics assume the dice rolls are going for a "do it quickly!" scene surviving bit of equipment but you can pick a higher DC value if the halfling intends to make something sellable. A similar craft is ropemaking. The book manages to find quite a few interesting uses for ropes too. Then there’s trapmaking. If many gamers have put the humble rop . . .

Macho Women With Guns

Publisher: Mongoose Publishing   [Site Info]
Format: Book
Series: d20
Review: Here
Intro:
"Macho Women with Guns is a game unconcerned by characterisation, deep and meaningful background or quality and realistic portrayal of a "part". The aim here is simply to kill things, ogle the illustrations and have fun with automatic weapons and hot chicks in bikinis."

They’re not kidding. The character generation in Macho Women with Guns includes rules for working out your chest, waist and butt size. You’ll be playing a chick.

Mongoose books are not without their titillation and although there might just be more bare titillation in /other/ Mongoose books, Macho Women with Guns is in colour and the illustrations here don’t claim to be following any fantasy tradition, the illustrations here are just for cheap thrills. GameWyrd’s lucky enough to have a preview of Macho Women with Guns, art and all. I don’t normally point previews out in reviews but in this case, given how the illustrations may just be the deciding factor (good or bad) it makes sense to make this the exception.

Elsewhere in Macho Women with Guns we’re told that the book shamelessly pitches itself at the lowest common denominator of roleplayer. You. You’ve bought it after all. Well. True. What can I say? I like my ‘characterisation, deep and meaningful background or quality and realistic portrayal of a "part"’ in /normal/ RPGs and I turn to games like Paranoia or Macho Women with Guns for mindless fun. I’m not annoyed by the lowest common denominator comment, I laughed. I just don’t think it’s necessary. Author Grim Jim’s sardonic humour just needs a solid and defensive base to work from.

Macho Women with Guns is a funny game. In many ways it is a spoof of certain movies. You don’t just need to enjoy plenty of gun action, or just need to enjoy plenty of woman action to enjoy Macho Women with Guns, you need to enjoy a good (or bad!) joke as well.

This isn’t the original Macho Women with Guns. This is the d2 . . .

Mindshadows

Publisher: Green Ronin   [Site Info]
Format: Book
Series: Mindshadows: d20
Review: Here
Intro:
I was really looking forward to Mindshadows. It wasn’t so much the promise of a psionics heavy campaign world that had whet my appetite but the flavour seeping through the crunch of the bestiary Monsters of the Mind.

Monsters of the Mind managed to do that "similar but spookily slightly different" and get it right, Mindshadows manages only "similar but slightly different". It’s a good book. Don’t get me wrong. It’s just not Testament good.

There’s an Eastern flavour to Mindshadows, not the Far East but the Near East. If your historical geographical references are a bit shaky: I’m talking about India and the subcontinent. We have ourselves a trade in silks and spices, cults, mind mysticism (psionics), palaces with golden domes, three headed gods, assassins and fighting schools. The Caste System alone has an atmosphere that’s strongly reminiscent of the old Indian feudal system. The Brahmins hold the highest station, next highest are the warrior caste, the Ksatriya, then the merchant caste, Vaisyas, and lowest in the caste system are the Sudras. The Untouchables are outside the system, below it, these people take lives – human or animal. So hunters and fishermen as well as street cleaners are Untouchable.

I find the subcontinent theme appealing. I’m not sure I’d have added magical mech suits to it; as the Juggernauts of Naranjan are. After reading through Mindshadows a couple of times I’ve adjusted to their presence. I think the Juggernauts might well be the most appealing aspect of the campaign setting to many players.

There’s a rule of thumb quotes by quite a few gamers in my neck of the woods which states that you can tell quite a lot about an RPG if it begins by giving you character generation mechanics (ala D&D) or begins with setting and flavour (ala World of Darkness). Mindshadows begins with the world details and gets into the mechanics. Of the two strategies, I much prefer this . . .

Dragon in the Smoke

Publisher: Heresy Gaming   [Site Info]
Format: Book
Series: Victoriana
Review: Here
Intro:
A successful British RPG publisher once wrote "an unsupported product is a dead product" – or words to that effect. It wasn’t Heresy Gaming. Heresy Gaming are British though, they’re still new and their first RPG and they’re supporting it. Victoriana is too good, in my opinion, to become a dead product. It is pleasing to see Dragon in the Smoke. This pre-written adventure is the first supplement for Victoriana.

Although I’m far from the world’s greatest fan of pre-written adventures I do have several friends who make the compelling argument that one pre-written adventure from the original authors is important as it illustrates exactly how the game should be played, paced, themed and flavoured. If we just accept that argument for now then it becomes apparent the first, official, pace-setting adventure has a really tough task. Dragon in the Smoke is daring. The adventure introduces new, at least, previously understated, aspects to Victoriana. Dragon in the Smoke manages to extend Victoriana whilst also underlying the core of the game. You could say that it manages to get the best of both.

It’s an adventure. If you read any further then you’ve entered the dread realm of spoilers. If you want to play the game then turn back now. Turn back!

You guessed the Asian connection already, huh? Was it the Dragon in the title? Thought so. A rather nice touch is that one of the locations in the adventure is a club called "The Smoke". Hence Dragon in the Smoke.

There’s more than one way to get involved in the adventure too. The supplement presents the two most likely ones; the players already are connected to the family involved with the dragon or the players encounter the Gnome Detective hired to investigate the case and get roped in that way. In truth, like all good adventures, the PCs and enter and exit at many points throughout the storyline and any GM who’s properly read the game should have an easy . . .