DriveThruRPG.com
Browse Categories
$ to $
 Publisher















Back
pixel_trans.gif
Other comments left by this customer:
You must be logged in to rate this
pixel_trans.gif
Lava Rules! Fire and Brimstone
Publisher: Expeditious Retreat Press
by Gray H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/20/2023 12:31:53

Hands-down the best rules for lava in any edition in D&D. Comprehensive, simple, easy to grok.
I use these rules all the time when the party encounters lava. A+, and the price is perfect!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Lava Rules! Fire and Brimstone
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Swords & Wizardry Dark
Publisher: VOID CVLT
by Gray H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/10/2021 11:28:23

Neither grim, nor dark. Just a bunch of off-axis text and random ideas.

The ideas in here are not a cohesive set of concepts for grim-dark. Instead, they are a random set of ideas that propose to use newer mechanics for classes (e.g. usage die) and vague descriptions instead of concrete descriptions. I didn't find a single useful idea. It's a handful of pages and not well-written, either. Instead, we get all kinds of angled text and weird fonts; it's more style than substance.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Swords & Wizardry Dark
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
The Warlock
Publisher: The Other Side Publishing
by Gray H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/12/2020 09:16:15

It feels like a copy and paste of 5e's warlock class, with very few changes to adapt to an OSR style game. Lots of "at-will" abilities that trivialize resource management. Might be good for someone who is looking to play 5e in the OSE system, but not for me.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
The Warlock
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
5e: HARDCORE MODE
Publisher: RUNEHAMMER GAMES
by Dennis B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/13/2020 11:23:16

Edit: Formatting, rewording.

I tried to provide a detailed review for those of you looking to purchase this book. I hope you find the write-up useful.

I've enjoyed Drunken n Dragons videos for many years. I've found some of the ideas to be truly great and and inspirational.

This book is a collection of ideas, many of which have been adopted from older versions of D&D, other systems, or video games. Overall, however, I'm quite disappointed with this product. It's an incoherent mess of ideas, many of which are contradictory and not well thought out. I'm shocked any DM worth their salt would give this a five star rating. There are many far more coherent systems that are superior in writing, content, thoroughness and production quality. It's also missing content. The document states there are 2 adventures included on page 19. There are none.

I'm fairly well-convinced this collection of ideas have either never been fully play-tested, or at the least playtested very little.

At the core if it I'm finding difficulty identifying what the core tenets of hardcore mode are. As near as I can tell, it's these:

  • Be fair, but merciless
  • Be a Friend of Death
  • Prize Intensity over Detail.

I think this is what is meant by those tenets:

  • Once rolled, the dice are the final arbitrators of outcome.
  • To adventure is to flirt with death at every turn.
  • Focus on generating emotion over explicit description.

The first tenet is logical, as 5e includes many mechanics that strongly influence the outcome of dice rolls. So it stands to reason that house rules which favor a simple, unfavored probabilistic outcome would be more "HARDCORE" than not.
The second tenet is also logical, as 5e contains mechanics that are extremely forgiving with regards to character death. Like the prior, rules which no longer favor character survival would be more "HARDCORE" than not.
The last, however, is very system agnostic. I'm not sure what this has to do with D&D 5e specifically.

This document then outlines a "cheat sheet" of what the elements are in HARDCORE MODE. Though in truth, it is less of a cheat sheet and more of an outline for the subsequent sections. Each topic is somewhat varied in scope, breadth and technical depth. It feels almost more like a combination of GMing tips and house rules, which gives the document an inconsistent feel.
I've listed the outline below:

  • 3d6 Attributes - Roll 3d6, in order, for stats
  • Pure Hit Dice - Always roll for HP
  • Simple Skills - Roll 1d20 unless you are proficient at something
  • Injured - A new character state that imposes penalties on the character.
  • Death - A simplified, harsher set of rules governing death.
  • Zymer's Candle - A magical item that acts like a save point in a video game.
  • Spells by Level - An adaptation of Dungeon Craw Classics spell system where spell slots are removed.
  • Roll to Cast - An adaptation of Dungeon Craw Classics spell system where spell attacks are rolled on a d20.
  • Level 10 - Capping level at 10. This is a throwback to Basic D&D and similar clones.
  • XP Classic - Varying XP levels to address the inconsistencies of power levels across classes in 5e.
  • The Upper Hand - Basically a DM fiat where he declares everyone to be rolling with advantage.
  • Modded Monsters - A mechanic which computes a monster's stats based upon it's Challenge Rating, a small set of tips on creating "monster AI", environmental hazards, and groups of monsters.
  • GM Style - An encouragement for verisimilitude, abolishing ranges in favor of "here" or "there" locations, rolling initiative
  • Zones - Deconstructing areas into zones (This is also listed as part of GM Style, so I'm not sure why it's in the overview)
  • Theme - Renamed as "The Darkness" in the later part of the book, talks about making your game dark and intense, and also includes 2 adventures.

My first, biggest gripe is that this clearly has never seen a pass by an editor. And it desperately needs one. The fact that the document claims there are 2 adventures in this pdf and there are 0 is an egregious error. That alone makes this document not fit for publishing. The last 3 sections are sort of jumbled and aren't consistent in title with the overview (aka "cheat sheet") in the document. This would have greatly benefitted from a traditional table of contents.

Second, these rules don't really accomplish the overall desired effect. Some of the rules do. Yet there are many mechanics in 5e that have a significant impact on game 5e difficulty that are not addressed in this document. Not coincidentally, all the mechanics which this document does not address (but I many believe are necessary for a more HARDCORE game) have to deal with reducing the power levels of player characters. I believe this was an intentional omission to avoid upsetting players/buyers. For example, characters with perfect recollection, rangers who can never get lost, or always being able to find food and potable water. Addressing these mechanics are critical to increasing the challenge and verisimilitude of the game. Leaving this out reduces value in the product.

Another, seemingly minor (but major in my eyes) point - the author has the word VERISIMILITUDE at the top of a page, and suggests the ideal of VERISIMILITUDE is to stay true to the adventure material, even if it proves difficult or impossible for players. That's not verisimilitude - that's just being inflexible. Adventure material is, by its very nature, a detailed guideline that every DM must adapt to his table. The imperative of the DM is not to be true to the adventure material, but the world. To quote E. Gary Gygax, "It is the spirit of the game, not the letter of the rules, which is important. Never hold to the letter written...if it goes against the obvious intent of the game. As you hew the line with respect to conformity to major systems and uniformity of play in general, also be certain the game is mastered by you and not by your players. ...you are creator and final arbiter. By ordering things as they should be, the game as a whole first, your campaign next, and your participants thereafter..." Adventure material is insignificant compared to ensuring the consistency and realism of your world. Verisimilitude is presenting a world that your players feel so invested in that they believe it to be true; or at the very least, also wish it to be true. This is not a matter of opinion; it is in inexorable truth regarding role playing games.

Third, these rules are inconsistent, contradictory and sometimes incorrect with regards to achieving the desired tenets. Let's review each section and talk about whether or not it is aligned with what I think is meant by HARDCORE MODE as well as the merit of the idea itself.

3d6 Attributes - This is what was done in original D&D. Fine.

Pure Hit Dice - This is what was done in original D&D. Fine.

Simple Skills - Somewhat fine. It helps differentiate those skilled from the unskilled. However, there still remains an amount of variability in the outcome that a seasoned DM may not care for. Better options exist such as 3d6/4d6 under your stat, d20 unders stat, Castles & Crusades SIEGE engine rules, or a simple x:6 chance.

Injured - OK-ish, but they make no practical sense. You become injured and now suddenly you lose your proficiency in WISDOM checks? That just comes across as arbitrary, and certainly cuts across the grain of what HP are intended to be, which is an abstraction of your ability to fight, not think.

Death - This is fine. It's a slight variant on older editions of D&D.

Zymer's Candle - This is literally the antithesis of HARDCORE D&D. Giving players a video game "save/restore" point adds unnecessary complexity, is easily abusable, makes things easier and completely destroys any semblance of verisimilitude.

Spells by Level - This by itself does nothing to achieve the goals of HARDCORE MODE.

Roll to Cast - This makes the game more gonzo in style, and makes magic potentially more dangerous to cast. However, a LOT of consideration should be taken for each spell prior to implementing this rule. As-is, I guarantee this rule will cause more grief at the table than do good. (note: and I'm a huge fan of DCC-style spell slinging).

Level 10 - This is fine.

XP Classic - This idea is excellent, and has been used traditionally in older revisions of D&D to improve class balance. However, the tables here are simply wrong. 5e tried to unify the leveling system which would imply there would be a power curve that's somewhat uniform and independent from class. The truth is that 5e completely failed to achieve this. Adjusting XP per class is a great fix. However, the solution here was not thought out, and creates are worse imbalance than before. A proper solution would be to change the XP levels per subclass. DON'T USE THESE TABLES.

The Upper Hand - This is fine.

Modded Monsters - This does nothing to achieve the goals of HARDCORE MODE. Additionally, it's a really, really bad idea to create monsters this way. The "Challenge Rating" system was a number created to characterize creatures, not a number used to create creatures. The idea of using a simple formula to create a creature has been around for ages, but this is NOT IT. Tables already exist for monster stats based upon HD. Use those. Or use an approach like this one here: (https://www.reddit.com/r/DnDO5R/comments/f6q3kl/my_take_on_onedigit_monster_stats/). In short, DONT use CR. Throw CR out the back door, shoot it twice, urinate on it, bury it, salt the grave and put a conrete patio over it. If you want a simple technique for quickly making monsters, use HD. It's a method that's been playtested for 40 years and proven to work well.

GM Style - This will help inject emotion into the game. However, the ideas here will require you to do so much work that it isn't worth it. It leads by telling you to get rid of bonus actions. While it's a good idea at heart, it's REALLY, REALLY difficult to do well in 5e. It also tells you to roll group initiative, similar to what has been done in older editions of D&D. However, it's a little unclear how to do this (though it's easy to come up with an answer). Furthermore, it says to let players roll with modifiers while the GM does not. That flies in the face of one of the presumed tenets of HARDCORE MODE: Be fair, but merciless.

Zones - I don't see how this helps achieve the game's intents.

Theme - Even though the books claims it "contains two adventures to start you (sic) HARDCORE journey", there are only 4 ideas of what could be adventures.

All the good ideas in this booklet are not original and are simply adaptations from previous versions of D&D, or slightly adjusted. The ideas that are new, are nearly all unequivocally bad ideas and I don't recommend you try them in 5e. There was no editing pass and no pass for grammar. It was a "hit F7 and call it done". Content: 1 star. The art is good, though, so I'll give it an additional star for that. But it's not not worth the $3.50.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
5e: HARDCORE MODE
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Shaking In The Sewer
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Dennis B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/27/2020 08:58:32

This short little module is written relatively well. However it suffers from a major, glaring issue. The entire module takes place in a sewer system, yet there is no map of said system. That's an egregious error. Other things to note: there is a ring of immortality in this module, but it is tied to the sewer system. This is an artifact-level item listed as "rare". It has a restriction that can be worked around by a clever player.
Additionally, the sewers are described as supplying clean water and taking away sewage. Those are two very different things, and no reasonable person would even risk combining them. Therefore, there should be no clean water pipes in the sewage path, and vice-versa. Secondly, there are bursting pipes. There's little reason to have sewer pipes burst in the first place unless there is pressure. If there is pressure, than something is generating that pressure. But that's not discussed or covered.
The sewer exits are listed as being only known by the kobolds. However, this makes little sense. Waste has to go somewhere, and for a town, that would mean it would have to head out into a body of water. And the stench would be very noticeable.

I don't think this is really executable in its form, unless it's being run for some grade-school kids, and not very clever ones at that.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Shaking In The Sewer
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Veins of the Earth
Publisher: Lamentations of the Flame Princess
by Dennis B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/01/2017 13:01:17

This book is well written and very entertaining. It has lots of material that a DM/GM/Referee can draw upon to generate some very memorable campaign moments; it is clear the author spent a great deal of time considering the psychology of creatures and societies that exist in darkness.

For the writing, I give this book a full 5 stars. However, and this is a big one, the art in this book is a hair north of atrocious. Quite literally, it's the worst art I've seen in an RPG book ever. So much so, in fact, that I found it quite jarring when compared to the quality of the writing. I understand what the artist was trying to accomplish with the style, but it failed miserably. There are better ways to convey a sense of dread, fear and the unknown than resorting to senseless scribbles. Art that can be outshone by my 5 year old has no place in a book with prose of this quality.

3 stars.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Veins of the Earth
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss
Publisher: Kortthalis Publishing
by Dennis B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/23/2017 17:13:38

I bought this book in spite of the off-putting title, mostly because of the good reviews on this site. This book is poorly written. It's written at a 6th grade reading level, which is not a good thing. It's filled with poor anecdotes (a reference to Metallica in 1983? Seriously?) that don't motivate or inspire.
The "lessons" in this book are either mundane, uninspired, or both. As a new DM, I found what little useful information here to be things that are very obvious; the rest of the suggestions are simply bad or are something I'd consider "house rules". The tables in the back are good, but they simply cannot carry the first 70 pages of this document. I can't recommend this to anyone in good conscience. I ordered the PDF + print version, and I now regret doing so. The print version is going straight into the trash when it arrives.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Baba Yaga Boss Stats (5E)
Publisher: Double0Games
by Dennis B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/01/2016 06:14:02

This is a well laid out boss, and remains fairly faithful to the 2e Baba Yaga. Her wizard level has been toned down (was level 25 or so in 2e), and her priest and thief abilities are missing, and missing some high level spells that I'd consider a "must have" for a hag (feeblemind, simulacrum, et. al.). Also, her HP are on the low side, I think, but, aside form that, she's excellent.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Baba Yaga Boss Stats (5E)
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Classic Modules Today: I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City 5e
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Dennis B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/05/2016 10:52:38

Just downloaded the "conversion" and it's an extremely poor conversion. The monster conversions from 1e to 5e don't take into account any of the differences in mechanics from the 2 different editions. It's worse than worthless - it's actually misinformative. You're better off converting it yourself.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Classic Modules Today: I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City 5e
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Dungeon Map Symbols/Icons (Any Editor)
Publisher: Inkwell Ideas
by Dennis B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/19/2016 15:57:38

Just purchased this dungeon map symbol/icon pack, and am severely disappointed. Though there are technically 200 icons, many of the icons are palette swaps. You get 36 different palette swap potion icons, 18 different palette swap candle icons, 34 different palette swap chair icons, 14 palette swap stoll icons, about 3 different types of tables which are palette swapped for 17 icons, 6 different kinds of braziers, 4 palette swaps for carts. Oh, and get this: 1 icon for a bag. one. Zero crates, zero barrels or the like. Aside from an iron maiden and shackles icon, there are no "nasty dungeon" icons - no skulls, skeletal remains, goop, ooze, detrius, rubble or anything else.

While the icons you get are decent, they don't get you very far for RPG map generation, unless you plan on making lots of farmer houses.

Overall, these "200" icons are most certainly not worth the $15.95 they are asking for.

If they sell it for $3.00, it's worth a buy, but I honestly feel very misled. I was expecting some palette swaps, but not over 50% of the icons.

Don't buy this product. It's not worth it.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Dungeon Map Symbols/Icons (Any Editor)
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Creator Reply:
I\'m sorry to read you\'re disappointed. The product image is a contact sheet showing all the icons in the set, so the collection\'s contents shouldn\'t be a surprise. We\'ve also looked at other icon collections and felt these were priced accordingly, but perhaps that has changed and we need to check that again. I\'d be happy to work with DriveThru/RPGNow to do a refund or work with you directly.
pixel_trans.gif
LLA002: The Inn of Lost Heroes
Publisher: Small Niche Games
by Dennis B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/17/2016 15:24:09

Overall this is a decently structured story and sufficiently succinct for a competent group of players to execute in one to two sessions. Keeping the story contained to a single location/structure is a wonderful concept that more writers should do. This allows DM's to incorporate a story such as this into their campaigns with little to no effort.

Overall the story flows well enough, though I believe the ending is in dire need of a rewrite, and would not recommend executing this story without changing the ending. In short, one of possible outcomes results in the players having an all-out battle to the death between one another until a final victor is found, only to have the party all magically aliveat the end with the "it was just a dream" ending.

In fact, one of the NPCs says this almost verbatim. Literally, the most hated cliché in all of literature is, "...and it was all just a dream". And here it is, in all its horrid glory.

Overall, I feel the book would have been better served if it had been structured more akin to a traditional play, starting with the dramatis personae, then moving to the setting description, then dividing the story into 3 separate acts. As I read through it, I found myself flipping back and forth trying to find out who the characters were initially, then trying to keep moving with the story, then trying to follow the progression.

The random encounter tables are good, and throwing a few fights into the mix is enough of a challenge to keep the players on their toes. A musical transition between the "phases" of the inn is a nice note, ala Silent Hill.

The chambers feel a bit punitive in nature, as each are effectively designed to cater to a specific class (cleric, fighter, wizard, thief), leaving, for the most part, the rest of the party to sit around and twiddle their thumbs. And, of course, if that the party does not have such a member, then the DM needs to partially or completely redesign the entire encounter, which is another headache. Additionally, if the party member dies in that encounter, there will be no one else to complete the task, effectively resulting in a TPK, unless the DM fudges the encounter on the next go-around.

In conclusion, I'd say this is a decent buy for the money, but not something most people could/would/should play as-is. Any DM that picks this up should plan on rewriting the ending, adjusting the challenge chambers to match the party compositions, and probably tailor the NPC cast (it's probably bigger than what is necessary).



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
LLA002: The Inn of Lost Heroes
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Creator Reply:
Thanks for the review. Customer feedback always helps make the next product better!
pixel_trans.gif
Displaying 1 to 11 (of 11 reviews) Result Pages:  1 
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif Back pixel_trans.gif
0 items
 Gift Certificates