First off, I'm a fan of games like Mario Kart. People referred me to this ruleset/setting for that explicit reason. I find the game to be appealing enough, but am unimpressed there are no gameplay examples in the rulebook. Just a round or two illustrating all the steps a racer and the enemies will go through would help tie together all the disparate components to a more cohesive whole. Furthermore, the reason there are no playthroughs on Youtube as well speaks volumes to the fact that the creators recognize that it is probably not feasible in this ruleset's current state.

For the last few days, I soloed my way through Dungeon Grand Prix : Dagon in 60 Seconds (36 pages, DriveThruRPG). This fun adventure was designed for Dungeon Crawl Classics, but I used A Dungeon Game (51 pages, same place). The adventure location is the city New Soler. I changed four lines in Savage Worlds RPG to make my solo engine. For the adventure, I used Shea and her friends. This was their third adventure.

The PCs picked up their quest. They decided to pay a van driver to take them to several spots so they could steal cars. They would then drive the cars back to the quest giver. That was the plan. It did not work out that way. Their first encounter was with a grey alien that had a blaster with two settings. He shot at the van and it was completely fried. Shea took damage when she came out of the van. The PCs did kill the alien and they now had this awesome weapon. The PCs recruited the driver as a new member of their team. They stole their first vehicle, a Crevette. Next, they encountered the Black Krewe. They picked up a quest from them and another vehicle, a Crocardo.

The next encounter was the Orange Krewe. The PCs waved at them and continued on. When they saw an out of control “heavy” go-kart they shot it with the alien blaster and it came to a stop. The driver was grateful. So, they found the enemy Green Krewe at a Truck Stop. The PCs attempted to blow the place up, but that did not work out. They were forced into a battle with the Green Krewe. Trap and The Actor went down. The PCs killed the five members of the Green Krewe. At this point, Tulak healed the wounded PCs. They took the five karts, so they now had a total of seven. They were supposed to take the karts back to the quest giver, but they took too much time (they were traveling by foot some of the time). So, they drove out of the city. Outside the city, Tulak died from a disease. He had picked it (the germ) up from the Truck Stop. I would not ask any questions about that if I were you.

Maybe you will have better luck with this adventure. It would be easy to play it again if you start from a different starting point (it is a hexcrawl).

Give this a try!

Dungeon Grand Prix (44 pages) is an exciting fantasy funnel adventure for Dungeon Crawl Classics, but I used A Dungeon Game (48 pages, free/pay what you want at DriveThruRPG)). I used The Dungeon Oracle (Bimler) as the solo engine. Shea and her three friends continued their adventures and they did recruit a dirt biker. The Bone-Tyrant hosted the event and the PCs were sponsored by Helen’s Healing Herbs. The PCs were taken to their go-karts and off they went. The first encounter was with three frog men (also in karts). Laney the PC ended up in the hospital after a crash. One enemy was killed in the hand to hand combat. One enemy kart flipped and one had a wild spinout. The second encounter was dark wizards (yes, in karts). One cast darkness which put the actor PC in the hospital after a crash. The other cast portal which put the burglar PC in the dark realm (with his go-kart). The PCs survived the kobold kart encounter. They then found a crate filled with slime-fruits. It was used to take out two kobold karts. They also found a emerald scarab crate which they used to take out a lizardman kart.

When the two PCs, which are still in the race, gas up, Shea is asked about her opinion on the Bone-Tyrant. She gave the right answer and is handed an invitation for a secret meeting for the next day. The next encounter was with a half-orc cart which was bigger. It had a copilot extra (inflatable) which enabled the enemy to jump into Tulak’s cart. Tulak crashed and went to the hospital. Shea then pretends to have engine trouble so that she is out of the race (and still alive). The next day, she visits the other three PCs at the hospital. Later, they all go to the secret meeting. It is there that they learn of the plan to infiltrate the fortress by hiding in boxes labeled go-kart parts. To be continued. Give this a try!

Read Stack Gang over the last few days. Really love it. It had me laughing on the bus, I looked crazy. Just looking at my phone with no sounds coming out laughing. Repeatedly.

Weird, gross sci-fi bio-horror setting for Troika! Absolutely one of the weirder spheres, and probably not one you'd want to fly your whimsical core book classes through... but then again, maybe you would, I'm not your Dad. Fun and nasty in equal measure without going for overt gross-out humor or juvenile bullshit. Worth picking up, especially at the price.

This thing absolutely feels like a goddamn fever dream, but it's a really silly and fun fever dream, so there's nothing wrong with that. Who doesn't like to get weird every once in a while?

Sad and beautiful in equal measure, I'm not how certain I am that I'll ever utilize it in Troika!, but I'm sure that if I do, I'll try to do it justice. It's one of those books that's worth owning even if you don't do anything with it, a little ethereal thing-in-itself.

This book is feels like pieces of a very sad anime that got canceled before its finale episode. If I ever end up running mech stuff in any capacity in Troika, it'll be something that I reach for. Otherwise, I'm going to re-read it every once in a while just because.

Gritty and gross, it feels like something that could easily be tied into various game mythologies, especially ones that have Worms that Ambulate or something similarly named and surely trademarked, but it also serves as its own freak-gothic mini-setting using the DCC ruleset. The randomness inherent in the product gives it some serious replayability and I am highly excited to use it in a future adventure. You're at least going to get a weird campaign out of this if you try a little bit, and I'm gonna buy a physical copy, dang it!

This bundle was an absolutely fantastic way to pick up a whole bunch of Troika! titles that I've been wanting to grab for a while, and it saved me a ton of cash compared to a lot of other indie RPG sales sites. Very pleased that I jumped on this when I had the opportunity to do so.

The unusual format and art grew on me a little. Each page has some personality to it. I enjoy some of the backgrounds that bring something new to Troika!. Sadly, because of the surreal, unclear nature of it, there's some difficulty in feeling enguaged. I'd have a tough time running this setting as-is. I know that Troika in meant to feel vauge enough so that the spaces could be filled in, but NEoIaM is far removed from anything recognizable that the spaces are hard to fill. Most of the backgrounds aren't humanoid (there are 5 humanoids if you include the Gravel background), some of the monsters look like they'd be a chore to fight, and reality/space is warping at a whim. It would be difficult to follow, and I simply can't recomend this book.