A bunch of scientists check out a weird structure to try and pick up where a previous expedition didn't cut the mustard.

It's body horror ala "The Thing," only turned to 11 as you grapple with all the possible permutations of evolution gone horribly awry. This could fit into Cthulhu like a snap, or DnD as a kind of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks adventure. It plays great just by itself with the assigned setup.

The graphic design is beautiful, and the formatting is easy to parse and not hard on the eyes. Handouts and map are simple and to the point, leaving lots to the imagination.

The potential bottleneck is in the creatures--and wow are they a crazy mix of far out nightmares and beguiling mystery--because there are so many of them, and their interactions with each other and the PCs can mean all sorts of outcomes. However, the turn system and hex crawl means you have time to ease into them.

There's a boss creature to deal with, a survivor to maybe rescue or interrogate, reports for the sake of science to consider, clues to the structure to figure out or leave best alone....this adventure is a fat daddy with a whole lot of meat.

Biology is disgusting! I love it.

Everything in the game description is pretty spot on: This is like nothing seen before. I'm going to have to boil it down from the Mr. Fantastic $10 words to something Ben Grimm could grok.

Characters come to a city and get involved in a deadly dangerous mystery involving the highest at court and the lowest in the abyss. A unique astrological map drives the action, while a bizarre city map beckons the party to fuss around and find out.

The minimalism is at a genius level of artistry. Filler text is virtually non-existent, yet the outline and random tables show you everything you need to know to progress. For example, in a paragraph's worth of text you learn all about the villain and how to play them without any ambiguity.

There's a reason why G1: Hill Giant Chiefs is an icon of sandbox glory in a few pages. This adventure cuts from that cloth and shows another way it can be done. And its right up there with Shadows Over Bogenhafen in terms of investigative plots, with less filling and it tastes great!

I can pick out just about anything from the adventure and use it to model something in my own game. For example, the simple rules part about how PC time and action is managed: How have I not used something like this yet?

For a scenario like this, it breaks down progress to a limited amount of moves and makes the astrological clock more meaningful. At the start, there's plenty of time, why hurry? Later, you're clenching your teeth at past dead ends and wondering if its too late.

The artwork might not be everyone's cup of tea. I find it jarring and disorienting at times, but the text is still solid and the formatting keeps it together, so I think one can make allowances. For me, the effect matches up with the plot and the feeling when the title of the adventure was uttered.

I can smell the breath of the words.

this source book was absolutely outstanding! the setting is deeply engaging and the writing itself is immersive and drips with atmosphere! my players absolutely loved the mix of deep jungle exploration and dark sci-fi. Genuinely some of the best tension I have run with this group, I am even running it again with another group next month!

A fun and chaotic game of gunslingin, cattlerustlin', and grit. The system is quick to learn and characters are even quicker to create. The colorful characters you'll create via the roll tables in the book will be ones to remember with my players saying they had as much fun making their characters as they did actually playing them. The setting built into the book is odd and macabre but fascinating. It is delivered in a very fun and imaginative way, with the entire rulebook resembling an old west chapbook with near period accurate advertisments, lettering, and grunge. I highly recommend Frontier Scum to anyone looking for a rules lite, gross in a fun way, gritty and deadly cowboy game to run for their group.

This is such a great idea. I had to modify some content to fit my themese, but who doesn't. The provided images are great. I made Foundry VTT tokens out of each of the sea tiles easily and dropped them down on the map just like it was IRL

Potentially the best TTRPG ever made. It's one shortcoming is that it's easier to get blood from gravel than find a print copy of the game.

Not having the ability to easily print pdf formatted hexagon shapes makes this digital download pretty worthless. Wasted $6. Since I can't really run a game with this I can't judge the game itself. The hard copy is out of print. This review is strictly on the usability of the digital download to enable one to easily run the game.

I've been following this title since it was first announced as a hack for Mörk Borg somewhere around a year ago. Although I could not have guessed what it would have been like if it stayed as just a hack, I can say it has grown into its own game while keeping its roots firmly planted in Mörk Borg as well as OSR by extension. Anyone who has played the previously mentioned title will find many similarities and will find it easy enough to pick up with light reading; That being said, there are enough key differences in the rules to keep it interesting. All in all this is a good system for anyone looking for a gritty western vibe. I feel someone could easily run a horror version of Red Dead Redemption 2 without much difficulty. Since the system itself is simple, it has as much customizability as one would hope for from a game inspired by Mörk Borg. The art for the game is beautiful as well, Many of the pages are styled after old catalogs that are filled with information, both lore and rules. To sum up my thoughts; Frontier Scum is one of the better games to run a gritty western with, full of an enjoyable level of death and fun that the players could get up to.

I'd been looking for something along the lines of WFRP in terms of theme (as in late-Medieval/early-Renaissance), but without all the setting-specific rules and content. I know there is Zweihander, but I'm not as in love with all the fiddly bits as I used to be. This product hits a sweet spot for me as it is far more... wait for it... minimalist. Some really great ideas in this book, even if you don't plan on running the actual system. One of my favorite ideas is the "Fight Back" rule, which I plan to incorporate into all melee fights from now on, regardless of which game I'm playing. It's one of those things that is so effective and simple you wonder why you've not seen it before.