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I was a fan of the original Spacers and got to play test the new Spacers 180. Definitely going the right direction here. If you are looking for an easy to lean stripped down sci-fi rpg this is your baby. Keep an eye out for updates and more content!
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[Review of playtest edition] Heavy on ideas, with medium worldbuilding, and light on rules, Spacers: 180 is psionics with spaceships. Plus technobabble! Lots of potential here, and I'm told consistency of the finished product will be much improved with feedback and playtesting.
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I was introduced to this game towards the end of Episode Four of Season Four of The Last Drive-In. There was a letter, written by one Robin Lea of Arkansas, where she tells Joe Bob Briggs that she was inspired by the mind-melting ... err, film called Things to create a table-top role-playing game based off of Hogzilla: an attempt at a hosploitation subgenre in horror gone horrifically silly, and maddening on its own.
So, because I am a Last Drive-In fan and I watched Hogzilla -- and even rewrote the story on my Horror Doctor Blog -- I definitely had to check this out: to see what Robin Lea with this Crawlspace Event module actually did with it. I bought the PDF version of this book. So, it is an extension of a Crawlspace universe: with the conceit that those that violate the rules of the theatre are condemned to be the victims of the creatures and monsters in the films shown forever, until they die. So far, so good.
Basically, Lea and Peryton Publishing created analogue names for the characters, and expanded on the ways they can utterly lose their pigshit as they are being hunted by a Hog of Doom. The rules are a little confusing to me, though the cards system utilized in lieu of dice to back up your statistics is reminsicent of the mechanics of Castle Falkenstein: if only because they are playing cards. I admit the whole reference to poker, and using poker rules for one aspect -- and being told to look them up on the Internet -- kind of threw me a bit. And I am curious as to what the purpose of the tokens are from the optional drinking game you can play as you watch other characters engage in behaviour that annoys your character.
Getting specific cards to use at particular times seems important. I love how Alex, Andy's analogue -- and the character Joe Bob played in Hogzilla -- actually has an explanation. I tried to do the same, in my story. But I appreciate how Lea expanded on the setting: showing Alex's old house, the remnants of the burned down seniors' home, and even the abandoned factory where ... certain chemicals may have been introduced to the nearby fish ponds, and all the fun ensued. I kept having to check myself as I saw that TerrorHog's events and characters, with their prompts and the story didn't quite line up with what we saw in Hogzilla, but that makes it its own breed, and we shouldn't get too greedy. You know, like a ...
I am a part of The Lost Drive-In Patreon and group, and I think if we could find a Director, it would be an amazing game if we could adapt it to an online roleplaying situation. There should be a mechanic for shouting "TerrorHog." Not quite like "Hogzilla," but you know. You don't make characters in this game, but you have pre-made ones based off the characters in the film, but I wonder if customs can be crafted and an enterprising Director could make some "TerrrorHog VHS Bottomfeeding Bootlegs." Anyway, this is my review of this game so far.
Three Pork Rinds out of five. A Drive-Thru game done the Drive-In Way. I say, check it out.
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks for the review! One correction: I'm a she, not a he. |
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You up for a Saturday night in July to do an on-line session? We have an ongoing Crawlspace group but can't work in this scenario just yet. |
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A very interesting, offbeat setting for Monsters! Monsters! (also usable with its progenitor, Tunnels & Trolls). The author manages to provide a world in which your players can run amok as monsters without feeling too bad about it, since most of the "good guys" are total jerks. The supplement also provides plenty of details for interesting encounters, adventure seeds, and places for your PCs to rest and recuperate. If you are at all interested in playing M!M! or T&T with monstrous characters, check this out.
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Here's something new! There have been a few campaign settings for the Tunnels & Trolls suite of games, but not many. What makes this one stand out is not simply because it has added to the pool but because it is usable with- nay, designed specifically to go with, the Monsters! Monsters! variant of T&T. That makes it a very rare beast indeed.
Uprising at Buzzard's Gulch Monster Rez (Rez, as in Reservation) is a setting guide and adventure seed set in a world (or part of Trollworld?) where humans and monsters live side by side- providing the monsters go back to the Reservation come nighttime. The title uses language redolent of the Wild West and this puts you right into the zone for this setting. But as we are playing Monsters! Monsters! here an the player-characters are supposed to be the bad guys, does that make the humans the goodies? Well, nope. The humans have, afterall herded up the monsters and put them in a reservation, and are exploiting them for their own gain. And now it seems, the monsters have had enough!
So what do you get for your money? Author, Thessaly Chance Tracy and publisher, Peryton Games give you a 93 page setting, nicely illustrated (the cover by Simon Lee Tranter is great), edited by the Troll Godfather himself and a minion called Monkey. The action is set on an island and can therefore be smuggled into most campaigns. There are maps, npcs a plenty, descriptions of places of note, the High City of Hylax, villages of The Rez, bars, brothels, revolting swampy areas that humans will hate but monsters (some of them) will enjoy. There are lists of foodstuffs, potions, diseases, random encounters, tribes of goblins and quite a few wicked and devious humans. As you'd expect there's a little history too. But there's more: new spells, new monsters, new kin and some extra rules for the Monsters! Monsters! game including monster talents and motivations.
The tone of the whole thing is as whimsical as one might expect for a T&T product and with an undercurrent of darkness. You get the feeling this town is gonna blow! There are some really noteble NPCs too. My favourites are Grimlar Steele, a mechanical monster who lives at the castle and Granny Grisstletit, a Madam, business woman of repute and potion brewer on the side.
There's a lot packed into these pages and yet the author hasn't fallen into the trap, as some campaign settings do, of getting bogged down in too much detail and history. Each place is described with brevity. Giving the GM easily enough to go on but at the same time, plenty of room for his/her own take on things.
Altogether, a really nice package and a great addition to the Monsters! Monsters! and Tunnels & Trolls universe.
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Written as a labor of love and it shows.
A veteran player of T&T and Monsters, Monsters, this is a compilation of everything good from through the years.
As a campaign setting it excels at showing the knowledge, flexibility and possibilities at a monster campaign. Yes, you play the monsters vs the real monsters, those dwarves and pesky intolerant humans. There is a wealth of possibilites at what you can do here and a number of specific adventures following soon.
I cannot recommend this product highly enough to give you a setting to use where you like to give all role players the great experience that they desire and maybe did not even know they were missing yet.
I am so looking forward to the following part.
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Not impressed with this - Sorry!. Just a catalogue of strange named gizmos and races - No real gameplay advice or examples.
Its obvious the author has put in a lot of work to create it, but I will be sticking with the original T&T world.
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Man, am I disappointed. It pains me to say it, but man, am I disappointed.
This isn't a complete game -- not that you could tell, because there's nothing on either the DTRPG page for it, nor in the text, to inform the buyer that it doesn't contain its own rules. If you have no idea that it's not a complete game (as was the case for me) and purchase it thinking that it is, this product makes for a confusing, frustrating, and ultimately disappointing read.
...and that's a real disappointment. The game's concept is enticing and entertaining, promising the kind of crazy-go-nuts bonkers wackadoo fun that could fill many an evening's play. I was genuinely excited to purchase and download this product. Sadly, the poor writing and editing, the uneven organization, unattractive formatting, and -again- incompleteness of the product sank my spirits.
I very much hope that the publisher will take this critique to heart. My goal isn't to beat up on an indie publisher (what good would that do?), but to encourage a better, clearer presentation of a fun idea. This could be a great product; in fact, I think it should be a great product. There are a lot of fun ideas in there. But until its ideas are easier to parse out and it's clear how they're intended to be used, Wobble: Transdimensional Roleplaying will be just that: ideas. Ideas are great, but I wanted a game.
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Without a doubt, Roy Cram turns out adventures which are, at once, tense AND funny. Take 'Balloonka,' for instance. The names of the places and creatures of this world invite chuckles and groans. And yet this is one of the deadliest adventures a player character could experience! If you doubt it's that serious, examine the challenging cover by the always perfect Jeff Freels. If ever a couple of spacemen (women?) thought they were in control of a situation....
It's an old-fashioned party killer, with a thin veil of science fiction to trick us into thinking we know what's going on. As far as the characters are concerned, a formerly-wealthy employer (Roy calls him Victor...I dunno about that.) had to abandon his colony and trade with a world that was literally dripping with riches. Less than eleven years ago, Victor was about to become the most wealthy individual in known space. And then something went wrong.
His fortune dissapated, cut off from his prize (by a "local" war in that sector), he's either hocked everything or else has found backers. Victor wants his world back. But he needs a band of adventurers, bold and tough. In short, he needs YOU and your friends. What? You thought the old fat guy was gonna pilot a ship AND fight the planet's --- um, he would go quiet at that point, and wild horses can't drag further information from him.
But you and your companions are just bold enough and dumb enough - as well as broke - to take on this Herculean task. Thank goodness you had all believed in the ancient legends, which state that the richest adventures will walk up to you, if you hang around in a tavern long enough.
Can't be too tough. You and your fellow adventurers smile at the recordings of the first colony's distress calls, complaining that the local plants grew fast - very fast. They must have been cowards, to fear plants that grow extra fast. The famine worlds could certainly pay well for samples of such vegetation.
And as the spaceship comes into orbit near your destination, your group dons body armor and twelve different kinds of guns. With a smirk, you each enter the shuttle, and think how easy it will be to remove gold and gems from an uninhabited planet.
I was that smirking character, and within 24 hours, my entire party was dead.
Stay away from Balloonka. It's hungry.
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This is one time when brevity really does work. This is a snapshot of a smaller city, without the detail of a City-State of the Invincible Overlord (CSoIO). It isn't meant to have that much detail, though you're certainly welcome to add detail, a map, etc. A map would have been a Very Good Thing, but for this price I'm not gonna complain about it.
Like every Tunnels & Trolls adventure I've ever seen, you only use six-sided dice. Except for page 9 - where you'll use two three-sided dice. (That is, roll two D6 and divide each one in half.) There's a slight typo on this page: 2D3 will give a range of 2-6, not 1-6. This roll will determine the class or job of the local residents. Therefore, since a one cannot be rolled, there are no citizens in Lowhollow.
Getting spells is easier on Tom's world that in the Trollworld of the TnT 7.5 rulebook. Maybe that will change with Deluxe TnT? If your wizards want to stock up and/or recover, this is a town worth a detour.
There are no adventures, per se. Adventure hooks aplenty. For instance, random scenario #12 is a REAL pain for PCs, and can lead to a geas, a job, a curse, or a jail sentence. Or worse. You have to try this! Because the justice system (i.e. - the GM punishes you for whatever he or she wants) is totally unfair and the punishment probably far exceeds the crime. In short, delightful and filled with adventure hooks.
It is only 18 pages, counting cover and title page, but don't consider this a short scenario. There is lots of replay value, and enough adventures to carry you through your old age. Perryton could do worse than expand this small (?) town into a CSoIO module, complete with map. On the other hand, I think I'm going to enjoy stocking it myself and drawing my own map.
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Tunnels & Trolls has inspired a number of magazines over the years, and I've often been surprised at how good most of them are. In this, TnT has fared better than most game, and far better than the only rpg to get to market before it. (For the record, TnT was and is the first rpg which was designed AS a roleplaying game. See Jim Peters about this.)
Elder Tunnels is assuredly in the top 1 or 2 percent of these, offering, as it does, a smorgasbord. If one article doesn't please you, the next one will, and it is a rare issue (Can't think of one!) in which there isn't two or three things you'll find useful.
In the past, ET (I like that acronym!) has taken itself a bit seriously at time, but a sense of playfulness begins this issue, starting with an introduction that is as corny and enjoyable as Raymond Edward Johnson. (Inner Sanctum. Look it up.)
That corn was to, evidently, set us up for a shock! Two pages later, we are treated to what could easily be a chilling Call of Cthulhu adventure. The antagonist, who is also our protagonist of the story, is a combination of Lennie Small (Of Mice & Men) and Jason (Friday the infinite-numbers), and one can't help but feel sorry for the guy. With little difficulty, this scenario could provide real moral quandaries for the players. Roleplayers will thrill, yet there's enough action to satisfy the most hacker-type of player. Kudos to David Moskowitz for a great plot and follow-through, and to Christopher Lee Rowan for a funny-until-you-look-at-it portrait of a truly suspenseful scene. This is an adventure which proves the versatility of TnT, for it can be played in any time period, any place, from TnT's usual fantasy setting to a modern - or even future - environment.
"The Bone Lords," Tom Loney informs us, "are beings of loathsome, evil vileness so despicable that the softness that was their living flesh has been discarded ages past." If THAT doesn't send a cold shiver up your spine, the sight of one just might. For such a terrifying new monster (Its monster rating STARTS at 100!) it was surprising that all the information fit on one page. Score another point for TnT's system, which allows stats to be kept short, and the verbosity to be used on flavor.
"Woe Hounds" by Jerry Teleha takes a few more pages - but then, there is more than one hound. Woe Hounds are the demonic terrors that the Hound of the Baskervilles could only pretend to be. Jerry's description, and Mike Hartlieb's illustration, should frighten the wits out of your players. Perhaps it's time for a statistic such as Sanity or Fear to be introduced into TnT. (Something like it was written in the late, lamented Sorcerer's Apprentice magazine."
Solo adventures have been TnT's meat & potatoes since Buffalo Castle, and "Curse of the 3-Eyed Stone" by David Crowell does not disappoint. (We could, I suppose, have a TnT magazine without a solo, but why would we want to?) Like many solos, you're railroaded into a specific character type. If we fault this solo for that, we have to fault most of them, so let's not bother. Because the adventure is quite good, and the solo prompts you with real personality traits for this thief you are to play. Clues, puzzles, and violence are anticipated, and it doesn't let us down. Care and cleverness is called for, because it seems everything that exists is powerful enough to squash you like a bug. The illustration by Mr Rowan indicates a Chinese setting (At least that LOOKS like Zhongwen to me. It could be Hangul, which would make it Korean.) yet there's nothing stopping you from imagining it in any locale. I played it as if I was Slate Shannon (played by Humphrey Bogart in Bold Venture) and it works fine. I would've paid the six bucks for this alone!
Sadly, I end giving short shrift to more art throughout the magazine, and a really nice cover. Peryton is classy and kind, in that they include a "printer friendly" PDF along with the regular version, which will eat up black ink like mad.
And speaking of "mad," the adventures in this issue really could drive adventurers into insanity. Yes, we really do need to decide how to handle stress in TnT. Because I, a nastymean GM, homerule that if it entertains me, my players go insane.
Not necessarily the characters. I mean my PLAYERS.
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A short and direct campaign (It's much more than one adventure!) description which can last as long and as far as you want. Player characters can be entirely non-adventure types - as a matter of fact, this was written specifically for the Citizen class in T&T. The Citizen class being the class of an average serf or wanderer who has no really useful adventurer skills to speak of.
It concerns time travel caused by a blend of magic and tech. This time, in this setting, it seems to work - and it all but demands sequels and fictional stories.
You'll probably want to change some things (probably different things than I would) and expand it in one direction for another. The protagonist, or "mover" of the story is easily turned into an NPC or a player character. Either choice will lead to entirely different adventures and dynamics, probably on an individual basis. This character can be key to the direction the plot(s) will take. And there's nothing to say that this character couldn't have had - urr, ehm - companions arrive with him. Therefore the players can play citizens native to the future environment, or citizens from...some earlier time. This, again, can be adapted by the GM; in my game, it starts on 21st century Earth.
And there's nothing which says this "mover" must survive, either! I keep thinking what sort of improvisational events would occur if Dave Arneson was running this.
This is a delightful adventure for T&T, and - with expansions - it could be as popular as once was Greyhawk. This time, for T&T.
But, yes -- it does need expansion. And sequels. And maybe a series of short stories.
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A solid hit. It's going over the center fielder's head! It's going - it's going!! It's GONE, right out of the park!! A solid HOME RUN!!
Sequels are rarely as good as the originals. Hardly ever do they TOP the original! I can only think of two in the movie field: Bride of Frankenstein and Spider-Man 2. As for games, there's this, the sideways-sort of sequel to the Gamesmen of Kasar - and a partial answer to the riddle of what IS the motivation of these Gamers? And who are they?
You're a person of some note in this solo. That is, you're of interest to the government (such as it is) of the planet, and they'd just as soon jettison you into the nearest star. But if you can solve the problem/mystery of why the bizarre building, which houses an arena or something (No one really knows.) has gone berzerk and sent out robots to kidnap citizens -- well, that's just unseemly! And the robots and building being impregnable to their enforcement agents -- that's a disaster in the making!
So you courageously (?) walk up to the entrance, announce yourself as another of the many who used to play their game in their arena, and wait to be show in --
To what?
Robots, aliens, monsters, and a big honking -- no, I shan't reveal it. But one of the most glorious of the classic monsters can be yours for the low, low price of taking the wrong turn.
And you've got to love Jeff's art - If H.P. Lovecraft merged with Earl Otis and had a pawkish sense of humor, this is the art he'd create. To make it even more bizarre, Jeff is blind - and still one of the best artists in the business.
This solo opens up what may be a campaign, and delivers more mystery even as it answers some of the mystery of the Kasar solo.
Roy Cram has been absent from adventure creating for far too long! His return with "When Good Games Go Bad" has us excited for further adventures in this series.
Creepy as it might be.
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If I had any complaint at all, it would be that this is too short. Ken's Trollworld is so different from other RPG milieux that it entertains the reader and chills the player. Hobbs are not the charming hobbits you're used to, neither are the the stereotypical thieves other games have offered. And that's just one example! Richly developed, with enough left open for the creative gamesmaster, Trollworld comes alive as completely as Glorantha or Middle Earth ever did. Yet by some clever work by Ken, this book enables you to make Trollworld uniquely your own.
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I bought this book thinking it was a part of the Spacer scenarios, which I have been waiting for for a very long time. Alas, it wasn't, but it was still an interesting read. I have to admit that I've played Spacers and T&T with the book's author, and you can call me a fan of his already.
The book is for the Tunnels and Trolls system, which I am not overly fond of; but Loney's passion for it always infects his audience. And I found while digging through this campaign's passages that his enthusiasm draws me into it again.
There is some awful editing, but I am not one to get overly critical about that when it comes to game writing. Editors cost money!
I believe that most of the artwork is original. The cover by Simon Lee Tranter and interior work by Mike Hartlieb were my favorites.
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