I've never been much for the FATE system until now. Bulldogs provides a mix of great art and writing with an easy-to-understand handling of the FATE system.

Bulldogs! does exactly what it sets out to do, and it does it well. It provides science fiction adventure with lots of quirky aliens (though nothing too unusual, it's a decent selection, and rules are provided for custom species). The game does a good job of presenting the setting, and the system is far above average.

A lot of the setting is reminiscent of Schlock Mercenary, which is one of my favorite webcomics ever, so I have no complaints about it (it's a little on the softer edge of science-fiction, but not too incredibly soft).

For $10, Bulldogs! provides an affordable and awesome science fiction experience.

BULLDOGS is SCi-Fi that kicks ass (and takes names!). This is one of the best presentations of the FATE system on the market. Impressive.Most impressive.....

Liked: Very few errata (for example, only saw one XX reference (on pg. 63); well-organized and focused action (with expansion examples). Really well written with plenty of examples. Disliked: no adventure? well, shoot-out in a loading dock is just the map and a sketch of things to destroy. On the other tentacle, good advice on adventure design specific for the setting. Overall: Enthusiasm overwhelms the few flaws. Hopefully more adventures soon. Although FATE-based, not based on the other SF games Diaspora or Starblazers but very easy to learn (all the rules for Bulldogs here).

Bulldogs! is exactly what it says on the tin. The FATE system powers this sci-fi game to a streamlined and cinematic level of play, and there's a refreshing lack of gravitas that accompanies the setting. The action is fast and furious and free of any complications of any gray areas. There's you and there's them, and when the smoke clears, there had better be only you standing.

There's plenty of things to do in the Bulldogs! setting, the author does a fantastic job at painting the broad strokes right, leaving plenty of inspiration along the way for GMs to pick up and run their own high action campaigns with.

Bulldogs! features great writing, clean layout and great artwork. Definitely a great buy.

This is an excerpt from the full review on my blog. To read the rest of the review, please visit: http://wp.me/p5H0U-P8

As the blurb says, Kingdom of Nothing is an urban fantasy game, reminicient of Niel Gaiman's Neverwhere, where the players take on the role of a homeless person who has slipped through the cracks of the world to be devoured by The Nothing.

Character creation is collaborative, where you describe your character as they are in the moment - how they look, their name, and what's in their pockets. The other players will fill in the Secrets, detailing the history and traumatic event that landed the character where they are today. To me, this is a perfect system for a game where the character doesn't remember what happened and it goes a long way in increasing player buy in. Granted, you'll need to have the right group to make a game like this work but in the hands of the right group you end up with an amazing experience.

The setting is also collaborative, with the Narrator and each player filling in the details of the city the game is set in. Similar to Dresden Files, this sort of setting creation definitely increases player investment as they are encouraged to include locations that mean something to their character, even if they don't know exactly why.

The system uses coins in a cup, adding a bit to the penniless feel of the character. As a player, you decide how much you're willing to invest in the situation at hand by the number and type of coins you throw in the cup. During the course of play, characters will discover magic, monsters, and try to reclaim their memory, dealing with the tragedy that pushed them into The Nothing's grasp.

If you are a fan of urban fantasy, collaborative story creation and story-focused gameplay, you can't go wrong with Kingdom of Nothing. While the group makeup can make or break any game, the way the Secrets are developed does require a level of trust in your fellow player. Where you envision your character as being a former firefighter who failed to save someone from a fire, you could end up with a dark secret that your character is really a pyromaniac and the helmet you wear is nothing more than a joke. It's a selling point for me but some people dislike having that level of control taken away from them. I can't count it as a flaw (I love it!) but some might.

At Dreamation I ended up picking up Kingdom of Nothing by Jeff Himmelman. Jeff does the writing as well as the illustrations for the book. It's the first book that Brennan over at Galileo Games published and it's the first one he didn't write. I've been meaning to pick it up ever since he started talking about it because I like pretty much everything Brennan has put out and it's in essence a horror game. These two things make it a quick sell for me.

However, when I picked it up I will admit that I had a reservation. You see, there's a comic artist in Toronto who decided that he was going to do a comic about the homeless people he saw around him in Toronto. If you've been downtown, there are a fair number of homeless people and they all have their own stories and are their own people and what the artist does is play on them and completely dehumanize them. The comic became about him rather than about the people he was supposedly writing about.

When I opened up the book, I was worried because even the best intentions can become problematic.

Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed.

Kingdom of Nothing is a game where you play people who find themselves as one of the Lost. Something large and traumatic happened to you and you find that people no longer pay attention to you. Even if you shake regular folk, you'll find that they forget you pretty quickly and you go back to being stuck in the Kingdom of Nothing. The goal of the game, is to get past the bad stuff that stands in your way and come out the other side.

The book itself is gorgeous, and the illustrations are breathtaking. Everything just seems to fit right. The hopefulness mixed with despair. The fact that you're dealing with your community of Lost and what goes on there is captured wonderfully in the illustrations.

Now, what makes this game great is the mechanic. I'm usually one for the story and screw the mechanic, but sometimes there comes something that is so perfect for how the game works that you can't really divorce the game from the mechanic. Don't Rest Your Head is like that, but Kingdom of Nothing has just completely blown DRYH out of the water for immersive mechanic. From the part in character creation where the book encourages the GM to be ruthless when it comes to taking away things that the characters might have had, to the idea that you use spare change as the way to see if you succeed sends chills down my spine as someone who creates games. I love the idea that the only way to get ahead is to be risky, or desperate. I just love the mechanic so much that I read it again, and I never do that unless I absolutely have to.

The other part of Character Creation that I really love is the fact that everyone writes up your secrets and it's up to the GM to try to weave them together. Usually it's not that hard, because you have to leave the trauma up there as something you forget. It's rife for props to come into play, if you like to make props, or other elements. I might even consider trying to use music if I could find a way to do it right.

The setting also makes you more aware of what's going on around you, or at least it did for me. When I was driving my autoshare car around doing errands I ended up looking at buildings that might be Lost places and what I might be able to do with them. How I could run a game and use a map of Toronto and mark these places down and how they might impact people.

If I do have a complaint about the game, it would be the couple of editing mistakes that appear here or there. There are a couple things that are duplicated in a bunch of lists. Also, there's a moment where it says that a dime is worth three successes and later on it says that it's worth only one. I'm going to stick with the dime as three because it fits with the theme and the progression.

For fifteen bucks I would highly recommend this game to anyone. If you're making a big purchase at IPR or if you see it at a con, it is totally worth the pick up cost.

TL;DR Version Setting is chilling and appropriate. Book is beautiful to look at. Mechanic is perhaps the best woven in I've seen, even better than Don't Rest Your Head. At 7.50$ you should buy it now.

I had purchased this pdf and it had all of the artwork removed from an earlier version I had seen. I complained about it here and the author made an effort and re-added the artwork. The artwork invokes a fantastic ambiance for me. So a very big "Thanks" to the author!

The system is really unique and enjoyable to play. It takes a bit to get your head around it, only because it is a little different from normal rpgs, but simple enough once you get the hang of it. The only problem I could see is if you have confict with a large number of opponents it could really slow down.

Short, to the point, inspirational, written by Ken Hite, $2. What more do you want? Get it.

Three Black Crows, Three Dead Men is an interesting story game well worth a download and a play-through. It tells the story of three dead men, hanging from the gallows, from the point of view of the three crows who are about to eat their corpses. The players, naturally, play the crows.

The three black crows are Bitter, a cynic, Pity, who sees pathos and tragedy, and Hope, who is always looking on the positive side. These three personalities also become the three forces pulling the story in different directions.

Each stage of the game corresponds to one of the three corpses. The crime of each corpse that led to their hanging is in turn described in three stages: motive, means and opportunity. A simple die roll permits each of the crows to establish each step of the stories of each of the corpses. The crow who has completed the most stories at the end of the game wins. (It is possible for there to be a three-way tie, in which case "everyone is a winner.")

This innovative little game deserves a close look. After you see how the crows' personalities provide the story impetus, players may be able to introduce other crows into future rounds, with other personalities and agendas, or to alter the setting the game takes place in, with more fantastical or historical details.

Especially for the free price, this excellent product will provide you with several evenings of fun story play. It is also very easy to teach to those who haven't played story-creation games before.

LOL. Just goes to show that you can't please everybody. Even if the game were mediocre, which it very much isn't, I would be tempted to give the company five stars for reducing fluff. I wish more companies would make bare bones versions. (no, this isn't lacking in fluff, I wish it were but bonus anyway) Save the fluff for actual examples. Remove the illustrations, cut the cost as a result.

Thank you. Bravo, and less is more. I plan on using this in a text/wave game. I can get illos anywhere, sadly thru dtrpg but hey, mea culpa, I am a minority in this regard.