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Other comments left for this publisher: |
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Sexbots is a surprisingly good supplement for Machinations of the Space Princess. It covers building Sexbots as NPCs and PCs and as well… robots. So in that sense it’s useful for any space opera game.
It also goes into some very interesting discussion on what the idea and various permutations of sexbots can bring to a campaign. The ideology, the conflicts, and the potential adventure for campaigns where it is legal, illegal and a ‘gray’ area.
I guarantee you there is definitely something in here that you have no thought about and will definitely give you ideas!
This is also not a cheesy supplement at all. It’s intelligent and fun. It is in no way intended be ‘titillating. I figure I should say this because with a title like this that would be the first thing I’d think and have seen much lesser products done that way. This isn’t that. In fact, marking it ‘Adult Content’ seems pretty ridiculous. There’s not even a nipple inside. There are no illustrations at all, actually.
The Black Market Sexbot “Quirks” table is also a lot of fun!
So while it’s definitely focused on one thing, it covers it in a lot of interesting ways and will definitely be an addition to any sci-fi campaign I run in one way or another.
There appears to be a more expanded version of this title and look forward to seeing it.
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Another great work from James Desborough! I was very impressed with his 100 Horror Adventure Seeds book, and this is another winner! Each entry begins with a Description, which sets the scene for you. Next comes the Horror explains the nature of the supernatural creature or circumstances surrounding the scene. The Layout section offers a glimpse of how the setting is arranged. Finally, each entry has three Stories, for how to get the action started.
I want to stress that, as with 100 Horror Adventure Seeds, this book puts the onus of the work on you, the GM. You won't find stats for the monsters or maps of the sites here. The work is very system-neutral and easily adapted to nearly any setting. The Layout portion gives just enough info that a skilled GM could run it off the cuff, yet provides enough detail that those wanting to draw their own map should have no trouble doing so.
The entries are quite varied, and though most all are meant for the modern world, an imaginative GM should have no trouble adapting them to almost any setting.
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This book is gold for the horror GM! The scenarios provided by the delightfully twisted mind of James 'Grim' Desborough will keep your players on edge throughout the entire adventure. Hell, just reading through the book is enough to give one the chills.
Each seed begins with a Description, providing the GM with just enough information to get the creative juices flowing. Next comes the Twists, ideas for keeping the most clever of players guessing until the very end. Finally, there is the Epilogue, wherein we get ideas for continuing the horror.
Be warned; many of these scenarios are Dark, and not all will be everyone's cup of tea, but with 100 seeds available, there is sure to be something that appeals to everyone. If I had to say something negative, it would be that most of these seeds are set in the modern era, but don't let that stop you from purchasing the book. It's easy enough for any moderately skilled GM to adapt them to any setting, from fantasy horror to the far future!
The book is completely setting neutral. It's up to you to fill in the stats, James just sets the table for you. But isn't that what being a GM is all about? Serving up the meat and potatoes?
In summary, any horror GM should do themselves a solid and purchase this work! I would wager that no matter what your brand of horror is, you will find something that intrigues you in here. For seven bucks, how can you go wrong?
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I could do without all of the lengthy and irrelevant political diatribes. That's not what I'm looking for when I buy a game product.
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System agnostic series of actually good hooks you can really use, and I can't quit buying.
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Another universal entry, more adventure hooks, NPCs, and strange happenings round-out this admittedly small booklet. Even if you don't care for randoms, it's definitely worth the scant price.
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Sans statblocks, this is a small book filled with incredible adventure hooks, complex NPCs, and a lot of flavorful text. It is generic, but it doesn't feel generic. I would include almost anything from these books in an ongoing campaign.
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Don't bother with this, especially if you're not cis.
At first, I thought the initials of this game were an unfortunate coincidence*. Then I glanced over the game itself and noticed some outdated language about trans people, and it gave me pause, but again, could be an innocent explanation.
It wasn't until I read further that it dawned on me that I was reading anti-trans propaganda - "if we have to stop defining 'male' and 'female' by biology, then these people are forcing us into a dystopia where there are no defining differences between people".
There are no other specific points I can put my finger on (partly because I did not care to read any further than the vague intro to the setting), but those three things being together is not a coincidence. Or, if it is, it's a wild one, and the publishers need to make some serious changes.
So, yeah. Deleted it from my downloads and my library and won't be interested in anything this publisher produces in the future.
(*for those not in the know, the LGB Alliance is a seriously transphobic activist group - also known as "LGB Without the T" - whose intention is to force trans and nonbinary people out of queer spaces.)
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Creator Reply: |
I think if you look at the date of publication, you'll find that the booklet far pre-dates the current trans panic. The 'Grey' part refers to the blandness of everything being the same.
The game is a satirical look at the social media panopticon we live in, and people's strenuous efforts to find something to be upset about.
So I guess this 'review' is my RDA of irony. |
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I purchased this book under the impression that I was going to drag a handful of players through a zombie infested city, instead I found a book that will allow me to not just run a game for 4 or 5 friends but for a club of 50. Once I seen that the O's through out the book are to check off what has been looted and the endless empty room descriptions are there for me to write in extra notes to say "group 1 ransacked, group 2 used as supply dump and group 3 died in here" this book after a little bit of reading will allow plenty to have minimal preperation games that will keep players on edge and demand creative play. I cannot recommend this book enough to people that want to play in a semi-historic setting with endless oppertunities for tension and horror.
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It's hard to not draw comparisons with the video games, Darkest Dungeon or Bastard Bonds, while reviewing this supplement. The players are probably criminally accused, doing penance for some crime by being forced into servitude and likely execution by undead. The meat of the book is backstory and city layout, with informational box maps that can serve as guides for making your own maps but, not seriously for direct use. The PDF is bookmarked, which is good, making it easy to navigate between different sections if you are using the book in real time. The loot tables have items that are sensible for the setting and quite mundane which is fine but each of these items is preceded by a number of O's that I don't understand the significance of. The loot is so mundane that it could have been represented by a table reference for boring loot, rather than listing each candlestick or old boardgame you find in a drawer of an empty bedroom.
This is a setting book. While there is a 40ish page bestiary, which holds very versatile ideas for different kinds of zombies and hoards, the book is for atmosphere and there is perhaps, too much of it. There are so many details that you may never need to know and this is a hard turn for the publisher, who normally puts out supplements with much less detail under the assumption that GMs are capable of combining and creating to assemble their list of minor nothings when they need to. As someone who is a fan of their previous works, I find myself skipping through heaps of this book.
The lore is fascinating and not a single aspect is wasted though and that is what I really need to immerse myself, then my players in this world. The maps are useful but the breakdowns of each room, especially when empty, are not.
Is it worth it? Yes. Is it perfect? No but none of it is necessarily useless to everyone, just not useful to more experienced GMs. I highly suggest getting this if you like to read to yourself for several weeks before starting a game though, as again, the lore is top notch.
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It would take a lot of prep work for this book to be usable at the table, which is a shame since if it was better organized it could be a pickup and play City crawl.
The lack of a proper side index makes it difficult to flip to one section of the city vs another quickly. I'm physically cutting the sides of the pages on my copy to make it usable but it would be better if this wasn't needed.
It also tries to add a mechanic related to sound attracting zombies based on how far away they are but I have no idea how that would be used practically since you would need to keep track of every zombie within 1600 feet. Probably it would just be easier to invent your own random zombie system than use the one in the book.
Also since it's trying to be compatible with 4 different systems(DnD5e, Grimdark, LotFP, MB), the bestiary entries can feel bloated, pushing out the page count and making it harder to use.
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Creator Reply: |
Sorry you feel that way since 'zero prep' was one of the major goals of the design. You don't need to read ahead, because everything is presented for you, in detail. The multiple systems only added 2-3 lines at the bottom of each entry, which doesn't seem excessive. Still, sounds like you're going to use it, so it must be working a little! |
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This gives you 5 new character classes that add a lot to the ones given in the dT&T rules. These are The Brute (STR heavy), The Defender (CON), The Trickster (LCK), The Swashbuckler (SPD) and The Tinker (INT).
The first 4 are all very much of the "Hey, that's neat! Why didn't I think of that?" type and are worth buying this on their own, especially as the ideas are very precisely and concisely explained, but the last class, The Tinker, is a very clever idea that adds another dimension to the game.
The Tinker introduces an alternative system to Magic, with gizmos on place of spells, limited by the Tinker's INT attribute. The steampunk feel, and the subtle humour (I love the glow-torch) almost make this a work of art. You don't need to play T&T, or even want to play it, to appreciate the thought and humour that has been put into these devices.
Worth buying just for the read but, having put together a Swashbuckler and a Defender tonight, and rolled up a Tinker without devices (as yet), I am really looking forward to seeing how well these guys work in the 'real' T&T world.
Well worth buying.
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I must say that DTRPG is also hosting the 3rd edition of this beautiful indie game. Revised, more defined and with cleaner graphics. However, I wanted to write this really short review here, as it was the one I first played many years ago and I remember it as the first game (at least I had played) using adjective-based mechanics. It was interesting and it worked quite well. Now it is no longer a rarity anymore, but back then I found the idea really innovative and I still remember Neverwhere RPG as something special.
The rules are simple and easy to learn. You can create characters pretty fast and the mood and basic background information of the setting are all in just 20 pages. That was also a pretty modern approach.
That said, it is obviously a work of a big fan of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere world, and you can see it from the vast encyclopedia that closes the book: the “Guide to London A-Z”, where you will find many characters and places from the original works. The only flaw is probably that all the contents of the guide are not divided into thematic chapters (which also in the 3rd edition). That being the case, the places, organizations and relevant characters are all in the same place, so if you don't remember the name of what you are looking for, you are forced to scroll through a long list of items to find it.
For an indie product so dated it must also be said that most illustrations and pieces of photographic art are definitely appreciable.
So the 3rd edition is probably the most complete choice, but if you like it, i suggest to download even that previous version.
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This just became a goddess in my game world. Very loosely based on Amaterasu.
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