Blade bind has a very tight focus. The sword fights between anime esque sword wielding badass characters and the things that are at stake during those fights. Character stats are almost non-existent beyond how good they fight, what sword they have and what the things are they care about which makes this a superb oneshot or short campaign game. The combat system is a bit complex at first but its all focus no fluff again, playing your cards for those combat moves feels intense every time, especially when you are fighting multiple oponents at once.

I'd laso recomend people look at this game if they are looking for a good duel system for other games. In a system like say Fate the fighting stat would translate easilly to prowes in this system and boy would I love to get these intense short fights into more of my games!

I picked this up in a Bundle of Holding and was shocked to see it isn't more popular. This really doesn't deserve to get lost in a sea of indie RPGs.

The game's combat mechanics are absolutely fantastic. It only took a couple of practice rounds to get my friends not only understanding it but enjoying it, even the ones in our group that can't find the saves on their Pathfinder sheet with a gun to their heads after 3 years of playing. It's all done with standard playing cards, and it doesn't take long to "click" how the card-playing parallels a sword fight. Your defense has to "match" the offense to some extent (with the same suit or a higher number, preferably both). Players also have a few unique powers and a pool of "resolve" to spend it on, adding an interesting layer to strategy.

On a more macro level, you have to manage your character's will and power. If you gain a lot of power (more cards in your hand), but don't fulfill your character's objectives to keep their will up (such as protecting a loved one or defeating a rival), your blade will take control. You no longer have many options in the story and have to follow specific rules, but you're still in control of fights and have basically become a boss character, with most games culminating in an epic boss-on-boss clash. The result is that even if you're "losing", it probably feels good!

The book does encourage figuring out relationships and concepts for characters ahead of time, and provides some random generators for them, but a lot of those random results are really unhelpful and don't work for dramatic, over-the-top fighting game story-telling, like "acquaintances" or "neighbors". This is all stuff you can easily and quickly homebrew something better (or if you have creative friends on board with the concept, not even consult), or you can just redraw until you get something interesting. Once backstories are figured out, that's when you can come up with goals ("knots") for your character. Everybody makes up one goal for their character, and then the other two have to tie in to other player's, guaranteeing drama, like a wonderful weeaboo Fiasco.

I gotta say, the mechanics do result in some weird story beats, though. Winning a duel allows you to completely rewrite a player's goal, and that probably merited some limitation (and the fact that I'm already thinking of homebrewing such a thing shows how much this game has won me over). Really care about protecting your child? Not after you lose this swordfight, apparently! (I usually say something about characters being susceptible to suggestion or something after losing...) Or maybe it's supposed to emulate that part in anime where the hero loses a fight and goes freaking catatonic about it. You know. The worst part.

All in all though, this is an absolute blast and my go-to suggestion for one-shots when the whole Pathfinder/D&D gang can't make it.

The card mechanic can be a little confusing at first, but the duels are fun and I like it. It gives you a taste of the game and leaves you wanting to go buy the full book. So as a preview it is spot on and I recommend people try it out.

This freebie does indeed do the job of covering most of what you need to play the game - admittedly from a mostly combat oriented style. Though there is enough of non-combat material there to provide more of other parts of rpgs. I do like the anime-computer game art style. Fully worked out maps too.

I have not had a chance to play the game yet. I have made characters and read through the rules. This review is from that limited experience.

Character creation is point buy with the same pool of points used for statistics and skills. The are all collectively called Abilities in the game. You then have Attributes, which are figured from different Abilities. We then have Traits, which a character may have or not. Natural attacks and weaknesses all fall into the category of Traits. Last we have Mysticism, which is designed to cover everything from Martial Arts to Spells to Powers. All of these things are balanced by threat. Threat in the game is a measure of how dangerous something is (kind of like levels but much more defined).

Combat is akin to a tactical skirmish game. It can be played without miniatures and maps, but the rules are so elegant that I feel you would be doing yourself a disservice going that rout. The combat chapter is comprehensive enough to cover almost everything that should come up and enough advice is given throughout the book that anything not covered should be easy to adjudicate for a good GM. Tactical maps are based around 30mm hexes equaling 2 meters and all ranges are given in hexes. If you would rather use a one inch grid, it's easy enough to do the math. The standard 1 inch equals 5 feet is close enough to not cause any problems.

An entire chapter is given to world mapping and exploration. This chapter also has multiple hex pages that can be printed and drawn on, even a polyhedral world map reminiscent of the one included in the old World Builder's Guidebook from TSR/WotC. The maps are a great resource. There are several tables for creating settlements. These seem most useful for a fantasy or post apocalyptic setting.

Equipment pretty much covers most of what would be needed and does a better job than a lot of universal systems I've seen.

Races are sparse, only four are in the book, but rules are given to quickly and easily generate your own. I have already imported races from several different RPG's and found it almost too easy to be real.

Next we have adversaries. Once again, the selection is sparse, but rules are given to quickly and easily create new adversaries. This is the next thing I am going to be looking at more in depth, and am actually looking forward to it.

Mysticism is one of the shining chapters in the book. As I stated in character generation, it covers everything from magic to martial arts to powers. I'm actually thinking about lifting it and making it my universal FX system. It is that good.

The last thing I'm going to cover is options. The book is absolutely ridiculous with options. Altering weapons and armor, scaling powered armor to become mecha, scaling vehicles to become space going behemoths and more are all covered.

The only thing the book lacks is a setting, but with the amount of material out there it shouldn't be hard to come up with something. Maybe you have a setting that looks cool but the rules leave something to be desired. Give these rules a run. I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you're interested in creating a setting from scratch, you could do much worse than the advice in this book.

Squexagons is a marvel of ingenuity. It's a hex grid overlaying a square grid (actually slightly rectangular, as squares do not line up with hexes correctly). In this package you get a small hex (1/4 inch/6.75mm) page and a large hex (1 3/16inch/30mm) page, as well as sample map of a small restaurant. Both pages come in color (blue hexes overlaying a red rectangular grid) and black & white. The small black & white page gets a little muddled, as there is no variation in shading between the two grids. This is a minor quibble which the color page more than makes up for.

I would have liked to have seen a 1 inch/25mm grid page. You can always scale the existing pages though this leaves a lot of white paper (30mm scaled down) or you end up printing a lot of duplicate pages (6.75mm scaled up). All of the pages are in A4 format with no option for US letter (if you scale the 30mm page to 25mm it brings it down to below US letter anyway).

This is a great little product that fills a niche for those of us that like to use hex grids with our rpg's or table games. You have to draw your own maps or you could print this on transparency sheets to use as an overlay for your existing maps and tiles.

I am giving this 5 stars as a free primer to a new game, so i don't expect it to have everything for everyone, just to give the flavor of the full game. Which this does.

PowerFrame has a simple resolution system (1d6 + mods), character generation looks quick with a lot of options, and the combat system looks fairly light but with a number of tactical options and some crunch to spice it up.

I really like what I see of the wilderness travel system, and that alone might be enough for me to buy the main rules.

Layout wise, the primer is clean and attractive, with a mangi-ish art style that gives the game a bit of a light, almost animation feel.

This is a fantastic game. It harkens back to Super Nintendo RPGs, but it's a lot lighter weight than you'd expect. Very good at customizing everything. Pick it up today. Just know that the name Power Frame doesn't mean that it's a mecha-based RPG, but that it provides a powerful framework for your game.

For a 5 start rating I gave I must also say nothing about this game will amaze the RPG world. I gave it 5 starts because it is presented clearly with easy rules to learn and play. enough samples to get a GM running fairly quick but not so much information that I got bogged down with numbers. Not going chapter by chapter I will go into specifics.

The basic rule system is roll a D6 and modified by your ability score. There is a list of Abilities and another separated by physical, mental, social, etc. Abilities start at 0 and can be modified by up to -5 to +5. Your target number is a difficulty number set by the GM or by the roll and ability score of your opponent. Quick, easy, not ground breaking but it works well.

Traits can also modify your abilities, dice rolls or just give your character some more flare. of course some traits will be negative, positive or both. Again similar to other games but it works.

Combat is straight forward. Easy to learn and play. there is enough expanded rules like burning and drowning to cover the basics but not overly done to bog the game down with number crunching and chart searching. there are rules for hit by location. I wouldn't use these myself unless the player was making a called shot but it is there for those that like this option.

Battle maps and world maps are discussed along with rules for using them. Blank copies are there for you to print out and use if you want, Enough information is given if you want to use them but not the game will not be affected too much if you choose not to use them.

The section on Settlements is clearly aimed towards a fantasy setting or post apocalyptic genre. Included here is information on the type of businesses, people and work that might be available. Decent section but not overly done but can be remodeled easily for a more modern or present society.

The gear section covers a lot of mundane equipment, weapons, armour, and vehicles to cover any campaign world from low tech to modern and into the future to cover energy weapons and powered armor. Very nicely presented with modifiers relating to attacking with or defending with items and armors that may be cutting, energy or blunt weapons. Again I wouldn't worry about those numbers unless a player had a trait making a certain style of weapon more or less effective. It is there though for those who want a little more depth to combat or their character.

The only place this game lacks is the sample characters, races, and other NPCs for different worlds. There are enough creatures that you can easily cover most creatures by modifying one presented. A wolf, just change the name to big dog. A dragon by changing its breath weapon you can make frost, acid or lightning dragons. Take away the flight and breath and you have a dinosaur. And how about a little poison snake, big deal right. Add a couple size levels and now you have one as big as a human. with a couple more you have one as big as an elephant. Take a zombie and rename it ghoul or mummy or even skeleton. I am just saying there are plenty of samples covering creatures.

Sadly, Vampires are not represented but by taking a normal character and applying a Drain health spell you have an immediate blood sucker. which brings me to the best part and the reason it gets a 5 star rating. The magic or Mysticism section.

First it is presented clearly what make up a spell and how it can be used in different genres. From fantasy wizards and healers to psionic and Super powers there are many different ways to use spells but each is easy to use and understand. Magic can either be define your spells as you play or by making pre made spells or any combination in between.

The more power you put in a spell the harder it is to cast or the mana it drains. There are plenty of spells to use or get the GM and players designing their own. It is pretty straight forward with plenty of options but not so much that it will bog the game down especially if you have several spells prepared. I can't praise this section enough and if I would borrow the section for any game I was playing. It is worth the price right here for a clean and clear set of magic rules.

You also get a section on how to create new weapons, armors, gear, spells and world settings. It is nicely presented and helps to wrap everything else up into 1 package.

To end this long review it is well worth the purchase and not a whole lot of time learning the rules. It can be used for any rpg style from dark and gritty to light and humorous. Any genre from fantasy to supers to westerns to space to horror to steampunk to spies to.... oh you get the picture.

I love the idea of a new marvel super hero game as I find this genre of mutants and altered fascinating