Ring Side Report- RPG review of The Little Book of GM Gems, Volume 1

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea every day!

Product- The Little Book of GM Gems, Volume 1 System- None Producer- Dragonlaird Gaming Price- $4.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/458456/The-Little-Book-of-GM-Gems-Volume-1?affiliate_id=658618 TL; DR- Listen to ancient wisdom! 99%

Basics- Want some free advice? Little Book of GM gems are articles from Knights of the Dinner Table providing ideas for GM of all levels. Let’s break down what’s here.

Mechanics or Crunch- This isn’t a setting or a crunch book. It’s an advice book, so there are no mechanics here. -/5

Theme or Fluff- If this is an advice book, how’s the advice? Honestly, It’s solid. It’s not new, as it's from the Knights of the Dinner Table Comic, but it's good. This is pretty timeless advice that new GMs can use and old GMs can use a refresher on. 5/5

Execution- Overall, this is a well laid out book, but there are a few small issues. Hyperlinks, decent font, good layout, and pictures all make this an easy read. There are some issues with background and the use of a cramped cursive font in the intro of each chapter is a bit hard to read. This is good, but not perfect. 4.9/5

Summary- This is a well done product, but if you should buy depends on what else you have. If you have every Knights of the Dinner Table comic, then this might not be the best purchase. I don’t (one day, but not now!), so this is a solid read as I get some good advice. I’ve gotten some of this advice before from older GMs at cons, but not everyone has that opportunity. This product fits that niche of passing along good advice to GMs who haven’t gotten the expertise from meeting other GMs. It’s not completely new, but it is completely good. It’s a solid product, but make sure you are getting what you want. 99%

Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Colonel Bull's Body

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea every day!

Product- Colonel Bull's Body System- Savage Worlds/Deadlands Producer- Dragonlaird Gaming Price- $7.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/376305/Colonel-Bulls-Body?affiliate_id=658618 TL; DR-A great intro to Deadlands. 98%

Basics- THE DEAD WALK! A friend of yours has died, but now some see horrors off in the distance. You don’t care either way as getting his body back for burial nets you a massive pay day. Can you find his body and get your money?

Mechanics or Crunch- Solid work here for DeadLands. There is investigation, combat, and roleplaying in equal measure here so all three pillars of a good session are on display. This is just good, well done crunch. 5/5

Theme or Fluff- More solid work here by Dragonlaird for their story. My one, very slightly negative point is that it's predictably Deadlands. There is always some evil sorcerer guy off-screen doing a bad. That makes this Deadlands, but it could be a bit too predictable for your hardcore Deadlands fan as not much comes out of left field. 4.75/5

Execution- Dragonlaird excels again with their making of a nearly flawless book. Hyperlinks, layout, text size, scannability, art-everything is just on point. My one issue is cost. It's 8 bucks. Not horrible, but it's that much for about one solid or two shorter four hour sessions. But, you are getting what you pay for with this one. 4.9/5

Summary- I’ve always wanted to get deeper into Deadlands. It's an interesting world, and Savage Worlds is a fantastic RPG system. Colonel Bull's Body is an excellent intro adventure for both. It’s got classic Deadlands themes and solid Savage World mechanics. Your older Deadlands fans might not get as much out of it, but for those looking for a good intro or a solid session, this would be a great one to pull out for game night. The price is a bit high, but you are getting what you pay for with this product in terms of art, design, and layout. Another great product by Dragonlaird. 98%

This is a really nice, system agnostic supplement that looks really useful for 'Traveller' (Which is why I picked it up). Random tables are a great way to come up with ideas on the fly and the ones in this book are really well thought out.

My main motivation for this review is to shout out to the team behind the product - Within 24 hours of me askig for a printer friendly b&w version of the pdf to stop it killing my colour catridge stone dead with the very attractive page background and nice art, they had produced one and added it to the product library. That's something that far bigger outfits could take a tip from.

$4.99 is a bargain for this product.

This is an alternative narrative subsystem akin to SWADE’s Social Conflicts. So what is the driving difference? How you use the tokens. As you go back and forth, each side accumulates tokens that represent key wins in your negotiations - leverage. Unlike the other narrative systems in SWADE, there is no explicit outcome – ie, its not about just collecting x success over y rounds. Either side can walk away with what they have gained. What makes this subsystem shine is that the tokens are spent to gain information or compel actions by the other side. The more tokens spent, the more impactful the information or the bigger the action forced. The tokens are leverage to get the other side to comply with what you desire.

This leads to strategic decisions by your group – do you spend a token or two now to get more information to help further the negotiation or get a simple task done, or do you save them up for a bigger result? Do you walk away having gain some of what you want, fearful that pressing on will result in you losing more money, prestige, or information? Do you come back later with new information that you gained from further adventures and see if you can get a better deal?

Much like Social Conflicts, the back and forth may result in its own adventure from the fact that you will have to do a favor to get what you want. But since the tokens do not just go away, groups can decide to take another angle (ie, another a separate adventure) that hopefully creates leverage and then come back to the table.

This is another great tool for the Savage GMs toolbox.

It is obvious a lot of thought went into the creation of this product. If your group plays savage worlds this book would be well worth your time. Be it a one shot game or a fill in seat when another gamer joins your table for the night. The Gm will have plenty of use of this product to bring story elements into the game with any thing that is pulled from this product. It’s easy to read and the layout and art is very nice. The added Edges, Backgrounds and Races is always a plus. Overall I would compare this to Pathfinders Codex of NPC’s. Easily an above average product. You can see the rest of my review at RPGRunklePlaysGames

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Savage Characters Volume One Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea everyday!

Product- Savage Characters Volume One System- Savage Worlds Producer- Dragonlaird Gaming Price- $5 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/137955/Savage-Characters-Volume-1?manufacturers_id=6270 TL; DR-An excellent book full of useful Savage Worlds characters. 95 %

Basics- Need some characters quick for your Savage Worlds game? Dragonlaird Gaming provides several characters for fantasy, horror, western, and sci-fi settings for the Dragonlaird Gaming Savage Worlds settings. Each character get's a full write up including a picture, a background, a character sheet, a novice character sheet, some character hooks for different character levels, and an advancement plan for the character. Some characters also get extra setting rules.

Mechanics or Crunch- The best comparison I have for this book is the NPC codex for Pathfinder, and honestly this is much better. Instead of providing several different characters at each level, this book provides less NPCs and gives you an easy way to drop each NPC into your game at any level. That makes this an easy to use resource for you game. Awesome. Even better, this book adds a few new traits for your characters to use. I didn't expect to find new character options in this book, so that's a present surprise! One bad thing about this book is, if you don't know all the Savage World rules, then the character write ups will not be as helpful. Every character has a great write up with all their traits, but if you don't know those traits off the top of your head, you're going to be spending some time going back and forth between this book and your other Savage World books. 4.8/5

Theme or Fluff-Each character gets a full right up with a background, description, pictures, and character hooks. I've got a picture to show the players, and I can jump into that character on the fly as a GM based on the character hooks and story provided. These are well done complete characters that can help me carry the stories in my games. 5/5

Execution- Overall, this is a well done book. I have a few minor problems with the execution of the PDF. I would like the book to be hyperlinked. Also, the art is good, but some are not as great as others. One more issue I have is I'd like a bit more discretion of the different worlds presented in the book. The character presented work well in any setting, but a bit more description of the worlds would possibly entice me to pay in those places a bit more. However, overall the book loads quick, looks great, and reads easily. 4.5/5

Summary- Need some well done characters quickly for your game? This is the resource you should consider getting. It reads quickly, is well designed, and has some great characters for your games. I do have a few minor qualms, but these problems don't hurt the overall presentation of the book. If you want to find out how to write a well done NPC book, this is the book to mimic. 95%