I have not run this yet. This is an amazing, twisted and very creative adventure. It's set up like a Shadowrun or C-Punk adventure wherein mysterous employers want you to perfom a somewat inscrutable job at a location for big money: 1,000 gp each! The job site is sort of an elven bio magical lab/hospital/garden. The characters must get in, do the thing and get out alive. Very deadly. Lots of bio-magic to mess with and scads of body horror scenes that really come to life. These elves are really unique. It also turns the tables on old-school play, since the reward is so huge, that the players don't have to hang around and search every nook and cranny to find the loot. Of course, they're going to want to! The building is tricky to get into an moving around in a sneaky way and getting a little intel will be vital. The nearby neigborhood is sceteched out well, with numerous groups and factions living within it. Seems very playableand I really want to run it as a one or two shot ASAP. Don't just take my word for it: https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=4566

Hello!

I enjoyed using this for one of my gameplays but I have some issues with it.

It just felt half-baked, unfinished. It was trying to do a lot of things without accomplishing much. I did however liked the theme of the JRPG feel. That was the most appealing thing about this game for me.

My gripe is mostly directed towards the "Spells, Abilities, and Skills" section. I don't know. I just felt lost when I rolled for those and the broadness felt somewhat misguided. Like the options are a mix of very random things that doesn't work well with a leveling up system. I think it would've been better if the options on those tables were a bit more general.

But, I did enjoy the system. I made a couple of tweaks but kept most of the systems/mechanics stated in the rules. It does need some more work though.

First, thanks to the author for publishing this game. It was fun to explore the included downloads.

Likes: The whimsical design is fun, inviting, and friendly. The overall theme is open and relatively flexible. The rules are generally easy to understand. If you have some superheroic gaming experience, it should be easy to pick up the general way the game works.

The basic resolution mechanic is dead simple, with an N-in-6 chance of doing things defining the character's relevant power level. If your skill level is 1, you need to roll a 6. If your skill level is 6, you don't need to roll. If your skill level is 5, you need to roll anything but a 1. In addition, players can argue for bonuses! There are some additional tips given for tweaking the mechanic, tips which I would guess that most will use in game sessions that are beyond the most simple.

The BIG pro of this game is colorful, even automated character and world creation including tables and tools for powers, appearance, accessories, backstories, villain creation, campaign plot and mission generators, an "area stocker" to help decide what can be found in a given area within a map or location, and a "goon table". These are D66 tables which I thought offered plenty of detail.

The included HTML files with generator tools are also awesome and fun to use. The game comes with a .zip file with 8 different HTML files representing generator categories, and each file includes more than one gnerator. For me this makes the product worth checking out. You can generate a LOT in very little time.

Other considerations: The game is probably best run by someone with at least intermediate level of experience in superhero RPGs. A lot is left up to the referee. The referee should probably be someone who is experienced and comfortable making various executive decisions during gameplay, or negotiating with players. The phrasing of some passages like "The referee contextually judges when an entity is damaged from conflict" may be also confusing or difficult to understand for some players.

If a referee is playing with a negotiation-heavy player, the referee may need to be very clever, because the mechanics could easily be overpowered through argumentation. The referee should be aware that they may need to ramp up the difficulty by making the map and goons / villains tougher and more plentiful. The author does mention that the referee should keep things dangerous and consequences concrete and consistent, but I would guess that most referees will need to feel their way through this depending on the audience experience level with RPGs and what they want out of the gaming experience.

Dislikes: Some rules, like "Taking too many hits in the same location (2 or 3 depending on the location and the weapon) will result in death" seem too loose, even for a freeform system. If damage is to be tracked, some more definition or at least examples are appropriate. Also, death seems taken for granted, but other popular supers games basically do not account for death at all, and use terms like "incapacitated" instead of "dead".

Finally, all the text is in caps. I understand that comics are written like this, but it's a bit of a different situation in a typical document PDF, with longer line lengths and longer bulleted sections. The text can seem a bit overwhelming. Some of the heading backgrounds also seem a little too dark.

Would be nice: It would be great if the generators could be put into one HTML page, in tabs. Would like to know more about the author and game background. Would like to know where the "Kontext Spiel D6" freeform system comes from. An afterword or some closing thoughts would lead the text to a smoother conclusion.

Finally I would really like to see a thorough gameplay example or at least rule-by-rule examples, to get an idea for what "a" referee "might do," so that the gameplay and planning can still be flexible, but also well-informed.

Overall if you like superheroic character and world generation, I think this is definitely worth checking out. Thanks again to the publisher.

Re-introduced me to wargaming, really love this stuff, wished I got more people to play it with. Awesome and different way to wargame with a special focus on narrative and infinite verticality.

I really wanted to give this collection of tools a higher score, as I think there is a lot of great bits of information in here that is worth seeing, and it would be an excellent supplement to any weird urban setting like Eberron, Curse of Strahd or Blades in the Dark. I personally found the tool interface iteslf to be a bit clunky and so a lot of the information was not as accessible to me as I was looking for, but for someone more tech saavy than me, these could be a great addition to their game.

Recently, I soloed my way through The Cradle of Madness. It is an interesting D & D adventure for characters of levels 3 to 8. I turned it into a level one adventure. It can be found in Dungeon Magazine issue # 87 (archived on the internet). The two systems I used to play it were #1 Deathtrap Light Preview (24 pages and free). It is not a complete game (for example, there are no rules for combat). So, I combined it with #2 Ordure Fantasy a six-sided die system (19 pages). The solo engine that I used was Loner (12 pages and free). The three documents (not the magazine) are available at DriveThruRPG.

My five characters picked up the quest on the first day. Owen wanted his daughter to be rescued from the Nightmare Syndicate. A ransom needed to be paid. Owen and the characters went to the designated spot on the second day and the fight was on. The characters let one fighter live and gave the ransom money back to Owen. They then followed the wounded fighter through the wilderness. After a giant beetle encounter they arrived at the ruined keep. They had some problems getting in there. So, they decided to “lay siege” and force them out when they needed supplies. On the sixth day three fighters came out using a “new” bridge. The PCs killed them, entered the keep, and then went down the stairs. They had to get past three traps, four guard dogs, and more bad guys (cultists). After some looting, they ran into the daughter Lyza who was obviously pregnant and in love with some cleric guy. Well, my characters were not going to interfere with that. So, they headed back to town (a quiet trip) and gave Owen the bad news. Will this play out differently when you give it a try?

An excellent set of very detailed generators for generating characters, locations, conflicts and details for a wild and wonder-filled fantasy city.

The d6 Demiurge is a solo engine with seven pages and it can be used for any RPG game system. I am familiar with quite a few solo engines, so, here is my review. The good – it contains nineteen d6 charts. It does work, I soloed my way through a free Pathfinder adventure with it. The bad – this needs either a keyword list or a way to generate keywords. (These words generate different types of encounters by interpreting the results).The ugly – the layout is not attractive at all. So, since this a free/pay what you want product and it works, I am going to rate it a four out of five stars.

Inspiring cover. But the content is a near-settingless collection of random tables. Also, it turns out it's just D&D. That's too bad.

It's just a D&D OSR of B/X but with 5e's Advantage/Disadvantage rule...in spaaaaace! I am disappointed. I was hoping for something original as the cover art suggested.

Ordure Fantasy is a simple, easy toto learn, yet suprisingly robust RPG. Best suited for pick up games, but capable of supporting a short campaign. The mechanics revolve around rolling low on a d6. Combat is quick and simple, with PCs rolling all the dice. However, for my money, what I really like are the several pages of random charts, helping to inspire adventures, monster creation, and world design. There are no rules for running nonhuman characters, but that isn't really what this game is about. There is no bestiary, but there are rules for creating monsters.

The book itself, is 19 pages, simply laid out with beautiful minimalist artwork.

I bought this on the strength of Star Dogs and it is a genuinely pleasant surprise with a profoundly different tone. The d6 system is very simple but entirely original, with some variation in effect and target numbers. The classes are traditional in concept but somewhat re-imagined in their capabilities. Many random tables are built into the game, providing rich atmosphere and direct purpose, as well as generating encounters and opponents. It strikes an ideal balance for me between old school gameplay and freeform storytelling.

The overall vibe, particularly with the provided monsters and the content of the tables is fairly serious, rather surreal and definitely weird fantasy. Though there aren't any horror mechanics per se, the game is lethal and the tone disturbing, though not overly dark. Despite the easy system, it feels capable of handling far deeper, far stranger and far larger storied campaigns. I'm thinking more Lord Dunsany or Clark Ashton Smith than Tolkien.

The artwork is perfect and I believe Matthew Adams, scattered simple conceptual pieces to evoke and inspire. I especially like the character illustrations, each a single item to represent the class, a talwar, a tome, an arbalest and a censer.

I expected to find a light-hearted "beer and pretzels" dungeon romp (though it can do that) but instead I found a deeper and more thoughtful game under 20 pages, a simple but solid system to wrap a world around or to spend one very wicked night with my weirdest friends. I absolutely love it and I hope the publisher offers a POD option.

This is an amazing and flavorful resource for running space opera games. You can create aliens species, nebula, planets, outposts / spacestations, and interesting NPCs. I've only started to use this to run a campaign, but my players are having a great time with this. I've used it to create a not-hard scifi setting, an outpost of slums and fancy high-rises, on a planet covered in toxic gas and acid pools, and crystal-horned crocodile-looking things that, when domesticated, are used as mounts. The PCs need to kidnap a muscician whose consciousness is stored inside his robot 'butler', but the NPC generator has given me someone else to try to foil their plans.

The tables are great, and the ART is FANTASTIC! Crescent-moon-headed aliens with energy two-handed swords??? YES. Crescent-moon-headed mecha? YES. There's not a ton of art within but what there is has been a great inspiration to make fantastical science fiction content.

This is effectively a system neutral book with 56 pages of random charts, tables and generators. Highly recommended to anyone running a soft sci fi game.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at 19 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page ToC, leaving us with 17 pages of content, so let’s take a look!

Okay, so, this does not subscribe to a single OSR-system per se; instead, when ability scores are required for an NPC, the pdf suggests just rolling 1d6 – 3d6 to spontaneously determine ability scores for saves. HD of monsters are randomized: d4HD@d6, for example, means that the creature rolls a d4. Then you take that result times the die indicated after the “@” to determine HP. Each HD = +1 to attack/hit. The pdf assumes ascending AC. “Testing “ e.g. “WIS” is not explained, but it is evident that rolling under the ability score is the way to go. No default movement rate or morale is given. In short: This assumes ability score-based saves akin to 5e, as well as ascending AC, and a direct 1:1-correlation between number of HD and to hit values.

Once you’ve understood that, conversion to most customary OSR-games should be simple. The pdf bolds rules-relevant components, which makes parsing the module rather simple. Two hand-drawn artworks of specific individuals are provided. Each NPC/monster has a motivation noted (NICE!) under “Wants:” Unfortunately, AoE-attacks, such as a cloud of sleeping dust, has no range/area noted.

The module comes with a hand-drawn, colored map that uses color to differentiate between e.g. closed and open doors, and we get them all on one page, as well as in larger versions for the respective levels. The maps are functional, but nokey-less version is provided, and the maps sport no grid, which can make getting a grasp on the dimensions of the compound a bit tougher than necessary.

The respective levels actually have entries for individual doors – you roll e.g. a d4 and get a brief description – awesome! Not so awesome – some doors are trapped without a means to discern that beforehand...which is usually one of my pet-peeves. That being said, for the genre, this kinda makes sense. Presentation of individual rooms is handled via bullet points, with underlined segments providing the details at one glance. Random encounters are provided

Beyond the module, the pdf also includes a fully mapped suburb of Infinigrad (same complaints regarding the map); what is Infinigrad? I’m glad you asked! Picture a ginormous planar metropolis, an infinite sprawl, less Sigil or City of 7 Seraphs, and more of a Bas-Lag-like moloch of a city. The genre here is definitely fantasy-punk, and I mean that in the best of ways. Indeed, if you enjoy the weird and the notion of a planar metropolis, Infinigrad is a great recommendation – I’ve been using the material the author provides to expand e.g. the City of 7 Seraphs and make it more grimy/gritty and strange. How cool is Infinigrad? Let me give you two examples of stores you can find on Leoptera Shores:

“Vac Maz, Oily stone golem, offering the hire of a semi reliable flying device he stole from his ex master.”

“Cecckz, creamy white beetle man preacher, clicks and clacks and causes congregation to sway in ecstatic stupor”

Come on, that’s awesome! There are more ideas in these brief descriptions than in many comparable chapters of other supplements!

Genre-wise, this is a low-level module of a genre we almost never get to see – it’s essentially a Shadowrun/infiltration in a fantastic context. The PCs are assumed to be Guild Dogs (In my City of 7 Seraphs version, guilds serve the parities, just as an aside), i.e. semi-legal troubleshooters.

And this is as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

… .. .

All right, only referees around? Great! So, the PCs are hired by Ovos Pool on behalf of a wealthy merchant names Equis Jud, with Ovo being an eyman. What’s an eyman? Picture a humanoid whose head is a ginormous eye, with an amulet of lips hanging from his neck, doing the talking. Ovos wants the PCs to infiltrate the compound of the elfs and taint their memory water.

Wait, what? Oh, yeah, should have mentioned that: Elfs here? They are brainchest elfs! Blank-faced and bare-chested, with rippling, brain-like timorous growths on the chest. They live forever, but forget everything every 100 years or so to maintain their sanity – memory water is used to “reset” them and produce memory spheres to prevent the loss of the accumulated knowledge. This process btw. involves weird worms that are fed with meat…these are not nice elfs…

The compound of the elves is organic, almost like a biotech greenhouse, with strange plants, moths and their weird tech; fumes can intoxicate nonelfs, and the strange creatures do not take kindly to the presence of non-elfs in their compound. The 3-storey-tall building comes with a note on patrols and a TON of things to interact with and screw up – the compound rewards casing the joint, but it also is obviously assuming that the PCs, at one point, will have to escape. The main adversary and commander of the facility is super-deadly, and attempting to murder-hobo through this module is not something I’d recommend.

To give you an example of a room:

1. Moss carpet room. Stone pipes snake from east wall to west wall. D6 Nightmare Moths lurk on ceiling.

• Stone pipes curve up in the center of the room and are crested by a round, grated misting device. Green mist puffs from the device. • All non elfs must test CON when entering green mist or fall asleep for d6 hours (at which point ceiling dwelling Nightmare Moths will feast their prone bodies). • Pale roots dangle from ceiling. • Stairs down.

This is all information you need to know; it provides weird stuff to interact with, danger, and a unique atmosphere.

Conclusion: Editing is good for an indie-offering; I noticed a few typo-level glitches, but nothing that impeded my ability to run this. Layout adheres to a one-column no-frills b/w-standard, with some nice hand-drawn drawings and public domain artwork used. The cartography is full-color, but lacks scale and player-friendly versions. EDIT: The pdf now comes fully bookmarked! Yeah!

I should not be half as excited about Michael Raston’s Guild Dogs adventure as I actually am. The complaints about the lack of player-friendly maps alone would usually suffice to sour me somewhat on it.

But I absolutely ADORE this module. The eymen, the weird elfs, the strange compound with its even stranger plant/fauna-tech-things, the strange plants – this module elicits something I rarely encounter, a jamais-vu. It is exciting, fun, and oozes creativity. Its focus on a Shadowrun/Cyberpunk-ish action-infiltration is amazing. I want MORE of this. I want so much more of Infinigrad, and I’d pay serious bucks for a full book or campaign of this quality and imaginative wealth. I genuinely love this!

Now, I can’t bestow my highest accolades on this module, courtesy of the few formal shortcomings, but guess what? This is PWYW to boot! That makes this easily one of the most unique, awesome little PWYW-scenarios you’re bound to find out there. Seriously, get this, leave a tip. The author frickin’ deserves it for the amazing material and vistas here. My final verdict, considering that this gem is offered for PWYW, will hence be 4.5 stars, and this gets my seal of approval. Can we PLEASE have more? Pretty please?

Endzeitgeist out.