"And You Will Rest Your Head..." is a 2-page "game" that I think of as a thought experiment: one day at a time for 54 days, you create a sort of story about a fictional, deceased parent, embodying a character who having lost their last parent, is creating a journal about both good and bad memories related to that parent. While it is something os thought-game though, I can't help but feel that this could be a potent, psychological tool for those who have lost a parent or any loved one, really... while I am definitely not a psychologist (or in any related field), it feels like a very powerful system for coming to grips with your memories of someone who is gone.

For what it is, and what it is supposed to do, this system is perfect. It is rules-light, fast, and easy. It is fairly granular, so there isn't a wide range for variation; however, in the way that I have tended to use it, it does its job beautifully.

This is an excerpt from an email I sent to the designer, which I realized would work well as a review, so I pasted it in here:

So I got the PDF a while back from RPGNow, read it, and found it fairly interesting. I actually know the crew that created Tunnels & Trolls, so the reference to it (and the way you handled the "all or nothing" of combat, as you mention) was pretty interesting to me.

However, I hadn't really used the system.

I've got three campaigns theoretically going, but haven't really enjoyed running any of them, so when some friends were coming over and mentioned gaming, I decided to run a fantasy game set in my own world, and wanted a simple system, since they can have difficulty mastering new systems, and even 5th edition D&D, which I like a lot, was more complex than I wanted for a possible one-shot.

I chose B&L, and have really enjoyed it, as have the players.

The system is simple enough to be easy to pick up and keep up with, and while on the face of it, the available options are limited, this allows the players and GM to "write" the characters and situations as they wish. No nit-picking of options or lists of choices to make, no restrictions on what race or class to choose from, and this allows the players and GM to "write" the characters and situations as they wish, something I've sometimes seen more specifically detailed systems give people trouble with. Just decide who and what your character is and get going. I was able to whip up four sample characters in a few minutes, and make all of them interesting enough to appeal to the characters.

Play has been fast and easy, and the players all understood what to do, remembered what to do, and figured out how to use their characters' various traits and skills to their advantage very quickly ("I'm a soldier, I probably know where to find a good tavern.")

All of this has really contributed to my appreciation for the system, though I do sometimes wish it was slightly less granular, as there isn't a lot of room for nuance. But at those times, I try to remember that what a foe is like is up to how to describe it to the players, not what its stats say, or whatever.

Vornheim: The Complete City Kit is, without a doubt, one of the most useful RPG books I've ever come across. If you plac to run adventures in cities--or allow your players to have their characters run rampant in cities--you owe it to yourself to purchase this book. While it has a fair amount of information on the eponymous city, if you don't plan to run in your version of Vornheim, many of the snippets of information are great for inspiration and kicking off ideas for your own cities. The rules for urban crawls and randomly generating neighborhoods and houses are wonderful. The charts and tables--including ones you are intended to print out and roll directly on--are extremely useful. I really can't say enough about how great this book is, and the PDF is worth every bit of the price.

A highly interesting and imaginative world view, with a simple system that works well for the game. However, the core campaign idea can be highly repetitive and become boring after only a few adventures. In the hands of a skilled GM, though, the game can be taken a long way.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Interesting world view and concept.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The core campaign concept can grow boring: learn about the monster, hunt the monster, defeat the monster.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>