WW1 with magic, monsters, and insanity is an awesome theme for an RPG, and the rules for this game service that theme really well. Never Going Home uses a mixture of D6's and playing cards in a way that is really brutally elegant.

Unfortunately, I really do not like this game's rulebook. It's not very well formatted and it doesn't do a great job of explaining some of the game's mechanics.

Setting: A darker version of World War I with monsters and magic. Some background information is given in the form of soldier’s letters. Rules: Very simple character creation. Combat is fast and deadly. An interesting use of standard playing cards along with dice. Art style: Nice, but the artist may not like to draw people’s faces, so literally everyone here wears gas masks. Verdict: Nice simple game, grim and deadly, where you can create a character in 5 minute and then die in 10.

I love this game. It's a wonderfully straightforward system that works well to capture the desperate feel of a war of attrition, let alone the horror elements that add a novel twist on the idea of WW1. It's also great because the lightweight nature makes it easy to run in just about any context, while also giving you as the GM a fair bit of room for potential homebrewing. For instance, I've made tweaks to add tactical map combat, cover, additional weapons, and a house rule for 6s to give two successes instead of one, to change the game up to fit a slightly different style of play. It's a wonderful game that's definitely worth the very reasonable pricetag.

What if World War I had monsters and miracles? That's the basic rub of this RPG which uses dice and card mechanics with very deadly combat.

<b> MY GRADE: B plus. </b>

So, just Narrated my first game tonight, and I have to say, I was excited going into the game, but it ended up being a SMASH HIT with my group, and now they want me to run another game.

I ran the two of them (with myself playing a supporting rifleman) through the "Corpse Factory" and they managed to avoid almost every encounter possible (through a high level of dumb luck).

They spent the entire session at the edges of their seats wondering what would happen next, and were walking on eggshells in fear of encountering a sudden, gory demise.

The system is easy to pick up and play, with the journey cards giving a fun little roleplay start to the mission,setting the tone and giving the characters hard choices to make (such as upgrading now, or saving your cards that may save your life later).

Strongly recommend.

Wet Ink Games captures the horrors of war (and worse) while being respectful of both real world vets and protecting the feelings of players playing the game. I will be do a more in depth playtest review at EN World, but my initial read through convinced me I have to run this game. Players will take on the roles of soldiers slowly giving up their past memories and bits of their humanity to survive an inhuman war. But things are even worse, as otherworldly monsters bring even more insanity and killing to the battlefield. PCs will have some personal control of events through a clever dice pool while working at a unit level using playing cards to complete missions, help with tasks, and if they survive improve their own abilities. The intro sums it up for me: Never Going Home is a party-focused role-playing game set in horror haunted trenches during the First World War. If that sounds good to you, get ready to deploy.