My wife loves variation in magic, and has talked about running a Necromancer for a while. I've been talking to her about trying Dragonbane, and this Necromancer spell option is exactly what will hook her into a new RPG system!

This product is a great resource for my Dragonbane campaign. Adds in some depth in the Misty Vale by giving me some random encounters for the party. Well done product. :-)

NIGHT SHIFT is an old school game with old school mechanics so, if you have played the original fantasy game from 1974 or pretty much any of the major clones, you pretty much know how to play. The rules are written in a conversational tone which explains with great clarity. The rules require use of standard polyhedral dice sets. It's a lot of fun for folks who are looking at running an "urban fantasy" style game to emulate a lot of my favorite books and tv shows. Character options include families of witches, monster slayers, and the like.

The Quick Start Kit is designed to get you started with the game without a lot of the mechanics to slow you down. It comes with some basic information about the classes and how to play, along with a short adventure and a stack of pregen characters. This means that you can be up and playing pretty quickly. It gives a player a good view for what kind of stuff can be found in the main rulebook, and as a free (pay what you want) product it's great value as well. :-) If you bought the earlier edition of this product it had cover art a lot like the core rulebook and a different module. This version has spiffy artwork and has been cleaned up somewhat.

Beware that this game can be addictive. After buying NIGHT SHIFT I went on to buy the Companion book and the "Faustan Dilemma" module. :-)

I was a part of the kickstart for NIGHT SHIFT so I have had both the PDF and paper copies of the game for quite a while now. I wanted to give some impressions and some sort of review of the game.

First, the physical product. The book is actually not at all the size I expected. It’s larger than my OD&D pamphlets but not a full-size 8,5x11” size, either. It is a hardback and I think it’s 7x9”, which reminds me of Adventure! or maybe some of the Unisystem books like All Flesh Must Be Eaten (I think those were a mid-sized product). The binding seems pretty sturdy to me; I don’t know all of the publishing terms but it looks sewn from the edge view. The cover art is solid, I think, and has modern-day folks with swords and such inside what could be a castle or a chapel. Evokes for me a feel of darkness and mystery, which I assume is the intent. The font of the book is a nice and clear one, and I like the simple B&W artwork inside the book. I was a little concerned about the darkness and contrast of the art when I looked at the PDF, but in the hardback the art is all easy to see. (A similar effect in the DCC RPG rulebook, where I thought it might be hard to see but in the finished product it’s fine.) Tables are well formatted and easy to read.

Next, the topic. I have been searching for a long time to find a modern-day RPG that has the right feel to it. Call of Cthulhu is well done overall, but I prefer a d20 style system to percentile rolls and characters in CoC seem to be designed for despair and doom instead of upbeat creature-whuppin. The World of Darkness product line seemed too angsty for me (I had at one point the original and the GURPS versions and eventually the d20 Monte Cook’s WoD and none of them quite had the right feel.) The Buffy and Angel product lines are pretty solid, but for whatever reason my group likes something more D&D-like and those didn’t quite check the right boxes, either. FATE offers some options, but I don’t really enjoy FATE. My best choice up to this point has been Amazing Adventures, which comes in C&C or 5E flavors. What I wanted was a game where I could run Dresden Files and blend it with Charmed or other similar storylines, and I wanted something that was sort of D&D-like so my players could acclimate quickly to the rules and start playing right away.

The book. Night Shift is just under 300 pages of content, which to me is a great page-count. Too many pages and you get a giant tome that doesn’t work well at the table, too few pages and it’s a pamphlet. There are rules for a half-dozen class types (chosen one, psychic, save, survivor, theosophist, veteran, and witch). There are rules for supernatural or monster characters such as vampires and demons and werewolves. There are some neat rules for fate points so that characters can influence the action somewhat. There are rules for madness if I want to throw a Cthulhu type thing at my players. There are some neat GM chapters designed to make one think about campaign or adventure style. There are ideas on what types of secret societies might be hidden in the world. I feel like the one book is pretty much self contained and doesn’t string a buyer along for monster books or extras like that. (If these kinds of things come out later on I will probably buy them, but I don’t feel like I would NEED them in order to play a solid campaign.)

The OGRES game system. I have to confess that I’m not 100% sure which parts of the game mechanic are specifically OGRES, or if the whole game counts. What I see mechanically is the use of the same base stats that can be found in most “old school” style RPGs. The stat bonuses start off very B/X in flavor, but there are additional modifiers from the same stats that apply to specific types of checks. Familiar, yet expanded. There are classes that fit a modern-era game instead of a fantasy-era, and they seem to fit the major options that one would expect in a modern supernatural game. Combat is pretty “old school” in style with characters trying to overcome Armor Class as many other RPGs of this style do, and it seems like one could run combat simple and straightforward or add in some options for those who like their systems more complex. There are saving throws. Monster stat-blocks focus on stuff like AC, move, HD and are pretty short and sweet. Basically, if a person is familiar with the standard D&D-style games (various editions of D&D, C&C, AA, S&W, and so on) that person will see a lot of comfortable similarities in rules and can pick up the game quickly.

The best parts. So a lot of this stuff can be found in other games. What’s the best part about Night Shift? Well, I’ve already mentioned several things that I like, but here are a couple more: [1] The “fate points” mechanic. I liked a similar thing in Jason’s Amazing Adventures RPG but this seems more expanded and developed that his earlier rules. I look at this sort of like “inspiration” in 5E but with more options. [2] Appendix A. There is a look into “Arnesonian” combat and how Night Shift can be played with really old school rules. There are also thoughts on converting the game to an OD&D or B/X style of play. I really liked reading those parts.

Bottom line – I like Night Shift a heck of a lot more than I dislike it. I feel that it oozes atmosphere, mechanically runs smoothly with “old school” rules, and seems to be the best rules set I have found yet that fits the “modern supernatural” genre that I have found yet.

Just my two cents.

The DCC RPG is a fun game, and this is a particularly fun module. My group really enjoyed battling the creepy monsters and had a great time overall.

It's a short module and can be played in 1-2 sessions. The layout is well done and the text is clear and easy to read, which is important for me as my eyesight starts to fade.

Definitely a good purchase, especially at this price.

Frawgs is a fun little adventure for a fun new RPG (the DCC RPG by Goodman Games). Frawgs isn't written by Goodman Games, but I think that it ranks up there with GG's modules in terms of writing quality and general fun factor. And it's a good price, too. :-)

I started playing METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA back in the 1970's and the 1st edition is still my favorite.

HOUSE ON THE HILL is written with 1E MA in mind. It has a very old-school look to it with B&W interior line art and blue maps, much like the AD&D modules of the era. I wish that HOUSE ON THE HILL had been done in the 70's because maybe the METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA rpg would have become more mainstream back then.

As to the adventure itself, it's well written and fun to play. The house itself has 17 different encounter areas well detailed. There is a section near the end of the module (written by James Ward, the original designer of METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA) that gives some ideas for variant houses. There is a 10-page section of rules and tables for random house creation, along with a template for you to design some of your own.

Anyone who plays METAMORPHOSIS ALPHA of any edition will find that this is an awesome resource, and I think it's a fun adventure to play.

I was a fan (and playtester) of the "Castles & Crusades" RPG, and "Go Fer Yer Gun" is based on the same basic mechanic, so I liked it.

It's very "old school" in philosophy and is easy to run. Not much background (although several historical figures are profiled for insertion into a campaign if you like) but I'd rather make up my own stuff there anyway.

Hit dice are cut off at a lower level, making the game more dangerous all around. This is important in order to maintain the flavor of the Wild West where a bullet could take you out at any time.

A really fun game to play!<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Simple mechanic, easy to play, easy to DM. Old School feel.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>