Dark Souls: The Roleplaying Game is massive. Massive in size and a massive undertaking to compact over a decade's worth of material into a tabletop rpg book. At first glance, the PDF (I'm still awaiting my physical copy) is gorgeous. Steamforged Games has captured the essence perfectly. The tweaks to the rules, to make D&D 5th edition fall in line with the universe of Dark Souls, had to be daunting but were succesfully achieved. Spells, weapons, armor, mechanics from the video games, all are there in print form allowing one to craft their own stories around the gaming table.

To be fair, there were and are, some errors within the book. From simple grammatical missteps to larger and more invasive rules issues, the errors are quite glaring at times. But Steamforged has been doing their damndest to correct and update these rules. Not only that, but they have promised the people who have purchased physical copies through their preorder system that those errors will be taken care of. That's pretty good customer service in my book. I know many people are still angry, or at least harbor ill feelings, from the confusing releases of the Dark Souls board and card games that were also from Steamforged. But to their credit, they've been very good on giving free updates and clarifications for those games and I'm confident they shall do the same here with the TTRPG.

I would have liked it if the GM section was a little more in-depth. At times it feels more like advice to setting up a miniatures encounter as opposed to creating campaign or one to two night adventure. But all the bits and pieces are there to have at it. It definitely helps though if you have played the games and have some knowledge of the lore. So it may be a turn off to casual fans or people who are completely new to Dark Souls. I recommend hitting up some VaatiVidya lore videos in that case! Heh! But jokes and minor quibbles aside, the Dark Souls RPG is pretty phenomenal. As a fan who has collected all things Souls, is heavily invested in the games, and purchased both the card and board games I cannot recommend this book enough. I think you'll be pleased.

The World of Gor: Gorean Roleplaying World Encyclopedia is a fantastic addition to the Tales of Gor rpg. First the technical points. The pdf's organization was well done. It contains an introduction section on Gor, followed by the author's experience with Gor, a summation of all 34 Gorean series books, and then a chapter by chapter, A to Z encyclopedia. I'm a sucker for a well laid out book.

The content itself is phenomenal. The book is worth it even if you don't play the rpg but just enjoy the book series. I know from now on, that when I read Norman's books, I'll have this handy so I can look things up quickly and easily. As a gaming tool, it'll make explaining aspects of Gor to the group a breeze. For example, castes can be a rather daunting task to explain. With the encyclopedia, I have an entry for each caste, that describes their profession, dress, and general lot in life. Great detail has been given to each entry within.

The encyclopedia doesn't just tackle the "low hanging fruit" either by just giving certain topics like slavery one entry. But instead, we get the whole picture. I now can confidently understand and explain the intricate and complicated concepts of Gorean slavery to my group. Or Kaissa, a game like chess on Gor, could have had a simple entry but instead we essentially get the game explained to us. With entries such as this, my Gor rpg can come alive for my players because it gives me the tools to do so.

Normally, I'd have to go to various websites to prepare background information or go from book to book of Norman's work to prepare for a game like Gor. Now, it is all at my fingertips. If you are a fan of Gor, I recommend this book, just like I did the actual rpg. They are wonderful reading enhancements to the world. And if you are a Gor rpg player, then to me, this is a must! Also, the price is very, very fair for the amount of time and work that must have went into creating this encyclopedia!

Well first let me say that I'm very excited to see a Gor table-top role-playing game. It is a book series that is certainly deserving of such a treatment. Second, the system itself uses the D6 system, which if you are an older gamer such as myself, may be familiar with. West End used it for their Star Wars game and many other products. And I must say it works here, very well.

Third, the pdf itself. I never knew Postmortem Studios exisited before stumbling upon this game. I will say that if the products are as half as good as Gor, I'll be a repeat customer to Postmortem Studios. Gor is packed full of detail and beautiful artwork. The art really reminds me of the old book covers by Boris Vallejo. They scream GOR! Postmortem jammed this game full of background information on Gor. Every book of Norman's Gor series has a short summary. The world is detailed out along with the people.

Just from the small amount of reading I've done so far, I can guarantee I will not be left in the dark on an issue about Gor. The treatment of the "adult content" is done very well and there is even a breakdown of how much and ways how to apply it to your Gorean game! At $9.99 this book is a must buy for anyone who is a fan of Gor. In fact, if your are a fan of Conan, John Carter, Tarzan, etc. you should buy it just on its pulp-action quotient alone!

I'll be buying the companion encylopedia quickly!