I am a backer of the original KS and should have known. As soon as they said they did not want to share the PDF early with their backers so everyone could experience the "new gamebox" feeling unspoiled all my alarm bells should have gone off. Pretty much all of the problems with the game are very obvious on first read through and would have been found and commented on by backers if they would have had early access. That would not have been a guarantee they would have changed anything but at least they would have tried.

As other reviews have already said, the dice system is a bit of a mess with 3 ways of adjusting for difficulty and absolutely no guidance whatsoever on when to use what. The dice system has almost some narrative feel to it with the assembly of the dice pool from various sources and is not all bad. At other times though it is too precise. A choice example: To land safely with a parachute requires 6 separate rolls. Each step can fail and will result in you either getting damage or drifting off target. 6. To simply land safely with a parachute. Thats around 5 rolls too much for my taste.

There is a pretty bland table of phobias to roll on for your character but not really any rules that say when. Not to mention it is handled with no sensitivity towards the subject at all. It is just a list of 100 phobia types. There is also a section on how to add your own weapon types and that goes into weird math like “A 9mm round has 393 ft/lb of muzzle energy. 393/20 = 19,65. Rounded up to 20 that results in 2d10 Damage” instead of just listing a table with common calibers and relating damage. Not to mention missing tables, bad examples and absolutely no GM section at all. From the guys who were involved in the original Top Secret I actually expected a masterclass in “How to run spy games”. It feels like a rush job without the proper care many smaller publisher give their products.

And finally the art is mediocre with just a very few good pieces and some pieces veering into the bad. They collected over 100,000 USD for this game, I seriously wonder where that money went. Overall a disappointing release.

Barbarians of Lemuria ist in der neuesten Version alleine visuell der absolute hingucker. Mal von den fantastischen Illustrationen abgesehen ist der Inhalt natürlich auch sein Geld wert. Das BoL System ist eingängig und leicht ohne dabei banal zu sein. Es macht einen Riesenspass damit durch Welten wie Hyborea oder auch das direkt mitgelieferte Lemuria zu reisen. Wenn es nach mir ginge würde ich fast nichts anderes mehr spielen. Ein in Deutschland leider sträflich zu wenig bekanntes System der Spizenklasse. Die deutsche Version hat sogar gegenüber der englischen Mythic Edition einige kleine aber feine Verbesserungen an den Regeln die ich nicht missen möchte.

The already established Fanzine with an irregular schedule released their 5th issue. It is still PWYW and has again a mix of content for their various products. There is a table of fantasy city encounters that is system agnostic and should be useful to many OSR gamers as well. There is some benign and some weird stuff (I am not saying it is aliens, but it is aliens!) and many that could kick off a great session.

There is GM advice from Tony Demetriou dealing with player trust and “when to roll” issues. It is more an opinion piece then really advice, but I appreciate the perspective he gives on the “What I imagine and the players imagine might be extremely different” issue many GMs regularly fall for, myself included, and how this relates to the question of when to roll.

Then we have a plot hook by Mitch A. Williams that is a summary of an adventure with some information on the location. I appreciate this kind of adventure ideas instead of fully detailed ones. It gives me enough to start from but I can flesh it out with details that resonate with my players. The premise of “Wizard’s Lake” contains old ruins, fighting brothers and an interesting way to source ones water, so to say.

The next article by Glenn Davisson deals with interrogations. Gives some light real world background of certain aspects and expands the interrogation rules from Covert Ops. While interesting to read the rules seem to add a level of complexity I do not need, but they still seem very usable and might be something you need in your game.

After this we get another expansion for Covert Ops: “The Agency Uniform” by Bill Logan. It is basically an armored outfit with various available upgrades. For any proper spy game there can never be too many gadgets and this adds something interesting to the arsenal for your operatives.

And finally a nice looking ruin map with some background.

Decahedron #5 is again a great offering. I am glad the zine seems to find its release stride and hope they can keep it up, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From what I can gather this is the first foray into BBF for 10 Spot Games. This PDF contains 30 new creatures for BBF. There is a wide variety of creatures inside, mostly new and not part of the standard monsters almanac of fantasy creatures. Each has a simple, hand drawn silhouette illustration. The writing is a bit rough and I had hoped for some more background for the creatures. The PDF could also use another editing pass. Still, at 1,39 USD I can`t complain too much of course. It is definitely useful if you need more monsters, especially since the Barebones Bestiary is continually delayed.

It is the second D00lite release from10 Spot Games, this time for Covert Ops. As the name suggests it contains 25 pages of material to help you use Covert Ops to play Sci Fi games. As DWD Studios own Sci Fi project is still not out this is very welcome to me as a Space Opera nut. The 23 Pages are full of various rules and guidelines. The cover makes it look cheaper then it needs to be and the illustrations are stock art, which is totally fine for a product like this. There are no credits given though. This is a problem the author definitely should take care of. I know that some of the artwork does require credits given in the product. The layout is ok and the writing about the same as in their earlier release, Cardains Creature Collection. It could use another editing pass as well. There is a printer friendly version included, without the color cover and page backgrounds. Very much appreciated!

First we have a chapter on Space Vehicle creation. It follows the Covert Ops guidelines on vehicles in general and expands it to include space vessels of various types as well as different upgrades for the same. There is enough here to get your Sci Fi Game going. What I am missing though are some more realistic craft to tie it in with Covert Ops. The tech described here is really more akin to Star Trek then Moonraker.

After detailed descriptions of the upgrades and weapons are a few example ships followed by three pages of space vehicle operation and combat guidelines. They work but sadly have the same issue so many other systems have: The Pilot and the gunner are the only 2 people really involved, and if push comes to shove the Pilot could do everything on its own. For many this may not be an issue but I feel there is a missed opportunity to give at least some suggestions what people with other skills could mechanically do during a space fight.

The next chapter deals with Sci Fi equipment for individual operatives. There is nothing too extraordinary here but at least some of the items could be used in a normal Covert Ops game. Overall though it again is a tech level really far removed from Covert Ops baseline. This is not a problem at all if you want to run a pure Sci Fi game. I just feel it could be problematic to implement some of this tech into a normal Covert Ops Campaign. Again, more Trek then Moonraker.

Here we also find Droids and Robots. They are normal NPC with the addition of a section for “Code” where you should summarize in simple sentences what the programmed functions of the droid or robot are. The section sadly does not contain any advice for Droid player characters.

The last chapter gives advice on how to create alien species. Nothing really new here and

Overall the product is useful when you want to use Covert Ops for Sci Fi games and does a good job at that. The tech is for me a bit too advanced from Covert Ops and as such I can´t imagine it meshing well. I will find a use for some of the material within for sure though. And for 1,99? Worth it. One can always use more material for D00lite.

This is billed as a companion for Bare Bones Fantasy and focused on player characters. The cover looks nice and the interior uses the BBF fanwork template to good effect. The layout is OK if simplistic with several illustrations. Sadly they are BW images on a white background placed in black borders within the text. This I find rather jarring and really brakes up the text to hard. And makes it look cheaper than it is. The writing is concise and easy to read.

First is a chapter on expanded character creation. It begins with rules for 0 level characters. Something I like since running a DCC funnel. Due to the nature of BBF the characters can`t be totally blank slates and start with their primary skill already.

Next are random tables for starting professions. Each gives your character some background as well as some items specific to the profession at game start. Otherwise there is no mechanical effect.

What follows are several tables for your characters age, body type and height/weight. After that are more tables to help you flesh out characters background with family, friends, enemies and special events during your upbringing. There are even omens and portents on your birthday! All strictly optional but can help you to kick start your imagination.

Next is a section that deals with characters that begin the game higher than rank 0 or 1. The tables here deliver some background of what the Character may have done in the past to get him where he is now. As they mention in the text, this is also really useful to flesh out NPC and great for replacing dead characters.

Following this are 2 new races, first the Deep Dwarf. They are living deep underground, gathering forgotten knowledge and are capable of casting “low wizardry”. And they have their own profession table! The same goes for the Satyrs, the second race in this PDF. Additionally they also have their own age/body type /height/weight tables. Both races are fleshed out in the normal BBF way and usable right away. I especially like the Deep Dwarfs as they go against some of the usual dwarf tropes. In contrast the Satyrs are exactly what you may expect.

After the two races follows a short, general treatise on the skills in BBF. It aims to clear up some confusion and misconceptions about them and their use. This contained nothing new for me, but may be useful to you. But they do not stop there. They also represent two new skills, the unarmed combat specialist aka Brawler that is pretty much what it says on the tin. Their unique ability is to appraise an enemy’s abilities and fighting dirty. And there is a skill called Mentalist. They have the unique ability to increase they STR or DEX for one turn. Additionally they are spellcasters, a kind of mage/cleric hybrid. Both have their place and will find players.

The new skills are followed by another short treatise, this time on spells and magic. The unbalanced power has been a point of critic in regards to BBF for a long time. At its heart BBF is an old school game where spell casters where indeed much more powerful in later levels then a fighter type for example. This lack of any balance may offend modern sensibilities somewhat. What you find here gives you some options and ideas on how to handle this in your game if you feel the lack of balance is an issue. They also give some suggestions on specific spells and how you can alter some of the really flexible spells in BBF.

The next chapter deals with “Legacy Items”. These are magic items that start as mundane gear but are imbued by a character spending some of their own DP. They then have a basic power but can unlock more and more abilities as time goes on. There are only 2 example items here. They are interesting and useful but for me not enough to get a good feeling for a baseline. More of them please, and if they come in their own little PDF! Items that grow in power with their wielder have always been something I wanted to implement in my games and the way they are done here is good. However I would have liked more mechanical guidance in setting up "unlocks".

Then there is a rules expansions for BBF. The first is about splitting the single Body Points pool of BBF into two new pools, physical and mental health. An approach I can appreciate, as it allows for “mental attacks” against characters, a place where they usually are not armored. And with this you can have a whole new way to make enemies exciting.

Finally there is another short rules discussion, this time about multiple actions and why you should or should not use them. Definitely interesting and something to keep in mind as the ability to use multiple actions in a turn is one of the ways characters get more powerful in BBF.

In closing, the 34 pages are filled with useful stuff for your BBF game. At 4,95 USD I think it is well placed and well worth your consideration. The mix of new content and thought on BBF rules in general is great and makes this truly a companion to the core rules. If this is the quality we can look forward too I can`t wait for the next issue, “Combat and Encounters”.

In general I won’t go into the setting and fluff and focus on the mechanics and general design, as this is what I am mostly interested in.

I would like to give the game a better review after first read, but so far can`t. There are many whole page illustrations that look really good, but in turn make other, not so great artwork, much more noticeable. Some artwork is reused within the PDF. The whole book suffers from a very simplistic layout that clearly has been done in a word processor. It is a boring, simple 2 column layout that does nothing to enhance the experience, not even some interesting Fonts or headers to break up the motony of text. Some images seem incorrectly aligned (Page 12, 23, the tables in the item chapter for example). All pages have a patterned, colored background that makes it hard to read. Some Images have a white Background that is very glaring in contrast to the colored background pages. Tables are simple borders with no fills, again making them hard to read. And for a PDF the lack of bookmarks is jarring. There are many other publishers that do their layout in word but Honour sadly looks amateurish. It is a shame really as a lot of the artwork looks great and must have been expensive. However the layout detracts massively from the overall quality. Layout is very important to me to help in relaying information in addition to simply look good. And this sadly does neither.

The system itself uses a D12, a dice I like that simply does not get enough playtime. So a + there. However a lot of the rules are not really well explained. For example a core tenet is the name giving “Honour” and the counterpart “Shame”. There are 6 types to track with “Honour wheels” on the character sheet, however it is not explained how to do so. In addition starting levels for example family and friends should be agreed with the GM before character creation. Then there is public honour for which is noted that “most people have a neutral level in this area for most of their lives”. Then how is this important to the game? I find it strange something that should be so important is handed so hand wavy. Mechanically speaking having Honour or Shame result in Perks and Penalties for dice rolls. How they work is not clear at that point in the rules as the explanation is vague and refers to a dH being rolled in various combinations and keeping best or worst result. However how exactly varying levels of honor affect rolls is not explained. But it becomes clear later on and when you look at the character sheet that shows what dice combination relates to which honour/shame level.

As attributes the game uses Aspects. There are three, Physical, Mental and Emotional, all with the sub categories Strength, Grace and Resilience. They are implemented well and I like the idea of this separation. They are rolled depending on a “Meta Reality Level” that is roughly describing the overall power level of the campaign and is noted by a rating between “Gritty Reality” and “Myths & Legends”. I like games that have a bit of a universal approach and gives me dials to tune the game to my needs. In addition to these Aspects Characters have Fortes and Flaws. If a character has any of those depends on if they rolled a Yin (11) or a Yang (12) during Aspect creation. The former produces flaws, the latter Fortes. However the character can also convert a Yin to a +1 for the aspect or a Yang to a +10 to an aspect. This makes for an interesting choice. You do not have to choose your flaw or forte right there, you can do so at any time during the game, but then they are fixed. Mechanically they only give a +1 or -1 to a roll affected by the Forte or Flaw. This is almost negligible.

The value of an Aspect determines Base Modifiers for rolls. They range from 2-20+ with modifiers starting at -4 and going up to +4 at 20. Theoretically there seems to be no limit to the level of an Aspect.

Then characters get a “pathway” that resembles a career path from games like Traveller. Characters spend “Terms”. Everyone starts at age 17 and each Term adds 3 years. Starting at 44 your Aspects begin to deteriorate slowly. Every Term allows a character to choose 3 Skills from his chosen Pathway, or career, and spend a total of 3 levels on them however the player likes. There is also a general list of skills to choose from. Every Term the player can choose a new career if they desire. For each term you get more Skillpoints to spend. The maximum is 9 per Term after the 4th term onward. The maximum Skillrank is 10. However there are also “end of term” rolls to determine how well you fared in your term and determine skill progress as well. I am not sure how the Term End Roll corresponds with the Term number skillpoints mentioned earlier. Are they additional or replace each other? No idea. There is also no real downside in choosing new Terms, so why anyone would start with a character younger than 43 with 8 Terms under their belt is not clear, at least mechanically. Many campaigns won’t run longer than a year in game anyway. Again you are supposed to weave a story around and agree on what is proper with the GM. I would have preferred stricter guidelines or at least some interesting decision point or drawback from choosing as many careers as possible. There are 16 legitimate and 9 criminal careers ranging from Academic to Triad Member. Each career shows a minimum aspect requirement, list of available skills and a rank with corresponding title depending on terms served in the career. There are tons of skills and I would have liked a table overview showing the available skills with related careers. There is a sample character with a sample sheet, but in the sheet some text seems to be cut off. Speaking of character sheet, the one included has a too low image quality and is quiet blurry.

Characters develop by gaining Qi points for good roleplaying or rolling higher than the difficulty set by the GM. They can be spent on gaining new skills or skill levels. Players can also spend Qi Points during play to reduce target numbers. 1QP reduces a target number by 1. Target numbers depend on the Difficulty level of a task and range from 2 for routine to 20+ for Superhuman. I am personally not a fan of spending basically experience points to influence die rolls, but you may not mind.

The Basic Task resolution is Roll 1d12 + Modifiers from Aspects, Skills, Flaws and Fortes vs. the target number. There are also consequences for rolling high or low depending on the difference between roll result and target number. This is meant to give some degrees of success or failure instead of simply fail or succeed. There are no “but” results though, if you fail you fail, it is just a question by how much. The exception is Yin and Yang results (11+12 respectively) on a task roll. On a Yin the task is a success but the character loses QP equivalent to the difficulty level, with a Yang he gains them. This is the mechanic I like the least so far as loosing QP for a simple die roll seems too harsh. There is also no mention if you could go negative in QP with enough Yin results.

Combat can be done in more than a physical altercation; you could also have Mental or Emotional Combat, the latter being sorcery. Every Aspect has its own pool of hit points as well. However combat seems overly complicated and slow. Every character has 3 “Moments” each round. You spend movement on, well anything. Every round every participant chooses one of the 8 available combat actions from movements to attacks or defenses. You are supposed to write your selection down and then reveal them all at the same time. Depending on what each participant chooses you gain penalties or bonuses on future rolls. For example if I block and my attacker is attacks aggressive I have a future mod of +2. There is an example that explains it all that is OK, but could be a bit better, especially with more combat participants then a 1-1 fight. The example showing a 1-2 fight is too shallow and does not really show dice rolls and modifiers.

Damage is an additional roll that happens after a successful attack, but the target can resist. So to actually damage someone you must succeed in two separate rolls.

The game also features sorcery but I only gave it a quick look as there is a big table with various numbers detailing how to build your own sorcery. However in addition there are premade spells that are segregated by schools like Fung Shui or Calligraphy. I like more freeform magic, but this seemed too detailed for me, considering so much else is supposed to be handled hand wavy.

There is also a chapter detailing how to create your own items and also a comprehensive list of premade ones as well. Nothing extraordinary but exactly what you expect.

The next chapter deals with the mystical Inhuman races. Inspired by Asian mythology you find Demon (bad) and Charmed (good) ones in a wide variety. There are enough to have interesting friends and enemies for your characters.

The last few pages before the expansive index contain all the tables from previous chapters. Something I really appreciate, but again the layout harms the overall impression as many are too small to properly read.

TLDR: An overall OK offering with uneven design, some unique and interesting sounding mechanics and on average nice artwork. Sadly it is hindered by the subpar layout. I know it sounds harsh but they should have skipped a few images and instead invested in someone to do proper layout work. Usually content trumps looks, but here the layout stops the reader from enjoying and actually learning the system. This could be great and unique but sadly isn’t at this point. However at the 5$ point it may be worth it for the ideas and artwork to you. I hope the developer revisits the PDF and releases it in a more polished form in the future.

The latest addition to the Adventurers! line let`s us revisit school. The inspiration is very obvious, it only misses a sport played on flying brooms. In addition some of the rules can be easily combined with any of the other Adventurers! settings to play young heroes or emulate other YA stories. Worth a look.

The Adventurers! basic rules where already great, with this expansion you have everything to emulate classic DnD in a lean and light package. It is amazing how complete the game is with just the basic rules and this addition. There are even rules for player strongholds and crafting in it. I especially like the "Companies of Heroes" rule. Basically the party itself also gathers XP separate from the characters. The group can then buy special abilities for the group with these group XP. A cool idea that adds an additional dimension to the groups development.

Contrary to the other expansions The Dungeon does not contain a setting. But as it is clearly inspired by the worlds most famous RPG that should not be a problem. The included monsters will give you an easy start to play in whatever is your favorite fantasy world.

Let`s add another voice to the chorus of people saying: This is a fantastic achievement. Originally from a DnD background I have been drifting more and more to lighter RPG. From Savage Worlds through Barbarians of Lemuria and it looks like I might end up at Adventurers! It feels very much like Barbarians of Lemuria because it uses the same core mechanic, but manages to feel lighter and still more flexible than BoL does. this small RPG is an incredible feat and I must salute the author on this. It is surprisingly complete and very easily expanded upon. A game every Roleplayer should look at to see a great game does not need several hundred pages, sometimes 2 are enough. And I think the latter is much harder to pull off.

The King is (almost) dead and Excalibur stolen. It is the land of Arthurian legend with a lot more despair then hope. Dark machinations and intrigues, fae and other mythical foes, shining knights etc etc you get the idea. Just a few pages but no wasted space and full of great information to get a game in mythical Britain going in no time. The easy to use Adventurers! rules get some tiny tweaks ad a bunch of new monsters for your heroes to fight. Worth every cent.

Frankenstein, Dracula, Van Helsing, Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters, Solomon Kane and Ravenloft are all clear inspirations for this setting. While not the most unusual of settings it contains everything you need to run a game of Gothic Horror adventures with the Adventurers! rules. Mechanics wise it adds Sanity rules. One of my favorite kits in this line.

Nice addition to the Adventures! family of settings. A Fairy Tale world with a twist. I did not expect the mixture of fantasy and technology in this particular setting and thought I would get something more akin to Alice in Wonderland. But it is more gunpowder in fairyland. It is its own thing and good to have as a resource. How can you go wrong with this price of 2$ as well?

Great addition to the Adventurers! family. This time featuring a post apocalyptic world. A bit more ruined then Fallout, but somewhere around Mad Max sounds about right, at least that is what I would run with it. Contains everything you need, besides the base rules, and again manages to convey an interesting setting in only two pages. One less star because I hoped for more pre made vehicles and at least rules or hints on how to do car duels and vehicular fighting. It is in there but only rudimentary.

Like all the other releases in the Adventurers! series a small product with a lot of content. This time it is full of Voodoo, Pirates, Gold and Swashbuckling. Well executed and useful as the base for any game featuring action similar to the musketeers or, of course, Pirates of the Caribbean.