Read-through Review: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game

Last August there was an announcement over on the Margaret Weis Productions (MWP) website that I read quickly and blocked from my memory. It surrounded them acquiring a license from Marvel. Then I checked my DriveThruRPG newsletter and laid down (a relatively small amount) of dough immediately. Now don't get me wrong, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with MWP,

So You Want to Euro-Game Part 2 and 3: Lord of the Rings and Pandemic

So I'm continuing today with my tour of great Euro-games to introduce newcomers, with two excellent boardgames, Reiner Knizia's Lord of the Rings, and Z-Man Games' Pandemic. Both of these take a twist on the traditional board game by being co-operative rather than competitive, which is no stranger to our role-players. This makes them particularly good for your role-players to make the transition to board-gaming.

My criteria from last time was three-fold: Simple, a Clear Goal, and

So You Want to Euro-Game? Part 1: Carcassonne

Hey Everyone!

I wanted to start up a three-parter focusing on some of the best games to introduce new folks to the European style of board gaming (also know as Euro-games, German-style gaming, etc.). This type of game functions somewhere in the space between Parcheesi and Planescape. They tend to focus less on luck and direct conflict, and more on resource management and indirect competition. I find that

MGA Update: Gary Gygax Galore and a Pathfinder One-shot

A quick update from the Miami Gaming Authority, the stalwart gaming group of which I am proud to be a member!

Our current main game is a retro-reboot of S3-Expedition to the Barrier Peaks by Gary Gygax. We've been running it in our go-to game system, Savage Worlds. It's been quite a flashback to be playing this old module. What's even better about it is Dan, one of our players from the beginning of MGA, took up the GM reins again after not having touched them since his college days. So far we've escaped zapping, trampling, mind-control, poisoning, amateur surgery, and tainted meat... but we've still got several levels to go at least!

I've also started running the one-shot (more like a 3-shot at least) of Pathfinder that I mentioned previously. We really wanted to try out what Paizo has done with the OGL, as many of us haven't played D&D since 3.5 (or even 2nd!). The plot centers around a mercenary company in the employ of the Merchant-state of Essandre, which plays third fiddle to two empires locked in a bloody war. So far I've been pleased to the tweaks to 3.5, and been pleasantly surprised with the addition of collective background creation cribbed from Spirit of the Century. We may try and record some of our actual play as podcasts, if we do I'll be sure to post it here!

Mouse Guard - Actual Play Review

Hey everyone, it's been a little while, but I wanted to post up a review for one of my all-time favorite RPG books. While Luke Crane has put together a lot of excellent games, from the crunch-to-make-good-role-playing of Burning Wheel to the mind-bending psychology of the machine that is Burning Empires, I think really nothing can beat the simple elegance of Mouse Guard. Sooo... you can tell this will be a favorable review already, but let me show you some of the things that makes this my go-to book for introducing new folks to the hobby.

So the premise of the game is that the PCs are intrepid protectors of the kingdom, guarding against death and danger from outside and within. They are also anthropomorphic mice. This may put a few people off, but at its core its a game of heroism against

Fifth Edition Blitz

Hello All,

Just a quick post, hard at work on the next review!

The buzz is back on D&D now, with the new fifth edition on the horizon. I've signed up to play-test along with MGA, and I hope that I'm pleasantly surprised. My fervent hope is that they took notes on all of what has made Pathfinder a success in comparison to 4e, and a return of the Open Gaming License (OGL). I feel its really Wizards last real chance to win back the customer base, so I wish them luck in

Sundered Skies - Actual Play Review

Hello Everyone,

While read-through reviews are great and all, this time around I would like to review the Sundered Skies campaign setting by David Blewer from Triple Ace Games for the Savage Worlds system. I've long been an admirer of the quality and speed of the product that Triple Ace puts out, and the work for Pinnacle they did before that (including this setting book). So while Sundered Skies has been out for some time, I'm pleased to give you some insight into what their product is like in a long-running campaign.

Sundered Skies is a fantasy, but takes place after a cataclysm breaks the world apart into islands, and leaves a glow in the spaces between which will gradually drive you homicidally insane. I know all of you don't know me, but this is the kind of thing that warms the beating, pitch black, old-one-loving hunk of obsidian in my GM-ing chest. The PCs form the bravest of these folks, venturing between the islands in sky-ships seeking their fortune. It's kind of like if the movie Captain Blood starring Errol Flynn had elves and skyships, and the screenplay was written by HP Lovecraft and scored by Danny Elfman. It's a little like this, with the suck removed.