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All right, I'll admit it. I'm the person who can't keep all the versions of Renegade straight. Is Corruption the expanded ruleset or is it the Advanced version? All I know is that it has more pages than one of the Renegades and not as many as another. Or is it the other way around?
What you have here is Original something-and-something with better editing (even self-editing beats no editing) and a "voice" in the text which speaks to someone who is not familiar with miniatures rules and jargon. Yes, when I read that Original game, I was utterly lost and made almost everything up on the fly. In a way, I liked that. Yet I also wanted to know what the actual nuts & bolts were, what made things tie together into a cohesive system. In short, I wanted to know what the script was that I was ad-libbing to.
So it helps - a lot - that I can understand what Renegade is saying to me, and demonstrating to me how to play and run it. I really like the fact that it still allows me to ad-lib and house rule to my heart's content. There's almost a console-type of structure to it, where I can pull one unit out, replace it with a house rule, and the odds are that they'll all work together.
Renegade ~ Corruption adds a sense of dirt and sweat to basic Renegade. Imagine a "good" junky Steve Reeves Hercules movie of 1959 or 1960. Now add a good episode of Baretta and the smell of a high school gym's locker room. And - something - or someone - which is in the gameworld just to get you, personally.
So imagine Original x&x with a touch of Call of Cthulhu - not the Old Ones coming to get you (usually) but the claustrophobic, paranoid sense of things. Or compare a 1950s "the Gorilla Boss of Gotham" to "the Dark Knight Returns." Each are entertaining (and the former is my favorite Batman story of that era) but one is just - dirtier - than the other. Heroes aren't just flawed here. Sometimes, it seems everyone carries a bit of corruption in them.
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Megan may be correct. Perhaps David could use an editor. A good editor can make a good book great and a great book fantastic, and there's not a one of us who is our own best editor.
On the other hand, that would undoubtedly increase the price - and I'd rather see more copies of this book get in gamesmasters' hands than have it become a bit too much professional. There's a part of me which really likes the unstructured "fannish" style of writing.
And the information - the raw data - is what the book is about. Is it easy to understand? Yes! Is it data you will use? Yes! Will you have a hard time using it because you'll be laughing so much? Probably! I didn't NEED to make my PCs feel even more uneasy, but I saw the most delightful thing for them to be served. Y'see, I just happen to have a photo of baked sheep's head.
It's more than just traps, scary things, and PC killers. It's also a means to discomfort your heroes, to make things a little off-center. Just when they think they have your world and its natural laws figured out, you can pull out a LOGICAL shock which makes sense. This is not a traps manual or a TPK manual. It's made (and priced) for fun and for using again and again.
David does have a diabolical sense of humor. An editor might have tried to talk him out of some of this.
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And we thought Tomb of Horrors was scary...
That was a long time ago, when we learned, after several attempts, to cheat egregiously. It could never get that bad again, because we were smarter - and we started using systems which not only made more sense, but which enabled us to learn from our failures as well as our successes.
Welcome to a new place, one which is not Tomb of Horrors, nor even an emulation of it. For one thing, you're going to walk into it expecting, at worst, a band of brigands and raiders under the direction of some dim-witted ogre. Dangerous, yes, but less so for you and your hardy band of highly-seasoned warriors, specialists, and wizards. Human and non-human you be, and you've never tasted defeat nor fear.
That was before you discovered the secret of the Forest of Maugaral and the mausoleum it hid. And that's just the beginning of your trouble --- no, this is not "Tomb of Horrors for Tunnels & Trolls." This is its own nightmare -- and yours.
"Deep Where the Liche-Lord Lies" is Andy Holmes again proving that he can send a shiver or two up your spine. Disguised as a simple hack-and-raid mission, this adventure holds secrets and puzzles to keep your group occupied for at least three sessions, if not more. And they WILL keep coming back, because Andy has the knack of throwing JUST enough at the PCs where they think they have a good chance to press their luck just One More Time.
Plus, of course, your players' characters realize that they're in it all the way now, and that backing out is worse than suicide. The various monsters and traps aren't the real challenge; that real challenge is to the players...What will they decide at different moments, different places?
The only thing to fear is fear itself.....they say.
Inviting your presence is Vasarax himself, on the cover by Simon Lee Tranter. The liche looks almost neighborly, having decomposed comparatively little. He seems cordial and friendly. Chilling!
Inside, illustrator Jeff Freels strips the facade away. Your more pleasant foes have a look of greed and vice to them which is truly disturbing as you study their features - for some reason, it's what Jeff DOESN'T include in the portraits and settings which is unsettling. Don't dwell too long on the frontpiece for Level 6. If you thought Jeff's humorous cartoons were "cute," don't be surprised that he turns that impression against you.
Tavernmaster Games continues its impressive output with this high-level adventure that is designed for Tunnels & Trolls - but suitable for anyone you want to feel the crush of despair.
(This review first appeared at http://GrandpaRPG.blogspot.com/ on 4/20/13)
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Well - uh -
Boy, do I hate to say it. Maybe I can make this a little kinder.
It could have been better.
The writer starts from the assumption that every reader knows who these characters are. An incorrect assumption, as this is an issue that most people will pick up even if they don't know any character but Dracula. Let's face it: Hardly anything with "Dracula" in the title is going to lose money.
But how many people know who the Black Bat is/was? And who's this Rachel dressed as an even-more badly designed Azrael-Batman? Why is Dracula in this particular city at this time, and why is Rachel hunting him? What's her relation, if any, to Black Bat? (They seem to know each other.) The story seems to be chase, chase, chase, fight, chase some more, fight, stop the story before it ends.
It's really hard to tell what's going on sometimes. The art is very pretty, and filled with lots of extra lines which aren't needed. (Alex Toth would have a fit!) But the artist seems to want to fill up space and show off his/her art - not tell a story.
SPOILER WARNINGS!!!
The plot is: Dracula is killing prostitutes. Rachel hunts Dracula. He almost successfully seduces her but Black Bat saves her. (Surprised?) Dracula is driven away by a Really Badly Drawn Schtick. (The items used to drive him away are not the items which would drive him away, nor do they look like them.)
We don't get to know the Bat. We don't get to know Dracula. (We just assume he's like the most cliched movie version.) And we don't get to know Rachel, other than - like a stereotyped woman hero, she comes from an abusive background. Look, it worked well enough with Red Sonja, but does EVERY abused person put on a costume and go hunting bad guys and monsters? In far too many comics, they do -- and that's all we ever see into their character.
Every person seeing this title, especially if they know who Black Bat was, really wants to read this book and hungrily wants to like it. We were ready to forgive a lot, and we have to if we want to finish the story. (Which doesn't finish, using the stereotyped "The End?" blurb.) We have come to expect so much from Moonstone.
It could've been a contender. The best I can say is "It's not as bad as it could have been."
I really - REALLY - wanted to like this.
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This may be one of the best uses of the (late?) Action system that I've seen. It gives a very 3-dimensional feel to tactics and movement, and actions really do have consequences.
Action has taken some hits in the past for not emphasizing role play itself. The templates and the chapter on Individualizing Your Character takes care of much of that, but the player IS going to have to do their share of the work. It is all too easy to bring the hack attitude into the Wild West mythos. Here is where many of the tools for the gamesmaster come in. The system does reward the player for playing "in character," and does it pretty well. Shucks, ma'am, it's even fun to create characters in Gunslingers. Haven't had this much fun creating a character since Traveller!
Yep, there are some amusing spelling errors. I'm fairly sure that when Mark says "Each player should select a cultural decent from where his character’s forefathers originated," that he really meant "Each player should select a cultural descent from where" etc. (Even then, I'd have made him rewrite the line for clarity.) So yeah, it's not 100% perfect - nothing is.
But it's a good fit for a great western adventure. I think you'll enjoy it. It's worth at least twice this price, and you'll rarely get this much adventure for this price.
Highly recommended.
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It may be a bit self-serving to review this, but no one else has - so here goes!
It's short in pages, but long in play -- if you make some very good saving rolls. Or if the NPCs do.
What you have is an archery contest. Which starts out fair, and keeps going until even the Flynn Robin Hood would throw up his hands and surrender his sanity! At one point, the champion archers must aim and HIT invisible moving targets.
Hopefully, you'll succeed well before this - or fail, which seems more likely. But it's totally fair -- the NPCs have just as much a chance to fail as do you -- probably even more chances!
The reward is fulfilling for your character and for yourself. Because you, as a winner (HUZZAH!!) are invited by the Khaghy one to enter into Trollhalla itself. He may or may not have such authority, but it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
And it's MUCH better to be lucky than skillful.
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Never, never, NEVER expect the normal or average when Ken St Andre builds a world and its inhabitants.
Dwarfs, for instance, look and act and SEEM like the dwarfs you find in other fantasy rolegames. Don't be fooled! They are - without spoiling any surprises, I hope - an entirely different life form than what you expect. IF they are actually a life form at all.
Dwarf World takes your player characters INTO the world owned (?) and inhabited (sometimes?) by Gristlegrim, the dwarf god who is not a god, but is, who brought and/or created dwarfs for Trollworld in the first place.
But this is not Trollworld, and the characters are foredoomed to worse than death if they make such rash assumptions. The gamesmaster has a LOT of freedom with this "worldbook" though there is plenty of information available. This being Tunnels & Trolls and specifically a Tunnels and Trolls book by Ken, there is enough data to build on, but you are fully expected, as a gamesmaster and world creator, to make this very personal - to yourself and especially to your players. Run properly, they'll never forget this, and they'll talk about it for the rest of their lives.
If they get out.
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Y'know, I've been looking for JUST the sort of vampire that has posed so nicely in the file labeled 'Nosferatu.' It's not a clone of the original movie's character - nor is it imbued with the humorous that Jeff can and does give to some of his art. No, this one is VERY serious, very sad in some way, and very, very threatening. I can use this. And shall.
Again, the VERY inexpensive price includes not only this illustration, but a whole fistful of others (13 in all? Forgot to count. No pun intended.) and each one of them as good as this. And license to use them (credited properly) in one's own story, game, or novel. Jeff is practically giving these things away. And they're way too good to go at these prices.
Take advantage of Jeff before he comes to his senses!
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Steve Jackson (the American version) once complained that there wasn't enough "silly" in RPGs, that they were taking themselves far too seriously.
He should enter the Temple of the Fool God.
One of the conceits (?) of solos, especially TnT solos, is that your character is willing and eager to enter into an arena type of game in which he or she is most likely going to be killed. Of course, there's the promise of Great Reward if one survives, but one has to wonder - just who is running these arenas and how do they make a profit if there is no paying audience? (Only Roy Cram has an answer for that in his two Gamesters solos.)
Nonetheless, our PCs gleefully enter into these death traps with all the survival instincts of the cast of either version of "the Haunting." And in this case, that's exactly the sort of mentality which will give us, the players, the most fun. (Not the PCs, of course, the pitiful fools!)
The previous review may have given you some idea of the puns, the Pythonesques, and the expected twists on RPG cliches that you'll find herein. Let's just add for the proper seasoning, that this was written by the inimitable Stuart Lloyd, who never disappoints, and the art is by Mr or Ms Public Domain, who was not available for torture and questioning.
Someday, someone is going to gather the funniest TnT solos in one volume, and we'll never get around to playing them because we'll just laugh and laugh while reading them. This belongs in the front of that book.
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Until and unless the classic Arena of Khazan is brought back into either print or e-print, this is our current stopgap. It's a little less fatal, than Arena, and doesn't ratchet up the treasure as does its predecessor. Definitely, it doesn't "Monty Haul" the treasure as Arena did, leading to (if one survived) a nearly-impossible-to-kill Kryptonian type. (In which case, one wondered how they kept such a person IN the Arena.)
This is training, pure and simple, and is a great method to get your new character "up to snuff" (unfortunate choice of words?) for further adventures. It's even useful in other adventures in which one is referred to having been "trapped in the Arena of Khazan." Substitute this until the original returns (if ever) and you'll be no worse off.
A fun pleasantry, and you'll get a LOT more than $3 worth of play from it!
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Sure, you could have had this with your copy of Sorcerer's Apprentice #5, but you'd have had to buy that in 1979 - or pay dearly now.
Even then, you wouldn't have David Ullery's enjoyable art and seen his version of Atlas on the copyright page. Nor the cute uruk at paragraph 8. Nor would you have enjoyed some of the new incidents possible in this solo.
The adventure is, yes, short - though it has the potential to become much longer if you own some other FBI TnT solos. (Sadly, the classic Arena of Khazan is out of print and not available in ebook form. Alas!!) If you make decent Saving Rolls, you may even get from Point A (entering the city and looking around) to Point B (a dwarfish repairman of swords) without an incident at all! You may have to endure an unseemly pun from the repairman, but it's fairly harmless. It's also where the adventure (in this case) ends.
If you fumble some Saving Rolls along the way, you have opportunities to pursue a thief, to become an outlaw in the city, to fight as a gladiator in the area, to face the Invincible Fishwife (shudder!), or even experience the encounter shown on the cover of this module.
One thing is sure: you won't be bored.
Short and sweet, with violence in almost every paragraph, this is the sort of trouble a lone adventurer could get into in the Good Old Days. For less than three bucks, it's a steal of a deal!
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Fast-paced like a good old pulp thriller should run, this is excitement in 14 pages (counting cover and title page) - and has a lot more to it than you'd expect.
First, the cover pays homage to the Indiana Jones type of hero. (Though he looks more like Brigham Young with Indy's hat-with-a-funny-hatband.) Nothing wrong with that type of play, and - save for the last one - the Indy movies gave plenty of value for admission price. But you're not limited in the types of characters you can play. I could easily see the Shadow, Doc Savage, or any number of lesser pulp characters (Most pulp stories were, at best, mediocre.) involved in this adventure.
Sure, it's easy to say "Everyone belongs to an anti-Nazi spy agency" but it can be even more exciting to have disparate characters pulled into this evil world-dominating plot.
It has Nazis, chase scenes, the supernatural, traps, a teriffic cover, and a plot so thick you can cut it with your Crocodile Dundee knife. What's not to like?
Troll Lord Games and Jason Vey have given a very good example of what can be done with their Siege Engine rules and the Amazing Adventures game in particular.
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This is one time when brevity really does work. This is a snapshot of a smaller city, without the detail of a City-State of the Invincible Overlord (CSoIO). It isn't meant to have that much detail, though you're certainly welcome to add detail, a map, etc. A map would have been a Very Good Thing, but for this price I'm not gonna complain about it.
Like every Tunnels & Trolls adventure I've ever seen, you only use six-sided dice. Except for page 9 - where you'll use two three-sided dice. (That is, roll two D6 and divide each one in half.) There's a slight typo on this page: 2D3 will give a range of 2-6, not 1-6. This roll will determine the class or job of the local residents. Therefore, since a one cannot be rolled, there are no citizens in Lowhollow.
Getting spells is easier on Tom's world that in the Trollworld of the TnT 7.5 rulebook. Maybe that will change with Deluxe TnT? If your wizards want to stock up and/or recover, this is a town worth a detour.
There are no adventures, per se. Adventure hooks aplenty. For instance, random scenario #12 is a REAL pain for PCs, and can lead to a geas, a job, a curse, or a jail sentence. Or worse. You have to try this! Because the justice system (i.e. - the GM punishes you for whatever he or she wants) is totally unfair and the punishment probably far exceeds the crime. In short, delightful and filled with adventure hooks.
It is only 18 pages, counting cover and title page, but don't consider this a short scenario. There is lots of replay value, and enough adventures to carry you through your old age. Perryton could do worse than expand this small (?) town into a CSoIO module, complete with map. On the other hand, I think I'm going to enjoy stocking it myself and drawing my own map.
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Lots of puns, dastardly creatures, a couple of "thinking person's" traps, and real plausibility for your character to go wandering in these cellars. Playable over and over, and with a sequel available. This is the kind of solo for me! Sid Orpin (writer) and Jeff Freels (artist, editor, publisher, and he sweeps the place out at night) can do no wrong as far as gaming is concerned!
This is for the people who say "Well yes, Bean is easy to play, but can you really have a complex adventure with it?" The answer is a resounding "YES!"
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Didn't think it could happen, but the best guide to rolegaming, published more than a quarter century ago, has been surpassed. Now -the RPG Handbook- reigns supreme, with not only more up-to-date examples and reviews, but at a hefty 213 pages (counting covers) the RPG Handbook by David Morrison is quite a bargain!
First of all, it's very nice to look at. The artwork reminds me of Flying Buffalo's work (Tunnels & Trolls 5, Sorcerer's Apprentice) which is the highest compliment I could give it. Some of Jeff Freels's art would make it perfect, but you all know how much I love Jeff's art. (You should go take a look at it on various DTRpgNow items.)
Yes, there's a certain amount of redundancy with What You Already Know, because this book *will* be the first RPG book somebody picks up. Besides, you'll be surprised at the amount of information provided in Part One: Roleplaying Games. Such as how to get kids of different ages involved with and enjoying rolegaming. Styles of play are considered (How else will you "hook" your players into playing and staying?)
From there, you'll go on to suggestions, information, and advice that may never have occurred to you. This is not just for the gamesmaster, because there are excellent chapters on creating realistic characters who are playable AND memorable. If you've never had other players come to tears over the death of one of your characters, you haven't truly lived the roleplaying experience.
Most of the information from there, is -usually- (not always) specifically for the gamesmaster. Building a campaign from a singing adventure on up, and from there building an entire world. As your players gain experience and travel from their comfort zones, you'll be ready with new territories and challenges for them. And you'll never...
Repeat: NEVER!
...have to repeat yourself.
RPG Handbook is saved from being absolutely celestial only by the fact that a history of rolegaming is beyond its scope - and thus there is no history of rolegaming. Perhaps that could be a new project for David.
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![Hot Nights in Lowhollow [Tunnels & Trolls]](images/2586/104570-thumb100.jpg)
