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Belly of the Beast RPG
Publisher: Sigil Stone Publishing
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/21/2022 16:32:58

Once I actually got this to the table, I had to revise my opinion considerably. Here's the thing: this game's aesthetic is on point. It's perfect. But that's about the only appeal.

The setting is extremely underdeveloped. Oh, I can tell you all about the walls of The Devourer, but there aren't, like, locations. Just ideas for describing your own with the author's set of adjectives. Also, the gameplay is basically nothing. Scavenge, sell, repeat. I understand that's all there is to be done in a doomed world, but it doesn't go anywhere. The doom is perpetually encroaching, but we know it will never actually arrive, so it loses its teeth.

The system, which I first misunderstood to be very close to Lasers & Feelings, is both needlessly complex for determining the values of things, and extremely sparse when it comes to game results. The metacurrency caps at 10, but it seems like one should be getting about 5-10 from any interesting scene, so there's no reason not to spend the max five on every roll. The idea of a single difficulty number for an entire scene is interesting, because it opens the door to flexibility in your approach, but it feels like you're rolling either 1 die or 10, so any scene using the suggested difficulties either takes forever or is over in an instant.

Also, that's just my best guess. The system segments of this text are arcane. It feels actively resistant to interpretation. I can't seem to put my finger on exactly what's going on--I think the information is just presented in a really counterintuitive order? I had to go read a bit of the other games using the same engine to establish, mostly by contrast, what was going on with this one.

I can see how this could be useful inspiration when attempting to do something that looks like this, but it's less a GM sourcebook and more just a worldbuilding idea with a game strapped on. I'm giving it two stars because, as I said, the aesthetic is truly on point, and also because the artwork in the game is solid (but ultimately too sparse for a third star).



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Belly of the Beast RPG
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Five Torches Deep: Origins
Publisher: Sigil Stone Publishing
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/09/2022 15:57:52

So I was thinking about writing an academic article about various things in RPGs and while perusing the "Red List" I saw that they listed this product's essay on bioessentialism as reason enough to never support the publisher. So, I bought it, and read the article. As I suspected, it's pretty good. Thanks!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Five Torches Deep: Origins
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It Takes A Child To Raze A Village
Publisher: Ursidice
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/12/2022 22:40:14

Amazingly fun. Only note: when I run this again (and I will run this again) I'll use a lower suspicion cap. Maybe 10 for 3 players, 13 for four players ... I probably wouldn't try it with five.

But. Yes. Amazingly fun.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
It Takes A Child To Raze A Village
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VAMPUNKS
Publisher: ThePunkWrangler
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/06/2021 23:53:33

Gloriously dumb! I love everything about it. Simple system, absurd setting, excellent adventures ("Cyber-Vamps From Beyond the Web"!). Highly recommended.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
VAMPUNKS
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Creator Reply:
Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed the game!
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Relics: A Game of Angels
Publisher: Tin Star Games
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/21/2021 23:09:43

I backed the Kickstarter. I tried to love this game. I really did. But I just can't.

Playing: The system does not support the setting. The Fugue system is built for games where the characters don't know who they are, and learn about themselves through the stories of others. Applying it to angels, who have established personalities, leads to memories that don't make sense for the way the character is being played. Some people might enjoy this, but it does not work for me.

GMing (spoilers by implication): There's an entire chapter of this book devoted to alternate cosmologies before they actually tell you what the "official" cosmology is. Now, when I first read this book, preparing to run it, I described the cosmology as "buck wild," and it seemed fun. It doesn't in any way match up with one single detail of what the players have read, but I'm okay with some interesting secrets, even if they are basically just a blend of Nephilim and Rifts. But once I combined it with the published scenarios, it just felt dumb. Nothing the players do ultimately serves any purpose. They are ants in a tank, except that's not what I signed up for when I bought A Game of Angels. The meta-knowledge effectively destroys any enjoyment of the actual playable portion of the setting. Maybe I could see a campaign that's all about discovering The Truth, but the system (as I have noted) is very ill-equipped for that.

Reading: This PDF does not have a table of contents. The book has one, but it's on page 30-something, so you'll want to make that your first highlight and build a bunch of bookmarks, but it's still going to be a hassle as you flip around. There's no index, either, so make your peace with that. It's an absolute mess for navigation.

I cannot recommend purchasing this product.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Relics: A Game of Angels
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City of Mist Case: Carnival of Machines
Publisher: Son of Oak Game Studio
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/16/2021 17:07:35

Absolutely brilliant. The utterly wild combination of Rifts is my favorite part of City of Rifts, and this one doesn't hesitate for a moment before slamming together utterly incompatible mythologies. Plus, the abandoned carnival may seem cliche when it comes to horror movies, but how often do you actually see one in a tabletop RPG? Great stuff.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
City of Mist Case: Carnival of Machines
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Mothership: Player's Survival Guide
Publisher: Tuesday Knight Games
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/16/2021 15:42:20

The average stat is 33. The highest tier skill you can get at character creation is "expert" which adds 15%. So the average space marine is sent out on their first assignment with just under a 50% chance to hit, and that's if they spend two of their three skill points on Firearms training.

Listen, I get it. Horror genre, everybody dies. But there has to be a way to tell stories about competent people being overwhelmed by powerful horrors, rather than schmoes who go down because they're completely incompetent. This game is one long exercise in frustration.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Mothership: Player's Survival Guide
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Tall Pines, A Surreal Murder Mystery Game
Publisher: Self-Critical Hits
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/13/2021 13:42:57

Does what it says on the tin.

Toe to tip, that's a Twin Peaks!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Tall Pines, A Surreal Murder Mystery Game
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City of Mist Case: Broken Glass
Publisher: Son of Oak Game Studio
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/16/2020 23:41:28

Content warning: a significant portion of this case involves a psychiatric hospital and the involuntary commitment of a number of people, potentially including the PCs, by malicious and abusive mental health professionals.

Maybe I should've guessed that from the fact that therapists were the secret bad guys in the last two cases. Maybe not. Either way, now you know and can make an informed decision.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
City of Mist Case: Broken Glass
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for your feedback, Patrick, and for helping to clarify this point to others. Please note that the product description explicitly describes the case as pitting the PCs against "the villain’s operation, a twisted mental health organization." We apologize if the content caused any inconvenience and are happy to refund your purchase. If you have suggestions to how we can improve, please reply here.
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Santa vs. Santa
Publisher: Mystic Ages Publishing
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/16/2020 12:11:15

Fun times! My elves stopped a plane hijacking then went to the moon to play chess with a body double of Evil Santa. Highly recommended.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Santa vs. Santa
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Creator Reply:
Sounds like fun! Thanks for playing and for your support!
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Madhouse: A Lockwood's Asylum RPG
Publisher: Blackout Games, LLC
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/07/2020 23:58:26

Holy Moses this is offensive. I mean come on. This isn't "eldritch horror in the shadow of a 1920s madhouse," this is a modern day mental hospital full of abuse and murder and trauma. The representation of insanity, cheerfully sorted into five nearly distinct "disorders," is both downright facile and hugely insulting. And don't think that just because they put in a 1/6th page sidebar saying "hm, mental health is actually much more complex than this" they're magically off the hook for the absolutely reprehensible way they present the lives and sickness of people who aren't "technically" real but absolutely resemble the public's fevered imaginings of actual mental patients.

Let me be clear, I am not saying "oh this might hurt someone's feelings." I am saying that I, as a bog-standard psychiatric patient, am actively offended by this. I am aghast at its existence, embarrassed by its presence on this website, and furious that real life trauma could be so readily commodified into a spinoff of a card game. This roleplaying game does a hateful disservice to the one in four people in this country that have experienced or will some day experience mental illness. Such willful misrepresentation of real-life trauma and suffering can only be described as mean-spirited, and I wish upon the creators nothing but the obvious repercussions of the energy they've chosen to put into the world.

I am repulsed.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Madhouse: A Lockwood's Asylum RPG
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for your feedback, Patrick. As stated on the product page, Madhouse is a game in the survival horror genre, and thus is deliberately set in a dark and unrealistic world filled with sanity-draining ghosts and monsters. We apologize if the content caused you any distress.
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City of Mist Case: Killing Her Softly
Publisher: Son of Oak Game Studio
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/07/2020 14:55:25

Excellent! Complex, plenty of red herrings, some good places for the PCs to screw up and shut off leads without shutting out the rest of the story. Shame the title of the piece is basically a dead giveaway of the plot, but that's hardly the end of the world. Also the absolute randomness of the Rifts in this is hilarious, in my opinion.

Oh! And disability representation! Man, everything about that character was great. Well done.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
City of Mist Case: Killing Her Softly
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City of Mist Case: Demons in Cross End
Publisher: Son of Oak Game Studio
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/07/2020 14:51:28

Good stuff! Good Halloween themed case. It's worth noting that if the players go at things in a certain order, one has to awkwardly withhold certain characters until later. That said, I don't know how you'd build around that, considering the incredibly obvious nature of the action ... eh. Either way, four stars. Good stuff.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
City of Mist Case: Demons in Cross End
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City of Mist Case: V is for Going Viral
Publisher: Son of Oak Game Studio
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/07/2020 14:49:03

A good case, although some elements are easy to overlook. I had to wing it as far as the behavior of teenagers who were already involved, because there's no real guidance to exactly what that's about. But it's good.

STG, I'm taking off an entire star for that title. V is not, in fact, for Going anything. G is for Going something, V is for Viral. GTFO.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
City of Mist Case: V is for Going Viral
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City of Mist: Player's Guide
Publisher: Son of Oak Game Studio
by Patrick H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/28/2020 00:54:04

This is a really great game. It's the one good part of Fate grafted onto the PBtA system and it works perfectly. Honestly this might be my new model for future games, too. It will accommodate any setting that involves magic with basically no changes.

As for the setting, I love the glitzy surface level of it but I'm actually reluctant to dig any deeper. There's a lot going on in the lore expansion books but ... I just don't care? I don't actually want to know, and I say that as a Forever GM. We just play in a Dark City-style Quantum 80s where the cars have fins, everyone wears a trenchcoat, and there's Facebook, but no cell phones. The city is all there is and who cares about the rest?

Really, though, this book is all you need to play the game. There may be good stuff in the others, but they are optional. I recommend trying this out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
City of Mist: Player's Guide
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