Those of us who were around for the 1980s & 90s will remember that tabloid papers were a much bigger part of North American pop culture then. The milder variety was a mix of celebrity gossip & fraudulent cures – clickbait on paper, if you will – but the wilder papers were a peek into […]

The blazing action continues with Mike Stackpole’s 1983 adventure RPG, Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes (MSPE). It started life as a simple “present dayification” of the Tunnels & Trolls ruleset but by the time it was saw daylight as its own game it had become a complete & distinct entity unto itself. It remains an […]

Next in line, Extreme Vengeance by Tony Lee. This 1997 RPG is an exercise both in simplicity & genre emulation of a sort. I say of a sort because it’s not exactly emulating the action movie genre; it’s emulating being the lead in a 1980s-90s action movie. The special abilities a character can call upon […]

Today marks the start of shelf two, currently the everything-that’s-not-fantasy RPG shelf in the nook. That means today’s game is the first modern-at-the-time-era one: the self-published 2003 actioner Haven: City of Violence. Truth be told the only reason I even knew the thing existed was because of an extended review/rant by one of my favorite […]

At the end of shelf one lies the land of Ferelden & Green Ronin’s Dragon Age RPG. Let me cop to this up front: I’ve never played any of the source video games. I bought Set 1 of the pencil & paper game back when it came out entirely because I saw it on Wil […]

Today’s game is FASA’s 1993 fantasy epic Earthdawn. The world is emerging from a period of super high magical potentiality during which Horrors from Beyond The Void invaded, driving the sentient races to hide away in underground retreats for centuries. The stars are gone just wrong enough now to make it safe to come out […]

Day 9 & we’re going full grunge with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), 2nd edition (Black Industries, 2005). Originally conceived & produced in the UK, WFRP brings a slightly more grounded tone to fantasy adventuring with all the filth, deprivation, disease, & mundane horror of life in the mid 17th century dusted with a coating of […]

Today’s character doesn’t have much of a back story thanks to the sheer confusion involved in putting her together. Next on the shelf was the 1982 second edition of SPI’s DragonQuest. As you may know SPI was principally known as a wargames company & boy howdy does it show in the DragonQuest rules. Every section […]

Next stop, the land of Aldis in Green Ronin’s Blue Rose. It’s essentially the “Valdemar/Tortall/Sacoridia with a piece of electrician’s tape over the serial numbers” RPG. You know the drill: the protagonists battle cultists, criminals, evil magicians, scheming courtiers, demonspawn, expansionist neighbor realms & more, while striking blows for freedom & acceptance at home & […]

Things get more relaxed today with Ryuutama, a strongly Ghibli inflected game that calls itself “natural fantasy role play”. Think cozy mystery vs police procedural & you’ll have a pretty good idea how the tone of Ryuutama compares to the bog standard fantasy game we’ve come to know. In this game world it’s a tradition […]