Board Game Geek
Recent Additions
Reply: General Role-Playing:: Re: QOTD DEC 15: What new game are you exited to get to the table in 2026? What about it has you excited? (You can include games releasing in 2026.)
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 04:37:52
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 04:37:52
I run multiple games that are all 5e ... at least up until this week! I am nudging my players to try new systems, and one of the groups started Tales of the Valiant this week, and it was a hit. The Luck system is great and so far the character creation options seem to inspire really imaginative PCs. The nice thing about ToV is that it is a baby-step away from 5e, sort of my "gateway RPG" if you will! I also want to try Draw Steel: The MCDM RPG and Nimble because, quite frankly, the combat systems of both games promise to be more dynamic than 5e (read: combat in those games couldn't be more of a slog than 5e).
The RPG stretch for me this year will be Heart: The City Beneath for two reasons. One reason is that it is such a departure from the norm or our games, and the other reason is because it will likely have to be an in-person group, whereas most of our games are online via a VTT.
The RPG stretch for me this year will be Heart: The City Beneath for two reasons. One reason is that it is such a departure from the norm or our games, and the other reason is because it will likely have to be an in-person group, whereas most of our games are online via a VTT.
Reply: News:: Re: Halfway Through the 2025 Support Drive
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 03:48:44
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 03:48:44
by rmiller1093
I support BGG by paying for ads for people to see my games. My thanks to those who do look at the ads as they have allowed me to live out a lifelong dream.
Waffle Wednesdays- In the mail
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 03:19:57
Game Over On borrowed time...
Happy Wednesday and happy playing!
-Rachel
Thank you for reading my blog. If you liked it; then please click the green thumb [microbadge=23724] at the top of the page. If you really liked it; then please subscribe.
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 03:19:57
by Rachel
My Christmas cards (to USA destinations) are all in the mail (finally!). I ran out of stamps, d'oh! And my global forevers (which I also ran out of :whistle:) should be arriving any day and then I can get my last international cards in the mail. Better late than never :D.Happy Wednesday and happy playing!
-Rachel
Thank you for reading my blog. If you liked it; then please click the green thumb [microbadge=23724] at the top of the page. If you really liked it; then please subscribe.
Review: The Barrow of the Unbroken King:: The writing is bland. The interactive elements are bland. The evocative nature of it is bland. It’s bland.
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:43:49
Self Published
Dragonslayer/OSR
Levels 1-3
A wicked corruption has befallen the Mounds of the Fairy Kings and has tainted the Barrow of the Unbroken King. The once grand halls of his tomb are now imbued with dark, sinister energy, and the honored dead who lie within have been twisted and defiled by this insidious force. The source of this foul magic remains shrouded in mystery. Whispers abound that a dark curse was placed upon the Mounds of the Fairy Kings by an ancient enemy seeking to dishonor the memories of those buried. Whatever the truth, it remains elusive, adding to the chilling weather that envelops these sacred barrows. The Mounds of the Fairy Kings, once a place of reverence and honor, now stands as a haunting reminder of the past, in a forest where the boundary between the mortal and the twilight realm blurs in the face of unknown danger.
This 26 page adventure uses about three pages to describe about twelve rooms. The writing is bland. The interactive elements are bland. The evocative nature of it is bland. It’s bland.
I’m bored to death just writing this summary and would rather, well, I’ve edited out what I would rather do than write more. But write more I am. Twenty six pages for twelve rooms described in three pages. I think I’ve seen this film before and I didn’t like the ending. The usual suspects are at play. An extensive hook and background with lore. A lengthy section on how to play D&D and what a stat block means. Appendices for monsters, pre-gens, torchbearers, and summary of the XP and treasure in the adventure. Again and again and again the broken repeats: the main thing is the actual adventure. Support for the adventure is great, but not at the expense of the main adventure. When the main adventure is substandard and there is a lot of support information it forces the question to ask: what would the adventure have been like if the effort spent on the support information had instead been spent on the keys? There is no solution here. I sometimes run across travel videos on my feed that are something like “Do not trust this man in Kashmir!” Of course, none of us will run across that man. Just as no designer getting a bad review will be aware of this guideline. A mighty conundrum. The firehose of poor adventures will continue until all hope is lost. Tomorrow is a new day, until another designer brings their vision to light and flings themselves forward chaotically with little awareness. The same old same old, poor official adventures, mimicking what you’ve seen before which is almost always poor also. There is no respite from the endless line of people making the same mistakes.
“Random monsters are an essential part of classic fantasy role-playing games, and The Barrow of the Unbroken King is no different. In normal situations, the Referee should roll for random monsters every other turn or whenever the players declare they are “searching” for something (with a roll of 1 on a d6 indicating an encounter)” What?! No rules for how to roll dice and read the THACO chart?
“The exterior of the barrow mound has a diameter of 60 feet. At each compass point, four menhirs stand 30 feet away from the barrow. These stones are marked with petroglyphs that detail the life of The Unbroken King.” And thus a column of backstory was born. Contributing little to nothing to the adventure.
What is the purpose of a monster entry? Following our major guidelines, everything in an adventure should tie back to running the adventure at the table. What do you need from a monster entry to do that? Some stats, surly, HP, AC, attacks. And, I would assert a description. You you need an ecology of the monster to run it at the table? No, almost certainly not. SO, what should be prioritized? The ecology or the description? I’m not arguing for inline stat blocks, I have no opinion on those. I am, though, asserting that “an ogre attacks you” is less assistance to the DM, less evocative, than a terse and evocative description of the lumbering brute with great yellowed tusks. Guess how the monster entries are arranged in this?
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These keys, the main part of the adventure. There’s nothing here. Yes, sure, niches to loot and a few monsters. But there’s not really anything here for a DM to hang their hat on. No evocative writing. Really not much more than, say, Palace of the Vampire Queens monster listing and treasure. B2 may have more interesting encounters.
/pic9280860.png)
Are you not entertained? What type of gem? No altar description. Nothing about an evocative curse detail. It’s not that any one of those things would make this stand out, but it’s all the bare minimum. This is what you are paying your money for. And there’s not much more here than a random number generation on a table would provide.
I am aware that for the vast majority of designers there is no malice. This is not a money grab. They had a vision and they just were not able to translate that vision on to the paper. It’s just so frustrating. This can’t be the vision the designer set off to put down and I don’t know how you make it pass a proof read not knowing that.
This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $5. No preview. You gotta put in a preview so we can make an informed purchasing decision.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/544497/the-barrow-of...
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:43:49
by bryce0lynch
By Travis FauberSelf Published
Dragonslayer/OSR
Levels 1-3
A wicked corruption has befallen the Mounds of the Fairy Kings and has tainted the Barrow of the Unbroken King. The once grand halls of his tomb are now imbued with dark, sinister energy, and the honored dead who lie within have been twisted and defiled by this insidious force. The source of this foul magic remains shrouded in mystery. Whispers abound that a dark curse was placed upon the Mounds of the Fairy Kings by an ancient enemy seeking to dishonor the memories of those buried. Whatever the truth, it remains elusive, adding to the chilling weather that envelops these sacred barrows. The Mounds of the Fairy Kings, once a place of reverence and honor, now stands as a haunting reminder of the past, in a forest where the boundary between the mortal and the twilight realm blurs in the face of unknown danger.
This 26 page adventure uses about three pages to describe about twelve rooms. The writing is bland. The interactive elements are bland. The evocative nature of it is bland. It’s bland.
I’m bored to death just writing this summary and would rather, well, I’ve edited out what I would rather do than write more. But write more I am. Twenty six pages for twelve rooms described in three pages. I think I’ve seen this film before and I didn’t like the ending. The usual suspects are at play. An extensive hook and background with lore. A lengthy section on how to play D&D and what a stat block means. Appendices for monsters, pre-gens, torchbearers, and summary of the XP and treasure in the adventure. Again and again and again the broken repeats: the main thing is the actual adventure. Support for the adventure is great, but not at the expense of the main adventure. When the main adventure is substandard and there is a lot of support information it forces the question to ask: what would the adventure have been like if the effort spent on the support information had instead been spent on the keys? There is no solution here. I sometimes run across travel videos on my feed that are something like “Do not trust this man in Kashmir!” Of course, none of us will run across that man. Just as no designer getting a bad review will be aware of this guideline. A mighty conundrum. The firehose of poor adventures will continue until all hope is lost. Tomorrow is a new day, until another designer brings their vision to light and flings themselves forward chaotically with little awareness. The same old same old, poor official adventures, mimicking what you’ve seen before which is almost always poor also. There is no respite from the endless line of people making the same mistakes.
“Random monsters are an essential part of classic fantasy role-playing games, and The Barrow of the Unbroken King is no different. In normal situations, the Referee should roll for random monsters every other turn or whenever the players declare they are “searching” for something (with a roll of 1 on a d6 indicating an encounter)” What?! No rules for how to roll dice and read the THACO chart?
“The exterior of the barrow mound has a diameter of 60 feet. At each compass point, four menhirs stand 30 feet away from the barrow. These stones are marked with petroglyphs that detail the life of The Unbroken King.” And thus a column of backstory was born. Contributing little to nothing to the adventure.
What is the purpose of a monster entry? Following our major guidelines, everything in an adventure should tie back to running the adventure at the table. What do you need from a monster entry to do that? Some stats, surly, HP, AC, attacks. And, I would assert a description. You you need an ecology of the monster to run it at the table? No, almost certainly not. SO, what should be prioritized? The ecology or the description? I’m not arguing for inline stat blocks, I have no opinion on those. I am, though, asserting that “an ogre attacks you” is less assistance to the DM, less evocative, than a terse and evocative description of the lumbering brute with great yellowed tusks. Guess how the monster entries are arranged in this?
These keys, the main part of the adventure. There’s nothing here. Yes, sure, niches to loot and a few monsters. But there’s not really anything here for a DM to hang their hat on. No evocative writing. Really not much more than, say, Palace of the Vampire Queens monster listing and treasure. B2 may have more interesting encounters.
Are you not entertained? What type of gem? No altar description. Nothing about an evocative curse detail. It’s not that any one of those things would make this stand out, but it’s all the bare minimum. This is what you are paying your money for. And there’s not much more here than a random number generation on a table would provide.
I am aware that for the vast majority of designers there is no malice. This is not a money grab. They had a vision and they just were not able to translate that vision on to the paper. It’s just so frustrating. This can’t be the vision the designer set off to put down and I don’t know how you make it pass a proof read not knowing that.
This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $5. No preview. You gotta put in a preview so we can make an informed purchasing decision.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/544497/the-barrow-of...
Review: Into the Breaking:: a short linear adventure with a few scenes to Save The World
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:39:47
KEH Publishing
OSE
Levels 4-6
Travel from the city of Cismontane into one of the worlds beyond the Breaking on a mission to stop a monstrous cult. While shopping in the main market in Cismontane, one of the nearby merchants calls out to one of the party members, selected at random. “Hey, that ruffian stole your amulet!”
This 26 page single-column adventure describes a short linear adventure with a few scenes to Save The World. Yes yes, I know, but, also, it has some nice touches to it with great puzzles and hints of great imagery. But just hints.
Dude had an idea. It feels like it’s a home campaign idea. Dude put his ideas down on paper and published it. Dude knows nothing about adventure design. Inevitable result happens. Also, dude does actually know something about how some parts of D&D work and craft a decent Special encounter.
There are bits of this that make me think this comes straight out of a home game. This is centered around what the designer admits is a Stargate ripoff. Ages ago the gods threw down one of their own blah blah blah, temple at the site around the ensuing spatial rift eventually becomes a city. “The Skid” is the main street, representing the bodies skid down the mountain, blah blah blah. We’ve got some norse and egyptian and greek gods based game, and the temple now allows adventurers through the rift to various places using special amulets as passes. The mixed pantheon, the riffing on a stargate, the skid, and, of course, placing the dungeon under the local bar (or, in the temple in this case) is a time honored home game feature from the early days.
/pic9280850.png)
There are some parts to this that are quite good. In particular there’s a kind of perspective puzzle to get in to a building. Looking at the facade from one angle does one thing, looking at it from another does another thing. Shrinking features, growing features. It’s great puzzle, the likes of which is seldom seen in adventures. Not only is there this perspective thing going on but also a kind of environmental thing as you have to figure out how to, essentially, build a ramp to it in the skewed perspective that allows entrance. The designer is trying for, explicitly, an otherworldly vibe here and it does that quite well. It’s explained in a cumbersome way, and the evocative language is not really present, but the strength here is the core of the puzzle proper and it carries a lot of the heavy lifting for that vibe. Really good job and an excellent example of thinking about design in terms of imagination rather than starting from the standard book challenges of trap, environment, skill check.
There’s another portion, inside the temple, with a great piles of bodies, mostly skeletonized, and black cable-like things extending from the ceiling in to them. The skeletons get ‘animated’ by the cables, in a kind of puppet way instead of being undead. As you hit the skeletons pulses of energy ripple up the cables, with the entire encounter being treated much the same way as one would a hydra. You can kind of get a good image of what the designer meant, even if it, again, isn’t exactly the most evocative or clear way of describing it is present. The mechanical animation and treating it like a hydra are great riffs as well, again, a kind of imagination forward version of design with some rules thrown in to make it work instead of the other direction.
/pic9280851.png)
The adventure, though, is amateurish. And I don’t mean that in an overly negative way. Perhaps, uneducated, or unaware? I write sometimes about the difference between how a home game is run and an adventure for publication. I might scribble some notes on a paper and run the game from that. I’ve thought some about the game and those notes are really just a reminder of the aspects of the adventure I want to hit on as I riff my way to the game, responding to what the party is doing. I know what I mean when I see the words on the paper. I was inspired by something and thought about it and the notes are really just a way to get back into that vibe. The challenge, when writing for publication, is to transfer all of those ideas and imagery and whatnot into words on the paper, such that the DM using it picks them up and gets generally the same vibe I was going for. It’s all about efficient and effective communication from the designer to the DM, not losing the flavour initially imagined even before those homemade notes were made.
/pic9280852.png)
Some of this is formatting. We see here a single-column approach which makes that information transfer clumsy. And being concise in the writing while still being evocative. And here the writing is somewhat cumbersome and the general vibes meant are not really conveyed very well in the use of the descriptive language. Lost in the translation of The Telephone Game, so to speak. And then there’s the linear gameplay, where scene A leads to B leads to C leads to D. This is something that I think a home game does often, with the DM providing the glue to tie the various beats together, riffing in between them and perhaps dropping clues, etc to get the party to the next beat. Chase a thief, wander into cultists, go through the Breaking/Stargate, hit the temple exterior, then the two scenes in the interior, to get their stolen item back. And in a published adventure there needs to be just a bit more glue. Not a railroad, but support for the DM to get from A to B to C without it looking linear, just as one might do in a home game.
There’s an off phrase here an theorem padding things out. And a frustrating “Between the altar and the carving is a large chest containing the enemy’s hoard. From the way it’s piled, it looks like it was just dumped there. The hoard is Treasure Type B, with one each of types L, N, and O.” which really should have been expanded upon. There’s a rough fight in there also with an EHP and minions, but I’m gonna trust that the credited playtesters made it through without too much DM fudging.
Dudes heart is in the right place though, and the perspective puzzle is a great idea. He knew what he wanted to do, he’s just having a trouble getting there and communicating it to the buyers.
This is $3 at DriveThru. No preview. Boo! Boo! You gotta do a preview so I can make an informed purchasing decision.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/544746/into-the-brea...
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:39:47
by bryce0lynch
By Dave RobinsonKEH Publishing
OSE
Levels 4-6
Travel from the city of Cismontane into one of the worlds beyond the Breaking on a mission to stop a monstrous cult. While shopping in the main market in Cismontane, one of the nearby merchants calls out to one of the party members, selected at random. “Hey, that ruffian stole your amulet!”
This 26 page single-column adventure describes a short linear adventure with a few scenes to Save The World. Yes yes, I know, but, also, it has some nice touches to it with great puzzles and hints of great imagery. But just hints.
Dude had an idea. It feels like it’s a home campaign idea. Dude put his ideas down on paper and published it. Dude knows nothing about adventure design. Inevitable result happens. Also, dude does actually know something about how some parts of D&D work and craft a decent Special encounter.
There are bits of this that make me think this comes straight out of a home game. This is centered around what the designer admits is a Stargate ripoff. Ages ago the gods threw down one of their own blah blah blah, temple at the site around the ensuing spatial rift eventually becomes a city. “The Skid” is the main street, representing the bodies skid down the mountain, blah blah blah. We’ve got some norse and egyptian and greek gods based game, and the temple now allows adventurers through the rift to various places using special amulets as passes. The mixed pantheon, the riffing on a stargate, the skid, and, of course, placing the dungeon under the local bar (or, in the temple in this case) is a time honored home game feature from the early days.
There are some parts to this that are quite good. In particular there’s a kind of perspective puzzle to get in to a building. Looking at the facade from one angle does one thing, looking at it from another does another thing. Shrinking features, growing features. It’s great puzzle, the likes of which is seldom seen in adventures. Not only is there this perspective thing going on but also a kind of environmental thing as you have to figure out how to, essentially, build a ramp to it in the skewed perspective that allows entrance. The designer is trying for, explicitly, an otherworldly vibe here and it does that quite well. It’s explained in a cumbersome way, and the evocative language is not really present, but the strength here is the core of the puzzle proper and it carries a lot of the heavy lifting for that vibe. Really good job and an excellent example of thinking about design in terms of imagination rather than starting from the standard book challenges of trap, environment, skill check.
There’s another portion, inside the temple, with a great piles of bodies, mostly skeletonized, and black cable-like things extending from the ceiling in to them. The skeletons get ‘animated’ by the cables, in a kind of puppet way instead of being undead. As you hit the skeletons pulses of energy ripple up the cables, with the entire encounter being treated much the same way as one would a hydra. You can kind of get a good image of what the designer meant, even if it, again, isn’t exactly the most evocative or clear way of describing it is present. The mechanical animation and treating it like a hydra are great riffs as well, again, a kind of imagination forward version of design with some rules thrown in to make it work instead of the other direction.
The adventure, though, is amateurish. And I don’t mean that in an overly negative way. Perhaps, uneducated, or unaware? I write sometimes about the difference between how a home game is run and an adventure for publication. I might scribble some notes on a paper and run the game from that. I’ve thought some about the game and those notes are really just a reminder of the aspects of the adventure I want to hit on as I riff my way to the game, responding to what the party is doing. I know what I mean when I see the words on the paper. I was inspired by something and thought about it and the notes are really just a way to get back into that vibe. The challenge, when writing for publication, is to transfer all of those ideas and imagery and whatnot into words on the paper, such that the DM using it picks them up and gets generally the same vibe I was going for. It’s all about efficient and effective communication from the designer to the DM, not losing the flavour initially imagined even before those homemade notes were made.
Some of this is formatting. We see here a single-column approach which makes that information transfer clumsy. And being concise in the writing while still being evocative. And here the writing is somewhat cumbersome and the general vibes meant are not really conveyed very well in the use of the descriptive language. Lost in the translation of The Telephone Game, so to speak. And then there’s the linear gameplay, where scene A leads to B leads to C leads to D. This is something that I think a home game does often, with the DM providing the glue to tie the various beats together, riffing in between them and perhaps dropping clues, etc to get the party to the next beat. Chase a thief, wander into cultists, go through the Breaking/Stargate, hit the temple exterior, then the two scenes in the interior, to get their stolen item back. And in a published adventure there needs to be just a bit more glue. Not a railroad, but support for the DM to get from A to B to C without it looking linear, just as one might do in a home game.
There’s an off phrase here an theorem padding things out. And a frustrating “Between the altar and the carving is a large chest containing the enemy’s hoard. From the way it’s piled, it looks like it was just dumped there. The hoard is Treasure Type B, with one each of types L, N, and O.” which really should have been expanded upon. There’s a rough fight in there also with an EHP and minions, but I’m gonna trust that the credited playtesters made it through without too much DM fudging.
Dudes heart is in the right place though, and the perspective puzzle is a great idea. He knew what he wanted to do, he’s just having a trouble getting there and communicating it to the buyers.
This is $3 at DriveThru. No preview. Boo! Boo! You gotta do a preview so I can make an informed purchasing decision.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/544746/into-the-brea...
GeekList Item: Item for GeekList " 2025 - Staircase Challenge "
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:14:14
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:14:14
by bgcrazy19
An item Board Game Publisher: Garphill Games has been added to the geeklist 2025 - Staircase Challenge
Reply: General Role-Playing:: Re: Weather Underground Site
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:03:59
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:03:59
by Inkwan
Definitely not
Reply: General Role-Playing:: Re: QOTD DEC 17: How scalable are your scenarios? How much can you change your scenario to provide the intended level of challenge to various compositions of PCs before it has to be completely rewritten?
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:02:29
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 02:02:29
by Inkwan
Double - that's the line - but otherwise they deal with what they deal with
New comment on GeekList 15 December 2025: How did your RPG session(s) go this week?
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 01:54:47
Posted: Thu, 18 Dec 01:54:47
by Serpentine_C
Was going to have our campaign's last session tonight but two players had to bow out due to family stuff. We won't be able to get back to it until next year because of holidays.
