A new episode has been added to the database: 215: Old Edition?

A new episode has been added to the database: Star Wars: Dreamscapes - Ep 5. Decrypt (Star Wars d6)

A new episode has been added to the database: 964 - This is Our Home 07

A new episode has been added to the database: Nightbane: Mirrored Evil Ep 1 part 1

by Patrick McElfresh

This past weekend, I was happy to attend a most of the weekend gaming event, hosted by my friend. Part boardgames, part PC games, and no RPGs this time, it was still really fun to go have a pretty old-school LAN party style event. It was nice to get out of town, having stuck around home for the holidays!

This week we have a trio of bundles from Bundle of Holding; two supers and one old-school. I played a little in a PbP back a few years ago, and was impressed by the flexibility of the system, which contrasted with some other supers systems I had.

Bundle of Holding
:kF::ki::kr::ks::kt:<< these are the links Runs from 1/5/2026 to 1/27/2026

Our first bundle to cover this weeks features the Champions (Hero System 6) RPG, and a super-twin bundle below!

The first tier is priced at $13 for Champions Complete, a core implementation of the system in a condensed format; Champions Campaign Book, a 300+ page guide to superheros, creation using the Hero system, and other advice; Champions Powers, with thousands of superpowers; and Hero System Book of Templates with 25 heros for you to use right now.

The upper tier costs you $38, but adds setting book Champions Universe 6th Edition, galactic sourcebook Champions Beyond, and volumes 1-3 of the Villians. Finally, guide to a major villain of the setting, Istvatha V'han, Empress of a Billion Dimensions, is covered extensively in Book of the Empress.

As I said in the intro, I was fairly impressed with Champions, and for $13, the lower tier of this bundle is my suggestion this week, for anyone looking for one. :)

:kS::ke::kc::ko::kn::kd: Runs from 1/5/2026 to 1/27/2026

Launching alongside the Hero System 6e bundle, comes the Strike Force bundle, highlighting Aaron Allston's 4 color supers game. You'll need the Champions 6e core rules to take advantage of these materials, so check out the first bundle if you need that yet.

This single tier bundle is priced at $20, and includes Aaron Allston's Strike Force (Revised), Strike Force Organizations, a supplement of groups and teams from the Strike Force setting; The Strike Force Archives, gobs of material for Allston's years of campaigns; and a facsimile edition of the original Aaron Allston's Strike Force.


:kT::kh::ki::kr::kd: Runs from 1/7/2026 to 1/22/2026

Last up is the Painted Wastelands bundle, which collects a few "weird desert" supplements from Agamemnon Press for Old School Essentials.

The single tier bundle includes The Painted Wastelands, the hexcrawl campaign; Strange Tales of the Painted Wastelands adventure; and The Quest Unpronounceable, an adventure, I think, from a quick peruse.

This single tier bundle is priced at $18.

As a reminder, I cover bundles from Monday last week to this last Sunday so I can draft the post in advance. I'll cover yesterday's bundle's next week.

by Craig Groff-Folsom (he/him)

After seeing near-daily ads for Tabletop Bookshelf I finally decided the new year was the perfect time to treat myself to a modest stack of solo journaling RPGs. The Bannerless bundle had caught my attention so that was going to be part of the purchase but I also threw a fourth item into the order (more on that in a future blog post?). These first three include PDFs so while I wait for the physical copies I downloaded the digital resources and started reading. I decided No-Tell Motel would be my first foray into the bundle.

Cue the labored noir narration!

I couldn’t believe it when Steve told me. No, not the shouting match between the State Senator and the Movie Star. That was a nightly occurrence at the Stellar Motel. But when the State Senator was found shot in the morning? Despite what folks think, that’s not normal here.

The life of a hotel clerk is full of voyeurism. I see a lot, y’know? So I figured maybe I should keep an eye out. And boy did I see plenty.

The night after the murder, the Vice Detective and the Recent Divorcee (his ex-wife) had a few antagonistic encounters. When the Veteran showed up, the Vice Detective lost it. Sounds like I found the reason for the divorce.

The Movie Star just kept coming back, and on night two I heard all about how he also knows the Vice Detective all too well. That damned Psychic Medium just really needed someone to pay attention to her, I think; that’s the only explanation for why she argued with me before destroying some of her room furnishings.

On the third night I heard more about how the Movie Star hated the State Senator, but the next night the Tabloid Reporter stopped by and cleared it all up. There was definitely something up between the Vice Detective’s ex-wife and the victim. Also, the Cultist and Psychic Medium both had business with the victim! This was a major turning point in my investigation.

Over the next few nights I started seeing more of the connections between the victim, the Movie Star, and the strange group of eccentrics that came and went at the Stellar Motel. This guy, they call him the Light Bulb Man, he’s convinced celebrities that he has some great self-help advice that I think he’s pulled out of his backside. That’s not to say he doesn’t have his followers, of course. The Cultist, the Psychic Medium, and even the Movie Star swear by his teachings. How did the State Senator get tangled up in all of this?

The eighth night was unforgettable. Normally we have plenty of guests coming and going through the night but the skies were opening up like some deity (a real one, night the Light Bulb Man) was trying to finally wash this damned town clean. The Movie Star and the Light Bulb Man had neighboring rooms and spent a bit too much time talking and sharing smokes under the eaves. Something was definitely up.

The next night? Also unforgettable, I suppose, but for all the wrong reasons. The Vice Detective turned up again, talked to the Light Bulb Man, and left in a hurry. Meanwhile his ex-wife told me all about how the Light Bulb Man and the Senator had been thick as thieves before a recent falling out. I figured I had all the pieces I needed. I called the police.

Sure, I embellished a bit when I fingered the Vice Detective. Who wouldn’t? The truth was already stranger than fiction, and everyone’s rumors made a big conflicting mess anyway. Conveniently overlooking the fingers pointing to others wouldn’t hurt.

It didn’t matter in the end. I thought I had all the pieces but I missed one. A big one. The Movie Star had recruited the State Senator to join the Light Bulb Man’s followers, which was going to give the Movie Star a whole bunch more credibility with the Light Bulb Man. Thing is, the State Senator wasn’t buying any of it. She was feeding everything she saw to the Vice Detective, and he was going to use his skills to dig up additional context so the two of them could take their case to the cops. Thing is, the Light Bulb Man isn’t just a cult leader. He’s done really bad things, made some of his former followers disappear, and committed other crimes.

Not only did I blow it with my accusation, my reputation and the reputation of the Stellar Motel was toast. I was fired and the motel was abandoned. Last I heard, the Vice Detective left town too. I think he had enough of the grimy side of things. The Light Bulb Man and the Movie Star are still inseparable, and the “church” as it were is building a shiny new recruitment center right down the street from the overgrown remains of the motel. I guess I shouldn’t have expected a happy ending.

For a 36 page book with some printable materials and a game that uses a poker deck and a d6, I’m very impressed with the general structure of the game. The A/K/Q/J of each suit comprises the 16 characters and the 36 number cards feed the narrative through each night.

The printable worksheets include a full-page room ledger, but it doesn’t really feel like it’s needed once you get going. Additionally, you’re supposed to use a new ledger for each night. My game went nine nights which might be a short session (more on that in a bit) but I didn’t need to use nine sheets of paper if I’m also journaling on lined paper. The dossiers, though, are useful albeit the rules aren’t very clear about the best ways to record the information you’re presented with.

The only data that REALLY matters are spades, the “rumors and tidbits” cards that provide Motive points and Doubt. The 5 and 10 provide +2 Motive each, and the others provide +1 Motive each. However when the same spade appears multiple times in a game and is drawn for other characters, those draws come with +1 Doubt. This represents a piece of information being less reliable to pin on other characters if you’ve already heard it about someone else. This makes sense, and the designer recommends (in online discussion, not in the book) noting which spade(s) are assigned to each character so you can easily track which ones come with Doubt. Once I picked up on this in practice I was able to pivot my handling of the game and I’ll know better for future plays.

The other cards represent romance (hearts), connections with other guests (diamonds), and disruptive behavior (clubs). Since you draw three cards per night, any guest that sticks around all night will likely fight, romance, or destroy property three times in one night. By night five or six I was moving through this quickly and taking the majority of the cards as a note. (“The Professor drew two diamonds, so he had a tense conversation with the character in the next room over.” Done.) The book defines these cards individually so a 2 of hearts means something different than a 4 of hearts but the volume of input just bogs down all these details.

The rule I played wrong ended up limiting my cast of characters. You start with 16 and one is killed, so 15 cards remain. You place six characters face-down to represent the six rooms in the hotel, then determine (d6) how many characters check in. Through the night you have two checks for a character to leave or arrive; your guest total will only fluctuate by one at each check. What I missed is that at the end of the night, the six face-down cards are supposed to be picked up and re-dealt! These face-down cards are revealed when a hearts card is played, representing the character that is involved in the romance.

The thing is, having nine characters in play meant I wasn’t spreading the elusive spades across 15 characters; when one character has 6 Motive you can accuse them, so my slow accumulation of Motive had fewer places to spread around. I’m not sure if I want to play by the rules as written, or use a separate cast of 9 each time as it still felt deep enough to craft a story. Not having everyone involved might help with narrative replay value.

I hit 6 Motive on the Vice Detective but he was also carrying 4 Doubt. The Light Bulb Man had 5 Motive and 4 Doubt. The Divorcee and Movie Star were each at 4 Motive and 1 Doubt. I could’ve waited to pin it on either of them, knowing they’d end up at only +2 more Doubt at most.

As the player you are allowed to “embellish” to reduce the suspect’s Doubt by 1 when you accuse them. The only penalty is your moral cost of lying, but these characters have been breaking your motel every night for a week and a half when they’re not falling into bed with each other or playing loud music. They’re not a sympathetic bunch. You roll a d6 and if you exceed their Doubt then they are Busted. If not, they are Exonerated (which you saw in the tortured narrative above). The book has a short card-flip series for an aftermath, fleshing out the details and ultimate fates of the clerk and the accused.

Folks, this game sells for $15-$20 depending on the website (and, I think, whether you get a physical copy or just a PDF). Just one run-through felt like playing a similarly-priced mystery box. I cannot wait to return to the Stellar Motel for another grim tale of murder.

A new rpg publisher has been added to the database: Subtle Giants

by Rachel

I've got a brand new, unified rulebook for Composer's Cat. The Player Achievements section remains to be rewritten and EVERYTHING needs to be proofed. It's hanging out at 30 pages, including cover and table of contents. Whew. Getting closer!

Also, new logo:



Game Over On borrowed time...

Happy Monday and happy playing!
-Rachel

P.S.
Something special's brewing in Elder Sign territory... it didn't make today's blog, but it's in the pipeline!

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.

A new episode has been added to the database: Episode 19: Sodden Sanctuary

A new episode has been added to the database: EP 301 | We interview DAVID HOSKINS

A new episode has been added to the database: S2. Ep 40 - The Journal Entry

A new episode has been added to the database: As The Waters Cover The Sea 07: A Room With A Parallax View