A new episode has been added to the database: Game Classy 350: Steve Finally Watches Babylon 5

by Damdael

I got interested in gamebooks a few years ago. First I found joy in playing books from Season 4 Graphic Novel Adventures and then I fell in love with Legendary Kingdoms books. Since then I've played through some fifty gamebooks. I try to write reviews of the books I've played in order to lure others into this rabbit hole. In my reviews I try to have comparisons to other gamebooks and place the books I review onto my ranking list so that readers can find other books to try out.

My copy of the book is a 2026 softcover edition. I partook in the Kickstarter campaign that produced the book. This is the seventh Numed System gamebook I've played through.

First Impressions:
- The delivery box was a bit basic and made out of worrisomely thin cardboard but it served its purpose. The book was delivered together with the shorter free for campaign backers bonus adventure book Through Ice and Snow. A bit of foam, bubblewrap or shrinkwrap around the edges of the books while inside the box wouldn't have been bad idea. There was minor damage to the corners of the books since they had been able to move inside the box and hit the inner sides of the box.
- I was surprised with how thick the books are. Especially the free bonus book. I didn't expect this much book for just 16€. I'm very positively surprised. Attack of the Ice Trolls is 330 paragraphs and Through Ice and Snow 230 paragraphs. Individually they are less than the somewhat standard 400 paragraphs introduced by Fighting Fantasy gamebooks but together they are nicely more than that and feel like great value for the money I paid.
- The front cover of AotIT looks pretty good in my eyes. Perhaps its due to the pretty lady in the upper left corner but I also like to look at the many small details the objects on the cover have: the boards and icicles of the wagon and the bricks of the tower. The white edges of the cover are also quite stylish (but not as stylish as the black edges on the cover of The Terror of Melgar's Rest). The back cover has a map of the region in which the adventure takes. A better cover than in most other books the author has put out in the setting.
- The inner sides of the covers also have coloured artwork in the form of a mountain keep and a full image of the heroine.
- The paper of the covers is thick and feels like suited for the task unlike in some earlier gamebooks the author has put out.
- The paper of the pages is perfectly acceptable but far from physically high quality gamebooks like what Obvious Mimic or The Dark Moon Rises have. There's also a minor issue of lumpy pages affecting the first half of the book. The Curse of the Snake Queen and A Lousy Night in Candarlin also had the same issue but it was a lot more noticeable in those books.

Rules:
Fairly standard rules for a gamebook. You start from paragraph 1 and proceed to other paragraphs from there based on your choices and sometimes to a direction dictated by the whim of the fate dice (two d6). The author has developed an independent game system, called The Numed System, and that's used in this gamebook. It uses two d6's and most of the time you are looking to match or exceed a target number. The author seems to have made some minor tweaks/additions to the system in this newest book. Lying and Negotiating skills are gone and now there are skills called Alarm Bells and Silver-tongued. There's also now a simple Luck mechanic to allow new characters gain a bit of dice boost when needed.

Your character has five attributes (Education, Intelligence, Perception, Dexterity and Strength) plus a bunch of skills like Stealth, Climbing and Pickpocketing. Some combinations of attributes and skills give you talents like Master Thief or Great Reflexes (explained in the Path of Masters advanced rules) that sometimes unlock choices you otherwise wouldn't be able to take during the adventures. You have hit points and if they drop to zero you are dead. You can wear equipment like armour, weapons and amulets which give bonuses to attacks, defence or skills. You can gain permanent increases to your attributes and skills by successfully completing adventures. There are several gamebooks in the setting.

When it's time to fight you can either use simple or advanced rules. You can use the simple rules if you prefer a faster and simpler game; the enemies are defeated with a single successful hit. I recommend using the Path of Masters advanced fighting rules, they are not that much more complex but make fights more interesting. First you check if anyone is surprised; that side automatically loses the initiative. Otherwise you roll for initiative (2d6 + dex) and if you meet or exceed the printed enemy initiative value you will go first every round until the end of combat. After that you determine the opponent's action for that round with 1d6 from a table of possible actions. If the opponent goes for a big attack it might have low defence so the enemy stats are not the same every round. On your turn you get one action like attacking or using an item. Melee attacks are 2d6+str+mods and ranged attacks 2d6+dex+mods. The enemies do not roll and that saves up a noticeable amount of time, a smart design decision. You defend against enemy attacks by rolling 2d6+dex+armour+shield. Rinse and repeat. Rolling 1+1 means you get a critical failure and might drop your weapon for example and rolling 6+6 means you make a critical success and have a chance to instantly defeat the opponent. Results of critical failures and successes are rolled from special tables.

The gamebook also uses 'fragments and signs'. Those are basically keycodes that allow the gamebook to remember what you've done. For example if you steal from a merchant you might get fragment 'H' and later when you are walking in a dense forest the book might ask do you have that fragment and if you do some hired thugs will ambush you.

The travel and exploration gamebook Through Ice and Snow can be used in combination with this gamebook. TIaS covers travel and random encounters on the region map including resource management and most settlements. This gamebook covers a large adventure location in that region but only a little bit else besides that.

Artwork:
- The author has stated that he generally uses a mix of his own drawings, licensed illustrations and graphics, stock images, and AI-generated images in his gamebooks. This is mainly for budget reasons I would guess; the gamebooks he puts out basically are one-man self-publications with relatively small audiences.
- Whatever the method of producing the artwork it's detailed, smooth and pleasant to look at. The chosen art style works well for a book with a serious tone.
- There's a piece of artwork roughly on every third spread of the book (though it's not very evenly spread out, there's a 16 spread stretch towards the back of the book where there are no images at all). There are about ten completely new pieces of art (if I counted correctly) and then there are a bunch of small images (swords, rocks, skulls, etc) used when something is needed to fill empty space between paragraphs. These small images have been previously used in several other books in the setting.
- The images on the pages of this gamebook fit better together with the paragraphs they are next to than in most other gamebooks the author has produced. I would guess that is because this is the first snowy tundra region themed gamebook the author has produced so the desert/forest images from previous gamebooks couldn't be reused and completely new images for this book had to be made. I also felt that the AI-generated images had less consistency issues in this gamebook than in previous gamebooks produced by the author, like The Catacombs of Candarlin.
The gamebook is all right in artwork aspects for an one-man self-publication.

Playing:
This section is reserved for my notable thoughts while playing the gamebook. I've kept my observations mostly vague in order to avoid any big spoilers but I've spoiler tagged my notes just in case. I combined playing the book together with Through Ice and Snow because that was possible so why not.

Attempt 1:
- I continued into this adventure with my character that has already completed six adventures in the Numed System. That means I have a bit higher stats than a completely new character and I'm more likely to succeed in everything the book throws at me.
[o]- The adventure starts with the situation going from bad to worse. I think that while the introduction was somewhat compact in just two pages the actors and their motivations plus the location were presented well enough.
- I managed to beat the first fight without a hitch and after that I decided to keep my pride and not ask for help in my quest. Tracking the monsters went well and soon I had a location where to aim.
- The location where I first decided to search for my objective ended up being a dud. My morale took a dip as I had trekked in some arduous terrain for a couple of days to get there.
- The next location seemed like a good pick until until I got whacked with a club.
- I explored the fortifications, found some ancient statue and then had to hide because something strange happened. This place is eerie.
- Next I noticed an interesting looking tower but it proved tricky to find a route there.
- I managed to gain access to to a couple more areas but while exploring the first of them I ran into one too many enemies and perished.[/o]
Playtime: 2h 14min

Attempt 2:
[o]- I decided to reset the game to the point where I found the enemy lair.
- I tried some different choices this time around but I didn't even get as far as previously because I got killed after a failed stealth check.[/o]
Playtime: 16min

Attempt 3:
[o]- I again got hurt pretty badly but managed to get to yet unexplored areas. I found a some kind of stash but I had to sneak off before I could fully explore it because some enemies arrived. Next I got myself tangled in some kind of shadow world trap and only managed to escape it by sheer luck.
- I managed to sneak past some hostiles to reach an alluring chest.
- I learned information about a hidden treasure.
- I got attacked by some stalking flying predator. Yuck.
- I found where the captives are kept and executed a daring rescue operation.
- I encountered a puzzle! It took a bit of pleasant pondering to solve it.
- I was glad to find some in-world lore about the location I'm exploring.
- I got caught trying to pickpocket and after my escape I ended up in a location I hadn't seen before and got ambushed by a swarm of small critters. Double yuck.
- I fought a boss monster. It was a tough fight, I lost 12hp.
- I started traveling to where I need to turn in my quest. The weather turned very bad and then terrible. I had to tread on in a zero-visibility snow storm.
- Luckily the storm subsided before I had to camp for the night. The next day I managed to reach my destination and my quest was successfully over.[/o]
Playtime: 2h 51min

Total playtime: 5h 21min

Six choices for a situation is kind of rare among the gamebooks I've played so great points for that.

Positives:
- In a very similar vein to other gamebooks the author has put out the player can explore locations in this adventure quite freely. In fact I think this is the best iteration yet; instead of having all the possible locations available right from the start you have to first find ways to unlock more locations before you can access them. This leads to less aimless wandering for the player. Once at a location you can explore the points of interest in them in any order you want to.
- This gamebook offers an excellent amount of choices in decision points. There are often four possible choices and sometimes even up to six. That's a lot among the gamebooks I've played.
- The plot and location where the adventure takes place is quite good. There's just something very exciting in exploring a ruined fortress and learning bits of its history here and there. It explains enough but also leaves a good amount to the imagination of the player so you don't feel like the book is written for a child. The plot also constantly has a clear main objective that's split to sub-tasks for you so that you don't need to wonder what you are supposed to be doing (which was a problem for The Catacombs of Candarlin).
- The gamebook felt all right in length. I wouldn't say no to some more paragraphs but playtime of over five hours is good for a 16€ gamebook.
- It's a dungeon delve type of story meaning social character skills don't have much use in it but other than that the attributes and other skills you can have were tested quite well. There were a lot of situations in which the talents from the Path of Masters advanced rules were useful. Even the Ancient Languages skill which has been waste of skills points thus far had some use.
- The simple luck mechanic that has been added to the rules is something that should be kept in new books using the ruleset in my opinion. As long as you don't dish out luck points too freely the player will have to make decisions where it's worth it to use those points and that's good for player agency.
- I like how enemy actions are randomized for every combat round.
- Meaningful skill checks. Failing a skill check might mean you are locked out from doing something you wanted to do or that you need to succeed in a second check or simply die.
- I didn't encounter any choices that would have immediately killed me. Instead if you choose poorly you can avoid dying with a successful skill check, making a smart next move (like escaping a fight against an opponent with overwhelming numbers) and so on.
- The gamebook has a relatively hard difficulty, which is good. Too easy gamebooks are boring. It's very unlikely to win the book with just one or two attempts especially with a completely new character. You'll need to map out dangers and plan the safest route.
- Most of the images on the pages of the book would seem to be AI-generated and you can like or dislike that but since its a one-man self-publication I personally find it acceptable (even if I always prefer human artist drawn art better). The gamebook has a good amount of art though the 16 spread stretch without any art could use some sprinkled in. I believe it's the first snowy region themed gamebook for the author so there's a lot of new art and it fits better together with the paragraphs next to which it's placed (than in most other gamebooks the author has produced).
- The connection to the region travel and exploration gamebook Through Ice and Snow is fun and a great design idea. This gamebook can be played standalone but if you have that other book too you'll have the added wilderness survival management and random encounters which that book provides. I'd say about 40 minutes of my total playtime for this book were spent on the pages of that other book.
- There are a couple of spots where the loot you gain is randomly rolled from a table. It's refreshing compared to always getting the same rewards.
- The game system works fine (even if I feel it's not perfect, see my comment in the negatives below). Personally I enjoy gamebooks with more complex systems (for example The Dark Moon Rises and Obvious Mimic which use D&D 5e rules) more but this system does make for a smooth and fast play. If you aren't interested in spending a lot of time choosing your equipment and selecting prepared spells then this system is most likely fine for you.
- The 'fragments and signs' code system works well. The book 'remembers' what you have done previously and events change based on that.

Neutral:
- I usually comment in my reviews does a gamebook have a good/bad amount of mutually exclusive paths through it. For this gamebook it's a bit hard to answer that question. You can explore locations so freely and nearly completely that you probably won't pay much attention to the short bits that are mutually exclusive. The plot doesn't force you to do things in a certain order or to visit locations in a set order so while there weren't many parallel paths I didn't really yearn for them in this gamebook.
- There's a lot of random rolls in this gamebook. And I mean really a lot. You might want to go to direction X but you can't because many locations are built so that the direction is decided by dice rolls (only after you've explored all the sub-locations in a random order can you re-visit those sub-locations in the order you want to). If you as a player are very allergic to dice directing your fate it's better to avoid this gamebook.
- There isn't much item management (which is something you usually expect to have in a gamebook). I didn't find any loot my character would put to use during the whole book. No new armour, weapons or trinkets.
- The paper of the covers held their form and didn't rise upwards too much unlike my copy of The Secrets of Candarlin did. In physical aspects the gamebook is fine.

Negatives:
- I fought against the same monsters a bit too many times. It would have been a good idea to have more different kinds of enemies. For example instead of always fighting the same Ice Troll enemy there also could have been Young Ice Troll and Berserker Ice Troll enemy sheets and you'd roll which of the three options you'd have to fight before the combat.
- I've now played through seven books that use The Numed System and I haven't seen a single ranged weapon. This gamebook did ask in a couple of paragraphs 'do you have a ranged weapon: if you have do an attack roll and if it hits you get to deal one free hit before the actual fight starts' so I deduce that you can obtain one of those in Through Ice and Snow. I'll play that book more next and see if I can find it. Besides that there are possible action types in the combat rules that never seem to have any use. Free actions? Your character doesn't have any free actions. Switch weapons? You will never want to switch weapons (unless you've been very unlucky with the dice and dropped your weapon after a critical failure). The type of melee weapon (mace/dagger/sword/axe) you have equipped hasn't either mattered even once, only the amount of attack bonus that the weapon in your hand confers... All this makes the ruleset feel underused and pale in comparison with D&D based gamebooks in which deciding what kind of weapon you want to equip is a meaningful decision.

Minor Issues:
- If you are playing with a character you've already played with before the beginning of the book doesn't work as well. You are supposed to [o]lose your active weapon. What if you have two extra weapons, like you are allowed to have?[/o]
- Paragraph 74 says to 'turn to page X'. The intent probably is to instruct to turn to paragraph X.
- I found it weird that you are following your prey in 213 and then suddenly you have no idea where they went? Shouldn't the book give some indication which of the options is where you should go?
- Paragraph 21: 'A pungent smell of human exhalations hangs in the air.'? Pungent breath? What is the intended conveyed message?
- Snow Vampire monster sheet: I think you should turn to 231 if you are hit by Frost Breath (and not to 130).

Verdict:
I think the author has a great idea in how there's the region travel and exploration gamebook Through Ice and Snow and then you have individual gamebooks (like Attack of the Ice Trolls) for larger adventure locations within that region (isn't this how the economy around D&D works, heh?). This solution leaves more available paragraphs for the main quest/dungeon of the gamebook in question. In some of the previous gamebooks by the author I've felt like there has been too few paragraphs used for the main quest/dungeon.

Anyways, the postive aspects for this gamebook include: a lot of free exploration (instead of the gamebook forcing you to do things in a set order), an excellent amount of choices in decision points, good plot and main adventure location, the gamebook is all right in length, nearly all of the attributes and other skills you can have are tested at one point or another, the new luck mechanic added to rules is a welcome addition, randomized enemy actions for fights, meaningful skill checks, no choices that would lead to instant death (or at least I didn't encounter any), tough difficulty which is good, a good amount of art, random loot rolls are exciting, a rule system that makes for quick and not too complex playing and the code system works well.

Neutral and negative aspects include: a bit more mutual exclusivity wouldn't have hurt, there are perhaps a bit too many random rolls, there isn't much item management to speak of, the physical aspects of the book are perfectly fine (but nothing more), you'll fight against the same monsters too many times and it's a bit meaningless what kind of equipment you have (just get the gear that gives you the biggest modifier bonuses).

I think Attack of the Ice Trolls is the best gamebook the author has put out yet. It's a very good gamebook if you are ok with dice deciding which direction you'll go at first in a given sub-location. Using the BGG/RPGG rating scale I give it a rating of 8.1 and it will go to slot twenty-eight on my gamebook ranking list for now.

~ Damdael

by sdonohue

The Sunken Library is a 2021 release for The Fantasy Trip released by Gaming Ballistic LLC. It is written by Christopher R. Rice, J. Edward Tremlett, and Douglas H. Cole. The cover art is by Ksenia Kozhevnikova and a team of artists worked on the interior illustrations. The maps were created by Glynn Seal.

Presentation
This adventure is available in both PDF and softcover versions. The softcover is staple-bound with 40 black & white pages on semi-gloss paper. The covers are full color and on heavier stock; the inside of each cover shows maps for the adventure in sepia tones. The layout is standard two-column and is easy to read. The editing is excellent.

Content
This adventure is designed for an experienced party of 4-6 characters of 36-38 points each. The book starts with a very thorough table of contents including all the important locations, encounters, and foes to be found in the adventure. This is the fifth (and final) in a series of adventures featuring Jok Sevantes as the quest-giver/leader of the expedition.

In this adventure, the players are fleeing from the strife they created in the prequel, The Catacombs of Living Death with several different factions pursuing them for things they have done, things they have acquired, or both. The adventure does a good job of laying out the factions that are pursuing them, why they are after them, and what they can do to them. This faction information takes up about three pages of the adventure and is pretty well-detailed. The next section talks about key items and artifacts which will play a role in the adventure; this include both items they have and things they might acquire. The final bit of background is on three locations the players will encounter before the library: Athan, where the adventure starts and which the players must escape; Val-Zea, the closed city; and Olan Pok also know as the City of Jewels; Nran which sits near the Lake of Elephants which houses the entrance to the Library of Hrel, the titular sunken library.

All of this leads us to Sevantes' Final Quest which lays out the objectives for this scenario and also describes the flow of events if the party doesn't make any unusual decisions. As usual, Sevantes keeps his cards close to his vest which may put the group in danger and make them distrust him. The adventure finds them traveling quite a bit and trying to evade pursuers. Eventually, they can make it to the library and recover the artifacts Jok seeks. He encourages the party to keep exploring even after he has all that he needs so that he can find time to prepare the secret ritual he has been pursuing for a long time.

The adventure winds up with a section called Aftermath which describes the fate of several groups and people depending on how things go during the adventure: who survives, whether the rituals works, etc.

Evaluation
There is a ton of background here, even more if you think about the fact that it's intended to be the finale of a 5-part series, each of which has it's own fairly lengthy background. This adventure will likely take several sessions to complete and the GM will need to be very familiar with the background. Running it is not an undertaking for the faint of heart, nor is the adventure itself something to be taken up on a whim.

There's a lot here, but if you've played the other four, this one is a fitting conclusion and probably what the player's need to get closure. On the flip side of that, this adventure feels more like something you'd find in Shadowrun than a typical fantasy game -- the quest-giver hides a lot of information and much of what happens to the players is because of that lack of information. this kind of betrayal can definitely frustrate players.

Overall, this probably isn't suitable to just pick up and run (to be fair, it includes that information in the introduction), but if you love the concept of Adventure Paths and don't mind a little shadiness from your quest giver, this is a pretty good adventure.

by herschelc

€25.00 for RPG Item: Mythic Game Master Emulator Second Edition
Condition: Good
Location: Germany

by herschelc

€30.00 for RPG Item: Swords of the Serpentine
Condition: Very Good
Location: Germany

by Biotech66

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com - A new idea every day!

Product- Dungeon Crawl Classics #101: The Veiled Vaults of the Onyx Queen
System- DCC RPG
Producer- Goodman Games
Price- $9.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/390356/dungeon-crawl...
TL; DR- Old school in the best and wartiest ways! 93%

Basics- WAKE AND STAB! You awake as sacrifices to a demon lord! Will you gather enough power to end those who sought to end you?

Mechanics or Crunch: This adventure is a crawl and a funnel all in one. You have lots of bad guys who can die from your fists. You have a few puzzles to solve and some socializing. Those are the things that make the crunch of an adventure. The adventure’s crunch is solid! 5/5

Theme or Fluff- The pure awesome of DCC is on display with some of its warts. DCC doesn’t really have a default setting. The setting is built book by book, and that’s awesome. This one adds in a whole demon lord and a cult based on it. And that is awesome. If the GM runs this well, you can build characters and really get involved in the world. BUT, the world is missing a bit of a setting, so that lack can kind of spring stuff on players. Are you a devotee of a particular god? Awesome! Do you even know that god exists? Less awesome. It’s a minor problem, but the adventure has a solid enough flow that this might be the adventure where you finally learn about the bits making this world work. 4.5/5

Execution: DCC is its own beast. I love it, but it's like the beat-up dog you know and love. It's not the prettiest. It works, but it's your ugly dog! DCC has some criticism for being a bit too old-school in its design and layout, with extra art, layout, and design work to make DCC adventures a bit more approachable. And those are valid criticisms, but I like the old school feel of DCC. But this commitment to old-school adventure is not the most beginner-friendly. This one is pretty easy to run and understand, even if you are newer, so while some other adventures may have smaller mechanics that are not quite understandable, this one is a fun, straightforward funnel. 4.5/5
Summary: I love me some DCC. This game is crazy fun with strange things happening around every corner. That said, I also see some faults. Those are on display here. The lack of a world hurts the game just a tiny bit. You don’t know who you are when you start. That’s good, as funnels are fun, but it’s bad when you want to really hook a player and character into the world. The book is fun, but it's got minor issues that might dissuade the new. But the issues are only small compared to the fun and craft of this adventure. This is worth a look if you want a fun funnel to draw people into DCC RPG! 93%

A new episode has been added to the database: Pyramid Scheme - ep.5

by NormandyWept

I was a backer of Down in Yongardy back when it funded on Kickstarter back in 2021. At the time I hadn't played Troika and was mainly backing it on my understanding it was a new Fighting Fantasy-esque gamebook with potentially some new ideas, and I kind of liked the premise of the player character being a sort of lawyer-duelist.

I've since got a lot more into RPGs and come to recognise that I got pretty lucky here: Chris Bissette is a writer I've seen mentioned in a lot of places since, plus Troika is something pretty special, going beyond "Fighting Fantasy retroclone" and exemplifying the sort of fantasy game I'll actually bother to play, with its anti-canon setting, broad view of the fantasy genre, and the overall Discworld/Doctor Who/Hitchhiker's Guide vibe it gives me, where the core gameplay is "go somewhere fantastic, meet some amazing people, run around a lot and try to work out what is going on", rather than being focused on senseless murder and plunder and encounters-per-day.

The backgrounds in Troika are full of lore, but in the "draw maps, leave gaps" tradition of the OSR/NSR, it's lore with lots of potential for people to fill in some detail. One of those backgrounds is the Yongardy Lawyer:

Down in Yongardy they do things differently. They respect the Law. Every day there is a queue outside the courts to get a seat to see the latest up and coming barrister defend their case with a metre of steel. The people follow the careers of their favourite solicitors, watch all their cases, collect their portraits, and sneak into the court after hours to dab the patches of blood on white handkerchiefs. In Yongardy, they love the Law.

No more than that was said in the Troika book, but in Down in Yongardy, Chris Bissette has skillfully spun it out into something bigger. You are an aspiring lawyer, taking to the court for your first case/duel. Things soon go horribly wrong and an adventure follows. I'm loath to write much more because I really don't want to spoil it for anyone else!

As is tradition in gamebooks, I died on my first attempt but I'll definitely revisit and see if I can do better. I have already seen sections in the text which suggest this is quite richly layered in the possible paths through the book, given that I quite often came to sections which referenced potentially having knowledge or items I'd not even seen the opportunity to acquire given the path I'd taken.

There are also some "gimmicks" (turn the page to a calculated number or a number you've been told) which reminded me a lot of Creature of Havoc (and much like when I first played that book, I hadn't seen the necessary details to activate them by the time they were presented), as well as something delightfully fresh-but-in-format which I loved being able to trigger (especially on my first go through) and which I won't spoil here. I can't wait to see what the endings (I assume there are multiple) look like.

I loved:
• The writing, even in rules text:

If an encounter presents you with multiple enemies, the instructions on that page will tell you how to handle the battle. Generally this involves building an Initiative Stack and entering a chaotic fray where nobody really knows what’s happening until one participant or another is left standing atop a pile of dead bodies.

• Playing this basically teaches you how to play Troika (or even better, a version of Troika where players roll all the dice)
• It felt more fair than Fighting Fantasy; there's a difficult early fight but it's easy to replay that section as it is early. After that both the options I encountered and the combats (which I tried to avoid, in NSR tradition) seemed quite fair and well sign-posted. I imagine there might be some harder stuff late in the book which is sort of fair enough really and makes me feel it's been well thought through
• I think it strikes an amazing balance between the ease-of-access of the Fighting Fantasy books and e.g. Lone Wolf which had a more complicated skills/proficiency system but therefore more character creation time before you started. In Down in Yongardy you learn Advanced Skills as you go along, which I think is a really lovely balance between the two
• Troika references: Yongardy itself but I also found a few others even in one play and I'm sure there are plenty more to discover

Things I'm not so sure about:
• The rules for fighting multiple combatants are a massive faff. I appreciate that it does teach the real Troika initiative system, but it's totally pointless when the Fighting Fantasy gamebook rules for fighting multiple opponents are so much simpler and I think wouldn't make any of the combats I saw so far materially different, instead just making them longer
• The rules for using Luck in combat are different to Troika, which I find confusing as someone who knows Troika. And it makes the adherence to Troika initiative (as above) seem even weirder given that rules fidelity apparently wasn't important in other areas
• There was one section I found where there technically wasn't a valid exit for me after executing the text, although I was able to work out which one I was supposed to go to and it kept the story intact, so this wasn't a major issue

If you have any interest in the multiple-choice gamebook format for solo RPGs, I definitely recommend this. It has a lot of the fun of Fighting Fantasy, respecting the tradition whilst introducing its own new tweaks which felt modern and fresh. Plus it'll teach you the Troika rules and introduce you to its wonderful world. I had a fun first play and I'll definitely try it again to find an ending.

by leroy43

The Book of Unlife (TBOU) is a supplement for The Fantasy Trip: Legacy Edition (TFT), published by Steve Jackson Games.

The book contains 44 different unliving monsters divided into six broad categories. As the introduction to the book explains, "Unlife is a broad term covering a wide variety of entities which are not “living beings” in the traditional sense of the word. They may have once been alive, like Ghosts. They may be true “undead,” like Nosferatu. They may be animated forms, like Zombies and Golems. They may be entities of pure spiritual energy, like Poltergeists, or immortal beings from the unearthly realms, like Banshees. Whatever they are, they are not alive in the way life is usually understood." pg. 3

This interesting opening tells us immediately that this isn't just a set of monsters with stat blocks. And, as this foreshadows, that is exactly what does not follow. While most undead monster bestiaries would function like a biological field guide to the macabre, The Book of Unlife distinguishes itself by treating the undead metaphysical manifestations.

For example, let's take a classic ghost. Rather than simply listing the stat block for said generic ghost, TBOU has a Soul Unlife category, of which the ghost is one type. Rooting their existence in the soil of genuine folklore and cultural myth, you have not only ghosts, but also Remnants, Haunts, and several others. This approach shifts the focus from combat mechanics to thematic resonance. This lets the GM make the creature’s presence in a campaign more like a tear in the fabric of reality, shaped by the specific tragedies, taboos, or legends that birthed it. By drawing on these traditional inspirations, the book provides GMs with a toolkit for horror that is psychologically grounded, ensuring that every encounter with the unliving carries a distinct, unsettling weight.

For each of the six categories, Soul Unlife, Spirits, Apparitions, Undead, Animata, and Thanatophiles, there are between six and ten exemplars of the various forms these unliving take. The descriptions link them in a satisfying way to their mythical origins.

In addition to the descriptions and explanations of the unliving, there is ample text given to how the characters might become unlife, including by choice, and common tropes such as talismans and artifacts that may protect one from the unliving. Wooden stakes, holy water, and garlic anyone?

Although designed and written with TFT in mind, each entry among the 44 unliving are actually fairly scant on stat details. Some do have specific guidance, but others will have more vague comments such as "A ghost has the same attributes as when the person was
alive." The entries in this book are not for the random encounter table. You will need to put some thought and effort into it, noting of course that your standard RPG skeletons and zombies are already part of the monsters in the base rules. Nevertheless, this lack of stats actually give this supplement broader appeal for non-TFT systems. You might not want or need this as a D&D 5e DM, but the GM of horror RPG like Call of Cthulhu would find ample food for campaign thought here.

The first two thirds of the book are taken up by the unliving, and the final third is an adventure, The Haunting of Holner House. The adventure has a classic haunted house/horror story hook.

Trudging along a dreary country road in a heavy rain, the party notices the still, solemn figure of a finely-dressed young man standing beside the path. When they draw up beside him, he stares hollowly at them and says, in a weak and toneless voice: “Holner House.” Raising his arm he points up the road, slowly turning his face in that direction as well. The rainfall increases at that moment and there is a flash of lightning. When it fades the figure is gone and the players can find no trace of him. It is only then that they realize that his clothes appeared to be completely dry.

The adventure is quite detailed and rich, with ample background, and many characters both at the house and in the surrounding area. Detailed maps are provided of the area, the manor lands, and the manor itself, as well as stats for all the NPCs. With a little bit work, the NPCs could easily be converted to another system.

Of the various adventures for the modern edition of TFT that Steve Jackson Games has published, this one, for me, stands apart not only for being more of a mystery investigation and horror story akin to a Call of Cthulhu style game, but also much less of a labyrinth crawl. This is an adventure where the players will be relying on their talents and wits more than their weapons and spells.

At 64 pages, this slim volume is compact, but dense with great content. It is my opinion a much needed and missing supplement - it truly gives the unliving their due.

by leroy43

In this volume you will find the best compendium of intelligence yet to be assembled on the subject of what’s actually out in the Swells. You’ll find no conventional terrors here, no comforting accounts of everyday leviathans or commonplace krakens. Here be the sorts of beasts only the Swells could birth or bear, some of ’em horrific and forbidding, some of ’em singular and strange.

Friends, have you heard about A Visitor's Guide to the Rainy City? It's a system neutral urban city space under a perpetual rain cloud and surrounded by storm walls and full of interesting mysteries.

Beasts of the Outer Swells is a 48 page zine sized supplement for use with the Rainy City. Although hypothetically you could use it independently, the stories and context would need significant work by the GM to work elsewhere.

Inside its pages are nine beasts, with whimsical names such as The Clackermas or The Wishful Wakame. Being system neutral, the beasts don't have specific stat blocks, but the descriptive text gives every entry a sense of scale that would let a GM easily work out how they'd interpret it for whatever game they run.

For instance, the Aspic Lantern is an island sized beast that has lured many unfortunate sailors to their doom. And let me state once again how wonderful Bill Spytma's woodcut style art is, and how it has consistently tied together the whimsical vibe and visual aesthetic of the booklets in this series.

It’s a hell of a thing to imagine: weeks and weeks on a storm-wracked ocean, the hull of your boat nudged by behemoths, the sails whipped and torn by unrelenting winds—and then the sounds of coastal birds, the shadows of other ships, and land at last.

There must be a glorious moment of pure joy before the truth of the City sets in. Most folks reckon that’s why the Aspic Lantern eats so well.

If you zoom in on this particular image, you'll see three sailing vessels on the left, perhaps being lured to their doom.

Each beast has full story describing the legends and stories associated with it, and several potential hooks for the GM to set up or provide inspiration of where to place it within their campaign.

The penultimate chapter of the books is Flott's Jetsam, a collection of tables and miscellany related to the beasts akin to how Flott's Miscellany Volume One, Flott's Miscellany Volume Two, and Flott's Miscellany Volume Three do for the Visitor's Guide.

The final chapter, Rarities and Relics, offers a listing of various magic items and other interesting artifacts to be used in your game. Again, you'll need to supply the stats/effect of your game system, but the descriptions provide ample inspiration to help you with that.

The Kickstarter offered a set of beautifully printed postcards of the beasts. I've of course misplaced my set, but if you can find a copy of this booklet with those as an add on, you won't be disappointed.

This is possibly the best supplement to the Visitor's Guide to the Rainy City. A lot of thought and effort went into the beasts to make them interesting, there's sufficient background material to let you slide them into your game and make up stat blocks as needed.

by leroy43

Walk warily, my friends, for the dead walk, too, and they wear surprising guises.
Until the rains cease,
Hieronymous Hargylwynd

A Visitor's Guide to the Rainy City is an isolated city that is perpetually under a cloud (of precipitation) and has all manner of unusual characters and locations suitable for urban adventures. It's a non-system specific location that can be dropped into any RPG, but was strongly influenced by The Fantasy Trip: Legacy Edition (TFT).

This short 24 page zine style booklet contains stories about specific undead personages that haunt the city to this day is another instalment in the Rainy City series.

"In life Beezer Bream was an enigma, and in death the mysteries surrounding his curious existence multiplied..." pg. 4

Beezer Bream comes with a back story surrounding his life and mysterious circumstances of his death, and additional notes about the death cult that keeps his name alive. In keeping with the system neutral nature of Rainy City supplements, stats are scant and left to the game master to interpret, but the cultists are described as Str 10, Dex 19, Wil 11, 6 hp which your TFT GM can immediately translate to the stat blocks of that system.

Of the eleven entries in the booklet, most are about individuals although most of those have hangers on and adherents. Two entries are primarily about locations. One of those entries is about Pangborn Abbey, located in Embassy Row (cf. Visitor's Guide...), which changes nature from day to night and could be the beginning of a lovely haunted house mystery.

The other is "the case of the Sabrina Celeste, known to most as the Whispering Brigantine, however, no such difficulties present themselves. Many denizens and visitors of Vagabond Bay have seen the ship with their own eyes, and several intrepid individuals, your author included, have been aboard." pg. 22. The ship has no apparent crew, but comes and goes from port with some irregularity, always docking and dropping the gangplank. What mysterious cargo is aboard, and why nobody who boards and leaves with the ship yet never returns is rife with inspiration.

The wodcut style art that has been consistent througout this series is well represented here. I daresay that the publisher could produce a zine that was nothing but art from the Rainy City series.

Of the supplements for the Rainy City, this is arguably one of the most interesting, providing a set of story hooks that are easy jumping off points for the GM to centre adventures around.

by Steve

On April 26th all people and cats send their birthday greetings to [user=kronik][/user]

Happy Birthday Jan!