Every month, I buy or am presented with a stack of RPG products. The purchases are for play, the freebies are gifts or, more commonly, review copies. I struggle to complete reviews in a timely fashion and, as such, I thought I’d start a column in which I share some of what has arrived as a stopgap until I have the time to do a complete review. What follows is a surface level look at why I got these products and why I dig them.
Destination Uncharted from Bloat Games
- Product Type: RPG zine
- Source: I backed this Kickstarter
- System: Hack the RPG
- Disclaimer: I’ve written for Bloat Games, but not on this project
- Why I Picked This Up: I’m a fan of Eric Bloat’s work having played one of his SURVIVE THIS!! sessions at Origins Game Fair and completed multiple interviews. When he kickstarted Destination Uncharted during Zine Quest (Kickstarter’s annual RPG zine promotion), I wanted to pitch in as a backer. What arrived in the mail was 44 full color pages plus a cover of pure OSR meets Indiana Jones, Goonies, Tomb Raider, or The Mummy pulp fun adventure. The system involves a d20 against a target number plus a d6 to see if your action results in some sort of hindrance or benefit. With this combination of Open Gaming License (OGL) plus the right setting inspires a modern-day dungeon crawl RPG. If you’re looking for a familiar system for pop culture stories of the now and the near-now, this zine packs a lot into a tight space.
The New Tales of Oz from Goat Song Publishing
- Product Type: RPG zine
- Source: I backed this Kickstarter
- System: An original system
- Why I Picked This Up: Another RPG zine that funded during Kickstarter’s zine quest, this book comes in at the same page count plus cover as Destination Uncharted above, but its contents are unique. First, this zine is black and white and makes use of the vast array of Oz related public domain artwork. Beyond that, this RPG uses an original card based system. Each character has a playbook (character sheet) that includes the cards your character starts with. Each card has a point value or an ability; using these you can overcome obstacles. If you’re looking for a card based take on Frank L Baum’s Oz, this zine offers a fun system and lots of vintage artwork.
The Last God from DC Comics
- Product Type: Graphic novel with Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition content
- Source: I ordered this graphic novel
- System: Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
Note: While this is a comic book, it is from DC Comics’ Black Label meaning it’s meant for a mature audience- Why I Picked This Up: This sword-and-sorcery graphic novel collects issues 1 to 12 of The Last God: Book One of the Fellspyre Chronicles, a one-shot issue, and an expanded version of the 5e RPG content one-shot the author crafted, The Last God: Tales from the Book of Ages. While it’s a thick book of comics (448 pages), I picked it up because of the RPG content. Crossing over the sequential art of AT&T/Warner Bros’ DC Comics with Hasbro’s Wizards of the Coast Open Gaming License (OGL) is a unique moment of two of the largest corporations in the world producing a product together without a specialized contract or money changing hands. It’s a fun moment and, as such, I wanted to own it. With 46 pages of D&D content (I’m adding in the OGL and table of contents), this book gives good coverage to the location, new monsters, new ancestries, and new subclasses that would allow you to play in this world. If you’re a fan of DC Comics’ The Last God or dark fantasy, this book is worth getting. Alternately, if you only want the information but not the comic, the D&D portions are available as a separate one-shot titled, The Last God: Tales from the Book of Ages.
D&D Dragon of Icespire Peak Adventure Preview and MTG X D&D from Wizards of the Coast
Product Type: Promotional tie-ins to the launch of Magic The Gathering’s Forgotten Realms set- Source: Freebies from Meeple Madness
- System: Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- Why I Picked This Up: When I attended the Magic: The Gathering Adventures in the Forgotten Realms prerelease, I picked up two souvenirs: a graph paper spiral ring notebook with 5 pages of card sleeves on top of the graph paper and a cover image of Drizzt Do’Urden and Guenhwyvar leaping into action, and a preview of the Dragon of Icespire Peak adventure. This 16-page plus card stock cover magazine sized preview of the adventure from the boxed set, Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit, gives you enough material to game with including 6 pre-generated first level characters. As a promotional tie-in to Dungeons & Dragons for Magic: The Gathering players to sample, it’s not a bad option. Flipping through it, it made me want to play some D&D and that’s never a bad sign with products like these. I hope this inspires some new and lapsed players to take up the game.
Dice of Fail d20 from Norse Foundry
- Product Type: Dice
- Source: Gift from a friend
- Why I Picked This Up: This metal alloy 20-sided die from Norse Foundry is a constant reminder of every result I’ve ever gotten on a d20: every side is a “1.” Every single triangular face has a “1” stamped into it. This die is awesome, has a good weight, and rolls exactly like any d20 does for me, “Wow! I crit failed AGAIN! Unexpected!” This is a good gift for your GM to use and worth thinking of on the holidays.
Oh, and if you’re one of those that says it’s statistically impossible to always fail at Gary’s game, play one session with me, and witness.
As mentioned at the top of this piece, I have difficulty completing reviews of the books I get. As such, I decline a lot of review products because I can’t get to them in anything approaching a realistic timeframe. That said, I still want to lift up publishers that make the offer. Among them is Gavriel Quiroga, author of WARPLAND and NEUROCITY. While I wasn’t able to pick up either of his books, I was able to offer copies to some other reviewers so fingers crossed that connection will happen.
If you enjoy this column, try out Charles Dunwoody’s EN World column, “RPG Print News”, for more products.
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