Rule of the Dice

Today we have a fun trio of goodies to look at, including a free system for your superhero needs, a magazine of content for OSR gaming, and a poster handout for your next Pathfinder session! HiLo Heroes . Jeff Moore. 36 pages. Free. Ahh, Jeff Moore. If you check his page, he has maybe a half-dozen (maybe more now) mini-systems freely available for download, and most of them are actually worth your time if you're ever looking for a quick, simple system for some beer and pretzel gaming. HiLo Heroes is no exception. In fact, it may very well be the jewel in Jeff Moore's crown of game systems. It's simple, uses the readily available d6, and does almost nothing to limit the variety of superheroes you can create. To create a character you need only specifiy three features: Build, Mentality, and Temperament. Each has two options, high or low, and those two options influence all your other abilities. It all boils down to rolling 2d6 and using either the higher die or th

Hey all! It's been a while and, unfortunately, I don't have as nice an excuse for my absence as C.D. had (congrats on the little one, C.D.!). Mostly a new job with a revolving schedule that has sucked my gaming time dry. And with my gaming time so goes my writing time. But now, as things begin to settle, I'm going to crack my knuckles and try and get some kind of regular writing habit going again. And even though I haven't been running nearly so many games, I've been unable to convince myself to stop buying gaming goodies. And since I like to spread my thoughts (much like Yellow Mold or Green Slime) about what I buy, I thought it'd be interesting to do a semi-review of some of these roleplaying related products, whether they be full games, expansions, or whatever I decide to spend my hard earned money on. The question is...are all of these products worth it? This week, I look at a group of PDFs, including a Labyrinth Lord adventure, a mini game, and a PDF

(Sorry I've been gone so long. If you read the following post very closely, you'll understand why.) Last night was an auspicious event. I didn't plan for it to happen, didn't expect it to happen, it was just one of those things that come out of the blue but in hindsight is one of those days that can change the course of your life, like the assassination of a political leader or the day you realize carrots really aren't that bad. Yesterday, I tried for the first time explain to my son this "Dungeons & Dragons" thing. I sat him down next to me in front of Facebook. I have only just discovered this Heroes of Neverwinter game, and while I usually treat Facebook apps with all the disdain usually reserved for murderers, politicians and Sydney Crosby, I'm kinda digging HoN simply because it lets me play a pretty reasonable facsimile of 4th Edition all by lonesome in whatever free moments I can muster. My audience was enraptured as I explained th

Last week, I talked a little bit about Woodland Warriors , a fun rules-lite adaption of Brian Jacques animal adventure novels. Today, I'm going to look at two of the expansions available for that game. Each expansion is written by Simon Washbourne with art by Darrel Miller. The first is called Greyrock Isle. It's a short, 19 page, book that details a new setting and several new classes. The main meat in this supplement comes in the form of a new island, new map, and new locale: A Robin Hood-esque England where the inhabitants are terrorized by a big bad bandit king. It's a bit weak overall and not that different from the original Alder Vale setting. And there's no sample adventure, which hurts the overall product. No matter how many plot seeds you provide, you can't beat a full-grown adventure to help a GM get a feel for a setting. You also, however, get two new races to play as: hares and otters. Neither provides a wildly new experience, though both are welcome add

It might seem a little hard to fathom that the creator of Barbarians of Lemuria, one of the most unapologetically sword & sorcery games I can recall, would also craft a game based around the idea of medieval animal adventures, in the same vein as the late Brian Jacques and his Redwall series of novels, but here it is. Woodland Warriors, the 114-page core rulebook by Simon Washbourne, is a game that tries to emulate Jacques light-hearted yet serious setting with a trimmed down D&D ruleset. Or, more specifically, the 0E retroclone Swords & Wizardry . Except it does away with most of the S&W base to create something that seems a lot like D&D, but using only d6s and simplifying virtually everything. Instead of your usual fantasy races you have hedgehogs, squirrels, moles, mice, and badgers. Each has interesting abilities, from a Badger's Rage attack, to the Hedgehog's natural armor. As for classes, well it's pretty much standard D&D with some name change

As you may have heard (and if you didn't, welcome to the Internet fellow gamer!), the 5th Edition of the World's Most Famous Roleplaying game is definitely in progress. At least according to Wizards website . And everyone has an opinion about it, with a lot feeling that Wizards didn't give enough support to 5E, a lot feeling that this will be just as bungled unless they do this or that. I have thoughts and opinions on it as well, but why add to the mess of sound when it would just be redundant? Instead I had to ask myself, what does this mean for me, a gamer who got into roleplaying well after 4E had come out? I mean, I'm a spring chicken compared to most gamers. I didn't cut my teeth with 1st or 2nd Edition rules. Heck, I only had a passing knowledge of 3rd Edition thanks to the D&D PC games. And though I got into roleplaying at what might be called the height of 4E's popularity I never really took to the 4th edition ruleset. I suppose that's why I'