RPG Book Reviews, Spring 2021
Nuisances - Director’s Cut - There are some very nice random tables (though they could use a bit more organization so you can find the ones you want), but most of the “humor” in this book is middle-school fart jokes, sexism and ablism. (And the new feats and similar game rule stuff is generally either unbalanced, duplicative, or useless. In addition to being offensive.) I can see myself screenshotting (or printing) pages with tables I want for specific games, but I’m not going to actually recommend the book.
Apocalypse World Basic Ref Book (2nd Ed) - I’ve heard a lot of good things about Powered by the Apocalypse as a game framework, but I have to say, just picking up the basic book gives you no real idea of how to run the game. I read this, couldn’t make sense of the flow of play, and ended up having to listen to a Rag-Nerd-Rok actual play of Dungeon World to have any idea how the game flow actually went.
Dungeon World Guide (v1.2) - On the other hand, this is a MUCH better starter guide, with comparisons of Dungeon World to other gaming systems and actual examples of play.
Fight Item Run - A Powered by the Apocalypse game (which I can make sense of now!) that’s trying to recreate the feel, if not the mechanics, of a jrpg dungeon crawl. I suspect Final Fantasy 13 was a major influence, as the idea is for the characters to move from room to room in a dungeon, fighting monsters while they reveal their backstories and stop for periodic flashback cutscenes. The battle mechanics are reminiscent of Dissidia, where you need to need to build up a stock of non-wounding hits to unleash an actual damaging combo attack and/or a limit break. I suspect I’d need to adjust some of the play suggestions if I were to actually play this, because the examples make it feel like group therapy where you occasionally make up a cool maneuver. I’m not one to call out Social Justice Warriors and I think we should probably examine some of our assumptions about tabletop gaming…but this was strongly and noticeably thick with references to the TTRPG safety handbook, used multiple neopronouns, and had “creating spaces to talk about a player’s discomfort” as part of the flow of play. It's to the point where it feels like excessive virtue signaling. That, and if you need to walk on careful eggshells as you attempt to tell a collaborative story with people lest you cause them long-term emotional trauma…you’re not going to have fun and you’re absolutely gaming with the wrong people.
Unmasked (Cypher System) - Teenaged superheroes in the 80s, using the Cypher System commonly appearing in games like Numenara. Monte Cook’s team has a very solid idea of how to write a game system and a core book at this point, as this manages to cover mechanics, a sample setting, themes, sample adventures, items, sample characters, full campaign story arc ideas, and everything else you’d need to run it without any other books. That said, the actual details of superpowers are kind of underwritten and, honestly, it doesn’t feel very comic-bookish. This feels more like a Stranger Things-style love letter to 80s horror and teen drama that happens to feature characters with superpowers. There are mid-90s comics that it could do a nice job of mimicking; Prime from the Ultraverse imprint comes immediately to mind; but if you want to run a Teen Titans or New Mutants campaign, this isn’t going to be right for you.
Apocalypse World Basic Ref Book (2nd Ed) - I’ve heard a lot of good things about Powered by the Apocalypse as a game framework, but I have to say, just picking up the basic book gives you no real idea of how to run the game. I read this, couldn’t make sense of the flow of play, and ended up having to listen to a Rag-Nerd-Rok actual play of Dungeon World to have any idea how the game flow actually went.
Dungeon World Guide (v1.2) - On the other hand, this is a MUCH better starter guide, with comparisons of Dungeon World to other gaming systems and actual examples of play.
Fight Item Run - A Powered by the Apocalypse game (which I can make sense of now!) that’s trying to recreate the feel, if not the mechanics, of a jrpg dungeon crawl. I suspect Final Fantasy 13 was a major influence, as the idea is for the characters to move from room to room in a dungeon, fighting monsters while they reveal their backstories and stop for periodic flashback cutscenes. The battle mechanics are reminiscent of Dissidia, where you need to need to build up a stock of non-wounding hits to unleash an actual damaging combo attack and/or a limit break. I suspect I’d need to adjust some of the play suggestions if I were to actually play this, because the examples make it feel like group therapy where you occasionally make up a cool maneuver. I’m not one to call out Social Justice Warriors and I think we should probably examine some of our assumptions about tabletop gaming…but this was strongly and noticeably thick with references to the TTRPG safety handbook, used multiple neopronouns, and had “creating spaces to talk about a player’s discomfort” as part of the flow of play. It's to the point where it feels like excessive virtue signaling. That, and if you need to walk on careful eggshells as you attempt to tell a collaborative story with people lest you cause them long-term emotional trauma…you’re not going to have fun and you’re absolutely gaming with the wrong people.
Unmasked (Cypher System) - Teenaged superheroes in the 80s, using the Cypher System commonly appearing in games like Numenara. Monte Cook’s team has a very solid idea of how to write a game system and a core book at this point, as this manages to cover mechanics, a sample setting, themes, sample adventures, items, sample characters, full campaign story arc ideas, and everything else you’d need to run it without any other books. That said, the actual details of superpowers are kind of underwritten and, honestly, it doesn’t feel very comic-bookish. This feels more like a Stranger Things-style love letter to 80s horror and teen drama that happens to feature characters with superpowers. There are mid-90s comics that it could do a nice job of mimicking; Prime from the Ultraverse imprint comes immediately to mind; but if you want to run a Teen Titans or New Mutants campaign, this isn’t going to be right for you.