Hallowe'en Goodie...errr...Baddie?

Got this in my Email today from Drivethru RPG: I for one look forward to getting this one. I'm sure there will be lots of 'orrible things that go bump in the night within these pages. The ability to play monsters will appeal to a certain crowd I'm sure. The PDF version is $14.99 while print will run $19.99. I prefer print for that price personally; until the day I get an iPad of course.



Take your Savage Worlds games to new depths of darkness with the Horror Companion. Inside are new rules for playing monsters, signs and portents, buckets o' blood, ritual casting, new spells, sanity, gear, new Edges & Hindrances, Setting Rules, over 100 new monsters, advice on creating and maintaining atmosphere, and MORE!

This tome of terror is essential for anyone running a dark or horrific setting.

The Savage Worlds Horror Companion is available now at DriveThruRPG!

Also Available now from Pinnacle Entertainment:
Deadlands Reloaded: Devil's Night - This completely free adventure for Deadlands; Reloaded is the perfect addition to your campaign, or as a one shot!
Deadlands: For a Few Dead Guys More - They say "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." In this second volume of the Anthology with No Name, the senoritas get their payback.
Deadlands: The Good, The Bad, and The Dead - In this final volume of the Anthology with No Name, you'll find eleven more twisted tales, including the conclusion to "Hate" and "Head Games", by Deadlands creators Shane Lacy Hensley and Matt Forbeck.

Retro Review - Gamma World 1992 (4th edition)

Gamma World (TSR 1992)

To me this is one of the best versions of Gamma World, before the OGL, before the edition wars. 4th edition of Gamma World, not to be confused with D&D4E - Gamma World (which is seventh edition). Produced by TSR in 1992, in a single 192 page perfect bound book. Here's the Wiki Link. Now, I never got any of the adventures printed for earlier versions, Famine in Far-go being my favorite, so I missed the 4th edition ones. GW4e was unfortunately discontinued in 1994, and had no Dragon Magazine Support really (1 article).

In this version you could be a Pure Strain Human, Mutant Human, Mutant Animal (many base varieties), or even a Mutant Plant! This version had basic classes (Examiner, Scout, Esper and Enforcer); each class has access to class specific skills, and gave different advances. Mutations were still random, divided between physical, mental and plant mutations, d6 physical, d6-5 mental powers though on a 6 you'd have 5 mental/0 physical. The mutant animals had base PS/DX/CN scores that had 2d4 rolled to add to them. The mutations are the best thing about the game, with so many mutations, and the defects cut back and limited, you could roll many many variations of characters.

This was produced during the era of 2nd edition AD&D and thus gets rid of THAC0, and replaces it with a basic THAC [To Hit Armor Class] and MHAC [Mentally Hit Armor Class], the equivalent to BAB from 3.x edition. Stats are PS (physical strength), DX (dexterity), CN (constitution), MS (Mental Strength), IN (Intelligence), CH (Charisma) and Finally SN (Senses). So the attributes are quite close to the AD&D attributes in effect, PS= Strength, MS=Wisdom. Senses is new, but really straight forward. The game uses hit points but the saves are all based on health or mental defense. A Simple system, which in my opinion was superior to AD&D 2e (which I quit because my house rules were massive.)

Every creature in the monster section is illustrated and has a half page write-up. The experience system for the creatures is pretty well covered to award XP based upon the  power level of the creatures, better than AD&D2E even, due to the page 141 table covering everything from 30 AC to having a usable artifact.

This is the last of the revisions to the original Gamma World, (I owned 2e and 3e as well). After this came Alternity based rules, then d20 rules, and finally D&D4E ruleset...which is by far the worst of the lot, with the constantly changing Alpha mutations, dumbed down weapon system, and lack of the original character options; it was just too generic and random...I'll Grognard this one thanks.

All in all this is one of my favorite old school games, where even character creation is a blast! (On Par with BL23C).  We've been making characters for fun over the weekend, Ian made a Mutant Wolf that happens to have a poor Dual brain, which he thinks is hilarious. Sean rolled a Mutant Fungus, which has 3 legs, heh...kinda funny.

Free RPG

I got my Kobold Quarterly Newsletter in my email and it had this handy dandy link for a free Horror RPG "Eternal Shadows" for the AGE system. I'm looking through it now. Looks pretty nice, I haven't hada  chance to learn the AGE system, but it seems to be a pretty cool system. So Happy Hallowe'en once age'en!!! I'll post a review once I'm done reading it. 

Review - Realms of Cthulhu (Reality Blurs)

 What says Hallowe'en better than CTHULHU!!!

Realms of Cthulhu (Savage Worlds Campaign Setting)

           This RPG uses the Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition, which is required to play. No additional material is required. Produced by Reality Blurs, in print and PDF format under a license from Chaosium Inc.

First Glance:

            On the cover is a beautiful picture of Cthulhu in the depths of the ocean. As you start to page through the book, you notice quality. Lots of mood appropriate artwork, ancient sigils and full color thick glossy paper. (Though technically you should be able to produce a Pulp RPG on pulp paper to get the right feel…) The background page is even designed to look like a musty old tome. 

Main Review:

            As a setting for Savage Worlds, it requires the Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition to play.  This is a 160 page book, of which only 35 pages are for the players, which leaves lots of campaign and special rules for the game master. The player section consists of character creation rules. Which edges are not available, Archetypes for investigators, starting cash for the different eras, 1890, 1920 and modern. Two new Knowledge Skills (Mythos) and (Psychology) are introduced, as are new hindrances and edges which are very appropriate for a Cthulhu Mythos. Next comes the Equipment section with example gear from the different eras, my favorite I think is the Luxury Cars for the 1920s era, including the Duesenberg and Rolls Royce Phantom.

            Next comes the Setting Rules, which are for both Players and GMs as it lets you customize what type of setting you want to run in, and introduces the sanity rules which use mental toughness. A gritty damage system is introduced which is even more deadly than the savage worlds damage system, this system can be used for both physical and mental damage depending on what style you’re using. For Example if you’re playing Heroic Horror, you use pulpy/pulpy while the Dark Spiral play type uses gritty/gritty, making the game extremely lethal. A few other options are included for Gamemasters while REALLY want to off the characters quickly. The harsh system removes the wild dice until they rank up to Seasoned, for example, and even then it’s a d4 until Veteran.

The sanity system is perfect, it definitely goes along the lines of the Fast, Fun and Furious.

           

Game Mastering:

            Amazing. The rest of the 124 pages is for the Gamemaster’s eyes, (AKA the Keeper in Cthulhu games.) With lots and lots of advice for running a Cthulhu Mythos game no matter which era you choose to run. A Full 20 pages is dedicated to Matters of Magic, detailing many grimoires, and of course casting Mythos spells, five version of the Necronomicon are detailed out.

            In the Mythos Tales section, a lovely “Mythos Tales Generator” is given which can generate an in depth adventure in minutes. For creating unique Mythos creatures a delicious “Creature Generator” is provided. Four nice Mythos Tale frameworks are given so you can have a ready adventure at hand pretty easily for a pick-up game.

The final chapter is the Citizens and Denizens, covering the supporting cast, which gives stat blocks for lots of  citizen types, from the Archaeologist, to the Military Officer, even the retired adventurer. The next section is Cultists and Creatures, covering standard cultists archetypes. Wild Cards are designated by the Elder Sign. The Nightmares are all covered, not with stat blocks in the case of the elder gods, they’re covered by write-ups in the Titans and Gods section. Many of the creatures are covered, from the Hounds of Tindalos, to the Mi Go, and even the Star Spawn of Cthulhu.

Artwork:

Epic! The artwork is appropriate and full color. While some isn’t on par with

Some of the best art in the industry it all fits the genre and is of good quality.

Replay Value:

Excellent. One of the things about Cthulhu style play is that you don’t expect to survive, well not with your mind intact anyway. So while you’ll remember how your character died, or snapped, you will be ready for the next adventure, with new and gruesome ways to die.

Comprehension Level: Excellent. The additional rules are well written and easy to understand.

Humor: It’s horror, not a lot of humor here, leave that for Cthulhu Munchkin, or the malicious laughter on the lips of the Keeper of the Forbidden Lore.

Family Rating:

PG-13/R, This is a dark setting as I said, it deals with the most evil of elder gods, the occult, drugs and black magic. Knowledge of the Mythos helps as well, and H.P. Lovecraft’s writing isn’t exactly on the kid’s shelf. Now for the teenagers, nothing beats a good Cthulhu tale late at night, better than  a ghost story if the atmosphere is right.

Price Tag:

This will set you back $39.99 MSRP for Print or PDF (price at time of writing is $25 on RPGNow).

Value:

Worth the money, with all the information contained, and the rule additions, this setting is a great value.

Overall Rating:

EPIC! If you enjoy Call of Cthulhu but prefer Savage Worlds this is a great resource, also the sanity rules will be making their way into my Savage Rifts game. (With some of the monsters…mwuahahaha)

Belated Blog Birthday to the Boys

So the boys turned 12 last month! Had a fun little pool party for their friends and them. They got Munchkin Zombies, Killer Bunnies Yellow A Deck and Munchkin Cthulhu Crazed Caverns from me! heh

Being the Gamers they are, they got Munchkin Fu and Munchkin Need for Steed with some of their Birthday money. Though Sean was torn between getting the Need for Steed or Savage Worlds Deluxe (The artwork snagged him)

Future of Epic The RPG Blog

With hits stagnating, I'm curious to see what you want to see more of on this blog.

Reviews
Interviews
Commentary
GM Advice
(When I run across cool news I'll always comment on stuff that strikes my gamer fancy.)

Upcoming Interviews:
I'll be having a post-release review with John Cadice after the release of Super Dungeon Explore
The Boys will be Interviewing Matt Rivaldi of WiggityBang when school permits.
I'm going to try to get an interview with an old Gamer Buddy who is also a pastor. (For a Gaming and Christianity viewpoint)
I'd like to one day get an interview with Vin Diesel, Wil Wheaton, Matt Groening and John DiMaggio, amongst others.

Music and Gaming

Background music for playing an RPG can make a game so much better.

For Classic Fantasy RPGs there's so much out there, from classical such as Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner, to MMORPG soundtrack titles from Lord of the Rings Online, Everquest, and Age of Conan.

For Sci-fi good choices depend upon your setting, while some Electro-Swing will work great for a Star Wars Cantina, it's not so good for a game of Dark Heresy, where you want to maintain a really dark atmosphere. For a game of Interface Zero, I'd probably use a lot of Trance, especially if the characters are hanging out in clubs.

If you use good music for your games, it will bring the desired atmosphere, and your players might just feel more into the game....

(Note: if you want me to include some youtube links to some music, click the Interesting response to show you're interested.)