Tuesday, October 08, 2024

Vampires All the Way Down

Hang on.

1989: Nicolas Cage stars in Vampire's Kiss as a man obsessed with a vampire. This is quite appropriate, as we'll see.
2000: Nicolas Cage produces Shadow of the Vampire, which is about the making of Nosferatu, and stars Willem Defoe as Max Schreck/Count Orlok.
2023: Nicolas Cage stars as Dracula in Renfield, alongside Nicholas Hoult as Renfield.
2024: Nicholas Hoult and Willem Defoe star in a remake of Nosferatu. Nicolas Cage is not involved. AS FAR AS WE CAN SEE.


Sunday, October 06, 2024

Superfresco!

I saw this on Scroobius Pip's twitch channel on Friday, and it is glorious.

I'm not 100% sure what it's advertising. I think it's textured wallpaper, but surely you don't want to be talking about what "must come down" if you're advertising wallpaper?

Anyway, the important thing is that it s unnecessarily, gratuitously funky. Watch until the end; I guarantee it's worth it.

Friday, October 04, 2024

Boobs and Dragons, 1984 Style

Dragonlance was 40 years old in March and I missed it!

But it's never too late to celebrate...


You can get the design on t-shirts (and some other bits) here or here.

(I get a little bit extra from each sale from the latter site.)

Monday, September 16, 2024

We'll Burn All the Negatives

Some of my books are on sale!

BREAKING LOTFP EU WEBSTORE NEWS:

* NEW SHIPPING METHOD!

* 25 % OFF SALE ON BOOKLETS + SOFTCOVERS

* JUST SEVEN COPIES OF MIDVINTER LEFT

LotFP EU Webstore: https://www.lotfp.com/store/

We've got the Global Mail option on the EU webstore up and running, which will result in much cheaper shipping rates for a lot of customers on lighter (under 1kg or especially under 500g) shipments.

To encourage you to try out this new shipping option, we are offering 25% off all of the booklets and softcovers in the EU webstore. Use coupon code SOFTIES on checkout. The titles included: Beware the Mindfuck!, Black Chamber, Curious Conundrum, Curse of the Daughterbrides, Do Not Accept This Quest, Forgive Us, A Gift For All of Norway, Green Devil Face #7, Idea from Space, Jovian Visitor, Just a Stupid Dungeon, Obisidian Anti-Pharos, and the Random Esoteric Creature Generator. Sale ends Tuesday morning when I wake up and remember to turn off the coupon code.

And we have just seven Midvinter copies left in the ol' Finland warehouse. There are a couple dozen still sitting around in overseas warehouses for future conventions, but if you want to order online these are the last copies from us. Midvinter is one of the most unhinged and disturbing folk horror adventures ever in RPGs, all the more effective because it presents itself in good cheer and not as a nightmare. It is a masterpiece.
So that's FORGIVE US and CURIOUS CONUNDRUM OF THE CONFLAGRATED CONDOTTIERO on sale, and MIDVINTER not on sale, but quickly becoming a collectable. Probably. Ish.

(Five copies left as I type this.)

I haven't left much time for you to take advantage of the sale, for which I'm sorry.

And now, a banger:

Sunday, September 08, 2024

Strict Location Records Must Be Kept II

Oops.

It seems that my last post on this subject was the result of a misunderstanding. Apparently what was wanted was a list of all possible locations for antidote vials for the Doctor's poison, rather than my suggested locations.

Oops.

The Attic:

I don't think the Doctor would hide any vials in the attic, mainly because of the risk of the ELEPHANTOM getting out.

First Floor:
  • Abaddon (p37)
  • Mammon (p37)
(If one of the above rooms has a vial, the other does not.)
  • A; the suit of armour (p41).
  • Apollyon (p41)
  • Eblis (p42)
  • Mephisto (p42)
  • Shaitan (p43); as written, I suggest this antidote be a fake.
  • Erasmus (p43)
Ground Floor:
  • E: the library (p49); hidden inside The Common Almanacke.
  • F: the gallery (p53); behind the painting of the raven woman.
  • G: the surgery (p53); inside the "patient".
  • I: the storeroom (p53-54); in the medicine cabinet, although it's suggested that you don't put a vial here.
  • K: the barbed wire trap (p54); as written there isn't a vial in here, but I don't see why there couldn't be.
The Cellar:
  • C: the laboratory (p53); there are no antidotes here, but the players can make one, if they have the recipe.
  • J: the vault (p60); this seems like an obvious place to keep a vial, and it's tricky enough to access that it seems fair to include one.
The Caves:
The Doctor doesn't come down here often enough to hide any antidotes, I think. I am inclined to suggest that ADAM (p54) could brew an antidote easily enough.

Monday, August 26, 2024

Not Broken, Don't Fix

Short Review:

Break!! is a well-designed game that reminds me a lot of Redbox Hack, and a little of 13th Age, and as I like both of those games a lot, I'm quite well-disposed towards Break!! too.

(Much) Longer Review:

This is going to be mostly positive, so let's get what I don't like out of the way first.

The book is massively overwritten. Every little bit and process -- except, oddly, the d20s on the page edges -- is explained in exhaustive detail. It's 470+ pages and it doesn't need to be 470+ pages.

BUT.

If Break!! were my first role-playing game, if I were new to the hobby and needed explanations for how to do things or how rpgs worked, then all of this extra detail and instruction would probably be quite useful. So yes, to my old brain and eyes it's Too Much Writing, but I'm not everyone, so I can let this one go.

I would have liked a bigger monster section. What we do get is good and explains how monsters work, and even how to reskin them to make new, different creatures, but I would still have liked seeing a few more examples. One notable gap is a Level One Sword Fodder type creature. A goblin/kobold/skaven type. Again, there are a couple of creatures that could be modified into that role, but it would have been nice to have one to use out of the box. Not that there is a box.

Something else there isn't is a Frog condition, which seems like a terrible omission, but I suppose you could hack that back in.

And that's it. That's everything negative I have to say about Break!! Now on to the positives. You may want to get a cup of tea or your local equivalent.

The classes callings are all interesting and look exciting to play. They have enough similarities with classic D&D types that they are familiar, but also have enough differences or twists to feel fresh and exciting. The Raider is sort of a D&D ranger, and sort of a D&D monk, but also quite unlike either. The Champion is more or less a fighter, except they are also good at cooking! Cooking the organs of slain monsters, yes, but cooking nonetheless! The Factotum is probably the most unique, a sort of support class calling upgraded to a full player class calling, part skills expert, part tactician, part pack mule, and like nothing I've seen in a fantasy rpg before. It's these classes callings and their unique abilities that make me think most of Redbox Hack and 13th Age; I like them a lot.

The mechanics seem good and robust. There are lots of options, but the basic rules are quite simple, based around single d20 rolls with only a couple of modifiers; like 13th Age the players will have more to remember and track than the GM will -- although some of the monsters can have complex abilities -- which should let the GM get on with running the game. Although not complicated, there is a lot of content, but the organisation is excellent; sections and subsections are clearly and intelligently marked and finding things in the book should be quite easy. Everything is in one book too, which will always win points from me.

There are WFRP-like damage charts (like!), magical corruption for spellcasters (like!), and a magical allegiance mechanic (like!) similar to that found in Elric!/Stormbringer (like like!). There's even a section on colossal enemies -- as in Shadow of the Colossus (very much like!) -- with evocative but simple rules for climbing on and fighting such huge creatures.

(That's it over there. One page. That's all you need to explain a whole sub-system. Imagine that, Call of Cthulhu 7...)

The GM section is very good, full of basic -- see above -- but solid advice on running games, and also what look like excellent tools for generating adventures and setting, with some examples to get you started, or to just rip -- not literally, please -- and run from the book.

Break!! also looks great. Grey Wizard's anime style art is lovely and does an excellent job of conveying the intended feel, although I should point out that if anime's not your thing then there's almost nothing baked into the game itself that forces that sort of style. You could run this as a depressing and obstinate Dark Souls type game with no problem. If you wanted. Anyway, good art! There are also plenty of narrative comic-style pages, which is something I always like to see. More rpgs should have them.

(I am available.)


Grey Wizard's book design is also good and clear. It does feel a tiny bit like a school science textbook -- smells a bit like one too -- but the art does take the edge off that. And there's nothing wrong with science.

In Conclusion (thank fudge for that):

Anime and computer game fans will of course find Break!! right up their alley, but there's also a lot to like if you enjoy fantasy role-playing games but are looking for something a bit different to the D&D style.

I very much like the look of this game, enough so that it's making me run it, and I haven't run a role-playing game in a looooooong time. That's a recommendation you can take to the bank.

(Don't do that.)

Arbitrary numeric score: 4 chocolate wafer fingers out of 2 chocolate wafer fingers.

You can buy Break!! here and follow the Break!! blog here.

Sunday, August 25, 2024

Break(!!)ing Bad(ger)

I've had a good look through Break!! and I'm putting a review together, but for now let's just say I like it very much and I'm considering running it. Maybe.

Before unleashing it on my group I thought I'd give character generation a try to see how it goes. I went for random rolls throughout, and this is what I got:

Ylkinee, aka, "BADGER":

CHIB (anime halfling, in this context) RAIDER (sort of like a D&D ranger mixed with a D&D monk, but not really)

Might: 9
Deft: 10
Grit: 10
Insight: 7
Aura: 7
Attack: +1
Defence: 11
Hearts: 3
Speed: Fast
Inventory: 8 (+3)

Abilities:
Like the Wind, Hunter's Focus, Sidestep, Easily Overlooked

Badger can use light and medium armour, small and standard shields, and all weapons (although as he is Small, some options are restricted)

Background and History:
Badger is from the BURIED KINGDOM, and speaks HIGH AKENIAN as a bonus language.

Badger was a FIELD SAPPER before he was an adventurer, with Purviews (+2 bonus) in ARMY MACHINE WORKINGS, GETTING BEHIND ENEMY LINES, and SPOTTING STRUCTURAL WEAKNESSES.

Quirk:
SURVIVOR (enhanced healing, but a greater chance of accidental injury, because he's a bit overconfident)

Gear:
A common rural item, a spade, a bomb (!), a demolitions kit, a functional outfit, a standard weapon, an adventurer's bag (+3 inventory space), and 1 coin.

And that's about it. With random rolls the entire process took about 10 minutes start to finish, which is pretty quick. Choices open up at later levels ranks but even then it's not too complex. The many interactions between class, species, background, and quirks mean that it is unlikely that any two starting characters, even of the same class, will be alike. I'll be interested to see what my group comes up with if and when we play.

Thursday, August 22, 2024

Me and Rollo (or, Despatches From an Alternate 1997)

Last night/this morning I dreamed of a forgotten Britpop-era banger, circa 1997, from a band with the initials "FF".

It was a jangly, jolly, upbeat number, somewhere in Feeder or Supergrass territory, and although I don't recall most of the song, I do remember the chorus:

Me and Rollo, me and me and Rollo,
Me and Rollo, me and me and Rollo,
Doing lots of puff and going to the disco! (hey!)
I can't imagine Radio 1 letting that one go out without editing, even in the hedonistic 1990s.

I have a vague feeling that despite the overall jolly attitude, things did not end well for the singer's friendship with Rollo, but alas, the details are lost to the eye-rubbing haziness of waking up and facing the dread of being an adult.

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

The Cleverest Amphibian of Them All

If you like purple-clad turtle tech geniuses as much as I do, then there is a new design in my merchandise shops:

You can get the design on some bits and pieces like notebooks, stickers, and so on here, or on clothing (and some other bits) here.

(I get a little bit extra from each sale from the latter site.)