This game does keep you busy, now I am the first to admit I am not very good at mazes. So I did suffer from rage quit here and there. I particularly didn't like that one damn troll that I ended up having to repeatedly pass which beat the snickers out of me or took all my jewels. But the game will keep you busy and entertained. I played this when my friends were already deep into a game I'm not involved in, and it kept me busy for several hours. (And it was startling for them to hear me rolling dice when they were playing mwhaha!). I have not yet tried the next maze in the series but I hope to soon.

I used this to whip up a quick encounter for a white wolf game I was running. I had a group of bored players and we didn't have anything planned but everyone wanted to play. I whipped out this and five minutes later my players were happily involved in an encounter that quickly evolved into a storyline they enjoyed.

Good morning I've had a lot of time to think about one of the biggest problems with post apocalyptic gaming regardless of old school & retroclone system. I've been playing a lot of Gamma World 1st & 2nd edition lately. But I've used a mutated ton of systems from Mutant Future to Mutant Epoch as well as several of my own creations in addition to enhancing them with Boot Hill & AD&D 1st edition style system. So I know a bit about post apocalptyic gaming and it always seems to come down to location. Sure the players have crawled through the ruins of Pitzburke in Gamma World, done with the ruins of California in Mutant Epoch, etc. It really becomes a pain in the ass to keep doing research to some location that they've never heard of for scavenging & ruin creation. The internet has made it that much harder. So the other night I asked my friend Dave Woodrum for Wreckside District: A Post Apocalypse Setting From Fishwife Games So unlike other Fishwife Games in the past this one has a lot of artwork & some really well done professional layout so its easy on the eyes. The gaming potential here for all kinds of havoc at the the table. This is a an urban, post apocalyptic setting that can be used as part loot zone & part city state whole hog & dropped into a campaign. Its system genric & neutral so its a simple matter to drag & drop this right into a campaign even an on going one with a blank spot on the map like I did with my recent Gamma World/Carcosa game.

A City Of Wasted Potential… Aria stood at the edge of the wasted city and peered off towards its most functioning, but violent, part... Wreckside. The crumbling district was given its name years ago for the salvage yard and multiple garages and towing services that sprung up in the area. Now its name is more fitting for the condition of the district and its desperate inhabitants. "So why are we are going back to that place again?" Aria questioned her companion, Darius, as she stared at the dimly glowing lights of the distant buildings, proof that at least some of Wreckside's inhabitants enjoyed the rare treat of functioning electricity. Darius took a swig from a metal flask as he walked away from the acrid smolder of the dying barrel fire. "Supplies. Some special stuff. Electronics and some old notes on building things. I'll know it when I see it." Aria hated it when Darius wouldn't tell her exactly what they were looking for. Still, though, Darius was renowned by the outskirt settlers as a master scavenger and for keeping his mouth shut about what his employers wanted him to recover. The young woman has learned a lot since Darius took her under his wing a year ago, and the scavenger has always managed to keep her alive in the process. "So its another one of those jobs, eh? Typical orders from Garrett, don't let the new kid in on the details...", Aria remarked with an obvious bit of disgust in her voice. "Hey, don't be knocking on Garrett," Darius replied as he checked the contents of his backpack and finished loading rounds into his pistol clip. "The old man is a bit of a creeper, yeah, but he pays well. Plus, we're going to get a pretty big bonus this time if we get back with exactly what he's hoping we'll find." "Big bonus? What he hopes we'll find?" "You'll see. Now follow me... quietly. I've been told there's a safer route into the district."

There are a couple of minor gripes with Wreckside District, the price measures out to about seven dollars and fifty cents for the pdf & I'd love to have seen a print option for these old eyes of mine. But trying to get a print pdf option for Drivethrrpg & Rpgnow is a huge pain in the arse. Artists also cost money & I was surprised at the amount of artwork in this title. Artists cost. Believe me I totally understand why. You've got a ton of NPC's, gangers, adventure locations, and more built into this. This means that this is a drag & drop product for a campaign. The other thing about Fish Wife Games is the fact that they're a company that seems to fade into the background of the OSR & table top hobby. This means that players are not aware of them as a potential resource for some really nasty post apocalyptic material.

Its a good resource for any of the PA games I mentioned & more. This could even be used for as Cyberpunk 2020 adventure location out in the badlands & no go zones. The price is right up there with other pdfs so I would wait for a Drivethrurpg sale and possibly a code. But is it worth your time & efforts? Hmm with the district's map that contains over two hundred numbered locations which are each provided individual descriptions and details. This can be a resource to base an entire campaign around. Now in lots of other reviews I mentioned Domain level play. What the hell is that? Well, when a PC gets to certain level in OD&D such as ninth or higher it was assumed that if they were a fighter they'd build a stronghold, a wizard a tower, a cleric establish a temple or church, etc. This is basically the PC's carving out their own pound of flesh or land in a campaign setting. For some players this is a huge pain in the arse but for old schoolers this was part & parcel of old school campaign settings. This started with OD&D & carried on in B/X with the Companion & Master rules sets. But what does this have to old school DYI Retro Future campaigns such as Gamma World & the Wreckside District? Actually everything. Many old school post apocalyptic games such as Gamma World all the way to Mutant Epoch have factions or Cryptic Alliances or whatever name such groups are under. In a nut shell this is an extension of kill the mutants, take their stuff and then rule their kingdoms! You & your party are looking for food, shelter, safety for you as well as your community by this blaster you rule! So essentially the Wreckside District provides one more filled in space to explore, exploit, & take over or does it? Not so fast kids this is a large area of a loot, and scavenging zone. Here's where the horror just might start. If your forces are spread too thin then you just might crash and burn at the end of a laser shot. So here's ten reasons why Wreckside Disttrict is a perfect product of opportunity for your old school post apocalyptic games:

Eric From The Sword & Stitchery blog Want to see more OSR support for this and other old school products,systems, and more? Subscribe to http://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.com/

This PDF, running a hefty 55 pages in length, provides descriptions of more than forty ships, along with their notable crew members and the cargo that they carry. It seems like an excellent supplement for a pirate-themed campaign in which the heroes run into various ships at sea, saving a lot of work for the GM. While it's still necessary to write up stats, this provides a place from which to start, and is perfect for a game such as Pirates of the Spanish Main.

A set of generic and useful street occurrences. Nothing outlandish, nothing I couldn't use.

An excellent list to quickly whip up what the PCs encounter in a wasteland city. Quite a few of these are unique and provide a possible hook into some new scenario. With little modification this works well for a modern, fantasy, or even a space setting on some lawless world.

A good quick list of people giving Name, age, and quick description. samples Otis Bright (41)- Plant manager over a small local plastics factory. Parker Holman (84)- Retired college football coach who is a regular at the local sports bars.

A good quick list of people giving Name, age, and quick description. samples Gabrielle Chestnut (51)- Chatty, bubbly woman with graying hair and a bit too much makeup. Gary Venable (37)- Lowlife con that just got out of prison a few weeks ago.

This is a damn fine product that covers the bases of pulpy lost world goodness with plenty of encounters, ideas, and everything that you need to populate an island or lost world. Everything here is striped down to the bone and ready to go straight out the door for you to do either a long term or a pick up game as you like. For the price point this is a solid investment for the DYI dungeon master to add or subtract as needed. The pdf is easy on the eyes and the printer, I was able to turn this around within a night and get it at my table in fifteen minutes. The encounters adapt to just about any system or rpg with an adventure theme. The encounters could be used for everything from post apocalyptic to full on full lost world. The ideas here are both cheesy and fun to play with Dave knows his subject and how to get his play on with this project. The book is well done and very easy to use across the board. This is a tool kit that allows the DM to put his players right into the thick of it. This whole product is fun straight out of the gate and does exactly what it says on the package. There's encounter after cheesy encounter that can be used for a wide variety of things from Call of Cthulhu to full on old school OD&D. There is a lot of fun to be had with this title. My suggestion is to grab it and make it your own by using what your given for your own rpg application of Savage Island Encounters.

While there are a bunch of free maps available out on the net, Fish Wife Games sent me this right when I needed it for my DCC rpg adventure night. And I was trying to emulate a certain brand of old school text style computer games from the early 80's which dove tailed in with old school AD&D style first edition adventures. And that's where Fish Wife Games Really Big Island Of Adventure! hits its sweet spot, this series of maps could conceivable contain just about anything that your twisted imaginations can conceive of.

This is a DM's product, no if or buts about it. This Really Big Island is meant to be used when you've got less then fifteen minutes to print off a section of what you need and to drop several encounters right into the back end of your campaigns. How you use this product is very simply, you've got the map already keyed and ready to print out. Simply write in your description around the presentation and then your ready to go. This product can fit a wide variety of genres and settings. Use it to drop in Really Big Island of Adventure as a science fiction or science fantasy adventure encounter. Add in your favorite literary book by Jules Verne and populate the adventure locations with dangerous mega birds. This location can be used to house a wide variety of things from a post apocalyptic refuge to a dangerous and forbidden lost world location right next door for a Tales Of the Gold Monkey style pulp game. This is a very useful product that comes in well under budget as you can get for use as a system neutral resource. Personally I'm glad I had this product when I did, there's lots of useful bits and as a stand alone map this is an excellent canvas to put your own touches on. Sword and Stitchery blog Eric F

Simple premise, great fun. Tons of replay value via online random map generator.

Highly recommended small dungeon crawl game!

I've been sitting on this pdf for a week, I'm in the middle of constructing another post apocalyptic wasteland one shot. This is where fifty wasteland Caravan Haulers comes,when you need a group of NPC's on the open road. These folks are the survivors and deviants that haul they're ass across the wasted landscape under an unforgiving sky. For the price of less then a dollar you get a complete encounter kit and random list of folks to populate your world. This product is exactly what it says on the tin, a kit to outfit your game system with gangs of roaming mercenaries, survivors, and adventurers. The list is an expansive echo of weirdness simply waiting to be dropped right into your PA campaigns. Everything is here concisely organized for maximum mayhem in your old school world. Roads and highways are the life blood of the post apocalyptic world and yet very few folks seem to exploit this fact in their games. Well no more. you get a complete break down of the driver's name, the type of vehicle they are using, and the most important goods that they are carrying. Simply perfect to drop that high way pirate right on top of your adventurers or if your PC is that high way pirate the perfect prey. Everything here is tailor made for your post apocalyptic highway adventurers to be pulled into the world of the drivers. This list is very well put together and has very little filler and all meat to exploit for the PC's. The ideas here are simply presented and for a post apocalyptic game solidly done.

One minute, the game is on track. The next minute, a PC (probably drunk) says "Hey, let's go to the brewery. I hear the beer is to die for there!".

What's a Dungeon Master/Game Master to do? Why, pick up the "Village Snooper: The Brewery", of course!

Kidding aside, I find this micro-setting (as well as the other Fishwife Games products) very useful for those moments when plans go awry or to seed a new adventure on the fly. :)

The 'Shadow Years' are that time period in post apocalyptic games when the world might sort of recover from the apocalyptic events and there's a whole dystopian vibe running through the game system. This was seen in Gamma World and to a more contemporary example Mutant Epoch. There are Mutant Future adventures and source books with this sort of feel running through them. Well Fishwife games has produced 100 Wasteland Urbanites for a ruined post apocalyptic urban city scene. Think of the movie 'The Warriors' folks, these are the minor NPC's who cross your party's tracks time and again. This random encounter list gives a whole bunch of minor options for the city encounters that come up during games. With random tables like this its always a toss up of these encounters are going to be minor side quests or simply another stranger passing in the night. This list gives the DM all kinds of folks to throw the PC's way. The list is well done and concise for its contents and sets up the stage pretty well with a wide variety of options to throw down and for the party to encounter. Dave provides an assortment of types of NPC's and the list has a wide variety of options. This encounter table has a multitude of uses from lower level street gang encounters to three A.M. garbage & salvage raid backdrops that it can be applied to. All in all not a bad list of NPC's to add to your cityscape with little to no hassle all for the price of a burger. Another quick and solid product from the pen of Dave Woodrum. I've got use for these folks in the post apocalyptic landscape.

Prime Pickings Of The Toxic Vulture, Set 2 builds on the corpse filled wasteland offerings of set one and gives even more options to fill up your wasteland encounters with interesting and notable dead. Yes it feels pretty weird to write that but that's exactly what this set does. It gives the DM tools to fill adventure encounters with people and not simply another dead body but it also offers the DM a twist for their dollar fifty. See there is an almost movie style grind house feel to the Prime Pickings Of The Toxic Vulture sets. Fish Wife has done a nice job setting up and giving the DM yet another way of tooling the wastelands into their own private world. Add these bodies into a location in Mutant Future or Gamma World first or second edition and suddenly the world is turned more sharply into focus with adventure hooks of a personal nature. This is a very well done set and personally I think its worth the price of admission. Fish Wife does an excellent job of bringing the grind house horror of Prime Pickings Of The Toxic Vulture to the fore. Grab this one and watch your PC's get put into the horror and head space of those who have not survived. The possibilities for Prime Pickings Of The Toxic Vulture, Set 2 are limited only by your imagination. Another winner from Fish Wife Games in my book.