This adventure is good for what it wants to do, which is provide a quick experience for people familiar with Magic the Gathering, to play one-shot of D&D in a setting they are familiar with. It's straight foward, has a couple of choices to make, has pre-made characters, etc. It's not a great adventure for people wanting something to dig into with Ixalan, but I don't think that was ever the point of this. This score is for what it is, a learn to play scenario for MtG players.

This review originally appeared on www.forgotmydice.com

Dungeons and Dragons has always been my first love, which I started playing back during 2nd Edition, and it’s a game I always come back to. But the first RPG that blew my mind when I read it, so that it changed how I thought about RPGs, was the original Delta Green supplement for the Call of Cthulhu RPG, written way, way back in 1997. Delta Green introduced me to my favorite RPG genre, modern conspiracy horror. Well, now Delta Green is back, and this time it is its own RPG. I couldn’t be more excited.

Delta Green as a game product was a serious attempt to bring Cthulhu-style horror to a modern-day setting. In the original edition, they brilliantly married UFO conspiracy theory that was popular in the 90’s with elements of the Cthulhu mythos. Though the Delta Green book came out not long after The X-Files premiered, it was being developed around the same time as the show. So while the game was never really inspired by The X-Files, they oddly feel very similar, as if the writers of both were tapping into the culture zeitgeist of the time.

The Setting The original Delta Green supplement chronicled the agency’s history, starting with its inception as a government creation spun out of the events of the novella “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” If you have read the story (Spoiler Alert), “The Government” depth-charged Devil’s Reef at the end of that tale, and the US government took several fish-men hybrids away for study. Delta Green was the agency put in charge of those fish-men and the artifacts they recovered. Over time, Delta Green morphed and found its calling by fighting Mythos-studying Nazis in WWII. They eventually got disbanded after a bad operation in the 70’s, and re-formed into a terrorist conspiracy that operated within the US government, which is where the story was left back in 1997.

However, the real world marched on after that point but we’ve had no update to the original setting, even after several awesome books and adventures were published. Unfortunately, that information void continues to hold true in the upcoming Delta Green: Agents Handbook (available currently in PDF), though most likely because it is a players’ resource, and in a game of conspiracies, the players shouldn’t be aware of the behind-the-scenes history right away. Part of what makes the game fun for the Game Master (or Case Officer, in this RPG) is slowly revealing the layers of the conspiracy. For me, who is a bit of an old hat in the storyline, not being able to know what’s been happening was a little bit of a bummer, but the Case Officers Handbook is due out next and that should have all this information stashed there. So yeah, I’m going just a bit nuts waiting for the next book.

Rules What you do get is rules, which is everything you need to create a character and run the game. There is not much in the way of setting within these pages. The Delta Green RPG builds upon the original Call of Cthulhu RPG. The goal of the system is to streamline everything in Call of Cthulhu, update it to the modern day instead of the 1920s, but still have a product that’s compatible with older Call of Cthulhu or Delta Green material. In general, they have succeeded.

If you have played Call of Cthulhu before, not much has changed. The system is based on a d100, and your skills are based on flat percentages. For instance, if you have a 60 Survival, that means to succeed on a check, you have to roll 60 or under on a d100. They have further streamlined this system by borrowing concepts from the Gumshoe RPG system. Basically, if you have a 40 or higher in a skill, and what you are attempting isn’t time-sensitive, the Gamemaster usually won’t force you to roll and instead just give you the clues. If you have a 60 or higher, the Gamemaster gives you better clues. This was the best part of the Gumshoe game engine, since as a Gamemaster I’m usually scrambling to figure out how to let the players find a clue again after the whole table rolls terribly. It assumes competence of the players, instead of forcing them to roll everything, which makes sense. If you’re skilled in Archeology, you’re not going to fail seeing what is and isn’t Egyptian in the strange tomb you have uncovered. Using a system like this helped the tail end of my D&D game quite a bit, but I’ll get into that next week.

Another bit that I liked was the method of character advancement. Handing players XP for character improvement seems weird in a system that is known for character insanity and death. Instead, during the session, if you fail a skill roll, then you place a mark by the skill. If your character survives, at the end of the adventure, all marked skills go up by 1 point. It’s like the character deciding to double down to improve skills so that they wouldn't have the same trouble again. It’s a little random and arbitrary, but that is Call of Cthulhu for ya.

The master stroke for modern Cthulhu gaming has to be the revised sanity chapter. Call of Cthulhu handles sanity in a way fitting of a 1920s pulp horror novel, but those actions don’t quite translate to the modern day. For example, if your character fails a sanity check, he or she may pass out or develop strange phobias. The Delta Green RPG revises this concept by making the sanity mechanic that more resembles PTSD. Also, sanity loss comes from fewer sources, such as violence, helplessness, and witnessing something unnatural. Your character can become hardened to sources of insanity, which means you don’t take sanity losses from those sources anymore, but it also means you are becoming a cold soulless person that is starting to resemble the very monsters you are fighting.

You can also resist sanity loss by sacrificing points in personal connections you have. But this also comes at a cost, since after the adventure is over, you have to explain how this loss of connection occurred. For example, after fighting off some fish-men, you start to drink a lot more at home and start yelling at your kid, which has permanently damaged your relationship. It is unsettling and uncomfortable but more realistic to simulate a modern game where you’re slowly losing your mind.

Final Thoughts Overall, I’m very happy with the new version of the Delta Green RPG. I’ve only played the game with the original Call of Cthulhu system once and found the experience lacking. It was obvious to me even then, that there was a little bit of a disconnect between the rules and the setting. After that, I used Wizards of the Coast’s d20 version, which wasn’t much better but it was during the d20 boom and I understood the system. I was planning on using the Gumshoe Trail of Cthulhu version if I ran Delta Green again, but then they announced this update to Delta Green RPG, so I’m going to give this a try. They have cleaned up most of the problems I had with the original version, and the new sanity mechanics are very evocative of the setting and time period. While I am disappointed with the lack of setting detail, I know it’s coming, so I just have to wait for it a little bit longer. Once a few more books come out in the line, this is going to be a great game to pick up. I’m especially looking forward to the King in Yellow campaign book they have been talking about. The only question is, when will it be out, and will it be in time to start when I wrap up my current campaign? My hope is yes, as the anticipation is definitely getting to me. Pardon me while I go roll a sanity check vs helplessness during the wait.

This review appeared originally at www.forgotmydice.com

In a world where D&D exists, one of the questions I often find myself asking when I read fantasy RPG systems is this: Why am I playing this when I could be playing D&D? It’s a simple question, and not every game system has a satisfactory answer. Fantasy Age, however, is one system that not only do I like a lot, it also has two answers to that eternal question. Firstly, there are three classes in the game, and none of them are a cleric. It is a system that from the ground up has no plans for the divine world and the player character world ever touching. You can make that happen obviously, but again it’s not baked in. Secondly, Fantasy Age reminds me a lot of the old D&D Rules Cyclopedia. It is a complete RPG system in one book, which is helpful when you want something a little lighter.

The Basics Fantasy Age is the core rule book of the AGE system, which stands for Adventure Game Engine. It is the system that was first used for the excellent Dragon Age RPG. They have been talking about separating the system out for years, but sadly it was released just after D&D 5th edition, which meant it got over-shadowed by the big kid on the block. Luckily, Fantasy Age got a boost when Wil Wheaton used it for his own YouTube series Titansgrave. So soon after release, the game had a long adventure campaign that you could run. Plus, Titansgrave is set in a science-fantasy world, so you get the added bonus of playing a game with some robots and blasters thrown in, which was a nice change of pace if you have been playing traditional high fantasy D&D for a while.

Fantasy AGE by itself is a generic high fantasy game. The overview of it covers all the bases you will probably want. You got Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, Humans, and Orcs. The three classes are Mage, Warrior and Rogue. It has a short section on monsters and how to make more (sadly the book doesn’t come with enough monsters on its own, but fortunately the internet has more than made up for this). Plus there is a small intro adventure in the back. All of that in one hardback book for $29.95 MSRP… that’s a lot of value in-between those covers!

One of the biggest draws for me for the Fantasy Age system is that a lot of “fantasy” stories out there are difficult to translate to D&D. The main reason is that one of the core classes of D&D the cleric class, but very few popular fantasy stories feature clerics (at least, D&D clerics which have direct links to known gods which are also the source of magical power for these clerics). Fantasy Age is a very solid and simple game engine. So settings where the gods and religion are much more a matter of faith rather than gameplay, such as Dragon Age or Game of Thrones, you have a rules system that is much easier to for it to plug into.

The Rules Characters are created using a similar system to 5th edition D&D, including picking a Race, a Class, and a Background. Also, much like D&D, early in level players pick a specialization that gives them extra powers and focuses them around a particular sub set of abilities. Unlike D&D, players eventually learn two of these specializations, so mixing and matching these can lead to some very interesting combinations.

Characters also get “talents” as they level up, which in D&D terms can be thought of as feats. What I like about this system is that talents have three levels of mastery: novice, journeyman, and master. It’s up to the individual player how their character will progress. They can focus on and master a few talents, or spread out the points and be novices in many, random talents. So even though there are only three initial classes to pick from, they can be customized to be different in a myriad of different ways.

The dice mechanic in Fantasy Age is different as well. Instead of rolling a single dice, you roll 3d6. Two of your dice should be the same color, and one of them should be a separate color to symbolize the Stunt Die. Whenever you roll, if you roll doubles on any of the 3 dice and the total roll equals a success, you generate Stunt Points equal to what you rolled on the Stunt Die. For combat rolls, this allows you to add riders onto your attacks. For skill checks, this allows you to add different dramatic effects so you complete a skill with particular panache. I’m also a fan of this system as it makes figuring out the difficulty level of tasks easy. Because you’re rolling 3 dice most of the time, the most common roll result is 10. So if you ever find yourself needing to roll a number higher than 10, especially 12+, you should probably spend some resources or use a class ability to get yourself a bonus, or just use a different tactic to solve the problem.

Finally, in D&D, the Strength or Dexterity stat gives you a straight bonus to your hit and damage rolls. In Fantasy Age, the stats are more nuanced, resulting in the stats Accuracy, Dexterity, Fighting, and Strength, among others. This means you can have the stats reflect the fluff of a character, such as a creature that is super strong but has a hard time hitting things, like a Ogre. But when one stat affects both those aspects, it means you can’t have a character with a low attack bonus but with a high strength stat. So this system allows the Game Master more creativity when creating monsters for the players to fight. For instance, you can make something very skilled at applying weapons to adventurers but also with weak strength (like say a Sprite) so the little sword hits don’t do much damage. Or you can make a big giant that will hit you like a truck but has a hard time connecting with the humans that only come up to its shins.

Final Thoughts This is a really great book, and I have a fondness for any game system that manages to fit everything you need in one volume. The game system itself is much more rules-light and narrative than D&D, but still has enough crunch to make things interesting. It is definitely on my list of games I’d like to play or run, either by running Titansgrave, or by converting it to another setting. Anyone looking for a similar game system should give it a try.

Dread is a horror role playing game, designed to be played in single sessions. While you probably can have a character come back for "sequels" it's not a focus of the game. I found this game due to Table Top, and the $3 price point fell into the "what the heck" of impulse purchasing.

The basic mechanic is you use a tower of bricks which Table Top couldn't call Jenga, whenever you would roll dice. If the tower falls, your character is removed from the game, typically via death after it gets going.

Character creation is via a question and answer page you do at the start of the game. There are no stats, it's all very narrative. Over all I like the idea of it, and really want to play it. I even got a new Jenga tower, which of course is a completely unrelated purchase to this game :P

Watch the episode of Table Top on this one, if it is at all intriguing give the whole book a go. Wil did one of the scenarios they give you in the book for his review, but there are two more.

I decided to review this because while I own Numenera and the Strange I have not really played them, and beyond looking at the rules a bit, I mostly focused on reading the setting of those games. Also I have been neck deep in D&D for the last two years so it’s been awhile since I went through those books. Basically this is an outsiders perspective, I haven’t played any of Monte Cook’s previous games. Why then would I buy the Cypher System Rulebook, why not? 2015 is a year of amazing RPG’s what is one more for the pile.



Cypher System is a generic system, however the focus is definitely on heroic, borderline super heroic characters. Luckily I had just got done re-reading GURPS before I went through this, and in my mind Cypher System is anti-GURPS. GURPS has a narrow focus on “realism” and characters are fairly fragile feeling. Given I have never played GURPS but that was the impression I got. Cypher System characters on the other hand feel very competent and powerful even at low level. It’s a very interesting difference, and over all I like it.



The writing frankly is wonderfully annoying. During the description of how the mechanics work, they typically explain the concept twice in two different ways. At first I hated it, and wanted to beat myself about the head and face with my desk. It turns out this is a feature not a flaw, the rules really stuck in my head after reading them. Which considering I never rolled dice for this game is a good thing. Still if you find yourself getting frustrated as you get into the middle of the book it becomes clear what is going on.



Cypher System uses three stats, which are Might, Speed, and Intellect. One of the more innovative mechanics is these stats form a pool which are a resource you and use, and basically your hit points. This managing aspect is pretty neat, and I really want to see it in action. I worry a bit as some of my players get analysis paralysis sometimes with stuff like this, and I won’t like I don’t play casters in D&D because I have the problem as well. So we will see how it pans out.



The system itself is based on rolling a d20 and trying to beat a target number. However the players have a lot of ways to mess with the target number. Players can either lower it by basically spending their pool, or by class abilities, or both. While the system itself is a little fiddly, because you can both have positive modifiers to your d20 rolls, while at the same time subtracting from the difficulty. It’s by far not the most fiddly system I have ever played and enjoyed (I’m looking at you Iron Kingdoms Unleashed). But after coming from D&D for as I said years, doing anything but adding numbers to d20 rolls seems like more effort that it deserves. It’s honestly the biggest argument I have gotten into with my players who have taken a look at the system. I don’t have a good answer beyond it’s probably not a big deal during actual play, and I enjoyed the heck out of FATE so what do I know.



The system has several Genre chapters to get you in the mood. Presented are Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Modern, and Superheroes. After getting to know the rules for the system in previous chapters, most of the suggestions for genre fall into the “well duh” column (remember how well they explained rules). But all in all thats a good thing, it means the system is easy to customize and they had done a good job explaining the rules in previous chapters. I also really enjoyed the little aside at the end of the chapters talking about how to mash two of the genre chapters together. 
 
Overall I really really liked the game, and I want to give it a try. The game has a focus on competent and frankly superhuman characters. It’s funny they have all this art from the old west scattered through the book, but the system doesn’t handle gritty well in my opinion. There is nothing wrong with that, I have yet to see a universal system that handles gritty and superhuman well under the same framework. The game itself has a lot of innovative mechanics, one I forgot to mention is rolling is in the hands of the players. The GM just says what the difficulty of the task, hitting a foe, or defending from an attack. It also forces the hand of the “all the dice are on the table” style of play. So if your looking for a generic system, and you want it to have a fair amount of depth, but not I need a graphing calculator to make a character level of it, give this a go.

Iron Kingdoms Unleashed Review

A little background for you, I play Warmachine and Hordes, which are the table top miniature games that this RPG is based on. In particular my main faction is the Trollbloods so it was almost written in the stars that I would like this book. I’ll try to give you an objective review, but if my love of the setting gets away with me you will know why.



Iron Kingdoms Unleashed is the RPG of the Hordes table top game. Which is about the monster races of the Iron Kingdoms. The original book in the line Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy covers the Humans, Elves, and Dwarven kingdoms of the setting.



Fluff



This game is interesting, I’ve been playing a lot of D&D 5th edition since it’s release. So seeing a game that lets you play a monster was refreshing. Especially because the setting gives you the sense that these monsters are on some what equal footing with the civilized Dwarves, Elves, and Humans. Your not a cowering tribe of Goblins fearing the day when a high level Adventurer will sweep through your tribe. The major monster races are scary, and should be respected.

Iron Kingdoms Unleashed takes place in the “Wilds” of Immoren. While I really enjoyed the chapter setting up the history of all the factions. Knowing the other side of the coin, specifically what is going on in the human kingdoms from the Full Metal Fantasy book, really helped flesh out the setting. I’m not sure if they give you enough of a picture of what the countries on the map actually mean by themselves. Given you are playing monsters, so whatever those soft squishy humans print on maps doesn’t mean much, as they are weak and cower behind the walls.

There are a lot of monster races to pick from in the book, they are basically split into four “factions” of critters. The Bog Trogs (fishmen) and Gatormen make up the swamp races. The Trollkin and Pygmy Trolls make up the Troll Kriels. Tharn and Human druids make up the Circle of Oroboros. The Farrow are well… the Farrow. Lastly you have the Nyss who are a species of Elf that have lost there lands to mutant dragons (it’s a long story). Of course there are Humans who live in the wilds as well. The races seem fairly well balanced, and mixing races from Full Metal Fantasy should not be a problem.



The Trolls have 4 species that live in the wilds. There are the Pygmy Trolls, who are small (by troll standards) clever people who are not quite as smart or civilized as the Trollkin. I like to think of them like Jawa’s personally. Where Trollkin are large and strong, Pygmy Trolls are more agile and cunning. Trollkin are the next size up, they are of human intelligence, and the race appears in Full Metal Fantasy as there are Trolls that live and work in Human settings. Trollkin have a scottish flair, liking big weapons and wearing kilts, but have an odd tendency to have vaguely Nordic names, and they drink heavily. Trollkins are 7 to 8 feet tall, and in the setting probably fill the same niche as World of Warcraft Orcs. There are also Full Blooded Trolls, which are monsters, but can be reasoned with. Sometimes Full Blooded Trolls live with there smaller kin, trading labor and strength for easy food. Lastly there are the Dire Trolls, Mountains of muscle and basically the fury of nature given form, they are hard to reason with.



Farrow are my other favorite race from the book, they don’t get a lot of pages but what they get is just packed with flavor. They are probably the D&D Orc race in the setting, Tribes of pig headed savages. In this book I found out that they are cannibals, which makes sense several Farrow units in the table top game have the “Bacon” rule. Basically in the setting Farrow are often prayed upon by other races because they are tasty to eat. The Farrow themselves acknowledge this which is why they eat their own as well, and consider it an insult if you don’t join them.



The Circle of Orboros has humans in there number and Tharn. Tharn are kind of like shifters from Eberron. They are a race that are touched by the Devouring Wyrm and have a human like form, and can shift into a more bestial form. Tharn Men become larger and vaguely wolfish, where the tharn women become agile and hard to spot. The Druids of the Circle are old school D&D Druids, wanting to return to nature at any cost, which means they want to destroy civilization. The problem is civilization is not destroyed, the Full Metal Fantasy kingdoms are at late 19th century technology, which means you get to read about the Circle having all these cool plans to destroy the world, and then ultimately fail.



Bog Trogs are walking humanoid fish that are easy to track because they smell. They are cowardly and are often beaten into submission by the other race they share the swamps with, the Gatormen. Gators in the Iron Kingdoms setting all appear to have the ability to walk on two legs. The Gatormen are 7 foot tall, walking gators, that normally practice in magic that involves the stealing souls and then using them as a resource. They can also command the larger gators of the swamp, along with giant snapping turtle, swamp squids, and other nasty beasts.



In short you are playing monsters, which has it’s own problems. Being neck deep in the lore of the game it’s hard for me to imagine a reason why some of these races would work together. But then again I’m a lore snob and probably should relax and enjoy things more.



The Rules



Making a character is pretty easy in the game because you don’t roll for stats, and honestly during creation you don’t make a lot of choices. Which is good and bad, but the ease of which you gain your first few “levels” means the early part of the game is an extended tutorial. Once you get about 12 XP (which you can get in 4 to 6 play sessions) your character has taken on a lot of new abilities and choices, and really fleshed out.



Step 1 is you pick your race, which determines your basic stats.
 Step 2 is you pick your Archetype which is basically a mini class. You have four choices, Mighty (which raises your damage and makes you harder to kill), Skilled (which raises the number of attacks you get, and can make you more skilled), Cunning (party buffs essentially, gives you the ability to assist the other characters), and Gifted (aka your any form of Magic User).
 Step 3 you pick two Careers. Careers come pre built with what Abilities, Skills, and even gear they start with. You pick two, mash them together, and you have your character.
 Step 4 Customize. You can add 3 points into any of your stats, also you can trade out any spell or ability you get with another one available on your list. Which is good if you have something you really don’t need because of your class selection, you can pick up something more immediately useful. 
Step 5 Play.




The System



Iron Kingdoms uses d6’s, typically you roll 2d6 add your modifier and try to beat a difficulty number. So it’s kinda like d20 in that regard, it also means the average roll is 6 or 7. There are several ways of adding dice to the roll that exist in the game. For example, picking the Mighty Archetype gives you an extra dice of damage on melee attacks. Or charging into combat also gives you an extra dice. So if you find yourself in a situation where you need a high number that is hard to roll there are typically ways to change the math, the trick is finding them.



All characters also get 3 feat points which can do a number of awesome things, which is good because there is little to no magical healing in the game. So if you didn’t have the ability to heal with feat points, or halve the damage you take from an attack with them, the game would be extremely deadly.



The game itself is primarily a combat system as it’s built on a wargame. Which means the combat is also extremely fiddly. While I can in theory imagine not playing with miniatures, I wouldn’t recommend it. This is probably the biggest downfall of the game honestly, the combat system is deep and complex. The problem is it has a fairly steep learning curve. Now if you are used to the tabletop game picking it up is easy, it’s the same system with a few wrinkles.



Overall

As I said I play the table top game, I’m already invested in the system. So I like it a lot. The World is interesting, there is a lot of good stories you can read. I play Trolls, they are in this book a lot, it's awesome. It’s not a game for everybody, again the rules are very fiddly, and while the combat is engaging and very dynamic the game does shine with it’s combat system. If your not a deep combat nut it’s probably not a great game for you. The system reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy Tactics, where you take jobs, and get stuff, to really make the character you want. If any of this sounds interesting to you, take a gander, it’s a lot of fun.