Monthly Archives: April 2021

Articles, The Independents

Paris Gondo Review – The Life-Saving Magic of Inventorying

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PARIS GONDO read heroic stories from the age of 5, and loved the order and beauty of equipment described in them. From the age of 15, they studied inventorying. Paris started tidying in their own cell and moved onto those of fellow anchorites. Now, Paris lives in the Monastery of St. Eyvān, helping adventurers transform encumbered loads into packs of beauty, peace, and inspiration. Using the six steps of the play-based GonParis Method you too, oh over-encumbered and despondent adventurer, may finally find your equipment sparking joy instead of weighing you down. This is the roleplaying game where encumbrance is everything, Kalum’s Paris Gondo: The Life-Saving Magic of Inventorying!

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Articles, Editorial

Dune: Adventures in the Imperium Review

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Frank Herbert’s Dune is high in the science fiction pantheon. The novel combined originality and prescience in a way that has continued to inspire readers over the last 55 years; it has also defied adaptation. Both film versions of Dune (prior to the upcoming 2021 movie) were beautiful failures in their own right, and the version that never happened, plotted by psychedelic filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, was so ambitious that its lack of production still inspired a documentary. Dune’s RPG history is similarly troubled. Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium was designed by Last Unicorn Games and held up by licensing disputes. When Wizards of the Coast acquired Last Unicorn, they got permission to print any pending projects, and a 3000 copy print run of Chronicles of the Imperium was made. Apparently the entire run got scooped up on the con circuit and the game fell into obscurity after WotC scrapped further printing in favor of converting the whole thing to d20, which fortunately died on the vine in a new spate of licensing disputes. So, literally two decades later, Modiphius has the vaunted Dune license and has made good with Adventures in the Imperium, their latest 2d20 title.

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Articles, The Independents

Gravity RIP Review: Pro-Racing, Anti-Gravity

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About five hundred years ago the galactic community of alien species known as the Myriad had known harmony for 80,000 years, and had no use for violence and no concept of capitalism. Then the humans showed up, and it turned out everyone liked the taste of both. Now that galactic society is more of a chaotic, disparate sprawl the only thing anyone can agree on is a love for humankind’s third gift: the anti-gravity RIP Drive, and the ability to stuff these interstellar engines into much smaller craft for use in planet-bound, high speed death races. This isn’t a sport, it’s a lifestyle. It’s a deathstyle, baby: it’s Luke Westaway’s sci-fi racing RPG, Gravity RIP!

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Articles, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: 4/24/2021

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Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, and discussions from elsewhere online.

DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for 4/24/2021

  1. Dune: Adventures in the Imperium Core Rulebook
  2. Worlds Without Number
  3. Hard Wired Island
  4. Cyberpunk Red
  5. WFRP: Sullasara’s Spells of Unrivaled Utility

Top News Stories

The 50th Anniversary of the Tabletop Role-Playing Game: At the beginning of this week was the 50th anniversary of Dave Arneson’s first foray into fantasy scenarios for his ‘Braunstein’ wargames. It’s widely observed as the invention of the role-playing game as we know it.

Discussions of the Week

An Illustrated account of a Thousand Year Old Vampire Game: Tim, @dog_blink on Twitter, has been posting illustrations following his Thousand Year Old Vampire game. Check it out.

How to Narrate Sex Scenes Properly: Romance and sex are much better represented in RPGs than they were in the past, and this is a good thing. Over at r/rpg the Redditors have an extensive and thoughtful discussions about how to handle sex at the gaming table.

Have any RPG news leads or scoops? Get in touch! You can reach us at cannibalhalflinggaming@gmail.com, or through Twitter via @HungryHalfling.

Articles, The Independents

Wanderhome Review

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There are certain things one takes for granted in a role-playing game. I’m not talking about anything as concrete as attributes or skills or levels, I’m talking about exogenous conflict, which is so omnipresent in traditional RPGs (and most non-traditional RPGs as well) that it’s invisible. Well of course there are monsters to fight. Well of course you need to define a ‘need’ in Fiasco. Well of course there’s scarcity in your apocalypse. Like many people I took this for granted until I saw a game that completely stepped away from it. No, the war is over, no one fights. No, people are inherently good, there are no monsters. No, you will have hospitality in every place you visit. When I first read Wanderhome, this twisted my mind a little. How does one play a game with so little conflict? And then I created a character. And then I immediately got it.

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Articles, Editorial

Traveller: Drinaxian Companion Review

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I’ve previously written about the The Pirates of Drinax, and I believe that it’s for good reason. It is one of my favorite published campaigns, and I would argue that it is the best I have ever seen in terms of being a true sandbox. It begins with a promise that the players are being brought in to take a miniscule star nation operating between two behemoths, and to make it an Empire in its own right and not only is it possible, it offers a chance to have the players take an active stance in the government that is formed. The campaign is not only flexible enough that it offers the ideas that players might want to spurn their patron and carve out a kingdom of their own, but it actively sets rules for how to go about it. There is a story seed for virtually every planet, for which there are multiple populating each of dozens of subsectors. You could likely make an entire campaign about dealing with the Pirate Lords of Theev, a group of politically insulated pirates that operate out of a planet is a surprisingly open secret. All of this is on top of a ten module progression of the campaign as players take a single ship and try to form a pirate flotilla.

And as much as I love it, I do not think I will ever run another session using the rules as written. So, it was with a bit of hesitation that I picked up the Drinaxian Companion. Yet, as a result, I have found my interest rekindled.

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Articles, Weekend Update

Weekend Update: 4/17/21

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Welcome to the Cannibal Halfling Weekend Update! Start your weekend with a chunk of RPG news from the past week. We have the week’s top sellers, industry news stories, and discussions from elsewhere online.

DriveThruRPG Top Sellers for 4/17/2021

  1. Dune – Adventures in the Imperium Core Rulebook
  2. Worlds Without Number
  3. Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Bestiary
  4. Cyberpunk Red
  5. Sentinel Comics Core Rulebook

Top News Stories

The Orr Report is here: Roll20 released the Orr Report, their report of internal play statistics, for Q1 2021. With the uncategorized numbers still north of 13% for both campaigns and players, we have a consistent reminder that this data tells us pretty much nothing other than literally what’s going on on Roll20. D&D 5e is still above 50% in both the campaign and account rates, and interestingly Pathfinder is beating Pathfinder 2e to a measly 1/20th of 5e. The growth numbers are slightly more indicative, though oddly Burning Wheel tops that list with a staggering 300% growth rate quarter-over-quarter. In the full list you can get juicy but completely meaningless tidbits like how Degenesis is tied with Eclipse Phase, and that Electric Bastionland has the same player count as Feast of Legends, better known as the licensed Wendy’s RPG.

Discussions of the Week

Matt Colville of MCDM Productions has some thoughts about the term ‘homebrew’ and where it fits into the range of creations available in the RPG sphere right now. Justin Alexander of Atlas Games has a response. Both threads are worth reading.

We talk a lot about the biggest Kickstarter campaigns in the RPG world, but ENWorld compiled the biggest RPG Kickstarter creators, including 19 creators whose total take between all their campaigns was over $1 million. Lots of 5e content creators here, but Free League, Monte Cook Games, and Onyx Path take the 1, 2, and 3 spots. In an interesting twist, only one creator on this entire list has a single PbtA project, and that’s Evil Hat with Thirsty Sword Lesbians. When you look into Magpie Games, though, and their rather unfortunate decision to unify their Kickstarter marketing so late in the company’s lifecycle, you might note that they could easily be a missing 20th creator (even just adding Bluebeard’s Bride and Masks, technically ‘created’ by Marissa Kelly and Brendan Conway respectively, would be enough to push Magpie onto the list).

Have any RPG news leads or scoops? Get in touch! You can reach us at cannibalhalflinggaming@gmail.com, or through Twitter via @HungryHalfling.

Articles, Editorial

Mechasys Review: Mecha-sized Adventures in Genesys

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Sometimes a tank or a fighter jet just won’t do the trick. Sometimes, the best way to deal with a problem is a big, stompy mecha. However, while life is finally returning to Genesys proper with EDGE Studios announcing their upcoming Twilight Imperium supplement,  if you want to be jumping in the cockpit with the Narrative Dice System running the show you’ve been dealing with homegrown material. Now, though, there’s an offering on the Foundry itself which just might turn the tide of your own personal giant robot war. From mecha creation to pilot recruitment, lets head to the hangar to check out Mechasys from Studio 404 Games!

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Adventure Log, Articles

Adventure Log: Cyberpunk Red: CabbageCorp Prologue

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Everyone knows Night City, choom. Underneath the glitz and the danger, whatta ya really got? Rent is out of control, every block is already claimed by one booster or another, and if the cops don’t knock you down on your way home Arasaka will. Why live in a city dominated by a security corp anyway? Nah, the midwest is where it’s at. Can’t afford rent? Grab a shipping container and plop it in a nearby contaminated cornfield. Don’t want the cops breathing down your neck? Get a job at the local agricorp, you’ll unlock every door in town. The beer tastes better, the vegetables are real, and there’s plenty of room for everyone. Just fly suborbital into DFW and take the 35 north until you hit Hydropolis. 

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Articles, The Independents

Over Arms Review

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Every so often, I look at a game, and make an impulse purchase sight unseen. Sometimes it’s a follow up to a campaign that I have previously waxed eloquent about, others it is a supplement to a system that opens up rules for something I had envisioned, or has a high concept that is so unique that I can’t help but look. Other times, it is because it promises the ability to play in fictional works I love so much that I can’t help but churn out a cry of “Shut Up and Take My Money!” It’s the last of these that triggered an irresistible pull to Rookie Jet’s Over Arms. 

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