For years I have served my Master faithfully. A loyal companion, I accompanied my Master through the difficult times, and the good times. Now, I am called in a moment of dire need: a Stranger has challenged my Master to a duel, alluding to time before me. My Master rises to the challenge, calling me forth. This is my moment. I have trained for this. It is time to do my Master proud.
My Master gives me the command:
I will, of course, obey. After all, I am a Good Dog.
This post is brought to you thanks to Lady Tabletop, who prompted folks to write about their own gaming experiences of the year and give out their own fun awards. I like the idea a lot, and as it turns out I actually have a lot of games to mention and talk about and give accolades to. I still plan to write up my usual X Years of Cannibal Halflings on the 31st to look back on the year, but this seems like a fun idea that focuses more on the games than the writing about them. So, let’s see what I played, what I thought about them, and who won what!
There’s ice on the tracks, Tourists keep getting tangled up with regular Commuters, and two trains are Out of Service. That other subway line is going to have a much better reputation at this rate. Well, you can try some overnight repairs, see if you can funnel some riders into a tourist trap, and hope against hope the other line catches fire or something, but no matter what you can probably Expect Delays.
“After the locusts and pits and boiling seas. After the war in heaven and feasting on earth. After the seven years of blood and forty years of night.
There is magic. Magic and bone.
Where streets grow weeds and skyscrapers stand hollow. Where old gods wake and new gods form in the hearts of the wayward. Where cult and banner flourish. Where the dead, they walk. Where the stars disregard their course and Jupiter’s children are born under powerful new signs.
Mages. Mages like you.”
With rings on your fingers, tattoos on your knuckles, and scars on the back of your hand, you’ll delve into the cursed ruins of a post-fall city and walk the Two-Hand Path.
Continue reading Two-Hand Path Review: Getting a Grip on Luck and Magic
PAX Unplugged 2025 is this weekend! Which you probably already know, on account of clicking on this article while you’re on your way there or already in Philly. Alas, I won’t be there this time around. I hear tell some other Cannibal Halflings will be there, though, and I don’t have to be present to Know Things Worth Your Time. Let’s go over some games for you to buy, some games for you to play, and some interesting events to check out.
You and Granma were, frankly, on the worst terms. That’s what made it such a surprise when you got a package from your cousin, who had wound up being the executor of her estate. Maybe, your cousin writes, Granma was able to overlook your differences since you had become a fellow academic? Either way, the actual package is a copy from her rare books collection, willed to you. You can’t help yourself, so you start to read the book. It’s a weird one, an anthology of works all talking about books and stories and death and living forever and… rituals? Hold on. You really can’t help yourself. You consider just not turning the page, but you turn it all the same. The notes you’re writing in the margins stop being the words you intended to write. You can feel the book pulling you in…
The book is Siderius Plug’s SPINE – Immortality in Ninety-nine Endnotes.
Continue reading SPINE Review: Making A Game Of Getting Lost In A Book
They came less than a year ago. The war was swift – and brutal.
Humans and aliens bombed each other to smithereens, and now both sides are licking their wounds. Mysterious new factions rise to join the struggle of the fallen titans. In this landscape of shifting allegiances, we may have to choose sides. Debris from the explosion of the aliens’ mothership has clouded the atmosphere, lowering the temperature and creating the coldest winter in a thousand years.
We find ourselves in a melancholy, wintry landscape — quiet, until it’s not. Egg-shaped alien structures thirty stories tall now squat, humming, over the cities they crushed. Xenofauna and lost invaders stalk the woods and highways. A war is brewing in the aching silence.
We are navigating the waking remnants of human and alien empires — and all we’ve got is a car, our fellow travelers, and the road.
It’s time to head west with The Last Caravan.
Continue reading The Last Caravan – Con-Apocalyptic Road Trip
“One year ago the Rift opened and the Kaiju attacked. It tore our cities apart, rampaging for days until we finally dropped the bomb. We killed the beast but lost so much in the process. We knew this was only the beginning so we built the Mechs: giant war machines, the pinnacle of human engineering, and our only hope for survival. The Rift is reponing. More Kaiju are coming, but this time will be different. Your Home depends on you. Are you ready, Pilot?”
This is HOME, the Mech x Kaiju Mapmaking RPG for 1-4 players from Deep Dark Games!
Continue reading HOME Review – Mechs, Monsters, and Mapmaking
The cards, the cards, the cards can tell, the past, the present, and the future as well… provided you can actually read them. Tarot decks are seeing increasing use in tabletop roleplaying game design, from pure oracles like in Tangled Blessings to full-on challenge resolution like in To Change. In many cases the games provide pretty good prompts and details for what a given card means, but I’ve often seen them limited to just the major arcana, or suggest the players can be inspired by the card’s art to help interpret things. For those unfamiliar with tarot (it’s me, I’m talking about myself), that can be a bit of a challenge. Enter the Ultimate RPG Tarot Deck from Jon Taylor and Jef Aldrich!
Cannibal Halfling Gaming 