Tag Archives: RPG

Level One Wonk Holiday Special: 2024

Happy holidays to gamers here and around the world! It’s that time again where I settle in at the end of the year, make a comforting hot beverage and review what’s gone on in the last twelve months. And, to be completely honest, it’s been a doozy. In the gaming world, 2024 was a year of D&D, the game’s 50th anniversary being a banner event that led to the release of the new 2024 version of the 5e handbooks (I guess we’re not supposed to call them 5.5e, but come on). At the same time, the goliath that is D&D has taken some licks; the self-inflicted wound that was the OGL fiasco led to significant fragmentation in the high fantasy subgenre defined by, well, D&Ds. Daggerheart, Draw Steel, and Tales of the Valiant all brought forth new takes on the 5e formula, and were a double-edged sword in terms of D&D’s monopoly: On one hand, that version of fantasy, the swords and sorcery slash Tolkien mashup that existed nowhere except D&D in 1974 and now exists everywhere, is still the most popular RPG genre in the world. On the other hand, a wide range of 5e players took a look at other games, and if D&D didn’t end up being their first choice for D&D things, they definitely ended up looking at other games for other genres.

Continue reading Level One Wonk Holiday Special: 2024

When The Walls Fall Review – Fallen Cities and Falling Dice

The ancient city was originally founded as a place of study; a great library was its first building, and it remained ever its heart. However, the city grew to form the core of an unspeakable ritual, powered by harnessing a long forgotten god. Eventually, its distant neighbors could not tolerate the ideas it was spreading, and they attacked. That was when the walls fell, leaving a ruined city with a defaced statue at its heart… and broken roads, spreading corruption, and fanatics of that forgotten god bleeding out of it into the countryside…

Continue reading When The Walls Fall Review – Fallen Cities and Falling Dice

Solitaire Storytelling: Koriko: A Magical Year part 2

Check out part 1 of this Solitaire Storytelling here.

After more writing and more adventures, I’ve concluded my playthrough of Koriko: A Magical Year. The story I created, of Lapis, a witch-in-training who thinks she’s boring, ends up telling a pretty fascinating coming-of-age story. Lapis discovers how much bigger the world is than her village, how much deeper magic is than what her grandmother taught her, and how weird, wonderful, and sometimes terrible other people can be. All of those experiences and trials are filtered down from 65 pages of handwritten entries into seven letters home. Just like before, what the letters don’t tell is often as important as what they do…as the confession in the last letter so clearly broadcasts.

Continue reading Solitaire Storytelling: Koriko: A Magical Year part 2

Arkham Horror RPG Review

Edge Studio has been quiet for much of its current existence. While Edge had an original incarnation making RPGs like End of the World, in its current version it’s the RPG arm of Asmodee, built up in part from the original Edge Studio but primarily from the roleplaying team of Fantasy Flight Games. Immediately after Edge Studio was formed they did little besides finish existing Fantasy Flight obligations, mostly in the form of Legend of the Five Rings supplements. While Edge was also responsible for releasing the Twilight Imperium supplement for Genesys and a few 5e-based games, there has not been an Edge-developed RPG system. Until now. Finally in broad distribution at the end of November, Arkham Horror is both a new swing at an old license but also a completely new set of RPG mechanics, the Dynamic Pool System. While the Dynamic Pool System certainly drinks from the same well as Genesys, for Arkham Horror it presents much simpler mechanics; there are no custom dice, only d6s, and while the game provides the comfortable framework of character classes there are really only two mechanical levers players need to worry about pulling, skills and knacks. All in all, it’s a simpler ruleset designed to be an easier way to play Call of Cthulhu. The question, of course, is if that’s something that we want.

Continue reading Arkham Horror RPG Review

Cannibal Halfling’s Reviewed Games at PAX Unplugged 2024

Cannibal Halflings are once again haunting the halls of PAX Unplugged, and once again we’re seeing a lot of familiar faces (and games). There’s… so darn much, there’s no way I’ll cover everything we’ve even already looked at, never mind everything at Unplugged that is worth checking out, but hey, got to start somewhere, right?

Continue reading Cannibal Halfling’s Reviewed Games at PAX Unplugged 2024

Crowdfunding Carnival: December, 2024

Welcome to Crowdfunding Carnival for December of 2024! I’ll be honest, one of the best things about this year right now is that it’s almost over. It’s been eventful, perhaps too eventful, here in 2024, but lo and behold we’re back into another holiday season, and that means that there’s a lull in crowdfunding. It’s not a complete lull; there’s still some solid campaigns out there, including a few big ones and even the tail end of a major event. That said, seven campaigns is a low watermark, and that’s even after poking around on the hanger-on crowdfunding sites. Even so, there are some gems here. We have journaling games, games in Scots, and even an entire month of Mothership. So let’s check out what’s in store.

Continue reading Crowdfunding Carnival: December, 2024