Shards of the Stone is a veritable tome – weighing in at 400 for the bargain price of $25. Every page is full of information, its production values are high, its premise interesting, and its potential seemingly limitless.

Review Originally Published in Games Unplugged (December 2000)
Reprinted at RPGNet – May 22nd, 2001

Before time and space existed, there were the Progenitors. These Progenitors gave to their Progeny – the fabled avatars of the five and twenty elements – the Stone. The Progeny were to imprint their values into the Stone, creating a mirror of perfection. But something went wrong – whether by design or accident is unknown – and the Progeny began to squabble. The Stone shattered into countless Shards, ruining the perfection of the world which had existed. The true world was smashed into splinters.

Shards of the Stone is a veritable tome – weighing in at 400 for the bargain price of $25. Every page is full of information, its production values are high, its premise interesting, and its potential seemingly limitless. Despite all this, though, I find myself with nagging doubts as far as this game is concerned. Too many errors of execution seem to flaw what would otherwise be a beautiful gem.

First the good stuff: The first fifty pages of Shards details a rich cosmology and world structure, setting firm foundations for future world design. The intention is that various “Realms” (created by the titular Shards of the Stone) will be detailed in subsequent world books over the course of the future, and eventually all of these Realms will be brought together – creating a dynamic atmosphere for adventure in the mixture of various fantasy archetypes. The rulebook as a whole – which uses the previously established FUZION system – is exceptional: Proving itself useful to both beginners and experienced players through a wealth of guidelines and campaign tools.

Although at first glance, the book looks really great, as you begin to take a closer look problems begin to appear: The overall structure of the book is well structured, but the page-by-page organization of the material leaves much to be desired – important rules are located in sidebars, which are placed with no seeming relation to the surrounding text; important charts are referenced as being in one place, but actually appear in a different location entirely; and so forth.

The FUZION system itself – which grew out of a synthesis of Hero and R. Talsorian’s Interlock System – has never proven itself to be as robust as its forefathers. A great deal of sound and fury is spent to accomplish very little – as if, whenever the designers realized they could do something in one step, they always chose to do it in two.

Far more worrisome, however, is the absence of setting material. Although the general cosmology of the universe is explained in copious and fascinating detail, the FUZION engine chews up so much space that even in a 400 page book like this you’re still left with no practical information for actually running a game.

Which wouldn’t be quite so large a problem if the promised support material were available. Unfortunately – despite hyping the “future of gaming in the 21^st century” through their “advanced” use of their website to foster a community around the game – two months have passed since GenCon and the website still hasn’t been updated. Nor has a single supplement been released.

Shards of the Stone shows a lot of promise, and is probably worth the cover price if the concept interests you at all. Unfortunately, it simply breaks too many of its own promises to receive the ringing endorsement it should have earned.

Grade: B

Style: 5
Substance: 3

Writers: Sean Patrick Fannon, Matt Forbeck, Dan McGirt
Publisher: Obsidian Studios
Price: $25.00
Page Count: 384
ISBN: 0-9674429-1-5
Product Code: OBS1000

It turned out that Shards of the Stone would not, in fact, fulfill its promises. They had an all-star line-up of designers ready to go, but as far as I know, no Realm books were ever produced, leaving the handsome Core book as, basically, a handsome paperweight. I suspect that they were hoping the core rulebook would sell like gangbusters, giving them enough money to produce more books. (A rather common tragedy in the RPG industry.) It probably would have done rather well in the era of crowdfunding, where they might have funded a whole line of books from the get-go.

A version of the book is available on DriveThruRPG, but reputedly the FUZION system has been ripped out and crudely replaced with some other set of mechanics. InterStrike, the current publisher, has also failed to produce any of the necessary supplements.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Review Originally Published in Games Unplugged (August 2000)
Republished at RPGNet – May 22nd, 2001

Robin D. Laws is the esteemed designer of Feng Shui and Hero Wars, among sundry other games of high quality. Hogshead Publishing’s New Style line of games has included games such as Baron Munchausen and Puppetland, which have met with great critical acclaim. What happens when the two of them come together?

Pantheon. Five roleplaying games, under a single cover, of a curiously different sort.

The five games in question are Grave and Watery, Boardroom Blitz, The Big Hole, Destroy All Buildings, and Pantheon itself – each of which is based on the Narrative Cage Match (NCM) system.

What’s the NCM like? Think of it as a splicing of Once Upon a Time and Baron Munchausen, with a dash of Amber and Puppetland thrown into the mix. Like many of the other New Style games, the NCM is a storytelling game in the truest sense of the word – a system which doesn’t just talk about using traditional systems in order to create a story, but a set of rules which actually serves to focus the game session on the joint creation of such.

Basically it works like this: Each NCM game takes the form of a storytelling scenario – complete with plot seeds, goals, and characters. The degree of detail given varies depending on the particular game. For example, Boardroom Blitz has a Set-Up (detailing the fight to inherit the fortune of Dash MacMillan) and a Cast of Characters (from which the players can select their characters and gain insight into the supporting cast). The Big Hold, on the other hand, gives you a Set-Up and an Opening Scene (where the action starts), but doesn’t detail a specific Cast of Characters (leaving character creation up to the players).

Now here’s where it takes a turn off the beaten path: There is no GM in Pantheon. Instead gameplay begins when the first player submits a sentence. Play then proceeds to the second player, who submits another sentence, and so forth. This basic device is then complicated by a challenge system in which a combination of bidding counters and dice rolling will allow one player to rewrite the sentence submitted by another player. Eventually the story comes to an end (either because all the characters except one are dead, or because only one player has any bidding counters left) – at which point players score points based on the actions their characters accomplished (or failed to accomplish) during the course of the story. The winner, of course, is the player who has scored the most points.

Conceptually this is a really powerful system – not only can an endless variety of scenarios be plugged into it, but almost any given scenario can be played either humorously or seriously depending on which direction the players decide to take it. It is also a very different type of roleplaying game, which may leave open the question in the minds of some whether it is a roleplaying game or not.

The answer to that is an emphatic yes. On the one hand the game is clearly designed so that you assume and play a specific role. The methods by which that role is presented are very different from those used in a “traditional” RPG, but that merely means that a different set of creative skills are being used (with all the resultant changes in the types of stories you can tell). On the other hand, this is clearly a game – complete with goal-oriented awards. The fact that Pantheon is a different breed is a definite strength, not some sort of hidden weakness.

Unfortunately, the system does have its share of flaws in practice. Games with small groups can easily be ruined by an obnoxious player – primarily because the rules can easily be stretched to absurdity without actually breaking (run-on sentences, for example). The challenge system provides some recourse for this, but in a small group it becomes very easy for a single player to end up with more bidding chips than everyone else combined – essentially making it a cakewalk for them to force their distorted gameplay into continuity. This is particularly true since the mechanics of the bidding system make it inevitable for a consistently obnoxious player to amass more chips than everyone else (since the only person who sacrifices their chips are those who win challenges, if a person is consistently obnoxious – and therefore other people are challenging him to keep him in line – he is eventually going to have more chips than the other players).

Larger groups, on the other hand, tend to be more stable – but at the cost of some flexibility in character interactions (if there are always four or five sentences between you and another player, it becomes difficult for your two characters to meaningfully interact when all of the PCs are together). I also felt that the rules should have specifically addressed dialogue. Specifically: Just how constricted is the dialogue of our characters by the “one sentence” rule? And if it is constricted, then doesn’t that end up distorting character presentation?

Although these seem, at first glance, to be glaring problems, in practice they ended up being fairly minor concerns. The complications of large group interactions, for example, were overcome with a little practice and cooperation. The ability for a single player to ruin a small group game, on the other hand, is more troubling – but when push comes to shove, this isn’t really a game you want to be playing with those type of people, anyway. On the other hand, if a little more forethought had gone into the design of the rules (for example, by taking run-on sentences and dialogue into account) this would be a less pressing issue.

At the end of the day, though, there can be only one conclusion: Hogshead and Robin D. Laws have struck gold again. Pantheon is a solid kick in the pants of the traditional RPG form, and is pure fun through and through. Whether you play it with your tongue in your cheek or in pursuit of high pathos, this one’s definitely worth taking the time to check out.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Designer: Robin D. Laws
Publisher: Hogshead Publishing, Ltd.
Price: $5.95
Page Count: 24
ISBN: 1-899749-25-X

The New Style games from Hogshead Publishing, although mostly forgotten today, are some of the most important narrative tabletop games every published. James Wallis, the founder of Hogshead, was a visionary and he deserves a lot more credit that he gets for laying the groundwork that the Forge and the indie RPG movement would start building on a few years later.

Pantheon is devilishly difficult to get your hands on today. Which is unfortunate, it lay the groundwork for a lot of Robin D. Laws’ later work with storytelling games, including the DramaSystem. Some time after writing this review, I had the chance to play in a session moderated by Laws at Gen Con, and that was really special for me as a young fan and creator.

See the note on my 1999 review of Baron Munchausen for how my thoughts on roleplaying games, storytelling games, and narrative tabletop games were being challenged here, eventually evolving into a much more robust understanding of the medium(s). You might also enjoy checking out my near-contemporary article “Hog Wild – The New Style of Hogshead Publishing.”

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

You need this book in order to play Lejendary Adventures. You have my sympathies.

Review Originally Published in Games Unplugged Webzine – July 14th, 2000
Republished at RPGNet – May 22nd, 2001

Gygax, who you can always count on to deliver by the bushel, has crammed a ton of material between the covers of this book – over two hundred densely-packed pages give you details on over 500 creatures. Unfortunately almost all of this material can be characterized by a blandness that is truly depressing to behold, compounded with poor execution, sloppy design, and a host of inconsistencies.

The creatures themselves combine both an astounding lack of originality with an incredibly shallow depth of coverage. For example, centaurs are expanded into a family of three different creatures – with the bucentaur and stacentaur replacing the equine portions of their anatomy with other animals. Unfortunately, the book neglects to tell us what animals the bucentaur and stacentaur are derived from, instead opting to throw at us a plethora of numbers.

Opening the book to any given page will leave you instantly confused: Dense text is made nearly unparseable thanks to the fact that nearly identical fonts were used for both headings and sub-headings. Pictures of the creatures are strewn haphazardly, sometimes appearing on entirely different pages from the descriptions of the creatures themselves (and some creatures, usually the ones most in need of them, seem to be lacking pictures entirely). The listing practices for information are inconsistent – sometimes with information appearing only in the chart at the beginning of a section; sometimes only in the creature’s description; and sometimes in both. Some entries refer to other entries which, as far as I can tell, simply don’t exist.

Adding to this confusion, Gygax has repeated his old trick of pulling mythological names out of a hat and then randomly creating new creatures with little or no connection to the original entities that bore those names. To this bag of tricks he has also added some new ones: For example, there is the Gryf, and then there is the Gryffon. Both are creatures created by mixing up the parts of lions and giant birds, but the former is used to describe the mixture that every other fantasy game in existence describes as a “griffon”.

Mixed in amongst this chaos of chaff are some genuinely worthy bits and interesting concepts: The section on Dragons and the section on Living Dead, in particular, are first-rate idea mines.

But don’t be fooled: This one just ain’t gonna fly. Pass it by.

As with Lejend Master’s Lore, Hekaforge Productions has expertly kept the price of this book a deeply concealed secret. The Illuminati itself is not privileged to know this information.

Grade: C

Writer: Gary Gygax
Publisher: Hekaforge Productions
Page Count: 202
ISBN: 1-930377-06-1

Bucentaurs have the hindquarters of an ox. They’re a “real” creature from medieval literature. Stacentaurs? Your guess is as good as mine. (I’m guessing the hindquarters of a deer; i.e., a stag-centaur.) 

The bit at the end about pricing was due to the complete lack of MSRP. The price wasn’t listed on the book. It also wasn’t listed on the publisher’s website. Neither I nor Games Unplugged could get an intended price from the publisher. I believe Games Unplugged eventually got a “cover” price ($24.95) when the book appeared in distribution catalogs.

Over the years I’ve sampled many of Gygax’s post-D&D games. Describing them as “unplayable drek” would, frankly, be doing them a kindness. Some of their faults can be laid at the feet of the increasingly byzantine measures Gygax would take in an effort not to be sued by TSR, who were apparently terrified that the cult of personality around Gygax could pose a meaningful threat to D&D’s popularity. But for the most part they were just fundamentally bad.

When I was younger, I would wonder, “How could he possibly be running this stuff?”

When I got older, I realized that the ultimate root of the problem was that he wasn’t.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Brindlewood Bay is a delightful Powered by the Apocalypse mystery storytelling game where no one knows the solution until somebody makes it up. It combines classic mystery TV shows like Murder She Wrote, Twin Peaks, Remington Steele, Columbo, and Magnum PI with Lovecraftian Mythos. Solve Agatha Christie-like cozy mysteries while the the Midwives of the Fragrant Void slowly unravel your reality.

Featuring Kristina Fjellman as super sleuth Amanda Delacourt. Visit Kristina at kristinafjellman.com.

Subscribe Now!

Tactical Space Support is filled with a plethora of high-quality material – including two complete tactical systems – providing a breadth and depth of coverage that make this an invaluable resource for any campaign that gets within spitting distance of orbital velocity.

Review Originally Published in Games Unplugged Webzine – June 16th, 2000
Republished at RPGnet – May 22nd, 2001

The title is Tactical Space Support, but make no mistake: This book provides as much support, if not more, for a roleplayer as it does for a tactical Heavy Gear player.

In the fashion which their fans have become quite accustomed to, the Podsters have crammed more material into this slim, 96-page volume than most publishers include in massively oversized tomes. The short list: A history of space travel in the Heavy Gear universe; campaign background material; coverage of hardware, spacecraft, outposts, and space life; along with a vehicle compendium of specific vehicles – all discussed with a depth of understanding and breadth of coverage that makes this book absolutely invaluable for a Heavy Gear campaign which gets within even spitting distance of orbital velocity.

In addition to all this, roleplayers will find adventure seeds and NPC archetypes, plus expanded rules covering common space hazards — such as lack of atmosphere, effects of gravity, and exposure to radiation. In constructing these rules Vézina, the author, demonstrates what good game design is all about: A wealth of scientific research is boiled down to a set of formulas simple enough to be used at the gaming table, while still bringing with them all the reality you need.

The tactical player, on the other hand, will find two complete tactical systems, along with expansions for the VDS (Vehicle Design System) and additions to the standard Heavy Gear tactical game. Both of the new tactical systems use the core of the Silhouette system, but in a radically different way than a standard tactical game. The first, and primary, space tactical system abstracts the entire process – eliminating hex maps and miniatures altogether. This is due to the nature of space combat in the Heavy Gear universe, where secrecy, stealth, and first strike capability are of key importance. The second system is optimized for simulating a lightning strike combat situation – where two fleets pass each other at extremely high velocities and the entire combat lasts for a few fractions of a second.

Unfortunately, a couple of problems with recent Dream Pod 9 releases also crops up here: Specifically, a continuing fight with typos and copy-editing errors and the decreasing size of the average Pod release (from 112 or 128 pages down to 96 pages over the past year). In the former case, I am happy to report, the battle is obviously being won – Tactical Space Support is (almost) typo-free. The latter, however, makes its presence keenly felt in the total absence of tactical scenarios, and the shallowness of some of the other game-oriented resources (only four adventure seeds and NPC archetypes, for example). These slimmer books are still high quality products, and well worth the price of admission, but those dozen or two dozen pages make all the difference between a product being sublime and merely excellent.

While bearing some reservations in mind, there can still be only one verdict where Tactical Space Support is concerned: This is a fantastic book. If you have any intention of taking your Heavy Gear campaign to the stars, then you’d be making a serious mistake to pass this one up.

Grade: A-

Writers: Marc-Alexandre Vézina
Publisher: Dream Pod 9
Price: $18.95
Page Count: 96
ISBN: 1-896776-68-X

In 2001, I used RPGnet to archive a review which was no longer available on Games Unplugged’s website. Now here I am, finding new ways to archive it and make it available. It seems that much of a writer’s life — and perhaps any artist’s life — is finding new ways to enshrine and distribute their work.

I think I was a little too kind with my grading on this one. Or, rather, I was grading on a curve reflective of the other reviews appearing in Games Unplugged at the time. Proper scenario support feels really essential for novel mechanics/structures like this, and its absence here probably drops the book down to a B in my own grading scheme.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.