Category Archives: Reviews

Trying Out: Uncharted Worlds

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spiliaprime1Short version: Uncharted Worlds is an Apocalypse World hack by Sean Gomes. It is a game for a space opera in the style of Firefly (amongst other things). It’s a complete game not requiring the understanding or ownership of the Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker. And it is a good hack with a lot going on.

Long version: After a number of times failing to get the group together we finally managed to sit down for a game of Uncharted Worlds. Sami (our GM) has been talking about this and has prepared for it by running the Out of the Abyss-campaign. He has even vowed to write about running it at one point. With 20+ sessions I would imagine he has quite a bit to say about it. Once he actually does it…
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Review: A Dozen Dungeons by Miska Fredman

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adozendungeons_cover_thumbnailLast November I stumbled on Miska Fredman‘s Instagram account and noticed he was drawing maps with #Mapvember. I got hooked. I even draw some maps myself too and Aki wrote about automated map generation.

Since then Miska has gone on Patreon and is drawing maps in addition to his job as the founder of Ironspine (Finnish rpg publisher). It seems like his map drawing has really paid off. At the end of August he published a neat booklet called A Dozen Dungeons (link to DriveThruRPG).

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Tietäjän kirous Review

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This is one of those full disclosure things. The guys behind this graphic novel are Guild members. They might not be very active, but still. Viljami has even written for the blog once, actually about the process of writing this very comic book under the microscope here. I and Lauri also had a very small role in the process (and are both mentioned in the acknowledgement) giving our comments on a version of the work about a year ago.

With that in mind, I’ll try to be objective, but obviously there’s a chance I’m not. Okay, lets get to the meat of the subject.

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Ropecon 2016: The Scenario Contest

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A game of Yövuoro (The Night Shift).

A game of Yövuoro (The Night Shift).

Again, there was a short-form scenario contest at Ropecon. I managed to play in six of them, including all three that received a prize. I gave some feedback to the designers on individual games, but now that I can see the bigger picture, I’d like to point on some commonalities and offer critique that I hope will lead to more fun for everyone in the future. Continue reading →

Trying Out: Codenames

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Cedric Phillips is a Magic player. He lost a game at a GP because he was playing this game I had never heard of and missed the start of the round. The name was Codenames and when I checked it out, its apparently very popular all over the world. In fact, so popular, every place I tried to look for it, it was sold out. So, I had to order it from abroad.

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Book Review: Shadowmoor Anthology

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Shadowmoor_novelLast summer, Lauri was trying to get rid of some of his excess stuff, so he gave me a few books. One of them was this one. I didn’t really think I’d ever read it, but as it happens, most pocket books don’t actually fit into your pockets, but this did, so I took it along for a trip and read it.

So, yeah, that’s the reason I’m writing about a 2008 anthology you probably can’t even get anywhere anymore.

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Trying Out: Easy Roller Dice

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While browsing Instagram for new things to follow I accidentally stumbled on a picture of metallic dice. As I have mentioned before I consider myself both – a dice-enthusiast and an “instrument athlete”, I was immediately intrigued by them. They were kind enough to send me a sample for review. So here we go! Trying Out: Easy Roller Dice!

Disclaimer: In all fairness I have to admit that I contacted the store and asked them if they were willing to send me some dice for review. And they did. So in my books they are awesome in any case! But this does not mean that you should howl them for dice. Keep ’em in business by supporting them and/or take part to their giveaways.

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Trying Out: Limbo

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Actually, I’ve played through this before, but on PC. I happened to come across it in the AppStore, so I decided to try it out again. It isn’t exactly new (it was published five years ago), but since it was done by a small indie studio, many might not have heard of it (although it did apparently sell really well on some platforms).

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Trying Out: Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game

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boxFantasy Flight Games’ Warhammer Quest: The Adventure Card Game is a brand new version of the ageless classic Warhammer Quest. Both games are set in the Old World and feature a group of heroes going into a dungeon to fight a bunch of monsters with quite high odds of them all dying. The original game had miniatures and cardboard rooms but this brand new version only has what FFG is famous of doing: cards, more cards, custom dice and counters. And naturally one of the most disordered rulebook there is.

When this new version of the Warhammer Quest was announced I could not help but to feel a kind of déjà vu. Fantasy Flight Games taking an old classic and turning it into a whole different beast with a boatload of counters on top? Yes – they did that with the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Since I have always liked the approach WFRP 3rd edition had (even though I know a lot of players really disliked it) I was immediately sold on this new approach too. I have nothing against painting miniatures and playing with them (far from it) but if someone is doing a reboot they should at least consider about making it a bit different than the last time (I’m looking at you Film Industry). Otherwise why would I even by the remake?

But since a very few people are interested in the story about “how I bought this new game” I’ll get straight into the juice stuff. Trying out Warhammer Quest: the Adventure Card Game!

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