Review - D&D Starter Set (2022) Dragons Of Stormwreck Isle

 Today I'm taking an overdue look at the new/current (at time of writing) starter set for Dungeons & Dragons; Dragons Of Stormwreck Isle.

Truthfully I kept going back and forth on my opinion about this set because every time I began to formulate an opinion I found myself challenging if that opinion existed in the appropriate context.  Having said that this might be the first time I've reviewed something that I've landed on three completely different but in my opinion completely valid final takes on the overall product.  Let's go! 

Over the now 10 year history of D&D Fifth edition there have been five box sets released that are either intended as "starters" or simply as stand-alone adventures with rules.  Those boxes in order are; D&D Starter Set, D&D Stranger Things, D&D Essentials, D&D Rick & Morty, and now Dragons Of Stromwreck Isle.  The reason I wanted to lay that out is that even though the Essentials and Rick & Morty set weren't marketed as 'starters' this new set feels like a big step backwards from those two products.

Let's begin by talking about what great (and what's great really is great) about Dragons Of Stormwreck Isle.  The production value, in particular the quality of the writing and the artwork are outstanding and exactly what someone would expect from a leader in the industry.  The included adventure is extremely well structured for new or first time players in that although the narrative is very linear the game play experience feels a lot more like a sandbox that confers a lot of agency to the players.  This has the dual effect of allowing the players to feel like they have complete autonomy while preventing them from going too far off the rails (the sandbox itself is relatively small).  I also really like that the design team has done a great job of planting a stake in the ground for what they want 21st century D&D to 'feel' like in that some historically evil humanoids are recast as benign, while also painting D&D dragons as being separate and extremely distinct from dragons in traditional fantasy fiction.  The adventure itself in spite of being relatively short has scenes that will satisfy a variety of different player styles.  It's also worth noting that although Essentials came close this is the first box set that really leans into online support with D&D Beyond which has seen a huge upsurge in popularity in our post-pandemic world.

I'd also like to address what are in my opinion a couple of near misses.  These aren't things that I think are bad, but they are things that could have been better.  First up it bothers me to no end that in all the art the player characters are represented by the characters  from the 80s animated series, but those are then not the pre-generated characters that come in the adventure.  Either the characters represented in the art should have been the pre-gens, or the art should have reflected the existing pre-gens.  This might seem minor but keep in mind creating new art of these characters to appeal to certain gamer's nostalgia was a conscious choice and then not following through feels like a bit a bait and switch.  My other near miss has to do with the timing of the release.  Normally a starter set has a fairly open ended and lengthy lifetime, this one does not.  With the new iteration of D&D scheduled in the next 12-18 months it's not unreasonable to assume that this box has an expected life cycle of 12-18 months, that being the case it doesn't need to be evergreen and it doesn't need to tie to the larger world of D&D (The Forgotten Realms).  So my question is this; if you're only going to sell this box for 12-18 months, and 2 of your significant features and going to be draconic humanoids and dragon mythology, and your next major release is the Dragonlance campaign setting...why isn't this starter set set on the continent of Krynn in the Dragonlance campaign setting?

And now, my actual issues with the product overall.  At the start I referenced how this box feels like a step backwards from Essentials and Rick & Morty, that opinion is almost entirely based on the contents (or lack thereof) in the box.  Both of the aforementioned sets included two things that I felt made them feel far more complete than this box.  The first is they included 11 piece dice sets instead of 6 piece dice sets.  Although it can certainly be argued that a product that doesn't include rules for character creation doesn't necessarily need the extra D6s the absence of a second D20 is pretty poor.  For any opposed roles having the DM and player roll simultaneously is more fun, as well as being more immediate for advantage/disadvantage rolls.  The other missing piece (and I'm honestly concerned this represents an intentional shift in philosophy rather than an oversight) is the lack of a DM screen.  As a positive I mentioned that this product is really linked to and supports online play, but some of us still want to sit around a table with our friends, and for new DMs in particular the DM screen is an outstanding reference.  If I go all the way back 10 years to the first starter box the contents match up pretty well, and had this box followed on from that one rather than having three other box sets fall between them it's shortcomings would probably be less obvious.

So overall what do I think?  If you're completely new to RPGs and D&D Dragons Of Stormwreck Isle will get you started and its contents and value for money fall largely inline with what most other companies offer as quick-start sets.  If you and your group have some prior experience with RPGs you will probably find you'll get a much deeper more satisfying experience out of the Essentials box set.  And if you're an existing D&D 5e player you're paying for a 48 page saddle-stitched adventure for levels 1-3.

If Dragons Of Stromwreck Isle is right for you please pick it up from your friendly local game store.  I got mine from my FLGS and they also have all the other bits and pieces I need for all my games.

Thanks for checking in

-Jay

How I got here: D&D Part 1

 I've been doing a lot of writing this past week and it got me thinking about different tastes or styles in RPG adventures and how what is popular has changed over the years.  It's not a question of better or worse, it's really just about different.  Personally I really like current generation game rules, but if I'm being honest I still really prefer the style of adventures and game content that were published when I first got into D&D.  It got me thinking about my first year playing D&D and the first few products that shaped my view of how the game is played.

When I first got into D&D I was 11 years old.  I had basically no money of my own and my family was tight enough for money that I couldn't just go out with my parents and get the things I wanted (or knew of for that matter).  I ended up doing what every 11 year old focused on one thing they want does; I asked for nothing but D&D stuff for Christmas.  I don't remember in detail a lot of Christmases from my youth, but I remember Christmas 1983.

My younger sister used to get up CRAZY early on Christmas morning to open presents.  After a couple of years of ridiculously early December 25ths my mom had set down a rule that when we woke up we could open and play with everything in our stockings, but no presents under the tree, and no waking her up before she got up on her own. So on December 25th 1983 at about 3:30am my sister came busting into my room with her stocking (mine was leaned up against my bedroom door) to go through our stockings.  Every year since my mom had started this practice my sister had come into my room, gone through stockings, and then we would fall back asleep after she got bored, this year would be the first time I stayed up.  My stocking was full of fruit, nuts, candies, and toiletries (the usual for us) but tucked in behind my stocking leaned up against my bedroom door was my first ever D&D book; The Fiend Folio.

I was thrilled!  Not only was the artwork AMAZING but a ton of my early gaming was playing through Fighting Fantasy  books Warlock Of Firetop Mountain and Citadel Of Chaos.  Getting a D&D book that was filled with monsters with the same aesthetic and sensibilities excited me more than any other D&D book I could have gotten at the time would have.  My sister fell back asleep and I sat up in my bed reading the Fiend Folio from cover to cover while everyone else in the house slept.

Hours later we all  went downstairs and started opening presents.  My mom obviously knew which way my interests were going as the first two packages I opened were a JRR Tolkien box set and a CS Lewis box set.  That was awesome!  I had 11 books to read that couldn't wait to get into, but the next package properly kicked off and interest that is still going strong 39 years later...

This was unbelievable!  I was overwhelmed that I had both a Player's and a Dungeon Master's book!  I'd never actually seen this box set before, I had only seen the the AD&D hardcovers before.  And in 2022 I can't accurately convey what a big deal it was to have my own dice, at that time I didn't even know where I could get polyhedral dice from!  I remember thinking I couldn't wait to get together with my friends after Christmas to start playing with my new stuff, and that was before I opened the Player's book and realized it had a solo adventure I was going to be able to play through that day.  That old D&D box combined newness and completeness in a way that still informs my view of what a good starter set for a game should be.

My final gaming present from that first Christmas was another showcase of how great gaming content was at the time.  My first issue of Dragon Magazine.

How could one magazine have; an entire city setting, an complete adventure, a piece of fiction, and a TON of background articles, and even ads (seriously ADS!) that had tons of amazing original artwork?

Christmas 1983 was my first deep dive into fantasy role-playing.  Next up I'll cover summer 1985 when my philosophy of adventures and adventure writing started to take shape.

-Jay

Review - D&D Frameworks Miniatures

 Today I'll be taking a quick look at the new Frameworks line of hard plastic D&D miniatures being produced by WizKids Games.

When I heard that WizKids was going to be producing hard plastic customizable D&D figures I was extremely excited, this was the exact kind of miniatures line I had wanted for years.  I'm going to preface this review by stating two things to make my own perspective clear:

1.  Having a positive personal bias going in, once I received the models I decided to spend some time with the models before reviewing them with the goal of remaining as objective as possible.

2.  I fully understand that on the venn diagram of miniature gamers and role-players aside from the group in the center overlap there are two different sets of wants and needs from a D&D miniature product.

Having said that, let's get to it!

At release there are two basic types of Frameworks boxes; single models (characters and monsters), as well as multi-packs of 'horde' type monsters.  I started off with four single model boxes (intentionally chosen as two sets of two, more on that in a bit), and one multi-pack.  Here's a quick look at the single models:

And then my one multi-pack:

The Good

I will start off by saying the level and sharpness of detail on these figures is outstanding.  Remembering that for as long as WizKids has been making miniatures this is their first pass at hard plastic and the quality is outstanding.  The variety of models available is also great as most basic D&D character arch-types are readily available and suitable for D&D or similar games right out of their boxes.  And I'm really sorry, but as far as positives go, that's pretty much it.

The Bad

The design of the plastic frames themselves is incredibly out of date by modern casting standards, what I mean by that is in the pictures you can clearly see the amount of unused space on the sprues.  This means there could have been significantly more options in each box than we ended up getting.  This issue is further exacerbated by space being taken up on the sprues by repetitive and needless pieces.  The two most egregious example of this are the bases and shields.  Every miniature includes a clear plastic base, but in spite of this on every sprue the second biggest component (after the main body of the figure) is a single flat rock for the miniature to stand on, flat based rocks are a holdover from the days before generic flat bases and you don't need both, it wouldn't matter but given how much real estate on these sprues seems to be at a premium I would rather have another component or accessory than a duplication of basic basing function.  The shields are even more glaring.  The fighter's two shield options are identical except for the groves on the back so they can easily be attached to the figure in two different ways, given that the backs of the shields will be unseen once the models are assembled this is completely unnecessary.  In the case of the Cleric three of the components on the sprue are one shield with two different images to mount on the front, this would be fine if again it wasn't for how much sprue space is given over to what is effectively one option.

The Ugly

Normally this would be my final point but I have to call out what poor value for money these figures are before moving on to ,more subjective points.  A single character box has an MSRP roughly 80%-100% higher (so nearly double) than it's equivalent pack in the softer vinyl.  The material and options theoretically add value to these Frameworks packs, but keep in mind that the packs I'm comparing them to have two figures each, not a single character (in the case of the Kobolds in my market I could have gotten 30 kobolds for this box of 7 costs).  For my next point I'm going back to the start where I mentioned I consciously started with two sets of two characters, two armoured humans, and two unarmoured arcane casters.  The reason I started with 'sets' of figures was to determine whether or not part could be easily swapped from one kit to another reasonably similar kit, for no reason at all the answer to that is; no.  The heads don't have the same attachments, the arms attach at different points in the lengths, and most of the clear plastic accessories attach to a single specific arm or hand.  Due to the models being plastic it would be fairly easy to use a knife or files to modify pieces to get them to fit together, but remember that venn diagram?  I'm going to say 50% of potential hobbyists for these models are really not going to want to do that. 

Overall I am really disappointed by Frameworks.  I had high hopes but the technical execution and some design choices are so poor that almost from the moment I opened these boxes my mind went to all the better options to fill this particular hobby niche.  If you see a single figure that really appeal to then by all means go for it, but if you are looking for a pool of miniature options for your D&D games there are much better choices out there for you.

Thanks for checking in.

-Jay

 

Review - The Stennard Courier Vol. 1

 Today I'm looking at the newest release from Nick Baran at Breaker Press Games; The Stennard Courier Vol. 1.

The Stennard Courier is a 'zine that continues to flesh out Breaker Press' grim and grimy fantasy setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics.  The 'zine describes the town of Stennard one of the principal early locations of a current ongoing series of adventures and campaign materials in what feels like a very old-school fantasy setting.  For adventurers playing in Breaker Press' game world Stennard is likely to be their first base of operations, and a likely starting location with all the features a low-level party will need between adventures.

The Stennard Courier itself is a 40 page 'zine that is absolutely PACKED with; NPCs, rumours, adventure hooks, world building, and commerce.  It's the exact kind of campaign starting point that every RPG box set or GM guide should include to give players and game masters the kind of world that feels full and lived-in to establish the tone of the game.  Within it's 40 pages the Stennard Courier gives 11 detailed locations (with additional allusions to other areas), 11 detailed NPCs (again with more from other Breaker Press products alluded to), as well as 12 separate lists of rumours (enough for an entire campaign), and price lists for 3 local businesses.  As I mentioned before this is the exact kind of supplement that a GM needs to make their game world feel more 'real' and less like a series of disconnected quests or missions.  The overall quality of the writing is outstanding with rich full descriptions of NPCs and their locations laid out in a clear easy to understand format that will make the material extremely easy for a GM to integrate into their own campaign.  The artwork has an old-school aesthetic to it that immediately puts me in the mind of the original Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

Overall the Stennard Courier is a must-have for anyone looking for a starting/home location for a low-level fantasy RPG, as well as being an excellent reference for anyone looking to create their own small town in terms of what both completeness and utility should look like.

The Stennard Courier Vol. 1 is currently available directly from Breaker Press Games at: https://breakerpress.storenvy.com/products/34299427-the-stennard-courier-vol-1-pdf

As well as via DriveThruRPG at: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/378456/The-Stennard-Courier-Vol-1--BPGDCZ004?term=stennard

For a small indie business that already has a track record of outstanding releases this might just be their best and most useful yet!

-Jay

Review: Questionable Confectionaries Volume 2 Cole'Dren's Tavern Side Bistro

 Today I'm taking a look at the second volume in the Questionable Confectionaries series, and after how much I enjoyed the first collection I'm really looking forward to it!

For those who aren't familiar with the first volume the Questionable Confectionaries series is a collection of food-themed magic items that would occupy a similar place in a treasure assortment to a potion or scroll.  What's nice about the food/treat theme of most of the items is that they inherently give the items themselves a more whimsical nature and may fit particularly well into certain themed games, for example if you're already tapping into some fairy tale mythologies, or possibly even an Alice In Wonderland type feel.

The overall tone and feel of the items themselves hits the perfect balance for me in my games of being very tongue-in-cheek without descending into cartoonish levels of silliness.  This time out the collection is broken up into sections based on overall rarity (which I find extremely helpful). 

I have to say upon my initial read-through of the second volume I was immediately struck by one significant improvement over the first volume, as well as one unfortunate step back.  The big improvement for me was the sheer quantity of content.  In addition to simply having a higher page count (by a significant margin) the layout is a bit changed and updated with a lot more text on every page.  This is a big improvement because if you liked the first volume, there is simply way more of it to like here.  The step back is that all this increased material seems to have come at the cost of a dramatic reduction in the ratio of art to items.  For some purchasers this simply won't be an issue but for me art really makes an RPG product pop, and I not only enjoyed the art in the first volume, but what art there was in the second volume was again very well done (special shout-out to the Draconian Fruit Cake) and I certainly would have liked to have more of it.

One of the areas of expansion covered by this volume is the addition of The Gourmand which is an appropriately foody version of the Artificer along with some new abilities.  This gives both DMs and players more opportunity to work with the Questionable Confectionaries material in-game.

Overall I think Questionable Confectionaries Volume 2 is a worthwhile addition to any DMs toolbox, especially those looking for treat-themed items to add to their games!

Questionable Confectionaries Volume 2 is currently available from DMsGuild at https://www.dmsguild.com/product/333603/Questionable-Confectionaries-vol-2-ColeDrens-Tavern-Side-Bistro?term=questionable for a sweetly priced $5.50.

-Jay

Review: Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft

 Today I'll be taking an objective look at the newest official D&D supplement; Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft.

I'm going to preface this review by calling out a few things about my personal thoughts and feelings before I get into the review proper.  As the newest version of an old-school edgy campaign setting from the TSR days Van Richten's Guide has been extremely polarizing in it's reception by the RPG community.  I really enjoyed the original I6 as well as the campaign setting, supplements, and adventures for Ravenloft in 2nd edition.  I thought the black and white art style really suited the mood and feel of the setting, and although it's reliance on pre-existing tropes has often been a criticism of older Ravenloft material, I genuinely enjoyed the feeling that any Hammer or Universal horror film could be directly ported into my D&D game.  So what I'm saying is that as a 49 year old gamer who's been playing D&D since 1983 I really enjoyed Ravenloft's initial run through TSR and wasn't necessarily looking for a shift in tone or feel.  But, none of us longtime fans should look at a setting and assume because the tone or feel has shifted from what we initially enjoyed that that makes the new version inherently bad, or 'less-than' the old version.

So having said all of that in the name of clarity and full-disclosure, as I said before; I'll be taking an objective look at Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft.

The first thing that I think needs to be recognized about this newest book is that it really doesn't fit into any familiar categories of books that Wizards Of The Coast have published before.  I opened the book expecting a detailed campaign setting and instead what I got was a campaign toolkit.  This will no doubt disappoint many pre-existing fans who were hoping for a 5e update of much of their beloved earlier material, as well as potentially seeming a bit complicated and vague to new players hoping to crack the book open and get right to it.  My initial impression was that this was disappointing and a bit of a failing but upon further reflection it actually seems genius to me.  By laying bare the structure of how to build domains and Darklords and what Ravenloft more or less 'is' the book allows the DM to easily create their own unique content, or for us old-time fans to port over several thousand pages of content in a way that a 256 page single volume was never going to be able to do.  If you're a new DM and you want a campaign ready to go as written, this might not be the right choice for you, but if you want something that feels entirely unconstrained by it's page count this book is terrific.

To the subject of the domains themselves as laid out in the book there is some tremendous content and ideas but my main criticism is none of them get quite the attention they deserve.  My favourite features of the Domains Of Ravenloft section is that there are two entirely new domains that draw on entirely new and distinct cultures for inspiration, as well as a few of the existing domains being given complete make-overs (I LOVE what the new book has done with Souragne!). 

The section of the book that has thus far seemed to be the biggest target for criticism online has been the section on Horror Adventures themselves.  This section in addition to addressing setting mood and creating atmosphere also brings up the subject of running horror games in a safe and comfortable (real world) setting.  This is the part of the book that players of my generation in particular seem to have huge issues with.  The simple fact of the matter is that we are living in the 21st century and there should be no issue with writing horror content with 21st century sensibilities in mind.  If I personally have a criticism of how this content was included it would simply be that it feels like it belongs more in the core Dungeon Master's Guide than in this book, but given that it wasn't included in the DMG this is the logical place for it.

Separate from the individual sections of the book themselves there are two other elements of the book I would like to call out; one positive, one negative.

On the positive side in spite of my fondness for the original Ravenloft art style, I have to say I really enjoyed the art in this new book.  One of the subtle things the art does is that in many of the isolated character images it simply looks like regular 5e artwork that could be in any core book, without anything sinister or horrific about it.  But in some of the action images (where admittedly the heroes are still looking very heroic) the sense of 'wrongness' is extremely well executed.  This image of a Tiefling is one of the best pieces of horror art I've seen for any D&D product.

My last remaining criticism (I'm really going to try not to rant here) is; how lazy some of the writing feels.  I know saying how lazy it 'feels' may seem a bit unfair but there are a few things with the updated domains that just felt like minimal effort was applied.  The two that stick out like sore thumbs to me are the updates to the Darklords of Falkovnia and Lamordia.  In the case of both domains the previous male Darklords were replaced with female Darklords, this is NOT my problem at all.  My problem is these two new Darklords names could only have been lazier if they took the male characters names and just added 'ette' onto the end of them.  Vladeslav is now Vladeska, and Viktor is now Viktra.  I think the reason it annoys me so much is I'm more than happy to get onboard with new characters, so why would you you use their names to constantly remind me that these new characters are effectively sequels?  The other place I found the writing felt lazy was in lieu of stat blocks for named NPCs simply giving them equivalents from the Monster Manual or Dungeon Master's Guide.  I realize this probably radically increased the amount of content that could be included by eliminating bulky stat blocks but it leaves many of these heroes and villains feeling truly underwhelming.

Overall I would highly recommend Van Richten's Guide To Ravenloft to anyone looking to run a 5e D&D horror game or to anyone who wants the tools to update their existing Ravenloft game to 5e!

And as always please support your friendly local game store and purchase this product from those who support our hobby community, many of whom kept their lights on through a truly horror-themed year.

-Jay

Review: Questionable Confectionaries Niter's Ye Olde Candy Shoppe

  Today's review is something that feels new and unique in the RPG space, the first volume in the Questionable Confectionaries series (more to come shortly!) Niter's Ye Olde Candy Shoppe.

Although the DMsGuild has no shortage of collections of new and wonderous magical items for players to add to their games Niter's is the first collection I've come across with such a clear, coherent and well executed theme.  As is no doubt obvious from the title the theme is candy!

First up the layout and presentation of this volume is terrific.  Each candy receives a full description, clearly laid out game effects, flavour text in the form of an anecdote from Niter, as well as an image for every entry.  This layout both makes the collection easy and engaging to read as well as giving a certain sense of immersion.

Two of the features I'd also like to call out are a brief section on accessibility at the beginning on the book reframing some of D&Ds conditions and separating them from disabilities of the same names.  In addition when purchasing a copy of Niter's you will receive both the standard copy of the document, as well as a dyslexia-friendly version which is a rare and valuable accessibility option. 

From a game mechanics point of view the impact that the individual candies would have on a game is quite wide-ranging and seems well defined by and connected to the rarity level of each individual confection.  What I personally found really appealing about the game effects were that they were well anchored and described in the context and sensibilities of D&D 5e, but had very much the gonzo old-school feeling of something that a player might have found in an old fun-house style adventure like Tegal Manor or Castle Amber.

The only real downside I can see in Niter's Ye Old Candy Shoppe is that for groups who like their adventuring style more 'grimdark' the general fun and whimsical tone might not align with their view of what they want in their game.

Overall I think adding bits and pieces from Niter's Ye Olde Candy Shoppe to existing adventures or using some of the options as seeds for adventures on their own can add a lot of fun and wonder to a D&D campaign and I'm personally looking forward to adding some traveling sales reps from Niter's to my own games in the coming months.

Overall I highly recommend Niter's Ye Olde Candy Shoppe to anyone running a 5e game.  It's currently available from DMsGuild at  https://www.dmsguild.com/product/290988/Questionable-Confectionaries-Vol1-Niters-Ye-Old-Candy-Shoppe?term=niter%27s and is a bargain at only $3.99.

-Jay

Review - Harper's Tale

Today I want to take a look at a 10 chapter, 170 page adventure path for D&D characters of levels 1-10; Harper's Tale.

Harper's Tale is named for lead developer Matt Corley's daughter (and co-lead developer) Harper.  The adventures mix the inspiration and youthful-fun outlook of a child with the sensibilities of an experienced game author to contribute something truly new and unique to the current RPG scene.

The creative team behind Harper's Tale reads like an all-star team of freelance writers and artists currently working in the RPG industry, and it's not just a list of names on the credits page of a book, the quality and experience this team brings really shines through.  Harper's Tale is gorgeously illustrated throughout but I want to call special attention to the fantastic character illustrations by Gwendy Bee, these illustrations are bright and appealing while still conveying a sense of mystery and the fantastic.  In addition to the amazing art I found all of the cartography to be easy to read and use and clearly laid out where I needed it.

The ten adventures themselves are all written by separate writers or writing teams and one of their nicest features is they are structured so that in addition  to making up one ten adventure long campaign they are also all framed so they can be run as individual one-shots.  The central story mixes investigation and adventure as the characters start off by investigating a mysterious illness and follow various leads and clues looking for both the source and a cure.  The adventure path is set in the wilderness but uses many different settings for individual adventures (forests, small villages, dungeons, multi-room buildings) to give the ten adventures a great deal of variety.

In addition to a number of different settings the adventure path is full to the brim with interesting NPCs that not only work well within the narrative but could also be used to seed other adventures, for my part I GUARANTEE my players will meet Professor Piewright at some point prior to actually playing Harper's Tale.

And I couldn't resist the urge to convert and paint my own Sir Cheddar!

Overall I highly recommend Harper's Tale.  There is an absolutely amazing amount of the highest quality content here and the mix of art and writing style really evokes the sense of fantastic mystery, fun, and discovery that I think the best fantasy RPG adventures are capable of.

Harper's Tale is currently available from DrivethruRPG at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/311843/Harpers-Tale-A-Forest-Adventure-Path-for-5e?term=Harper

-Jay

Preview - Breaker Kids

I've mentioned over my last three posts that I was trying to get my existing Broken Contract miniatures before my next Kickstarter from Breaker Press arrived.  I made it...with a day to spare.

I was excited when I backed the Breaker kids but much like their previous Kickstarter when the product arrived my expectations were exceeded, drastically exceeded this time around.

When Nick started hyping up the Kickstarter one of the things he talked about wanting to do was not having wasteful packaging.  This resulted in the new models (and the add-ons as well) being packaged in MDF shipping containers that can be used as scenery for your games!

I think any modern or sci-fi gamer would agree that those containers are awesome, and are immediately useful.  But they were part of the pitch, and I mentioned that my expectations were exceeded.  Somewhere around the midpoint of the Kickstarter Nick realized he could throw the slats in that were cut from the containers, and some a-frames to build some scatter terrain.  Having just received the package a few hours ago I haven't built anything with mine yet but when I do I'll show those off.

I really just want to emphasize to anybody who's read this far that I've talked about how awesome this product is, and I haven't even talked about the models themselves, all the above is just...the packaging.  I really hope this continues from Breaker Press and in a perfect world I'd love other companies to see this as an idea they should jump on board with.

On to the kids (and the dog) themselves.  The figure set comes with five figures; one male and one female teen, one male and one female pre-teen, and a dog.

The figures themselves are obviously perfect for Broken Contract but could also easily be used for Shadowrun, Cyberpunk or any modern or near future games.  The textured MDF bases are a really nice touch, especially for gamers that want to step their basing game up to the next level.  The detail is nice and crisp on the figures, and they should be a joy to paint (check back in a week or so).  I'm excited to have some genuinely new and different figures in my collection unlike anything else I've already got.

Hopefully in the next week or so I'll be showing off these figures painted as well as some neat add-on accessories I got with this Kickstarter.

Check out Breaker Press at https://breakerpress.storenvy.com/

-Jay

Review - Whispers In The Dark (Preview - Horror In The Windy City)

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Matt Corley was running a joint fiction and RPG Kickstarter for an investigative horror game set at the end of 19th century.  I had a chance to read through the fiction-side of the Kickstarter, and it was GREAT!  The follow up plan was to play Whispers In The Dark (the first title in the RPG series) last week to try out the core mechanics but unfortunately the horror of real life reared it's ugly head and pushed our game back to this coming week.  I'm stoked about playing but having done my prep I wanted to share my thoughts on the game itself prior to the current Kickstarter ending.

Whispers In The Dark is a joint effort by Matt Corley and M.T. Black who both have a tremendous track record of writing interesting and thematically original 5e content.  Whispers uses 5e for it's core mechanics which I have to say really highlights how well the Skills and Feats allow players to develop distinctly different characters.  The game drops the concepts of Race and Class entirely, and re-focuses not only on Skills, and Feats, but Backgrounds as well.  This allows players who are familiar with D&D 5e to pick up and play a different style of game without having to learn a whole new set of rules.  From a physical point of view the rule book for Whispers In The Dark is a work of art unto itself.  The layout, font choices, and style of art create a very period authentic mythos feel.  As a longtime fan of Cthulhu mythos, Ravenloft, and D&D this rule set scratches all those itches.  I'm really looking forward to running Whispers In The Dark later this week, and in hindsight my only regret is that I hadn't bought the book earlier, as it would have been great support for a D&D game I just ran (which I should be covering in another review in a week or two).  I strongly recommend Whispers In The Dark for all fans of horror gaming whether they have prior experience with D&D or not.

Horror In The Windy City is a follow up to Whispers In The Dark and introduces a new alignment system, which I think a lot of folks online who have been debating the merits of D&D's current alignment system will really like.  For anyone who's curious the alignment system is up as a preview on the Kickstarter page, I highly recommend checking it out.  The real draw for me personally is that the included adventure content in Horror In The Windy City is the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story of HH Holmes.  If you're familiar with the story of HH Holmes, just stop reading now and go back the Kickstarter.  And if you're not familiar head on over to the Kickstarter and read about the Murder Castle.  Overall I would say that for a lot of gamers Horror In The Windy City looks to straddle the line between period mystery and fantasy horror in a way that should appeal to a tremendous range of players.

Whispers In The Dark is presently available through DriveThruRPG at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/299564/Whispers-in-the-Dark-Quickstart-Rules-for-5e?term=Whispers+In+The+Da it comes in a variety of formats across a number of different price points.

Horror In The Windy City is in the final days of it's Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/the-devils-city-for-5e and I would highly recommend backing it to any fan of investigative horror, or anyone interested in bringing in new elements to their Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons game.

-Jay

Review - The Devil's City

As I touched on just over a week ago Matt Corley is running a Kickstarter for an investigative horror game with an accompanying novella.  Please take a moment to check out the Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/the-devils-city-for-5e

Today I'm going to be looking at the novella portion of the Kickstarter 'The Devil's City' co-written by Matt Corley and Sara Tantlinger.

Although I had heard the story of HH Holmes before, knowing that this would be a fictionalized version of the story really left me not knowing what to expect.  The format of the novella really worked well for me with the early chapters basically being framed as loosely connected short stories with their own beginnings and endings.  When the story moves into its later half it comes together as in fact being one coherent story not by the any of the protagonists, but by being the story of the antagonist, HH Holmes.  The story starts off feeling firmly rooted as a period horror/crime story before moving off into the realm of the fantastic. 

Stories like this can be extremely difficult to discuss without spoiling things so I'll leave the issue of the story to one side and instead address the structure and style of the story.  This is in my opinion horror fiction at it's best.  Horror stories when well told know when to give detail, when to be explicit, and when to leave space for the reader's imagination.  The Devil's City gets this balance perfect, it puts me in mind of the best balances of HP Lovecraft's writing minus the dated and overly verbose prose style.  The victims of the murder castle are all sympathetic in their own ways with more time being spent building the sense that they are real people than being given over to the details of their various tragic and gory demises.  Having said that their deaths are presented as being cruel, disturbing, and horrific to a degree that increases the reader's empathy for their plight, while also painting Holmes as a true monster.  Once we journey deeper into the narrative is when tinges of the supernatural begin to make themselves felt thus moving the story further from mystery and deeper into horror.

Overall I would say even if you're not interested in the gaming side of this project, this novella stands well on it's own merits as a fantastic piece of fiction.  It's objectively well written and and tells a genuinely interesting story in a compelling style.  Every fan of HP Lovecraft, Steven King, or Brian Lumley will definitely want to read The Devil's City and should check out the Kickstarter while there is still time at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/the-devils-city-for-5e

Please check back in later this week for my review of the game portion of this Kickstarter.

-Jay

Review - Back To The Sea

Today I'm taking a look at the one-shot adventure Back To The Sea by Inky.Ginge

Back To The Sea is a one-shot adventure for 3rd-4th level adventurers with a very atmospheric horror theme so in a lot of ways it falls right into my wheelhouse.  In many ways the quickest summary I can probably give of the adventure is that it is probably the exact adventure a group that is playing Sinister Secret Of Saltmarsh for the first time thinks they're actually playing.  The group is hired to investigate an area just off the coast that superstitious locals believe to be haunted.  Once the group 'arrives' at the main encounter location they find themselves investigating and plagued by supernatural occurrences.

Back To The Sea is an extremely short adventure that most groups will probably be able to complete in a single session of play.  Although the adventure itself is short I have to say that the author did not compromise on full rich descriptions of encounters, NPC actions, and descriptions of key features.  I found the adventure to feel extremely thematic and immersive.  In addition to how well written the adventure is it comes with 3 amazing looking maps as separate files that can be used as DMs reference but can also be blown up into encounter maps to be used for tabletop gaming.  Even after running the adventure these maps will be super useful for dropping in as a small house or cottage in other games and settings.

This is the kind of adventure that is difficult to describe in real detail without ruining the surprises inside but if you and your group want an incredibly well written  ghost story with terrific cartography I highly recommend Back To The Sea.

Back To The Sea is currently available for $5.95 from DMsGuild at https://www.dmsguild.com/product/297621/Back-To-The-Sea?term=back+to+the+sea

-Jay

Review - Byte Me Games MasterPad

Almost since the beginning of the tabletop RPG industry gamers have broken down into two categories; theater of the mind players, and players who use miniatures (or counters or standees).  As much as I enjoy and respect theater of the mind my first choice has always been gaming with miniatures.  Over the years many companies have provided mats, tiles and books to support miniature gaming.  Today I'll be looking at Byte Me Games' MasterPad.

MasterPad comes as a spiral-bound 30 page booklet with full-colour dungeon map sections on one side, and 1" blank graphs on the other side for creating your own maps and tiles sized for traditional gaming miniatures.

My initial impression of MasterPad was instant excitement. I run a lot of games, and consistently do not run them at my own home.  This means more portable gaming accessories are instantly appealing to me.  Once I started delving a bit deeper I found more to be enthusiastic about.  The look of the tiles is nice and clean with serviceable grid markings that don't get in the way or make you overly aware that you are looking at a grid.

One of the things I was actually surprised by was how well the physical quality of the product functioned on the tabletop.  Historically one of the things I have not liked about gaming tile sets is that they are frequently printed on what is intended to be a thick high-quality card-stock.  I say 'intended' because the problem I have frequently experienced is that thicker heavier card-stock tends to warp and curl which makes them almost immediately unusable.  If the tiles curl they no longer link up and function as intended.  MasterPad is printed on heavy paper, but paper none-the-less.  I was initially skeptical of what I perceived as being of lower quality but after heavily using the MasterPad tiles for a couple of weeks the tiles are perfectly flat, and I suspect if they were to warp or distort they could be more easily re-flattened than card.

Overall I think MasterPad is a terrific product and a welcome addition to any DMs toolkit.  Anyone who uses miniatures or has been considering using miniatures but wasn't sure what to use as a gaming surface should definitely get their hands on a MasterPad.

MasterPad is available from Byte Me Games who can be reached either through their website at https://bytemegamez.com or through Twitter at @ByteMe_Games

-Jay

Review - To Hell & Back Again

What has turned into a solid week of reviewing solo adventures continues with the Descent Into Avernus tie-in; To Hell & Back Again.

I've got to say I didn't know what to expect from a solo module attached to such a weird campaign adventure, but this adventure felt like playing along with the D&D Live The Descent event.  To Hell & Back Again did an amazing job of capturing the flavour of Avernus and gives the player the experience of interacting with an Infernal Warmachine as well as some of the other Avernus weirdness.  The adventure was fun and engaging and filled with a lot of different types of encounters and content.  From combat, to social interactions, to an actual deal with a devil this adventure is both an extremely complete experience on its own while also functioning as a prequel to give a character some background, benefits, ties, and disadvantages for their further adventures in Avernus.

In addition to the overall execution of the theme and satisfying story To Hell & Back Again has a lot going for it.  The adventure is split into three distinct acts, each of which happens in a different location and feels legitimately different.  In spite of the text of the adventure proper taking place over 43 pages it feels truly epic and makes the player character feel like a hero in the truest sense of the word.

If I had one criticism to offer it would be that for my personal tastes the levelling up happens too fast.  I know that milestone levelling at lower levels does generally move very quickly but to me personally the jump from 1st to 2nd level happening without the player character accomplishing anything all that significant cheapens the sense of character development and growth.  Other than that I can't find any fault or flaw with the adventure.

To Hell & Back Again is currently available from DMsGuild at https://www.dmsguild.com/product/288363/To-Hell-and-Back-Again?term=To+Hell+ for $9.95 and is a definite must-buy if you're at all on the fence about whether or not Descent Into Avernus is for you or not.

-Jay

Review - Companionable Darkness

Today I look at the final (as of this writing) adventure in the Scarthey solo adventure series; Companionable Darkness.

Companionable Darkness is a return to the more traditional structure of solo adventures.  The player navigates through a branching story tree based on their decisions and interacts with a variety of characters, monsters, and challenges along the way.

The story in Companionable Darkness begins with the player character filling the role of a caravan/body-guard.  An incident occurs early on that leads to conflict and the player must lead their NPC companions to solve a mystery and hopefully save an innocent.

I will start off by saying that Companionable Darkness is the strongest entry in the series so far.  My largest criticism of the first adventure in the series is that it was too short, although Companionable Darkness is only a dozen or so entries longer each entry has significantly more story and action and ultimately feels much more filled out.  Other than format my biggest issue with the second adventure in the series is that there was very little bordering on no story at all, this time out there is a decent story being told and a bunch of NPCs to play and interact with to make the world feel more real and lived in.

My criticisms of this adventure would be that once again a few things were missed that should have been caught in editing or proof-reading passes, this time out the issues aren't significant but it would have been nice to remove the distractions.  My only other criticism would be the fact that very early on all the characters are introduced and there is no apparent antagonist, which means the player is just waiting for the inevitable Scooby Doo style unmasking of one of the earlier 'friendly' NPCs.  I have to say though neither of those issues detract from the overall experience and I still really enjoyed my play through.

If someone were going to play only one solo adventure from Rising Phoenix Games I would definitely choose Companionable Darkness currently available from DrivethruRPG at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/265387/Companionable-Darkness?term=companionable for $3.95.

-Jay

Review - Forest Of Secrets

Following up on Death Queen And The Life Stone is the next solo adventure in the Scarthey line; Forest Of Secrets.

Forest Of Secrets starts off with the character ostensibly engaged in a simple delivery mission to get some documents from point A to point B, before the player makes their first choice choice in the adventure however the true nature of the adventure is revealed and it takes the form of an escort mission.

Forest Of Secrets differs greatly from most traditional solo D&D adventures and/or adventure game books in that rather than a linear narrative the adventure's progress is driven by exploration of a randomly generated map, more in line with how many 'quest' style board games work.  I suspect that whether a player perceives this as a positive or a negative has more to do with personal taste than with objective quality.  I will say the upside to the random map generation is that it feels like it inherently gives the adventure a far greater deal of replay value than most solo adventures have, but the corresponding downside is that there is little to no developing narrative during exploration.

Forest Of Secrets took longer to play than Death Queen And The Life Stone which may feel like a more rewarding experience for some players but personally I found the experience to feel somewhat hollow and less satisfying.  The NPC that you are escorting through the forest is the single most interesting aspect of the adventure but after her introduction she receives no exposition or development until the climax of the adventure.

For gamers looking for a solo adventure more like an old school random dungeon adventure board game this adventure will definitely scratch that itch.  For gamers looking for a more narrative experience that feels closer to a true RPG game this will probably fall short of expectations.

Forest Of Secrets is currently available from DrivethruRPG for $2.95 at   https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/218812/Forest-of-Secrets?cPath=8858_20393

-Jay

Review - Death Queen & The Life Stone

After a lengthy hiatus I've returned to another one of my original RPG passions; the solo adventure.

Rising Phoenix Games has published a Potteresque setting for both D&D 5E and Pathfinder called Scarthey on DrivethruRPG and in addition to a setting book and some traditional adventures they have also published three solo adventures, starting at level 1.

I started off by playing my way through Death Queen & The Life Stone.

The adventure was quite short (only 50 entries) and a successful run took under an hour from start to finish.  First up I have to say the art in general was good with the art of the Death Queen herself being exceptional (makes me want a miniature of that character).  The adventure itself is a traditional dungeon crawl with an somewhat Egyptian theme.  The adventure had a few unique encounters and a mix of combat encounters with a few skill/ability checks to keep things interesting.

Although there was a lot I enjoyed about the adventure there were definitely a few opportunities for improvement.  The first shortcoming I encountered was fairly early on, an entry gives you the option to make a History or Religion check to interpret some information but gives no DC for the check.  The second issue I had was during an encounter with some crossbow armed bandits where two escape options were given but in spite of the stats and combat rules being given for the encounter there was no option or selection to choose if you actually fought and won.  Those were relatively minor but both came early on so it made me a bit concerned more issues would follow (none did for the record).  The only other issue I had was that setting a D&D solo adventure at 1st level meant that in most encounters one or two bad die rolls would result in disaster.  In each early encounter the player fights multiple opponents where the action economy means that a character could go out in a single combat round.

Overall I enjoyed my experience playing the adventure and look forward to the next adventure in the series.  Death Queen And The Life Stone is currently available from DrivethruRPG at  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/217497/Death-Queen-and-the-Life-Stone?src=hottest_filtered for $2.95

-Jay

Review - There's Snow Place Like Home

I have a pile of new winter holiday themed adventures sitting on my desk right now, and am hoping to address 3 of them over the next 3 days.  I have to say the one I choose to review first may have set a really high bar for our next 2 books.

There's Snow Place Like Home by D&D Duet team Jonathan & Beth Ball reads and plays almost like Rankin & Bass produced a D&D adventure to be played while watching their classic Christmas stop-motion holiday specials.

There's Snow Place Like Home lays out a classic 'Christmas in jeopardy' type of narrative with familiar feeling characters and set pieces while still feeling new and fresh.  As I've mentioned in some previous reviews I think certain players really like a balance between a scenario feeling familiar without becoming predictable and this adventure achieves that balance flawlessly.

The character or characters are drawn into a demi-plane in a very (although much less sinister) similar fashion to characters in a Ravenloft game.  What's nice about this is it doesn't require that this whimsical setting and fanciful cast of characters fit into whatever existing gaming world you're using.  In my particular case my intention is to snatch one player from our regular ongoing game who has had to miss out on playing due to real world nonsense and plan this as a solitary game when they can play to get them back to the table and having some D&D fun over the  Christmas/New Years break.  The narrative itself is excellent, starting off with a mystery in a town under a spell, followed by a journey through a winter wonderland, and concluding in the exploration of a magical fantasy toy workshop.  The characters and monsters range from a snowman, to gingerbread men, reindeer, a polar bear, gnomes, and something even more sinister towards the end.

For anyone who wants a D&D game that feels like Christmas, and/or a Christmas story that feels like D&D; There's Snow Place Like Home sets a perfect tone and feels like a potential new holiday tradition for me and my gaming friends.

There's Snow Place Like Home is currently available from DMsGuild at https://www.dmsguild.com/product/297390/Theres-Snow-Place-Like-Home-A-Christmas-Holiday-Adventure?term=there%27s+snow and failure to add it to your collection may indicate you are the Grinch of your gaming group!

-Jay

Review - Circle Of Balance Druid Subclass

Most of my experiences with DMsGuild to date have been with adventures and encounters, today I'll be going a slightly different route looking at a new and unique subclass of the Druid designed specifically for urban adventure.

The Circle Of Balance is by author Beth Ball of Grove Guardian Press (the design team behind D&D Duets) and is a great example of the kind of content that can really add new content to a D&D 5e game.  In brief the core notion of The Circle Of Balance is that civilization is a part of nature, and as protectors and/or shepherds the city can and is part of a Druid's responsibilities.

The subclass itself seems extremely well balanced adding some martial strengths at lower levels, which make for a good trade off for some of a Druid's basic spells which may be of dubious use in a city.  In addition the Circle spells that have been added give the Druid some additional typically non-druidic utility powers that play off the people and materials that make up a typical urban environment in a fantasy world.  For any fans of the comic The Authority (or later runs of Stormwatch) this subclass and its Circle spells are a great starting point to make a character similar to Jack Hawksmoor (minus the suit and tie).  In addition to the mechanical additions that serve balancing a Druid in a new environment there are a number of features that really tie to the theme of operating in the packed terrain of the city.  "Wildly Compact" which allows more compact versions of Wild Shape animal forms to be adopted.

In addition to the subclass rules themselves the supplement also adds rules for 2 new creatures; The Fey Pug and The Jewel Fox as well as formatting The Fey Pug as a D&D Sidekick.  I know in my home game this has the potential to be right up my daughter's alley.

Overall Circle Of Balance is  a unique and worthwhile addition to the existing player options in D&D and is well balanced enough to drop into an existing campaign without upsetting the power balance of existing classes. 

I strongly recommend Circle Of Balance to both players looking for a new option for their Waterdeep campaigns as well as DMs potentially looking for a new template for sage NPCs in an urban setting.

Circle Of Balance is currently available from DMsGuild at https://www.dmsguild.com/product/294719/Circle-of-Balance-druid-subclass?term=circle+of+bal for $1

-Jay

Review - Grimm Encounters II

The quest for the perfect Halloween one-shot continues today as I go through Grimm Encounters II.

Grimm Encounters II follows the theme of it's predecessor given the DM another dozen encounters blending fairy tale and horror mythology.  One of the improvements over the first collection is that the page count has increased to 42 pages giving each encounter a slightly longer word count which in general seems to have allowed for a bit more background and NPC motivation to be detailed than the previous instalment.  This second collection also includes a few more unique creatures which I enjoy as it keeps experienced players who also DM from inadvertently meta-gaming their way through challenging encounters.  The final thing I'll call out before getting into specifics will be taken either as a positive or a negative depending on your personal tastes, as the first volume used many of the more popular Grimm stories as inspiration this time around I wasn't familiar with most of the starting points for these encounters.  Personally as much as like the familiar feeling of "D&Ding" existing stories the unfamiliar adds that sense of newness and wonder to the game for me.

Once again I find myself drawn to more than one encounter from this anthology but today I'll limit my praise to two encounters.
Beyond the Realms Of Madness by Ken Carcas (inspired by How Some Children Played At Slaughtering) is a Tier 2 encounter that feels like a hybrid of a Grimm and Lovecraft story.  As I've mentioned many times in the past I enjoy a horror story with a twist and the twist here (especially in the context of D&D) works really well.  The party is tasked with helping a grieving father who is haunted by the ghosts of his slain family.  In the context of D&D most players will no doubt assuming they are in fact dealing with a haunting and go about planning strategies to lay to rest the souls of the fallen family.  When the twist is worked out and the players discover they are dealing with something just as supernatural but not quite what they expected they will need to be able to think quickly on the fly to come up with a new solution in real time.  I really enjoyed this encounter and supplanting one horror with a different horror will guarantee that even if this isn't the one-shot I end up running I have a specific player in mind who would love to play through this as a one-on-one encounter.
Two Dozen Devils by JVC Parry (inspired by The Twelve Huntsmen) is another Tier 2 encounter and a great balance of combat and/vs role-play.  In practise one of the things that makes hauntings or curses work really well in D&D as opposed to actual 'mysteries' is that a haunting or curse can frequently be concluded or resolved even if they players aren't successful in working out all the details.  In this encounter a nobleman is the victim of a curse that the party has been drawn into breaking.  Depending on play-style and decisions made by the group this encounter can play out in a variety of different ways and depending on  how things are resolved success or failure is definitely on a spectrum rather than a black and white win versus lose binary end.

One thing I feel the need to call out is that while this is a horror anthology and the author did put a content warning in the preface of the collection there may be some encounters in here that may go 'too far' for some audiences.  Personally I really liked The Trial Of Little Franecker Finn but I know for a fact that one of the players at my regular table would have to get up and physically leave if I ran that encounter.  This is really just a good reminder, and applies to many adventures, that when running horror content check in and make sure your players are comfortable with the themes and content of your game. 

I highly recommend Grimm Encounters II and am definitely looking forward to a Grimm Encounters III.

Grimm Encounters II is currently available from DMsGuild for $4.95 at https://www.dmsguild.com/product/256980/Grimm-Encounters-II?term=grimm&affiliate_id=329977

-Jay