Review: We Deal in Lead

 

"The world has not so much died as moved on. Landscapes seem to stretch on and on, pockmarked by settlements and the ruins of ages past, as strange machinery rumbles below seemingly straining to keep the sky and the ground moving like they did the day before. Old technology, much of it advanced by the standards of then and now, rusts and molders where it sits; strange creatures—some said to have been things of legend and myth, lurk, ready to pounce and rend the unwary; and magic weaves a cunning attraction for the studious and the curious, the ambitious and the foolish, its knowledge perhaps lost on this world, but not the next. Figures are seen to stalk this world, sometimes alone, sometimes in the company of beast which seems to understand their every action and word, and never leave their side, sometimes together in brotherly orders, but all wielding the gun, a deadly artifact that they use to kill. To kill the bandit, the robber, the cheat, and the murder, the apostate of their order, and in doing so restore order of society and ensure the men and women of this time can live free of tyranny and banditry. Then they are gone. Perhaps they left with the caravan as a guard, maybe they simply moved on to the next settlement, or they just found the Slip Door they were looking and their Guns knows the location of and stepped through, not to the next settlement, though there is always one, but the next world. This is the life of the Gunslinger, wielder of the legendary gun across the Drifted World and their credo is 'We deal in lead.'"

My first introduction to this game was actually from Diogo Nogueira of Old Skull Publishing fame. Diogo posted a quick blurb about it on his IG and I was instantly intrigued as I love westerns but especially weird west settings. That and I have bounced of Deadlands pretty hard so I have been keeping my ear to the ground for something along those lines. We Deal in Lead is an Into the Odd/Cairn hack with tweaks to fit the setting, theme, and mood.

At the time of discovery the book was newly released and it was not being sold in the US yet and with the exchange rates and shipping from UK, I had to be patient until it became available form US distributors. 

Presentation: The book itself is 96 pages (included the covers) hardbound book with glossy pages. It has clean two column set up with colored borders, some colored fonts, black and white art, and a handful of full page, full color art. The book is well organized with a table of contents and an index. The book opens up with Design Philosophy, Principles for Wardens, Principles for Players, and Principals for of the Drifted World. This gives a great overview how the style of game play and the setting. Then then book jumps into Character Creation, Rules, and so on. It is a nice well put together hardback that is durable and looks pretty on the shelf or the game table. 

Character Creation: Character creations appears similar to Into the Odd and Cairn but there is deviation as characters in We Deal in Lead are generally tougher then the standard issue characters. 

1. Choose or Roll your characters first name, surname (pg. 82), and determine pronouns
2. Choose or Roll background
3. Roll their remaining traits (pg. 84)
4. Decide whether your character is from The Drifted World or arrived through a Slip Door
5. Roll their age (4d12+10)
6. Choose or Roll for your characters gun (pg 86)
   

Below are further break downs from the list above.

• Characters have three stats which are Strength (Brawn, prowess, ans resilience), Dexterity (Agility, sneaking, and reflexes), and Heart (Resolve, Charm, and Force of Will). Roll 3d6 for each and swap two (if desired).
• Grit is hit points/stamina and you roll 2d6 to determine the starting total. 
• All characters have twelve inventory slots and roll for starting gear (pg. 86). Items and Equipment characteristics (for armor, damage, and slot values) can be found on pg. 24. All characters also start with three days rations, a torch, 3d6 lead (1 slot). Gunslingers should not start with a full inventory and should consider collaborating with others to determine what to carry.

 

Resolution: The game uses a universal resolution system of a d20 roll under. When a character attempts to do something with a chance of failure or is required to make a save to avoid consequences the players rolls a d20 against the appropriate Attribute. If the result is equal to or under the attribute the character is successful. We Deal in lead as various other sub systems that help round out the core mechanic:

• Combat: Combat is quick and decisive in We Deal in Lead. Gunslingers always act before opponents unless they are surprised (where they still get a chance to act first with a successful DEX save), characters can move up to 40' and act once (attack, move again, or another reasonable action) and all characters declare actions before rolling dice. There is no roll to hit, damage is rolled. There are rules for multiple attackers (all roll damage die and use the highest one), dual and two handed weapons (advantage on damage die), diminished attacks (when hindered deal d4), enhanced attacks (when something is advantageous, deal d12), and Blast (affects all targets in a designated area, covers explosions, cleaving, shotguns etc. When unsure on how many opponents it affects - roll damage die to determine). 
• Critical Damage and Death: When a character runs our of Grit, damage is done directly to Strength. When this occurs, the character is required to make a Strength save and if it fails, the character is wounded, out of action (can only crawl, etc.), and will die in an hour without help. When a character is reduced to zero strength, the character dies but the Game Master can roll a Heart save to see if the character survives by a hair as losing a Gunslinger is a terrible thing and can break up the order.  
• Scars: When an attack reduces your Grit to exactly 0, roll on the Scars table.
  
• Fatigue: When a situation causes fatigue, each one occupies one inventory slot and are gained when deprived, using certain items, and monster abilities.
  
• Deprived: Lacking something crucial (water, food, rest) leaves you deprived and unable to recover Grit or Ability scores. Add 1 fatigue after a day of deprivation. 
• Healing: A monetary drink and rest will restore all Grit but leave you exposed. Ability Loss requires a week of rest and relaxation with medical attention.  
• Defense: Armor and other items grants a defense score to mundane attacks that reduces incoming damage on a scale from 1-3 (it cannot be higher then 3). Guns bypass Defense and impact Grit directly. 

Then, there is an entire section on Gunslinging which details how guns are actually rare in the 'verse and the guns that Gunlslingers possess are actually relics that are powerful. They can call on their guns magic to restore their guns damage die in Grit. There are some other rules that govern the Way of the Gun:

1. The guns ammo capacity is tracked by using a dice and is reduced by each shot. When no shots remain, it takes a turn to reload and each full reload costs 1 lead. 
2. Guns are unpredictable even in the hands of a Gunslinger, instead of automatically rolling damage - the player rolls on a 2d6 shoot table to determine what happens. One a 12 a misfire happens and a roll is required on the Misfire table. 
3. There is a list of special attacks that cost a fatigue but include things like Quick Draw, Twin Six Shooters - Two & Three, Six Shooter - Fan Hammer, Repeater - Cry Pardon, Scattergun - Give em Both Barrels, Rifle - Deadeye.
4. Gunsmithing Guidelines 
5. Duels: When two Gunslingers cross paths and decide to duel, it is an entirely different affair and damage die is rolled (the shoot table is not used). Both sides make a Heart save. If one side fails, winner hits. If both fail, both shots hit. It both succeed the lower roll hits. Duels deal damage directly to Strength which triggers a critical damage save. Rolling a 1 deals max damage. When two groups fave off, the Errant (or lead Gunslinger) makes the groups Heart roll.
   

Final Thoughts: The game provides guidelines for wilderness exploration, other worlds, magic/rituals, beast companions, solo play, a starting adventure, and excursion generators/encounters. There is also examples of play, bestiary, guidelines for creating monsters/foes, and various appendixes (cover tables for names, traits, etc.). These sections of the game round out the setting and assist help the Errant build adventures and campaigns. 

This game seems to be inspired by The Dark Tower Series, Cosmic Horror, folktales, Ghost Stories, The Horror at the Mound by Robert E. Howard, Dead Man's Hand by John Joseph Adams , Worse Things Waiting by Manly Wade Wellman, The Outlaw King series bu S. A. Hunt and classical western media like The Magnificent Seven. Now, do not quote me on any of this as it is just pure speculation on my part.

My two favorite aspects about this game outside of the setting (and the idea that a Gunslinger is a borderline mythical creature chosen for law or chaos) are the dueling rules because it highlights that when two gunslingers duel, it is powerful serious affair. The second thing is something I have mentioned off handed but it is the Order of the Gunslingers. This is basically the classical idea of an adventuring party but bound up with flavor and rules to support the order as it is actually a mystical bond. If the Game Master has two or more players, the players create an order and there are some helpful tables to generate a name. Players collaborate to decide who is the Errant (the lead Gunslinger) and the Errant helps keep the order focused on their quest. The quest is an overarching personal plot line (the book provides some examples). The order cam be broken if a gunslinger loses their gun or if a gunslinger dies (or if a beast companion is killed). When this happens, the Errant (or if there is no Errant, then the Gunslinger with the highest Heart) makes a Heart save, if it fails the order is broken. Members of a broken order suffer a +2 penalty on the shoot table. The order can be mended after a significant event and five examples are given. There is also rules about sacrificing something important that puts the quest above the order but results in a permanently broken order but can also lead to a major quest revelation or even fulfillment. 

All in all, this is an extremely well written and evocative game. I did find it odd that some of the tables were placed in the back of the book as appendixes instead of after character creation and I wish there was an entire chapter devoted to setting and locations. This game could have benefited greatly from that and some descriptive locations outside of the excursion generation and the starting adventure. 

You can find We Deal in Lead at the below locations:

• By Odins Beard
• Itch 
• Exalted Funeral

 

Tales from the Floating Vagabond 2e Update

The original Tales from the Floating Vagabond was published in 1991 by Avalon Hill Games. It was a fun tongue in cheek game where the players played characters that had over the top shticks like what is seen 80s Hollywood movies and beyond. The Floating Vagabond is a bar/tavern that pops in and out of existence across the multiverse and different dimensions. So, characters can be from all timelines, eras, and dimensions.

I had the opportunity to have communications with the author via social media throughout the years (lots of good conversations) and in 2013 Lee Garvin ran a successful Kickstarter for the second of edition of Tales from the Floating Vagabond. Myself and others were excited for this because it offered an update on a game that was out of print and would also expand on the original content plus include various quality of life changes. We cannot forget the new art!

Though, the Kickstarter was wrought with problems and most of them involved Lee Garvin's declining health and other instabilities. The last Kickstarter update was posted in 2019 by Sandy Antunes because Lee Garvin passed away. I will re-post the update below:

"Hello all.  I am not Lee (surprise!)  My name is Sandy Antunes, and I have sad news about Lee as well as a closeout of this kickstarter.  As many of you may have heard, Lee Garvin passed away on June 28th 2019, shortly after reporting chest pains.   Lee was my friend since boy scouts, and he even gave me a thanks in first edition Vagabond.  Ah, yes, I still remember [cue wavy flashback sequence] .[/end flashback sequence]/

Our story resumes a few weeks ago when his brother loaned me Lee's laptop (hence being able to send this note) and I think Lee would find it amusing that, to access his account via his generic ebay nameless brand not-working laptop, we had to rip the back off (because it wouldn't power up with it on) and we can only type while balancing it precariously on a cushion, all while hoping it remembered his stored passwords so we can access this site (it did!)-- oh, and we bribed 2 cyber students with some amazon gift cards to get their help getting in this far.  Also, the laptop was handed to me anonymously at a steampunk event along with a bare hard drive ripped from what I presume was a landfill PC.  I wish we could have added gymnastic-ing through a laser maze and a trenchcoat in Lee's honor...  but I digress.

Lee died without money, with a lot of medical debt, and living with his dog Mal (in his car).  So, pretty much how we all expect we'll go.  Lee died still respected by his community of friends and fans and with the eternal hope that he would one day publish his long OOP TftFV as a new 2nd edition.  Fortunately, part of what he left is his nearly complete 98-page draft (woo!), oodles of working files (yay!), and around 30GB of files we're still sorting through (#$?%-- mostly mp3s and RiffTrax in that 30DB, but hey, there's extra Vagabond stuff in there too, so we're slogging through it!)

His brother has graciously allowed me to take up editing and releasing Tales from the Floating Vagabond: 2nd edition: the postmortem edition,  as a team effort, and it will happen!  Better, I was able to download the backer info for this, so we can attempt to (at a minimum) get at least the completed eBook TftfV2 to you all.  Many of Lee's collaborators and colleagues have already reached out to me to help in this, and I'll be setting up a collab site so we can make the best Vagabond possible.  When it is done, you kickstarter backers will be first to know and received the first edition of the second edition... err, you know what I mean.

(Interlude, the legalese: this kickstarter will not be able to fulfill all its promises, especially the 'play a game with Lee' part, although we're still working out the metaphysics on that last bit so don't hold me to to it.  I am not responsible for his estate and am generally irresponsible for most things but this will be a sincere best effort at releasing his legacy. This is a non-binding volunteer effort by his fanbase to complete TftfV2.)

His laptop is at 13% power and dropping so apologies if this message ends in mid--

Okay, just kidding about the power thing.   Those cyber kids did good work.  But, as we don't have actual access to Lee's email, I can't guarantee we can access Kickstarter past this update.  So this may be the last official notice here.  Having the backer info, though, I will email you folks that backed this when we have progress, a book, any convention appearances, and/or news of Zombie Lee rising from the dead (Garvin, not Christopher).

If you find the above insufficient (or are sufficiently bored) and wish to contact me and/or volunteer, try sandy at rpg dot net.  Or try flying a small airplane through a revolving door-- I'm told that worked for one broke adventurer, and he ended up in a rather interesting bar as a result.  Grab a chair, stranger, buy a drink from Spit, and sit a spell.  Interesting things are bound to happen."

 

Reading that update was heartbreaking as I felt like I got to know Lee Garvin personally over the years and rereading was still saddening. Well, over the years I have touched base off and on with the people who picked up the project and a lot of the updates were the usual of we are working on it, waiting on art, etc. So, there was nothing exciting to discuss. This was until recently until I reached out to Sandy to check and good news was delivered to me! The response was as follows:

 

                    "Hello [Redacted]

We wrapped up playtesting and are implementing those last edits. Layout is done for the draft book, save for tweaks following the playtest edits. Art is done and in. There's a Discord for playtesters that we will open up to everyone upon release as a general Vagabond channel. [Redacted]

[Redacted]

Editor and designer Kira Woodmansee will be at GenCon, though not in a Vagabond capacity; we hope to run games at GenCon 2024. We're pushing towards the finish!

I will raise the mugs & coasters idea but since we're doing the book for free as volunteers, unfortunately it's not part of the plan. We're thinking of 'print at cost' for print copies, though at least one publisher has said they might be able to fulfill them in return for rights to sell print copies. For now, the firm promise is 'the PDF of the book, large and fully in color and very very funny'.

Sandy
Sand at rpg dot net, freelance"

So, we all should be seeing a product soon. Do I know what soon is? No. Though, the people with their hands in the pie appear to be positive before Gen Con 2024. 

This is all the information I have for now and I am sorry about the quick history lesson though context for this update was important. 

Review: Kiwi Acres

 

For those of you that follow along, I am a huge fan of Mausritter. Though since the original release of Mausritter and a highly successful Kickstarter for a Boxset and a ton of adventures I have not seen any type of campaign level releases outside of other adventures. This was until I came across Kiwi Acres - a campaign setting based in the lands of New Zealand. Once I saw it, I had to get my hands on it and see what it was all about. I do not think I have reviewed an adventure before so I am going to see if I am able to do this any justice. 

Disclaimer:  I was given a copy of the PDF for review purposes. 

Presentation: The PDF clocks in at 33 pages plus the covers and and a GM notes page. The layout is clean and simple with whimsical fonts and a calming color scheme of black, green, and blue tables/font colors/splashes. Kiwi Acres also sports a handful of full colored art pieces that mostly relate to maps and locations. One of the first pages you read immediately puts you in the mindset of the setting and creates ideas before another page is turned. I am also impressed with how the author uses New Zealand terms and provides a handy pronunciation guide in the back.

Character Creation/Resolution: Uses the Mausritter system which is based off of Into the Odd/Cairn. I am not going to rehash it here as I linked my Masuritter review in my opening comments.

Setting Information/Locations: The campaign setting is focused on a farm located in New Zealand. The farm is set against a hex map with 19 locations. Each of the locations has something interesting and something going else going on. The locations are as follows:

1. Scarecrow Stand
2. Crossroads
3. Sheep Pen
4. Stoney Bridge
5. Whawhai Pond
6. Campsite
7. Grain Silos
8. Farmhouse
9. Craggy Rock
10. Vegetable Garden 
11. Road to Town
12. Hayfield
13. Kakariki Orchard
14. Solitary Hut
15. Rockridge
16. Mushroom Grove
17. Dark Cave
18. Fernwood Forest 
19. Forgotten Shed

There are rumor tables, encounter tables, factions, connection tables, hook tables, treasure tables, items, creatures, adventure items, new spells, different communities, and a host of colorful NPC's - some friendly, some not so much, and all with their own motives. All of this blends together and creates a living, breathing, setting that moves on its own. 

There are a few vague hints that talks about the lands behind the farm and the human city down the road where you could expand the setting and the adventures the characters can have. 

Kiwi Acres also includes an introductory adventure called the Lawnmower Menace! This adventure provides a serious problem that has various clever ways the characters can solve the problem and some unlikely allies. 

 

Final Thoughts: This is a well put together campaign setting that provides a ton of inspiration. One of my favorite things about it are the factions and how there are different communities scattered throughout the farm. The factions and the different communities really make it feel like a living area where the characters interventions (or lack of) will effect the landscape. The three factions are the Thieves Guild, Possum Gang, and Night Creepers. These factions each have two core goals that they are working towards and as progress is made towards the goals or if the goals are realized it can change the entire landscape of the campaign. 

I am also a fan of the author's attitude towards the games and has designed them to be printed at home!

I think it is also great that the author has also written 10! more adventures for this setting and each adventure deals with a specific hex on the farm map. Each adventure appears to expand on lore of the area and various NPCs plus the usual hooks/rumors and the adventure itself. 

I felt like the only thing that Kiwi Acres is missing is descriptions of how the different native New Zealand creatures look. I did not recognize a lot of the species or types of animals and I had to rely on ye olde google. In addition, the author talks about (and uses them as part of plot hooks) two magical creatures known as the Patupaiarehe and Ponaturi without any description outside of a state block. I think this is a miss opportunity to elaborate on these creatures and create some interesting lore for them. Another quick google search explains the Ponaturi as mischievous goblin like creatures and the Patupaiarehe as New Zealand Fae. 

All in all, it is worth getting your hands on. You can find the books and the author here:

• Itch
• Drivethrurpg
  
• Website 
• Blog
• Mastodon  
  

The New School Revolution?

 

New School Revolution or NSR is a more recent term that turned into its own thing and has some great support. This was mostly due to the efforts of Yochai Gal.  I know for a fact I have not talked about this on my blog and when I do, I want people to know what I am talking about. Defining of terms is always something that is important to me.

It is a term I have learned about recently and the whole mentality behind the NSR has taking on a life of its own and is starting to become something that takes on personal meaning to each person. To me, I find it is a love of rules that are light which focus on fiction and character development. Plus, I also enjoy the fact that it doesn't have a lot of the negative political baggage that the term OSR can bring up. 

The blogger Pandatheist wrote up a solid expanded definition from a bullet post list that probably won't get you stabbed in a shady tavern after dark. I will re-post the thoughts here for posterity sake.

"A Weird Setting – More palette than approach to play. It was a common recurrence among OSR and OSR adjacent games at the time I wrote the original post to draw from a similar well as the New Weird literary movement, or to lean into psychedelic mechanics and trappings, or simply to add a layer of the surreal. It was an explicit pushback against “vanilla fantasy”. I’m not quite as tapped into the scene as I was and I have no idea if this still holds, but back then it felt like a common enough trope to call it out explicitly.

A Living World – Sometimes in trad games, built for campaigns, or indie games generating everything contextually, it feels like the world warps around the characters. In NSR games the players far more often play protagonists of this story than heroes of THE story. Sometimes they’re just the latest trespassers. They’re the focus, but not the hinge the world turns on. Things happen in the background. Cities rise and fall. Kingdoms war and conquer. Life moves on. The world advances whether the players do or not. On the small scale you’ll commonly see this represented as wandering monster tables, sometimes tied to reaction rolls. On the large scale you’ll see this as things like faction turns.

Deadly – Maybe the term I regret the most from this list. I should probably have gone with “consequential”. Barring funnels and horror games, deadly combat isn’t quite what it appears to be. Many of these games care about resources, and HP just happens to be one of them. Monsters are moving traps. Resource drains. They’re excuses for creative thinking and smart planning and sneaking and diplomacy and… Monsters are dangerous because you should be avoiding them or talking with them. They’re disincentive. And more than that, the reasons behind a living world apply to your life and death too. That dragon isn’t a gold hoard with an HP value. Its a creature a thousand years old that plans to outlive you. Combine and you have a lot of tables that rarely see characters die. Although for what its worth, most of these games are rules light, chargen is fast, and if your character dies it takes less than 5 minutes to create a new one. So it goes.

Emergent Narrative – The story isn’t in the book the GM buys, and it isn’t in the narrative the GM presents. The story is what the players do. Players don’t play through a story, they create one through their actions. The only difference between this and what many indie games do is how much is pregenerated vs generated on the fly.

External Interaction – A long time ago I ran a Kingmaker campaign in Pathfinder. And every time they would enter a new scene, before I could describe anything at all, one particular player would roll their d20 and tell me what their perception check was. It was a mechanics first response. Compare to something like Into the Odd. In an ItO game I would describe a room and players would tell me what they wanted to do in the fiction. At the point where there was a question about what could happen or what was possible, only then would we look to the rules. So. External environment first instead of mechanics first. External interaction. Fiction first might have been a better description, but the term has historical baggage."

Re-reading these explained bullet points I have to say I am 100% on board with the definitions and the spirit of the NSR. I am also ecstatic that Pandatheist redefined by what was meant by deadly because you all already know how I feel about pointless character death which lead to the OSR Mythbustin' 1, 2, and 3.

The best thing about the NSR is not some definition or the spirit of the law. It is the people, the community, and the support that is given to all players and creators. I cannot recommend getting involved in the games enough or just having a conversation. Grab your pen, some dice, and jump in.

Review: The Knights of the Road

 

I cannot believe this game flew under my radar for this long and I only discovered its existence by happenstance as I was having an unrelated conversation about Cairn and Into the Odd. Someone in the conversation offhandedly mentioned The Knights of the Road and the conversation went like this;

 

Me: "Whats The Knights of the Road?"

Other Person: "Its an Into the Odd Hack where you play monster hunting hobos in an alternate history of the Dust Bowl era."

Me: "That sounds completely Rad!"

Other Person: "Ya, its great. I have always wanted to run that and have the characters end up in The Land of Oz"

Me: *Furiously takes notes and starts googling* "That is an epic idea. I will have to look up the game."

 

So, after some googling I discovered that The Knights of the Road had a successful Kickstarter in July of 2021. It is a hack using the rules of Into the Odd and was for all intents and purposes a labor of love with a strong DIY vibe.  Below is the first thing you read when you open up the Players Guide.

 

Some of the inspiration that the author listed includes:

• Emperor of the North (Movie, 1971)
• Oh Brother, Where Art Thou (Movie, 2003)
• Road to Perdition (Movie, 2000)
• Ironweed by William Kennedy (Book, 1984)
• Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Book, 1937)
• Tortilla Flats by John Steinbeck (Book, 1935)
• Big Rock Candy Mountain (Graphic Novel, Vol 1. 2017 and Vol. 2 2018) 
• Hobomancer (RPG by Hex Games)
• Cthulhu Hack (RPG by Just Crunch Games)
• Call of Cthulhu (RPG by Chaosium Games)

I would like to personally add the following:

• The Night of the Hunter (Movie, 1955)
  
• Carnivale (HBO Television Series)
  
• A Dozen Tough Jobs by Joe Lansdale (Book, 1989)
  
• The Road by Jack London (Book, 1907)
• Trail of the Tramp by Leon Ray Livingston (Book, 1913)

Then out of left field (has nothing to do with the era) but for some good monster hunting inspiration and tongue in cheek humor:

• Monster Hunter International by Larry Correia (Book, 2009)
  

 

Presentation: The PDF has the usual fair of spreads, pages, covers, a badass full color map of the area, and instructions on how to assemble the three little booklets. The physical copy is what surprised me. The game comes in three little stapled booklets that measure 2.75x4.25 in dimension wrapped in twine with a tag on it (I wish I would have taken a picture of it before I unwrapped it). The booklets follow the classic set up of a player guide, a book of monsters, and a Conductors Guide (GM's guide). 

Per the author, all of the physical copies were printed out on an fancy Brother Laser printer and hand assembled. All this was done at home (they have a professional print shop feel) as well as the author being the artist. 

Speaking of the art, the art is hand drawn in black and white with a style that matches something that would come out of a 1920s print shop's comic section. The art has an rustic edge to it that real fits the era and gives it unique flavor.

Character Creation: Creating a character is similair to creating a character of Into the Odd because its a hack of it. It follows these basic steps:

1. Roll 3d6 in these three stats: Vim (V) physical fitness etc., Sense (S) Reflexes, perception etc., and Wit (W) Knowledge, Intelligence, etc.

2. Roll for or make up a name. 

3. Roll or choose Starting Set/Background.

4. Roll d6 for Dumb Luck (Hit Points).

5. Start with a good luck charm.

6. Roll d6 for starting cash.

The game includes a flavorful name generator.

The Starting Set includes what you were before you became employed by the IBIS, some gear, a talent, and a lucky charm.

Resolution: Outside of the story driven/fiction first focus of the game, when the dice hit the table the resolution for any skill/narrative needs a pass or fail/etc is a d20 roll under the appropriate attribute. The game also boasts a Advantage (roll 2d20 take the lowest) and Disadvantage (roll 2d20 and take the highest). 

Combat is handled by the characters always going first (unless they are surprised) and hits are automatic with damage being rolled and taken off of Dumb Luck first then Vim. If Vim is reduced, the character is required to make a Vim save with the new rating and if the character fails, the character falls unconscious and is out of the fight. If damage is taken that reduced Vim beyond zero the character dies but if Vim is exactly reduced to 0, the character survives and gets to roll on a radical Scars Table. 

A 10 minute smoke break heals all Dumb Luck and a days rest (with some possible medical attention).

 

Final Thoughts: I am going to try to organize the beginnings of my final thoughts by the three little books and go from there.

The Players Guide includes some intuitive rules for vehicle combat, hired hands, and advancement. Characters basically advance their rank in the Knights tagging their exploits on a water tower. This advancement come with a possibility of a stat increase. 

The Monster of the Rails has a great selection on monsters and beasts from urban legends and supernatural sources. A lot of good inspiration right there. 

The Conductors Guide has a few tips about running a game, a disclaimer about some of the adult and sensitive themes in the era and safety tips, a quest generator, possible rewards for said quest, a map, encounters and events, and of course an example of play. One of the possible rewards for a completed quest is an artifact that increased Dumb Luck by 2. 

The Knights of the Road is an amazing light little game with each booklet being 16 pages long. Cram packed in those books is a lot of inspiration, flavor, and setting and I cannot recommend this game enough. Plus, it uses Into the Odd as a base so that is always a bonus in my book. 

With that being said, I think this game has a missed mark and has a missed opportunity. The missed mark is that mechanical parts of advancement feels lack luster and is split into exploits and quest rewards. It is a little confusing. The missed opportunity is that I think the author could have dropped acid with the Into the Odd framework and expanded it with the setting without adding extra crunch.

The most important take away that I have is that I want a campaign book, additional monsters, additional sets, towns with problems big and small, an alternate timeline that is spelled out, and just...

 

You can find The Knights of the Road at the following places:  

• Print at Exalted Funeral
• PDF at Itch 
• Bordercholly's Website 
  

Join the Conversation and Extra Info: 

• Discord
• A Youtube Review (Not Mine) 

 

 

Dissolution of ATTI?

 

Yesterday I woke up to the news of the people responsible for bringing us A Thousand Thousand Islands are parting ways. This makes me sad because these zines and settings were one of my favorite things to come out of the OSR and the ATTI brought together all types of gamers including story gamers. I am no historian or professional on the matter but the inspiration seems accurate and the material remains culturally sensitive. 

Zedreck Siew posted this statement on the Tumblr blog:

Reading this is rough and it sounds like both people involved had different feelings and beliefs of their rolls in the partnership. 

Munkao posted a response to Zedeck Siew's statement through the update function on their successful Kickstarter of Reach of the Roach God here.

Reading both statements, it sounds like there was hurt feelings on both sides, miscommunication, and unfair statements, etc. I am sure we will never know the full story and all of the details but regardless of the situation, I hope both parties are able to find their own healing and sometime of middle ground that does not involve lawyers.

I do not know what this means for the future of ATTI or Reach of the Roach God. 

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, below you can explore The Thousand Thousand Islands.

• ATTI Website
• Itch 
• Review by Questing Beast 
• Review by Owen Edwards

FKR & Beyond

I have probably mentioned FKR or Free Kriegsspiel Revolution on this blog a few times and how much I enjoy that style. If not, I have have had conversations at length about it in person, on Discord, and various other online platforms. It is also the style of gaming that birthed the gaming we have now from the tables and basements of the Twin City Gamers. I cannot recommend enough watching Secrets of Blackmoor.

Though, thinking about I know I may not always explain what it is at all or well and I am firm believer in the definition of terms. So, I am going to try to define it with a couple of points below: 

1. FKR tends to be rules light but not completely free form. I think that is an important distinction. It is common for resolution to use opposed 2d6 or 2d6 verse a target number. Though there are various other dice tasks used as well. FKR games tend to use mechanics as a servant of the players and the referee and the game is not submissive to them in anyway shape or form. The rules also evolve in a table centric way.
2. FKR games also as a point of practice, attempts to eschew most rules in favor of realism and immersion.   This allows the players to get lost in the fiction and just describe what their character does and leaves it up to the referee to make any adjustments or rulings as needed. This lack of rules allows characters to do more.
3. FKR has a focus on invisible rulesbooks are visible ones. A lot of the people that played with Dave Arneson have talked about how they never saw any type off rule book except the notes they had on their character sheet. Though, Dave did have a rule book, and between the scribbled notes the rule book was invisible.
   
4. FKR is a HIGH-TRUST-GAME. It is only going to be successful if all of the players trust the Referee to make fair, just, and consistent rulings. There are no rules where the Referee is caged under or shackled to. 
5. FKR can, at times, emulate some board games or older war games where manipulating vague rules to the characters advantage is part of the fun. This brings the focus to worlds not rules. 
6. Finally, FKR shows the joy of tactical infinity and the players using real world problem solving skills to solve the actual problems.

Now, with all that being said, it is important to note that the rulings, we well - important. As without them the game becomes group fiction. 

 

I would be remiss if I did not re-post the Free Kriegsspiel Revolution that currently only exists as a screenshot on a Discord pin and was original penned by Wizard Lizard. 

 

 

 

State of the Blog

 

Well, here I am writing a "state of the blog" post which is something I thought I would never do. My attitude on this matter was twofold. The first being content will come out when it comes out and that is that. The second one being I did not believe (foolish I know) that there would be a lull in momentum or inspiration. I was wrong on the latter as it has been what? 11 long months since my last post.

In that time and then some; I have graduated college, dealt with various life changes, a new job, a resurgence of my depression, almost two adoptions, and various other situations or happenings. 

I think one of the biggest factors of the lack of writing has been that I have not gamed, read any games, or even been active in the various communities for about six months. This has been due to scheduling issues and a few other things I am involved with that required a lot of my attention and energy.

With that being said, the good news is that over the last few weeks I have found some gaming inspiration again (if I am being real, an old friend who is not a gamer was sincerely interested in my works and talked about being proud of me was a big part of it. That and playing Diablo 4) and I have been active in some of the communities as well as talking about gaming with some friends. Plus, I also got some new material to go through and I have to say, some of my most recent quest rewards have caught my eye and been very inspirational. 

I am not going to promise some crazy posting schedule or if it will even be consistent but have no fear, I plan to post more often (at least more then once every 11 months) and we will see where it goes from there. I do miss writing and I started this blog for one simple reason...

"For the Love of the Game"

I still love the game. 

I will catch everyone on the flip side!