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Wilderness of Mirrors 002 Edition
by Robert M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/11/2017 14:59:20

The game has promise, but for a second editon its horribly edited. There are references to old terminology from the first edition that make no sense in the newer version, and some rules are very unclear, again likely owning to poor editing between versions. It looks like fun, but if this had been a Pay What You Want Game, I'm not not sure I would have paid even the $3 it cost



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Wilderness of Mirrors 002 Edition
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Wield
by Kenneth S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/26/2017 22:26:13

I picked this up because it sounded like Bloodlust, which was a French game I'd heard about where the PCs were intelligent weapons and other players were the characters using them. So Wield has that same basic concept and some fun suggestions for items and character creation. It's a nice looking book too. It doesn't really have a setting. No bestiary or equipment lists or NPCs or maps... or anything. Beyond the concept of the Vatcha it's just an outline of some simple mechanics... simple to the point that I wonder if the authors' goal was rules-lite or work-lite. I'm not so fond of it's combat system... it feels like something from a kid's party game and is very 'meta'. Overall, it was worth the purchase for some grand ideas... but I think I'll be using the Vatcha in a different system, probably some flavor of BRP. Now... If I could just find a copy of Bloodlust in English...



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Wield
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The Shotgun Diaries
by A customer [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/05/2016 12:31:28

I purchased this product thinkingit was a story. I was incorrect. It is more than that. It is a whole system for running a zombie campaign. I recommend it for any one looking fora fun one shot or quick start game. The rules aresimple but well thought out. Great work here.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Shotgun Diaries
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7th Sea: Second Edition Quick Start
by Arnold V. C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/07/2016 00:03:52

New GM/player to the 7th Sea world and this quick start guide was an excellent read to help introduce myself into the world and the system. Right now I'm using this to "sell" the world to my playe friends with a quick and action packed romp int Thean.

Also backed the kickstarter (because really, i was sold on 7th Sea when I read magic and pirates in one sentence).



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
7th Sea: Second Edition Quick Start
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7th Sea: Second Edition Quick Start
by Nicholas M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/05/2016 00:29:16

I got to say wow it`s a grate game. I played the first Edition when it was out and loved it. So when I saw the 7th Sea: Second Edition Quick Start it was a must have.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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7th Sea: Second Edition Quick Start
by Juergen I. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/04/2016 13:11:17

A bit of Salt in the air... 7th Seas is back! Great stuff for all who love sword fights, dashing heros and scheming enemies! Rules are easy to understand, ready to play. Off we go an mission which can be good or ill for the beloved kingdom... familiy... cause and captain.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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7th Sea: Second Edition Quick Start
by Mark D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/20/2016 12:10:42

Love the 1st Edition looking forward to the 2nd Edition.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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7th Sea: Second Edition Quick Start
by Sampo L. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/20/2016 03:25:46

Its a good little introduction to the world and adventure.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Wicked Fantasy (Full Book)
by Michael S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/31/2015 03:48:55

Wicked Fantasy is over 300 pages, covering 10 races old and new and presenting new background information, stats, options, and stories to help bring them to life. The book covers humans, haffuns (halflings), orks, elves, dach'youn (gnolls), gnomes, gobowins (goblins), uvandir (dwarves), roddun (ratfolk), and kuba-chubisi ("noble kobolds" will get you somewhere near the mark). So let's roll right into this!

To begin with, I have some negative things to say about this book, and I want to get them out of the way up front so they're not the last thing on your mind after reading this review.

First, the mechanics and rules language are surprisingly rough for such a beautiful hardcover. There are numerous instances of typed bonuses where the type is nonstandard and undefined, references to non-existent templates for size increases, poorly constructed rules language (for example "You can do this a number of times a day for each god's blood item you are wearing"), areas where the fluff and crunch are in direct conflict (the roddun entry refers to the fact that every fight challenging for the title of King Rat is a fight to the death, then talks about Ex King Rats reclaiming their titles), entire new base classes lacking BAB entries or reference tables, the list kind of goes on. Some of these are things where a reasonably experienced player or GM can easily divine the intent and smooth the rough edges, others are bad enough that the abilities need to be thrown out or rewritten entirely to be useful.

Secondly, the races, all of which have completely rewritten stats and racial abilities, are [i]crazy freaking strong[/i], generally by a substantial and very noticeable degree. This may be exacerbated even more by the awkward rules language; for example, the human "Hometown" racial trait refers to the human gaining a bonus feat, presumably of their choice, for each of two specific skills they have at least a +4 bonus in. Considering the humans also get an additional class skill of their choice that receives a +2 bonus and 1 rank plus the class skill bonus already puts them at +4, this means every human can easily get 2 bonus feats at 1st level. They also get their choice of +2 to any one physical stat [i]and[/i] +2 to any one mental stat, an awkwardly worded ability that gives them certain advantages in their hometown (separate from the Hometown ability), a bonus to Will saves that starts at +1 and scales up to +5, a more loosely worded and thus potentially more powerful version of the Inquisitor's Solo Tactics called Improved Teamwork, and an ability that procs off of their critical hits which can provide up to their Charisma modifier as a bonus to attack and damage rolls for all allies within 30 feet. All of the other races presented are essentially as strong or stronger. Honestly, these races are so ridiculously strong that you basically [i]have[/i] to limit your players to only the races in this book if you're going to allow them to use the new racial stats, otherwise the player using these options will be at a distinct and probably game-disrupting advantage. If you do have your whole group use the options presented herein, be ready to bump the difficulty of the challenges you throw at them to compensate for their increased power.

Okay, sound a little rough so far? Wondering if that 3 star rating was a mistake, maybe a sneeze where I accidentally scrolled up a bit? It's not, and here's why: This book is, at its heart, more about creating a kind of pseudo campaign setting, a new way to look at races some people have probably been playing with for years. Every chapter has a long description of the ecology, philosophy, and history of the race, and a short story giving you an example of how they fit into the world. Let me tell you, this stuff is gold. The world and people presented in Wicked Fantasy are exciting and interesting. My wife loves orcs, and frequently comments about how so many authors and designers "get them wrong" (I have no idea where her standard for orcs comes from, but I think it's mostly Thrall or his parents in some of the better written Warcraft novels), and she absolutely loves the orks presented here, a sentiment I share. The haffun manage to deftly weave some of the classic halfling stereotypes into a broader and darker tapestry that makes them much deeper and interesting, the roddun ratfolk as good-natured mafioso is just magical in its presentation, and every race is supported not just by a wealth of beautifully presented information, but also spectacular art. I literally sat down on the couch with my wife after buying this book at the game store and read it cover to cover in one sitting, something I don't think I've ever done before, and which I [i]know[/i] my wife hasn't. While I picked it up largely because of John Wick's gaming pedigree, the beautiful art, and the Pathfinder compatible logo, having read this I could recommend it to any fan of fantasy as an enjoyable and interesting read.

So, how do you rate something like this? I've been trying to avoid the words "fluff" and "crunch", but I think I'm going to have to use them now. The crunch of this book, sadly, fails entirely. I often found myself reading something and thinking that the author must have been playing the game long enough they don't even realize what things they are house-ruling, and in an earlier iteration of this review I questioned whether the writers ever actually picked up a Pathfinder Core Rulebook at [i]any[/i] point in the design and development process. It smacks of either laziness bred by familiarity, or enthusiasm without a firm foundation of system knowledge, and I can't always tell which. If this book's sole value was as a rules resource, I would have to give it 1 star. But it's not just a rules resource, it is a genuinely enjoyable read, a collection of short stories, a thesis on how classic fantasy races might develop and interact in a different kind of world than we are normally presented with, and in that regard it is an amazing success, 5 stars hands down. My final verdict then will be an average of the two, 3 stars, because I cannot in good faith go any higher than that given its deficiencies in the realm of balance and rules presentation/development. It is, after all, presented as being Pathfinder Roleplaying Game compatible, and I fear that is only true in the broadest sense. If that's not a complete turn-off for you though, I suggest you pick it up anyway, and enjoy it for the piece of art it is.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Wicked Fantasy (Full Book)
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Cat (Revised & Expanded)
by Allan D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/11/2015 12:19:43

Cat Revised is just exactly as it sounds. A simple and fun game with an interesting concept. All cats are the protector of humans from evil spirits called 'Boggins'. The system allows an extremely quick start-up and easy to follow. Includes the creation rules for dogs, humans, and boggins; which allow storytellers an extremely wide range of flexibility with the system and possible story-lines. It is AMAZING for getting kids excited about role-playing for the first time!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Cat (Revised & Expanded)
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The Big Book of Little Games
by Robert L. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/12/2015 14:24:12

Excellent package. Absolutely loved the concept for the CATS! rag and can hardly wait to play a game.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Big Book of Little Games
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Wicked Fantasy (Full Book)
by Alex L. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/11/2015 00:41:34

This book is simply dynamite! Wick's unorthodox reimagining of these beloved (and often stale) races is a breath of fresh air. The ideas he presents can become your new understanding of each race, or you can do what I did and treat the racial genesis story as a LOCAL genesis. So maybe not ALL orcs are "orks" but on this island, they are.

I haven't been so impressed with a supplement in a long time!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Wicked Fantasy (Full Book)
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Play Dirty
by Andrew W. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/09/2015 00:35:02

This should be in every GM's collection. Even if you don't use it, you'll wish you could.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Play Dirty
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Wilderness of Mirrors 002 Edition
by Cédric P. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/09/2014 22:29:22

I think I prefer the original edition with the planet code-name roles. The graphic design and the layout was definitively better. But this version work well. It just less sexy.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Wilderness of Mirrors 002 Edition
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Wield
by Alexander L. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 07/03/2014 08:19:27

Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2014/07/03/tabletop-review-wield/

Wield is one of those Kickstarter successes that just takes you by surprise. Looking for only three thousand dollars, Wield brought in nearly 1,100 backers and raised over twenty-seven grand! Not bad for a little game that could be yours for as low as five dollars. I know I was a backer. I mean, at worst I would be out five dollars and I’ve been looking for a game similar to Bloodlust, except in English. Hey, I may speak/read/write French, but very few of my friends do, and Bloodlust is only in francais. Wield definitely felts inspired by Bloodlust in terms of the core theme, but it differs greatly in both mechanics and demographics. Bloodlust for example is very dark and filled with mature themes while Wield can be for any age as it’s extremely setting-lite. Mechanics-wise…well, I can’t say I cared for Wield, and we’ll take look why below.

So what is Wield about? Well think of Elric and Stormbringer, Cyric and Godsbane, and other fantasy character wielding an intelligent magical weapon. Wield takes you into such a world, but instead of playing the hero who wields the magical blade or powerful mystic amulet, you will actually be playing as the self-aware item itself! That’s such a fun concept. The item can be anything from the usual weapon or armor to something more outlandish like a musical instrument, coin, or pet carrier. The only limit is your imagination.

There are comprehensive and detailed character creation rules for your item, known as a vatcha. Like any protagonists in a tabletop RPG, the vatcha have a goal to accomplish and will go through several thrilling adventures until they meet it or are destroyed. Character creation rules are easy as you choose an item you want to be, a goal to have and a way that your ancient artifact can be destroyed. Then you have to come up with a connection with each other vatcha being played. This creates a shared background and some potential story hooks for the person running the game. You should have a character up and running in ten minutes unless you and your friends are stumped for a connection between the flaming shield of doom and an enchanted mattress cover.

Things start to get a little more complicated when heroes come into play. You see, each vatcha is wielded by a hero, but a player does not play both their vatcha and its hero. No, instead, you play your vatcha and the vatcha of SOMEONE ELSE’S hero. This creates more potential for storytelling as well as conflict. While this is an interesting idea in theory, most people don’t like to play more than one character at a time. Sure there are exceptions like Dungeon Crawl Classics where the norm is to start out playing two-three characters per player, but the majority of games feel best when one person plays one character. Wield realizes asking a person to play two very different characters, one human and one a magical item, can be difficult so it suggests using two different voices or to have the hero card in front of your mouth when speaking as the hero, so everyone knows which one is talking/acting. That’s totally fine and it works for me. The problem I have is that this can lead to PvP conflict and that rarely turns out well for a gaming party. If player A wants the hero to do something the vatcha does not (or vice versa), which will probably happen more often than not, this can lead to some groups getting catty or spiteful towards each other. It could even lead to the hero trying to destroy the vatcha or the vatcha dispatching with the hero and looking for a new pawn to wield it. This is either going to be a good thing or a very bad thing, depending on the makeup of your group. If one or more player is immature or treats tabletop gaming as SERIOUS BUSINESS, this can turn out poorly indeed. If however, everyone remembers it’s just a silly fun game, these kinds of inter-character conflict can become a lot of fun and allow for memorable adventures. Just be sure you know your troupe well before deciding to play Wield.

Another alternative is to let Fate (the GM) play the Heroes as it would any other NPCs. This is a little more traditional and may work better as Fate does create the heroes. Otherwise when the heroes are handed out randomly to the Players, it’s like getting a pregenerated character as you would at a convention or starter set. It’s harder to become emotionally attached to a pregen, so some people playing Wield might not enjoy playing someone else’s creation. At the same time, heroes are actually meant to be disposable in Wield as the vatcha are the main attraction in this game. A Vatcha will go through several heroes as the game goes on, especially if you are playing a series of adventures or a campaign. Of course, a vatcha disposing of its hero may lead to hurt feelings by the person playing the hero, but again, it all comes back to making sure your group has the right mental makeup to play Wield. It’s definitely a niche game best left in the hands of a specific audience.

Another interesting aspect of Wield is that neither heroes nor vatcha level up, gain new abilities or advance in the same way one usually thinks of in a role playing game. In fact, both will stay the same from character creation to character death. This is definitely a game about role-playing and not min/maxing, which I like. Of course, people do like to see some sort of change or progression in the game and that’s where powers and control come into play.

Each vatcha can have up to three domains of powers. They don’t have to have three mind you, and generally having a single domain instead of two or three can be more helpful if you want to specialize in a specific power set instead of being multi-faced. Think of it as extremely skilled or a jack of all trades, master of none. Now the vatchas have these powers but they can’t directly use them. That’s what the heroes are for. They need a human patsy to channel the powers. However the more power/powers given to the hero, the less control the vatcha has over its would-be patsy. Too much power and the hero can take control, as well as learn the way to truly destroy the vatcha. It’s a very interesting give and take to be sure and with the right party makeup, Wield offers some unique and wondrous role-playing opportunities.

Now we come to the mechanics, and it is where the game falls apart in my opinion. You generally roll 2d6 to resolve things, but there are also sorts of ways to get bonus dice such as if your personality, background or vatcha power are relevant to the roll. A couple pages later, it mentions you can get up to two more bonus dice for proper equipment for a task. So your roll can get up to 7d6. That’s fine. So is the ladder of command. You have no roll for easy tasks, a target of 6 for a hard tasks, 12 for heroic, 18 for epic and 25 (shouldn’t that be 24) for impossible. Again, this is a fine scale as well. The problem is going to be remembering and justifying the bonus dice you get for each roll. I think that you’re going to see people forget more often than not all the options for bonus dice until after they have rolled. Challenge will also be highly depending on how Lax or tough Fate is as a GM.

Combat is where things get pretty weird and this is where the game will either really intrigue you or really turn you off. Unfortunately it did the latter for me. Every Player has to decide to attack or defend. You can’t do both. Fate counts to five and then if you are going to attack, you have to point at who you want to attack with one to five fingers outstretched. If you are going to defend, you place an arm across your chest with one to five fingers outstretched. The number of fingers outstretched means the difficulty roll you are willing to make. The five levels are the same for tasks (0, 6, 12, 18, 25). Now everyone has to do this at the exact same time, which can lead to a bit of a cluster. Then after everyone’s choices are revealed, you can choose to switch from an attack to a defense roll. Then all the rolling starts. However, there is no initiative in this game, so instead of a carefully laid out turn of events, Wield becomes a little too chaotic for my liking, with everyone rolling and resolving at the same time. It could also be that I didn’t care for the examples or descriptive text in this section. Nothing seems to flow well or read smoothly in the mechanics part of the book. I think there are a LOT of easy ways to improve things, and that Wield will be one of those games that lives or dies based on how well a local GM house rules the thing. I think if the team behind Wield had spent a little more time defining the rules (20% of the rulebook is fiction) and devoted some more pages to it, a lot of the potential for mishaps could have been easily avoided. Wield is a very rules lite game, which I enjoy, but this is one of those times where I feel combat could have actually used an overhaul.

So Wield is one of those games where I’m not sure if I really like it or not. I love the concept and character creation aspects of the game, but playing the game can be a real mess and utterly confusing for younger or casual gamers. Because of the high chance for PvP issues, it’s also a game that should only be played by people whose feelings don’t hurt easily and who can remember that a RPG is something to experience, not something to WIN. I think once the Wield Companion comes out and I have a lot more time with the game under my belt I can give Wield a definitive thumbs up or down. Right now I’ll say “thumbs in the middle” as it’s a very unique product and if you pick it up and dislike it, you’re only out five dollars. Compare that to money spent on Pathfinder or some other game that requires multiple 30-40 dollar rulebook purchases. My advice is give the electronic version of Wield a try and see if it is right for you and your friends. If not, at least you have an interesting curiosity piece in your collection.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Wield
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