Really interesting ideas here, using a deck of cards as the randomizer. They play kind of loose in some ways, and the framework is about narrowing down the search to identify Vaesen creating troubles... which is a clever way to get at a solo investigation. You're identifying the problem via the way the clues are revealed, and certain clues point you in certain directions. This more or less is a way to solve the challenge of a solo investigation (which doesn't really work if you know the clues, the criminal ahead of time). I've tried to adapt these to Blade Runner... not sure if it'll work since Replicants (and Human criminals) aren't quite the same as Vaesen. The idea is a good way to approach investigative solo play, however, and recommended for those solo gamers who want an idea for doing investigations in a solo format.

TWD brings something interesting to the genre, treating the zombie horde like an environmental feature with its own hazards and keeping the interpersonal drama at the forefront rather than tracking specific details about food or water or whatever. It's a zombie apocalypse survival genre game, but it's about people... as it should be. ---------------

Solo rules feel fresh as well, focused on the single character aspects of solo play that make for better solo gaming... but also weaving in the group aspect of TWD. It's the right level of solo, I think, similar to their approach in Book of Beasts for Forbidden Lands. These are really smart choices for solo rules. -----------------

It's nothing new, but it has its own feeling. It's not the bullet-counting tactical game of Free League's Twilight: 2000. It borrows a bit from ALIEN's panic, along with the looser ammo rules for a more cinematic experience. Yes, there's similarity to other Free League titles, but this brings together a lot of good aspects from other games into a single rulebook that is an excellent entry into the post-apocalyptic genre of games. ----------------------

EDIT: Having played the solo mode for a bit, let me add a few things... number 1, I love NPC management (which is similar in both the solo and group play mode). I'll probably borrow this for use in everything YZE. Good way to streamline the use of NPCs. -------------

Number 2... solo mode is better if you build in more group tension? That naturally puts a limiter on the size of your Haven. Whereas, if you are too cooperative and think too cooperatively, then it's EZ mode and you might just blob up. I had to stop 1 run because I didn't add enough conflict... it was just boring. The second time, I randomized the starting NPCs (rather than used the starting groups) and there's more chaos to sift through. It genuinely feels better. ----------------

I might be leading the group towards too much cooperation (again), but I can see external pressure on the horizon with a faction of cannibals to fill in the blank when I resolve the tensions within the survivor's Haven. And I guess that's the magic in TWD - keeping up the pressure in one form or another. The minute you lose the pressure, you need to hit the reset button. That's the balance you need to maintain, in my opinion.

A really weird niche that lacks the same depressive angst of a lot of PbtA, which instantly makes this a more fun and charming way to approach this genre of storytelling game.

With this niche, it can even fit on top of another PbtA or other game if you wanted to. Want to give your Teen Supers from Masks a "Summer Camp" edition of the comics? Adapt their personalities to "Warmer in the Winter"!

That's the neatest thing about this niche. It's different. It tells different stories. It's not your noir, deep-in-the-darkness, angst-ridden PbtA that only ends in tears. It's a cozy romp into another kind of storytelling that you can embrace with amused enthusiasm like riding a kickscooter as an adult.

Character-ful Werewolf game, free from metaplots and giant political whatevers. This is about the Werewolf and the Pack, as it should be.

Pbta is a super system for this. Focused at Werewolf storytelling, and the character level. IMO, it's hard to find better than this if you want to tell the story of a Werewolf Pack.

Okay, this is updated to a modern PDF format rather than being pure scan... so it's imminently usable now compared to some of the other books. You also have to remember this is a product of the late 90s, so the technology was different. Thanks to all who updated this.

Tribe 8 is such an intriguing setting, set in the ruins of Montreal. (Or, "Vimary"... a corrupted form of Ville-Marie, the central arrondissement of Montreal.) Spiritual apocalypse, death camps, liberation, where your players are children who descend from the survivors of the camps (disconnected from the world before). Really intriguing stuff. There aren't many games with this kind of world-building.

Of course, the problem here is that (outside of a few books and the very start of the metaplot), most of the rest of this line can only be found in used bookstores and scanned PDFs.

For me, I have virtually the entire line in hardcopy, including the entire metaplot, so getting a functional PDF of the core rulebook is just extra.

For new players? It's enough to get started. And what a start. Maybe you won't fully appreciate the metaplot without the books, but it's enough to build something in one of the most intriguing game settings to come from that era of RPGs. Even with the books, you don't need the metaplot campaign to make good use of the setting. It's that creative and different.

It's a setting that begs to be experienced. Get this one, the Vimary Sourcebook, and you're well on your way to having something good. It would be even better if the Tribe sourcebooks (Word of the Fates, Word of the Pillars, Word of the Dancers) were properly updated because those tell you more about building a Tribal cycle rather than a Fallen cycle, but the Tribe 8 Companion (which has been updated to a proper PDF) gets you most of the way to a Tribal/Vimary cycle on its own.

This game is mind-candy, and well worth checking out. Even today, people talk about Tribe 8. It's well worth the time.

Unfair, really f-ing stupid at times, but what a ride.

I felt like I had to write up a heck of a lot compared to Chariot of the Gods because the force structure for the Colonial Marines is completely FUBAR even though they're all getting reassigned to Charlie Squad. Like, give me more context for this, and why it's so f-ked up that they're pulling Marines from all over to create a separate fireteam because it makes no sense.

You can make it make sense, but it's not inherently there. And a lot of the scenario feels that way because there's a lot of interesting mystery and a lot of stuff that seems just bonkers.

At least two of the pregens have really f-ked up secrets to them. If you play them straight up, then it's possible that those players are just f'kd from the start, which feels totally bonkers and unfair. You really have to structure the storytelling to make some of it not as fkd up, IMO... which you can do, but you really really have to commit to un-fking those characters in the scenes.

If your player won't react well to being fkd, then it can go fking badly. I totally love the concept as long as you're committed to the story and not just creating a TPK, but it's so easy to trigger a TPK in this one.

There are ways to stack the deck a little more in favor of the players, but there's so much where they can just be fkd. So if you like old school concepts where you have a million ways to fk your player, there's that in bunches here.

The other challenge is putting context to the Colonial Marine presence at Kruger 60 & 61-Cygni. IMO, it's better when you've got military structure around these guys, so filling out the organization helps lend more "realism" to it. You can tell this came before the Colonial Marines handbook due to the weird lack of organizational structure. I kind of made up my own stuff, combined with the US Marine Corps structure and the known structure of the US Colonial Marine Corps (like Marine Space Force Eridani in the USCMC versus the Marine Expeditionary Forces in the US Marine Corps, the use of Marine Assault Units in the USCMC versus Marine Expeditionary Units in the US Marine Corps, etc.) Adding quasi-military structure to the setting of Destroyer of Worlds helps make it feel less wrong, but also a lot more wrong in other ways (like, why are these dudes being detached from their MAU and embedded with a black ops Special Operations Regiment? There are many possible reasons, but nothing you ever really learn).

And, yes, the pregens mostly have boring Agendas that don't move like they do in "Chariot of the Gods". There's nothing in the Agendas that make me go, "AH HA! That is AWESOME." It's mostly just Colonial Marines getting fkkd into a sh!tty situation.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely LOVE "Dante", but it's not like her Agenda is anything amazing despite her backstory.

I'll recomend this if you spend the time to make it work for your players. I wouldn't play it straight up, especially now with the Colonial Marines handbook giving you more resources to work from. IMO, I'd prefer to drop in a whole second squad (to make up a full section)... and they can serve as backups to guard the APC while the main team does its thing. At least that can help justify a high body count rather than stick unlucky players with Iona or Zmiejewski as a replacement.

I'd avoid this if you're only looking to fk with your players. It's too easy in this scenario to be a d!ck of a Game Mother.

Useful? Yes, but at 48 pages total (inclusive of cover pages, table of contents, all the filler/spacer pages), it's not the kind of PDF that says, "I'm overflowing with stuff you don't need."

About half the book is dedicated to personas from the comics, including the 4 Grey sisters... so if you're shying away from the comics, this might not be that useful. If you're looking for a condensed read of the characters in one spot, then this might be what you're looking for. And it includes very key characters such as: The Kaiser Hind von Medeim, Queen Alena Zakarhin von Medeim (don't ask me why she's a "Queen" and not "Kaiserin"), The Lord High Marshal/Wolf General, and other characters from the comics.

If you're looking to add these figures into your stories, then you're in luck. Half the PDF is dedicated to them. The background information is probably of more use than the stats, for the most part. d6 never struck me as a game system where you hunt down the biggest enemies possible to compare stats (unlike Dungeons & Dragons).

The rest of the book?

About 10 pages of additional information on the setting, which is basically more regional information that is very very similar to the layout/presentation of the main powers in the Carbon Grey RPG book. Don't expect a lot of excess description. It's a couple pages at most on these countries, like the Turkul Empire (i.e. the Ottoman Turks of the setting). Having the info is great, especially if you want your game to detour into the Ottoman/Turkul Empire... but it's brief. It's enough to create something from, but don't expect extensive backgrounds and maps and other details.

The third part (`8 pages) is a section of general NPC stats, again similar to what you have in the main Carbon Grey RPG rulebook... but simply more of them. More stat blocks is goood. The stat blocks give you general ideas of who they are for your setting... so "Rival, Solo" Sniper instantly tells you what kind of use this stat block is for, just like the stat blocks in the main rulebook. "Rival Leader" Purge Officer, "Solo, Rival" Hitman, "Solo, Rival" Manipulative Elite, and "Solo, Rival" Peerless Ace give you some ideas of what to expect from this section. This is definitely very useful reference material.

Last is a single page with a set of 6 random Espionage adventure hooks (i.e. roll d6, get a hook). Useful but brief.

Overall, you can say this book is "useful but brief". Half of the book is stats I don't really need, but the character info is actually quite useful in fleshing out the world even if you don't intend to use the NPCs like the Kaiser in actual play. It's good setting information, but through a character lens.

The setting info about factions & world powers? It's merely okay. It doesn't expand on the formula in the main rulebook, which is very brief and gives you enough to get a sense of the world... but making the world is left up to you. (If you like the loose setting in the main book, then this is fine. If you need more direction, then don't expect it here.)

The most useful section, with stat blocks for various general NPC types? It's the shortest section of the book. I find it very useful, but it's brief.

Overall, a good book. You'll want to get it if you're interested in this game... but it's not jam-packed with stuff. It takes a clever GM to make maximum use of most of the book outside of the generic NPC stat blocks & the one Espionage table.

It is a brief PDF, but very much dedicated to tellilng you about a specific ship that fits precisely within the Coriolis universe. The deck plan and illustrations fit the style and themes of the Coriolis rulebook.

The ship itself is not going to overpower other small ships in the universe. By its stats, this one fits in Class II, as a large/glorified shuttle more than the more spacious Class IIIs. It's the kind of Class II that a small party of Coriolis players would want to use, whereas a Class III begs for a more robust-sized group of players. (The ship has crew berths for 3, plus 1 extra, and 4 stasis pods total... so it's specifically meant for a smaller crew.)

If you have a smaller team of players that doesn't want a ton of extraneous NPCs on their ship, the Tanapur Corvette would make a lot of sense for their needs.

A lot of history about mercenary units, along with unit composition rules for creating your own unit.

However, there's no real information on maintaining your own unit. Cost structures, contracts/pay structure. How much do you pay the jump ship? How much do you pay for the drop ship? How much for the quartermaster, the engineers, and so on? How much to replace a damaged AC/5? What to expect from salvage? How much can you expect to be paid for salvaged materials and mechs?

So, is it useful? Yes, but not if you're actually wanting all the details on how to play a mercenary unit. There's really no information here on how to run a mercenary campaign in actual detail. You may as well play House regulars with no real cost structure except to blow sh!t up.

While the game is based in a diesel-punk, manga-style Europe, the setting isn't heavily wrapped up in the story and mythology of the comics... so, unlike other licensed games where the existing story (usually a movie) hamstrings the storytelling, Carbon Grey floats on its own. (And maybe you can use the space-time surges to hand-wave all the differences you want in your timeline.) So, if you're not a huge diehard fan of the comics, that doesn't matter. The comics are pretty, but this game-setting is not hung up on it like some other licensed games.

The game itself? It definitely has a strong WEG d6 Star Wars feeling to it, but with updates and twists to the d6 formula... inspired by other d6 games, along with other RPGs. Some of it is around the mechanics, like the wild dice (which exist in other d6 games). Other additions have more of a narrative effect... like signature items (like from the ALIEN RPG) and a character's obligations to family, nation, etc. For veteran gamers who are fans of d6, there's a lot to like here. It's familiar, yet improved from the old Star Wars days... including character-level and vehicle-level conflicts.

For those who aren't as familiar with d6, this book is well laid out. It's a professional rulebook done by people who have experience writing RPG rulebooks. The content is clear and readable. There are plenty of examples, along with a solo scenario (which is a good way to demonstrate how to play a game) and other example scenarios. The PDF is well laid out.

And, back to the comic books... the art for the RPG is gorgeous, which is a hallmark of Carbon Grey. Amazing manga-style vision of Europe. The preview gives you a taste for it, and the art is consistently used throughout the book. They did a solid job incorporating the comic art, although it couldn't be too difficult with the rich artwork of the Carbon Grey series.

Criticisms? d6 requires some level of math. You have to add up the dice to get your sum total in your dice pool result. (You could solve this by using a digital dice roller... except for the wild dice, which you'd want to roll separately.) It's not a simple roll like a d20, although d20 games tend to burden you with a lot of math, anyway (like all manner of modifiers after the dice roll).

Also, while the game setting strongly suggests stories that involve things like Bloodlines (nobles being different than commoners, for instance) and Ballroom drama, the d6 rules tend to favor physical action. That's what most of the d6 writing is about, going all the way back to d6 Star Wars. Social events without massive gun-fu fights have far less support in d6... so you'll have to make that up on the fly. (Of course, this isn't just an issue with d6. Most RPGs don't say as much about drama that doesn't involve weaponry.)

Now, the game will push you towards things like family and society with your character's obligations, but d6 (and most other rules) are made with a more tactical combat focus in mind... such that even social settings become "social combat".

The only reason why I point this out here is because the setting and material should point you to some level of social drama and espionage... but even more of the material will be pushing you into combat (including so many of the character Archetypes, such as the Devil Dog (Teufel Hund), the Cavalry Scout, the Dragoon, the Trench Fighter, the Shock Trooper, the Hawk-Eyed Sharpshooter). It is a gun-fu comic, though, so some level of physical drama will be expected.

Overall... it's a beautiful book. The work is professionally done, and the updates to the venerable & imminently playable d6 system make a lot of sense. The way they incorporated the licensed material leaves you a lot of room to tell stories (unlike, say, the DUNE RPG, where it's Arrakis or bust). There area ton of archetypes, and the added bits of character should help players personalize their archetype characters even further (which seems like a good borrowed idea from the ALIEN RPG).

This is really well done. If you're not a fan of the comics, you should still find something good here. It's a good example of how a RPG book should be put together, especially a licensed one like Carbon Grey.

If you're the kind of player who likes measuring out 5' moves and min/maxing every level up with a specific set of talents/bonuses and whatnot to torment your GM (and your fellow players), then this game might not be for you. Or, conversely, the buckets of kill dice might be for you... but, most likely, for the game rule maximalists, your gaming $ might be better spent on the latest 500-page blockbuster RPG monstrosity ruleset or a self-help book for your sado-masochistic tendencies.

For me, this opened up a new world of fun. It brought back fun to roleplaying after being beaten down by the D&D2Kx du jour. Of course, today, you have more colorful options for scaled-back roleplay that is similar to the roots of the hobby... games like Mork Borg, for instance. However, in the time before Mork Borg, this was my Mork Borg. This stripped roleplay back to the essentials and brought it back, forward and urgent in a way that the latest overstuffed edition of big, glossy gaming titles could not do for me.

Complex doesn't have to eclipse fun roleplay, and this is one of those games that reminds me of that.

Super clever concept, especially going with a genre that is really meant for 1 hero. Like... doing James Bond in a group like D&D? That never felt right to me. (And it's not that I don't want it to... I love the Ian Fleming novels, I have the old Victory Games "James Bond" RPG, etc.) IMO, the lone hero setup is best for solo play. James Bond, Jason Bourne, John Wick - they don't feel right in group-based roleplay. Taking super-spy and putting it into a solo game is just a great choice to start with, even moreso than very well executed solo experiences like 4AD.

I like the concept of playing cards as the mechanics of a game, especially for solo. A card has a finality and tactile feel that a dice roll doesn't quite have. (EDIT: I'm currently using theory11's James Bond 007 set. It's a clean/classic set of cards, and the face cards have a "Spy" theme... spy pistols, ski poles, assassins' knives, etc. rather than swords and traditional face card symbols.) It's too easy to "cheat" yourself out of an experience in a dice-based solo game by bumping the dice or otherwise feeling like I can negate a dice roll that I don't like... but with a multi-card draw for task resolution in No Day to Die? There's a weight behind it... there's a process to it that doesn't exist with a throw of a dice. IMO, this is the way if you want a solo experience with some heft.

On the flip side, I kind of wish the card suits did more, like the Yes/No draw is strictly a Red/Black determination (which is influenced by your discards, of course, but begins as a simple 50/50 choice). I wouldn't want to use dice, but the Mythic GM Emulator has a table for escalating chaos when it comes to Yes/No in the fiction... so in a Yes/No situation, maybe you use card suits or values to signify the intensity or character of the Yes/No? For the random tables, you can also easily add more tables of descriptors if you want to rig up more information out of a draw... or fudge up the existing tables in different ways if you want to influence the fiction in a different direction - maybe it's more a romance, maybe a John Wick kill-fest.

That's a positive with the random tables towards the back... they are soft descriptors for the fiction, not hard rules, which then gives you some flexibility in tailoring the game world towards the fiction that you want. They're a base set of tables, but anyone can hack them to their interests. Also, Fria Ligan's Twilight:2000 has some clever card ideas that might fit as well.

Anyway... smart choice for the fiction behind the rules. I'm a fan of card-based rules for solo play, and I'm always happy to break out a standard poker deck rather than deal with printable custom card sets (a few of those in this store). You could probably easily push it to Sci Fi-ish with only a little nudge (Rogue One comes to mind). A good set of narrative ideas with the descriptor tables, which can be easily adapted/modified if you want to move the fiction in different directions.

I have a few solo games now, including 4AD, Mythic, "Five Parsecs from Home", "Rangers of Shadow Deep". This one is definitely one to consider.

I really do like this. I was looking at various titles about sex workers because I liked the idea of one of my squaddies in "Five Parsecs from Home" being a former sex worker (a familiar action movie theme), and while the subject is there in "Alpha Blue", the subject matter is more on the gonzo side than a broader societal thing like the Companions in "Firefly".

This title, "Courtesans", is a lot more about that context. Honestly, I was more interested in the sci fi bits in the supplement... but after reading this, the British Empire context was a lot more interesting. If you're a fan of the Napoleonic War era, the book does cover a very broad span of time... from the Georgian, to the Regency, all the way through Victorian and to Edwardian England. The game is about Courtesans... not prostitutes. These are independent women with the ability to travel through high society (the game even presents stats for historical Monarchs of the period!)... so perhaps your Courtesans might become companions or consorts to Royal Navy officers, Prime Ministers, or even the King of England. Or not... they could be pulled down by catty, mean courtesans that they share a house with.

It's an interesting underside of life. Like the toast in "Master & Commander"... "To wives and sweethearts" ("May they never meet" LOL). You play the sweethearts of men from high society in this game. And that toast to wives and sweethearts? It's exactly the context of this, I think.

Another idea/parallel might be Lady Jessica, the consort of Duke Leo Atreides. They never married. Nor did Muad'ib and Chani... yet, as Jessica concludes in "Dune", they are the ones who the histories will remember as wives.

That's all part of this... as well as your character being good at various sex acts (if you choose to describe them as such).

Can I recommend this: Yes, if you are interested in a rules-light game about players in high society with a dose of historical context and more than a little potential for raunch ("fade to black" is a fair way to move past such scenes, as stated in the book).

If you're a fan of the context, especially the Napoleonic era, Regency era (think Jane Austen, maybe even "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"), Victorian and/or Steampunk (i.e. Victorian + Gears), then I can easily recommend this as a way to think about the broader context of your other characters. (Like, British infantry officers in the RPG wargame, "Duty and Honour".)

EDIT: You know, this game is rather structured, which some say in a critical way. However, as something one might adapt to a solo game, structured play is actually an extremely good thing. Solo play ought to have a rigid turn structure... otherwise, it gets very loose and ungovernable in a hurry. A more strict adjudication is a huge benefit, I think. It's why "Five Parsecs from Home" and "Rangers of the Shadow Deep" make more sense to me... there's a framework for your imaginative stuff. "Four Against the Darkness" as well... structure helps define the bounds, and it's those boundaries that force choice and drive action.

It's hard to set up guardrails in purely speculative, loose structures... which is where you need a good GM to say yes, or roll the dice.

With a strict, formal turn structure, there's specific scene markers and mileposts for you to play the game while engaging your imagination.

So, while not strictly set up for solo play, I think "Courtesans" actually is fairly ideal for it. (Just add an adjudication system on top, like the Mythic GM emulator, to help you through the questionable points.) The well-defined turn-based structure of play in Courtesans is absolutely spot on for solo flights of imangination.

This game presents 3 scenario/settings for Courtesans if you do not want to play the "historical England" setting.

Rather than a toolbox for general Sci Fi, for instance, these settings are very much patterned after other RPG franchises.

The Vampire setting? There's a certain publisher of goth-ish supernatural personal horror games. (I thought Vampire was more interesting as a Superhero game, myself.) The Vampire thing in this book is a Courtesans riff on that "Vampire: the Whatever" series of games... and you play Vampire Courtesans, with Blood mechanics, etc.

The Fantasy setting? Dungeons & Dragons, where you play a "party" of sex worker-adventurers (Barbarians, Clerics, etc.). Races, classes, etc.

The Sci Fi setting? Litigious grimdark far future game setting parody... where you're part of an Inquisitor's (err, ah "Quizzer") fireteam, serving the eternal Empress of Man and guarding the empire against Heresy.

So, yeah, if you're a fan of those other games and you want to play a Courtesan-ized parody, then you'll find a lot to like here. If you want generic Sci Fi, then you're probably better off just taking the core Courtesan concepts, filing off the serial numbers that attach the game to England, and writing your own stuff. You might find some useful ideas for hacking Courtesans into your own universe in this book (like Races and Classes in the Fantasy Dungeons & Dragons setting)... but this book is not about "Generic". This is very much inspired by other, time-honored Roleplaying franchises.

As a general book/supplement to Courtesans? I'll rate it 4 stars. Bump the rating up a star if you want the specific franchises for your playthrough of Courtesans. Each setting definitely evokes those other franchises... so if you're a fan of grimdark farfuture onlywar, for instance, then you might just find something here to amuse you & your gaming friends.

A very well done concept with a novel, card-based game mechanic and is structured around a character's relationship with the Dark Lord. Are they able to escape their soul debt? Or, I guess you could also just embrace it and see how that is (i.e. the way some of us saw Vampire: the Masquerade as a superhero game). Choosing to fail and embracing evil is a valid method of playing the game. It really is focused on that narrative concept, which is a good one. With the 7 deadly sins as a framework, there's plenty of narrative space for characters to explore their own sense of evil.

The use of card decks instead of dice is certainly different (basically, pass/fail mechanic on high/low card, with a couple additional twists). The lack of a physical "inventory" is also an interesting choice, but it keeps the game timeless (which helps for generational play) and makes the storytelling focused on the central sin/virtue core of the storytelling. (Yes, the game art in the PDF is definitely modern, but the rules are pretty generic about it, especially since it doesn't say that any skill requires any specific implement like a cell phone or a hand-and-a-half sword or whatever. So you could conceivably place this anytime, anyplace.)

It certainly falls into the story game mode, and less into the "kill things and take their stuff" mode of RPG.

If you're into the exploration of good and evil, and also interested in generational games (yes, the sins of the father do get passed down if you want to do the generational thing), then this is a good concept game for you. It's not like super-mega hardcore kind of game that beats you up with good versus evil, and the game does mention "Tone" - so you can think about going super straight dire/nasty storytelling, or consider a more slappy humorous tone, or a mixture (which is important, given the good vs. evil backbone).