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Esoterica of Mars
Verlag: Onyx Path Publishing
von Patryk A. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 02/06/2021 18:33:05

DISCLAIMER: My heavily modified campaign has been on hiatus for over a year now so I may be viewing this product through rose-tinted glasses. I also acknowledge that the original book for Cavaliers of Mars has its share of flaws.

The book here features both adventures and resources to mine. It's pretty well laid out (in a cross between old-style WhiteWolf Vampire and WhiteWolf Scarred Lands d20 3E era way), with a focus on providing material that is instantly usable.

An example of such approach would be that a typical location entry goes like this: a title, an introduction a few paragraphs long depicting the locale, followed by short lists of action hooks, characters and hazards.

Furthermore, the lightness of the system enables presenting elaborate characters in just a few lines of text (page 14th example): Beatria Monterez, Red Martian noble duelist (Quick Blade d10, Cashflow d8, Noble Connections d6; Combat 2 Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Quick to Anger). Red Martian is a species available to players, noble duelist is a descriptive description of one's calling, with rated features following (an average human would probably use d6 here, d10 is exceptionally high for an NPC).

The setting of Cavaliers of Mars is one of high adventure. There are mysteries, exotic and wondrous challenges, conflicts abound, and all of this set against slowly declining glory of terraformed Mars of fantasy far future. NPCs

The book content in short (the counts include full page images):

Book One - City of Towered Tombs features a set of locations in a city of Vance, a few personality archetypes followed by NPC implementations, list of political factions that could be either allies or adversaries with action hooks.

Introduction (to the city of Vance),

  • 5 pages (four of which are full page illustrations.

Chapter 1: Locations (7 locations - see above for the format), no maps or pictures. If I were to run a story set there, I would probably get a few photos of Santorini streets (minus the water, plus some photoshopped reds or sepia). The places are evocative and easy to drop into a game, though if the players ask too many questions, you need to be prepared. Personally, I would make sure to have a few ideas prepared for quick escape routes, social complications or a generic map for swashbucklers playing hide and seek.

  • 8 pages

Chapter 2: Characters (16 archetypes, plus 2-3 characters each; a character is a paragraph of stats, and then a long paragraph on their background). Among the archetypes there are: Solitary Wit, Weary Soldier, Survivor, Mistreated Villain, Malign Influence. It's easy to assemble a full cast of colorful people to make sure your PCs have someone to talk to.

  • 15 pages

Chapter 3: Factions (9 organizations; their basics, their good side, their bad side and related hooks). The information is brief and quite lacking (no organization charts, no spheres of influence or resources), but that's not necessarily an issue - there are NPCs in the previous chapter, so all you need to do is map the stuff on the fly (to make sure that you remember whom you made an employee of and with what agenda).

  • 8 pages

Book Two is a campaign (quite a lot of optional material) written in Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs fashion. It is intended to be high adventure, so expect chases, magic, plot twists, and the unspeakable and the unfathomable. I would hate to give away the story, so here are a few details hopefully sufficient to make an informed decision. The core cast sports simple agendas, but the way they may go about them aren't necessarily so. So it's easy to follow the opening of the narrative and the key question is what happens next. A GM will need to juggle groups of influence, and to this end in the group descriptions there are Action and Trouble sections, the former to create an opportunity for an action sequence (not necessarily a fight or chase), the latter to introduce a complication once certain conditions are met.

  • 17 pages

Heartily recommended.

NOTES:

  1. A GM should be ready to map the story as it goes - listing stuff touched by the PCs, so that it can be revisited later.

  2. Myself, I have been charmed by the game, and I plan to run it as soon as the C-Flood subsides to the point offline gaming becomes viable. The high adventure plays best when you can loudly articulate the tension, and envelop the players in a cacophony of the bizarre that the Cavaliers of Mars are.

  3. If the system is not wholly to your liking, consider running it with CortexPrime. The NPC stats convert practically one to one (just ignore the combat part). Generate PCs using two stat sets (Abilities and Skills, Methods and Motivations or something similar), 2-4 distinctions to describe character's story (origin, careers, inclinations and specialties), and use Talents as tags that add to an action allow for more at the cost of temporarily lowering one stat (for example, Network of Whispers [talent] added to Respect [Motivation stat] and Eloquence [Method stat] means that you rely on your informants to get juicy bits, and the information should be good enough to justify temporarily lowering a stat). Lower Resolve by one step and use as HP for NPCs. And you're done.


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City of Mist: MC Toolkit
Verlag: Son of Oak Game Studio
von Patryk A. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 01/21/2021 13:27:51

DISCLAIMER/BIAS/EXPERIENCE: Backer of City of Mist kickstarters. Leaving this review after publisher's request issued to KS backers. I have run one longish CoM campaign, currently running my second CoM campaign. I assume you're familiar with the basic premises of City of Mist - if you're not, read the blurbs, or better, get a starter set. NOTE: Cultural appropriation potential warning - this book is about mythoi coming back to life in a noir world. This may be a touchy thing, so GMs are advised to do their research before the game and/or reach certain level of understanding with their players.

By the way of introducing you to MC TOOLKIT, this is a gamemaster's book (NOTE: Gamemaster = Master of Ceremonies, or MC), so it expands on the basic rules, provides resources for fleshing out the setting and establishes routines specific for MC role. It also sports great layout, comic book art, great one-page summaries and an adventure. NOTE: You need PLAYER'S GUIDE for player-facing lowdown of the rules, to create characters, and building groups, evolving (escalating?) stuff and cinematographic plays. It's also a great primer on Apocalypse World mechanics. I would also recommend getting a starter set for great ready-to-run characters, yet another adventure, and beautiful handouts.

MC TOOLKIT, Table of Contents

The Master of Ceremonies - Basics of the basics, or how to read the book.

  • 8 pages

Word on the Street - Archetypical locales and locals in a city noir genre. No stats yet, it is just a bunch of short writeups of places and people. If your characters make a random stop to buy e-cigs, you can just crack open the book, say THE OLD QUARTER, read THE COBBLED STREET aloud (skipping MC-only stuff), and if the things are going slow, have the PCs meet a wounded old man complaining about thieves, who just took his books.

  • 42 pages

Behind the Scenes - A comic, a Quick Reference Sheet, a guide on running the session zero, how to use MC moves, narrating stuff and adjusting challenge level. Then it's Writing a Case (check the HIGHLIGHTS below), and then turning cases into a series.

  • 54 pages

This is my City! - Another comic, another Quick Reference Sheet, and everything you need to know about spectrums (how to damage a character), dangers (those who damage the characters), and avatars (you also get four masterminds, unique 5-star dangers that are movers and shakers to drop into your setting).

  • 99 pages

Appendices - Various resources (dangers get ratings) with page numbers. For example: House Fire is 2-star danger on page 151. Samuel Valtierra (Baron Samedi) is 5-star danger on page 160. Also included: list of backers, printouts for MC tracking sheets.

  • 10 pages

Gambling with Death - An adventure that is NOT recommended for novice players and MCs. The narrative is slightly disjointed and may be difficult to follow by not-yet-invested-in-story characters. Also there are multiple three star dangers - expect fatalities if the characters are not careful.

  • 19 pages

Maps - Useful for running scenes.

  • 4 pages

MC TOOLKIT, HIGHLIGHTS

WRITING A CASE, to me, is probably the best ever section on constructing puzzles for the PCs to unravel. It also ties into Investigate move in a way that makes running mystery scenarios such a pleasure. Here's is a short explanation.

A case is like an iceberg: visible tip (depth 0), depth 1, depth 2, ...

  • the visible tip is a list of hooks that the characters look into or encounter.
  • the depths are layered lists of locations or scenes, to which characters gain access after investigating connected corresponding items from upper layers.
  • the characters "move" between these by resolving scenes or gaining clues from locations.
  • at the bottom there is a final confrontation or a revelation.
  • since this is an Apocalypse World-inspired game, new connections may be formed or further challenges added on a fly via devil's bargains or success with complications mechanics.

While there are many ways the PCs may proceed forward, the most common way is for a character to make an Investigate move:

  • A player declares an action and what power tags (supernatural or mundane) are used to support the action. The number of tags (minus penalties) used is the POWER rating for the move.
  • If successful, a player gets to ask number of questions equal to POWER rating.
  • Based on the POWER rating, result of a roll (fuzzy, partial, compromise, full success) and the tags used, an MC presents answers. A computer jockey hacking into a mobile will get different presentation from a veteran policewoman interrogating a witness, from a possessed shopkeeper immigrant from Tibet conferring with local spiritual entities, from a destitute satanic sax hobo player who just plays and listens to people talking, from a recently released convict with a hook for his and terrifying violence just bubbling under calm demeanor [a cast of characters from my current campaign].
  • The answers unlock stuff from current and lower depths, eventually allowing to reach the solution.

QUICK REFERENCE SHEETS, just print them out. These are simply great for remembering all little bits you should be aware of.

GAMBLING WITH DEATH - the adventure is interesting, but it needs work to fit your narrative. Also:

  • At some point the characters may feel overwhelmed by the opposition and subsequently proceed to abandon the case. To avoid this, I would recommend constructing strong motivations for PCs.
  • Three-star dangers apply statuses that could wipe POWER totals (and there are four of them, with possible more joining the case). Also, the three-star dangers are not dumb - they are likely to employ guards.

In my case, the chief adversary of the adventure is going to wrong one of the PCs, so, when an opportunity presents itself, they will try to take advantage to get a little payback, only to realize that innocent people are getting involved.

MC TOOLKIT, FINAL THOUGHTS

A vitally important addition to the library of a City of Mist fan. If you have the big book already, at least get a PDF for references and maps. The case included can be mined for resources or developed into a full campaign (again, three-star dangers are complex - so proceed with caution, and use them as memorable villains). The WRITING A CASE part can be used for any mystery scenario under any system.

Five stars.



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Crown of Charon (13th Age Compatible)
Verlag: DDE Adventures
von Patryk A. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 05/27/2017 09:12:44

(note: opinion based on reading, not playing)

Very well designed over-the-top romp through a nasty, yet fair, dungeon for a party of 6th level PCs. Be warned though - this is a tournament adventure. There is almost no story. The characters are likely to die. And there are many things you may need to track.

Bonus points for the nostalgia: R: Repeating soulburst rocket launcher arm +14 vs. AC (2 attacks)— 60 fire damage. Natural 16+: The target is knocked into the crater. They can roll a check to try to leap onto a mine. Limited use: 1/round.

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