The RPG Academy: Faculty Meetings

This week new Show and Tell Host Moe Poplar ( @Ashyfeet1 ) sits down with BananaChan about Deimos Academy RPG.

E-mail us at TheRpgAcademy/Gmail.

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project.

The music used during our intro and outro is a modified version of Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions  Used under the Creative commons Attribution-shareAlike License.

Hello and welcome to The RPG Academy’s The Review series. Today Tom and I take a look at Phandelver and Below: Shattered Obelisk

Phandelver & Below: A+

Shattered Obelisk: C

Entire adventure: B

Phandelver & Below: A

Shattered Obelisk: B-

Entire adventure: B+

Please consider contributing to my Patreon, making a modest donation via Paypal or even support your show at no extra cost via your purchases on DriveThru RPG.

Email: TheRpgAcademy@gmail
Twitter / Facebook / Website

Our Intro and Outtro music is Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions used via Creative Commons Attribution License

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project – 

This week new Show and Tell Host Moe Poplar ( @Ashyfeet1 ) sits down with Rainer Kaasik-Aaslav (@Sake_TTRPG) Designer of Sorcerers, Adventurers, Kings & Economics, aka SAKE, a TTRPG.

E-mail us at TheRpgAcademy/Gmail.

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project.

The music used during our intro and outro is a modified version of Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions  Used under the Creative commons Attribution-shareAlike License.

Hello and welcome to The RPG Academy’s The Review series. Today Jake and I take a look at the newest setting boxed set from WotC for D&D 5e: Planesape & Adventures in the Multiverse.

Breakdown:

Map & DM Screen:   C+

Morte’s Planar Parade:  A-

Sigil and the Outlands:  B+

Turn of Fortune’s Wheel: A

Please consider contributing to my Patreon, making a modest donation via Paypal or even support your show at no extra cost via your purchases on DriveThru RPG.

Email: TheRpgAcademy@gmail
Twitter / Facebook / Website

Our Intro and Outtro music is Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions used via Creative Commons Attribution License

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project – 

Hello and welcome to The RPG Academy’s The Review series. Today The Caleb G (@TheCalebG) takes a look at When the Wolf Comes by Ian Sharp ( @VikingVerse) in partnership with Schwalb Entertainment.

Howdy cats and kittens! It’s TheCalebG aka Professor Crunch aka the founder of Point Five Past.Today I’m here to review When the Wolf Comes, a Schwalb Entertainment game created by Ian Stuart Sharpe. The book was successfully funded at 458% back in Summer of 2022. At the time of writing this article, the book is available on DriveThruRPG along with many adventure modules, novels, and comics. The publisher was kind enough to send a copy of the game book for the purpose of this review.

Quick Overview

When the Wolf Comes presents the game rules for the Vikingverse, a series of stories set in an alternate timeline where Vikings are the dominant culture on Earth and in space. The game uses the Shadow of the Demon Lord rules.

Book and Resources

The book is massive, at almost 400 pages. About half the book is dedicated to rules and character options for players. There’s about 30 pages of setting details and about 50 pages of game runner guidance. A bestiary takes up another 50ish pages. The remainder of the book includes a sample adventure and two appendices.

Even though the book is large and dense, it’s easy to read and use when playing. The layout is smooth and there’s a very detailed table of contents and index. There is no wasted space in this book. Every inch is packed with information and details.

The star of the book is its gorgeous art, which seems to be a blending of Mike Mignola and Jack Kirby. It’s vibrant and evocative, helping immerse players in the unique style of the Vikingverse. 

Beyond this core book, there are a vast amount of resources to help inform players about the Vikingverse and immerse them in this fantastic world. Key among these is the Thought and Memory Saga, a campaign designed to take character from level zero to ten. There’s also Space Vikings, a supplement providing additional character options and rules.

Story

At first glance, the Vikingverse story is simple. All Norse mythology and magic is real. Viking culture became dominant prior to 900 AD and shaped the rest of human development. There is a blend of magic and science as humanity and others explore the cosmos.

But the truth of the fiction goes far deeper. The Vikingverse is actually a divergent timeline driven by Odin altering reality to avoid Ragnarok. But since ultimately Ragnarok can only be delayed, the universe experiences various chaotic events as fate tries to rectify what was done. These events drive the overall plot of the Vikingverse as explored in its source novels and comics.

Mechanics

When the Wolf Comes is built on the Shadow of the Demon Lord framework. The core mechanics are exactly the same. A d20 plus modifier roll resolves everything. There are four attributes along with a few derived characteristics. What would be called a skill check in other systems are called challenges here and are always rolled against a target value of 10. The Boon and Bane system functions the same way but they are instead called Weals and Woes.

There are rules for gaining Trauma when encountering the worst parts of the universe. An excessive amount of Trauma can induce Shell Shock which grants randomized mostly negative effects. Trauma can be removed by gaining permanent disorders. There’s also a system of social status based on gaining Honor and Shame through how story events are roleplayed.

Character Creation and Gameplay

Again, everything in When the Wolf Comes functions exactly like Shadow of the Demon Lord. Characters start at level zero with nothing but Origins and Professions. Origins are more than simply a description of where the PC comes from. They define Attributes and Characteristics, as well as provide special abilities that advance with level progression. They also have incredibly robust options to create differences within each Origin. Most of these options are focused on flavor, but some provide mechanical differences. Professions are focused on flavor, helping define what the PC was doing before embracing a life of adventure.

As with the art, the Origins serve to bring the unique elements of the Vikingverse to the forefront. There are only ten options, but it feels like there are far more given the wealth of variation within each one. Also, the Origins are fascinating, pushing far beyond the classic tropes of high fantasy. Each Origin is presented with a short description of its place in Vikingverse lore, but that description is rich with details.

After playing through an introductory game that serves as an advanced session zero, players pick their first level of a Novice Path, which grants various class abilities. The intent here is that this choice is inspired by the gameplay of that session zero instead of simply being an arbitrary choice made while reading the book. This intent continues as players are encouraged to make choices for their Expert and Mythic paths based more on roleplay and game events.

Gameplay in When the Wolf Comes is fun, fast, and deadly. This is not a “big damn hero” game. Instead it’s a tough game where each roll is tense and survival is not guaranteed. Once again, this is true to the source material of Shadow of the Demon Lord.

Opinion

I absolutely love this setting and book. It’s gorgeous. The art is spectacular. Maybe it’s the unique setting, maybe it’s the different style, but I feel like this art is some of the most impressive I’ve seen in a gaming book ever.

The Vikingverse is a carefully-crafted setting that turns typical high fantasy tropes on their side with logic and consistency. Nothing is done by accident or just to be different. It’s refreshing to see such a unique take on mythological lore and how that influences the game set in this world.

Personally, I never found a way to really engage with Shadow of the Demon Lord. I can appreciate the setting and mechanics and understand their palace in the tabletop hobby, but they just never clicked with me. I don’t enjoy a game that is so punishing to players, instead preferring my gaming escapism to allow those big heroic moments facilitated by lots of big numbers on the dice. But I both understand and love this version of the rules. The setting and lore are more appealing to me, so that’s a huge factor. But something in how it’s presented here just makes more sense to me.

Another detail I love is how the lore is presented. I had no idea this game was based on novels and comics. My guess is that the average gamer will not either. They’ll probably stumble across the book based on the impressive cover art and then get hooked with the overall concept. Thus, the fact that there’s a one-page summary of the lore at the start of the book is a genius approach. Many games that present unique settings spend a lot of pages introducing the setting before explaining the rules. That’s a fine tactic, but one that I don’t appreciate. I want to explore the setting by understanding the rules, and that’s how When the Wolf Comes approaches things. That summary captures readers by telling them everything they need to know about the lore and then locks them in by presenting Origins like living robots, mutated animals, and corporate clones with brilliant art. Then, 200 pages later, readers get deeper details on Vikingverse lore. This is such a smart approach.

Ian Stuart Sharpe has created a vibrant, unique world with love and attention to detail. This game is a beautiful addition to the Vikingverse and a shining example of how to adapt an existing property to a tabletop game. The decision to use Shadow of the Demon Lord as foundation for this game was completely right as the system beautifully supports the tone of the Vikingverse stories. This book has my absolute highest praise and recommendation.

Please consider contributing to my Patreon, making a modest donation via Paypal or even support your show at no extra cost via your purchases on DriveThru RPG.

Email: TheRpgAcademy@gmail
Twitter / Facebook / Website

Our Intro and Outtro music is Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions used via Creative Commons Attribution License

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project – 

This week new Show and Tell Host Moe Poplar ( @Ashyfeet1 ) sits down with Kyle about A Monster’s Tail a PBTA style game about catching creatures.

E-mail us at TheRpgAcademy/Gmail.

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project.

The music used during our intro and outro is a modified version of Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions  Used under the Creative commons Attribution-shareAlike License.

This week new Show and Tell Host Moe Poplar ( @Ashyfeet1 ) sits down with Poorna Mazumdar about the RPG A Stitch in Time, a two-player GM-less* TTRPG about using letters to restore places that have been forgotten (‘phantom islands’ as they’re called on Earth) by capturing events, moments that form anchor points across time and space. And by doing so, stitch these forgotten places back to reality as we know it.

E-mail us at TheRpgAcademy/Gmail.

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project.

The music used during our intro and outro is a modified version of Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions  Used under the Creative commons Attribution-shareAlike License.

Hello and welcome to The RPG Academy’s The Review series. Today The Caleb G (@TheCalebG) takes a look at Myrrorside by Angus McNicholl / Parallel Publishing.

Howdy cats and kittens! It’s TheCalebG aka Professor Crunch aka the founder of Point Five Past.Today I’m here to review Myrrorside, a Parallel Publishing game created by Angus McNicholl. At the time of writing this article, the book is available on Drive Thru RPG in PDF, softcover, and hardcover versions. The publisher was kind enough to send a copy of the book for the purpose of this review.

Quick Overview

Myrrorside is a horror game in a modern setting where magic and scary things come from an alternate reality hidden behind the real world. Its mechanics are easy to understand and have a moderate level of complexity. There’s a nice balance between narrative flexibility and mechanical guidelines. The game works best when it’s used to tell stories in episodic fashion, similar to horror TV shows or mini-series. 

Book

At right around 100 pages, the book is easy to read and use as a resource during gameplay. Myrrorside is a focused world simulator, providing a vibrant setting for players to use as they wish. The first 14 pages are focused on that setting and there is not a specific story or named characters to follow. 

It’s worth noting that there is only half a page dedicated to safety rules at the game table. There is an abundance of information on this topic in the gaming zeitgeist, so what’s presented here is clearly a quick summary. Some may find this refreshing as it does not repeat information needlessly. Others may find it concerning and not considerate of players who may not have a wealth of experience at the table.

The remainder of the book provides gameplay instruction, mixing in small pieces of setting lore occasionally for flavor. Overall, the book’s layout is average. It’s easy to read and is well-organized. However there is a lot of empty space that could be used for examples, supplemental information, flavor text, or art.

The interior art is all in shadowy shades of teal, presenting a moody atmosphere that carries a persistent sense of dread. Like the green tones in The Matrix, this teal shading informs readers that something is different in this world and that the world is consistently dangerous.

Setting

The scary, horror-filled world of Myrrorside is presented as the underlying foundation of reality. The real modern world is built upon this terrible structure, like an operating system. The surface levels of the Myrrorside are just like reality, only slightly different. In some places there is an overlap between worlds and it’s possible for people and other beings to slip between them. Going further and deeper into the Myrrorside reveals the sprawling nightmarish world where human understanding breaks down and everything is trying to kill everything else.

Modern technology breaks down in the Myrrorside. Old-fashioned analog tech will still function, but digitally-powered devices like smartphones either stop working entirely or start glitching in strange ways. Likewise, the magic of the Myrrorside works only briefly in the real world, dissipating quickly. This keeps most of the game action set in the Myrrorside’s reality. Magical effects and terrible monsters can bleed over into the real world, but their impact is fleeting. 

The Myrrorside is populated by native creatures, called the Strange, and by humans that have been trapped in and warped by this alternate reality, called the Lost. There are many variations within these categories, but all are deadly to humans.

Core Mechanics

This game uses the 2dx Operating System. PCs have 4 Attributes and 24 Skills, all of which are rated by dice size from d2 to d12. After narrating their action, players make an Action Test by rolling the applicable Attribute and Skill dice, picking the highest result, then adding positive or negative modifiers. Opposed Tests happen when PCs and NPCs are in conflict. The magnitude of success or failure after comparing results is used as a guide to inform the role play of how events happen. An unopposed Action Test happens when the PC simply acts against the environment, similar to a Skill Check in a standard d20 system. A negative modifier to reflect the difficulty of the task is applied to the Test. A positive result is a success, a negative result is a failure, and a result of zero is a success at a cost.

Beyond situational modifiers to the Test, there is also a system of Advantage and Disadvantage. Unlike other systems using the same words, Myrrorside does not treat this a reroll. Instead, it adds an extra Attribute dice to the roll for every Advantage and Disadvantage gained in the Test. Then players remove dice until they have only two remaining. Advantages remove the lowest results while Disadvantages remove the highest results. Advantages and Disadvantages are cumulative and do not cancel each other out.

As this is a horror game, Myrrorside includes two mechanics that attempt to reinforce the dramatic tension of storytelling. The first is called Pulse or Tension. It can be raised through horror elements being played out and lowered by humanity-reaffirming moments. Higher levels of Tension inflict a variety of penalties that attempt to replicate emotional states of fear. The second of these mechanics is called Collateral. Players can take a Collateral token to convert any failed Action Test to a success as if the dice results were zero. Beyond the success at a cost that a result of zero brings to the story, Collateral has a variety of additional negative impacts on PCs.

Character Creation and Gameplay

Building characters is incredibly easy. The book provides the starting dice size for Attributes and Skills and gives simple instructions for improving dice according to where players want their characters to be focused. Players have the options of taking Quirks and Burdens, which provide mechanical support for roleplaying flavor details. That’s it. There are no classes or special abilities. This is a game about playing regular people dealing with supernatural horror.

Gameplay follows a standard TTRPG flow, with players dealing with the plot as it unfolds. There are no special mechanics included in the book that deal with plot pacing and management, such as filling clocks or moving through a countdown.

Using magic is possible in the game, but it is not easily done. Human characters must use complex rituals to harness magical powers. Each ritual presented in the book includes a casting time and component list. Mechanically, rituals are resolved with Action Tests, which might be opposed or unopposed, depending on the nature of the spell and the situation. On the other hand, creatures native to the Myrrorside can use magic much more easily and frequently.

The last 30ish pages of the book give advice and instruction to game runners. This includes guidance on using thematic tropes and structuring an episodic plot. There is a short bestiary. Also presented is a method of playing the game without a game runner, called Collaborative Meta-Gaming. This gives instructions on how players can create a scene structure, take turns leading scenes, and vote on how events progress with a resource called Influence.

Opinion

I think that  Myrrorside has a lot of fun ideas and it delivers a great horror vibe, but the overall presentation needs a little polish.

I like the setting. The concept of our world being the falsehood built on top of a horrible reality is very fun for episodic storytelling. Lore presented in the book is vivid enough to give players a strong understanding of the game’s intended vibe but also open enough to give players and game runners plenty of room to add their own ideas. And the overall idea of regular humans struggling against insurmountable and incomprehensible terror is a fundamental aspect of the horror genre. 

Another great feature is the mechanics. They’re easy to learn, excellent for newer players, and they support the horror vibe. The focus on human skill and the difficulty of using any supernatural resources informs players that their characters are up against a difficult struggle with little to no help.

That being said, the book is a little unclear at times. There are a few terms that are not as clear as they could be. For example, humans that visit the Myrrorside are called “firewalkers”, but this is really only picked up through context. Some creatures and world details are mentioned once and never given any further explanation. None of this really has a negative impact on the game, but it’s frustrating.

There are also a few mechanical details that are a little rough around the edges. For example, there is guidance for how to increase and decrease the Pulse or Tension (and the fact that both terms are used simultaneously is another point of confusion) and there is a list of what happens mechanically at the various levels of Tension. But there is no actual numerical value assigned to those levels. Similarly for Collateral, while the consequences of gaining it are provided, there are no clear instructions for how those consequences are applied to characters. While it’s not hard for a game runner to come up with a solution, it’s something I feel should’ve been included, especially since these features are so fundamental to supporting the horror tones of the game.

Likewise, the bestiary feels lacking. The lore tells players the entire Myrrorside is full of deadly creatures, but the book only gives a few examples and no instructions for how to create more. There are references to unique creatures that would be a natural fit for recurring villains in the episodic game, but very little support for them. Again, it wouldn’t be hard to figure it out, but why is it not part of the book? 

In general, I like Myrrorside. I love the opportunity to tell a story about humans in an impossible struggle, especially when the mechanics of the game support that tone. The setting is a nice combination of horror tropes and gives players lots of room for creativity. And the game is very accessible to new TTRPG players. But the game feels incomplete. A lot of the details and information are vague. While the unknown is a core aspect of the horror genre, that should apply to the characters, not the players. I think that Myrrorside has potential but falls short of other similar games in the episodic horror genre.  

Please consider contributing to my Patreon, making a modest donation via Paypal or even support your show at no extra cost via your purchases on DriveThru RPG.

Email: TheRpgAcademy@gmail
Twitter / Facebook / Website

Our Intro and Outtro music is Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions used via Creative Commons Attribution License

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project – 

This week new Show and Tell Host Moe Poplar ( @Ashyfeet1 ) sits down with  Mikey Hamm, designer of Slugblaster, the teenage hoverboard game where you can kickflip the quantum menace.

E-mail us at TheRpgAcademy/Gmail.

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project.

The music used during our intro and outro is a modified version of Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions  Used under the Creative commons Attribution-shareAlike License.

This week new Show and Tell Host Moe Poplar ( @Ashyfeet1 ) sits down with Charlie Menzies ( @GamesParable ) about Don’t Play This Game, a solo found footage horror RPG on Kickstarter now!

E-mail us at TheRpgAcademy/Gmail.

Playing Roleplaying games can be an amazingly fun time and also a benefit to your well being. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental or emotional well being, please reach out to someone who can help:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741

The Trevor Project.

The music used during our intro and outro is a modified version of Fly a Kite by Spectacular Sound Productions  Used under the Creative commons Attribution-shareAlike License.