Category Archives: Role-Player Game Reviews

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Top 10 Table Top Role-Playing Games

The one thing I always tell people who enter the hobby, people who typically enter the scene through Dungeons and Dragons is that while D&D is an amazing game, it is but a small piece of a much larger world. In today’s list, we explore some of the amazing RPG’s that have been made since Dave and Gary penned the grandaddy of role-playing games decades ago. I have focused this list with advice aimed at Gamemasters looking for great systems, but I think players should find this list entertaining as well. Note also I have only included games I have actually played or run and obviously, I have not played everything that has ever been written. I’ve also tried to focus on games that are actually still available today, obviously giving you a list of RPG’s you cannot buy and play today would probably not be terribly useful.

10. Star Trek Adventures

Star Trek is a franchise that has seen a lot of renditions over the years in the RPG genre and arguably, many of them made a respectable showing, but Star Trek Adventures is the game to beat.

I was a little bit hesitant about adding this game to the list because frankly, it misses the mark a bit with some of my criteria for this list, but I still think for Star Trek fans this is a great game.

The issue with Star Trek Adventures is that the books are poorly organized, written in a narrative style where rules and story are blended into the text making it difficult to use the books as a reference and the rules are, well, kind of complicated with a lot of high-level concepts that aren’t easy to teach. This makes the game difficult to get to the table and it’s a bit of a chore to run as a GM.

That said, if you can get past this difficulty curve, Star Trek Adventures does an amazing job of bringing Star Trek stories to a group ready to take on the intricacies of the final frontier and I think if you are a fan of Star Trek and want to experience it in RPG form, this is your game and it’s worth jumping through the hurdles.

The difficult thing with bringing Star Trek stories to an RPG, in general, is that it requires a lot of setting knowledge on the part of the players to really bring the stories to life. The terminology, Starfleets command structure and how ships and technology work, are all core knowledge that is required to get the most out of the game. The game does teach you all this, but typically players aren’t the ones reading the books and I think sitting down and explaining the Star Trek universe to players who aren’t already fans is going to take a very long time and probably won’t translate well. As such, this game should be approached with assumptions that players are already in the know and it then comes down to explaining how the rules bring all these setting concepts to life.

Being an Origins Award Nominee is indeed an honor, but I think they could have won if the game had better editing. The books writing style and organization is one of the failures of Star Trek Adventures.

Here Star Trek Adventures really shines as the connection between the intricate setting concepts and the rules of the game are in perfect sync and really bring to life the complexities of technology in the Star Trek universe. The intricate relationships of the command structure, the unique skills of the Star Trek universe, the way technology works and all of the history of Star Trek are all embedded into the mechanics in this rather perfect union.

It’s a lot of work to make Star Trek come together at the table, it requires knowledgeable Star Trek fans and a DM willing to study the intricate rules, but when the stars align, this game is a Star Trek fans dream.

For me personally, it was worth the stretch to get this one to the table as I’m a huge Star Trek fan but it comes with the above disclaimer and certainly wasn’t easy, it’s definitely for more advanced players.

9. GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System)

GURPS has been a household name in the RPG community for decades, it’s been around nearly as long as D&D and Steve Jackson is a wonderful designer that makes a lot of really great stuff.

Published in 1986 by Steve Jackson, GURPS is a role-playing system designed to cover every setting and genre imaginable as a universal RPG system for all occasions. It was the first of its kind when it was published in a market where games were always published for specific settings and/or genre and despite decades of role-playing game publishing, it is even today a leading member of a small group of games that take this approach to role-playing.

GURPS is in its 4th edition of the game but unlike so many role-playing games that have many editions/versions, GURPS core mechanic has been largely unchanged and the 4th edition books are backward compatible with all material that goes all the way back to its original 1st edition which is a big plus for fans.

What makes GURPS special and the reason it’s on this list for me personally is that it’s a system that handles settings and stories that most other systems are ill-equipped to do so, the unique stuff typically not covered by other games.

This is the game I pull out when I want to run something really unique or very specific. In the last few decades, I have used this system to run westerns, unique science-fiction time-traveling stories, superhero games and modern police dramas.

GURPS also has amazing source material support, you would be hard-pressed to pick a topic that GURPS doesn’t have a sourcebook to support it, giving you specialized rules coverage for just about anything you can think of which is great for GM’s, in particular those exploring more unusual subjects for role-playing.

GURPS, as it promises, is well equipped to handle a wide range of stories and while it certainly can do the standard stuff like Fantasy for example, I personally find it excels more at times when you want some really specific customization and need a flexible system that can handle it.

If you are a fan of GURPS, this is a system that has coverage of settings and genres that have their own systems, for example, you can play Werewolf the Apocalypse using the GUPRS system. This is a great feature if you just want to stick to one system but try out a lot of different setting material.

Over the years I find I use it less and less often but this is because today there are so many RPG’s that handle so many specific topics that GURPS’s universal approach becomes less and less necessary. For example, I used to use it to run games like Star Trek, Dune or Aliens because games covering such specific genres and settings generally didn’t exist or were handled poorly, but today this is no longer the case and usually, when a game system focuses on telling a specific type of story or describing a specific setting, it will do a much better job of it than a universal system like GURPS can.

It’s still a great tool in a GM’s toolbelt however and I find that on occasion I still find a reason to use it. Don’t let the rumors of its complexity fool you, while GURPS is a very robust system that has great rules coverage, it is a very easy game to run with a very standardized system that is easy to teach. Great game, it earns its place at the tail end of this list.

8. Alien RPG

There really are very few games I recommend as a party game, but if you’re looking for something you can run for non-gamers, this is the one.

Free League Publishing has produced some really amazing role-playing games since their arrival in the role-playing market and Alien the role-playing game certainly qualifies as one of the good ones.

What I really love about Alien the RPG is that the people who wrote the game really understood not only the setting material but the core concept behind the Alien story. In particular, their attention to the structure of a good movie-driven story which is all about horror in space. They really get that concept of drama that rises from the unknown tension of being in a movie about Aliens that will kill everyone, but not really knowing how that story will evolve, what the details of this next iteration of the movie will be. Players that enter this game know that they are likely going to die, the question is how and of course their is always hope that, like in the movies, they will be one of the survivors.

The cinematic mode in the game is a great example of that specific design approach that really lets a GM tap into the heart of an Alien story setup. You have to realize that Alien(s) is based on a series of movies, which if you include all of the Alien movies, the expanded alien flicks like Prometheus and all of the Predator vs. Alien movies, this franchise is all about short, violent stories about humans interacting with these horrific monsters in space.

This cinematic mode is the perfect setup but if you want that tension to be something that rises over the course of many sessions, the campaign mode is a great way to slowly build up that tension to the inevitable clash with these monsters where players have an opportunity to get attached to their characters so that when that final moment comes, the horror is that much closer to home.

It’s a very simple system to learn and teach, there are some really great story modules that bring amazing alien tales to your table if you aren’t into writing one yourself and Free League Publishing games are masters of book organization that makes the whole experience that much better.

My one and only complaint about the game is that they use black gloss pages with white text in the book and I know that this is a design choice, but it’s really hard on the eyes, I wish publishers would stop doing this.

If you love the Alien movies as I do, this game handles the material beautifully and I would argue that in terms of games on this list, Alien the RPG is the king of one-shots. This is a game that is tailor-made for bringing a group of players together for an all-day event and because it’s such a simple system and game, it’s perfect for introducing the concept of role-playing to non-gamers.

Absolutely love this one, fantastic work coming out of Free League Publishing.

7. Star Wars (West End Games Edition)

The West End Games version of Star Wars is a bit more like the books rather than the movie, which is to say it’s a bit more gritty and serious version of the Star Wars Universe.

There have been a lot of games that tried their hand at bringing the Star Wars Universe to an RPG, but there is only one that gave George Lucas the middle finger and showed us what Star Wars should be and that is the West End Games take on the Star Wars.

This edition of the game ignores some of the fuzzy and often hard to swallow concepts that the movies represent like inept Storm Troops who can’t hit the side of a barn with blasters and the ridiculously stupid way the villains of the world behave when heroes come along to try to stop their evil plans.

West End Games allows Star Wars to be a bit more serious, it’s a world where Storm Troopers are elite soldiers not to be trifled with and the Empire is a serious threat that isn’t going collapse because a farmer from Tatooine learned to swing a laser sword around.

This more genuine take on the Star Wars universe is what West End Games was going for and I love it. It turns Star Wars into a more serious science-fiction setting, where a blaster to the face will kill you, where being shot at is actually dangerous and space battles are represented with a sense of realism that satisfies fans of the genre who wish the movies were a little bit less space fantasy and a bit more space reality.

I know it’s not everyone’s bag, but for me, a version of Star Wars that is no PG rated is just what the doctor ordered, this is my favorite version of Star Wars in RPG form. The system is easy to learn and teach and it makes itself far easier to bring to the table than the many efforts that followed like Edge of Empire or the D20 Saga version.

Great game, great system, takes itself a bit more seriously yet manages to nail the Star Wars universe perfectly and despite its age it’s still in print today.

6. Dungeon Crawl Classics

It doesn’t take itself seriously, but DCC has some really innovative mechanics that are easily portable to Dungeons and Dragons, the basis for this one which I consider a classic as its name suggests.

There are many variants of Dungeons and Dragons and though I think most would count Dungeon Crawl Classics among them, I would argue that it’s got its own thing going and really doesn’t quite count as such a variant.

DCC is more than just D&D, it’s Gonzo D&D, a game with some serious wackiness to it designed almost like a spoof of D&D, meant for a fun and silly approach to the fantasy adventure.

Now you can approach this game with some seriousness if you wanted to and really the system itself lends itself to that style of play as well with a great magic system and some really cool concepts for martial classes, but for me personally, I lean into the skid here. The game is written in a style that suggests that you should see it as a kind of comedy show and given how the adventures are designed, the artwork and general wackiness of the premise, everything about DCC makes this the ideal game for a sort of Mighty Python version of Dungeons and Dragons.

This game generates laughs and my friends and I were in stitches when running this one. It’s everything you love about D&D with a comedy twist and it simply asks you to let go of your inhibitions and grognard mentality and accept it for what it is, a light-hearted version of Dungeons and Dragons.

I recognize it’s not for everyone but personally, I love it, it’s a great game in particular in short stints, the funnel concept is amazing for a one-shot and there is plenty of meat on the bones to keep the laughs coming if you want to make a campaign out of it.

A metric ton of fun, yet a really well-designed game, it’s fantastic.

5. Forbidden Lands

If you are the type of GM that thrives on open sandbox and on the fly emergent story and gameplay, Forbidden Lands is the perfect game for you. Everything about this game screams improv.

The second Free League Publishing game on the list, Forbidden Lands is simultaneously an awesome concept, a fantastic take on the classic game of Dungeons and Dragons, while at the same time being a great fantasy setting all in one game.

I can’t say enough positive things about Forbidden Lands. It’s a survival game in a fantasy universe with very deadly mechanics and a really gritty feel to it putting it squarely in the OSR wheelhouse, yet its mechanics are sleek and modern, with an absolutely fantastic dynamic world-building concept at the core of gameplay.

Players are survivors of a world that has gone terribly wrong and they are charged with trying to find a way to not only survive in this harsh environment but to thrive. The world around them is completely unexplored and the players must follow dynamically constructed clues about what is out there and because the game is an open sandbox, every group is going to take its own approach on how to proceed.

Players don’t just contend with the monsters that dwell beyond the borders of their village but they must deal with the harsh realities of weather, basic necessities like food and water and the absence of proper civilization. There are no blacksmith shops to buy everything you need or taverns where you can easily access the basic necessities and comforts of life. Everything in this game is a struggle and players are always on the brink of death no matter where they turn. The only thing they can rely on is each other and this creates amazing table dynamics.

I adore Forbidden Lands and if your fan of Dungeons and Dragons, while this system is certainly wildly different mechanically, everything about it is going to be familiar nonetheless. An amazing experience, in particular in the hands of creative GM’s.

There are a few quirks in the game that I would say require some minor correcting like the Peddler class that has a way of spoiling some of the survival gameplay elements but these are easily house ruled issues that can be solved and there is a great community around this game from which you can get lots of great advice some.

Highly recommend this one if you haven’t tried it.

4. Vampire The Masquerade (5th Edition)

It’s a really well-designed game with a very poorly written book, but playing a vampire in the world of darkness is a gaming experience that is so much fun, its worth overcoming the hurdle of this terrible book.

I love White Wolf games, specifically their world of darkness setting and certainly Vampire The Masquerade has to be my all-time favorite game set in that world. The games 5th edition did a lot of housekeeping in terms of rules to give the game greater balance but really the big strength of this latest edition is how the mechanics of the game and the story of the game are properly connected. The mechanics really bring out the horror of being a blood-sucking monster in this latest edition by implementing the hunger system and trimming the fat off the disciplines to bring them more in line with a game of vampire politics rather than a game about vampires abusing each other with disciplines as was the case in past editions.

I love the new take on the game, I’ve been running this game for a couple of years and it just works to bring that Vampire story to life in all its gory splendor.

This game would be much higher on the list if it was not for the fact that the actual core rulebook for the game is an absolute nightmare to work with. This has to be an example of the worst kind of RPG editing in the history of RPG’s. Simply put, no matter how many times I have read the book and how long I have played this game, I still can never find a single bloody thing in that book. Everything about its layout and editing is completely illogical, the editors of this book should be fired immediately.

That said, it’s a simple enough game that after a few sessions you will have most of the important stuff put to memory and so really, the game has a natural flow and simple system that you can largely get away with running the game just with the storyteller screen in front of you. Being a vampire is a lot of fun and this game really gives that to you in every spectrum and definition of the classic monster.

Love it, if you have never played Vampire The Masquerade, I would argue you are yet to really experience the RPG hobby to its fullest.

3. The Song of Ice and Fire RPG: The Game of Thrones Edition

I’m a huge fan of The Song of Ice and Fire story and world and as such, I have huge expectations and demands from an RPG that tackles this setting. This game not only met those demands bar far exceeded anything I could have hoped this RPG to be. This is one of the best interpretations of a setting into an RPG I have ever had the pleasure to experience.

In the last decade, I have had a really wide range of gaming experiences, but without question one of my absolute favorites is a short six-session campaign I ran in the seven kingdoms using the Song of Ice and Fire RPG (The Game of Thrones Edition) <- Yes that is a mouthful.

The Song of Ice and Fire RPG has got to be one of the best translations of a setting into an RPG I have ever experienced, Green Ronin Publishing knocks it out of the park with this game.

All of the intricate relationships between characters, the house building and politics mechanics, the absolutely fantastic social combat rules, the gritty and really brutal combat mechanic and of course just the setting writing all come together perfectly in a game that conjures up the TV show and makes you feel like your part of it.

There is so much great writing in these books, the organization and GM advice you get really helps tremendously in bringing The Game of Thrones to life at the table. I especially love the character creation building that has the players working together to not just form an adventuring group but a sort of dysfunctional family.

As a huge fan of the books and the TV show, I had an absolute blast with this one and I’m certain I’m going to run it again in the future. Our game only lasted six sessions but it was one of the most memorable six sessions of my gaming career. In our story three brothers struggled against each other for control of the house the players built together and in that short period of time they were engaged in a Knights tournament, they fought The Mountain in combat, they fought alongside The Starks in war, they betrayed each other in cunning political games and ultimately destroyed themselves. It had absolutely everything you could possibly ask from a Game of Thrones story and this system helped bring it all to the table.

I love this RPG, it really is a work of art.

2. Alternity

Bill S. and Richard B. create magic in what is the unquestionable king of Science-Fiction RPG’s, Alternity. This is not only one of the best sci-fi RPG’s, it may very well be one of the best RPG’s ever made.

While all the games on this list I consider personal favorites I would happily play or run at any time, at this point in the list we are getting into the games that really define me as a GM and as a role-player and Alternity is certainly such a game.

There are a lot of science-fiction games out there but in my humble opinion Alternity is worlds apart, this is the single best science-fiction RPG ever written, period. The work of the super team (Bill S. and Richard B.), it is a combination of brilliant design and inspired writing.

Alternity covers all forms of science-fiction genres from X-Files style conspiracy, Near Earth, Post-Apocalypse to hard science-fiction and science-fiction opera. It does all of that under a single, flawless system that makes use of 4 core classes, yet is distinctively skill-driven.

I adore this game and have used it countless times in everything from time-traveling games to space exploration games and everything in between. It’s a very simple system, yet so robust that even though there are only 4 classes you will never make the same character twice.

The game’s handling of technological eras, concepts like mutations and cybernetics, ship combat from hard science reality style to Star Wars space opera style, is all handled with perfection in this one game.

As if this wasn’t enough, Alternatiy has some of the best supplements for an RPG I have ever read including the absolutely astonishingly awesome StarDrive campaign which I say without reservation is the single best RPG setting ever written, period. The fact that it’s supported by this fantastic system is just icing on the cake of perfection.

I know that availability on this one might not quite hit the criteria for the list, but this is a game that was over-printed so finding books in the 3rd party market is actually quite easy, you can find it on Amazon or Ebay at very reasonable prices. There is a new edition of the game that was put out, I don’t know anything about that one so it should not be confused with the original TSR version.

I have not a single negative word to say about this game, it’s perfect. If you want science-fiction, it begins and ends with this game.

1. Dungeons and Dragons

The one and only Dungeons and Dragons makes the top of the list which should come to the surprise of no one!

While my desire with this list was to expose my readers to other RPG’s for their consideration, this list would be a bald-faced lie if I did not put Dungeons and Dragons in the number one spot.

D&D has had many editions over the years, but in each era in which it appeared whether it was 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 5th edition, Dungeons and Dragons was always my number one, favorite game to play. The only exception in the last 30+ years of my gaming life when that wasn’t true was during the brief period when 4th edition D&D was the current version of the game. I really didn’t like that version and it was the only time that I would not have put D&D as my number one choice of RPG.

I consider all of the editions as members of my D&D toolbox and as a DM, I’m more than happy to run any edition (except 4th) and I would typically do so for different reasons. I will very soon create a top 10 versions of D&D list which would include various retro-clones, spin-offs and re-imagining into this category and certainly if pressed I could put the editions of D&D in order from favorite to least favorite, but all and all I have enjoyed all of these games and I consider every one of them excellent RPG’s.

I’m certain however if I was pressed today to pick my favorite version of Dungeons and Dragons, the one I reach for when a fantasy story pops into my head that I want to explore there is no doubt that “my” preferred version of the game is 1st edition BECMI (Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal). Typically I would use a modern retro clone like Old School Essentials if we want to get strictly down to the specifics, but ultimately 1st edition Basic D&D for me personally is the simplest game to run, the one that sticks to the D&D concept the best and is the most fun for my players. It’s fast, challenging, easy to learn and teach and above all, fun as hell. It’s D&D in its purest form.

Some Honorable Mentions

There were quite a few games that were cut from this list and though I would argue for good reason, I do think they deserve a courtesy nod for being in contention.

Star Wars Edge of the Empire is a game that teases me with one of my favorite franchises of all time and it certainly was a contender, but in the end the narrative dice system, while clever is just too fussy and demands far too much from a gaming table. I like the ingenuity of it, but it misses the mark for me personally and certainly doesn’t compete with my favorite take on the Star Wars universe.

Warhammer Fantasy Role-play 3rd edition like Star Wars Edge of the Empire has a clever take on role-playing with its narrative dice, but I find it has the same issue as its Star Wars follow up. Too much fucking about with translating these dice to make something useful out of them at the table. I want to love the concept because conceptually it’s really good, but it’s just too impractical at a gaming table and its board game approach to RPG management distances itself too much from the hobbies traditions and assumptions. It was a good effort with a lot of really great writing and I use the game for inspiration, but it’s just not something I’m interested in running.

Pathfinder 2nd edition is another take on Dungeons and Dragons and the truth is that I actually like this one as a player quite a bit. Lots of great options for character building, a fantastic game world built into the system and a really fun combat mechanic that really gets to the heart of modern D&D gameplay. As a DM however I find the 600+ page rulebook is just severe overkill, it’s just too much, there is waaay to much to juggle as a DM and really the payout is kind of limited. Anything as a DM I could do with Pathfinder 2nd edition, I can do with D&D 1st edition, yet it will be a 10th of the complexity, for me it’s just a hard pass. I think a good, dedicated GM can make it work, but it’s too mechanized for my tastes, I could never run a game that is this codified. That said I think it’s actually an amazing design achievement, it’s a really clever game and those with the patience for this much crunch will find a lot to like.

Gaming Articles, Role-Player Game Reviews

TOp 10 D&D Publications & Works for DM’s

When it comes to RPG material, the quality of the various publications and writing can vary dramatically. Back in 2017 I did a Top 10 RPG Modules list of all time which was both one of the most popular articles on this blog, but also the one I doubt I will need to update anytime in the next decade.

In this list we broaden the scope a bit to talk about various RPG publications which go beyond adventure models. These are books and books series I think are not only a core part of D&D history, but very much applicable material that any good DM should own and read. This is material that will advise you, inspire you and make you a better DM.

I think it would be impossible for me to rank these so, I simply decided not to. Enjoy the list.

1st Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide

There have been many Dungeon Masters Guide for the game of D&D, not to mention countless supplemental and advice books for running games, but to me the original works of Gary Gygax are the equivalent to what I would consider the bible for Dungeons and Dragons.

The 1st edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Guide was reprinted in a glorious leather-bound book a few years back along with the rest of the core books, selling out instantly, proving that these books are every bit as important today as the day they were printed.

The book is written in a style that speaks directly to the DM in a commanding voice offering you advice that though can sometimes be tough to swallow in the light of modernization of the game is as true, as factual and as indisputable today as the day it was written. It’s a bit like a self help book written by your dad who doesn’t try to spare your feelings and rather focuses on preparing you for real life.

While the book is chalk full of advice, don’t be so arrogant as to assume the rules are “out dated”. The book is a literal gold mind of supplemental rules that can be universally applied to any edition of the game, quick resolutions using rules that are well suited for the abstracted concepts on which Dungeons and Dragons is founded. More than that you will find a treasure trove of magical items and an endless array of tables for quick randomized information. There are rules that cover concepts like henchmen and hirelings, magic item creation, world building concepts and a wide variations of approaches to campaign styles that are all universally applicable.

I have never run a game of D&D without this books influence regardless of edition, it is a must read and a must have for any serious DM.

The Mystara Gazetteer’s

There are many settings created for the game of D&D, but you would be hard pressed to find a setting that does a more thorough of job creating a diverse, living, breathing world in which to set your game that are directly applicable to game sessions. The Gazatteer’s were written over 16 books that detail every culture and every region of the world, but the focus of the books is to give you material you can use and it is here where most settings kind of fail for me.

The Mystara Gazetteer series was a bright, colorful series of books that inspired you with its art and attention to detail, but the most valuable aspect of the books is their usability at the table.

The amount of inspired writing, unique story hooks and NPC characters in excessive detail makes this one of the most usable campaign settings ever written in my humble opinion.

More than that however is the fact that Mystara is a truly unique setting, not reliant on the endlessly repeating clichés found the many settings written for Dungeons and Dragons in the following years. It breaks the mold before there ever was one to base your setting off of. Since Mystara settings have been largely variations on the same concepts and it can be tough to distinguish the difference between the Forgotten Realms and point of light.

Thanks to RPG Drive Thru and print on demand, getting access to these books is relatively easy, a well worth investment for any aspiring DM looking for a place to create their adventures.

Pathfinder 2nd edition Core Rulebook

While as a DM I generally prefer simpler and more classically driven systems for my D&D like B/X or BECMI, when it comes to modern renditions of the modern game of D&D, Pathfinder 2nd edition is without question the gold standard.

It makes quick work out of complex rules while serving to provide highly involved and exciting game session. This is a game so fine tuned, so well thought out, streamlined and brilliantly diverse, that it works not just as a D&D clone but a universal fantasy system.

Paizo has shown that fantasy role-playing can be stretched in a variety of creative and interesting ways, with Pathfinder 2nd edition they have effectively created a new sub-genre of Dungeons and Dragons.

Pathfinder ensures that players have maximum creativity and options in their hand, while ensuring the DM can manage it all, keeping it straight for the table without having to do constant rules look ups. Pathfinder 2nd edition does everything right, including correcting the many things D&D has done wrong for 40+ years like its core action management systems.

If you are looking for a modern D&D system, before you consider 5e, consider Pathfinder 2nd edition. It is the definitive modern version of the game that is superior to everything that is out there today.

The Reavers of Harkenwold

I think the saddest part of the Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition as a game is that despite a really terrible mechanical focus, it had some of most inspired adventure and setting writing, with some of the best writers in the business providing the material. Guys like Richard Baker and Bill Slavicsek were at the helm of some of this material which included The Dark Sun Campaign book, Kyhber’s Harvest for the Eberron setting and one of my absolute favorite adventures, the two parter, Reavers of Harkenwood (The Iron Circle & The Die is Cast).

Reavers of Harkenwold was released as part of the Essentials Line for 4th edition as a two part introductory set, but the love that was put into this book shows just how fantastic of a content creator Richard Baker is.

What I love about Reavers of Harkenwold is that its one of those rare instances where an setting for the adventure is so well written you can run it as written and its absolutely brilliant. That is really rare in adventure writing, I can only think of a small handful of adventures that pull that off.

Reavers of Harkenwold however is more than just an adventure, in fact that is not why its on this list, what this is really is a very well thought out mini campaign and its written in a style that really makes it system agnostic which is also something that is really rare in adventure writing. Its a setting, its an open world, it has a great villains and above all else it tests the morality of an adventuring group. By the time your troupe is done playing through this adventure, they will know who their characters are, but they will also care about a place, become involved in the setting and establish themselves as part of it. That is really what makes Reavers of Harkenwold so great as a publication.

Reavers of Harkenwold didn’t make my top 10 modules of all time list but the truth is that I have never viewed this as an adventure module, to me its a mini campaign as what makes it great is less the story and more the setting it presents.

The Rules Cyclopedia

The Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia to me is the most definitive work ever done for Dungeons and Dragons. It combines all of the original 1st edition Dungeons and Dragons core rules under one roof before the game diverged into the “advanced rules” concept which arguably could be construed as a good or a bad thing.

This very thick book is the absolute definitive collection of rules for the 1st edition D&D system and its very accessible today via RPG drivethru using their print on demand service.

To me personally the Basic and Expert Dungeons and Dragons sets combined to form THE best version of Dungeons and Dragons as a game system. To me, once the advanced rules came along with concepts like the race and class split is where most of the problems in Dungeons and Dragons started. Balance issues, rules complexity issues and all of the minutia that comes with that complexity that have driven decades of arguments what about D&D should and shouldn’t be. The B/X set never suffered under the weight of rules complexity, it was a system that was designed to be played and to this day it is the most commonly used system as a base for D&D variant. Their are more fantasy games based on B/X rules then all other D&D systems in existence times a hundred.

The rules cyclopedia is a compilation of the Basic and Expert rules, but it also includes the companion, master and immortal supplements which bring in concepts like kingdom management, high level play and topping it off with the ascension of characters as gods. Using the rules Cyclopedia is the only way a group of D&D fans can play the same D&D game for decades and never run into the balance issues of high level play. It is the most complete, all in one rule set for running D&D and its the first and last book you will ever need to run D&D forever.

Its a masterpiece in my eyes and though I prefer to run only the B/X rules myself, its great to have all the added support in the event a campaign stretches into those higher levels.

1st edition Forgotten Realms Box Set

Not to suggest that 1st is always better, but the 1st edition Forgotten Realms Box set to me is the unquestionable definitive work for this setting and everything that followed played second fiddle to it. Not only as a description and definition of the setting, but in how it was written and what it focused on.

The Forgotten Realms is a iconic D&D setting, but never in its history was in as good a shape as it was in its original box set release, if you love the realms, these are the books you should be using.

This box set was designed to be used at the table, offering the GM key information about events in this place, events that would lead to modules linked to the original setting material. Strangely this approach was largely abandoned after this box set, transitioning to the way settings are written today where the material is “general information” about the world with an assumption that creating a story in the setting is up to the GM. I prefer the way it was done in this book as it ties key stories and events of the setting to the player characters with other fantastic material like The Pool of Radiance, The Curse of Azure Bonds and other classic stories like Expedition to Undermountain and City of the Spider Queen.

It was also before anyone started fiddling with the history of the setting to try to fit it into modern editions of the game that constantly expanded the races and classes of the game, breaking a lot of the nuances of the setting, those subtle elements that would take the setting from a believable real place to an obvious attempt to fit the latest players handbook into it.

The 1st edition Forgotten Realms setting was the only version of the setting that did not take the rules of the game into consideration, focusing on the lore and history of the world, directing its events based on the story, rather then the latest rules.

When it comes to the Forgotten Realms, this is the box set to own.

The Scarred Lands Campaign Setting

Born from the remnants of the White Wolf writers, The Scarred Lands Campaign Setting is styled after the story first concept so much of the amazing writing that was done for the world of darkness. The Scarred Lands is perhaps one of the most unique settings that exists for Dungeons and Dragons, originally published for 3rd edition D&D.

The Scarred Lands, like Mystara, had incredible detail among countless books released for the setting, each effectively its own mini campaign setting, but because it was written by former White Wolf writers, it has that dark and almost disturbing twist blended into its pages.

It’s a setting that defines in absolute perfect detail some of the most unique places ever inked for a Dungeon and Dragons world. Whether your talking about Calastia: The Throne of the Black Dragon that brings one of the most amazing political villains ever written into your world, The City of Hollowfaust, essentially a city run by necromancers and the undead or awesome books like The Wise and The Wicked that describe the many unique people of the world both villain and hero alike, The Scarred Lands is just chalk full of exquisite detail.

The Scarred Lands setting to me is one of the few out there written for D&D that completely breaks expectation, discards the cliques and gives the players a place to explore that will truly surprise them and again, it does this on a level so detailed that every single book written for the Scarred Lands becomes a campaign setting in of itself.

So good, it hurts.

Old School Essentials

One of the issues many modern gamers have with old school systems like 1st edition Basic D&D and Advanced D&D is that the rules are considered incoherent, hard to grasp, inconsistent and difficult to run. It has always been a problem for modern gamers to even try out old school systems to see the differences, to see what they are missing, to understand that piece of history and why their are so many fans of these old school systems. Its an unfortunate situation, one old school GM’s like me contend with all the time because frankly its all true. Old school systems are indeed written in a style that makes them really difficult to implement at the table.

I will never be able to say enough about how highly I think of The Old School Essentials books, this is the finest, most streamlined and impactful release for D&D in 40 years to me.

In comes Old School Essentials, essentially a true down to the last detail replication of Basic/Expert rules but with modern organization to make the game as comprehensible, as easy to understand and use as the original rules desired to be. It took 4 decades for someone to unravel the mess of the original works and create a book that makes the whole thing comprehensible and not only has Old School Essentials done this successfully, but it did it better then what we see even in modern rule books.

Old School Essentials brings all the fun, excitement and glory of the old days in a easy to understand and absorb way proving that not only are the original B/X rules amazing, but it is everything modern gamers want modern D&D to be, but simply never quite gets their.

One of the best books written this decade, oddly enough using rules made 4 decades early. A masterpiece resurrected for the modern day.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker & Ultimate Campaign Guide

The 1st edition of Pathfinder was really just a spruced up version of D&D 3rd edition, but because of the timing of its release, being after 3.5 which was an extremely long running edition of the game and during the 4th edition of D&D which was one of the least popular editions of the game in the D&D franchise, 1st edition Pathfinder was the edition I actually played the most next to Basic/Expert rules.

Pathfinder Kingmaker was updated for 2nd edition in a single book for the entire adventure path. To me this was an instant classic that deserves mention in any conversation about Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

In the course of its run, I found most of the material released for the game to be quite suitable, but it was the adventure path Kingmaker and its related source book, The Ultimate Campaign Guide that really brought the game to a whole new level.

Pathfinder takes an old D&D concept, Empire/Kingdom building found in classic D&D modules like Test of the Warlords and campaign settings like Birthright and makes it comprehensible. While the rules for domains were covered reasonably well in the BECMI system, the word comprehensible would not be how I would have described it their either for all the love I have for the system.

Kingmaker made domain running for D&D a pure joy and because the module had a great story and setup for players to take throne, it ended up being one of the most popular adventure path in Paizo’s history, so much so that they made a video game out of it.

Ultimate Campaign uses the same core system for kingdom management as Kingmaker, but expands on it and other campaign running features that allow you to create your own kingdom building stories.

Of all the stuff that came out of Pathfinder, I count Kingmaker and Ultimate Campaign Guide as the absolute best of the best and what is really great with the Ultimate Campaign Guide is that it is mostly system agnostic so you can apply the rules of kingdom management to your favorite D&D system not to mention that Kingmaker itself as an adventure path has been converted to both Pathfinder 2nd edition rules and 5th edition D&D rules making it that much easier.

Fantastic content worth getting even if you don’t use the 1st edition Pathfinder system.

1st edition Oriental Adventures

The offensively named book is to me one of the best supplements ever written for 1st edition Advanced Dungeon and Dragons and that is saying a lot as their have been quite a few that competed for a space like this.

Oriental adventures was effectively an alternative version of 1st edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, a self contained alternative for fans of Asian lore. No one has done as amazing of a job bringing this style of play to the table as this Gygax did with this book.

I’m a huge fan of Japanese and Chinese lore. What Oriental Adventures does is D&D’affy it, creating not only a fantastic sub-system for Dungeons and Dragons with all new races and classes with mechanical constructs way ahead of its time like Ancestry and Honor, new spells, new equipment, but a great setting. It effectively refreshed Dungeons and Dragons using the endless well of Asian lore, doing so not only respectfully but with a fantastic fun twist.

I adore Oriental Adventures and because it’s written by Gygax, it has that commanding voice legibility to it, making it not only a fun, applicable book for the table, but a great night stand read.

There was a 3rd edition of this book and of course their are entire systems dedicated to this setting like the amazing Legend of the Five Rings, but if you already love D&D and you want an Asian twist, this is the book to get.

That concludes our list, hope you enjoyed it!

Gaming Articles, Role-Player Game Reviews

D&D Theory: The Old School Complaint

I’ve spoken on a number of occasions about old school vs. new school D&D, the old school movement, the designs and theories behind classic and AD&D, but today I’m going to try to illustrate not so much why those movements exist, but what those movements complain about when it comes to modern versions of D&D. What their main beefs are with modern systems and why they continue to use the old systems despite considerable advancement in modern design of mechanics.

I think the conversation is appropriate because only a month ago we got yet another variation on modern version of D&D in Pathfinder 2.0. As I write this I’m only 1 day away from playing in my first session and I’m very excited to try out the new system. Unfortunately I also know what I’m walking into. Like most old school D&D players, while I can certainly enjoy modern versions of D&D (and I do very much so), I know that the experience will be lacking in certain areas and all of my complaints that I have about modern D&D will still be present in some capacity in this latest version of the game even from a courtesy reading.

What are the complaints of this old school gamer when it comes to modern versions of D&D? That’s what today’s article is all about.

Combat is dreadfully slow

Dungeons and Dragons has always been a game of heroic combat to a great degree. We make great fighters, powerful magic-users, stealthy back stabbing thieves and divine clerics and much more and all of these adventuring characters are built from the ground up to kick-ass and take monster names. D&D as a premise is about heroically taking our characters into danger, fighting monsters, finding treasure, exploring unique locations and living in the theatre of the mind through the eyes of our characters.

At its core it is a staple of D&D to fight, but it is not the point of the game as a whole. This rather odd discrepancy between “what the game is about” and “what you do often in the game” is a delicate formula that Dungeons and Dragons got right way back in AD&D and has been struggling with in every edition of the game ever since.

The simple fact is that a D&D combat should take about 10-20 minutes tops, maybe 30-45 if you are doing a big climatic boss battle. It should be fast, furious, dangerous, violent and over quickly. A 5 hour session of D&D could (not necessarily should) have 4-5 combats and the session should still be mostly role-playing. In other words, you do a lot of fighting and still the game is not focused on fighting.

This is a fundamental and important element of a game that is about exploration and that comes with 300+ page book of monsters.

My biggest complaint about modern D&D is that combat has been getting slower and more dissociated from the narrative (more on dissociation later) with each new edition up until about 5th edition (so between 2nd-4th edition including Pathfinder 1.0 it grew more and more sluggish).

4th edition Dungeons and Dragons was certainly the worst of the modern D&D games when it came to combat speed, an average fight being 2-4 hours, but Pathfinder, 5th edition D&D and certainly the new Pathfinder 2.0 are still fairly slow by comparison to classic versions of D&D like AD&D.

In our session 0 Pathfinder 2.0 game our GM ran a simulation combat. 5 players versus 6 goblins. It took the better part of of an hour and change, the average wait time for me between actions was 5-10 minutes. It suffices to say that comparatively this was certainly a huge improvement over say 3rd or 4th edition, or even Pathfinder 1.0, but still considerably slower then AD&D which would have wrapped up the entire fight in 10-15 minutes.

Now I will say this upfront. All of the modern D&D editions including 4th edition have very interesting, involved and well thought out mechanics. These aren’t bad games, or bad mechanics they are just slow and this lack of expediency is just one peg in the leg that holds the chair (game session) together.

It’s also important to note that as an old school gamer and I feel quite comfortable speaking on behalf of the OS movement that there is no opposition to making combat tactically interesting. In fact, most AD&D and Basic D&D players use either house rules or published material to enhance, improve and expand on the simplicity of the tactical elements of the core rules for their game. The balance between speed and interesting combat is a fragile one and will differ from group to group and DM to DM, but among old school gamers both simplicity and speed are typically more important to creating a deeper, more complex tactical game. Its a preference and a peg to the leg, but its certainly not the deal breaker.

The real issue most old school gamers have is that most of the rules weight added to make the tactical combat more interesting in modern games, comes in the form of dissociated mechanics and it’s here where modern and old school gamers really differ in what they want to see in the way of enhance tactical combat mechanics.

Dissociated Mechanics

To understand what Dissociated Mechanics are and really the RPG design theory behind it, you really have to do some research. This is a long, involved and complex subject which I won’t cover here beyond the sort of paraphrased version.

The short version is that in modern D&D (and many modern RPG’s), many mechanics (in some cases most mechanics) are there not as part of a role-playing mechanism, but as a game mechanic. In other words, the mechanic is not associated with the abstracted reality, from the perspective of the character. These mechanics are not associated with the decisions the character makes. They are dissociated, meaning, disconnected from the characters reality, in the hands of the player making decisions in a tactical mini game added for the purpose of creating tactical and character building options.

Disassociation of mechanics in RPG’s began about the same time PC versions of RPG’s and in particular MMORPG’s were born. The concept of balance, the concept of character progression and builds all triggered the shift in pencil and paper RPG’s. In a sense, modern RPG’s were designed for modern gamers which came to the table with PC and video game experiences. Their expectations were to have the same levers available in their pencil and paper RPG’s as they had in their PC and Video game equivalents. It may seem odd, since PC and Video game RPG’s were born from Pencil and Paper versions, but the digital versions of RPG’s evolved differently and then began to influence their ancestry, pushing their pencil and paper equivalents to adapt to them.

An example of a Dissociated Mechanic is the Combat Maneuvers mechanic for a 5th edition fighter. With this mechanic, the fighter gets “combat maneuver points” that can be spent on special combat actions. These points represent an abstraction of fatigue, concentration, knowledge and Will I suppose. You can do things like trip your enemy (causing them to go prone), rally an ally (giving them extra HP), or command another player (giving them an extra attack).

This mechanic is really not associated with the characters reality, aka, a dissociated mechanic. When the character rallies another character and gives them extra HP, it’s really such a heavy abstraction in on its own as it is, but on top of that, he can only do it 3 times before taking rest, or he can rally someone twice, but then only trip an enemy one time So to the character because he rallied someone, he can’t trip someone later.

If you start to see the picture here, you should realize that the combat maneuver points, the way they are applied, the abstracted mechanics they trigger are all disassociated from reality. It makes it more disassociated and really paints the picture when you start asking questions.

Why can’t a thief learn a combat maneuver? Is tripping someone that complicated? Is it not possible for a Paladin to rally his troops, or command fellow character to get an extra attack? Why does me rallying my team and commanding them, exhaust me and prevent me from tripping someone or getting a bonus attack. How are these things related to each other.

Now there is a term for this called suspension of disbelief that is often applied, I would argue incorrectly. Suspension of disbelief is to accept something as fact that is clearly invented fantasy. For example characters in a fantasy world know that orcs and dragons exist, that magic is real and gods actually come down from the heavens and influence mortal beings. These are facts for the fantasy world and require the players to have a suspension of disbelief to accept. It is not suspension of disbelief when we ask a player to accept that he is fatigued from commanding people, so he can’t make a riposte or a trip attack as a result. We are not asking their character to believe in magic or dragons, we are asking them to accept a mechanical construct applied to a game for the purposes of balance as real.

Modern D&D is full of dissociated mechanics and this is so because these mechanics were not created to represent character choices and decisions within the realm of a abstracted fantasy reality, they were added for classes to have interesting activatable abilities, for the purposes of balance and entertainment as part of a miniatures combat game. They are not only dissociated from the make believe reality of a fantasy world, but from the very premise of a role-playing game (aka, taking on a role of a character).

These disassociated mechanics are very disruptive to role-playing though modern players are not entirely aware of it because again, they are so accustomed to these mechanics existing in other games (namely PC and Video games) that it feels natural and normal to have them. Modern pencil and paper RPG players are more likely to discuss class builds, class balance and “what options are good picks or not”. To the modern gamer, this is part of the role-playing experience and though these mechanics are disassociated, modern gamers are not bothered by the disruption, though disrupt them it does.

To a modern player, choosing your race and class, your feats and skills and your spells are mechanical choices they expect to make. They expect progression, they expect balance, they expect lots and lots of options. In fact, the size of core rulebooks have grown substantially for many of these games. Pathfinder 2.0 for example weighs in at over 600+ pages, easily the largest RPG rulebook that has ever existed. This book is overflowing with character building options. One must ask the question why? Why do we need this many options for a game that is about playing a role in a game of collaborative storytelling?

Dissociated mechanics are partially the cause, or at least they compounded the issues that lead to increased length of combat. As more and more of a session is taken up by making tactical choices, with a plethora of activatable abilities, the slower the game is in combat and the more often the players are pulled out of their role in the role-playing game and pushed towards player centric top down decisions about which abilities to use, which resources to spend, what tactical choices they should make. None of which has anything to do with role-playing their character, thinking through their character or seeing the world through their character. These are, for all intents and purposes, mechanics designed for a game.

4th edition D&D for example was often accused in reviews of being too much like a board game or an MMORPG. This assessment while facetious, is not really that far from the truth as in many ways, because the game is built on so many dissociated mechanics (just like board games and PC games are), that its perfectly reasonable to get that sense from the game. In 4th edition D&D you spent most of your session using mechanics that would have no in game, in character logic to them.

Is it all bad?

The answer is no. While certainly things have changed a great deal since the AD&D days when associated mechanics were king, the RPG revolution has begun to revert from its PC game evolved roots back to the golden age thinking. This is happening very subtly, but slowly with each new iteration of D&D. We have seen the PC and Video game world have less and less influence and the old school world of RPG’s have more and more. Modern players have begun to evolve the pencil and paper RPG’s away from the digital rpg’s. and into their own thing. Now its not exactly an old school movement, but many ideas from old school games have found their way back into modern designs.

A good example in Pathfinder 2.0 is the skill system. Any AD&D player should find this system very familiar, it is almost an exact replica of Non-Weapon proficiencies.

Why has Pathfinder 2.0 brought back Non-Weapon Proficiencies? The answer is quite simple. The purpose of a skill system is to describe what your character can do, not necessary to define how the rules work. Its sort of like saying, here is a gauge, rather then, here is an applicable rule. Its to ensure that while a player runs his character, he understands what his abilities are from the perspective of his character.

For example if you are trained at swimming, you know you can swim. That is an in character understanding (an associated mechanic). Certainly there can be rules for swimming (Difficulties set for different conditions for example) but the important thing for the player and his character is to understand, hey I know how to do that and here is how good at it I am. Trained, expert etc..

The movement to more associated mechanics however isn’t just about reverting to old school mechanics, there are very modern versions of associated mechanics we have never seen in old school games, but still fit neatly into the ideology. This supports the idea that associated mechanics aren’t just an old school thing, modern gamers and designers are becoming very aware of it as well even if they don’t fully verbalize it.

For example the 2D20 Momentum and Threat mechanic is a great example. Here we have a very associated mechanic that is inspired by concepts of inspiration and stress, a gauge of a very relatable concept we have in our real lives. When a person is inspired, he becomes motivated and is more likely to succeed and ever exceed in tasks he is performing. Who hasn’t had that day at work when everything is falling into place, motivating you to push it further, that moment when we are on a roll.

Vice versus with threat, its a little like stress. We can feel our stress levels and they impact us negatively. The more stressed we are the less productive we are, the more mistakes we make, we lose sleep, we are less attentive when we drive. There is all sorts of impact on our lives from stress (aka threat).

This sort of mechanic is brilliant in representing something very relatable, yet it is very modern, an invention of an associated mechanic for the new age of role-playing games.

The move away from dissociated mechanics might not ever reach the same levels as AD&D which on a design level had a real aversion to it going so far as suggesting that even the use of dissociated house rules in your game is heresy. Still modern gamers are becoming more evolved role-players. More and more, players are becoming concerned with their stories, with their backgrounds, with the invention of character and the designers of these systems are responding by giving them the mechanical structure on which to base those inventions, which come in the form of associated mechanics.

In Pathfinder 2.0, I found it refreshing and far more natural to build a character, a really great sign that the system is moving in the right direction. The dissociations of choosing hyper abstract mechanical options have been minimized, replaced with mechanics designed to help match functionality to written backgrounds and give players narrative fuel. We already saw this greatly improved in 5th edition D&D and Pathfinder 2.0 has taken yet another step in that right direction. An almost full 180 from systems like 4th edition D&D which lived in the world of dissociated mechanics almost exclusively.

Conclusion

The conclusion is that while we still call the old school movement and game systems like AD&D old school, modern games are becoming more and more familiar to us old gonards. The distinction between new school and old school is becoming blurred, there are more and more commonalities between the two concepts and rules. I find some of us Gonards have a hard time making peace with that, as old school has other more mythical connotations, but I consider this sort of thing very judgy for the sake of being judgy. It’s just some hipster shit, that out of date “it was better in the olden days” mantra. The reality is that the bridge is being built and the question is if old school players can get their head out of their asses long enough to make the crossing. I have my doubts about that.

Role-playing has changed a great deal in the last 30 years, but in a way, its less a progression forward and more an evolution and refinement on the original material. Sure, there was a brief moment in time (about 10 years worth) when the influence of digital games on the pencil and paper games was disturbing, I will be the first to admit that I thought it was shit in, shit out at the time, but even from those periods of design some good came out of it. Perhaps it was a lesson on what not to do, but I like to think of it more along the lines of designers coming to grips about what was great about role-playing games at the table and how it differs from the digital experiences. It was an affirmation that us old Gonards were right all along, we fucking told you, you wouldn’t listen and so you spent 10 years getting your asses kicked. While I feel high and mighty, I welcome you back.

Mind you I love MMORPG’s and CRPG’s, Baldur’s Gate was one of my favorite games of all time and it was a very close approximation of the rules of AD&D. It just doesn’t work to run pencil and paper RPG’s in this manner and we shouldn’t try to make mechanics that allow you to so, its pointless and It just doesn’t work well.

Pencil and Paper RPG’s are also more than just one thing and the old school gonards like me have to really come to grips with that as well. There are a wider range of perfectly acceptable ways to play D&D and those players aren’t doing it wrong, they are doing it their way and doing it your own way IS always the right way. Designers are going to continue as they always have to cater to all walks of RPG life, which will include these ever widening styles of play.

I do however agree with the old school movement that D&D is its own thing, it is not to be fucked with. If you want to make a Forbidden Lands that has some unique spin on the RPG genre, go for it, but if you are going to put the D&D label on something, you will follow the rules, or we will make someone who does the king of RPG’s (like Paizo). There are sacred cows like associated mechanics that simply cannot be trifled with, else you will end up with commercial failures like 4th edition D&D. Note I said commercial failure, not design failure. 4e had its merits, it just wasn’t D&D because it failed to heed important lessons about what D&D should be, which includes a game about fast combat, associated mechanics and countless key tropes that are ingrained into the fan bases psyche If you want to include D&D players from all generations of the game, there are simply some design constructs that must be followed. Call them sacred cows if you will, but those are the terms, abide by them or suffer the consequences.

In my opinion the future looks bright for the old school movement and the modern gamers as well. Systems like Pathfinder 2.0 are clearly designed for a more seasoned group of players, but there is no mistaking its intention to include old school veteran’s of D&D and the old school movement within its walls. I look forward to this next edition of the game.

Exciting times ahead!