Tag / review

by guyeatsfood

Two Can Play At That – Duet TTRPGs

You remember when we suddenly couldn’t move for solo RPGs? Well, quietly, that’s now happened with what I’m going to call here “Duet Games” – that’s games for two players, or sometimes (less frequently) one player and one GM. In fairness, the Player/GM split is frequently eroded by the form, so let’s just say two players. There’s a lot of them out there – check out this list of those on itch (from MintRabbit, the best TTRPG librarian).

I’ve tried over the past few months to get some of these to the table, and I’ve got some games below with capsule (still play-informed) reviews for you – but also some general advice. Just like when solo RPGs came along, and there was a general confusion over how to actually play them from some quarters, I think getting a duet game to the table needs a slightly different approach to a group TTRPG.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

The Ultimate Fantasy Pirate One-Shot? – Review: The Dawn Chasers

It’s been a while since I offered a review of an adventure instead of an entire game. But in truth I’m much more interested in reading and buying adventures – they offer all the usefulness of a supplement, but with everything ready to run. And this, a DMs Guild adventure by M.T. Black and Anthony Lesink for 3rd-4th level PCs designed to take 4-6 hours, is an absolute classic. Not a classic as in a huge original – the piratey tropes are laid on thick here. Just very, very good – and a great one-shot to showcase what D&D is good at, or indeed any other TTRPG you care to run it with.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Mid-2025 Review

It’s not exactly the middle of the year, I know that. But in February (after my unintentional gaming break in January) I decided it would be great if I could get up to 100 game sessions in 2025, and then upped that to 104. 104 is 2 per week, and that seems to be a good number. Previous years I’ve managed 90 (in 2024), 116 (in 2023), and 86 (in 2022), so I’ll be pretty pleased if I can get the 104 with only 1 January game. Expected games total currently sits at 99.7, so I need to step it up!

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

An Abbey, a Village, some Monks – Review: Rosewood Abbey

Scope used to be a big deal in TTRPGs. The Generic Universal Roleplay system (GURPS) proudly boasts “with GURPS, you can be anything you want,” and there’s still plenty of energy for 5e-based products trying to ride high on mastery of a known system. But I’m much more interested these days in the opposite. Games where the scope is so tight that the game provides a clear consistent experience. Games where everyone is likely to play the same kind of character, and do the same sort of thing.

It’s a tidy looking book, with neat layout and design

Even D&D has gone this way – big hardback campaigns like Curse of Strahd and Rime of the Frostmaiden provide cultural reference points among groups – how did you defeat Strahd? What did you do in Bryn Shander? Did you help the gnome mind flayers in their spelljamming vessel? (Possible spoilers there, I guess). And smaller, indie games have also tended to be successful when they’ve limited their scope to one approach, and hew closely to it.

Rosewood Abbey, from Kalum from the Rolistes podcast, is very tight in scope, and very good. You can’t be anything you want. You can be a friar, at a specific abbey, at the foot of the Alps between the 12th and 13th centuries. You can explore the abbey, you can go into the village nearby – you won’t be going any further. You’ll investigate mysteries that, despite their potential for supernatural origins – and other NPCs being sure that they are – have mundane solutions.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Existential Road Tripping – Review: Electric State RPG

Electric State is the latest setting / art collection to come out of Simon Stålenhag, the force behind Tales from The Loop and Things from The Flood – both TTRPGs published by Free League. The artistic inspiration fits really well in converting to a roleplaying game, and it gives a chilled-out post-apoc(ish) 1990s vibe that is something genuinely different.

I’ve run this game in a one-shot, and you can watch the Actual Play of this on the Unconventional GMs channel here. We played through the first “Stop” (adventure location) from the book in just under 2 hours – and like everything we’ve done, there’s minimal editing and proper engagement with the rules – so if you want to watch it in action, check it out there.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Beware of the Cat! – Review: No Small Crimes in Lankhmar, for Dungeon Crawl Classics

A slightly different review post today, being a review of a short adventure published by Goodman Games for their Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar setting. As with all my reviews, this is play-informed; I ran the adventure last week at Kraken, with a total of six players. Curious patrons can find my pregens attached to this post – I wasn’t able to source a Lankhmar PC generator in the many excellent DCC websites, so you’re welcome to these!

In short, No Small Crimes is excellent, and offers many things that we can steal and adapt for a location-based one-shot.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

Patrons have also got the eight pregens and one-sheet of rules that I used to run this adventure below – if you’d like to try running it yourself, be sure to check it out!

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by guyeatsfood

Review: DIE RPG – Play the Player, Play the Game

DIE RPG is a bit of an odd beast – this TTRPG from Rowan Rook & Decard, written and developed from Kieron Gillen’s comics, is quite unlike anything else I’ve played on recently. It’s laser-focussed on a very specific play experience, and it’s all the better for it.

Like all my reviews, this is play-informed; I ran a one-shot of DIE for a group, and this is based on the play experience, not on reading the book. If you want a read-through, Iain McAllister from The Giant Brain, one of my players for the one-shot, has done one – so you can check that out here. Indeed, I’m going to try and not repeat stuff here – so if you want an overview of the system, or indeed the contents of the book, read that first!

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Four Things About Daggerheart

Update: You can watch us play through the Quickstart, using v1.3 rules (so some slight tweaks to the content from what’s discussed below, and more in line with the final product) here.

I’ve had a chance recently to run the Daggerheart RPG quickstart a couple of times – the playtest rules are available at the link above, and contain far more than just the quickstart – and I thought I’d pick out a few things from it. For a first impression, to be clear, I think it’s really good – it does some things in a genuinely interesting way, and it’s a really good quickstart in terms of introducing both setting and system in a concentric way.

When this first landed, there were plenty of internet commentators giving their opinion of it – but as I’ve repeatedly said, we should judge games after playing them, not before – and for me Daggerheart is something I’ll definitely be picking up, and probably running a lot of. So, here’s four things I like about Daggerheart – specifically, the quickstart.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

Review: Stronger Scenarios – Adventure Crucible

There’s recently been a few books published about gamemastering, and I’m all for it. So much gets written online in a haphazard and sometimes contradictory way (as a visit to any forum will attest); it’s great to see people with genuine experience put down their thoughts in an organised manner. This is what Adventure Crucible does, a short chapbook available in print from All Rolled Up, and online from Drive Thru, in which Robin Laws gives a surprisingly deep dive into adventure structure and prep.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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by guyeatsfood

2023 – Year In Review

With a blink, 2023 is behind us – or almost behind us if you’ve the good taste to be a Patreon supporter of mine – and we can look ahead to more gaming goodness in 2024. Before we do that, I thought I’d take a look back at personal highlights from this year, and look forward to 2024.

While you’re reading this, I should tell you about my Patreon. Patrons get access to content 7 days before they hit this site, the chance to request articles or content, and the chance to play in one-shot games, for a very reasonable backer level of £2 per month. If you like what you read, want to support the blog, and have the funds for it, please consider supporting here. Telling people about the blog, and sharing links/retweeting is much appreciated also – thanks!

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