Saturday, December 3, 2016

RPG Review: Baker Street

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/142228/Baker-Street-Roleplaying-in-the-world-of-Sherlock-Holmes?affiliate_id=815972

Baker Street Cover
This issue we review Baker Street, published by Fearlight Games (site). Baker Street is a role playing game (RPG) involving the most famous of Baker Streets, based upon the work of the late-great, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This review concerns the Portable Document Format (PDF), which is available at DriveThruRPG.com and RPGNow.com. The game was successfully brought to life via Kickstarter to the tune of just over $31k.

Disclosure: This review is property of Kenzer and Company, republished here with permission, and may Links to product pages include my RPGNow.com
affiliate identification. I receive token % if you purchase something on the landing page. Baker Street was provided by Fearlight Games free of cost for the purpose of this review.  
“The year is 1891, and Dr. Watson needs your help. Holmes is missing and cases are pouring into Baker Street. It is up to you to select a Victorian profession and put your brain power to work against Sherlock Holmes’s greatest foes.”  (Pg. 5)
The player characters will be thrust into the spot light of consulting detectives in the stead of the most famous consulting detective of all time. The timeline of Baker Street is the Victorian era, shortly after Holmes and Moriarty have had their (perhaps) deadly confrontation at Reichenbach Falls.

The mechanics of Baker Street involve the use of standard six sided dice (D6) and a special D6 named the Sherlock Die. This dice is numbered one thru three, on three of the sides and with a Holmes, Watson and Moriarty icon on each of the other faces of the D6. Though I don’t possess the Sherlock Die this is easy enough to simulate with a different colored dice.
Something to understand is that the characters (investigators) in Baker Street don’t have attributes. Actions and conflicts are resolved with skills. The number of skill points indicates how many standard D6s are rolled to determine whether the skill attempted was successful. Rolling the standard D6s for a skill check, fours, fives and sixes indicates a success. The amount of success needed for a specific skill check is determined by the Mastermind (Game Master/ Referee), though a difficulty chart is provided and entails the basic idea of how this works.  

Two nuances to this are that using a professional skill (listed with a specific profession) allows the investigator to roll additional dice and that any sixes rolled may be rerolled (similar to dice penetration or an explosion mechanic) for an opportunity to roll additional success and add them to the total, with no maximum of successes.
In addition to the standard D6s-the Sherlock Die is rolled. With this dice if the player rolls a number (1-3) they can change any standard dice of the same number from a failure to a success. If the Holmes icon is rolled they get to choose which of the dice they change, while rolling the Watson icon allows one extra success or to distribute the success to a fellow investigator on their next roll. Rolling Moriarty removes successes equal to the number of rolls which did not succeed. Brutal-I love it!         

This really is a wonderful dice system. I wasn’t sure at first-so I broke out the dice and did some experimenting. Also the choice to design a skill based system over any other sort be it attribute or ability based system eliminates number crunching and focuses on exactly what this game is-a detective fiction RPG.
Creating an investigator in Baker Street is broken down into four easy steps, the first of which is selecting a profession, which there are a total of thirty-five to choose from. Professions run the myriad of Victorian social casts from street urchins to the middle class and wealthy. The number and variety of professions in Baker Street is a definite plus, be it in creating a diverse party of player investigators or the Mastermind needing a few NPCs to fill into a scenario. Each professional profile has a list of skills and specialties that make it unique as well as a social class and status rating, which are elements to add to the flavor of role playing.

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Second, after a profession has been selected players get to distribute thirty Investigator Points be it towards the improvement of professional skills-new skills, specialties and/or item characteristics for their investigator. The Skill list and Specialties do a very adequate job at giving a glimpse of the setting and the manner of gameplay. Item Characteristics is an interesting section and gives the player an opportunity to create special items which may work exceptionally or not so exceptionally as well as these items may impact resolutions.
Players will later be able to improve their investigator abilities by distributing experience points that have been awarded at conclusion of their cases. This serves as the games experience point system a good deal is outlined in how the Mastermind should decide to distribute points among the players, as well as what cost involves for character improvement.

Third, players are tasked determining the characteristics of their investigator. Every player investigator is tasked with coming up with two characteristics for Personal, Professional, and Negative. There is an ample list provided to get players started in the right direction for each category, as well as with Mastermind approval they can create their own. Characteristics provide both the opportunity for role playing (and the accumulation of experience points) as well as a potential boom or bust toward skill rolls.
The last step is completing the investigators profile and giving the basic details of character such as name age and a few other details.

Beyond creating investigators, there is a great amount of detail to towards the Victorian setting. Laws as well as sections regarding custom and status-even a good sized list of criminals to add to the mix; these sections really help fill in some of the details and bring the setting to life. How action and initiative functions brings a fresh approach to game mechanics. It is a turn based system with the first character acting being able to select the next.
Investigation in Baker Street feels like a game unto itself. Like a mini-game-within a role playing game, and adds an entirely different dynamic. To be fair-the investigation element of Baker Street is hard to simulate how it works without actually playing it. I haven’t yet had the opportunity, but I will. Just reading how it works, the investigation pays homage to the investigation elements present Sherlock fiction.

"Investigation Scenes play out in a series of rounds. During these, Observation, Reason, and Deduction Rounds, investigators make Skill Rolls to uncover clues, weed out false clues, and uncover possible leads to aid in their investigation. Players can choose to take additional scenes after the first - each extra scene taken increases the Threat Meter of the Adventure." (Pg. 64)
Observation, Reason and Deduction are skills. One player for each of the three phases of investigating a scene will become the player groups lead investigator-corresponding to the higher skill total and/or player decision. The lead investigator also borrows some skill ability of the overall group to conduct the phase.

An important element of the investigation (though most obvious) is the actual scene of the investigation, the Masterminds narrative. There is also the matter of who is giving the case to our investigators and what they say etc. Investigators can (usually) ask four questions per scene to help them narrow down clues.  

Clue cards are provided with the Observation phase of the investigation. A chart is provided which mitigates a roll difficulty for a scene corresponding to the number of clues-which may be discovered and the appropriate number of successes to maintain balance. Clue cards each provide three potential leads which will be further scrutinized in the Reason and Deduction phases. Some of these clues are false leads and will need to be scrutinized using reason and deduction.
Investigations will have a number of scenes, typically four per investigation (case). An investigation scene works as described above but the investigators may take on another scene (in the same place) to gather more clues/leads. However doing this raises the Threat Meter.

The Threat Meter in Baker Street is meant to provide tension to the story. Basically, the higher the threat meter gets-the more difficult the investigators will have in solving the case. As the threat meter rises, investigative rolls become more difficult in an addition to other possible difficulties-determined by the Mastermind. There may be points in the investigation where the investigators may have to decide to forgo the gathering of clues, in order to avoid raising the Threat Meter-this can happen if the rolls for gathering clues are really awful etc.
Baker Street comes with an investigation. The Case of the Jilted Bride is based on Mr. Doyle’s Fiction. This is very essential to the game itself-showing a future Mastermind the ins and outs of the game itself. Reading through it, it really helps to put some of the pieces of this game together in a meaningful way.

I don’t do scores for my reviews. If I did, Baker Street would get a pretty high total. I like this game. I’m also a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle-so I can’t help but wonder if that makes me a bit biased.
That said, Baker Street has a bit of everything. The dice mechanics and system is unique. The setting material is well presented, which a Mastermind can build more than a few cases around. I wouldn’t like printing out this PDF (full color and costly)-though the pages of parchment look rather excellent on my screen. There is respectable amount of illustrations used from the Doyle estate and quotes of Sherlock and other characters from these same works.

Overall, the game really does what it sets out to do and does it very well. Baker Street is an excellent game with a unique style and resolution to ins and outs of detective fiction in an RPG. The game as we say, is most assuredly afoot!

Saturday, November 5, 2016

RPG REVIEW: Labyrinth Lord

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/64332/Labyrinth-Lord-Revised-Edition?affiliate_id=815972
LL
Welcome to a (revised) and brief review of Labyrinth Lord (LL), Goblinoid Games retro-clone of D&D created by Daniel Proctor. Also, I’ll be including the occasional side note about the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion (LLAEC). Long story short, (too late) I recently picked up the D&D Rules Cyclopedia print on demand (POD) reprint on DriveThruRPG and wanted to delve. Admittedly, after reading through the D&D Cyclopedia, it was interesting to realize how much I’d incorrectly recalled about D&D in general (insert shame here). In retrospect it was a bad idea to write a review of LL without an original reference, though I had many fond memories of the game, obviously this wasn’t as suitable as I'd hoped for the purpose of writing an accurate review.

Disclosure: This review includes affiliate links. I receive a token % if you purchase something from the landing page.

What you get with Labyrinth Lord is a relatively easy to learn RPG system. It doesn’t delve too far away from the original source material, though there are a few differences. Beyond the basic sections which introduce “how to play”, dice, and terms, begins character creation.

Pretty much in line with D&D Basic, character creation with LL has players roll character attributes, I mean abilities; first. One aside, is that LL provides a couple of options besides rolling straight 3d6 ( tally each score in order) and ability swapping. Character Abilities are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma; and depending on each total, ability scores will affect players characters capabilities to perform tasks, gain experience and navigate the dangers, of the game world.

Next players will select a character class. LL offers four human classes; the Cleric Fighter, Magic-User, & Thief and three demi-human classes which are the Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling. Unlike D&D clerics start off with a first level spell (which I approve), and unlike the D&D Rules Cyclopedia human levels cap out at 20th (not 36th level). And no Druid or Mystic class is available… Until…


http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/78523/Advanced-Edition-Companion-Labyrinth-Lord?affiliate_id=815972
LL AEC
The Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion (LLAEC) offers up a couple more classes such as the Assassin, Druid, Illusionist, Monk, (which replaced the Mystic) and Paladin, separates race from class. It’s the beginnings of AD&D 1E, but all of the rules and additions which lean toward 1E are presented as optional. One option is to shift character alignments from the primary three offered in D&D; Law, Neutrality and Chaos; to including Good Neutral and Evil which is offered in AD&D for a mix of nine potential alignments. Such as Lawful Evil, Neutral Good. etc., etc.  The LL Advanced Edition Companion also adds a good dose of spells, magic items, and monsters to the Labyrinth Lord rule set.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled RPG review of Labyrinth Lord...

Finishing up with character creation, players will select their character alignment; tally up some starting gold, buy some equipment, select spells (if any) and calculate their character's general combat abilities (Hit Points, Saving Throws, Armor Class etc.). You know the usual fair and onto adventure!

As far as running this...

Monster sections eat up a good deal of both books so you'll have plenty of challenges to present your player characters. Most if not all are familiar. The ones that are missing have obviously been taken by the trademark police.

You'll very easily be able to plug any published D&D adventure and use the Labyrinth Lord rule set; such as it was designed for. And Goblinoid Games (site) has done all of us a service, featuring a complimentary artless version of Labyrinth Lord, as well as the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion, as an absolutely free PDF download on their website and on DriveThruRPG (links underlined within this paragrph)
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Sections for concerning the Labyrinth Lord (or Game Master or Dungeon Master) are well organized, and present the basic concepts and rules for running a gaming session very well. Arguably even more concisely than the D&D Cyclopedia. Both LL & LLAEC have tons of useful reference tables. The books lack a setting, and no adventure hooks or plots are included, but the ideas presented should be enough to get a game of LL going with little brain grease.
If you are intent on setting, Pete Spahn of Small Niche Games has written a setting supplement specifically for LL. Guidebook to the Ducky of Valnwall (special edition) which is available on DriveThruRPG in PDF and POD. Link in the description above. The setting supplement currently sits as a silver seller, with a five star rating.
Labyrinth Lord and the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion weigh in at 140 and 160 pages. Each book’s cover art and interior illustrations are pure old school excellence. Titles and section headers are presented in a bold black Calligraphic font with regular text in a simple, easy to read double column format. Tables are plentiful, listed in the table of contents and easy to discern the relevant information from.


One omission I noticed in LL, is that the Spell List Table is (I presume) missing from the Table of Contents (PG 42). There are many tables shown on the Table of Contents so I’m not entirely sure whether what’s missing is an actual mistake or if the Spell List Table is just not considered a table? Well, I think it should be.
I also noticed one game mechanic that I didn’t entirely agree with or I should say, upon deep consideration, found to be out of order. I know this mechanic is out of order in the source material as well... But, I've got a bone to pick. The mechanic involves the thief class’s ability to find and remove traps. I don’t claim (ahem!) savant-ism regarding labyrinth traps but dungeon traps, I think I’ve come up with some pretty deadly (at least I hope they were) trappings for Kenzer and Companies, Knights of the Dinner Table. 


Okay, stop me if you heard this one (dramatic pause) but a fighter, a dwarf and a thief walk into a labyrinth. Sounds pretty ominous, I know. At the very first passage there’s a trap. All characters involved are first level and if the Labyrinth Lord consults the rulebook he finds that…   
The fighter has a little better than a 16% chance (rolling a 1 on a D6) of finding the trap.


The dwarf has a little better 33% chance (roll of 1 or 2 on a D6). Not too shabby.
However, the thief? The one character class who has Find and Remove traps listed as one of his special abilities. The thief, has the exactly a 14% chance (D100 roll) to find the trap. Wait-Huh!?!
I’ll try and keep my rant brief but having every other character type with a better percentage chance to succeed at an ability the thief is supposed to be skilled at is; putting it politely-completely off.

That's it for the review, but I have to mention Goblinoid Games has recently (somewhat) put hardcovers and combined Labyrinth Lord and the Advanced edition Companion into one delicious looking volume. If I'd seen it before I'd seen the Rules Cyclopedia, I'd likely have pulled the trigger on one of these babies instead... Oh man... Suffice it to say I'm here to tempt you.


Labyrinth Lord (covers)



Saturday, October 1, 2016

RPG Review: DarkFast Dungeons

  
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/142052/Darkfast-Dungeons-Basic-Game?affiliate_id=815972
DarkFast Dungeons Basic Rules Edition (cover)
Welcome to this RPG review of DarkFast Dungeons (DFD)Basic Rules Edition, published by OKUM Art Games. Henceforth, I'm (mostly) abbreviating the title, simply to DFDWhile DFD Basic Rules Edition is a complete game in of itself, the publisher was kind enough to provide four cutout paper miniature supplements. DFD Basic Rules Edition along with a good deal of game and tabletop prop set supplements, are currently available at DriveThruRPG.com; formatted for PC, and Macintosh. DFD is a print and play product, and the rules incorporate miniature style play. In other words, some work is required on the part of the purchaser to get the dungeon and player icons, various tokens, character, as well as game cards; printed, cut, and set, to adequate virtue.

For the purpose of this review and consideration of my delicate fingers we will assume the labor involving any scissors and/or an Exacto knife has been completed without any loss of hit points. Judge not, lest ye have exacted thyself before. Though I was tempted by the excellent looking character card icons, I will be testing mechanics of DFD dice and pencil style. The game incorporates play for one to six players (yes, even solo) with the particulars of game mechanics relying on the use of a few handy-dandy six sided dice (d6s).

Disclosures: This review is property of Kenzer and Company, republished here with permission, and may have been slightly modified by the author (me). Links to product pages include my DriveThruRPG.com affiliate identification. I receive token %, if you purchase something from the landing page. DarkFast Dungeons Basic Rules Edition and four prop set supplements were provided free of cost, for the purpose of this review.
Before the start of the game each player selects a character card of their choosing and the corresponding character standee icon, to represent them on the yet to be determined-game board. The characters available in DFD are the Cleric, Dwarf, Elf, Fighter, Mage and Thief.

Looking over the stat numbers as a new player would, the characters in DFD seem at first to have very subtle differences in ability. In part, this is the reliance of d6s for mechanics, but these small differences are deceiving as each character has a certain set of Abilities and Powers which should carry over significantly in game play.


Once characters have been designated, players can either select or randomly draw (most likely depending on player group preference) the number of additional Talent Cards indicated, and are as well as are required to draw a specific number of Dark Secret cards. In addition to this, clerics by luck of the draw select two Miracle Powers while mages begin the game with three Magic Spells. Each player receives one Hero Point Marker which despite its gracious title is a dice roll mulligan (or forcing an opponent’s reroll). Additional, Hero Point Markers can be collected by achieving a critical success, which is rolling a 6 on a d6.

Talent Cards give special abilities to characters, such as specific dice roll advantages to attack or defend, as well as special healing gifts, extraordinary movement capabilities, and knowledge. Characters already have a certain amount of talents to begin the game with and only the Dwarf character does not select an additional Talent Card-though fret not; the dwarf is balanced with more innate advantages.

A Mission is then designated of which, DFD gives the details of five, but another option provided is to run two missions at the same time. For the most part missions determine the number of (dungeon) tiles used and the length of the game, as well as the player group’s overall goal. Missions have relatively familiar themes to those accustomed to Dungeon style games being pretty self-explanatory; they are The Crawl, Stop the Dread Event, Treasure Quest, Clear the Hex & Rescue. The game is ready to begin when the first (floor) tile has been randomly selected.
Before we go further, a couple things to mention which set this apart from a typical RPG. First is that DFD is a cooperative game. The game is played without one player being tasked with assuming the role of a typical Dungeon or Game Master. Second is that the game can be won by an individual player, regardless of mission success or failure by accumulating Victory Points. Points are accrued in a variety of ways, defeating monsters collecting treasure-and so on etc. and tallied at the end of the game. While the Mission determines the player characters group goal, Dark Secret Cards (which each player draws before the game starts) determine individual goals. As you may have guessed Dark Secrets are not shared with your fellow party members. For the most part Dark Secrets give the characters… Well, umm… Some character motivation, What’s my motivation? Consult your dark secrets…  The cards provide some intrigue but also a bit of character depth.


Though DFD is much more of a tactical tabletop game than a regular RPG (apart from D&D 4e), Dark Secret cards provide a second layer of play as some cards include conditional behaviors which are sometimes counterproductive to the group’s mission, if played properly. Some cards provide bonuses or penalties based on “past” transgressions, while others like the Nemesis Card give a character the task of assassinating a fellow party member. The cards come into play in relation to Victory Points and if not played appropriately the player characters individual points are halved at the conclusion of the game.

The game begins with a dungeon floor tile chosen randomly and placed on the table, which is designated the starting tile. This tile also provides as the way out from the spawning point which is required by some missions. Each tile varies in size but the tiles are squared by the inch to gauge character movement.

From beyond the spawning point the next tile is placed when a player steps directly onto the square that is in front of an entry way. A new tile is placed but the room won’t be activated until a player moves (from one room to another) onto the new tile. What occupies the new tile is determined at random (roll) with six possibilities: nothing, gear, treasure, trap, opponent or event. Nothing is indeed not-a-thing; gear and treasure, provides a chance for players to accumulate something useful. Traps and many of the Event cards are brutal (but not all) and rolling an opponent spawns forth a random opponent, perhaps even a boss opponent-which is typically left to the final tile of the mission.

Character movement is broken into Game Turns under the condition that players act first, followed by the allies (those bewitched or being saved), then opponents, with finally traps and events occurring last. The game has no initiative change between encounters, from the first tile players roll a d6, add their ability score to the total and play commences from the winner in a clockwise motion around the table, throughout the game.

Movement and how it functions is something interesting in DFD. A d6 is used to determine how many Action Points (AP) a player has on his Game Turn. The Action Points for movement allow a player to move an equal amount of squares, of the total number rolled. A tile may have 8 to 16 squares (spaces) for movement.


Action Points in regards to combat is balanced by having a higher AP roll awarded with an additional attack or +1 chance at a successful attack, while if the player has only one AP to use (rolled a one) the attack is -1 to strike. Overall combat in DFD is tactically heavy, with character talents (as well as what players selected) being vitally important. The DFD rule book has a good deal of succinct rules, which exemplify how combat encounters will function.


Ability Checks are used to roll against undesirable effects, such as unfriendly magic, Traps and Event Cards and are rated on a difficulty scale, but also play into many other things including some Dark Secret, Talent, and Ability Cards.


Review featured in KoDT #223
I have to admit when I first contacted the publisher about reviewing DarkFast Dungeons, I had it wrong. DFD is a game that is not quite as simple as it at first seems. Though admittedly it took my mind sometime to grasp, there is a bit of a learning curve present with DFD and overall is a good thing.

Character and Talent choices are very important in this game. One aspect of this has to do with Health Points. Characters in DFD don’t naturally recover Health Points. The cleric has two chances (at: 16% and 18%) to draw or select if 12 is rolled, the Miracle Power Heal; while if selected, the Medic Talent can only heal a specific wound once within the game. There is a small chance that an additional talent or miracle power(s) may be acquired, but it is a slim chance.


The enemies that are not bosses are rated a little less comparable than the Characters and encountered one at a time, but with how healing works, the brutality of traps and events and how one collects Hero Point Markers (mulligans), the game is less reliant on encounters being the focus of the game, at least until the boss level is encountered. Survival is the focus of DFD-and with how the mechanics work it rings true that it is indeed, a 1-6 player game and truer than many other games that make such claims.


Overall, I like DarkFast Dungeons Basic Rules Edition very much. As a product, save a couple of very minor layout errors in the rule book, this is a quality product-conscience and easy to understand. The game features tons of replay ability. The additional prop set supplements which provide easy to read and understand comic book style instructions, are well worth the few extra bucks. The art (character standees, dungeon features, and tokens) with every aspect of this product is exceedingly pleasing to the eye-and something not common with many independent products-consistent. If you’re in the market for a tabletop RPG that should also appeal to old, as well as young; and don’t mind a bit of extra effort to put it together, DarkFast Dungeons Basic Rules Edition is certainly a worthy buy.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

RPG Review: TROPES Zombie Edition

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/144518/TROPES-Zombie-Edition-PRINT?affiliate_id=815972
TROPES: Zombie Edition Cover
The Tropes: Zombie Edition (TZE) role playing game (RPG) features a unique, rules light system, designed to support-zombie slaying, one shot scenarios. Written and produced by Pete Spahn of Small Niche Games (SNG), the tabletop RPG was successfully funded and brought to life via Kickstarter, for just under $1k internet bucks. 

This review concerns the Tropes: Zombie Edition main book, Tropes: Zombie Edition Companion and the adventure module: Flight of the Zombie. We begin by letting the game speak for itself: 
“Ever wanted to play a game that explores the deep personal horror of the zombie apocalypse? Where the choices you make in times of crisis define who you are? Where zombies are only a backdrop and humans are responsible for the true evils in the world?
Well, go find another game! This game is about killing zombies, so you can forget all that touchy feely crap!”
As you might put together from the above quote, TZE has a bit of a comic flare with the content writing, as well as it's light hearted/fun approach is geared toward bringing in new and unfamiliar faces to the tabletop RPG experience. While the writing doesn't take itself too seriously, the idea of running this RPG for a one shot session, (such as the day that some of your players don't show) or as a means of introducing RPGs to new players, is decently conceived.

Disclosures: This RPG review includes affiliate links with DriveThruRPG. I receive a token % if you purchase something from the landing page. This review is property of Kenzer and Company, republished here with permission. In all likelihood, it has been modified by the original author (me), for the purposes of this blog. Pete Spahn of Small Niche Games ( Facebook site) was kind enough to provide the download links for the artless version of the TZE main book, the fully illustrated version of the TZE Companion!, and the adventure module Flight of the Zombie free of cost; for the purpose of this review. 

Along with that idea, getting started there’s a good chance that even non gamers will have all the materials needed: writing utensils-check, a bowl (a bowl?-interesting)-check, and some six sided dice (d6s). At least 3d6s are recommended for each player and should it so happen that you are a desperate non-role player, I guess those anguished-stained, dirty, and neglected Yahtzee dice are finally going to be put to good use. Or you could just use my Yahtzee dice; they've never left the box.


Before the game starts, the Zombie Master (ZM; AKA: Dungeon Master, Game Master or Ref) will most likely have printed out a few player character sheets, which are available and can be printed from the TZE main book as needed. Also, a map for the location of the scenario, is encouraged and will perform as the gameable area for the scenario. The map of Flight of the Zombie, is a jumbo plane, but a ZM creating their own scenario might take home a local zoo or stadium map. Alternatively, as suggested in TZE main book, the ZM should easily be able to find a something with a relevant Google image search on their computer.

The game begins with the ZM describing the location that the player characters are residing at the time of the zombie outbreak, as well as the real world time frame the scenario involves. A session is approximated to last one to four hours. Start to finish, Flight of the Zombie, is suggest to take an hour of real time to get through. 

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/144519/TZE003-TROPES-Zombie-Edition-Companion?affiliate_id=815972
Tropes Zombie Edition Companion
Play-Test Note: Including character creation, my groups play ran a little over two hours, which was untypical quick for our knuckle-headed, one-liner at the ready, player group.

With character creation, players are tasked with creating three characters on the sheets provided by the ZM, with a lot of personal freedom as to who these characters can be. When finished, each character sheet is folded and placed into a bowl at the center of the table. Players then draw one character out and game play begins with the ZM narrating a brief introduction as to what the characters are doing at the moment the outbreak begins. Character generation is quick. Each character has only three abilities: Muscle, Agility, and Wits. Points for abilities are distributed and an interesting feature of the game is that not all characters have the same amount points to distribute among these abilities. Each player creates one character with seven points, one with six and one with five. The players pick a background, for which there is a table provided to give options and ideas for those wanting to create something unique. The chosen background might impact skills and task resolution, throughout game play, which may award a bonus chance of success (roll an additional d6) given the situation. Skills are not chosen but the ZM and player will negotiate this on the fly concerning a specific task the character desires to achieve. This helps keep character creation simple. Last, players write a three sentence description of their character(s), and write down gear they may have; also negotiable w/ the ZM.

Game-play concerning Tasks and Combat (sections) also utilize simple d6 mechanics. Success or failure is determined by the difficulty of the task, with a modifier table provided for the ZM (but players can negotiate) to determine which ability score task falls under be it: Muscle, Agility, or Wits. The modifier table, matching ability to task, is well outlined in the writing. There are also a number of optional “crunchier” rules and short examples provided throughout the TZE main book, which provide a useful guideline for play. TZE also incorporates an Action Point mechanic, which awards characters when they achieve a critical success (rolling a result of six on a d6). Action Points can be used at the player’s discretion to increase a single die roll or avoid damage from an attacking zombie, during or beyond the encounter in which they were earned. 

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/147557/TZE002-TZE-Flight-of-the-Zombie?affiliate_id=815972
Flight of The Zombie
Well within my first read through of Tropes Zombie Edition, a trend which continued through my second read, and including our one shot play test; I found this to be a role playing game (RPG), which is exactly as advertised. That's a good thing. Perfectly suitable to hit anyone's table, but especially if you prefer rules lite systems. The PDF's are laid out in double column style. Sections are well defined with a black bolded headings and white letters. Content is well written, and organized. The author’s tone is casual with humor sprinkled throughout.

So what didn’t I like? Well… Very subjectively, I didn’t like how the art is matched with the some of the content. It's certainly serviceable and this is a nit pick I often have with indie products (and I understand; art is expensive). It just wasn't my cup of coffee. One exception, the map of the plane for the Flight of the Zombie adventure module, is very well done. Also mechanically, movement rules and the combat section could of received a bit of a deeper delve; but this was likely a choice by the author to keep things in line with the rules light theme of the product.

In conclusion, for game that generated a little less than $1k internet bucks on Kickstarter, I felt that a lot of people had missed the zombie plane on this one. The RPG content within is more than adequate for the Zombie Master, to develop their own one shot scenarios. If you're in the market, I do recommend spending the extra bucks for the published scenario, Flight of the Zombie. My gaming group and I had a lot of fun with it.
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