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by Lost to the Ages

The Nearside Project

May 11, 2000 in Reviews

Inter-dimensional travel has long been a staple of role-playing games. There are some systems like Planescape and Rifts which focus almost exclusively on the concept, and some, like the World of Darkness or Shadowrun, where the ability to jump in and out of a metaphysical realm is a fairly common ability. From a gamers perspective, this makes a lot of sense. Why limit your adventures to one world when you can jaunt back and forth between universes? Now, we have yet another game, The Nearside Project, about the possibility to travel between alternate realities. Although this isnt the freshest or most creative concept for a game that Ive seen, the designers have done a pretty good job with it.

The protagonists of this game, Nearsiders, are people with an innate talent for moving into other worlds, and 3 major methods for doing so. There is the Broken Road (my particular favorite), a method by which madmen project their minds into other realities, Dream-Walking, a special dimension-spanning state that one can go into during REM sleep, and the use of special portals called Broken Rooms. Although experiencing a violent death is also capable of sending one into another universe, this method is unreliable at best. Any Nearsider who tries to travel to new worlds by playing Russian Roulette is probably in for a very, very short career. All characters also have a CoC-esque Distance rating, which measures how much damage interdimensional travel has done to their sanity. Those who make a point of thumbing their noses at the space-time continuum can wind up in the loony bin real quick.

The system of the Nearside Project is fairly simple. Each character has a series of Stats such as Strength, IQ, Charisma, Education, etc. To do something, you add your appropriate skill rating to your Stat, add in any modifiers, and try to roll below that number on a D10. Although some of the dimension-specific rules were a little more complicated than this, any RPG veteran should be able to pick up on these rules very quickly, and novices wont find themselves out of their depth.

The core rules offer descriptions of 13 worlds, also known as variants, for your gaming pleasure. Earth1 is our own planet, only marginally affected by the presence of reality-spanning Nearsiders. Earth2 is your basic alien invasion world, Earth3 is a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and so on. Some of the variations are rather uninspired. Weve all seen games where aliens are invading or where prominent public figures are being replaced by demons. However, some of them, such as the world where the weakened fabric of reality is maintained only by a series of cosmic-powered clocks or the world where a faulty biological weapon has erased humanitys conscience, were innovative and excellent. In any case, the fact that travel between the 13 worlds is possible certainly adds a whole new dimension (pardon the pun) to the game. For example, if you think that the ruthless corporate hegemony of Earth11 is boring by itself, try bringing in some superheroes from Earth12 or sorcerers from Earth5. This potential for mingling the various worlds is probably the games greatest asset.

One other interesting aspect of the Nearside Project is the time travel aspect. Two of the variances, Earth4 and Earth13, are just like the baseline world, except that they take place a year in the past and a year in the future, respectively. This is a really neat method of handling time travel, because you dont have those pesky old paradoxes like what happens if a time traveler goes back in time and kills himself? If you arent really travelling back in time but just visiting a place that is exactly like the past, that sort of thing shouldnt be a problem, right? Wrong. For some reason, the official game rules severely limit interactions with these two worlds, limiting visits to 13 minutes and preventing players from interfering with history. Personally, Id toss these rules out, or at least significantly alter them. Having a window into the past and the future presents so many gaming possibilities. Why not take advantage of them?

The Nearside Project is available for download in PDF format at http://members.tripod.co.uk/Nearside_Games/index.html. This is something of a mixed blessing. Its nice to be able to give the game a thorough examination before deciding whether or not to purchase it, but having the rules on your screen is not quite as convenient or satisfying as a professionally bound and printed book. Call me a technophobe if you will, but I dont think that computer files will ever manage to replace words printed on good ol sheets of pulped wood, bound together by glue and string. Furthermore, Nearside Games is relying on the honor system to make money from the game, asking people to send them $20 if they intend to play it. Its great to see that the company has so much faith in its fans (Metallica could learn much from these folks), but at the same time Id really hate to see them undergo financial trouble because of unscrupulous free riders. A better solution might be to put the rules onto the internet in a way that would not allow them to be downloaded, E-Mail a free password to anyone who asks for it, and then change the password every 30 days or so.

Overall, the Nearside Project is a pretty interesting game, one which fans of post-modern, reality-warping entertainment such as Mage, The Invisibles, or even The Matrix may get a big kick out of. In any case, since getting a copy of the rules is so simple, its very easy to test it out for yourself

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by EDG

Big Eyes, Small Mouth

March 23, 2000 in Reviews

Big Eyes, Small Mouth (hence BESM, since that’s a lot to type) accomplishes what a lot of games want to – it’s a genre game that’s just the right amount of general (as opposed to too general or not general enough).

I’ll clarify that. Bubblegum Crisis from R. Talsorian Games, while an excellent game and a good introductory piece for the Fuzion” line, was an anime role-playing game that expected you to play the Knight Sabers (creation rules for other character groups were in the back of the book). Teenagers From Outer Space, while obviously anime-influenced, managed to sprawl over at least three genres (adolescent gaming, like Cybergeneration; American cartoon gaming, like Toon; and anime gaming). BESM has one goal in mind: to be the ultimate anime role-playing game. It pulls it off, too; it’s genre-specific while being as broad as possible, its rules are broad enough to be encompassing but tight enough to be playable, its attitude is more playful than most gamers, and it sells for $14.95.

I’ll say that again. $14.95. In an age where gaming supplements run $20-30, Guardians of Order has managed to bring us a polished game for just under fifteen dollars. (Oddly, the supplements cash in at a dollar more than the game itself.)

The book is laid out well. It has a logical flow to it, moving from an introduction to the book and a basic introduction to anime to character creation, which takes up much of the rest of the book. (It’s a small book, which makes it all the more impressive.) Creation involves the Tri-Stat system, where characters have Body, Mind, and Soul, and then use Skills and Advantages to beef up those stats. At the end is a lexicon – the authors are anime fans, as befits writers of an anime RPG, and thus use a lot of Japanese and jargon words – and a bibliography, which also recommends some anime to watch, to get into the mood.

The system is also simple; roll 2d6. If you roll lower than your Stat (plus modifiers), you succeed; roll higher, and you fail. A 2 always succeeds, and a 12 always fails. Combat tends to be just as simple; roll initiative (only 1d6), then attack or defend (2d6 vs. the character’s Attack or Defensive Combat Value). Damage is meted out, and a new round begins.

End result? BESM is a lot of fun. For an otaku (fanboy) like me, it’s great to have a chance to play a character in universes I’ve watched and read so many times. It’s a good system, too, and fun to read. Truth be told, the game I was supposed to review was the first (mecha-building) supplement, Big Robots, Cool Starships; it was on the strength of that supplement that I decided to lay out the cash to buy the main book. I haven’t for one moment regretted it.

The game also has two supplements, Big Robots, Cool Starships – mentioned above – and Hot Rods and Gun Bunnies, which I’ll be reviewing later in the month. Keep an eye out.

Free Trader EDG signing off.

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by EDG

The Three Stooges Card Game

January 26, 2000 in Reviews

Nyuck, Nyuck, Nyuck! Spread Out! BONK! POW! Hommina, hommina, hommina…

Heh heh. Women just never get the “stooge thing.” I’m not one to make
universal semi-sexist comments, but I’ve yet to meet a member of the
Double-X chromosone set that had a high tolerance for the antics of Mssrs.
Moe, Larry, Curly and Shemp (Curly Joe DeRita and Joe Besser were lame, so I
ignore them). Must be the nurturing urge. If you encounter a MALE, however,
between the ages of 16 and 60, and profer two extended fingers in the
general area of the eyes, I daresay you will encounter the ritual response
of a hand extended parrallel to the nasal ridge along with the reponsorial
“Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck!” It was with great affection, therefore, that I
discovered THE THREE STOOGES CARD GAME in my review box.

For starters, this is no High Concept. The players act out the parts of
“stooges” themselves, attempting to commit all those exquisitely painful
activities that are such a highlight of the Stooge film body of work.
Imagine a giant Stooge Slap fight (what, ten seconds of film time?) rendered
frame by frame onto cards. The mechanics of the game are entirely
card-based; there are no external elements such as tables, dice or charts
(well, okay, you do have to keep track of points, so a piece of paper and
pencil stub might come in handy, but not essential). Play is absurdly
simple, and extremely (EXTREMELY) fast paced. Not a game for the Advanced
Third Reich crowd, but sometimes that is exactly the sort of thing I’m
looking for.

What You Get For Your 8.95 Plus Tax

The deck of cards consists of 55 playable cards and 5 double sided
instruction cards (this is an interesting twist–) instead of including a
small, densely printed and stapled rulebook, the folks at Archangel
Entertainment opted to include all the rules on five *seperate* cards. I
predict this could be a real huge pain in the butt. The instruction cards
will, inevitably, go astray. Fortunately the rules are easy enough to
memorize. Only a knucklehead would have a hard time with this one… nyuck
nyuck!

The cards are illustrated with black and white movie stills of the actions
they are attempting to illustrate– for instance, the DUCK defensive card
depicts Moe ducking while Larry delivers a furious slap in the face to Curly
(the blow being meant for Moe but he ducked, git it?). The black and white
graphics are ENTIRELY appropriate, much more fitting than illustrations or
even color (which would be sacrilege).

In any event, the cards are very well done, both from an artistic and
quality perspective. They are pretty stiff and have a thin plastic
lamination coat, similar in size and execution to modern playing cards. They
should stand up to a few years of abuse. My only gripe was that there is no
graphic distinction between Attack and Defense cards at first glance (you
have to read down in the text to figure it out). This is no big deal but it
does require you to take the time to look. 1 deck of cards should be all you
need to play comfortably with 2-3 players. The rules state that an extra
deck would be handy for 4-8 players, and I believe it. During playtests, we
went through the deck (and thence the game) rather quickly.

How The Game Plays

As mentioned above, each player plays the part of a “Stooge.” The players
get inolved in a mock combat, with cards representing the slaps, punches,
pokes-in-the-eye, et. al, that were prevelant in the series. The game
sequence is played out like so:

(pregame stuff) Write out a score sheet. Put everybody’s name on it and
record points lost there. Choose a dealer. Deal out five cards each.
Remaining cards are facedown in a draw pile.

(game stuff) Dealer goes first.

Play attack cards on opponents

Play until 1 of these 2 conditions are met: A defense card is played (and
reactions to it resolved)

or

The attacker runs out of attack cards.

Everyone replenishes cards from the draw table.

The next player takes a turn.

When all cards are drawn from the draw deck, the game goes into the *Larry,
Moe, Cheese phase*. The player with the *lowest* point total gets to execute
ALL his attack cards on anyone else in the game with them only being able to
respond with defense or matching attack cards (a word on that later).

At the end of the Cheese phase, the player with the lowest amount of damage
is the winner!

I know this sounds incredibly simplistic, because it probably is. However,
there is enough chrome in the game to contribute to an intensely variable,
unique experience. For instance, there is the concept of Matching attacks.
If an opponent plays an attack card (on anybody) that has one or more of the
same word in it as one of YOUR cards, you can play that card on anybody. For
instance, Moe plays the SLAP card on Curly. Curly has a BIG SLAP! card in
his hand, whih he retaliates with back to Moe (the SLAP! in Big Slap!
matches the SLAP in the SLAP card that Moe played). Most of the game is in
the cards themselves, however, with interesting counters and defenses such
as DUCK, SLAP, OLD SWITCH-A-ROO, and BONK ON THE HEAD being de rigeur for a
game.

In preparation for this review, I played once against my wife and once
against two friends. By FAR the better experience of the two was playing
against my friends. Not because of any misogynistic preconceptions about men
being “better” at games than women, but because this game is truly designed
for more than two players. Many cards have a sequential effect (such as big
slap, which applies to multiple players), which is totally lost in a two
player game. In both games I got waxed, but had a great time. The rules
actually state that the game plays much better when the players adopt phony
accents of their favorite stooges, and I’m here to confirm this! (a few
beers might help with your vocabulary) Like any new thing, the game started
slow, but was going a point-blimfark by the end of the night. I got in two
games vs. my wife and two versus my friends. The pace had accelerated to
something like this:

FWAP! (sound of card being slapped down) “POKE IN THE EYE!” FWAP! “Not so
fast! I’m playing NYUCK, NYUCK, NYUCK!, the only counter to POKE IN THE
EYE!” FWAP! “Oh yeah? Well how does a POP GOES THE WEASEL suit ya?” FWAP!
“Why I oughta… Here’s a HAIR PULL!” (exasperated Curly sounds) “why, I
oughta….!”

(distinct sound of bottlecaps being levered off of carbonated beverages)
glug glug glug glug

You get the picture…

The Verdict

On a sliding scale of 1 through 5, I’d give THE THREE STOOGES CARD GAME a
solid 5. The game isn’t going to win any design awards, but it IS a blast! I
recommend it highly for those idle moments between something more serious,
such as “downtime” at a Con, or maybe you’re just having some buddies over
for a few hours and want to get a few cheap yucks. The folks at ArchAngel
Entertainment are onto a good thing– publishing high quality, durable and
replayable (and best of all NON-COLLECTIBLE) card games with an humorous
theme. Their previous multiplayer card effort, GROO:THE GAME, is about on
level with the THREE STOOGES CARD GAME, perhaps a notch or two higher in
terms of complexity. I’m a big fan of any company that will publish a card
game that does not require you to mortgage your paycheck on all sorts of
“collectible” expansions. When was the last time you purchased a *complete
game* for less than most starter decks for collectible card games? You could
do a lot worse for a measly 8.95… give THE STOOGES a try.

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by Lost to the Ages

Narcissist 0.5

January 15, 2000 in Reviews

free is not a price tag
A pre-release version of NaRCISSIST: Crash Free, a unique roleplaying game, sequel to the CoNTINUUM time travel RPG, is now available.


NaRCISSIST v. 0.5 features the basic Dreamcatcher RPG System, with special new modifications, as well as many of the arguments for how and why alternate timelines and universes exist, and how they operate. Fighting for freedom across time is outlined, and the reasons why friendship and trust are the most precious things in the multiverse are explored… in all their dimensions.


The Gaming Outpost has received permission to publish a sneak peak of NaRCISSIST v. 0.5 for you all to read. The teaser, a glossary of terms and concepts used in the final product, is available for download in PDF format. Those wishing to view the file must have the Adobe Reader software – which is available for free at http://www.adobe.com/.


DOWNLOAD NOW: narcgloss05.pdf [27.6KB]

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by EDG

Cybergeneration: Revolution 2

January 10, 2000 in Reviews

“My parents became Cyberpunks and all they left me was this dark future.”

Cybergeneration, R. Talsorian Games’ followup to their highly successful Cyberpunk 2020 line, puts a somewhat unique spin on the Cyberpunk world. The year is 2027, and the Edgerunners have all but vanished; the Corporations have taken America and the world, and arcologies stand where cities once sprawled. Most adults have been assimilated, and spend their days working dull, soulless jobs and their nights dreaming of the days when they had s real future. A deadly plague sweeps the land, killing most people over 20 who encounter it. The adults have only one chance left, one hope of destroying the Megacorps and returning America to a free state.

Their children.

Cybergeneration is a game not for children, but about children. It concentrates heavily on the works and days of the children of the Edgerunners, forming street gangs and rebelling relentlessly against the evils of the Megacorps. The design of the book reflects this, from the almost attention-deficit organization to the scrawled typeface used throughout the book. (Fortunately, it’s used only for headers and page numbers – else, the book would be unreadable.)

Character creation in Cybergeneration is, unfortunately, mixed in with the introductory story. While this might make for an interesting way to introduce new players to the game, it’s frustrating for more experienced players to have to edit out the adventure in order to make a character – and as there are parts of the adventure which should only be read by the GM, it’s difficult to allow a player who’s in the adventure to look through the book in order to create her character. There is a character creation summary, but it almost requires a player to refer constantly to the regular creation rules due to its extreme brevity.

On the other hand, had the adventure been later in the book, and character creation been more cohesive, it would have been a lot of fun. New characters are guided through generation by an Edgerunner named Morgan Blackhand, and creation is treated as though the character were simply giving information about herself. This tends to create more of a connection with the character, more of a sense of /being/ the character.

For the most part, skills and statistics work the same way in Cybergeneration as they do in Cyberpunk, and indeed, rules are provided for converting Edgerunners to the Cybergeneration world. Add Stat to Skill, then roll 1d10 and add that to the total; if your combined total is higher than the target number, you succeed. Thus, there are always a certain set of activities that a character will almost always be able to do. The exception to this is on a total fumble – a 1 on 1d10, which is an automatic failure. On the other hand, the system is also infinitely open-ended – if you roll 10 on your d10, you roll again and add; another 10 means you roll again, and so on, allowing for spectacular successes on a cinematic scale.

The setting and background is what really makes Cybergeneration, though. Regardless of what system you use with the game, the essence remains the same – you are children, rebelling against an oppressive authority. The wonderful thing about this game is that if you’re playing it dark and gritty, with characters who are all guns and sex, you’re missing a lot of the point. Characters in Cybergeneration are no older than 17, and as such are still idealistic, hopeful youths, many of whom have never actually seen someone die and most of whom aren’t yet out of puberty. Cybergeneration allows the player to relive youth, rebelling against anything as long as it’ll look cool.

The Verdict

High Point: background and setting

Low Point: character creation is poorly organized and jumbled in with the first adventure

Looks: 4 (out of 5)

Concept: 5 (out of 5)

Originality: 4 (out of 5)

Playability: 4 (out of 5)

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by Lost to the Ages

Obsidian, the age of Judgement (or is it Judgment?)

January 2, 2000 in Reviews

Enter a world where humanity struggles against the forces of Hell and its minions.

Obsidian: the Age of Judgment is a roleplaying game set in the far future, where cybernetics and magic coexist. And humanity needs every advantage they can get, because Hell is quickly taking over Earth–Daemons roam the land, ranging from rat-size to mountainous! And in the last City built by man, they also roam the underground levels.

But there is hope–the Darchomen (a group of Mystics given power by a force called the Divinity) have set up the Law–an organization whose goal is to stop the forces of Hell and the Kultists who bring them into our world.

Now, if only they could get organized–and I mean the guys who created this RPG, not the players!

This game is a great concept–there can never be too many apocalyptic games, in my opinion–the system is interesting (at least to me, thus the POV title), and the references to two certain movies I happen to like are icings on the cakes.

Now, if only it were organized! I can’t explain it–it just seems like it could be better organized, so let’s just move on to the wish list.

Things I would like to see–an index, better cybernetic creation rules (and rules for installing), better editing (which could fall under ‘organization’), and website support for this diamond in the rough.

(BTW, is it my imagination, or are the motivations vaguely reminiscent of VAMPIRE? Just a coincidence, right?)

Enough whining about the flaws–let’s talk about the positive aspects.

This game has good potential, and I look forward to some supplements to see if the designers work on the flaws found in the core book. With all these threats to mankind, we had better see some kick-ass material! The “Wall of Obsidian” is what really gets to me, and I definitely can’t wait to see Wasteland to see if there’s more on that structure.

So, you guys at Apohis Consortium LISTEN UP–learn from your mistakes, and use the good stuff you already got to make OBSIDIAN a success.

After all, VAMPIRE had to have three editions, and they still don’t have it all together yet.

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by EDG

Sanctum

December 28, 1999 in Reviews

SANCTUM is an online card game in where you play one of the Twelve Houses. Your goal? Invade the opponent’s home base, called a Sanctum. You do this by casting spells, and advancing your armies on the playing field. But there are obstacles along the way: Mountains, desert terrain, enemy armies, and the opponent’s spells. Not to mention summoned monsters…

This game is similar to Magic: The Gathering in that you must have mana to cast spells. The major differences in this game and Magic are Sanctum adds a game board., and you don’t have mana cards. You must capture the towns that lie in your progress to the opponent’s Sanctum, which then can generate any of the mana types for any house, but once you choose, you can’t change the mana it will generate, and the other benefit of owning a town is that it produces recruits suitable to your House.

The Twelve Houses are: Justice, Body, Mind, Making, Unmaking, Hope, Despair, War, Death, Abomination, Nature, and Life. The six mana types are: World, Order, Mystery, Clarity, Strife, and Will.

The five different spell types are: Alteration (alters the recruits or mana generation), Manifestation (a variety of effects, from temporary mana gains to fireballs), Summoning (you guessed it–monsters!), Conjuration (enchantments that can affect recruits, towns, and Sanctums), and Hero (summons Unique characters–each with their own special abilities).

You start out as Unranked–meaning you can play, but you they don’t count in the overall ranks. Once you buy X amount of cards, you then become Ranked, and thus will begin the long climb to the top spot of Number One.

The Verdict:

So is this game fun? You bet! Can it get expensive in the long run? You bet! With the initial run, plus two expansions (Bloodlines and Oppositions) it can put a major dent in your funds. But with the power of trading, you don’t have to spend a lot to get a good deck. The citizens in the online community for Sanctum are in general quite helpful, but some are like sharks–if they smell a newbie, the challenges will strike you from all around. Accept their challenges if you dare, and for your sake, watch out for the following people: Fafnir, KennySP, Whammo, Dracha, Xerxes, Tupacalypse, Starsurfer, and anyone else with more than 20 wins. They are good, they will hurt you, but best of all, they will help you be a better player.

Of course, if your ranked while they’re “helping” you, it could mean that climb to the top spot will take a lot longer than you hoped…

“Graveyard” Greg is the unofficial Whipping Boy for Sanctum. He’s now waiting for his very own Hero card, and is pushing for the Gaming Outpost to be the thirteenth House.

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by Lost to the Ages

Feng Shui

December 17, 1999 in Reviews

My good friend Graveyard Greg sent me this remake of a classic RPG. If you want to read a review on it, then go someplace else. I am going to give you my P.O.V. of FENG SHUI.

FENG SHUI was originally released in 1996 by Daedalus Entertainment, Inc. But then something bad happened, and FENG SHUI lost. All was dark for this poor RPG, until Atlas Games came and rescued it from the brink of extinction! Hooray! Now, FENG SHUI is back with a brand new cover, layout, and art. In fact, they added the character types like Journalist, Magic Cop, and the Thief from a previous supplement, and your old favorites (like Karate Cop, Ghost, and Old Master) are still here, ready to kick some butt!

The background behind FENG SHUI is this: A secret war is being waged. The bad guys range from eunuch sorcerers from Ancient China to cyber-demonic scientists from the future. They all want the same thing–the power of FENG SHUI. Whoever controls this power can reshape history so that they are in control, and always have been in control.

History, you see, is flexible. It changes on a whim, and unless you have safeguards, you’ll never question the changes. New York could become a dynasty of China, and you wouldn’t blink.

Fortunately, the one thing that stands in the way of these evil powers are the PCs–and they aren’t just anyone! They are secret warriors, ready to save the world or die trying! They’re going to need every trick in the book (and then some) in order to succeed, too. From Gun Schticks to Fu Powers to Spellcasting, they have the skills to perform the butt kicking the world so desperately needs!

The system of FENG SHUI is so simple, you’ll be ready to play in minute. It uses two 6 sided dice. One die is positive, the other negative. Roll them together (and reroll 6s), and the result is either a positive or negative number that you add or subtract to your skill number. The higher, the better, folks! If you meet or exceed the Difficulty–Huzzah! If not, uh oh…

The things that modify the DN depend on how detailed you describe your action, or “stunt”. Just saying “I waste him with my uzi!” is ho hum. If you say “I spray the mook with hot lead, causing him to fall on his comrades” is far better. The GM rewards creativity, so remember that valuable advice!

The rulebook alone can offer you many a fine game session. I had the extreme pleasure of playing FENG SHUI through many adventures. The thought of having more supplements being released warms this gamer’s heart…

So Lock and Load, Secret Warrior. Your destiny awaits on the field of battle, because FENG SHUI is the game for Action Movie Roleplaying. Accept no substitutes!

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by EDG

Puppetland/Power Kill

December 15, 1999 in Reviews

Puppetland is a roleplaying game in which you are a Puppet in the Maker’s Land–a special place which the Maker created to keep the puppets away from a terrible war in the real world. The puppets lived without fear, without any hands to control them or strings to pull them. The only human in Maker’s Land was the Maker, who would mend and repair broken or torn puppets. All was happy in Maker’s Land.

Then came Punch, who slew the Maker with his great mallet, taking his flesh to make a new, cruel face for himself and made six puppet-servants called his Boys. Punch was now the Maker-Killer, and those who didn’t obey his commands would suffer greatly.

But, in the small village of Respite, which lies across the great lake of Milk and Cookies, there is a puppet named Judy, who once loved Punch but does so no more. She was there when Punch slew the Maker, and caught the Maker’s last tear in a silver thimble. With this tear, the Maker can be brought back to life. Thus, puppets that declare themselves free of Punch’s terrible rule gather to Respite, and plan for the day they overthrow Punch.

Welcome to Puppetland, where you assume the role of a puppet. This puppet can be one of the following: Finger Puppet, Hand Puppet, Shadow Puppet, or Marionette Puppet. Each has certain things they can and cannot do (for example, the Shadow Puppet can dodge things thrown at them, but can not get wet, because getting wet kills them!)

Once you choose a puppet, you take the character sheet and draw your puppet. This puppet will be the actual size of the puppet, so be careful in how you draw it! Then you write down what the puppet is, what the puppet can do, what the puppet cannot do, and add three additional things to each list.

There are Three Rules that makes playing Puppetland special. The first is a game of Puppetland lasts only an hour. During the game, a week can pass by, but “the time passed is the time in which the tale is told”. During the next session, the characters will find themselves safely in bed. The second rule is when your sitting at the table, what you say is what you say in character. If you want to say something out of character, you have to stand up and say it. And if you want to do something, you have to state is as something your puppet would say, like: “I think I shall finish reading this book.” The third rule is: imagine that a game of Puppetland is a tale being read by an invisible reader. Better make that dialogue colorful, folks.

Another thing about Puppetland is the Jigsaw Puzzle found on the character sheet. If you do something the puppet can’t do, or take damage, you fill in a piece of the Puzzle. Once the Puzzle is filled in, the character will be gone forever after the current session.

That’s enough about Puppetland–let’s talk about Power Kill.

Power Kill is a roleplaying metagame–not an actual game, but an additional layer of a game to an RPG you are currently playing. The setting is the Real World, and only comes into play during and after the regular gaming sessions. What it all boils down to is that the Power Kill Character (PKC) is the real character, and the roleplaying character is the schizophrenic character, and the Power Kill sessions are psychiatric sessions. From there, it gets stranger…

The Verdict:

Puppetland is a diceless roleplaying game, and a good one. This game is meant to capture the feel of a children’s storybook, which is why the author insists on in-game dialogue and narration. It’s a good effort, and worth taking a look at.

Power Kill, on the other hand, is absolutely odd, but it’s also worth a look, if only for the questions it brings into focus (which will not be brought up here, as the Power Kill section is only three pages long!). Since you can get both for one price (a low price at that), Puppetland/Power Kill is worth picking up.

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by Lost to the Ages

Zoon

December 14, 1999 in Reviews

Zoon is a non collectible card game from French firm I’ve never heard of.
The general concept of the game is that it simulates two tribes of “Zoons”
(cuddly little animals with humanoid characteristics and only
semi-pronounceable names) battling it out to capture each other’s “Emblem”
or tribal totem. The game is played out on a grid-like space on your
kitchen table (or desk at work& ahem). The tribes maintain their icon on
their sides “backfield” as it were, and deploy troops to protect the emblem
as well as capture the opposing emblem. Astute readers with an elementary
school background might be noticing the game “capture the flag” right now–
and you’d be right, that’s exactly what Zoon is. Where it diverges from
the playground, however, is where Zoon becomes interesting, and worth the
paltry amount being charged for it (and yes, it is worth the money).

HOW IT PLAYS: Each card represents one element of the limited Zoon universe.
A card can be a Chief, a Priest, a Monster, an Elite, a Soldier, an Emblem,
or a Trump. Most cards are Soldiers or Elites (which are better soldiers
that might have some special abilities). Monsters are usually very tough
soldiers with some nifty abilities tacked on, like flight, or a specialized
attack. Priests, Chiefs and Emblems are one-of-a-kind types with very
specialized abilities. Each card has a “touch score”& a number or star
icon on each corner of the card, with a picture in the middle, and a movement
grid demonstrating how the card moves, and an icon showing what classification
of Zoon it is. Trumps are special case, usually one-shot items that can be played
to effect combat or movement.

PLAY SEQUENCE: The play sequence is dirt simple:


  1. Choose a side (tribe).
  2. Decides who goes first.
  3. Deploy your Zoons face DOWN in the backfield.
  4. Alternating between players, either:
  5. Move a Zoon into an empty grid location;
  6. Move a Zoon into an occupied grid location (and have combat);
  7. Play a Trump.
  8. That’s it. Play until one side captures the other’s Emblem.

Movement: Movement is handled in an interesting manner. As mentioned above, each Zoon card has a little diagram printed on it that depicts exactly how that Zoon will move on the grid. Some Zoons can only go forward, some can go forward and backward, some can only go sideways. The overall effect is very chess like.

Combat: Combat is very bizarre and very amusing– really worth the price of admission in itself. I get the feeling that the designers built the rest of the game around this idea. Combat is initiated by one card moving into an enemy card’s space, as mentioned above. Keep in mind both sides are still face-down. Before combat, each player can rotate their cards 180 degrees in any direction. The player then touches any corner of the opponent Zoon’s face-down card. Each corner has a touch score, remember? The numbers, which equate to combat strength, are compared. The larger number wins, and eliminates the opposing card. In case of ties, the attacker retreats back a square and the defender stands fast. If the opposing player choose a corner with a star on it, he has to consult the special tribal information card each Zoon tribe gets to find out what happens. Personally, I find this combat system to be design elegance personified. Combat takes advantage of the card format perfectly and establishes a true “fog of war” situation where you never can figure out what’s going to happen until it happens.

Trumps: Trumps add a little spice to the game. Regular trumps represent a wide a variety of actions, some of which effect movement, and some of which effect combat. Missile trumps are played just like combat troops, only with a special X symbol on one corner. If the X symbol is picked during combat, the opposing Zoon is eliminated.

The Verdict

The artwork is silly, almost juvenile. The combat system is something Koko, the sign language-enabled gorilla, could probably pick up& yet.. Zoon has something indefinable. Zoon is funny, fast, and well designed for the card medium. I feel that the game’s artwork might detract from the “crusty old gamer” crowd, but it has potential for being a hit with the extremely young (hey, look at Pokemon). My only beef with the production values was the translation from Zoon’s original French. This leaves something to be desired. Even this was a pretty minor problem– most points are adequately conveyed, though lacking in a detailed explanation. For instance, the notion of retreat from a draw in combat& did they mean go back ONE square, or TWO? What if the Zoon can’t move backwards? Still, for the amount Zoon costs you really can’t go wrong trying it, if you like this sort of thing.

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