The Gamemaster (2020, Documentary) We get two long skinny pages about how to be a GM. It’s almost exactly like every other “how to GM” section in the universe. The only unusual tool introduced here is the Countdown Roll. If something big is going on in the background (NPCs are rebuilding a fort, exploring a […]
The Two Little Mice guys (Household, Outgunned, etc.) are at it again. Twilight Sword is what happens when an RPG designer plays Breath of the Wild and grabs their screen like Bill Gates in Pirates of Silicon Valley, screaming, “I WANT THIS!” Twilight Sword is published by Free League Publishing. It came out literally a […]
The Summing-Uppening Zoom zoom zoom in the boom boom The Past, Extracted While writing this review, I’ve done some research online to see what other people think of Nimble. The response is varied. The people who’ve played it (almost) universally love it; those who’ve read it but haven’t played it think it’s intriguing; and those […]
Game Master’s Guide You can’t have your pudding if you don’t have a GM All right, entering the home stretch. The GM’s Guide is the longest book in the Nimble trilogy, so this may be the longest part of this review. Sorry ahead of time. Let’s go! GMing Nimbly The GM’s Guide pops right off […]
Heroes, Part Three: Magic & Mayhem, Part Two: Jedi Academy Songweaver Songweavers have been gifted with the ineffable power of music by a muse or a god or something. They’re … they’re bards. They’re pretty much bards. They begin with 13 HP and a d8 Hit Die, proficiency in cloth and leather armor and DEX […]
Heroes, Part Two: Magic & Mayhem Mage Masters of the elephants elements, Mages are all about those spells. Gimme them spells. Spells! So many spells! Aahahahaha! They start with 10 HP and a d6 Hit Die. They’re proficient with cloth armor and blades, staves, and wands, not that they’ll use them much as weapons. Mages […]
Heroes Dibs on Masi Oka … okay, fine, I’ll be Greg Grunberg again Okay, I lied. I was going to move on to the GM’s Guide, but controversy erupted after my review of the Core Rules. So let’s start in on the Heroes (classes) book instead, after which my agenda for this switch will become […]
Nimble is a D&D-5e-alike-but-not-really-but-sorta-but-nah-unless? developed by Evan Diaz and the creatively named Nimble Co. Nimble started out in 2023 as a D&D 5e hack (now known as “Nimble 5e”), but came into its own as a full-fledged system in 2025 (sometimes referred to as “Nimble 2,” though that’s not what they call it themselves). The […]
HandiQuest Publisher: Lester Smith GamesYear: 2022Dimensions: 2½” x 3½” x negligible thickness for the system alone, or ⅝” for everything you need to playPlayers: 1 This unfortunately-named solo ruleset comes with the Bookmark No-HP RPG Compleat Bundle on DTRPG, or can be purchased separately for a couple bucks. The system is printed on four double-sided […]
ALONe (an acronym for A Lonesome October Night … um … e) is a solo RPG engine built directly on top of the Gamemaster’s Apprentice Deck, both by Nathan Rockwood of Larcenous Designs. The original beta version of ALONe came out around the same time as the original GMA deck in 2015. Nathan finally decided […]