Disclaimer: I was provided a review copy of the game. Also, some of the links below are affiliate links (meaning I get a small percentage of the sale without extra cost to you or the publisher). Written by Chris Scaffidi and published in 2023 by Fervent Workshop, What Lies Beneath is described as "a solo dungeon-crawler of dice, decisions and death" that is "structured as a branching narrative". We all know what this really means: it's a gamebook! In case it needs explanation, a gamebook is a form of interactive fiction delivered in book format. The text is arranged into numbered paragraphs ..read more

I again missed this year's RPGaDAY blogging event. But hey, at least it's still the same year this time 'round. These will be fun to come back to 10 years from now. Day 1: First RPG bought this year I think it was Swyvers. If free games also count, it was Advanced FASERIP. Both PDFs, of course; I haven't bought physical RPG products this year (instead allocating shelf space and hobby budget to gamebooks and board games). Day 2: Most recently played The last game I ran was WFRP 4E where the group tracked down and defeated a pair of trolls (finally allowing the troll slayer the opportunity ..read more

Disclaimer: Note that some of the links below are affiliate links (meaning I get a small percentage of the sale without extra cost to you or the publisher). Also, I'd like to give a big shout out to waysoftheearth over at the odd74 forum for his insights. My original goal was simply to reproduce his calculations and to be able to compare variations myself — like I do so below. I have recently talked about some aspects of the man-to-man combat tables in Chainmail (and even shared my calculations so that you can play around with your own variants). It occurred to me that there's a weapon vs. arm ..read more

This is going to be a short one. In my last post I shared some statistics about the man-to-man tables in Chainmail. Here's a link to my calculations, with separate sheets for the numbers as presented in the book and another to play around with (Raw and Mod, respectively). To edit your own version, go to "File" then "Make a copy". Have fun ..read more

On and off I've been working on Láncvért, a supplement for Kazamaták és Kompániák that integrates most subsystems found in Chainmail into the KéK framework in a much less confusing way than the original (at least that's my hope). One of the many interesting bits in Chainmail is the man-to-man combat system (the one that was supposed to be used with OD&D according to the rulebook, although apparently even the designers disagreed). It's a fairly simple 2d6 table where you check the attacker's weapon and the defender's armour to see your target number; if you meet or exceed your target, the d ..read more

Like my lists for D&D-esque games and 2d6 games, here's the final piece: a list of d100 games. I decided not to be strict with my criteria here; the list includes everything from the BRP family (and its d20-based derivatives, such as Pendragon), various Warhammer games, and even Rolemaster and its ilk. It's not comprehensive at this point, but I'll be slowly expanding the list with both old and new games ..read more

Inspired by The Outspaced Shrine, I decided to map my gamebook ventures using Graphviz. Transcribing my written notes into the new format is tedious, but I have a high tolerance for monotony. I've only completed one so far: the first volume in The Cluster of Echoes series, Nightshift (which I talked about here). You can get it in svg or svgz format. Needless to say, it contains spoilers ..read more

I have been thinking about campaigns and half-prepped adventures I didn't end up running or that otherwise fell through the cracks. Here are a few from my IDEAS folder. Some of them have a few files detailing locations and NPCs; some only have the one paragraph I jotted down once on a late night after a few drinks. Sky Ship from Another World You are on death row. The serious nature of your crimes (murder, heterodoxy, or effrontery), whether real or fabricated, has sealed your fate. Yet, a glimmer of hope sneaks into your heart upon the visitation from Taraxiam the Pale, a reputed sorcerer, of ..read more

Similar to my somewhat popular (and still maintained) list of D&D-esque games (which began its life as a "comprehensive list of OSR games"), I decided to make two further lists (firstly for my own benefit). The first of these is a short list of 2d6 games. It's still missing a few entries, but the goal is to catalogue the various versions of Traveller and their offshoots (basically, the standalone Cepheus variants). The next list is a little more ambitious (but still not as big as the D&D-esque one); it should be ready sometime in September ..read more

Nightshift is a horror gamebook written by Victoria Hancox and was originally published in 2019. It is a self-contained product, but the most recent offering (2nd edition) ties it to the author's later gamebooks, forming a series called The Cluster of Echoes. I should note that the connection is fairly surface-level; I actually started with book #3, and it didn't impede my enjoyment or understanding one bit. Apart from the sixth and final book in the series (Game Over), you can play them in any order you like. In case you're not familiar with the tern, a gamebook is a form of interactive ficti ..read more