Things on my Radar

 It’s been a while.  Here are a list of games and authors that I am either actively reading or actively pursuing.  I do not have enough information to review any of these products yet, but they have all piqued my interest. 

Games

Holdout- a solitaire, roll-and-write resource management game in which you must grow your wasteland settlement, deal with mishaps that drain your resources and daily bandit raids and achieve certain objectives to win.  

I am interested in this game, because I wanted to examine simple and fun resource management games, what makes them tick, and how they can be iterated off of.

Holdout is by Humble Bard Games. $5. This is a print and play game. A video overview is here.

Dangerous Space- A sci-fi solo game that is published by PNP Arcade and designed by Jason Greeno and Jason Tagmire.

The description for Dangerous Space says: 

"Dangerous Space is a dungeon crawl experience in futuristic starships.

This solo, roll & write game has a tactical emphasis on dice management and careful placement. 

With puzzle-optimizing challenges combined with a hero tech tree, you’ll find yourself racing the clock, dodging enemy laser blasts and confronting some deep space terrors.”

The Dangerous Space Core Set is $4.

Stoneburner- I’ve been reading through this game. Stoneburner is about being a Space Dwarf and inheriting a space mine in an asteroid that is infested by demons and worse.  It takes its inspiration from Deep Rock Galactic, Doom, Dwarf Fortress, The Expanse and Firefly. In addition, it claims it is “solo friendly.”

Mechanically, to perform a check you roll a skill die, or a die from an item.  The roll result of 1-2 indicates you outright fail, or you may succeed with a major complication. A roll of 3-4 means you succeed in your endeavor, however there is a minor complication.  A roll of 5+ means you greatly succeed, and the higher the roll result the better. 

Now after you use a skill or item, your die for that skill or item decreases by one step, (ie 1d6 turns into a 1d4).  Skills cannot go lower than a 1d4.  Dwarven classes have three skills: Strength, Dexterity and Willpower.  These skills may vary from 1d4 to 1d8, depending on starting class. 

Stoneburner is created by Fari RPG’s, specifically by René-Pier Deshaies. It is $15. 

Bandit Republic- The Bandit Republic OSR hexcrawl from itch.io is set in an alternate history 1925 where the Republic of Jelenia broke off from Poland and the characters are all deserters from the Army of Jelenia. There are artillery, radios, soldiers and spies from East Prussia, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia; guns galore, witchers, leshy and other supernatural oddities along with revolutionaries and communists.

The system is based on the Wolves Upon the Coast hexcrawl's system. Bandit Republic was created by Tom Mecredy who some of you may remember as the author of the Napoleonic naval OSR hexcrawl Shot and Splinters that I liked so much I designed two additional random tables for.  

 

Bandit Republic is currently 50% off through 1/30/24. Normally it is $20 as of January 2024. As the hexcrawl is further developed, the price will increase.  

Over War: Monarch Edition-  

UPDATE **Kickstarter is LIVE Through Feb 15th** 

Patreon post link about Over War: Monarch Edition here. 

Over War: Monarch Edition is a tactical tabletop rpg (inspired by Fire Emblem, Yggdra Union, Langrisser, and the works of Yasumi Matsuno) soon to be a Kickstarter (possibly in February) by author Richard Kelly and expanded by Blackoath Entertainment.  Blackoath was responsible for Across a Thousand Dead Worlds which I enjoyed reading and wrote a review of.  So, expect the Blackoath touch of a solo mode and tons of interesting random tables with Over War: Monarch Edition. 

Here is the blurb that got me excited about Over War: Monarch Edition from the Patreon post.

“But how does it play, I hear you ask? Well, players maintain a warcamp, unlock new units and supplies between missions, then take to the field, relying on the types of characters they've recruited and the formation they've put them in to carry them through battles.

Missions take place on hex maps covered in unique terrain types. Cities can be conquered, swamps can be slogged through, units can take to the air to avoid the effects of terrain or stand on mountains and fire downward into foes for extra damage. Throughout all this, the emphasis is on keeping things simple and keeping choices meaningful. Dice are rarely rolled. Attacks typically hit. And good formations, tactical choices, and resource spending carry the day.”

Want to see how the original Over War plays? There are FREE Community Copies of Over War: The Night Comes Down on the itch.io page. Make sure you scroll down to the bottom to get it. 

Books

Mark Samuels; The Age of Decayed Futurity- I’m sorry to say I first heard of Mark Samuels and his weird and Lovecraftian fiction upon an announcement of his passing on r/WeirdLit. The blog Wormwoodiana had a very nice tribute for Mark Samuels, specifically saying that he was a passionate advocate for Machen, Lovecraft and Ligotti. I am looking forwards to reading some of Mark Samuels’ “best” short stories as collected in The Age of Decayed Futurity once I get my hands on a physical copy.   

Premee Mohamed; No One Will Come Back For Us - From her bio on Amazon, Premee Mohamed is “a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton, Alberta.” Her science degrees are in molecular genetics and environmental science. 

I recently downloaded the Kindle sample of Premee’s book No One Will Come Back For Us. It contained two and a half short stories: Below the Kirk, Below the Hill; Instructions; and The Evaluator.  In Below the Kirk, Below the Hill; and the section of The Evaluator that was present in the Kindle sample, Premee Mohamed creates a mood of a normal world but with pinpricks of oddity that she pulls on to lead the reader through mystery and horror indicating that what these people live in, is not our world, or if it was; something very alien has happened to their surroundings and they are trying to cope.  I’m very eager to continue reading The Evaluator to see how the story develops.  I’ll report back if she is one of the authors who also treads the path of cosmic horror in her tales.  

Review of The Monster Breeder

Last week I found a brilliant Indy game called The Monster Breeder and I’ve already sunk many hours into it. It is $19.99 on Steam, in Early Access, and a labor of love by one developer.

Monster Breeder bills itself as a monster cross-breeding game, and it is; but the monster breeding part is the icing on the cake that is a core good gladiatorial management game.  Once I understood that the economics of the game is to win big purses by fielding your monster hybrids in the more lucrative gladiator arenas, then everything clicked into place.

My insectoid hybrids ready to rumble

You start with some seed money, an old keep and a spring in your step as you immediately swing down to the hunter’s shop to see what types of juvenile monsters they have that you can purchase and eventually crossbreed.

Monster Breeder is in Early Access, so systems are rough around the edges. There is a hard limit to the interesting monsters you can crossbreed, however acquiring a monster hybrid with the attributes and traits you want will undoubtable take a while. And it’s a lot of fun to tinker around with the systems of blood infusion, feeding baby monsters with different meat, and treating baby monsters with different magic fields (from runestones and scrolls) and potions to improve certain traits.

Also Monster Breeder has a lot of systems. Forgers can make you arms and armor, and some items can be sold to keep you economically afloat. This is a necessity in the early game when you are just treading water economically and a majority of your income comes from the pittance given at the Catacombs arena. Alchemists can make potions you can use in combat, but more importantly at greater levels alchemists can make you potions that allow you to crossbreed, mutate, tame or enchant the monsters you collect. So, they are a long-term investment.

Once you get into the midgame when you have viable monster hybrids to take on the challenges in the non-Catacombs gladiator arenas and win thousands of gold, things really open up as you can run multiple monster breeding programs in parallel. You can also invest in human gladiators coming from warrior, archer or mage backgrounds.  Equipping your human gladiators with the best gear either from your high-level forgers, gladiatorial winnings, or special shopping festivals is another fun gameplay loop of optimizing your units. 

The biggest drawbacks have already been described by other reviewers.  The graphics are quaint, the sound effects can be annoying and the early game has a learning curve.  However, this is one of the best monster breeder games on the market that I can think of and one of the better gladiatorial games available on Steam.  Ultimately as other have said, it’s rough and in Early Access but it already has a good gameplay loop and personally I want to see how the developer further iterates and defines this monster breeder game. 

Gladiator Manager Wargame, Ludus: A game of gladiators and lanistas

I purchased the fresh (released March 10^th) new wargame Ludus: A game of gladiators and lanistas by Michael Bergen Henegouwen on Wargamevault. I’ve read through it, and I like what it has to offer. Ludus takes skirmish games to the extreme. You are usually fighting one vs one, with your choice of a gladiator from one of 7 classes. Each gladiator class has a different roster of 10 cards they can choose from in a match, and you reveal one card as your opponent does, per turn. This card determines your move score, your combat action and your AFTER combat move score.  With the exception of a special action card that defines your class, you can choose the same action card turn after turn as long as you have fatigue to pay for it.

The gladiator classes consist of the following: Arbelas who wields a fixed blade in their main hand and a gladius in their off hand; Dimachaerus who dual wields a pair of gladii; Hoplomachus who represents a Greek Hoplite by wielding a spear, a small shield and a dagger; Murmillo, probably the most famous type of gladiator, who holds a large shield (the scutum) a gladius and a helmet; Retiarius the lightly armored trident wielder and net thrower; Thraex, inspired by the Thracians, who wielded the curved sword the sica and a medium shield the parmula; and the Veles, based on the light skirmish troops of the Roman army, wielding a long spear called a veruta and a gladius.

Combat usually involves a 2d10 contested roll unless your gladiator is wounded. Movement is carried out on a hex map where relative facing and position give bonuses and penalties. Gladiators also gain levels from arena experience and accrue traits and can choose individual skills to help them in combat.

Beyond the combat engine, there are nine types of arena scenarios to combine with six types of arena terrain. Arena scenarios consist of traditional variations of one vs one and two vs two, but also include more exotic scenarios. For instance, a Sagittarius match consists of two gladiators pitted against each other, but with the added wrinkle of an archer (the Sagittarius) on a pillar in the middle of the arena shooting each turn at the gladiator that is furthest away from him.  Additional arena scenarios include matches against beasts, and one where the gladiators are chained to a condemned man and have to protect him from the other gladiator.  To complicate these matches there is a table to roll for different arena terrain, including a circle of fire, a swampy arena and the hazard of chained animals.

Finally in chapter four we get to the lanista campaign section of Ludus. The rules are clear and even just reading them gives me a sense of excitement at the prospect of growing and managing one’s own gladiator school.  Lanista compete with each other using gladiators to gain glory points, and the winner is the lanista who has accumulated the most after a set number of campaign turns.  Each lanista chooses four gladiators with which to compete from the 7 classes and can have no more than two gladiators of a given class.

There are additional rules to add to gladiatorial combat to spice up encounters.  Gladiators can now gain Favour, which allows a combat action reroll, through lanista action or by playing to the crowd.  In addition, assuming they are of a sufficient level, gladiators gain the option to intimidate their opponent which reduces their opponent’s vital statistics and thus combat capability. 

Lanista also get the opportunity to carry out an action once per turn in between the gladiatorial combats. This action can range from upgrading one’s ludus which strengthens one’s gladiators, to hiring specialist for an additional roll on certain challenges like rolling on the injury table or rerolling initiative.     

Overall, the book is filled to the brim with clear rules, combat examples, interesting tables, summary sheets and several pages of action cards. I can’t wait to engage in gladiatorial competition with a game group or even attempt some of the scenarios solo.  The designer mentions that he chose to not include gambling, and I think the lack of a money and prices system actually enhances the flow of the game, particularly the lanista campaign.  All you have to be concerned with is what action a lanista will take per turn, not how much such an action would cost.  So lanista actions are more easily balanced with each other. Having said that I also can see that there is room for expansion with Ludus.  More classes, perhaps actions gladiators could take outside the arena, and maybe a limited betting system where glory is wagered over gladiatorial results, would be welcome additions. For $8, the pdf is 62 pages with 81 action cards to print out in the back.

Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant!

Base Building, Domain Management or Organization Building RPG Resources

 I am a big fan of base building and domain management type games. I assembled a list with help from the Something Awful traditional games board, of all the RPGs we could think of that had elements or full on rules of management types of games.  

This list will be updated as needed.  If a game line is listed (like Ars Magica) then these organizational rules are in the core book.  Most of the others are supplements to major game lines, as these topics do not always get a central focus.

11/1/22 Edit: I've updated this list with additions from a Reddit thread on base building rpgs, here. Where possible, I have verified that these additional rpgs have base building rules.

4/20/23 Edit: Updated the list again thanks to another Reddit base building in rpgs thread, here.  In addition I am using the excellent Realm-management wiki page from the Tabletop RPGs subreddit as a source for some of entries for this list.

   

D&D

Birthright (AD&D)

Stronghold Builder’s Guidebook (3.5 D&D)

Dragon 395 (4ed D&D) – strongholds and upgrades

Adventurer’s Vault 2; Dragon 383 – lair magic items

Dragon 412 (4ed D&D) – boats

Mordenkainen's Magnificent Emporium – hireling rules

Admiral o' the High Seas (4ed D&D; Pathfinder) aka Seas of Zeitgeist – building ships, naval combat

DMGR2 - Castle Guide for 2e AD&D

Strongholds & Followers (5e D&D)

OSR/D&D related

Ultimate Campaign (Pathfinder) – has updated Kingmaker rules

Hell’s Rebels Campaign (Pathfinder) – build a rebellion

Way of the Wicked Book 2 (Pathfinder) – Henchmen management rules

Way of the Wicked Book 6-7 (Pathfinder) – Kingdom management rules

The Nightmares Underneath - establishing ties to and influence over local businesses and organizations

Fields of Blood- The Book of War (d20) 

Empire (d20) 

Kingdoms: A Zine of Generational Proportions (OSR) 

Sine Nomine (Kevin Crawford)

An Echo Resounding

Godbound

Stars Without Number

Other Dust

Silent Legions

HarnMaster

HarnManor – manage noble estate, growing motherfucking turnips

Pilot’s Almanac – sailing ships, trading cargo

White Wolf

Gilded Cage (V:tM)

Damnation City (V:tR)

Exalted 2e Storyteller's Companion – Mandate of Heaven rules.

Exalted 2e Masters of Jade

Traveller (Mongoose)

Traveller: Core – build planets

Merchant Prince - trading companies

Dynasty – manage dynasties over generations

Mercenary – military bases.

GURPS

GURPS Boardroom and Curia

GURPS Low-Tech Companions 1-3

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Taverns

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Guilds

GURPS City Stats

Forged in the Dark

Blades in the Dark

Wicked Ones (Free Edition)

Mountain Home

Powered by the Apocalypse

Apocalypse World - hardholder has to manage their settlement, the hocus has to manage their cult, the chopper manages their gang.

Stonetop

No Country for Old Kobolds

Solo

Penciltown

DELVE: A Solo Map Drawing Game

UMBRA: A Solo Game of Final Frontiers

Other

Base Raiders (Strange FATE) - p.187

Sagas of the Icelanders - Icelandic Homestead Management minigame

Mutant: Year Zero

Conspiracy X

Reign

Ars Magica

Pendragon

Gods and Monsters (Fate)

Mystic Empyrean

Legacy: Life Among the Ruins 

Weapons of the Gods Companion

Green Law of Varkith (Dungeon World) – build guild

Spellbound Kingdoms

Savage Worlds Super Hero Companion – build superhero bases

Champions (all versions) – build superhero bases

Rogue Trader: Stars of Inequity – build planets and manage colonies

A Song of Ice and Fire (Green Ronin) – run game of thrones house and holdings

Dune: Chronicle of the Imperium – manage a House Minor

Dune (2d20): The Great Game: Houses of the Landsraad

Underground – changing society to be more or less crime-ridden rules

Conan the King (Modiphius) - see mostly chapter 8 about kingdom management and faction power struggles

Vaesen

Forbidden Lands

Twilight 2000 4th edition

After the War

Death in Space – spacecraft and space station rules

Shadows Over Sol: Siren's Call - systems for colony building, societal planning, advancement and mass combat.

Seeds of Wars - fantasy system agnostic rules for realm management and tactical warfare. Supposedly inspired by AD&D Birthright rules (above). 

Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk – similar to Ars Magica, this rpg has rules for constructing a Vahnam, the home base for sorcerers and their staff. 

Do Not Let Us Die In The Dark Night Of This Cold Winter – obtain and manage supplies for a doomed village

Lord Flataroys Guide to Keeps and Fortifications (Hackmaster 4e)

The Ultimate Base (Hero System)

The Quiet Year 

HELLPIERCERS

Sanctum (Heart: The City Beneath) - focuses on supporting a base

Flatpack: Fix the Future 

Numenera: Destiny – has rules for GMing Communities

Wrath of the Autarch

Fragged Kingdom 

Blood and Honor 

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition, Renegade Crowns – not a resource management game, but it provides background charts and tables for developing petty kingdoms and a simple system for resolving Internal and External problems for a realm.