Post by Zulgyan on Mar 18, 2009 10:04:01 GMT -6
Zulgyan's Fight On! article mini-reviews thread
In this thread, I pretend to give short comments and thoughts about the different articles published in Fight On! It is fun and I think that people will like to recieve some feeback and discussion about their articles. Reader be warned: I have submitted stuff to Fight On! in the past and plan do it in the future. I've also been interested in the development of the zine since it's inception (I even proposed it's name ;D). It's my favourite RPG product in the present and the first one to put my money in.
Some reviews will not be all too positive. I hope the authors understand that I won't consider my thoughts universal truths and that they will be based on my personal style of gaming, my subjective preferences and what I find useful to me on a self individual consideration.
Fight On! nº1
Ethusiasm and wild uncontrolled creativity pours from this humble soon to be mythic first issue. The feeling of exitement and "dream come true" vibe is felt throught the magazine. The expectations into the future are high, but no one really seems to care about "market success". We are just a band of hobbist sharing and having fun.
The Devil's in the Details (Kesher): the first article in the series deals with dwarves. I love this series article because it brings back the wierdness, quirkness and otherness into the non-human races. The "details" are very amusing, entertaining and somehow "old-new". My next dwarf will refuse to discuss whether or not dwarven woman exits, will claim dwarves invented books, respect someone who argues well, long to explore the sea, carry with himself beard grooming kit.
The Swanmay (Calithena): a race I've tried to made playable in the past. I like swanmays and this article offers a good playable treatment about them.
Flexible Sorcery (Rients, Cone (Philotomy Jurament) and Calithena: nice "rules light" variants for wizards that don´t change the rules or flavour of D&D too much. Spontaneous Magic was originally developed by Philotomy and is a very clever way of permitting wizards use flavourful cantrips without "wasting" a valuable spell slot. The results can be fun and help ambientation in the hands of clever and creative players. I like this. The Counterspelling system is the best I've seen for TSR D&D. Dead simple and it takes all important variables (wizard level and spell level) into consideration. Magic duels look fun and can produce hilarious results if you are looking for that kind of tone.
The Ruined Monastery (James Maliszewski): what I like about this adventure is the map. It looks simple but it's totally non-linear to the point that ANY room of the dungeon can be the one entered first. You can skip all rooms and go straight to room 14 if you want. You can wonder the map with a very big freedom of choice. What I didn't like is that room descriptions are sometimes a bit too long and sometimes delve into the room's backround unnesesarily. The flavour and content of the module is a bit too "mundane" or "ordinary" fantasy for the tastes I prefer right now, but this is highly subjective. It's a well done introductory dungeon.
The Tomb Complex of Ymmu M'Kursa (Gabor Lux): Can I say that this is one of my favorite modules published by Melan? It ranks near perfect in my book. Short background. Modularity (can be placed about anywhere, anytime in your campaign). Descriptions are just to the point and enough, though there is a feeling that the referee can add colorful details during play. The encounters are awesome, with new creatures and threats that will surprise players (animated mummy wrappings, the zombie-skeletons of Ymmu (48), who, if players screw up will attacken masse ). The names and imagery all about the tombs are fabulous. I loved the Brass gongs continually beaten by invisible hands and the amazon at the end, giving the fair spicing of sci fi into fantasy. The module unapologetically steals from Wizadry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant and that is a good thing. Ymmu and his paw appear in that game, the random encounters table with the possiblity of encountering "two groups" also feels very Wizardry-ish. And for the amazon in room 15, here is the missing pic folks.
Setting Up Your Sandbox (Calithena): A superb "teach by example" introduction to sand box gaming. It must be the best article I've seen on the subject for begginers and the examples are also neat in their concrete content. I don't have much more to say, this article is near perfect in fulfilling it's objective and has the very important virtue of brevity.
Puissant Priestly Powers (Your's Truly): I won´t review this article for obvious reasons. I will just say it´s part of my explorations to "fix" the cleric, but right now I may be going into a somewhat different direction. Unfortunately a spell was cut in the edition and it was one of my favorites, so I post it here:
Spit upon the unworthy (level 3): the cleric spits upon someone and after a successful “to hit” roll, cleric spells of the beneficial sort will fail to have any effect on the one hit by the spit. No saving throw. Only the reversible of this spell will restore worthiness.
Enchanted Holy Symbols (Rients): excellent article on something so old yet perhaps never treated. I loved specially the were-turning one and the Frogish one. All are brilliant and innovative!
Nature's Nasty Node (Makofan): I would use this module in a way different than that suggested by the author. Instead of a nice nature priest that asks the PCs for help to correct evil in an otherwise nice forest, I would have a forest in my campaign that is completely twisted and evil, full of evil forest creatures and twisted plants and beasts. In this fashion the module is very good, because it not only provides an ready-made example but also tools to create your own. It would remind me of the game "Thief: The Dark Project" and it's evil depiction of nature.
Space Wizards (Paul Czege): a good enough read but I can't see the point of this article gaming-wise. I see, of course, that this is because I have a very different approach to this valid form of gaming. Just not my style. The second pic is by my argentine friend Germille, so cool.
Creepies & Crawlies (Reyes, Rients): Excellent new critters for the game. My total favorite has to be the unseelie squirrel: a green vicious rodent that hates elves and forces them to save or die if hit!
LOVE IT!
In the Time of the Broken Kingdom (Calithena): this recollections about the past and history of gaming are very enjoyable to read. More so when they are not rants but positive encouragements like this one. This type of columns should have a space in every issue.
I LOVE the full page pic, excellent.
Artifacts, Adjuntcs, & Oddments: the various contributors have submitted very interesting new items. I like the Harpy Cloak, a mixture of boon and drawback.
I hope people like and use my deadly Jug of Oozes.
THUS ENDS THE REVIEW TO THE FIRST ISSUE OF FIGHT ON!
In this thread, I pretend to give short comments and thoughts about the different articles published in Fight On! It is fun and I think that people will like to recieve some feeback and discussion about their articles. Reader be warned: I have submitted stuff to Fight On! in the past and plan do it in the future. I've also been interested in the development of the zine since it's inception (I even proposed it's name ;D). It's my favourite RPG product in the present and the first one to put my money in.
Some reviews will not be all too positive. I hope the authors understand that I won't consider my thoughts universal truths and that they will be based on my personal style of gaming, my subjective preferences and what I find useful to me on a self individual consideration.
Fight On! nº1
Ethusiasm and wild uncontrolled creativity pours from this humble soon to be mythic first issue. The feeling of exitement and "dream come true" vibe is felt throught the magazine. The expectations into the future are high, but no one really seems to care about "market success". We are just a band of hobbist sharing and having fun.
The Devil's in the Details (Kesher): the first article in the series deals with dwarves. I love this series article because it brings back the wierdness, quirkness and otherness into the non-human races. The "details" are very amusing, entertaining and somehow "old-new". My next dwarf will refuse to discuss whether or not dwarven woman exits, will claim dwarves invented books, respect someone who argues well, long to explore the sea, carry with himself beard grooming kit.
The Swanmay (Calithena): a race I've tried to made playable in the past. I like swanmays and this article offers a good playable treatment about them.
Flexible Sorcery (Rients, Cone (Philotomy Jurament) and Calithena: nice "rules light" variants for wizards that don´t change the rules or flavour of D&D too much. Spontaneous Magic was originally developed by Philotomy and is a very clever way of permitting wizards use flavourful cantrips without "wasting" a valuable spell slot. The results can be fun and help ambientation in the hands of clever and creative players. I like this. The Counterspelling system is the best I've seen for TSR D&D. Dead simple and it takes all important variables (wizard level and spell level) into consideration. Magic duels look fun and can produce hilarious results if you are looking for that kind of tone.
The Ruined Monastery (James Maliszewski): what I like about this adventure is the map. It looks simple but it's totally non-linear to the point that ANY room of the dungeon can be the one entered first. You can skip all rooms and go straight to room 14 if you want. You can wonder the map with a very big freedom of choice. What I didn't like is that room descriptions are sometimes a bit too long and sometimes delve into the room's backround unnesesarily. The flavour and content of the module is a bit too "mundane" or "ordinary" fantasy for the tastes I prefer right now, but this is highly subjective. It's a well done introductory dungeon.
The Tomb Complex of Ymmu M'Kursa (Gabor Lux): Can I say that this is one of my favorite modules published by Melan? It ranks near perfect in my book. Short background. Modularity (can be placed about anywhere, anytime in your campaign). Descriptions are just to the point and enough, though there is a feeling that the referee can add colorful details during play. The encounters are awesome, with new creatures and threats that will surprise players (animated mummy wrappings, the zombie-skeletons of Ymmu (48), who, if players screw up will attacken masse ). The names and imagery all about the tombs are fabulous. I loved the Brass gongs continually beaten by invisible hands and the amazon at the end, giving the fair spicing of sci fi into fantasy. The module unapologetically steals from Wizadry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant and that is a good thing. Ymmu and his paw appear in that game, the random encounters table with the possiblity of encountering "two groups" also feels very Wizardry-ish. And for the amazon in room 15, here is the missing pic folks.
Setting Up Your Sandbox (Calithena): A superb "teach by example" introduction to sand box gaming. It must be the best article I've seen on the subject for begginers and the examples are also neat in their concrete content. I don't have much more to say, this article is near perfect in fulfilling it's objective and has the very important virtue of brevity.
Puissant Priestly Powers (Your's Truly): I won´t review this article for obvious reasons. I will just say it´s part of my explorations to "fix" the cleric, but right now I may be going into a somewhat different direction. Unfortunately a spell was cut in the edition and it was one of my favorites, so I post it here:
Spit upon the unworthy (level 3): the cleric spits upon someone and after a successful “to hit” roll, cleric spells of the beneficial sort will fail to have any effect on the one hit by the spit. No saving throw. Only the reversible of this spell will restore worthiness.
Enchanted Holy Symbols (Rients): excellent article on something so old yet perhaps never treated. I loved specially the were-turning one and the Frogish one. All are brilliant and innovative!
Nature's Nasty Node (Makofan): I would use this module in a way different than that suggested by the author. Instead of a nice nature priest that asks the PCs for help to correct evil in an otherwise nice forest, I would have a forest in my campaign that is completely twisted and evil, full of evil forest creatures and twisted plants and beasts. In this fashion the module is very good, because it not only provides an ready-made example but also tools to create your own. It would remind me of the game "Thief: The Dark Project" and it's evil depiction of nature.
Space Wizards (Paul Czege): a good enough read but I can't see the point of this article gaming-wise. I see, of course, that this is because I have a very different approach to this valid form of gaming. Just not my style. The second pic is by my argentine friend Germille, so cool.
Creepies & Crawlies (Reyes, Rients): Excellent new critters for the game. My total favorite has to be the unseelie squirrel: a green vicious rodent that hates elves and forces them to save or die if hit!
LOVE IT!In the Time of the Broken Kingdom (Calithena): this recollections about the past and history of gaming are very enjoyable to read. More so when they are not rants but positive encouragements like this one. This type of columns should have a space in every issue.
I LOVE the full page pic, excellent.
Artifacts, Adjuntcs, & Oddments: the various contributors have submitted very interesting new items. I like the Harpy Cloak, a mixture of boon and drawback.
I hope people like and use my deadly Jug of Oozes.
THUS ENDS THE REVIEW TO THE FIRST ISSUE OF FIGHT ON!
