[Review] Twisted Genomes: Wasteland Mutations - 400+ New Mutations!

Many of the post-apocalyptic RPGs we love have it right there in the title: Mutant Crawl Classics, Mutant Future, Mutant: Year Zero, Mutant Chronicles, etc. We love our mutants and their mutations, but the scant tables and listings in these RPGs often don't allow for much variety (MCC has a little over 100 mutations in the core book - and a quarter of them are defects!) If you want to truly warp, twist, and mutate your games with a wide variety of new mutations, I suggest you check out Twisted Genomes: Wasteland Mutations by Dungeon Remixer.

Written by Derek Holland, who has produced a ton of content for post-apocalyptic games over the years, Twisted Genomes offers more than 400 new radioactivity-triggered, genome-twisting powers to bless (or curse) your Blasted Earth denizens with. The front of the book initially covers three different categories: physical, mental, and plant-based mutations. At the start of each chapter is a table that lists the mutations within and to allow the judge/player to randomly roll their mutations. And these are not your standard Mind Blast or Telekinesis abilities. For example, Fleshreader lets you read the thoughts of a being just by coming into contact with a piece of that being. Spider Palm lets you detach your hand and control it like a familiar. Body-warping abilities like Facial Shift and Flexible Skeleton are here, as well as truly bizarre powers like Barf Guts and Bubble Blower. Several of the mutations also have their own sub-tables allowing for even more variation.

Each mutation throughout the hefty tome (150+ pages) is nicely described with at least a full paragraph explaining how it is triggered and what its effect would be. A good amount of spot art throughout helps to illustrate several of the abilities. Rounding out the book are two appendixes. The first appendix contains alternate and expanded rules for several of the mutations, as well as advice on creating your own. And although Twisted Genomes was written for Gobinoid Games' Mutant Future, the second appendix contains conversion guidelines and notes on how to implement these new mutations in other RPGs, including -- yes -- Mutant Crawl Classics. 

I will likely get a lot of use out of Twisted Genomes, both as a resource for new PC/NPC mutations as well as for inspiration for some truly horrific mutant beasties in the future. ("The creature's spilled blood coagulates into small biting flies which begin to attack as well. Roll for new initiative.") This mutation resource book now has a place of honor next to my well-worn copy of The Metamorphica. Judge Sniderman says, "Check it out."

[Review] Aeon: Ancient Greece - Adventures In The Epic Greek Mythos

 "Sing, oh Goddess of The Good Old Days, when adventures were underground, arms and armor were bronze, and heroes were destined to die the glorious death of a warrior!"

Aeon: Ancient Greece is a series of DCC-compatible zines by Sharktopus Games that places your adventurers squarely in the middle of every Greek Mythos epic ever written. Toga-wearing heroes fight against fickle gods and mythological monsters in a Homeric epic! If you've thrilled to the "sword and sandal" genre of Clash of the Titans or Jason and the Argonauts, you'll want to delve into this series.

Thus far, there have been three issues of Aeon released (with a fourth now Kickstarting for a few more days). I love the way each zine slowly builds upon the genre adding more to the mythos (ha!) with each new issue.

Issue 1: The Labyrinth of Daedalus starts with character generation, letting you create your own Hercules, Theseus, or Jason. A full list of Grecian names, occupations, birth augurs, and Bronze Age equipment round out the first half. The second half throws your zero-level PCs right into the infamous Labyrinth, where only the most heroic for deeds allows for escape! A list of inspirational books and films rounds out the issue.

Issue 2: Deeper Into the Labyrinth expands upon the original adventure, but really shines when it introduces the Greek Gods (i.e., the Olympian Patrons) to your game. Six Olympians, each with their own Invoke table and special spells and taints await their faithful worshippers. And if you displease them, prepare to embark on an epic purification quest on their behalf. And a few of the Heroes of Greece await to bring your PCs on one of their epic quests! 

Issue 3: Monsters of Myth throws 36 creatures out of Greek mythology into the mix. Of course there are cyclops, harpies, and gorgons, but there are far, far more lurking in the shadows!

I really love the way each issue expands upon the DCC game system by introducing more aspects of with each volume. If you just wanted to introduce the Greek Pantheon into your games or expand your monstrous threats, you could pick up the issue that interests you. But if you wanted to run a full Greek epic that will be sung by Greek choruses in colosseums throughout the isles, you'll want to get them all!

The fourth volume of the series, "The Halls of Hades", is currently on Kickstarter for the next week and a half. This issue takes you into the Underworld of Hades itself. Cross the River Styx, fight Cerberus, and maybe - just maybe - bring someone back from The Land of the Dead!

I truly am a fan of Greek mythology, and this fun series of sourcebooks brings The Iliad and the Odyssey to your game table. Judge Sniderman says, "Check it out."

RPG Overview Reviews My Deviant Database and DD 2.0 For Mutant Future

Long before Mutant Crawl Classics came around, I was playing Goblinoid Game's Mutant Future. This post-apocalyptic RPG is based on the Labyrinth Lord system, which is itself based on B/X OSR-type gaming. (You know, "The Original Fantasy Game".) Mutant Future is a great game and was the original inspiration for this blog, in fact.

I created several supplements for it back in the day, and Brandon Goeringer of RPG Overviews was kind enough to recently review my Deviant Databases. The two books in the series are collections of monsters, mutants, creatures, and NPCs that appeared on this blog over the years with artwork contributed by many artists in the OSR RPG community. I appreciated that Brandon liked these supplements enough to review them, and I have linked to his review below.

(Oh, and they can be easily converted to MCC RPG if you wish to use them in your own home games.)

[Review] The Spirit Coin - The Pocket Diviner, Decision Maker, And GM Tool

Quick: Come up with the name of a wood elf your PCs just encountered. OK, now come up with his motivation as to why he's in this desolate area. Can he be trusted? And how far away is the nearest inn from here?

At the table, the GM is tasked with coming up with a lot of answers on the fly. Sure, you could refer to tables you have on hand or rely on your own imagination (although "Steve the Drow" might raise eyebrows). Or you could summon The Spirits to answer these queries through the use of The Spirit Coin.

Created by Alex Kool and launched on Kickstarter, The Spirit Coin is like a portable Ouija Board. The two sides of the coin have four circles: the two outer circles contain the alphabet (consonants and vowels, respectively); the next contains the numbers 0-9 (odd/even); and the inner-most is YES/NO. The user takes the coin in hand and concentrates on the question. Turn the coin in your hand and randomly seek out the answers you need. For example, taking the questions from above (and I swear these are legit from The Coin):

Elf name? ETWIN - That sounds good, so "Etwin" it is.
Motivation? HRNWND - I see "Horn Wind", so I'll say he's on a quest to find The Horn of Winds. He's a sailor and he can use this item to propel his vessel.
Trustworthy? NO - I see our new friend is up to some mischief. Perhaps he mistakenly thinks the PCs possess the item, and he wishes to fight them for it?
Nearest inn? 2 miles from here. And Etwin will accompany his new friends (in hopes of prying The Horn from their hands!).

The Spirit Coin is solidly made of heavy metal and comes in two finishes, bronze and silver. I've taken mine and placed it in my dice bag for those moments when I need quick answers from The Spirits. (Usually at the game table, but you also never know when some otherworldly guidance may come in handy!) The Spirit Coin is now available on Etsy for $15 (with free shipping). I've found this to be very useful during writer's block or as a random prompt for all types of situations, so for GMs who could use a bit of spiritual guidance at the table, go grab one!

[Review] "Crit Or Myth" RPG Musical Comedy CD By Fugli

Although I don't typically review music CDs here at The Savage AfterWorld, I stumbled across a request on Facebook for folks to review an upcoming music CD focusing on old school role-playing gaming. Now, I'm a fan of filk and musical parodys, so I wanted to find out what this was all about. Sent away and in a few days, I got a preview copy of the CD illustrated above.

"Crit or Myth" is an upcoming music CD by "Fugli" (AKA Jeremy Fowler-Lindemulder) who typically performs in the Renaissance Faire community, but this new offering is a divergence from his normal Faire material, and focuses on his AD&D 1e days.

There's good stuff here for the OSR enthusiast with a variety of styles vary from medieval fantasy, to calypso, to rock, to folk parodies of  classic tunes. I enjoyed the variety of musical styles amongst the songs on this fully loaded CD (I'll explain more in a second). There are 12 songs that will have all role-players nodding along with the melodies as well as in agreement with the pithy situations mentioned in the melodious tales. Some of my favorites include...

"Epic Myth" - The odds are against you, and a TPK is imminent. The party is counting on you to pull their fat out of the fire with a Roll For The Ages. You throw the dice and, well, as the song refrain says, "I rolled a one..." A very funny song that I've come to call The Gamer's Lament. One of my favorites on the CD.

"Conga Line of Doom" - Those narrow dungeon corridors don't allow for much shoulder-to-shoulder combat, so line up for the slaughter! The problems with marching orders versus tight underground quarters feature in this calypso parody of pinch points and kill zones.

"Flavor Text" - Those descriptive paragraphs that paint a vivid picture in the minds of your players -- and how they then run berserk through the scene when you stop to take a breath. The creative lyrical prose of the DM versus the breathless impulsive actions of the PCs meet in this funny adventure summary.

Other songs on the CD include: "The Wild Roller" (How much dice you got? It's not enough.); "The Deck of Many Don'ts" (That deck you found in a locked chest? Leave it alone.); "Random Tables" (Almost everything you find and do will be eventually left to chance.); "Baba Yaga's Hut" (Chicken-footed house a-comin'!); "The Demon Prince" (The dance craze...from the Seven Hells!); "Parts is Parts" (You never know what monster part might come in handy later.); "The Hoard" (There's always one player who hoards EVERYTHING - encumbrance be damned.); "Alignment Blues" (Chaotic Evil is so much easier than Lawful Good, you know?); and "Eye of the Beholder" (Monsters, go figure.)

Remember when I said this was "fully loaded"? There are numerous other special features lurking within, such as video clips of live performances, web links to numerous sites of the band's other offerings, and -- most keen for the gamers out there -- "Striek Hollus: The Tomb of the Eighth Blue Wizard", an adventure written by Jeremy back in December 1980 for The Dungeoneer's Journal and is now re-released here! (Which WILL see table use in one of my upcoming home games!) There is a lot to like on this CD for the gamer as well as those who appreciate clever music parodys.

"Crit or Myth" will be released January 2020 through Amazon and fugli.bandcamp.com. You can follow the group at http://phi.povera.com/ or  https://www.facebook.com/fugli as well!

[Review] Maquis Solo Board Game By Side Room Games

In your small French village during WWII, the Nazi occupiers walk the streets, policing the population and fighting the Resistance. But you will not stand for this oppression. You bravely fight for your country; hidden in the shadows, you strike; you are a member of the Maquis.

Maquis is a solo adventure board game by Side Room Games, makers of another fantastic solo game, Black Sonata. In Maquis, you have two weeks to complete two random missions from the Mission deck. You place your Resistance markers on the board representing your village, attempting to gather up supplies and weapons to complete your objectives. However, as you do so, the civilian police walk the streets, looking for dissidents. Sure, you can kill them, but then they are replaced by heavily-armed soldiers, increasing the challenge of the missions.

During setup, you place the morale marker next to the board. With each day, the morale of the town drops, and the military presence grows stronger, so you must complete your missions before it becomes impossible to do so. You then draw two mission cards and lay them at the top of the board, effectively adding two new "spaces" to the board. Each mission has different objectives, ranging for the simplistic "Officer's Mansion" (tag graffiti around the board to increase morale) to the difficult "Assassination" (kill all of the civilian police force). You place your pieces on the board with your objectives in mind. Need food? Stop by the Grocer's. Need a weapon? Take some money to the Fence and buy one. Need something in a hurry? Call in an airdrop at one of the Radio Towers, then race to the Field to pick it up. After each round, you must be able to move via a cleared path back to the Safe House. If your marker cannot do so, they are arrested and out of the game. (Fortunately, you can recruit more Resistance soldiers at the Cafe.)

Another interesting tactic is to use money to open new Safe Houses on the board, so if you are cut off, you can take refuge there. You can also use money to set up other resources on the board such as a Counterfeiter (print more money), Propagandist (increases morale), or Informant (provides intel). In fact, some missions require you to set up an additional resource as the mission cannot be completed with them (a Chemist's Lab is the only place you can get explosives, for example).

In the game shown here, my missions were "Officer's Mansion" (graffiti in three locations on the board, then tag the officer's mansion last) and "Aid the Spy" (bring weapons, money, and food to the hidden British operative). I tackled the graffiti first (shown by the yellow markers), but three of my operatives were arrested in the process. Fortunately I had recruited the cafe patrons to the cause and still had two to assist the spy. Sadly, while delivering the weapons, both recruits were out on the streets and were cut off from escaping back to the Safe House by two patrols that set up at the Grocers and Pont Leveque, ending the game.

This solo game is fantastically designed and incredibly replayable due to the 14 different missions you can undertake. The decisions you make each round directly affect future moves and actions, so the game never feels random or directionless. Thus far, I've played six games, but I haven't won yet, though I've come close. But that's life behind the lines as a member of the Maquis! Viva La Resistance!

[Review] The Great Escape By Zadorf Games - A Solo WWII Prison Escape Card Game

...an Allied soldier jumps out of a nearby hole, knocks dirt off his shoulder, looks around nervously, and then pulls you in close...

"Listen up, 'cause I ain't got much time. I just escaped from Stalag 12 and the guards'll be looking for me any second now. We prisoners trained for this day by playing The Great Escape by Zadorf Games. I suggest you grab a copy so you can be ready when it's your turn. Great, it sounds like they released the dogs. I gotta go!"

The Great Escape is based on the exploits of POWs during WWII as they escaped from enemy encampments and made their way across the countryside toward freedom. In this great solo card game, you're playing the role of Escape Officer, trying to help as many of Your Boys escape as you can. A lot to expect from 48 cards, but The Great Escape pulls it off nicely with clever 3-stage gameplay.

In the first stage, you're digging three tunnels from the barracks in three directions. The objective is to build at least one tunnel of 10 cards in length to go under the wire. The center of each card shows a tunnel schematic, either empty, propped up, or ventilated. Every third card must be propped up, and every fifth card must be ventilated. And the final card of the tunnel must be propped up. You deal cards one at a time building your tunnels trying to meet the building objectives. Meanwhile, cave-ins, guards, and spies hamper your efforts. You may end up with all tunnels caved in or discovered, and the game ends! If you can get at least one tunnel built, the game moves to stage 2...Escape!

All cards played thus far are swept aside and you play with the remainder of the deck. You begin dealing down, revealing prisoner after prisoner, each with their own set of escape tools, papers, and disguises. With each prisoner revealed, more are escaping the camp. When a Guard appears, the tunnel has been found and sealed! And stage 3 begins...Avoiding Capture!

The prisoners revealed are laid face-up in front of you. The remaining deck act as the guards who have now scattered across the countryside looking for the escapees. The bottom icon of the cards reveal the guard's actions for that turn. If there's a train, they're checking the train stations, so any prisoner holding a ticket is caught. Remove those and reveal a new guard. Compass? Any prisoners heading in that same direction are recaptured. Dogs? One random POW is brought back. A radio? Any spies in your group turn in THREE prisoners! When the deck is depleted, any prisoners left have managed to avoid the guards and escape! Count up your score, and try again.

The deck is half the size of a regular deck of cards, but there is a LOT of action and replay in this game. I like how the game is only just starting if you successful build a tunnel. And even then, there's no guarantee that you'll win! (All of my prisoners were recaptured and brought back to camp.) The game is extremely portable with tons of action, and will likely be one of my go-to travel games. The Great Escape by Zadorf Games is only £7.99 with FREE UK delivery; for the rest of the world, it's £10.99 (around $14). Go get a copy for yourself. We'll meet up on the other side of the fence. Good luck, soldier.

[Review] Pulp Detective By Todd Sanders/AV Studio Games

NOTE: I swear I'm still blogging about role-playing games too. I just happened to have a backlog of board/card games I've been wanting to review, so enjoy the next few posts!

For anyone who's ever read a Sam Spade/Phillip Marlow crime novel, or those who have more than a passing interest in the Pulp Noir genre, Todd Sanders has designed a game that places you in the heart of your favorite pulp dime novel. Pulp Detective is a clever little dice-rolling card-based game released by AV Games. This game is designed to be played solo (which will be my focus in this review), although a head-to-head cooperative and competitive version for two players is also included. (The game is still being rolled out to Kickstarter backers and may not be retail available at the time of this writing.)

In Pulp Detective, you play a detective trying to solve one of three cases included in the base game. (More cases and options are available in the follow-up supplement which I'll describe later.) The game consists of various sets of cards that represent your detective, your held items, your stamina and clues found, the case you're trying to solve/timeline, and the deck that makes up the Storyline deck (Cliffhangers, Informants, and Follow The Lead cards). You also have a set of yellow Investigation dice, a red Paperboy dice, and a grey Underworld dice. Eight colored bits are used to mark your status on the various cards, and an assortment of black Twist Markers rounds out the contents. The art design of the game is AMAZING, using the covers and paintings from a variety of pulp novels to illustrate every scene and character you may meet. Even the box looks like it's been weathered and aged since the 1920s, lending a truly gorgeous design to the game's contents.

To play, you first select your detective -- each with a Special Action that gives you an advantage in the game. Each detective then gets a card to track his/her stamina, clues, and items found. You then select one of the cases, and place the tracking bits on the timeline and stamina depending on the difficulty level you want to start with. Beginners get full stamina and a full 24 hours to solve the crime; experts may have fewer hours and stamina at their disposal. Gameplay consists of pulling the top three cards of the Storyline deck, choosing one to tackle, one to discard, and one to place back in the deck for a future pull. Each of the three types of cards gives you a better chance of granting you a specific element needed to win the game: Cliffhangers are likely to replenish your stamina, Follow The Lead will give you items, and Informants give you valuable clues. (Four clues are needed to reach the endgame...)

As you draw and choose cards to play, you place them into a Storyline you build. (And you can add other cards to a Subplot line once too.) Once in the Storyline, you must roll the four Investigation dice and try to match the icons shown on the card. And, if you have Underworld contacts or a friend who's a Paperboy, you may also get to roll the red and/or grey dice too! Finally, if the icons on the edges of your new Storyline card matches any in the current Storyline card, you get to reroll another dice too. If you succeed with the roll, you get the element shown on the card. You could find a bottle of whiskey for more stamina, a taxi to gain extra time, or a tip from a reporter giving you access to the red dice. Or you may "dig deep" and regain some stamina. Or that Informant may let slip with a clue needed to solve the case. Conversely, if you fail, you lose the element shown. You could drop an item, get shot and lose stamina, or just waste your time and watch the hours tick down and down and down...

Time is something you never have enough of in this game. Each played card costs an hour. Each failure may cost you an extra hour. Use of your Special Action might cost your an hour. And as the hours wind down, the icon cost on the cards actually INCREASES, making successes even more difficult to accomplish. And once time is up, the game ends. The game is a true pressure cooker as you fight the clock to win.

However, with each failure, you may also take a black Twist Marker that matches one of the dice faces shown. This Marker can be used once with future rolls to act as that dice face. So at least failure may give you a chance at future successes!

Once (and only  *IF*) you've discovered all four clues -- and if time remains -- you can confront the Master Criminal who's behind the dastardly deed. The Criminal (chosen depending on how the Storyline/Subplots fleshed out) is super-tough to beat, usually requiring 5 dice to defeat. Hope you saved your Twist Markers and/or have your Underworld/Paperboy on-hand for the Big Confrontation!

For this review, I've tried to hit the basics of gameplay, but there are a lot of details and other elements I've glossed over. Although the game may seem simplistic (roll the dice/match icons), a lot of the game hinges on HOW you build the Storyline and Subplots, and what elements you decide to pursue. Sure, you could chase clues, but once you have the fourth one, will you have the resources to confront the Master Criminal? Not likely! And vice-versa, if you build up your stamina and grab a bunch of items to help you win, you may run down the clock, making it impossible to win as well! There a great amount of nuance at play here as you build your case, strengthen your detective, and prepare for the endgame!

There is a supplement also available called Sidekicks, Double Cross, and Masterminds that greatly expands gameplay! Sidekicks offer your detective their expertise in solving the case by giving you a one-time in-game bonus. (Plus a new Sidekicks dice!) The Double Cross cards bring a random element of bad fortune as you chase the bad guys. The Masterminds are World-Class Criminals with global plans of evilness who require **SIX** dice to defeat! Oh, and there are four new detectives to play, more items to find, and four additional cases to crack too!

Pulp Detective is a great game with awesome art elements and tight gameplay. And it's a tough game to win at. Out of a dozen games, I've solved the case and brought the villain to justice once. In fact,in the game illustrated above, I ran out of time and was brought down to 3 stamina, allowing me to roll only three dice. Hard to regain stamina or solve the case when 4-5 dice are typically required! Even the Twist Markers couldn't bail me out of my spiral. Sniderman says, "Check it out."

[Review] Palm Island and Sprawlopolis - Two Micro-Card Games That Fit In The Palm Of Your Hand

During my lengthy hiatus from posting here at The Savage AfterWorld, I've been doing quite a bit of board gaming. Because I'm usually on my own here at Casa Sniderman, I've discovered solo board games. Typically these games are spread out all over your gaming table with many figures, cards, counters, pawns, dice, and a sundry of other bits and pieces to lose or knock onto the floor. However during a Kickstarter shopping spree of the past two years, I discovered two solo games that consist of no more than 18 cards....each. These two games literally fit in the palm of your hand. First we'll take a trip to Palm Island, followed shortly by a visit to the thriving metropolis of Sprawlopolis.

Palm Island by Portal Dragon tasks you to develop and expand the resources of your tiny Island Kingdom. You do this by amassing resources and spending them to “level up” your island's temples, housing, markets, etc. As your island begins to thrive, you have access to more resources to further expand your domain. Did I mention the game is played solely in the palm of your hand?

The 17-card deck is shuffled, then each card in the deck is dealt with one at a time. To store a resource (fish, logs, and stone) for future use, you turn it 90 degrees to expose it. If you amass enough stored resources, you can then spend them to develop your island's buildings and temples by straightening them back up, paying the cost to upgrade. As your island grows stronger, you have access to better and more abundant resources. When you've gone through the deck 8 times, the game ends. Each developed card is worth a certain point value depending on how far you managed to upgrade it. I've oversimplified how to play for this review, but there is an amazing amount of depth and gameplay here. Plus, if you meet certain goals in play, you can add additional cards to the game, such a "Feat" card which gives you special abilities and bonuses. There are Villagers who can offer their help to your island paradise. The game can be played head-to-head, both cooperatively and competitively! And watch out for disasters such as hurricanes and volcanoes that could destroy your kingdom! The portability of this game allows you to play it anywhere you have a free hand, because you don't need a playing surface at all! Very highly recommended!

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Sprawlopolis by Button Shy Games challenges you to build a thriving city made up of industrial, residential, commercial, and city park blocks, while meeting certain predetermined construction goals. And your city will come together with only the 18 cards in the deck!

To begin a game of Sprawlopolis, you shuffle the cards, then pull three at random. On the back of each card is a unique construction goal that applies only to this game. For example, one goal might be "Morning Commute" which gives you a two-point scoring bonus for any roads that pass through both a residential and commercial block. Or "Go Green" which gives you a point for every park block, but penalizes you three points for every industrial block! Each goal card also has a target score number -- adding the three goal numbers together gives you your final Target Score which must be reached or exceeded to win. To play, you use each card in order in the deck from top to bottom. You can play a new card next to or overlapping any card in play, as long as it's always lengthwise oriented and not played corner-to-corner. Your placement determines whether you can meet the scoring conditions on the construction goals. After the last card is placed, you score points per the beginning goals. You finally score one point per block in your largest area of each zone type. If you reached or beat your target score, you win! The Kickstarted version I got also has a few bonus cards, such as Points of Interest (city beautification!), Construction Zones (under development!), and Wrecktar (monster attack!).

Both of these games prove you don't need expansive boards and fiddly bits to have a great game. These 17-18-card decks have given me a lot of gameplay is a very small footprint. Sniderman says, "Check them out!"

[Review] "Advanced Mutant Companion" Supplement For Mutant Future

Those who frequent my blog know that it started as a Mutant Future resource. (The supplements I've released for it are testament to that!) Although my focus and tastes have changed over the years, I will ALWAYS support and trumpet any product that builds upon the gonzo post-apocalyptic goodness of Mutant Future. Today, I'm examining the Advanced Mutant Companion -- a Mutant Future supplement by A. Hagen that offers new rules and additions to the armageddon anarchy of a mutant gone wild!

Unlike other Mutant Future supplements I've seen (and personally written), the Advanced Mutant Companion doesn't give you new creatures and encounters for your game's world. Instead, the Companion presents new ways to build up your initial player characters. Within the 39 pages of the supplement, you'll encounter:

• Five new character races, including cyborgs, aliens, and wasteland wanderers who are MUCH more twisted than normal. The Companion also offers some new twists for your starting mutants and pure humans.
• All PCs had to have started somewhere, so an interesting Backgrounds system is introduced. What your character did before The End will benefit him with new skills and abilities that may come in handy in the Badlands.
• Speaking of skills, a Feats system is also presented that offers more benefits and role-playing chances. There are several subcategories of Feats, including Combat, Survival, Prestige, Resource, Dramatic, and Mutation. A handy Advancement Chart takes the Backgrounds and Feats into consideration, for the ML who implements these into their own games.
• Speaking of mutations, there are 74 new mutations to warp and twist your PCs! And rather than having these as separate abilities, the new mutations have been placed in the original Mutant Future mutation tables, so you can roll on one all-encompassing mutation chart for even more degeneration!

I'm pretty pleased with what's here, as I've often thought a rules supplement to Mutant Future was a product long missing from the product line. There is enough here to inspire Mutant Lords who are looking to add some new twists to their home games. And the product is only $2! Sniderman says check it out!

[Review] "The Fungus Forest" Adventure For OSR-Compatable RPGs

I'm always on the lookout for a good adventure -- one that encompasses an unusual setting and give me as a GM plenty of options to vex and befuddle my players. One such megasetting is The Fungus Forest, a PWYW OSR-compatible adventure setting by Lee Reynoldson and Carl Nash. One note: Carl was kind enough to send me a review copy of the adventure to peruse and review.

This sizable adventure is 71 pages long and is compatible with Original, Basic, and Advanced versions of "the world's most popular fantasy RPG," so you can pretty much run it with any classic RPG or the myriad of clones and remakes we now have available. (Heck, this could be used for an awesome Mutant Future adventure as well.) The Fungus Forest takes place in a sprawling underground complex of caves, caverns, and crevasses created by a rushing underground river that has shaped the tunnels and rooms over thousands of years. Inside this complex, mold, mildew, and fungi of every size and shape have take root, bestowing the nickname found on the cover of the adventure. This place is HUGE. It encompasses more than 100 areas to explore covering well over 1 million square feet. (I did the math, and it checks out.) Just take a look at the map...

(The image here is deliberately small and out of focus to keep spoilers minimal.) 

The reasons the players might stumble across The Fungus Forest are left to the referee. In fact, a handy Rumor Chart might give them the impetus they need to seek it out. (But do the players ever really need a reason to go delving?) Once in the depths, there are plenty for them to investigate:

• There are seven different factions warring for control over the underworld kingdom: the fey, the goblins, the shroom-folk, and more...
• There are unusual and unique creatures to thwart or befriend (mostly thwart)...
• Fabulous riches await the brave and foolhardy, including the key to immortality!

My favorite adventures have always been the underground cave ones, but I've often found them to be somewhat lacking in "stuff to do." That isn't a problem with The Fungus Forest, as there are plenty of opportunities and encounters to last your players quite a while. (I'm deliberately avoid spoilers in this review, so excuse the vagueness.) And, in keeping with the fungus theme, there is also a Random Fungus Generator for a GM to create a new interesting 'shrooms on the fly (as well as the magical properties they may possess). Eight pages of unique creatures fill the back pages of the book, and a sizable fold-out map of the complex is also included.

Oh, and did I mention that this sprawling complex is pay what you want? So just a few dollars in donation will net you a 70+ page megadungeon. (Or download for free and pay later once you've had a chance to see for yourself!) Sniderman says, go check it out by clicking the link here or clicking the cover above!

[Review] "Wayward: Choose Your Adventure Fantasy Board Game" By Hirst Arts

As readers of this blog know, I'm a big fan of DIY RPGs, and I love to discover, play, and review those games that have that self-produced aesthetic. Today, I'm reviewing the first self-produced boardgame I've played, and it's becoming a favorite here at the house.

Wayward is a fantastic boardgame by Bruce Hirst of Hirst Arts, better known for fantasy architecture models and molds. Bruce not only designed the game, he also created it, produced it, manufactured it, and sells it directly from his website and at conventions. (Click here if you'd like to see Bruce's site where he discussed how he created Wayward!)

Before I blather on with my opinions, you'd probably like to see the game in action and hear about the gameplay. Well, Bruce has also thoughtfully produced a playthrough video of the game, so rather than having me summarize the game, I'll let him show you how the game works...

To summarize for those folks who don't want to watch a video, you and up to 5 players explore a huge 24" x 36" gameboard. Each turn, you have 12 "actions" in which to explore a forbidden dungeon or medieval village, amassing as much gold as you can while you fight monsters, dodge traps, and explore multiple "special rooms" with their own unique rules and gameplay. Once the endgame is triggered (usually by the first person to accumulate 100 gold pieces), the players have one remaining turn to escape the gameboard through the exit. Failing to do so, and the players are caught by the guards and tossed into jail, losing the game.

I stumbled across a discussion of Wayward on Facebook and, from the description, knew I had to get my hands on it. The initial description gave me a Dungeon! vibe, which is a good thing, as it's one of my favorite games. However, when the huge box arrived and I unpacked the contents, I saw that this game had much, much deeper gameplay.

Rather than just randomly move about the board, the game encourages you to explore and plan your actions. (After all, those 12 actions go fast on your turn!) According to the rulebook, the board is deliberately designed to be "busy" with a lot of objects and things to inspect. Some of those items can be retrieved from the room you're exploring...if you see them before moving on! Grabbing a weapon lets you try to push past the guards and monsters lurking in the shadows. You can access secret passageways to other parts of the complex if you've found a torch. Locked doors will swing open if you have the right lockpick in hand (There are three different ones!) Hourglasses give you more actions on your turn, and tarot cards allow you to reroll the dice. And as you explore, you have to keep an eye on the ever-dwindling endgame goal, as you'll never make it out in time if you're on the other side of the board!

Speaking of the board, look at the size of it! When you've explored every nook and cranny of the dungeon, flip it over and explore the city above ground.

 One side features Darrowell Dungeon...

And the other side features Darrowell City!

With two huge areas, there's a lot of explore. And there are a TON of things you can do during the course of play in either area, as there are many unique rooms and zones to discover and explore. Each of these special rooms is marked with a brazier icon with a unique number. You then refer to the rulebook (or the hardy reference card) to determine the specific actions available to you in that area. Fighting a dragon, pickpocketing a guard, and outrunning a flaming gauntlet are just some of the challenges you'll face in the game's 25 special areas. (But I won't discuss them here, and I'll let you discover them for yourself.)

The quality of the game's various parts is very high quality and are built to last. The player inventory cards are laminated for durability, and the gameboard is made of a heavy vinyl. The player pawns, endgame marker, and "retrieval pillar" are nicely designed and cast. And you can spend a LOT of time just looking over the gameboard, as it's truly magnificent. Here are a few scenes (from the creator's website):

One thing that drives me nuts when learning a new game is trying to grok the rules, especially if you're trying to learn the game on your own without an experienced player there to help you out. To combat any rule confusion from new players, Bruce has thoughtfully uploaded videos on his website showing the various rules and gameplay that a player may encounter, walking you through the nuances of the game. So if a special room's conditions are confusing, watch the video for the corresponding room as the game's designer walks you through.

And if this isn't enough, you can download and read the rules now before you commit to a purchase. You can also download and print the game for free, so you can try it before you buy it!

This delightful fantasy adventure boardgame offers plenty of replay value and hours upon hours of dungeon-crawling adventure. And for only $35 plus shipping? It's a no-brainer. I'll be bringing my copy to North Texas RPG in a month. If you want to try it out, look for me there! Sniderman says, "Check it out."

[Review] Quill: A Letter-Writing RPG By Trollish Delver Games

Sometimes in an RPG, your character's ability to swing a sword or pick a lock don't matter. In the world of Quill: A Letter-Writing RPG for a Single Player by Scott Malthouse, it all comes down to your PC's penmanship and eloquence.

In Quill, you take on the persona of a letter-writer who is trying to create the best missive to impress the letter's recipient. Do well, and the letter-reader might be impressed enough to reward you. Perform poorly, and the punishment could be dire. Everything that happens to your character comes down to your ability to write convincingly and with heart. (Although your real-life ability to write well is secondary to the gameplay, which will become clear during this review.)

In this unusually-styled RPG, you have six character classes to choose from that reflect professions with a literate background: Monk, Poet, Aristocrat, Courtier. Knight, and Scholar. Each class has three attributes reflecting their respective competence with the written word: Penmanship (how clean it looks); Heart (how heartfelt it sounds); and Language (how well it reads). Each attribute is rated Poor, Average, and Good, which reflects how many dice you roll when that attribute comes into play (1, 2, or 3 dice, respectively). So the Knight would write heartfelt letters (Heart: Good) but he would use commoner's slang when writing (Language: Poor). The Poet's turn of phrasing would be amazing (Language: Good), but his scribbles would be illegible (Penmanship: Poor). Finally, you can choose one of three skills (Inspiration (Language), Illumination (Penmanship), and Augmentation (Heart)) that reflect a one-time-use extra die roll when writing your letter.

Once you've determined your class, attributes, and personal skill, it's time to sit down and write to your letter which will consist of five paragraphs. To start, grab at least three 6-sided dice and choose one of the four scenarios in the rulebook. Each scenario gives you a profile of the recipient of your letter, and the subject you are writing to them about. For example, one scenario has you writing to the king informing him of your suspicions that someone in his court is a spy. Each scenario also gives you the Rules of Correspondence with special circumstances specific to the scenario that will give you a bonus or penalty if applicable. Finally, each scenario has an Ink Pot, a list of words -- both Superior and Inferior -- that you can use to increase your score. Roll well, and you may use one of the Superior Words in your letter, thus impressing the reader. Roll poorly, and you're stuck with phrasing that's a bit more gauche.

All Attributes and Skill checks allow you to roll as many dice as their value allows. If you roll a 5 or 6 on any of the dice, the check is successful. And that's the basis of the game.

To play, you begin writing your letter keeping in mind the information you're trying to impart as well as the profile of the eventual reader. Within each of the five graphs, you'll want to try to insert one of the Superior Words. When you reach that turn of phrase, you'll make a Language skill check. Succeed, gain a point and use one of the Superior Words in the Ink Pot. Fail the check, and blunder your way with one of the crummier words. Further checks are required anytime you want to try to impress the reader with Flourishes (fancy adjectives/adverbs scattered throughout) or by your Penmanship (make a check at the end of each paragraph to see if you're able to maintain your legibility). As you build your letter, you'll make checks versus your Heart, Language, and Penmanship scores, gaining points as you hit the high points of your missive, and suffering penalties as you fumble your way through the low points. At the end of the letter, you'll add up your total score, then refer to the scenario's "Consequences" section to see how the reader reacted to your letter.

So how does it play? Admittedly, most of the game is an exercise in narrative prompt writing with a scoring system tacked on. Whether you do well or poorly comes down to a roll of the dice rather than any real ability of the player to write well. (However, most RPG results comes down to a roll of the dice anyway even if the player can't swing a sword or pick a lock, so it's not a fair comparison.) Overall, I really like the concept of the game as it's a different kind of role-playing. As I sat down as a Monk tasked to inform a close family friend of the death of his son, I found myself pondering the best way to approach the subject. I mulled over the most tactful and somber way to let him know...when it struck me that none of this was real. It was a role-playing exercise that had drawn me in and THAT is the mark of a good game.

That said, I think I'd like to find some time to noodle around with the mechanics and add some new challenges to the game. For example, having to deliver some unpleasant bit of information in your letter may start the player off with a starting negative score that must be overcome during play. Or perhaps a scenario could come with some hidden background text that, if mentioned in the letter, would add to or remove from the player's score. For example, after the game ends and the letter is written, the player would turn to another page with more background info on the letter reader. Perhaps any mention of the letter reader's parents at any point -- whom he hadn't spoken to in years due to a bitter fight -- might give a penalty to the letter's effectiveness. Or mentioning gold or riches to a reader who is secretly a covetous miser would give the writer a bonus.

I would also like to see the game expanded to have some scenarios that are a bit more fantastical in a future supplement. Perhaps there could be a scenario where a knight is about to embark on a rescue quest who needs to secure a powerful magical talisman from a cranky magic-user. Can he sway the arch-mage to surrender his cherished magic item? Or perhaps a monk could try to convince a known rogue to join his crusade against a tyrannical overlord. Heck, how about a series of letters to 4 different recipients where the player is trying to recruit the various members of a dungeon-exploration party? The success of each letter would bring a new member into the party, resulting in a more successful quest. And if everyone turns you down due to your lousy written missives, the player could end up dying alone in the depths of an arch-lich's catacombs!

In summary, I found Quill to be an unusually effective role-playing exercise as I found myself immersed in the scenarios I played, even if I found the mechanics of resolution a bit too random and not contingent upon the letter being written. I think the game could be tightened up a bit with some minor tweaks and additions to the gameplay, but that's just some personal preference sneaking in. I can see myself cobbling together a few scenarios of my own to share with the Quill-playing public in the future!

Quill: A Letter-Writing RPG for a Single Player is available as a Pay What You Want item (so you can try before you buy, if you wish) at Drive Through RPG and RPG Now, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Sniderman says "Grab your Quill and begin writing."

[Review] Evenings Of Terror For Chill 1e & Cryptworld

And now a review of one of my favorite supplements for any RPG system…

Evenings of Terror is a compilation of nine mini-adventures for the Pacesetter’s original Chill RPG. (By extension, this supplement is also backwards-compatible with Cryptworld.) Each of the horrific scenarios within this supplement are one-shots, designed to be played within a single session – the “evenings of terror” referred to in the title.

As many of you know, I’m a big fan of “microadventures”. (Heck, my Mutant Future supplement One Year In The Savage AfterWorld was directly inspired by the “quick hit” nature of the adventures in Evenings of Terror!) So this collection of Chill one-shots really scratches an itch of mine.

Each adventure is narrow in scope, taking place in a single well-defined locale, for example, a small town in the middle of nowhere or within the confines of a classic “haunted house”. There’s even one adventure that takes place in the confines of a single room! (It’s also one of my favorites Chill adventures to run at a convention.) Each of the adventures from Evenings of Terror is self-contained with a set-up and PC introduction, the adventure itself, and a resolution at the end. Each also has every NPC statted up, as well as the THING(s) lurking in the shadows. For the price of one adventure, you get nine separate horrific journeys for your players to investigate and…perhaps…survive.

Before I give you an overview of the individual adventures that make up the Evenings of Terror supplement, I need to warn those of you who may play in any of these that I might reveal the plots and twists of each one, so SPOILER SPACE FOLLOWS HERE:

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The Epidemic – Animals are disappearing throughout DeWitt, Indiana, and the players are sent to investigate. As the PCs check out the little town, the animals return…changed, somehow. This adventure is a fun little romp as the PCs try to figure out where the numerous pets have gone. And when the townfolks begin to vanish as well, they’ll have their hands full!

Lanier House – A new twist on the classic “haunted house” tale, the PCs are sent to find out what happened to the last folks who entered the supposedly haunted house. Is it a ghost or poltergeist causing the mischief? Or is it something more malevolent? (Spoiler alert: Ever seen Monster House?)

A Little Room – One of my favorite scenarios. McClellan Manor in Ontario has a terrible curse. Anyone who enters the mansion’s Overlook Room on July 19 will find themselves trapped within. On the morning of July 20, the door will reopen and the victim will be found dead. It’s said that the curse will be broken if anyone can survive the night until sunrise. A great locked-room adventure that takes place over 8 hours in one room.

Animal House – People are missing in Chicago, and unusual pet behavior is reported. The link? A mysterious veterinarian all of the missing persons visited in the days leading to their disappearance. When the PCs get too close, they may share the victim’s fate! The weakest entry, as it’s a bit of a railroad for the PCs.

The House on the Hill – The townspeople whisper that strange and foreboding experiments are underway at the house of Dr. Frankenberg. His hunched assistant beckons the players to enter as lightning flashes in the sky. It’s a scene straight out of a 1950s horror movie, but it can’t be this straight-forward, can it? A classic bait-and-switch scenario that will cure the PCs of jumping to conclusions.

Still Life – A talentless painter is suddenly creating masterworks of artistic reknown. Any who criticize these work, however, are later found murdered. However, the artist always has an iron-clad alibi. What otherworldly “deals” have been made, and what can the PCs do to break the spell? A very unusual THING haunts this adventure, and it will give your players chills!

Rounded By A Sleep – Anyone who falls asleep in Room 1010 of the Devereaux Hotel never wakes up again as they die peacefully in their sleep. Is something killing people from beyond the realm of dreams…and nightmares? A tough adventure for the PCs as they must fight the THING on its home turf – the dreaming realm!

Crime Magazine – A private eye saw two people who were shot and killed get up and walk away. He’s invited the PCs (known to dabble in “weird stuff”) to help him investigate the seedy underworld when ghouls meet gangsters! Femme fatales and mob bosses are all after a cursed object that leaves death in its wake. An adventure with a 1930’s noir twist.

Haunt Thy Native Place – A stopover in the quiet town of Tall Rock becomes a fight for survival as a dangerous creature watches the players with interest…and hunger. How fast can the players get to the bottom of this supposedly peaceful setting? A pretty standard horror adventure but fun nonetheless. 

Oh, and what of Elvira, the Mistress of the Dark? How does she fit into all of these scenarios? She doesn’t. Elvira provides an intro and outro for each adventure written in the style of our favorite horror hostess. Her photos grace the pages throughout too, but those of you fearful that this was somehow an adventure series “starring” Elvira need not worry.

As a fledgling CM, Evenings of Terror taught me that you didn’t need a world-spanning campaign that takes months or years to complete. If you want to run a quick night of horror with a host of new and unusual creatures for your Chill/Cryptworld players, I recommend you pick up a copy of this great sourcebook. You can get it for less than $10 at Noble KnightGames.

[Review] The Gamemaster's Apprentice Base Deck

I'm a sucker for any product that claims to make a GM's life easier at the gaming table. Adventure creators, GM emulators, story prompts -- I really enjoy having something at-hand to help me through those unexpected "curves" your players toss at you.

"Oh, so you want to enter that room I never wrote up to follow that NPC I never fleshed out? Ohhhhh-kay...."

So I'm very pleased to have discovered The Gamemaster's Apprentice by Nathan Rockwood. This incredibly useful deck of 60 double-backed cards (120 card faces) gives the GM a TON of useful prompts, randomizers, seeds, and details for nearly any gaming occasion I can think of. It can also be used as a GM emulator for solo gaming. The deck is also system and genre-neutral, so you can use it with pretty much any game I can imagine.

Each card offers the GM 14 different "tools" at the table, with each card providing a randomly created element or prompt. If the GM is stuck, he pulls a card and runs with the result on the card. Just LOOK at the sheer number of tools found in the GM's Apprentice:

1. Difficulty Generator: Here, the numbers 1 through 10 randomly appear. Distributed through a bell curve with 5-7 appearing most often as an "average", you can randomly determine how easy (1-4), average (5-7), or difficult (8-10) a given task is.
2. Likely Odds:  Need a yes/no answer to a situation? First determine the likelihood of a positive outcome, then pull a card to see if they succeeded or not.
3. Dice: Each polyhedral dice is here, with an even distribution of outcomes across the 120 faces. (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d%). Don't have your dice on hand? Grab a card and find the result instead.
4. Norse Runes: The runes correspond to a handy chart provided in the deck's instructions (provided as a free download). These symbolic prompts are meant to fuel your imagination as needed.
5. Elemental Symbols: The symbols for air, earth, fire, and water can be literal prompts or suggestive for the situation.
6. Random Event Generator: Each line here has a verb-adjective-noun layout. Pull three cards (one for each word) or just read the prompts as written for a random situation prompt!
7. Sensory Prompts: Need to give the players something they can see, hear, smell, or feel in a scene? A random card draw give you some sensory clues for the players to act upon.
8. Tag Symbol: The tags are used for another set of randomizers that correspond to a previously designed list of possible events or encounters, or just for symbolic interpretation.
9. Scatter Die: Need to quickly determine a random direction? Check out the scatter die icon to see which way the path goes, the wind is blowing, or where that grenade landed!
10. Possessions: What's in the NPC's pockets? The handy list gives the GM a way to determine a list of random objects.
11. Names: What is the name of this random NPC? Pull a card an give him/her a quick moniker on the spot.
12. Catalysts: These story prompts push the situation in unexpected directions when needed.
13. Location: Where are they? Where do they need to go? Where is the Macguffin to be found? Each card has a unique location to explore.
14. Virtue and Vice: What's so good/bad about a certain person? What habits do they have. Pull a card and give them some quick quirks.

As you can see, the many uses of these cards is staggering. You can create an NPC on the spot. You can use the deck as a game engine. You can flesh out a random scene or event. Story ideas and seeds can be created with just a few draws of the deck. I'm just beginning to discover the uses this deck has, and it has gone into my travelling game kit. The Gamemaster's Apprentice Deck is available at Drive Through RPG for $10 for a print-your-own version, or $20.00 for a deck of cards. I got the cards, and they're very good, high-quality. Sniderman says check it out.

[Int'l Tabletop Day Review] Escape: Zombie City by Queen Games

Welcome to The Savage AfterWorld and International TableTop Day! We're participating in a multi-site "Boardgame Review Bloghop" today, so zip down to the bottom of this post to see who else is participating. And now, on with my overview!

Most boardgame enthusiasts by now have probably heard about and/or played Escape: The Curse of the Temple by Queen Games. This frantic, real-time, dice-rolling, adventure game is great fun for would-be Indiana Jones-types as they hurriedly roll dice, explore the tomb, retrieve the treasures, and try to get out alive before time runs out! But what if you prefer "less Raiders" and "more Living Dead"? Well Queen Games' recently released Escape follow-up will slake that zombie hunger!

 Escape: Zombie City is Queen Games' newest entry in their real-time, dice-rolling, exploration-and-escape game series, and it has quickly become a favorite in the Sniderman household. Gameplay is similar to the first Escape game (explained later), but in Zombie City, the game is divided into two distinct phases. (First, you'll want to pop in and play the enclosed CD soundtrack which acts as both a 15-minute timer as well as a nifty ambiance soundtrack.)

During the first phase, players spread out from their church stronghold into the zombie-infested city. While running through the streets and exploring the town, you'll need to scavenge up several specific items necessary to escape: first aid supplies, food, weapons, etc. During all of this, zombies are rising from the grave, attacking the players and wandering the streets back to the church. If three manage to enter your home base, your base is overrun and you lose immediately! So simply avoiding the zombies isn't enough -- you'll have to destroy them, spending valuable time in the process.

The red and blue players team up to fight a red zombie while the white player contends with a yellow zombie that popped up on the new area he entered. (No thanks to the zombie card shown!) Meanwhile the green zombie is just one step away from walking into the church to the right!

Every five minutes of real-time when the zombies groan with hunger, you must race back to the church to both drop off found supplies and take shelter from the undead horde. Fail to do so, and you lose the use of one of your precious dice for the rest of the game! Hopefully during the chaos, you'll be able to find the road that leads out of town as well as collect enough supplies to make a run for it! When (and IF) you do, phase two begins...

During phase two, you load up the beat-up church van and try to drive out of town. At this point, the streets are overrun with undead, and the players must now fight together as a team to get themselves, the van, and all of their supplies to the exit ramp and out of town. Movement slows to a crawl as EVERY player must successfully move along with an extra movement rolled for the van. Any zombies you encounter must be fought rather than bypassed or fled from. And by this time, you have a scant few minutes before time runs out!

The yellow van is loaded with supplies and ready to head out to the exit in the upper left of the photo. But the road out of town is loaded with zombies! Good thing they're escaping, as two zombies managed to enter the base as shown in the lower left next to the zombie card pile.

Like its predecessor, each player constantly rolls five dice, attempting to make matches that will allow them to perform actions. Matching a pair of "getaway" icons allows you to reveal and place a new city tile or enter an area previously exposed. "Fist" and "bat" icons let you scavenge for necessary supplies and attack the zombie hoards. Be careful, as "panic" icons become locked and unusable unless you can unlock it with a "caution" roll. It sounds simple enough until that looming 15-minute countdown begins, then it becomes a frantic dice-rolling free-for-all.

Complicating things are the zombies and the zombie cards. With each new street section exposed, a player must draw a new zombie card. Some cards cause one or all zombies to move toward the church. Some cards cause a zombie to explode out of the ground in the section the player's now in. And other cards cause zombies to pop up throughout the city! There are also injury cards -- such as a broken arm (you must play with one hand only) or bitten by a zombie (lose a die). Also zombies come in three strengths. The weak "green" zombies are easily defeated, needing three fists or bats to put them down. Moderate "yellow" zombies need four fists/bats to stop them, and the hearty "red" zombies require all five of your dice to show fists or bats. With the stronger zombies, you'll need other players to run to your aid as you can then combine your dice if you're in the same section. However, while you pool your fighting resources, you lose time scavenging for supplies. And the clock is always ticking down.

rawwwrrrr...grooooannn....unnngghhhrrrr

Unlike Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Escape: Zombie City adds a new dimension to the gameplay as the gameboard is now alive (in a manner of speaking). Players are not just trying to gather supplies and escape to win...now they must also defend their base from an ever-approaching -- and ever-growing -- zombie horde. And as the timer ticks down, more zombies enter the game, staggering towards the church, cutting off the players' hope for Escape! If you enjoy the quick-paced exploration mechanic of the original game, Escape: Zombie City adds a great new element with the approaching relentless zombie horde as well as horrifying zompocalypse theme to the game. Good luck, and try not to get eaten!

Be sure visit these other International TableTop Day "Boardgame Review Bloghop" participants!

Channel Zero – Thunderstone by Alderac Entertainment

Fractalbat – The Hills Rise Wild by Pagan Publishing

The Gibbering Gamer – Dragon Dice by SFR (formerly TSR)

Random Encounters (From Ohio) – Nano Bot Battle Arena by Derpy Games

Troll in the Corner – Star Realms by White Wizard Games

The Savage AfterWorld – Escape: Zombie City by Queen Games