Recession Reviews:
Reign of Winter 4-6
Times are hard. While the
cost of a gaming book beats any trip to the theatre, our loved ones don’t
always see things it that way. When you can spare the money, what products
deserve your hard earned gaming dollars? Who balances enough crunch with the
fluff to allow the frugal GM to recycle, after all the best games are the ones
you can play over and over again without losing interest.
Normally we’ll not
being doing half an AP all at once, and any who wish to review something in this
format should email me a request at theflyingpincushion@gmail.com
Book 4 The Frozen
Stars:
Written by: Matthew
Goodall
Page count: 98
counting the inside covers
Throw Away pages:
31 (covers, forward, advertisements, in this case the gazetteer for Triaxus,
and a story not directly useful to the adventure)
Golden Pages: 31
(reusable npcs, spells, reusable maps, monsters, new items)
Cover price:
$22.99
Price per page:
$0.23
Modified price per
page: $0.23 = Cover price/pages + golden pages – throw away pages= modified
price per page
Crunch to Fluff
Ratio: 2.16 to 1
Our Rating out of 10:
5 while you can reuse allot, it takes enough GM effort to merit a lower
rating
Description (minor
spoilers): Despite the rating I love this adventure. The option to either
assault or defend the fortress is a welcome trope that harkens back to the
wargaming roots of the system. If your looking for a dragon rider based world
then Triaxus is the place and pick this up to supplement Distant World.
This is mostly just too gonzo for most homebrew worlds.
Book 5 Rasputen
Must Die:
Written by: Brandon
Hodge
Page count: 98
counting the inside covers
Throw Away pages:
27 (covers, forward, advertisements, gazetteer on a god 90% of your PCs will
never touch, and a story not directly useful to the adventure)
Golden Pages: 45
(reusable npcs, spells, reusable maps, monsters, new items, new troop subtype,
amazing modern firearm gazeteer)
Cover price:
$22.99
Price per page:
$0.23
Modified price per
page: $0.23 = Cover price/pages + golden pages – throw away pages= modified
price per page
Crunch to Fluff
Ratio: 3.26 to 1
Our Rating out of 10:
2 or 9 depending entirely on your perspective on modern firearms in fantasy
Description (minor
spoilers): The party comes to Earth. You’re either the DM that has been
waiting for this since the game’s beginnings or the type that will hate this
with a fiery passion. I fall into the former camp and this is likely my
favorite AP standalone ever (and I’ll be using it in kingmaker as a Numerian
invasion,)
As a history buff Brandon Hodge has a deft hand at
introducing this story in a manner that doesn’t do the period an injustice.
Book 6 The Witch
Queen’s Revenge:
Written by: Greg
A. Vaughan
Page count: 98
counting the inside covers
Throw Away pages:
23 (covers, forward, advertisements, and a story not directly useful to the
adventure)
Golden Pages: 32
(reusable npcs, spells, reusable maps, monsters, new items)
Cover price:
$22.99
Price per page:
$0.23
Modified price per
page: $0.22 = Cover price/pages + golden pages – throw away pages= modified
price per page
Crunch to Fluff
Ratio: 4.26 to 1
Our Rating out of 10:
6 You can translocate some of this but so much is within Baba Yaga’s Hut it’s
hard to see any of this transplanted elsewhere.
Description (minor
spoilers): Our heroes save the lesser of two evils and save the world. It’s
another hard sell for those picking this up in part to farm matereals for
another campaign. The villains are tough here and can be reskinned in a number
of ways.
Overall, this si a fun
and engaging series of adventures I’d recommend to either run straight or if
you’re inclined it meshes surprisingly well with Kingmaker and Tales of the Old
Margreve for a dark fairytale feel with a strong Russian flavor (though if you
do that Rasputen must Die is a hard sell.)
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