Review: Poisn’d

Introduction
Poisn’d is a light, short-form, narrativist RPG presented in a pamphlet format and given some internet notoriety due to a ‘throat raping’ incident in some game somewhere that has, in some quarters, made it a touchstone for the ‘sick excess’ of some indie RPGs that are allegedly only in it to shock people.

As the publisher of Hentacle I’m not really in much of a position to judge them on that score and while the game deals with some pretty dark shit, I think the kerfuffle basically comes down to different senses of humour and a puritanical streak on t’other side of the Atlantic.

Background
The game has a very set background but past that you’re free to take it in all sorts of piratical directions. Characters are created with a set of sins, traumas and relationships that bind them together on their ship, The Dagger, as the old captain – a terrifying bastard called Brimstone Jack – has died, poisoned by the cook who has also been killed, leaving a vacuum at the leadership of the vessel. The group fall upon each other to determine who should be leader while still dealing with the death, debauchery and riches that come with being a pirate, the ever present threat of the Royal Navy and the inevitable end of them all.

Mechanics
Your various social relationships and traumas, along with a few other choices, go together to make up your operating statistics and these are compared with challenges and determine how many d6 you roll, aiming to get 4-6 which counts as a success. Conflicts are also ‘escalated’ making the mode of play something between Yahtzee and Blackjack, pushing your luck and figuring out when to back out in all your conflicts. The social ties to other players end up creating a rather incestuous and backstabbing environment which is about as far from the romantic image of pirates as you can get. This is, sort of, the anti-PotC.

Atmosphere
The booklet is very sparse, really just a pamphlet, printed a bit like the menu from a mid-scale Indian restaraunt. There’s no art to speak of and fairly sparse use of fonts. Despite all this the short descriptive sections and sample characters go a long way towards creating the right atmosphere and priming you for play as a scurvy, buggering, piratical bastard.

Artwork
None to speak of.

Conclusion
A good pick up game for a few sick and twisted laughs but I don’t see it having a lot of legs. 3 or 4 games maybe – and better with a larger group. Ideal for cons, not so much for your regular gaming group.

On the plus side:

• Filthy gorgeous.
• Cheap at half the price.
• Good for a laugh.

On the minus side:

• Hard to read.
• Could be better presented.
• Associated with raping neck stumps.

Score
Style: 4
Substance: 3
Overall: 3.5

Review: Starblazer GM Screen

Review
C7’s been producing some pretty good GM screens for various games that they produce or licence for a while now. This is the one for Starblazer Adventures which, perhaps, out of all their games needs it the most, covering all the charts and references that are most essential for the game.

The screen is particularly sturdy and nicely decorated with four pieces of cover art from the old Starblazer magazine. The reverse is covered in a substantial number of useful charts and references which, while they obviously can’t cover the voluminous material that fills the substantial brick that is Starblazer Adventures, does at least cover the essentials.

I’ve never been much of a one for GM screens since I don’t tend to play in a formal setting, sat up at a table. If I’d had GM screens this sturdy in the past I might have used them more often and even if you don’t sit up at a table this is a damn sight better than flipping through a 630 page library to try and find the particular bit that you need.

On the plus side:

• Saints be praised, it’s not thick enough to make Long Dong Silver feel inadequate.
• Sturdily built.
• Nice art.

On the minus side:

• It’s JUST a GM screen, sometimes companies throw in something else with a GM screen to up the value.
• I have a feeling the panels will tear and drop away from the screen as a whole.
• This being Starblazer, a more complete screen, perhaps a bucky-dome, covered in references would have been better.

Score
Style: 4
Substance: 4
Overall: 4

Review: Qin Legends

Introduction
I reviewed Qin already and thought very highly of it indeed. Qin Legends is a supplement for Qin consisting of the high level masteries and skills as well as a few scattered bits of new material and an adventure.

Background
Qin Legends doesn’t add to much to the background of the game, in fact the only additions to the background material are really to be found in the ‘styles’ and their history.

Mechanics
Essentially this is all mechanics, though there’s a little short fiction and an adventure in the back. The high end secrets of the Taos, new combat techniques, high level skills, flexible weapons and ‘the magic of the gods’ anQin Legends and their artefacts. These are all suitably powerful and thematic and do expand the range from the initial book.

Atmosphere
Not really applicable.

Artwork
As with the original book the main problem with the presentation is that the pages are so grey that the text and the artwork sort of fade into the background for lack of contrast. Otherwise the artwork is servicable and does the job.

Conclusion
Honestly, I would have cut the adventure and folded the higher end material into a new edition of the main rulebook with this as a PDF update for those who had bought the original book. The new mechanics amount to around 32 pages and the adventure is around 18 pages. It might well have been better to fold this into another book to increase the value for money because as things stand it feels like a relatively high price, just to get access to the high powered cheese!

On the plus side:

• Full of neem, zort, goob and cheese.
• More character options.
• Useful NPCs from the adventure.

On the minus side:

• 1/4 of the book is an adventure.
• Not that much bang for your buck (in terms of pages, not in terms of power).
• Doesn’t add more breadth to the powers, just extends them.

Score
Style: 3
Substance: 3
Overall: 3

Taking the plunge into Youtube