Armchair Gamer: Armchair Reviews: ICONS -- The RetConQuest PDF
Armchair Reviews: ICONS -- The RetConQuest PDF
Labels: armchair reviews, RPG review
Here's my latest review: an adventure for a system I've never played. However, it is an interesting enough adventure as an introduction to a game system and start of a campaign.
In a nutshell, The RetConQuest is a solid adventure that seems -- structurally -- more appropriate as an introductory adventure rather than as a stand-alone adventure in an ongoing campaign.
The core conceit of 'normal humans' remembering their superpowered selves and slowly/instantaneously regaining their identities and abilities in an alternate timeline is a good one, allowing new players (and characters) to slowly be introduced to the character creation and task resolution rules of Icons without necessarily abandoning the game narrative completely. The plot twists seeded in the "initial" and "final" confrontations with Tempus Khan are also useful in terms of helping fine tune characters created in the course of play, in addition to being a clever, limited-novelty nod to the nature of battling time-conquering villains.
For an ongoing campaign, however, I have a preference for more scenes and encounters that would allow the GM to present a series of encounters with heroes, villains, and normals from the regular campaign and how their lives are different from what is remembered. There was only one opportunity for this in the published adventure, though a clever GM could arguably extend or spread out such scenes.
Finally, there were a small number of typos that could have been fixed (and still can be through the magic of updated PDFs): like the "page @@" incident and a missing apostrophe.
All in all, a solid, clever adventure and a potentially great beginning for a great campaign!
I would add to this review that my preferences do tend more to sourcebooks, and adventures that actually flesh out certain portions of a campaign world with little bits of texture and telling detail. Despite this, and a staggering realization that I prefer smaller fonts to larger ones in my gaming material, I thought this was a good product.
Posted (and copyright) by Alex Osias at 10:10 AM
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Armchair Gamer: Armchair Reviews: ICONS -- The RetConQuest PDF
Armchair Reviews: ICONS -- The RetConQuest PDF
Labels: armchair reviews, RPG review
Here's my latest review: an adventure for a system I've never played. However, it is an interesting enough adventure as an introduction to a game system and start of a campaign.
In a nutshell, The RetConQuest is a solid adventure that seems -- structurally -- more appropriate as an introductory adventure rather than as a stand-alone adventure in an ongoing campaign.
The core conceit of 'normal humans' remembering their superpowered selves and slowly/instantaneously regaining their identities and abilities in an alternate timeline is a good one, allowing new players (and characters) to slowly be introduced to the character creation and task resolution rules of Icons without necessarily abandoning the game narrative completely. The plot twists seeded in the "initial" and "final" confrontations with Tempus Khan are also useful in terms of helping fine tune characters created in the course of play, in addition to being a clever, limited-novelty nod to the nature of battling time-conquering villains.
For an ongoing campaign, however, I have a preference for more scenes and encounters that would allow the GM to present a series of encounters with heroes, villains, and normals from the regular campaign and how their lives are different from what is remembered. There was only one opportunity for this in the published adventure, though a clever GM could arguably extend or spread out such scenes.
Finally, there were a small number of typos that could have been fixed (and still can be through the magic of updated PDFs): like the "page @@" incident and a missing apostrophe.
All in all, a solid, clever adventure and a potentially great beginning for a great campaign!
I would add to this review that my preferences do tend more to sourcebooks, and adventures that actually flesh out certain portions of a campaign world with little bits of texture and telling detail. Despite this, and a staggering realization that I prefer smaller fonts to larger ones in my gaming material, I thought this was a good product.
Posted (and copyright) by Alex Osias at 10:10 AM
You may not have heard yet, but at the end of January 2018, the D&D Cyclopedia went up for sale on DriveThruRPG . Apparently, it's...
Ships without Number: 0-hr. Carriers
As mentioned in a prior post, I was looking for a ship that PCs could be based on -- one where they'd have interactions with the other c...
Time Tunnel Thursday: Armchair Reviews... er, Review (Expanded)
I've done this before -- should probably make this a standard page and put the link in one of the sidebars. Also: some of the products...
STAR TREK ADVENTURES (Online Resources) With the release of Star Trek Adventures , it's a good time to pause and reflect on what a g...
Armchair Reviews: Clockwork & Chivalry Core Rulebo...
In Search Of: Go-to OSR Ruleset(s) for 2012
Armchair Gamer Plans for 2012
Armchair
 Reviews: Weird Adventures
Piecemeal System Reviews: Three from January
OSR Cycle of Innovations & Critique Criteria
On the Radar: Hey! It's Buckaroo Banzai!
A New Fading Suns Site from Redbrick?
Setting Expeditions: Code Black -- Part IIIa
Armchair Reviews: Isle of the Unknown PDF edition
On the Radar: Weird Adventures Now Out?
Armchair Reviews: Carcosa PDF Edition
Armchair Reviews: Thoughts on Approach
Setting Expeditions: Code Black -- Part II
Setting Expeditions: Code Black -- Part I
On the Radar: H.G. Wells' Little Orc Wars
Isle Imperium Shards -- A First Set of Shards
On the Radar: OSR items at $1.35? Other Sale Items...
Reasons We Play RPGs -- Valid / Not Valid / Incomp...
Isle Imperium Shards -- Common Knowledge & Rumors
The Unfathomable - Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last night with the party undertaking a journey to Subazurth and the uncharted region of chaotic, wild magic called ...
LotR Adventures: "Over the Misty Mountains Cold" - *From the Back Cover:* *"Like Frodo and the rest of the Fellowship, you too can now venture into Dwarven ruins as ancient as abandoned Moria. But gird...
Countdown to Infinity War: Avengers - When last we saw Loki, he was falling from Asgard into space. Now we see him receiving a glowing scepter, and ready to wage war upon mankind... And he's go...
Relativity! - Today I finished reading “Time for the Stars”, a classic young-adult science-fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein. You might be asking yourselves now why I ...
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Marvel Comics for February 21st, 2018 - Plenty to look forward to from Marvel next week including the launch of Doctor Strange: Damnation, the Black Panther annual, and the Infinity Countdown Pri...
Saintly Saturday: St. Theodore the Recruit - This year, in the Orthodox Church, an unusual occurrence happens. We get to celebrate The Great Martyr St. Theodore the Recruit (sometimes rendered “Soldie...
Magic School: Going Back to Glantri - Curse my gamemastering ADHD! So despite the fact that I have not one, not two, but THREE D&D 5th Edition games going, I was working out some details of my...
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RPG news (82)
setting: confederation chronicles (12)
Setting: mystara (68)
Setting: star trek (8)