John Farrell

Experimentation is a healthy part of any growth, but by its nature leads to some failures. Outbreak: Undead Second edition is not a failure in its entirety, but many of the chances that it takes with game design and presentation are. The basic premise is one with which we have

Sometimes the best of intentions and ideas fizzle as you get into the details of completion. Overlight is just such a product; described in broad strokes, it’s a bold new fantasy RPG with accessible rules and unique art design. The central imagination carries through, and makes me want to

As the apocalypse looms ever larger in America’s collective subconscious, it’s fitting that such a high quality RPG has come about to help us experience it at our gaming tables. Mutant: Year Zero sets the stage long after humanity has ceased to be. In its wake, rising out

I found the core book for Tales From the Loop to be a refreshing surprise, and things have only gotten better from there. Just recently the series got picked up for a television program, which will boost its visibility substantially and hopefully get some more people interested in gaming. Our

It’s officially time to start getting excited about the new edition of Pathfinder. I, like many of you, wanted to remain healthily skeptical until we had seen more of Paizo’s direction with its flagship line. While we had reason to hold that skepticism, the playtest documents I have

It’s truly remarkable that they managed to mess this up so completely. Look, I had an intro ready to go that would lay out how Vampire the Masquerade changed gaming and, to a lesser extent, society when it came out, but this newest incarnation is such an offense to

It’s a vibrant time for roleplaying as mystery-solving children in settings influenced by media from the 1980s. Not the 1980s themselves, just certain cultural touchstones that came from it, and the difference is a selective memory about what the age was actually like for children. Just last week I

Nostalgia is a strange thing. While it can easily take you to a warm, familiar place, its simple power over the subconscious is often manipulated for cheap profits from artists seeking to capitalize on the most innocent of emotions. Especially at this, the height of the 80s craze, we have