Tell us about something good that you got recently

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
I succumbed to the lure of the SF sale on DriveThru and purchased:

View attachment 30664

With my usual lack of shopping acumen, I then discovered that I could have bought a new paper copy on Amazon for about the same as I paid for a .PDF in the DriveThru sale. Oh well, I'll look it over, and if I really enjoy it I might spring for the paper copy too.
John Snead is an excellent writer. I also recommend his book After the Vampire Wars and Enlightened Magic.
 
I have no opinion on Hellboy, but whenever I see this sort of opinion it seems so alien to me. RPG systems are so uninteresting to read that if a game can't fit into B/X or BRP, I pretty much disregard it. I've been mulling over whether or not to buy Hollow Earth Expedition for over a week just cause I'm uninterested in a new system. It's probably worthwhile just for setting stuff, but I'm not sure I want to waste the shelf space on rules I don't care to read.
This post may belong in the superficial thread.
I was thinking the same when I bought HEX. Sadly, there is little setting information. It does a good job of describing how to make a pulp game feel right, but if you were thinking of maps and pages of details on what is inside the Hollow Earth, you would be disappointed. It leaves all that for the GM to create. There is a basic beastiary, but nothing you couldn't do yourself for the system you prefer.
 
"I love the vibe here in LFG"

I ran several sessions of LFG and enjoyed it. I would choose it over D&D 5e if you are looking for a Sword & Sorcery vibe with approximately the same level of crunch as 5e. To be honest, though, I'd run the free pdf version. That pretty color book adds in much of the high fantasy stuff I was looking to avoid.
 
Last edited:
I was thinking the same when I bought HEX. Sadly, there is little setting information. It does a good job of describing how to make a pulp game feel right, but if you were thinking of maps and pages of details on what is inside the Hollow Earth, you would be disappointed. It leaves all that for the GM to create. There is a basic beastiary, but nothing you couldn't do yourself for the system you prefer.
That's too bad, I thought it looked really promising, regardless of system.
I'll probably stick with Pulp Cthulhu, with some modifications, but I'd like to find something non-Mythos to ground it in.
 
I’m severely tempted to pick this up in PDF.
It's not a retroclone, it's more of an OSR-adjacent game. It's really got great flavour, perhaps the best I have seen for these kind of games
It's well worth getting this verson, its really well produced, and perfect if you want to capture the DCC vibe with less gonzo and cleaner mechanics.
I love the tone and atmosphere, it's the kind of thing that got me into classic fantasy roleplaying in the first place
I highly recommend anyone checking out LFG (and this is coming from a BRP/Mythras fan!) :thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
I got this as a premium print a few weeks ago. Even my wife (who does not care for RPGs) likes to look at it.

VDA.jpg

"I love the vibe here in LFG"

I ran several sessions of LFG and enjoyed it. I would choose it over D&D 5e if you are looking for a Sword & Sorcery vibe with approximately the same level of crunch as 5e. To be honest, though, I'd run the free pdf version. That pretty color book adds in much of the high fantasy stuff I was looking to avoid.
Thank you for the advice. I was looking to pick up the deluxe for my next book buy for alternate Warhammer rules but will look at the PDF version instead.
 
It's also available in a free version, if $20 for the Deluxe seems steep: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/231747/Low-Fantasy-Gaming-Original?cPath=31597

I don't know what the differences are between the versions, beyond art.
The free version has beautiful old-school black and white line art, rather than the equally beautiful full color art in the deluxe. The rules are almost entirely identical. The deluxe adds additional class options and the hints of a setting, elaborated in a separate book. While I am proud to own the deluxe version, when I run a game I use only the free version. I like it better. Most of the additions of the deluxe version take LFG back towards the higher fantasy of D&D. That is expressly what I was looking to escape. I will note that many who play LFG disagree with me and use every option given to them by the deluxe book, supplements, house rules, etc. Even in that form, LFG would be a good game, but you might as well play 5e at that point.
 
You are so good at selling Mankcam Mankcam that you could almost get me to buy a 2d20 game.
Well if I had more time mate I would probably throw some reviews on a personal blog and promote it here, but alas my time isn't my own these days

I quite like Low Fantasy Gaming, there's something about it that's really cool.
Just my kinda vibe for classic fantasy.

Unfortunately it has the weird D20 OSR thing of having D20 roll-under for Abilities, yet has D20 roll-over for Attacks, and occasionally it even asks for a D100% to determine random occurances at times. That's the kind of inconsistent core mechanics that I don't like in the TSR era games, and the OSR keeps them alive.

However there is alot to really like about this game, the structure of Skills and the mild bonuses they give, the way Magic is done, and the stripped-down feel.
It all adds up to be a great version of D20 that hums nicely in a setting that could have been penned by Howard or Leiber, that classic fantasy with a sword & sorcery vibe.

Here's a decent review you might want to check out:




and to help you climb further down into the rabbit hole:



and with that, my job is done :grin: :thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
That RPG Crawler is a really good reviewer Mankcam Mankcam. One of the best ones I’ve seen because I usually don’t like to watch RPG reviews on YouTube. Thanks for sharing. I did purchase it.
 
That RPG Crawler is a really good reviewer Mankcam Mankcam. One of the best ones I’ve seen because I usually don’t like to watch RPG reviews on YouTube. Thanks for sharing. I did purchase it.
...and, now for my next trick , I'm reaching into my Magicians Hat and pulling out a white rabbit with the letters 'CONAN 2D20' emblazoned on its arse, heh heh :grin:
 
Last edited:
That RPG Crawler is a really good reviewer Mankcam Mankcam. One of the best ones I’ve seen because I usually don’t like to watch RPG reviews on YouTube. Thanks for sharing. I did purchase it.
If Rich H Rich H and yourself want to further tumble down the LFG rabbit-hole, there is also a full setting book here; it's broad brush strokes, but it's a pretty good read all the same. The LFG Deluxe core rules came out after this, and the two additional Classes that were included in here were also replicated in the LFG Deluxe rulebook, but the remainder of the book is pretty useful as a gazetteer.

To top it off, there are two books of collected adventure scenarios for LFG that are perfect for sandboxing.
I don't know about you, but I've always loved having small adventures that I can slot into my own campaigns and adjust according to what I need.

These are pretty good, and easy enough for me to convert the plot lines for a Mythras fantasy game or whatever, but otherwise I could run these LFG scenarios just as they are. It also wouldn't take much to convert these to D&D 5E stats on the fly - you would have to use LFG magic as RAW, as it's too cool to be left behind. Other than that, the NPC AC values are pretty much the same, and the their HD would not be too far off for HP calculation. Just use the 5E weapon dice, and that's about it.

I think you get about 20 scenarios in the first book, and about 15 scenarios in the second book. That's pretty good utility value, as there is heaps of cool content to swipe here :thumbsup:
 
Last edited:
I think Modiphius's John Carter would make a great Star Wars game. It plays very cinematic.
2D20 is pretty pulpy, so it would work quite well with Star Wars, just like it does a reasonable job with CONAN and John Carter.

The way the Momentum Pts mechanic balloons out, it is great for cinematics and such, so I think that's the kind of thing that could work really well for emulating Han Solo, or Jedi Knights etc. Of course the Momentum/Doom mechanic will need to be retrapped as Light Side/Dark Side Pts in Star Wars, that would be a no-brainer.

I can't see how 2D20 suits Star Trek, and I hold reservations about it for DUNE as well. I've yet to see it in play with those settings, but it doesn't feel like a good fit for them.

Yeah I could see a Star Wars 2D20 working pretty good, a much better fit than when Star Wars was in the D20 OGL 3E and SAGA systems, that's for sure.
But too much of this kinda chatter here at RPGPub will likely get you branded as a 'Disturber Of The Peace', heh heh :grin:
 
Last edited:
I think Modiphius's John Carter would make a great Star Wars game. It plays very cinematic.
That would work really well I think. Let them do the art and someone else do the layout and indexing since Modiphius sucks at that part.
 
What are the classes like in that book. I've only played Spycraft d20 once & it was fun.
 
HEX.jpg

Went ahead and picked these up this week. My initial impression is pretty positive. The system is a bit goofy, rolling very large d2 dice pools, but it also seems very easy to use. Attacker rolls dice pool, defender rolls dice pool, count successes (evens), if the attacker has more he does damage equal to the difference. Pretty much everything in the game is a modifier that adds or removes dice from the pool.
I'm not sure I'd use it over Pulp Cthulhu, but at least it's easy enough to understand and make comparisons that it'll be easy to translate into another system.

All the setting stuff is great though. I like the primer on the state of the world in 1936. One or two paragraphs on what's going on in about 40 countries. There are secret societies and exploration organizations to ally or compete with, the equipment catalog is surprisingly good for as light as the system is, and the bestiary has all the dinosaurs and overgrown animals I could ask for.

The Hollow Earth part of the setting is definitely light, mostly describing how things work differently from the surface, and a little bit of Atlantean history, but it's otherwise more an idea than a setting. I see on DriveThru there is a Mysteries of the Hollow Earth sourcebook that I presume provides more substance, but I can't find that one in print anywhere (under $500 anyway). So that's too bad.

Anyway, this is some good reading. Seems a shame the publisher isn't active anymore.
 
View attachment 30876

Went ahead and picked these up this week. My initial impression is pretty positive. The system is a bit goofy, rolling very large d2 dice pools, but it also seems very easy to use. Attacker rolls dice pool, defender rolls dice pool, count successes (evens), if the attacker has more he does damage equal to the difference. Pretty much everything in the game is a modifier that adds or removes dice from the pool.
I'm not sure I'd use it over Pulp Cthulhu, but at least it's easy enough to understand and make comparisons that it'll be easy to translate into another system.

All the setting stuff is great though. I like the primer on the state of the world in 1936. One or two paragraphs on what's going on in about 40 countries. There are secret societies and exploration organizations to ally or compete with, the equipment catalog is surprisingly good for as light as the system is, and the bestiary has all the dinosaurs and overgrown animals I could ask for.

The Hollow Earth part of the setting is definitely light, mostly describing how things work differently from the surface, and a little bit of Atlantean history, but it's otherwise more an idea than a setting. I see on DriveThru there is a Mysteries of the Hollow Earth sourcebook that I presume provides more substance, but I can't find that one in print anywhere (under $500 anyway). So that's too bad.

Anyway, this is some good reading. Seems a shame the publisher isn't active anymore.
I have mysteries. I'll take a look at it and report back when I get a chance
 
View attachment 30876

Went ahead and picked these up this week. My initial impression is pretty positive. The system is a bit goofy, rolling very large d2 dice pools, but it also seems very easy to use. Attacker rolls dice pool, defender rolls dice pool, count successes (evens), if the attacker has more he does damage equal to the difference. Pretty much everything in the game is a modifier that adds or removes dice from the pool.
I'm not sure I'd use it over Pulp Cthulhu, but at least it's easy enough to understand and make comparisons that it'll be easy to translate into another system.

All the setting stuff is great though. I like the primer on the state of the world in 1936. One or two paragraphs on what's going on in about 40 countries. There are secret societies and exploration organizations to ally or compete with, the equipment catalog is surprisingly good for as light as the system is, and the bestiary has all the dinosaurs and overgrown animals I could ask for.

The Hollow Earth part of the setting is definitely light, mostly describing how things work differently from the surface, and a little bit of Atlantean history, but it's otherwise more an idea than a setting. I see on DriveThru there is a Mysteries of the Hollow Earth sourcebook that I presume provides more substance, but I can't find that one in print anywhere (under $500 anyway). So that's too bad.

Anyway, this is some good reading. Seems a shame the publisher isn't active anymore.
I've never played this, I'm not into dice pool mechanics (i already have WoD and Shadowrun), but I've always loved the cover art for these books!
Nothing says Pulp Adventure/Lost World like these Hollow Earth Expedition covers!
I tend to use Fate Core for pulpy action like this, I was always wondering if i could port Fate Core into the Hollow Earth series, and I'm still considering picking the pdfs up for a read to see if it's doable.
Seeing these covers really makes me want to go back to running a pulpy adventure setting, have fun with it!
 
View attachment 30876

Went ahead and picked these up this week. My initial impression is pretty positive. The system is a bit goofy, rolling very large d2 dice pools, but it also seems very easy to use. Attacker rolls dice pool, defender rolls dice pool, count successes (evens), if the attacker has more he does damage equal to the difference. Pretty much everything in the game is a modifier that adds or removes dice from the pool.
I'm not sure I'd use it over Pulp Cthulhu, but at least it's easy enough to understand and make comparisons that it'll be easy to translate into another system.

All the setting stuff is great though. I like the primer on the state of the world in 1936. One or two paragraphs on what's going on in about 40 countries. There are secret societies and exploration organizations to ally or compete with, the equipment catalog is surprisingly good for as light as the system is, and the bestiary has all the dinosaurs and overgrown animals I could ask for.

The Hollow Earth part of the setting is definitely light, mostly describing how things work differently from the surface, and a little bit of Atlantean history, but it's otherwise more an idea than a setting. I see on DriveThru there is a Mysteries of the Hollow Earth sourcebook that I presume provides more substance, but I can't find that one in print anywhere (under $500 anyway). So that's too bad.

Anyway, this is some good reading. Seems a shame the publisher isn't active anymore.
Ok I have it in my hot little hands. First off we have new archetypes, talents, motivations and other character building items. All focused on characters native to the hollow earth (beast men, barbarians, mystics, outcasts etc).
We get some templates for characters (apemen,hillmen greenmen,hawkmen,lizardmen,mantismen,molemen,pathermen,titans)

Next is supernatural powers (sorcery, alchemy etc )

Page 68 we start to get cultures starting with the Amazons. Pretty standard fair there.

Next is Cannibals. Pretty much evil tribesman.

Cargo cultist. Pretty normal tribe with the addition of fixated on finding fallen items. These seem fun.

Neanderthals. Simple might makes right tribes.

Noble Savages. People in harmony with their environment and ok with the circle of life.

Pirates. Yar!


Titans. Solitary, endlessly growing people. No culture.

Avril Ya. Atlanteans kinda.

Chapter 4. Beastmen.
Beastmen are all over the Hollow Earth and all over the cultural/tech level. One tribe of Apemen might be highly peaceful and philosophical. Another might be warlike.

Each type of beastmen then gets a more detailed look that suggests the cultural variety mentioned above is more the exception than the rule.

Chapter 5 is more specific details if various cities/locales of the hollow earth.

Next chapter is a bestiary.

Guide to creating new monsters/"races"

Sample adventure "Fate of Atlantis"
 
under_score under_score There's also Revelations of Mars, a softcover scenario book (Perils of the Surface World) and a GM screen. Also, the Ubiquity dice greatly decrease the number of dice you need to roll at once. The core book came out in hardcover and later in a slightly revised softcover.

The latest edition of Space: 1889 also runs on Ubiquity and, like Leagues of Adventure, is fully compatible with HEX.
 
Last edited:
Ok I have it in my hot little hands. First off we have new archetypes, talents, motivations and other character building items. All focused on characters native to the hollow earth (beast men, barbarians, mystics, outcasts etc).
We get some templates for characters (apemen,hillmen greenmen,hawkmen,lizardmen,mantismen,molemen,pathermen,titans)

Next is supernatural powers (sorcery, alchemy etc )

Page 68 we start to get cultures starting with the Amazons. Pretty standard fair there.

Next is Cannibals. Pretty much evil tribesman.

Cargo cultist. Pretty normal tribe with the addition of fixated on finding fallen items. These seem fun.

Neanderthals. Simple might makes right tribes.

Noble Savages. People in harmony with their environment and ok with the circle of life.

Pirates. Yar!


Titans. Solitary, endlessly growing people. No culture.

Avril Ya. Atlanteans kinda.

Chapter 4. Beastmen.
Beastmen are all over the Hollow Earth and all over the cultural/tech level. One tribe of Apemen might be highly peaceful and philosophical. Another might be warlike.

Each type of beastmen then gets a more detailed look that suggests the cultural variety mentioned above is more the exception than the rule.

Chapter 5 is more specific details if various cities/locales of the hollow earth.

Next chapter is a bestiary.

Guide to creating new monsters/"races"

Sample adventure "Fate of Atlantis"
Awesome, thanks for checking on that.
Sounds like the cultures, beastmen, cities/locales, and bestiary would all be very useful. I might get the pdf for reference, just a shame it's not available in print anymore.
 
View attachment 30876

Went ahead and picked these up this week. My initial impression is pretty positive. The system is a bit goofy, rolling very large d2 dice pools, but it also seems very easy to use. Attacker rolls dice pool, defender rolls dice pool, count successes (evens), if the attacker has more he does damage equal to the difference. Pretty much everything in the game is a modifier that adds or removes dice from the pool.
I'm not sure I'd use it over Pulp Cthulhu, but at least it's easy enough to understand and make comparisons that it'll be easy to translate into another system.

All the setting stuff is great though. I like the primer on the state of the world in 1936. One or two paragraphs on what's going on in about 40 countries. There are secret societies and exploration organizations to ally or compete with, the equipment catalog is surprisingly good for as light as the system is, and the bestiary has all the dinosaurs and overgrown animals I could ask for.

The Hollow Earth part of the setting is definitely light, mostly describing how things work differently from the surface, and a little bit of Atlantean history, but it's otherwise more an idea than a setting. I see on DriveThru there is a Mysteries of the Hollow Earth sourcebook that I presume provides more substance, but I can't find that one in print anywhere (under $500 anyway). So that's too bad.

Anyway, this is some good reading. Seems a shame the publisher isn't active anymore.
I actually liked the Ubiquity mechanics system when I first read the version of Space 1889 set to the mechanics. I snagged Hollow World later on and thought it also was done well. Didn't get my hands on supplemental books but they do look interesting. The problem is getting the Ubiquity dice which makes exploding dice pools much much easier to handle.
 
I actually liked the Ubiquity mechanics system when I first read the version of Space 1889 set to the mechanics. I snagged Hollow World later on and thought it also was done well. Didn't get my hands on supplemental books but they do look interesting. The problem is getting the Ubiquity dice which makes exploding dice pools much much easier to handle.
I'm pretty indifferent to dice pools, just don't have much experience to love or hate them. I like that Ubiquity is just d2s, so every die added is another 50% chance of a success, and there are no other modifiers or difficulty levels to worry about. It's intuitive enough. I mostly call it goofy because it does look like you can easily end up rolling 15 or so dice in some situations. So I'm just imagining combat with huge piles of dice being flung around. But it still sounds easy enough to run.
 
under_score under_score Acmegamer Acmegamer I don't know where in the world you guys are but I have a copy of Leagues of Adventure including two sets of Space 1889-themed Ubiquity dice for sale.
Yeah I found for a bit that I could still find those, but they're harder to read than the white, blue and red versions which were much much easier to read. The Space 1889 themed dice looked awesome though, but because of the readability issues I passed on snagging some.
 
Yeah I found for a bit that I could still find those, but they're harder to read than the white, blue and red versions which were much much easier to read. The Space 1889 themed dice looked awesome though, but because of the readability issues I passed on snagging some.
I got the Space 1889 ones through the Kickstarter. I already own two sets of white, blue and red ones. The Space 1889 ones turned out a bit of disappointment so I'm selling those. I find them quite readable, but two of the three colors look kind of similar, requiring a closer look to distinguish them.

I'm not planning on asking an awful lot for the Leagues book plus the two sets of dice, though, so it may hopefully still be worth the bargain for someone. I'm willing to make it an extra good deal if it's someone from the Pub.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top