If I could pin down the spark in Pax Cthuliana, it comes down to a combination of excellent handouts and the cult of personality. At heart, Pax Cthuliana – a 72-pages investigation, written by Jarle Haktorson, with art and handouts by Joseph Diaz and Even V. Røssland – runs a fairly linear path from start […]
About Paul Baldowski
Blood Will Run: Shadow of the Demon Lord Adventure Review
Blood Will Run is a Novice level adventure for Shadow of the Demon Lord. It focuses on an investigation to discover the fate of two missing children. The adventure sets this out in clear sections – explaining the interrelationship of key players in a background section followed by hooks, the locale, rumours and five key […]
Blood and Graph Paper: a review of Tomb of the Iron God
There’s an ancient monastery, or there was, and the locals can’t quite account for it. In truth, most of them look too fearful to want to even think about it. The temple of the Iron God once served as the final resting place for anyone in the area, whether noble or peasant. Now, the temple […]
Marked by Calamity: A Review of Fantasy Age – Children’s Crusade
A major calamity has left the land in disarray and a religious cult has chosen to take advantage of the moment. They have ‘marked’ certain children as a source of corruption, seeking to use them as a sacrifice for their deity; more level-headed folk have chosen to assist the children, orphans of the calamity, by […]
So Adorably Savage: Baby Bestiary Volume 2
The original Baby Bestiary, marshalled and creatively directed by Andreas Walters, not only provided me with inspiration, it also looked fantastic. I originally pledged for his 2015 Baby Bestiary calendar, but the full Baby Bestiary would have looked so good on my coffee table. I missed out then, but now Andreas has returned with Baby […]
In Shadow and Corruption – a review of Symbaroum
Symbaroum brings a complete Swedish tabletop fantasy role-playing game to a wider English-speaking audience in a hardback volume or as a PDF. Not the first tabletop game to achieve this transition by any means, Symbaroum might seem unusual in that it only appeared in it’s original language format in 2013. Funding the translation by IndieGoGo, […]
Multiplying Bizarre by Impossible: a review of anomaly 1
I have always been a sucker for those art books that never seem to surface anymore. Possibly, I’m looking in the wrong place. Amongst my more treasured books and annuals, I have several examples of this phenomenon from the 70s and 80s. Huge, hardback and glossy books packed with pictures of spacecraft or bizarre landscapes. […]
Legends Begin Here: a review of Lone Wolf Adventure Game
Cubicle 7’s Lone Wolf Adventure Game boxed set enters Joe Dever’s world of Magnamund and allows you to take on the role of Kai Initiates. In the face of creeping darkness and scattered pockets of injustice, you have the means to bring light and hope. Packed into an impressively solid and weighty box, LWAG (as […]
Of Onionskins and Seven Dogs: A review of Aletheia
Role-playing can become an expensive hobby if you go down certain routes. Game companies have cottoned on to the concept of core rulebooks that provide just enough material to get you going. Once you’re in, they flash supplemental material and adventures in your direction, in the hope that you’ll bite. Sometimes, the material on offer […]
Well Met in Lankhmar: A Review of Lankhmar City of Thieves
While it might seem a simple task to create a setting supplement for a game that shifts the focus to match a book, TV show or movie, it isn’t. I mean, I’m not saying there isn’t any effort involved, but you could just slam a major synopsis down, along with some episodic notes, and that […]