The worlds in which our role-playing characters live vary wildly in their flexibility. At one end of the spectrum you have the fundamentally inflexible railroad where characters influence the progress of plot only in terms of whether they live or die. The world exists in a sort of stasis in the absence of the characters, […]
Reviews Articles
Discover the blog's posts tagged with Reviews. This collection covers topics in Tabletop & RPGs, Comics, and Anime.
Release the Beast: A Review of AGE Bestiary – Beastmen
Creatures born of man and beast fill legends and contemporary media alike with monsters of rampant ferocity or unexpected champions of surprising character (often with something of a Red Shirt mentality about their prospects of surviving until the end of the book / movie). You can see examples all over the place – whether Mr […]
Irregular Reconnaissance: Comic Books #2
Living up to the name “Irregular” here is the second comic book edition of Irregular Reconnaissance. This is a chance to do quick catch-ups of the comic books and graphic novels that have found their way in front of my eyes in recent times. Each comic book listing has a micro summary and a recommendation. […]
Crypt Kicker One-shot: A Review of Fire in the Darkness
One of the key things I, as a Gamemaster, appreciate are those little nuggets that make improvising a session easier. I realise that every GM probably handles these situations in their own way, some with greater ease than others. I personally find that if I have a solid idea, the adventure sort of forms around […]
A review of Monster Massacre
Monster Massacre is a graphic novel anthology from an impressive collection of artists and storytellers. The line-up includes Jack Kirby, Alex Horley, Joe Simon, Mark A Nelson, Andy Kuhn, Ron Marz, Sami Basri, Ian Edington, D’Israeli, Tony Raney, Vito Delsante, Dave Wilkins and Javier Aranda. There are 10 stories in the showcase and each one […]
A review of John Higgin’s Razorjack
I hadn’t gotten my hands on Razorjack until now. Sounds painful, but true. John Higgins has worked on Watchmen, Judge Dredd and Batman, but Razorjack is his project. It was published first by Com.X back in 1999. More recently, Titan Comics has collected extra material and republished in a lovely glossy hardback. Razorjack is certainly […]
Future Diary at a glimpse
In this article L. Meridian takes a look at the first episode of the anime Future Diary. The manga is written by Sakae Esuno and published, in English, by Tokyopop. The anime comes via the studio Asread with Funimation enjoying the license in the US and Kaze in the UK. At first glance, Future Diary […]
Review of Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard
Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard is the fourth book in Kim Newman’s best-selling series. It follows Dracula Cha Cha Cha and that’s a bit of a surprise. Cha Cha Cha very much felt like the end of the series. Johnny Alucard is responsible for starting it again.
A review of Sharky: The boy demi-god
Written by Dave Elliott and with art from Alex Horley there is utter madness with the graphic novel Sharky. Sharky is a teenage boy who can transform into the demi-god Sharky. Yes, at one point he shouts “Shazam” to try and engage the transformation. He can’t actually control it; it’s hormonal. The Shazam reference is […]
Burn, Baby, Burn: A Porphyry – World of the Burn Review
I had a strange experience at UK Games Expo, in Birmingham, earlier this year. While running a demo game, the voices at the next table frequently erupted in uproarious laughter and bubbling exuberance mildly disrupting our ability to hold cross-table conversation. At the end of my session, I checked with the neighbouring GM to see what […]
