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Great review, thanks! Lately, I've been looking for a fun (and easy to pick up for a gaming group) tabletop RPG that uses a fresh setting (taking a break from my usual OSR, D&D, CoC games). A modern, "real world", tactical-like game seems like it would be bee's knees.

If you like FIST, then check out another PBTA game called ‘Spirit of 77’.

Thank you, great review and you convinced me that this game isn’t for me until you mentioned all of the tables for me the GM to roll on because I don’t care for PBTA systems as a general

I like First rpg still want to get a physical copy

I dont understand, is this a game where you battle mental illness as an adventure?

Stoneage rp always seems so exciting to me

Hi I want to get into a game thats low end of mid fantasy, and a little on the grimdark and spooky side. Scifi elements welcome. Modern setting welcome. Historical fiction welcome. Has to have an interesting mysticism. Im thinking Dark void. While i want there to be interesting roleplay i want it to be less important than combat and exploration because of my ADD. what would you recommend?

Thanks for the rundown! I’m getting ready to start my first Blades game, but this looks very interesting as well.

The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu!

Roll a bunch of D6 and hope for 6-es? Is it some sort of mutated Y2K engine?

This one is definitely on my radar. I have Wurm, and it had a lot of very cool ideas, but didn't seem "finished." Like the mechanics needed another pass or two.

Great setting for a unique game. I have the book and love the magic system. Have you tried Dark Crystal rpg?

Sounds like an interesting setting - i feel like i definitely dont know enough about the stone age for this lol

Its a great, simple game. I have never run it. It will however live forever on my shelf, waiting for a time and place when someone else will ask "hey, what's this book all about?". Jackals has a similar place, it's from the same publisher. Paleomythic however has a purity of concept to it that as a storyteller, former games writer (to hell with you fools who call what we do 'fluff'.) and occasional GM in 2024, will continue to respect. And one day, one glorious day, will help create a shared story of legend. .... Or possilby recreate a 1970s Hammer exploitation film. I am yet still to experience the promise that is the future.

Cool! Never heard of this. I made a simple sword and sorcery game using the EZD6 engine

Sounds like an interesting game. May have to get a copy. Great review!

Just ended up watching a dozen of your videos and had no idea that the tabletop gaming scene was so large and diverse. I'm looking forward to seeing where your channel goes in terms of production, would be great to see things like graphics and text overlays and stuff.

This was one of the first RPG books that I have been able to read all the way through in recent memory. It really got my creative juices flowing and got me singing "Paleomythic, paleomythic" to the tune of Imagine Dragon's "Radioactive".

I like stone and sorcery. I'm fascinated by Mesolothic societies. There is a great series of books by Michelle Paver that are set in Mesolithic northwestern Europe that I consider stone and sorcery, and even survival horror, depending on the event. There are shamans, hunters, totemic animals etc. It's well researched and fun to read.

I found this in a used book store but haven't given a *good* read yet. Thanks!

The book looks beautiful!

I love stone and Sorcery games too

The Modularity and customization of the setting is a plus for me, but almost everything else about the game is irksome, and i would have to hack it to death to make it playable for most of the people who i would pitch it to. Racelocking don't fly at my tables.

How long have Burning Wheel been publishing DW? Did they change anything?

☮ Iron Age, no magic setting: I used Ironsworn successfully for this. I ended up researching about donkeys and stuff, and had a great time.

Nice review! This is a rad game! Definitely one I’m happy to have on my shelf even though I doubt at this point that I will ever play it.

Its so interesting because the dice pool system almost sounds like yatzee lol

If I play this game, it'll be as a ska band that LOVES mozzarella sticks ... oh, and also the environment (but wow ... those sweet, sweet, cheesy sticks :))

In a setting of rebel music, I would be the lead singer-guitarist of a 90s style absurd punk rock group with lyrics so anarchist and obscene that even the saltiest sailor would blush! The band would be so unhinged that they would prefer to cook marshmallows on the fires of destroyed universe!

Thanks for the review! I like that your reviews often highlight the games that could otherwise be missed. The premise of Velvet Generation sounds really interesting and unique

I think Netrunning as a 'game within a game' is pretty challenging I think. Would be interested to see how this plays out on the table. I know there are some supports that to help this. I'm running CY_BORG - which is lore/rules light. I'm not sure what would prompt me to make the jump to running Cyberpunk Red....but I would totally play if some else did!

The shirt is cool!

How would you compare it to monster of the week?

If you want rules lite cyberpunk try out Cy_borg. I mix those mechanics with cyberpunk, bubblegum crisis and gunnm(battle angel) lore

I didnt know there was a cyberpunk ttrpg! Thanks for the review

Cyberpunk 2020 has been a favorite of mine since it came out in 1990 (I acquired the 2013-set 1st Ed. later out of curiosity). Sadly, I've had very little experience with getting it to the table, beyond running a short, 4 or 5 session mini-campaign 20 years ago. I picked up Cyberpunk Red because I've had such a love for R. Talsorian's setting, and I've heard the netrunning rules are a big improvement over previous editions. But I haven't even cracked my book open yet, and have no expectations of bringing it to the table anytime soon, sadly. The main thing that's kept me from reading the book is its graphic design. For me, personally, I thought the book interior was ugly and sterile, looking like a college text book and the idea of sitting with it for hours upon hours of reading just hasn't felt right. I'm more in love with the setting than the system, having been a Cyberpunk junkie since I was a little kid in the early 80s. I've thought of using a more rules-light game for it if I do bring the setting to the table. I love that it has become a sort of "retro-future"/alternate timeline. There are some other games that I love that also take place in retro-future timelines, like Space 1889 and Tales from the Loop, but those started out meaning to be alternate timelines. It's fun to see Cyberpunk become one as time moved forward. I don't know how international markets work with NetFlix, but they did do a pretty good tie-in anime called Edgerunners if it's available to you. I'm not a big anime fan, and it definitely had some stuff that felt like it was being edgy for its own sake. But the story was pretty good, and I thought it captured the sadness of the setting well. I think it's set closer to the Cyberpunk 2077 video game era, but still features a lot of stuff that works with Red. Funny enough, Cyberpunk has it's own alternate timeline with Cybergeneration, which was sort of an anime-inspired, X-Men like future of Cyberpunk 2020. If I remember right, the premise was that the corporate war happened and the world was shattered. In the aftermath, the children of the 2020 generation developed mutations, so it was a world rebuilding in the aftermath of global war, with slightly superpowered teenagers. I never picked it up, in part because it seemed very anime, and I've never liked anime. But I'm tempted to grab it and read it sometime.

I had a blast running Cyberpunk Red. ❤ I never played 2020, but have the books. So, I have used some of the stuff that I had from 2020 in my Red game. Either way we still had a blast and the things that I would love to see more of from Red, is expansions beyond Night City.

I’m a big fan of cyberpunk as an aesthetic but yeah something about this game isn’t quite pulling me. Great vid like always though

Cyberpunk was very difficult for me to get into, for the exact reasons that you mentioned in your video. I lean much more towards fantasy TTRPGs, but since I recently fell in love with the Call of Cthulhu table top game, I thought that I would give a couple of other non-traditional fantasy settings a try: Shadowrun and Cyberpunk. Shadowrun was a blast, but not my cup of tea. Cyberpunk's setting overwhelmed me, and I ended up running my game by leveraging my experience with the movie, Blade Runner.

Red lost something compared to the old Cyberpunk 2020. 2020 had the late '80s exaggerated future-punk attitude which was a bit over the top and fun for being so. It also had some humor ingrained within and didn't take itself too seriously. Red just seems so sanitized, like a big mush of many parts all coming out looking like a vat of baby food in the end. It lacks a lot of the previous edition's personality which was it's best selling point. Even the equipment in the core Red book got the sanitized treatment, unfortunately. I was disappointed with the new one. It has lost something. 😔

Regarding your NPC book need, I had the same need. But I found two great solutions on DriveThruRPG. 1. Heortlings of Sartar is a $1 PDF full of the common NPC stats your players will encounter in the region of Dragon Pass. This PDF is also part of a monster of the month bundle. 2. In Six Seasons in Sartar, besides the author creating a magnificent campaign, he also offers a simple system of dealing with everyday NPCs - the kind you don’t usually need a full stat sheet for. It’s highly abstracted to a simple overall rating plus whatever you think the NPC should be better at.

The artwork of rats on your shelf in the background is really cute

It's actually PbtA, with moves and roll interpretation, only the range is different because 10s are used instead of 6s. Also, the difference is the game has a whooping 10 attributes (to match the cabalistic Tree of Life which is one of central themes of the setting) and most PbtA games use much less of them. As for setting, I know the game from the first edition, which was a manufactured controversy in USA (because the game was, allegedly, sold in black bags to not show the "controversial" cover art). I say manufactured, because that was the time White Wolf games were popular and they also started their "Black Dog" imprint for 18+ games and supplements. And yes, the game is pretty bleak, but besides the heavier venues into splatter and body horror, it's not so different from Call of Cthulhu, which had 3rd or something edition at that time, and Wraith: the Oblivion, which is considerably bleaker. The controversy can also stem from using Christian themes (but World of Darkness did that too) - actually, Gnostic Christian themes which is pretty dead branch of christian philosophy (dead as "murdered by crusaders as heretics" dead). So, it's not a game for everyone, yes, but, especially now, in '20s of XXI century there are more games like that, many even more shocking and bleak, so I won't say it's still a "controversial" game. I liked it more than Call of Cthulhu, because with their weakness and insignificance, the Kult protagonists have at least a chance to become more powerful or significant (the "divinity lost" subtitle says a lot), while in lovecraftian horror even gaining knowledge doesn't liberate you or empowers you, but only shortens your lifespan considerably...

KULT certainly has its way of gripping some gamers with its atmosphere! For those who want to run it but want to tone it down a bit, my advice is reading the GM's guide...it mentiones different ways you can run horror and how to adjust things for your group, while still keeping the vibe going. Not everything should be shocking horror during a campaign anyway...but it should be atmospheric And the print in the book is of very high quality! Thanks for the review!

I'm GMing KULT since the 90s. It's the one and only very best modern horror RPG there is. Uncensored, utterly psychological mindf*ck and body horror. Whatever you need, KULT has it, as long as you're not look for romanticised horror. KULT is hard and brutal. I usually GM stories with player characters being completely clueless, and I also think, players should know absolutely nothing about the background of the setting. KULT gives you the kind of horror that hurts. From a time where the genre wasn't dumbed down for a more sensible audience. There's nothing wrong with scary stories, but horror was something else a few decades ago. And that's what KULT wants to deliver, which should also be content warning. I never cared much about rules, and this newest iteration of the game completely changed the system. This new book uses Powered by the Apocalypse which I am not a fan of, but they adapted it very well to the setting, also using d10s and you can completely circumvent using playbooks for example and freely create a characters. The narrative angle stays, which is absolutely fine with me because roleplaying for me is always about storytelling first, and when it's about KULT, that's even more true. As I mentioned before, I would describe KULT as "uncensored". It doesn't shy away from obscenity and very sensible topics and if there has ever been a game where you'd have to talk to your players first, where they draw the line between hurtful entertainment and being uncomfortable in a way it's not fun anymore, it's KULT. This new edition tells you what it's about right from the start, so if you want to play this game as a player, I'd recommend keeping the book shut and let your GM read it. Also, apart from the Kickstarter Edition (which, by the cover is evidently the one in this video), which is still available at Helmgast as far as I know, the artwork in this book is censored. And in a very obvious and bad way in my opinion. KULT's art is obscene and shows a lot more than you might be used to, or even comfortable with if you don't know what kind of content you're holding in hand (yes, keep this book away from children...), but that again is what makes this game so great. Also a very bold move, which has been crippled on the way to its release in my opinion. There's a bible edition which doesn't have any artwork, which also means it's not censored. Thanks for covering this great game! KULT usually doesn't get the attention it deserves!

We just finished a year long campaign with this game. It was, without a doubt, the most powerful and character driven game we have ever played. I ran the game for three young adults who had never heard of the game, and refrained from getting/reading it. I toned down the game a bit to try and keep it uncomfortable, without being unpleasant for the players. Definitely our favorite PbtA game. Thanks for the review.

I'm curious why it was brought back. Did it have a strong Kult following?

It looks sick af!

I'd love to play this game!

I've got an earlier edition Kult: Death is Just the Beginning so I'm interested to see the differences. However I'm not a fan of the various iterations of Powered by the Apocalypse.