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The fact that your hat gets shot off as a "shields must be splintered" rule is so gloriously tropey that it makes this game a insta-buy. Classic dusting off your hat.
Presumably this was borrowed from that long ago era known as the OSR. Specifically the Western reskin Wampus County campaign, which included this rule.
For the first 11min it was just normal wild west game + some funny tropes thrown in (hat takes your bullet). Then suddenly a mad scientist in a train creating immortal mutants connected by a hivemind located in a giant beating heart that takes up a whole train car. That was so funny because it came out of nowhere and escalated quickly between the food car and the living-fleshwalls-eldritch-horror train car.
A good expansion would be Mountain Men of the Lost Frontier. I can see it now... Your a "fur trapper" on a mission to eliminate all the escaped mutant beasts and you get paid by the pelt at rendezvous. You battel fearsome mutant beasts, make deals with the natives, deal with the stigma from "civilized" towns folk, guide wagon trains, etc.
That train sequence looks fantastic. Especially the way it plays each car out on its own page. Like a children's picture book, except with more gunfights and massive beating hearts.
Watching the first few spreads with old school ads has given me the horrible realisation that I need an RPG book designed by Chris Ware. What a long shot.
Very slick, I like that despite "weird" it's still very down to earth so you could play a more realistic leaning game. I love Aces & Eights but it's almost impossible to convince people to play so something like this is a much more attractive sell. Obviously you could add a lot of occult and fantasy stuff, but I prefer more gritty and real in old west style games
@Marley G. It's a really good game, having played it before, but I don't blame anyone not willing to take on the crunch. All Kenzer games are on that extreme level of crunch, the details are very satisfying but it really needs someone to be on the ball and keeping the machine running smoothly or else it can grind to a halt.
It's so neat that the beginning of the rule book looks like an old west newspaper even down to the locations that are far having the "state" of the location and the local ones don't.
This is definitely one of my favorite wild west rpgs I've seen so far, it feels easy to pick up and play and as you said in the overview, very nice to look at with its old newspaper style. I am excited to see more third-party content come out for it - hopefully on a similar level to its inspiration!
OK, about half way through the review, and got to the part where you can lose your hat to avoid a hit, and that was it for me. I'm sold. Bang. Arg. Ya got me.
I actually had a tab open to buy this a couple weeks back. Decided to pass... now I'll be getting that tab back open. As a long-time Deadlands GM, this game is right up my alley for sure.
@@oz_jones that is a damn shame. The classic version is fun, as is the new one. If you're interested in playing the new edition of the game, let me know. I can point you in the right direction
This was a must buy for me as soon as you started explaining it. Immediately bought the pdf as soon as the video was done. Thank you for telling us about these amazing games!
This is a very good booklet. Not 100% sure about the rules (probably too much of a Third Edition/D20 Modern Grognard - definitely would need an adaptation period) but the presentation is pretty impeccable and period-accurate if you have seen newspapers of that era.
This game rules. I've gotten a chance to play it a time or two and really, really want to get back to it. Lots of great third-party stuff out there for it too on Itch and the like.
Love these reviews. I instantly bought Vaults of Vaarn after seeing your video. I am very confused by one thing you said though. During character creation you said it is d4-4 this would only give a stat range of -4 to 0. But the book says d4-d4. Which gives the range of a -3 to a +3 on stats not a -4 to +4. The lowest role on a d4 is a 1 so that is the smallest subtraction amount possible. Overall great review as always and I just wish for more of these!
I’ve been mostly a little disappointed (maybe the wrong word) with the Mörk Borg knockoffs like Cy-borg and Pirate Borg. What was strong about the original was how the aesthetics set the mood for the genre. That was lost for me when they changed setting. This game changes that, the old magazine / newspaper catalog aesthetic really sings the western song. Might have to try and pick this up.
To be fair, it's only auto-hit if it's not a "tough shot" - meaning that if you just stand there, you're going to get hit, so you need to be running around, hiding behind stuff, and so on.
Actually seems pretty cool - makes guns very scary and highly incentives players only engaging in combat from a highly advantageous position, which makes them more likely to interact with their environment
Subscribe to the Old-School DnD newsletter and get entered in my giveaways: bit.ly/TheGlatisant
Get 10% off of #intotheam apparel: intotheam.com/questingbeast
Frontier Scum PDF: bit.ly/FrontierScumPDF
Frontier Scum Print: bit.ly/FrontierScumPrint
The fact that your hat gets shot off as a "shields must be splintered" rule is so gloriously tropey that it makes this game a insta-buy. Classic dusting off your hat.
Presumably this was borrowed from that long ago era known as the OSR. Specifically the Western reskin Wampus County campaign, which included this rule.
For the first 11min it was just normal wild west game + some funny tropes thrown in (hat takes your bullet). Then suddenly a mad scientist in a train creating immortal mutants connected by a hivemind located in a giant beating heart that takes up a whole train car. That was so funny because it came out of nowhere and escalated quickly between the food car and the living-fleshwalls-eldritch-horror train car.
A good expansion would be Mountain Men of the Lost Frontier. I can see it now... Your a "fur trapper" on a mission to eliminate all the escaped mutant beasts and you get paid by the pelt at rendezvous. You battel fearsome mutant beasts, make deals with the natives, deal with the stigma from "civilized" towns folk, guide wagon trains, etc.
That train sequence looks fantastic. Especially the way it plays each car out on its own page. Like a children's picture book, except with more gunfights and massive beating hearts.
The book looks amazing. One the things I really enjoyed about Red Dead Redemption 2 was how they used the old style media in the game itself.
MOAR BORG
Kinda lost the opportunity to call it Cowborg though. Game looks great!
seriously we need more spineless book, i hate stiff books i constantly have to fight! and they seem to have a pretty high AC...
First time seeing a spineless book. I agree.
I have one of those book props that holds your book open and standing up but even that fails sometimes under the weight of some rule books.
Watching the first few spreads with old school ads has given me the horrible realisation that I need an RPG book designed by Chris Ware. What a long shot.
I proper chuckled at that bank contract just falling off the bottom of the page.
Very slick, I like that despite "weird" it's still very down to earth so you could play a more realistic leaning game. I love Aces & Eights but it's almost impossible to convince people to play so something like this is a much more attractive sell. Obviously you could add a lot of occult and fantasy stuff, but I prefer more gritty and real in old west style games
Oh man, I wish I could get people to play Aces & Eights. It is so intense but so good.
@Marley G. It's a really good game, having played it before, but I don't blame anyone not willing to take on the crunch. All Kenzer games are on that extreme level of crunch, the details are very satisfying but it really needs someone to be on the ball and keeping the machine running smoothly or else it can grind to a halt.
It's so neat that the beginning of the rule book looks like an old west newspaper even down to the locations that are far having the "state" of the location and the local ones don't.
d4-d4 gives +3 to -3.
I love the table of crimes. There are so many fantastic results, like gruesome loitering, or horse arson.
The design and look of the book is amazing! Exacly what a western rpg should look like! Great Material!
This is definitely one of my favorite wild west rpgs I've seen so far, it feels easy to pick up and play and as you said in the overview, very nice to look at with its old newspaper style. I am excited to see more third-party content come out for it - hopefully on a similar level to its inspiration!
Book looks great. I like how they use cowboy terms as headings
What a weird concidence, I love both country westerns and horror and humour makes everything better.
Every time you review something awesome it gets sold out. It's the Questing Beast bump!
OK, about half way through the review, and got to the part where you can lose your hat to avoid a hit, and that was it for me. I'm sold. Bang. Arg. Ya got me.
This looks great. I hope it comes back in-stock soon.
Blood Meridian the RPG!
Excellent.
Not gonna lie, I almost expected the system for this to be something closer to Deadlands Classic but streamlined.
You always bring me the very best violence.
Takes me back to the days of Boot Hill from TSR. I never played the Deadlands game but did play its TCG spin-off.
I actually had a tab open to buy this a couple weeks back. Decided to pass... now I'll be getting that tab back open. As a long-time Deadlands GM, this game is right up my alley for sure.
I have the first edition of Deadlands that I got over 20 years ago... never played. :(
@@oz_jones that is a damn shame. The classic version is fun, as is the new one. If you're interested in playing the new edition of the game, let me know. I can point you in the right direction
I finally got a copy and it is such a fantastic book. I am addicted to gathering up as many of the Mork Borg style games.
This was a must buy for me as soon as you started explaining it. Immediately bought the pdf as soon as the video was done. Thank you for telling us about these amazing games!
A fantastic review for a fantastic game. Thank you!
I just love this so much.
Wow, looks super cool, picking up PDF today, since print is out of stock for time being!
That sounds really fun.
Game is so fun.
Going to grab undead or alive for the minis to use w a fS
This is a very good booklet. Not 100% sure about the rules (probably too much of a Third Edition/D20 Modern Grognard - definitely would need an adaptation period) but the presentation is pretty impeccable and period-accurate if you have seen newspapers of that era.
This system looks wonderful! Def picking that up at some point!
love this game, and waiting to get it to the table!
This looks so damn intriguing and fun.
Brilliant material!
This game rules. I've gotten a chance to play it a time or two and really, really want to get back to it. Lots of great third-party stuff out there for it too on Itch and the like.
This game rules! Great break down.
Omgoodness, that book spine tho
looks awesome
Love these reviews. I instantly bought Vaults of Vaarn after seeing your video. I am very confused by one thing you said though. During character creation you said it is d4-4 this would only give a stat range of -4 to 0. But the book says d4-d4. Which gives the range of a -3 to a +3 on stats not a -4 to +4. The lowest role on a d4 is a 1 so that is the smallest subtraction amount possible. Overall great review as always and I just wish for more of these!
I’ve been mostly a little disappointed (maybe the wrong word) with the Mörk Borg knockoffs like Cy-borg and Pirate Borg. What was strong about the original was how the aesthetics set the mood for the genre. That was lost for me when they changed setting. This game changes that, the old magazine / newspaper catalog aesthetic really sings the western song. Might have to try and pick this up.
This looks incredibly cool definitely gonna look at buying this. Hey Ben have you looked at Realms of Peril I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!
Accidental loitering, lol
Awesome!
Desperately hope this gets reprinted
Now this is a certified yee haw
A proper frontier classic, i tell you hwat
If all he reads about Pathfinder 1e is people arguing about optimization, he is doing himself a disservice by looking in the wrong places.
Are there any premade Maze Rats adventures?
Sadly I can't find a print copy
Is there a way to be notified when the print version is in stock again?
Yep, Exalted Funeral should have a button where you can sign up to be notified
Karl Druid? OK
Need some lighting
I like so much about this except auto hits. Ick. One of my absolute least favorite mechanics in recent memory
I’ll use this with Boot Hill combat!
To be fair, it's only auto-hit if it's not a "tough shot" - meaning that if you just stand there, you're going to get hit, so you need to be running around, hiding behind stuff, and so on.
Actually seems pretty cool - makes guns very scary and highly incentives players only engaging in combat from a highly advantageous position, which makes them more likely to interact with their environment
Meh. Games like this only work in the designers mind.
What?