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RPG Gems of 2017

So 2017 is reaching the end of its life. It has been a good year, I think. At least in the gaming department. I like to keep good memories and forget the bad stuff anyways. So what 10 cool gaming products have I found in 2017 (not necessarily released in 2017, tough)? Let’s take a look!

Zweinhander: A reinterpretation of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying 1st and 2nd edition, compiled in one sigle massive book with all you need to play and a lot of inspiration for Grim and Perilous gaming! Great stuff! Beautiful art! I can’t wait for their future releases!

FrontierSpace: Do you remember Star Frontiers from TSR? FrontierSpace takes the agile, flexible and easy to use % system of BareBones Fantasy and make a exploration of the frontier science fantasy game with it, full of resources to fuel your imagination! Great acquisition and a great game! I just wish it had more artwork on it.

Dark Places & Demogorgons: Eric makes another cool light game with the OSR framework and a new theme! Inspired by 80s movies where kids get together despite of their differences to solve supernatural problems (and, obviously, Stranger Things) this game put the players in the shows of these brave kids. It’s a cool light game with a familiar system. It’s new and familiar at the same time.


Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea - 2nd Edition: I am obviously a huge fan of sword and sorcery tales, pulp fantasy and weird tales. I loved the first edition of the game in its boxed set. But having this huge tome, beautifully illustrated by many talented artists, with many extra contents really blew me away. A beautiful passionate work! It’s system is a mixture of the best parts of original D&D, B/X and AD&D with a lot of personal touches that makes it perfect for sword and sorcery gaming. And the setting… Wow! Jeff’s hyperborea is evocative, fascinating and a great place to have amazing adventures!

Umerican Survival Guide: This 3rd party supplement for my beloved Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG reintroduces the setting established by the Crawling Under a Broken Moon in a unified way. It’s meant to adapt DCC RPG to a post-apocalyptic fantastic setting of our world after a huge cataclysm transformed it completely, allowing mutants, wizards, cyborgs and much more to coexist in a chaotic Umerica. It’s great, really! It’s evocative, fun, inspiring and allows for pretty much ANYTHING to happen. It has bits of Thundarr, Cyberpunk, Mad Max, Gamma World and much more. Oh, and it also has many of my illustrations! Check it out!

Veins of the Earth: Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a top notch publisher. Pretty much anything they put out is guaranteed to be worth every penny they are asking for it (probably more too). But Veins is just incredibly useful, insightful, beautiful and terrifying. It’s a supplement that can be used with pretty much any fantasy RPG (especially OSR ones) and that changes the way you see dungeon and underground exploration, hazards, monster and all that. Get this, and you underdark will never be the same again.

White Star - Galaxy Edition: I am a huge fan of James Spahn. He is like my game designer hero, really. He does so much good stuff, is always there for his family and is a superb nice guy! And man, let me tell you about White Star - Galaxy Edition. It’s a super elegant game for Science Fantasy adventure! It has many inspirations, but Star Wars is obviously a big one. James don’t stop there, however, which is great! White Star uses the frame of Swords & Wizardry - White Box, but expands it a little. The illustrations by J. Shields make it look sharp and give it a unified identity, and the layout of the book makes reading it easy and pleasant.

Hot Spring Islands: A great, weird, fun hexcrawl setting for any fantasy RPG (especially OSR ones) with really cool locations, weird monsters, useful tables and gorgeous illustrations. The setting also has a player book that serves as a source of motivations that drive the party to missions and personal goals, making them more proactive. There is going to be more of these, So I can’t wait.

Adventure Time RPG: This game was originally published in Spain and has recently been published in Brazil. It’s actually the official RPG of the famous cartoon series called Adventure Time, and it’s really fun and well produced. Not to mention, it’s system is pretty simple and quite narrative, so you can adapt a lot of other cartoon adventure shows with it. I plan on running Korgoth of Barbaria with it. Sorry it's in Portuguese, but I believe there is a publisher in the process of translating it to English.

Shadowrun Anarchy: I’ve played Shadowrun back when it was on its second edition. It was fun. I loved the setting, didn’t care much for the crunchy mechanics. As times went by, the system kept getting more and more convoluted and complicated, and I more and more lazy to learn all of that and keep up with the 500 supplements for it. Then came Shadowrun Anarchy with its simple yet versatile mechanics. I can play shadowrun again, and I am grateful for it. I already liked the Cue System, since Cosmic Patrol is a really cool game.

I am sure I forgot to mention many more cool games I got to know this year. I am only human. Forgive me. But how about you? What a cool RPG Product you got to know this year and you recommend us to take a look?

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