Patreon Update 03/2016
Dear patreons, dear readers!
After the rather turbulent February, March has been a *VERY* busy month, as you may have noticed – I completed a huge amount of reviews for your perusal…and, this is important to emphasize, due to YOUR generosity.
Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to devote this extraordinary amount of time to the reviewing process – thanks to you, I managed to slay multiple *very* big books that had their review a long time coming and actually caught up with more than one publisher, which is awesome and immensely gratifying. There also are quite a bunch of reviews for big books finished, awaiting their place in the queue, so expect to see the big book-season not abate anytime soon. 🙂
That being said, this is also a time of change and there are several important things to discuss:
- Friday is my cut-off date for my Top Ten of 2015. Expect to see it soon after that. Eligible files I failed to review until then are carried over to 2016 and get their chance there.
- On the 18th, I have a pretty important chance to score a good, proper day job. It’s the first of three tests – so please, keep your fingers crossed for me.
- After May, my most generous patreon will reduce, as he has told me a long time in advance, his exceedingly generous pledge. This means I *may* be required to fill that with a part-time job to stay afloat, depending on how the job-situation pans out. If and how this will affect my output remains to be seen, but I still wanted to share this information with you well in advance.
- My analysis of 5e is done. Yeah, took longer than expected, mainly due to real life getting in the way. Anyways, this means I will begin to cover 5e material as well – how much…very well depends on the feedback of my patreons.
- I have a bunch of 13th Age, OSR- and GUMSHOE-material in queue as well, so expect to see more of that as well – the switching between systems is pretty refreshing. If you are interested in any particular books there, tell me!
- At the request of Lucus Palosaari, I have a new pledge-level: Miscellaneous Geekery Review/Analysis. Whether it’s a movie, series or other theme/topic, you can now have me write an article on…anything, really. Next week, I’ll post a sample of what to expect; I’ll introduce you to a relatively unknown cult classic satire.
As always, this is also the time where I give you an impression of what’s planned: April will see a bunch of Fat Goblin Games-reviews, as I’m catching up with a couple of their books. (In fact, a big one is scheduled for this week!) Flaming Crab Games’ Letters from the Flaming Crab-series will also see some reviews. I have officially started reading Frog God Games’ Northlands Saga…so that mammut-project is on the way, though you won’t see a review of it in April. The latest installments of EN Publishing’s Zeitgeist AP are also on my to do list. Oh, and Spheres of Power-expansions.
So far, I am aware of one prioritized review for the month of April:
Duck n’ Roll – The Flavour Handbook
If you’re eligible for a prioritized review, please tell me which pdf you choose as soon as possible!
All right, without further ado, here’s the massive list of reviews you made possible:
Rite Publishing – Gossamer Worlds: Ring of Fire (Diceless)
Raging Swan Press – Urban Dressing: Logging Town
Rogue Genius Games – Four Horsemen Present: Technomagic Hybrid Magic Items
Krewe of Harpocrates Publication – Tavern! Ye Adventurer’s Olde Favourite Dive
Pelgrane Press – Ashen Stars (GUMSHOE)
Flaming Crab Games – Cavalier Orders
AAW Games – Mini-Dungeons: Choker Lair
Fat Goblin Games – Call to Arms: Fireworks and Primitive Firearms
Gooddevil Press – Paths Less Traveled: The Amazon
Flaming Crab Games – More Forgotten Feats
AAW Games – Assassin’s Breach: A Tavern Gambling Game (+ Rest at the Wayfarer’s Inn)
AAW Games – Mini-Dungeons: Sanctuary of Exsanguination
Raging Swan Press – Village Backdrop: Ossoko Draconsha
TPK Games – Feats of Legend: 20 Undead Feats
Frog God Games – Lost Lore: Town of Glory
Raging Swan Press – Village Backdrop: Vaagwol
Rogue Genius Games/Mike Myler – Veranthea Codex
Legendary Games – Mythic Magic: Advanced Spells III
Interjection Games – Strange Magic Unchained: Variant Multiclassing
Purple Duck Games – Random Encounters Remastered: Porphyra
Flaming Crab Games – Advanced Archetypes II
Amora Game – Conduits of the Age (13th Age)
Rite Publishing – Gossamer Worlds: INK (Diceless)
Purple Duck Games – Kineticist Codex
AAW Games – Mini-Dungeons: Kaltenheim
Legendary Games – Treasury of the Orient
Hammerdog Games – The Grande Temple of Jing Player’s Guide
TPK Games – Feats of Legend: 20 Celestial Feats
Lone Wanderer Entertainment – The Elves of Uteria
Legendary Games – Ultimate Relationships: The Lonely Lyrakien
Purple Duck Games – Alchemist Codex
Hammerdog Games – The Grande Temple of Jing
AAW Games – Mini-Dungeons: Throne of the Dwellers in Dreams
Interjection Games – Remedial Tinkering: Arcanotech
Gaming Paper – Directive Infinity X
AAW Games – Snow-White Mini-Dungeons: Fitcher’s
AAW Games – Snow-White Mini-Dungeons: The Spirit Bottle
Raging Swan Press – Urban Dressing: Bridge Town
AAW Games – Snow-White
Eric Morton Presents – Animal Races: Dawn of the Carnosaur
Legendary Games – Occult Character Codex: Psychics
Rite Publishing – In the Company of Rakshasa
AAW Games – Snow-White Mini-Dungeon: The Army Surgeons
Legendary Games – Occult Character Codex: Occultists
AAW Games – Snow-White Mini-Dungeon: Glass Golem Go-Round
AAW Games – Snow-White Mini-Dungeon: Cabin Catastrophe
Kobold Press – Southlands Campaign Setting
Frog God Games – Lost Lore: Ecology of the Basilisk
Ascension Games – Path of Iron
Purple Duck Games – Purple Duck Storeroom: Magic Helms of Porphyra
Rusted Iron Games – Spooky Gardens: Deadly Gardens Autumn Special
LPJ Design – Obsidian Apocalypse: Sinful and Vile Feats
AAW Games – Snow-White Mini-Dungeon: Campfire in the Haunted Forest
AAW Games – Snow-White mini-Dungeon: Entrance to the Forest Maze
LPJ Design – Monsters of NeoExodus: Dragons
Legendary Games – Ultimate Relationships: Viking Shieldmaiden
Eric Morton Presents – Animal Races: Dawn of the Cerapod
Kobold Press – Southlands Bestiary
All of these reviews exist only due to the support of the generous patreons among you and their unwavering support.
If you consider my reviews helpful, please consider joining my patreon – the existence of this site and the continuation of reviews depends on your support and every buck counts!
As always, I remain yours,
Endzeitgeist out.
Good luck with your tests, Endzeitgeist! I’m hoping you score the day job.
Excuse us, good sir. We here at Silver Games LLC would love our books evaluated for such fine awards. How would we go about doing such things?
You don’t need to do anything – all books I review have a chance to end on that list. That being said, I have a couple of criteria that all nominees (and title-holders) of Top Tens have in common:
My reviews cover the span from 1 star to 5 stars – this denotes the general quality of the book.
When a given book really excites me, blows me away…then I’ll award it my seal of approval. EVEN if it is not mechanically perfect and only got a or 4.5 star-rating. That being said, I have never awarded my seal to any book that I was not passionate about. Mechanical perfection is *NOT* enough to get a seal – I’d rather give it to something imperfect and inspired/novel than to a bland and tired rehash of superbly precise mechanics.
Now there are a couple of excellent offerings out there that deserve being called out as superb, that excel at their mechanics AND offer something unique and novel: Whether it’s a massive, brilliant book on aquatic adventures, a truly smart, complex adventure, a sourcebook that draws you in like a good novel, a crunch-book that lets you play a whole type of game you couldn’t before – it is these gems that are nominated as candidates for the Top Ten; the crème-de-la-crème. Even nomination is a feat in itself.
A couple of months in the new year, once I’ve finished the backlog from the old year, I collect them and reevaluate them…and then determine the Top Ten. Up on the site, the Best-of…-category sports them all. Each file on them is a true gem.
Finally, there are the EZG Essentials – rather often, these books are Top Ten-winners or candidates; these are books that add a crucial component to the rules; books I wouldn’t ever want to miss. Raging Swan Press’ Wilderness Dressing and Dungeon Dressing books to make EVERY game more detailed and awesome; Companions of the Firmament to make flying rules actually work; Cerulean Seas for better underwater adventuring; Ultimate Charisma for streamlined psychological warfare…basically, this is my “3pp-books all my players need to know, books used in EVERY campaign I run.” Obviously, adventures can’t be found here, but crunch-wise, this is pretty much my list of…yeah. Essentials.
tl;dr: You need to do nothing; the minute you send me a copy of a given book or pdf, it automatically qualifies and could end up an Essential, a candidate and even a winner of the Top Ten – provided it is that damn impressive. 🙂
Cheers and thanks for commenting!
Ah, to where would we send our books for your reading enjoyment and possible analysis?
Heh, and apparently I’ve already been barking up this tree. Questions answered!