Refill your Hit Points here...
Plus we take a look at two great looking new RPGs that are currently crowdfunding and we talk pegging.
A somewhat abridged Gazetteer this week as I’m heading out of town for the weekend and haven’t even begun to pack yet, but there’s a few cool things below that I wanted to flag up as they’re both fairly time sensitive and after last week’s no show I didn’t want to leave you Gazetteer-less another week.
So, the reasonably important news from us this week is that we have launched a second newsletter, HIT POINTS. This will be a dedicated space for us to post longer reviews online, some of these will notable pieces from the magazine that we think deserve more eyeballs on them but as time and money allows we’ll also be commissioning more new pieces from some of the best tabletop game writers around (plus me).
To kick things off ins style we have our review of Undaunted Stalingrad by the brilliant Dan Thurot of Space-Biff! fame. Fair warning, when I first read Dan’s review I had to go out and straight away buy myself a copy of the game and commission Dan to chat with the game’s creators for a future issue. It’s a great read about a great game, so please do give it a go.
One key thing to note, because we’re trying to be decent people we haven’t just added you to this new newsletter’s subscriber list (though I believe anyone signing up from now on will be added), so if you’d like to receive the HIT POINTS newsletter you’ll need to click the menu in the top right (if you’re viewing this in a browser) manage your settings and toggle it on.
I’ve mentioned this in the past but at some point over the coming months we plan to launch several more newsletters, such as HEX LIBRIS covering books, PANEL BEATERS on comics - and a few more which will allow us to focus in more depth on particular things of interest or specific types of games whilst keeping the Gazetteer the generalist info dump you’ve all come to know and perhaps even love.
None of these will be more than weekly (in fact for the foreseeable as they launch most will be monthly) but hopefully we can liven up your inbox and fill it with something other than cheerless spam. If you have any problem signing up please let me know and we’ll assist in any way we can.
Right, that’s it from me. Check out the cool games below, please do give Dan’s review a read and any feedback drop us a line or comment below.
Till next week!
John x
Garbage & Glory
Fans of playing little furry critters have been spoilt in recent years with a plethora of games, including several Wyrd Science favourites such as Wanderhome, Mausritter and Scurry, offering us the chance to take a walk on the wild side.
Now, whilst there’s always something fun about the adventures of tiny Mouseketeers anyway, what we believe makes the best of these games really shine is when they don’t just slap some whiskers on a bard but actually make the most of their protagonist’s particular perspective, one where the mundane becomes magical, mysterious and indeed monstrous.
The latest title to lean into this fine tradition looks set to be Garbage & Glory from Wet Ink Game which, complete with some wonderful looking art from illustrator Sam Brieck, looks like a wonderful, simple to get into game, for adventurers of all sizes.
Powered by their own +One dice pool system - as seen in games such as Heckin Good Doggos, Never Going Home and Psychic Kids - Garbage & Glory sees you step into the paws of dumpster diving raccoons, who are out to ransack the human world for as much of our carelessly discarded treasures as they can carry on in their adorable little paws.
Whether you want to play as a rage fuelled Trash Smasher, arcane Mess Magus or holy Dumpster Diviner, Garbage & Glory offers up a host of options that invert traditional fantasy tropes as your tiny criminal crew must head out into the big world and negotiate both the outsized threat of lumbering humans and towering edifices of our strange world and other rival animals on your search for suburban scrap.
Campaigns ends: August 19
REAP
Ok, we literally just spotted this before going to press but the campaign ends in approximately 10 hours so wanted to quickly give it a plug as it looks pretty, pretty, pretty good.
REAP is the latest solo RPG from game designer Spencer Campbell and uses a modified version of the rules from their previous game RUNE (we do like a consistent naming convention here) that in our last issue Anna Blackwell hailed as “a must buy for any [Dark] Souls fan”. High praise indeed.
In REAP you play a necromancer, wandering the ashen wastelands in search of undead horrors to slay and feast upon what remains of their souls. What that translates to in game terms is two modes of play, the exploration phase - a race against time as you stalk your prey through the land of Obron - and then a zoomed in fight mode, where you switch to a 5x5 grid based combat system.
All of which sounds like a fairly fun way to spend an otherwise lonesome afternoon if you ask us.
Alongside Campbell there’s a bit of an all star indie cast involved here with the likes of Chris Bissette, Charlie Ferguson-Avery, Navi & Shawn Drake, Viditya Voleti, Will Jobst and many more contributing art, design, writing and more to the project and if you’d like to try it out today you can download the Quickstart here and be REAPing this weekend.
Campaign ends: TONIGHT
A collection of other things, both interesting and inspiring, gaming related and not, culled from around the web...
Apparently everyone’s into pegging these days but unless I’m mistaken perhaps not quite like this… Neza bazi is a Pakistani equestrian sport which involves spearing tent pegs at high speed whilst on the back of a horse.
It’s a sport with a history that allegedly stretches back to Alexander the Great’s time and it frankly looks incredible as you can see from these photos from a recent event in the UK.Nice little piece on the Guardian about how they made 1970s hauntology classic The Tomorrow People. One for fans of priapic Daleks, wonky sets and absolutely killer theme songs.
Few stories had as profound effect on a young me than Slaine - The Horned God in 2000AD. A masterful story of the roguish celt Slaine that draws deep upon the myths and legends of Ireland and Britain.
Featuring some of Simon Bisley’s best art it is frankly something that every self-respecting comic/folklore/fantasy fan should own and 2000AD have just announced a new deluxe, oversized edition featuring completely rescanned art, wonderful.We loved the Goblins & Gardens Tarot deck so much we had to chase down the creator for an interview in our 3rd issue - that you can read online here - it’s been sold out almost ever since then but if you’ve been desperate to get your hands on it then you’re in luck as finally there’s a reprint on the way…
Ok, this overview of the classic Horror Top Trumps sets from the dim distant 20th century is a good few years old now but for some reason I stumbled across it again this week and it’s still absolutely wonderful. If you grew up with these expect to get misty eyed, if you didn’t well this was how we passed the time before the internet…
Right, I said it was a short one this week, that’s your lot. Enjoy your weekend!