As part of Covert Critic, a sort of Secret Santa for TTRPG designers, I drew Lars Huijbregts, AKA Dice Goblin Games.
So. I'm choosing to do quick capsule reviews of all his free / PWYW stuff. There's a lot of it! I'm going to be going in the order they currently are in his itch.io ... Just click on that link or the one above to see what I'm talking about.
Note: I'm only doing his free / PWYW stuff because I'm super broke at the moment! Also, like I said, he has a lot of stuff already!
If I have time, I'll link these individually later, but I want to just get the reviews done at the moment. 😅
Okay, first of all, a lot of the stuff at the top of the Dice Goblin Games page, as of this writing, is for FIST. If you haven't got a copy of FIST: ULTRA EDITION, well, you probably haven't been buying itch.io TTRPG charity bundles, and you're missing out. It's an amazing streamlined PbtA-ish-but-OSR-ish game set in the weird 1980s that never was, playing mercs who deal with the occult, aliens, and other types of Weird Shit.
In any case, let's get to the reviews...
THE KUNDUZ GAMBIT This is a mission for FIST. The PCs are supposed to ambush a KGB convoy and rescue a POW from their clutches. And then there are these weird lights in the sky... This is a well-written quick mission with everything a GM needs to run it, including an in-character intelligence briefing. It looks like a lot of fun.
OPERATION: CHEAP TRICK It looks like Lars is really good at writing FIST missions. This one is meatier than THE KUNDUZ GAMBIT and is linked to OPERATION: FALSE SELF (see below). In-character intel handout, maps, even an MP3 of the briefing. Confirm a drug lord has access to alien technology! Good stuff.
OPERATION: FALSE SELF This FIST mission uses the infiltration mechanics from DEAD ZONE (see below). It looks like a fun romp; meaty, as I've come to expect from Lars at this point. Also, I love the idea of a stealth mission through the jungles of Zaire to get a peek at a crashed UFO.
DEAD ZONE Good, expanded rules for infiltration / exfiltration in FIST. I'd definitely use these in my campaign. Fits OPERATION: FALSE SELF (see above) pretty well.
Depths of Dark Bargain A dungeon for Cairn. It's a six-room thing, meant to be short and claustrophobic, but there's a lot going on in those rooms! You definitely see the same flair that Lars brought to FIST in this one.
Fantasy Calendar Season Transition Tool This is a cute little web tool (it's an HTML file) that allows Dungeon Masters to create a season calendar for their fantasy world, with gradual seasonal transitions over the year. Though I usually forget to use tools like this when I create a campaign, I love this sort of thing.
Adventure Calendar 2023 - Entries 1 to 12 Too many different things to go over here. Twelve little things for RPGs. A good sampler of the sort of thing Lars can do!
Rootin', Tootin', Shootin' Little one-page cowboy RPG. Four attributes (guess what the first three are) and Hit Points Haw Points. A single shot always hits, shades of Cairn or Liminal Horror, with an interesting table for how many shots hit if you try to shoot more than once a round. Not exactly my cuppa, but the multi-shot rules are interesting.
Rationalizing Rations A single page. It's a big table so you can have a description of your character's rations. I'm not sure I've ever cared about that level of detail, but it's a fun table!
100 Horses for Cairn Exactly what it says on the tin. A d100 table of different horses for Cairn, with stats. More interesting (to me), there's a page of rules on how to actually use horses in Cairn.
Stalwart A superhero game using The Black Hack. At first I thought that was weird, but then I remembered I wrote a game using The Black Hack where everyone plays kitties, and realized I didn't have a leg to stand on. Very quick and dirty, in a good way; it does what it needs to and gets out of the way. 👍
Considering the quality of the free/PWYW stuff, I'm interested to have a look at the stuff Lars wrote that costs money... when I have money again.
Also: MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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