Review: Shadowrun RPG 6e

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Title: Shadowrun Role-Playing Game (6th Edition)
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs (Licensed by The Topps Company Inc.)
Learning Curve: MASSIVE

Shadowrun holds a special place in my heart. It was the first game to draw me into the cyberpunk genre and out of the realms of pure Tolkien fantasy. In this dystopian future, the nations of Earth have changed drastically with the reawakening of magic and the advent of technology advancing metahuman kind beyond our wildest dreams. Elves, dwarves, orks, and trolls all co-mingle with their human counterparts, simply trying to make a life for themselves under the shadow of a global corporatocracy.

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Video Game Review: Planet Zoo

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If you’re familiar with Frontier Developments as a developer, you’ve likely seen their work in the acclaimed Planet Coaster. I played many hours of the game, myself. I’ve always have been a fan of the theme park management simulators and rollercoaster designers. I never was able to say the same for games like Zoo Tycoon always feeling that they lacked substance and motive for me to be there. That said, I was a fan of the PS2 classic, Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis which explored a theme park setting where you setup your own dinosaur park. It played similar to the newer release Jurassic World Evolution.

Planet Zoo, on that note, fixes the issues that I had with what you might call its inspirations. Let’s dig in to see exactly how it does that, starting with gameplay.

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Review: Alice is Missing – A Silent RPG

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Title: Alice is Missing – A Silent RPG
Publisher: Hunters Entertainment
Learning Curve: All skill levels

In my 20+ years of gaming experience, I have never played an RPG like Alice is Missing (AIM). Until now, systems like D&D and Pathfinder have been centric to my awareness, which I now regret. A session of AIM is an intense experience that will stay with you long after you leave the table. Five players embody the friends and family of Alice and over 90 mins, weave together a collaborative story that is completely unique as they try to discover what happened to Alice.

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Video Game Review: Shantae Half-Genie Hero

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Released in December 2016, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero released on every major console at the time. Half-Genie Hero took what previous games had and built on/ simplified many different elements. Being the fourth game in the series, many fans had high expectations of this game. While the reviews were lower than Pirate’s Curse, Half-Genie Hero still did very well with many fans. WayForward’s first step into HD for this series created a fresh start for the series while maintaining the what people loved of the original game.

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The “Appropriateness” of Gender Topics and Youth in TTRPGs

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As a “forever” Game Mistress (GM), as is colloquial in the Tabletop Role-Playing Game (TTRPG) community, I follow quite a few GM YouTubers. Today, during my research for articles such as this, I came across a video by one to which I subscribe. In this particular installment, DawnforgedCast was reviewing a recent (at the time) article from Kotaku.com discussing how Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), and subsequently Wizards of the Coast, were dedicated to further LGBT+ representation and inclusion in its products. While that remains to be seen, my curiosity was peaked more by the questions that DawnforgedCast asked his viewers.

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