[Review] The Witcher

Introduction

The name’s Davenport. I review games.

So the other day an armored fantasy-lookin’ fella walks into my office with white hair, cat’s eyes, a nasty scar runnin’ down his face, and a sour expression. Couldn’t really blame’im. He looked like he’d been through the wringer.

“Greetings,” he says. “I’m a Witcher.”

“A witch or what?” I says.

“A Witcher,” he says. “I’m a magical mutant who hunts monsters for pay.”

“There much money in that gig?”

“Not much,” he says, “but it’s what I was made for.”

“I can relate,” I says. “So what brings you by today?”

He pulls a book with his mug on the cover outta his bag and drops it on the desk. “I’ve a review job for you. The Witcher roleplaying game.”

I look it over. “So is this about killin’ monsters for not enough moolah?”

“It can be,” he says. “But you can play all manner of characters: A doctor, a wizard, a priest, a bard, a warrior, and more besides.”

“Sounds good,” I says. “I’ll give it a look. But tell me somethin’: Are you sure you don’t make enough money?”

“Yes, quite certain. Why?”

“Seems like someone in your line of work would make a killin’.”

[Q&A] Shawn Michael Hescock (EverWyrd)

<+ShawnHescock> Hello! Shawn Hescock, here. Owner of Geeks Collaborative Gaming out of Portland, Oregon. We are currently working on getting EverWyrd ready for crowdfunding.

<+ShawnHescock> EverWyrd is a Dungeon Crawl, miniatures adventure game that uses a series of tiles and roll tables to randomize the dungeon through each play.

<+ShawnHescock> The game is intended to be played through a series of quests that make up an overall campaign and your hero will grow and develop their skills as you play through.

<+ShawnHescock> We also have a basic Dungeon Dive which isn’t part of the campaign, but uses a slightly different set of rules so that they dungeon gets harder, the deeper you explore.

[Q&A] Mark Whittington (Black Code)

<+Whitt> Hi I’m Mark Whittington, also known as Whitt and I’m the writer, developer and pretty much everything of Black Code, a transhuman cyberpunk RPG that’s just released.

<+Whitt> It’s a light system with just enough crunch to make your choices matter with a strong focus on empowering players to make whatever kind of character they like.

<+Whitt> And there’s a deep background with a sort of “buffet” style system of self contained locations so as a GM you can pick and choose what to include in your game to flavour it to your tastes.

[Q&A] Emil Thorngren Ibsen (Deal with the Dead: The Zombie RPG)

<+Emil_Thorngren> I’m Emil Thorngren Ibsen, but everybody (including my mom) class me E.T. so feel free to do the same.

<+Emil_Thorngren> I’m the writer for the new and exciting tabletop RPG; Deal with the Dead

<+Emil_Thorngren> Deal with the Dead is a settingless post-apocalyptic, zombie survival gaming system.

<+Emil_Thorngren> Therefore you and your friends decide what you want the game to be like, where are you? what will the central tension be about? and why are there freaking zombies running around?

<+Emil_Thorngren> Now, the core rule book (The Survivors Guide) will include at least 3 suggestions to a setting, each with some added rules to fit the specific setting better

<+Emil_Thorngren> I grew up with games like Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, World of Darkness and Warhammer,

<+Emil_Thorngren> and my designing process has been inspired by these games, but I can honestly say that Deal with the Dead is like nothing I have ever seen before.

<+Emil_Thorngren> Deal with the Dead combines the use of dice as we know them and poker hands,

<+Emil_Thorngren> the whole poker hand aspect of Deal with the Dead makes some great opportunities for interesting game mechanics as well as teamwork in the game.

<+Emil_Thorngren> that’s my short pitch, but I’m sure we will dig deeper into the game doing the next few hours!

[Q&A] Greg Gordon & Deanna Gilbert (Torg Eternity: Cyberpapacy)

<+USI_Deanna> I’m Deanna Gilbert, and a member of the Torg Eternity design team and the Torg Eternity Community Manager. I’m the lead author on the Cyberpapacy Sourcebook and the developer for the Relics of Power adventure.

<+GreG> I am Greg Gorden, designer on oTorg, and now line developer for Torg Eternity. Ulisses Spiele is moving to the Late Pledge for Cyberpapacy, so we are talking about the strange, glittering authoritarianism that is the Cyberpapacy.

[Q&A] Jason Henderson (HardBoot)

<+OMHenderson> Howdy.. I’m Mr.J. Henderson..

<+OMHenderson> I’m the author of ‘HardBoot’ the D20 RPG..

<+OMHenderson> A 5E Compatible TTRPG that allows you the player to be a program in a computer as per the series ReBoot the classic CGI Cartoon..

[Q&A] Sam Billington (Steel and Sorcery)

<+Sam> So hi, name’s Sam Billington.  I’m a 1.5-year indie-ish developer for Pathfinder 1e and D&D 5e.  I have a DriveThruRPG space called Tipsy Tabby Publishing.

<+Sam> My game is called Steel and Sorcery, and it’s basically a blend of various ideas between the multiple editions of Dungeons and Dragons.  It’s in pre-alpha stage at the moment, and I could use people to bounce ideas off of and possibly help keep me on task.

<+Sam> AMA!