Starring:
Mannix, level 4 Human Inquisitive Rogue
Khaless, level 4 Half-Drow Assassin Rogue
Gillian, level 4 Triton Bard of Whispers George, level 4 Tortle Battle Master Fighter/Rogue
Therin, level 4 Hill Dwarf Druid of the Moon
In a special shortened Thursday session we finished up the fight at the Wreck of the Star Goddess. The party climbed to the top of the skyship wreckage only to face down a trio of Girallon Zombies.
Designed by: Tim Bannock, with Matt Butler, JVC Parry, Janek Sielicki
Hags are a classic foe in literature and increasingly in the horror genre in the form of witches. They’re no strangers to the world of Dungeons & Dragons, receiving three types in the Monster Manual (Green, Night, Sea) as well as a detailed section and another two hag variants (Annis, Bheur) in Volo’s Guide to Monsters.
In case you need even more hag-related content, there’s “The Hag’s Hexes.” It’s a 60-page supplement with a very obvious theme, featuring new statblocks for hags and hag-related allies, as well as magic items, curses and bargains, mini one-shot adventures, and tips on role-playing.
The honeymoon for nostalgia-fueled Kickstarter video game projects has long since passed. Older games and genres from the 80s and 90s inspired a treasure trove of multi-million dollar projects, to varying degrees of success. Despite the digital gold rush, I never expected one of these Kickstarter fruits to bear a new ToeJam & Earl game, let alone it be quite good.
ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove is the fourth game in the bizarre but strangely memorable 90s series. But it’s also a triumphant recreation of the 1991 original, which has all the early trappings of a solid roguelike dungeon crawler, that happens to star a pair of funky aliens. While some gameplay elements are quite frustrating, Back in the Groove is dripping with 90s charm, lots of replayability, and fantastic co-op.
An impressive ruleset that skillfully converts D&D 5E into a cyberpunk sci-fi setting, along with an excellent adventure that uses those rules.
Review copies of “Investigations & Androids” and “Off World Colony” were provided by the publisher. Find more tabletop RPG reviews on my website and YouTube channel.
I adore a good cyberpunk setting. Blade Runner. Shadowrun. Dredd. Altered Carbon. Even The Expanse, in some ways. In fact when I began DMing and playing online sessions via Roll20, we originally started with Shadowrun (and then switched to D&D 5E because Shadowrun’s rules are super ugly).
“Investigations & Androids” smartly takes the core malleable d20 gameplay of Dungeons & Dragons and converts it into a classic cybernoir theme. It’s extremely well written and organized, focusing on the most important changes while letting the original ruleset do most of the heavy lifting.
The 80+ page rule book includes four new classes, nine new races, four new backgrounds, new or altered techpowers (spells, basically) as well as biomods, weapon augmentations, and several new maps and NPC statblocks.
I’m also reviewing “Off World Colony,” a companion adventure that utilizes all of those rules. Sadly it’s only a part one of four (as yet unreleased), but the level 1 adventure includes three chapters that perfectly blends open world exploration within a structured environment, allowing for fun choices and character building within a space-staged murder-mystery plot.
![ToeJam & Earl: Back in the Groove Review [Pixelkin]](https://roguewatson.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/toejam-earl-back-in-the-groove2.png?w=1000)
