Review: Into The Deep, Part VI

Today the Octopus picks up xer review of Into The Deep again! Written for the Numenera game system by the diversity-friendly Monte Cook Games, this sourcebook dips into the oceans of the Ninth World!

Apology and Resistance

Sorry, folks, today I do no have the brainpower and energy necessary to even do a review. The ongoing trainwreck that is the new regime in my home country is sapping my energy horribly, and today’s struck particularly close to home since I’m married to an immigrant with a green card. She wouldn’t be in the list of banned people, but the sheer blind callousness of the government’s actions is incredibly painful.

This is unjust, unlawful, and against everything this nation has ever tried to stand for. It is simple bigotry, and not enough people with the authority and power to fight it are trying to do so, leaving it to us to resist.

Please bear in mind, if you think I’m dragging politics into someplace where it shouldn’t be, that the odds are that some of your favorite entertainment – be it games, movies, books, music, or something else – has been produced in part or in full by immigrants. Fight with the rest of us, or lose any future hope of things like that.

Edited to add a comment from my wife, quoting Adam Savage: “Any argument that people who don’t make a career of politics should keep their nose out of them died when a reality tv star got elected.”

Into The Deep, Part V

Today, the review of Into The Deep for the Numenera setting and system ventures into the Depths, the next part of the book, starting with the Squamous Coliseum! What lurks in the deep darkness?

Review: Into The Deep, Part IV

Today, I’ll be continuing my review of Into The Deep for Numenera, picking up wth the Skelirroth Fleet at the end of the Out To Sea section!

Review: Into The Deep, Part III

Continuing the review of Into The Deep for the Numenera system and setting today, we’ll be heading Out to Sea, where octopi dwell along with other, stranger beings. Given that octopi apparently responded to the return of humans to Earth for the Ninth World with, “Oh. It’s you again.” I don’t doubt that this should be interesting.

Review: Into The Deep, Part II

Today I’ll be continuing my review of Into The Deep for the Numenera system by Monte Cook Games; yesterday I just made it out of the introduction. On to Part One, on the Shallows region! First up: The Island of Undoing!

Review: Into The Deep

Today, I intend to begin my skim-over review of the Into The Deep sourcebook for Numenera. This, for those unfamiliar with it, is one of the relatively recent Kickstarted sourcebooks for Numenera; it delves into the depths of the oceans of the Ninth World, much as Into The Night explored some of the cosmos and how Into The Outside will explore the extradimensional realms appended to Earth.

Transplanar Express (Or: Trains On The Planes)

Today I’ll be outlining a concept that recently struck me, a mixture of Wild/Weird West and the old TSR setting Planescape. The shorthand of it is that the planes – particularly the Elemental Planes – have been connected by train networks, and goods are moved along these train lines. PCs might well come into this setting as would-be train robbers.

Cypher System: Force Flavor

I’ve debated the best way to represent the Force as an in-game mechanic for a game like the Lost Padawans, and ultimately I’ve settled on revising the Magic flavor as the Force. If I were focusing on the usual Light vs Dark dichotomy, I’d likely go another route, but for this game I intend to let the players explore what else the Force could be, if it weren’t being shoehorned into a Good against Evil alignment.

Gameplay: Illnesses, Part II

Today I’m going to continue my discussion of illness in games, and how it can be used to make games more interesting. An important caveat: this is the kind of advice that you should think about carefully before using, because it causes fundamental changes to the game systems and very well may not be fun for many players.