Forbidden Lands - early review

 

This is my review of Forbidden Lands so far. Currently I've played in one convention game, a session zero for character creation and rules overview and then a full four hour session. This is also from the player point of view as I'm not running this one. 

The setting I know so far. Very nice backdrop about a world after what is basically magical post apocalypse. Night travel was impossible due to a red mist that would kill anyone except for very few. So isolation set in on towns and villages. After centuries (?) of this it finally lifted without warning. Now folks are moving out into the world again and seeing what is left. 

I really like this. Instead of being front loaded with a huge world of different kingdoms and all sorts races and all the political bullshit you get something basic. The more you explore, the more you find out. Makes getting into the game much easier from a player stand point. As a GM this would give you a lot more freedom to do things as you please. 

For the record I'm playing a Half Elf Sorcerer who specializes in Death Magic. 

As for the mechanics, it's the Year Zero Engine with a lot of twists. Usually you use D6's for everything (there are times for a couple of others but we haven't ran into that yet), three different colors of D6's. White for attributes, red for skills and black for gear bonus. 6's are successes, you can push rolls like other YZE games, and take conditions or temporary attribute damage. But failing can hurt you in different ways depending on which dice the ones were rolled on.

This makes you really way out when to push rolls and when not to. Except that I need Willpower to cast magic, and you get willpower by pushing rolls. So yeah I pushed more often than I should have. Took some temporary attribute damage a few times. But it was fun.

Everything just works smoothly once you get the dice mechanics down. 

All in all I'll give it two thumbs up. A lot of fun and we were all ready to play the next session. After we get a few more games in I'll post a follow up review and talk about how it works on a longer term. 

Free RPG Day 2026 after action report

 

At the shop we had another Free RPG Day come and go. This was our first year at the new location and we saw a pretty good increase in traffic. Although our charity auction didn't go off as well as previous years it did good and the food drive also pulled in several boxes for the local food pantry. 

As for the actual products offered. I think this is the best year ever in terms of quality material that was more geared to what people want. For example Renegade Games had been doing basically folders with a QR code in them for the last few years. Nobody was really interested. This year they offered up an actual VtM adventure and that got folks attention. There seemed to be more playable material than just fluffed up advertisements. It folks here noticed.

I hope this is a trend that continues.

Myself I got the Vaesen quickstart because it's the game I'm currently running and really enjoying. And the owner gave me one of the Dispel D20s for putting in extra work that day and volunteering to run a game for strangers (something he knows I'm not to fond of anymore). 

At the charity auction I bid on a couple of things. Only got one of them. It's a hanging wall display for Mageknight from about twenty years ago. Which is one of those games I really enjoyed for a little bit. So the nostalgia bug bit me on that one. 

We have no other events of any magnitude scheduled until Black Friday and Christmas. So at least we have time to plan a bit for those. 

Jaded Gamer Diary - System XYZ

 

One thing that really gets under my skin about the broader online TTRPG community. It's that no matter what, whenever you talk about running a game and what system you will be using there will be a rush of folks coming up to tell you it would be better to run it under system XYZ. 

Want to run Cyberpunk? Don't use the actual Cyberpunk rpg use system XYZ instead, just convert everything over. Want to run The One Ring? Use XYZ instead, just convert everything over OR buy a bunch of books to do so. Want to run Dune from Modiphius? Nope don't use their mechanics use XYZ instead, just convert it all over. 

My response to this become this. First you buy the physical copy of XYZ for me, and mail it to my address. You convert everything over, print it out, mail that to me as well. Any dice necessary for XYZ you can purchase and toss in the mail as well. Any adventures that I want to run that aren't in XYZ you can convert over for me as well. I mean you want me to try XYZ for a game then put your money where your mouth is. 

Then I may give it a chance. But if I don't like it after a couple sessions I'm going to stop. Nope, not mailing anything back to you.

Don't like that? Then stop suggesting XYZ for everything.

Jaded Gamer Diary - Random Bitching 6/15/26

 

One thing I've grown to really dislike is characters that are rolled up completely random. The less choice I have in what makes the character on the sheet then the less likely I am to even try making a character. Now I do understand for some people that's their jam. 

Of course I've been told that's how you 'stretch your roleplaying ability'. No it's fucking not. Rolling up something I don't want to play and won't enjoy playing doesn't do shit about my 'roleplaying ability'. Roleplaying for me is about fun, not some amateur off the cuff theatrical training with random crap. 

I make it clear that if I'm invited to set at your table for a game and discover that when I arrive that it's all completely random generated characters I will do two things. Smile, thank you for the invite, then get up and leave. Or I will roll up a character, if I don't like it I'll wad up the sheet and ask for another one. Then repeat that process until I get something that I want. Or get bored and get up and leave.

Neither way is wrong, neither way is better than the other. If you think they are well then you're wrong. Get over it.

People have different views of what they find entertaining. What is fun for one person isn't for another. But when the I get told I have to play a rat catcher that is blind in one, deaf and has a peg leg my response will be fuck no. That's not fun to me. At all. 

I play to have fun. I don't play for some exercise in frustration that doesn't end. And yes, I absolutely know what is fun for me. 

Diecon 26 After Action Report

 

Well another fun weekend at Diecon has come and gone for me. As part of a little group I call the 'Three Amigos' we rode up together, had a lot of fun, and then rode back home together. Here's my report on some of the games I played and folks I talked to.

Battletech Classic

I haven't played Battletech since the 90's. It's always been one of those games that I wanted to get back into but never seemed to have the time, and when I did have the time I didn't have the money. Well one of my friends now runs it at the local shop I work at (Aesops Treasury) and is an official agent for Catalyst Game Labs. He was at the con so I jumped into one of his sessions.

Overall it was pretty much like I remembered. Bit stompy robots beating the hell out of each other with a very detailed damage system in a battle that usually takes a couple hours at least. While I had a lot of fun it's not a game I'll be diving into again. If I'm free and he needs a guy to help pilot some mechs for a game I'll do it. But as for investing my time and money again, I've moved past that level of obsession. 

Coriolis The Great Dark

The newest edition of this really cool scifi game from Free League Publishing. This game is set in the same setting as the original just over a vastly different corner of space. A good breath of fresh air for that world with some neat 'delving' mechanics and some rather interesting setting elements. I had a good time but I don't see myself running this game. I would absolutely jump into it as a player though.

Forbidden Lands

One of the older games from Free League Publishing that I've seen and heard a lot about, but never played. I really liked the flavor of fantasy 'grimdark' this one has. It's has some good lore about why everything is so messed up. The modifications to the Year Zero Engine are nice. Especially with the different colored D6's meaning something in a roll. Like the black dice representing bonuses from gear that can determine if your gear breaks if a roll is bad enough. It's really slick.

I'm a proven terrible fantasy gamemaster. It's not my wheelhouse of what I'm good at doing. But there is enough horror elements that I could possibly make it work. It's on my 'maybe' list when it comes to buying in. I would love to play in a game though.

Outgunned Adventure

Once there was a game called Broken Compass that came out a few years ago from Two Little Mice this has now grown into the game called Outgunned. Outgunned Adventure is the version more set up for Indiana Jones style adventure games. Before playing I was very hesitant about the dice mechanics. It's all built around matching numbers on the dice you rolled. Two of a kind, three of a kind, etc. 

After playing all of my hesitation is completely gone. I really enjoyed the way the mechanics flowed. How failure leads to you building up points in other areas to pull of stuff even better. The whole cinematic feel is actually there with adrenaline points, grit and other sorts of things. I'll be picking this book up at some point in the near future with the hope of running it at least for a little bit. Two thumbs up for that. 

Dealers Area

Now there aren't as many dealers there as other cons but the ones they have are really great and friendly. The Dicegeeks guy was really cool as were the folks from Twilight Creations. Troll Lord Games really had a Castles and Crusades presence with a table full of product and guy who very friendly talking up the product. Artist Brent Chumley was, as usual, absolutely great to talk with and he got a few of my dollars as he does every year.

In other stuff there were a few things I didn't like but I'm keeping with the positive side of things. So I won't go into what they were. My opinions were given to the staff via their messenger account. What they do with constructive criticism is up to them. 

I'm already preregistered for next year to do it all over again. 

Why not?

 

"You shouldn't make fun of people and the games they enjoy."

Why not, they've been doing that to me for fucking decades. 

Tips for running Vaesen

 

I'm a long time gamemaster but very new to running Vaesen, the game of Nordic horror roleplaying. But it's become one of my new obsessions. Now I'm going to be offering up a little bit of advice for running the mysteries from the books. At least what I've learned so far. 

Before I begin I will say I used the Starter Kit to introduce my group to the game. Letting them get a feel for the game before making their own characters. It worked rather well and they were ready to dive right in after that initial taste. 

First. Take notes for yourself. There is actually quite a bit of detail put into their published adventures. So making a few notes and maybe even scribbling out a relationship map can work rather well. It's easy to forget something from one particular location that may be an essential clue for later on. 

Second. Practice saying the names a bit. I'm from the middle of nowhere in the United States. So when it comes to Scandinavian names for people and places let's just say it's a bit of a rough go. While reading through the adventure before running it say the names out loud a few times. It's better than stumbling over it for the first time in the middle of the game.

Third. Use the handouts. Most are available on the Free League website to download. These help so much to set the mood and they've put some obvious work into them. Now most of the mysteries also have pictures of the main characters to boot. So if you have the pdf print those off as well if you can. That and props are always advisable at most gaming tables, especially where mysteries are concerned. 

Fourth. Let the players figure stuff out first. Don't push them towards the set motion that you think will work the best. Especially if they have the codex from the Starter Kit available. If they start reading through that trying to figure out what they are up against LET THEM. Figuring out what kind of Vaesen they are up against is only half the problem. 

That's all I have for now. As I keep running more mysteries out of the books I'll post up any more advice that I may have.