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The Uncanny Highway – Blue Plate Special Edition
by Eireann [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/18/2024 15:01:15

This was a delight. I've been following this project on the creator's blog for a long while, but there were still a great many lovely surprises in the final version. The tables for highway section tone/themes were very fun, the NPC tables interesting , and the system conversion tables useful. I look forward to using the solo rules to play as soon as I get a chance to print off the relevant sheets.

I also wanted to say that the aesthetic elements are very well done. In other books (gaming and general fiction) those elements often prioritize vibes over legibility, but here they not only achieve that balance but go beyond to aid the text. The work is dense enough that it wants a bit of help with separating things out visually and that is achieved in an aesthetically appropriate but not overly dramatic or distracting manner.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Uncanny Highway – Blue Plate Special Edition
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The Uncanny Highway – Blue Plate Special Edition
by Paul-Alexander [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/16/2024 11:58:50

Quite the game! There are tables over tables, very detailed. A meticulous work of love. I haven't used the rules and can only comment based on reading them, but they seem playable.

To me as a European, the mood of this era seems alien but still fascinating. A lot of the entries have a vibe of heavily accentuated liberalism to them (liberalism in the ideological sense), which feels wild, liberating and repellent at the same time. I don't know that much about the pop culture this book undoubtedly refers to, but it can certainly also be used to create moods in the vein of Tarantino's Death Proof, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Lynch's Lost Highway or Wild at Heart; but you could also create with some work a more warmhearted ambiance like in Wender's Paris, Texas or Out of Rosenheim (well, quite some work actually). With the help of these tables, you can either create lonely, desolate places like in the aforementioned movies or very lively ones.

 It's an OSR game, so there's no narrative, no prewritten adventure.   But for anybody who is looking for a modern-day game with surreal/preposterous/horrific elements: Even if this didn't turn out to be exactly the game you hoped for, it certainly still would be a helpful resource.

(If you happen to be proficient in French: As the French have a lot of film noir rpgs that take place in the United States, games like B.I.A., One%, Americana, Wallow Wide, L'Heritage Greenberg, C.O.P.S. and particularly Project Pelican could easily be combined with The Uncanny Highway.)



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Highdark Hall
by Matthew R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/09/2023 20:02:46

On the good side, it's a great set of maps. You can always do something with a nice map.

On the bad side, there is basically no content here beyond some rather generic and obvious NPCs. The NPCs are fine. But the locations are given only the most vague and useless and obvious descriptions. All the important bits and hardwork is left up to the imagination of the GM - figure out your own mysteries and secrets about the place. That last bit is one of the most frustating things I'm encountering lately in published RPG material. If I wanted to take the time to write my own plots, twists, adventures, and mysteries, I would just do it rather than paying someone else to do it.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Highdark Hall
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A Ghastly Companion to Castles, Mansions, & Estates – Rough-Hewn Edition
by Olivier S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/15/2022 01:27:44

"A Ghastly Companion to Castles, Mansions, & Estates" is a more than 250 pages long guide to generate randomly grand houses, by Daniel James Hanley. It is primarily designed for the author's Rpg, set in the XVIIIth and beginning of the XIXth centuries, that you can download for free, but any gamemaster can adapt it with little imagination to whatever time for the Middle Ages up to the modern epoch. You get more than 100 tables to create randomly the dwellings of upper classes, including the furniture, the inhabitants (both masters and servants) and their whereabouts. Some side-material concerns neighbouring villages and inns, ruins, subterranean places, random events, menus and paintings. Therefore, this book is a trove of informations and inspiration for any gamemaster who has to deal with the estates of European noblety and bourgeoisie. Congrats to D.J. Hanley !



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
A Ghastly Companion to Castles, Mansions, & Estates – Rough-Hewn Edition
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for the wonderful review!
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Ghastly Affair Player's Manual
by Andy B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/22/2017 17:16:22

This thing is awesome. I picked up the Players and Presenters books, both worth every penny you pay for it. They are ripe with possibility and fun. I thought they were more in the style of a Old School game than the listed modified D&D. Ive loved the OSRIC movement and have been hording these kind of books.

These two books give so much toward creating the setting, mood, and beats of a Gothic story. You could run a game for a decade exploring whats in this book. Especially if you raid other old books for more 'd20esque' material. Imagine using Colonial Gothic (or Northern Crown) as setting pieces or cherry picking fun aspects from Ravenloft's Masque of the Red Death or Van Richten's guides. Its amazing what kind of stories practically beg to be animated with this system.

The two books do not overlap. You need the players guide for the raw system and making characters. The presenters book was all about informing the gothic feel as well as inhabiting your world with characters and animals and monsters. I bought them both together and only wish they had a package deal. I leaped into the deep end after reading through both full-sized previews, I knew I wanted in. If you have even the faintest of interests in this period or style, do not hesitate.

I almost never give 5 stars. Its so hard to consider something 'perfect' but I dropped one for each book. They were both well earned. I dont know how I could say more or better than that for any game.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Ghastly Affair Player's Manual
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for the wonderful review! Also, thank you for pointing out that the "Ghastly Affair" books were not listed in the OSR category. It was an oversight that I have now corrected.
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Ghastly Affair Presenter's Manual
by Andy B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/22/2017 17:16:14

This thing is awesome. I picked up the Players and Presenters books, both worth every penny you pay for it. They are ripe with possibility and fun. I thought they were more in the style of a Old School game than the listed modified D&D. Ive loved the OSRIC movement and have been hording these kind of books.

These two books give so much toward creating the setting, mood, and beats of a Gothic story. You could run a game for a decade exploring whats in this book. Especially if you raid other old books for more 'd20esque' material. Imagine using Colonial Gothic (or Northern Crown) as setting pieces or cherry picking fun aspects from Ravenloft's Masque of the Red Death or Van Richten's guides. Its amazing what kind of stories practically beg to be animated with this system.

The two books do not overlap. You need the players guide for the raw system and making characters. The presenters book was all about informing the gothic feel as well as inhabiting your world with characters and animals and monsters. I bought them both together and only wish they had a package deal. I leaped into the deep end after reading through both full-sized previews, I knew I wanted in. If you have even the faintest of interests in this period or style, do not hesitate.

I almost never give 5 stars. Its so hard to consider something 'perfect' but I dropped one for each book. They were both well earned. I dont know how I could say more or better than that for any game.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Ghastly Affair Presenter's Manual
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