Fantastic product - the setting is dark and scary, the mechanics flow nicely and overall the quality tis top drawer. Throughly recommend.

I've gone through some bits and so far it is some high class stuff! I'll keep updating this review as I go deeper into the elaborate Nors lore written by Mister Sharpe!

I really enjoy this game, the art, and the character options. The setting is very interesting and full of lore. I have written a more elaborate review if you would like to check it out here: https://penanddie.com/2023/09/04/when-the-wolf-comes-review/

This is the racial enhancement book for the dwarves in Shadow of the Demon Lord game. This clocks in at 17 pages. The first 7 pages are dedicated to expanded lore from history and religion to personality and racial relations. A lot of this information is covered in Uncertain Faith but there is more here. The Dwarf race itself offers one alternative ability, “Sturdy as the Mountain”, at Level 4 which would be useful for some so it isn’t a worthless option. The next 9 pages are dedicated to randomized character creation tables. These tables go into much more depth of traits than the core rulebook and can go a long way toward assisting with character development. The remaining page and a half is dedicated to Rune spells and the Grudge Bearer Expert Path. This anger-based path is a solid mix of spellcasting and warrior based abilities.

As a dwarf specific supplement is well done if you are interested in expanding the ancestral details of your dwarven characters. Though a bit of the material is covered in Uncertain Faith, the information is expanded upon and retains value. The art is well done and matches the theme perfectly. If you are looking for a lot of crunchy alternative abilities and traits, this has very little but if you are looking for enhanced random character generation or more detail behind the dwarven race in general, this fits the bill perfectly.

Should you buy? For theme, dwarven history, and session zero randomized character development, yes, otherwise no. Most of my players prefer randomized characters for grim settings so this was a nice supplement for me. YMMV.

While yes, you could port everything from the books to Foundry yourself without too much challenge, this saves you a HUGE amount of time. Everything you need is in there, as well as some handy macros for both GMs and players for the most common actions like Will/Strength etc. rolls. Nice simple features for items to add bonuses or penalties when equipped, integrates with several other excellent Foundry mods like Automated Animations and Splatter. I've no real complaints.

Ok, one thing, but it's not really a complaint, and if it is it's not major. I understand that not all the art in the books can be included for copyright reasons, but still it's a bit of a shame that there are some images missing. Perhaps if sales go well there'll be enough funding to comission an artist or two to fill in some of the blanks on tokens and journal entries?

Overall an excellent start, and I hope to see more (especially Occult Philosophies because it's a huge expansion).

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Shadow of the Weird Wizard

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea every day!

Product- Weird Wizard Quick Play System- Shadow of the Demon Lord Producer- Schwalb Entertainment Price- FREE here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/447890/Weird-Wizard-Quick-Play?cPath=46428?affiliate_id=658618 TL; DR-Classic fantasy from the Schwalb?! 100%

Basics- We must face the weird wizard! Shadow of the Weird Wizard is Shadow of the Demon Lord brought to a much more traditional and family friendly world from Robert Schwalb. Let’s break down the quick start and then the review!

Mechanics- This is classic Shadow of the Demon Lord game play. It’s d20 based but numbers are MUCH smaller than your classic DnD 3.5. Bonuses to rolls are attribute - 10. A 12 means you get a +2 to the roll and a 7 would mean a -3. If things are good you get boons where you roll a d6 and add, and banes are roll a d6 and subtract. You get the sum total of boons and banes together and you get a total of up to 3d6 taking the best/worst to any roll.

Combat- Schwalb’s games are not crunch forward. It’s VERY quick! Monsters go, then players go. Each turn you get a move and an action. Interestingly enough, most dice rolls are either a d20 or a d6.

Ok, Let’s discuss.

Mechanics or Crunch- I will admit my bias here, but I love Shadow of the Demon Lord's simplicity. You won’t have 20 pages of character sheet at level 10 (as high as this system goes), but you also get to play and understand quickly. But, it is a choice. If you need 20 different levels to pull in your game, this won’t be the system for you. Me? I love my 500 points of character building in Shadowrun and love my 1 die systems, so this is just a well done, slick system that will have you playing in under 10 minutes. Aside from that, the other controversy here is game length. Each session you level up. So if you start out level 0, you get about 11 sessions to play. That seems way too short, but in a conversation with the man himself, he brought up that most game groups might not even last that long till life takes them apart. His focus is on much more tight stories that you can complete. And again, that won me over. 5/5

Theme or Fluff- This is the most controversial part of Schwalb’s work, but this system doesn't do what we would expect here. Weird Wizard is MUCH more traditional fantasy than Demon Lord. Demon Lord I felt was a bit more gothic and MUCH MUCH More grotesque. Now I love me some off the wall Schwalb based horror, but I can see how that would be too much for some people. This isn’t that. This feels much more in line with your classic fantasy. It’s got some interesting elements with the fey, but it's wizards doing strange things and having to be put down. And given what I’ve seen it looks like it will be a fun ride along the way. 5/5

Execution- This is a free product, but it does give a bit of what to expect in the final production. It’s pretty bland in terms of art, but again it's there for a system intro. And I have to say, I like it. The art of the kickstarter is good, so if that’s an indication of a full product, I’m happy. The other books have hyperlinks, art, and all the things I now require to be happy. For a free product, this points in a solid direction. 5/5

Summary- Pretty much whenever Schwalb puts out a kickstarter, I drop about 100 bucks getting all the digital toys. And this is no different. I love the simplicity of the system and the craziness of the world that is built. It’s interesting to discuss a new project where the controversy might be the lack of that gore/craziness. If you want a game you can play with the kids, those of a less cast iron stomach, or those who just want to be regular fantasy knights and dragon slaying heroes, then this is your game. A more traditional world with Schwalb’s simple mechanics, and solid production gets you VERY far with this product and I can’t recommend it enough. Check out this free product. 100%

Spectacular in concept and realized with an excellent (if criminally underrated) system, When the Wolf Comes is an awesome setting and ruleset well worth the asking price.

Amazing book! Ian really fleshes out the world for this game and picked the perfect system for all my space viking needs! Cannot wait to get this to the table!

Review

This is a 4-page (3 pages with 1 introduction page) rules supplement that enhances the rules on injuries. Mechanically, it uses the rules for injuries (aka 50% health) to force a player to roll to see if they gain a injury. These can be major or minor in nature and there are several additional tables that give the specifics, ranging from traumatic injuries to catastrophic injuries. There are also rules to modify the rules around becoming incapacitated. The final page deals with prosthetics and a couple of spells that work with the new rules.

I was originally excited to get this enhancement to the rules. The flavor of grievous injuries in a grim dark world seemed like a natural fit for what I wanted out of this game. Implementing the injury rules though is not all its cracked up to be. I found them to slow down combat and even though I like this setting, the rules get in the way. The changes to the incapacitated rules are worth looking at if you want to make your game slightly more lethal without adding significant mechanical overhead. These rules just change the fate rolls associated with incapacitated and dying more lethal in nature. The prosthetics rules are a mixed bag. The simplicity of something like a peg leg is great, but having to deal with prosthetic mishaps is not something many players will find fun.

At the end of the day, I found some items in the supplement useful. I have taken advantage of the more deadly (Incapacitated / Dying) fate rolls. The Injury rules would be more useful as a crit system or something similar but as is, I don’t feel the overhead is worth implementing them.

Should you buy?

If you are ok with additional combat overhead, this product will have more value. I just didn’t find enough value in the product to justify its cost. ($1.49 at the time of this review.)

Review

This is a 4-page (3 pages with 1 introduction page) rules supplement that enhances the rules on Insanity. Mechanically, this supplement alters the Insanity rules by making three main changes. There are some other possible changes but these three are the core of what this supplement appears to be aiming for.

1 – Altering the Insanity Intensity table to be more dangerous

2 – Altering Magic such that it isn’t as strong at helping to cure Insanity (this is an optional rule)

3 – Adding a Fate Roll to “Going Mad” rules that expands Madness into short- and long-term variants.

Unlike a similar product, “Battle Scars”, this product is very easy to implement into your game. The mechanics make minor adjustments to existing rules in such a way that don’t make them cumbersome. Thematically, this expands the Insanity rules with excellent opportunities for roleplaying.

Should you buy?

If you want to make insanity more dangerous and a larger part of your game, the price is well worth the material presented. ($1.49 at the time of this review.)

I’m always a bit careful when looking at books that add additional ancestries or paths. Often these can be too specialized, overpowered, underpowered, or particularly redundant. The best ones seem to be few and far between. This particular path is one of the most unique ones I have seen and worth a deeper look. The core rulebook includes four novice paths. Outside of this, there have been mostly variants of those four, along with a few warrior / magician types. This book comes in at 9 pages and creates something altogether new in the form of the Scientist Novice path.

The Scientist gains its abilities from their Science academic specialties. These specialties grant an array of abilities ranging from alchemical healing to engineering technology. At first the path is somewhat reminiscent of the magician path, but these similarities disappear once you get to the sciences. The sciences provide the main abilities mechanics which are summarized below.

Botany

• This science specializes in modifying or damaging plantlike creatures, providing characters with plantlike bonuses, and healing.

Chemist

• Specializing in chemicals, these abilities range from toxins to enhancement drugs to explosives.

Entomology

• This bug-based science deals with controlling insects and utilizing their toxins.

Geology

• A construct-based path that focuses on the abilities of its earth-based abilities of its servant.

Metaphysics

• This odd path touches on gravity, wormholes, and lightning canons.

Physiology

• Body modification mixed with enhanced bonuses derived from understanding creatures.

Psychology

• Utilizing morale to improve allies or fear to demoralize enemies.

Technology

• Crafting, construction, and ballistics, oh my

Zoology

• Animal enhancements, handling, and training, this pet-based science has a lot to offer.

All of these sciences can be picked from to offer a diverse array of abilities, or you can focus more heavily on specific sciences to be more specialized. The authors did an excellent job of keeping them interesting and fun while maintaining a consistency of power present in the other novice paths. Particularly noteworthy, this supplement offers some non-magic alternatives to many magic based paths while mostly sticking to great thematic flavor of a knowledge-based path. Your players will have the option of healing without any sort of religion, or magic like abilities brought on by great minds instead of powerful magic. This is so well done I wish it was in the core book.

Should you buy? Yes, the Scientist Novice Path is well thought out and easily worth the price of admission. ($2.49 at time of this review)

This guide is designed to enhance travel, logistics, and camping. It includes new Talents, Spells, Equipment, and Paths to enhance that aspect of your game. This is a 10 page pdf (Page 1 Introduction, Page 10 Advertisements) with 8 pages of content. It is obvious that the writer for this material is very familiar with Shadows of the Demon Lord products both official and from third party publishers. Many of the aspects of this supplement require you to have additional supplemental material. For those that own all the additional material, this may be a good thing. I don’t mind a little of this but it is so heavily used here that it feels very disjointed for this kind of expansion content. I understand that he was trying to expand on existing material, however, you may want to be aware that all of the following are needed to get the full value out of this supplement.

Schwalb Entertainment:

• Demon Lords Companion
• Insupposable Instruments
• Pursuit of Power
• The Scientific Method
• Unhinge the Mind

Third Party Publishers

• Finduviel’s Emporium
• Journey’s in Shadow

As for the material itself, I’m going to jump to the Paths which take up a significant portion of the material (5 pages). I was going to review each of these Paths but I can’t say I was inspired or excited by the Paths presented here. Thematically they read ok, but their usefulness outside of their set roles is very limited. The exception is the Priest of the Pilgrim which is a solid spellcasting and support path, both mechanically and thematically. The author has a page dedicated to Making Camp actions but when compared to the referenced guide for Journeys in Shadow, you are better off buying that supplement than this one. Overall, this supplement is meh. When I look at this material and ask myself how much of it I will actually find a use for, I have to say this one is skippable. I don’t want to detract from the author in general though. Ronny has a lot of good supplements, save your coin for one of his other ones.

I was quite disappointed with this purchase (EDIT: see below for my revised opinion). Overall, the compendia are lazily and incompletely constructed. A non-comprehensive list of examples of the frustrations I've encountered:

• When you add an Ancestry to a character sheet, it creates Features for that ancestry that don't have the actual description of the Feature built into the item... despite the fact that Features which include the full description exist in the compendia! Therefore, if you want your players to be able to see what their Features do from their character sheet instead of needing to look them up in the book, you need to manually delete the features that were automatically created and then drag the properly constructed entries from the compendium onto the character sheet.

• The Ancestries all use the same icon art, which is for a Dwarf. This is despite the fact that the directory from which the dwarf icon is pulled contains many other pieces of art, some of which are very suitable for the other Ancestries. But some of the Ancestries don't have any suitable art at all.

• The Human Ancestry has a size of "1/2, 1", meaning that by default, all human characters are created with both these sizes. Why require ALL human characters to go in and modify the pre-populated value, instead of making the default "1" and allowing those who want to play an unusually small Human to go in and make that modification? This is how it works for Clockwork characters.

• The character sheet includes icon art for the character's religion, but there is no unique icon for each in-game religion.

• Features which require any kind of choice or customization, such as the Dwarf's Hated Foe or the Clockwork's Mechanical Body, don't have any built-in way to select your choice of option. So even though you can import the Ancestry, you still need to go in and modify the Features to reflect your choices.

• When there are Features that share the same name across several Ancestries, but have different effects for each Ancestry, there's no way to differentiate them from the name alone. For example, you can't tell the difference between a Changeling's "Immunity" and a Clockwork's "Immunity" from their titles alone.

These are just some of the problems I've encountered during character creation. I can't comment yet on how useful the compendia are once a campaign is underway, but based on what I've seen so far, I'm not optimistic. The really baffling thing to me is that all these problems are fairly easy to solve, and if the creator had devoted just a few more hours to the product, its quality could have been drastically improved. The only real reason I see why anybody would purchase this is beacuse they want to save themselves the time required to manually create the compendia themselves, but in practice, they're almost going to need to do so anyway. In my opinion, $8 would be a much fairer price for what these compendia actually provide.

EDIT: I have added another star to my original review after the creator's prompt and helpful response, which was very appreciated. I had overlooked the instructions to manually import the compendia, and doing so did solve 2 of the problems I mentioned above. I still think the product could use a little more spit and polish, but I no longer regret my purchase.

I have read through a lot of the PDF, and the system seems so cool! I look forward to play this!

Excellent Dark Fantasy TTRPG system. Super fun, easy to learn, smooth to run!