Just Quest

Medieval (fantasy)
Mini Zines
2020
Complexity: basically unplayable

I realized that it’s been 2020 for almost a whole month now and I haven't used a 202X tag yet. So I went to DrivethruRPG and searched for the newest free core rulebooks, and eventually found something that actually was a core rulebook—fun fact: most of the products in the “core rulebook” section are not core rulebooks, because unscrupulous publishes just tag all their products with it so they’ll show up in more searches, and there is no system in place to report publishers who are doing shady stuff like that. Anyway, so I should reasonably be able to review any product in that section as if it were in fact a core rulebook, and would be fair in doing so, which I will now proceed to do.

Revenge Of The Turkeys!

Modern (animal, comedic)
Dread Vector
2017
Complexity: 1

So it occurred to me that every Spooktober I review thematically-appropriate games to go along with the season, but why don’t I do the same for other holiday seasons? Well obviously because Halloween is a holiday that has an entire genre associated with it, whereas other holidays are much more specific and any games that would fit them thematically would have to be specifically made to do so, and likely be a slapdash mess of concept over quality… yeah, that does pretty much sound like most of the games I review.
Note: This is also the first test of a somewhat radical change to my rating system, which will hopefully make the overall score more reflective of the overall quality of the product.

Final Girl

A Stereotypical RPG
Modern (horror)
Self Published
2019
Complexity: Unplayable

Okay, at this point you might be thinking, “wait a minute, didn’t you literally just review Final Girl?” and no, I reviewed The Final Girl. Final Girl is a game I happened to stumble upon when looking up information on The Final Girl, and decided to review it because… well let’s be honest here, I basically have no standards when it comes to what games I review. It is of course another “what if a horror movie… was an RPG?” game, a specific genre that is apparently very difficult.

Herzfuck

Modern (horror, occult)
Left Hand Publishing
2017
Complexity: unplayable as presented

Here’s the thing about edginess: a little bit is tolerable, a moderate amount brings back cringe-inducing memories of angsty teenage antics, a lot is just sad, and an extreme amount becomes comical—whether intentional or not. I find that things with “fuck” in their title tend to fall into the latter two categories.
Herzfuck is yet another one-page role-playing game, which puts the players in the role of… well just kinda regular folks trying to stop a cult from summoning the titular “ancient demon of sex and murder.”

Dungeon Reave

Medieval (fantasy)
New Realms Publishing
2016
Complexity: 4

I came across Dungeon Reave while browsing games and initially thought it didn’t warrant my interest. But then I caught a very important sentence in the description, “Dungeon Reave is closely compatible with Xtraor.” Yes, that Xtraor, the worst game I’ve reviewed and notably one that claims to be “revised” while looking like it hasn’t even been proofread. Well obviously at this point I knew I had to review Dungeon Reave—which also claims to be revised. What mysteries does Dungeon Reave hold, does it bring redemption or further condemnation for the mysterious “J?” Join me and find out. Or not.

Xtraor

Post-Apocalyptic
New Realms Publishing
2016
Complexity: 4

Introduction
Here at SWotIRORG I review obscure role-playing games. That is technically what Xtraor is, and as such, I am reviewing it. Admittedly, I went into this with some pretty low expectations—I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but seriously, look at that cover. And for the most part my expectations were about right, but there is still something worth looking at here, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered writing up this review.