Aliens Adventure Game

Join me as I check out Aliens Adventure Game, the first tabletop role-playing game based on the Alien franchise, released in 1991 by Leading Edge Games, and it is… definitely an RPG from the early ‘90s.

Blood!

The Role-playing Game of Modern Horror (second edition)
Modern (Horror)
Postmortem Studios
2006
Complexity: 4

It’s time to start the Spooktober festivities with a spooky horror game. Blood! Is a game that more-or-less seeks to emulate modern horror films—or since the original came out in 1990, horror films of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Both versions are also notably British, which I guess is only relevant if you know about the banning and censorship of horror films that was going on there in the 1980s. Anyway, video nasty history aside, Blood! is a game with a lot to offer, some might even say too much—I would be one of those people. Let’s just say there’s a reason I added a complexity rating to my review format.

Ratpack

A Game of Suburban Survival

Modern (animal)
Self Published
2005
Complexity: 2

Introduction
Well I’ve already covered games where you play as crawdads and vegetables, so why not rats? Ratpack is—as one may assume—a game about packs of rats, just going about doing rat stuff like finding food, avoiding predators, and having adventures—rats have adventures all the time, it’s a scientific fact. It’s also written by Jared A. Sorensen, making this unintentionally my first review of a game by a previously-reviewed creator.

Creeks and Crawdads

Post-Apocalyptic (animal, comedic)
Crustaceum Games
1986

Introduction
Creeks and Crawdads is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game with a twist, no rugged armored sports car driving heroes, no scantily-clad three-breasted pyrokinetic mutant babes, no cyborg bears with laser eyes, just sapient crawdads. Yes, in this world only the lowliest creatures survived the atomic war and you play as hyper-intelligent mutated crawdads. Just to be clear here, when I say “hyper-intelligent” I of course mean by crawdad standards, by human standards they’re profoundly stupid. For example, the most intelligent crawdads have the noteworthy abilities of being able to count to 7, remember how many members are in their group and all their names, and remember things for several “sleeps.” So let’s dive in—okay I swear that’s the only aquatic pun—and check it out.