Time Claw

Various (science fiction) [fan game, supplement]
Self Published
2001
Complexity: 2

Time Claw is something I came across while researching Ironcaw. It’s also a Doctor Who fan game that used the system from Ironclaw. This game comes from an interesting point in the Doctor Who fandom, the Internet was now making communication and sharing of information incredibly easy. But it was also a time twelve years since the end of the series, and five years since the movie, and still two years away from Scream of the Shalka—or four years away from the series revival if you want to pretend Shalka didn’t exist.

Ironclaw

Join me as I review Ironclaw, an anthropomorphic fantasy role-playing game. A game that has something to offer be you furry or fleshy.

Stone Age

Prehistoric (fantasy)
Self Published
2010
Complexity: 4

Stone Age is—unsurprisingly—a prehistoric role-playing game, which is a setting that seems like it would be interesting, but is extremely underutilized. It’s also another 24-hour RPG, which as previously stated I like reviewing because they tend to be short and interesting. For a 24-hour RPG it’s also a bit… let’s just say “ambitious,” and you should keep the time restraint in mind while reading this review because me doing so while writing it would be unfair to other games.

[New Size Labels]

Greeting obscure role-playing game enthusiasts! I have now added a size label to all reviews indicating the length of the document in pages. You can now browse reviews of games that are 1, 2–29, 30–100, or over 100 pages in length. The new labels can be found on the sidebar with all the others.

Technical stuff: Page count is based only on "content pages" excluding covers and character sheets or similar pages (that's how I was qualifying things as one page, so I'm sticking with it). Also, any digital documents laid out in two-page spreads will be categorized by laid-out pages, not by PDF page count.

Update: changed the labels a bit, now they display in order and all of them actually work.

Above the Earth

Modern (superheroes)

Innocence Games
2004
Complexity: 1

Above the Earth is another 24-hour RPG, which I tend to review a lot of because they’re generally A: Free, B: Short, and C: Based on more experimental ideas. It’s also a superhero RPG, which just happens to be the most broken and unbalanced genre of role-playing game since, let’s be honest here, there is no way Batman and Superman are anywhere near the same power level, but in comics they are. This seems to be the problem that Above the Earth tries to solve.

Aki

A cute little role-playing game
Modern (anime, social)
Rävsvans Förlag
2004
Complexity: 1

Aki is a game inspired by slice-of-life shoujo manga… alright, well if anyone’s still here it’s a gave about ordinary life and social interactions--they are very clear on the point that there is nothing extraordinary and/or exciting, just relationships and stuff like that. It’s also apparently a “Triple Dogma award winner 2004” for best rules, most creative, and best graphic design. I can’t really find any information of the Dogma awards, but I assume it’s just a Swedish thing. Oh yeah, this game is Swedish, probably should have mentioned that. However I will be reviewing the English version, since as far as I know I do not speak Swedish--I do like Donald Duck though.

Awaiting the End

Universal
Future Proof Games
2014
Complexity: 1

Awaiting the End is a game about “a group of people awaiting a doom in an unpleasant place,” which makes it only slightly more uplifting than Camwhores. It’s also a GM-less game focused almost entirely on storytelling, which is the sort of thing that usually end up being a bit too role playing and not enough game for my tastes.