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.

Horrorlogic

Modern (horror)
Self Published
2019
Complexity: 2

Horrorlogic is a game self published on Tumblr that I found via Reddit, and of course I am reviewing it as I can’t pass up a horror game and have literally no standards for what I will review on this blog. Basically, Horrorlogic is another one of those games that tries to adapt horror movies into a tabletop experience. A very specific category that includes the highest rated game I’ve reviewed, and one of the lowest. So let’s see where Horrorlogic falls in that range.

Albedo Second Edition

Something a little different, taking a look at the updates made in Albedo Second Edition. It’s animal people in space, with updated rules!

Albedo

Join me in checking out Albedo, as far as I can tell the first ever furry role-playing game. It’s got animal people, in space, and is based on Erma Felna: EDF from Albedo Anthropomorphics

Santa vs. Santa

Modern (fantasy)
Mystic Ages Publishing
2015
Complexity: 2

Okay, so my last attempt at reviewing a holiday-themed RPG didn’t turn out incredibly well, but just because one thing goes poorly doesn’t mean something similar will go similar poorly right? Alright, yes, I’m being a little sarcastic but honestly in the lawless land of web-published RPGs you can’t know how good or bad something is until you dig into it. Which is precisely what I plan to do here.

[New Rating System]

I've finally gotten around to updating my rating system, which I will explain in brief here with some more explanation after the break.

Games will still be rated on the same six criteria, but points will be awarded differently. Character Creation, Mechanics, and Presentation will still be rated out of 5 points to determine the "Base Points." But now Setting, Writing, and Content will now be rated out of 3 points and rather than being part of the total Base Points, will only provide an adjustment as follows.

3 = +1, 2 = +0, 1 = -1, 0 = -2

Also, the adjustment from Writing may be applied directly to the points for Presentation and displayed in the "Writing and Presentation" section when I don't really have anything to say about the writing.
All existing reviews have been updated to the new system, if you want to see the new ranking of all games you can view the list https://rpggeek.com/geeklist/246251

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.