14 thoughts on “Here is a link to our podcast page.”

  9. Hell 4 Leather (http://www.princeofdarknessgames.com/Hell4Leather/):

    INSPIRED BY tales of revenge as diverse as Hamlet, Kill Bill, The Crow and with a hint of Ghost Rider – this Role-Playing Game of Vengeance roars like a motorbike on full throttle.

    Review:

    Using tarot cards to both set the scene, as well as frame the characters, one play (randomly decided by the drawing of the tarot) is The Victim, who is given backstory by two others at the table, ending with a deal with the devil to come back for one night.  Over the next 8 scenes, The Victim must avenge his death, and drag his betrayers down to proper punishment.

    Mechanically the game is very simplistic:  All roles other than The Victim (which never moves) are passed out to all other players at the table.   Interpertation of the card creates the character, and narrative game-play proceeds until either The Victim chooses a character for death.  Any conflicts in the narrative are solved by an uninvolved party drawing a card, and interpreting the solution via that card’s meaning.

    The way the Death mechanic works is that the Death Card, and the character’s tarot card, are both placed in a stack.  The stack is shuffled, and The Victim chooses one.  if it’s the character, they escape, but are transformed in some way by the experience.  If it is the Death card, the character dies, preferably in a gruesome manner.  After Death has been determined, the game shifts to the next scene.

    However, all players start with a “Boon” card in hand, and there is a pile of 6 laying in the center of the table.  During play, any player can choose to reveal their betrayal of The Victim, and earn a boon card.  This can only be done once per character.  These boon cards effect the Death choice in one of two ways:

    1)  They can be placed on the stack to give the character a chance of escape.  If The Victim picks that card however, he keeps the boon.

    2) The Victim can use any boons he has collected for another chance to kill the character.  This continues until either The Victim is out of boons, or decided to stop choosing.

    All in all, we had a great time playing this game.  It was a 3 person table, and I think 4-5 would also work.  We had a lot of fun interpreting the cards to decide who our characters were, and in the end, ours was a tale of inner city kids who made bad choices, and ended up becoming just another stack of statistics in a cold uncaring world.  The tarot cards add a bit of spice, as we all talked a bit about each pull to decide what the meaning was, and how that affected our game world.  What’s great is that I was looking up the “true meaning”, and ever time we were on the nose as to what the card meant. 

    The only negative thing I have to say about this game is that the scene structure really forces you to railroad the story in a certain way, though I suspect a good group could work within those constraints to turn this from “One Night of Vengeance” into “Showdown at Noon”.

    All in all, I give this game a solid 8, and would love to see it at the table again.

  10. Hell 4 Leather (http://www.princeofdarknessgames.com/Hell4Leather/):

    INSPIRED BY tales of revenge as diverse as Hamlet, Kill Bill, The Crow and with a hint of Ghost Rider – this Role-Playing Game of Vengeance roars like a motorbike on full throttle.

    Review:

    Using tarot cards to both set the scene, as well as frame the characters, one play (randomly decided by the drawing of the tarot) is The Victim, who is given backstory by two others at the table, ending with a deal with the devil to come back for one night.  Over the next 8 scenes, The Victim must avenge his death, and drag his betrayers down to proper punishment.

    Mechanically the game is very simplistic:  All roles other than The Victim (which never moves) are passed out to all other players at the table.   Interpertation of the card creates the character, and narrative game-play proceeds until either The Victim chooses a character for death.  Any conflicts in the narrative are solved by an uninvolved party drawing a card, and interpreting the solution via that card’s meaning.

    The way the Death mechanic works is that the Death Card, and the character’s tarot card, are both placed in a stack.  The stack is shuffled, and The Victim chooses one.  if it’s the character, they escape, but are transformed in some way by the experience.  If it is the Death card, the character dies, preferably in a gruesome manner.  After Death has been determined, the game shifts to the next scene.

    However, all players start with a “Boon” card in hand, and there is a pile of 6 laying in the center of the table.  During play, any player can choose to reveal their betrayal of The Victim, and earn a boon card.  This can only be done once per character.  These boon cards effect the Death choice in one of two ways:

    1)  They can be placed on the stack to give the character a chance of escape.  If The Victim picks that card however, he keeps the boon.

    2) The Victim can use any boons he has collected for another chance to kill the character.  This continues until either The Victim is out of boons, or decided to stop choosing.

    All in all, we had a great time playing this game.  It was a 3 person table, and I think 4-5 would also work.  We had a lot of fun interpreting the cards to decide who our characters were, and in the end, ours was a tale of inner city kids who made bad choices, and ended up becoming just another stack of statistics in a cold uncaring world.  The tarot cards add a bit of spice, as we all talked a bit about each pull to decide what the meaning was, and how that affected our game world.  What’s great is that I was looking up the “true meaning”, and ever time we were on the nose as to what the card meant. 

    The only negative thing I have to say about this game is that the scene structure really forces you to railroad the story in a certain way, though I suspect a good group could work within those constraints to turn this from “One Night of Vengeance” into “Showdown at Noon”.

    All in all, I give this game a solid 8, and would love to see it at the table again.

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