Category: Review

Behold, Products! The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide

P.S. Sorry for the borked links earlier, I still haven’t mastered WordPress.

I recently had the pleasure to read and review James D’Amato’s Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide, which is currently available online for purchase! James contacted me for the interview, but in true Beau fashion I took forever to review it (sorry!).

Full disclosure: I was given a free review copy and I think James is pretty rad.

Photos in this review are by Brie Beau Sheldon.

A book with a black cover and orange and pale green text that says The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide.
The book itself, The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide, by James D’Amato.

I approached the review in a weird fashion, to try to get a full perspective. The book itself is basically a tool to help you build the background of your character for RPG play. Some elements of it seem to trend towards games with levels, but I think this could be used for most roleplaying. It uses die rolls for randomizers at times, but also a lot of it is pick lists and freewriting to flesh out the character.

The way I approached this was to have three separate sessions of exercises (there are so many included in the book)! with three different people, and each of them had their own individual characters, while I kept the same character through the whole test. Each of the character had varying levels of previous information – mine, for example, was made up on the spot! I also spent a fair amount of time looking at the book

The interior of a book, on a section titled Old Haunts.

The book itself has a fun orange, black, and greenish color scheme and is relatively well organized. I will note there are a few spaces where the text contrast is not as comfortable for me to read, but aside from that, the book is pretty clear to follow and read.

The biggest comment I’d have about this book? The questions were often wonderfully open. I am not good with constraints on my creativity – I like a lot of free space to wonder along. There is guidance for a lot of the questions, plus the random rolls, but enough of the questions allowed me to explore where I wanted to go.

The inside of a book with the section title Pocket Dimension.

I really appreciate James’s thoughtfulness in providing subjects that range from death to relationships to magical objects and places – it feels like there’d be something here for basically everybody! Special love for the “Damn Merlinials” exercise, too. The exercises vary in complexity, with some including random rolls resulting in skipping forward sections, and others just simple fill-in-the-blanks, and some even have a combination of methods to answer all of the questions.

Overall, I think that it’s really useful tool for someone who wants to create deep, complex characters with a lot of history, flavor, and support for their perspectives and beliefs.

The inside of a book with the section title Magic Mirrors.

A note on pronouns: One thing that I didn’t like in the book is that all of it uses he or she pronouns, even when it’s quite clunky. This was also noted by all three of the other players I tested with. I do know, however, that James didn’t want this in the book and he even consulted with me on how to address it, and I wrote a statement to his publisher. I appreciate James’s intent a lot and wish his publisher had followed it. I bring this up because I know I have many nonbinary readers and the use of binary pronouns from one of our own can feel a little jarring, and I want you to know that James had the best intentions, but couldn’t push it through. That’s basically the only major issue I ran into with this book though!

I’m including the full text of the responses to the prompts I played through, but they only include the answers to the questions – for those you’ll need to get your own copy of the Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide by James D’Amato on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble!

Continue reading “Behold, Products! The Ultimate RPG Character Backstory Guide”

Behold, Products! Taco Ninja Adventure

Today I’m highlighting a product that’s currently on Kickstarter called Taco Ninja Adventure! 

Taco Ninja Adventure is a card & dice game for 2-6 players, and it’s team based! It works for ages 10 and up, and has a bunch of fun art of various Taco Ninjas.

Ninjas with tacos for heads in the middle of a fight, with the words Taco Ninja Adventure!

When I asked the creators at Turn Sideways Games to tell me about the product, this is what they shared:

In November of 2016, my little brother William asked me for help with a board game he was working on. He called it “Taco Ninja Adventure” and it’s based on a comic book series that he and his friends wrote. William and I have been developing Taco Ninja Adventure together over the past 2 years and it’s been a lot of fun and great bonding experience. The little man has a knack for coming up with taco and ninja based puns. We’re so excited that the Kickstarter is finally live and we want to share what we’ve been working on!

Taco Ninja Adventure is a team based, card and dice game that takes 15-20min for 2-6 players. It’s definitely inspired by King of Tokyo and Magic the Gathering, and designed to be a light weight game that is approachable for kids and fun for adults. We also put a lot of time and effort into finding an artist that fit the style of the game. Sol Azpiroz (@azpimar) has created some really amazing Taco Ninja artwork and we’re so lucky to be working with her. We’d love for you to check out our Kickstarter page to see it for yourselves!

A feminine ninja with a taco for a head and flames shooting out of the eyes and around the feet.


Rusty, who contacted me about the game, has created a game that appears pretty simple, and the theme is silly and fun. On the Kickstarter, the cards and materials all look really nice and they included a clear How to Play section right on the page, plus gif and video options for the rules. The rules are even available in Italian!  

A muscle-bound ninja with a taco head in a karate outfit.

Some of the upcoming stretch goals include an embroidered carrying bag and wooden trackers, and there are social media goals for higher production values (like writing haikus!). It looks like this project is on the right track for success, now that it’s funded, but reaching higher production values as stretch goals is always awesome, and it looks like a fun product for a reasonable price!

If you think playing taco-headed ninjas with a team of other players sounds like a fun time, check out the Kickstarter today!




P.S. – The creators of Taco Ninja Adventure have shared social media posts promoting Turn in thanks for my posting this Behold, Products! This post will not be charged for on Patreon.

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Behold, Products! A GM’s Tarot Guide: NPC Generation by Allie Bustion

A few months ago I found Allie Buston’s A GM’s Guide: NPC Generation so I asked a few questions (as I do). Here’s what Allie had to say, and some pictures to support it!
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Tell me about your NPC tarot generation. What excites you about it?

Well, there’s a lot of ways to generate NPCs. Tables and dice rolling, making them like PCs, pre-gens in books. But all of these, for me, end up feeling flat and two-dimensional when you’re trying to make a bunch and fill a world. So this all started with a game of Vampire the Masquerade 20th. I had my deck sitting in front of me and decided to pull a card. And suddenly, my NPCs had motivations and methods to them that helped round them out! That’s the most exciting part for me: I can quickly figure out interesting NPCs and my players get a more interesting and immersive world with people in it instead of flat cutouts.

How do you interpret the cards for characters? Is it themes, or pulled from tarot lore?

A lot of interpretation is based on what the situation calls for. I use both the Archeon tarot and Golden Thread and both have pretty good guides for meanings. For instance, one of the first times I tried this, I made an NPC in V20. I had no ideas for him and he was basically a plot hook but I wanted him to be interesting. I pulled the Six of Wands inverted, Eight of Words, and the Fool for past, present, and potential future then cards for sources of these where it was needed and a plan for the future and present. He turned out to be a well-intentioned jock with a troubled home life that kept being in the wrong place at the wrong time but found by the right people that allowed himself to run with what life handed him. Way more than what a table could have ever given me and so much to work with in play.

You’ve mentioned that you’re working on GM tools. What are you currently doing on that project?

For the GM tools project that expands on this whole idea, I’m testing out spreads I theorized to make sure they actually work and making graphics for everything. It’s been pushed to the backburner a bit admittedly.

Preview of the text!

Could you expand a little on what the GM tools do – what the purpose of the spreads are?

The GM tools are just meant as an alternative to tables and things found in GM guides and supplementary materials. Or something you can use in conjunction. It’s like having multiple methods to solving the same math problem. The spreads cover things from NPC and World generation to Stars Without Number-style GM turns to figuring out what to do for a session. Like I said, just different ways to solve the math problem.

What would an example be of a spread you would use for a GM?

One spread I really liked and that kind of surprised me with how well it worked out. It’s a four-card spread for one-shots. It gives so much potential information for a world very quickly. I used it to help a friend make a Dungeon World one-shot that turned out pretty well. I want to test it more but it pleased me so much.

How have you tested the tools – have you used them in different games, with different people, etc.?

Most of my testing has been a mix of practical testing in games and theoretical testing of how things might work. The practical testing has been in different systems and games: Vampire, Dungeon World, Monsterhearts, and some D&D. The groups haven’t been as diverse as I’d hope but I’ll keep using these and testing.

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Thanks so much to Allie for answering my questions, and being understanding for the delay on posting this! Make sure to check out A GM’s Tarot Guide: NPC Generation on DriveThru, as well as looking out for Allie online:

Patreon

DriveThru

Ich.io

Website

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Baby Bestiary – Behold, Products!

Hey all!

In a new feature, hopefully to continue, I want to draw attention to products I have enjoyed or products I think look cool, or even just products I’ve worked on and loved (regardless of my level of involvement). One of those projects is the Baby Bestiary, which is currently Kickstarting its Volume 2, and for which I am signed up to write for both the Kraken and the Satyr so I’m really hoping to see it kick. In the meantime, let me tell you a little about it!

The Bestiary is a lore book, not really a book full of rules and charts, but instead instructions on how to care for baby beasts, their history, and their habits. When I wrote for the first volume, I wrote for the Minotaur Calf and the Hippocampus Fry. For the Minotaur Calf, we learned of the importance of the constellations for the Minotaurs, and about their diets and the risks of being a beast with horns in a world that loves trophies. The Hippocampus Fry discussed mating habits of the grown Hippocampi, and the difference between Hippocampi from different climates. The new volume will include even more exciting creatures, like Gargoyles!

The project team is amazing, too. I’ve had the opportunity to work with them before, and again I’m impressed by the creativity of the writers on the new creatures. Not only will the new volume include the Satyr and Kraken that I’m working on (which I am incredibly excited about!), but it will include Ben Woerner’s (World of Dew) work on the Dragon Turtle, Gargoyle (seen above), Pertyon, and Enfield. There is also Elizabeth Chaipraditkul (WITCH) working on Lightning Lizards, Bugbears, and Orcs! The list of authors involved is incredible, and the art is fantastic.

Right now you can find the original Baby Bestiary, Volume 1 for sale on DriveThru RPG, and the Kickstarter for Baby Bestiary, Volume 2 (including a reprint of Volume 1) is still ongoing. Here’s to hoping that the product gets funded so I can write more about little critters for all of you to enjoy!

This post was supported by the community on patreon.com/briecs.