Avengers Vs X-Men #0 {Comic Review}

Copyright of Marvel Comics

It's that time of year again when Marvel pushes out a brand new cross-over event. Hot off the heels of Fear Itself, a decidedly mediocre event that sort of ended with a flutter rather than a bang, Avengers Vs X-Men is the new big story in the Marvel Universe. 


Pitching two hero groups against each other is nothing new and I doubt there are readers out there who don't think AvX smacks a tad of Civil War, but with two huge franchises about to battle it out, I doubt many people care. Of course, big comic heroes come hand-in-hand with big comic writers, so we'll be seeing seasoned vets like Ed Brubaker, Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman and Jason Aaron at the helm of the event.

Avengers Vs X-Men #0 is the prologue to the cross-over that kicks off in April, setting the scene for the battles to come and it does a pretty good job with it. We're given two stories: one about the Scarlet Witch, the "disgraced" Avenger, and the other about Hope Summers, a girl from the future who is said to restore mutant-kind back to its former glory. The characters' backgrounds aren't over-explained, Bendis and Aaron do a great job of telling us everything we need to know but also move the story forward rather than dwelling on exposition.

It's a pretty emotional ride for an issue that's introducing what promises to be the brawl of the century, but the characters are written beautifully and the emotion isn't forced. We genuinely feel for Scarlet Witch and Hope, even if their situations are different. There's the sharp dialogue we've come to expect from Bendis but it doesn't clash with Aaron's style. In 29 pages they managed to fit a hell of a lot of story in, making this a great starting point for readers old and new.

Frank Cho shows us his usual A-game with this issue, capturing nuanced emotion better than most artists could ever do, while delivering superbly on the widescreen action shots. If you're going to have a massive event, then you can't go wrong with Cho.

While we saw no actual fisticuffs between the titular groups, the issue sets us up for what looks to be more than just an epic brawl. There's some raw emotion coming through the pages, which will definitely be adding fuel to the fire for things to come. After the disappointment of Fear Itself, Avengers Vs X-Men is shaping up to be a proper old-school event driven by characters instead of plot. It's still early days, so it's hard to say whether it will live up to the hype, but Marvel are off to a good start with AvX #0.

Skally "Wag" Shorttail {Peakvale Wednesday}

Today, we're looking at a singularly shady inhabitant of Peakvale from the mischievous mind of Tom K Loney (or Kopfy) of Peryton Publishing, who is joining me in fleshing out this Tunnels and Trolls campaign setting.


Skally "Wag" Shortail, 
MR 80 (9d plus 40)4th level Rogue Crucial Stats: IN 32; DX 47; LK 45; CH 49; WZ 31Roguery Talent +6, Sniff Halflings (were-forms) WZ +4Spells Learned: Knock, Knock, Lock Tight, Cat Eyes.Notes: This ratling not only survives in Hobbletoe's Kingdom, he thrives within it. He's been to every civilized part and knows almost every NPC the player-characters will run.


Skally "Wag" Shorttail comes straight from the pages of No Fences to Mend, the second GM adventure in the Trollish Delver series. He is a ratling and the bastard son of the King Rat of Yong Song, an eastern city-state similar to our China. Skally adopted the last name "Shorttail" in response to his father's legitimate family name "Whisk-Longtail." When he runs into another ratling from Yong Song, he refers to himself as "Whisk-Shorttail" emphasizing his bastard-prince lineage. Originally, Skally was training to be a wizard, but wasn't able to afford to finish his studies, so while he isn't a member of the Wizard's Guild, he does know a few spells. After looking for work throughout Yong Song, working as a barkeep one week and as a knife sharpener the next, Skally eventually ended up working for trading companies in Peakvale, such as Marvin's Silks and Half-Ear's Candles. He scraped a living in the trade industry, earning just enough to live in Thornguard's slum district.

Skally soon moved up the ranks, becoming a liaison for the more establishing trade houses of Peakvale, but was never above sinking to less legitimate firms. He became a spy for some of these traders, feeding them competition secrets and helping plot nefarious deeds against them. As a result, he knows pretty much every character in Peakvale and has made friends and enemies out of most of them.

You can find out more about Skally in No Fences to Mend.

Finally, you can play Pathfinder solo with Party of One {Pathfinder}

Regular readers know that I'm a huge proponent of solo role-playing games for those days when you can't get a group together. While this is generally the domain of Tunnels & Trolls, Chronicles of Arax and Fighting Fantasy, Open Design has stepped up to create a series of solo adventures for Pathfinder; the first being Kalgor Bloodhammer and the Ghouls Through the Breach.


Kalgor is the first in a series of solitaire games called Party of 1, which thrusts you into the shows of a pre-determined character, in this case it's Kalgor the dwarf. In the adventure you will lead Kalgor against the ravenous undead in an effort to protect his home from invasion. All the rules are presented at the beginning of the book so you don't need to own the Pathfinder rules to play.

I'll be picking this up and reviewing it next week. Until then, you can download Kalgor for a very cheap price.

Gamebook Adventures 8: Infinite Universe {Review}

While the iOS app store is brimming with a veritable mass of high-end, graphically advanced games that rival and even surpass the last generation of consoles, some of the best games are simple in their design and execution. The now famous Gamebook Adventures series by Tin Man Games falls into the latter category, with no motion graphics in sight, save dice rolls. Infinite Universe, the series' eighth outing, ends up being more gripping, interesting and playable than many of the triple-A titles on the store at the moment and it's one that will keep you coming back for more.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it does what it says on the tin. Each game plays as a standalone gamebook where you roll up your character at the beginning and begin your epic journey in a mysterious world. As can be expected, Infinite Universe borrows from Fighting Fantasy mechanically, such as replacing the luck mechanic with 'fitness', which is an attribute spent to increase die rolls, but combat is slightly more complex. The inclusion of skills for your character adds some more depth to the system and really allows you to tailor your character to your preferences. Whether you want to be a stealthy assassin type or a brash balls-to-the-walls thug then the game has you covered.

The real joy of Infinite Universe is the prose, which plays out a little differently from your average Fighting Fantasy book. While you're still presented with a plethora of choices, the game focuses on a heavy narrative style that grips the reader and pulls them headfirst into this sci-fi world. Without spoiling anything, the plot is very well written. Set in the 4th millennium, the story revolves around a rebel organisation called DWORF which is at war with the Mandellian Empire. You play a character who has been drafted from the past in order to embark on a deadly mission to take down DWORF's leader. The trouble is, you have no memory, so you'll be piecing together your identity as the winding plot unfolds. It's an awesome narrative by Brewin' and it's likely to keep you entertained up to the end.

The universe the writer has created is fantastic and very much reminiscent of worlds you would find between the pages of 2000AD. The game contains an encyclopaedia of all notable characters, planets, moons and other handy stuff as well as survival tips. There's also a cool star chart that annotates the expansive universe, making the book feel more like Mass Effect than Lone Wolf.

If you love RPGs, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything as compelling as Gamebook Adventures on the iOS and Infinite Universe proves that the series still has serious chops. With a great story, fun characters and a nice amount of character customisation, Infinite Universe is a sci-fi adventure you don't want to miss.

How USR approaches character advancement and why {USR}

With USR, I wanted to make character advancement a little different from the norm. While it still sticks with experience points, the approach isn't what you get in, say, D&D. 


For instance, a character's main source of experience doesn't come from killing monsters. I know that GMs are often encouraged to offer points for roleplaying etc, but in games like D&D combat is where a bit chunk of experience comes from. I don't mind this at all, but I don't find it entirely logical. Why would killing a group of orcs make the Bard more charismatic or the Wizard more intelligent? I suppose you could say that the types of attacks they make, such as Bards using charisma-based attacks, will contribute to their experience, but I'm not entirely convinced. In USR, however, characters only gain experience points through great roleplay, teamwork and acting intuitively. I'm not saying this is the perfect way to go about experience, but it's a different one that feels more logical.

Moreover, advancement in USR doesn't follow the usual conventions of increasing an attribute or two when a character gains a level. I don't believe that you can get more intelligent. You can learn new things and maybe try exercising your memory, but on the whole your intelligence doesn't increase. You might disagree, but I don't see it. However, you can train yourself to be stronger, faster and fitter, so that part makes sense (kind of). In USR characters don't increase their die-size when they go up a level. Someone with Wits d8 always stays that way. Instead, either they increase a known specialism or learn a new one based on their past performance. They don't get smarter, but they can learn more about something specific or something they already know. If they were able to increase their Wits to d10 then that implies they've somehow just got more intelligent, which never happens, but it's perfectly logical that someone who has Geology +2 can learn more about the subject to become Geology +3.


I don't think that my way is the best way, but I wanted USR to present something a little different that reflects reality a little bit more than some games when it comes to advancement.

You can download USR for free from RPGNow.

Peakvale Wednesdays: Windhill, Village of Stars {T&T}

Welcome to the first in the series of Peakvale Wednesdays where I discuss a new aspect of my Peakvale campaign setting every week. Today we'll be looking at the enigmatic village of Windhill, also known as the Village of Stars.

Settled 10 miles south-east of the capital of Thornguard, Windhill is named after its location: in the rolling Emerald Hills. A large stone archway welcomes travellers into the village, which is populated by a mixture of humans, elves and hobbs and overseen by Councillor Ethron, a chubby and enthusiastic human wizard.

Gilleas Ethron, to give him his full name, is one of Peakvale's foremost scientific minds, which is the reason he came to settle in Windhill in the first place. You see, Windhill sits in a very special location in Peakvale, which has come to be known as the Vale of the Universe. This is the only place in Trollworld where the stars speak to those who seek to learn of their wisdom. A stone circle in a field just north of Windhill is the site of the Vale of the Universe, where learned men and women go to learn about the universe from the stars themselves. Ethron has glimpsed the wonders of the universe many a time and has become famed throughout Peakvale for his insights. Some even say that he is Startouched, imbued with the power of the universe and given access to unlimited kremm.

Windhill is also well-known for its love of wolves. Every single inhabitant of the village owns a trained wolf and some villagers are even able to have a two-way conversation with their four-legged friends. The wolves are incredibly loyal and will attack anyone who harms their master. As a result, the crime rate in Windhill is very low, with the occasional urook raiding party being ward off by the faithful creatures.

Here are some of the notable NPCs and creatures in and around Windhelm:

Councillor Gilleas Ethron
Level 14 Human Wizard
ST 48, DX 76, CON 20, WIZ 142, LK 80, SP 54, CHR 34, INT 120
Personal Adds: 210

Talents: Physics +3 (INT), Chemistry +4 (INT), Mountain Lore +2 (INT), Peakvale Songs +6 (INT), Knowledge of the Wild +5 (INT), Veterinary +4 (INT), Dwarf Friend +1 (CHA)

Spells Known: All spells up to 14th level

Cara Stormwell, the Barkeep of the Seven Suns
Level 3 Elf Rogue
ST 17, DX 32, CON 12, WIZ 21, LK 11, SP 13, CHR 20, INT 17
Personal Adds: 26

Talents: Worldly Barkeep +3 (INT), Wilderness Survival +6 (INT), Rock Climber +5 (DX)

Spells Known: Will-o-Wisp, Mirage and Find Person

Domestic Mountain Wolf
MR 30 (4d6+15)
Special Ability: 1/Shadow Pounce - when a six is rolled in combat one target delver must make a L2SR on DEX to avoid being pounced on. If they fail, they are pinned to the ground for the next combat round and they must half their HPT for that round.

Black Orc
MR 24 (3d6+12)
Spite: 1/1
Armour: 6 hits (quilted leather)
Equipment: Scimitar, Quilted leather armour, 10gp, Sling, 20 stones.

Black Orc Shaman
MR 18 (2d6+9)
Spite: 1/1
Spells Known: Call Flame, TTYF and Hold That Pose
Equipment: Quarterstaff, Robes, Crystal (30gp)