Friday, May 16, 2014

Recession Reviews: Raging Swan's Be Awesome At Freelance Design



Be Awesome At: Freelance Game Design : 

Reviewer Bob Ross

Written by: Creighton Broadhurst (Lead Design and Development)

Page count: 30, counting insider cover

Throw Away pages: 10 (covers, forward, full-page art, sectional title page)

Golden Pages:  15

Cover price: $4.99

Price per page: $0.17

Modified price per page:  $0.14 = Cover price/(pages + golden pages - throw away pages)

Crunch to Fluff Ratio: 5 to 1, though not strictly applicable, since the only fluff takes the form of images, and this is a book on game design rather than a supplement or adventure

Our Rating out of 10: 8.5 (Very useful for prospective designers, and even has some utility for a GM)

Description: The book touches on important areas in game design, such as maintaining productivity, giving reasons why not to enter the field of freelancing, and how to better pitch a project. It covers, with a series of concise but meaningful points, the major facets of game design at the indie scale. In the later part of the book, Creighton writes about specific in-system design for things such as dungeons and their ecologies, treasure, and NPCs.

Overall: Solid formatting, some sound advice, and a reasonable price point; what more could you ask for? From productivity, to taking your design to the next level, not to mention the all-important facet of what not to do as a designer, Creighton does a wonderful job at explaining to a prospective freelancer not only the what of game design, but the why. As an added benefit, the book may provide some use for a GM in its second section, which covers the design of dungeons, encounters, settlements, and other assorted concepts every GM will have to use in their campaigns.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Piercing the Viel: Sneak Peak inside Into the Breach: The Oracle

 Image by juliedillon and taken from www.Deviantart.com

I know this week we have talked quite a bit about the oracle class and the newest offering from TFPC games, Into the Breach: The Oracle.  Yet we haven't mentioned even briefly what is included in this installment of our Into the Breach series. 

I have to admit that when the base classes first released I did not touch the oracle for a long time.  I had only looked at the class quickly and decided that is was just a favored soul from 3.5 with a friggin' curse to boot that paid for this mystery thing.

However I was wrong, and once I bothered to get a deeper understanding of the class I realized it was well worth playing, and writing about.  What follows is a just a quick overview of the many new options for oracles included in, Into the Breach: The Oracle.

Archetypes

Karuna Sattva
A karunā sattva carries no simple curse or affliction; instead she bears  and relieves the ills of others. She is often crowded by those seeking her healing touch.

Diplomatique
Violence is a tool employed by those without the proper means to resolve differences in a more civilized manner. All life is sacred and the diplomatique derives personal strength from that revelation. He can be seen on bloody fields trying to avert further tragedy with calm words and  healing hands, divine power staying most who would raise weapon or spell against him.

Enigma Warden 
A whisper in the wrong ear can cause the downfall of a kingdom or challenge the divinity of a god. There’s a power in secrets, but only if they are kept. An enigma warden wields power in silence, swearing binding oaths with dire consequences if broken.

Ordained Scion 
Sorcerous blood can be granted rather than inherited when the gods will it. Discovering the reasons for this auspicious destiny often consumes those chosen.

Alternate Class

Warlock 
The warlock calls upon power from mysterious sources that are near divine. Occupying a place that has similarities to both the witch and oracle classes yet they differ in a key way, warlocks do not cast spells. They instead counter spells cast by others, call upon revelations, and blast pure magical destructive energy against those that oppose them.

Prestige Class 

Covenborn 
Sacrifices are made when power is one’s quest. A covenborn treads the line of completely losing sanity and racial identity, yet attains the powers of a hag coven as reward.

Mysteries and Curses
Five new mysteries including Intoxicant, Sand, and Volcano
Four new oracle curses including Addled and Ominous (that includes a special simple template)



Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Perception Checks: Looking for Reviews of Into the Breach: the Oracle


The staff here at the Pincushion works night and day to produce quality gaming products.  Having recently relaunched under our own brand (previous volumes were with d20pfsrd)  means that even more we need your input to produce the highest possible quality writing. Our readers our the most important element of our brand.

However to do this the writers and staff needs YOU! Do you like our fluff? Does our crunch satisfy? What else would you like to see? Your chance to influence what kind of products a 3PP provides is here. How?  Simple, just write an honest review and post it to the site where you bought our product.

I promise you that your time will not be waste, as we read EVERY review our work gets.  Bottom line is your thoughts, comments, concerns, and likes spelled out in the review shape our writing and our process here at the Flying Pincushion.

If you have read Into the Breach: the Oracle, we welcome your feedback.  Also, the first five people who comment here on our blog, with the promise of a review of our new book and including a valid email, will receive a coupon code for FREE copy of Into the Breach: the Oracle to review.

Cheers,
The Flying Pincushion Staff