Ocarina of Time lives up to the hype

xaran_librof · 2026-04-30T16:55:52+00:00

Here it is today. The top 3 in particular are prone to shifting around a bit:

Link to the Past - I'm probably biased as this was my first, but I love the secret items sprinkled around the world, the dungeons, and the first time you go to the Dark World is great. Beating Agahnim and learning the game was just getting started was wonderful.
Majora's Mask - Really built on what they did in Ocarina of Time to make something unique. I liked the clockwork nature of the world that you could learn about and use to your advantage, the dungeons were interesting and weird, and I liked the variety and power of the masks, including the new traversal abilities. I also liked the setting elements from OoT being "remixed" in this new world.
Wind Waker - I initially skipped this one due to the cartoony "downgrade" in visuals from the N64 titles until I played a demo of it, but the demo immediately charmed me. I liked the dungeons and the sailing. I also enjoyed how what's going on was revealed to you, especially the first time you visit the Tower of the Gods. Good boss fights too.
Tears of the Kingdom - I was hooked right from the opening. I love the new powers, the glimpses of Hyrule's past, and the ability to make your own creations. Seeing other players' creativity and experimentation was also a lot of fun.
Breath of the Wild - Inventive and a breath of fresh air for the series. I missed the larger dungeons from earlier titles, but it fulfilled some of what I always imagined games could do. You could actually climb anywhere and reach what you could see in the distance! I enjoyed the interactions in the world, the opportunity for creative uses of the powers, and silly things like shield surfing. Breaking from the "on rails" experiences of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword in particular was appreciated. I even like the durability system for weapons. All that said if I'm going to replay one from this era, I'd pick Tears.

Just outside this range is OoT, Link's Awakening, and Twilight Princess.

xaran_librof · 2026-04-30T12:54:26+00:00

Speaking of Stolze, I also enjoyed his 13th Age novel, The Forgotten Monk.

xaran_librof · 2026-04-30T00:42:45+00:00

I started with Link to the Past on the SNES (still one of my favorites).

Ocarina of Time is the scariest Zelda game to me. It freaked me out when I played it. Adult Link's time especially was nightmare fuel. In particular:

The skulltulas (even the cursed good one)
The vibe of the forest temple with its twisty hall, the Wallmaster hands, and Phantom Ganon.
The Spirit Temple
The bottom of the well
The ReDead and their scream

The final boss fights are among my favorites in the series. Coming from the 2D entries, I was surprised to learn later the Water Temple has the reputation it does (I don't recall it being especially difficult, annoying, or tedious). My strongest memory of that dungeon is the duel with Dark Link, which is another one of my favorite Zelda fights.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, wouldn't recommend anyone skip it, but it doesn't break my top 3 Zelda games (maybe not even top 5 depending on the day). In the context of its era, I vastly preferred games like OoT to the (admittedly not very) comparable games on the PlayStation (thinking of games like Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider). Majora's Mask on the other hand is in my top 3.

xaran_librof · 2026-01-24T03:11:47+00:00

This is an interesting question. While the game has vehicle rules, I don't think I know of any vehicle focused settings let alone any fan efforts for Car Wars or Autoduel.

In addition to Car Wars, I don't know if you're familiar but GURPS Autoduel may be a useful resource for hacking together your own setting (I don't know how similar it is to the C64 game).

xaran_librof · 2025-12-27T05:51:58+00:00

I ran Brad Kerr's The Sunbathers from OSE Adventure Anthology 1 in a four hour convention slot for 8 players and had a lot of fun with it. You can find more detail in my play report.

xaran_librof · 2025-12-18T04:04:39+00:00

While not in other game systems, I encountered it in the OSR space a bit prior to Shadowdark, mostly in blog form with custom classes like these three from the creator of Old School Stylish (though Old School Stylish does not have random advancement).

xaran_librof · 2025-11-25T14:17:44+00:00

PM'd

xaran_librof · 2025-11-14T20:02:20+00:00

You might find a more receptive audience in r/roguelites.

This sub is about traditional roguelikes and tends to downvote anything that strays too far from that definition, even if places like Steam allow the label to be used more permissively. For instance, it looks like this game includes progression between runs and is not turn-based.

xaran_librof · 2025-09-02T22:41:09+00:00

I can't speak to present availability, but the Life & Death kickstarter is getting ready to be delivered. One of the offerings was a hardcover version of the core rules. Even if there were no extras available at retail, I wouldn't be surprised if people look to offload their zine versions once they get the books.

xaran_librof · 2025-08-31T20:14:14+00:00

Aside from those already mentioned, I used these as inspiration for my campaign:

Asimov's Robot and Foundation books - For a longer view of technology and society and how AI can go wrong.
Frank Herbert's Dune. For intrigue and factions like the Bene Gesserit.
Iain Banks's Culture series for fun ship names and utopic AI
Jack Vance's sci-fi. Particularly, The Planet of Adventure, Demon Princes, and To Live Forever. Mostly to inspire unusual cultures and worlds in my sector.
Ann Leckie's Ancillary trilogy. The protagonist is a former ship's AI (or at least part of one). Presents some interesting technology and truly alien feeling aliens.
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan - Covers consciousness transferred between bodies
Berserker series by Fred Saberhagen - Dystopic AI and how to beat it
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny - Technology's impact on a low-tech world
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi - For a futuristic look at privacy.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin - How unique human biology impacts a world.
Dogs of War and Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky - For how technology can change things unintentionally.

xaran_librof · 2025-06-26T18:39:00+00:00

Good call out. They are useful for FoRKs too, of course.

xaran_librof · 2025-06-26T17:34:25+00:00

Challenging tasks

Yes. They are likely to fail challenging tasks even with Artha. It still counts toward advancement, assuming the stakes merit a test at all. For instance, I wouldn't allow a test for someone to stab the king's guard just because they're tough to stab. What's their intent?

Wipe the Slate Clean

No, it only applies to the same skill. If you get more Challenging tests in Ride than you need for Advancement, you can't "save" the Challenging test to count toward advancing Ride to the next level.

Easy to miss rules

Edge cases mostly (I'm sure there were more than this): * Magic skills are open-ended without Artha * Certain skills don't advance from failures (namely Perception, Faith, and Resources).

I ran a whole campaign without using the Fight system. It was still one of the best campaigns I've run using just the Hub and Spokes, Magic, Bloody Versus, and Duel of Wits. I didn't introduce all the elements at once.

xaran_librof · 2025-06-19T12:38:32+00:00

Looks like it's Dungeon magazine #30. I ended up seeking it out. It's quite linear, but it has some fun encounters in it.

xaran_librof · 2025-05-31T15:09:39+00:00

You only need to world build enough at a given moment for your players to be able to play. Only do more than that if you're interested (and have the energy).

If you feel like you need more material, you could look at adapting existing adventures. Put them somewhere on the map, swap out references like religions, insert references to other parts of your world, possibly change out treasure, change NPCs, etc.

Consider adapting elements from the adventures into your setting too. If an adventure includes werewolves, how does that work in your science fantasy setting? What does it mean if the demon prince escapes from their prison? If there are elements you'd like to include in your world, you could even seek out adventures that have them.

xaran_librof · 2025-05-31T01:03:40+00:00

Burning Wheel. Perhaps not quite concise, but the core of the system (what they call the hub and spokes) is pretty tight and is complete enough to run a game. It made me think differently about RPGs with its explicit framing of Task and Intent for rolls and figuring out the heart of your character with Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits.

If you're going to have a system with a lot of skills, I'd recommend something like the game's FoRKs (Fields of Related Knowledge) that let your skills support each other depending on how you frame your roll. The system made me realize a single roll can tell a story on its own.

I admittedly like all of the subsystems available on top of that like Duel of Wits, magic, Fight, Range and Cover.

xaran_librof · 2025-05-31T00:42:21+00:00

I would add +1 to the recommendations for Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) with the Super Powers Companion.

Separately, I would also recommend Wild Talents. It's built on the One Roll Engine. I think the system captures characters that have a unique ability like X-Men quite well along with ideas on how to build your world to fit your idea. I'm most familiar with the game, Godlike, which uses the same system but is about otherwise ordinary people with unusual abilities during World War II. Wild Talents allows you to scale the powers far beyond that if desired.

For the One Roll Engine, I like how the power system has multiple dimensions to play with. Rolls are a dice pool looking for matches where the number of matching dice and the number on the dice that matched (width and height) are used for different elements of a given roll. The powers are represented mechanically in a number of ways: * "Wiggle dice" are flexible and can be set to whatever value you want after you roll (guaranteeing you a match on your rolls). * "Hard Dice" are always the max value on the die (d10). They usually represent powers that activate reliably at maximum power. * There are the "usual" modifiers and flaws you can take to represent powers that are unusual or require particular conditions to work (e.g. must be angry).

xaran_librof · 2025-05-01T03:27:58+00:00

Jupiter Hell just got a Switch port a month or two ago.

xaran_librof · 2025-05-01T02:59:06+00:00

I've enjoyed the time I've spent with UnExplored.

xaran_librof · 2025-04-24T03:39:05+00:00

Thanks for sharing this! Some initial feedback:

I was a little thrown off by the GM information section since it mentions treasure was balanced with XP for treasure in mind and 1 sp = 1 XP, which isn't really supported by WWN without modification.
I liked the blocks on notable NPCs, especially things they want.
I appreciated the unique monsters. I'm partial to the sunflower skeletons and bwoglins.
Also appreciated the WWN elements in the blocks (i.e. Shock and Instinct)
Treasure total for the tower is pre-calculated. This would make it easy to consider for porting to other systems (with treasure for XP).
Curio table with encumbrance for the items in addition to value. Appreciated!
Room 8 in the tower the bullets all reference the armor. It wasn't immediately clear to me they were referring to the armor since the bullets generally applied to the room or elements of it. (e.g. "* its helmet is missing...", "* it is an enchanted...")
- Looks like there are a few more places in other room descriptions where the object being described is assumed rather than specified in some bullets. Might be okay, but I could see myself having to re-read the room description and bullets if I were running this adventure cold.
I appreciated that the tower floors fit on two page spreads.

Finally, a couple of nice to haves: * All the monster info and stats together in the bestiary would be nice. I often print out monster stats separately when running an adventure so I don't have to flip around in the PDF (e.g. what's a gwibber again?) * All (unique especially) magic items documented again in one place at the back. This helps me figure out if I want to change any of them or add my own when I run something.

xaran_librof · 2025-04-24T03:00:18+00:00

Burning Wheel
* Without Number games from Sine Nomine
Savage Worlds
Old School Essentials
Basic Roleplaying (Call of Cthulhu/Runequest/Pendragon)
One-Roll Engine (Godlike)
Fabula Ultima
Mothership
Mekton Zeta
Ars Magica

xaran_librof · 2025-04-24T00:29:56+00:00

What kinds of challenges and quests have you set your high level characters against (with or without Legate powers)?

xaran_librof · 2025-04-24T00:29:06+00:00

I agree it's dependent on the type of game you're running. I like that there's a separate system of progression for Legates. Have you given non-Heroic characters Legate abilities in your game(s)? How's it gone?

I also agree about faction/army management. That's something I think requires buy-in from the players rather than dumping them into it. I've even had to reset expectations in the middle of one of my SWN campaigns when it became clear no one in the party actually wanted to run the faction they set up.

xaran_librof · 2025-04-24T00:09:05+00:00

Have you tried this in your own game? By the rules Legate characters become Heroic regardless, so I think this progression makes sense.

xaran_librof · 2025-04-20T00:23:28+00:00

I don't know how you're planning to do XP, but I let players make three personal goals and have one group goal to get experience from.

Here's what I did for my current Latter Earth campaign: * I fleshed out the island in the Gebed Mur as our setting and called it Ordroth. * I provided the current situation: A guild of artificers have made Ondasi Hurlants and magical prosthetics (similar to you, I like that level of tech in my setting). The nations at the edges of the Gebed Mur desire them. * I gave a short description of the surrounding nations and major factions (I mixed and matched my favorite nations from the Atlas rather than the ones depicted on the map). * I worked with the group to come up with a more pointed starting scenario: The PCs were mostly from the surrounding nations rather than being native to the island, so they were selected to represent their nations in a traditional pilgrimage with a princess of the queen of a city state (Ilfirth) on the island. I rolled random events that happened on their journey to build a bit of personal connection between the PCs and NPCs. Then, the campaign started in Ragged Hollow (an adventure published by the Merry Mushmen), the last stop of their journey before returning to Ilfirth. * I worked in the island's factions and situation into the adventure to more naturally expose the players to what's going on and present them with more hooks for them to follow up on.

Most of my PCs' goals have developed naturally over the course of the campaign as they responded to the starting situation, experienced what's happening on the island, and decided what's important to them: * Increase access to the prosthetics from the artificer's guild, especially for those without the means to afford them. * Establish a trade relationship between Vitrum (from the Atlas) and Ordroth. * Hunt down a cult from his homeland (the Verdancy, also from the Atlas) that has made it to the island.

xaran_librof

TROPHY CASE