Personable Thoughts

  Hot on the heels of my previous review (of the down and dirty game of criminals, Swyvers ) comes another look at an even bigger book! This time, the tarot-based Forged in the Dark game The Hidden Isle with design and writing by Daniel Adams and James Patton , and art by Eliot Baum and Viv Tanner , published by the Austrian Causa Creations under their Sefirot brand. Evolved from the background lore of their previous board game offering, Sefirot , the game revolves around around Agents from the fictional Dioscoria, the titular Hidden Isle . The book is 190 pages of content, roughly A4 sized, and full of beautiful art. Set in what is ostensibly our real world with a dash of magic (inspired by the real beliefs of people at the time) on top, players take the role of agents sent by the Dioscorian government to meddle in the affairs of the rest of the world. Dioscoria itself is presented as a bit of an imperfect utopia: a multicultural haven of enlightenment and tolerance in an other...

Once again I have read a book. Swyvers is not the biggest of books, but it's a nice hardback and thus not a zine, and as we all know "Zine" and "Big book" are the only two types of RPG. Swyvers is written by Luke Gearing with art by David Hoskins , published by Melsonian Arts Council . I backed the Kickstarter for the fancy deluxe version, so this is the version I have read. To the best of my knowledge, the only difference between this and the standard hardcover, is that this one has shiny gold foil (making it a more enticing bit of loot for anyone who would burgle me, I guess). The book has a total of 95 pages of content, written by Luke Gearing at his nastiest, accompanied by David Hoskins' excellent art, bringing Luke's dark fantastic Britain to life. Swyvers is a book full of tables, and this is a good thing, since this is also where the work shines brightest. Gearing's writing is darkly funny, leaving me unable to suppress my chuckles at sever...