GM Mr Patrick

Okay, I'm a (mostly) cishet white dude of a certain age and so, at first, I was very much concerned that I was NOT the right person to be running a TSL game. But my players wanted it, and so who was I to deny them? I'm still not sure I ran it 'right', but said players enjoyed it, and that's what's important. Now, that said, I think cishet white dudes of a certain age SHOULD ABSOLUTELY GM AND/OR PLAY this game. Lean into it, have some fun, laugh a lot, learn more than a little, and, most importantly, make out while swordfighting!

I've only ever played Pirate Borg, though I've skimmed through the book in anticipation of running games in the system at some point. So with that caveat, I highly recommend. I grew up with the old school gaming aesthetic, so random character creation, random equipment, random encounters (sometimes), and tables for days is very nostalgic for me. But I've also played a LOT of games since those days, and so Pirate Borg's modern aesthetics and influences are welcome. Easy to get into, easy to make another character when your first three die, and easy to have a lot of piratical fun! Plus, the art is awesome! Yarr, grab yer cutlass and dig up some treasure (and maybe some skeleton guardians)!

My players and I really enjoyed our Alien:RPG game. Character creation is pretty straightforward, gameplay is fast-paced (REALLY fast-paced once the stress levels start to induce panic and the cascades lead to horror and hellfire pretty darned quickly), and the deadliness of the game does a good job of contributing to fun gameplay (as long as you're okay with your character likely getting ripped apart by aliens, gunfire, or a stray lugnut flying through space). My only complaint is that the physical book itself is all over the place, and I found myself having to jump between sections to find information that should have (in my head) been lumped together. Those who like their books in .pdf format and are skilled with search terms have a different experience (SEE one of my players, who could find information almost three times faster than me). AND I don't know if this has been addressed in the second edition of the book, since I don't have that edition. So mileage may vary. Still highly recommended for both players and GMs!

To be fair to the game, my players would give it a 6 out of 5 if they could. As a GM, though, whoof, I love the concept--regular folk with problems and lives also having to deal with being embodiments of folk stories, fairy tales, and even philosophical concepts--and I'm even pretty pleased with the fusion of PbtA-style dice rolling and FATE-style tags; but in practice, it took me and my players (all of whom are experienced roleplayers) quite a while to figure out how to make it all fit together in practice at the table. Eventually, we did, and the players were happy with how the campaign went, and even want to play again sometime. When we do, maybe I'll come back and change my score from 4 to 5. Until then, enjoy getting lost in the mist!

My players and I love Brindlewood Bay. We were almost certainly not playing it 'right', but we absolutely had fun while doing it. I grew up watching the inspirations for this game: primarily Murder She Wrote, but also Quincy, Magnum P.I, and every made-for-television Agatha Christie I could find. But my players hadn't, and they still leaned hard into the tropes of those old TV shows (primarily because the ruleset makes it very easy to do so). Some people have a hard time wrapping their brains around the lack of a pre-known perpetrator of any given mystery's crime (I certainly did: how am I supposed to craft a story where even the GM doesn't know whodunit?), but once you grok the mechanic, suddenly it all makes sense. You don't HAVE to know whodunit, you just have to describe the clues the Mavens find. Then when they're ready to roll, it's up to them to fit in as many of those clues as they can to their theory. The more clues they include, the better their chances of success. Then roll to find out! Elegant. Grab some dice and send some little old ladies out into danger to solve some mysteries! (bonus points if they have to ride bicycles while doing it!)