Onyx (Megan)

Danger is probably one of my favorite GMs. She's laid back while still being on point for rules and mechanics. She goes out of her way to find the best solution for a character without sacrificing balance to give the player the best opportunity to grow and shape the narrative. Big highlights are her quick rotation in combat, mastery over foundry, and genuine interest in character narrative and mechanic goals. If you want a Plotweaver or Cosmere GM, I'd argue very few are on her level for knowledge of mechanics and lore.

If you are a Brandon Sanderson fan, this is the system for you. Very to the book-lore in its mechanics, Cosmere RPG opens up the world of Roshar to players with their Stormlight Archives set of books. Having 5 active games in the setting all going strong and I am is loving every moment of it. However, there are two unique issues in this system. 1) Lack of Adversaries: NPC statblocks in the game are notably non-existant. Despite having statblocks across 4 tiers of play, with three different statblock types, there are currently only 66 different character statblocks available for the system, and a good portion of these are locked behind certain story events before the players would canonically see them. 2) Unbalanced Injury System: The method that challenges characters at risk of death is the injury system - however, there comes a point in the game where this system just doesn't function as it should anymore. Until new system updates occur to answer these issues, this review is 4/5.

Legend in the Mist is a narrative storytelling between the Lore Master and the players. While it does require a little more thought into the backstory of the characters than some other systems, this game focuses mainly around the player characters and how they interact with the story around them. Growing when their weaknesses rear itself, abandoning quests and focusing on new aspects of themselves, or improving skills they've relied upon as the story continues to be weaved grants unique moments of characterization that is sometimes left out in other games. The system is fluid, focusing more on what's important about the characters at this moment than things like "class" or "species", which allows players who want to play as certain characters able to do so within the narrative. Overall, I give it a 5/5 for what it does and is meant to provide. I hope much more evolves from this new system!

One of the first campaigns for the 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, this adventure takes place in the Forgotten Realms and follows the events that lead up to the reformed Cult of the Dragon summoning Tiamat into the Material Plane from the Infernal Hells. While iconic, as it combines Horde of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat into one epic adventure, it is both linear and rigid with how it plays out. Many events in the first half of the adventure prove to be futile by the end, either forcefully allowing certain enemies to have plot armor as they are supposed to appear later in the story or by having players find red herrings along the plot. There are other problematic concepts in this storyline that directly lay in conflict with previously set up lore found in the Forgotten Realms setting guides of previous editions and even in the 5th Edition settings. That stated, the concept of the return of the Dragon Queen Tiamat is such an imposing one. It is best for new players who don't want to think a lot about the choices without any changes. For Game Masters who would like a heavy lore implicated adventure and are willing to put in the extra effort it takes to make this adventure truly unique, this is a good adventure to really showcase your mastery of lore, creativity, and story stylization. I do believe this is one of the best starting adventures for newer players if you have the right Game Master running the events behind the scenes as it really scales up the events from that of local to that of full world-shaking levels.

Dungeons and Dragons is that perfect mix of casual narrative roleplay and hard mechanical crunch that allows all sorts of people to interact with each other at the table. The sort of make your cake and eat it sort of game, you can be pretty much anything. With the 3rd party support backed by the updates granted by the creators on a regular basis, there is a plethora of content out there to play what you want and in whatever world you want.