This is a great expansion for X-plorers! Grab a copy!

Love it! the color layers make it easy to make different squads or whatever. can't wait for more!

In a word, Dagger is Superb!

GET DAGGER if you have kids or even if you enjoy rules-light gaming as an adult. It uses any OSR game as a base, so you can use Descending or Ascending AC, whichever you like better. But even if you don't have your "big" books with you, You can play Dagger on the fly, so it may serve as a good, cheap, on the go pick up game or a simple game to introduce new players or to take camping. But to introduce kids to tabletop RPGs, it's perfect.

I think I'm becoming minimalist in my gaming preferences because Dagger has no Attributes and I find that liberating! That's right, no STR, DEX, CON etc... how is this possible? You know what? it totally works!

Dagger is designed to distill OSR/D&D down to the minimum to make it accessible for kids as young as 5. I dare say it does this flawlessly. This Sunday, I 'ran a combat' with my 5 year old daughter, and she basically got it on the first try. She just turned 5 in January and it was a hoot. I can totally see this working for kids 5-10. I can see how using figures would totally help with younger kids.

The spell list captures the iconic spells of the game, and the rule book states it's a suggested list. With only 4 spells of each level (levels 1-5) you may want to add more, and it's super easy to do (which was the bulk of my house rules). You can basically just plop in spells from from S&W, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, C&C, D&D Oe, 1e... not hard to fudge it on the fly even. That said, since this is for 5 to 10 year olds, keeping a tight focus (that is, short spell list) is wise. Also, with no Ability stats, spells like (Bull's) Strength and Haste simply won't work.

The characters are simple but effective at capturing the essence of each class, and here, as you may expect, Dwarf and Elf are classes. You can of course, call the Knight an Amazon or Warrior Princess or the Wizard a Fairy Princess or whatever any player wants, really. They can be a Gorn or zombie, even, and the rules support this on the fly make-believe fun; as they should!

So in brief, Dagger does what it sets out to do, and it does it well. It's great as an introduction to gaming for the young or for older kids or even grown ups who are afraid of dealing with a ton of rules.

A great little game. A fun variant of what you'd expect from a Farkle / Yahtzee type game. Perhaps you could call it a See-low version of Yahtzee?

Although Cosmic Wimpout is still my favorite, Ship, Captain, Crew is a lot of fun and a great side game for any evening, or to add some side fun to an RPG session.

(certainly the price can't be beat). :)

The PDF itself is well done, and based on it's strengths, I'd grab other CMG products.

PDF = 5 Stars Game = 5 Stars

BUY THIS!

Buy everything James Mishler has written, it's all GOLD.

The Tharghul kicks ass, and this detailed take on goblins is very extensive and outstanding. The blade dancer is a great construct to add to your game also.

Easy to convert to d20, pathfinder or any OGL game, also.

In five words or less: I LOVE IT!

C&T captures the flavor it intends to – the feel of weird fantasy sword and sandal pulp stories. A S&W variant, it’s more Howard, Leiber, Moorcock and Lovecraft than Tolkien, but you knew that already.

So the flavor of the game is fun and well executed, and it affects the rules in a few significant ways. There are four classes, the Barbarian, Fighter, Magician, and thief. Every PC! Yes, since “everyone is a rogue” in these stories, all the PCs can backstab if they get the drop on a target. I like this, and it doesn’t take away from the thief class.

This thief is more Gray Mouser than Bilbo Baggins, maybe a slightly better fighter than the original thief, but other than that is basically the thief we know and love.

The fighter has some neat options to customize their abilities and make sure they’re not all cookie cutter fighters. This design strikes a nice balance between feats and kits or fighter subclasses. They can be monk-like brawlers or pursue weapon mastery, for example, but can’t do it all. I find this to be an elegant way to add options without too many rules and power bloat.

The barbarian is well designed to honor the tropes of Barbarian while being distinct from the fighter class. Again, since everyone can backstab this feels very Conan to me (admittedly, I haven’t read all of Howard’s Conan stories and only a few Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, but C&T gives me this impression).

The Magician can learn magic that in regular S&W (or any OSR or D&D game) would be Wizard and Cleric magic; now it’s just Magic: organized into White, Grey, and Black magic. Naturally white magic is good and kind and helpful, Black is evil and harmful, and Grey is the other spells that transform, hypnotize, charm, or create. Here the rules changes get interesting.

The most significant rule change IMO is that hit points are not representing one’s physical health and well being; hit points represent their endurance, willpower and stamina; their Grit if you will. So PCs are not killed at 0 hp, they start taking Constitution damage. Naturally your character is killed at 0 CON.

I really like this change! Because of it,healing is different; healing spells only heal CON damage, not HP. Also, your HP refresh every night of full rest (since they’re more about mental and physical stamina than physical healing) and you can even ‘heal’ some HP with a good stiff drink. This too, totally works for me: The heroes gird their loins, take a swing of bravery, and leap once more into the fray. Perfect. I’d argue a good rousing speech would heal some HP following this paradigm. There are magical healing potions as well, but they’re far less common than normal S&W.

This really gets interesting with magic, as White magic can be cast as often as you can memorize it (the familiar Vancian system) with no negative effects (except one 6th level White spell that pisses off the evil entities). Casting Gray Magic costs your Magician Hit Points. It’s the classic trope of suffering physical strain to use magic forces that Man Was Not Meant To Tamper With. It SO WORKS! Black magic is even better: You have to kill a sentient being to or risk Sanity Loss to cast Black magic spells. LOVE IT. And Wisdom equals Sanity Points in C&T, similar to Call of Chuthulu, but simpler.

There are most of the spells you’d expect, a few that are new (to my knowledge) and most are tweaked to better fit the setting. The "skill system" if there is one is to use the character's Saving Throw (modified by attribute bonus or penalty) to resolve any roll not covered by class abilities or defined some other way. I first encountered this method in X-plorers, and find it to be elegant - simple yet effective, and it keeps the game fast-paced.

The setting included in the book, the world of Zarth, reinforces the entire milieu perfectly. I’ll leave it at that, because it’s a good read, but I'm excited about the Shroud, which surrounds and permeates the world of Zarth and is a source of power for Magicians daring to use it. The Shroud, sort of like the Mists of Ravenloft, is the thin veil that encases and separates the world from the Outer Chaos (or whatever it’s called). Some Black Magic spells function because the caster interacts directly with the Shroud. For example, slipping into it other-worldly ethereal non-space to disappear from one location and reappear in another (teleport). Another example is to use the Shroud to become invisible, just like when Frodo puts on the One Ring and enters the Nazgul phantom zone (so there’s your Tolkien, if you must have it, LOL). Naturally, travelling in the Shroud is a sanity-bending experience for the uninitiated and it attracts all sorts of attention from the Others (C&T’s name for Outsiders/Demons/Elder Chaos beings, etc). Good stuff!

The magic items and creatures all follow this sort of design and enhance the flavor of the setting and game swimmingly, and I think the whole of C&T totally rocks, if that wasn’t clear already. The book itself is well illustrated and laid out well. I bought the pdf to save money, but even printed on three hole punched paper and put in a binder it looks great. I also like the art; it is it effective, evocative and kinetic. Just take a gander at that great cover!

I downloaded the free preview, and liked it enough to grab the full game. I wanted to jot a quick review while the sale was still going on.

I'd say if you're on the fence about this game, GET IT. I haven't read it cover to cover and haven't had a chance to play it yet, but it is really cool. The setting is great; it does what it sets out to do. They capture the flavor of Barsoom, add a side order of HG wells and a generous dash of HP Lovecraft. The PC white apes are a little more Planet of the Apes than Barsoom (I think, having only read A Princess of Mars) but that makes them more playable as a PC race. THe rules for the Earthman race are cool, and the classes are neat.

A very strong addition to the d20 rule-set is the Stunts rules (Making combat more interesting and swashbuckling), and I like the Device Points mechanic for the Mad Scientist advanced class.

One gripe, and this might just be my ignorance of Savage Worlds in general, is I didn't find it clear if you need the SW core book to play the SW version of Mars. This would be a fun setting in which to explore SW, and I might have tried the SW version if I knew I didn't need the core book. That said, they're both half off right now....

Summary: this seems Awesome! If you like low/non magic swashbuckling pulp entertainment, you'll dig it. Of you're not sure, try it out anyway, it might change your mind.

Looks good enough to make me want the full d20 version.

I really like these figures. The art is clear and each figure is interesting and distinct. I like the B&W option so you can color them any way you like and the three base options is slick too.

GFYG is slick and fun!

It's a Class/Level game, not a skill based game. It's clearly based on the Castles & Crusades SIEGE engine, an OGL version of the d20 system so it's very easy to pick up if you're familiar with any d20 game. (aside: I highly recommend C&C. Check out the Free QuickStart rules).

The 'rules light' game design is simple yet robust with no skills or feats, so character creation and action adjudication is qick and straightforward. It's easily adaptable to any situation the players may get themselves into so it's easy to run as the Game Master.

What makes it FUN is that the default answer is "Yes" if the players want to try something, not "no, you don't have the right power/feat/skill/proficiency." Of course, characters of a particular class perform the skills associated with a class better (like a gunslinger using sneak/stealth will never move truly silently, as a scout doing so would).

Those seeking a rule for each and every possibility will not find them, and to me, this is a strength of the game. The GM is encouraged to use common sense and communication with the players to adjudicate unusual circumstances on the fly to better maintain the narrative flow of the story and keep the game’s pace up. In short, rules lawyers need not apply, and everyone will have more fun. (The above paragraphs are also true of Castles & Crusades, BTW.)

The classes in GFYG are cleverly designed and fit well the mold of popular Wild West fiction. It's easy to see a party of these characters meshing well and providing all the skills needed to succeed a mission.

The game comes with a good GM section, several references of real Wild West people from history and three scenarios the GM can expand into adventures (I love the A-Team reference in one of the scenarios, a great touch!).

The equipment section is purposely vague, and some players may want more details, but it totally works. It's a rules light game and arguing that a Winchester may do 1 hp more damage than a Colt would add nothing.

If I were to add anything, I'd like to see Beyond Belief publish a few adventures for GFYG, and perhaps publish a Weird West suppliment. But as is, I reckon GFYG is damn near flawless.

In summary, I'd say GFYG in fun and accessible. I say Go For GFYG now. I recommend it highly! (and for only three bucks, take a chance if you're on the fence)

A+, 5 out of 5 stars, a 10. :-)