C.T. Phipps's Blog, page 15

Persepolis Rising (Expanse #7) review

    THE EXPANSE is one of the best series currently out there. It's also a series which has had its ups and downs. Some of them I've given 3 stars and others I've given 5 stars. I've always come back to it, though. Here, PERSEPOLIS RISING is setting the stage for the end of the line as we time skip 30 years to when our heroes are now in their 60s. They don't act like they are sixty so maybe it's a case of "sixty is the new thirty" thanks to advanced medical technology of the future but they do c...

Werewolf: The Apocalypse Fifth Edition review

Warning -This review has a LONG intro that I couldn’t cut down.

    WEREWOLF:THE APOCALYPSE has always been about third or fourth in my favorite of theWorld of Darkness games. Which is not so much an insult or a question of itsquality as the fact that I was an obsessive Vampire: The Masquerade and Mage:The Ascension player. Furthermore, I was brought into my fandom by Changeling:The Dreaming which was always the odd man out but a lot better game thanmost people ever did.

    Thepremis...

Ten Tips to using Touchstones in V5

V5 Chronicle Tips

1. The Social Satire of Vampire: The Masquerade2.  An analysis of Anarchs in Vampire: The Masquerade
3. Ten Tips to Running the Anarchs in V5 4. Ten Tips to Running the Second Inquisition in V5 5. Ten Tips to Running the Sabbat in V5 6. Ten Chronicles for Sabbat PCs in V5 7. Ten Tips to Running the Camarilla in V5 8. Ten Tips to Running the Thin-Bloods in V5 9. Ten Tips to Running the Tremere in V5  10. Ten Real Life-Inspired Chronicles for V5
11. V5 NPC Update: Sullivan Dane
12...

Babylon's Ashes (Expanse #6) review

    BABYLON'S ASHES is the sixth book of the Expanse series and the conclusion of the "Free Navy" arc. I was a huge fan of the Free Navy introduced in NEMESIS GAMES and eager to see the story carried to its conclusion. Unfortunately, I don't think the story worked out nearly as well as it was supposed to.

    The premise of the Expanse is its two hundred years in the future and humanity has colonized the solar system. Humanity is divided into the Earthers, Martians, and Belters with the latter b...

Where Gary and company play Vampire: The Masquerade

[A group of my characters sits down to enjoy an evening of roleplaying in the dining hall of stately Warren Manor]

Gary Karkofsky AKA Merciless: Okay, everyone have they got their characters ready. I'm going to be playing a Tremere Anarch.

Mandy Karkofsky AKA Nighthuntress: Why am I not surprised? I'll be playing a Lasombra. They're the sexy darkness based Clan.

Cindy Wachkoski AKA Red Riding Hood: Wait, we're playing Vampire: The Masquerade? I thought we were playing Werewolf: The Apocalypse. I ha...

Vampire: The Masquerade: Volume 2: The Mortician's Army review

    VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE: VOL. 2: THE MORTICIAN’S ARMY by Tim Seeley, Blake Howard, and Tini Howard is the second installment of the entertaining graphic tie-in to the World of Darkness gameline. It finishes up the main story started in Winter’s Teeth and while there is a three issue follow-up, I think this is mostly a complete arc by itself.

    For those unfamiliar with that, well, this isn’t the comic for you. But for those who remembered the Nineties, you might recall a Goth themed t...

The Crimson Legion (The Prism Pentad #2) by Troy Denning

    THE CRIMSON LEGION is the second novel of the Prism Pentad series by Troy Denning. Set in the harsh world of Athas AKA Dark Sun for TSR's Dungeons and Dragons, it is a post-apocalypse story except the pre-devastation world was a typical fantasy setting. Now everything is desert, evil wizards, and guys dressed up like Lord Humungus. In the previous book, the city of Tyr was trying to overthrow its evil Sorcerer King and now we're following Rikus the Gladiator as he attempts to lead its...

Ten Tips for Indie Fantasy and Sci-Fi Writers

    Before I got myself with Crossroad Press, I had the misfortune of paying quite a bit for I was a Teenage Weredeer to be edited with the assurances I was dealing with a capable professional editor. She was. Except, well, due to a desire to expand her business, she began farming out her edits to other people for a cut of the money and the initial draft was atrocious. I had to pay for an entirely new edit and sometimes people still mention they find some (usually from the initial paperbac...

Thirteen Tips to running Dark Sun

101+ Dungeons and Dragons headcanon 101+ Planescape adventure hooks101+ Dark Sun adventure hooks13 Tips to Running Planescape 13 Tips to Running Dark Sun

    Dark Sun is one of my favorite campaign settings but one of the least played according to sales figures at TSR during the heyday of Loraine William's tenure as CEO. It is a difficult setting to get a handle on as it rejects the traditional good versus evil setting to do something more akin to fantasy Gamma World. No Dungeonmaster's Athas wa...

Thirteen Tips for Running Planescape

101+ Dungeons and Dragons headcanon 101+ Planescape adventure hooks101+ Dark Sun adventure hooks13 Tips to Running Planescape

    Planescape is one of my favorite campaign settings. It was a breath of fresh air when it came out in 1994, contradicting the more traditional Tolkien influenced ones already published. The City of Doors had a million portals leading to the Outer Planes and Prime Material Planes but also its own unique culture. Factions were determined by philosophical concepts while a...