Photo Scavenger

This is a repeat offer of the Modern AGE / Expanse bundle from Green Ronin Publishing, containing the Modern AGE version of their Adventure Game Engine rules and sourcebooks and adventures for the popular Expanse books and TV series;

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2025Expanse




In 2020 I said "I'm slightly hampered here by lack of familiarity with the AGE system, but my impression on a quick look is a fairly playable game that for once doesn't need a huge variety of dice - everything is rolled with 6-siders. The combat rules don't seem to take up a ludicrously large portion of the system, and explanations seem to work reasonably well without going into impenetrable gamespeak. Presentation is good too, with nice artwork and a reasonable balance of male and female characters represented. I found that the font used for the rules is a little hard to read on screen - I had to up the magnification more than usual - but otherwise have no particular problems. The font size may be a consequence of the fairly high word count for these rules, and I suspect that it was the best compromise for the printed version - larger text would have upped the page count considerably. Unfortunately I don't feel that it's a particularly good font from a legibility viewpoint, which isn't helping.

My visual problems aside, this looks to be a pretty good bundle, and is probably a must-buy for anyone liking The Expanse. Recommended!"

I don't see any reason to change any of that.

This is an offer of issues 11-20 of Shrapnel, the official BattleTech magazine from Catalyst Game Labs, plus an anthology of issues 1-4.

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Shrapnel2



This isn't something I particularly want since I don't actually play the game, but it's cheap compared to individual issues and contains a lot of material you won't find elsewhere, including fiction. If you play BattleTech it's definitely worth taking a look.

Since I wanted to get cheap train tickets and messed up on my train and bus timings I got to the Continuum games con too late for the first games on Friday afternoon, so spent a few hours socializing before my first game in the evening. After that I either played or ran games all weekend. Didn't play any freeform RPGs or board games thing time, I forgot to sign up for the freeforms in advance of the con and managed to find an RPG I wanted to play in all of the time slots.

Friday evening - the Space 1999 RPG - Afterimage, a nice cheesy adventure using all the tropes of the TV series. I played a theoretically non-combatant member of a team sent to chart a way through a dense asteroid belt before the Moon hit it, and as usually is the case ran into aliens who were not what they seemed. Some intrigue, mind control, and an eventual triumph for doing things the simple way by extreme percussive maintenance. Good fun, although I'm still a little boggled that someone actually converted the series into an RPG. REALLY hoping that this will lead to more RPGs based on Gerry Anderson's series, especially Thunderbirds, UFO (Space 1999 was originally expected to be a sequel to UFO), and Captain Scarlet.

Saturday morning - the most recent Doctor Who RPG - Why Didn't They Ask Evans?, a Torchwood adventure. Lots of investigation in and around Cardiff and Barry Island, and an eventual gunfight in a very dangerous location. I played Owen Harper, but didn't get to make much use of my medical skills, although some biology did come into it. Enjoyable and worked reasonably well.

Saturday afternoon - the Code of the Spacelanes RPG - Sparks in the Void, run by Simon Burley who wrote the system, in which our crack team of amnesic adventurers managed to turn a relatively small problem into near interstellar war, and were more or less responsible for the loss of most of two space fleets. I played a pessimistic space medic and had a lot of fun.

Saturday evening - The Shiver RPG - The Hollow World, basically Jurassic Park in a hollow world setting. This was an interesting idea but I think that the allegedly cinematic/horror system just doesn't work very well, especially if you are tired and trying to make sense of a load of special dice with weird symbols, character sheets that don't seem to be very well designed and don't relate character abilities to the relevant characteristics very well, and rules that make a fairly simple fight against some mindless enemies take nearly half an hour to play out. I don't blame the GM for this, I think that the adventure and system simply aren't very well designed. Probably the most disappointing game of the convention.

Sunday morning - I ran one of my old Doctor Who adventures, Curse of the Conqueror (originally written for Virgin's Time Lord RPG, I've now converted it to my own Diana Warrior Princess rules), in which a group of characters from the classic Dr. Who era had to handle a time paradox and prevent WW3. I don't really want to say too much about it since it worked well and I may run it again at Dragonmeet in December if I don't think of anything else. I'll probably put both versions on line as free downloads eventually.

Sunday afternoon - The Savage Worlds RPG - The King in Purple, the latest in a series of steampunk/Cthulhu Mythos adventures in which a Victorian crimefighting team based on Marvel and DC characters fought a certain cackling maniac who might owe more than a little to the Joker. I've played in one of the earlier adventures and enjoyed myself both times - not a huge fan of the system, but the GM was good enough that it didn't matter too much.

Sunday evening - the Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme RPG - A Tournament at Ware? - A very silly adventure for a very silly game run by Phil Masters, who wrote most of the Discworld RPG. I played the backstabbing princess of Ware, trying to set things up to inherit the Kingdom if Daddy suffered an unfortunate "accident", but didn't get very far due the machinations of three mysterious knights in pastel armour, Sir Robin and sundry other knights, and the Head of Light Entertainment. I tried to recruit Tim the Enchanter to Team Princess, but due to some spectacularly bad dice rolls it didn't happen. I helped to defeat the knights but didn't advance my agenda, and it ended with Daddy possibly looking at one of his knights to inherit. Always assuming that the Princess doesn't take him out first...

And so to bed, and today home to an afternoon and evening spent catching up on things.