Jolly R. Blackburn

I particularly enjoyed No Satisfaction... and Ch-Ch-Changes, which continue the story of Heidi Jackson's takeover of Hackmaster development. I love her "extensive market research" (she plays the game once with Hard Eight's staff and once with her son and her staff) while lording it over the Hard Eight staff how professional and sucessful of a business woman she is. I also liked the jabs taken at the upcoming release of D&D 4th Edition (I like gnome characters also).

This review is from reading the game; I haven't played it yet. First I am impressed with any game (and there are only a few) that includes rules for mundane but still adventurous parts of life in the given environment. Aces & Eights includes details on how to handle prospecting for gold, herding cattle to market, standing trial, and buying land. Unlike many other RPGs, it isn't simply about killing things and taking their stuff (though you can do that here too). For this, I give the game a show more great rating.

On the downside, though, are a number of rules mechanics that aren't consistent with each other (sometimes its good to roll high and sometimes its good to roll low). Also there some rules that could have benefited from better proof reading (you only get a 1:1 payoff for hitting a single number on a roulette wheel as opposed to a 17:1 payoff for splitting your bet on two numbers). show less

This book - actually a collection of comic strips from the Dragon magazine - is hilarious. I admit, only gamers can really understand this form of humor, but it is great to watch this gaming group and compare them to players you have met in real life.

Knights of the Dinner Table is always a wonderful read if you are of the role-player bent. You really KNOW the characters, for good or for ill. We've met them, shared out stash of caffinated colas with them, gamed with them, haggled at cons with them, hell some of us ARE these characters. These anthologies offer a large chunk of the comics included in the monlthly magazine, and only suffer by not including the supplimental material. KotDT is a comic delight.