I love your channel and want to support you. But incogni and all those data removal services are pretty much a scam or useless. It’s an ongoing subscription and if you ever cancel then brokers can add your information back afterwards so it’s not permanent. And the way that incogni works is that they also send your information to different brokers to “see if they have your information “which just gives your information away. This is a many people to get more spam as a result. Please don’t partner with them. I know there has to be a better more fitting sponsor for you man.
‘Our Brilliant Ruin’ is investigative horror and has an absolutely beautiful PDF of the full core rules book available free on DriveThruRPG. Just saying. * waits five years *
My favorite kind of review is where my GM gets a new game, we play it for a year, and then he makes a series of videos about our gameplay, in costume, highlighting our heroic feats but more often blunders.
Seth, as a DM that doesn't get to play or run much, I want you to know your honesty and care in your reviews keep me going. Jack's (and by extension, your player's) hijinks in new videos are the highlight of my day. I put on your RPG reviews in the background when I don't know what to put on. You got me back into Cyberpunk. Never change!
100% agree. How a game FEELS is absolutely everything. I started GMing 36 years ago. The "experience" = knowing is just not true. It's snake oil to profs otherwise. Experience = opinion = probable sure. But an RPG book is a guide to an experience. Seeing players respond to the session zero for Tales from the Loop is an experience you can't gain from reading. A review without playing- its not a roleplaying review. It's video book club type content. I hope this video lifts standards.
Run any indie RPG then go browse its reviews online and you'll have trouble finding even a single soul who truly played it first instead of read and review. The darkest secret knowledge is that this pattern carries for big-name RPG reviews too.
I've always enjoyed how you review RPGs, discussing the good, the bad, and the changes you made to it during your time with it. It basically gives me the bullet points of any given adventure and helps me decide what I might need to change if I were to run it.
A common misconception is that all my modification suggestions were things I thought of before I ran it. Not true at all. Half, if not most of those suggestions came from playing it and have the, "To avoid the problem I encountered during the game" label.
@@SSkorkowskyI enjoyed your reviews of Traveller, but they also told me that wasn’t something that would replace my Traveller: The New Era game system from GDW. It was too rules-lite based on what I could see in your videos. I play In Nomine, which uses a nearly identical rule set to the Traveller you reviewed, but that isn’t a sci-fi game, so it hits different.
Playing reviews are the only ones I trust, and it's specifically bc of your policy of providing GM notes, tips, and tricks based on your experience on how to make something run smoother or what not
This is really good to see, and is almost exactly the approach I take. (you put it much more eloquently than me though!) Even though I'm a teeny tiny dungeontuber, I've had a companies reach out to me asking if I'll review their games, sometimes asking really nicely, other times just attaching enormous PDFs to emails with minimal text to explain what the hells it is they want from me. My rules are that for a review to reach my channel, it must be something I've played for at least one session for "first look" type reviews, and at least a 10-shot for longer form campaign reviews. Hopefully it makes the videos more fun to watch as I can tell tales from the table, and share my players perspectives as well as mine. All the love to you Seth! You're one of the dungeontubers who inspired me to start a channel of my own!
Seth, thank you for this video on reviews. I notice that when you review modules, you always point out that you played the scenario. And along with the praise and advice you give, you always point out things that you wish could have been included or not included, like handouts that would have been nice to include, or huge backstories the player might never be aware of. And you also offer advice on how DMs who run them can make some parts of them run better. I think the fact that some updated modules have actually addressed some of your criticisms in the modules themselves speaks volumes about how thorough, honest, fair, and helpful your reviews are. As an aside, I want to thank you for your channel. I am a forever DM who began playing the white box set and supplements in 1978. That's how old I am (yikes!) and how long I've been playing TTRPGs (my go to these days is Call of Cthulhu). I was a playtester for Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, playing it in 1980 soon before it's release at TSR UK headquarters in Cambridge England, DMd by Don Turnbull (for some reason I was listed as a playtester on the 2nd module in the series, Danger at Dunwater, even though I playtested the first one). I can say without a doubt that your channel is the best and most helpful on UA-cam. I've watched almost all of your videos and also have re-watched module reviews before DMing them because you are that good. Keep up the good work and thank you again!
Oh, man. I love that adventure. Even if they missed you on the playtest credits, it's still awesome to have been involved in that little piece of D&D history.
@@SSkorkowsky I was so exited when I saw that you did a review of the module! I was like a little kid getting a big Xmas present. It's a great adventure. And just like you, I've stolen parts of this module for other scenarios I've run over the years. I'd gotten the White Box Set and Supplements from an older cousin when I was still in the US and barely anyone (around me) knew about TTRPGs. I was totally hooked from when I played my first game as a player under my cousin, and soon started DMing my friends after that. Not long after that, I discovered a great little game store in Cambridge when we spent a few years in England, which had the (recently released) 1st Edition books and modules such as H1-3 and then D1-3 (the Giant modules and the Descent modules) and The Village of Hommlet as well as Judges Guild adventures and settings. The owner pointed me to the TSR UK headquarters over there, where I got to playtest Secret of Saltmarsh. I'm still amazed at how this (then) niche gaming genre, that barely anyone I knew played, and that I discovered so many decades ago, has grown to become so widely enjoyed by so many people. Love your channel. It's just so good. For the most part I've DMd over the years, but I can tell it would be great fun to be a player at the table you run.
@@Zenbuck2 I also remember that great module. Myself, i bought the original box (what do you mean "white box", mine is brown with the cover illustration glued on. LOL!) from TSR Lake Geneva in the Spring of 1975. Went over to England several times after that and visited a small shop in Hammersmith filled with even more goodies. Started selling those items to friends here in Sweden, which turned into a mail order service and later a game shop. Also amazed that this niche hobby, turned into such a phenomenon.
The alien RPG core book defines the need to play a game for the review to be valuable for me. That core book gets you so hype to play the game reading it on the couch, but its layout makes me want to tear my eyes out at the table when the pressure is on. Had a session yesterday where I was desperately trying to check the acid splash rules... and not only is it 4 pages off from the number the index says it is... it does its signature move of tucking game mechanics into the midst of a flavour text block. good game regardless.
@@DrunkenWizardBattle omg, yes. I love Alien, Vaesen, Twilight 2000, and Blade Runner and each and every one is like this. The One Ring 2e has some of this but not as much as the others. The only Free League book that I don't absolutely hate the layout and structure of is Dragonbane (probably because there is so little there, lol)
@@jasonGamesMaster Companies do this because the majority of people who buy adventures just read them and never run them. The sad fact is companies are financially motivated to stick rules in flavor text because their main audience doesn't want to read page after page of tables and rules.
@hfbdbsijenbd I don't actually think this is accurate. For one thing, the number of actual rules in most Free League games might total 40 pages if they were organized and laid out in a useful way instead of an "artful" way. And they are beautiful. But the OSR space has shown me quite clearly how crappy most tpg books are laid out and organized. It can be done and many folks are becoming very vocal about it. Recently Free League even announced updated core books for Alien and Vaesen to address this very issue because of the backlash
The Alien update isn't because of layout. It's because of Alien: Romulus. Essentially Disney is requiring them to update the game to incorporate the new canonical elements introduced in that movie. It's one of the downsides of a licensed IP game. Getting to update the layout while they're at it is simply a bonus.
"signature move of tucking game mechanics into the midst of a flavour text block." I... I cannot even begin to describe how much I dislike it when games, be they TTRPGs or miniature wargames or whatever, mix fluff and mechanics. It harms readability so much, makes it harder to find things when you need them, hard to remember where stuff is, it's awful. You want a couple sentences of fluff to go with something? That's ok. But you put a paragraph break between them and, ideally, the fluff is italicized or something to make it clear at a glance what is rules and what is flavor.
The problem with "Reading Reviews", in my cynical opinion at least, is too many of them are nothing but undeserved praise because the Reviewer gets free copies from Authors/Publishers - especially when they have a rep of giving good reviews.
I love your reviews for many reasons, and a big one is indeed that you actually play the games and adventures you review so that you can give practical feedback, a look under the hood as it were. Also, the fact that you are a player first and forest shines through, it makes your reviews earnest in a way they simply wouldn't be if they were just your "product", so to speak. To use a similar case, I have a relative who worked in a chemistry lab when they were younger, and later became a teacher. Accordingly, one day the head of the science department came into the office and, during a conversation with my relative about some problem that needed to be resolved, said: "You know, it just hit me, the difference between you and I. You are a scientist who just so happens to be teaching; but I am a teacher who just so happens to teach science." I think it's the same kind of think; and it's more than a little ironic, I think, that being unconventional in this sense is what would otherwise be the most sensible thing to be.
Regarding review copies biasing reviewers: In my former life as a journalist, I used to get absolutely stacks of unsolicited review copies (and solicited ones as well, of course) and the key thing to remember is that when it becomes routine it sort of stops being a biasing factor. We got many times more books in any given month than we could possibly read, let alone review, so it never seemed like some special factor that would weigh in favor of any particular one.
While I more or less believe you, your editor was in a different boat. A negative review can cause your outlet to loose the review copies making your outlet months behind the competition.
@@vidard9863 I promise, that's just not how anything works. In the decade I worked in journalism, I never heard of a publication being turned down on a review copy request. The vast majority of books that came in didn't get reviewed at all. Most of our reviews were at least somewhat positive, because why waste the space or energy drawing attention to a book that isn't worth reading? Publishers effectively spam publications with review copies hoping maybe 2% of them turn into a review; they don't have the luxury of being vindictive.
@@vidard9863 I should add: I can easily imagine it might work that way with, say, a AAA game studio that knows some small gaming website needs an advance copy to get a timely review up, and basically HAS to review all major new releases to remain competitive, But that's just not how it is with book publishing and magazines or newspapers.
@normative how ANYTHING works? Try anything other than a book review publication. If you want to run the UA-cam grind you have to ride the algorithm. It's ALL about timing for MOST other review topics and platforms, particularly if much of your audience will come to you from a Google search. First in gets more impressions and that gets you higher rankings in the searches.
@@vidard9863 Having written game reivews (primarily videogame but with RPG & tabletop reviews a side thing) in the past, my experience is that the editor gets more suspicious if you write too many good reviews in a row and you get asked to justify that. Not once were I challenged on a negative review.
Man, I totally get what Seth says about "reading vs playing". I read the Fantasy AGE rules by Green Ronin a good long while ago and thought the system was the bee's knees, still being fantasy-focused but not drowning in overly magical classes and characters like D&D is, but then I went around on the online communities and found out a lot of the flaws that you wouldn't really pick up on just reading the rules (mainly, that long campaigns become a drag as HP builds up but damage does not so battles become long slogs where both PCs and adversaries are HP sponges).
Rando Board Member: Can anyone recommend some RPG reviewers? Seth's sock Account: I hear that handsome sonofabitch Seth Skorkowsky is a pretty entertaining and damn fine grandiloquent.
Well, I gotta say this: Seth, you’re the sole reason my roleplaying buddy for 30 years and me have gotten neck-deep into Mongoose Traveller 2nd edition. I had a very brief stint with MegaTraveller in the late 1980ies, but that setting and system was lost to me effectively after I finished school. Fast forward a few decades, your excellent and thorough review of MgT2 comes along, and now I’m sitting on a dozen physical copies of various books, while my DTRPG library is sporting over a hundred Mongoose products. (I, too, can quit at any time, I swear!) The Traveller campaign my buddy is running is going into its second year now, and I’m itching to get an episodic Solomani bounty hunter campaign going. Regarding reviews, there obviously is a broad spectrum of quality and usefulness. Among the things that I think of as most important to me is the question of what constitutes a character, and how involved is the process of creating one? How fast can I build an NPC? What is the central dice mechanic to resolve conflicts, is it consistent throughout every aspect of the game? How does the damage track work? What things need to be tracked during combat, and does the bookkeeping get aggravating at one point or another? As far as Traveller is concerned, you really delivered on this one, and I really thank you for it! 😃 Keep up the good work!
Not only is this another great video from Seth, but it also has title images of both George Lazenby (1:59) and Patrick Stewart (2:41) that I can nerd out over at the same time!
My problem is I've trusted Seth so much, I now have a crippling CoC addiction lol. It doesn't help Chaosium and the Misatonic group list him as the trusted source for info and reviews. Well deserved I might add
Yay a video that isn't about the secrets of the ancients campaign :D (I love your video recaptures of your games, but for the first time I'm in the players seat in a campaign based upon secrets of the ancients and for once I have to avoid all the spoilers - trying out classic traveller for that one BTW)
There are a lot of Seth review videos I can’t watch because I hope to one day play them. 🥲 Then the first thing I do after finishing playing is come watch the Seth video. 🤣
The best part of not liking Call of Cthulhu or Traveler as a system for me is that I can watch every single one of Seth's reviews without any worry or care in the world.
Good video--my only criticism is that the rule of "find a RPG reviewer whose tastes match your own" should apply to ALL critics We all have our own opinion--my dad taught me that lesson back in the late 1980s
This is why I have made it a personal rule as well to actually run a product before I review it. I think you hit on every point why it sucks because it means your turnaround on actually getting the review out is way longer, especially for giant products, but I personally think people really appreciate it. I get many comments from people saying they are glad to hear advice and a firsthand experience so they don't make the same mistakes I do. And for my own selfish mental benefit, I love hearing from people who had the same issues I had so I don't feel overly mean or wrong if I have a particularly glaring or harsh criticism.
Man I feel the "how it reads vs how it plays" angle. I love Cyberpunk RED but the layout of that book is awful and reading it is a mess, but once you've got the rules down I love how it plays. It's just that trying to look anything up in the book sucks because info is spread across multiple sections and can be hard to find. If I'd ONLY read the book and never played it, I would've dismissed it entirely and missed out on a really fun game.
Shadowrun has RED beat when it comes to awful editing, but damn if RED doesn't try to keep up. Doubled tables, short fiction in the middle of the book, ambush "rules" inside easily skippable "for GMs only" chapter, lack of illustrations for gear and cyberware... But it plays very well in practice and my complaints are mostly nitpicking about balance.
I imagine playing before you review also really helps expand the 'tips and suggestions' portion of a video, one of my favourite aspects of Seth's work.
I won't review a game until I've actually played it. I've had too many examples from my own experience where problems occurred I didn't expect or something I thought was difficult ended up going great.
I really appreciate your reviews Seth, especially your Call of Cthulhu scenario reviews. They really help me decide if I want to use a scenario for my players as we are new to 7th edition CoC. When it comes to new rpgs I tend to watch a variety of reviews to try and get a lot of different opinions before I spend money on a new game.
Thanks for your in-depth reviews, and even more so your tips for running the scenarios you review, I have a well oiled one-shot of Missed Dues I've ran for many groups because of it.
Hey Seth, thank you for your videos. I don’t think you really do requests, but I was wondering if one day you could do a video on safety tools in gaming? I know a lot of your videos around the RPG social contract, your How to run a Horror Game, and some of the Kult series touch on it, but would you ever do a full video dedicated to it? What they are, and what they aren’t. The reason I ask is because it’s a topic that seems to be so badly misunderstood by some parts of the community. As a stark example check out the comments under the Chaosium video on safety tools. You can tell most of them did not watch the video. Ironically I’d be willing to bet most of them have been using safety tools of some sort for most of their gaming lives, but just not calling it that, or having a word for it. I think that you have a lot of respect in the gaming community, so people might actually listen to you. There seem to be a lot of outrage videos out there suggesting safety tools wreck the game, or involve telling people the whole adventure, or that there’s some really strict set way to do them that limits what players can do. It would be good to get a counterpoint/explanation, as well as describing how they can be used, and how they can improve games for everyone. Sorry for a) A long unrelated post, and b) a repost, but I’ve never been this early before, so figured I’d give it a go.
I don't play all the things you review, but I love your reviews and how you review things. You're one of the few people I still follow when it comes to RPG stuff. There's a lot out there I just don't trust to be honest about all their reviews. Plus, I like to play things before I make my mind up about things as well. I appreciate your work and your reviews!
As someone that does adventure summaries with a lot of adventure structure ribbing throughout, which to me is very close to "read reviews", I agree that "played reviews" are best for judging whether or not you actually want to play an adventure. Which is why I watch so many of your videos! For adventures I have only read, I tend to lean towards just making jokes and not really ending with a final judgement. But for adventures I have run, or adventures I tried to prep and ended up giving up on, I do come in a little more with my judgments. I don't see myself as an expert on adventures, especially with my videos leaning so heavily into comedy instead of valid criticism, but maybe my audience does not see it the same way. Stating in my videos whether I only read the adventure or played it through could help an audience differentiate which one I did. Hopefully I can incorporate something like that into my future videos.
Thanks Seth, I appreciate your reviews a) because they are entertaining b) they are typically the games I like c) you put in some handy tips for running the adventures that have been handy. Keep bringing the awesome.
It is important to distinguish between game _system_ reviews and game _content_ reviews and previews. For game systems, you really need to play the system, or at least have played a system that is fundamentally the same (if you know standard CoC7, you can pretty easily pick up the crucial differences in Cthulhu By Candlelight, or Modern, without extensive experimentation). Content, on the other hand, does not need you to play through it in order to share your impressions and recommend it (or recommend people skip it, as the case may be). This is especially true for OSR content, where two groups playing through the module may have _wildly_ different experiences with it, independent of the quality of the resource itself (just comes with the territory when random tables are involved). There _is_ a lot of low effort "content" masquerading as reviews, when the presenter has made only a cursory examination of the resource in question, but most of that would be equally low-effort even if they _had_ played through the module. Fortunately, it's usually easy to identify when that's the case, but it is a trap for prospective new GMs and the unwary. Ben Milton's OSR module previews are excellent examples of previews done _right._ He gives _almost_ enough information for you to just improvise and run the adventure, but not quite enough that you'll do that instead of buying it. But at that level of detail, you know exactly what you'll get if you do decide to buy and run the module.
I think it's kinda the other way round. You can assess a game system based off reading the rules analysing percentages and following cross references etc. to get a reasonable idea of how a game plays and potential pitfalls. Game content on the other hand requires playing to get a feel for pacing, intuitive decisions, and dead end plots.
Now THAT chase was also pretty damned epic. Our first run with the CoC Chase Rules was with Dead Light. I was kinda nervous and apologetic when we started because I wasn't sure how it'd play out. About the time one of my players jumped up from their chair going "Holy shit, that was exactly like a horror movie!" followed by everyone laughing and saying how great that chase scene went, I knew we had a winner.
I always recommend your channel to anyone looking for videos about CoC because of your "Playing Reviews". I could only find very few other channels that have multiple gm tips/playing reviews for CoC scenarios.
I always pay attention to your reviews specifically because of the fact you do play the game/adventure/etc first and base everything on what type of time you had. You give balanced reviews, pointing out things you/your group liked and things you changed or thought should be changed and why. I also like that you always announce at the beginning if you were given a promotional/discount copy of the game/adventure so you are up front about everything.
Yeah reading reviews are often a pass for me for all the cons you've listed. However, there are some reading reviews that are great, Questing Beast comes to mind because they're not trying to make any assumptions of the system and comes from the perspective of "let's flip through and see what this is like".
An excellent video. I take reviews and reviewers seriously, because I want people to have some kind of criteria before they just start barking out stuff in public. Having scruples as a reviewer is a rarer and rarer thing these days.
I recently saw a review for a Cyberpunk Red book that was absolutely scathing. Not for the actual quality of the product, but because it had the option to own a wheelchair. *A wheelchair.*
Ha! Just a couple of days ago I asked a similar question on the Dakka Dakka forums (Dakka Dakka - Dakka Discussions - What is a review?) I will paste my thought from this thread here: "In boardgaming community people are generally in agreement that reviewing a game after playing it just 2 or 3 times isn't really a review, more like first impressions. The number of games necessary for a proper review varies between games and players, but it is accepted that you need to get some experience with the game for a review to really contain what a review should - some objective facts (this works well but this other thing doesn't) and subjective opinions (these aspects were enjoyable, but those others failed to deliver the promised experience). This seems not to be the case with wargames (and RPGs too) at all. Yesterday new Kill Team expansion "reviews" dropped and they all follow the same pattern - look at components, flip through the book, read (some of the) rules from the pages verbatim. It is pretty obvious very few (if any) of these reviewers have already played with the new rules and teams at all. When asked how many games they've had before reviewing the expansion, they answer either jokingly or with implied irritation, never giving the number. I have already noticed this trend with wargames but also new RPG book reviews some time ago (never play, flip through the book on camera, read some, done), it seems to continue unchallenged. I do not expect total expertise with the game, like from one of my most respected video game reviewers - Mortismal - who only reviews games after 100%ing them. But making a board game video/article where you look at components and quote/read the rules aloud on camera and calling it a board game review would have the "reviewer" killed with laughter by the boardgaming community. So is it ok for wargames (and RPG handbooks), and if so, why? Is it how the hobby nowadays is centered on buying, not playing, because it's the only thing hobbyists can find time for in their busy adult lives? I've asked twice in the KT thread about people's impressions from playing the new edition, what works for them, what doesn't, what they like. All I got was crickets and tumbleweed. But the moment a new product appears there's a buzz of activity, all the talking not about the game and how it plays, but about prices, availability, materials, distribution... So maybe an average wargamer really doesn't need an informed opinion on the game and how it plays, to decide whether to buy it or not, as they are never going to get to the point where it matters? "
I never had a chance to use the COC chase rules in that game. Then I started running Mothership, and I use the COC chase rules all the time. I see that delux box behind you and can't wait to see your Mothership rivews.
Man I love your channel. You're exactly the kind of guy I wish I could play ttrpg's with. Great content and thanks from western Canada for all the work you put into the videos!
While I don't play most of the games you do other than D&D & Traveller, I am a huge fan of yours, Seth. You & the gang are a channel that I really enjoy & recommend to other gamers. I mean I think I have been watching you since maybe day 2 or your channel & I picked up Death Station on RPG Drive Through mainly because you have written it & it was free, so I hope you got royalties for it, I also have to say that I played Death Station back in the days of CT & I am planning on using Death Station in a BattleTech/Mechwarrior 1E game I am running as I want to get my player out of their 'Mechs. I have to say that not only was it the 2nd best adventure I have read for Traveller, Secret of the Ancients (which you just still(?) reviewing) is my favorite that I have read & adapted to my BattleTech/Mechwarrior 1E game before this. And, when I saw the price on Death Station (like I said free) I had to pick it up. I have to say that everyone of your videos you have made for this channel is great, you are perfect as you & as the DM/GM & I love the Gang, & Jack the NPC though I think that Jack the NPC should appear & berate the gang on how they treat NPCs 😁. I also wanted to tell you that your books are on my reading list & I have found that due to your channel that I might be quite biased towards you because of your videos. So please keep being you. And, I do have to say something, I have been playing games for years & years since 1977 & I have bought stuff from Marc Miller when GDW was in Bloomington-Normal, IL, Wiseman when FASA was in Chicago, IL, Gygax when TSR was in Lake Geneva, WS mostly because I grew up in, well right outside of, Decatur, IL & I could walk to Judge's Guild in the old Sunnyside Grade School building as my family farm was right on the back yard of Judge's Guild, Basically what this old DM/GM is saying to you thank you for having the best Gaming Channel on UA-cam. Thank you for being you.
I began watching your channel as I stepped into other RPGs than 5e, and while my tastes have wildly diverged into Fiction First games like PbtA, I still watch your reviews because I find them very useful and entertaining. You put a lot of effort into contextualizing your responses and feelings to stuff when it matters, and it makes those videos still really valuable. For a reviewer that you might want to keep an eye on, go check out Quinns Quest. He's well into the Fiction First type games, but he has reviewed Mothership, Vaesen and Lancer, and he definitely plays those games and his enthusiasm for those products has resulted in huge lifts in sales. He has had his chops in journalism and board game reviews for a long time and overall has great presentation. Highly rate him
I recommend your channel to everyone i play with because of the reviews. They're good and so useful i recommend listening to them while prepping the adventure. You give the advice I or my friends would give each other about running a module, except on the internet and easier to follow.
Might be worth doing both. One shorter review after reading but before playing with an initial assumption what it will likely be like, and then a longer one after playing, evaluating whether those assumptions have held up and what did or didn't work in practice. That way you got both fast and thorough, and in a neat package referencing each other.
Seth, if you like pulp sci-fi, I have a trilogy for you: The Cineverse Cycle by Craig Shaw Gardener. It's kind of niche, but the general premise is a guy's old cereal-box decoder ring opens a portal into a universe ruled by B-movie sci-fi cinema rules. It's wacky, over the top, and an absolute blast.
Seth teaches through vicarious learning. As in, "I've made these mistakes. I've suffered from these mistakes. Don't make them your mistakes." He also raises an interesting point wrt receiving a review copy. If such are expected by reviewers and one does not receive a 'consideration' copy, does that also not open up negative bias? The reality is that all humans have biases. Even AIs. The best thing to do is be upfront.
I used to write reviews and I can't help but agree with pretty much everything said in this video. Regarding played reviews, I found that it can still get pretty tricky to know how much you need to play to get a firm grasp of the game. Some games play pretty much the same way session 1 in a campaign as it does session 30, other games become completely different beasts later on. Tales from the Loop does not change much from session to session, D&D 5e on the other hand is a completely different beast at higher levels. And there were cases where I reviewed games and did not spot flaws that showed up later (Symbaroum being a good example, the balance can get a bit wonky with certain skill combinations, that are not obvious to a new player and which requires decently experienced characters. Still love that game, and I think it has one of the smoothest game mastering experiences of any game, but it has some flaws that I should have pointed out in my review for it). And no matter how much effort you put into playing a game you'll always have someone go "But you did not play it enough to....".
Speaking of merchandise, I normally dont buy it but your dice are bomb. Not only did I get a set, but I took advantage of being able to load up on all the single dice I needed(that you had Q offer)!
Hello I'm not Seth Skorkowsky and I'm going to review this video about reviews. 9/10, it has a concerning lack of Jack and/or the Crew. You are a great dude, dude. Keep going. And thanks for all your videos.
Personally, I love your old-school reviews and general discussions on those games, especially old-school D&D. I also enjoy your DM tips and tricks and storytelling. I even shared your channel with my son, who now runs his own 5E campaign with his friends. I agree look at the reviewers to see how trust worthy they are.
"are the pages going to fall to of this thing", those of us who had "perfect bound" graphic novels and games books of the 80's and early 90's remember the pain. For those not in the know. Square bound paperbacks, often used for graphic novels, the glue used in many early examples would get brittle after a couple of years, you would open one and get pages fly out... reassembly would 'interesting' as many graphic novels did not have page numbers.
I feel like the negative reviews here are very helpful to people buying as well as avoiding the module BECAUSE Seth's so open with that sense of taste and preference. No one's a 1:1 on prefs with someone else, USUALLY, so it makes it easy to see where we might love something that Seth hated, or vice-versa. Keepin' it real, and all. :D
DriveThruRPG used to make it possible for me to find a link in the review I typed and go over to myself, and see all the aggregated reviews I ever wrote there. That would often include many obscure RPGs, i.e. games where I was the only stupid fool in the whole world to buy it! But now in the current update of DriveThru I can't do that any more! I'm a kick-ass speed-reader, RPG proof-reader and I claim that my review style is good, too. They don't let me display everything any more.
Reminds me of the RPG by those League of Legends devs with that sick art, and even after reading the book i still have no clue what kind of game you should run. They put so much effort into world building but forgot to tell you why a rag tag team of different clans would work together. I even asked the devs at one point and they seemed insulted by the question. I really wish they had gave me an elevator pitch i could have taken to my players to sell them on giving this world a try, but i also knew they'd never agree to be from the same faction.
The unacknowledged reality about tabletop RPG is not only do most reviewers not play the products they review - most of the people buying them don’t play either. A large portion of the RPG book market - probably a majority - are not actively playing. Their hobby is buying, reading, and talking about RPGs. And even the people who are actively playing typically buy far more books than they can ever use. There’s nothing wrong with this. But it has a huge impact on what’s published, how it’s formatted, and what sells. I wish publishers and reviewers were honest about this.
I think your group may have fun with Lancer, the mecha RPG. It's got detailed combat mechanics but a much looser non-combat ruleset. There's also some solid eldritch horror with the game's concept of AI being essentially cthulhu stuffed inside a computer.
Oh man. I kinda went overboard on that Kickstarter they did and I got everything. So far I've made a character and gotten to play one game of it. It was fun, but not enough to base any review on. Ultimately, it will have to wait until the Kickstarter fulfills, I have it in hand, and we can pencil in some time to play it. This could be years.
Before watching the video, I want to say that your reviews are GREAT! I am not exaggerating when I say they are the best on video form. If there are better ones in writing, I wouldn't know an example. Yours are simply the best.
I consider your reviews more as guides. I used your review of Gallery of Souls as a way to help me prep running it. So in that sense you are an RPG Guide Writer.
8:41 I think one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone does not recognize their own subjectivity. I've read negative reviews of _Star Trek Adventures_ that were clearly just elaborations on "I don't like metacurrency, especially shared metacurrency." Like or hate that mechanic, it's ideal for a cooperative Starfleet crew. So an honest reviewer should note that, even if it's not to their taste. I don't love old school Baroque mechanics, but if I run into someone who does, I would certainly point them toward Hackmaster or DCC or the like.
OK, c'mon now Seth -- you're going to put a photo of someone holding the Vaesen corebook with you saying "It's a must buy!" at the same time and NOT have any Vaesen games on your channel? It's time to send Jack the NPC back to the 1800's and meet some trolls! 🤣
@@SSkorkowsky That's honestly really exciting to hear! I've been enjoying your reviews for a number of years now, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts of Vaesen!
Hah, The timing on this is perfect. I actually recorded an hour long review of last train out of rakken goll, and was going to upload it before it got corrupted. I have never done a review before but I felt like the adventure had so much potential with some tweaks. My group enjoyed it, but I felt like I had to change it a lot. Of course since I have literally never done any real recording before its not going to be great quality.
Do it. My first RPG review was for Cyberpunk 2020. It was as low quality as they come. I eventually took it down and did it better. But the act of doing it was what led to the next review and the one after that. If after a while you look back and think, "Yeah I can do that a whole lot better now that I know what I'm doing," then great. That means you're improving. Until then, post your review video, learn from it, find your voice and style as a reviewer (that can also take a few attempts before finding your voice), and have fun with it.
I have over 40 years of of running and playing experience with more than 30 distinct game systems and I don't need to play a game to know I won't like it. I've already played or run plenty of games that I would never p;lay again or run again. When I watch a review for a game that I have no game experience with, getting it from a person who has played the game definitely helps inform my choice in whether to buy the game.
This was an excellent one. Good points and glad to see you're a playing reviewer. I used to write most of the Lost Game Safari reviews for Knights of the Dinner Table magazine. These are reviews of out-of-print games and I was a playing reviewer as well, and had a lot of fun with many of these systems - and less fun with a few. I always ran at least one session of the game, including character creation, before sending any of them in and I like that you work the same way. Also thanks for sharing your review policies. You always seemed aboveboard to me and I'm glad to find out I was right. Question: I've sent you complimentary copies of all my own Miskatonic Repository scenarios to you through DriveThruRPG. What you said about not even looking at unsolicited submissions made me wonder if you ever saw them? Just curious on that one. If not, I have no idea how to even get them to you are most are simply too large for my own email provider. I don't think DriveThruRPG has any way of commenting on comp copies either.
Seth thank you for the video. You are just saying what long time views have come to see in your character with your channel. This is the standard that the video game community has been demanding from media, and trying to create with their own channels for the past 12 years.
🎲 Why i don't call my videos Reviews. 🎲 I call them overviews. As i don't play or run all the systems i show off ( I do play or run some of them to varying degrees ). I mostly show off the product , list what's in the product & point out obvious good things & obvious bad things. Edit : I never charged anyone for a single video nor do i have asked for review copies.
I don't worry about how slowly a _played review_ comes out. Even if it's been weeks or months (or even years) since the game or module or whatever came out, that's okay. My money can wait weeks or months (or even years) to be spent on something worthwhile.
I've just powered through your two seasons of Traveller on Glass Cannon Network. So much fun. (Thats my RPG review so totally relevant to this video! 😜)
Seth. You are the perfect RPG reviewer for me. I love most of the same games (CoC, Cyberpunk) and totally respect your views. Thank you for being a class act!
Notepad Anon, a bit of a spicy boy at times, does a real good job with his reviews. They're all short reviews, under 10 minutes. While he doesn't always play everything he reviews, he does stream going through character creation for the games he intends to review and even goes over how to make a character in most of his reviews. Much like myself, and is what drew me to his content, if character creation isn't fun the game usually isn't either.
I've said many times that the best way to learn a new RPG is by making a character. I firmly believe that. It doesn't matter if it's a good character or if that character ever gets played. Simply making that character helps every game rule make sense. It's astounding how many times people argue against that opinion.
Yeah I feel that 'until you start prepping it you're going to miss things' - I already got the sense that one particular game I was going to be running for a TTRPG book club I was in (that seems to have fallen off now) was going to be weaker than most we'd played for it, and then I started looking over a sample adventure in the book to run that and the wheels fell off of the wagon as soon as I started, it dropped from "Yeah this is probably going to be a bit weaker than the rest we've run to "Oh god I am going to have to rewrite half of this adventure to actually be playable" I swear I do less prep for my mostly homebrew campaign than I needed to do for that published one shot.
Reading a ttrpg to review without playtesting it is like a chef cooking with a recipe they've never tested. It doesn't matter what you think you know. You only know what you know once you've done it.
Haven't played it. Sorry. Technically, I played it at a convention once, but the GM admitted that they'd made some significant changes and that it barely qualified as Savage Worlds anymore.
Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code SETHSKOR at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: incogni.com/sethskor
I love your channel and want to support you. But incogni and all those data removal services are pretty much a scam or useless. It’s an ongoing subscription and if you ever cancel then brokers can add your information back afterwards so it’s not permanent. And the way that incogni works is that they also send your information to different brokers to “see if they have your information “which just gives your information away. This is a many people to get more spam as a result.
Please don’t partner with them. I know there has to be a better more fitting sponsor for you man.
That promo code makes me crave a delicious choclolate toffee bar.
Are these worth it?
‘Our Brilliant Ruin’ is investigative horror and has an absolutely beautiful PDF of the full core rules book available free on DriveThruRPG. Just saying.
* waits five years *
My favorite kind of review is where my GM gets a new game, we play it for a year, and then he makes a series of videos about our gameplay, in costume, highlighting our heroic feats but more often blunders.
One day you'll admit you chose to play an Aslan solely because you knew I was going to have to wear that dumb mask.
@@SSkorkowskyIs that what it takes? Jorge, we need to do a Zoom and talk. I have some ideas for your next character. 😉
Don't listen to a damn thing he says, Jorge!
@FuriousJorge, don't listen to your gaming husband@@SSkorkowsky! If necessary, we will *all* pitch with ideas.
Don't listen to Pookie, either!
Seth, as a DM that doesn't get to play or run much, I want you to know your honesty and care in your reviews keep me going. Jack's (and by extension, your player's) hijinks in new videos are the highlight of my day. I put on your RPG reviews in the background when I don't know what to put on. You got me back into Cyberpunk. Never change!
But the real question I always want answered..."What does Dweebles think?"
Finally someone asking the important questions
I still have my WDDT shirt.
100% agree.
How a game FEELS is absolutely everything.
I started GMing 36 years ago. The "experience" = knowing is just not true. It's snake oil to profs otherwise. Experience = opinion = probable sure. But an RPG book is a guide to an experience.
Seeing players respond to the session zero for Tales from the Loop is an experience you can't gain from reading.
A review without playing- its not a roleplaying review. It's video book club type content.
I hope this video lifts standards.
Run any indie RPG then go browse its reviews online and you'll have trouble finding even a single soul who truly played it first instead of read and review.
The darkest secret knowledge is that this pattern carries for big-name RPG reviews too.
Amen
I see Seth I click Seth.
This is the way.
2
This is the way.
I've always enjoyed how you review RPGs, discussing the good, the bad, and the changes you made to it during your time with it. It basically gives me the bullet points of any given adventure and helps me decide what I might need to change if I were to run it.
A common misconception is that all my modification suggestions were things I thought of before I ran it. Not true at all. Half, if not most of those suggestions came from playing it and have the, "To avoid the problem I encountered during the game" label.
@@SSkorkowskyI enjoyed your reviews of Traveller, but they also told me that wasn’t something that would replace my Traveller: The New Era game system from GDW. It was too rules-lite based on what I could see in your videos.
I play In Nomine, which uses a nearly identical rule set to the Traveller you reviewed, but that isn’t a sci-fi game, so it hits different.
Playing reviews are the only ones I trust, and it's specifically bc of your policy of providing GM notes, tips, and tricks based on your experience on how to make something run smoother or what not
Exactly! The even the small "This game will require the DM to take extensive notes on this section." Really helps
This is really good to see, and is almost exactly the approach I take. (you put it much more eloquently than me though!)
Even though I'm a teeny tiny dungeontuber, I've had a companies reach out to me asking if I'll review their games, sometimes asking really nicely, other times just attaching enormous PDFs to emails with minimal text to explain what the hells it is they want from me.
My rules are that for a review to reach my channel, it must be something I've played for at least one session for "first look" type reviews, and at least a 10-shot for longer form campaign reviews. Hopefully it makes the videos more fun to watch as I can tell tales from the table, and share my players perspectives as well as mine.
All the love to you Seth! You're one of the dungeontubers who inspired me to start a channel of my own!
Seth, thank you for this video on reviews. I notice that when you review modules, you always point out that you played the scenario. And along with the praise and advice you give, you always point out things that you wish could have been included or not included, like handouts that would have been nice to include, or huge backstories the player might never be aware of. And you also offer advice on how DMs who run them can make some parts of them run better. I think the fact that some updated modules have actually addressed some of your criticisms in the modules themselves speaks volumes about how thorough, honest, fair, and helpful your reviews are.
As an aside, I want to thank you for your channel. I am a forever DM who began playing the white box set and supplements in 1978. That's how old I am (yikes!) and how long I've been playing TTRPGs (my go to these days is Call of Cthulhu). I was a playtester for Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, playing it in 1980 soon before it's release at TSR UK headquarters in Cambridge England, DMd by Don Turnbull (for some reason I was listed as a playtester on the 2nd module in the series, Danger at Dunwater, even though I playtested the first one). I can say without a doubt that your channel is the best and most helpful on UA-cam. I've watched almost all of your videos and also have re-watched module reviews before DMing them because you are that good. Keep up the good work and thank you again!
Oh, man. I love that adventure. Even if they missed you on the playtest credits, it's still awesome to have been involved in that little piece of D&D history.
@@SSkorkowsky I was so exited when I saw that you did a review of the module! I was like a little kid getting a big Xmas present. It's a great adventure. And just like you, I've stolen parts of this module for other scenarios I've run over the years.
I'd gotten the White Box Set and Supplements from an older cousin when I was still in the US and barely anyone (around me) knew about TTRPGs. I was totally hooked from when I played my first game as a player under my cousin, and soon started DMing my friends after that. Not long after that, I discovered a great little game store in Cambridge when we spent a few years in England, which had the (recently released) 1st Edition books and modules such as H1-3 and then D1-3 (the Giant modules and the Descent modules) and The Village of Hommlet as well as Judges Guild adventures and settings. The owner pointed me to the TSR UK headquarters over there, where I got to playtest Secret of Saltmarsh. I'm still amazed at how this (then) niche gaming genre, that barely anyone I knew played, and that I discovered so many decades ago, has grown to become so widely enjoyed by so many people.
Love your channel. It's just so good. For the most part I've DMd over the years, but I can tell it would be great fun to be a player at the table you run.
@@Zenbuck2 I also remember that great module. Myself, i bought the original box (what do you mean "white box", mine is brown with the cover illustration glued on. LOL!) from TSR Lake Geneva in the Spring of 1975. Went over to England several times after that and visited a small shop in Hammersmith filled with even more goodies. Started selling those items to friends here in Sweden, which turned into a mail order service and later a game shop. Also amazed that this niche hobby, turned into such a phenomenon.
The alien RPG core book defines the need to play a game for the review to be valuable for me. That core book gets you so hype to play the game reading it on the couch, but its layout makes me want to tear my eyes out at the table when the pressure is on.
Had a session yesterday where I was desperately trying to check the acid splash rules... and not only is it 4 pages off from the number the index says it is... it does its signature move of tucking game mechanics into the midst of a flavour text block.
good game regardless.
@@DrunkenWizardBattle omg, yes. I love Alien, Vaesen, Twilight 2000, and Blade Runner and each and every one is like this. The One Ring 2e has some of this but not as much as the others. The only Free League book that I don't absolutely hate the layout and structure of is Dragonbane (probably because there is so little there, lol)
@@jasonGamesMaster Companies do this because the majority of people who buy adventures just read them and never run them. The sad fact is companies are financially motivated to stick rules in flavor text because their main audience doesn't want to read page after page of tables and rules.
@hfbdbsijenbd I don't actually think this is accurate. For one thing, the number of actual rules in most Free League games might total 40 pages if they were organized and laid out in a useful way instead of an "artful" way. And they are beautiful. But the OSR space has shown me quite clearly how crappy most tpg books are laid out and organized. It can be done and many folks are becoming very vocal about it. Recently Free League even announced updated core books for Alien and Vaesen to address this very issue because of the backlash
The Alien update isn't because of layout. It's because of Alien: Romulus. Essentially Disney is requiring them to update the game to incorporate the new canonical elements introduced in that movie. It's one of the downsides of a licensed IP game. Getting to update the layout while they're at it is simply a bonus.
"signature move of tucking game mechanics into the midst of a flavour text block."
I... I cannot even begin to describe how much I dislike it when games, be they TTRPGs or miniature wargames or whatever, mix fluff and mechanics. It harms readability so much, makes it harder to find things when you need them, hard to remember where stuff is, it's awful. You want a couple sentences of fluff to go with something? That's ok. But you put a paragraph break between them and, ideally, the fluff is italicized or something to make it clear at a glance what is rules and what is flavor.
16:11 that picture with the caption "my group is a normal group!" was just perfect. That's why your videos are always insta-like for me
I appreciate your reviews for your honesty and experience. The quick fixes you give for problems you encounter while playing is also super helpful!
It is nice to receive as a part of the review a statement about printing quality.
I appreciate your integrity, and that’s why I follow you.
The problem with "Reading Reviews", in my cynical opinion at least, is too many of them are nothing but undeserved praise because the Reviewer gets free copies from Authors/Publishers - especially when they have a rep of giving good reviews.
photoshopping the Kult book into that still was genius.
I love your reviews for many reasons, and a big one is indeed that you actually play the games and adventures you review so that you can give practical feedback, a look under the hood as it were. Also, the fact that you are a player first and forest shines through, it makes your reviews earnest in a way they simply wouldn't be if they were just your "product", so to speak.
To use a similar case, I have a relative who worked in a chemistry lab when they were younger, and later became a teacher. Accordingly, one day the head of the science department came into the office and, during a conversation with my relative about some problem that needed to be resolved, said: "You know, it just hit me, the difference between you and I. You are a scientist who just so happens to be teaching; but I am a teacher who just so happens to teach science."
I think it's the same kind of think; and it's more than a little ironic, I think, that being unconventional in this sense is what would otherwise be the most sensible thing to be.
Biggest problem with play reviews is that there's always an element of reviewing your gaming group rather than the product.
Dont get me started and those "well my groups love this therefore you should too plus buy it so i can get kickbacks!"
@@Subject_Keter Too bad, I'm getting you started. Begin. Commence.
Seth Skorkowsky reviews has massively influnced my purchasing habits. 😅
Seconded!
Would have never picked up Call of Cthulhu were it not for him
Your input is always appreciated Seth
Regarding review copies biasing reviewers: In my former life as a journalist, I used to get absolutely stacks of unsolicited review copies (and solicited ones as well, of course) and the key thing to remember is that when it becomes routine it sort of stops being a biasing factor. We got many times more books in any given month than we could possibly read, let alone review, so it never seemed like some special factor that would weigh in favor of any particular one.
While I more or less believe you, your editor was in a different boat. A negative review can cause your outlet to loose the review copies making your outlet months behind the competition.
@@vidard9863 I promise, that's just not how anything works. In the decade I worked in journalism, I never heard of a publication being turned down on a review copy request. The vast majority of books that came in didn't get reviewed at all. Most of our reviews were at least somewhat positive, because why waste the space or energy drawing attention to a book that isn't worth reading? Publishers effectively spam publications with review copies hoping maybe 2% of them turn into a review; they don't have the luxury of being vindictive.
@@vidard9863 I should add: I can easily imagine it might work that way with, say, a AAA game studio that knows some small gaming website needs an advance copy to get a timely review up, and basically HAS to review all major new releases to remain competitive, But that's just not how it is with book publishing and magazines or newspapers.
@normative how ANYTHING works? Try anything other than a book review publication. If you want to run the UA-cam grind you have to ride the algorithm. It's ALL about timing for MOST other review topics and platforms, particularly if much of your audience will come to you from a Google search. First in gets more impressions and that gets you higher rankings in the searches.
@@vidard9863 Having written game reivews (primarily videogame but with RPG & tabletop reviews a side thing) in the past, my experience is that the editor gets more suspicious if you write too many good reviews in a row and you get asked to justify that. Not once were I challenged on a negative review.
Man, I totally get what Seth says about "reading vs playing".
I read the Fantasy AGE rules by Green Ronin a good long while ago and thought the system was the bee's knees, still being fantasy-focused but not drowning in overly magical classes and characters like D&D is, but then I went around on the online communities and found out a lot of the flaws that you wouldn't really pick up on just reading the rules (mainly, that long campaigns become a drag as HP builds up but damage does not so battles become long slogs where both PCs and adversaries are HP sponges).
Rando Board Member: Can anyone recommend some RPG reviewers?
Seth's sock Account: I hear that handsome sonofabitch Seth Skorkowsky is a pretty entertaining and damn fine grandiloquent.
Eugh, there's far too much serendipitous loquaciousness in his videos for my taste old bean.
Well, I gotta say this: Seth, you’re the sole reason my roleplaying buddy for 30 years and me have gotten neck-deep into Mongoose Traveller 2nd edition. I had a very brief stint with MegaTraveller in the late 1980ies, but that setting and system was lost to me effectively after I finished school. Fast forward a few decades, your excellent and thorough review of MgT2 comes along, and now I’m sitting on a dozen physical copies of various books, while my DTRPG library is sporting over a hundred Mongoose products. (I, too, can quit at any time, I swear!) The Traveller campaign my buddy is running is going into its second year now, and I’m itching to get an episodic Solomani bounty hunter campaign going.
Regarding reviews, there obviously is a broad spectrum of quality and usefulness. Among the things that I think of as most important to me is the question of what constitutes a character, and how involved is the process of creating one? How fast can I build an NPC? What is the central dice mechanic to resolve conflicts, is it consistent throughout every aspect of the game? How does the damage track work? What things need to be tracked during combat, and does the bookkeeping get aggravating at one point or another? As far as Traveller is concerned, you really delivered on this one, and I really thank you for it! 😃
Keep up the good work!
Not only is this another great video from Seth, but it also has title images of both George Lazenby (1:59) and Patrick Stewart (2:41) that I can nerd out over at the same time!
My problem is I've trusted Seth so much, I now have a crippling CoC addiction lol. It doesn't help Chaosium and the Misatonic group list him as the trusted source for info and reviews. Well deserved I might add
I have no regrets about passing along my CoC addiction.
Yay a video that isn't about the secrets of the ancients campaign :D (I love your video recaptures of your games, but for the first time I'm in the players seat in a campaign based upon secrets of the ancients and for once I have to avoid all the spoilers - trying out classic traveller for that one BTW)
There are a lot of Seth review videos I can’t watch because I hope to one day play them. 🥲
Then the first thing I do after finishing playing is come watch the Seth video. 🤣
Best of luck with the campaign. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
The best part of not liking Call of Cthulhu or Traveler as a system for me is that I can watch every single one of Seth's reviews without any worry or care in the world.
Good video--my only criticism is that the rule of "find a RPG reviewer whose tastes match your own" should apply to ALL critics
We all have our own opinion--my dad taught me that lesson back in the late 1980s
This is why I have made it a personal rule as well to actually run a product before I review it. I think you hit on every point why it sucks because it means your turnaround on actually getting the review out is way longer, especially for giant products, but I personally think people really appreciate it. I get many comments from people saying they are glad to hear advice and a firsthand experience so they don't make the same mistakes I do. And for my own selfish mental benefit, I love hearing from people who had the same issues I had so I don't feel overly mean or wrong if I have a particularly glaring or harsh criticism.
Wait?... Have I been watching this channel for eight years already? Been a hell of a ride so far, Here's to eight more!
Man I feel the "how it reads vs how it plays" angle. I love Cyberpunk RED but the layout of that book is awful and reading it is a mess, but once you've got the rules down I love how it plays. It's just that trying to look anything up in the book sucks because info is spread across multiple sections and can be hard to find. If I'd ONLY read the book and never played it, I would've dismissed it entirely and missed out on a really fun game.
Shadowrun has RED beat when it comes to awful editing, but damn if RED doesn't try to keep up.
Doubled tables, short fiction in the middle of the book, ambush "rules" inside easily skippable "for GMs only" chapter, lack of illustrations for gear and cyberware...
But it plays very well in practice and my complaints are mostly nitpicking about balance.
I imagine playing before you review also really helps expand the 'tips and suggestions' portion of a video, one of my favourite aspects of Seth's work.
I won't review a game until I've actually played it. I've had too many examples from my own experience where problems occurred I didn't expect or something I thought was difficult ended up going great.
I really appreciate your reviews Seth, especially your Call of Cthulhu scenario reviews. They really help me decide if I want to use a scenario for my players as we are new to 7th edition CoC. When it comes to new rpgs I tend to watch a variety of reviews to try and get a lot of different opinions before I spend money on a new game.
I LOVE ALL Seth Skorkowsky videos! Looking forward to the next chapter of Secrets of the Ancients.
Thanks for your in-depth reviews, and even more so your tips for running the scenarios you review, I have a well oiled one-shot of Missed Dues I've ran for many groups because of it.
I am currently running a Conan 2d20 campaign. Your review of that system is the greatest review ever.
Hey Seth, thank you for your videos. I don’t think you really do requests, but I was wondering if one day you could do a video on safety tools in gaming? I know a lot of your videos around the RPG social contract, your How to run a Horror Game, and some of the Kult series touch on it, but would you ever do a full video dedicated to it? What they are, and what they aren’t.
The reason I ask is because it’s a topic that seems to be so badly misunderstood by some parts of the community. As a stark example check out the comments under the Chaosium video on safety tools. You can tell most of them did not watch the video. Ironically I’d be willing to bet most of them have been using safety tools of some sort for most of their gaming lives, but just not calling it that, or having a word for it. I think that you have a lot of respect in the gaming community, so people might actually listen to you.
There seem to be a lot of outrage videos out there suggesting safety tools wreck the game, or involve telling people the whole adventure, or that there’s some really strict set way to do them that limits what players can do. It would be good to get a counterpoint/explanation, as well as describing how they can be used, and how they can improve games for everyone.
Sorry for a) A long unrelated post, and b) a repost, but I’ve never been this early before, so figured I’d give it a go.
19:20 I guess even if he sees this the wall of text means he’d have already lost interest. 😅😅 Sorry.
Your reviews are my favorite reviews. Clear and valuable information.
"Very meta of you, Seth," I comment. "Very meta indeed."
I don't play all the things you review, but I love your reviews and how you review things. You're one of the few people I still follow when it comes to RPG stuff. There's a lot out there I just don't trust to be honest about all their reviews. Plus, I like to play things before I make my mind up about things as well. I appreciate your work and your reviews!
As someone that does adventure summaries with a lot of adventure structure ribbing throughout, which to me is very close to "read reviews", I agree that "played reviews" are best for judging whether or not you actually want to play an adventure. Which is why I watch so many of your videos!
For adventures I have only read, I tend to lean towards just making jokes and not really ending with a final judgement. But for adventures I have run, or adventures I tried to prep and ended up giving up on, I do come in a little more with my judgments. I don't see myself as an expert on adventures, especially with my videos leaning so heavily into comedy instead of valid criticism, but maybe my audience does not see it the same way.
Stating in my videos whether I only read the adventure or played it through could help an audience differentiate which one I did. Hopefully I can incorporate something like that into my future videos.
"Are the pages going to fall out of this thing??"
As a WH40K Dark Heresy game master, i feel this 🤣🤣
16:11 "My group is a normal group..." which just happens to make a Dark Oath to a Dark God before passing out the chips. LOL!
Oh shoot, thanks for highlighting your patreon. I need to be supporting that.
Time spent watching Seth is never wasted time.
Thanks Seth, I appreciate your reviews a) because they are entertaining b) they are typically the games I like c) you put in some handy tips for running the adventures that have been handy. Keep bringing the awesome.
It is important to distinguish between game _system_ reviews and game _content_ reviews and previews. For game systems, you really need to play the system, or at least have played a system that is fundamentally the same (if you know standard CoC7, you can pretty easily pick up the crucial differences in Cthulhu By Candlelight, or Modern, without extensive experimentation).
Content, on the other hand, does not need you to play through it in order to share your impressions and recommend it (or recommend people skip it, as the case may be). This is especially true for OSR content, where two groups playing through the module may have _wildly_ different experiences with it, independent of the quality of the resource itself (just comes with the territory when random tables are involved).
There _is_ a lot of low effort "content" masquerading as reviews, when the presenter has made only a cursory examination of the resource in question, but most of that would be equally low-effort even if they _had_ played through the module. Fortunately, it's usually easy to identify when that's the case, but it is a trap for prospective new GMs and the unwary.
Ben Milton's OSR module previews are excellent examples of previews done _right._ He gives _almost_ enough information for you to just improvise and run the adventure, but not quite enough that you'll do that instead of buying it. But at that level of detail, you know exactly what you'll get if you do decide to buy and run the module.
I think it's kinda the other way round. You can assess a game system based off reading the rules analysing percentages and following cross references etc. to get a reasonable idea of how a game plays and potential pitfalls.
Game content on the other hand requires playing to get a feel for pacing, intuitive decisions, and dead end plots.
"The best chase scene we have ever played." For some reason the term "Stupid Flanders" comes to mind :P
Now THAT chase was also pretty damned epic. Our first run with the CoC Chase Rules was with Dead Light. I was kinda nervous and apologetic when we started because I wasn't sure how it'd play out. About the time one of my players jumped up from their chair going "Holy shit, that was exactly like a horror movie!" followed by everyone laughing and saying how great that chase scene went, I knew we had a winner.
I always recommend your channel to anyone looking for videos about CoC because of your "Playing Reviews". I could only find very few other channels that have multiple gm tips/playing reviews for CoC scenarios.
I always pay attention to your reviews specifically because of the fact you do play the game/adventure/etc first and base everything on what type of time you had. You give balanced reviews, pointing out things you/your group liked and things you changed or thought should be changed and why. I also like that you always announce at the beginning if you were given a promotional/discount copy of the game/adventure so you are up front about everything.
Yeah reading reviews are often a pass for me for all the cons you've listed. However, there are some reading reviews that are great, Questing Beast comes to mind because they're not trying to make any assumptions of the system and comes from the perspective of "let's flip through and see what this is like".
I feel like Questing Beast tends to make flip through videos more than true reviews. And he does some sponsored reviews, which he discloses
An excellent video. I take reviews and reviewers seriously, because I want people to have some kind of criteria before they just start barking out stuff in public. Having scruples as a reviewer is a rarer and rarer thing these days.
My players love when I haul out Pulp Cthulhu to continue Department 29 and their actions against the Cult of Dagon!
I recently saw a review for a Cyberpunk Red book that was absolutely scathing. Not for the actual quality of the product, but because it had the option to own a wheelchair.
*A wheelchair.*
Ha! Just a couple of days ago I asked a similar question on the Dakka Dakka forums (Dakka Dakka - Dakka Discussions - What is a review?) I will paste my thought from this thread here:
"In boardgaming community people are generally in agreement that reviewing a game after playing it just 2 or 3 times isn't really a review, more like first impressions. The number of games necessary for a proper review varies between games and players, but it is accepted that you need to get some experience with the game for a review to really contain what a review should - some objective facts (this works well but this other thing doesn't) and subjective opinions (these aspects were enjoyable, but those others failed to deliver the promised experience).
This seems not to be the case with wargames (and RPGs too) at all.
Yesterday new Kill Team expansion "reviews" dropped and they all follow the same pattern - look at components, flip through the book, read (some of the) rules from the pages verbatim.
It is pretty obvious very few (if any) of these reviewers have already played with the new rules and teams at all. When asked how many games they've had before reviewing the expansion, they answer either jokingly or with implied irritation, never giving the number.
I have already noticed this trend with wargames but also new RPG book reviews some time ago (never play, flip through the book on camera, read some, done), it seems to continue unchallenged.
I do not expect total expertise with the game, like from one of my most respected video game reviewers - Mortismal - who only reviews games after 100%ing them. But making a board game video/article where you look at components and quote/read the rules aloud on camera and calling it a board game review would have the "reviewer" killed with laughter by the boardgaming community.
So is it ok for wargames (and RPG handbooks), and if so, why?
Is it how the hobby nowadays is centered on buying, not playing, because it's the only thing hobbyists can find time for in their busy adult lives? I've asked twice in the KT thread about people's impressions from playing the new edition, what works for them, what doesn't, what they like. All I got was crickets and tumbleweed. But the moment a new product appears there's a buzz of activity, all the talking not about the game and how it plays, but about prices, availability, materials, distribution...
So maybe an average wargamer really doesn't need an informed opinion on the game and how it plays, to decide whether to buy it or not, as they are never going to get to the point where it matters? "
I never had a chance to use the COC chase rules in that game. Then I started running Mothership, and I use the COC chase rules all the time. I see that delux box behind you and can't wait to see your Mothership rivews.
Man I love your channel. You're exactly the kind of guy I wish I could play ttrpg's with. Great content and thanks from western Canada for all the work you put into the videos!
While I don't play most of the games you do other than D&D & Traveller, I am a huge fan of yours, Seth. You & the gang are a channel that I really enjoy & recommend to other gamers. I mean I think I have been watching you since maybe day 2 or your channel & I picked up Death Station on RPG Drive Through mainly because you have written it & it was free, so I hope you got royalties for it, I also have to say that I played Death Station back in the days of CT & I am planning on using Death Station in a BattleTech/Mechwarrior 1E game I am running as I want to get my player out of their 'Mechs. I have to say that not only was it the 2nd best adventure I have read for Traveller, Secret of the Ancients (which you just still(?) reviewing) is my favorite that I have read & adapted to my BattleTech/Mechwarrior 1E game before this. And, when I saw the price on Death Station (like I said free) I had to pick it up. I have to say that everyone of your videos you have made for this channel is great, you are perfect as you & as the DM/GM & I love the Gang, & Jack the NPC though I think that Jack the NPC should appear & berate the gang on how they treat NPCs 😁. I also wanted to tell you that your books are on my reading list & I have found that due to your channel that I might be quite biased towards you because of your videos. So please keep being you. And, I do have to say something, I have been playing games for years & years since 1977 & I have bought stuff from Marc Miller when GDW was in Bloomington-Normal, IL, Wiseman when FASA was in Chicago, IL, Gygax when TSR was in Lake Geneva, WS mostly because I grew up in, well right outside of, Decatur, IL & I could walk to Judge's Guild in the old Sunnyside Grade School building as my family farm was right on the back yard of Judge's Guild, Basically what this old DM/GM is saying to you thank you for having the best Gaming Channel on UA-cam.
Thank you for being you.
I began watching your channel as I stepped into other RPGs than 5e, and while my tastes have wildly diverged into Fiction First games like PbtA, I still watch your reviews because I find them very useful and entertaining. You put a lot of effort into contextualizing your responses and feelings to stuff when it matters, and it makes those videos still really valuable.
For a reviewer that you might want to keep an eye on, go check out Quinns Quest. He's well into the Fiction First type games, but he has reviewed Mothership, Vaesen and Lancer, and he definitely plays those games and his enthusiasm for those products has resulted in huge lifts in sales. He has had his chops in journalism and board game reviews for a long time and overall has great presentation. Highly rate him
I recommend your channel to everyone i play with because of the reviews. They're good and so useful i recommend listening to them while prepping the adventure. You give the advice I or my friends would give each other about running a module, except on the internet and easier to follow.
Might be worth doing both. One shorter review after reading but before playing with an initial assumption what it will likely be like, and then a longer one after playing, evaluating whether those assumptions have held up and what did or didn't work in practice. That way you got both fast and thorough, and in a neat package referencing each other.
Seth, if you like pulp sci-fi, I have a trilogy for you: The Cineverse Cycle by Craig Shaw Gardener. It's kind of niche, but the general premise is a guy's old cereal-box decoder ring opens a portal into a universe ruled by B-movie sci-fi cinema rules. It's wacky, over the top, and an absolute blast.
I love the RPG phiosophy videos!
Seth teaches through vicarious learning. As in, "I've made these mistakes. I've suffered from these mistakes. Don't make them your mistakes."
He also raises an interesting point wrt receiving a review copy. If such are expected by reviewers and one does not receive a 'consideration' copy, does that also not open up negative bias? The reality is that all humans have biases. Even AIs. The best thing to do is be upfront.
I used to write reviews and I can't help but agree with pretty much everything said in this video.
Regarding played reviews, I found that it can still get pretty tricky to know how much you need to play to get a firm grasp of the game. Some games play pretty much the same way session 1 in a campaign as it does session 30, other games become completely different beasts later on. Tales from the Loop does not change much from session to session, D&D 5e on the other hand is a completely different beast at higher levels. And there were cases where I reviewed games and did not spot flaws that showed up later (Symbaroum being a good example, the balance can get a bit wonky with certain skill combinations, that are not obvious to a new player and which requires decently experienced characters. Still love that game, and I think it has one of the smoothest game mastering experiences of any game, but it has some flaws that I should have pointed out in my review for it).
And no matter how much effort you put into playing a game you'll always have someone go "But you did not play it enough to....".
Speaking of merchandise, I normally dont buy it but your dice are bomb. Not only did I get a set, but I took advantage of being able to load up on all the single dice I needed(that you had Q offer)!
Seth lowkey being one of the best creators of RPG content in UA-cam, what a legend! o/
Seth Skorkowsky my beloved!!!! Always a good day when you upload!
Hello I'm not Seth Skorkowsky and I'm going to review this video about reviews. 9/10, it has a concerning lack of Jack and/or the Crew. You are a great dude, dude. Keep going. And thanks for all your videos.
Personally, I love your old-school reviews and general discussions on those games, especially old-school D&D. I also enjoy your DM tips and tricks and storytelling. I even shared your channel with my son, who now runs his own 5E campaign with his friends.
I agree look at the reviewers to see how trust worthy they are.
"are the pages going to fall to of this thing", those of us who had "perfect bound" graphic novels and games books of the 80's and early 90's remember the pain.
For those not in the know. Square bound paperbacks, often used for graphic novels, the glue used in many early examples would get brittle after a couple of years, you would open one and get pages fly out... reassembly would 'interesting' as many graphic novels did not have page numbers.
I feel like the negative reviews here are very helpful to people buying as well as avoiding the module BECAUSE Seth's so open with that sense of taste and preference. No one's a 1:1 on prefs with someone else, USUALLY, so it makes it easy to see where we might love something that Seth hated, or vice-versa. Keepin' it real, and all. :D
DriveThruRPG used to make it possible for me to find a link in the review I typed and go over to myself, and see all the aggregated reviews I ever wrote there. That would often include many obscure RPGs, i.e. games where I was the only stupid fool in the whole world to buy it!
But now in the current update of DriveThru I can't do that any more! I'm a kick-ass speed-reader, RPG proof-reader and I claim that my review style is good, too. They don't let me display everything any more.
Reminds me of the RPG by those League of Legends devs with that sick art, and even after reading the book i still have no clue what kind of game you should run. They put so much effort into world building but forgot to tell you why a rag tag team of different clans would work together. I even asked the devs at one point and they seemed insulted by the question. I really wish they had gave me an elevator pitch i could have taken to my players to sell them on giving this world a try, but i also knew they'd never agree to be from the same faction.
The unacknowledged reality about tabletop RPG is not only do most reviewers not play the products they review - most of the people buying them don’t play either. A large portion of the RPG book market - probably a majority - are not actively playing. Their hobby is buying, reading, and talking about RPGs. And even the people who are actively playing typically buy far more books than they can ever use.
There’s nothing wrong with this. But it has a huge impact on what’s published, how it’s formatted, and what sells. I wish publishers and reviewers were honest about this.
I think your group may have fun with Lancer, the mecha RPG. It's got detailed combat mechanics but a much looser non-combat ruleset. There's also some solid eldritch horror with the game's concept of AI being essentially cthulhu stuffed inside a computer.
8:41 - A space marine with a Mando Helmet.
It is causing me emotional damage 😂
Jokes aside, nice video beside.
T h a t
Hi Seth, as I‘ve seen the cover in your video, I am eagerly awaiting your review of Outgunned Adventure!!!
Oh man. I kinda went overboard on that Kickstarter they did and I got everything. So far I've made a character and gotten to play one game of it. It was fun, but not enough to base any review on. Ultimately, it will have to wait until the Kickstarter fulfills, I have it in hand, and we can pencil in some time to play it. This could be years.
Before watching the video, I want to say that your reviews are GREAT! I am not exaggerating when I say they are the best on video form. If there are better ones in writing, I wouldn't know an example. Yours are simply the best.
I consider your reviews more as guides. I used your review of Gallery of Souls as a way to help me prep running it. So in that sense you are an RPG Guide Writer.
I can gladly accept that title.
8:41 I think one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone does not recognize their own subjectivity. I've read negative reviews of _Star Trek Adventures_ that were clearly just elaborations on "I don't like metacurrency, especially shared metacurrency." Like or hate that mechanic, it's ideal for a cooperative Starfleet crew. So an honest reviewer should note that, even if it's not to their taste. I don't love old school Baroque mechanics, but if I run into someone who does, I would certainly point them toward Hackmaster or DCC or the like.
OK, c'mon now Seth -- you're going to put a photo of someone holding the Vaesen corebook with you saying "It's a must buy!" at the same time and NOT have any Vaesen games on your channel? It's time to send Jack the NPC back to the 1800's and meet some trolls! 🤣
I've played Vaesen a few times and have a couple of the books. I'll get around to a review one of these days.
@@SSkorkowsky That's honestly really exciting to hear! I've been enjoying your reviews for a number of years now, and I can't wait to hear your thoughts of Vaesen!
If I'm being honest, the biggest delay in a Vaesen review is finding an outfit for Jack.
@@SSkorkowsky Take your time, the fitting outfit for Jack is a prerequisite for any good review.
Hah, The timing on this is perfect.
I actually recorded an hour long review of last train out of rakken goll, and was going to upload it before it got corrupted.
I have never done a review before but I felt like the adventure had so much potential with some tweaks. My group enjoyed it, but I felt like I had to change it a lot.
Of course since I have literally never done any real recording before its not going to be great quality.
Do it. My first RPG review was for Cyberpunk 2020. It was as low quality as they come. I eventually took it down and did it better. But the act of doing it was what led to the next review and the one after that. If after a while you look back and think, "Yeah I can do that a whole lot better now that I know what I'm doing," then great. That means you're improving. Until then, post your review video, learn from it, find your voice and style as a reviewer (that can also take a few attempts before finding your voice), and have fun with it.
The horror of tea time adventures scared me for life.
I have over 40 years of of running and playing experience with more than 30 distinct game systems and I don't need to play a game to know I won't like it. I've already played or run plenty of games that I would never p;lay again or run again. When I watch a review for a game that I have no game experience with, getting it from a person who has played the game definitely helps inform my choice in whether to buy the game.
This was an excellent one. Good points and glad to see you're a playing reviewer.
I used to write most of the Lost Game Safari reviews for Knights of the Dinner Table magazine. These are reviews of out-of-print games and I was a playing reviewer as well, and had a lot of fun with many of these systems - and less fun with a few. I always ran at least one session of the game, including character creation, before sending any of them in and I like that you work the same way.
Also thanks for sharing your review policies. You always seemed aboveboard to me and I'm glad to find out I was right.
Question: I've sent you complimentary copies of all my own Miskatonic Repository scenarios to you through DriveThruRPG. What you said about not even looking at unsolicited submissions made me wonder if you ever saw them? Just curious on that one. If not, I have no idea how to even get them to you are most are simply too large for my own email provider. I don't think DriveThruRPG has any way of commenting on comp copies either.
Seth thank you for the video. You are just saying what long time views have come to see in your character with your channel.
This is the standard that the video game community has been demanding from media, and trying to create with their own channels for the past 12 years.
🎲 Why i don't call my videos Reviews.
🎲 I call them overviews.
As i don't play or run all the systems i show off ( I do play or run some of them to varying degrees ).
I mostly show off the product , list what's in the product & point out obvious good things & obvious bad things.
Edit : I never charged anyone for a single video nor do i have asked for review copies.
I don't worry about how slowly a _played review_ comes out. Even if it's been weeks or months (or even years) since the game or module or whatever came out, that's okay. My money can wait weeks or months (or even years) to be spent on something worthwhile.
I've just powered through your two seasons of Traveller on Glass Cannon Network. So much fun.
(Thats my RPG review so totally relevant to this video! 😜)
Seth. You are the perfect RPG reviewer for me. I love most of the same games (CoC, Cyberpunk) and totally respect your views. Thank you for being a class act!
Notepad Anon, a bit of a spicy boy at times, does a real good job with his reviews. They're all short reviews, under 10 minutes. While he doesn't always play everything he reviews, he does stream going through character creation for the games he intends to review and even goes over how to make a character in most of his reviews. Much like myself, and is what drew me to his content, if character creation isn't fun the game usually isn't either.
I've said many times that the best way to learn a new RPG is by making a character. I firmly believe that. It doesn't matter if it's a good character or if that character ever gets played. Simply making that character helps every game rule make sense. It's astounding how many times people argue against that opinion.
@@SSkorkowsky yeah, I don't get it. For me it takes making a couple characters before I can gronk a game beyond its basics.
Yeah I feel that 'until you start prepping it you're going to miss things' - I already got the sense that one particular game I was going to be running for a TTRPG book club I was in (that seems to have fallen off now) was going to be weaker than most we'd played for it, and then I started looking over a sample adventure in the book to run that and the wheels fell off of the wagon as soon as I started, it dropped from "Yeah this is probably going to be a bit weaker than the rest we've run to "Oh god I am going to have to rewrite half of this adventure to actually be playable"
I swear I do less prep for my mostly homebrew campaign than I needed to do for that published one shot.
Reading a ttrpg to review without playtesting it is like a chef cooking with a recipe they've never tested. It doesn't matter what you think you know. You only know what you know once you've done it.
"I call BS on this." No kidding. Can't be said enough - reading the game is not playing the game.
Pulp! Cincinnati Seth! POW BANG!
My Christmas list includes a Seth review of Savage Worlds.
Haven't played it. Sorry.
Technically, I played it at a convention once, but the GM admitted that they'd made some significant changes and that it barely qualified as Savage Worlds anymore.
I absolutely want to play in the tea time cozy game run by a grizzled Delta Green GM.