5 Random Games: War of the Ring, The Dark Side Sourcebook, Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit, Sidewinder: Recoiled, Ultimate Adversaries

Akin to last time, I’ll be talking about 5 random games (or supplements) I own, based on my random collection widget to the right of the blog here, generated by Geekdo.com.

1. War of the Ring

I picked this one up when I was working at Uncle’s Games, back in the day. It’s a board game that requires a bit of setup, and quite a few hours of spare time to actually play, so I’ve only played three times, but each time, I loved it.

Essentially, you are playing both sides of the War of the Ring, either fighting against the forces of Sauron and Saruman, or trying to overthrow the world with your orcish hordes. Along the way, you rally troops, fortify men inside of Helm’s Deep, and make fantastic war. Meanwhile, the fellowship moves steadily toward Moria. But one of the great things, is you can choose to have the fellowship split up, if you want, to avoid detection by Sauron’s forces. If you’re a fan of LOTR, you should definitely give this game a try.

2. The Dark Side Sourcebook

Naturally, this is one of the books all my players want to read through when we’re playing a Star Wars d20 game, hoping it will tell them exactly how close they can skirt the edge of the dark side without falling in.

We used this book a lot in one campaign where all the characters were Jedi who were, at one point, possessed by Sith lord spirits and given immense power. It’s a pretty fleshed out book, and has some great art throughout.

3. Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit

Say what you will about Episode 1, this game is phenomenal. It was the first game I ever picked up when working at Uncle’s, and I wasn’t disappointed.

There are three battlefields going on at the same time: the massive Gungan vs. Battle Droid fight, the place battle, and the Jedi vs. Darth Maul battle. Additionally, you have Anakin flying around in space, though the outcome of that is predetermined, and is simply used for a timing mechanism. You choose cards to play to determine the outcome of each battle, not wanting to focus too much on one particular battle than another, since you might get overwhelmed where you ignore. You have to anticipate enemy actions so as to avoid getting snuck up behind. In other words, there’s actual strategy involved, unlike the actual Battle of Naboo itself.

4. Sidewinder: Recoiled

Take D20 Modern, throw in some old west, and you’ve got the Ennie-Award-Winning Sidewinder: Recoiled.

I ran a one-shot of this, which wasn’t intended to be a one-shot. The players rolled into a brand new town, and I told them they could do literally anything they wanted, and they lost interest. But that was my fault. The game itself is great, with lots of material about the old west, lots of prices on goods of all kinds, and a bunch of animals you might face in the wilderness. If you want a d20 Wild West game, this is the way to go. As well, I believe, as the ONLY way to go. There aren’t any other d20 wild west games out there as far as I’m aware.
5. Ultimate Adversaries

The “My Collection” generator apparently really likes Star Wars.

Ultimate Adversaries is basically the Monster Manual of the Star Wars d20 RCR series of books. Featuring all kinds of pregenerated villains for you to drop into your campaign (including my favorite, C-3pX, the assassin protocol droid), and a plethora of various alien animal species. It’s definitely one to get if you’re still running d20 Star Wars, pre-saga edition.