Brian Schaab

became what he tried so hard to destroy.

#booksky #fantasy

4/X

twist to fantasy, it made the ultimate fight with Bright Yilling a bit boring. Father Yarvi's arc throughout the series is great, and I love his slow transition into evilness by "doing the greater good." It's clear that he basically just replaced Wexen and the High King as the ruling power and

3/X

like seeing Koll grow up from the kid he was.

*** Spoilers ***
I don't know if I was completely oblivious to this in the previous books, but it is very clear here that the world is a post apocalyptic version of earth. The elf magic and weapons are guns. While I think this is an interesting

2/X

The cover for Half A War. It features a circle in the middle with wave like designs in the middle of it. The top half of the book features warriors fighting in white with two dragon ship heads meeting in the middle by an axe. The bottom is a reverse of that with the warriors in black.

Book 54 of 2025: Half A War by Joe Abercrombie.

The 3rd book in the Shattered Sea series.

7/10. Ultimately, this book felt like a major letdown to a series I was really enjoying. We again focus on new characters who are again very well written. Raith, Skara, Rin, and Koll are great, and I

1/3

up for one epic finish, and I can't wait.

#booksky #fantasy

4/4

the middle of it. We also finally get some information on how the serpents are related with Wintrow freeing She Who Remembers. And now we know that they will change into dragons. The dragon has been freed, and I really like that we'll get a whole book to see the dragon in action. It's all set

3/4

you never know what mood he's going to be in.

*** Spoilers ***
This book is very solid throughout, but it ends in pure chaos. You have the storyline of Bingtown vs the Satrap coming to head with the Satrap's kidnapping and the killing of Davad Restart, while the poor Vestrit's are caught up in

2/4

The cover of The Mad Ship. It features a background of crisscrossing lines of latitude and longitude from some map with a compass rose on the right. in the top, is a wooden single masted ship with a large blue dragon perched on the rigging.

Book 53 of 2025: The Mad Ship by Robin Hobb.

The 2nd book in the Liveship Trader series.

9/10. This book picks up right from where the other started. I truly love so many characters in this series: Althea, Brashen, Ronica, Wintrow, Vivacia, etc. Even Paragon is such a unique character and

1/4

All the minis from the Delian Tomb

Goblinoids

More goblins

Undead

Just a reminder, for everyone as excited for Draw Steel as I am, I published a pack of all the minis you’ll need to run part 1 of “The Delian Tomb.” They’re available to everyone, for FREE!

www.patreon.com/posts/draw-s...

I had a blast writing this Draw Steel adventure! It’s even got forking paths: your players can choose between the scenic route and the… Violent route ⚔️

Paper minis of orc pirates

Paper minis of frogs

Paper minis of heroes approaching a vrock

Paper minis of the league of malevolence

In the space of two days I had to get a tooth and my windshield fixed.
In unrelated news, I have a Patreon. For as little as a buck a month, you get hundreds of fun, colorful paper minis, and I get to do things like fix my tooth and windshield

www.patreon.com/trashmobminis

People can complain about the refs, but we didn't take our chances.

Same!

Fantasy super heroes is very much the vibe. Knocking people through walls with a punch is definitely super hero territory.

I've directed more than that, and it hasn't really been an issue. Most of the abilities are combat focused, so it hasn't come up much outside of it. What have you seen people wanting to do but can't?

Draw Steel heroes can take and give back a lot. Much different balancing than other d20 fantasy where a group of goblins can easily wipe a 1st level party.

Side quest style things are interesting for Draw Steel. With how victories work, I think there's even more reason for players to seek out and want to do side quests than other TTRPGs.

I still would like to see a more martial focused class. I get why MCDM didn't think it fit. But I have some ideas on how to make it work in Draw Steel.

What do people want to see more of for Draw Steel?

Adventures? Items? Retainers? Classes?

more of the world outside of just the Shattered Sea. Half a War will likely be my last Abercrombie book for a while, but I'm excited to see how Father Yarvi finally fulfills his sun and moon oath.

#booksky #fantasy

3/3

with this book was the large time jumps. I get that they were necessary due to the sheer amount of distance traveled by our heroes, but it hurts the pacing of the story. The moments inside the journey are great with Brand lifting the ship and the battle with the Horse People. I liked seeing

2/3

Cover for Half The World. It features a circle in the middle covered with viking runes. On the top half, it is white and there is a black viking longship and scrollwork. On the bottom half, it is reversed with black background and a white ship.

Book 52 of 2025: Half The World by Joe Abercrombie.

The 2nd book in the Shattered Sea series.

8.5/10. I like that this book jumped to new characters while still somewhat incorporating the old. Thorn and Brand are great characters, and I also really enjoyed their crew mates. My biggest gripe

1/3

This is the last reply I'll make, as this is just a pointless discussion. A TTRPG is rules. Rules that define the make believe. When you buy Draw Steel, D&D 5e, Daggerheart, Pathfinder 2e, all you are buying is rules that impose structure to make believe. So again, your comments make no sense to me.

I think it's less contention and more a lack of understanding. A TTRPG without the creation of rules and gamification is just playing make believe. Which is fine and great, but rules add the structure. So again, I don't get your point. D&D was originally a war game, heavily codified.

Yeah I mean, TTRPGs are so open it's impossible to codify everything. Nor does any TTRPG that I know of try to codify everything. So I guess I don't get the point then? Draw steel, daggerheart, legend in the mist, etc all have gamified parts then leave things up to the gm for the rest.

Magic the Gathering or Warhammer. Draw Steel refers to their Director as "The player who prepares, presents, and adjudicates the game." Adjudicating the rules is only a small part of the Director's role, and I would argue it is the least favorite part of many Directors. Hence, clear cut rules.

4/4

disagree with the comment that "TTRPG rules are debatable." I would argue, a poorly written TTRPG has debatable rules. Most, if not all rules, should be clear cut. The unique role of the GM in TTRPGs is not to be the rules arbiter. Otherwise, they would be the referee or judge like you see in

3/4

crawlers and sprawling, prep-heavy delves.

It seeks to remove the barrier to entry to lots of TTRPGs, namely initial prep and finding a GM. It is not a replacement for Pathfinder. This is likely in response to things like Descent and Gloomhaven.

Okay, on to the 2nd one. I fundamentally

2/4

So I think there's two different things you're looking at:
1. Why is there "board game" versions of TTRPGs
2. Why are some TTRPGs becoming "more gamey".

Let's with the 1st one. I think Pathfinder Quest explains this perfectly: Designed to bridge the gap between quick, randomized dungeon

1/4