Is there a missing 37, or perhaps a numbering error? (If numbering error I want to be clear this is no judgment; last time I tried to number games I made several mistakes just in the first 15)
Two Years Of Mini RPGs is an extraordinary number of mini rpgs (which is to say 32) in a single package.
The PDF is 132 pages, with a lot of excellent illustrations, graphics, creative layout styles, etc all shifting from rpg to rpg. The book's layout isn't homogenized, so you'll have to rotate the PDF to read some games, but on the plus side it's one PDF instead of 32 PDFs and there's a nice table of contents to keep things organized.
Also a helpful byproduct of the PDF being gigantic is that there's pretty much something for everyone in this collection. GM'd. GMless. Small group. Large group. Short-form. Long-form. Serious or wacky or abstract tone. Crunchy or narrative-first. There's a ton of variety.
I won't go through all of the games, since there's a lot, but topics include pensioners escaping a retirement home, toys rescuing a child from nightmares, Timewatch but it's really quick to set up, a dungeon-crawler where you're a cybered-up octopus, a post-modern Deadly Premonition-y style mystery where the incoherency is kind of the point, an eclectic ramble through Silent Hill, mummified animals performing a heist, robots pointlessly following their programming on a collapsing planet. Etc.
They're heavily varied, and they're not exclusively all-ages appropriate. Most are, but then there's also Violence Sex Poop which is sort of a study in excess. And if one extremely excessive game might sour you on the rest, there's a chance that this collection might not be for you.
Mechanically, everything feels extremely sound. Stuff does tend to be small---small bonuses, small dice, small numbers of attributes or meta currencies---but I didn't see any games where that caused problems.
Overall, this is a bucketload of good games at a low price, and if you haven't played a short pen-and-paper rpg yet this is probably one of the best starting places due to its quality and sheer variety. Grab a copy if you can.
Minor Issues:
-In Robonimals, I can't find directions for what happens after you've moved your tokens from Animal/Robot into a pool. I assume you get them back after resolving the action, but I didn't see anywhere that outright said this.
-The font makes Violence Sex Poop really hard to read.
-Page 42, para 3, "except to find" should be expect. This also repeats in para 4.
-YWBMB's font also makes it super tough to read.
-In The Seal Will Be Broken, what causes the communal pool to refill? Does it refill? Do you repeat the "Start By" step after each ritual? I couldn't figure this out from the text.
-Page 61, last para left side, "cars" instead of "cards"
-Page 77, section 9, second para, "each player can introduce their player" character
-Page 85, post-script, 3, 'the Writer reveals whether they arrest the Writer' Detective
A billion thanks for this very thorough review! I'm glad you liked the collection :)
VIOLENCE/SEX/POOP is indeed a sort of study in excess, written at a time where some French RPG players expressed fake outrage at the idea of the X-Card and emotional safety in games. As such, its scribbly font participates to the experience...
In Robonimals, you do get your tokens back after resolving the action, though you're right I should have specified this.
For The Seal Will Be Broken, I must admit I forgot how it works exactly. Rereading it, I'd say the communal pool only refills during group scenes, by getting successes to keep the Old God asleep. This is a game about slowly losing, after all!
Just because you may think X-Cards are a good idea, doesn't mean everyone does and doesn't make their outrage fake. The X-Card exists precisely because different people have different opinions. The inevitable result of that, is that some people won't like the X-Card. I don't personally care one way or the other about the X-Card, but it struck me as unfair to label their outrage fake.
Hi! Death in Venice and The Creator and the Creature and The Interrogation are specifically written for 2 players and no GM.
Other than those, I would say Last Escape, Frayed in the Freezing Night..., It was a Clear and Sunny Day and Hungry Cities should probably run fine with only 2 players (they're all GMless games). The Seal will be Broken, One Minute to Midnight, The Stele at the Heart of the Plains and Here/Now might, although it may cause pacing issues.
Thanks for your interest! I hope you get a chance to play some of those :)
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Is there a missing 37, or perhaps a numbering error? (If numbering error I want to be clear this is no judgment; last time I tried to number games I made several mistakes just in the first 15)
It was a numbering error indeed! Thanks for pointing it out :)
Happy to be useful!
Hi, looking forward to trying some of these. Are any of them just solo by chance?
Hi, thanks for your interest!
Hungry Cities is the only one which can truly be played alone in this collection. Let me know how it went if you try it!
…and now you've got 5-min Mall which is also a solo game!
Two Years Of Mini RPGs is an extraordinary number of mini rpgs (which is to say 32) in a single package.
The PDF is 132 pages, with a lot of excellent illustrations, graphics, creative layout styles, etc all shifting from rpg to rpg. The book's layout isn't homogenized, so you'll have to rotate the PDF to read some games, but on the plus side it's one PDF instead of 32 PDFs and there's a nice table of contents to keep things organized.
Also a helpful byproduct of the PDF being gigantic is that there's pretty much something for everyone in this collection. GM'd. GMless. Small group. Large group. Short-form. Long-form. Serious or wacky or abstract tone. Crunchy or narrative-first. There's a ton of variety.
I won't go through all of the games, since there's a lot, but topics include pensioners escaping a retirement home, toys rescuing a child from nightmares, Timewatch but it's really quick to set up, a dungeon-crawler where you're a cybered-up octopus, a post-modern Deadly Premonition-y style mystery where the incoherency is kind of the point, an eclectic ramble through Silent Hill, mummified animals performing a heist, robots pointlessly following their programming on a collapsing planet. Etc.
They're heavily varied, and they're not exclusively all-ages appropriate. Most are, but then there's also Violence Sex Poop which is sort of a study in excess. And if one extremely excessive game might sour you on the rest, there's a chance that this collection might not be for you.
Mechanically, everything feels extremely sound. Stuff does tend to be small---small bonuses, small dice, small numbers of attributes or meta currencies---but I didn't see any games where that caused problems.
Overall, this is a bucketload of good games at a low price, and if you haven't played a short pen-and-paper rpg yet this is probably one of the best starting places due to its quality and sheer variety. Grab a copy if you can.
Minor Issues:
-In Robonimals, I can't find directions for what happens after you've moved your tokens from Animal/Robot into a pool. I assume you get them back after resolving the action, but I didn't see anywhere that outright said this.
-The font makes Violence Sex Poop really hard to read.
-Page 42, para 3, "except to find" should be expect. This also repeats in para 4.
-YWBMB's font also makes it super tough to read.
-In The Seal Will Be Broken, what causes the communal pool to refill? Does it refill? Do you repeat the "Start By" step after each ritual? I couldn't figure this out from the text.
-Page 61, last para left side, "cars" instead of "cards"
-Page 77, section 9, second para, "each player can introduce their player" character
-Page 85, post-script, 3, 'the Writer reveals whether they arrest the Writer' Detective
A billion thanks for this very thorough review! I'm glad you liked the collection :)
VIOLENCE/SEX/POOP is indeed a sort of study in excess, written at a time where some French RPG players expressed fake outrage at the idea of the X-Card and emotional safety in games. As such, its scribbly font participates to the experience...
In Robonimals, you do get your tokens back after resolving the action, though you're right I should have specified this.
For The Seal Will Be Broken, I must admit I forgot how it works exactly. Rereading it, I'd say the communal pool only refills during group scenes, by getting successes to keep the Old God asleep. This is a game about slowly losing, after all!
Just because you may think X-Cards are a good idea, doesn't mean everyone does and doesn't make their outrage fake. The X-Card exists precisely because different people have different opinions. The inevitable result of that, is that some people won't like the X-Card. I don't personally care one way or the other about the X-Card, but it struck me as unfair to label their outrage fake.
Hi, I'm very interested in your games. Which ones can be played with 2 players and no GM?
Hi! Death in Venice and The Creator and the Creature and The Interrogation are specifically written for 2 players and no GM.
Other than those, I would say Last Escape, Frayed in the Freezing Night..., It was a Clear and Sunny Day and Hungry Cities should probably run fine with only 2 players (they're all GMless games). The Seal will be Broken, One Minute to Midnight, The Stele at the Heart of the Plains and Here/Now might, although it may cause pacing issues.
Thanks for your interest! I hope you get a chance to play some of those :)
Thanks, I'll give these a try with by best friend ;)