From Games

Collectible Card Garbage: The WCW Nitro Card Game

World Championship Wrestling’s Monday Nitro, the TNT-based competitor for the then-WWF’s Monday RAW, ran from 1995 to March of 2001. It combined veteran talent that was probably too old to be wrestling with relative unknowns and high-flying Mexican luchadores. It was, very briefly, the best wrestling promotion, sporting everyone from Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash…

The Blazing Evil Art of World of Darkness: Inferno

Demon: The Fallen (2002) was the last of the major systems released for White Wolf’s World of Darkness. The main book was followed by ten sourcebooks, the last of which, Days of Fire, was released in 2003. Then White Wolf blew up the World Of Darkness and started a new system and timeline. Seven years…

The ~Twiztid~ Artwork of Werewolf: The Forsaken

White Wolf Game Studio’s Werewolf: The Forsaken was released in 2005 with a second edition released in 2015, but to classic gamers it will always be “the new Werewolf.” The book continued many of the themes of the original Werewolf: The Apocalypse including spiritual werewolves, the natural world versus the man made, and especially the corrupting…

Warhammer 40,000 Oddities #2 – Waaargh The Orks! (1990)

Of all the supremely weird material put out during the early Rogue Trader days of Warhammer 40,000, perhaps none is stranger or more dissonant with current lore than the original book about the space orks. Waaargh The Orks! was released in 1990 and serves as an interesting artifact of Warhammer 40,000 at its least grimdark.…

Bright 2: To Live and Orc in LA

Trouble is a-brewin’ in the Bright-inspired city of Los Angeles. A “rift” briefly opened to another dimension and a cadre of skull-helmeted soldiers have emerged and promptly scurried off into LA in a giant skull. Officer Daryl “Will Smith” Ward and Officer Nick “Orc” Jakoby have rescued a cactusfolk named Chim from the rift. She…

Bright 2: The Rifts Open in Los Angeles

Following the events of the film Bright, Officers Daryl Ward and Nick Jakoby (the orc) are back on patrol. The fact that they saved the world from some sort of elven destruction has been covered up by the Federal Government and things in Los Angeles have just about returned to normal. Which means things are…

The Book of Vile Darkness and the Soiling of the Elven City

Norman the Cancer Mage and his companions, Sir Alaban, a paladin of Pelor, Dirk Rendor, a halfling rogue, and Shana T’sha, an elven ranger, have accepted a contract to rescue Erik, the prince of the kingdom of Two Rivers. Erik has run off with a high elf woman to the elven city of Ismara. For…

The Extremely Mature Horrors of D&D’s Book of Vile Darkness

Are you ready to get extremely MATURE? The Book of Vile Darkness is the mascara-smeared goth face of Dungeons & Dragons. This is Glenn Danzig and his shelf of werewolf books and erotic comics. Released just in time for Halloween, 2002, the book seemed to embrace all of the criticisms leveled against past editions of…

The Bad Cyberpunk Art of Atlas Games’ Cyberpunk 2020 Books

Cyberpunk 2020, the deadly and neon-washed RPG from publisher R. Talsorian, was always a niche gaming system. It had its heyday in the early nineties and has spent the last 25 years dwindling in popularity. Despite its relatively minor role in the pantheon of roleplaying games, it maintains a devoted following and managed to attract…