RPG | Karavansara

23 May 2019
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

Four Against Darkness: Heart of the Lizard

And so it’s out, and I can finally post the cover – that I had shown you a while back, I think – and a link to buy my novella Heart of the Lizard, the fist (hopefully) story in a series set in the world of Andrea Sfiligoi’s game Four Against Darkness.
The book is published by Ganesha Games, and includes a novella and a big appendix with all the gaming material you need to use in your games the magic, creatures, monsters and treasures you read about. Andrea wrote the appendix, and also illustrated the book.
The book is currently available as a pdf, with the paperback coming soon.

Continue reading →

18 September 2014
by Davide Mana Leave a comment

The Return of Feng Shui

For me, Feng Shui, the Roleplaying game, remains one of the best gaming systems and gaming universes ever.
Few other games have granted so much fun to me and my players.

Designed to allow players to engage in the furious action of the classic John Woo or Tsui Hark movies, bringing together in a single coherent setting everything from heroic bloodshed to wuxia, Feng Shui was the ultimate action roleplaying game, a perfect blend of elegant mechanics and jaw-dropping worldbuilding.

And now it’s back – and Feng Shui 2 is being financed through a Kickstarter.
As usual, WordPress does not allow me to post you the snazzy animated link… so we’ll make do with a static picture.

I paid my ghost money to the Dragon already.
I invite you to do the same.

21 August 2014
by Davide Mana 1 Comment

Gamers versus Game Designers

OK, short rant.
I’ll make it quick, I promise.

Two days back I witnessed a lengthy discussion between roleplayers comparing the merits and flaws of two popular gaming systems*.

The thing went on for a couple of hours as the involved parties compared narrativist and simulationist approaches to the rules, whether one system “outperformed” the other, the rate of fluff and crunch in the respective handbooks.
It was damn boring, and supremely futile. Continue reading →