Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Vornheim: All Games Considered


See, I did this D&D book and, judging from the links I've been getting, people like it...

"It is inspirational reading; the most so I have seen in maybe 25 years for any sort of RPG. "
Dragonsfoot Forum

"It’s probably the most-bang-for-the-buck RPG product I’ve ever bought in my life. "
Lost Papers of Tsojcanth 1 and 2

"This is quite simply one of the best and most useful RPG products that I have every purchased and read through in my entire gaming career." WrathofZombie'a Blog

"[Vornheim] is like the first crash of Johnny Ramone's guitar across the bow of fantasy arena rock.
Vornheim is, as I have said elsewhere, like the Sex Pistols covering Ptolus."
Hite, Kenneth

"I can't recommend it enough. No matter what edition you use, or retro-clone, this is going to help any campaign you make. Not just for the city games either."
RPG: Rants and Raves

"I can pretty much guarantee you that if you have any interest in running urban-based fantasy at any point in your campaign, then you, too, will find it worth every penny." Alexandrian, The 1 and 2 and 3

"The stated goal of the book is not only to allow a GM to create a city on the fly, but to make it interesting, memorable and fun, and I would argue that it more than succeeds in that task." Brighton Role-Players


"So the real magic of the book, like I said before, is how it becomes easy to create textural elements, randomly or semi-randomly, with very little effort"
Drawings and Dragons

"This compact book does contain enough genuinely useful material for detailing a fantasy city on the fly to make it indispensable to any referee whose campaign involves regular urban forays outside the dungeon."
Grognardia

"Smart and yet playful. A bold kick up the arse to other setting books."
Haque in Black

"For me, Vornheim - The City Complete Kit is the most innovative role-playing product for a long time and is a hot candidate for an Ennie."
LeckerTHAC0! (English Translation)

"And it's all a very inspiring and stylish package"
Metagame (English Translation)

"I have to admit I am rather impressed... 5 out of 5 stars"
Other Side, The

"It's inspiring and I want to skip work, press gang my players or co-workers and use it right now."
Places to Go, People to Be

Planet Algol 1 and 2 " It's an innovative product, but it shouldn't be; that not an indictment of Vornheim but of what RPG products are generally produced."

"In terms of art and graphic design, Vornheim looks like no other RPG book ever."
RPG.net Forum Discussion

"This is definitely not your daddy's Greyhawk or 2e Renfaire Realms anymore."
RPGSite Forum Discussion

"This is really my cup or tea."
Savage Swords of Athanor

"
It gave me a whole lot of flexibility that I've never really experienced in a game before. Seriously, if you haven't bought Vornheim yet, you really need to. Even if Zak's game isn't your style, use the format and concepts and fill in the tables with things that meet your style. It's that useful."
Gaming All Over The Place

"Everything you've read about it is true. Including and especially the talk about changing how people make stuff for their games."
Seeking Wing, The

"I want something that will make it easier for me to run sessions in cities with little or no prep, and I really want this Kit to do that for me; so, first impressions, does it do the job it sets out to do? My quick answer: yes!"
Sky is Full of Dust, The

"HOLY **** IT'S **** AWESOME!"
UK Roleplayers Forum Discussion

"I will definitely use the book at the table."
Apprentice of Old School (English Translation)

(the Underdark Gazette liked it, too)

"I think this is probably the best product I think I've ever come across." This guy did a video review (cue up to 7:29)(and even though it's from "Scary Hair Studios" I swear I had nothing to do with this video)

"It's exactly what it says on the tin: a thunk-provoking tool kit that'll probably be great fun to unleash on the players."
Vaults of Nagoh

"In some urban RPG’s, an unexpected player decision might be disastrously time consuming; not so with the aid of Vornheim. Vornheim provides the referee tools to handle any number of circumstances that might occur within a city adventure."
Vorpal Dice
"It crawls with cunning charts & maps"
"The biggest problem I have with Vornheim: The Complete City Kit is that it's going to make all other city sourcebooks seem dull by comparison."

"It is a beautifully illustrated and very well constructed book."

"...Vornheim is an amazing approach to doing a city sourcebook which, although intended for old-school D&D, has plenty of utility for story gaming."

"...felt like a breath of fresh air after all these colorful, overproduced RPGs"

"
Looking over Vornheim. Wow. this is really, really good."

"Infinite *s out of 5...The book is almost insidious in nature as it seeps into your own creativity and basically challenges you to be more creative, to raise your game to another level, and to be better at running your games."

"Zak dribbles more creativity and inspiration on page 3 (territories surrounding Vornheim) than most books manage in their entirety. And that's a pale shadow of page 7..."


"...
too valuable not to have in you DM arsenal."

"I read Vornheim during my vacation and was amazed. Zak's really got something great here. I'd say award-winning."


"Random tables and charts, strange characters and locales, and snakes as books. Brilliant."
"The quality of the book is exceptional in every way."

"This totally raises the bar, you realize."


"Where Ptolus is a huge, whopping, incredibly detailed city book, this is stripped down the the very basics, the bare minimum, so that all that’s left is the raw rock and roll. It has exactly as much as you really need, leaving the gamemaster to play around and flesh out the rest..."

"...
Vornheim is Byzantine, brilliant, and exhilarating..."

"Vornheim is, in my opinion, one of the most innovative RPG products I've seen in years. It is exactly what it claims to be, a city building toolkit designed to make life easier for the DM and provide a vast and interesting urban sprawl for your players. If you are even remotely entertaining the possibility of a city-based campaign, you need this book."


"
It's a damn good book, full of useful stuff."
"If you are planning urban adventures, Vornheim is AWESOME for it. I ran adventures in a small town of 1300 and it was very useful."

"
I honestly can’t find anything negative to write about this book, it really is a slice of fantastic RPG creativity and I urge anyone who enjoys fantasy city gaming to pick up this gem before the print-run of 2000 copies disappears.
"

"Good ideas, great tables!"

"It is an amazing toolkit and wonderful aid."

"It is a work of art, brilliant in how useful it is."
"I have to give you props sir, your experience and insight into city play made for a better night for me and my friends."

"The book is crammed with quirky and imaginative ideas."


"
Once I next run a game set in a fantasy metropolis, I will most certainly have my Vornheim by my side, whether it be set in Sigil or Kaer Maga or the City of Greyhawk."

"Actually at last count I have read this think five times. Each time I read it, I realize more and more, this is the perfect city book."

"
Lot's of goodies to use for any city-based adventuring. "

"I have to say that thus far it’s really changing the way I look at city campaigns and the build of a fantasy city in general. Zak really is an amazing wellspring of ideas; he’s sort of the Grant Morrison of D&D..."


"It is awesome."

"
It's official...Vornheim is freakin' amazing. Best city supplement ever."

"It's quite inspiring...I can't believe that anyone would not be able to take some creative inspiration from it."


"
...a beautifully produced handbook for running city adventures."

"...brilliant..."

"...mind-blowingly awesome and original..."

"
I would like smaller books that take an approach kind of like what Zak S. did with his Vornheim book: give me the means to make and use good content on the fly for a specific adventure type"

"Vornheim is an amazingly cool supplement. I've been using mine (PDF) almost since the day it came out." (down in the comments)

"
Vornheim is awesome; I'm still getting used to it, but there are so many tables in there that allow me to generate interesting things on the fly."

"Flipping thru my copy of Vornheim. I'm pretty sure I want ZakSmith/Sabbath's brain..."


"
That thing is a friggin' work of art."

" is excellent. Atmospheric, great spur for creativity. Can't wait to use it!"

"
This is a damned good game book. Even the first part of the book, which presents Vornheim itself, is full of material that can be directly incorporated into any city campaign. The whole book lives up to the subtitle ("The Complete City Kit"), not just the ingenious shortcuts and excellent tables."

"This little book by Zak S, best known for I Hit It With My Axe, and the D&D with Porn Stars blog, is pretty damned awesome."


____
Oh, and PS, here's me and Satine and Mandy and Kimberly and James Raggi on the All Games Considered podcast.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link back Zak. Appreciate it. This is a cool idea for a contest. I like that all of this will be made for the public and expand on the Vornheim material!

Adam Dickstein said...

Wow. That is a darn cool idea for a contest. And you my good sir are quite the salesman. After reading this post I not only really want to buy a copy of Vornheim but I kind of want to enter the contest. Me. I have no use for such a product and still I want one.

I think I may pick it up for a friend as a gift or else go on my group's private boards and highly recommend it. Yeah, I'll definitely do that.

Sweet stuff.

thekelvingreen said...

For what it's worth, since I did that review and took my copy to my weekly game, two other members of my gaming group have bought a copy.

Now, one of them will buy anything -- he's spent about £200 on WFRP3 stuff we're never going to use -- but the other loves the book and thinks it's one of the best things he's ever seen.

Which, you know, it is.

crowking said...

Hate to say it, but you gonna have to do a follow up. To much interest to say no.

Trent_B said...

@crowking From what I've seen on the blog in the past few weeks, I suspect Zak is working on a similar treasure for Dungeon/Subterranean adventures. I could be wrong, of course.

Zak Sabbath said...

@crowking
@trentB

I am strenuously attempting to resist making another RPG product. after all, I have paintings to make and sluts to cum on.

we'll see how successful i am. at that.

Zak Sabbath said...

don't knock it til you've tried it.

Anonymous said...

Hey thanks for link and hopefully I'm not posting a comment a dozen times. Now off to do some Vornheim tweaking.
And no way am I getting into a sluts vs books debate. ;)

Unknown said...

I just go the book and it is awesome. And, I already have a few ideas on how to expand it. Will send them in, hopefully in time.