1km1kt recomendations

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I was going to add some of the older material from this site to the thread. Then I noticed how many games are actually on 1km1kt (over 460). Even after trying to pare down the list to ones that appealed to me, there are 90 games to review. A bit much for the free games blog. So, a new thread it is.

Obviously these aren't going to be long reviews, or really much analysis at all. Its more of throwing out some titles and what makes them unique.

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So far as I can tell, Adventure is the first one page RPG, an achievement in itself. The fact that it is a working and easy to play game with a decent number of spells for its pseudo-D&D setting make it well worth the try. Excalibur is a revised version that expands to 13 pages. with new races spells, and just about everything. For so much in such a short legnth, there isn't really any reason to pass these up.

[url=http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/bylina-bogatyr]Bylina and Bogatyr
[/URL]A 24 hour RPG designed for Arthurian style of adventures. Its nicely illustrated, and based on a mythology that many of us might not be very familiar with. Its mechanics are based on the lucky number three and multiples thereof, with characters having three attributes apiece (and different for male and female PCs) further meshing with the Slavic mythology.


A well done 24 hour game, with a strong theme and decent layout. More notably, it forgoes the normal resolution mechanics for one based on gambling and blackjack - which deserves respect for both being innovative and playing into the genre.


A solo game with a length of 5 pages and written in 24 hours, it does remain faithful to its inspiration. Roll a die, decide how you'll tackle the corridor, find the key, and see if you can remain true to the characters guiding morale.


The game itself claims that characters can be made in three seconds. Even if not quite that quick - its a five page long document where attributes and equipment are assigned dice. Like Adventure, its an excellent pick up and play in the next five minutes game. Even more notable, its provided the basis for five other games and expansions. The link leads to the index of them all - the original is at the bottom of the page.


24 pages in length, it bleeds the style of cyberpunk and the novel - "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Phillip K Dick. Much like the book, the line between replicants and their hunters is often blurry - the higher the character rolls and the more bonuses they employ - the greater the chance they receive the revelation that they are one of the androids. One of my top recommendations.


Another one of my favorites. It doesn't look like a amateur production, and certainly not like one made in 24 hours. Graphics, creative layout, good text design - a technical (editing) knockout. As for the actual content - we have slants to encourage heroism and style, easy play and lots of powers. Several pages worth, each of which can be further fine tuned for duration, range, and so forth. While I was never a follower of super-hero comics, this is a game I really want to play.


Another game deeply immersed in genre. Its kind of all the westerns of the past half century mixed with the matrix - somehow everyone knows the motifs, never ages and the same events repeat. The mechanics are based on poker dice, and while those may be the one set of esoteric polyhedra most gamers don't have - it certainly fits the mood.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

[Dyson Logos]

[Rob Lang]

Chainsaw, did I ever tell you how much I love you? These posts are superb! Nuggets of review goodness. I shall add all of these to my shortlist. If you find any others worthy of note, please do post them up!

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Sorry about the delay, but as I said, there is a lot worth reviewing on this site and I'm trying to get consistent themes for each batch of 10-12 entries. So the plan is, this entry will be Miscellaneous modern stuff, the next is fantasy and solo games, and some laboratory products after that.


1984 Prime is a product of the 2005 game chef competition, and thus has some unusual elements of design. Most notably, all the characters are pre-made (with no option to create more) and color affects action resolution. The setting is an interesting mix of the classic video games Fallout and Alpha Centauri - 20 years after the Cuban missile crisis resulted in nuclear exchange, the players leave their underground haven to explore the world- but their cooperation is hampered by their opposing ideologies.


A 24 hour game from 2005 about special forces soldiers with precognitive abilities. The various powers are interesting, and warp the system used (from standard pass-fail to degree of success) not just the local reality.

(2004/24 hour)
Each PC is a con-artist claiming to be an ambassador from a non-existent country out to reap the rewards of diplomatic privilege. A farther unique role compared to the hundreds of knights and nare-do-wells or other games. Furthermore, there is a unique roll of the dice - throws are hidden and bluffing about the outcome is encouraged as par of scene resolution. Also of note - bringing "artifacts" from your country to the game - examples of art, products, clothing, etc.(but no maps!) has a benefit for the player's rolls as well.

(2005/24)
A rules light action oriented game, notable for its use of music and a nomic deck. Part of character creation is choosing their theme - and once per session a PC can get a bonus by playing it (and a bigger bonus by quoting it as well). Before each session, all the players, including the GM fills out four to six cards with a bit of scenery, an event, etc. and then these cards are shuffled and passed out. They may be played at anytime to alter the current scene. The more you play, the more events in the deck (its retained each time).

(2005/24)
If you remember the HBO presentation "Dead Like Me" - you know what this game is like. Your character has died, and become an unpaid grim reaper who needs a day job to support themselves when not taking souls. The game is based on black humor, but not necessarily dark - character creation includes deciding what actor would play your character in the movie, and candy is used to track drama points. Its well done for a game written in 24 hours, with a three column layout, a few bits of artwork, lots of advice for running the game, and even some NPCs.

(24/2004)
Easily described as a generic X-men Rpg. Descendants of children subjected to unethical medical experiments develop paranormal powers.
[url=http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/space-rat]
Space Rat[/URL] (24/2005)
Written in 24 hours for the Ronnies Contest on the themes of Rat and Girlfriend, this game goes above and beyond all expectations. It has artwork, a good layout, NPCs, a character sheet, and fun writing - Space Rat looks like a professional production. Furthermore, the premise is based on false historical books as over the top attempt to capture the zeitgeist of cheesy 70s exploitation SF films. All the players are essentially bond girls (in fact all have the naming convention "X the [noun] Girl") who are undertaking missions and attempting to impress Jack Cosmos, a large and lazy anthropomorphic rat that is supposedly the greatest hero in the galaxy - though its really all the girls that do it. (Overall its like a mix of Inspector Gadget, James Bond, and Flash Gordon)


Like Reaper Madness above, this is a 2005 24 hour game about a character after they die and the jobs they continue to carry out. (It appeared before the other game chronologically, but not alphabetically as you note) In this case, they become supernatural guardians with a variety of powers, an actual paycheck, and the need to keep the cycle of life properly running. Rather than comedy, this is an adventure - akin to the animes "Yu-Yu Hokasho" or "Bleach" - with post-mortem characters hunting demons, sorcerers, and the like.

(2006)
While I normally prefer a solid set of rules or a lose narrative style game, this one intrigued me. Its about survival horror - but not what supplies you can amass - rather what you have in your pockets right now. However many coins you're carrying in your pockets when the game starts determines your HP. Action resolution is by vote - each person pointing one or two fingers - with an even number indicating success - and communication banned.

[kumakami]

I haven't see it on your reviews but have you done Thrash. Its a rather comprehensive martial arts/anime free rpg that I've fallen in love with. http://dsg.neko-machi.com/thrash.html

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I've read both editions and all the source books for Thrash, as well as some of the other works by that author. My signature (on rpglaboratoy) about the line between hobby and obsession isn't really a joke - I have nearly 2 Gigabytes of free RPG & war games on my computer.

Of course, this thread is dedicated to the 1km1kt.net games that have gotten "lost" over the years due to the massive number of entries on 1km1t.net. With the contest submissions from these last few months, we have probably just broken 500 posts. We should probably pass Thrash on to Mr. Lang for his Free RPG blog for a review there.

If you're asking for my opinion on it, I cant really give you one. I was never much of an arcade/fighter person - but version 1.8 looked good and it gave me some ideas for interesting martial artists. Unfortunately, most of the games on my computer - Thrash amongst them - haven't seen their due. (I have a very sporadically updated blog called "games not played" dedicated to all this) "Neko Ewen's" game does stand out amongst the giant collection, which has to mean something good about it.

Thank you for reminding me about this thread though, I've got at least a dozen more games to look over. After I finish reviewing for the contest.

For that matter, it doesn't feel right to post here and not have at least one review.

Tranzitor Zenith
I've tried to make my own mech based games - at least three times so far. Yet each one gets bogged down in the number of stats and systems despite my desire to keep it simple (I've had a lot of experience with Mekton Zeta Plus where it can take over 45 min to design a robot that dies in 15 seconds. Still love that game though.)

A product from on of the regulars of RPGLaboratory, this is one of the simplest mech games I've seen. Well, TZ manages to get the entire game onto one (very cramped) page! And a second page is a GM guide for campaigns. Considering my notes for the simplest of the mecha games is over 3 pages, I would call that and achievement well worth a download and play thrugh.

[kumakami]

some how I miss read the thread even though I had seen it over and over......tonight I just failed

[misterecho]

shameless bump...

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Well, if this can get a bump two years after the last batch of reviews, I guess I should bring a few classic selections to the table. I'm not sure where the notebook with the original group of reviews went, but for now, a few Fantasy Games that don't draw on the Elves/Dwarves/Tolkien archetypes.

by Patrick McCoy, 24 Hour 2004
It is extremely hard to believe this is a 24 hour rpg, and one of the first from 2004 no less. From its cover to character sheets, the presentation is exceptionally professional. The world is a combination of Greek myth and Arthurian Legend where all heroes have a great flaw, but also the ability to bring about divine intervention occasionally.

By Jeff Moore, 24 Hour 2006
The Perfect game for when you have only a few players. Every character is built by combining two of eight classes, for a total of 56 possible choices. Thus only two PCs can ensure a balanced array of party skills. There are no other anthropomorphic races, and little information on creatures, grounding this in Human centric low fantasy - but that is hardly a problem. Reliance on d66% means you don't need any fancy dice to get started.

by James Hargrove, 2004
You are an @ sign with a randomly determined Profession and Race. Your mission - to slay every viscous ASCII character in the dungeon from the vicious "z" to the dreaded "D" and emerge with the most loot. This game can be played solo, or competitively against friends, and its random dungeon tables could even be useful in other games as well. Simple to play, so you won't mind falling to YASD. (Yet another stupid death in Nethack Parlance)

by Kynn Bartlett, 24 hour game 2005
Another early contest entry with high polish - including a cover, table of contents, "report card" (character sheet) and a clean two column layout. Students run the gamut from Abominations to Zombie, but all seek to learn how to be the best minion or mastermind they can be. Letter grades (A-F, no E) rank attributes, classes are skills, and everyone has a selection of innate traits. No one can actually die on the campus grounds, which adds to the mayhem and opens your sessions up to all sorts of comedy.