PopCult Reviews

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Everspark Part One

I was planning on playing a different game. I had read through it. Then I sat down to play. I quickly became overwhelmed by how many resources and other things needed to be tracked. What made it worse was that the game did not have a single page that outlined the game loop. Rules were spread across 140 pages in a PDF that had not been bookmarked or indexed fully. After trying for an hour, I realized I wasn’t having fun, which defeats the purpose of playing any tabletop RPG, solo or with a group. I tossed it away. I pivoted to one of my favorite creators, Cezar Capacle, who authored two of my favorite RPG things from 2024: Random Realities and Against the Wind. That game is the one Capacle is currently raising funds for, Everspark.

31 Days of Character Creation #15 – The One Ring 2e

I’ve always been a bit leery of tabletop RPGs derived from pre-established and highly developed settings. I think that can take away GM and player agency because you feel pressure to follow the lore rather than do your own worldbuilding.

Movie Review – My Night at Maud’s

My Night at Maud’s (1969)
Written and directed by Éric Rohmer

Eric Rohmer is considered the last of the French New Wave directors to be established as such. He was known to be secretive about his personal life, with his name being a mash-up of two people he respected: Eric from director Eric von Stroheim (Sunset Boulevard) and author Sax Rohmer. The filmmaker worked as a teacher in the French Alps but quit in the mid-1940s to move to Paris. Rohmer started attending film screenings where he met Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, and others. This led to a career as a journalist for the many popular film magazines at the time. When he began to get into filmmaking, he invented his pseudonym to keep his parents from learning he was working in the industry.

31 Days of Character Creation #14 – Symbaroum

For today’s character we look to the grimdark world of Symbaroum. This is a nice blend of OSR elements, but also some of the more modern narrative-driven games. The setting is a step up from Mork Borg which is intentionally vague. Here we have a bleak world with more detail added, if that is your thing. Here’s how the game is described on its official webpage:

Explore the vast Forest of Davokar in the hunt for treasures, lost wisdoms and fame. Visit the barbarian clans to trade or to plunder their treasuries. Establish a base of power among princes, guilds or rebellious refugees in the capital city of Yndaros. Or survive encounters with Arch Trolls, dark-minded Blight Beasts and undead warlords. But whatever you do, never ignore the warnings spoken by the wardens of the forest: tread carefully and do not disturb the ruins of old, for the dark deep of Davokar is about to awaken.

31 Days of Character Creation #13 – Troika!

Troika! is a rule-lite OSR type of game that is incredibly unique. Part of character creation is rolling d66 (two six-sided die as numerals for a two-digit number) and that is your background. This covers your class as well and each one is special to the game and nothing you’ve really seen before.

PopCult Podcast – The Order/A Real Pain

A troubled FBI agent discovers a white supremacist conspiracy in rural Idaho. Two cousins embark on a tour in Poland to reconnect with their deceased grandmother.

Comic Book Review – Daredevil by Frank Miller Part Two

Daredevil Visionaries: Frank Miller Volume Three (2021)
Reprints Daredevil #183-191 and What If? #28 & 35, and Bizarre Adventures #28
Written by Frank Miller (with Roger McKenzie & Mike W. Barr)
Art by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson (with Terry Austin)

Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus Companion (2024)
Reprints Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #27-28, Daredevil #219 and 226-233, Daredevil: The Man Without Fear #1-5, and Daredevil: Love and War
Written by Frank Miller (with Bill Mantlo and Denny O’Neill)
Art by Frank Miller, John Buscema, David Mazzuchelli, Bill Sienkiewicz, Al Williamson and John Romita Jr.

The second Daredevil Visionaries volume concluded with the iconic Death of Elektra. I’d heard about that story since I was a kid and even seen it recreated in cinemas with the dreadful 2003 adaptation. Nothing could compare to reading the real thing, a wonderfully tense blend of art & writing that delivered an operatic tragedy into the life of the Man Without Fear. Having never read these books, I wondered where Miller would go now. Elektra was such a big part of the first half of his run. I also learned that his “Born Again” storyline wasn’t part of this initial run but a return to the book in 1987, riding high off the acclaim of The Dark Knight Returns at DC Comics, about to return to them for Batman: Year One.

31 Days of Character Creation #12 – Knave 2e

It’s back to some old school style fantasy but with some modern design twists. Knave 2e is a light system capable of big things. Character creation takes a matter of minutes, but you still end up with a lot of pieces to build off of. Here’s how the game is describe on its official website:

Knave 2e is an exploration-driven fantasy RPG and worldbuilding toolkit, inspired by the best elements of the Old-School DnD movement.

31 Days of Character Creation #11 – The Wildsea

The Wildsea is one of the more unique and interesting tabletop RPGs to have come out in recent years. It borrows mechanics from several other systems, most notably Blades in the Dark. It’s world is one unlike any else, here’s the description from the official website:

Some three hundred years ago the empires of the world were toppled by a wave of fast growing greenery, a tide of rampant growth spilling from the West known as the Verdancy. Now chainsaw-driven ships cut their way across dense treetop waves, their engines powered by oilfruit, rope-golems, honey and pride.

31 Days of Character Creation #10 – Star Trek Adventures 2e

As you might guess from the title of this system, it’s a Star Trek tabletop role playing game. Here’s the description from the official website:

From the 21st through to the 32nd century, join Starfleet, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, and countless other civilizations, and journey across the Star Trek universe with your crew. Explore strange new worlds, encounter fantastical alien life-forms, and engage in dramatic adventures in a detailed and immersive Galaxy.

Tell your stories and unravel the mysteries of the unknown!