John Farrell

3 weeks ago | gamingtrend.com | John Farrell

Ballads of Oraed is a beautiful jaunt into a world of fantasy adventure; its pages dripping with theme and inspiration, it brings its world of high magic to life evoking all the best in classic D&D. As a gazetteer of Oraed, it fills you with the warm feeling that you’re reading the storybook dropped from a world not your own. Unfortunately, as an RPG supplement it falls far short.

3 weeks ago | gamingtrend.com | John Farrell

Settlers of a Dead God brings grime, terror, and mystery to its insectoid player characters, crawling their way on and through their world: the corpse of a decaying giant. There’s a lot to say for the weirdness and potential of this book, brought out by an alien, organic art design, but the details of its delivery have less to recommend them. The book is usable, and its ideas are well worth digging into, but it will take some work to tease a great campaign out of the materials contained herein.

3 weeks ago | gamingtrend.com | John Farrell

Ultraviolet Grasslands redefines the RPG adventure, honoring its many influences even as it surpasses them to become something new unto itself. At once an OSR system, setting, and adventure, UVG’s second edition makes exploration and discovery both gameable and approachable in a surreal, dangerous setting. The book is, principally, a map and set of tools for travelling from the cultural center of the Decapolis, to the treasures and mysteries of the Black City.

1 month ago | gamingtrend.com | John Farrell

A few years ago I called Jason Trost America's most underrated filmmaker, a statement I only reconsider when I remember he's lived in Australia for a while. Since then, his work has gotten more outlandish yet more refined, a contradiction exemplified in the Waves of Madness. Shot for $20,000 in an apartment and garage, the cosmic horror sees Jason's lone investigator making his way through levels of a cruise ship being overtaken by...something.

1 month ago | gamingtrend.com | John Farrell

When we all heard that Skibidi Toilet, the series of machinima videos about toilets with human faces going to war, was being made into a movie, a lot of questions came up. Questions like "What are you talking about?" and "Huh?" and "What? Why? Why would you do that? How could a just and loving God allow something like this to happen?"We now have more information, but not enough to even begin answering these questions. What will this movie look like or be about? I have no idea.