I feel like I’ve encountered those world conceits on the syfy channel. Secret-Second-World fantasy is serviceable, but Monster of the Week, Delta Green, Call of Cthulu, Vaesen, and a host of other games use those tropes.

I loved Urban Arcana because I could play a half-ogre pizza delivery guy who kept a chainsaw in his backseat to fight off mimics pretending to be trashcans in suburbs because wizards who lost their funding had to sell their pet projects to keep their place in their school.

Only panoptic and Ebb and Flow give me the vibe that fantasy is part of modernity amd fully embraced as one more part of reality.

Forgot to mention that this column focuses on world building primarily since so many reviews are already available online for most RPGs. Rules are covered more as overviews than in depth discussions in this column. But I’m happy to answer a few questions if I can assist.

Beyond these two paragraphs what would you be interested in knowing?

Many new rules enhance the basics of 5E with enhanced rules for Councils (roleplaying), Journeys (exploration), Fellowship (downtime), and Patrons (NPC mentors), along with all new classes, magic items, and monsters. Heroic cultures like Hobbits of the Shire and Rangers of the North replace race. Classes are covered by six callings of levels one to ten: captain, champion, messenger, scholar, treasure hunter, and warden. D&D 5E monsters, races, classes, and spells are not a part of the setting or world, although you could likely pull in some of the monsters.

Loremasters have monster stats for creatures like evil men, orcs, trolls, and the undead. Magic items do not have the power level found in 5E and tend to help with skill checks and combat instead. In addition to adventure-building advice, rules for Landmarks are provided for Loremasters. Landmarks are smaller site-driven locations with a few schemes and troubles attached. 

Yeppers! And it turns out they can behave EXACTLY like this! But there’s also enough films and pop culture out there about AIs making bad choices and turning evil – and how we’d potentially overcome them – that if they did have questionable intentions, they’d a) maybe keep it on the down-low and b) be totally prepared for what we’d do and prepare for those eventualities. Hence another blog brewing for me!

It resolved the conflict by cutting itself off from earth and killing the crew so it could continue its primary function unimpeded.