Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise provides additional character races, random tables, adventures, and further details about life on Cha’alt. There are four new races: Blue Velvet Elf, Grog (literal sand-people), Vore (a creature inspired by the 1982 movie “Beastmaster”), and the V’symm (not going to spoil everything). Each of these races have unique gameplay mechanics and can be a lot of fun to use.

In addition to the character races, the first section of the book “Essentials” has numerous random tables and many can be used by both the player and GM. The tables cover things like social interaction, NPCs (pre-built and a generator), motivations, social standing, belief systems, loot, and drug addiction. The content of all the tables varies between “above average” to “truly useful”. However just talking about the random tables is a disservice to both you and the tables. Below is an NPC created using the following random tables from the “Essentials” section of Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise: Enamored, NPCs, Loyalty, Social Hierarchy, Cha’alt Names.

She used to be a beggar, got “saved”, and is now a disenfranchised cleric. A bad career path probably due to her orange skin and tribal tattoos. Her goal was to just go home or at least get off-world. “Was” because when she saw [Player], she would do anything and everything to make [Player] hers. With only 13 obsidian coins left in her pocket, laying claim to [Player] will be difficult. If [Player] accepts her into the party, she can be relied upon unless they treat her poorly. For the sake of [Player], she will engage the enemy but there is usually nothing to show for it. Her name? Viridia.

The city of A’agrybah gets fleshed out in this book. The governing Houses and political structure provides a lot of potential for drama and intrigue style of gaming sessions. There is enough detail here for a GM to turn A’agrybah into the Waterdeep of Cha’alt. Note the word “detail”, there is no hand-holding nor city planning guidelines. The GM will need to do actual “GM work” to make this happen and if they do, the result will be impressive while still fitting in the world of Cha’alt. A d100 random table of “Unlikely Events in A’agrybah” closes the chapter.

The next chapter “Encounters” is a collection of adventure seeds, creatures, discoveries, NPCs, and story hooks. The content here really shows the creativity that goes into the world of Cha’alt. While some of the content is used elsewhere, the things in this section can be added to most adventures with little effort. If you are a GM, this section can help you create a new adventure or spice up a current adventure. For a Player, there is a wealth of background and motivations that can be used for character development. Some examples of what you will find here include the “Clown-Worm” a hideous hybrid of sand-worms and demon-worms with the face of a clown. Tired of walking? The party might encounter a subway. Supporting random tables included.

Most of the content of Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise is devoted to adventures and “Fuchsia Flesh-Pit” is the first. The players will have the opportunity to help La’ala in an environment that only Venger could create plus the plot twists are well done. The “Tower of Vromka’ad” has a unique encounter on each “floor”. The “Tomb of Va’an Zayne” is a dungeon crawl with a lot of creativity. “Elysium” is the Federation’s base of operations with over 50 rooms. In “S’kbah Pilgrimage”, players leave their village to find a solution to the tribe’s ills. While some adventures are better than others, they are all good.

Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise has some great art that raises the bar even higher from the standard set by the first Cha’alt book. The amount of cos-play art was the weakest link in the first book. In the new book, there is less cos-play art and what is there looks more “appropriate”. Overall, the art is excellent, easily carries the tone of Cha’alt with more of an impact than before.

Is Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise perfect? Nope, there are a few squid farts emanating from the pages. Mainly, there are many of instant-kills or save-or-die. Much of Cha’alt feels like it can be a massive campaign but the adventures almost force a one-shot/disposable character play style. Also, the vagueness of some plot points can cause confusion. Some sections must be read multiple times because item or plot details may be explained in the middle or at the end of an adventure instead of at the beginning.

Even with it’s faults, Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise is highly recommended. Considering how the content is structured GMs can throw-out the parts of Cha’alt they don’t want or add parts of Cha’alt to other realms with little to no problems. The concepts and ideas in Cha’alt: Fuchsia Malaise run deep, drink freely if you dare.

A couple of things to get out of the way: I was a Kickstarter backer for Cha'alt and I do not run any “5th edition” games, so I can not say if the Stat Blocks are useful or how applicable they are.

While this is does raise the bar for the quality of Kort'thalis Publishing products, it does have a few rough edges. The main, but minor, issue that I had with Cha'alt is the editing or the presentation of information. A new word or thing would be introduced early in the book, however it will not be defined or explained until much later, if at all. As a result, you will need to read through the book multiple times to get a better understanding of the world of Cha’alt. Then again, even without this flaw, Cha’alt should be read multiple times anyway.

The book of Cha’alt is actually five books in one, a world overview and four adventures. The most impressive accomplishment of the book as a whole is not creating a concrete foundation for this new world but creating a “feeling” of what the world is like. For a GM, if something feels like it would fit in the Cha’alt world, it probably will.

The overview section includes descriptions of some pockets of civilization, factions, items, monsters, and survival in the desert. There is a lot of information and ideas here. The descriptions give just enough details for story hooks and to raise further questions. Perfect for the GM to mold and shape Cha’alt as they see fit.

The adventures are not only areas for players to explore but provide a basis for the GM on how the world interacts with the players. Plus, the adventures are varied: a dungeon below a city, exploring the insides of a demon-worm that is almost 800 feet long, a spice mining colony/spaceport, and finally The Black Pyramid.

The Black Pyramid is a massive dungeon. Not only does it have 111 rooms, each of which are unique with their own story and hooks, but The Black Pyramid has its own separate lore yet still connected to Cha’alt. As a result, a lot of the happenings of Cha’alt revolve around The Black Pyramid. While some of the rooms in the dungeon are more interesting than others, the shear amount of creativity that can be found in The Black Pyramid is astonishing.

Finally, the ART! Yes, the artwork is that exceptional to deserve the “all-caps” treatment. For me, the weakest art of the bunch would be the “cosplay” photos, some of it seemed out of place or not matching the rest of the aesthetic. However, all the art really establishes the world of Cha’alt, demonstrating the interplay between fantasy, sci-fi, and the occult. Even the maps convey the interplay to a lesser extent. The artwork can even inspire plot ideas and adventure hooks. Very well done!

Before doing this review, I reread Alpha Blue as a comparison of how a previous game world was introduced. Cha’alt is a definite improvement over Alpha Blue. Considering how the world of Alpha Blue was expanded and refined over time, I fully expect Cha’alt can evolve into something even more amazing.

Kobayashi Maroom has three scenarios or “episodes” as they are called here.  The first episode is a very short Star Trek spoof of Kobayashi Maru with a touch of Elder Gods.

The next episode is an interesting combination of Star Trek’s “Amok Time” and Total Recall.  This is the most complex plot of the batch, unfortunatly it is also the most disjointed. For example the main antagonist in Act 2 is stated as missing but the players need to kill him to go to the final planet of Kafu (bubble-pop sound). Unless the players somehow know that Act 3 takes place on Kafu (bubble-pop sound) because it’s first mention is in the bio of Act 2’s antagonist.

The final episode is the most polished.  A simple plot with lots of role-play potential that has a climax in true Alpha Blue style.

Being a Kort’thalis Publishing product there are plenty of random tables.  The quality of these random tables is also random. Even so, these tables can easily be used in other games.  Plus there is a random table of names, because why not? The artwork is above average, border line great in places, however it does not have the “sci-fi spoof” flavor of the other Alpha Blue titles.

There is a lot of creativity here but it should have cooked a bit longer.  While most Kort’thalis Publishing products expect or even require a competent GM, any GM using these episodes will need to put in some effort.  If your a fan of Alpha Blue, I would definitely recommend this product. Otherwise, it is a tough call. And if you are not a fan of Alpha Blue, you probably didn’t even make it to this sentence.

What value can be found in randomness?  At the time of posting, the asking price of $3 will give you 30 tables of 6 random things.  Random things like "An electric chair" and "Liquidity".  And the purpose of all this randomness?  To shape the world, provide ideas, and challenge yourself as a GM, according to Venger.  Let's put that to the test and roll the dice... 15-2, 22-3, 7-2...

You enter the room where your red-headed contact was supposed to meet you.  She is not there.  Searching the room for clues, you find her black stockings.  Not only do you realize that she is a "real" red-head, but wrapped in the stockings is the Atari 2600 cartridge "Adventure!" which actually contains the Top Secret Algorithm for getting laid.  So, what will you do?  Sell the algorithm and be rich, or find your contact and be a hero?

Would I have come up with anything like that on my own?  Nope.  In fact, I wasted an entire evening rolling the dice to see what I could come up with.  Addictive. This product does what it promises to do, but I think the real value is how it can inspire you in surprising, if not random, ways.

Venger was kind enough to provide a copy of "Adventure Writing Like A Fucking Boss" to me and I am glad he did. In short, for a low price you not only get writing advice but a suggested framework for how to structure your adventure and GM tips for running it. Highly recommended.

This guide will not take you from "Zero-2-Hero" in terms of adventure writing. What it will do is help you to start an adventure and run with what you have, basically "Zero-2" part. The rest, "-Hero", is up to you to hone your craft. In terms of content, after words of encouragement, Venger takes you from the initial idea to expanding that idea into a full blown adventure. No Venger Satanis product is complete without some random tables, and yes, even this guide has a few. Using these random tables, you can find ways to further fleshout your adventure or get unstuck creatively. Once the adventure has been layed out and some people would call it "done" at this point, Venger continues with suggestions and tips to go back over your adventure to add more polish. The GM'ing advice gets more prevelant towards the end of the guide to help you run and test the adventure you created. While GM'ing is the second half of adventure writing, it did get a bit confusing for me to find where the writing advice ended and GM'ing advice began. Which is really the only negative thing I can say about "Adventure Writing Like A Fucking Boss".

A great product that is genre neutral and one I will be using extensively.

Hellyssa exploring the Borderlands. A comix version of "Let's Play", because... why not? Here Hellyssa is talking about various things and the game, occasionally rambling on, it really felt like reading a transscription of a "Let's Play" session. The writer did a great job of capturing the essense. Instead of going for min/maxing your character or one of the common strategy guide approaches, Hellyssa talk's about "Did you know you could do this?" things. While the in-game camera goes in an expected direction, the concept behind "Gaming with HellzGurl" shows the creative potential of the "Breaking 4th" series.

A good story and the story comprised most of the PDF. The Hellyssa was the focus this time and there were other characters introduced in a way that flowed with the story. Except for a "bathroom request" near the end, which seemed a out of place or forced, the dialog felt smooth and natural reenforcing the impression that the characters have had a history together. Everything was easy to read, the "hand written" text from "Chick Magnet" was no where to be found. As before, that are many little details to be appriecated here. The one that stood out to me is how peices of Hellyssa's past are revealed: framed as literal puzzle pieces. A nice touch! Great rendering, great characters, and a good story.

This is a good introduction to what I hope is a long running series. The most important aspect of a story, for me, are the characters. "Chick Magnet" is an introduction to the characters in the "Breaking 4th" world. Surprisingly, the background art is also a "character" that has a story to tell, instead of being a typical static backdrop. I had a problem reading most of the "hand written" text on my phone, it just was not rendering very well (a little better on the computer). Also, some of the "hidden details" were to low res for me to notice or apprieciate, appearing as pixelated blobs. The "Breaking 4th: A Closer Look" had higher resolution images of these "hidden details" which were readable. It was a nice change of pace to learn about the main character's routine through the eye's of story's antogonist.

Alpha Blue is a great blend of the old style Sci-Fi B-Movies. The kind where the story had good ideas but it had no budget, or the whole thing was so bad it was good.

The game system is very stream lined and offer quick resolution of skill checks as well as combat. If the members your group can play "any type" of character, your group can be up and running in a few minutes by rolling a few character charts.

But the real goody bits is in the setting. Several sections of the Alpha Blue station are creatively described just enough to get your imagination going. There are many story seeds that are also available to help get the ball rolling. Choosing to go with a setting that explores the underbelly of debauchery or taking the higher ground as an "Aftermath Scene Investigation" team, Alpha Blue has you covered.

The PDF is nicely laid out, with easily readable sections and great background graphics. Navigating the PDF is easy using the hyper links. The artwork is superb and if you look at the details, you may even get a laugh. There some pages with excessive white space where it would have been nice to have more pictures or content.

Do you find the night-life of Las Vegas inappropriate and/or offensive? Stay away from Alpha Blue. Does a Las Vegas in space sound like an exciting prospect for an adventure? Then check out Alpha Blue.