Tag: role playing games

REVIEW: Table Titans Club by Scott Kurtz

REVIEW: Table Titans Club by Scott Kurtz

Posted on by Jaymie

Summary

Val is trying to find her place at a new school after yet another move. And while she’s trying not to get into trouble this time, some of her peers are making that goal even harder to reach.

Then Val gets a chance to join the Table Titans, a Dungeons and Dragons club which helps her make some new friends. But there’s a chance the club will lose their faculty advisor. If that happens – and if Val can’t get her feud with another student settled – the club might have to shut down.

Review

I LOVED this! Val is fantastic. I loved her self-confidence – in trying something new, in asking for what she wants, for boldly addressing conflict. And her imagination! She’s incredible! I enjoyed the rest of the D&D group as well, and I am ecstatic about the set up for their next adventure. I will definitely be picking a second book up the minute it becomes available.

This would be fantastic in a classroom library, especially one where graphic novels are popular. A book group where students could read this together and discuss the social and interpersonal dynamics in the book would be amazing. Highly recommend!!

Rating: ♥♥♥♥½*

*♥♥♥♥½ = I loved it! Would re-read.

BONUS REVIEW: Teen Titans Go!: Roll With It

BONUS REVIEW: Teen Titans Go!: Roll With It

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and DC Comics in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Robin convinces the rest of the Teen Titans to play his favorite role playing game, Basements & Basilisks. Yes, they need a tutorial on the rules and some LARP practice, but they are 100% in it to win it.

But in typical fashion, Robin goes to extremes. He takes everything seriously and makes the game impossibly hard. His friends threaten to quit if Robin doesn’t find them a different game master. For the sake of the game, he agrees. He asks his crush, Becky, to help them.

But “Becky” isn’t who anyone thinks she is. And she has her own special game planned for the Teen Titans.

Review

I was eager to read this one because of the D&D-like game play but I forgot to remind myself that Teen Titans Go is often more over-the-top than I enjoy. It took some time to get into this one. Robin is controlling – as usual. And just as he made the game less fun for the Titans, he made it less fun to read about. But once the external villain was revealed, I enjoyed this a lot more.

Raven continues to be my favorite of the Titans, but the ensemble was in good form, too. Cyborg’s issues with the villain were a fun wrinkle to their adventure.

This is a long, meaty campaign for the Titans. Fans will enjoy spending this time with the characters.

Rating: ♥♥♥½ – Good+

REVIEW: Knight's Club: The Bands of Bravery by Shuky

REVIEW: Knight’s Club: The Bands of Bravery by Shuky

Posted on by Jaymie

[I received an electronic review copy from Netgalley and Quirk Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]

Summary

Three young men decide to leave their life of farming and manure and instead try to become knights. Each has different skills and deficits. Readers choose the path through this graphic novel for their knight-in-training. The character has five nights to find the most “bravery bracelets” to win.

Review

POSITIVES: This is a clever idea! It’s like a role playing game (RPG) in book mode. Solving puzzles can lead to rewards like weapons or bracelets. There are blank pages at the back of the book to track your character’s progress through the quest.  Readers could compete against themselves or against a friend.

NEGATIVES:

  • It’s disappointing that the author and publisher chose to make all of the characters male. I hope this gets fixed in the sequels. Girls are just as likely to want to try this and may be frustrated that there are no female characters.
  • Many page jumps in my trial run served no purpose except to send me to the opposite end of the book. For example, the first place where I could make a choice sent me to a page that sent me right back to the check in point. Then I went from 4 to 25 to 88 to 7 to find out how things worked in the game/book. THEN I was able to make another choice. That choice took me to three pages that were essentially blank except for the next page number – 299, 311 and 178 – before I had another choice. Usually in a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story there’s content on each page even if there isn’t a choice to make. And they usually move mostly forward through the book until you hit a dead end. This jumped me all around, back and forth for no purpose.
  • This jumping was especially frustrating because the electronic review copy didn’t have any page links. Every large page jump required a scroll to find just the right image number. In a paper book, that won’t be as frustrating, but I hope any e-books will have page links instead of all the scrolling.

VERDICT: I would try this in physical form and would feel comfortable giving it to a kid. As I said, it’s a really clever idea, which is why I rated it as highly as I did despite the issues in execution. In all the scrolling I saw several sections where I wanted to know more about a different path. I’m curious to talk with kids who use the book to see if they find the pages with only another page number and no other purpose frustrating or not. I’d hold off on getting an electronic version until you know if there are page links or if scrolling is required.

Rating: ♥♥♥♥