I think this book is something that is not for everyone but very special. It contains not much direct gameable content but more a world artifact which in detail describes how to actually conduct alchemy in a fantasy setting which is way more 'immerisve' then I am used to seeing in these kind of books. I dislike the lack of bookmarks in the pdf as it makes navigating this behemoth of a book quite hard before you know where the stuff is that you need. Overall this is more a historic fantasy book then a gaming supplement but that can be a upside and a downside depending on what you are looking for.

Very Good. I really like the way that has three separate time zones. Immediately during / post outbereak, a few years after and then many years later, with slightly different rules for each.

You would therefore be able to play the entire timeline of WW-Z (the book) or Walking Dead Franchies as easily as Black Summer / Train to Busan. This is a hige convenience and lets you plan long term campaigns or plotlines for your little group of survivors.

The character generation is straightforad and easy to follow while the game mechanics are simple enough to not get in the way of fluid play while still givng the players a feeling that things are not 100% GM driven.

Throughly recommend.

Been a fan of Rycon ever since he uploaded his first videos of Fallout New Vegas and when Z Land popped up I had to watch and and I'm currently on my third viewing. Its inspired me to DM my own game so i ordered a copy and the condition of the book already exceeds my expectations with a wealth of information to apply to any scenario of choosing. The artwork is tasteful and appropriate for inspiration and im 100% satisfied and look forward to more content from Stormforge Productions

I really liked this system! It was EXACTLY what I needed for my roleplay! (I reccomend giving the players some example sigills and having to figure out the runes and their rules by themselves, the players loved it! You can really learn the system and customize the spells. I think it is a little bit complicated because physics plays a role in it and it is in my opinion a little to specefic sometimes but it was very easy to just homebrew away for your needs! I really like it and recomend it!

I'm a fan. Z-Land is different from most zombie rpgs in a couple of ways 1. It has a very detailed look at the infection and stages of zombies. From the newly infected but still alive are fast moving rage monsters ("28 Days Later") to the dead shambling traditional zombies and then spore producing bloated zombies all the way to the Unborn, mutant children of the newly infected ("The Girl with All the Gifts"). And 2. it has three distinct phases of the zombie apocalypse with detailed timelines of each, character creation for each, and what the survivors/zombies are up to from day one to 10 years, 15 to 100, and then the distant future.

The game is promising, only that it is confusing, specially the character sheet and the wound resolution.

I hate to say the rules were poorly explained (even if you get the chance to buy the Z-Land and the Runed Age) and the work is a cram. Since 1.3.1 update to 1.4, the archetype was right there hanging until I pointed it out. Well, that's what every fan ought to do to help the game up, right? However, what the author did was to replace that section with Skill Array, which I think was a last minute fill up to keep 1.4.1 seems up to date. Less explanation or sample. Good if you are experieced player, but how about you are just getting into the game?

Another fuss is the rules on wound and the how the character sheet was made. Quite confusing because as the rules stated that for every wound level received, the ability check gets a corresponding penalty specially when hit twice on that same location. a Significant and a Grievous wound all together can get you -25 on the roll. Well, that is clear. Here is the confusion:

I asked Izak about the wound resolution if the character receive less than 30. Since the box (if you take a good look at the wound box) for 30 and below are categorize Minor, Significant, and Grievous. If you get 15 damage (for example) where will it go? To the Minor, the Significant, or the Grievous? You need to identify where is that category so you what know what penalty you will receive in your next ability check, be it no penalty, -10, or -15. The answer I got is "Any damage 0-20 is a Minor Wound, 21-50 is Significant, 51-80 is Grievous, and over 80 is destroyed. The numbers on the Character Sheet show the Constitution Skill Level at which point you get another Wound Slot. At Level 40 Constitution, you'd have 4 Wound Slots; at Level 70, you'd have 7 Wound Slots.". This is quite contradictory to the rules found in the book that says "For every Significant Wound a Hit Location (e.g.: Head, Left Arm) has, using that limb incurs a -10 Injury Modifier until that Wound is seen to. For every Grievous Wound a Hit Location has, using that limb incurs a -15 Injury Modifier until that Wound is seen to. For every Location Destroyed a Hit Location has, using that Limb incurs a -40 Injury Modifier. Minor Wounds incur no Injury Modifiers." How will you identify if it is a Minor, Significant, or Grievous wounds when all of the 3 boxes are marked 30?

After that, I get no reply!

A half baked game is as good as no game at all. I leave it up to you guys to check it out. And by the way Izak, in as much as I want to continue giving this game my recommendation, I could no longer endoese your work to would-be new players if your patience is thin on matters of gaming support.

It was well designed and was great to roleplay. Also, the dungeon monster was the best.

I died twice, once by robotic laser blast and once by hilariously self-destructing. Willing die again.

Z-Land is not your typical zombie apocalypse. The infection is not some ambiguous virus left to the reader's imagination, it is a fully fleshed out contagion with a history and explanation of how exactly it takes over it's host in gritty and horifying detail. The sickness will take over your still-living body and force you to charge after and consume the nearest source of flesh, human or animal. The terror does not end when you die, this pathogen will bring back your corpse as shambling, rotting a marionette, and these are only a fraction of the horror that humanity will face in the years and decades after The Longest Night.

Z-Land has three separate eras, the first goes by a million names names: Z-day, the apocalypse, the day the world died. It will rip your character from their normal everyday life and throw them into a nightmare of survival. The second era is a decade and a half after that fatefull night, a time when everyone has given up the pipe-dream of returning the world to the way it was 15 years ago. The cities have been reclaimed, but by the most rutheless and horrific dregs of society who have remade them in their own twisted image. For those who still retain their freedom among the countryside, along the old roads, or even underground, there are pale terrors that haunt the night. The third era is 150 years later when there are none still alive who remember the way the world was. The heinous next stage in human evolution have conqured the broken concrete shells of humanity's cities, the last homo sapiens finding refuge in the forest, underground, or on the oceans. It is a world that none today would recognize, and it is up to you to find out if this is the start of humanity's resurgence, or the last gasp of a dying world.

The game uses the lean and mean Sigil System also used in Stormforge Productions' other game The Runed Age, modified and beefed up to include hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and everything else a post-apocalypse survivor needs to suffer.

What lines would you cross in the name of survival? How far are you willing to go to see the next sunrise? At the end of the day there is only one objective...

...don't get bit...

If you are looking for a system to play a Apocalyptic / Zombie type of world , this is the product you have been looking for. It has stripped down the verbose and confusing aspects of (AFMBE , Dead Reign , End of the World ETC ETC)

I have found running with this rule set has simplified running a game and feedback from players has been nothing but positive. The added bonus is having the content from the YouTube run game to see how it works in actions.

Looking forward to supplements and wish the designers nothing but good luck on this project going forward.

I love a good horror mystery. Being able to roleplay in one is one of my favourite things to do. Haunt allows you to create in-depth characters with friends. Solving puzzles, figuring out secrets, and ultimately putting a stop to the haunt. It's amazing! Searching for clues, braving a spooky scary location, and interrogating people. There's no combat, Just your deductive reasoning, and the choices you make. I would HIGHLY recommend this game to anyone who loves to roleplay!

These were really fun. I use them to give to players, but I also used one for Lost Mines of Phandelver for the shrine in the main town. I used it as a kind of substory quest, originating from the shrine and connecting to the banshee encounter.

I've Spent a long time Speculating pen and paper sessions but I never really crossed into the realm of actually playing one, and Z-Land has inspired me to gm my first game. Its Highly customizable even at the beta level with Clear set of rules that can account for any situation in game, and with a promise of more to come I'm sold on the idea of Z-Land

So far so good i've played it a few times and i like it..

(META: This review has been created to be first posted on www.reddit.com/r/RPGReviews, sister sub to www.reddit.com/r/RPGDesign. RPGDesign is a “gathering place for anyone, either casually or professionally, designing, hacking, or otherwise working with the mechanics of pen-and-paper tabletop RPGs.” We at RPGDesign are a “non-denominational” group of designers who are passionate about role playing games. To help promote the projects and creations of our members, we are endeavoring to offer critiques and reviews of the creations of r/RPGDesign contributors.)

This is a review of the RPG Game “The Runed Age”, published by Stormforge Productions, written and by Izak Tait, co-produced by Scott Andrews. The Runed Age PDF is around 310 color pages and includes a beginner “adventure”. The book as some good art works in it, but not a whole lot.

The Runed Age is about fighting and intrigue in an Enlightenment-era type of world where magic is a skill that anyone can learn. Apparently, the secrets of magic are known and codified into Runes. And literally everyone, from every background, knows how to use some Runes. Of course, it’s not utopia… that would be boring. Runes need to be powered. They can be powered slowly with other forms of energy… which need to be generated. They can be powered with blood… which is not practical for most people. And they can be powered with a special magical plutonium metal called “Orichalcum.” And that metal is rare. So yeah… there is rarity in this world even if everyone can purify their own water, start magical campfires and create materials out of thin air.

Recently in this world, a Rune which produces electricity was discovered. Which means that now there is a hole lot of crazy R&D work going on to utilize the new Rune to make interesting devices to kill each other with.

The intro story and many of the fiction works in this game are “pulpy”, but nicely written and engaging. These stories paint a picture of a morally ambiguous world were technology and magic come together. However, this book is written to be understandable to players new to the game.

In many ways I feel like this is an RPG of the Japanese manga Full Metal Alchemist (no… not anime / manga feel… I’m talking about the world setting), with magic and new magic-powered technologies, in a diverse late-Enlightenment world where old institutions will change because of the new technologies. It’s like a “steam-punk” world without they actual steam, but otherwise similar aesthetics. I do wish there was more art that showed more pictures of the world instead of character art. That would help us understand the feeling a little bit more.

The Runed Age uses the Sigil system created for this game. The system seems to be a pretty typical d100, roll under system. This is nothing new, but it is my feeling that this type of system works well for gritty, possibly tactical games that have specialized weapons and specialized characters. It’s simple in concept, yet has a science-fiction-y feel… like a more tactical yet cleaner version of Call of Cthulhu. But the system is not exactly a D100 Basic Role Playing (BRP) game. There are no levels and now classes. There are not as many skills as in other BRP games. Hit locations are determined by reversing the digits on the to-hit roll. Damage is determined by comparing the different between the degrees of success of the attackers and defenders rolls. This is straight forward, yet it does require doing some math.

Character generation is like old Traveller. Lots of tables to generate an extensive and detailed character history. You can pick any background you want – supposedly all the background combinations are balanced. But I think it would be fun to plan out my age then roll 10 tables to determine a detailed past history (which also determines my starting skill levels).

The magic system of The Runed Age is somewhat unique. “ Runes are drawn, etched, carved, painted, sculpted, etc. and then energy is put into them, and then they work. If you think of the more traditional games and media you have seen magic in, the runic arrays here are more like enchantments and magical traps. BUT, unlike your more traditional media, you can do anything you want with the arrays … From fireblasts to blood draining swords to hoverboards (ashamedly yes, really) the only limitation to what you can do with the runes is your own imagination.”

A type of graphic runic language, or Rune-HTML, which players need to learn to create runes (and every character can do this). It’s cool, but requires players really learn it. The Runes are both enchantments and also special powers which the playe can use. I think it may seem to be a hassle to learn the actual runes, but once you do so, it looks very cool and is not difficult. Not to mention, as the game is called The Runed Age, actually writing down the runes helps visualize what the characters are doing.

Magic is handled by either using blood (ie. player health) or using Sigals, which are like Fate points but only power runic arrays. Sigals are gained by narrative mechanics… “GM Intrusions” which are a little like Compels in FATE. So it is a very flexible system, and, in my opinion, offers a balance between traditional and modern RPG styles.

In Summary:

This looks to be a fun game. As I like class-less, level-less systems more than systems derived from The Most Popular RPG in the World… and like traditional style games more than “story creation” games, this is something I would be happy to play. I really like the free-form magic system. If you particularly like steampunk or alternate technology settings set in a European 17th – early 20th century setting, I think this is a great game to try out.