Game Reviews Based on Actual Play

[hawkeyefan]

Can we crowdsource a list of TTRPG reviewers who definitely play the games they review? Here's the list so far:

Quinns Quest
Seth Skorkowsky

Any format will do. Written reviews, podcasts, youtube, whatever you've got.

Quinns has a new video up about one of my favorites... Heart! Great game and a solid review.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Maybe worth mentioning that I've shifted to listening to "Actual Play" podcast campaigns for systems I'm interested in, specifically looking for ones that include a wrap-up session/review at the end or include shorter micro-reviews of gameplay in each session. Unfortunately haven't found one specific source that reliably does these, and even a short campaign takes a lot of time to listen to - but at least you know what review work they do is coming from real experience and you can usually get a pretty good grasp of gameplay loops and basic mechanics.

 

[gorice]

Paul Beakley of the Indie Game Reading Club

It's incredibly niche (only indie games, and only the ones he feels like writing about), but he plays them all.
Well, I mean, I didn't personally verify his play-time, but I trust him.

Until I am able to appropriate funding for my Fun Police, we'll just have to takes people's word for it.

Also, niche is good! I already know way too much about D&D.

Maybe worth mentioning that I've shifted to listening to "Actual Play" podcast campaigns for systems I'm interested in, specifically looking for ones that include a wrap-up session/review at the end or include shorter micro-reviews of gameplay in each session. Unfortunately haven't found one specific source that reliably does these, and even a short campaign takes a lot of time to listen to - but at least you know what review work they do is coming from real experience and you can usually get a pretty good grasp of gameplay loops and basic mechanics.

This is an interesting idea. Unfortunately for me, I'm allergic to watching or listening to other people play RPGs. If you can remember any series that to a wrap-up discussing the system they played, I'd be interested.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

If you can remember any series that to a wrap-up discussing the system they played, I'd be interested.

I'm regrettably terrible about bookmarking things after I'm done with them, but I recall these folks having some decent wrap-ups, although you kind of have to skip to somewhere near the end of the last cast and hunt around to hit the actual play retrospective discussion bits, they aren't off on their own - and obviously the ongoing series don't have a last cast, so that won't work on those. Team-Up Moves has actual wrap-up episodes at the end of each game's playthrough, but they only do superhero RPGs and appear to be defunct, or at least on a hiatus lasting more than half a year now.

 

[Theory of Games]

The Legion of Myth youtube channel. They have tons of reviews of Palladium games, Call of Cthulhu, GURPS, Champions and Mutant: Year Zero to name just a few. The play sessions of most of their reviewed games are watchable on their channel. Yay!