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Charles Dunwoody said:

The cassette boasts a mighty musical lineup

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Cassettes are nostalgia for nostalgias sake. Records have great sound quality so I get that, and tapes served a purpose before CDs and digital music, but really a tape? I guess I'm too old to understand.

If I somehow track down a car or boom box old enough to play this I'm just popping in my Rio cassette or my summer jams 86 tape recorded from the radio.

I don't get it. A cassette tape?
The Magnus Archives did this for their Backerkit. It fits their theme, but honestly, it's a waste of time and money.

Some artists still do limited releases on cassette, it's entirely because it fits the vibe- not for music quality.

Question regarding the Lesser Key to the Celestial Legion: is this a new book? I went to go pick it up at DriveThruRPG and it says it was uploaded in 2019. Just want to make sure I am getting the correct book!

Cassettes are back amongst hipsters and indie games. Honestly, it's not any sillier than bell bottoms or ska.

Mothership in particular has a ton of modules that include soundtracks or audio files on cassette.

dave2008 said:

Question regarding the Lesser Key to the Celestial Legion: is this a new book? I went to go pick it up at DriveThruRPG and it says it was uploaded in 2019. Just want to make sure I am getting the correct book!

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I can't tell. Looks like a kickstarter happened in 2019 and I saw a publish date of 2021 for one version and this one is new for 2024. So this may be a new printing? Should be the same one I think.

Ghost2020 said:

I don't get it. A cassette tape?
The Magnus Archives did this for their Backerkit. It fits their theme, but honestly, it's a waste of time and money.

Click to expand...

There are still a lot of cars with cassette players on the road, tho' many of those no longer work.

When using CrO₂, plus dolby noise reduction, on a suitably equipped deck without undue magnetization, one can get initial plays at a level comparable to vinyl. Often, better. (keep in mind that most pre-1995 vinyl was mastered on CrO₂ tape. So were most CDs. )

Good tape is just as good as vinyl... at first. Both get worse with repeated playing.

Cassette also seems to be making a comeback of sorts... but all the new decks I've seen reviews of describe the one Chinese-made mechanismas, well, post-consumer food.

Tape was still common for Television as well into the 2010s. SVHS was used by the station my wife worked at through 2009... according to a friend working there after, they were still using SVHS for all programming that wasn't arriving on CD-ROM. (some arrived on VHS, not SVHS.)

As I have Ulfenkarn, here's an ultra-brief review:

1. This is Soulbound dialed down with regards to character power. You're a protagonist, just a little less overwhelming.
2. General premise is that there is a city-state overrun by evil with some suprisingly sane individuals still inside.
3. You're there to avert the inevitable. The odds are not in your favor.

If you're getting an impression of , well you might be quite close to the general picture of things. The difference would be that the city is run by corrupt vampire nobility (i.e. you can pay them with your blood to look the other way), the the blood is very much the coin here.

Here's a sample on random undead:
(p.27)
The Wights of the city and the other strange undead, of which there are many, often cling to their former haunts, but most are of little use to the living. The majority are silent and hollow creatures, lacking sufficient awareness to interact with anyone or perform useful tasks. In rare cases, some appear trapped in a kind of long-ingrained monotony, performing simple and singular actions that mirror some part of their former lives. They are all shades of Mournhold’s former glory, exemplars of fallen pride. The Ulfenwatch leave these pitiable figures alone; their existence aids in further demoralising the living, proliferating despair and misery that Radukar intends to one day draw upon.

The city is so down on its luck, that even the living dead and the living leave each other alone.

Regarding character rules, as I have mentioned, the power was dialed down from the default Soulbound:

ү Characters are created with 20 XP.
ү You can be an Aelf, Duardin, Human or Ogor. You cannot choose to be a Stormcast Eternal or Sylvaneth.
ү You begin play with 300 drops worth of Common equipment (Unless an Archetype starts with Aqua Ghyranis as listed, convert any remaining drops into whalebone or blood after equipment is purchased, as per page 132).
ү You are not Soulbound, therefore you can’t use Soulfire. You get Hero Points however.
ү It takes one hour to Take a Breather instead of 10 minutes (Soulbound, page 154).
ү You do not recover a Wound when you Rest. An ally with the Chirurgeon Talent (page 56) can heal Wounds, as can a number of NPCs in the city — for a price.
ү You recover one Wound during downtime, or you can take the Seek Medical Attention Endeavour to recover all Wounds.

You gain full Mettle when a fight begins (cue battle music), and you regain Mettle when you take damage or get Frightened. No free Mettle each round, so take care when spending it.

Archetypes:
Aelven Exile (a sniper)
Doomsayer (a cleric)
Guard Captain (an armored warrior)
Kharadon Reneger (a war engineer of sorts)
Last Scion (a skirmisher warrior)
Ogor Mercenary (a bruiser warrior)
Shyishan Scholar (a wizardly specialist with strong death vibes)
Vampire Hunter (a gun and a sword person)

The book is split into seven parts:

• intro (background for the city and some history)
• character creation information
• a lot of city locations by quarter (with a great looking map)
• gm advice section (includes how the setting changes when the end grows nigh)
• several one page adventures
• five adventure locations
• antagonists and monsters

Unfortunately, I haven't played this yet, and you need Soulbound to use it. Otherwise, probably pretty interesting revisiting of core Warhammer themes dialed up to eleven (no direct Chaos involvement though).

ruemere said:

As I have Ulfenkarn, here's an ultra-brief review:

Here's a sample on random undead:
(p.27)
The Wights of the city and the other strange undead, of which there are many, often cling to their former haunts, but most are of little use to the living. The majority are silent and hollow creatures, lacking sufficient awareness to interact with anyone or perform useful tasks. In rare cases, some appear trapped in a kind of long-ingrained monotony, performing simple and singular actions that mirror some part of their former lives. They are all shades of Mournhold’s former glory, exemplars of fallen pride. The Ulfenwatch leave these pitiable figures alone; their existence aids in further demoralising the living, proliferating despair and misery that Radukar intends to one day draw upon.

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Wow, that is good stuff! I don't play Soulbound (I hadn't even heard of it until now) but that's amazing and I might have to check this book out.

The only thing more gruesome and horrifying is the thought of listening to music on cassette again.