Unboxed: Against the Darkmaster

Saved from garage storage is Against the Darkmaster, admittedly, a solid game, and a d100 Rolemaster and HARP adjacent game of Tolkien-style adventure, although in this game, the "Darkmaster" is randomly generated and has a different plot to destroy the world each time. I never seem to get a chance to play this, so I put it in storage. Since my d100 games are coming back to my shelves, I decided to add this to the fun one that I play and shelve it alongside the others.

AtD is a d100 game that did Kin, Culture, and Vocation long back in 2016, when 5E was still in its floundering phase and everyone was still playing Pathfinder 1e. I guess you steal from the best. This game was so far ahead of its time it is not funny.

And the art beats most old-school games to this day, it is amazingly consistent, beautiful, striking, inspiring, and amazing in every way. the only game that compares to this in regards to art is ACKS II. Too many games these days pull out that tired, AI-looking, Supercuts dyed hairdo, no-helmet, Steampunk-adjacent, too modern, cosplay art that is pure visual garbage. Games should be beautiful and inspire us to play them.

I have too many games that are "passable" and "at least the art is unoffensive" that do not meet the mark. Into the donation box you go. I have higher standards these days.

AtD is a visual delight in comparison to today's games. Never change.

Like Rolemaster and HARP, this is a classic homage to the days where if we wanted Tolkien, we played Tolkien and ignored D&D, Vampire, Rifts, and all of the 1990s games. These days, Tolkien has moved on to a new set of rules and publisher, but we still have this and HARP and AtD, the original and classic games.

Sorry about keeping you in the garage for a year, I had to get over a 5E problem. The problem with 5E is that we have to keep telling ourselves we can make it into something we really want. Most of the time, what we really want will be found in other, better games.

Against the Darkmaster is one.

It took a while to learn to stop lying to myself, but at least I came around. 5E will never be the best game for anything, it is the McDonald's of tabletop gaming. We keep having to tell ourselves, this is the best we can do, we have no other choice, when better options are out there and waiting for players to pick up the torch.

There are better games. Be brave enough to give them a chance.