Jobclassttrpg
RPG Bookclub 66
YouTube video by Forthesect
www.youtube.com
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Additionally the actual message being delivered never comes into play, the world has rich detail that is not really integrated into the system, and it is a bit of a disappointment for being replaced by the hollow to only lead to less character detail rather than a true bad or corrupted end.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
This can probably be fixed easily, by designer or homebrew, but it is a shame for such a central system to be almost encouraged to avoid.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
More players also mean more drives with no increased difficulty, and for some reason the more players the more health and fewer conflicts occur in the Hollow encounter.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
If an echo is failed, a drive is reversed, the term changing to its opposite and random drift being added to another player on use, allowing the possibility of randomness, but only after already maxing a drift.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
it is very easy to avoid ever encountering an echo, which is a huge part of the system and necessary for the climax to even occur at all.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
There is a major issue with the echo system though. Since drift only occurs if players choose, resists after every encounter, and they gain new drives with their own drift pools each time,
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Overall the game seems well designed and compelling, but the writing is sometimes vague or incorrect though context clues and an appropriate level of redundancy make it easy to figure out what's what.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
If they fail the alternate version takes over, and even though the mission is successful details for the pc remain shrouded in mystery. On success, there is one final memory that reveals the pc's reason for being a courier.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Upon advancing through all three encounters, the journey is a success, but before the players reach civilization, if they have even one tainted memory they face a twisted version of themselves created by the waste (and the GM), a hollow that sends distorted visions of the past their way.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
dificultIf players overcome all 3 conflicts stress and drift reset but max stress decreases by stress/5. This creates less room for failure in further encounters, but players gain additional drives with each memmory. The game alternates between memories and encounters for a total of 3 encounters.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
and if a drive gets 3 drift that player spends their turns in a gm created version of the associated memory (echo), warped by the influence of the waste, with adjusted difficulty values and the memory becoming tainted after 3 failures.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Each encounter is composed of 3 conflicts of varying difficulty, a failed roll is described by the gm and adds one stress ending the journey once 20 is reached,
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
If the attempt is skill based they have to hit or go under a target number, force based exceed a target number but each result is added to the next, and either way if the attempt is in line with a players drive the die size used improves but one drift is applied.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Players decide whether to use skill or Force, then each player takes turn describing their attempt then rolls a die.
November 18, 2025 at 3:49 PM
After roleplaying this memory, the player in control chooses a one word drive, or driving trait based off of it. Once every player has created a memory, they encounter some sort of waste based danger (examples provided) created by the GM and take turns attempting to escape or overcome it.
November 18, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Once pillars are chosen, detail's of the pc, a courier delivering a message across a post magical wasteland, are developed in play. As play begins, each player takes control of the pc in a flashback and improvises a memory related to their pillar while other characters act as "npcs".
November 18, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Each player controls one "pillar" representing an aspect of the character such as desire and values, and the past of the character is revealed through play as they journey through the waste, facing physical dangers and the wastes corrupting influence on their mind.
November 18, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Pillars: What Remains is a 3-5 player narrative and GM based rpg where all other players have partial control over 1 character.
November 18, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Additionally the formatting of the book, while eye catching, sometimes harms readability and mechanics such as fathom sickness and death rules need more polish.

My full thoughts:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGSp...
RPG Bookclub 65
YouTube video by Forthesect
www.youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:27 AM
However while it describes itself as a narrative game, it seems more OSR inspired.

The focus is on monsters and hazards, and the provided campaign has no named npcs and a spare plot.

Details focus on descriptions of locations for a crawl and a list of monsters that could be encountered in them.
November 6, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Dreadnought is a stylish, illustrated, rules lite/med lovecraftian horror pbta rpg.

It features dread, where failure gets more likely as pcs encounter monsters and hazards, and an event might occur every in game hour.

It has a good setting with nice bits of lore sprinkled throughout the book.
November 6, 2025 at 4:27 AM