Disclaimer: I was involved in making this product. My opinion is highly biased.

Gruechute continues to surprise. The first issue was a ragtag mix of rules for different systems, most non-DnD. The zine seemed to scream at the current OSR crowd: "Other games exist! You can homebrew them too!" This second number puts the money where its mouth is, climbs on a soapbox and proclaims some ideology. OSR is a fine movement and it has shown DnD in a completely new light to me. But do we want to stop there? There are other fine, old rpg's, with completely different rules and mindsets than DnD. It's an untapped goldmine. And this zine is going to teach you how to tap it.

Also, there are some stuff in the appendix. Rules for making PCs into (demi)gods and a table for food descriptions.

But if you buy it, buy it for the art. It's gorgeous.

Disclaimer: I was involved in making this product and some of my writing is published within. Thus my review is as far from objective as possibly can.

That out of the way, there are two ways to review this zine: As an actually useful piece of content and as a statement-bordering-art:

The actual usability of the content depends on whether you play the right games and enjoy additional rules for things that might come in handy at some point of time. If you play DnD (especially OSR), you are most likely to get your money's worth as the zíne has two pieces of varying usability: There's the Fantasy Breeding Table and an adventure location. The table works and is far better than any other alternatives. The adventure... well, it's edgy and considering the current political climate I am not sure if the module is unfunny and offensive or a scathingly critical message. It has some clever ideas, so you might want to atleast mine it for them. Then you have some rules for GURPS, Cyberpunk and Exalted. They might be interesting, if you play those games as the new rulesets cover some areas previously ignored. Each article also mimics the titular game's writing style, so if you DON'T play those games you might want to have a look at them to see what those games are up to. Special thanks to the Pillaging rules for Exalted 3rd edition, which show the game's crafting rules have much unused potential and mercilessly parodies them at the same time. As an actual piece of gaming content, I rate this two to three stars depending on how much of the content is relevant to you.

But as a statement? Boy, this zine does rock. Most of the content parodies their parent gamelines, and you can tell from the content that it has been lovingly created by an author who knows their source material. Most of all this zine is a homage to the flourishing homebrew culture that resides in the RPG culture: if your game lacks anything, you can do-it-yourself and if you share it, maybe someone else will find it useful too. And have you looked at the art? A zine so small caliber has no place having art such as this. The three artists' styles range from grim and foreboding to whimsical and there is a lot to look at. I could recommend this solely because of the art. (And there's a rumour that the special print edition has an alternative cover - so be sure to pick it up, if you can!)

The file itself has little to say. The layout is passable - surely it's better than most of the free content in the internet, but it does not come close to Beseeching Parliament or any professional publication. It's clearly been done print in mind, so the presentation (especially the gorgeous two-page spreads) suffer a bit because of it. The PDF has not been hyperlinked nor indexed, but in a zine this small it's not much of an issue.

So should you pick it up? It's pay what you want! Get it and skim through it next time you want a laugh or read some unusual rules. And if you like what you see, send a couple of moneys towards the publisher. There might be more where this came from...

An interesting and fresh take on a standard adventuring location! Instead of burgling an abandoned mansion, the owner (and his mother) are still home, and the PC's are encouraged to get the loot by wits and deception. The adventurers can seek employment and thus get a chance to scout the location and maybe even arrange a convenient accident.

The module is well laid out, and I especially thank for the collected treasure table in the end of the book - it lists every valuable item in the mansion in one convenient table. There are even values given for the lumber, roof tiles and floorboards, if the players want to sell absolutely everything in the house! The room descriptions are arranged neatly in bullet points, so the important stuff is immediately available when needed. But because the module leans heavily on its NPC's, their actions, and motivations, I recommend the Referee to give it one thorough read-through before running it. The PDF is meticulously indexed and linked.

The adventure has a rich background, which plays a vital role in the happenings and events of the module. Thus this book suits best for a patient group that enjoys engaging NPC's and investigating locations. Unfortunately, a lot of the richness is easily lost for a more trigger-happy group. There is not a lot to kill in the mansion, so a party expecting that will be severely disappointed. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of potential for interesting encounters in there, but a lot of them require engaging the NPC's for them to be revealed.

In a nutshell, this book is an absolute bargain as a Pay What You Want and a strong beginning for a promising game designer.