Veins of the Earth: RPG Book Review 

It is definitely a different style of game. As a kid, I disliked it a lot. I always equipped my character with torches, rations, etc., but they NEVER came up during play. Now that I'm running games and have a better understanding of how to incorporate them, my players find it fun. I will announce, "Time to cross a torch off your sheet!" and they will groan and being taking inventory across the players to see how many torches are left. Last session there was at least a 5 minute discussion on whether they should buy standard rations or iron rations. All that said, these kids have no context for modern games. They've never watched any actual plays and don't have any preconceived notions about being universe-saving superheroes. They just know they're adventurers trying to earn some coin and maybe one or two of them want to help people along the way, but the others just want to stay alive another day.

I had a phase in 3e where my characters had a lot of different gear but I also got tired of it not mattering as well as the encumbrance tracking down to fractions of pounds. Now I'm again a big fan of survival type gaming and tracking vital resources but using slot type encumbrance.

@@paavohirn3728 I really like slot encumbrance as well. Makes things so much easier to track while still making items and resources count for something.

@@daddyrolleda1 Yeah. Also I'd like to see more inventory space on character sheets. 😅

Oh my goodness, that is amazing! I would love to see that! And thank you for watching and commenting!

Wow that is amazing! How wonderful!

Thanks! That's kind of what I was trying to do with this particular series, but maybe I should do some follow-ups with more detail and show specifics on how I used them in my daughter's campaign?

@@daddyrolleda1 definitely!

@@daddyrolleda1 that's it! It would be awesome 👍

While I'm here, Veins is a fantastic read & it's a book I've wanted to campaign in for ages. The module Deep Carbon Observatory, mentioned in this video & by the same authors, is an excellent setup for a Veins campaign; I'm hoping to run both when I get some free time. I've been hoping for years now, though, so don't hold your breath.

@@Ninjat126 Thank you so much for watching and commenting. I really appreciate it. It took me YEARS to start the game for my daughter. I had wanted to for years and began the discussion with her when she was in 2nd Grade to gauge her interest. But, I wanted everything to be "just right" which just meant, for me, that I was procrastinating. She's an only child and when the pandemic lockdowns hit (she was in 5th grade at the time), I realized that we needed an outlet for her, scheduled, where she could interact with her friends. That's how the game started. Our first session was virtual, then we moved to backyards at different tables per family. But it helped her emotional well-being so much. We have another session scheduled this Saturday! It's also a way for me to continue to engage with her as she gets older and gets into things that I don't have context for like makeup and fashion. Thanks again! I hope you do get to run a game soon!

@@daddyrolleda1 , .. I had a friend I met close to 20years ago that ran a MtG & RPG shop. Gaming systems, AD&D2ndE, Skills & Powers all so known as AD&D2ndE.75 or 2.5 or 2.75 on how you want to say it. WEG west end games Star Wars d6, TMNT d% system, Whitewolf World of Darkness (WoD) Vampire d10 system. Shadow Run/Cyber Punk mixed into our Star Wars. Along with WotC 3e, then 3.5 D&D/Star Wars follow with 4e Saga Edition. Needless to say, we home brew the h3ll out of our house game system. His daughter grew up arguing with her word math problems for the most efficient effect bonus. My friends' daughter went into the navy as a senor tech who crew mates also grew up with Star Wars rpg. By length equaling to weight class for ship hull points and number of weapons mounts. 2.) I was dealing with a group of people that turn a 6sec melee round at Superman/Flash speeds into a 10pages of word math problems for forty minutes on how to take apart a building at 50x sound to rescue the people within. Peter Parker and Jimmy Olsen were there on a photo news gig. Spiderman stands in shock & awe, with Jimmy saying, " First time being rescue ?"

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed the video, and thank you for watching and commenting!

Oh, no! I have quite a few things over the years that I've regretted not purchasing at the time, so I can relate!

Yeah, it only went through two printings but someone else in the comments mentioned the two creators have gotten the publishing rights from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, so hopefully they will find a well to publish a new edition soon. Thanks for watching and commenting!

Thank you so much for watching and commenting, and for this information! I had no idea they had reacquired the publishing rights! I'm sure they can find a publisher - it's such a popular book. I sure hope they do. Thanks again for letting me know!

@@daddyrolleda1 yeah LotFP always gives republishing rights back to the creators. It, along with paying them 1/4-1/3 of the profits, was very controversial with other publishers who tried to blackball them for treating their creators so well. Patrick Stuart has said when it happens it will take a long time (as in many years) because not only will they publish it, but reformat it to A4 rather than the A5 version it was published in. It will have to be completely reformatted and some changes will take place.

Yes! All great stuff! I see your point on some of the monsters and I've often shied away from using weird stuff like that in my games (even going as far back as the 1E Fiend Folio, for which I didn't use a ton of monsters). For this new game I'm running for my daughter and her friends, I'm trying to be a bit more open and allowing more weird stuff to help expand the decision of fantasy and take advantage of all the magic and stuff that I tend to tone down in my other games.

Thank you so much, Steph! I really appreciate you watching and commenting! I hope you stick around and enjoy some of my other reviews as well as my "D&D History" videos - those ones seem to be really popular.

It's so inspirational!

They called it the Underearth even though it was on Oerth.

Yes, I chat about this series in my video on the Greyhawk setting: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ek1znTOMpl4.html

I really dig it, and I've used parts of it in the game I run for my daughter and her friends. I also like their companion book, "Into the Cess & Citadel" (basically the same thing, but for cities instead of wilderness).

Oh, wow! That's fantastic to hear! I'm so glad I was able to introduce you to some new books, and I hope you like them as much as I do and use them in your games. Thank you so much for watching and commenting! I just posted today about A Folklore Bestiary and, as always, provided a few alternatives. Cheers!

I've never played LotFP but I've used ideas from it in the B/X game I run for my daughter and her friends. This is definitely a great book, regardless of system/edition, and one that I think most DMs could benefit from. Thank you so much for watching and commenting!

Thank you very much - I really appreciate that! And yes, I'm always taking mental notes in situations as opportunities for things to enrich my games, whether it's reading a comic book, visiting a museum, or driving though a National Park. Incorporating all that stuff makes the game much more immersive!

Ha! I'm sorry? I hope you saw that part wherein I addressed how difficult this book is to get right now. I apologize for that - when I put this video in my queue to make, it was still available. I'm sure it'll pop up again soon.

@@daddyrolleda1 No worries. I have a list of stuff I want... so it gets added to the want list. ;-) I'll get it eventually.

On sale for less than $2

@@dicariel Thanks... yeah, I normally never touch PDFs (unless they come with the print copy), but for $1.25, I sprung for it. :-) I'm still going to seek a hardcopy eventually, but that was good to grab at that price. Thanks for the alert! :-D

Yeah, print copies of this are in very high demand, but I see them pop up on Ebay or Noble Knight Games every once in a while, but they're usually very pricy, in the hundreds of dollars. My understanding is that the two creators have retained the rights from the original publisher (which is a standard thing for this publisher to "give them back") and they are potentially working on a revised version, but they're going to make it a bigger size (like a standard A4 size) which means it will require entirely new layout. No idea how long that will take.

@@daddyrolleda1 Oh that's interesting! I think I can live with my pdf and wait for the new version to go into print.

Thank YOU!. I really appreciate your support and I hope you enjoy the channel. Please do let me know if there are topics you'd be interested to see me cover. Thanks again!

Great minds think alike! See: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0IwDLMcTQDg.html and ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0IwDLMcTQDg.html

Yes, for sure. I just put "Underdark" in the thumbnail as a way to entice folks who were more familiar with that term into watching the video. Thanks for watching and commenting!

I had heard that the original creators, after regaining the publishing rights, had mentioned the possibility of a reprint after a revision that would also involve increasing the page size from A5 to A4, which would then necessitate a new layout, so it would be quite a while. Thanks for watching and commenting!

I remember chatting with you about that, and really liking the "real time" tracking of light sources when I heard about it. Very cool!

I totally remember that scene, and that movie! I actually own the soundtrack on vinyl and was lucky to see a double feature of Big Trouble in Little China along with Escape from New York at an old-school theater here in L.A. called the Egyptian Theater. They hosted a panel in-between the two movies and John Carpenter was there to talk about them! I always thought the eyeball thing in BTiLC looked a lot like a beholder!

I just saw that sale! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for watching and commenting! In its current form, I'm about 99.99% likely it won't be reprinted again. My understanding is that Lamentations of the Flame Princess (the publisher) have returned the rights back to the creators (which is their standard operating procedure after a certain time has past). I've heard the creators are toying with publishing a revised version on their own, but that version will be in a larger size (a more "standard" A4, I think) and that change will necessitate an entirely new layout, which could take years. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! At this point, I think Ebay is your friend!

@@daddyrolleda1your welcome I enjoy your videos very much :)

As with most Lamentations of the Flame Princess publications, the rights have reverted back to the creators, and I have heard that they are considering a revised version, but this time in an A4 size instead of A5, which means needing to do completely new layout to accommodate, so if they do reprint it, it will be awhile.

Thank you so much for your compliment, and for watching this video despite your reservations about the company. I totally get it, and I completely understand. There are certain creators (not just from this company, but in general), whom I will never feature here. My friend Kelvin Green has created quite a few books for this publisher, but I have found him to be a very upstanding person and I enjoy the content he creates, which is why I featured him adventure "Big Terror in the Streets" as my first video. For this book specifically, I know there's kind of a love/hate relationship with it. It is very much an "art" book (not in the visual sense, but the overall aesthetic). Maybe that's not the right word, but the writing style is very full and dense with its imagery, and there is a lot of stuff in here that is very inspirational but that could seem to be difficult to use in a game. I think a lot of folks dislike this book because they thought it was going to be an adventure, when in fact it is more of a setting book describing cultures, monsters, and procedures for exploring an underground environment. I can certainly try to show some more examples in the future of how I use this book in the game I run for my daughter and her friends, but the short version is that I've used some of the monsters, adapted a few of the cultures, and definitely used the descriptions to help when describing certain cave features. I didn't run Keep on the Borderlands "as is" but changed a lot of the cultures and creatures included in the original module, partially influenced by the DungeonCraft RU-vid series "The Caves of Carnage." Using this book to help with that was very helpful. I hope you enjoy my installment on the 1E Dungeon Master's Guide when you see it! And once again, I really appreciate your support. Thank you!

Yes, agreed. When I looked a day or two ago, it was going on Ebay for ~$400 which is ridiculous. I mean, it's a good book and one of my favorites, but it's not an antique or anything. At that point, just get the PDF!!!

@@daddyrolleda1 at that price printing up the pdf becomes cost effective

I own the PDF, it's fantastic, but I ALSO own a hardcopy of Fire on the Velvet Horizon. Let me say, Scrap Princess' art and the general "thing" of these books just BEG to be held in hardcopy, not Ctrl+F searched on a phone. And this is coming from a big fan of digital rulebooks, too! Still wouldn't pay $400 for a hardcopy, though.

@@Ninjat126 Oh, my goodness, no way. I mean, for one, that's just not in my price range of something I'd pay for. I've been slowly finishing up my AD&D 1E Hardback Collection (finally finished!) and even for those, the most I paid was ~$100 for a Cthulhu version of Deities & Demigods. Veins is great quality and the design is spectacular, and as you said, it begs to be held in the hand and read/used at the table, for not for $400. Hopefully the next printing, whenever that is, will be reasonably priced AND printed in enough quantities to satisfy demand. Thanks again for watching & commenting!