Thunder Road: Ignition is Restoration Games’ attempt to streamline the production, ruleset, and gameplay of Thunder Road: Vendetta, itself an update of the 1980s Milton Bradley game Thunder Road, designed by Jim Keifer.

I’m on record here at Meeple Mountain as saying that Thunder Road: Vendetta is perfect in every single way save for one: the game runs about 30 minutes too long, and it does that pretty consistently regardless of player count. It’s gorgeous, it’s hilarious, it is a great design, and it has almost unlimited amounts of content in its deluxe Maximum Chrome version. Between that version, and the expansion Carnival of Chaos, there might not be a better “beer and pretzels” laugher in my collection.

When Thunder Road: Ignition arrived, I immediately set it up and waited for my nine-year-old to come home. He’s loved Thunder Road: Vendetta for a couple years now, and I was sure he would want to play Thunder Road: Ignition. He saw the cover artwork (once again brought to you by Marie Bergeron) and smiled that big smile. He was home. Then he asked a simple question, which I think defines the break point of where we landed on Thunder Road: Ignition.

“Where are the choppers?”

Son, There…

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I stumbled across Pirate Borg back at Gen Con a few years ago, impressed by publisher Limithron's booth setup and the overall presentation of the swashbuckling RPG book. Fast forward to the present, where the newly minted Down Among the Dead and Cabin Fever supplements are sitting on my desk alongside the Pirate Borg Starter Set and it's high tide time that I provide an in-depth review of everything Pirate Borg.

Pirate Borg: Ashes to Ashes

Built on the 3rd party license for Mörk Borg, Pirate Borg mixes the apocalyptic setting from its namesake with its own spin on pirates and the undead. The game takes place in an alternate history of our world right around 1692 in an analogous region to the Caribbean known as the—wait for it—Dark Caribbean. Catchy, no?

As with any of the Borg games, the focus is on player agency and not so much on the minutiae of maintaining an extensive character sheet. Creating a new character is lightning fast and can be generated completely randomly, if desired, using any of the six core classes. Because of the inclusion of undead and fantastical creatures in this world, there are also options to play as an undead or a tall tale such as a merfolk, aquatic person, or sentient animal. Whether you want to sling…

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