The Inside Scoop on Gaming

"I decide to pull a 360 ollie kickflip down those suckahs"

MetalMan's Review of "sk8er" by Nathan Hill

NOTE: The game rules contain profanity. I am personally not opposed to such language (and use it frequently) but, for the sake of those who do get offended by such words, consider this your warning before you look at the actual game. This review will refrain from being a potty-mouth.

The Premise:
sk8er is a game of urban street skating played using dice. Its not so much an RPG as it is a dice game. Competition comes from trying to do more outrageous stunts than the next guy and win a sponsorship before the cops show up.

What Ya Get:
sk8er is a very quick printout as it is only a three page PDF file. You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader software or some other third party program capable of rendering the PDF format before you can make use of the game.

Cost:
Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Gratis. Free.

Appearance:
sk8er is a notch above most free games because an effort at making it look reasonably attractive was made. The game logo as well as section headings are done in a grafitti style of writing and two videocaptures of actual skateboarding stunts are included. It isn't the flashiest thing out there but it does look better than eighty percent of most free games out there. So, sk8er gets above average marks for its looks.

The Game:
The game itself is very simple. A player is picked to be "Mayor" (the referee). All the players write their names down and what trick they're good at under their name. The Mayor describes the first obstacle the players are faced with (handrails, concrete pipes, etc.) and they have to describe the stunt they're going to try to pull off on it. The Mayor figures out the difficulty for the trick described and the player rolls a d6 trying to match or beat the number. If he is successful, the Mayor puts a tick mark under their name. The player who managed to pull of the hardest trick on that obstacle recieves a bonus tick mark.

If you attempt a trick using the stunt that you said you were good at when the game started, you get to roll 2d6 instead. The first player to get twelve tick marks gains sponsorship and wins the game. You can stop a person from pulling off twelve very easy tricks in a row to win by challenging them to a duel. The Mayor comes up woth an obstacle for the duel and each of the two duelists try to outdo each other. If one player pulls off a stunt, the other person must perform a stunt of equal or higher difficulty. The first person to fail a roll looses one of their tick marks.

Overall Impression:
It's not my thing. I'm not a skateboarder so my knowledge of the tricks and maneuvers would hinder me in such a game. It is definately geared towards a specific niche. With that said, however, sk8er could be useful if you're trying to show maybe a younger teen brother or someone else not into gaming what some of it is like. Its fast and simple and you can get them to use their imagination to describe what they're doing. It's the "cops and robbers" scenario used at the beginning of almost every RPG but updated to take on some of the more hip sensibilities of the younger generation. If you know someone who might be interested in such a game, you might want to print this one and give it to them.

MetalMan signing off.

sk8er
sk8er Capsule Review by MetalMan on 03/11/01 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average) sk8er d00dz! A RPG/dice game of urban street skating. Product: sk8er Author: Nathan Hill Category: Dice Game Company/Publisher: Free RPG Line: Cost: FREE Page count: 3 Year published: 2000 ISBN: SKU: Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by MetalMan on 03/11/01 Genre tags: Modern day Other	"I decide to pull a 360 ollie kickflip down those suckahs" MetalMan's Review of "sk8er" by Nathan Hill NOTE: The game rules contain profanity. I am personally not opposed to such language (and use it frequently) but, for the sake of those who do get offended by such words, consider this your warning before you look at the actual game. This review will refrain from being a potty-mouth. The Premise: sk8er is a game of urban street skating played using dice. Its not so much an RPG as it is a dice game. Competition comes from trying to do more outrageous stunts than the next guy and win a sponsorship before the cops show up. What Ya Get: sk8er is a very quick printout as it is only a three page PDF file. You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader software or some other third party program capable of rendering the PDF format before you can make use of the game. Cost: Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Gratis. Free. Appearance: sk8er is a notch above most free games because an effort at making it look reasonably attractive was made. The game logo as well as section headings are done in a grafitti style of writing and two videocaptures of actual skateboarding stunts are included. It isn't the flashiest thing out there but it does look better than eighty percent of most free games out there. So, sk8er gets above average marks for its looks. The Game: The game itself is very simple. A player is picked to be "Mayor" (the referee). All the players write their names down and what trick they're good at under their name. The Mayor describes the first obstacle the players are faced with (handrails, concrete pipes, etc.) and they have to describe the stunt they're going to try to pull off on it. The Mayor figures out the difficulty for the trick described and the player rolls a d6 trying to match or beat the number. If he is successful, the Mayor puts a tick mark under their name. The player who managed to pull of the hardest trick on that obstacle recieves a bonus tick mark. If you attempt a trick using the stunt that you said you were good at when the game started, you get to roll 2d6 instead. The first player to get twelve tick marks gains sponsorship and wins the game. You can stop a person from pulling off twelve very easy tricks in a row to win by challenging them to a duel. The Mayor comes up woth an obstacle for the duel and each of the two duelists try to outdo each other. If one player pulls off a stunt, the other person must perform a stunt of equal or higher difficulty. The first person to fail a roll looses one of their tick marks. Overall Impression: It's not my thing. I'm not a skateboarder so my knowledge of the tricks and maneuvers would hinder me in such a game. It is definately geared towards a specific niche. With that said, however, sk8er could be useful if you're trying to show maybe a younger teen brother or someone else not into gaming what some of it is like. Its fast and simple and you can get them to use their imagination to describe what they're doing. It's the "cops and robbers" scenario used at the beginning of almost every RPG but updated to take on some of the more hip sensibilities of the younger generation. If you know someone who might be interested in such a game, you might want to print this one and give it to them. MetalMan signing off.