Books – Savior Gaming

Vaesen: Castle of Gyllencreutz

As some of you may be aware, not long Free League Publishing sent me a PDF of their Starter set for Vaesen. If you want more details about what is in that, you can read about it here. A few weeks after that, I got home from work to a package on my doorstep, and it was the physical version of that same starter set and the core rule book. Now it is an excellent starter set, but I got to wondering, can someone with no experience playing this game, truly get a group together and play this game? So I gathered the women in my life together, a case of our prefered alchol, and got started.

Beautiful cover art for the core rule book. I didn’t use this for my experiment

The first thing I did was have everyone blindly choose one of the 5 playable characters that the set came with. My daughter decided to play as a rugged Soldier named Fronz who couldn’t read. I don’t know why she decided he couldn’t read, but I just went with it. The other ladies chose the 2 ladies in the group; they have names, but admittedly, that isn’t important. By not important, I mean I forgot their names.

Now, the Castle of Gyllemcreutz story that comes with the set is a great starting point that introduces you to the basics of the game. I don’t want to get too in-depth with what is involved with this story because it is easy to give too much away. Much of the story involves investigating a large castle to find clues on how to solve the mystery involving ghostly lights and missing people.

Dice rolls are all based on rolling a D6; players need to roll a certain number of 6’s to succeed. How many completely depends on how difficult the task is. There is also very little combat in this module, but the person running it could easily change that if they chose to. Nothing is stopping them, and all the information needed to do it is included.

But how did my players do? Well, they never were confused on how to play; they made their way through the castle with very little coaching besides trying to get them to stop goofing off, and the big finale of the whole thing was figured out before we figured out how to finish off a case of alcohol in 2 hours between the 4 of us.

I would absolutely say this starter kit provides everything you need to get you started playing Vaesen with limited or no experience. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Farming sim meets tower defense in hare-raising adventure The Rabbit Haul

aldera Interactive has unveiled its cozy farming sim / tower defense hybrid The Rabbit Haul, coming to PC and Switch in 2026. As a fleet-footed rabbit, you must nurture your garden by day, then defend it from mischievous raccoons by night.

The Rabbit Haul places players in the role of a cute cottontail trying to rebuild their hometown after it’s been ravaged by greedy raccoon gang the Trash Panda Posse. During the day, you must tend to your crops, replenish your food reserves and economy, water your farm, add harvested produce to your haul, and grow defensive tower plants that will help thwart off invaders. Be strategic in your placement, as an ideal garden will make use of synergies created between harmonious plants.

When you choose to switch over into nighttime, you must defend your haul against the assailing Trash Panda Posse. They’ll grow stronger with each wave, with different enemy types attempting to spoil your riches, so you must upgrade your weapons and defenses to ensure you can survive the night!

No two playthroughs are ever the same, as The Rabbit Haul features a sprawling, randomly generated world full of quests and treasures. Explore the overworld to discover unique items and allies that will help rebuild your town and reinforce your defenses even further. Between runs, you can upgrade your towers, unlock new merchants, and prepare yourself for your next adventure. With an array of unique weapons, upgrade paths, powerful towers and crops to unlock, The Rabbit Haul offers countless playstyles to master!

“With The Rabbit Haul we wanted to combine our love of relaxing cozy games with the strategy of tower defense titles and the random adventure of roguelikes,” said Titus Lo, game designer at Caldera Interactive. “We won the GDC 2024 Pitch competition for it, so it seems like there’s an appetite for The Rabbit Haul, and not just because the crops look tasty – though that helps!”

For more information on The Rabbit Haul:
Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2514330/The_Rabbit_Haul/
The Rabbit Haul website: https://calderainteractive.com/
Follow The Rabbit Haul on X: x.com/CalderaInteractFollow The Rabbit Haul on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/calderainteractive.bsky.social
Follow The Rabbit Haul on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@calderainteractive

Book Sale and Pre-Order announcement

As many if you know my first book Ghost Stories of America has been out for a bit,and if you haven’t had the chance to pick it up yet it will be on sale soon. From November 26th until November 30th it will be on sale for the low low price of free. So please check it out.

And if you happen to like it, you can check out my newest book releasing December 1st More Ghost stories of America. Up for pre-order now.

Ghost Stories of America (Book)

For those of you that remember not long ago @torstenvblog wrote a book and released it. Now I have done the same and it is called Ghost stories of America. It is a short e-book about various ghost stories from across the United States. It’s available on Amazon for 2.99 and Amazon select for free. So please consider supporting me and Savior Gaming as a whole and picking up a copy or reading it on Amazon select and leaving a review. I don’t promise the best written book, but I do promise some entertainment. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5NNHBN8?ref_=d6k_applink_bb_dls&dplnkId=7ce166bf-3a76-4ff6-bce9-5a5920dc5966

The Devil’s Whispers, By Lucas Hault

First and foremost, I don’t do a lot of book reviews but TkPublishing asked me to take a look at this one and as a gothic horror book, it seemed like something I would enjoy. Plus we all know how much a love an up and comer in anything. So huge shout out to both of them for hooking me up with this.

We start out like many books, with our main man Gerard Woodward being summoned to an old castle. Our new British friend wasted no time getting settled into his room and doing what the average person would do, second-guessing his life decisions.

The life decision at this point is not listening to his wife and coming to this castle that he is now clearly locked into. Things aren’t exactly normal back home in London where he left his wife, I will however leave that for you to figure out as it is quite interesting.

Obviously, as you guys know I don’t like to spoil too much about the story of these things and that will be more true here than normal so I will talk more about the style of writing here. If you remember those old classic horror books written in the time period style of old letters and journal writings. This is a lot like that, and it is extremely well done. You can read this and feel the picture Hault paints with his pen.

All that being said there is a sort of mystery to the whole thing, and that mystery is would it be better to classify this book as an homage to Dracula or more of a retelling. I don’t mean this as an insult, I feel like it is very well done in fact. The story doesn’t revolve around a simple vampire and it isn’t as simple as silly name changes in a quick cash grab. There was time and effort and love put into this novel and I truly think fans of the classic monster tails by the likes of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelly will find a lot to like here.

If you are interested in checking out The Devil’s Whispers, and I recommend you do, you can pick up a copy here.

The Flies Inside Pre-order

The time has come my friends, our very own @torstenvblog and his first book, The Flies Inside is now live for pre-order.

https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-flies-inside-torsten-v/1138929829?ean=9780578858821

For $10 you can support a new author and check out his first book, in paper back. Stay tuned for my review, and possibly an interview. Thank you for the continued support. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Flies Inside by Torsten V, Coming March 19th 2021

This is one of my proudest post to have ever written if I am being 100% honest. Our own writer, and possibly the best friend I have ever had, @torstenvblog will soon be releasing his first book, The Flies Inside. It will be up for pre-order soon on the Barnes and Nobles website and cost $9.99.(It is a physical release) Which is funny because until today I did not know the full title, that is how kept in the dark I was.

I also want to give a huge shout out to https://twitter.com/CatzkriegArtz for the great work she did on this preview of the back cover of the book, and you can even check out her soon to come Etsy store. https://www.etsy.com/shop/catzkriegartz/

Cat is a personal friend of Torsten, and I think it is pretty cool that from the bottom up this entire process was completed by friends just working their way into getting started. Obviously this was just a quick post to let everyone know it was coming, and I do have plans to follow up when those pre-orders go live and I will have a full review shortly after release.

I am told its a sort of Horror/mystery deal by a friend that has read an earlier draft but the author described it as more of a horror/dark drama. It seems like an intriguing combo, and knowing he wrote this for his father that he lost last year it makes sense. They bonded a lot when he was a kid over horror movies and comics, and this has really colored his writing style. His father whom we affectionally called Duke was a good man, one you couldn’t help but love and respect. Where ever he is I know he is as proud of him as I am. May the gaming gods smile upon you all, and please consider supporting one of our very own when the time comes.

P.S. I Love You Sequel, Postscript, announced. (Book)

Author of the Book P.S. I Love You, Cecelia Ahern, recently announced on Twitter she has written a sequel titled Postscript. It is set to release in the UK first this fall and in the U.S. in April 2020. Below is the synopsis, enjoy and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

“When Holly Kennedy is approached by a group calling themselves the PS, I Love You Club, her safe existence is turned on its head. Inspired by hearing about her late husband Gerry’s letters, the club wants Holly to help them with their own parting messages for their loved ones to discover after they’re gone. Holly is sure of one thing – no way is she being dragged back to the grief she has left behind. It’s taken seven years to reinvent herself, and she’s ready to move on with her life. But Holly comes to realize that when you love someone, there’s always one more thing to say…”

Leman Russ: The Great Wolf – Review — The Past Due Review

Leman Russ: The Great Wolf by Chris Wraight Cover illustration by Mikhail Savier Published in 2016 Pages: 171 Genre: Science fiction, military fiction “The night was clear of cloud, lit only by a scatter of blue-white stars above the towering flanks of Krakgard.” Leman Russ: The Great Wolf, by Chris Wraight, is the second book […]

via Leman Russ: The Great Wolf – Review — The Past Due Review

The Masked Saint (2016)

So I am rummaging thru Netflix and I come across this movie. Now I am a sucker for a wrestling movie, I used to be one. Then I see it has Roddy Piper in. I was a huge fan. There is no way I’m not watching this movie. opening credits end with “Inspired by a true story”. I am hardly convinced. So I watch the movie. But we will get to that,but I want to share this.

Yes for you book lovers, there is a book by Chris Whaley that the movie is based on, he also happens to be the Pastor/wrestler from the story. I have not read it, but it is something that is out there.

Now back to the movie. First, the acting is pretty good, better than I expected. I was honestly expecting some train wreck level acting like many of these style of “true story” movies have, but that isn’t the case.

The story itself is rather interesting, a retiring wrestler is injured after a shady promoter ( Piper) breaks his word and the new up and comer (The Reaper) intentionally breaks The Saints leg. When he takes over the new perish Chris discovers it is failing pretty hard as most of the people have abandoned it and it is mostly kept running due to one wealthy man and his donations that he will soon lose when he gets into a fight with him.

When Chris is invited to a wrestling event by a friend, coincidentally his former employees event, he prevents The Reaper from injuring his friend which gets him an invite back into the ring. Trust me, leaving the ring is not easy, and it never truly leaves your system. On the way home however he puts his mask on to stop a woman of the night from being mugged, and that is when things truly start to change.

I won’t get into too much more detail. The movie is however worth watching and unsurprisingly the wrestling segments are pretty well done. They don’t give away anything you honestly can’t google, but they don’t treat people like they are stupid either. We all know in 2018 the stuff is scripted and they don’t hide that and I appreciated that. So go give the saint a watch, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.