Hello, everyone, and Welcome to Masked's TTRPG Review Roundup, where your favorite musical dungeon master reviews various tabletop rpg source books, supplements, and adventures. I'll be moving a few of my older reviews from this site and SB here, as well as writing some new ones.
As usual with these kinds of threads, likes and comments are nice.
MASKED REVIEWS: SHADOW OF THE DEMON LORD (Mmm, fresh meat... wait, what do you mean "that line's copyrighted"?)
OVERVIEW Shadow of the Demon Lord is a 2015 Dark Fantasy RPG by Robert J Schwalb, of WFRP's Tome of Corruption and numerous books in the 4e and 5e lines. Cover art by Svetoslav Petrov with direction from Patrick Parker & Hal Mangold. The book was kickstarted in 2015 by Schwalb. The game uses a d20 +/- d6 system, and plays like a mashup of 4e, 5e, WFRP 2e, and Dungeon Crawl Classics. It's also awesome.
Set in the continent of Rûl, players take the roll of unlikely heroes: scholars, brigands, butchers, cultists, poachers, who find themselves in grim & perilous situations in a world ready to burn with it's hand on the match. The cage of reality is rattling.
CHARACTER CREATION
Character Creation is split into three parts, each with corresponding tables: Ancestry (aka, your character's race), Profession (which determines things you are good at), and Equipment.
The Ancestries of the book are Human (aka, the blandingtons), Changelings (shapeshifting constructs of the fae who grew a soul), Clockworks (literal ghosts in the machine, souls bound to gears and cogs), Dwarfs (beardy grudgebearing midgets), Goblins (Former fae turned trash trawlers), and Orc (former Jotuns twisted into the perfect slave army, until they rebelled). Halflings and Fauns are in the GM's Guide, but as I do not possess that book, That is all we will hear of them. This game is really into rolling, and thus has ample tables to roll upon for character creation, although you also can pick and choose if you're boring. Interestingly, Ancestry determines your player character's initial stats, with the ability to subtract from 1 stat and add to another ONCE. This game has pretty clear ideas how strong an Orc should be and a human should be. Most of the races tables reflect their culture or biology in some way.
Example: Masked decides he wishes to create a clockwork. Clockworks start with Strength 9 (-1), Agility 8 (-2), Intellect 9 (-1), and Will 9 (-1). After figuring out derived stats and writing out their immunities to disease, poison, sleep, and fatigue; as well as their need to periodically be cranked by an ally or become an object, Masked begins rolling. Age: 6: Clockwork is 5 years old or younger. Purpose: 16: Assassin, +2 to Agility or Intellect. Form: Humanoid: You stand 6 ft tall and weigh 300 lbs. Appearance: 13: Well made. Background: 19: You have a sword grafted to one of your arms. Personality: 13: You search for meaning in a world where you have no place.
With that, Masked's character R0B-N (Robin) is ready to move to the next stage...
Professions feed into the game's Boon & Bane system. Rather then having a long skill list of riding and searching and blah blah blah that means characters who ought to be able to do something in the fluff can't mechanically unless a GM makes allowances, this game gives you a list of professions, and if you can justify knowing how to do something with your profession, you gain a d6 on your roll. This is a Boon. Boons don't stack, rather, having multiple boons has you choose the highest one. The profession list is divided into 6 categories (Academic, Common, Criminal, Martial, Religious, Wilderness) of 20, allowing for easy rolling or choosing. Starting player characters can pick 2 professions or one and either an additional language or the ability to read in one of the languages you speak.
Example: Masked rolls a 6, meaning Robin's first profession is in the wilderness category. With a 14, Robin's first profession is Outlaw. Masked decides that Robin is also literate in common, which denies her some flexibility in exchange for an ace if the quest demands someone know how to read.
As with everything else, starting Equipment is rolled for. First, you determine your Wealth, determining your preset gear. Then, you roll on the two page spread for the Interesting Thing in your character's possession.
Example: Rolling a 9 on the wealth table, Robin starts with a dagger, chooses a sling with 20 stones, basic clothing, a backpack, rations, a waterskin, a tinderbox, rolls 3 torches, and rolls 4 copper pieces. For their interesting item, Masked rolls a 2 and then a 9, giving Robin a gleaming dragonscale.
With that, our level-0 Clockwork is ready to play. Yeah, you heard me right, Level-0. This game wants you to earn that Adventurer title.
Fever Swamp is a OSR (ie LotFP, BECMI, AS&SH, BF, LL, et cetera) compatible hexcrawl designed by Luke Gearing and published by the Melsonian Arts Council, a publisher that focuses on OSR content. The content specifically references Lamentations of the Flame Princess, using silver standard and with a couple optional classes in the back of the book which use the "Saves as Specialist" type things. However, the game should be easily translatable to whichever B/X or AD&D related game you use.
The content, as implied by the name and cover art, involves moving through a fetid, dangerous swamp in search of treasure. You have all of your classics, from a waterlogged zombie horde which moves about the map, to a cult seeking to find their drowned god, to an oracular crocodile.
THE MAP
The map of the swamp is on the first page, full color. There are fourteen hexes that are highlighted in yellow-green and marked with numbers. Underneath the map, the Index marks the page of each number, along with an evocative name for what is encountered here. On the plus side, this makes finding a reference quick and easy, especially since the next page is the encounter table, meaning if you owned a physical copy of the book you would literally just need to open the book to be ready for players. On the negative, there is no copy of the map in the book which doesn't have these big numbers, meaning players will know where important stuff is too. Ah well, the map is small enough and you can always hide the key if you pass it out.
Each Hex represents 18 miles of land, or how far players can travel by boat in one day. Traveling by land is a big no no for the most part, but the map does a good job of making sure players can move in any direction.
LOCALES
Spoilers below
Clink - The only non tribal village in the area (and thus the only one that doesn't move around). The book gives a brief description of the stilt village, and then gives a list of NPCs, including The High Priestess of the Cult of the Drowned, the jerk with a heart of gold General Store Owner, the paranoid Priest of the Faithful who believes the cult is targeting him, and the Bootlegger. The game doesn't spend twenty minutes on descriptions, and fits all relevant information on a two page spread
The Ur Corpse Ruins - The ancient corpse of some titanic beast which has sunken into the swamp, which has been carved into a prison to a corpse that never lived. Originating from these ruins is the Corpse Pile, thousands of corpses which wander around the map randomly and reanimate anything dead to grow their army. Your sole dungeon crawl in the swamp, with an early branching path. There are several unique fights here, including against eight statues infused with the spirits of dead criminals.
The Wasser-Koenig - The wreck of an Imperial river galleon, festooned with weapons. All hands are dead, relatively speaking. There is treasure aboard, including matchlock rifles and black powder. Sets up a difficult combat encounter for the players, but one that could be very profitable if they are willing to take the risk.
The Failed Settlement - Eight rotting houses, protected from the creatures of the swamp but not the illnesses which struck down it's inhabitants.
The Fallen Monastery - Once a place for scholarly learning, now a weird hivemind of monks being controlled by an ancient fungus. So like the Old Growth from Mass Effect 1.
The Ruined Tower - Another safe space, this one is inhabited by a scholar of the occult in the throws of one of the Swamp's diseases. Unfortunately, I feel the book trips here, because it wants me to reference one of the publishing house's zines for what the Occultist knows. Boo that.
In general, the areas are flavorful but not described in detail. The only map is for the Ur Corpse ruins, and that is a vertical map, not the typical top down one used for dungeons. If you're like me and like having detailed combat areas so that you can plan out how your monsters will attack, this ain't the book for you (or atleast, you'll need to spend some time making up combat maps). On the other hand, most of the time your players will be on rafts, canoes, or other boats, and most of the areas have enough description that someone with a dry erase mat could probably slot something out real quick.
MONSTERS OF INTEREST
Grandfather Rotte - a sleeping godling of the swamp. Waking him is a bad idea
Hunger the Crocodile - a sapient crocodile who uses the mystic powers it consumed off a shaman to devour it's prey
Suicidal Witch - a quest giver, a bog witch who fused with a tree. She trades information on where ancient ruins are for the party killing her.
Succubus - Bound to a circle of stones, this succubus will answer questions in exchange for company. She's pretty lonely and relatively harmless
Once again, there's definitely a build it yourself type attitude with this.
MECHANICS AND MONSTERS
The Fever Swamp book adds two classes to the Lamentations set, which can be easily adapted to other B/X style race-as-class games. The Host gains random mutations from the parasite within, until it mutates them into an unplayable monster. The Shaman is a cleric which trades healing and turn undead for manipulating spirits, of which you bind a new one each time you level up. Both classes are highly random, and I wouldn't recommend them for players who aren't prepared to have a character that may be useless. Shamans at least get a method of busting ghosts and other intangibles.
The new creatures added to the bestiary are all very specific to the swamp, although a couple might adapt well. Candlethieves, the ghosts of lost children who steal light sources from the party might adapt well to your Strahd or Underdark scenarios, while the mysterious Stilt Walkers pretty much only work here.
The game has a simple system for tracking boat health. Ship Hit Points are equal to 10 HP. A creature must deal at least 10 damage in a round to inflict damage on your ship. Whenever a ship takes damage, you roll the sink die. If you roll a 1, the die shrinks to the next size down. If you run out of SHP or roll a 1 on a d4 sink die, your ship sinks in an amount of rounds equal to the max hp of the ship. Players can spend a round bailing out the ship, rolling the sink die to try to raise that die up a level. This system is simple enough that I'd steal it for any adventure that spends time on the water, and it means that characters are gonna want to seek out something a little nicer then just a makeshift river raft with it's puny 1 SHP.
There are two mechanics centered around Disease in the swamp: Infection and Miasma. Whenever an open wound is exposed to water in the swamp (say, by a party member being knocked in by a stilt-man), players must save vs disease or be unable to heal. Miasma, however, means players have a 1-in-10 chance every day of needing to make a save vs Disease, or roll on the disease table. And said table is nasty. Each requires 2 sequential saves to recover, and more then a few reduce your ability in rolling.
IN CONCLUSION
Fever Swamp is not a beginner adventure. However, if you want to dip your toes in hexcrawling, the small relative size of the map makes this an excellent adventure for just that with parties used to dungeon crawling. The book does not waste an inch of it's 26 pages, and it will give you plenty of opportunities to ask whether players what they're willing to risk, whether that be their food stores while days away from civilization or infection or even their souls. There's not much in the way of gear in this adventure (I saw the magic items of the animate statues, the guns on the shipwreck, the explosives that the crazy soldier has, and the spirit dagger which has a low chance of showing up) but there are plenty of caches of silver hidden through out the swamp. The wandering horde of monsters makes for a good way of mixing things up even if people have read the module or reviews like this one.
If you were translating this to 5e or Pathfinder, the primary thing you would need to do is buff enemy HP totals, as they are calibrated for old school battles (read: fast, brutal, bloody). Emphasize carry weights and keep the players away from heavy armor (after all, that makes you sink like a stone). Don't allow long rests in the swamp proper, instead allow short rests to restore HD OR Spell Slots. And definitely don't allow more then one Paladin, those screwballs ruin the disease mechanics.
Okay, after character creation, the book goes into the basic spiel of how to roleplay and making sure that the party conflict stays at a minimum and blah-de-blah blah blah you know this stuff if you're on this forum reading my ravings about a game that's not created by WotC or Paizo. However, this is actually not what I want to talk about.
I want to talk about formatting.
One of the biggest issues I have with a lot of RPG books is that in an era of PDFs and the Pg Down button, a lot of professionally made books DON'T make sure that information doesn't stay to a single or double page spread. Throughout the Character creation section, ancestries would bleed over onto each other. It's not a deal breaker, it's just obnoxious. If I were to copy the character creation rules for my players, we'd have to keep them organized because the information just bleeds over. Meanwhile, DCC and ASSH make sure to clearly delineate between sections with art, while Lamentations goes through the trouble of fitting all information on a single page for ease of use.
Now with that rant over, back to Shadows of the Demon Lord.
PLAYING THE GAME Shadow of the Demon Lord is strange, because it simultaneously is this iteration of very modern ideas, and at the same time this grungy game about dying in a dungeon like B/X was.
First off, to explain the core mechanic. SotDL uses a d20 resolution system. So you roll, add or subtract your attribute modifier (ie, your relevant attribute -10), and see whether you reach the Target Number, which is generally 10. So how does the game regulate difficulty when theoretically players always have a 1/2 chance of success?
Boons & Banes. As previously mentioned, a Boon is +d6 roll when players have favorable circumstances. For example, having the high ground as an archer might confer a boon due to the favorable conditions. A Bane, meanwhile is a -d6 roll when players are in dire straights. For example, that same archer being forced to fire into a melee between their allies and the baddies. Boons and Banes are not cumulative and stack. Therefore, if a character has 2 banes and 1 boon, they just roll 1 bane. If they have two boons, and they roll a 3 and a 5, the player just gets +5 to their initial roll. This is fucking elegant design. It gives a similar experience to the Advantage system of 5e without doing that thing where the player with advantage rolls a 1 and a 12 and your piece of crap rogue smiles at you and GODDAMNIT BAUX WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS!?!?!?!....
...Anyways, other things can raise or lower the TN, such as Attribute Modifiers. However, for most Challenge Rolls, 10 is where you are aiming.
Surprise Surprise from the Tome of Corruption author, this game has Insanity and Corruption mechanics! DUNDUNDUN
Insanity is a derived characteristic from your Will score. It starts at 0, and raises as your characters are exposed to THINGS MEN WERE NOT MEANT TO KNOW (tm). Or something really scary. Anyways, if your character gains Insanity points equal to your will score, your character goes Mad, rolling on the Madness Table. The Madness Table is a little bit of a misnomer: it actually functions a lot like tests in Darkest Dungeon. Including the chance of rolling a 20 on the chart and permanently giving them a boon on future rolls to resist Insanity.
Corruption acts as the game's morality mechanic. Murder innocents, use evil relics, learn dark magics, and other Bad Guy things cause your character to gain corruption. This was actually a little disappointing, I would probably homebrew in a Chronicles of Darkness style line in the sand thing so you could actually play a morally ambiguous character without jumping off the slippery slope faster then a Skywalker at a daycare.
Love you, Luke.
As your corruption level raises, it starts having effects. 4 corruption points mean animals don't like you. 7 you start exhibiting Stigmata. 9+ means your character instantly dies when dropped to 0 HP, and their soul burns in hell forever. Additionally, every gained corruption you roll a d20. If you roll under, you roll again and start looking like the Evil path in Fable. How does a robot even get devil horns?
Skipping past derived characteristics (magical power, movement speed, size) to Combat.
First off, this game don't play. If you receive damage equal to your health from a single source, you die instantly. If you drop to 0 HP, you are incapacitated, prepare to roll d6 Fate rolls. This can go badly quickly, as incapacitated characters starting dying on a 1. The game then goes through the usual suspects of status effects.
COMBAT
This game has a couple of quirks on what is otherwise standard d20 style combat. Here's how it goes 1. In cases of ambushes the ambushee rolls perception. Those who fail are surprised.
2. We begin the Round. Rounds are 10 seconds long (I generally prefer six second rounds, but to each their own) and consist of two parts: Fast Turns and Slow Turns
>Fast Turns are when a character does an action (such as attacking or interacting with the environment) OR moves.
>Slow Turns are when a character does an action AND moves.
>The reason for this distinction is that in this game, PCs always go first in their set of turns. So it goes Fast PCs > Fast Baddies > Slow PCs > Slow Baddies. 3. Repeat
There's triggered actions and a bunch of definitions on what movement is and attacks of opportunities and all the stuff you'd expect from a post 3e d20 based RPG. There are also a number of options is melee and ranged combat, generally accomplished by taking a Bane in order to increase your reach or push an enemy back or whatever. Cover also imposes Banes on ranged attacks, with 1/2 cover imposing 1 and 3/4 cover imposing 2. Attacking with two weapons on the same foe gives you two banes, but damage from both weapons, which is good because health in this game is pretty low. Attacking two separate targets with two weapons gives you 3 Banes. There also are the usual stunts, pushing and pulling and grappling, which are accomplished by Str or Agi rolls.
PATHS
Paths are the game's classes. They fall into the standard array of Fighting Man - Magic User - Thief - Cleric.
EQUIPMENT
Equipment is wait no I should go back and explain Paths better
PATHS
Paths are a combination of Classes from a D&D and Classes from Warhammer Fantasy. They start as the simple tetrad which has dominated the industry since the 70s. They are split into 3 tiers. Novice: Novice paths are the basic classes, players first dip into adventuring, and they are iconic as they come. At level 3, you then move on to Expert Paths, although you still sometimes get benefits from your novice path
> The Magician. Standard magic user. At first level, they may either choose a tradition or learn a spell four times, meaning in practice you will either pick 1 tradition and 3 spells or two traditions and two spells. As they level up, they learn spell recovery, which gives back half your HP and a spell slot once per day, and counter spell, along with gaining attributes and new spell slots.
> The Priest. Your healer. At first level, they choose a religious tradition, and then choose between a second and a spell. Once per rest, Priests can heal themselves and one ally within short range of them. They later gain the ability to give boons through Prayer, which eventually transforms into some good old fashion smiting.
> The Rogue. Aka the Skillmonkey. At level 1, they get a recovery ability where they heal and then move 1/2 speed, which is a quick way to disengage and get health back, as well as another profession or language. They also get a boon every round on one attack or challenge roll thanks to their Trickery, with an addition d6 to their damage when using this. As they level up, they start collecting Roguery talents, from Backstab to Threatening. What's nice is you choose the order you get them. Their Trickery also improves as time goes on
> The Warrior. Stab good. Their recovery option can be used as a reaction, while they also gain a boon on attack actions. They give another d6 of damage when their attacks exceed 20. As they level up, they also can either choose to deal an extra d6 or attack twice.
Expert: Expert paths each give four prestige classes to the basic four. These each give a specialty. At level 7, you can choose to advance to Master Paths or pick any second Expert Path.
> Paths of Magic
>>Artificers: build temporary armor or weapons from your bag of tricks
>>Sorcerers: Build up power to explode, hurting everyone else in combat. Hilarious griefing class.
>>Witch: Like a furry, but for the Fae. In practice, they can say "How 'bout a little fire, scarecrow?" and fly on a broom
>>Wizards: Magician +. They get a book to cast extra spells, learn to cast more of the spells they know, and can cast a couple times without expending spells.
> Paths of Religion
>>Cleric: Hey, there you are. They can brandish their icons of faith to give themselves boons and enemies banes. So like turning, except it doesn't suck.
>>Druid: You too? Druids have a primal connection to nature which, as they level up, gradually makes them the best characters to have on a wilderness romp
>>Oracle: Messengers of the gods. They can enter a tranquil state which vastly buffs their stats, in exchange for a chance of gaining insanity points. They also later get auguries, also with a chance of Insanity.
>>Paladin: Wow, you're here and not on the warrior path? Cool. Pretty typical Paladin stuff: Smite, Poison Immunity, Auras
> Paths of Trickery
>>Assassin: You know how this works. Hide, poison, damage bonus vs surprised foes.
>>Scout: Boons to perception, discover enemy weakpoints, attack for massive damage
>>Thief: A Roguer rogue. Gang up on creatures your party hurts as a reaction, and start doing that hide in shadow thing.
>>Warlock: Steal magic. Make your DM regret learning how to make enemy spellcasters. Make your fellow spellcasters hate you.
> Paths of War
>>Berserker: RAGE
>>Fighter: A Warriorer Warrior. Choose from a list of talents to build how you go.
>>Ranger: Warrior, Tracker, Hunter. Hunters Mark lite
>>Spellbinder: Infuse weapons with magic
<=To Be Continued
One last thing: I'm not covering Master Paths. They are ridiculous
EQUIPMENT
First off we get money. 1 gold crown = 10 silver shillings = 100 copper pennies = 1,000 bits. Nice that they keep gold as the highest coinage.
You can carry your strength score in gear unencumbered, with encumbered being up to twice. Encumbered characters get a bane on STR and AGI rolls.
Lifestyles represent how your character is living. Beginning characters start with a lifestyle, meanwhile on subsequent adventures players must pay a certain amount of gold. Living expenses give some bonuses or negatives, depending on how low your players are willing to live.
Armor goes from Clothing (AC=Agility) to Full Plate (AC=18). Weapons do variations of xd6+x. Small weapons like knives do d3, while the rifle deals a whopping 3d6 damage (in exchange for having a chance of misfiring and a round of reloading). This simplified damage system works well with how toughness is handled, as a starting PC, on average, is only going to have 10 HP.
The usual array of apparel and accessories are here, and probably needn't be remarked upon. I always say that players only need candle, chalk, and ten foot pole anyway.
The game splits hirelings into three tiers: Commoners (torchbearers and laborers, unskilled), Professionals (blacksmiths, jewelers, alchemists), and Mercenaries (people who actually know how to swing a sword).
Potions prices are given, along with instructions for spell scrolls, both the price of buying one and the costs of creating one yourself as a PC. Handy
MAGIC
Magic is divided into approximately 30 traditions, 15 based on intellect and 15 based on will. Each tradition has 11 spells associated it, with spells ranking from 1 - 10, although few traditions go beyond 5. I get the sense that the "10" bit is actually for monsters and unique spells either designed by the DM, imported from other systems, or part of campaign capstones.
Not really much to say about this. Magic systems are long winded, but really if you've read one you've read them all. Especially with a game that is trying to recall 5e and WFRP this hard.
A LAND IN SHADOW
This chapter gives a basic overview of Urth, including setting assumptions a GM or player should follow. Gods should be distant, brooding figures who only act through their agents (ie, priests). Reincarnation is real AND A BITCH. Monsters are everywhere. The Empire is in flames. And there's this Bigger Bad waiting for the veil between the reality to tear, his agents working at every turn to corrupt or kill those who stand in their way.
Rûl is a piece of work. The Empire that was holding together? Gone. As it turns out, "slave army" don't really go together, especially when said slaves are 7 foot tall and can rip the head off the Emperor with their bare hands. The former Empire's territories are ruled by incestuous duchies, inquisitorial papacies, or not at all. To the east merchant princes rule through wealth as their people starve. To the north are trolls and endless desert. And to the south, toward the pole, there be monsters.
And hey, it's not a west justified fantasy map!
The section on religion gives a collection of Old Gods, which have a good mix of offbrand pre-Hellenistic gods and Fae archetypes. The New God is a lot more Christian, complete with a prophet seen as divine and an Inquisition that burns first and asks questions later. They are also, weirdly, objectively right. The Faerie Queen is right out of Billy Shakes work.
There is then a quick definition of how the world works. Dimensional doors, hidden elf lands, the Underworld, Hell. And of course, things beyond that. The cracks in the walls of reality. The Demon Lord
And with that, we get into the GM Section.
RUNNING THE GAME
The GM Section gives a brief lesson on what a DM is: A narrator, a referee, a teacher, blah-de-blah. You've heard this before, although I do appreciate it. I also appreciate the passage that says that Story Trumps Rules. Thank you game, you know how I like to play.
Skipping skipping skipping through the re-explanation of the stats, we get to Styles of Horror. Now this is the type of stuff that is completely system neutral, and I'll give some good quotes
SHOCK
Horror works best when it takes everyone by surprise. The key to surprising your players is to defy their expectations. 179 9 shadow of the demon lord Running the Game Hiding horrific elements behind mundane or even virtuous facades make them all the more troubling when they are discovered. For example, there's a scene in John Carpenter's film In the Mouth of Madness where a nice old woman talks to Sam Neill's character. When the camera moves to reveal what's going on behind the desk, we're treated to the sight of an old, naked man handcuffed to her ankle. What makes this scene so horrific is the juxtaposition of the kindly woman and the brutal act of dominance over her husband, made worse by the questions such an act raises. Why is he handcuffed? What does she intend do with him? Is he a willing participant?
That is JUICEY. The rest of the scenarios are good too. Create anxiety by having characters wake up with their beds soaked in human blood, with no explanation how it got there. Disgust them. Haunt them. It's a tone thing.
After that, the next sections give good practice advice for any adventure. Have players. Know the rules. Know the adventure. Make sure your own adventures have a beginning, middle, and end. It lists out Gauntlet adventures (aka railroads where players move from set piece to set piece), Wells (where the story moves from open to an inevitable conclusion, aka what I like to run), and Webs (which are almost entirely unlinear).
Campaign rules. Exploration and Travel. Random Encounters. Lot of space for first time GM stuff, or maybe reference. Optional rules for if you're using minis. Stuff I'd do anyway. I suppose it's gratifying to know that the designer knows how I play and secretly thinks I'm right.
That Butcher looking guy from the cover shows up on page 192. I kinda wish that the goblin he's swinging at was crushed under the tenderizer instead of jumping out of the way. 194 has some tables for creating NPCs on the spot.
The Shadow of the Demon Lord. And we're back to Juicy. So to explain the Shadow, you're basically creating the scenario parameters. The d20 list includes stuff such as an ancient Dragon awakening or a black sun eclipse or a high ranking member of the papacy being corrupted. It's basically this overarching thing that the players won't be able to take on just by sticking a sword in it. They can fight the symptoms, the dead rising from their graves or the cults spewing forth around the herald of their god. But to go toe to toe with the cause is to die.
Just gives me a fuzzy feeling, y'know.
Page 200 gives you a list of all the things you can hit players with. Corruption. Disease. Deprivation. Exposure. Insanity. Traps. All that good stuff. Then it gives how to do Level Ups. Surprisingly, there's no sign of XP. This game wants the GM to decide when players level up.
Skip ahead, skip ahead.
Page 208-210 are tables for enchanted objects. Just piles and piles of mechanical goodness for players. Then there are relics, which are encouraged to be named, unique, rare, priceless, and probably cursed. Honestly, it reminds me of a couple of high level toys from D&D campaigns that ended up with our party stranded on Ravenloft after that FUCKER Domikos blew up our spelljammer when his ring of flame reflection shot back the laser right into the engine.
Fuck you, Dom.
BESTIARY
There's a brief descriptor on how the monster boxes work, and we're off to the races. If you've played an RPG, you know how this works. Monsters are organized alphabetically, which I'm a little annoyed by because I prefer monsters to be categorized by groupings so I can have my skeleton warriors lead by a draugr or whatever. The monster list is... actually a little mundane. There's like 3 gonzo monsters in the list, and then your standard array of cultists, constructs, and creepy crawlies.
I do like the Reen though. Extra dimensional robotic scouts from worlds already conquered by the Demon Lord, whose dark masters wish to conquer this world because their own is gone.
The Bestiary ends with a table of monsters by challenge level. I kinda wish it had the page numbers on it for ease of use. And with that the book is over. There's an index in the aftermath, which I appreciate because I've played games without indexes and that just no good.
CONCLUSION
Okay. I really like this book. I want to use it soon. I'm going to use it soon.
So you gotta know when I nitpick at this book, I do so from a place of love. The physical copy is of comparable quality to any 5e sourcebook you'll find at your local bookstore, if it's still open. The interior art is all of a high quality, bringing to mind Blizzard North era Diablo, Dragon Age, or related works, which is to say a gritty look that is a slightly embellished reality rather then your Warhammer over the top-ness, while also staying in an oddly earthy color palette rather then the broody look of Dark Souls.
I didn't notice any typos in the text, which ain't bad for a 300 page RPG book from Kickstarter. Now here's where the nitpicks start. As a complement, I'd say this book is about on the level of the 5e Player's Handbook. Now as a disparagement, this book is on the level of the 5e Player's Handbook. Formatting isn't optimized the way I'd like it to be. The entire character creation section bleeds over in weird places, so that the section on clockworks has half of the changeling table in the first inch of page space. I go over to the table that acts as my bookshelf because my shelves are covered in YA books I haven't read in years, and pull out Stars Without Number and that book's formatting is a dream in comparison. Writing never crosses a page, and explanations rarely go longer then a two page spread, which means if you put the book in front of you, all the info is laid out and easy to comprehend. I wish a book from a longtime industry professional who has published from the highest highs for the past two decades had as good a formatting as the Indie RPG regulars like Crawford and Raggi. And I hate Raggi's guts for publishing Carcosa.
But I digress.
I kinda wish that the book had an explanation for the character sheet that included an image of said sheet, but we live in the internet age and I get it. The character sheet itself is a little more... abstract then I'd like. But there's an alternative sheet from the website. I'll just have to make a version that won't cost an arm and a leg to print.
I'll have to see how it plays, but I enjoyed this read through immensely. Combat seems tight, it uses a system which while familiar is not just 5e with a tune up, the world building is interesting, and hey, the Butcher's cousin is on the front.
Four and a Half demon princes out of Five
Next time, I'll be looking through a love letter to the works of Robert E Howard. I mean, more of a love letter then regular D&D is.
MASKED REVIEWS: ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA, 2e
Welcome back folks, to one of the most complete retroclones of TSR era D&D, specifically BECMI. This mammajamma is a whopping six-hundred and twenty two pages of rules, monsters, spells, and story threads, more then double that of the BECMI Rules Cyclopedia. It's also on sale right now (that is to say, May 2018) on DriveThru down to $15.20. AS&SH is inspired by the works of Robert E Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, with enough Lovecraft by proxy to make it a good old fashion Weird Tales round up. This is the game for people who read TSR era D&D and thought, "Hey, I like this, but could we get a little less Tolkien characters in our Sword & Sorcery?"
Get it? Token-Tolkien? I spent all night thinking up that joke.
Anyways, moving on. This game is by Jeffrey Talanian, with cover art by Charles Lang. It was funded through Kickstarter and the second edition (ie, this one) was released 2017.
BOOK I: SWORDSMEN AND SORCERERS THE BASICS
After we get the usual spiel from these games (the classic 6 stats, roll 3d6 in order, 1-in-6 test of [stat] rolls) we get into the thick of this. What I like is it puts it all on the table here, even if I'm not wild about different ways of rolling for different things.
For example, the strength chart looks like this.
Strength
Score
Attack
Modifier
(Melee)
Damage
Adjustment
(Melee/Thrown)
Test Of
Strength
Extraordinary
Test of
Strength*
3
-2
-2
1:6
0%
4-6
-1
-1
1:6
1%
7-8
-1
2:6
2%
9-12
2:6
4%
13-14
+1
3:6
8%
15-16
+1
+1
3:6
16%
17
+1
+2
4:6
24%
18
+2
+3
5:6
32%
*+8% if Prime Attribute
What this means in practice is that players will be rolling a d20 in combat, a d6 if they want to kick down a door, and a d100 for holding up a portcullis. I know this is a hallmark of this era of gaming, but this is one of those things I don't mind was left behind in the WotC era, along with THAC0 and Kender.
CLASSES
Prepare to be shocked! Four Classes! Fighter - Magician - Cleric - Rogue!
Fighters - Choose two weapons to "master", increasing their attack rate as long as they use those specific weapons. They gain new masteries every few levels.
Magicians - Cast Magic! Read Magic!
Cleric - Heal! Turn Undead!
Thief - Backstab! Detect Hidden Doors! Use Thief Skills!
(it's pretty standard stuff for this type of book, but I'll mock it every time it comes up)
SUBCLASSES
And now we're into this game's big twist. On top of the primary versions of each class, there are Sub-classes. Each subclass has a couple of benefits over the basic classes, but requires two Prime Requisites at 16+ to get that XP bonus instead of just one. They also tend to get a couple of bonuses to X-In-6 rolls.
Fighter Subclasses
Barbarian. STR & DEX PR. d12 hd as opposed to a fighter's d10. Climbs and sneaks like a thief. "Mighty Thews enable leaps of 25 feet or greater (if unencumbered)..." based. Racism power vs magic. The Barbarian seems like the closet I've ever seen to the "movie" Conan archetype, a fighter who nonetheless can act as a Thief.
Berserker. STR & CON PR. d12 hd. Can go into a berserker rage, with a myriad of bonuses. Climbs like a thief, leaps like the Barbarian. 7th level barbarians are furries, with the ability to transform into their spirit animal while raging. They also get the classic horde of low level Berserkers at 9th. Basically, the Berserker is like every other game's Barbarian.
Cataphract. STR & CHA PR. d10 hd. A specialist in wearing armor, unlike the previous two subclasses who benefit from just wearing their loincloth, while also being a master of the saddle.
Huntsmen. STR & WIS PR. d10 hd. Climbs & hides & sneaks like a thief, and has bonuses to ambushing, in both the role of ambusher and ambushee. +1 damage vs animals, also can tame animals; this is your Pokemon trainer class because to do so you have to reduce their health and then capture them. They have a slightly abridged weapon mastery table from a regular fighter. Wilderness abilities. Racism power vs Werewolves. Honestly, this one would be the one I'd pick of the fighter subclasses. I like playing a fighting skill boy.
Paladin. STR & CHA PR. d10 hd. You know 'em, you love 'em. Divine Spellcasting at high levels, along with an abridged selection of cleric abilities. Also all those little compulsions on how a Paladin must act, I don't miss those in 5e. CROM CARES NOT!
Ranger. STR & WIS PR. d10 hd. Another fighter archetype that borrows liberally from the thief skill list. Rangers get a bonus when battling the Unnatural, so if your GM throws anything from a Lovecraft book at you then you get +1 damage per level(!!!). I guess Racism bonus vs Fish is powerful stuff. At 7th level, the Ranger dips into the Druid and Magician spell lists.
Warlock. STR & INT PR. d8 hd (ouch). A Fighter/Magician type. You choose your school of magic upfront, which affects your chosen alignment. This is essentially the "Elf" of the game, being a magic user who can hang in in melee once their one spell is gone.
Magician Subclasses - Note, "Casts from x" means that these are the spells they can pick from while leveling up. Independent research can allow other spells learned.
Cryomancer. INT & WIS PR. d4 hd (OUCH). Strong vs Cold, Weak vs Fire. They can summon a glowing icicle which can also be used as a one time use dagger. They use the Cryomancer Spell List
Illusionist. INT & DEX PR. d4 hd. They know illusions when they see them. Casts from Illusionist Spell List.
Necromancer. INT & WIS PR. d4 hd. Turn or command the undead. Use the Necromancer Spell List.
Pyromancer. INT & WIS PR. d4 hd. Basically the equal and opposite of the Cryomancer. Strong vs Fire, Weak vs Cold. Summon a heatless flame. Casts from Pyromancer Spell List
Witch. INT & CHA PR. d4 hd. Brew poisons and potions (at a REALLY slow rate...). Casts from Witch Spell List. Summon a familiar. Seduce targets to cause Suggestion. Create an Effigy (aka voodoo doll).
Cleric Subclasses
Druid. WIS & CHA PR. d8 hd. Nature affinity, fire resistance. Wildshaping. At 9th level, you must find another 9th level druid and challenge them to a duel, the loser is reduced to 8th level and must wait a year to rechallenge. This process is repeated for 10th, 11th, and 12th levels. This is hilarious.
Monk. WIS & DEX PR. d8 hd. Damage bonus derived from your Monk level/3 rounded up. Pluck arrows from the air. Mr Miyagi hands. Land like a cat. Stun many creatures on a 19-20 roll. 12th level get a once per day ability to cause an enemy's heart to explode. Slow the heartbeat. Thief abilities. Actually, this works pretty well as a way of adapting the monk to a cleric subtype
Priest. WIS & CHA PR. d4 hd. A wider array then standard of Cleric spells per level. Learn demon binding and exorcising.
Runegraver. WIS & STR PR. d8 hd. Uses runes and HP sacrifices instead of standard divine spells. Cast lots for Augury. Bestow curses. Summon berserkers. This is probably the coolest of the "original" subclasses on this list, and it interacts with the game in a completely different way from pretty much everything else.
Shaman. WIS & INT PR. d6 hd. Cure poisons through salves, tinctures, and elixers. Create a totem which allows you to contact otherworldly spirits.
Thief Subclasses
Assassin. DEX & INT PR. d6 hd. Backstab but better. Create poisons and also use them and also resist them. Usual array of thief skills, (climb, sneak, et cetera).
Bard. DEX & CHA PR. d8 hd. Countersong. Know folklore and legends. Inspire allies as long as you're not doing anything else that requires your voice. Use magic items. Mesmerize. At high levels, pull from the Druid and Illusionist spell lists. Abridged thief skill array, with no climbing, hiding, or backstabbing. Not bad, especially with the magic AND the d8 hit die meaning they'll be pretty survivable.
Legerdemainist (what?). DEX & INT PR. d6 hd. Backstab and thieves cant. Can choose between the fire, ice, or illusion spell lists at character creation. Full thief skill array.
Purloiner. d6 hd. DEX & WIS PR. HOLY THIEF!!! Cleric spells plus turn undead, all wrapped up with the full thief skill array
Scout. d6 hd. DEX & INT PR. Your dungeoneer, with skills for evading fall damage, tracking prey, and accurately determining how deep a chasm is. Full array of thief skills.
RACES
As I have previously mentioned, the "races" of this game aren't the races of most fantasy games. Rather they are races of Men. Specifically, slightly off-brand versions of Races mentioned in stories by Robert E Howard. No one's fooled, but all is well. Race has no mechanical effect, but a lot of these guys hate each others guts in some way or another, so keep that in mind.
Common - for when you're boring. A person of indeterminate parentage.
Amazon - You know who these guys are. A matriarchal queendom based on a mountain on the rim of the world. Tends toward Law
Atlantean - Where the book makes me a liar about "all human". They have webbed fingers and toes, and can't survive out of salt water for long periods. Why are these guys playable?
Esquimaux - Eskimoes. Their ancestors worshipped CthulhuKthulhu, until they were banished. They hunted the mammoth. Probably Chaos aligned still
Hyperboreans - GIANTS. They live longer then anyone else, but are in decline.
Ixians - Ancient enemies of the Amazons, and the slavers. Their ancestors were Egyptian and Scythian. Does it seem a little... racist to anyone else that the first brown people in this have the slaver rep?
Kelts - I think they spelled that wrong. Have a reputation for being horny buggers
Kimmerian - Do they really think switching all the "Cs" with "Ks" will fool anyone? They worship Krimmr, who is most definitely not Crom, and are ALSO mortal enemies of the Ixians. So cool. Cool cool cool. Pro Tip, make a Kimmerian named Konan, the GM will love you and think you're hilarious.
Kimmeri-Kelts - Just mush the stereotypes of the previous two and add in some self loathing.
Picts - Because we need to add a bloodthirsty savage stereotype somewhere in here. Paint themselves. Beholden to some ancient shaman.
Halfblood Picts - I loved that novel. Wait, no. "Half-blood mothers almost always bear twins; such fecundity has contributed to rapid population growth, mostly kept in check by the half-bloods' own tribal warfare..." Yikes
Vikings - Descendants of Erik the Red. They're VIKINGS, what d'ya want, a saga?
PHYSIQUE
We get a bunch of optional rolls for age, height, and weight. Young Adult characters are standard. Adults gain +1 in any attribute. Middle-Aged lose 1 STR, DEX, and CON for 1 INT and WIS. Old lose 2 STR, DEX, and 1 CON for 1 WIS. Ancient lose 1 STR, DEX, and CON for 1 INT and WIS. These are cumulative, meaning fighters really get shafted in the aging process. Height & Weight affect nothing.
ALIGNMENT is pretty standard stuff
BACKGROUND
We get a quick list of languages and the people who generally speak them. This is where your character's ancestry comes in.
The various religions of Hyperborea cover 3 page. They range from Hellenistic gods like Artemis to familiar faces from Robert E Howard stories (lookin to you, "Krimmr") to straight up Cthulhu Mythos characters. No Norse pantheon, which is weird considering how often Vikings get mentioned, but whatever.
Then we get a sort of secondary skill source, where players choose what the character's profession was before "adventurer". It's optional, but nice.
MASKED REVIEWS: ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA, 2e
And we're back. Time for how to fight!
WEAPON SKILL
So first off, the game clarifies that fighter subclasses, plus bards and runegravers can use any weapons they want. Everyone else is stuck with whatever weapons are on their character's initial list, unless they take the time to go through the Rocky montage. There's a table here which shows exactly how screwed you are if you try to fight outside your lane. It's pretty nasty to spellcasters.
Fighters have Weapon Mastery, as I've previously noted. Basically, choose a specific type of weapon (and when I say specific, I mean the difference between an epee and a saber would make it not count). With that weapon, you get +1 attack, +1 damage, an increase in your attack rate (which goes 1 attack every round to 1 attack 1 round 2 attacks the other to 2 attacks every round). There's a nice table that shows how much better a bow is in then everything else.
PCs start with 3d6 x 10 gp, plus clothing, boots, a belt, and a cloak.
EQUIPAGE
Armor is armor. AC is descending, which I hate but ya know.
Low level armors are cheap and let you move 40 ft a turn, but give no damage reduction. High level armors are ridiculously expensive, slow you down, and give -2 damage to attacks against you. Medium armor sits somewhere in the middle.
Shields come in three varieties. Small shields give +1 melee and missile defense. Large give +1 melee & +2 missile. Two-handed shields give +2 melee & +3 missile, but as the name implies require two hands to use. Seems to be more of a setpiece thing then anything else.
There is an exhaustive list of weapons, from a monk's caestuses for Fitness Made Simple to sickles for the communists in your party (ie, me) to axes and other typical tools of the trade. There are some references to future chapters here in terms of mechanics. Also, pole arm master race is alive and kicking in the 21st century. Halberds, lances, spiked staves, and spears all have NUMEROUS modifiers for kicking ass, like double damage dice when receiving a charging enemy.
Missile Weapons in general are less damaging then most melee weapons. However, I do want to give a special mention to the blade from Krull, which makes a special guest appearance as the "Hooked Throwing Knife". It ignores shields.
General gear is the standard array of stuff. Ropes, chains, chalk, lanterns, that kind of stuff. Then religious stuff. Then horses and livestock. Then wagons. Then alcohol and room and board.
We finally get to "quick start" gear. It's nice to have a quick list, but I wish it were a little closer to the front.
Speaking on that, the "Other Statistics" section is here. After all the equipment section on AC, we have an explanation how it works. Kinda.
MASKED REVIEWS: ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA, 2e
Ah magic. It always promises to be a third of any given book, because of the need to explain what each spell does, and how it invalidates fighters this time.
We start with a brief explanation on how Clerics and Magicians start with 3 spells, with their respective subclasses following suit. Spellbooks are expensive to recreate, with 500 gp for the book itself, plus 100 gp per level for spells inscribed. So if you want to piss off a mage, burn their book.
Researching spells, for players who want a larger repertoire then just what they get on a level up, is a herculean task, costing vast amounts of gold and weeks of your character not being out and about adventuring, for a chance to learn the spell. And if you roll bad, your character can't try again for another year or until leveling up. Yeah, this is a part of old school play I don't miss. On a nicer note, copying spells from another mage's spellbook doesn't cost money, and can be done over the course of days rather then weeks AND doesn't have the silly rule that you can't try again for a year.
Now, the book doesn't explain here, but it SEEMS that magic users and clerics must declare what spell they are casting at the start of the round. GMs have a choice of either allowing a concentration check, or just saying "fuck you, you got damaged you cannot cast". Concentration checks also use 3d6 roll under, which is weird to me, I would assume that you'd use the appropriate saving throw. Whatever, it's not OSR if you're not rolling five different ways for the same thing.
We also get an overview on how Spell Scrolls work: they don't. Don't bother unless you wrote it yourself.
Wearing armor as a spellcaster is a bad idea unless you were trained to do so. Basically, if you're not a cleric, warlock, bard, et cetera, you get to have a 1:6, 1:3, or 1:2 chance of failing, depending the armor you're wearing.
SPELL LISTS
The spell lists are split up by type, with each Magician subclass getting it's own list of levels 1 through 6. Here's some thoughts.
Magicians have access to utility spells up the butt hole, which is good. There's also magic missile and a handful of other combat spells, which works well for the Magician's status as a generalist.
Cryomancers have access mostly to ice themed stuff, lots of combat abilities and a couple of spells that are "Ice -", Ice Shield, Ice Axe, Ice Armor, blah do blah.
Illusionists are packed with spells to cause and detect illusions. Other then color spray, they don't get any direct damage dealing options until higher spell levels, but a lot of their spells are meant to play with monsters. Deafen, Terrify, Darkness, et cetera.
Necromancers start out with a bunch of anti-undead measures, before moving into the more "Arise foul servant, and DO MY BIDDING" fair. They also get Protection from Evil, which is weird.
Pyromancers are still equal and opposite of Cryomancers, with a lot of the same skills just with Fire. Flame Blade. Flame Sphere. Burning FingerHand
Witches are another Utility spell list, with a focus on reversible spells. Protection from Good becomes Protection from Evil. I'm not sure what the reverse of Goodberry is, since that's a spell that creates food for wilderness travel. Reverse Enlarge sounds hilarious.
Clerics have healing and anti-undead spells, with also some fluffy spells like Augury.
Druids are more survival focused, although the healing spells are still there. They also get an array of Pyromancy spells, which I find a little odd for the forest ranger to have.
I won't go into the spells themselves, because that's 100 pages of explanations.
Honestly, though, it's cool. I like reviews that highlight the most interesting mechanical components - that's how you decide whether or not you want to play the game, right?
MASKED REVIEWS: ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS, 2e
Part IV
The Adventure & Combat section gets what players need to know, and starts with the most important part of Adventuring...
Hirelings! Why do things when you can hire someone else to do it? Unlike SotDL above, which had very general categories, this game is extremely specific. For example, a Linkboy (aka, a torchbearer) costs 2 cp a day or 1 gp a month, while a porter costs 2 sp a day or 5 gp a month. Meanwhile, people who actually fight can cost up to 30 gp a month.
It's a guy with a pointy stick, Joe. He's not doing anything but standing there.
Of course, if that is ridiculous, keeping an Alchemist on your retainer costs 2,000 gp a month. You could almost buy your own ship for that.
After we go through loyalty and morale for hirelings, we get to ADVENTURE PREPARATION
It's a little oldschool. I can't remember the last time my party discussed itinerary.
ADVENTURE ACTIONS and PROCEDURES
Climbing uses d6, with each level of armor decreasing your chance by one. Robes, no roll. Leather armor, 5-in-6. Get up to plate, it's 3-in-6. Thieves and the relevant subclasses don't need handholds or rope to climb vertical surfaces, but everyone else does. Good to know that my Skald will be leaving the rest of the party behind.
Doors behind objects count as secret doors, unless the players specifically look behind the object in question. Secret door checks are also d6 rolls, and should be done by the Referee and not the players. It's a 2-in-6 chance for the average party member, and 3-in-6 for thieves. Stuck doors require Tests of Strength, mentioned in Part I, with a +1 if the player is using a prybar. I actually like this. x-in-6 chances have much better odds then d20 most of the time.
Light is fine, but it's never gonna be as good as Veins of the Earth's lighting system, so whatever. It does mean someone with a candle is basically waiting their off hand, what with only illuminating the square you are currently in (5 ft radius)
Listening is more 1-in-6, unless you're a thief, in which case you follow thieve's rules for listening, listed in the thief section. Is there a reason that the thief needs to be the only one in the group who uses a d12 for anything other then swinging around a pike, or is it just to complicate things?
Adventurers are meant to be sleeping for 12 hours a day. Well, not sleeping, sleeping, but sleeping and making camp and all that jazz. It also assists healing in some way, but the book redirects about 30 pages ahead.
Traps are traps. They are also also d6 rolls to trigger and find. Seriously, if this game loves d6 rolls so much, why doesn't it marry them?
NON-STANDARD ACTIONS THE GAME MARRIES D6 ROLLS
We're given a quick overview on how to make up our own d6 rolls. Why wasn't this at the beginning of this section? I'm not sure, but I feel like I just wasted a bunch of time reading up on stuff that is clarification for this section.
Also, if something's super difficult, use an extraordinary test like the ones we covered in section I. d100s are the way of the future, after all, which is why Runequest, Warhammer, and Call of Cthulhu are the top RPG systems on the market.
TIME
1 round is 10 seconds, 1 turn is 10 minutes. I prefer 1 round as 6 seconds personally, but whatever.
MOVEMENT
And we start with rules for calculating encumbrance. I will definitely use those in some game somewhere... eventually.
Look, this is going to be a personal aside. No one uses encumbrance rules based on weight. Ever. Use item slots like an old school Resident Evil game, or have your players roll over their amount of objects in high stress situations. Weight sucks. You want to see encumbrance done right, check Stars Without Number. I'll do a SWN review sometime in the future.
We then get a bunch of tables for how quickly a party can move through a dungeon, then in the wilderness, with modifiers for different types of terrain. Then by how your travelling (on foot, horses, boats, sled dogs). Then if you're doing a forced march.
THE ENCOUNTER
We get how wandering encounters occur, both in the dungeon and in the wilderness. Both are often. As with a lot of old school stuff, 2d6 reaction roll to see whether the encounter is attack.
COMBAT
Oh god it's the combat matrix. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
We also get a bunch of common modifiers defined. We also get the wonderful news that you don't have to roll if the enemy is unconscious or otherwise defenseless.
This game spells surprise wrong. It's not spelled "surprize", ya loony. Also, d6 initiative resolution, by side then down the dexterity list. And EVERYONE has to declare what they're doing at the start of the round.
We finally get an explanation on Melee Attack Rate and Missile Fire Rate. That's not late at all. Pro-tip to all you amateur game designers out there: define the technical term BEFORE it's used in game terms.
Morale tests work like every other OSR game. 2d6 vs Morale, if they roll over, they run away. Hirelings do this to.
MASKED REVIEWS: ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN & SORCERERS, 2e
Part V
COMBAT ACTIONS
Unarmed attacks always go after armed characters, barring ones armed with knives or other small weapons. Unarmed characters can grapple, overbear (pins or restraining), pummel (i.e. punch or kick, with a chance of knocking out if the roll exceeds the target's AC by 7 or more), or push.
Charge Attacks have a bunch of rules attached to them, most notably losing AC bonuses from Dexterity (or -1 if you're one of those weirdos in actual good armor). But they do get to attack after a double move, at +2 damage.
Mounted Combat also is highly ruled upon. Fighting a footman on horseback means you have the HIGH GROUND ANAKIN, with a +1 to AC and Attack Bonus. They can charge, which gives double damage if they're using an appropriate weapon. Not likely to happen in a dungeon crawl, but out in the wilderness it's something to keep in mind.
Of course, we also have rules for breaking charges. It requires knowing it's coming, a polearm, and being really stupid, considering how little HP you have.
Missiles have their own list of special rules. Firing into the melee means a 3-in-20 chance of hitting an ally. Throwing a molotov cocktail, flask of acid, or other grenade gives a flat target number. Actually, that's probably a good thing. Don't want to miss the vampire with your magic perfume, after all. We get a list of common oils and their damages.
Magic is extremely risky in this game. Trying to cast while engaged in melee combat gives you -2 AC, and if you are struck, you have a chance of your spell fizzling. Touch attacks are especially risky for this reason. I like this. Mages should cower before my ax!
We get a Turn Undead table. It's nice....
We also get a nice reassurance that spell like abilities such as Breath Weapon or Gaze Attack aren't affected by the previously mentioned "casting while engaged" rules and disruptions. Yay...
Movement is short. Encumbrance gives a -10 penalty to movement (and -1 AC). Fighters can backpedal 1/2 their movement and fight or defend, or backpedal their full movement and defend. Fleeing, however, gives a -2 AC and opens the player to attacks of opportunity.
ADVANCED COMBAT
We get a table of optional techniques of combat. Most are useful to fighters and their subclasses. I'm not gonna go through all of these, but they are something to go through if you want your combat to be a little more mechanically complex.
Arrow setting means placing arrows in your spot, allowing you to improve your fire rate as long as you have arrows remaining in that position.
Disarm gives a attack roll vs an enemy with a penalty, in exchange for knocking their weapon free, launching it away in a random direction.
Dodge gives a +2 bonus to AC while sacrificing all attacks for the turn.
Double Arrow Shot allows a master archer to shoot two arrows at the same time if an enemy is at point-blank range. It's one attack roll, at a penalty, but it does kick some ass.
Blah blah blah Off hand parry blah blah blah Phalanx blah blah blah Ready Shooter gives a phase zero attack to a bowman or wand user blah blah blah Reckless or Conservative attack blah blah blah shooting while prone blah blah blah Shield Cover for Ally blah blah blah Shield Splitter for ax masters blah blah blah Two Weapon Fighting
AHA! Critical Hit Rules
Wow, these suck. ANOTHER d6 roll, which range from +1 damage to x3 damage. Rule of thumb: don't do this.
HOW MASKED DOES CRITS IN d20 BASED GAMES: Upon rolling a natural 20 (or 19 in games where certain classes get a crit range), roll the 20 again. If the second roll would hit the enemy, then you deal double maximum damage (ie, a short sword would deal 12 + Damage Modifier damage), with no resistance. Otherwise, you deal max damage (ie, 6 + damage modifier damage), still with no resistance. This guarantees that crits are these powerful strikes that make the player feel like they are turning the tide of a fight, instead of being that shmuck who rolled a crit and then a 1. Woo, 2 damage.
SAVING THROWS
Saving throws are divided into groups: Death, Transformation, Device, Avoidance, Sorcery. Each group represents one type of threat. Dex, Con, and Wis modify certain saving throws, but the explanation behind what they modify mean that most of the time, the GM will be making the call whether they exist or not.
There is also a long ass table on Item Saving Throws, because sometimes the GM is a dick and decides that because you failed to dodge that Hyperborean's hammer, the vial of fatal death in your pack might have shattered.
Spell Resistances are a thing monsters have. They mean that a spell has to get past the resistance before they have to save. This gets nastier, because the basic spell resistance is versus a caster of Level 12 or higher. If you're below level 12, which of course you are, it's an OSR game, the spell resistance is increased by the number of levels below 12 you are. Ouch.
DAMAGE
We know how wounds work. Characters who reach 0 hp are unconscious. They can be revived with alcohol, but cannot fight or make a full movement. At -4 hp, the character is critical and loses 1 hp per round. Death occurs at -10 HP.
Resurrection is brutal, but works exactly like it did in B/X
Characters who rest 6-8 hours get back their rolled hit die + con mod (minimum 1) back in HP once per day. Resting a full 24 hours maximizes that hit die amount. Hope you don't mind your adventure grinding to a halt after a difficult battle because your characters got roughed up. Characters in negative hitpoints regain 1 HP + CON MOD (minimum 1) until they reach 0. Magical healing ignores all the bullshit.
Fall damage is 1d6 per 10 feet fallen. It's less then 5e, but players have a lot less HP so it evens out. Much like your character.
SPECIAL DAMAGE
Being choked means your character has to take a constitution test every third round (not a death saving throw? Weird). Energy Drain does use Death Saving throws to resist, but goes after XP. Lycanthropy manifests 3d8 days after contracting the curse, during which time the player feels ill. "No character is immune to lycanthropy; even paladins are subject to the effects of this dreadful condition". 9th level paladins, monks, and sorcerers can cure lycanthropy. It can also be cured by ingesting belladona, although that also kills the man.
Oh my goodness, a MADNESS table. Pity it has NO MECHANICAL EFFECTS. Oh well, I'll steal Shadow of the Demon Lord's chart.
Doo doo doo do-doo, Poison. Blah blah paladins shouldn't use it blah blah expensive blah blah blah types. I yawned through this section, it was lame.
EXPERIENCE POINTS
There's a cute little chart here for XP distribution. Slaying monsters, gold gathered, being smart, reaching campaign goals, showing up. It's nice that they give the GM the option, at least.
If the GM feels a player hasn't earned their level up, they can impose that said player must complete a quest or train with master in order for the level up to count.
Jeez, I'm getting nightmare flashbacks to my old Dark Heresy game.
AERIAL COMBAT
We get a repeat of the earlier mounted combat rules, plus the ability to drop rocks on fools. Spell casting while flying via a winged mount or magical wings is impossible. Flying monsters have access to a special attack called "Swoop-And-Drop". I don't like the sound of that....
WATERBORNE EXPEDITIONS
Boat Costs! There's a lot of them.
Wind speed determines speed for sailing ships, while direction can slow ships moving opposite them or speed them if moving with them.
Man overboard rolls a d20. The faster the wind, the higher they gotta roll. A character in heavy armor starts at 19-in-20 on a calm sea. Don't wear armor on boats, moron.
Iceburgs have surprise of 5-in-6 when you have a lookout. Be fucking scared.
Whirlpools have a 1-in-6 per day chance of forming. The ship's captain has to roll under his Wisdom score +1 per five years on the sea to know how to avoid them.
It's very easy to get lost unless you're moving near the shore. Because fuck players that want to explore.
There's a table for encounters at sea, which determines the speed of the pursuing vessel. It's up to the GM to determine whether the pursuers are pirates, ghosts, or pirate ghosts. Or fish men. Or worse things.
Naval combat is given a massive amount of focus. Penalties for missile fire between two ships. The efficiency of the Ballista based on how many are crewing it. Ramming and it's damage vs Sea Monsters or Vessels. Grappling and swinging over to the enemy ship. Repairing ships at sea beyond half health is impossible.
Underwater Combat is not a place any character wants to be. Swords get -4, axes -8, bows can't be used at all, spells can't be casted unless the caster has the ability to speak clearly. Polearms master race continues.
STRONGHOLDS
Stronghold construction is shit. First, a 6-to-12 mile radius must be cleared of monsters. Then, construction has to happen. Then, PCs attract their respective settlers.
There's something a little wrong with that, one would assume you would need workers BEFORE constructing, but whatever.
Strongholds are these massive projects, something to separate players from their sweet sweet gold. Hope your players don't mind the investment.
WARFARE & SIEGE
Nuh uh, you're not getting me to do Chainmail
Fine...
To calculate the warfare rating of an army, add A) Leader: (Level / HD + reaction / loyalty adjustment) x2, B) Average HD of Army, C) Army Composition, and D) Average Maximum Weapon Damage. This number can be further modified by Terrain, Siege Warfare positioning, Fatigue, and Morale.
Battles are determined by having each side roll d%, adding the result to their modified warfare rating. The difference between the two sides totals are then compared to the provided table, which determines casaulties. The battle at this point either continues, in which case calculate fatigue, or one side retreats, possibly to resume next day. Before the next phase, recalculate everything.
This is so boring. Just go use "An Echo Resounding"'s mass combat rules.
Oh my god, I hate everything about this. Luckily, this is the end of this section of the book.
MASKED REVIEWS: ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN AND SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA, 2e
Pt VI
And we're back. Time to show off the Bestiary!
...
It's a bestiary. For a D&D clone.
I don't know what you were expecting.
Fine, I'll do my highlights
Ape-men from straight from Edgar Rice Burroughs are here. They are apparently separate from "Ape, Cannibal" (edit: And "Cave-man")
Apparently Black Pudding are actually adolescent Shoggoth, or at least an early experiment to create them. Definitely stealing that, next campaign.
The Color Out Of Space drains 1d2 levels(!) of experience every attack, and can only be harmed with silver or magic weapons. For when your GM just wants you to murder him in his sleep.
Fun fact, Demons "count as" undead, and are able to be turned in this game. Nice. And there's the obligatory nipple for the Succubus.
Dwarves are Always Chaotic Evil here. Also naked.
Fishmen apparently have a feud with Crabmen, Elder Things, and Snakemen. Apparently animal cults focused around forced evolution are a competitive field.
Gibbering Mouther also get lumped into "Shoggoth subspecies". They get 1d4+4 attacks per round, and if they succeed in biting the same person 3 times, that PC must make an avoidance save or be bitten by 1d6+6 more mouths. Really makes me want to invest in a Ranger, who if we remember is specialized fighting aberrations. And also doesn't have to be next to them.
Gnolls are listed under "Hyaena Man", only it's the weird "a" and "e" combined thing that I've only ever seen in His Dark Materials. What's weird is that "gnoll" is referenced under the redirect.
"Liches are always encountered alone" is a filthy lie.
Lotus Woman uses a trace of "The Birth of Venus", which I feel is kinda shameless
Weres have a full page dedicated to them, with the opposite page depicting a person transforming into a werewolf. Because otherwise no one would get what a werewolf is.
Mummies have 3 entries devoted to them: Mummy; Mummy, Bog; and Mummy, Ice. I don't know what to do with this information
Nightmares are BAD HORSES! I GET IT, I GET THE PUN, DON'T @ ME
Ah. Orcs are the product of Picts and Demons, eh? We're continuing this trend, I guess.
...
At this point, you should get the point. This is the Monstrous Manual with a little glitz on it for a Conan esque world. I will give it that it's definitely COMPLETE, but it's definitely not original.
Wait, why does the zombie have a a nerf gun?
This is on page 417 and I have no idea why.
moving on...
We then get a table for summoning familiars for Witches and other spell casters. And then a listing of the monsters by hit die.
The Treasure section is similar familiar territory. How much gold a monster should have, generating jewelry, et cetera.
The Magic items start with various scroll types and HO-LY CRAP is the cursed scroll table rude. It's a d10, and almost all of them will knock out a character. Try to read a scroll, BAM, Polymorphed. Or you could end up on Saturn, along with everyone standing within 10 feet of you.
I feel justified in backing away.
On the list of unusual Rods is the Ophisimian Rod. Hoo boy. Basically, if used on an Ape-Man it transforms them into a Snake-Man, and vice verse. On Humans, it has a list of random effects. Including the chance to just transform the victim into a six armed carnivorous ape permanently.
There's also the Rod Of Lordly Might, which can only be used by Fighters (and Fighter Subclasses) and essentially acts as a +2 mace which can vampirically drain health, transform into a 50 ft ladder, a flametongue +1 longsword or +3 battle ax, and make enemies bow to you.
We get lists and lists of Magic weapons, mostly +2, +4 vs [monster type]. Yawn. And then the Atlantean Radiation Gun. It can be fired once per round, and deals 5d6 HP damage to whoever it hits along the line it fires. Nice
We get 1000 miscellaneous magic items here. It's... actually pretty gonzo. Atlantean submarines. A horse's head which houses a glowing canary, and provides a full day's air if the bird dies. A fucking Flamethrower. The obligatory Girdle of Gender Reversal. Snake skin robes, for all your villainous needs. Good shit.
"Cursed scrolls are not the purview of player characters and generally are associated with dæmons, NPC witches, and their ilk." LIES
We get some tables for alchemical creations and other player driven work to create magic items. It's neat.
MASKED REVIEWS: ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN AND SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA, 2e
Pt VII: FINALE
This next section is GM information for the setting, so... maybe SPOILERS ahead.
We start out with a thank you to the Weird Tales crew (Howard, Lovecraft, Smith) along with several others like Burroughs and of course Gary Gygax.
Hyperborea is described as a micro-setting. It's essentially a cosmic trash pile, with peoples from all time periods being dropped into this world, approximately the size of the Arctic Circle. There's a red sun (sorry Superman) and two moons, one with a slow orbit and one with a fast. Dimensional rifts to Old Earth occasionally form. We get a list of other planets in the system, their all suitably creepy.
The Boreas, or North Wind, marks the boundaries of Hyperborea. It also retrieves all that water that falls off the edge of the world. It may also be a prison for a chaos god.
We then get a Calendar. I do like me some fantasy calendars.
HISTORY
Deep history starts with the Snake-Men. They have ruins everywhere. Then they mysteriously fell. Then Beast-men, who were probably Mi-Go puppets. Then the Hyperboreans appeared, blessed by the Boreads and everything was good.
At this point, the humans in the audience say "Aliens". And the Hyperboreans say "Blocked" and smash the human's head in with their bare hands.
Now we start getting a bunch of names that have too many Xs and Qs. A Calamity happens. The Hyperboreans emerge from their panic room to discover all their old ruins were infested with men.
Plague resets the clock, dropping the world into a Dark Age. And now we're here.
We get an overview of the Climate of Hyperborea. We then get a little aside on Lotus blossoms, and how important they are to the drug trade.
We get a recap of races and languages. It's short and sweet. We then get a list of geographic locations, with a note that several of these regions change hands often, a little wink at the GM to ignore this if it makes the game easier for you. It's the usual array of city-states, plains tribes, mountains, ancient ruins built by Snakemen.
THE MARVELS OF HYPERBOREA include the Great Obelisks, made of a black alien stone and sitting on the edge of the world; The North Wind, which we've already covered; the Rapids at the End of the World, massive whirlpools formed near the rim of the world; R'lyeh, which is apparently here, although no one knows where; and Underborea, vast underground cities that sound perfect for an adventure or dying horribly.
Another Recap, this time of religions.
Now we are in the Appendixes, referee advice and other good shit
Appendix B gives advice for determining the weather, with references back to prior chapters for some of it, and new tables for determining things like Wind Chill.
Appendix C has a list of NPC adventure parties, or potentially Pre-Gens. Party One is actually the ones depicted on the Cover, which wasn't something I was expecting but cool. Although I don't think they're fooling anyone with "Ronan". Or "Korr" from Party Two, who is definitely not Kull. Red at least has a portrait that doesn't look like Sonja. The characters are shown at 1st, 5th, and 9th level, with a brief description of their backstory and abilities.
Appendix D has an introductory town to act as the player's homebase. Swampgate is given a brief history, including the founding of the tavern which transformed the simple outpost into a trade hub for adventurers and two sackings by Kimmeri-Kelt tribes, which results in the present town being highly military focused. We get names for the movers and shakers, numbers for the town's militia, a d12 list of rumors about town, and a town map. It's almost too much. We then get a hex map of the surrounding area, which leads directly into the next section...
Appendix E is an introductory adventure, "The Black Moss-Hag of Lug". It involves the PCs investigating the disappearance of a couple of teenagers.
I like the fact that this adventure puts all of the stats a GM might need right at the front. The adventure itself is investigative, until it takes a Lovecraftian turn. The hag herself seems to be a reference to the hedge witch from the first Conan the Barbarian film, including the price for her help. We then make our way into a dungeon crawl, which moves from a naturalistic cave system to a more linear ancient mine.
And with that, we reach the back cover and the end of the book
In Conclusion
This book is thorough. Honestly, this is the Rules Cyclopedia of OSR games, it has everything in it, from advanced rules to a monster manual to bestiary. Occasionally, the formatting is a bit spotty, and "surprize" kills me every time. However, as long as you don't mind a lack of demi-human characters this is how you play Swords-And-Sorcery. It takes B/X D&D and creates a cohesive world around low fantasy.
I would recommend this game for people who enjoyed early TSR era games, warts and all. A lot of OSR games are obsessed with reinventing the wheel, adding in skill systems or unifying mechanics. And that's nice, but it also adds a lot of abstraction to the game. AS&SH strikes a balance between mechanical complexity and old school charm.
The art throughout the book aims for early D&D. This is both a blessing and a curse, as there's a little wonk. That being said, there are some legitimately good art in this book. There's also a zombie with a gun, which is weird for a fantasy game where the list of guns is limited to Atlantean death rays.
All in all, I'd say pick this up. It's down to $15 on DriveThru RPG for their May D&D sale, and for the amount of content in this book, that's a steal.
Next time, we're going to be taking a detour into a Savage World of Tactical Espionage Action. And also Furries for some reason.
I was timing this so I'd have a review posted of Savage Worlds: Titan Effect right after it was released in PDF form... except that it got delayed until July.
I was timing this so I'd have a review posted of Savage Worlds: Titan Effect right after it was released in PDF form... except that it got delayed until July.
MASKED REVIEWS: AUGMENTED REALITY - A HOLISTIC CITY GENERATION KIT
Time to review something a little different then my usual Dark Fantasy fair. Time for AUGMENTED REALITY, a system neutral book for quickly generating cyberpunk environments, perfect for players of Shadowrun or Cyberpunk 2020 or whatever other game. It's pay-what-you-want, which is nice. The book was compiled by Paul Gallagher and inspired by Vornheim.
We start with a drop die table of various businesses, with the opposite page explaining that the table should use 4d10, and how those should be used. Essentially, the business the die lands on is the primary business of the building, the number on the die representing the number of floors the building has (with the option of doubling) and what notable features it has on one of two tables. This is recurring, most of the tables in the book are either d10 or d100. The next several pages have various features of the buildings, from general interior aesthetic to what events are going on, with a couple of those events pointing to later tables.
I'll be honest, I really like these. The lists are small cuts, but they are varied enough and with enough modifiers that you can build a nice little district in a couple minutes. It's even got stuff you wouldn't think of, like tables for how the local fast food restaurant has a mothballed laboratory in the basement that can only be accessed through the air vents.
The next section is labeled "The Sense of the City", and it gives d100 tables for smells, sights, and other descriptors. This should be printed out and tucked into the GM screen of anyone running a game in a city. From a quick set of rolls "The faint smells of pizza and cheap aftershave hit your nose as you round the block. The sounds of synthetic gunfire and the jangle of keys pour from the corner arcade as your path forward is stopped by a throng of people hurrying across the street. You glance upward, the morning traffic report showing that, as usual, nobody is going anywhere fast. It then cuts to a commercial, a suit sipping champagne before revealing the very latest in Osprey's Omni-defense line of 'personal protection devices'. Might have to check that out later"
Another Drop Die table next, this one for generating NPCs. 5 tables of potential first impressions, all of which give a slightly "off" impression, "Garish pink jaw, acryllic yellow teeth" or "seems eerily artificial, very attractive". The next d100 table gives appearance, nationality, the topic of conversation they want to speak about, and their general demeanor. Very good. Next, their dirty laundry, from simple nicotine addictions to snuff films. There's an entire table devoted to the appearance of street walkers, which I recognize is part of the genre so I won't shame them for it.
Next up, names, appearances, and interesting facts for corporate types. A single roll (55) gives us [Peter] [Muller], who [wants revenge on his CEO for some reason], [employs the finest of chefs], and is [nervous, sweaty, and sloppy]. His last box [is married to] can be used to create a web of connections by rolling again. Peter Muller, for example, is married to Genevieve DiStefano, who hates her implants... and so on and so forth.
We then have a section on the dirty, dirty business the corporations get up to, from arming street games to market manipulation to doctoring judicial AIs. Also, what that particular corpie can do for you, such as give you access to their fixer network or do a net smear campaign on your target.
Next up: Gangs. Once again, this is a two page spread of d100 (or more accurately, d50 with doubled up numbers) rolls for Gang names, hooks, specialities, and interesting facts. This one actually does make sense for a single roll, but you can still mix and match. For example, the Vampire Daddies are blood drinking asexual skaters who deal in genemodded HIV. There's a few more tables on what members of the game you are encountering, but none as deep as the random character or corporate aristocrat tables.
There's a single page devoted to who shows up when the police are called, including who their backup is if your players don't take the hint to run.
Next up, another two page spread for various contacts and fixers. Honestly, this list is the one you'll use the least, every GM worth their salt should be using and reusing contacts.
Next up are Johnsons. 4 d100 tables. My first rolls give me a [Revolutionary] who [Plans To] [Own] [Holdall of Cash]. I can respect someone wanting me to steal money, probably from a corp or the government.
We have another section, this time on items. What's the condition of that shiny new gun you looted from the top secret lab? What's on the phone you're hacking? What's in the stiff's pocket (the human eyeball one is gross).
Mercs, basically a repeat of the fixers table in terms of "Name - Quirky Description - Preferred Killing Method - Relationship".
Media... What's in the Garbage... What did we stumble into? (this one's fun, because nothing says oh shit then when you're putting together gear for a run when you accidentally stumble on the Yakuza cleaner walking out of your contact's house)... mutant animals... netvid gladiators.... gigs.... who else is in the building?...
Now for Hacking. We get another drop die table. This one determines what things around the party can be hacked: modems, elevators, cameras, et cetera. Then we get what slows that hacking down, from pop-ups to the fact that someone's stealing it.
Hacker table, with all the cringe you'd expect. The good kind of cringe.
And with that, we are done. Nothing left but repeats of the prior drop die tables.
This book is pretty short, but PWYW and the numerous things that help you play just make it a good supplement. There aren't any pictures inside or extraneous descriptions, this is all meat and no filler. It expects you to know how to cyberpunk, and exists to get your creative juices going.
It does feel that the book was running out of steam at the end, and the fact it doesn't touch Cyberspace beyond "these things can be hacked from here" does mean it can feel incomplete. However, for meatspace adventures, this is a definite recommend.
MASKED REVIEWS:EMBERS OF THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM
Prepare to VaatiVidya
Sometimes, you impulse buy when you're in a good mood, like when you get home from a waterpark and you got to prove your dominance in the time honored tradition of dunking, even though everyone else there had at least a half head on you in height.
Moving on, if the cover of this doesn't tip you off, this is Dark Souls. It doesn't hide the fact that it's Dark Souls. Transition pages between sections of the book have little item descriptions just like the loading screens of Dark Souls. There's a king, an undead curse, an asylum.
So let's check out Dark Souls.
First thing's first, and this is important. THIS BOOK HAS NO STATS OR MAPS. If you're expecting an adventure out of this, you'll get one, but only through the usual blood sweat and tears. That being said, the production value is top notch. Every few pages has art that looks like it belongs to an enemy from a Soulsborne game.
The first section is a quick "Soulsian" primer. Gods as Kings, adventurers moving through the ruins of a civilization that has already collapsed, a sense of decaying beauty, basically the stuff you can find out by watching VaatiVidya. Mechanically speaking, it recommends using XP = Gold like the games do, having "sanity" mechanics, and making the player characters outsiders to the realm. So far so good, but you can tell they're keeping it vague so you can slot this book into anything from 5e to Over the Edge. I'd recommend something that's a little dark fantasy though, like Shadow of the Demon Lord or Warhammer Fantasy (definitely gonna be doing that here when 4e comes out).
RUNNING EMBERS gives an index of where the Bosses are described. All of these have abilities and tactics listed on their respective pages, or so it says. We shall see. As for Players, we're given a number of possible entrances to Embers (shipwrecked, summoned) and motivations (getting out of there, ending the curse, finding treasure). We also get our first reference to Brennin, who is the fucker is caused all this. He's gonna be referenced a lot in this book.
NOTE: SPOILERS AHEAD
(I'll try to stay vague)
LORE is suitably soulsian. There's a line of Summer Kings and an immortal Winter Queen. And then King Brennin decided he'd pick his own queen instead of following protocol. As Queen Brigid faded due to not being an immortal, Brennin went to desperate measures and tried to turn her into a lich. Things didn't go to plan and now it is eternally the Time of Summer.
Brennin is the land in a way similar to Strahd. Since he's become a husk of his former self, so to has the land. We get a brief portrait of him as a fighter, and it seems he is essentially a Large Humanoid with a number magical artifacts and a tendency to knock over foes or use the environment. We also get a list of his allies, who will be introduced one by one in this section. Your basic Gwyn / Allant type.
Brigid, the Winter Regent, is dead, but her memory lingers.
Princess Ceidwen, the Reaper of Ash. Blinded at young age, Ceidwen fulfills the roll of both Crossbreed Priscilla and the Firstborn, being a huge disappointment to Brennin while also being a SNK boss who throws out fear effects like candy if you piss her off. Nice. Also, she's the chick on the cover.
Cliodhna, the Earl of Aderyn. Your very own Mephistopheles, for you Demon's Souls fans. She was the impetus behind the ritual that caused the land's corruption.
You know, what I really like is that this book borrowed the Souls trend of characters having piles upon piles of unique artifacts and especially rings. It's fluffy, and gives the players a reason to take these guys down despite the fact they're pretty terrifying.
Why does True Winter Queen Maeve look like a digimon? This is one of the few times I'd be switching out the art. Maybe the concept art from Frozen?
Prince Caddell is an Artorias type character. I like his design in the book, and his tactics list has him as an assassin, which is nice.
Skimming the rest of the Major Figures section gives us an oracle, another Digimon, and Not!Seathe. From this point on, characters are divided by locale.
CASTLE EMBER has seen better days. Between the husk of the king wandering the halls muttering "STAAAARSSS" (not really), the criminal scum who acts as shepherd to the various monsters inhabiting the place, and royal family bannerman who looks like something out of Berserk, it's gonna be rough. No map of the castle is given, but we're given a couple locales of interest. I kinda want a map though.
We follow up with the Barren Kingswood, with some cool monster ideas, including Fae poacher killers and cannibal deer. The Lower City is a haunted area with a couple player hubs, including a tavern owned by a hilariously down on his luck bartender whose stuck serving ghosts. The Poisoned Port (I see what they did there) has some Lovecraft (or maybe Bloodborn) influence, as well as an NPC faction who have managed to avoid being cursed or becoming undead. The Garrison is filled to the brim of undead soldiers, but also cool artifacts.
The VITREOUS WOOD is Maeve's domain. Treat it like the Fae Wild and you will have the right idea. The Season's Trod is the path from the lands surrounding Castle Ember, and has a lot of ghosts and a faerie dragon. The Slumbering Court is where the true queen sleeps, and featuring never ending tournaments of skill from the servants of the winter court. The Goblin Market is amazing, and I won't spoil it.
ABBEY MAROWYLTH is a shrine to a Fae Saint. You'll probably find the Ash Reaper here, along with an ambiguous Stargazer who looks straight out of Kill Six Billion Demons. Also, a Flame Hydra has taken residence, Kor the Many Voiced. He is awesome.
THE ROYAL MAUSOLEUM contains one of the most terrifying monsters in this book, the Death Agari. It's essentially the Gaping Dragon if it was made up of human hands. Also, ghost nuns in the Sunken Cloister, including Sister Lenil, who is actually nice.
THE FORLORN COVE is oddly place, considering it is likely the first place players will be in. It's got a shit ton of fishmen and other lovecraftian beasties.
THE FATE MARSHES, because what would a Dark Souls game be without the Valley of Defilement. Demonic Knight included.
Each individual section has some good flavor, a list of NPCs, some magical artifacts that can be found there, points of interest, cool events. The only thing I feel like this needs is a map. Because I'm obsessive in needing to know how things fit together.
And with that, the book is over.
IN CONCLUSION, this is a decent idea book, but at the same time I feel I overpayed. Which is a shame, because the art is very good but the system neutralness means that most of the important work is gonna be done by the GM. Pick this up when there's a sale if you like Dark Fantasy or more specifically Dark Souls.
Hmmm... With the new edition of Runequest out, I should review the old version of Runequest
MASKED REVIEWS: MYTHRAS
Sorry it's not your waifu from Xenoblade
MYTHRAS is a d100 based RPG from the Design Mechanism that was released in 2015. The book itself is setting neutral (ish), but the creators have released a number of setting books, such as Classic Fantasy or Classic Rome, for more specific stuff. Now for the rest of it.
Character stats might sound familiar: STRENGTH, CONSTITUTION, SIZE, DEXTERITY, INTELLIGENCE, POWER, and CHARISMA. SIZE, the odd one out there, helps determine HP. Oh yes, it's one of THOSE types of games.
Funnily enough, the book at this points out the lady on the cover fighting the monster, Anathaym, and says it will be using her as their demo character. Nice.
Character gen is either In Order, Chosen, or Points Build; GM's choice. What's funny is all the stats are 3d6... except Size and Int, which are 2d6+6. The stats then lead to derived stats, which is a list as long as my arm.
Ah, old school game clunk.
ACTION POINTS is determined by INT + DEX, and determines your actions per round. 12 or less, you're choosing whether to move or attack. 13-24, you're a normal RPG protag. 25-36 is fast. Past that, you're hitting 5e boss monster territory.
DAMAGE MOD is STR + SIZ. It adds (or subtracts if you suck) dice to your damage rolls. That being said, the most a human can get at CHAR gen, with perfect double 18s, is +d6. Most characters won't get to use this.
EXPERIENCE MOD is CHA. That's right folks, they based your experience gain based how charming you are. Luckily I always play Bards.
HEALING RATE is how many HP you get back per day. It's based on CON.
HEIGHT and WEIGHT aren't actually determined here, but rather given minimums and maximum based on a character's SIZE characteristic.
HITPOINTS per Location are determined by CON + SIZ. I'm really thinking this is overtly complicated at this point, but I'm cool with it. Just don't expect to be doing this quickly.
INITIATIVE BONUS is DEX + INT
LUCK POINTS come from your POWER. If you've played... basically any game with a meta currency, you know how this works.
Maximum MAGIC POINTS equals the character's POW.
MOVEMENT RATE is 6 meters for humans. This isn't really a derived skill, except by character's race.
Next up, we get a big ol' list of skills. These Standard Skills are also derived from basic stats. I'm so glad Dance and Sing are different skills. I needed that. Also, Drive and Ride use the exact same stats, which makes them seem redundant.
Next we have Standard Skills which aren't treated as standard (so not Standard Skills, then). Combat Styles are gained through player's culture and profession.
Cultures represent where your character came from. Once again, setting neutral, so they paint in broad strokes that a player or GM can easily fill in. The nice thing about a culture is that when it comes to Customs and Native Tongue is you get a +40 bonus, which is nice because no one wants to be the guy who forgot the Lord's Prayer at dinner. It gives a list of careers.
You also get a bunch of points to distribute amongst your skills. Any given skill has to be within a range of +5-15%.
At this point, I want to talk about good formatting, because Mythras comes so close. In an RPG book, the editor's job is to make sure that no one subject takes up more then a two page spread. And yet, when I look at the Barbarian Culture page, it ends with half a paragraph of "Civilised", right there on page 14. And "Nomadic eats up a little less then half of the civilized page. And all I see is that you could have fit the Barbarian and Civilized ones on a single page with no roll over by cutting down on the Barbarian voice section and putting a smaller picture.
Also, I'm gonna make fun of them for having "Barbarian", "Nomad", and "Primitive" archetypes, which seems like distinction without difference. If I were doing it, I'd have combined the first and last one, and then I'd add some plithy word for "raised on a homestead" and "Islander".
There's a nice d100 table for background events. It can be fun stuff like "Your line is slowly going extinct" or "A sibling has been betrothed to your childhood rival". Also, a pile of family connections, including number of siblings and your family's reputation.
Most of this stuff is optional, but the game repeatedly says that it "can greatly assist players and Game Masters in deepening the nature of the characters..."
It's also more percentage based then Crusader Kings. You can accidentally make your wizard character super racist by making their passion towards their own race, which is 30% + POWx2.
Careers give another 100 points to distribute amongst their skills. Once again, skills can't be greater then 15% improved.
Next is Age. Pick a category (Young, Adult, Middle Aged, et cetera). Then roll based on the category.
Finally, we get some bonus skill points. 150 for adults, to be spent however you want. Older gets more, younger gets less.
Starter Equipment is based on social class, so I hope you didn't roll up a Slave because they get shit. Armor is the most obnoxious one, because the average freeman has armor worth 1d3 armor points, and covers 1d6 points of the body to be determined by the player.
I'm screaming, but nothing is happening. This sort of maximalist design is old school, but it also is awful if you're a DM with the only copy of the book and you have to make 5-8 pregens.
Magic gets a brief once over, promising it will be covered in more detail later. noooo....
Page 35 and 36 explains how a character sheet is laid out. This is a thing more RPGs should do.
I'm going to skip the majority of the Skill section because it's kind of self describing. My only negative is that there are so many different types of skills. So many. This is generally a negative, I much prefer systems like Shadow of the Demon Lord's profession system or Godbound's facts, where players get a general bonus related directly to their character concept rather then a series of bonuses that they have to balance. If I'm making James Bond, I'd have to invest in Deceit, Conceal, Stealth, Unarmed, Gambling, Sleight, Seduction, Track vs Professions: Spy, Gambler.
Next up is a more detailed version of Equipment. I'm so scared.
Economics and Bartering, aka the fun chapter that everyone loves and isn't boring at all.
The money system is 10 coppers = 1 silver, 100 silvers = 1 gold. A silver piece will buy a day's food. That's really all you need, but they keep going. A cow is 100 silver pieces, which might be useful if your adventurers murder someone and sell their cow but I dunno.
We get a table for income between adventuring, because obviously no one can adventure 24/7. It's a d100 roll that could mean your character got a lucky break or lost half their money. Fun.
Bartering has a neat little table too. However, I always feel that bartering is more for the players and GM. Still, it's a nice little thing.
We get a pair of tables for armor. Flexible armor can be worn by bigger SIZED characters, rigid needs to be custom built. The second table is material, which effects encumbrance.
Next bit is your typical junk: candles and housing and soap and saws.
Weapons range from one handed knives to siege weapons. Cool.
We get the time it takes to sew a vest or forge a sword, and the checks for enhancing a weapon (including chances to fuck it up)
And working on a different game, because old school guff gave me a heart attack.
So here's Esoteric Enterprises
MASKED REVIEWS: ESOTERIC ENTERPRISES
Dying stylishly, in a ditch in the catacombs of Paris
First off, let's start this off. Esoteric Enterprises is one of those games: It's based on OD&D, with a typical array of classes. It's a hack of a hack of a hack, with the big changes being setting wise, rather then mechanical. It uses mostly stock images rather then commissioned art.
It's also a really good book. The $5 price tag doesn't hurt.
So off we go.
Esoteric Enterprises was created by Cave Girl, a noted member of the OSR movement. She's responsible for Wolfpacks & Wintersnow, a hack of Lamentations of the Flame Princess where the adventurers are Homo Ludus, primitive mankind, where even the simple act of creating fire is an adventure. Esoteric Enterprises builds on a lot of the ideas of WP&WS, while plunging the player into a Pulp Horror world that is kind of a mix between the World of Darkness and the Cthulhu mythos. Player characters are assumed to be criminals, cultists, or creatures of the night; muscle in the schemes between greater beings that run the world behind the world.
Mechanically speaking, this is pretty typical Type 2 OSR: AC is ascending, classes are the typical range of Fighter-Mage-Thief, there is a skill list that is only really used by the rogue-equivalent subclass, and skill checks are 1-in-6. There's some specialized stuff to deal with the usage of modern firearms, but nothing too shocking.
The big difference, which carries over from Wolf Packs and Winter Snow, is Flesh & Grit. This is a pretty fascinating system from a design standpoint, because it exists to solve the biggest problem old school D&D faces: HP loss. People like playing D&D, they don't like playing the guy who is stuck in traction because a troll stepped on them and their companions rolled them over. On the other side of things, a level 10 character has the HP to absorb hits even from something that should be lethal, like being struck by arrows from the dark. Flesh & Grit divides wounds into "Hospital Recover Time" and "A Good Night's Rest". Grit acts as normal HD for D&D Retroclones, gained based on your class via dice rolls. Flesh is rolled like Grit once, and then gained +1 until reaching level 10, at which point it no longer increases. Certain attacks types, such as garrotes, dark magic, and certain Paradox Beasts (more on them later), ignore Grit entirely.
A later section of the book has the Vicious Wounds section, for when you're hit while out of Flesh. They function a lot like Critical Wounds in Warhammer Roleplay. One over the limit, you're bleeding out with plenty of time for the Doc to patch you up. Up to seven, you're bleeding out but can recover if your teammates are quick on the draw with healing. Anything past that and you're wormfood, dude.
Classes Classes Classes
Classes are pretty much renamed OD&D Classes, with a couple tweaks.
Bodyguards are essentially Dwarves, they're tough, with the highest Flesh & Grit, +1 to their Constitution Modifier, and a 3-in-6 chance on Perception rolls, which increases as they level. They also can use Covering Fire with firearms besides the automatic rifle. Basically, this is the class you pick if you want to keep your character alive, and the rest of the party alive.
Criminals are Rogues. They get skill points to spend on the various skills as they level. You know the drill.
Doctors are the cleric-equivalent, and the game's first real departure from the source. These guys can heal Flesh points if they have 10 minutes and the tools to work, something no one else can do. They also have a future section of the book known as Medical Experiments. Basically, Doctors are your TF2 medics. They probably don't even have a valid doctor's license!
Explorers are bad. They get a penalty on dealing damage in exchange for good Athletics and decent Stealth, as well as a nickle AC and Dex mod bonus. Just play as a Criminal, who have the same HD and are more suited for dark adventures.
Mercenaries are Fighters. Like it's inspiration, they are the only ones whose To-Hit bonus isn't bounded. They aren't quite as tough as Bodyguards, but they hit like a truck and also can use Cover Fire on weapons other then the automatic rifle.
Mystic are kind of like 5e Warlocks, people who have made deals with greater powers in order to gain abilities. When they want to roll a spell, they beg their patron for assistance, rolling their charm skill. On a failure, they roll on "The Fickle Whims of the Divine Table". These range from "Sacrifice some HP" to "Gain an Insanity" to "Jehovah's Witness some people with your Patron". Mystics are rare in this game because they keep getting benefits all the way up to Level 20 (new spells), but these benefits are entirely randomly rolled.
Occultists complete the Fighter-Thief-Mage trio. They work pretty much like any other B/X magic user, so I don't really need to explain them.
Spooks are the coolest addition to this game, and one I'd kidnap if you're playing any game using B/X adjacent rules. They represent everything from ghouls, faeries, werewolves, fishmen, and ghosts. There is a separate section devoted to the various types of Spooks and their power sets, and they are gleefully creepy. Woe be the party who underestimates the wandering hands of the undead.
Equipment is equipment. Nothing does below d6 damage, and the game doesn't particularly care about the difference between a sword and a nailbat. Certain weapons have annotated notes next to them, such as Ammunition, which have not been explained yet. That's kind of a flaw, results in some flipping. Gear includes such things as laptops, nightvision goggles, and glue.
Next up are a series of Grimoires, with the spells they teach and their authors. Occultists have grimoires in their default equipment.
At the bottom of equipment are "Social Advantages". They range from being a dealer, to being off the grid, whatever. The only thing that's weird is the "Fame" one, which is the only one of these which has a downside.
Activities and Problems have assorted rules. Natural Lifespan (for calculating whether your ass is grass in cases of unnatural aging). Bleeding to Death (a successful Medicine roll can staunch the bleeding, meaning having either a doctor or a criminal trained in medicine is a must). Gear breakage. Cave Ins (which are less lethal then I would have thought, just 2d6). Doors are picked with the Technology skill, requiring 10 minutes. Electric lamps have a 1-in-6 chance of breaking when dropped, while also having a chance of running out of battery every 3 hours of continuous use. So on and so forth. Most of this stuff is pretty standard, but you can tell these were thought of as they came up in playtest. Most are d6 rolls of some sort.
Combat. Like ASSH, surprise is a d6 roll. Initiative sticks through the entire round. Reactions are also 1d6.
The line up of things to do in a round reminds me of Dark Heresy. There's you usual move and attack. There's also a slew of situational skills: Covering Fire (get a free shot on people who decide to move through your field of fire out of cover) or Fight Recklessly (+2 to attack roll, -2 AC). I also found the Ammunition rules, finally. Roll a 1, you're out of ammo and need a reload. Simple, elegant, gorgeous.
Resources are used rather then flat money. It's generally the same as your level (barring other stuff), and dictates what sort of gear you can get. The game assumes you aren't in the US (although I could justify how tough it is to find guns with it being trying to find guns that are unregistered. It takes a Contact roll to find someone willing to sell you your bullshit, and a Resource roll (1d10 equal or under your resource level). It's a little... random, but I think I could make it work under the auspices of GMing.
Spellcasting stuff. Lah de dah, explained this already.
The book gives a list of cults, which a Mystic can be a member of. There's even a cult which turns the Mystic into a pseudo-cleric, with Cure Wounds and the like.
We get the tables: "Fragility of Mortal Minds" (Sanity), "What Has Your Hubris Wrought?" (Spell backfire), "Translation Accidents" (Spell backfire with a french accent), "Matters Beyond Your Ken" (Looking at the Ark of the Covenant and other similar matters), "The Fickle Whims of the Divine" (what is required from the gods), "The Cost of Holiness" (Seeing the face of God), "And Hell Shall Follow" (The Gellar Field fails), "Magical Reagents" (what your casters need to transcribe a new spell or do something Big).
Spell lists are typical LotFP fair: high on utility spells, low on magic missiles.
Next up, we get some player advice: How to build an assassin or a cop or a werewolf or any number of other possibilities. Next, some tables for fleshing out a character: social strata, first contact with occult shit, flaws. It's varied enough that it'd be a good grab for other games set in this type of space, Kult or Monster of the Week or WoD or what have you.
And that's Esoteric Enterprises.
It's not perfect. There's a couple spelling mistakes throughout and it could use an editor to reorganize a few of the rules.
But what it lacks in polish it makes up for in character. This game has a specificity to it, and when it's rolling down that path it is a good time. It wants to be a game about being a shady underworld mercenary elbow deep in an occult second world. And what's funny is it barely changes the rules of OD&D to do it, just add a dusting of modernity to the fantasy mechanics. It certainly helps that the era it is copying played more like a heist then a balls to the walls Avengers showdown anyways. The Flesh and Grit system solves the classic health problem, meaning a GM can throw more at the party without worrying "Will This Drag the Adventure To A Dead Stop?", while also not ballooning health to the outrageous excess of later editions of D&D. Mages are dangerous, both to themselves and others.
Pick it up, it's only $5 and it's supporting a member of the community.
MASKED REVIEWS: OPEN LEGEND
You got spacemen on my orcs!
Open Legend. Open legend open legend. It's had a couple controversies in the making, disappeared for a while. But it's here now.
Created by Brian Feister & Ish Stabosz, with cover art by Saryth Chareonpanichkul & Ivan Sevic. Published by Seventh Sphere, which has only ever worked on this. Honestly, I'm struggling to find the experience of this team, which is a little concerning, considering the ambition of the project, and the number of faces from the RPG community that has sponsored it, including Matt Mercer and Ed Greenwood(!). The art in this book is gorgeous, by the by.
Game system is a d20 system of a sort. It sort of works like Shadow of the Demon Lord, where you roll a second die on top of your d20. Only in OL, the die increases as your attribute in one of the ten regular stats or eight "supernatural" stats. 1 point in an attribute means rolling a d4, 2 a d6, 3 a d8 and so on. All dice in the game explode, even the d20. This means that smaller attributes explode more often, but it's a trade off. Players who've played Savage Worlds will be familiar with this mechanic. This game also uses a SotDL style Advantage/Disadvantage mechanics, where having an advantage adds an additional die of the same type as your first that can help or hinder you. At higher levels, this feels like your table would start to look like a Shadowrun game.
Oh boy. One glance at the character sheet tells me this is gonna be one of those pathfinder style games with a million things to keep track of....
So let's start with Chapter 1: Character Creation
Character creation is pretty standard in it's fluff. Name, race, physical appearance, and a secret to act as GM fodder. The general traits are split into Physical (Agility, Fortitude, Might), Social (Deception, Persuasion, Presence), and Mental (Learning, Logic, Perception, Will). The extraordinary attributes, the ones that represent super powers or magic or supertech are Alteration, Creation, Energy, Entropy, Influence, Movement, Prescience, and Protection. If you have a zero in a general stat, you don't get any bonuses on your roll. If you have a zero in an extraordinary attribute, you just can't use powers related to that domain. The game uses a point-buy system, 40 points to start by default.
Mythas flashbacks start here.
Derived stats are derived by your attributes. You have 3 defensive stats, one representing withstanding a hit, one representing dodging, and one showing their ability to resist mental effects. HP is also a derived stat, 2x(Fort+Presence+Will)+10.
Next is choosing Feats. You may now start screaming.
Feats are everything in this game. Spells, abilities, bonuses... all of these are feats. This essentially means a robot with a taser and a wizard casting a lightning spell are mechanically the same. Seems the book is going to cover them later though, so bleh.
Characters have Wealth scores, similar to Godbound (which I should cover some time, it's fucking rad) or Rogue Trader. At character creation, you can buy 3 items of your starting wealth (generally 2) plus any common sense number of lower wealth items. I approve this system. Gold is fine for old school D&D wherein everything was a heist scene to get more of it, but more and more I feel it's wasted scores to keep track of. Modern RPGs are more about telling a story, and I don't recall the last time we watched a Baggins or a Skywalker show off how much they have in their purse. Having a general sense of "This character is poor, this character is rich" works in a campaign where book keeping is on the backburner.
Next, we get some archetype builds for quick play. I'll post the first one here.
BARD
Bards are a little bit of everything: leaders, loremasters, artists, performers, magicians, swashbucklers, and more. A bard is a jack-of-all-trades who gets allies out of the frying pan just as often as they land them in the fire.
Strategy
Bards can lend a helping hand in almost any non-combat scenario by using their well-rounded feat, though they particularly excel in social situations thanks to their strong Presence and Persuasion attributes. Their Influence score also provides access to banes such as charmed and phantasm, which can be useful for deceiving enemies, winning them over, or prying information out of them.
In combat, a Bard supports allies with bolster, using the boon focus feat to inspire as many allies as possible at once. When friends are wounded, the Bard uses heal to get them back in the fight, and can even help several allies hold the line by invoking a healing aura. Bards are reasonably adept in melee combat, using their rapier to disarm foes whenever the opportunity presents itself.
There's a horde of these, ranging from standard D&D classes to cyberpunk hackers to Destiny looking mofos. However, like Mythras, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from making a beefy boy barbarian wielding a two-handed broadsword who also can sneak like the best D&D thief.
Every XP gained gives you 1 feat point and 3 attribute points. Every third XP allows you to level up, which increases your maximum attribute score every second level up, letting you get those sweet sweet advantage die. The game expects epic level PCs to 27 XP, 10 levels, and a maximum attribute score of 9.
Actually, I understand this more then I did Mythras. There's enough modern design here that my eyes don't glaze over.
Chapter 2: Actions & Attributes
We get a quick explanation on how rolling works. I already did that up top so I won't do that again. The big thing is that the book here says NOT to do that thing of allowing players to dogpile a roll. It's not gonna stop them. Players gonna meta game and there's not a lot a GM can do other then put their foot down and say "Nope, the guy you nominated to do this failed". It also recommends that, while players should fail forward, when GMs fail, they fail. Good advice. A player with a lousy roll can stop a plot dead, but a GM with a lousy roll can mean the difference between being caught by the murderbots and successfully escaping. Having that not count sucks.
More GMing advice, blah blah blah. Calculating challenge rating for rolls is... about the same as D&D, although there's a segment for making a guestimate via average attribute score.
We get rules on advantage/disadvantage.
Legend Points are your meta currency. They are gained by leaning into character flaws, kinda like experience in a Apocalypse Engine game. Legend points let you edge a roll for +1 while also giving advantage for each Legend point spent, however they do not give you a reroll which is weird for meta currency. Not that I mind. Tactically speaking, I prefer the idea of "I'm improving my odds" more then "I'm activating my safety net".
Chapter 3: Banes and Boons
Banes and boons are additional dice you can subtract or add to a roll. Inflicting a bane requires a sufficient attribute level and either an attack vs their relevant defensive derived stat or just hitting above 10 on a swing at the enemy.
Banes range from Charming an enemy, Disarming them, scaring them, nullifying their boons, et cetera. Basically they simulate every spell or technological effect that isn't damage.
Boons work basically the same but in a positive manner. Special mention goes to auras, which allow you to take another boon or bane and apply it to everyone within a radius determined by how much juice they applied to the Aura.
Chapter 4: Feats
The feat section in this book is huge. 20 pages devoted to generalized skills from Parkouring "perfectly, akin to certain vampires, aberrant creatures, ninjas, and insects" to healing lethal damage to raging to knowledge skills, to hitting multiple times a turn. Basically, any skill that isn't buff or bane someone.
Chapter 5: Perks and Flaws
The final character creation portion. Perks and Flaws are nickel and dime bonuses, generally highly specific, fill in for races, or more accurately background. You start with up to 2 perks and 2 flaws. Mostly they're RP fodder. Making an elf or a space marine, you'd pick the "Ageless" perk. Your barbarian has crippling OCD that forces him to wash every spot of blood from his ax, take the Compulsion flaw.
Most importantly, as previously noted leaning on a character's flaws is the best way of gaining fortune points. Not a bad deal for taking a bane on a roll or making things harder.
Chapter 6: Wealth & Equipment
Hooboy, another equipment chapter.
Characters can carry 20 items maximum. You can stack small items like bullets or healing potions. You can carry a number of heavy items, such as a gatling gun or a chainsaw, equal to your Might score. I've seen similar systems. This seems like a bit much for a single character but then again I think the height of elegance is SWN's inventory system. A sample of possible items is divided by wealth and properties (heavy or swift or precise)
Nothin' really to say here.
Chapter 7: Combat
Combat is as combat does (and I don't appreciate the fact that in the scenario given in the flavor text it's the Paladin who blows cover).
Initiative is an agility roll, although occasionally perception might be required to spot an ambush. Normal. Characters wielding swift weapons like knives or hatchets get advantage 2 on their initiative roll. Neat.
A players turn consists of either a Major Action (such as an attack) plus a Move action or a Focus Action (more on that later).
Attacks deal damage equal to however much above the enemy's defense stat you rolled, with a minimum of 3 damage if you tie or get one or two above. Exceeding by 10 allows you to apply a bane. This encourages hitting enemies with your strongest stat as to be more likely to crit.
Focus Actions come in two categories. Superior actions give you one advantage die on an attack roll. Charge makes you move twice your speed and attack for one disadvantage die on your attack roll. Cool beans.
After various other rules such as for guarding and coup de gracing characters, we get some alternate rules to streamline things if this feels too much like Shadowrun in terms of amount of dice being thrown. Also the game is still encouraging failing forward in combat, which is... a little weird but okay.
Chapter 8: Running the Game
GM section! Tell a story, don't railroad, know the rules, know rule 0, know rule 0 again, know that players find their own fun.
Wow that was easy.
We also get some NPC and Boss stat blocks, as well as uses of various stat blocks.
Chapter 9: Special Equipment
Weird gear that grants a feat to whose using it... holy shit that's a rocket launcher. Okay, I was gonna mock this but rocket launcher is my favorite toy. We also get a vehicle list.
So that was Open Legend. Not as scary as I thought it would be, even though it's almost midnight when I'm typing this out and it wasn't when I started...
This is where I run into this awkward bit. I'm not who this game is for. I like simple games. Ones where rolling up characters takes five minutes and combat moves quickly. Where a level up is a single roll and some stat shuffling on the sheet. Open Legend make compromises in order to be this wide open game where you can build things for fantasy or sci fi or capeshit or what-have-you. To put it another way, every character in Open Legend is a Pathfinder Wizard: with players needing to consider their build and everything. By not containing players in archetypes the game gives a lot of freedom, but at the same time increases the amount of work on the player end. And don't get me started on DMs, who have a system to build monsters rather then a bestiary. That can be fixed with time and fan involvement, but for now it's not great.
Also, I think games are stronger when they are specific. When the game mechanics and the setting are unified. On my previous review for Esoteric Enterprises, I talked about how the game frames D&D mechanics in an elegant way. That's what I'm talking about. Esoteric Enterprises could have just dusted off B/X D&D and made it about wizards and goblins like D20 Modern did for 3e. Instead, it took the "you're outnumbered, outgunned, and searching for dosh in a highly dangerous place" of it's source material and reframed that basic concept from a roving band of adventurers to a Payday the Heist-esque crew of criminals after occult artifacts and a payday. Open Legend does the opposite. It aims to make it's mechanics purposefully generic in order to allow versatility. And I think it sacrifices a little to get there.
That being said, there's potential here. This game is begging to be hacked by some RPG designer with a specific vision. The dice explosions result in swingy play, characters are varied and fun, it doesn't have the problem D&D can sometimes have of fitting a square peg in a round hole (like my attempt at making a Kamen Rider in the campaign I play in). I dunno. The good news is, this game's SRD is free from their website, so if you want to take a look through the rules (minus the gorgeous art) feel free.
That being said, I'd say there are better options for your near D&D experiences. Have I mentioned I liked Shadows of the Demon Lord? Or maybe Numenera, that just got a second edition and is simple to play (if you think jocks are lamers). Then again, I've already stated my biases towards simplicity. If you really love games where you look through massive feat lists and create your cool boy, or you want a game where you can make the entire cast of Overwatch.
You know, I recently picked up Tomb of Annihilation, just for a read through, and thought "Man, this could be a metaphor for pretty much anywhere not Europe in fantasy". That is to say, the entire continent consists of one port where real people live, and then miles and miles of ruins to play tourist in. POCGamer has a pretty good write up on that subject here.
Spears of the Dawn isn't like that. First off, this game is about Fantasy Africa in the same way most games are about Fantasy Europe. The Three Lands, as the setting is called, has five kingdoms spanning it, each with their own cultures and religions. Saying that the world you wonder through is interesting in a Kevin Crawford book is kind of like calling a fish wet, but it really strikes me especially when put next to Tomb of Annihilation, which treats the cultures of Chult mostly in past tense.
Kay. Moving on to the actual book.
The first page of the book is a description of the Five Kingdoms and the primary threat they face: the Eternal Kingdom. Forty years prior, the Five Kingdoms bound together to fight the half dead, and broke them, albeit at a cost. In the aftermath, the Emperor formed the Spears of the Dawn (roll credits), warriors and magicians and priests who seek out the remnants of the Eternal Kingdom and destroy them.
Right away, you can feel Crawford's love of creating an unstable equilibrium amongst the politics of the world the party lives in, and then send the PCs in to tip it however they want.
Creating a Character. Like a lot of Crawford's work, the basis here is BECMI, with an added skill system that uses a 2d6. This adds a lot of versatility in character building, as you gain skills from your background and class.
First off, you pick an origin, your culture and one of ten backgrounds from that culture.
>KIRSI is a militaristic nation, crumbling under the weight of it's constant civil wars. However, it's also one of the few countries where a peasant can become nobility, just as long as they have the martial strength to hold onto their land. They generally are monotheistic, worshiping the Sun Faith.
>LOKOSSA is ruled by a Sorcerer King, and is highly regimented. Stay too long in one place in the land, and you essentially become a serf. Nobility doesn't have it much better, just a nicer cage. Efficiency is everything to the rulers of Lokossa.
>MARU is a culture of refugees, who lost their home 40 years prior in the war against the Eternal Kingdom, using the savannah to turn back the dead. Now they herd cattle and wander. Nomads through and through, they are also Sun Worshipers like the Kirsi.
>NYALA was once the power of the Three Lands, a mighty empire unchallenged in size and strength. That was long ago. The pride remains though. The previous Nyalan emperor was the one who created the great pact which finally united the Five Kingdoms versus the army of darkness. The Nyala mostly follow the Spirit Way, remembering better times.
>SOKONE is the richest of the Five Kingdoms, but with wealth comes a darkness. Merchant Princes squabble for entertainment, and the old capital is filled to the brim with the undead. Sokone have a very libertarian view of the world, but also an individualist streak that makes them likely to adventure.
As I said earlier, an unstable equilibrium just waiting for players to tip it. None of the Five Kingdoms are particularly good or evil, just nations that are struggling to coexist without a common enemy uniting them.
Next up, choosing a class. The four classes to choose from are Griot (bard), Marabout (clerics), Ngangas (wizard), and Warriors (warriors).
What's nice about this game is that each of these has a place. Griots are buffers and debuffers, using magic songs that run on a point system, like MP in most video games. Marabouts pick spheres (basically like Cleric Domains) that their spells come from and can choose freely from spells miracles of that sphere, vancian style. Ngangas have ritual magic, which takes time to cast, and prepared vancian spells. Warriors, meanwhile, are combination Thieves and Fighters, gaining access to "replies" every other level, which range to armorless AC to more skills to giving detriments to enemy morale checks if they know the warrior is on the field to improving saving throws.
Next up is Gear. It's the standard array of AD&D stuff, with a couple notes on weapons unique to the setting like the spiked bracelets and the Lokossan Great Razor (a two handed machete that's the signature weapon of Lokossan Reapers, a potential player background for female PCs)
The systems of the game are, as previously mentioned, familiar to anyone who has played a Crawford game. Skill Checks use 2d6 + Skill LVL + ATR MOD, with players gaining 4 skill points every level to distribute how they want. Saving throws lower as players level up and run off d20 rolls. Encumbrance is ready items (armor and easily accessable gear) equal to half strength score and stowed items equal to full strength score. Armor inflicts a attacking penalty equal to it's encumbrance cost minus your Athletics skill and Con modifier. This means heavy armor is killer to players under the hot sun.
We are given a longer version of the backstory. There once was a sixth kingdom, Deshur, which was at war with the Nyala Empire. In their desperation, they turned to forces they didn't truly understand. The description is vague enough that it could be the pharoahs of old or the Red Tide from Crawford's other setting. Regardless, the result was the Eternal. One hundred and fifty years of war followed, only ending when the Emperor of Nyala chose to forgo the ancient calls of fealty and instead forged an alliance of equals. The resulting army shattered the Eternal Kingdom... and the Nyala Empire. This leads us to our current stakes.
The Spears of Dawn were founded during the Long war. The best and the brightest of each nation were selected to root out the hold outs of the Eternal and protect the army's flank. With the long war over, the organization isn't quite as elite, but can still call upon the old agreements if they see fit.
Basically, think Grey Wardens without the whole drinking blood thing.
We get a quick over view on how gender is handled. The game doesn't treat arranged marriage as good or bad, just common in the area. We get lists on the Spirit and Sun faiths, the various countries, Crawford's general rules on sandbox campa-gnes. We then get the Crawford special, TABLES. So many tables. For generating altars, and cults, and jerks to stab
The bestiary is fairly standard. We do get a confirmation that Eternal are essentially mummies, with the process resembling the death rites of Egypt. They are split into 3 categories: Dreamers, who are basically braindead, although more sophisticated then the average zombie; Nobles, who keep all their intelligence, and Lords, who are essentially Warhammer Tomb Kings in power and potency.
Next up, more equipment, specifically masks of power and other magical. Then hirelings. We've reached the free real estate section, which is surprisingly cheap considering this game uses the silver standard.
A couple more tables, and a character sheet which looks like it could have been done a little more stylishly, and we're done.
Spears of the Dawn is a Crawfordian experience, through and through. Characters are squishy, but surviving means becoming a power player. Piles of tables to help the flow of ideas for NPCs, environments, monsters, et cetera. It's a good book if you want a campaign using Soul & Sorcery rather then the usual european fantasy. It does have a couple flaws, and was obviously made on a shoe string budget, but as OSR books go, it's very well put together.
