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Talisman Adventures Fantasy Roleplaying Game
Publisher: Pegasus Press
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/29/2020 07:00:04

I'm going to be editing this as I dive through the book.

summary - Talisman Adventures RPG is a faithful representation of the board game, extending its rudimentary mechanics and transforming into a robust RPG system for longer term play. The mechanics are modern and streamlined, with elements that encourage Player Agency. The game looks to be easily hackable, without undermining too much of the implied setting or mechanical workings. It doesn't feel too difficult to expand ancestries and classes to any of the character cards from the boardgame, its expansions or your homebrew. The starting values for Strength and Craft look like they're taken directly from those cards and maybe the special abilities as well. Character creation is fast.

Why 5 stars? - Concise character sheets. Simple mechanics. Min-maxing. Easily hackable. Interesting mini-games. Good use of bookmarks. Great index. Note: At this time, the PDF is not optimized and will parse slowly regardless the platform. I didn't ding the rating because that problem is imminently solvable whereas an unbookmarked PDF is a load of additional work for the publisher.

Task Resolution Mechanics

3d6 v. Target Number. Players make all the rolls. Players and DMs alike have meta-currency to affect rolls or trigger additional results.

There are two attributes, physical and mental, or in game speak: Strength and Craft. Each attribute has 3 aspects, such as Agility and Brawn and Mettle (Strength) or Insight and Wits and Resolve (Craft).

You either have a skill or not. Each skill is tied to an aspect. If you are skilled in a task, you may add its linked Aspect to your die roll.

Degrees of success are measured by the number of die results that match. A success beats the target number. A double and Triple are degrees better. One die (the Kismet die) is a different color and on a 1 or 6 generates Dark or Light Fate. This is meta-currency the DM and Player can use to activate special abilities, influence dice rolls or change degrees of success. This is very similar to other games with Fate/Doom/Momentum mechanics and is great for groups that like more collaborative story telling or Player agency. It is also great for DMs to control the narrative as well, because they can choose when to spend this currency, instead of letting dice derail a plot or tpk a party.

Character Creation

Character creation is a 5 step process.

  1. Pick an ancestry. The game offers familiar ancestries like Human, Elf, Dwarf and three for those familiar with the board game: Ghoul, Leywalker, Sprite, Troll. Ancestries provide background skills and may cap the maximum of Strength or Craft.

  2. Pick a class. Several classes are available. They set your starting Strength and Craft, Life (Hit Points) and Starting Skills.

  3. Pick an alignment. Good. Neutral Evil.

  4. Increase Strength or Craft by 1. Then distribute a number of points equal to twice the Attribute's value to their Aspects.

  5. Pick a two additional skills or elevate a skill to a Focus. Then write down your starting gear. Focused skills provide an additional +2 to your dice rolls with that skill.

advancement

The game has a 10 level progression chart, with every level improving multiple values on the character sheet and adding additional special abilities. Most special abilities are activated when rolling a 6 on the Kismet die or when the player decides to spend Light Fate. Ancestries may limit the maximum value of either Attribute. Attributes are always half the sum of all its aspects. The game doesn't explicitly say whether an Ancestry cap means you have an Aspect cap as well, but the wording in the advancement rules implies this might be the case.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Talisman Adventures Fantasy Roleplaying Game
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Knave
Publisher: Questing Beast Games
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/11/2018 07:23:28

A skeleton Alternative PC System suitable for use with your entire OSR library.

The game doesn't have classes. What differentiates one character from another is the gear the character hauls into the dungeon. Each item in the character's kit takes up one or more slots, including spellbooks which each contain one spell, usable once per day. The game doesn't address filling slots with tools to perform skills. This seems to be in keeping with the original game, which didn't waste pages on non-magic/non-melee rules. However, it would be interesting to see supplemental material expand on the kit concept, so that items like a Dark Cloak or Soft Boots allows a character to make Hide or Sneak Checks with their full Dexterity.

Very little was done to balance the encumbrance system and it will take some work on the group's part to come to a consensus on how certain things might work. For example, a weapon that does 1d10 damage takes 3 slots. A spell takes up 1 slot. As stated above, a spell can only be used once per day. But this slot can be filled with any spell the character finds. A 9th Level Spell and a 1st Level Spell use up the same amount of space. Spells have to be found during the course of play and the method of duplicating spell books has been lost to the ages.

As for magic, the 7 page ruleset dedicates a page and a half to alternative level-less spells. These spells get a line of description and don't always have scaling guidelines. The section is so roughly drafted that it should have been dropped in favor of a deeper treatment of the Encumbrance system or a bibliography of sources that present the subject of magic in more detail.

Knave seems to accomplish precisely what the author set out to do: Present a simple class-less OSR meant to get players up and running without having to teach them some times byzantine OSR concepts. I took marks because nearly 25% of the page count could have been spent more wisely.

I hope the kids the author runs games for appreciates his efforts and I hope he uses the money from DTRPG purchases to buy them all sturdy #2 pencils so they have something to write with while he extolls the virtues of having a high Constitution. Game on!

edit: grammar



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Knave
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The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/16/2016 19:25:25

The layout is clean and readable. Although, It is not hyperlinked. The art is good. Fans of Larry Elmore will enjoy his pieces throughout the beginning of the book. The rest of the art is as good or better. Larry's seeming unwillingness to illustrate feet and his preference for all women being voluminous haired 60's/70's pin-up is not a draw for me, personally. It is however very reminiscent of the re-issued Red Box and effective in garnering a sense of nostalgia.

I've looked over the book only briefly. I noticed that the thief skill subsystem (sneakery and such) use a d6 mechanic where starting characters succeed at tasks with a 1 in 6 chance. This chance improved with experience, but the granularity does not leave room for personal attributes or situational modifiers. All classes with non-combat skills use this same mechanic.

There are some nice bits regarding background professions and legendary weapons.

All the classes are present. My biggest gripe is that Clerics and Druids share the same spell list which contains only 6 spells per level. In fact, there is only the Wizard and Cleric spell list. These two lists are shared by the Bard, Cleric, Druid, Jester, Paladin, Ranger and Wizard.

The equipment, monsters and magic item chapters seem to be well fleshed out and unrushed.

In short, first impressions would have been worth 5 stars if there was a nature spell list for Druids and Rangers (0E be damned!), Jesters were replaced with some type of mountebank or illusionist class - again with their own spell list and again ignoring their history in the annals of The Dragon. Acrobats also need something to make them a conceivable player choice. With the Duelist an existing character option, the Acrobat class is less of a Swashbuckler and more of a cartoon gymnast. Overall, my complaints are typical of many white-box emulators in that enforcing maximum word count for each class sometimes backfires and you end up with options that seem either incomplete or trap choices for inexperienced players.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying (First Edition)
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Midgard Bestiary for AGE System Vol. 1
Publisher: Kobold Press
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/24/2015 08:08:23

The Midgard Bestiary has a nice layout that reminds me of Black Industries WFRP Bestiary, which was one of the better bestiaries to come out around the time I stopped buying monster manuals for my games. Each creature entry gets a full page two-column layout, containing a descriptive title-blurb followed by a full description with illustration and its stat block. Illustrations are in color or B&W and consume approximately 25% of each page. I picked this up because I already own the Midgard setting and Fantasy-AGE. The stat-block is written for Dragon-AGE and I do hope the author takes the time to offer conversion notes for those of us using the newer AGE Stat Block. This is still a great purchase and now all of my rivers will be populated with packs of Eel Hounds. Players beware!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Midgard Bestiary for AGE System Vol. 1
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Netherell
Publisher: Terra-Sol Games LLC
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/24/2011 22:22:33

The strength of this publication is manifold, because of how a GM can use this at the table. I read through the book and imagined three separate campaigns. One Science Fiction, another Sword & Sorcery, and another as a truly Weird Fantasy. These settings are dependent on the origin and viewpoint of the PC's, and I imagine there would be some pretty interesting scenarios if the GM allows natives and 'galactic PCs' in the same party. The flexibility is in part due to the overall transparency of transition between describing science fiction and fantasy elements in the setting.

I love this setting, for many reasons. I always wanted to use the Traveller RPG, but as a kid, my limited gaming dollars went to material that prominently featured the artwork of Erol Otus as oppose to those LBBs. I picked up the new edition of the rules, but have yet to use them. This setting will let me try a game system I've never used before, experiment with fantasy tropes that I'm far too familiar with, and inspire me to introduce the weird and fantastic back into my game.

I would highly recommend this setting to anyone that appreciates speculative science fiction. I think this setting fits nicely in the context of 'Old School Renaissance'.

I would have given this 5 stars, but there are some issues with the table of contents. The Factions chapter is actually on page 111, right in the middle of the gazetteer, and not on page 125 as indicated by the TOC. There are several glaring spelling and grammar errors. A PDF document needs bookmarks to main entries, at minimum.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Netherell
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First Edition Sword Creator
Publisher: Usherwood Publishing
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/13/2010 13:52:32

A well constructed, if overly engineered, spreadsheet. It is protected, so to generate a new sword, one must hit 'F9' or whichever hotkey is tied to 'calculate'

I'd rate it higher, but a problem arises when more abilities are generated than will fit within a cell. Again, since the cells are protected, you can't resize, and you can't copy and paste the contents elsewhere.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
First Edition Sword Creator
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Magpie Codex RPG - Core Rule Book Reference PDF's
Publisher: Equinox Games
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/30/2009 13:56:09

I had high hopes for this game, but I found myself very disappointed. While reading it, I got this pervasive feeling that what I bought was playtest notes for a game in the making. The rules are poorly organized and poorly edited. It is unclear from the start how far afield these rules take d20. While I have seen ogl derivatives stretch the rules to great effect, they did so in a decisive and explanatory manner that ensured the reader that you did not need a core ruleset to reference against the changes present within.

I wrote the author for clarification, and received a response rather quickly. This will be, I imagine, the game's saving grace - an active response to gamer demands and complaints, and a willingness to complete what is essentially nothing more than copious notes of an in-house system.

Admittedly, I gave this a cursory read. At this time, that is all Magpie deserves. This game poor presentation has regulated this ruleset to the trash bin, until such time as a more polished and cohesive version of the rules are made available. I would have rated this game only 2 stars, had the author not been so quick in response to my questions, and earnest in engaging me in dialogue.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Magpie Codex RPG - Core Rule Book Reference PDF's
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Magic: The Science and Art of Causing Change
Publisher: 93 Games Studio
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/20/2005 00:00:00

This is a pretty neat product that allows you to construct a spell from a menu of options. This gives you a DC for which to cast the spell. Spellcasting causes non-lethal damage.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Straight forward. Concise.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: So obvious editing and grammar errors, from the very beginning. The second sentence in the document reads:

"With our WILL we able to understand that reality is not a rigid shape, but more like a bowl of water."

Needs a couple more tables/considerations, such as how to increase saving throws, and DC for summoning spells (based on CR of creature summoned probably)<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Magic: The Science and Art of Causing Change
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Elements of Magic (Revised)
Publisher: EN Publishing
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/09/2004 00:00:00

I really like the ideas in this product. I would have given it a better rating, but found the editing and writing to not be very good. I wrote this intro after I wrote my critique, and I feel like I've been a little harsh. In a way, I am, because I make the same mistakes I perceive the author making, and in a sense, I'm being my own worse critic. Enough apology, whatever you get from my comments, I do recommend the product. It is worth my money. Get this product if you want something other than the traditional D&D spell system.

Simply put, this is a d20 port of the very popular magic system from Ars Magica, but it took a really long time for me to understand the system.

Was it the lack of bookmarks in an electronic product? Was it the poor editing?

Yes, and Yes. I won't say much about bookmarks except to say I feel they are very important. It's an electronic format, expect your customers to use it on their computer.

Editing I judged editing by how quickly I grasped the same game concept that was presented in two game systems. I was already passingly familiar with Ars Magica; I read it once; but suddenly felt there was a huge learning curve to understand EoM.

I think the problems the author faced is that the ideas in the text are very divergent from core d20, and the author wished the ideas to be as accessible as the those found in the Player's Handbook.

What follows are thick, convoluted sentences, and ideas that are mired by verbose expression. There are organization errors which also make the text difficult to grasp.

Ars Magica got to the point when it came to describing spells, EoM doesn't. EoM takes too long explaining concepts that are unchanged from core d20 products, and never succinctly explains its own mechanic. I'm going to restate the entire system in a few sentences, because I like it so much.

Spells are like sentences: Verb + Noun. EoM has 11 magical verbs, such as Evoke, Charm, Compel. EoM has 3 magical nouns, Alignment, Creature, Element. The nouns are subdivided into specific alignment types (Good), creatures (Trolls), and elements (Ice).

Mages learn spell lists. A spell list is 1 verb + 1 noun, like Evoke Fire, or Charm Dragon. Mages cast spells by manipulating their spell lists to produce a magical effect.

A simple spell is one spell list + enhancements.
A complex spell is a two or more spell lists + enhancements.

To cast a spell, select your spell list, then enhancements, then spend magic points to determines how potent the spell is.

A summary like this, at the beginning of Chapter 2, would have gone a long way to concisely delivering information to the reader. It would have also reduced redundancy throughout the begining of the chapter. Furthermore, it would have followed a logical progression of delivering ideas. Simple summary, Simple Explanation, Detailed Information. As already stated, too much text was wasted on terminology that was unchanged from core d20. The author was quick to gloss over concepts like Magic Points, because the concept wound be, "familiar to anyone who has played computer RPGs.", but I find it interesting that the author of a traditional pen & paper RPG supplement would assume familiarity of MP from CRPGs, but not core gaming concepts from a game system he is writing about.

<Now that I think about it, "spell list" is a redundant terminology for spell, and it doesn't need to be in the text at all to explain the system. If you replaced "spell list", with spell, you could easily shave off 1/4 the explanatory text. The author is subconsciously aware of this, because chapter 3 is titled Spells, when in actuality it is devoted to Spell Lists.>

Once the basics of spellcasting was written, you could have explained signature spells:

There is an third type of spell called a signature spell. Signature spells can be cast more quickly than simple or complex spells. A signature spell is a specific formula. The formula's spell lists, enhancements, and magic points are fixed, and cannot be changed.

Take this sentence for example. "Each spell list has multiple ways in which it can be cast, and you only choose the way you want to use it when you actually cast the spell; you don?t have to prepare spells in advance."

The above sentence is a summary of what a spell is, not a spell list. It comes three pages after the introduction to Chapter 2, when you should be presenting the actual mechanics of spell casting, yet it incorrectly appears in the introduction of the subtopic, Spell list.

Why is table 2.1 on page 18, when you are trying to explain the basics of spellcasting.

Page 21 has an orphaned paragraph in the second column under the illustration.

Rules for regaining Magic Points are repeated, verbatim, in two places in the same chapter.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Elements of Magic (Revised)
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DarkLore Campaign Primer
Publisher: The Black Orifice
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/07/2004 00:00:00

I purchased this to support ENworld

I've been briefly going over this product. My comment is a snap judgement only.

This setting has an old-school feel to it, partially imparted to the reader by the heavily shaded black and white illustrations, font, and format.

There are also devils. Devils is old-school to me, ala Greyhawk and the Great Horned Society. I like devils.

Darklore makes a modest conversion of D&D character classes to d20 modern classes, giving players the flexibility to tweak core classes or interpret tweener classes for themselves. In a sense, you get the flexibility of d20 Modern basic classes, but you keep the archetypical d20/D&D class feel. Thieves are Fast Heroes.

The Fighting technique system is interesting. In a nutshell, there are skills representing various styles of fighting. Your rank in that skill gives you one or more virtual feats when wielding weapons specific to that style. Each technique also allows maneuvers that you can perform.

For example, with the Bassal fighting style, I make a Fighting Style check DC 40, after I critical with my polearm, to pierce my enemy's vitals and cause a terrible wound. This is a very intriguing idea.

Darklore also introduces an interesting mechanic to allow Players to share some of the workload in creating entertaining games, through the use of Advantages. Advantages represent the most important story elements to a character, and players may spend their character's advantage points to kink the game their way, by initiating/introducing such elements as NPCs, events, or contact with secret societies. If you prefer more traditional gamemaster/player relationship, this can be removed without undermining the rest of the world design.

All in all, its very good.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
DarkLore Campaign Primer
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(Aid) SRD 3.5 Revised (Full) Bundle
Publisher: Creative Mountain Games
by Arthur R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/27/2004 00:00:00

I know that the product doesn't advertise having Psionics, but I would really like the psionics SRD added to my "SRD 3.5 Revised (Full) Bundle"

I really like this product, since I do so much game preparation on my laptop, away from my books.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
(Aid) SRD 3.5 Revised (Full) Bundle
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