Important rules are missing, unnecessarily confusing terms are used, and some key words are switched or misused. Which is all too bad, because the system itself seems like it would be a lot of fun! The price is also far too high for such an amateurish product, with poor layout, bad typesetting, and what appears to be clip-art.

It took me a long time for me to decide on buying Bare Bones Multiverse or not, mostly due to the (initially) steep price tag. I finally bought it, after much considering and taking advantage of a current promotion, but it was a bit of a letdown when I finally got to read it. I'd really like to write some glowing reviews like other buyers of this product have done, but as it stands now, I simply cannot give this book more than 3 stars.

First off, I will begin by saying that I think there is a good system in there. I like how it applies a simple 1-10 scale for everything, and the way it is used in the book for writing up anything, from a single character to a complete army or even a building to be destroyed by a Kaiju monster. Conditions are like Fate aspects, whereas abilities are mostly free-form skills and powers, much like Heroquest. It is possible to describe anything with them, and this could be defined as a fractal design: you could probably take the Mass Combat rules and run a conflict between fantasy kingdoms or cyberpunk megacorporations with little effort.

The rules for combat and other situations are probably simple, but the way they are explained make them look more complex than they are, and I think some of the rules - like those for autofire - are way too klunky for what otherwise is a simple and elegant system. The Cosmic Eye rules are not too different to the tables used in the Mythic Roleplaying rpg and they surely might come in handy during a game, if only for quick guidance in unexpected situations.

However, I have a number of important issues with this book:

• The rules are poorly and confusingly explained, with few or no examples for combat and other situations.

• The book is not very well designed or laid out, specially given its price tag. I can understand not everyone is a professional book designer or can afford one, specially when you are an small-press publisher, but the fact is that you can find a number of lower-cost or free independent rpgs at rpgnow/drivethrurpg which are brilliantly (or at least, correctly) designed and laid out, even when using stock art.

• There is a lot of wasted space: very large margins, way too many blank pages and using an entire page for presenting only 1 or 2 NPCs or creatures are some examples. That would be OK for a system using a more complex format for these (like most d20 games or the HERO system), but in Bare Bones Multiverse a short paragraph is all it takes to write up most any creatures or characters. In one single page of this book you could probably fit 4-6 simple NPCs with little difficulty. There is also some filler material which is difficult to justify, like the starship floorplans in the Sci-Fi section. With a tighter layout, the same amount of text included in this book might probably fit in about 150 pages or so.

• No bookmarks or internal links in the PDF at all, something which in these days of e-readers and tablets I still cannot fathom, as they reduce significantly the usability of any PDF file.

So, in the end, I am sorry to say that Bare Bones Multiverse did not live up to my expectations, but I really hope we can see a corrected version which solves all these issues.

A fast and easy RPG system, very rules light. If you look for something you can use as a beer and pretzels game, go for it.

BBM uses 2d6 for task resolution and give a lot of genre specific advice in the dedicated chapters. Depending on setting the GM must come up with some "Abilities" or "Conditions" to get the game started, but these lists are roughly 8 entries each - so it should not be too hard.

Abilities can be anything like Skills or Attributes. Conditions are behaviours or physical details.

Fast rules, fast game, lots of fun. Not too detailed, but good enough to make a one-shot game enjoyable. I use it for setting testing and developing and BBM replaces my former go-to rules light system. Imagine a cross between FATE and "Barbarians of Lemuria". Character development will be OK for short campaigns, though it can be used for more with some tweaks or imagination.

The price tag is steep, though, but you get the printed version incl. PDF for the same price (plus shipping costs). So make sure to place the right order!

This is a flexible and fast game engine. If you are looking for a regular campaign or just a system for a pick up game this system is great for that.

Included are the rules for play as well as genre specific rules for various settings. Action movies, supers, fantasy, sci if and a few others a covered.

Bring your imagination.

“Wide open” that’s how’d I describe it. If you can imagine a character concept, you can play it. If you can describe a combat maneuver, you can do it, and I mean from character creation. This game is mad, brilliant fun to play and the rules are super easy to learn and use. Everything you need to read and run a game—any game—is covered in the first 25 pages of the book, the rest of it are genres and sample characters, towns, and adventures for each.

I cannot imagine myself ever using another system after this one. I plan on converting over my current Warhammer 40K campaign to this system and I can see it being even better because the players will no longer be bogged down by what the rules say they can and cannot do and I will not be in chart hell. There is only one chart in the entire rule system, and it’s an optional one at that; it’s called the “cosmic eye” and I loved using it, it made my job as a gm easy and fun taking the adventure off in a direction even I did not see coming.

I dare anyone to play this game and actually want to go back to their old system. I loved this system almost as much as my players loved the game mechanics.

Lomax Lamat player and GM

Soldi buttati! Il manuale è scritto male e gli esempi sono pochissimi. Per i giocatori non anglofoni (ma che comunque usano i manuali scritti in inglese) c'è sempre la necessità di disporre di manuali di gioco dotati di parecchi esempi per: 1) superare i limiti della barriera linguistica; 2) capire più rapidamente le meccaniche di gioco di un nuovo sistema. Il gioco, quindi, non è affatto semplice come presentato nella descrizione, gli errori di spiegazione delle regole sono ridondanti e da giorni sono fermo alle prime pagine di spiegazione delle meccaniche di gioco perchè il testo è scritto modo allucinante e sconclusionato. Vivamente sconsigliato: se potessi tornare indietro, mi riprenderei gli euro buttai nell'acquisto del gioco!

Coming from a a role-playing background of D&D 3.5 and 4e, and also several MMORPG's, I must say that Bare Bones Multiverse allows the most freedom I have seen for your own character. A very simple but tremendous fun game that I would recommend for all people (not just gamers). I am anxious to try out all the different types of genres in the months to come.

Its fast and that's just for starters. Its an easy system to learn. I have new players at my table and they are always like "How do you play?" and "how do I do this or that?" That's the best thing. It took me less than twenty minutes to explain the system and after that we were star hopping in the AAR-5 Advantage (same company). Did the system have everything? Well, it left no questions and let me use my own bean. I like a game that works with me. It didn't give me a lot of use less tables or pointless "blah, blah, blah," it just got right to the point and zoom, my game took off! There were a few typos but hey, didn't bother me none. They were minor (no more than anyone else). Hey, I recommend you try this game. I mean, I spent more time playing than rolling up characters and that is the point.