Upgraded or Downgraded?

Firstly, this is a playable game; if you know anything about Traveller, you are good to go with a slightly streamlined, system. I say“slightly” because the new wounding system is needlessly fiddly, replacing a paragraph with a page-and-a-half.

It was a shame to see the ship creation chapter stripped of many of the necessary rules—you can’t design your own ship with this version of the game. Additionally the newly added animal creation rules are incomplete, I solved the problem by referring to the original 1977 rules…but I shouldn’t have to do that. Should I?

Another way in which the new Upgraded rules let themselves down is the careers section; five of the originally presented careers have been removed leaving (almost) the six from 1977. For the missing material the author directs the reader to Cepheus Deluxe.

So a downgrade? I’m afraid so. If you have the original release, hold on to it; the download included a .doc file containing the complete rules which encouraged me to mod and house-rule as I desired, which was not much. There you would find a system that cuts much closer to the LBBs.

So what’s going on here? The Upgraded rules are now no longer designed to provide a complete original 1977 Traveller experience, instead they have become a Basic D&D-style game which directs you to the larger, more complete and more expensive Cepheus Deluxe to continue your adventures. Disappointing the goal of the original release has been lost in the mix. Some of the new material seems to use some cut-and-pasting and the new material is just wrong, the skill Medical is referred to as Medicinal in the wound rules. A bit sloppy lads.

The score…if I had not seen the original Cepheus Light rules I would have given this Upgraded version a solid 3, some of the streamlining is good and I can use the LLBs to fill the vital gaps needed it. But ultimately I would have returned to the LLBs for completeness But I have to score this game against the original release, I can’t play the game as I would like, it's incmplete in vital ways. This wasn't my experience with the original release, which means I have to give the Upgraded version a one.

Just a quick scribble.

There are some things I don't like here.

1. Whilst the writing is very good, it's overly wordy, I think a good editor (like me) would have shaved a few pages off the manuscript. Obviously this is purely subjective and the next reader in line would probably disagree with me.

2. I just don't like the basic Skill/Stamina/Luck system. It worked in the game books but with multi-player games, it's clear what the best mix is and the players will likely end up with similar characters because of this.

3. Finally, the overall layout is not to my liking, it really does look like a word document. The artwork seems to be stock and, frankly, not very good. Frequently, paragraphs will be broken by random bits of art; a common one is merely a strange code: "GH08.12 arrow up". No idea. The point is they are superfluous, drag out the size of the document and should be removed.

However, it took about 15 minutes and half a page to house-rule it to the way i wanted. There's a reason:

This game is deceptively massive. And modular.

Massive because it effortlessly encompasses most sci-fi genres and games from Traveller to Star Wars or Tron and in those between. I bought Stellar Adventures because i wanted a more manageable system to run my Traveller games—I’m getting too old for all the work—and I can. Everything is here, star system creation, trading, interstellar travel, low-key. It's all I need.

It’s modular so, the bit of house ruling I did at the top of the game isn’t going to impact elsewhere because you can bolt on your choices where you like—the modues are practically self-contained.

A lot of work went in to this project and it’s shows. A clever design that covers a lot of ground. Excellent.

An extract from the first page of the book: “If tabletop roleplaying games are not familiar territory, this is a great game to start with. It is easy to learn and is filled with examples. For those who have played RPGs before, but have not acted as the GM, The North Sea Epilogues is a perfect way to learn the craft”. No and no.

Here’s why: To start the ball rolling the players, and presumably the GM, nut out the players’ clan. The book offers a short series of questions that will , very loosely, define the clan. As this review continues, you will notice that questions are this game’s schtick. We are told the clan will be small with little influence—something which will be contradicted in the coming campaign. New players may struggle here. Next there’s a single page on viking life. A new player may need to Google but since this is a world loosely based in the realm of history we need more.

Hero creation is another series of questions backed with some light crunch making up the game statistics. More questions for that new group. The player also chooses a path which calls for yet more questions, grants some equipment but ultimately provides a mechanical bonus if relevant to the action at hand.

Following a brief but good (for me but probably not for a fresh player or GM) overview of the game’s flow comes the GM’s chapter and here is where we can say goodbye to the notion that this is a game for new players and game masters. To perform an action, also referred to overcoming (which is fine), the player throws a die and the GM references a chart giving the difficulty level which includes a range of numbers which are not named. If the die plus modifiers equals or exceeds the mystery range of numbers a success is achieved, the more difficulty levels exceed result in a more beneficial outcome. This is also referred to as the number of successes achieved.

The next number is the “Target Number”; that unnamed range of numbers that must be met or exceeded by the die roll isn’t the target number. Strange. Broadly, the target number is the number of times a successful die roll is required to succeed. A better term is required for this target number.

For the new GM, there’s no assistance given to determine which of the numbers in the difficulty level range should be used for determining the target number required by the die roll, no, I mean success level, no I mean, darnit, I don’t know what those numbers are called. Further, there’s almost no guidance on the subject of those target numbers which are key to determining the outcome of every action with the exception of general actions which only require one success, after that the new GM is on their own. Additionally, the GM is advised to consider the attributes and skills of the character when settling on a difficulty level. No. A task is as difficult as it is; that task is made easier with suitable mitigation which is, or should be, considered after the difficulty level is set.

Scenarios and campaigns. I’m resisting the urge to apply quotation marks to these to nouns. A new GM will have no idea what to do with these things which make up the bulk of the book. Each is comprised of a long list of questions the novice GM must answer. That new GM will surely flounder. Essentially, a very brief opening event kicks off the adventure then stalls as that novice GM actually writes the adventure. What happens in the middle? What happens at the end? The GM answers the questions as best he or she can making a stab at the author’s intent.

In one scenario a huge rock, with a mysterious rune, appears on the edge of the clan’s land. Even the author doesn’t know why it’s there or what it represents. Instead, the GM must decide. I should point out that gods and magic do not exist in this setting so the poor struggling GM has to come up with a viable mundane reason, or perhaps wisely, not present a clear outcome. When I first started out in the hobby I read the Homes Basic D&D book and whilst excited to play, I didn’t understand it at all…until that is, I read the included adventure. Make of that what you will.

Not a scenario or campaign in any kind of traditional sense and certainly a minefield for those whom have never played or taken the role of game master.

Here’s a few other thoughts: The writing is, at times, clunky. I stumbled across some instances where a number appears in the text where a word is required, for example, “A huge man appears before you, the biggest 1 you have ever seen”. From an editorial view this is rubbish. Also, the text makes little or no distinction between the player and character resulting in many instances where the character, rather than player, is called upon to roll a die. No.

More clunky: In an attempt to remain gender neutral, players and characters are referred to as “they”. In so many cases it just doesn’t read right. There are many alternatives, the obvious being, “the character” and, “the player”.

On a personal note, the start of the book asks the gamers to respect the feelings of one another, to the point of suggesting a safe word to indicating an impending trigger…I don’t think you need a role-playing game to tell adults and children alike to be nice to each other. In summary, this game needs a good serving of background material; the writing sometimes (not often) needs an edit, not just for spelling but for context and readability. The rules, which are interesting are also opaque, more work is required; more detailed examples needed. Without a structured scenario, new players have no where to go. At least one traditional adventure should have been included. A series of questions do not an adventure make.

I don’t dislike the game, it’s a 2.5 to 3-star effort that could have been so much more. However, for my tastes I probably should have purchased the PDF before ordering a hard copy.

What do we have here? Issue one of a zine supporting what is easily my favourite OSR game, Old-School Essentials. The game is a masterpiece. Go and buy it immediately.

So, the zine; any good? Let’s find out.

Firstly, it’s up to the standard of other OSE publications, crisply laid out, concise, easy to read and reference, with wonderful artwork. My favourite illustration is the trio of wolf-riding goblins. I suppose the only issue would be the goblins and wolves being much bigger than the adventurer pictured in the foreground. Still, the piece is excellent; very much in the DAT style.

We get 32 pages which include the front covers, a couple of leading and trailing blank pages and the OSR License.

The writing is strong, although littered with jarring exclamation marks such as: “…players may choose from when creating a character!” Should we be exclaiming that? It’s a small point I know but as an editor, these things tend to pop. Oh, there are also a few errant apostrophes but that’s inevitable these days.

First up we get a two-page spread preceding new class as race descriptions and for the Advanced version of the rules, races. Both Mage and Acolyte are the result of a “thought experiment”; I’m not sure what that means exactly. Perhaps the author thought it was a good idea then wrote it down?

Of the new class-as-race creations we have the Acolyte, a cleric replacement with six percentile abilities handled in a way similar to thieves’ skills, doing away with spells. The Acolyte can use some of these “skills” to perform spell-like effects and can use them at first level; interesting, but the character trades near-assured success and a vast array of powers for six skills with a very real chance of failure. At level two, the chance of succeeding with the Bless skill is 35%, with the Bless spell the chance is 100%. At second level, the Acolyte can heal 1D3 lost hit points. Hmmm…however, that can grant a second saving throw to resist and existing malady.

The Mage follows a similar path; a Magic-User replacement trading the certainty of spells for the random throw of percentile dice. In the case of both Acolyte and Mage it is mentioned that these new classes would suite a low-fantasy setting nicely. It surely would. Very nice. The Mage has a Gandalfy feel and that was the intention, he can wield a sword, is harder to hit and his staff packs a punch. Don’t be rude now.

Next up: The Gargantua, big and muscly and the Goblin, short and weedy. Very nicely done with fully integrated abilities.

A pair of sci-fi inspired classes are included and they are well imagined with interesting abilities that won’t derail your game.

After the Basic classes come the Advanced race details. This is where I find that my 32 pages has been diluted. I only play the basic game and I’m sure others will only play the Advanced game. Half of this material will only find a home in one of those two camps.

The Firearms rules are an excellent addition to any game, well conceived and as complete as they can be. Having read this section I’m keen to introduce guns to my games.

Fighters are treated to six talents adding some flavour and provide a small bonus. They have all been seen elsewhere but are a welcome inclusion here.

To my tastes the most useful and inspired chapter covers the transition of thieves’ skills from percentile to a six-sided die. I’ve always wanted to see a workable implementation and here it is. I’ll say no more but if you want to see Thief skills how they should have been, buy Carcass Crawler. I’ll say a bit more after all: the two pages outlining ways for the referee to apply the new system logically, is outstanding. Even if you use percentile dice, read this.

That’s it. To my taste there is some necessary redundancy built in, the author’s want to provide meaningful material for players of both Advanced and Basic games, this they do but as I’ve mentioned, I only play Basic. That aside, this is a must-have for OSE players, beautifully produced and for a first issue it’s clear this will be a fantastic run. More please.

Over many years Paul Elliot of Zozer games has been responsible for dozens of quality role-playing games and supplements. Two of his games: Zenobia and 43 AD are in my top ten of my favourite RPGs. His Traveller material is outstanding.

How does this game stack up against previous outings? I’ve played Action Dice — just once — and it was a big hit with my group, despite one sticking point. I wouldn’t call it a deal breaker because you can house-rules it away and Paul has since a workaround.

Will you like Action Dice? Probably. Maybe? First and foremost, the game pays homage to the game-books of old, it’s fast and easy for the referee to adjudicate or further the plot on-the-fly. It’s rules light. If that’s not your jam, move on.

I’ll try and skim through a few details that might help you decided whether this is a PDF keeper or a delete.

What do we get? A 30-ish page document using a large font, it’s stretched across more pages than needed. The layout is minimalist but that seems to fit the game’s tone — light. Art is used sparingly but to good effect. As usual Paul’s writing is good.

The game’s mantra is set out in the first page: Don’t roll the dice unless it’s necessary, do improvise, don’t add extra rules when you can just wing it without the headache. The intro also tells us that the dice rolling isn’t the game, the interaction is. That’s not strictly true, it’s the dice that makes the role-playing a game.

Next we have the key area of the game and this is where my issue lies.

Three attributes: SKILL, FATE and HITS — Hits rather than Stamina but same-as. For SKILL and FATE, roll one die, ignore a six then add 5. HITS are 2 dice +12. You then get to add one discretionally point to either SKILL or FATE or 2 points to HITS. This gives your character a range of 6 to 10 (or 11) for SKILL and FATE, 24 for HITS. The minimum is 6, 6, 14 — +1 for the discretionary.

There is a point-buy system offered added at the last moment. For the time being, let’s pretend that isn’t there as diced characters is the author’s preferred option.

Next comes ROLE one of the bits that elevate this game beyond all the many previous attempts to bring Fighting Fantasy to group play. Your character’s ROLE gives you a peg from which to hang your concept. You’ll cook up some distinguishing features, gear and areas of defining abilities. If the area of expertise falls within your character’s ROLE you use the previously generated SKILL. If not, SKILL is reduced to 6 for the purpose of dice rolling.

And that’s my problem. Your ROLE may be, “lauded professor of archaeology”, and when using abilities related to that ROLE you use the character’s normal SKILL. If the ability is unrelated, your effective SKILL is 6. As mentioned above, if you’re unlucky your character might have a SKILL of 6 meaning she’s just as incompetent at firing a machine gun as he is at excavating ancient rules. You’ll need to fix that. The points system does straighten it out.

Checking for success is a chinch, if you are testing FATE or SKILL unrelated to combat you roll 2 dice, for a success you’ll need a result under the character’s rating rather than “equal to or less then”. In combat you throw 2 dice add your SKILL and compare the result to that of your opponents. The highest total wins that round. I don’t like to chop and change between different mechanics in such a simple game but it works well enough.

The game covers critical success, fumbles and other common events that will take place in your gaming session. Simple and well-conceived.

There are useful examples of powers and spells, a good base for your own creation. The default setting is low-power but you can change it up if you’d like; low work for me. Combat covers all the bases but a single hit always scores 2 points of damage unless the weapon is a rifle or pistol where a die is rolled to determine HITS lost.

Vehicle combat and explosions are included. There’s nothing so satisfying as blowing something up, particularly a main battle tank or Mech.

Enemies are up next and a good number of examples are provided. They run from SKILL 5 for a thug or goblin up to 14 for a dragon or jet fighter.

The game comes with some sample settings. I love Tank World, a post-apocalyptic environment where the only thing standing between salvation and utter doom is the player characters and the tanks they pilot. Nice. Next there’s a section on creating adventure-packed with ideas to fit the plot around the action scenes, rather that the reverse. It fits.

There’s an adventure generator to assist the imagination-challenged ref. but it’s bit too light to get my juices flowing. Closely related is the section on solo play. Action Dice is based on danger and excitement so prevalent in the game books so yes, good idea. The system presented here is not as robust as that featured in the latest version of Zenobia on which it is based so you could certainly crib ideas from there.

The book rounds out with a very good section on improving your characters through experience points. However, this chapter tells us that character improvement is slow and steady as the characters are already at the pinnacle of their careers. If that’s so, I pity the poor archaeologist from my example above, she peaked at primary school.

That’s it then, a great game that does exactly what it sets out to do — create a freeform action role-playing games that’s as simple as it is inclusive.

The Good Bad and the Ugly Review

But in reverse order.

You might get the initial impression that I don’t like this game. No so.

The Ugly

This is a zero-edition game. Like a pre-pre-alpha in the computer game world. On publication it won’t look or read like this. I hope.

Firstly, yuk. This is surely a word document uploaded as a PDF. Don’t except a professional layout or presentation. Even a neophyte such as I could do infinitely better with Mac Pages in layout mode.

The tables have thick black lines and black headings, they just looks messy, out of place even. The flavour text, is frankly awful. The intent is good but egad! Dump it or rewrite it please.

There is no consistency in the document — bullet points for example. Sometimes the lines are double-spaced, sometimes indented far beyond those earlier of later.

Commas and apostrophes find their way into all sorts of nooks and crannies and are not welcome when improperly used, which is often.

Many sentences have words missing, confusing the intent. This is near disastrous for a rules document and makes the flavour text almost unreadable and clunky. This is one of the main sticking points for me. There are many examples but here’s a very minor one, “…crew of the Flying Circus, brought the sky ship around in the sky…” Sky ship? In the sky? Surely not.

Newt’s writing is normally very good. Not here.

These are perhaps minor assaults on good grammar and presentation but having editing dozens of technical documents these either pop out at me or genuinely force me to re-read a passage to see where Newt is going wit it. The author isn’t entirely sure whether his game is Skyraiders of the Floating Realms or Floating Worlds. A small distinction you may think but if you can’t get the name of your product right, what chance has the game got? Lots in fact so you’ll need to read on.

This is stream-of-conscious writing with absolutely no editing OK, you don’t expect editing in such a hurried method but, I am paying for this booklet.

The Bad

The author tells us, this game is not about dungeon delving or looting magic and treasure. However, there are numerous references to gaining riches and magic through the time-honoured act of dungeoneering. No issue for me but which is it? Dungeons or no dungeons?

Character generation. Each step of the creation process is broken down into discrete rules. Good. The instructions for those elements are listed as a line of text below each rule. There’s no summary of these steps, instead you must read every section to learn what it is you must do to create your character. This will become second nature very quickly but this is an example of poor layout out and testing — I’m not sure this game has a been play-tested but this is a poor design choice.

Often words are capitalised, becoming proper nouns. There are many, many examples, Caster versus caster, Strength and strength (this happens a lot) Referee or referee. I could go on and on. I doubt the hodgepodge use of such elevated nouns is intentional but, surely some of these words are just your run-of-the-mill words.

Combat is a bit broken. Grappling — just a regular attack, it doesn’t matter whether the target is in plate armour, with sword and shield at the ready or dressed down to his britches and ready to wrestle. An initial successful attack locks the target in a hold — immediately. Bit powerful perhaps? On the next round the wrestlers make an opposed roll using either their Close Combat or the Athletics skill. There is no Athletics skill. If the attacker is successful the target takes damage and his armour offers no protection. That’s the same as a critical hit right there. Suddenly the grapple (or Grapple) is the best melee attack in the game.

Magic is completely broken. There are no Power (see, a capitalised word used as a proper noun) point costs for casting a spell. You can keep on casting the same spell until you get it right and then cast it again and again. Futher, you can blow out a candle with the spell “Blow Out” — a truely awful name for a spell — or blast a foe with 2d6 damage, and yes, the spell name is, “Blast”. These two spells, one far, far more powerful than other are technically identical as described by the rules of casting.

I’m not sure I like the purchasing mechanic. The player rolls their character’s Trade skill with a modifier based on the desired item’s rarity. The reason I’m not sure is because a character begins play with a list of useful gear and the game is not about bookkeeping. Still it would be nice to see an example or two.

An adventure is included. This is a must for all new games, in my opinion. I'm about to explain a major plot point so pease skip this if you're going to run or play.

The adventure is comprised of 7 linear encounters. Some are fights but others require a bit of role-playing. However...the plot. A pair of witches finagled ownership of half the sky island where they adventure takes place. They want the other half. To orchestrate a full takeover they are systematically destroying the island. Hey, what now? To gain ownership of the other half of the island they're destroying it. Those witches should have a chat with me and I'd explain that if they destroy the island...well you can fill in the blanks.

The Good

I’ve played the game. I had to house-rule many of the broken bits or those that just didn’t work for me.

It’s great fun.

You can create your character in an instant which is nicely old-school. The mechanics are d100 based; which are quick and easy to introduce new players. Tell a newbie to throw a d20 versus a cross-referenced table and there may be some confusion. Tell them they have a 56 percent chance of success and all become clear.

I like the treatment of armour. When the character is struck, the player throws an armour die which reduces the hit points lost.

Movement is handled simply, described by four range categories. Although I don’t think rules for moving between these ranges presently exist.

There’s a bit of swashbuckling thrown in for good measure. No rules. The referee adjudicates on the fly based on players’ description and the intended result. I like this, the game is to be played fast and loose.

You can readily wing the oft-mentioned sky ships. There are no rules for them but this is the zero edition after all. A hint would have been nice.

There are good, but short sections on monsters, guilds and religious orders. Examples show how easy it is to create an interesting monster or an element of the game world that might quickly become key and grant the player characters a true place among the realms. Or worlds.

The game is designed for one-shot and mini-campaigns. You can turn this into a longer campaign by reducing the number of improvement points awarded or increasing the cost of advancement. I’d favour the latter but one shots are well received by my crowd.

The game finishes with an adventure. Every new RPG should come with a basic adventure. Nothing sets thee scene so well as the designer’s own imaginings. Some are included here. Your learn that the game is meant to be a bit of a giggle. The main mover and shaker in the area is Boris the Bad'un. The area includes two villages with no means of obtaining their own food. The villages are Big and Little Humbug.

Summary

Will you like this game? I do. You might. If you are looking for a detailed tome with options for every situation. This is not it. Massive bestiary? No. Detailed background? Not yet. On-the-fly style with matching rules? Yep. At the mo, it’s nice and cheap but in need of a little TLC.

Is this game not for you? If you don’t like the sound of the preceding paragraph, no.

The link to this game appeared in my inbox a few days ago. What a pleasant surprise.

Here is a game, nominally set in the post near-apocalyptic world of 1884. I say nominally as the only real reference to the period is a brief timeline setting out the calamity that struck, and forever changed, the earth.

Firstly, a very few negatives, some of the prose seems a little haphazard and despite the low page count, rambles a little in places The Precis rigourous level of editing, seems lacking. Secondly, this world-shaking (literally) event is referred to in the book as “The Tremors”. I don’t know whether this is intended to be ironic, but it sounds a little underwhelming; a bit like describing The Great War as, “A bit of a misunderstanding”.

Two neutral points: As mentioned above there is no real background to the game, no sense of setting. However, the author quite rightly suggests turning to Google. Indeed, a wealth of information is merely a click away. Also, the game is described as entry into the wealth of OSR material. I am not so sure about this but the basics are there, the iconic abilities, Armour Class, HP and so on.

Now the good stuff; tempered by a few observations.

Character generation is extremely fast and a hoot. It turns out capable characters and includes a selection of skills to further distinguish them even those belonging to the same class. Each ability is generated with a 4-dice roll and each class gains to bonuses to the result. All characters have key secondary statistics such as AC and Health (HP) determined by reference the abilities rather than consulting a class-based table.

Characters have two additional stats, Moxy which is spent to use Advantage in the same manner as D&D fifth edition; and Sanity which serves in a similar fashion to Cthulhu Sanity points.

There is a very small shopping list of equipment but I’m OK with this, I don’t want the players to be pouring over a table of irrelevant items. Additionally, new characters start off all but destitute so a list of goodies would prove irrelevant. The weapons and armour are defined by damage, range, and categorised by utility: Light, Medium and Heavy.

Character generation includes a few spells for a new Arcanist (magic-user) to select from. It’s a very narrow range with most not only being combat-related but some are duplicates of others presented in the same list. Different names but identical effects. This is not a huge issue as the players are encouraged to create their own and there is an excellent table to assist with this.

The basic mechanics are discussed in the chapter “GettingThings Done”. I’m curious about this…to succeed in an activity other than combat the player throws 1d20 and adds the character’s ability score aiming for a result of 21 or more. To my mind this makes every action just a little bit easy. Abilities are generated with 4d6, dropping the lowest die giving an average of 13. That sees a typical character requiring 8+ to succeed. In the example play-through, none of the players fail an action check.

Combat is concise and applies no modifiers, with the exception of Advantage. I see this as a good thing, all the characters are equally capable, and I enjoy a simple resolution system.

Health, Moxy and Sanity are recovered through short and long rests; similar to D&D but the scale is grittier – with the intervals lasting 3-hours and long rests lasting up to 8 hours. This doesn’t seem quite gritty enough and when I ran my first game, I used a short rest of 8 hours and a long rest of 72 which suited me much better.

Spell casting requires a Wisdom roll which negates the need for the target to make a saving throw which I like. Failing a casting roll results in Sanity loss. Dropping to zero Sanity requires a roll on a short table describing possible effects of temporary or permanent insanity. Fun for all the family.

The monsters are an excellent mix of evocative enemies: The Devil Sisters are evil nuns; Injectors are sadistic women holding grudges against men (is there a trend here?) and the Razormaw is a technologically altered horror that can move on two or four limbs. Referee aids contain a slew of 1d20 tables that quickly generate scenarios, new and yet more horrible monsters, colourful NPCs, exotic weapons, magic items, and spells. Excellent.

Finally, I was delighted to find not one but two adventures. Many games fail to provide an adventure that reveals the author’s intentions for his world and this is always a mistake.

The first is a basic dungeon crawl, and the author admits as much. I imagine it serves the purpose of introducing players to a new game and new-ish system. However, next we have a full-blown sandbox adventure that is quite simply excellent. This chapter alone is probably worth the asking price. It includes great locations and fascinating characters, fully defined in the same manner as the PCs. Brilliant.

Finally, although you may or may not like the sound of the game from my review as it needs a tidy up and drifts a fair distance from your typical OSR ruleset. However, you cannot deny that for the quality of content, this game is ridiculously cheap.

If you’re interested, here’s a link to the adventure I wrote for my first session. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ocHqkNVSiQx5IoP_ELUn4mdpC1X6SCII/view?usp=sharing

The Expanse Role-Playing Game Green Ronin

First a tiny bit of background. I've read the first five books of The Expanse series and loved them. I've watched two and a half seasons of the TV show and will binge the rest shortly; I like it. I think I know about the story, characters and backdrop. However, I'm going to approach this review as if I didn't know anything about the background and as a newbie to RPGs.

Secondly this review is not based on game-play; I've studied the Book extensively but that's all so far. I'm a Kickstarter backer and received my copy and GM's screen about three weeks ago.

Finally, as usual, this review is my opinion only; if I say something is great of poor it doesn't mean that it actually is.

Now, my rambling review begins:

The book itself: it's a beautiful thing; thick and heavy, with quality paper and best of all, the binding is stitched. This book will last. It begins with a short story by the authors; for my sins I must confess that I haven't read it yet.

Next we have the standard blurb about what a role-playing game is and a page of Basic Game Concepts: what the dice mean and how to read them. I think a new player to the hobby would get a good idea of what they were getting themselves into. The Player's Section follows and begins with a chapter entitled Game Basics. Wait a minute, what happened here? Methinks Basic Game Concepts and Game Basics should have been in the same chapter...However, this chapter, tabled "Chapter One" is full of things I enjoy: quick easy and sensible rules. In a nutshell, roll three six-siders add a couple of modifiers then beat the target number to succeed. Nice. There's more to it than that of course and the different types of tests are introduced here; they all seem to make sense. Then comes an explanation of Stunts; I remember these from the first, boxed, instalment of the Dragon Age game, there were a few for combat and some for magic. I liked the idea; as I read on I begin to struggle with he concept. More on this later. 
Stunts aside we learn of the Drama Die and this is something I like very much. Roll three dice if the result includes a double look at the differently coloured Drama Die. This is a very flexible mechanic with several uses including: deciding ties, fuelling stunts, determining when ammo runs dry, contributing to Churn and more. Impressive.

Fortune points are mentioned and they are a key point in the game. They can be spent to increase the value of a single die on a two-for-one basis and... Well, an interview with the games author on the Kickstarter page featured his answer to the question: "What are you most happy with about the game?" His answer, "Getting rid of hit points". He didn't. Fortune points are also hit points.

Chapter two begins with character creation and this suits my tastes perfectly, it's quick and delivers varied and playable characters. Sadly these characters don't seem imbedded in the universe of the source material; yes, Martians, Earthers and Belters get a paragraph each but that's it. I would have hoped for more and this is the start of a disappointing trend seen throughout the book, the source material is simply not used to anywhere approaching its potential. Despite the claim on the back cover, "Here Comes The Juice", the book seems almost Juice-free.

Back to those shiny new characters. The default method is to birth your PCs with random tables; making choices is also valid but slows the process down, particularly if there are min./maxers around. I like this system a great deal, it includes skills (referred to as focusses instead of foci, sigh) and talents. These are no-nonsense game features that are quick and easy and do add some flesh to the bones of your new character. Step one is called Concept: "Come up with an idea of the character you're interested in playing". Don't waste your time doing that if you're going down the path of the random character, your concept will almost certainly be wrong. The designers have chosen a mix of skills available to new characters, many are what you’d expect but there is little parity between them. For example, “Smell” and “Pilot” are available for acquisition during character generation. So you can have a character with a keen nose for a fine chablis and her counterpart that can fly a massive ship through the inky-blackness of space. Both skills carry the same weight in the generation process but clearly there is a vast gulf between the two in this example. The five senses are needlessly broken down to separate skills whist vastly more complex skills requiring years of education and experience deserve just one entry.

One of the final steps in the process is to determine your character's Income, a single value used for making a purchase test; abstraction is good, there's no need for the players to track their character's credits. I know these tidbits because the rules for making purchases are included here. In the character generation chapter. Odd. Perhaps the equipment or rules chapter might have been the spot? The thing that made me smile about Income is this: the party can share income values, as follows: Take the highest Income value and reduce it by one, that is now the new income value for all party members. Hang on a mo. Let's put that into context. Let's say I have ten dollars, I give up one dollar and now have nine dollars and so do you. So I went from having ten bucks to eighteen. Awesome. I must have misread that surely? Nope. A party member with equal Income can increase your income by +2 when helping to make a purchase; you've given up one point of income but now get a bonus of two. This one missed the sanity check on its trip through proofing.

The chapter is rounded out with a list of goodies your character earns when a new level is gained. How does this happen? A single line in the entire book is devoted to this, arguably important, topic. It reads: "The GM decides when the characters gain a level". There's no assistance provided for the GM on when or how this should happen. There is a chapter on "rewards" but levels or experience points are not given the time of day. I remember that Dragon Age included levels in that book's rewards chapter. The character sheet for this game includes an entry labeled "Experience". Methinks a bit of cut and paste is to blame. Alas, that seems to be another common theme thought the book and I notice that the Modern AGE game is the basis for this one.

The technology and equipment section does take a sip from the cup of the source material but, for example, as a new player I wouldn't have a clue whether my newly minted kick-butt Martian marine is firing a blaster or bullets; most items are described sparingly. I'm pretty sure that The Expanse books don't have blasters but a little flavour text goes a long way and the absence of such is jarring.

Next the meat of the rules. The Rules. Starting with "Action Encounters"; which are the combat rules. Nice and quick, they seem to cover all the basics that you might want in a fast and furious shoot out or punch-up. Nice. We find the excellent Drama Die rule for running out of ammo - I hate tracking ammo. Vehicle combat is included, again, short and sweet which is just as well because you can't buy or hire a vehicle and there are no statistics provided for these non-existent modes of transport. All is not lost however, the book points out that, "...it's not often characters make use of ground or air vehicles", no surprise either. Stunts are next.

As mentioned before, my exposure to the AGE game system, of which The Expanse is the latest iteration, was box one of Dragon Age. That game had Stunts. This game has a lot of stunts. I mean a LOT. Roll a successful double and check the Drama Die and spend your Stunt points. You can choose Action Stunts from the following categories: Chase; General Combat; Gun; Grappling; Melee and Vehicle. In total the Stunt count is, 59. Yep, 59. Combat just went from fast and furious to, "Hang on a mo, let me check one of these charts for a nice tasty Stunt". This is overkill, a cheap way to sneak in every sweet move from your favourite action flick. To maintain the pace of play championed elsewhere in the rules players (and GM) need to be very familiar with these options or choose one on the fly. Ouch. Next up we have the two other types of key encounters: Exploration and Social. Yes, they also use Stunts. Lots but this time I like them. Exploration really only covers the rules for getting hurt outside of combat but does have a subsection entitled "Investigations". I came very close to liking this small slice or rules. It lays out a method for providing the characters with leads and clues some (most) require a test, a dice roll to get past the lead and find the clue. The author warns us against using a path that leads to a dead end. Good advice too, except if progress relies on a dice throw, a failed test is a dead end unless the GM wants to fiddle with rules. D'oh!

Social encounters: for those unfamiliar with roleplaying games, this bit is where you do the actual roleplaying. You talk, sometimes in character, as your character, the GM plays the roles of everyone else. However just as with Investigations, talking it out (roleplaying) is not the default way to play. Instead, NPCs have attitudes, the appropriate focus test will advance that attitude to a point where your character gets what they want. To be fair, towards the back of the book in the GM's section we're told that actual roleplaying is a good thing and should be attempted if everyone feels comfortable; I would say if you didn't feel comfortable, play a board game. If I was a brand new player I would only be required to read the Player's Section and would be left with the impression that roleplaying is an exercise in dice rolling and, frankly, pretty dull. Back to Stunts for a moment. They actually work quite well outside of the action environment. Firstly there's less of them and secondly there is time for players to pick an appropriate Stunt. Here, Stunts don't hamstring a fast-play game, they enhance the experience.

Now back to those social encounters for something that I've never seen, or at least can't remember, in a modern roleplaying game. The NPCs also get to use social foci and Stunts on the players. Yes, you read that right. Here's what the rulesmeister tells us, "...be sure to communicate openly when (NPC) social Stunts seem to take away the players' agency..." Not only is this another terrible example of the rule system promoting dice-play before role-play but I'm pretty sure the nature of roleplaying gets bent if not completely snapped in two. Without true player agency you're not playing a roleplaying game in the sense that I understand it, what you have is a tactical game of moves and dice throws. The rules actually refer to social encounters as "social combat". Come on, please.

Following on from non-combat encounters we have Interludes. An interlude is what happens between adventures or dying in-game downtime such as a long space flight, you get to rest, repair, heal and work on things of importance to your character. Good.

Spaceships are a big deal in science fiction gaming and an important part of the source material; the characters in both book and TV live on their ship; it's an integral part of their story and almost a character in its own right. I was looking forward to the Spaceships chapter.

Space is big and the chapter kicks off with some nicely presented science to go with the fiction. Thrust, gravity, mass, spin, apoapsis and periapsis; plus a bunch of other propeller-head stuff. It's good material since The Expanse is what I would call Hard Sci-Fi (aliens and protomolecule hybrids aside). I learned some interesting facts here and the material is well presented. Either the writer is keen on his science or a darn good Googler. Sadly none of this is of any use in the game - spaceships run on their own science-free rails; no room for hard sci-fi here.

I have no problem with this approach but it veers sharply from the "hard" approach of the books. We aren't treated to deck plans, we don't know what to expect on board a ship. Ships have no character. Primarily a ship is a way to get from A to B; there are rules for starship battles and these read well but in the three published adventures I've read, starships and space battles are not a factor. Space battles are deadly and this is definitely a part of The Expanse.

Finally! We are treated to A Guide to The Expanse. This is where a new player will get a feel for the game world. It's very well written and seems to have a different voice from the rest of the rules; perhaps it was written by someone else? No idea.

Just a quick interlude before I get back to the Guide. The reason I mention the perceived shift in writing style is because I find the text of the main rules quite dull, the writing doesn't inspire, it doesn't make me want to get out the dice, gather some friends and take the game engine for a spin. Also there's my pet bugbear; the style is a mixture or instructional material and conversational writing. A rulebook is a text book, I really want to see lots of flavour text but when I'm learning or referencing the rules I want clear, concise writing. The conversational tone pads out the rules; if I could remove every superfluous "Generally speaking", "In general", "Generally" and "As a rule" from the book I'd have a much shorter and easier to read book.

Back to the Guide. Something has happened in the solar system. Something big. The biggest something in fact. Everyone knows about it, it's on the news, the subject of system wide speculation and if you want to find out about it as a player or GM you'll have to search for it. The most important part of this game's story is hidden, buried in the descriptions of the various locations of the solar system. This is wrong. Another example of how the wonderfully rich source material is squandered. The Guide covers forty pages of a 256 page book, that's 216 pages of rules. That's an awful lot of rules, no wonder the brilliant source material is so thin on the ground, there's no room. However, despite the rant, this section is good.

The GM's section opens with a bunch of additional rules including combat modifiers such as high ground, obscured target et cetera. I can't see a reason why this information doesn't live in the Action Encounter section. Also included here is some good advice and suggestions for actually running a game. There's also three pages devoted to the different types of role-players and how to deal with 'em. Holy moly...do we need to categorise our friends?

There is some good work here but two areas stand out and not in a good way. The first is entitled Dealing with Canon; there are three options and each gets between seven and four lines. The last these is to ignore the background completely. Um? I'll save the second gem until we get to chapter 15. The Churn is revealed for the first time and it's something new for me. The GM tracks Churn as a numerical value that increases as the game progresses, when Churn reaches certain thresholds something bad happens for the party to deal with. Interesting. It represents the hand of fate that slaps the party in the face just when they thought everything was going well. Although the GM is offered the opportunity to spend Churn points to slap the players sooner rather than later, this time with an automatic test failure. This seems a tad adversarial for my tastes; is the GM playing against the players?

Next we have Threats. Another good chapter with important hazards such as vacuum, dehydration and gravity, fitting nicely into the game rules. The protomolecule gets three paragraphs and a stat block for the Hybrid. Oh dear, blink and you'll miss it.

Character rewards are detailed in chapter 14 and there is some game-friendly material to be found; honourifics did seem to match the source well when you consider Fred Johnson "The Butcher of Anderson Station", and the various titles Holden has been graced with over the years. Honourifics are a facet of reputation and are earned, lost and maintained during Interludes; the GM has a lot of control around reputation but the entry in the Interludes section does raise the spectre of a dice roll being necessary. There's no escaping the rules.

I like the Membership rules that easily integrate factions and organisations allowing the characters to be a part of the game world and if you head back to The Guide, you'll find the inspiration you need. Good stuff. The last reward is the relationship bond and the intensity of said bond. If a bond develops organically through play then the rules here grant a genuine and tangible game effect. For me this is a good thing but the default path is to establish a relationship bond during character generation, it's a game statistic and my players wouldn't take kindly to such an imposition on the character and player dynamic. That might just be us though.

Chapter 15: The Expanse Series. This is where we read about Green Ronin's idea of a campaign and it's a pretty good way of setting out a sequence of events. There are snippets of The Expanse here but a lot of it feels like another cut and paste job. There are some good story hooks for a variety of campaign styles such as the Military game, freelancer or that of political intrigue; there's even a column and a half on a protomolecule campaign arc. This is the second of the aforementioned gems that left me baffled.

The protomolecule is the driving force behind much of the source material; it's alien, it mutates things and creates mind-blowing alien objects, it is partly responsible for the death of 1.5 million belters and almost crashes the asteroid into earth. This book spends 37 lines of one column outlining the possibilities. One of those is to take the place of the main characters from the books. Not easy for a player with no knowledge of The Expanse universe and perhaps not desirable either; my players want to play their own characters. Another option is to, "...eliminate the existence of the protomolecule altogether...". I thought about this for a moment; if the protomolecule never happened, why am I playing this game? Why not play Traveller instead? Bonkers.

The last section of the book is a nice touch, an introductory adventure that borrows its name from a Shakespeare quote: To Sleep Perchance to Dream. The first line made me smile a little; I'm told that this is an adventure for The Expanse RPG. That is a relief.

The adventure is short and has much in common with the other two adventures I've read. It require a lot of work from the GM and contains little in the way of atmosphere (no pun intended). However, this one is a good story with a good investigation sequence and some notable characters. If you've made it this far, you deserve a medal and I'm sure you've concluded that I don't like this game. Not so; there is much to enjoy here:

The game engine is sound, I've seen it working first hand (Dragon Age); the Drama Die is an inspired piece of mechanical trickery; the character generation system is great. The Guide to the Expanse is too short but very engaging.

I love the artwork. I find it very evocative of the books - and let's not forget that this game is based the books - the character images don't look like their TV counterparts and nor should they, the TV show is an entirely different beast.

There are things I don't like of course but they are not deal breakers: Stunts, there are just too many but you don't need to use them or maybe you could introduce a few at a time so the players and GM can digest them in small bites. The "rules first and roleplaying second" approach is totally unwanted in a roleplaying game but easy to ignore.

The writing is relentlessly boring and for the most part sidesteps the licensed material, It's too conversational and verbose coupled with a bucket of rules-bloat. The book feels like a rush job that has suffered from too much cutting and pasting from other Green Ronin AGE games. But the thing that disappoints the most is that the publishers focus on their rules system over the source. It's a staggering missed opportunity. If you took the 40 pages of the Guide as the only setting information you're looking at 15% story to 85% rules. This isn't strictly fair, there are slivers of setting to be found scattered across the book but more is needed.

Original source material with a distinctive voice deserves a dedicated rules system, not a cookie-cutter version transplanted from other games. I read somewhere, and I don't know if this is true, that the authors of the books originally planned The Expanse as a roleplaying game before they realised they had something special on their hands. Now that would have been the game to play.

Tight beam transmission ends.

It's just about OK.

Presentatin and layout, like a lot of TBH reduxs, is poor. Grammar is below par but the writer's ability to explain a rule with just a few words is to be applauded.

For the price, there simply isn't enough content here. It's a one-shot game devoid of background. The original The Black Hack is much cheaper.

Stay Frosty needs better layout, proofing, art (or no art) and at minimum a worthwhile adventure included to get close to the cover price being reasonable.

There's definitely potential here but the presentation and layout doesn't match the price tag. it looks like it's been knocked together in MS Word; the tables don't present well and about half of the stock art seems to be really out of place. One more lick of paint and it'll be ready to go.

One final point, this game lives in the shadow of the mighty Blue Book but lacks any kind of a beginning adventure (that blank map just doesn't count). When I first learned that a revised edition of M&P was on the cards I mentioned to the author that an adventure was an essential inclusion; he agreed and promised the same. Sadly, it didn't happen.

For me, this hits the mark. The Black Hack scores points for cleverness but this game scores for playability. The lack of the usage die and the character advancement rules are prefect.

The only omission is a section just for the new GM. For one-on-one play it's straightforward but if you're refereeing for 5 players what do you do when someone decides that they want to search for a secret door and the rest of the party say "yes, I'll do that too!" Does one person conduct the search while the other four heroes stand around whistling or does everyone throw a die? If the latter option is chosen, secret doors need not exist since they'll almost always be found. I know what I'd do but there's no advice to help the first-time GM and as this is a beginners' game, that's quite a gap.

What an intriguing game.

The campaign setting is almost but definitely not our own world so there's no chapter about the fantasy play environment. Instead, aside from a brief introduction, snippets of the world background find their way into the enjoyable writing style. If you remember Bloodshadows - this game will ring a few bells but it is its own game, not a knock-off and the player characters are all humans. A decision I applaud, for me, I either need the protagonist or the world to be identifiable, if both are alien, I'm lost.

Next is the rule system. For the most part it's a nicely realised interpretation of White Box or old-school play with subtle tweaks to make it stand out from the pack. Classes are brilliant - slender as befits an OSR game but packing some unique elements that create interesting and viable heroes with little effort on the part of the players or referee. Monsters are all re-written to fit the game's new world view, there's a lengthy beginning adventure - an essential addition for ALL new games (other writers, please take note). A very light skill system is included which dove-tails with a previous career ranking which doesn't feel tacked on but integral to the game; and occult magic sings.

The experience section seems out of place - you get experience points for killing things and looting their bodies and in VERY small quantities. The writer adds a sentence about awarding points for other things but there's nothing to support the idea and finally he adds words to the effect of "darn it, just give 'em the points you want to advance the game at rate that suits your play". Yeah... The report card would read "could try harder". This is an odd cop out. It doesn't seem the kind of game where loot and murder should advance characters and the alternatives are too wishy-washy.

For the most part the game flows beautifully, like a well-oiled machine. Until you hit the tail end of character generation and you have to choose your character's gear. Ouch. What a nightmare. Everything has to be accounted for in dollars and weight units. Everything (except kits which inexplicably have cost values but no weight). This just doesn't mesh with the rest of the game. It's agony to slog through page after page of spread sheet-like tables. Then you tot-up your weight carried which gives you your movement rate (there's no spot on the character sheet for that by the way).

One final gripe and it's really minor - characters are likely to speak lots of different languages. I find that a little unusual. Some might say - 'yeah but that's how original D&D played it' but it just doesn't sit well - I know people that struggle with one language let alone being fluent in 4 or more.

So, overall a game that is nothing short of brilliant. Not perfect but there's little that is. I'll need to write a workable experience system but that's a paragraph worth of work and sort out a less tedious method of equipping characters but that's it.

I spotted only a couple of typos - having a high Wisdom reduces your chance of saving versus magic and the d6 language table repeats the number 5.

I would score the game a "5" if experience and equipment had earned a little more love from the writer.

An inspired addition to the genre.

All actions are handled with the throw of two six-sided dice with the player choosing, or not, to allocate the character's limited resources to secure a vital victory or avoid impending doom.

Characters are created in five minutes or less and have a number of options for advancement. This is not just a rules-lite game, it is complete in just 32 pages.

I found ample inspiration in the beast and monster lists, improv magic and cunning traps.

A bargain at twice the price!

This has been one of my go-to adventures for new players and characters for a long, long time. Before it was a Blueholme adventure in fact - it used to live on the author's website free for the borrowing.

However, with this latest update, the Blueholme version really shines. Amazing cartography, a starting location and safe haven, outstanding layout, great editing.

Any referee using any system will find a wealth of resources within these pages - not to mention a brilliantly scripted old-school module.

I'm really keen to see much more from the Blueholme stable AND from Justin Becker.

5-stars.

Some might consider this expensive for a PDF product; I did, until I bought it.

This is a product dripping with atmosphere and style - but not from pages of canon background, instead the writers have managed to infuse the city and ruins with oodles of character with small snippets of information strategically placed. You could use it for any systems as stats are used sparingly but I'm very happy it's aimed at LL players.

I see Mor as a "bonus" to the package, the magic comes form the detailed city/town of Lesserton.

Intelligently written for adult and mature players alike. This is going to keep me going for yonks.

I'm off to the Kinswallow to knock a few heads together. Join me!