What's new, simple and flavorful out there?

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Lessa

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Heya! I hope everybody is well.

So, any new game of the "simple and flavorful" kind being released? I'm out of the loop.

You know, stuff that follows on the steps of Mork Borg, Spire, Blades, Beyond the Wall, Mothership, Cthulhu Dark, Apocalypse World, etc. Bonus points if it's in smaller book format and less than 300pg, as I have less shelf space these days. :grin:

Thanks in advance!
 
The Black Hack 2nd edition is good if you like the type of world it represents, more desperate and gritty. Romance of the Perilous Land is a mashup of the Black Hack and parts of 5th edition and is great for Arthurian flavor.

Both are in small book format and lower page counts.
 
The Black Hack 2nd edition is good if you like the type of world it represents, more desperate and gritty. Romance of the Perilous Land is a mashup of the Black Hack and parts of 5th edition and is great for Arthurian flavor.

Both are in small book format and lower page counts.
I'll second Black Hack 2e. Even though it doesn't have a campaign setting, the whole book just oozes flavor of a dark and gritty (and occasionally quirky) nature.
 
Heya! I hope everybody is well.
Hey there Lessa Lessa You already mentioned a couple I would recommend, you have good taste. Here are some off the top of my head.
  • Old School Essentials
  • Black Hack
  • 5 Torches Deep
  • Vagabonds of Dyfed
  • Death in Space (just a Kickstarter but it looks like a winner)

OSE might be my favorite rulebook of all time. It is a perfect fusion of attractive presentation and sheer utility in a concise little package. Great editing. Very handy little book, the rest of the industry should take a hint.
 
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I picked up Hypertellurians earlier this year, - it's relatively recent, I think it has only been published 12 months or so.

It's a handy little digest rpg rule book, glossy evocative full-colour artwork, all rules included in one volume.
I do love digest rulebooks, and this one has very good production standards.
Reasonably straight-forward game mechanics, and the character sheet isn't complex.

I haven't had time to really give it a good read, but it seems pretty trippy and quite out there.

The game feels influenced by the OSR, but gone in a completely different genre direction to Classic Fantasy; it's very Sword & Planet with a odd feel to it and mature undertones. Kinda like an underground arthouse production, or an edgy euro graphic novel with classic pulp art direction.
In a nutshell, it feels like 'Weird Tales meets Jodorowsky', if that makes any sense... :grin:

I'm not sure if I can strongly recommend Hypertellurians at this early stage, but it fits the criteria as requested by Lessa Lessa, and it's creativity certainly spiked my interest enough for me to grab it for my collection :thumbsup:


 
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So, any new game of the "simple and flavorful" kind being released? I'm out of the loop.
Perhaps my Basic Rules for the Majestic Fantasy RPG?

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I have an earlier version downloadable from my website here.

A set of rules for creating and advancing characters from level 1 to 5. Has the Burglar, Cleric of Mitra, Fighter, and Magic User classes, plus backgrounds, combat rules, equipment, and spells. For the referee there are lists of monsters, NPCs, and magic items suitable to challenge and reward your players during a campaign. These rules feature abilities for use for when character do things outside of combat and spellcasting. Along with advice for referees on how to use the available mechanics to craft rulings. Finally, a basic overview of how to bring the world outside of the dungeon to life is provided.

A 204 page RPG compatible with the Swords & Wizardry rules

Rob's Note: This product represents a basic version of the rules I been using to run my Majestic Fantasy Realm campaigns for the past decade. It is the first in a series of supplements detailing various elements of the Majestic Fantasy RPG. It is also usable as a supplement for the Swords & Wizardry.

For a setting that is usable with these rules see Blackmarsh. For an adventure designed with these rules see the Scourge of the Demon Wolf
 
I was impressed with Trophy, a neat little game compressed out of some ideas from Cthulu Dark and Blades in the Dark. There are two versions of the game, Trophy and Trophy Gold, with the second one being more of fleshed out RPG and the first being more of a one-shot. Both are available in Zines on DTRPG. Plans are in the works for a full release for Gold as a standalone game too. They also have a online SRD, which I compiled into a PDF and have attached here for anyone who's interested in checking it out.
 

Attachments

  • TROPHY SYSTEM REFERENCE DOCUMENT.pdf
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Wanderhome is under 300 pages. and a lot of that is tools on how to set up locales, but it's kind of good-hearted? In a way. While violence is an option, the game focuses on travel and other things, it's really hitting me in the feels honestly. It's a distant descendant of games that use playbooks but it doesn't use dice, just tokens. It really has caught me with its art, its style, and its feel.

Orbital is new, but not had a chance to try it. It mechanically looks similar to the above with a less positive feel, a more pensive one.

These are the two a friend offered up when I ended my Farflung game. This is closer to PBTA, and more crunchy in some ways, but it's also able to run completely different styles of space opera (high-end space opera) using the same book simply depending on the characters players make. It's been out a while though since I've run it for over a year (two years? sheesh, a while anyway.)

There are also such neat things as Warlock and Warpstar!
 
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This Twitter thread/review of The Dee Sanction, with art by Evlyn Moreau, makes it sound like a cool game with a unique concept. Added to my wishlist.
Wow! I was actually just reading a load of Elizabethan stuff recently, it's a really interesting period and there's plenty of detail easily accessible to use since it's documented so well.
 
Wow! (3) Amazing concept that Dee Sanction. My kind of stuff.

I see it's based on the Cthulhu Dark system, which I like. I wonder how it fits this new setup. It seems to me that a tad more complex version of it would fit well here.
 
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I'm getting back into Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (WFRP), and here's my quick review/summary:

It looks like Cubicle 7 are doing a really great job with this hoary old franchise. Ignoring WFRP 3E, this current edition looks more like a fitting successor to WFRP 1E and WFRP 2E.

Beautiful production values, and the current team shows a good understanding regarding the setting ethos of this game - WFRP is quite different to the very popular minatures wargame Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WFB).
WFRP is in the same setting of 'The Old World', but has quite a different vibe to WFB.
WFB is full-on battle grunt, over the top gonzo in some places, primed for the wargaming market. That's the Warhammer as seen in the wargames and computer games, and in some ways it's definately a different mojo to what's going on here in WFRP.

WFRP is very down and dirty, lots of subtley and threatening overtones, and doesn't have the bombastic flavour that is inherent in WFB.
Many games may run closer to Call of Cthulhu investigations, rather than the pulpy combat often seen in Dungeons & Dragons.
If characters do resort to fighting, then the combat scenes lean towards being quite visceral. Additionally, if magic is used it is often unpredicatable and dangerous even to the caster. I think in the current version things may be easier for casters. However they still need to be apprehensive of haphazard magic use, lest they may find themselves taking on mutations and other such unpleasant expierences caused by Chaos.

The player-characters are trying to survive daily life in the 'The Old World' - a fictional fantasy setting akin to late medieval Europe. It's very Renaissance Era regarding inspiration, portrayal, and tone. Quite fantastic at times, yet also grounded and down-to-earth.
This can definately be a 'grimdark' setting at times, although it's not as narrow as that in it's scope. Definately lots of 'sword & sorcery' and 'high fantasy' elements, but those shoes aren't the perfect fit either. If using 'sword & sorcery' as a reference, it feels more Fritz Leiber than R.E. Howard.
The earlier WFRP authors joked that it is a 'grubby fantasy', which is maybe the best way to describe it.

It has all the classic high fantasy non-human Races, so that's there if people want to play them.
The Elves seem very distant, aloof, akin to Noldor leaning a tad towards Melinboneans. The Dwarfs feel very Celtic & Norse, and the Halflings are more Fellowhide-inspired than Harfoot-flavoured, with a little of the fictionalised stereotypical portrayal of 'midgets' in a medieval setting (eg: domestics, jesters, carnival entertainers, gypsy-thieves, etc).
The focus is pretty much upon playing humans, which is a different vibe to the portrayal of the setting in WFB.
Earlier editions of WFRP had you randomly roll for Race during character generation, and a roll of 90% or under resulted in a Human player-character.
So that gives you an idea that Non-humans are certainly in the setting, but more around the edges. Perhaps a bit akin to how the Federation is with other Races in classic era Star Trek.
However it's an rpg setting that you can run with how you like, and no doubt some players will want to play a mohawked beserker Dwarf troll-hunter. Yes that's a thing here, heh heh.

The setting is grimey and dangerous, with a touch of eccentricity. Life is often unforgiving, unjust, cynical, and it makes for a rich place to set adventures in.
As a reference point, think of a melting pot of 'Game of Thrones, Witcher, Lankhmar, Cthulhu Mythos, Gormenghast, Perfume, Captain Kronos', with an occasional Brian Froud or Terry Pratchett flourish at times.
The game itself is often of the 'Zero-to-Hero' flavour - you start out predominatly as everyday people, such as Bakers, Blacksmiths, Candle Makers, Rat Catchers, Scribes, etc. The player-characters progress up into more profficient careers befitting of Adventurers, although surviving that long isn't always a certainity. I think perhaps WFRP 4E may be a bit more forgiving than its 2E and 1E predesseors, as it feels like the WFRP 4E player-characters may become more heroic a little earlier on. Even so, it's still a more restrained approach to this when compared to an rpg like D&D 5E, and the brutality of the combat system is a wild card that can set anyone back.

I feel that WFRP has some pretty robust game mechanics. For me it's almost up there with BRP games like Mythras or RuneQuest (and it is quite similar in some respects - it uses percentile dice as a core mechanic, it is skill-based, it has hit locations, etc; so it all feels familar to a BRP player ). This is a big seal of approval from me - pretty much everything I love in a rpg!

Whilst certainly not new, WFRP definately is pretty shiny again
Highly recommended :thumbsup:


Good intro/promo here from Cubicle 7:
 
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Do you have any thoughts about the adventure modules?
Well I'm still going thru the WFRP 4E core rulebook at this stage. This is really just a side-project at present, as my main focus for the next few months will be continuing doing game prep for the monthly CONAN: An Age Undreamed Of (2D20) game that I run.

WFRP 4E will be much later in the year, more likely early next year, so I've got time to plan a bit.

I have Rough Nights & Hard Days, which has an interesting asortment of adventures
I'll have to give it a better read-thru before I know if it is a good product or not, but it definately looks like it will certainly do the trick.
I also have the WFRP 4E Starter Set, which provides the city of Ubersrseik, which looks ideal for a Ground Zero setting.
I think I may order the Ubersrseik Adventures book to continue the setting

My overall plan is to do some basic sandboxing, although I would one day like to run The Enemy Within campaign, as that pretty much is the WFRP meta-campaign.The Enemy Within has got a great reputation, and apparently it can be ballooned out as a sandbox in some areas as well.
So my overall goal is to run The Enemy Within.

So I plan to kick things off by running the adventures in the WFRP 4E Starter Set, then perhaps following up with one or two adventures from Ubersrseik Adventures and Rough Nights & Hard Days. Between that two settings there are enough adventures to run for quite a while.
If the players are still eager after that, I'll no doubt have them tumbling down into the rabbit hole of The Enemy Within campaign (and I can also pad out with other adventures, as suggestedd in Rough Days & Hard Nights).

So hopefully lots of WFRP fun ahead for my group next year or two
I'm optimisitic, to say the least :grin: :thumbsup:
 
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I feel that WFRP has some pretty robust game mechanics. For me it's almost up there with BRP games like Mythras or RuneQuest (and it is quite similar in some respects - it uses percentile dice as a core mechanic, it is skill-based, it has hit locations, etc; so it all feels familar to a BRP player ). This is a big seal of approval from me - pretty much everything I love in a rpg!
That's some high praise:thumbsup:!
 
Heya! I hope everybody is well.

So, any new game of the "simple and flavorful" kind being released? I'm out of the loop.

You know, stuff that follows on the steps of Mork Borg, Spire, Blades, Beyond the Wall, Mothership, Cthulhu Dark, Apocalypse World, etc. Bonus points if it's in smaller book format and less than 300pg, as I have less shelf space these days. :grin:

Thanks in advance!
You mentioned Beyond the Wall. Not sure if you are aware that Through Sunken Lands was recently released, it is a sword and sorcery version of Beyond the Wall
 
Has this been mentioned?


There's a free edition somewhere, but I got this one when it was PWYC and it's pretty cool. Based on Cthulhu Dark.
 
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