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Two-Fisted Tales
Brett's Blog

Forgotten Games Part 12Jun 23, 2022 | 12:33 pm
This is part 12 in a series discussing forgotten RPGs (also see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, and Part 11). That is, games most people have never heard of or that didn't last long on store shelves for one reason or another. This entry consists of a mix of fantasy titles.



1. Dragonroar (by Peter O'Toole and Allan Paul; published by Standard Games in 1985)

This boxed set is designed for beginners, so that is how I approach it. It comes with a rulebook, arrangeable floorplans, flat counters, blank character sheets, reference sheets, and a cassette tape. Yes, a double-sided cassette tape introduces you to the rules. I have not listened to it, so I won't comment on that aspect, but it was a novel idea back in the day. Onto the the 45-page rulebook. It's nice for the time. Not full-color, but the purple and black ink really helps highlight and differentiate bits. We start with one page of setting info. Not much, but enough to get started. Then the obligatory "What is Role Playing?" section, following by a description of the Arbiter (the player captain, as it were, who speaks for the group) and the Fatemaster (gamemaster). Next up is character creation. This game uses 9 Life Levels, which seem to increase by Honour Points rather than XP. Life Level reduces damage from attacks, increases chance to hit, and increases spell-casting odds. There are two professions: warriors and wizards. There are five characteristics, each derived by rolling 4d6 and totaling the two highest values: Strength, Speed, Willpower, Knowledge, and Endurance. There are five fields of Knowledge which provide various odds for "out of field," "in field," "specialization," and "expertise" based on that characteristic's rating. These also determine the number of spells in certain fields. As with D&D, characteristics can provide modifiers for certain rolls. There's info on traveling speed and rest, placement in squares, sights and sound, and then combat. Most rolls are percentage-based and combat is no different. Weapons give you the base odds and damage, modified by characteristics and level. Sound familiar? Hit location plays a factor, much like RuneQuest, with each race having unique hit charts. Specialized rules include concussion, morale, and minimal magic. There seems to be very little in the way of treasure, magical or otherwise. There are about 12 creatures provided, including the war hedgehog, killer penguin, and manelephant. Nice. A starter adventure rounds out the book. The upshot is that while there is not much here for long campaigns, it is definitely enough to get you started with functional rules. In fact, it would be very easy to expand the list of knowledges and rules yourself. Thumbs up for what this sets out to do. I should also mention that both the art and layout are good, which adds to the assessment. As a British game, I don't think this made it to the US back in the day, or at least not in numbers, which is a shame.







2. NeverWorld (by Erin Laughlin; published by ForEverWorld Books in 1996)

Another boxed set, this includes a rulebook, culture book, GM screen, 2 ten-sided dice, and a few other bits. It's billed as the only true fantasy game. A bold claim to be sure. I'm not even going to try to prove or disprove it, because who cares? The question is whether or not it is a good game. The rulebook is almost 300 pages. Rather large for a boxed set. It starts with the usual basics and then an introduction. Ah, fleshing out characters is what I want. There are 7 possible PC races: Beastish (humanoid animals), Dwarves, Elves, Giants, Grobbers (orcs, goblins, etc.), Humans, and Metamorphouns ("sneaky" shape-changers). Then there are cultures, but it's not explained yet how to choose that. Age has an effect on characters. It looks like Advantages are like attributes, but only in that they are above the norm. There are also Disadvantages, seemingly acting like detrimental attributes, so this is a little confusing. These are broken down into Physical, Mental, and Social, appearing to be rated from 1 to 10. We're already discussing skill modifiers, but I have no idea how to make skill rolls. And if an advantage in Strength determines lift increase, does a disadvantage at the same level apply the same penalty to lift? I'm already losing interest. I'm looking at tables for required Perserverance levels, required Confidence levels, and logic modifiers. It's rather overwhelming. Skipping ahead, there's info on careers, one being the Adventurer. It lays out certain elements, like masteries, pathways, advantages required, income, equipment, assets, and prerequisites. Seems to be an interesting take on classes and such. There's lots of info on friends, patrons, rumors, etc. Chapter 41 starts the conflict rules, or the "ROC -n- roll" system. Unobstructed actions do not need a roll if the character has a base value of 60 or more. However, he can choose to roll for greater success, the base being "D." Not sure what a D success is, but to be fair, I might have skipped over it. Other types of actions require a roll. Here's the odd thing. I thought it was a straight percentage roll. It's not. Roll d100 and add the character's base, which is his skill rating minus difficulty. The difficulty is generally double the skill complexity, but could be 3, 4, or 5 times it, depending on the GM's assessment. The ROC (Rolling Outcome Chart) table is then consulted. For example, a roll of 60 is a D success, which is like a solid success. A roll of 200+ is an H success, representing an inconceivable success. I'm skipping the rest, because it's a lot of discussion on special rules, like masteries in subterfuge, drama, and leadership. Then there's Metaphysics starting on page 135. Yes, that's how far we've skipped. Chapter 6 on page 209 discusses building your world, which includes lots of creatures and treasure. The rulebook ends with fiction, a character sheet, and worksheets. I don't think I've ever seen fiction at the end of a book. The second book is a culture book for the Hourani, which are a Metamorphoun race. It details using them as characters, lots of careers, religion, wizardry, and locales. It looks like a flood of information that could prove useful, but unfortunately, this game is just overloaded with content. If I had to compare it to another game, I'd say Gary Gygax's Dangerous Journeys, which is too much text all at once.







3. Ironworld (by John Brooke; published by Empire Wargames in 1989; previous versions go back as far as 1979)

This small boxed set is hard to explain. It includes a number of small six-sided dice, two identical rulebooks, lots of index cards, and a map divider (I guess it's like a GM's screen). Everything is small. Too small. The printing is color, but early 80s low-res dot matrix, making it hard to read. The first two pages introduce the world. The first line after that says that "Ironhedge is a quantum role playing game of fighting, magic, power, and treasure." Note that Ironworld seems to be the boxed set version of Ironhedge. Interestingly, the game uses polyhedral dice, even though it only includes d6. All the elements are presented, such as Attack level, Life Points, Inherent Abilities, etc. It's cramped. Very cramped. We're discussing rolls and such, and thief functions (such as climb walls and pick locks, which are percentage rolls). Saving rolls are made with d10, referencing a table based on Str/Int vs. opposing Experience Level. Characters start on page 4. They can be Men, Dwarves, or Elves of five classes: Fighters, Thieves, Magicians, Alchemists, and Priests. There are three attributes, rated by 2d6 (special exploding dice rules apply): Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity. Of note, females roll for Beauty in place of Strength, with their Strength being rolled with 2d4. That's going to piss some people off. Rules follow for adventuring, equipment, combat (personal, large scale, and naval), spells, weather, languages, debris, encounters, and more. Hand to hand combat is performed with a d10 roll for each attack. If the roll is equal to or greater than a character's hit # (difference between Attack level and Defense Factor is looked up on table), he hits. Damage depends on the weapon. It's pretty simple, but a bit hard to grasp, because everything is so tightly packed into the book. It's a lot of information in a very small space. The loose cards consist of more information, like languages, galleys, locations, encounters, and more. A bit hard to read, but it is colorful, in a washed out sort of way. I am not sure what to make of this. I would love to sit down and give it a try sometime. Interesting approach, but a bit hard to digest due to the format.







4. LegendQuest (by John G. Josten; published by Board Enterprises in 1991)

The clean but small Times Roman type makes this look a little bland, but it is a welcome change from newer games that try to get fancy, hurting legibility in the process. I too may be guilty of this on occasion. Anyway, The introduction touches on die rolls, which is basically multiplying the attribute related to the relevant skill by 10, multiplying the skill rating by 5, and totaling those values for a chance of success on a percentage roll. Unskilled rolls get penalized by -15. Resisted rolls see the chance of success reduced by five times the resisted attribute. Pretty easy. There are other types of rolls, like assisted ones. Next, onto characters, which consist of six attributes on a scale starting at 1 and going up to a maximum determined by the chosen race (looks like around 5 to 14, though costs seem to get too expensive at the higher levels). The attributes are Strength, Knowledge, Endurance, Willpower, Agility, and Psyche. Skills are rated from 1 to 7. There are five player races: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Ogres, and Halflings. Combat starts on page 23. It's all pretty straightforward with lots of good tactical options. Page 36 sets up the magic content, with spells being defined with useful information, like casting times, materials needed, accuracy, casting fatigue, etc. After the rules and a fair number of spells, the mentalism chapter begins on page 60. This is basically more spells, but related to mental powers. Equipment begins on page 64, followed by creatures on page 74. Finally, a gamemaster section begins on page 94, with lots of references pages and then a number of sample characters on sheets. This appears to be a solid percentage-based fantasy game, though it may be lacking in setting material. Art is sparse and basic, but doesn't harm the experience. It seems a bit more complicated than it needs to be. A good editing pass could probably cut the rules in half -- not that there are a lot of rules or discussion of them. All in all, a respectable product. And guess what? You can get it in PDF format, although there are different versions of it, so here is a link to all the publisher's titles.







5. Fantasy Imperium (by Mark O'Bannon; published by Shadowstar Games, Inc. in 2006)

This a is thick hardcover, but from flipping through the pages, it seems to be due to lots of spell and equipment tables, so probably not as intimidating as my first glance. Just by going on the introduction, these aspects stand out as themes of the game: storytelling, forbidden magic, spiritual warfare, fate, luck, piety, and spirit. Let us see. Chapter 1 begins with the basics of characters. There are ten characteristics, seemingly rated from 1 to 100, since d100 rolls are made: Strength, Endurance, Dexterity, Intuition, Self Discipline, Reasoning, Ego, Awareness, Presence, and Attractiveness. That's a mouthful. Female characters get adjustments to their characteristics, so their Strength is less, but their Dexterity is slightly more. Skill rolls are percentage-based with the odds being equal to one fifth of the relevant characteristic, and each skill level adding 10. Proceeding to the next few chapters (Combat, Movement, Injuries & Death, Morale & Healing, and Fighting Styles & Tactics), we find out that it is all pretty methodical, following the same pattern of modified percentages. Chapters 8 through 13 discuss various forms of magic, spells, and so on. Chapters 14 through 16 are all about equipment, weapons, armor, and the like. These take up more room than they need due to the tables used. Chapter 17 describes mystical races, such as halflings. Pages 244 to 417 are all appendices, including weapon and armor illustrations, and 17 pages of historical setting detail. Some of the art is really nice, but others are simple line art. I don't get this game. It's just huge. And while the system is fairly simple, there are so many options and details that it could even discourage readers with better attention spans than myself to get through the whole book. This game is not my cup of tea. That said, I'm sure there are lots of people that would appreciate it. I see that a quickstart is available for this, but I'm not sure about the full product. Here's the publisher's web site.







6. Sun and Storm (by David B. Pilurs; published by Storm Press in 1992)

There are two short books in this series, the Enchiridion (player's guide) and the Codex (GM's guide). The game is billed as dark fantasy in which you "take the role of a gritty stoic hero driven to survive in the face of overwhelming odds and a ruthless, relentless foe." We venture forward. Introductions are as expected, and we need one ten-sided die. We are then presented with a tale of universal creation, stormwyrms (dragons with wings of lightning) that rule the stormsea, technomancy, and other themes. It's odd, but I can see it working if you can immerse the players into the setting enough. There are four races. I won't go into them, because they have unique names and talents. Let's just say that you can probably pick out the dwarves and elves. There are ten attributes, rated from 1 to 12 or more: Stamina, Strength, Agility, Speed, Willpower, Perception, Creativity, Charisma, Power, and Technology. There are also six pools, which are things like resistances, improvement points, and luck points (though defined by other names). Finally, skills, special abilities (mostly magical powers), and random tables for appearance, family, friends, and so on close out character creation. Equipment and a sample character come next, followed by the actual rules. Basic task rolls involve adding 1d10 to the attribute or skill rating and any modifiers. If the total is greater than the difficulty (usually 10, 15, or 20), then the tasks succeeds. What may throw some people off is that the total rolled is called the Task Strength, which is very easy to confuse with someone's actual Strength attribute. Note that base skill ratings are equal to the sum of two relevant attributes. If you lack the skill, the highest of the two needed attributes is used for the roll. Combat and magic work the same way, with defenders adding modifiers to the difficulty. I obviously oversimplified it, but you hopefully get the point. It's not that complicated, but you need to understand how to modify rolls. The first book is 96 pages in length. Let us see what the second book has in store for us...

The second book starts out with advice for the GM, who is called the Divine Presence in this game. There's some good information here. Of note is the expanded difficulty table that really helps describe which values work best for various circumstances. Next is information on creating your own setting. I was under the impression that this had a defined setting, but perhaps that was just for the background, allowing you to do with it as you please. We're on Chapter 4 and it's all about the land of the living and the dead. This is a very short discussion on some of the types of beings. Another short chapter is all about villains and personalities, followed by how to create mounts and monsters. The next few chapters are about movement, enchanted items, and hero improvement. Finally, we get a sample adventure, which seems to hold the GM's hand and is short, so that's a good thing. The rest of the book consists of sample villains and monsters on full-page sheets and then reference pages.

This game baffles me. I think I see what they intended, but it does not hit the mark for me. When I hear dark fantasy, I think about a setting similar to that of Darkurthe Legends (see Part 6). I also expected this to be more setting-specific given the tone and special races. It's more generic though, which throws me off a bit. I mean, it sort of has setting elements that are quite alien. I just don't know.







What mysterious games will be in part 13? I'm not sure, but I bet they will be interesting. In the meantime, here's some new products to pimp. Fans of the sword and planet fantasy genre should check out Planets of Peril. If you'd like to use cards instead of dice, check out The Amazing 20in1 Card Deck, perfect for when you can't roll dice, such as in the car. And for real vintage goodness, there's the Wee Warriors line of Original Edition Fantasy supplements. Better yet, just check out Precis Intermedia's Vintage Collection, consisting of classic reprints.



Part 13...
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