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The system, based on OpenQuest, is well polished in this supplement although the 'professional' level characters may feel a little underpowered to some. It's not a particularly crunchy set of rules either, if people are expecting this sort of thing from a RuneQuest derived ruleset, with the skill lists being relatively short and no magical abilities or the equivalent.
The game premise is pretty tight too, with 'The Company' being a (largely UK-military-style) international mercenary outfit that feels suitably 'modern' in it's plausibility. The illustrations are all taken from stock photos, which largely captures the right feel. You could run a lot of modern military missions within the scope of this game.
As a small print game, therefore it's pretty successful, although it lacks a 'hook' (supernatural or otherwise) to attract a bigger RPG audience I'd argue. You could add in supernatural elements taken from any other number of compatible BRP games, but of course this would detract from the 'real world' aspect of the original premise.
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The Company is a rather good game of modern combat, but (there's always a but), there are some 'niggles'.
Under the attributes section, it just lists Strength, informing the reader of damage modifiers, but not throw range or lift capacity (encumbrance).
It should have listed/described the other attributes, like DEX, etc.
Also, are the weapon ranges in feet, yards or metres? (It doesn't say).
What skill do I use for throwing a grenade, and how far can I throw it? Page 82 does state (after much reading), that the throw range is based on STR.
Other RPG's I've read in the past few decades, usually inform you (clearly), things like what range type it uses (yards, feet, etc), lift capacity (encumbrance), throw range, etc.
GOOD: very good data on the Company and other organisations, weapons, equipment.
Some rather good pictures, etc.
PRICE: A bit too pricey at £9.48, perhaps somewhere around £5-£8 would have been better.
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In five words or less: I LOVE IT!
C&T captures the flavor it intends to – the feel of weird fantasy sword and sandal pulp stories. A S&W variant, it’s more Howard, Leiber, Moorcock and Lovecraft than Tolkien, but you knew that already.
So the flavor of the game is fun and well executed, and it affects the rules in a few significant ways. There are four classes, the Barbarian, Fighter, Magician, and thief. Every PC! Yes, since “everyone is a rogue” in these stories, all the PCs can backstab if they get the drop on a target. I like this, and it doesn’t take away from the thief class.
This thief is more Gray Mouser than Bilbo Baggins, maybe a slightly better fighter than the original thief, but other than that is basically the thief we know and love.
The fighter has some neat options to customize their abilities and make sure they’re not all cookie cutter fighters. This design strikes a nice balance between feats and kits or fighter subclasses. They can be monk-like brawlers or pursue weapon mastery, for example, but can’t do it all. I find this to be an elegant way to add options without too many rules and power bloat.
The barbarian is well designed to honor the tropes of Barbarian while being distinct from the fighter class. Again, since everyone can backstab this feels very Conan to me (admittedly, I haven’t read all of Howard’s Conan stories and only a few Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, but C&T gives me this impression).
The Magician can learn magic that in regular S&W (or any OSR or D&D game) would be Wizard and Cleric magic; now it’s just Magic: organized into White, Grey, and Black magic. Naturally white magic is good and kind and helpful, Black is evil and harmful, and Grey is the other spells that transform, hypnotize, charm, or create. Here the rules changes get interesting.
The most significant rule change IMO is that hit points are not representing one’s physical health and well being; hit points represent their endurance, willpower and stamina; their Grit if you will. So PCs are not killed at 0 hp, they start taking Constitution damage. Naturally your character is killed at 0 CON.
I really like this change! Because of it,healing is different; healing spells only heal CON damage, not HP. Also, your HP refresh every night of full rest (since they’re more about mental and physical stamina than physical healing) and you can even ‘heal’ some HP with a good stiff drink. This too, totally works for me: The heroes gird their loins, take a swing of bravery, and leap once more into the fray. Perfect. I’d argue a good rousing speech would heal some HP following this paradigm. There are magical healing potions as well, but they’re far less common than normal S&W.
This really gets interesting with magic, as White magic can be cast as often as you can memorize it (the familiar Vancian system) with no negative effects (except one 6th level White spell that pisses off the evil entities). Casting Gray Magic costs your Magician Hit Points. It’s the classic trope of suffering physical strain to use magic forces that Man Was Not Meant To Tamper With. It SO WORKS! Black magic is even better: You have to kill a sentient being to or risk Sanity Loss to cast Black magic spells. LOVE IT. And Wisdom equals Sanity Points in C&T, similar to Call of Chuthulu, but simpler.
There are most of the spells you’d expect, a few that are new (to my knowledge) and most are tweaked to better fit the setting. The "skill system" if there is one is to use the character's Saving Throw (modified by attribute bonus or penalty) to resolve any roll not covered by class abilities or defined some other way. I first encountered this method in X-plorers, and find it to be elegant - simple yet effective, and it keeps the game fast-paced.
The setting included in the book, the world of Zarth, reinforces the entire milieu perfectly. I’ll leave it at that, because it’s a good read, but I'm excited about the Shroud, which surrounds and permeates the world of Zarth and is a source of power for Magicians daring to use it. The Shroud, sort of like the Mists of Ravenloft, is the thin veil that encases and separates the world from the Outer Chaos (or whatever it’s called). Some Black Magic spells function because the caster interacts directly with the Shroud. For example, slipping into it other-worldly ethereal non-space to disappear from one location and reappear in another (teleport). Another example is to use the Shroud to become invisible, just like when Frodo puts on the One Ring and enters the Nazgul phantom zone (so there’s your Tolkien, if you must have it, LOL). Naturally, travelling in the Shroud is a sanity-bending experience for the uninitiated and it attracts all sorts of attention from the Others (C&T’s name for Outsiders/Demons/Elder Chaos beings, etc). Good stuff!
The magic items and creatures all follow this sort of design and enhance the flavor of the setting and game swimmingly, and I think the whole of C&T totally rocks, if that wasn’t clear already. The book itself is well illustrated and laid out well. I bought the pdf to save money, but even printed on three hole punched paper and put in a binder it looks great. I also like the art; it is it effective, evocative and kinetic. Just take a gander at that great cover!
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Amazing game!! Five Stars all the way!! If you are looking for a game about modern war where you only control 1 player instead of an entire squad, then this IS the game!! The rules are simple and easy, but yet still have the depth to make the game flow smoothly while making it completely accurate. It also gives you a great background and idea of the company, who you are working for, and the world around it so that the Game's Master can easily and thoroughly create a campaign. However, there are a few places where you might have to re-read the section because the wording is confusing or spelled wrong. Overall though that won't matter because it's easy to figure out what they mean. All in all, THIS IS A MUST BUY!!!!!!!
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While not entirely to my tastes, Crypts & Things is definitely still one of the better Old School Renaissance games that I've read through recently. It's a darker toned game, drawing inspiration from the works of Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, and even a little H.P. Lovecraft. As a result, it's closer to the Weird Fantasy Swords & Sorcery genre rather than the "classic" fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkein and the more recent fantasy role-playing games.
I'll get the few little things I dislike about the system out of the way first and then move on. At the top of this list is the "to hit" tables. Yes, back in the day lots of role-playing game systems used tables to determine the results of certain actions, especially combat. Currently though, tables are seen as being rather clunky and outdated as they tend to take time to read and can slow down the flow of the game. I get the feeling that the author included the "to hit" tables to make the game feel a bit more "old school" but I could have done without them. Thankfully the author included a formula for determining hits without using the tables, but it's tucked away at the end of the Combat section and easy to miss.
The other little nit-picky thing I dislike about the system is the two Armor Class systems presented. One is the classic descending system (with AC9 being unarmored and AC3 being platemail) and the other the more recent ascending system (with AC10 being unarmored and AC16 being platemail). Both systems work well and effects that modify Armor Class (such as stat bonuses, armor, and spell effects) have rules for both systems. But Just like the "to hit" tables vs. the "to hit" formula, I wish that there was just a single mechanic rather than two options for the players and GM to choose from. This is really just personal choice though, and other people may love the fact that two combat systems are included in the book.
On to things I like about the system and setting. The "saving throw as skill resolution" rubbed my the wrong way at first, but now I actually like it. It's a nice simple way to resolve skill checks without having to keep track of skill points or remembering what skills the PCs are trained in. As a character's saving throw increases as they advance in levels, players will feel as if their characters are getting better without having to spend resources to improve a specific skill. The Crypt Keeper (DM/GM) also has the freedom to apply subjective bonuses/penalties based on the situation, instead of having to pour through a list of specific modifiers for specific skills in specific situations.
Magic seemed rather unbalanced when I first read the Magician class entry. Magic is divided into three schools; White, Grey, and Black. Mechanically, White magicians are at a big advantage over Grey and Black magicians. White magicians have no penalty when casting spells, while Grey magicians suffer exhaustion, and Black magicians risk sanity point loss and permanent mental damage. I thought it was odd to have one type of magic so clearly superior to other types, yet list all three as options for players to choose for their characters. Only after reading the Appendix did I discover why this is. As mentioned in the introduction, Crypts & Things takes it's cues from the darker, Weird Fantasy Sword & Sorcery genre. Magic is intended to be dark and mysterious, used primarily by corrupt and insane wizards for nefarious and unspeakable purposes. It's not really meant to be heavily used by the player characters, as in the more "standard" fantasy games. Magicians are clearly the "bad guys" and the mechanics of magic use reflect this. The hefty penalties imposed on Grey and Black magicians are there to be reminders of that fact. Characters who follow these paths are meddling with the forces that man was not meant to know, and are walking the razor's edge with a dangerous drop into insanity on either side. Once you accept this fact, the magic rules make sense.
The Appendix is also quite useful, even if you don't plan on running a Crypts & Things game. There is a nice section on the role of the Crypt Keeper and the do's and don'ts of running the game that can be applied when GMing just about any system. There's a few sections that allow you to generate random objects, areas, elements, and even the Big Bad that can be used when the players head off in an unexpected direction or to jump start the Crypt Keeper's creativity when planning a session. Crypts & Things is worth the price tag, whether you plan on running an "old school" game or are just looking for ideas on a darker Swords & Sorcery variant.
You can find other reviews on the Idle Red Hands homepage at http://www.idleredhands.com/
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I bought this game out of curiosity. Basically, Crypt & Things is a variant of Swords & Wizardry that aims at running adventures in grim and gritty sword and sorcery settings. In fact, it provides such a setting, but I personally find it a little simplistic and bare-bone.
The main differences of rules C&T provides compared to S&W, is to get rid of clerics, and replace the usual generic magic-user by a mage that must either opt for White, Black, or Gray magic. The hindrance for playing a Gray mage seems ludicrous (it costs 2 hit-points per spell level to cast a spell, where White mages cast without hp cost), but it can be easily discarded. Same remark for black mages. C&T also provide a thief and a barbarian class, and the fighter can be customized.
Apart from this, I also appreciate the magical items that have some dark and detrimental aspects. The art and layout on the over hand, are often mediocre (though there is a couple of nice illustrations).
Overall this is a decent game. I give it three stars, as I find it neither bad nor great.
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An excellent first issue for this RuneQuest fanzine, which captures the essence of classic RPG fanzines very well. The four-part story arc contained within would be an excellent introduction to RuneQuest for new players and gamemasters alike.
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OpenQuest is a game that readily admits to standing on the shoulders of giants. Much of the foundation of it, as a game, were laid by the multitude of designers from Chaosium and Mongoose working on Basic Roleplaying and the games that it inspired. That does not, however, make this a knock off by any stretch of the imagination. Like many games being put out today, particularly those among the retro-gaming and Old School Renaissance movements, OpenQuest is first and foremost a labor of love by its creator Newt Newport.
As a gamer, I am not as young as I used to be and I do not have the free time that I used to have. That means that, in recent years, I have been looking around for simpler games once again. The pendulum of game design for me has swung back and forth between simpler, self-contained and easy to use/understand game systems, and those with more complexity and requiring more work and number of books. When I started as a gamer, games were simpler and easier to work...and then as I grew older and more experienced with role-playing in general, I wanted more complexity and more options; thinking that was the way that I wanted to go with my gaming. Eventually, though, all of this added detail started to bog me down, and slow down my gaming. I'm not knocking games with a higher level of complexity, or the people who play them. I am just realizing that as I get older, that style is not for me. In the last year or so I have been drawn towards games like Swords & Wizardry, Evil Hat's Fate-powered games (as well as some produced by 3PP under the OGL like the Fate games from Cubicle 7 or, now, Arc Dream), and older games getting new life, like Shatterzone from Precis Intermedia. Added now to that stack of games is OpenQuest from D101 Games.
Yes, OpenQuest has its genesis in Chaosium's older editions of the phenominal fantasy RPG RuneQuest, not to mention the newer version of the game put out by Mongoose (first under the licensed RuneQuest name, and in a few months to be released under the new name of Legend!), but that does not make it a copy of either of those games. OpenQuest is a good, solid game. I am drawn to those games using some variant of the Basic Roleplaying system or another because I like the intuitive nature of how skills work in a percentile-based system. Eye balling chances and difficulties is easy in these games because you intuitively understand concepts like "You have a 50% chance of success at that task." OpenQuest greatly streamlines the character creation process from either Chaosium's or Mongoose's versions of the RuneQuest rules, while at the same time showing his influences. The section on character creation, and the working of skills, does owe more to the Mongoose versions of the game than it does to the Chaosium, but in a number of ways, this might make the game more approachable to a newer or more contemporary gamer.
Hero Points are a very contemporary addition to the OpenQuest rules, coming by way of Mongoose's rules but showing a few other inspirations besides the Mongoose rules. I personally have no problem with using a Hero Point mechanic, so their inclusion in OpenQuest does not bother me. For me, they enforce a heroic fiction mentality that mechanically supports a player's choice to do things in a heroic manner. Nothing is as frustrating for a player as outlining some heroic, larger than life action for your character, only to have it snatched away from you by the nature of dice. While I like a good probability curve as much as the next gamer, more and more I am also interested in a game that enforces letting me have my character do heroic things.
Yes, overall there are some direct influences from Mongoose's version of the Runequest rules. However, I think dismissing OpenQuest out of hand because of that is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The simplicity and the streamlining of these rules owe much more to the earlier editions of which the designer is obviously a fan. This is not just a copy and paste of the Mongoose SRD trying to pass itself off as a different game.
There is a lot of magic in OpenQuest, and it is plentiful. Probably more than many other fantasy games, magic is more available to characters in OpenQuest. There are three types of magic available in the rules: Battle Magic, Sorcery, and Divine Magic. One of my dislikes of OpenQuest is of the name of the Battle Magic type of magic. This is the common magic that is openly available to anyone who wants to learn and practice magic...and much of it doesn't deal with battle. Personally, I would rather see this "school" of magic be given a different name, like Common Magic, or even Hedge Magic. Something that fits better, and has a broader application than Battle Magic does. I understand why it is called Battle Magic, it is just not the design choice that I would have made. Sorcery is a good school of magic to cover those fantasy wizards that people are fond of in role-playing games. My only real disappointment with Divine Magic is that I would like to see more nature/weather magic available to characters (probably because my favorite fantasy spellcaster in RPGs has always been the Druid). Despite this, the available Divine Magic is well developed enough to allow for a variety of divine spell casters (particularly in conjunction with some of the Battle Magic spells available) and ties in well with OpenQuest's rules dealing with Cults (or religious organizations). Some may be bothered by all religious organizations being called Cults under these rules, but again it is something with a historical precedence in the games that OpenQuest is emulating, so that can be given a gimme.
I would like to see some sort of grimoire or spell compendium for OpenQuest developed, perhaps one that adapts many of the multitude of spells available under the OGL into these rules.
I do think that magic items do get short shift in OpenQuest, particularly when compared to so many other fantasy game systems out there. This is a portion of the game that the people at D101 should look to expanding in future supplements, as I can see this being the one feature where OpenQuest lacks in comparison to other fantasy RPGs.
I also think that some form of Professions or Occupations would make OpenQuest a much stronger game as well. Yes, they are easy enough to add back in (for those who want them) but I think that the creation hooks that professions can supply help a lot of gamers who may need it when creating their characters. Not all of us, after all, are able to spring full-blown concepts out of our imaginations as well as others can. This flaw, and the others that I have mentioned, are fairly minimal to me. They do not impact playability in the least, and they are all things that the DIY-minded can easily do on their own, if they do not get addressed by D101 Games in further supplements.
All in all, OpenQuest is a very solid fantasy gaming system that deserves a lot more attention than it receives. In 183 pages it manages to cover the basics of what any group would need out of a game system, and do it in a way that is simple and yet still manages to remain robust. If you are a fan of fantasy games, and do not yet have OpenQuest on your bookshelf (virtual or otherwise) then you need to fix this as soon as you can.
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An interesting concept, but it doesn't go into enough depth to be of any real use. Anyone familiar enough with the tropes being invoked here to be interested could very easily have written the books themselves, and the presentation is fairly poor as well. This would have made more sense as a free supplement to promote a meatier product.
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Wordplay is an excellent RPG generic system. The system works as if PDQ and (a very basic form of) Shadowrun had been smashed together into a single rulebook. The perfect combination of mechanics: simple enough to learn quickly, yet detailed enough to retain depth and scope. The price a little steep for the product, but it's not an unfair amount to pay.
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Wordplay is a wonderful game, with some comparisons to both FATE and Burning Wheel, and some brief glimpses of HeroQuest. It it based on "traits", which can be skills, relationships, or aspects. Each is rated on a scale 1 to 12 dice, unlike FATE where Aspects are un-rated, but skills are. Challenges are always tests where the character's dice are rolled against a pool of difficulty dice (seldom a fixed obstacle). Each die is scored success or fail, and the higher number of successes 'wins' the Challenge.
Unlike FATE or BW, there are no 'fate points' or 'artha' -- point obtained during play by good role-playing and used to boost capabilities. All such rewards are reflected in experience, which is used for character advancement.
Wordplay gives some good and flexible ways to deal with Powers -- ways of implementing magic, psionics and the capabilities of the divine. Fans of HeroQuest may recognize some elements here.
All in all an excellent product -- well worth paying for, and the free Core rules a real bargain.
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Simple and fun narrative gaming!
This game combines the cream of a crop of good story-based games with the simple fun of rolling a bunch of dice (by which, I mean you roll lots of dice instead of having to use lots of rolls - the difference will tell in play, let me assure you). The conflict resolution system is simple and universally applicable to any conflict in a way that keeps engagement, but also lets you enjoy that thrill of building up a hand of dice and letting fly at your opponent.
From social combat to blazing ship's weapons in deep space, the system's damage makes sense and the scalability of the game is simple and functional. The goals and doubts system gives characters and edge in getting what they want, but plagues them with doubts if they fail. This system pays off well in longer term play, and feeds well into the flow of experience and advancement in the game as well.
Check out the Big Five from d101 to see some specific uses of the system in a varying group of genres, or just grab any setting from your shelves and use this system for a one-shot. You can't go wrong.
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Uses percential dice, with a simple roll under mechanic, different forms of magic, and a rule system that lends itself to being tweaked. Game has a good bit of support with an enthusiastic community as well.
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With its very simple and dynamic trait-based character generation and its fun pool-building and quick rolling resolution system, Wordplay is simply quick and fun.
Any genre, any setting, any flavor of play can be simulated by the rules. The "Big Four" added to the presentation of the main rules are all engaging and show the depth and width of the rules engine.
The system is a mesh of ideas from games like HeroQuest and Burning Wheel with its own fresh flavor that dumps the overhead of those games for something much more turn-key and adaptable.
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Believe it or not, I bought a four-volume translation of The Journey West last year which, like a lot of my gaming books, I've yet to finish reading, but as I read, I thought, "This would make a great role-playing game." Monkey is that role-playing game. The system seems eloquent and applicable to any number of settings--a number of cards of a certain colored suite based on stats vs. an opposing number of cards. The aspects of the game I appreciate most are the emulation of the yin-yang principal and of divine virtue. This pdf mirrors the feel of the epic. Oddly, it concludes with a bibliography that gives no mention of Dragon Ball. The Journey West, along with a healthy dose of homage to American four-color superheroes, is the inspiration for that series. I'll go so far as to say that RPing DB would be much easier, and ostensibly more enjoyable with Monkey than with the published DBZ RPG.
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