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Azamar is a fantasy RPG that gives a few interesting twists to the traditional fantasy tropes. A good portion of the setting is typical fantasy fare – the history, for example, features a long history of war and a tyrannical leader of the dark forces bent on world domination. The details of the setting diverge from the norm, however – full-blooded humans are rare rather than dominant (so rare that a limit of 1 per adventuring party is recommended by the rules). Some of the character races bear likenesses to familiar fantasy folk – the dwarflike Immyr and gnomish Enfri are two examples – while others are a bit more unique to the setting, such as the impish Shrave. Each of these races is presented with the typical attitudes that they may have towards members of the other races.
The world of Azamar is interconnected with many others through a metaphysical barrier called the Fabric. Magic users can manipulate this barrier to create magical effects, and can even travel through mentally, spiritually, and physically into another realm called the Blur.
The system uses a modified version of West End's versatile d6 system – players who want their characters to attempt an action roll a number of d6s equal to the appropriate attribute or skill number, and try to beat an assigned target number. One die in every roll is designated as a wild die that “explodes” on a 6 (that is, it's added to the total and rolled again as a bonus) and indicates a fumble on a 1 if the target number isn't reached
Character generation is a point-buy system – dice are assigned to attributes and skills, and a pool of points is spent on Character Features. An optional table allows players to roll a random background for their character. Magic users can choose a faction to align with – Asceromancers, Elementals, Zamaranth, Tatuaxe, Weavers, and The Order – and each bestows special abilities to the spellcaster.
As with many RPGs, Azamar contains a “brownie point” system – rewards for creativity, roleplaying, defeating enemies, etc. In this case, it's been named Cinema Points, and any that are earned can be used to improve die rolls, activate Character Features, or improve character aspects during downtime. One of my favorite elements of this game is in the Cinema Point mechanics – a series of multipliers are given that are to be applied to any CPs that the GM gives out for defeating opponents, which results in better rewards for outwitting, capturing, and even converting opponents over killing them. It's a great little touch that encourages roleplaying over brute force.
The book is rounded out with a ton of Azamar lore – strange deities, calendar and cultural holidays, locations, a bestiary of some very unusual and alien creatures, an extensive section on GMCs, a brief sample adventure (Road to Azamar), and 22 character sheets (several for the different races, and one blank sheet).
My only criticism of the product would be the organization, which seems a bit haphazard at times. The equipment and combat sections, for example, come near the end of the book after the bestiary, instead of closer to the front where the character creation and general rules are.
Azamar a unique fantasy RPG that's packed with potential for many adventures, and would be a great RPG for beginning players or young people.
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Azamar is an awesome fantasy setting. It's just plain grand on all levels-it takes a tried and true genre, spruces it up with new and innovative stuff, then combines it with a tried and true system, mixing it up enough to keep things interesting but still sticking to the important core tenets.
Basically, this is a fantasy game done well; nothing's terribly obtuse, everything's quick, there's detail, good art, typesetting, and more!
Azamar is an interesting game because of the conventions of the fantasy genre it observes and those it doesn't, and it has a very complex and well thought out world, and while it may be one of many in a popular genre it manages to have a distinct feel of its own. It's a little bit grim but doesn't revel in it like some games would, so it falls in an interesting space in terms of feel and the setting combines traditional conventions with some notable tweaks (though these are not always that far off from conventions).
Quick Summary:
Content: 5/5 (Covers the setting and players well, there's a lot of good stuff here, and it's rather original and deep)
Art/Typesetting: 5/5 (No complaints and very uniform, nothing to complain about)
Writing: 4,5/5 (Not always the clearest or smoothest, but well-done nonetheless)
Awesome Factor: 4.5/5 (It's a fantasy setting; it may be a bit creative, but there's still a lot of those)
Interest: 4/5 (Fun, but loses some points just due to the massive amount of similar stuff)
Maturity: 12+ (No real complaints, touches on racism and war [not losing points for it])
Value: 5/5 ($5 is truly a steal for a fully featured game like this, especially given its production values)
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(review originally posted at tenkarstavern.com)
d6 Magazine is a free magazine devoted to the Open d6 gaming system. The system that finds it origins in the original Star Wars RPG is now an open system, much like D&D 3.5e. Free magazine for a free RPG. Amazing how things work.
Inside you get a very insightful interview with one the core writers for the old WEG company, I love my gaming history articles, and this is a good one.
The article on the Wild Die is a good one, especially as I don't remember using a wild die in the few sessions I ran of Star Wars - must have been first edition.
Oh, can't forget the sample campaign for a d6 sci-fi campaign.
The price is right and it's well written and presented.
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(review originally posted at tenkarstavern.com) It seems like yesterday that the first issue of d6 Magazine hit the virtual news stand. Actually, it was less then 2 weeks ago. That's a damn nice pace.
What do you get for your FREE d6 Magazine dollars?
32 pages of d6 goodness:
An excerpt from the upcoming d6 RPG: The Black Desert covering robots and androids. Pretty useful if you are planning on running a sic-fi campaign, or even used for making golems in a fantasy setting.
Graiv's Magical Curiosities - "A shop of useless magic items". Pretty much everything here is adaptable to an OSR game or pretty much any RPG, as the majority are stateless and systemless.
Cinnamon and the Maco - Floor plans and sats for a sic-fi spacecraft.
Broken Wand - an adventure using the Cinema6 rules. At about 16 pages long, it's fairly sizable, although that does include a page and a half summary of the changes Cinema6 does to the cored6 rules.
Really nice magazine. The fact that its free makes it priceless.
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This is a fairly slick PDF magazine with good production quality, although the layout is occasionally rough. The spelling and grammar are fine, and the illustrations nice and colorful.
The content, however, is where this publication shines. While there are only four articles they are very meaty, with specifics and details on their chosen topics. They cover quirky and interesting fantasy items, a personal spacecraft with a full color map and stats for the owner, a classic fantasy adventure, and an excerpt from an upcoming game detailing different types of robots.
The key thing is that most of these are creatively written bits of information, all of them worth considering dropping into your game, no matter the setting. The ideas are good enough to translate into different settings and systems: this is a solid resource for any GM or a player looking for interesting ideas to present to their GM (use the spaceship as your own or propose one of the "useless magic items" as something you created or are looking for).
The length of articles fit the magazine format, which limits two of the articles. The adventure is well written, but is typical for adventures published in magazines: it assumes you will fill in everything between the details of the stats and the broad overview of plot. For experienced GMs, this is not an issue, but like most adventures out of magazines, it would be a poor choice for an inexperienced gamer to run a game with. The robot article is an excerpt from an upcoming work, and there is decent coverage of explaining how robots work in the setting, presenting the three major types of robots. This is followed by only two fairly generic examples, which may be reasonable for a gaming manual, but in a magazine format, most people are either looking for exceptionally quirky and interesting examples to work into their game, or a fair number of different examples with basic stats to use to flesh out a game with background characters.
Overall, this is a well written, well edited magazine, especially given that this is the second issue. I look forward to seeing what comes out of Wicked North Games in the future, and hope that future issues maintain this high quality of content.
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