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I've been following the games produced by Splintered Realms Publishing for a while now. They generally have a few things in common: They're short, have a nice background story, simplified task resolution and a streamlined gaming system. Well, that and the author tends to pull his old products off for sale when he is revising them, so as not to sell old when new is around the corner.
The first title to be revamped is the superhero RPG, which now bears the title Resolute: Legacy. I'm loath to call it a "no frills" type of RPG, because the system is very complete. It is however, art light (which I am fine with, as I've seen superhero art all my life - I know what it looks like) with a single column layout (which reads fine on my iPad). Heck, your whole character sheet can fit on one side of a 3x5 index card. Did I mention everything gets resolved with a single D12? Now that's streamlined.
Want to check out the character generation steps?
1. Purchase Abilities. You start with 30 CPs to spend in building your super.
You may spend your points however you desire; however, you may never
put more than half of your total CPs in any one ability. (NOTE: Referees
may decide to begin games with more powerful supers; if this is the case,
the referee will tell you how many CPs you have to build your super).
2. Pick a Moniker. This is your super’s nickname or code name. For some
supers, this is also their true or only name. When Modi, son of Thor is your
given name, you don’t really need a moniker!
3. Decide on a Limitation. Some supers have a limitation. You may elect to
take one limitation, or roll randomly for one. You are not required to take a
limitation, if you’d prefer not to. A limitation gives you bonus character
points at character creation to improve other abilities. (see next page). You
should only take one limitation at character creation.
4. Develop a Purpose. You have a primary objective that drives your actions.
Write this as a sentence. Your purpose is quite important; whenever you
take a significant step towards accomplishing your purpose in a scene, you
earn an extra +1 XP for that scene.
As you can see even character generation is pretty streamlined.
Supers is not on the top of my RPG genre list, which is kind of strange as I was a huge superhero comic book reader in my teen and early (and even later) adult years. That being said, if I was going to run a supers game, Resolute: Legacy is the rules engine I would use. It's about as complicated as I'd want it, and seems to handle what it sets out to handle well. Besides, at less than 2 bucks, it's hard to go wrong. ;)
Still, I'll be waiting for Michael to come out with some fantasy and sci-fi conversions of the rules. I'll be jumping on those in a heart beat.
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Resolute: The Splintered Realm is one of those nifty systems that relies solely on D6, which means you can find the dice you need by raiding just about any board game. Gotta love that.
The author squarely places his inspiration on the back of D&D "red box" - the first one. The inspiration shows, even if it looks nothing like a D&D game, it's O'd School roots are there.
Success is decided by 2D6 plus modifiers compared against a Difficulty Rating (DR). For every 5 points your beat the DR, you get a bonus success. That's the core of it. There are other things that can modify the roll and such, but the core is fairly simple. It should be, as the rules wrap up in 20 pages.
We get four core classes (sound familiar?): Disciple, Fighter, Magician and Scout. Each class - I mean Archetype, has a special ability which helps define it and make it unique. Or you could avoid taking an archetype all together.
Magic spells have their own chapter. Magicians aren't the only ones with access to spells, but the other classes need to purchase each spell ability individually. Nice way to make your character unique, or to model him on some of the other D&D-like classes.
There is a small section on beasts and such and even a one page dungeon included in the mix. Fair deal for a $3 investment (although there is a Book of Beasts available for a buck).
The PDF is scaled for widescreen monitor and tablets, although there is a printer friendly version also included.
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WHAT WORKS: Plenty of information for 20 pages, more than enough to get your game rolling. There are also some decent benchmark guidelines for character point totals actually mean, as well as ability benchmarks. The author does a great job of conveying a lot in a few words. Nice setting premise.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK: While cross-referencing with the Resolute Book of Beasts, I noticed a bit of overlap in the contents of the two bestiaries, which was disappointing. It is also hard to call the archetypes "optional" when you basically penalize someone for not taking an archetype. Given the size of the book, there is virtually no setting information once you get past the blurb that sets up the premise.
CONCLUSION: Unlike some other "low-end" or "budget" RPGs, this feels very much like a complete game (like the Resolute supers game does before it), even if it doesn't feel like the premise is executed quite as well here. I would also have liked to have seen even the minimal crossover with the Book of Beasts avoided, as the small size of the books basically means that every page matters. That said, there is plenty of room for microsupplements that could expand it out, both within the setting and the realm of generic fantasy. If you only buy one Resolute RPG, I say stick with the supers version, but this is definitely a fine product on its own merits.
For my full review, please visit: http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2011/07/tommys-take-o
n-resolute-splintered.html
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This short PDF gives readers a glimpse into ant psychology and culture. It also offers a few adventure hooks. Readers are left wanting more, stats for the grunts of the Wasp Empire for instance. It is a good PDF for 7 pages, much more intuitively organized than the "Core" PDF. The author's suggestion of going outside and viewing the ants' vast and dangerous world from the insects' perspective indicates the creativity behind Army Ants. I look forward to more expansions.
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Resolute the Splintered Realm is leaps and bounds more complete than Resolute Army Ants. The game contains clear examples of play and explanations of the various aspects of the game. It even contains a few optional rules. What the game doesn't cover: maritime combat, Sword & Sorcery cultural tropes, mounted combat [at least I didn't see it], etc. In future expansions, I'd like to see sea-faring adventure rules, more creatures, more archetypes and more races with cultural variants, but it's a well- written 20 pages.
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Army Ants:Resolute is an example of a cool idea unfinished. In the 7 pages of the e-reader version, I couldn't find an explanation of how Soaking damage works, of weapon types or of how many CPs are used in character creation and how many CPs Abilities cost.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks for the review… to address your concerns:
- Regarding soaking: this is covered under the Shell ability. “Your exoskeleton allows you to soak damage from enemy attacks. Add your shell rating to damage soak rolls.” As with all abilities, not purchasing it assumes a +0 rating; all creatures roll 2D+shell to soak all damage; with shell +0, you roll 2D straight up.
- Under “Building Your Ant: You start as a private at level 1 with 10 CPs.” That is in the rules.
- Page 2 has a listing of CP ability costs… it’s the chart at the bottom of the preview PDF.
- You are correct that the rules don’t get into specific weapon types; however, the rules give you specific attributes of your weapon; you know what your bonus is to hit, what your bonus is to damage, and how far you can fire your weapon. For game purposes, whether you call it an AM-15 assault rifle or a P-3 auto pistol is a wash; you know you roll 2D+3 to hit and 2D+4 for damage, and a target up to 7 units away is in range.
I’m sorry that you felt so negatively about the game, but all of your reasons were addressed in the rules. Thanks for taking the time to review it.
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Superheroes have always been an urban breed. "On a roof, where do you think?" is what they are normally saying into their cellphones. More importantly, vivid urban settings have always been part of superhero comics. Superhero RPGs have had the same urban elements in presenting their settings. Resolute's Echo City is meant to be a street-level supers setting, but it requires that you know what that means and what you want out of it. What you get from this very basic presentation will not take you far without a knowledge of other comics and a clear picture of what you want from your campaign. That said, it's a great starting place.
In only 8 pages (in the printer-friendly version), you get a quick geographic rundown, a clip of history, several evil factions, a short introductory adventure, and a few heroes and villains to populate Echo City with.
First of all, I love the name "Echo City".
Secondly, the introductory adventure is something that more settings need to have. Not only does this help get across the city to players who are established in the setting, but it also gets across to the GM what the setting is about. In the adventure, the team is tracking a bad guy to Echo City, and they discover he (and the police) are involved in the plans of a larger mastermind. It's straightforward and gets the point across about the corruption of the city in a fun and immediate way. Playing an introductory adventure is far more fun and interesting than passing around supplementary material.
Finally, the two pages of heroes and villains give a good idea of what sorts of characters would be "at home" in Echo City. Resolute has an advantage over more complicated systems here, since a character writeup can easily be presented in only a few lines.
On the downside, there are some awkward sentences and grammar, but more importantly, the introductory material and geographic material don't give a clear picture of what the city is supposed to be about, or clear ideas for where superheroes should go or what they should do. I get that the city is corrupt, but I don't know how that corruption works or what it looks like for the suffering people of Echo City. The only reason I know what a game in a corrupt superhero city should be like is because I've played them before and thought about them a lot. Attention to how to use the material, along with explanation, would definitely improve this supplement.
That said, there's a printer-friendly version included and if you want a free star from Jason, include a printer-friendly version or do something with the fact that this is an electronic version of your material. It's well-laid out and easy to read.
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This is actually intended for the Resolute fantasy setting, but is compatible with the supers book if you want some more variety. Costing a whole dollar and running eight pages, you might just be wondering precisely what you're getting.
You are, in fact, getting over 60 creatures, spread out over 7 categories (such as insects, humanoids, lycanthropes, undead, etc), fully statted in the Resolute rules system. There are also sidebars, such as handling lycanthropy in Resolute and magical properties that the body parts of the Fantastic Creatures provides.
Practically indespensible for a Resolute GM. Highly recommended if you run Resolute.
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This installment of Resolute 2E reflects the late Joseph Campbell's favorite late 70s sci-fi franchise with the serial numbers filed off, complete with an all-powerful "source" and an evil empire. In terms of game mechanics, "ripping" technology and star ship rules are the most useful of this pdf. There is enough here to provide a useful diversion from your usual campaign, or to provide an alternate origin for a character or a villain: a void master falls through a slip in the space-time continuum to wreak havoc on the PCs' city streets.... The anthropomorphic aliens are a bit cheesy, but so is the dialogue of Mr. Lucas's films.
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This installment of Resolute makes no illusions about what it is: an emulation of the Spaghetti-Western Samurai Pulp inspired sci-fi franchise from the late 70s those of us frequenting this site all know and love. There's enough here to make an interesting diversion from your usual supers game. The anthropomorphic aliens are a bit cheesy, but so is the dialogue of the Star Wars films.
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I agree with the previous reviewer that most of these creatures are generic, but 60 creatures for a dollar..... Bravo.
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I'm amazed with how much useful material the author packs into these little pdfs. The high points of this one are the new races [I'd like to see more of these], the magic rules expansion [I particularly like the option to spend a hero point to cast a spell on the fly], the new abilities [useful, and not so many that they begin to feel like the dreaded "feat" glut of d20], and the new weapons and armor. While I like the concept of the Hero Archetypes, I like my Archetype concepts a bit more Joseph Campbell and a little less Monte Cook; that being said, the "prestige class" feel to the Archetypes may attract more "broken glass Popsicle" crunch players to the game. I definitely like Towers of Arvandoria more since it's been made more compatible with Resolute 2E. Since I know the author reads and responds to these reviews, here's what I would like to see next in the Resolute 2E series: a sci-fi expansion; a "mecha" expansion; more races for Arvandoria; an "Asian-themed" or Wuxia expansion and more hero origins and powers for Resolute 2E.
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks for the feedback! I'd better get busy!
Those suggestions are great ideas, and many of them are things that are already in process in some way, shape or form.
I'm glad that you like the game.
Mike |
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Book of Beasts is a good product for a game master who wants to run a quick game of Resolute.
While not containing anything overly unique (there is some breath of fresh air, but most of the creatures are generic), you can easily find stats for a lot of foes that work well in almost any campaign with fantasy elements.
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For the price, a very detailed but easy to understand superhero rpg. It even includes rules for gadgets and omni-powers, plus adventure hooks to get you up and running. Definitely worth the money spent!
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Good little sourcebook for Resolute the Superhero RPG 2E. This adds another city for your characters to live in and protect.
Not at large as some supplements I have seen for super hero cities, but it has some details and even an introductory adventure. As expected there is a listing of heroes and villans for you to use. Light on the art.
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