Forget Rifts, Give Me Mutant Chronicles!

Just look at the great gonzo, British grotty art!
How did I miss this gem back in the day?
Apparently getting a re-edition.
I am so glad io9 has RPG news.

T Minus Two and More Blog Love

The OSR love keeps pouring in for the March Madness Non-D&D Challenge. The ever sunny Alexis from Tao of D&D has showered the endeavour and yours truly with encouragement:

(From his comment on Talyman’s blog) “These things are for people who can't think of anything to blog. Moreover, I'm not interested in helping "noobs" get their blogs started. If they have something to say, then they'll be fine. If they need a crutch, or anyone's help, they should stop blogging immediately and attend to their hygeine instead.

We need less 'training wheels' and more 'toss them into the pond and watch them drown.'

But then, that wouldn't let Tedankhamen and many others feel good about themselves for pointing and then gleaning off the self-important righteousness of 'finding new talent.' ”

Beautiful! I do hope he is right and we get lots of new voices and hear about new games, and I am pretty satisfied with the response to date.

In case anyone is wondering about my feelings, these types of comments don’t bother me at all. In fact, they remind me of my uni gamer days when dissenting opinions and barbed comments darkened the skies. I never took talk about a game seriously back then, and I don’t now. People who want to play with me will, and people who poo poo us won’t.

But there is some real good feedback - someone has already completed the whole thing! The blog Timinits and Trolls gave some great responses, passed on questions he didn’t care for, and gave us a peek into some obscure French RPGs. Go give it a read and be inspired!

Count Down to March Madness OSR Challenge!

Here’s your warning – there are five days left before February ends and the start of the March Madness 31 day Obscure Game Blogging Challenge. All are welcome to participate, and I am really stoked to learn about some games in the shadow of Grandpappy D&D.

Here are the revised questions– these are probably the final versions unless people give me some good suggestions or criticisms. Notice that for most questions I am not specifying old school game, mainly because some posters voiced concerns over their lack of experience playing them. The challenge is open to all, and participants should feel free to ‘tweak’ questions or answers to fit their gaming experience.

1 What was the first roleplaying game other than D&D you played? Was it before or after you had played D&D?

2 What was the first character you played in an RPG other than D&D? How was playing it different from playing a D&D character?

3 Which game had the least or most enjoyable character generation?

4 What other roleplaying author besides Gygax impressed you with their writing?

5 What other old school game should have become as big as D&D but didn’t? Why do you think so?

6 What non-D&D monster do you think is as iconic as D&D ones like hook horrors or flumphs, and why do you think so?

7 What fantasy RPG other than D&D have you enjoyed most? Why?

8 What spy RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

9 What superhero RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

10 What science fiction RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

11 What post-apocalyptic RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

12 What humorous RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

13 What horror RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

14 What historical or cultural RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

15 What pseudo or alternate history RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

16 Which RPG besides D&D has the best magic system? Give details.

17 Which RPG has the best high tech rules? Why?

18 What is the crunchiest RPG you have played? Was it enjoyable?

19 What is the fluffiest RPG you have played? Was it enjoyable?

20 Which setting have you enjoyed most? Why?

21 What is the narrowest genre RPG you have ever played? How was it?

22 What is the most gonzo kitchen sink RPG you ever played? How was it?

23 What is the most broken game that you tried and were unable to play?

24 What is the most broken game that you tried and loved to play, warts and all?

25 Which game has the sleekest, most modern engine?

26 What RPG based on an IP did you enjoy most? Give details.

27 What IP (=Intellectual Property, be it book, movie or comic) that doesn’t have an RPG deserves it? Why?

28 What free RPG or what non-English RPG did you enjoy most? Give details.

29 What OSR product have you enjoyed most? Explain why.

30 Which non-D&D supplemental product should everyone know about? Give details.

31 What out-of-print RPG would you most like to see back in publication? Why?

I had hoped to post more this month but real life is taking its toll on my hobbies. I think the March Madness Blog Challenge will be a good, structured way for me to get some posts out while I grind away at real life Things That Must Be Done! I hope both readers and writers have a blast with it.

Updates and Mostly Good News

Hey all,

I am enormously pleased with the response to my proposal for the March Madness Non-D&D OSR Blog Challenge. Some bloggers who I respect immensely (check the replies to the original post to see who, and check out their blogs!) have all come on board. In addition, the post has reached just shy of 200 reads, tripling any of my previous posts and (hopefully) foretelling a good time for both readers and writers in March.

As for the questions, I thought about changing them based on suggestions, but ultimately have decided to put it out into the world warts and all. The only 2 improvements will be the following clarification in question 2:

“2 What was the first character you played in an RPG other than D&D? How was playing it different from playing a D&D character?”

Also, I will be adding “… played or want to play…” in the questions about system (questions 7 to 15) because, let’s face it, there are so many great games we are dying to play but just haven’t gotten around to. I will send out a reminder about the challenge around the 20th of this month.

There is a spot of bad news – I was actually planning to go to a small con and do some (GASP!) actual roleplaying in March, but sadly family concerns have made it impossible. I am sure March Madness will make up for it.

Always end on a high note they say, so HEREis a link to a story, “The Coast,” that got published last week in Canada. If you like historical fiction, you may enjoy my imagining of an incident that happened to my Inuit ancestors on the coast of Labrador in the mid-eighteenth century.

I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading.

PS: If you are interested in Weird Japan, check out  Zack Davisson's blog Hyakumonogatari!

March Madness - Non-D&D OSR Blog Challenge

No doubt about it, D&D dominates the gaming scene old and new. That is not necessarily a bad thing, as D&D is a solid game (both in terms of system and genre) with an enormous fanbase. It serves as a ‘lingua franca’ for the gaming community, much as English serves as a global language for the world. As Nelson Mandela said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” Make no wonder then that D&D has captured the hearts of so many for so long.

But just as English isn’t the only language and just as its hegemony causes others to be forgotten, D&D blots out many other worthy games. Although the OSR has made great strides in bringing old editions of D&D back into circulation and discourse, it has largely failed to do the same for other lesser-known old school games. Although fans diligently create materials and run sites for Traveler, Star frontiers, and MSHAG, I feel that there is a desire and need to unearth more obscure games, as evidenced by blogs like Mesmerized by Sirens, and the proliferation of non-D&D posts on OSR blogs.

I seek to encourage this widening of the OSR spotlight by throwing down the gauntlet of an RPG blog challenge about games other than D&D. I participated in a 30-day challenge last year and had a great time, but also felt really limited by its adherence to D&D, and a little lost because it demanded knowledge of the terminology from later editions that I did not have. I also participated in MbS’s Obscure RPG Appreciation day, which I found inspiring and enlightening, and learned about the lost siblings of D&D. Although I celebrated D&D’s recent 40^th birthday, I’m all blogged out about the game and thus didn’t participate in the challenge.

In this vein, I have created a 31 Day Blogging Challenge for March that asks questions on a wide range of genres and systems, and I hope that we can introduce lots of great games (and a few terrible ones) that are not as well known as they should be. Although I hope primarily to hear of older games, I have left the questions vague on the age of games so as to encourage younger bloggers or hobby latecomers to contribute as well.

Because participating in a 30 day blog challenge takes up so much time and energy, I’ve decided to publish my questions here well in advance of March to give those interested a chance to reflect and start writing drafts of their posts. I hope to see other blogs take up the challenge, and will be posting reminders as March draws near. I hope you will contribute to this widening of OSR perspectives and look forward to learning and reading much from the participants.

- Tedankhamen

March Madness 31 day Obscure Game Blogging Challenge

1 What was the first roleplaying game other than D&D you played? Was it before or after you had played D&D?

2 In what system was the first character you played in an RPG other than D&D? How was playing it different from playing a D&D character?

3 Which game had the least or most enjoyable character generation?

4 What other roleplaying author besides Gygax impressed you with their writing?

5 What other old school game should have become as big as D&D but didn’t? Why do you think so?

6 What non-D&D monster do you think is as iconic as D&D ones like hook horrors or flumphs, and why do you think so?

7 What fantasy RPG other than D&D have you enjoyed most? Why?

8 What spy RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

9 What superhero RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

10 What science fiction RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

11 What post-apocalyptic RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

12 What humorous RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

13 What horror RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

14 What historical or cultural RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

15 What pseudo or alternate history RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

16 Which RPG besides D&D has the best magic system? Give details.

17 Which RPG has the best high tech rules? Why?

18 What is the crunchiest RPG you have played? Was it enjoyable?

19 What is the fluffiest RPG you have played? Was it enjoyable?

20 Which setting have you enjoyed most? Why?

21 What is the narrowest genre RPG you have ever played? How was it?

22 What is the most gonzo kitchen sink RPG you ever played? How was it?

23 What is the most broken game that you tried and were unable to play?

24 What is the most broken game that you tried and loved to play, warts and all?

25 Which game has the sleekest, most modern engine?

26 What IP (=Intellectual Property, be it book, movie or comic) that doesn’t have an RPG deserves it? Why?

27 What RPG based on an IP did you enjoy most? Give details.

28 What free RPG did you enjoy most? Give details.

29 What OSR product have you enjoyed most? Explain how.

30 Which non-D&D supplemental product should everyone know about? Give details.

31 What out-of-print RPG would you most like to see back in publication? Why?

Semiotics of the 6 Attributes

At a glance, the six original attributes of D&D seem elegant in their simplicity and symmetry. There are three physical stats (Strength, Constitution and Dexterity) and three arguably mental ones (Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma). For anyone who started roleplaying with the game, it is largely by these 6 that we define all our characters, as well as judge how other RPG systems emulate them. But what do these terms actually signify, and does this match what they do in practice?

(NOTE - All pictures are the first Google image result for the attribute in question) 

STRENGTH

This was the first attribute handed down by uncle Gary (Men & Magic p. 10), and has arguably become the most important. Although it began as merely the mark of class for Fighters, coupled with a nebulous application to “opening traps and so forth,” it developed into the characteristic allowing the most direct influence on the gameworld via damage, attacks, and feats of strength against barriers. But the word by itself is vague enough to be nearly meaningless. Would the uninitiated think we are talking physical or mental strength? People say “I haven’t the strength to go on” after mental or physical duress, which would seem to make this term closer to Constitution. In this light, having undead drain Strength seems rather more fitting. Overall, wouldn’t ‘Brawn’ have been a clearer, more apt word to use?

INTELLIGENCE

Where Strength fails in D&D Intelligence prevails, specifically in the form of magic, which is probably why this was the second attribute. Once again, it starts as merely a mark of class, namely Wizards, and gradually comes to determine all spell access, languages, and proficiencies. Although there are other collocations of the word such as ‘military intelligence,’ in general the term conjures up the associations of scholarship and mental prowess it is intended to. If there is one flaw, it is that intelligence is normally paired with reason and logic, and one wonders how these are supposed to interact with the illogic of magic. Perhaps Intuition would have better served that purpose, but Intelligence would still have been necessary for skills and languages.

WISDOM

This is an odd choice for the third attribute, as it would seem less important in keeping a character alive than Constitution or Dexterity which follow it. It begins as a mark of class like its precedents, this time for Clerics, and later affects magic saves, although not for any discernable reason other than to spread out benefit among the attributes. Wisdom would also imply a character’s ability to see connections in what they observe about the world, but since this is mostly done by the player, one wonders whether Wisdom is necessary at all, and whether retroclones like Microlite 74 haven’t the right idea by replacing both Intelligence and Wisdom with Mind.

CONSTITUTION

This is an equally odd lexical choice. Definitely not an everyday usage for the word, with the online database of the Corpus of Contemporary English (COCA) overwhelmingly giving the political or legal meaning of the word as the most popular. Still, we use it in talk of ‘morning constitutionals’ and other health-related topics, so it is fairly true to function in its modification of poison saves and hit points. Alternatives like ‘Endurance’ would seem too limited in scope, while ‘Health’ sounds a more commonly understood term that could have stood in just as well.

DEXTERITY

This doesn’t exactly seem to do what it says on the tin. As collocations like ‘manual dexterity’ indicate, Dexterity largely implies talent with feet or hands. Although the modifiers to Armor Class for which Dexterity later became prized do fit with this meaning, bonuses to missile attacks and initiative would seem more aptly attributed to hand-eye coordination and reflexes, respectively. However, it is this very type of overly realist analysis of the meaning of attributes that loses sight of the utility and charm of the original 6 and falls into a needless proliferation of supposedly 'representative' attributes that, as we shall see, plagued AD&D's designers as the years wore on.

 

CHARISMA

Strangely, although tables of attribute bonuses and abilities would later become a staple of D&D for all attributes, in OD&D only Charisma was afforded such attention. This is ironic given that Charisma quickly become the ‘dump stat’ in other editions. Clearly, uncle Gary valued PC-NPC interactions in a way that was lost among the average self-taught D&Ders of the 80s, and was exacerbated in the move in later editions towards PCs combat machines who have no need for interaction with NPCs of any stripe, from henchmen to kings. Speaking of the ubiquity of henchmen and other NPCs in OD&D, shouldn’t gold temporarily pump up your stat when hiring meatshields?

 

OTHER OLD SCHOOL GAMES

The original 6 attributes not only bound our conception of character, they inspired many games that came thereafter, but were increased or modified to suit the differing worldview of particular game creators. Take Basic Role Playing (BRP), which brought to life the saga of Elric as well as Great Cthulhu, and especially for this latter needed to add Size to reflect the cyclopean horrors the PCs would battle. In BRP, Strength is useless in modifying damage without Size, and it also initially modified hit points before Chaosium began systematically nerfing attribute applications to reduce chargen bookeeping. Since BRP is a percentile system, maybe Size could also be used to determine difficulty to hit, or be the base for an attack, with larger creatures easier to hit? BRP also added the nebulous Power attribute, which served as a base for magic powers in Stormbringer/Runequest and Sanity in Call of Cthulhu.

Likewise, DC heroes added Will, Mind, Aura and Spirit to reflect the different types of powers costumed heroes would both yield and be attacked by, while the addition of Influence reflected the importance of wealth and celebrity of characters like Batman. Vampire: The Masquerade made a major effort to arrange the terminology of the original 6 into a balanced taxonomy of attributes, arranging a total of 9 ‘traits’ into three categories - Physical (Strength, Dexterity, Stamina), Social (Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance), and Mental (Perception, Intelligence, Wits).

D&D itself was not immune to the perceived need to balance out attributes more, and both Unearthed Arcana and the reviled 2e Powers book suggested additions or alternatives to the original 6 attributes. This latter seemed to attempt to mirror Vampire’s ‘balanced’ taxonomy, with the division of each of the original 6 attributes into bloated troikas of influence. Simply read the following list to get a feeling for how AD&D’s creators mistakenly sacrificed the beauty of the original 6 for a misplaced attempt at balanced realism - Strength, Stamina, Muscle; Dexterity, Aim, Balance; Constitution, Health, Fitness; Intelligence, Reason, Knowledge; Wisdom, Intuition, Willpower; Charisma, Leadership, Appearance.

These bloated attributes didn’t make it to 3e, which conversely began the simplifying process by reducing saving throws to 3 categories (Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower) more directly based on and modified by attributes. The OSR took this even further, with Swords & Wizardry’s one save and Microlite’s aforementioned consolidation of attributes into 4 - Strength, Dexterity, Mind and Charisma. The movement back to the simplicity and symmetry of the original 6 attributes (or less) is, in fact, one of the things that unites players across editions, as well as being one of the charms of the OSR.

LODOSS RPG REVIEW

It’s been a dog’s age since I last posted, but family & career deadlines hijacked my freetime this month. I’m still in the docket until Friday, but I thought I’d take a few minutes and review a Japanese D&D clone to blow off steam.

Without further ado, I present to you ロードス島RPGベーシックルール, Lodoss Island RPG Basic Book!

BACKGROUND

Most RPG fans know of or have seen Record of Lodoss War, a Japanese manga & anime set in a D&D style world. Lodoss was created in the mid 1980s, and the story goes that the creator, Ryo Mizuno of Japanese RPG powerhouse Group SNE, simply turned the session reports (or ‘replay’ as the Japanese call them) of his D&D game into the story of Lodoss and serialized them in a gaming magazine. I myself have seen Lodoss Replay books in used bookstores out here in Kyoto, some with the main characters statted out for Tunnels & Trolls. Regardless of the particulars, the original manga & anime bring fantasy roleplaying to life with beautiful art, so it is no wonder that Lodoss has inspired gamers for so long, and even a fan-made RPG using the Fuzion system of Cyberpunk & Mekton (available HERE).

Today, however, I will be reviewing the 1995 Lodoss Island RPG’s Basic Rulebook from Sneaker Bunko.

THE BOOK

The Lodoss RPG book is in the typical Japanese RPG pocketbook format, making it much more portable than western RPGs. The layout is clear with a logical chapter progression – About This Book (including setting details), Characters, Skills, Combat, Items, Magic, Character Growth, Monsters, Other Rules, Gamemaster Section, a Sample Scenario, and finally copies of all the charts you’ll need to run the game thankfully reprinted from the main text. It also contains a foldout character sheet stapled into the front cover, a removable cover and highly readable text inside peppered with generous examples of manga-style art. Which brings me to my next point…

THE ART

As you can see, the Lodoss RPG cover picture of elven main character Deedlit is GORGEOUS (excuse my somewhat dark cellphone camera and my computer for turning it sideways for some reason). The fantasy watercolour style fits the feel of Lodoss perfectly, although Deedlit’s features are arguably a bit too Japanese for the genre. Inside, there are three styles of art – hyperrealistic action manga style for the bestiary, a simpler line drawing style for equipment sections, and a cutesy bobble-head style for the examples of play. 

The grotty action style really makes the monsters come alive, while the simple line style presents items efficiently and allows players to imagine them on their own character. The bobble-head art, though irksome at first to me, has grown on me, and I feel it fits the ‘pathetic aesthetic’ (to quote Dr Bargle) of beginning characters in old school games. There’s even a dirty pun on the similarity of the words ‘donkey’ and ‘condom’ in Japanese (‘roba’ or old horse and ‘rubber’), which I think a fine tongue-in-cheek antidote to the melodramatic seriousness of modern fantasy game introductions.

THE TEXT

The font is easy on the eye, while the text is eminently readable and understandable. In fact, Lodoss RPG was one of the texts I forced myself to read before taking the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which I passed with some thanks to studying eclectic and interesting texts. If you’re a gamer and can read Japanese even a little, break out your dictionaries and use Lodoss RPG as a study text and you’ll be gaming in Japanese in no time.

THE GAME

The mechanics show old school roots but are cleaned up and straightforward, consisting of 7 attributes (Strength, Constitution, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Luck & Charisma), with some derived bonuses. The chassis is a d100% system much like Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying, which as a diehard fan of Stormbringer and Cthulhu, I adore. The spell system is point-based and contains an eminently useful and wide variety of spells, while monster statblocks are very manageable.

Playable races include human, elf, dwarf and half-elf, and these are expanded with grassrunner (aka hobbit) and dark elf in the Expert Book. Classes include Warrior, Knight, Priest, Thief, Elementalist Shaman, and Mage. Magic is further subdivided into Sorcerer Magic (in Japanese ‘Ancient Tongue Magic’), Common Magic, Priest Magic, Shaman Magic and Demon Scream (‘’Dark Magic’ in Japanese).

It’s been a while since I read the Lodoss RPG, but scanning the book again confirms my good impressions. Chargen is straightforward and involves no intricate calculations like Swordworld RPG, just the addition of a bonus to skills based on attributes which is very reminiscent of the old Stormbringer RPG. Players choose race but randomly roll background like Stormbringer, which gives them different skill points to allocate. The skill list is generous and logical, as is the list of spells for each discipline. Level advancement gives bonuses to hit points, but also ‘Growth Points’ that can be used to improve skills & attributes, while XP advancement for all classes are on one table. XP is gained from defeating monsters and achieving mission objectives.

All in all, Lodoss RPG seems a near perfect blend of D&D and Chaosium system-wise, with some very efficient modern changes made to the chassis of these older systems. It is not without its flaws, however, and the two most glaring problems are the Dodge skill and weapon damage vs monster hit points. The Dodge skill is SUBTRACTED from the attacker’s weapon skill, which would seem to make the ‘whiff’ factor of combat rather high and make melee somewhat tedious. Perhaps this was done to make combat ‘one-roll’ like D&D, but is unnecessary and easily remedied by using Chaosium-style back & forth attacks and defenses.

Another odd rule is that weapon damages are all rolled on a d10 or d6 with arbitrary modifiers, plus Strength bonus if any. Again, this is not a deal-breaker, but makes for some odd choices with a dagger doing d6 + 3 and greatsword or bow doing d10 + 5. Monsters have similarly wonky hit points based on d10 + mods, with an Ogre having 5d10 + 30 and a Kobold having d10 + 5. Meanwhile armor is all static values that are subtracted from damage inflicted, with a robe being AV 2 and a suit of Mail AV 9. Perhaps this works in practice, and I would play RAW before making any changes, but it admittedly feels odd to someone used to dice tube progression in weapon damage and straight rolls for hit points.

SUPPLEMENTS

The rulebooks are split somewhat like B/X D&D, with the Expert book giving details for levels past 5, more spells & skills, monsters, races, rules for figurine & mass battles, and ‘Advanced professions’ that function very much like prestige classes of latterday D&D and thus are very ahead of their time in this respect. I also own two fullsize (i.e. western softcover gamebook size) supplements, with adventures, more gorgeous art, reprints of Basic book content for player reference, replays (i.e. session reports), and designer advice. All in all, Lodoss materials are a beauty to behold and are a great addition to my RPG collection, especially since I got them all 2^nd hand for a few dollars.

I should note that the few scenarios for Lodoss I have read seem somewhat…odd to me. For example, the Basic Book scenario, “An Adventurer’s Nature,” involves the characters joining an ‘Adventurer’s Guild’ right off the bat. They are sent on a ‘test’ by the guild to some caves, where they solve some riddles they find in a trail of letters, ‘fight’ some guild members dressed as goblins, then come upon a real robbery in progress. I would imagine this scenario would not be to the taste of most north American gamers (I could be wrong), both due to its railroadey nature and the concept of joining a guild to go on a fake dungeon crawl. I’d prefer to run B2 with it myself and see how it stands up to The Caves of Chaos.

CONCLUSION

I would certainly love to run or play the Lodoss RPG, and of the 3 Japanese RPGs I have reviewed, it is the most runnable straight out of the box, while also having the smoothest rules. Lodoss RPG shows both its western old school roots, the Japanese aesthetic sense of design, and the strangeness (from the north American standpoint) of Japanese culture.

Sword World RPG for OFRGAD

Sword World RPG for OFRGAD

As I noted in an earlier post about the Dragon Half RPG, the tropes of D&D would be reflected and recontextualized in many ways in different countries. The first major Japanese re-creation of fantasy roleplaying was the Sword World RPG by Group SNE, originally published in 1989. Sword World set the pattern for fantasy RPGs in Japan, offering not only core rulebooks (basic, advanced, & monsters) in the pocketsize format so familiar to Japanese gamers, but also the replay (basically the transcript of a gaming session) and novelizations. It also saw a fullsize book, a revised edition, and currently Sword World 2.0 graces the shelves of any new bookstore in Japan, while second hand bookstores shelves groan under the weight of rulebooks, replays, and adventures for the older edition.

LOOK
 The original edition I am holding is a 440 page pocketsized tome devoid of art except a psychedelic snake-wrapped swordhilt on the cover and a minimalist setting map.

Although later editions such as the monster manual had some art by the incredible Yoshitaka Amano, and the fullsize edition was gorgeously illustrated, the book I have looks like a trigonometry text. There are 19 chapters in the book: Welcome, Characters, Skills, Combat, Armed Combat, Magic, Adventurer Skills Other Than Battle or Magic, Character Growth, Character Making, FAQ, Combat Notes for GMs, Magic Notes, Skill Notes, Monsters, Treasure, Awarding XP, Advanced Combat Options, Magic Options, Monster Skill Options, ending with Designer Notes and a Chart Book. The poor organization and focus on combat really betrays the early fan origins of Sword World, and it is a wonder that Group SNE is still in business and has made some fine rpgs like Lodoss and Paradise Fleet since Sword World.

SYSTEM

Sword World reads like a trigonometry text as well, and that is not a good thing. There are tables of effects for combat rolls and more tables of trivial modifications for attributes. The example of filling in a character sheet looks like a flowchart for taxes. All in all, not fun, which is a shame because the Dragon Half RPG which is derived from Sword World reads, looks, and probably runs ten times better and is a hundred times more enjoyable. The system is 2d6 plus mods, check a spreadsheet for result. Ho hum.

SETTING

The setting is the New Kingdoms of Fosseria in the Age of the Sword. You may notice the island at the bottom of the map is called The Cursed Island, and would later become the setting for The Lodoss War RPG.

CONCLUSION

As a RPG history buff, Sword World is an interesting relic to have on my shelf, but I doubt it would last beyond a session of play with all the more intuitive and fun games out there. It does, however, really showcase the difference in RPGing culture expectations in Japan, and comparison with recent games like Sword World 2.0 and Araianrod show that Japanese FRPGs may have gotten prettier as books, but not any smoother as systems.

Dragon Half RPG Review

OK, it has been a week-and-a-half from hell, but work and studies have calmed down a tad so it is time to post away some stress.

This time I’d like to review the Dragon Half RPG, my contribution to Mesmerized by Sirens’ “Obscure RPG Appreciation” initiative.

INTRODUCTION

When D&D first hit it was a global phenomenon, translated into tons of languages and sold worldwide. Its core concepts were also translated into other tongues and worldviews as local reimaginings of the game, sometimes losing and sometimes gaining elements as it mutated. Britain gave us “Dragon Warriors”, Germany created “Dark Eye”, while France offered “Epees et Sorcellerie,” all versions of D&D as seen through the lens of their creators’ own culture.

Further afield, Japan fostered many indigenous FRPGs, from the early wave of D&D clones like “Sword World” and “Lodoss War”, to more recent creative reimaginings like “Ryutama”. Living in Kyoto, over the years I have made a small collection of these Japanese children of D&D, and today I’d like to present one of my favorites, the 1991 Dragon Half RPG.

BACKGROUND

For those few who don’t know the name, Dragon Half started out as a manga then successful anime telling the story of Mink, a young girl whose mother was a dragon and father a lecherous dragon slaying knight. Mink is a spunky young girl with dragon strength, wings and a tail, who drags her friends along on a quest to see dragonslayer/rock singer Dick Saucer.

As you can tell from the description, Dragon Half has its tongue firmly in its cheek, overturning D&D tropes or simply following them to their absurd end. The art, although evocative and highly polished, is also highly sexualized, alternating gratuitous crotch shots and nudity with cutesy bobble-head style characters, understandable as the author Ryusuke Mita cut his artistic teeth in the lucrative world of pornographic manga, like so many animators in Japan. Still, the story is great, the humour is funny, and the laviscous art plays into both the fantasy and fandom aspects of the genre.

THE BOOK

The RPG is in the pocket size format so popular in Japan, and while lacking the hefty tome feel of western rpgs, this small size belies a large 556 page punch. The writing is clear, the pages uncluttered and legible (if you read Japanese), and the art is top notch, as it is all taken from the manga. Contents include Ch. 0 Starting, Ch. 1 Character Making, Ch. 2 Skill Rolls, Ch. 3 Battle & Character Death, Ch. 4 Magic, Ch. 5 Character Advancement, Ch. 6 Special Rules & Addendum, Ch. 7 Equipment, Ch. 8 GM Section, Ch. 9 Making & Repairing Constructs, Ch. 10 Miscellaneous Damage, Ch. 11 Special Options & Rules, Ch. 12 Magic Items, Ch. 13 Monsters! The book has designer’s notes and useful charts at the end, and a character sheet stapled inside the front cover.

THE RULES

The rules are a simplified form of the Sword World RPG, Japan’s 1989 answer to D&D. Since the pages of damage charts and monster statblocks of Sword World make my head throb like a high school algebra test, I find Dragon Half’s pared down mechanics much more enticing. Basically, you roll 2d6 plus mods against a difficulty determined by the GM. In combat, there is the extra complication of a MSHAG-like table of damage results ranging from ‘Unharmed’ to ‘Destroyed’ and everything in between.

Having run a few simulated combats the system seems well balanced and eminently playable. Magic seems a bit underdone, with a very limited range of spells, which can be remedied by cribbing from Sword World if so desired. Skills are basically occupations like Princess, Thief, or Bard, and the descriptions are Risus-like in their brevity. In fact, a knowledge of Risus mechanics might be a serious asset for anyone interested in playing Dragon Half, as the Risus mechanics of ‘pumping’ skills and resolution could come in handy.

Just as skills are underdeveloped, the most glaring problem with the rules is the weakness of the Gag Level rules. Dragon Half characters become stronger as they advance in Hero Levels, which are basically synonymous with D&D levels. There is a parallel system of Gag Levels, however, which include unexpected great effects for failure and a ‘Gag Skill’ that you can fail spectacularly in, but without any real incentive or explanation of why a player would want to. Once again, the infusion of Risus rules to allow characters to ‘milk’ skills for success and pay this off in gag failures would seem a good patch for this lack of definition.

However, there are a lot of great, humorous touches in the game – all PCs are ‘halfs’, basically with one human parent and one of another species. I rolled a (boring) half-elf preparing for this article, but could just as easily gotten a half-vampire or half-mermaid if the dice had rolled a different way. All monster statblocks include an ‘Edibility’ rating, as a preoccupation with food is a staple both of the source material and Japanese culture (see the movie Tampopo).

SCENARIOS & GAMEPLAY

There were three supplements as far as I know (BGG has the cover of “Labyrinth of Laughter” mislabeled as the gamebook on the BGG website), and all were filled with great art, funny descriptions, and ludicrous adventure. It would take a great GM and players who were fine with gonzo-style D&D parody gaming to get the most out of these, with a familiarity with the source material a must. If you like gonzo-D&D that is a mix of Paranoia and Adventure Time, then the Dragon Half RPG just might be your thing.

Better start practicing kanji…

Obscure RPGs? I'm in!

Mesmerized by Sirens is trying to start an Obscure RPG Day, for rare fantasy games published up to 1989.
I coincidentally happen to be working on a review of Dragon Half RPG, as well as an adventure for Stormbringer 1e. Although Stormbringer is an early iteration of BRP as well as a game derived from pretty popular IP, I think 1e is obscure enough to let me slide in. Dragon Half is certainly obscure, and although it was published around 1991, the Sword World system of which it is a simplified version is old enough to qualify.

Either way, I support Catacomb Librarian's efforts and hope to get both these posts up before the deadline at the end of the month.