As I said in my review of N.E.W. (the sci-fi companion piece to this volume), I'm not entirely sure why I backed the Kickstarter for this game.
The truth is, this is a fine game, but for various reasons it's probably something I'll never actually use - it's 'crunchy' where my preference is for things to be much more free-form; it's very much a toolkit game, where I really don't have the time; and it's a 'generic fantasy' game where I'm almost certainly going to just use D&D 5e for that (though by fifth edition D&D isn't really generic - but I digress).
Anyway, this game has shades of "Warhammer Fantasy", in the use of the 'career' system for character creation and advancement, and of "d20 Modern" in that it's a toolkit game. And, of course, it has shades of D&D, since every fantasy roleplaying game will inevitably face that comparison. As I said, in terms of execution it's fine - it isn't shamed by any of those comparisons.
All that said, there are a couple of areas where O.L.D. really shines, and they're almost entirely unrelated to the mechanics so they may well be worth checking out in their own right. The rules for travel (and particularly the calculation of Fortune, and how that impacts on the journey and how the PCs arrive) are inspired - indeed, rather better than 5e's exploration pillar. Likewise, the handling of warfare, and notably the structure of it into blocks with sub-missions, is very well handled. (I should also note that the "Elements of Magic" rules are very good, though I've seen them before. An update of the previous 3e rules to 5e would be welcome.)
In terms of a recommendation, my position is the same as for N.E.W. - if you have something specific in mind, and especially something that isn't really covered by another game, then I'd recommend this one. Otherwise, I'd suggest checking out the sections I've mentioned, but otherwise giving it a miss.
No comments:
Post a Comment