When SJW extremists post their reviews... Personally loved the part that says classic K&L was copper (because I demanded it) when in fact it was nearly gold. And the other wild speculation that the print version of New Horizon doesn't exist. Just what the F is this naughty word? All this hating is indeed very unhealthy for you. Let's not forget the part that the writer claims I used their ideas gtfo this made me cringe. Sounds just like the typical RPGGEEK Sleezyness to me, too bad I can't reply because they banned me for being "antagonistic" go figure. Can't wait to get a real professional reviewer!
Review by SJW below Toxic! Wear mask!
The noisome gut pile that was Knights & Legends has been flushed from online distribution, presumably so it won't "confuse" players of New Horizon. The only remaining bodagget of Knights & Legends is the silly Knights & Legends Ezorian Map Print. Given that Knights & Legends was the best-selling game in 2018 (the publisher demanded it was a Copper Seller), this may be really surprising.
However, the swap-out is explained by New Horizon being a "2020 ENnie Runner" for "Best Tabletop RPG". In the publisher's inimitable style, I think that means they self-nominated to the ENnies.
How does a game become an ENnie "Runner"? Somebody fills out an online form. How does it get to be a "Runner" for "Best Tabletop RPG"? It doesn't; you submit to the ENnies and they categorize it. But, let's not argue about facts when facts are concerned. Let's go take a look at New Horizon: A Dark Fantasy Adventure Core Book.
The publisher lately has been dumping several "supplements" onto DriveThru to make the game seem more substantive. To date, these items all are one-page rectangles of toilet paper, presenting trivial randomalia. They're worth what you pay for them - nothing. As an example, in one we learn that "Goldhorn Cheesecake" costs K$ 5. Heady stuff, that. The seemingly most-useful one, Quick NPC Generator, is six columns of d6 randomizers that yields such pithy NPCs as: "Thy name is Sha'Quita, born Transgender, with a rather Thuggish personality and a Normal body, Birthplace was Loriwhyn, and is of Other Origin."
This leaves only the core book for consideration. It's available as a PDF or, so we are told, as a print "Collector's Edition". The prematurely-named "Collector's Edition" was scheduled to be "showcased" on a live stream but that didn't happen for obscure reasons that we're all grateful for. Not at all because it doesn't exist, of course. Oh, no. It's for other reasons.
Per the Engrish advertisement (appearing in the publisher's September "newsletter", where self-advertising space is free), the "Digital" version is: "affordable, good quality, SM file size, smartphones, watermaked [sic], printable, and desktop". Meanwhile, the "Collector" version is: "fully supports dev, premium quality, made for fans!, extra durability, great memory, glossy finish, great gift". If you can make sense of those bullet lists then you've been drinking too much for too long.
Proving that old <name redacted> ordered way too many miniature Ezorian poster maps, you can buy the core book download "bundled" with a map for a mere $0.98 more than you can buy just the core book download. Which covers the shipping/handling of the map ("The price was carefully balanced to make up for the standard shipping fee"). Let me go way out on a limb here and predict that even by giving them away, they're still going to have way too many of them.
Like a masochist self-flagellating, let's get down to punishment. The core book is really huge. Like, many megabytes huge - almost four pages per meg. Yep, clocking in at a whopping 54 MEGs of "SM file size", this sick download will choke your PDF viewer whether you use it "smartphones", "desktop", or "fully supports dev". We expect nothing less from Knights & Legends Tabletop RPG. If it ain't bloat, it ain't K&L! As an added bonus, the PDF contains no embedded text - it's all helpfully graphical, so you don't end up wasting your time searching the rules with automated tools like "Find..."
The game itself uses the farcical Ludens "system" which is simply the poopy old Knights & Legends rules with many of the suggestions I provided in Variant Knights & Legends implemented in some places (my level system, my skill revisions, my spell revisions, and my armor suggestions form the bulk of the updates - almost all the new monsters are mine, too). In that respect, I have to grudgingly admit the game is a couple ångstroms closer to actually-playable than it used to be. Heck, I should practically be credited as a co-author. Though I suspect the note that "all of this was made possible, thanks to the feedback and support of fans" is as close as I'm ever going to get. Surprisingly generous, actually. In keeping with today's various "Powered by... <some legitimate system>" buzzphrase, Ludens is "powered by polyhedral dice." Eyeroll.
New Horizon "focuses in overcoming its predecessors flaws" - which I'm surprised to hear after so many of the publisher's invective-drenched protestations that the predecessor was flawless. The book refers to itself by many titles, one of the most amusing being "Knights & Legends: New Horizon", because, you know, it's completely new and different.
The rules are problematic immediately - they say that by playing you'll "experience a bloodbath in combat with severed limbs, impairing debilities and illnesses, along with the brand new, parry & counter combat maneuver". None of that is particularly true as combat only involves subtracting hit points. The new "family tree system" means if your character dies you can play their offspring. Radical idea, that!
Your characters have the time to generate offspring, too, because this game is set 50-years after the Knights & Legends the Rogue Priest Expansion and Campaign, in a new village named Heinburg, "founded by retired templars of the xhinian church", as "a newly found haven for the brave men who sought breaking apart from the kingdom of Vancroft" and "with the help of the dwarven council" when "Sir Caliban's wife was chosen to rule as sovereign queen; Under others". If you're not sure how a sovereign queen rules "Under others" or you haven't heard of Sir Caliban, don't worry - they never again appear in the book.
As an aside: yes, this game continues the tradition of randomly inserting commas every fifth or sixth, word and in leaving, them out where they should be. And expanding on; the tradition semi-colons have been added to the punctuation slurry. And; random Words still, Get capitalized.
Now we come to what is, after all, the entire crux of the problem with this so-called game - "The Concept". Which is a "game focused on one main goal, The adventure teller, or AT, narrates the tale which a party of up to four players will control their own custom actor, normally referred to as CA". Yes, yes, this game is focused on the main goal of letting the adventure teller tell the adventure to the unfortunate players who, really, do nothing more than nod and smile. To make sure you get it, there is even an "Etiquette" section which enumerates:
"1 - Always listen to the AT"
"2 - Avoid arguing with the AT"
"3 - Silence your mobile device"
"4 - Avoid unnecessary distractions"
"5 - Don't cheat"
And if player's won't follow the Etiquette by nodding and smiling while the AT tells them the adventure? Well, "ATs are responsible for keeping players informed and compliant". And be careful - "Players, could easily detract from tasks by choosing an action or choice not previously listed in the book". Good heavens! If it's all seeming a bit too complicated, then don't worry because the rules state - as a rule - the game is a "game that is enjoyed by everyone, at all times". If you're not having fun, you're not playing by the rules.
Here's how you generate a character. There are two steps. Step 1: "pick a name", remembering that "Customization is key!" I take that to mean that characters shouldn't all have the same name? Step 2: "There's a wide range of traits to be picked from; Including, gender, age, color, personality, beliefs, and moral codes, The objective being, to make the hero feel alive, and no different than any of us." After you give up trying to parse that, perhaps you'll maybe wonder how to reconcile "customization" with "no different than any" and I can't help you much with that, other than to quote from the rules that "Players who feel confident about their drawing skill, should do so."
While the rules don't actually allow you to pick a race, there are several playable races. Human ("Deyhdration, could result in, -1 to all stats"); Orc ("In some cases, three days without eating would cause certain death"); Dwarf ("Firm believers in democracy and, diplomacy"); Valkin ("Lack of a healthy diet, could lead to severe complications of organs; And the rotting of wing cartilage. Causing their wings to collapse, and leading to unavoidable death"); Elf (Once an Elf dies, their bodies turn into tree-like structures. To avoid that, elves take a special concotion made of natural herbs; Delaying the rooting effect"). Gosh, the last thing I want to have happen to my left-behind corpse is rooting!
Interested parties may remember how deeply sexist the Knights & Legends ruleset is. New Horizon (2019) has a totally new take on being deeply sexist. In the "old" method, females were penalized across the board by having their Ability values arbitrarily decreased. That's not at all the case, here. Because, "all characters begin their existence with their stats locked at 5" and "In New Horizon, both genders of all races, share neutral stats". There, the problem is solved. Both sexes start out with straight 5s - locked! The rules go on, though - "But don't worry! The neutrality will be adjusted once you pick a class". Thank goodness, I was so worried that New Horizon would lose that stinky sexist charm that made Knights & Legends so overwhelmingly olfactory.
No, here your stats are "locked" at 5... until you pick your Class. Then your stats are "unlocked" and females are penalized for being female, class by class, race by race, stat by stat, across the board. Don't blame the author, though! It's not the adventure teller's fault the game is a pile of sexist sludge (the AT wouldn't even recognize sexism if it was shoved up their ass, so how could they be sexist?). No, it's not the fault of the publisher or even the fantabadoozie Ludens game system. It's destiny. It's unavoidable: "Each race, possess male and female characteristics. That's how the ezorian gods wished them to be". We all know the gods must be crazy. In Ezoria, the gods are crazy naughty words.
I've always wondered why K&L and, now, New Horizon, are specifically noted as being only playable by "a party of up to four". I think I've figured it out. The first (and only) AT who uses this gaming diarrhea sits with their "Collector" copy, at a table with four empty chairs and wonders what it would be like to have one, two, three, or even - gasp - four people gathered around the table, listening to the AT tell the story in incomprehensible Engrish, preventing them from detracting from the story by forcing them to be "informed and compliant", "powered by polyhedral dice". Once again, after a long wait, nobody comes to sit down. And the AT talks a new "adventure" and spews out superlative-Engrish-mingled-with-punctuation ad copy for posting on a newfound site that hasn't yet banned their account.
Conclusions? As hilariously, unintelligibly, hideously detestable as the prior edition. Now with all new sexism!
