As we all know, heroic fantasy is not always heroic. The motivations of some characters are not always clear, and even when they do seemingly good deeds, there might be a not so pure motive behind them. Or maybe the lands where the heroes hail from are not entirely goodly in their laws and peoples.
Or sometimes it’s just more exciting to have a hero with a little bit of bad mixed into the good.
Such themes seem to prevail in the characters created from Chubby Funster Games’ OSR Fantasy RPG, Ambition & Avarice. This fantasy RPG offers classes and races from the whole spectrum between the light and the darkness, all bound within a D&D retro-clone by game designer Greg Christopher.
What sort of heroes might emerge in a game where ambitions come first, and a desire for worldly power straggles not far behind?
Ambition & Avarice
Ambition & Avarice is an OSR fantasy role-playing game by Chubby Funster Games, based loosely upon the original D&D game. This retro-clone features rules for character creation and design, including races, classes, equipment, spells and more. A&A also includes combat rules to resolve encounters, creating monsters, and suggestions on running a role-playing game. The product includes a character sheet for players, and a campaign tracking sheet for gamemasters.
Production Quality
The production quality of Ambition & Avarice is quite good, with excellent writing by the author, and a layout which is user-friendly and nicely designed. The writing style is informative and easy-going, and conveys game concepts succinctly. The layout of the book presents the contents in a logical fashion, from beginning to end.
A&A is well organized, and has both a table of contents and PDF bookmarks. The bookmarks are reasonable for navigation, but could have been a bit more detailed to provide more precise page locations of sub-headings.
The art in Ambition & Avarice is really also very good, although I found myself more appreciative of the black-and-white interior drawings as opposed to the full color cover. The interior drawings are very evocative of early gaming manuals, which suits very well for a new OSR RPG with a D&D retro-clone style.
An RPG by any other name…
Ambition & Avarice is a retro-clone of “old school” D&D, but with some innovative twists on character classes and game mechanics. The book presents the core rules for this OSR RPG in six different sections, covering mostly the character creation process, but also touching on game mechanics, combat, and running the game (GM stuff).
Throughout the entirety of Ambition & Avarice, the author discusses his philosophy and knowledge of playing RPGs, and running them for other gamers. Despite it being a D&D retro-clone, the writing in A&A does not take any concept for granted, and explains the basics of RPGs as well as more advanced play concepts. More experienced gamers might find some of this discussion to be remedial, but there are a few points made by the author that are enlightening even to advanced RPG players and GMs.
There are plenty of elements that makes A&A a little different from other OSR fantasy RPGs out there, and certainly much different than the root game, old D&D. In the introduction, the main mechanics of the game are both familiar to D&D gamers, but streamlined for easy play. For instance, a skill system has been introduced which gives all characters dungeoneering “everyman” skills such as Climb, Force (a door/gate), Locks, Notice, Sneak, and Traps. These are handled like saving throws – Dungeon Throws as they are called – and they very in effectiveness based upon race and class choice. There are six saving throws as well - blast, death, paralysis, poison, reflex, and spells – which are used to avoid or ameliorate damage or deadly effects. Attribute tests are also used in the game, with DCs of 10 to 20 – anything less than DC 10 is considered too easy to be worth a roll.
In OSR RPG fashion, character creation uses the ubiquitous D&D-retro-clone six attribute scores ranging from 3-18, and the attribute modifiers from those scores do have a direct effect on play and mechanics in the game. But the base four races (human, elf, dward, Halfling) and base four classes (fighter, cleric, thief, magic-user) known to D&D many fantasy RPG players have gone by the wayside for a more expansive, and somewhat darker, selection of options.
As it happens, there are 10 races available for play in A&A, and 10 classes as well. Races include civilized ones – human, dwarf, elf, Halfling, and gnome – as well as barbaric ones – dark elf, goblin, hobgoblin, lizardfolk, and orc. Each race has its own special abilities; it is race that determines the hit dice of the character, rather than the class.
Classes each have their own special abilities – called expertise – and their own unique scores for the dungeon throws. The classes are divided into mundane and magical, and have their own unique roles in the game. Mundane class types include the brigand, knave, knight, ranger and the savage; magical classes are the conjurer, cultist, priest, shaman, and the sorcerer. But one of the most interesting class features, for all classes, is the inclusion of followers starting at level 1. These followers can be taken on adventures, or ordered to do other sorts of tasks which influence the world. The author gives an example of a Priest building a shrine in a village, and leaving his Curate behind to minister to the flock.
The Money & Equipment section of the book covers the most of the commonly used medieval fantasy armor and weapons, as well as dungeon delving gear. The author also introduces a very solid encumbrance system, and links it to movement quite well, and adjusted by Dexterity as well. Some of the armor and weapons have interesting modifiers, such as a bonus to Charisma for wearing full plate, or that a quarter staff grants a bonus to AC because it is defensive.
The games combat system is a streamlined D&D style with a few modern embellishments. It shows every potential of being fast during play, and easy to learn for players. The author includes a discussion on encounter building, and couples that to the concept that (player) characters are encouraged to have ambitions. Rather than have long term overarcing campaign, there is a strong emphasis on characters making an impact in the world. Character advancement is similar to OSR games, but it does allow players to decide how their character changes with each level – choices here include training up dungeon throws, saving throws, adding permanent hit points, and attributes.
The magic spells in the game cover a wide range, and include re-skinned versions of well-known fantasy spells. But there are also a few interesting new additions, providing a good mix to choose from. There are both spontaneous and memorized casting, depending upon the type of class.
Overall, the spell system is a mix of both old school fantasy and more modern casting concepts.
The final section of the supplement is called The Judge, and offers some great tips and suggestions on running the game, creating a setting, magic items, and monsters. The author offers a lot of different ideas on using tropes, creating different types of dungeons, and how to make a sand-boxy game. However, it was a little odd that Ambition & Avarice did not contain any monsters or magic items, but only a few guidelines for designing them.
There seems to be a bit of a disjoint here. The author’s writing seems style seems to be offering a lot of advice to inexperienced players and gamemasters, but offers no examples of magic items, monsters, or a campaign setting – just guidelines and advice. For advanced gamers, much of the commentary and discussion in A&A would be considered old hat, and old school versions of creatures and artifacts could be adapted. But overall, it seems somewhat unclear to which audience – beginner or advanced – that the product is geared to address.
Overall Score: 3.3 out of 5.0
Conclusions
There are a lot of things that I really like about Ambition & Avarice, but the product feels a bit incomplete somehow. While the new innovations with classes, increased racial choices, and other concepts are exciting stuff for an OSR RPG, the gamemaster materials are lacking in content, even if they are abundant in ideas and advice. Beginning gamemasters, without a reference to older fantasy RPG products, would likely be lost trying to create magic items and monsters for their game without some examples to guide them.
Still, there is quite a bit of good useful stuff here to launch an OSR campaign, and there are likely to be quite a few gamers who would enjoy A&A’s edgier classes to portray their alter-egos. There’s some interesting ideas here, and fans of old school games might want to take a look into this one.
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which this review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
Or sometimes it’s just more exciting to have a hero with a little bit of bad mixed into the good.
Such themes seem to prevail in the characters created from Chubby Funster Games’ OSR Fantasy RPG, Ambition & Avarice. This fantasy RPG offers classes and races from the whole spectrum between the light and the darkness, all bound within a D&D retro-clone by game designer Greg Christopher.What sort of heroes might emerge in a game where ambitions come first, and a desire for worldly power straggles not far behind?
Ambition & Avarice
- Designer: Greg Christopher
- Illustrations: Craig Brasco, Kiss Márton Gyula, William McAusland, Mark Gedak & Purple Duck Games, James Thomson
- Publisher: Chubby Funster Games
- Year: 2013
- Media: PDF (98 pages)
- Price: $12.42 (Available from RPGNow)
Ambition & Avarice is an OSR fantasy role-playing game by Chubby Funster Games, based loosely upon the original D&D game. This retro-clone features rules for character creation and design, including races, classes, equipment, spells and more. A&A also includes combat rules to resolve encounters, creating monsters, and suggestions on running a role-playing game. The product includes a character sheet for players, and a campaign tracking sheet for gamemasters.
Production Quality
The production quality of Ambition & Avarice is quite good, with excellent writing by the author, and a layout which is user-friendly and nicely designed. The writing style is informative and easy-going, and conveys game concepts succinctly. The layout of the book presents the contents in a logical fashion, from beginning to end.
A&A is well organized, and has both a table of contents and PDF bookmarks. The bookmarks are reasonable for navigation, but could have been a bit more detailed to provide more precise page locations of sub-headings.
The art in Ambition & Avarice is really also very good, although I found myself more appreciative of the black-and-white interior drawings as opposed to the full color cover. The interior drawings are very evocative of early gaming manuals, which suits very well for a new OSR RPG with a D&D retro-clone style.
An RPG by any other name…
Ambition & Avarice is a retro-clone of “old school” D&D, but with some innovative twists on character classes and game mechanics. The book presents the core rules for this OSR RPG in six different sections, covering mostly the character creation process, but also touching on game mechanics, combat, and running the game (GM stuff).
Throughout the entirety of Ambition & Avarice, the author discusses his philosophy and knowledge of playing RPGs, and running them for other gamers. Despite it being a D&D retro-clone, the writing in A&A does not take any concept for granted, and explains the basics of RPGs as well as more advanced play concepts. More experienced gamers might find some of this discussion to be remedial, but there are a few points made by the author that are enlightening even to advanced RPG players and GMs.
There are plenty of elements that makes A&A a little different from other OSR fantasy RPGs out there, and certainly much different than the root game, old D&D. In the introduction, the main mechanics of the game are both familiar to D&D gamers, but streamlined for easy play. For instance, a skill system has been introduced which gives all characters dungeoneering “everyman” skills such as Climb, Force (a door/gate), Locks, Notice, Sneak, and Traps. These are handled like saving throws – Dungeon Throws as they are called – and they very in effectiveness based upon race and class choice. There are six saving throws as well - blast, death, paralysis, poison, reflex, and spells – which are used to avoid or ameliorate damage or deadly effects. Attribute tests are also used in the game, with DCs of 10 to 20 – anything less than DC 10 is considered too easy to be worth a roll.
In OSR RPG fashion, character creation uses the ubiquitous D&D-retro-clone six attribute scores ranging from 3-18, and the attribute modifiers from those scores do have a direct effect on play and mechanics in the game. But the base four races (human, elf, dward, Halfling) and base four classes (fighter, cleric, thief, magic-user) known to D&D many fantasy RPG players have gone by the wayside for a more expansive, and somewhat darker, selection of options.
As it happens, there are 10 races available for play in A&A, and 10 classes as well. Races include civilized ones – human, dwarf, elf, Halfling, and gnome – as well as barbaric ones – dark elf, goblin, hobgoblin, lizardfolk, and orc. Each race has its own special abilities; it is race that determines the hit dice of the character, rather than the class.
Classes each have their own special abilities – called expertise – and their own unique scores for the dungeon throws. The classes are divided into mundane and magical, and have their own unique roles in the game. Mundane class types include the brigand, knave, knight, ranger and the savage; magical classes are the conjurer, cultist, priest, shaman, and the sorcerer. But one of the most interesting class features, for all classes, is the inclusion of followers starting at level 1. These followers can be taken on adventures, or ordered to do other sorts of tasks which influence the world. The author gives an example of a Priest building a shrine in a village, and leaving his Curate behind to minister to the flock.
The Money & Equipment section of the book covers the most of the commonly used medieval fantasy armor and weapons, as well as dungeon delving gear. The author also introduces a very solid encumbrance system, and links it to movement quite well, and adjusted by Dexterity as well. Some of the armor and weapons have interesting modifiers, such as a bonus to Charisma for wearing full plate, or that a quarter staff grants a bonus to AC because it is defensive.
The games combat system is a streamlined D&D style with a few modern embellishments. It shows every potential of being fast during play, and easy to learn for players. The author includes a discussion on encounter building, and couples that to the concept that (player) characters are encouraged to have ambitions. Rather than have long term overarcing campaign, there is a strong emphasis on characters making an impact in the world. Character advancement is similar to OSR games, but it does allow players to decide how their character changes with each level – choices here include training up dungeon throws, saving throws, adding permanent hit points, and attributes.
The magic spells in the game cover a wide range, and include re-skinned versions of well-known fantasy spells. But there are also a few interesting new additions, providing a good mix to choose from. There are both spontaneous and memorized casting, depending upon the type of class.
Overall, the spell system is a mix of both old school fantasy and more modern casting concepts.
The final section of the supplement is called The Judge, and offers some great tips and suggestions on running the game, creating a setting, magic items, and monsters. The author offers a lot of different ideas on using tropes, creating different types of dungeons, and how to make a sand-boxy game. However, it was a little odd that Ambition & Avarice did not contain any monsters or magic items, but only a few guidelines for designing them.
There seems to be a bit of a disjoint here. The author’s writing seems style seems to be offering a lot of advice to inexperienced players and gamemasters, but offers no examples of magic items, monsters, or a campaign setting – just guidelines and advice. For advanced gamers, much of the commentary and discussion in A&A would be considered old hat, and old school versions of creatures and artifacts could be adapted. But overall, it seems somewhat unclear to which audience – beginner or advanced – that the product is geared to address.
Overall Score: 3.3 out of 5.0
Conclusions
There are a lot of things that I really like about Ambition & Avarice, but the product feels a bit incomplete somehow. While the new innovations with classes, increased racial choices, and other concepts are exciting stuff for an OSR RPG, the gamemaster materials are lacking in content, even if they are abundant in ideas and advice. Beginning gamemasters, without a reference to older fantasy RPG products, would likely be lost trying to create magic items and monsters for their game without some examples to guide them.
Still, there is quite a bit of good useful stuff here to launch an OSR campaign, and there are likely to be quite a few gamers who would enjoy A&A’s edgier classes to portray their alter-egos. There’s some interesting ideas here, and fans of old school games might want to take a look into this one.
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which this review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
- Presentation: 3.5
- - Design: 3.5 (Very good writing; solid layout)
- - Illustrations: 3.5 (Cool old school sketches; more interior art would have been better)
- Content: 3.5
- - Crunch: 4.0 (Lots of very cool ideas and concepts for OSR; streamlined and logical rules)
- - Fluff: 3.0 (Pretty cool fluff; lack of monsters and magic items felt incomplete)
- Value: 3.0 (Decent price for an entire OSR game - even if GM material was sparse)
