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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 8358953" data-attributes="member: 6799660">The Pros:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The artwork is go-ho-horrr-ggg-gi-ous (and the books overall are well designed and well made).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The setting is evocative (it is grim and perilous without being grimdark. It sells the notion that the world is dangerous and leaving the protective walls of civilization is a risk well before any supernatural monstrosities rear their ugly heads). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The rules are simple, player-facing, and have just enough knobs and levers and dials (both at the character-build level and during play) to keep something like a WotC-era D&D player or similar happy</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There are a number of adventure paths already produced, and more on the way</li> </ul>The Cons:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">There is some tonal mismatch between the rules and the imagery. First and foremost in that the game thematically sells itself as going out into the big foreboding woods and surviving, with adventure paths involving lots of diplomacy and negotiation with the powers that be amongst the two main societies of the area -- but then have almost no wilderness survival or social interaction rules structures, particularly if limiting oneself to the core books. Secondly, the game suggest that the world is big and bad and scary and that the PCs will need to be extra careful and cautious and such, yet the power curve quickly ramps up to Big Damn Heroes levels, where most enemies won't last more than a round against a well-made character (the biggest enemies equally ramp up, such that high-'level' play can be a race to win initiative, which is a challenge of it's own right, but still doesn't really capture the feel the game sells itself as). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The character creation sub-game is incredibly gameable. There are Abilities (the main component of character build mechanics, other than attributes) which can combine for optimal synergies that add X to something and then add it again, or ways to push all your attribute points into a few of them and then make all of your checks (initiative, defense, attack, etc.) key off of whichever attribute you prefer. It's easy to make yourself good at everything you intend to do, and unless your dagger-fighter is forced to pick up a great-club or similar, most of the weaknesses you left open likely won't come up. Since everyone has the same opportunities in this regard, it might not be that big of a deal, but there certainly is a big power-level difference between a naïve gamer coming in fresh and taking what looks interesting and what even a casual optimizer would come up with.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">One of the games mechanics doesn't (IMO) work as intended. A major character quality (and the one limiting magic use) is something called Corruption. You gain permanent corruption by learning spells and temporary corruption by casting them (among other things in both cases). The amount gained is random, but there are certain Abilities which turn each of those into non-random amounts. Get corruption past a certain point and the local inquisition/paladin-analogs will start hunting you, get it past another point and you become an NPC monster. That's one of those threats that's so threatening that it circles round to not being threatening again.If you (for instance) got your Corruption meter up to within 6 points of your 'permanently lose your character and have them become a dangerous opponent for the party to have to deal with' threshold, would you ever cast a spell that would make you add 1d6 to your total (especially if there was an option to take ahead of time which instead made it a flat 1)? So instead of being a major threat and risk-taking endeavor for casters, it instead becomes a plain old magic meter with a total of just shy of your danger threshold. The only people who cast spells are the ones who have all the Corruption mitigators because you don't bother investing in learning spells until you've taken those abilities (or at least that is an optimal playstyle that would quickly become apparent)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The metaplot coming out with each adventure module does things to the game world, and sometimes retroactively influences how various races or groups exist in the world. These could cause divergence between the evolving official gameworld and what happens at an actual table. That of course isn't a problem if you don't treat it as canon, but then if you wanted to use the newer adventures, there would be reconciliation that would have to happen.</li> </ul>In a way, the game reminds me of a combination of 3E D&D and 90s era White Wolf World of Darkness games -- both in terms of its/their strengths and weaknesses. Interesting metaplot which can accidentally trample your plans (player or GM/Storyteller), fun character build minigame which can be unbalanced and make high levels into rocket tag, and sells the game as X but has rules which incentivize Y. Just like 3e D&D and WoD, however, it is imminently playable and fun to play and so on, so long as your aware of the issues and your table can work past them.</blockquote>

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