When the Bard wrote the line, “the play’s the thing”, he obviously wasn’t talking about role-playing games. And yet, for many RPG fans, that centuries-old line has a certain resonance to it – for some gamers, it is in how they play the game, and how portray their characters, which is much more important than any sense of “winning” within their game.
But for other gamers, the meta-game can be equally important to their RPG experience. For synergizing their character’s abilities and powers is just as an enjoyable part of the RPG, as is the portraying of an alternate persona.
Of course, there are some who would argue the merits of one style of gaming over the other, but that’s a debate for another time and place…
Tabletop gamers venturing into MMORPGs have certainly been presented with a huge variety of meta-gaming opportunities, many of which are designed to give players a more fulfilling experience. Several online RPGs have even introduced a reward system for participating in interesting (and sometimes odd) experiences in the game world – Achievements.
Indie Publisher Alter Tu has recently released a supplement clearly inspired by the Achievement systems seen in online games. And in their Overachievers’ Handbook, Alter Tu offers a system-neutral book to introduce Achievements into almost any tabletop RPG system.
Overachievers’ Handbook
The Overachievers’ Handbook is a system-neutral meta-gaming supplement to create and track an MMORPG-style Achievement system in any tabletop role-playing game. The supplement includes a explanations of over 100 achievements which can be accomplished by a single character, a group of characters, or both. There are also sheets for tracking achievements, as well as a separate track sheet for monster kills by type.
Production Quality
The production quality of the Overachievers’ Handbook is fair to average, with a fair layout and decent writing inside the supplement. The author created a goodly number of achievements in the supplement, but most of them amounted to little more than short sentence blurbs. The layout feels quite like a “wall of text”, and is a two-column alphabetical list of achievements without any other sorting or headings.
The PDF bookmarks are assigned to the opening page, introduction, and the two achievement tally sheets, and are not particularly in locating anything of note in the supplement. The achievement character sheets are simple but well-organized checklists, and quite user-friendly for any player or GM.
The artwork in the Overachievers’ Handbook is essentially non-existent, except for the Alter Tru “starburst” symbol around each page number. With no art, the cover page resembles something that would grace the opening of a college term paper, and the lack of interior art increases the unrelieved “wall of text” effect even more.
Creating a False Sense of…
In many respects, it seems that the Overachievers’ Handbook was a bit of a misnomer, as it suggests that there are things to do in this book that only the most driven player-characters will ever hope to do. In reality, the book contains a list of things that, over the course of many different characters and a decent number of hours playing RPGs, almost any role-playing gamer will manage to accomplish.
The designer puts forth the idea that these “…achievements are designed to reward the player, as opposed to the character. The bonuses carry over from campaign to campaign, provided the same GM runs the campaigns and agrees to it the checklist rewards the player.” However, only about a dozen of the more than 100 achievements actually have a reward “effect” attached to them, and none of them reward the player – they are all in-game bonuses which affect the next character you play under the GM which is using this achievement system.
Gamers who have played MMORPGs like WoW, Guild Wars, and other similar games will recognize many of the achievement types listed in the Overachievers’ Handbook. For instance, killing 10/25/50 of a particular monster earns one the Monster Killer/Slayer/Bane achievements. To earn Good with Money, one needs to amass 1,000,000 coins, or the gain Near Death Experience achievement requires that you end a fight with only 1 hit point. But as most achievements carry no tangible benefit, it begs the question as to why a player would want to do them.
There are also meta-game or player achievements, which are performed by the player rather than role-played out through the character. For example, the New Blood achievement gets checked off if you introduce someone to tabletop role-playing, and the Mini Me achievement is gained by painting a mini for one’s character. And to earn the RPG Master achievement, just pull off a full day of gaming for 24 hours – a feat accomplished by so many gamers in high school and college that it begs the question as to whether or not it’s an achievement, or just something most gamers do at one point or another!
As previously suggested, many of these meta-game achievements are things nearly any average gamer would do at one point or another, so are they really such amazing achievements that a gamer needs a put them on a checklist?
And one of the most troubling aspects of the Overachievers’ Handbook was how the designer included achievements on the list which amount to what some might consider to be rude, crude, or selfish behavior on the part of a player-character. For instance, the Pyromaniac and Master Pyromaniac achievements can be had by merely burning down a town inhabited by a population of 5000 and 35000 or more. Gaining Goodbye Old Friend is easy to gain – just sacrifice a companion for the greater good, which tends to make one wonder whether the player-character you just got rid of feels the same way about “the greater good”. Several of the achievements seemed bent on “rewarding” what many would deem to be annoying acts in an RPG, although again, there are no real rewards to be had other than checking a box on a list.
Overall Score: 1.3 out of 5.0
Conclusions
Regretfully, there is nothing worth recommending about the Overachievers’ Handbook, except to recommend not to buy it. The idea of introducing achievements in an MMORPG has its place, being to provide in-game opportunities to players who accomplish a difficult set of tasks – character titles, items, and other such tangible bits – or to show a measure of a player’s accomplishments in the online game.
But achievements provide very little enhancement to the tabletop gaming experience, nothing to the player, and only about 12 of them in the Overachievers’ Handbook provide any tangible benefit to the character. It would appear that adding such a system to a tabletop RPG to be simply added bookkeeping with no real benefit to a gaming group or GM. Perhaps if the achievements had been tied to a Reputation system, then the Overachievers’ Handbook might have been worth taking a look at – but as it stands, it’s a failed achievement in and of itself, and in this reviewer’s opinion, not worth buying... even if it were free.
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary playtest copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
But for other gamers, the meta-game can be equally important to their RPG experience. For synergizing their character’s abilities and powers is just as an enjoyable part of the RPG, as is the portraying of an alternate persona.
Of course, there are some who would argue the merits of one style of gaming over the other, but that’s a debate for another time and place…
Tabletop gamers venturing into MMORPGs have certainly been presented with a huge variety of meta-gaming opportunities, many of which are designed to give players a more fulfilling experience. Several online RPGs have even introduced a reward system for participating in interesting (and sometimes odd) experiences in the game world – Achievements.
Indie Publisher Alter Tu has recently released a supplement clearly inspired by the Achievement systems seen in online games. And in their Overachievers’ Handbook, Alter Tu offers a system-neutral book to introduce Achievements into almost any tabletop RPG system.Overachievers’ Handbook
- Designers: T.K. Blackthorne
- Editor: Frankto Vinneti
- Publisher: Alter Tu
- Year: 2013
- Media: PDF (11 pages)
- Price: $2.49 (Available from RPGNow)
The Overachievers’ Handbook is a system-neutral meta-gaming supplement to create and track an MMORPG-style Achievement system in any tabletop role-playing game. The supplement includes a explanations of over 100 achievements which can be accomplished by a single character, a group of characters, or both. There are also sheets for tracking achievements, as well as a separate track sheet for monster kills by type.
Production Quality
The production quality of the Overachievers’ Handbook is fair to average, with a fair layout and decent writing inside the supplement. The author created a goodly number of achievements in the supplement, but most of them amounted to little more than short sentence blurbs. The layout feels quite like a “wall of text”, and is a two-column alphabetical list of achievements without any other sorting or headings.
The PDF bookmarks are assigned to the opening page, introduction, and the two achievement tally sheets, and are not particularly in locating anything of note in the supplement. The achievement character sheets are simple but well-organized checklists, and quite user-friendly for any player or GM.
The artwork in the Overachievers’ Handbook is essentially non-existent, except for the Alter Tru “starburst” symbol around each page number. With no art, the cover page resembles something that would grace the opening of a college term paper, and the lack of interior art increases the unrelieved “wall of text” effect even more.
Creating a False Sense of…
In many respects, it seems that the Overachievers’ Handbook was a bit of a misnomer, as it suggests that there are things to do in this book that only the most driven player-characters will ever hope to do. In reality, the book contains a list of things that, over the course of many different characters and a decent number of hours playing RPGs, almost any role-playing gamer will manage to accomplish.
The designer puts forth the idea that these “…achievements are designed to reward the player, as opposed to the character. The bonuses carry over from campaign to campaign, provided the same GM runs the campaigns and agrees to it the checklist rewards the player.” However, only about a dozen of the more than 100 achievements actually have a reward “effect” attached to them, and none of them reward the player – they are all in-game bonuses which affect the next character you play under the GM which is using this achievement system.
Gamers who have played MMORPGs like WoW, Guild Wars, and other similar games will recognize many of the achievement types listed in the Overachievers’ Handbook. For instance, killing 10/25/50 of a particular monster earns one the Monster Killer/Slayer/Bane achievements. To earn Good with Money, one needs to amass 1,000,000 coins, or the gain Near Death Experience achievement requires that you end a fight with only 1 hit point. But as most achievements carry no tangible benefit, it begs the question as to why a player would want to do them.
There are also meta-game or player achievements, which are performed by the player rather than role-played out through the character. For example, the New Blood achievement gets checked off if you introduce someone to tabletop role-playing, and the Mini Me achievement is gained by painting a mini for one’s character. And to earn the RPG Master achievement, just pull off a full day of gaming for 24 hours – a feat accomplished by so many gamers in high school and college that it begs the question as to whether or not it’s an achievement, or just something most gamers do at one point or another!
As previously suggested, many of these meta-game achievements are things nearly any average gamer would do at one point or another, so are they really such amazing achievements that a gamer needs a put them on a checklist?
And one of the most troubling aspects of the Overachievers’ Handbook was how the designer included achievements on the list which amount to what some might consider to be rude, crude, or selfish behavior on the part of a player-character. For instance, the Pyromaniac and Master Pyromaniac achievements can be had by merely burning down a town inhabited by a population of 5000 and 35000 or more. Gaining Goodbye Old Friend is easy to gain – just sacrifice a companion for the greater good, which tends to make one wonder whether the player-character you just got rid of feels the same way about “the greater good”. Several of the achievements seemed bent on “rewarding” what many would deem to be annoying acts in an RPG, although again, there are no real rewards to be had other than checking a box on a list.
Overall Score: 1.3 out of 5.0
Conclusions
Regretfully, there is nothing worth recommending about the Overachievers’ Handbook, except to recommend not to buy it. The idea of introducing achievements in an MMORPG has its place, being to provide in-game opportunities to players who accomplish a difficult set of tasks – character titles, items, and other such tangible bits – or to show a measure of a player’s accomplishments in the online game.
But achievements provide very little enhancement to the tabletop gaming experience, nothing to the player, and only about 12 of them in the Overachievers’ Handbook provide any tangible benefit to the character. It would appear that adding such a system to a tabletop RPG to be simply added bookkeeping with no real benefit to a gaming group or GM. Perhaps if the achievements had been tied to a Reputation system, then the Overachievers’ Handbook might have been worth taking a look at – but as it stands, it’s a failed achievement in and of itself, and in this reviewer’s opinion, not worth buying... even if it were free.
Editorial Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary playtest copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
- Presentation: 1.5
- - Design: 2.0 (Lackluster layout; average writing; “wall of text”)
- - Illustrations: 1.0 (No art or illustrations; page graphics dull and uninspired)
- Content: 1.5
- - Crunch: 2.0 (Rules make no sense; most achievements have no purpose to fulfill)
- - Fluff: 1.0 (No fluff; some achievements would inspire rude or evil behavior to succeed)
- Value: 1.0 (A bad bargain on a poor supplement at any price.)
