Marc_C
Solitary Role Playing
I've been eyeing this game for a while. I did not participate in the kickstarter.
I received my starter box set last week. The box set comes with a set of dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20). Two books. A double-sided poster map of the regional area on one side and the town of Thrisle Hold on the other side. A second map has illustrations for the adventure. It also has 5 pre-generated character sheets.
The box is sturdy and should last a long time. The dice are two tone jade coloured with silver numbers. Easy to read. All the illustrations are beautiful water colours, drawn by a single artist, Martin Grip. The style is dark and foreboding. Perfect for the setting.
The first 64 page book 'Starter Rules' is for the players and the DM. It explains the dark fantasy setting info the characters know. It supplies all the rules needed to play the 5 pre-generated characters: combat, equipment, races, traits, abilities, caster powers and background for each character.
Symbaroum is a traditional rpg. There are no resources management and no modern narrativists elements. It's an easy read. Two columns with slim side bars on the side when needed.
It's a d20 roll equal or under system. Attributes used for rolls are accurate, cunning, discreet, persuasive, quick, resolute, strong and vigilant. Rolls in the system are opposed rolls. For example an attack is Accurate VS Quick of the target. If you have 15 accuracy - 2 for 12 quick the TN is 15-2 = 13 or less. If the creature as a weak Quick attribute it gives a bonus. If you have 15 accuracy VS 9 quick +1 the TN is 15+1 = 16 or less.
In this system the GM never rolls any dice. I really like that. When a monster attacks it's the targeted player that rolls a defence roll. If he misses his PC takes a fixed number of damage. Damage is reduces by an armour die roll. The higher the protection the better the die (d4, d6, d8 ,etc). Characters roll damage (they are not fixed).
There are four generic classes: The Mystic, the Warrior, the Hunter and the Rogue. The character is then customized by buying Abilities. which gives you knights, witch-hunters, wizards, theurgs (cleric) and other character concepts. The full rules to character creation are not given in this product. Only what you need to play the pre-gens. You will need to buy the Core Book.
Adventures takes place in the ancient and dangerous Davokar forest populated by human barbarians, goblins, ogres and many horrific threats. It was once the seat of a great empire. Groups of characters cannot simply walk in the forest to explore it. They must first buy an explorer's license from the authorities. The Queen's Rangers can catch Adventurers without permits and consequences can be dire. Fingers or hands can be chopped off!
Magic: There are no spell slots. Instead casting a spell gives 1d4 temporary corruption to the character. Temporary corruption is lost at the end of the scene. The caster must be careful because he can also gain permanent corruption. Too much corruption leads to loosing the character to the evil blight which transform the caster into a dangerous creature. It sounds dire but in practice with the appropriate caster abilities it is possible to keep corruption in check and not loose your character unless you are reckless, which can be good role-play given some circumstances.
Corruption: The Davokar forest is a dangerous place. The end of the Symbarian civilization was caused by a terrible blight that transformed its citizens into nightmarish creatures. Corruption over the region stayed for a long time but diminished over the centuries. Now, only certain parts of the forest are corrupted. If the PCs enter these areas, to find treasures, they gain temporary corruption. It's a management game. Temporary corruption can be remove by leaving the corrupted area. The rules lets the group decide how long it takes. You could say the corruption goes away just be leaving the area or you could decide it takes 1 hour by point of corruption. Depends on how gritty you want to game to be. Personally I think I would say it takes half a day to remove any amount of temporary corruption to avoid needless math.
Weapons have interesting Qualities. The heavy flail has Jointed. Even if the attacked is blocked there is a chance (odd number of the d20 to defend) that the flail deals 1d6 secondary damage, not affected by any abilities.
Characters earn 1 experience point per challenging scene they participate in. Point are spent to buy new abilities or to raise abilities by one level. Each ability has 3 levels Novice, Adept and Master. To gain a new ability it costs 10 XPs. To raise an ability to level 2 (adept) it costs 20 XPs, to level 3 (master) it costs 30 XPs.
There is no mention of raising Attributes, which is a good thing in my book.
I really like what I have read so far. Onto the second book 'Setting & Adventures' for the GM's eyes only.
More later.
I received my starter box set last week. The box set comes with a set of dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20). Two books. A double-sided poster map of the regional area on one side and the town of Thrisle Hold on the other side. A second map has illustrations for the adventure. It also has 5 pre-generated character sheets.
The box is sturdy and should last a long time. The dice are two tone jade coloured with silver numbers. Easy to read. All the illustrations are beautiful water colours, drawn by a single artist, Martin Grip. The style is dark and foreboding. Perfect for the setting.
The first 64 page book 'Starter Rules' is for the players and the DM. It explains the dark fantasy setting info the characters know. It supplies all the rules needed to play the 5 pre-generated characters: combat, equipment, races, traits, abilities, caster powers and background for each character.
Symbaroum is a traditional rpg. There are no resources management and no modern narrativists elements. It's an easy read. Two columns with slim side bars on the side when needed.
It's a d20 roll equal or under system. Attributes used for rolls are accurate, cunning, discreet, persuasive, quick, resolute, strong and vigilant. Rolls in the system are opposed rolls. For example an attack is Accurate VS Quick of the target. If you have 15 accuracy - 2 for 12 quick the TN is 15-2 = 13 or less. If the creature as a weak Quick attribute it gives a bonus. If you have 15 accuracy VS 9 quick +1 the TN is 15+1 = 16 or less.
In this system the GM never rolls any dice. I really like that. When a monster attacks it's the targeted player that rolls a defence roll. If he misses his PC takes a fixed number of damage. Damage is reduces by an armour die roll. The higher the protection the better the die (d4, d6, d8 ,etc). Characters roll damage (they are not fixed).
There are four generic classes: The Mystic, the Warrior, the Hunter and the Rogue. The character is then customized by buying Abilities. which gives you knights, witch-hunters, wizards, theurgs (cleric) and other character concepts. The full rules to character creation are not given in this product. Only what you need to play the pre-gens. You will need to buy the Core Book.
Adventures takes place in the ancient and dangerous Davokar forest populated by human barbarians, goblins, ogres and many horrific threats. It was once the seat of a great empire. Groups of characters cannot simply walk in the forest to explore it. They must first buy an explorer's license from the authorities. The Queen's Rangers can catch Adventurers without permits and consequences can be dire. Fingers or hands can be chopped off!
Magic: There are no spell slots. Instead casting a spell gives 1d4 temporary corruption to the character. Temporary corruption is lost at the end of the scene. The caster must be careful because he can also gain permanent corruption. Too much corruption leads to loosing the character to the evil blight which transform the caster into a dangerous creature. It sounds dire but in practice with the appropriate caster abilities it is possible to keep corruption in check and not loose your character unless you are reckless, which can be good role-play given some circumstances.
Corruption: The Davokar forest is a dangerous place. The end of the Symbarian civilization was caused by a terrible blight that transformed its citizens into nightmarish creatures. Corruption over the region stayed for a long time but diminished over the centuries. Now, only certain parts of the forest are corrupted. If the PCs enter these areas, to find treasures, they gain temporary corruption. It's a management game. Temporary corruption can be remove by leaving the corrupted area. The rules lets the group decide how long it takes. You could say the corruption goes away just be leaving the area or you could decide it takes 1 hour by point of corruption. Depends on how gritty you want to game to be. Personally I think I would say it takes half a day to remove any amount of temporary corruption to avoid needless math.
Weapons have interesting Qualities. The heavy flail has Jointed. Even if the attacked is blocked there is a chance (odd number of the d20 to defend) that the flail deals 1d6 secondary damage, not affected by any abilities.
Characters earn 1 experience point per challenging scene they participate in. Point are spent to buy new abilities or to raise abilities by one level. Each ability has 3 levels Novice, Adept and Master. To gain a new ability it costs 10 XPs. To raise an ability to level 2 (adept) it costs 20 XPs, to level 3 (master) it costs 30 XPs.
There is no mention of raising Attributes, which is a good thing in my book.
I really like what I have read so far. Onto the second book 'Setting & Adventures' for the GM's eyes only.
More later.
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