Product– Sunfall Testplay

System– Archmage Press

Producer– Paizo  

Price– FREE -here  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/archmagepress/sunfall

TL; DR– A solid introduction 100%

Basics- THE AGE HAS ENDED!  Sunfall is a solo RPG, much like a choose-your-own-adventure.  It’s set in an Aztec setting, and you awake with no memory of what has happened, but you must attempt to save humanity.  Let’s look at the basics.

Basic mechanics and stats: This is a 2d6 system.  You have three stats: might, agility, and will.  These give you a +2 to +6 on the 2d6.  Then you compare.  You succeed, go to one page.  Fail?  Go to another.  Simple and sweet.

Player resources: Players have three major resources: health(hit points), stamina, and spirit.  Health is hitpoints.  It works exactly like in any other RPG.  Stamina and spirit are used when you do actions.  Stamina for physical and spirit for mental/magic.  You have none, and you either can’t act and have to take a breather round in combat, or other bad things happen.

Combat: Combat is also simple.  Each round, the creature you are fighting does something.  It can follow a round-by-round script or roll a die at random to select an action from a list.  You can then choose to parry(harder) or evade(easier), but if you evade, you don’t get to attack back!  When you attack, you choose an action and spend stamina or spirit.  You then roll 2d6, add the might or will attribute, and then see if you hit.  If you hit, you roll the dice for the weapon or spell, and then damage happens.  If you are hit, you subtract your armor from the damage.

Talents- As you play, you will possibly earn talents.  Think of these like feats.  You gain abilities that let you be extra cool.

Ok, now the breakdown

Mechanics or Crunch: This is a choose-your-own-adventure book with dice.  That’s the good and bad.  If you have that, then this can’t be for you.  The bad is that the combat is pretty simple.  It’s you rolling to defend, and you roll to attack. It’s simple.  You can’t do the crazy stuff you can do in Pathfinder, as the GM doesn’t exist here.  But you do get to play Pathfinder without a GM.  The mechanics are simple but fun.  I liked the choose-your-own-adventure books when I was a kid, and I didn’t know they had those with dice until I was in my 30s (I grew up in a small town!).  So, the simple mechanics only make me like this more. 5/5

Theme or Fluff– Do you like Aztecs and their mythology?  I do.  I crave new settings.  Old school DnD is fun.  Fantasy Europe for the 100th time is not bad, but if you promise me four whole books of settings where you have crazy stuff I’ve NEVER seen before, you have my complete attention.  I will admit my ignorance about how awesome the Aztec world was.  I’m looking forward to this book to not only entertain me with the story, but draw me into a whole history and mythology I know nothing about!  5/5

Execution: Ok, this is a choose-your-own-adventure book, so I am looking for exactly ONE thing: hyperlinking!  And it had it!  The book can’t have art on every page, but you won’t read this book page by page.  It’s got enough to tell a story when it needs to.  But I’m just glad I can choose an option, click, and BAM!  I’m there!  Solid work.  5/5

Summary– The simple summary is to go check out the Kickstarter.  It’s free.  Honestly, after that, the next question is “do you like choose-your-own-adventure books?”   If not, then maybe stay away.  Both the author and I completely understand that this book can’t be for everyone.  I love sushi, and not everyone likes that.  But if you have even a hint of love for the days when those books dominated middle school, as they did mine, or if you love or want to learn about Aztec mythology, then you need to check this out.  And the final cost for all four books, digital, will be $68.  That’s honestly not bad for four books.  You can get them all fancy and leather-bound, but I’m a digital kid.  So, I will go digital and use as many hyperlinks as I can!   100%