Category: Ring Side Report

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Mork Borg

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Product– Mork Borg

System- Mork Borg

Producer– Free League Publishing

Price– $19.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/295910/Mork-Borg-English?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR– Death Metal DCC RPG mixed with Cypher system set in Dark Souls.  90% 

Basics– Hear the call of the double two-headed basilisk!  Mork Borg is an old school RPG with themes that feel like you’re playing in an 80s death metal album covers.  Let’s break this game down.

Basics- This is a d20 rpg.  Your character has four stats and you roll 3d6 for each and use a chart to determine your bonuses for each stat.  From then on you will use the bonus for each statistic and roll a d20 with it for any test.  The default test success result is a 12.

Combat and Rounds- Each round of combat is about six seconds.  This is a VERY old school game as someone rolls a d6.  Roll high, the players go first as a group, and low the enemies go first as a group.  Each round, each character gets on action and a move.  That’s it.  What’s interesting is the GM really doesn’t roll dice.  You attack with a bow?  Roll presence+d20 with a DC of 12.  You are attacked?  Roll agility+d20 DC 12 to not get hit  That’s it.  It is NOT a deep crunchy system.  If you hit or are hit, you roll damage dice and take that much damage.

Classes- There are a few presented classes.  These classes give you hit points and different abilities.  These are pretty random like most of the system.

Powers- Characters can gain powers.  These are either holy or sacred spells. You can use them a number of times per day equal to d4+presence.  These allow you to do attacks, talk with animals, or any of a handful of different abilities.

Morale- Monsters run.  If they are hurt enough or the leader dies, the may bolt.  When they are dealt enough damage or enough of their friends die, someone rolls 2d6.  If the result is over their morale, they monsters either run or surrender.

Monsters- Monsters are simple with a number of hit points, a morale score, abilities, and damage for attacks.  Each has a beautifully horrible picture.

Alright, thats the basics, let’s dig in.

Mechanics or Crunch–  This is a VERY rules-light RPG.  You already know almost everything you need to play.  It’s not deep, but it works.  Some things are not described well though.  That’s kind of intentional as this is much more a fun, gritty RPG and not a deep musing on the human condition.  It’s much more a SOLID OSR game where you know how to play since you’ve got dice older than some of the kids at the table.  But, that rules light approach makes it harder to start playing.  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff–  If this game goes deep into one thing, it’s the theme.  This game feels like what Dark Souls wants to be.  It’s gritty, it’s dark, and it has mysteries wrapped in mysteries and isn’t afraid to make it harder to play to make the atmosphere perfect for the game.  It really does feel like playing DnD in a death metal cover.  5/5

Execution– I like this game, but the commitment to theme hurts presentation.  The book is hyperlinked.  So, it’s good.  But the commitment to the zine and hard core metal makes it hard to follow everything.  Also, the reliance on audience assumption of how games work is maybe a bit too much.  I know what I am doing, because I’ve gamed for over 20 years, but newer players will be completely lost. 4/5

Summary– Mork Borg is an artist committing to their vision.  The game itself is exactly what these people wanted.  It’s light on rules and deadly without being a slog to play.  The theme is exactly the dark world they wanted with enough places to play and explore.  That commitment is admirable, but it does take away from the ease of getting into the game if you don’t know what OSR is or how to play old school DnD.  It’s a bit of an ask for new players, but for the old grognards like me I understand what they are aiming for.  I like what’s here but if you’re newer to RPGs, then ask your older Forever DM friend and we’ll blare some Cannibal Corpse and show you a good time! 90%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Distal RPG Preview

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Product– Distal RPG

System- Distal RPG

Producer– Wrel

Price– free here https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/wrel/distal 

TL; DR– DCC and DnD5e had a more realistic baby!  93% 

Basics– For Edervale!  Distal is a new RPG currently being kickstarted.  The writer has provided a MASSIVE preview that includes a lot of character options, several pregens, and even a short adventure.  Let’s break it down for a review. 

Basics- This is a d20 rpg.  You have five statistics and a combination of 20 skills and knowledges.  When you want to do anything, it’s D20 plus the statistic for checks or D20 plus the statistics and the bonus for the knowledge or skill.  That’s it.  Common things are a DC8 most are a DC10, and things can get EXTREMELY hard with some things being a DC22.

Dice steps- Like DCC RPG, this system uses dice steps.  Distal sticks to normal dice with the dice chain being d4-d6-d8-d10-d12.  No funky dice here!

Character creation- This system has a ton of options and a ton of randomness if you want it.  Characters choose a race/lineage and a class.  There is also a background.  Backgrounds provide what you would expect:  additional skills, items, and knowledges based on the life events you experienced.  What makes them interesting is you can also randomly roll on several charts to randomly build a background!  No traveler death during character creation though!

Combat- Combat is round based, but not based on your normal initiative score.  After the GM determines who has the drop on the other side, each side does one action, then the other side does an action, alternating between the two.  Characters get the expected actions in a combat round with a move, an action, and smaller things like techniques that are quick actions.  In addition to the checks above, characters have an attack bonus based on their class, and it’s just D20 plus that bonus to attack.  Damage is dice based like DnD with bonuses based on your statistics.  The interesting change here is damage reduction with armor.  Armor doesn’t really provide a bonus to defense, but reduces damage taken.  Each armor provides a damage reduction die.  If you roll a 1 on that die, then you don’t reduce much damage and the die gets one step smaller.  Go too small and the armor is completely broken!

Willpower-  Characters have willpower dice as part of their character class.  These dice are gained at the start of combat and through other events, or as my favorite:  story candy and buying the GM beer.  When a character wants to add just an extra bit of extra to a D20 roll, a character can spend willpower and roll their willpower die to add the result to their total.

Magic- Magic is very similar to DnD5e.  Characters either prepare spells once a day or know so many depending on their level.  In either case, the caster can cast so many a day depending on their level and then they are out for the day.  Characters might not be able to cast a lot of spells, but spells are extremely powerful with the ability to easily kill a first level character straight out!

Death- Death is PERMANENT!  There is no resurrection.  If your guy dies, hes dead!  You do get deathmarks, however.  When you drop to zero hit points, you begin to die and take a deathmark.  These build up as you continue to die and each time you fall down again.  You can remove some as you relax, but get too many and eventually you will not be able to get back up again, EVER!

Alright, thats the basics, let’s dig in.

Mechanics or Crunch–  This is an interesting RPG.  It is not a copy of either DCC or DnD5e.  It is VERY close to both, but in good ways.  It’s not brutal nor gritty, but it is more realistic as damage hurts bad and death is close.  The mechanics are simple.  Maybe a bit too simple and you don’t get a ton of skills, but that’s by design.  Combat is not too simple, but simple enough to make the game flow easily. Overall, it’s good, but not the most original RPG this year.  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff–  The fluff of this world is interesting.  The preview doesn’t provide everything for good reason, but what is presented is good.  It might not be the most original setting as it feels like many of the classic RPG setting pieces I know and love.  It sticks with the more usual suspects like undead, monsters, and dudes with militaries being the bad guys, but those are fun things to smack back into place to save the world.  Not the most original setting, but still a fun place to play. 4.5/5

Execution– This is a solid preview.  There an OVER 100 PAGE document showing the system and world WITH HYPERLINKS!  There is a full adventure with at least four premade characters.   This is exactly what I want when I see a new RPG kickstarter.  It’s new, but shows what’s to expect.  I love what I’m seeing, AND IT’S ALL FOR FREE!.  5/5

Summary– Used to love DnD5e and I love DCC.  This RPG is a solid mix of those two right down the middle.  Simple mechanics with just a D20 plus numbers, but skills and knowledges for all.  A simple world where there are bad guys and how the world addresses that.  It’s the most new in any category, but it is done well.  I can already see the first source book as the one group is summoning undead and those undead are running around, and I didn’t see a player character undead race.  Given what I’ve seen, this will turn out to be a solid RPG that will get my silly friends to be a bit more serious and my serious friends to play a bit more loose!  93%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Knight: An Avalon RPG Quick Start

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Product– Knight: An Avalon RPG quickstart

System- Knight: An Avalon

Producer– Antre Monte Editions

Price– free here https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/all-about-games-consulting/knight-rpg     

TL; DR– Power Rangers meets Dark Horror with NEON!  97% 

Basics– Let’s cancel the Apocalypse!  Knight: An Avalon RPG is a near modern day retelling of Camelot with men and women donning power armor to kill horrors out of the dark.  Let’s break this down.  

Basics- This is a d6 rpg.  Your character has five aspects with three characteristics under each aspect for a total of 15 skills.  When you want to do anything, you total the correct aspect with the correct characteristic and roll that many dice. Each even result is success and each odd is a failure.  If you hit the correct amount of successes determined by the GM for the thing you are attempting to do, you succeed.  A good aspect is a five and your off aspects are about threes with your characteristics ranging from one to three most of the time.  The normal difficulty is three successes.  No success at all is critical failure, while all success is a great feat/critical success.

Combat-  Combat is round based and mostly theater of the mind.  You have initiative which is 3d6+ an initiative score.  Each round a character gets a move and an action with some reactions.  When you attack a target you are aiming at the defense score for melee and at a reaction score for ranged combat.  Here is the fun meat and potatoes of the game.  You are not just a dude with a gun fighting horrors, you are a guy/gal in power armor.  Your power armor has a force field that subtracts from all damage dealt to you.  After that, you have armor points which act as the armor’s hit points and for every 10 the armor loses, you lose one of yours as you get battered around in the suit.  Once the suit’s taken enough damage, it retracts and you’re just a guy/gal fighting the horrors of the dark!

Suit powers-  Your suit has powers as well and these are fueled with the suits energy points.  This works just like magic points in any RPG as you spend as much as you want until the suit is tapped out and you’re just left with your guns, fists, and harsh language.

Hope- Hope is sanity in this game.  As you experience the horrors in the dark, you have to make checks to see if you lose hope.  If you lose all your hope, you effectively die as you just become an agent of the darkness.

Heroism- Story candy!  Heroism is the story candy of this game where you get it for story reasons or just being the guy/gal to buy pizza that week.  It lets you reroll dice, avoid dying, not lose hope, or any other cool thing that the GM lets you do.

Alright, thats the basics, let’s dig in.

Mechanics or Crunch– This game plays like a strange version of Shadowrun and that’s a good thing.  This is a VERY crunchy game with piles of d6s being thrown at a problem.  I like that.  Some things feel a bit inconsistent, like choosing DCs.  When I want to do something opposed by a bad guy, the DC is half their relevant ability, but you do not do that for their defense stats.  That feels just a tiny bit off.  Not enough that it will keep me away, however. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff–  Want gritty power rangers with rampant evils of capitalism and magic crap all over?  Yep, I do too.  That’s what this game feels like.  Do you remember the 90s TV cartoon where football players went back and were working for Merlin with magic power armor? Mix that with a little Clive Barker and TONS of neon light tracery, and you get this.  Yes, I want that.  5/5

Execution– This is well done and almost perfect for a crowd-funded project.  There is a 30+ page book with art, a basic walkthrough of the game, and a short adventure WITH five premade characters.  My ONE issue is that there is no hyperlinking.  But it’s 30 pages and free.  If I wanted to play it with friends, it took me 30 minutes to read through cover to cover and have enough of an idea how to play and run.  That’s a hell of an introduction.  5/5

Summary–  I grew up in the 90s and am a sucker for any power armor heroes.  I also loved the Matrix and Dark City.  This is that in a blender.  I have some slight reservations about how numbers are calculated, but that’s not enough to keep me away.  This is one to check out as it’s free, and in my opinion well worth your time.  97%

Ring Side Report- RPG review of Daggerheart Playtest

~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 2 Comments

Product– Daggerheart Playtest

System- Daggerheart

Producer– Darrington Press

Price– free here https://app.demiplane.com/nexus/daggerheart/sources/playtest     

TL; DR– RPG fusion! 93% 

Basics– The Critical Roll bunch have an RPG!  Let’s look over this d12 fusion RPG!

Basics- This is a 2d12 rpg.  You roll both, add abilities and statistics, and see if you hit a desired DC.  Pretty simple for the basics.

Hope and fear or 2d12- The basics are not too strange, but when you roll, you roll 2 different colored d12.  One is your hope and one is your fear.  If the hope beats the fear value, then you gain hope.  If the fear beats the hope, then the GM gets to stop the action and jump in or gets to bank a fear for later.

Using hope- Hope is used to either help yourself or an ally when they roll.  You can spend hope to give your friend an additional d12 hope die and choose the better of them.  Also, you have a set of experiences.  These are akin to skills in DnD.  When an experience you have makes sense for a particular action and you want to, you can spend hope to gain the value of an experience as a bonus to the roll.

Combat, turns, and damage- This is a VERY heavy roleplaying game with less focus on crunch.  Combat is not round based.  Players can do any action from using abilities or attacking and place a token on the action tracker.  This continues until a character rolls higher on the fear die.  Then the GM gets to play using each token on the action tracker to do something such as attacking, using abilities, and removing conditions on enemies.  In either case, if an attack is made, the attack goes against an evasion score.  If the attack hits, then the attacker rolls damage.  Damage does not just reduce hit points by an amount, but instead the attack goes against damage thresholds causing between zero and 3 hit points.  If the attack hits but fails to hit the lowest damage threshold, you take stress.  Stress is another stat and represents your body gradually being beaten down, but not enough to hurt you hard.  Stress can also come from the environment or abilities you or enemies have.  In addition, armor allows you to reduce damage, but it also gets beaten down with use.  If you choose, you can reduce damage by your armor value, but you have to check off a use.  No uses left means you can’t use your armor.  No stress left means you can’t use that ability and all rolls against you have advantage.

Using Fear- Fear is the GMs version of hope.  Fear allows enemies to do some actions, for the environment to do some actions, or even for the GM to add additional tokens to the turn tracker.

Alright, thats the basics, let’s dig in.

Mechanics or Crunch– The mechanics here are interesting.  It’s not deep enough to be DnD, but its also not deep enough to be Shadowrun. It’s heavily based on the Cypher system.  That’s not bad, but it’s also really up in the air.  If you want consistency, this won’t be the game for you.  If you can handle the give and take of this game, it’s a solid game.  5/5

Theme or Fluff–  For the story, what’s here is good, but it’s also not done.  It’s got a solid adventure, but you won’t see much world building here, but more is coming as they write more.  I don’t hate anything, but I need more details in the base game, not just the adventure.  4.5/5

Execution– This is an interesting one.  I love online materials, but Nexus does not have an app.  I also don’t like the lack of an index.  If it’s present, I have a hard time finding it, so that’s just as bad.  The basic functions work well, but again there is no app.  So, using a phone for this can be a bit of a pain. The adventure is nice and is fun.  The character PDFs are nice as well and have solid help sections for the players.  4.5/5

Summary– This RPG leaves me optimistic.  The mechanics and theme are interesting.  I want more.  Give me an app and give me some more world building, and I’d be even happier.  That said, if you need hard crunch this won’t be for you.  But it’s free, so check this one out.  At worst, you see the system building before your eyes.  It’s also an interesting mix of several different parts from other RPGs.  You got bits from DnD all the way to the cypher system.  I like those, so I like this as well.  93%