This game title is too looooong!
Anyway, this is technically going to be the last game of August because I was meaning to do a game tomorrow and then I was out with Kai longer than I thought I would be. One of the very few (only, really) things I miss about social media is being able to brag about my kids.
The Game: Beyond the Garden Wall & Other Adventures
The Publisher: Flatland Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
Ho-hum, another OSR early D&D clone. Yawn. Yeah, you start weak as hell, you might level up, you can play a warrior, mage, or rogue (SUCH A BREATHTAKING VARIETY OF CHARACTER OPTIONS), you roll a d20 to do stuff. Seen it.
However...reading the game, I actually wanted to play it. Sure, it's simple, but it's not simplistic to the point that it feels like the training wheels are on, and more importantly, it neither patronizes the reader nor brings across this haughty better-than-these-posers attitude that a lot of OSR games do (looking at you, Dungeon Crawl Classics).
Would I actually run it? Prooooooobably not...but then again, it's meant to be run right out of the box, to the point that they give you scenarios and character playbooks so you can pick up and go. And the playbooks aren't playbooks in the PbtA sense, they're more like lifepaths, and they're actually pretty cool (I am in fact gonna use one to make a character). So actually, yeah, maybe I'd give this a whirl on one-shot night.
For today, however, I'm gonna make a character, and I'm gonna use the Self-Taught Mage playbook.
So: My basic backstory is that I was the smartest kid in the village, but there was no one to teach me magic, so I had to do it myself. I start with Int 12 and everything else 8, but then I get to roll some dice to see what happened to me!
First: What my parents did. My dad was the local smith and taught me how to be all smithy. I get +2 Str, +1 Dex, and +1 Cha (not sure why being a smith makes me more charismatic, but who am I to say no). Also I get the Smithing Skill.
How did I distinguish myself as a child? There wasn't a game I couldn't win. +2 Dex and +1 Int. Nice.
Who else was my friend in the village? (It's assumed that the PCs are my besties, which I like a lot.) Hmm. I roll "laboring with the blacksmith took my mind off my troubles," which is kinda redundant, but let's assume I'm just really close with Dad. I get +2 Str and +1 Cha (do they mean Con, maybe? That would make much more sense).
And then I find a spellbook! Dope! I get Ancient History as a skill, I get Spell Casting and Sense Magic, and I get to roll to see who wrote my book. The head of a secret order from long ago. Ooooh. I get +3 Wisdom and the Politics Skill. Said writer was a charming enchanter, so I get +2 Cha (see, here it makes sense), the False Friend spell, the Hexing cantrip, and the Arcane Experiment ritual. Neat. False Friend is basically a charm spell, that tracks.
So then a spirit of chaos came to eat me! Someone in the party helped and would get a bonus, but I'll ignore that bit since it's just me. I do get a spell, though. Ooh, neat. The spirit escaped and is still looking for me. I get +2 Dex and the Magic Missile spell!
And finally, a real wizard came through town and I impressed him with my knowledge. I get +2 Int and a book I barely understand. Neat!
OK, so let's total everything up. My stats start at Int 12, everything else 8, but then I add:
Str 8 + 2 + 2 = 12
Dex 8 + 1 + 2 + 2 = 13
Con 8 (boo)
Int 12 + 1 + 2 = 15
Wis 8 + 3 = 11
Cha 8 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 12
Not a bad spread. I get a dagger, robes, a tome, "many pouches," components for a ritual, and 4d6 (hang on...16) silver. I can be Lawful, Chaotic, or Neutral. I don't think my guy is Chaotic, but Neutral sounds about right.
My Base Attack Bonus is 0, no surprise there. My Initiative is +2, though. My AC is 11 (10 + my Dex bonus; no armor, of course). Three Fortune Points, 5 HP (6 -1 because my Con sucks).
OK, cool! So, Arish was the blacksmith's son, and while he spent a lot of time with his father learning how to smith, he never developed the arm strength (or the stamina) to really get good at it. His father wasn't disappointed, though, because Arish learned how to beat him in strategy games (go or wizard's chess or machine strike or whatever the hell they play) while still very small - he was quick and smart, and his father figured he'd be able to make his way.
And indeed, Arish found a book in a chink the wall around the village, read it, and learned the secrets of the Order of the Verdant Ring, a society of mages and rogues long since wiped out. The secret handshakes and codes he learned were cool and all, but the spell notes he found scribbled in the margins were the really impressive thing and soon he was able to charm people with a spell.
That was all very well, but it turned out that be opening the book without the proper key he'd released a Chaos spirit set to guard it. The spirit doesn't know that the Ring doesn't exist anymore, and it's still looking to find the book and kill the one wielding it. Arish thinks he's banished it.
Arish has his mother's thick head of brown hair, his father's twinkly blue eyes, and he's worked on making sure his smile is welcoming and friendly rather than leering and sinister (there's a whole section on it in the book).
I see Arish as eventually having to make a choice between being a bastard and being a hero, probably involving some devastating event involving the other PCs and possibly learning that the Verdant Ring isn't quite as gone as he first believed.
And that's it! Neato. See, this OSR game actually sounds cool because there's some emphasis on character building, not just stat-crunching.
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