Let's Read: Realms of Peril

 I kickstarted this game over three years ago, and I’ll admit that I never read the finished product. What I wanted was the hex crawl project that came afterward. I’m reading through the player’s book and the GM book and capturing my thoughts as they bubble up.

Note: I did this readthrough before I had fully developed my normal format for this kind of thing. I may revisit these books using the newer format, which is both more organized and thorough.

Player’s Guide

I like it

• It has classes, but each one is a “menu” of feats you can choose from. Players can mix and match class features at will. Not really sure why they’re separated by class, though. Seems like thematic bundles at best, when a complete list of feats would make sense too.
• Dwarves, elves, and halflings can select between racial talents upon level up in addition to class features. Humans can only choose class features. During level up, races can select class or racial features.
• Lots of racial talents. My halfling is different than your halfling
• No set Difficulty Classes: Natural 20 is a critical success, 16+ is complete success, 10-15 is partial success, 9 or less is a failure, natural 1 is a crit failure
  • 5% chance of Crit
  • 25% chance of success
  • 15% chance of success with a drawback
  • 45% chance of failure
  • 5% chance of critical failure
  • Baseline:
  • 50% chance of success to some degree
  • 50% chance of failure to some degree
  • Being skilled reduces the chance of failure to 5%, though drawbacks still happen
  • This makes me think that players are almost always succeeding, but consequences are always happening
• 100 different backgrounds for human characters, which provide some starting gear and/or thematic feature
• Robust NPC generators that include names, attitude, and physical descriptors
• Armor reduces damage taken
• Forbidden Lands-like level advancement: 12 questions asked at the end of each session determine how much XP is earned
• High-ish starting hitpoints, but only gain 1 extra hit point each level
• Stat bonuses are relatively flat. A +1 is a big deal
• Stats are rolled in order with 3d6
• Only 4 playable races: Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, and Human.
• Level progression effectively stops at level 10
• Failed rolls provide a roll at the end of a session; stat has a chance to increase or decrease (?!)
• Being “skilled” at something means turning failed rolls into successes
• Healing in the wilderness seems relatively difficult
• These rules are actually written for a West Marches-style game!
• Heavy armor impedes spellcasting, but classes can spec out of the disadvantages
• Players have lots of choices to make at level 0
• All 100 spells are level-less and typically utilitarian
• All classes can cast spells from a scroll or book (!?)
• Time and travel are tracked in 4-hour Watches (6 per 24-hour day).

Neutral

• Supply dice for certain things (arrows, bullets)
• Players roll dice for combat, using the same tiers of success as normal skill checks
• Death checks
• PCs start at level 0
• The economy is copper coin-based, which means that converted modules need to have treasure values converted to match the economy
• Each book (player’s and DM’s) is only 80 pages
• Reminds me a bit of Index Card RPG in that it’s highly modular and moddable
• Conditions are thematic and very dependent on GM fiat. There’s no procedure to protect me from player will

I don’t like it

• Five stats: Agility, Charisma, Intellect, Perception, Strength
• Slot-based encumbrance system. Includes differentiated “worn” body slots and stowed items. Here is a strange rule that says you can buy more bags and backpacks, providing 3 or 6 more slots, respectively. Without a cap derived from strength, this seems very exploitable. At first blush, I liked this system. Upon a careful second glance, this seems fiddly and exploitable. Shadowdark is still winning the item slot game, followed closely by Dragonbane.
• Game design doesn’t seem particularly tight (I consider Dragonbane and Shadowdark to be well-designed). More PBtA than ACKS. “Soft”
• With skilled checks, it seems that players will succeed most of the time, though with consequences. As a GM, I quickly grow weary of coming up with minor drawbacks
• A lot of soft rules require DM judgement. Particular gods’ boons and spells are written simply and narratively, not mechanically. This means the game is more narrative and “fluffy bullshit” than an actual game in some places.

DM’s Guide

I Like It

• Clocks
• Open Table as the default style of the game
• Play to find out
• GM as a neutral arbiter
• DM advice section in general
• Blades In the Dark-style preparations, position, and situation award advantage or disadvantage
• Conditions are interesting
• Goal and task creation rules
• Wilderness creation rules
• Dungeon creation rules

I Don’t Like It

• Very narrative game, which means the mechanics significantly rely on GM fiat, which means the DM (me) getting battered and pressured by players to make rulings that give the players what they want. I need more systemic protection than this provides.
• PBtA moves for recalling info, searching, spellcasting, and combat
• Fumble and critical hit tables. Always slow and dangerous