RPG Review: Barbarians of Lemuria: Mythic Edition

BoL Mythic Edition Cover

Welcome to an in depth review of Barbarians of Lemuria: Mythic Edition, a role playing game (RPG) strongly based in the sword and sorcery genre, best known through the fiction of Robert E Howard’s Conan the Barbarian. Barbarians of Lemuria: Mythic Edition was brought to life via Kickstarter to the tune of £8,356.Barbarians of Lemuria is authored by Simon Washbourne.

This RPG isn’t directly tied to Robert E. Howard’s intellectual property as a number of swords and sorcery (pulp) authors are listed, but it is certainly inspired by it. I have both the full color hardcover and portable document format (PDF), both of these were supplied by the publisher free of cost for the purpose this review. If at the end of this review you’re so inclined, both formats are available at DriveThruRPG.

Disclosure: This review includes affiliate links with DriveThruRPG. I receive a token % if you purchase something from the landing page.

We start things off by letting this RPG speak for itself:

"Barbarians of Lemuria is a heroic role-playing game (RPG) set firmly in the sword-and-sorcery genre. Lemuria is a post-apocalyptic world of thousands of years into the future and unrecognizable to anyone today. It has returned to an almost prehistoric state – a land of steaming jungles, vast untamed wildernesses, horror-filled swamplands, and sunbaked deserts. Massive man-eating beasts roam the unexplored regions of Lemuria and beyond, from island-sized sea serpents capable of sinking war galleys, to the huge jungle-dwelling dinosaurs that can swallow a man whole." (PG 9)

The setting elements of Barbarians of Lemuria Mythic Edition, is absolutely the best aspect of this RPG. While admittedly the usual review format is more guarded towards the end, I just plain refuse to hold back on this one. Yes, spoiler alert: I’m totally impressed with this RPG!

We start with the Gazette chapter, which takes the reader through a brief historical overview of Lemuria. Additionally, this product goes the extra mile with chapters concerning the Gods of Lemuria, and the presentation of the most common (non-human and optional as playable) races of the land. Both the Gods and creatures in the bestiary are noticeably unique from any of the usual Tolkien inspired, fantasy fair. The bestiary includes full color illustrations for each beast. The art of most creatures includes a silhouetted (6ft.) barbarian, beside them, which will assist with (literally) sizing the encounter up for reference. HackMaster players will find this feature somewhat familiar, as the depiction is very much in line with Kenzer & Co.’s silhouette hero and creature comparison in the Hacklopedia of Beasts.

The world of Lemuria itself is detailed in my favorite sort of way: a respectable amount of detail, which frames the setting, with a decent amount space left for the GM to fill in for their campaign(s). A full color hi-vector map of Lemuria is included as a separate PDF Download with purchase, and a smaller version of the same map, is included as an illustration in both the PDF and Print version. The presentation of the setting includes a heaping handful of locations: cities, natural terrain, landmark areas of note, as well as isolated locations (ruins & towers). Adventure Ideas (basic plot seeds) and rumors are bullet pointed throughout the descriptions and the writing should do more than a decent job of getting a number of sessions and/or campaign adventure ideas rolling. The book also includes four fully fleshed out starter adventures. The plot of each adventure is well written and should have appeal to new players, easing the introduction and overall comprehension of the game.       

Barbarians of Lemuria offers relatively simple system catered with narrative or storyteller emphasis. Still, overall there is a bit of crunch to it. One of the most important aspects is that each character receives a number of Hero Points. These points can be spent or held back with character creation for the opportunity for specific die rolling boons or to mitigate unfortunate circumstances, and/or rolls; or spent towards specific abilities. Character advancement in this game is one of my favorite elements as players are encouraged to share tales based on what heroic or leisurely deeds the character preformed in their off-time such as spending booty, gambling, drinking into the wee hours etc., and will receive experience points from the GM based on the very tale(s) they weave.  

Mechanically, in performing an action if the GM determines that a roll is required this is called a Task Roll. To put it simply, the player rolls 2d6 against a Target Number (TN) and add the most appropriate attribute total and/or character career benefit, as a bonus to the roll. The Target Number is usually around 9 but can be modified (Table provided) depending on difficulty, which is determined by the GM. Rolling above the TN is an ordinary success, but the player character can spend a Hero Point to increase this to a Mighty Success, which is a boon providing a number of (player/GM choice) benefits to the task at hand. Rolling 12 (two 6’s) is an automatically a Mighty Success, but the player can again option to spend a Hero Point to change this to a Legendary Success, which is again a list of potential boons. Rolling 2 (two 1’s) is an automatic failure. Like any RPG system should have, there are subsystems for determining combat Initiative, and other such elements. While the system itself isn’t as intricate as you’ll find with medium or heavy crunch RPGs, it has a few elements that will take some experience getting familiar with, but it’s nothing unwieldy.    

Character creation is simple. First players are encouraged to decide on a concept and cater the rest of creation towards what they have chosen. Characters have four Attributes: Strength, Agility, Mind, and Appeal. With designing their hero, players have four points to distribute for their starting character among these attributes, which will assist with specific Task Rolls. Next is determining the characters combat abilities and again the player must allocate four points in regards to: Initiative, Melee, Ranged, and Defense; each of these will award a point bonus when engaging in that type of action. Next is deciding Boons and Flaws are very much as they are in most RPGs (+ or –; to something specific). Characters will start with a Boon, but it must coincide with their chosen background. Characters can start with more than one boon, but the player must also allocate an appropriate flaw.

Review Featured in KoDT #255

The last steps with character creation are calculating Life Points (health/hit point), determining how to use or reserve Hero Points (mentioned earlier), deciding the characters origin, and choosing their career paths.  The most interesting of these is choosing career paths. Characters with Barbarians of Lemuria receive four points to distribute among four (prior) careers and over twenty possible careers are detailed with what they offer the character. The system has no skills. Careers are used to roughly determine the characters knowledge and experience; and those points will add a bonus to a Task Roll, if the GM determines that the characters knowledge should award a bonus towards the roll. Finally, the player will create a backstory based on his or her characters careers. There is an excellent (succinct) example in the book so I’m quoting it here:

“Dagul was born into a family of traders from Oomis, and this naturally led him into a life of buying and selling (merchant 2). This lifestyle led him to sea trade and introductions to several sea captains in Parsool. Before long, he was sailing to far-off lands and learning the essential skills of a seaman (sailor 0). On one particular voyage several years ago, pirates attacked Dagul’s ship – the crew was captured and sold into slavery (slave 1). Dagul’s new mistress was the Witch Queen Methyn Sarr herself, and during his enslavement (and until his escape), he used every opportunity to learn the secrets of that great sorceress until he could perform basic enchantments himself (magician 1).”  (PG 23, 24)

The glossy hardcover on my desk is textbook size and 211 pages, featuring a full color depiction on the cover regarding a barbarian saving a damsel who is chained to rock and presumably about to be consumed by a tentacled sea beast. The PDF is organized with hyperlinked page marks with the Table of Contents. Both versions include a thoroughly done index. Interior art is an expressive mix of full color character and scene illustrations. The writing itself is very good. The layout is well organized with color text headers, and tables; the content text is in double column format. Both the print version and PDF include character sheets and maps for the adventures, illustrated by Dyson Logos.

   

Overall, Barbarians of Lemuria Mythic Edition is not your usual indie product. Without a doubt, the production and organization of this RPG is (surprisingly) on par with the big publishers. The quality of this product is obvious and immediate. As anyone who reads this column knows, this reviewer is huge on setting. Unfortunately, it’s often one of the most underdone elements with most RPGs.  In my read through -rarely (if at all), does this product miss an opportunity to integrate the Lemuria setting into just about every facet for the purpose of role playing. This also makes Barbarians of Lemuria something very different from your usual Tolkien inspired RPG, as it should be. And the creators involved, did not miss this unique opportunity with the sword and sorcery genre in mind.   

While most storyteller type RPG products I review get middle of the line reviews, because of simple lacking, be it in one area, or two, or three; I’m hard pressed to find any single element of this RPG which isn’t well done. If you’re in the market, Barbarians of Lemuria is certainly worth your cash.