OneDice World War One: RPG Review

OneDice WWI

Welcome to an RPG review of OneDice World War One. This review concerns the portable document format (PDF). Those familiar with some of my reviews know I’ve reviewed a couple of other of Cakebread and Walton’s RPGs and the OneDice game system covers a number of other settings such as steampunk, fantasy, pulp and rather recently space fantasy.

(Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. I receive a token % if you purchase something on the landing page. Thank you for your support.)

OneDice World War One is available in both print (black & white interiors) PDF at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. If you want to choose the route of frugality, or take a look before you decide, Cakebread and Walton have you covered with a Pay What You Want Quickstart version; here. It’s essentially free, so you have few reasons to not check it out and if you’re looking for a clean and very simple RPG system…

Spoiler Alert: I recommend to give it a read and a run a one shot.

As you might guess, the OneDice system requires the use of one dice. In this case it is a six sided dice (D6). For the most part all conflicts and skill rolls are determined by rolling a D6 against a Target Number (TN) determined by the Game Keeper (GK or Game Master/Narrator etc. in other systems). If the player character exceeds the TN they succeed. If they don’t exceed the TN, the player character might be able to spend some Stunt Points to change the outcome more to their liking. Each player starts the game session with six Stunt Points which cannot be accumulated beyond the session. Stunt Points can be applied a number of different ways to mitigate or change the outcome of specific actions at the cost of one or two points. How Stunt Points can be applied and spent is aptly defined in the ruleset.

Modifiers or bonuses the character might receive in a task roll are calculated on a straight one to one basis. If the Game Keeper determines the task being attempted requires strength and the character has 2 points in the Ability: Strong; those 2 points are added to whatever is rolled on the D6. Most task rolls will be modified by either Abilities (or attributes in other systems) or the amount of skill points the character has, in the relevant skill.

Consistent with everything about this product is that making an adventurer (or character) is quick and simply laid out. Adventurers in OneDice World War One have three abilities: Strong, Clever and Quick and players have six points to distribute among the abilities. Adventurers also have three derivative abilities Health, Defense and Move. For instance Health is calculated as your Strength multiplied times three and the other derivative abilities are similar. Players must then choose one of three, Social Status’ for their Adventurer: Wealthy, Middle Class or Poor which will assist in defining the adventurer's Job Skill Set. This is more of the career that each character starts with giving them two skills to start. Players then receive four more skill points which they can distribute how they see fit and in line with the game and the concept of how they want their character. Skills are numerous (around 30-ish, but described with one sentence or two) and simply laid out, but just in case there are even rules to create new skills.

Beyond creating an adventurer OneDice World War does a good job of defining the setting, as well as provides the GK with a succinct set of rules. Everything presented in Appendices and Game Keeper Section is well presented and should assist in running (if the GK would like) a historical game; the RPG also has some options for including horror or an occult themed skin. The Appendices section has a Timeline which outlines the significant events of World War One as well as an excellent general overview in regards to who was involved and why; and the strengths of the world powers. The Gamekeeper section gives a basic shading of World War One in terms of converting it to a roleplaying experience.

Though I’d liked to have seen a bit more as far as adventure seeds, the setting material does a really excellent job of defining itself to the point where you get a ton of ideas reading through it. About the only criticism I have is a lack of maps in the product itself, but then again the fact that the game is based on real history and being in the day and age of Google means that maps are only a couple of mouse clicks away… Still no Maps!?

Cover to back the PDF of OneDice World War One is 108 pages. Like all products in the OneDice line, it’s a quick read and very easy to get the gist of. Characters can be rolled up in less than 20 minutes (for certain). Art is minimal, but decent.

(This review is property of Kenzer and Company. Republished here with permission)

Overall, OneDice World War One is an excellent product. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to slip in a quick session, or perhaps one of those nights when one of two of my players cancels with my regular D&D Basic game. I did get the opportunity to run OneDice Supers last summer, and it worked pretty well. With how simple OneDice (any system I’ve read so far) is, it makes for an excellent fill-in RPG. Whether it hits your table, I'll leave you to it.

RPG Review: Pirates & Dragons

Pirates & Dragons

Avast!
And welcome to a review of the portable document format (PDF) of Pirates & Dragons, written by Peter Cakebread & Ken Walton (site). Pirates & Dragons is available at drivethrurpg.com. Cakebread & Walton were generous enough to provide a complimentary download as well as a digital copy of Curious Creatures of the Dragon Isles, the RPG book of beasts and animals and a full color quality resolution map of The Dragon Isles, the main setting for adventure. Pirates & Dragons was brought to life via Kickstarter to the tune of £6,544 or a bit over $7K US.

Disclosure: Product links within this post include my drivethrurpg.com affiliate identification. At no additional cost I receive a token % if you purchase something from the landing page. It's one way to support this blog and its content. Thank you for that support.

The Pirates and Dragons PDF is full color and clocks in at whopping 349 pages cover to cover. Curious Creatures of the Dragon Isles is full color as well and 147 pages. Fortunately, I’m an avid reader and I take good notes. By page count, the game is by far the largest I’ve reviewed for Indy Game Scene.

Similar to my review of LotFP, I’m breaking tradition of my regular format and focusing the review on the most interesting aspects of this RPG. Let’s jump in and read what the game has to say for itself.

“Pirates & Dragons is a role-playing game of fantasy swashbuckling in a world of magic and treasure, of fantastical islands inhabited by strange beasts and vile necromancers, of treachery and heroism. Together with a group of friends, you take on the role of pirates, out for adventure and booty – raiding the treasure galleons of Esbania, the merchant fleets of Gaule and Batavia, the dragon-hunting ships of Albion, the ruins of lost Adalantas... and the gold-filled caves of ancient and evil dragons.

Gather your crew. Load your flintlocks. And prepare to plunder!” (Pg. 9)

I had to review this RPG in sessions (due to some real life scheduling things) and with each time I sat down, I found myself wanting to read more. Fortunately, it’s well written and despite its page count it was an easy read. The relationships between the games main ingredients or specifically how the setting, rules and game mechanics fit together really impressed me.

From a design standpoint while the current trend of RPGs leans-more towards a focus on mechanics and rules which imply a setting and little bit of fluff to glue it all together, it was a nice contrast to read the effort of game designers who seemingly put world building first; or for a change, the setting ahead of the system. Whether this is actually the case it doesn’t matter. The fact is Pirates and Dragons is an RPG which offers a complete system and setting.

Speaking of setting and as you read in the above quoted, Pirates and Dragons is a clash of high seas adventure and fantasy. The game isn’t a typical high fantasy setting and has toned down or omitted some of the more commonly used Tolkien inspired elements (such as demi-human races), trading these in for doubloons and black powder. There is a certain give and take with the writing of this game that when you finally wash ashore, you’ll realize all of the elements contained therein have been tweaked (that is from what we typically see in a fantasy RPG) in such a way which should allow gamers to experience a unique game world.

The main setting is the Dragon Isles, a collection of warm tropical (think Caribbean) islands and provides the main theater for adventure. Here is a brief on the main cast of cultures.

An impressive amount of detail paints the four most common (human) cultures known as the Uropans. These cultures venture to the “Isles” in search of treasure and glory. Each is inspired from historic seafaring European cultures of the 1600-1800s. Just for fun, the Uropan cultures are the Albionic Batavian, Esbanian and Gallic. Which fictional culture is inspired by which actual culture? If you think about it Uropan- European, you might hit a couple-on the nose.


Curious Creatures of the Dragon Isles

Islanders are native to the Dragon Isles. Islanders who worship or are more enslaved by dragons are known as the Dragon Tribes. Islanders are also human and are the only playable race who can utilize magic. Magic and how it works is not your typical fantasy magic or spell books and broomsticks sort of stuff. Magic in Pirates and Dragons is spiritual/voodoo in origin, seemingly inspired from African culture/mythology.
Dragons are the overlords of the Isles, more often than not to each their own island and Dragon Tribe. One of the most interesting aspects of Dragons with this game is their preference for necromancy magic. Not to be excluded are the undead minions commanded by these dragon barons. With an entire tribe under one wing, necromancy at the summons of a thought and a host of undead beneath the other wing, dragons are the setting’s most powerful protagonists.

In regards to game mechanics, Pirates and Dragons utilizes the Renaissance System (RS) which is a D100 system. Required are a complete set of standard polyhedral dice, with most game rolls hinging on the use of the D100 (or two D10s) or as some know them better percentage rolls. I would put the RS in the light/medium crunch category and should be easy to master.

For those familiar and as far as I can tell, the core of character creation and some aspects of the system are comparable to Basic Role Playing (BRP). Admittedly, it’s been a very long time since I played BRP and I only played it a few times so I’m not going to be comparing the system directly with Pirates and Dragons, but system “wise,” the two, as best I recall, seem similar. To make a long story short, if you like BRP you’ll likely feel at home with RS. Thankfully, if you have no idea and if you’re feeling curious… Or if happen to be afflicted with tight-wad syndrome, you can take a look yourself as The Renaissance System is available as a free download over at Drivethrurpg.com.

In regards to adventurer development or system, one interesting aspect is how Improvement Points (Experience Points) function with the individual aspects of adventurer (character) progression. The game utilizes an ingeniously simple format for adventurer progression, which includes a point buy structure. Adventurer progression is without a level based system and creates a respectable amount of balance between adventurers. Hero are not born, they are developed.

As with any system, player adventurers accumulate Improvement Points and spend these points towards potential advancement. Key is potential advancement, not automatic advancement. Because each category that a player can increase for their adventurer is weighted; the more advanced a character is, concerning skills, magic or characteristics the more likely that attempting to increase these abilities will fail.

For instance to increase skills the player spends an improvement point and takes his chance with dice gawds rolling a D100. If the dice total is above the adventurer’s current skill percentage the skill is increased 1D4+1 (%) points. If the dice total is below the current skill percentage, the improvement point has been spent but no increase to the skill is awarded. Another facet of this is that totals above 100 are possible as skill points are automatically increased with rolls at 96 through 100. So player could conceivably increase his adventurer’s skill if say it was at 98 with a roll of 97, the only caveat of this being that once skills reach 100 they only increase in 1 point increments. Adventurer progression for other areas of potential advancement is similar with this weighted approach.

(Disclosure: This review is property of Kenzer & Company and republished here with expressed permission.)

I might very well be the only person I know who gets excited about how RPG systems work as well as the ideas and design choices behind them. This might also be why I enjoy writing this column. The rules which make up a system are rarely sexy but often a few well thought and written rules can make something decent into something great. Pirates and Dragons provides a comprehensive system and a healthy dose of rules including maritime situations and well beyond. No RPG can cover every situation but if there was anything absent I missed it.

Conclusion: While I usually spend some amount of space nitpicking something I honestly didn’t find much if anything to critique. As far as I’m concerned everything you need to play Pirates and Dragons is adequately covered. Curious Creatures of the Dragon Isles, the games book of beasts and animals would make a nice companion though there is also a decent sized listing of creatures in the main book. Due to the sheer amount of detail while there might have been a section or two I could argue was a bit lite, my tendency was to think that this was more about prioritizing space for what the creators thought were more pertinent.

The organization and layout of this RPG is well put together. The art is respectable as well as consistent. While it spanned a 3 week journey to get through, when I finished I was really impressed. Introducing Pirates & Dragons as an exploratory RPG product or as something new and different to your player group you’d be hard pressed to find something better.

Walk the plank I say...

RPG Review: OneDice Pirates & Dragons

OD P&D Cover

Avast, me Hearties!

This is a brief review of OneDice Pirates & Dragons published by Clockwork and Chivalry (AKA: Cakebread & Walton). The PDF digitizing before me is 134 pages front to back, in single column format, and includes a printable character sheet. Illustrations are full color along with a two page map of the Dragon Isles, the RPGs main setting.

Let’s jump right off the plank and outline the setting…

Disclosure: This review and the banner at the bottom of this post, contains affiliate links to RPGNow.com. I receive a token % if you purchase something from the landing page. It's one way to show your support of this blog, and its content. Sincerely, thank you for that support.

The setting of OneDice Pirates & Dragons is the Dragon Isles, a collection of tropical islands innate with ancient magic and besieged by dragons. One hundred years have passed since the first Uropans crossed the vast Adalantic Ocean, discovering the Dragon Isles and the mighty continent to the far west, High Bressayle. The four seafaring cultures of Uropa: Albion, Batavia, Esbania and Gaule have developed a number of settlements and ports throughout the isles, which when these cultures are not acting to underhand or war with each other, are busy enslaving the native islanders for their own ends.

Dragons inhabit a number of islands, some more powerful and infamous than others. They too war with each other and any pirates and privateers who have the misfortune of happening upon their territories. The most powerful dragons are worshiped by native tribes and wield necromancy magic at their scaly finger tips.

Creating and running character in OneDice Pirates and Dragons is land lubber simple. Adventurers have three primary abilities: Strong, Clever and Quick. Magic is optioned as a forth primary ability, but is only available to characters native born to the Dragon Isles, which can be made, but doesn’t increase the starting primary ability points. In creating an adventurer, players distribute six points among the primary abilities, with the caveat that no ability can be higher than 3 or less than 1. From these, three additional abilities are derived: Health, Defense and Move. Characters receive six points to distribute among a list of thirty plus skills.

The prime mechanic of the OneDice system utilizes a single six sided dice (d6) and like many aspects of this RPG it’s succinctly defined… So let’s use it:

“To see whether your character succeeds at a task, roll one six-sided dice, then add to the result the relevant ability (the character’s score in Strong, Clever or Quick) and skill (if he or she has one). Compare the result to the Target Number – if you equal or beat it, you have succeeded. If you have failed to beat it, your action has been unsuccessful (and there may be a consequence).” (PG 27)

Included with mechanics and throughout is respectable amount of rules, including how to sections and examples of play; the sections on ship to ship combat, and Game Keeper sections are really well done and give the Game Keeper something to run on as a one shot or build an entire campaign from.
 

Overall, OneDicePirates & Dragons offers a succinctly defined system, and a unique setting of black powder, magic and high seas adventure. While I’m not a proponent of “rules lite” systems, as I prefer medium to heavy crunch, there is certainly some clever and well-designed content. The inspiration of European activity in the Caribbean from 1600-1800 (Uropa/Europe) is a nice jumping off point. The use of the number six with character creation: mechanics d6, distribute 6 ability points, select 6 skills, makes this a great gateway or introduction RPG be it for kids, or adults who have never delved into this wonderful hobby before.

Note: An abridged version of this review originally appeared with EN World's RPG News & Reviews-community content program (CCP) here. Thanks to EN World for allowing me to post it on my blog, as well as providing a venue to produce paid content.

Additional Note: I'm really enjoying what I've seen with Cakebread & Walton's OneDice line. Just about every genre is covered so if pirates aren't your thing (fantasy, cyberpunk, ghost hunting and many others) stop in over at their RPGNow.com sales page, or direct a Cakebread & Walton's home site: here. Each of the products from the OneDice line, are available in full color, print as well as PDF.